Is it only coincidence that the entire Bible is about the genetics of mankind through time and that only in the last century… no decade, has biogenetics become in vogue? Is it the last days that are much like the first days? Is it merely coincidence that the “gain of function” in virology is so much like Paul’s gain of function expressed in the key verse, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21)?
Now for a short review: “In Christ” is the right way of functioning, and away from Christ, or in the world without Him, is dysfunctional. That is functioning as if dead — or dead spiritually.
The “gain” of Paul is the “gain” of virology, each attempting to extend life; the former by trust in Jesus and the latter, according to the mantra, “believe the science!”
Note that believing the science is the doctrine of Scientology, and just as their methods are intimidation and mandates, so is virology.
Believing the science is meant to extend the time on earth, and so long as anyone believes the science, they are safe.
Compare that to what John declared about Jesus: “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:15). The perfect DNA of Jesus — the true Messenger-RNA — not only extends life but provides never-ending life. The doctrine of science attempts only to extend life a few years, but the gain of functioning in Christ is eternal immortality!
Just as the generation of Adam was a process in time, translated as “day,” regeneration is also a process in time (Gen 4:3). The word “process” therein implies a duration in which things were happening.
All processes begin with something to which energy is added that transforms the elemental substance into another substance as it cools. The Hebrew for “day” and “night” in scripture is literally “warming” and “twisting from the warming.” That is any process, not just the process of a day.
Regeneration is also a process. It must be because it should be expected to repeat what was generated in a similar process.
Now compare the two: The process of generating man began with elemental materials (Gen 1:1), or two substances: heaven and earth. Heaven is the invisible substance of the soul and earth its visible substance of the body. The breath of God was the “heaven” in man (the Spirit of God in an invisible vessel), and the dust from the ground, the material substance. When God breathed, He changed the inanimate into the animate and Adam became a living soul.
The creation of Adam was a process in time, and so is the re-creation of Adam’s kind,
Natural birth adds the material substance to the pre-existing invisible substance — the soul that was there from before the foundation of the world — and God delivers the person to the world. It may be that the creation of the soul in the beginning was the first act of grace because God at that time in the first process provided a “cup” (Mat 23:25) to be filled later.
The second act of grace would be filling the “cup,” or soul, of Adam when he was created. The third act of grace would be when the Word provided coats of skin to preserve the corruptible flesh of sinful Adam.
The fourth act of grace was when Noah found grace, indubitably the Garment of Adam, and so on until the time of Jesus when mercy was most abundant: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3; ESV).
By the great mercy of God, the Father provided His Son for the perfect sacrifice one time and for all. Just like God was the cause that the soul of Adam was “borne” (transported) from the heaven to the earth, “born again” is when the soul is taken from pre-existence, placed in the earth in a womb (much like the dome of the world) and the process began again.
With that said, if figure #2 (the chart of faith) is examined, the left axis would extend in phantom lines all the way back to the beginning (Gen 1:1) when God generated the soul of every induvial in anticipation of the day that each would be borne to the Earth.
Birth is sacrosanct. It is an act of grace as well. Why would it not be because on the birth day of everyone, a living soul was transported from one realm to another just as in the end, it will be transported back to another realm, and new flesh put on.
The point is that the chart is a process which did not start with your flesh but your soul. It is a process wherein God preserves the immortal soul of man in the “vehicle” of flesh. Thus, the chart begins when God first “knew” you, and that was before the foundation of the world.
“Knew” is ‘yada in the Hebrew and means “perceived” (BLB Institute 2021). For whosoever, ________ (your name here) was perceived before the foundation of the world. Your soul was elected to exist in the flesh. Think of that as God putting you in an “Ark” to carry you to Jesus for deliverance to another realm!
Your flesh is for your functioning, and the “Ark” of the flesh is piloted by God. The problem arises when Satan in stealth boards along with your soul.
That explains the origin of the soul by grace, the origin and purpose of the flesh by grace, and “born again” by grace a continuation in the process of regeneration. The gain (goal) is not to be as a child again but back to God’s design in the beginning. That is functioning as God planned for His Image to function!
Functioning, as the definition says, is performing to the original design. Those with no faith are lost and their wandering is malfunctioning. Cain’s name could as well have been “Malfunctioning” rather than “Wondering” in the English!
God cast Cain out to the land of Nod because he malfunctioned. Abel received the gain of death because he was in the Word (in Christ). Cain and his seed malfunctioned all the way to the deluge, but Abel ceased functioning in the world and would function perfectly in the invisible world. The “gain” of which Paul wrote was more than eternal life but functioning perfectly as God designed man in the beginning!
The gift of God is the “little faith” shown on the vertical axis. Born again is the “gift” that can be used by those who have been born.
As Peter wrote (1 Pet 1:3) that, because God had great mercy, is why rebirth exists. Anyone whosoever can be born again, but that hope is because of the Resurrection of Christ, according to Peter. If Jesus had not been re-erected after He was erected in Mary, then neither could anyone be. Is it a coincidence that mankind was the kind that was born erect, unlike the Serpent who would crawl, and that God would re-erect mankind in the end after they came from the “worm,” Lucifer?
With natural birth, God erects the infant to maturity so that the body can function as God planned. “Born again” is the erection of the soul, and when the erected body is transported (raptured) into the erect soul, therein is the resurrection of man!
Therefore, the chart is not only the function of man in the world but the function of the new man in the heaven.
Faith ceases its variation upon death. That too is the gain!
As you can see from the chart “steadfast faith” is still not the “faith of God”
and a degree of doubt remains. Satan uses that doubt to malfunction the
Christian to spiritual death. At death, man can no longer malfunction if there
remains any faith at all. For God to preserve does not require absolute faith
but continuing in the faith that He gave, as is written:
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled 22 in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven… (Col 1:21-23)
The interval between birth and rebirth is “alien” to God as it is an “adversarial” to Him. That soul that came from another realm is not a familiar Spirit to God but a familiar spirit to Lucifer (Lev 19:31). As such the wicked are not lost per se but wonder around alien to God but familiar with Satan. Hence the wondering lost who are born but not reborn are alien to Christ and are not in Christ because the spirit of Satan is in them.
The soul of man does not arrive to the world empty but filled with iniquity from the Wicked One. The soul is alien to God but familiar with Satan in Lucifer.
Jesus would reconcile the alienation and by the mercies of God, provide enough faith to regenerate man from alienated from God to familiarity with Him — from in Satan to in Christ!
So, what did Paul say that death is? “Through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight.” Holy therein is like Christ and in Christ; that the Flesh of God will not condemn the flesh of man but redeem it. The condition is only one: “If you continue in the faith in confidence (”grounded and settled”) and “be not moved away from the hope of the gospel” (That is the propitiation of the blood of Jesus for your alien blood).
Somebody or something can move you away from your hope of eternal life. Satan through his temptations and the law of sin can move or cause the Christian to fall away (apostasia). Since Paul admonished Christians, no longer aliens, to not be alienated again, then it stands to reason that the “Sons of God” may be lost and return to the “sons of man” and have the number of man.
If anyone is warned to continue in the faith; that implies that anyone can disconnect from the faith and become alienated from the faith. Just as birth is a process, so is rebirth, and alienation is a slow process as can be seen from the graph that is labeled “falling away.”
Why would Paul warn to continue in the faith if it was impossible to be alienated from the faith?
The doctrine of “eternal security” may remind the reader of recent false promises: That is much like Just take the vaccine and you will be safe from acquiring COVID.
Although rebirth is not a false promise, the Deceiver always wants God’s children to believe they are safe. His first promise was what? God had warned righteous man and righteous woman that if they would eat of the forbidden tree; they would die. “And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen 3:4).
The same goes for the reborn; Satan says, Eat of the Tree of Life and ye shall not surely die. Faith is what makes one worthy to eat of the elements at communion and to partake of the Tree of Life in the end. God is the same “Alpha” and “Omega” then as now!
Apostasy is falling away from the faith, or as James wrote:
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (Jas 5:19-20)
“Brethren” was to whom James wrote — brothers in Christ. Christians can indeed err from the truth. If any brother can persuade those in error to continue in the faith, something happens, and that is to save a soul from death; not biological but spiritual death (Greek, thanatos) — “that separation of the soul and the body” (ibid).
Birth is the conjoining of the soul to the body. Rebirth is filling the soul that was conjoined at birth, making a righteous being from an alien being.
The separation is not really the soul that is separated but emptied of its filling. Rebirth is not filled with water or even washed by water, but baptism of the Holy Ghost from the side of Jesus, just as Adam was created from the side of God through His breath.
The curve slopes upward from birth to rebirth on the graph. Rebirth
is a process, not just a tick of the clock. It takes time to persuade aliens to
be Sons of God. Paul spent his ministry persuading them to become
Christians:
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (Jas 5:19-20)
Paul used persuasion for people to be in Christ:
And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. (Acts 18:4).
Paul failed with Agrippa;
his logic would not convert the king, “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, ‘Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian’” (Acts 26:28).
Persuasion is having an open mind to truth. Hence, Truth (about Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life) is the “gift” of faith that must be worked. Being in the Word is growing the faith.
Therefore, Truth frees from the bonds of Lucifer. Apparently, those “bonds” are in the DNA of mankind just as the letters JHWH are as well. Lucifer would not be in the DNA but a Shadow over the DNA of God.
The gift of faith is when by reasoning, the Truth strikes those who are alien to God that Jesus is indeed the Truth! It takes some amount of time to persuade those who are alien from God to see that they can realign with God just by accepting the Truth as true and to remain in Christ by continually believing that to be true.
Jesus revealed the most persuasive argument of them all: Speaking of “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7), Jesus argued, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Jesus was speaking of Himself; lifting Jesus up is exalting Him rather than Judas in his “tree” that King Hezekiah finally destroyed.
Faith is not for a moment; it is time dependent from rebirth
to death. It can vary but to remain spiritually functional, it can never dissipate
entirely. Just as the Word is persuasive to become a Christian, the Anti-Word
is persuasive in defecting as a Christian. The Anti-word is that your walk to
the altar, or that you have been baptized in water, and for that, you will
surely not die.
I walked to the altar and back many times as a youth and with each trip, I was no more than a tired sinner. I was baptized as a youth and afterwards I remained only a wet sinner who was still “alien” to God. I even learned the Word and became a smart sinner! There is no other way to the Cross than going all the Way thereto!
Before rebirth, the faith curve slopes up. That is God calling. That is the great mercy that He has for all His creatures. John Wesley called that “prevenient grace” (preceding grace). That is the grace that God has just because each was once in His Image in the beginning. God has mercy on His lost creatures as anyone would on their children as Jesus admonished with the prodigal son.
Whosoever should not perish (John 3:16). That blip of faith preceding rebirth is that God cares for you and gives the gift of faith. That blip is as much as Him handing the gift to use and grow. It is a spiritual “seed” that God hands out through His Son, Jesus! That merciful act is God’s way of replanting the seed for His new “Garden Paradise,” of course, in another realm.
Faith must be grown in the bad seasons as well as the good ones. Just like any husbandman is tempted to give up, faith can be abandoned. No longer will the “hands” listen to the “Husbandman” because it is easier to pleasure than to obey. Hence, for some time Christians who function as Christians, afterward some can become dysfunctional.
After spiritual death, although it is labeled “functional,” the spiritually dead person is dysfunctional, and as the curve goes, they will never function in another realm because faith was depleted. The apostate did not lose the faith, but lost affection (goodwill toward God) and defected from Him so slowly that the alienation was as gradual as the rebirth. That is much like the world unpersuades through pleasure, wealth, and the like.
It is true that God will never leave nor forsake you, but you can become alienated from God. Like Noah long before, you can take off the grace that you have found and blaspheme the Holy Ghost (Mat 12:31) that which is the Comforter of the Christian. The Comforter, of course is the Holy Ghost that God by grace puts on the Christian to keep them safe from the fiery darts of the wicked ones (Eph 6:6).
Blasphemy is a “detraction” from God (ibid), losing high estimation of the Ghost of Jesus. Thus, blasphemy is much like Noah taking off the Garment of Grace and becoming non-sober and non-vigilant to expose his flesh to the fiery darts of Lucifer in Ham. It can be called blasphemy or apostasy but either way, it is de-glorifying the substances of God.
As can be seen on the chart, faith can waver. Christians call that “backsliding” but is more like coasting than sliding backward down the mountain. Christians need to take care not to coast in faith because that is dangerous going. Spirituality is much like gravity and potential energy. Due to irrecoverable losses, one may slide down but never return all the way up the “hill” of faith without God’s Hand restoring momentum. The growth of faith is impeded by Satan’s demons dragging you down the slope further and further until the slide comes to a cliff and like the swine of Jesus’s day, go over the cliff.
So far, this commentary has been about the momentum and the possible slide, but not so much about remaining steadfast in the faith.
After Paul had gone, he told the Colossians, “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ” (Col 2:5). The faithful Colossians had not wavered as is shown on the upward slope of the graph (figure #2). Their faith had been steadfast without wavering. Neither had they fallen away. Their faith had been constant but not up to the Faith of God (absolute faith) but only to the faith of Paul. Paul was the type but Jesus the protype of faith.
They were faithful but had not seen Jesus firsthand. Their faith was modeled by Paul, so to some degree, their ultimate faith had much ado with the presence of Paul.
There remained some doubt because Paul was only the messenger (an “angel” to that church), so they missed the mark set by God. Paul and the memory of him had been their comfort but what faith they had, had not grown to where it could have grown if given the presence of Jesus rather than the absence of Paul who had been there in spirit alone.
Then comes “death” on the graph. There is a “second death” and it too is a process. It is the death of the alien and those who are alienated from Christ. The second death commences at spiritual death, then proceeds unto the invisible realm. Consider James again when he wrote, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (Jas 2:26).
The spirit in the soul of the alienated dies before the flesh suffers death. When faith is depleted all the way, then spiritual death ensues. That is the beginning of the second death for those who defect from Jesus. The second death for those who remained alien to Christ, ironically, was at their birth. King Agrippa had almost been persuaded to become a Christian. He never went all the Way with Christ. Agrippa was not a “king” in the eyes of God but “chief of the aliens.” Agrippa essentially died right then in spirit before he would die in body.
Life is how human beings function, whether it be functional or dysfunctional. Those who are aliens to Christ can never function in His realm! Steadfast faith is functional according to God’s design, given the interference in the world.
Satan is “Prince of the Power of the Air,” and it is his power that impedes the function of Christians. That “function” is not only to be in Christ but to spread the Word about Christ in the world. That is the Great Commission for the apostles and as “royal priests,” the “reasonable service” of those in Christ is to seed the gospel in the rocky soil of the world.
How can anyone tell whether they are in Christ or not? Whether they are spreading the Word of Jesus to others. That is working the faith and making it grow. Check your “pulse;” is the Word in you? If not spreading the Word, then Christ is not in you (John 1:1-3,14).
Then mortal death comes about in the process of time. Everyone is destined to die, and soon death comes quickly. Death is also an act of grace because God is merciful to the end.
Following next is on the gain of death.
(picture credit: Daily Mail; "Man Stabbed")
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