STATES OF OUR EXISTENCE

  A blurb from my new book about the now hidden things from the Garden of the Lord; things seen then but not all of them perhaps until now:

Generally, “states” are of the same substance that exist in different temperature ranges such as ice, water, and steam. They are all H₂O, but at different temperatures, making the molecules bind differently.

In theory, the “Godhead” behaves in that manner, but it is not due to temperature or molecular reaction.

Thermodynamic states exist in one dynamic state at a time. However, spiritual states are not dependent on temperature or molecular structure at all but in the eyes of the beholder.  As John wrote, Jesus (the “Word”) pre-existed all other things as God.

Jesus is thought of as a Being with flesh just like ours. Jesus was made manifest in the flesh of a man. Paul said to the Romans about Jesus:

 

Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith; to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. (Rom 16:25-27)

 

Jesus is God in the flesh; and that is the revelation of the mystery of God which was kept secret since the world began. But by that time Jesus was made manifest.  His birth was a revealing of God in flesh just as ours.

With that said, Jesus would have had power, form, and substance before the foundation but was revealed in the flesh of a man — the Spirit that was in the first man (1 Cor 15:45).

Yes, all that is above our heads because God is on a much higher plane than our weak minds can perceive.

Jesus came to this world for two reasons: (1) to reveal that God was with us since the beginning, and (2) that He would take on sins for us in the manner of human flesh.

Jesus would have had “flesh” before He obtained raw flesh like ours. Its substance is unknown, but it was the “Glory of God” that covered Him.

Of course, inquiring minds would want to know the substance so let’s just call it “YodYod” (י י),  a common abbreviation for Yahweh.

YodYod is “YY” in the English alphabet. In my previous book, On the Origin of Man and the Universe, I surmised that YY-Chromosomal, never existing naturally, might very well represent divine “flesh,” and even its name points toward a phantom-like presence — tselem in the Hebrew. Jesus, as the “Son of God” would have had the covering of God which was chromosomal-like.

To reveal Himself, God would have put on raw flesh like ours so that we could see Him. Therefore, the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one substance — Yahweh — which humans cannot see, for He is the “Invisible God” (Col 1:15) made visible to mankind and to the other beasts.

He was the same God and the same Godhead — three levels of existence, but with one Divine Entity.

Nothing changed about Jesus with His birth except God molded a new manner of flesh like ours to be His “vessel” (or “Cup;” Mat 26:39). At the baptism of Jesus, His vessel — the flesh of a man/beast — was filled with God entirely in the shape of a man (Luke 3:22).

Jesus was glorified when His raw flesh was torn from Him. Some saw God leaving the body of Jesus at the crucifixion (John 19:30) just as foretold by Jesus (John 7:39).

The “Word” of John chapter one would have been Jesus without human flesh (implied in John 1:14).

The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were all Yahweh, but viewed differently because mankind comes short of seeing the Glory of God.

Jesus was with whom Jacob wrestled (as discussed before). During the night under different conditions, Jacob saw the same God in different states of Existence.

After Jesus was crucified and resurrected, many saw Jesus differently than before. Sometimes He revealed Himself as a scarred man and at other times as an apparition. It would not be that Jesus changed but that different people saw Him differently. Some saw the Glory of God as He disappeared from one place and reappeared immediately in another place. He revealed to them that He had indeed overcome the world (John 16:33).

Of great importance is the condition that Adam and Eve found themselves after sin — their nature had changed — once having bright eyes to see all things, after sinning their vision dimmed (Adam & Eve: VIII from an earlier chapter.) They could no longer see God, His Glory — the Creation, or even angelic creatures who would later appear to them as in flesh like ours.

Hinted in scripture is that the raw flesh of man carries the genetics of some beast and hence are the vessels in which sin exists.

Jesus had to come in the flesh to sacrifice the vessel in which sin had entered unto the world, all the while maintaining His divine covering. In other words, remove the flesh of Jesus and God would be exposed with a chromosomal-like flesh in bodily shape as Luke wrote about.

The flesh that died at the Resurrection of Jesus would have been transformed by the Angel of the Lord that moved the stone. That “Angel” would have been Jesus and Him glorified, revealing His true Self that had been hidden until that time.

The point to that background is that God is always the same, He is and always has been with us, but mankind has always failed to see Him, even after performing miracles of God while in flesh like ours.

To describe the Holy Trinity as different states of God undermines God. It is mankind that has changed states from originally righteous to wicked. At times, God restored their sight but soon it dimmed and Jesus alluded the people of God multiple times.

Now let’s consider light; John declared, “that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John  1:5).

God is “Existence” — “I AM THAT I AM” from which Yahweh comes.

Dark space contains unseen light. It is either too fast for our eyes and minds to perceive, or it is a frequency that our vision cannot detect.

James Watt Space Telescope (JWST) in 2021 began revealing a vastly different cosmos than our eyes, even with powerful telescopes, had never seen before. JWST saw things with a different lens than common cameras and even our naked eyes. Infrared filters revealed a world out there never seen before.

What JWST revealed is just a fraction of what may exist out there. Indeed, as it turns out, the cosmos is not just billions of luminaries but nearly full of unseen things that radiate light at different frequencies.

Normal people have sensory organs that are limited in range; we can see and hear only certain things.

Scripture explains that, “The Lord has not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day” (Deut 29:4), so common men and women are spiritually deaf and blind, unable to see anything beyond material things.

Ezekiel saw it coming, “Son of man, You dwell in the midst of a rebellious house which have eyes to see and see not; they have ears to hear and hear not for they are a rebellious house” (Ezek 12:2). Scripture supports the idea that our nature has been dulled because of the rebellion of sin. There is much going on that would be beyond our perception and JWST proved that:

 

Scientific estimates suggest that mankind can perceive less than 5% of the physical universe without technology. The remaining 95% is made up of dark matter and dark energy, which are fundamentally invisible to human biology (Al-Ghaili 2026)

 

That does not mention other realms that might exist beyond this one. Mankind is ignorant of nearly all things since science is the study of only material things and energy. Are some now seeing things of another realm with their UFO visions? That remains to be investigated.

Glorious Adamic kind would have been capable of seeing all the cosmos and beyond the Ten Heavens into another realm.

Enoch was given a tour of all the heavens and God beyond them all. Genesis seems to be his story passed down to later writers as previously demonstrated.

What Enoch saw had been there since the beginning, but he was selected to see all things. JWST would pale to what Enoch saw… even beings from other realms. Could it be that alien beings (alien to us) were always with us but went undetected? Could it be that God is revealing just a tiny bit of what has always existed?

Most of us have never seen (for certain) visions in the skies. However, if my interpretation is correct “fowls of the air” would be not creatures from the sky but from the heavens. God seems to have given a select few a vision of what has always been there.

It is not that things have changed but that some men see things beyond the ordinary for God’s purposes. Alien sightings do not reject the truths of scriptures but are supporting evidence that scripture is correct.

For myself, my vision and hearing have gone with age but my understanding vastly improved. Saul experienced the same thing, made blind in vision, him in his new state of Paul could both see and hear things beyond human vision.

By grace, to John the future was revealed after he was transfigured by boiling in oil. We feel sorry for John’s suffering, but in his suffering, he saw things which nobody would see again until it happens.

Even Paul knew a person, perhaps himself, who could not detect the difference in his state of existence:

 

I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows) such an one caught up to the third heaven. (2 Cor 12:2)

 

Paul was unable to discern the difference between reality and spirituality. All things were real to him. Paul, once blind, could now see things that common men could not see. God and the heavens had not changed, but Paul’s new vision of them had! Has God selected some modern-day people to see things normally not seen?

GLORY OF GOD: THE RADIANCE OF HIS LIGHT

Each day now there is a new discovery from science. Today there was a startling announcement about light.

A friend of mine, obviously a younger woman, had just recovered from the birth of her child. One day when I saw her, I said, “You are radiant today; you must be pregnant.” She only smiled…. radiantly. Life from within her seemed to give her a glow.

The news today? 

Scientists discover that humans emit light

©Shutterstock

Have you ever been told that you appear to be radiant? According to research coming out of the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada, you might actually be glowing. This light is so prominent that it is likely indicative of certain biological processes and cellular activity. Interestingly, scientists observed that this light is only emitted while alive. After death, the light extinguishes. 

Light represents glory; “The Glory of God” is His radiance — “The Light of God.”

As the Bible says, “God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). The Light of God is the inherent creative Power within Him; in the Hebrew that Light is El. Radiant Light from God is Elohim. 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, “Let there be light: and there was light” (Gen 1:1-3) 

In that passage, God is not “El” but “Elohim.” God is one entity and not plural. So “Elohim” is the radiance of the El of God. In other words, God shined, and there was Light.

Light is not only in the visible frequencies, but “darkness” is light as well but in the higher frequencies that remain unseen by the common man.

God radiated Himself and Light was revealed. God, throughout the ages, first revealed Himself as Light, then as a Person in the substance of Jesus, and then as the Holy Ghost of the Man, Jesus. God is always God, but God reveals Himself in different forms, or substances; first Light, then Matter, then Spirit in bodily shape (Luke 3:23). Hence, there are not three Persons of the Holy Trinity, but one Divine Person that people see in different forms.

Jesus was radiant; he was glorified Glorification was Jesus revealing His three Substances at the same time to show mankind that He was who He said He was. The crucifixion revealed the Glory of God (John 7:39). There was darkness over the land for three hours before Jesus died; from the sixth to the ninth hour. What happened in the ninth hour? When Jesus gave up the Ghost the darkness turned to Light over the land. Jesus radiated the Elohim in Himself, and the Holy Ghost left Him, proving that Jesus is the Elohim.

It had not been dark at all. Those around Him saw darkness, but it would have been light that they could not see because their natures were dim. God turned the darkness to Light as He radiated.

What should it have been at the ninth hour? The advent of the Sabbath day. It should have turned dark when Jesus died but the Sabbath begins at the dimming of the light of Friday. Instead, God overcame the world and reversed the course of nature. It was dark before the Sabbath, and the Sabbath began with the emergence of Light. Jesus glowed over the land, revealing that He indeed was the Elohim of the beginning of things.

Although the news today was that people glowed. Jesus glowed many times. He also glowed as a pillar of fire by day, and onto the face of Moses. Jesus could be recognized by His Glory — the Light of God shining from Him. Even the pillar of a cloud by day was His Light emitting from the darkness of the cloud. Lastly, after Jesus ascended into the heavens, “There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3).

That “tongue of fire” was the radiance of Jesus. Even His body was still there, but it glowed Divine Light. In other words, regardless of the Substance of God, each  of them revealed the inherent nature of God; that God is Light. With that said, the Holy Ghost is Emanuel as well as Jesus; He is “God With Us.” The Holy Ghost is not another Person, but a dimmer radiance of the same Person; it is the form in which mankind see God.

Although Jesus is gone in bodily form, He remains with us in the Power of the Elohim. Light is Power, is it not? How can Jesus still be seen in the modern age? 

The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal Power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse… (Rom 1:20) 

God is still with us as Jesus. Look around; do you see Jesus? If you are “lost’ no you can’t but those who are illuminated by God still see Jesus! How so? By the things that He made.

From the beginning how as God identified? By the things that He made. How can we still identify God even as Jesus? Jesus was there in the beginning (John 1:1-14). He was there as Light but was made manifest for mankind to see. John the Baptist said, “He (Jesus) was before me, and I knew (saw) Him not: but that He should be made manifest to Israel” (John 1:31-32).

Jesus was not born but revealed. His Light was covered by darkness, and the Israelites could mostly see the darkness and seldom the Light. Therefore, Jesus was made dark for is to see.

The Light of God made firm things. Jesus was one of the many “firm things” but mankind could not see Him, so God made flesh for Jesus as Paul wrote to the Romans to reveal the “Invisible God Thing.”

God again humbles the science. Jesus always emitted Divine Light and the writers of ancient days knew it. Science is always catching up!

Man’s kind (Adam) was made in the Image of God. That “Image” had substance; Adam was imbued by God, Elohim not El alone. Elohim indicates not multiple gods as the “m” implies, but the radiance, or glory, of God.

The shape of that Light was selem in the Hebrew. “Selem” means a “shadow” of God. Mankind has Light within but like light at higher frequencies, man’s shadow was not as evident as the direct Light of God. In other words, mankind glowed but not as brightly as the Glory of God.

Sin introduced another image — the nahas —  the image of Lucifer. Like God, Lucifer is an elohim as well but his (it’s) light is not the Light of God. It remains light but inglorious light. Sinners are of the “glory” of Lucifer which can be deduced from the passage, John 8:44.

Since Eve is the mother of all living, and she was the first to sin, genetic sin came from her (Gen 3:20). Eve glowed Luciferin light, not Divine Light. The image from Lucifer was cunningness; light appeared to be from God but was from the false “Bringer of Light” (Lucifer).

As such, sinners may seem to glow to this day.

However, light is in the eye of the beholder. Whereas Christians might see life glowing from a pregnant woman for there is life within her, others might see a lesser light in sinners.

There are indeed two lights: a greater and lesser light, to wit: “God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night” (Gen 1:16). That may apply not only to the Sun and Moon but also to God Himself as the “Greater Light” and Lucifer as the “Lesser Light,” the latter to rule the darkness. Was God forewarning mankind of Lucifer. If so, then the angels were made fourth and man sixth. That would mean that indeed Jesus and mankind are a little lower than the angels at the creation (Heb 2:9).

Eve was not aware from who the radiance came. She thought it was from the Lord God, but soon found that the glow was from the “Radiant One,” Lucifer.

We should all glow, and that was the case from the beginning. The true glow is for life and the lesser glow is death. The glow of the dead is still there but some glow in Light and the others may glow in darkness. There remains a glow even at death for souls are immortal. Like in the world, souls should still glow in death but because people can’t see death, glow cannot be seen radiating from the dead.

 

 

UNDER THE FIG TREE - Part 2 of 2

 

A SPIRITUAL LOOK AT NATHANAEL

 

Most people see Nathanael as a man and identify him with the apostle Bartholomew. I see Nathanael as a living soul in the bodily shape of a man. I see, not just a man in Nathanael, but a living soul what saw no sin in his own flesh.

Nathaniel is listed as a “true Israelite” because he was of Cana in Galilee (John 21:2).  That Nathanael was of Cana is imperative. Cana (Qana in the Hebrew) is spelled qof-nun-hey. Qof would be the verb represented by the Sun, perhaps “lighted’ and nun the object, represented by a seed, or gene.

The subject in those three letters would have been the letter “hey” where Nathanael was revealed. Nathanael was somebody and Jesus immediately recognized him.

The letter “qof” also implies separation. God had apparently consecrated Nathanael from birth to follow Him.

The subject in John chapter one was about the beginning of the Creation. John 1:1-28 is about “The Word” that existed from the beginning (John 1:1-3). The Word was made flesh (John 1:14).  That conversation was about John the Baptist who indicated that the one who came after him was before him, referring to Jesus (John 1:15).

John (the Baptist) implied that Jesus was The Word in the beginning and now He came. Therefore, the subject on day one was about the beginning of time (the “alpha”) and now the ending (the “omega”).

The next subject matter was this: “The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’” (John 1:29). Day one was about not seeing Jesus back in time, and day two was about seeing Jesus now. When the other John wrote that, he compressed time as if it was of no significance,

Jesus had been before time ever began in the beginning, but now was the time for salvation (Rom 13:11). That chapter squeezed time as if it had not passed.

Missed in translation is an important feature, John (the Baptist) said, “I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34). John the Baptist revealed a record of that. Was John there in the beginning? He certainly was not resurrected from the dead from the spirit of Elijah as some thought, but the Jews understood that John the Baptist was “somebody” or better said, “some Spirit.”

John bare record. He knew that Jesus was not just a man but was God in the flesh. Jesus was not the natural born son of the Father (Yahweh), but of the “House of the Power of Yahweh” (the Hebrew letter aleph.)

The “House” was not a dwelling but God dwelling in the flesh of Jesus. It is not “Jesus and God” but Yahweh in the Person of Jesus. Jesus was God talking, walking, saving, and loving. When Jesus was crucified, basically God was exterminated from His House like a parasite that could not be seen. The crucifixion diminished God to an extremely low state that was the essence of humiliation. God did not die but was cast out of His “House” just as Adam was cast out of his. It was retribution time for the house of Adam.

The ”House of God” was not a building, but the genetic Image of God in the flesh. God had overcome time as He just appeared from the beginning to then. Mary was the “mother ship” that carried the glorious genetics of God through time. She was not “the mother of God” in any sense, but more so “the ark of God” that transported Yahweh through the space-time warp.

Mary provided the flesh for the “Glory of God.” God (Yahweh; YHVH) has gematria of twenty-six. Another common word with the same gematria is the Hebrew word, “debar,” meaning “glory.” In other words, the Glory of God from the beginning was in Jesus, and as such Jesus is the Glory of God that John beheld.

“Beholding” is seeing something. John bare witness that Jesus was the very Glory of God. He must have known “Jesus” from before time.

John was somehow there in the Garden of Eden, not there in the flesh but in phantom — what is called the “soul.” That contention is reinforced by Paul:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. (Ephes 1:3-4)

That applies to John the Baptist as well as Paul or any of “us.”

Christ Jesus chose John before the beginning of time; that was the subject was it not? John was picked to baptize Jesus back in “The Garden of Living Souls.” Again, John “barr witness;” he was there! John not only knew Jesus from the womb (Luke 1:41) but he leaped in recognition from the Garden before time ever began!

The first chapter of the Book of John covers all the time from the Creation to then as if it was one day.

In the following days, still about the thread of time from the beginning, John wrote the following: 

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

Nathanael said unto Him, “Whence know You me?”

 Jesus answered and said unto him, “Before that Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Nathanael answered and saith unto him, “Rabbi, you art the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

Jesus answered and said unto him, “Because I said unto you, I saw you under the fig tree, believe you?” (John 1:47-50) 

Just as John had seen Jesus under the “olive tree” — The Tree of Life perhaps — Jesus had seen Nathanael under the “fig tree” — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Had Jesus seen the man Nathanael under the fig tree? No, it seems that Jesus had seen the “angel of Nathanael” under the fig tree in the midst of the Garden.

Just as the Spirit of God in the shape of a man was “The Angel of God,” so it goes for Nathanael. He was not an angel, and neither was Jesus but the Hebrew word “elohim” applies to both angels and Spirits in bodily shape.

Jesus surely saw the “angel” (phantom image) of Nathanael under the fig tree before time ever began. [1]

Just as John had beheld “The Angel of God” in the beginning, Jesus had beheld the angel of Nathanael who was there with the man and the woman under the fig tree.

The concept of the Tree of Knowledge as a fig tree comes from both the aprons Adam and Eve made for themselves and the fear of figs that they had from the 1^st Book of Adam and Eve.

That Jesus recognized the soul of Nathanael should be obvious. First off, the subject was not about fig trees, but the Creation. Jesus knew Nathanel from the Garden before time. Whereas the woman had guile in her for sinning (Gen 3:13), Nathanael had been there to bare witness to The Tree of Life, but he did not fall for sin. Jesus immediately recognized that there was no guile in Nathanael (John 1:47) like there was in Eve.

Jesus recognized Nathanael from way back. That it was the “angel” of Nathanael is exposed in the “el” at the ending of his name. Angels’ names normally end with “el,” representing the Hebrew letter “aleph.” Jesus surely saw the Power (Aleph) of God in “Nathan.”

Nathan was the prophet that judged David for his sins. Nathan apparently had no guile in him because he recognized sin when he didn’t even see it, as with King David.

Note that John the Baptist was accused of being the prophet Elijah (Elias). In the same manner, I “accuse” Nathanael of being the prophet, Nathan.

Most theologians identify Nathanael with the apostle Bartholomew, son of Tolmai, whereas I suggest that Nathanael is misidentified; that he came to show Philip that he knew Jesus back in the Garden of Eden. Then Nathanael “disappeared” from the Bible and from history.

Perhaps Nathanael was indeed the angel of Nathan who came to bear witness that Jesus was not only The Son of God but the son of David that everyone thereafter claimed Him to be (Mat 12:23).

Note that before sin, Adam and his woman were glorious beings — angels of God without beastly flesh like we are today.

Our flesh is the outcome of guile from the Wicked One. Jesus saw no guile in Nathanael. He did not see the flesh of the man but his soul within. Jesus did not see Nathanael as an animal like us, but possibly as a glorious being.

With that said, perhaps Philip and the others did not see a man named Nathanael but a Spirit in the bodily image of Nathan from long ago, just as John and Luke saw the bodily shape of the Spirit of God go into Jesus at His baptism (Luke 3:22).

In other words, as “The Word” was the pre-incarnate bodily shape of Jesus, Nathanael could have been the sinless “ghost” of Nathan the prophet, coming to bear witness that Jesus was who they said He was.

Just as John came from The Tree of Life to bare witness that Jesus is God, Nathan came from the Tree of Knowledge to bare witness that Jesus is the son of David.

 

 

 

 

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[1] My assertion is that time began with sin. Read more on that in my book, Jots and Tittles, and some of the others.

UNDER THE FIG TREE - Part 1 of 2

 

DIVINE SELECTION 

God knew us all before the foundation of the world, and even before time began! Paul wrote that: 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. (Ephes 1:3-5) 

“Us” are who were blessed, and we were spiritually blessed. All that occurred before the foundation of the world.

“Foundation” implies material. Sometime after the beginning mankind was blessed. Where to look for that blessing and what was it? Between the beginning and the founding on the material world. The first occasion of a “blessing” is in Genesis — in the beginning, as it is written: 

God created man in his own Image, in the Image of God created He him; male and female created He them. and God blessed them, and God said unto them, “Be fruitful, and multiply and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth.” (Gen 1:27-28) 

God blessed man in the beginning; and He did not bless any of the other kinds, even angelic-kind; God chose mankind above all the others just as Paul wrote in the passage above. God could have chosen any of the other kinds, but He chose mankind to have dominion. Hence, the blessing was for God to make man the chosen kind and not the other animals. He said to “multiply,” indicating that it would be all the seed of Adam that were chosen, not particular ones, but everyone, just as John wrote in John 3:16 (“whosoever”).

The blessing was that we should be “holy and without blame before Him.” Hence holiness was the blessing.

God much later told Moses, “You shall be holy men unto me…” (Exod 22:31). “Holy” therein is consecrated separate. Hence, the “chosen” ones were separated from the other kinds from the beginning, and God pointed that out to the Israelites:

You are the children of the Lord your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead for you are an holy people unto the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. You shalt not eat any abominable thing. (Exod 14:1-3) 

God’s intent from the beginning was that all mankind should be holy and without blame. That failed, so mankind was separated unto two-kinds: Adam and ‘Is (pronounced eesh) (Gen 4:1). The man “Cain” was not of Adam’s kind, but of the Wicked One )1 John 3:12).

Adam’s kind were the Holy Ones; the first being Abel, who was killed by the “beast” Cain. Seth was the replacement for righteous Abel (Gen 4:25). Seth’s kind became the “sons of God” and only they were the elected albeit God predestined all of Adam’s kind.

Note that something terrible happened with the original sin; mankind of Adam mutated into another kind and separated from God. Whereas Adam was cast out into the world, Cain was lost into the land of Nod, merely “wandering.” God intended for all mankind to be holy and without blame and by the time of the flood of Noah’s day, all but eight living souls were separated from the “sons of God” of God. Although all mankind was predestined, only eight remained holy. Soon Ham’s kind sinned and that left two kinds holy: Shem’s and Japheth’s as adopted children of God because they too had sinned. By grace, despite sin, God chose eight of the legions of men. Cain’s, and even Seth’s kind resisted the grace of God when they all close carnality over blessedness. 

So, for those who propagate the notion of predestination, election, and irresistible grace; Satan has conned them again; God chose everyone, and nearly everyone resisted. By the time the ark was built all had resisted the grace of God, and after the waters settled, even Noah resisted until all had sinned and come short of the Glory (Image) of God (Rom 3:23). That separation occurred until the time of Abraham, then Abraham found grace as well, and Israelites were separated from all the other nations. They too resisted God and by the time of Christ, few were left unscathed with sin.

Moses, albeit a sinner, found grace on the mountain (Exodus 34:29-35) but by the time 40 years of wandering was over, only Joshua and his crew remained. So, as you can see, “many are called, but few are chosen” to escape Hell and death (Mat 22:14), and to escape eternal damnation “You must be born again” (John 3:7) to become adopted sons of God, again made holy as He (God) is holy: “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be you holy: for I Am the Lord your God” (Lev 20:7).

Sanctification is consecration and separation from sin. God sanctified (set apart) Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, and even Moses. By the time of the exodus, the Israelites were to separate themselves, meaning that genetics was no longer The Way; to “avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain” (Tit 3:9). So, it should be clear that what God intended ended because of the carnality of mankind. Hence, nobody is chosen because of who they are and from whom they descend, but holiness is chosen by each person or not. God does not force Himself on anyone. Holiness is a choice that few will make because it is easier to sin than to abstain from it.

By the time of Jesus, there were only a few righteous ones. Perhaps Mary was righteous because she was chosen to be the vessel for Jesus. Perhaps Elizaeth was holy because she was chosen to be the clean vessel for John the Baptist. Perhaps the old man, Simeon, was holy because he had stayed righteous to see the Savior because when he saw God manifested, he was taken to heaven. Simeon was holy and God had blessed him by revealing the Messiah to him.

Many forget Simeon but he was set apart by God for a purpose: “Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him” (Luke 2:25).

Simeon was a special case if the same Simeon. “Jacob called unto his sons, and said, ‘Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days’” (Gen 49:1). The “last days” would have been before it was finished at the crucifixion. About Simeon and Levi. God said, “Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel” (Gen 49:7).

When Jacob separated and scattered the sons of Jacob, He said, “The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren” (Gen 49:26).

Everlasting is the key word there. Jacob’s blessings on one of his sons would be everlasting for one that was separated.

Upon coming to the promise land, the tribes of Israel (Jacob) were consecrated and blessed and some cursed: 

 These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you are come over Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin:

And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. (Deut 27:12-13) 

Gerizim was the hill of which Jacob had foretold and in Israel. Each tribe was separated upon entering the promised land, and Simeon got his share:

And the second lot came forth to Simeon, even for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families: and their inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah. (Josh 19:1)

Simeon got an inheritance. God blessed him. What was the blessing? His death is not recorded in scripture, albeit external sources indicated that he died at 120 years old on his birtth date. Could it be that Simeon, like Elias and Enoch before him, never died. Or could it be that Simeon was regenerated on his 120^th birthday and became a new creation. With God all things are possible! (Mat 19:26), and a long life for Simeon would have been possible.

Could it be that scripture does record the death of Simeon but that we just missed it? Could it be that Simeon awaited the Messiah to die? Could it be that Simeon’s inheritance was a long life even until Jesus came to redeem his violent sin of which he repented?

If that is possible for God, so is Nathanael. (More on that in the next commentary.)

THE DIRECTION THE CHURCH IS GOING

 The world “sneaks up” on you because it is in you. I have some sound hypotheses based on scripture. That the world is in you is my hypothesis unless it has been removed by God. To validate that with some degree of certainty requires that the null can be rejected. The null of course is that the world is not in you. I submit that premise cannot be rejected.

There is much biblical evidence that a Christian is one who rejects the tenets of the world. For instance, “You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (Jas 4:4). Friendship with the friendship with the world is basically enjoying material things that the world brings to you (komizo).

The adulterers and adulteresses are paramours, “illicit partners,” of the things of the world. Friendship with the world is against friendship with God. If a Christian is in a relationship with God and accept His things, but all the while accepts the things of the Devil and the world, then he is an adulterer, not against another person, but adulterous against God. The “worldly” Christian is having an affair with the principal power of the world, Satan, the “Adversary” of God.

The “devil,” the “Dragon” was cast out from heaven unto the world (Rev 12:13) because there was an adulterous situation. “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the ‘Devil,’ and ‘Satan,’ which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev 12:9). In this case, the “earth” is used rather than the “world,” indicating that Satan is not the ruler of the cosmos but only this planet (ge).

With that background, Christians think wrongly. Adam and Eve were safe in Paradise in heaven, which was much like the Earth, but it was not planet Earth. They too were cast out from the Garden of Eden into the world (Gen 3:23-24), literally from the hedged in place (ganan) to a place outside the “hedge.” Eden was literally a “place of delight.” [1]

That “hedge” between where they were is the “firmament” (Gen 1:6), an expanse between the “waters and the waters” — the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1).

That there was an Eden on Earth is just a memory, a “shadow” of things that they once knew. Satan and his demons attempted to establish a “heaven” on Earth. The consequences of sin would not be in heaven but on Earth: death, mankind as gods, shame, fear, deception, enmity, sorrow, reproduction, subservience, mortality, a woman’s desire for man rather than God, thorns and thistles hindering production, eating of the produce of their own hands, disintegration at death, and the additional knowledge of evil (all from Gen 3).

Those things describe the “economy” and “environment” of the Earth, and the Garden of Eden in the heaven would have an opposing economy and environment.

The two were cast out onto the Earth from the Third Heaven (2 Cor 12:2), all the while even the best of the theologians did not catch that! Our progenitors were cast out into the Devil’s world and herein we do the things the Devil would do (John 8:44).

With whom are Christians adulterating? Their “father, the Devil” against their spiritual Father, Yahweh God.

As I have been writing, Adam and the woman were once entangled with God, but after sin, they became entangled with Satan as well, cleverly disguised as the angel Lucifer to disguise the cunning of the “Serpent” within him. They were serving two masters, and finally one won out (Mat 6:24). It is impossible to remain entangled with both God and Satan, and that relationship is an adulterous one because Christians cannot have two lovers at the same time!

Many Christians still flirt with Satan (temptation) but they know that they truly belong to God. It is in our genetics to flirt with Satan, but the more the flirtation, the more likely the action.

The world is in you. Original sin, the genetic sin of the Wicked One (Mat 13:38). You know that the Wicked One is in you by what you treasure; be it the things of the world, or the things of God. The job of any Christian is to take God to the world, is it not? (Mark 16:15); God said nothing about bringing the world to yourselves, but that is more so what even Christians do!

The null is what? The world is not in you. How can that be operationalized? By what is important to you, pleasure or worship. The evidence, even for Christians, is that pleasure is more important than righteousness (“worth-ship”), traveling around the world to show the worth of God.

Entertainment is of the world. It is a reprieve from all its hardships as enumerated above. Entertainment takes minds off sorrows, but also from God. Is it possible to enjoy God and the world at the same time? You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). You cannot deify avarice — the love of pleasure and money.

I watch many Christians during worship and question what I am witnessing; is the congregation worshiping God or enjoying pleasure. I try not to question the sincerity of believers, but one believer (the woman) was the most gullible, she saw the “Image” (Nahas) as good and partook of its knowledge of carnality. Oftentimes the most innocent are the easiest to deceive. We need to test all things by scripture and to hang onto what is good (1 Thes 5:21).

We are to test what we are doing; does it conform to the world or to God? Is it really to magnify God or to enjoy the service to please ourselves and the Wicked One?

Only each of one of us knows what goes on within, but God knows too. For me, when I am enjoying the entertainer, I often forget God. I propose that I am not the only one. Sometimes I enjoy the entertainer more than God!

I seldom clap at the performance but within I clap for God.

We need to examine; is the service designed to please God, or to bring in the world to say how Christians can entertain them. To be honest, I have visited many contemporary worship services and just like me, God was forgotten in the crowd. When the church begins to look like the world, the church should examine whose spirit they are following.

Where to go? I have no idea because there remain few churches outstanding the world, and more are joining it every week. Should I get lost in the crowd or remain present in the Lord with a few.

It is not only contemporary worship that should be tested but contemporary ideas. How often are you told that abortion is wrong in the eyes of the Lord, and that so is homosexuality and such? The church is afraid to teach the Word of God because the preacher knows that of he does, then the building will be empty. Christians are more concerned with hos full the church building is rather than how aligned they are with the Will of God.

God will sort us out in the end, and the numbers that show up so often are 3% in scripture, and for Noah it was even less. Sure, God has abundant grace, but He is not a pushover God. He judges fairly and impartially. Because a sinner goes to church gets him no closer to heaven than going to the bar!

I reject the null hypothesis, that “the world is not in you.” It is in you and God cannot be fooled. I often find the world in me, and that is not a pleasant finding. Therefore, the world is in you and it is also in the Church.

Sanctification is ‘set apart” with the “sons of God” living within the hedge as if they are already in Paradise; no longer a Garden for two, but a city for all who will go in. There is only one Paradise, and it was never on Earth.

The “Bosom of Abraham” is in heaven (Luke 16) and the Book of Jasher reveals it was never on Earth.

Archeologists have for centuries looked for provenance that the Garden of Eden was on Earth; it never has been but soon will be: Yahweh said, “I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isa 65:17). Only Adam and the woman have experienced heaven and then lived on Earth. (Excepting Jesus, Enoch and Elijah).

 Picture credit: Facebook; "The Church Band"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] All the reference to the Hebrew and Greek herein are from Strong’s Lexicon; (Strong 2006).

COMING TO THE WEDDING

Christianity is like a wedding with the Church as the Bride and Jesus as the Bridegroom. Although that is written in many places one of the best said was by Isaiah the prophet: 

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks Himself with ornaments, and as a Bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isa 61:10)

 That metaphor is repeated several times in the New Testament as well; no wonder marriage is a sacrament because it represents the Christian and Jesus.

Jesus spoke in parables. That is using one non-related but similar event to make a point. In this case it was a king whose son was about to have a wedding. Rather than analyze every word consider this passage: 

When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, “Friend, how come you are in here not having a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. (Mat 22:11-12)

 All had been invited but few came. This one man came but failed to wear wedding apparel. Because of that, he was bound hand and foot and cast out into a place of weeping and gnashing of the teeth. As it turns out Jesus said, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Mat 22:14).

Chosen — the Calvinistic doctrine of ‘election’ — is explained in this parable. The man could have worn a wedding garment. At the door, if he did not have one, he should have asked the king for a proper suit for the occasion.

We think of wedding garments as the formal attire — the best of the best. People dress up for weddings, but in the case of one peculiar Jewish wedding, the people dress down — Yom Kippur — ‘the day of covering’ from Leviticus 23 wherein the people are to ‘afflict their souls.’ It is the day of the year of the covering of the mercy seat.

Kippur comes from the same noun meaning ‘pitch’ like when Noah covered the Ark with pitch to keep it afloat unto salvation.

So, don’t think of the wedding garment as we would today, or even a royal wedding. The King has a different type of wedding than ordinary kings.

John the Baptist came to the ‘wedding’ so to speak, the wedding being the revealing of Jesus as God. John wore appropriate apparel for that occasion — a suit made of camel’s hair and girded about with leather (Mat 3:4). John came dressed for a wedding; it was not in fancy apparel but the basics.

Camel hair coats are for warmth and comfort. John was born with the Holy Spirit and his coat was his outer Comforter that symbolized the Holy Spirit covering him.

If this parable reveals the wedding of Jesus to the body of Christians, which it does, then the appropriate wedding garment would be the ‘Comforter’ — the Holy Ghost (John 14:16).

The man that came to the wedding. maybe dressed formally, or maybe even plainly, still did not have the proper attire for the wedding of Jesus. In that the Church is made up of the good and bad, as the seven churches of Asia reveal, they are still the ‘Church.’

However, consider the Church much like a threshing stone wherein all can come but few are chosen. There are criteria for who are threshed aside and who is kept. The man of the wedding was welcome there because he was allowed in, but before he was allowed to be part of the wedding party, the king checked him out; Was he properly dressed for the occasion?

Of course, he could have come ‘naked’ in the sense of Adam and Eve who should have come to the proper party beneath the Tree of Life.

Perhaps Adam and Eve were not even naked like we think of nakedness, but like angels. (More on that shortly.) The nakedness of which they were ashamed was their flesh which after sin was of a different substance and like the inglorious flesh that humans wear today.

In that instance, after Eve and her frolic with the angel, Lucifer, God covered both Adam and Eve with coats of skin (Gen 3:21) for them to be ‘married’ to Him after they had abandoned Him for the Luciferin ‘Serpent.’

God covered their newly acquired flesh with coats of skin, perhaps the wooly hide from a lamb. On the other hand, perhaps the ‘coats of skin’ was the ‘whole armor of God’ for them to be able to “stand against the wiles of the Devil” (Ephes 6:11).

Not knowing for sure about the fabric of those coats, God put onto Adam and Eve appropriate garments for their wedding.

‘Marriage’ after sin was merely coupling, as Genesis 4 reveals. They did not go to their wedding with God, becoming one flesh with Him, but put on wedding apparel that God provided — the Garment of Adam, as it was called. But more appropriately, the ‘Garment of God’ for both the man and woman of Adam’s kind.

Eve had gone to her ‘marriage’ with the Wicked One naked and Adam watched naked (Gen 4:1). Neither were dressed gloriously. We think of glory as splendorous, but it is in plain apparel.

Yes, I am implying that she gained carnal knowledge from the forbidden tree. Carnal knowledge is the knowledge of the flesh. Because they were ashamed of their pudenda (Gen 3), it is implied that their appendages were discovered to have multiple uses. The Books of Adam and Eve reveals that they had no digestive systems when in Glory but acquired them after sin. Perhaps they acquired genitalia as well to multiply Satan’s way.

Now read an afterthought later in the day when Jesus was asked about marriage in heaven after the general resurrection. “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Mat 22:30).

Adam and the woman were made both in the Image of God and elohim — the angels who were made in the Image of God. Unlike the angels, God took living souls and surrounded them with a material image of the elements. Angels were invisible substances and men as much ‘angels’ with ‘coats’ made of some glorious material manufactured by God to become His Glorious Likeness. Imagine that Adam and Eve were like Jesus after He died and was resurrected. His Spirit, or Ghost, was the same, but His flesh was made glorious (John 7:39).

I submit that the glorified Jesus — the ‘last Adam’ (1 Cor 15:45) was of the same substance as the first Adam.

Jesus revealed to the inquisitive crowd that after the resurrection, there would be no marriages. ‘Marriage’ is two becoming one. Their will be no coupling in the realm of heaven. That implies that there should have been no coupling in the paradisical Garden in heaven. Adam and Eve were cast out into the world where coupling was the normative and their coats of skin would be removed only to couple. Eve had no ‘armor of God’ to couple with the Wicked One with one meaning of her name is ‘Adulteress.’

Adam and the woman were ashamed of their flesh after sin. Before sin, they had not been ashamed. They were in the Image of the resurrected Jesus before encountering the Devil, but afterward were brutish like the beasts. They had acquired animal skins with sin and lost their once dominant genes (Gen 1:26). The Wicked One had become the dominant one rather than Adam.

Now back to the parable. The man was thrown out because his clothes were not appropriate for a wedding with Jesus — the Son of the King. He had been called but had not found grace.

Noah found grace (Gen 6:8). The Book of Jasher reveals that the grace that Noah found was the Garment of Adam. Noah was elected from all those around him to find grace, not because he was a good shipbuilder, but because he ‘wore’ God in a sense. He was called and then followed. While covered with the Garment that God had provided, Noah avoided the fiery darts of the wicked ones and went to the ‘wedding.’

The Ark of Noah was God’s ship and since Noah was married with God, wearing His apparel — at one with Him — the Ark was nothing more than a ‘wedding cruise’ after which the ancient invisible Church was laid on new ground (a new Adam).

So, Noah came to the wedding dressed appropriately. Whatever clothing that he wore, beneath it was the Garment of God. Noah wore that coat for over 120 years, then Ham stole it and made him naked. Then Noah sinned. Soon Noah was like Adam as well; he found grace in the new world even without that Coat. However, Ham stole the Garment, and his son was cursed.

Ham came to the wedding without proper wedding attire, and his son was cast out into the world without proper attire, because he stole grace.

Today stealing the glory of the other is called ‘stolen valor.’ Ham kept the valor for some time, and it was passed on to his son Canaan, then through several others to Nimrod who used the Garment of Adam wrongly, to prove there was no God in heaven.

The point that Jesus was making in the parable is that many are invited to the wedding, few come, but those who come fraudulently, are due Hell.

I believe that today most Christians are frauds. They, and sometimes me, take off the Comforter for a few minutes to do as we please. If we wear the Comforter to the wedding of us to Jesus on the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, we will be well received at the wedding of the King’s Son to the Invisible Heavenly Church.

Even after professing to be the bride of Christ, many come to the ‘wedding’ without the Garment of God. How would we know? “If you love Me; keep My commandments,” said Jesus (John 14:15). Before the wedding it is essential to dress appropriately, wearing the whole armor of God to even pass the angels guarding the Way to the wedding (Gen 3:24).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCARED HALF TO DEATH

 The common exclamation, “You scared me half to death," contains some truth! Let me explain.

Death has a different meaning than is thought. Over the years the legal definition of death has changed. Now, “death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism” (Wikipedia 2023), or life form. Since the last organ to go is the brain, death is when the brain ceases to function. Outside technology can keep the heart beating and the person breathing, and dialysis can eliminate the poisons, but when personal thought ceases, the person is braindead whether the other systems continue or not.

Science changes its assertions in the process of time. In the last century, death was the cessation of the heartbeat, but not pacemakers can keep the heart beating, even after a person is braindead. An acquaintance of mine had his pacemaker removed, so that after he died, he was all the way dead!

Nowadays meats and processed foods are stamped with an expiration date; so is mankind. God issued a warning to mankind before the Noahic deluge, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years” (Gen 6:3).

Some believe that was the time it would take to build and fill the ark. That may be, but it too is the “shelf life” of mankind. Some argue that point. However, an expiration date does not mean the produce will go bad exactly on that date, but in general, do not expect much longer. Many patriarchs in the Bible lived longer because their genetics were the genes of God. Sacred literature verifies that since the time of the flood, people can expect to live no longer than 120 years. Because of grace, many others have.

Now examine God’s assertion. His Spirit shall not always strive with man. That is the grace that Noah found (Gen 6:8). Translated “strive,” it means to “contend” with the progeny of Adam (Hebrew; ‘adam). He included the race of both Seth and Cain by pointing back to Adam. To strive or contend with man meant that God would no longer compete with His creatures for supremacy. If you recollect, Satan spoke the truth, back in the Garden; God had warned Adam (the female of that kind), “For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5).

In that passage, it is not “gods” to whom God was referring but Himself. It was mistranslated in the English as ‘elohim is used in both instances. God feared that they would think of themselves superior to Him, and by the time of Noah, that was the situation. Each “Adam” (man) was as God, and each were “gods” in their own minds. Each person had created an individual sphere wherein he or she were the “Cosmos.”

God would no longer contend with them, acting as if they were each the Supreme God — the LORD GOD.

The Maslovian concept of self-esteem and the peak experience now operationalizes what God would no longer contend. More so than loving God so many people endeavor to love themselves. That was Eve’s problem. She died because she loved herself more than God, and now self-love is the New Age thinking, or doctrine. Again, mostly the women of the species seek self-love.

The root cause of death, then is anyone thinking that he or she is God or loving themselves more than God. The Hebrews of the Bible never totally abandoned God but added other gods in His Face. That is the literal translation of the First Commandment. That was the commandment that applied to the first humans (Gen 3:5).

As it turns out, Jesus was the true “Face” of God but still most of the people of the world, put on that false face. Therefore, God will no longer contend with people placing themselves above God. That was the first and original sin of Eve who also placed herself above Adam to whom she was meant to be a helper (Gen 2:18). Radical feminism is the female of the species still endeavoring to place themselves over both the male and God.

So, contending with God is the root-cause of death, but again; what is death? It is dying. The case could be made that death is the opposite of living. God had breathed life unto Adam, hence death might be that God siphoned life out of Adam’s kind to cause death. That is essentially what God did with the flood. Mankind, just like George Floyd, might have thought, I can’t breathe, as the flood waters displaced the air in their lungs and they each gave up the Spirit of God.

In the Hebrew mut is dead, but it is written twice — mut mut signifying certain or all the way dead! There is no root verb for “to die” — “die” means to die, and saying it twice makes it certain, without any other recourse.

Everyone has always thought of death as the flesh. The brain is not only the flesh but the organ that makes homo sapiens “wise men.” The brain is the vessel of the mind, called a “faculty” because it facilitates, or makes the organisms function. Thus, the mind is the “heart” of man, not that it pumps blood but it directs life!

When God spoke, “My spirit shall not always strive with man,” what was He saying? Because He added, “for that he also is flesh” clarifies the substances existing in mankind, and the Creation for that matter.

God apparently created the souls of the two Adams first in chapter one of Genesis, then the fleshes of the two in chapter two. Adam and his mate gained their soul with the Image of God within, and soon after, flesh was made to animate them.

So, which is “life”? That mankind is of two substances: a soul with the Spirit of God within along with flesh of the same shape (Luke 3:22). That is the physical “vessel” for carrying the Spirit of God.

God was saying that He would remove His Spirit; that was death in His Lexicon. What happened to each of the two substances? The flesh was flushed down the “drain” and the souls of mankind in the time of Noah perished. Thus, utter death is of the Spirit and not of the flesh. Hence, the root-cause of death is when the desires of the flesh give way to the Will of the Spirit, or as Jesus said it, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41).

So, death is of the soul but the flesh is “weak” or frail and dying; perhaps already dead!

On another occasion prior to that, Jesus had again spoken the truth about death: 

²¹ Another of His disciples said unto him, “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus said unto him, “Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead.” (Mat 8:21-22)

 “Follow me,” indicates animation or what we think of as life. However, Jesus was not speaking of following Him part way or quit before arriving, but to follow Him to death. That is known because He would say, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mat 16:24).

Thus “life” is endurance to the end (Mat 10:22). Taking up the cross is God killing the flesh when the time comes. Nobody can expect to live longer than 120 years to this day. Hence, plan on carrying the cross of Jesus until the Death Angel comes for you.

Carrying the Cross of Jesus is life. Following Jesus is really alive! Those who fail to carry the cross for Jesus’s Name, are the dead. If they never take up the Cross of Jesus and sacrifice their flesh for Him, then when they die, they are dead dead. Both their fleshes and their souls are dead and in Hell.

Those who remain evil are not regenerated, their feel alive but have the same dead flesh that somehow God keeps alive in Hell. That is dead dead; always dying but never all the way dead in a physical sense.

Jesus said, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell” (Mat 10:28).

It is learned from the Book of Job that Satan can harm only the body and not the soul. Jesus is the Judge of the “threshing floor.” He is the One who can destroy both the body and soul in Hell. Perhaps, the Holy Ghost that Jesus gave up, accompanied Judas with Satan in him to Hell on the day of the crucifixion. There, in Gehenna (the entrance to Hell) was where Judas was buried. Judas went to a place where the soul never dies but is always dying, and Satan went with him. Jesus is Name of the Spirit that did that!

So, by God’s standards, death is not the cessation of body functions but when the soul is depleted of the Spirit of God.

(Man is not totally but mostly depraved for they are worth saving.)

The man who followed Jesus was alive in that he walked as Jesus walked. Those who failed to take up their crosses and follow Jesus were spiritually dead. Although they remained animated, they failed to walk with Jesus and were spiritually dead. “In Christ” when living is alive alive!

In the Garden, the flesh of Adam and his mate were glorious; it was incorruptible because they were the Image of an Incorrupt God. They had the same Identities as their “Father,” not that God sired them, but they had the Genome of God encoded within them that made them like Him.

With sin, that Genome was removed. They were no longer the Image (Selem) of the LORD GOD, but the image (nahas) of their new “lord” Lucifer (Gen 4:1). (His plan was well in place at that time to replace God as the Creator; Isa 14:12-14).

Because of sin, of course, their souls died and like Jesus said, so did their bodies; not that they became inanimate but that their kinds were changed from the Image of the LORD GOD to the image of the Serpent. Because their new flesh, of which they were ashamed, was corrupted genetically (original sin), God put onto them His “coats of skin” to preserve them in the world (Gen 3:21). Perhaps those skins are what men wear to this day, but when they fail God, their flesh is removed from the soul, and they would die; but not die die until the end.

Therefore, perhaps the living who do not follow Jesus are the dead, and in the end, they will be the dead dead, just as Adam and Eve in the beginning.

By grace, one of the “dead’s” was removed for they could be saved. Jesus did that because of the Cross; “The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His Resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Mat 27:52-53). No longer is Adam dead dead, but alive alive in the Bosom of the “Last Adam” — Jesus.

Just as the “bosom” of Abraham was surely the source of the seed of Abraham — His genome — so the Bosom of Jesus would be the Genome of God, or the Image of God again. Adam was regenned when Jesus was resurrected, and he is alive alive in Paradise because he has Christ in him.

Of course, “to die” was said twice “mut mut” because death is of the flesh and the soul. Sin causes the death of both, so to die to die is what sinners shall do. But if in Christ, “To die is gain” (Phil 1:21), not “to die die” is gain but only “to die” a physical death!

 (picture credit; Deviant Art; "Zombie")