A TREE WITHOUT FRUIT

Why wither the fig tree? It did nothing, but perhaps nothing was the problem!

Jesus was human. He became hungry (Mat 21:18). As the ‘Last Adam’ he was a ‘quickening Spirit’ (1 Cor 15:45). Jesus came to a fig tree; although it had leaves, it bore no fruit. Jesus wanted fruit to lessen His hunger. He had made the fig tree to bear fig fruit, yet it did not. That one fig tree was different than what it was meant to be.

Jesus could have ‘quickened’ it — made it fruitful. Right then, that tree could have produced, even without waiting its time. Quickening is overcoming the world and its constraints.

On the other hand, what did Jesus do?

“Presently the fig tree withered away. and when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, ‘How soon is the fig tree withered away!’” (Mat 21:19-20).

“Presently,” it is written; parachrema — immediately! Some varieties of fig trees can produce the first year but others much longer (3-4 years), depending in the variety.  

For some reason, Jesus had expected that tree to have fruit before He got there. He surely thought it had had enough time, so rather than quickening the fruit to produce right then, which He could have done, he withered it away.

 The problem could have been many; it could have been grown on poor soil, it could have failed to pollinate if it was of that variety, the growing season could have been cut short, the tree could have been too young, the tree could have been diseased, have insects, and so forth.

The most likely case is one of the latter because Jesus had expected it to have fruit. However, there is another possibility; without modern plant husbandry that tree had mutated; rather than produce fruit, it was fruitless because of its genome. The tree may have gradually changed its genetics over time due to the world. Without intervention, just like iron can rust given exposure to corrosive things, organisms can be changed by exposure to the elements of the world.

Take for instance fish; they adapt to their habitat. A fish that lives on the bottom have certain characteristics that reveal they are bottom dwellers. They are flat in shape, dark on top, and white on the bottom. Generally, they lack bright colors because they have not been exposed to the Sun’s rays.

Fig trees gradually go dormant. Not only a tree too young may not produce fruit, but one that is too old. They have adapted to the world. Say they went too many seasons without producing; after so many years, their nature is not to produce.

Jesus may have seen that this fig tree was too used to the world. It had become acclimated to its environment and existed there, perhaps for several years, without producing fruit.

Compare that to humans. Many have become so acclimated to the world, that they just can no longer produce any fruit of the Spirit: 

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Gal 5:22:25)

 Figs represent both good and evil; the tree of that same name, as revealed by the fiber of the aprons of Adam and Eve, was not an apple tree, but a fig tree. The Book of Adam and Eve confirms that.

Good fruit are love, joy, peace, etc. Not just one of them, but all twelve. (The Latin Vulgate lists all twelve kinds of fruit.)

Jesus, perhaps, not only expected fruit on that barren tree, but good fruit. If it had been wormy fruit or bitter fruit, it would have been more disgusting but it least it would have done what it should do. However, that tree bear no fruit.

Jesus expected the fig tree to grow fruit. He expected it to do something other than just stand there like a rotten tree, but either some fruit, good or bad! If it had bad fruit, He would let it wither on its own. Jesus perished the fig tree because it just failed to produce anything!

Christians are the same way. Most ‘Christians’ are Christians in name only (CINO). For some reason that cognomen appeared in my mind early this morning, but I never expected it to appear in my scheduled Bible study. That is no coincidence for God does such things!

Christians are known by their fruit, so says Jesus, “Every tree is known by his own fruit” (Luke 6:44).

Throughout the Bible people are symbolized by trees. For instance, Jesus is represented by the Tree of Life and Satan by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Each produced their own fruit; the Tree of Life produces twelve manner of fruit (Rev 22:2), but this particular fig tree produced no manner of fruit. It was as worthless as the Forbidden Tree in the Garden whose fruit was many (Gal 5:19-21).

The point that Jesus was surely making was that trees that are expected to grow fruit should bear some type of fruit; be it good or bad. This one fig tree just stood there, so it was not doing what it was created to do. Rather than force it to produce, and rather than wait for it to die on its own, Jesus essentially destroyed it immediately because it was useless. It was a fig tree in name only!

Even if it had produced one fruit, then it would have remained. Jesus would have seen its potential to produce more fruit. He would have quickened it, rather than perish it.

Babes in Christ are Christians who bear some fruit, but not all twelve. Jesus sees the potential in young Christians. If Jesus sees potential in new Christians, He quickens them. He overcomes time and makes them fruitful.

Think what a good husbandman might do today. I usually use Miracle Grow® to quicken young plants that I want to make it in my garden.

Jesus uses Virtue to quicken young Christians. Virtue comes from the Greek word, ‘dynamis.’ In English that is literally ‘dynamics” and is the Power of God that overcomes the world to heal, provide longevity, and produce Christlike fruit.

The quickening of death is the humane way of putting something to death. Of course, the fig tree had no soul, but Jesus was metaphorically making a point; that a Christian that bears no fruit cannot produce other Christians, in the same manner as God produced Adam and Adam the woman.

Adam came from the Spirit of God losing Virtue to the man, then the man shared his Virtue to make a woman. Adam was the fruit of God and so was the woman because Adam was to dress and keep the Garden (Gen 2:15), and both Adam and his mate were the first human ‘plants.’

Both Adam and the woman failed to produce in the Garden because of interference from outside (The Serpent). Adam failed to produce any good fruit in the world and Eve as the mother of all living, produced evil fruit in the manner of the Wicked One.

That Adam was made a ‘living soul’ means that it was not intended for him to die, and as the ‘Last Adam’ it was the role of Jesus to dress and keep the Garden of living souls — Adam and his kind.

Jesus dressed the Garden of the Lord (Israel) by pruning that one tree in His time. Jesus did not mess around with His role as ‘Husbandman’ whereas the First Adam did. Jesus may have withered that tree to make room for a fruitful tree just as any husbandman might do, and as I have done with my own trees that would not grow.

This sounds cruel, but I gave up on one of my children. Because he was bearing no fruit, I cut him off. I did not reward him for producing nothing. However, since I am not God, I did not cut him off; I prayed for him, and I believe he is now beginning to bear some of the better fruit. I have hope because he has potential. Many parents endure the same experience, and perhaps my dad did it with all his sons, and for certain God does that with all of us unless it is evident that we are reprobate. 

Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled, and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Tit 1:15-16)

 That fig tree did no work; it did not do what fig trees were meant to do. Even as Jesus stood before it, that tree was lifeless. Jesus knew it had no potential. It was still a fig tree but did not identify itself as such by its fruit.

The same goes for Christians; they can follow Christ yet bear no fruit. In spiritual terminology, that fig tree was reprobate from any good work such as bearing fruit of some sort.

 

 

 

 

FEARING THE BEAST WITHIN

Jesus often quoted scripture. As I have written before, the New Testament is not the scripture when Jesus spoke because it remained unwritten and certainly unpublished. The Old Testament is ‘scripture’ in the sense that it is the written Word of God.

Jesus, as the Word (John 1:1-14), spoke those words to the prophets and patriarchs by divine inspiration (2 Tim 3:16).,

Jesus healed the blind (Mat 21:14) and the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that Jesus did, but were much displeased (Mat 21:15).

Neither the chief priests nor the scribes could heal anybody. Jesus, they surely felt, stole their glory. That remains a problem to this age, to the extent that in 2005 the Stolen Valor Act was enacted in the United States.

Think about their thinking: We do all the work, but this Man gets the glory! Just as scripture says, their thoughts were not the Thoughts of God (Isa 55:8).

The chief priests and Pharisees, at least one of them asked Jesus, “Hear you what these say?” They were saying, “Hosanna to the son of David” (Mat 21:15) — Oh, save us, son of David.

Why were they angered? David was king, not a priest. King Saul, long ago, assumed the role of priest and did the things that the chief priest Samuel was to do. Saul stole Samuel’s valor, and “The Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel” (1 Sam 15:35).

Jesus was doing their jobs! That goes deeper than it first appears. The job of the scribes was writing copies of the scripture. Perhaps there was jealousy because they only copied it, but Jesus wrote it! Jesus was stealing their valor.

As for the chief priests, they enforced the 613 Laws, but Jesus wrote them as the Word in the Old Testament.

Think how their feelings were hurt when Jesus asked, “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise?’” referring to God.

The scribes had written that perhaps hundreds of times, and most certainly the chief priests had read that as many times.

Now think on how smart we feel when we quote scripture. The point that Jesus was making was that writing about the Word of God and even reading it is not soterial.

That is likely a new word for you; soterial means ‘relating to salvation’ (Merriam-Webster 2023).

In fact, that hits me squarely in the face; I read the scripture and write a commentary nearly every day, but that does not make me a Christian nor will it save me. It makes me feel righteous but does not make me righteous. Merely reading and writing scripture can be merely placebos unless those precepts are lived.

I do all the hard work, ala the priests and scribes, but that brings me no glory. If I get any glory for what I do, that is valor stolen from Jesus.

Jesus was effectively asking them, Do you not practice what you read and write? To be honest that applies to me as well. Often, I find myself doing the very things that I write that should not be done. Each time, the only solution is to turn to Jesus and give Him the glory that He deserves. The scribes and priests would not do that, but the little children did!

Jesus quoted what both parties should have known by heart, and perhaps they did — “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise?”

Again, what were the children saying? “O save us, son of David.” They gave credit to Jesus as both King and High Priest. David was not; he could not save. However, the children saw that Jesus was the legitimate King of the Jews, which He was, and was also God Himself.

Why would that bother the scribes and Chief Priests. Since Jonathan Hyrcanus was both king and chief priest not too many years before, that the chief priests aspired to the Davidic Throne. Those children did not see the chief priests as kings, and the latter were sore about it. They surely desired the esteem that Jesus was getting. It was them who struggled to save the Jews against the adversaries, and here was Jesus who they saw as the ‘Adversary.’

Jesus had been caught doing wonderful things before, and along came the Pharisees who accused Jesus: “This fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils” (Mat 12:24).

The children were calling Jesus Savior and King. The religious leaders claimed Jesus to be the Devil. They believed that they could cast out Devils; they could not, so the two chief priests had Jesus crucified not too long after. Jesus was steeling their glory. How so?

Royalty have ‘Houses,’ using the name of their leader. The chief priest at the time of the crucifixion was Caiaphas. He was the fifth chief priest in the ‘House of Annas” who was there with Caiaphas to put Jesus in his place. Caiaphas was royalty in a sense — he was of the House of Annas, and they were there to defend their aspirations. Jesus was outperforming them, and the multitude loved Jesus as much as they despised the chief priests who enslaved them with the Law.

Jesus called them out — You know scripture, but you fail to live scripture. He seemed to belittle them, but it was the truth. They, however, were not humbled, but were very agitated, so much so that those two men would soon have Him killed.

Jesus quoted scripture. That was His defense against His accusers. Without a written account of the gospels, Jesus quoted a Psalm from the Old Testament: 

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your Name in all the Earth! who has set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you ordained strength because of your enemies, that you might still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit Him? (Psalm 8:1-4)

 Jesus knew that they knew all that song. They had read it over and over and even sung it in the synagogue. Jesus was good at projecting His Thoughts. He merely quoted one verse that would bring to mind the rest of the story. That is what songs do? Just start singing a tune and then stop; those who listen will grasp the whole song if they know it well.

He said one short passage, but what would they think? He claims to be our Lord and that His Name is excellent. He claims to be the Creator of the heavens and the Earth, just as the song says. And to further antagonize them, Who are they to come visit Him?

Jesus never attacked them. He let them judge themselves by filling in the blanks to the Psalm. They were nothing compared to Him, but here they were questioning His Lordship that he had just displayed by doing things that only God could do!

Jesus said so much by saying very little. He did not claim the be the Lord God. However, they must have feared that He was God, or perhaps just a king. They had no reason to fear Jesus; they should fear nothing more than fear itself. They should not have feared Jesus who had done so many wonderful things but fear themselves who had done so many awful things.

TWO TRIUMPHAL ENTRIES

The Roman custom was for the dictator, the leader of the military council, and later the Caesar to enter Rome after defeating the enemies. When Titus defeated the Jews, three authorities entered Rome in Victory.

Josephus wrote of the Roman Triumph over the Jews. By the time of the Caesars, rather than a republican triumph it had become a reception wherein, “only the emperor would be accorded such a supreme honour, as he was the supreme Imperator.” (Wikipedia 2023).

For the first and only time in the history of the Romans; Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian were honored in the Roman Triumphal. As I wrote in an earlier commentary, the Triumphal entry of the Flavians was much different than ever before:

 

But what made the most splendid appearance in Titus's opinion was, when his father met him, and received him; but still the multitude of the citizens conceived the greatest joy when they saw them all three together (Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian), as they did at this time; nor were many days overpast when they determined to have but one triumph, that should be common to both of them, on account of the glorious exploits they had performed, although the senate had decreed each of them a separate triumph by himself. (Josephus, The War of the Jews, Book VII, chapter V, paragraph 3)

 That was the plan but as it turned out, somebody was missing: 

Vespasian and Titus came out crowned with laurel, and clothed in those ancient purple habits which were proper to their family, and then went as far as Octavian's Walks; for there it was that the senate, and the principal rulers, and those that had been recorded as of the equestrian order, waited for them. Now a tribunal had been erected before the cloisters, and ivory chairs had been set upon it, when they came and sat down upon them. Whereupon the soldiery made an acclamation of joy to them immediately, and all gave them attestations of their valor; while they were themselves without their arms, and only in their silken garments, and crowned with laurel: then Vespasian accepted of these shouts of theirs; but while they were still disposed to go on in such acclamations, he gave them a signal of silence. And when every body entirely held their peace, he stood up, and covering the greatest part of his head with his cloak, he put up the accustomed solemn prayers; the like prayers did Titus put up also; after which prayers Vespasian made a short speech to all the people, and then sent away the soldiers to a dinner prepared for them by the emperors. (ibid; chapter 5 para 4)

 

The reason for the Roman Triumphal march was to honor Vespasian — the Caesar. In the paragraphs before the event is related, but what follows is why:

 

And since they had experienced the want of skill, and want of courage in other commanders, they were very desirous to be freed from that great shame they had undergone by their means; and heartily wished to receive such a prince, as might be a security and an ornament to them. And as this good will to Vespasian was universal, those that enjoyed any remarkable dignities could not have patience enough to stay in Rome, but made haste to meet him at a very great distance from it. Nay indeed, none of the rest could endure the delay of seeing him; but did all pour out of the city in such crowds, and were so universally possessed with the opinion that it was easier and better for them to go out than to stay there, that this was the very first time that the city joyfully perceived itself almost empty of its citizens. For those that stayed within were fewer than those that went out. But as soon as the news was come that he was hard by, and those that had met him at first related with what good humour he received every one that came to him; then it was that the whole multitude that had remained in the city, with their wives and children, came into the road, and waited for him there. And for those whom he passed by they made all sorts of acclamations, on account of the joy they had to see him, and the pleasantness of his countenance; and styled him their benefactor, and saviour; and the only person who was worthy to be ruler of the city of Rome. And now the city was like a temple, full of garlands, and sweet odors. Nor was it easy for him to come to the royal palace, for the multitude of the people that stood about him, where yet at last he performed his sacrifices of thanksgiving to his household gods, for his safe return to the city. The multitude did also betake themselves to feasting. Which feasts, and drink-offerings they celebrated by their tribes, and their families, and their neighbourhoods; and still prayed God to grant, that Vespasian, his sons, and all their posterity might continue in the Roman government for a very long time: and that his dominion might be preserved from all opposition. And this was the manner in which Rome so joyfully received Vespasian; and thence grew immediately into a state of great prosperity. (ibid; chapter 4 para 1; underlines mine)

Vespasian was the one real Caesar, but Josephus in all his writings continually referred to Titus and Domitian as Caesars as well because each of the sons of Vespasian, in the absence of the father, had the authority of the father. That very well defines the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Especially since Domitian was active but not present in Jerusalem during the wars with the Jews. And one by one, each of them became Caesars consecutively.

Ironically, before that three previous Caesar’s, I’ll call them, the ‘inglorious three,’ there were three Caesars that endeavored to make a name for themselves but failed: Galba, Otho, and Vitellius whose time came and went in a little over a year. Those three would be the akin to the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of Judas, Satan in him, and the Spirit of the Antichrist; not to suggest that Vespasian and his sons were for Christ, but God patterned them after the Holy Trinity for some reason, perhaps to make the Godhead understandable.

I have underlined the reason for the Caesars to be honored: “On account of the joy they had to see him, and the pleasantness of his countenance; and styled him their benefactor, and saviour; and the only person who was worthy to be ruler of the city of Rome; that Vespasian, his sons, and all their posterity might continue in the Roman government for a very long time: and that his dominion might be preserved from all opposition; (and) this was the manner in which Rome so joyfully received Vespasian; and thence grew immediately into a state of great prosperity.”

I submit these are the same set of reasons why the Triumphal Entry of Jesus.

Like the Caesars who were each ‘king of kings’ and ‘lord of lords’ at different times, the same applies to the Godhead of the Holy Trinity, and for the same reasons the Caesars were glorified.

The intention was that the House of Flavian would be Caesar’s forever and on the order of the Julian family.

When history stopped for Rome, suddenly the House of Julii was replaced with the House of Flavius. The Julian’s were indeed cruel punishers, but although not Christians, the Flavians were considerate of the Jews to the extent that they tried to save the Temple and the government of the Jews, as the Jews essentially tore down their own Temple for non-deserved power. The Jews who destroyed Jews valued their newly established empire over the realm of God.

In the process of time, the dynamics of the Romans stopped; first Vespasian was seen as the Caesar, then his son Titus who in the vernacular of the day, was the ‘right hand’ of Caesar and would soon be the Caesar, leaving Domitian to sit to the right hand of his father as time went by. The House of Flavian was the ‘godhead’ of the Romans, despite them having a pantheon of invisible gods.

Now compare the Roman Triumphal Entry to the Godly Triumphal Entry. You would think that humble Jesus would have less pageantry because His entry was to serve not rule, as was the Caesars. Just as I had to edit two chapters to provide the setting for the Roman Triumph, scripture provides four ‘depositions’ for the Triumphal Entry from Jericho to Bethphage as He entered Jerusalem.

The story of the Triumphal entry of Jesus began at Bethphage — ‘The House of Unripe Figs.’ Compare that to the House of Flavius which means ‘golden haired,’ obviously implying ripened, compared to unripen figs.

“House’ when describing royalty is used for genetic dynasties. Thus, Jesus would be of Bethphage (The House of Green Figs) whereas the Caesars were of the House of Flavius. Hopefully, the readers can see the similes.

The ’godhead’ of the House of Flavius was the father, the son, and the lesser known and last son, a man of little distinction. The Godhead of the House of God was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost — the lesser known ‘Ghost’ of the Son, or the ‘Son’ of another glorious substance.

God seemed to have copied the House of Flavian after the House of God — Bethphage.

Josephus recorded the Roman Triumphal Entry in detail, and historians consider Josephus to be a reliable source.

Four reliable sources, reliable enough to face great tribulation for the truth, left each their own deposition. Still, few believe the Triumphal Entry of Jesus because history does not record it! Why would that be? Jesus was not seeking glory nor was he trying to make a Name for Himself. His Name was Jesus, and that Name was above all other names already (Phil 2:9).

The Flavians were called ‘Caesars’ not because they were true Caesars (Julians) but because they each made a name for himself and themselves. On the other hand, God the Father called His Son, ‘Jesus,” and He was rightfully of the House of David, unlike the Flavians who were not truly Caesars from the House of Julii. 

The Flavian Caesars reigned one after another from 69 to 96 AD, replacing the House of Julii and even the ‘antichrist,’ Nero.  One might consider the three preceding Caesars to be of the House of Satan, as the gods of the Flavians were not the God of the Christians. However, at least, the Flavian rule was civil compared to the Julians.

Many coincidences surely imply one truth. My proposition is that the House of Flavius and Bethphage, the House of God, having the same manner of royalty, is God’s way of doing things. He established His House in much the same manner as Flavius would do his.

It is not a coincidence that the Triumphal entry of Jesus was not like the Julians but more so the Flavians, the former having one man in Triumph and the latter three men marching into the Triumphal Entry into Rome.

Now, if you choose, reread the entry above that Josephus described. Josephus never wrote of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem for he was Jewish, at least when he started writing Jewish history. Perhaps it was not to offend the Romans who allowed him to write the history. However, Flavius Josephus, his adopted name, was a wise man; could it be that he was thinking of the Christ when he wrote of the Flavians?

Now consider the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem; to provide the complete history of that entry, I have provided the depositions, in parts, from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John: 

And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, “Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this” And the multitude said, “This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” (Mat 21:8-11)

 Hosanna literally means, “Open, we pray” (Strong 2006). Could it be “Save us; we pray,” as so many say? It could imply to open the House of David, we pray and that it glorifies the Name, ‘Jesus’ as the highest.

Could it be that the people, without the decree of the Roman senate, as was required for the Roman Triumph, were essentially plebeians? They were commoners and certainly not patricians.

Throughout Roman history there had been feuds over who should run the government; should it be dictators, imperators, republicans, the senate, tribunes, triumvirs, or plebeians?

Perhaps Jesus settled the rule of law; that the Kingdom of God would not be chaotic like the Romans, but a Caesar (king of kings; and lord of lords) in the manner of the Flavians — the fair-haired men among the Romans. There would be no need for a senate, a tribunal, nor a court because Jesus would be the ‘Head’ of the Godhead and commoners His Court.

The Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was the beginning of a new realm; where the plebeians would be the royalty in the manner that the commoners of Rome had struggled to have some power in the manner of the patricians.

Remembering that Rome had its College of Pontiffs with Caesar as the Pontifex Maximus, now the Invisible Empire of God, had a new government imposed by grace on the common people, to wit: 

You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Pet 2:9-10)

 Get that? A peculiar people, perhaps plebes that had been made royalty as Jesus came to free the bondsmen from their bonds as Christ the King of kings, with the power of Lord of lords. He  could make for them an holy nation, “agios ethnos” in the Greek. Christ would change their genetics and make commoners into royalty, at least in His Kingdom to come.

Commoners and royalty, plebeians and patricians, had for centuries been born that way. For those who were born again (John 3:7), they would be engendered from above — by “the highest” — to be of very different ethnicity and power. Power from God to the People would have been their motto!

It is important to see that just as the Flavian Dynasty was established on December 26, AD 69; that the Kingdom of God preceded that on Palm Sunday, 33 AD. The Roman Empire failed but the Kingdom of God is eternal, and on Palm Sunday, God established that Kingdom to come in a few short days. The Crucifixion was the Throning of God, just as the Flavian Dynasty unwittingly copied what Jesus had already accomplished in Jerusalem.

What was the Triumphal Entry of Jesus all about? “Blessed be the Kingdom of our father David, that comes in the Name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest” (Mark 11:10). It was about reestablishment of the Kingdom of David, not here on Earth but in Paradise in heaven. 

And when He was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; saying, “Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.” (Luke 19:37-38)

 Luke confirmed Matthew. The glorious entry of Jesus into Jerusalem established the Kingdom of the Cosmos, since Jerusalem — Zion — was the ‘navel of the world’ and the celestial ‘axis.’ The multitude — the plebeians from many nations of many ethnicities — declared Jesus King in Heaven; no wonder Jesus said that His Kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). 

(The people) took branches from palm trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. (John 12:13)… These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was Glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things unto him. The people therefore that was with Him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met Him, for that they heard that He had done this miracle.” (John 12:13,16-18)

 Just as the Romans thought that the bravery of the Flavians was reason enough to glorify them, Jesus would be glorified on Calvary where He was enthroned on the Cross and proclaimed to be a ‘Caesar” by Pontius Pilate who posted the sign, “King of the Jews. Because Jesus propitiated His blood that day, the nations were made whole; it was very democratically for a change. The citizens of the Kingdom of God finally, unlike the Romans, had a choice in the matter. Just as the Caesars were ‘kings of wars,’ Jesus was ‘King of Peace.’

The day that Jesus died, the plebeian on His right became royalty in Paradise that day, and the plebeian on His left remained a plebeian in Hell that same day.

Plebeians had always been born plebeians and would always be plebeians unless they performed gallantly, and then the Romans would elevate them. Some plebes, but very few, became much like patricians.

In the Realm of God, any commoner can become royalty! It is Jesus who changes how they were born into new creatures!

There was an insurrection when the Flavians marched into Rome. The plebes decided that Caesar in all three persons would be honored as one. The Flavians overthrew the last of the three Julian Cesars by public acclaim, beginning with the common military soldiers.

Likewise, it was during the Triumphal Entry of Jesus with His Invisible Father on the ass. That was not just a foal, but a ‘huisos’ in the Greek, the son of an ass. And the ass need not be a female but neuter — a beast of burden. Likely, the ass’s gender was not important, but the foal was a male.

The Father is not male nor female but Patrician — It is Him that is the ‘Father’ Figure, but an invisible one.

Where was the Holy Ghost? Like Domitian, the younger son of Vespasian, he was there but nobody much noticed. Jesus showed the crowd that the Holy Ghost had been with Him all along in Spirit. Many saw the Spirit of God leave Jesus as He gave up the Holy Ghost (Mark 15:37) to reveal the entire Godhead just as the Flavian Caesars would do a 33 more years later.

What should the reader get out of this commentary? That God works in mysterious ways.

Josephus revealed, maybe unwittingly, how God could be three ‘Persons’ in One with each having the Authority of God.

Also revealed was the meaning of Palm Sunday; that it was the Triumphal Entry in the style of the Romans and that the crucifixion was the enthronement of God in three persons — the Glorification of Jesus, just as Titus’s War with the Jews, glorified Vespasian who was not even there.

Neither did Domitian fight the Jews but he was all over tending to the business of Vespasian. Domitian became Caesar and was always considered to be Caesar in power. That all three persons of the Flavian Dynasty were glorified on their Triumphal Entry to Rome gives significance to the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. In both cases —the Flavian and the Godly — both sets of the Father-Son-Spirit trio would be ‘Caesars’ or ‘King of kings’ and Lord of lords.’

 

THE BIBLE: THE WRITTEN WILL OF GOD

 SCRIPTURE

Many churches focus on the New Testament. Jesus said unto the apostles as He “took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink you all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins’” (Mat 26:27-28).

Indeed, the New Testament is a covenant, not replacing the old but finishing it. More on that shortly.

“New,” therein is a fresh covenant, but the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenant were for perpetuity. Hence, the New Testament refreshes the previous Covenants.

Paul wrote about a testament, “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator” (Heb 9:16). The testator of any will is a way of disposing of one’s own affairs. Just who is the ‘Testator’ about whom Paul wrote? The New Testament is essentially probating the Will of God. His ‘Estate’ is the heaven and the Earth, so it should be expected that all of those from of the gens of God should receive their portion of the Estate.

In His divine wisdom, God divided the Estate into two: (1) those who are faithful to Him until the end are to receive the Paradisical part of the Estate and (2) the unfaithful shall receive the ‘burning swamp’ land, so to speak — Hades or Hell.

The last words of Jesus as He probated the Estate was, “It is finished” (John 19:33). The Estate of God was probated by the Son of God, Jesus. He died so that God’s Will be divided fairly. As such, He signed and notarized the Will of God with His own blood. Jesus appeased God by the propitiation of His own blood.

With that said, the New Testament is the ‘codicil’ to the Will of God; “a legal instrument made to modify an earlier will” (Merriam-Webster 2023).

The Adamic, or Edenic, Covenant was the first writing of the Will of God, to wit: “And I will put enmity between you (the Serpent) and the woman, and between your seed (the Serpent’s) and her seed; it shall bruise your head (the Serpent’s), and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15).

‘Enmity’ is hostility of hatred. Thus, the Serpent as the ‘Adversary’ (Satan) was the penalty for Eve’s kind. (Note that by then Eve’s progeny was a new kind distinct from Adam’s kind.) As the ‘mother of all living’ our kind is Eve’s kind and is a mutation caused by the Wicked One. As such, we think of ourselves as mankind, but we are all born in iniquity, just as David admitted (Psalm 51:5). We all are born depraved, meaning that we “come short of the Glory of God” (Rom 3:23).

The latter part of the Adamic Covenant was who would get theirs and who would not. The seed of both the woman and the Serpent are their ‘seed,’ or genetics. The sons (genetics) of the Serpent will be the ones stepped on, and the sons (genetics) of Eve’s kind would do the stepping.

As it turned out that was a shadowy picture of the death of Judas with Satan gushing out of Him and Jesus who was harmed on the Cross. The Adamic Covenant was all about the Good Friday, AD 33 where it was finished!

We are not God’s children; we are children of the Wicked One, just like Cain (1 John 3:12), but those who are born again are engendered by God (Strong 2006) in some miraculous process that is marvelous.

Since Eve’s kind have already been born, that re-gendering makes Christians ‘sons of God’ by adoption; “You have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Rom 8:15).

It is sad that I must be blunt, but you are not a ‘child of God’ unless you have been born again. That you “must be” (John 3:7) to be “saved” (Acts 4;12). Therefore, rebirth is the cause and saved is the effect. They are not the same events but occurs in the process of time just like life.

Now back to the Will of God.

The entire ‘Bible’ is the Will of God; and it consists of the very Word of God written in some sort of tablet or scroll.

A ‘Bible’ is nothing more than the medium on which any text is written. The Bible could be written on the skins of animals, on stone, on paper, or even written on the minds of men. Jesus was the walking, talking ‘Bible’ since the Words in His Mind were the very Word of God (John 1:1-14). Jesus was the true ‘Living Bible’ because His very Words were God speaking His Mind to change our thoughts to His Thoughts.

Some people even smoke the ‘Bible.’ The paper is not important, but the Words written on it certainly are. So, for the medium of exchange, the important thing is the message conveyed on the paper or stone.

Now for a surprise: Scripture is not the New Testament. All occasions of the word ‘scripture,’ refer to the Old Testament from which the new is an appendage that does not change the original intent but clarifies the intent of the Will of God. The best example is that the Greatest Commandment clarifies the conditions that were an appendage to the older Will of God — the Mosaic Covenant and its ‘Appendix’ — the stones on which the Ten Words of God were written.

Although that ‘Bible’ is long gone, the Words thereon are still preserved on paper. My point is that the Bible can be destroyed in various ways — Moses shattered them — but the Words are for perpetuity. As such, according to John, Jesus was the walking, talking Word that quoted scripture form memory because the ‘finger of God’ that wrote it on stone was Jesus (Deut 9:10).

The two tablets of stone made a Bible made of stone, not the entire text but the ‘Appendix’ that wills so often have.

The Words on those stones were the Thoughts of Jesus. The ‘finger of God’ was dynamic; and it was the Spirit of God that burned those Words onto stone. What was it that the Holy Spirit of God wrote? Virtuous Words… good things that improve the defective beings.

‘Virtue’ is ‘dynamis’ in the Greek, and when God writes or otherwise speaks, it is divine Dynamics — forces that keep things in motion during time.

Any of the Words of God written anywhere in the Old Testament is scripture, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16).

At all times, when the word, ‘scripture’ is used in the New Testament, it refers backward to the Old Testament: the Genesis, the Law, the Psalms, the Proverbs and the prophets. All the words in those writings are 'scripture.” (graphe in the Greek), or “things written down” (ibid).

So far, the Bible is the ‘paper’ on which people wrote down the Thoughts of God because it was by the “inspiration of God” as Paul wrote to Timothy.

The Old Testament is the Will of God — His Thoughts — that have been written on the paper or other medium. The manuscripts on which scripture was written was on the dried skins of animals, so animals were Bibles. But the Words on them, in a manner, kept the Word of God alive.

Paul wrote about the whole armor of God; to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephes 6:17). Therefore, scripture — the Word on some medium of exchange — acts like a sword to ward off Satan and Sin. It is not the actual words that do that but the Holy Spirit of God in our shape, called ‘Jesus.’

So, without scripture, even the Christian is defenseless.

Scripture was the ‘weapon’ that kept the wicked ones from the saintly in Old Testament times. The Old Testament was the weapon of God that the patriarchs used to ward off evil, and so it is to this day.

However, the New Testament is technically not ‘scripture’ because it did not exist in the times it was written. The Words of Jesus and the inspired words of the apostles and others were gathered long after they were written. Technically, they are not the scripture mentioned in the New Testament, but they were writings that were judged sacred. 

The canon of the New Testament is the set of books many modern Christians regard as divinely inspired and constituting the New Testament of the Christian Bible. For historical Christians, canonicalization was based on whether the material was written by the apostles or their close associates, rather than claims of divine inspiration. (Wikipedia 2023)

 Of course, that is from the Catholic viewpoint and their councils thought some writings worthy of canonization. ‘Canon’ essentially means ‘rule.’

Wikipedia writers determined that they were not inspired rules but manmade rules or opinions. They neglect that the apostles and the church fathers most often knew Jesus personally, even Paul who knew Jesus after He had arisen.

In my opinion, canon is based on the depositions of those who best knew Jesus personally. Each of the writers, endangering their own lives, wrote the truth. Were there mistakes made in writing. Not if they knew Jesus personally, but often they wrote about what they heard and saw.

As with any depositions, the court looks not so much that they all saw or heard the full story but that the stories support one another, and one person’s deposition does not contradict others.

There are cases in the New Testament where one writer might mention one blind man but another two. They remain in agreement because each focused on what was most obvious in their line of view. What they do not see or hear is called a ‘scotoma,’ sort of an unimportant distraction that the writer failed to notice or thought to be insignificant.

The early Church used the best criteria that they had to decide canon. That criterium was that only the writings of those closest to Jesus would be accepted as divinely inspired scripture.

Note the small difference: scripture is the very Words of God that was captured in the Greek from the Hebrew, and from there to the English. Scripture has some inadequacies in whatever language, so, the reader must defer to the oldest known Hebrew copies. (I believe the original writings were in archaic Hebrew, or possibly hieroglyphic Hebrew.)

English is not the very Word of God but a version of the received text (textus receptus in the Latin). It is scripture since it is the text of God’s Words. The actual Words of Jesus in Greek scripture is directly textus receptus as received from the mouth of God.

It is not just inspired by God, but spoken by God, hence the red-letter edition. The red letters are more than inspired like Old Testament Scripture, but actual Words, if in the Greek. That makes the quoted Words of Jesus the very Words of God. With that said, the New Testament is a codicil that explains God’s Will to clarify the misconceptions, primarily that it was not by the Law that the Will of God would be probated, but the intent of the heirs… Are they asking for their share because of the legal requirements, or knowing they do not deserve anything, ask for mercy.

The New Testament clarifies the Law, just as Jesus said, “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets (Mat 22:4), referring to loving God and others. Essentially the will of the inheritors must coincide with the will of the Testator.

As it turned out the Testator, the ‘Word,’ just as Herod the Great before, came back from the dead to probate his own Will.

Herod’s will was read after he died, as if he was still alive, according to Josephus. Each of the writers of the New Testament were testifying to the validity of the Will of God that was probated by His only Son, Jesus.

Who will get what? All will get theirs and the conditions were well explained by the witnesses to the Will of God. The New Testament verifies who gets what and how fair it would be distributed. Each person will indeed get theirs: some the badlands with methane gases that burn continually wherein there is not water to quench their thirsts, and the faithful heirs receive the Garden Paradise wherein the glorious shall dwell forever.

Hopefully, you might have learned several things: (1) That the Bible is just ‘paper,’ (2) that scripture is the Word of God written on Bible, (3) that both sets of papers is the Will of God, (4) that the Old Testament is the full Will of God, (5) that the New Testament is a ‘clarification’ of the misunderstanding of the original, (6) that the Old Testament is the actual Word of God if in the original language, (7) that the gospels contain the very Words of God and that they are as much the Will of God as earlier scripture, (8) that the remainder of the New Testament was inspired by God Jesus to His closest associates, and is canon, (9) that the other writings of the New Testament are depositions that His close associates left behind that validate the conditions for receiving an inheritance, and lastly, (10) that the distribution of God’s Assets will be divided fairly when each their time comes.

 

 

OPEN THE MIND TO SEE

Jesus and the disciples were about to leave Jericho when the latter spoke to Jesus. A great number of people followed Jesus but two, although blind, delineated just which Person was Jesus. They picked Jesus out of the crowd with no problem. One of the blind men, “heard that it was Jesus” (Mark 10:47) and believed.

Jesus, a little earlier, had told the multitude that followed him, “Having eyes, see you not? and having ears, hear you not? and do you not remember?” (Mark 8:18). What was it that they would so soon forget? The recent miracles of the increases in bread and fish. So, what would Jesus demonstrate to the blind? Beginning with an unnamed blind man, after being blind, he could see.

That brings the reader to the two other blind men, one named Bartimaeus (Mark 10:26) and the other unnamed: 

And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, “What will you that I shall do unto you?” They say unto Him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.” So, Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him. (Mat 20:32-34)

 Their eyes were already open, but they had seen nothing. However, they wanted their open eyes to see Him. Somehow, even without seeing Jesus visually, they could see Him in their mind’s eye. There was something about Jesus that was so obvious that even two blind men could see, but that same feature could not be seen by the multitude.

Jesus touched them both and they could see. When Jesus touched anything, He lost virtue (e.g., the woman with the blood issue): “Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him” (Mark 5:30). Somehow, the blind men had a sixth sense; they could sense virtue around Jesus. Literally, from the Greek word ‘dynamis,’ virtue is ‘dynamics’ in English — a force or power.

As such, Jesus had a force field around Him that emanated the Goodness of God. There is a doctrine, called ‘Procession’ that was one of the major issues that split the Church into the Roman Catholic and Orthodox. Since, Jesus is God in the Flesh it should be obvious that the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, but since they are One, then their Dynamics cannot be divided. As God, it makes sense that the two blind men sensed the Holy Spirit indwelling in the Person of God. They would have seen God within Jesus!

That was what the crucifixion was all about; two ‘blind’ men seeing or not seeing God within Jesus.

Now back to the ‘God Coin’ example of my video [1] wherein when any coin is spun, it is neither heads nor tails but a ‘ghost’ of both. Only when the coin spins are the frontside or backside revealed. As such, the Dynamics is from the Godhead, meaning that it always emanates from God in whatever Substance He is at that time.

Jesus was just the Holy Spirit of God stopped at that moment. Stopping the Dynamis in the Temple revealed Father God, Yahweh. After Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit returned, the ‘God Coin’ resumed its Dynamics. Essentially, the Holy Spirit is the activity of either God or Jesus in the world. It is Him in whatever Substance revealing Himself.

The blind men may have sensed Jesus with insight that even the highest technology machines can finally detect. Maybe it was the brainwaves of Jesus or neutrons passing right through Him. Either way, the blind men received Goodness from God, even at a distance, and “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him” (Mat 20:34).

The eyes are no more than moving cameras. Eyes take pictures of sunlight reflected from objects. Jesus was the Objective God, and the Light of God was reflected off the Person, Jesus. Perhaps they did not sense the Presence of the Spirit of God — His Dynamis, but did sense the Light, or Phos (Greek) of God, radiating from Jesus. Or it could be that since God is All-knowing Mind, that the two blind men could detect the Thoughts of God. Or it could be all three that they sensed.

Light is interesting. It consists of photons that move in a wave but when stopped, are seen much like particles.

Light can be detected by the eyes in one of two ways: indirectly by reflection or directly by absorption. Either way their eyes must be the target. Jesus targeted them! He knew what they knew. Since God is Light, not the Sunray-type, it makes sense that when Jesus was near, God reflected off Jesus, but as Jesus got directly in front of them, the Light of God was focused, and they received their sight. They could then see clearly.

Now consider Jesus: After He was glorified, He disappeared in Emmaus and reappeared in a closed room to the eleven apostles. In His newly glorious flesh (John 7:39), Jesus was impervious to objects. He was Dynamic in that His most elementary particle — neutrons — could pass through material objects.

What did the blind men see? The Glory of God emanating from Jesus. His Glory passed through the divide between the world and their brains, and they could see. That is not a medical diagnosis by any means, but it makes sense.

Remember what Jesus had said earlier? “Having eyes, see you not? and having ears, hear you not?” Jesus was not giving them a physical diagnosis but a Spiritual one.

Now consider the malady of tinnitus. Those afflicted with that have an incessant ringing in their ears. After years of diagnosing the auditory nerves, finally I am told, that even with the nerves cut, the ringing still exists. The sense of noise is thought even without a source. It is an effect without a cause, as it seems. (I am writing with that experience.)

Even with ears, the spiritually dimwitted could not hear. Of course, Jesus was speaking of the Thoughts of God. Jesus may have been speaking to them not with the tongue but with His Spirit.

Jesus even healed the deaf, so that without ‘ears,’ so to speak, they could hear.

In this case, even without eyes, the two could see that Jesus IS God! Do you not remember the miracles of the fishes and loaves? Well, this is the miracle of making the blind to see. It is beyond the science and from a realm that few understand.

The Word opens the ears for the deaf to hear and the eyes for the blind to see. It also opens the mind so that we can understand the Thoughts of God. Jesus not only opened their eyes for them to see but opened their minds to follow Him!

The problem with mankind is that we can see and hear but the minds are closed. My bet is that many of you Christians do not believe in miracles. With that said, with you thinking that you are a ‘freethinker,’ your mind is bound in chains.

God communicates with me any time I open my mind to change my way of thinking. My thoughts, much of the time, are from the Prince of the Power of the Air — the Devil — I hate to admit, but when I read the Word, I sense safety until my mind strays again.

As the two formerly blind men followed Jesus, they obtained a new way of thinking. No longer would they sit there in pity but go down in history as two blind men who could see well enough to know that Jesus IS God in the flesh. Can you see that? It does not take eyes, as Jesus demonstrated, but a passage between your cranium (Latin; Calvariae Locus) and the world.

Reference: While many people have a 'vivid' mind's eye, others have none at all (deccanherald.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] Herrin Daily Thoughts: THE GOD-COIN: The Light of God (kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com)

THE DYING CHURCH

 

The original ‘Church,’ in a spiritual sense, was the two beings together as one in the Garden of Eden. They were with God and each other in Spirit and the Garden was the ‘Church’ that God built for them.

If compared to tabernacle worship during the Exodus, it was much the same.

Think of the trees of the Garden as the individual ‘tabernacles’ with a tree set aside for each person as they came into being. The Tabernacle of God would be the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden just like tabernacle worship.

 

 

In the picture, imagine that the fenced in area is the “midst of the Garden” (Gen 2:9) and the large tent in the middle is the canopy of the Tree of Life. The tents beyond the middle of the Garden would represent the canopies of the trees of the Garden from which living souls would see their ‘godhead’ represented by the Tree of Life. In the picture above the fire by night would represent the Godhead.

So, think of tabernacle worship in tents as a sort of portable ‘Garden of Eden.’ That was what the Church was intended to be. ‘Church’ was not a building but wherever the people of God assembled. In fact, God said to the Hebrews, “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people” and at night they would assemble to glorify God.

As for Adam and Eve, He was their God and they were His people, so ‘Church’ for them was that peaceful walk in ‘Salem’ in the middle of the Garden, noting that Melchizedek, who was without father or mother, beginning nor end, was the King of Salem.

After His Resurrection, Jesus told the remaining eleven, “Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16). Remembering that there is “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephes 4:5); that one baptism would be the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.

For now, however, let’s focus on the simple phrase, ‘Go you into all the world.” The Church was never meant to come to you, but you be the Church wherever you go. The Church is like a bride that is always beside her groom, and in this case the ‘Bride’ is the Church and the ‘Groom,’ Jesus, the ‘Head’ of the Godhead.

Adam and Eve went to ‘Church.’ Their intent was to eat of the fruit of that Tree which bare twelve manner of fruits (Rev 22:2): charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, mildness, faith, modesty, self-restraint from sexuality, and chastity (Gal 5). Those characteristics are the one fruit that should have been eaten and none of them are organic but only the nature with which God endowed His creatures.

The ‘One Fruit’ from that Tree had to represent the Holy Spirit of God. They were not to intake anything at all, but God would imbue them with His ‘Living Waters,’ the ‘sap’ of the Tree of Life.

Between them and the Tree of Life, slightly off the Way, was another ‘tree” whose fruit was forbidden; that fruit was of the same kind as well:

 

Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, raveling’s, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19:21)

 “Now,” Paul wrote, was the same fruit as in the past. He was speaking about the beginning. Those are characteristics of the Unholy Spirit of Lucifer. They are the killing spirit that opposes the “quickening Spirit” of Jesus (1 Cor 15:45).

‘Church’ is the twelve fruit of the Spirit of those assembled; whether two, eleven, or many. The ‘Antichurch’ is where the multitude of the fruit of the Lucifer is assembled.

Now look at the characteristics of your church as a whole. Don’t look at the building because God never desired to have one. The assembly of God’s people was always the Church and it always existed and always will, as Jesus explained to Peter, “Upon this Rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat 16:18).

The psalmist, looking forward to Jesus, wrote, “He shall cry unto Me, You are My Father, My God, and the Rock of My salvation” (Psalm 89:26). God is the ‘Rock’ of the Salvation of Jesus. His is the Foundation of the Church and the Invisible Universal Church was built on Yahweh who in that time, manifested Himself as Jesus. The use of the word, ‘Rock’ should not be taken literally, for Jesus is not just an inanimate Image of God but a moving ‘Stone.’ The “Rock’ is used to suggest that Jesus is the material Substance of God for lack of modern terminology of ‘matter.’

The Church is the Rock (Jesus) and it should have the nature of the Christ:  charity (love), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, mildness, faith, modesty, self-restraint from sexuality, and chastity. Those twelve kinds of fruit emanate from God, and as such, are the fruit of the Spirit, themselves not Rock but intangible substances that can only be revealed dynamically; hence they are virtues (dynamis in the Greek). They are the Dynamics of Jesus, the dynamics of the Christian, and the dynamics of the Church because the Church is the people with Jesus at its head.

How many of Christians have any part of that fruit; even one? How many are even good, or righteous? “No not one!”  (Rom 3:10), but after Jesus gets into you, you should be made righteous.

Now examine yourselves, and me as well, if that suits you. Are you righteous? To be honest, I do not see myself as righteous. I wish I was righteous but will always fall short of the Glory of God because none are righteous, or good, except God.

What keeps Christians from goodness? Our decaying flesh. Just as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil may have been a description of the transparent and luminescent Lucifer with the Unholy Spirit of the Devil within, Christians should be described by the real apparent and illuminated Spirit of God within each of them.

Based on our own nature, just how many Christians do you see in the world? Look only for those who are ready to crucify their own fleshes and follow Jesus to the death (Mat 16:24). No not one!

Some have cut off part of their flesh with circumcision but that did not go far enough; Christians must circumcise their hearts (Rom 2:29) — their innermost being… who you are in secret.

The Church is made up of ‘lively stones’ that are invisible and are to be laid according to the ‘Cornerstone,’ Jesus. In other words, Jesus is the metric from which the people of the Church are laid as they assemble to make the Church.

With that tough metric, the Church will fall. Evaluate yourselves; How are you upholding the Church? That is measured by how well you look like Jesus, not outwardly. but inwardly, even though the outward appearance reflects the innermost you.

Since the Church is made up of Christians and we fall short of the Glory of God, so does the Church. Pull so many stones out and a Church falls just like Christians fall away when tempted by the world (apostasia; Heb 6:6).

The seven churches of Asia are the fruit of the One True Church, and the Book of Revelation recounts how each of those members fall short of the Glory of God. Taken as a whole, the Church was already on its last ‘leg’ before it was even built. I have seen that several times with startup churches; they mean well but fail when the world creeps in.

I have gone to several churches that have fallen. They died slowly but much faster than the ‘Church of Adam and Eve.” Theirs died in 930 years, but ours much quicker.

I saw several as they fell, but the leadership was blind to them falling away. Several of those churches no longer exist, but Jesus said that His Church would prevail, not for a short time, but forever. Something went wrong in each of those churches that they just could not prevail, and indubitably, the Devil somehow got into the churches that failed. They were all sanctuaries of God that the world got into.

The Devil does not get in physically, but spiritually, or rather thoughtfully. Rather than the things of God — the ‘Rock’ — they each thought as individuals, and to be truthful, modern churches are often as sacrilegious and pantheistic as the college of the Roman pontiffs.

Each person has essentially created their own god or even gods. Many say, “God and Jesus” when they speak, not even knowing that God and Jesus are One and the same God in different substances! It is not because they are deceived but because they are not in the Word of God.

How many of you read the Word of God and how often? If you are not in the Word, you are out of the Word — Jesus. You are not in Christ, but out of Christ and fail to even notice it!

Not to be argumentative, but many of you are in a virtual jail. I like to think that because I went forward in church, many years ago, that my struggle has ended; that regardless of how much I look and act like the Devil; that I belong to Jesus. That blasphemes the Holy Ghost of Jesus.

Some even fail to even understand that the Holy Spirit is the Ghost of Jesus that should be in them. The Spirit is not another ‘god’ but the Dynamics, or Goodness (Virtue), of God. The Holy Ghost is how the Spirit of Jesus still works wonders in the world, yet so many never thank Jesus with prayer.

The Church, in my opinion, has devolved to a college of high priests with their court and underlings. It is not Jesus who is at the head of the Godhead, but the godhead is the minister or priest, the deacons and court jesters (the performers), and the dead stones — those who are either vegetables or are treated as such by the elite of the church.

If that offends, so be it; I am speaking about all churches, not just mine or yours, and each of us are a part of the problem!

Christianity requires no work, but the characteristic of a Christian is to serve others, not for their own glory or to make a name for themselves, but for the Glory of God.

Most of us drive to church intending to do what is right, but like Adam and his woman long before, getting there is not the biggest problem, but staying under the canopy of the Tree of Life whose ‘sap’ we can freely drink.

Like the original Church in the beginning, the modern Church has the same obstacle in the way. The so-called ‘Serpent’ offered the desires of the flesh, and so does that invisible being that still disrupts the Will of God.

The churches will fall because many Christians fall away. Right now, you are thinking that you would never fall away!

Just let the ‘lions’ loose and see what you do: “(You Christian) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Who is the Devil after? Certainly not his people, but Christians.

Just like the apostles, the Devil stalks you. The apostles were safe because they were in the Word. If you are not, then you are not even safe, let alone saved, and you thought there was nothing more to salvation than walking forward to the alter.

That you are already saved is a ‘panacea’ — a cure all — something that fulfills all the prescriptions of God at one time in one dose. Why repent as we sin if that sin has already been paid for? That is deception; the Divine Prescription was indeed paid for but for it to be effective, it must be taken regularly for it to remain in your system.

Just as the Glory in Adam waned, so can the Glory in you. Each day that you come short of the Glory of God, requires a renewal of the ‘Prescription,’ and if the Word stays in the cabinet, then it can lose its effectiveness, not because of God because He seals it adequately, but because you fail to take it regularly. With that left undone, the virus of sin slips back in again in much the same way as the pox virus returns as shingles.

The Invisible Church will prevail, but its real members are the faithful few that are as Christ. The Church is not your organization or assembly but the slim pickings from each that God gathers on the Day of the Lord to be together when the Church is rebuilt to the intended design in the beginning. Church should be in the manner of Paradise, and of course, that means it is not in buildings, but beneath God. It is all who bless, or take a knee to God, not in mockery but obedience.

My hope of salvation is that, indeed, I will be one of them that God elects by judgment, and says “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Mat 25;21), not well sung, nor well said, but “well done!”

Yes, the church is indeed dying and seven of them soon show their maladies, and today rather than each of the seven having one malady, the modern church has them all. The original healthy Church has become depraved and so many who attend them cannot even see the depravity in their churches. Not that I am a member of the Church of Christ (a Campbellite) because I am not, but the Church will be restored, not by men, but by Jesus Christ in the end, and that was revealed to John.

You are part of the dying church whether you are independent, Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Restored, Methodist, Pentecostal, Baptist, or any other assembly of Christians who see themselves as right. However, by grace, many of each of those will remain members of the Body of Christ given that they go to the ‘Synagogue of Satan’ (Rev 2:9).

If this sounds as if I am not proud of my church that is a true observation. However, I remain faithful to the true Invisible Church built on God — the Rock of our Salvation.

Too many Christians cherish their church to the point of obedience to it regardless of the doctrine, and others remain with their church as fidelity to God even though God was removed from their presence long ago. You may go to the ‘Church of Apostasy’ and fail to even understand whatever its doctrine might be. Many of the ‘gods’ of our modern church remain  ‘Unknown Gods’ as Paul perceived the Athenian ‘god.’

Many of you do not even know God! Think this instant about the supernaturality of God. Do you know Him or not? To obtain the reward in Paradise, you must know God inside and out and how He works! Knowing that is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is not a fluid or water that engulfs, but the knowledge of God imbued within your mind.