GOD IN THREE MODES

  Be patient for a few short paragraphs on nomenclature for it is necessary to consider the textus receptus (received text) from God rather than translations.

  Protestant teaching, introduced by John Wycliffe, is the designation “godhead.” The Latin Vulgate used by Catholics translate the Greek word, “theiotes” in the Latin as “divinum” and “divinitas” in different passages. Both Latin words are singular, but the former is gender neutral and the other feminine.

  In the Greek, theos is singular theoti is plural. Both are used in the Bible. “Theiotes” comes from “theos.” Theiotes is a “state of being God” (Strong’s Dict.) whereas theos is God. Theo is both gender feminine and gender masculine. That makes sense because although Theo (God) is patriarchal, supernatural beings would not be considered male nor females but in appearance. That is implied from this passage about glorification: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels of God in heaven” (Mat 22:30).

  Of course, that does not apply to angels while on Earth but in heaven alone. Incubi and succubi are angels who come to earth and engage in coitus with humans. Some have written that “Sons of God” who had intercourse with “daughters of men” were incubi. (Gen 6:2). This background is for a purpose. We think of God as “Father” as in “Father God” (John 1:18) the Greek word is “Pater” from which “paternal” comes in English.

  In the biblical context, that would mean from the “seed” of God. That “seed” is not sperm nor ova but the Holy Spirit of God, to wit: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen 2:7) and to Mary, the angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

  There was no sexual intercourse involved in either God generating Adam nor Jesus. The Holy Ghost of Jesus is thought of as male for two reasons: “He” is the Ghost of Jesus and “He” is the “Living Water” that generated Adam and Jesus (John 4:10). Also, think of the Holy Spirit as the “Seed” of the universe as dividing “the waters from the waters” (Gen 1:6) which is exactly translated, “the semen from the semen” (Strong’s Dict.)

  Furthermore, God is perceived as male because the gender of Jesus is male. He is the Son of God and God at the same time: ““If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (John 14:7). God is certainly not female! That comes from feminist heresy and pagan religions. Even the person Jesus is paternal in that Christians are His heirs. Women in those days had no estates and to be an heir meant of the male line.

  All that information circles back to the “godhead” (theiotes), feminine gender for “divine nature” but that is “the state of being God.” Thus, God is paternal and His State maternal. The Godhead is not three “Persons” but three “States” or three levels of substances in one, performing as One.

  The Greek for that is homeostasis, or as pertains to God, three immutable substances in dynamic equilibrium. Those three “substances” of God are Mind, Body, and Spirit (Knowledge, Material, Power). Those substances Exist as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and are eternal and always in dynamic equilibrium. Just as you have seen the Father by seeing Jesus, you also have “seen” Jesus by sensing the  Holy Ghost of Jesus.

  With that said, the “Person” of God died on the Cross, but His other two substances were nailed there as well. When Jesus died, he gave up His Ghost, and Jesus perceived that the Father had forsaken, or given up, on Him (Mat 27:46). God in three substances suffered death on the Cross. His Flesh “slept,” His Ghost departed for a time, and His Mind surely went with His Ghost as ours will with ours (evidenced by Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom).

  The Jews needed to know that Jesus was their same Messiah. To explain the divine nature of God, the writer wrote:

He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. (Heb 12-3)

 Examine that closely: (1) Jesus is God’s Son, (2) Jesus is who made the worlds, (3) He is the Brightness of God’s Glory (i.e., He is the paternal “Father”), He is the expressed image of God’s “Person,” and He is Power. In other words, Jesus is God manifested — the three substances of God in One Person.

  Protestants teach that the “Godhead” is “God in three persons.” Indeed, the Godhead is the divinity (substance) of the Christian God (Wikipedia), but it too uses, “in three persons” rather than “substances.” However, Jesus is the expressed image, or that Person. The Godhead is One Person expressed as Jesus. According to scripture, therefore, the Godhead is One Person of three substances: Mind, Flesh, and Spirit.

  Just what is a “person?” One definition is, “One of the three modes of being in the Trinitarian Godhead as understood by Christians” (Merriam-Webster Dict.). Modes would be substances, and the One Person has three modes of communication with His creatures. Jesus is God manifested. When God appears, that “Person” is called “Jesus.” Jesus is either a brightness (Glory), an image (THE Man, or THE Angel of God), or Power (THE Holy Ghost).

  A person is also “the body of a human being” and “the personality of a human being” (ibid). Hence, “person” always refers to a being in human mode or substance.

  Whew! All that to say, “God is One Person with three modes of operation Who is manifested in three different substances, all in harmony with each other another.”

  With that, it is proper to call Jesus “God,” and it is proper to call God’s Spirit, the “Holy Ghost” of Jesus. The former is the manifestation of God in material, and the latter the manifestation of God in Power, or non-matter. However, it is not proper to say, “Jesus and God” or “the Holy Ghost and Jesus” because all three are One God.

  It is important to know the nature of God. He is neither male nor female, but His personality is male and His Creative ability as well. His nurturing mode is female as Eve’s who was also generated from the Holy Spirit through Adam and was assigned the nurturing role.

  Also, the nature of God is not multiple personalities but one Person with one Personality. That is important because heretics say that the “godhead” is a three-headed God, and consider Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Ghost as three individual “Gods.”

  Neither is there a female personality or counterpart to God. There is no “Mother Nature.” He is “Father Supra-Nature” Who nurtures!

  Neither was there a “demiurge” (a separate Creator God). Jesus created it all! That is what God is called when He manifests Himself! He manifested Himself gloriously when He showed His Power to generate all things! Material is not evil as Gnostic heretics claim because an evil “god” did not create. The misuse of material (the world) is evil. God told how to use the Garden but Satan how to misuse it.

  Neither was there two creations. God is the Knowledge of Good. He does not make mistakes. Satan is the author of evil knowledge, but it was not his tree. He misused what God made. Evil was in the tree so that mankind could choose for themselves just who is their God.

  God had the foreknowledge and knew the choice would be wrong just as with the angels. He planned on manifesting Himself to mankind for the express purpose of saving them from themselves! Jesus was there in the beginning (John 1) not because God screwed up, but because given choices, he knew people would.

  The “supra-nature” of God is grace. He made us without the ability to save ourselves. Hence, his nature was graceful, and he created Flesh for Himself to do that for us! Those saved, in the end, will be like God again — in His image: with pure mind, with incorruptible flesh, and full of the Power of God. We too will walk on water like Jesus; we shall stand on the sea of glass (Rev 15:2)!

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. (Heb 1:1-2)

  The different modes of God are different ways that he speaks to people. The Father spoke to the ancient Hebrews, the Son to the multitudes of people, and the Holy Ghost to the “lively stones” of the Church. It is God who always speaks but in different “bandwidths:” Preserving on the Way, redeeming those who know the Way, and guiding the Way to the Tree of Life (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost).

  Now for a further test from scripture: “For in Him (Jesus Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). Jesus is the bodily form of the Godhead! What happened when Jesus was baptized? “The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him” (Luke 3:22; KJV).

  The “Holy Ghost” is the Pneuma (Breath) of God specific to His Person, Jesus. It is the same Pneuma that breathed life unto Adam. God breathes, the Holy Spirit is His “Breath”, and Jesus is the “Cup” or material container for His Breath. Once the Cup was broken, the Holy Spirit in bodily form was emptied, until the broken Cup was regenerated. Now the Holy Ghost of Jesus is again in the Cup, and that “Cup” freely pours Living Water into the souls of Christians.

(picture credit: 123rf.com)

DOCTRINAL ERROR

  Denominations are due to varieties of doctrine. Face it… somebody is wrong! The most divisive doctrines are Calvinism and Arminianism. Just to summarize those two doctrinal differences, Calvinism is sola gratia, by grace alone. Indeed, all things are by the grace of God from our pre-existences in heaven, our existence on Earth, and our destinies. Nothing cannot exist outside of God’s Will for us.

  Grace is simply being blessed although we deserve nothing. The fact that people feel that they deserve things is damning. Think on that: Why did Adam and Eve think they deserved better things in the Garden when they were already blessed with ample things? Just because they were them!

  Face the facts: Jesus paid the price for all our sins; the sins of everyone of all time. We did nothing at all which would redeem us in the face of God. Jesus shed His blood and poured out His water; not us, to redeem our flesh and immortal souls from perishing. What did “we” do as humans?

  We did the dirty deed! We shed His blood. We thought we were God Who is the Grantor and Taker of life. We are the problem; Jesus is the solution. Sola gratia is a pure unadulterated doctrine in that we are incapable of self-preservation and salvation.

  On the other hand, faith in that is a gift from God and faith is saving (Ephes 2:8). Faith must be maintained, to wit: “Beware less you fall away from your own steadfastness” (2 Pet 3:17). How to do that? Faith being a gift of high value, can be “grown” (2 Pet 3:18). If grace was a dollar, it can be grown unto a million dollars. Let me give a real-life example:

  In the late 1990s, President Bush returned to each person $300 from taxes that we owed the government because of the services which it provides. That was an act of grace on his part. His motive was to stimulate each of us to stimulate the economy. Some paid bills with that money. However, I knew its purpose was to stimulate the economy, and if I used the gift wisely, I would make a profit and pay off the bills when the money grew. Over a period of a few years, I invested wisely and grew $300 into more than $40,000. I never squandered the gift but grew it steadfastly.  I paid taxes on the profits. I grew the gift and was able to return to the government much more than the $300.

  God’s gift of faith is the same way. We can either keep it, return it, spend it, or grow it. There is a parable about that very thing — The Parable of the Talents (Mat 18). “Steadfast faith” is the patient growing of grace. Steadfast faith is not merely keeping the grace but growing it as the more growth the more optimism (hope) for the Great Reward.

  Satan induces Christians to gamble with grace. Christian liberty is God providing an “allowance” to spend some of His grace. Rather than valuing the gift of faith, some Christians forget that it was a gift from the Father, and like the prodigal son, waste the inheritance on things of the world (Luke 15). The son, in that story, could have grown the inheritance or waste it. He chose to waste it, but because he still kept the faith of His father, the father provided more grace because his desire was that his son not perish.

  Those who do not grow grace have, in the words of Dietrich Bonnhoeffer, “cheap grace.” They spend it with liberty on the things of the world and forget that Jesus paid a hefty price. Growing the grace is obtaining and “using the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18)

  My investments made a profit. I grew the grace that the President provided but understood that it was not his to give. Prosperity is taken for granted, but that $300 was by the grace of God wherein President Bush was his inspired “tool.”

  I understood that it was God’s money and that I had an obligation to be a good steward of his grace. With that understanding, God grew the grace, and I was his helper. Of course, he could have merely taken coins out of fishes’ mouths, but then I would not have any input into working out my own salvation (Phil 2:12).

  I did not use the money as if it was mine to spend on things in the world but treasured it and watched it grow! Someday, by grace, my heirs will be recipients of my grace because of God’s grace. God intends for his grace to trickle down, and it will unless the heirs take it for granted as the prodigal son did for so long.

  The prodigal son could have remained outside the father’s estate. However, without pressure from the father, he returned home. The dutiful son stayed home, and merely kept the estate. He did not grow the grace of his father. The prodigal son, when he returned, garnered more grace because his heart had changed. He no longer took prosperity for granted, and neither should saints ever take their preservation for granted because preservation is by steadfast faith.

  That deals with sola gratia. That is the doctrine of Christ and of both Calvinists and Arminians. “Growing the grace” is where they contrast. Because of eternal security, Calvinists take grace for granted. Rather than grow the grace they have the liberty to put it away and value it little. In effect, some, not all Calvinists, feel free to “spend” grace on the things of the world.

  As an example, a friend of mine told a filthy joke. I responded, “I thought you were a Christian.” He grinned and defended himself; “Jesus paid for that sin 2000 years ago!” That is true, but saints are to value that gift of grace and not take it vainly. In essence, the Third Tenet of God is not to take His Name (Jesus) in vain. That saint did just that. That was “cheap grace” which he spent foolishly!

  What happens if faith is not grown? It stagnates. Satan knows that. Even if you endeavor to grow in grace, Satan is there to spoil the “crop.” Think on that — What if you fail to even tend the “garden” as Adam was assigned to do? It just makes it easier for the Serpent to choke off the branches from the Vine (John 15:5). God as the “Husbandman” works the “vineyard” but if the blight is too severe, He allows it to lie dormant. Satan then steps in and cuts off the blighted branches and they perish.

  Indeed, the Husbandman preserves the “branches” but the branches must never soak in the contaminants of the world. By grace God seeds the “garden” but then if the “crop” is left on its own to grow without dressing and keeping (Gen 2:15), then it becomes feral. The Word of God, since “Adams” will not do it, does it for them. That must not be taken for granted, for if it is, then grace will never grow and the “branch” will wither, just as with the fig tree (Mat 21:19).

  Peter was concerned about saints with cheap grace. He was concerned with teachers of false doctrine. These were saints that he wrote about, “They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Pet 2:15)… “for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (2 Pet 2:17).

  The “right way” is the Way of Jesus, or the Doctrine of Christ. “Forsaken” is renouncing what once was believed. It is turning away from the Doctrine of Christ, in this case. It inevitably is the denial of Jesus. “Gone astray” is not cast out of the “Garden” because of grace but leaving the safety of the Garden as “free range” beasts who prefer feral to domestic life. That “blackness” is Hell, whereto those who go the wrong way are bound.

  Peter wrote something that the author of Hebrews wrote as well. You do the comparison:

²⁰ If, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. ²¹ For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. (2 Pet 20-21)

If they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (Heb 6:6)

  The “Holy Commandment” is certainly the “Greatest Commandment” — to love Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Having loved Jesus that way, to “turn from” that, is worse than never loving Jesus from the start. You turn! God never turns you away. That is Christian liberty to roam wherever you please. Roaming too far displeases God and pleases Satan. Everyone must beware of wondering so far away, that they can never find the Way back!

  Remembering that Jesus paid the price, to waste grace in the world shames Jesus. Liberty is willingly doing right things out of reverence for the grace. It is placing high value on Jesus sacrificing Himself that we need not. Righteous living is not “repayment” of the indebtedness to Jesus, but gratitude for the grace on loan to you… to grow with no expectation of repayment, but gratitude if it is!

…Be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless (2 Pet 3:14)… ¹⁶ Speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. ¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. (2 Pet 3:16-17)

  Peter was speaking to the saints when he said that “beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness,” obviously from the faith you had given to you by grace. The gift is free, but it must be worked to grow it, and the stronger it grows the more secure the saint is.

 The danger is falling away from what you once held dear.  Your eternal security is indeed preservation of the saints, but salvation comes with death. That is the “gain” to which Paul referred (Phil 1:21). If Paradise is not gain, then what is? To be saved in Paradise necessitates dying. Until that time, God does preserve His saints with a hedge of safety (Job 1:10) but Satan endeavors to gradually overcome that hedge. He cuts it down one limb at a time until the branch is gone. Only those who remain steadfast in trusting the Lord will be saved from Satan and Hell.

  In summary, Calvinism is a false doctrine wherein Christians feel as if they are already saved when they are not. They have not been “regenerated” but only given another opportunity with rebirth.

  They are preserved in the Bosom of God until the “Great Day” when they are finally saved. They often feel so secure that they fail to grow the grace that was given to them. Some even ignore the Great Commission because they see salvation as the “Great Lottery” conducted before they were ever born! It is not grace if God damns those who He created without just cause. That would be sola non gratia! God is graceful, and not a cruel God who would condemns people to die just because they exist.

(picture credit: Pinterest; "God's Hedge of Protection")

PETER’S HARD TEACHING

  Back in the early 1980s is when it all started. “Something” got into so many Christians at the same time. What caused that change? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-II) in 1973 changed the diagnosis of homosexuality from and abnormality to normality. What caused that change in diagnosis? Homosexuality, up until that time, had been a “disturbance” or deviation from normal behavior.

  Because of the great number of vocal homosexuals that protested that diagnosis, it was changed from “abnormal” to “normal” and a new abnormality (sic) took its place — homophobia. Statistics and mob mentality had shifted the opinion of psychologists! Presently, homosexuality is not only accepted by the world, but by the defiant Church – those that practice social justice and liberation theology. Note that they not only changed the Word of God but natural law as well. What had been unnatural became the new natural (sic).

  The corrupt nature of men had become acceptable in society and the church. Peter saw that and was very vocal about it. He himself protested defiant and deviate behavior! Natural man — those corrupted by the world — were by the grace of God to become incorruptible, “Ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (1 Pet 1:4).

  Those with a divine natural put away sexual lusts. “Sexuality” was what Peter was writing about, not the lust of money, but perhaps that too. Everything is about money. Corruption can be found at the end of the “money trail.” Some in the Church were homosexuals, and because Peter mentioned the sins of Balaam, someone was making money from aberrant sexual behavior!

  Remembering that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10), acceptance is not out of love but for gain. In modern times, many accept homosexuality because their household incomes are greater than the normative. Advertisers cater to homosexuals because they have greater wealth.

  Acceptance of corrupt behavior is mostly about money. Even the acceptance of the sexual sin of abortion, is about profits from killing the product of sexual intimacy. Planned Parenthood has demonstrated that they are unloving with their selling of body parts of human beings. It is most always about monetary gain for sin to be acceptable.

  Why does the church accept homosexuality? It is the Doctrine of Balaam — homosexuals have money. When accepting homosexuality, the church is prostituting itself for money. To accept abortion is again, the church prostituting itself for money!

  The “divine nature” is not the normative to the criteria of the world, but the peculiarity of God’s chosen people (1 Pet 2:9). Not only are Christians to be righteous, but to not gather with the unrighteous, accept of course, to carry on the Great Commission.

  In the Old Testament, Lot had chosen to live where sin was the normative: “Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord” (Gen 13:10). Lot followed the money trail. He went to live in sin because that was like Paradise in his eyes. He failed to see the sin for the beautiful Garden. Is that not the sin of Eve?

  Apparently, sin had entered the churches of apostolic times. Peter wrote the letter “To those who have obtained like precious faith with by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:1). He was writing to Christians — those with divine natures — who had accepted sinful behaviors as a normal behavior for new Christians. The inference is that not only is homosexuality a sinful nature, but those who tolerate sinful behavior as well. Peter demonstrated the problem with that using Lot as an example:

KEY VERSES: ⁶ And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; ⁷ And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: ⁸ (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) (2 Pet 2:6-8)

  Peter wrote that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah as an example to those who live ungodly. What was ungodly about Sodom and Gomorrah?

⁴ But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: ⁵ And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. (Gen 19:4-5)

  To “know” is sexual intercourse. To that request, Lot offered his daughters instead of the men angels. “Both old and young men” preferred the male angels. Homosexuality was the “norm” in Sodom and Gomorrah. Apparently, the SPA (Sodom Psychiatric Association) had ruled that before 1900 BC! — that is was okay to be homosexual.

  The reference was to “the men of the city… young and old…all the people” were homosexuals.  Surely homosexuals were the “old normal” in Sodom. Why “old normal?” It was the same sins as in Noah’s time where the men desired to have abnormal sex with angels. The “old norm” had soon become the “new norm” and that is the same “norm” espoused by the world today.

  Homosexuality was and is a “harbinger” to bring about the destruction of the world, just as in the days of Noah, Lot, and today. The world was destroyed by water as a warning, two cities by fire as a warning, and now the warning is destruction of the entire world by fire! Churches that condone homosexuality as normal will go up in flames with the world and those in the church who tolerate it will go to Hell with them.

  According to the key verse, Lot was just. Although he should not have lived in Sodom he was there. Noah should have lived on the Holy Mountain, but instead he was on the unholy plain with Cain’s seed who were sexually immoral – the “new norm” of that day. When righteous people live with, associate with, and accept unrighteous behavior as okay, they challenge God. God had mercy on Lot and his wife, but still, she turned back and looked longingly at Sodom and Gomorrah. She had accepted their behavior and God struck her dead and made her as dead as the Dead Sea where her pillar dissolved.

  Peter was warning against that. Like Lot who was, “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked,” the Churches of Asia were vexed in like manner. Apparently, the Churches had been infiltrated by those who claimed to be righteous but were wicked: Peter wrote that homosexuality had, “vexed his (Lot’s) righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.” “Vexed” was that homosexuality had been “problematic” for him.

  Even psychologists admit that most influence the thoughts and behaviors of others and that good therapy is withdrawing from those who influence. Christians withdrawing from the influence of the world is “sanctification.” It is righteousness living outside the influence of unrighteous people.

  Homosexuality is accepted today because the world is now the image of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because so many men and women engage in homosexual behavior, that behavior is the return of the “old norm.”

  I write, “behavior” because sexual activity is a response to lusts. Lusts are operant conditioning from the world to the people. Americans have become conditioned to sin and see it with clouded vision. Because the world defines it as “normal” does not make it normal! “Normality” is using biological tools for their intended purpose. It is as unnatural to engage in coitus with like tools as it is to remove a Phillips screw with another Phillips screw. Anyone who differs on that are fools, or as naïve as Eve, and a useful tool to beguile righteous people.

  Satan’s M.O. is not to bring down sinners, but Christians. Whenever Christians accept the philosophies of the world, Satan has been successful. His way is not to test the unrighteous, but the righteous. Homosexuals know that they are abnormal because they suffer depression out of conviction and guilt. The way of psychology is to remove the guilt; the Way of Jesus is to remove the sin!

  The mainstream Churches in apostolic times were being lured away from the faith by righteous people tolerating sin and living normal (sic) lives with sinners. The Church included homosexuals and the members of the Church tolerated their Sodom-like behavior. Like Lot’s wife, in the apocalypse, they too will be turned to “salt” and be engulfed in the “Dead Sea” of Hell.

  The mainstream churches of today are advised to read and consider Peter’s letter to the apostolic Church and directed to today’s mainstream churches. If your church denomination tolerates homosexuality, then your faith is as weak as a grain of salt, and rather than being part of the solution of saving souls, you are part of the problem with souls perishing.

  Why correct and reprove Christians who are sinful? Because God wants that “none should perish” (John 3:16). Christians should teach that homosexuality is a sin against God so that they would desire a new divine nature just as those peculiar Christians that differ from the world!

  Saving homosexuals from perishing is not hatred, but what love is all about. I have those who I love who choose homosexual lifestyles. I want that they never perish. With that, neither do I tolerate homosexual behavior, just as I do not tolerate any type of fornication. Of course, any toleration of sin on my part does not damn anyone, but me. It matters little what I judge but how God judges sinners. My opinion must rest on the Will of God, not on the philosophy or preferences of men.

(picture credit: Getty Images; "Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah")

THE EIGHTH DAY: WHERE WILL YOU BE?

 

THE EIGHTH DAY 

  How could I have missed it? How could any theologian miss it? What have we missed? The seven years of drought in Egypt represents time itself, and the eighth day — the day after — represents eternity. What are you doing on the eighth day when time stops still?

KEY VERSES: ²⁹ Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: ³⁰ And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; ³¹ And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.(Gen 41:29-31)

  Assume that the “seven days of plenty” represents Paradise. That makes sense because the seven-day creation was “very good” (Gen 1:31). There was sustenance aplenty in the Garden of Eden. Was not Eden “seven days” though before plenty was forsaken for pleasure. In my book, On the Origin of Man and the Universe, I present evidence that the “seven day” creation was seven “processes.” I did not define the time interval for those processes. I took this seriously: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet 3:8).

  In some instances, in the Bible, that may be true. As an example, in the Book of Adam and Eve, 5-1/2 days are 5500 years. Not that it is actual, but that Adam would be redeemed in 5500 years, and God referred to that short time interval as “days.” That comparison is an antitype, “something that corresponds to or is foreshadowed in a type” (Merriam-Webster Dict.)

  If Adam would be redeemed in 5-1/2 days, then time thereafter would be nearly over. Since God created existence in six days and rested on the seventh, then using antitypes, Jesus’s thousand-year reign would be the seventh “day.” Tribulation would be over, and with God again in charge, He would “rest” during the Millennial Reign of Jesus. With that, the existence of the world will last six days, then Jesus will reign on the seventh “day” or during the last “year” of seven-thousand years.

  The “time” this year is Anno Mundi (AM) 5780. Of course, the Jewish calendar has been revised and is lunar time. Anno Mundi is the year of the world. The world was created on the third “day.” That would commence after 2000 day-years, using Peter’s comparison, and the sacred writings. But lunar time did not commence until the 4^th ‘day.” As such, the universe was in existence, perhaps 3000 years before lunar time began, which coincided in the beginning with solar time.

  Why all the emphasis on time? Because time began before Adam was created on the sixth day, perhaps even in the evening of the sixth day since the animal kingdom preceded Adam in the dawn of a new day. With that, Adam would have been created on day 5-1/2 and he would be redeemed on the same “day” 5500 years later.

  The year of the world would need approximately another 1500 years to make AM 5780 accurate to scripture, assuming the sun was made before the moon at the waning of the fourth day. Add 1500 years to 5780. The true AM time would be closer to AM 7000 (approximated) or today is near the end of the sixth “day” and heading toward the seventh “day” for the reign of Jesus. Indeed, “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11). How near? Maybe this year, maybe a thousand years!

  What comes after the Millennial Reign of Jesus on the seventh day? Eternity. It is not mentioned in the Bible, but the Book of Jubilees does.

  The seven-years famine of the Egyptians represent the seven-thousand years of life on Earth and the “eighth year” of the famine eternity after the reign. With that said, Joseph is an antitype of Jesus and Pharaoh and antitype of Satan. Egypt represents the world, and the seven years of drought time, or seven millennia. With that said, something must have been unusual on the seventh year in Egypt. It was. Everyone believed in Joseph because he had brought them through great tribulation. But famine on the seventh day? Joseph took care of them, and sometime, it is likely that a new pharaoah who knew not Joseph came into power, or perhaps, because of Joseph’s legacy, a new Pharaoh took charge. It may be that Joseph was the ad hoc pharaoh on the last year. It was an antitype of the millennial reign of Jesus, it seems.

  After the famine, an antitype of the world, there was an eighth year, to wit:

And the years of the famine were accomplished, and Joseph gave to the people in the land seed and food that they might sow (the land) in the eighth year, for the river had overflowed all the land of Egypt... it grew much corn that year. And this was the first year of the fourth week of the forty-fifth jubilee. (Jubilees 46:9-10)

  Note that a jubilee is another measurement of biblical time. One jubilee equals 49 years, and a week equals a year measured from Anno Mundi. But that is not the point. What is? “Joseph gave to the people in the land seed and food that they might sow (the land) in the eighth year.” After seven-years of tribulation, on the eighth year, things again got very good. The eight-year represents Paradise wherein everything is “very good.”

  The Nile is the River of God called the "Gihon" in the Bible, according to the Jewish historian, Josephus. The world looked much different now than in the beginning, but the Nile River is the life-blood of that God forsaken land. “Nile” means “great river.” That because it ran through Paradise into the world (Egypt).

  How are things on the eighth year — the year after the flood? The river overflowed and brought forth much corn (grain). What was the food in Paradise? Vegetation. What provided the vegetation since there was no rain in the Garden of Eden? The Gihon… The River of God!

  Jacob was an antitype of the Father in the following passage:

And it came to pass that after Jacob died the children of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt, and they became a great nation, and they were of one accord in heart, so that brother loved brother and every man helped his brother, and they increased abundantly and multiplied exceedingly, ten weeks of years, all the days of the life of Joseph. (Jubilees 46:1)

  Now recall the coming of the Holy Ghost: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1). When Jacob gave up the Ghost, it was after his sons were of one accord. For Jacob, it was finished. Thereafter, as you see, the focus was off the name “Jacob” and on “Israel.” The twelve brothers became “Israel.” That accordance is when Israel was built and is an antitype of the Church. Jesus had finished the stonework for the Church just as Joseph had for the foundation of Israel.

  The Holy Ghost of Jacob had left him but lived on through his children. They remained in “Abraham’s Bosom” as I wrote about yesterday. The ameliorating attitudes of the brothers describes what Paradise will be like, but unlike the Exodus from Egypt, there will be no exodus from the eighth day!

  What will the eighth day be like for Christians?

And there was no Satan nor any evil all the days of the life of Joseph which he lived after his father Jacob, for all the Egyptians honored the children of Israel all the days of the life of Joseph. (Jubilees 46:2)

  Jacob was in Abraham’s Bosom when he died? That is Paradise. In other words, Jacob suffered death, but remained alive through Abraham and his children. Jacob is perpetually alive and so will Israel be on the “eighth day.” Satan will be destroyed to commence the eighth day (Rev 20:8-10).

  Where was Pharaoh in the seventh year? He was in the pit somewhere, symbolically covered with grain that Joseph provided. That is where Satan will be (in the bottomless pit) on the seventh day before his dynasty is finished. During the Millennial Reign, the world is safe from Satan and on the “eighth day” (eternity) the world will finally be saved from Satan and sin! What a great day that will be… for some. What a terrible day for others.

  And with a great war, symbolic of Armageddon, the world will be closed for normal business, and that was the case for Egypt: “And he went to the land of Canaan, and the gates of Egypt were closed, and none went out an none came into Egypt” (Jubilees 46:8).

 The same applies to the “eighth day,” or eternity. Hell will be closed for business, and it will become impregnable. All those there will stay and all those saved in “Canaan” will never enter Egypt. Egypt will change from the antitype “world” whereon the Prince of the Power of the Air rules, to Hell where Satan is doomed. Satan can never leave Hell just as Pharaoh, after his defeat by Canaan, would never leave Egypt again.

  Canaan is the Promise Land. It is an antitype of Paradise in heaven, and once the seven days of the world is complete (seven thousand years), heaven and earth will again be one just as in the beginning. The Garden of Eden, by then populated, will be a City of God, and New Jerusalem will be restored on its foundation (Jerusalem) wherein the Gihon still springs! Egypt will be no more. Life will extend as far as Egypt, but it will again have a great famine, not for seven years but for eternity — all the “eighth day” that never ends.

  The decision should be easy. Shall it be Canaan or Egypt. The Israelites had a hard time deciding but only a remnant will ever choose the real Promised Land.

(picture credit: USB David; "Along Way from Home")

ABRAHAM’S BOSOM

 

KEY VERSES: ²² It came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; ²³ And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. ²⁴ And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (Luke 16:22-24)

  The rich man had good things in the world, but the beggar, Lazarus, had evil things. Now that they are dead, the rich man would have torments and the poor beggar comfort in “Abraham’s Bosom.” The beggar had laid at the gate and was full of sores. He depended on the charity of those entering the gate to the city for comfort, but there was little comfort for him. Now that they were dead, the situation was reversed; the rich man had the never-healing sores and torment.

  In life, the beggar begged for crumbs from the rich man’s table and dogs licked his sores. Now that the tables had turned, the rich man begged for even a drink of water to quench his thirst, but Lazarus had living water where Abraham was. Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom in Paradise. Now consider Paradise.

  Paradise was in God’s Bosom, and torments outside Paradise to where Adam and Eve were cast out. Not that Hell is outside Paradise on Earth, but that Hell is outside Paradise in the Third Heaven. On the northern side of the Third Heaven is a “very terrible place, and there (are) every manner of tortures in that place… and the angels fearful and merciless, bearing angry weapons and torture… And those men said to me: ‘This place, O Enoch, is prepared for those who dishonor God’… ‘who knew not their Creator’… ‘for all these is prepared this place amongst these, for eternal inheritance.’” (Secrets of Enoch 10).

  That is where the rich man abided eternity and Lazarus did not! But also, in the Third Heaven was a place prepared for the righteous. Their inheritance was Paradise, and it is reserved for those who do kind things like giving bread to those hungry, help the injured, and provide clothing to the naked. Most important is that they “walk without fault before the face of the Lord.” (Secrets of Enoch 9).

  Lazarus walked without fault, but the rich man in purple “fared sumptuously every day” (Luke 16:19). The rich man’s “god” was himself, and so long as he fared well, all seemed right for him. It was not!

  “Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:26). That “great gulf” is between torments (Hell) and Abraham’s Bosom (Paradise), both in the Third Heaven.

  The human soul is immortal. It will never cease to exist. However, the soul will either be with God in Paradise or without God in Hell. What has that to do with Abraham’s Bosom?

  Remember Paradise? Therein Eve was in Adam’s Bosom (Gen 2:21), and she came out of his side (not rib) and was under his protection. There was a “silver cord” (Ecc 12:6) between God and Adam, and when Eve was created that silver cord extended to Eve as well. She was always in God’s Bosom because she was from Adam’s Bosom. Adam was heir to God and lived on His “Estate” — Paradise, and so long as Eve remained in Adam’s Bosom, she was preserved in Paradise.

  Sin loosened the silver cord, as Solomon wrote. With the advent of sin, Eve was no longer in Adam’s Bosom, and Paradise was lost. However, she was preserved by grace by the flesh of a lamb that God provided (Gen 3:21).

  The two were cast outside Paradise unto the perils of the world. There was a “great gulf” between Paradise and the torments in the world. Cherubim guarded the gate to that gulf (Gen 3:24) and still do to this day (Rev 4:6). That “great gulf” in the later is called a “sea of glass” and thereon the cherubim still guard the Way to the Tree of Life.

  Enoch saw that, and so did John the Revelator. So did Luke! Those who are accompanied by the Holy Ghost see things that are unseen to most! They do describe what they see with different words. Luke saw Paradise as “Abraham’s Bosom.” Why would that be? Mankind was no longer in Adam’s Bosom because of sin. Each were on their own. Adam was heir to God by the law of primogeniture. However, the younger adopted son, Abraham received the inheritance.

  God wrote a Will for Abraham and his seed. Theologians call it the Abrahamic Covenant. It was an everlasting Covenant and would always be God’s inalterable Will.

  Why Abraham? Because he was willing to sacrifice his only remaining son (Ishmael had been emancipated just as Adam had been). God recognized his nature and counted it as righteousness (Rom 4:3). Adam was no longer the Son of God, and Abraham was his adopted son. Adam’s Bosom would not do because he brought sin into the world. Abraham’s Bosom would do until the biological and spiritual Son would die so that mankind could be in Jesus’s Bosom; where before there had been blood and water to “make room” for God’s children.

  Abraham’s Bosom was Paradise, but it was because of the blood of a ram (Gen 22:13). That would do until Jesus died. Only blood and water from the Lamb would suffice to preserve all mankind in Jesus’s Bosom.

  Adam’s role was to “dress and keep” the Garden (Gen 2:15), or to serve and preserve a “Garden of Living Souls” to speak metaphorically. With Adam dead, then Abraham would serve and preserve mankind since he proved himself worthy of trust. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is not, for a time, the God of Adam since Adam failed Him.

  In time, God will regenerate Adam as promised in Genesis 3:15. That now has occurred with the sacrifice of Jesus.  Adam surely rested in Abraham’s Bosom since his was no longer efficacious. The Edenic Covenant was a promise of the Covenant of Grace that Jesus provided. Until then, the Abrahamic Covenant would suffice.

  The Abrahamic Covenant was God’s Will for mankind through the seed of Abraham. It was sealed with the blood of the foreskins of all those males who signed on. Circumcision was a fleshly representation of the desires of the heart. Circumcision was the “signature” attesting to God’s Will for His children — all the children of Abraham. The Mosaic Covenant and the Ten Words, by the way, were “conditions” of the Covenant with Abraham. The rich man did not love Lazarus by doing those things. He failed God and Abraham, and hence, he was not worthy of Abraham’s Bosom.

  What is the significance of Abraham’s Bosom? When he died, his grandson, Jacob (Israel) climbed on the bed with him and laid his head on Abraham’s Bosom. When Abraham died, this was the end:

And he (Abraham) placed two fingers of Jacob on his eyes, and he blessed the God of gods, and he covered his face and stretched out his feet and slept the sleep of eternity, and was gathered to his fathers. And notwithstanding all this Jacob was lying in his bosom, and knew not that Abraham, his father’s father, was dead. (Jubilees 23:1-8).

  (His death was described as “giving up the Ghost” in Gen 25:8). He gave up the Spirit of God to Israel to cover the sins of the Hebrews until Jesus came.)

  He placed two fingers to cover Jacob’s eyes, that he might see what Abraham was experiencing as he died. Abraham did not die, he was “asleep.” Jesus used those same Words to describe the death of the flesh. Abraham, just like Jesus, “gave up the Ghost” (Mark 15:37). Jesus gave up the Ghost to Comfort God’s heirs, and Abraham gave up his ghost, from God, to preserve mankind; the very thing on which Adam failed!

  Those who signed-on to the Abrahamic Covenant through circumcision of the heart, not only of the foreskin, would be preserved in Abraham’s Bosom just as Jacob (Israel) was. Whereas Christians are preserved in Jesus’s Bosom, perhaps a remnant of Jews remain preserved in Abraham’s Bosom. Remember that it is an eternal covenant and the conditions for it were written on stone by the finger of God Himself (i.e. Jesus). Those are the Ten Words of Jesus and are the conditions of the Abrahamic Covenant.

  Lazarus was preserved for a time in Abraham’s Bosom, but in a short time, he was preserved in Jesus’s Bosom. Jews are the same way. Paradise is paradise, but the soul lingers there in either Jesus’s Bosom or Abraham’s. Abraham is a surrogate for the Jews until Jesus’s “Temple” was ready. When Jesus died, He gave up the Ghost and the Temple was finished. No longer, for Christians, would it be Abraham’s Bosom but the Temple of Jesus!

(picture credit: Wikipedia; "Abraham's Death)

TRUTH

 

KEY VERSES: Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.” (Psalm 40:11). “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)

Preservation until death is salvation. Truth saves sinners. Sinning is desiring something TO BE that is not. Sinners want TO BE what is impossible. “TO BE” is the archaic and precise meaning of sin. The Serpent truthfully pointed out that the first sinners desired TO BE as God (Gen 3:5). That is what they desire TO BE, but desire is not reality. People will never BE God. Only God IS.

The Serpent told the truth! Furthermore, the truth is that thinking fallacious thoughts are damning. When Jesus was condemned to die, Pilate asked the philosophical question, “What is truth” (John 18:38). The truth was that there was no fault in Jesus; and that everyone who hears His Voice is in truth. Of course, the Voice of Jesus are the written Words of Jesus and the silent wisdom from the Holy Ghost.

Truth frees! From what does it free? Deception. It frees from death and damnation! Why would anyone want to believe a lie? Why would anyone fall for big lies? Perhaps because of two things: (1) They do not understand truth or (2) they reject the truth.

Pilate accepted the truth about Jesus. The crowd preferred to believe the Big Lie — that Jesus was guilty of something or anything, and deserved death. They had taken Jesus to the judgment seat. Regardless of the truth, by then they could not turn back! Some knew the truth, but yelled, “Crucify Him” anyway, but many others thought Jesus TO BE the criminal when it was themselves.

The nature of Adam was innocence and Eve too because she followed Adam who followed God. Before sin, only knowledge of good existed in the Garden, but afterwards, the knowledge of evil was imbued. Evil is of many kinds but can be summarized by “untruth.” Hence all men are prone to believe untruths, and when they hear the truth; they can either believe or disbelieve. People disbelieve because it is much easier! Truth is difficult to accept. Why is that? Because of human pride. People want TO BE right all the time, and when they are not, their self-concept must be preserved at all costs.

Nobody likes to be wrong! Neither do I because I am human. Scripture is to set me straight. It is to set you straight. All things are to be tested by the Word (1 John 4:1).

 People act wrongly when they fail to test their thoughts and deeds by self-examination to God’s standard — truth. Most of the time, their quick self-examination, is what they perceive as truth. Truth does not come easily. Satan blinds from the truth! Those with fidelity to God must seek truth (Mat 7:7).

 People prefer to discard truth because they must protect their fantasies at all costs! That is human nature. Adam and Eve protected their fantasy that they would never believe a lie by covering their nakedness. Most people ae more shameful. They fall for bald-faced lies and have no shame. They put a “hedge” around their minds to protect it from truth.

So long as people accept lies over truth, there will be sin. Therefore, there will always be sin because people accept lies over truth. They prefer bondage to freedom because when they are free, they must reject much of what the world says. They also must reject themselves!

Those people know that they will be outcasts on their own planet. God knows that too! That is why we are to be “set apart” (sanctified) and peculiar people. “Peculiar” is unlike the world. Christians today strive to be like the world, and that is an easy, natural task. They even bring the world to Church, not for conversion of the world, but for the reversion of the Christians.

The truth is that people prefer lies; that way they can live in the privacy of their own little worlds and never go out unto it in truth.

What did Eve want the Serpent to say? Eat… you will not die! He told her exactly what she wanted to hear. She knew it was deception but diminished God anyway. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow; nothing has changed nor will change, for it is written:

³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; ⁴ And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Tim 4:3-4) 

People still choose the fruit that will kill. Just because death cannot be seen, does not make it living. “Fables” are mythology, unproven scientific hypotheses, philosophy, psychology, and other deceptions.  Now even life itself is a fable! People live the lie.

The “Big Lie” is something so absurd that it could not be false.  The philosophy of men is the Big Lie. Think on the absurdity that the universe just happened. Think of the absurdity that life sprang from nothing. That is alchemy. Think of the absurdity that men who cannot fix themselves can fix you!

Think on the absurdity that sin will not kill when people have always died because of it. Think on the absurdity that the Doctrine of Satan can repair the Truth of God.

Philosophy misunderstands truth as repression, when the truth is that it frees from the wrongly thoughts of sinful people (John 8:32). In the eyes of psychologists, the Doctrine of Christ is repressive, and the doctrine of sin is expressive. Just what is sin? TO BE master of your own domain; each person to do, “whatsoever is right in his own eyes” (Deut 12:8).

Freedom from righteous living kills, not righteous living which preserves life. Righteousness is doing what is right, not what people perceive as right.  Evil makes people perceive wrong as right. That wrong perception is inborn. It is Satan’s way of controlling his automatons who naturally choose deception over truth.

Psychology is to free people who are under conviction from their guilt coming from disobedience to the Will of God. Is that not absurd? To relieve guilt, does it not make more sense to not be guilty? If one is in jail, which makes more sense; to continue in criminal activities in jail, or be released from jail? Sane people obey because they value freedom more than lusts. Which makes more sense to Christians; obeying God and remaining free, or allowing Satan to deceive and continuing in bondage?

The choice is a matter of faith. Which “god” do you want to relieve wrath? The True God or yourself? People get angry when they do not get their way. People even cry when they cannot do what they wish to do. People are anxious when they do wrong because God convicts them of their wrongdoing. They seek reprieve from others to relieve them from guilt, to wit: It is okay if you sin; we understand! That is not God speaking; that is the voice of the Devil in the cunning Serpent. It is not okay, but God understands; He understands sin because sin is from His adversary, Satan.

People are manipulated. Herein, I write the truth, but even those who are Christians will cling to their fable like a fly stuck on sticky paper, or as Peter wrote, “After their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth.” Lusts are not only desires but pride in them. Pride keeps people from the truth. They just cannot stand being wrong, but before the Great White Throne Judgment, they shall be shown their list of wrongs!

Heaping on teachers are pursuing the philosophies of the world — any doctrine but God’s Doctrine. People do have “itching ears.” They need reinforcement for their false perceptions. (In psychology, that is “reinforcement error.”)

Others tell them what they want to hear, and that satisfies their nature. When others tell them the truth, they become angry and bitter.

Human beings are so easy to manipulate; not by those who love them, but by those who use them for their own purposes. Just what is their purpose? To propagate a world view for the “common good” — another Big Lie because it is for their own good!

How long is the counsel of those who love you? Without end! How long is the council of those who use you? Until the money runs out! People still trust in those in the pursuit of money over those in pursuit of truth because they love you. Silly human beings; even the beasts know who really loves them! It is not the vet but the one who cares enough to take them to the vet.

And that is the truth! The gospel truth.

(picture credit: gettyimages; "Goebbles making a speech)

 

 

 

 

CUTTING OFF THE MOB

 KEY VERSE: Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.(John 18:10)

  The mob was about to take Jesus to His death. Simon Peter, this time showing his love for Jesus, defended Jesus with his sword. (Jesus would use the “Sword of the Word” rather than the armor of men!) Peter had good intentions, but when he drew his sword in defense of Jesus, he diminished Jesus.

  After all, Jesus is God, and the gospel is that Jesus saves, yet Peter sought to save Jesus from the world. He had the Doctrine of Christ reversed. He was a zealot, but zealous for the way of the World. Of course, the Doctrine of Christ is “peace on Earth, goodwill toward men” (Luke 2:14)

  Jesus, knowing peace did not have a chance, still wanted to give peace a chance because that was His Way. His Way was not the way of the world, but Peter’s was. Vengeance belongs to Jesus (Rom 12:19). Someday, Jesus will have His vengeance:

For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. (Rom 9:28)

  Peter was brave to cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. That was as if cutting off the high priest himself. In the end, the high priest was the guiltiest of all, as his sin was greater than even the centurion’s (John 19:11).

  If vengeance had been Peter’s, then the all of them would have been killed, and the Purpose of Jesus diminished as He preserves. His Name even means “Yahweh is salvation” but here Peter was trying to save Jesus! He was acting as if he was God, and that showed little trust in Jesus.

  Ironically, the high priest who was to rebuild the Temple (in earlier times) was also named that (Joshua or Yeshua). It would be Jesus Christ who would rebuild the Temple and it would be with the souls of men, not cedar!

  Jesus came to finish the work that Yeshua started and here was another high priest protecting the Temple that Jesus would replace. (It would be destroyed in 70 AD, but the Church still lives to this day.) The high priest was guardian of the Temple built by Yeshua, and “built back better” by Herod, but the death of Jesus would build the House of God, or the Church.

  Jesus is the craftsman who builds indestructible “Temples” and here was the high priest’s servant there to tear it down before it was built. 

  The Harbinger made one passage familiar to most Christians:

The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. (Isa 9:10)

  Yeshua (the chief priest) had rebuilt Solomon’s Temple whose construction had fallen down at the hand of the Babylonians. God ordained Nebuchadnezzar to tear down the Temple, and effectively, God destroyed Solomon’s Temple. He had never wanted a House for Himself but only a House for His people.

  Yeshua had tried to build back better but failed. The Second Temple was nothing as grand as the first. The Jews had tried to convince themselves that they had built back better in the days when they had no king. [1]

  Now let me apply this to modern times: Biden wants to “Build Back Better.” Ironically, the “bricks had fallen” when Obama was president and Biden vice-president. With that said, Biden and the Democrats do not want to “Build Back Better” but with the fallen bricks whose mortar was chipped away by Obama and Biden. The United States had been built on Living Souls bound together by God. That is making America great again!

  Now to be honest, Trump supporters, me included, want to be “Peter’s.” I often think of cutting off the tongue of Biden’s propagandist. Face it; Jesus did not want Peter to do that and neither does He want us to provide the vengeance. I am correcting myself! Because Democrats diminish Jesus, I can hardly stand that, and my reaction is violence. That is not the Way.

  Jesus was anointed to die, and whoever wins this election is anointed by God. God has a purpose for Trump and another one for Biden. Perhaps we need Biden to long for a “Trump” just as we needed Obama to elect Trump.

  Jesus, true to His Name, restored the right ear of Malchus whose name means, “My King.” Caiaphas was the “king” of Malchus, not Jesus. He served the high priest. The meaning of the name, “Caiaphas” is unknown. He was the “Unknown God” just as the god of the Athenians with whom Paul debated. Caiaphas was a type of Yeshua and a competitor of the True Jesus.

  Caiaphas symbolized a doctrine of works, and Jesus, by restoring the ear of Malchus, a Doctrine of Grace.

  The Doctrine of Grace will prevail until God’s Grace has been stretched to the limits. “For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the Earth.” Malchus, the high priest, and the mob will be cut off with time. Be patient! Jesus will cut off the whole Earth: some will be saved and the remainder shall perish.

  Christians know who really wins the election. Whether it is Trump of Biden, in the end, Biden will be cut off because of his arrogance. However, just as Jesus restored the ear of Malchus, He can restore the ears of all who hear His Message. Jesus can restore Biden’s ear just as He did the ear of Malchus.

  What should Christians do? Certainly not cut off our opponents, but pray that with their ears they will hear, and if they repent, they shall be saved.

  After all, Donald Trump saw the Light and became a new person in Christ. Even if Trump had the greater sin then Biden, he was restored, and Biden can be as well. What shall we do? Vengeance or grace? The easier thing to do is cut them off, but Jesus would have us demonstrate love of enemies and do our Great Commission.

  This is hard to write because I want vengeance. In my heart, I want to cut the Democrats off and judge them guilty and deserving of Hell! They may be, but that is for God to judge and convict. Like Peter, who was not the high priest, he had not authority to convict and punish. He cast a “stone” at Malchus when later, he himself, would deny Jesus.

  Pray first that right judgment will keep America great with God and Trump. If that fails, pray that God will get a hold of Joe Biden.

---

[1] The “Big Lie” at this time is that Democrats under “Yeshua” Biden will “Build Back Better.” The United States was built by God, and Trump desired to “Make America Great Again” — a nation built with Jesus as the Cornerstone. “Better” in the viewpoint of Democrats is Marxism.

(picture credit: "Daily Bread" Pastor Mike Anderson)