WATER ROBS GOD OF HIS GLORY

Some Christians are taught wrongly. It is not because they are evil but that they sadly misunderstand. The premise in the Bible is that even a good thing can be used as a bad thing. Why else, the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?”

Consider baptism. There are two baptisms, to wit: John said to the people, “He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, ‘Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost” (John 1:33).

John baptized with water for what? Repentance, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Mat 3:11). (Fie would not be with heat but like a flame in the same manner as the flight of a dove was the movement of the Holy Spirit. Fire also implies a holocaust, and the death of Jesus was considered a holocaust, according to Josephus, because He replaced the burnt offerings which were ‘holocausts.’)

John’s baptism was for repentance and the medium of baptism was with water. Is there any argument with that?

Jesus’s baptism is for salvation. His name implies that purpose, “Ya Saves.” The medium of the baptism of Jesus is not just liquid water as with John but the Holy Ghost… agios pneuma in the Greek. Agios of course means ‘holy,’ but its verb is ‘to consecrate” — “to make sacred” (Merriam-Webster 2023).

Note that the baptism of John is not to make sacred but in water for cleansing of the flesh that represents metanoia — “a change of mind” (Strong 2006). Baptism is a testimony to a change of mind and signifies a cleansing of the mind.

The baptism of John essentially demonstrates a change of mind with the washing of the flesh. On the other hand, the baptism of Jesus, does what John could not do — He is mightier than I am, John confessed. Jesus washed what John could not wash; John washed the flesh, but Jesus washed the soul.

With that said, Christianity has wrongly created a third baptism; one that washes the flesh and soul with water. There certainly are not three baptisms; it is either John’s washing or Jesus’s washing that is efficacious. Tell me, which ‘launderer’ cleanses both the inside and out?

The point to Christianity is that only Christ can completely launder ‘filthy rags’ (Isa 64:6) such as us. John only washed the outside of our fabric, but the ‘Water’ that Jesus would use would wash even the interstices between each thread of our fabric.

Solomon called the thread of our fabric (in English), the “Silver thread” (Ecc 12:6), but literally from the Hebrew, the ‘pale twisted’ material. (I believe the wiseman Solomon was describing our own fabric; what is now known as DNA, but even then as genetics.)

John would soak the dirty fabric — the flesh — to clean the person outwardly, then Jesus would finish the job with a thorough cleansing within. Jesus called His way of laundering “born again’ — it is not even an inner washing but a slow and sure process that begins with a washing of the mind. Baptism is the beginning of the Divine Spark that begins the process, but the ‘fire’ is only ignited, not yet flaming.

Remembering that John’s washing was a testimony of confession, not a consecration; then water baptism signifies that the sinful person voluntarily submits to a total cleansing by standing still in the water in the same manner as the priests of Joshua would do in the Jordan (Josh 3).

Note that the raging waters when the Hebrews crossed the Jordan threatened them as they stepped into it with their feet. They did not get wet except for their feet. The water prepared the way, and the priests who carried the Ark of God only stood still. They were burdened with the weight of God on their shoulders. Water would not ease the burden; unlike Noah’s Ark which would float, the Ark of God must be carried. They were allegorically carrying the ‘Cross’ as Jesus would do, and indeed they were carrying the Ark for Joshua who was also ‘Ya Saves.’

What happened? The raging waters of the Jordan ceased as the priests did nothing but stand there. Then the water heaped up and they walked through on dry ground. Just as with Noah long before, it was not the water that took then to safety, but God on the Ark! The same applies to Jesus. He demonstrated the hope just as He did for Peter when because Jesus walked on water, so could Peter, if only the faith would carry him.

It is not so much that hope floats, but faith floats. John’s baptism was more a demonstration of faith, that they feared God more than water.

The baptism of Jesus demonstrated perfect faith — certainty. Jesus had no sins and as such no doubts, nor need of repentance. He merely walked into the water.

Did John baptize Jesus? Not so. Jesus was baptized by the ‘living water’ from above. John watched! (John 1:29) because his purpose was only to “Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:33). John, as such, did not dunk Jesus in the water of the Jordan, just as neither the priests nor Jesus was dunked long before. The Ark of God, most certainly with God on the Mercy Seat, cleared the water for Joshua and the priests, and as such, those baptized before Jesus were making the Way clear for Jesus’s baptism.

‘Water’ from above baptized Jesus. He merely stepped with his feet in the water and stood there with no help from John. It was in the water, as with the baptism of John, but not His whole flesh.

That Jesus was actually baptized BY John is not in scripture. The closest it comes is related by Mark; Jesus “was baptized of John in Jordan” (Mark 1:9). The word ‘of’ in that passage in the Greek is ‘hypo, or ’under’ the watchful eyes of John.

Consider the word ‘hypothetic.’ Hypo in that context is ‘under’ and the thesis is the ‘proposition.’ Nowhere in scripture is it said that John baptized Jesus; indeed, as it was demonstrated God, the Father, emanated His Spirit, and the Holy Ghost came down on Jesus in “bodily shape” (Luke 3:22), and then remained on Him (John 1:33).

Jesus was engendered from God above; that was the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. That is the literal translation of ‘born again’ (Strong 2006). Note that baptism with water with the others was under water, not under John. The baptism of Jesus was with His feet in the water with Jesus standing still, just as with the priests of Joshua. It was God who consecrated Jesus, making Him holy, not John.

The same goes for baptism. It is put under by ‘John,’ one who God designates. Baptism by Jesus is put under ‘living water’ by Jesus, as the apostle John wrote, “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). That makes it sound as if the belief in Jesus is the one, true baptism, and that is true: 

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephes 4:4-6)

 The one baptism is the “Father… in you all.” Note that the water baptism of John was water on them, but the baptism of God with Jesus was under  living water from God — out of His Belly, so to speak — onto Jesus.

The Holy Ghost is what? The ‘Phantom’ of God placed onto Jesus wherein the Person, Jesus, had the ‘Shadow’ of God given to Him.

Jesus, at His baptism by God, had the Image (Hebrew; Selem) of God breathed onto Him as Adam had in the beginning (Gen 2:7), making Jesus the ‘Last Adam,” or a ‘Living Soul.’

That ‘breath’ was Pneuma in the Greek. Jesus had the ‘Air’ of God imbued within Him when His Father put Him under the life-giving Spirit from above.

Water baptism did not change the converts but baptismal ‘waters’ from above transformed Jesus into the ‘Last Adam’ — a glorified Man!

The Holy Spirit remained on Jesus, implying that the Spirit of God did not remain on any of the others.

Jesus was in no need of repentance. The water did not engulf Him to cleanse His flesh, but He was infused with the Holy Spirit, making every nuclear cell of His Body the exact Identity of God.

Jesus was glorified as He died, but the beginning of the glorification process began with His consecrating baptism, ending with His death — what Paul would call, “our gain.”

Others that had their flesh washed desired to be changed, wrongly by the water, but when Jesus came, He showed them that cleaning the soul requires life-giving water. His was the only baptism that does that, and as I have shown, the water only cleansed the feet of Jesus. It was the Spirit of above, a sort of Living Water, that infused every bit of His Flesh, making Him ‘whole’ with God in Him.

Note that when Jesus made others whole, it was not with water but with Virtue leaving Him (Mark 5:30). Baptism is the Virtue (Greek, Dynamis), going from God to us. Water does not make us whole; it is God. If your ‘god of water’ does that, then your god is Poseidon!

Now consider what Jesus said to the apostles: “You shall drink indeed of My Cup and be baptized with the baptism that ‘I AM’ (‘Yahweh’) baptized with” (Mat 20”23).

Jesus was the ‘Cup’ — the Vessel — that was filled when God in Heaven baptized Jesus. The baptism of Jesus was the ‘Baptism of the Holy Ghost,’ filling the soul of the Man, Jesus; “Out of His Belly shall flow living waters,” as He told the woman at the well. The Holy Spirit of the soul within Jesus is the ‘Vessel’ from which a Christian must drink, or be saturated, from their thirst.

Drinking, or partaking of water; whether flowing, sprinkled, or still is not effective. It must be from the Cup of Jesus from whom you must drink to be absorbed in Him.

Jesus was baptized by God above, not by John, and Jesus said that we “must be baptized with the Spirit that I AM, ‘I AM,’ meaning the Spirit emanating from God above, or ‘born again’ (John 3:7).

Words mean things. It seems that John did not baptize Jesus and neither did Jesus baptize with water (John 4:2). Why would He need to, for He was the ‘Cup’ from whose Belly, at the Crucifixion, brought forth water and blood.

Others baptized under Jesus (John 3:22). That is significant because I wrote that Jesus was baptized under John. Just as John did not baptize Jesus, neither did Jesus baptize anybody; others, however, did so under the Authority of Jesus.

Does it not make sense? Jesus was without sin, so why would He need His flesh clean? The Devil endeavored to soil it but failed. Jesus was thoroughly clean and would only need His Blood clarified. God from above did that, preparing Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice.

His Blood was the Glory of God (7:39) and His Spirit — the Water — the ‘Phantom’ of God that was the ‘Image’ in which mankind was made glorious.

With those explanations, we should have no confidence in water to be soterial. That grieves the Holy Ghost and is blasphemy (mat 12:31) and stealing the Glory of God from God.

Now is the time for confession. Sometimes I get it wrong. After restudying this premise overnight, I missed something; Jesus did 'suffer' John the Baptist. However, because of archaic language that was missed. In this age, most would say, "baptized BY John." In this case, Jesus was "baptized OF John." With that statement, the focus was taken off the baptizer and placed on the mode of baptism which was water. 

Indeed, I found that everybody was baptized "OF John" — para Ioannes. It was not John who baptized so many after He died, not even his "ghost," but the mode of baptism... in water. On the other hand, baptism of the Holy Ghost is a kind and mode of baptism with no water even needed as Paul so aptly explained:

Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. (1 Cor 1:13-14)

So, let's examine the eunuch which Philip encountered while preaching, "They came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, 'See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?'" (Acts 8:36). As such, "The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip," (Acts 8:39), but apparently did not the eunuch. It takes more than water to receive the Holy Spirit. Only Philip was translated to the heaven by the Spirit.

In that baptism, it says simply, "They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him" (Acts 8:38). Compare that to the baptism of Jesus. It was Jesus who was baptized and carried away by God, in sense, as Jesus stepped from the water. 

The baptism of the Holy Ghost was the Baptism of Jesus. John said, "I indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mark 1:8), so John did baptize Jesus with water, but it was God above, the "He," that baptized with the Holy Ghost. 

The point is that Jesus was in water with John, but it was God above who did the baptism. I stand corrected. John may have lowered Jesus into the water, but when Jesus arose from the water, it had done nothing. It was the 'Living Water' from God above who engendered Jesus with His Spirit. In a sense, Jesus was 'born again' at His Baptism since His own birth at been ordinary even though immaculate. Baptism was the extraordinary birth of Jesus, and a second birth, this time spiritual only. 

So, who was it that baptized Jesus in reality? Does unworthy John get the credit, as he said himself that he was not worthy? Or was it God the Father who gets the credit? Jesus was the one on whom the Spirit remained (John 1:33). He was the only one, later called, "born again," not in Mary's womb, but of God!

The baptism of John was of no effect except for washing the dipped clean. Nothing within them changed. For Jesus, He alone was engendered with the Spirit of God and the glorification process began, ending at His death (John 7:39). 

Technically, therefore, John did baptize Jesus. It was John that immersed Jesus, but it was Yahweh who submerged Him all over with 'Living Water, the Holy Spirit of God. 

Just as the water left the eunuch clean but not filled with the Spirit, so it goes with water baptism. Again, there is "one baptism" (Ephes 4:5). Which baptism in the "one"? Was it the water or the Spirit?  I submit, that although John literally baptized Jesus, efficaciously, the baptism was of the Holy Ghost in spiritual mode. 

"Of," it seems, is a kind of baptism — John's kind compared to God's kind. Your preacher may have baptized you with water, but only Jesus baptizes with His Holy Ghost. Whose 'Ghost' is it that engulfs the believer? The ghost of John or the Ghost of Jesus that He gave up at the Crucifixion to be the proxy for Himself?

I was wrong, and it is tough to admit, but given that there is only one baptism, then John's was not the one that changes a person from a sinner to a 'son (or daughter) of God," and a fellow heir with Jesus (Ephes 3:6). 

The preacher cleansing anyone is ceremonial. It is a confession, so to speak, that the person baptized has soiled flesh. The washing inside and out is done, in the absence of Jesus, by the Holy Ghost of that One man, the "One Lord" (Ephes 4:5). 

So, I was wrong. John indeed baptized Jesus but not effectively so. Water was not necessary because it was for repentance. Jesus had nothing to repent of, being without sin (2 Cor 5:21). Since the baptism of John was for "repentance for the remission of sins" (Mark 1:4), then the baptism of John did nothing, considering that Jesus was without sin.

Yes, I got it wrong, but in so doing, I found the error of my thinking. However, the baptism of John of Jesus was to institute confession; that the flesh is as filthy rags that requires deeper cleaning than we can do ourselves. 

Now look at baptism:

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Rom 6:3-4)

The topic therein is not the Baptism of John (water modal) but "Baptized into Jesus" (Spirit modal). It is not the water that buries, but the Holy Spirit. From whence did the Spirit of Jesus come? He gave up the Ghost at His death. Like Philip, the Holy Ghost of Jesus carries Christians away, not to another place, but to another realm where the Spirit never dies.  

Care must be taken to understand which mode of baptism is the one of which the writer speaking. Context and time matters. John was beheaded. He had served his purpose... to introduce Jesus. 'Baptism' in general is the 'One Baptism' of the Holy Ghost. During the ministry of Jesus, the Baptism of John was contextual, but after the coming of the Holy Ghost, the spiritual kind of baptism was pre-eminent. 

It was not the Holy Ghost of John that Jesus gave up. That was made clear that Jesus was not the 'Elias,' John was. At the Crucifixion, some thought it was the spirit of Elias who Jesus was calling. It was not Elias, or even the one who they believed was Elias (John). It was the Spirit of God Himself that Jesus had suffered at His baptism by the Holy Ghost. 

Before Jesus was baptized, He said, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him" (Mat 3:15). That has much deeper meaning than many think; John was there to introduce Jesus to the world. He revealed God in the Man, in bodily shape, as Luke wrote. In agony, Jesus suffered as the Holy Ghost left Him as He died. Remember scripture from above? "Many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death." 

That is in remembrance of Him and the loosening of the Holy Ghost. It was the death of Jesus that is the mode of baptism, not our own. In a sense, Jesus was rebaptized in blood at his death; the first baptism in Living Water and the second His own blood. Together, they were 'one baptism' and John's was not part of the baptism that was soterial at all. 

"This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood."(1 John 5:6). It was not the baptism of water by which Jesus came, but the Living Water with which God baptized Him when He was at the Jordan. 

It was not the dirty waters of the Jordan that cleansed Him, but the Spirit emanating from God. Jesus was pretty much 'dry cleaned' by fire after the water got Him wet.  That was the type of 'water' of which Jesus was speaking, and the blood was the propitiation that was for "sins that are past" (i.e., genetic, or original sin.) The blood of Jesus is what engenders sinners from above, not water at all, but the blood that Jesus shed for us so that we need not suffer our own!

So, you be the judge; who baptized Jesus; was it John or Father God?

 

TRESPASSING NOT THE WAY TO GET IN

Most people have missed it, but both the heaven and the earth are the Estate of God. Trespassing is entering in without authority.

On a personal note, I entered a dangerous area in the conveyance system above when I worked at Corvette. The sign stated, “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.” I had official business there, but had no authority to decide if it was safe for me to enter that area.

A production employee called me out, “Who authorized you to go there?” My simple answer, as I grimaced, “I did.” To be truthful, the only person who could authorize that was the safety director, but there was no process granting authorization, so effectively, nobody had a right to be there.

The same goes for God’s Estate, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1); both what was on the ground floor and what was aloft to be precise. As the ‘Great Technician’ who brought them into existence — both things seen, and things unseen — belong to God.

Because of grace, we all have permission to be here on Earth! “The Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken” (permission granted; Gen 3:23), “So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life” (trespassing into heaven denied; Gen 3:24).

God made it clear — the physical world is our home but heaven requires authorization to even enter. The Cherubims keep the way back to the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden. They are ‘watchers,’ so to speak, to prevent trespassers from entering where they do not belong.

Heaven is not for strangers to God. He must know them, and they must know Him.

Much later, God made it clearer; Moses was to build an Ark for God and atop it was the ‘Mercy Seat.’ On either side was a cherub of gold (Exod 25:18). The Mercy Seat would be a throne on which God would rest to commune with mankind (Exod 25:22).

God said to Isaiah, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” (Isa 66:1; Acts 7:49). The Mercy Seat was the receiving end of messages from the throne above. That was the Way to Heaven where the Tree of Life still stands that God would reveal, and for some, have mercy on them. He would grant them the Way to the Tree of Life that is in Paradise.

“To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev 2:7). So, the authorization to enter Paradise is by mercy — finding grace in the sight of the Lord (Gen 19:19), just as Noah found grace to enter the Ark of God (Gen 6:8).

Grace is undue favor for the unworthy. It is goodwill for everyone without regard to their own works or duration of work, as Jesus pointed out by parable of the householder (Mat 20). Who deserves what is not up to the workers, but the lord of the estate. Who got what and how much was not for the servants to say. The lord made the rules because the vineyard was his. It was the lord of the vineyard who called the workers, granted them permission to be there, and saw their work.

Perhaps the workers who were hired late were more energetic than those hired at first. It was not their total energy that got them their pay, but their zealousness to work and please the lord. It was their willingness to work that got them their wages, and not the actual energy that they expended that day.

God had authorized whosoever they were, “To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the Tree of Life.” It is not said overcomes what but overcomes, period. All the workers were called, and some were zealous workers who were paid the same as the routine workers. The late-coming workers were more energetic whether they worked as much or not. It was not the amount of work that they did, but the appreciation to the lord for being called to work!

On another personal note, the General Motors (GM) Corvette Plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky was built from the residue of Chryslers Air-Temp Division, essentially from the ground up.

The intention was to start afresh with new employees as the ones at the St. Louis Plant had been troublesome. As it turned out, not because of the grace of GM, but the GM-UAW National Contract, those from St. Louis that were willing were called to work in Bowling Green. All were called but only a few came and those who came first had seniority in the new plant. Of those that were called, many came but some did not, so GM supplemented the workforce with local workers.

Although those called who were local had the least time, they were willing to work harder because the privilege of a great job exceeded the Contract.

The contract is not based on incentive or performance but who came first. To get to the point, the late-coming employees were generally the best because they really appreciated the chance to receive extraordinary pay. As such, I often asked for Kentucky workers who would work well in what the community considered to be a worker’s ‘Paradise.’

According to the Contract, all the workers — both those who came first and those who came last — received the same pay. (That has now changed with a later Contract.)

The UAW does not own GM, nor are they servants but highly paid workers, so it is not ‘tit for tat’ the same. However, GM does own the property and for anyone to enter requires authorization; they must first be called in order to work. Nobody can just walk in, and even if they could, they would receive no pay because that is not part of the GM-UAW Agreement.

On the other hand, the UAW has no direct say in who is called. GM is the ‘Householder’ and things must be done to their work rules. To even work there requires for employees to agree to the rules set out in the Contract. They are fair rules because the workers have ratified them. Unfair rules can be contested by the grievance procedure.

The basic tenet of employers like General Motors is the same as the Tenets of God, “Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with mine own? (Mat 20:15). Furthermore, “Is your eye evil, because I am good?” It is not for the employee to determine what is good and what is evil, but the Householder — whether it be GM, the owner of the vineyard, or the Creator of the Garden of God.

The LORD GOD sets the rules. The original sin was mankind (Adam’s), determining which were things were good and which were evil. They became the ‘Lord’ to which Eve admitted when she conceived Cain, “I have gotten a man from the Lord” (Gen 4:1), meaning that she got a type of ‘man’ (‘Is, not Adam), and she became the ‘Authority’ and Cain could do whatever he wanted to do, and he did!

GM employees could be disciplined or terminated based on the degree of the offense. The same would have applied to the workers in the Garden of God. Both Adam and Eve lost their ‘employment’ with God and went on to be independent workers themselves, even creating their own workers, willing ones or forced ones, according to their zealousness.

They remained employed but the work became much harder because they had to work by their own strength outside the Garden in the world.

The angel Lucifer — the ‘Serpent’ was demoted. He became the ‘worm’ that worked the ground:

Your pom(posity) is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your viols (vocals): the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you. How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! (Isa 14:12-13)

 In this case “ground” is not ‘Adam’ in the Hebrew; it is ‘eres, or the earth itself. Satan was not made a man, but would soon have to enter men (Adamah) to do his work.  Lucifer thereafter lost his prestige, and would come to serve both his kind (Cain) and mankind (Adam).

‘His,’ or better said, ‘Its’ demotion was from angel to worm, no longer even a ‘Serpent.’ Isaiah possibly revealed the new character of the Cherub, Lucifer; it was cut down to a ‘Seraph.’ (Isa 14:29; Hebrew ‘Serap’).

It was a ‘serpent’ that got into Eve, but a ‘worm’ that got into Judas (Luke 22:3), as is written about Hell, “Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:44).

Judas seems to have had a bad case of the ‘Worm’ in the manner of Herod Agrippa who Satan had surely entered.

Herod seemed to be ‘God’ to the people, then something startling occurred, “Immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost” (Acts 12:23). Like Judas before him, the death of Agrippa yielded the ghost, Satan. Agrippa, in the manner as Herod the Great, whose grandson he was, died in the same manner as his namesake. Both were ‘Antichrists.’

The penalty for the angel Lucifer, who stood and was pompous, was finally fulfilled thousands of years later. God had condemned Lucifer to die a vicarious death. He would live but its nature would be degenerated to something less than angelic… even demonic!

“The Lord God said unto the Serpent, ‘Because you hast done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life’” (Gen 3:14).

The ‘Serpent’ was not a serpent, but that was Lucifer’s inner image; The entity appeared to be the angel of light, Lucifer, but inwardly it was just a cunning beast (Gen 3:1). Lucifer was not therefore demoted to a ‘Serpent’ but to the ‘Worm’ that infested Herod the Great, Judas, and Herod Agrippa, and that will infest whoever inherits the name, ‘Antichrist.”

The ‘Image’ is not what anyone would think; it is not a snake nor a worm but a spiritual being — an angel — whose dominant nature, or genetics, is cunning and destructive to the Earth and the other kinds.  

Herod the Great would be the ‘Son of Satan’ just as Jesus is the ‘Son of God,’ and so Herod Agrippa was the ‘Son of Satan,’ as well as Judas. All their genetic ‘fathers’ were the Devil (the Satanic supernature of Lucifer), as is written about antichrists, “You are of your ‘father’, the ‘Devil,’ and the lusts of your father you will do” (John 8:44).

Therefore, to enter Paradise without trespassing in the same manner as the ‘Devil’ Lucifer had, it must be authorized. That requires change; rather than the ‘Son of the Devil’ sons of devils must be transformed into ‘Sons of God,’ and be reborn with a new ultra-supernature, as Jesus remarked, “Marvel not, you must be born again” (John 3:7). You must have the genetics of God in the same manner as Jesus was the ‘Son of God,’ genetically.

To enter Paradise without the change would be trespassing onto the Estate of God, just as Lucifer did in the Garden Paradise. Any who enters Paradise must inherit his portion of God’s Estate and must be ‘sons of God’ by adoption.

Lucifer was cast out into the world as were the two Adam’s, but he was no longer a ‘bringer of light’ but the author of death. That small piece of ground where the flesh is buried, will someday be eaten by worms, and for the sinner, to the dust from which he came, he shall return. Yes, Satan will follow you to the grave, not as a Serpent but the Worm he is!

What keeps you trespassing? Retaining the genetics of the Wicked One, whatever its name. Sinners have a little Satan in them, not the invisible Image of the Beast, but in your genetics. You are of Cain who is of the Wicked One (1 John 3:12), so you have the curse of Cain in your genes.

To be truthful, you must change to be a legitimate son of God that is authorized to enter onto His Estate in Heaven. The grace is that God does the changing and you need only to submit.

ALL THINGS BUILT ON GOD

 

OUR FOUNDATIONS: CONSTITUTIONS 

There is a ‘constitution’ for all free enterprises. For the revolutionaries in the American colonies, it was the ‘Articles of Confederation’ and when that proved too weak to have a union of the thirteen states, in 1787 the United States Constitution was written, amended, and signed by the member states. The reason being, from the Preamble to it, is the following: 

 We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The constitution was for everybody… “We the People,” not of the entire world, but of the “United States.” The first words of the Preamble are that the government is for the people, not the people for the government. The Constitution was not for the elite, but the common people. It would not be a kingship, a dictatorship, nor an oligarchy, wherein the powerful few dictate many repressive laws for those considered ‘lesser.’

The purpose of the Constitution was for “Order” in contrast to the chaos that had been there under both the English Parliament and the colonial Articles of Confederation. The latter was a great attempt at a strong Constitution, but it had created a loose association of the states with each state merely a state within a state, much like the Holy Roman Empire which Voltaire described in this way, “The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” The same applied to the colonial states.

‘Order’ was the key word. Order is a planned, a working system, not a haphazard set of afterthoughts. Order is reasonable and logical.

Before the Constitution was signed, amendments were added and included in the original document. The amendments guaranteed liberty. An amendment was included to guarantee order — the right to bear arms against those who would jeopardize our liberty which was the very reason for the revolution.

The right to bear arms: guns, swords, knives, explosives, and such was used in the Revolution and would be allowed if anyone should attempt to forcefully change the Constitution.

The colonial Congress wrote in 1776 the purpose of the Declaration of Independence; to “declare the causes which impel them to the separation;” 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

 Therein is again the word, ‘people’ — “the governed” who should have the “Right of the People” to establish their own destiny. The second amendment — to bear arms — is the only way to enforce liberty, or freedom to live and to be happy and content.

The people had before bore arms to gain freedom and must have those same arms to retain freedom. So long as the Constitution stands, the only recourse the elite have is deception.

Even the Supreme Court of the United States has no armies to enforce their judgments. The military has a Commander in Chief, and they are obligated to follow him or her regardless of their abilities or sanity. Another amendment was added much later. The Commander in Chief can no longer be a madman thanks to the 25^th Amendment (Section four): 

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

 ‘Unable’ is very general, although it implies derangement, senility, death, sedition, ineffectiveness, and so forth. It seems that the Vice-President has the role of a new duty: ‘Psychiatrist General of the United States.’  

The word ‘unable’ could also include those who are controlled by others: the bureaucracy, the media, the UN, the WEF, enemies of the States… both foreign and domestic, and even the very wealthy. All, or even one, of those inabilities is reasonable cause for the VP to begin the process of replacement.

Dictators are usually crazy people. Their underlings, generals, and cabinet officials may be as crazy as their leader. There is no safety valve if both the president and his vice-president are both crazy, or otherwise incapable of running our government.  A nation run by the members of the asylum is as chaotic as an insane asylum itself. (As a sidebar, it seems that the Democrat Party is the ‘asylum’ and now the U.S. government is run by its ‘inmates.’ Even those who are to defend us have gone crazy. The ‘state’ of the union is now chaos, and claiming otherwise would be as insane.)

However, this is meant to be much more than political analysis.

That’s the state of the government, but also the ‘State of the Spirit’ of the people. Because of too much liberty, the nation and much of the world has gone crazy with liberty.

Just like Satan himself sneaked into the Kingdom of God, he struck again in the same manner in the United States. The ‘Preamble’ to our Constitution differs to the Preamble to God’s.

How did Satan sneak into the Constitution of the United States? With the statement, “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

A ‘blessing’ is a religious consecration (Merriam-Webster 2023). Rather than a blessing from God, clearly the blessings derive from ‘Liberty.’

That seems like a good thing, but liberty can be taken to the extremes, and it has been since the beginning of time.  The government idea of personal liberty is, “the freedom of the individual to do as he pleases limited only by the authority of politically organized society to regulate his action to secure the public health, safety, or morals or of other recognized social interests” (ibid).

Too much of any good thing can be bad for us with only one exception; God is the ‘Good Thing’ and there can never be too much God. The nature of man since original sin is a ‘God Deficiency’ and too little God is coming “short of the Glory of God” (Rom 3:23). With that state of depravity, “In those days” when there were many gods in Israel, “there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Jud 17:6).

Liberty is a good thing but too much liberty is chaotic. Of the many gods, then and now, among them are each person. Even Christians essentially write their own state of their union with God wherein anything goes. As the Church goes, so goes the nation. Why is our nation in chaos? Because each of the people of our nation is a ‘god’ in their own eyes.

Note that Libertas became the god of the French in the First French Republic, then they planted their goddess in our harbor. Miss Liberty has become the god of all who enter our nation.

Remember the poison of the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? It is deception — failing to recognize just what is good and what is evil.

Liberty is a good thing and with free will, God gave us liberty. Too much of the good thing was an evil thing. The persona of Liberty is doublemindedness. Liberty to most of us is doing what is right under the Law. The Law, both civil and moral, is not to imprison but to preserve. Everyone doing as they please seems good, but many will infringe on the liberty of others — not to be infringed upon.

Protests are a good thing if done under the confines of law. If the law of the land is ignored, then the result is chaos. Over the years, our country has gone from civil to chaotic as liberty is given to an elect few to do as they please, all the while infringing on the liberty of others.

Chaos is the beginning of any process. Order comes about by intelligence, used wisely; to improve upon disorder.

The American colonies, for instance, was disorderly, with each colony pursuing their own interests without much regard for the other colonies. The first government had a ‘Constitution’ that were ‘Articles of Confederation.’ It was the first attempt by Americans to create an orderly New World. The confederation of colonies were allies, in much the same manner as NATO is today. What could go wrong? About everything, but it was indeed some order from chaos.

The colonies came into existence by exploration of the new world. The adventurers overcame the new world because each indigenous tribe were each their own separate nation with at most alliances.

The adventurers began the adventure in the same manner as the Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and others that divided the new world into pieces. The present United States was once an amalgam of foreign territories that were divided. Each sought the territories of the others and wars ensued. These American colonies were much like tribute payers to the “Caesar” and his ‘senate’ in England. Britain had become an empire much like in Roman times in the Mediterranean.

The Roman Empire had fallen centuries before. Britain emerged from the heap of ashes first. Britain chipped off the edge of Rome and chaos began all over again, as one by one, each former Roman Colony became independent kingdoms.

Realms with kings became somewhat orderly again, and soon a new Roman Empire, made mostly of Germans and their conquests, emerged from the ashes of Rome. They too had their Caesars and Pontifica Maximus — the popes.

There was no pope nor king in colonial America. They were mostly independent of their mother country, except for their abuses and taxation. Distance made them somewhat independent before their independence.

King George was, in the beginning, a just but lax figure. It was the English Parliament that was the ‘master’ of the colonies. To many Americans, Parliament was no more than ‘parasites’ in their glorious hair that needed to be brushed off, and when that failed, eradicated.

After several years of war and disharmony with their weak alliances, the Americans united in a federal union. To make a more perfect union, they decided on one Constitution. “It is from Latin constitutus, the past participle of constituere, meaning ‘to set up’” (Merriam-Webster 2023). Think of any constitution as a cement-like compound that must be set up over some period, to be strong and loadbearing.  It is never wise to stress concrete before it is cured.

The curing time for the U.S. Constitution was from 1787 to 1860 when the load exceeded the compressive strength of the Constitution, and like concrete, the lower edge broke off because it was obvious that with all the compromise, it had not cured.

The Civil War, not so civil, was a compression test. The nation failed and it was weakness in the Constitution that made it fail. To strengthen the Union, more ‘Concrete” was added to replace what had been broken. Since that time, the amended Constitution needs patching when any crack ensues. Not just the majority must agree that a ‘patch’ is needed, but 2/3 of the States must agree that a patch is even needed.

One patch cannot be placed over the original Concrete. It must be bonded in a manner that it appears to be the same concrete as before.

Benjamin Franklin said to a Mrs. Johnson when queried about our type of Constitution, “It is a republic… if we can keep it.”

Republics had proven to be mere ‘pavements.’ At the time of the original Constitution, the way was paved, but it had yet to be tested. Growth strained relations between member states. That gave way and the Republic crumbled like asphalt into two distinct pieces with some even wondering where they would fit in.

The Civil War created the ‘Union’ for there had never been a union of states before. The Constitution was weak, and out of the ashes of War, a new way was paved in America. For over one-hundred years, the Republic was in union and fairly strong. Then, when it all seemed to be well, there came a wise man (Abraham Lincoln) showed the world the cracks in the United States, rather than fix them, a majority desired to tear down to build back better.

Why all the history of our nation? Because this nation, like many before ours, had a purpose. For instance, Assyria was created to test Israel’s northern kingdom and they dissolved. That kingdom was ‘patched’ by bringing Cuthites from Mesopotamia in BC 500. Rather than Yahweh, their god was Nergal.

Essentially, after the diaspora and the replacement there were two ‘Israel’s’ — Samaria to the north with their own ‘constitution’ and Judah to the south with their ‘constitution.’ For the former, Mount Zion was their base to the south whereas Mount Gershom was to the north.

Both nations worshipped God but on different mountains with different priests. Yahweh was considered the God of peace at the ‘Foundation of Peace’ (Jerusalem) compared to Nergal, the ‘god of war’ whose city was Samaria, the ‘Guardian’ place.

Just like the Federal and Confederate America’s, built on one foundation, there were two Israel’s built on one foundation. Both nations were built on God in both places. The problem is that a ‘Nergal’ stepped in, hoping to repair what was broken in both Israel and America.

A ‘Constitution’ is what any existence is founded upon.

The constitution of mankind is the Image of God — the souls of men: “God created man in his own Image, in the Image of God created He him; male and female created He them (Gen 1:27)… then “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7). Therefore, the human soul is the constitution, or foundation, of mankind and the ground became the structure built on that foundation.

The foundation, or soul, is immortal but the structure continues to ‘rust’ away. It was made for a perfect environment and economy, but in the world, it perishes. Even so, the soul never dies!

In the end, it is the soul that is saved on which to build a new structure, just as the foundation of the temples in Jerusalem was the foundation of Judaism in Judah, the Samaritans had an entirely different foundation that was destroyed, not to be replaced, by John Hyrcanus, the High Priest of Yahweh, in BC 128.

In like manner, Richmond Viriginia suffered the same outcome, never to be replaced, but for the America’s it was a reversal; it was our South whose confederate foundation was destroyed, never to be replaced.

Samaria and the American South were both destroyed by wars, but the foundation of both remains quite alive in its people. Just as the souls of people never die, neither do the souls of nations.

For instance, Rome was destroyed, and so they thought its soul was as well, and for a time Rome was revived when the Holy Roman Empire arose from its ashes.

Even Holy Rome has perished but its ‘soul’ survives in the heart of Rome; the Vatican is the soul of Rome and Romanism, and many believe that Rome will live again during the apocalypse.

It must be remembered that Rome was not just a great city, and the foundation of civil government, but of the Christian religion; but it is just the ‘heart!’

Rome extended from Britian to the Euphrates and beyond and from Egypt to Scythe. It was the ‘Promised Land’ and it will soon raise its head again in the end.

If Rome is the ‘heart’ of civilization, then Jerusalem (Zion) is its ‘belly.’ In fact, Zion is the belly of all civilizations, but its heart is migratory. Jerusalem is the foundation of peace, and ironically, the Foundation Stone beneath the Dome of the Rock is the ‘Navel of the World.’ It will always be so, and at the present the parasites on the body of civilization are eating away at its navel to erode the foundation.

Just as the Foundation Stone has been chipped away by adversaries of all ages, so it remains. The Muslims built a sanctuary to preserve the Foundation Stone, not because they had a use for it, but out of fear it would be the foundation stone of the third Hebrew Temple.

All those comparisons were presented to demonstrate that everyone and every thing has a ‘constitution.’ Just as Adam, before sin, was our ‘constitution,’ after sin, Eve became the constitution of so called, ‘mankind.’

Sin caused Adam’s kind to have their constitution modified, not by election nor democracy, but by deception (Gen 3:1; 13).

That we are ‘mankind’ is flattery; we must humble ourselves! We are ‘Eve’s kind’ as Adam named a new kind of being after she sinned: “Adam called his wife's name ‘Eve;’ because she was the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20). Remember that Adam had named all the various kinds? 

And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. (Gen 2:19)

 God made their constitutions as well — the different kinds, each very different from the other and of a totally different constitution than Adam!

As the ‘mother of all living,’ Eve became the genetic ‘Adam,’ and of the ground (Adam); both man and earth having the same Hebrew name. Hence, our modified constitution is of the wicked one. Rather than the Image of God (Selem) within anyone, everyone born comes short of that, having the image (nahas) of Lucifer, the Serpent, within us.

Our Image is our ‘constitution’ and sin changed it from righteous to unrighteous, even inglorious. Adam was made glorious, but Eve came far short of the Glory of God after she was beguiled — impregnated with guile — and the beastly child, Cain, was of the Wicked One (1 John 3:12).

The Hebrew name, ‘Eve,’ means among other things, “to show” or “to reveal,” surely her new constitution. Some experts say that ‘Eve’ means ‘Serpent” and others that the name is a pointer toward her descriptor, ‘wife’ (‘Issa) — the ‘adulteress’ (Strong 2006). Note that Cain was not a man (Adam) but an (‘Is) — another “extant” being (ibid)… another existence was not that of man.

After sin, mankind was reconstituted. Lucifer perished the glorious foundation and replaced it with a serpentine-like one, and Cain became the new kind. Everyone has Cain as their foundation and our genetics are his. Cain is our ‘constitution,’ the revised edition whose author is Satan, so, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” (Jas 4:10). No, we are not glorious but come far short of the Glory of God (Rom 3:23).

David indicated that he was “shapened in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5) and as mere sinners like David, we too are formed in iniquity. All of us are born depraved, and are brutish in our Constitution, just like the Beast whose kind we are born of within.

You have no power to change your constitution for indeed you were born decadent. Who can patch you until you are reconstituted? Only Jesus can do that; it is His Glorious genes in His Blood which is the “propitiation” for “sins that are past” (Rom 3:25), the sins of the female ‘Adam,’ subsequently called, ‘Eve.’

Your own constitution can be rebuilt in much the same manner as the Third Temple. Jesus can do that; He said, “Marvel not, you must be born again” (John 3:7). He will reconstitute you, using the same foundation as with Adam — your personal soul.

(Jews wait on the Third Temple to be built to prepare for the end, but the Body of God, Jesus, is the ‘Temple of God,’ so waiting is foolishness!)

Believers in Christ, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:9) is the saving of the your souls; your constitution is saved, the same one that God created before the foundation of the world (Ephes 1:4).

It was Adam’s kind that were chosen, not the other kinds, and certainly not Eve’s kind! To be saved is the salvation of the soul; it is your constitution that is preserved at death, just waiting on a new structure. At the resurrection, “the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:52).

The resurrection is an erection of a new, glorious material substance upon our foundation — the soul that is the constitution of man — that was made like the Constitution of God. It was glorious as God is Glorious!

Just as the Holy Ghost of Jesus was the phantom of the man Jesus, when John baptized Jesus with the Holy Ghost, the Constitution of Jesus was imbued within Him in “bodily shape” as Luke wrote, (Luke 3:22). Hence, the constitution of a person is the shape of the person just as with Jesus. Who does the human soul resemble before reconstitution? The Serpent. Who does the soul resemble after reconstitution? The Holy Ghost of Jesus.

If after rebirth, your soul still resembles the devil, then you have not been reconstituted, or else Lucifer has again sneaked into your new life to create chaos. You may be safe, but you remain corruptible because incorruptibility comes after death.

The Serpent deceived Eve by convincing her that she could do as she pleased and her constitution would remain glorious. She ‘died’ when inwardly, she was changed and made corruptible. Her new foundation was unstable and soon it gave away to death, and her soul awaited on Jesus to do a re-genesis — a new beginning on her soul that was preserved by grace until the coming of the LORD GOD again… right back to the foundation stone at the ‘navel of the world.’

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), a personal ‘constitution’ is “the sum of an individual’s innate characteristics,” or more generally, “the basic psychological and physical makeup of an individual, due partly to heredity and partly to life experience and environmental factors.”

Your constitution is genetic but subject to modification due to your environment and experience. Strangely, that agrees with Holy Scripture. You are indeed, “born this way,” as Lady Gaga sings, but that way is decadent. Decadence is the constitution, but behavior is the Wicked One building a structure upon it. The world is the author of the structure, and the final composition is built on that faulty foundation.

Buildings will fall. Builders at one time built them to last. Foolishly some were built on faults and when the earthquakes came, they perished.

Even ancient concrete buildings of stone and cement still exist, but they too will fall. Man cannot build a foundation that is eternal, nor can they build nations that are eternal. However, if built on the LORD GOD, all things can be eternal. He is our Foundation Stone!

Speaking of New Jerusalem, it is a reconstitution of the ‘foundation of peace;’ it was seen and written about by John the Revelator: 

And the city had no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon, to shine in it: for the Glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the Earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. (Rev 21:23-25) 

The heaven and earth were the ‘structures’ on ‘The Constitution” in the beginning (Gen 1:1). They were built on God, and in the end, there will be a new Constitution.

“What kind of Constitution?” some will ask? “An eternal one,” so says God.

God created all things (John 1:1). 

"In the beginning He created the heaven and the earth." (Gen 1:1).

God is the Founder and Author of our Constitution, but while so many honor the signers to our Constitution, few honor the Author of our existences.

 

ALL ABOUT CHRISTMAS: Christ Mass

 

THE DEATH MASS

 It is Christmas. The ‘Christ’ in that word comes from scripture. God in the flesh is called ‘Christ’ (Mat 1:16) and He was called ‘Jesus.” Pilate called Him both ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ.’ The point is that Jesus is without a name; He is God with us, or ‘Emanuel.’

No matter how anyone looks at the man, He remains God. As such He called Himself the ‘Son of Man’ and the ‘Son of God.’

The Christ is therefore God in the flesh of a person. Jesus is the One and only God. He is as much God as the Invisible God. He is not three different Persons but the one Person of the Holy Trinity. However, the other substances are as much ‘God’ as Jesus. He is the Invisible God who was revealed to mankind… “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin” (1 John 3:5); “The Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

That resoundingly identifies Jesus as both God and the Christ. This day is His holy day. It symbolizes the event in history when God confronted the Devil, and he was His to do with as He might. Jesus was born to destroy the devil, but to do so, He first would destroy Himself.

Judas committed suicide to rid himself of Satan who had entered him (Luke 22:3). If he had only waited for God’s time when God sacrificed Himself to destroy the Devil, then Judas would have been saved.

Christ served His purpose and died, and many saw it, among them Longinus, “When the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the Ghost, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God’” (Mark 15:39). Jesus proved who He claimed to be by dying. The Christ is God and no other. Only by that Name are you saved.

Jesus said, as He gave up the Ghost, “It is finished” (Mark 15:39). What was finished? For what reason did God visit Earth in Person? Why was He born?

“’He said, Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit:’ and having said thus, He gave up the Ghost” (Luke 23:46). The key word there is ‘commend.’ The purpose for which Jesus was born was to commend His Spirit. By commending His Spirit, Jesus served Himself as the holocaust, in place of in the Old Testament, a burnt offering.

Now back to the ‘mass’ part of Christmas. It is from the Latin, ‘missa,’ meaning a dismissal, or to send or dismiss (Douglas Harper 2001-2023).

The Catholic version of mass is for the dismissal of the congregation, and the ‘mass’ is more so about a massive number of people who are dismissed from the assembly wherein first the word is read (the liturgy), ending in prayer, and the congregation dismissed as they partake of the elements that were served at the Last Supper — the bread and the wine, or in their vernacular, the Body and Blood of Christ.

Catholic Mass is representative, being symbolic. However, is there a deeper meaning as well?

The statement, “It is finished” at the Crucifixion of Jesus was a sort of dismissal, or ‘mass.’ His service began with His birth and the mass was the Crucifixion, much more so than the Last Supper tradition.

When Jesus said, to the Father, “Into your hands. I commend my Spirit” that was the finish of His life, and the missa, or mass. Then, what happened? “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34). His side… of His Body, was the so called, ‘Bread,’ that was sopped with His Blood, or ‘Wine.’

Therefore, Christmas is as much about the death of Jesus as His birth. It is His death that should be celebrated for He was born to die — that was the funeral mass (missa), so to speakl 

After these things God said unto Adam, "You did ask of Me something from the Garden, to be comforted therewith, and I have given you these three tokens as a consolation to you; that you trust in Me and in My covenant with you. For I will come and save you; and kings shall bring Me when in the flesh, gold, incense and myrrh; gold as a token of My kingdom; incense as a token of My divinity; and myrrh as a token of My suffering and of My death. (Adam & Eve 31:1-2)

 Those three gifts came from centuries before and given to Jesus at His birth.  Just as the bread and wine were tokens of the body and blood of Jesus, the three gifts were tokens of the Kingdom of God, His Divinity, and His suffering and death, respectively. Jesus was born to die, and even the myrrh was significant. The myrrh was the missa, or mass.

Myrrh is an analgesic to ease the pain of suffering. It’s root means “bitter.’ The Egyptians were embalmed with myrrh before the time of Jesus. The production of the myrrh has great significance: 

When a wound on a tree penetrates through the bark and into the sapwood, the tree secretes a resin. Myrrh gum, like frankincense, is such a resin. Myrrh is harvested by repeatedly wounding the trees to bleed the gum, which is waxy and coagulates quickly. After the harvest, the gum becomes hard and glossy. The gum is yellowish and may be either clear or opaque. It darkens deeply as it ages, and white streaks emerge. (Neumann 1773)

 That the kings chose myrrh to represent the suffering and death is truly significant! The blood of Jesus was harvested in the same manner is myrrh. Isaiah, seeing the death of Jesus long before, described it; “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5).

Jesus is the ‘Head’ of the ‘Godhead’ from scripture. The ‘Face’ of God is Jesus. The Tree of Life represents the Godhead with Jesus at its head — the cornerstone.

Jesus — The Tree of Life — was wounded and stripped in the same manner as myrrh is from its tree. Just as Jesus is dismissed from His ‘Tree’ — the Cross — so is the sap from the myrrh tree. Jesus gave up the Ghost, the living water, in the same manner as the myrrh tree gives up its liquid that eventually hardens.

Jesus birth, therefore, was symbolized by the myrrh tree wherein the Spirit became ‘hard,’ forming a mass of ‘myrrh gum’ (His Body) that was used as a salve to preserve life. The gift of myrrh points toward Jesus as born to die, for His ‘Sap’ to be harvested to be the ‘salve’ that would provide eternal line, and as it happened, the salve — the coagulated blood of Jesus mingled with water — as was the case then with wine, was pounded into the cure for mankind’s ailment (sin).

So, when you think of the Christmas Mass, thinking of the Jesus, the very missa for the dismissal of sin.

 

HANGING WITH JESUS

 

WHO CAN BE SAVED?

With the difficulty of understanding salvation, the disciples asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” (Mat 19:25).

But you thought that salvation is easy! That all you need to do is walk to the front of the church, confess your sins, and ask for prayer. Indeed, that is the beginning of salvation.

We have been taught that salvation is like a new birthday, and many Christians celebrate that day like the holy day that it is. However, the ‘beginning’ was well before your beginning, “God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thes 2:13). You came later but you were chosen in the “beginning,” ‘arche’ in the Greek — in ancient times at the origin of mankind.

Your beginning was the beginning of Adam. He was the first of your kind. That refers to the origin of life, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our Image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the Earth’” (Gen 1:26).

Right then was your beginning! Your kind was chosen to prevail over all the other kinds; not that humans are the strongest of the species, but the weaker kind who requires God to watch over them. Right then, when Adam was created in the Image of God, Adam’s kind alone were chosen to be in His Image. That ‘Image’ is ‘Selem’ in the Hebrew, literally a ‘shadow’ or ‘phantom’ (Strong 2006). That ‘Shadow’ of God is not material but a Spirit of a very different substance; indeed the same Substance as God; that is until sin. That Image is what theologians call the ‘soul’ and philosophers the ‘psyche.’

Jesus is the Image of God as well. The person ‘Jesus’ is the material Image and the Holy Ghost his spiritual Image, ‘Pneuma’ in the Greek — “like a rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2).

When Jesus was baptized, Luke saw the Image of God converge on Jesus and remain there… “the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:22).

The human soul originally had the invisible Substance of God within a vessel that had the form of a man. The content of that shape was the Spirit of God, and its shape was as a full-grown man. God made the shape and imbued within it His own Spirit, Then, he enclosed His Image that he called ‘Adam’ in material — the ground (‘Adam’ in the Hebrew). Hence, the invisible being was God Himself and the visible image just the Earth, and it is now known that the body of a human has the same substances in the same proportions as the earth (ground) itself.

God did that! He made for Himself an Image and as the ‘Son of Man’ (Adam), Jesus is the both the spiritual Image of God and the material image of Adam.

Adam was created ‘saved’ in that He was already in Paradise! His state was one of glorification.

Moses was “glorified” (Lev 10:3) — made heavy (ibid), not in the sense of weight, but significance (dominion). Moses was given dominion over his people and God’s people became his people. “When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him” (Exod 34:30).

The glow that Moses had was the Spirit of God shining forth. Moses was given dominion over the tribe, and the Hebrews followed a man who was glorified. What did Moses do to be glorified? Certainly not get fat and gain weight; however, God got into his soul. Therefore, glorification is indeed ‘weighty’ in that God imbues the soul of the Christian!

Of course, Moses was not Christ, but within him was the ‘Shadow’ of Christ. God gave Moses the Law, and he became the ‘Law.’ What Moses decreed was God Himself decreeing it! Paul wrote that “The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very Image of the things” (Heb 10:1).

Of course, Jesus was the ‘Image’ of those things, and the Law was the ‘Shadow,’ or Holy Spirit of God, speaking in written words. When He fulfilled the Law, the Law was no longer just Spirit but concrete. It was written on stone originally indicating that it was the foundation — the ‘Cornerstone,’ Jesus (Isa 26:16).

Now back to “Who can be saved?” It is as if asking, “Who can be glorified?” Adam was originally glorified when he was generated in the Image of God.

Moses was glorified when God regenerated him from a common, murderous man, and gave him dominion over the Hebrew kind. Jesus was glorified when He died and was raised from the dead as He regained the ‘Shadow’ of God that He had given up at the crucifixion (John 7:39).

Who can be saved? Our kind beginning with Adam, one sinful man with Moses, the Hebrew kind because of God in Moses (Deut 14:2), and Christ’s kind (1 Pet 2:9), the ‘whosoever believes in Him’ (John 3:16). Therefore, ‘whosoever’ (anyone can be saved). What must anyone do? Adam did nothing. He was generated glorious and was made immortal. He should never have perished!

Moses did nothing to be glorified but listen to God. The Hebrews did nothing but those who followed Moses all the way over 40 years were saved.

Jesus died and was made glorious. He did nothing as He was nailed to the Cross. In all cases, it was the Spirit of God in them that was doing all those good things!

Then, after the physical image of Jesus rested in the tomb, His Holy Ghost did much work. Possibly first, the Holy Ghost cast Satan and sin into Hell, then that same day, the Holy Ghost saved Dismus, the repentant thief, from perishing. The Holy Ghost vacating the body of Jesus persuaded Longinus, the centurion, that Jesus was God in the flesh.

Jesus did very little in the flesh because even when He walked among men, it was the Holy Spirit of God that did all those good things. When Jesus lost virtue to heal, it was not His flesh that became weak, but His Spirit. It was God in Spirit that healed.

When Jesus defeated Satan and cast sin into Hell, he “healed the nations” (Rev 22:2). It was “finished,” so He said (John 19:30).

It originated with Adam in the beginning and was finished with the “Last Adam” — the “Quickening Spirit,” (1 Cor 15:45) that made mankind alive again — Jesus regenerated whosoever desired to be glorified.

Who, therefore, can be saved? “Whosoever believes in Him (Jesus) should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The key word therein is “believes” (Greek; pisteuo) — “any” who are “committed to” Jesus (ibid).

Everybody was selected as ‘sons of man’ but there is a threshing. Of all who were elected, those who are committed to Jesus are selected.

Another question that the disciples should have asked but did not is How committed? Is walking to the altar enough commitment or should it be a lifelong commitment? You should know the answer to that. Someone who comes to Jesus may be sincere, but is he committed? Time will tell. They must “endure to the end to be saved” (Mat 10:22).

Endure what? Temptation: 

They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. (Luke 8:13)

 Who then? Those whose ‘seed’ takes root and endures temptation, not just for awhile, but to the end of their lives. Born again is the planting of the seed that grows into the whole Image of God when Jesus comes for the harvest of the ‘crop’ and glorifies them — regenerating them back to the Image of God and providing for them new incorruptible flesh (1 Cor 15:52).

So, you should be saved, and you can be saved, but it is any who are committed. How committed are you? Many are not committed enough to hang with Jesus!

SPORTS FANS

People are serious about sports and their teams. Seriousness is an attribute, but it must be balanced.

Most people love watching sports and glorify their teams that win. If their team loses, they become dismal. Although most watch the race but never participate, they are watchers, not runners, bicyclers, or ball players. To be a runner, you must run. Those who run that you watch are running for themselves and not for you. They get the glory, but you feed off the glory that they receive as if it is you who won the sport.

You need to get serious. You are only a watcher and have no ability to help win or lose, especially if you remain comfortable at home. The best that you can do is to cheer them on, and that makes you only a ‘cheerleader,’ not a player!

Excellence in sports requires much practice. Nobody hits a homerun the first time at bat, and a new runner is left far behind by those who have developed stamina. Sports fans must even enjoy the efforts of those who are naturally better than themselves. Those who win must always give all they have to obtain.

Spectators often love the sport but never put out the effort for themselves to achieve. The nature of man is to love the sport, but not enough to seriously participate.

Those successful runners were not the best in the beginning but through years of practice, they become the best. Few are born ‘supermen’ but some approach that with practice.

One of the most notable events in the 20^th century, and maybe even any age, was when Roger Bannister broke the time barrier as he ran faster than a four-minute mile.

Bannister only began to run at age seventeen. Before he ever broke the time barrier, he ran to win in many events. He saw the four minutes as possible as if it was already his, and after running for several years, he won the prize. He saw the goal, not as a barrier, but as already achieved. He ran hard and credited it tom never looking back. He cared little where his opponents might be but saw himself as already there.

Bannister ran in the 1952 Olympiad but never achieved his goal. He did not give up! When least expected he broke the limit of four minutes in 1954 in a meet between the British AAA and Oxford University. It is said that he added graphite to his spiked track shoes so the cinders on the track would not hinder him.

In a spiritual sense, he did not ignore the world but made his shoes swifter to have the advantage, not against his competitors, but to overcome at least some small part of the world. His race was not against his fellow runners but the barrier that most thought was impossible to overcome… time.

Spiritually speaking, the Christian is an Olympic sportsman and the Olympiad is running the race for the prize.

Wisely, Bannister, like the good runner, prepared for the race, “your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” and he did just that with the graphite on his running spikes. The cinders of the track would not hold him back, and as such, Bannister was no longer worried about the collection of cinders to slow him down. In other words, there would not be any trials with the track, but only between himself and his performance.

‘Peace’ is just that; the world having little affect on the runner. The best that Bannister could do, not having the capacity to control the strong winds that day, was to shoe himself with wisdom.

Obviously, the apostle Paul had seen the Olympiad in his travels for he used running as the allegory for following Jesus.

Usually, any race is competitive; and there is more than one runner. The Olympiads had more than one winner, awarding different ‘crowns’ (medals) for various performances, but only one wins the gold medal!

Paul wrote, “Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain” (1 Cor 9:24).

Roger Bannister came to mind because his race was not against competitors; he did not care about their performances but his own. He ran to beat the four-minute hurdle that had always been there. He could have given up, as he planned to do, after the 1952 Olympiad, but he kept on running, not to make a name for himself, but to overcome the limitations of the world. Four minutes, every one ‘knew’ for sure, could never be broken. However, Bannister beat it by less than two seconds. It did not matter how much he beat time, but that he beat it. The same goes for eternity.

That second or two was not much but was all that it took to do the ‘impossible.’ With the barrier overcome, it has now been broken by others. If Roger could do it, what would hinder others? Nothing but themselves and the world.

Sportsmen now even shave their legs to reduce drag as they run, swim, and bicycle. They all do things to diminish the effects of the world that would impede their performances.

Now, consider Christians. The prize is still time; not for breaking any records, but the goal is eternal life. It matters not how much time it takes to obtain the reward; even late runners can run the race for the dash to the finish line. For eternal life — the ‘prize — “Many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first” (Mat 19:30). The runners may be successful runners or poor. It does not depend on them, but their inherited abilities; it is not of themselves, perhaps in contrast to Bannister, but of God.

To run the race, the race must be entered, just as Paul wrote. The ‘entry’ is trusting God for your own performance. It is seeing yourself as able to obtain, not by your own performance, but by Divine Virtue that is engendered into your innermost being.

Jesus knew much about Olympiads as well. Whereas modern time is based on Him, time before Christ was based on the year of the Olympiad. It was not only 6 BC when Jesus was born but the 193^rd Olympiad.

Time was based on perfection of the runners, and according to Josephus, because the Olympians competed naked, and because it was a pagan event, to enter the race, Jews had to conceal their circumcision. They were essentially still Jews inwardly but Greeks outwardly. How they did that is unknown, but circumcision prevented many Jews from running races in those Olympiads. Paul wrote to the Romans, who were also Olympians, the following advice: 

He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Rom 2:28-29)

 Romans participated in the Olympiad. The competition was between gladiators, so to speak. Each participant had their own god, and the winner exalted whatever god that was in the pantheon of gods. It was if their gods were competing. So, it is with the Judeo-Christian God. We credit our God for our own performances. Sometimes, Christians even blame God for their poor performances even though God was not even invited to the race.

The Jews concealed their lack of foreskins so that they would not be ridiculed. Perhaps, they grew hair to conceal it, or wore camel’s hair to hide their shame. Whatever they did, Paul saw through their efforts to hide their true identities, for him, “He is a Jew, which is one inwardly.”

They could run the race without shame because their hearts were inward and beyond notice. They could endeavor to change their genetics outwardly, but whatever they did, they remained Jews inwardly because their hearts (souls) were the true runners.

Jews competed in the ancient Olympics and still do in the modern. They are still runners in the race and have won 459 medals from 1896 to 2021 (Jew Virtual Library). [1]

Everybody that runs in the race are runners, but to run the Christian race, one must qualify. He must be a Jew inwardly, albeit even a Christian outwardly.

Jews are God’s chosen and peculiar people (Deut 14:2), and all the other runners must be as well (1 Pet 2:9).

The qualification for even running the race to eternal life is to be ‘born again;’ that instills within the runner the Power of God. Jesus said, if it had been in English, “Marvel not, you must be born again” (John 3:7).

Don’t be surprised; the runner must be qualified to enter the race. What must he do? Nothing, but stay still and God qualifies the runner.

Jesus spoke Greek. H really said, “gennao anothen” — “gendered from the beginning” (Strong 2006). As such, the runner, from the start must be engendered with the Power of God, or as it may be, imbued within with the Holy Spirit. If not, it is you running the race, not God holding your hand in tow, so to speak. Running the race to eternal life without the hand of God lifting you from above, you are certain to fail. Not only will the prize not be yours, but you will fall away (Heb 6:6) as if you have never entered the race.

Remember, you are not running to compete, but for time. Just like Roger Bannister ran for the time, so runs the Christian. Of course, his time was temporal but yours to beat eternity.

Many belong to churches that do not teach the necessity of rebirth (born again). You may be in the race for eternal life, but you are not numbered.

I ran the Bowling Green 10k event one year, as if I was a registered runner, just because I had run officially so many times before. Without a number that could be recognized, I was officially not even a runner. I did not stand a chance to even officially finish the race, let alone be timed and recorded as a finisher in their reports. I did not even look for my name in the paper to see how I faired, because it was as if I had never run the race. I had not qualified to even run by paying the entry fee or pinning my number to my shirt. I was running in vain as if I had not run.

Rebirth (born again) is the beginning of the race. God makes you an official runner and provides to you, entry to the race. Paul said, “So run that you may obtain.” You do that by God engendering you to qualify the race. Without the Genome, or Spirit of God, within you, your running, like mine was that time, is in vain.

Rebirth is not biological nor physical in any manner. It is a decision to be a runner to even qualify for the race to the final prize — to live forever and be glorified, as most Olympiads are.

Imagine if you will, the 193^rd Olympiad, and you running naked like all the other runners. Suppose you came in first, second, or even third and stand there on your pedestal. Indeed, you have made a name for yourself, if you are Jewish, but when the camouflage is removed, it is revealed that you were not even an official runner. You may be a runner outwardly, but inwardly you are nothing but a Jew. Your God won but only in Spirit; he did not win in the flesh because you have not been engendered by Jesus.

You, although you won a medal, it will do no good because you are not a legitimate runner. You may even have a number on your wrist or in your mind, but you tried to cheat the system.

Unknown is how many runners were Jewish during the 193^rd Olympiad, but we do know that was the year that God came in the flesh for anyone to run as if God was running in their place.

My hope is that you enter the race, legitimately. “You must be born again.” You cannot do that yourselves, but Jesus is “Yahweh’s Deliverer.”  You must see Him, the Christ, as God in the flesh. It is not physical work that you do, by training for the race, but asking God to perform for you. Jesus is the Power of God in the flesh, and as such, Jesus must endow you with His Power.

The Power of Jesus is Virtue that goes from Him to you. In the Greek, ‘Virtue’ is dynamis — the miraculous Power of Jesus. It is receiving the dynamics (forces of motion) of Jesus in your being. He becomes the runner inside of you and your flesh just an impedance to even finishing the race. As such, rebirth is Jesus overcoming the world (John 16:33) so that you can run without all the effects of the world hindering you.

Bannister did it with graphite; you must do so with ‘Living Water’ — the Holy Spirit — as if the earth has no effects on you.

Jesus demonstrated the Power of faith when He walked on water. He knew that He had overcome the world. Peter had faith to see that it was possible, but not enough faith to do it on his own. Jesus had to take him by the hand and pull him to the finish line… back to the boat. Peter had enough faith to enter the feat, but not enough to get all the Way to Christ. He soon saw that he had not depended on Jesus but his own power, and in that contest, Jesus got him all the Way to safety.

Peter got serious when he entered the water. He did not even try swimming because Jesus was the example on how to remain safe. The turbulence, for a while, never impeded him; it was the ‘graphite’ on his sandals that kept him up.

When he took his eyes off Jesus, he was swamped and quicky his faith fell away. The point is that Peter took his eyes off Jesus and did that often. All the time, Jesus kept him safe, but then he too was crucified. As it turned out, with Jesus gone, Peter kept his eyes on the Cross that was left behind, and that saved him in the end.

Peter was serious about Jesus. He was as serious about finishing the race that Jesus won for him — to eternity. just as Bannister was to defeat time using his own endurance.

Born again is when a sinner first gets serious about Jesus. That we are all destined to die but there is an opportunity to live forever. The runner to the prize cannot run part of the race but all the way to the finish line, “He that endures to the end shall be saved” (Mat 10:22). All the runners must run and run with seriousness and even with much hardship.

We must endure what? “Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him” (Jas 1:12).

Blessed is winning the prize. Bannister won the prize, not in competition with other runners but himself against time. He endured the race to the end. Four minutes to run a mile required stamina, strength, speed, and endurance. He overcame the limitations of the world. He did so, perhaps, by his own power.

Sir Roger Bannister was a lifelong Christian, and he made a name for both himself and Christ. He is now a ‘lord’ but Jesus, during the race for eternal life, was Lord of lords. Jesus as well have won the race for Sir Roger because he credited Christ for his strength.

We all need to be serious. Bannister won the race, but it is well known that he was a Christian. His prize was not defeating the time limit but receiving time without limit. His prize was eternal time because it was as if Jesus was running for him.

So, you love sports? You have a choice, you know? You can either be a spectator and watch for the thrill of it all, while others run and win, or you can win yourself by running with enthusiasm and perseverance. You must be serious about running and even more serious about running hard!

The problem with so many Christians is that they are spectators who watch for Christ to hand them the prize but even fail to reach out to receive it. So many take the Name of God in vain; not even realizing that the crucifixion of Jesus was Him handing you the ‘baton’ of the Cross to run after Him all the Way there.

So many love the sport of it all, and even the rituals associated with entry, but then fail to run the race in seriousness. They have good intentions but as soon as the running gets hard, like poor sportsmen, they abandon the ‘team’ that goes on to win without us.

Most who call themselves ‘Christians’ are merely spectators to the universal ‘Olympiad.’ They have never entered the race for life at all but expect it for merely watching God’s Team overcome the forces of evil. You must be part of that; watching the race is not you that is winning it!

 

 

 

 

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[1] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/