THE END

 Jesus and His disciples were having a conversation on the Mount of Olives, when they asked of Him, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Mat 24:3).

They wanted to know the eschatology of mankind… for the people of the world. When would the apocalypse come and what would the signs be?

Firstly, Jesus warned them not to be deceived. (verse 4). He expected that there would be false signs at the wrong times. Some of those “Christians” will claim to be Christ; not just one person, but several. It seems that there will be a antichristian group whose power is convincing. Surely, they will be very convincing! (verse 5).

There will be a period of great persuasion. Many claiming to be Christ may not be, them saying, “We are Christ,” but deny the doctrine of Christ and believe us!”

Along with that, there will be wars and rumors about them but the end is not yet that time (verse 6). War has always been in the world and even more eminent. It must be a time of world war and potential global destruction. It is not global warming that is the danger to civilization, but global warfare that will preclude the ending. Surely Jesus was speaking of one hemispheric empire against another.

Presently, there are two “New World Orders,” and nuclear warfare is threatened. If that happens, forthcoming may be the “mother of all wars,” but perhaps, according to Jesus, the sign of the end of times, are rumors of global warfare. The technique today is threats to create fear in the hearts of the enemy, so with so many threats, rumors now abound. But the end is not yet here (verse 6).

Jesus added to those things, “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (verse 7). There will not be peace on Earth. There will not be until the millennial reign of Jesus.

Not only will there be wars between nations and kingdoms, but within families. But first, what is the difference between nations and kingdoms? “Nation” is ethnos in the Greek and “kingdom” basileia. Ethnos is racially oriented, and today racial division has been more eminent than ever before.

Ethnos is a time of trouble between the races with the people of one race against those of another race. In other words, there will be extreme animosity between the races; black against white and white against black. It will be a war for the survival of the fittest, and apparently a renewal of Nazism.

The government of this “Christian” nation where we live is at the present time in an ethnic war, and I hate to say it, but civil people are losing that war to extreme elements. “Nations” cannot be glossed over because we are to the point where genes determine who has commerce in the world and who cannot. That is ethnos.

Perhaps the new ethnicity in those wars will be between those who have RNA Therapeutics and those who have not. Even some of my best friends are no longer friends because I cherish my God-given genome and refuse the jab! Could it be that ethnos there is more than skin color but whether the genetic identity has been altered or not?

Whether you realize it or not, a new ethnicity is in the making. There are those who claim to be “Christ” (“believe the science”) who are in the process of changing your genetic composition to be compliant for the favor of a long life, Bill Gates style. They may not say they are “Christ” but act as if they are. Could that be of whom Jesus was speaking?

Now for basileia which is translated as “kingdom.” It is literally “authority” and is not to be confused with an actual kingdom. (Strong 1890). It could be the United Nations whose charter is to bring peace on Earth (United Nations 1946), the World Health Organization whose charter is to keep the world healthy, although at the present they have been a clear danger, or could it be the World Economic Forum that is resetting the government, the people, and their religion?

We think of wars to be between kingdoms, as Russia against the Ukraine, but perhaps it is communist East against neo-Nazi West. The clear and present danger to the world is those who would reset it, who are opposed by those who desire to keep it traditional.

Jesus said, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (verse 8). Up to this point those times of sorrows are tribulations, but the Great Tribulation has not started. Christians, at least, will face these times of sorrows and have tribulation.

Apparently, there is one thing to be added to the wars between ethnics; wars among families, even Christian “families:” 

³³ But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. ³⁴ Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. (Mat 10:33-35)

 There will be a Jesus denial. Will anyone be so terrible as to deny Jesus? Will they say outright, I deny Jesus, as Peter did (Mat 26:75).

Denying Jesus is favoring another power over Jesus. That is much less obvious. People do not line up to go to Church for praise and healing; even Christians do not anymore, but there are larger lines lined up to “Trust the Science” and then brag about the authority in charge of bad science — Dr. Anthony Fauci.

How many praise Jesus nowadays, given a public forum? Few even consider doing that, so not to seem extreme, but look how how many praise Fauci? All who take the jab infer upon him trust and praise. To claim Christhood is not actually saying it, but Him having absolute authority. The vaccine mandates have usurped Christ, even mandating churches be closed. So much for trusting Jesus in the time of sorrows!

Jesus came to set variance against members of the same family. “Variance” is the severing of ties, in this case, the family. At one time, families shared the same doctrine of Christ. Recently there has been an upsurge in variance among family members. Even Christian family members are losing it. One Christian doctor told me that his children accused him of brainwashing just because he taught the truth.

That parents are losing authority at the present as never before is what Jesus was talking about. Even Christian parents put their pre-kindergarten infants in the “belly of Molech” when they sacrifice their children to the NEA and such in the public schools. They are letting the government be the parents because teaching children is just an inconvenience to them, almost as bad as having children!

Continuing on with Jesus’s conversation, the Great Tribulation starts: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake” (verse 9). If killing you is not great tribulation, then nothing is! Jesus is talking to His disciples; He is speaking to Christians. They will be around for a greater tribulation that comes after milder tribulation.

With that said, perhaps tribulation is for the first 3-1/2 years and great tribulation for the latter 3-1/2 years. Either way, the Christians will not have been raptured before the time of sorrows. But perhaps, there is greater tribulation at hand! 

¹² And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. ¹³ But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Mat 24:12-13)

 Those who shall be saved are those who have endured tribulation and who remain faithful through it all.  Love waxing cold is apostasy; those who once had affection for Jesus would defect from Him. That is the Church.

In the COVID lockdown, the defection began. Some even left my church because I asked, “Where is your faith?” Now, my own church has abandoned Sunday evening service and even shutdown when the perfect place to be was in the bosom of Jesus… in Church!

Next comes the reward. Those who endure tribulation “shall be saved.” That means that until then, even Christians have not been saved. The Holy Ghost had comforted them (John 14:6) by keeping them safe, but after the tribulation was the time of salvation.

Just what and when is “salvation”? It is not when you first believed! “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11). So, Christian, you have yet to be saved because the time of salvation has not arrived. When will it? 

¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thes 4:15-17)

 “Saved” is rapture, or “caught up” with Jesus. Saved is the moment that “we ever be with the Lord,” and as can be seen, the dead will rise with new flesh because once dead, now they are alive! The rapture is breathing life unto the dead, engendering them again as in the beginning. These are the two must be’s: “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7) and “Ye must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Born again is literally, “engendered from above” (ibid). The rapture occurs when from above, Jesus engenders both the living and the dead with glorious incorruptible flesh, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:52).

Incorruptibility is “saved” because never again will the Christian be corrupted. Implied therein is that before that, Christians can be corrupted, and that includes apostasy; and that is what tribulation is all about.

I questioned earlier about the end of tribulation and the beginning of Great Tribulation. Well, Jesus answered that: 

²¹ For then (after the rapture) shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²² And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened” (Mat 24:21-22)

 Christians, both dead and alive, are raptured before the Great Tribulation but must endure tribulation. So, pre-tribulation verse mid-tribulation depends on whether the beginning of sorrows is tribulation and the beginning of the Great Tribulation or not.

The ”elect” refers to Christians. Their days will be shorted during the Great Tribulation. But Christians have been raptured, so it seems that there is a new selection — a new crop of Christians who will indeed endure some of the Great Tribulation. Again, that depends on whether the time of sorrows is part of the tribulation period or not.

Scripture says little about the Great Tribulation other than Christians will come out of it alive and well (Rev 7:13-14), and to come out of the Great Tribulation means the Church repenting of their deeds (Rev 2:22). There will be a Church during the Great Tribulation and to be rewarded means overcoming that tribulation.

So how long is the Great Tribulation” Three-and-one-half years or seven years? Are they consecutive years? That is unknown, but there are several viewpoints for “futurists” — those who believe they are not past tribulations but future ones: 

Pretribulationists believe that all righteous Christians (deceased and living) will be taken bodily up to Heaven (called the rapture) before the Tribulation begins.[14] According to this belief, every true Christian that has ever existed throughout the course of the entire Christian era will be instantaneously transformed into a perfect resurrected body, and will thus escape the trials of the Tribulation. Those who become Christians after the rapture will live through (or perish during) the Tribulation. After the Tribulation, Christ will return to establish his Millennial Kingdom.

Prewrath Tribulationists believe the rapture will occur during the Tribulation, halfway through or after, but before the seven bowls of the wrath of God.

Midtribulationists believe that the rapture will occur halfway through the Tribulation, but before the worst part of it occurs. The seven-year period is divided into halves—the "beginning of sorrows" and the "Great Tribulation".

Posttribulationists believe that Christians will not be taken up into Heaven for eternity, but will be received or gathered in the air by Christ, to descend together to establish the Kingdom of God on earth at the end of the Tribulation. (Wikipedia 2001)

 

 What is unknown is exactly is when the Great Tribulation begins. However, that it is two parts each of 3-1/2 years is known. It makes sense that the time of sorrows is one period of 3-1/2 years and a time of great tribulation, the latter period.

The Book of Daniel reveals a little about that subject: 

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Dan 9:27)

 As usual in scripture a “week” may be considered seven years. Those of the Covenant (Christians) will have one “week” of seven years to confirm their faith. They must endure tribulation, perhaps the time of sorrows and the Great Tribulation.

In the middle of the week something happens (after 3-1/2 years). It sounds as if the Great Tribulation begins in the middle of the week, but still during that time Christians will be tested. The “consummation” is the ending, or the apocalypse.

With that said, the timing of the rapture remains unknown and theologians have debated it forever.

The “Consummation” appears to be the following great event:

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)

 Regarding the Consummation — the ending apocalypse: 

³⁵ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. ³⁶ But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. ³⁷ But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Mat 24:25-37)

 So, I end this commentary with an admission: I am not Yahweh. I do not know the timing of tribulation nor the ending. I lean toward a mid-tribulation rapture because of the time of sorrows, but indeed there is evidence to the contrary. Perhaps, we still argue about the end to keep us from assuming the authority of God.

A pre-tribulation rapture is convenient for Christians, and I hope it is true. For Calvinists (eternal security) it must be true to be secure as tribulation jeopardizes Christians as the Book of Daniel says, the seven-year period is to confirm their faith.

The Calvinistic viewpoint is sort of arrogant; that they have so much faith that they do not need to have it confirmed, as if they are already saved. So, for them pre-tribulation is a must be because of that doctrine. However, that is not one of the two must be’s mentioned earlier.

Are we saved from perishing or are we saved from tribulation? John 3:16 points to the idea that salvation is to never perish, or to take on incorruptible flesh at the rapture.

When does the perishing end? When the test of faith is consummated at the end of seven years.

You can see the dilemma; we should want a pre-tribulation rapture, but because something is desired does not make it happen.

The timing of consummation (the Great Tribulation) is unknown, and I believe it will stay that way because only God knows. We can selectively pick scripture that confirms our bias, but we surely are not meant to know the day, hour, or even the year, but only when the times are as in the days of Noah. (To discern that would require Christians who discern scripture.)

“Noah found grace” (Gen 6:8), but Noah still endured tribulation for forty days and nights. In the end, Noah was saved from perishing but not until after the flood killed off the genes of the Wicked One. Will it be the same ending again? Perhaps all things will be as in the days of Noah.

The safe thing is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Are you prepared for tribulation? Of course, we hope it doesn’t happen that way, but many believe that Christians must confirm their faith. We do not have the assurance of salvation, but the “full assurance of hope unto the end” (Heb 6:11). The end is the end of the seven weeks before the apocalypse.

Whether that is the Way it will be or not is not for me to say, but the best assurance is that we just may have our faith tested.

 

 

 

 

 

THE CATERPILLAR CRAWL

As the song goes, God is “He Who Began a Good Work in You.” Indeed, persuasion is the beginning of a good work in you!

Paul’s modus operandi was to persuade unbelievers to become Christians. With Herod Agrippa, Paul “almost persuaded him” to become a Christian (Acts 26:28). Therefore, becoming a Christian is by persuasion. To persuade is, “to move by argument, entreaty, or expostulation to a belief, position, or course of action” (Merriam-Webster Dict. 1828-2022).

In the case of Jesus, it is a change in belief. That is the beginning of becoming a Christian. Converts believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, and that is a great start, and for God to be God, there must be a believe that He did what a God would do… create. And if a God can create, or generate all things from nothing, then He can take a humble “no thing” and make him or her some thing.

 The no thing is against God and the new thing is a new creature — a new creation — whose nature is different than the “old creature” made depraved with original sin.

Therefore, a Christian is a person converted from an old nature to a new nature. The nature of the old creature was like the “Beast” in the beginning, and the new creature is restored to the glory in which Adam and Eve were generated in the first place.

Belief is the beginning of the process of conversion. In the end, at the rapture when Jesus comes again, the conversion process is finished, to wit: 

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Cor 15:52)

 A good comparison is that belief is at first a beginning akin to the egg stage even before the larvae. The egg that was planted has begun to grow with belief, but there has yet to be a metamorphosis. Many who are persuaded are not fully persuaded. Paul wrote, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Rom 14:5).

Persuasion is of the mind. Believing that Jesus is God is a good beginning. However, even demons believe that (Jas 2:19), so belief is only the beginning of a process in time. For some, the metamorphosis from egg to larvae is of short duration and for others, it is lengthy.

Even with full persuasion the process is just from one stage to the other; the mind alone has been transformed.

With conversion, again as Paul wrote, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41). The spirit is the desire to please God. It is working out your salvation in your mind; again, as Paul wrote, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Fear and trembling because you just might get stuck in the beginning stage. Why else to fear and tremble? Because the flesh is still weak to sin but strong against change.

So many Christians get stuck in the “larvae” stage. They have partially converted but are not yet a glorious “butterfly.” To be transfigured (morphed) from larvae to butterfly requires that the larvae, not the inner organism, but the flesh of the creature, be changed. For the butterfly to emerge the flesh must be shed and comforted for some time in the “pupa” of sorts.

The problem with those who have converted to become a Christian is that the transformation is not complete; they want to be a “butterfly” without shedding their “skin” so to speak.

Of course, butterflies shed their flesh or die. So will we! Many Christians just cannot shed their flesh because the organism inside is so strong because original sin is genetic. The creature has grown to love the flesh that he or she has been accustomed to since birth. They think that they welcome rebirth, but the flesh is so powerful that they hold fast to whatever stronghold they can grab onto.

Paul was thorough in his persuasion. He even names the strongholds that retain Christians in the larvae stage that Paul called “babes in Christ” (1 Cor 3:21).

Circumcision was cutting off the flesh of the foreskin, but that was often not done. But even with that, God was not talking about the genitalia but the “foreskin of the heart.” Moses knew that long ago when he wrote, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked”  (Deut 10:16).

The Israelites were always confused! Circumcision of the foreskin was merely symbolic of cutting off the lusts of the flesh, many of which Paul listed to make it clear what the flesh contains in its nature: 

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰ idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, ²¹ envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like… (Gal 5:19-21)

 How can someone discover what stage of Christianity that they are in? It is simple; test your mind and behaviors to the metrics above.

Today, the most prevalent is idolatry as it was in the beginning. It is the reason for the other defects. The flesh of any natural-born person is their idol, and the other metrics are ways in which the flesh-idol is appeased. For men, adultery and fornication are generally their strongholds. For women, perhaps something else; even variance (strife.)

Of course, the pudenda are the reasons for lusts and strife. No wonder Adam and Eve covered their genitalia out of shame for what they had done! No wonder the foreskin was to be circumcised! However, the most effective circumcision is to cut off the desires of the heart.

The “heart” in scripture is the “inner man” or “inner woman.” It is what goes on in the mind. The flesh is merely antennae for pleasure but the mind processes things of the mind to be either pleasurable or stressful. To cut off the flesh is not circumcision of the flesh per se but cutting off thoughts of the mind that results in pleasure or anxiety.

Paul said something else of interest about himself: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). Death circumcises the flesh and releases the “butterfly” from the larvae. In spirit, the dead Christian is as a butterfly, but at the General Resurrection, God makes him or her a real glorious “glorify” in spirit and flesh, and the transformation process is completed! (The “pupa” stage of the Christian would be asleep in Christ until the “butterfly” emerges.) 

Paul was just full of persuasive arguments! Look at these ideas: 

⁴ Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. ⁵ For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. (Gal 5:4-5)

 The notion that you must keep the Law to stay afloat is of no avail. By keeping the Law, then Christ has become of no effect to you. Love keeps the potential “butterfly” aloft in the mind until the butterfly emerges when the flesh is discarded, and the transformation complete.

What happens if the Law is kept only for the Law’s sake? The potential “butterfly” falls from the grace that keeps him or her aloft.

Love is not emotional but is goodwill, or good thoughts. God’s love, or Good Thoughts for you, are the to keep you afloat even when you fail. That is grace!

Your love for Him is to have goodwill for Him, or whoever drags you down, even as you are falling and failing.

Paul said that that if you depend on the Law to keep you, then “Ye are fallen from grace.” Your mind is not staying afloat and not even realizing that you are falling. Calvinism puts the notion in you that as a Christian, you are beyond falling! For them, you are already a “butterfly” so do not worry about the flesh that can drag you down!

Grace is God keeping your larvae crawling on the right path until the butterfly stage is eminent at death. Falling from grace is deviating from the Way. The Law is not the Way; Jesus is!

For those who stay the Way because of goodwill toward God are kept from falling. However, those who cling to the way by obedience to Moses and His Law, may fall without being caught.

“Fallen from grace” is ekpipto charis in the Greek; literally to fall powerless from the Goodwill of God.  You cannot emerge a Christian on your own, and God sees that it is of “no effect” for you (ekpipto) (ibid).

Implied therein is that God keeps you from falling and not yourselves. You must depend on Him and His Goodwill. The Law is just that — the boundaries for safe arrival, but with the eye on the strictly on the limitations, falling off the Way is made easier, just like driving a car with the eyes on the hood distracts from the real destination — home safely.

Not falling off begins with belief, but it must be trusting belief; you know that Jesus is God and only He can save you.

Thus, your eyes are always on God and His Goodwill for your safe arrival. The Law still keeps the course straight but the Light at the end is Jesus. So, your eyes remain on Him to avoid the fall, and the subsequent abortion of the potential “butterfly” that you once saw as possible, but now has no significance because of the pleasure of the moment.

Many Christians remain stuck in the larvae caterpillar stage in that they still seek to keep their flesh while they see God as the true way.

The flesh must be shed, like it or not. For the larvae, shedding the flesh is natural, but for mankind, keeping the flesh is the desire of the natural man or woman!

Serpents shed their skin annually, but God’s kind need only do so one time once and for all. Knowing that we cannot do that, Jesus shed His flesh once for all, and since He did that, we can as well, with His pull.

God sheds your flesh for you. He turns you from a “caterpillar” to a “butterfly,” but you must be there on the Way for Him to do that. Paul became even more persuasive: 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Rom 12:1-2)

 You need only present your body (flesh) and merciful God has already done the sacrifice; so that you can see that all things are possible, even the shedding of the flesh!

He does not make you do it nor shed it Himself, but that is for you to do as a service to Him — Goodwill toward God, and that is love!

The caterpillar is conformed to the world. It is the second stage of the butterfly. It cannot fly but must remain below, and as such is conformed to its surroundings.

Caterpillars can fall. I have made them fall!

Butterflies can escape the confines of the world. They do not conform to the world but the sky is their natural comfort zone. Like the butterfly, if we depend on God above, the world should have little effect on our lives!

Of course, we cannot transform our flesh. We are stuck with it and must endure it to the end, so the reasonable service, according to Paul, is “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Our minds must be on things good and acceptable, perfect Will of God. The desire of our minds should be to please God, not to see Him as a Dictator that we must obey.

With that background on rebirth and struggling the course in the world, then we must be careful of two things: not to have the butterfly aborted, nor to have it stagnate in the early stage as it may fall.

It appears that so many Christians have stagnated. False doctrine says they will never fall, but Paul disagreed with that idea. We cannot do as we please and have goodwill toward God at the same time. Satisfying the desires of the flesh, makes our flesh our “god” just as the Serpent warned (Gen 3:5).

The Church is full of “Christians” now who fornicate with impunity and even commit adultery, not to mention all the other metrics of which Paul wrote.

America used to be the “Prozac Nation” but now the globe is a drug-induced world wherein any mind-altering concoction is acceptable.

When the mind is altered, nobody can be persuaded. Drugs are to remove inhibitions and stress, and indeed conviction is stressful, so stressful that clear-mined people need closure and turn to God to fill what is missing with the Comforter, rather than Southern Comfort® or Dilaudid.®

Fornication is made easy by dulling the flesh against conviction by alcohol, marijuana, or harder drugs.

In the book, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley called inebriants “soma” surely because “soma” is the body, or flesh, of the human organism. Drugs calm the flesh so that people are satisfied as they are and who they are. Rather than follow God, they “follow their hearts” and fall off the Way.

Persuasion should be easy but somatic substances interfere. So long as people are consoled by “Mary Jane” and her kin, people defy change without even knowing that they have been had by the purveyors of mind-clogging substances.

To be fully persuaded is in pursuit of the knowledge of truth; that Jesus is the Way and only Way to salvation, and that salvation is a journey that cannot be taken alone.

You must depend on Somebody, and He is Jesus. Apathy to others is a sign of having fallen off the Way. Non-caring attitudes belong to the fallen because butterflies radiate life!

God’s will is that you change from a alien “worm” to a beautiful, glorious “butterfly.” Lucifer is the pestilent that poisons the new creature, even as it transforms from one nature to another. Only Jesus can stamp out that awful pest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUST STAND THERE AND SHUT UP

 Among Christians, there is some disagreement about politics. Or course nothing happens unless God wills it, but have you never thought that when He Wills that certain things happen, it is a test of our faithfulness?

The best example is the crucifixion. God certainly allowed it for His purposes and said so; at His trial when Jesus told Pilate, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11). Pilate was part of that plan. God expected Pilate to ensure that His Son died. Pilate met the expectations of God and that was why he was prelate — defacto king – when Judea had no king designate (by Caesar).

The crucifixion was political; all the major players in the trial and “hanging” were politicians, even down to the malefactor, Barabbas, who would surely be among the crowd supporting the seditious triumvirate when Judea was lost to oblivion in 70 A.D.

All the parties to the death of Jesus were participating in a “Holocaust” as Jesus was sacrificed once and for all for the sins of all (Heb 10:10).

The same goes for the destruction of the Temple. Jesus prophesied that it would happen when He said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days” (Mat 26:61). Of course, Jesus was not speaking of Herod’s Temple but His own Body. That was what He meant when He said, “That in this place is one greater than the temple” (Mat 12:6).

However, since the Temple was no longer of any use once the Body of Jesus became the “Temple,” believe it or not, but God ordained Simon, John, and Eleazar (all zealots) to destroy the Temple. Not even Titus — the defacto Caesar — could prevent them from doing that, so even he allowed it to happen.

With that said, God selects certain people to do specific things. Pilate, who washed his hands of the greatest sin ever, knew that Jesus was God. The truth was revealed to him by Jesus, for Pilate validated that He was truly who He claimed to be — God in the flesh of that man (John 18:38). Pilate knew that he was performing to the expectations of God, and he would authorize what was essentially the murder of the Messiah.

What if everyone at the crucifixion had the same insight as Pilate? Then neither would they have done the bloody thing! Then Jesus would not have died for either their sins or ours. God had great expectations that everybody would play their parts. He even knew that Peter would reject him and that his followers would remain silent. He also knew that Longinus would pierce His side.

The crucifixion was planned by God in the beginning, to wit: 

¹⁴ And the Lord God said unto the Serpent, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: ¹⁵ And I 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 3:14-15)

 In the beginning, Judas was picked to play the role of the Serpent. That is implied when the Word said to the Serpent, “upon thy belly shalt thou go.”

We always think of that as the Serpent crawling. Remembering that the Serpent brought death unto the world, perhaps this is foreseeing the death of Satan. I believe that God picked both Judas and Satan for the roles they would play on that fateful day, Good Friday, 33 A.D. 

¹⁶ Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. ¹⁷ For he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry. ¹⁸ Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. (Acts 19:16-18) 

David prophesied that in his Psalms. The Holy Spirit revealed to him the role that Judas would play. God would have not made Judas do the awful thing but had the foreknowledge that he would!

Judas played the role to the end. Of course, “Satan entered Judas” (Luke 22:3) because he knew his part as well! It all goes back to long before David when the Word said, “on his belly he shall go.” How did the “Serpent,” Satan, go? “Falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”

Judas fell to the dust, and when his bowels gushed out, Satan would have crawled on his belly to depart from Judas who was by then quite dead.  (We must do some thinking about scripture, as the “Serpent” was not a snake at all but the “image” inside Lucifer. Satan was the “image” inside Judas, so it is logical that the Word was foretelling how the Satanic image of Lucifer would go!

Did Satan die the day of the crucifixion? In a sense he did. The sacrifice of Jesus rendered him powerless, and that was what Jesus was talking about when he brought up Moses and the serpent on the pole (John 3:14).

With that said, Judas was foreknown by God who knew that that man would do certain things. God did not make him defect from Jesus but knew he would all along!

God has a plan for each of us. “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope’” (Jer 29:11; ESV).

For David, it was not in God’s plans for him to kill Saul. God would take care of Saul. As it turns out, Saul was too cowardly to commit suicide. He backed out because God planned it that way, just like he knew David would not kill His anointed one.

There are two versions of Saul’s death: 1) That Saul would die by his own hands, and 2) that an Amalekite would take credit. That is unsettled by theologians, but the best bet is that as Saul attempted suicide, by accident the Amalekite caused his death, and to get the credit, confessed to it to David.

David had the Amalekite killed, not for killing Saul, but for having stolen valor, as if he would be king!

With that said, God killed Saul when His purpose for that wicked man was of no further use to Him. Saul, like Judas, once had affection for God then defected from Him. That is the unpardonable sin (apostasy; Heb 6:6).

Therefore, David, although he could have, did not kill Saul. Not because he was valiant but because he knew that God would take care of that.

Saul was anointed by God to be king. Did David agree with the sordid behavior of Saul? Not at all, but he understood his role. He was not the one elected, whoever killed Saul, but perhaps neither was the Amalekite. However, Saul had to die to save the Israelites.

Therefore, our role is not to agree with kings and let them do as they please, but fight injustice according to our assigned roles.

In modern times, Dietrich Bonnhoeffer is renown for his courage against Hitler. Was he supposed to go along with that holocaust as the apostles did with the Holocaust of Jesus? Should Bonnhoeffer have just stood silently by while history repeated itself? No! God picked Bonnhoeffer to be the “chief priest” who would take a stand against injustice and as such, it was Bonnhoeffer, a Christian, who suffered holocaust himself.

He sacrificed his own flesh for the fleshes of the oppressed — the infirm, the Jews, and righteous Christians.

Has it ever occurred to you that God picked Bonnhoeffer for that purpose; to rid the world of Hitler? Of course, Bonnhoeffer, like the priests long before, did not handle the “smoking gun” but provided the impetus for others to do the bloody thing!

However, as it turned out, like Saul, God took care of Hitler in His own way. Some believe he committed suicide and others that he died of old age and as a non-descript person in South America. Like Saul, both theories are viable.

However, should Bonnhoeffer have just stayed quiet like the silent apostles? Should those who tried to kill Hitler just complied with the insane Nazism? No! They too were in God’s plan from the beginning, just like the apostles, the soldiers, and the mockers. Everybody is in the plan of God.

God even used the seditious zealots to destroy the Temple and Titus for his futility in endeavoring to save the Temple!

Some are called to do different things. My calling, I believe, is to warn Christians and sinners about the future for I know the plans that God has for us. With that said, God’s Plan is for a political ending (the apocalypse) and it is my role to point out the players in that great tragedy.

The play is in progress right now, but many preachers think Christians should just shut up and let God take care of things. Of course, God will, but what if God has a role for us to play and we just remain quiet as mandated.

Jeremiah’s role was to speak up! When the king and chief priests were doing wrong, Jeremiah was very vocal about it. He knew God’s plan and their future, but modern-day preachers would have had Jeremiah to remain silently by while the Temple was destroyed the first time!

God does not want us to just shut up but to speak out as instruments to save the lost and warn those who think they are saved.

The end was exposed to John, and he did not keep silent. He revealed to mankind the ending. Should John have stayed quiet about the politics and religion at the ending, or was he disappointing God when he wrote this: 

¹⁶ Also it (the Beast) causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, ¹⁷ so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸ This calls for wisdom… (Rev 13:16-18) 

John wrote therein a very political thought; that citizens would not be able to engage in commerce unless they do as the government says. His advice was wisdom; that wise men would not obey that decree for any reason.

Christians are expected to have political dissent! Are we expected to just take the mark and remain compliant or should we even face death by disobedience to authority?

I submit that modern preaching may be influencing Christians to just obey whatever happens to come our way. It is great knowing that in the end, God will take care of things, but He expects us to do certain things in faith.

My warning is that the mark is coming. I think it is genetic and therefore, even to buy and sell, I will not follow their mandates and shall not be administered anything that may change who I am.

That is a very political but wise thing to do for it is not worth the gamble. As such, I will tell you who is pushing the mark, and I believe they are members of the World Economic Forum and their Great reset of which Biden’s “Build Back Better” is their religious and civil reformation to change who we are!

I will not shut up because, even though I do not like it; God has called me to speak up!

 

 

TAKING A KNEE TO THE GROIN

 Have you ever wrestled? If you have and it was with one whom you love, the match ends when one yells “uncle” for some reason or another. That means that you are beaten and have had enough.

Have you ever wrestled with God? If you are still alive and well, God let you win. He did not cry “uncle” but He did call “Father” for you, once and for all, or specifically, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mat 27:46).

When Jesus wrestled with mankind, he could have kneed us and brought us down. Rather, mankind took a knee to him in mockery (Mat 27:29) and He let us take Him down (John 19:11).

As if men had won the match by their own right, they dressed Jesus in royal garb and placed a crown of thorns on His head as if he had lost due to weakness. Jesus let them do that, although He had the power to intervene at any time!

The crucifixion was a wrestling match between good and evil. Although Jesus, on that day, appeared to be the biggest loser ever, not far away on his tree, Satan in Judas was defeated. Nobody notices that to this day, even though Jesus pointed it out in advance (John 3:14).

Jesus wrestled with the best that Judea could find. They had defeated Goliath in days past; would they be able to defeat one even more endowed with power than that giant?

At the end of the match, Jesus was carried a loser to the borrowed tomb of another man, but the wrestling match had not stopped with the death of Jesus. Even in death, Jesus demonstrated the most significant power ever, and lost all His virtue in doing so. That Dynamo (Virtue) became a “weakling” for you and me, or so it seemed.

The first thing Jesus did in death was to overcome the world (John 16:33) when He escorted Dismus (the repentant thief) to His Kingdom in another world that day (Luke 23:43). He had the wings of a dove that could cross the uncrossable gap in less than an hour. He was secretly a “Superman” who would save the damned!

Then, the Superman, even with His Dynamo about diminished, came back to Jerusalem and fought the good fight with Satan, even with all the sins of the world on His shoulders (2 Cor 5:21) and with both hands figuratively tied behind His back because of the nails that had been driven into them.

Judas had tried to kill Satan, ironically, by killing the “cup”
 of Satan — the vessel, Judas. As Jesus understood it, only He could pass the cup (Mat 26:39) and Judas would not be the one to kill Satan.

He tried; he failed; and then Jesus brought down the tree on which Judas was hung and Satan was dashed out of the entrails of Judas. Jesus did that; not Judas. It was Jesus, the mild-mannered “reporter” (Messenger of God) who defeated Satan that day!

How did He do that as His body laid in the grave sound asleep? The Holy Ghost of Jesus in bodily shape (Luke 3;22) was the Super-Power within the man

Death was supposed to remove the Power of God from the Earth, but when Jesus defeated death, Satan, and Hell; Jesus overcame the world as soon as He was glorified. Upon death, the very Genome of God was presented to the world as the Super-Power that once appeared so humble.

Jesus could not be arrogant. His nature was humility, but inside, He was “King of King, and Lord of Lords” — He was Supra-Man who had been cleverly disguised as a mere Carpenter.

Mankind had cut down the trees for the crucifixion, but they would never be able to cut down the Tree of Life — the very Genome of God within that little man — the “son of man.”

What is truth? Pilate found out. He was close to Jesus when He was crucified.

Dismus surely saw it as well, and so would have Longinus, the centurion who pierced Him. “And He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, ‘King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords’” (Rev 19:16).

Pilate knew that this mild man was more than He appeared to be. Pilate came to understand that when he looked at Jesus that He was seeing Almighty God in the flesh.

He would wash his hands of blame because he knew that that man would never be defeated, even in death. Pilate saw the truth, and perhaps, Pilate was made free… From what? He had been blinded just like the others, but when the Holy Ghost revealed Himself as the Power within the gentle man, Pilate was set free from his misconception!

I called the crucifixion a “wrestling match,” but to be honest, there was not much wrestling. Jesus cried, not “uncle,” but “Father” very quickly. His death did not linger but was welcomed by God with outstretched arms.

Did Jesus cry “My God, My God” in vain, or was it for a purpose? Jesus, I believe, was welcoming death so that His hidden Power could be revealed. His cry was not because of self-pity nor anxiety, but that God would reveal His own identity; that He had not left the “Man” at all but was transfiguring the Man a second time as Jesus was once more glorified as God in the flesh!

There was indeed a wrestling match, but it was spiritual warfare, as Paul revealed in his deposition: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephes 6:12).

All those superpowers were on that high place (Calvary) that day, but few saw the wrestling match as it progressed.

Satan would have been there himself, but he had another “appointment” at the same time, as by “then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve” (Luke 22:3). However, Satan would not escape the match because he was the featured attraction to whom much money was paid by the spectators… thirty-pieces of silver just to appear.

Back in the days of the prophets, Jesus had set the price for that day’s admission: “And I (the Word) said unto them, ‘If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.’ So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver” (Zech 11;12), and thirty pieces of silver it was!

So, Satan may have showed up at Calvary, after all, to defend his claim to “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords” (Isa 14:12-14).

I believe that Satan was forced to appear! “Now this man (Judas) purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18).

Did Satan, who was in Judas, burst out or did Jesus from His perch on high release Satan to wrestle with Him? Satan is a coward as he fore-knew who would win the match. I believe that Jesus freed Satan long enough to join Him on Calvary and after Satan lost the match, Jesus took him back to Gehenna where losers go to Hell.

My bet is that Satan was there that day, but nobody noticed him at all. He would not fight the Mighty Man himself but would use useful fools like Annas and Caiaphas to call for the nails to be driven.

Caesars would fight their battles alongside their soldiers, and Satan may have been there but hidden perhaps in the vinegar and gall that Jesus spat (Mat 27:34).

This was the featured match that mankind had awaited, and the week before, it was announced with great fanfare. On that day, however, the adveraries were bullish, not doing battle themselves, but with anticipation, the good guys remained silent. The silence was more forceful than words, so those who remained still were as guilty as the loudmouths. Jesus was wrestling with the crowd as well as the spiritual forces that were encouraging all to defect from the one in whom so many only the week before had had affection.

Satan was fighting by using apostasy by turning the crowd against the innocent man, much as in the same way media propaganda does now. His propaganda was successful because silence was not encouraging.

This was the main event, but God had a practice session long before.

Jacob had feared battle with his violent twin brother Esau. Before the battle was to begin, Jacob rested on a high place when a certain “man” approached: 

²⁴ And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. ²⁵ And when He saw that he prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with Him. (Gen 32:24-25)

 That “Man” was whom? God Himself in the flesh. Jacob wrestled with pre-incarnate Jesus and somehow Jacob prevailed in the wrestling match, or so it seemed.

One thing that Jacob received was courage. No longer would he fear his brother because he had just outwrestled God!

Was Jacob as powerful as God? Not at all! Had Jacob outwitted God? Not at all; he had been the one outwitted; Jacob prevailed but God made him a marked man, to wit: 

²⁹ And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. ³⁰ And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. ³¹ And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. ³² Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. (Gen 32:29-32)

 Jacob won the wrestling match but what had God done to him: 1) By blessing Jacob, God figuratively took a knee to Jacob, and 2) it was a knee to his groin. (Note that “blessed” meant that God bowed to Jacob, thus taking the knee to him.)

“Children” in the context above is “ben” in the Hebrew. Ben is the gens, or family, of Jacob who was affected.

After Jacob won the wrestling match, he was renamed “Israel” (verse 28), of which Israelites were his posterity, or progeny.

God did something inside the flesh of Jacob that made him a different creature than he was before. As a result, Jacob’s tendon in his thigh shrank. “Thigh” therein is modest; it could have been his loin (Strong 1890).

It may have been implied that the seed of Jacob was changed, resulting in a new creature with a new God-given genome, in the same fashion as the seed of Abraham was altered for Isaac to be different.

In other words, the genes within the flesh of Jacob were corrected. He was no longer afraid but now prepared to face his adversary, Esau.

In a sense, Jacob was “King of Israel” because of God’s grace. Jacob had not defeated Jesus at all, but Jesus bowed to him in a humble manner, just as He essentially bowed to mankind at the crucifixion when He blessed those who persecuted Him by dying in their places.

Not only that, but as father to the twelve tribes in a genitive sense (two were his grandsons), then Israel, rather than Saul, would have been King, but not of the land, but of an invisible realm in the same manner as Abraham was King of Paradise in another domain.

Jesus had written on his thigh, “King Of Kings, Lord Of Lords.” As the seed, or ben of Israel, Jesus was in a spiritual sense, Israel! He was one of the gens of Israel whose thigh has in it “King Of Kings, and Lord Of Lords.”

Israel would have that same thing written on his thigh in a code, and by that, I mean his genetic code wherein the Name of God was written within the flesh, or “sinew” of his thigh.

Perhaps nobody but the chosen could read the message on the thigh of Jesus. Perhaps Pilate understood it because he saw that Jesus was Lord of Lords. Perhaps Dismus and Longinus read it the same way, but it may have been that “King Of King, Lord Of Lords,” was encoded into the thigh of Israel that remained recessive until the man “Israel” (Jesus) was conceived; and that His Authority was encoded in the loins of Israel when pre-incarnate Jesus had grace imbued within Jacob.

Maybe I have it right, or maybe I got it wrong. However, the wrestling match did have something to do with Jesus or Jesus would not have wrestled with Jacob to make a new man of him!

Jacob, now Israel, named that place where the wrestling match occurred, “Penuel” meaning “Facing God.”

That Jesus is the Face of God was declared by Jacob (Gen 33:10) and that is what Moses finally saw at the transfiguration and also what Pilate would see at the crucifixion.

Jesus demonstrated to all who dared look His way, that He indeed is the very Face of God! That was what the trial and crucifixion was all about, and Jacob knew that 1500 years or so before-hand, even before Moses!

Just as Israel wrestled with Jesus and won, such is the case with the nation, Israel. Although, like the man, Israel, who wrestled with Jesus but won, so did the nation who wrestled with Jesus during Roman times, and they won as well because Jesus took a knee to them:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

 God loved “whosoever,” even those who took a mocking knee to Him as well as those who drove the nails and pierced His side. He loves all of those who wrestle with Him, not knowing that he is God!

I wrestled with God. I wrestled hard because I did not want Him to be master of my domain. That belonged to me, and I fought hard to retain authority over my own flesh. I fought God but God won!

But by grace He planted a seed in me that finally took root. His Authority is written on my “thigh” so to speak because Jesus in every cell of my flesh. I belong to Him now and His genome — His Holy Ghost — is figuratively in my loins because it is genetic.

Someday, that seed will be cashed in, and a new genome acquired by me on the Day of the Lord.

Someday, perhaps in heaven, that Jesus is “My King of Kings, and Lord of Lords” will be written in my genes. On that day, Jesus will take a knee to me and regen me in much the same manner that He did Jacob!

(picture credit; Saint Elizabeth Covent Catalog; "The Holy Centurion; St. Martyr Longinus")

MUST BE's

 There are two “must be’s” in the New Testament that applies to us that are often ignored. Never have I heard a sermon on this subject and the best guess is that neither have you, albeit it is the basis of Christianity. Now for the “must be’s:” 

·         Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7)

·     Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

 There are several other “must be’s” that pertain to Jesus and God’s Plan for mankind and His workers, but these two “must be’s” are essential doctrine, so essential that your destiny depends on them!

In those two is an equivalency: must be born again equals must be saved. You have the power to do neither since only Jesus can save as purveyed in the second verse: “for there is none other Name… whereby.”

Therefore, just as to be saved requires Jesus, to be born again requires Jesus. It should be obvious that just as you cannot rebirth yourself, neither can you save yourself. That is the essential doctrine of Christianity.

Why is that? You are who you are! You are sin, and Jesus has become sin for you, to wit: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).

“He,” in that passage, is Almighty God and “Him” is Jesus Christ, the “perfect sacrifice” in that Jesus had no blemish in Him (Lev 22:21).

Everyone else except Jesus has a blemish in them, not so much totally blemished but still good enough that they are worth saving. The Hebrew word translated “blemish” is a moral stain. The nature of man has a stain within.

Scripture reveals that all things were created “very good” (Gen 1:31) but that is an understatement by the translators. The Hebrew therein is mᵊ'ōḏ ṭôḇ — wholly good or perfect. Since by now, only God is good, as Jesus said, and He is glorious, mankind as created was made glorious. The nature of man was as the nature of God and that was in perfect splendor.

The nature of man was the “original man’s natural condition” — “the inherent character or basic constitution” (Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1982). Adam was constituted in the Image of God… glorified. Glorification was how Jesus was re-constituted after taking on sin for us. Jesus said this about Himself: 

³⁸ He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ 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)

 So, sometime between then and the resurrection, Jesus was glorified and that was a process wherein the Spirit of God was transformed into the Holy Ghost of Jesus. Speaking of His death,  “Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified’” (John 12:23).

The Jews did not glorify Jesus, the Father did! Pilate, bragging of his power, told Jesus that he had authority over life and death; to which Jesus responded, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11).

With that said, with death Jesus was glorified. After He took on sin; He was made perfect again in the same manner as Adam long ago. The Spirit of God glorified Jesus and at the death of our sins in His flesh, Jesus “gave up the Ghost” (John 19:30)

Without going into all the detail, but after Jesus suffered death, His Ghost was busy doing things such as delivering the repentant thief to Paradise that day, delivering Satan from the belly of Judas, and depositing all the previous sins of mankind into Hell. It was not the flesh of Jesus that was His Glory but His Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is the “bodily shape” of the man, Jesus (Luke 3:22). At His death, Jesus was glorified, and His Divine Nature was revealed. That Nature has the shape of the man but the incorruptible “flesh” of a Spirit. Jesus revealed the Image of God when He gave up the Holy Ghost.

“Death,” as they say, “became Him!” and to die in Christ is gain (Phil 1:21) because death for those in Christ glorifies the person, as Paul expected for himself.

Thus, our own glorification is not when we first believe but when we die. That is the time that the flesh gives way to the Spirit.

The flesh is blemished, but the Spirit in the Image of Christ, is glorious. With that said, since death glorified Jesus with His Inner Self, Character, or basic Constitution revealed, the same applies to us!

The genetic material of Jesus was His Glorious Genome. His worldly genome contained our sin, but His Spiritual Genome — the Holy Ghost — was wholly good, or “holy.”

What happened upon the death and resurrection of Jesus? It was a process. The Holy Ghost had many deliverables and foremost among them was the Genome of God. After saving mankind from Satan and their own genomes from him, Jesus took on new flesh as His corrupted flesh became incorruptible The Father, last of all, regenned His Son and when Jesus was resurrected, He was not alone: 

⁵² And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, ⁵³ And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. (Mat 27:52-53)

 When Jesus was regenned, so were the saints that were already asleep in Abraham’s Bosom arose. Those were the “seed of Abraham” to include the genealogies of Matthew chapter one, of those who were saints.

“Saints” are the seed of Abraham who are planted by the Messiah just awaiting the harvest. At the death of Abraham’s dominant Genome, Jesus, many of the righteous genomes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob arose alongside Jesus. They were no longer asleep in Abraham’s Bosom — the genes of Abraham — but awakened when they acquired the Genome of God from the Virtue (dynamics) of Jesus.

The Living Waters that flowed from the belly of Jesus awakened the souls of the righteous, and foremost perhaps Adam’s as well, who is said to be buried beneath Calvary.

Now back to the must be’s. Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other saints, perhaps John the Baptist and even Lazarus had been asleep in the bosom of Abraham, meaning that even Adam and Lazarus would have been resurrected alongside Jesus! Where they are now is a mystery, but it seems that also, the day that He arose, Jesus took them to Paradise as well.

That Living Water from the belly of Jesus was His Holy Ghost. The Living Water would be His life-giving Genome that has the Dynamics (Virtue) of regenning (“Virtue” in the Greek is dynamis.)

Just as when His Virtue left Him to heal the woman with the blood issue (Mat 9:20), His Virtue dynamically healed the blood issue in all mankind if His Blood is received as the propitiation of all our “past sins” (genetic sins) (Rom 3:25).

The woman’s blood issue was “cogener” (rheo; Mark 5:25) meaning a flow of blood that was genetic, perhaps hemophilia. Jesus, with His Virtue flowing shut off her blood flowing. Since it was cogener, then the Virtue from Jesus engendered her differently than before.

That brings us back to “Ye must be born again.” That is literally “engendered from above.”

You cannot re-engender yourself, but only the Virtue flowing from Jesus — His Living Waters — can do that.

Just as Jesus engendered the woman with the Spirit of God from above, only Jesus can engender sinners and change their nature — their very genome that is encoded within every chromosome in every cell of their flesh. Jesus removes the stain acquired that covers the sin in the chromosomes, so to speak. Then His Light changes the nature that is encoded in the DNA when it is exposed to truth.

As Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John 18L38). The truth is that Jesus is God’s Spirit in the flesh of the man, Jesus, and at the crucifixion, when the Holy Ghost left Him, many saw that and believed. God revealed that truth to Pilate and he found no fault in Him (Luke 23:14). Jesus is who He said He was!

Refer now to the explanation that Jesus gave to Nicodemus about rebirth: 

¹³ And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up… (John 3:13-14)

 Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, did he not? Yes, he did! “And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live’” (Num 21:8). That happened! Many were bitten but when they saw the Serpent on the Pole; they were healed.

Moses was lifting up the Serpent on a pole but what were those poisoned seeing? They saw the crucifixion! Often forgotten is that the day that Jesus died, Satan was vicariously crucified, and like Jesus, both on their respective “trees,” Jesus the Cross (Acts 5:30) and Judas the “Judas Tree” (Mat 27:5).

The Israelites in the wilderness saw the lifeless Serpent in his tree, but understood that it was because of Jesus in His Tree (the Cross) that did that bloody thing, as Moses wife would say.

What is in a viper’s poison? Snake venom contains a deadly compound of phosphorus, Phospholipase, an enzyme that hydrolyzes phospholipids into fatty acids and other lipophilic substances (Wikipedia 2001).

 

Figure 1:phospholipid

Phospholipids are compounds of phosphorus are “a class of lipids whose molecule has a hydrophilic "head" containing a phosphate group and two hydrophobic "tails" derived from fatty acids, joined by an alcohol residue” (ibid). They are essentially the “snake” within us, and the viper venom that attacks it.

Phosphorus in organisms is noted for the ability to regulate the vital organs for vital functioning. Snake venom disrupts that and kills the flesh, oftentimes by rendering the natural coagulants useless so the victim essentially bleeds to death like the woman with the blood issue.

Those bitten by the vipers developed a blood issue, and what delivered them from venom poison? More venom. When the Serpent was seen as if already dead, then that was Jesus delivering the anti-venom to those who were bitten on a doctor’s pole — the Caduceus (shown below):

That image was not of Jesus but of Judas hanging from his tree with Satan, the Serpent, in him. Jesus killed the Serpent, not Pilate, nor even the chief priests.

The Israelites who lived after being bitten, were healed by looking forward to the coming of the Savior.

To be safe is seeing Jesus as God in the flesh, and Him and only Him, with the Power to save.

That brings us to the second must be, “There is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

The woman called on the doctors to save her from death from the blood issue — something in her own genes that was killing her. Their names were unknown and of no consequence for they may treat but only God heals!

Salvation, therefore, is not a change in mind, but a regeneration, and is the same as rebirth. Regeneration is not at the time anyone first believes; that is the seed planted for safety in Abraham’s Bosom, like dead Lazarus.

Regeneration is just that — a regenning from above. That is rebirth and that is salvation. Both happen at glorification when mankind is regenned to the same constitution and nature in which Adam was generated.

Adam was generated when God breathed life unto him. That “life” was the very Image or Genome of God. Adam was generated with the nature of God, and sin stained that nature with some type of darkness.

Adam’s kind shall be regenerated when God regens them with incorruptible flesh (1 Cor 15:52), so regenning occurs at the General Resurrection at the rapture when Jesus comes from above to engender those dead and alive in Christ with a glorious constitution, again in the image of God as with Adam.

Therefore “saved” in that passage is a future event when Jesus returns to gather the harvest from the seeds that He planted at His first coming. Until then, Christians are safe from the wicked one so long as they see Jesus as the only Way to glory.

Until that time, the Adversary hammers away that He is not, that even He can engender you from below. That is why I fear biogenetics; it is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge as the object that will save us, and not the fruit of the Tree of Life, which I believe is the Genome of God in Jesus the Messiah.