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Shocking! About 20 years prior, during Rev 2-4 exegesis, I listened to my pastor tell us day in and day out about heraldry, the Angelic College of Heralds, the Angelic Order of Battle, and the heraldric/knighthood meanings of the Awards mentioned in Rev2&3. I couldn't understand what-the-heck was the significance of so much detail on heraldry! Oh, but I was (wrongly) bored! And for tuning out of Bible class, whoa -- what a spanking I got, too! But notice: even God's Discipline, blesses. What a comeuppance, Payback Time! For now, all-of-a-sudden, a scenario of what the heraldric awards might signify 'clicks' in my puny brain!
Oh: now that my brain is back on, here's what I tuned out of during four years of daily exegesis faithfully given by my own right pastor: The Awards represent vast amounts of eternal wealth of every type. Bible terminology for awards is extensive, and is usually fuzzed over in translation. "Pebbles", for example, are citation and voting stones, which also function as passes to exclusive places, like the Gazebo in the Garden and pass to the New Jerusalem -- on stone, so easy to carry and permanent; white clothing, is honor/dress-military; crowns (stephanos) are battlefield/athletic victory wreaths (the higher the body-part item, the higher the wealth of the award represented). Kingship crowns are distinguished by Greek word diadema, though the more normal nomenclature seems to be just to say "kings" (Basileus). Rome greatly rewarded its heroes, and expected much, too: need to know that stuff, to understand the Bible's metaphorical terms.
Behold the Escutcheon, patterned after Rev4's, but using today's ideas of the color-names of Veil thread:
Summing up the Reasons
These sets of Invisibility and Royalty Reasons pair up, though I was unaware of that fact when I first wrote them! When I wrote them back in 2001 or so, the process was question-and-answer, in my mind: "Ok, why are we Royally Invisible?" Then, the Holy Spirit brought Doctrinal answers to mind, and I 'reported' what I understood. In short, I had no idea where all the answers were 'leading'. But now, idou! "4" is the Biblical number-metaphor of completion, fullness. Look how these four sets of Reasons interlock! Oh! Are these like the four colors of yarn for the Veil? The four-part Royal Heraldric Escutcheon those "four living creatures" wear/bear in Revelation 4?
Invisibility Assets plus Status Assets. Our Irrevocable, Permanent Position in Christ. The Lord as Precedence used His Royal Status and Royal Assets to the uttermost. Best economics, Best Investment, Total productivity, Total yield. So, then: did the Royal believer also invest these 'talents' for maximum yield, by living enough on God's Script in God's System? If "yes", at the Bema he gets a Royal Knighthood title (usu. mistranslated "name") and enters within the Royal Order of the
GOLD-for-Profit, CROWNED LION! |
Our Aggregate Position in Christ is designed to Invisibly Function to Royally Preserve mankind during post-Cross history. Royal Status and Royal Assets require Nobility: living up to a Royal Standard, for the sake of the ruled. The Lord's Humanity invented that Royal Standard, and demonstrated Steadfast Nobility, for He faithfully and completely abode in it. Thus He protected mankind from destruction by a 'foreign' power (Divine Judgement, Satan&Co. -- 'foreign', in the sense of 'foreign' to men's awareness). So, then: did the Royal believer steadfastly and nobly abide by the Royal Standard during his own 'first advent', by living enough on God's Script in God's System? If "yes", at the Bema he gets a Royal Knighthood title and enters within the Royal Order of the
BLUE-for-Virtue, IMMOVABLE OX! |
High-Low! Serving God the Father! Vested mediation of Life! The Lord, the Highest (as God) became also the Lowest, thus Vested as King-Priest, Full-Spectrum. So, then: did the Royal believer also vest in docking all things under God through his own spiritual life, by living enough on God's Script in God's System? If "yes", at the Bema he gets a Royal Knighthood title and enters within the Royal Order of the
PURPLE-for-Royalty, KING-PRIEST! |
Maximum Mediation "Stretch" leads to Maximum Trial Witness! The Lord's Humanity accomplished a Strategic Trial Victory on the Cross against Satan; thus He was Crowned "PantoKrator", Ruler of All. As a result, Operation Footstool's Preparation Stage was inaugurated to Tactically Conquer via the Church: man's dissociation, the world, Satan's power system. So, then: did the Royal believer also finish the course, such that his witness produced Tactical Trial Victory, by living enough on God's Script in God's System? If "yes", at the Bema he gets a Royal Knighthood title and enters within the Royal Order of the
Scarlet-for-Battlefield-Victory, FLYING EAGLE! |
I can't breathe. One knows from Doctrine that these things are true, but to see them pair off like this..! Oh, I had no idea of these meanings when I wrote each answer ..breathless! How Father completes Son's Royal Escutcheon! With us! Heb 11:39-40! Oh, Beloved Father, I'm prostrate, speechless: Ps138:2! Rev1:17!
There are so many applications from this four-part Escutcheon. Why didn't I pay attention in Bible class then? Ohhh what I've missed in my understanding! But now, Grace! I get to know! See, each of these is a class society needs for happiness: Profit (1 Philippians 1:21!), Virtue (probably agathos; put verses here on recall of keywords), King-Priest (Heb 5-10), Victory (nikaw, kratew, hupomenw, huparchein verses)! Four categories of knighthood, four categories in executing the Spiritual Life! We each will end up ranking in each of these four categories! Have to get to Pleroma to even get in ("overcomes" in Revelation means reaching Pleroma, so that is the litmus), but even within the Pleroma category, variety! Inequality of ranking! (Probably those below Pleroma will be rewarded for the peaks or specifics that they accomplished, even though they spun off before Pleroma.)
Thus, if our Church group had a Royal motto, it would also be four-fold: "Profit for Virtue, King-Priest, Victory!" For, in Father's Plan, there is only and always Pure Profit. A Blessed Word, not a bad thing. "True riches" verse, but fulfilled! That Divine Thinking "in earthen vessels"! His Thinking! Which only the Holy Spirit can run, so to us the spiritual life is entirely without price, without cost: Pure Profit! 'The "business" of our unique spiritual life!
No society can hold together absent "Virtue". This invisible, endemic quality-of-soul is best defined from its Latin root, virtus: inner strength. Strength to remain steadfast, idea of structural integrity. Strength to remain loyal (loyalty-up, loyalty-down). Strength, therefore, to remain fair. Neither cheating nor excusing cheating in others. Neither being "a respecter of persons", nor being a stingy servant. Royal Law (Jas2:8).
"King-Priest" means wise and mediatory rule.
"Victory" is military victory, without which there is no independent freedom. Gal5:1!
So, I'm wondering if the Lord's Own Escutcheon, and the knighthood language (e.g., "title" and "pebble" are commonly-associated with knighthood terms, in Rev2-3, and knighthood heraldry is displayed in Rev4) isn't intentionally predictive. After all, just after most would get their copy of Revelation, they'd hear the news of the imperial policy change regarding the Equites. So the analogy would be even more intense, fresh, and meaningful. More importantly, the seeming surprise (to me, anyway) that the four heraldric quarters together signify a whole polity 'suddenly' has some contemporary history to back it up!
So, then: am I investing my Invisibility and Royalty assets for best yield? I'm but a stingy servant, if I am carnal. Reboot! 1Jn1:9! Ok, then: now, wherever my attitude toward some issue/problem in life is close to a "So, what? Nothing compares to Doctrine" level, regarding that issue/problem, I'm getting good yield. However, issues/problems which are not characterized by such an attitude need to be 'cashed in' and reinvested in Doctrine! Like, in the ten Doctrinal-thinking patterns, which act like superbrokers, maximizing yield out of every topic in life. (Click Here for details.) Like, in more time appreciating what an astonishing thing it is to be Royal IN and WITH Him: communion, the highest version, Looking at Him!
So, then: how steadfastly noble are my current doctrinal applications toward life? Do I decide based on 'partiality' rather than Honor? Do I let the peasants get to me? Do I treat them the way they (seem to) treat me? Do I get on my own high-horse because I'm Royal? Oooops! Reboot! 1Jn1:9! For, nobility has only one Royal Standard: Honor. HIM. Doesn't matter what others do, what things are, whether I'm in an Iron Mask. Only Honor. Only Him. And my decisions must be based on that sole criterion.
So, then: am I monitoring my thinking for Doctrinal content? To please My Husband's Father? How much, and how often? Am I thinking in both spheres, coordinating them, both the toward-Father life and the toward-earth life? Am I unbalanced between the two? Do I look for ways to avoid the toward-earth life by 'hiding' in Bible study? Or, vice versa? Ouch! Reboot! 1Jn1:9, and keep looking UP!
So, then: am I associating everything in life with Him? Imagine, even washing the dishes can be made a noble occasion for auld lang syne, since the lowness of that activity depicts His Choice to become lowly-human (Phili 2:5ff). Also, am I remembering the Ephesians 6 protocols, looking at the Trial Issues, too? Being alert for them, so to avoid Satan's Landmines? Yikes! Reboot! 1Jn1:9, reload and march!
These last two, thinking-for-the-Father and associating-everything-with-Christ are their own nuclear blitzkrieg against human good, evil -- well, against everything in Satan's kosmos. Temptation has to be able to get past that barrage, see. The more and more I exercise Doctrinal thinking, the more and more it 'demolishes strongholds' (satanic thinking, world's thinking), as Paul noted in 2Cor10:4-5 (NIV). So, here, these last two categories will maximize both asset yield and virtue. They are the vanguards. What's 'last', is First!
For me, the ultimate nuclear weapon uniting and serving as the litmus in ALL these four categories, is Isa53:11 in the LXX. Remembering what it is, what those five sweeping infinitives mean. DDNA, baby, being built in me by the Holy Spirit. What's the "You, in Me!", highest-DDNA value, as the criterion for any decision. DDNA.htm begins that webseries. Not a day goes by, but I live on this verse and its DDNA meaning: for God Wants Sons and This is How He Makes Them! Every second you live on God's Script, more DDNA is being put into you! This DDNA idea unites the Third and Fourth Reasons into a 'do' concept which even the body can understand. Something is happening, in all this Thinking Multisphere Life!
For you are that polity, Now. In training, to be sure. For the world is only blessed through the believers in it, which is why the Rapture removes all the believers, for then the world must be judged. But you are still here, so the Rapture hasn't happened till yet. Part IV will go through the devastating importance of that Blessing, as will the two upcoming sections in this webpage. Yet surely by now you get the idea, that since the world rejects God, blessing cannot go to them: Love never coerces. So if you love the world, you'll grow up on God's Script, in God's System.
Once upon a distant speck in time, we all really knew what Honor was. Whenever I read Herodotus, Tacitus, Roman or Greek lit./philosophy, etc. -- one theme keeps on running through them all: Honor. Even the public plays. In them all you find a real honor thought pattern, not only circus-for-the-masses. Herodotus, who dedicated his whole life to just write The History, oozes respectful honor in every word he writes. It's astonishing. In later periods of history you also find little 'oases' of honorable thinking and living. America was such an 'oasis', once. We're too self-righteous and petty, now.
Hence the Cross and the Government of God, which is really nothing like earthly governments of any political stripe. God is Perfect. Best we humans can do, is emulate His Standards. Now enter Church. Those Divine Standards are our food and drink. So Our Spiritual Heraldry, Our Lifestyle of Honor, is what we're yet down here training for, since we will be (as Body of Christ, a Governing Title) the Government of God forever: fulfilling Isaiah 9, with Israel as our 'sister', during the Millennium.
For a long time, my pastor taught this Honor System we live under (via exegesis in Romans) as "The Royal Family Honor Code." Apt name.
In the same manner, the Roman/Greek higher classes were very much 'into' obeying virtus. Greek "dikaiosune" means the thinking of a Judge; and, obeying Righteousness, carrying it out. A person was thus evaluated by how honorable he was, not by how much he owned or how good he looked: those hung up on looks and money, were ridiculed as childish. If you read Suetonius, you'll see this ridicule in spades. Suetonius gets real mean when he sees what he considers pettiness in one of the Caesars whose Lives he reviews. Roman adoption customs, likewise, often promoted an honorable slave (as in the movie, "Ben Hur"). In Greek, "doulos" means either "slave" or "son". In Galatians, that famous book explaining why there are no social/gender/economic inequalities due to our position in Christ, Paul plays with the "doulos" double-entendre (Chap 4). He reminds them how we Church heirs, down here, are slave-sons until we grow up enough to take our toga virilis. See the idea? True Honor. Not accoutrements.
The whole point about having money or wealth is that now you can Afford To Be Virtuous. So it was a more heinous thing, if you could afford to be virtuous, but were not. It was a given that you had the right to do whatever you wanted, virtuous or not, with your own property. "The gods" gave it to you, and they were not to be questionned. Too bad we don't get it that the Real God knows what He's doing, so we ALL can afford to be virtuous via living on God's Script in God's System: so we are wealthy beyond all earthly wealth. But if you don't value virtue, meaning Him -- well, nothing will satisfy.
So it was a Privilege to obey governmental authority. It was a Privilege to die for one's country. It didn't matter that one's country might be in a 'wrong' war! Moreover in Rome, one had to fight in the army for 20 years to even become a Roman citizen. (Paul makes reference to this with the word politeuma in Greek, to depict the high privilege of our heavenly citizenship.) Imagine, one was willing to die just to become a citizen of Rome! Yet, life in Rome was extremely tough.
It's a Privilege to be under God. If you get to live for God, you get freed up from having to live for yourself. No bigger tyranny, than the "ME". Satan's all tied up in "ME", so he would have you think it a burden, a slavery, a waste to live for God. Frankly, that's why life seems so mean: but Christ wanted the Cross -- it freed Him Totally. No greater freedom, than to be able to so totally get rid of the "ME", you can waste yourself on God. Of course, to get that far, you need Lots of Training. Christ needed 30 years. We obviously need a lifetime. What freedom we are fighting for, then, is freedom to live for God, Galatians 5, 2Cor5, all of Colossians. Not for the "ME" which came with that stupid prohibited fruit. Now that is waste, the "ME" tyranny. Totally.
It's a Privilege to have Authority make the decisions one must obey. Satan would have you think it's a tyranny. So, in today's thinking, the errors of those with money, power, authority, are all writ large -- so you can justify rejecting authority, because of the badness of those who have it. Yet, think: just because bad people have money, power, authority, what is that to me? Can't I just do what money, power, authority 'bids' me do, as unto the Lord? Isn't that what Romans 13 and 1Tim2 say is the very blessing of it? Isn't that why Eph5 is written as it is? After all, who's the most obedient, despite the maximum 'unfairness' from His Own Father? Which, instead, He loved to obey? Even the Cross? So who cares, what intermediary agent of unfairness is 'over' me? I can use it to honor My Very Lord! Romans 8:31, and march!
Idou, look at the Honor! No more sense-of-inferiority, to drive ego. No more cockiness, either, to buttress ego. So, no more need to get upset over Windows crashes; traffic; the telemarketer; waiting in line; some fool's incompetence. Instead, under the Fourth Reason-pair, you can Vote the Doctrine of Your Choosing, out of a motive to Honor the Father with Divine Thinking. Isn't that a supreme privilege? What, take a Windows crash and turn it into a Divine Gift? Talk about revenge on annoyances! What greater revenge is there, than for the thing which offended, to be turned into a thing of beauty?! And if the Lord told His Audience (Matt 7) that the widow who put in the two coppers did more good than the 'talent' contributed by the guy before-her-in-line, how much more do you think the Father appreciates your thoughts when besieged by the 'gnats' of life? Conversely: do you like hearing complainers? Gripers? Greedy people? How much less would the Father like to hear such thoughts in you? Conversely, how wonderful is it, to recall how God flips failure into fulfillment, so this tedious problem is actually to your advantage! A deposit! Wow, can a 'gnat' be more valuable, or what? Heh.
Sometimes when the pressure is too much, when I can't think or match a Doctrine to the pressure, I just keep voting yes to whatever God says it should mean. Basically every night's prayer is that whatever My Lord says the prayer is, I absolutely vote for it all (called "incorporation by reference", "blanket proxy vote" in legal parlance). It works, this Voting. And only the Royal Priest has that privilege!
Look: God Votes a thing to exist.. and it does. So can you. Why? Christ is God-man. We are His Body. Every thought we have, is given the same power as His: "just as He is, so also we are in this world", 1Jn4:17. The Holy Spirit said, "Light, Be!" in Genesis 1:3. So we vote, and He says "Be!" to that vote -- just like He said to our initial 'vote' to believe in Christ, John 3:16. Same procedure. Same liability, therefore. Same Privilege therefore.
But notice how Christ does it, in John 17. Very confident, rational, thinking like a Judge -- but then, leaving the Decision to Father. Voting is an affirmation which is then made subject to Father's Will. Fully subject, because if Father doesn't want it, self doesn't either. But confident of what Father wants. That's the Prayer we all should study our brains out learning.. and don't. But now, can!
So doing the dishes, brushing your teeth, being in traffic -- like Him, your every thought has enormous power. First one, saved you. It's how God Grants, but He's already Voted you Royal Family. And now you are: so now every thought is of this enormous power. Hence the need to keep 1Jn1:9 'close' to your heart, monitoring every thought, training hard in that Third Reason for Royalty. For it's your "Logical, Thinking service" (corr trans at the end of Rom12:1). Thinking is your Priesthood, as we saw back in the Third and Fourth Reasons. So what you think, makes history. By Divine Design. Again, 1Jn4:17 is the reason.
Most Christians are drooling babies, so their thinking is poor. They hustle with their bodies, not knowing all that body activity actually insults God, for then people are made the replacement of God. Children don't know better. But then the problem: who is doing the requisite Royal Priestly Thinking? For that's the only way God can justify blessing the world. The body stuff serves to make Christianity look like Satan's other counterfeits, which is why Rev17 characterises what the world even considers 'Christianity' for the last 20 centuries. That's why John wrote the warning of the politico-religious Rev17 fake Church. We've seen it in action for 20 centuries, now. Where is the Thinking? Hidden. Few. And that's how history will be later revealed. Heb 11 roster. The Invisible Way our sins were paid for, by Thinking, on the Cross.
You can make sweet all that ugly body stuff God must continually see. You can make it competent, blessing the poor, the hungry, the sick, the despondent. No one else can do this, but the Christian who's growing up in God's System. And how ironic, too: what you think while in traffic, standing in line, turning down your bedcovers is way more important than all the good deeds on this planet. Widow of two coppers' thinking was way more important, and that was during the OT: for she was thinking of God, not people (Mark 12:43). So how much more important, Now? For Christ is Seated now, and we have His Thinking in Writing to learn and think 24/7. [Nerd Note: First Commandment is that all your heart and soul and Doctrine-thinking (Greek word dianoia) are to be devoted to God. She's exhibiting the motive of the first commandment when she gives what she has. This verse gets distorted into a give-all-your-money cheapness, when the First Commandment is way bigger than that. You are Qorban, wholly. So as Paul writes, it's the thought that counts (Rom12:1 again, Greek). So that's what the Lord is commenting on, here, as you'll see when you read the surrounding context. He goes straight to MOTIVE. See also Acts 5 on Ananias. More about this Aspect is covered in DDNA1.htm: search on "pithy Greek noun" to go straight to the Lord's upgrade on the 1st Commandment, which is in the context of the widow, Mark 12:30. The passage is also covered in corrected translation, next section.]
Honor mediates and makes sweet what is ugly. Gosh, we all know this so well, but rarely think about it. Soldiers live incredibly horrible lives, and there is nothing glorious about what they do. Yet that very fact is what makes them so Honorable. Like in the Fourth Reason for Royalty, they are Honor-Driven, so it becomes sweet to them, however horrible, to go up "Hamburger Hill". That movie's end demonstrates Honor. Here they are, sliding down in the mud two feet for every inch of toehold they got, going nowhere. Shot, mangled, in the rain, covered with mud, totally incompetent-looking. No success. But they kept on trying to get up that hill, even though they knew it was a lost cause -- they'd rather die trying, than not try. No feel-good, no medals, no cheering crowds were in their minds. Like Steven Weber's confession as to why he re-enlisted, they just want to get it done.. or get it done to them. When you are willing to die even if you get nothing, then honor is your attitude. So how much more would one want to die, if one knows it actually serves God?
And why does it work? Well, 1Jn spends his third chapter explaining why, since a main theme of the letter is that we are extensions of Him in the Trial and therefore in the world (refrain, repeated in 1:3-4 (referencing Isa53:11 in LXX, inter alia), 2:6,28,3:2,4:17, and the many "abide" verses). First Commandment, we are Qorban, so we should lay down our lives in Thinking -- since that's the only way for the world to be blessed, who can close his heart to all the poor people in need?
For surely the best of our thoughts, even when living ON God's Script, are incredibly small. Well, it still works for the same reason you got saved: you essentially voted to be saved. God did the work, but wouldn't coerce you, so required that you vote, to get salvation. So, ever after, it's the same: God sets the conditions, and if you vote for them, He does the work. The conditions post-salvation, are to live on His Script. So, for the same reason it worked when the Holy Spirit said, "Light, BE!" in Gen1, He makes serve God whatever thinking ON God's Script you have: no matter how small, no matter what you seem to be doing. For, you voted for God to be served. Instead of binging you apart from your Consent, God wants your consent. Because, He just wants it that way. He is Freedom, so won't want slavery. So if you want it to serve God, it will. But only, if you are on God's Script at the time. For Freedom is never apart from Truth, and if you are rejecting Truth, then you are not voting for Honor.
How He makes your vote serve Him is covered at length in Part IV (a-d subpages), and in DDNA.htm. It's real, what He does, and He largely will do it to you. And then, bless your nation, your periphery, way beyond all the fantasies you could ever imagine. Provably. Naturally, it will take some time to see all this proof. But know this: God Did It To His Son, and thus it must work for us, since we get the same Royally Invisible Spiritual Life.
When the Lord's Humanity trained a lifetime so that He could suffer more than all creation put together, even on the Cross, why did He do that? What motivated Him? The Father came FIRST. Then, His Love for us. Note that order.
Therefore, we have to ask ourselves: do we really understand what God the Father did, depositing on our behalf "every spiritual blessing" in eternity past as part of the Decree, as Eph1 and 1Peter1:3-5 explain? Do we really understand what passages like Eph1:15-23 and Eph3:15-21 mean? What about 1Jn? Are all these passages just sweeping rhetoric, to be passed over (like so many brush off Revelation as merely colorful)? To look at these citations alone, gives one the impression that Father's Standard and Intended Inheritance is for us to become like Our Precedence, the Most High -- and that we can make it, due to the unparalleled power of the Holy Spirit. Can we? If "yes", then our usual works=spirituality attitude is just so much peasant tripe, dished out of Satan's bowl to deceive us.
"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." |
Note how they were to love God: Deut 6:4 is a command to Hear the Lord, and to this day is the most famous verse in Judaism (wish they actually heard Him). Specifically, the Word of the Lord, which Deuteronomy explained was a 24/7 thing. When you get up, when you go to bed, all the time in between, hence you have tfellin to look at to remind you. No other object for that love: and none of you left to love anyone/anything else, either. Loving your neighbor as yourself is due to loving the Lord with all your heart and soul, etc., because He made your neighbor, also.
"You shall love the LORD your God in (by means of, in the sphere of) ALL your heart (believing-in), and in ALL your soul and in ALL your UNDERSTANDING/THINKING-of-DOCTRINE." [Matt22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27.] |
That purple capitalized text is really the pithy Greek noun "dianoia"; the term is usually fuzzily truncated in English as "mind"; but "dianoia" is not merely the faculty of thinking. Rather, the term stresses the CONNECTIONS in the thinking, how the thinking 'moves', and the CONTENT of the thinking; here wrought by all those spiritual dendrites and data the Holy Spirit makes inside you.
So all Four paired Reasons, and especially the Third and Fourth, are how we are to live on this Word-which-is-Our-Life. Else, we are spiritually comatose. Hence "dead works" characterizes our life (refrain in Hebrews and elsewhere).
In calculus and in physics, there's something called a "differential". That's the math version of this leverage/divergence idea. Power of a tiny thing to do a big thing, because of the size of the BIG thing it bounces off. Infinity, here. A little thing, a negative attitude toward God in the Garden, begot spiritual death for the first two humans. So totally shattered them, and its genetic impulses were begotten in us. So now the reverse is even more true, as demonstrated by Christ on the Cross (theme of last half of Romans 5): fusion, from fission of temptation. Atomic power is but a pinprick compared to Divine Power. So the derivative power of sin, shattered us completely. But the derivative power of a vote "yes", is made to fuse us completely. Starting, with the first "yes" to John 3:16. See? God won't tolerate lesser-thans for companionship, and doesn't have to. He's Omnipotent, get it?
Look: Infinity is punctiliar. So the quality of it is undiminished, no matter whether the quantity replicated is large, small, even zero. Infinity is not quantitative by nature, but qualitative (Aristotle messed up there, reversing that fact in his writing). So if Infinity CYCLES inside finity, then the finity is functionally Divine. It won't matter that the being in which the cycling occurs, is a sinner or Perfect Humanity. The latter mattered for the number and size of the CONNECTIONS, which thus produced total Capacity, for the resultant Structure of the Lord's Own Human Soul would have been restricted had He ever sinned (and of course then sin wouldn't have been paid for, and we'd all never exist ab initio).
So just as He told everyone down here, we are to be gods for God the Father, quoting Ps82:6 when He said that (in John 10:34). So only the scope of the connections -- which are spiritual dendrites the Holy Spirit makes -- will determine how much of that Divine Function cycles in each of us forever. Which dendrites, need to be fashioned before we die, since Love never coerces. Hence the scope of the First Commandment, is Royally Higher in Potential Fulfillment. All due to that First Soul of the Last Adam, who birthed us (Gal4:26, wordplay on Isa53:11-54:1, see also Heb2:10ff).
You can't love Someone you don't know, warns 1Jn. So 1Jn explains that by learning God, we become able to love people. So obviously, "love" here is not mere human love. Moreover, we saw in Part I's "Core Integrity Properties" section that love is virtue-dependent. So, for the Christian, Royal spiritual living isn't mere human stuff (like morality). After all, the Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life, and demands a supernatural system of execution. Christ's love on the Cross was no mere act of human love -- but rather, Divinely-empowered-by-Doctrine Love. In the Holy Spirit.
So, as John explains in 1Jn4:18 and following, he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, is not able to love God, Whom he has not seen. But also, in Chapter 1, the person who alleges to love his brother but does not love God, is a liar, and deceives himself. So any "works" are sheer garbage! A person who doesn't know God can't be obeying Him; cannot be loving Him. And what is obedience to Him? that we believe in Him, and that we obey His mandates, says the end of 1John 3. These mandates are Spiritual, not physical, as 1Jn4 goes on to note. To worship God, one must "worship Him in Spirit, and in Doctrine", John stresses (John 4:24).
Israel made worship a mockery, denigrating it into punctiliar law observance, priding themselves on how much law they knew, how much commentary they knew, arguing for hours about whether the sabbath began when one could no longer distinguish between blue and white thread. No God, in all that -- just ego.
So, too, with the Christians, the same trend beckons. Paul constantly warns of this in Corinthians, Galatians, and Timothy. Controversies. Petty observances. One regards certain days or actions as sacred, and deems those disagreeing as apostate. Another, regards certain prayer words as sacred -- again, those of other views must be less holy. A third prides himself on being able to cite all the books of the Bible, posting verses, or you-name-it. "Who is Apollos? Who is Paul?" Surely such wrangles are just as whitewashed sepulchres, as those of the Pharisees. No God in all this -- just ego.
But of course you won't see that, in Bible translation or Churchinanity. Instead of His Head getting into our heads, Ho Logos' Head is cut off, and man's was placed atop. It's real important to remember that almost every Divine-Actor verb and noun in the New Testament is translated to cut God's Head off and put man's in His Place. That's exactly how Christians live. Prove all this to yourself: the Greek words "agathos", "agape", "energew", all sun-prefixed Greek words, plus all nouns without (nee: definite) articles in front of them denote God is the Actor. But you won't see that in translation. So "Love" in English New Testaments is "agape", so should be translated "Divine Love"; "work(s)" without the article should be translated "Divine Work(s)"; "good" should be translated "Divine Good". But never are. No love for God -- or precious little -- exists among Christians today. That's why they are pawns for the Rev17, Eph4:14 schemes pandered by Satan&Co. Imagining themselves spiritual. Those weather disasters we keep getting aren't happening for no reason: see Lev26. Violate the First Commandment and you thus violate the Royal law, since the First of Our Brothers, Christ -- is being dishonored.
Cutting God's Head off in translation is an insult no amount of works can make up, since works worsen the insult, by still cutting God's Head off and replacing it with people, claiming that's obeying the First Commandment. Cutting God's Head out of your head is an insult, and works can't put His Head in your head -- only the Holy Spirit, can do that. Ergo, 99% of Christians are thus insulting God, and worse -- pretending they are spiritual -- just like the evil people depicted so clearly in 1Jn.
How unfair, how dishonoring to the Lord, still crucifying Him afresh, as warned in Heb6:6. What a lot of wood, hay, stubble and embarrassment at the Bema, therefore.
So we "Christians" are NOT living His Spiritual Life, we're instead rejecting His Legacy. So we are NOT loving Christ, so not loving the brethren, either; but fool ourselves just as John warned, in 1John 1:6,8,10, 2:4,11.
You know, I did searches on the internet to test who got the Gospel right, and who got it about living on 1Jn1:9 and God's System, to see how bad so-called 'Christianity' really is. My pastor has harped on these two things for years, and I didn't really listen carefully: believed him, yes. But took it all so seriously? No. Was I ever wrong! For here are the search results, which you should test yourself (or you'll not believe it seriously, either): 90% of the sites searched screwed up the Gospel royally, adding verbs to "believe" or even leaving out "believe." (Results were worse, on Christian TV -- I never once heard the Gospel presented properly, not even by the most famous evangelists.) Second, not one site, except by those trained under my own pastor, "got it" about the significance of 1Jn1:9. (Results were the same, watching Christian TV.)
Do you realize what that means? First, maybe most people who call themselves 'Christians' aren't even saved (that's what my pastor kept stressing was the case -- now I believe him). Second, almost no one is spiritual. You can't be spiritual if 1Jn1:9 isn't breathed, as John makes scathingly clear. But even among the very few sites which do recognize you've gotta use it, they don't know what it means when you do! What, did no one search the Greek OT to learn how John uses his words? That's the first thing you do when deciphering a passage, is look for the keywords and how Bible uses them, so you know what incorporations by reference the author intends! Yikes!
Among those (very few!) sites on 1Jn1:9, were some who couldn't read Bible if it bit them. Just like the fake Gospel crowd, they always want to add conditions to 1Jn1:9. You can't 'add' to 1Jn1:9 just like you can't add to John 3:16: 1Jn1:9 is based on the Cross, not something we do. Naming sin is but an acknowledgement that a) it was a sin, and b) it was paid for on the Cross. So you negate that acknowledgement, just like you'd have negated salvation, if you add something. So if you try to do penance or 'repent' in addition, your naming of sins didn't have any effect, and you're still in a carnal state. Look:
So we know that public Christianity is largely unbelievers, and/or carnal believers. Whoa. So almost no one is living John 4:24. That makes you and me much more important, because our puny selves are getting this Divine Diamond Deposit so often and so much. There are always others, always a remnant, and really -- who couldn't tell the meaning of John 3:16 and 1Jn1:9 even from any translation? So some bloke just gets curious in a hotel room, pulls out the Bible provided by the Gideons, and reads John Chap3 and 1Jn1. Well, he can immediately get in God's System, even if he doesn't know that's what he's doing!
Okay, it's unfair that so few of us get so high a responsibility. But Christ was only One Person. Okay, so it's unfair that those of us who get into God's System should thus have so much higher a burden to shoulder, given that 99% of our brethren would rather cut God's Head off. But Christ was only One Person. Okay, it's really hard to just do this tripartite, Royal Multisphere Thinking toward Father, which is Our Royal "Thinking Service", as Paul says in (corr trans of) Rom12:1 (last two words). But Christ did that, Matt4:4. Yep, maximum unfairness to Maximally-Gorgeous Father, which Maximally-Gorgeous 'Mom' (Holy Spirit) enables to produce the biggest spiritual leverage gain in all history. Which makes DDNA happen in you, so you inherit a huge kingdom as Pleroma.
Into which kingdom, your share of the 99% rejecting-believers, will live. And be grateful, too. That's pretty unfair, eh what?
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The Ephesians and 1Jn (etc.) mandates are almost wholly invisible. For every 1 visible work commanded of us, there are 100 commands to "know" something.
These are discrete commands. After all, one being trained to rule cannot afford to be emotional, mystical. Satan will do all in his power to fragment one's learning the Word, since learning Bible Doctrine, His Thinking, is the key to beating Satan in the Trial. Maybe Satan knows something we idiots don't know: that the "Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any [Roman sword] 'knife'.." Heb4:12. Above all, Satan will deflect learning Him by tempting the believer to do some good deed. 'As if some -- get this -- physical 'work' could magically convey spiritual benefit? Can we be dumber? I don't think so. Worse, this bait-and-switch tactic of Satan's is recorded, "in plain sight" -- if we'd ever pick up the Book and read it. This temptation is exactly of the same pattern as executed against the Lord in Matt4. Do we catch it, as the Lord did? Or are we thoughtless, like children, still drinking the milk-portions of Word only, instead of also eating its solid food? For, like Him, we are to live on every taught-Word which proceeds from the mouth of God -- not merely the words which suit our egos. Words our egos "eat" turn stones into bread -- so we'll die, stoned by rocks in our bellies."Grow in Grace and in the KNOWLEDGE of Our Lord and Savior", Peter concludes, at the end of his letter. Not, "grow in works". As always, it's what you do with what you know, with what you don't know -- #2, and #3 Trial issues. Yet Royally Higher, for us. To Honor Christ, the Word of the Cross, the Word of God, the Word. Not "the Work", but "The Word". Kick out the "k", for "kakos" (Greek word for "bad"). Graft in the "D" for Deus. So: W O R D, not w o r k. Absent the Word ("faith", in English Bibles), there are but dead works, James screams in Jas1-2:24 (well, throughout his letter). The Word Works. In You. "[T]o will and to do", as Paul noted in Phili2:13: "works" there shows Who's the Real Hero. Else, as James corroborates, you just 'hear' the Mirror (looking at the Word, but not living on His Thinking), so of course you forget how to 'do' (believe, and thus reflect) It!
Here's what's embarrassing. Your average joe who wants to know God will want to know Bible, having no clue that the spiritual life is just that: learn and live Bible. He won't know all this fancy description in these webpages, he'll just have his King James Version or whatever. But when he reads John 3:16, he'll immediately believe in Christ, because that's what it says to do. He'll read 1Jn1:9 and then decide to get in the habit of using it, because that's what it says to do. He'll look for a pastor to teach him Bible, because it's a natural thing to do, if you want to know God. If you want to know God, you want to know His Word. So wanting to know His Word, he'll read it a lot. So he'll learn how to pray, which will be natural for him anyway: if you want to know God, and you want to know His Word, you'll want to talk to God about His Word. 24/7. David did that, all the OT people growing up did that, and you can read about them doing that, in the OT. So you'll ape what they did. It's a natural conclusion.. if you want to know God. So now, this average joe is unknowingly doing 4 of the 5 Elements, in God's System. All that's left, is for God to put him under some pastor the Holy Spirit assigns (it's a person-to-person matchup, not a denominational or 'how scriptural' thing, see RightPT.htm).
Now, Satan&Co. mess big-time with anyone who works in Bible, so maybe the pastor is kinda goofy. Doesn't matter: God the Holy Spirit has already gotten this average joe in the System, so whatever is accurate the pastor teaches, will be planted in joe's Spirit-Filled brain. Meanwhile, joe already knows to learn and live Bible, so he's just rockin' along doing that. Making mistakes, breathing 1Jn1:9, growing. Now if that pastor keeps growing, then they grow together, and maybe the Holy Spirit keeps joe there. Maybe He moves joe outta there. In any event, the System is working just fine, thank you very much -- though no one knows really, that's what's going on!
This is how the world has continued to exist even until now. Lots of average joes who wanted to know God but were otherwise too dumb to live. Lots of brainouts, lots of heroes. We all start out dufuses, and that's how we remain, too. All for the want of a knowing of God.. God, not works. Like James harps, it's the Word which works. Every time.
Christians refuse the Word by the millions. So they condemn the poor to poverty God could heal in a nanosecond. They don't know how to pray, so their prayers go nowhere: that's more damage done to people that could be avoided. They don't even know how to give money properly, for when they do, they perpetuate poverty, for all their giving doesn't teach anything permanent. Christian inept giving is the norm. And the damage coming from them not knowing even how to give the Gospel correctly (so no one is saved!), from not knowing how to pray (so God must stand OFF due to their apostacy).. well, who can stand to say more?
Few would say that giving to the poor was bad. Yet the Lord refused to do it, replying, "the poor you will have with you always". He had also refused to rescue the world from hunger by speaking the stones into bread. (He could have justified feeding Himself if He fed the world, couldn't He?) He had further refused to rescue the world by jumping off that Temple, revealing Himself as God to everyone. He had finally refused to rescue the world by rejecting Satan's offer to surrender it! -- in exchange for token obeisance. (Had He had taken the offer, He then could have won, right? 'Just said "ha ha -- bang, you're dead, Satan!", and done no obeisance at all.)
Of course, He's always refused to help the world, even still today -- by not miraculously solving our many ills. For this refusal, the world routinely condemns Him, taunting -- "If you are God, show yourself and solve this problem!"
So maybe we should be reticent to give to the poor, until we know what competently helps. Don't we first need specific understanding from God? What might the person, whom God has allowed to be poor in the first place, be learning, that our "help" might hinder? Do we know? How do we know that ABC Charity organization will rightly use our contributions? Do we know? How do we know God wouldn't rather have the money spent elsewhere, like on our families? "He who does not provide for his own family is worse than an unbeliever" (1Tim5:8). What's "provide"? Do we dare run afoul of the Lord's Will on this? Especially since we know He does not necessarily approve of helping the poor by our idea of help?
Discernment requires standards. If the standards are inaccurate, so will be the conclusions from them, and thus any 'solution' will not work. Now, what is the standard? The Word. Not bread. Why? Because, if the brain is empty, filling the belly won't enable that belly to fill itself. So, the belly is not helped at all. Ego, yes. Belly, no. Brain, no. Soul, no. See: Royal Standards are better. First teach the soul, so that the body can be ruled properly. For the Body's Benefit. Now, then: where are all these poor gonna get the right standards, so that they can get the right discernment, so that they can really be helped? Not by our feeding them physical food, but by feeding them Doctrine. Yet, eating doctrine is a voluntary thing. So, then: wouldn't only God have the ability to know where to deploy us? Doesn't He alone know what person would benefit from being around those of us who have the Word Planted there by the Holy Spirit? So, then: shouldn't we obey the First Commandment, thus get the Word ourselves, and leave it up to Our Boss to decide where He wants our doctrinal wealth 'given out'?
Then again, we ourselves are Royal and can reject this so-great command to learn the Word. We too can choose to turn stones into bread by rejecting the Cornerstone's Thinking and bake all the wood, hay, and stubble we want for all those poor bellies. Our choice.
In return, the world gets the following benefits, which are covered more fully in the last ("Payoff" link) section of this webpage, and throughout Part IV (esp. Part IVb's Facets and Divine Benefit Plan links):
So, pray! Oh, but we don't. We don't follow the protocol, nor do we even believe Our Own Lord Who Said that, obviously: or all hunger and poverty would be nearly cured by now. Only the portions of hunger and poverty which developed people spiritually, would remain on this planet (even discipline is for development purposes, Heb12:5ff). So it's our fault the world is still sick and needy. We can pray, we don't have to work. But instead we work, and not pray. All work and no pray makes Jack a very stupid boy who knows jack spit about Bible.
"666" is an unholy Trinity, hence fake Christianity. Rev17 tells you Satan's plan is to fake out that there is no Tribulation, since he's authoring a fake Church during it. Since he doesn't know when the Trib begins, he's got to start that myth right away. Satan did that with Israel, creating a fake Judaism (i.e., the Pharisees), and of course today Judaism is as fake as possible, nothing at all like Moses taught. So too, with fake Christianity. So there's a fake "Father", a fake "Son", a fake "Spirit". And a Fake Church to hawk them all. Fake Gospel, too: verbs added to believe, so you're not saved but think you are. Bible calls this "doctrine of demons" in 1Tim4:1, and in 2Tim2:26-3:7, 2Tim4:3-4, you see something of the spiel. Upshot is an anthropopathic spin on everything that's truly Bible, so you can't tell the difference unless you get on God's Script in God's System.
Through the centuries, we've seen this "666" play. Every goofy idea about God's Nature and Christ's has been promulgated; every goofy idea of what constitutes being filled with the Spirit has been promulgated. And the Gospel is almost never accurately presented, plus the 'spiritual life' is cast in terms of ritual, emotion, works. So everything is fake. And this dazzling array of Fake Christianity has always been popular: just count up the millions of Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Dunkers (aka Baptists), Apostolic One-Person-is-God people, etc. ad nauseum. They all get God's "identification" so screwed up, you barely can find anything in Bible their doctrines even match. Just the names match, never the meanings. So there's been a whole lot of cursing, in history. Now you know why.
Having said that, you can also tell from history there have been a whole lot of average joes who didn't quite 'get' all those demon doctrines, but did want to know God: so they just learned and lived Bible. Many were Catholics, in the period 800-1000AD; there were many break-out-the-Bible movements, many happening under Catholicism, as well as the more famous ones who broke with the Catholic Church more officially. Same, for the other denominations since the Reformation. God doesn't have to send bolts of lightning down when falsehood is the norm. He instead just quietly develops those who want to know Him. So that's the Royally-Invisible answer to why this planet even now exists. Post-Cross, eternity was scheduled to begin either 1144AD, as Part IVa will unveil (long story). But hey: you and I are alive, so many average joe brainouts, preceded us.
But rulership among the gods They will make us functionally become, doesn't require extensive bureaucracy. But rather, virtue. So, only a few are needed. Each one of the Genesis 5 folks mentioned was the 'carrier' of the entire world for his generation, my pastor repeatedly stressed when exegeting Genesis. Moses carried Israel, and Israel the world, as Part IVa will demonstrate. All history depended on Messiah coming, or there'd be no justification for humanity at all. In short, this Matt4:4 lifestyle we're called upon to learn and live, is eons above all "works". Just by our breathing in it. And of course the #666 consequences are devastating, as many a tome on the Church's sordid, bloodstained history, reveals.
No such thing as "small" in the Christian life. Everything is King-Sized, no matter how small it looks on the surface.
So if you would feed the poor -- Do Your Job! Live on God's Script in God's System. Cry all the way to the Bible Bank, you Crown Prince!
In sum, God gave us His Word: "the Word of the Lord." His Word is His Son, as John 1 dramatically says (John loves Greek drama). So His Son's Thinking is in Writing. So we are to learn it. The Word, not works. So if we pick works and not the Word, as we've so assiduously done for 20 bleeping centuries! we are to blame for what goes wrong in the world. Not, the unbeliever.
So if we treat God like a dog, then He acts like one (God always mimics your attitude toward Him, count on it). So all that works business is as evil as it gets. Think Word, and then the Word will be in your works: but the work is YOU, a king-in-training!
See how much harder our lives are, versus the OT? They had neat little rules like, collect one portion of manna every day but on Friday, collect two; give tithes (income taxes, including for the poor) of certain amounts, each year. Rest on Saturday, take the holidays, memorize the Scripture and then ponder it to learn what it really means, don't just mouth it. Everything then was clear-cut. Now, nothing is: 'deliberately.
"All things are lawful, but not all things contribute." "What God has called holy, you must not call common." "Love your wives as Christ loved the Church." "Against love, there is no law." These broad mandates all require extensive and precise understanding of principles, to execute them properly.
The OT people, great as they were, lived on spoonfed rules. We, by contrast, are to make the rules, having only principles and past case law as our guide. Why? because We Are Royal, and in training to Know How To Make The Rules, not merely obey them.
This fact should refresh, as well as frighten. Christ is our Precedence, the basis of our Royalty. He determined the rules, since He was to be the Ruler. He ruled on how any carryover from the OT would be handled -- or retired. This, because He is the Seed, the Inaugurator of the "New Covenant" (see whole Book of Hebrews for parameters). So, He gave everything a de novo review. His Thinking, which we now have in writing, is His Mindset, His Conclusions. So, we too have the same "liberty", the prerogative of rulers -- and the awesome responsibility to go with such Freedom.
So, no cookie-cutter rules, like the OT, hold. We can say they hold, to some extent, if that is how our consciences determine our life "before the Lord". This flexibility is unique, because we are unique, among fallen humans: Spiritual Royalty. So, it's no wonder, then, that we have Four Corollary Conclusions, which 'just happen' (yeah, right) to correspond to our four-part Royal Escutcheon!
This is the "flipside" of the "law of liberty" we have. You are Royal, as in "kingship", but also Royal, as in "priesthood". As we saw in the "Crowned Lion" heraldic quarter of His Escutcheon, the spiritual assets we have from the Father to Honor His Son are awesome (Eph1). So, our role is unique in History, and is solely due to the Precedence of Christ. (Hebrews is on that fact. See also 1Pet2:5,9, Rev1:6, 5:10.) So, we have the requisite authority to use those assets -- and, as Scripture warns over and over, we are accountable for what we have been given. So, because you are ROYAL, your job is to learn Christ, and Then Derive Rules. You have a Personal Royal Authority Before The Lord. This was not true for the OT people, and will not be true for people after the Rapture. We are the Spiritual Royalty of history and forever. Awesome and scary.
So, as a Ruler-in-training, you are to Conclude Rules, and live by them. Right or wrong: and you are accountable for the decisions you make. Naturally, you can change your conclusions, fix the rules as you learn, as any ruler ought to do. However, meanwhile, since you ARE a ruler-in-training, you will be held accountable for what you believe God wants -- even if your belief is mistaken. As James puts it in James 4:17, if you "know" something is wrong to do, for you "it is sin." Paul echoes that fact, in 1Cor8, Rom12, Rom14, Rom15:1-7. 1Cor8 (etc.) ties also in another way: one should avoid being a stumbling block to other, weaker (younger-in-doctrine) believers. James had said the same thing, in his "royal law" passage (James 2:8). 1John echoes it in his stress on loving the brethren; in his stress on the differing spiritual age-groups he addresses. Peter stresses it also, in the "prowling lion" passage. Paul stresses it again and again in Romans 12-15. We have a witness to our fellow man: to unbeliever, and believer, alike!
We are a diverse group, and are each responsible individually, before the Lord, as apprenticing rulers. (cf 1Cor4:8.) After all, who of us is perfect? Aren't we all "younger", on some doctrine? So could benefit from someone "older" in that area? Ahhh. Rulers can't afford to be stubborn, dogmatic, willfully-deaf. They are supposed to be alert to any advice -- for the "mouth" speaking might really be the Lord (using that person). After all, Balaam got advice from an ass -- so we will, too.
The Ruler's first job is to be Obedient. And, Flexible. Why? because the Ruler will be ruling a diverse group -- a whole country, a whole world. Who was more flexible than Christ? He is our Full-Spectrum, Diverse, Royal Standard. He, Who Died for all, and knew when to write in the sand, when to turn over tables. Precisely.
For our new Royal Protocol in Christ is as precise as it is diverse. Slovenly learning just won't cut it. Excuses we make to ourselves about reliance on experts, standing pat in denominational stances, seeking emotional highs from ritual rotenesses -- these won't cut it, either. Hiding in a claim that God is unfathomable is a cop-out. As my pastor is so fond of saying, "Protocol is a rigid, long established code and procedure, prescribing strict deference to due order and precedence, coupled with precisely-correct procedure." Far from being a free-for-all, the "royal law" we have demands exclusive focus on the true, full meaning of Him -- a requirement greater than any group of fallen humans ever had or ever will have. For, we are destined to be Rulers, not peasants. So, during the apprenticeship period (our life in this body), we practice, setting our own rules before the Lord. Woe to us if we don't keep checking our idea of what's right!
Satan knows all too well how much more difficult this new standard is. He's out to exploit it. If we don't get the Mind of Christ circulating in us, he'll make us casualties faster than we can count a car's wheels. His task in deflowering Israel was more difficult, because its rules were so simple and its people so centralized, even though Israel was small. We don't have those strategic advantages.
These changes mean much more opportunity for error. So we have more ways to sin. More ways to become apostate, yet fancy ourselves to be in the light. Satan smacks his lips. No longer is he hampered by the old, clear, physical rules of the Mosaic Law. Now, his distortion opportunities are literally endless. And, following the 2nd Temptation tactic of distortion (of Ps91, there) -- he takes every opportunity he gets. On us.
Notice how this "law of liberty", which seems to say 'anything's okay', is instead the antithesis of Satan's tyrannical, homogenizing goal. People like simplicity. If everything's okay, then all faiths are alike, and we are all 'one', oh goody. Yet we also like the simplicity of paint-by-numbers spirituality: haha, I obeyed better than you did, waaaahhh!! So, we are natural pawns for a "Daddy" religion to ease the pain of actually thinking for ourselves; to make us feel 'one', all warm and fuzzy (lol, for 'oneness' is truly God's Plan); to give us little chores so we can say we're "good" -- well, better than someone else. Oh, but this New Standard in Christ goes against those desires, so plays into Satan's grand-strategy of "Daddyhood" -- to create a nice world which needs no God. Satan smacks his lips, gleeful.
Why does this diverse Royal Standard in Christ preclude some "Daddy" religion, too? For the most obvious reason in the world: God doesn't want some "master" religion, because we all now have Eph4:5: "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism". Ironic? No, sensible. The Mosaic Law is fulfilled. Christ's law applies now. Christ is in Heaven, not on earth. No more "one religion" is needed to point to Christ, because He's Risen, Ruling. We have a Master already. His Mind, the Canon, is completed in writing. We have the Book we need to learn our 'job', and the Holy Spirit is our Teacher/Mentor (Parakletos, "advisor", a quasi-military term: see John14, 1Cor2, Eph5 and 6, Gal5). We have our own Divinely-appointed pastors (principle similar to right-man-right-woman: God has chosen a pastor for you).
So we don't need a master religion, too. We are to become King-Priests under the King-Priest. So we need no intervening "king religion", for crying out loud. We have a Husband already. What, do we need someone else, in our spiritual bed? Where's our common sense? What, don't we 'get' Eph4:13? "[U]nity" there is a feminine word, "henotes", root meaning of united in Marriage to Our Husband! Not, to each other. We don't need to be united to each other, for crying out loud; but rather we are knitted together in HIM, Eph4:16 (sunarmologew, to join together stones in a building, knit together) -- God does the joining and the knitting, not man! What, do we need to fornicate with each other? [Eph41216.htm is a long corrected translation of Eph4:12-16. Ephesians 4 is one of the most mistranslated chapters in the Bible, totally cutting God's Head off, masking God's System description in Eph4. Horrible.]
Why don't we notice, when we look at Eph4:5, how it means the opposite of "one religion"? Did God predict, that in the "latter days" (a term for Now), Satan would try to make a world religion out of Christianity? Yes, in Rev17. Did God only appoint one tribe of priests? No! Hebrews 7-10 is very adamant on that fact. Did God only appoint one nation to carry His message? No! we are all Ambassadors for Christ, whatever nation we belong to (see first half of 1Tim2). What "nation" are we? Church -- a "nation" with no geographical boundaries. Did God only appoint one apostle? No, He chose 12 -- 13, including Paul, who was the only apostle to the Gentiles. [Hence Peter could never have been a pope, as he was an apostle to the Jews and died in Babylon, where he was -- see PopeMyth.htm. That the Roman Catholic Church can get away with this pope lie -- and for centuries -- though Scripture easily proves the lie even in translation, is conclusive evidence that few read The Bible. So the RCC is not to blame, we all are. We each have our own brands of lies which persist for centuries. Bible translations being so bad for centuries are typical of the genre.] Did God only appoint one pastor? No, He's appointed many, as Eph4 and Timothy stress. We are knitted together in Christ, not in some religion. See how stupid we Christians are?
Satan, since before Babel, wants to construct a pan-international religion which "unites". When Moses died, he wanted to grab the body, so he could make it seem alive, and start up just such a religion (Jude 9). So that very "One Lord.." verse is often quoted to support Satan's desire! See how sly he is? See how he twists Scripture? See how thinly-veiled his lie is? How satirical? The Lord 'united' us in Him at the Cross. So, Satan wants to 'unite' us under himself, too: using ONE religion. So he can crucify us.
By contrast, God favors competition -- but not invasion. Remember Paul saying he would not work in another man's territory, 2Cor10:6? Remember how Paul violated his own rule, when he went to Jerusalem, which was James' territory? And got disciplined by God for it (Acts 22)?
Why competition now, when the Mosaic Law had none? Because we're Royal; because we're not like Israel, which after all was one tiny nation. Also, because none of us can get all the doctrine correctly learned overnight. Or, for most of us, even over a lifetime. Face it, we are just as corrupt as any other group. Without competition, we've no way to spot our current doctrinal errors. Our bigness as a group makes competition all the more important. Look at the corruption which occurred in Catholicism. Do you think that happened because it was catholic? Oh no. Give it any other denominational name, but the same bigness -- and the same corruption, with different dogma-clothing, would have resulted. Israel was never so big, so its monopoly was not a threat, even when it was apostate. And, you'll remember, even Israel fractured at least 5 times during its lifetime (the N. and S. Kingdoms). God liked a little competition, even then.
Don't blame the translators: they are hamstrung by political expediency. (They really should get hero-medals.) Instead, note the satanic genius at work -- this chopping mirrors Satan's Matt4 temptations' structure:
We, the laymen, well..we don't know enough about languages to realize how heinous such rules are. So, we won't understand the import of them. We don't realize that, in history, wars have begun even due to bad secular translations (by/to diplomats). So, our eyes glaze over. Or, the idea is just too horrendous to absorb. Or, it tempts one to rebel against Bible and its 'authorities'. See how Satan wins our downfall, no matter how we react?
See, popularity requires appeal to the lowest-common-denominator, so a lot of truth can be shaved away. The more popular a thing, the more shallow it must be: Brother Foot. Respectability makes a chopped truth 'safe' to believe. Popularity aids respectability, for its sheer numbers make a shaved-truth, a lukewarm version of the truth (e.g., a translation), 'okay'. So, this clever use of both popularity and respectability puts pressure on dissent -- especially on those who are correctly dissenting. It's a deft propaganda technique: soundbyte stereotyping narrows the ability to think. So dissent, which is by nature complex, is irritating. Evil.
For further 'safety', Satan will mix in a lot of flash, too: visibility, feel-good observances and works, dreams, visions, "revelations", etc. 'Just to add a touch of class, make the believer feel he's got the "real answer". After all, his 'book' is now made hopelessly boring and obtuse, shaved as it has been of nearly all original color and meaning. Can be read any ol' way, and puts one to sleep. So a little flash-and-dance makes the believer feel happy. Satan's way. How nice.
Today, Christianity is again homogenizing at an alarming rate. Beware. Everyone's soooo upset about the factions in the Church. Everyone's trying to "cooperate" with fellow Christians. How clever of Satan to use the "royal law" to destroy truth. Yes, we are supposed to be nice to each other. Yes, we are supposed to be quiet in any criticism. (Peter and James' big point.) Yes, we are supposed to avoid practices which we know are alright, but which younger believers feel aren't, as Paul explains in 1Cor8. See the cleverness? Satan pushes these rules over the edge, just as he tried to get Christ to jump, by chopping out a clause in Psalm 91 (2nd Temptation). See, soundbyte-translations lead to soundbyte Christianity, so we can all nicely go over the edge. Like lemmings. In the name of "unity". How nice.
Of course, many Christians are aware of this problem. So, Satan&Co. push them "over the edge" in the opposite direction, by urging them to make big stinks over trivialities. Thus they rant and rave over stupid things, like whether one should celebrate Christmas on December 25, because it originally was the date of a pagan holiday. Or, they vilify fellow Christians who don't share their idea of proper doctrines, works, customs, rituals, etc. Satan uses these ranters to make others yearn for unity. In short, these folks are used to herd the unwary into the "pasture" Satan&Co. want them to go.
Handy, too, is the fact that any correct dissent will be made to look like the ranters' picayune complaining. Thus, any truth spoken which excites much disagreement among lukewarm believers will make the speaker appear to be wrong. Thus the lukewarm can knock him down, for the truth-speaker 'sticks out'. Or, for a change-of-pace, Satan&Co. try to make dissenters "stick out" by making them popular. See? Satan uses the same homogenizing tactics, to trick such dissenters into thinking their message "successful", because it's 'gaining acceptance', a 'revival'. That's a pride temptation, just like the 2nd Temptation in Matt4. Satan's not stupid.
Thus it is not God's will to bash another's denomination, or faith. It is also not God's will to seek doctrinal unity. See how complex our spiritual lives are? When does one speak out? When does one stay silent? All the skill of an Ambassador is required, for the cardinal rule of Ambassadorship is, Never Tell A Lie. The minute you're caught lying, you'll never have credibility again. Be quiet, use shaded language, but Never Mislead Or Lie. So sometimes, you must be blunt (even bluntness can be kind). [Bible is very blunt, often. Calling a spade a spade hits hard, but the hearer knows you're being honest. So over time will trust better. It's real important to be balanced in bluntness. See Revelation 1-3, where the Lord bluntly reviews the churches. He doesn't coddle, and his praise is as blunt as his warnings. So to say something is false, when there's something else true -- balance both comments, lest it seem misleading. For example, it's true that the RCC doctrines are full of lies. But so are a lot of other Christian faiths. So are we all. Truth must be balanced in presentation, or it's not the truth, you're presenting...]
Sure, it's proper to say what you think Scripture means. Some debate is good also, for the same reason. All that's part of your job as a ruler, and it helps you yourself learn what to think, as well. However, remember that "less is more" in dialogue -- be sparing, balanced, objective -- so the hearer can get information he requests, not a sales pitch. Resume silence if you receive hostile reaction, each epistle warns. That's what Christ did. Write in the sand, walk away from a fight, stand your ground in silence, change the subject. Arguing only excites sin. Clearly a hostile reaction means the person won't hear you explain any whys. So, be silent.
Here's another reason why "less is more". You do not know how much of what you say God wants that person to receive. 'Maybe, 'none' of it -- the Holy Spirit is the One Who decides what of your words to confirm true. Even if you are more "right" in your Scriptural understanding than your hearer, the Holy Spirit might forego transmission, since the issue isn't rights, but Love. That's His call, as Ruler. When the right time comes, the Spirit will cause the person to recall the issue. (Cf. John 14, 1Cor2, Acts 1:8, Eph5:18, Eph6.)
Moreover, who's to say but what HE will use a mistaken belief to grow the person? After all, each of us is responsible to God for the "rules" we conclude. After all, we all have the Unique, Royal, "liberty" to choose a taboo, or a special day, or special foods, etc., as our Royal Conscience Dictates. It's not another believer's right to condemn our choices. Nor is it our right to condemn his. To his own Master he stands or falls, 1Cor4.
In short, it's one thing to write what you believe is right or wrong about anything, for you're not present when the reader is reading. Thus written material can afford to be more blunt and comprehensive -- there's no face-to-face confrontation. So, the reader has the privacy to reject what you've written, and need not feel threatened/bad/hostile toward the writer. After all, he's just reading, not 'buying' something. Not 'being disloyal'.
In dialogue, though, (at least) two minds are engaged, facing each other. So it becomes dicey to say someone's doctrine is amiss -- however right the 'correction' may be. The Lord seemed to handle it by means of small oral 'forays'. He'd make some comments, wait to see if the hearer (like the Samaritan woman at the well) wanted more, then He'd continue. Once He encountered a blankness or hostility, He'd usually back off, end with a question, or with some kind-toned statement (like to the rich young ruler). His strong condemnations were directed at the Pharisees, because it was His Job As Messiah to condemn them. If He didn't do that, the common people who believed in Him would mistake the Pharisees for being right.
We don't have that job. Instead, we individually must answer to the Lord. So, the Seventh-Day Adventist, he has a right to be one. So the Catholic, he has a right to be one. So the fill-in-the-blank-believer has a right to be one. That's refreshing, isn't it? And scary, for those who would bash someone else's faith. Each one's faith is a "kingdom", and God doesn't favor invading someone else's kingdom. So what's the answer? "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up", Paul replies. If someone wants to know, just pass on the information -- not your opinion of how good/bad they are, not your opinion of how good/bad you are versus them. If you love God, you love them. If you love them, you never ever want to put them down. No good king wants to invade his brother's territory, does he? Let us not be arrogant as the Arians and the Athanasians were, treating our faith as if it was some kind of Hippodrome race. For, there will be, by God's Own Command, some Edward Gibbon to point out our shameful apostacy to our periphery. For, We indeed are one in Christ. In Him, not in our own high opinions of ourselves!
On the other hand, you will be accused of judging, even when you are not: John 6:27ff happened to Christ, and it will therefore always happen to you. The Ambassador's job is to tell the truth, and not shave it. So if the truth is harsh, you must tell it. But you will be blamed as judgemental whenever you tell a harsh truth. In a recent 20/20 special (aired 12/20 or 12/19/05, I believe), Barbara Walters was interviewing some Evangelical pastor in Colorado. She was quite upset at the idea that there was only one way to Heaven, and wanted to pin down the pastor on whether Christ is the only way. He admitted it, but she had to prod him. You could tell he was loathe to admit it, since he well knew how judgemental would be the reaction against him. Which, it was. The poor guy then was constrained to explain it's like drinking Drano, to refuse to believe in Christ.
See? This awesome Royal Ambassadorship is not only a problem of checking the natural tendency to be cocky: the world already deems you to be judgemental -- in psychology, this phenomenon is called the defense mechanism of "projection." Projecting onto you, the character flaw that person has. Hence, shooting the messenger who's providing a message of the only way mankind can get out of his puny state, and live happily forever. We didn't write this Bible. We just repeat what it says. And then are blamed for it. This weird phenomenon of everything polarizing to Christianity has been true for 2000 years, and you can prove it on any given day. Before Christ, it was the Jews who bore the brunt of the polarization, and of course they remain in the spotlight, too. Satan makes sure of it, since he likes mocking not only believers and Jews, but all who are against them. Yet no hostile-to-God humans catch on to this never-varying trend of history? Which they themselves by their very hostility, thus prove Who is the Real God?
Finally, this diversity gives everyone a chance to audit his own faith for errors. No matter how right one is about a doctrine, there is always more to learn. Can't tell you how much I've learned from analyzing different faiths -- questions arise which I realized, hey, I can't account for my own understanding of Bible on "x" topic! So it wasn't to defend, but to learn. Much respect for both the other faith, and my pastor's teaching, was gained thereby. The relative correctness of one versus another, doesn't have to result in putting down the less-correct version. Rather, more admiration often results. [Particularly, admiration for how Satan&Co. beguile us all. The pattern of lies we all buy goes across the world, and for centuries, and we remain stuck in the lies, differing only by 'flavor'. Errors explained in these websites are for purposes of showing the grand pattern of them, so we can all understand we are being herded away from the truth, so we needn't feel ashamed. But rather, alerted. For until we can see we all get blinded, we will be perennially looking at the mote in our brother's eye, and ignoring the forest. How believers who didn't know truth could survive and believe in Christ in the Dark Ages amazes me no end. In short, by seeing what's wrong, you find much more to admire about those who got it wrong.]
So a ruler-in-training, must listen to His Teacher, the Holy Spirit; must listen to his Holy-Spirit appointed human teacher; must TURN OVER what he learns, not just swallowing it or spitting it out, John 7:16-18. Same is true in all secular things. Your secular teachers are not to be slavered over, nor spit out. You learn from them, and you THINK OUT what you are learning. People don't do this, which accounts for the massive ignorance even in our literate societies within the 'West'. Thinking over is how you grow even psychologically. Much more, spiritually. It rarely happens.
The above principles apply to all secular rulerships, as well. You own things. They won't perform as you want them to. You have varying kinds of authority over people, and they over you. The more you own, the more you are owned. Ownership of a business, a house, even a car means lots of things which go wrong and you must bear the brunt of them. Especially, when in a family or owning a business. Loyalty up, loyalty down, and the whole point is freedom of everyone to learn and grow. It's the hardest thing, to be a ruler. And we are from the get-go, designed for that function, since we are by spiritual nature, kitted out for Christ, Greek of 2Cor5:17 and all "in Him" verses. So we dare not look at life the way peasants do, as the first two Reasons for Royalty explained. We are accountable. Like it, or lump it.
This second heraldic quarter of the Our Lord's Escutcheon references "Immovable Ox" Virtue: living up to the Royal Family Honor Code. Obviously, steadfast nobility is required of a Ruler. So, the Royal who isn't steadfast wouldn't rightfully VEST as a Ruler. But, everyone who believes in Christ in this epoch of history is Forever Royal. What then are the blessings, and the criteria for them, awarded at the Bema (the Evaluation/Judgement Seat of Christ)?
To the Romans, the custom of "taking the toga" meant taking over the adopted father's estates: ownership and rulership of them. ["inherit..Kingdom of God" is the counterpart term in the Bible, and there are 65 bald references to it in the NIV's NT, for example -- note the difference between Entrance (salvation) and Inheriting (Pleroma, viz., 1Cor6:9-10, 15:50, Gal5:21).] To the Caesars, it meant the heir-apparent: the crown prince, as it were. The "son" was rarely a blood son. The "son" was carefully picked -- for his competence. The recent movie, "Gladiator", illustrates how the Roman custom of adoption worked, one which remained long after the Bible was written. It was as ancient a custom as Rome herself.
Part of "taking the toga" was assuming responsibility to take care of other family members who themselves did not have ownership/rulership privileges. This was done out from the annual income or assets of the estates the son inherited. For example, an infirm cousin might get a yearly stipend for his needs. In short, the "son" owned and ruled, versus being a dependent beneficiary of some bequested stipend. Bible equivalent of this idea is expressed in many ways; for example, Roman 15's "the strong must bear the weaknesses of the weak."
It was the son who would make the decisions, from that point forward. His "father" would naturally be available to advise, but the son was expected to know on his own. No spoonfeeding. No micro-management. Clearly, then, our training is in Learning To Make Rules, In Order To Be Rulers. For that, one needs principles to apply: the Word. So, then: first, we practice ruling ourselves. Then, if we pass the tests, we will be qualified to rule others. Look how God Himself is: God Infinitely governs Himself by Infinitely obeying His Own Truth, Righteousness, Justice, Love. Such is our Father. Such is Our Father's requirement for us. Such is our Lord. Such is His Requirement of us, in order to Gift the Father. This 'job' is not to be glibly taken for granted, relegated to shallow pomp-and-circumstance visibilities of Christian religions. Look what happened to Czar Nicholas II's family!
The folks of the OT were largely ruled; few of them were given any enduement power to be rulers. By contrast, every Christian is potentially a ruler, so must become able to think like a lawyer (aka "lawgiver"). We are sons, in training to take our spiritual toga virilis. So, we need, and get, the Power of the Holy Spirit so we can realize this potential. We need, and get, 1Jn1:9 (cf Ps32:5, 38:18, Ps66:18), so we can get back into fellowship, when we react to our so-high life. In short, we need, and get, the time and training to become objective, rational, thinkers of His Word. Doers of the Word. Not doers of emotion. "..for the purposes of being rational, without illusion, as God has assigned to each one a standard of thinking from Doctrine". (Romans 12:2-3, corrected trans. of the "sober" clause ending verse 3.) Why? "For the strong must bear the weaknesses of the weak", it says in Romans 15.
WE are the work, not what we do. Can Paul make that fact any plainer than in 1Cor3? Look at verse 15: "yet he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire [NAS]." Note the context. The so-called "works" are tested by fire. So, then, if the believer is not the work, why then does it say he is saved yet so as through fire? Think about it: gold, silver, precious stones are not manmade. Wood, hay, stubble are manmade. So clearly what we "do" can only be wood, hay, stubble. Since only the Holy Spirit can make the Doctrine get into and circulate in our souls, then only that can be gold, silver, precious stones. For, as Paul notes in v.11, the Foundation of the building (our spiritual life, viz. Eph3:15ff), us, is the Lord Jesus Christ! Again, He, not his works, was the sacrifice for sins!
So, then, what's the role for body-works in the spiritual life? Any 'works' are but training aids that a spiritual life uses to learn; they are thus secondary, not primary. So, they had better well be precisely what God wants us to do, for only He can know what 'work' He designed to facilitate spiritual growth: only the Lord's Thinking can discern what are the personally-applicable 'works' to facilitate our own internal spiritual growth. For, only via His Thinking can we prepare to become something; our works themselves don't go with us when we die, for crying out loud. Works aren't alive, so works can't make the soul grow up to become Royally-fit. Only Our Lord's Thinking is alive, only Our Lord's Thinking being progressively-deposited in our souls can make US fit. Fit for THE King, Him!
Since all but the Thinking of Christ is not spiritual, notice how anything you do becomes spiritual, if that Thinking is operating in you. Thus not only are dead works an insult to God, but they could have become spiritual, but for your refusal to be in God's System (i.e., not using 1Jn1:9). So it's double-trouble, if you don't live on God's Script in God's System: which eventually you won't do, even if you started, if you don't keep growing spiritually. (Most Christians start out in the System, but quit sometime during spiritual adolescence, or prior.) For, as was noted earlier (search on "calculus" to find the paragraph above), there's a Divine Function Enabled when you're firing Matt4:4 style (how the Script 'plays' in your life, is this firing). So you can be doing Real Works from Real God's Power in them, and no one else on this planet but the believer in God's System, can do that. But if refusing the System, is not doing that. See how important 1Jn1:9 and your right pastor are? For if you don't 'do' those two things, you won't be in the System, and won't get back in it.. and won't stick through it, either. Gotta want God, to do that. So motive is all important. And you need His System, to keep building the motive. Word without motive is no Word in you that you can use. Motive without Word, is dead everything. Word not in you if not in God's System. So now, notice: that has to mean 99% of Christianity, will not be getting the toga virilis. Yikes!
For 99% of Christianity, goes for the world's standards, and not Divine Standards. As poignantly recorded in John 6:27 through the end of the book, the world says you must be nice, flashy, and give it goodies, to get any praise. You must kowtow to works, hedge and be shallow, hypocritical; you must always fake humility, and never tell the truth (except when for political/monetary/religious gain). And above all, you must praise publicness, and anyone public -- yet at the same time, deftly pick public people apart, in the name of love. You are allowed to show interest in God only via shallow expressions, like ritual, works, and emotion; and you must look goofy when you do -- lest someone be insulted at any competence. So, that's what the Christians do. And they succeed therefore in looking like all other religion, only dumber. So the world can laugh at them and take their money and well-meaning good deeds, and trample Christ in the dust. Satan runs this world. So to kowtow to the world's standards, is to kowtow to Satandards. No toga virilis can thus be awarded.
Fear Stubbornness! What you will inherit in Heaven is determined by what you think of God down here. As we just saw in Corollary 3A, whatever is your 'rule' on Scripture, it's YOURS. Well, whatever is your accumulated 'rule' on God, is what GOD rules you 'take' as your inheritance. Here's why I conclude this:
"Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For the way in which you judge, you will be judged; For the Measure which You Measure shall be Measured back to You." (Matt7:1-2, composite trans, mostly NAS; emphasis added.) |
God never coerces volition. So, free will always gets what it wants, always. Forever. After all, Righteousness got paid the "opportunity cost" for all this "weakness", for free. After all, Righteousness can "bear" anything. Forever. That's God's View, as we saw the Christ reflect, especially when He was on the Cross, bearing our sins. (See "Opportunity Cost" and "Evidence Test of Himself" tables in Part II, and "Paradox"table in Part V, and "God's Paradox" link section in Appendix.)
So, the 'God' we essentially voted for, is the RELATIONSHIP to God we're voting to have in eternity. Problem is, post-death we'll realize how silly many of our ideas of Him were. Too late: 'the measure which we measured will be measured back to us'. Forever. Thus, any adversity/punishment down here is designed (in part) to wake us up to any false ideas of Him, so we can change our 'vote', and thus be much happier in eternity. Everyone will be happy then, but the spectrum of happiness is vast, and everyone will be unequal: each one living within the capacity-for-happiness his accumulated 'vote about life-with-God' created, down here.
Look at those seraphim (truncatingly mistranslated "beasts" or "elders") in Rev 4, tossing down their crowns with such enthusiasm. They aren't at all interested in 'lording it over' anyone: what a great job they have, just being able to praise Him constantly! Heck, even God throws His Own Godness away, as their Self-Chosen Titles reveal: Father, to Son and Spirit; Son and Spirit, to Father. DueDisclosure.htm explains the Trinity's Self-Chosen Subordination, so you can see better what all this Royal Authority, is for: Love. For Love is the Integrity of God, as my pastor shouted on May 7, 2000, his 50th anniversary of teaching that local church. Love couldn't be less interested in vaunting superiority: quite the opposite, it loves to throw down. Just like those angels. So, then: the more you have to throw down, the more expressions you have for Love. Imagine, then, being restricted in your inheritance of expressions!
For, just as the straw man of his own free will projected his own self-tyranny onto God, thus accused God of robbing him of will, in Rom9:19-20; just as the rich man in hell still belittled Scripture in Luke 16; just as Pharaoh accused God in Ex8:32, 9:17,30,35; just as the stingy servant (likewise projecting his own flaws) 'judged' God stingy (Matt25:24-29), so also believers who shallowly value learning the Son's Thinking in the Father's Hearing will receive a shallow eternal inheritance. One always gets the real consequence of what one wants. Royally: Col 3:25.
Moreover, this 'measure back' rule not only is one's 'future', but also, one's 'present'.
All the above bullets demonstrate forms of spiritual pathology. The body reacts to spiritual maladies, and we all get them, from time to time. Additionally, certain kinds of activities automatically generate Satan&Co.'s involvement: tongues, drugs, religiosity, preoccupation with the supernatural, and especially the stupid healer stuff, psychic stuff, and "exorcism" (they love that stuff, see "seven sons of Sceva" verse). Sad to say, I've seen a lot of that involvement, and as a result don't want to talk about it, but would rather just document the Scripture mistranslations, the games they play with the fake holy books, UFOs, etc. as discussed passim here in this series, the Appendix, and elsewhere in my sites. Satan&Co. are not coy.
Psychology is based on atheism (not universally among psychologists, but doctrinally). So its prescriptions generally make whatever you're suffering, much worse: for example, it's pretty routine in psychology to think you are ill if you aren't regularly having sex, even though single, so they actually prescribe illicit sex. Screwing around screws up your brain, so you'll instead get sicker. It's also pretty routine for a psychologist to think you ill if you believe strongly in God. So disbelieving -- which makes you sicker faster than anything else you can do! -- is their idea of 'wellness.' Worst of all, every psychological prescription is anthropocentric, based on deservingness and being proud of yourself: that will drive you bats faster than a NASCAR race, since by nature you are designed for fellowship and hence dependence on God, not people, not yourself. Hence when it comes to psychological treatment, Satan&Co. are actually behind those prescriptions, which after all have the same goals as the fake healers and the exorcists: so get the same gamesmanship. So just get in and stay in God's System; any outside psychological counseling you might need, might be exactly the wrong thing, or may be valuable -- check with God, first.
Conversely, if you are making a lot of spiritual progress, you can be hit with a malady or other types of 'bad luck'.. to grow you faster. That's s.o.p. in God's System for Spiritual Adulthood, onward. [The term "s.o.p." is an American military term, "standard operating procedure", meaning what is supposed to happen when the System is working properly.] Satan&Co. participate at times in that, too (i.e., Book of Job, Zech 3, Matt4). So it's not a cut-and-dried thing, to analyze. Moreover, sometimes it's hard to tell whether the body malady is just a natural thing (i.e., having nothing to do with negativity in the spiritual life), or whether it's truly a 'measure back'. SpirPath.htm, the "Spiritual Pathology" link at pagetop and bottom, can help one diagnose his own (never someone else's) problems. Best thing to do, however, is keep on using 1Jn1:9 and being in God's System on God's Script. That's the only cure for spiritual maladies, anyway. So you can spend a short time in diagnosis, or even none -- just keep on keeping on, in God's System.
Yes, there is a panacea for all problems: be on God's Script in God's System. That blesses the world, and it gradually or even quickly heals YOU from whatever is wrong (brass serpent metaphor from OT). Isa53:10-11's five LXX infinitives, are the only cure (search on "Witness the Precedence" in LordvSatan3.htm, if you forgot those infinitives).
For, who can live up to his own standards, much less, God's? God is very punctiliar in the way He applies Justice, so Justice 'puns' the person's belief -- and measures it back to him. Uncompromisingly. Both Now, and in eternity. Exactly. Free will always gets 'measured back' the consequences of its own decisions. Especially, with respect to attitudes about God.
So, it's a good time to pause and ask the self: "Is this idea of God I have, and how I am to live down here -- is this what I want eternity to be?" If "no", then use 1Jn1:9 and talk to God about what might be incorrect in your beliefs. In short, think over what you want in your own 'toga' inheritance, which is the 'personality' of your relationship with God. For, you are Royal: whatever 'kingdom' you carve out for yourself, that's what you'll get. God never compromises His Righteousness. He loves it too much.
This third quarter of Our King's Heraldic Escutcheon is, of course, the most important: King-Priestly function. Being Accountable, having Assets, having a Royal Nobility Standard is one thing -- but how does one mediate/enact those glorious assets, those solemn and happy responsibilities? High (to Father), and low (to life)? One needs to practice ruling, in order to gain competence. Moreover, how does one practice ruling, without a kingdom? And what does that kingdom get due to successful practice? Or, due to failures in practice?
Adam was the first ruler. Because of his failure to rule, we all were cursed. Moses was also a ruler. Because of his success, all the Exodus generation was spared destruction by the Lord. Twice! Because the Lord's Humanity vested as the PantoKrator, Ruler of All, we are blessed. So also, our spiritual failures curse our periphery, and our spiritual successes bless it. Even when the periphery includes other believers. Of course, other believers' failures or successes, if they are in our periphery, curse or bless us, too. That's yet another reason why Paul counseled Timothy to avoid carnal Christians (2Tim3:5). There are many parallel warnings in Scripture. Part IV will cover the macro/epic side of this oh-so-awesome current role in detail. Here, though, we're looking at the micro role: you, me, each of us. Individually.
If you read history, you'll find out that for most of man's history, the "king" owned everything in his kingdom, including all the people. It was very, very common. So, if the king had sons, he'd frequently give them smaller territories to rule, even before they grew up, so they could get practice. In fact, this dividing-of-one's property has decisively influenced history (e.g., Clovis' dividing up the Empire among his sons).
PRINCIPLE: God owns everything. He gave "the all things" to the Son. The Son gives the Bema awards. We are Royalty, though, beginning at salvation, so we have to have Royal Training. Which means, ownership-of-property responsibilities, including over people. It's not simple stewardship or trusteeship. It's OWNERSHIP. Temporary, pending our vesting in the task. But make no mistake: you have Royal ownership responsibility over your periphery, before the Lord. And that is how both you and they are treated by Him, as well. Is this fact scary, or what?!
These 'others' are anyone in your periphery. See, since you temporarily own that periphery, its existence is intended to benefit you. So, it needs to be benefitted. Just as, we are made Royal to benefit our Betrothed. Hence, we are benefitted with the highest spiritual life ever granted in history, past or future. So, God the Father treats your periphery as YOUR property. So, in accordance with the life you live before Him, the Son treats your periphery. God respects your authority before the Lord even more than you do! Hence, if you move, your periphery changes, and like any Royal at any time in history, you'd better not move without the King of Kings' advance order! My pastor calls this "the geographical will of God". It's awesome.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Remember, the unbeliever has no relationship with God. So, judicially, the unbeliever can't be benefitted from God directly, except to the de minimis level required to make sure he has equal opportunity to believe in Christ. Enter 'you'. If you are in his periphery, and you are growing in the spiritual life, he benefits, because his benefit, benefits you. So you benefit him, simply by existing nearby. The same principle is true for carnal Christians in your periphery, though their de minimis is of course higher: logistical support to create equal opportunity to execute this so-great spiritual life.
So the converse is also true: if you are carnal, You And You Alone Are To Blame For What Goes Wrong In Your Periphery. Authority has its responsibility. They benefit because you have authority before the Lord, and they are cursed if you abuse your authority before Him. So when you see phenomena like the many fires in the Western US, be scared. It's not possible to diagnose God's punning "measure back", though, except in aggregate. There are so many individuals each being a blessing or cursing to each other. Plus, Justice makes sure the innocent are blessed, despite their being part of a bad 'kingdom'. So, be scared of being a contributor to cursing by association! Live on 1Jn1:9 and God's Script!
So when you hear the satanic argument that the rich should provide for the poor, and that the poor are victims of the rich, now you know how he gets to make that argument. Our current kingdomship under the Lord is the truth on which Satan's distortion is based! So those who coyly spurn this Royal Position in Christ, imagining themselves oh-so-humble-and-holy for so doing, then -- and this is what's happening now -- God sends disaster to the world. For Royals are never directly punished, but their kingdoms are (see also 2Sam24:17 in context). That has always been true even in secular history: how much more, the True Royalty for All Eternity, Lev26? Repeat: all the disaster, hunger, suffering, pain on this planet is OUR FAULT. If we try to correct worldly problems with works, it's "cursed is the man who puts his trust in man" (Jer17:5). So all that disaster (etc.) gets worse per Lev26, since we are using worldly methods instead of Going To God. So we go to God, by learning and living His Word, in God's System. If you love mankind at all -- if all that suffering in Africa, Asia, your home nation and elsewhere matters to you even a whit -- get in God's System and learn His Son. Else you are worse than a murderer, says the Greek of 1Jn3:18. [The Greek words for "deed and truth" are anarthrous, meaning God's Deeds, and God's Truth. Not human. So if we refuse to live in God's System, God's Deeds aren't being done, so that's worse than the murderer or uncaring persons in passage context. As usual, translations cut God's head off, so it looks in translation like man's works are being urged by John. No, man's works are being excoriated by John, ever since 1Jn1:6. DDNA1.htm has a full translation of 1Jn3:18.]
The Number One Evil in the world today is not the terrorists. They, like the hurricanes, are not restrained because Christians malign the Word by deeming the spiritual life a peasant's, hustling about with their doo-doo's. We have a lot to answer for, at the Bema. If you want the terrorists to go away, grow up in God's System, and pray for God the meanwhile, to catch/stop the terrorists. We don't know how to pray, so that's why our prayers go unanswered: see #5 of GodSystem.htm (link at pagetop, upper left corner).
Now what do you 'do' with this information? Practice Being Aware of it at All Times; practice thinking out the implications, since in the eternal future this will be known. The chief training one needs for Royal Rule is Thinking. So in a way, you rehearse this idea by constantly acting as if you were the real (but secret) owner. You'd be concerned for the welfare of your property, and especially its people. You'd be very concerned about the correctness of your decisions before the Lord: which are ALL of them. Your behavior and decorum would be rehearsed as well, with an eye toward whether you are making yourself a stumbling block or annoyance to others. Notice how you are ruling yourSELF, and not giving orders to anyone else. That's how true royalty works: its own example INSPIRES others, so it doesn't have to give orders, advocate causes, engage in politics, browbeat, money-grub, etc. Even secular royal children are reared with this kind of rehearsal and awareness. Less, is more.
Royalty is a kind of prison. You learn to love its demands on you, or you self-destruct. Publically. True love is evidenced by respect and submission (not wimpy, either). Attraction, is not love.
Notice how it's a self-ruling mindset which develops and matures. The spiritual child is thrilled to say he has this status, and imagines many childish things: ordering people around, getting whatever he wants when he wants it, etc. As the spiritual child matures, he realizes that his real importance can actually harm people if he's not careful how he uses it; he realizes he's just as humanly weak as anyone else, but whatever he does, has disproportionate effect; so he learns to withdraw, to mediate himself. Peter uses the term "huparchein", which in lexicons is listed as a sort of intensive, alert, beingness. Yeah, that's true: but it's primarily being ruled by standards (Peter likes to play on etymology, especially with hupo-prefixed words). The Ruler is the Most Ruled: a palindrome. The Multisphere Royal Thinking Lifestyle (3rd Reason for Royalty) is a very intensive huparchein. It is not seen, but the dedication is somehow sensed by others. The word "Bible" doesn't even ever have to cross your lips. People are thus inspired to reach beyond their peasant attitudes toward the more noble, and you'll be surprised how many just know you're into God though you say nothing (royalty never advertises itself). This inspiration really matters, and all the legislation on the planet can't change morals faster than a royal (or other leader) who inspires. You inspire by being inspired, yourself. Not by lecturing, etc.
Christian marriage is doubly-solemn for this reason. It's not a "Christian" marriage unless both spouses are believers. We're not talking the usual Divine Standard of marriage here. The gist, is this: Adam was created as a husband, not merely as a man. Isha was created as a wife, not merely as a woman. Due to the marital failure, Satan made big stinks in his arguments in the Trial. So, Now, since we are Royal, Father is answering Satan with the special spiritual institution of Christian marriage. My pastor calls this, "Corporate Testimony". The idea is for the couple to develop to a JOINT "Pleroma" level. We saw that "Kenosis" is essentially the testimony, back in the Fourth Reason for Invisibility. (You can get details from my pastor's tapes.)
Eph 5 covers the essential criteria for 'passing' Pleroma-level JOINT rulership:
Only one way to pass such a difficult test: run the personal relationship through the Doctrine you're learning in God's System as often and as intensely as possible. That ends up meaning the spouse is of secondary importance. Which reduces the human neediness which often plagues a marriage. So now True Love blossoms. (Human love has no virtue, and causes the problems of inferiority, etc. to intensify.)
Obviously, only those millions of Doctrinal Deposits will, under the Spirit, enable such an impossible 'triple crown' to be raced! What? Husband has to love his wife AS MUCH AS the Lord loved the Church? Impossible! What? Wife must respect and obey her husband AS MUCH AS is due the Lord? Impossible! What? Both must forgive each other as Christ forgives? Impossible! Heh: see why the Father 'waited' so long to answer Satan? An earlier answer wasn't 'impossible' enough! For, Christian marriage depicts the entire blessing-by-association or cursing-by-association criteria in history: the synergy of Love, as explained in Part I. Thus it is the hardest and highest way to get to Pleroma.
Frankly, that's the only reason to want to go to Heaven, to be close to Him. But it's a killer life, that Multisphere Royal Invisible Thinking. And it's the only life, for a believer in Church. Do or die in it, no middle ground.
The Fourth heraldic quarter of the Bright Morning Star's Escutcheon, the Flying Eagle of Victory, completes both His Escutcheon -- and our Trial Role. For, here the issue is our Witness, first to the angels, and second, to mankind. For, the Trial is a War, and the destiny of Satan&Co. is the Lake of Fire; so also, mankind's. We thus have over our periphery a Caring Charge, as we just saw above, which is mediatory -- but also, our own Destiny's Duty is live our witness -- so others too can change their minds, and believe in Christ: thus exchanging their destiny for His. Indeed, this is Our Royal Law, as we saw in the Second Reason for Royalty.
We've just seen how awesome is our role towards people, how we are a blessing or a cursing to them! How to cope with all this responsibility! How do we witness to them, too! It's enough to make a person frenetic with activity, keeling over from the emotional burden! Ahhhh. So let's not be emotional. Let's phronew, instead: Like the Lord did, in Phili2:5.
In that passage, we see that He invested in learning the Word. He kept thinking, and didn't use His Power to fix the world. So too, we (1Jn4:17) should learn, and become wise, eschewing our 'powers' (2Cor12:7-10 ties in here). For, we are first and foremost, to be a sweet savor to Father, as we saw in First Reason for Invisibility, and in Corollary 3A-C, above. As a result of that role, we are used to be a sweet savor to our periphery, which we saw in Corollary 3C. Here, though, the idea is that we don't live in hermetically-sealed compartments, 'blessing' or 'cursing' our periphery solely because we are deployed by God to exist nearby. Rather, we mingle with people -- and, people being people, they evaluate us by what they see. Hence, all the behavioral do's and counselings in Corinthians, Romans, Timothy, Heb13, Eph5, James. Because we're Royal, as we saw in the Second Reason for Royalty -- we are on Divine Television. Which results in people reacting to us, since reaction to Christianity is also a way to advertise it. God uses the wrath of man: He doesn't advertise, the demons do (i.e., a main theme in Mark's Gospel). Because, "we are evidence of Him in the world" (1Jn4:17, corr trans from my pastor); for which we will be judged in the Day of Evaluation (ibid).
A virus is tiny. You can't see it. It can kill you. A tiny thing, properly placed, kills. Conversely, a tiny thing, a Right Thought, properly placed, saved many lives. Hurtgen Forest in WWII is an example of a wrong thought which killed a lot of people. The sargeant (?) who told the Germans "Nuts!" at Bastogne is an example of a right thought, properly placed. If it wasn't for some pretty fancy maneuvers around Hurtgen Forest, everyone would be under Hitler's descendants. If it wasn't for the guy at Bastogne, we'd all be doing a goosestep. As Benjamin Franklin quipped, "..all for the want of a nail." So, then: just like the ballet dancer, the bizillionaire, we Royal Family must learn how to think the right thought at the right time. For Father! And, that right thought at the right time takes oodles of practice. After all, you don't become a ballerina in a major ballet company, without years of daily, grueling, practice. So, too, you don't become a Pleroma believer without years of daily, not-so-grueling (except to our sin nature!) learning and practice in thinking His Thoughts.
So we don't live on our own, and we are not to be running around, but to Learn the Groom, getting ready for the Wedding. So, not Satan-fodder: people who froth with emotion every time a scrawny child looks at the camera with his big eyes and distended stomach, tearing out our heartstrings. So, it's not that we should be stingy, but that we should be generous -- in learning Him. Again, as we saw back in Conclusion #2, The Word Takes Precedence -- our Royal Job Is To Grow Up And Pray, Which Is A Royal Priestly role, not a peasant's. Different "p", from the one pandered by Satan! A Ruler orders a thing done, not does it himself. So we grow up and pray, which is treated as a Ruling -- "ask anything in My Name and I will do it", the LORD said three times (again, John 14:14, 15:16, 16:23). The LORD doesn't lie, does He? So that's like ordering something. Rulers order, peasants "do", so the peasants of this world have peasanty jobs. Not us.
Satan likes to use starving children (or peasants). He doesn't care if he uses them to carry bombs (his goals), any more than some Vietnamese or Palestinians cared if they used kids to carry body-bombs. [Two media depictions of these widespread facts swiftly pierce the mind: 1), the scene in "Good Morning Vietnam", where a kid carrying a bomb tries to blow up an Army-held restaurant; 2) Diane Sawyer's interview with 3 Palestinian kids during school recess, who enthusiastically explained there were 9(!) ways to make a bomb. So much for motherly/fatherly love!]
Satan doesn't care if the kids are used to fleece others, but the children receive nothing. 'Get our eyes on them, abuse our compassion, so to make Christianity look like just another moral lifestyle, like any religion. So, we succumb, and then when the world wonders what right Christianity has to be unique --we can say nothing. SO BECAUSE WE LOOK LIKE THEM, THEY WON'T BUY THE GOSPEL, AS THEY ARE ALREADY DOING WHAT WE ARE DOING. SO WE'VE ESSENTIALLY CONDEMNED THEM TO HELL. We are estopped, for we behave just as they do: Satan uses morality to denigrate God in this way, every day. Neat trick, huh? Thus he makes stones become bread using the very Bride the Son purchased. Thus he causes many more unbelievers to reject the Gospel, to have their names blotted out of the Book of Life. 'All by means of good deeds.
Giving to the poor, then, might be helping Satan, and thus surely doesn't help anyone else. Need precise understanding of God's Will on the matter, then, right?
What, maybe God's Will on helping the poor physically, is to let Satan do it? What, maybe God's Will on Our role to help the poor is in some other, superior way? After all, what does Satan know of the spiritual life, really? He can mouth it better than any of us -- but what does he really know? If a person isn't royally-trained -- and we know from Satan's fall he rejected his "covenant", so seeing, he no longer sees -- can't the blind person do a peasant's job? What do peasants do? Don't they run around tending to physical matters? After all, they can't think, but they can -- "do".
Any broker will tell you that while it only takes a few weeks to pass the Securities and Exchange Commission exam to become licensed, it takes a lifetime of study to properly advise people on how to invest their savings. Any attorney will tell you that although it only takes 7 years to get one's law degree, it takes a lifetime to become competent at the law. If these two secular professions are so demanding, how much more, ours?
Moreover, a person with a newly-minted securities license can process trades, but can't competently advise. A person who's never grown beyond that limited knowledge is still useful, as a doer. The same analogy holds for new lawyers, and old-but-incompetent ones. They can do simple things.
Do you see the analogy? There are plenty of unbelievers and believer-babies, who will be hustling about in the menial-body stuff. But is the Body of Christ merely a foot? Of course not. Does God's Will for your life call for you to be a mere foot? Of course not -- but rather, He wants you to be a Fit Bride -- a Whole person, not a "go-fer".
Also: how are we to obey "the royal law", as James puts it, absent sufficient knowledge? Wasn't James' complaint in James 1 that his audience was not learning Scripture, so lacked wisdom, so weren't "doers of the Word", so were engaged in strife and eyes-on-people? By James 3, his complaint is searingly loud. 1Jn shouts it also, explaining the process of spiritual growth. Do we understand 1Jn? Do we use its principles?
WITNESS KEY→ When the unbeliever or uninformed Christian sees all the hustling,
You should have noticed from the Fourth Reason for Royalty that a 'pillar' in Satan's plan for the human race is Morality. Satan is all about, morality. Because morality stresses one's OWN power. So Satan's big argument against God, is that God is immoral not to use His Power to feed, clothe, and otherwise provide nice circumstances for the human race. God's counter (also in that same Fourth Reason, and in Part I) is that happiness only comes from knowing God, no matter what circumstances one has. We saw in Part II that the Bible heroes' testimony is "so what" to everything else in life -- but knowing Him. In Part IVc, the "STOP OMEGA" table shows how Satan uses Morality to fool believers and thus delay the Rapture. Satan is moral: he only uses gross sin (the "G" in that table) to make morality look better. Deflect and decoy, one of the oldest military tricks in the book. Matt4 is a triumvirate of Morality Temptations. The Lord was smart enough to say no to them all. But we are not. We slaver, can't give into those good-deed temptations fast enough. Satan laughs his head off. Thus by means of morality -- which God invented -- Satan keeps people away from salvation and God.
SO GOD WILL NOT DO ANYTHING DOWN HERE IF WE DON'T GROW UP -- OR, THE MEANWHILE, ASK FOR HIS INVOLVEMENT, principle of 2Chron7:14. Because, this is Satan's world. So the absolute worst thing you can do as a Christian, is hustle. That's Satan's plan you're following, not God's.
And all that above, is just with respect to people, what they see in us. But the far bigger issue, is what GOD sees, and consequently what Blessing or Cursing the world must get due to the Unseen Trial we're all in. For, back in Conclusion #2, we saw the Massive, Polity-Level Seven Categories of Blessing and Cursing which the world gets due to our being here. Let's recap them briefly:
So while you brush your teeth, do the dishes, stand in line, try to not get angry during the bizillionth rude telemarketer's pitch, remember: it all depends on what you are thinking. My pastor quips that we are to be "spiritual Atlases." And that's true. Woe to us if we consider that arrogant, since Christ's Payment is so high, we CAN be kitted out with this Role. Royalty never spits on its ancestors, and our Progenitor (Heb12:2, Greek "Archegos") is Christ Himself. Let's not spit on Him, let's avoid that #666 poisonous fake humility like the spiritual AIDS it truly is.
Oh: there are two ways to be humiliated, in life. First is the obvious one, where everyone spits on you. But second, not so obvious: where you are promoted so high, you can't handle it. Isaiah 52:13-54:1 is about both types. And both types happened to the Lord: that's why His Humanity relied on the Spirit aka 'Mom', rahaph in Gen1:2, and eschewed use of either His Deity or Humanity to benefit Himself. And therefore they happen to us, the five infinitives of Isa53:10-11, LXX. Like it or lump it. John 6:27ff, 99% hated it. Too bad. Royalty is a prison you learn to love or loathe, but there's no getting out of it. You are being watched by Dad. Mom can make this prison a palace, so just cling to Mom, and you'll see what He can do.
Summing up the Conclusions |
Ergo, Conclusion Two, the Word takes Precedence: it's the WORD which Mediates Our Thinking and Function. Ergo, Conclusion Three: We Make Our Royal Rules before Our Lord, out from His Word (His Thinking), which is why we have the Four Reasons, the structure of our inheritance in His Four-Part Escutcheon. Behold the four 'quarters' (heraldic term) of our potential 'pebble' citation, put on deposit for us by Father, in eternity past! (Rev2:17 tied to Rev4:7 and Eph1:1-18.)
These conclusions are staggering, aren't they? Look: Conclusion One: because Our Lord Jesus Christ became Our Precedence, our life before the Father is the heart-and-soul of our spiritual life, as Royal Priests under the King of Kings: FIRST COMMANDMENT. So also, our role before mankind -- we live to the FATHER, which mediates our role before people. For, what honors the Father, pleases Our Lord; benefits people.
CROWNED LION His Spiritual Life becomes Ours, + Our Royal Position and Assets in Him = Profit. Ergo, Corollary 3A, our Authority and Accountability for profitable use of these "true riches" Assets: we exploited the PROFIT of our spiritual authority and assets under the Lord, before the Father, while down here. |
IMMOVABLE OX Mankind gets Invisible 'ROYAL Sign' for his benefit, + Royal Life is "far harder" = Virtue's Royal Nobility Standard. Ergo, Corollary 3B, Bema Blessing: we "inherit the kingdom" due to choosing and fulfilling the True Virtue and spiritual life of Him, while down here. |
KING-PRIEST Associating all with Our Lord + Vertical Living toward the Father = MEDIATION. Ergo, Corollary 3C, Caring Charge: TRUE Blessing flowed due to how we ruled our 'kingdom', our periphery, while down here. Faithful in Little, Faithful in Much. |
FLYING EAGLE Kenotic Spiritual Life vs. Visible Fake Spirituality + Bread&Cup Crushing Defeat of Satan&Co. = Victorious TRIAL Witness before Satan&Co. and before men. Ergo, Corollary 3D, Destiny's Duty: we thought objectively, and displayed the superior benefit of Knowing Him, so truly fulfilled the Royal Law, while down here. |
Four is the Biblical number of completeness; these Four Corollaries form the Complete Royal Lifestyle of Honor, as depicted symbolically in His Rev4 Escutcheon. If we live our spiritual lives to Full Completeness (Pleroma-Teleios, so to speak), we too will be enrolled in all Four Knighthood Orders, and will Forever Reflect our Lord's Royal Escutcheon. Awesome, isn't it? Do you begin now to see how vastly superior is Father's Honoring of His Son, versus Brother-Foot Churchinanity's puerile prescriptions? Do you begin to see how vastly rich mankind can become, through the Father's Infinitely Superior Plan? Especially, versus Satan's do-good, touchy-feely rotenesses? Let us be eager, then, to go under the 'knife' throughout our lives, and thus enter this Rest! Heb4:11-12!
Isn't Our Legacy in Him intimidating? Lots bigger than folks think, huh. So, in case you're interested, here are some tips to help speed your spiritual development -- or speed your retrogression. All are testable, and no one but you will know about it. Contrary to Churchinanity opinion, the spiritual life is intensely private: Royally Invisible, in fact. Greek of Heb11:1 says so, but it's never properly translated (see Heb111.htm or Fourth Reason for Royalty, to get a corrected translation). So, you can
Click Here to read Tips for Maximizing Dung in Your Spiritual Life.
Upshot: if you use the "1John's Outline of God's Script" section in Part I, in God's System (GodSystem.htm), coupled with the study tips and cautions above: over time a comprehensive, "aerial view" of God's Thinking on a wide range of topics gels in your mind. Once it does, you can see connections or boundaries between the mandates with clarity. The entire dynamic of His Thinking becomes clear; so you, too, can quickly and precisely know what He wants for you at any given moment. This happens, because Doctrine is truly alive: His Thinking in you (1Cor2:16). It's Real. See, each verse is like a stone in a mosaic, and until you've enough "stones" learned, you can't see the 'picture'. That 'picture' is Him, the Cornerstone: face-to-face. No kidding. It takes time, though, and diligence-of-desire. But God will enable it all (see Philippians 2:13). It takes time for you grow up enough to be able to understand the answer He wants to give you. Remember Part II? Abram wanted only one son: but GOD wanted a universe of sons -- headed by THE SON, who is descended from Abram's loins! What would have happened if Abram thought instead, "oh, shucks, I'm not worth all that honor?" We'd all not be here!
So whatever you want, God wants it BIGGER. So you need to first grow up, before you can get GOD's version of what you want. That means a lot of downtime, learning. It takes Strong Motive to want to know Him, to keep plugging at study, when everyone around you seems to be glorified, but you not. Yeah, and the ugly duckling was the swan, all along. Worth it!
As we saw in Part II, the Exodus generation, even though believers, wanted the Lord to really be Yucky Gertrude Cheese. To suit their works-oriented (or orgy-oriented) egos. So, twice the Lord offered to wipe them all out, and start over again, with Moses (Deut9:14, Num14:12). Which Moses refused, because Moses had spiritually grown up so much, He fulfilled the First Commandment. So, as a consequence he thus loved people so much that he wanted them to see the Lord's Beauty. So, he framed his refusal of the Lord's offer in terms of how people wouldn't then see His Faithfulness anymore. That was the first thought which hit Moses' mind. Even though the people were unremittingly hostile to God, and to him.
God's love is independent of attraction. Absolute Love requires no attractiveness in the object, and in fact doesn't even need an object, since Love is part and parcel with Truth, Righteousness, Justice. So love is self-compensating by nature, since God is Undivided by Nature. That love is obviously Integrity, and obviously impossible for a human to do. Hence most of the words translated "love" in the Bible are in the original languages, only used of Divine Love (the actual words in the original-language texts for human love are different). So the Trial is about God's Love being built in you. Here, in Moses. So although the people kept on wanting to stone him, and mounted many "coup attempts" to unseat him, he didn't reciprocate their jealousy or hatred. Amazingly, the first thing to hit his mind when the Lord offers TWICE to destroy them all for hating Him, was.. well, what then would people say of Adonai? God first. God on his mind First. Then, the people. But notice who is not on Moses' mind? That's love: it doesn't at all think about itself. For love.. loves. God's Love, that is. Nothing else like it. Bible in your head, growing on God's Script in God's System, makes you able to think this way.
So, then: if what you do is moral or okay, but what you think is not, then -- is God pleased? No! And how is what you think gonna be okay, if you aren't thinking Bible Doctrine? And how are you gonna know Bible Doctrine, if you aren't habitually using 1Jn1:9 and studying Scripture under your right pastor-teacher? And how are you gonna habitually use 1Jn1:9 (etc.), if you think the spiritual life, is works? See how easily Satan traps us? See how useless it is to hustle-for-God, the bane of Christianity and Judaism -- indeed, of all religion? See how offensive it is to hustle, rather than learn? Or why do you think the Bible makes a stink out of Esau being a hustler, but Jacob, being 'quiet' (Gen25:27)? In Hebrew, the "quiet" is due to studying Adonai. Sure, the Bible didn't yet exist, back then, but "Adonai" always was. So He heard Jacob hearing Him, and thus He heard Jacob learning Him. Esau was busy learning the world and its skills. But Jacob was learning to become a Prince of God (="Israel", in Hebrew). Now you know why Romans 9 reads as it does.
It's amazing, when we consider 'what must I do to get eternal life' like the rich young ruler did; when we consider 'what must i do to obey God' -- we always devolve into people things. Why? It is insane, it is making figleaves. Why don't we consider that God hears us all the time, and -- well -- are we thinking thoughts He'd like? Especially, since we saw in the Third Reason for Royalty, that every thought we will ever have is always in His Face Forever? Do you like a gift if the thought behind it is bad? How much more, God?
Do you notice how people always make a big stink out of do's, and gravitate to works verses in Scripture like mindless magnets -- without ever once recognizing the obvious -- if the thought going with the do is not good, then the do itself is horrendously tainted. Just as it would be, for us. Why else do you think the Lord praised the woman who gave the two coppers, Mark 12:42, Luke 21:2? Granted, if the soul is stingy, it needs warnings to do something -- that's why you find verses like if-you-do-it-to-someone-you-do-it-to-ME. But, the person who does it like the guy who went before the woman with the two coppers, giving big bucks to be seen of men -- about that person, what did the Lord say? "Verily, I tell you he has his reward" (Bible refrain). Yeah, he has his reward alright -- people-praise, not God-praise.
So on and on and on mankind goes, with his washings and taboos and foods and days and givings and eyes on people. Whether Christian or no.. all alike. All alike hustling, busy earning approbation or condemnation from each other. Verily, they have all the reward they're gonna get!
The ugliest people alive are those constantly making an issue of themselves. What THEY like: the proverbial petulant children, just like the Exodus generation (i.e., Num11:6). Oh, what food THEY like or what activities THEY don't like, on and on and on you can't shut them up! THEIR opinion about thus-and-so. And they love hating God, shaking their fists at Him, demanding of Him that He CATER to their opinion, too. It's incredible, the direct correlation between those who love to voice their hatred of God, and their overblown valuation of their own opinions. As if anyone enjoyed hearing them. Just like Hitler used to do in his dinner parties, lol.
The truly sad thing is you can't explain any of these categories of ugliness to the affected persons. No matter how often you preface the remarks with how you used to think the same way; no matter how you try to explain that it's the thinking, not the doing, because God Loves, so doesn't even want works (John 3:16's underlying import, see also Rom5:8) -- all that explanation, is dismissed as you selling something. As if you needed their agreement, lol. As if their agreement helped anyone besides themselves. Especially, since they are the ones trying to make everyone agree, listening to them go on and on and on and on about opinions-absent-facts-or-reason.
So now consider the impact of all these thinkings, constantly filling God's 'Ears': Yikes! God has to hear that garbage 24/7 from billions of minds! Why then did He ever create, Rom9:22-23? Would you have created humanity, if you knew it would turn out so puerile and ugly?
By contrast, remember the awesomely-beautiful scene in the miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth": when He grabs the blind beggar, puts mud on his eyes despite protest, then cleans them (John 9, whole scathing chapter). Remember how the beggar went wild, being able to see? And went looking for the man who did this? And is led to the Lord, so asks Him who did this? And the Lord replies, "The Son of Man." To which the formerly-blind beggar replies, "and Who is the Son of Man, that I may worship Him?" To which the Lord replies, smiling with ironic humor (wow, I love this): "You are SEEING Him." Yes!!!!! [That miniseries has so many genius scenes like this one, to convey the flavor of Gospels. Great acting. Mel Gibson's film was really good, too; I try to remember that scene where Christ (played by Jim Caviezel) embraces the Cross, every day. Very accurate depiction of His "he-heli" Attitude in Isa53:10. Wish Gibson could do a sequel or something fit the Bible's timeline, and for a longer period than just the last day. PassPlot.htm corrects the timeline.]
Ahh, but these few believers, what a sweet savor, how pleasant it is to hear them think. Oh, that one, he just learned about the Totality of Grace! The Lightbulb Went On! See how happy he is? And that one -- oh, he just learned that Learning My Son is the Real Spiritual Life! See how years of misunderstanding are wiped out by the discovery, at last! Yes!!! And that one -- faithful in using 1Jn1:9 so My Spirit can grow her without compromise! Oh, that one, he is finally conquering his fear of being spiritually rich! And that one, that child -- look how magnificently he trusts the Lord to defend him! Oh, how these precious ones are learning to think like Moses. Even, to think like the Son, who would rather die on a Cross than see the people wiped out. And Yes! These few believers, like Moses, are still in puny bodies, so need others around. And these few believers, like Moses -- well, they want the other folks around, just in case the other folks finally recognize that the Real Lord is gorgeous beyond description!
So as a consequence, the Father blesses the rest of humanity. Even the curmudgeons, gives them goodies, even -- though they themselves should instead be executed. Just as, once upon a time, we should have been. But we are learning His Son, now. [Part IVb's seven Diamond Facets links cover this blessing structure in much more detail. It happens live, right now, every second, whenever a believer is living on God's Script in God's System. The higher one advances spiritually, the greater the value of each second. Part IVb is devoted to explaining the spiritual "actuarial valuation" of such thinking, as it's part of the reason why the Rapture cannot be predicted. But really, all of Part IV threads through the enormous role we are given. Mammoth stuff. Testable stuff.]
So for a third time in this page, let's categorically review the blessing-by-association from us, simply due to our being on the operating table, under the Heb4:12 'knife' on God's Script, in God's System. Part IV will cover these and other massive Blessings God grants the world, in excruciating detail:
Again, as my pastor puts it, our role is to become "spiritual Atlases", "invisible heroes."
In short, since "every spiritual blessing" goes to the believer (Eph1), so every other kind of blessing goes through the believer, "filling all in all" (end Eph1). Kinda big benefit accruing to living on God's Script in God's System, huh. Just as it was when Christ was here, theme of 1Jn4 (esp. v.17). For we are His Bride, and thus He is down here.. through us.
All this is a main theme running throughout Ephesians, Colossians, Romans 11, and John's writings, in the Greek. [Colossians is a really good summary of the other books, excepting John's material. It's like a diplomatic brief on how to represent your King in a foreign country, based on "hope" (confident expectation, pregnant term in Greek literature). "Hope" is a Bible witticism for getting Christ's Thinking in your head, and for the Bema Blessing which results. That's why Col 1:27 reads as it does: "hope" is the epistle's theme, Col 1:5; "Christ in you..glory" is the Bema result, 1:27. DueDisclosure.htm has more detail on this true diplomatic mission in light of the Angelic Trial: to learn our King's thinking and then practice it as we live in this body, under Angelic Trial terms. It's only peripheral, how we engage with people. Important, because diplomatic; but they are not our boss and not our judge, nor are they the criteria for how well we serve. Trouble is, you have to read Colossians in the Greek. It's badly mistranslated in key spots, substituting out God's works, replacing Him with man; so reverses what Paul writes. So you really need a pastor who teaches this book from the original languages. Very important book, full of deft references to all prior Canon.]
So you, too, are capable of being listed in a Spiritual Hall-of-Fame, like the roster in Hebrews 11. And why not? If not for those folks, the rest of us wouldn't have any life at all. Justly. Remember the "calculus" paragraph, how it doesn't matter what the object, if Divine Function can go into it? Well, this is a soul into which Infinite Truth is going! So by voting for that Truth, You Have Divine Function to Please Father! Remember the "Spiritual Heraldry" section, how you have Divine Voting Power, and the Holy Spirit says the equivalent of "Light, Be!" -- the equivalent of empowering the Humanity of Christ on the Cross? He's given "without limit" Now, John 7:39 (and elsewhere). Same Power, Same Person, doesn't matter at all how puny or 'bad' you think you are. Only matters, what you VOTE. For, "You, in Me!" (table in 3rd Reason for Royalty) -- that's your status, "In the Beloved", Eph1. What you were is not important, for who you are, is "in Christ" (refrain in Bible). The visible 'you' is really a leftover, Now a chrysalis -- ugly duckling now a swan, if you prefer. Holy Spirit is developing the new you from within the old you; you can't see it, you can't touch it, you can't feel it, it's Royally Invisible, 1Jn3:2. But Visible to Father, Heb4:13 (frequent OT refrain; note carefully the context is Heb4:12, see also Heb11:6). Never underestimate the Power of Christ.
The world calls it a "makeover" if you get a new hairstyle and some new clothes. That's way too puny for God. It's God's Level of "makeover", only if the Same Stature as His OWN Nature, Eph4:13 -- or it's not even remotely acceptable. Since "Dad" is looking at you, COUNT ON IT -- you are being made over at His SON'S level, every moment you reside in God's System. I live on that knowledge. Ok, Dad, since I'm a jerk, 'Mom' the Holy Spirit is making me into Your Son, because you have to look at me. That's why Cain and the world's works are burnt up at the end of time, 2Peter3. Better things have come (refrain in 2Cor5, whole book of Hebrews). God has Infinite Standards, and they can therefore only be met by God Making Them Met In You. Else you'd not be here, and there'd be no salvation.
You had to become god-undergoing-Word-surgery in order to even be saved, 2Cor5:21. Now, it's a matter of building you.
Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? If even 10 people were "righteous" (which in OT times meant believers who were positive), the entire pentapolis would have been spared destruction. So, now that Christ is Risen, and you are Royal "in" Him, how much more, do a lot of lives depend on your learning Bible Doctrine? What, does a king benefit his people directly? No, but through agents: some agents are thinkers, and some doers. Peasants are doers. Enemies are doers. "But the sons are exempt", the Lord told Peter, about the two-drachma tax (Matt17:26). God will benefit them on your behalf while you learn, just as the world was sustained while Christ learned.
Bible keywords "fill", "fullness", "perfect/complete/mature" are used to describe the blessing-by-association God the Father has made of us. While we learn, our potential to reach this highest status justifies the world continue (analogous to, but higher than, Jeshurun class-elite in the OT). Now, what work could you ever do, as great as that one? Or what do you think "salt of the earth" means? If you lose your "saltiness" (positive volition to learning Him -- a neat, ironic twist on sin's "leaven"), then you are cursing by association. After all, Royalty has always been the boon or bane of history.
It's your choice: become a great believer, by learning Bible Doctrine, calmly knowing that the meanwhile God Himself is doing more and better works in your name. Why? because you're finally doing what few do -- obeying the First Commandment -- so He's pleased to hear HIS Son's thinking grow in you. To express Himself, His Pleasure in you, who are reflecting His Son's thinking more and more as you learn, He Blesses Them, For Being Associated With You. That's far, far more than you yourself could ever begin to even imagine doing. Now, does Eph3:20's "infinitely more than we could ask or think" and Eph1's "God's superior power" begin to make more sense? Heh, 'quite a bit bigger than a Brother Foot, huh?
So, if you are learning Bible Doctrine while brushing your teeth (turning doctrine over in your mind, to understand it better, pretend), God the Father, being pleased with that, is benefiting those poor in ways you yourself couldn't do! So, what's the real best way to help the poor? Is your Royal Role in His Kingdom becoming clearer to you? God doesn't want you to be a peasant. He already has plenty of those. Will you reject your Royal inheritance, erroneously thinking it is "too high" for you, like the believers in Deut 30:11ff? Like Christians do now, in their hustling to benefit Satan, though in God's Name? Will you be a peasant like they are, "enemies of the Cross", as Paul laments? 'Shipwrecked from doctrine, off-course from doctrine? (1Tim1:19, James1:6b -- "faith" there means "what is believed", hence "doctrine".)
Satan of course, will keep pushing cheap "Brother Foot" stuff (1Cor10:21), so to distract us all from learning Christ, so that the Father must kill us off. As you'll see in Part IV -- which also extensively covers Satan's strategy and tactics against believers -- Satan first crafts a media blitz so he can tranquilize the masses, thereby allowing for concentration on those few who decide to learn God's Script in God's System. The demons can't be everywhere at once, so they have to split their attention between the big, visible, mass-anesthetizing ploys, and the individual, pick-on-the-positive-believer attacks. So if you are learning Him, you're under attack.
So you'll be tempted to think yourself too puny, too low (that's a Love Motive growing in you, don't mistake it); you'll be tempted to get cocky, as you realize your own superior knowledge (that's a Power Motive growing in you, don't mistake it). So no, it truly doesn't matter if you were an axe-murderer before you got in the System, it only matters that you be in the System. So no, it truly doesn't matter that you owned the world and everyone praised you before you got in the System, it only matters that you be in the System. Christ's payment is all-sufficient, it's only a matter of Thinking For FATHER, and all else gets used as training aids. Your sins, another's sins, the stupidities in this world, even toilet waste. Only people who hate God resent that someone THEY regard as immoral or inferior, gets blessing from God. So why should God bless those who hate Him? Should not God be blessed? Isn't the one who resents God's Grace worse than a murderer? John sure thinks so, in the Greek of 1Jn3:18!
So everything is designed FOR FATHER. Not for human approbation. So now everything is ennobled, to teach, train. Paul was the worst sinner who ever lived, 1Tim1:15, and Paul ordered all kinds of evil upon Christians. So guess what: God doesn't resent or say we can't be blessed. Whyever not? Because GOD BENEFITS. Doesn't Father have to see it from forever-eternity-past and forever-eternity-future, as we saw in the Third Reason for Royalty?
This pressure is intense, as we saw in the Fourth Reason for Royalty. Now in Part IV, we'll see how awesome our role is with respect to history, to better understand the macro side of the pressures we face. Brushing your teeth is a BIG deal, not a small one. One small thought is a Big Deal. Nothing is small in Christ, and Everything is in Christ (main theme of Eph1, all of Colossians). So also the converse: there's no such thing as a small mistake. So 1Jn1:9 is your lifeline, your way to trebuchet out of the sin, the error, the evil you will inevitably get into, over and over and over and over. Phili3:14 is your lifeline, therefore: katá skopón diókw, eis to Brabeion, tes ANW klesews, tou Theou -- en Christoi Iesou. Poetically translated (march heavily as you say this): "Goal in Sight I pursue, steadily marching; to the Bema Prize Destination! The higher 'Calling' from God [Father]: in, by means of Christ!" [His Head in my head!]
Here's the 'trap": morality is about right and wrong, so is easily deflected for Trial purposes into questions about rights, which thus cheapen "love" into a rights issue. Thus God is cut out in the name of the Very Love which is On Trial. Grace gets cut out of the picture, so "love" is not love at all, but a growing totalitarianism. Nice totalitarianism. Killingly-nice. Brave-New-World "nice". Everyone has a place. To make the masses happy, we sing songs of equality, but of course everyone is so busy trying to be important, the equality song is just sung, like the national anthem. To make one feel as though all's well with Ford in his flivver. If it ain't broke, don't fix it: don't need God, because nuthin's broke -- or, worse, God smiles down on humanity, the new golden age has begun. Angel-of-light stuff. All via development of morality. Look around you: it's everywhere. All the time. Everywhere in the world.
Why does Satan not want you to learn Christ? Ahhh, learning Christ makes you spiritually competent, right under the Devil's nose! More importantly, Satan doesn't want God to grant blessing-by-association, when you "do" learn Him! Such blessing speeds Satan's loss. Part IV will explain why. But by now you should at least get the hint that without spiritual competence, moral competence can only descend into evil.
See, since the stress on visibility makes one ever more blind, one's moral competence declines as the blindness increases. When you can't see how evil thing "A" is, your previous sight with respect to thing "B", erodes. Sooner or later even the stuff man considers evil, can't be solved. That's why the stuff everyone bemoans is so prevalent. All for the want of a nail. All sins were nailed to the Cross, but people just keep on wanting to ignore that fact, and make an issue of their sin nature thinking of good-and-evil. Well, all that is sin, dummy! Sin cuts God out, fundamentally. So cuts out sight, integrity, love, etc. Leaving only seductive tyranny. Which seductive tyranny, is very easily seen on TV. Of course, most who watch it, cannot see. So we need invisible heroes. Every day.
Do you now begin to see how valuable your learning is, to every human being on the planet? And even more so, to God? What, is God's Infinite Pleasure in your learning of no value? What, is God's expression of His Pleasure in your learning -- toward those very people you want benefitted -- too small? Of course not. The world needs us to learn Him, so that He can justify giving them enough time, enough opportunity to "find" Him. That's "redeeming the time". Royally. Right under Satan's nose. [Part IVa is about how we redeem time. Mirroring.htm demonstrates it from Adam forward. Very heavy stuff, lots of Bible verses and math to play with. But provable, if you're willing to do the vetting.]
Ok. You can grin now. It's okay to be Royal; it's okay that God wants you and will make of you this far, far, bigger blessing than all the world's money could do. So let's look into the historical impact God creates out of the believer: Click Here to go on to Part IVa, the Precedence for our So-Great Royal Inheritance.