PASSING THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

I have written before commentary on the rich young man, and almost neglected to consider it again. Once I began to write, I saw some things that were happening behind the scenes that I had glossed over before.

Now, continuing the notion of “What shall I do? to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, finally the one who asked that is identified. He was the rich young man. However, there were others there with Jesus. The answer was really to the question, What shall we do? They all had to do the same thing! Perhaps the rich man could have made a name for himself. Perhaps he also could have been an apostle!

I have written about that one before: “Secular Humanism;” Oct 23, 2017. [1] The young man had done things even many pagans might do, but he was about to fail taking up his cross and following Jesus. He mentioned all the commandments about loving others but failed to say anything about loving God. As it turned out, his love of money was greater than his love for Jesus. The one thing that He should do, he did not do.

He was free to walk with Jesus or away from Him. “Jesus said unto him, ‘If you will be perfect, go and sell that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me” (Mat 19:21).

His treasure was right there beyond Jordan (Mat 19:1) in Judea. There was no ‘Jordan’ at that time (See the map).  The English word ‘Jordan’ (Hebrew; Yarden) means ‘Garden’ and often means the “River of the Garden.’

Like Joshua long before, Jesus passed over the River of the Garden into Israel (Jos 3:1). Israel, at that time, ‘Judea.’ was symbolic of Paradise in heaven. As such, the man had passed over the Jordan and had no idea what that would mean. He was, although only vicariously, at the door to Paradise, but he did not belong there. His treasure was beyond the Garden, apparently in Perea, literally ‘beyond the Jordan’ (hayyarden) (Wikipedia 2023).

Speaking of Zion, Isaiah wrote, “He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the Garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody” (Isa 51:3).

The rich young man had followed Jesus to the Garden of the Lord, but it was certainly no longer a garden but a wilderness just as Isaiah had prophesied. The rich young man was at the crossing into the Garden of the Lord (Gen ,3:24) but did not go in. He turned his back on ‘Paradise’ and the LORD GOD in the person of Jesus. He could have gone all the way with Jesus, but part way was certainly not enough.

What kept the man from going to eternal life in Paradise? Riches.

Perfection, according to Jesus, was both giving to the poor and following Him. Indubitably, the man had social justice by giving to the poor, but because his wealth was his treasure, he would not follow Jesus into Zion — the paradisiacal Garden of the Lord.

The young man was driven out of the Garden just as Adam was in the beginning.

Remember “beyond Jordan” above? In the Hebrew, it is ‘hayyarden,’ with the Hebrew ‘hay,’ meaning life. The rich man was at the crossing of death unto life beyond Jordan and failed to know it. God (Jesus) was keeping him from where he should be but he did not fit the criteria.

The ‘flaming sword’ that would keep the unrighteous from entering was a ‘blazing drought’ (Strong 2006). The ‘drought’ in this case was most certainly the wilderness that the Garden had become by the time of Jesus.

Why could the rich man not get into life? Jesus said it, ‘again.’ I missed the first time, but His words caught my eye with the second way He said it: 

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Mat 19:24)

 That was saying it again. He had implied it before! “Beyond Jordan” (Mat 19:1) was the first saying. The man’s prosperity was hayyarden — ‘Beyond Jordan’ in Perea. He would need to turn back to wherein laid his priorities.

Hence, the ‘eye of a needle’ compares to the crossing the Jordan River, symbolically the ‘River of Life.’

At the time of the Abrahamic Covenant, the servant of Abraham, “Made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water” (Gen 24:11). That was to find a marriageable bride for Isaac.

Remembering the woman at the well and her many marriages, Jesus suggested that she needed “living water.”

To get to the water, the camels had to kneel to drink the water of the well. It was possible to drink, but it required bowing to obtain the water that kept the camels alive. The well may have been symbolic of the “Well of Souls” which lies beneath the Foundation Stone. To get into that well requires that the flesh to die for the souls to enter in.

The eye of the needle may more pertain to an aperture of any sorts, not necessarily a needle, but any tool and perhaps the Well of Souls. Perhaps that place is the “flaming sword” guarding the Way, or direction, to the Tree of Life (hay).

The point is not about a camel going through some city gate, but that it has to bow to drink of the water of life, whose tool is not a needle at all but the Sacred Cross. That ‘instrument,’ I think, is the ‘flaming sword’ whose “eye” may be the juncture of the post and crossbars for entry to the way into life. And, of course, the ‘Living Water’ that pours from the Cross is the Blood and Holy Spirit of Jesus.

The rich man failed to mention that he saw Jesus as God, or even that he would follow Him to his own death. It was just good things that he had done, and none of them was bearing the Cross like Simon the Cyrene would do.

 

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[1] https://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/search?q=rich+young+man

JUST WHO ARE WE?

(continued)

Previously Jesus had been under attack because of His supposed parentage. The Pharisees were hounding him because his mother was six months pregnant and not yet married to Joseph. By Mosaic Law, that made His mother the ‘harlot’ and His father a ‘lawbreaker’ because he did not put her away. Unknown to them, Mary was not a harlot, but was a virgin who had broken no law, and to be crude, no hymen, and the latter was always the ‘token’ that they checked.

Joseph was a righteous man who knew the true Father of Jesus, and as such, Joseph was a good step-father that protected his adopted son as his own, removing Him from the jeopardy of King Herod’s sicarii.

By adoption, Joseph was as much the father of Jesus as Christians are the ‘sons of God’ by adoption.

Adoption is a process. Paul wrote about it, speaking of followers of Christ, “And not only they (the whole creation), but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23).

Now consider the birthing process: God cursed Eve, “Unto the woman He said, ‘I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children” (Gen 3:16). Sorrow therein is labor, and conception is pregnancy. Hence, rebirth is much like birthing and gestation both of which women were accursed.

Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). That should not surprise anyone (“marvel not”) because there is pain in labor and groaning in pregnancy, especially in the delivery.

The same goes for rebirth, according to Paul.

Christians have the firstfruits of the Spirit during their spiritual ‘pregnancy.’

‘Firstfruits’ are “the beginning of the sacrifice” (Strong 2006). Spiritual pregnancy (conception) begins with God sacrificing His “fruits’ in the beginning, just as He did with Mary.

The messenger of the Lord revealed to Mary how Jesus would come about, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore also, that Holy Thing which shall be born of you shall be called the ‘Son of God’” (Luke 1:35).

Those who are born again, are the beginning of holy things; things start with rebirth. God provided to Mary, His ‘Ghost,’ or in the Greek, “pneuma,” or wind. Therefore, Jesus was molded in the same fashion as Adam… hence Jesus is the Last Adam’: “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7).

Translated ‘nostrils,’ the literal meaning is ‘face,’ or ‘countenance’ (ibid), or archaically, ‘semblance.’ Adam had the ‘Thoughts’ (semblance) of God. Therefore, the Image in which Adam was created was with the Thoughts of God, therefore thinking no evil.  Rebirth would therefore begin with the Thoughts of God in contrast with the thoughts of men. Speaking about the wicked, God said to Isaiah, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways” (Isa 55:8).

The firstfruits that come from the Spirit of God — the Pneuma — are Thoughts. The apostle Paul understood that, when he “reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks” (Acts 18:4). Therefore, the beginning of rebirth is not a carnal act but a Spiritual Thought from God, and as it turns out, ‘multiplication’ was not how it is thought to be, but as Adam and his woman were told, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Gen 1:28).

That ‘fruit’ was the Thoughts of God. They were to multiply living souls by the male breathing the Spirit of God onto his mate, giving her the mind of God. It is not the body that is sacrosanct but the soul which is the ‘vessel’ for the Spirit of God that sembles God and resembles Adam as he was before sin. Hence, carnal knowledge — sexual coitus with pregnancy — was the curse and not the Way of God, remembering that God said that our ways are not His Ways. That would pertain to birth and rebirth as well!

Jesus then began to interrogate the Pharisees who had pride in their knowledge of scripture, knowing all the do’s and don’ts. Rather than saying, you fools, Jesus was more tactful, “He answered and said unto them, ‘Have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female?” (Mat 19:4).

The question had been about divorce — putting away one’s wife (Mat 19:3), not for one specific cause, but for “every cause.” In other words, should a man look for just any cause to divorce his wife. Any sin, perhaps, would suffice to them. Therefore, since “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), then just wait until the woman comes short even one time and voila!

It is now convenient to identify ‘glory.’ Glorious is the Image of God and Adam was made in that same Image. First off, it was not his flesh that was the Image of God but his ‘Selem’ (Hebrew), the ‘Shadow’ or “Phantom” of God (ibid). The flesh was nothing — nakedness — to God; it was the living soul that God planted in the Garden; the dust would just return to the dust because it was just a material image of the phantom soul within.

Coming short of the glory of God is not being like God. God is without sin, so coming short is sinfulness, or failing to be the exact Image of God. Everybody comes short of the Image of God — His Divine Presence — because sin is genetic as mankind does what even most beasts will not do.

Beasts were made differently; they were meant to copulate. Even the beasts have natural cycles to reproduce, but coming far short of the glory of God, mankind copulates at will and with whom he will with no thoughts of multiplication. Therefore, man’s kind (us extant beings) without rebirth are as ‘beasts’ or to be more direct, as the ‘Beast’ — the Serpent.

Implied within scripture (Gen 4:1) is that Cain was the first being made from physical activity. Man was an ‘Adam” — a ‘kind.’ Cain was just an ‘extant’ being (ibid) — part man and part ‘beast.’

The smart Pharisees knew scripture, but Jesus had to remind them, “And said, ‘For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?’” (Mat 19:5).

Jesus was going somewhere with that saying or He would have not said it. He drew on scripture to remind them how it was in the glorious condition of the Garden Paradise.

They were one flesh. They were both of Adam’s kind, and woman came from the man, and the man from God. Just as Adam was the Image of God, so was his woman. She was his helper (Gen 2:18), meaning that one with the other is the whole! They were one kind when in the glorious state.

Then Jesus described the divisive moment when sin entered into the woman: ‘Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mat 19:6).

Marriage is a return to the original state. The Serpent divided the one kind into two. We think of Adam and Eve as the names of the male and the female, but in the Garden, the two were both ‘Adam’s;’ him the ‘man’ and she the ‘woman’ — the same kind but two very different genders.

Note that sin split the couple into two kinds. The man remained ‘Adam,’ but the woman was a new kind, ‘Eve.’ No longer were the two Adamah the parents of all the living, but sin caused the one kind to degenerate into two. After conceiving Cain of the wicked one (1 John 3:12), “Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, ‘I have gotten a man from the Lord’” (Gen 4:1).

Eve became godlike… “I have gotten” rather than God begot. Her countenance had changed. She became like the Beast, ‘Lucifer,’ who aspired to throne of God (Isa 14:13-14).

Adam did not beget Cain as afterwards men would. Adam “knew” Eve, his wife! He saw her do something (ibid). She was no longer a glorious ‘Adam’ but an inglorious ‘Eve.’ That name means ‘symbiotic’ (ibid) — “being (in) a close physical association between two or more dissimilar organisms” (Merriam-Webster 2023). She had intercourse with the Serpent, and probably not just verbal intercourse. The Serpent beguiled her (Gen 3:13), surely putting his guile, or cunningness, into the woman, and modifying her kind.

Her ”man” that she begot was cunning like the wicked one. He was not really ‘man’ — an ‘Adam,’ but an ‘Is (Hebrew), just another “extant” existence.

Not only that, but the woman was no longer an Adam, but an ‘Eve’ (‘Issa; Hebrew) the female counterpart to another kind of being.

The male and female genders called, ‘Adam,’ once one kind was divided into two kinds, Adam and Eve.  

Adam retained his countenance (Image) but Eve did not. I believe her new countenance was the “screech owl” of the Book of Isaiah — Lilith. She is known for her kind perishing children in their nests (the womb – abortion).

What is common among humans that is almost unheard of in other animals? Abortion. The animals have dens to birth in and for comfort. Humans have ‘dens of thieves’ wherein the lives of children are traded for money!

It was the original sin where Adam came short of the glory of God, and now everyone born lacks that countenance and are “born in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). ‘Iniquity’ is the state of being inglorious and without the Image of God. Because we all come short of the glory of God, being born in iniquity, rebirth is necessary to be made glorious again, as in the beginning.

It begins with persuasion. The Thoughts of God from the Word must hit sinners squarely in the face, or mind. No wonder Calvary is the ‘locus of the cranium.’ The divine Impulse that kicks off rebirth is that indeed Jesus is God and He showed us the Image of God within Himself at Calvary (Mark 15:37).

Since Jesus is the “Last Adam with the “quickening Spirit” (1 Cor 15:45), then it is the Image of God — the Holy Ghost — in the man, Jesus — that makes sinners alive again. The Holy Ghost of Jesus breaths life into the mind of sinners, so that our thoughts are Thoughts such as His.

We should begin to think like Jesus from the Word and walk the Way that He walked. Our countenance begins to change, at first being “babes in Christ” (1 Cor 3:21), and remaining ‘pregnant’ with tribulation in the world, and with the process finalized, the agony of death to be saved!

Jesus finished his lesson about the creation and the division of the kinds. He was saying that there was one kind in the beginning and that was meant to be. The first sin was a division of the kinds — a ‘divorce’ where one kind was divided into two, and usually with animosity between them rather than a spirit of accord.

As such, regeneration is mankind being one kind again with the Divine Impulse from the Holy Ghost to start the rebirth. Only at death is a person totally alive and for some, remade in the Image of God and on the Way to Heaven, reverting to the glorious image of Adam, with incorruptible flesh not like Eve’s.

Hence, regeneration is a reconciliation under the auspices of God wherein our kind returns to one kind with Jesus as King and Lord of all.

Why all that explanation? The Pharisees, as smart as they were, failed to understand Mosaic Law. It was not that the Law was not good, but that God knew Eve’s kind quite well. He explained even further:

They (the Pharisees) said unto Him, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?”

He said unto them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so” (Mat 19:7:8). He got that saying from His own Word from the beginning. Man was to remain men and woman remain women. Cain was a transhuman, and that was the worst of the inglorious.

Jesus could not be fooled. He said it all along, yet the dumb Pharisees were comfortable thinking themselves still glorious. Jesus burst their ‘bubble’ and mine as well; we are not Adam’s glorious kind, but Eve’s inglorious kind and we are symbiotic with our ‘father the devil” (John 8:44). We are of the Serpent’s genes, and Jesus was truthful enough to call a spade a ‘spade,’ or better said, a sinful man a “fiery dart” of the wicked one!

DO WHAT?

What shall I do? What shall we do?

Jesus was interested in even one person who wondered how to live forever. That unknown person was as important as the rest for Jesus is not a respecter of persons, and nobody is superfluous!

The first mention in history of a fountain of youth came from the writings of Herodotus in the fifth century before Christ about the Macrobians, named that because of their longevity. 

Their name is due to their legendary longevity, an average person supposedly living to the age of 120. They were said to be the "tallest and handsomest of all men.” At the same time, they were reported as being physically distinct from the general inhabitants of the region below the Sahara. (Wikipedia 2023)

 Early exploration of the western hemisphere was in search of a fountain of youth. Ferdinand Desoto and many others staked their lives on the existence of that magic fountain.

The legend has it that the age of mankind was not to be more than 120 years, according to Wikipedia.

The LORD GOD said to those in the days of Noah, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years” ((Gen 6:3). Many theologians direct that toward the building of the Ark and that it would take 120 years. The Book of Jasher validates that those who lived in the days of Noah would cease to exist in 120 years: 

For thus said the Lord, “Behold, I give you a period of one hundred and twenty years; if you will turn to Me and forsake your evil ways, then will I also turn away from the evil which I told you, and it shall not exist,” saith the Lord. And Noah and Methuselah spoke all the words of the Lord to the sons of men, day after day, constantly speaking to them. But the sons of men would not hearken to them, nor incline their ears to their words, and they were stiff-necked. And the Lord granted them a period of one hundred and twenty years, saying, “If they will return, then will God repent of the evil, so as not to destroy the earth.” (Jasher 5:8-11)

 However, scripture often applies to the immediate and to the future, and sometimes God is not precise. For example, 120 years and how many days? Or is it about 120 years? Are there exceptions for exceptional people, and such?

Before the days of Noah, Enoch never died. He found the ‘fountain of youth’ and it was in Paradise in heaven. After the days of Noah, Elijah found eternal life and was still alive in the days of Jesus (at the transfiguration). Neither found eternal life on Earth, or even on another planet, but only in heaven.

There were also some patriarchs who did live longer than 120 years. However, they had the Spirit of God and had turned away from evil. It could be that life on planet Earth can be extended for reasons only known by God, but most people still die under 120 years of age.

At the present the global average age at death is under seventy years. (ourworldin data.org). 

Based on purely demographic data, natural limit to human life span was estimated to be between 115 years and 126 years. Furthermore, Olshansky et al believe that the absence of people, who are older than 122, is the evidence for why there are limits to human longevity. (NIH)

Imagine that; science agrees with God, almost down to the year!

We should expect to live no longer than seventy years, and if we live to 120 years or so, that could be either a blessing or a curse. Paul wrote that his “earnest expectation” was that “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21) but whether he would live or die was of no difference to him ((Phil 1:20).

Many do not want to live forever here because that would limit living forever there! Where would most want to live? In tribulation, or in glorification?

As time passed, someone asked Jesus a very pertinent question: “Behold, one came and said unto him, ‘Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Mat 19:16).

Desoto risked his life and sailed to the new world. He failed to find the fountain of youth in the world, but perhaps he did find it in heaven!

About five-hundred years before Christ, King ‘Hanno the Navigator’ of Carthage sailed around the horn of Africa and beyond. He was exploring the unknown and what he was looking for is unknown. However, he sailed by Microbia near Ethiopia. Perhaps Hanno was looking for Paradise on earth and eternal youth.

What did he find? Certainly not Paradise, but gorillas that he thought were men. He skinned some of them and brought them back to Carthage. Hanno the Navigator found eternal death and brought their skins back. Those ‘alien’ beings were certainly not glorious, and Microbia was certainly not Paradise. Death ruled there as well, so there was no fountain of your that Hanno could find. (Jesus had yet to come!)

What did Desota and Hanno do? They explored the world and eternal life was not to be found; then along came ‘Jesus the Navigator’!

Simon Peter said unto Him, “Lord, where goes you?” Jesus answered him, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you shall follow Me afterwards.” (John 13:36)

 Where did Jesus go? To Paradise wherein there is eternal life. What did Peter do? He followed Jesus to the Cross.

Jesus died in AD 33 and Peter followed Him to Paradise about 30 years later. The Romans crucified Jesus. Jesus ‘navigated’ death for Peter. He ventured there from Zion here in the world to Zion there in heaven. He explored death while He was in the tomb, not exploring in the flesh but in the Spirit… His Holy Ghost set sail for places unknown but perhaps Hell to deliver Satan and sin, and Paradise, to deliver the repentant thief. ‘Jesus the Navigator’ — the Christ — tasted death for us, so that we need not die if we follow the Way.

Jesus, speaking to His followers, said the obvious, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mat 16:24). The Holy Cross was the mast on God’s invisible Ark and Jesus was the navigator to the other realm just as He navigated Noah’s Ark.

Remember the question that one asked? That “one” was the rich young man, but probably Peter was with them (Mat 19:36). What was he to do? the rich man wondered. The short answer from Jesus was to follow Me to where I am going. Jesus went to the Cross shortly. Peter would follow Him in due time.

Rome came to Jesus; he did absolutely nothing to deserve Himself being separated from His Flesh. They nailed Jesus to the Cross, making Him immobile. His work was by Virtue (Dynamis) — goodness flowing from His Person, and Himself giving up the Ghost.

That was the “Good Thing” that Jesus did, so that Peter, or whoever was the one, need not repeat it! There is no record of Peter being baptized with water. It could be that Jesus, who would baptize with Living Water (John 3:22) — the Holy Spirit — may have baptized Peter with the “one baptism” (Ephes 4:5).

Although the Romans came to Jesus for Him to die, Peter went to the Romans. Jesus walked to Calvary and Peter to Vatican Hill, perhaps the hill of the Roman God, Vagitanus, the deity of childbirth. Although Peter had been ‘born again’ because of faith in Jesus (John 3:7), he defeated the god, Vagitanus, at his death. The Spirit of God in Peter would have fulfilled prophecy, “It shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).

Of course, Jesus did that at Calvary while the ‘son of the Serpent’ (Judas) had Satan in him. Peter followed Jesus to that same end.

Vagitanus would have no power to birth anyone for Jesus had already died to do that. What Peter did was bruise the head of the demon spirit of Vagitanus by doing what Jesus did on Calvary. Peter followed Jesus to his death, and paganism died in Rome soon after.

Peter did nothing physically, and neither did Jesus nor the repentant thief. All three were nailed to the Cross so they were immobile. They had to be nailed to their respective crosses to demonstrate that physically, they could do nothing, but mentally, they could work out their salvation.

Jesus worked out His salvation — the Resurrection — and because He had the Virtue to work out His own, He showed the world that He had already worked out their salvation.

Losing Virtue is force dynamics, but Jesus did that with the Mind of God, losing so much Virtue that He would ‘sleep’ for days!

Jesus could have saved Himself by defeating all the pretenders to the throne and defeating the Romans, but that would save only Him alone and only for a short time.

Jesus could have washed the Earth clean by a global water baptism, but instead He chose invisible Virtue to do the same ‘Good Thing.’

Jesus then asked rhetorically, “Why call you Me good? there is none ‘good’ but One, that is, God: but if you will enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mat 19:17).

That ‘one’ learned that he can do no good, because only God is good, so only God can provide eternal life. However, that ‘one’ saw that Jesus is God in the flesh because he called Jesus ‘good.’

What good thing could one do to have eternal life? He must first enter the portal to life. That portal, as is discovered at the crucifixion is wherever you are upon dying. You must die to be born again; and death is the portal to life and the soul is the ‘ship’ to another realm.

Death is denying the flesh and its desires. That kind of death is the gain, except for Jesus who knew no sin, but we must die to sin. Jesus died for our sins.

The most certain way is physical death because the soul is separated from the flesh, so that the soul can be saved when Jesus comes again.

How much effort does it take to die to be born again? The lust of the flesh is what must be given up, along with pride: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). The Spirit of God does all the work! Thinking like Jesus puts out the flame of lust. It is not what you do, but what you do not do! The Spirit does it all… the ‘Living Water’ douses the flames of lust.

However, Jesus indicated that we are to keep His commandments to enter unto life. His commandments are about love — goodwill toward God and others. The faculty of the will is cognitive. Again, I write, it is not some good thing that you do, but to align your thoughts with the Thoughts of God. His Will to be done is love to prevent perishing (John 3:16) to remain alive.

Our will — the will of the Christian — must coincide with that, or as scripture says, to be of “one accord” to receive the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:1), not just in accord with each other but in the Spirit.

The quest for longevity in this age is threefold: (1) CRISPR-Cas9, compliments of Bill Gates, seeks to increase the lifespan that God set by synthesizing ‘alien’ DNA in humans; and (2) transhumanism, compliments of the World Economic Forum; (3) not to forget saving the planet for the elite for their good.

Who truly wants to live forever on planet Earth? The only way for world peace and global safety, according to Yuval Noah Harari, is to eliminate the ‘superfluous” people. My bet is that those who trust Christ and refuse their WEF ‘crosses’ will be the superfluous ones that they believe should die!

Jesus thought it fit to respond to the ‘one’ that wanted to have eternal life. His name was not important because He was one of the ‘whosoever’ that God loves in John 3:16.

Not even one is superfluous to Jesus, yet many depend on Harari and the World Economic Forum to determine just who is superfluous and who is not. My bet is that the elite members of the WEF are certainly not superfluous, and ironically, even they are not superfluous to Jesus!

So, what must you do? Deny your flesh by giving up sin. Is that hard to do? You need not do that, the Spirit of Jesus will do that for you. He is the promised ‘Comforter’ that came, not in body but the Holy Ghost of Jesus.

 

HOW ACCUSERS SAW JESUS

The Pharisees questioned Jesus as if He was a lawbreaker. He had to explain God’s rules for them. For some reason, they abruptly came up with a cunning question: 

The Pharisees also came unto Him, tempting Him, and saying unto Him, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” (Mat 19:3)

 Jesus did not get testy with them even after being tested. Did He know scripture? Mosaic Law was that there be honesty with the engagement. If a woman was not a virgin, she would not act the virgin. If found not to be a maid, then the husband would have the right to hate her because the marriage would not be holy matrimony.

However, if the parents of the bride could prove that she was a virgin, then the two, even with the hatred, would be married forever; however the man would be chastised.

If it was proven that she had not been a virgin, then the death of the lying woman would be expected. (Deut 22:23-31).

Now consider the offense against Jesus that they were implying: Mary was espoused to a man named Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus (Luke 3:23). Either the people thought that Joseph was the father of Jesus, or that He just wanted people to believe that He was. In that case, Jesus would lie by what He was not saying rather than what He really was saying.

Jesus never claimed to the son of Joseph but was called the ‘son of man” and to that He admitted. He was not, however, the son of a man, as most think of it, but the gens (genetics) of Adam as the genealogy of Luke (chapter three) reveals; that even if He was the son of Joseph or not, He “was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke 23:38).

That He had flesh made Him the ‘son of man’ and that He was Spirit, that He was the ‘Son of God.’

The baptism of Jesus by John demonstrated that Jesus was literally, the ‘Son of God’ — His gens: “The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a Voice came from heaven, which said, ‘You are My beloved Son; in you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).

Jesus was born of the Holy Ghost from the womb; His Baptism was to show anyone who would doubt, that indeed, Jesus is the Spirit of God that was made flesh. His Baptism was a revealing much like maids were revealed to society in ante-bellum America.

The genealogies are not just filler material to be glossed over but the proof that Jesus was who He said He was. Never did He claim that either God or Joseph were His immediate cause, but that God was His ‘First Cause’ because Adam was of the LORD GOD as well.

Not hidden at all was His ‘Immediate Cause’ — Mary was the supposed ‘virgin.’ Would the crowd that mocked Jesus really believe that His mother was a virgin?

Imagine this: 

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was ‘Joseph,’ of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. (Luke 1:26-27)

 David was noted for marrying the non-virgin Bathsheba. Often missed is that both David and Bathsheba would have the people believe that their marriage was honorable. Did the people of David’s time truly think that David’s son was his or Uriah’s? Just who was the supposed father of Solomon? The genealogy of Jesus provided that, “Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias…” (Mat 1:6).

Were they questioning that Jesus was even of the house (gens) of David, as the ’son of David’?  Was Jesus even really a king in the order of David? You see; genealogy was important in those days. If Jesus was not the son of David, neither was he the Son of God, they might think, nor was He heir to the throne of David.

I submit that the Pharisees were not so much interested in the Law about marriage and divorce as they were whether Jesus; was He really who He said He was?

Mary and Joseph were “espoused” or promised to soon be together in Holy Matrimony. As such, Mary would not have known another man, by Mosaic Law. God chose Mary to be the ‘vessel’ in which Jesus was born because she was pure. If Jesus had been born of a harlot, then He would have been impure, according to Mosaic Law.

The Pharisees were essentially questioning the purity of Jesus for God is Pure and only Him alone.

That Joseph was of the House of David was significant. They thought that Jesus was truly heir to the throne of David; that is if Joseph was really the father of Jesus.

Jesus never claimed to be the ‘son of David;’ He was only accused of that, perhaps in mockery. If He had been the son of David, then He would not be the Son of God. They wanted Joseph to be the real father of Jesus as scripture suggests; then He would only be the son of Joseph, and not the Son of God.

Mary was the supposed mother of Jesus, or as Catholics claim, the “Mother of God.” Mary, however, was not the ‘mother’ of anyone at that time. She was merely a “a woman who has never had sexual intercourse with a man” (Strong 2006). What was Mary to Jesus, then?

John said that Jesus is the ‘Word’ and was there in the beginning, and that He was God; and that the Word was made (ginomai) flesh (sarx) — a living creature. (John 1:1-14).

Jesus was not made carnally as was Cain. He was the ‘Last Adam’ and was made in the same fashion as Adam. He was not born in a human sense but simply “became” a living creature in the same process as Adam. God breathed life unto the body of the Person that He made in the barren womb of Mary; His ‘Garden’ so to speak. At the Baptism of Jesus, God breathed life into the body of the Man only to show His method of procreation, and maybe to further shield Him from the fiery darts of the Wicked One at the temptations from the Devil.

Mary was not even the ‘Mother of God,’ but very much a ‘kiln’ that God ‘heated’ to generate His New Man. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12), hence He was generated (ginamoai) by the Power of God, and no other. (Note that Abram was remade Abraham (the ‘Shield’) with added holiness in the kiln of Nimrod in the land of Ur of the Chaldees, according to the Book of Jasher.)

The question was, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” Before Jesus was born, Mary was six months pregnant and was not yet the wife of Joseph. She was promised to Joseph, but the gossipers would have wondered who the father of Jesus relly might be. Obviously, some would say that they had engaged in sex before marriage, so Mary was the harlot. Others would think that Mary was the harlot of some other fellow. Either way, her pregnancy was not a ‘token’  that would be required by Mosaic Law to clear her reputation.

Joseph never contested whose child Jesus was because He knew! 

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, you son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary your wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (Mat 1:18-20)

 By Law, Joseph should have put away Mary, but he did not. Joseph, as a lawbreaker, would not be a legitimate heir to the throne, in the same manner that Herod Antipas was not because he stole the wife of his brother, Philip.

John did not turn his head to the lawbreaker, Antipas; would Jesus turn his head away from Joseph? Would Jesus condemn His own so-called, ‘father’? As it turned out, Jesus would not even abandon His own Father, the LORD GOD, even though He thought His Father had abandoned Him (Mat 27:46).

(To be continued)

LIFE ON HIS PLANTATION

Jesus had just related the ‘parable of the unforgiving debtor’ wherein the first man’s trespasses were forgiven by his lord, but that same man did not forgive the debts owed by the second man. (You can review that yourself in Matthew chapter 18.)

Firstly, consider the word ‘trespass’ (paraptoma) in scripture. It is merely a ‘lapse’ in something — something that should have happened, but did not, or should have, but did not. In modern times, trespassing is entering onto the property that belongs to someone else; it is a lapse in who has the right to be on the property.

‘Lapsing’ is an inattentiveness to the rule of law, either by forgetfulness or judging wrongly. It may be that it is okay to do so just this one time or even more frequently if the trespasser sees no harm is done. As such, ‘sin’ is trespassing against the Law of God by either forgetting the rule of Law or thinking the lapse will be easily pardoned, perhaps not even noticed by the property Owner.

Consider the heaven and earth (Gen 1:1) as the ‘Estate’ of God and that it is His land and since it is that they are His rules that should be followed.

Adam and Eve ‘trespassed’ on the only place on the Estate of God where they were not allowed. The Tree of Knowledge was the ‘room’ of God. In ancient law, ‘room’ was the space somewhere on the property that was for the owner only.

Like in old movies, God’s rule was that Adam and Eve not go into the “room’ occupied by some sinister occupant. As it turned out, it was a creature — the so-called ‘Serpent’ that would mess with the mind of inquiring people. He had powers that the LORD alone could control.

Enter Adam and Eve into the room of God. There, they were confronted by another being that was not so terrible after all. They could not see inside, either his mind or spirit, for it looked quite tame, even intelligent, and fair outwardly. It is supposed that the two saw, not a ‘Beast,’ but the bright angel, Lucifer.

God, it may have seemed, was wrong, and they, perhaps, believed that God was only selfishly keeping the ‘good stuff’ for Himself, and they wanted some of it.

There was good stuff in that forbidden room, but unknown to them, the good stuff was tainted. The LORD GOD had planned a test; would they obey Him or trust the demon within that dark room? They chose to trespass where they should not go. Their trespass was on God’s property and against God’s rules.

The rule was not against Adam and Eve but for their safety. So long as they remained away from the Beast by staying in their own room — anyplace besides that one room — their lives were not in jeopardy.

As Adam and Eve trespassed more, God had to be more precise with His rules, so soon there were ten written on stone and 613 either written on bibli (paper or other medium) or others said by God.

Just like the one rule, keep out of that one room, God added ten more forbidden ‘rooms’ because Adam’s kind had learned from the first room ways to break into many rooms, without learning their lessons.

With only ten rooms, God gave them many more directives, not as punishments, but for safety, in the same manner anyone would tell their children to not touch a hot stove.

Trespassing, as it turns out, was not to keep anybody away from what belonged to God per se, but to keep them from harmful actions, just like modern-day trespassing is to keep you from being harmed if entering the estate of someone else.

Nowadays, property owners, knowing that some will trespass, purchase liability insurance in case somebody gets hurt on their property. God provided an insurance policy as well, but not to protect Himself, but foolish people who do as they please on His Estate and in its economy.

The Garden of Eden was both an Estate and an Economy. The property belonged to God because He created it and was the ‘Husbandman’ thereon. He grew the Estate for His satisfaction, and not for the satisfaction of Adam and Eve. They were merely ‘squatters’ on God’s Estate that camped there because of His grace. While, they were on God’s Estate, they were expected to tend to it, “The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Gen 2:15). Adam became the ‘tenant’ who would work the land and the woman his helper (Gen 2:18). They were created as the dominant kind to tend the lesser kinds (Gen 1:26). Their work was easy because all things were “very good” (Gen 1:31).

That was the ‘Economy’ created by the LORD GOD for His Estate. Everything was free so long as the two occupants kept things straight and did not party, so to speak… but then they threw a party for themselves. God was displeased because His ‘Room’ was nearby — the Tree of Life — and God was not invited to the party even though He had all rights to the room where the party was thrown.

Somehow Lucifer trespassed on God’s Estate, or perhaps, God allowed ‘it’ to be there to see just who would come to the party. (Perhaps he would be the scary ghost.)

First to show up was the woman. She had no name before, but soon made a name for herself — Eve (Gen 3:20). Rather than God as the Father of all the living (on His Estate) the woman had become a ‘god’ (Gen 4:1) and created her own manner of ‘man’ (is; pronounced eesh) who was another manner of existence (Cain) — a homo sapien, or a so-called ‘wise man’ — that was as foolish as his mother.

Since that time, Eve’s specific kind have been ‘symbiotic’ as her name means — two different types of existences, cooperating for their own survival. In this case, the spirit of the Serpent got into the woman (she was beguiled), and she became a different kind herself!

As such, just as Eve trespassed on God’s Estate where she should not go by lapsing the rules of God as insignificant and unwarranted, all her progeny have that same propensity to relapse from innocence to trespasser.

To be honest, even Christians also relapse in their trespassing, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:10) and we are to pray, “When you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).

Trespassing is genetic and even Christians still relapse often. By grace, God put onto Adam and Eve ‘coats of skin’ (Gen 3:21) and for us the ‘whole armor of God’ (Ephes 6:11) to keep us away from the harmful trespassing. (The chief squatter, Lucifer, guards what he thinks is his by fiery darts.)

Noah was handed down, as the Book of Jasher relates, the ‘Garment of Adam’ (Gen 6:8), but when he took it off, it was stolen by Ham; then Noah trespassed the first thing in the new world; ignoring the LORD GOD — the Husbandman (John 15:1), Noah not only trespassed but still relapsed against God… He became the ‘Husbandman’ himself (Gen 9:2)… he became the God.

Because we all are of the progeny of Noah, we all have become the ‘husbandmen.’ Our nature is to wantonly trespass against God even knowing that it is for our own safety that we not. We are a generation of fools who do whatever enters our minds as if there are no Laws.

God even redeemed us from the penalties, out of grace, but ungrateful us still trespass with impunity; we lapse and relapse even after God regens us!

In the end of the parable, as it turns out, “his lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. So, likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses” (Mat 18:34:35).

Their trespasses that are to be forgiven are against you. Forgiveness is not a legality; that you must do so, but from your hearts, or innermost being. Trespasses should be forgiven others because of your goodwill toward them, not because of expectations from God or others.

Yes, God does expect you to never trespass, but he also expects you to forgive the trespasses of others because if you expect graciousness for yourselves, then you should automatically, without force, be gracious to others who have the same nature that you have.

Say, for instance, that you see no need to forgive, just as the first man of the parable. Then, you are lax, having relapsed. On the other hand, in the parable, God was not lax in His pardon but very motivated to forgive.

If you have no grace to forgive, then God will do likewise to you as you have done to others. If you still condemn, then you will be condemned. The rule of God is, “condemn not, and you shall not be condemned: forgive, and you shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). The first man in the parable was forgiven but he still condemned another. He deserved torments for that.

Condemnation was not so much to negatively reinforce good spiritual behaviors, but to positively reinforce them.

Torment negatively reinforces right actions, whereas forgiveness positively reinforces right actions. It is better to reward for righteousness than to punish for unrighteousness. Doing it God’s way is to encourage forgiveness to avoid punishment. So, the object is to pay for trespasses using the least punitive way possible. If you forgive without coercion, forgiveness for you proceeds. If you forgive out of coercion, then forgiveness for yourself is forfeited.

Doing it the right way is the desire of God for He would much rather reward than to punish. Everything that exists is on God’s Estate. Some things were are allowed to be used, and others not.

Fruits are the goods of God. However, Satan used what belonged to God for deception. It supported His habit of lying. The fact that he allowed Eve to assume that it was his property and his fruit to give, made the Serpent the trespasser, but if more than one trespasses, it becomes ordinary.

Satan — the Serpent — made trespassing the normative in that part of the Garden, so God sent them out of the Garden where they could make crops for themselves, so that they could see why trespassing was such a serious crime:

Cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground… (Gen 3:17:19)

God had made it easy for Adam to tend His ‘Plantation.’ The two Adamah had trespassed where they should not go. Poison fruit was on that one tree and God only desired them to eat good fruit from any of the others (Gen 2:16). The rule was not for control but for safety! They were lax in their respect for God’s authority and should have asked why so?

Basically, that tree and its fruit belonged to God, and they had no right to be there. God put up a “NO TRESPASSING” sign by spoken Word. Why would God do that? “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16), meaning the people in it. He would not have them eat poisonous fruit from that forbidden tree, but He would give them fruit from the Tree of Life, or as we know it; the Tree whose seed would grow into the ‘last Adam’ — Jesus, the Son of God. So, to finish off John 3:16, “…that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

So, you remember the other neglected Tree in the middle of the Garden? Just as Adam was made a living soul was planted in the Garden of God (Gen 2:7-8) “eastward” — before time began, He had planted the Spirit of Himself  in the Garden before time began.

Just as the first Adam was a plant in the Garden, so was Jesus — the ‘Last Adam.’

Adam and his woman could have eaten the Body and Blood of Jesus before He became flesh. They preferred, however, the body and blood of Lucifer, who God also planted in the Garden before time, not for consumption, but in case they trespassed while thinking they had the right to be there.

I love morel mushrooms but own no property on which they will grow wild or not. Others have property, and in the past, I have trespassed to poach produce that belongs to others. I have done the same for fish. I did the same thing that Adam did.

The woman was more provocative; she even ate poison fruit because she was so enthralled with what she did not have elsewhere.

The trespass was not only for the taste of delicious produce but the thrill of taking what was not hers. She surely desired that fruit just because it was forbidden.

I also love antiques. Oftentimes I pass old houses that are boarded shut. Most often, there is a sign, “NO TRESPASSING.” Without that sign, I think, there is nothing of value worth looking at in that old house. However, the sign says so much; there may be something valuable, perhaps some nice old fountain pens!

As it turns out, the sign is usually there for liability purposes, so that inquiring people will not be harmed in the old house while trespassing. That was surely why God insisted that Adam and Eve were never to trespass to the space under that tree! They did, and so they died, just as God said they would. God did not say how soon they would die, just that they would.

As it turned out, the poison was slow acting; it took almost 1000 years for them to die! God was true to His Word! If they had only understood that the warning was for their benefit and not a hindrance, they would still be alive, and as they were immortal, so would all the rest of their progeny.

Something else should have been learned; they would really have to toil outside Paradise to eat and even to plant their own seed by birthing. They should have learned respect for God who would have lost tremendous Virtue to make all those things.

The same goes for our own trespasses to this day. Jesus lost all the Virtue that He had to save all of mankind. He was fast asleep, even dead, from the loss of Virtue. He worked by the blood-sweat of His face to save mankind, “Being in an agony He (Jesus) prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

Just as Adam suffered the consequences of his and Eve’s sin, Jesus suffered the same consequences for all our sins. As the ‘Last Adam,’ Jesus suffered the same curse, In the sweat of His own face shall they have to eat the Bread of Life.

Perhaps by now you have a better understanding that sin is against God because it is His Estate, and since it is His, then He has the right to determine what is done thereon! We cannot do what is right in our own eyes, as if there is no King or Lord, but what the LORD of the Manor wills that we do.

Foremost is that we subjects should honor the King and praise the Lord of the Plantation, whether it be real estate here or in another realm.

THE BIG LIE

 

IN GOVERNING:

 

Each generation live their lives based on the ‘Big Lie.’ The great lie may be slightly different for each time and place, but regardless, each nation and generation have been deceived in such a manner that hardly anything can change their minds or outlooks on life.

Any ‘Big Lie’ has the same substance — “A big lie is a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the truth, primarily used as a political propaganda technique… (used) to describe how people could be induced to believe so colossal a lie because they would not believe that someone ‘could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously’" (Wikipedia 2023).

The ultimate truth was revealed by the apostle Paul, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). There is no way to avoid physical death; everybody shall indeed die. The only two cases of death being avoided is with Elijah and Enoch. God had a special purpose for them, so only those two were able to avoid physical death.

The first ‘Big Lie’ was by Lucifer (aka the ‘Serpent’), who said to the woman, “You shall not surely die” (Gen 3:4).

What had God said? “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). The phrase “surely die” in both instances, by God and Satan, is literally “mut, mut, mut” in the Hebrew, to “die, die, die.”

The western world gives little credence to the effect the Hebrew may have on the French, German, or even Latin languages. However, the English word ‘mute’ comes from the Latin, ‘mutus,’ or the shortened version, ‘mut.’

Mute means “silent, speechless, dumb” (Douglas Harper 2001-2023). Indeed, death makes people silent, speechless, and dumb; the latter meaning “lacking in intelligence” (Merriam-Webster 2023).

Both God and the ‘Serpent’ used the Hebrew word thrice — “mut.” With that said, perhaps mut has three indicators of death: (1) Silence, or physical death; (2) Spiritual death, and (3) loss of intelligence of the mind. If it was not for the grace of God, both Adam and Eve would have died in three of their substances: (1) The flesh, (2) the Spirit, and (3) the Mind.

Before sin, since both Adamah were made in the Image of God, they both would be glorious like God with incorruptible flesh, holy spirits, and the knowledge of only good.

After sin, the two began to die physically, withering for over 900 years before they both succumbed and lost their divine intelligence as they were deceived. They would have died spiritually as well, except for grace, when God put protective “coats of skin” onto them to cover their nakedness (Gen 3:21).

They would still suffer the consequences and physically die and lose their divine intelligence (wisdom) but their spirits would be preserved until the coming of the ‘Last Adam’ (Jesus) to provide for them a quickening spirit (1 Cor 15:45).

“Quickening” therein is a lively spirit; Jesus would restore, or regenerate, their souls. (No wonder it is believed that the bones of Adam are buried beneath Golgotha (Calvary) — “the place of the Skull” (Mat 27:33).

Paul, speaking to the Gentile Romans, said, “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Rom 7:9). Without the Law, Paul said, “sin was dead” (Rom 7:8). Essentially, without any laws, laws cannot be broken because they do not exist.

The one Law that was extant in the beginning was never to eat of that specific fruit. Without that one Law there would have never been sin and death would never have ensued. The more Laws that were created, the inevitability of death became more intense, if sin is indeed ‘death’ as Paul said.

Since all are sinners, then as such, all human beings are born dead. You may be alive physically, but not spiritually. Even the little children are spiritually dead, albeit if even quite mobile!

Physical death can be postponed but as you sit or stand there, your body is dying. You should have no expectations of living longer than 120 years (Gen 6:3) unless technology intervenes. (Science, using CRISPR-Cas9, is working on that in this generation. They are endeavoring, perhaps, to make God out to be a liar, or to diminish God.)

Of course, the Holy Ghost of Jesus saves your soul upon your demise, “He which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death” (Jas 5:20), but everyone becomes dumber and dumber as time goes by! Not that they cannot speak but that their wisdom is diminished.

Whereas intelligence is “the skilled use of reason,” (ibid) wisdom is using that intelligence” (ibid), ostensibly for good. Hence, since original sin, mankind has become much more intelligent, making a name for themselves (Gen 6:4; Gen 11:4), but less wise. [1]

The first ‘Big Lie’ contradicted the ultimate truth of God. Mankind would certainly die. It seemed as if Adam and Eve had not, but time proved God right; they eventually died, although they were made immortal. The two Adamah remained spiritually dead as well, although preserved in flesh given to them by God, but were made alive again, spiritually, when Jesus propitiated His blood for “all sins that are past (Rom 3:25),” including the two Adamah.

However, because of sin, although still intelligent — homo sapien (‘wise men’), the two began to slowly loose their wisdom even as they learned more and more evil things. The Books of Adam and Eve are essentially the loss of their wisdom as Satan deceived them time and time again! They were fooled by all the ploys but the Word, Jesus, was there to compensate for their foolishness.

Although homo sapiens in taxonomy, mankind is so easy to deceive! The first case of propaganda was when the Serpent said, “You will not die, die, die,” knowing full-well that the two would die, die, die. Their death was not perceived because it was so slow in coming. That is the way propaganda works to this day — people are fed lies over and over, so slowly overtime, that after thousands of repetitions, according to Aldous Huxley, it becomes the truth.

In modern times with a vast amount of technology and a viral media, repetition only takes moments. Hitler’s ‘Big Lie’ was basically that all the troubles of the world are due to the Jews; hence, the Jewish problem, and naturally, “The Final Solution.”

Of course, like the Serpent long before, the Jews were to die, die, die in all respects. In fact, Christians, at least ‘Confessing Christians’ became a part of the Jewish problem, because, as Paul wrote that a Christian is one who is a Jew inwardly (Rom 2:29).

Almost the entire German Church was deceived, and it too became National Socialist.

That brings me to one of the two purposes of this commentary; the ‘Big Lie’ that Nazism is something much worse than Marxism. Even that National Socialism is different than Russian Socialism (Bolshevik Communism) that was about to overcome the Weimer Republic of Germany.

To this day, the socialist narrative (propaganda) is that communist socialism is good for you, but that National Socialism is abhorrent and evil.

The truth is that both ‘isms’ by any other name remain destructive and both feed off the blood of capitalism to thrive. In both cases, what is there must be torn down to rebuild in a Marxist fashion.

The socialist motto, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (Karl Marx), has a hidden meaning.

The original sin was that God, according to His ability, created the Tree of Knowledge. The sin was that each took the produce for their so-called ‘needs.” As it turned out, the needs were not needs at all, but desires, and so it is with Marxism. Marxism is a continual and eternal sin that deceives so many in every generation.

Both Russian Socialism (communism) and German National Socialism (Nazism) took what did not belong to them (other countries) for their own ‘needs’ (desires). You can call them different all you like, but both isms are Marxism, and even now our Republic is saturated with Marxists who deny that they are Nazis but act the part to a tee.

There is a commercial about the psoriasis not showing on those with that condition. In recent days, their Nazism is showing in the streets of America as the left-wing neo-Nazis continue the ‘Final Solution’ that was to never happen again!

Why is it happening again? Because the new Nazis are smarter than the original; they have learned much since Hitler’s time.

First off, they built a better propaganda machine that are not ‘propaganda,’ but ‘narratives’ that are fed to the public in large doses.

The ‘Big Lie’ is that it is not Nazis that you see, but peaceful Democrat protesters, only nice people trying to save our democracy. How? By burning it down, and building it back better, in a Nazi sense, anyway.

Many of you have fallen for the Big Lie and still vote for the “Nazi’ bastard sons of Hitler, all the while, thinking that they are only well-meaning socialists!

 

IN LIVING:

 

However, there are spiritual ‘Big Lies’ as well of which the most often is “I was saved.”

Now imagine this; you feel guilty for sinning because you have been taught right from wrong. Consequently, you answer the altar call or whatever and you are told because you answered questions to the satisfaction of some minister that you are now saved. Even worse, like the Catholics with pedobaptism and Campbellites with water baptism, water has made you saved.

The word ‘saved’ means that your life is no longer in jeopardy; that henceforth, you need not worry; God will take care of you until your death. You need not wait until you die to be saved from whatever; that you are saved from this moment forward.

Many who parrot ‘saved’ even fail to understand just what is saved and from what as well. It is not the body that is saved but the spirit that is called the ‘soul.’ The human soul has never even been explained to most! For now, just understand that it is the soul that is saved but not the flesh. Eventually, if you are a saved Christian, then your soul that is saved takes on new flesh; not the old flesh that sinned.

Where should anyone look for the answers? Holy Scripture and nowhere else. You do not look for answers from most ministers nor even me! You look to the Word, Jesus for all the answers, and consider that in days past that He inspired certain of His followers to write His Words: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). Hence, you are to trust the very words of Jesus from the text of scripture. You are not to trust the preacher who has been taught only to repeat what they have been taught.

Most people believe what their parents were taught and most preachers what their seminary or catechism taught. There are ‘denominations’ of truth, unfortunately. For myself, I do not care what my preacher thinks nor what my church doctrine might be, but what the Bible says. What must be sought is the truth, and to be honest, churches that have different doctrines, of which one or both of them do not have the truth.

If I am wrong in any commentary, please correct me with scripture, not a version printed by men but from the received text of God.

I know that Jesus spoke in Greek and strongly believe that some ancient form of Hebrew was the Word. Admittedly I rely on James Strong’s definitions for they seem to provide multiple viewpoints that must be chosen for the context.

So, what is the Greek word translated ‘saved.’ Sozos. What does sozos mean? Paul speaking of faith to the Romans (Rom 10:8) wrote, “That if you shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom 10:9)

Paul did not write that; the King James translators did. (I changed the ancient thee’s and thou’s to more modern terms.) Paul wrote in the Greek language.

Examine the Greek text for “You shall be saved.” That whole phrase is from one word, ‘sozo.’

‘Shall be’ is not in the Greek at all, nor are ‘thou’ nor ‘you.’ Standing alone is the one word, sozo.

According to Strong’s Dictionary, that one word does not mean, you shall be saved, but strictly ‘safe.’ The phrase you shall be is implied. It could as easily be you may be, you will be, or you have been. The key word there is one — sozos which Strong defines as “safe.” Suppose it had been defined as ‘saved;’ then is it past, present, or future. There is no way to know. The only thing that is known for sure, if those things occur, you are safe, not saved.

Before, this idea is abandoned, consider salvation in the verse, “To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins” (Luke 1:77) and many other places.

“Salvation” therein is “soteria” in the Greek — “deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation” (Strong 2006). Which is it? The meaning is ambiguous and must fit the context. Some may choose salvation and others safety, depending on their doctrine, or belief. It is not known to be a past experience, a present condition, or a future event. Preservation applies to all three. The only ambiguity is it past, present, future or even for a time, or forever?

The way to live life is in vigilance, as is written, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). The apostle Peter is believed to have written that letter. He was speaking to Christian elders (1 Pet 5:1). If they were Christians who were already saved, why would there be a need to be vigilant? Why were saved ones in danger of destruction if they were already saved?

Then Peter went on to explain himself: “When the chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away” (1 Pet 5:4). When Jesus comes again, then you will be saved in that your safety does not go away.

Before continuing, consider the time of salvation (preservation). Peter also wrote about the time of salvation and just what it is that is saved, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:9). Obviously, the end of your faith is at the end of your physical life. That is why Paul wrote for those in Christ, to die is gain (Phil 1:21). What is the “gain’? The salvation (soteria) of your souls.

The human ‘soul’ is the Image of God (Gen 1:27) and is God within you. It is gathered from scripture that your soul is a “shadow” or “phantom” (ibid) of your material image and would look like you just as the Holy Ghost of Jesus was identified as Him (Luke 3:22). Your soul is still you, not you in material substance, but some glorious heavenly substance.

It is not physically you that is saved, but the real you with the Image of God within.

At what time is your soul saved? When Jesus comes again. Your soul is preserved on Earth for the coming of the Lord, Jesus when it shall finally be saved, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thes 5:6)… “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:52). The change from safety to saved is when the new flesh is placed on the still alive soul. ‘Incorruptibility’ is indeed ‘saved’ because you can no longer perish, either in Spirit or the flesh.

Until then, Christians are not saved, but in grave danger. Although God seals them, like any preserves, the seals can be broken from within due to impurities in the subtance of the soul.

It is okay to have hope! Paul wrote, “We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end” (Heb 11:6). ‘Hope’ is looking forward to something. What is it that Christians look forward at? Full assurance — knowing at the end, you believed rightly!

Adam and Eve, both made in the Image of God, were glorious like God and were immortal in the beginning. Just as God would never die, neither of them should have either.

However, their safety was conditional; to never eat of the forbidden tree. The penalty for disobedience to God was eating forbidden fruit — knowledge. Although perfectly safe and although God willed that they never die, they ate and died. They died in spirit without ever knowing they were dead. They thought that indeed they would never die and felt secure, eternally secure.

Then came the ‘Big Lie’ from Lucifer, the ‘Serpent’ — you will not die, die, die. They would surely not die in either mind, spirit, or body, they thought. They died right then in spirit as God degendered them of His Image. Without the Image of God within them, Satan was able to devour them, and according to the Books of Adam and Eve, Adam was devoured many times, all because Adam thought himself, even though of God, eternally secure. All the while, both him and Eve were always in danger in the world. They lost their security and were in jeopardy all their lives even while in the safety of the coats of skin supplied by God.

The Devil wants you to believe that your soul is invulnerable to his wiles. If you believe that you are some sort of superman or supergirl, then you put a target on your back. Anyone who feels invulnerable is always the most vulnerable because he fail to be vigilant. If you are a Christian who has been told that you are ‘saved,’ you are the most vulnerable to destruction as the wolf in sheep’s clothing will come at you with you unaware, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Mat 7:15). Those ‘wolves’ are ‘false prophets’ now known as preachers that preach another strange doctrine (Heb 13:9).

Believe the Word of God… you are not saved but must still wear “the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephes 6:11), to keep you safe until you are saved in the end (Mat 10:22).

To be honest, preachers who preach that you are saved and are eternally secure really believe that. They have been misled just as they mislead you. They believe that because it has been how they were wrongly taught. They take the doctrine that has been handed down to them as worthier than the actual words of God.

The problem is that thinking that you are already saved puts you in jeopardy because your defenses go down, making you even more vulnerable.

When you sin with impunity, as if there are no consequences, judgements, or danger of perishing; then your very soul is in jeopardy because rather than God’s Will that you do (repent), it is Satan’s will that is done.

When asked when I was saved, I only answer, “I have been persuaded that Jesus is God.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] According to the Books of Adam and Eve, Genun invented many evil things for Adam’s and Seth’s kind before they perished. Also, since the Tower of Babel was built on a plane and had a sort of “engine” (Book of Jasher), perhaps Nimrod was trying to build a rocket to find and destroy God, as science is doing to this time.