SPIRITUAL "DEEP STATE" - BEATING DOWN

BEATING DOWN THE ACCUSED

  Peter’s denial of even knowing Jesus must have been the greatest disappointment of Jesus. Peter began to curse and swear (Mat 26:74).  “Cursing” Jesus was that he should perish. “Swearing” is a bit obsolete in this context but it was acknowledging that to God. Peter swore to God that he wanted God dead! His exact words are unknown but the epithet G_____ d______ this Man who says He is God. That “GD” curse is the worst curse anyone could say, and God was about to be that for Peter’s sake.  Peter became part of the mob calling for Jesus to be damned.

  That hurt! Not that Jesus be damned, but that Peter, with poetic justice, would perish in like manner.

¹⁸ When thou (Peter) wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. ¹⁹ This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. (John 21:18-19)

  Peter cursed Jesus and by so doing, he cursed himself. He did, in fact, follow Jesus, and followed Him to his own death. Peter was crucified in Rome for following Jesus all the way to death. He endured to the end. Not feeling worthy of crucifixion in a similar fashion as Jesus, Peter asked that he be crucified upside down:

Hegesippus saith that Nero sought matter against Peter to put him to death; which, when the people perceived, they entreated Peter with much ado that he would fly the city. Peter, through their importunity at length persuaded, prepared himself to avoid. But, coming to the gate, he saw the Lord Christ come to meet him, to whom he, worshipping, said, "Lord, whither dost Thou go?" To whom He answered and said, "I am come again to be crucified." By this, Peter, perceiving his suffering to be understood, returned into the city. Jerome saith that he was crucified, his head being down and his feet upward, himself so requiring, because he was (he said) unworthy to be crucified after the same form and manner as the Lord was. (Foxe 1563)

  Peter perished although he damned Jesus. His fate was the same; Nero got to Peter in the same manner as Tiberias got to Jesus. Continually throughout history, the spiritual “Deep State” gets to Jesus by getting to His apostles and disciples. They can no longer touch Jesus, but they can His Holy Ghost through those whose “Temple” is his. Those who are not persecuted for His Namesake, perhaps, are not His. To this day, those who follow Jesus are persecuted all over the world. Foxe’s latest edition brings the martyring up to date. The mob, this instant, is still after Jesus and they get to Him through you.

  The mob will not rest until the Temple of Christ is torn down because Christians make up the “pillar” of the Church of Jesus. All who call themselves “Christians” are not under attack, as the “pillar” is made up of only “lively stones” whose service is acceptable to God (1 Pet 2:5).

  Christians should take great care in doing what is acceptable to God. Cursing and swearing as the mob does is not acceptable. Peter’s behavior was unacceptable, and he accepted the consequences. Christianity is not a “summer love fest” but an endurance race. Peter, as did Paul, ran the race and all the apostles became the foundation of the Church alongside the prophets of old (1 Cor 12:28). Peter cursed Jesus, but imagine the irony that Peter is on whom the universal physical Church was built. [1] His body lies beneath Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, one of the four personal churches of the Pope.

  Mobs curse and swear. That is their characteristic. Christians do not curse and swear; why would they stand behind the mob cursing and swearing. Cursing as evolved. It is more than damning but diminishing. Peter harshly diminished Jesus by his swearing, and now the mob does the same with sexual connotations. The “f-word” is the new curse. The mob damns their opponents by demanding that they fornicate. Against whom? Against God. The f-word should be just as horrendous to Christians as Peter’s damning. But what does the mob scream? Fornicate! Against whom? Jesus, the “bridegroom” of the Church.

  Philosophers of old, especially the Greeks, presented their arguments in organized and reasonable fashions. The truth was not demanded, but the debaters used persuasion. Paul, for instance, used the Greek philosophy to persuade Herod Agrippa; “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:28). Rational people use rational arguments to persuade their opponents. In other words, to not look at them as “opponents” but lives worth saving from perishing.

  Modern argument is uncivil. Americans are less civil than either the cool Greeks or rowdy Romans. Soon after a Christian argues with atheists and leftists, what happens? When the angry debater runs out of supportive evidence, name-calling ensues. Often, the debates are excitable and hasty as they resort to name-calling before any evidence is presented. That is what bullies do! They diminish rational people by shouting them down or by ridicule. Jesus was accused of being insane, a drunk, and a rabble-rouser. All the while it was rabble-rousers who accused Jesus. They know all about rabble-rousing because that was their Satanic inspired countenance.

  Face it, there are few civil arguments, and no one now is ever persuaded to change their viewpoints unless ultimate truth is revealed to them. Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” The truth was reality; that Jesus IS God in the Flesh and that God came to die on behalf of the sins of His creatures. What is “truth” today? What the mob demands is their version, or perversion, of the truth. Mob mentality is believing lies that incite them to violence. With Jesus, He had proved that He IS God by his supernatural powers. That was not evidence enough for the Jews. They wanted to see God’s blood!

  Truth is not always what is seen. Behind actions there are cognitive, emotional, and even spiritual faculties. What may appear to be truth may not be the truth. Jesus appeared to be merely a man whose vocation was carpenter. He did not appear to be the “Tradesman” who made the materials and fashioned all existence but He Is. The mob did what creatures are known to do; turn on their Creator and to be greater than the One who caused them to exist.

  With that background, debaters must always be greater than the one they debate unless they are speaking the truth. Truth is ignoring fantastical thinking and exploring what is uncomfortable. The mob yells for change, but all they want is to remain comfortable in their fantastical world; the one where they are in charge and control. Children think that way, and the mob are like angry little children who think only of themselves. They want “justice,” but it must be justice their way. What do children do when they get angry at their person of authority? They throw and break their own toys. That is what mobs do. Like demanding children, the mob is “herd irrationality.”

  Agrippa was Paul’s enemy. He was under arrest by Agrippa. Rather than plead for his own life, Paul pleaded for Agrippa’s. He wanted that Agrippa never perish, the man who was his immediate enemy! That is ultimate and Godly love. Mobs want all their opposition to perish. The mob that crucified Jesus yelled, “Crucify Him!” They demanded that Jesus perish. Who stood between the mob and Jesus? Who sought justice for Jesus? Pontius Pilate was Caesar’s “cop.” As governor, the centurions did what Pilate judged to be right. The “policemen” were the centurions. What did Jesus say about them? “Then said Jesus, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’” (Luke 23:34).

  Why do American mayors and governors do what Pilate did? He washed his hands of the matter and let the mob control the government. Then the mob crucified God because they lacked understanding. Mobs today destroy cities, even their own cities, thinking they are hurting others. All the while, they hurt themselves! Is screaming “black lives matter” convincing when those screaming are killing their own? Perhaps to them, no lives matter. That is the message they send by their actions! Why do they not care that black lives matter when Democrats scream, “Abort the babies!” when they are mostly black babies? Because black lives really do not matter, but black power and control does.

  The centurions were just doing their job. Unlike the mob and even Peter, they were not damning Jesus. Indeed, they were crucifying Jesus but unlike the mob, they did not demand that Jesus perish.  Policemen are much the same way. Good policemen, most of which are, merely do their duty, and are not after their own type of justice. They just attempt that justice be served.

  There were also “bad cops” at the crucifixion. Some of Pilate’s soldiers were inhumane in their treatment. The mob excites even the best men to join the fracas. Did they want Jesus dead? No, they wanted Jesus diminished, and they esteemed themselves by hurting Jesus.

  The soldiers did what they normally would not do because they had an audience. That is extremely juvenile behavior. Surely, as they taunted Jesus, the mob became more vocal. They were not damning Jesus but entertaining the mob. It was all a big show, and Pilate’s “cops” surely had no animosity against Jesus. As Gentiles, for them, he was just another “sub-human Jewish parasite.” Perhaps Chauvin was showing off for the crowd around him and things got out of hand as he “entertained” or sought to impress the on-lookers. Only he and God knows the truth whether he wanted Floyd to die or not.

  You see, people diminish others to elevate themselves. The soldiers became popular. Billions of people have read that the soldiers hurt Jesus, but how many can name one person who showed Him mercy? [2] Mercy is not, to the crowd, very impressive. How many today get recognition for their mercy? Mercy, in this case, would be to cease the injustice demanded by the mob for Officer Chauvin and let the authorities judge the case. Of course, Chauvin is not Jesus or even a type of Jesus but remember that the crowd had mercy on the zealot Barabbas as well!

  The trial was still not over. Jesus had escaped punishment from Annas, from Caiaphas, and from His friends; but their “Congress” would be next. There were two “houses” of their “Congress:” The Lesser Sanhedrin consisting of twenty-one rabbis, and a Great Sanhedrin consisting of seventy-two rabbis. The Greater Sanhedrin was led by the Nasi, or “president” of the Greater Sanhedrin. The overall Sanhedrin was very much like the US Congress with its two branches. The Greater Sanhedrin would be typical to the US House of Representatives, and the Lower Sanhedrin with the Senate based on both numbers and powers. “The Sanhedrin” would be akin to “the US Congress.”  The high priest was the presiding officer of the Sanhedrin; he was the Nasi (not to be confused with the German acronym “Nazi.”).

  As can be seen, the next trial for the people against Jesus would be in the Judaean “Congress” of sorts. The Nasi in modern US terminology would be the Speaker of the House of Representatives who presides over that “house.” The “house” wherein the Nasi High Priest presided was most certainly the Temple since that it where the “council” generally met. If that is so, the Sanhedrin would have been quite angry against Jesus because Jesus threw the merchants from the Sanhedrin’s domain. Why? The Temple should have been God’s House but had become a den of thieves whose “godfather” was Caiaphas. In other words, the Sanhedrin were crony capitalists who misused God and people. Why do crony capitalists like Soros and so many others support socialism? It is for the love of money.

  Socialism is profitable for some. Those who finance socialism have something to gain. Billionaires are surely not after more wealth but power. “The love of money” is the “love of things money can buy.” Money buys power, esteem, and prestige. All those things are against God because they elevate the person and diminish God. How better to diminish God than control others through some devious ideology? Socialism fits the bill on all accounts. Remember that socialism is the doctrine and communism the government. 

  The doctrine seems palatable (great fruit from the “Philosophy Tree”) but the government is death. The philosophy of Robert Owen, Karl Marx, et al is palatable but its operation is mortifying! Socialism kills people but before that, they kill God through His institutions and followers.

  The Sanhedrin was much like the Democrat controlled Congress; it seems to be for money and power.

  Next the trial with the Sanhedrin will be compared to the US Congress against the President.

---

[1] Although the Church was not built on the Roman Catholic Church, that is the mother church of Christianity. Excepting Coptic and Asian Christianity, the western Church descended from Roman Catholicism. However, lineage is of no doctrinal efficacy. The invisible catholic (universal) Church was built on the prophets and apostles with Jesus as the Cornerstone. The Christians are the “lively stones” that make up the pillars that support the Cross atop the Church. All the apostles are part of the Church’s foundation, and Peter’s internment beneath one church building seems to be God’s means of testing.

[2] Perhaps Simon who bore His cross did, and perhaps Joseph of Arimathea, but they were few. The mob made persecutors out of otherwise civil people. Mobs are there to excite, and excite they do.

(picture credit: "Nancy Pelosi" Getty Images)