Excuse the lack of an editor today, but this commentary may have verbal errors:Christians, often with good intentions, say things having no idea of the full meaning of what they have said. To be fair, that is a common thing to do. For instance, even New Agers say, “I am spiritual but not religious.” Spirituality is on the path to contentment whereas religious is to adhere to the organized structure of an organization.
Religion is organized whereas
spirituality is interconnected to some unseen force in general. “Following my
own heart,” as New Agers say, is doing whatever you choose to do without anyone
else even guiding you.
In Judeo-Christianity, Cain
followed his own heart, as “the land of Nod” suggests, he wandered through life
with no specific goal. Cain followed his own heart and was cursed for it (Gen
4:11). Godliness had both order and direction, so Cain chose to live life
without a purpose, wandering everywhere outside the safety of the Garden of
Eden. Wandering is “worldliness,” so now you know another concept.
“In those days there was no king
in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Jud 17:6).
Each person did as they pleased and hence, they each followed their own heart.
That brings up another word in
the Christian lexicon. Some say, “I love God with all my heart.” In fact, that
is the doctrine of the true Church: Speaking to the Israelites, Moses said
this:
The Lord our God is one
Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might, and these
words, which I command you this day shall be in thine heart. (Deut 6:4-6)
Love is not following your own
heart but freely following God without coercion. The curse of Cain was that he
was allowed total freedom to go even where he should not go. God emancipate him
with no further expectations. Following your own heart is living dangerously,
and soon Cain was murdered by one of his own people.
Following your own heart
may seem liberating but it exposes you to the elements. As such, Peter wrote, “Be
sober, be vigilant because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walks
about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Sobriety and vigilance is
orderly and with direction. Religion done correctly provides a safety net
because religion espouses conformity to the doctrine of the organization. There
is safety in numbers but danger in isolation. Following your own heart is as
dangerous as a child in a forest with no direction. Religion should provide
both safety and direction; even a purpose in life. If you religion does not,
then maybe you should find another one.
One specific religion has one
doctrine, “Do what thou wilt is the whole law” (Anton LeVey). LeVey was at one
time the leader of the Satanic religion. He is well said, Forget God for you
are your own god. Perhaps the curse of Cain was God emancipation him from
that one original law. He cursed him by allowing him to follow his own heart.
Cain may have believed he was free, but unwittingly like his bequiled mother,
it was not his own heart that he followed, but the will of Beast, and
thenceforth, Cain was the “son of the Beast” (1 John 3:12). It was the will of
his father that he would do, and while thinking that he was free, his evert
desire was controlled.
Another euphemism in Christianese
is the notion of the “heart.” It has nothing to do with the device that
supplies blood, but “the central or innermost part” of anything
Moses was telling God’s people to
love God; that their hearts in love with God should be His divine heart or
“will.” They were seeking purpose and direction, so their hearts had led them
astray, so Moses was telling them the Way. To go the Way of God was to love
Him.
That brings up another
Christianese word — “love.”
Moses said, “You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart.” It was a commandment as the same passage
implies. He was not directing the Israelites to get emotional but to go the Way
of God. If God is love, and He is, then they would love Him back. Commandments
are not how to feel about a subject but how to obey. To find their way to
Paradise, they were to love God. Ironically, that is the knowledge it took to
re-enter the Garden of Eden, “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). The Tree of Life is
another ambiguous word. That “Tree” is the Way to Paradise, and it implies “The
Way” Jesus who said, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto
the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).
So, now you may understand that
the Tree of Life was not a “tree” but a “firm thing” as it literally means in
the Hebrew. How can the Way be a firm thing? Jesus is “The Firm Thing”
according to the angel of God: “The power of the Highest shall overshadow you,
therefore also, that Holy Thing which shall be born of you (Mary) shall
be called “The Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
That brings up another ambiguity;
how can Jesus both be God and “The Son of God”? The Tree of Life is the essence
of God that would be in Jesus. God did not give birth to Jesus, nor even life.
John explains that well; Jesus is God (John 1:1-3,14). Jesus has the Spirit of
God within His flesh. Spirit is having the Substance of God within. Now, it is
known as genetics and indeed Jesus understood genetics. He said, if it was in
English, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Literally, that is engendered
from (God) above
The Tree of Life is whatever
Substance is the Father (Yahweh) who gave life to Adam. Adam’s kind is the Tree
of Life and it always pointed to Jesus as “The Last Adam” as Paul wrote, “The
first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit”
(1 Cor 15:45). Therefore, the “Tree” was not even a tree, but a
“quickening Spirit” that was always in Jesus, according to John (John 1:14).
The Spirit of God is The Tree of Life; whether it is Spirit, Power, or the
Genetics of God is not clear, but it does point that Jesus has within Himself
the very substance of God. That is was a firm thing, means that The Tree of
Life was Jesus, and not any other thing.
Hence, the original sin was going
to another lover opposite of God — “the Serpent.” They fornicated with another
god, Lucifer (Isa 14:14), who pretended to be Jesus. Hence, mankind once
sons of God are “sons of the Devil” (John 8:44). That should hurt your
self-esteem because we are both biologically and spiritually “beasts” in the
manner of Satan, and re-engenderment is the only solution to our condition.
Indeed, you must be born again to have the beast removed from your genetics.
The point to that discussion is
that so many Christians say, “son of God” but have no idea of what they are
saying. John indicated that Jesus is God in the flesh, while Luke and Mark
traced His mother’s side backward to David and beyond, so Jesus was also the
“son of Abraham” and “the son of David.” Hopefully, you get the idea.
More about love. It is a
commandment, so it is not an emotion. Hence, “The Ten Commandments” are not legal
obligations but ways to love. Jesus validated that as well: “On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Mat 22:40). He was referring
to loving God and others. Hence, the Law on The Tablets of Stone was how to
love. The Jews failed to understand their own law and misused it to punish
people. None of “The Decalogue” are about works but things you either think or
not to do. Hence, they are very ergonomic and only ways to express true love.
Jesus equated love to the Commandments, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”
(John 14:15). Hence, The Law is not legal requirements but “ten gratitude’s”
for God’s grace. With that, sins are ingratitude’s. Now you know the Law; what
it is and what it is not. The Jews still fail to understand that. The exercise
of the Law is kindness. Unkind people are not loving people. A fellow worker of
mine was nicknamed “Grumpy.” He attended my church and even called himself that
way. Grumpy is not the aspect of a Christian; joy is.
Most Christians see “joy” this
way: “the expression or exhibition of such emotion”
Joyfulness is how Christians are
to express themselves (Deut 28:47); it is “simcḥa” in the Hebrew. According
to its letters, simcha is not merely a fleeting emotion, but a state of
protected well-being and satisfaction derived from a higher source or a secure
covenant. In one word, “joy” is contentment under the protection of Jesus’s
Covenant of Grace. It has nothing to do with glee at all, other than some
emotional people express joy with glee. The quietest Christian may be fuller of
joy. Therefore, emotion is just that. Emotion is not rebirth (aka “regeneration”)
it is faith. Whereas emotion may be the outcome, cognition is the regeneration.
It is not feely, touchy by any means but thinky, thinky. Regeneration is what
you think about God.
Jesus was crucified, or course,
for your sins, but also to reveal that He is God in the flesh. Of course, His
death may make you cry (an emotion), but what you think is imperative.
Some religions and even denominations
are founded upon emotion. You should feel joy in the form of contentment but
not necessarily gleefulness.
Rebirth, or “regeneration,” is
ambiguous as well. It is not when you become emotional but realize that you
deserve death but by grace is the remedy, “For by grace are you saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephes 2:8).
Christians, especially Calvinists
repeat that often, but it should not be taken flippantly. Grace must be
some type of transaction between God and you.
Although grace was always the way
to salvation, it is mentioned only a few times in The Old Testament, one
being, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen 6:8). Grace was there
but Noah found it. It was as if Noah was hunting for grace, but no… there was
no evidence that Noah was hunting for anything, but God provided to him a
thought. What was Noah thinking? God, somehow revealed to Noah that He was both
real and could save, not only Noah but his household. What act did Noah perform
to find grace? Nothing. God knew that Noah believed in Him, so God provided grace
to him. Grace is the gift of reception. Noah would have believed intensely, both
in God and that God would save him and his family.
So, what is “grace” from the
Hebrew perspective? Hen pronounced khane means “favored.” Noah
was favored, not by election, or even chance, but because he had faith. Faith
is cognitive — how Noah thought. Because Noah trusted God, God provided grace.
Faith preceded grace, so faith was the cause and grace the action. Faith was
cognitive without any type of action, and God provided grace – the action.
And so it was for the repentant
thief on the cross. Even before the evidence of the Holy Ghost, that man looked
at Jesus and thought, This man is God. With that thought, Jesus lost
virtue and the soul of the thief that day was in Paradise (Luke 23:43). Grace
is the Power of God which causes change. Without the thief doing a thing because
he was firmly nailed, his mind was open to Jesus and Jesus took his soul that
day. The body of the thief remained nailed to the cross, but his will was
removed to Paradise. The human will is somehow the soul of man.
Peter wrote about salvation, “Receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:9). The end
of your faith is what it is the moment you die. Faith begins with grace and
terminates when faith can no longer be exercised, and that is when mind dies. Faith
in past tense has no meaning unless it is now — the moment your mind dies to
the world and taken to Paradise. Surely, where the mind goes the body will
follow. The body is never saved, it is regenerated:
In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1Cor 15:52)
Your body with its worldly flesh
is exchanged for new flesh and a new body that shall never die. Rebirth (or “born
again”) is the beginning of that process, by grace, “being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by The Word of God, which lives and
abides forever” (1 Pet 1:23).
Death ends the growing process.
The seed is planted by The Word (Jesus). That “seed” would be the Thoughts of
God which are planted in the mind of the person. At planting time, it is God
that does all the work, the human’s mind is just willing to be sowed with truth.
Paul finished his words about grace with this, “Not of works, lest any man
should boast” (Ephes 2:9).
Grace is the undeserved gift and
faith the use of the gift. A gift that is just put away without being used is worthless.
How can gratitude for grace be
shown? Exercising the gift, and faith is the exercise of it. Grace is the
planting of the seed by God and faith is you watering the seed. Seeds do
something; they grow faith until faith is fully bloomed. Without being in The
Word faith fails to grow as if sown on a hard rock rather than a fertile mind;
as such The Parable of the Sower (Mat 13). You mind is the “Garden of the Lord”
and His grace the seed from Him, “The Husbandman” (John 15:1). As the “Vine”
Jesus is the Grower who expects a yield. Some just refuse to grow because the
Devil distracts them.
What must the Christian do? “Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walks
about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Sobriety and vigilance are not
ordinary work but awareness of which you must be astute for Jesus said this:
Take heed to yourselves
lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness,
and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. (Luke 21:34)
“Surfeiting” is excess of
anything. If a Christian becomes preoccupied with the things and cares of the
world, His own Words will pass away (Luke 21:33). With that said the world in sense
steals your mind even very stealthily; until what? You fall away (Heb 6:6).
Christians hate the word “apostasy.”
Calvinism makes them believe that your mind once set is always set and that if
you once have affection for Jesus you can never turn away. You need to know
that “falling away” in the Greek is apostasia and that apostasy is after
once having affection for Jesus, the Christian defects. Once defected,
according to Paul (Heb 6:6) there is no coming back.
Paul wrote that because he feared
that some Christians were surely defecting. Proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas.
Proselytes are those who had converted to Christianity. Paul and Barnabas had
to speak to them and “persuaded them to continue in the grace of God” (Acts
13:43). Grace was the planting and acceptance of the Seed that had been
planted, but those whose minds were converted, must continue in the persuasion.
They had followed, perhaps on a whim, but their minds must be set on remaining
a Christian.
Charles Stanley, a stringent Calvinist
said this about belief:
“[T]he
unfaithful believer will not lose his salvation … Even if a believer for all
practical purposes becomes an unbeliever, his salvation is not in
jeopardy. Christ will remain faithful …
Christ will not deny an unbelieving Christian his or her salvation … believers
who lose or abandon their faith will retain their salvation, for God remains
faithful.”
So, Stanley believes that unbelievers
— those who turn away from God — shall be rewarded in Paradise just as those
who remained faithful. Paul wrote, “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is
the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). You might die this moment; this moment is
now. Salvation applies to your faith at the time of death as Paul also implied,
“Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is
our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11). Hence, “salvation” is
not the time of first believe but belief to the end when the souls of
Christians are saved, according to Peter.
Salvation is a future event that
occurs either at death or when Jesus, by grace, snatches them up while alive.
Salvation is distant for those who first believe. However, for the repentant thief,
that distance was his now. For him, it was when he died so that his soul
was saved. For us, our now is our belief when we die or are taken.
The worst saying of Christians is
“I am saved.” It is them who judges, not God. God will never change His Divine
Mind, but you may yours unless your mind is set on Christ.
You determining your fate makes
you the “god.”
Jesus spoke about judgment
saying, “My judgment is true for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent
Me” (John 8:16). Who are you to judge your own state of salvation?
The problem is not “eternal
security” but the timing of it. Once saved; always saved may be true. The Calvinist
problem is the timing of salvation. Sure it is fine to have assurance and the “hope
of salvation” (1 Thes 5:8) but hope is for a future event. Salvation is
of the soul, according to Peter, and that is when the soul departs from the one
who is dying. If salvation is at death, then eternally secure after that time
is reasonable, so the issue is just when is salvation?
“Born again” is persuaded to
become a Christian and receiving grace for faith to grow. If faith dims to extinction
because the mind is never on God, the seed of grace that God planted in you ceases
to grow. Your minds are like the rocky ground on which the seed of grace is planted
and unnourished the faith will die.
Saying, “I am saved is dangerous.”
Who wants you to believe that you are untouchable? As mentioned before, God
wants you to be sober and vigilant. The Devil desires you to be non-sober and
non-vigilant. Thinking that you are saved makes you unawares of the
dangers in which you live. Satan wants you to sin with no punitive thoughts in
mind. If Stanley’s doctrine is true, then even non-believers will still offend
God in heaven. The doctrine of eternal security as if you have nothing to fear,
allows you not to fear God. It is you who is the stronger of the two and doing
His will could be out of the question. If you do not believe in God, you have
chosen a new master (Mat 6:24).
With that said, what have you
become if not saved? “Marvel not; you have been born again,” so said
Jesus (John 3:7). If you have been born again, marvel not; you can die again!
You have been persuaded to become a Christian and when so, the Devil tries with
all his might to dissuade you.
Or you might say, “I have become
a Christian,” or “I am converted.” However, you are not saved until you
die still in faith.
Even some say “I am saved” but
believe in apostasy; that is just ignorance! It is irrational thinking that you
can become unsaved. How is that done? If you are already there, how can you be
taken back? Salvation is the end of your story, so tell me what you can do to
become unsaved.
I have spent much effort on salvation
because the misunderstanding of it is the most dangerous. Some who have whims
base their eternal life on that one moment whim. Christianity is not for the
feeble-minded but those with their minds set on Christ as the Way.
Now for those who say, “I am
certain I am going to heaven.” Indeed you are going to heaven whether you are a
saint or a sinner.
First off, a “saint” in the
Hebrew is qados — a holy one. Saints go to Paradise and sinners to Hell
(Hades). Both saints and sinners, however, go to heaven. Heaven is strictly
another realm, and according to Jesus (Luke 16), both Paradise and Hell are in
heaven, divided by a great gulf.
The repentant thief that same day
went to Paradise in heaven and the other thief to Hell in heaven. Both went to
another realm not of this world, but separate environments ( or economies) in
heaven. One “economy” was torments and the other pleasure, or contentment. Both
torments and contentment are cognitive. Whether real places of not, which some
do not believe, they are real to the dead. Either way, real or just mental
states, you will either have pleasure or torments; and it is you who must
decide your future now. Grace is whenever God provides it; it is not of
yourselves, so you must decide whenever God provides divine insight to you. “Born
again” confused Nicodemus and likely you as well. Born again is when the grace of
God imbues your mind with truth; that the truth is Jesus alone is God and only
He can save. That is what the crucifixion of Jesus revealed. The repentant
thief was born again when he came to understand that; his now was right
then. Your now may be right now as well, or it could be in years to
come.
Since you must be born again to
be saved, rebirth is essential doctrine regardless of when salvation is. If grace
is a seed that God plants in your mind, then before the seed grows, like any
seed it must die first. Hence, born again is a process wherein the sinner dies
to the world, or flesh, to be remade with a new soul and new flesh. Sinners
must die to the world to be welcome in the New Creation — in Paradise. You
cannot take the world with you to security in heaven as Lot’s wife found out.
If the things of the world is still your pleasure then your mind has not fully
set. You must die to the world to be alive in Christ, for “they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal 5:24).
Whereas Jesus died in the flesh, you
get off easier; your lusts and affections need only die. He was nailed to the
Cross, but all you need to do to crucify your flesh is to nail your desires to
the Tree, and then Jesus because of His grace, fixes your new flesh.
Lastly, “The glory of God” and the
glorification process will be explained. Glory is kabod in the Hebrew.
Literally, kabod is something grasped inside. Adam had God
breathed unto, not necessarily his nostrils, but into his mind. Adam had
salience for he grasped God and understood that God was in his mind. Glorifying
God is ultimately understanding that only in Him is there life. Having the glory
of God is God in us; not necessarily His Substance but His Thoughts expressed
by The Word — Jesus.
At the crucifixion Jesus revealed
that God was within His Person; that He grasped God. As such, Jesus was glorified
(John 7:39) when He revealed that within His flesh resided God.
We don’t understand what or how
so, but Jesus as “The Son of God” had the genetics of Yahweh within Him,
so no wonder the genetics of all four gospel writers.
Oops! There goes another saying —
“gospel.” Jesus went preaching the “gospel of the kingdom” (Mat 4:23) — euangelion
in the Greek. “The good message” (the truth) is about God and Jesus as one
Being. As “evangelists” like Jesus, Christians are to spread the word that
Jesus is God in the flesh. That is not done just by going to church but going
unto the world to tell them about Jesus as the Way.
Lastly, you are not born
Christians for all have sinned. Everyone, including Catholics, must be born
again. Maybe Protestants take that too emotionally, but “born again” is a must
be. A person born again has put away the lusts of the flesh, so Christians can
be recognized by what they cherish. If the United States is full of Christians,
based on their lusts and pleasures, where are they?
For now, you get the idea.
Christians use words that the public sector cannot comprehend, and possibly
even they themselves do not. I too am guilty of assuming others know the things
that I speak.
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