THE ASSES THAT JESUS RODE TO VICTORY

The Caesar’s had their triumphal entries into the city of Rome when the Roman generals, against all odds, defeated their enemies. Today, we look at the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

I will not take the time to compare the two, other than Caesars rode the way on gallant horses whereas Jesus rode on the back of a donkey. Imagine how silly it would look if Caesar had done that! Jesus was followed by the multitude who praised Him, saying, 

Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.  (Mat 21:9) 

First off, consider the Hebrew word, “Hosanna.” It means “save us now” or “save we pray.” Hosanna points toward the ability of Jesus, as the son of David to save them. Indeed kings could always save about anyone they chose. To the multitude, Jesus on the donkey would have been like David on His steed.

They knew that Jesus was not the literal “son” of David, but that the donkey was carrying the genes of David in a humble manner. For them, it was as if David was riding the parade, and a new kind was taking the throne of David.

Although Jesus could save both their bodies and souls by default, it is written: 

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

Jesus had the Power and Authority to either save or perish, and the crowd realized that. They may have praised Jesus that day because the Law could kill their bodies but not their souls. As it turned out, their faith was short-lived, for the following week their faith waned with few of the multitude seriously taking a knee to Jesus who was about to prove that He is God.

As king, Jesus could save their bodies but probably nobody thought that Jesus could also save their souls, or even that their souls was of primary importance to Jesus.

Perhaps, hosanna to them, was the save them now as any king might do. Save them from what? Caesar or his legions? Or save them from the coming wrath of the law that Saul (soon to be Paul) sought for them?

After Saul changed, he revealed the source of the fright:

The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thes 5:23)

Saying, “hosanna” was asking to be saved now! Paul wrote that after Jesus died and was resurrected. They would be preserved with sanctification until the coming of the Lord, and at that time, they would be saved.

There is a huge difference between preserved and saved. “Preserved” comes from the Greek word, “tereo” — to be guarded. Guarded where? From impure things in the world, just as a vessel properly cleaned can preserve what is within.

On the other hand, “saved” is what remains viable for usage when the container is opened. Indeed, Christ preserves now but saves later. When is a person saved? Upon their expiration date.

Sanctification is Christ guarding us from the world. How is that done? By the Holy Ghost of Jesus who is always with us as “Emauel.”

It was not yet time for hosanna. Salvation would not come now but preservation would soon be.

Salvation is not the flesh: 

Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet 1:8-9) 

The following week, Jesus has all but been abandoned for the people wanted salvation right then but by the next week Jesus was not riding in victory but nailed to the cross like a common criminal. They failed to realize that salvation is not now, but when Jesus is ready. When is He ready? At the end of your faith.

Faith is not a one-time event; it is a lifetime commitment. Their hosannas lasted one week. How long will your hosanna last?

According to the key verse, the people said, “Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord.” Jesus did that; He came in the Name “Ya Saves” (Yeshua). However, they called Him, not the “Son of God” but the “son of David.” He came in the name of the Lord, but they saw Him coming as an heir to the throne of David. It would be the royal House of David to whom they were saying their hosannas.

They indeed ran after Jesus and even spread a carpet of palm leaves for Him to ride on. What did not happen? They failed to bless Jesus.

A blessing is another mysterious thing. What does it mean to you? People of all eras have asked kings for blessings, but now they were about to bless the coming king.  

“Blessed” in the Greek is “eulogeo.” The “eu” means good and “logeo” means the “Logos.” They believed that they should speak well of Jesus which they did, but they only mouthed it at that time. The next time, they remained as silent as church mice. Blessed would mean that they understood that Jesus was “The Word” of God in the flesh.

They failed to see Christ on the other animal; the invisible God that was on His steed.  They saw Jesus but not Yahweh. Savvy Jews would have seen Yahweh riding alongside Jesus. In fact, the crucifixion was about one thing: that the man Jesus is the invisible God, and that Jesus is who He said He is: “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30).

The multitude on Palm Sunday should have saw that! Why two donkeys? One for the Father and one for the Son of God; no wonder the foal of a donkey?

They followed but what should good Jews hac done? Blessed Jesus.

They should have eulogized Jesus, acknowledging that He and the Father are One and that He is the spoken Word of God (John 1:1-14).

Jews should have went one step further. Bless in the Hebrew is “barak.” They should have literally taken a knee to Jesus as God since the barak means that.

Asses in ancient times in Hebrew culture were considered to be symbols of service and humility unlike the white steeds of the Caesars who would ride horses to show their power. Vespasian Caesar did that soon after his triumphal entry into Rome after his “foal” Titus destroyed the Temple of God in Jerusalem.

Jesus, via the ass, was Him taking a knee to mankind rather than them taking a knee to Him as some would do in mockery a week later (Mat 27:29).

The ass seems to have been symbolic of the camel who takes a knee to mankind when the domesticated camel kneels to carry the riders. The ass could have represented to letter gimmel in the Hebrew aleph-bet, characterized by the footprint of a camel.

 

 

Figure 1: Camel footprint

 

A camel or an ass; what’s the difference” The rider. The donkey was a beast of burden like the camel, and it seems that the invisible Hebrew letter gimmel that represents the Holy Ghost was at the Triumphal Entry of Jesus riding a donkey.

In a sense, rather then them taking a knee to Jesus, Jesus was taking a knee for them.

Hosanna is just a word, but a blessing is an action. Words cannot save, but taking a knee to Christ does.

WOW! WHAT IS IN THE NAME JESUS

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain. (Exod 20:7)

The “Name” I the Hebrew is “Sem.” Jewish people call the “Name” Hashem to this day rather than speak it to avoid vanity toward the LORD GOD (Yehova Elohim).

Note that Elohim is a general term for any god, and in fact Eve may have used that expression for Lucifer (Gen 4:1) because she had just served the so-called “Serpent.”

Elohim not only describes God but the angels as well: 

What is man, that you art mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honour. (Psalm 8:4-5) 

That the “man” is Adam is validated by the subsequent passages in the Psalm. Hence, the “son of man” refers to the entire genealogy of Adam, including the “Son of Man” “For the Son of man is Lord” even of the Sabbath Day” (Mat 12:8).

In other words, it was Jesus who rested on the first Sabbath after He had created all things before (Gen 2:2). Hence, Jesus was somehow the Creator just as John wrote  (John 1:1-14).

That man and his gens are a little lower than the angels suggests that our genetics are not the same as the elohim (angels).

The psalmist was writing about the genetics of all of mankind, not just Adam, and that includes the flesh of Jesus. His death and resurrection “glorified” Him (John 7:39) hence mankind does indeed come short of the glory of God (Elohim). We were made a little lower than God and those in the kingdom of heaven.

That Adam had dominion over the other animals of the Garden did mean that He was dominant Gen 1:26) before sin entered the world. Mankind was created glorified, and sin de-glorified mankind and that new “kind” was named “Eve” — “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20).

Dominion in the Hebrew is literally a “crumbling.”  The animal kingdom were not taken from the Image of God but Adam was. His person was made from the invisible Image of God, hence he “crumbled” from God, making mankind of the same dominion of God.

Implied within dominion is that Adam and his woman were created in another dominion and the Garden of God was not in the visible world but another invisible realm. The Garden of the Lord was in another dominion, not in this world.

The creation of mankind on the sixth day, according to the psalmist, God crowned mankind, and mankind alone, with glory and honor.

“Crowned” in the Hebrew is ‘atar; Adam’s kind was literally “encircled” (Strong 2006) by God. Mankind wore a coat of armor indubitably made from the Spirit of God. Adam was of the same gens as Jesus because the Image of God was the Holy Ghost of Jesus. The Image of God was the “Name” that must not be taken in vain because for the “sons of God” God (the Name) is within mankind, blurred as it may be by sin.

The Name of the Lord when used to honor Him in the Garden of the Lord was mostly the “LORD GOD” rather than just any angelic being. Therefore, the word “Lord” points to one specific God — the only one that really Exists — Yehova God.

Eve’s lord was not the real Yehova Elohim, but just Yehova. Her new “lord” was not even a an Image of God at all but one that claimed to be Yehova. Lucifer was that “existence” from another domain that sought dominion over God (Isa 14:12-14). He would never be the “LORD GOD” but a faux Yehova — the “Antichrist” called the “Beast.”

Even dishonored the really Yehova Elohim calling the false image (nahas), Yehova. She took the Name of the LORD GOD in vain — without real meaning.

So the Name of God belongs only to the Yehova Elohim and no other being. Let that soak in; Elohim is the invisible Image of God and Yehova the description of God, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exod 3:14). Yehova is the real Elohim and no other.

JHVH in the English letters is the true “Name” of God, but is not just a nomen but a Genome — the very identity of God. JHVH in the Hebrew letters would be correctly transliterated YHVH or in the Hebrew יְהֹוָה rewading from right to left YHVH pronounced with either a V or a W sound, hence, Yehova or Yahweh.

Now consider the meaning of each Hebrew letter.

Their “Y” is yod,  יְ

Yod is the Existence that we call “God” that was always there somehow and from whom all things comes. He is the Power from which all things were generated.

Their “H” is hey, הֹ

Hey is the “breath of God” that breathes life and makes inanimate objects living souls, as Yod did with Adam (Gen 2:7).

Vav וָ has two meanings: either a man or specifically the Messiah. For God Vav represents the Messiah Man. 

The last hey  הֹ is not spoken, thus remaining silent. 

I submit that in those four Hebrew characters, all three substances of God is there in homeostasis as one Name. 

Jesus is the “Name” — what God is called (Mat 1:25). That Name in Hebrew is as follows:

That tetragrammaton is pronounced yod-shin-vav-‘ayin.

Again, Yod is the Creator and indicates that all things came from Jesus just as John wrote. He could tell from the Name of Yeshua.

The pictogram for a shin is a fence. On the printed version of the shin, three crowns are on its left head (tefillin). 

 Remember from the psalm about how Yahweh crowned the “Son of Man” with glory and honor?  That crown appears in the Name of God Yeshua. It indeed it is a fence of safety as in “Yod saves” which is the meaning of the name Jesus.

Note the skin of the Garment of Adam? “The Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen 3:21). Adam was crowned with a type of shin from God to remain safe in the world (cosmos) outside the domain of God (Gen 3:24).

“Save” in the Hebrew is haya.

חָיָה hey yod hey, again with the last hey silent. Life is breathed by God. That is “born again” in the English for the regeneration (John 3:7). Regeneration is breathing life back into the empty vessels of the souls of man. The second yod is a ghost letter, inferring perhaps that it is the “Holy Ghost” of Jesus that breathes life.

Continuing with the Yeshua tetragrammaton, vav comes next.

In the Name Yeshua is “Messiah.” In the English that is Christ. “Christ” is in the name Yeshua from the vav.

The last letter of the tetragrammaton (four pictograms) is ‘ayin.

In formal Hebrew, it too as three crowns over the left yod that makes up the ‘ayin. All the Hebrew letters are made up of numerous yod’s.

The pictogram for the ‘ayin is the eye, representing divine knowledge. Assuredly, it is the eye of God on the face of Jesus. It is implied that salvation comes from the knowledge of God, or specifically that Jesus is the knowledge of God in Word.

The Tree of Life had “twelve manner of fruits” (Rev 22:2). Knowledge and practice of all those things in the knowledge of God and it is in the Name, Yeshua.

Those fruits from the Vulgate are these: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity.

The ;ayin represents the nature of the Holy Thing, Jesus, and for those in Christ, His nature would be the nature of the new creation.

It is implied by the ‘ayin that Christians are engendered by the Spirit of God above, Yeshus, by name.

The three crowns in the left yod of the letter ‘ayin represents the godhead of God — the three in one who wear three crowns, or authorities, on one Yod or God — Father (the Yod), the Son (the Vav), and the Holy Ghost (the Hey).

So, what is in the Name, Jesus (Yeshua)? Life itself to create a new creature in Christ. That Name is the “Word” of God and God as Yod is in it.

Note that God (Yod) is in the Word just as John wrote.

To take that Name without significance (honor) leads to death because to those who do not, Yeshua (Jesus) is just another name to curse.

 

 

 

 

 

JESUS IN HIS FATHER’S BUSINESS

Brilliant people are as subject to ridicule as much as fools are. Many famous inventors were mocked because or their inventive insight. Brilliant people were often considered fools in times past; people were just too dull in mind to understand the possibilities.

Thomas Edison, one of the most enlightened people of all time, was considered, “creepy and dangerous,” according to Atlas Obscura. About Edison’s even more brilliant rival, “In his later years, Tesla was regarded as an eccentric scientist. Ridiculed by his contemporaries, his ideas frequently appeared in works of science fiction” (PBS).

Neither Edison nor Tesla were mere inventors but brilliant minds that understood science. As a child, Thomas Edison was thought of as troublesome to say the least, according to the Foundation of Economic Education, some said that Edison was “addled:” 

In 1854, Reverend G. B. Engle belittled one of his students, seven-year-old Thomas Alva Edison, as “addled.” This outraged the youngster, and he stormed out of the Port Huron, Michigan school, the first formal school he had ever attended. His mother, Nancy Edison, brought him back the next day to discuss the situation with Reverend Engle, but she became angry at his rigid ways. Everything was forced on the kids. She withdrew her son from the school where he had been for only three months and resolved to educate him at home. Although he seems to have briefly attended two more schools, nearly all his childhood learning took place at home.

 “Addled” is archaic for confused. Imagine the mind of Thomas Edison, and even Nikolai Tesla, whose minds were on deep, introspective ideas rather than gulping down the ignorance that was taught by their teachers.

For instance, bloodletting had been used to treat various illnesses since ancient Egyptian times for about 3000 years. All civilizations bled the patient nearly to death for his or her own good.

Unknown is Edison’s opinion about bloodletting, but an equally fascinating scientist, Dr. Pierre Louis in France revealed the truth. Imagine the consternation when that one man sought to end a tradition that had existed for so long! Bloodletting ended during the lifetime of both Edison and Tesla who were rival ‘idiots’ in the minds of many.

Why did the nonsensical science of bloodletting prevail for so long? Because it had always been done, even without any proof that it helped. “Bloodletting survived for so long is not an intellectual anomaly—it resulted from the dynamic interaction of social, economic, and intellectual pressures, a process that continues to determine medical practice,” according to the British Columbia Medical Journal.

Doctors bled patients because they were expected to do something.

In this day, many stood in line to take a faux vaccine that did not prevent contagion merely because science was expected to do some thing. Gullible people were even expected to wear masks that did not work because they were expected to do some thing.  The concept of “bloodletting” remains to this day, not using leeches, but requiring people to do stupid things in a “scientific comedy” that makes them feel better!

On the other hand, Jesus was the real thing. Jesus, whose DNA was of Yahweh, as “The Son of God” had supreme knowledge; even at the age of twelve He was considered brilliant by those who heard Him teach to the most knowledgeable in the Temple.

While in the city, it seems that His parents forgot about the young boy. As it turns out He was in the Temple teaching them His “Father’s Business” (Luke 2:49). The chief  priest’s vocations were to teach God’s Business, but here was a young man teaching what they should have taught. Imagine the envy of the chief priests when they heard that Jesus was teaching the people things that even they did not know. [1]

Who was likely addled there? Jesus or the chief priests?

It came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they (his parents) saw Him, they were amazed. (Luke 2:46-48)

The chief priests, as it turned out, were not amazed! They thought Jesus was a drunk and demon possessed. Whenever He taught in the synagogues many marveled, but others condemned Him; they thought that Jesus was confused. Imagine how addled they became when they heard His admirers call Him not only “The Son of David,” but “The Son of God.”

In the ending, it was the chief priests that were addled. Jesus implied that they had the greater sin but was graceful enough that He said about them, “They know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Jesus was as much a genius as Edison and Tesla, even more so, because He had the knowledge of God in His great mind. He never thought trivial thoughts but was on a mission; He was not out to improve the world, but to create a perfect world without hatred, violence, sickness, nor even death. Silly Him, the chief priests might have thought; they could not even do that!

The people mocked Jesus: some spit on Him, He was blindfolded and beaten, they dressed Him like a king in jest — a court jester, and the chief priests themselves mocked Him for His claim to be God, “"He saved others, but He can’t save himself!” (Mark 15:31). That is after people called Jesus a ‘drunk’ and even a ‘Devil,’ while failing to realize that the real ‘Devil’ was in Judas.

The greatest mockery was that they detested Jesus just because He was Jesus; that He was “Ya(hweh) saves.”

In modern times, people who think they are God or king are called ‘schizophrenic,’ having delusions of grandeur. They thought that about Jesus too!

When Jesus returns be not surprised that the world will call Him, ‘Crazy.’ We should not be looking for a brilliant scientist to save mankind but One the general public and the media think is beside Himself.

Jesus having the power to heal the sick and cast out devils was ridiculed; the multitude were so aside themselves that they could not even eat bread! “When his friends heard of it (the healing and such), they went out to lay hold on Him: for they said that “He is beside himself.” (Mark 3:21).

What they meant was that Jesus was confused, or ‘addled,’ as some would say. Jesus was out of His mind, perhaps schizophrenic, they thought. (Tesla was thought of that same way.)

Ironically, Jesus was indeed soon ‘beside Himself’!

“Soon after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). He was God. He sat down on the throne of God as Himself. What they said in mockery soon became real, and now we know that neither Edison nor Tesla were addled men but brilliant minds!

This brings me to the subject at hand. We have been taught since childhood that Jesus was a ‘mere carpenter.’ That probably was derived from the translation of Mark 6:3. Jesus was not a mere carpenter but a “tekton’ in the original Greek. He was not to be mocked, but the word ‘tekton’ could mean many things. Since the English translations were introduced in the dark ages, Jesus was thought to be a carpenter for that was a prevalent trade at the time.

However, it was written that Jesus was a ‘tekton.’  That is much more than any tradesman; Jesus was an ‘artificer’ — “a skilled or artistic worker” (Merriam-Webster 2023). That was His Father’s business that He was teaching in the temple at age twelve.

What was His Father’s business? “God created the heaven and the earth:” (Gen 1:1)… “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, ‘Let there be light:’ and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness” (Gen 1:2-4).  The Father could have been a carpenter or a mason to do those things, but God was a ‘Supreme Scientist” such as the world has never seen since!

Yahweh was the ultimate ‘Tekton,’ standing above everyone in His field. Because of envy, Lucifer was the ‘Edison’ that thought himself better than ‘Tesla’ (Isa 14:13-14).

Jesus had the genetics of His Father; and only John saw that: describing Jesus, John wrote:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men, and the light shined in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:1-5)

Gen 1:1-5 was His Father’s business, and the business of Jesus was the Father’s business as related in John 1:1-5.

What were their businesses? The same business. Jesus was sharing those things with the doctors at the Temple. Jesus would have been describing how He made all things. Can you imagine how much those doctors learned from that youngster?

Some theologians say that Joseph taught Jesus, not only carpentry while they were exiled in Egypt, but also His Father’s Business. Not so! His parents were amazed at His teachings (Luke 2:48). Apparently, they listened to what their son was saying and learned astro-physics from that twelve-year-old prodigy whose intelligence was all the knowledge of all things. Jesus was not taught; He existed and did it all, and as such, depend on Jesus to do it again!

Jesus is diminished as even Christians call Him a “mere carpenter.’ He was a Tekton! A ‘technician’ is anyone that practices technology, but Jesus was not practicing; He was performing in reality how to make all things good. He is the Universal Body of Knowledge, and all other things are from that Body.

The root noun for tekton is tetk, meaning to mold, carve, and other things. (Harper 2001-2023).

That Jesus was a carpenter surely was believed because He was thought of as a carver of wooden things that were common to that era. Of course, He could have been a mason, or even a molder of iron and bronze, the two ages of the time of Jesus. However, His Father’s business was all technical things, even creating life! Jesus was not just a carpenter but the Creator; He was the “Husbandman” that His Father was because He is the Father made flesh (John 15:1). As the ‘Vine’ in that passage, Jesus’s business was an offshoot of His Father’s business.

In modern terms, Jesus was much more than a carpenter, not to diminish their artisanship; He would be called the ‘Greatest Astro-physicist’ ever; not only knowing the workings of God but doing them. Jesus is ‘The Science.’ The science is Existence and when Jesus said, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exod 3:24), that means that only He is “The Science”! Jehovah or Yahweh is The Science and so is Jesus.

Great care must be taken to consider the times in which scripture was translated. That Jesus could only carve wooden images makes Him nothing more than the father of Abraham who made images of God. Jesus Himself, as the ‘Father,’ made Himself an Image made of flesh — life — and when it was finished Jesus cut down the Image and the Father Himself left Him in phantom.

Einstein and Kaku should be mocked. They understood what God made and even credited it to God, but it is them that gets the glory. They made a name for themselves, all the while ignoring the Tekton that did it all — Jesus.

Jesus was the greatest Mind ever. His Mind was the very Mind of God, yet people think of Jesus as merely a Son of God. “Son” in that passage means genetics and that Jesus had the very DNA of Yahweh in His Person; there is no Father and Son, but both in One. The Spirit is the ‘Tekton’ that has the Power to do all things. The Spirit is the Father’s ‘Business’ and He is still in the Business of regenerating what He had made in the beginning. Jesus is still beside Himself in Paradise all the while the Spirit is the Power of the Tekton.

picture credit; "Saved Souls;" good wiki - Fandom

 

 

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[1] I am often ridiculed even by some in my church for teaching things that they had never heard before.  They may be afraid of the truth!

ON SAINTHOOD - Part 2 of 2

 

Bible Qualifiers

 

First, we should look whether Jesus used the Word “saint” in any context to understand what is meant by it. It has not been recorded that Jesus ever said the word, “saint” even in any language.

One thing that so many forget is that Jesus is God in the Flesh, and that pre-incarnate Jesus is the Word of God. So, when Father God says things, the things are the Voice of Jesus. What does the Word say about saints?

Daniel, in a night vision, saw the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man together. One of them said that “The saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even for ever and ever” (Dan 7:18).

The Ancient of Days is a colloquialism that points toward the Creator God, Yahweh, and the “Son of Man” points toward Jesus.

In his vision, Daniel saw that Jesus and the Father came together as one. He saw the godhead as one Being. As John explained, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Daniel saw that the Word (Jesus) was God, and that “Man” used the word “saint.”

But no, he did not! English would not be spoken for thousands of years later. The Word spoke, “qadis,” the Hebrew translated as “saints.”

The evidence suggests that an ancient form of Hebrew was the first written words. [1] Daniel is believed to have written the book bearing his name. He wrote what he heard spoken in his night vision, and he identified that Being as the Word of God.

The Word said, “qadis.” It was spoken by the mouth of God. However, it was not Hebrew! It was spoken in Aramaic.

Jesus spoke Aramaic and demonstrated His fluency while on the cross. That qadis is Aramaic is evidence that Daniel heard Jesus even before he was birthed, so for all practical purposes, Jesus said “saints” in Aramaic, and perhaps Daniel heard a Voice from the future just as he claimed when he compared the Son of Man to the Ancient of days.

In his dream, Daniel, in effect, saw the past and the future become one from whom the Word came. He saw the “Alpha and Omega” (Rev 1:18) together as One Divine Existence. He saw that the beginning and the ending were the same Existence.

The evidence, therefore, is that pre-incarnate Jesus said “qadis.” Therefore, in English, “saints” are the “holy ones” (Strong 2006).

It is written in both the Old and New Testaments, “You shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy” or words to that effect in other places (Lev 19:2; 1 Pet 1:16). Not by coincidence, “holy” is “qados” in that passage; it too perhaps in Aramaic. He means “sanctified” or “consecrated” (made sacred) in the English… set apart from the world.

Of course, the Law referred to eating things that crept on the face of the Earth, but one passage is more general… to be sanctified requires abstention from some thing, to wit: “You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps, neither shall you make yourselves unclean with them, that you should be defiled thereby” (Lev 11:43).

It seems here that we have wandered into the realm of science fiction or even mythology, but bear with me while I explore that specific Law.

We are getting closer to defining a “saint.” It is staying away from creeping things. Those are things which are representative of the “Serpent” — the first “creeping Thing.” How so?

“The Lord God said unto the Serpent, ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon your belly shall you go.” (Gen 3:14).

Now consider when the Serpent was cast down. Remembering that Satan (the Serpent) entered Judas, (Luke 22:3), and that Judas fell from the tree in which he had hanged himself (Mat 27:5), then soon after, “falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18).

“Abomination” is doing things that are disgusting. The disgusting thing that Judas did was to submit himself to Satan for the love of money. Then, at the death of Judas his “bowels” gushed out. How disgusting!

The Greek word translated “bowels” also means his “inward affection.” Therein it seems that Satan, “the object of his affection,” was shed (ekcheo).

That is not to say that his bowels did not gush out, but the “creeping thing” was shed of him. Some ancient works of art show the demon, Satan, being expelled from the side of Judas.

 

Figure 1: Disembowelment of Judas; PottyPadre

Association with the creeping thing was the sin of Judas. The love of money, literally the love of the things of the world, was the cause and the effect that Judas became the “son of the Satan,” as the affection for Jesus was lost due to the love of the things of the world.

“Holiness” is the love of God and His principles: to love Him and others (Mat 22:36-40). Since “love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10), then love of the world, rather than affection for God, is the root cause of disentanglement (apostasia) with God.

According to the psalm, Judas was the “familiar friend” of Jesus. They each had affection for one another. Jesus kept his affection for Judas, but when he sold out Jesus for money, Judas defected (apostasia; as in Heb 6:6) from Him.

The prophets and apostles were “saints.” John the Baptist was a saint since he dismissed him self in favor of Jesus. He took up his cross (the blade of Herod) and preceded Jesus to death and was perhaps one of the “saints” that was resurrected along with Jesus: 

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)

 Therein “saints” in the Greek is “agios.”— a “holy thing.” Ironically, that comes from the root hagios — an “awful thing” (Strong 2006). A saint is therefore an awful thing that has been made a holy thing! That begins with rebirth but must endure to the death of the creature (Mat 10:28).

Judas was an “Antichrist;” a holy thing that had returned to his roots and Satan made him an awful thing again. Some would say that he could not lose his salvation, but he did not lose it; he had his path to salvation blocked. Judas gave up his salvation for love of the things of the world. He valued thirty pieces of silver above Jesus and salvation.

Just as the wage of sin is death, the unmerited wage of God is eternal life (Rom 6:23). To obtain the wage of sin requires a sinner to die and to obtain the wage of holiness requires death as well as Paul so eloquently wrote: 

Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain., but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. (Phil 1:20-22)

 At his death, Paul received his gain, or reward. He who had been awful became a holy thing. He admitted that he was the “chief” of all sinners, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Tim 1:15). “I am” is present tense. While alive, Paul was a sinner, but upon death, he was a “saint.” The “gain” at death if in Christ is sainthood.

Did it require any miracles for Paul to become a saint? Did he change water into wine or overcome the world? His only credential for sainthood was magnifying Christ both in his life until his death — he lived for Christ and that made him a “saint” in death.

Paul was not always in Christ because he held some Christians captive to be murdered.

All the apostles, including Judas, were in Christ as they followed Him wherever he went. Soon, Satan tempted Judas with money, and he stole from the treasury (John 12:6).

Judas could have been forgiven for that, but before long he no longer followed Jesus but the money.

That could have been Paul, but he was elsewhere. Paul was never captivated by money but protected his God in the only way he knew how at the time… by violence.

Anyone of the apostles could have been the traitor who defected from Christ, but Satan got into him through the things of the world.

Judas died a sinner. All the others died as “saints.” It did not matter what they were all their lives but what they were at the moment of their own death. Jesus implied that with a parable: 

Take that yours is and go your way: I will give unto this last, even as unto you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is your eye evil, because I am good? So, the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. (Mat 20:14-16)

 Paul was the last to be in Christ and he was one of the chosen as if he had been chosen all the time. His “gain” was the same pay that the other saints received; he died for Christ by the command of Nero Caesar. His death made Paul a “saint.” It was not what Paul was before — a Christian who sinned — but what he was when the death angel came for him.

On the other hand, Judas became an apostle last among the original twelve. Somehow God knew the Plan and even made it happen with His foreknowledge. Although the eleven chose the replacement for Judas — Matthias — Jesus chose Saul whose name he changed to Paul.

Saint Mathias disappeared from history while Paul became the primary messenger for Christ. Mathias was chosen by lot (chance) whereas Paul was chosen by the glorified Jesus.

Hence, Jesus chose the apostles, and neither man nor chance, and He chooses saints as well! The Church, even the Roman Ecclesia, could never choose apostles and could never choose saints. The apostles became saints when they died in Christ, them not in Christ in the beginning or for the duration, but to whom they belonged when they died.

Judas belonged to Jesus from the beginning, but in the ending, he belonged to Satan. Missed in the English is that something happened inwardly to the man who once had goodwill for Jesus.

Acts 1:18 refers to Judas as “this man” (outos). Judas was no longer just a “man” because outos means only “this.” He had lost his identity as an “anthropoid” (Greek; anthropos) which is Greek for “man.”

Judas became the “creeping thing” and was no longer an anthropoid, at least inwardly, because his image had changed from lovingkindness to cunning in a long process of reconversion. He was destined for sainthood but the “creeping thing” interfered. He became a “creeping thing” genetically.

That too is hidden in the English version.

The word “falling” in the death of Judas may be actual falling, but at least the ancient artists, did not think so. Note that Judas is depicted as still hanging in all the artwork that I have seen as in the picture above.

Perhaps Judas did not physically fall but, “ginomai,” according to the Greek, meaning that he was “divided” genetically. He became like Cain of the Wicked One. In other words, once in Christ and like Christ, Judas’s nature changed and he became like the Devil, thus fulfilling the “creeping thing” of Levitical Law.

Indeed, that was a stretch, but it does correspond with Levitical Law which implies to be like Christ, not like the Serpent. At his death, Judas was like the creeping thing within him. On the other hand, Paul was like the erect (on the Cross) Anthropoidal Man who was God within.

Paul was in Christ; he had Christ in him even though he fell to sin occasionally because of the weakness of his flesh.

Jesus issued a warning for Christians, “Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41). Judas heard that warning. He was a “familiar friend” of Jesus and selected to be a saint. He fell into temptation and in falling his nature was changed; and rather than a son of God, his “father was the devil” (John 8:44).

Paul was not a saint until he died because that was his gain. He was glorified with sainthood, so that he was like Christ within. He had the Image of God within in the same sense as Adam before he died.

When Christ died, the Bible says that some of the saints before him arose with him at the Resurrection of Jesus. Those “saints” were dead, and surely they included not only John the Baptist but Adam as well.

Because God had grace on Adam with the Edenic Covenant, Adam died a saint although he lived a sinner, as the Books of Adam and Eve reveal. [2]

Indeed, perhaps to be a “saint” requires death for Christ. However, it does not require Christians to perform miracles, but for God to work His miracles with us; that at death, we die in Christ and not die with the gens of the creeping thing within us. That is “born again” (John 3:7) — engendered from God above.

Rebirth is the beginning, but what we are at death glorifies us to be in the Image of God. Our gain at death is glorification and the time that we are saints and with Christ.

That seems complicated, so let me make it simple: You must be within like Christ when you die to ever become a “saint.” What you were yesterday is of no concern, salvation is always what you are now, or has Paul said it, “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). Your last now is the one that counts; there is no past in God’s time.

The grace of God is that you are not favored by what you were but what you are at death when the Angel of God comes for you; you must have the blood of the Lamb within you on that last night to become a saint.

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[1] For that conclusion see my blog for “THE WORD REVEALED IN HIERGLYPHICS” (https://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-word-revealed-in-hierglyphics.html)

[2] In my own book, The Skull of Adam, I write of Adam and John as two of those saints.

ON SAINTHOOD: Part 1 of 2

 

The Roman Catholic Qualifiers

There are numerous references to saints in the Bible as if they are plentiful. The Roman Catholics recognize more than 10,000 saints throughout history; some are even unnamed. If only 10,000 saints exist, then Paradise would indeed be sparse of living souls.

Just who is a saint in Roman Catholic vernacular?

“A saint is a holy person who is known for his or her “heroic sanctity” and who is thought to be in heaven” (Petruzzello 2024).

Therefore, there seem to be several criteria: 

1.      A Person that is

2.      Holy,

3.      Is known to the Roman Catholic Church and perhaps others.

4.      Is either a male or a female

5.      Who did something “heroic”

6.      that sets them apart (sanctified),

7.      and is thought to be in heaven. 

I will endeavor not to get technical, but heaven is not necessarily Paradise but in another realm which Luke saw as both Paradise (Abraham’s Bosom) and Hades.

Let’s assume that Catholics mean Paradise rather than Hell. There is no way to validate when people are in either Hell or Paradise.

To be a saint, in Catholicism in most instances, perhaps excluding Enoch and Elijah, the saint must have died. Paul’s “gain” (Phil 1:21) would be sainthood and indeed Paul is thought to be in Paradise. Paul fits the criteria very well for sainthood and he died a heroic death; he was decapitated, according to historians, for his faith in Jesus.

“Sanctification” is the setting apart; the Catholics define it as such: 

Sanctification takes place in justification. In justification, sins are forgiven and there is an infusion of sanctifying grace, whereby one is made just and holy; this is what it is to be sanctified. In this state of grace, one merits heaven. (Allen 2024)

 How is it known that a person is sanctified? Baptism, even infant baptism, sanctifies sinners in their doctrine, as well as in the doctrine of modern Churches of Christ.

“Confirmation” is the validation that the sanctified person was really sanctified and the event wherein they are sealed with the Holy Spirit and would thereafter serve the Lord. That service is a setting apart for the work of God.

Doctrine is often difficult to understand unless a person has been through catechism classes, so it is hoped that this doctrine is exact.

Doing something “heroic” requires it to be recognized. In the Catholic Church, they must recognize the thing that is heroic. Miracles and visions are heroic to the Catholics, and obviously dying for the Name, Jesus. Therefore, all the apostles were heroic and indeed they were set apart. Jesus himself sanctified them, so who could question Jesus?

Judas Iscariot was set apart for service by Jesus Himself. Jesus made no error. He too died under the auspices of Christ, even having a meal with Him, which it seems, that Jesus did not even eat with him.

Although he was an apostle, Judas fell away for the love of money, so he died. He could have become a “saint” based on dying while following Jesus. However, we find that he abandoned his first love (Jesus) in pursuit of avarice. He followed Satan to his death. Judas was set apart, but he set himself aside when Satan entered him. Although he repented of his sin against God, he did not follow Jesus all the Way to Calvary.

Judas acknowledged his guiltiness but endeavored to save himself from guilt by “crucifying” himself in much the same manner as Jesus was crucified. Because Judas repented was not enough; even his own crucifixion was not enough! Judas had to be set apart by Jesus. We find at the “Last Supper” that Judas, when he ate, set himself apart from Jesus by sopping the “Body” of Jesus into the “Blood” of Jesus (Mat 26:25-28).

The Church cannot decide who is a saint; only God can do that!

Catholics believe Judas, although he repented, was damned. Judas does not qualify as a saint, and rightfully so; for he did not endure to the end to be saved a saint (Mat 10:22).

The person “is holy,” not was holy! It does not matter the condition of the soul during the course of life, but its condition at the moment of death. Judas did not wait on Jesus to propitiate Holy Blood for him and to take on the sins of Judas. Judas endeavored to do that himself. However, if he would have waited just a few hours, Jesus would have finished for him what Judas had started.

Jesus consecrated Judas and set him apart to be an apostle. The psalmist long before Judas ever existed, sang of Judas and Jesus: “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9).

Judas, once a friend of Jesus, and who once had affection for Jesus, defected (apostasia; Heb 6:6) from Him. Once a saint, not necessarily always a saint! Few think that Judas is in heaven, but many forgive Judas and “preach” him into heavenly Paradise. Most Catholics have it right; Judas is in Hell because at death he had Satan in him; not Jesus.

Although there was “infusion of sanctifying grace” in the beginning, Judas traded the grace of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. He sold the infusion of grace that Jesus had given him, for an infusion with the “blood” of Satan. He became the person of Satan for a short time, all the way until he died. (He became the Antichrist.)

Speaking to all the apostles, Jesus had explained to them, according to Luke, that although they had been baptized with water, they had not been baptized by the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:5). Jesus had told them not to leave Jerusalem until they had been baptized by the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:4). Judas was probably baptized along with the others. That was the way John would have set them apart for the word of Jesus. Jesus never baptized with water, he set apart by baptism with His Holy Ghost after he had died and ascended to heaven.

Judas left Jerusalem of his own volition before he died. He went to another realm his way, disregarding all that he had been taught. He became “God” as the Accuser warned Adam and Eve about themselves (Gen 3:5).

Water baptism did not make them Christians, but prepared the Way for Jesus to baptize them within (Mat 3:3). There are not three baptisms: the baptism of John, the baptism of Jesus by water, and baptism by the Spirit of God; but only one effective baptism (Ephes 4:5) — baptism of the Holy Ghost. Water baptism is preparation for spiritual baptism, cleaning the flesh in preparation for cleansing of the soul. With that said, water baptism today is preparation for baptism of the Holy Ghost and must come before spiritual baptism.

The “heroic” thing that the first Christian did to deserve Paradise is no thing. The Roman Catholics found a name for the repentant thief — Dismas — and rightfully called him a “saint.”  Since Dismus did nothing to be a saint, it makes sense that nobody needs to do anything. Dismus was nailed to the Cross, so he became a saint without a heroic deed.

What did he “do”? He thought that Jesus was God even before God revealed Himself in Jesus by separating Himself from the Person of God. His “heroic” deed was right thinking, not performing miracles and such.

Next, we shall look for scripture that defines sainthood.

Saint Helena