USE OF SCRIPTURE AS FIERY DARTS

What is the purpose of scripture? What IS scripture? Scripture is simply “written things” (Strong 2006). It is known from 2 Timothy 3:15 that the reference is about “holy scripture,” or holy written things. At the time that was written, the main extant holy writings were in the Old Testament: the Law, the wisdom literature, the psalms, and the prophetic writings.

The gospels were not written by the time of that letter that Paul wrote to Timothy (below). The “gospels” were at best, the same decade as the Pauline letters. The holy gospels were of two types: (1) the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; and (2) the gospel of John that is unlike any of the others, going back to the Word in the beginning.

Mark wrote about the gospel:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is written in the prophets, “Behold, I send My messenger before your face, which shall prepare thy way before you.” (Mark 1:1-2) 

The gospel is the account of the life and times of Jesus Christ as previewed in holy scripture; specifically in Malachi 3:1. Mark referred to the scripture that was the reference for what he was about to write; so technically, the prophetic scripture is the beginning of the gospel, and indeed, the prophetic books are mostly about Jesus. With that said, the prophetic books are part of the gospel.

The “gospel” is the English word for “euangelion” — “a good message” (ibid). According to Mark that good message begins with the activities of John the Baptist, which is found in the gospels, who was preparing the Way for the Good Messenger, Jesus (Mark 1:3).

The gospels are, therefore, the writings about both John’s preparation for Jesus and the Words of Jesus Himself.

As you can see, the simple answer is that the gospels are the written Words and actions of Jesus and about Him.

The gospel is all about Jesus, but Paul wrote about Jesus too! Paul’s words made him the new messenger in the absence of Jesus, so since he was given authority by Jesus and the other apostles, Paul’s writings are “canon” as well, meaning that they are “an authoritative list of books accepted as Holy Scripture” (Merriam-Webster 2023).

Note that the scribes did not carry around the writings of the gospels nor the letters of Paul and the others. Hence, the “holy writings” were the Law, the prophets, and the ancillary books of the Old Testament.

Paul wrote to Timothy about those holy writings:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Tim 3:16-17)

God inspired the prophets of old to write their prophecies. Those prophecies were, according to Mark, about the life and times of Jesus that would come to pass. Therefore, the gospels are validation of the Word of God written down by the prophets.

What is missed is that all the patriarchs of the Old Testament: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David et al were, as well as the major and minor prophets, in that God spoke truths to them.  

For instance, David wrote psalms about the coming of the Lord God in the flesh. God gave him insight about the coming of the Lord — the gospel Messenger — long before the gospel writers set down their quills. Hence, overall, the gospels are the subject matter about Jesus both before and after His coming, if one uses the Bible as their “dictionary.”

God inspired the writers of the Old Testament. The words written in that book are the Word of God. John validated the authenticity of that when he wrote that the Word was there in the beginning and is Jesus (John 1:1-14). John saw the gospel message a little differently than Mark and perhaps the others. He saw that the Word began not with the advent of John the Baptist, but with the first Adam (man) that we have named “Adam.”  They didn’t even argue about their differences!

Since Jesus is the “last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45), the inspired Word of God is the gospel, and it began in the beginning. Jesus was the “quickening spirit” of the book of Genesis who, according to John, made all things.

The gospel story did not begin with John the Baptist who paved the way for Jesus, as Mark wrote, but John got it right. He was not “synoptic” with the other three.

John truly saw that the gospel story began with the Creation. Since Jesus was glorified at His death (John 7:39), then He returned to the original state in which man was made — He was the very Image of God as another Adam. Jesus was there in the beginning in “phantom” (that “quickening spirit;” selem in the Hebrew).

The gospel is all about Jesus from the beginning to the ending. It is Him that is the “alpha and omega” (Rev 1:8) — the aleph and the tav in the Hebrew (the Hebrew hieroglyphs for the ox and the cross which I believe is the life and the death).

So, what is the gospel? It is the Message from God throughout time.

Where is it in Genesis? It is God giving life in the beginning; it is God saving life after the two Adamah sinned (Gen 3). The Lord God who made Adam and Eve coats of skin and clothed them (Gen 3:21) was about the preservation of mankind; the very “gospel message.”

What I am leading to is that oftentimes there is no simple answer to what seems simple questions. I believe that the gospel message includes the Old Testament, and both Mark and John saw it that way as well.

The problem is that theologians call only the first four books of the New Testament “gospels.” Most people miss that the gospels began when the Word made Adam and the woman glorious in the very Image of God. All scripture is from people inspired by God with that message from the beginning of time.

Scripture, according to Paul’s letter “is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

“Doctrine” is the Message from those inspired from God.

“Reproof” is the evidence for the message and the Messenger. The Old Testament proves the things to come came from God because the prophets got it all right.

“Correction” is to make upright again. It is lifting-up, not putting down.

“Instruction” is nurturing in righteousness, not by diminishing those who are learning, but guiding them by the hand, so to speak to understand what is right — what is acceptable to God.

Note that within those uses for scripture nothing is said about judging others or putting them down. It is about exalting God and others, especially other Christians, because they (me included) have Christ in them. Why set out to destroy others who have Christ in them? Why destroy even your enemies who you should want to have Christ in them?

Each day, I write a commentary about what I have learned from the Spirit of God. Hopefully it is God that inspires me with His Word.

Sometimes I may err; perhaps often. God corrects me when I do when I discover more in the gospel story. Because I was “born again” does not mean that I became a “know-it-all” but one seeking the gospel truth about Jesus, and it begins in the beginning. Why so? Because what was “finished” on the cross (John 19:3) was numerous things, but one of them was the gospel about the truth about Jesus; that He indeed is God in the flesh.

The gospel story did not begin with John the Baptist, but with “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1). Technically, that is the beginning of the gospel, and it was proven at the Crucifixion and validated at the Resurrection.

Hopefully, you understand that I understand the gospel. That is my insight about the “full gospel” story.

Abraham was in Paradise because he knew and trusted Jesus long before the gospel writers were ever born (Luke 16)!

The entire Bible is, in a sense, the gospel story because it too prepared the Way for Jesus. Mark did get it right because he understood the Old Testament, but John even had more insight from God who knew that the gospel began at the beginning, not just with Malachai.

I write this with a heavy heart. I intend not to be denominational nor even ideological. My aim is not to offend anyone, nor do I desire to cut God short. I endeavor to present the message of the gospels and know that I am not perfect.  I will, and do, err at times and God corrects me. Whether you believe what I write is none of my business but the business of God. I write… God persuades (Acts 8:13) in the manner of Paul who said right things and God changed them.

What is scripture for? To present the gospel — the beginning and the ending of the truth about Jesus which indeed should be the “Good News” given that Jesus is the Source of the Virtue emanating from God.

That is the gospel; and there is no simple answer. It is the “gospel” as I understand it. If you are looking for Webster’s definition; that is his insight. If you understand it differently; that is your insight, but insight must not incite.

Many approach the Word as ammunition to “shoot” their grudges against each others. For some reason, some Christians, maybe many of them, must be right about all things and they even parse each word from the keyboard of others to find some technicality.

For myself, I can always express myself better but often do not. Some assumption must be made about the intelligence of the recipient. With children, every word must be literal, or they use it against the parent. So many Christians are like the little children in that they look for error in the ways of others.

The gospel is not a bully pulpit to put others down; it is to lift them up to the truth.

The gospel is not about catching the error of others but your own! “He that is without sin (error) among you, let him first cast a stone” (John 8:7) and nobody did so.

The gospel is not about slinging fiery darts at others; that is the vocation of the Devil.

The gospel is not about shutting anyone down but lifting them up to the standard of Jesus.

The gospel is not for warring but for making peace.

The gospel is not for destruction of others but for the salvation of their souls. You cannot argue a person into heaven; love is what persuades them!

Denominations came about, not because of different scripture, but because people understand the gospel differently. We cannot all be right! Each church errs on many points whereas the gospel is without error. It is us that may be messed up, not God.

The gospel intent is to love God and one another. It is not to diminish God and each other.

Some Christians are like Satan himself; just waiting on others to pass by and out of their own little world, and then fire scripture at them like Satan fires his fiery darts.

Theological arguments make Christians the adversaries of each other. Argumentative Christians become useful tools of Satan, and they are adversaries on his behalf. They are much like the early church and the inquisition — if you do not believe as I do, then you are dead!

I feel threatened when somebody comes at me with a gun or other weapon. I feel more threatened when someone comes at me with scripture. They are not going to convert me because I am already persuaded, so since they cannot harm that; they try to harm me.

When at odds with one another the worst weapon is one of destruction. Their “Greek fire” is using the gospel message to burn down the fortitude of another Christian. They fire scripture as if it is a rapid-firing automatic weapon to be aimed straightly at the forehead at the brain.

The message sent to me from so many is that I am smarter than you! Indeed, you probably are but I make not claim to smartness, it is not me, or as the song goes, “yet not I, but through Christ in me.”

We are to love one another. Oftentimes, I sense an attack on me operationalized by some other Christian. Sensing an attack, I get defensive and try to respond in a humble way that will keep the peace. Humility reveals my underbelly, and they take that for as soft spot to shoot.

I do wish I knew it all but only Jesus was the only man that knew all things. If I pretend that I know it all, then I am pretending to be Jesus in the same manner as Lucifer who was cleverly the “Serpent” within.

Since so many seem to know it all, then why read any more scripture? It is because none of us know the Thoughts of God and never will fully know what God is thinking. Do not ask me cunning questions to shut me down; ask God outright questions to left you up out of your arrogance.

I try not to be mean, but sometimes Christiam must defend themselves from both the barbs of the wicked ones and prideful Christians.

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” (Jas 4:10).

I can be wrong and often I am wrong. God is never wrong; it is us who get it wrong.

If you genuinely seek an answer, please ask. If you want verbal warfare, please refrain. That is not the nature of us Christians to always be right in all things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLOSENESS TO GOD DEPENDS ON YOU

There is spooky-like communication between God and His people, “The Lord is close to all of them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).

What is truth? Truth (‘emet in the Hebrew) is certainty. Truth is that a thesis agrees with reality; that what the person thinks agrees with what is actual.

God communicates with anyone who believes THAT He exists enough to communicate with Him. Why does prayer fail so often? Only because God is not real enough to them; they have doubts that God exists.

There is an eerie communication between Christians and God. Those who are not Christians fail to understand communication with the Divine Being.

“Faithful is He that calls you, who will also do it” (1 Thes 5:24).

The faithfulness of God is the certainty that He will do what he says He will do. His Word is not to be questioned because God will always come through for those who trust that He is real. God is always reality, in fact the very “Existence.” He is Everything as all things come from Him (John 1:3).

God calls every one of US, and He responds to those who hear Him by doing something. There is a spooky action, even at a distance, because “The Lord is close to all of them that call upon Him.”

The kingdom of God is in another realm that is not far away, but as close to the person as the person is close to God, meaning that those the closest to God know Him better than those who are far away from God. Those who are all the way distant to God, He chooses not to hear, “We know that God hears not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and does His will, him he hears” (John 9:31).

Just as God responds by His actions, believers must respond to God by their actions. Hence, soon communication is cut from God. It is like an impedance on the invisible line of communication. Any faith at all allows some communication, but the more faith, the better the communication.

Jesus once questioned, “O you of little faith why do you doubt?” (Mat 14:31). That was a mathematical related query. Doubt is the reciprocal of faith. Also, the absence of faith is doubt. Perfect faith is that God who knows for certain that He is God. Anyone else only believes it to be true but since we are not God, we doubt. The more certain we are that God is who He says He is, the better the communication. In that God is always God, if there seems to be no communication, the impedance lies with us.

Now think of an old-time telephonic line. We cranked the arm on the side of the telephone; it sent a signal to all those on the same line.

Early phones were party lines wherein all got the call, but they understood to whom it was intended by the code within the ringing. (Ours was two shorts and a long ring). Every so often others, or even everyone on the same line, answered but some eavesdropped on the conversation because the message was not intended for them.

God calls us all in the same manner. He calls and the believer answers. His signal, like the code in the ring, is for certain individuals. He calls everyone but only those who believe it is Him on the other end, respond. If others eavesdrop, they do not understand because they do not believe it is God on the line of communication.

Many pray, for instance, but all they get is silence. God has called them, but they fail to understand that the message is for them as well as one of the “whosoever” in John 3:16. He calls all, but few here the ring let alone the message. That is not God’s fault but the impedance in the line of communication. There is indeed a “silver cord” between you and God and Solomon wrote about it. It is a line of communication for only those who know God is on the other end.

The impedance on our direct line to God is doubt. Many fail to believe that God calls or that there even is a God. How can anyone communicate with God unless they trust that it is Him who calls? It is not that God does not hear the prayers of sinners, but ignores them because they are not His people, or that His people have drifted so far away that they do not heed Him. They are mere interlopers who try to get God to do things when everything else fails!

Many Christians do not heed God because of impedance. Sin is so dominant in their minds that they fail to even think of God. Nobody can commune with Satan and put him on “hold” as they futilely try to commune with God. God knows just who is on “hold” as the Christian hurried communicates with Him, as if the person cannot wait any longer to get back to communion with Satan. In a sense, God hangs up because of the silence on the other end from those Christians who are so distant and vain to hurriedly commune with Him.

Most people know that there is a Satan because he is always there in action. He speaks through other devices that are always handy. His speech is limited, and since it is, Satan uses the things of the world to commune with mankind: things like movies, television, music, books, magazines, and recreations of all sorts. He mimics God who also communes through His actions.

The actions of Satan are enjoyable, even thrilling. The actions of God are always peace and joy. Joy is not an emotional leaping, but contentment when a Christian is at peace with God.

The test for truth with God is our actions as well, not that we are to act like Christians but that our thoughts and behaviors are like Christ’s.

Of course, we cannot walk on water because, like Peter who sank, all Christians have some doubt despite what they say.

Those who say they “know that they know that they know” imply that they are God because only God is certain of His Identity. People like that are lying to you, to God, and to themselves. The “faith of God” (Rom 3:3) is that God is certain of who He is. You may say that you are certain, but each sin is an expression of doubt.

Adam’s woman sinned because she doubted God. She had God in her but that was not enough. The fruit was more pleasant to her than having God within. She traded her soul for things. That was the birth of sin, and to this day, many Christians trade their rebirth for some stronghold of sin. Whatever that stronghold is chokes off communication with God and His actions are limited. Not that God gets weaker, but you do. Your actions are the impedance on good and clear communication with God. His actions are only limited by your actions and actions are the dynamics of divine communication.

God is always on the “line” to everyone who belong to Him — those who are paired, entangled, or engendered with Him (“born again;” John 3:7). If we seem distant from God, it is us who are distant. Impedance increases with distance on any telephonic line and God’s “silver cord” is no different. God is always nearby but sin distances Christians more so with each sin until they are so far away that God is no longer real to them. Soon, they fall all the way away (Heb 6:6), not because God abandoned them, but they distanced themselves from God a little at a time until the line of communication was “loosed” as Solomon wrote it (Ecc 12:6). That according to Solomon is “death.”

Death is not the cessation of physical life but the loss of communion with God. Sometimes death comes quickly because all are stillborn in the manner of David (Psalm 51:5) who was “shapen in inequity.” If even a Christian dallies with Satan long enough, God doesn’t hang up; “leave nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5), but it may be you that gets so distant from Him that He is no longer real to you. God does limit His actions to them that get far away from Him. We don’t know how far away is too far, but be sure it is when God gets no time in the lives of Christians.

Sometimes I pray hurriedly as if I have no time for God. Oftentimes, when I have temptations, I pray even more hurriedly, or even cease to pray at all because I know that I do not deserve for my prayers to be answered. I know that God is always close to me, but with each sin, I get further away from Him. I know how far I have drifted when God ceases being dynamic in my life. Answers to prayer is how I know how close I am to God.

If we do not communicate with God does not mean that He is gone, but we have drifted too far, so far that we do not hear Him.

Sometimes God does something to get our attentions. For the Jews, several times, he allowed their enemies to destroy most of them; and they were humbled. Perhaps when bad things happen to us, it is God’s actions to get our attention. Perhaps my encounter with catastrophe this very week was to wake me up and to strengthen my own communication with the Word, and here I am… in the Word!

All we need to do is to get a better line; for us to get closer to God and that is heeding His Word from the Bible.

 Picture credit Alamy

 

 

 

DECEPTION IS EASIER: BUT SEEK THE TRUTH

Things may not be what they seem to be. From the beginning of the world, life itself is dangerous! Reality may be just an illusion, or better said, “a delusion.”

Socrates questioned, “What is truth?”  Plato, among others, even Pontius Pilate, sought the answer to that.

A scribe questioned Jesus about which is the greatest commandments; ignore His answer for a moment and consider the scribe’s response saying said to Him, “Well, Master, you have said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but He” (Mat 12:31).

Jesus never argued with that but verified it on the Cross.

Pilate even asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) and Jesus showed him. When the Holy Ghost left Jesus, it revealed that there was one God and that He is Jesus. I believe that God even used Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to prove that! [1]

What was the truth in the beginning? That there was one God who made all things, and that man was made glorious in the Image of God.

Lucifer’s claim to fame is that he is the one true god (Isa 14:13-14).

On the day of the crucifixion of Jesus, Jesus gave up the Holy Ghost. On that same day, Judas gave up the Unholy Ghost, Lucifer, called “Satan.” The events of Good Friday 33 AD revealed the truth; there is indeed one God just as the scribe believed, albeit he did not understand the other worldly nature of God in man.

Now to the beginning: The cause of original sin was deception from under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The woman excused her actions by saying, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (Gen 3:13). That was the cunning one’s purpose; God used that alien being who had been cast out of heaven to deceive the woman. Hence, the so-called “Tree of Wisdom” was more so, the “Tree of Deception.”

Adam and the woman theretofore knew only truth. What is truth? There is one God.

Then comes another Phantom being who claimed to be God, and the woman fell for the deception. Indeed, all the body of knowledge to this day contains both good and evil, so what are we to do?

Paul provided the answer, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thes 5:21-22). Many versions used the translation to “test all things.”

The chief priests tested both Judas and Jesus and they literally hanged what was Good, but that was not what Paul meant! Both were hung on their respective “trees” but the bad has gone unnoticed while the good is our focus; hence, “Good Friday.”

The crucifixion proved that Judas with Satan in him (Luke 22:3) was not the one God. Christians have hung onto the notion that Jesus is God, and He proved that to Pilate.

However, the chief priests believed that Jesus was an imposter even as they realized that Judas was the foremost imposter, even denying they even knew him in the manner of Peter’s denial of Jesus.

The body of knowledge to this day contains both good and evil. One way to detect the difference is how often the lie is repeated. Jesus was crucified one time to prove that He was one God, and Paul wrote to the Hebrews these words, “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame” (Heb 6:6).

Not only was it unnecessary to offer periodic sacrifices, as was the priestly custom, but one statement was enough. God sacrificed His own flesh once for good, so that mankind could be saved.

Note that Jesus did not repeat the truth. He said that He is God, and one time is enough. Since that time mankind has repeated billions of times that there is no God, but repetition does not make that true. However, repetition has made it seem to be true!

Repetition is evidence that something about the saying is not true. Aldous Huxley, in his book Brave New World, wrote, “Sixty-two thousand four-hundred repetitions make one truth.” Of course, it does not and that was mere hyperbole, but repetition is indeed quite persuasive, especially when entertainers that you admire say them!

Take for example something simple: “Oil comes from long dead dinosaurs that have decayed,” indicating that the supply is limited and that we should curb the use of “fossil fuels.” That has been repeated so often that people, despite the evidence that it is untrue, still call oils and gases “fossil fuels.” More so, it is them that are “fossil fools” to still believe that oft repeated deception.

Deception always has a motive. The so-called, “Serpent’s” motive was to undermine the truth. The truth, even then, was that there is one God. In a sense, the serpentine angel made itself the “God” because Adam and the woman ignored the One True God.

Lucifer (The Serpent) made a new truth. The woman was so gullible that it did not require many repetitions, but the pseudepigrapha sacred literature, Adam and Eve and Their Conflicts with Satan, reveal that Satan made continuous repetitions to cause conflict in their minds to the point that Adam did physically die. Repetition, if that is true, made Satan the real God by his use of continual deception.

The greatest deception is the disuse of the word “deception.” Eve was “beguiled” (nasa in the Hebrew). The serpent was “two-faced.” There were two images that the woman saw — she saw the luminous angel, Lucifer, not realizing that with that angel was darkness. Thereafter, since the new kind, “Eve” was somehow “engaged” to the Wicked One, and as the “mother of all living” (Gen 3:20), rather than being born in the light of God, all of her kind are born in darkness. As sons and daughters of Eve, we are all easily deluded (beguiled).

Deceivers depend on that! Adam was imbued only with goodness since he was made in the Image of God. Whatever the fruit, Adam and his mate were soon imbued with deception, and thereafter their kind, us, have always had a problem with the question, “What is truth?”

There is at least one honest man, albeit he spouted off without thinking; Jonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare said, “We depended on the stupidity of the American voter” to pass that into law. That was surely the truth that he revealed too hastily, but what he meant is that American voters easily fall for deception. That now means about half the nation believe that the government, not God, will take care of you. It is the original sin all over again.

Why is that so meaningful? In this “awakened” economy, people are asleep to truth. They fail to test all things and hang onto what is good.

Testing requires motivation and action. Testing indeed is hard work. It is so much easier to eat whatever is fed to you as was the case with naïve Eve. She failed to test the premise that the fruit was good. It sounded good, looked good, maybe even smelled good, but the fruit was rotten within. She imbibed in some gene-altering concoction that the Devil cooked up for her to swallow. I suppose there was even a “worm” in the fruit — the so-called “Serpent” was just a small worm… perhaps a sperm to engender the woman with new genes.

Remember the mantra so recently about the COVID vaccine. Basically, take it; it will prevent you from dying and save the world! I tested that acclamation, and it failed. I have met deception, and the truth won!

Remember the proud use of your Facebook friends about the vaccine with their pride in taking the COVID vaccine? Without any proof that it worked; they stood in long lines, thinking it would! They even held the sign, “Mission Accomplished” without even wondering whose mission!

That was deception, as has now been proven. Biden even indicated recently that they are working on a “vaccine that works” (his new words), admitting that what he said “works” did not work. However, naïve people, even my own doctor, fell for the deception. Everybody, regardless of how intelligent, can fall for deception because deceptive things are the easiest things to do!

Eve could have said, “Excuse me Lucifer, are you really God?? She could have said, “Show me some evidence that this fruit is really good for me.” She could have demanded that a monkey eat the fruit before she tasted it.

However, Adam ate based on short term testing. After all, the woman ate, and she did not die. She still looked “woman,” but within, her genetics were changed. She did die although she was made immortal. If the long-term results were awaited, Adam would have seen the woman die, which she did. The truth was that the fruit that seemed so good to them did make them die; not only them but all their kind thereafter.

The destiny of us all is to die in the flesh, but a few will never die in the spirit. Only God can kill the spirit with any of us, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell” (Mat 10:28).

Satan killed their bodies… after 900 plus years, but only God could destroy their Image of Him within them! Because of grace, the souls of Adam and his woman never died!

The thought now is that we shall never die; that our souls will all go to heaven without regard to the truth that those not in Christ shall indeed parish. We think we have been good and that we deserve to never die. That we are good, or even saved from already, is a fiction of the Devil. Those deceptive tactics are oft repeated and each are a facet of the “Big Lie” when, “The serpent said unto the woman, ‘You shall not surely die’” (Gen 3:4). Literally, the Serpent did not say that; rather than “surely die” it said, “mut, mut, mut” in the Hebrew: “die, die, die.” Repetition made it the truth to her and to Adam because Adam thought Eve’s experience was proof enough that God was wrong in this matter.

Let me stress that all you read, see, and hear be tested for veracity, not only for vaccines and such, but all that you see and hear, even preacher’s (and my) commentary on the Bible. Your life and even eternity depends on knowing the truth.

The worst place for deception is our body of knowledge — the educational system. All the while schools have subtly taught atheism, as it turns out, the greatest minds in science now do not believe the narratives.

You seldom hear the word “deception” any longer, but the use of the word “narrative” is in vogue. It is to repeat some treatise so often that for the naïve it becomes the truth.

Each day, politicians broadcast their narratives of the day in unison. With thousands of commenters blasting their deception sixty-two thousand four-hundred repetitions, for some, do make one truth. Like naïve Eve, you have been beguiled, yet fail to even notice that it was too fantastic to be true!

Jesus was crucified and died. He arose from the grave, doing the impossible. Ezven that fantastic event was dismissed because it could not be true. Pilate, his wife, the repentant thief, and even the centurion saw the truth, but what happened on the Cross was just too far out for them to believe; yet they look at the majesty of the Creation and deny the truth!

You become what you believe. Christians believe the Word. It is repeated 112 times in the Bible, yet many of you still do not believe it!

On the other hand, those like Rachel Maddow, Joy Bahar, and all the other anchors repeat some mantra so many times, for many of you; it becomes the truth.

Biden and Harris speak continually of Trump’s “threat to democracy” and his “insurrection,” half the populace believe Trump is an “existential threat,” and that MAGA’s are indeed a “basket of deplorables,” as Hillary Clinton said.

What should you do lazy voter? Test all things and hang onto what is good — the truth. The truth cannot be discovered unless you question, but of course, just as the Serpent disliked Eve’s questioning, so goes the media and politicians.

 Always, always question the narrative for your life's sake!

 

 

 

 

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[1] “The Shadow on the Wall” about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the Pilate question: Herrin Daily Thoughts: THE SHADOW ON THE WALL (kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com)

SIN IS SELF-SUICIDE

The prophet Ezekiel was certainly not a Calvinist, and neither is God. So many Christians err because God indeed is gracious, but His grace is limited to those who live a righteous life. Ezekiel the prophet has something to tell Calvin: 

²⁴ But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All his righteousness that he has done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die…. ²⁶ When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies in them; for his iniquity that he has done shall he die. (Ezek 18:24,26) 

According to Ezekiel, who was the “mouthpiece” of God, to wit: “The Word of the Lord came unto me again, saying…” (Ezek 18:1); eternal life is dependent on the condition of his or her spiritual condition; which can be measured by sins that he or she has sinned.

First off, we must consider the effect… to die; “mut” in the Hebrew. Mut implies death in any language.

However, Solomon wrote that there is “a time to be born, and a time to die (mut); a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted” (Ecc 3:2).  Solomon implied that human beings were the “plants” (trees) of the Garden and as such, we all should have been of the branch of Adam and live forever.

That brings up the question what is it to live? In the Hebrew it is hayay. To live is to “belong” ostensibly to belong to God (Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon). Man (Adam) was made in the Image of God, so therefore man’s soul belongs to God. Life and death are not about the flesh, but about the soul that belongs to God.

Now consider what Ezekiel wrote about trespassing. Jesus even called sin “trespassing” (Mat 6:15). Your soul belongs to God. Where it goes is His business. Going where He forbids is His “property” going onto alien property — property that is not God’s. Property is more than an estate but the economy of any estate. The economy of Lucifer, the so-called “Serpent” was sinful.

That brings up the question what is sin? It is trespassing against God. On God’s Estate, His will that is to be done is not to trespass against Him. On God’s Estate there is a very different economy with very different statutes. The economy is contentment and peace both of which are dependent on nobody trespassing on the property of God.

Since man belonged to God, then doing wrong to others is trespassing onto the property of God and doing ill things against God is trespassing against the Proprietor of the Estate; hence all the Ten Commandments hang on those two things, to wit: Love God and others (Luke 10:27).

Paul queried the Christians at Corinth, “What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?” (1 Cor 6:19).

It is not your body that belongs to God but the Holy Ghost within you that belongs to Him. The “Holy Ghost” is the same Image of God that was in the body of Adam. The Holy Ghost of God in the Hebrew is “Selem;” it is the “Shadow” or “Phantom” Presence of God within the Christian. Not only did the Jews belong to Christ because of the Holy Ghost in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but because to be a Christian, Christ must be in you, not in Body but in Spirit. The Pauline letters refer to that as “in Christ.” It is having the “Word” of the Old Testament in you.

What is “The Word” of the Old Testament? About the forthcoming commandments that God was about to write with His “finger”, it is written, “God spoke all these Words, saying…” (Exod 20:1).

The “Voice” of the Garden of Eden was the Invisible Image of God — “The Word.” The Word implies a dynamic. Indeed, the commandments are right things to do and wrong things not to do. The Word revealed the metrics of “righteousness” of which He spoke to Ezekiel. “Righteousness” is operationalized by the Ten Commandments and “iniquity” is the opposite of righteousness.

The Ten Commandments were not written for God to judge you but for you to judge yourself; whether you are missing the “mark” or not in the manner of Cain who came short of the glory of God. How would anyone realize how inglorious they are if there were no parameters for measurement? As such, living outside of the Commandments is “unrighteousness” and indeed the unrighteous do come short of the glory of God which was Adam with the perfect Image of God.

God is not ignorant. He knows that your genetic father is the Devil (John 8:44). So, He made allowances for that. Because iniquity is within you as it was in David (Psalm 51:5), God has mercy on His creatures because we are miscreants because of original sin. God knows we all shall fail, so rather than measuring us by our actions, God measures us on our willingness to comply with His statutes.

Paul compared life to the Olympiad of which he seemed to be an admirer., “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. (Heb 12:1). Hence sin does not condemn us, but it does drag the Christian down. In Christ is the entry to the Olympiad of God and the race, life itself. It is running the race with the gravity of the world against us. To win the race, all must enter to obtain the prize. The starting line is rebirth. As Paul wrote, “So run that you may obtain” (1 Cor 19:24).

Sin does not keep us out of the running but bogs the runner down. It is like me running the Olympic challenge carrying an extra seventy-five pounds. I can still run, I can still win, but with that much baggage I might never finish the race to eternal life to obtain the prize. We must limit the unnecessary baggage that burdens us.

Paul also wrote about what Ezekiel heard from God; “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mat 24:12-13). “Iniquity” is the weightiness of sin. It is like an unrighteous person who enters the race all doped up to appear to be an Olympian, but they really are not!

Christians must be right; not just perform! Anybody can perform to the standards — the statutes of God — but if they do so just to be judged, then they perform for the wrong reasons and miss the mark. They may run, but they will never finish the race even thought the reward is in full view.

Churchmen perform well but being in church is not the race. It is performing to Olympiad standards which The Word burned on stone for all to consider. If you want to win the race, is it worth doing and refraining from doing spiritually healthy things? It must be!

Remember that your flesh is just a weight that you carry around that is burdensome. It is only how Satan hinders you from finishing the race. The race is run by glorious creatures remade in the Image of God to be living souls. Among them are unworthy runners whose desire is only to trip the true runners. The Church is full of the unworthy runners.

So, it is not you in bodily form that runs but your soul that is either the image of Lucifer (Nahas) or the Image of God (Selem). The Image of God is in your soul — the vessel for the Spirit of God. Jesus called His a “Cup.”

Nahas is a creeping being that is alien to God. It is not a serpent at all but a cunning being alien to God — an inglorious, unrighteous being that lies low and trips even Christians to do wrong things, as was the case of Adam and his woman.

They were the upright beings who after sin became nothing more than creeping things. Humble yourselves, you were born a “creeping thing” that requires rebirth. But even with rebirth, once a creeping thing; always a creeping thing unless Jesus lifts you up (Jas 4:10).

We are indeed born this way but there is no need to think we must remain this way! Whatever, it is, “God is greater than what’s the matter,” as Pastor William Rhodes so often repeated. What’s the matter, is that we are born this way, there is nothing that we can do to change ourselves, and only Christ can change you.

Once changed; not always changed: speaking to the Christian elders, Paul warned them in his letter, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). The Devil devours our flesh. He doesn’t eat it but knows it as our weakness; the flesh is a burden for even a Christian. The fiery darts of the Wicked One gets to Christians one “nibble” or “penetration” at a time until the once righteous man belongs to himself!

Indeed, “in Christ” is safe as the Greek word “sozo” can also be interpreted, but salvation comes later:

Whom having not seen (Jesus), you love; in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. (1 Pet 1:8-10) 

Paul was saying in essence, that is what Ezekiel was talking about in chapter eighteen! The end of your faith is at the end of your life here on Earth. No longer can you believe or disbelief because the dead in Christ shall know!

Paul wrote what the “prize” might be — “the salvation of your souls.” It is not your flesh that is saved; it remains a burden, but at the general resurrection those who died in Christ obtain new incorruptible flesh… glorious flesh like in the Garden of Eden before sin!

Salvation, therefore, is “glorification” and that occurs for those who endure the flesh and remain upright, as measured by the willingness to perform to the standards of God.

Adam and the woman believed themselves to be safe, even trespassing where they were told not to go. Their flesh did remain alive but it became a burden to them, so they covered their pudenda; albeit that was not enough; God covered them sole to palm with his coats of skin to ward off the fiery darts of the Wicked One. They remained safe because of their sorrow but thenceforth, according to sacred literature, Satan continued to have his way with them. Only when they died were they saved, only awaiting “The Last Adam” Jesus to finish His good works in them.

It seems that Adam was finally glorified again: As Jesus died, “The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. (Mat 27:52-53). In my book, The Skull of Adam, I contended that Adam was the first “saint” since he alone died in Christ because Eve was the new kind that he named. She was Satan’s kind (Gen 3:2), and the mother of all of us who have lived. We are all Cain’s kind and only Christ can change the genetics within us all.

Christians cannot perform and change who they are; but Jesus can regen us to what we were meant to be. Jesus called that action “born again” wherein He engenders us from above.

When God engenders, He will never degenerate those that have been made upright again. However, Satan seems to have the power of temptation to change even Christians back to the wicked ones that they remember.

I asked my son one day, “How would a clever man kill you?” He had not idea, saying, “I have never considered killing.”

My point was the sure way of getting away with murder is gradually making things so awful that even a good man might kill himself. The way to cleverly murder someone and get away with it is to “suicide” them; to make it the easy way out of whatever it is. Indeed, Judas took the easy way, he thought, out of this world. Satan suicided him (Luke 22)!

Satan also suicided Eve. He persuaded her that his lack of the Law (the law of sin) was much easier than following the Law of God, so she trespassed against God and died. It was not her flesh that died, although it slowly withered, but she died within as her soul then belonged to Satan.

It is not to whom your flesh belongs, but to whom your soul belongs. Your flesh is the image of Satan and the Wicked One, but your soul, if you have been converted, belongs to God. However, God still expects you to respect the living soul that belongs to Him safe by keeping the temple (the flesh) clean and free from sin. That is your responsibility to keep the flesh clean while He remains in the soul You have a duty to perform, “to dress and keep” the Garden (Gen 2:15) which was His Temple.

If you fail on your part, the covenant of grace is broken, just as God used “Satans” to destroy the Temple building in 70 A.D to safe the Jews from suiciding themselves. God will never kill our souls, but we can suicide them ourselves by serving the wrong of two masters (Mat 6:24).

My problem as a Christian may be like yours; I try to serve one but serve two masters, and still sin often.  Knowing how hard it is to be something we were not born to be, God is merciful, and he forgets sin, not that He has a short memory of sin, but if we are wiling servants, then He does not hold those sins against us if we repent. Sinning without repentance is knowingly trespassing on God’s territory without remorse. If that happens, then we lose our share of the Estate of God. In fact, the entire Bible is God’s Last Will and Testament with the newer Testament a codicil.

You can indeed fall away (Heb 6:6; apostasia) but it is done so subtly that some never know how far they have fallen; perhaps all the way down! In a sense, continuing in sin is us suiciding our most inner self — our reborn souls.

"Suicide Man" - Pond5

YOU CAN SEE GOD IF YOU ONLY LOOK

Jews, according to scripture require a sign and Greeks, us Gentiles, require wisdom (1 Cor 1:22). They both can reveal God. God found a way to reveal Himself both to miracle seekers and scientists.

Hundreds of "coincidences" perhaps do make one truth just as Huxley said nearly the same thing, "Sixty-four-thousand four-hundred repetitions make one truth." No, it does not. Verbal repetitions make zero truths. In fact, repetition reveals sinister lies that are the "narratives" which we hear each day. On the other hand, repetition of actual events perhaps does make one truth.

Existence is infinite numbers of significant characteristics. In nature, there are perhaps billions of "coincidences." That word is within quotation marks to question whether things that seem coincidental are some higher-level of Intelligence at work.

That we are who we are is credited to adaptation; it is not evolutionary, but strictly environmental conditioning. Perhaps even the color of the skin of people is them adapting to the Sun. Is it merely coincidental that most dark people reside where the Sun is the most direct and of the longest duration? They have probably adapted to their environment. That is not evolutionary!

Today, let's focus on the Sun. Do not look directly at it because it will create a solar eclipse for you. You may even learn something about science, but you will also learn much about the reality of God.

First off, God is the Creator, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen 1:1). If you do not believe that, then there is no God for you. That there is a heaven and an earth defines a "god" and if truly a god, then "IT" requires no assistance. (God is not male nor female but Existence itself. He Was, Is, and always Will Be).

How could anyone know in truth that there is a "God"? (capitalized because there is only one true God). Paul revealed the source of faith that there is a God: "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead... (Rom 1:20). 

For now, focus on the Power. (Don't do that in a real solar eclipse.) 

It takes power to do any type of work. That is scientific. Things cannot come from nothing. To believe that is alchemy. 

Einstein perceived that mass came from energy of which power is its dynamic: m=E/c2. The letter "m" is mass (firm things), E is energy (dynamic non-firm things) divided by the speed of light squared. Note that that equation defines the Godhead. God is Light (1 John 1:15), Jesus is the "mass" from the Light of God to the world (John 8:12), and E is the Power, or Dynamic of God. 

Note that the "trees" of the Garden, taken literally from the Hebrew, means "firm things" and that His Image literally means "phantom things," or even a "Shadow" like the penumbra in the figure below. 

The umbra in that figure would be symbolic of Lucifer in whom there is darkness that is falsely presented as the "Bringer of Light" (Lucifer).

The Godhead is defined in Einstein's equation, but there must be evidence of that, not just because I said so!

We need something that demonstrates both the Godhead and the equation of general relativity, E=mc².

A solar eclipse is a perfect example; the Sun is the Light and its affect on our planet is the Light of the world. Scripture says that in God there is no darkness at all. In the figure below, there is no absolute darkness and for a very profound reason which we shall examine. 

The dark triangle between the Moon and the Earth is its "umbra." It is a cone of darkness that is represented in the figure in 2-D. There is darkness in space, but note that due to the position of the Earth, Moon, and Sun; there is no absolute darkness at all just as Paul wrote, "That God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). 

Jesus Himself said, "I am the light of the world: he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12). 

A solar eclipse verifies those two statements. The only ones who have walked in total darkness were those who walked on the Moon's surface. Indeed, it was totally dark there because the rays of the Sun were blocked. 

The penumbra of the solar eclipse seems dark but it just lesser light. Nobody, even during the darkest days (solar eclipses) walk in total darkness just as Jesus said unless their eyes are closed tightly or that they are blind to the things of the world.

Is it coincidence that God through the mouth of Jesus explained what He had made in the beginning? How would Jesus know that? Speaking of Jesus, John wrote this:

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 1:1-3)

Jesus said that He is "The Light of the World" because of one idea -- He IS God.  He understood the positions of the Sun. Moon, and Stars because it was revealed to John somehow that each were placed precisely in the right relative positions described in the New Testament. That should excite you!

The positions and comings and goings of the bodies of the cosmos is evidence that there is One God and that any sane person should see that by the things that He made.

Why is there no utter darkness at all on Earth as both scripture and science says? Because the ratio of the diameter of the Sun to the diameter of the Moon is right at 400:1, while the ratio of the Sun's distance from Earth to the Moon's is also about 400 :1.

 

"SOLAR ECLIPSE" (Rice University)

Are the positions and sizes of the Sun, Moon, and Earth merely many coincidences or were they planned by some Higher Intelligence? Did they just go there by themselves, or was it because of the "Dynamic" that is the Power of God?

Those positions and sizes, as well as their orbits that make eclipses, validates scripture. The only "scientist" that knew all this stuff was Enoch who the angels of God took through a tour of the heavens to explain what He had made. However, Jesus was not a mere carpenter as it is translated, but the Tekton. He was the Intelligence and Craftsman who made all things.

How did Jesus understand light, darkness, and even eclipses? He set them in their places and made them just the right sizes. 

God's Substance may not be Light. Indeed, the Sun is not God. However, the Creation Process -- the Dynamic of God -- was of the same Divine Design. 

That "God is Light" should be understood that He is the entire Existence because there was nothing before Him; He was "IT." Light does coincide with His Dynamic -- how He does the things that He does.

Many put on their special glasses and stare intently at solar eclipses. They see the darkness of the umbra, and maybe even the dusk of the penumbra. However, those with "bright eyes" should see God because that Dynamic is His handiwork. 

When God created., that was a once ever action. It was a Dynamic process performed, not by itself, but by precise measurements, thus implying a "Measurer." 

We can expect solar eclipses regularly and we know well in advance when to prepare for it because everything has its time; there is "nothing new under the Sun" just as Solomon wrote. He saw the same solar eclipses that we see and when that ends, as revealed to John, it will be the end, except for those who are prepared to meet God.

Paul knew that what you see identifies the unseen God (Rom 1:20). The solar eclipse is one way to see the Dynamic of God who we cannot see. It is in His mathematics that requires Intelligence and in His Dynamics that requires Power. 

God issued a warning for His people to avoid misunderstanding; that the things we see are just things, but behind those things there was God:

And lest you lift up your eyes unto heaven, and when you see the Sun, and the Moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, should you be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God has divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. (Deut 4:9)

People assemble all over the world to witness solar eclipses, and the darker places (the umbra) the better. The see the things and even the light, but few see God during that seldom occurring experience. 

Even as a youth, when I looked at the cosmos, I saw God. Why me? Because God for some reason picked me. However, it can be you. If you have enough sense to see that God did those things and that Jesus was there in Power, then you are well on your way to eternal life.

Solar eclipses are cyclic and predicable and are made possible because the apparent size of the Sun and the Moon are the same from planet Earth. "That is silly," you say, "because any fool knows the Sun is larger than the moon!" That is true, but due to their distances from Earth, the appear to be the same size. A solar eclipse reveals that the apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon are the same. Some Divine Intelligence distanced them in their orbits so when they are both at the same celestial axis from the Earth, they appear to be the same size. 

Enoch saw that from his vantage point in the heavens. He wrote about that scientific fact even before the time of Noah. He wrote the following:

And that which (thus) rises is the great luminary, and is so named according to its appearance, according as the Lord commanded. As he rises, so he sets and decreases not, and rests not, but runs day and night, and his light is sevenfold brighter than that of the moon; but as regards size they are both equal. (The Book of Enoch, Section III, chapter 72:36-37)

"The Great Luminary" is the Sun. Science says that "The apparent size of the Moon is roughly the same size at that of the Sun" (Wikipedia; "Moon") because of their sizes and respective distances from the Earth. Enoch, who was given a tour of the heavens wrote that "as regards to size they are equal." He is speaking of apparent size. He had just described their motions and ellipses, so he knew their sizes from their distances apart. Enoch may have been the first astronomer. He knew his mathematics as well. 

In the second century B.C. Hipparchus of Nicaea calculated the relationships of the Sun and Moon to Earth. Enoch knew about it 3000 or so years before but did not calculate it. Hipparchus got it wrong by over one decimal factor and only years later was it made right. 

Who revealed to Enoch the truth? Angels showed him the Dynamics of God in The Book of Enoch, Section III.  

Paul would have read that book! Even if he did not, "I (Paul) knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows; such an one caught up to the third heaven" (2 Cor 12:2). Paul, if not himself, knew of someone who had been caught up to The Third Heaven in the manner of Enoch. He would have seen the heavenly luminaries first hand and revealed it to Paul. 

The Godhead is one head of three substances. Two are easy: (1) The Son Jesus and (2) The Holy Ghost of Jesus. The Third "Substance" is more difficult; it is "The Word" of God... His Voice, or Speech. It is the Dynamic of God that is neither visible nor invisible, but like quantum, Dynamic in Power. It is who God is before he rests at a stopping point. In the Old Testament, the Creator God was Dynamic, but when stopped, He appeared as a cloud by day or a fire by night. In the New Testament, when God rested, he appeared as a Man -- Jesus. (For more about this refer to my latest book, An Awesome Quantum God.)

How can we know God? He measured the cosmos and unrolled it out:

Have you not known? have you not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in... (Isa 40:21-22)

John, seeing Jesus in a vison, wrote, "He that talked with me had a golden reed to measure..." (Rev 21:15). God measured the Sun and Moon as well and their distances from the Earth. Indeed, Jesus was not a mere carpenter but a highly knowledgeable Technician; even an astro-physicist who knew His Quantum Mechanics!

Note that the Sun and Moon appear to be the same size only at a solar eclipse. That was what Enoch saw and seems to be to what Paul was referring.

ABOUT RELIGION AND POLITICS

 Many people prefer to not discuss religion and politics on social media or even in person. On the other hand, they select entertainment that is both political and religious. What is forgotten, politics and religion both have directions.

Good politics are civil in direction. Civics are how societies exist without strife. Everyone should favor a civil society. That is a political viewpoint. Others prefer chaos. To be honest democracies are meant to be civil self-management but when groups of people assemble, most oft4en chaos ensues. 

The perfect example of a democracy existed during the days of Micah who resided on Mount Ephraim and who made a society to his liking. He became "king" there on that mountain, made idols from the treasury, and appointed a priest. Micah established a "House of Micah," for-Micah to be clever. That is politics at its worst, but Micah was free to create any society he wished because of the lack of a formal political agency:

And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Jud 17:5-6)

A country without a king or any other type of civil government is a pure democracy. Micah did what he wanted to do without any constraints. He established "The House of Micah: and the first thing he did was to create his own gods and established his own priesthood atop that mountain. 

Every man could have done the same thing because there was no political order, so Micah did the natural thing; he became king of the mountain. He had lived in a democracy wherein each man did what was right in his own eyes, and then he did what arrogant men do; he made himself a king.

 A "democracy" is a state wherein the people rule. A "state" is more than an area of land but a principle. Everybody seems to favor the "state" of a democracy, except "isms" such as socialism, but it is the living conditions in which people exist. 

For Micah, he had the mountain, the treasury, and the power, so Mount Ephraim became his state, and he was doing what was right in his own eyes in a very democratic manner.

There the people ruled, and he was that person. He ruled, not his mother who quickly began to take orders from her powerful son, doing everything that he wanted her to do; then he selected a priest who was to administer the new kingdom to ensure the gods that Micah created were obeyed. 

The graven images could not speak, so the people had to have a mediator between them and their gods. The mediator was the priest. He was to be the "mouth" of the silent gods, and Micah would be the invisible "god" whose "puppet" was the priest. 

Micah did that, but so could anyone who had the land, power, money, and stupid followers. Micah depended on the stupidity of the people on Mt. Ephraim who could have assembled against him, but they did not. 

As Jonathan Gruber admitted, Obama's initiative "depended on the stupidity of the American voter," and so did Micah's. Along came the people of the tribe of Dan of Israel to Micah's kingdom. How stupid would the Danites be?

As it turned out, the tribe of Dan became like the House of Micah with their hand engraved images as their gods. As anyone can see, doing what is right in your own eyes is contagious. Democracy is doing what is right in your own eyes... everybody's. 

Everyone thinks of a democracy as a good thing, However, democracy can be good under God, or it can be not so good with false gods. 

Democracies are hard to make work because everyone doing what is right in their own eyes can be chaotic. The only time in scripture that people assembled in one accord was when the Holy Ghost was revealed (Acts 2:1). In most situations, those of one mind had on their minds one thing -- to undermine God. 

In the case of Nimrod who built the tower to reach God, they were of one accord against God; according to the Book of Jasher only Abraham was not in accord with them.

Democracies seldom work because of two things: (1) the parties have different goals or (2) there is dissension among the party's members.

Democracies, to work, must be of one accord. even when they disagree, as Dan showed Micah, there are always two factions. Dan even stole Micah's gods and priest. There are almost always factions within democracies which undermine one another. 

The only "democratic" institution that ever had a chance of working was founded upon Christ, "when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1). All of them were of one mind with one passion, indubitably to see their King Jesus again. He did not come in person but in Spirit and Power. 

Jesus was not a king as we think of them in this age, or even that age. Those assembled were democratic in their selection of the only King to whom they would adhere. There was finally a King in those days who was recognized as such by the people. Not only was Jesus a king like Micah but He also was the royal Priest. Jesus was even the only true Image of God that was made by the hands of God!

Jesus had set up His own kingdom on Earth in the manner of Micah, but unlike Micah it was a democratic-monarchy wherein all the citizens of that kingdom freely chose Jesus as their Sovreign.

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost of Jesus returned to set up a democratic republic on Earth, not on Mount Ephraim but Mount Calvary. Thereon was the throne of God on Earth that was the King's "footstool" (Acts 7:49).

In the Kingdom of God on Earth, there were no laws because those in accord with God and each other required no laws. Indeed, that kingdom is the "Church" -- "a body or organization of religious believers: such as the whole body of Christians" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). 

The Church was meant to be the only virtuous democracy. The body of believers choose to be not only in Church, but the Church for the Church is the body of believers in Christ. Nobody makes a Christian go to Church because they assemble, even a few in the Name, Jesus, for there goes the Church, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Mat 18:20). 

Those who are gathered in the Name of Jesus have no rules to follow. The Ten Commandments cease to be commandments but a list of privileges to demonstrate accordance with God and others. They are no longer rules but only the "Constitution" of the Church and the written covenant in the hearts of men to either do or not to do, as they please. 

God never disassociates the body of believers from His democratic-republic, but they remain as free agents in a democracy where they are free to leave or remain. There are no walls around the true Church to bar entry or egress, People are free to come and go as they please, and even to not to go. 

Churches once made laws to force attendance under the threat of "gaol" (jail). The colonial church was not a Church at all, but a prison of sorts wherein even the non-believers were required to go under the threat of punishment.

The early Church became a dictatorship on the order of Herod the Great. Those who had wealth were the "church" and those who had little were the servants of the leadership. With no king in Judah, the chief priests of the House of Annias became the dictators and assumed the role of kings whose bidding all the body of believers must do.

In a democracy, the majority rules. Unfortunately, the majority is often those with significance. Generally, they have been property owners who have the means to pay taxes and who are forced to share the wealth. For those who trusted the government, they would pay their taxes because it was a fair system in their own eyes. However, those who were not significant were forced to pay taxes for services that only a few could enjoy. Nobody in a pure democracy looked out for the small guy, so slavery was acceptable for it took the insignificant few and made then useful to those who had greater advantages in the government.

Perhaps the reader is by now noticing the type of "democracy" favored by the Democrat Party. They made the indignant people useful by harnessing their powers. 

Plantation systems like the idea of states' rights, but on their estate, it was the rights of the privileged. Uncontrolled democracy put fetters on those considered inferior. On their "mountain" inferior races (to them) were put in a mobile jail of sorts. They could come and go as if they are free, but all the while there were boundaries with invisible high fences never to be crossed. 

A Democrat "democracy" was, and still is, wherein lesser people are controlled. Slaves even felt safe serving on plantations because their masters were the "gods" who took care of them from cradle to the grave. 

Marxism was created, not in Germany or Russia, but on the plantations of Democrats in America. Even Marx toured them and saw the good in that insane ideology and wanted the world to be like plantations. His vision is near completion. 

In my book, A Day on the Democrat Plantation, I reveal how urban cities are the modern-day "plantations" and the Democrats who are assembled there are slaves to Democrats who trade their freedom for care from cradle to the grave. All the work that they now need do is to vote regularly for their Democrat masters because they think they are happy where and how they are!

All the while they think that they are happy in a democracy, the newly created "race" of people (the poor of any color) remain chained to the confines of urban dwelling wherein only a few ever get out. No longer are slaves just black but come in all colors who reveal their inner selves by voting for Democrats even when caged within the high walls of big cities. Democracies of the evil sort always imprison people in contrast to the only virtuous democracy (Christianity) which frees them from their invisible chains. 

Membership in the socialist plantation system comes from voting. Just as blacks were paid to vote for Democrats during the Jim Crow era, they are still given meager gifts to vote for Democrats, and usually payment is made via government checks and welfare cards wherein they cannot even buy what they want to buy.

The Big Lie is that you are better off in a democracy. It is certainly better for them than you, but they depend on your stupidity; all the while thinking you are free but are chained in accord with Democrats, and not even noticing the chains that keep you handy for them during elections.

The United States was not Constituted a democracy. It is a republic. Our Constitution was designed to protect the rights of the few. Representative government was not to protect their own rights but those who govern for the lesser of us. In a sense, they are us when the real votes are counted. They are not to vote for what is better for themselves and what they want to do, but for us, -- we the people which includes even the Clintonian "basket of deplorables."

The problem with democracies is democracies. We the people trust a system that is prone to failure. In whom should we trust? Not the government but only God. 

Democracies represent the most. Whoever gets the most votes hold allegiance to their voters. People naively vote for Democrats all the while thinking that they are doing what is best for them, but that is not a democracy, it is a republic. To whom do the benefits go in a democracy? That should be obvious because even poor politicians obtain wealth while you live on in even more poverty. Inflation steals your money as surely as the thieves grab your wallets. 

Democrats to remain democratic must provide handouts to those who are easily persuaded to vote their way; people who are so poor that anything is more valuable to them than nothing. But in the end, because of inflation, naive voters get nothing all the while, the elite few in government become rich.

Why has your life not improved? Because just like the Democrat Plantations, fear of the outside and that the other side seems alien to you. You have become conditioned like any farm animal that always comes back at the end of the day for just a little more grain!

Politics is in all aspects of life whether you hide your eyes or not. Crafty politicians are out to steal what little is in your wallet even though you cannot feel the hand that lifts it from your pockets. 

Religion has joined the fray! The church is no longer a "Church;" it uses the talents of democratic ideas. It indeed is "WOKE" to how to get rich at the expense of the poor. 

Look at the royal palaces that are built for use on one day in general. do you need that grandeur worship God? The Jews worshipped under tents when they followed God wherever God led them, but now the churches keep people where they are. You are comfortable in church because therein you are expected to do noting while a select few does your worship and teaching for you.

We are not to go to Church. We are the Church going to the world. How can you go to the world while you sit comfortably with others who mostly already believe? 

Christians are comfortable doing nothing! Most of you are happy so long as you get what is in it for you. 

The church seems very democratic, but while you sit there silently, the few who lead the church services often steal the glory of God for themselves. Preachers have stolen valor, they are like the great hunter, Nimrod, whose goal was not really to visit God but to make a name for himself (Gen 11:4).

Just as I was shoved at work because I stood in the doorway of my boss, I have been pushed away by a preacher for just praying for a downcast sinner. I was stealing his glory and was in his way to achieve it. The signal was that he was not my minister but my boss to whom I was not a person but a barrier to be overcome. 

The Church was meant to be democratic and virtuous. Is it now? How many people in your church facility are you in accord? Not very many. Just see who sits with who at church gatherings. 

I have "Church" with those I meet during the week. God directs me to them and often uses the occasion for religion to come up. Indeed, Church is just a religion until those who meet anywhere have accord with God and each other. 

One former member of the mafia that I know became a Christian. He told me that he felt more love from that family than he did from his church family. Many of us feel more love from our neighbors than we do from our church "family," and I use that term loosely.

There are good churches but few great churches. We are expected to speak highly of our church but if you examine it closely, are we all of one accord, and does the Holy Ghost appear regularly as so many endeavor to make a name for themselves? 

For those who think I am criticizing my church, I am, but that is because I am criticizing most churches. We are just one of the many, and to be truthful, wherever I go, I lack as you do. We all diminish the church because none of us are perfect. 

Life is political, even the Church (the Ecclesia). If we do not talk politics or religion, we care little for life nor for God. 

Religion is two-sided just as politics. Because you do not believe in God does not mean you are not religious. Paul spoke to the men of Athens who worshipped an Unkown God (Acts 17:23). He declared to them that the God who they knew not is Jesus, 

The philosophers were making a name for themselves... who was right in their thinking. As such, each had become their own god just as Micah had become the "god" on Mt. Ephraim. 

You are religious! Your idols are not of stones nor woods, but your own fleshes. You are a religious person whose unrecognized god is you, so please do not ask others not to speak of religion when you are the gods and goddesses of your own religion.

iStock; "MegaChurch"