Killing God - Part 22 The Mystery of God

Mystery of God:

                Satan blames God for all the difficult rules; the ones like not lying, stealing, fornicating, and even hating! He wonders, “what’s so wrong with doing that stuff, anyhow?” That’s because he has no qualms about sinning and favors iniquity because unrighteousness is his way of undermining God’s authority. Like any autocrat, Satan uses propaganda for his agenda. Like the left, those who spread the propaganda are “useful idiots”, terminology progressives use for their pawns. (More on progressivism later).

                No one knows the original source of the term, but it is from God! The left blames the right for the term, and the right the left. Indeed, the use of useful idiots is the tool of all ideologies. God referred to them several times, one specifically, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?” ³⁷¹ I prime modern-day example was with the passing of the Affordable Care Act whose architect, Jonathan Gruber, said it passed because of the “stupidity” of the American people.  ³⁷² This example is used to demonstrate that, indeed, useful idiots is still used to deceive people. Like it or not, deception is the main device from the law of sin! Satan is prideful but when lying has no pride. His method is mixing truth and falsehoods – good and bad – to make his laws palatable.

For instance, before the 1960s in the western world, the very thought of abortion was appalling. With a mixture of truth and lies, for the majority of Americans, abortion is acceptable, and for many, appealing. The truth is that women have a right to do what they want with their own body. That’s not from the Law of God, though, because our bodies are borrowed – belonging to God ³⁷³ but only Christians belong to God. Sinners belong to the devil who is their father. ³⁷⁴ The statement in italics is only half true: it’s only the woman’s body if she’s not a Christian. However, many in Christ’s fold believe that lie!  Even with that, the woman is foolish – the devil’s useful idiot. Any intelligent person with any wisdom at all can see, unless deception has dimmed their vision, that the unborn baby is not their own body. In fact, that innocent baby who has never sinned, belongs to God!

Thus, goes the deception. Even Christians accept the lies. Satan cannot destroy the antichurch because that’s already his. To diminish God, the devil must destroy the Church, one bit at a time. The Church has withered throughout the ages, and God redeemed it time and time again. In this modern age, God may allow the Church to wither but it will never die!

Deception, then, is the method of killing God, and it is used to keep people from God and also to turn them away. Satan even uses God’s doctrine to fool even the elect. ³⁷⁵ The Hebrew people are the chosen few. It was God’s will that they follow Him, but in His wisdom, God knew they would fail! Even though God has foreknowledge, as Peter explained, God knew in the beginning who would accept his grace and who would not! ³⁷⁶ It’s not that God “elected” without conditions but the onus was put on the elected to accept the gift. Those elected would be safe of their own volition. They were to exercise their free will. The reformed churches election is deterministic – God does the choosing and mankind has no part in his election. That’s disconcerting and can cause deceived people to not “work out their salvation”! ³⁷⁷ That seems to be in deference to the fifth commandment; taking God’s death flippantly.

The obvious thing is that the Hebrews were chosen by God to be His people. ³⁷⁸ That is the Abrahamic Covenant but it had its condition: they were to be His people. Circumcision was to seal the deal; they promised to be His people. Knowing they would not, the mystery of God, is that unknown to the casual Jew was that all men were chosen by God to be the elect, ³⁷⁹ although the patriarchs knew that all along!  Why the big secret? ³⁸⁰

We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

That raises the question, since God’s mystery was from the beginning, how could he be crucified before he was crucifiable? The Lord would be crucified by killing the Church, which was not created with Jesus’s birth, by the way, but was from the beginning. Communion with God is having Church with Him, being either acceptance or condemnation. The former resulting in praise and the latter conviction.

The skeptical Christian may be wondering, “how is it that sin can ‘kill’ God?” Paul answered that question years ago: ³⁸¹  

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.

                Obviously, “falling away” is losing faith. The evidence of falling away is not being willing to sacrifice oneself – putting the pleasure of sin before the will of God. Of course, one sin is not damning, but living in iniquity is. God knows the boundary because he knows every individual’s heart and whether it is circumcised. This living in sin without conviction and repentance is “falling away”. Christians who turn their back on God crucify God a second time. It is not a physical crucifixion but a mental one. Christ is put back up on a mental cross and dies again – a mental death. Of course, it’s not God that is killed, but the efficacy of His sacrifice. The rebirth is aborted because the babe in Christ had a sort of crib death.

                Working out one’s own salvation is akin to the gestational period in mankind. The child is born in safety but everyone, it seems, is how to get him! Even the mother may see the unborn baby as a matter of inconvenience. At some point in time for various reasons the unborn child may be miscarried. God wants that “none should perish” but that is a spiritual death. For His purposes, whatever they are, some do die! On the other hand, the abortion industry does sort of an election. They decide who should die, and there are accomplices, like Eve, who fall for the deception.  Thus, evil disrupts life.

                The same goes for the second birth. One does not enter the womb again but gestates as they consider God’s calling. Yes, God calls, and that is the spiritual conception much like the physical. Some gestate all their lives while others gestate for only a short period. This “gestation” concluding in the second birth is considering oneself and God. Working out one’s own salvation is coming to realize that as a weak god, one has no power to save himself but God can! Once that Light is seen, then the gestational period results in spiritual birth. ³⁸²  

                Satan can disrupt the spiritual gestation by deception. One tactic is the idea, “you are not elected; you are too bad to deserve that!” With the thought of not being one of the elect, the gestation is complete and there is a still birth. If, indeed, one is born-again, those who propagate election propagates the notion, are you really? Those who are certain of their “salvation” by doctrine, question it in practice’ having cognitive dissonance. Confusion is of Satan. Sobriety and vigilance are of God. ³⁸³ The message here is that Calvinistic election is bad doctrine and can lead to destruction. However, that is not to imply that Calvinists are evil but have been caught up in the doctrines of the world.

                On a positive note, Calvinists do recognize that salvation is by faith, and it is an undeserved gift. That is God’s grace, having merciful on foolish mankind.  The problem is that only a few are chosen to receive such a magnificent gift! With the doctrine of sola gratia, Calvinists believe that there were two covenants: one of works and another of grace. That is at odds with the mystery of God. Paul referred to this as “the mystery of Christ” because he understood so clearly that there is no difference. God of apostolic times is the same God of the patriarchs. That mystery is that God is always Jesus, and Jesus is always God! ³⁸⁴ This salvation was always by gestating on the propitiation of God’s own blood, of which the blood of innocent animals was a simile. Hence, salvation was always by grace, and it was always for everyone; not just the Jews or the only the a few but for all mankind! ³⁸⁵

Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Election of a few is prideful. Everyone, Jew and Gentile, is elected but few are chosen. In order to be chosen, ³⁸⁶ and the prerequisite is being born-again, according to John 3:7.  Experiencing the second birth is considering God to be God and accepting Jesus as Savior. Sola gratia is still true because it was God who propitiated His blood and not us!  On the other hand, the gifted must accept the gift of the Giver. That is men, working out their own salvation. That is the work of sacrificing oneself for God because God sacrificed Himself for mankind!

The idea that exercising one’s will for God is not efficacious because it is a “work”, is damning. One must exercise that will. God chooses everyone, but acceptance of the call is mankind’s decision. God does not force people to love Him!

Bad doctrine kills God. One person known to the writer was deceived by five-point Calvinism. Since he was already “elected”, as were all others, he saw no reason to attend church nor lead others to God. He died to the Church and Satan smiled. The Church dies as the Christian isolates himself in bad doctrine. Ironically, Paul said that even the elect will be deceived, not even realizing that election itself is deceptive! ³⁸⁷ Happily, deception does not need to damn! Eve’s deception was covered by God, as well as Adam’s sin. I have been deceived and am not immune to the cancer which kills! My doctrine is correct according to my discernment so far. To imply my understanding as perfect is a sin itself. Others differ from me who are righteous Christians. That allowance is God’s grace!

Satan does not want people to know that salvation was always by grace, was always by faith in God who propitiated His own blood, and that it was for all – the “whosever” in John 3:16. Jews are chosen people but Christians are the peculiar people! ³⁸⁸ Part of the mystery is that the pagans of ancient days when they had faith, were peculiar people, as Christians are today.

The Law was never the Way to salvation. It was always by faith! Abraham demonstrated that magnitude of faith by setting an example. ³⁸⁹ Insisting that because of grace alone, that the Law is of no use, is killing God. The Law is how righteous people demonstrate their love for God. Some doctrines take that notion frivolously – that God’s death gave mankind freedom to sin. What it really did, if it was efficacious, took away the desire to sin. If people find that their lives are dominated by sin, then whether their born-again experience was quick or still! The devil desires that mankind be fooled: are they really spiritually alive? Even many who are dead to God, believe they are alive in Christ. Spiritual still-birth damns many people, as Satan smiles. Those reborn are changed. If the change is not there, it’s possible that they died during gestation. That’s another tactic by which Satan “kills” God!

³⁷¹ Holy Bible; 1 Cor 1:27

³⁷² Washington Times; “Obamacare architect: We passed law due to ‘stupidity of the American voter’”; Cheryl K. Chumley; November 10, 2014.

³⁷³ Holy Bible; Psalm 100:3; Rom 14:8; Isa 43:1

³⁷⁴ ibid; John 8:44

³⁷⁵ ibid; Mat 24:24

³⁷⁶ ibid; 1 Pet 1:1-3

³⁷⁷ ibid; Phil 2:12

³⁷⁸ ibid; Deut 14:2

³⁷⁹ ibid; Ephes 3:8-10

³⁸⁰ ibid; 1 Cor 2:7-8

³⁸¹ ibid; Heb 6:6

³⁸² ibid; John 3

³⁸³ ibid; 1 Pet 5:8

³⁸⁴ ibid; Ephes 3:3-5

³⁸⁵ ibid; Col 1:26-28

³⁸⁶ ibid; Mat 22:14

³⁸⁷ ibid; Mat 24:24

³⁸⁸ ibid; 1 Pet 2:9 

³⁸⁹ ibid; Rom 4:16

Killing God - Part 21 The Death of God

The Death of God:

God was born to die. Albeit God was, is, and always will be, ³⁵³ his birth was showing himself. God could never before, after the first sin, be seen or the observer would die. ³⁵⁴ Adam and Eve apparently could see unto the heavens because of their bright nature. Sin dimmed that nature, and blinded mankind to God. Communion with God was cut off, and only when God appeared in other ways could mankind see Him: a cloud, a fire, a burning bush, the angel of God, and even as a man. His birth was the time he appeared in the flesh as both God and man; not one or the other but both!

It is imperative for the Christian to know and understand doctrine. Creeds are summaries of the Doctrine of Jesus and are for one reason – to clarify the meaning of Holy Scripture, not superseding the Word but explaining it as Philip did to the eunuch. ³⁵⁵ Below is the most important biblical doctrine concerning Christ: ³⁵⁶

·         We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

·         And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;

·         by whom all things were made;

·         who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man;

·         he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;

·         from thence he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead. ;

·         whose kingdom shall have no end.

·         And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.

·         In one holy catholic (universal) and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

God incarnate – in the flesh – therein written, was “begotten”, not created. Just as the Creator Father thought it (Divine Mind), the Word (Son) spoke it, and the Power (Holy Spirit) begot it; Emmanuel came into Existence by the same manner. Carnal knowledge was for the world. God is not of this world, hence, the Word who existed in the beginning, ³⁵⁷ was simply brought forth from the dust (the elements of which Mary consisted). Jesus was not another “person”, but the only person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus is the substance of God which His Power brought forth. The reader must not be confused; God appeared in the flesh by Mary; thus Jesus Is God, and since the Creator begot him, Jesus is also the Son of God. Because Mary was the basin for God’s appearance, Jesus is also Son of Man.

People attempt to kill God by denying who He is. If one examines any of these points, essentially God’s Existence is denied. The most obvious way is to deny that God, indeed, is the Maker of the heaven and the earth, both the spiritual and physical. Evolution theory is the pollution which is blasphemous because it places the reasoning of scientists above the truths of scripture.

Another obvious point cannot be denied – there is one baptism, and that is for the remission of sins. Heresy is making baptism – a work – a sacrament, being effectual for salvation.

“Substance” is the English transliteration of homeostasis. God was not “substance” until Jesus was born to be technical. God became Substance with the birth of Jesus. Why would he want to have flesh? To feel what we feel, fear what we fear, be tempted as we are tempted, to overcome temptation, to remain innocent, and to die unjustly in our place. I use the second person here to be inclusive and personal. God is a personal God who knows all his creatures do and think! ³⁵⁸ God is omniscient, and Jesus Is God.

The “flesh” is more than mankind’s skin. It is the flesh, bones, soul, emotions, traits, genetics, desires, and personalities of man. Whereas mankind is born with an empty soul, God came flesh as a living soul – one which was born “good”. ³⁵⁹ Jesus explained that those who saw him as “good” intuitively recognized him as God who, indeed, he is! (present tense is used because God is not dead!)

God was begotten in the image of men for as was written, “in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren”. ³⁶⁰ Albeit, God begot Himself like us but in the beginning mankind was created in God’s image. ³⁶¹ As the Nicene Creed explains, God is one but has three images; so much more precise than “substances” because our One God appears in three images – the Holy Trinity.

Unlike God whose soul was good, mankind’s was empty and soon to be filled with iniquity. ³⁶² Then, unlike the others who were natural men, Jesus’s soul was filled with the Holy Spirit at his baptism because his was not a baptism for the remission of sins! ³⁶³ God had a nature but was supernatural since he was still omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, respectively.

God incarnate had Spirit but since God had yet to die, God had never been the Holy Ghost. The difference between Spirit and Ghost is experience. Since, God had yet to die, he was Spirit. Once he died, his Spirit experienced death with Him on the cross, and essentially because of that experience, became the Ghost of the Man/God Jesus! ³⁶⁴ Only Jesus’s beloved friend John knew him well enough to understand Jesus in the flesh and in the Spirit. It’s imperative to understand what John knew about his friend. God is not three persons but appears with three identities and appears differently to suit His purposes!  To speak with Moses, he used a fire. To convince the Jews, God’s Ghost appeared as a fire. To empathize with mankind, God used flesh. To create, God used his Mind, Word, and Power. He thought it, He spoke it, and then made it all happen! God manifests Himself to suit his will. That ability is God’s “nature” but is supra-natural! He is the God evil men seek to kill.

Because God Is Who He Is, he cannot be killed. There is nor magical kryptonite so Satan had to use other methods. God could never die forever, so Satan’s method is that He should die to mankind. By that, it is meant, that God be silent with mankind, and communion cut-off. That’s easily done with unpardoned sinners because God is not with them from the start. Satan can only attempt to kill God by destroying Christians. In order to do that, he cuts at the hedge of safety around men’s souls until it’s clipped clear to the ground. Doubt is the seed planted to stunt the hedge’s growth. (I apply the lessons learned from Job as the way the safety of the new birth is maintained. He was faithful to the end, and in the end, God saved him. Faith is by definition, not temporal, but enduring. The born-again person must have “steadfast faith” ³⁶⁵ ).

God was born for the purpose of dying; not to save himself because he cannot not die, but to save all mankind. God – called Jesus – was truly born to die. It turns out that since God cannot be killed, it is His flesh which must be destroyed. Hence, Jesus, the Way to heaven, is constantly under attack after his birth, during his life, and finally when he died. Satan wasn’t’ able to kill God. God presented Himself as a sacrifice for all the sins of all men of all ages! That is the mystery of God!

³⁵³ Holy Bible; Rev 1:8

³⁵⁴ ibid; Exod 33:20

³⁵⁵ ibid; Acts 8:31

³⁵⁶ Nicene Creed; 1^st Council of Constantinople; 381 AD.

³⁵⁷ Holy Bible; John 1:1-2

³⁵⁸ ibid; 1 John 3:20

³⁵⁹ ibid; Mat 19:17

³⁶⁰ ibid; Heb 2:17

³⁶¹ ibid; Gen 3:26-27

³⁶² ibid; Psalm 51:4

³⁶³ ibid; John 1:33

³⁶⁴ ibid; John 7:39

³⁶⁵ ibid; Col 2:5

Killing God - Part 20 The Church Cont.

The Roman Empire

Christians do not like the idea that God uses evil people for his purposes just as Satan uses Christians for His. God allowed Assyria, Babylon, and the Media-Persian Empire to exist for His purpose – to thresh the Hebrew people. Mesopotamia was God’s threshing floor, and the first two threshed the Hebrew people while the latter saved the “good grain”. Persia preserved the Hebrew people because they seemed bent on destroying themselves, and thus the “Church”. With God’s chosen people destroyed, God would seem to suffer defeat. The following passage explains the intense jealousy the world has for the Jewish people: ³⁴⁶  

For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 

                Jews are God’s people, and thus are the Church; not that they are yet righteous but God has a special place in His Plan for them. God was to use Jewish blood to save mankind, and it appears that those of Jewish blood would kill God! Ironically, Satan would use God’s chosen, not to pull the trigger, but to foment dissent. The threshing floor is where God is to judge mankind but on that threshing floor, mankind judged God! The Hebrew people are Adamic in nature; of God but unfaithful.

                After remaining silent, God made another attempt to save mankind from himself. Weakling human gods and goddesses are powerless; never being able to save themselves from themselves.

                Gaius Julius Caesar arose triumphant from the triumvirate of Rome, disestablishing the Roman Republic to create the Roman Empire. Caesar was another one of God’s “useful fools” just as Titus and Pilate would soon be. As a result of the Caesar’s the Roman Empire itself became a useful tool. After Caesar served his purpose in creating an empire, his friends turned on him. Caesar was assassinated by the senators: Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus and Decimus Junius Brutus. ³⁴⁷ When Caesar was stabbed in the back, Shakespeare recounted, et tu Brute! (Even you Brutus) in his play Julius Caesar.

                Caesar was a self-proclaimed god. This inscription, dated 49 B.C., says it all: “Descendant of Ares and Aphrodite - The God who has become manifest (θεὸν ἐπιφανῆ) - And universal savior (σωτῆρα) of human life. ³⁴⁸ The Romans had no problem killing gods, and God was no exception!  Caesar’s friend killed him – et tu Brute. When Eve killed God (in her own life), and Adam followed, God could just as easily had exclaimed, et tu Adamas, because his best friend had just collaborated against him! When God was killed that could have been, et tu Yisrael!

It seems that those who most attack God are those who should be close to Him.The threshing floor – the Church – is where God fends off false teaching and teachers, as well as false friends!

Titus was doing another Caesar’s will, and Caesars became those other gods besides God. As Kaisars, Tzars, Czars they still are, German, Russian and English for “Caesar” which came to mean “Emperor”.  ³⁴⁹ Thus, autocrats everywhere have established a new god besides God. Rather being subjects of God, they are subjects of the autocrat. They would rather be judged by a Caesar than the King!

Jerusalem, the temple, and even Calvary were desecrated by the Roman Caesars’s, having themselves as God besides God. Hadrian had a stature of himself erected on Calvary and built a Temple to Jupiter in the Holy City. ³⁵⁰  

Thus, the Roman Empire became Eden, and the Land of Milk and Honey was eastward therein. The Garden, was continuing to evolve into the mere foundation of the Kingdom of God which it had once been. Each empire laid waste to Jerusalem, built their own institutions therein, and finally, the very “foundation of peace” became the lost to destruction. Archeologists dig through rubble to this day finding waste from all those empires until finally, under it all, is just a foundation of what the city had once been!

The Romans came into existence to kill God. Ironically, after they finished the awful deed, it was the Romans who revived Him!

³⁴⁶ Holy Bible; Deut 7:6

³⁴⁷ Suetonius (121); "De vita Caesarum"; University of Chicago; p. 107. 

³⁴⁸ https://ehrmanblog.org/the-god-julius-caesar/

³⁴⁹ https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/caesar

³⁵⁰ http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-jerusalem-temple-mount-threshing-floor.htm

Killing God - Part 19 The Church Cont.

Righteous men ceased receiving inspired Words ending with the Book of Malachi and not to resume until John the Baptist. It’s nearly of the same time and duration as the second temple period – 530 BC to 70 BC.  The time between 420 BC and the birth of John ca 4 BC is called the Four Hundred Years of silence because God had nothing new to say to mankind that had not been said. ³²⁵ Much of that time was taken to rebuild the Church just in time for a destroyer to arrive. Satan’s timing is impeccable but God’s is perfect! God knew the strategy Satan would take but allowed it to come regardless. It seemed, I’m sure, that God was dead! He was about to come as the living God in the flesh but not before the stage was set.

Things were happening during those years. During the latter part the Greeks had won control of Judah. Alexander the Great had conquered the area from Europe to Pakistan, and from Africa northward. This young man founded a great civilization, and Koine - Common Greek became the language. Most people in Africa and “Asia” (Asia Minor) spoke their own language and Greek. Seventy-two scholars from Judah, six from each tribe translated the Hebrew Bible into Koine Greek to the satisfaction of Ptolemy II of Egypt who ruled at that time. By coincidence, or God’s Plan, it took seventy-two days to translate, and it is said that all the translators doing their translation in separate rooms, coming up with compatible transliterations. ³²⁶ The translation from Greek to Hebrew is called the Septuagint – “the translation of the seventy”. Paul quoted this version often. ³²⁷

On the other hand, the Authorized King James Version (KJV) of 1611 translated from the original Hebrew ³²⁸ while the Latin Vulgate corrected the Old Latin Bible from the Greek Septuagint. ³²⁹ However, the KJV translators did check to the Septuagint. God was busy inspiring men to understand the Word as well as spread His doctrine. Then there was war!

The translation from Hebrew to the Greek brought the Holy Scripture to the masses. Suddenly, God’s silence became heard in writing. Nothing new was written but the ability for pagans to read about God in their own language revived the Hebrew Bible – the Torah - which had all but died out until Ezra found and read it every day until the Hebrews knew it well. ³³⁰ God refused to die! He may not have spoken often but with His silence, the Church was beginning to grow. God cannot die yet! The time had not come.

Judea, soon to be the name of Judah (Israel became Samaria), alternately was controlled by the Ptolemys and the Seleucids; both lines of generals rewarded at his death by Alexander. While the Word was in translation, the nation was seeking its freedom. The Maccabee brothers, one after the other, fought battles for independence from the Ptolemaic Egyptians and the and the Babylonian Seleucids, both Greek-ruled. Thus, Judea became Hellenized, coming from the Greek Hellas – the name for Greece. ³³¹

Hence, Judea’s culture became Greek, and their official language was Greek. The native language, however, was Aramaic the Semitic language of the Levant and Mesopotamia. ³³² Aramaic was Jesus’s native tongue, and what he spoke on the cross – “Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?” – “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?” ³³³ God would have given up if He had forsaken Himself! That would have been the true death of God. However, God is still very much alive!

Thus, there was a revolution. The Maccabees – the Hasmonian Dynasty – seem to have won it. All of the brothers were great zealots and warriors. Hanukkah is in honor of their war of independence when the second temple in Jerusalem was rededicated during the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucids. It’s still celebrated to this day! ³³⁴ The Hebrew people were alive and well, as was the nation. The second temple was rededicated and the Church was alive. God had thrashed the philosophical Greeks but their influence remained alive.  Even the Romans, soon to come, were greatly influence by Greece, even to the extent of having the same Greek gods with Latin names. The Maccabean Revolt brought live to the nation and to the religion of the Hebrew people. The One True God had survived again!

War in primitive times was more than between conflicting leaders. It was a show of which God was greater. Throughout Jewish history, as long as God was revered, Jehovah was always the victor. When the Hebrew people sinned greatly, God allowed them to suffer defeat. The most notable example was when the Israelites fought the Amalekites, Moses held his arms outstretched, and the battle favored the Israelites. If his arms were let down, the battle favored the Amalekites. When Moses tired, Aaron and Hur held up Moses’s arms, obviously lifting the Word up on the cross. ³³⁵ Moses honored God by recognizing Him as Savior, and God had grace on the Israelites. This example was the power of the Living God! As long as the Israelites raised God up, he was alive and not even silent!

The Church is a covenant of a mutual relationship. Whatever the deal is called, it is that God will keep His people alive if they keep him alive! God loves everybody and has the expectation that mankind is to love Him back! That love is shown by obedience to God.  Imagine how honored God felt when Moses held outstretched arms to Him. Recognizing the cross, Moses didn’t take God’s “Name” in vain as he did not take God’s death frivolously!

That idea is worth evaluating. The adage, sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never break me, ³³⁶ rings true. The Fifth Commandment is “Thou shalt not take the Lord’s Name in vain” ³³⁷ Vanity is without usefulness. God has no name. How can this command be broken? Because God with us is called Jesus.  Taking Jesus in vain, is regarding his purpose with flippancy. Thus, taking the Lord’s Name in vain seems to be taking God’s propitiation for the sins of mankind without seriousness. That is blasphemy and is the unpardonable sin. The rest of the command is the punishment: “the Lord will not hold him guiltless”, not ironically, the outcome of blasphemy. It seems so simple when the following passage is read: ³³⁸

And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.

Taking the Lord’s Name in vain is certainly speaking a word against His Son – God’s very Name! It appears that the Fifth Commandment cautions against denying God’s death! That is imperative for salvation because without the shedding of blood there is no redemption. ³³⁹ God must die! God knows that and planned His own death. The Adamic Covenant is the promise that God would someday die for the sins of mankind! ³⁴⁰ To set the stage for that event, now comes Titus!

The future Roman Emperor, the General Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus – called Titus - sacked Jerusalem in 70 CE while his father Vespasian was emperor. With that, the war for independence waged by the Hasmoneans was lost. Only a few zealots remained in the mountains, never quite ceasing the revolution. The Judeans anticipated a savior to defeat the Romans and regain their freedom; someone from the mold of the Maccabees. Not only did Judea succumb; but on Aug 30, 70 CE, God’s Home – the second temple – was destroyed. ³⁴¹ Shortly thereafter a Judean-free government was formed. God’s law was replaced by Caesars. Surely, the destruction of God was soon to come.

God built the Roman Empire. It came about for two purposes: (1) to kill God and (2) to spread the gospel. Like it or not, God’s purpose for Rome was pre-ordained. Not only was it a pagan empire but with Constantine, became a holy Roman empire.  From Titus’s first attack until the present day, Rome has been engaged in killing God. The less obvious is the withering Church but more blatantly were Nero’s persecution of Christians, the spread of Islam, the abuses of the Holy Roman Empire, the European Enlightenment, and more recently the Napoleonic Empire, Marxism, the Third Reich, and Italy’s fascist dictator. Often neglected is the killing of God by the Bolshevik Revolution in the U.S.S.R.

Judea became a Roman province ruled by Caesar through a governor or pro-counsel. The Hebrew people were allowed to keep their religious laws, and ironically, they were as severe as Roman law, requiring all the 633 commandments of Mosaic Law to be kept faithfully. ³⁴²  Below are some of the more coercive ones:

·         Anyone who touches or eats the carcass of an unclean animal becomes ritually unclean.

·         Any article that has come in contact with a ritually unclean object becomes ritually unclean.

·         Women after childbirth are ritually unclean.

·         A human corpse and anyone who comes near it is ritually unclean.

·         Examine the meat of animals to make sure it is permitted for consumption.

·         Remove all leaven from all your property by the fifteenth of Abib.

·         Dwell in booths (succahs-temporary dwellings) during The Feast of Tabernacles.

·         Listen to and obey Yahweh's anointed priests.

·         Blot out the remembrance of godworshipers (those who worship false gods).

·         Loans to brothers must be without interest. Loans to the foreigner may be with interest.

·         Those who sin must be corrected.

·         Should a man die childless, his brother must either marry the widow.

·         A woman suspected of adultery must submit to the required test.

·         A thief must make full restitution or else be sold for his theft.

·         Do not listen to one who teaches in the name of any false god.

·         Women must not wear a man's Holy Garments. Men must not wear a woman's Holy Garments.

·         Do not tattoo yourself.

·         Do not shave the sides of your head in honor of the dead. Do not shave the sides of your beard in honor of the dead.

·         Do not make allies with godworshiping nations.

·         Do not allow the body of one hanged to remain so overnight.

The reader gets the idea! The Church had to watch every move. There were 633 of these. Many could be broken with the slightest negligence or thoughtlessness. All these commands had scripture to support the commands. All of these are God’s will for specific reasons. Some are to honor God, some to grow and preserve the nation, and others to be fair to fellow men and even slaves and enemies. They are not bad commands! What then is the problem with staying so aware of commands? They do include loving Yahweh, loving the neighbor, and even the enemy, and strangers. However, there are so many others that these exceptional commandments were not forthcoming because obedience became a drudge rather than a desire.

        Man was willing to obey all these laws but there were so many that it was an impossibility. They became slaves to the law because regardless of how hard they tried, it seemed that they often broke them. Thus, rather than of a loving nature, the Jews became enslaved with obedience. The death of God was to set them free! ³⁴³ God didn’t have to die because of the Jews or Romans. All mankind killed God: some by having other gods and others by being a god. By professing to be obedient to the Law, implied those people implied they were perfect but only God is perfect and good. ^{344 345} Ironically, men became their own gods in God’s stead! It was doing works to earn the reward.

Grace is God granting redemption to even the underserving, albeit no one deserves redemption. All 633 are “good” things to do because they are God’s will. On the other hand, doing them out of fear is not the right reason. What is? Obeying God’s commandments willingly without fretting about the sin. Christians are never to fret over conviction, and only need to repent.

This was the condition of the Church during God’s silence. He was dismayed with the works of mankind. God did expect something in return. Every covenant ever made with mankind had one expectation – love Me. How is it that people should demonstrate the love which they claim? Willingly obeying God.  The willingness to disobey discourages God more than the disobedience. He knows that feeble mankind will fail because as Designer of the flesh, he knows its weaknesses. He experienced the flesh after remaining silent for so many years.

³²⁶ Letter if Aristeas Chapter 9

³²⁷ Wikipedia; “Septuagint”.

³²⁸ Wikipedia; “Authorized King James Version”.

³²⁹ Wikipedia; “Latin Vulgate”.

³³⁰ Holy Bible, Ezra 7-10; Neh 8.

³³¹ Wikipedia; “Hellenistic”

³³² Wikipedia; “Aramaic”.

³³³ Holy Bible; Mat 27:46; Mark 15:34.

³³⁴ Wikipedia; “Hanukkah”.

³³⁵ Holy Bible; Exod 17

³³⁶ The Christian Recorder; March 1862

³³⁷ Holy Bible; Exod 20:7

³³⁸ ibid; Luke 12:10

³³⁹ ibid; Heb 9:22

³⁴⁰ ibid; Gen 3:15

³⁴¹ Matthew Bunson; A Dictionary of the Roman Empire; p.212.

³⁴² https://www.gospeloutreach.net/613laws.html

³⁴³ Holy Bible; John 8:32

³⁴⁴ ibid; 2 Sam 22:31

³⁴⁵ ibid; Mat 19:17

Killing God - Part 18 The Church Cont.

After entering the Promised Land, the Hebrew people had entered the Gate by crossing the Jordan River. ³¹⁹ Giants there guarded the Gate – Nephilim by name. (Maybe the sacred texts are right about the sons of God marrying the daughters of men were right in creating giants. Perhaps their genes survived the flood through the bloodline of Noah or his daughters-in-law). Those giants guarding “Paradise” brings to mind the cherubim who guard the Gate to the original Paradise. However, after they entered the church entered a new phase. Again, as the traveling church of America, these few remaining righteous people found a home – like Kentucky in the late eighteenth century. The Hebrew people came home; back from whence Adam was cast out!

Within a few hundred years Satan attempted to kill the Jews and with it the Church. In Judaism the two are one and cannot be separated! They are the people of the Holy Land and God is their government. That is the Abrahamic Covenant! Satan beaconed the Philistines, those who are called Palestinians in modern times. They were persistent against the Hebrews. David became king because of a giant called Goliath. God ordained David with His Almighty Spirit, David picked up five smooth stones, and killed him with the first. God kept the nation, and the Church, alive by sacrificing Goliath to Satan, so to speak. ³²⁰

Why five smooth stones, and not one? David, refusing King Saul’s armor, put on the whole armor of God! His sword was the Word of God, and his armor were God’s other four provisions. ³²¹  God’s shield and sword kept the Church alive against the adversary. God was in charge, and Satan frowned! He would have to kill the Church one person at a time. Satan chose the kings of Israel and Judah to kill the Church. The “Kingdom of David” was torn asunder. Satan used division as a tactic in spiritual warfare. (We shall soon see how the devil always divides to conquer to this day.)

Brothers, Israel and Judah were on the path to destruction. By killing off those two nations, Satan could kill the Church. There were righteous kings and evil ones, reigning alternately in cycles. They reigned over the withering nations, and thus, the withering Church. When they could not kill off each other from within, Satan summoned his demons. First came Assyria who soon killed off Israel. Half the Church died as King Sargon II, after a three-year siege by his predecessors, took Israel. The inhabitants were carried off and assimilated into the world, and were lost, perhaps forever. They are the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and then there were two. Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V were Satan’s emissaries and Sargon their helper! ³²²  

To administer the coup de gras, albeit without grace, Satan created a new power – Babylonia. Soon after they defeated Assyria, they came for Judah. The remaining two tribes were in jeopardy. God never forsook either Israel nor Judah. The deal was for them to be God’s people. The Jews, ironically, killed themselves due to their unrighteousness. Trust in the Lord is a condition for safety. The people lost their trust by having other gods in God’s face. Because they offended God, Satan saw his chance. King Nebuchadnezzar was his instrument about one-hundred years after the first half of the Church was put asunder. That king defeated the remaining Hebrews, tool the very “foundation of peace” – Jerusalem – and tore down Solomon’s Temple. They threshed the threshing floor, and polluted the beautiful Garden in the land of milk and honey. They carried off most of the remaining Jews to Babylon where the Church seemed to breath its last breath. ³²³

Seventy years later God sent King Cyrus the Great and Darius who followed of the Persian-Median Empire, to defeat the Babylonians. They were more tolerant. God uses crooked sticks for his purposes. A few Jews came home and re-established the Church. Solomon’s Temple was rebuilt. ³²⁴ By grace, God saved the Jews and rebuilt the Church, even using a foreign nation to supply the materials! The Church restarted anew with the second temple. The Church lived on for 400 more years, but during much of that time, the Holy Spirit was silent! The Church, even the building, was there, but God seemed to have abandoned His people. Not to leave or forsake them, God just remained silent. The time had not yet come!

³¹⁹ Holy Bible; Josh 3

³²⁰ ibid; 1 Sam 17

³²¹ http://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2016/08/five-smooth-stones.html

³²² Wikipedia; “Assyrian captivity”.

³²³ Wikipedia; “Babylonian captivity”.

³²⁴ Holy Bible; Ezra 1-4

Killing God - Part 17 The Church Cont.

            In various other ancient times the Church has been under attack. Neglecting all the battles that the Hebrew people lost because of their own iniquity, mostly the losses were spiritual in nature. The well-known examples dealt with pleasure. After the Abrahamic Covenant, the newly revived Church was weak. Because of it’s wealth, it split off into two branches, or what is now called denominations.        

               Abraham stayed safely away in the country while his brother, Lot, went to the cities with his line.  There were twin cities below and outside the Promised Land – Sodom and Gomorrah. ³⁰⁵ Similar to Seth and his people, Lot looked at the cities and desired what they had. In a short time to angels in the appearance of men arrived at the gate of Sodom to visit Lot. Why did they visit? Perhaps to test that portion of the Church who were living in sin.

                Soon all the men of the city came demanding to have sex with these two attractive “men”. Lot even offered his daughters but to no avail.  Those seeking the angels were smote blind but even on their blindness they sought pleasure with the men. The Lord offered to Lot reprieve. Any he could find would be saved from this wickedness as he destroyed the city. Only Lot, his wife, and two daughters were saved. The Lord had said, “don’t look back.” Lot’s wife did and was turned into a pillar of salt. She had still desired the iniquity from which she had been safe! Memories are the enemy of all Christians because the mind can recall pleasure more easily than pain or punishment; those things everyone wishes to forget.

                Types of sin have been mentioned previously. It’s not the actual sin which God abhors so much but the willingness to go against His will for personal satisfaction. If our own will is more important than God’s, that elevates oneself to godhood. That is blasphemy even if one has not denied God. Sodom blasphemed. Lot’s seed there chose pleasure over righteousness. They were in the world enjoying the fleshly pleasures, and gradually came to serve their own master – themselves. Lot’s wife liked that and was turned into a pillar of salt. It is believed that the twin cities are dead – beneath the sea of salt – the Dead Sea.

                One tactic of Satan is any person can accept conflicting thoughts. George Orwell introduced the notion of doublethink - holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. His words are worth repeating verbatim: ³⁰⁶  

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.

                Marxism uses this tactic, which was at time called “creeping socialism”, offering one minor change in thought at a time until the new thought is accepted. Marx’s plan was to grow the state while at the same time destroying its institutions – the notion of empowering and weakening at the same time. He referred to it as the withering away of the state. ³⁰⁷ Before Marx used that deception for the destruction of the existent state, and replacement with a dictatorship, Satan used the same tactic for the withering away of the Church – slow but sure – and a new dictatorship where he is to become “god” himself.  ³⁰⁸

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

The process Satan uses is withering away of Church, and his method is doublethink. Satan, to be god of this world, must begin with mankind serving two masters. ³⁰⁹ At first, he allays his pride long enough to accept that, but in the end, Satan will demand that only he be served – as the antichrist. Christians will be required to take his mark or be beheaded. ³¹⁰ Satan, right now is content with doublethink – what scripture calls blinding the minds of those who don’t believe. A better translation is of those who don’t trust God to be their only God. Israel’s sin throughout patriarchal times was not disbelieving in God but accepting other gods in His face. Generally, this came about by marrying foreign wives who were pagans as even King Solomon did.  ³¹¹ The “Kingdom of David” was the Church in those days. Solomon started the withering away of the Church, and throughout the times of the kings, each one would wither it more with the exception of those who were faithful to God. Withering away is a gradual process. It’s similar to a downward trending cosine wave whose amplitude is greater with each cycle.

Their doublethink was believing that they could actually serve two gods. A “god” is one being who created one existence. Having the thought that there could even be two gods is doublethink and is irrational. Believing in God, and that He is not Creator is doublethink. Even most Christians doublethink, or think irrationally, about that conflict of ideas. In essence, Christians who accept evolution have two gods: Jehovah and Chance. Since Chance is a product of faulty thinking, then it is mankind who are their own gods. Satan is happy with that for the moment but in the end will express his own godhood. Having the irrational notion of multiple gods, and accepting them as such, is called syncretism.

God forbade syncretism with the first commandment: “thou shalt not have other gods besides me”. That includes ourselves and/or Satan. Mankind’s “gods” do what is right in their own eyes rather than God’s will. That is the law of sin, and its author is Satan. Actually, the law of sin is not written but opposes what is – the Law of God. God wrote the Law so that mankind was without excuse. Satan didn’t write his down so that mankind has an excuse! God commented on that before He died.  ³¹² God was killed because His people were ignorant. As with any lawbreaker, the court demands that he must know the law. In civil court, ignorance does not vindicate. In the Supreme Court of God, ignorance is not a valid reason for sinning! The Law was written for that very reason – that mankind should know that they are sinners. ³¹³ That knowledge takes away all the excuses. Thus, knowledge of the Law, is conviction that mankind sins.  The Law leads to conviction, repentance, and forgiveness!

Secular ideologies were created by Satan to kill the Church. (More on that later). When the “Kingdom of David” was given to the Israelites by God Himself, it became the Church. David built the altar on the threshing floor of Ornan and that same place became the Temple. Using simile, the Promised Land is representative of God’s Kingdom of earth. As such, the Law of God was the rule. A theocracy was set up by God: the Israelites were the congregation, the King its ruler, the High Priest the emissary to God who held sway over the king, and God was Supreme. The High Priest was overseer of the souls, and the King their judge. This Church had somewhat of an episcopal order to it. Of course, scripture seems to provide the place of the first sin, as the same location of the Church. It is poetic justice that God would cancel out mankind’s sin where it originated! He went to the source of the problem.

The threshing floor was to become the place of the church – the building itself. However, from the time of Moses to Solomon’s Temple, the Church had not building, God and no need of one, and still doesn’t. Why so?  Because the Temple of God lies within the souls of all Christians. ³¹⁴ The soul of Christians is the container for God’s (The Existence’s) Holy Spirit just as the void is the container for all existence. At this moment existence is corrupted, as is the souls of mankind. Before, the Holy Spirit comes in, God cleans house with the filth inside the soul!

People think of the Holy Spirit coming with the appearance of God on earth. God was always on earth and in the heavens for that matter and filled the souls of the patriarchs. David, a grievous sinner had the Holy Spirit but yet he sinned!  ³¹⁵ Having God’s Spirit is safety, not perfection. Psalm 51 is David’s repentance, and that revived the Church – the nation of Israel.

David was much like Moses. They both restored the Church, and both of them were murderers. It’s not surprising that years later God would choose another murderer to be his zealot. Moses established the Church again. Millions of Israelites lived in sin – doing in Egypt what the Egyptians did. Neglecting God entirely, they fornicated with other gods. Egypt is scripture is symbolic of sin and the Pharoah is the simile of the devil. The Exodus is representative of salvation, and the water and the blood are similes of God’s death. ³¹⁶ In other words, he was the Word who spoke to Moses, and God’s Spirit which killed the firstborn, protected the Jews, and parted the waters. However, after the Hebrew people were safe, they did not yet live for God. In the wilderness, the Church was just starting to be formed.

All those who had lived in sin in Egypt had to die out. God accomplished that by insisting that the Hebrew people wander in the desert for forty-years. Even Moses was not allowed in to “paradise” because he continued in sin by striking the rock, not as directed, but in his own manner. The wilderness, at that time, was the threshing floor. God Himself led the Hebrew people out of sin – the wilderness – into paradise – the land of milk and honey. Pharoah had destroyed the Church and Moses, led by God, resurrected it. Satan lost again. Joshua – symbolic of Jesus – brought them into the Promised Land years after God promised it to Abraham! Thus, in Egypt, the Church almost died, withered in the wilderness, but restored in the Promised Land. God will never give up His Church!

When God appears to mankind, it is always as the Messiah – or Christ before God was called that! Moses followed the Word out of the wilderness who appeared as a cloud by day, and bright light by night. Although God appeared differently He was no less the Word than when He was made flesh. For those who fail to grasp this, Moses followed God before He was incarnated. The Word years later was made flesh. ³¹⁷ This all started when God “had Church” with Moses on the Holy Mountain of Sinai. Moses was threshed heartily by God who judged him harshly then by grace led Him in His Way. On that mountain years before God was ever born, He spoke in the human language to Moses, and wrote His Word down on stone to endure forever. God thought it worthy of His presence to keep Himself alive by appearing to Moses as a burning bush; ironically by the same method he appeared to the early Church in Jerusalem! ³¹⁸ On Sinai, God spoke to mankind through fire. Years later He spoke to mankind the same way. Both Moses and the disciples understood probably the same language!

³⁰⁵ Holy Bible; Gen 19

³⁰⁶ Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, London, part 1, chapter 3, pp 32.

³⁰⁷ Address to the 16th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (1930) Quoted in: Alfred B. Evans, Soviet Marxism-Leninism: The Decline of an Ideology; pg. 39.

³⁰⁸ Holy Bible; 2 Cor 4:4

³⁰⁹ ibid; Mat 6:24

³¹⁰ ibid; Rev 20:4

³¹¹ ibid; Neh 13:26

³¹² ibid; Luke 22:34

³¹³ ibid; Rom 3:19-20

³¹⁴ ibid; 1 Cor 6:19-20

³¹⁵ ibid; 1 Sam 16:13

³¹⁶ ibid; Exodus

³¹⁷ ibid; John 1-2, 14

³¹⁸ ibid; Acts 2:2-4