ON INSPIRATION AND GLORIFICATION

The journey I am on is to reveal the ignorance of Christians about whom we worship. I am the chief ignoramus! My hope has always been that there is indeed an almighty God, but at the same time, I have doubted it. As such I too mouthed off biblical sayings as if I knew what I was talking about. I am now convinced that the biblical patriarchs and prophets knew what they were talking about, not because they were of high intelligence, but that God revealed things to them. Of course, their knowledge was revealed in archaic language, but it is still superior knowledge and much of it profound.

The use of knowledge for good things is wisdom and use of it from hurtful things is foolishness. Indeed, mankind is in this together — the world — so we all should want the world to succeed. That is the ideal and God’s plan for us, but rather than the pursuit of good, mankind seeks to undermine all the other cosmopolitans. Foolishness is making oneself appear to be good at the expense of another. Most of mankind seeks to make names for themselves.  That initiative was first pursued by Lucifer: 

I (Lucifer) will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High (God). (Isa 14:13-14)

 In pursuit of the meaning of "glorification," somehow, I landed upon that thought. Lucifer did not say that audibly but mysteriously; it was prefaced by, “You have said in your heart.” Isaiah, just a mere man, knew what Lucifer was thinking. Lucifer came short of the glory of God, knew so, but wanted the Glory that belonged only to God.

For now, just consider “glory” to be the attributes of God, or as scripture says, “The Image” (Gen 1:27). Lucifer, according to Isaiah, wanted to be like the Most High God.

How did Isaiah know what Lucifer was thinking? Did Lucifer reveal his thoughts to Isaiah? He could have but Lucifer is a deceiver and always was (John 8:44). As such Lucifer would not have revealed his plans for himself.

He plans on undermining God and that has always been his way. Why? To be God himself. In a very deceptive accusation, the “Serpent” Lucifer, accused Adam and Eve of wanting to be God. All the while they were accused, the “Accuser” was plotting that very thing. That remains to this day the M.O. of sinners.

Isaiah, as a prophet of God, would have not conversed with Lucifer, and Lucifer, not foolish, would not have revealed his plans to us lower creatures (as implied in scripture; Psalm 8:5).

Lucifer saying things from the heart was what he was thinking. What beings think is their reality.

As the “First Principle” of René Descartes says, “I think, therefore I am.” We know we exist because we have the capacity to think. However, we think and know that we are, but know not what we are.

We are born with the instinct to be gods. Lucifer, for once revealed the truth. We inherited the trait of Lucifer. How is that known? Scripture reveals the truth. The Bible is basically a book about how mankind has always undermined God because we, as sinners, “come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). We even know that we do!

To get technical. The New Testament is not “scripture” per se. Scripture is the document onto which truth is written. The New Testament writings, such as Paul’s letter to Timothy, were not scripture; it refers to the Old Testament writings on the manuscripts of old. Paul explained it to the young man, Timothy, in a letter: 

That from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Tim 3:15-16)

 Paul referred to the writings of the prophets and such. However, was Paul inspired by God Himself? Anybody could say that, but did Paul’s thoughts come from God or was that merely the opinion of an intelligent man?

Note one thing; Paul was not elevating his own ideas but credited God. Of course, that could have been deceptive, but was it? Note that Paul was decapitated by Nero Caesar just because he said things that magnified God rather than himself. Paul certainly was not out to make a name for himself, but for the Name of God — Jesus — in whom his faith lied.

Paul, speaking to King Herod Agrippa explained himself:

At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the Sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, “Saul, Saul, why persecute you me? it is hard for you to kick against the pricks.” And I said, “Who are you, Lord?” And He said, I am Jesus whom you persecute. (Acts 26:13-15)

Paul didn’t lie to the king and Agrippa was almost persuaded to become a Christian. It seems that he may have come to believe Paul.

About Agrippa, Josephus wrote that he scolded his friends for flattering him and died in “Teshuva” (repentance), to wit: 

Maimonides defines the essence of repentance as follows: 

"The sinner must leave his sin, and remove it from his thoughts, and decide in his heart not to do it again... and he must regret the past... and [God] must know that he will never return to this sin... and he must confess with his lips, and say those matters which he decided in his heart." (Wikipedia 2023)

 It seems that Agrippa believed that Paul was inspired by God when he saw a “Light from Heaven” (God).

Eventually, Paul was murdered because he was inspired by God. Paul shared the Light of God and Christians were also inspired by God. In fact, Agrippa was surely inspired by God!

Soon after, the world became inspired by God through the spread of the Word of God.

Glorification begins with inspiration from God. Paul could not save, but he could relate his own experience with Jesus; then Jesus — the Name for God — saved as His Name means.

As Paul wrote to Timothy, scripture has a purpose, “which (is) able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

The New Testament is somewhat redundant. The Old Testament should have been sufficient because it is the scripture of which Paul wrote, but even he did not believe what he professed until he experienced God on the road to Damascus. What Paul wrote was inspired by God from heaven. He did not meet the man, Jesus, on the road, but God spoke to him audibly from His throne.

Generally, God speaks to us in our thoughts. Paul was a special man with a purpose. He was inspired by the Voice from above that he had heard many times before and recognized the sound as the Voice of Jesus and the same Voice that spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden (Gen 3:8).

Paul knew he was inspired and essentially told Agrippa that the dead man Jesus was alive and well and had communicated with him. Rather than thinking Paul was silly, Agrippa apparently believed him and was persuaded to become a Christian! He was convinced that Paul was relating to him a message from Jesus from beyond.

He did not ask how that could be done, but just accepted it because Saul, once a murderer, was by then a crusader. If the self-righteous man Saul could be changed, the self-made man, Agrippa could be as well. (Agrippa had a history of self-aggrandizement.)

Scripture is the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8:32). If those who were entangled with God cannot be believed, why waste your time fake make-believing? If the Bible is not divinely inspired by God, why even read the preposterous thoughts of vain men?

It is imperative to be a Christian that a sinner must believe that the precepts of the Bible; that all of them, are true. There may be errors in translation, but those of the errors of men. Nobody claims that the forty-translators of the English Bible were inspired by God, but that those they translated were!

The Old Testament is a little different; in the “Letter to Aristeas,” it is claimed that the Septuagint translators were inspired and in accordance each with the other to the satisfaction of Pharoah Ptolemy II Philadelphus. It seems that they proved that they were inspired by God, never deviating from the Hebrew manuscripts in their meaning. If there is any error in translation; it is errors into English, Latin, and the other languages.

The Greek New Testament is the “textus receptus” — the received Word of God and many believe that ancient Hebrew is the original language of God. That makes sense, because there is evidence that the Hebrews created the first alphabet from God when He wrote Words on the tablets of stone; something that was never done before!

Many rattle-off the passage that sinners come short of the glory of God. I even asked a pastor with a doctorate degree from Chicago Theological Seminary, what glory even means. His response; “Well, glorious,” as he smiled widely in ignorance.

“Glorification” is remade in the Image of God in the same manner as the first man, who himself, after sin, came short of the glory of God.

That gloriousness is His Image (Selem in the Hebrew) which means that man was literally the “shadow” of God.

Plato explained the significance of that in his “Allegory of the Cave.” He revealed the truth that the shadow of men is a “fragment” of the real men. Therefore, although the soul of Adam was figuratively a “phantom” of God, the soul of the man was as real as the body of man that would be the “cup” in which the soul was breathed to make the organic man alive.

It follows that glorification begins with a new soul and is finished when the soul takes on new flesh. Glorification begins when one first trusts God and is finished when the trust is made whole; when the soul receives its new body at the general resurrection when “the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thes 4;16).

Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (John 7:39) and so shall we be glorified at the general resurrection when our refreshed souls put on new incorruptible flesh (1 Cor 15:52). Inspired Paul wrote that! He must be trusted because he got his information from God.

Moses was credited with writing Genesis wherein Adam was made glorious in the same manner. We know that Moses was inspired by God because the people saw the glory of God shining in his face:

And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And 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… And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai. (Exod 34:28-29, 32)

Note that Moses was glorified. They would not come near him in the same manner as Jesus could not be touched after He was glorified (John 20:17), according to the Law: “Whosoever touches the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifies not himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel” (Num 19:13).

No, Thomas did not touch Jesus, or he would have defiled Jesus (the “Tabernacle” of God). He was only tested to do so but did not!

Why not touch Moses? Why not touch Jesus? Because both had been glorified; both of them had been glorified and that may be the reason that Moses was there alive when Jesus was transfigured when the glorification process of Jesus began. Those who touched Jesus while he was alive were saved but none touched Him thereafter. It remains the Law not to touch a dead man without purification afterward.

Why not touch them? Jesus returned to them restored to His formal glory. He was in the process of re-assembly or sorts. His Holy Ghost had returned, and He was in the process of receiving new incorruptible flesh, so until the process was finished, he could not be corrupted because the Father had not yet seen Him. Speaking of His ascension, “Jesus said unto her, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father’” (John 20:17).

Could it be that the “Phantom” of Jesus was standing before her and that she was witnessing the process of glorification? Could it be that Jesus received His new incorruptible flesh as He ascended to the Father in the same manner as the living and the dead in Christ receive theirs?

The Phantom of Jesus was the “bodily shape” of the man (Luke 3:22). Was Jesus standing before the woman in the very Invisible Image of God and revealed so that many could see Him while others because of their dim eyes could not?

Is that the reason that Muhammad believed that it was only a phantasm that was crucified and not the Person of God?

When Jesus was “raised” from the dead, raised was translated from the root word, agora. Jesus was assembled after having come apart at the crucifixion.

A glorified person is one that was disassembled from the old creature and made a new creature in Christ. Outwardly, we are like the alien creature, Lucifer, but inwardly, we are Jews (Rom 2:29) like Moses and Jesus, even Abraham.

Glorification is a process beginning with when we first believed and culminated when we are raised (assembled) after death. It is the appearance and countenance of the soul of Christians as it is assembled as we meet Jesus in the end.

If it was to be described physically, we would look like the Holy Ghost of Jesus without the impedance of His Body. Our glory would show in the same manner as Jesus walking, as the “Angel of the Lord” (Mat 28:2), right through the walls of His tomb and through the walls of the room where the eleven were gathered: “As they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, “Peace be unto you’” (Luke 24:36).

Jesus was glorified after He suffered death but before he was assembled back together again.

The “Angel of the Lord” is the phantom Image of God  (Selem in the Hebrew) and glorification is to be like that since that “Image” was His Glory.

Therefore, “coming short of the glory of God” is without the very Image of God within. It is imperfection with sin that disallows us from overcoming the world in phantom.

Moses was glorified when He was inspired, and so was Paul. Both retained their bodies, but within, the glorification process began a good work in them as sin was removed. Obviously, at the transfiguration, both the living (Elijah) and the dead (Moses) had their glorification finished as Jesus’s glorification began.