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God is beyond-improvement, yet there are three Gods: the Trinity. Religion has spent countless hours and councils honestly trying to define what "Trinity" is. Thus, the positions fostered a kind of childlike 'loyalty' test, God help us all. So, if you review Christianity's sordid history, you'll find that literally millions of people were beheaded, ostracised, tortured, and otherwise persecuted if they didn't agree with the definitions those religious bodies consensually derived, never mind that the wording in their councils' definitions was often anti-Biblical.
So the sometimes-brilliant theological analyses over the centuries, alike suffer from an incompetent, hydra-headed shorthand moniker of "Three-in-One": as if Each Person were somehow less than totally free and independent. (The Catholic Encyclopedia's "Unicity" statement is particularly egregious on this point, for it says that if God were not "One" Godness would be "diminished"; that's exactly the same argument as the Koran repeatedly advances in its Suras.)
So, here's a proposed amendment: "Three AND One". Three Persons, AND Each of the Same Identical Essence. It's more aptly-descriptive of the correct long definition even Trinitarians know, and still conveys all the irony the original moniker meant. The amended moniker also best summarizes the Greek meaning of 2 Corinthians 13:14 (covered below), whereas the "traditional" moniker unwittingly denies that verse. "Three AND One"="4", heh: God is "complete" as Three Persons AND Same Absolute Essence. ["Three-in-One" is insulting, frankly. As if Each Person were incomplete? Or, as if God were unable to separate? Salvation would be a sham, in that case! How is it, we are ever willing to improve our environment, our technology, and we rightly don't feel disloyal to change the past; but oh! we can't improve the 'technology' of our previously-inferior theological definitions? Since when did any past theologian or religious council or "Confession" become God, that the words couldn't be improved? Since when did any past theologian (etc.) claim to be God, that the words shouldn't be improved? If it doesn't demean past inventors that we improve our technology, certainly it doesn't demean past theological effort if we improve what they came up with!
Here's one more example, which is even more egregious and maligning against God. If, like me, you told a fellow Trinitarian there are Three Gods, the person would likely look at you aghast, call you a heretic, and go fleeing from your presence: on the grounds that to say "Three Gods", is somehow "polytheism." Is this stupid, or what? The heart of polytheism is that the 'gods' do not equally have Absolute Atrributes. That's why there would be a need for many 'gods', for crying out loud. So if we say They are Three Persons, but shrink from saying Three Gods, then we are saying their Personhoods are something less than God, and thus we are stating a polytheistic definition! 2 Corinthians 13:14 doesn't shirk from saying Three Gods, but rather stresses that fact. Bible is not inscrutable, because HS wrote it, HS runs the ability to understand and live on it. So we need not complicate understanding Him with goofy monikers which contradict Bible, and we need not complicate Christian loyalties by piously naming "inscrutable" what God has revealed, so Christians feel torn about asking questions, about learning Him.]
Each "the" has another very important meaning in the Greek. This meaning is called "monadic", a term which signifies Uniqueness, one-of-a-kind. Well, that's true, too: only One Father; only One Son; only One Spirit. Each One, Co-Equal and Unique. So, "Three-and-One" in that sense, too. So, not 'partners' (a frequent condemnation against Trinity in the Koran), but Each Voluntarily Uniting. Of course, as you'll see below, "one" also means "united". As in, "marriage". Voluntarily, never coerced. See? Bible's definition says it all. Perfectly.
Moreover, each "the" tells you also that They are "one" in that They Each are the same Type of (Identical) Infinite Essence. No beginning, no ending: no 'dimension'. Therefore, They don't 'share' Essence, but Each are the same Essence precisely because there is no 'dimension' to Infinity. Moreover, Personhood itself is unique, because the existence of (any thing or) a person is intrinsic to itself. A thing exists, or it does not. If it does, IT does; if it dies, IT dies. By contrast, true Infinity or finity has to do with the quality of that existence, not the uniqueness: finity requires 'dimension', because finity requires mass, energy. So, because you exist, you are unique; so also, the Father is Unique. So, the Son is unique. So, the Spirit is unique. Their Qualitative existence is Infinite; your qualitative existence is finite. But, each thing or person's existence, being an entity, is unique -- no other, even if a similar type, is the selfsame entity.
So the number of entities which exist never ever ever detracts an iota from the uniqueness of each one! For, if number "limited" in any way, then God couldn't make creation, for it would 'diminish' Him! See how incredibly stupid the "one-in-number" God idea is? Why, if He had to be 'One in Number' to be Absolute God, then there could be no other entity whatsoever!
Frankly, math and physics prove this, too. A "point" has no dimension. That's the same as saying it's of infinite dimension. Hupostasis, union of opposites, is the true nature of infinity, and all math and science reflect it. The early Greeks knew this, and of course God taught it to mankind from the "beginning". (DueDisclosure.htm offers a fuller discussion of hupostasis.) For, math and science always display Divine Truth. You can misread math and science just as you can misread Bible, Romans 1. But nobody invented any of them. For, everything reflects God, and no one created Him.
The fact that They are each Infinite tells you something of the Quality of Their Nature, Their Essence. Essence, "ousia" in the Greek, is "Intensive, not extensive", as my pastor puts it. Qualitative, not Quantitative. [It's the Intensiveness and Integrity of God which explain virtually every 'why', perfectly. The more you turn over these characteristics in your brain using 1 John 1:9, the more glory you will have in learning Him. Promise. The enjoyment, the glory of understanding, here, is nearly-beyond-bearing, it's so wonderful.] For a fuller discussion regarding The Attributes which constitute Their Essence, you can: Click here. For a shorter list, Click here. The fullest discussion is in DueDisclosure.htm and the "God's Paradox" section of the Appendix.
Father, Son and Spirit are also therefore "One" in the sense of "united" -- by Love: see how the Lord talks in John 17. Meaning, a Corporation. Bible is very strident about saying God is "one" in this corporate sense: that's why, frankly, God invented marriage, as any review of John 17 will show -- notice how Christ prays that we may be "one" with Them, even as They are One. So it's not talking oneness like a hydra-headed monster, but more like -- well, you know.
We know this for a fact due to their Titles, which obviously were chosen: Father, Son, Spirit. These Titles tell us both Their Corporate agreement, as well as Their Corporate Policy. A corporation is based on a legal agreement, which in the US is usually known as "Articles of Incorporation". Parties can dissolve the corporation, so are not forced, at any time, to stay a corporation. Clearly God is not God, if forced. (You can read more about this corporate agreement in DueDisclosure.htm.)
So, Justice and Freedom are only completely served, if Three. An odd number of Persons, so to resolve any disputes by free majority. The Attribute of Truth would have, as one of its necessary governing principles, Justice. Yet, any of Them could -- but never would, hence "one" -- could! because Free! could! choose to 'leave' (not-have-rapport-with) the Others. [It should be obvious that the real definition of divorce is when the DESIRE 'leaves'. Proximity wouldn't matter, and in fact would become a painful thing.] True Justice, thus -- true Freedom. 'Including the glorious Freedom to NOT use an option. So they are never 'trapped' into being "one". They are never 'trapped' into "rapport". After all, "God" is not God if trapped, is He?
This point is incalculably critical. Being alone is not good, even if one is perfect. Not only is it the ultimate cruelty to be right, but alone, but where can Love go? To Self, only? What enjoyment is that? So, even though Each is Perfect, being Alone Perfect is not good. Like Father, Mother, Son, so to speak. A Family: not too big, lest the relationships lose intimacy. Not too small, lest the relationships be lonely. And above all -- never never never never 'trapped' into that 'oneness'.
So, how does one expand on what is perfect? To have more perfect beings -- thus the spheres of enjoyment, for self and others, multiplies. After all, isn't it so much more enjoyable, when someone else freely has the same viewpoint you do? Isn't it more enjoyable to have an activity in common with someone who enjoys it like you do? Isn't love even more enjoyable, when it can be spent on another?
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Understanding Trinity and the Reason for the Hypostatic Union are critical to grasping the magnitude of the Cross, and why God the Father chose for us to even exist. |
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Application to life: people substitute the variable "people", in lieu of "For-Father", as the purpose and meaning of their lives. So, there is always a quid pro quo component to such substitution, even toward people (I did for you, so you do for me). ["Quid pro quo" is Latin, means literally, "this, for that". It's an idiom for I-do-this-so-you-compensate-me-by-doing-that. The Righteousness Principle itself is but a badge for preening, and has no innate compensating value. Hence the need for a quid pro quo. Rome was real big on such petty thinking, which was and remains popular among mankind.] So of course, God is expected to 'reward' what we think we do for Him. As if the doing itself wasn't sufficient 'compensation', gratis, upfront, just to express the joy of knowing Him. But of course, people who substitute "people" as the variable do not know Him, so are not compensated. Hence the quid pro quo, hence the life of emptiness which ends with a meaningless death.
But God testifies to us that Love is self-compensating: for in spending itself on the object, it gets what it wants -- pouring out. God is Love. This is how He is. Each He: Father Son Spirit!
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Notice how the only way to 'improve' on perfection, is to increase it horizontally, by adding perfect 'spheres', as it were -- more Persons. More free choices. However, that means creating creation, which is a "stone too heavy to Lift". For, God is Infinite Perfection. Creatures, to be enjoyable to Infinite Perfection, must have the 'impossible': the same Essence. Can God do such a Thing? How can Infinite God have "sons"? Ahhhh, let's see how He accomplishes the truly-impossible.
So, God the Son made all the angels, simply by speaking them into existence! [Cf. Matthew 4:3-4; John 1; Hebrews 1:3,1:10; Colossians 1:16-18; Isaiah 55, Job 38ff.]
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He did it for FATHER, to add SPHERES of enjoyment for the Godhead: Love-for-Righteousness, The Decree Standard, Isaiah 52:13. Behold, the Genius of God's Decree Standard. It goes, in part, like this:
So, despite all the pain-knowledge such a decision would bring to Them, They each covenanted to 'marry' creation, when the Son spoke them into existence. 'For Better or for Worse. Thus They covenanted to do what was truly impossible, even for Omnipotent-but-Righteous God! -- as we shall see. |
He made the angels perfect, too. We thus see that "perfection" is balanced to the size, as it were, of the being. They were not infinite, but within their finity they were nonetheless perfect. So, they had "full" (meaning, balanced-to-their-'size', so as not to harm free will) knowledge of God, and "full" Power. The knowledge and power were just binged! into them, as attributes. So, they had hands and feet; so, they had knowledge. So, they had beauty. Knowledge-and-power, then, were complete (balanced), just as everything else about them was complete, at initial creation.
What fun is that, we might wonder. Ahhh, but now they are ALIVE. That is the added 'horizontal' sphere. So, they can expand on their perfection, exploit it, even, by choosing to play with their attributes, including their Knowledge of God -- or, they can reject playing. Just as God didn't make Himself, so also the angels didn't make themselves. Pure Grace. They have this perfect beginning.
A new 'sphere' of enjoyment, that of using free will, is available. They can now CHOOSE. They can now reject. They can now choose to think, or do, anything at all -- going against what they know, in favor of what they don't know (sin), or by going forward horizontally, parlaying knowledge, into Love. This parlay widens them, deepens them/makes them 'taller', by expanding their souls. They thus can become inviolately "enlarged" as Paul would later say. (Cf Ephesians 3:15ff, the height, depth, length, breadth metaphor.) In short, "big enough", despite their finity, as we saw in Part I's "Integrity Properties" subsection.
CAPACITY KEY→ It's not merely what you know, it's not merely what you don't know, it's how much you ENJOY what you know or don't know. Love is what makes for enjoyment. Thus, one's on-earth and in-Heaven (or in-Hell) capacity for enjoyment is determined by how much one grows up in Love. So, a person can have full knowledge, yet only a baby's level of enjoyment/Love of that knowledge. That's the only issue: how much shall we grow in LOVE?
For Love requires volition being positive to what's known about a thing or person. That can't be 'improved' by any programming. Rather, since Love is based on choosing, to 'program' it in any way would be unRighteous. So, not total knowledge, but "full" -- enough so they could freely choose to grow in knowledge due to Love.
Moreover, just because one 'knows' something -- what does that knowledge mean? Is it just a collection of data? What does that collection signify? What's the meaning? Then: what is the meaning to 'me'? How do I value it? Do I 'love' it, hate it, feel indifferent about it? Knowledge per se might have intrinsic value, but the one with the knowledge must decide on the value to him. That requires choice, which requires will, which requires pro- or con-, loving or not loving, the information.
So, Love is potential. 'New, like a baby. Volition is pristine, but new, like a baby. All else is provided, and all else can be rejected. Or, used to create a product, Integrity.
As we saw in "Integrity Properties" of Part I, Integrity is the SUM of: Truth, Righteousness, Justice, Love. Take one of these attributes out, and the person disintegrates. The angels, being initially perfect, had a sort of finite Righteousness and Justice, but "Love" was new. So, they could preserve their perfection by not sinning. But they could EXPAND their integrity Only by Growing in Love. Kinda like God, they didn't make themselves, so they didn't have to exert any effort to keep themselves perfect. Unlike God, though, they were finite. So, the angels could only lose -- by Rejecting Him, by Rejecting Love. That was the only one way to sin. Such was their granted knowledge-and-power level: their "covenant".
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CRITICAL BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION KEY→ The concepts below underlie ALL Biblical covenants from eternity past to eternity future; and are vital to one's understanding of Scripture. For all the covenants are of Love, and thus, of "association". All of the meanings and synonyms of that term apply throughout history, for the idea is to come to enjoy "association" with God. So, from the very beginning, "unitedness", "oneness" is the Godhead's Personal Goal with respect to Creation: In a word, "marriage". So, every covenant in history is literally chock-full of associative meanings, in progressively-intimate ways. The Hypostatic Union, as a structure -- Christ's own Personhood -- is the ultimate statement of this Unitedness Intent. Incarnate. That's why, if you look at virtually any property in the universe (e.g., in most scientific law) you'll find a spectrum (opposites at either end): unitedness, equilibrium. ASSOCIATIVE UNION. [Bible's written 'associative' style thus teems with alliterations, multilevel metaphors, verb tense plays, ironic humor, satire, sarcasm, plays-on-words, etc. to fully exploit associative learning and enjoyable understanding. Folks who don't know this will miss its meanings.]
When God decreed creation, He associatively-'baptised' every element in it with God-meanings. So, any thing or person has its natural, free meaning, plus God-meanings. So, everything exists in "hupostasis", a (Greek word signifying) bonding (i.e., of meaning) between two disparate natures (i.e., God-Man). Some of these God-meanings apply generically, and some apply only under certain conditions. In that way, any person can receive not only the free natural meaning of any thing or person, but also any God-meanings. Hence, the covenants all have this quality, since choice of God-meanings is a choice to associate with God.
Moreover, "association" is a critical component of learning. One sees thing "A", and learns a given meaning from it, or about it. That meaning BONDS to the thing in the person's soul; so, whenever one sees "A" again, the meaning is "attached", as it were. Successive meanings learnt about "A" likewise attach. So, as one learns more about "A", any recall or reminder of anything associated with "A" brings up maybe all of those learnt meanings. Note: the meanings "learnt" always have been baptised, as it were, by volition choosing "A" to have that meaning. So, volition agrees to some external 'teacher', or creates the meanings from within the soul, and then 'learns' that internally-created meaning. So: the accumulated meanings, then, might be correct, or incorrect -- but they are nonetheless habitually associated/baptised with "A" until volition succeeds in changing them. One interprets what he sees or thinks in light of the meanings he has learnt, however incorrect they may be: these accumulated learnt-meanings form a "frame of reference" the person uses toward God, toward life, toward self. COROLLARY: meanings discarded by volition become successively harder to 'learn' when such meanings reappear, so to speak, at volition's door, for approval. ("Hardness" toward both accepted and rejected meanings is thus progressive, and always volitional.)
So also, interpersonal contact is called "association": the character and function of bonding, branding, baptising, the elements of interpersonal relationship. Fellowship. Progressive Intimacy. Being 'surrounded' by a person (preferably, someone you love). "Association" also means any attributes you see in a person, will -- even if seen elsewhere -- remind you of the person. Also, 'things' of that person will remind you of the person, even if you see them 'separately'. Further, resemblances to a person's attributes or things remind you of the person. Further still, your attitude toward the person will bleed over to any noted resemblances. So, if you love the person, you'll tend to love anything which reminds you of the person. 'Even if the reminders would otherwise be things you'd not like. In short, "association" aids, deepens, and magnifies the intensities of: intimacy, knowledge, relationship, life itself. For Better, or for Worse. So, if Worse, one wants to disassociate from any reminders, to avoid pain. So, if Better, one enjoys the reminders, and maybe lingers over them. Thus any Covenant of Association would have rules, rituals, parades (e.g., Luke 2 parade of angels before the shepards) -- even meals, to provide occasion for enjoyable lingering: a celebration, or even an auld lang syne. (Old Testament Example: the animal sacrifices always resulted in some form of dining fellowship, dining on and resultant fellowship with, The Sacrifice-to-Come: cf Genesis 2:16, 3:6,21; 8:20; 15:9ff; all of Leviticus, 2 Chronicles Chapters 29~32. New Testament Examples: the Eucharist, aka "love feasts" in the NT; "dine with him" in Rev 3, and "Marriage Supper of the Lamb" in Rev.) |
So the angels' covenant, like all others after it, operated by means of ASSOCIATION. They all had fellowship, association, with each other. Naturally, any resemblances to what they knew about each other, or about God, would bring to mind the person with whom the resemblance was associated. Thus, they would come to be aware of each other every second. Any piece of knowledge would be associated with some facet of God, and some attitude-value concerning God. So, too, with all that was visible: with the things of the universe, with each other. So, too, with everything that was invisible: for example, thought. A thought which 'resembled' God's would remind them of God, even if the speaker wasn't God. So, the covenants served to celebrate their association: the rules and structures depicted their relationship with God, and with each other. So the covenants were -- if they loved the association, that is -- a way to greatly intensify their pleasurable association. "Obedience", therefore, was to be a joyous thing. (Like the American expression, "crying [over the 'burden' of being rich, ha!] all the way to the bank"[to deposit the money].)
However, until the mature-level threshold was passed, there was no 'backstop' to shrinkage: mature-level Love caused "competing loves" to be docked "under" Him. Thus All Loves Could Be Fully Expressed. 'Like a well-organized day, where you can fit in all the things you love to do, without cost to what you need to accomplish: Harmony. In short, until they came to be sufficiently Love-Occupied (joyously associating everything) with the Lord, they would be prone to failure. So, the 'test' was constant, and potentially beneficial. So the result determined not only how "big" they became, but how much they enjoyed Him. After all, what benefit is association in Heaven, if one doesn't enjoy being with God? Conversely, what a torture it would be to associate with Him, if such constant reminders were NOT loved?
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One's soul "size" is as big as his associated Love-for-God. Gotta get a BIG soul, to get BIG enjoyment. |
God by nature is Ruler. The Godhead even choose to be organized in a hierarchy, even though They are all Equal. So, Rulership is the maximum way to enjoy relationship: ruling, and being ruled. Can't enjoy ruling, if you don't enjoy being ruled. Can't enjoy giving, unless you enjoy receiving. So, to have most compatibility and happiness, one must become like Him. So, one must acquire a ruler-nature. That seems to be why all covenants stress rulership in some way or another. 'Not pets, not children, not peasants, but Rulers. That kind of thinking.
Given the similar tenor of all Biblical covenants, one can deduce that the angels were the first ones offered exalted Ruler status -- if they would execute the covenants they had. God always offers both conditional, as well as unconditional, covenants. Salvation is a "conditional" covenant in the sense that one must agree to be saved. God doesn't coerce. Salvation is also a type of "unconditional" covenant, for in every generation throughout human history, salvation is permanent.
It's the permanence of salvation which gives rise to the post-salvation covenants. These likewise are conditional, and unconditional. The Mosaic Law is an example of a post-salvation conditional covenant (although some of its provisions weren't dependent on being saved). Obedience, which requires both associative knowledge and Love, eventually produces the capacity to enjoy, and thus receive, the benefits of the covenant. Since obedience is voluntary, the covenant's blessings are thus "conditional" on choosing obedience.
Post-salvation unconditional covenants, like to Noah, Abraham, David -- these were nonetheless delayed, as Hebrews 11 notes (end of chapter). The delay is always due to the person(s) needing preparation, of some kind. So, until the preparation is completed, the covenant is not delivered. Again, capacity is the issue. God never gives a benefit before one has the requisite developed integrity. Here, the requisite developed integrity is a Resurrection Body, as Hebrews 11 explains.
So, it makes sense to say the angels had both conditional and unconditional covenants, since man does. God is never inconsistent.
Rulership seems to be some kind of additional conditional covenant, in the sense one can lose it. Further, it seems to be a rolling offer: if one person/group doesn't qualify, then a succeeding person/group gets the offer. One sees the offer to Adam, to rule the world; he loses it. One sees the offer to Israel to become a "holy nation" -- they botched it. Christ has a Unique Covenant as Seed -- the Holder and Dispenser of all the other covenants granted to everyone. He becomes King-Priest, Escrow Officer, Trustee. All things get executed through Him. And that Seed covenant was conditional on the Cross being completed, as both Galatians and Hebrews explain.
Given the wording in Hebrews 1, 2, 9, and 1 John 3 (among other big passages), it seems as though this additional Rulership offer is directly a consequence of the Angelic Conflict, which thus makes me think it initially was an offer to the angels (or maybe only to Satan, I'm not yet sure) -- because it's clear the purpose of the Rulership of Christ, besides fulfilling the covenants to Israel, is to replace MorningStar (Satan). Even the Lord's Humanity's "Bright Morning Star" title (Rev 22, I believe) is a deliberate play on the Isa14 pre-Fall title of Satan's. So it's not merely about the Last Adam taking back the world which the first Adam lost. It's bigger than that, since humans weren't around yet, before Satan fell. (This interpretation can of course be wrong. I'm trying to back into the foundation from the information we are provided. Frankly, the conclusions in this piece wouldn't alter much if there was no prehistoric ruler offer to the angels, so it's a fair assumption, to bring out the truly critical data: God's Grand Design in making real sons, not footmen.)
Buttressing the idea of a pre-human rulership offer to angels is the Matthew 22 parable of the wedding invitation. The inviter's initial guests refuse to attend the wedding; so the inviter goes out to the streets, inviting just anyone (us), to replace those guests. Paul proves we aren't replacing Israel (we don't get their covenants) in Romans, and in Chap 11 he reinforces the wedding parable when he talks about us being "grafted in". So, it seems more than reasonable to conclude that, as Body/Bride, we, the Church, end up being the last group invited to rule. We make it. Barely. So, the "last are first, and the first, last." There end up being three kingdoms: the angels (Christ heads them, as "Lord of Lords"); the Jews (Christ heads them, as David's Greater Son), and the Church (Christ heads it, as the King of Kings). The latter two groups are interrelated, because in the Millennium, the Church rules the Gentile nations, so that Israel has peace from its enemies. So the Head, Christ, is Head of the World, in that manner. Ergo His Title as Cornerstone (joining two "walls" of the 'Temple' of believers, Jews and Church).
So, given this ongoing ruler-offer pattern, and its ultimate completion -- reinforced throughout by similar offers to individuals, like to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David -- maybe one of the initial "covenants" with the angels involved some kind of offer to make man anyway -- for them all to rule. However, they'd FIRST have to grow up enough spiritually, so that they'd come to associate ruling with enjoyment; thus, have the capacity to ENJOY ruling. Every ruler offer always is contingent on sufficient spiritual growth, for to rule requires a greatness only God can build in you. Reinforcing this idea is the fact that a) elect angels did have some ruler-roles in the Old Testament, as communicators, teachers; b) that Satan &Co. won rulership of the Earth from Adam, and still rules it today. So, maybe such roles indicate that their design included the destiny of ruling man -- if they grew up enough.
So: when God makes a person, the structural nature of the person must be compatible with the intended result. Here, Rulership. So, that is the intended destiny. So, to fail to grow up would mean the urge to rule remains -- but not the associative enjoyment, so no capacity, since the association with God "balances" the urge, mediates it. Love for God, in other words, makes for this capacity. In short, the person would end up supremely frustrated, if he rebels. His 'urge' would devolve into pride, self-love, -- sorry -- spiritual/mental masturbation, so to relieve, via such sublimation, the unfulfilled desire to rule.
So: it seems Satan was to be the head of the angels, and thus the head of all creation -- if he hadn't dissociated himself from God's Plan for him. So, our existence seems to have been contingent on either covenantal fulfillment -- or, on the Appeal Trial. So, we'd end up being created anyway.
It seems as though none of them did grow up enough -- without first sinning, anyway. So, it seems angels had had some kind of "salvation" package. How else can the term "elect" be applied to 2/3rds of them? That's the term used for believers. God is not inconsistent in his terminology, is He? Further, the order of the "seraphim" did not exist until after Satan's fall, which implies they had some kind of post-salvation spiritual growth hierarchy -- the seraphim are the most spiritually-advanced (i.e., Occupied with the Lord). Since this is a Trial, and man has the same (albeit analogous) system, it would have to be true that the angels had some kind of salvation package, and post-salvation package. Else the comparison to man, and the covenants God set up for man, wouldn't be of significance in the Trial.
Moreover, how else could they grow, if they didn't sin at some point? Why would Christ's Perfection be unique, if the angels had grown up without sin, as well? After all, if Satan, who was the highest, sinned -- doesn't all finite perfection sin -- sooner or later? Adam sinned, too. Sin isn't rebellion, though. One can sin and repent -- the first "repentance" would be to believe in Him, and be saved. Else, the damage of sin could not be restored by the Holy Spirit. Satan &Co. permanently rebelled -- never believed IN Him. Knowing He was Real, hence believing that truth, is not the same as "believing-in/on", because to believe in/on, one must POSITIVELY VALUE the object of the belief. In a word, Satan &Co. didn't value God. So, they never repented of their sins or their rebellion, even though they always remain able to do so, since God kitted them out with souls (thus free will is inviolable). Ergo, the Trial. (By the way, the word "repent" is the Greek word "metanoeo", which means "change-mind". It's not emotional, since "mind" is a separate attribute from emotion. Any emotion, if present, is not necessary for "repentance" to be effectual.)
Now, we know that God would have to be propitiated for any sin -- angelic, or human. Otherwise, Righteousness is judicially compromised. That would be UnRighteous. Else, there'd be no Cross, at all. Further, in order to pay for any sin, Christ had to think Divinely -- without using His own Divinity. He has to depend on the Holy Spirit. 'Which, we know from Scripture, He did. Constantly. Thus, because He associated Everything with God totally, He associated our sins with Doctrine, with His Love for the Father (and for us). So, even our sins reminded Him of the Father, of Doctrine. So, He was Invincible, even though Human. So, the Father would associate every thought He 'heard' the Son's Humanity think, while on the Cross -- and be propitiated.
Divine thinking is worth infinitely more, even ONE thought -- than creature thinking, because God is Qualitatively Infinite. It's not how limited we are, but how Great He is. So, His Enjoyment at seeing is what makes for the value of a thought. Seeing a sin, that's not enjoyable to Him -- so He has to also see a Divine counter-thought, so that the second baptises/bonds/associates to the first -- to be propitiated. Christ could think such thoughts -- and did, on the Cross. Or we'd not be here.
It does appear, from Hebrews 2:16, depending on how you interpret the words, that (at least) fallen angels don't have a Savior: a Mediator must be of the same nature as the warring parties, in order to qualify as Mediator -- that was always the teaching in the Mosaic Law (depicted by the Ark: gold, Deity, acacia wood, Humanity). If you've been reading this site since 10/2000, you'll remember that I had hedged here about whether angels even had a salvation package, because my pastor was revisiting the question; that I'd update this section when I got the material. Well, I just received it (2003), so comments here are very preliminary. What I know so far: my pastor reversed his longstanding conclusion that they had a salvation package. In 1999 he suddenly taught that they did not have one; I do not yet know if he has since reversed his conclusion again (back to the longstanding first conclusion). Because I've been under him since 1971, I'm familiar with this kind of reversal; he's so eager to publically correct any mistake he thinks was made, that once in a while he ends later reverts to the original conclusion, having too hastily assumed it incorrect. (Some people feel threatened if their pastors correct or reverse their prior teachings; I find greater confidence if someone is eager or overeager to do so.) For the sake of clarity and brevity, Let's name my pastor's 1999 teaching that fallen angels cannot be saved, "reversal". The reversal apparently turns on some verses claiming that angels were given Eternal (God's Own Type of) Life, aka "+EL" or "EL", upon their simultaneous initial creation, in addition to the everlasting life which is an attribute of every immaterial soul. I don't yet know from which verses he derives this conclusion. Still, this revision might answer many questions with respect to the role that the nature of Eternal Life plays in one's a) enjoyment of knowledge-of-God, and b) one's temptability, if one has not yet sinned. So, if they initially had Eternal Life,
Perhaps the sin corrupts the +EL, but (of course) can't kill it, in which case there could be no redemption, since EL can't be killed. I haven't heard him say the first clause, but he's repeated the latter clause in varying ways. If that bold italic sentence is true, it better accounts for the construction and fit of Bible verses regarding the Trial: for Satan &Co.'s (maybe billions-of-years') intransigence, as well as why Adam&Isha didn't get EL at their initial creation; and even more, why even we Church in eternity are so differentiated, with most being "naked", poor. Why also, we replace Satan &Co., as the Body of Him Who replaces Satan as MorningStar; so, why also the Church period ("dispensation", a KJV trans of several Bible terms) is the apex of the Appeal Trial. Moreover, why it is an appeal trial, the proceedings of which are unseen by the witnesses (witnesses are always kept out of the courtroom until called to testify). The rest of this table will sketch out these whys. (The entire webseries explains them also, despite the fact that its angelic premise is the opposite: that angels had a salvation package).
So, as noted above, if EL at initial creation, it becomes almost impossible to sin, so long as the body is likewise perfect, and suited to the EL attribute. Which, obviously it would be, lest the EL be incompatible in the first place. For the Appeal Trial, then, the witnesses cannot initially have EL, since the basis for the Matthew 25:41 indictment is Isa14:13-14, in which those who allied with Satan share. The Matthew 25:41 initial Trial verdict is due to a permanent rebellion; so the APPEAL issue is, did God's making angels with +EL at the start constitute a material failure on God's part? If "yes", then of course the initial verdict would have to be overturned. Note how SIN is not the issue, but rather, whether or not the rebellion was something +EL unduly influenced, given the devastating permanence of sin in a creature having it -- a fact which God obviously foreknew. This claim is a far clearer juridical basis for appeal; versus (this webseries assumption that) angels-can-be-saved, where Satan appeals on the grounds that never believing is some God-made defect: for, in that scenario, making a mankind and then saving it would replay minor variations in same Trial arguments; so not necessarily material enough to justify granting an appeal trial.
Trial Argument Corollaries: you can see why God would have made Adam and Isha without EL -- Satan's claim was obviously that God was unfair to condemn angels to the Lake of Fire for sin on the grounds that the EL can't be rehabilitated. Ok, then: wasn't it wrong of God to give them EL in the first place? Did He make a mistake, or was He sadistic? So, the Appeal Trial Evidence will show the following (notwithstanding initial +EL in angels, but especially, if it was), via mankind as circumstantial evidence, but certain mature believers ALSO testify for the Prosecution, to wit:
Thus for believers, many other issues get accounted along the way. For example, we now understand why Scripture simultaneously says we have both "redemption" (a term which includes EL), and "Eternal Life" forever, from the moment of our salvation, yet the Holy Spirit has to guarantee it ("Seal" verses), and yet we are waiting for it. [E.g., John 3, 10:28, compared with Jude 21 and like verses in 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 8, etc. Jude 21 is mangled in English Bibles: last clause should read "with reference to Eternal Life", because eis there is accusative of reference, a frequent usage in Scripture which no one ever translates!] The paradox of having-yet-not-having is simple: we have the position, but not the body. That, we get at Resurrection. Apparently the Corinthians had some trouble with this paradox, for Paul spends 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 on the timelines and categories. You can see the same lines-of-explanation flowing in Thessalonians, Colossians 1, Romans 8, 2nd Peter, and of course, Revelation 1-5 (well, passim throughout that Book).
No one can be as good as God absent +R (e.g., Mark10:18). But if God were to ever sin (since He's Omnipotent that choice is always available), then even God would not be God. Moreover, there'd be no way for God to get the +R back: who can atone for Him, and to Whom would such atonement be paid? That fact makes the Hypostatic Union, in effect, the only way to risk Godness -- for, the Humanity of Christ, being ONE Person, could have commanded His Deity to do anything --- a fact Satan was trying to use against Him, in Matthew 4. This fact will be progressively demonstrated in the webseries: it doesn't matter what angelic assumptions one chooses. [Since God is timeless, the choice to sin would be, as it were, somewhere 'in' Him and He'd never be God; that's how we know His Choice is always "no". It's not like He'd be God for awhile, and then suddenly stop, since He's timeless. However, since that idea is too hard for folks to grasp, you'll find this webseries uses the anthropopathic expression of God 'stopping' being God.]
[Since my pastor also said (but then hedges, at end of L1571) that unbelievers get EL at the GWTJ (because Revelation 20 makes it clear they are Resurrected), and -- bearing in mind he's pioneering an answer which theologians have always copped out by calling it "inscrutable" -- maybe "Eternal Life" has more than one 'flavor', one of which requires the +R imputation (so we can live with God forever, completely compatible). So, maybe the Scriptural "Eternal Life" solely means God's Life with God: the term's usage in Scripture seems restricted to this meaning. Yet if so, how is it that Satan &Co. are in heaven, still? Further, they must still have a spiritual life, because they can see and talk with Him directly; plus, "evil spirits" is used to describe them, though "spirit" is not used solely to designate a spiritual life: the meaning depends on context. And, it's also clear that both they and unbelievers have or will get immortal body life -- i.e., suited for the Lake of Fire. Conversely, maybe "Eternal Life" is a generic moniker for immortal body life, and Scripture poetic metaphors like in John 3:36 mean, if you're not living with God, "life" is not worth the name, even if you do have the God's Attribute of Life (forever).
In any event, we all can surely know from Scripture's many verses that a) people and angels live forever, that b) post-death all humans (at least) get an interim body (Luke 16:20ff being a bald proof) and then a final, immortal one at resurrection. (E.g., 1 Corinthians 15; and Revelation 20~22 all depict physicalities for believers and unbelievers alike.) But what do you call the type of immortal body life that is with God? In the Lake of Fire? Is this body life always the same type for either place? Conversely, why does Scripture call those who go to Lake of Fire the Second Death, though it's completely obvious they are very much alive forever? So is "Death" metaphorical, just as John 3:36 uses "shall not see life"? These and other questions obviously would need to be answered. Many more are related: what is spiritual beingness, can it be lost; what is +R, can it be lost, can it be regained IF lost, etc. It will take a long time to adjust the accounting on these things. The pre-adjustment assumptions you see in the webseries still make sense, absent proof to the contrary; so will remain, until I have that proof.] His reversal begs a lot of questions, though: so extensive reweaving of the 'threads' in this series will be needed with respect to any angelic parallels. I may have to do a second LordvSatan series based on the reversal, so that a reader can compare the changes between the two. Among the dozens of line items which might require a different 'reconciliation' (in the accounting sense of that term), a few should be mentioned now. For example, wouldn't any sins committed have to be atoned, lest "+R", (God's Own Righteousness) be judicially compromised? If Christ had to pay for our sins, how could any angel who sinned subsequently atone for his own?
However, since redemption is not the same as judicial compensation due to +R for the loss, it is not necessarily true that +R was somehow shorted. The Christ's payment for this compensation due would not be classified as "Atonement..Redemption", but would have a different name: perhaps one not disclosed to us. For, there is no way God's Righteousness would ever be shorted. Father would never have planned it that way: Son would be shorted what He could give to Father, so would be hurt by Father, and Father would never do that; Spirit would be shorted some of the value He could make. For, God is Justice, and to be Justice, He must first be Just to Himself, even though as God He has no need to be paid. Justice is not based on need, but on what is Righteous. I haven't heard how my pastor newly covers this "However" issue, yet, so I'm just making an educated guess based on the doctrine I do know. Ergo: perhaps the valuation of the "opportunity cost" of each of US includes the opportunity cost of each one of Satan &Co. For, just as the Lord's Humanity is the Substitute for each one of us, so also each one of US is a substitute for each one of them. We replace them: there are a good many verses which would at least imply this, an easy one being the "stingy servant" parable, the guy who hid his master's talent in a 'napkin'. Thus, indirectly, the line items composing the summation of the opportunity cost of each of US would be valued to include juridical compensation for the sins of each demon we are to replace. The idea that the payment for sin is merely valued at the offense of the sin itself by the sinner himself, is definitely not a correct valuation, not even in secular affairs: there are many other components, too. Example: remember that the cost of sustaining us, of seeing all the destruction due to sin which non-free creation receives (viz., Romans 8:18ff), that would have to be paid, too, under the line item of "maintenance cost". Since if we replace them, we are a replacement cost, there are at least two categories of costs: a) initial property, loss and damage versus best-perfect-use-revenue, capitalized; and b) replacement property, same categories as a). The sum of both becomes the true opportunity cost due the rightful owner/Plaintiff. Since obviously all true human justice concepts must be rooted and sourced in the Divine, it's plausible that opportunity cost be valued indirectly as well as directly: in fact, in accounting there is a concept known as "direct costing", to distinguish between "indirect" costs (like advertising, G&A, etc) from "direct costs" (which are directly associated with a unit of product, viz., the cost of the plastic needed to make the casing of a monitor unit). Moreover, a similar kind of valuation is even very common in human law: not only the destroyed property, but also the replacement property, is summed up and the sum (plus other legal owings like suffering costs, time loss, etc) becomes the compensation the plaintiff receives. God, here, would be the Plaintiff. All Three of Them. So, when you read the "opportunity cost" link section (in redbox at pagetop, 3rd row), you'd merely adjust the cost concept there upward for each demon a Church believer replaces. I say Church believer, because our spiritual life, as Part III will explain, is exactly the same as Our Christ's. By Divine Decree. Moreover, maybe only "Pleroma" believers -- the term is progressively explained in Parts III-V -- replace them. Further, it might be that replacement isn't a one-to-one ratio, though a verse in Corinthians (covered in Part V's Millennium sections) implies that it is. As I get a better understanding of the answers, I'll write more. Meanwhile, it's obvious that if our added substitutionary role is true, then our spiritual lives have an even far greater meaning than currently described in this series; so too the Divine discipline, if we aren't living in the Spirit on 1 John 's, God's, Script. Assuming the reversal is true, and there is much logically to support it, the 'parallel' between the angelic story and man's, then, would instead be something like, the angels could only lose by sinning: defined as, to choose Satan's side, rather than God's; so is akin to our first faith in Christ. We can only lose by never believing in Christ. How is that 'parallel'? First, 'from the ease standpoint: it would be easy for an angel not to sin; it is easy to be saved, as a human; angels, because initially having Eternal life, obviously can't be 'saved' by getting it; man can only get Eternal Life by believing in Christ. Second, from the permanence standpoint: if angels had EL and they had to choose to go with Satan or God (Satan being the self-appointed savior, to 'save' them from what he billed out as God's tyranny) -- it would necessarily be a forever decision. Same is true, for one who believes in Christ. Can't undo it. Same is true (let's say) for the unbeliever, who if he never says yes, has voted a permanent "no". Again, these are but preliminary comments, about an answer which is the reverse of this webseries assumption about angelic salvation. [The tenor of my pastor's proof so far rests on extrapolation, yet the extrapolation itself rests on sound Biblical doctrines, like 'God being Perfect, would make the best first, and the "Best" would be most like Himself.' So if you take those known doctrines, and then read original-language Scripture verses like Hebrews 1 & 2 (especially 2:16), Colossians 1:13-16, Revelation 20; so if you take those known doctrines, and then notice Scripture's omissions, like the fact that angels are never said to die in any way, nor to get redeemed; so if you take those known doctrines, and read so-called 'ambiguous' verses (like Hebrews 2:2), you can see how this initial +EL creation interpretation has validity. Scripture communicates foundational doctrines largely in a sotto voce manner, to indicate that they are foundational. After all, the foundation on which a house rests is not usually visible! Corollaries or applications OF these foundational doctrines explicitly reference them, viz., the many analogies Scripture writers make to the Cross, to the nature of God, etc. in order to explain something else.] In short, the reversal better accounts for Biblical finalities, doors of opportunity which remain open for awhile, but then close -- forever. Most importantly, the reversal stresses something we Christians all-too-frequently forget: God 'gets it right the first time': that is, He Does The Best, First. front-loaded. Why? Because eternity is forever. Of course, the reversal is also far more complex to explain: spiritual neophytes will have trouble understanding its many facets, and will feel doubt, discomfort, and -- distrust. Explaining the reversal requires Divine Calculus, but most Christians are still confused over Salvation's 1+1=2 dynamics of 'believe in Christ and you are permanently saved'. [True meaning of tense of sodzo in Greek of Acts 16:31, probably the baldest verse on salvation in the Bible. Greek use of 'future' tense is not like the English; here, the aorist tense of believe, pisteuo, gives the Greek future of sozo, "to save", a Now And Forever meaning.] Assuming angels did sin and got salvation, then, is closer to the 1+1=2 basics, so that's what this webseries assumes. The "calculus" can be examined later. Obviously, the true answers to all these questions depend on what exactly are the properties of "Eternal Life", "spirit", "God's Righteousness", "body life", "soul life", "redemption", etc., and whether such components differ due to the underlying nature of the being. Since the bulk of what is peddled as "Christianity" is at best baby-level teaching, just because we might not know these answers, doesn't mean they aren't in Scripture. Teachers usually cop out, claim something they are too lazy or untrained to teach is "inscrutable"; and students? Well, they mostly don't care: everyone just wants to hustle in works, feeling holy, and no one gives a flip about How God Really Is, and Why He Decides as He Does. It's appalling, the indifference: they care only about status, goodies, almost never about His Own Beingness -- well, except for titillation purposes. Kinda like the kids in high school who didn't want to learn anything, but wanted a good grade to show their parents and friends, so they only studied to "get by". And anyone who actually wanted to learn was branded a "nerd"! Whew. So the fact that these terms are abstruse to us reflects our disinterest, not God's 'inscrutability'; but that won't stop everyone from blaming teachers, Him, Bible!
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For now, I'll keep on using the assumption throughout this webseries, that instead angels did not initially have Eternal Life at their simultaneous creation; that all did sin; that they all had a salvation package akin to our own which, if taken, resulted in their also acquiring Eternal Life; but 1/3 never believed in Him after the first sin. Such an assumption simplifies the explanation of what is without doubt true: the structure and function of the spiritual life for humans. Of course, I'll later correct my angelic-salvation assumption when I'm sure how to do so. If you're interested in knowing what tapes these are: 92 Spiritual Dynamics, Lessons 1563 et seq. Get at least the full monthly allotment of 20 tapes, then do it again the following month: because what seems to be a topic in the catalog often spills over into tapes beyond the catalog listing. (I listen to tapes sequentially, rather than topically, so I can better learn how an interpretation is derived.) My church never asks for money or rents out your name, so don't send any money and don't worry about being badgered 'someday'. Click here for the site -- they might not take orders online, yet.
Meanwhile: whatever the answer truly is, surely the Holy Spirit knows what HE is doing, even if we do not. One is reminded of 1 Corinthians 2:15, here: "Who has known the thinking of the Lord, that we should instruct Him!?!" In short, there are alternative explanations which get to the same point -- the Angelic Appeal Trial; yet perhaps in different flavors from those sketched here, all of them gloriously justifiable. I'm dying to write out the alternatives, but must wait until I finish reviewing my pastor's exegesis on tape. In Fixes2.htm, the "clarify brown" bullets do have some added, preliminary raw notes on the reversal.
In this and the following sections, you might need a Bible to follow along. In order to focus on the flow of the Trial principles and God's Epic Design, I usually can't stop to review the Bible passages themselves for the sake of refreshing the reader's memory. Of course, this 'problem' means you can instead use 1 John 1:9, and "test" the analysis here against that Gorgeously Opulent Diamond of diamonds, the Bible itself. Heh. Cry all the way to the bank, baby (grin).
God always makes sense. Therefore the story of the Garden couple is a Deposition about a real event; not some allegory, not some magic story, etc. Human nature is very well explained in the story of the Garden couple, and the more you analyze it, the wiser and happier you'll become.
If you really wish to 'see' God, then note carefully how God balances everything He does. 'For example, the 'knowing' and 'not-knowing', in man's original creation, below. Structural characteristics (like these) reveal much about God. That's why the Bible's written style is, deftly! concisely! structure-intensive (i.e., OT/Gospel narratives/poetry and New Testament principle-building epistles). Even every 'particle' in the (original languages of the) Bible is balanced, to emphasize His Integrity, as a Structure, a Whole. So, these websites (Parts I-V) will repeatedly portray key patterns, structures, in an attempt to convey God's Intensive Integrity "Balance", in all He is and does. [For this reason, I'm forced to make certain assumptions, i.e., what Adam and Isha knew at their initial creation. Such assumptions provide a framework on which to depict the truths the Bible actually makes known. The assumptions, I'll have to fix later, both in this subsection and the next. I may also have to spend more time proving where I 'get' what's said here, for folks less-familiar with this part of Scripture, maybe. If you've any data which you think helps, please let me know!]
As we saw in Part I, Satan &Co. rejected Him. Hence, we exist. Let's go through man's creation categorically, rather than chronologically. God the Son first fully formed each body -- Adam's from the ground; the woman, from Adam's rib, as it were (a metaphor for making her completely "fit" him, which is discussed below). Then, He made them alive: He "breathed lives" into them. 'Just as He had created the angels with the same types of "lives". As a result, analogous to the angels at creation, Adam and the woman became tripartite: body (for rapport with physical creation), soul (for rapport with other souled creation), and spirit (for rapport with God). Adam and the woman thus had three types of life, two of which were terminable: the body life, and the spiritual life. The latter's death was the only way the body life could die: "dying[spiritually], you shall die[physically]". So, as long as they did not die to God, they could not die physically, either.
PROPERTIES-OF-SOUL KEY → Thus we see the soul properties required for perfection and integrity. God is a Spirit, so God is Knowledge. The finite soul is likewise immaterial, thus it can only live ON knowledge. Pain is a type knowledge. Pleasure is a type of knowledge. Whatever a body 'feels', the transmission of that data is transmuted into a form of Knowledge to the soul, so the soul can metabolize it. Knowledge is its food, so the soul 'grows' based on the kind of knowledge it gets. So, would become misshapen if it gets imbalanced knowledge, or the wrong kind of knowledge. Thus the Garden Story in Scripture shows us how Knowledge affects soul function: right knowledge, soul health/healing. Wrong knowledge, soul sickness/atrophy. Too much knowledge for the size of the soul at the time, soul fragmentation and paralysis. Satan knows these properties too. Ergo eating from his Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the worst thing Adam and the woman could do to their own souls: that kind of knowledge would shatter them. Ergo the worst thing one can do to another, i.e., Father to Son's Humanity on the Cross! is to transmit malevolent Knowledge. [This shouldn't have to be said, but the Tree itself was merely a tree. (God could have made a "paper clip of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", with the same results.) Eating from that tree meant choosing a type of knowledge which God prohibited. So, choosing to rebel, choosing to be apart. In short, one is choosing sin, to eat. The fruit itself had nothing to do with anything. So, when the woman ate, she got the knowledge of sin. Good and evil are based on sin, and attempts by a sin-tainted nature to be good or evil. So, again, the tree itself had no magical properties, etc.]
Being perfect (beyond improvement) at initial creation, just as the angels had been, Adam and the woman likewise did not know -- because they did not need to know -- "good and evil". That knowledge hung, as it were, on a tree. They thus had no conscience. They thus had no knowledge of "morality". They also had no knowledge of "salvation". Just like the angels, the pair did not need any of these types of knowledge. Thus we see that certain kinds of not-knowing are also needed in order for finite "integrity" to hold together. Just as was true for the angels. In short, the knowledge of God, to be beneficial, must be balanced with certain categories of not-knowing ("innocence"). Thus God has not influenced free will, for the creature is balanced in knowledge.
Moreover, God did a new thing: he created two sexes. (Angels are all male.) God thus set up the male-female structure, to tip the scales in Satan's favor. What would eventually contribute to the Fall was the fact that the pair were so tied up with each other, God was less important to them. In short, their association with each other became more important to them than their individual or collective association with God. This particular weakness becomes a major Trial argument at this time, but is not answered until the "Age" of the Church.
Why? Remember in Part I, where God is explaining to Satan how one can only learn to avoid failure by growing up in Love? So, to most illustrate the intimate rapport among the Godhead, the intimate rapport God wants with His Creation, and the meaning of "competing" Loves, He creates male and female. To be united. Bodies to coalesce, as a result of soul coalescence. That would make for the greatest "competition" to God: a maximally-intensive lateral relationship with a fellow being. Thus Satan has an extra advantage (like a high golf handicap).
Even if Satan never tempted them, their being so 'wrapped up' with each other would interfere with their progress in Love toward God. They thus face the Integrity issue: how to mediate the conflicting loves? Only one answer: grow "bigger". Via Love for God. That would solve the problem, a problem Satan had also faced (His "conflicting love" was apparently pride). However, sex increased the pair's 'conflicting love' problem beyond what even the angels faced, for the angels weren't designed to have sexual pleasure with each other. So, the pair faced a category of testing FAR greater than the angels had experienced. Yet, Adam and the woman were 'smaller' creatures!
How is this condition fair to Adam and the woman? Well, shouldn't the body be maximally attuned to the soul? Shouldn't a relationship with a fellow being be as intimate as it can be? What, is God jealous, He'd deprive His creatures from being able to enjoy a maximum rapport with each other? See, sex really matters here. The prudish folks miss the whole point of it. God invented sex for pleasure in marriage. To miss this point is to miss the meaning of God's Love. (Conversely, to have non-marital sex destroys one's ability to ever know such intense love, apart from the "healing" one can get from 1 John 's Script. In short, fornication harms! Whether it's physical fornication, or spiritual. By contrast, if your soul is prepped by Bible Doctrine, you'll never need "Viagra", etc.)
God took exquisite care in preparing Adam for the woman. She wasn't made in that (so-called) 'first week'. Oh no: the Lord, ever Rich in Humor (is there anyone so Gorgeous as Him?) let Adam look around, heh. First, He had Adam run around naming the animals -- alone. Obviously he saw them copulate. Obviously, he came to associate their pairing with a wish for some mate of his own, but alas, found none. Then, when God makes the woman, He exactly matches her every attribute, both physical and soulish, to "complement" him ("helpmeet" is really "complement", in the sense of "perfect fit"). That's the pattern of how God designs a "right woman" for her God-intended spouse. So, when He brings the woman to Adam to name, Adam shouts ecstatically, "Now! At last!" (English "Now" is prudishly tame, and is not correct. Grab a Hebrew interlinear -- even they get this translation right.) He had been yearning for someone to call his own. So God married them on the spot, as the passage goes on to note. (Graphically! -- Hebrew "davaq" means "to have sex", not 'cleave'. For crying out loud: "cleave"? Can one advertise prudishness more than that? "Cleave" separates, not joins. Why do translators feel they need to cover up God? Is God naked, that they must 'cover' Him?)
Study this section intensely, for all man's instincts will reflect both Adam's and the woman's, 'fall'. Think over the corollaries, look beneath the facts to the pattern the facts demonstrate. If you do, you will find that all you see in life will be 'redefined' and Scripture will be much clearer to you, as a consequence.
Let's look at Genesis 3, to prove from Scripture what both the above text and Part I say about Satan's mindset; and, how he 'begot' that same mindset into humans, via the seduction of a better 'good', the goal of pride.
RELIGION EQUALS INSANITY KEY → All religious ideas are kooky and slapstick. Only a soul insanely preoccupied over authority can 'buy' them. Even, while still perfect, insane preoccupation can occur. Sin thus follows, to 'relieve' the preoccupation. Making it thus ever worse!
INTEGRITY KEY → Love (i.e., to have relationship with God) is always based on accepting truth. For its own sake. Irrespective of the consequences. Irrespective of what you think you know about the consequences. (That's a big reason why the not-knowings are so critical, i.e., not knowing of a salvation offer if they did sin. Many corollaries come from this not-knowing principle which are profitable to ponder. To illustrate the pattern of these corollaries, here's an important example. One who is negative to the idea that God is Absolute Righteousness will refuse the Gospel. So giving the Gospel to that person harms him, because there is no "balance" between volition and the content of the (yet unknown) Gospel. Positive volition must exist absent enticement, so that the 'good news' won't influence free will. For, Love never harms. So, Love stays silent. Yet, will be accused for its loving silence, by a negative volition. Yet, will be trusted despite what seems to be evidence against it, by a positive volition. Love and free will thus remain unenticed.)
Next, let's review sin's damage before salvation, to see key, Trial-related, 'pathological' effects of sin.
Integrity means 'integrated with God'.
So goes our genetically-dysfunctional 'reasoning': in psychiatry, this pattern would likely be called "dissociation". The term is reserved for mental illness diagnostics, but from the Fall forward, the genes actually possess the malady. We all have it. Just as every human being has certain proclivities to physical illness (i.e., we all have potential cancers in our genetic makeup), more fundamentally, we all inherited a dissociative predisposition at the Fall. What psychiatry classifies as "defense mechanisms" are actually the fallout urges from Adam's Original Sin: denial, projection, compensation, sublimation, rationalization/intellectualization being the five most common. They are mindless urges and target especially to "God" anywhere in the conceptual vicinity. So the weird sense of defeat or weakness or nervousness people have when believing in the Real God, thinking about the Real God or hearing about God -- is all GENETIC, a kind of 'race memory' going back to the Fall. And the behavior of this race memory is just like the classical symptoms of dissociation.
In psychiatry, an integrated personality is the key to mental health. So, if the personality fractures, it loses integration, and the person becomes (to some degree) mentally ill. "Dissociation" is a personality-fracture malady. It is characterized by a fracturing fragment operating independent of volition. This fragment is an associative/ baptising/ bonding/ 'hypostatic' reflex, often occurring totally apart from the person's awareness. What happens, is this: the dissociation occurred due to what psychiatry calls a "triggering event". Say, a parent threw an electric iron at you. You were so traumatized by the shock of your parent doing something like that, you deep-sixed the memory. Your parent and the iron are now bonded to the event. What you can't admit, though, is that your parent did this to you. Even if, you thereafter are angry/ afraid/ whatever against your parent, the iron is what bears the brunt of the 'bad' association. So, next time you see an electric iron, you have an involuntary fear or revulsion at the sight. You won't touch it. If forced to iron something, you feel terrible the whole time. You don't know why. You will invent all kinds of rationalizations/ intellectualizations, to justify not seeing, touching, being around that iron. And, will likely not know why. Even if you come to remember why, you will still feel that way. It's an Energizer Bunny, playing over and over and over in a vain attempt to rid you of the memory. [If you are under my pastor, he spent an entire series explaining "dissociation", 1991 Israel. It focused on how the Exodus generation were wacko, to explain the sin nature. "Dissociation" was a term invented by Dr. Emil Janet, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud's, though Janet was not a psychiatrist. Janet was trying to find organic causes for mental illness, and really Adam's original sin produced the organic sin nature, so Janet was essentially right as to the real cause. Technically the interaction between soul and sin nature results in a variety of mental illnesses, some chronic and severe. But we are all at least a little mentally ill at one time or another, and the essential sin nature's drives to which we succumb, makes mental illness a virus in the soul. Only getting in and staying in God's System, will properly treat the malady. GodSystem.htm explains God's System. Link is at pagetop, upper left corner.]
So, "dissociation" is a perfect description of how Adam's disassociation from God affected our genetics, our brains. For, on the topic of "God", Adam rebelled, hence dissociated, hence any "God" idea in humankind generates the exact same reflex hostility and intellectualization as is observed in Adam after his fall. Couple that with the natural genetic variation and volitional variation among humans, and you can readily see why so many goofy ideas of God prevail among Christians and non-Christians alike, since Adam's fall. For example, that's why we are so stuck on "works" (guilt reflex, need to atone). That's why we get soooo self-righteous, even about how our hair looks (compensation, denial, projection, many layered defense mechanisms). That's why we feel so queasy about "faith" (again, guilt reflex, but added to by the other defense mechanisms). Why it's such a traumatic thing to initially believe in Christ (sense of surrender, reliving the dissociating experience). Why man can even become mentally ill. Psychiatrists have long mused over genetic bases for mental illnesses. Well, here it is. ["Spiritual Pathology", link at the top of this page, explains further why this genetic urge is "dissociative".]
If you know anything about derivatives in atomic physics, you can see why this anti-God reflex is so undefeatable. If you know nothing about physics, you still probably remember hearing, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Well, negative volition reacts against Infinity, so it's the power of Infinity, not the power of the reaction itself, which is greater than the reactor itself. Hence, a mating contact between the reaction and the object (Infinity) occurred, even though the mating is negative (separatist). So, the resultant power of the reaction, being derived from the power of what it reacted TO, will henceforth be forever ongoing; and it will be stronger than the reactor itself (Satan's volition, man's volition): only death ends the reaction. Fortunately for us, God knows what He was doing when He created the immortal soul in a mortal body; for the effect of Adam's sin is on the body (hence the word "flesh" in Bible denotes the sin nature). The body, happily, dies. Taking that horrible reactive reflex, with it.
So now you know the power of a derivative derives from the power it bounces off (rejects), so if that power is Infinite, and the item bounces off True Infinity (largest data set, includes all immaterial), then the destructive power inuring to the item due to the bounce-off is total, far bigger than the item itself. Like, an atom bomb. See, that's why Satan's temptation in the Garden could only be resisted by Isha and Adam preferring God. For, the power of the temptation derived from Satan's rejection of God, Who is Infinite. So, the power of the temptation was way bigger than Isha or Adam could alone 'take'. So, the only counter is a Bigger Power: God's. By, Preferring Him.
Nerd note: Calvinism throws out the baby with the bathwater when it maintains man lost his free will after Adam's fall, mistaking the power for the existence of free will. The truth is much worse than that babyish idea. Even perfect Adam couldn't resist the temptation in his own strength! Even Christ couldn't resist the temptation in His Own Perfect Strength, and instead Relied On The Spirit.
Free will is an indissoluble part of personhood, and you are still a person, so still possessed of free will, but trashed up, due to the sin-nature's genetic effect on your brain. Because, the sin nature is a derivative power which bounced against Infinity so it is stronger than humanity. So yes, you have total free will, but you are only human. So the sin's reflex is sooo seductive, only Wanting Doctrine will repel it. Doctrine is God's Thinking, and it takes God's Power to enable you to effectively will something beyond human power. Else, you can will all you like, impotent. [James 2:18-26, Philippians 2:1-13, 'God works in you to will and to do.]
Respect the anti-God derivative power of sin and the sin nature, which exceeds human power. Look at Adam's and Isha's behavior in Genesis 3 when the Lord calls to Adam and queries them about whether they ate the fruit. Note how they first must accuse God before they can admit what they did. That's the reflex, operating. So, when we are in a 'spot of bother', our first impulses will be rejections: wanting-to-tell-but-not-be-told, distrust, blaming, anger, accusing, complaining, fear (remember how Adam first hid?), etc. ad nauseam. So, the task is to stay IN the problem long enough so that these reflexes cycle through as mere temptations and thus exhaust themselves, yet without you sinning. You can only avoid sin by persevering in repeated uses of doctrinal counter-thoughts over time, analogous to physical exercise; so in the beginning, you'll "faint" (Bible word for succumbing to sin) a lot; over time, you'll faint less often and/or for shorter periods, because "Christ in you", Bible Doctrine, His Thinking -- is stronger. If you don't use Doctrine, what seems to be relief from the temptation is just a different sin-nature reflex taking over (analogous to 'healing', where one demon tells another demon to leave a person so that the 'healer' seems effective). This is the mistake the self-righteous make: fooled by what they think is a superiority or prosperity in themselves, they tyrannize. So, because they resist the gross sins with their self-righteousness, they don't use 1 John 1:9, and think they are not in a state of sin. 1 John 1:6-10 says otherwise.
So, each time the sin-nature reflex hits, use 1 John 1:9 just in case you tripped up; for, if you're in a state of 1 John 1:9 used, you are Filled with the Spirit -- that's the power to will to resist. He also built you to some extent in doctrinal thinking under your right pastor, and His Power cycles that doctrinal recall instead (á la John 14:26). So, you 'parry' the sin-nature reflex with some doctrine you've habitually learned under your right pastor, which 'now' you remember. "Christ's Combat" table in PartIV illustrates how the Lord's Humanity did it on the Cross. Matthew 4 shows how He did it even more clearly.
So, if you stay on God's Script, you gradually become aware of the sin-nature "Energizer Bunny" reflex AS a mere reflex; you become aware of the fact that you have Doctrinal reflexes to counter the sin-nature ones. Until that point, you will mistake the sin-nature reflexes as valid desires, and give into them. So, if you stick with God's Script, even if you become Spiritually Mature (covered in Part III), the sin-nature reflex activity will remain: but it will be kinda like the end of the movie, "A Beautiful Mind", when John Nash 'sees' his hallucinatory 'friends' walking on a parallel Princeton sidewalk. You are aware of the sin-nature reflex activity, but it's normally held at bay. Sin, of course, doesn't stop until you die: but it becomes a lot more refined as you age in Christ (shift from physical to merely mental, and very sophisticated, like Matthew 4), a lot more devastating, but happily, a lot less frequent.
When Christ was on the Cross, He FUSED Truth to the incoming sins by 'replying' to them with Truth He learned under the Holy Spirit. That is why we can be saved. That FUSION which occurred, enlarged His Own Soul such that even in His Humanity, He attained the Oneness with Father. For the only area in which He lacked Oneness, was in the knowledge of sin, since He was sinless. At the bottom of this page you'll see something of the enormity of the pressure such FUSION creates. All of Part III and Part IVd, are dedicated to explaining more about it. Point here, is this: we fissioned in Adam. Our souls are like Hiroshimas after the bombing. Only God can clean us up: and He does, by our persisting in 1 John 's Script from Part I, aka God's System -- to Pleroma Spiritual Maturity (see "Pleroma" link in Part III). It really works, this fusion. Takes a lifetime, but every day is a series of victories, right alongside the daily defeats. As you age in Christ -- which you do, by the same mechanic as He paid for our sins, 'replying' with what Truth you know to the incoming temptations -- you will see this inner-soul transformation occur. Worth it!
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Because the Person of God was rejected, Perfection was removed and life became shattered, hollow, small. What's left? A MEANINGLESS life, a sound-byte life, cutting out all 'letters' except "ME". So the brain dissociatively tries to get the rest of "MEANING" back! So, whether in the soul or still mindlessly beating at the soul from the brain, this self-absorbed, loveless! brain-urge plays all the following 'software programs' together, hacking for the right 'password' into the 'system':
Now, watch what was the original structure, to see how subtle is the problem we face. Our erstwhile, God-designed, true motives were noblesse oblige, the idea of loving Righteousness so much, one gives one's all TO Righteousness. 'Self' is not in view, except as a sort of grateful 'tool'. Rather, ruling/giving is for its own sake. It's a very humbling exercise, as one is looking outward, not inward. For that same reason, it is also Extremely Gratifying to be able to give. For its own sake. An Outlet, a Release of Love. So, Adam got this experience, as Ruler of the World, which is why having 'someone to call his own' became so important to him. The design was God's way of giving Adam a basis for rapport, to understand God's Own Desire for "sons", God's Own Satisfaction in creation -- and hence, to share the same joy with God. So, the 'original' design went thus:
Notice how, in all of these used-to-be's, the Most High Was First, always. Enjoyably. Because, He's Absolutely Gorgeous. Totally Engrossing. Everything else, so what? If you are busy loving, self-merit doesn't even occur to you. So, were Perfect Adam here now on earth, he'd find our depraved-urge mutation weird: "What? Why do people go on and on about themselves? Whatever for?" So, he'd scratch his head. Imagine, then, how the Last Adam felt, Who by contrast knew quite well what the mutation really meant.
See the insidious mutation sin created? 'Self' replaced the Most High, so these same motives are now empty, frustrating, hideous. Not good, that man should be alone, looking only in a mirror for his satisfaction. But what else can the depraved brain do? It's been given contradicting directives by the soul: you-be-god (find-my-love), and me-be-god. So, the love-object has to be 'god', right? And, thus: 'me'. See? The brain can't help but BE in a dissociative 'loop'. The depraved urge can only be self-focused, and 'god' can only be used to justify self. That's how Satan lives. No wonder he wanted to unload the kingdoms of the world onto Christ. Imagine how horrible God would 'feel' if He lived under such self-justifying tyranny!
So, the depraved urge always results in frustration, since self-justification is -- well, boring. (Don't we all get bored listening to someone else preen?) 'Righteousness' mutates into a monstrous 'rightness'. Everywhere. All one has to do is talk to someone, turn on television, or 'the VCR. No wonder we feel tired. No wonder we sublimate (another defense mechanism) into 'gross' sins. And, into 'good'. Escape! That's what we keep trying to do! Escape this tyranny! |
Is there any good news, then? Happily, "yes". The urge only gets into the soul by means of volition agreeing to the urge. So, only one's own volition can make his soul "depraved" -- gradually, with each "yes" to the dissociative, genetic urge. In short, it doesn't matter that we inherit this urge from Adam's "fall." Of course, we all give into its insisting, never-ending push-pull, but at least we can (and routinely do) say no to it: even, if only to eat or sleep. Thank God for body needs, eh? Thank God for Bible Doctrine, which will truly free us from this stupid, relentless urge! Bible Doctrine can 'run down' the Energizer Bunny!
Well, where are we? Here: it seems as though Satan wins Round One of the Trial, because Adam and the woman both sin for exactly the same reason as Satan& Co. sinned -- they preferred something to God.
How can God best make this demonstration, so we can find His Love port?
See His Humor? "Work" was what the pair tried to do with the fig leaves, since "earn" is their new, sin-stained, replacement mindset, in lieu of Love, Righteousness, God. So, as is typical of Him, He 'condemns' them to have what they chose, which is yet another way to say He always Insures Freedom. Here, freedom to have the consequences of a bad decision. The Garden was a place beyond improvement: no work. Don't work! Works don't work. Hence by condemning man to his naturally consequent, figleaf mentality, God graciously supplies the way for Sisyphean man to see that his works, don't work!
The idea is, if God's not wanted by enough people, then Time stops: either it stops for the people who don't want Him (e.g., the Flood), or it stops altogether. It's a Trial Issue that Time itself be contingent on wanting God, since the Trial is about "Do you want God, or Satan?" When all the voting ends, so does Time. God alone knows when that will be, but of course since the Trial is about wanting God, Satan gets a level playing field by a contingency that Time must be granted someone who wants God so much, he super-matures (by means of the Holy Spirit, always). So the rest of the God-hating world goes on living, because at least someone matured enough to get the time grant (i.e., Noah, followed by Abraham, etc).
What you see in GodsOriginalDeadlines.htm, is the original schedule for Time which God invented, in simplified form. The schedule changes due to the Cross, because just as Time was measured based on the first Adam, it becomes based on the Last Adam after He dies on the Cross for us. So at least you can see the basic plan of Time God invents here at the Fall. The light-green shaded rows near the bottom represent the originally-planned time for the Millennium. The gray'd out rows below them, weren't originally going to exist: our time was not originally scheduled (that's why there has to be a pre-Tribulation Rapture, as you'll see later on here in Part II). Time was supposed to end in the 5250th year after Adam's Fall. For details on this structure for Time and how Bible presents it, Click here for Mirroring.htm. That's a very long webpage, but Bible proof on how God Orchestrates Time is needed, as you can't find this doctrine taught on internet or in print (well, I can't find it taught, but it's provably in Bible).
Very significant history 'magnetizes around these deadlines. Click here for the much larger GeneYrs.xls: it's an Excel spreadsheet timeline from Adam through 2007 that is regularly updated; it shows the history per Bible and then extra-Biblically post-Cross, so you can see the importance and historical impact of God's Deadlines in real time. For we all need time, to learn God.
Thus, Cursing-By-Association: man is now born in totally-depraved bodies with no human spirit, and thus no way to know God.
This of course ALSO means no baby can go to hell, for Christ died for ALL mankind -- and even a newborn is imputed with at least one "sin" due to his birth, Adam's. As a result, this condemnation, blesses; no gerrymandering of life, so all retain their free, non-seduced, natural properties. So also -- get this -- the woman's collateral "work" punishment, childbearing, was constructed to result in one perfect moment: meiosis. Hence the salvation covenant could be realized. For during meiosis, the Adam-sin chromosomes split off, so a Virgin Pregnancy could result in a PERFECT body exiting the womb. Hence there could be a Christ. [Two corollaries: a) now you can understand why the angels tried to corrupt the human gene pool, in Genesis 6. b) Mary was born from two human parents, so could not be sinless. Only Christ was parthenogenetically-created, by God. Why Catholics think they must make her sinless is senseless. Why 'perpetual virginity' is deemed the paragon of sinlessness is likewise crass senselessness, and indeed, self-contradictory. Did not God create sex? Was she not married to Joseph? Since the creation of the woman, It's been a sin to refuse sex with your husband: and vice versa. What about Genesis 1:28,2:24? And Onan's refusal to have sex, masturbating instead? God executed him refusing to have sex (Genesis 38:8-10). What about 1 Corinthians 7:2-5? So to say she was sinless, yet remained a virgin after His Birth -- that would be a sin! Moreover, doesn't Catholicism deem it a sin to use birth control? So, sex is mandated, to have kids? So, doesn't that make Mary anti-Catholic? Do Catholic teachers' brains ever turn on? Of course not. They are under the same blindness as the rest of the human race: it just shows up, here. Satan didn't like the fact he couldn't wipe out Mary's faith, which he needed to do to prevent the last eligible member of the Royal Davidic line (Mary) from bearing a Messiah. So he later 'gets even' with her, for preferring God: he gradually trashes her, by forging, from tenets in the phallic cult, garbage like "perpetual virginity". Satan's not stupid. He knows that anything connected with the word "sex" really hooks the human race, just as sex hooked Adam and the woman so much, they too forgot about God. So, Satan laughs at our blindness. And gets his revenge, so he thinks, on Mary. For, to know she was not sinless, to know she did not refuse sex after His Birth -- emphasizes her great faith! Thus Catholicism unwittingly degrades the very woman it means to laud, and Catholics are denied seeing the glory of one "blessed among women". Imagine, knowing you are the last person alive who can bear the promised Messiah. Imagine, knowing that your own dynastic bloodline is so persecuted, you are the last person left in it? For Joseph could not carry the royal inheritance, due to Jeconiah's curse. Imagine, the shock of being responsible to train the One Human Who'd save the world? Could you live with these awesome burdens? She must have had huge amounts of Doctrine! What a woman! What a couple! What a great power Bible Doctrine is, so loving, so protecting, so glorifying of the very Lord whose Thinking it is! The Word!]
So, free will always receives the consequences of its own decisions, just as God's Free Will does. No matter why the decision was made. No matter the ignorance, the cognizance, no matter how deceived. One chose, so one gets the consequence of that choice. For better, or for worse. So, Adam and the woman immediately became genetically depraved as a result of their sins (it was a natural result). So also, their procreation would be genetically depraved. The consequence was physical corruption, just as God promised when He said in Hebrew of Genesis 2:17, "dying [spiritually], you will die [physically]." (English Bibles incorrectly translate Hebrew moth-tamuth as "thou shalt surely die." That Hebrew legal phrase is used often in the Old Testament, to explain the two deaths Christ will suffer on the Cross. For example, Isaiah references both deaths in Hebrew of Isaiah 53:9, bemotayw clause.)
God's genetic Condemnation meant that He would no longer make man's body directly, lest the free consequence of Adam's free decision be tyrannically overridden. So, God waits until biological life exits the womb, and then imputes the soul to that body. Thus, God has not compromised what He makes, for the soul is Perfect, just as everything God makes is Perfect. He doesn't impute the soul to an incomplete body, because that is wrong: an incomplete body would be imbalanced relative to the COMPLETE soul. Just as He didn't breathe "lives" into Adam (and the woman) until the body was first fully formed, Genesis 2:7. Here's why.
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Satan's entire argument rests on what's considered "good", but God's entire argument is based on what's PERFECT, which means PERFECTLY BALANCED. Absent Balance, not even God would be God. All The Attributes In An Entity Must Be BALANCED, Or There Is Zero Integrity To The Resultant Structure. Integrity, in turn, MEDIATES Balance. So, absent Balance in Integrity, any "mediation" is unbalanced, as well. Destruction results, in that case. The essence of sin, is Imbalance. So:
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[SideNote on the "prolife" fallacy: hopefully the reader can now understand why the so-called "prolife" stance is Satan's deft propaganda that God creates defectively. So, many well-meaning Christians ignorantly blaspheme God by being "prolife". Satan has long sold believers this idea, to 'soften 'em up' for his other me-be-good sales pitches. But they can fight him, easily: all they need to do is rethink, i.e., how the abortion issue correctly fits in. So long as one insistently buys Satan's pitch, God disciplines the believer with "madness" (Deuteronomy 28:28), the penalty for stubbornly believing a false doctrine. Technically, God withholds some of His protection for the believer, and then leaves him to Satan's 'care', with certain parameters specified (i.e., don't kill him). Satan &Co. administer "madness", essentially by magnifying what damage the believer does to his own soul via such stubborn insistence on a falsehood. In short, they don't violate volition, either. If you look at all the demon activity in the Gospels, and in the "five months" clause in Revelation, you'll see some examples of this rule.
It takes time for the "madness" to mature -- so the person can opt out of the falsehood. Satan makes sure, though, that "madness" in believers is patent to outsiders. Thus Satan uses obsessed Christians to maim others away from Christ. So, you might want to protect yourself: maybe privately use 1 John 1:9 repeatedly, and talk with the Father Who Loves You about the points below.
So, use logic as you read through the ones you find in your search: Note how God uses the words -- ALL instances. Thoughtfully compare Scripture with Scripture. Notice stuff like, in the "born" verses, how the faculty of naming or knowing is tied to being BORN; that "called" verses always have separated from the womb monikers (easy one in English is Galatians 1:15); nearly all "formed" verses talk of God forming, not man. Interesting thing there is that the Hebrew words translated "formed" depict God as first forming a structure, or giving BIRTH. Oh -- if you read French, it's easier to see all this in French: Louis Segond seems ok. If you're reading other webpages of mine, search on "abortion" to find any other references. I've not got time to find them all. The Appendix link in this website shows how Satan uses the so-called 'prolife' issue to denigrate God (at that webpage end).
See, the importance of this study is not to defend abortion, either; far more importantly, to see what God is really saying about Himself. And why Satan uses prolife to 'hide' what God is saying about Himself, His Plan, His Son. See, without knowing life-begins-at-birth, a whole lot of critical things about God's Nature and salvation go unnoticed or get distorted, because the life-begins-at-birth doctrine is used as a foundation for so many others: viz, "salvation" is regeneration, BORN again (Tit3:5, John3). Shall we be aborted from the implanted Word? Let's not!
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The at-birth genetic condemnation is a gigantic blessing: without God condemning us, His Goal of making "sons" could not be realized. This condemnation is vital to 'lifting' the Stone which is otherwise 'too heavy' on the Cross, Hebrew "dakah" in Isaiah 53:5 & 10. Look at His Genius: because man is born condemned, he is eligible for salvation. Why? Because a Holy God must be recompensed for sin. So, if God is recompensed for sin, sin is no barrier to restoration. Heh -- only God's idea of "restoration" is not merely to restore us to Adam's pre-Fall state. Oh no. God the Father, ever the Genius, will parlay our restoration into receiving God's Own Righteousness! A far better status than Adam ever had! God the Son humorously reasons thus: "After all, I allowed man to fail, so I ought to make it up to him, right? I ought to make it up to Myself, too. So, I'll unite man to Myself, by paying for sins, by taking on Humanity" [cf. 1 Timothy 2:5. Its tonal structure: God-is-United; so, a Uniting Mediator! What a play on words! by the way, many verses throughout the Bible depict the imputation of Righteousness at salvation: Genesis 15:6 and "the Righteousness of God in Him" verse (2 Corinthians 5:21) are but two of them.] Wanna see some more of this Genius? Get this: there's no justification for making a perfect creature better, since 'perfect' is unimprovable: there's no "imbalance" to justify 'improving' the 'size' of the being's merit. So, God's Own Righteousness cannot be imputed upon perfect creation. So, the perfect creation always is 'less than' Infinite Righteousness, so is never able to be good enough, unless and until he grows in Love, as explained in Part I. So:
Of course, it was only the Christ who fulfilled c) 1), above, and that alone made c) 2) people eligible. Why? Well -- this is sooo Rich -- what was the "price" to God, judicially, of rational creation being "imbalanced" due to sin? Heh -- Righteousness! Since God's Righteousness was offended, Righteousness is the "opportunity cost"!
"Opportunity cost" concepts pervade all of our justice systems. As we saw above, IRS assesses estate taxes based on it. Congress and courts make/interpret laws (and award damages to plaintiffs) based on it. 'Year 2002 example: opportunity cost is piously invoked to justify the Enron 'investigations'. "Fairness" in politics is likewise based on it (all the discrimination and rights fights, etc). Really, every economic and political issue in life is fundamentally a consideration (or abuse!) of opportunity cost: the theoretical value of the best-use of the object, determines its 'price'. So, then: what's the "opportunity cost" of us, to Holy, Infinite, God? Well, what's His intended use of us creatures? To grow us up in His Essence, so we can be high enough to fully enjoy Him, and He, to fully enjoy us. In Love. That process produces a growth in Righteousness and Justice, as we saw in Part I. So, sin destroys the 'property' (us), rendering it totally worthless, useless, ugly. Even the 'righteousness' of the property is menstrual rags (Isa64:6, corrected translation of "filthy"). 'Which fact is obviously true, for the very essence of sin, evidenced in the motive of Satan's, the woman's, Adam's, (thus our) "fall" -- is the desire for self to do or have 'good' independently of God. Which means we reject God. So that opportunity cost of our rejection which trashed us completely, must be "restored" to God! After all, we belonged to God, we became damaged goods, and the price of that damage, is the judicial damage to God! -- not the judicial damage to us. So, God would be paid this Righteousness, by "Atonement". But that's not all. We had belonged to God. Sin "stole" us from God, as well as damaged us. What shall God do, then? Well, He could do nothing, of course, since He's been fully paid. However, He still wants "sons"! So, He requires the paid-Righteousness be judicially-imputed, to "Justify" and "Redeem" our being 'returned' to Him. After all, we're now damaged goods, and we need to be fixed, heh. Further, since the "theft" and resultant damage had been self-inflicted, we must first agree to receive this imputation: by faith in Christ. Thus we are saved. Once saved, the imputed Righteousness is like a vessel (Romans 8:4, Greek), to be "filled up" with His Integrity, too! -- Bible Doctrine -- so we can function in accordance with our newly-remade, tripartite nature: body, soul, and spirit. Far more, far better than Adam even knew! [Romans 5-8 stresses this whole topic, every jot and tittle of it. Really exciting stuff. Paul can hardly contain himself.] Ergo, the eternity-past Mediator Clause in the Decree, which 1 Timothy 2:5 records. Because, "only the BEST!" is good enough for Holy God. The too-heavy Stone would become the Cornerstone, and be "lifted", even as a (later) Moses would lift the brass serpent in the wilderness, so everyone could "turn and be healed". After He would be "lifted", He would be lifted into Glory (2 Timothy 2:10-13, Hebtred 2), forever the Mediator, forever the Executor of the yet-future Seed covenant (Hebrews 7~10, Galatians 3). 'With a few surprises along the way, of course. After all, can't tell the angels and man everything in advance, before they are big enough to enjoy it. What Genius! What forbearance! What Love! So, "Righteousness" had to be paid. So, Righteousness would become the Mediator-Lamb, and go to the Cross. So, God reverses, 'flips', condemnation into blessing. 'By Association! So, the salvation announcement at the Fall (Genesis 3:15c's "bruise" clause), which Adam and the woman chose (Genesis 3:21, animal sacrifice, foreshadowing the Cross), was the beginning of the counter: Blessing By Association with yet-future, Christ! |
Man now starts out with no knowledge or power. He starts out born, a baby, no longer fully-formed from the 'dust of the ground' as an adult. He is independent and alive, from the second he exits the womb. But he is an empty shell, at that point. Alive, now technically able to develop independently, but -- no knowledge.
Remember hell c)? Its primary characteristic was a being with unrejectably seductive knowledge. Remember hell d)? Its main attribute was impotence: whatever decision you made 'against', had no efficacious power. You couldn't get what you wanted. That's Satan's fantasy-world, and you and I are in it. From Birth.
Due to Adam's Fall, we can't get rid of our inborn anti-programming. We can fight it, but we can't fight it without knowing alternatives. And we can't know alternatives, until we can reason. And we can't even reason, until we have reached a certain age. Remember, Integrity demands Balance. The child must grow up enough mentally, so that the soul-brain connection can process reason. It takes reason to evaluate the question, "Does God Exist?" Some of us (me, for example), have had a nourished childhood, so by (for me) maybe the age of four, the child can process the reasoning about God. Obviously, for others, this age may be much later.
One is not "accountable" to God until one can reason out the question, "Does God Exist?" -- which is the gateway to know 'alternatives'. So anyone who dies while yet unable to do this, is automatically SAVED. That means Heaven is a big place, for infant and other too-ill mortality is high, in history. Malnutrition has been the norm, so the development of the brain to the needed level is a kind of miracle, all by itself. People routinely leave their ill behind, or sacrificed or abused them: so many a deceased, tortured person is happily in heaven, right now. Demonic practices have been dominant in world history and still dominate today. We call them by nice names, now: but they've NEVER been nice, but rather brutal. It's nice to know that all the murdered and raped and tortured children or mongolids are likely very happy in heaven, far away from the brutal "traditions" of their cultures.
So, until that age of accountability, the against-God programming is unopposable. So, any child who dies before reaching that "age of accountability" is automatically saved: everyone is in the Book of Life at birth. He can only be "blotted out", by always refusing God. 'Can't refuse God, until the brain has sufficiently developed, which occurs maybe long after birth, given the varying nutritional (and other) problems man faces (i.e., in Africa). So if can't refuse, saved, since born condemned -- and Christ paid. See the utter Beauty, the utter independent completeness, the Genius of God?
[Important Sidenote: The "Book of Life" is God the Father's roster of everyone who was, is, or will be born -- elect angels administer it. But that's not all it is. It's also His Testament, as it were, naming us as (potential) beneficiaries: a list of His highest-and-best Will for everyone who will be born. Individually. By "name". So, there is a paragraph (or more) about you in this "Book", which lists all God wants you to have. This, because God's Will is for The Best, especially for the Christ, who is the Foremost Person Written in the Book of Life. This, because Christ is glorified by us receiving all these benefits. If we do get "blotted out", the benefits we lose still bless Christ, but in the form of a memorial. Believers will be able to visit this memorial in heaven -- and later on, in the eternal state. In short, the benefits are irrevocable, like an escrow. You have to fulfill the conditions of the escrow -- just like the angels, just like Adam and the woman -- to actually receive the conveyance of these blessings. If you don't fulfill the escrow conditions, the part you didn't fulfill gets blotted out of the list, and remains in memorial, instead.
Hence, everyone is in The Book of Life, and is registered with all the blessings God wants for that person: starting with salvation, of course, for fallen man. One can only lose that status. Just as for the angels, just as for Adam and the woman. (See, sin is never the issue.) As for all other rational creation, fallen man can only lose God's Will for him, by being "blotted out". Fallen man loses salvation by always refusing Christ, from the beginning of his "age of accountability", until he dies. Saved man can lose his 'rewards'. That's why, for example, you'll see "Blot" verses in Revelation -- they talk of blotting out TITLES, not "names" (English nearly always fails to translate idiomatically in important passages). There are many "blot" verses, and synonymal verses, to back up what's said here, because "blot" is a common metaphor in both Old Testament and NT. Unfortunately, English doesn't always translate with the word "blot".]
Look at how the knowings all seem to work against wanting God: we are born in a humiliating condition: we need to constantly tend this dysfunctional body. We are easily beset by every external handicap; we get cold, hot, hungry, need to urinate and defecate, need shelter, clothing, are prone to disease, injustices by others. God does nothing, it seems, to make our hapless lot easier. Moreover, the weather -- doesn't God control it? And we are destroyed by earthquakes, storms, drought -- you name it. Did we cause these things to happen? No! Only God can do them. So it's natural to conclude God is a sadist (just like Satan wants us to conclude).
Further, the very Bigness of God, in the light of our own frailty, looks like a threat and a cruelty. So, the idea that offense against Him which we can't help but commit -- warrants punishment, even a 'hell' -- wow, that sure doesn't sound like a loving God! So: for us to want Him despite all this apparent 'badness' means our choosing him certainly is not enticed, doesn't it? (Again, Satan is given maximum advantage, in making his anti-God claims.)
How, then, is man's Castor-and-Pollux handicap -- Fair? The "covenant" is the key to the answer. Man is universally given sufficient disclosure -- through the nature of the universe, which man can naturally see, for example, to know that God exists. This gentle method of Self-Revelation protects man's free will, yet also guarantees that he doesn't even need to hear the Gospel, in order to decide whether he wants "God". God insures man's free will, yet does not influence it. Again, God preserves a balance between knowing, and not-knowing.
Watch how God protects volition from harm, even with respect to the Gospel. Gotta first want "God", to want the Gospel. To give the Gospel at the wrong time imposes on the person, and creates a liability: for the person getting it at the wrong time will say "No", which increases his negativity, scarring him. Yes, it's his own fault he scars himself, but God would share in the guilt if HE initiates the Gospel, since He knows the person is already negative. So, God is judicious about it. To give the Gospel to a negative person must be required for some overriding reason, to justify God transmitting it. [That's why Christ is so careful, in the Gospels. He talks in parables, or gives out just a few details, carefully worded so the person doesn't understand them, at first. To 'get' the meaning, the person would have to want to figure out what Christ meant. Thus, volition is protected from scarring. You never see Christ give the Gospel to an individual, until the individual is interested. Only in crowds does He talk generically, and even then, His Words are pretty guarded. He's relying on the Spirit to 'translate'. He knows some will be positive, in that crowd -- but should have their privacy to listen, undetected by others. Even by Him. (Speaker needs to be 'invisible', so that God will be 'visible'.)]
Furthermore, one can figure out the Gospel without even hearing it. It's not rocket science: God is Big, 'I' am small. I am too small for a Too-Big God. Wouldn't God want to solve this problem? God doesn't waste anything, for it would be to His Own Disadvantage. God thus has to solve the problem, because 'I' cannot. So: "God, whatever-Your-Name-is, I believe in You. Please tell me whatever You want me to know and do, so we can be together." See? One only needs to be able to reason. The Gospel can be deduced. The only 'unknown' would be the 'name' of the person to believe in, as one can see from verses like Acts 8:27. That verse also shows how God 'manages', thank you, to provide someone to answer that question, 'just in time'. The Omnipotent Holy Spirit is rather good at His Job, enabling even isolated folks to figure out how to be saved, thank you very much.
Man thus has the option of choosing to know of God based on Part I's #2, what he thinks he knows, and #3, what he thinks he doesn't know. See how God made ignorance no hindrance to seeking God? See His Genius? The person is free to want Him, no matter where he is, no matter how old he is, no matter what he knows, no matter what he doesn't know. Even a child's ignorance cannot separate him from God. The knowledge just sits there, available for man to choose to reason out the question, "does God exist?" Once the person concludes he wants God, details of the applicable "covenants" are made available, beginning with how-to-be-saved. So, even though man is born post-Fall with no knowledge of God, and instead, innate urges to prefer self-good to God -- which Satan needed to happen, so that he could prove his arguments -- man is nonetheless able to freely receive and choose God. God insures it so. For every human. Always. For He always, infinitely, intensively, wants sons! -- if they want to become "sons"! Always.
That's another reason why the woman becomes pregnant, instead of the man, for example. Paul gets a big kick out of God's Wit here, the woman will be delivered by delivering a Savior! in 1 Timothy 2:15. My pastor had no end of fun teaching us that quip. It's not the dour-God crowd's idea of a woman's place is behind a sweaty kitchen, barefoot and pregnant. Paul says that her domestic role, avowedly as the servant of her husband, does not mean she is unequal spiritually. But the primary wit is the fact that the Savior will be born -- hence the delivered-by-delivery wordplay (sodzo in Greek first means rescue, deliver, and then "save", so it's a great play word on pregnancy, being "delivered" of a child).
"Family" teaches synergistic love, ideally. Hence, the human is free, whatever his status, to freely enjoy receiving love from those placed higher than him in authority, and to freely enjoy giving love to those under his authority. So, always, some analogy to marriage is being displayed, even before there was a Bride. After all, who loves more than God does? Who ideally wants to be loved by God more than creation? So, it doesn't matter that some are "high", and others, "low". We all get the opportunity to grow to full enjoyment.
Merit-claims and Love are mutually-exclusive. Moreover, God is full-spectrum. So, Paul notes "they who compare themselves by themselves, are not wise." James notes the jealousy and strife that come from people comparing their relative merit (in their own minds, of course) to others. Paul counters that merit is for enjoyment, not for status: "I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound." And: "when I am weak, then I am strong." The purpose of merit is to spend it, not to hoard it, preening. Love spends, not earns, as Paul so tenderly recounts in 1 Corinthians 13 and end of Ephesians 5. James pleads the same 'cause' as Paul: "let faith [doctrine].. have its completing work" in James 1:3-4. God works. We benefit. That's the role of "merit". So, God works to make us into the "sons" He wants! 'More like the Most High. And while He does this, He causes others to be blessed-by-association from those "sons", even if they do no 'works', even during their growth periods -- Full-Spectrum. You'll see how, as you progress through Parts II-V. It's truly amazing.
For we are all one Big Family, and those of us advancing with God spiritually, would love to be used to bless those of us still lagging behind. No one in his right mind wants anyone else to be deprived of God. Least of all, God Who Invented Blessing by Association -- through the Cross!
So, as the Old Testament population increased from the first family onward, world-wide, and it gained some technological proficiency due to Satan's plan, it became progressively apostate. It focused more and more on "earthly things", because of the me-be-good drive, and because it was succeeding in relieving the punishment of "work". Thus man was homogenizing in his negativity toward God. Satan &Co. finally succeeded with such good results, they were able to interest the human race in inter-copulation with the "gods". So thoroughly did people agree with these many years of orgies (e.g., Greek and Roman mythology), so much did they reject God, that a world-wide Flood was needed: only Noah's family remained purely human. The gene pool which was supposed to produce the Savior was down to that family. So, the world got a warning period of 120 years. Then -- gone. The population started over again.
Like "family", "nations" divide loyalties so man's volition is protected against the crush of 'majority opinion'. That's Witty, particularly in the manner He did it, taking a bunch of people at the Tower of Babel (where Babylon would later sit) and confuse (babel) their language. Funny how people divide up when they don't understand one another. Ignorance makes us hostile, insular. So the sin nature is actually turned to good account! Of course, you know that Babel was just ground zero for that Decree, so everywhere in the world the same phenomenon happened. The population was post-Flood, so it wasn't very large. [Don't go by buildings to guess population. Human bodies in the water for the year the Flood engulfed the earth would not leave relics behind. The buildings would of course survive, so you won't be able to tell if there is a hiatus in population. Frequent travel was a norm in those days, so often a skeleton crew was left behind while a larger population moved on, even when the earth was populated. Nomadic lifestyle was the norm. By the way Babel, like the Genesis 6 invasion of the gene pool, broke Trial rules.]
There's a deep lesson, here. Division/competition protects and diffuses the problem of competing loves' pressure on the soul. Freedom requires competition. Social homogeneity eventuates in evil. What's popular will be (unknowingly, of course) satanic, at the core. So, any crusades, any activism, any ideas of world government/world religion are all from Satan, never from God. Whoever crusades or propounds such ideas is speaking for the 'wrong side' in the Trial. Beware of such folks.
So, there are to be nations, and God preserves them. (Acts 17:26. It's interesting that even in the eternal state -- see the last chapter in Rev -- nations remain.) Even so, the resultant nations themselves become progressively apostate. Clearly, blessing-by-association with individuals ebbs, for a nation is but an aggregate of individuals. So individual corruption spreads (albeit more slowly, due to the national divisions), and cursing-by-association still occurs. Despite nations. So how do the Covenants, whether God's or Satan's, interrelate?
Before continuing to #6, God's rescuing the world by creating the Jews, a review of God's and Satan's Covenant properties is helpful. Covenants of Association are used to display Trial arguments about who's better, the Lord or Satan, for mankind. Knowing these properties helps one follow Trial testimony in the Bible, and helps one orient to his own time and covenant. For there is a great deal of argument in Christendom about what these covenants are, who are covered by them, and what these covenants offer. Those arguments will not be discussed here. In the description below you won't see the typical categorical coverage of covenants, but rather an aerial view of properties, broadly classed. For God's covenants -- and Satan's, for that matter -- always have shared commonalities. There are also certain changes, all of which have to do with Trial arguments. So as you examine what follows, ignore the typical covenantalist-versus-dispensationalist debates, and instead keep the Trial arguments in mind. Pan-history, Covenantal Properties are here aerially classed into seven categories A-G, denoting common verbal action in each covenant: Abiding, Bonding, Connecting, Doctrine, Extrapolation, Fellowship, and Governance. The specific covenants themselves thus differentiate according to HOW and to what EXTENT these verbal actions, transpire.
Hence Satan's relative advantage successively increases, even as God increases blessing to those of the greater covenants. Make no mistake, the blessings are huge. But the one getting the blessings, has an on-earth life of extreme torture. Blessings of time in 490 and 1000-year increments -- time for the entire world to go on living (true since Adam, see Mirroring.htm). Competence and agriculture and other types of benefit to the entire region or even the world, are God's idea of material blessings (listed in the 1st Facet of Part IVb). By contrast, benefit to the individual is mainly knowing God, with some material blessing to match -- but you know, the more material blessing you have, the more people pick at you to get some of it. Better to be poor, Solomon would frequently intone (in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes). If God marks you for blessing, Satan marks you for cursing, and the battle is on! Material wealth won't make you happy, it will make you a BIGGER TARGET. So again, Satan's relative advantage increases as God increases His Blessings in a covenant.
So basically, as history unfolds you see the same theme: if you want God, you're in deep doo-doo. So those who believe in Him anyway are either the world's biggest fools -- and they sure appear to be -- or they are the world's biggest heroes, Genesis 5, Genesis 11, Hebrews 11.
Besides the math of Daniel 9:26, this lack of priesthood is your biggest Bible banner that there's no Church in the Tribulation. New Testament everywhere says we are a priesthood and a corporate temple in our bodies, not some building (most dramatically, in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 2). But no priesthood is in the Tribulation, and Revelation 11 tells you no Temple is there either, since God's sarcastic command is to MEASURE for foundation (preparatory to BUILDING a temple on unimproved property). If there were to be a priesthood during the Tribulation, rules for it would have to be created. But none are given, because there are no priests, no covenant. Hebrews spends five chapters on this, i.e., Christ couldn't BE a priest under Israel's covenant, so Church is not Israel: you can see this even in translation, Chapters 5-10. Ergo the Tribulation is unique among all groups in that it has no priesthood, covenant, temple. Hence the closest analogy for its own "Abiding Association" status, is to Daniel in exile. Daniel could pray, but all believers can pray. Daniel doesn't offer sacrifices or other official priestly functions, as indeed no one could, for there was no Temple. So no Temple, no priesthood, no contract is operating. But that doesn't mean Tribulation believers are left without provision, as the Tribulation sealing of the 12K per tribe, shows. [Nerd note: Dan is left out, Joseph gets double-portion.]
In short, Covenantal Commandments are the strongest way to say 'I Love You'. God has Bonded Meaning Which Blesses, if you 'obey' it. Sadly, our depraved me-be-good/god urge keeps clouding this most important meaning in those Bible verses. God is saying I Love You whenever you see even the smallest "thou shalt". See, we're born with this genetic inferiority complex, which Pride, at heart, really is. So, if the tone of the words sounds harsh, we don't hear the content as being good, even if the content is good. It's amazing how we let the sound of a word block out the meaning. Like, "commandment", "law", "obey": we hear these words, and then automatically associate them with some kind of 'work' we must do. Just like when we were children. And we never 'grow up' enough to become positively curious, so we don't see that all these "commandments", "laws", "obediences" are Covenants of Love. Just like we didn't, when we were children. See? we arrest. Just like Satan did. The "I love you" gets interpreted negatively, for we only hear the tone, never hear the content.
Prove it now: yell out "I love you!" in the nastiest tone you can to your pet. See if you yourself don't react negatively. Now, then: notice how, if the tone is not-nice, it's not seductive, either? Satan, who has a voice like a beautiful pipe-organ (Isaiah 14), uses unctuous (very very nice) tones when he talks (e.g., in Matthew 4).
So-called 'spiritual' people often use mellifluous language, softly, sooooo oh lovingly. Underneath, the content -- is pure sadism. Look: say I sweetly tell you we're supposed to become gods via the 'evolutionary process' of reincarnation. Sounds good, right? And why does it sound good? Because if that's the process, there isn't some god out there telling me I'm irredeemably bad, the way Scripture does. So I'd rather buy literally anything else but Bible.
Don't believe that people are so hung up on being inferior (like Satan) that they'd buy anything? Oooh, let's look at the fine print of the 'reincarnation' message: how long does it take? Um, after how many lifetimes, returning to this dirtball? And I don't get to know the prior lifetime(s)-of-learning at rebirth? So I'm condemned to make the same mistakes over and over? Oh, it's okay because everyone has to go through the same thing? So we all suffer forever, so that makes it okay? Oh. More-makes-right. Okay. (Meanwhile, the attainment-of-god pea isn't under any of the three walnut shells.) Now, which would you rather have? A seductive lie, or a harsh truth with totally-wonderful blessings because of that harsh truth? Which is better then: A harshly-spoken blessing (to avoid beguiling you), or a feel-good curse?
Moreover, God is Authority. Doesn't He have to let us know what works and what doesn't? So, then: if God didn't phrase blessings as commandments, maybe we'd think we shouldn't have them. If God didn't phrase harms as "thou shalt not", maybe we'd think we should have them. For example, most of the world has historically believed revenge is a virtue, a duty. Hatfields and McCoys. If someone kills my brother, I must kill his brother, or my own family is dishonored. It's considered a duty in most of the world. From ancient times, to now. Shakespeare's plays use this fact in a subplot. So also, this 'virtue' of revenge accounts for nearly ALL of the problems in Middle East, Bosnia and Afghanistan, for example. It's a religious duty, to take revenge. (The Macedonian movie, "After the Rain", is on this topic. In "The Godfather" movie series, Al Pacino goes back to Corleone, Italy, and asks where are all the men. Answer? Killed by "vendetta", the Italian version of revenge murder. Of course, Michael Corleone was there in the first place, to avoid being murdered in revenge for killing Sterling Hayden's character, Captain McCluskey.)
By contrast, look at Leviticus 19:18. It says something like "you shall not take/seek revenge nor bear a grudge against the sons of your people, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." This commandment is a blessing. By 'obeying' it, one is spared the soul-scarring pain of being upset with another, and is given the soul-enjoyment of loving another.
The blessing is extreme! Imagine having to dedicate your life to revenge, for the sake of honoring god/family. What a waste! Every time we turn on the television, we see souls doing this very thing. Nicole Simpson's father. The Arabs (sorry, but revenge is a cardinal rule of their culture and of the Koran -- well, earlier, even -- since Ishmael was born). The blacks-must-be-repaid thing. Those on a witch-hunt against any President, from Nixon onward (Watergate spawned a new culture of revenge, in America). The 'prolife' movement is really a witch-hunt against those who have sex out-of-wedlock. Those now on a witch-hunt against Enron. See, even if there was once a valid wrong done -- see how those who seek revenge only wreck their own lives, in the pursuit? All in the name of being 'right', of course. Yeah, while Satan laughs his head off!
So, also: think of anyone you know who had some bitter experience he or she can't 'get past'. The person keeps mortgaging the present to that past, in self-absorbed revenge. The person's life just spins down into bitterness, and wallows there. TV is full of such persons. Life is full of their locked-in-revenge cries. My husband hurt me! My wife hurt me! My father raped me! My mother locked me in a closet! My neighbor stole from me! White people enslaved my ancestors! Black man burned my car! And on and on and on. When does anyone get a life? Oh, no -- revenge is a black hole. It sucks the revenge-seeker, and all around him, dry. Think of the billions of dollars which could be freed up to actually help people, if we didn't spend those billions on revenge!
What a blessing, to be commanded "Vengeance is the Lord's!" so you can forget about the (alleged or real) wrong! To say, "God commands you, stupid revenge-urge, to go away!" What a blessing, to be able to say, "God commands you, stupid brain, to love others as much as self!" Tactical Nuclear weapon, this (once self actually wants God enough to use it): brain is trying to obey God (mistaking 'good' and 'self' for God, due to the DNA mutation from the Fall's 'programming'), so the command 'scares' it. That 'scare' BONDS to the urge: for awhile, when the urge rises so does the memory of the 'scare'. Hence you get the blessing of relief. The 'scare' is eventually forgotten: like a puppy, the brain will repeat the revenge-urge. No problem: just command it again. After sufficient repetitions, even the depraved brain-puppy will learn to stop wetting on that part of the 'carpet' of soul. This is how sin is gradually reduced in the life: recall of applicable Bible bonding and hence replacing the usual sin habit in 'response'. By that same Bible-response mechanism, Christ would later fulfill Leviticus 19:18 to its other-end-of-the -spectrum: the total aggressive/ responsive Love on the Cross. It's a reprogramming, but only God makes this reprogramming effective for healing the soul. (All human efforts to improve will only cross-addict one inside the sin nature, and one will fancy improvement, but the addiction deepened and shifted into something worse, more refined.)
We Church receive His other-end Legacy: "the royal law" (James 2:8). Much more will be said about it in Part III.
The Old Testament people had the same Bonding Goal in their lives, but it was materially expressed. The Old Testament is very physical, concrete compared to the advanced abstract nature of the NT. As you'll see in "G." for "Governance" below, this differential in Old Testament covenants was primarily due to man starting out with no knowledge, so he must be taught from scratch, much as a child is taught. Consequently, material blessing was used to communicate one was properly Associated with God, and hence the Blessing by Association could be readily identified. The true Bonding and Blessing, of course, was in knowing God for Himself. As you'll see in the "So What?" Evidence Testing section later in this Part II, believers came to prefer seeing Him to whatever good or bad they had in their lives. That's the point of living, seeing God. Meanwhile, the blessing flowed through the covenant to them and to the world, as they were bonded to Him in their own thinking. It's the Bonding which results in the Blessing, for the Testimony God makes of us, is that we freely find association with Him, the Best Blessing of all.
Each person differently connects a context to whatever "a" we mutually see. To the extent we mutually "connect" in our contexts, we have rapport. Of course, in Truth there is only one set of parameters properly defining "a", but we're not God, so we don't learn all those parameters equally quickly, nor equally well. But we associate with each other, and hence our body contact is a contagion for better and for worse, of THOUGHT. There's a Body Of Association which attaches to every word we have in our heads. And each of us associates meaning, a bit differently from anyone else. For we are each unique. Hence the amount of Rapport we will have with each other -- and especially with God -- is determined by how much we "connect" in our mutual, associated valuations. Bodies of thinking colliding or communing, in bodies of flesh. This colliding and communing can help one question his own definitions and hopefully learn more -- or hasten one's intransigence. The latter, of course, whets cursing-by-association.
Ergo: "Associate" is a choosing or being "with"; "Bonding" is the result of the association chosen. "Connecting" means how all the surrounding associations and bondings from "a" to "z" interrelate or connect to "a". The ABC sum thus constitutes a 'body' of thinking on "a". Given that we are a society of multiple bodies, each 'body' of thinking is therefore INTENSIFIED for greater or less, rapport. Especially, with God Whose 'Body of Thinking' is Infinite, Full-Spectrum. Hence the example about "faith" above resulting in three different 'bodies' of thinking, one per person viewing the idea. Therefore our interaction in bodies of flesh means our bodies of thinking are constantly colliding or communing within our selves and with others -- resulting in blessing-by-association if we learn God from it, or cursing-by-association if we do not. Much more interaction due to the multiplicity of associated bodies: therefore, much greater intensity of either blessing or cursing, thereby.
Intensity is thus aided by multiple, Connecting Divergences. Unions of opposites. It's one thing to pick up a five-pound bag of sugar. Quite harder, to lift a 100-lb sack of flour. Your muscles grow the more you can do the latter than the former, yet doing it is unpleasant, seems altogether harmful, a struggle. Same, for the exercise of thought. Humanity is essentially preoccupied with itself; without struggle, we never really ask the bigger questions, except to entertain ourselves. So the divergence of a low body associated with, bonded and connected to a soul capable of higher interests, begs the question of why we are in such bodies. The divergence of many disagreeing bodies in a society, begs the question of why the divergence exists. Finally we become curious about the bigger questions: like, about God. We are often thus motivated, only to get relief from that painful divergence. Seeking relief by learning meaning, we finally look up to God. At that point, we CONNECT to Him.
Therefore, note this paradox: we are finitely immaterial, so need a physical body to best relate to God Who Has None. Reason? Being finite, we need a divergence in the sphere of beingness, to better relate to God Who is Infinite Divergence, Full-Spectrum, Yet 'united' at all 'points' in His 'Body of Thinking', which in that union-of-opposites, is Perfect.
Prove this to yourself right now. Sit down in a chair and start saying as many nasty words as you can, in the harshest voice you can. Keep it up for about 10 minutes, be sincere about it, pretend you believe what you are saying. See if you don't become very angry, as a result. Alternatively, practice boxing or kicking in the air as hard as you can, pretending to punch out an imaginary opponent. See? In either experiment, you programmed your own anger, so your body responded: in the first instance, you did it solely with thought; in the second, anger-like movements made the body respond. Body didn't do it to you, you did it by an act of will. So all the stimuli outside your will, are doing it to your body, as well. Advertisers and politicians count on that stimuli to sell you their 'products'. Religion counts on external stimuli to sell you its claims, most of all.
Emotions can be stimulated from the outside, the inside, irrespective of any valid meaning. Whenever some event similar to some other past event occurs, the body sends up a feeling associated with whatever was programmed into it from that past. So, if you cave into the feeling, you just made it stronger for no valid reason. This is why crime, addiction, mental illness, and all manner of stubborn problems remain in life. We are ruled by our bodies, because we love the feelings too much, and give in; we let all the urges of all stimuli around us, program us. We are what we ACCEPT.
HUMAN INTIMACY KEY→ Association in groups of humans necessarily occurs. We are families. We are (ultimately), 'neighbors'. We are not islands to ourselves. Our bodies are in proximity with each other. So, then: God declares His Love not only in the covenants themselves, not only in the blessings He bestows through those covenants, but also through individuals who are using them. So, the ones 'obeying' the covenant are used even after death, even blessing the 'unrelated', so to speak -- those negative to God's covenants. All under the Seed: Christ's Payment was used retrospectively to justify the Old Testament folks' existence, and prospectively to justify the New Testament folks' existence (Hebrews 9). No one escapes God's Love. True Love is not a feel-good attraction thing, Psalm 138:2b. True Love is Integrity: God's.
Of course, this Human Intimacy Key also works in reverse: if you choose to associate with those who reject God, the cursing they must receive to wake them up to Him, will overflow to you. And of course, the big problem we all face is the same as Adam faced in the Garden: choosing another human, over God. That's the reason why the human race was cursed in the first place, and it's still true. Problem is, as God upgrades His Covenants, the cursing increases because a greater Blessing is being rejected. The greatest evil in the human race is the replacement of God with people in the name of "good". That's exactly Adam's sin. So to hear all the stress on to-people stuff in pulpits and religion is by far the worst, most vile evil promulgated on the face of the earth. Same exact ploy as Satan made in Genesis 3, piously repeated daily in the mouths of Christians and others!
In Greek, "pistis" is a verbal noun from "pisteuo", "to believe". The noun, usually translated "faith", first means WHAT is believed, not the act of believing. So as James kept on wryly noting, DOCTRINE works the works. Of course, since it's translated "faith", then the reader mistakes the action as his own, rather than GOD'S WORD doing the work. In the Greek you can't make that mistake, for James inserts or omits the article ("the") to distinguish GOD's Word versus man's works. Very witty: click here for my exegetical video playlist on James 1-2. (Start at the second video in the list: associated RTF doc is in the video description, might save you time.)
So here, the Actor Par Excellence, the Verb Par Excellence, is dramatically rendered into a noun (like any good Greek drama writer would do): DOCTRINE. DOCTRINE WORKS. Word Works. So What Would Jesus Do, is What Word Jesus Did, is What Word Jesus 'Doctrined' -- believed. Witness: Even Christ couldn't become sinless, apart from Him growing up in God's System.
Watch how:
Once you realize how often you do sin, you'll be tempted to sin again, by being demoralized. Just keep firing 1 John 1:9 and find some Bible promise YOU like which makes YOU realize how much God loves you. It's vitally important to your spiritual life that you don't dwell on failure. See Matthew 9 (story of the psychomatic paralytic). [Nerd note: yes, it was psychomatic. Even in English you can tell, because when he heard the Lord tell him his sins were forgiven, he is suddenly able to stand up and walk. If you compare that statement with the other healings the Lord did, you'll notice it stands alone, so in that case was not a physical problem. Soul healing, of course, is the real need: see Isaiah 53:5. The Greek of Matthew 9 makes it much clearer that his paralysis was not due to a physical malady.]
The ONLY reason you'll ever be unhappy in life, is that you're not eating Bible at the time. Guaranteed, Luke 11:28 -- "blessed" should be translated "happy" (literally, "happinesses", makarioi). See, as people age, they come to realize all those childhood pleasures were fleeting; they become ever more disillusioned as a consequence; then, ever more brittle and demanding. Sure, when times are good they can even be noble; but when bad times occur, poof! Dr. Hyde comes out. No staying power, because no virtue; no virtue, because absent Bible Doctrine, the person is dependent on externals for his happiness. As one ages, it's less pleasant to move around, one loses some physical attractiveness and strength; by the end, even food becomes too much 'trouble'. Sins committed hasten this descent into jadedness; thrills become harder to sustain, harder to achieve. The capacity to enjoy deadens. By contrast, with Bible Doctrine 'living' in your head, you find aging much more meaningful, even fulfilling, despite problems; apart from it, aging is rather a horror. You have to believe lies, to survive. Of course, the person still under the sway of his sin nature is largely unaware how miserable he is. Psychological defense mechanisms 'protect' him from the truth, you see. The person who blames others, who looks to others to 'do' for him, is a marionette. Take away the buffering prosperity he has, and Dr. Hyde comes out, big-time.
By contrast, once sufficiently trained in Bible Doctrine, the soul-dominated body enhances all one's relationships to express enjoyment of, to, and with God. Ergo the need to grow up in Love, the need to dock all competing loves under Him. What was a curse, association with and via the body, becomes a blessing in the spiritual life. As you'll see in the "So, What?" Evidence section below, even the promise of 400 years slavery for Abram's descendants didn't make him or them, unhappy. Satan's plan can't offer an associative antidote to that kind of horrible 'promise' and produce a like contentment. For Satan's plan produces jadedness, quintessentially expressed in the French word, "ennui". [Man, I didn't appreciate the value of growing on Bible when I was young. So many things other people got to do which I felt I should not get, and then decades later I learn I'm the happy one? Because, they ran after the world's stuff, and of course got disappointed. I couldn't do that, felt deprived, but God mattered, so at length I forgot about that deprivation. Then in composing these websites I realized how much happier I was than pretty much everyone I know. Big shock, bigger grief to want them to have the same happiness, but of course they consider Bible bupkis. It's heartbreaking to watch them so bored and frustrated with their lives.]
So the Association Covenant You Pick will be exercised by you over your lifetime. If God's, it results in Evidence of "So, what?" to any competition in life. If Satan's, it results in ennui, a matured martyr attitude which Satan himself has. Your choice, which "E" you EXERCISE -- Evidence? Or, Ennui?
God doesn't 'do' magic. He does, however, supernaturally transform the believer to become more like Him via EXTRAPOLATING Bible out into the soul, Romans 5:5. For God's Goal is Togetherness, oneness. It takes a lifetime to learn this. Bible is a zip file. Only God can unzip it, and He unzips it in your head if you live in God's System (link in upper left corner at pagetop). So there are no magic Bible verses you can claim, no magic rallies you can attend, no magic pastors out there you can parrot to get the Ghost or whatever. Yes, you claim verses. Yes, you study under a pastor. But no, those functions of themselves won't make you spiritually grow. You have to THINK OVER the meaning, and you have to WANT GOD for Himself. Else you're just wasting your time; you will be blessed, but you'll end up stuck in spiritual childhood, fancying yourself all grown up now. And then disaster will hit, and you won't know why. And the why, is this: God wants a real relationship, not goodies. So if you don't want Him, you don't want to think over what Bible you learn, and you don't want to know God for Himself, what you want instead are goodies. So one day, the goodies stop. This, to wake you up to the real purpose of having a spiritual life. True in Adam's day, true today still: Hebrews 4. Sadly, 99% of Christianity is in this rut. So were 99% of the Old Testament people. God kinda gets tucked aside when we do the things He wants, but without interest in Him or what He says. So 99% of believers, end up miserable at the end of their lives, disillusioned and not knowing why. Well, now you know why.
Your soul is real. Your life with God is FOREVER. So line on line, day on day, precept on precept, plodding on plodding -- you learn Him. Many thoughts in God. Many thoughts in you. His Ways aren't your ways nor His Thoughts your thoughts, Isaiah 55. So kiss all that Christian claptrap goodbye: you know, about throwing faggots on the fire, "Victorious Life", etc. They think just like the woman in Genesis 3, that being Christian is like the forbidden fruit, magically transforming! Well, the truth is rather sobering: your sin nature doesn't like your human spirit which you acquired upon faith in Christ, Galatians 5:17, Romans 8. It's a never-ending battle you'll fight every day. You will get dominance over the sin nature, but it's in baby steps, and takes most of your life. If you want to know God, you won't care about how long it takes, for every day you learn something about Him. You will go through spiritual maturation stages as you grow, so you can track your progress (focus of Part III). But just settle it in your mind now, this is a PERMANENT change, so takes time. You are being developed into someone who will Never Sin Again post-death, without magic, but with Truth being deposited in you. Same depositing mechanism as Adam went through, and he lived 930 years. Same mechanism as Abram went through, and he lived 175 years; from age 75-99, he matured enough to even get the promised son. About 20+ years after that, he'd matured enough to sacrifice that son. Same depositing mechanism as Christ went through -- so go you. He was Perfect and it took Him 30 years of Doctrinal exercise, daily, 24/7. So it might take you a tad longer. Worth it. [Nerd Note: if you think you're too old to reach the goal, think again. Just keep plugging. Those Tribulational martyrs all grow up in 3.5 years, and surely they are not all young! The spiritual growth process varies greatly in length per stage. Think of animals: while it's true most animals have a similarly-short 'childhood' and adulthood, some have a long 'childhood', like certain fish, parrots and turtles, or the 17-year cicada. Once an adult, the cicada takes only a month to fully mature! The cicada then dies. You won't. You live forever. God also lengthens life when volition turns positive, see the example of Hezekiah's illness in Bible, 2 Kings 20, 2 Chronicles 32, Isaiah 38.]
So the Old Testament covenants were essentially Word-in-you Doctrine, Eaten, Exercised and Extrapolated. The methodology used to get Word in them was essentially the same as for us, God's System: but the format and scope of their EXERCISE was generally of opposite means and far lower understanding, than what we Church inherit in Christ. Their association covenants were lower than ours, so involved a lot of visibility and ritual, as we'll see in "G" below. The visibility hampered how much they could learn, for Christ had not yet come; the visibility and rituals substituted for that fact. No one could get His Thinking until He became Human, and HAD thoughts to transmit. Once He lived out as a Human, His Thinking was written down so we could 'copy' it, 1 Peter 2:21. The Old Testament people couldn't get that. Still, the underlying idea was to use their association formats as given (i.e., the rituals), to LEARN and LIVE ON God's Word as then revealed to them. We get better things (main theme of Book of Hebrews). Part III will cover the Old Testament vs. New Testament differences in more detail, with many Bible verses. This Part II is just an overview.
Extrapolating Bible means you think over the underlying meaning in each word of the Word, to see Divine Truth. Bible is spiritual math. God took the Truth and from it created creation to reflect that Truth. So everything in math itself, all the laws of physics, economics, all the structure of biology, every type of animal and plant, reflect Truth in specific ways. So what you see, is always METAPHORICAL of what you can't see. Hence the Old Testament visible covenants were taught and Bible written, via metaphor. You'd then EXTRAPOLATE from the metaphors, Divine Truths -- just as you'd work out a math formula, today. You see Old Testament writers do this, constantly comparing or describing something about God in metaphorical terms like weather, man or animal power, faithfulness, love, majesty, even punishment. The rituals are all metaphorical. Example: "lamb" is a common Old Testament metaphor, so you'd extrapolate meaning by thinking out what the attributes of "lamb" meant. That way, you could better understand the Spiritual Lifestyle of the Lamb to Come, and be spared a lot of angst. Because if "lamb", then not "badger", so you don't have to badger yourself with works. Lambs don't work. They eat, sleep, get sheared of wool which makes itself, and then they die. So you learn to live like a "lamb": notice how that single word tells you much about Christ, the spiritual life, and how you approach your own life, depending on God -- not on some animal strength, works, rituals, etc. So the Old Testament people had the spiritual life communicated to them, metaphorically. If they didn't learn the metaphors, they became the wrong 'animals', and of course got frustrated and punished by God.
As you'll see in G.13 below and #7 link section near the end of this Part II, Christ extrapolated the Old Testament all the way up to and through, Divine Truth itself. This is how He BECAME the Truth. Truth gets built this way. Again, it's just like math, or learning a language. Lots of repetition, lots of practice, day in and day out, applied to everything you think and do and see. That's what He did, so that's what God foreordained for the human race -- because CHRIST would exist, therefore we do. Because CHRIST would live this way, therefore we do. Pre-Incarnation, the Old Testament people had to make do with a "shadow" version of Him, as Hebrews Chapters 7~10 explain (elaborating on 1 Corinthians 13's last four verses+Ephesians 1-3, inter alia). Post-Incarnation, we get the Real Thinking of the Real Person. Intimately. Again, Part III covers Church in detail. For now, just get the idea that extrapolating from Bible (i.e., metaphors) to see Divine Truths is the mechanism, and only God can do this to you, opening the Bible 'zip file'.
Satan therefore wants to make sure that all those contractural verbs are his definitions, rather than God's.
So when you read words in the Word, you'll never understand Him properly. Instead, man's head substitutes for God's. Christ is replaced with either Peter, or pick-your-favorite-fake-leader-here. God-deeds are replaced with good deeds. Divine Love is replaced with emotional needs that grab others and weigh everyone down. Three good fake-out definitions common in Christendom, are actually Bible mistranslations in literally hundreds of verses. Greek "agape" only means Divine Love: but it's translated "Love" in English, so you'll always define it as human love, emotional. Second fake-out: Greek word "ergon" in Bible almost always refers to God's works, not man's -- tip off is an anarthrous or monadic construction (no fronting "the" or a unique-Greek usage of "the"). But in translation, it always looks like man's works. Third fake-out: God's Head gets chopped off in verses depicting His Thinking is What Word Works -- translations of 1 Corinthians and James, are especially egregious on that count. This mistranslation occurs because "God" is not mentioned by name in the sentence. The result? Faked meaning as something man does, rather than what God does. So when you read Bible with the faked-out meanings, you don't notice: after all, you're reading the same words.
Yet if you study the Word in the original-language texts with 1 John 1:9 "on" as needed, the Spirit bypasses all those bad definitions and alerts you to the right ones. So the fact believers for centuries misread the Word, proves they don't care enough to learn what God actually wrote -- from Him. Lukewarm spirituality is Satan's specialty.
To see Satan's definitions of these structures, just turn on your TV and watch it for an hour or two. Notice how people people people and admiration admiration admiration and be good be good be good is stressed every second on the second. Performance. Power. Macho man. Macha woman. Nothing like real life, yet everything like the power grabs in real life. Everything in Satan's structures is reified to doo-doo's for approbation. No learning of God for Himself, oh no: God is cast as Sugar Daddy or Petty Judge, a distant two-dimensional cartoon character described epithetically, shallowly. So we're all urged to get satisfaction from this world, and the real god, is me-be-god or people. Happiness is the proverbial pea under the walnut shell you never get when you pick it, packaged prettily on TV to beguile you into thinking you can actually obtain happiness down here. Yeah, right. So you don't notice that even if you got that glitzy life, it's worthless. If you know anyone who's even slightly famous, you'll find that they don't have the glamorous life which on the surface, you'd think they'd have. They find out it's more trouble, what with everyone grabbing at them. That's why rich people seek seclusion: they need it. Of course, Solomon explained all that, in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.
Same ruse was true in the Old Testament, as you can tell on any page in the Bible. Always someone invading, tricking, playing games on one person or another, in the name of serving the people, being attractive, thinking well of self. It's nauseating. Notice how the Bible heroes progressively didn't cave into that, but looked to God, instead. Took them decades to learn to prefer God to the world. But it happened, eventually. They learned God's definitions despite Satan's propagandic, counterfeit replacements. First an unlearning, a waiting, seemingly endless and fruitless. Then, God delivers. For they grew enough to enjoy what Blessing God had in mind, for them. We'll see all that in the "So What?" Evidence Test section here in Part II, a bit later on.
So it's the Tale of Two Fruits, Fable or Fact? the 'fellowship' with the world's shallow sterility, or the Fellowship with Father. Christ picked the latter, and because He did, He actually needed a Cross to Forego all else, as an outlet. For Father, or Forget it! For Father, is First.
The Governance level of Old Testament covenants was limited to a kind of besidedness with God. God was part of your life, the most important part, the dominating part -- but you had a life on your own, too. So the rapport was limited. The covenants even from the beginning were actually too sophisticated for humans to invent or understand, given the covenants' extreme metaphorical richness and Divine Wit. Also, the covenants were utterly impolitic, and not at all enticing, either. Works entirely spoofed. Hence you can spend hours on just one of the rituals, tracking its multistoried meaning and connectedness to everything else metaphorically depicted. That's why the Old Testament covenants are in large measure, skipped over in analysis today: we don't understand them in our puny minds! Yet compared to how God would upgrade the covenant in Christ, what follows below in blue, was mere child's play:
Here we see the EXTRAPOLATION rule. You do something. Whatever you do, has certain characteristics, parameters. So you analyze what 'laws' lie beneath those things. And you analyze them, to learn more about Invisible God. So the covenants all had metaphorical depictions in their rituals, the teachings, etc. Succinct and easy to remember, you could ponder the meanings while you walked, washed, tended flocks, ate, etc. Old Testament writing style is extremely succinct, seems ambiguous only because it's OMNIDIRECTIONAL. So Old Testament text often baffles translators, for there's no good way to render all the multilayered meanings derivable from the interconnected metaphors. I could spend years on Isaiah 53's Hebrew, alone. Can't translate all of what it says, gotta use the original text and chew on it. That's what the Old Testament people were to do with everything they saw and heard. Most didn't do it, but the method was available, and as you see David and the other Old Testament writers engage in that extrapolation, you realize they played with the metaphors all the time.
Children learn by doing, until their brains develop enough so they can learn from 'pure' principle. It was like basic math, not differential calculus or physics. Yet if you analyzed the metaphors enough with God's Power, not even the most sophisticated math or physics could compare. The Old Testament is so metaphorically dense we moderns don't understand it: you must WELL KNOW the meaning of each metaphor and extrapolate interrelationships from them. It is true spiritual math, every bit as sophisticated and comprehensive, as unified field theory in physics seeks to be. Yeah, you can't understand it on your own. Breathe 1 John 1:9 and keep asking God about those metaphors, study with His Brains -- and then you'll understand them. Each metaphor is of something common. But to have so much information about each common metaphor in your head, at once, extrapolating the principles they depict and interrelate them -- requires Divine Power. On human power alone you'd have to spend your life writing out all the meanings, and maybe after 50 years of writing non-stop, you'd have a vague idea of their interrelationships. Well, the writers of Scripture had instant understanding: so they had to get it from God, to make so much wordplay on all the metaphors.
Unbelievers can't read Bible, so don't know how to read God's Word metaphorically. This requirement of Divine Power is most amply proved, because we all know that good literature -- and the Bible is considered good literature, even by its detractors -- all good literature, employs metaphors. So how is it, that a provable genius like Julian Jaynes, mistakes what Amos says as being childish? Most people I know can't even follow Jaynes' pro-evolution arguments in his Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind book (I can't remember the full title, but it's a classic you can find at Amazon). Jaynes devotes most of his thesis to how old Greek and Bible literature was concretely expressed, therefore man was not possessed of a self-consciousness, which (according to him) evolved over hundreds of years. So the rich metaphors of Greek and Bible literature are a complete blank, to Jaynes. Not only him, but look around the internet: Bible debunkers all see those metaphorical descriptions, and mistake them for literal. A metaphor is a REAL thing which IN PRINCIPLE depicts something you can't see, like a law of God, or God Himself. Anthropopathisms are metaphors. Anthropomorphisms are metaphors. We all "get" that when we see Shakespeare: why not, in the Bible? See: Satan &Co. mask our normal intelligence when it comes to Bible, and we really need Divine Power, to read it.
So too back in the Old Testament, when Bible was still being developed, you went through the motions, and if you didn't EXTRAPOLATE the metaphors inherent in the activity, you didn't learn God, and would mistake the motions for magical things. Just like the woman did of Satan's Tree in the Garden, heh.
Pagan religions all treat the ceremonies as literal things or mystical things. That's why cannibalism was popular. Attributing magical properties to the LITERAL object in the ritual, rather than ABSTRACTING, EXTRACTING, EXTRAPOLATING the Divine principles metaphorically. Thus you know the Bible's ideas were first, and the pagan mystical meanings are deformations from the Bible, rather than the other way around. Abel sacrificed a lamb to memorialize in advance, The Future Lamb Who Would Come to Pay for Sin. Later cultures sacrificed animals as if what THEY did paid for sin. See the difference? See why the Mosaic Law is so rich and sophisticated?
How impolitic, to make the common phallus remind you of the god! Oh? Do you know, most of the totems in pagan cultures are phallus symbols? So notice God's spoofing -- A Real Phallus By The Real God Is Used To Make A Real Holy People. From Dead Skin, A Living People Living Forever Before Living God. Do you begin to see some of the Genius behind the metaphors God picks to communicate Himself? The associative, thesauretical pleasure is Endless Wit! Easy therefore to remember, Tasty therefore to remember. Who but the Real God would think this way? And by picking common things to display His Thinking, you not only have constant reminders to enjoy -- but best of all, you a common nothing, He must want. For after all, if even the lillies of the field are so well clothed -- if even the grass here today and tomorrow thrown in a common oven which has the honor of Depicting God's Integrity Love for Abram -- how much more important to God are you! The Lord would have endless fun using the metaphors when He was down here. Just read the Gospels, look at His Genius in Extrapolating from them.
Of course we Christians exhibit that same attitude. Like the Jews eventually did, we too create little pet observances, ascribe to them magical spiritual properties, all crafted from Bible verses. Yet demonstrating, we don't know what those verses mean. For we don't EXTRAPOLATE, but ENCHANT. We want Disneyland: light that candle, chant this prayer, thus get magical blessing from magical motions, ad nauseum.
Hence in movies and most media depictions, "Christianity" is falsely defined as Catholicism. Or, some other form of magical movements prevalent in Protestantism. The goofier, the more accepted. Woo-woo, rah-rah, no meaning, just motions. Just like the pagans.
Notice how God talks directly to the priests, like Job (family priesthood example), then (patriarchs) Abram-later-Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Notice that an angel, not God, talks to Hagar (so she was a believer, and not in a fake "Allah", either). Every supernatural manifestation in the Old Testament is distinctly personal in nature. Someone you know well, with whom you are on a first name basis. No fanfare. Notice also how the rituals are all of a dining character. Again, personal fellowship in nature, not the overblown rituals of the pagans. Remember when Dorothy, the lion and Tinman first 'met' the Wizard of Oz -- before he came out from behind that fake machine-thingy? Yeah, the bombastic machine thingy strumping its power, has always been depraved man's idea of what 'god' should be like. Nothing like the Real God. Which The Real God proves, by His Direct and Real Personal Contact -- with those who believe in Him. No grandiose temples and gargantuan statues to intimidate and overwhelm, as if that's what relationship should be; no mystical, complicated rituals to obfuscate. Just God, and just you. Was that way since Adam, is that way, still.
From there, the degradation of the biological material from Adam's time resulted in a mortality which precipitously fell during mass negativity (witnessed also in Christian times, i.e., in the Dark Ages) -- or rose, when there was higher positive volition to knowing God. But there was a deadline. And Christ would thus have to arrive and complete His Most Difficult Task, when mankind would be at its lowest ebb. That ebb, would be epitomized by man worshipping himself, his cultures, his arts, his military conquests. Making himself, god. Time has been stuck in this characteristic 'bubble', ever since.
So finally, the Old Testament covenantal system had to be scrapped, Hebrews 6:13-7:28, +Chapters 8-10. All its levels had been tapped out, the requisite Trial Arguments made and Answered, and man finally refused to learn from it. Something higher would have to replace it. Enter, therefore, Jesus the Christ. Governance Level in New Testament covenants is an INSIDEDNESS, far more Intimate than the old besidedness of the Old Testament. As you'll see in Part III's "Third Reason" links, Now God IS your life, there's nothing outside, as the Lord explained when He updated the First Commandment (i.e., Matthew 22:37). His WHOLE life, both Inner and Outer, was dedicated to God: that's the Legacy He left for us, as well. So that 100% inner dedication required a Higher Priesthood and hence an upgrade in covenant, as Book of Hebrews explains: His Own.
It's important to understand that God's Nature is natural to Him. So He doesn't treat His Power as magical, and we shouldn't either. Ants would consider us gods. We don't think of ourselves that way. So look: when we do things, we have reasons for doing them, good or bad. We don't (hopefully!) sit around and pride ourselves on being better than the ants. Instead, we (ideally) make decisions how to use our abilities to benefit ourselves and others, etc. God is Infinite Power, and never exercises His Power absent proper Reasons -- because that's how He wants to live. So the fact He empowers Jesus' Humanity to speak at birth (or maybe the Lord did it Himself, I'm not sure) -- shows you the reason for such an action. Acknowledgement and acceptance of His Role is what Hebrews 10:5 tells you. For that acknowledgement to be made, obviously even the Baby would have to be empowered to know and understand, immediately. That would make it harder to grow up, you'll notice. It's hard on the human to be so far superior to everyone around him. Hard on those around him, to know he's superior, too. So it's not as though God's use of Power tipped the scales in favor of God. No: God uses His Power to make it harder on Himself, not easier. The covenants all have that feature, as we saw in A.6 of this "Covenant Properties" division; and that harder-if-higher feature, derives from God first doing it to Himself.
So here is God doing it to Himself: attach Humanity and thus create the greatest potential for destruction, ever. For He has to be integrated not only within Himself, but with respect to Father and Spirit. God-level intimacy must be 100% from the get-go, yet He has to also grow up as a human being, no influence or trickery? So of course the spiritual life required to not only create that 100% integration for His Own God-Man nature, but also for God-level intimacy with Father and Spirit, is eons higher than the Mosaic Law. Yet, under it. There's no other way to make it harder on God Himself, than to create such a situation. God would not have been paid if even for one second, the Humanity -- baby or no -- sinned. (This problem is covered in much more detail within the first four bullets of Fixes.htm.)
Paul isn't kidding around when he pens Philippians 2:5-10. Kenosis is the topic of the Fourth Reason for Invisibility in Part III. Upshot: pretend you inherited billions of dollars but you weren't allowed to use a penny of it except as ordered; you had full and ready access to the money at all times, and it always stared you in the face. Yet you'd have to keep saying "no" to using it, even though it was permanently yours, and no one could gainsay you if you chose to use it. Repeat: you are not physically restricted in any way, at any time, from using the fortune. Instead, there's only a voluntary compliance on your part, which of course you can refuse at any time. The "order" is something you want to obey, but no one has the right to tell you that you must obey it. Oh and by the way, the "order" is for you to be TORTURED beyond human endurance. Yet, not do anything to buy your way out of it. Who could live with such pressure?
One thing which my pastor stressed repeatedly is that Jesus the Christ as a Human had to keep on willing to hold the universe together, which was a required use of His Deity at all times. In effect, that means His Attention is constantly split and torn: on the one hand, constantly using Deity to will the universe keep on going, and on the other, constantly willing to AVOID looking into Deity to learn something, do something, help Himself or someone else. This split in concentration should have killed Him all by itself. So of course He'd need to have Intimate connection within Himself and would have to have that power from Birth forward. But again, that makes it far harder, not easier, as noted above. As my pastor liked to put it, for SOME uses He had to tap His Deity, but not others. It's easier to only use it one way or only avoid using it -- but far harder, if you have a mix of reasons for usage, all of which have to be extremely precise and coordinated. For as God and Man in one person, that's His Job to hold the universe together, Hebrews 1:3 and Colossians 1:16-17. But then to eschew usage, when the world depends on Him remaining sinless? And He's got to think like this when a BABY? Mind-boggling.
Mind-boggling, but you can readily understand how it works. The Holy Spirit would inform Him, and He'd then obey what the Spirit said. We have the same procedure, though we don't will to hold the universe together. It's a difference of scope, but the procedure is the same. If God tells you to do something and you do it, the power you tap (in His Case, an order to tap His Own Deity, here) would be part of that command. So, humanly, while we are supposed to also be filled with the Spirit at all times, sometimes the command also requires we move or do something with our bodies, coordinated with the Spirit-Filled thinking. That's a mind-boggling coordination, too!
It's like driving, really. When you drive you must focus on the road, on other cars, and whatever else is clamoring for your attention from the roadside or the radios -- you must 'filter'. Slip for just a second, and you can kill yourself with the car. So you are paying a SELECTED CORRIDOR of attention for a SPECIFIC PURPOSE but must avoid any deviation from that corridor or purpose. So now you know what it was like to be God-man: He'd focus His attention in a 'corridor' of Deity, i.e., willing to hold the universe together; but would ESCHEW looking beyond that corridor or purpose, i.e., to learn something from Deity, rather than from the Holy Spirit. Not at all hard to understand the Hypostatic Union. Impossible, though, to imagine having enough soul strength, to never falter for 33 years...
Soul of itself obviously cannot be infinite; but like brain DNA, could get the needed soul 'dendrites' to hook up in the right places for Infinite Divine Truth to circulate properly. For Truth is categorical, so has a structure. Truth categories aren't infinite in number, but in quality and fractilic function; even as, "God" is not infinite in number, but Three. Hence Divine Truth as a Structure can indeed be built inside a finite soul. But it would require Indwelling, to work properly. Not only would God have to build it, but God would have to run it at all times. Only the human's consent would be used. Hence the Infinity-finity Dichotomy mentioned in C.14.l of this "Covenant Properties" division, is solved both structurally, and functionally. Union of opposites. Divergence. Spiritual "unified field theory" as the five infinitives of Isaiah 53:10-11 LXX, depict.
So He had to invent a far Higher Spiritual Life, not only because He'd be God and Man in one person, for total intra-personal integration; not only, to utterly interface with Infinite God the Father and the Holy Spirit, else the entire salvation plan would tank; but also, to pay for all sin in only three hours by means of Thinking, alone. And obviously that's how He did it, even if you didn't know the 21 soul-paying clauses Isaiah uses in Isaiah 53 -- because a person nailed to a cross can ONLY think. [Crucifixion takes three to seven days to kill you, as insects and birds bite and all your organs swell up: you eventually die of suffocation. Meanwhile, being NAILED, all you can do is think, feel, know you are being crucified. The fact people gloat over your suffering is rather inconsequential, by comparison.]
So how did Christ's Payment on the Cross, pay for ALL sins -- since some of them never end? STRUCTURE. His Thought Structure got completed on the Cross, Hebrews 2:9-10. That's why He beat Satan, too. Romans 5 & 8, and Hebrews 10, He never ends. So the 'cost' can be paid even though the process never ends, if the Structure is built. So again, DIVERGENCE: forever, Christ will live in His Glorified Humanity, constantly thinking Divine-Level Thoughts. So too, the unbelievers live in the Lake of Fire, constantly thinking sin. That's why hell can go on forever, else God would have to disallow it. We believers also, will always be thinking forever, and in aggregate we reflect Christ. So in aggregate, the payment is ongoing, though now we are dividends on His Cross Payment. See?
This is the essence of 'opportunity cost' in economics: the Present Value of a Future Income Stream. Negative income from the aggregate thought structure of unbelievers and fallen angels, more than offset by the Positive Income of the Thought Structure of Christ Himself and His 'dividends', believers and elect angels. So the Payment on the Cross had to be enough to pay for the STRUCTURE's completion. That's why it could 'finish', yet thoughts and sins, go on forever. You are a soul. That's a structure. But your thoughts keep on going. So pay for the Structure, and then the thoughts are paid for, too. See?
One can speculate how much of that payment gets shared out with Israel at the 2nd Advent and during the Millennium. Surely it will, for many people who believed in Him died prior to the Cross, and we know their inheritance structure is likewise in material terms, i.e., the "talents" parables about the cities awarded, and Hebrews 11's comment about how those believers looked forward to a better 'country' than they were living in (on earth). So it's not as though the payment stays in escrow. Isaiah 53:12's w'et atsumim yehalleq shalal tells you it won't be escrowed, but instead is shared out "and to the great ones, He will share out the spoil" is one way of translating it (published Bibles don't translate Isaiah 53:12 properly, see Isa53.htm).
This doctrine of Christ pre-paying for Bride-Church to SAVE TIME -- the reason why Matthew 16:18 is recorded -- goes missed in Christendom because we look at people rather than God. For centuries Matthew 16:18 has been blasphemously mistranslated and misused to cut the Lord's Head off and put Peter's atop. Peter must scream daily from heaven for someone to redress that grievance. That redress didn't begin to happen until the Reformation, and even in every Bible documentary you see today, the verse is still vilely mistranslated and used. No excuse. "Petros" only means "LITTLE ROCK" in Greek. "Petra" only means "BIG ROCK" (i.e., cliff) in Greek. Someone deliberately cut out the "little" and "big" meanings the Greek conveys (think of "pebble" versus "Bedrock" in English), and then vilely transliterated "Petros", but not "Petra", so the English reader can't see the difference. PopeMyth.htm has a collection of videos on this topic walking you live through the Hebrew, Greek and Latin pan-Bible, to prove how vilely Christ has been maligned via the bad 'scholarship' on this verse.
As a consequence, the blasphemers don't get to know what the verse means: which is ironic, since the verse means their own EXISTENCE was voted for by Christ, back then. Else they'd not be around, to blaspheme. Peter sure remembered the "little" meaning in his name, using all kinds of little rocks in his letter (i.e., lithoi, citation stones given as award certificates or voting pebbles you carried to prove you had a right to vote). 1 Corinthians 10:4 quotes Matthew 16:18, so Paul knew what it meant. Maybe one day Christendom will, as well. For we are all purchased here by Christ, unilaterally and in advance, see also Ephesians 5.
Whereas point #19 focused on the extra payment for the Bride, here in #20 we're looking at the added cost of all those who will NOT be saved, because they will NEVER choose to believe in Him. This is analogous to the cost of the first-born in Egypt. God memorialized them. The Jews only got delivered out of Egypt due to the first-born dying, and God never let them forget that. So too, here: it's been 2000 years since the Cross. Something like 20 billion people or more have lived on this earth since then. Pretty big extra price to pay! [The 20 billion is a conservative estimate, probably too low. Derivation is in Part IVb's "God's GAAP Balancing" link section, first purple centered text you see in that section (shaped like a rimmed pot).]
Post-Cross, His Success meant He'd be changed. He'd be higher. His Battlefield Patent would be bigger, since He paid for more people. So His Bride would have to be higher than Israel would have been, both because the kingdom inherited would be larger -- all those extra people -- and because His very Royalty itself would have to be bigger. A king of a smaller kingdom doesn't need as much wealth, as a king of a far bigger entity. Since this bigness is a Soul Size in Him -- for it's a Royal Priesthood, a Thinking before Father -- then the aggregate 'soul size' for the Church would have to 'match' His. So no longer could the old spirituality and its soul provisions, be anywhere near enough. We have to become a brand-new spiritual species in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15. So that means a much higher payment at the Cross. The Law couldn't even begin to touch this, as He has to pay a cost for His Own Authorship of a Higher Spiritual life atop that Life, itself. For Father is to kit out the Bride as Father deems fit, so only Father can even say what that cost ought to be, John 17:17-26's carte blanche language. It's mind-boggling. Now you know why the Rapture can't be predicted: it's predicated on how we MATURE in Christ, Ephesians 4:13, based on that John 17 passage. More about this will follow, in Part III.
So He pays more, analogous to the empire-inheriting groom's prospective father-in-law taking from his own personal property, and flat giving it to the princess to make her big enough -- and the groom then pays a higher bride price to the father-in-law, to still get her. Since the Groom is suddenly bigger, so must be the dowry. But if the dowry is bigger, so must be the Bride Price. So His Very Success at the Cross becomes yet another cost-creating line item which in turn He must pay for. Because, He loves FATHER. And by way of extrapolation, us. So when you read the verse "you were bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20, 7:23 evokes Matthew 13:36) -- now you know something more about what kind of price and how much.
Bride must match Groom. So that higher stature due to His Success is Ephesians 4:13, the most shocking verse in the Bible. Even the KJV gets it right!
Ti gar oun, So what do we have?
Consequently, our covenant is not like Israel's -- her covenant is now way too low, Hebrews 7:18 -- because the Precedence is His Battlefield Victory for a far larger and new group of people, not the status quo ante. Paul calls the Law a "boy-leader" (older boy supervising younger ones, Galatians 3:25, see context), a child (1 Corinthians 13:11, 13's "faith") -- pending the Completion of Canon and its teaching by Our Real Tutor, the Holy Spirit. Christ was taught by Him. He had to Become the Truth, not merely learn Truth. That same standard applies to us, John 4:24, Romans 5:5, Ephesians 4:12-13, 15-16, 1 Corinthians 13:10-13. Obviously we fall far short of it. For 2000 years have passed: that fact tells you at once how difficult it is, because we've still failed to corporately reach the goal -- and how big it is, because time hasn't yet ended. So the extra payment, Divine Intimacy Level plus Standards are beyond comprehension, had we no Holy Spirit to explain what Bible tells us about it.
The import of this new potential for Mistrial cannot be overstressed. Israel rejected Christ; Church can, too. Church has rejected Him for 2000 years, now. God's Promise is that Church will complete, but there's no deadline promised as to when. So Satan has a new potential for victory. If too many in Church are too apostate in any generation, then the Rapture must occur as Discipline -- analogous to the destruction of the 1st Temple. Only Church has no time guarantee protection as Israel did. As Israel's time ran out, there's no time which Church can be allotted. Christ bought the Millennium on the Cross, so His time purchase didn't go to Church, that's a purchase for Israel. Mirroring.htm walks you through God's Time rules.
So if Church must be recalled too early due to her apostacy, then Satan wins in the Trial.
Moreover, Satan's rights of argument and rebuttal are in essence renewed at the higher level of Church. That blunts the Strategic Victory of the Cross, for now a tactical victory of Church Completion is required -- or Satan still wins. For it can be argued that since Israel failed, the contract provided her was insufficient, inasmuch as it was replaced. Better still, the new standard for Church is so much harder, all the prior arguments get to be made again with reference to this new and far higher standard -- a spiritual life not previously available to mere mortals, as we saw in this G.15. Since Church is New Evidence introduced in the middle of a Trial, then all future Evidence is contingent upon this New Evidence first proving valid. If invalid, i.e., if Church doesn't complete -- then it doesn't matter what the future evidence would have been, it's a Mistrial and all ends. Part IV is devoted to the Mistrial question. It has to be listed here, since this section is on how Covenant properties cause blessing or cursing by association: Mistrial is a major issue, if not the issue, in determining whether cursing occurs for everyone.
Question is, will Church become a blessing or a cursing to those future? Blessing, if we live our spiritual lives as God Designed. Cursing, if we do not. The awards at the Bema are in large measure determinative of what quality Trib and Mill believers will get, since Church is the culmination of the Trial, Ephesians 1:10's "summing up of all things" (Trial matters). More about how Church is the summation of the Trial will be covered in Part IVb. Again, the point here is to track the avenues of blessing or cursing via covenants. Church's covenant impacts the covenants future of it, even as Israel's covenant and her own rejection of it, triggered the creation of Church.
So of course, Satan's 'covenants' for man have the same structure: teach sin/good/evil by 'doing'. It becomes essential to stress body stuff as spiritual, post-Cross, for then the wrong covenant is being followed by believers, and they will not grow up. Hence via outer-directed methods Satan &Co. influence the content of man's inner nature. In the Old Testament, Satan needed time to 'educate' man, to technologically develop him. Man had no idea what 'improvement' means, as we saw with the fig leaves. All he has is an urge to be 'better'. But what does 'better' mean? Well, he can identify with a full stomach, with being sheltered, with pleasure. So, that's the base for the teaching: physical things. 'Just as with a child. Physical things are visible. Hence, the Old Testament covenants are hallmarked by visibility, palpability. So, too, are Satan's covenants. So in the Old Testament, Satan &Co. manifest themselves as the "gods", which are famous in all the world's pantheons throughout history.
So now we return to the OT: the stage is set to appreciate why God set all this in final motion, by creating the Jews out from the nations of the world.
Recap: from the Fall forward, Satan has had the better advantage. God has 'restricted' the communication of Himself to go from outer to inner, so if Satan can focus man's attention on the outer, he can forestall or minimize any inner learning. So, the more ritual and physical metaphorical observances and laws are viewed as rote things or magical practices, the less man will associate them with knowing God. "God" will then become a designer label, which is already the brain's depraved conception of Him. Many are the religions which stress doing rotelike practices; many are the religions which gain their pleasure from mysticism, chanting, and magic. "God" is just a genie you invoke to do your bidding, so man is just a pawn for Satan to nurture.
Over time, Satan's plan became the more popular, even with all the protections from #1-#5. Man progressively opts for it despite all the 'competition' of working, birthing, family, nations -- skipping right over #3, God's Covenants. So those positive to God are way outnumbered. Put into military terms, God has a narrowing population for 'distributing' His body proximity, blessing-by-association. That makes it harder to justify keeping the world alive, as Satan happily knows. For Satan wants Gotterdammerung. God wants to save the world. What action can God take, given His Self-Imposed restrictions and covenants, structures to protect free will? Focus the covenant's power within a smaller group, and 'find' a way to keep that group going. "Concentration-of-force", one of the cardinal military principles of success. In short, leverage: a "remnant", "salt", a "pivot". As goes the group, so goes the outflow of blessing or cursing; those who reject the group will be severely disciplined.
The smaller the group, the greater responsibility and pressure on each individual within the group, and the more growth would be required. Ouch. What can justifiably be provided, yet not 'tip the scales' of the Trial away from Satan's favor? From which branch of humanity should the Savior come? Whatever Branch it would be, the 'father' of it must be SO positive to God, a bloodline can be justifiably INSURED.
Thus came into existence the Jew, due to the faith of Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob/Israel. After Jacob, the line could no longer be threatened, for those 3 were the "remnant", so were used to provide blessing-by-association to their descendants. And via those descendants, the Jews -- provide blessing by association to the entire world. The world will go on living at this point SOLELY due to these three and their bloodline, until Christ successfully dies on the Cross. Like it or lump it.
Anti-semitism is vile. As Paul notes to the anti-semitic Romans in Romans 4, Abram was not a Jew until God made him one by FAITH. That the bloodline was perpetuated was a CONTRACT God made with Abraham. By extension, a contract is open for us. But instead of taking God's Contract we humans become jealous of those who did. Anti-semitism is jealousy, plain and simple. Well, if you want to be jealous, then you will be more jealous if you keep reading, for GOD GRANTED THE WORLD TIME TO LIVE based on these three people. Even Messiah could not have come, were it not for their faith. So either stop reading now or gear up for some heavy thinking ahead. Faith in God counts for everything, and God Alone does the Work. Faith is something man not God does, but God's the One Who Gave Each Human a Soul with the Faculty of Believing, In It. That's how you learned 1+1=2 (you had to believe the one who taught you), and that's how you got saved. Having believed, that didn't obligate God to save you, and it didn't have any power itself to save you. But GOD CHOSE to save you because you believed in Him. So if post-salvation you keep on learning Him because you believe what He says in His Word and WANT to learn more, then you too can become a hero like these folks. It's no exaggeration. As you read the sketches below of why they are accounted heroes, you'll realize you can believe like they did...
Remember when the Lord announced at Adam's Fall that He'd take on Humanity and become Savior? Well, just as through one man, Adam, cursing by association with him genetically fell on all men, so also, blessing by association would prospectively be linked genetically to the yet-future "Last Adam": but, just as with salvation, the basis for such blessing had to be faith. It takes three strong believers to establish sufficient blessing by association for this bloodline. [This doctrine is one of the running themes in Romans 4-11, and Hebrews.]
The number is repeated often in Scripture: for example, if 3 generations in a family go "bad", the fourth will be the last, if it chooses to repeat the sins of the fathers (so-called "four-generation-curse" , i.e., in Exodus 20, Deuteronomy, and Numbers). The reverse is also true. The "salt of the earth" and "remnant" doctrines have a similar structure. Obviously this is some issue in the Trial: the progeny's spiritual life "begets" a type of blessing or cursing on periphery. Certainly we can understand we benefit due solely to His Payment, and so did they (prospectively). That God would extend this imputation/attribution via humans to other humans would be an extrapolation of His Substitutionary Life for us.
[Some easy cites to see this rule: Genesis 15:16, affirmed in Exodus 20:5, 34:7, Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy 5:9 (general principle); 2 Kings 10:30, 2 Kings 15:12, Job 42:15; the 120 years of the Flood, and the (extra-Biblical) 120 years Assyria lasted after Jonah came to live there, illustrate some of the applications of this curse. The purpose of the curse is to BLESS. The curse occurs to limit the contagion of sin. As we saw from the Flood and Babel, sin is very contagious. Family, then nations, help slow the contagion, but this 'curse' is an even more helpful 'quarantine', so to speak. The 'fifth generation', if there is one, starts out clean. You can see this trend frequently play out in modern history: pick up some epic biography of a famous family line. Two which I remember off-hand are: Fortune's Children, about the Vanderbilts, and The Rockefellers. Most of the European Royal epic biographies I've read display the same pattern. In all cases, if there's a 4th-generation curse, like there was with the Exodus generation -- which is why nearly all the adults died -- you'll see a) a strange killing-off of that generation; b) childless fourth generation, and/or c) a wealth-collapse of some kind. With the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers, it was largely "c)". The Claudio-Julians, even -- who weren't believers -- seem to illustrate all three categories. The 'curse' is not restricted to believers. Probably every 'family line' can look back at its own history and see the pattern: I've seen it in my own family. It's extremely common, and probably every family can find at least one occurrence. For God thus preserves the family, it's a kind of pruning. Further, you can see it in any nation, any period of history. Cyclically. Truly amazing. Point is, the 'line' or the 'empire' ends with the fourth generation, in one way or another, if it is under that 'curse'. The fifth generation, if positive to God, is opposite in some key way, and is preserved -- as it was with those who went into the Land -- and starts anew. Again, it's a Blessing, this 'curse' -- as are all of God's curses.]
There is an exact accounting System for Time which God uses, and you can prove it from Bible. This accounting system is due to the Trial. It's a Trial criterion that some believer on earth must be so mature, the world can be granted time to live. Else Satan wins. There are so many verses in which this System is disclosed, it took me two years to analyze the main ones; after all, one finds truckloads of goofy stuff about prophecy and Bible numbers, on internet and in print. So here are some links to my other sites on this topic if you wish to explore further, before continuing in Part II. Warning: I can't find anything on the internet like these pages. So please use 1 John 1:9 and keep asking Our Mutual Dad for confirmation in Bible, especially if a Bible verse cited doesn't make sense to you. I generally don't trust Bible in translation, so the published translation you see might not clearly show the meaning in the original-language texts. Even so, there will be other translated verses God will know you need to feel comfortable, so please ask Him.
Very often key historical events 'tag' to the time-grant deadlines (especially, David's). Historical data post-Cross still needs more input, but enough is there so you can spot the continuing deadlines. In Excel, select its "View" then "Custom Views" menu, and you'll see a popup dialogue box with presets allowing you to easily navigate the spreadsheet for selected periods in history. Saves a ton of time in analysis, to use those presets. Like all my webpages, the spreadsheet is best viewed in Smaller Font size and in the widest width for your monitor. The spreadsheet columns all view onscreen that way (older small monitors might not show all columns, so maybe set Excel's view percentage to less than 100%).
A more important implication, is that you can see how God orchestrates time and thus better identify the time in which you live. Like the Jews who received this Accounting System, we are supposed to analyze the time we are in (i.e., Matthew 16:3, Luke 12:56); not for the undateable Rapture, Acts 1:5-8: but rather to be good students of the Word redeeming Time, Colossians 4:5 +Ephesians 5:16 (use KJV). So at least one among us must super-mature every 490 years or Time ends. True since Adam. If more than one of us receives the award during the same time period, the world receives extra prosperity (a LOT of prosperity), but not extra time. The latest of the time grants becomes the deadline. Think of it like a baton-passing relay race. For example, Abraham got the Time Baton in the very year Noah's 490-year grant ran out. Same for Moses, from Joseph. Same for Christ, from David (more complex accounting, six time grants involved). GeneYrs.xls link above shows all this, so you can test it yourself, in Bible.
In short, due to the faith of Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob/Israel, we're all alive; if not for their faith THEN, Christ could not have justifiably come and of course we'd all not be here. The Judaic bloodline could no longer be completely eradicated, even despite later apostacy, and the Messiah could be justifiably born. In short, those three witnesses in the Trial were successful enough that Satan could no longer use apostacy's cursing-by-association, to justify exterminating the Lord's human progenitors.
What "work" did these three do? How was it that they proved superior to Satan's way? What's God answer, via these three? Here's the pattern for all God's and Satan's answers in history.
God's Answer: "Faith [Doctrine] works", James humorously begins his letter. [The 'straw man argument' of James 2:18 is the context. James began in James 1 noting how one needs Doctrine, to be a "doer of the Word". The idiot in 2:18 is trying to divorce The Word From works. Alas, if the reader doesn't 'get' that point, his me-be-good urge will distort James' "faith [doctrine] without works is dead."] Hebrews 11 is dedicated to the same theme, as is the humorous "work out your salvation" verse-pair (Phili2:12-13), which concludes "God works..to will and to do." Romans 8:28 is Attic Greek drama language, Our Hero even makes the intransitive, transitive: working together everything for ultimate good to those who love Him! Not to those who do works. For, only God works. Not creatures. We believe, He responds with His Script. We receive, He gives. He keeps on "pouring power". "Pour" and "Power" are Bible keywords for God the Holy Spirit's Power being given us, like in Isaiah 32:1, 44:2, Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, and Ephesians. In the Old Testament, the knowledge-and-power levels were much lower than ours, today: yet even those much-lower levels beat Satan's achievements. [Isaiah 32:1 is mistranslated, should be "The King" -- Jesus the Christ, not "a king". Only New Living Translation seemed to catch onto the right idea. The moniker of Him being The Righteous King is a refrain in Isaiah, visible in Isaiah 53:11 among other places. LXX text in 32:1 is anarthrous, so it's not just any king, but the King to Come, Son of David. Isaiah 44:2 is blasphemously mistranslated, because "mi beten" always and only means BEYOND the womb, OUTSIDE the womb, and you'll never understand Isaiah's frequent wordplay with preposition min if you don't translate it properly. It's a keystone in Isaiah 53, which is all about the BIRTHING of our salvation. Yet in 44:2, only Louis Segond got the BIRTHING translation right. Sheesh. Everyone hates the Word of God, loves to fit in with past bad translations -- fit in with people and their petty prejudices, but not God! Here it shows in spades. No wonder my pastor always went ballistic when going over mistranslations of mi beten verses to show there's no soul life in the womb! I'm going ballistic myself, so better shut up now...]
Satan's Answer: "Works work." Satan's achievements were then and remain today, considerable. It cannot be exaggerated how much human history owes to him. If you think that man's advancement through history is coming from man's own abilities, think again. If Satan &Co. didn't enable man to progress secularly through their own "enduement" system, we'd all still be huddling in caves. [Satan's achievements wouldn't be possible without God's underlying Laws, because apart from those Laws nothing could have the structural integrity to hold together. But we humans, too dumb to live, can't use those laws as well as Satan can. In short, Satan's using God's Truth, alright -- and thinks he's making a better use of it!]
Mankind is stuck in the middle. We can get either God's Plan or Satan's, remember. Each system has its own "covenants". Knowledge-and-Power. We have to be empowered by one or the other, to advance. We aren't able to advance on our own.
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God's Rebuttal: that's why the Cross must provide Total Salvation to spiritually birth us, for we are spiritually dead. 'Improvement' does not exist. Only upon total salvation can man be remade. Remade, not improved. How remade? God's Script creates spiritual growth via "deposits" (Greek: paratheke) of Divine Thinking: Bible Doctrine. This deposit is made by God, to each "faith-yes" assent of ours. The Depositor is Perfect. Each "deposit" is Perfect. Use of that deposit is a Love Issue, just as it was for the angels. So, another "faith-yes"; so God perfectly uses the Deposit in you, however small. Perfect use of each Perfect Deposit yields little Perfect "dividends". The accumulation thus replaces the 'good', the 'improvement' doo-doo (which volition, succumbing to the congenital brain defect of dissociation, programmed into those initially-empty neurons). Each Diamond Deposit replaces some doo-doo. Replaces, not 'improves'. Replaces, not makes 'good'. Replaces the previously-programmed associations. Thus one's dissociative 'reasoning' is gradually replaced, so the person can become sane, whole, happy. Not do's, doo-doo's, works -- but, Knowledge. For the neurons will only put out what was put into them. If what was put into them was do-do's, not knowledge-of-God (which requires positive volition), then the neurons will only put out cannonfodder: "wood, hay, and stubble" (1 Corinthians 3). People perish for lack of knowledge of God -- Hosea 4, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28. No amount of works can make up for that deficit.
See God's Genius? The "faith-yes" is an I-want-God, the marrying of a little bit of "love" to a little bit of the Word, which is Perfect Righteousness and Justice (see Psalm 33:4-5, 89:14, 138:1-2 in this connection). Each time. So each "deposit" increases both Knowledge And Love, together, a little bit at a time. So these little "marriages" build up in us Inviolable Integrity. Replacing 'improvement', 'good'. So it was for the Old Testament people; so it was, for Christ. So it is, for us. So sin is not the issue. Creature failure is not the issue. Love is the issue: one "deposit" at a time. Heh: Love pays doctrine! in advance!
Integrity is God. God is not us. So our Integrity is always outside ourselves, even were we perfect. That doesn't bother God. He wants to have His Thinking in us. Cycling. For Fellowship with Him. He'll take care of any shortfall in our nature versus His Own. Salvation means that He gives us His OWN Righteousness and Eternal Life, building the rest of His Attributes through these deposits, post-salvation, within the corridor of our discrete consents.
Spiritual death, which is total separation from God, total disassociation, must be 'made alive' by salvation and those perfect deposits. Dressing up a corpse, perfuming it, won't make it breathe! So, "let the dead bury their own dead", the Lord told the good-deeder. Don't waste time 'improving', doing 'good'. Instead, 'do' what James counsels: "Faith [doctrine] works patience. Let patience have its completing work." Patience, not hustling, improving, 'good', works. From Doctrine. In short, let God enrich you, like He did Christ: get Bible Doctrine. Then, let the Wealth of Doctrine run your soul; let Doctrine pay for everything, at no cost to you (Isaiah 55)! That's true good. One deposit at a time. Doctrine Works. Let the dead bury their own dead. Leave the me-be-good-twitching-body where it belongs, at the Cross (Romans 6-8 tie in here).
And how do you do that? By learning and living on what you learn. You naturally will do this, if you enjoy doing it. You'll want to study, think over, ponder all day and night, analyze, play with Bible -- if you like what it says. If you understand what it says. Which you will, if you live in God's System. People gravitate to what they enjoy, and they avoid what they don't enjoy. So historically since Adam, we humans do not enjoy learning about God. We instead gravitate to each other, slap God's name on our interactions, and then have the nerve to call ourselves 'holy' or 'godlike' for so doing. So here in the Evidence Test, God demonstrates that only HE matters to the heroes. All the 'competition' -- especially, with reference to other people and works -- dies.
So what will distinguish Abram, Isaac, Jacob is that they just plain wanted God. They don't 'win' because of anything they do. They win because only God matters to them. It's not a work, but an All-Consuming Preference. Which obviously, one enjoys. Now, maybe you don't currently enjoy the Word, but wish you did. Just keep plugging and voting for it. The enjoyment will build over time. Don't feel guilty because you want to avoid study. Just do it anyway, using 1 John 1:9 as needed and studying under your right pastor, talking to God about everything, trying to live on what you're learning, applying it everywhere in your life. Turn it into a game, for you'll fail constantly but also succeed constantly. One Love Deposit at a time. Enjoyment is not native to fallen mankind. Only urges which seem like pleasure are now native. So just keep plugging, Philippians 3:14. That's what the Bible heroes all did, as we'll see below.
Conversely, with God's Answer -- even under the minimalist provisions of the Old Testament -- the most deprived believer was happy, as Hebrews 11 records. Moreover, all the fantastic goodies were of no value, compared to the Joy of Knowing God. See? A replacing reciprocation, the outcome of all those perfect deposits of Bible Doctrine, SUBSTITUTES for the natural reciprocation need. God is enough. One 'gets' God in advance, see -- and the knowledge of that fact so compensates the soul's need to be loved, that a reciprocal love for God becomes the soul's outlet. 'Instead of sin, human good, or evil. Because, knowing Him is enough (i.e., "that I may know Him and the Power of His Resurrection" Philippians 3:10). So a funny thing happens: one wants to suffer for God. God doesn't need that. God doesn't want that. But we need it, we want it, even though our suffering buys nothing. We just want to waste ourselves on Him, and we want that waste to 'do something' for Him. Via the Spirit, that otherwise useless suffering can be turned into true Divine Value. That's why the Cross works: the Holy Spirit CONVERTS all that sin to make Christ's Soul functionally infinite, completing all His God-Man dendrite connections, per the purple text in the "Governance" subsection (link in redbox at pagetop, 4th row). Isaiah 52:13-14, 53:10-11 is the Decree Contract to do that to Him -- and we get His Contract. Much more about this conversion follows in #7 below, and is the main topic in Part III's "Third Reason for Royalty", and Part IVd. ["Third Reason for Royalty" is my favorite section in this entire series, the hands-on key to enjoying the spiritual life.]
Along with the "Land" (haEretz, Bible term), God had promised him something Abram longed for: an heir from Sarai's barren womb. ["Sarai" means "contentious one" -- well, "bitch", let's not be coy.] Well, God really promised much more than that! He'd also promised that anyone who treated Abram and/or his descendants well, would themselves be blessed by that association. Conversely, anyone who treated Abram and/or his descendants badly, would be cursed by that association. In short, how anyone treated Abram or something "of" Abram would be how God Himself would treat them (shadow of the forthcoming Matthew 7:2 rule which we'll see in Part III). Furthermore, these descendants, this huge Land, would belong to him and his descendants forever. He would become AbRAHam: father of many NATIONS (by faith and by blood, as Paul explains in Romans 3-5)! Heh. That requires what? That Abram have Eternal Life! So, Genesis 15:6 proves he had gotten it. (I love how Moses just inserts that in there, as an aside -- showing us that both Abram and Moses' immediate audience knew the Gospel rather well!)
Moreover, this "Abrahamic" Covenant (theological term, sometimes subdivided with other names) was also one of MATERIAL prosperity: those "of" Abraham would be materially blessed. Money, goods, health, exuberance-for-life (l'chaim!), good looks -- which, of course, we can all still see today.
What was it about Abram that 'made' God give him such an inheritance? Well, it wasn't his race, for crying out loud. As Paul reminds everyone in Romans 4, Abraham was a Gentile. Paul goes on to note, Abraham became a different racial species when he circumcised himself. And why that? Because of FAITH. Not because of him personally, not due to any of his human attributes or possessions. (The me-be-good urge is always trying to appropriate merit from stuff like looks, race, possessions. It would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic.)
So how did Abraham's faith demonstrate itself in the Trial? Well, God gave him great wealth. Yet, he chose to stay itinerant. He didn't build himself palaces, but preferred to live simply. Why? Was he ascetic? No. He had better things to concentrate on: Bible Doctrine, as it was then revealed. Sure, he sinned -- and quite a lot! -- it took him 99 years to mature. At that point, Romans 4 notes he essentially said 'So what?' to his sexual death, and circumcised himself as God commanded. Note the humor: from then on, Abraham couldn't even urinate without associating his phallus with God. (Considering how the phallic cult was so important in ancient times, circumcision is downright witty!)
It took Abraham yet another 20+ years after the birth of Isaac, to have the spiritual strength to sacrifice his only legal son. Way back in Genesis 14, you'll remember, this issue of someone to inherit his wealth really plagued him: he was bothered that Elieazer of Damascus would be the heir, so long as he remained legally childless. It kept him from progressing spiritually, this desire-for-heirs. Yet, now here he was, to sacrifice the long-awaited heir; now, in the prime of his manhood, Isaac too would be agreeing to be sacrificed: Gen22:5, Hebrew na'ar is used of Isaac, means someone of marriageable age. Yet both of them said, So what? Abraham and Isaac came to dismiss, despise, disregard any 'merit' claim in sacrifice. He blithely told his slaves, before he went up the mountain, to wait there -- "I and the lad will return" he said simply (ibid). He, and Isaac. So what, both of them thought, that Isaac was to be sacrificed. Would not God work it out? Hebrews 11:17-19 shows their reasoning at the time.
See how a completed faith associates everything with God, docks everything below God, contentedly? It's the small, quick 'so what' attitude which demonstrates the superiority of faith, over creature merit. Like a consummate ballet dancer. Quiet ease and grace marks the true athlete: wrought over a lifetime of 'practice' -- using those many, many Perfect Deposits. For, what should kill anyone else is merely a 'so what', compared to the beauty of the Word athletically circulating in the mature believer's soul. Doesn't mean he's not hurting. It doesn't feel good. But you just WANT GOD over everything else in life. It becomes an Absolute in your soul. That's what happens, here.
Not only does this docking gradually remove sin from the life -- because God becomes progressively more valuable than sin and frankly you become too busy thinking about Him to have much time for sin -- but most importantly, the person becomes HAPPY. Independent. Free. Contented. Due to Love. That's the power of Bible Doctrine circulating in the soul. As David would later breathlessly exclaim, in Psalm 138:2b: "You have magnified your WORD above even your own Person!" ("Name" means "person, reputation", and is qualitative, in Hebrew.) See? God loves Righteousness, His Word, First. That's why He's Inviolable. That's how we can become inviolable. The Power of Doctrine in the soul produces Integrity, because it produces Love for God, Who is Righteousness. Thus one becomes inviolably happy. Content.
This contentment doesn't mean you walk around with a smile on your face. Your soul is focused on God, settled about Him, you just keep on looking at Him, like Hebrews 11:27 records of Moses: Seeing Him Who is Invisible. That ties back to Hebrews 11:1, the Trial Witness criterion of Bible-in-your-head replicating Christ's Own Testimony: corrected translation, "It's about Confidence in Word! Christ's Thinking, On Trial! Evidence, Unseen!" [See Hebrews 11:1.htm for the derivation of that corrected translation because all translated Bibles I can read in any language, screw it up royally. So you miss the entire point of the Chapter.] See, sin is motivated by a need to RELIEVE a pressure your soul receives. So essentially, Bible replaces the "apodosis" -- giving into the protasis temptation -- with Bible Thinking. So you get better relief, than if you sinned. Learning and living on Bible is in essence a continual 'replying' to what hits you in life, as well as just plain enjoying fellowship with God and enjoying the Word for itself. That's why God doesn't sin: He ENJOYS what He knows. So if we get His Own Knowledge built in us, we'll enjoy it more than the alternatives, as He does. That results in a "So, what?" attitude toward the alternatives and pressures, and defeats Satan. But the believer so thinking, isn't trying to defeat Satan or anyone else. He just PREFERS to think Bible and be with God. Versus all else.
Every Old Testament believer in Hebrews 11 came to such contentment with God, such Love for Him, everything else in life was 'so what'. Christ is the Ultimate 'So what?' Witness. He said "So what?" to being equal with God (Phil2:5-10). Christ said "So what?" to being imputed with the shame of our sins (Hebrews 12:2).
Christ was too busy Loving the Father for any 'competition' to have room. He Loved What He Knew; He Loved Who He Knew. From Doctrine. 'Which Was Paid To Him -- FIRST. All other wants were but expressions of That Love. Ergo, Hebrews 12:2 -- the "So, what?" attitude to the Cross. See, He kept on looking at the "Joy" (Doctrine, i.e., Neh8:10) and said, "Ahh, you're paying for all this!" So, He wanted the Cross. The Cross, far from being a sacrifice, was merely a vehicle to express Love -- a Desired Outlet -- not a 'cost'. A Joy, not an expense. Even though the pain is beyond description, it's associated with Love For God -- "So, what, that it hurts? I'm glad to have it! A Body You have Prepared for Me!" ('free rendering of Hebrews 10:5's tone.)
By contrast, creature-merit values can never say 'so what'. They are unfulfillable, fantasized, obsessions. Hence, any merits achieved always become progressively-sterile benefits. So, the rich "Richard Corey" kills himself. So, the Howard Hughes becomes a demented recluse. So, the "star" becomes a drug addict. See how no matter what achievements Satan enables man to make, however quantifiably noble they are -- however much hunger is reduced, however many hospitals are built, however high man's Satan-inspired technological achievements -- however great all of these are, and they are very great -- see how they are nonetheless empty?
"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher" is how Solomon summed up such greatness, when he finally! -- learned to say 'So what?' Merit-based thinking is what "total depravity" is. Merit-based thinking is a constant hamster's wheel, turning over and over: me-be-better, me-be-good, me-get-better, me-get-good. It can't be done! yet the desire can't stop 'playing'. So, one eventually becomes disillusioned, frustrated, jaded, despairing, in trying to 'get' the never-reachable, "Matrix"-style 'nirvana'. Yet, this despair only heightens the frantic search for solution. One goes crazy seeking external compensation. Why? Because internally, one is empty. All the goodies in the world can't fill the vacuum of the soul. Why? Because God should be in the space where the vacuum is -- but God was rejected, in favor of self-merit. Love was thus rejected. So, life is merely about rightness, me-be-good. Thus, life is loneliness, veiled by ever-beckoning fantasy.
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EVIDENCE TEST/TRIAL PROOF Merit remains always dependent on externals. 'Even in the limited, visible Old Testament set of covenants. |
This, although the couple had problems galore from the birth of the twins, onward. Abraham had waited a grand total of 160 years! to see his own grandchildren. He died before they married, even. No problem: God will provide. So Abraham died happy, just the same. Score one for the Prosecution.
So, Isaac inherited all of Abraham's wealth, and like his father, preferred the Lord. The closest 'competition', apparently, was his love for the high-strung Esau. Yet, when Isaac discovered that Jacob (which really means "chiseler", in modern American English) got Esau's progeniture blessing, instead -- he accepted that fact. You can actually see him docking his rage in the passage. After all, it was the Lord's doing. See? A docked faith matures into into Love's top tier, Honor: Lord God-FIRST. Knowing Him personally. So he bore no grudge against either Rebekah, who instigated the trickery, nor against her favorite, Jacob. This, despite what was clearly a constantly troubled family life; complete with witches for daughters-in-law, married to a very spiteful man (Esau). How Isaac remained so calm after so much and for so long -- seeing his family split asunder -- remember how Esau wished for his father to die, so that he could kill Jacob, and that's why Jacob had to depart? Yet Isaac lived yet another 20+ years, long enough to see Jacob's return, long enough to be griefstricken at the permanence of the rift between the two sons. So, then: where are all these offspring God promised? The only two sons he had, were bitter enemies? Mightn't Esau kill Jacob, as Cain killed Abel? Do you see Isaac thinking these things? Oh no. The Bible says that Isaac died old and happy. Score two for the Prosecution.
So the Jewish bloodline was started by FAITH, not by genetics. For only the sons of the promise inherit, as Paul explains in Romans 4,9-11, Galatians 3. The covenant to Abraham has non-spiritual clauses in it (e.g., in Genesis 12), but of course the eternal covenants (e.g., the land grants) require Eternal Life -- so, you have to Believe The Promise, Genesis 15:6, to inherit.
Jacob did believe, and that is why the Jewish bloodline goes through Jacob's blood descendants. In many ways, Jacob's story is the most touching of the three patriarchs, because his enthusiasm for the Lord God is so extreme. He's always naming places after Him! The Lord is constantly on his mind! 'Never wants Him out of his life! Yet this same enthusiasm is also the fuel for the manipulation-tendency: 'can do' has a lot of trouble saying "no"! (Prototype-paradigm of what the ultimate Can-Do Person, the Lord's Humanity, would face.) So it took Jacob a bit longer to mature. His enthusiasm for the Lord God finally conquered the 'can do', and he learned to "wait on the Lord", just as his fathers Isaac and Abraham. Jacob came to say 'so what' about Leah; about working so hard for the master-chiseler, Laban; about Rachel's barrenness, whom he loved so dearly; about being lame (after 'fighting' with the Lord, no less, heh); even about 'losing' (so he thought) Joseph and Benjamin.
Jacob's entire life from birth onward was a constant struggle, with never-ending family strife: yet Adonai came to matter the more. Everything else 'learned' to "dock" in His Harbor. Satan's plan can't beat that kind of happiness. Score Three! for the Prosecution.
The Bible's wording, especially in English, is easily glossed over. To say a person got married, was childless, or had sons, or died -- it all seems like a listing, no real points to be made. You have to think as you read, to see the meaning. So, think: didn't each of these three men have truly torturous lives? Constantly on the move, constantly threatened by grasping enemies, set upon within and without their own families? Amidst all this pressure, not to mention the command pressure which always accompanies wealth: how easy would it have been for us to wait 99 years for a beloved son? How easy would it be to give him up? How easy would it be to see the finally-beloved son marry -- but remain childless? How easy, too, for Isaac? Could you live with all that pressure? That poor guy had no end of trouble -- so why didn't he resent his situation?
Let's think this over a bit more. Logically, now: would God just beat us up? What, does He have an inferiority complex, that He needs something from puny man? As David noted, who is man, that you would even think about him? We are owned by God! We're His Property! In fact, it's that very awareness which so bothers people, they avoid thinking of God at all costs! We're intimidated, for crying out loud, and the Gospel is nothing, if not intimidating. "Believe or Burn", remember. Yeah! He can squish us flat with nary a word, and the world is very 'into' squishing, so God must be that way, too! Believe, or Burn! Evil message! Evil evil evil!
So, is God a sadist? Is He just out to kill you, like the (later) Exodus generation complained to Moses, time and time again? Bringing you into this wilderness of Planet Earth solely to murder you? Let's think logically, now: would YOU acquire something solely to abuse it? To show how 'macho' you are? 'Especially if you had to spend ooodles of effort in caring for the thing? Of course not. Would you knife your couch? Of course, "no" -- unless there was some treasure IN the couch, right? And even then, you'd try very hard to extract that treasure without hurting the couch, wouldn't you? What, don't parents discipline their own children so that the children will grow, prosper? So, then: parents 'extract' the treasure of learning FOR their children, don't they, by spanking the 'couch' of their bodies? As the Lord noted in the Gospels (using the Roman a fortiori logic system prevalent at the time): if you, who are mere human fathers, desire to give good gifts to your own children, how much more, does the Father want to gift you!
Dear Ol' Abram, he just wanted ONE son from his and Sarai's bodies. Just one, was that too much to ask? Noooo -- it was too little! "Avram" meant "father of high places" (he was from a pagan priestly family, originally). God changed it to "Avraham" -- father of many nations. Whole nations of "sons" were to come from Abraham, not just one son. The Son would be the foremost among them. So, Abraham had to wait awhile, until he had grown up enough in Love, so that this fantastic prosperity wouldn't destroy him. For, having a son was his big overwhelming desire, his big stumbling point. How much more, would it matter to him that he'd have whole nations of sons!
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PRINCIPLE: What do you want? Whatever it is, God wants to give it to you more! Forget what your sins are, forget what your weaknesses are. Couldn't God bing! you in a second, and make those problems go away? So, they obviously don't matter a whit. It's God's Will To Fully Bless You. Fully. Not partially. Completely, Forever, Fully. He just doesn't work any other way. So: do you want it? Then grow in 1 John 's Script. Grow to Full Love. Then you will be big enough: Eph 3:19-21. That's the key demonstration in the Evidence Test. In Part IV you'll see how it's exponentially bigger for us, now that Christ is seated. |
So, despite all the very considerable satanic pressure against them, these three formed the cadre of blessing-by-association. So, under the terms of the Trial, God the Father could justify the continuation of the "sons": the biological Jewish line, despite any progeny of no faith -- so Christ could come in the flesh. No matter 'what'.
They were NOT in slavery at the time Joseph gives them the blessing. It was about 1836BC, and Amenemhet III ascended to the throne seven years prior. Joseph had retired as vizier. Details are in Mirroring.htm and Exodate.htm, just search on "Joseph" when you load either page (Mirroring.htm has a "Joseph" link). So they had about 30 years -- an entire generation -- to LEAVE Egypt before the politics of jealousy, hemmed them in and turned Goshen into granary cities (which is why they had to become slaves, builders). Government expropriation of the land in the name of 'the people', totally spitting on what Joseph had done to save Egypt in a vile parody of his reorganizing the country, farming the Fayyum depression. They knew this would happen in advance. And they stayed?
Could you live on, knowing that Sword of Damocles was hanging over your family's head -- and then Vote For It To Fall On You? Dunno about you, but the only way I could live with such a horrific promise, was to Know God Quite Well. For what Abraham almost did to Isaac, God obviously intended to do to all of his sons. Especially, the Son-to-Come, Who would be a Lamb, and be Slain for all the sins of mankind. Tell me: would any lesser ultimate future, justify 400 years of slavery?
Pick any holy book you like, anytime. Ask yourself how it compares to the Bible. No one who is sane can want what the Bible says, unless and until he realizes this Bible is of the REAL God, no counterfeit. Even so, the promise seems to be insane, right? Yet so cogent? That's what each human being faces, the same kind of test. Not, because God is sadistic, but because Love Knows No Bounds. So if you believe in God; if you believe in Christ, well -- you too are voting like Israel did. Not works, but Love. And no amount of works can even fantasize this level of achievement. Which level, is due to Knowing God. So now maybe you can see how the Evidence Test of God's, soooo utterly defeats all counterfeits.
Again, these three plus Joseph each received Time Grants of 490 years; so the world goes on living due to these people being granted TIME due to their faith in El-Elyon. Joseph's time grant is the last of them, and 490 years after he was enslaved -- is the Exodus. At that point, Egypt's prosperity ends. Israel's begins. So it's no light thing, to say "So, what?" And it's no small blessing to mankind, either!
This Promise is the reason why the Middle East remains a hotbed, and will continue to be one (no peacemaking efforts will ever work), until the 2nd Advent, when "Footstool" (Bible's name for the Millennium), delivers on the "promise". This promise is really complex, for some of its clauses are conditional, and others, unconditional. The promise that Israel would be forever a chosen Nation of people is unconditional, and it's on this clause that the following analysis is focused, for Satan's out to prove God can't keep His Unconditional Promises.
The most important clause in this Promise is the Unconditional Promise that there will be a Ruler who will live forever, and He will become their Ruler by means of Redeeming Them.
The reposing of God's Script in a nation was necessary, so to provide a place where positive folks could go, to get The Truth. Just as a person can be a blessing-by-association to his periphery (viz., Abraham), just as a people can be a blessing to those related to them (viz., the Judaic bloodline), so also a nation can be a blessing to other nations. Or, as always, a curse. These are historical trends throughout human history. Just as most people are antithetical to Truth, so also, most nations are antithetical to Truth, since nations are aggregates of people. The existence of competing peoples, faiths, and nations protects freedom of each one to choose Truth on a macro level, and thus become a beacon of freedom, to those seeking Truth. {Today, the US is still hanging on as one of those nations. In the past, nations like England, Germany, etc. have been such beacons -- maybe still are. Whenever a nation has enough growing believers in it, it is a blessing, a "client" [of God] nation. When a "client" nation's people spin into apostacy, viz., Germany last century, it becomes a curse. Eventually such a curse results in that nation being occupied by another power. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 explain the basic principles; the Old Testament prophets' books provide a wealth of detail. Hosea, for example, explains that "My people perish for lack of doctrine" ("knowledge" means Knowledge-of-God).}
'But not enough success. As Hebrews 11 notes, Moses was so Occupied "with Him Who is Invisible", he said 'So what?' to being Pharoah, to being the new Abraham, to being constantly reviled by that-paradigm-of-humanity, the Exodus Generation. Moses declined the Lord's offers, because to accept them meant the Lord would be denigrated in the eyes of the surrounding peoples (and of course the Lord foreknew that, so He didn't tempt Moses, but tested him). That's how important the Lord was to him. Moreover, Moses had to keep saying "So, what?" to the excruciating task of teaching the most stiff-necked group of believers ever to grace the Bible's pages. Their Trial testimony? In their own words? "Our souls are dried up" (Numbers 11:6, Numbers 21:5, idiomatic translation [L996, 92SD, and also Brenton's.]) So, they were crusaders: many times they nearly stoned Moses. They devised jealous plots against him, even using Miriam and Aaron, Moses' own family. Their me-be-good insanity was so terrible, it took 40 years to execute them: "your corpses shall be strewn out all over the desert." (cf. Numbers 14.) Paul repeatedly notes this fact in Romans and Corinthians, to stress how we Christians can easily suffer the same punishment: we should be warned.
I suppose when your own enemy compliments you, you are truly complimented. Satan thought so highly of Moses, he wanted to play mad (religious) mortician with his body: see Jude 9. Think over what a tremendous pressure Moses was under: the Congressional witch-hunts of today are mild, by comparison. No matter what Moses did, he was 'wrong' in the eyes of the people. And here he was, by upbringing entitled to have been their Pharoah! Which he turned down! And here he was, given an offer to wipe out all those hateful people, by the Lord Himself, not just once, but twice! Could you have resisted that temptation? Sure, it's easy to be noble theoretically, but how easy is it to say "no", when that "no" ends all the kvetching (bitchiness)! It's sooo sickening to be around black holes: martinets who just love to hate, be jealous; who delight in their petty, uppity condemnations and criticisms of others. Imagine living with someone whose thought pattern is always: pick pick pick pick. You know: the self-important clerk in a company or government, with a pea-sized brain and a dust-speck soul. Better a meal of vegetables, than to live with a contentious woman, Solomon wisely observed. Well, Moses husbanded that generation for Better or for Worse. (And, of course, when he dies -- but never before, mind you -- Oh my! What a good leader he was! say the people. Sound familiar?)
Moses also taught those (mostly non-adults) who were positive, and by the time they became parents and grandparents, the nation had developed a viable remnant. Thus the Lord authorized it to enter the Land, after having destroyed every believer among the older "Exodus" generation, who had remained apostate.
By then, at least two other believers had grown up enough spiritually to say 'So what?' to the prosperities and adversities of life: Caleb, and Joshua. Caleb said "So what?" to the fear of fighting even the giants, even 40 years later! So what did God do? Gave Caleb the giants' land (Hebron), which Caleb, now age 85 (see Joshua 14), delighted in fighting to get! Joshua said "So what?" to that daunting task, as well as the task of being the followup leader, after Moses. Their matter-of-fact tone evidences their strong happiness, their strong faith: So, what? That was their superior testimony. The Lord, He matters. Everything else, so what? For, when you really value and believe something, you regard having it as a privilege. Never, as a sacrifice. Never, as something 'due' you, or 'due' to your merit, or any other such petty kvetching nonsense. And what tone do you use? Honor. Simply said, matter-of-factly. For the Object is so Important, so valued, everything else is just a statement.
Not too long ago, everyone recognized the quiet speaking tone of honor, and it was commonly voiced by Americans. Sure, the tone can be (and often is) mimicked, but people used to be able to tell the difference. Now, you almost have to rent an old movie, to learn the difference. Sadly, in the last two generations we humans have come to love the loud, the garish, the soundbyte. So, when someone quietly speaks, and the tone seems almost colorless, we mistake it for being 'cold' or 'insincere'. But not too long ago, everyone knew that meant the person was so absorbed with Honor Toward the Object, he had barely a voice left. Today, that tone mostly exists in the militaries of the world. The tone might sound corny, or stilted, or flat -- matter-of-fact, because there is no competition. Period.
Notice also how Caleb and Joshua, like so many Old Testament heroes, talk about God as though they actually know Him. Because, they do. You don't see them sell Him; nor do they apologize for talking about Him, nor try to justify their faith. It's just there: simple, plain, pure. No using His Name to make themselves 'spiritual', either. Instead, they genuinely look at Him, and mutually talk about the One they know. 'Like He's a Real Person, even. Because, He is.
Really, there was never anything like the Mosaic Law in history, unless you can find some ancient precursor to Mad Magazine, spoofing every religious practice which Satan authored since Adam's Fall. For that's what the Law does, and baldly: spoof religion, showing why works don't work! When a people can get the Death Penalty for NOT resting, you're looking at a God who hates works and spoofs religion (i.e., Isaiah 44)! On the other hand, the laws of cleanliness, jurisprudence, and civil law were just not in practice by nations -- until the Law came along. You have to be deaf, dumb, and blind in reading Bible, not to know all this. The Law became the foundation of Western culture because of its competence, not because of its geographical origin or the fact Jews moved to the West. Um, did you ever look at how much the West pogromized the Jews? So the last thing the West would want to do, is adopt the laws of a people it persecuted. And we couldn't read Bible worth a tinker's dam anyway, as proven by our rank inability to see how often the Jews washed themselves (we Westerners took a bath maybe once a year). In short, we Europeans were dog-doo-doo. And stank like it, too!
The Law demanded a smart populus, not a bread-and-circus rabble. It was and remains extremely sophisticated in its thought patterns, its wisdom, even in its secular laws and jurisprudence. This isn't to say there weren't any precedents. Rather, the precedents since Adam had all so mutated into degenerate ideas, the very protection God intended via nations was threatened to the point of extinction. For, the upcoming Messiah was to pay for everyone; but the laws of nations were so detrimental to preserving the then-developing national entities, humankind might not last long enough for Him to arrive. In fact, just as with Abraham who was developed in the very year that TIME was supposed to run out, so too Moses was developed at the very end of the 490-year TIME grant given Joseph. That TIME ENDS if someone isn't developed within a 490-year period is Trial Rule since Adam's Fall, and is the main focus of Part IV's Mirroring.htm webpage: that's why the Rapture must precede the Tribulation -- it's a TIME problem in Trial terms. But for now, Israel is the one who had to EXIT on time -- or Time would have ended. And she did -- almost at the last minute. Jesus the Christ, to Whom the Law pointed, would die exactly on schedule, 1470 years to the DAY that Israel celebrated its first Passover. God has this 'thing' about Being on Time.
Hence the two main purposes of the Law were evangelical for all mankind, and the meanwhile, to demonstrate how to have a prosperous secular life, and save the world from its disastrous course. That's why the Exodus had to be so dramatic, and the Law so extensive. This bifurcation in the Law was designed to preserve the human race, and Israel was made the National Posterboy of it -- due solely, as we saw above, to Moses and later Caleb and Joshua. As you might guess, this Law made Israel a frequent target of invasion by jealous or resentful nations: her law was truly offensive to everyone else, much as the tenets of Christianity are considered offensive, today. So in the listing below, there is quite a bit of overlap between the categories. We'll have to cover these in reverse order. What follows is a sketched summary, too: much of the Law's detail (i.e., Bible verses) are covered extensively in Part IV (especially Part IV-a, Mirroring.htm and PassPlot.htm); so should not be repeated here. Just notice here, the broad sweep of the Law's Blessing By Association Purpose.
Note how impolitic and insulting this is to other nations. Here GOD is the King, not a human, yet religion is utterly repudiated by this God. For HE SUBJECTS HIMSELF to the Law. That makes the law more important than God, TO God. So religion goes right out the window: for in every other nation on earth, before, then, and ever since -- religion asserts itself as the higher law over law. NO! Says this God. All those Christian theonomists are dead wrong, therefore. Romans 13 echoes this rule of Law First, so any Christian who alleges to disobey in the name of God, all those crusades and politicking you see -- are completely anti-God. For God subjects Himself to Law.
Most of what became European history was a gradual freeing of nations from the evil of religion, with England leading the way. Any nation which still shackles itself to religion never prospers. You can set your watch. Russia remained backward due to its shackling itself to the Russian Orthodox Church; Latin America only started to come out of its own doldrums to the extent it also frees itself from the RCC; China was long enslaved to its animistic religion, as indeed was Japan. The Middle Eastern countries which most embrace secular governments most prosper, and they aren't client nations to God. But they are embracing the secular laws God offers as FIRST. So, they prosper, as you'll see in D., below.
Much inept 'scholarship' faults the Bible for ordering the killing of whole towns, during the limited 40-year period when Israel entered the Land. Each town was given plenty of advance notice, as you'll see in the surrounding context. So anyone SANE, would have left. So anyone INSANE would have stayed. These inept 'scholars' also don't investigate the persons against whom God gave these orders. God ordered populations whose idea of 'fun' was to murder everyone, rape everyone, have sex to the screams of their own children. Pederasty was rampant, as was homosexuality, drugs, brutality of every kind. These were TERRORIZING people. They disrupted the trade of the Fertile Crescent. If you really investigated their practices, your objection to God would be, "why didn't He order their extermination sooner?" When you see those Palestinian CHILDREN learning in GRAMMAR SCHOOL how to make bombs (per the kids' own report to Diane Sawyer, and of course everyone knows the Hamas Bunny from Youtube MEMRITV videos) -- then you know the entire population, is evil. Criminal. Children taught to be killers. You can't rehabilitate the kids. They will kill to be LOYAL, as that's the only loyalty they know.
The same is true for many other groups, like most of the American Indian tribes, whether North or South America. Brutal people. But of course, inept 'scholarship' against the Jews, reflects a satanic involvement which must spill over to 'cover up' the very same brutal history of other peoples, lest those who were wiped out by God in the Middle East, be shown as a very common type of brutal PAGAN mankind.
Lambs are not work animals. There's not a pantheon on the planet which has for a head god, a lamb. Why? Because a lamb is HELPLESS. It's not even an adult sheep, and sheep are the most helpless and wayward of God's creatures. So for God to depict His Saving Work as a Lamb from Abel forward is downright insulting, to pagan man. Not at all "macho". Yeah, because this is the Real God, Who doesn't need to be macho. And obviously too, if you provide a lamb for sacrifice, you're due no credits, since you're providing a WEAK animal, not a strong one. This Lamb sacrifice was the most important in Israel, required daily at beginning and ending of day in the Temple, to propitiate the entire nation (i.e., Exodus 29:38ff); it started during the time in the wilderness, and continued until the Temple was defiled, each time. That's how important it was.
Notice, again, how in the "middle", a negatively-oriented person concludes he works, but a positive orientation looks at how God's Promise works. Same Facts. Same Ritual. Same Animal. Different Orientation.
| MOST CRITICAL TRIAL KEY → Like a Lamb, Christ relied entirely on Someone Else: Father, Spirit. The Old Testament sinner relied on Christ to come -- that is what the animal sacrifices PROMISED. The sacrifices depicted the promise that no, God would not take or seek revenge for the sin, but would rather impute the sin to a coming Savior, Who Would Voluntarily Take It. So, when Christ came, He too relied: not on His merit, but instead, on the Holy Spirit to sustain Him, even on the Cross. Thus Jesus, Human, did the exact opposite of what Satan did, based on the same facts. Different 'orientation', huh! |
So, then: where does any sane person come up with the 613 Talmudic 'laws', eating certain foods, being moral, etc -- as counting for anything whatsoever with Holy God? Think about it. Christianity has long since multiplied the grace of the Bible into excessive works-obsessions, too. In fact, all religions do. Check it out. That's Satan's plan and Trial Answer, as we saw in the "So What" section just prior. Satan's, not God's. But in the name of "God", naturlich! Do you see how insidious is the replacement of the Most High? 'Replacement of Love Into Hate, 'Of Grace Into Works?
So of course God now demonstrates His No-Works policy concretely, contrasting with the religious customs of the times, so there could be no mistake that this God was different. Why else do you think Moses gives the speech he does, in Deuteronomy Chapters 1-9? At least a dozen times he repeats the fact that Adonai Elohenu is Unique, who ever heard of anyone like Him? For again, as Paul would later note (Romans 3, Romans 7 1 Corinthians 15), with the knowledge of HaTorah, came the knowledge of sin. Woe to those who call good, "evil": and evil, "good" -- but ahhh the revenge and power-lust and always-looking-over-your-shoulder is not necessary! Freedom from all that (swear word-here), at last! The Real God isn't like that, at all! HalleluJAH!
Atop all this was Israel's longevity. No other nation in history remained intact for as long as she did, 1440BC-70AD. This persistent existence would advertise her as being born from the real God, never mind how horribly apostate she became. For Judah remained a ruling line of sons over the same nation lasting about 400 years, though for most of that time they were vassals due to their own apostacy, raiding the Temple time and again to pay off invading kings. David became King over all Israel late in 1004BC, so call that 1003BC. Nebuchadnezzar took away the last of them in 597 (Jeconiah aka Coniah) and then 586BC (Matthaniah aka Zedekiah). Samaria began with usurpation at God's order even, Rehoboam son of Solomon being such a jerk. But jerk or no, the line of David uniquely continued longer than any other family line you can find in history. And the royal line still continued even after the Babylonian captivity, but routed through Nathan, son of David and Bathsheba (born later than Solomon was). You can't locate that kind of continuity elsewhere. [All the Davidic dynasty comes solely from TWO SONS directly from David and the same woman, all the way down to Christ, 1000 years later: Solomon, and Nathan; line switched to Nathan's, after Jeconiah, who adopted Shealtiel, since Jeconiah was in Babylonian prison from age 18, until his 50's; that's why the promise is made of Christ to Zerubabbel ("zeru" means "seed", very clever) in Haggai 2. Nothing like that royal longevity, in history. By contrast, the average length of a kingdom worldwide is something like one to four generations. Then it is invaded or overthrown. Successors usually claim relationship to some past ruler as justification for usurpation, and in part adopt the previous customs, to provide an illusion of continuity. Rome, for example, claimed to be very ancient, but in fact only the geography was the same. It went through many different rulerships, often by usurpation, one dynasty of no long length being taken over by another, sometimes with an intermarriage. Egypt, of course, was long famous for that pretense. Every 'dynasty' started with some general either assassinating a prior Pharaoh or being appointed by that Pharaoh, as he had no children. Arab history is much the same. So too, Russian history, Chinese history. Legitimacy of the usurper is established by claiming ties to the past, but it's only a claim. Even our modern system of nations didn't begin in earnest until Gutenberg made the first movable-type Bible, which happened when the 100 Years' War is deemed ended, and Constantinople was overrun by the Ottoman Turks. Even so, we Europeans next spend about 500 more years, fighting over boundaries. So what we call stable nations today, is historically new. Most nations today weren't even born until after WWI or WWII ended. While it is true that the royal families of Europe can trace their lines backward for several hundred years or more, their actual rulerships were of different polities, switched in patriarchal line frequently, none more than five or six generations. For continual warfare kept on redrawing the map of Europe and which of the royal lines headed what polity. So you can't say that any one royal family anywhere on earth had a continuity of nationhood rule like Israel's record. Yet it's patent from Bible that Israel's royal family largely weren't worthy of their role, the refrain "for the sake of My Servant David" invoked by God to preserve them. Israel's longevity perhaps explains mystical attachment to claims of descent from that royal line (i.e., Grail myths and alleged descendants in the news). Certainly it can't be explained by anything else, since Books of Kings and Chronicles aren't at all flattering.]
All this, as language of accommodation: man's ideas of blessing are being granted so that man can come to see Who is the Real God. Thus, to promote Israel in a negative way, as well -- as a target for plunder, so Israel would toughen up. Moses warned them in Deuteronomy 4-9 just before they entered the Land, don't get fat-headed about your so-great prosperity, thinking you are somehow superior to others. (See Deuteronomy 9:4 -- parallel passage for Church is in Romans 11:17ff.) Consequently the tenets of the Law as well as the advertisement of all that ola factory prosperity and longevity, made many nations around her jealous and angry. You don't end up having very good foreign relations if your Ambassadors have to admit that Israel is slated to rule the world, and that all other gods are false. Of course, Israel became quite adept at hiding this message -- so God spanked her often (i.e., Isaiah 28-37, reliance on Egypt and the wimpy ambassadors with the Rabshakeh).
Moreover, people from other nations voted with their feet to go to Israel; so those other nations lost taxpayers. Not exactly something to warm your foreign relations with your neighbors. Probably the chief complaint against the Jews in history is that they are so stuck on themselves, deeming everyone else to be inferior. But if you were THE people of the Real God, wouldn't you become cocky, too? Paul warned the Romans about that, in Romans 11. [See Exodus 19:3, Leviticus 26:46, Romans 3:19,9:4; Deuteronomy 4:8, Romans 2:12-14; Acts 15:5,24, Romans 6:14, Galatians 2:19. Christians who try to appropriate the Mosaic Law as spiritually applicable to them are dead wrong, for the spiritual provisions of the Law are temporarily 'on hold', in favor of the superior set of provisions Christ Personally authored down here. Parts III-V will cover the interrelationships. You can quickly see the fact of it, though, in Galatians, Ephesians, Hebrews: the whole books are on that topic, yet are baldly visible even in English in their Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5; in verses like Hebrews 7:18, Hebrews 9:14-28, all of Hebrews 10. The Ephesians counterparts of these latter three Hebrews passages are interwoven throughout Ephesians, but most notably in Ephesians 1:15ff, end of Ephesians 1, middle of Ephesians 3, and Ephesians 4. Climactic 'why' of the change is in Ephesians 4~6: chapters aren't well-divided in English, so look at the point being made, and consider the 'true' chapter to begin at that point's beginning (usually a few verses back or forward of the chapter division).]
If you live in this world, you have a choice to become wise in worldly terms, or wise in godly terms. The link between them, is good governance. So if a polity embraces the Real God and has good secular law, that bridges to worldly wisdom and protects it. So even people who want to become worldly wise, will be attracted to such a polity. So will be free to grow up in godly wisdom or not, due to the protection of that good governance. Which means, FREEDOM. It's no accident that the 20th century has seen a remarkable increase of extrapolation from the Mosaic Law, though again that's not intended. What's intended, is to adopt what makes a nation successful. Well, that's what the Mosaic Law did for Israel and anyone else who adopted provisions on its model. True back then, true now. Notice how that still advertises the Law, even though now it's been upgraded in Christ.
Again, to read the Bible in the English -- especially in Kings and Chronicles -- this hugely dramatic story of Israel appears instead as one long and dry train of facts. But on closer inspection, you realize Israel has been terrorized by its neighbors from inception. Satan had to exploit this "advertising", by fostering anti-semitism. Mostly, by its own cousins the Arabs: Amalek, Esau/Edom, Ishmael, Midian -- about 13 tribes or more. Imagine living under constant, unrelenting attack. Not to mention all the other polities nearby. For Israel was rich. So, whether jealous over not being the legitimate heir (Arabs), or jealous over someone-else's-trade-wealth (other nations), many peoples sought to destroy the tiny nation of this Weird Desert God. Even, of course, today. But God vindicates His People.
Here, during the Old Testament, Satan's objective was to prevent the Humanity of Christ from being born. With the announcement of the "promise", Satan knew that Abraham's line would be the progenitor, so the sons of Abraham got concentrated opposition. Despite this, Isaac believed. Despite this, Jacob believed. So the race could not be wiped out: blessing-by-association according to the Trial rules had been secured. Then, the nation: Moses didn't succumb; Caleb and Joshua didn't succumb; a remnant didn't succumb, and the nation fought for its own existence against every kind of viciousness imaginable. Despite overwhelming odds, the tiny country with the weird God and the weirder promise (just like Joseph's dream) -- it kept on going. It only broke up due to internal apostacy (cf Isaiah 28, Hosea 4). The enemies all broke themselves. And the Jewish remnant, remained.
What animals we are. We lie to ourselves, pretend noble sentiment to get something, just like the male peacock struts to get something from a female. We pretend to love the poor, so we can pat ourselves on the back. And hide those horns, lol. We pretend death is a tragedy, yet rubberneck at any accident on the freeway. Yet flock to 'action' movies. Yet sit stunned before the television for 7 hours hoping O.J. Simpson will blow his brains out while in that white Bronco: even overseas, people just watched the 'tube' showing that car mealing down the highway at 15 kilometers an hour -- would he do it? Can't even pee! Don't want to miss the 'moment'! Oooohhh. Yeah, we 'love' alright -- like animals do! No, take that back: even animals are more noble!
So to capitalize on ancient animalistic apathy-toward-God, Satan created large-enough power blocs, so that the rulers -- and their people -- could begin to call themselves Alexanders, Caesars. Even, 'gods'. Apart from the Most High. No wonder they were so enamored of gory death. No wonder they philosophized as they did. They were practicing to become gods, you see. High thoughts, so to count themselves high, fantasize themselves to be "in the Light" ("Light" being a an old keyword for divinity, reworked anew in the philosophy of that time): but really, just animals waiting to see some blood. After all, when one is dead to God, death is the only thrill in life. Imagine the loveless arrogance: it became a virtue to compete with God!?! It became a vice to believe in God, to want God!?! Wanting God, oh my, is weakness?! Upside-down! Reversed! Oh, Who will deliver us from this body of death?
Have you noticed, man progressively has become negative to God as he grows in non-God knowledge. So, God has Progressively UPGRADED His Covenants: starting, of course, at the Fall. Each replacement covenant, in fact, only begins because man rejected the one he had. In short, each covenant dies due to apostacy -- and is replaced by a better one. So it was, with the advent of the Mosaic Law.
At that point in history, people were more advanced, clean, sophisticated, compared to the later Dark and Middle Ages which Christendom dominated. We went backwards after the Canon was distributed. Because we lost interest in Bible. But back in 1400 BC when Israel entered the Land, the world was much more civilized, comparatively. So it was relevant, to have a Law like this. People could understand it.
Due to Total Depravity, which is an inferiority complex writ large, people were (and are) aggravated by these superiority claims, rather than adopting their Grace Prescription (e.g., believe in Gospel, then depicted in verses like Genesis 15:6 and Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 43:11,25, Psalm 103:12). So the rejectors gotta fight back! Just like Satan &Co. It's incredible, how we Westerners so romanticize the past. The "noble savage". Yeah, right. Look at the long-term history of any nation, and you'll discover a 'law' operating on it, just as predictable as gravity: when and to the extent that a nation adopted principles consonant with the secular provisions of the Mosaic Law, that nation prospered materially; conversely, when and to the extent that nation rejects principles consonant with the Law, that nation declines. Of course, this same analysis can be applied to any family; to any individual. With the same empirically-observable results. That's what made it so 'inconvenient', that nations who adopted the Mosaic prescriptions, prospered. No matter which nations they were. So you couldn't make Israel the scapegoat -- even she didn't do well when she rejected her own law. Yikes, that means maybe this Law was from a Really-Superior God! Yeah, that's the point!
So Israel became a safe haven for those who wanted God's truth, amidst a rapidly-apostacizing, me-be-god world.
What's David's Evidence Test, such that God would grant him so much? What works did he do? Zip. Huh? Yep, zip. Ever since Adam's fall, the world only continues living, due to time grants to believers. So the latest of the time grants operating, governs when the world ends, irrespective of anything else -- UNLESS another believer can be awarded a new time grant by the latest grant's ending. Think of it like the www.net10.com prepaid cellphone policy: you have to buy new minutes before your latest expiry date, or you lose the cellphone number. Of course, the world continuing is rather more important than your cellphone, but it's the same basic accounting method which God uses. It's a relay race: baton must pass from the current carrier to someone new, before the current runner is supposed to stop. Well, David was given SIX grants of time by God, more than any other believer, which I can prove impacted history. You can see these grants in the "David" link of Mirroring.htm and in GeneYrs.xls, but here's the gist. 490-year grants were three:
So what did David do, that the entire world depended on him, ever since? For even Messiah's Birth and Death are keyed to David's dates. So what the heck did David do? BELIEVE, that's what he did. Belief depends on the merit in the object, which is why you believe you should buy one computer versus another -- or, why you believe Christ paid for your sins. It's a pile of doo-doo to claim that your belief does aught for God. You believe due to what the Object does for you! That's true whether you believe Red Gold tomatoes are better than Hunt's -- or whether you believe Christ paid for your sins on the Cross. No one believes anything but what he thinks the OBJECT is true or more beneficial, versus some 'competitor'. So it's the merit of the OBJECT, which is the basis for belief. So scrap all that Christian nonsense about belief having merit, about whether your faith is greater than mine or mine than yours, as if the differential could make one of us better than the other. Bulpucky. Faith is knowledge-dependent. Adam lost his knowledge at the Fall, not his ability to believe in God. So get knowledge of God, and your faith will increase. Which you'll do, if you want to know God. Because, you BELIEVE that it's worth your time to know God, compared to what else you could do with that same time. Again, Object-dependent, knowledge-dependent. And all knowledge of God comes from Him, so it doesn't matter what your IQ or academic qualifications, capisce? David BELIEVED and kept on believing, even as Noah did, Abraham did, Isaac did, Jacob did. But in David's case, it was harder to keep on believing, for unlike the others, David literally took over ALL covenants when Israel rejected God as King, in favor of a human king. David is God's replacement, so in 2 Samuel 7 when God gives David both Temple and Messiah which the Temple represented the meanwhile, all Israel depended on that grant being fulfilled. And the world, depended on that Temple remaining standing. No one after David, however great, was given a historical grant of time. Not even Elijah, not even Daniel. Only the Lord would be the next grantee. [This seems to have been a Trial rule. The grants of time shifted from an individual to Israel at the Exodus. Moses' personal time grants were the basis, so his continued; when Israel rejected God as King and God replaces the king with David, it's a kind of flowthrough, since king over Israel. But then the grants are housed in David's house, as if he alone IS the nation, from that point forward. Again, Mirroring.htm has the details. It's an awesome thing you really can track from Bible, and were it not for an error in accounting I'd made with respect to Daniel 9, I'd not have found all this while trying to audit and correct the error, which took two years. God knew what He would do with that error, heh. I know exactly how God used the error and two other people -- my pastor's revisiting the Lord's birthdate, and a reader query on Jochebed -- to alert me to this Accounting System.] So what David did, was believe the Lord when He said that David would become king eventually -- but David didn't do anything to bring that about. He waited, just as Abram did. When God finally made him king 10-16 years later (probably closer to 16), David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, and again God was front and center, in Israel. During those 10-16 years, he fought Israel's enemies, despite being chased all over the country by Saul, who also knew of David's anointing, and was jealous of him. But David never lifted a finger against Saul. In short, as you read Samuel you see how David kept on thinking of the Lord first, kept on believing, waiting. Sure, he made some fantastic mistakes and sins, especially after he became king (i.e., with Bathsheba, adultery and then murdering her husband to cover it up, the census, being stuck on Absalom, other stuff). But he didn't stop believing and teaching others about the Lord. God gave David the architectural plans for the Temple (1 Chronicles 28:11+19), and while he lived a good bit of Temple construction peripheral to and preparatory of the actual building, took place. Actual building was not allowed to begin until David died. Yet God gave David the Levitical priesthood design, liturgy, and the names of the priestly courses are prophetic about when Messiah would come, as well as prophetic of certain other key dates in Israel's history, see HebCal.htm which plots them. David taught his son Solomon what came down to us as Proverbs. You can see David's thinking in the Psalms. Point is, David (="Beloved") believed the Lord. He believed when confronting Goliath, and he believed when turning over the kingdom to Solomon (which seems the hardest thing for him to do, see 1 Chron 22 compared to 29). During the seven years after he retired, he designed the Levitical priesthood and made Temple preparations. Four years after he died, Temple construction began (960BC, 1 Kings 6:1). God thus began a new time grant when the Temple was finally dedicated in 950BC, which was 490 years after the Exodus, the year Moses' 490-year grant, ran out. Whew: just in time! [Had the Temple not been built by then, David's time grants wouldn't have turned on, because the Temple was post-mortem, so a voting issue for Israel to accept or reject: its building begins during a 50-year civilization voting window, see GeneYrs.xls. Temple actually completes construction by the end of that period, but is not dedicated. So the deadline for dedication (when God fills the Temple) went by Moses' 490, not by David's. After the Temple is up and running, David's time grants govern. That's what you learn when you crunch the numbers. Try it and see for yourself.] Could you live with so much riding on your shoulders? With so much knowledge of the Temple, alone? No wonder David had to live another seven years after Solomon ascended the throne. Those seven years were horrendous, as 1 Kings Chapters 1-5 reveal (they chronicle the seven years until David's death, which is why 1 Kings 6:1 suddenly says the fourth year of Solomon, context being fourth year after David died). But God enables! There are many things to say about David. God really put him through the ringer. Gives him an anointing, then seemingly makes him an exile. Makes him wait. Civil war and war with the Philistines characterize his life, which is always in danger. Yet for all that, looks like for him the Evidence Test was primarily to lay down his crown. But David's whole life is one big "So, what?" whether it was to fighting Goliath, or -- eventually -- turning over the kingdom to Solomon. Don't mistake body achievements for the real Test. The body stuff just tells you how faith is tested. Competence in doing body things is not itself a measure of anything. For the test is, do you keep on believing, even though it looks like God abandons you or otherwise is not keeping HIS Promise? Can you live with the burden of knowing what God gives you to know, the meanwhile? That's the hardest part! So, do you keep waiting on the Lord, or do you try to "do it yourself" to relieve the pressure? You flunk if you do the latter. Every great believer flunks. But then he gets back up again. You can, too. True flunking occurs if you do NOT get back up again, into God's System. |
That's how the Mishnaic interpretation came about, frankly. That's how Christianity's works-obsessions also came about, frankly. For, we are children, when it comes to God; so, we think childishly. So we get all worked up over what we do, because, being children, do's pass for know's. We can't discern, yet. We really do, in the manner of children, love God. But, being children, we love God childishly, and absent growing up in the Knowledge of Him, we focus on do's, and don't know or forget the meanings we were taught. How easy it is to empathize! We see a rule, a standard, an idea we adore -- and not meaning to, of course we go overboard. Kinda like overeating. Satan tried to push the Lord over the edge in the 2nd Temptation, so we should know from that fact that going over the edge is one of the biggest ways we fail. Out of a good motive. Due to Love. So, it should be no surprise that Satan will take a good thing like the Law yet foster apostacy and pain out of it, by playing on the Love.
So, that's how the 613 laws got multiplied out of what God gave Moses. Hence, the Mishnah: if God said "rest" on the sabbath, and one is enthusiastic about 'obeying' that delightful law, then hey: let's get real precise as to when the sabbath begins, and let's make a big stink about beginning our obedience AT that beginning. Okay, is it when one can't distinguish between blue and white thread? Do we inspect the threads in natural light, or by candlelight? What if it's a stormy day? What if we can't distinguish color, because we are colorblind? What if we don't have the right shade of blue? What shade of blue would be more holy -- medium blue, which is harder to tell from white, or dark blue -- hmmm, it should be medium blue. See? The point of the sabbath gets lost. The punctiliar observance becomes an obsession, and the obsession literally ruins the very purpose. Rest becomes arrest. Rest becomes work.
HAPPINESS KEY → So long as someone regards his effort as making self deserving, he will never be happy. The benefit of doing a thing God commands is intrinsic to itself; it benefits you. It's a joy to eat, eating is required to live. It's a joy to be competent, being competent is required to live. It's a joy to be moral, because that makes life meaningful. It's a joy to learn Christ, for that makes even the dullest, most painful, or most prosperous of circumstances, meaningful. It's about the Meaning: intrinsic benefit. Pure Grace. Pure Love. So, happy. So to take that benefit and make it into something it is not, is to deny the benefit, and demand that the benefit be a rewardable thing you deserve. Therefore, nothing else you get for that benefit will satisfy. Rest becomes arrest, and life becomes a dry, dull, harrowing hamster's wheel. On which you endlessly go round and round and round. Going nowhere, ending up full of bitterness and disillusion. Just like Satan &Co.
So, in Israel's case, a large part of its failure is due to good deeds! We just saw how the punctiliar observance-obsessions ruined their enjoyment of the Law. Now let's look at another major vulnerability: God had ordered Israel to execute the child-burning Canaanites. Instead, Israel did the 'good deed' of sparing some of those they were sent to execute. As a result, we see Israel gradually succumb to the same evils as those they were supposed to replace. So, we see that nation divide, and then crumble, time and time again, due to apostacy ("My people perish for lack of knowledge [of God]", moaned Hosea). They thus became easy prey for other nations, as Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28 had constantly warned.
In these and other like distortions, Israel floundered and eventually came to fail. So bad was their periodic apostacy, they lost the Ark, forever. They thus had to use a Stone in lieu of an Ark, in the Holy of Holies, which was built on the former threshing floor of what had once been called Mt. Moriah, where Isaac was sacrificed. (Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Ark, along with all Temple articles, and melted down the gold: 2 Chronicles 36:18-19.) Jeremiah's promise that they'd not even miss the Ark (Jeremiah 3:16, 31:31-34) thus came true in the wrong way: for their hearts had hardened into stone. The "Rock of Offense" was too much for them, and they couldn't "eat" His Words any longer. Satan got to them, with his promises of earned 'bread'. So, Israel languished alone, estranged from its Beloved. By Malachi's time, the people had become so apostate, "God" was just an idea to them. The remnant almost died out, akin to those horrible days just before the Flood.
So the Mosaic Law was finally rejected. How would man be preserved? How would the promises to Abraham, Moses, David, Israel be nonetheless fulfilled? It came time, therefore, to upgrade the covenant. Fully.
His very Name tells you of His Hypostatic Union (God-man nature), and His purpose, for His Name means "God is with us", "God is our Salvation", and similar phrases.
Here's a video I made with many sample Trinity verses (there are thousands, so I had to select only a few hundred). Last half of the video focuses on His God-Man Titles in the Old Testament which He invokes, in the New Testament. And for that, the Jews would execute Him on the Cross...
The Roman pantheon, like most others back then, was oh-so-cynical. Multiple limited gods give man a shot at becoming one himself. Even Caesar could become a god simply because he was Caesar, splendidly horsed. Gnostic thought, a reincarnation of Eastern religion, taught that man is part divine, but tragically lost his former glory for his current, undignified, estate. Still, in one lifetime or more, he can grow back to full divinity nirvana Light via certain practices and mysticism. Strong is of course the more divine. Love is of course superfluous. Love is to manipulate. Handy idea, that. Cut "God" and "Love" down to biting size, then make-man-god. Good idea. Gets one working. Gets one greedy. Gets one sacrificing for power, rather than love. Gets one ready to die. For Time was running out. Mankind was so corrupt at this point, to allow the world to go on, something drastic must occur. Like, a Savior's Birth. For the world was so dead-to-God, it needed the Redeemer to rescue it.
As a consequence, we know that Humanity being united in some way with Divinity, was a popular idea. Hence His Arrival would be seen as just one more view, ho hum. Thus, Satan has not been prejudiced -- and the playing field remains level. Mankind was at its then-highest level of emetic apostacy. We Christians tend to misdiagnose apostacy in terms of the 'gross' sins like fornication, drugs, and 'crime'. We miss the far larger apostacy of indifference, self-righteousness, and "be a good person" morality. Morality's dark side, as it were, is the sense that self is good-enough for God. Internal competencies bought by communication (e.g., koine Greek, the invention of Alexander the Great) made such self-is-good ideas spread widely, giving people a commonality hitherto unexperienced. All gods were essentially the same; so, Rome was an avid sponsor of any local religion. People came to see that, much like today, it didn't matter who you worshipped; moreover, that 'worship' was mere observance of form, so people would admire your piety. True belief in deities was pooh-poohed by the upper classes as superstition. It was not 'p.c.' to really believe -- just as it isn't, today. [Sidenote: Julian Jaynes of Harvard, a confirmed atheist-evolutionist, unwittingly makes the best case for what I'm saying here about the people then, in his Bicameral Mind book. He thinks he's proving evolution. What he's really proving, is how man became blackened in his soul, dead to God -- exactly as the Bible describes, in Romans 1. Of course, Roman historians like Mommsen, Gibbon, Tacitus, Suetonius, etc. also help one see how the world's jaded mindset of that time functioned.]
Accordingly, just as man's mindset will be during the Tribulation yet-future, so was man's attitude back on the day Christ came; 18 years before Augustus would regret his love of figs, Israel the fig tree would be fertilized, yet again. Just as Isaiah had prophesied the double-entendre pregnancy in Isaiah 7; just as in Isaiah 53, the very Hebrew meter Counted The Years To His Birth from the very year Isaiah Wrote. Which Countdown, God used to remind Daniel, in His 'timeline' of Daniel 9. The full explanation of the interplay between Isaiah 53's meter and Daniel 9 is covered in over 100 videos, which you can start to view by clicking here. The third player on that page has the most current and shocking of the videos, if you can stomach all the technical detail in the Hebrew. A 45-minute summary of the timeline which Isaiah 53's meter depicts, displays in the video below. You need to see this to believe it.
Isaiah got his meter from Moses in Psalm 90. So this 'schedule' of Messiah to Come and Pay, was known ever since 1400BC. Isaiah just updates it. Script goes like this: Messiah comes at the "end" of Israel, the End of Time, though not quite like a classical Greek play: for this is An End That Happens Twice. Double Trouble. Presaging Jacob's Trouble. Two Advents, and This is The First. Two Advents, but Israel had long forgotten There Were Two. Ouch. Yet the well-known prophecy was, that First Messiah would come, then be cut off, then the Isaiah 28 tongues-prophecy warning of 40 years would signify that Messiah had come, gone, and Israel's status as a client nation to God would likewise finish, until the "times of the Gentiles" would be completed, Daniel 9:26. [There's a lot of good stuff on the web about how well-known this prophecy was; one site, christian-thinktank, had a "messiah.html" which was the best of the collection I found. My pastor's exegetical tapes on this topic are too extensive to summarize them here or do the many verses justice. Acts 2 summarizes the point.]
Moreover, at this time a balance of power gives rise to stability, hence trade flourishes; therefore, a stable world-wide travel system exists: thus the word of any new faith could be rapidly Delivered. It was a relatively peaceful time. Octavian aka Augustus had turned the Mediterranean into a Roman lake. Rome and Persia, enemies forever, were in stalemate. Barbarians to the north and west of Rome were just as apt to negotiate, as fight. The power blocs of north, west, east and south were reasonably settled, hence what became a permanent historical stage for larger-scale wars, began. In short, communication and conflict systems coalesced. Where Satan &Co. failed to make Babel, they succeeded instead with big homogenizing polities -- bigger than ol' Babylon. Part IV-c's "Homo Genocidus" strategy was all set to go.
And Satan needed his Gotterdammerung strategy to be ready. For in Israel's Book the future was neatly laid out, gradually revealed since Moses:
Clearly Satan had done a good job of fostering his futile, me-do-good alternative to God's Grace Systems. In fact, there was no one left among the Royal Davidic line with enough faith except Mary. Joseph's line had been cut off, due to the Coniah aka Jeconiah curse. So can God Keep His Promise, to provide Messias? He'd have to come now. Time was up.
So they went up, to register at Bethlehem. As Part IV-a explains in more detail, they are detained in Jerusalem for about a month before they return to Nazareth, owing to the Law's requirements for bris and mother's post-partum purification. Which was tough to do, since it was Chanukah week so every place was crowded. During that time some magi visit Jerusalem, claiming to see a star no one in Jerusalem could see, that was an angel who likely protected Mary and Joseph while they were there. When the couple leave the angel does, the magi see the angel and follow. So do Herod's spies. So suddenly Joseph has to leave as soon as the magi do, to save the Child's life. Many other nursing children thus perish from Bethelehem in the south west, to Ramah (a common town name) in the northeast, near Nazareth. Herod dies 3-4 months later. Nothing like the manger scene in Christmas pageants, huh. Preview of coming attractions.
Or, man could believe in an Associated, Atoning Substitute (depicted by the animal) paying for him. That Atoning Substitute would have to be God as well, even though paying in the Humanity, because only if God-Man could the requisite Intimacy with God be built, so that the thoughts IN the Humanity, could be high enough to PAY. For the Payor has to think at God's Level to compensate God for sin, Isaiah 52:13 + 53:10, Jeremiah 31:31-34 thus enabled. So merely obeying the Law perfectly, wasn't enough compliance for the Payor Himself. The Payor would have to be Higher Than The Law, Himself. The Law was fine for teaching about the Payor, and the sacrifices thus prospectively depicted what that Payor would do. You demonstrated belief in the Payor, by 'doing' the sacrifices. But of course until the Payor actually paid, the sacrifices never took away sins, theme of Hebrews 10.
The rest of the Law, its prescriptive behaviors and commandments, were for living well on earth. The rules didn't buy you salvation: rather, if you obeyed them, they bought you earthly prosperity from God. Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 are quite clear about this. Israel could not obey, did not obey, and no one can obey all those laws. The Redeemer by contrast, would have to obey them all and be Thinking like God Himself. So must first BE God Himself, adding Humanity, else the requisite building in that Humanity, couldn't be juridically justified. For if God creates Law, the first One to obey it, should be God Himself. We saw that in "B" of Israel's "Her Secular Blessing" link section (5th row in redbox near pagetop). Rulership and Law house in a Person: but that Person, is Himself the Most Ruled. Consequently as Hebrews 7:28 explained, He Arrives as Human under the Law, to fulfill the higher pre-Law contract He made with Father, as God.
This God-Man requirement was depicted by the Ark, a box in the Holy of Holies roughly the size of a large chest (27"h x 27"w x 45"l, Exodus 25:10): it was covered in pure gold, to signify Deity; underneath the gold was acacia wood, to signify Humanity. [Look up how thorny and essential to commerce acacia trees are. Very meaningful!] So, just as Adam had brought to us cursing-by-association, so also the Lord could provide blessing-by-association. And much more, as Romans 5 explains. (For more on the Hypostatic Union, Click Here for Brief Help. If you want lots of help, Click Here, read the "Nature of God" section.)
In short, an instance of bad is not compensated merely by an instance of recompensing 'reply'. Rather, that instance of bad must BIRTH BEAUTY: Someone Who Lives Forever. If so, the bad then has a pregnancy meaning (e.g., per Romans 8:11ff & Isaiah 54:1), and no longer merely its native meaning. Hence each "bad" becomes a "brith", karat-cutting a covenant for long-lived seed, yireh zera ya'arik yamim, Isaiah 53:10b + Daniel 9:26! But who's the first "zera"=seed? Why, the Seed Himself, Galatians 3:16! So "bad" is redeemed, if it 'produces' Him! Then from Him come the other "zera"=seeds, Galatians 3:26! That bad-brithing thus compensates for the bad's own birthing, as the Someone's Compensating Thoughts Thus Birthed and Brithed -- go on forever. Hence the bad is used to create or increase a Person. For if a death, then life must come from that death. If a reduction, then an increase must come from it. Okay, then: He will be hit with bad, so must be far greater than even one who perfectly executes the Law. Much more, He'll fulfill the Isaiah 53:10-11 contract to birth many sons to glory, Hebrews 2:9-10! Isaiah's Hebrew is all about birthing. Even the English can't hide the ecstatic conclusion of birthing from sterile, in Isaiah 54:1. Yeah, and that birthing contract is from eternity past, so it predates the Law! [Galatians 3:17 measures from Jacob's entry into the Land, compare to Exodus 12:40-41 which Paul is indirectly citing. For at that point -- entry into the land -- Jacob was the last seed family head. Israel left as a nation 430 years later to the day Jacob entered, Exodus 12:40-41. So Paul traces it down from Jacob, to finally rest in Christ, and wants to make sure the reader understands that the Law's entry didn't interfere with the promise made to Abraham's seed, prior. That's really important to stress, for Church's covenant derives from a separate pre-Law Kingship given Christ, hence not from the Law and not from Israel which was under the Law. That's why Christ has to invent a new spiritual life, as you'll see better if you keep on reading, here.]
Human thinking is innately disgusting, totally preoccupied with itself, with the world, vaunting its own abilities and rights as if it were so wonderful. And totally disinterested and even hostile, toward information about the Real God. Insisting that HE OWES the human for anything that goes wrong, as if man's puny moralities compensated God in any way. How vile, to so demand of God. So the Real God should be paid for every such thought. Untold billions of them.
Sidebar corollary: nothing bad that happens in this life goes unanswered. God has to see it forever. So every bad that happens has an answer from eternity past which plays in the person's life before or after that bad thing occurs. So the person can take advantage of it. Most often, bad is used to remind the person of God, of the Gospel, of the Bible: for man naturally tends to look up when he perceives suffering of (what to him is) sufficient intensity. So for example, many a person tortured or raped in Nanking during WWII, many a person drowning on the Titanic before WWI, many a person burned in WWII Nagasaki due to the atomic bomb, many a person slaughtered in Rwanda recently, many a person killed in battle or in any horrible event you want to name -- remembered the Gospel or Bible at that time, and reaped spiritual benefit from it far outweighing the suffering. And they will be in heaven so you can get their testimony, too.
This extreme disproportionality between an instance of wrong done and the requisite ongoing compensation due, represents the dichotomy between Infnity and finity. That's the main reason why He has to become God and man in one Person, yet from Humanity do what only God can do: it's not compensating, else. The Mosaic Law wasn't designed to be compensating, it was designed to teach. So Christ must make His Own Superior Spiritual Life out from it, brithing the Compensation in His Own Humanity, to be the Birther (and hence Brither) from Bad, forever. How poetic, as Hebrews notes in the last halves of its chapters 2, 4, 9.
This addresses the issue of shortfall and incompatibility between the parties, not sin itself. For after sin is paid off, the incompatibility remains; so intermediary issues remain; so an Intermediary -- Priest -- must remain. The compensatingly-high thinking in the Priest, makes up for the unsatisfyingly low thinking of the other parties to the mediatory association.
We all instinctively know this, yet we don't apply it to our relationship with God. No one just drives up to the White House and saunters in to have a chat with the President. There are go-betweens. No one waltzes into Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen a casual question. There are intermediaries. You don't open the door to a stranger, there must be an intermediary introduction and some vetting before you'll let the person into your house and your life (unless you are insane). And above all, no one can approach God except a Priest. In the Old Testament, there was a specialized priesthood. To pray, you didn't have to be an official priest, but you did have to be a believer in Him, Hebrews 11:6. That 'office' of prayer request really is based on an Intermediary, Christ -- in Whom you believed, prior. Thus you got access.
Intermediaries justify contact. This go-between role is necessary if freedom exists, because if freedom, then we aren't compatible. Protections and shields are necessary, as much for the sake of those incompatible, as for those employing the go-betweens. If "A" is rich but "B" is poor, it will actually harm "B" to have much contact with "A", since then "B" will suffer from intensively seeing his relative inferiority. Better to have intermediaries, so "B" can freely develop out of poverty with less suffering. How much more true, with respect to spiritual poverty.
Yet Infinity wants no one to be poor. Poverty is incompatible with God's Nature. Yet how to preserve freedom and enable upward mobility for those who want out of their spiritual poverty, meaning their incompatibility via á vis God? If sane, we are all rightly intimidated by His Highness. Hence the need for a Priesthood, and of course we Church are that Priesthood forever, under the King-Priest, Who is the Cornerstone between Old Testament and NT. Ok, then: if the Cornerstone, then the Old Testament Law has to be upgraded, else the Bonding God wants, won't be completed (theme of Hebrews 1~2, 7~10, playing on Ephesians 1~3). So, that's what He does, here: upgrade the Priesthood Spiritual Life to the Royal Standard of God's Own Level, for ALL ETERNITY. And He does it, out from the Law.
Again it's a birthing, here of a Compact for Communal Mediation by the Ruler: were it not for the unsatisfyingly low thinking, there would be no need for a Priesthood. So the Priesthood is 'brithed' due to the need for it, which arises from a bad thing, free incompatibility between persons. So the Priesthood He "births" must be far higher than the Mosaic Law which could only prove its need (Hebrews 7).
If ever Satan thought that God created creatures unfairly, this combination of highest-and-lowest covenantal levels applying to Christ, was the absolute most 'unfair' combination possible. 'To which Christ would have to grow up enough to say, "So what?" 'No greater Test, no greater Witness in the Trial, than this One. Ever. Hence no one in history has or will ever have more ways to sin than Christ. What other rational creature could be tempted to speak stones into bread? Who, even including Satan, has such a power? No one but God. No one in history can have as much temptation. Who of us can be tempted to just say the-heck-with-it and destroy the whole world with a word? Who else had to pay for sins!
He can't grow up enough if only man, and He can't grow up enough, under only the Law. If He could, then any man could, and there'd be no need for salvation by someone else. We'd all have to do it ourselves. God has testified all along that we CAN'T do it ourselves, beginning with the #1 thing He did to free mankind, condemning it to work. Ideally, as man ages he finds out how futile his works are, same things being done with sweat and toil, lasting only for a day or so, never really compensating for all that effort. Indeed, in Satan's plan one works his tail off, only to realize at the end that it wasn't worth the effort. For at very least, one ages, becomes feeble, dies. So what was that lifetime, worth? A grave, that's it. Pretty demoralizing. So God uses the natural consequences of sin -- a need to buttress ego hence works -- to show why works don't work. At which point, hopefully man looks up to God for deliverance. Or, shakes his fist from hell, because God won't credit his puny moralities and his works.
Here, the issue is "What's the point of living?" Is it worthwhile to be born to have a life on earth, only? Would it be more worthwhile if one lived forever on this earth -- only? As one lives on this earth, even if life is very nice, it's an inevitable question, "Is that all there is?" like Peggy Lee used to sing. For the soul wants more than this life, push come to shove. We only think this world enough, because we are so mired in our struggles over basic things. But take away the need to struggle for the basics, and a different life question emerges: "why live?" Same too, if the muck of struggling for basics is too hard or goes on too long, we begin to wonder why. God's waiting for us to ask HIM why. So Divergence is Decreed, as the dichotomy between Infinity and finity requires intermediation so both sides can enjoy each other; but also, because humans won't ask why until we have intolerable divergences in our own lives.
The Divergence which Christ must reconcile, besides that in His Own God-Man Nature -- is that of a Spiritual Lifestyle which bridges and unifies the Dichotomy for all parties. The lifestyle itself if successful, would be replicated in mankind forever afterwards. For that's the contract in Isaiah 53:10-12, the making of sons from the Son. So this "D" covers life after the births of these sons, how they live happily with God forever.
It's a killer lifestyle He must adopt. The combination of being God and Man, the combination of being the Payor for Sin, the combination of living on the one hand as a Priest before Father, yet with a lowness of being Human, is like being on that medieval torture device called "the Rack". And He has to say "So What?" to that. Satan couldn't do that, but instead went ballistic and rebelled in the name of God asking too much of His Creatures. Satan wasn't also God in nature, so didn't have to contend with that Divergence. But Christ is first God, so has the Worst Divergence, ever.
It's hell not to be God. So only if God adds Humanity to Himself and crafts a reconciling spiritual life to make it heavenly to be with God, will there be any point in living. For if knowing God, what compares? Without money, without price, Isaiah 55? Wouldn't it be worth it to suffer on 'the Rack' of a spiritual life which is founded on and fueled by, knowing God? Christ shouts "Yes!" Specifically, He shouts Psalm 22 and 31:5 on the Cross, the latter passage being His dying words, Into Your Hands I deposit my spirit, Oh God of Doctrine! Oh, so then knowing the Truth, knowing God Who is Truth, made the Cross worthwhile. Yep. That's way higher than the Law could provide, Matthew 4:4, Hebrews 12:2.
Such a "Rack" lifestyle is genuinely needed to become bigger, more able to see and enjoy God. Christ ONLY wants to live For Father, so there's no limit on the cost; since to Him, there's no reason to live if not For Father. Which Reason and Life, is legated to us Church. More about all that will be said in "F", below, and in Part III.
This is the main point in Book of Hebrews, explaining why the Law is set aside in favor of "a more Excellent Title", and "better things" in Christ. The Law was fulfilled in Him and by Him. But He takes it farther, FOR FATHER. See, Priesthood is the ultimate embassy. First, Representative for God, to God. Representative of God to others. His Eyes and Ears, so to speak, vis á vis others. Reflecting Him, to them. See also Galatians 3:15-16 compared to Hebrews 1~7 and Colossians 1:15-20. The next point, "F", will explain this "E" more fully. For the purpose of "E" is to buy "F", to be the Unity Himself, through Whom all Creation exists. Else, there's no point in even breathing. For Christ lives FOR FATHER. All else is inconsequential to Him. (By the way, "name" in translated Bibles more often means Title, Rank, Personal Quality, whether in Hebrew or Greek.)
We all have motives for living. Jesus the Christ wants to live For Father; all other reasons are too small to warrant breathing another day. We Church are made to 'fit' Him, so whether we know it or not, His Reason for wanting to breathe, is ours by nature at the spiritual birth when we first 'do' John 3:16. Part III will cover that. Israel didn't have that nature. The Law couldn't provide it. Sure, you could dedicate yourself to God, but as we saw in the "Governance" link section for the Old Testament, they were stuck with a besidedness, of which God could be the dominant 'part' of their reason for living, but not the sole reason. Christ would have to craft that Soleness-Level of thinking and motivation while down here, before it could be transmitted to anyone else. Only then would the Divine Royal Embassy of Priesthood, be complete.
An ambassador aka priest (Greek word "diakonia" in the New Testament means both ambassador and priest), has two main motives for wanting to have that job, and in this priority order: 1) he dearly loves his home country, and considers it the highest honor, if he can represent it. 2) He dearly loves the people to whom he is sent, and wants to do all he can to help them have a good relationship with his home country. In human affairs, these two loves create many problems, not the least of which is a distrust by either the home country or host country, as to the ambassador's loyalty. Atop that problem, the skill required to explain, mediate differences, make the relationships smooth, is a never-ending struggle. Much more true, for the role of spiritual ambassador. So the level of training is quite high, the years required are many, and of course there's an entire society of diplomats needed to interface with so many people, hence a ranking among them. So Christ is to manufacture the entire STRUCTURE of this Priesthood while down here: and He'll be the Head of it, the King-Priest.
Every word counts. Every thought counts. So Christ trained hard, for this was His Life's Goal. A Goal requiring long training which we inherit but abuse, 2 Corinthians 5:20. Both down here and in the eternal state, this role translates into a kind of teaching, sharing, representing between whatever rank we each have, and those below or among us. Down here and in eternity, frankly most people are quite distant from God though saved. In eternity but not down here, it will be a HUGE thrill for them to hear anything at all about Him, because they are so distant. Down here, that's akin to but far bigger than the thrill people now get pouring over details of famous people and celebrities in the gossip shows (print and TV). In eternity, people will get ALL their information about God via Church -- and most of Church rejects God down here, so most will be like peasants, distant from God, up there: receiving instruction from those who got trained up in the Royal Spiritual Life He legated (focus of Part III). However, relative to those who are not Church, even the lowest Royal has more info about Him to 'gossip' about, than who are not within the Royal Family.
So here He is beforehand, the One about Whom all this future will exist; and therefore the Pattern of Representation He creates, will stand for all time. That's way higher than the Law could achieve, because it essentially waited for the One Who would Fulfill it, to carry its purpose to the next level: His.
God shouldn't tolerate lesser-thans, and we of course don't want to, either. So the Decree is but one Decree -- to Create Christ, everywhere Father 'looks'. Isotropic property of the spiritual universe! It's therefore a Decree to Clone His Thinking in anyone who wants it! Think: is Fellowship with God to be something like the 'fellowship' we humans could have with ants? Or is there something better, fuller, more intimate -- instead of intimidating? Well, here's the answer. God-Man requires a Higher Spiritual Life, so those who are merely men, can have His Same Level! of intimacy with God. For once That Soul exists and is completed, His Thinking as a Human can be cloned in other humans. You read words and they 'clone' into you, if you believe in them. So the Word becomes Flesh, so that flesh can become Word. "For the purpose of bringing many sons to glory", is how Hebrews 2 explains this eternity-past provision, invoking Paul's explanations in Ephesians and Colossians. To wit:
So here, the reason for a Royally-Higher Spiritual Life would be to make functional all the necessary connections between his Human Soul, human spirit, and His Godness: thus He'd be fully and functionally integrated as a Person. By nature these connections would be present at birth; but the functioning of them would require special spiritual design which no human before Him, needed or could use. However, if successful, then the resulting 'design' which made Him successful could be CLONED into humans, which Isaiah 53:10-11 in the LXX, says was the intention. See Isa53trans.htm for a corrected translation of that whole chapter, or Isa53.htm's last full screen, for an amalgamated translation: for the New Testament writers, play off the keywords in the LXX. All the New Testament is dedicated to explaining how Isaiah 53:10-12, 'get done' in saved mankind. So Isaiah 53 is the Grand Central Station of the New Testament, the foundation of it. Christ the foundation, 1 Corinthians 3.
That accounts for the shocking word "kaine" in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15. For Paul says we Church are a new-in-spiritual-species creation, designed to fit Him. Which means we have those connections at the spiritual birth, in our human spirits. Just waiting, to get the Doctrine in us to fill them out, Romans 8:4. DDNA webseries is dedicated to that proposition (link at pagetop). One could well argue that my pastor spent from 1985~2003 essentially elaborating on 2 Corinthians 5:17; for his entire goal was to teach the mechanics and nature of Church's spiritual life. It's not been done in Christendom: so far as I can tell he's the only one to really tackle the question. Everyone else keeps reverting back to the Old Testament and slapping a few things on it from the New Testament, calling that the spiritual life, essentially some varied mixture of works and morality. Not so. Of course, Christendom hasn't figured out till yet that He paid for our sins with His Thinking, never mind Isaiah 53 says so in 21 different ways (21 different soul functions depicted, and 53:9's bemotayeo tells you there are TWO deaths, not one, on the Cross, a fact my pastor stressed for over 50 years and caught a lot of heat for it, unfairly (imo)).
So He's the Original we get to Copy, 1 Peter 2:21's "hupolimpaneo hupogrammos". So He had to craft a MAXIMUM Royally-Invisible Spiritual Life, to FATHER's Level -- way above what the Mosaic Law could even contemplate. Thus He'd have Functional unity in His Own Dual Nature; thus, FOR FATHER Unity, Compatibility, FELLOWSHIP -- even, from within His Human Soul. John 17 proves He got that Fellowship Unity, and that He legated it, to Church.
We will all live sinless in fellowship with God forever. How does that happen? Does God magically 'bing' us? Nope. We get what Christ got. He got the Truth in Him. We can get that same Truth, starting right now, down here. Notice again how this would be needed, Cross or no Cross. For happiness depends on not sinning. God wouldn't be happy if He sinned, and He doesn't sin due to what He knows. And what He knows, is that the Truth is so gorgeous, He's not even remotely attracted to sin, never mind that sin is also a threat. Wouldn't matter if it weren't a threat, it's ugly to Him. So He's not even remotely tempted. So if we knew what He knows, we wouldn't be tempted, either.
So the solution -- as stated from the beginning of Part I -- is to get His Truth in us; which Truth God builds, God runs, we receive and don't use our own attributes. But we must consent, as Love never coerces. So Christ is the Prototype. Again, this is the purpose, Cross or no Cross. Yet the Cross is used to achieve that Intention: for by means of the Cross He is Completed, so we can be also, Hebrews 2:9-10 ("perfect" in translated Bibles should be rendered "completed", Greek verb teleiow).
Corollary: if He doesn't use His Own Attributes but instead relies on the Spirit, then that's the rule for us, too. Notice how that saves wear and tear. He's Perfect, yet doesn't use His Attributes. We're not to use our sinning, imperfect attributes, lol -- either. He relies on the Spirit, and we do also. Whew. So the only struggle is the natural temptation to use one's own attributes. Which struggle would have been the greatest for Him Who was (and is) the Greatest Ability this world will ever see. Repeat: every heartache in life is due to us using our own attributes, or being affected by someone else who uses his own. Only God's Attributes are satisfying, so the spiritual life is a gradual replacement of our own attributes, for His. This is accomplished via the pouring in of His Truth, Isaiah 55:1-9, John 4:24, Romans 5:5, Ephesians 4:12-16.
Now for that to happen, it first had to happen to Him. His Humanity must be a Lamb, doing nothing. Just gets fed, sacrificed. Intimate association of the deepest, Best-and-Worst kind. As you'll see in Part III, the five infinitives in Isaiah 53:10-11 LXX form a kind of cycling process through which all this happened to His Human Soul: so, those same infinitives work upon our souls. For Him, He'd have to go to the Cross to get those infinitives completed. Then His same process can repeat in anyone who wants it (our crosses being less, tailored individually), Isaiah 55:1-9.
Indwelling serves as the base-of-operations, protection, buffering for the extreme weight of understanding at God's Own Level, also mediating for Him not yet being the Truth (i.e., when He was young). Filling accomplishes the requisite Divine-Level Generative Power to get that Truth built in Him and then enables Him to live on it, yet not die and not be so overwhelmed, He wouldn't enjoy what He Divinely Knows via that Same Spirit. Note Well: Filling creates thinking powers, knowing powers, not something you'd feel. Perceiving and knowing God requires God's Power. Feeling is childish. God is not a child. The Old Testament people needed the childish 'feeling' version of the Spirit's Filling, and in the Millennium that will be true again. But not for Royal Sons. Him, First. Us, cloned from Him, to the extent we consent. [Filling, versus the Old Testament "enduement" method is very different; the latter is extremely limited, merely an adjunct to human power to execute particular secular tasks for spiritual purposes. Oholiab's skill, Samson's strength, David's ruling genius, Solomon's wisdom -- these were all examples of enduement. See pimplemi.htm.]
God doesn't want to do it the easy way, huh. He'd rather go through all this trouble than just bing us to make us into what He wants. And He wants, for us to decide what we want -- here, how much fellowship with Him, how much and how fast we want to grow. And He gave His Son, so we could get this. And His Son, went through all levels of Intimacy, hence the need for Filling and Indwelling, whether there was a Cross or not. But of course, if free creation would exist, there would have to be a Cross to pay for it, juridically. Even though, God doesn't need to be paid. Love wouldn't want anything less than full payment, anyway. Christ gets a fuller and higher Fellowship as a result: Hebrews 5:8-9, 12:2 show His Reasoning while on that Cross. And this, is the Power System He uses -- legated to us Church -- to do, just that.
FELLOWSHIP is the reason for creation, as we saw at the beginning of this Part II. Here, the MEANS of it becoming fully realized -- in Christ -- is accomplished. All the New Testament is about this accomplishment. Sin was just used as an instrument for ACHIEVING it. For nothing stops God from getting what He wants. Now, if this FELLOWSHIP is achieved, then performance doesn't matter, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. God can make a high or low performance, any time He likes. But He likes, making the low high, Isaiah 54:1. And He likes, making the High low, Isaiah 52:13-15, Philippians 2:5-10. IN Christ, both. At once. So it's not about how you perform in order to GET Fellowship with God, it's how GOD PERFORMS to make Fellowship in ALL points. For Infinity, wants to be in everything, both High and Low. For Better and For Worse. Indwelling is first and foremost, a FELLOWSHIP Function. God FOCUSING on you. For your thoughts 'dwell' somewhere. So do God's. Dwell on Christ, obviously. So now, dwell on the believer in Him. We really are IN Christ. So now we are Indwelt, get it? (Okay, you can smile now.) |
But Extrapolation is first, Fellowship with God. Competence of Thinking in order to have Fellowship with GOD, not to preen. As we saw in the Old Testament covenants of "Governance", until there was a Redeemer, the Bible and ritual metaphors interfered, because there was only so much extrapolation one could do: so Rapport (aka Fellowship) with God was limited. Granted, their child-level covenants were far higher than humans can think; even today people don't understand the metaphors in the Old Testament. Nor can they, apart from the Holy Spirit. The learning was superhuman, reinforced by the rituals -- but nowhere near as high as Christ would need for Himself.
For God is Immaterial. So to have Total Rapport with God, one must think with Total Abstraction Ability, greater than all the math and physics geniuses put together. For as John writes in 1 John , "No one has seen God at any time." So the concrete metaphors could at best be extrapolated to develop abstraction in shadow form, as Hebrews 9~10 explain. But the Spirit is God. Spirit Filling Redeemer means TOTAL ABSTRACT THOUGHT is possible, so abstracting from the metaphorical richness in Word and from the Law to Divine Truth itself, is something He can make happen, John 4:24, 14:26.
The ability to take a single word in Bible and extrapolate whole realms of doctrine from it is possible given the words themselves. The succinctness and deftness of word choice in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation proves God empowered the writers: humans just can't write that well. Every word in the Word ties flawlessly to every other word in the Word, with the ironic result that you only need a few words to derive vast estates of Truth from them. You can check your extrapolation in the same manner as you'd step through a math formula, auditing it. The precision of the extrapolation which comes from the succinctness and deftness of Bible words makes this auditing rather easy, albeit time-consuming. The trick is to trace all the occurrences of the keyword in question, and what other keywords are tied to it in the other verses. Or, take the keyword itself, think like a thesaurus and then do your tracing. Spirit enables this process to be lightning-fast, once you have enough Word in you. Of course, people variantly are willing to learn Word, so many can't see but a single meaning to a word, so can't extrapolate from it very well. Takes time and practice. Accounts for why some believers are more mature than others, some pastors more able to extrapolate than others, etc. Christ had to go ALL the way with this, on the Old Testament. So the power of extrapolation Now for Church is even light-years higher than the Old Testament people could get, because His Extrapolation is the New Testament, having been replicated in the minds of the New Testament writers. So we can get the same level from Him. It's only a matter, as always, of how MUCH do you want to know God. Never any other issue in life. Christ wanted God ALL the way, and got there. So now we can, too.
Again, all this is another Fellowship Issue, Cross or no Cross. In "Governance" link's G.13-16 above, that Intimacy and its pressures were required for Thinking Competence so He could know how to think and what to think, to pay. But pretend no payment was even needed: Intimacy still means Sharing God's Thoughts -- just because. Just because you want to be 'in' Him. Just because He loves you and you love Him. Christ Loves Utterly. So Utter Intimacy is provided by the combination of Indwelling and Filling. Which by nature means Utter Pressure, too. So it doesn't matter that His Soul is Finite. But then it does matter altogether, to have a Higher, Royally-Invisible Spiritual Life, to 'match' that unlimited potential for Divine Intimacy, to handle that attendant and unlimited, pressure. Mosaic Law just won't cut it.
Again, He doesn't start out as Truth, but must Become Truth within His Human Soul. Of course, that means greater Fellowship, too -- which after all is the purpose of living with God in the first place, Cross or no Cross. Not, fellowship at the low level like that of a human to an ant, tantamount to no fellowship at all -- but at God's Own Level. God is Truth. So the more Truth Christ becomes in His Human soul, the more He knows Godness in that soul. The more fellowship He has with that knowledge. Well, that creates added pressure too. So in order for Him to be enabled to grow, He has to get more power than previously available, which in turn impacts the very design of the higher spiritual life, making the requisite "higher", higher still. Atop that design problem is the resultant Fellowship coming from being made into the Truth -- which is itself an added pressure, requiring that "higher" be even higher yet again. So what must become the Royally-Invisible Spiritual Life He crafts? The Law sure couldn't handle all that added pressure. Wasn't designed to, Hebrews 7:18.
Physical exercise and combat training essentially strengthen you, due to repeated pressure. Much more true, in the spiritual life.
So here is an added Fellowship category: His Own Satisfaction, being paid by the very act of being the Payor. It is self-compensating to be able to pay, especially if You Get To Pay Someone You Love With All Your Heart And Soul And Understanding (upgrade on the First commandment He invented, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27, compare to Deuteronomy 6:5's wording). 100%, not partial!
Now you see why knowing sin actually benefitted Christ -- To Make His Soul Size Big Enough, So That Nothing Is 'Missing' In The Rapport With Father. Sins are "truth" in that they exist, and their true nature is sin. So to not know truth, however bad, restricts the Rapport. If one sins oneself, he no longer knows sin or anything else, except lies. So one lives in a fantasy world, having no fellowship with anything but those lies. Subsequently, one sin kills knowledge -- that's what Total Depravity is, a complete corruption of knowledge processing, as we saw earlier in this page from the effects of Adam's Original Sin.
So far worse, for Christ to be MADE sin -- total knowledge of it -- and remain sinless, Himself. The pressure is unimaginable. Part IVd further explains His Soul Size Growth due to the Cross, in more detail. Here in Part II, we focus on how this 'fellowship' with Sin, completed Fellowship with Father.
Thus being imputed with sins and the judgement upon them, Rapport Completes, and so does His SOUL SIZE: the required "sweet savor" (always a metaphor for thinking, in Scripture, cf 2 Corinthians 2:14-15) thus births forever, for both Father and Son, fulfilling ARCHEGOS ARK through EXCELLENCY of EMBASSY in this section. Consequently this FOR FATHER! purpose is fulfilled and endlessly fulfilling for Father and Son to look at, the yireh yisbah clause in Isaiah 53:11: "He will see, be satisfied." Each "He", Father, Son, and Spirit.
Since God is Infinite thus Immaterial, only Thinking which is Like-Immaterial, could pay for sins. Again, this is first a Fellowship issue. Like-Immaterial Thinking is Fellowship. That it also pays for sins, is 'extra'. For the measure of the offense of sin is not the sin itself, but Against Whom The Sin Is Committed, as the Law had long taught (i.e., the pay sevenfold, aggrieved-party-determines-damage clauses, etc). God is Infinite, so Is Infinitely Offended, judicially speaking. So notice the flipside: here the Gift He can give Father, makes that Infinite Offense, Infinitely Satisfying to Compensate. Forever. So here we see the Fellowship side of "B" for Birthing Beauty from Bad as the Substitutionary Payment God Requires. They are 'watching' the Birthing occur, Together. Togetherness, flat: Father Son Spirit. Forever. Son on the Cross, but Father Judging, and Spirit Empowering, so in that sense They are All Together On the Cross Forever. Because, no moment ever dies to Omniscience. [Nerd note: Infinite God is never actually offended because He is perfect. Offense is a judicial issue everywhere in Scripture, never a personal one: see Leviticus 19:18, James 2:8.]
It makes a great package of Fellowship. After all, we get offended, too. And what offends, but incompatible thinking? Action comes from thinking. But thinking can exist alone, and many a seemingly-pleasant action is immediately destroyed in value, once you know the thinking behind it. The guy who gives a gal a nice present so he can get something from her -- so long as she thinks his motive is nice, she'll enjoy the gift. But when she discovers the true motive, the gift suddenly 'turns' ugly. Same is true vice versa, of course. Thought counts. Thought counts for everything. Incompatible thought is hell. So to the converse: compatible thought is heaven itself. So compatibility with Father is fully realized via Him being imputed and judged with our sins. Part IV-c and DDNA webseries focus on this fact and its ramifications for Church.
Of all the things Christ wanted, He wanted to become King-Priest for Father, Psalm 110 being the contract both ratified. To be the One to Unify and Satisfy Father is the Lord's Own Personal Happiness, Hebrews 12:2. Notice how this is a desire to serve, not to lord over. Even though, He is the Lord. Of course, since this is a Rulership Contract, He'll have to Invent the kind of Rulership He wants to make. Rulers make the rules. Rulers must have Brides. So He Invents both the Rulership, the Rules, and then legates it all to us. Cross is about much more than paying for sins. It's about Buying Blessing To Spend On Father. There'd be no point in paying for sins, else.
We saw in C., the "Christos Cornerstone" section immediately above how Mediation due to incompatibility required He craft a higher-than-the-Law Spiritual Life. We saw in E., the "His Excellency's Embassy" section immediately above how Priesthood is essentially Ambassadorship, the Royal Level of which also meant He'd have to Invent the Pattern of Priesthood which would forever function. Here in "G.", it's a question of RULERSHIP. For an Ambassador doesn't rule, but a King does. Ambassadors speak for the king, are the mouths of the king: but they are not the brains of the King. Only the King is the Brains.
So what must His Kingdom be? Well, He's the King: it's up to Him, to determine. The Law can't dictate that, He must take the Law and either throw out or update the parts as He chooses. You see Him do this in the Gospels. He's got two kingships to craft, first His Messiahship Kingdom over Israel and hence the world, designing it for the eventual Millennium. But more importantly, He must craft His Kingship for the kata-Melchizedek structure He'll have forever, in the eternal state. Quite a job, to do all that deciding and testing, in only 33 years. The Law was a guide, and could be nothing more.
Christ wanted the Priesthood, His Own Life in every respect, and especially His Rulership, to be fashioned according to Father's Desire. So as He lived down here, He learned Father's Desire, and He 'obeys' it. As a result, His Life, Priesthood and Rulership, formed, solidified and were tested to the uttermost. Thus His Grace, received under the Spirit, becomes His Glory forever. And all is crafted to SUIT Him, theme of Ephesians 1, Colossians 1, both pointing back to Isaiah 52:13 + 53:12, the two 'bookends' of Isaiah 53 in Hebrew.
So that's why Church inherits from Him, and also (ideally) lives to learn Father's Will on every jot and tittle, rather than running off half-cocked with ideas of its own. (Obviously the ideal, is not happening.) If you want to get a sense of this job and you like video games, play the "Sims" game. It's about ruling a hypothetical polity; the game presents you with problems to solve, people complaining, etc. Of course, if you studied politics or economics you can use that material to hypothetically construct what a good "kingdom" ought to be. It's a daunting idea. Kings OWN their kingdoms, they are not elected to office, and the people are property. That's how it is for Christ's Kingdom, Isaiah 53:12. So that's how it will be for yours (wa et-atsumim yehalleq shalal clause in Isaiah 53:12). Of course, you remember the parables of the talents, the one where those who made money with the money, were given as many cities as they had talents. It's an enormous responsibility. So what kind of thinking must be created in you, if that's your future? That's the issue Christ faced, since He was to own everything in His Humanity: and of course, now does.
You are to craft your own spiritual life for your own kingship, before the Lord. That's nothing like the Mosaic Law. You extrapolate from the Bible, His Thinking. That's what He did, but now we extrapolate from both Old Testament, His Thinking as God, and New Testament, His Thinking as God-Man. Of course, He did it under the Spirit, so that's the only way for us, too. Hence our need for 1 John 1:9.
Christendom doesn't explain the kata-Melchizedek contract, even though it's the Royal Patent we inherit in Him. Christendom is rather confused over what differentiates us from Israel. Well this kata-Melchizedek king-priesthood is "it"; you are in training to become a king-priest, not merely a priest. Part III covers how that works, what you can lose, how you train, etc. Part IV explains how we got this and what Satan does to stop us from growing up. The kingship can be lost; so although you will forever be a Royal Priest to Father, the ranking you receive, depends on whether you completed the training ("endure the course", "endure to the end") down here. So you may or may not "inherit the kingdom" God reserved for you in eternity past. The Lord warned that each of us has a potential kingdom, "take your crown" verse in Rev3:11.
So nothing about Church derives from Israel, as Hebrews 5~7 explains. She turned down the Brideship (Hebrews 3-4), so we get it -- but since we get it post-Cross, the "Brideship" we get isn't even like what Israel's would have been, Hebrews 7~10. For had she accepted Him, the Cross Price would have been lower, and thus the inheritance would have been lower also. But since billions of added people had to be created and paid for so that Church could exist, the Cross cost skyrocketed and so did the matching inheritance, Hebrews 1~10. All this we saw briefly in the "Governance" link sections G.22-27. Again, Book of Hebrews walks the reader through all that with great care. Just grab your favorite beverage and read that Book over every day for a month, thinking about it whenever you can't read it. Read it at least 30 times. Memorize it if possible, talk with God about it frequently during the day. Translations aren't all that good, but even so with 1 John 1:9 breathed you'll get more out of it.
The extremely long Part III covers our very separate Royalty in Christ. In Christ, not Israel. Part IV covers how we differ from Israel and what precedents created our status. Meanwhile and better still, the Bible flagship books on the differences are Hebrews, Colossians, Ephesians, Galatians, Romans and 2 Corinthians , plus certain chapters in 1 Corinthians (1, 6, 12, 13). Read those books over repeatedly, and talk with God about them as much as possible. It really matters to know your "portolio of invisible assets" as my pastor likes to put it. [When I do this reading over and over, I often find the NIV most helpful. Like any translation, it messes up individual verses -- but when you read large blocks of Bible, the overall sense of the book is the most important. NIV seems to convey that overall sense better than other English translations, especially in the Old Testament. I found the NIV especially helpful in orienting to Book of Hebrews, while studying its verse-by-verse exegesis under my pastor. It captures the flavor of Galatians well also.]
Conversely, since He must become Highest, the birthing and brithing leverage require He become Happiest: for Truth is Happiness (Luke 11:28, John 17), especially in F. "FOR FATHER" , above. Treasure Trove of Truth For Father. In a human? Forever?! So now you know why both Old Testament and New Testament list all those titles for Him. They each indicate His Highest Highness with respect to the title category, and apart from those titles, there are none. Here's a sampler. Notice how these titles are sine qua nons, and rather sweeping in scope:
To prove the two-article official governmental style, see it written maybe hundreds of times in Chronicles, Kings, Esther, Luke 1:26, with respect to official calendar dates, etc. By contrast, the plain huios anthropou translates the Hebrew ben adam. But Daniel 7:13 uses ben enosh, not ben adam. So the Old Testament Hebrew rendered "son of man" is wrong. It should be translated "son of Adam", i.e., said of Ezekiel maybe 90 times in his book, said of Daniel once or twice. We are all FALLEN sons of Adam, but Christ is NOT a son of Adam, but rather the Last Adam, Himself (last half of Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15:45). So this distinction is extremely important, reminding you of His Virgin Birth so no old sin nature in Him. BibleWorks search on "son of man" yielded 182 entries, so there's a huge database you can use to prove what's said here.
Being the Best of itself is frankly not enough to warrant going after a goal. Human or self-approbation is of zero value, here today and gone tomorrow. Unless, you can be the Best for Someone You Love more than your own life. "FOR FATHER" makes it worthwhile to excel. To be able to share that For Father goal with everyone else, who after all will be under Him, also makes it worthwhile to excel. First Commandment, therefore.
So His Wonder and Enjoyment of Fully Knowing had its flipside, the knowing of bad truths: like evil, sin, man's utter disinterest in God. If you mature in the spiritual life, you will come to a place somewhat analogous to mental maturation, where you realize how bad life is. People become jaded as they age, but when you learn Bible, the divergence between the Gorgeousness of God and His Word and the vile quality of life down here -- especially, its claims of niceness -- is intolerable. Additionally, your normal urges as a sin nature being, the pulls from the world (especially, those who are close to you), the hits you get from Satan &Co. (generally unrecognized), all wear you down. Seems easier to just 'go along' with the roteness-loving world. So imagine how much harder it must have been for Him to know how bad things really are, yet be young, chronologically. Yet keep going on, knowing He'd end up at a Cross, with no one understanding His Mission, the meanwhile. Grief in knowing that however well He explained, people wouldn't understand and wouldn't care. Would die in their ignorance. Would hopefully at least believe in Him sometime, and not go to hell. But even so, would arrive in heaven, clueless. How do you live with that knowledge? It's a killer.
"Governance" link's G.13-21 covered His making a Higher Spiritual life primarily from the standpoint of Higher Cross Price Required to pay for sins, the spiritual provision of Bride, costs of the Trial, defeat Satan, etc. But internally, He needed it anyway. Even had there been no sin or other costs to pay, for Him to have the Requisite Unity within Himself and with Father and Spirit in His Humanity, The Very Same Higher Spiritual Life was required, to Max Out The Love Fulfillment of the First Commandment. Look: Love is the reason to live. So to max out the Love AT God's Level was Christ's Goal. If that happened, then all creation could share in God's Love Fully. This is the main theme of 1 John and Pauline writing, though every New Testament writer references it. You can't see that in translation because every "love" verse is mistranslated. Should be rendered, "Divine Love", not merely "love". For the Greek word is "agape", and it ONLY means "Divine Love" in Greek.
This Divine Love is a knowing, a being, a status quo attitude which never changes, so is never a feeling. If the body has feeling, it's a reaction to the knowing. People don't realize the terrific burden knowledge creates. 'Especially, if it is Truth. Most of our suffering is really due to our associative attitude regarding what we know (or think we know). Feeling merely reacts to the knowledge. So, change the knowledge, or change its meaning, and you change how you 'feel'. Far more than any body problem or prosperity, knowledge weights a person. Ignorance really is bliss: childhood. How much more heavy, then, is the heaviest of knowledge -- that One is the Redeemer? No temptation Satan could muster can 'compete' with the Weight of knowing one has the power to wipe out all repugnancies -- but instead, is to bear them. Just like a lamb. Go to the slaughter. Don't 'improve', don't 'fix', leave unused one's power, like discarded clothes. [Note: Greek verb kenow, sometimes translated "set aside" in Phil2:7, is a Greek verb used for taking off one's clothing. You have the clothing still. You just don't use it, for the moment. True kenosis is avoidance-of-use, not -- God forbid! "emptying". What nonsense: how can Christ 'empty' Himself of His Godness? How can Infinity be "emptied", ever?]
Can you "set aside" as a "So what?" knowledge you have cancer? Can you "set aside" as a "So what?" knowledge you can feed the poor? Can you "set aside" as a "So what?" knowledge that you will be blamed by the very people whose sins will lacerate you? Whom you know will hate you because you bought something wonderful for them? 'Takes a lot of love, to set all that knowledge aside like an old garment. Takes a lot of love, to not only obey the don't-take-revenge-nor-bear-a-grudge command of Leviticus 19:18 and instead give the World Which Hates You, your 'cloak' (right to be served, rulership mantle). This One Who is truly Perfect, Innocent, deserving of all the footlicking man can do -- This One instead was to pay for all the hostility against Father, and against Him. With an attitude of gratitude! Maximum love for those who hate Him!
How much do we ponder the terrible injustice of His Position, which God the Father imposed on Him? He was being charged with doing what even God Himself could not do -- pay for sins! This was the Stone 'too heavy for even God to lift', Isaiah 53:5 and 10's "dakah". 'Too heavy, since it would be against Divine Righteousness to pay for sins. Yet here, the Cornerstone, is the Stone too heavy for even God to lift! All creation depended on His Humanity Never Once Sinning. His Humanity, Perfect, but just as weak as ours (Hebrews 2:14,4:15), was to take on this task???
Look at the impossibility of it: He could not use His Deity, or Satan wins; He could not use His human power, either, for it was not enough. The Mosaic Law was designed to interact with human power, so was "weak and useless" (Hebrews 7:18) to prevent sin. So Christ could not use His human perfection at all. It was just a shell, just a blemishless lamb, for all the good it could do Him, in this worst-of-lives. Why didn't He rebel? Satan rebelled for far, far lesser reasons. Christ would have been justified in rebelling. To which of the angels did the Father consign to receive imputation and judgment of sins? In effect, associatively-paying the entire cost of creation, including the Lake of Fire, so the Father could 'look' at it all, and -- by associating the creature failure He saw with the Spirit-empowered Thinking of Christ -- be nonetheless propitiated? (Hebrews 2 and Romans 8:19-39 tie in here.)
Why didn't He ever even once resent Father putting Him in such a position? Such setting-aside of His Royal God-Man Rights -- that was the Father's Will. Why? Because Infinite Love-for-Righteousness had to say "So what?" to Omniscient Knowledge of sin, rejection, "hell" -- or creation could not exist. So, the Son would have to continually and perfectly say "So what?" on such a level: GOD'S Level. Yet, not use His Deity, but instead say "So what?" as a human?
And that's not all! Far more is at stake. After all, sin destroys the person. Paying for it doesn't restore the person. Salvation restores the person, but via rebirth: the soul has to be completely reconstructed after that, because it is completely trashed by satanic and human viewpoint. More, still! After salvation, the person is to grow way beyond his own humanity, to be made like the Most High, so to be fit companion to the Godhead. Not pets, not automatons, not children. However, all of this is subject to the person wanting it, since Love never coerces. All of this was the Father's Will, not merely escaping the Lake of Fire. So the Atonement would have to be big enough to pay the Redemption Price, too. In the "Governance" link section on the New Testament, we saw how the Bride Price for that Redemption went up by billions of extra souls, owing to Israel's rejection in the last year before He died. And He knew that. And He unilaterally contracted to pay for whomever Father willed to be born, John 17:20-21, ratified on the very night He knew He'd be arrested, which was the day the Lamb was set aside (on the true calendar, versus the four-days-fast official one that year in 30AD).
There's only one way to withstand all this, even embrace it: Integrity Love. "Love is God's Integrity", my pastor excitedly shouted over and over beginning about 1999, using those words from the year 2000 forward. Love is God's Head Attribute, and it's nothing like we humans call "love". Again, Greek word "agape" only means Divine Love, even in pagan Greek literature -- and especially, in Bible. (Bible's Greek uses "agape" in the classic divine sense, but it's the Real God Loving, not a pantheon. Bible uses other words for human love in variant categories.) You can't see that, because translations all cut God's head off and truncate what should be translated "Divine Love" as merely "love". Pity. For in human terms, love is attraction-dependent, so right there you know His Love wasn't like ours. There's nothing attractive about sin, nothing attractive about us, nothing at all attractive about the above knowledge He lives with, day in and day out.
The scariest words I ever heard my pastor utter went something like this: "the same love as Christ had on the Cross", is the level of Love provided for us Church. Of course, that's Ephesians 3:15-19, 4:13, which my pastor spent 7 years explaining. THAT level of Love, He invented and legated to us. Absolute Integrity. Absolute Integrity Love. For Love really is the Integrity of God, why He wants to be God, and none of His Other Attributes 'constrain' Him to think that way.
Above all, the Mosaic Law could not create Intimate Integrity Love. As Paul explains in Romans 7, the Law only excited the sin nature, couldn't motivate Love, which in any case had to be Divine, to fulfill the First Commandment, Romans 5:5-11, 1 Corinthians 13:4-13. So the Old Testament people lived with a level of integrity which is far higher than human, yet not high enough. Christ would invent that Integrity. Then His would be cloned into us, Romans 5:5, 17-21, Ephesians 3:15-19, Romans 12:1-3 (Greek), Hebrews 11:1b, 12:2, Philippians 2:5-10, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.
And what is Integrity Love? Believing. If the object of belief is good, then the strength of the belief is made good. Truth is good. If one learns the Truth and believes it, then the Strength of the Truth creates the Strength of belief even under pressure, as repeated believings turn into unbreakable ropes, due to the unbreakable nature of Truth itself. Belief is therefore Love. Belief in, due to the content of the Object. Here, God, for God is Truth. Christ essentially believed and kept on believing, and kept on learning, and believing and living on -- Truth. Father is Truth. Truth about Father. Spirit is Truth. Truth about Spirit. Truth in all categories, learned, believed in -- turns into Love, Romans 5:5, 1 Corinthians 13:7. So Integrity Love is an unbreakable believing-in which in turn is surrounded by the content of Truth Learned and Lived On. After all, no one lives on but what he believes in. Question is, what's the integrity of what you believe in? So will your integrity be. So Christ believed in Divine Truth, and kept learning and living on it: thus He BECAME the Truth. This Truth was built in Him, fully. Can be built in us, too. Building requires belief. No one keeps building when he stops believing. So the content of Truth proves itself valid, you believe it, and your soul strength just increased. So His Soul Strength became Infinite, essentially. So all this pressure against Him, couldn't break that Integrity Love. Built precept on precept, line on line, plodding on plodding, one day at a time. Constantly. Constancy. Integrity. Intimate. Invented. By Him. Legated, to us.
And how do we know this? Hebrews 11:1. Verse is vilely mistranslated, cutting off Christ's head, and then also the heads of all the believers depicted in the verse (see Hebrews 11:1.htm). Proper translation goes something like this: "It's about Confidence in Word! Christ's Thinking, On Trial! Evidence, Unseen!" The rest of the Chapter then goes on to illustrate Old Testament witnesses who did just that, using the Word they then had available to them. See Psalm 119, composed by youngsters on the to-Babylon death march who were daily raped, beaten, starved, walked-to-death. In Hebrews, notice how believing keeps being stressed (i.e., Chapter 3, 11:6). Despite whatever seemed on the surface, the believers in that Chapter 11 hero roster kept on believing. That's Love. For them, the developmental level couldn't be as high as what we get, because we get Christ's Thinking and He endured the Cross. Hence the corrected translation of Hebrews 11:1, which verse is designed to explain what this Trial and the spiritual life, are all about. Cloning His Thinking into us, Greek term "hupostasis" is a moniker for Christ the writer of Hebrews uses (1:3 His Nature, 3:14 reference to His Thinking, 11:1 same). For He's the Substance of your life, the Reality you Believe in, and "pistis" ("faith") first means (in Greek) WHAT you believe, not so much the believing itself. Which means, WHY you believe. Due to its merit, never mind your own. His Merit. Him. Believing in Him. Believing in Him when everything about life with Him seems unattractive. When you are hurting. When things are bad. When things are good. When you can do something else with your own abilities -- but you don't want to, you want to just keep "looking to Jesus", Hebrews 3:1, 12:2 (different Greek verbs, latter is undivided focus). Crowds out everything else in your life, docking it all eventually to a "so what?" That's the Trial Testimony, and that's Love. Eventually unshakeable Belief, Based on Truth: His.
Belief requires information. Belief derives its strength from the object of the belief, and so the more Bible you learn and live on the stronger becomes your faith. So when you have trouble believing, it means you lack information. So then pressure is on what you do know, to "go out there" as it were into the dark of what you don't know. Remember the three Core Trial issues from Part I? #1, God provides 'enough' information; #2, you believe or don't believe based on what you do know; #3, you believe or not based on what you don't know. And by far, the hardest believing you'll ever do, is in #2. Christ knew everything. Should have motivated Him to quit. But what He knew was the Truth, and He BELIEVED in it. So, He didn't quit. Neither will we, if we keep believing, learning, living on what we learned like He did, Matthew 4:4. That's Intimate knowledge, hence Intimate Integrity Love: His.
So the
So the Christ, exhibiting His Own Happiness, "endured the Cross" (Hebrews 12:2). His Love triumphs even over the worst injustice. No wonder James would later call it "the royal law". The greatest Royal in all history, God-Royal and Human-Royal, set aside His Rights to pay for us scum. And Love doing so!?! No amount of human love can do this. But the Unique Monadic Love of Jesus the Christ was built by all those Perfect Deposits. Maximally. So even in His Humanity, His Love is Divine. Supernatural, yes -- but not hocus pocus. Not somehow 'supplied' by His Own Deity. No protection by ignorance or delusion (John 2:25). So will be His Legacy for the Bride-to-come, for whom He gladly paid, voting for her a year before His Cross in Matthew 16:18, ratified in John 17:20-21, explained in Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 10:4, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, determined at Father's Discretion -- billions upon billions of us and our sins! Bride Price, in Advance!
His Victory is all-encompassing. We Christians are rather dismissive of His Work on the Cross, chirping how He died for us. Yeah, and do we know what that means? Do we know what He purchased? Well here's table summarizing what He purchased: every "block" in it is a separate category of purchase, and the categories are broad. Each block is interrelated to every other block, to form a whole building for all eternity. The underlined text in each box is a link which will immediately take you to the relevant subsection in this webpage, so you can easily navigate back and forth to see how these blocks all interrelate. The milk-white blocks denote Divine Design which Church inherits; the blue ones, the role of the Law, now completed; the royal purple ones, kata-Melchizedek Kingship for Father Design which Church also inherits; the red ones, His Trial Witness, the topic of this section on His Evidence Testimony -- which Church also inherits. Thus you can integrate what you've read, with this section. Here's the table:
Governance #13.
Become Truth, associate Truth first, inner-life-to-outer-life, to be strong enough to pay for sins.Governance #14.
God-Level Intimacy to keep Universe intact, yet Intimately think Truth: above all, when tempted or on Cross.Governance #G15.
Indwelling & Filling, Independent Power Base to build and run Divine Truth in His Soul.Governance #G16.
Think like Omniscience to pay for mankind's sins in but 3 hours.Governance #G17.
Trial & King-Priesthood, Ps110 added Cross fee for 'court costs' (all time) & proving Satan wrong.Governance #G18.
Bride Price for Israel. He paid this added Cross cost despite Israel's rejection.Governance #G19.
Create Church. Added Cross cost per Father's Discretion (design, length, spiritual features, etc).Governance #G20.
Create new people post-Cross. Added Cross cost re how many, per Father's Discretion.Governance #G21.
Higher Bride Price. Added Cross cost since His Success raises Royal Patent Value, as Church must 'match' His New Stature, Ephesians 4:13.
Fellowship For Father #1. Mediate & Integrate His Own Dual Nature, thus Become the 'Original' the Holy Spirit can 'clone' into Church.
Fellowship For Father #2. Eschew His Own Attributes; instead rely on the Spirit to build, mediate and integrate His Human Soul.
Fellowship For Father #3. Indwelling & Filling empower mediation, integration, & primarily, Infinite Intimate Fellowship w/God.
Fellowship For Father #4. Absolute Extrapolation of Bible (i.e., its metaphors), all the way up to full Divine Truth and hence Fellowship with God.
Fellowship For Father #5. PRESSURE of Intimacy. God is Intensive by Nature, as are His Attributes. Intimacy with pressure itself, thus aids Fellowship.
Fellowship For Father #6. Knowing Father Intimately as the reason to breathe. Intimate satisfaction of being able to PAY Father.
Fellowship For Father #7. Increase in Soul Size to get the knowledge of sin and thus Fully Complete Intimacy with Father.
Archegos Ark.
Fulfill the God-Man mandate as Redeemer, Promised by Mosaic Law.Birth Beauty from Bad.
Birth Living Redemption "Seed" from sin, per Isaiah 53:10.Christos Cornerstone.
Birth Living Mediatorship to Eternally Preserve Freedom & Unite All Incompatibilities.Divergence Decree.
Be Made Sin, Trial Proof that only knowing God makes one happy.His Excellency's Embassy.
Create an Eternal Royal Priesthood
FOR FATHER.Fellowship For Father.
Create Eternal Fellowship-with-Father Structure and Function for all creation.Grace Governs Glory.
Design Kingdom Structures for Rule in Church, Millennium, Eternity.History's Highness.
Become the Highest Person in every category.Invent Integrity Love.
Divinely Fulfill First Commandment under maximum unfairness, but in His Humanity!
Pretty impressive accomplishment, huh. You know, we humans always underestimate God's Standards, Abilities, Desires -- and most of all, His Intensiveness. Like Abraham once did, we're always thinking 'too small'. Truth is one of the Divine Attributes. So, it is also a Standard. So, there is such a thing as God 'obeying' His Own Standard. Now: think of how BIG God is. What would He really want? What would He want to do? What would They want? What would They want to Have? As we saw in Part I's a)-d): had God made us differently, we'd not be free. If not free, then not persons, but rather something like pets, marionettes. Would Love, love that? Of course not. If we don't even enjoy being around the stupid, how much less, God?
INTIMACY KEY→ The Cornerstone Christ is not only the Payor, but the Model, the Embodiment of all God intended for angels, for humans.
To bless them by association, by spiritual growth, Freely, to be "Like" and With -- the Most High. It takes one's breath away to know the Godhead Subjected Themselves To The Worst Testing Ever -- the Cross! So that They could justifiably and freely develop like-minded beings, by pouring Themselves out onto them: Romans 5:5-11. God's "Evidence Test" of Himself! Sacrificing His Own Son! So to be able to say "So, What?" to the forever-in-Their-Minds-Knowledge of creation's pain! Was ever there a Love as Great as This One? He could have done it the easy way, and just spoken "Be!" and it would BE! But oh noooooo -- He chose the Hardest Way!
So now we see the meaning of Romans 5:8: "God demonstrates His Love for us: in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a Substitute for us." ["[A]s a Substitute for" is the corrected translation of "huper", a Greek substitutionary preposition. Seminaries mandate that their Greek students chop "huper" to a simple "for", because of the truly-insane rule that one Greek word is only allotted one English word in translation. Never mind that to the English reader, such a chopping destroys the Greek meaning that salvation is totally "finished" and complete due to the Cross. After all, "substitute" means substitute -- not "discount"! If something substituted, then nothing else is needed, and nothing can be 'lost'. Who didn't like grace, to invent such an insane rule? Hmmm, maybe Satan?] The rest of the Chapter goes on to explain how His So-Great Sacrifice was: heh, Love loves to pour out! Hebrews 5:8-9, "He learned through what He suffered" is a Greek paronomasia! Christ says He 'got paid learning' -- by suffering! He associates the Cross with Getting Something He Wanted, in the very ACT of it! (Greek "emathen" is "learned"; Greek "epathen" means "suffered". It's like the American phrase, "cry all the way to the bank." Mocks any "cost". Very funny.) Hebrews 12:2 says it also: "joy set before Him" refers to the Cross -- as a JOY! 'Not a sacrifice. [It really should say "because of His Exhibited Happiness", in English. The 'joy' is HIS, not some external set out in front of Him.]
LOVE KEY→ See His Testimony? If you do something you greatly love, do you call it, "sacrifice"? Heck, no. Why? Because you ASSOCIATE what you love so deeply with any "cost", the "cost" Only Heightens The Love-Pleasure. How much happiness must one have, to so conclude a "cross", joy! So much so, you want to go on suffering? Like Paul said, "to have the fellowship of His Sufferings" -- that's Profit, a gain! Not a sacrifice. To the word "sacrifice", not-Love says, "oh, what it's costing me!" But Love says: "THANK YOU!!" Love is GRATEFUL for the cost, as it provides an added way to pour self out. Why? Because Love ALREADY got paid: seeing Him via Doctrine. Christ had a whole, glorious Life of seeing the Father. He needed an Outlet to Spend what He'd already received! See? Self-merit doesn't even get a glance. (Hebrews 12:2, Nehemiah 8:10, Proverbs 29:18.)
The Lord laughs first in Hebrews 10:5, on the Day of His Birth: "Father, Sacrifice and Offering You did not desire, but a Body you prepared for Me!" Love laughs at sacrifice. Love loves. What sacrifice is that? [Hebrews 10:5 is awesomely humorous, on so many levels. 'Can't translate them all. Think over the word-play on transitional particle "de" in Greek.] See how different is the attitude, when merit is not the issue? Love laughs at sacrifice: "He is not ashamed to call them [us] brothers." (Hebrews 2.)
COUNTER-LOVE KEY→ A merit-thinking person (like Satan) needs to pat himself on the back, needs to think himself worthy. So any 'cost' is never allowed to be a joy, must always be a sacrifice, lest self-worth be threatened. Love is not so encumbered. A merit-thinking person defines "righteousness" as something to earn, to get self-worth. The righteousness itself has no other value to him. Whatever its intrinsic content, the merit-thinking person appropriates only to praise himself, so doesn't appreciate righteousness for itself. By contrast, love loves righteousness ITSELF, for its own intrinsic content, and enjoys IT, never accrediting the self -- because if you're loving something, you love IT. If you hate a thing, you have to credit YOURSELF to slog through and do the thing you hate. It's that simple a difference. So anyone claiming self-merit, hates. No middle ground.
So, Christ proves it's not about power, so it's not about rights; it's not about power, so it's not about merit. It's not about power, so it's not about being-good-as-God for the sake of claiming any rights. Love doesn't love based on rights: who wants to be loved, due to rights? That's like being loved solely because of one's attractiveness, or possessions. Satan's argument had been precisely that love ought to be based on attractiveness, and rights. Satan's argument had been that power, not love, was the more important. Satan's argument had been that love comes from power, rather than power, from love. So Satan wanted to divorce the Most High, and thus rebelled, on the grounds that the Most High's standards were evil.
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JURIDICAL JEOPARDY! Do we recognize that even the Godhead staked everything on Jesus' Willingness to Pay what is unfair to ASK Him to pay? Under The Worst Possible Temptations? Think of it: had He chosen not to pay, it would not have been a sin -- what did He owe the Father? Nothing: He'd not sinned, Himself. It was a Gift -- or, nothing. Can't make Him pay. He Has The Right To Say "No". Think of the ramifications had He said "no"! God would forego being paid, and all mankind would have ceased to continue. Only those already-born would exist: those who believed, well -- Righteousness would honor their having believed, despite not being paid, right? For it doesn't dent God if He's not paid. He doesn't really need it. The payment is a juridical thing, an honor thing. So, Himself honoring, God would basically live forever unpaid, had Christ said "no". Christ Himself, inseparably united to His Deity forever from birth onward, would maybe forever be at odds with Himself. And then again, maybe not. It's His Right to say no. [One could well argue the converse, that it would have been a sin to say no to Father's Will, on the grounds that even a Perfect Human is not Infinite. On the other hand, the Father's Will is that it BE a Gift, not a coerced or owed thing, and being Sinless, Christ really didn't owe anything. God isn't like us humans who say "gift", but then get ticked off if none given.] What a hellish thing for the Godhead to risk! And, it couldn't have been a sham! What a hellish thing for the Christ to continually know, every breathing second, awake or asleep -- could anyone live with such a burden, even before the Cross? Think of the burden He faced: could you survive five minutes, knowing even the Godhead staked Their Own Getting Paid on you?
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And Christ? He Did The Impossible! He grew up Fully (Greek verb:"Pleroo") in Love! Whereas Abraham had wanted 'just one' son, but got whole nations of sons, God wanted a whole universe of "sons" -- and got them. Through Christ. Who totally grew UP in Love. Christ, Who reasoned thus, on the Cross:
Is Righteousness Righteous, if not GORGEOUS? No! Is Righteousness Righteous, if anything at all can 'dent' it? No! Righteousness must endure maximum unRighteousness! Yet Righteousness must be fully paid! All at the same time! Else, Righteousness is not Righteousness. But Righteousness is fully paid at all times, by Gorgeously Righteous Truth! See? Love Associates Everything With Truth, Righteousness. Therefore it is Free To Associate With Unrighteousness, Unconditionally. And thus incurs no cost, even when enduring maximum cost, because PREPAID by the Gorgeousness of the Truth. Talk about the ultimate in cost-benefit accounting!
So He kept on reasoning, thus: GORGEOUS! GORGEOUS! GORGEOUS! SINE QUA NON OF LIFE! For if something can 'dent' Love, is it Love? No! Love wouldn't be Gorgeous, then! Yet should Love love without mediation? No! Love wouldn't be Gorgeous, then! So Gorgeous TRUTH, DOCTRINE mediates Love and makes it Gorgeous TO Love, by forging a 'marriage' between Love and Righteousness and Justice -- so Love becomes Inviolable Integrity, Gorgeous! Glorious! For, 'The Lord Loves Justice.' Chesed and emeth march in advance, on point!
Complete Integrity. Even in the face of maximum repugnance, like Hell. Forever. Love is thus free to express itself Fully And Without Compromise, because Love is always responding to the Gorgeousness of Truth. Good Truth, Bad Truth, Any Truth, Because Truth. Love is thus free to love despite even maximum repugnance; Love is thus free to love despite the pressure of maximum attraction. All 'competing' loves thus have 'compartments', each of which is Full, and Inviolable. So, Love can even love Satan &Co. So, Love can even love unbelievers in Hell. So, Love can even love apostate believers. So, Love can even love fully-advanced believers. All Loves Are Exploited; no compartment 'bleeds' into another, no compartment harms another. Love can fully live! And so He did, even on the Cross!
[Sources for this paraphrased 'reasoning' come from the plays-on-words/concepts, in at least the following passages. Love-for-Truth-and-Righteousness Attitude: Psalm 33:5, 89:14, 138:2b; 1 Timothy 2:5 compared with 3~6, Philippians 2:5-10, Psalm 22 (inclusive), Numbers 11:23, Isaiah 43:25, and His Theophanies, esp with Abraham and Moses. Gain-for-Self Attitude: Hebrews 5:8-9, Hebrews 10:5, Hebrews 1 and 2, inclusive; Hebrews 7~10, inclusive; Ephesians 1:15-23, Ephesians 1, inclusive; Ephesians 3:15-21; and all "Footstool" verses. Additionally, Isaiah and the Old Testament writers often equate the Members of the Godhead by talking about One of them then switching to Another within the same sentence, paragraph, or section, but NOT changing the Name used, i.e., still using "He" or "Elohim" or especially, "YHWH". This clever and tender switching shows not only Identicality of Essence, but Identicality of Thinking. Utter Rapport. That's such an utterly gorgeous rhetorical device for stating Trinity (albeit confusing to the reader of translated Bible) that I emulate it in my webpages: here, putting what Christ thought on the Cross, under the same "section" as "But God reasons thus". I got the "but God reasons thus" from Isaiah 53:10's parallelling Father's wa YHWH haphets with wuh hephets YHWH of the Son. Each One states His Contract reasons in that verse. Holy Spirit is included, since Holy Spirit would be empowering the One who will ADD a "hand" (bayado, in the verse).]
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So, all was staked on Christ. By the Godhead. Here, even God's Own Integrity Components were tested Infinitely! Just for the LOVE of it! Look: Righteousness takes Responsibility for sin (imputation, Isaiah 53:5a's "pierced", tamely translated "wounded" in some English versions). Justice makes Junction (juridical contact) with sin (judging, Isaiah 53:5b's "crushed", lamely translated "bruised" in some English versions). Love stakes Lordness (Godness), all! on the One Judged for sin (Isaiah 53:10ff). Freely, honestly. Freedom, Truth. If it's not free, then it's not Truth. If it's not free, then it doesn't matter what's the Truth. But if it's Truth, it's Free, and ANY Truth is then worth dying for. Good Truth, Bad Truth, Any Truth, Because Truth. Because Truth is Gorgeous. Because Truth is Gorgeous, no matter what kind of Truth it is. God thus tells us that if this risk weren't taken, it's not worthwhile to even BE God. It works or it doesn't, but if no risk taken, then the Truth is shaved. Love would never love that. Thus even the Godhead Sovereignly Subject Themselves to Truth, Psalm 138:2b. No matter what it 'costs'. Why? For the Truth is -- Doctrine! Gorgeous! Worth it! Think over the enormity of Their Risk, here. Thus you will see the enormity of Their Love: for Freedom, for Righteousness -- even for us. Without compromise, Love Can Fully Live. Even in "sons". That's what Father Fathered in Christ for the human race (cf. Isaiah 9:6, 53:5-6,11, Isaiah 63:11-16, fabulous Hebrew wordplay): the potential to grow that much, in Love. That's what the angels were designed to have. That's what Satan &Co. were designed to have. Because the Truth is, the Doctrine is, the Glory is: |
Consequently God TRUMPS Satan's arguments by making the Son's Humanity into "sin" (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 3:18, 1 Peter 2:24, Hebrews 10:1-14). Not even Satan could tempt Christ so much, since Satan has no power to impute and judge sins. All of the knowledge-and-power covenantal levels have now been exploited, upon the Ascension. Technically the Trial should be over, with only the 57 years promised to harvest Gentiles and play out Tribulation, remaining until Satan gets locked up. Then, the Millennium. For God has demonstrated why Satan's wrong in his claim that God made rational creation as a pet (i.e., defective). Moreover, Satan's petting (and petty!) plan never made man happy, however much the persons had in goodies, merit, strength, talent, morality. Yet even the lowliest of sinners found more happiness with God. Yet, even the lowest of jacobs could grow to greater integrity, hence more beneficial to mankind -- an "israel", a prince, a blessing-by-association. Yet, even the Highest One, Christ, preferred to cast aside His Perfection, not thinking it a gain to be seized and held (Philippians 2:6-7, Greek), instead 'spending' it, so to speak, on "the ungodly". So: no good arguments remain, for the Defense (Satan&Co).
God is still on time, too. For here is the timeline, which you can see in GeneYrs.xls:
Of course, as you'll see in Part IV-a and PassPlot.htm, the Jews didn't recognize until it was too late, that they only succeeded in proving the prophecy of His Death right on time. Well, seven years early, in 30AD --
Even so, the few who believed in Him weren't enough in number, and Church had only just begun. A king must have a sufficient number of people wanting him, in order to rule. The "numbers" issue has always been critical in the Trial, so Satan's success here was vital. If he can stop the Jews from wanting God, then he can stop Church from wanting God, and all the future covenants can't be fulfilled -- which is, all the covenants, for none of them were yet fulfilled. What a coup. If not fulfilled, then God is a liar, it's a Mistrial Verdict -- and Satan wins the universe. 'Wins control over the Most High. Kinda high stakes, huh?
Because Israel rejected Him, the calendar for history -- depicted by her calendar -- stopped: the Passover-Pentecost 'time bridge' promised by Mosaic Law between 37 and 94AD, was "out". So the Trial would be lost. Accordingly, a year before He knew He would die (near Passover 29AD), Christ Invented a New Bride, partly to bridge that time gap: in Matthew 16:18 He announced "Church" would be grafted in. John chapters 14+ cover the upcoming Church, passim. To replace the Israel who was to be His Wife (cf. Isaiah 54:5 and similar passages), the Lord Jesus Christ paid for this Church, having ratified the contract just before He was arrested, in John 17 (especially vv20-21). [The commitment itself is the "I will build My Church" verse, Matthew 16:18, which Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 10:4 so Bible confirms the meaning. See my "Rock is Christ" and "Petros Lie" videos in PopeMyth.htm.]
In 29AD, Satan was surprised. Grounds for a Mistrial Verdict, Jesus is handing a bill of divorcement to Israel! Wait! Maybe this is to my advantage! 'Church?' To wholly replace Israel, thus not keeping His Promises? No, not to replace Israel, but in addition to Israel. Vashti had been set aside, not cast out. Israel would be set aside, not cast out. Esther would be grafted in, and would rescue all the inheritance promises despite Vashti's rejection. So a new Queen is used by the King, to preserve everything previously decreed for the Kingdom. By creating, a SISTER Kingdom, later called "two walls" in Ephesians 2, and two Kingships, in Book of Hebrews. All which Christ Himself voted for in Matthew 16:18, ratified just before the Cross in John 17:20-21, and Father endorsed, on the Cross.
This 'Church' was to be a complement, a Body, a Bride to Christ's Humanity, due to His Battlefield Victory against Satan. (See Colossians 1:16ff., Ephesians 1~3,and Hebrews 1,2,9~11 on that sentence.) So, the "new covenant" would have a brother covenant, such that the two together, joined at the Cornerstone, would make the very world Satan kept trying to achieve.
Satan ponders. Hmmm. This new "Church", a Bride? Hold on, now. Brides must have sufficient status, to warrant Royal marriage. They should have the same spiritual life as the Groom! So they must undergo the same TRIALS! Jesus won against me, and therefore this Bride must also, else the marriage is unequally-mated, and against Trial rules. He's bigger due to paying for this Church, so this Church should undergo the same Trial Jesus did! Satan smacks his lips. No way fallen man can handle the killer thought-life the Lord had. No way. No way. Man couldn't even keep the Law, which was paint-by-numbers stuff -- Satan winces -- NO WAY man will learn to bring every thought into captivity, like Jesus did. NO WAY. Man can't control his thoughts for two seconds, let alone grow to such a stature, his mind run by Scripture -- freely? No way. Hmmm. I can make Him fail not only to get Israel, Now, but also -- this 'Church'! Ha!
"I agree to this New Bride, but there are terms," Satan says, and then spells them out. [I can't say which of terms governing Church's covenants are of God's Direct Design and which ones are due to Satan's objections. God foreknowing all, would have incorporated what He foreknew were Satan's objections into the design indirectly, provisions or potential provisions which would be the same whether Satan raised the objections or not. Every objection Satan raises is based on a valid issue, so design would always deal with valid issues. The problem with Satan is that he won't carry out the answers far enough. So God always ends up finishing his answers, for him.]
God of course readily agreed to the terms. We saw these back in the "Covenant Properties" section, so they are summarized here as blocks. Links to those sections are underlined, so you can click on them for quick review:
| Governance #G22. Rapture occurs when Church is built to His Maturity Level, Ephesians 4:13. |
Governance #G23. Old Testament scrapped, redone in Christ, upgraded. |
Governance #G24. Church Spiritual Life=His, Indwelt & Filled, Inner-First, Get His Mind, 1 Corinthians 2:16, 2 Peter 3:18. |
Governance #G25. Cross was Last, so "works" are last, but LEARN HIM is First. |
Governance #G26. Church Completion causes pre-Trib Rapture. |
Governance #G27. Church is New Trial Evidence: thus Satan gets 2nd chance for Mistrial. So Rapture's pre-Tribulation, can't predict it. |
Governance #G28. Church Completion is prerequisite for all Future covenants (from OT), Hebrews 11:40. |
Governance #G29. Trib believers look back on Church, mixed blessing: denial of pre-Tribulation Rapture leaves paper trail harming millions in Trib. |
Governance #G30. Millennial presence of Church will bless, as our 'wifely' role then is to rule Gentile nations. |
Satan smacks his lips. Hmmm. Elohim agrees to my terms? For fallen humans? But they're animals. What kind of trick is this? Even we angels never had a spiritual life as did Jesus. HIS Royal Spiritual Life, far beyond the Law -- what fallen human could execute it? This is totally and utterly impossible. No way God wins, Now. He's shigaon! He does the impossible, pays for sins -- then flubs his victory by commanding the same spiritual life to fallen man? Oh, I was right all along! He really needs me to rule Him. And I will -- oh how I will!
Satan believes the Lord's Human Perfection contributed to His Success at the Cross. He disbelieves what he knows: that the Spirit enabled Christ, Who didn't use even His Human Power. Satan thus still thinks something's rotten-in-Denmark, so to speak; or, that God's stupid. For to Satan, such Love is stupid, in the extreme: a truly-omnipotent God can't be God and love this much, can He? Therefore Satan disbelieves that our having sin natures, is no hindrance.
See how flummoxed Satan is? See how he doesn't 'get it': Christ proved that it doesn't matter how low a creature is, because creature power isn't even needed or used! For, the real problem is Unity With Infinity, which only Infinity can solve! Click here for a side Brief on how Unity with Infinity is the real problem Christ solved. So it never matters that we've sinned; but only matters if we use His Thinking, which only the Holy Spirit enables. [Sin means you're not filled with the Spirit, so you won't be able to learn or use His Thinking, so obviously you don't want to sin. In fact, it's a far worse effect if you don't name your sins to God, because not only is the sin obstructing, but while in a state of sin you are REFUSING the Holy Spirit's enabling power to MAKE you in Christ's Thinking. So believers in Church have FAR more to lose post-salvation, than if they never believed. It's no cake walk, BECAUSE we're permanently saved. Part III will go over our Royal Situation in huge detail.]
So now what? So, Our Now -- turn to Part III, and prepare to gasp. For you are in the worst and best time in all human history. As "Bride".
