WHAT THE CHURCH IS NOT

Last time the commentary was on what the Church is. It is the assembling together in the Presence of God from before time to the end of days and beyond. It is the congregation of those with those in Christ since Adam and beyond time when the souls of mankind will kneel before God on His Throne.

The Church is the foyer to the throne where Jesus sits on the throne of God. 

⁴ To whom coming (Jesus), as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ⁵ You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. ⁶ Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, “Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded” (1 Pet 4:2-6) 

The Church is a spiritual house, and the house is made up of holy priests — those who have sacrificed their own flesh for the preservation of their souls.

In other words, you are the Church if you are Christians. The invisible, universal Church is built upon Christ with the souls of men and women who trust God so much that they share the essence of Yahweh in the same manner as Jesus.

You cannot see the Church, but it is where Christians gather. The Church is anywhere under the celestial dome because that is the true house of God who, as He said, did not want a house of wood, brick, or stone; but a spiritual house, to wit: The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel: and let the house of your servant David be established before you,” he told David himself.

The “House of David” was not the house (temple) that David’s son, Solomon built, but the spiritual “house” that God founded as one of the prophets that he proved in writing so many psalms.

Just as the English kingdoms were of the “House of the Stewarts” and Rome was the “House of Caesar,” the Church is the “House of David” for he was a man after God’s own heart, or the will of God (1Sam 13:14).

David did build a House for God — a spiritual house, even a genetic house. Solomon, however, built for God a material house when he built the Temple. Whose house still stands? The House of David or the House that Solomon built? It is the former that still stands.

Witnesses came against Christ; one said about Jesus, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and to build it in three days’” (Mat 26:61), and Jesus did that; he died thus perishing the ancient Church and built back better using Himself as the foundation.

The walls of Solomon’s construction kept falling down, and in the end, Jesus resurrected the walls of the Temple using Christians as the living stones. It is the souls of Christians that are the supports for the Church that God built for Himself. 

Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the Name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (Rev 3:12)

The Church is a building in progress and when it is finished, then it will be the entire House of God. That happens in the last days, so the Church should be growing to this day, but God is not after faulty stones, but true stones: 

We have such an high priest (Jesus), who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. (Heb 8:1-2)

 Remember that a few paragraphs ago it was written that Solomon did not build the house for God. The “building” started with David not Solomon. It was the royal House of David that is the Church, and it was not built by David, but by God Himself. Paul verified my theses.

Why was Jesus called, “the son of David”? He was of the House of David. Why the genealogy in the gospels? To show that Jesus was the heir apparent to the House of David. He was legitimately king of the Jews and the Church is the Palace of God with His subjects the Palace structure.

Jesus, as the Stone on which the Church was built, built the “true Tabernacle” — the true Temple of God. The Church is the one Temple that will never perish because it is not made of materials.

Isaiah foresaw the future when he wrote, “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars” (Isa 9:10).

The meaning of that may not be obvious. It needs to be examined for its literal meaning.

Where translated “bricks” it is literally whiteness. It could be white bricks, stones, or white-washed clay. Whichever is correct, it is the structure of the Temples; and the walls of the Temple have fallen now three times!

“We” in that passage is not in the original Hebrew. We could be God’s people or it could even be God Himself. It could be that the “we” are the hewn stones themselves in accordance with the “lively stones” of the New Testament.

The Jews were good, but Christians are better. The Jews built the Temple but Christians the spiritual Church.

“Hewn stones” are literally just some thing that is cut, not specifically dressed stone. The Church is “cut” from people who are dressed for the marriage supper wherein Jesus is the groom and the Church the bride. David envisioned the building of God’s House when he wrote the psalm: 

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handywork… ⁴ Their line is gone out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them has He set a tabernacle for the sun, ⁵ which is as a bridegroom coming out of His chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. (Psalm 19:1, 4-5) 

The “hewn stone” is the handiwork of God. It is the “firmament” — the “pebbles” that make up the celestial sphere — the dome in the skies. Hence, the ceiling of the Church is not a roof at all, but the heaven that God “cut,” as the word “created” means literally (Gen 1:1).

Indeed, that is again what the Church is, but it implies what the Church is not.

Church is a free range gathering under the stars. The Church is not a building of stone hewn by the hands of men.

When people ask, “Where do you go to church?” they mean what church building and its location.

Each morning, I awaken and am in Church. Church is when I commune with God. It may be in my recliner or outside standing because the House of God is under the stars. Wherever I go I can be in Church. What I am missing is the two or three that are gathered in His Name, Jesus.

I go places to assemble with others of the same faith. But when I go to assemble, I miss those who are not assembled, so Jesus commissioned us all to be priests of God in a royal priesthood who should show forth praises (1 Pet 2:9), not to ourselves, but according to the Great Commission, “Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

Jesus did not commission us to go to Church but to go ourselves and take the Church to everyone else. Sure, inviting someone to church is not bad, but going to them to love them is the better way; that is what Jesus did, was it not?

The church has faults. It is as if it is not on solid ground nut ready to quake as it did when Jesus was crucified: 

⁵⁰ Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. ⁵¹  And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; ⁵² and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose… (Mat 27:50-52) 

The Temple was not destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.; it began to fall when Jesus gave up the Holy Ghost.

The falling began with the veil that kept the people away from God. Jesus paved the Way when He released the Power of the Holy Ghost. Isaiah was right. The bricks must fall down but the curtain fell long before the bricks. The Holy Quake that God emanated first toppled the curtain that had blinded the people from the real countenance of God.

The saints of old were the “lively stones” and the foundation of the invisible church, just as Paul wrote, “The household of God; (is) built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone…” (Epes 2:19-20). The saints of old, perhaps John the Baptist and even Adam, were raised from the rubble to build the new Church from the foundation upwards! [1]

Things must be torn down to build back better. Better is goodness and truth. Better is going to others to share the gospel, rather than making them come to God by going to Church! It is not that going to Church is bad, but going to God is better. God has no faults, but the church has many faults, both in the building and in the people.

We all look for a perfect church; do we not? So long as I am in the building, the church has faults, even the spiritual Church. Therefore, the True Church corrects our faults to make the lively stones as true to Christ as possible. So long as you are in the House of God; it has its faults.

The Old Testament Church, both Tabernacle and Temple worship, kept people away from God. Only the priests could sacrifice for the sins of the people. Now, each is their own priest and the only sacrifice we need make is ourselves: Paul wrote, “Brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1). That is what priests did; now if you are a Christian; you are a priest. Nobody can do it for you; you must do so yourselves. Who does that anymore? We feel as if we need the preacher to sacrifice us to God.

Preachers make much ado about being called to preach. We are all called to preach as royal priests, and it is all our jobs to present the gospel. Why do we continue to depend on preachers to do spiritual work for us, when we Christians are commissioned to do so ourselves?

As can be seen with the fall of so many mega-churches, they begin to fall with arrogant and sinful preachers. Mega-churches fall quickly when their pastors are exposed as hypocrites.

Smaller churches fall when they try to be like mega-churches. Building larger more contemporary buildings may attract the worldly, but they are a source of failures. They are not houses of God, but buildings built by men under the pretext of being houses for God. What are contemporary churches for? To attract the world to make sinners come there to find God.

(We should be building missions rather than buildings!)

And what do they find at church? Entertainers and entertainment; that is what is in the modern houses of God; the same things found in the homes of the people.

The Pharisees found that they were not good stewards of God’s money; they paid Judas 30 pieces of silver to bring down the Church by bringing down its Cornerstone — Jesus. With Jesus dead, they expected the opposing Church to fall, but as Jesus fell, the Temple was built back better in three days just as Jesus said. It was not built with stones or even cedar and certainly not with Peter who denied Jesus; it was built on the truth that Jesus is God! So, they gave the money back because they had not been good stewards of money.

The Church was meant to be communal and under the umbrella of Jesus to go the Way of Jesus to our own crosses. We were all to be faithful stewards in accord each with the other for the Spirit to come (Acts 2:1).

Now the church is communistic. There is a great difference! Just think about it. The Church is to be Jesus-centered whereas communism is people-centered.

God designed the House of God, even the house that Solomon built. There were no stages nor actors. There was a basin for the washing of hands and a Molten Sea for the priests to wash filth from their fleshes. The house was for the solemn worshipping of God; it was not to please men and satisfy women, but to glorify God.

Of course, God can be glorified in music but if the music is for the pleasure of the crowd; it is just a performance for them. Stereotypically, people like their kind of music. Many listen to head-banging music all week long and Sundays may just be another day of head-banging music. Or it could be the serene New Age genre that people bring to church to be like the world.

Who is to say what is good worship or poor worship, but it condenses to whom the leaders endeavor to please.

The structure of the Church is with Jesus the cornerstone and the people the pillars that support the structure. Ministers are called, not to preach, but to minister.  Likewise, deacons are called not to preach or even teach, but to assist the minister in the same manner that judges were appointed to help Moses judge.

The Church has ceased being a communal sanctuary for the household of God but is now a den for those who steal the glory from God. It is not communal but more so communistic. How so?

The minister often dictates, and the people merely go along with his initiatives. They are loyal to the minister and to not upset the accordance, everyone just goes with the flow.

One church after another has failed because of preachers who build new buildings and institute new types of worship. Like communists, they are trying to make things better for the masses rather than for the ministry.

I know of several churches that have built new buildings with more comfortable seating and Shakespearean stages that still fail because of financial burden.

Pastors seem to measure their successes by the metrics of attendance, tithes and offerings, and even baptisms without regard to true conversions. In the modern church, sinners become Christians simply by walking forward to the altar to speak with the preacher who sacrifice them to the Lord like the priests of old.

We cannot depend on preachers. One preacher twice pushed me away for merely trying to aid him when he was occupied. How dare you do my job for me was the message that I received.

The ministers have often ceased to minister. They mandate and it happens. They tear down to build back better to their own standards, and in some, the bricks literally fall before the church falls.

Then there is the church bureaucracy. They are the chosen few who seem to do everything. The church does not hang on the Law but on them. Church organizations everywhere have the elite few; do the work for the willing many. It must be them that get the attention and credit; little is for the glory of God.

Rather than a congregation, the masses are just bench warmers to be counted for their numbers and contributions. They are the proletariats like in a Soviet who serve, not so much God, but the bureaucracy and the preachers. They never speak up for fear of being ostracized.   

How does the church ostracize? By picking favorites as if it is a horse-race, while the best qualified become the grooms of the preferred “horses.”

The job of the congregation has become clapping for the performances rather than glorifying God.

Churches help discover the hidden gifts within the congregants, then expect most of them to forget their gifts. You may have your gift revealed to you, but then be expected to keep your spiritual gift to yourself.

Rather than a sanctuary from the world, many modern churches have brought the world to them. In many, you can expect to hear the sounds of the world whether it be music or doctrine.

The doctrine of the modern church is cheap grace. For your attendance award, please step forward and the preacher will reward you now for eternal life later. I have even been “saved” three times because walking forward is the one giant leap to eternal life without regard to what I do with myself.

Many repent, not because they are sorry they did it, but because they were caught after doing it. Many mega-church preachers often confess contrition after they are caught, not confess to God but for the sake of those who have admired them.

Maybe I am no better; I have sat quietly even while watching churches falling apart. I have seen three churches fall apart as I sat silently by. I do not desire to see others fall apart!

That big church with the large sound stage and lights… it may be still there, but it has already fallen. There remains the burden of such a building with nobody there to pay for its encumbrance. Building big comfortable buildings are just that — for people to remain comfortable while others do the work and pay the burden.

The buildings may still be there, but the spiritual houses have fallen.

I went church-hunting with my wife one day. What did I find? Big buildings with few people, or small buildings wanting to be bigger. We heard fine sermons with few to hear and even loud music with few hearing the lyrics. We heard preachers declaring what they will do rather than acknowledging how the church has fallen since they came.

Great buildings, even full of people, is not the Church; it is dedicated Christians who are meek but strong spiritually. It is a house of living souls that clap for God but not for the skills of the performers.

A grand building is a symbol for a weak church. The strongest church that I ever attended was geared for the poor in wealth and those poor in spirit. The pastor truly loved everyone, not just a select few and especially not the young pretty girls that cause so many mega-churches to fail before anyone even sees them falling.

Right now, your church may be falling. In fact, according to the Revelation of John, in the end, the organized church falls, leaving behind only the spiritual Church that so many do not know even exists.

You may see it falling even if the bricks are not falling. You do not need the building, but you still need the House of God!

I do not mean to be mean, but just report on what I see. I have had fingers pointed at me and understand that the nature of men is to seem perfect. By grace, God does not require perfect “stones” to build His House, because He can take a rough stone and hew it to fit its place among the other hewn stones. All we are to do is to submit ourselves to be hewn!

Picture credit; iStock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] For more on that subject refer to my book, The Skull of Adam.

WHAT THE CHURCH IS

 When approaching a new-found acquaintance, a Christians often asks, “Do you go to church?” or even “Do you have a church?”

That comes across as if you attend church, then you must be a Christian. Church is a place where Christians assemble.

The Israelites — the children of God — assembled: “The whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them” (Josh 8:1).

The “Church” (capitalized) had moved from sin in Egypt to Mount Sinai where they still sinned as they assembled. The Church was dynamic, following the Dynamics of God who appeared to them in a cloud by day and a fire by night (Exod 13:21). God was with them during the Exodus from Pharoah and Egypt that represent Satan and sin, respectively.

They Church are those who endeavor to abandon Satan and move away from sin.

Note that they were the Church — the people. The building was not a building; it was a tabernacle, or tent of meeting, just as God met with Noah, “The Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he (Noah) sat in the tent door in the heat of the day” (Gen 18:1).

Noah had “Church with God” when the Lord appeared to him. When the Lord appears, that is His manifestation as Jesus in phantom. Noah saw the Image of Jesus in a very different substance than how we see Him!

Meeting with the Lord is having “Church;” it is “where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there Am I in the midst of them” (Mat 18:20). There would have been Noah and his wife in his tent. God had gone with Noah in the Ark to his tent on Mount Judah in the Taurus Mountains. He was a traveling God who was with Noah ever since Noah had found grace 120 years before (Gen 6:8).

Adam and his mate also had Church with God. Not by coincidence, tabernacle (tent) worship was similar to worship in the Garden of Eden. The Tree in the midst of the Garden was the Tabernacle and the trees beneath where Adam and the woman dwelled beneath the canopies of trees that were their “tents.”

 

Figure 1: Taberncal Worship (hoshanarrabah,org)

The Tent of Meeting was the early Church after Moses was ordained by God to lead the assembly of the Israelites. Examine the figure closely; tabernacle worship was much like trees with their canopies, and  in their midst was a large Canopy, in the same manner as the trees in the Edenic worship.

In each place there was an assembly with God present. Adam and the woman met with God to have communion with Him, to wit:

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen 2:15-17) 

They were to commune with God and eat of His twelve fruits. Rather, they assembled beneath the Tree of Knowledge and ate its fruit. They had Church under the wrong tree and ingested the wrong knowledge. They communed with the wrong god, Lucifer who contended with God. Their ate unworthily, just as in wrong communion in the modern Church.

Adam and the woman went to Church to be in the presence of God and indeed only two were assembled with Him, thus making the “Church.”

Like those two who were coupled with God (entangled with God and each other), the three together made the Church because they were married and each one were the Image of God. — each had God in them.

Even in New Testament times, marriage is likened unto the Church with Jesus, the “groom,” and the Church, the “bride” (Mat 25).

Therefore, the “Church” is the bride of Jesus because it should be built in the Image of God like Christ is the Image of Him.

Marriage, or better said, “Holy Matrimony,” is having Church if God is in the midst of the two.

However, the first mention of the Church in the entire Bible is when Jesus was speaking to Peter: “That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat 16:18).

Jesus, not Peter, is the “Rock” (Mat 21:42 — the “Stone.”). Peter is “lithos;” he is one of the many pebbles, not a rock. The Church was built on Jesus and the evidence of that came from Stephen in his soliloquy: 

³⁰ There appeared to him (Moses) in the wilderness of mount Sina an Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

³¹ When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the Voice of the Lord came unto him, ³² Saying, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.

³³ Then said the Lord to him, “Put off your shoes from your feet: for the place where you stand is holy ground…” 

³⁷ This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall you hear.”

³⁸ This is He, that was in the church in the wilderness with the Angel which spoke to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us…” (Acts 7:30-33,37-38)

 

Moses, like Adam and Noah, as well as Abraham, had Church.

Moses met with The Angel of God on Mount Sinai with all the Israelites assembled at the base of the mountain. Thereon stood Moses in the middle of the mountain with the “Tree of Life” burning before him. There were no tents, no buildings, and no music. “Church” was Moses with God with the assembly beneath them both.

The Prophet, Jesus, would be like Moses, “like unto me,” as Moses said. There on Mount Sinai was the antitype of Jesus and the Burning Bush who as it turned out would later reveal Himself as the backside of God.

The “burning” represents action. Moses represented the Image of God as the Light of God was reflected onto him, God was Invisible (a Phantom Presence), and the fire His Dynamic in action. The meeting on the mountain symbolized the Godhead and those assembled below them, the Church, according to Stephen.

With that background, the Church was created for Adam and Eve, and it was created “very good,” even glorious since it was founded on the Image of God — the Rock of Salvation. Speaking of Jesus, the psalmist wrote, “He shall cry unto me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.” (Psalm 89:26).

The Father is the “Rock of Salvation” as the name Jesus exemplifies… “Ya(hweh) saves.” Jesus is the “Rock” — the firm Thing — that is God. When scripture says “rock,” it implies real estate or physical images.

Wherever Moses went, there was God with him and his people. Hence, since Jesus is “Immanuel” — “God With Us,” then pre-incarnate Jesus was with him as the “Word” (John 1:1-14).

When Yahweh spoke to Jesus from the burning bush, the Voice that he heard was the Dynamic “Word” that would manifest itself in the person of God, Jesus.

Moses had God with him. He was not God but had the authority of God. What God told Moses became the Law and Moses even carried the Law in his hands; then he placed them in the Ark of the Covenant where God met with them to have Church. The Law on the tablets of stone were the “Rock” of God, Jesus. The Law was the cornerstone of the ancient Church as well as the material Image of God.

Jesus came to fulfill the Law. Jesus said about the Law, “I Am not come to destroy, but to fulfil (the Law)” (Mat 5:17). The Law became Jesus, the “Rock.”

The Light, or Dynamic, of God sat on the Mercy Seat of the Ark and Jesus was the Law within the Ark. The Godhead was revealed in the Tent of Meeting with the Light of God atop the Ark, that when stopped, revealed the Phantom of God with the Image of God within the Ark.

The Church is when God stops to reveal Himself as the Godhead, or Holy Trinity.

You must believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the latter the Dynamic of God to be part of the Living Church.

As written herein, the “Church” pre-existed time, and in the end, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” for it is an eternal Institution whose Covenant is written on Stone by the Finger of God (Jesus) for eternity.

So, what is Holy Matrimony so significant in the Law? It too began before time existed in the Garden and is meant to be eternal. [1]

Now for some fact-checking about the Church; Paul wrote about the it: 

¹⁹ Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; ²⁰ and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; ²¹ In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord… (Ephes 2:19-21) 

Who built the foundation of the Church? The apostles and prophets. Not only Peter and the gang of twelve but all those patriarchs who came before them: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and all the priestly prophets. They are the “foundation” of the Church, and it was not built on rock but saints and their fellow travelers in the household of God.

When Moses met God on Mount Sinai, that was the foundation of the Church. There was no building or even a tent. It was Moses under the celestial dome in the Presence of the Godhead with his people assembled beneath them.

The “saints” are those dead in Christ.

Moses died. He was in Christ because his face glowed with the evidence of it. He was acting as God and for God in the manner of Jesus. He was carrying “Jesus” with him as the Law which, according to Jesus, hangs on the Law of Love.

Jesus is Love! It is His “Virtue,” or Dynamic as it was with Yahweh in ancient times.

Note that the foundation of the Church were “saints.” The Church was built long before Peter and was built on Moses and even Adam. The faith of our fathers is the foundation of the Church and likewise the apostles who had enough faith that they died for the sake of God’s Name, Jesus.

The Church, according to Paul, has nothing to do with any building or any other material construction. It is there but invisible. The Church is the “household of God” or an assembly of those whose family name is “Yahweh” — “The Name” (Ha Shem).

A “household” are the members of the same gen; those who came from the same genetic father. Father God is the household’s — the Church’s — Genome. It was built in the family name “I AM” who Jesus declared is Himself.

Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church, not some real stone laid by human hands. He is that Rock from which the entire Church has its datum. The Church was built according to the measurements from Jesus Himself.

Jesus, according to John, created all things (John 1:1-3). He laid the foundation of the Church way back in the Garden of Eden. The Church, I repeat, pre-existed time!

Jesus always was. He was the Cornerstone. That Stone was laid before time began: Jesus, speaking to His Father (The Genome, or “Shadow” within Himself), “Father, I will that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I Am; that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me: for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

Before the foundation of the world was before time existed. Everything, even the invisible Church, was built on Jesus before time ever began!

The Church was built on the Glory of Jesus — the Tree of Life — before the foundation of the world. Its “structure” represented the Godhead itself — the firm things in the Garden on which the Church was built. It was not a church of wood nor stone, but the Image of God and “lively stones,” or as Paul wrote to Peter, “You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).

Thus, the Church is a spiritual house that has no real estate at all, and its purpose is to offer to God the sacrifices of your own souls… souls that are acceptable to Jesus on behalf of the Father.

The “Church” is a “spiritual house.” It is like a building, but of different substances and fabrics.

Christians are the lively stones as measured from Jesus the Cornerstone. All the “pebbles” that make up the spiritual house must fit together with each other to the datum of Christ. Hence, the “fabric” of the Church is love of God and others.

The Church is the tenets of Jesus as the basis with the Christians themselves the construction. The work of building the Church are the twelve fruits of the Spirit. They make the Church, and they are: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal 5:22-23) and three more in the Latin Vulgate Version of the Bible to make twelve Church constructs.

They were the fruit of the Tree of Life, which the reader is reminded, was the first spiritual Church.

So far, the subject matter has been about what the Church is and should be. Tomorrow, the commentary will be about what the Church is not.

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] In my book, An Awesome Quantum God, I provide evidence that the Garden of Eden existed before time even began.

THE WORD

Some words in the Bible have much deeper meaning. When God speaks, that is His Word just as when anyone else speaks that is their word.

When God speaks, the “Word” is capitalized, indicating that it is the Divine Word — the Word of God.

An example of this usage is in the book of Ezekiel: “The Word of the Lord also came unto me, saying…” (Ezek 11:1). In the Hebrew the Word is “Dabar.” In the Greek the Word is “Logos,” as in “the Word was God.” (John 1:1).

The Word reveals action — speech. The Word is the “cause,” to wit: “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made” (John 3:3).

Hence, God communicated the process and it happened — all things were made. “Him” in that passage is the Word that is God.

Jesus is the Word (John 1:14). He is the “Tongue” of God so to speak.

For Ezekiel, God came to him via his mind and sometimes in a dream but still his mind. Only the select could hear God because the Word was silent speech. It was not sound waves that reached the mind of Ezekiel through his ears, but God speaking to his mind directly.

In my latest book, An Awesome Quantum God, I wrote about the importance of the hairs of your head that God is quite aware of their number (Mat 10:30).

For Ezekiel God spoke to him through the hairs of his head.

One of the scientific demonstrations of quantum “spookiness” is the “uncertainty principle.” In the demonstration of spooky quantum communications, a red ball was used to demonstrate how light “communicates” with things.

Light is a “cloud” of sorts… the bouncy red ball. Light, until it stops, is neither a particle nor a wave but a cloud that is displayed to the eye by light rays.

If one ray of light was to reach all the trees in a forest, it would do so one tree at a time in a very chaotic path that would take a great amount of time. However, because light can be compared to a cloud (simulated by the red ball), it can reach all the trees simultaneously. If the trees were people, and the Divine Light that is God (1 John 3:15), then God communicates with all us “trees” directly and at the same time.

Now, after comparing trees to people, compare hairs to trees. The same dynamic for trees and people can be used to speak to the hairs of the head. Recent scientific discoveries have indicated that there is spooky communication via hair. At times, when our hair stands on end, we may be getting spooky communication, be it from angels of darkness or the Word of God.

Speech is dynamic; it travels in waves to reach its destination. For it to be understood and used, it must reach its destination and stop.

The Word of God was broadcast by God, and anyone, of they were entangled with God (using quantum speech), then they could have received the message from God. Ezekiel received the message because Ezekiel was entangled with God. Jesus called that entanglement “born again,” meaning “engendered from above” (Strong 2006). That engenderment is akin to quantum “entanglement.”

The book of his name begins with: “The Word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest…” (Ezek 1:3). “Came expressly” is not in the original language. The Word did come directly and immediately to Ezekiel, but it would have been dynamic to anyone. However, Ezekiel received the message because of his right genetics. He was “priest” (a kohen). He was a mediator between God and man. God sent the message to all, but because Ezekiel was coupled with God, he got the message and relayed the Word to us all in scripture.

God was the Enunciator and Ezekiel the receiver and recorder of the actual Word of God. Thus, Ezkiel was the mediator, but his range was limited. So, God became flesh to Mediate the Word Himself.

Paul wrote to Timothy, “There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). Therefore, with the advent of Jesus, the prophets were out of a job! God speaks directly to mankind in audible words. The enunciation of the words of God is the Power of the Word. Jesus still speaks to us even though He is distant in another realm. That is the “spooky action at a distance” of which Albert Einstein disbelieved.

Do you believe it? Do you believe God from afar still speaks to you? If you pray and it is answered, the action from prayer reveals that spooky communication. No longer are prophets extant because Jesus took all their jobs and comes directly to us.

The classic case of power in the hair is Samson. He was entangled with God before he was ever born; he was born a Nazarite to separate him for the Lord (Num 6:2). He was never entangled with the world nor Satan but always with the Lord God.

As for Samsom, “the child grew, and the Lord blessed him” (Jud 13:24). The Lord had grace on Samson just as he had Noah long before (Gen 6:8); they were both born for a specific purpose.

Samson’s power was in his hair. It was not his power, but the Power of God! God transmitted and mediated His own Power to Samson through the hairs of his head that were even numbered. When Delilah had his hair cut, the spooky action at a distance ceased, but when it grew back, Samson regained the Power of God to topple the temple of Dagon.

How did Samson receive the Power of God? It was given to him by “The Angel of the God” (Jud 13:6). The Angel looked like a man but was angelic. He was of a different substance than a biological man. The Power of God came, not as a cloud to Samson’s mama, but as a man in phantom form. That “man” was God, not in the flesh, but in phantom, what we now call the “Holy Ghost.”

Note that according to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the “shadow” (phantom) is a fragment of real thing. The Angel of God was just as much Jesus as the man! The Word came to Samson’s mother as the Spirit of God in the shape of a man. He spoke to her, imbued her, and made her womb a sanctuary for the holy child (Jud 13:7).

“The woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and said unto him: 'Behold, the man has appeared unto me, that came unto me that day’” (Jud 13:10). God came unto the woman but not in a sexual sense. Samson was the Son of God in the sense that Adam was. He was born without sin as a Nazarite and was a foreshadowing of Jesus who was surely a Nazarite himself. (Note that Jesus never drank wine himself. Wine is not “Jesus Juice,” as Michael Jackson claimed.).

The Spirit of the Lord came unto Samson’s mother in the same manner that God came unto Mary. However, Samson had contact with impure things and lost his Power. Delilah diminished God by cutting the hair of Samson.

Jesus, on the other hand, lost Power but it was for virtue; to do good things to others. Samson was not Jesus but more so a brother who failed.

In summary, God speaks the Word to us still by His Dynamics — His actions. Whereas, Samson received Power, Ezekiel received the thoughts of God into his head. His hair may have been the receiver of good thoughts. Or could have it interfered?

Unlike Samson, from the book of Ezekiel, it is learned that priests were not to have long hair and were to cut their hair regularly. To this day, “some Jews believe that human life is similar to the growth of trees, and therefore don't give boys their first haircut until they are three years old. This is called an ‘upsherin,’ which is Yiddish for ‘cutting off’” (Wikipedia 2023) (regarding “tonsure”).

Perhaps by the time of Ezekiel that it was found that it was not the hair that provided the Power of God but God himself. The hair would not be the medium for transmission of virtuous acts but the Angel of God directly.

However, God still communicates to all mankind, the “whosoever” in John 3:16, with no mention of hair. It is the Power of God that is directed, and the hair was revealed in the story of Samson as more of an obstacle than a receptor.

 TONSURE

 

 

ON DECEPTION

Generally, the first thing upon rising, I fire up my computer. The first thing I see, and often choose to ignore, is the current news presented to me free of charge by the most out-of-touch people in the world — the news media.

The first thing that I see are the headlines. Headlines are meant to draw attention to some event. As such, they either incite accordance or hatred.

Headlines are one-liners used as “bait” that is meant to catch the eye and then the attention of the readership. As the captured “fish” reads the body of text, the headlines are most often wishful thinking on the part of the writers. They most often ignore the actual truth or take sentences out of context.

Us “fish” have been caught in a sort of “fish trap” unless we see the holes in the story that allows us to escape their fantasies. Like fish, most people once they are in the trap, cannot find their way out! That is the basis of the construction of a fish trap.

 

Figure 1: wire fish trap

The headline is the “bait.” As fish peer through the opening as shown in the figure above, the “headline;” perhaps for fish may be a wiggly worm, and for humans a deception; both kinds enter the cage unaware that it is even a trap. Nothing hinders them from entering, so they suspect nothing could hinder them from leaving, if they even think about it.

Bait is just that. It is something enticing that begs those who pass by to enter where they should not go. Headlines are bait, and even foolish me, sometimes enter to see if the bait is real or artificial. I am a savvy “fish” that never goes all the way in but glances at the real things, represented in the figure as real wires.

However, I am not a dumb fish nor a non-inquiring human. I know the media; they want me to buy into their narratives. News is not news any longer; it is merely a sure way of repeating a falsehood to the world and for many to buy into the narratives.

In the sit-com, The Middle, the mother warned the youngest child not to believe everything that he sees on the internet. He then asked his mom, “You mean there are not hundreds of attractive women in my neighborhood who want to meet me?”

That a seven-year-old child believes such things is understandable. However, the reason that is on the internet is because even old men believe that narrative. Narratives are merely statements planned to deceive those who hear or read them.

The media and crooked politicians depend on you believing the outlandish.

Jonathan Gruber, the Democrat operative for Obamacare said, “We depended on the stupidity of the American voter.” Obama caught people into his medical care trap using some sort of invisible fish trap and the “bait” was that it was free. They never mentioned that if you did not want it, you had to even pay the government after filing taxes. The government always uses free things to entice the unaware voters. It is as if they put on blindfolds when they enter both the trap and the voting booth!

Once inside the trap, for dumb fish and stupid people, they cannot see the way out. Freedom seems impossible. Fish are dumber than mice; unless they accidentally escape, they are caught. The media depends on people being dumber than mice as well, or at least frogs.

Frogs, if placed in hot water jump out. It is instinctive and done without even thinking. However, if the water temperature is raised a little at a time, then they are so dumb that they perish in too hot water. The media and crooked politicians believe that you are more like a frog. You will get used to their conditions if it is done gradually.

The government conditions by offering a small slice of the “pie” and it tastes so good that people want even more. The pie is only so big. Stupid people never consider that it might run out or be so expensive that only the elite get the pie!

However, once the headline reads, “FREE” they continue to believe the narrative and no longer want out of the fish trap. Even frogs might see the escape route, but voters get trapped even when there is no bait within. Like Pavlov’s dog, they have tasted the treat so many times, that when the government says “FREE” they salivate even when there are no free things forthcoming.

Those who fall for the bait are trapped and doomed to perish. So many times, blacks have gone for the free things that they are now quite comfortable living trapped. They have trusted their former captors so long that they no longer know just how trapped they are!

The opening is there but now they are like frogs; when the heat is turned up as big cities burn, they are comfortable with that.

Many whites see them there and join them in their agony because they too take the bait of “FREE” things. They are in a virtual prison although the door remains open.

It is the voting booth that turns things around, so that dummies can see their way out. The problem is that they see the open door as a barrier. They have been so comfortable in their prisons that they fear removing themselves from captivity. They even begin to love those who put the bait in the trap because the “FREE” sign remains on their most distant wall. Someday, indeed, they feel that there will truly be free things there, but life is nothing but a dream for them. No wonder the Great Reset uses the term, “reimagine” so many times!

Americans, even most of the world, are in a cage.

Now for some commentary on scripture. Lucifer made a sort of “fish trap” to catch naïve human beings. The bait was some type of free things. Sacred literature reveals that the bait were figs on a fig tree. The figs belonged to God and from that one tree, they were not to eat.

If the Tree of Life was an olive tree, then figs looked better than olives. However, I believe that the glossy things (translated “herbs”) that they could eat was manna from God. [1] The “Glossy Thing” on the forbidden tree was Lucifer whose name means, “Bringer of Light.”

They saw the brightness thereon and mistook it for truth. As it turns out, the bait Lucifer used was a fig as large as a watermelon (1 Adam and Eve XLI:2).

However, what was really on the tree was sin. They partook of sin just by entering the trap. Soon, God made a garment of safety and released them from Eden into the world. [2]

God set them free, it seemed, but they were only free within a huge “cage.” God had put mankind in a cage because that was where we could exist, even uncomfortably, all the while we think that the world is paradisical, to wit: “He (God) 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” (Gen 3:24).

Most people are dumb very much like beasts. We do not live in a yellow submarine or anything other than a gigantic cage — a fish trap of sorts. The man and the woman were free in the Garden of Eden, perhaps even in another realm where everything was indeed free, only of the man could dress and keep it. Things therein were free indeed, but mankind chose the trap. They trespassed onto the property of God and as such were imprisoned in the world until their wage of sin was paid (Rom 6:23; then they will be made free, as Jesus promised when He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

What is truth?  That the world that we see as free range wherein we are quite comfortable; it really is a cage wherein things are not so good (Gen 3:14-19).

We all live in a fish trap, albeit we are so comfortable in it that few even want to escape!

To be truthful, both my Dad and I feared squeezing through the opening, but it is worth the effort, because on the other side of the wires of the trap is forever and eternity. It is not just the stupidity of the American voter, but the stupidity of our entire kind that believe they were born gods (Gen 3:5).

The truth will make us free indeed. The world is a trap, and we are quite comfortable in Lucifer’s trap. God took the two “fish” that Lucifer caught and placed them safely within the world until they see the portal to eternity and Eden again.

The Tree of Life was a walking, talking Person, called “Jesus,” who promised, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him” (Rev 3:20).

The “door” therein is an invisible (to us) portal. It is behind us and seems so distant and small that it cannot be passed through. Indeed, it is a small portal, and few will enter in: “For many be called, but few chosen,” according to Jesus (Mat 20:16).

Now imagine the fish trap in the figure. You are the “fish,” facing the bait. You do not look back and are stuck within the trap as if it is impossible to turn around and see the opening. However, there stands the “Fisherman” Jesus, or perhaps one of the fisherman apostle’s words. The “knocking” is Jesus behind you beaconing you to look His Way to escape the trap. However, you must realize that you are even trapped!

You might not even see the opening to freedom, but Jesus keeps on knocking. Only those that respond to the knocking shall be free.

What is it that we escape? Death!

 God could reach His hand through and grab you by the legs like a merman, but he wants only free-range fish caught in the wild. He just hammers and hammers until you either realize what He is hammering for and respond or just remain stiff-necked.

Most of the fish will just stare straight ahead at the bait, rancid or not, and be satisfied with where they are. They ignore the knocking as if there is no sound. Fish do not really “hear” but only respond to vibration. That is why Jesus keeps a knocking; to get to us through our thick skulls.

He knocks with the Cross that beacons us. Not by coincidence, it is the “place of the cranium” called “Calvary.” That is where the earth quaked to show the people the way out but most just stood there as if the earth had never quaked!

The Cross is the directional signal for the Way out of the world to the Garden of Eden in Paradise in another realm.

Jesus was on it showing all who would look the Way back to the Garden of Eden and the escape route from the world wherein we have been trapped for life. Some of us saw the Way and wait for God’s time to release us from our giant cage.

One person saw the Way, not only off his cross, but out of the world. That day, the repentant thief was with Jesus in Paradise as the hammers knocked on the nails that bound both him and Jesus to the “Ark” to heaven. The Cross was the portal all the time, and now few even realize that the Cross is the “key” to the portal to heaven.

Neither Jesus nor the thief really died. They were merely set free from their respective bodies and without that weightiness, they were set free for the trip back to the Garden Paradise. The Cross is the material “Tree of Life,” and the Ghost of Jesus the Tree of Life now back in the Garden and as close as death.

Can you not see it? The world is our prison, and death sets us free, if we are in Christ with Him wherever He shall go.

The apostles that were fishermen of men, knew how to catch and release, and they taught other men and women how to catch and release “fish” from the trap that they are in. The lusts of the world are the “bait” and many still take the bait although it never satisfies, making the stupid fish only unsatisfied and wanting more.

You all do live in a yellow submarine of sorts. At least you live in a cage that you don’t even realize is there. You can be made free if you only listen to the knock and turn around, but like real fish, our ears do not really hear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] See my commentary, “FOOD FOR ANGELS NOT FOOD FOR BEASTS,” on the link Herrin Daily Thoughts: FOOD FOR ANGELS NOT FOOD FOR BEASTS (kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com)

[2] That Eden is the heavenly Paradise comes from the 1 Book of Enoch.

VICARIOUSLY DRIVING NAILS

Those who rationalize “cause something to seem reasonable” (Merriam-Webster 2023). Rationalization is not a cause but is seemingly so. It is a figment of the imagination. It seems reasonable but it is not; it is a biased opinion about one’s own actions.

For instance, the attempted assassin of Donald Trump surely thought it was reasonable to shoot the former president for some unknown cause. The assassination attempt was the effect (or action) of some unknown cause that seemed reasonable to the shooter. Perhaps he really did believe that Trump was a threat to democracy; after all, according to Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, thousands of repetitions make one truth.

The media had repeated even millions of times that Trump was a threat to democracy without even naming how so! “Repetition” was the means to kill Trump to prevent him from destroying their skewed version of democracy.

What is the truth? Trump is patriotic and does want America to be better again. He has demonstrated that when he was president before.

However, this is not a commentary about politics. It is about people like Thomas Matthew Crooks who thought it was reasonable to murder a man just because so many do not like the man.

Crooks indeed was an extreme example of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Crooks was the deranged one because he could not live with the man with whom he disagreed so intesnely. He thought it worth giving his own life so that Trump was silenced. Hos death even meant that never again would he need to see nor hear Donald Trump ever again. He was so agitated with his enemy that he did something irrational. Who was hurt the most? Crooks himself who died because his imagination led him places that were unreasonable.

Was shooting Trump worth the latter’s silence? Even with Trump dead, the movement would still live on and perhaps with even more enthusiasm. Shooting at the former president was an irrational act that the shooter thought a reasonable thing. His mind was apparently so deranged that it was worth dying for it to cease the agitation it was experiencing.

Most of us would never even think of shooting someone else for various reasons. However, many vicariously murder others. How so? They experience or realize “through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another” (ibid).

Many Americans wanted Trump dead. They never pulled the trigger, but they imagined that they did so by wishing the bullet had hit its mark. They rationalized, just as Crooks, that the nation would be better with Trump dead.

Those with Trump Derangement Syndrome would have their anxieties alleviated if the bullet had hit the target. Crooks was not shooting at the former president’s heart but his mind. He wanted the thoughts of Trump dead and gone!

Now we can test that with the Bible.

Jesus said, “Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Mat 5:28). The “heart” in that verse is the human will. Whosoever lusts has already committed the act vicariously. He envisions that the pornography that the others are doing is himself doing those things.

Vicariousness is not limited to imaginary sexual encounters. “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). According to that, millions of people wanted the former President dead. Crooks was the shooter but those with Trump Derangement Syndrome made it possible for him to pull the trigger. He almost fulfilled the fantasy of the mob. He fulfilled the thoughts of Biden and Harris.

Incidentally, the Jews did not kill Jesus alone. They were vocal about it but the others in the mob, even those who remained silent, wanted Jesus dead; not because He was guilty of anything, but they were uncomfortable with His teachings.

Who killed Jesus in their attempts to murder Jesus? The Father killed His own Son because that is what the mob wanted. Then mob was out to get Yahweh by killing His Son. Yahweh sacrificed His own Genome to the mob.

Nimrod, millennia before, had hunted God on His own turf but failed to kill the invisible God — Yahweh. Now, there on Calvary was the very visible Image of God, so if they could topple His Image, then God was as good as dead. They were not out to kill Jesus but to vicariously kill Yahweh. Jesus was the acceptable sacrifice for Yahweh Himself. If Jesus had remained dead, then to them, Yahweh would be dead, and they all could do what they wanted to do with impunity.

The killers had to get to Yahweh by killing Him vicariously because, despite what Muslims believe, phantoms cannot be crucified!

Who killed Jesus? Yahweh did not do the work, but He could have saved Jesus. Jesus revealed to Pontius Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me, except it were given you from above: therefore, He that delivered me unto thee has the greater sin” (John 19:11).

Judas did not deliver Jesus, nor did Caiaphas nor even Pilate. Yahweh delivered Jesus to His death because Jesus was the only acceptable sacrifice: 

(Jesus) who gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father (Galatians 1:4)… And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2) 

When Jesus walked peacefully to His death; it was self-sacrifice; as Yahweh God in the flesh; it was Yahweh who took on the sins of the world and even toppled His own Image — the Man, Jesus. Yahweh murdered Himself in a vicarious manner; it was as if Yahweh drove the nails and fled!

The people did not hate Jesus, the man. They hated Jesus, the God.

Hatred (misio in the Greek) is as the name implies; they were miserable that they could not do whatever they wanted to do.

Just as love (agape) is goodwill toward God and man, miseo is ill-will toward God and mankind. Them all, even those who did no actions themselves, had ill-will toward Yahweh and His Image, Jesus. Their ill-will was the tough Law that Jesus invoked — the Law of Love. Love is a hard thing to do!

Jesus wanted them to be loving and kind and that was just not their nature. They preferred Jesus Derangement Syndrome to the Law of Love on that dreadful day.

“Whosoever,” the ones in John 3:16, who hates his brother has already murdered vicariously. No, they did not pull the trigger nor drive the nails, as the case must be, but they all are guilty if they hate the man that intensely. Whosoever cried out, “Crucify Him” (Mark 15:13). They did not drive the nails but did the dastardly, even bloody, act in their minds!

Jesus seemed to be lying about who He was. It was irrational at that time for a man to be truly God. They had seen many men who made that claim come and go, and for them, Jesus was just another pretender god. The others had died, so why not Jesus? That seemed a rational and reasonable thing to do!

Paul did not think that killing someone else for your own wrongs was a reasonable thing to do, so he said, “You present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1).

God had already made the vicarious sacrifice for your trespasses with the propitiation of the blood of His own Son; now it is your turn. Yours need not be a bloody sacrifice at all, but merely a turning away from sin in the same manner that God turned away your sin by presenting Himself. Your propitiation is not even your flesh but the desires of your flesh. You must have goodwill toward God and others. You must not think about getting even but getting them saved!

Hatred is ill-will. It is as if murdering another person, and murdering a creature of God is vicariously murdering God again. Each time you hate another, that is driving another vicarious, imaginary nail into the hands or feet of Jesus.

Why do people have hatred in their hearts (minds)? Because they have “People Derangement Syndrome.” (Yes, sometimes I too am guilty of that).

Even Christians oftentimes cannot stand the idea that others are not Christians. They even get pleasure out of shunning!

Not dining with those who reject God is a noble commandment (1 Cor 5:11), but if it is implemented ignobly, then that is as if murdering the sinful person, and makes the shunner the murderer.

The “knife” is the commandment, so to speak, but having pleasure in using the commandment is ill-will with the so-called “Christian.” Having pleasure in inserting the commandment into the heart and soul of the sinner is wrong… you know, the one (whosoever) that God loves so much!

Sin is hateful. It is as if crucifying Jesus all over again with each sin. Jesus has been re-crucified, even by Christians like me daily.

Sin is the thoughts of God as dead so that the penalty of sin is not justified.

Rationalization is self-justification: The inquiring lawyer inquired of Jesus about who would lie forever. The lawyer pleading his case was “willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29). speaking about the one that he must love.

Jesus used the example of the non-Christian, non-Jew — the Samaritan. The lawless Samaritan showed love and He was not obeying commandments, but he had goodwill for the dying man whereas those under the Law did not.

In other words, love (goodwill) is not to be only mouthed but put into action. The Pharisees were the mouths of the Law, and Jesus called them vipers. Those who press the Law unto others are the viperous generation of whom it is written (Mat 3:27).

The Law is good, but those who joyously make others obey the Law that even they cannot do, are the snakes even if they teach the gospel. Hence, Christianity is not strict obedience to the Law but a willingness to do better than the Law, even to love, not just neighbors, but even enemies. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Mat 5:44). So, what do Christians do so often? Either sue or persecute you!

Having ill-will toward those who do wrong things to you may be the command, but it is not the intent of the Law. Christians must overcome their hatred of their enemies and out-perform the Law. Worse yet is the satisfaction so many get in vicariously knifing their enemies.

Picture credit Pop Classics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

We all have been there; done that. We all have made mistakes and regretted that we have. If there is no regret, but only the desire to protect oneself from public scrutiny, oftentimes a cover-up ensues. I hate to make mistakes but worse yet, I hate to be found out.

I am not unique at all; I think that others do suffer the same pride.

In my dealings over the years, as far as anyone knows, I seldom made mistakes. Why is that? It was not that I did not make mistakes, but I made the mistakes right without anyone even knowing that they were made.

I was imperfect but retained my integrity because I made my mistakes right. I did right for the wrong reasons but in the end things ended well. The only thing about that was that I worked hard to protect my impeccable record which I knew was peccare; that I had come short of perfection. In other words, I was “prideful,” not only me, but that is the nature of mankind due to original sin.

Nobody likes to be wrong. If they are, then they disappoint themselves.

Kings usually have too much pride, but even they are there by the grace of God. One of the best kings ever swallowed his pride:

Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. (2 Chron 32:26)

Notwithstanding what? “Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him” (2 Chron 32:25). Hezekiah did many good things to win the battle against his enemies but in the end, despite Hezekiah’s perfect planning, God saved both him and the Jews.

In the first part of chapter 32 is a list of all the things that Hezekiah did. Then, there is the one thing that God did that surpassed all the good things Hezekiah had done. It was God that saved them, but history wrote that Hezekiah was nearly perfect and most of the credit did go to Hezekiah.

In the end, what did Hezekiah need? Humbling, and the one act of God humbled the king. He avoided the wrath of God because He in his heart knew that it was not his works that saved them but the grace of God!

Mankind has a terrible disease: “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts” (Psalm 10:4).

Paul wrote, “Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). Apparently, Hezekiah, for a while anyway, got the glory, but in the end, it was the Glory of God that saved them. He missed the mark, but caught himself in time; indeed, he had come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

People like to hear how well they are doing. I enjoy that myself, but without God my good things are nothing. They are as filthy rags to God (Isa 64:6).

I write what I believe are well-composed treatises but is it me that writes wisdom; not if I believe the words of the song, “Yet not I but through Christ in me.”

Every time that I write, I fear that the wicked one in me might come out and that I will make theological mistakes and such. I will only be perfected once I am glorified at death to be like Christ. Until then I will have imperfections regardless of how hard I try, to wit: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). His Word says that we all have sinned. I admit that I have sinned and still do sin, but by grace, if I remain in Christ, it is not counted as sin.

Hezekiah was “humbled.” Hezekiah was literally brought low. Outwardly he was a king but inwardly he knew that he was not. He realized that only God is King and that he was only king by the mercies of God; then God had mercy on both him and his people.

What if Hezekiah had had a triumphal parade like the Roman Caesars would do? Like Vespasian, years later, that would have given himself the credit. Hezekiah knew that it was not his good works that had triumphed but the works of the invisible God.

For me, I endeavor to write only what I believe God as revealed to me. The readers may get angry with some of my commentaries, but they are not mine. Sometimes, my bias does sneak through, and often I do err. We all do, and even as I write, I catch and correct my own errors. I do that for two reasons: (1) to retain some degree of credibility and (2) so that others can get to know God better. It is not to misrepresent God nor present myself better than what I am.

At one time, I thought that my religious leaders were sin-free. Was I mistaken! Even pious Mr. Howard, from my youth, struggled with pride just as we all do. That remains our genetic weak spot (called “stronghold”) because that comes with our birth. We are not glorious beings who do not err, but inglorious bastard sons (in a genetic sense) of “our father the Devil” (John 8:44). We have the same countenance, unless it is resolved by rebirth, that Lucifer has.

Our “countenance” from the psalm is how we appear to others; it is whether our faces display anger or not.

The literal meaning of the Hebrew word for countenance is “nostrils.” What makes mankind different than the gorillas so much that we are accused of being their kind? Our nostrils. Gorillas reveal anger by the flare of their nostrils. The nostrils reveal the thoughts inside the beast within us. When we think of an angry man, we often reveal their anger in pictures by flared nostrils. Indeed, anger makes humans like beasts.

A true hypocrite can appear tame just by retaining a good composure. The Pharisees were known for spouting off scripture like a water gun spraying victims in the face. Many of the victims were deluged with scripture all the while the vilest of the Pharisees were doing nothing more than waging war on those who sinned just like themselves!

I am indeed hard on myself, but I know the source of my shortcomings. I was born this way just as King David when he admitted to that in Psalm 51:5. God expects me to be perfect, knowing all the while that I will fail. He gives me credit for the willingness to hit the mark although generally, I miss it. He is patient with me.

What do gorillas do when they show their pride? They stand tall and beat their own chests. Perhaps Hezekiah realized that he too was capable of that as well, so with that thought, he was humbled — he was brought low to the ground just as gorillas are wont to be most of the time.

The countenances of some individuals are deceptive. Lucifer presented himself as the “bringer of light” all the while he brought the “darkness” of sin.

Isaiah, referring to Lucifer’s pride, said, “Your pomp is brought down to the grave” (Isa 14:11). It was his pride — his arrogance to be God.

“Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov 16:18).

We just saw that with President Biden! He certainly has an haughty spirit (arrogance) and just when things looked good, he fell.

He dug his own grave, so to speak. He deserved what he got because he was so arrogant, even without merit. Biden’s fate was because he was an angry man whose expectations were for everyone think and do like him. When most of us think of Biden, we think of an angry old man who to his peers appeared as a warm-hearted generous elderly person who should be respected.

Biden knew his capabilities and resigned. It took many years to expose such arrogance.

However, this commentary is not about him. It is about us all. We all have too much pride, but God, in the end, will humble us for being so pompous.

It is okay to correct your mistakes but not at the expense of God nor others. That is the basis of the Greatest Commandment.

Most people, if they admit it, are conditioned. We each know our own fallibilities and project our failures onto someone else. We are indeed as little children that must be remolded.

What do little children do when confronted with a wrong? Well, Joey did this, or Mary did that. Pointing out the wrongs of others does not atone for our own wrongs. They are not “Christs” who take on our sins for remission, but that is the way we act. Because others cheat or steal, for instance, is not justification for us to cheat and steal. As an example, because the government is poor stewards of our money does not make it right to cheat on taxes.

What stands between God and man? Pride! The Serpent got it right: “You shall be as gods” (Gen 3:5). Now all the while we judge others to Hell, we forget our own pomposity! We are all Pharisees in the eyes of God unless we are humbled. What did Jesus call them? Vipers” – serpents — because although they wanted others to do good, they were beyond that themselves, as if they were gods.

Mankind overly estimates themselves. I do as well! None are immune from thinking of themselves too highly. Unless we are born again, we are of the wicked one just like Cain (1 John 3:12).

Our problem is our countenances; we present ourselves as perfect all the while hating our imperfections. The obvious way to alleviate that gap is to project our failures onto others. Have you ever noticed that the fifth phase of a failing project is to blame others?

Using Biden as the example again; that arrogant old guy has blamed all his failures on the previous administration. What happened to him? He suffered the wrath of even those he thought loved him. Now he has turned on them, ignoring all his own failures. That is the classic case of anger projection.

It is not only Biden that does that; it is common to us all unless God overcomes that for us, and he will do that: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” (Jas 4:10). Hezekiah did that and the Lord lifted him; He was revealed as a great king, not because he did all those things, but because he humbled himself!

"Hezekiah's Passover;" Pinterest