Seven Lean Years:
The End of Transactional Economies
Chapter Four C
An Instruction Manual?
Printable File
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom 12:13–21)
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3.
The Bible as God’s instruction manual for humanity wasn’t penned by God and is not an instruction manual … however, the Bible does express the reasonable expectations that an All Mighty deity has for those who would be His sons, dwelling in His household. And these expectation can be summed up in two principles, every human person should love the All Mighty will all of the person’s heart and soul (inner and outer selves) and should love the person’s neighbor and brother as the person loves him or herself, the golden rule taught to every Christian. The person doesn’t need to have specific knowledge of this All Mighty deity, nor does the Christian need to utter magical words. The person merely needs to supply the reasonable necessities for life to others before he or she has satisfied supplying these necessities to him or herself, thereby causing the person to become a living sacrifice, willing to figuratively or literally die for even the person’s enemies—and this is not “natural,” nor of the natural world.
Christianity isn’t complicated: doing what is right isn’t complicated, but often isn’t easy, especially when the person is not yet born of spirit even though the person claims to be of God, Father and Son.
In the natural world, living entities—if the entity has a conscious awareness of “self”—place the needs of the entity before the needs of others of the same genus and species and even litter, with the notable exception of a sow bear defending her cub or of other “animals” defending their young. In the natural world, eaglets fight Cain-Abel battles with the eaglet hatched first usually prevailing, killing its nest-mate. One piglet doesn’t share its claimed teat with another piglet. The natural world is a literal dog-eat-dog battle for self-survival, with little quarter given and none expected. But the carnal nature of beasts is the nature of the Adversary. And human society cannot to constructed on each person doing what is in the person’s interests. Unless humans choose to live as solitary creatures—as bears—self-interests must be subjugated to the interests of the collective.
By nature—the present human nature of the species—humankind is a social creature, living in groups when living as hunter-gatherers, then living in villages after developing agriculture. Villages gave way to cities and cities began to behave as individuals, these cities-states having alpha cities and a pecking order, with the weaker paying tribute to the stronger. It was as if ancient cities formed wolf-packs, with these “packs” of cities organizing themselves into empires.
However, the promise of Scripture is that the nature of man—human nature—will change when dominion is taken from the present prince of this world [the Adversary] and given to the Son of Man, with this change being seen in all predator species. Hence, the prophet Isaiah records,
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of [YHWH] as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of His people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. (Isa 11:6–11)
In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as the Lord extends His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people as He extended His hand in the days of Moses to recover, bringing the people of Israel out from Egypt, the geographical land representing sin as in unbelief of God.
When dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15–18; 12:7–12), the holy spirit will be poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28), thereby changing the received natures of living creatures, especially the natures of the great predators with humanity standing atop the food chain …
Again, for pedagogical redundancy, humanity’s nature—human nature—will be changed when the Adversary is cast into space-time and given the mind of a man, this “mind” preventing him from being able to exit space-time. Humanity’s nature will be changed when Christ Jesus becomes the prince of the power of the air, thereby broadcasting His nature—the nature and mind of Christ—to living creatures, with all of remaining humanity then having the mind that presently is only in the Elect.
But as with the Elect now, so will it be when the third part of humankind (from Zech 13:9) receives the indwelling mind and nature of Christ Jesus, with human infancy forming the shadow and copy of spiritual infancy … every newly born human infant has the mind of man, but infants do not think like adult humans. The minds of human infants haven’t “matured” sufficiently for even the exceptional infant to comprehend the gradation between good and right, evil and wrong. Philosophically, infants live in black and white worlds. They have needs they want satisfied right now, simple needs: hunger, a dry diaper, the warmth of a blanket. These are the needs the Christian is to supply to other human persons: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless. The Christian is to be to others—Christians and Gentiles—what the Christian’s mother was to the Christian when he or she was an infant.
The preceding can be better expressed: the indwelling spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou] gives spiritual birth to human sons of God, thereby giving to a human person a second birth while the person, the inner self of the person, continues to dwell in a fleshly body. This is what it means to be born again, or born of spirit, with the visible physical things of this world revealing and preceding the invisible spiritual things of God.
Thus, as the physical body of the human person began life as the union of a spermatozoan [singular] with an ovum—the spermatozoan penetrating the ovum as the spirit of Christ penetrates the spirit of the person [to pneuma tou ’anthropou] and as the husband briefly penetrates his wife to produce a son or daughter—the living son of God begins spiritual life through the spirit of God [pneuma Theou] in the spirit of Christ [this Holy Spirit has been in the spirit of Christ since it visibly descended in the bodily form of a dove and entered into Jesus when John raised Jesus from the waters of the Jordan] penetrating the spirit of the person that is in the soul [psuche] of the person, with the soul of the person housed in the fleshly body [soma] of the person. Hence, a Christian person isn’t the fleshly body that can be killed with a bullet or blown to pieces, but is the inner self that has no indwelling spiritual life until born of spirit through, again, the spirit of God the Father dwelling in the spirit of Christ entering the spirit of the person, with Christ Jesus now serving as both mother [symbolized by the omega majuscule, Ω] and husband to sons of the Father.
This is the relationship between God the Father, Christ Jesus, and the Christian that the Apostle Paul expressed in his first epistle to the holy ones at Corinth: “I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor 11:3).
There are no spiritual daughters of God: there are only sons of angelic origin or of human origin, with human sons of God being like angels in that they are without gender, a physical attribute of creation that gives visibility to spiritual relationships. Therefore Paul wrote to the holy ones at Galatia, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:27–28).
The present confusion of gender roles seen in the gay, lesbian, and transgender movement is “real,” but is also of the Adversary who is without gender. This movement that insists upon “equal rights” to marry and to adopt children exists as a cultural precursor to seemingly widespread spiritual birth—that really isn’t spiritual birth—when first all of greater Christendom is filled with the spirit of God, then when 1260 days later the remaining third part of humanity (from Zech 13:9) is baptized in the spirit of God (Joel 2:28).
Spiritual birth only occurs when the spirit of Christ enters into [penetrates] the spirit of the person and spiritual birth is technically unrelated to the human person being filled with the spirit of God the Father … using the human analogy to make a carnal point, if a human husband has a wet dream and deposits his seed on bed sheets, will children [sons] result? No, none will result. Only when the spermatozoa of the husband are deposited in his wife can children result, and then the birth of a son or daughter is not guaranteed.
Likewise, only when the spirit of God in the spirit of Christ, with the spirit of Christ functioning as both the Wife of the Father and the Head of the disciple, enters into the spirit of the person can a spiritual son of God be born. Thus, the inner self of a human person filled with the spirit of God lacks the presence of the spirit of Christ, the vessel that came from heaven and that is able to hold the bright fire that is the glory of God inside a human soul. This inner self will have been liberated from indwelling sin and death, to which God consigned every human person—“God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all” (Rom 11:32)—but this inner self has not been born of spirit as a son of God, a son who doesn’t come under judgment. Remember what Jesus said in John’s Gospel: “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life’” (John 5:24).
Sons of God, born of spirit, have already glorified inner selves through having been born of spirit. They do not come under judgement because they have glorified inner selves. They are as fruit borne out of season—and this is what separates the Elect from the remainder of Christianity, having glorified inner selves while continuing to dwell in fleshly bodies.
An objection to the preceding should come into the Christian’s mind: God is not a respecter of persons. No, God isn’t. But God has the same prerogative of when to give birth to a son as human parents have … when no person can come to Christ Jesus unless first drawn from this world by God the Father (John 6:44), and when no person can come to the father except through Christ Jesus (John 14:6), then two forms of Christianity exists, the first being of those individuals truly born of spirit that have passed from death to life without coming under judgment, and a second form, that which the world knows as Christianity in which judgment follows death (Heb 9:27) and Christians attempt to take the kingdom of the heavens by force.
In the first form of Christianity—that of the Elect—Christians do not come under judgment ever, but are as the man Jesus the Nazarene was through having the indwelling of Christ … again, the Elect are to the general harvest of humanity in the great White Throne Judgment as Christ Jesus was/is to the harvest of firstfruits, this harvest to be completed and the firstfruits milled into fine flour and baked with leavening as two loaves of bread waved before God on the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost.
Except for Christ Jesus, all of the human persons comprising the harvest of firstfruits will be judged and will have their judgments revealed at the Second Advent …
Except for the Elect, all human persons comprising the main crop wheat harvest will have their judgments made in the great White Throne Judgment following the Thousand Years of Christ Jesus’ millennial reign. And as two millennia separate the Ascension of Christ Jesus as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering from the “harvest” of humanity represented by the barley grown on Judean hillsides, a millennium will separate the Ascension of the Elect as the first of the symbolic wheat harvest from the remainder of those individuals to be judged before the great White Throne.
Two harvests of grain grown on ancient hillsides in the Promised Land; two resurrections of humanity, one at the beginning of the Thousand Years, one after these Thousand Years—one Wave Sheaf Offering to be waved before God before the barley harvest can begin. One waving of two loaves of bread baked with leavening before the harvest of the Millennium can begin, with the Elect being represented in these two loaves by the “leavening,” the teaching of Christ Jesus.
Matthew’s Jesus warned His disciples to beware of the leavening—the teachings—of Sadducees and Pharisees (Matt 16:6), with the leavening of the Pharisees and Sadducees governing how greater Christendom perceives both God and the plan of God.
The person not yet born of spirit cannot understand spiritual things; cannot remember spiritual things after having heard these things. The Christian not born of spirit can hear the mysteries of God expounded, but as soon as this Christian turns away, the Adversary figuratively snatches what the Christian has heard from the Christian’s mind as if knowledge of God is contraband in the Adversary’s reign over humanity.
A Christian can track when the person was born of spirit by when the person began to remember spiritual things after having heard such things. Before being born of spirit, the Christian can hear the secret things of God being expounded, but after having heard “truth,” the person will forget what he or she heard for the framework necessary to retain spiritual knowledge isn’t present in the person’s mind … the person doesn’t have the mind of Christ—and no person is humanly born with the mind of Christ so without being born a second time, the Christian can “hear” truth but cannot understand spiritual truths and cannot even remember them. And it is this latter state [that of not remembering what the person has heard] that is most telling.
There is an individual who reads what I write, but who is troubled by what I write about spiritual birth; for this individual clings to Herbert Armstrong’s infamous pin test—if a person bleeds when stuck by a pin, the person isn’t born of spirit. I have personally corresponded with the individual on multiple occasions, but the individual is incapable of grasping the concept that receipt of the Holy Spirit in the spirit of Christ raises the inner self of the person from death, not the outer self. It is as if this person cannot retain the concept of an inner and outer self, the inner self represented by Paul’s pneuma and psuche, and the outer self by Paul’s ΣΩΜΑ [soma] (from 1 Thess 5:23). It is as if the Adversary snatches from this person’s mind all knowledge of an inner self, leaving the person only in possession of knowledge of the fleshly body, the dark shadow of an invisible, non-physical, spiritual reality.
If a person hears the mysteries of God being explicated but cannot remember what the person has heard, the person is not yet born of spirit and still has a carnal mind: the person remains a serf, willing or unwilling, of the Adversary. But every one of the Elect was in this state even after being drawn from this world by God the Father. It was only after Jesus was crucified for the person while the person was still a sinner (Rom 5:8)—a reality that requires understanding the timeless nature of the supra-dimensional heavenly realm—that the person numbered among the Elect was born of spirit through the indwelling of Christ, thereby giving to the person a glorified inner self and the mind of Christ. Hence, patience must be extended by the person numbered among the Elect toward others who remain unable to remember what the person hears when the mysteries of God are explicated.
Beginning at the Second Passover recovery of a second Israel 1260 days before dominion is taken from the Adversary, greater Christendom will be filled with spirit and thereby liberated from indwelling Sin and Death. All of greater Christendom will be, without being born of spirit [again, an important distinction], as Israel was when leaving Egypt under Moses. But as Israel in the wilderness of Paran rebelled against Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb (Num chap 14), greater Christendom will rebel against God and will return to unbelief, disbelief of God, thereby disqualifying itself as a potential pool of godly sons. And as the children of Israel in the wilderness replaced the nation of Israel that left Egypt virtually man for man (compare the census of Numbers chapter 1 with the census of Numbers chapter 26), the third part of humanity (again from Zech 13:9) will, when filled with spirit following dominion being taken from the Adversary, replace greater Christendom virtually man for man as the firstfruits of God, with the last being first into the kingdom and the first failing to enter into the kingdom of the heavens because of collective and individual unbelief.
Man’s inhumanity toward other men comes from the nature of the Adversary … in this past week, a young man in South Carolina murdered nine “Christians” attending a Wednesday night Bible study, and this after sitting in on that Bible Study for an hour. Apparently the young man hoped to start a race war in which people like himself would prevail over the other, not realizing that the Adversary doesn’t need a race war but rather needs peace in order for the ongoing demonstration to prove that a transactional economy coupled with self-governance will bring greater benefits to the governed than will any form of top-down governance. But the Adversary cannot cease broadcasting his “nature” to living creatures; hence, in this world there is no shortage of murder and murderers, no shortage of lies and liars, no shortage of idolatry and idolaters.
What the Adversary failed to understand when the Most High God, instead of immediately destroying the Adversary after iniquity was discovered in this anointed guardian cherub, established this cherub as prince of this physical world—what the Adversary failed to realize was the absolute futility of the Adversary not broadcasting his nature, his mind to those over whom he ruled … what the Adversary has since come to understand is that if his advocacy for self-governance is to produce a viable form of self-governance, he has to figuratively step away from governing humanity and permit his underlings to rule in his stead. For in him as the spiritual king of Babylon having active participation in world governance, he inevitablely broadcasts his mind, his attitudes, his nature to other living creatures, with his “nature” in humanity producing ungovernable rebels. Hence, in Daniel’s prophecies we find,
This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. (Dan 2:36—40 emphasis added)
And,
I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, 'Arise, devour much flesh.' After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. (Dan 7:2—7 emphasis added)
And,
I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. …
As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. (Dan 8:3–8, 20–22)
And,
And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these. (Dan 11:2–4)
The common mistake made by and within the Christian community is to read the great horn, first horn [king] of the King of Greece as being Alexander the Great, when the prophecies are about demonic kings ruling over living creatures as part of spiritual Babylon, the endtime humanoid figure that both Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel saw in vision, with dominion over the humanity both held and not held by the spiritual king of Babylon who rules over the children of men wherever they dwell … this spiritual king of Babylon is represented by the head of gold, but dominion is held by the bronze king of Greece, who reigns over the appetites of the belly and loins (Dan 2:39; 7:6), with both gold and bronze being yellow metals whereas silver and iron are white metals.
The humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision is banded, yellow [gold], white [silver], yellow [bronze], and white [iron]. Thus when the silver [white], representing the demonic kings of Persia, and the bronze [yellow] representing the King of Greece are removed from this humanoid image (because the king of Greece mauls and tramples the kings of Persia, then in turn is broken by God at the Second Passover because he is “first,” an uncovered theological firstborn), the color pattern of yellow over white remains, with the Adversary as the head of gold becoming the “little horn” on the head of the King of the North, Death, one of the iron legs [the other iron leg being Sin that makes merchandise of the wheat and the barley but cannot harm the oil or the wine].
With the defeat of the sars of Persia by the King of Greece, followed by the breaking of the first king of the King of Greece, the Adversary is forced into actively reigning over living creatures, with his resumed active participation in still-reigning theological Babylon being the death knell from which Babylon cannot recover.
Even the Adversary cannot reign over himself; for his rebellious mindset is ungovernable … the Most High God is not the author of war; for His mind, His nature in Him and when broadcast to others manifests itself as love for all. But this is not the case with the Adversary, who intellectually knows rebellion harms his rule, but whose nature is one of rebellion. Only by backing away, permitting the demonic King of Greece to rule over humanity instead of himself, can the Adversary possibly make self-rule into a viable alternative to autocratic rule.
And then someone ingests the Adversary’s broadcast of lying, murder, and rebellion, and commits murder in a historic Black church in an attempt to initiate a race war.
A Christian isn’t to be carnally minded, more concerned about “self” and self-interests than concerned about serving others. The Christian is to truly be a living sacrifice … it doesn’t matter how many decades a Christian has professed that Jesus the Nazarene is the Christ if the “Christian” doesn’t have manifested love for neighbor and brother. Knowledge will not save anyone. Serving others will save. The Christian living his or her life to serve others will cause the Christian to be great in the kingdom; the Christian keeping the Commandments and teaching others to keep the Commandments will cause the Christian to be called great in the kingdom of the heavens. And how much knowledge does it take for a Christian to keep the Commandments; how much knowledge does it take for the Christian to serve the Christian’s neighbor and brother as well as the Christian’s enemy? Not all that much. For the manifestation of love isn’t dependent upon the Christian having great knowledge, but upon the Christian transforming him or herself into a living sacrifice, surrendering the Christian’s life to the service of others.
By implication, the person—a Christian—who places the reasonable needs of neighbors and brothers ahead of the person’s own self-interests becomes as a sow bear defending her cub, in that this person assumes the position of “mother” to the neighbor or brother whom the person feeds, clothes, gives shelter, visits when sick or imprisoned.
The person who has manifested love for neighbor and brother, not narrowly defining “either” but broadly including even the stranger who temporarily sojourns with the person—as the people of Israel were sojourners in Egypt for a long season—satisfies the expectations the All Mighty has for those who would become sons, or for those who are already sons through having been born of spirit as fruit borne out of season.
What does the Christian fear when serving others? That the Christian will be taken advantage–of; be played for a fool? … To worry about being thought a fool is vanity run-amuck.
Of course the possibility exists when serving others that someone will take advantage of the Christian … so? Who is the Christian that hasn’t taken advantage of the goodness of Christ Jesus by transgressing a Commandment when the Christian knew what he or she was doing? Who is the Christian that has never suffered a wrong at the hands of another Christian—only the Christian who has never served another Believer. And how many times should you, as a Christian, forgive your brother in Christ? Seven times? You know better; you know what Jesus said when asked this question.
A distinction exists between being an “enabler”—a person who makes it possible for another person to continue self-destructive or bad behavior—and a godly living sacrifice willing to personally give all the person has for another … this distinction often becomes blurred inside families; inside marriages, but this distinction doesn’t go away. A Christian has the obligation to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless even when doing so will temporarily permit the person receiving assistance to continue self-destructive behavior. But the Christian has no obligation to feed the person able to feed him or herself. The obligation to feed exists when the one being fed is unable to feed him or herself. When the ability to feed oneself returns, the person assumes the obligation to feed others unable to feed themselves.
Paul wrote,
Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. (2 Thess 3:6–13 emphasis added)
Have Sabbatarian Christians grown weary of doing good? Or have these Sabbatarian Christians ever really done good? Believing that they are “special” because they keep the Sabbath, have they not looked out for themselves, declaring that their personal time for their own Bible study has more worth than time spent serving others? And what have they “studied,” the instruction manual God left with humanity? Thinking they are wise and very spiritual, they display their ignorance in the time they spend studying the Bible and not serving those who are in genuine need.
Yes, too often Christians that keep the Sabbath ignore their need to have manifested love for neighbor and brother; for in keeping the Sabbath, are they not keeping the Commandments … no, they are not! And this needs to be shouted from mountaintops; for in keeping the Sabbath, the least of the Commandments, and not presenting themselves as living sacrifices in this world, serving others without feeling they have been taken for fools, Sabbatarian Christians transgress the Law. For how does the Law read spiritually?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This [according to Matthew’s Jesus, the indwelling Jesus in the Elect] is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt 22:37–40)
Benjamin Franklin is alleged to have said that the poor should not become comfortable in their poverty … although Franklin was no friend of Sabbatarian Christians, having gone out of his way to do the Ephrata Cloister harm, the distinction between being an enabler—in this case a Christian who permits the person not willing to work to continue to eat—and a living sacrifice that places the hunger of another ahead of his or her own hunger is expressed in Franklin’s truism of the poor not becoming comfortable or complacent in their poverty.
American social safety net programs have permitted the poor to become reliable Democratic voters, turning out en masse to support their self-interests, voting for politicians promising to expand safety net programs … a sense of entitlement has settled as smog over inner cities and rural hillsides, this sense of entitlement eroding away self-reliance and a long-standing utilitarian work ethic. After all, what American can live without a cell phone and a big screen television set, certainly not the disadvantaged. Hence, there is a Federal program to give cell phones to those who otherwise couldn’t afford one—just as there was a Federal program to give Southern California’s inner city youth money for clothes (a hundred dollars of walking around money).
The problem with the Federal Government or with any centralized governmental entity taking upon itself the obligation of the Christian to feed the hungry and give shelter to the homeless is the “government” itself, when all authority in this world has been given to the Adversary … in Ben Franklin trying to destroy the Ephrata Cloister and put its printing press out of business, Franklin merely acted on his self-interests, those of one person. When the Federal government makes the poor comfortable in their poverty, the Federal government acts in the self-interests of a few million politicians and bureaucrats—and there is little chance of the poor ever regaining their freedom to fail in life. Instead, the poor become the purchased property of the socialist state, their thoughts limited by their educations and the necessity to not earn so much money that their public assistance is jeopardized. Untraceable cash income—as made in criminal endeavors [selling drugs]—is permitted, even encouraged (the strong argument political Libertarians have for decriminalizing drug possession), but work is effectively penalized, with the tax code having been “adjusted” to minimize this de-incentive to work for wages. But the tax code simply becomes another social enabler that permits the poor to remain comfortable in their poverty.
When half of the citizens of the United States of America pay the bills for the other half as is now the case, the nation has signed its death warrant and merely waits its execution as an unrepentant thief. But regardless of what the Federal government does or doesn’t do as it writhes in its fiscal death throes, every Christian remains under obligation to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give shelter to the homeless. And while a Christian shouldn’t have to physically die to feed the hungry, at times this will truly be the case, especially once the Second Passover liberation of Israel occurs. Remember, Jesus washed the feet of Judas Iscariot on the Passover; washed Judas’ feet only a short while before Judas would lead those who took Jesus into custody to Him. Also remember, once in custody, Jesus would not be released: He would be unjustly crucified, dying in ignominy; dying the death of someone who had committed sedition against the State, His guilt being simply keeping the Commandments and teaching others to do likewise.
But keeping the Commandments was/is a seditious act when the Adversary remains the prince of this world—and the Adversary remains the prince of the world, the prince of the power of the air.
Regardless of the innocence or guilt of a person who today dies an unjustifiable death while in custody here in the United States or anywhere in the world, the person who dies does less than what Jesus did; for Jesus took upon Himself the sins of Israel, thereby sparing Israel from collectively perishing. For who in Scripture is named as righteous:
Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord [YHWH]. (Ezek 14:13–14)
Neither Noah nor Job were of Israel—both lived before the patriarch Jacob was born. And Daniel, in serving in Nebuchadnezzar’s court, would have been made into an eunuch and thereby cut off from Israel: “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of [YHWH]” (Deut 23:1). So the three named men whose righteousness could save them but no one else were not of Israel even though Daniel had been born into Israel as Moses had been born into Israel.
Also, what type of an instruction manual is ignored by those who would be instructed by the manual … my dad drove truck before being drafted in that April 1941 lottery. He then drove truck all during World War II. And he told of a sergeant who tore a page out of the Army’s operating manual for the GMC CCKW (LWB 353) every time whatever was written on the page either didn’t work or wouldn’t get the task at hand done. And somewhere in Sicily, the sergeant’s copy of the Army’s manual for operating the popular Deuce-and-a-half had been reduced to its front and back covers.
If the Torah were the operating manual for humanity, ancient Israel reduced this manual to its covers in the days of the judges.
But again, the Bible is not a human instruction manual. In fact, if God had left humanity with an instruction manual, God would have given humanity a blueprint for rebellion against the Adversary, to whom God had given dominion over the single kingdom of the world [kosmos]. Any such manual would be a seditious document skewing the results of the demonstration underway, thereby giving to the Adversary justification for the failure of this demonstration in which he intends to show the superiority of self-governance and transactional economies.
So that the preceding will not be misunderstood, permit me to repeat myself: the Adversary is the reigning prince of this world, the god this world worships. To the Adversary, the Most High God has given dominion over all living creatures, thereby giving to the Adversary the opportunity to “prove” the superiority of self-governance and transactional economics. And the Most High God has no intention of figuratively tilting the pinball machine, thereby sabotaging the ongoing demonstration that will not get repeated. Rather, the Most High God intends—because He reveals what He does through the prophets—to permit the Adversary to prove on his own that self-governance does not and will not work, especially when every person is the political equal of every other person. Thus, the Most High has no interest to sabotaging the Adversary’s demonstration; for He already knows that what the Adversary advocates will not work because the Adversary broadcasts his nature, his mind to those he governs, thereby making his serfs an ungovernable rabble. What God intends is for all sons of God, angelic and human, to realize what He knows: it is the nature of the one who governs that is reflected by the governed, with this seen in the history of ancient Israel and its kings.
As an honest power broker, the Most High God would not and could not give to humankind blueprints for rebellion against the Adversary. So whatever the Bible is, it is not an instruction manual … it is a prophetic document, disguising prophecy in various literary genres, all of which advance a single argument: the visible, physical things of this world reveal the invisible, spiritual things of God.
Regardless of whether people want to accept the reality that they are merely potentially self-aware lab mice—that is what they are, with these lab mice to manifest love for neighbor and brother analogous to the protective “instincts” a sow bear has for her cub or cubs—all of humanity must participate in the Adversary’s demonstration, said with a caveat: those persons whom the Father has drawn from this world, paying for them with the blood of Christ Jesus, God has formed into living stones for construction of the future temple of God, the foundation stones having been laid by the Apostle Paul in the 1st-Century (1 Cor 3:10–11), with Philadelphia forming in the 21st-Century the pillars of this temple.
Does a sow bear love her cub, or is the sow merely protective of her cub, an instinctual reaction that is part of species’ preservation?
Do animals love one another? Or is animal grooming of another member of the animal’s species instinct? Is nuzzling or play instinctive behavior? If it is, where does instinct stop and love begin? Is human interaction between males and females instinctual behavior, part of species preservation?
Again, the question, where does species carnality end and godly love begin? Where does a human person separate him or herself from the animal kingdom, moving past instinctual behavior to genuine love for self and for others? Is it not in the person presenting him or herself as a living sacrifice, not having to do what the person does but subjugating the person’s self-interests to the interests of others, particularly the interests of the hungry, naked, homeless?
Perhaps the more important question a Christian can ask him or herself is, will this human person fight against Christ Jesus when He comes as the Messiah to reign over humanity as King of kings and Lord of lords, a position He will then have held for the previous three and a half years? And there is a second question like the first: will the Christian rebel against God 220 days into the seven endtime years of tribulation? And for most Christians, the answer to both questions is, Yes!
But how can anyone know for certain what the majority of Christians will do after these human persons are filled with the spirit of God … the person can know by what Christians do today when they have the freedom to present themselves as living sacrifices, serving others rather than serving their own self-interests.
Christians are not a homogenous culture, with every Christian behaving as every other Christian does—and this will become particularly true when Christians are collectively baptized in the spirit of God [pneuma Theou]. But generalities hold because they are generally true: if Christians actually believed Scripture; believed the epistles of Paul, Christians would believe what Paul wrote,
For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Rom 2:11–16 emphasis added)
And,
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (Rom 6:12–19 emphasis added)
The Christian should be the willing slave of righteousness originating in obedience; in keeping the Law, not out of legal obligation but out of the desire to please God, the Christian’s heavenly Father. For it isn’t what hands and bodies do under the Law that has significance, but what are the desires of the heart and the thoughts of the mind, with the work of the Law not being physical sacrifice or legalistic execution of what the Law would have a natural Israelite do, but the manifestation of love for God, neighbor, and brother, this manifestation causing the Christian to become a living sacrifice in the service of others.
When all of Christendom is filled-with and empowered by the spirit of God following the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel, the human nature of Christians will be twisted to conform to the divine nature of Christ Jesus. But because the Adversary will remain the prince of this world and the prince of the power of the air throughout the 1260 days of the Affliction [minus however many days the Affliction is shortened for the sake of the Elect], the twisted “nature” of Christians will not hold most Christians close to God; thus, as the nation of Israel numbered in the census of the second year—except for Joshua and Caleb—could not enter the Promised Land because of their collective unbelief (see Heb 3:19), the vast majority of Christians will not enter heaven because of their unbelief. And as the children of Israel numbered in the census of the fortieth year entered into the Promised Land as a virtual one-for-one replacement of the nation that left Egypt, the third part of humanity (from Zech 13:9) will enter heaven as the firstfruits of God in a virtual one-for-one replacement for greater Christendom.
Christians can argue for their righteousness or for them being “garmented” in Christ Jesus’ righteousness, but their arguments will fall on deaf ears—their own deaf ears for greater Christendom has consistently refused to hear the word of Jesus that He left with His disciples as the judge of unbelieving disciples …
But the unbelievers deny that they are unbelievers. They insist that they rightly understand the words of Paul, the words of Christ Jesus; that because Jesus kept the Law His disciples are under no obligation to walk in this world as He walked. These unbelievers insist that because Jesus lives in their hearts, they satisfy the righteous demands of the Law through profession with their mouths that Jesus is Lord—
And in professing that Jesus is Lord while walking in this world as spiritual Gentiles, Christians publicly admit that they are liars; publicly admit that their claim that Jesus lives in their hearts is false.
Christians within greater Christendom would, if they could, shackle an indwelling Jesus to sin and death by their lawlessness, their unbelief. But Jesus cannot be shackled to sin. He isn’t “in” those Christians who walk in this world as Gentiles.
There is a difference between the Elect and greater Christendom that Christians have never understood—Christians, especially since John Calvin, have been troubled by the concept of predestination, and the Elect are foreknown and predestined by God the Father, then called, justified and glorified by Christ Jesus, with glorification coming via the indwelling of the spirit of God in the spirit of Christ in the spirit of the person, shortened in expression to simply the indwelling of Christ, with this indwelling of Christ giving to the person the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16).
Those predestined Christians truly born of spirit have two “laws” at work in them, with the Apostle Paul expressing these two laws in his treatise to the holy ones at Rome:
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Rom 7:12–25 emphasis and double emphasis added)
Paul identifies his human nature that was in his flesh and that will remain in the flesh of every Christian until dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation as a “law,” the law of sin, which will be the projection of the Adversary’s unbelief, a projection that causes the mentally unstable to mimic the Adversary as a liar and murderer.
However the good news that Paul didn’t know is that at the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel, this law of sin will be pushed out of the fleshly bodies of all Christians when Christians are filled with the spirit of God, but not born of spirit. Every Christian will then be as ancient Israel was when still in Egypt but having been set free to worship the Lord three days journey into the wilderness. And Christian will be as Israel was when Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, the two witnesses being analogous to Moses and Aaron.
Can a Christian begin to see that God is not a respecter of persons, but doesn’t give to every person the same scenario to overcome? The third part of humanity, when filled with spirit in the Endurance of Jesus, will have the glorified Son of Man as the prince of the power of the air, and will thus have their indwelling mind of Christ coupled to them having received the nature of the glorified Christ Jesus, what greater Christendom in the Affliction won’t have. Hence, Christians in the Affliction will have to mentally overcome the Adversary’s broadcast of his “nature” whereas in the Endurance, the third part of humanity will have to overcome the Adversary cast to earth and coming as a roaring lion to devour whomever he can. The battle will be similar, but the battlefield will not. In the Affliction, the battlefield will be in the mind, but in the Endurance, the battlefield will become the fleshly body that cannot buy or sell without taking upon itself the mark of death, the tattoo of the cross.
Therefore, the difference that existed between the nation of Israel that left Egypt under Moses and the children of Israel that came to their majority in the wilderness will play itself out in the difference between Christians in the Affliction, when all of Christendom will be filled with spirit but still without the nature of Christ Jesus, and the third part of humanity in the Endurance in Jesus, when this third part has received the nature of Christ … how important is having the nature of Christ, who did no buying and selling during his ministry? How important is liberation from indwelling Sin and Death without receiving the nature of Christ Jesus versus liberation from Sin and Death with having the divine nature of Christ? Can years and even decades of Christian fellowship and indoctrination produce a modification to human nature that will cause the Christian to have a nature that is Christ-like? Yes, and No. With the yes answer seen in how families and the Christian community in South Carolina responded to the deaths of nine of their own.
When all of the world is baptized in the spirit of God, thereby giving to humanity a nature that is no longer consumed by the appetites of the belly and the loins, human nature will not be pinned to species preservation. Rather, in the Endurance, the darkest days of the Tribulation will be behind humanity. Things will be getting better, slowly.
The Elect will, in the Endurance, know where humanity is located in the flow of history. The Elect will be a small community of self-aware disciples, each possessing the spirit of prophecy, but self-awareness is both a blessing and a burden …
There is a country music song that has in it the line, the girls all get prettier at closing time, a line that reflects the hormonal determinism of “thought.” In reality, the girls are no prettier when bars get ready to close than they were hours earlier. What changes is the selectiveness of the person in choosing a mate; in choosing with whom the person will engage in intercourse, thereby depositing-in or receiving human seed. What changes is the strength of hormone-driven thought, with this thought going from mild interest to almost uncontrollable compulsion: the need to breed, to propagate the human species. But this need is also governed by self-awareness; for the intellect fights against the emotions, with the intellect fomenting rebellion against the Adversary’s administration of the single kingdom of this world, an administration that God Himself gave to the Adversary.
The human intellect, in believing that God is presently trying to save this world, will ultimately fight against God in the Affliction …
If the Bible were God’s handbook or instruction manual for humanity, God would reduce Himself to be a caricature of Himself; for He would have given to humanity a text akin to community organizer Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971), dedicated to the Adversary, the first community organizer.
The preceding is correct. If the Bible were God’s instruction manual for humankind, the Bible would represent a blueprint for rebellion against the present prince of this world, and God would be a mere community organizer—and with the election of President Obama, America has consciously experienced life under a community organizer … the rule of Law, ensconced in the national fabric of America since the foundation of the nation and on back to America’s English ancestors and the Magna Carta, has been turned on its head by Obama’s use of Executive Orders that go beyond constitutional constraints placed on the Executive Branch. Instead of administering “law,” the Obama Administration has used Executive Orders to create new law that Congress wouldn’t or couldn’t pass.
In the history of humanity, many nations at many times have seen autocratic governance: not since the Civil War has the United States of America come closer to autocratic rule than it presently is, with the power of the Federal Government being employed to shape public opinion … today, wild fires threaten the Willow Alaska area, as well as the Kenai Peninsula. These wild fires will be blamed on global climate change that has brought to Alaska and to the entirety of the West Coast drought conditions. But the Sockeye Wild Fire remains tiny compared to the Skilak Fire of 1947 (310,000 acres), and the Swanson River Fire of 1969 (79,000 acres).
In the 2004 fire season, Alaska had more than 6,600,000 acres burned by roughly 700 wildfires, fewer than the almost 1,000 fires of 1989 when I was in Fairbanks, but still more fires burning more acres than will be burned this year. But global warming wasn’t as great of an issue under the Bush administration as it is under the Obama administration, which grows watermelons on the White House lawn, agenda melons green on the outside but red inside.
Enough said: the Adversary isn’t the prince of this world because he took this position by force or even by deceit and trickery, but rather, the Adversary is the reigning prince of the power of the air because God the Father installed him in this position for a purpose, that of killing an idea, a concept: self-governance, or bottom-up governance empowered by transactions. And if God put the Adversary over this world, the kosmos, would it be logical for God to have left with those over whom He placed under the Adversary a manual on how to rebel against the Adversary? Actually, it would, but said from a carnal perspective.
If God had left with humanity an instruction manual on how to live according to what is best for humanity—cultures and individuals—then God would have left an instruction manual with humanity on how to rebel against the Adversary’s administration of the kingdom over which God had placed the Adversary … this would have been uncharacteristic of God.
Except for “Israel,” all of humanity has been separated from God by acts that God took.
Israel functions for God as seed for rebellion against the Adversary, seed that when grown to maturity will produce a “tree” bearing fruit of the spirit, but seed that initially has to die out so that a second shoot will grow from the same roots … I have a Nikita’s Gift Persimmon, purchased from a reliable nursery as a two-foot high grafted cultivar in 2012. The variety—a cross bred between Asian and American persimmons—is supposed to be hardy enough for our winters along the shore of Lake Huron, but all of the above-ground growth suffered winter dieback in 2013. The same in 2014. So deciding that the variety really couldn’t handle our winters, the tree was put in a pot and kept indoors this past 2014-2015 winter. Its above ground wood didn’t suffer dieback, and in its pot it is doing well this summer. I will have to build a solarium on the south side of the garage for the persimmon if I intend to keep the tree.
Israel as a people is like my not-as-hardy-as-I-would-like persimmon; for Israel has suffered vegetative dieback from its repeated affairs with idolatry. Its roots live, but what grows above ground—its visible growth—has not and will not survive …
The Messiah is a root sucker, a new shoot, grown from the stump of Jesse (Isa 11:1–5). The Elect are of this new shoot, growing from a graft onto this shoot, the graft union protected from below-zero temperatures by winter snow.
Without winter protection from the winds of idolatry, the Elect would perish in this present world that has come into existence through the evolution of the Adversary’s broadcast of rebellion against God—
Has an instruction manual been left for the Elect to read … the instruction manual is the indwelling mind of Christ, not a book, not a physical thing that can be misread and corrupted by the Adversary’s deception of all people.
If Abraham had not engaged in lying to Pharaoh in the matter of Sarah, would endtime Christians know anything about Abraham, who by his belief of God overcame his fearful nature, the reason why he as Abram told his wife and half-sister to lie about their relationship when they entered Egypt, the geographical landscape representing sin?
Did God tell Abram to go to Egypt? No He did not. So why did Abram go into Egypt, where he prospered because of his wife being taken into Pharaoh’s household? Was it not because there was a severe famine in the land (Gen 12:10) … could Abram have stayed in Canaan, where the Lord gave him an inheritance, if he had trusted God to truly provide for him? We will never know; for Abram journeyed south, entering Egypt, where he told his wife Sarai to lie [tell a half-truth that was a full lie] for him so that he would not be killed because of her beauty.
How old was Sarai when Abram entered Egypt? Abram was 75 years old when they departed Haran (Gen 12:4). Sarai, ten years younger than Abram (from Gen 17:17), would have been 65 years old. And how long did it take Abram and Sarai to journey south? A summer? Probably. So how was Sarai such an attractive woman at 65, 66 years of age that Pharaoh had to have her as part of his harem?
Tina Turner carried her appearance into her sixties, but not many women do, especially ones who have been in the sun. So while Sarai could have retained her beauty into her mid-60s, it is extremely unlikely that Pharaoh would have felt it worthwhile to add an elderly woman to his harem when he could have added any number of youngish woman to his harem. So the story of Pharaoh taking Sarai from Abram has about it a “wrong feel,” especially in Pharaoh prospering Abram by giving him “sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels” (Gen 12:16).
Did Abram and Sarai, along with Lot, go into Egypt? Yes, for every person is humanly born consigned to disobedience (Rom 12:32) as a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2–3). Therefore, in type, every person “goes down into Egypt” (representing sin), what the author of Matthew’s Gospel understood when he had his Jesus go as a child down to Egypt—go and return when the child was too young to be tainted by unbelief [sin].
With every person numbered among the Elect figuratively leaving Egypt [sin] as Abram left Egypt—and later as Israel left Egypt [when liberated from indwelling sin and death following the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel]—endtime disciples can begin to piece together the logic for Holy Writ being written as it is … Holy Writ isn’t an instruction manual, but a book of prophecy written not necessarily as prophecy but as history, with the construction of Matthew’s Gospel opening to endtime disciples the reality that “prophesy” doesn’t have to read as prophetic discourse, but can seem to be discourse of any sort, from poetry to biography to history.
When the Bible is understood to be prophetic from Genesis through Revelation, inspired by God and corrupted by the Adversary, then the corruptions do not destroy faith/belief, but in an odd way work to reinforce what the Parakletos discloses to the disciple numbered among the Elect. And all of the preceding leads back to Joseph in Egypt, with again Egypt representing sin/unbelief.
Symbolically, every Christian—every person—is in Egypt through being humanly born consigned to sin. And every person has to leave Sin and Death behind the person if he or she is to be a son of God.
This chapter will be continued in section #4.