Category: God’s Laws/Teachings


The Ultimate Source of Evil in the World

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July 6, 2016

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness”  Genesis 1:26 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

To all of our friends who consider themselves to be religious “outsiders”, we happily say:  YOU are not the ultimate source of evil in the world, and GOD AIN’T MAD AT YOU!

We sincerely apologize for our disagreement with all of our friends who consider themselves to be religious “insiders”, and who strive mightily to convince our other friends that the world would be a better place if they would just “get right with God” or “get saved” or “repent”.  To be sure, YOUR world would be better if you were able to do those things, but would THE world be better?

In our post today we take a controversial look at the ultimate origin of evil–WHO is responsible for the existence of evil in the world?  Where does evil come from?  Does it spontaneously combust?  Was it part of the “big bang”?  And perhaps in a later post, WHO is going to get rid of it, and how?

If evil existed in the world before any of us who are now alive, dear reader, does it make sense to you that ANY of your actions (or inactions) could get rid of it?  Of course not.  Let’s go right to the controversial part:  the source of evil in the world is NOT sinful people! and that includes you, the religious outsider.

It is popularly believed that evil is a force of nature that fights, wars, struggles, with an opposing force of nature–the goodness of God.  And so you have the Devil fighting against God, darkness vs. light, evil vs. good, the Yin and Yang.  We mention the last one to highlight the fact that this back and forth nonsense is ancient pagan superstition.  It was co-opted by the early Roman church for purposes of controlling the masses.  But it did not derive from the Bible or the teachings of Jesus.

Unfortunately, just about every major denomination today embraces some version of this “turn or burn” mentality, that if you are “good” you get to go to heaven, and if you are “bad”, you go to hell, or are utterly destroyed in some fashion.  Each group has slightly different definitions of “good” and “bad” and what is necessary to migrate from one group to the other, but from 30,000 feet, they all look pretty much the same.  The reason is:  they ARE essentially the same.  Here is the problem with the whole mentality:  it fails to understand the reason and purpose of evil.

The ultimate source of evil in the world is the Creator, who created it.  Yes, that is correct, God Himself, with the able assistance of Christ (who later was born on earth and named Jesus).  Read it for yourself from the gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 3:

All things came into being through Him (Jesus), and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  John 1:3 NASB

You want to talk about light vs. darkness, then check this out:

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.  Isaiah 45:7 King James Version

In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider–God has made the one as well as the other so that man will not discovery anything that will be after him.  Ecclesiastes 7:14 NASB

If calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?  Amos 3:6 NASB

If one considers the Bible to be authoritative, if not instructive, (and we consider it to be both), one could reasonably be surprised that our premise is so controversial!  It seems clear that the Creator created evil.  Therefore, let’s next consider how the religious insiders got off the correct path, and let’s start with Adam.

You remember Adam and Eve, the first man and woman?  In the garden of Eden?  You may remember that they ate an apple, or some other fruit, or whatever, the point is:  they disobeyed God; they sinned.  You’re probably thinking/remembering (because it has been pounded into your sub-conscience) that they died as punishment because they sinned.  Add in the old good vs. evil superstition/motif, and voila!  Adam created evil, and because we are all descended from Adam, we are responsible for evil in the world.  And because we insiders have repented, that only leaves you outsiders.  See how it works?

Yes, Adam and Eve did indeed sin. But did Father kill them for it?  See for yourself:

Then to Adam He said,…Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles (weeds) it shall grow for you. Genesis 3:17 NASB

This is a classic example of God’s punishment fitting the crime:  you disobeyed me in eating what I provided, so now you will have to work for it.  This is why you have weeds in your garden, and bugs in your fruit trees.  Adam and Eve did indeed eventually die, but not in punishment.  Legally speaking, the punishment was applied to the earth–the ground would no longer blossom absent some good, hard work. The “curse” was not applied to Adam; instead, Adam’s correction was that he had to make restitution.

To find out what happened, we must piece together the story from several places, and in so doing we can see what Father had in mind by creating evil in the world.

Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through (by means of, as a result of) sin, and so death spread to all men, upon which (Gr. “eph ho”) all sinned.  Romans 5:12 NASB

So when Adam sinned, Father sent death as the ultimate form of evil into the world.  All “lesser” forms of evil are subsumed by and culminate in the pinnacle of evil–death.  Men don’t die because they sin; they sin because they are dying.  (Think about this for one moment, and you can easily see the truth of it.  A baby starts “dying” the moment it is born, before it can take any kind of action that can be called wrongdoing.)

Father used the occasion of Adam’s sin to send death (evil) into the world, and allowed it to spread to all men.  Why did He do that?  Because His plan was to send another man, and by the actions of the second man, He would cause righteousness (the opposite of evil) and life to spread to all men.  The name of this man?  Jesus/Yeshua, the messiah.

For since by a man (Adam) came death, by a man (Jesus) also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15: 21

Know anyone who is not dying?  They will all be made alive by Christ Jesus.  All means all; all die and all will be made alive.  How does that work?  This is why those of us who know Jesus love him so much:

For as through one transgression (wrongdoing, sin) there resulted condemnation (an eventual death sentence) to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.  Romans 5:19 NASB

Dear reader, do you know what the “one act of righteousness” was?  Jesus the innocent one paid with his own life upon the cross for all the wrongdoing from Adam until the last of it has occurred.  And to top it all off, He agreed to this plan before Adam was ever created.

You might say that Adam gave us a “gift” of a cursed earth and mortality (eventual physical death for all).  But Jesus gives us all the free gift of divine life (unending and righteous) which sooner or later (why wait?) all receive.  This is a species of life that comes from the very nature of God–His plan has always been to MAKE us in “Our image and in Our likeness”.  You may be glad to know that it is not your responsibility.

For if by the transgression of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the (other) one, Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:18 NASB

(This) gift is not like that which came through the one (Adam) who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment (sentence of eventual death) arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. Romans 5:16 NASB

What a gift!  Think of it in parallel terms:  one wrong action by Adam, and all the world starts dying.  But one righteous act by Jesus undoes eons of wrongdoing by billions of people, and moreover makes them righteous in God’s eyes, and all the world starts living by the power of an unending life of which we wrote earlier.

Father and Son planned this from the beginning, because of their great love for you, dear reader, yes the religious “outsider”.  They knew you would wonder about it, puzzle over it, and question why they didn’t do something about it.  Well, they did.  Father introduced evil into the world so He could be glorified by removing it all in one fell swoop.  Can you see why He ain’t mad at you?  Why should He be?

As those of us who have come to trust in Him, and as we know Him more and more, to call Him merely “God”, His most common name, is simply too impersonal.

“To as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,…” John 1:12 NASB

As the old song goes, to know Him is to love Him.  Calling Him “God” while not incorrect, fails to recognize the profound love which He has for each of us, so as His children, we want to call Him “Father”, or even more lovingingly, “Daddy”.  Those who have a conception (incorrectly) of Him as an angry, vengeful deity have trouble with such familiarity.

As always, we do not ask or expect you to believe us–ask Him yourself.  How?  Either silently in your mind and heart, or out loud with your mouth, simply ask Him if what we have said is true.  You can even bow your head and close your eyes if that will help you believe He is listening, but we assure you it is not necessary.  We want to be the first to welcome you to Father’s family!

Blessed are you, O Lord our wonderful God, the king of forever!  Great is your wisdom and wise are your orderings of all things, from the rising of the sun until its going down.  But greater still is the love you have borne for us all, especially the one who has never belonged.  Show your love to the prodigal son, and let the party begin!

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The Double Portion

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October 29, 2011

          Speaking very personally again, dear reader, we have longed for and desired with all of our heart, the “double portion”.  Its revelation began in the wilderness with Moses and the children of Israel, and its prophetic fulfillment is coming very soon (we hope and pray!).

 Then the LORD (YHWH) said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”  Exodus 16: 4-5 New American Standard Bible (NASB) 

          The “bread” referred to here is what we have all heard called manna, which is the Greek pronunciation, but which in Hebrew is simply called man, pronounced mahn.  Jesus made it clear that the “bread” had much more significance than simply filling one’s stomach.  He equated it with the very words from God’s mouth.  He also made it clear that these words had NOT stopped, that they were still proceeding from His mouth.  (For reasons that are unclear to us, the fact that Father is still speaking is offensive to some.  We apologize if pointing it out is offensive to you.  Hearing God’s voice is a part of mature sonship and one of the most blessed of experiences available to every believer everywhere.  See Hear, O Israel!)

          Each night, we ask Father for our portion of the daily “bread” for the coming day, just as the Lord Jesus instructed.  Everyone, nearly, knows this passage by heart, but how few understand it or pray it on a daily basis!  We are not asking for food for our pantry, or even for money to buy food–we are asking for the very words of God to fall into our heart, for these words are spirit and life to us.  But on the day before the sabbath, we ask for a double portion, so that we will not be required to gather on the sabbath.  Do you understand that the prohibition is not about “not working”?  It is instead about remembering that on God’s sabbath, He intends to pour out of His spirit a double portion of Himself!  It is instead to bear in mind that Father will fulfill that which He has promised for His sons.

          In the later stages of the wilderness journey, YHWH/Jesus made it clear that certain ones would not receive an inheritance of land; instead, they would receive an inheritance of Himself.  In other words, YHWH/Jesus would be their “portion”.  In particular the entire tribe of Levi, consisting of priests and Levites (their priestly assistants/relatives), would have no portion of the land–in their special case, YHWH would be all they needed throughout their generations.

Then the LORD (YHWH) said to Aaron, “ You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.  Numbers 18:20

Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, just as the LORD your God spoke to him.  Deuteronomy 10:9

           In later passages, it can be seen that the double portion was a part of the birthright given to “the firstborn son”.  This should begin to be a clear tip-off that Father’s firstborn Son would receive a double portion, and that all who are in Jesus will have a part in the double portion.  The passage is referring, in context, to the Law of the Unloved Wife, but clearly references the “right of the firstborn” to receive more the material possessions of the father than later children were to receive.

(B)ut he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.  Deuteronomy 21:17 English Standard Version (ESV Online)

         Nevertheless, commencing with the period of time that Stephen called the “church in the wilderness” which others have called the “Passover Age” of the Church, and continuing through the times of the kings of Israel and Judah, the connection between the portion promised by YHWH to the Levites and the double portion right of the firstborn was not made until Elisha was selected to follow in the steps of the prophet Elijah.

          Elisha succeeded Elijah as the prophet to Israel by the instructions God gave to Elijah.  As he was preparing to be taken up to God, Elijah asked Elisha what final gift or deed that might be given or done for Elisha.  His request:  a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.”  2 Kings 2:9-10 ESV

           In the remarkable story that follows, Elisha did indeed see Elijah taken up, and went on to perform 16 miracle/attestation-signs, compared to the 8 performed by Elijah.  The spirit of Elijah was promised to be sent again as the forerunner to Messiah, and Jesus himself confirmed that it had been fulfilled in the person of John the Baptist.  But what has become of the double-portion spirit, which we may refer to as the spirit of Elisha?  In order to understand the comparison of the spirit of Elijah to the spirit of Elisha, we must first see the comparison of the priesthood of Levi’s son, Aaron, to the priesthood of Melchizedek (Malki-Zadok) which has been equated to the new priesthood of Jesus.

          An in-depth comparison is beyond the scope of this post.  But in brief, Aaron’s priesthood was based upon geneological qualifications for priests that have terminating lives; but Melchizedek’s priesthood is “without father or mother”, and lasts forever.  The main difference is that Christ Jesus’ priesthood is based upon the power of an indestructible life–the divine-nature life, zoe,of which we wrote earlier.

          The main point is this:  the Melchizedek priesthood, which is the priesthood of Jesus Christ and the mature sons (offspring) of God, who are sometimes called “overcomers”, who rule with Christ for 1,000 years, operate by the spirit of Elisha, the double-portion spirit that fulfills the promise of Father:  I am your double-portion, promised to the firstborn of creation–Jesus.

          In the well-known and loved–even famous–passage of Isaiah 61, the prophet Isaiah prophesied of the messianic 1000 year reign of Jesus, quoted in part by the Lord Jesus Himself to the extent it was applicable at that time, and speaks of the fulfillment of the double portion in those who aspire to the Melchizedek priesthood with Jesus:

But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.  You will eat the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.  Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion.  Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, everlasting joy will be theirs.  For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering;
And I will faithfully give them their recompense and make an everlasting covenant with them.  Then their offspring will be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples.   All who see them will recognize them because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed.  Isaiah 61:6-9 NASB

Blessed are You, Lord of Hosts, the king of forever, for You have promised to give satisfaction to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and purity of heart for the sons of God.  Bless Your offspring by a double portion of Yourself as an everlasting covenant.  Satisfy all those who desire to enter in where our High Priest goes–first, make them one with Him, even as You and He are one, and second, let them shout for joy over their portion, whose name is Jesus!

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One Day, You WILL Be Holy

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October 9, 2011

Now YHWH said to Moshe (Moses):  And you, speak to the Children of Israel, saying:  However, my Sabbaths you are to keep!  For it is a sign between me and you, throughout your generations, to know that I, YHWH, hallow (“make holy“) you.  You are to keep the Sabbath, for it is holiness for you, …  Exodus 31:13-14a  Schocken Bible

 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:27 English Standard Version Bible (ESV Online)

 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  
Mark 3:1-5 ESV Online

          For all of our readers who are religious “outsiders”, and for all of our readers who despite all of their best efforts are painfully aware of their “un-holiness”, we have some more good news for you:  one day, you WILL be holy.  It is given as a promise directly from the mouth of Father God.  There is a day coming, a day when the Sabbath-sign will be fulfilled, when the holiness that God has stored up for you will be administered by Him to hallow you, or make you holy.  Remember this on a weekly basis, throughout all generations, Father says, for a “day” is coming that I will perform all that I have desired in my children and in my creation–all because of what Jesus has done!

          What is so remarkable and praise-worthy about this is that Father is going to pull this off whether you agree with it or disagree with it, whether you cooperate with it or resist it, whether you run toward it or run away from it.  We believe that when it is your time, you will agree, cooperate and run toward it!  However, for all of you who insist upon the supremacy of human will over God’s will, we say this:  we suggest you agree, cooperate and run toward it sooner than later–you’ll be glad you did!  For all the rest of us, here is all that Father God requires:  REMEMBER the Sabbath, and when I make you holy, KEEP it that way.  In other words, YOU are holy, not the day!  Therefore, rejoice in your holiness!

          Our “take” on the Sabbath and its meaning is not new–it is the reason the religious insiders of Jesus’ day were so angry with Him.  That is why Jesus said, “the Sabbath was made FOR man.”  Somehow the Israelites, and later the Judahites (Jews), confused the importance of what Father intended for man and instead placed the emphasis of holiness on the day.  Somehow, we humans always manage to put the emphasis on the wrong syl-LAB-le.  In the next verse in Mark 3, the reaction of the religious leaders to the man’s hand being restored is stated:

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him (Jesus), how to destroy him.  Mark 3:6 ESV Online

          It is NOT the day of the week that is important.  That is why the apostle Paul said each man could decide what day of the week that man wanted to remember as the Sabbath.  Whatever day–even if it is every day–was selected, it was to be honoring to God.

 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.   Romans 14:5-6 ESV Online

          Although it is not the day of our worship, we prefer to set aside the traditional Shabbat for our observation and remembrance of the coming fulfillment; that is, from Friday evening at sundown until Saturday evening at sundown.  For us, it is a special day to rejoice, to give thanks, to lift up and extol the name of our living God, to do good in the name of Jesus to others.  In short, to do what we see our Savior doing and say what we hear our Savior saying until the time when He is ready to make us holy. 

          Students of prophecy believe that the coming “day”, the Sabbath of God, is the great millenial (1,000 years) reign of Messiah and the overcomers upon the earth.  In God’s timekeeping, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.  See 2 Peter 3:8.  Biblical chronology lists the years that have passed as approximately 6,000, or on God’s clock, six days.  Thus, the next 1,000 years, will be the seventh “day”, or the Shabbat, the day of rest.  It is for this reason that Jesus (and Father) could be “working” and not be in violation of God’s law–it was not the Sabbath according to Father’s timekeeping.

          To prove that the seventh day of each week is NOT the fulfillment, but only the picture or foreshadow of the fulfillment, we can look as the word “sign” as used in the opening verse.  In Hebrew, the word is‘owth, and means a signal, an omen, a token; in other words, something that portends or illustrates a greater event or truth.  This is the word used to describe the rainbow, which God gave as a “token of the covenant” (in the King James Version) which He made with man and every living creature not to flood the earth again.  When the Judahites made the weekday holy, they ignored the ‘owth aspect of what God said.  This was directly attributable to their hardness of heart, as is clear from the passage in Mark 3.

          As a result, many of the rest of us have come to regard Father as angry and vengeful, ready to kill all of the “unbelievers” when Jesus comes back.  The sentiment is:  “Jesus is coming soon, and boy, is He mad!”  There is really no disagreement to speak of about Jesus’ return beginning the 1,000 year Sabbath reign; instead, the disagreement is over what He is going to do when He gets here.  But Jesus answered that question with His own question:  Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?  Later He answered the question:  So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.  Therefore, as a sign, or a signal or token, the Sabbath is not merely a prohibition against work, but an indicator of something good, something that creates life, that is coming from Father.

           Dear reader, do you see the obvious contradiction?  To the religious insiders, it was not lawful to do good and heal the man’s hand, but in their view it was lawful to plan to kill the Author of Life!  Typical with the religious insiders (hypocrisy aside), they had it exactly backwards.  It IS lawful to save lives and do good on the Sabbath.  Therefore when Jesus (and Father) were doing good and saving lives, they were not violating Father’s law against “work” on the Sabbath, even if it occurred on a Sabbath day according to man’s timekeeping.  What is NOT lawful is to do harm (or fail to do good when it is within your power to do so) on the Sabbath.  It is not lawful to murder at any time, whether on the Sabbath or not.

          What then shall we expect when the great Millennial Sabbath from Father arrives?  Will it be lawful for Father to do harm or kill the vast majority of the world’s population during the so-called “Great Tribulation” when Father commences to judge the sinful world?   (To be fair, some of those expecting the great tribulation to occur in the future do not count their version of the tribulation period as a part of the 1,000 years, but as the last part of the age preceding it.  However, they completely ignore the Sabbath aspect of the time period and the fall feasts of the Lord:  the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement and the feast of booths, and their corresponding Sabbaths, not to mention the actual commencement of the seventh 1,000-year period, since in their view, “no man knows the hour.”)

          Setting aside all the technical disputes surrounding the Great Tribulation theory, will Father disregard His own law and kill and/or do harm as He is widely expected to do, which the religious insiders refer to as “righteous judgment”?  We are happy to announce that Father keeps His own law, and even happier to announce Father is about to save lives and do good on a scale never before seen among mankind!  During this time, all mankind will see that to which Jesus was referring when He said, “For God so LOVED the world…”  We believe that when Father fulfills the sign of the Sabbath, He will release mercy in the entire world, fulfilling also the word of the psalmist:  His mercy endureth forever.

          In order to carry out the kind of judgments which the future-tribulationists claim, Father would have to violate His own law–something He never does!  (And why would He or should He?  He is both all-knowing and all-powerful.  ALL of His LAW is intended to demonstrate His LOVE.)  No, when that 1,000-year “day” begins, everyone everywhere in the world will begin to see and know Father as He truly is, and has always been.   We believe this is the wisdom of Father to draw all men to Himself, leading men to repentance.  It is the kindness of God that leads to repentance.  Romans 2:4 

          When this process is completed (which may, by the way, extend beyond the 1,000 years), everyone everywhere will have been made HOLY, just as He promised:  “I, YHWH, hallow you.”

Blessed are You, O Lord, our wonderful God, for You have given us the sign of Shabbat, as a promise of holiness in You, Father, through the sacrifice of Jesus, who paid our sin debt that He did not owe and that we could not pay.  May Your kingdom come.

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The Law of The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus

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August 13, 2011

Jesus, your lovingkindness is life that’s changing my heart, drawing me near….to you.  Your love is better than life, I know it well.  And I’ll find all that I need in you.  Hillsong United, Your Love, 1997 Copyright

         It is a most unfortunate practice prevalent in almost all English translations and paraphrases of the New Testament that different words in the original Greek text are translated using only one English word.  Probably the most well-known example is “love” which is used in place of three different Greek words.   Such practice renders the texts confusing at best, and misleading at worst.  A lesser known example of such a word is “life.”  The above popular Hillsong song is an illustration of our point.

         Take a look at what has been done with “life”–click on the “LexiConc” tab next to “Primary Results”.  In short, there are at least six different root nouns each translated “life.”  We will consider only a couple of them in this post.

          The first word is “bios“, from which we get our words “biology”, “biosphere”, and “biography”.  It refers to created, natural life that has come to each person through our common ancestor, Adam.  It is finite, or has an ending, and originates in this realm.  There are different levels of “bios”.  Starting with human bios, there is a lower level of animal bios, and below that, plant bios.  In the same way, there is created life higher than human bios, and it is angelic bios or “life”, since angels are also created beings.  (We have for purposes of simplicity combined all forms of angelic life into one level, although we believe there are actually several levels of angelic life.)  The scriptures say that man has been created lower than the angels, for a little while. 

          Now take a look at the ficus tree or ivy in your home.  Let’s say that the ficus knows the words and the tune to the famous Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.  And let’s say that the ficus wants, with all of its being, to sing them.  The ficus has a problem:  it has no lungs with which to draw in air, so that it can expel the air through its vocal cords (that it also doesn’t have) to form words with its lips (that it also doesn’t have).  You see, in our silly example, that the ficus lacks the capacity to sing–the capacity to sing is not indigenous to its species.  The same is true, to a lesser extent, for your dog, even though it is one level of bios higher than the plant.

            The second word we’ll consider is “zoe.”  It refers to life that is NOT created, that is endless and indestructible–in short, it is divine life.  Zoe is higher than angelic bios, since Zoe has no beginning and no end.  Here is the critical point:  it is not from this realm, but is from the heavenly realm–from your heavenly Father, to be precise.  Thus, it is holy, righteous, and perfect.  In the Bible, it is usually referred to with a number of different adjectives, such as “eternal life”, or “everlasting life”, or “abundant life”.  These adjectives do not describe so much Zoe’s duration as they describe its species!

          Just like the ficus in our examle, your bios, dear reader, is at least two life forms lower than the life form that exists in Father and in His son, Jesus the messiah.  Divine life is not indigenous to our species!  Furthermore, our life form simply does not have the capacity needed to be holy, righteous and perfect.  (We sincerely apologize to all who are struggling mightily to be holy, righteous and perfect–if you arrive there, please let us know!  And we also apologize to anyone who has been told by their church or denomination that they CAN get there, if they would just have faith, or try harder, or whatever, but whoever told you it depends upon your effort was wrong.)  Like the ficus, we may know the “words” and the “tune”, and we may want with all of our heart to be holy, but the capacity is simply not there.

          Jesus did not come, live, die, be resurrected, and leave simply to tell you to try harder to live according to divine Zoe.  He knows it is not indigenous to your species–He CREATED your species!  Instead, He came to IMPART HIS ZOE INTO YOUR BIOS.  What we are talking about here is a change roughly comparable to enabling the poor ficus to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, and to sing it better than anyone has ever heard it sung!   Anyone, anywhere, who wants to, can become a partaker of His divine nature!  Now, let’s look at the Hillsong verses again with a better translation:

Jesus, your lovingkindness is life (zoe) that’s changing my heart, drawing me near….to you.  Your love is better than life (bios), I know it well.  And I’ll find all that I need in you. 

          Hasn’t God commanded us to be holy?  Actually, before the cross it was a command; after the cross it is a promise.  And so we come to the Law of the Spirit of Life (zoe) in Christ Jesus.   Look at these amazing words:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  Romans 8:1-2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

          The author of these words, the apostle Paul, is making the point in the eighth chapter of Romans that the Torah, the comandments given to Moses and Israel at Mount Sanai had a fatal weakness:  it couldn’t do away with sin permanently.  So God sent Jesus as a final offering for sin to accomplish the satisfaction of the law, and at the same time, provided for the imbuement of His own nature into those who believe in Him.  This nature, His own “zoe”, once imparted would inexhorably accomplish the requirement of the Torah within the believer.

For what the Law (of Moses) could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.  Romans 8:3-4

          The Law of the spirit of life (zoe) in Christ Jesus was not a part of the Torah given to Israel, but a higher law, one that did not originate “through the flesh”.   Do we not say:  two things are certain in life (bios)–death and taxes.  Actually, it would be better to say, death and sin.  The laws of Torah were not able to overcome these certainties, because they (sin and death) were higher laws.  In the same way, the law of the spirit of life (zoe) is such a higher law, but one even higher than sin and death.

          Think of the law of gravity as similar comparison:  you can defeat the law of gravity for a period of time, but eventually you must succumb to its inexhorable effects.  In the same way, the law of the spirit of zoe in Christ Jesus cannot be ultimately overcome; instead, IT OVERCOMES.  Its effects are continuous–and those effects are freedom from sin and death.  Moreover, while it is at work, it is changing your heart, drawing you nearer and nearer to Him, and fulfilling the law of Torah, all of God’s commandments, in your heart!  Do you see, dear reader, why we sing of Him and of His lovingkindness?  There is simply nothing more wonderful than this good news–for all who will trust Him to do it, He will give you His own nature, and that nature will eventually change you into His likeness with an unending divine life!  It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done–choose life, the divine zoe of Jesus.

Blessed are you, O Lord of Life, and blessed are You, Father, for the wonderful gifts of Life You have ordained for all mankind.  Open the eyes and the hearts of our readers–may they have this Life and have it more abundantly!

 

 

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Losing or Gaining Citizenship

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July 17, 2011

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.

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More on Missing the Mark

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July 16, 2011

And you, being dead to your offenses and sins, in which once you walked, in accord with the eon of this world,… Ephesians 2:1 Concordant Version of the New Testament 

          One of our readers, Dave, has commented on Notes on Missing The Mark with several criticisms that we gratefully view as constructive.  His general observation is that hamartia is a noun (which we contend the apostle John meant as legal offenses against God’s law), and hamartano is a verb (which we contend John meant as missing the mark).  Therefore, since the noun and the verb derive from the same basic word, they should not be interpreted with such markedly divergent meanings.  We think it is fair to say that Dave’s chief objection to the post is the view that one may miss the mark without committing a legal offense against God’s law.  Here is Dave’s comment in his own words:

“Scripture does not divide sin between small failures and legal condemnations.  Even small things are deserving of unending death (Matthew 5:21-22) precisely because any sin at all is not just a failing (“missing the mark” in your nomenclature) but enmity towards God.  (Romans 5:10)”  (scripture references cited by Dave)

          We wish to clearly state at the outset that Dave’s opinion represents the mainstream; that is, it is the predominant view of most of the Church today.  Our view is NOT the mainstream; we trust God will change the Church’s collective mind when He is ready.  Because of this fact, we intend for this post to give an account for the faith we have, with gentleness and reverence, for it is based upon hearing God’s word, knowing God’s mind, and rightly dividing the word of truth. 

           Setting aside for the moment the manner of punishment, does God punish all wrongdoing the same?  The idea that He does is essentially a priori, meaning that it is not based upon experience  and observation, but instead is based upon thought.  It appears nowhere in nature or in any civilization (even where sharia law is practiced), and no one would seriously argue that any father should execute his child for disobediently sneaking a cookie.  In the same way, no one would seriously argue that the punishment for stealing a cookie should be the same as for stealing a car.  Indeed, no one in the Church can accuse Father of treating themselves or anyone else in such fashion.  Finally, such an idea does not appear in Scripture, as we shall see; rather, the witness of Scripture is that the punishment fits the crime.

          One cannot rightly divide the word of truth in the New Testament by disregarding the Old Testament, specifically God’s laws and His teachings.  Most, if not all, of the New Testament had underpinnings from the Old Testament.  Think about it:  when the Lord Jesus referred to “the Scriptures”,  to what was He referring?  (See, for example, Matthew 21:42, Matthew 22:29, Matthew 26:54, and Luke 4:21.)  The concepts of sin and punishment did not originate in the New Testament.  Instead, they were part of the careful, continuing and unfolding revelation from Father that was delivered by Moses to the Church in the wilderness which gave specific instructions to restore the lawful order depending upon each situation–that is, the Old Testament, in general and Torah, in particular.  These instructions have been abandoned today as hopelessly irrelevant with not even the slightest thought to what was in Father’s mind when He gave them to the people.

          In Leviticus 4:2-3, if a person sinned (chata, a Hebrew verb) unintentionally or in ignorance, a bull was to be offered to YHWH (chatta’ath, a Hebrew  noun), the blood sprinkled upon the altar, the blood applied to the horns of the altar, the fat and the kidneys offered up in smoke (just like the Sacred Gift of Greeting of which we wrote earlier), and the rest of the bull removed to a clean place outside the camp and burned.  See by comparison, Leviticus 6:1-7, where the guilty party not only takes an animal to the priest to be offered up, he must also “make restitution” and add one-fifth to the amount in controversy.  This is where the guilty party comes forward on his own; if he is caught before he repents, he is to pay double according to Exodus 22:3-4.  If he has no means to make restitution, he is sold into bondage to pay the debt, for all sin is a debt.  For other crimes against Father and man, the matters were presented to the local leaders, who were to judge all men fairly without partiality and bribes, regard to wealth, and status as a citizen or alien.  Exodus 23:1-9 

          Where the misdemeanor warranted it, a man was to be beaten on the spot, but with the important limitation that the strokes could not exceed forty, “so that…your brother is not degraded in your eyes.”    Deuteronomy 25:1-3  When a culprit refused to submit to the judge’s decision, or in the case of a felony, the culprit was stoned and submitted to Father for correction.  See, for example, Deuteronomy 17:12 and Deuteronomy 19:11-13.  Much more could be said about the restorative and corrective nature of God’s laws and instructions.  However, the point is, not all wrongdoing is to be punished the same by Father, unless Father is guilty of instructing us to do one thing while He does another.  This is a grievous charge, and we insist that Father is innocent of it.  Romans 3:4

          Dear reader, note the verse with which we began this post:  do you think Paul, the author, was being intentionally redundant by saying “offenses and sins” or was he trying to describe two different things?  Take a look at this page and ask yourself if all the different Hebrew and Greek words for which “sin” is given as a gloss definition really mean the same thing.  (Hint:  click on the tab next to “Primary Results” that says “LexiConc.”)  You do not need to be the proud owner of The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon to see that different meanings are intended both in substance and in effect.  Open your heart to the teaching and leading of the Lord Spirit–He will lead you into the truth of it as you dig deeper.  Frankly, most of the time such fine tools will confirm His leading.  Can you see that to ascribe the punishment of “unending death” to every offense and every missing of the mark is “degrading your brother in your eyes”? Understand the reason for the rule and you will see that it doesn’t matter who administers the punishment, whether God or man.  Father wants us to judge with mercy, not degradation.

          Back to hamartia and hamartano:  we contend that you can miss the mark without committing a legal offense against God’s law, but you cannot commit a legal offense without missing the mark, also.  We also contend the apostle John wrote from a Hebrew background and understanding of Torah and the sacrifice system.  He understood that His Lord (and yours) had fulfilled the laws of that system, because He said that He had come to accomplish that very thing–not to abolish those laws.

          Approximately 250 years before the common era, also called the Christian era (“B.C.E.”) that commenced with the birth of Messiah Jesus, a translation of various books now comprising the Old Testament into Greek from the original Hebrew was undertaken in Egypt.  It is called the “Septuagint”.  Although not entirely without controversy, it does provide a basis for comparison of Greek and Hebrew words that cannot be claimed to have a pro-Christian bias, since it was accomplished about two centuries before Christ was born.  Using this tool, anyone who cares to dig deeply enough can see how the translators used hamartia and hamartano.  That is, by finding the places where the translators used those two Greek words, we can see if they agreed with Dave’s position.  In other words, did the translators ever use hamartano (the verb) in more than one way?  The answer is:  yes, they did.

          Without exception, the translators used hamartia (legal offenses) in place of the Hebrew noun chatta’ath in every instance the latter word appears in the Old Testament.  This remarkable consistency is even more noteworthy when we understand that chatta’ath itself means not only the sin, (that is, the offense), but also is used to mean the sin offering, or that which was offered to God to expiate the offense.  This bears witness to the wonderful truth that Christ became sin (chatta’ath) in order to become the sin offering (chatta’ath) for us and in our place!

          Now for the verb (chata) from which the noun (chatta’ath) derives:  In approximately 93 different verses where the original Hebrew word is chata, the translators used a word other than hamartano;  and in approximately 56 different verses, hamartano was used where the original Hebrew word was NOT chata!    All of these examples are too numerous to list here.  The point is, the ancient translators felt that hamartano had a broader range of meanings than simply the one word we now call “sin”.  Therefore, we are justified in assigning a broader meaning to the verb hamartano to allow for a range of the degree of severity.  Furthermore, we may loosely refer to this assignment of meaning as a “translation” without intending the technical usage of scholarly translation, although scholarship vindicates the meaning we have assigned.

          We are sincerely grateful to Dave, because he required us to dig in and prove that which we have believed.  No part of the body of Christ is less important than any other part, and when one part hurts, the whole body hurts.  In the same way, no man hates his own body, or says to one part “I have no need of you”, but instead nourishes and cherishes it–all  of it.  For the word of the Lord is:  He will be all in all.  Praise you, Lord!

Blessed are You, O Lord, our wonderful and giving God, who knew no sin or offenses, and who was offered up for all of our failures!  All men will rise up and call you righteous, wise and blessed!  Thank you for always leaving us a witness, lover of our souls.  Baruch ata.

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Notes on The Judgments of the Church and the Impact in the World

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June 12, 2011

I will give you [all] the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.  Matthew 16:19 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

          Most people read the Lord’s words above, and the companion passage in Matthew 18:18, as an intellectual curiosity, as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, or as if He were saying, “If you care to receive it…”  Like a great deal of what the Lord says, this too is a statement of fact.  In other words, He has given to His body, the Church, the keys of the kingdom of heaven–have the keys been used by the Church, and if so, how?  Yes, they have, but not very well.  Plainly stated, many of the conditions that exist in the world today are the direct result of the judgments of the Church.  In this post, we shall look at a few of the Church’s judgments, and consider the result in the earth.

          The word “judgment” may be defined as the ability to judge, make a decision or form an opinion objectively, authoritatively, and wisely.  Therefore, if a significant portion of the Church, across all denominations, practices, and affiliations, forms a common doctrinal opinion, God receives this as a judgment of the Church and allows it to out-work in the earth.

          Church Judgment:  God will judge the “goats” of Matthew 25 with everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, which will neither go out nor will be quenched by the worm.  In other words, those who fail to meet the doctrinal qualifications of each particular denomination’s creed, such as “trust Jesus”, or be “born again” or be baptized for the remission of sins, or be baptized with the Holy Spirit, or whatever, will be tortured in hell with torment and anguish forever.

          Result in the Earth:  Torture is utilized by all governments of the world, including the United States of America.  The government’s apparent justification is:  the enemy is going to hell anyway, so in order to “save lives”, we will give them a preview by torture.

          Church Judgment:  The Church is unable or unwilling to birth the manchild; i.e., Christ in you, to fulfill the law of the deceased brother; instead we have only passed gas, or as Isaiah says, given birth to wind.

          Result in the Earth:  Abortion has been legalized in America and everywhere else in the world.  Some even view it as desirable as a method of population control.  That it is not in the interest of the political movement who endorses it (abortion) may be seen in the fact that after one generation its proponents are outnumbered by pro-family forces whose children are now of voting age.  Those new voters who would be pro-abortion are dead, having been aborted.  Regrettably however, abortion shall continue until the Church’s judgment is overruled or replaced.

          Church Judgment: When Jesus returns, he will hack and hew His enemies to death with the sword coming from His mouth–in just judgment for the enemies’ disobedience, or for merely being His enemies.  The blood will run as deep as a horse’s bridle.

          Result in the Earth:  All armies of the world, including the United States, have soldiers who hack, hew, dismember and otherwise deliberately commit atrocities against their “enemies” (meaning, anyone unfortunate enough to be in the way).  Anyone who protests these actions is accused of “not supporting the troops” in an Orwellian display of false patriotism.  Moreover, because the atrocities are not widespread enough and are even covered up in secret (to further mirror the hypocrisy of the Church), most people refuse to see the connection.  There were hundreds of reporters in Viet Nam–only one reported the My Lai massacre. 

          The problem with this particular judgment is that it stems from a failure to understand what the Lord Jesus was saying, and the mindset with which He was saying it.  Instead, by projecting man’s fallen nature upon Him, the end result is a false accusation against the Lord Jesus of the worst sort.  Isaiah and Hosea both made it clear that the “sword coming from His mouth” refers to the words of His mouth, with which He will bring conviction and repentance upon His “enemies”, so-called.  His purpose:  to draw all men to Himself.

  He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a select arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver.  Isaiah 49:2  NASB

Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.  Hosea 6:5 NASB

          Church Judgment:  “Israel” has returned to the land (God’s house) apart from the bonds of marriage to YHWH/Jesus Christ.  The Jewish nation has been given/taken the name “Israel” and since 1948 has occupied the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

          Result in the Earth:  Since 1948, it has become legally acceptable for men and women to live together without being married; i.e., since the Church is shacking up with Israel, it is permissible for everyone else to do likewise.  Zionist Christians fail to understand that the rotten figs of Judah have taken the name that belongs exclusively to the sons of Joseph.

          Church Judgment:  God is not omnipotent and only exercises limited sovereignty, because He will not override man’s free will.  Therefore, God doesn’t really SEND people to hell–they CHOOSE it themselves, because they chose not to trust Jesus to save them.

          Result in the Earth:  God answers according to the false idol:  a distorted image of God.  Among the Christian community, lives are in chaos, suicides are increasing, the divorce rate is climbing, and backsliding is increasing, and the love of many is waxing cold.  See David Wilkerson’s article from 1985:  God’s Grief Over His People.   We do not doubt that Father is grieving.  But the answer is found in Ezekiel 14:4–God will answer according to the multitude of the Church’s idols, in order to lay hold of the hearts thus estranged from Him.  If the Church wants Father to override man’s free will, it must change its attitude about God.  In the meantime, the Church is receiving what it decreed for mankind; i.e., it is being judged by its own words.

          Church Judgment:  In the name of religious freedom, it is permissible to have different denominations, teaching different doctrines and even opposing doctrines–in effect, to divide Christ.

          Result in the Earth:  America, like a double-minded man, has been unstable in all its ways since its beginning–divided, tossed to and fro like the surf of the sea tossed by the wind.  When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, they sought religious freedom, wanting to worship according to their understanding of the Bible–a reasonable desire.  However, when the colonists landed at Jamestown, their motto was (in a manner of speaking):  It’s the economy, stupid.  (The campaign slogan that swept President Clinton into office.)  Since the very beginning, our country has been divided between the religious and the secular.  And so the power swings back and forth, to and fro, with each election, one side or the other obtaining the ascendancy.  We say again, the judgment will continue until it is overruled by Father or changed by the Church.

Blessed are You, O Lord our wonderful God, for You have entrusted to the body of Christ the keys of the kingdom of Heaven.  Teach us Lord Your ways, and teach us how to judge rightly and by so doing, to turn the world upside right.

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Lord, who believes our tidings?

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October 10, 2010

Yet, after His having done so many signs in front of them, they believed not in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he said, may be being fulfilled, “Lord, who believes our tidings?  And the arm of the Lord, to whom was it revealed?”  Therefore they could not believe, seeing that Isaiah said again that He “has blinded their eyes and callouses their heart, lest they may be perceiving with their eyes, and should be apprehending with their heart, and may be turning about, and I shall be healing them”.  John 12:37-40 Concordant New Testament

          Lord, who believes our tidings?  It is quite impossible to comprehend the restoration of all things apart from illumination by the Holy Spirit.  If you have seen it dear reader, but no one will believe your glad tidings, do not become discouraged. 

           The careful reader will observe that prophecy is “being fulfilled”, and the same prophecy may have application to different people in different generations at different times.  In the case of Isaiah’s prophecy (Chapter 53 and Chapter 6) it was initially applied to Judah and Jerusalem in Isaiah’s day, then again by the Lord Jesus to Judah and Jerusalem during His first coming.  We believe it has been being fulfilled from that day until our day on a worldwide basis.  As with all prophecies, there comes a final fulfillment.  And after that, there comes a day when they may be perceiving with their eyes and be apprehending with their heart, and may be turning about, and He shall be healing them.  We are saying that day commences the restoration of all things. 

          We also say that until such time, God bears the responsibility for “blinding their eyes and callousing their heart”.  It is offensive enough to most of the modern church that unbelievers, along with the rest of creation, will be restored–that is, that they will not be punished by burning eternally or (somewhat more charitably) merely annihilated.  But to acknowledge that the Lord Jesus attributed the blindness of the world to Himself is beyond the most generous sensibilities of the modern church.  These words are troubling for those who feel man’s free will is the highest and most powerful force in the universe and that God’s justice requires Him to punish forever unbelievers: 

Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, “You will keep on hearing but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return”, and I would heal them.   Matthew 13:13-15  NASB

          Because Isaiah’s prophecy ends with “and be healed” (see for yourself in Isaiah 6), we believe the Lord Jesus ended His quote with “return” (there are no quotation marks in the original Greek).  The last five words were the Lord’s conclusion, not part of the quote from Isaiah.  Basically, the Lord was saying, “Father and I do not want them to see, perceive, hear, comprehend, understand, and repent, because if they did, I WOULD HEAL THEM.”   A time has been set by Father for this healing, and it was not in Isaiah’s time, and it was not during the Lord’s first coming, and has not occurred yet.  But one day it will occur, at which time He will heal them of their sin condition (symbolized by leprosy in the Bible).

          Until that time, all who have been blinded, who cannot see, whose hearts have become dull, are God’s responsibility, because He has blinded them.  The Lord Jesus said so; first, through Isaiah, then Himself, then finally through John.  This fact has been legally established by the Law of the Double Witness.  Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16  Under the Law of the Blinded Servant, God must set free all whom He has blinded for the sake of their eye, or their ear, or their heart, etc.:

If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go on account of his eye.  Exodus 21:26

          Are all men the slaves of God?  Yes, under the Law of Redemption, Jesus Christ paid on the cross the sin debt of all men.  Because all men are dying, all men have committed legal offenses (hamartia), and also have missed the mark (hamartano), therefore each and every man has a sin debt.  When the debt of a man is paid by the kinsman redeemer, that man is transferred to the one paying the debt and thus becomes the slave of the redeemer.  Leviticus 25:47-55  The man shall be a slave to kinsman redeemer until the set time when the slave is set free.

          And so, some will be believing our tidings, and some will not.  Perhaps most will not.  But one day, they will.  Until then, dear reader, keep on loving!  As Dr. Stephen Jones has so eloquently stated it:  “There are only two kinds of people in the world; believers, and future believers!”

Blessed are You, O Lord, our wonderful God, our healing God, YHWH Rapha.  You are the God that healeth us.  Blessed is Your holy name forever!

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The Release Of The Spirit

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September 19, 2010

Now if any person sins in error, from among the people of the land, by doing one (thing) regarding the commandments of YHWH that should not be done, and incurs guilt, or it is made known to him the sin that he sinned; he is to bring as his near-offering a hairy-one of goats, wholly-sound, female, for the sin whereby he sinned.  He is to lean his hand on the head of the (sin)-offering and is to slay the (sin)-offering, at the place of the offering-up.  The priest is to take some of the blood of the (sin)-offering with his finger and is to put (it) on the horns of the slaughter-site of offering-up; all (the rest of) its blood he is to pour out at the foundation of the slaughter-site of offering-up.  All of its fat, he is to remove, as was removed the fat from upon the slaughter-offering of shalom, and the priest is to turn it into smoke on the slaughter-site, as a soothing savor for YHWH; thus the priest is to effect-purgation for him, and he shall be granted-pardon.  Leviticus 4:27-31 Schocken Bible

There is not to be for the Levitical priests–the entire tribe of Levi–any portion or inheritance with Israel; the fire-offerings of YHWH, and his inheritance, they may eat.  But a (normal) inheritance he may not have, in the midst of his brothers, YHWH is his inheritance, as He promised him.  Now this shall be the regulated-share of the priests from the people, from the slaughterers of slaughter-offerings, whether of ox or sheep:  the priest is to be given the shankbone, the jawbone and the rough-stomach.  Deuteronomy 18:1-3 Schocken Bible

          In these verses we have a fairly complete foreshadow and type of the intercessory work of Christ Jesus, and all in His body who desire the work of the unending priesthood.  On the cross, He paid the price, once for all, for the hamartia–legal offenses/sin of all of mankind of all ages and times.  His substitionary work of atonement fully satisfied and satisfactorily fulfilled all of God’s laws and commandments.  Having become obedient to the point of death, Father raised Him from the dead and seated Him as our high priest at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty, just as He said. Hebrews 8:1  In this regard, Jesus has received a more excellent ministry than of the Levitical priesthood, being of the Melchizadek priesthood.  He is able also to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25  It is this intercession which we now consider, not only by Christ, the high priest, but also by others of the Melchizadek priesthood.

          The intercession in the heavenly places is, of course, much better than sacrifices of bulls and goats, which have never been more than a type or shadow of better promises to come.  That there would be wrongdoing that required intercession did not catch God by surprise; in fact, He planned it!  For the duration of the time of resistance to God’s will, men would continue to miss the mark–hamartano–because they are made of dying flesh.  Sin (hamartia) and death entered the world through Adam and on this basis all men have missed the mark (hamartano) and continue to do so.  Romans 5:12  Dear reader, you may feel this is quite a controversial statement, but if you believe sin causes death and not vice versa, ask yourself this:  Is the baby in the womb immortal, and does it have no dying cells?  Without meaning any offense to anyone’s religion, common observation leads to the inescapable conclusion that all who are of flesh (and that is pretty much everyone we know) are afflicted with missing the mark.

          To understand the intercession and its effects, we must look at the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain, and the regulations given to him for the Levitical priesthood as a fore-shadowing of the greater priesthood to come.  In a nutshell, here is how it worked:  the individual brought the animal to the priest, and laid his hand upon the animal’s head.  The sin was thus transferred to the animal.  The sin/animal was then killed, and its blood applied to the altar, foreshadowing Christ.  The fat was turned into smoke by burning on the altar that was a soothing savor to YHWH/Jesus–this is the focus of our post.  Parts of the sin/animal were then cooked by the priest and eaten.  Now the priest has ingested and digested the sin/animal–do you see, dear reader, that the priest has in a sense become the sin brought to him by the individual?  The priest has tasted, in a sense, the sin of the individual, and now may make intercession for the individual by the fat, the surplus, the extravagant extra that it represents, that is offered up in smoke.  

          In Leviticus 10:12 Moses had just instructed Aaron and his sons to eat part of the sin/animal offering, but they failed to do so for reasons that are not important here.  The rebuke of Moses in verse 17 is very instructive for our purposes:

Why did you not eat the sin offering at the holy place?  For it is most holy, and He gave it to you to bear away the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord.

          “Tasting” of the sin/animal facilitated the means of intercession by which the guilt of the individual was borne away!  By this the priest made atonement (“effect-purgation” in our passage) (Strong’s Concordance H3722–kaphar).  Literally, this means “to cover” or “to cover over.”  Please notice the all-important outcome:  he shall be granted-pardon.  Do you see now the wonderful outcome of the intercession our ever-living Savior makes for us as our great High Priest?  Praise you, Lord!  

          If your heart is moved by these words to intercede for others, you must be willing to “taste” of the sickness, the disease, or the missing of the mark, or its effects, somehow to identify with the wrongdoing, at least in part, just as Christ took our sins upon Himself (and perhaps, in some cases, to the same extent–this is between you and your Lord).  The world and most of the Church see this as a “waste”, and unnecessary extravagance; some would say it nullifies the effect of the cross.  We will not argue the point–however, in reality it is the fat of the offering, that belongs exclusively to God.  Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-4 prove to us that its smoke is symbolic of the prayers of the saints/holy ones.  It is by these prayers that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him but who dwells in you (John 14:17), is released to effect pardon.  He will glorify the Lord Jesus, but are you aware that He does not speak on his own initiative?  John 16:13  Jesus emphasized that it was for our advantage that the Helper would be sent to us and what His work would be, especially in helping us to pray as we ought.  Romans 8:26-27

          Dear reader, how often are you the recipient of someone else’s wrongdoing, how often are you the offended one?  Have you considered that God especially arranged for you to “taste” of the sin, so that you could by intercession release the Spirit and effectuate the granting of pardon?  Moreover, it is not simply God’s plan to keep granting pardon over and over; instead, it is to release the Spirit of truth so that the offending party can learn it is wrong and come into obedience to the Savior, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  It is a matter of law that only the offended party can release the wrongdoing, and much more could be said about this aspect.  For now, we leave it at this:  the friends of Jesus know the mind of their King, and may be trusted to join in His work and effectuate the release of the Spirit. 

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who allows men to be in the body of Christ and have a part in this Melchizadek ministry of intercession by which Your mercy triumphs over Your judgment.  You do all things well, Father!  Men will praise You joyfully forever.  All blessing, and honor, and glory and power belong to You, our wonderful God.

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Notes on Reuben’s Disqualification

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July 11, 2010

 Now there were twelve sons of Jacob–the sons of Leah:  Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun; the sons of Rachel:  Joseph and Benjamin; and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid:  Gad and Asher.  These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-Aram.  Genesis 35:22 NASB

          It is important to note that Jacob had twelve sons, not just one.  These twelve sons and their descendants properly make up the twelve tribes of Israel.  In modern times attention is given to only one tribe, the tribe of Judah, properly known as Judahites, often shortened to “Jews”.  The national name of Israel would properly belong to Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, who would have inherited the birthright and with it the national name.  However, as we shall see, Reuben lost the privilege of inheriting the birthright; instead, it was given to Rachel’s grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph.  The descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh have the legal right to the national name of “Israel”.  No other tribe or group of tribes may usurp this birthright.  The name “Israel” was given to Jacob, and he alone had the right to give it to whom he wanted, and he did so.  Along with the right to the use of the name, the birthright included the blessing of great prosperity.

The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads (Ephraim and Manasseh); and may my name live on in them, and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.  Genesis 48:16

          We may be certain that the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh have indeed grown into a multitude, and are alive and well in the midst of the earth as Jacob prophesied.  The same is true for the other tribes of Israel.  Although at present they may be unaware of their posterity, God knows each and every one.  In Isaiah 49, Isaiah recounted how the Lord honored him by using him to regather the northern tribes after their captivity to Assyria, and to be a light to the nations so that God’s salvation would “reach to the end of the earth.”  In doing this, Isaiah would become a type of Messiah Jesus who will in time fulfill the prophecy completely.  In fact, in answer to Zion’s specific complaint that “the Lord has forgotten me”, YHWH replied a woman will forget her nursing child and fail to have compassion upon him, but the names of His people He will never forget.

Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.  Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.  Isaiah 49:15-16 NASB

          Dear reader, the God who has named every star in the universe has no problem keeping track of a few billion people and their ancestries; in fact, He has no problem keeping track of many billion people and their ancestries!  To put it bluntly:  the “lost tribes” of Israel are not lost at all.

          So, what happened to Reuben?   The story is not very long and what we have is not good.  Jacob was quite a bit older than Rachel when Laban, Rachel’s and Leah’s father, tricked Jacob into marrying Leah, the oldest daughter.  In fact, Leah and Rachel were quite young when they were given in marriage to Jacob.  Bilhah and Zilpah, the servant girls of Leah and Rachel, were even younger and were perhaps even children at the time of the marriages of Leah and Rachel.  As the servant girls grew older, they became concubines or slave-wives of Jacob, also.  We believe, therefore, that Leah’s oldest son, Reuben, and Bilhah were close in age.  We don’t know who instigated what, but here’s what happened:

It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.  Genesis 35:22

Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; so that he is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright.  Though Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came the Leader, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph),…  1 Chronicles 5:1

          Clearly the right of rulership, the kingship dominion or what may be called “the scepter”, belongs to a Descendant of Judah (His name is Jesus), yet the birthright belonged to Joseph.  In his last days, Jacob (now re-named “Israel” by the angel with whom he wrestled) spoke directly to Reuben about his sin.

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.  Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it–he went up to my couch.  Genesis 39:3-4

          The Hebrew word for “defiled” in the passage is chalal (Strong’s Concordance H2490).  According to Spiro Zodhiates, “The core meaning of this root and its history in cognate languages is rather uncertain.  There are eighty-three uses of this word and its derivatives.”  (emphasis added)  The NASB translated it “defiled” (and the King James Version used “defiledst”).  The Schocken Bible uses “defile” in one instance and “profane” in another.  Young’s Literal Translation uses “polluted”.  According to Strong’s Concordance, here are some other uses and meanings:  to be wounded (as in, pierced), to play the flute, to desecrate or to be desecrated, to enjoy, to be killed, to begin or to proceed or to initiate, to eat as a common thing, and to prostitute.

          We believe the last usage comes the closest:  Reuben prostituted Bilpah, thus violating the marriage covenant and the father/son relationship in one fell action.  According to Leviticus 20:11, the penalty for Reuben’s and Bilpah’s sin was death, “their bloodguiltyness is upon them.”  Of course, at the time, this law had not yet been given to Moses.  Nevertheless, it was a scandalous action, and one for which Jacob no doubt sought wisdom from the Lord as to how to respond.  In mercy, Jacob did not apply a death penalty, but determined that Reuben was disqualified from being the preeminent tribe and receiving the double portion (Genesis 48:22) and all that went with the birthright.

          Here is why it matters:  Reuben laid down the prophetic pattern for the modern Church that has prostituted Judah in Father’s bed.  Judah has gone back in to Father’s house to recreate a Jewish state after being sent out for its adulteries in 70 C.E.  but has done so without ending its hostility against the Lord and yet refusing to obey Him.  Leviticus 26:21  Until it ceases its hostilities, Judah cannot return without polluting the land.  Jeremiah wrote of this:

God says, “If a husband divorces his wife and she goes from him and belongs to another man, will he still return to her?  Will not that land be completely polluted?”  Jeremiah 3:1

          Much could be said about all that Judah’s re-entry into the land entails, but it is beyond the scope of this post.  We instead refer you to The Struggle for the Birthright, by Dr. Stephen Jones.  Suffice it to say, Judah was sent out in precisely the same way as was Israel and the judgment was declared by Ezekiel 23:30-35, particularly verse 31:  You have walked in the way of your sister (Israel); therefore I will give her cup (of judgment) into your hand. 

          The descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, are widely viewed as the principal settlors of the United States and Great Britain, respectively.  One would be hard pressed to find any two nations on earth who have enjoyed such prosperity as have these two.  In the period of time preceding the Balfour Declaration, and certainly after the United Nations Resolution 183 partitioning Palestine and in the years since, no two nations have been more responsible for Judah’s re-entry into the land of Israel than the United States and Great Britain.  Although the zionists have the lion’s share of responsibility for the situation in the present day, the modern Church has been a stalwart ally, sending great sums of money to support the occupation, turning a blind eye to the injustices perpetrated upon the Palestinians whose land, lives and treasure were taken by force.  At the very least, one would have to admit a continuous and unintermittent double standard employed by the United States when dealing with the Jewish state vis-a-vis its neighbors in every direction, not one bit of it in obedience to the commands and teachings of Christ Jesus.

          In brief, because the Church has committed the same offence as Reuben, the United States and Great Britain will be disqualified from the birthright, and it will be taken from them and, we believe, returned to the rightful heir, the King of Judah, Jesus the Messiah.  In this way, the kingdom will be re-united with the King.  But it must all be accomplished according to the law of God who is absolutely impartial.  This judgment has already commenced with the current financial crisis, and will continue until it is accomplished.

Blessed are you, O Lord.  For there is no partiality with you, and your commandments are holy and righteous and good.  You always use your law lawfully and according to perfect wisdom!  Thank you for your mercy displayed in all your judgments.  Blessed are you because you always fill our hearts with songs of deliverance.  Please deliver us from the iniquitous roads upon which we travel so thoughtlessly.  Thank you for the honor that you have given to our King, the firstborn of all creation, the birthright and the name–Israel.

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