WHO CAN KILL THE SOUL

   People often equate “soul” and “spirit,” but the difference is as great as the tea and the cup. It is as different as an object and space. An object is inanimate, but the space within can be animated. Harmony is when the space and object move together as one.

  God molded an inanimate image and breathed life unto it. A cup can hold water, but spirit could leak out. Hence, between the object and the spirit there is an inner container; one made of subjective material — material that cannot be seen with human eyes — immaterial, or as science cause them, matter and antimatter.

 Enough about science. We are after objective truth. Antimatter is subjective, but the soul does exist although it cannot be seen or measured by manmade detectors. The soul can be sensed by those whose souls are filled.

  Just as anyone can sense the Holy Ghost’s Presence within, with love, the presence of the unholy ghost can be felt as well. Guilt reveals the presence of evil inside. While love is “goodwill toward God and men,” hatred is “evil will toward God and men.” With that said, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is what fills the “cup,” so to speak, or the human soul. When Jesus, referred to His “Cup,” [i] the Greek word “poterion” is more general than that, meaning a “vessel.” (Strong’s Dictionary). The specific vessel is His eternal soul.  A poterion is thought of as a drinking vessel. That is why it is thought of as a cup. Indeed, Jesus said that out of His belly flowed Living Waters that could be drunk. [ii]

  Living Waters can be passed just as the wine chalice that Jesus passed. Jesus would ask that another pass the Living Waters in His place. Judas tried but his vessel was drained of ineffective blood and water when he fell from the tree in death, split open his vessel, and leaked water and blood. “Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place” (Acts 1:25). Sin broke the “cup” of Judas. Judas died of guilt.

  Guilt is like a pressure cooker. When the pressure reaches the limits of the vessel, without a safety valve, the vessel explodes. That is what happened to Judas. [iii] With Satan in him, then the spirit, Satan, exploded from the Judas Cup. Out of Judas’s belly flowed dying waters, and Judas, just as Jesus, gave up his “ghost” — Satan.  

  The “Judas Cup” leaked because the barbs of Satan pierced it. The “Jesus Cup” leaked its contents because a soldier merely spilled the contents, and he was sorry. He realized that this “Cup” belonged to God. [iv] With Judas, out of his cup flowed dying waters, or the spirit of Satan, but the Holy Spirit flowed from Jesus as He “gave up the Ghost.” [v]

  Satan forced his way out of Judas because his “cup” was of no further use. On the other hand, Jesus relinquished the Spirit of God in Him and gave up the Holy Ghost. It was of this event that John wrote about:

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39)

  That Water of Life is the Holy Spirit in Jesus. When Jesus died and was glorified, then out of his belly the Spirit of God flowed. However, John made a distinction, or at least the translators did with “pneuma,” between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost. The former is the omnipresent Spirit of God and the latter the same Spirit that had the experience of life and death with Jesus. It was the Spirit designated to Jesus. The “container” was not the Body of Christ, but the vessel within. When Jesus was baptized, His vessel was filled:

The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22)

  The Holy Spirit is animation, and the Holy Ghost is the animation of the Holy Spirit. The motion of the Holy Ghost takes many forms — as a cloud, fire, burning bush, a wind, and a Voice walking. This time, the motion was as a dove. However, the animated soul was in “bodily shape.” The Jesus Cup looked like Jesus and many still recognize Jesus to this day by His Cup! Just as His Cup looks like Him, men’s cups look like them and are animated in them.

 The Spirit of God is in the “cup” of Christians, and the spirit of Satan is in the Wicked Ones. Jesus did pass His “Cup” (His Soul) to mankind but not to Satan.

  God is omnipresent, but Satan is not. Christians have the Holy Ghost of Jesus, but non-Christians the unholy spirit of demons. Satan enters few beings; perhaps the Serpent, Cain, blind Lamech, Judas, perhaps Caiaphas, and in the end, the Antichrist.

  Those explanations are imperative. Just what did the Serpent kill with his forbidden fruit? Was it the bodies of Adam and Eve or was it their souls? The flesh is temporal, but the soul is immortal. The “soul” is the cup that will always be somewhere, as new or broken. With that said, the following verse is ambiguous. Just who can do what?

KEY VERSE: Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mat 10:28)

  Satan killed the body of Judas, but the Judas Cup was emptied. It “lived” on in Hell. Of course, spiritual life is not “living” but “death.” In Hell, the soul is slowly destroyed just as the body in Earth’s environment. The body withers and dies, but the soul remains intact and never quite dies, but suffers death eternally. Even the dead soul is immortal, but death is not cessation of animation but continual suffering.

  Likewise, Satan slowly killed the bodies of Adam and Eve. They withered for nearly a millennium. However, he could not kill their souls.

  In like manner, Satan was allowed to lay hands on Job. He caused harm to Job’s body and could have killed him, but God had a hedge of safety around the soul of Job. Satan could pierce it with his barbs, and he tried hard, but Job’s shield of faith made it impenetrable. Only God could allow Job’s soul to be penetrated, or to allow Satan to break his “cup.”

  Thus, my interpretation, without the aid of commentary, is that we should not fear Satan but God. Why? Satan can only destroy the body, but God can destroy both the soul and the body. The curse of the Serpent is death of the body, but God allowed Satan that honor but not the honor of destroying the soul. God, on judgment day, will decide the fate of the body and soul. We should fear God, not Satan, because Satan is a mere tool of God to test the faith of human beings.

  The best validation of my hypothesis came on the day that I was wondering about who is who in the key verse. I was reading the Testament of Job. (Consider it good commentary but not canon,)

“When he (Satan) left he asked my body from the Lord so he might inflict plague on me (Job). Then the Lord gave me over to his hands to be sued as he wished with respect to the body, but he did not give him authority over my soul.” (Testament of Job 20:2-3)

  Whoever wrote that, whether Job or a biographer, it explains Who has authority over the flesh and Who the soul. God has authority over both the body and the soul but allows Satan to destroy the body. God wants that none should perish. [vi] Satan wants that all will perish. God has the authority to destroy the body and soul because he created them both in Adam, then breathed “Living Water” unto them. [vii]

  What happened with the original sin under the Tree of Knowledge? God allowed Satan to perish the body and then the flesh became perishable, whereas before, it was imperishable. [viii] God was sad; He wanted that none should perish, so he provided new flesh from a lamb for coats of Adam and Eve. [ix] It is temporary flesh until the Lamb of God would share His Holy Flesh with Adam’s kind.

  Adam’s kind were made in the image of God — Mind, Body, and Spirit. The Body can be destroyed but the Spirit remains. Hence, there must be a vessel to contain the Living Waters. The invisible vessel is the human soul, and the souls of men and women would look like those same men and women if they could be seen.

  Nebuchadnezzar saw the Soul of Jesus in the fiery furnace, saving three young men. He said so, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God” (Dan 3:25). He recognized the animate Spirit of God as God’s Son! He saw the Soul of Jesus!

  A certain Greek came to Philip and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21). Well, Nebuchadnezzar saw the Soul of Jesus walking in the fiery furnace. His Soul looked like Him! Adam saw the Soul of Jesus and recognized His Voice, as He walked in the Garden. Abraham saw the Soul of Jesus, never born and without parents, walking as the King of Salem (Peace). Christians see the Soul of Jesus as the Holy Ghost. Our “vision” is not seeing with our eyes but by a new nature that could only belong to Jesus. We see Jesus best even when blinded, as God demonstrated with Paul.

  Sometimes when I look at a holy Christian, I see Jesus in him or her. There is an aura that makes them recognizable. It is their new nature, with their corruptible bodies covered with the Coat of the Lamb of God.

  Others can see Jesus in you. When you have Jesus, He will reveal Himself to you with a new nature. That is “born again” when the Holy Ghost of Jesus lays over our flesh as a Coat to preserve His saints. Satan can affect the body, but the cup remains safe, unless like the friend of Jesus, who destroyed his own cup. [x]

 (picture credit: ebay: "Mr. President" by Danny Hahlbohm)

 

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[i] Mat 26:42

[ii] John 7:38

[iii] Acts 1:18

[iv] Mat 27:64

[v] Mark 15:37

[vi] John 3:16

[vii] Gen 2:7

[viii] 1 Pet 1:23

[ix] Gen 3:21

[x] Psalm 41:9

MULTIPLICATION: TRANSFER OF GOOD WILL

   I always wonder, Why? To seek knowledge of the unknown is “esoterism.” It is not secret knowledge, for that would be Gnosticism, but the Good Knowledge of God, what Paul called “The Mystery of God” and “The Mystery of Christ.” They are the same. What was God’s Plan for mankind and what caused it to go awry? That is esoterism.  

  The Greek language has different words that express different types of love. English has one word and Hebrew one — ‘ahab. That one word is how God loves mankind and how mankind should love God. It also includes romantic love of a man for a woman and a woman for a man. Regardless of whom, ‘ahab expresses affection between beings. The Greek word for brotherly love is philio, and for divine love it is agapao. There are other words to express familial and erotic love in the Greek, storge and eros, respectively.

  People seem to struggle when they define agape love. That is because only God can understand the depth and intensity of that love. Rather than agapao defined as how God loves mankind and how mankind should love Him back, it is a composite of philio, storge, and eros-type love. Of course, God is not a sexual Being, but the Church is His Bride, and it is created continually by corporate love.

  My hypothesis is that mankind was to multiply, but not erotically. It was a “sacrament” to God, meaning that coitus was not mechanical but an act of divine grace. As such, the original intent, I surmise, was for children, not to be born, but created just as Jesus, and that would be without sexual intercourse. The intercourse would be the verbal Knowledge of God. With that assumption, therefore, original sin may have included some type of spiritual knowledge between the seraph Lucifer, and the “adulteress” Eve.

  For instance, God breathed His Divine Breath on clay and the product of His Knowledge of Good was Adam, or “Divine Clay” since Adam’s creation was not just “very good” [i] but perfect. God’s Breath came from His side and gave life just as the breath of Jesus (water and the blood) gave life to mankind on the Holy Cross.

  Likewise, Eve was not created from Adam’s “rib” per se, but his “side.” Adam surely transferred divine Breath to Eve from his breath. The implication is that multiplication was sacred and they with only the knowledge of “good” would reproduce as the angels — without marriage. [ii]

  “Marriage” is a coupling between two individuals. In the beginning marriage was perhaps sinful, to wit: “In the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark” (Mat 24:38). That time was when God destroyed the Earth because of marriage; when people coupled with each other for pleasure. Hence “marriage” would not be a sacrament but a sin if it is based on pleasure.

  Holy matrimony is a spiritual coupling. Adam and Eve as one under God  was Holy Matrimony. Adam shared the Virtue of God from his side to Eve; the same Virtue that God had breathed on him. Thus, unlike marriage that is a mechanical coupling (eros; lust), Holy Matrimony is a union in the Spirit of God. The point is that agape love was used to pro-create and although it does not include eros, it does involve a coupling, or union, of like Spirits between man, woman, and God. It is not sexual but is pro-creative.

  The purest definition of agapao is “to be full of good-will and exhibit the same” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). Now, that should make sense!

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:13-14)

  Jesus came to share Good Will. Jesus came to give life to mankind, not by multiplication through marriage (coupling), but Holy Union with God. Jesus would be the “Groom” and the Church the “Bride” of Jesus.

  When Jesus arose, immediately His Holy Ghost returned. What would the Ghost of Jesus do? Come down on mankind, but only on those willing to be children of God.

  Can you not see? Multiplication is more than marriage; it is spreading agapao — good-will from God and sharing the Virtue of God with others. That still produces children of God, and perhaps that was God’s intent from mankind in the beginning. Life, as in the Paradise of heaven, was not meant to be a mechanical coupling (marriage) in the Garden Paradise. Perhaps, as many believe, an “adulteress” coupled mechanically with the seraph (Serpent) just as the daughters of men did with the Sons of God, or dark angels, before the flood. [iii]

  The dark angels did not take for themselves “help mates” as God provided for Adam, but “wives.” [iv] God had not said, cleave to your mate,  but “cleave to your wife” [v] and sinful angels took for themselves “wives” in Noah’s day. Wife, or ‘ishah in the Hebrew, means the “opposite of man” and “adulteress” (Strong’s Dictionary).

  With her new knowledge, God perhaps knew in advance that Eve would change from “help-meet” to “adulteress.” Carnal knowledge from under the Tree of the Knowledge of Evil would pleasure Eve. The outcome of that carnal knowledge was Cain, who was “of the Wicked One.” [vi]

  Consistently, the Bible says, so and so knew his wife. Strong’s Dictionary (Qal) defines that as “distinguished.”  For instance, Adam distinguished the difference in his genitals and Eve’s, and they coupled. God created them male and female to distinguish themselves man from woman, and for that magnetic attraction.

  Before original sin, they had been naked but did not distinguish the difference between themselves. They covered their shame (of sin) with aprons of fig leaves so as not to continue distinguishing their genitals. Then, rather than life breathed to replicate, semen became the medium. God planted the trees and such in the Garden without mankind’s help, but after sin, man thought that his job was not only to “dress and keep the Garden” but plant it too.

  Rather than God as the “Husbandman,” the Serpent was right; Adam became the husbandman and Eve the vine. He became as God and she as Jesus.

  So, exclude eros from agapao because that kind of love was from the Wicked One. Make that the flow of Virtue in lieu of eros as Virtue is the provision for healing and the flow of life.

  Virtue flowed from Jesus when the woman with the blood issue was healed, and Virtue surely flowed from Jesus when He lost blood and water to the earth and the Holy Ghost was given up. That was the good “Intercourse” of Divine Knowledge that again flowed from the side of God to the hearts of men to change their natures.

  Love, then, is encompassed by good-will from God and man’s good-will toward men. Love is multiplied to create more children of God by God’s Good Will. Like the Father’s creation of Adam, His Good Will flowed to Adam, then Adam passed it along to Eve. There was a flow of Good Will from God. That is the type of love that created mankind and was meant to multiply them. Still, to become Sons of God requires what?

Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Mat 22:37-39)

  This was the intent all along to reproduce divine beings! Jesus did not say, love with genital contact, but with “all your heart, soul, and mind.” Love would flow from one being to another — from God to man, from man to God, and from mankind to mankind without regard to gender!

  Jesus did not say the word “love;” he said it in Greek… apagao. What must flow from the hearts of men? “Good will toward men.” What must flow from man to God? Good will toward God. Why is that? Because GOOD WILL flowed from God to mankind as Jesus shed blood and water on the Holy Cross!

  Virtue is the “semen” that flows from God to man and from man to God for the natural man to be born again as a holy man or a changed “adulteress.”

  Multiplication was never meant to be by coitus but by the transfer of “goodness” from one being to another. The Garden of Eden seemed to be a Garden of Souls that would be filled. “Multiplication” was perhaps all spiritual — God would supply the empty souls and God would fill them, Adam would serve them his spirit and Eve would preserve them by her spirit. “Dress and keep” has so much more meaning in depth. It is to “serve and preserve” (Strong’s Dictionary) what God would create!

  The fact that God has a Will is essential. As essential, is that Adam’s kind has a will to share as well. Since God did not force multiplication, then the sharing of His Will is voluntary, or “free will.”

  God could have made Eve without the need for Adam, and God did not force Adam to go to sleep on the job. Adam needed a friend, and he willingly laid down for God to provide for him a friend.

  Eve was not a curse, but a blessing because Adam willed the same as God. Holy Union is a common will with God, man, and others, If God had wanted only His Image, He would have stopped with the clay shape. He instilled Good Will in both Adam’s — male ‘adam and female ‘adam — man’s kind. God wanted His Image animated for one purpose, and that is the share His Good Will by multiplying it.

  Rather, Eve shared her will with knowing Satan first hand, to create a new wicked man-beast.

(picture credit: dreamstime; "Adam's Creation")

 

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[i] Gen 1:31

[ii] Mat 22:30

[iii] Gen 6:1-4

[iv] Gen 6:2

[v] Gen 2:24

[vi] 1 John 3:12

SUBTILTY AND THE CRAFTSMEN

  Most of us have hired a skilled tradesman to build or repair things. Many times, their claims are exaggeration. They convince the naïve customer that they are the best of their trade. Then, when the bill comes, it is high, and the workmanship shoddy.

  People are the same way. Satan sells himself with great promises, but only provides shoddy workmanship. He is not as good at his craft as people credit him for. Many even believe that they are craftier than him and can outwit him. Well, only God can do that, and you are not God. But Jesus, the Master Craftsman, did outwit the poser, Satan.

  Both Jesus and Satan are journeyman tradesmen. Neither are amateurs at using their skills. When Jesus is called a “carpenter,” in the Greek it is “tektron” which means not exactly carpenter but craftsman (Strong’s Dictionary). That Jesus was a carpenter may have come from the Hebrew wherein “created” [i] means specifically “cut wood.” A craftsman in prehistoric days would have likely been a carpenter.

  The Garden of Eden was a Garden of Trees. Therein, God would have cut wood, so to speak. Satan’s role was as a bad craftsman; to destroy the “wood” cut by the Creator.

  God, the Creator, is a great craftsman (tektron). Today, a tektron would be considered a “technician” which comes from the Greek word, tekhnikos. God is a technician in all senses of the word. He created, not just cut wood, but particles of all types including electrons, photons, neutrons and made them all sizes and shapes. He created all things seen and unseen, and that would be heaven and earth, or space and matter.

  God created all things in a gradual manner. He did not need to, but He did. In like manner, mimicking Jesus, Satan perishes all things gradually. God had created Adam and his kind, and Satan would kill them. After eating the tempting fruit, nothing seemed to have changed with Eve, so Adam ate as well. Although undetectable, both immediately began to wither so gradually that it went unnoticed. Adam and Eve would perish. Not their entire being but their flesh. God would preserve their souls which the Serpent would try to destroy again and again.

  God (Jesus) is the Craftsman. However, Satan, poses as one, to wit: “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made” (Gen 3:1). Subtil means “crafty.” Satan in the Serpent was a “craftsman” just as Jesus. Whatever God Crafted, Satan endeavors to re-craft. His goal is not to repair but change the nature of whatever God made. God’s best design was Adam who was patterned after God Himself. To undermine God, Satan would need to re-craft the man that God had crafted. He would try that with God’s “Second Man” as well, not Cain, but Jesus!

  God crafted Adam by molding him from the mist and dust of the ground, then breathed life unto him. [ii] Satan re-crafted Adam and Eve by sucking life from them. God imbued their “vessels” (souls) with Holy Spirit, and the crafty Serpent diffused what God had imbued. In other words, God molded the “cup” and Satan cracked it, so microscopically, that the “crack” is unnoticeable. Often the person fails to understand that it is cracked but still wonder why he feels so empty inside.

  God made Himself in the image of Adam and came to save the day. As the Great Craftsman. He came to regenerate what the amateur craftsman degenerated. He came not just to fix the soul but the body as well. He came to repair the “cup” and refill it with Living Water just as He had crafted it in the beginning.

  When Jesus asked His Father to pass that “cup” from Him, [iii] he was referring to refashioning the broken “vessel” of mankind. He would repair the soul.

  Down by the Garden, Satan would try to fix things before Jesus was able to. He provided shoddy craftsmanship, and by the work of his own hand, he marred his own “cup” beyond repair. Judas hung himself and his guts spilled out. He perished and would never be repaired. Judas died, and Satan still seeks another vessel to corrupt.

  Satan’s faulty craftsmanship worked once with the first Adam, and why would it not work with the “Second Adam?” Because Adam was not Jesus. He was very good, but Jesus is Perfect.

KEY VERSES: The Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. (Mat 26:2-4)

  Judas, with Satan in him, [iv] betrayed Jesus just as he had the first Adam. Satan had entered the docile viper and rendered him a Beast. Satan crafted a Beast from a gentle snake! Millennia later, Satan took the friend of Jesus and made him His enemy. Satan recrafted and made a friendly man into a wild beast who would kill, ostensibly for money!

  Judas, the friend of Judas? Crazy! Or is it? The psalmist wrote, “Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me” (Psalm 4:9). That was a prophecy about Judas and his relationship with Jesus. He at least posed as a friend, but perhaps he was indeed a friend who turned on Jesus by allowing Satan to enter him. Satan “paid” Judas 30 pieces of silver for the short-term use of his body. He only needed his services for a moment, but the penalty was eternal.

  Satan knew that would work because the Word foretold it, to wit: “I (God) will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).

  Satan would use the same method. It worked before, why would it not work again? Well, the answer to that is that although Satan tempted Adam and it succeeded, he tempted Jesus and it failed! Adam was not God but Jesus IS. Adam was only the image of God.

  In the key verse, Judas was the Betrayer. He was not alone. He had Satan in him just as the Serpent of long ago. Remember, the Serpent was more subtil than any beast. He used his craftiness to deceive Adam and Eve.

  The same thing happened to Jesus (see the key verses), “They might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.” Satan “killed” Adam and Eve by his subtilty. That was how the first Adam was killed. It worked then; would it work now? The assembly used the High Priest, Caiaphas, to kill Jesus by the same subtilty. Satan would work his craft again, and not only did Judas assist in the conspiracy, but so did Caiaphas, to wit: “Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people” (John 18:14).

  Caiaphas used Judas to betray Christ. Judas had to do that because it was prophetic. Satan had to have a body to craft his plan to kill. Originally, the body that Satan used was a mere beast that Adam had named. Animals were to befriend Adam. This time, the Beast would be a friend of Jesus as well! Satan often uses friends of people for his purposes.

  Caiaphas was not a friend of Jesus and he would never do! However, Satan was not the one who was sacrificing. Jesus was sacrificing himself. Jesus was not Adam. The Serpent would not have his way with Jesus. Caiaphas was elected by God to do the “bloody deed”[v] of circumcising God’s Flesh from the earth.

  The key word is “subtilty.” The Serpent was more “subtil” than any beast of the field, and Judas was selected from all the field at the assembly to take Jesus by “subtilty.”

  Judas, however, was not a good enough craftsman to plan the conspiracy. Conspiracy? This event was the ultimate conspiracy, the granddaddy of them all: “Thou (Lucifer) hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, (Isa 14:13). 

  That was the subtil plan of Satan, but just how crafty he turned out to be? He hung himself from a tree with a noose so inept that Judas fell to the earth and spilled his guts. Isaiah was prophetic — the conspiracy was to exalt Satan, perhaps with the silver, but what happened? The craftsman was not very crafty: “O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (Isa 14_12).

  Isaiah knew all along that Satan was not the craftsman that he claimed to be. He is not as crafty as he is said to be!

  On the other hand, Jesus is THE Crafts-Man and He is so crafty thar he Created all things and shall re-create them in the end. Jesus crafted his own death and Satan and Caiaphas got the credit. Caiaphas and Judas were the Oliver and Hardy, about whom Hardy said, “Ollie, look at another fine mess that you got us into!”

  Satan got himself and Caiaphas into a fine mess with God. Jesus said, to Pontius Pilate, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin” (John 19:11). Pilate may have converted and the soldier who pierced Jesus was. Judas nor Caiaphas were converted. The subtil Satan in Judas had gotten the two into another fine mess — a mess for which they are still punished.

  When I read the key verses. I said aloud, “That is the craft of Satan. He is the one who beguiles!” Then it struck me — It was Satan doing his thing all over again. Indeed, Solomon was right… there is nothing new under the sun! [vi]

(Picture credit: dreamstime.com; "Crafty Person")

 

 

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[i] Gen 1:1

[ii] Gen 2:5-7

[iii] Mat 26:39

[iv] Luke 22:3

[v] Exod 4:25

[vi] Ecc 1:9

WALK, SWIM, OR FLOAT

  Life is simple: The Way is narrow and the gate straight. [i] Every person must make a decision to which path to walk and which gate to pass through. The Way to the Tree of Life is guarded by Cherubim. [ii] The implication is that there is one “gate” to Paradise in heaven, and it is guarded by angelic beings. And since there is a gate, there must also be a fence of some sort around Paradise to keep any from entering by another Way.

  Since Paradise was a Garden of natural features, perhaps it was surrounded by a “boma” to keep beasts of prey and the evil-doers out. There is a reason that Jesus wore a crown of thorns. He was ridiculed as King of the Jews. The Perhaps the crown of thorns guarded wicked ones from entering Paradise from some other way. Jesus bled from his thorny crown. Only by His blood can anyone be saved. Only He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man cometh unto the Father, but by Him. [iii]

  Noah had to enter Paradise from the same Path and through the same gate as anyone thereafter. There are not two gates, and the one gate is guarded by heavenly beings to keep all but the faithful out of Paradise. Well, Noah built a ship to Paradise. It was not to another world but in the same realm that he had always lived… him and his generations. Paradise is not on Earth nor in earth, but apparently an invisible realm called “the heavens” that only God can transport from one to another realm.

  Jesus was born of a virgin. She carried Jesus on Earth until he was delivered to mankind. (She was the “Ark” that carried Jesus from one world to the next). However, God borne Jesus from heaven to earth, from the real to the corporeal. He transported His Holy Spirit from heavenly Paradise to Paradise on Earth by God willingly it to be. The Way to and from Heaven seems to be transportation by God. The means of transportation that God picked for Noah was much different than what He picked for Jesus! God transported Noah on an Ark and then the Ark carried Noah to safety. Noah was borne by God and born by the Ark. He was antitypical of Jesus.

KEY VERSE: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Gen 6:9b)

  Perfect? That needs to be questioned. Was Job blameless of any sin at all? Scripture says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). That would include Noah as well, but like Job, perhaps Noah had perfect knowledge of God as God has of Himself (Job 37:16). That would not mean that Noah was perfect in all his ways but would know all the truth. Since Jesus is the Truth, then the knowledge of the truth and a willingness to comply with the truth would merit God’s grace. [iv]

  Each Christian comes to know the truth by hearing God’s Voice in Scripture. Noah heard God and obeyed. Not that obedience would merit grace, but Noah’s willingness to please God. God said, “build and Ark,” and without question, Noah built an Ark in expectation of rain, despite that Noah had never seen rain before! He had the perfect knowledge of God — that God said it would rain and then it rained!

  As a sidenote, Christians have never seen an apocalypse before, but God said the world will be destroyed by the raining down of fire on the world, to wit: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Pet 3:10). Now you know this, and if you read the Bible, you too shall have perfect knowledge — the knowledge of God that is the Word in scripture. Someday, just as God said, the end shall come! Will you enter the gate to Paradise?

  Soon, it became known that Noah was not a perfect man, but he had perfect knowledge of God’s Will. He believed in and trusted God to be and to do what He says. The fact that he became drunk was not damning because Noah was perfect in spirit. His spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak [v] just as the apostle Paul’s and any true Christian’s.

  Then examine, “Noah was a just man.” The person Noah was the seminal Adam. He was the new head of mankind and was of the seed of Adam. That is why that he was “perfect in his generations” as he was the seed of Adam who was planted outside the Garden.

  As the seed of Seth and Aklia, he was righteous. God had planted the seed that would be Noah when Abel and Seth were born. He was the cry of the blood from the ground of righteous Abel. [vi] With that said, Noah had no Cain in him but most if not all the others did. In other words, Noah had no blood of the Wicked One in him, or he would not have been perfect in his generations.

 Noah was a “just man.” He was righteous by nature. Evil had not overcome him as it had all the others who for whom God had less grace. By grace, however, Noah’s household was included: Shem, Japheth, and Ham.

  Shem had to be because Shemites are God’s chosen and peculiar people [vii] Japheth was allowed in because the seed that Noah would plant in the new world from him would also be God’s chosen and peculiar people. [viii] Only the seed of Ham would not be, but God also had a purpose for him. The seed of Shem, Japheth, and Ham would, when they had grown, all unite and collude to kill the Son of God. The “Seed” for Jesus would make it through the flood, as well as the seed of the Wicked One.

  Noah was not just a “man.” Hebrew for man is ‘adam but Noah is described, not as ‘adam, but as ‘iysh. He was the male or husbandman. He is not meant to be a second Adam (that was for Jesus) but another image of God who IS the “Husbandman.” [ix] God picked a male with perfect knowledge to be His image on the new world. He would be as God but not God. That is God’s intent for all of Noah’s seed. The “seed” that Noah would plant on the holy mountain would be his “vines” so the speak that would branch out and cover the earth. But only one “vine” would be the branch that would produce Perfect Fruit, Jesus by Name.

 God would not need another man (another Adam) at that time, but the “husbandman” would seed a second Adam to grow until the time would be ripe; a time when mankind would be saved forever!

  Lastly, the most crucial: “Noah walked with God.” That was not an afterthought but a perfect thought. God had grace on Noah because “Noah walked with God.” Noah was a just man, but God did the justifying. “Justification” is not just as he never sinned, but because he walked with God even though he sinned. As he walked with God, he was a “shadow” of God. Noah obeyed God, and by that He shadowed God. Paul wrote, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (Heb 10:1). Noah was not God, would never be God, but by doing God’s Will he was a “shadow of good things to come.” What would be those “good things?” Jesus and grace. That is why God had grace on Noah because he was a shadow of Jesus.

  Jesus wrote the Law because He is the “finger of God.” [x] By freely obeying God without coercion, Noah was not only the present husbandman in the new world, but the “vine” as well whose branch would be Jesse [xi] and Branch further to Jesus.

  Noah walked with God, and by doing so, God transported him to another, better world — a second “paradise;” one prepared for him and his new kind. To this day there are three kinds of people from the root of Noah: Semites, Gentiles, and pagans. They are the seed of Shem, Japtheth and Ham. (That is generalized because God has grace on all kinds and wants that none should perish.)

  To enter Paradise, remembering that the “gate” is guarded, Noah walked with Jesus through that gate. In the case of Noah, that “gate” was the door of the Ark of God. It was open for all who would enter, and all his sons and daughters-in-law did so. It was not in their time, but in God’s time. He waited 120 years for all to decide which Way they would go.

  Do you think that there were no requirements to enter? God was on the Ark and when all had come in, God shut the door. Noah and his seed walked the way up the ramp and through the door. They followed Jesus, so to speak.

  All the others walked their own way and were lost. No one swam to the boat. All who would go, were on before it began to rain. Water would not be saving, but grace would be. God gave everything grace. They could have entered in and shadowed the walk of Noah. They adamantly refused to walk as silly Noah walked.  Just like Noah, the people considered Jesus to be crazy! Like Jesus who they said was “beside himself,” [xii] they too thought Noah was alone in his thoughts; that he were irrational!

  To this day, that destruction will come is considered irrational; that only crazy people would prepare for the apocalypse! God gave mankind, those of the Wicked One, 120 years at most to decide. Now the time is the same. The lives of the wicked ones remain less than 120 years to this day. Sinners are of the Wicked One [xiii] and their days are numbered. Mark this: before most will reach 120 years, they will walk some way. Some will be transported on the true “Ark” (The Holy Cross) to safety on God’s Holy Mountain. The others will drown in the fire of the River Styx.

  Who goes where depends on whether they walk as Noah walked — in the shadow of Jesus — or swim like the Wicked Ones who tried to swim to safety toward the Ark. That time, God shut the door and angels surely guarded it to prevent the Wicked Ones from swimming their way to the Tree of Life.

  Noah and family merely walked as God walked — patiently and with stedfast faith in God’s Plan for them. All the others tried it there way — by their own efforts they tried to enter the Ark to Paradise. That is still not the Way to walk or even to float toward the Ark of the Cross. God opened the door to the Ark and left it open. It would not surprise me if the Cross is of the same wood as the old wooden Ark.

(picture credit: iStock; "Dead Man Floating")

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[i] Mat 7:14

[ii] Gen 3:24

[iii] John 14:6

[iv] Gen 6:8

[v] Mat 26:41

[vi] Mat 23:35

[vii] Deut 14:2

[viii] 1 Pet 2:9

[ix] John 15:1

[x] Deut 9:10

[xi] Isa 11:1

[xii] Mark 3:21

[xiii] Mat 13:38