Mystery of
God:
Satan blames God for all the
difficult rules; the ones like not lying, stealing, fornicating, and even
hating! He wonders, “what’s so wrong with doing that stuff, anyhow?” That’s
because he has no qualms about sinning and favors iniquity because
unrighteousness is his way of undermining God’s authority. Like any autocrat,
Satan uses propaganda for his agenda. Like the left, those who spread the
propaganda are “useful idiots”, terminology progressives use for their pawns.
(More on progressivism later).
No one knows the original source
of the term, but it is from God! The left blames the right for the term, and
the right the left. Indeed, the use of useful
idiots is the tool of all ideologies. God referred to them several times,
one specifically, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should
not obey the truth?” 371 I prime modern-day example was with the
passing of the Affordable Care Act whose architect, Jonathan Gruber, said it
passed because of the “stupidity” of the American people. 372 This example is
used to demonstrate that, indeed, useful idiots is still used to deceive
people. Like it or not, deception is the main device from the law of sin! Satan
is prideful but when lying has no pride. His method is mixing truth and
falsehoods – good and bad – to make his laws palatable.
For instance, before the 1960s in the western world, the very thought of
abortion was appalling. With a mixture of truth and lies, for the majority of
Americans, abortion is acceptable, and for many, appealing. The truth is that women have a right to do what they want with
their own body. That’s not from the Law of God, though, because our bodies
are borrowed – belonging to God 373 but only Christians belong to God. Sinners belong to the
devil who is their father. 374 The statement in italics is only half
true: it’s only the woman’s body if she’s not
a Christian. However, many in Christ’s fold believe that lie! Even with that, the woman is foolish – the
devil’s useful idiot. Any intelligent person with any wisdom at all can see,
unless deception has dimmed their vision, that the unborn baby is not their own body. In fact, that innocent
baby who has never sinned, belongs to God!
Thus, goes the deception. Even Christians accept the lies. Satan cannot
destroy the antichurch because that’s already his. To diminish God, the devil
must destroy the Church, one bit at a time. The Church has withered throughout
the ages, and God redeemed it time and time again. In this modern age, God may
allow the Church to wither but it will never die!
Deception, then, is the method of killing God, and it is used to keep
people from God and also to turn them away. Satan even uses God’s doctrine to
fool even the elect. 375 The Hebrew people are the chosen few. It
was God’s will that they follow Him, but in His wisdom, God knew they would
fail! Even though God has foreknowledge, as Peter explained, God knew in the
beginning who would accept his grace and who would not! 376 It’s not
that God “elected” without conditions but the onus was put on the elected to
accept the gift. Those elected would be safe of their own volition. They were
to exercise their free will. The reformed churches election is deterministic –
God does the choosing and mankind has no part in his election. That’s
disconcerting and can cause deceived people to not “work out their salvation”! 377
That seems to be in deference to the fifth commandment; taking God’s death
flippantly.
The obvious thing is that the Hebrews were chosen by God to be His
people. 378 That is the Abrahamic Covenant but it had its condition:
they were to be His people. Circumcision was to seal the deal; they promised to
be His people. Knowing they would not, the mystery of God, is that unknown to
the casual Jew was that all men were
chosen by God to be the elect, 379 although the patriarchs knew
that all along! Why the big secret? 380
We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the
princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory.
That raises the question, since God’s mystery was from the beginning, how
could he be crucified before he was crucifiable? The Lord would be crucified by
killing the Church, which was not created with Jesus’s birth, by the way, but
was from the beginning. Communion with God is having Church with Him, being
either acceptance or condemnation. The former resulting in praise and the latter
conviction.
The skeptical Christian may be wondering, “how is it that sin can ‘kill’
God?” Paul answered that question years ago: 381
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open
shame.
Obviously, “falling away” is losing faith. The evidence of falling
away is not being willing to sacrifice oneself – putting the pleasure of sin
before the will of God. Of course, one sin is not damning, but living in
iniquity is. God knows the boundary because he knows every individual’s heart
and whether it is circumcised. This living in sin without conviction and repentance
is “falling away”. Christians who turn their back on God crucify God a second time.
It is not a physical crucifixion but a mental one. Christ is put back up on a
mental cross and dies again – a mental death. Of course, it’s not God that is
killed, but the efficacy of His sacrifice. The rebirth is aborted because the
babe in Christ had a sort of crib death.
Working out one’s own salvation
is akin to the gestational period in mankind. The child is born in safety but
everyone, it seems, is how to get him! Even the mother may see the unborn baby
as a matter of inconvenience. At some point in time for various reasons the unborn
child may be miscarried. God wants that “none should perish” but that is a
spiritual death. For His purposes, whatever they are, some do die! On the other
hand, the abortion industry does sort of an election.
They decide who should die, and there are accomplices, like Eve, who fall for
the deception. Thus, evil disrupts life.
The same goes for the second
birth. One does not enter the womb again but gestates as they consider God’s
calling. Yes, God calls, and that is the spiritual conception much like the
physical. Some gestate all their lives while others gestate for only a short
period. This “gestation” concluding in the second birth is considering oneself and God. Working
out one’s own salvation is coming to realize that as a weak god, one has no
power to save himself but God can! Once that Light is seen, then the
gestational period results in spiritual birth. 382
Satan can disrupt the spiritual
gestation by deception. One tactic is the idea, “you are not elected; you are
too bad to deserve that!” With the thought of not being one of the elect, the
gestation is complete and there is a still birth. If, indeed, one is
born-again, those who propagate election propagates the notion, are you really? Those who are certain of
their “salvation” by doctrine, question it in practice’ having cognitive
dissonance. Confusion is of Satan. Sobriety and vigilance are of God. 383
The message here is that Calvinistic election is bad doctrine and can lead to
destruction. However, that is not to imply that Calvinists are evil but have
been caught up in the doctrines of the world.
On a positive note, Calvinists
do recognize that salvation is by faith, and it is an undeserved gift. That is
God’s grace, having merciful on foolish mankind. The problem is that only a few are chosen to
receive such a magnificent gift! With the doctrine of sola gratia, Calvinists believe that there were two covenants: one
of works and another of grace. That is at odds with the mystery of God. Paul
referred to this as “the mystery of Christ” because he understood so clearly
that there is no difference. God of apostolic times is the same God of the
patriarchs. That mystery is that God is always Jesus, and Jesus is always God! 384
This salvation was always by gestating on the propitiation of God’s own blood, of
which the blood of innocent animals was a simile. Hence, salvation was always
by grace, and it was always for everyone; not just the Jews or the only the a
few but for all mankind! 385
Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Election of a few is prideful. Everyone, Jew and Gentile, is elected but
few are chosen. In order to be chosen, 386 and the prerequisite is
being born-again, according to John 3:7. Experiencing the second birth is considering
God to be God and accepting Jesus as Savior. Sola gratia is still true because it was God who propitiated His blood
and not us! On the other hand, the
gifted must accept the gift of the Giver. That is men, working out their own
salvation. That is the work of sacrificing oneself for God because God sacrificed
Himself for mankind!
The idea that exercising one’s will
for God is not efficacious because it is a “work”, is damning. One must
exercise that will. God chooses everyone, but acceptance of the call is mankind’s
decision. God does not force people to love Him!
Bad doctrine kills God. One person known to the writer was deceived by
five-point Calvinism. Since he was already “elected”, as were all others, he
saw no reason to attend church nor lead others to God. He died to the Church
and Satan smiled. The Church dies as the Christian isolates himself in bad
doctrine. Ironically, Paul said that even the elect will be deceived, not even realizing
that election itself is deceptive! 387 Happily, deception does not
need to damn! Eve’s deception was covered by God, as well as Adam’s sin. I have
been deceived and am not immune to the cancer which kills! My doctrine is
correct according to my discernment so far. To imply my understanding as
perfect is a sin itself. Others differ from me who are righteous Christians.
That allowance is God’s grace!
Satan does not want people to know that salvation was always by grace,
was always by faith in God who propitiated His own blood, and that it was for all
– the “whosever” in John 3:16. Jews are chosen people but Christians are the
peculiar people! 388 Part of the mystery is that the pagans of
ancient days when they had faith, were peculiar
people, as Christians are today.
The Law was never the Way to salvation. It was always by faith! Abraham demonstrated
that magnitude of faith by setting an example. 389 Insisting that
because of grace alone, that the Law is of no use, is killing God. The Law is
how righteous people demonstrate their love for God. Some doctrines take that
notion frivolously – that God’s death gave mankind freedom to sin. What it
really did, if it was efficacious, took away the desire to sin. If people find
that their lives are dominated by sin, then whether their born-again experience
was quick or still! The devil desires that mankind be fooled: are they really
spiritually alive? Even many who are dead to God, believe they are alive in
Christ. Spiritual still-birth damns many people, as Satan smiles. Those reborn are
changed. If the change is not there, it’s possible that they died during
gestation. That’s another tactic by which Satan “kills” God!
371 Holy Bible; 1 Cor 1:27
372 Washington Times; “Obamacare
architect: We passed law due to ‘stupidity of the American voter’”; Cheryl K.
Chumley; November 10, 2014.
373 Holy Bible; Psalm 100:3; Rom
14:8; Isa 43:1
374 ibid; John 8:44
375 ibid; Mat 24:24
376 ibid; 1 Pet 1:1-3
377 ibid; Phil 2:12
378 ibid; Deut 14:2
379 ibid; Ephes 3:8-10
380 ibid; 1 Cor 2:7-8
381 ibid; Heb 6:6
382 ibid; John 3
383 ibid; 1 Pet 5:8
384 ibid; Ephes 3:3-5
385 ibid; Col 1:26-28
386 ibid; Mat 22:14
387 ibid; Mat 24:24
388 ibid; 1 Pet 2:9
389 ibid; Rom 4:16
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