There is, ironically, a religious
ritual among churches, even the evangelical ones. Evangelism is, “emphasizing
salvation by faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ through personal
conversion, the authority of Scripture, and the importance of preaching as
contrasted with ritual.”
Faith is basically
trusting Jesus in all things pertaining to life, and especially the afterlife.
Now for the ritual of it all, especially in Baptist churches of which I am a
member… going to the altar. Not that it so wrong to go, but going
is not the end of it all!
Now for a side note: The ‘Church’
of the Bible is not your church; the real Church consists of those who
trust Christ as presented in the gospels. It matters not whether you are a
member of Baptists, Churches of Christ, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians,
or even Catholics; but that you are a member of the ‘Body of Christ,’ or as I
wrote before, ‘in Christ,’ or better said, ‘Christ in you.’
Christ in you are the “hope
of His Glory” and the “riches” of it! [i] Hope implies a
future event. ‘In Christ’ is not full of glory with its richness, but the hope
of glory.
I have pointed out before that the
‘glory of God’ is the condition in which Adam was generated in the beginning.
He was made, not a god, but he had God in him.
Adam’s image resembled God even
in substance. Adam was a ‘fragment’ of God. That ‘fragment’ was what is now
called the ‘soul.’ Adam’s soul was like God and his flesh was supernatural until
the Devil got into him, and both the Adams’ fleshes were transformed into what
we have today. Our flesh is of the Devil and as King David implied, the flesh
is depraved [ii]
and neither rich in glory, nor full of glory.
“Born again’ is a beginning just
as Genesis 1:1; “In the beginning God created (generated).” He did so first
by spreading the Light [iii] followed by “dividing
the waters from the waters.” [iv] That was the original
generation, or Genesis, of the world and the beginning of Adam — our dominant
kind.
“Waters” in that passage
represents ‘semen’ in the Hebrew. Of course, God is not a sexual Being, but He
does reproduce.
Semen carries what? The unique
identity of individuals. (Now science has revealed that our identity is encoded
in a carbon-chain within every cell of our bodies.) Semen is basically cells floating
in seminal fluid — in the waters.
Now, I know that genetics is not
simple, but even dummies soon learn that semen makes ‘mini-me’s’ that look like
me and act like me. That is from DNA.
Mankind was generated in the
Image of God by the ‘semen’ of God. God shed His genetics (Genome) and Adam
received them. God engendered Adam and the male spread the genes of God to the
woman. The ‘Serpent’ messed with their identities and voila, here we
are, like the Devil himself with just enough God in us that He values His creatures.
You must accept that! You are not
God, gods, nor even children of God; you are what you are — sons of Satan who
are adversaries of God and have little goodwill for Him as demonstrated by your
continuance in sin.
That was the ‘Creation’ or ‘Generation.’
Rebirth (born again) is the beginning of ‘regeneration.’ It is not the complete
process just as Genesis 1:1-6 was not the complete process. Born again is a new
beginning, and the complete process ‘regeneration.”
Note that some doctrines want you
to believe that the beginning is the ending; that once it starts
it is finished without further ado; that once the process begins that it must
be finished, even when Satan strives to disrupt the process just as he did in
the beginning. Hence, born again begins with a ritual which will be
discussed in a moment.
Jesus, speaking to the apostles,
said, “That you which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man
shall sit in the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel” [v]
The beginning was the
twelve following Jesus. The entire process was until Jesus would be
glorified — sitting on the throne in Paradise as God. The ending of the process
is “in the regeneration” — when Jesus is glorified. Therefore, regeneration is
a process over a given amount of time ending in glorification — with the riches
of God’s Glory. That entire process is ‘regeneration,’ not some one-time event
at the altar in a building.
The evangelistic ritual begins
with going forward to an altar of wood. That altar is under the Cross
and is part way to it. (Woten becomes the ‘god’ in that scenario).
The altar if wood is not all the
way because it is just an material image. It is not all the way because you are in a
sanctuary where it is only hoped that the Devil cannot intercede. But perhaps
he does, not directly, but by ritualistic practices.
Going all the Way to the Cross is
following Jesus and relinquishing your own fleshly desires. “He that takes not
his cross, and follows after Me, is not worthy of Me.” [vi] Where you go after going to the altar is what
counts!
Jesus was glorified upon His
death. [vii] He revealed that He was the
Father, the Flesh, and the Holy Ghost.
We must reveal that we have God
in us as well by showing a new nature with the Holy Ghost within us Christians.
‘In Christ’ is Christ in us. With Jesus in another realm, the Holy Ghost is
Christ in us because all three together is God and one alone remains God. God
cannot be divided because He is more than water.
The beginning for Jesus was His virgin
birth. We cannot expect to be put in a womb and suffer that same process, so
our rebirth is not of the flesh but the spirit, or soul. For that occasion, the
flesh — the vessel — must be washed clean. God does the cleansing by the hands
of men.
Baptism by water is a preparation
ritual… for “repentance for the remission of sins.” [viii] It is not for the remission
of sins but to demonstrate repentance. Because our own flesh is our adversary,
the flesh must be symbolically washed clean.
Many denominations have made that
ritual soterial — the final solution for eternal life. It is merely God
dividing the waters from the waters again. The real ‘semen’ of God is the “Living
Waters” that poured forth from the belly of Jesus on the Cross, and by that, I
mean the Holy Ghost, not liquids themselves.
How can one tell if he or she is
a Christian? By multiplication. Jesus was the source of Living Water and He
revealed the solution to the knowledge of God, “He that believeth on Me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of Living Water.” [ix]
Indeed, Christians are to
reproduce, not their own children, but children of God. Just as God made the
man alive with His genes in him, and the man passed them along to the woman,
the same goes for regeneration. We are not to spread our flesh and its sordid
DNA but the very Genetics of God by passing along the Spirit — His Invisible
Image — to all who would hear.
A Christian is neither a person
that is dunked in water nor a person who walks just part of the way to the Cross.
A Christian is one that has “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” [x]
The ‘One Lord’ is Jesus, the ‘one
faith’ is trusting Him, and the ‘one baptism’ is by the Holy Ghost of Jesus. Christianity is those three things for the
duration, for the long haul until either you die or are taken
alive!
Where does the time element enter
the process because time means a ‘process.’ [xi]
Faith is the process. Faith is
not the degree of trust of walking to the altar but living that trust; “Trust
in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In
all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” [xii] “Trust’ is ignoring our
own confused thinking and allowing God to take us where He would have us to go.
Now for the kicker… Why and where
does that path go? “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.” [xiii] That ‘world’ is not the
sphere itself but the people on planet Earth. Trust is dependence on God to do
just that!
‘Believes’ in that passage is not
just for a cross-section in time but enduring trust. A person can not trust God
for five minutes and then move on. The trust must be enduring to the end. [xiv]
Faith is trusting God for the
duration of your physical existence. If it was put into a formula, it would be,
Faith = trust / time. It is a variable and a dynamics between the Christian and
God and it is from the beginning to the ending. from your rebirth to the end that
culminates in glorification; that which is commonly called ‘salvation.’
Adam and Eve were innocent. God tried
to make them vigilant; that although they were in the Presence of God that they
remained vulnerable to the wiles of the Devil.
Sure, God used different words… cunning
and so forth, but He warned them that although they were His, that put a target
on the flesh of their backs. Lucifer, with the Serpent spirit within, conned
the two… You will not die, die. [xv]
(“Surely die” in that warning was literally “die, die.”). The Serpent was
not speaking of their flesh dying but their souls as well.
Be vigilant and sober, as a
Christian, to avoid ever perishing. [xvi] Not to be vigilant for only
one time at the altar, or even sober one time, but sober and vigilant until you
die!
Going to the altar is a man-made
way to conversion. The conversion really begins when a person is persuaded
to become a Christian.
King Agrippa was “almost persuaded”
by Paul [xvii] but true Christians
were fully persuaded, not only to become a Christian but Paul, “persuaded them
to continue in the grace of God.” [xviii] Hence, faith is not
independent of time but over time. It is like any variable; it can vary, and it
can terminate. Termination of the grace of God is apostasy; [xix] it is once having affection
for God but defecting from His Grace.
The apostle Paul said, “We
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved.” [xx] Paul was an apostle and
was quite alive, yet He understood that he was not saved; he spoke of a
future event, and qualified salvation as, “For to me to live is Christ, and to
die is gain. [xxi]
Paul was afterward crucified for his
faith, and it was by grace (unmerited favor) that he was selected by Jesus to
spread the gospel. Paul endured to the end, then Nero had him killed. Death was
his gain because Paul had Jesus in his soul, not in person, but the Holy
Ghost of Jesus who had spoken to Paul on the road to Damascus.
Adam and Eve went to the Tree of
Life but did not go all the way there. They were interrupted by a familiar
Voice that they mistook for God. Satan misled them. He entered their minds as
if He was the LORD GOD. Eve was convinced that he was because she immediately conceived
Cain for her ‘lord,’ not the LORD GOD, but her new master. [xxii]
There is One Christ — One God in
the flesh. The ‘Serpent’ presented itself as God in the flesh. He was
not! The ‘Word’ set them straight and persuaded the two that He was the real
God and unlike the visible Serpent, He was invisible.
If Adam and Eve, who were of God,
can be dissuaded from trusting God, what would make a Christian think that he
is invulnerable to the wiles of the Devil. [xxiii] The ‘wiles’ is the
cunning of the Serpent in the beginning. He Has never changed but attempts to
change you to its image that is defiant from the Image of God. As such, mankind
— ‘the lost’ — is the image of Lucifer and he is the father of lies from the
beginning. [xxiv]
With that said, be vigilant of
even preachers. Test all things according to the Word of God. Those seemingly
good men may not spread the gospel, but may be false prophets who spread bad
tidings. That water is saving makes water a ‘god” and ‘Poseidon” is its
name. Jesus is the true waters from the waters that God divided back in the
beginning. It is His ‘Seed’ and His alone that is saving!
When a preacher asked what just
happened, the convert innocently responds, “I got saved today!” Not so. The
child began to trust Jesus and proceeded on a journey that ends
in salvation. The Seed of God is planted, but in the world, it must grow (live)
that way to the end.
The child is one of the living
souls that was planted on Earth just as in the beginning. If it is on stony
soul, it will wither and die just as Jesus hinted.
I have planted many gardens but
to be truthful, the ground in Kentucky is red clay. That is problematic because
the flesh of Adam was made from red clay. God did that because he knew how hard
the world would be for Adam to grow and multiply. And so, it is here in Kentucky.
This is the ‘Bible belt’ but I
have experienced few churches that teach the entire truth. They convince
Christians — those who follow Christ — that the Way is complete, whereas it has
just begun with rebirth. Oftentimes, although Paul preached for Christians to continue
in their persuasion. Few preachers have the audacity to preach that even the
little children, much like innocent Adam, may indeed perish; that Satan is out
to steal their souls, and may very well do so.
Before I conclude this chapter,
consider ‘justification.’ Preachers preach that it means, ‘just as you never
sinned.’
Forgetting that you are a sinner safe
by grace, [xxv]
you must never forget that you will be saved by grace when the walk is over.
Saved and safe are both good translations of the Greek word, ‘sozo’
Translator bias is a problem
because everyone prefers their own doctrines. The English Bible was translated
with Calvinists in the majority, and English translations have copied their
errors.
Versions are not the
actual Word of God but language versions. I am not saying, not to believe the Bible,
but consider all translations in their original contexts. I have endeavored to
do that in this commentary, and as such, I have changed many of my wrong ideas.
Perhaps some remain because I am not the ultimate truth, although I do seek it.
To be truthful, the doctrine of once
saved, always saved, is scriptural. The contention is just when is
salvation? Is it when first persuaded to follow Jesus or is it when the reward is
accomplished. Paul, who was quite familiar with the Greek Olympiads, wrote, “Know
you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So
run, that ye may obtain.” [xxvi]
‘Conversion’ is when you are persuaded
to enter the ‘race’ and follow Jesus, makes you nothing more than a ‘runner.’
If this race is over hurdles, then the runner may either jump over it as if it is
not there, or fall flat.
Satan has erected high hurdles to
make us fall. The flesh has mass, and on the Earth, our own flesh weighs us
down. My thirty-pound weight gain is my own hurdle because I can no longer run
like youthful me. The soul of man is weighed down with desires of the flesh.
Each thing that we value as much as God weighs us down.
Satan is not there putting up
hurdles. He is in our genes, however. We put up our own hurdles and then
attempt to jump them without the aid of God.
What must we do to be
saved? “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” [xxvii] We are to diminish the
flesh. What we have is what we have. It is not the weight of the person that
holds runners back but that the flesh becomes weak to sin in much the same way
that Superman’s Krypton weakens him.
Adam himself was made weaker and
weaker day by day with his conflicts with Satan (From the book of the same
name). He was tempted much of the time, especially when he went where he should
not go.
Adam was walking the Way to the
Tree of Life, but on the Way, he encountered false knowledge. If he had went
all the Way to Jesus — ‘The Tree of Life’ — he would not have stumbled. Because
his spirit was God’s, Adam was willing, so God put grace on Adam with flesh
that He provided for him. [xxviii]
That was not a ‘coat of flesh’
that you might think, but the Holy Spirit of God to comfort Adam and his mate. What
he did for Adam, God can do for you; Jesus said, “I will pray the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” [xxix]
What God did with that prayer was
to open the door to the closet in Paradise, dust off the used coat that Adam
wore, and fitted it just for you. There is a ‘Garment of God’ that fits all
Adams, regardless of size, shape, color, or any other feature, except one; they
must choose to wear it!
“Noah found grace.” [xxx] After he was safe,
Noah removed the coat and revealed his flesh; then he became unsober as he
drank strong wine.
Noah removed the Garment of God,
according to the Book of Jasher, and then he went on a life of sin. The
first thing, Noah became ‘God’ as he assumed the identity of ‘Husbandman.” [xxxi] Rather than multiplying
the Spirit of God that he had, he made his own spirits, and the rest is bad
history. To this day, inebriants take precedence over God for most people.
Like Noah, we too, have the
freedom to either leave the ‘Comforter’ on or take it off, as we wish. To
remain safe throughout the race, we ignore our flesh and wear the flesh of God.
His burden is light; scripture
refers to the ‘Garment of God’ as the ‘Whole Armor of God.” It is not really a
suit of armor any more than Adam’s coat was of skin!
“Put on the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” [xxxii] Why would Christians
need armor if they are already saved? God expects you to use reason and logic;
you would not need armor if there was not trouble that may be encountered.
The Bible speaks of things that
have significance to walk with God in His Footsteps.
Only He received the Holy Ghost
at His baptism. None of the others did! The Spirit of God remained on Jesus
alone, implying that it did not remain on any others.
We are not to follow Jesus to the
water, nor even to the Cross, but to relinquish our bodies that belong to Him!
Paul wrote about you… “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?” [xxxiii]
It is not your body, your
choice; but the body that belongs to God who made and remade you in His
Image each time.
Pleasuring your flesh over having
the joy of God is defection, and yes, even Adam did that; he found that
it was God’s Flesh that God made, but continued to make wrong choices time and
time again!
Rituals will not provide the
reward any more than doing nothing. They are mere things that you do to
make you think that you are without peril. Even my own daily routine of writing
my thoughts is ritualistic and non-saving. It is that I must believe the
Thoughts that He imbues within me.
The apostles proved their trust
by following Jesus to their graves. That is what all Christians must do!
(picture credit; Daily Manna)
[i]
Col 1:27
[ii]
Psalm 51:5
[iii]
Gen 1:3
[iv]
Gen 1:6
[v]
Mat 19:28
[vi]
Mat 10:38
[vii]
John 7:39
[viii]
Mark 1:4
[ix]
John 7:38
[x]
Ephes 4:5
[xi]
Gen 4:3
[xii]
Prov 3:5-6
[xiii]
John 3:16
[xiv]
Mat 10:22
[xv]
Gen 2:17
[xvi]
1 Pet 5:8
[xvii]
Acts 19:36
[xviii]
Acts 13:43
[xix]
Heb 6:6
[xx]
Acts 15:11
[xxi]
Phil 1:21
[xxii]
Gen 4:1
[xxiii]
Epes 6:11
[xxiv]
John 8:44
[xxv]
Ephes 2:8
[xxvi]
1 Cor 9:24
[xxvii]
Mat 26:41
[xxviii]
Gen 3:21
[xxix]
John 14:16
[xxx]
Gen 6:8
[xxxi]
Gen 9:20
[xxxii]
Ephes 6:11
[xxxiii]
1 Cor 6:19
