Category: Christ’s Predominance and Supremacy


Babylonian Captivity and Slave Mentality-Part 2

So if (Jesus) the Son (of God) makes you free, you will be free indeed.  John 8:36 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

It might be hard to imagine that there is actually a bigger problem than the majority of humanity being enslaved for two and one half millennia.  But the truth is out:  all of creation is enslaved and has been since Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden.  The Babylonian captivity is just a “small” part of the entire problem, since all of creation includes the entire universe.  Perhaps that will put our problems in proper perspective!

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God…For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.  Romans 8:20,24-25 NASB

The apostle Paul, writing to believers in Rome, explained that the record of Genesis reveals that Adam’s sin caused the entire creation to be subjected to “slavery to corruption”, meaning essentially that everything is proceeding from order to chaos, from fitness to ruin, from organization to dis-organization.  You can easily see this everywhere–just imagine what your yard would look like after a few years of no effort.

But when Father subjected the creation, He also gave it hope for a glory change.  And that glory change is on its way!  It is a change that will be revealed, in a way that can be seen.

The word “glory” is the Greek word doxa (pronounced “dock-sa”).  It has a wide variety of meanings, as can be seen here.  But we believe it hearkens back to the shekinah glory that radiated outward from Father’s presence in heaven or wherever He chooses to dwell.

When Solomon dedicated the Temple which he had constructed in Jerusalem about 3,000 years or so ago, the priests brought up the coffer of testimony, usually called the “ark of the covenant” from the part of Jerusalem known as the “City of David” where it was kept in the Tent of Meeting constructed during the much-earlier time of Moses.  After the priests deposited the coffer in the most holy place (the very inner sanctuary) and withdrew, the shekinah glory (a luminous cloud) filled the entire temple to such a degree that no one could even stand, and the priests could not minister–everyone was face down.  Here is how it was recorded:

It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. 1 Kings 8:10-11

Our poor description in no way does justice to something which is beyond comparison, but the point is:  it will soon be seen, because it is going to be revealed.  The creation will be moved away from slavery and into freedom.  In short, the curse will be removed.  We realize that many religious insiders believe that very soon, the “great tribulation” will begin which will be anything but “glorious”.  We apologize if we are contradicting their doctrine, but we do not believe hell-fire, brimstone, widespread death and destruction are what the Lord and Paul had in mind when he penned Romans 8.  Most importantly, the doctrine of “Great Tribulation” does not lend itself to the hope Paul wrote about (or any other kind of hope, for that matter).  We do not believe anyone is “eagerly” waiting for the Great Tribulation.

The pieces go together like this:  Radiating light from God–Sons of God–freedom–curse removed–creation released–slavery of every kind is banished.

We would like to point out that Jesus, the firstborn and predominant son, revealed this glory when He walked the earth.  Read it for yourself:

And He (Jesus) is the radiance of His (God’s) glory and the exact representation of His (God’s) nature…Hebrews 1:3 NASB

The “sons of God” will, in just the same way Jesus did, become the radiance of God’s glory change.  Paul says this glory will unveil something not seen at least since the subjection of creation by Adam’s sin, if ever.  Jesus Christ, although He is the pre-eminent son, chose NOT to reveal this glory himself, but instead waited to allow his brothers (and sisters) to reveal it.  These brothers and sisters are the ones who have found freedom in the Messiah, the one who came to set us all free.

By trust, and by faith, they have received the gift of salvation, and have become partakers of the divine nature  of which we wrote earlier, and are believing Jesus to change them from the inside out and make them holy.  The glory change will be revealed into these believers and will somehow break out into a transforming freedom that will literally remove the curse from the earth.  We don’t know about you, dear reader, but we can’t wait to meet these people!

They gave up the slave mentality long ago.  What about you; why wait?  Are you, dear reader, one of the ones the entire creation is waiting upon?  If so, we urge you to be reconciled to God.  Call upon the Messiah and tell him you are ready to do your part, whatever that may be.  May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you and favor you!  May the Lord lift his face toward you and give you his shalom!

Blessed are you, O Lord our wonderful God.  Elohim baruch ha shem.  All creation shouts your praise:  beautiful is our God!  The universe will sing:  Hallelujah to you, our King!

 

 

Babylonian Captivity And Slave Mentality

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. Romans 8:18-22 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

There has been a lot of political talk in recent years about “hope” and “change”.  Dear reader, do you have any hope that anything significant in the world system will really change, meaning, for the better?  Have you found yourself wondering why things are the way they are?  Are you looking for change, and what do you think “change” would look like?  Do the words “Babylonian captivity” mean anything to you?  Check out this conversation from The Matrix (1999)(courtesy of imdb.com):

Morpheus: I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?

Neo: The Matrix.

Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?

Neo: Yes.

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

We propose to you that what Morpheus referred to as the “Matrix” is actually the world-wide Babylonian captivity that has enslaved the world for many centuries.  It is a monetary, religious, political and military system coordinated and controlled by many very wealthy elites whose rule has now been judicially declared terminated in Father’s divine court.  We are happy to announce that “change” is coming!  It is a change that was prophesied about two millennia ago, when the apostle Paul wrote the above words to the believers who then lived in Rome, Italy, during the Roman empire.

Our post today is to discuss what this “change” will look like.  As stated in an article by Kevin Jackson, entitled The Slave Mentality, slave mentality is acquired slowly, bit by bit, over an extended period of time, and constitutes “the worst kind of prison:  the prison of the mind.”  He says, “Escape is as simple as walking away, yet few people leave.”  If all you have known for your entire life is a slave mentality, and one that you cannot see, taste or touch because the world has been pulled over your eyes, how will you free your mind from it?

First, know that the author of this change, and its revealer, is none other than Jesus the Messiah.  It is He who will free your mind–all you have to do is ask Him to do so.  Here is what He said about himself:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the LordLuke 4:18-19 NASB

A coming “glory” is going to be revealed “in us”.  Setting aside briefly the question of “who”, a more important question is “what”.  Paul begins by telling us in verse 18:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to (Greek: eis–into) us.

Paul describes this glory change by first saying that present sufferings (for him, it included the Roman Empire) are not worthwhile enough to form the basis of a comparison.  So unique is this glory that it is incomparable–there is simply nothing to which to compare it.  That sounds like a change worth hoping for!

Paul secondly says it is something “that is to be revealed into us”, or in other words, a revelation or an “unveiling”.  The Greek word “eis” means motion from the exterior to a stopping point on the interior.  Think of drawing a straight line from the outside of a circle into the middle of the circle and stopping–that’s the idea of “eis”.  In other words, this is not something someone is going to think up in their own mind.  Instead, it is something revealed, seen, and understood.

In short the glory change seems to be unveiled as it is moving into us.  The next verse makes it clear that all creation (not just mankind, or even some of mankind) is anxiously watching, and even longing for this unveiling.  Please note that Paul has directly connected the glory change to the revealing of someone he calls “the sons of God.”

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 

It seems clear that Paul has equated “the glory that is to be revealed into us” and “the revealing of the sons of God.”  Since God first determined to make mankind in His image, He has planned to reveal His own glory through mature sons of whom Jesus was the first-born.  These sons will not be divine as Jesus was, but will be redeemed sons of fallen Adam.  The glory will be that which inhabited Eden before the fall.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into (Greek:  eis) the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

The entire creation is anxiously watching and longing because of the stakes, which for us Paul says are an insufficient basis for comparison.  However, creation has taken the brunt of Adam’s sin, since God put the sin debt upon the earth, causing it to groan and travail.  So whatever else may be said about our “present sufferings”, here are 2 points:  one, they do not merit comparison to the glory change, and two, they are not connected to the involuntary subjection that was placed upon the creation by God and which has lasted since Adam was ejected from the Garden of Eden.

When Father subjected creation, he also gave it hope!  Talk about merciful!  A hope not speculative, but instead certain and inevitable, of a coming freedom that will be found only in this “glory”.  We are talking about a glory change that will not only free all of mankind, but also all of the creation!

Say goodbye to slave mentality, and hello to freedom mentality! In part 2 we’ll examine the source of this glory and how the awesome light that radiates from Father’s presence sets creation free.

Baruch ata Adonai.  I will love you, Lord my strength.  I belong to you and I will bless you while I live, and I will lift my hands up in your name.

 

Losing or Gaining Citizenship

Any man, ANY man of the House of Israel who slays an ox or a sheep or a goat in the camp or who slays it outside the camp, and to the entrance of the Tent of Appointment does not bring it, to bring-it-near as a near-offering to YHWH before the Dwelling of YHWH; bloodguilt is to be reckoned to that man, blood he has shed, that man is to be cut off from amid his kinspeople–in order that the children of Israel may bring their slaughter-offerings that they are slaughtering in the open field, that they may bring them to YHWH, to the entrance of the Tent of Appointment, to the priest and slaughter them as slaughter-offerings of shalom (greeting) to YHWH.  The priest is to dash their (animal’s) blood against the slaughter-site of YHWH, at the entrance of the Tent of Appointment, and is to turn the fat into smoke as a soothing savor to YHWH–that they may slaughter no longer their slaughter-offerings to the hairy (goat demons) after whom they go whoring.  A law for the ages shall this be for them, throughout their generations.  Leviticus 17:3-7 Schocken Bible

Boiling it down to its essentials, here is what Moses was saying:  when you slay an animal that was supposed to be a sacrifice, WHEREVER the animal is killed (either in the camp/city, or outside the camp/city) you must be very careful to make certain that the blood of the animal, and its other parts, are brought to the priest and offered in the manner prescribed for the Sacred Gift of Greeting, (of which we wrote earlier) and have the blood applied to the altar.   If you decide NOT to apply the blood to the altar, you are legally “cut off” from your kinspeople.  This means that under God’s law, you are no longer a citizen of Israel.  If you were of the tribe of Judah, you are no longer a Jew.  If you were of the tribe of Reuben, you are no longer a Reubenite.  If you were of the tribe of Benjamin, you are no longer a Benjamite, and etc.  Note that there are no exceptions.  The seriousness of this matter can hardly be overstated.

Whatever else may be said of this law, one should carefully note that it is “a law for the ages” and not be in too big a hurry to declare that it is “Old Testament”, meaning that it has been abolished and is no longer of any effect.  Moses clearly states that its effectiveness will continue through more than one age.  Therefore, we admonish you, dear reader, with all earnestness not to be guilty of this legal offense, even though you are nearly 2,000 years removed from the destruction of Herod’s temple and the end of sacrifices.  As we shall discuss below, you are not excused merely because God sent His armies to destroy Jerusalem and the temple.

The altar was always intended as a picture and an example of the altar of the heart:  made of earth and uncut stones not shaped by man, and in “every place where I cause My name to be remembered“, and approached without steps so that anyone may come.  Moses was told by YHWH/Jesus to build all things according to “the pattern shown to you on the mountain.”  This heavenly pattern is fulfilled by applying the blood of the sacrifice to one’s heart when God causes His name to be remembered there, and this law is satisfied in the exact same place–a place made of the dust of the earth, and shaped by God, not man.  And thus we come to one of the main reasons God caused the temple to be destroyed–so that all men of the descendants of Israel may have the opportunity, no matter where they are in the “field” (which is the world), to decide to figuratively apply the blood of the sacrifice to their hearts.

What sacrifice, and what blood?  Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been told to you from the beginning?  Simply stated, the blood of Christ Jesus, who was the paschal lamb offered for the sins (hamartia, in Greek) of the whole world.  The apostle John makes it clear that Yeshua the messiah was the propitiation, or sin offering, whose blood was to be applied to the altar for the entire world.  Exactly how is the blood applied to an individual’s heart?  By simply asking the new high priest, the one who is a priest forever, according the new order of Malki-Zadok, who also happens to be Yeshua the messiah.  For, He is both the sacrifice and the priest who applies the blood to the altar.  When God causes you, dear reader, to remember His name, ask Jesus to apply the blood to the altar of your heart.  When you do this in sincerity of heart, let us be the first to welcome you as a new citizen to the Kingdom of God!

Those who wish to build a Third Temple in Jerusalem, and who wish to re-institute the sacrifice of animals in that temple, have decided NOT to apply the blood of the Christ-sacrifice to the altar God has instructed.  The effect of this is that their individual citizenship as Israelites is revoked.   The King of the Jews and of Israel is Jesus the messiah who is the son of David; therefore, to Him belongs the kingship and the kingdom!  In Him is citizenship; one cannot break this law and remain a part of the people of whom Jesus is king!  He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and neither is circumcision outward, in the flesh, as of old.  Instead, he is a true Jew who is one inwardly, whose heart has been “circumcised“.  We urge our brothers:  cease your hostility against Messiah; turn again to God, and He will remember His promise:  At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son!

On the other hand, ANYONE wishing to have the law fulfilled upon the altar of their heart may do so by merely asking.  In this way, one who is not physically descended from Judah (a Jew) or one of the other tribes may become a “true Jew” by complying with God’s law and may simultaneously make Jesus his king.  Moreover, one is not excluded from this common wealth merely because one is not physically descended from Israel, to which descendants it was first offered.  No, “Israel” includes many who are not descended from Israel.  The sons of Israel are those about whom God has sworn, by His own mouth, that all men will be saved.  This means, of course, that all men will–sooner or later–apply the blood of Christ Jesus the sacrifice to the altar of their hearts.  God will win them over to take this action of their own free will.  So great is His mercy and love, and so effective are His judgments!

We refer to you the teachings of Dr. Stephen Jones, whose writings are of singular importance and definitive on this matter, an exemplar of which may be found at this page.  As a final note, one may ask why this law should be kept NOW, if in the end all men will end up following the law.  Frankly, we do not view it ultimately as a matter of choice, except such choice as Father puts on the heart (by calling to remembrance) of each person.  For those whom God uses this post to spur to action, we are glad.  For those who end up waiting, God will work His judgments effectively and with mercy to cause you to change your mind in His time.

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who has given us the law of Moses as a pattern of things as they exist in Your holy habitation, and who has given all those who receive King Jesus the right to be called sons of God!  Praise You, Lord.

The Pre-eminence of Christ

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,… 2 Corinthians 10:5 New American Standard Bible

          The doctrines of hell, everlasting punishment and unending separation are lofty thoughts raised up against the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, His unfolding glory will completely correct all of men’s ideas about free will and election, and other such notions.

          Calvinists and Arminians unwittingly have in common this predominant characteristic: a stunted and dwarfish view of the Christ of the cosmos, from whom are all things, through whom are all things, and to whom are all things.

          Before the creation, the Son was in the Father and lived by the life of the Father. John 5:26 In creating, He created out of Himself. In the consummation all things will return into Him. Ephesians 1:10 All that will remain is His life–the zoe/divine nature of which all will have become partakers. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ will all be made alive. Not made alive with life that is indigenous to this realm, but with the unending divine life from the divine realm which was promised by God before age-times. And God will be all in all, not all in some or only a few.

          Christ is the beginning and at once is also the end. He WAS during ages before the ages, and will still BE after the ages of the ages. Behold the Christ whose power, plan and purpose were granted to us before eonian times! When He comes to have first place in everything, the Calvinists and the Arminians will meet together in peace and the traditions of men will no longer supplant the word of God.

          For He did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. He would be neither pre-eminent nor have first place in everything were the majority of mankind separated somewhere from Him in eternal punishment. Such lives would be destroyed, not saved.

          Moreover, His word has gone forth from His own mouth and will not turn back: “turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.”  Isaiah 45:21-23 He will not rest until He has safely restored the last lost sheep.

Blessed are you O Lord, our wonderful God.  Baruch haba b’shem Adonai.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.