IN A FISH, WHALE, OR ELSEWHERE

 Many people argue about whether Jonah was trapped inside a fish or whale for three days. Of course, with God all things are possible and either one may be the case. However, is it? A critical analysis is due.

First off, read the entire scripture about the adventures of Jonah (Jonah 1:17 through 2:10).

(To be honest, I reviewed only chapter one, so I had no recent knowledge of chapter two, albeit I continued my analysis to see if my hypothesis made sense.)

My hypothesis: Perhaps Jonah was in some other thing for three days.

The null of that: Jonah was not in some other thing.

If there is evidence that Jonah was in some other thing, then that decreases the probability that Jonah was in the belly of either a fish or a whale.

If there is any possibility that Jonah was in something else, then I fail to reject the null hypothesis which makes the hypothesis a possibility with some degree of confidence. That is the scientific method of testing for truth.

Consider the evidence from the Bible:

 

·         Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jon 1:17)

·         (Jesus said) An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Mat 12:29-30)

 

Two choices are given: the belly of a great fish and the belly of a whale. However, could there be a third choice? To determine that, we turn to the original languages. An obvious choice is that like Jesus, Jonah/Jonas would be in the heart of the earth for three days.

What does that mean? In the Greek, ho kardia ho ge. Since ho is “that” in English, and kardia the centroid of the soul, then the soul of Jesus would be between that and that. What is “that?” Ge. By extension, Ge is not just earth but any region.

Of course, the body of Jesus was in the ground three days in a sepulcher. However, where would have been the “heart” of the region? In scripture the heart of the earth would be what is called “Hades” in the Greek.

For at least parts of three days, Jesus would have been in Hades, or Hell, whether in bodily form or not is unclear. However, it makes sense that Jesus was in Hell in bodily form but not material substance, just as it was at His baptism… “the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:22).

Jesus compared Jonas in the belly of a whale to Himself in the belly of the Earth. That is evidence that might come in handy.

Next, consider the belly of “a great fish” in which Jonah was captured, in the Hebrew dag gadol dag to swallow up (bala’) Jonah.

First off, just as the “Ghost” (kardia) of Jesus is between two ho’s, gadol is between two dag’s.

Gadol is indeed translated a “fish,” but what would have the original pictograph’s have represented? Written גָּדוֹל may provide the answer: 

Gimmel (גָּ) theologically represents energy flow between realms.

Dalet (ד) represents a change in states into space/time and matter (or back).

Vav (וֹ) symbolizes a connection between heaven and earth, and

Lamed (ל) divine authority of being led from somewhere to elsewhere.

 

Translated “great,” it seems to be a great journey somewhere or somehow. The pictographs indicate it could be a journey from one realm to the other in the manner of Jesus’s trip to Hell, as it is written:

 

When He (Jesus) ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the Earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. (Ephes 4:8-10)

 

Jesus had ascended to Paradise in heaven in bodily form and in like manner he had descended to the lower parts of the earth as well — to the “heart” of the Earth it would seem, or into Hell as most theologians interpret it. How did Jesus do that? Perhaps the Holy Ghost that had left Him went both to Paradise and to Hell while His body rested in the grave.

That is further evidence that Jesus easily translated between the realms of heaven and earth.

 The word “earth” is confusing because we most often think of this planet. But the heart of the earth is much like the soul of all things in the material cosmos, and of course, the “soul” of material things would be the heavens. In other words, like man and his heart, so it is with the cosmos and its heart, or center of existence.

Jonah would have changed states. It could have been from the waters of the sea into the belly of a great fish, or it may also have been from the earth’s estate to the heavens.

“Heaven” is often thought of a place of eternal life, but as it is written, “heaven” consists of both Hell and Paradise with a great gulf between them (Luke 16:26).

It may be that the “great” in “great fish: (gadol) is the same “great” as in “Great Gulf” and with that comparison, the “gulf” might very well be the “fish” of Jonah’s venture.

The great gulf of which Luke wrote was between Hell and Paradise. Perhaps the same applies to heaven and earth, the “firmament” (badal; בָּדַל), dividing the waters from the waters in scripture (Gen 1:6).

 

Bet (בָּ) indicates in space/time and matter

Dalet (ָדַ) symbolizes a change in states of existence.

Lamed (ל) divine authority of being led from somewhere to elsewhere.

 

Just like gadol (great), badal (firmament) is much the same and both represent a change in states from one existence to another. Jonah’s journey would have been a change in states from one existence to another, but it still could have been either a fish or a whale.

Translated “fish” Jonah was swallowed up by a dag (דָּג). The full word is spelled הַדָּג. The letter hey at the beginning would indicate God-breathed. So, wherever it was that Jonah had gone, God did it. Whether a fish or something else, God would have caused it.

 

Dalet (דּ) again symbolizes a change in states of existence. However, this time there is a dot or dagesh within it. The dagesh would indicating a piercing of a hard thing, maybe indicating from a firm place to a non-firm place of existence. 

Gimmel (ג) again represents energy flow between realms.

 

With that analysis dag could either be translated either as “fish” or just a change in physical states from earth to heaven. Remembering that heaven is both Hell and Paradise, then Jonah would have been taken to one or the other by the will of God.

Lastly, it was to the “belly” (meʻeh; מֵעֶה) of the fish (sic). Belly, as with Jesus, represents the source of living waters, mem in the Hebrew. Now examine the pictographs for belly:

 

Mem (מֵ) the living waters.

Ayin (ֵעֶ) the collapse of reality.

Hey (ה) God breathed into existence.

 

The “belly” may represent a transfer from real waters to spiritual waters, and not the belly of a fish at all.

Being a science fiction aficionado, I thought maybe a spacecraft from another world captured him, but not believing in aliens from another planet, I quicky discarded that notion.

Like Mr. Monk, I then said with certainty, “I know what happened,” then ran to my other half and told her! I told my wife that God had translated Jonah to Hell as a warning, not into the belly of a fish at all.

Now, the rest of the story.

 

Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of Hell cried I, and You heard my voice. (Jon 2:1-2)

 

Jonah had been in Hell, not in the belly of any fish, but the underside of the earth which represents Hades, or Hell.

The null hypothesis was that Jonah was not in some other thing. By his own words, Jonah was in Hell and by the Hebrew pictographs, He was in another realm other than this one. Jonah was in some other thing, so the evidence with near certainty is that Jonah was neither in the belly of a fish nor a whale.

However, there remains a problem; Jesus, who does not lie, said that Jonah spent “three nights in the “whale's belly.” However, that is a translation from the Greek language.

Jesus actually said, “en ketos koila.”

En is of course, “in.”

Ketos means some sea monster: either a big fish, whale, or other creature of the water. The root word of ketos is chasma — “a gaping opening, a chasm, a gulf” (Strong’s Dictionary). The “whale” could have been the “great gulf” between realms, not forgetting that it might also have been the belly of some sea monster.

Consider now the word koila, translated “belly.”

Another possibility is “the innermost part of a man, the soul, heart as the seat of thought, feeling, choice” (ibid). The belly of the chasm would be where? Another realm, perhaps Hell as the underside of the belly.

Therefore, the possibility does exist that Jonah spent three days in Hell in the manner of Jesus, and that fish and whales are either mistranslations or a metaphoric description that Jesus repeated.

However, Jonah was conscious that he had been in Hell. Could Hell be a state of mind and him only in a state of torment? Could Hell be both a mental state and another realm?

Whatever swallowed Jonas is not as important as that he was in Hell in whatever modality it was!

ABOUT GOD'S GRACE AND MERCY

A short blurb from my book in progress: The Arks of Tubalcain:"

 Ancient Appalachia Mountain Range (Reddit)

Pangea was the ante-diluvian “Earth,” as you can see from the graphic of the world before continental drift. Science has it that the Earth was under water except for the highest mountains above the face of the waters.  

As AI said previously, the water began 280 meters higher (920 feet) compared to now. Earth is generally a closed system. Where did 920 feet of water go? Underground just as I had theorized. From where did even more come? The same place because God said so: “In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Gen 7:11)

Stored, evaporated water, was condensed and it rained. At the same time, quakes lifted waters from beneath the shell of the layers of the Earth.

How did the writer of those things know of that when mankind only figured it out this decade? Because God is creditable, and His “Theory” (sic) remains unchanged since the re-foundation of the world!

If that happened in the days of Noah, then God was merciful. If there were no mountains onto which to take refuge, God made volcanic mountains to save as many fools as he could. Your own ancestors, Jews or Gentiles, were some those fools; hence we are all Anunnaki genetically.

Note that God preserved some of the last as well as some of the first.

In the parable of the laborers, those who came last were paid the same wages as those who came first.

That parable may have not been metaphoric but as in the days of Noah. Perhaps as Noah found grace, others received mercy for the potentiality of turning to God — the “whosoever” in John 3:16. Although coming late to the truth, they still came. God closed the door on grace but left mercy waiting for the last chance, just as God did with the repentant thief!

As you can see, the New Testament validates my own theories because God always works predictably. We need not wait for the truth but seek the truth from the past. That is the purpose of The Old Testament. 

HARLOTS OF MANY MASTERS

When I began reading the book of Ezekiel, it was hard reading and hard to understand. I was about to skip all that esoteric stuff — the mystery of God — and go to simpler things. However, usually the hard to read stuff is where much of the future lies. The Word revealed the destiny of the world, and inquiring readers might want to know how God has planned their future.

The Word (Hebrew: “Dabar”) of the Lord came unto Ezekiel again (Ezek 23:1). Dabar has many meanings; perhaps foremost is the simple word, “cause.” A cause is anything that produces an effect, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The Word is the Cause of all things, to wit: 

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. (John 1:1-4) 

The “Word” was the “First Cause;” the Cause that we call “God.” The Word is the Power of God that was the Cause of all things.

The “effect” was many things but paramount The Word was the cause of Life itself for all mankind. Another implication is that you are alive because of The Word of God because The Word is life.

However, since The Word made all things, then He made evil, not for our human nature but to test the allegiance or devotion of His creatures, foremostly mankind who had dominion over all the other creatures including the angelic kingdom. Human beings were “elected” to be the ones superior to the other creatures both in this realm and the invisible domain.

So, don’t be so proud. God did not elect you per se, but Adam’s kind before the foundation of the world. Where should a reader go to find the election process? “He (The Word) has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephes 1:4). It is not literally “should be” but “am” — us living creatures. And it was not literally before the foundation of this world, but the cosmos.

We were selected as God’s chosen creatures before any other thing was made, either the visible or the visible existence in the universe. The Word made all things for a certain select group, or kind, and as it turned out, mankind was to have “dominion” over both the angelic or animal kingdom (Gen 1:28), regardless of whether they stand upright or even crawl the earth.

Hence, that is reason or the “cause” of the war between prideful angels and prideful mankind. The doctrine of Calvinistic “election” amplifies pride. It is understood that The Word chose who would be Christians or who would be the damned sometime before he endowed them with His Image.

God endowed only mankind — the male and female Adamah — and not angels or animal kinds other than mankind. God did not elect specific people to be His creatures, but all mankind. We should not be proud of that but feel blessed that of all the kinds, God chose man to be blessed by The Word.

Ezekiel was blessed. God revealed to him what it takes to remain favored and not so favored. As such, mankind was subdivided and The Word revealed that to Ezekiel. Mankind had devolved. Over just a few generations on the new Earth, mankind was filtered again between Shem, Japheth, and Canaan; “God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant” (Gen 9:27). Semites were the chosen people, then after they fail with their war against God on the plane of Shinar, The Word chose the Abrahamic peoples, and The Word made the Hebrews favored with the Japhetites sort of “alternates.”

Then Semites were filtered again into the Israelites and Ishmaelites. Each tribe was chosen to inherit the “land of milk and honey” — the land to the Japhetites and the Paradise in Heaven to the Hebrews who were to cross-over, not the river Euphrates nor the River of the Garden (the Jordan), but the Hebrews, under Abraham, according to the Book of Jasher, inherited the “land” in Heaven wherein Abraham was king there (Abraham’s Bosom; Luke 16).

There was a misunderstanding of sorts. The Word knew what He was doing. He caused division time after time to test who deserves a portion of His Estate. In the end, nobody deserves the Estate of God — the one in Heaven — “because all have come short of the glory (Image) of God” (Rom 3:23).

After Abraham, the land was further divided into tribes of Israel, and soon even Israel was separated from the Israelites. Israel had been in sin in Egypt and The Word had cause many to flee the “Satan” pharaoh, but by the time they got to the promise, just a handful of the original Hebrews made it to Canaan to form the nation of Israel.

Jesus, “The Word” said “many be called, but few chosen” (Mat 20:16). The Word, throughout history, called many, but few were chosen. Many walked with The Word when He led them, but few ever finished the course.

Why is that? The Word said to Moses, “Then I will set My Face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people” (Lev 20:5). “That man” in that warning was “the man, when he gives of his seed unto Molech” (Lev 20:4).

What is seed? Semen. Just whose semen was it? Any of mankind. From whom did mankind obtain semen? The Word, God. Dividing the waters from the waters (Gen 1:6) is figuratively, the semen from the semen. That was the “election” before the foundation of the world, when God divided the kinds from the kinds. Mankind were not the “lucky ones,” but all creation was for mankind, and it was planned before much else happened!

Therefore, humility is called for; we are to humble ourselves and let the Lord lift us up (Jas 4:10). The doctrine of election is arrogant! It is as if God made us sovereign rather than Him being the Sovereign. All of Adam’s kind should have retained the seed of God, but Adam threw his seed to the ground as he watched the woman become the harlot-king, “Eve,” with Adam designating her a new kind (Gen 3:20). With original sin, no longer was mankind even chosen, but those who would humble themselves, God would lift them up; indubitably all the way to the bosom of Abraham in Paradise.

You as an individual was not elected. You as the family of Eve — the “mother of all living” — come short of the glory of God. God did not choose you, Eve did that while Adam watched (Gen 4:1).

Adam did not beget Cain; he was of the Wicked One (1 John 3:12) and we are not “sons of God” but sons of Cain. Original sin seems to have included whoredom — The woman became the “whore” Eve, and she is the source of your mitochondrial DNA whether you be male or female. You are of the Wicked One from the seed of Cain, yet you still proudly proclaim that God chose you and specifically before the foundation of the world.

Just who is mankind now? Are we “sons of God” or bastard children of Eve and the Wicked One? Since we all come short of the glory of God, you fill in the blank. Rather than God, the pretender to the throne of God, Lucifer (Isa 14:13-14), divided the waters from the waters, namely the semen from the semen. From that day forward, it has been Lucifer who divided the waters from the waters as if he is God!

That was revealed to Ezekiel. The Word of God revealed to him how the people would be further divided. Both the city of Samaria, a bastard people, and the city of Jerusalem, God’s people, would become the whore and the younger sister of the whore. Samaria, The Word said, as “Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors” (Ezek 23:5), “And when her sister Aholibah (Jerusalem) saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms” (Ezek 23:11).

Jerusalem saw Samaria go a whoring after the Assyrians and soon Jerusalem went a whoring after the Babylonians. God used Assyria and Babylon to convert the whores to righteousness. It did turn some of the Jerusalemites around but not the Samaritans.

Ahola, the elder sister, was the “tent woman” and Aholibah was the “tent woman in her.” They were both women of the tent; perhaps referring to tabernacle worship in the days of the roaming in the wilderness. They were not women of the temple but specifically of the tents. They were wandering women, so Samaria and Jerusalem both played the harlot, like Tamar who wore a veil to deceive Judah. Tamar was a woman of the “tent’ — the woman who wore a “tent” on her face to conceal that it was she that was the harlot.

Both Samaria and Jerusalem had temples but even then, they were the harlots.

Who would The Word use for His purposes?

The Word revealed to Ezekiel that the sons of Ishmael and Esau would defile them, and that they did; they were the Arab nations — other Semites.

Then the whores would encounter another tribe: 

And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads. Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that plays the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women. (Ezek 23:42-44) 

I believe that Ezekiel saw the coming of the Muslims — Sabeans that would commit adultery with the two whores: Samaria and Jerusalem. Those two cities would become whores for the Yemeni people.

Yemeni, the contemporary Sabeans at the time of Ezekiel, had an empire that included the Arabian Peninsula as well as modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea in the eastern horn of Africa. It is better known as the “land of Sheba” in biblical times.  

The Arabs during the pre-Islamic period used to practice certain things that were included in the Islamic Sharia. They, for example, did not marry both a mother and her daughter. They considered marrying two sisters simultaneously to be the most heinous crime. They also censured anyone who married his stepmother, and called him dhaizan. They made the major hajj and the minor umra pilgrimage to the Ka'ba, performed the circumambulation around the Ka'ba tawaf, ran seven times between Mounts Safa and Marwa sa'y, threw rocks and washed themselves after sexual intercourse. They also gargled, sniffed water up into their noses, clipped their fingernails, removed all pubic hair and performed ritual circumcision. Likewise, they cut off the right hand of a thief and stoned Adulterers. (Wikipedia) 

The Sabeans were sort of like the Hebrews but not quite. Their lifestyle was pagan and may have set the example for Islam. The hajj is now the required pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Sabeans had Islamic Sharia Law millennia before Islam.  Since Islam is a synthesis of paganism, Judaism, and Christianity, Ezekiel in 623 B.C. or so is when The Word revealed to Ezekiel the false religion of Islam whose first Hijra was in 622 A.D.

With that said, the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem have become the “harlots” of Islam and have been since 638 A.D. when the Muslims captured Jerusalem. With that background, Jerusalem is surely the “Harlot Babylon” as portrayed in the apocalypse: “Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth” (Rev 17:5). Samaria was the harlot of Assyria, and Jerusalem the harlot of Babylon, and in eventually both would become harlots of the kingdom of Saba’ and in the seventh century A.D., harlots of Islam.

Jerusalem has its seven mountains and Islam its seven pillars. Those should be the seven “heads” of the beast.

Theologians determined the seven heads as kingdoms, including, Babylon, Persian, Greece, and Rome. The first two kingdoms and the seventh kingdom have yet to be identified. However, perhaps the seventh kingdom is a worldwide Islamic Caliphate. The Word as well as said that to Ezkiel. Islam is the last piece of the puzzle, and the cruelty of the great tribulation is very well described by Sharia Law.

We need not fear Rome or Catholicism; we should fear Islam because Muslims have a history of proselytizing by war and with the blade. In the end, it will be little different than that, so the idea that Islam is a peaceful religion goes to Hell! It is the last in a series of very unpeaceful kingdoms that God allows to test His people.

Of course, Roman Catholicism, as well as liberal Protestantism, will hold up their hands and surrender to Islam and it will be finished. The Word revealed that to Ezekiel nearly 2650 years ago.

Chrislam is a symbiosis of Judaism, and Christianity.

The Name “Eve” has several meanings, one being symbiosis: “Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association” (Oxford Language Dictionary).

Eve’s close encounter with another kind (Gen 4:1) made Cain symbiotic (1 John 3:12) as the offspring of the Wicked One and Eve.

Mankind was once glorious like God but are now symbiotic like Eve — the mother of all living (Gen 3:20) and the Wicked One the “father of all living” (John 8:44). Eve and Satan (the devil) still live within human genetics. Humans are “puppets” of them both; they live in symbiosis (to the advantage of both) within our genomes.

In the beginning, the “harlot” was Eve. Her sin was fornication against God by some type of carnal knowledge with the devil, Lucifer, who was inwardly a cunning “beast.” Was the ante-diluvian Adamic empire the first of the seven heads? Maybe.

This background is from the Word, I believe, to warn mankind just who the harlot might be in the end. It might very well be the Sabean harlotry of Chrislam.

Chrislam was ordained in a ceremony just recently, to wit: 

The meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani came as Francis sought to protect his persecuted flock in Iraq by forging closer bonds between the Roman Catholic Church and the Muslim world. (Horowitz and Arraf 2021) 

Islam has been around in Nigeria and east Africa for years, but the Pope and the Ayatollah essentially established it as a religion more recently. That symbiotic religion is perhaps the religion of the Antichrist. Not to put all the blame on them, but the false protestant church is gradually moving toward Chrislam with their wrong idea that Islam is a peaceful religion. Unitarians are the leaders of that movement; itself a pantheon of symbiotic religions.

The end is near. To whom did Ezekiel turn for a vision of the future? The Word. To whom should we turn for the same view? The Word, “Jesus.”

PICTURE credit: blogs.crossmap.com; "Shocking Story of Tamar in the Bible"

 

IMMORTALITY AND THE REALITY OF HELL

All souls are immortal. That means that they all will exist forever. Even Satan and the demons shall not perish but will forever suffer perpetual death. John the Revelator saw death and sin punished at the end of the war between them and Him: 

I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (Rev 19:19:20)

 Just as the three substances of God, the ‘Godhead’ was undone on a few occasions, so is the ‘Anti-Godhead.’ When Jesus died, the Father forsook Him and the He gave up the Ghost. Just as Enoch wrote about the beginning, “Arkhas came undone,” indicating that all Things must come undone before it is finished. At the crucifixion, the supposed death of God, the ‘Image’ of God, Jesus, came undone. Jesus said, “It is finished,” as He came undone (John 19:30).

Just as it was for God, Jesus, so it was with the non-god, Lucifer.

If I see Adoil in the Book of Enoch correctly, the Light is the Godhead, and Arkhas the separation of God to reveal His substances — the Cause and the Effect. As I have written and videoed, Jesus is the obverse and the backside of God that was with Moses, the reverse. The dynamics of God — a cloud if by day and a fire if by night — was the unseen ‘Dynamic’ of God — the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Just as Paul wrote about those who were formerly spiritually dead, “Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience” (Ephes 2:2).

Therefore, the Anti-godhead is spirit as well. He is a ‘prince’ that has his eyes set on kingship, and with that lordship as well. (Hold that thought until a little later.)

However, just as the Holy Spirit is the ‘Dynamic’ (Greek, Dynamis) that is the Power of God, and is translated as ‘virtue’ (goodness), the prince of the power of the air has similar but opposing characteristics.

The ‘Prince’ — the authority — is the ability of that invisible existence. God gave the fallen angel certain abilities in the world, designated by ‘air’ (Greek, aer), wherein he breathes death unto the minds of our kind, just as God did life with Adam’s kind.

God, in the beginning did not breathe into the “nostrils” of Adam directly (Gen 2:7), but provided passion into his mind (Strong 2006). Adam was made compassionate, and he breathed compassion into the mind of Eve. That passion was love for God and the compassion was goodwill toward God.

With that said, in contrast, the ‘Prince’ of the world breathes rage toward God and ill-will toward others. The supra-nature of the man (Adam) was compassionate, and therefore, the nature of man (Hebrew, ‘Is) is uncompassionate.

If Adoil (Light) is the ‘First Cause’ of all things and Arkhas the ‘Effect,’ then there must be a similar but opposing cause and effect. (God made all things just as he did the forces of nature; even protons and electrons. And just as they are particles, when in motion, they are field dynamics — opposing but entangled forces; the same applies to the Godhead and the ‘Deadhead.’)

God revealed the Anti-Adoil to any who would hear. The origin and destiny of Lucifer was revealed to Isaiah, to wit: 

How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Yet you shall be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit. (Isa 14:12-15)

 First off, like God, Lucifer is immortal like any ‘soul’ or invisible being that exists. Remember from John’s revelation that “These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Both the Images of Lucifer were alive when John saw them cast into torments. They were ‘images’ of Lucifer that would suffer forever. That is ‘Hell’ — in fiery torments for eternity; always burning but never consumed.

Now consider time; just as God is the alpha and omega; the beginning and the ending (Rev 1:8), so is Lucifer. Lucifer ranked second in the beginning; he, or I should write, ‘it,’ was there when the heaven was made — the invisible world. He was the ‘Beta,’ so to speak.

Thus, Lucifer was the proto-creature that went awry because of his rage toward God. Isaiah wrote that Lucifer was the ‘Son of the Morning.” That could be as the ‘Bringer of Light’ as the name, ‘Lucifer,’ means, or it could mean something else as well.

The ‘Heaven’ was made secondly, “And God called the firmament ‘Heaven’ and the evening and the morning were the second day.” (Gen 1:8).

God, therefore, was rank one, and Lucifer the ‘Son of the Morning’ rank two in the beginning. He was not God, but an existence that was created secondary to God; that ‘it’ desired to be of the first rank was enumerated by Isaiah. Lucifer was created on the ‘second day’ whereas God was the real Beginning — the ‘Light’ that made all things the first things (Gen 1:5).

First off, Heaven is for real; “God called the firmament, Heaven.” In the Hebrew, ‘firmament’ is raqiaʿ — the “expanse” (ibid) of things. When Adoil (Light) came, according to Enoch, Arkhas come undone. That ‘expanse’ was the effect of Arkhas coming undone; God separating the light from the darkness and the waters from the waters (the ‘semen’ from the ‘semen’). Those were surely the two domains that were created by Him — the heaven and the earth, the first of which was invisible and the latter which was the visible.

Paul wrote, “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Rom 1:20). The ‘scientist’ in Paul validated God’s and my thesis, that Heaven is for real for the Cosmos is for real, and that anyone with bright eyes, should be able to see that clearly. In other words, to deny Heaven’s existence is to deny that the world exists, and some ignorantly think everything is surreal!

Even many Christians deny that there is a heaven, and almost all scientists deny the existence of heaven, even though all matter must balance either by other matter or energy.

The point is made, therefore, that heaven is for real, but it too must balance, and indeed it does!

Luke wrote about the realms in the domain of heaven: 

It came to pass, that the beggar (Lazarus) died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Luke 16:22:23)

 From the Book of Jasher, it is learned that Abram withstood the fire of Nimrod when he was placed into a fiery furnace because he refused to hunt down to destroy God. Abram, because of his faith and reverence for God, unlike the mighty hunter, Nimrod, believed in God enough to know that He existed without ever seeing Him. Because of the faith of Abram, God provided for him incorruptible flesh and his genes (the Hebrews) became peculiar and chosen people (Deut 14:2).

Therefore, only in the bosom of Abraham would Lazarus be safe from the torments of Hell, just as Abraham thereafter reigned in Paradise in the realm of heaven.

As the song goes, “when we all get to heaven” has some validity because everyone is going to the domain of heaven; some to Paradise and others to Hell. The Book of Enoch validates that premise. For now, consider Paradise as a place of all things good and incorruptible, but what is the other place like in the Third Heaven? 

And those men carried me to the northern region; and they showed me there a very frightful place; and all kinds of torture and torment are in that place, cruel darkness and lightless gloom. And there is no light there, and a black fire blazes up perpetually, with a river of fire that comes out over the whole place, fire here, freezing ice there, and it dries up and it freezes; and very cruel places of detention and dark and merciless angels, carrying instruments of atrocities torturing without pity.

And I said, “Woe, woe! How very frightful this place is!” And those men said to me, “This place, Enoch, has been prepared for those who do not glorify God, who practice on the earth the sin |which is against nature, which is child corruption in the anus in the manner of Sodom|, of witchcraft, enchantments, divinations, trafficking with demons, who boast about their evil deeds – |stealing, lying, insulting, coveting, resentment, fornication, murder| – •and who steal the souls of men secretly, seizing the poor by the throat, taking away their possessions, enriching themselves from the possessions of others, defrauding them; who, when they are able to provide sustenance, bring about the death of the hungry by starvation; and, when they are able to provide clothing, take away the last garment of the naked; who do not acknowledge their Creator, but bow down to idols which have no souls, which can neither see nor hear, vain gods; constructing images, and bowing down to vile things made by hands – for all these this place has been prepared as an eternal reward.” (2 Enoch 10)

 Note first that Hell is the northern region of the Third Heaven where souls never die but live on in either one of two places — Paradise or Hell, and even in Hell it was “prepared as an eternal reward,” for Hell is the ‘wages of sin.’

Hell is a very frightful place compared to Paradise which is a very glorious place and full of joy!

Heaven, to us, is invisible, but is as real as what you see; you just cannot see Hell. Like dark matter which cannot be seen, Hell is as real as the darkness where that matter exists. Just because neither Paradise nor Hell can be seen, does not make them fictional mythology, and so it is with beings in other realms.

So, Hell is for real, but from here it cannot be sensed, however, it has both an economy and an environment. The ‘economy’ is your eternal payment for your unpardoned sins while on Earth and the ‘environment’ is alternating perpetual black fire and freezing.

Unlike Abraham, whose flesh felt no fire, the flesh of sinners will alternately burn and freeze for eternity. That you cannot breathe will be the feeling that you have, and it will go on forever!

Next, we will continue to examine Lucifer.

ON PAYING TRIBUTE (TAXATION)

What do citizens desire most from their government? Free things… for many, things for free without having to pay for them. Taxation should always be for essential things.

Voting has always been essential. To be taxed with no recourse is bondage, and many countries, including the colonies of America, fought wars because of taxation without any voice in the management of the government — taxation without representation.

‘Tribute’ is a special kind of taxation. The Law of God requited that a tax be paid to support the Jewish government and the religious institutions. Unless the money collected is squandered, it was both patriotic to the King and to the LORD GOD for the privilege of paying taxes.

Joe Biden once said that it was patriotic to pay taxes. In a sense, he was right… if the government is by the people and for the people rather than for the bureaucrats and politicians.

The American Colonies did not fight for independence because they were taxed but fought because they paid the same tax as the mother country without any voice in parliament.

The American Civil war was fought for the same reason; the South, especially South Carolina, objected to themselves collecting tariffs on behalf of the northern states.

Taxation has always existed, but unfair taxation; resisted. Those who resisted taxation without representation in the Herodian Kingdom were known as ‘zealots.’ Jesus was crucified between two ‘malefactors’ (kakourgos) — ‘evil doers.’ That term encompasses any type of bad behavior but it was the Roman government that was punishing them. Their crime was not so much again their ‘parliament” (the Sanhedrin) but against Caesar. They likely failed to pay tribute to Caesar either monetarily or authoritatively.

Caesar, at that time, Tiberias, was on the island of Capri where he partied for years as the Romans essentially ruled themselves. He was living a life of luxury at the expense of the contributing nations, to wit: 

When Cesar had heard these pleadings, he dissolved the assembly: but a few days afterwards he appointed Archelaus, not indeed to be King of the whole countrey; but Ethnarch of the one half of that which had been subject to Herod: and promised to give him the royal dignity hereafter, if he governed his part virtuously. But as for the other half, he divided it into two parts; and gave it to two other of Herod’s sons: to Philip, and to Antipas: that Antipas who disputed with Archelaus for the whole Kingdom. Now to him it was that Perea and Galilee paid their tribute: which amounted annually to two hundred talents: (13) while Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part of what was called the house of Zenodorus, (14) paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip. But Idumea, and Judea, and the countrey of Samaria paid tribute to Archelaus; but had now a fourth part of that tribute taken off by the order of Cesar; who decreed them that mitigation; because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the multitude. There were also certain of the cities which paid tribute to Archelaus; Strato’s tower, and Sebaste; with Joppa, and Jerusalem. For as to Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, they were Grecian cities: which Cesar separated from his government, and added them to the province of Syria. Now the tribute money that came to Archelaus every year from his own dominions, amounted to six hundred talents. (Josephus n.d.)

 Herod Archelaus paid tribute to Rome although he was not King of all Herod’s kingdom but only to one-half the country, including Judea. Archelaus was king after Herod until Augustus Caesar eliminated that portion of ‘Syria’ and made it Judea. During the ministry of Jesus, there was no king of Judea but Pontius Pilate was the ‘prelate” or “lord’ over the Jews. The Census of Quirinius (Cyrenius; Luke 2:2) was at the time he was made hegemoneuo, acting ruler over Judea. In the absence of Caesar, both Cyrenius and Pilate became ruler and lord over Judea, as the ’right hand’ of Tiberius in authority.

Although the Jews had been free of tribute, alone among the many nations of the Roman Empire, in AD 6 Cyrenius instituted tribute and the zealots went wild! Although Augustus mandated that Judea pay tribute, Cyrenius, as his right hand, enforced the payment of tribute.

It was a per capita tax — a head tax. Jews were required to pay tribute to Caesar just because they existed. It was paid so that the Caesarians could live in extravagance, as Tiberius Caesar did from AD 26 until the end of his reign when he died in AD 37. Note that there was no active Caesar in Rome during the adult ministry of Jesus. Tribute was paid on behalf of Caesar’s lavish lifestyle. How would non-citizen you react? Many of you would have been zealots. You would hate taxation for Caesar’s relaxation! (That also pertains to taxes for the benefit of Biden.)

There was another problem; thieves stole the Temple taxes. They too were malefactors. Stealing from themselves was considered wrong, but stealing from God was not a problem for them. (The same goes today. Many despise governmental taxation and at the same time steal what belongs to God, be it tithes to God.)

Tribute was paid to the Romans just for the Jews right to exist. They had no influence over Roman laws but supported the lavish Roman government. That lasciviousness eventually destroyed the Roman Empire.

Out of nowhere, tax collectors came to Simon Peter and asked if his ‘Master’ (Jesus) paid tribute or not (Mat 17:24). That was as if inquiring whether righteous Jesus paid for the hedonism in Capri — the Island of Epicureanism.

Jesus asked Peter, “Of whom do the kings of the Earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?” (Mat 17:25). Tribute was always paid for by strangers (defeated kingdoms) to pay for the lavish lifestyles of the citizens of the empire. As such, tribute paying is involuntary servitude. As such, God’s chosen people were de facto slaves to Roman citizens.

Peter rightfully answered, “To strangers’ (Mat 17:26). Those ‘strangers’ were the Jews, the ‘peculiar people’ of the Promise.

Jesus concluded from Peter’s response, “Then the children are free” (Mat 17:27). As the children of the Romans would be free from tribute, so would Jews be free from Mosaic Law. Hence, Mosaic tithes should not be necessary to children of the Promise. That should have ended the concept of tithing and instituted freely giving of one’s gain. A free people can neither be mandated nor forbidden from paying tribute to God. Governments can mandate it but Jesus asked for tribute to be paid, not because of the Roman laws, but “lest we should offend them” — the Roman leaders. How would it look if Christians stole what belonged to Caesar, and what’s more, what would the penalty be for offending Roman Law? Crucifixion is obviously the worst of the worst and that is the evil that the other two on the Cross had done.

As a bonus, note that as the ‘son of David’ who was born ‘King of the Jews,’ Jesus, in the absence of any Herodians was as much King as Cyrenius was Caesar.

In fact, Julius Caesar was indeed king of kings, and proclaimed himself to be pontifex maximus — lord of lords. Both were intended to be inherited, but Tiberius was adopted. He was as much fake Caesar as fake Alexander, the supposed son of Herod, was the real king of Judea.

Albeit Jesus was the ‘son of David,’ (gens of David in Latin), Tiberius was not the gens of Caesar but was called that.

Tiberius had no right to Roman money by ancestry and Jesus was essentially saying not to require tribute to support Himself, although He was the legitimate King of the Jews and Lord of lords.

Jesus does not mandate anything! His ‘commands’ have never been enforced! Commandments in scripture are essentially metrics for pleasing the King and LORD of all. Commandments are more prescriptions for eternal health.

With that said, we should be cheerful givers, if it is to God, but pay are dues for what the government provides; not to support the lavish lifestyles, but not to offend those who do so.

 

TO DIE, DIE, DIE

Jesus, who just asked that those who pick up their crosses and follow Him shall not die. Death, as He explains it, is each denying himself. Essentially whoever loses his life for Jesus shall find life. (Mat 16:24-25). You must first die to be born again.

Some things are not literal, or maybe they are, but they are just not understood. Death must be comprehended. To find the meaning of death, scripture must be examined.

God defined death for the first time with these words, “In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). There is always a cause and an effect for every process. Death is a process. The duration of dying goes from immediate to eternal.

In the case of Adam’s kind and the man himself, the cause was eating, and the effect was certain death, or as it appears in English, he would “surely die.”

Eating per se was not the cause for the two Adamah were free to eat of any other tree (Gen 2:16). Eating of that one tree — the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil — was the root cause, not to be a pun.

Much later, the root cause is made more explicit, “For the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10). Obviously, there was no money as money is thought of in the Garden of Eden, but it did have its own ‘economy,’ so to speak; everything was permissible but one thing… commerce with another being who offered free things to two beings in exchange for lordship.

Due to commerce with the so-called ‘Serpent,’ Eve became as God, or so she thought. God had created all things, but after sin, Eve made for Adam another existence, Cain (Gen 4:1). She said, it was for the ‘Lord’ but she had become the lord of Paradise, and Adam saw that she was the giver of life.

Now, consider ‘money’ as currency and the root of all evil. “Covetous” is the root adjective for the Greek word “philargyria” (money). It is a yearning to have something that is not your own. Eve yearned for the fruit owned by God and trespassed onto God’s property to obtain it. The currency of the Garden of Eden was grace, but Eve stole the grace when she took what belonged to God against His Law. Breaking one Law was as if breaking them all. She broke the Law against coveting, and because of that, breaking the law dishonors your God (Rom 2:23).

The root cause, therefore, was dishonoring the “Root” of the Tree of Life. “If the Root be holy, so are the branches” (Rom 11:16). Of course, the Root is Jesus, because Jesus is God, but the ‘Root’ became the ‘Vine’ (John 15:1), or specifically the “both of two, both the one and the other” (Strong 2006). Thus, Jesus came from God and was God. That is the ‘Vine’ and the “Tree’ that came from the ‘Root.’  

Father God, Yahweh was the ‘Root,’ or the ‘Word’ (‘dabar’ in the Hebrew) — the First Cause (ibid). It is so much plainer in the Hebrew. The ‘Root Cause,’ or ‘First Cause’ was Yahweh. Adam and Eve violated the First, or Root Cause.

Hence, God was the ‘Root Cause’ and as the Giver and Taker of life, dying, was the ‘Effect’ of violating the Cause.

God breathed Life into the clay and Adam became a living soul, did he not? Therefore, to die is removal of the Spirit of God from the persons of the two Adamah.

The penalty, in English, was to “you shall surely die.” In the Hebrew it was mut, mut, mut; or to die, die, die. Certainly one ‘die’ was the flesh, another the soul, and maybe the third the casting out of the Garden into the world (Gen 3:24). Indeed, the death of the flesh is the first death, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Rev 20:14).

Therefore, to die is threefold: (1) the flesh perishing, albeit slowly for Adam, (2) the loss of the Spirit of God upon sinning, and (3) isolation from the Presence of God. Perhaps, using those definitions, all of Adam’s progeny are born dead, and resuscitation (regeneration) is threefold in reverse order: (1) Walking in the Presence of God, (2) Salvation of the Soul upon physical death, and lastly, (3) glorification, or the resurrection of the ‘Last Adam’ (Jesus) in you.

With that said, then death should be understood. It explains very well why Paul thought to die is gain.

The first step in the live, live, live process — the reversal of die, die, die — is that Jesus had to die for us to live. He redeemed us from the penalty of sin, to die, die, die.

I wrote above that you must first die to be born again. Hence, the first recourse is to die to the world to be in the Presence of the Lord. By grace, Jesus, died so that we need not.

When Jesus died, He gave up the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost remains in the world for all who would receive Him. The grace of God is finished (John 19:3) and Jesus will never again die for there is no need of that. Now, it is time for God to rest and for Jesus’s kind to do the work.

“Ouch,” you say, “You just stepped on my Calvinistic toes!” No, but Jesus may have!

(To be continued)

CONSEQUENCES OF SIN

Today’s commentary will be brief for you that are busy. It is about the consequences of sin. We often forget that. Whenever we think that we got away with something, ‘Consequence’ punishes us.

For instance, those seemingly silly dietary laws that faithful Jews obey are to prevent unwanted consequences. God so loves the world that He wants that they never perish. Those dietary laws that many disregard as nonsensical are essential for longevity. God wants us in His realm, but in His time, not ours. People put things into their mouths and veins that just do not belong there!

Consequences are God’s way of saving ourselves from self-destruction.

Original sin was as if breaking all the commandments, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:19).

Breaking the lesser commandments are not damning but diminishing. Apparently there are levels of sin and levels of consequences. You get to choose your own consequences by either neglecting the will of God — those commandments — or abiding by the Law which are God’s Will that are enumerated.

Of course, dietary laws are lesser laws, but they remain God’s Will. You can certainly break them without fear of eternal death, but you might die young and even wear a smaller ‘crown’ in Heaven.

There are both lesser and greater sins. Sins are not equal in stature, but unpardoned sins suffer the same consequences.

Sins cannot be pardoned unless they are repented of. Thus, each time Christians sins, Jesus said to pray; forgive is our trespasses and, “When you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any” (Mark 11:25).

Trespassing is violating the Laws of God’s ‘Estate,’ so to speak. Whenever anyone becomes an adopted son of God, it is expected that they abide by the rules of God’s Estate, or like trespassing anywhere, there are consequences.

Christians still sin after pardoned. It is the nature of mankind to sin. Therefore, each sin must be repented of, and God is faithful to pardon. With that said, even with a Divine Pardon, there are still consequences. Chapter three of Genesis is about sin and its consequences for all the parties. Even the so-called ‘Serpent’ will pay for its sins that are many and great.

The greater sins are called ‘cardinal sins’ by Catholics. Many Christians fail to recognize the ‘Screech Owl Sin” (Isa 34:14), using my own words — blasphemy of the Holy Ghost (Mat 12:31). Jesus even told Pilate that there were greater sins than his own. He was perhaps referring to the sins of the chief priests and Judas.

Judas’s consequence was foretold early on. Satan (the ‘Serpent’) had entered Judas, and the death of Jesus defeated Satan.

After original sin, the Word (Jesus) meted out consequences; for 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, and dust shall you eat all the days of thy life…” (Gen 3:14). It was foretold that Satan would suffer death as a consequence of its sins.

Usually, consequences happen both immediately and eventually. For Adam and Eve, they began to die. No longer was the woman of Adam but became independent. Her name was not ‘Eve’ but that was her new kind as the “mother of all living.” (Gen 3:20). She changed genetically from what she was before, and she failed to notice it (for only awhile as sacred literature reveals.).

Likewise, Adam’s kind’s longevity was reduced to 930 years. Adam began to die at that very moment and the ‘carbon clock’ within him began to tick. His consequence was immediate — withering or aging — but the long-term consequence was death just as God foretold… unless he wore the Garment of God at all times (The Whole Armor of God?)

Whenever anyone sins, they may not perceive the consequence. One consequence is alienation from God. That was what happened to Eve; she became alien to God and to Adam. Her new nature was ‘Lilith,’ the screech owl. That was the consequence of the greater sin that she did.

For the Serpent. He would crawl and eat dust, whatever that means, but there would be a long-term consequence as well — “on his belly he shall go.” That would not come true for 5500 years or so as the Books of Adam and Eve reveal. Then the long-term consequence came about when Jesus died, and so did the ‘Serpent;’

Judas with Satan in him hanged himself, then the long-term consequence came about, “This man (Judas) purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18).

His going was not crawling but going to Hell where he belonged! He fell headlong! That is how he would go, and on his belly just as the Word had foretold, “he burst asunder in the midst.” The Devil also has long-term consequences, and in the end, his wage for sin is the lake of fire. “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Rev 20:14). ‘Death’ is Satan and ‘Hell’ is his abode. Hell will be removed from the Third Heaven and go to who knows where?

But those whose ‘father’ remains the devil; they too will suffer long-term, even eternal consequences, “And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15). Those two things are future consequences of sin that God revealed to John.

You cannot escape consequences, neither immediate nor long-term. The problem is that the pleasure of sin conceals the immediate consequence and feeling free from that, the long-term consequences seem beyond reason as if God forgets unrepented sins. He does not!

Now consider, Salome’s sin, Herod’s (Antipas) niece and step-daughter: 

When Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask and she, being before instructed of her mother, said, “Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.”

And the king was sorry. Nevertheless, for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.

And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.

And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus. (Mat 14:6-12)

 First consider Herod. The immediate consequence was sorrow, but he may have never repented. He went halfway to repentance but not all the way.

In the long-term, things began to go bad for him. Like Adam, he worked by the ‘sweat of his face’ to acquire the throne of Judea, but in the end, Agrippa was rewarded. Caesar had turned against his ‘friend.’

As I wrote yesterday, I believe the Emmaus Walk of Jesus was to give one last chance for Herod to see that indeed, He was God in the flesh and not the Ghost of John the Baptist who came to haunt him.

If Jesus did that, then Herod may have been persuaded to become a Christian, but if that was not the case, then Herod is in Hell right now, according to the justice of God. Hell is the last consequence that makes one who fears God to trust Him for reprieve. Hopefully, even wicked Herod was able to see Jesus as God when Jesus may have visited him in glorified flesh.

Now consider Salome, the daughter of Herod’s wife Herodias. She seemed proud that she had pleased her wicked mother at the expense of an empathetic Herod. The head of John was no more than a trophy for her mother, ostensibly to celebrate their defiance of John the Baptist and God.

If she was not totally depraved, she should have sensed some shame for what she had done. Perhaps after she danced the Dance of the Seven Veils, she put on some more clothes as Eve did so long ago. However, the best guess is that making a name for herself that is still remembered overcame any sorrowful feelings. Right then, unknown to Salome, she began to die!

Well, she would have anyway, but God planned her death. It would not be immediate, but she would have to suffer the consequences of that great sin!

Salome as well as Herodias and Herod suffered dire consequences, according to history: 

Wherefore the just vengeance of God burned against all who were concerned in this crime (of beheading John).

Herod was defeated by Aretas. Afterwards he was banished with Herodias to Lyons, and deprived of his tetrarchy and everything by Caligula, at the instigation of Agrippa, the brother of Herodias, as Josephus relates (xvii. 10).

Moreover, the head of the dancing daughter was cut off by means of ice. Hear what Nicephorus says, “As she was journeying once in the winter-time, and a frozen river had to be crossed on foot, the ice broke beneath her, not without the providence of God. Straightway she sank down up to her neck. This made her dance and wriggle about with all the lower parts of her body, not on land, but in the water. Her wicked head was glazed with ice, and at length severed from her body by the sharp edges, not of iron, but of the frozen water.

Thus in the very ice she displayed the dance of death, and furnished a spectacle to all who beheld it, which brought to mind what she had done.” Hear also L. Dexter (in Chron. A. C. 34), “Herod Antipas, with Herodias his incestuous mistress, was banished first to Gaul, and afterwards to Ilerda in Spain. Herodias dancing upon the river Sicoris when it was frozen, fell through the ice, and perished miserably.” (Cornelius À Lapide. The Great Commentary. chapter 6. v. 28.) (Calahan 2005)

 Again, that quotation is from history. There were indeed short-term consequences as can be seen by Calahan above, but the eternal consequences were much greater!

Even if Herod was persuaded to become a Christian, according to my earlier commentary, he still suffered the loss of fame and fortune. Herod was soon defeated in battle by the Arabians, Herodias fell through ice and froze solidly, and like Herod whose head Salome desired, God desired hers for justice to be met.

The Law of God for the Jews were this: 

Then shall you do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shall you put the evil away from among you.  And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. And your eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (Deut 19:19-21)

 God did not pity Salome nor her mother. They suffered the consequences of their sins, and so did Herod. They thought that they had escaped the Law when they moved away, but justice followed. You cannot hide from God nor divine justice.

God is merciful, however. Upon sinning, if sorrow leads to repentance — serious repentance — then the sin is canceled out and God forgets it (Jer 31:34). He does not forget the way we think of it, but He chooses to no longer to hold the sin against us. That, in theological terms, is the gist of ‘justification,’ not just as we never sinned, but that God never again holds that sin against us, meaning that once forgiven, no more repentance is necessary.

However, there does remain the consequences of sin. We remember the sin and hopefully choose to do it no more. (I still wrestle in sleepless nights remembering my sins that I try to forget but know that I deserve death. That is a consequence of that sin.)

We are not God, and we should never forget that we are sinners safe by grace, to put it literally. God, for instance, kept Herod safe because of his sorrow, but whether or not he was saved remains debatable.

You may never know it, but even the lesser sins have consequences. At some time, all those lesser sins must be repented of because if they are not, the lesser sins compound into greater sins until damnation may be the final consequence.

(I seemed to have been mistaken about brevity and for that I am sorry.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

BELIEVING YOUR OWN LIES

 John the Baptist and Jesus were not only related genetically but spiritually as well. They were ‘brothers’ in a spiritual sense and cousins in a familial one.  Because both were born of the Spirit, the demonic spirits would attack them vociferously, even like a pack of wolves.

Jesus told them, “That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee” (Mat 11:24). Yes, cities will be judged for in whom they believed or disbelieved. For instance, Sodom was noted for rampant homosexuality and hedonism. God had judged it already and burnt Sodom to the ground with its inhabitants within. On judgement day, Sodomites will be shown why.

If a Christian was asked right now, What is the greatest sin? many might say “homosexuality.” That behavior has been accepted by many as just an alternate lifestyle. Even heretical churches accept homosexual behavior as normal, although scripture is clear about that sin.

Throughout history, as Paul pointed out, man had grown more depraved than even the other kinds. Then God relented; they could do as they pleased but pay the penalty: 

²⁴ God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: ²⁵ Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. ²⁶ For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: ²⁷ And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another… (Rom 1:24-27)

 Paul made it clear; homosexuality, even if legalized, either by law or the Church, is unnatural. They may not be punished by civil law but will be by Divine Law.

How is the punishment administered? “God gave them up unto their vile affections.” They could so as they pleased, but God would not be with them. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Rom 1:28). ‘Reprobation’ is damnation; they are destined to Hell for eternity. Then Paul went on to write that because of that, then they were free to do any number of atrocious sins.

Sodomy and homosexuality are that bad, yet perhaps there are things as bad! 

¹⁶ But whereunto shall I liken this generation… you have not lamented. ¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a devil.” ¹⁹ The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” But wisdom is justified of her children. ²⁰ Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not… (Mat 11:16,18-20)

 The point therein is that the people were saying obviously wrong things and they were not sorry for saying those things as there were no lamentations.

Lamenting is a pre-requisite for repentance; it is “beating one’s chest in grief” (Strong 2006); not because their natures were revealed to others, but because their sins have been revealed to them. Lamentations are a great start, but repentance is a must.

Think on that for a moment… see yourself beating on your own chest. What does that bring to mind? For me, I think of a gorilla. They beat on their chests to indicate dominance. Humans should beat on their chests in submission because we should differ from the apes.

When people defy God, they are more like the gorillas and demonstrate their dominance which once there but was lost in Paradise. When people defy God, that is their sinful nature showing. They are like the beasts and the Beast, Satan. They are not really humane beings because their humanity has gave way to bestiality, or brutish behavior.

What is it that beasts do? Whatever they want to do! What is it that Christians are to do? Whatever God wants them to do!

John, although an ‘angel’ (discussed in the last commentary), they called him a ‘devil.’ Demons are unseen beings. Technically they got it right but figuratively, they got it wrong. Devil (daimonion) includes both good and bad angels, but the translators correctly translated it ‘Devil’ because in their hearts, they were misrepresenting John.

Who would have the real Devil in him? Certainly not John. “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve” (Luke 22:3). They were accusing John of being the Devil when it would be Judas! The people may have neglected to criticize the Devil himself, because of cunning disinformation; but instead that Satan had entered John. If that is true, then they would have been delighted that John was beheaded because they would have felt safe from the Devil. As such, the beheading of John was the vicarious ‘Holocaust,’ and the crucifixion of Jesus would have been without merit.

Some say in this age, “Damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.” John was damned by his adversaries because he did not eat nor drink, and Jesus was because they thought that he ate and drank with sinners (without proof, by the way). They would damn both John and Jesus with equal punishment because one did and one did not do the same things.

Therefore, injustice is a greater sin than homosexuality. False accusations and false testimonies are what killed both John and Jesus.

The translators even trivialized Jesus’s response to the false accusations; they wrote “upbraided” but Jesus reviled them (ibid). Jesus responded with great anger and criticism! It was with justified anger and proper criticism. It was a just response. Jesus demonstrated to the hate mongers the Face of true justice.

Jesus was angry and criticized them back because they had not repented. Again, before repentance must come lamentation. They were not sorry that they had presented false information about both John and Jesus. They may have not beat their respective chests but inside their beast inside was beating ‘its’ heart enthusiastically. Jesus saw within them and paid little attention to their physical appearance. Jesus would see the beasts within them all the while they accused both John and Himself of being the beasts.

Nowadays, it is not the sinners that are accused, but the Christians. About the subject of homosexuality, for instance, Christians are called ‘haters’ because they see sinful behavior as damning.

Why would Christians even care? “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That should be clear — because just like God, Christians believe that none should perish. “None” includes homosexuals and all LBGT. If we do not upbraid them, then they are damned. It is that simple; just like the accusers falsely accused Jesus and John, the world falsely accuses Christians.

All the while sinners escape punishment here in the world, law-abiding Christians are punished because of their beliefs. Christians are punished for the crimes that the world commits just as in the time of Jesus.

Think not? Just look at the ‘justice’ systems in the world today! What is wrong is called ‘good’ and what is good is called ‘wrong.’ The LBGT community has got it all wrong and even the churches go along with their myth to not offend anyone.

Jesus offended the confused of His day. He upbraided them, not because He hated them, but because they failed to see the false claims of their myths. He desired that they have eternal life and they “did not give a damn” as they say today.

Jesus was angry! For Him it was worth the persecution to save the lost. He was as worried about the unjust as he was about the hedonistic because He saw past their outward appearances into their hearts. He implied to them, that their fate would be the same as those of Sodom. Sodom was a ‘hell’ on Earth but theirs would be the real Hell.

Why was He so angry? Because they believed their own lies!

(picture credit; NY Post)