NT Interpretive Keys, the "More" notes

Any topics here are also vetted in much more detail in my other websites. Focus here is on the ESSENTIALS of the answer, not the backup validating it.

First, the GOOD NEWS! Due to the Successful Outcome of the Cross, GOD GAVE SCRIPTURE TO EVERYONE, and everyone between Pentecost and Rapture, is a Royal Priest. (Hebrews 1, 1Pet2:5,9; Rev1:6, 5:10; Eph2, whole chapter. LordvSatan3.htm explains w/a LOT more detail.) For, GOD WANTS INTIMACY, not distance. Even what theology calls "verbal plenary inspiration", is really the heart and soul of the spiritual life: COMPATIBLE INTIMACY with INFINITE GOD. For, Intimacy without compatibility, is hell! But, Infinity by NATURE is INTIMATE, pervading EVERYTHING! Even the dumbest person can understand that compatibility makes for enjoyment. So even the dumbest person SHOULD understand that Infinitely-Righteous God wants COMPATIBILITY with who He creates. So, Bible is EVIDENCE of HOW God the Holy Spirit CREATES that compatibility: He 'writes' into a human soul, the Lord's (Humanity's, in NT) own THINKING. Then, the human receiving that thinking 'exhales' it, so to speak: in writing, the Canon.

We are supposed to know Scripture THAT well: our future depends on it. So for the rest of us, this same process is mandated; but of course, we ourselves don't 'exhale' it perfectly as the Canon writers did. And, we need to be UNDER God-appointed pastors; a precious few, amidst all the wolves. For, we are not to learn Scripture on our own (Eph4:11-16 in GREEK makes this so clear it's unmistakable). That's why Christianity started out in HOMES, for crying out loud. Not institutions, and not people claiming their own authority, either.

So, as one grows spiritually in this God-designed process, His Thinking is PROGRESSIVELY built and exhaled in every thought. Aha, now note the parallel, the FUNCTION of verbal plenariness, so to speak: Eph3:15-19, the goal of the spiritual life. Of course, it takes a lifetime (or nearly so) to reach this goal. Of course, it SHOULD take that long, for life is but a pregnancy. (Rom8:18-end chapter -- English trans covers up the pregnancy analogy, because English translators almost always cover up any sexual meanings Bible uses; so use a HUGE, UNABRIDGED Greek lexicon as you read each word in that passage. NIV does bring out some of the analogy, but Paul is making the analogy with marriage/ sex/ pregnancy keywords in EVERY verse of the passage, strongly alluding to the STRESS on such concepts in the OT as well.) When we die, we are born to eternity with Him. (1Cor15:20-28, 35-57; whole chapter, really.)

The replacement motive spawned by the genetic REJECTION of God, is self-aggrandizement, born of innate insecurity. Every human has this proclivity. Hence the need to use God to gain SELF-ESTEEM, and power over people: so "God" will be publically promoted, and self will consider self 'better', if pro-God. But it's an ANTAGONISM, masquerading as holy -- which is DEMONSTRABLE, because SELF IS BETTER OR WORSE to the extent self goes ALONG, or goes AGAINST the popularly-sold idea. Notice how "God" is only WORTH what makes self BECOME IN THE EYES OF THE GROUP. So "God" becomes a 'dog'! to do the GROUP's bidding; to make self GET GOODIES from the Group. No greater hatred of God, than that. And no one MEANS to hate Him! Yet a little problem, some injustice, wham! WHO GETS BLAMED? Just as Adam blamed Him, in Gen3 -- the woman YOU GAVE ME (it's all your fault, God)...

So, look what a threat it is to the GROUP, if someone is just plain INTERESTED in God, so wants to LEARN HIS BOOK. Oh! can't gain power over people unless God is painted as Someone who is to be FEARED, not known! That idea taps directly into the initial sin reaction (remember when Adam hid, in Gen3), so it finds a WIDE AUDIENCE. To which audience, YOU are a threat, if you don't 'join', see. [Tie-in verses are many, but these few come immediately to mind: Luke 14:28 in context, Eph6:12 in context of Eph3:10 (the other 'angelic' bookend for this theme); "persecute" verses in KJV and similar-theme verses.]

So we 'reply' by NOT fighting; by DISregarding the hostility, the ignorance, the 'shame': Heb12:2. [LordvSatan2.htm has more details in its "In the beginning.. Man" section, but you are best off starting with LordvSatan1.htm to get the backdrop. See all "shame" and "ashamed" verses. New Revised Standard has the biggest list.] For, we are NOT ashamed to call them brothers (Heb2). With family, you BACK OFF, right? See Acts 21:14's Greek, how Paul's entourage stopped trying to dissuade him from his quixotic, ANTI-GOD desire to go to Jerusalem: in the name of God, Paul wanted to martyr himself; in the name of God, Paul wanted to defend, witness, etc. But the REAL GOD, wanted Paul to stay put in Rome. Which of course, is where God put him anyway.. in chains. So we should learn from this greatest among believers, Paul.. not to tie ourselves up in knots over how others react to Him.

So we should learn from this Paul that our own bodies will play tricks on us in God's name. Body CANNOT LEARN SCRIPTURE (theme in Rom8). So when one is NOT Filled with Spirit, NOT using 1Jn1:9 but instead in a state of 1Jn1:8 or 10, the BODY's ideas of the words IN Scripture, are the 'interepretation' taken. Which of course, will look 'right' to the BODY. Sin nature's ideas, bought by soul, because NO FILLING. Hence all the warring. For the profit/fruit of the Spirit, is love and prosperity, peace -- Gal5. So the warring is NOT a spiritual interpretation; note how it doesn't matter HOW MATURE you are, spiritually, how EDUCATED you are, secularly, how TALENTED you are, naturally -- absent Filling, you're Satanfodder, and so is anyone else.

Ergo, bodies read passages like Galatians 5, and say oh, we must never fight! Ignoring, conveniently, the fact that God ordered the ANNIHILATION of mostly everyone in the Land, when He ordered Joshua to go in. Or, bodies read passages like Joshua, and say, oh, we must ALWAYS FIGHT! and thus behave like the Crusaders and adherents of Catholic Church did, ANNIHILATING anyone who disagreed with them. Truth is TWO-sided: a time to fight, a time to make peace. Bodies, though, have no CLUE about those borderlines, because they are SPIRITUALLY discerned (1Cor2).

All this body-distortion suits Satan just fine, since his contention is that God SHOULD have a forms-based relationship to creation, such that WORKS have merit such that CREATURES can claim to be comparable to the most High. So Satan needs to REVERSE God's message, and then PRETEND what he says, is what 'God' says. Ergo, a satanic 'law of gravity', black holes included: that whatever is FALSE, is widely disseminated as true. The advertised loudness and commonality of the false, substitute for intrinsic validity. Kinda like Pravda did in its articles to its people. Kinda like that Iraqi general did a few weeks ago (4/2003), when saying (typical Arab tactic since Ishmael), the Republican Guard overtook American troops and Iraq controls in Baghdad, though of course the opposite occurred. So to find the true, you REVERSE the disseminated, advertised, popular meaning. Heh.

This, because the REVERSE of God, is what people want. It's in the genes (Adam's old sin nature is genetic). So you can easily prove from any reading of history that people want God's goodies, but not Him. For, God is but a status symbol: status and fitting-in with other PEOPLE is their real 'god'.[Phili3:19, but Greek word for "belly" is literally "womb", and idiomatic translation means "emotion"; term has thus a distinct pregnancy/sexual connotation, much like the pregnancy analogy of James 1. Spiritual fornication. Isaiah6 ties in.]

These predilections we all genetically inherited from Adam as a result of him choosing the woman over God when she sinned. So, we believe "x" because parents or friends do; because it's politically-correct; because of some feeling; because the belief seems 'smart'; in short, belief based on ANYthing BUT the content. Not just content regarding God, but regarding anything! We use all information in life to 'get ahead' or make a name for ourselves, or impress. So truth is NOT desired, but rather its NAME, so to get its goodies; relationships are not desired, only their goodies. For, one can't reject GOD, and thereafter avoid rejecting all else...

Retardation in humans is a STUNTING. Some part of body, brain, emotion -- doesn't finish growing, but ARRESTS. It's a tragic thing, and even more tragic when it's a SPRITUAL ARREST. We all know someone who prefers being childish on some topic .. or, many. Such a person is hard to live with, because the person is NOT genetically or otherwise handicapped, and instead, INSISTS on being that way. We know it's DIFFERENT from something imposed, since it's ABNORMAL. But think: what if Satan could sell a RETARDED SPIRITUALITY TO MILLIONS? Then, we wouldn't recognize it as abnormal.

See, when we believe in Christ (John 3:16, faith alone in Christ alone, PERMANENTLY SAVES ANYONE), WE ARE SPIRITUALLY BORN AGAIN. So, as spiritual babies we are BLANK; additionally, we had genetically inherited Adam's sin nature, which renders man spiritually-blind-dead, and BLAMING (analyse Gen3, see also Rom5-8): that genetic, dissociative (psychiatric term), predilection REMAINS, so long as we are in this body. So, once SPIRITUALLY-born (John 3), we begin learning just as we did as physical babies, by doings and commandments and simple, concrete things. Problem is, in the Royal Spiritual Life Christ gave us, we aren't to STAY babies. The OT is babyish, by comparison. So, that's what Christians gravitate TO: the concrete statements in Scripture, the "milk". Overlooking, never learning, the "meat" (see Heb5:11-6:6, Greek). A sympathetic explanation of this phenomenon, which OT folks experienced in their way, is covered in LordvSatan2.htm and LordvSatan3.htm. What follows, by contrast, catalogues the nasty results of remaining spiritually-retarded.

That's how and why Christianity apostatised into the catholic mode beginning with the Jerusalem legalists (see Acts 15ff); then, went political, infecting everything beginning sometime in the 100's AD; why Scripture has been closeted only for 'experts', during most of its history; why mainstream Christianity has largely remained legalistic, and its adherents, Biblical retards, clergy included. That's how a dingbat creed like TULIP goes on for 400 years, since no one cares to REPAIR its (unintended!) malignings against Sovereign God.

That's how BIBLE TRANSLATIONS are riddled with incredibly-obvious errors no one even bothers to fix -- for centuries. What, is it too much trouble to fix "Kenchreia" in Acts 18:18 to KEGCHREIA? What, is it too much trouble to de-capitalize "pros" in James 4:5? And, in both cases, FIX THE CENTURIES-OLD errant translations? Even though, particularly with Jas4:5, the ERROR MALIGNS the Holy Spirit? LOL! But oh, why bother, if people aren't interested, and too DUMB? But oh, can't admit a mistake, we'll lose parishoners! People won't TRUST us anymore! As if the Holy Spirit were 'chopped liver', and couldn't communicate such sophistication! LOL: even retarded persons can learn under Spirit: we had some in our own congregation, and their understanding of Him would put these elites, to shame...

Then again, the elitists are proven RIGHT in hiding mistakes, in teaching Bible in kindergarten-y soundbytes, for look what happened when ONE priest-pederast is publically convicted IN COURT. Oh, then people whine and mew about losing their faith! And then imagine whole POPULATIONS of pederasts, going on TV with their imaginings! Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? What, can't priests be human, too? Clearly all these people whining NEVER WANTED GOD in the first place, but only the ATTENTION! What a horrible job, to have such FICKLE parishoners in your care, all your years of hard work on their behalf RUINED FOREVER because one man of the cloth, gave into his sin nature...

It happens all the time, in every area of authority: people PRETEND respect, PRETEND interest, but really.. you screw up once, baby, and they can't devour you fast enough. Because, it was all a PRETENSE. Just turn on TV, anytime since Watergate. Greed, baby. Greed to RUIN someone in authority, to get on TV, to get money, to get attention, waaahhhh waaaahhh wahhhh. Diapered spiritual babies. Full of, you-know-what. When we could INSTEAD get full of Diamonds...

Get this point loud and clear: the reason there is a Dome of the Rock instead of a Temple in Jerusalem, is that Israel REFUSED GOD AS THEIR KING. They refused Him back in 1080BC or so when they wanted a human king so to be like the other nations. They refused Him when He came here in the First Advent, so the Temple was destroyed by Titus. So we Christians refuse Him THE SAME WAY when we elect some megachurch or denomination. We are electing to be religious just like the OTHER RELIGIONS have always been: institutional, political. Christian right is soooo satanic in this regard, it's almost impossible to stop crying. So too, back in the first century, so too now: it's a REJECTION OF CHRIST AS HEAD, just as vile as it has always been when others had the Word entrusted to them. WE ARE NOT BETTER. WE ARE WORSE. So our punishment will be worse, too. Remember Paul's warnings in Romans 11? Remember Hebrews' warnings, in Heb10:18-39, and Heb12:15ff?

No fancy institutions should keep a distance between God's OWN SCRIPT and you, calling that distance, holy?! What a spit upon God that is! What, were your sins distant from Christ on the Cross? What, does Romans 6 not exist? What, does 2Cor5 mean nothing? What, if family members chanted the same things to YOU every Sunday, and only prayed to GET something, grovelling on their knees with the ulterior idea you must LIKE grovelling -- would THAT be true praise? Even the 1970's British rock band, "Jethro Tull", knew better: singing on the 2nd side of the Aqualung album, "He's not the kind you have to wind up ... on Son-day."

Notice how clever Satan was. He fostered the INSTITUTIONALIZATION of Christendom into a HARLOT beginning in the 90's AD. Hence all the Canon epistles of that time focus mostly on BEWARE FALSE TEACHERS. The theme literally saturates Peter's, John's, Jude's letters. Those are all post-Temple letters. [Well, some don't say 1Peter is post-Temple, but after siege began. Will revise when I learn more.] Ergo, Revelation, which stresses the SAME theme, and shows how through the end of History (Dan9:26-27, elaborated), this apostacy will always take the same trend. Satan's strategy is Rev12-13,17.

So notice how clever Satan is now: since the 90's AD, we've collectively gone through a BREAKUP of institutionalized Christianity, but REBIRTHED it with many WARRING children, instead of just one warring, Catholic Church. It's 'universal', allright. Everyone WARRING with their respective denominations; everyone CLAMORING for political power. We splintered into STATE CHURCHES in the Reformation, that's all. Then we came to America, wanting to be out from UNDER state control, and vowed never to have that link between state and church. Yet, look where we are RETROGRESSING, in America today? And every 'doctrine' we crusade on, is THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what Scripture says. Provably. Soooo evil, so NOT focused on God, so IN His Name, but not in Him AT ALL. Never underestimate the power of Satan.

Notice, if you are inclined, that we didn't become "America" overnight. We intended this free, personal faith, but we settled in enclaves where religion quickly became political with respect to its group. As the population grew, as people LEFT the enclaves when they became too much like mother Europe, we became commercially successful, and Europe wanted to claim us. So, we found a freedom grounds BESIDES yet related to, our variant faiths. ONLY THEN did we coalesce into the polity the world knows as the United States. Even then, our stupid ideas about slavery (which were horrible, but no where near as horrible as the revisionists paint) divided us. But the Civil War, also replete with evil (north imposing on south), ended up resolving that dichotomy. In many ways the best period of our history, was the 1880+ period. We consolidated, began to see how BIG and PROSPEROUS we were, and well.. we began to betray Our Heart.

Today, we are rapidly betraying ourselves, and the Christian right leads the way, raping our history with its satanic idea that we were founded as a UNION of church and state (guess they can't even read The Federalist Papers, anymore). Here in America the quality of Bible Teaching has really declined since the 1950's. The 'people' like simple, shiny, splashy -- so, that desire is catered to, especially today with so many 'Disneyland' megachurches. On the other hand, elitists here, like elitists anywhere, have long claimed that the people are too DUMB or UNINTERESTED to get Scripture's real import, so they teach it diluted, processed, de-germed, stripped and sugared.

And no wonder. Witness the next item in evidence: Watch how easily you can prove that where a Bible quote is not recognized as such, and its content IS recognized, that man is INSULTED by what Bible says. So, when it comes to God's BOOK, people demonstrate an ongoing proclivity to examine anything BUT content. Take, for example, the June 2004 issue of Good Housekeeping. On page 144 you will find a tirade against Matt7:6's "do not cast your pearls before swine". Clearly the author, a New York Times journalist, didn't even do his homework to first recognize that the quote is in the BIBLE, that the LORD spoke it; and, of course, GH didn't do their homework, either. The author takes umbrage at the idea that pigs are being maligned, for he owns two of them. So he spends the ENTIRE ARTICLE on how great his pigs are, to REFUTE the quotation. Deeming the quote to reference one's OWN ABILITIES, he concludes the article with a "moral" that one's pearls should not be selfishly kept away from mankind; that mankind isn't swinish, and pigs "bring out the best in me".

Whoa. So, of course, the SWINISH WRITING in that piece stands out for all to see. Poor guy: he didn't mean to make a fool of himself, and any of us at any time do the same thing, so we can all empathize with him. Look: the verse is about SCRIPTURE ("do not give what is HOLY to dogs"), not about man at all. "Swine" at the time of writing were forbidden food under the Law, and so the term is NOT talking about pigs, but about eating the wrong beliefs, or SELLING THE RIGHT BELIEFS (the Word) to those who REJECT them. See also Acts 21:14's last clause; and the writing-in-the-sand passage (about the woman caught in adultery). It's a recurrent theme, in Gospels: The Lord flatly contradicts Christendom's posture today -- the LORD says, DON'T SELL BIBLE. God wrote it, God handles it. God doesn't need white-shoed salesman to hawk His wares. Matt7:6's obvious IMPORT: don't treat God's Holy Word AS IF IT WERE SPOILED FOOD fit only for throwing out to dogs or pigs. (See also Romans 2, and Galatians, where Paul tells the legalists in his audience that they ARE trashing/trampling the Word, causing it to be reviled.)

Of course, the verse's meaning is obvious if you know how Bible uses simple terms like "holy", "pearl", "eat", "food" (Matt4:4); "dogs", and "swine". If you don't do homework in how Bible uses its own metaphors, then you make the same self-embarrassing mistake as the journalist did, above. We all don't do our homework, we all blindly abuse Bible, we all are swine. That's the BEST we are. Which, articles like the one above, amply illustrate. Listen to almost anyone use some Scripture at any time, and you'll find the same embarrassment parade. Heck, we even make fools of ourselves by proposing marriage amendments, which are OBVIOUSLY unconstitutional! No wonder Bible calls us sheep... [Sheep are the stupidest, smelliest animals on the planet. They can't find water, don't have any antibiotic properties in their saliva, have a proclivity for getting lost or stuck or run over, and have to be CONSTANTLY taught to forage.]

Next item in evidence: notice also how clever Satan is to link the ONE thing America has going for it, PRO-ISRAEL, to the harlot; so that a DISCERNING Christian has to choose between a PRO-God choice (Israel), and an ANTI-God choice (the evil influence of the Christian right on domestic politics). It's RIGHT to be in Iraq. Most brilliant understanding of America's role in the world since we were founded. You never CATER to terrorism, you can't CONTAIN terrorism (Wolfwitz is brilliant, as are the rest of the team) -- you ERADICATE terrorism. And you eradicate it in ITS NEST. Like you do, termites and cockroaches. To exterminate roaches, you have to mount prolonged and repeated campaigns until you reduce their numbers so much, they can't REPRODUCE well. It's not a "Predator" movie's solution, for crying out loud.

It's a never-ending battle, and until Iraq has a GENERATION of people who learn something BESIDES the terrorism they all grew up with, it CAN'T change. SO WE NEED TO DO RIGHT IN IRAQ what we didn't do, in Vietnam... STICK IT OUT FOR AT LEAST A GENERATION. That's good for them, good for US, and all the whining against it, is satanic. Those who malign US are basically saying it was quite alright for the TERRORISTS to murder lots of innocent people in ships, planes, buildings. But God forbid that the US, in order to DEFEND ITSELF AGAINST FUTURE ATTACKS, should attack the guy who was terrorizing his own people, and who spearheaded terrorism to get MONEY from others who support it. Common sense would tell you that any WMD would have been SMUGGLED OUT of the country long before we came in -- it's not as though they didn't have 12 years WARNING... sheesh.

We shoulda done in 1990 what we did in 2002, and then MANY lives would have been spared. What other nation in the Middle East, blew up tons of oil, thereby condemning millions to poverty, sickness -- money that had to be spent on CLEANUP which could have been spent on the poor. What other nation in the Middle East kept playing games with the UN? Hussein and all those who supported him are MONSTERS. Yet, we just slapped little ineffectual sanctions -- which made any WMD, that much BETTER A CURRENCY FOR SALES. Oh, and the global community was soooo afraid of the US exercising its muscle.. we didn't have the political WILL in 1990 to do it. The whiners in 1990 et seq., are the real murderers. God warned the Israelites to wipe out people when He sent them into the Land. There was a REASON for that: the Canaanites were terrorizing their own people. But Israel didn't listen, either, for the same reason we are wimping out, now.

Now, watch Satan's genius in the 2004 election, such that no matter how one votes, he ends up voting, EVIL. Via the Rev17 harlot having control in American Politics, Satan thus links the BRILLIANT policy on Iraq, to the most evil, the Christian right: many infiltrations into our personal lives, wrecking whole corporations, promulgating stupid abortion and marriage laws and amendments which are ALL UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND ANTI-BIBLICAL -- by Christians who wouldn't know their Bible, if it BIT THEM. Which, it will: Lev26, and they who take up the sword (activism, revolution) will perish BY it. Trouble is, as Jeremiah explains IN GREAT DETAIL, if TOO MANY in the nation are ROTTEN FIGS, the entire nation is destroyed -- any good figs are first REMOVED.

So your vote is rather important: FIRST FOR DOCTRINE, then for USING doctrine to be a citizen. So what does a voter do? Well, wheat (pro-Iraq, pro-Israel) exist side by side with the tares (evil Christian right). Do what the Lord says, use 1Jn1:9, ask Father in Son's name for the THINKING you need to make the right voting decision -- ask GOD, not man. It's before the Lord, WHAT THINKING you should have; then, whatever that is, you do it. Christ did that: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me." We are AMBASSADORS for Christ, NOT crusaders. The most WRONG thing you can do as a FOREIGN resident, is to DISOBEY or CRUSADE against, the laws of the country to which you are sent. Well, as a CITIZEN of whatever country you are in, you are SENT THERE BY GOD. So, when Christ was SENT, He didn't crusade, He didn't use violence, we are to be good citizens (Timothy letters, Rom13, Philemon) -- and EAT DOCTRINE EVERY SECOND. That will deliver the nation, Sodom and Gomorrah analogy.

So study is no light thing, because interest in God must be opposed, both by your own inherited sin nature, and by others'. So perhaps ignore, disregard (write in sand) or be 'low-key' in your response to all opposers within and without, to spare the opposers greater embarrassment at the Bema. Understand that Scripture's every jot and tittle has been fought over, maligned, chopped off, hidden (if possible) since Adam's fall. And of course, still is: both the "Bible Bumpkins" and "Thinking Out Loud" links on the Home page seek to explain how this raging battle plays in history; especially, NOW. (The discovery shocked me; so much so, I've had to keep writing, to myself recognize how universal the war has always been, though for decades my pastor taught us this fact. Guess I was hiding my own brainout head in the sand for all those decades under him, lol!) So if you are interested in God, you are at war. God fights the battles, you stand firm in the Word (cf Eph6), and just keep studying and learning how to use His Thinking in your every minute's breath. Oh, but this IS the hardest thing to 'do'! Conclusion: how do you reply to your 'enemies' who don't usually MEAN to BE, enemies? To those who scoff at Scripture study-in-depth? Or, to one's sin-nature arguments that deep Bible study is elitist or easy, or some "Western"/"white" heresy which threatens one's ancestral culture (as if God even had a body or gender)? Here's a great reply: isn't God the MOST IMPORTANT PERSON TO KNOW? How can you execute the First Commandment, if you don't KNOW the One who Bids it? After all, He DID write a BOOK: Heb4:12, 2Tim2:15,KJV; 2Tim3:16,NIV!

And to the argument that, well.. someone is too low in IQ, too handicapped, or too remote, or doesn't have the study tools needed: hello, isn't EVERYONE brained-out, when it comes to knowing God? Hello: is God Omnipotent, or what? If someone WANTS and BELIEVES Him, God provides! After all, HE ALONE PERSONALLY MADE EACH of US at Birth, so He knows how to TRANSCEND any handicap! [See NoWombLife.htm and the "near-and-far keywords" sections of NTKeys.htm. Lots of other Bible proof on this topic is scattered throughout these sites, because it is soo useful a topic to illustrate how Satan blinds us all.] No one, but No one is more interested in giving Bible, than its AUTHOR! And just imagine the contrast: for as I type, there are places in the world SO VERY HUNGRY for even a torn portion of the Bible! Reminds you of the Ps119 people... (www.bf.org helps get the Word to remote locations, which is how I learned this.) Someone told me of a tribesman in Africa who had to hike 30 miles just to get a lesson from his pastor. Where do you find positive volition like that in the US?

Meanwhile, expect the war to go on and on and on with every variety of spiritual cockroaches. Grow, Christian! so God thus can justify RESCUING our fellow cockroaches, among whom we all once were, from...

Ironically, Relic hunters tied up my Home page in April 2004, with the result that the server BLOCKED my page for an hour (a geocities policy when too many try to access a page). I had words in the page then which (unbeknownst to me) echoed the name of some expedition seeking to find Noah's ARK. So many people SEARCHED to find data about that expedition, the server overloaded. So now, think: what good would it do to find Noah's Ark? Like James' bones, who can ever be SURE it's the Ark? So what if it was? Wouldn't Noah have been a FOOL to leave all that great wood jammed on some hilltop? Wouldn't he have been PRUDENT to BREAK UP the wood and cart it downhill via all those many animals? Wouldn't it be more MEANINGFUL to then build a HOUSE out of the wood, once settled? As a memorial to GRACE? I mean, it's NORMAL to be a relic-hunter, because we all like touching the past.

So, think: wouldn't NOAH have wanted to keep this ARK as a relic, himself -- so made OTHER THINGS out of the wood? See how the relic-hunters are wacko? Surely any sane person would NOT have left the wood there. Surely the relic-hunters, which include the dingdongs who are FUNDING this stupid expedition as well as those tying up webpages to search on the expedition -- surely the relic-hunters, don't have working brains, because COMMON SENSE would recognize the foregoing sentences just MUST be true. That's us, all the time! We are brainouts! By Divine Design! Live on 1Jn1:9 AND STUDY under your right pastor!

A friend of mine once went on and on about how a BBC search for relics of the Exodus in the Sinai turned up nothing -- thereby proving the Exodus didn't happen! "Oh?" I said calmly, "After 3000+ years they actually EXPECTED to find something?" So Christians aren't the only ones drawing insane conclusions from relics (or lack thereof)...

This hunger for relics is the same as the hunger for dreams and visions, and other titillating stuff. So, Gramma Satan&Co. are always happy to oblige our demonstrable lack of faith. So they will kindly fool folks with PLEASANT 'visitation' of one kind or another. Hallmark characteristic of their 'visitation'? THE FEELING IS COMPELLING. Like a drug.

God never compels. What, do you think GOD motivated all those dippy people to search for Noah's Ark expedition? When He took the time to PERSONALLY FEED SCRIPTURE to over 40 people over 1500 years? Which RELIC do you think GOD 'backs': some gopher wood which might be stuck in a mountain -- or the MOUNTAIN OF SCRIPTURE WHICH IS THE ROCK'S THINKING? Sheesh. Just like the Dome of the Rock, something greater than Noah's Ark is here, the REAL ARK's Thinking -- and well, we're not interested....

God never resorts to salesmanship, nor does He ever ask you to do it, either, i.e., make a sacrifice -- BECAUSE HIS SON ALREADY PAID, remember? So you don't need dog-and-pony shows from God, and He doesn't need them from YOU, either. Look more CLOSELY at all works and sacrifices in the Bible -- notice how they all BENEFIT the recipient, so can't properly be CALLED works or sacrifice. Bible's use of these terms should have been rendered in English with single quotes, to show how God tweaks works (i.e., Phili3 and all Gospel statements by the Lord). Man is the one who, due to SIN, wants works; so God, ever the Patient Teacher, FRAMES HIS TEACHING using the good-and-evil vocabulary fallen man can understand. So to have the WORD, the CONTENT of the WORD, is at once the ultimate SECURITY and the ultimate protection from the FLASHY Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, who ALWAYS wants your money, honey: Eph6, Rev17.

Old Testament people couldn't get a full Bible, but only PARTS of it, because until Christ invented the ROYAL ADULT spiritual life, the relationship to God was EXTREMELY limited (John 7:39, 14-17, all of Hebrews, 1&2Cor, Ephesians have this topic as a major subtheme). So, the OT folks HAD to rely on ritual, dreams, visions, relics -- and had all kinds of UPSET as a result. Remember Gideon? He didn't trust the miracles he got. Remember Jacob? He wouldn't let the Lord go (theophany), in that mock wrestling match; then, lame, he was STILL in shock. Remember Moses? Wow, he went through event after event before he was willing to go BACK to Egypt -- and then, only if he had a mouthpiece (Moses was ELOQUENT, not a stammerer). All these problems, for good reason: direct contact with God or a miracle from God is shocking, not pleasant. Kinda hard to learn principles when you have only pictures (i.e., miracle/dream) to go by. So much easier to get a written explanation YOU CAN'T LATER CALL A HALLUCINATION.

Parting shot: just as NTKeys.htm began, if we're looking for PHYSICAL EVIDENCE the Bible is right.. just click your mouse on the link which takes you to the camera facing the Wailing Wall. [Link is in the "Multi-Religion Index" webpage accessible from my Home Page. I think it's in the "Non-Christian" subpage of links.] Or, just go to the library, and find a book on the Dome of the Rock. Daniel 9:26-27, right there. Matt24, right there. Every OT prophecy showing it's ON TIME in the Daniel timeline of fulfillment, right there. WHAT OTHER FAITH has THAT MUCH PROOF? Can the Koran prove itself, even though "proofs" are one of its catch phrases? NO! Can the Vedas, or the Bhagavad-Gita prove their divine origin? NO! You believe it or not.. but with BIBLE, here you have LIVING proof in the Dome and the Wailing wall, demonstrating MESSIAH IS CHRIST! For over 500 years, Israel knew the EXACT YEAR of His Birth, and since the Temple Destruction, has INCONTROVERTIBLE proof, that He left exactly AS PROMISED SINCE DANIEL AND THE OTHER PROPHETS. Again, what other faith, has so much UNDISPUTED RELIC proof?! We can't call the Dome and Wailing Wall, hallucination. No one disputes their existence. No one disputes their MEANING as STRUCTURES. But no one LOOKS AT HOW BIBLE PREDICTED THEM. ["Abomination" is anyone but Israel, making a shrine out of the Rock. That there will be a real talking statue there in the Tribulation, is just another kind of abomination, that's all.] I rest my case, and weep for Israel...

Many otherwise-positive believers are stuck here, thinking that oh, since the Holy Spirit is Our Teacher, then I don't NEED a pastor! They even get into Bible-related projects with robots and such, so think themselves qualified to study on their own. Oh yeah? Then why are 1Tim and 2 Tim and Eph2-4 and 1Cor12-13 in the Bible? Get real! There are, on the internet, pastors who teach in some depth in the original languages; many more have local churches in various spots around the world (with or without an internet address). Some of the ones I saw on the internet (my pastor is but one), had tape ministries, so you could order tapes from them. So you have NO excuse not to be under a right pastor. And you wouldn't WANT any, for once you see the DIFFERENCE it makes in the quality of your spiritual and secular life, you'll kick yourself for not getting under, earlier!

At least, start SOMEWHERE. Look: I was just as goofy at the beginning of my Christian life as any other Christian born. God introduced me to my right pastor as soon as I was a legal adult (see how God, the GREATEST AUTHORITY, Himself respects authority). Did I just jump in, studying? NO! I ALSO dallied around with other teachers, who I knew were NOT my own right pastor. It took about 10 years (oh, this is embarrassing to admit) before I 'graduated' from those (for me) diluted teachers, to ONLY the RIGHT one for me, and you don't even WANT to know how much Divine Discipline I got during those 10 years. In my case, when I finally woke up and smelled the coffee in 1981, my RIGHT teacher kept growing at a very rapid pace, so I didn't have to 'graduate' to someone else. (Some others graduate from one pastor to another, kinda like graduating from school: depends on how the pastor is growing, compared to how you are growing, under him. If you are growing so fast you need someone more advanced, God will show that person to you. Don't disregard His Voice.)

So if you are queasy about someone who teaches in the original languages, start with someone on a Christian channel or at a church who AT LEAST spends time in EXPOSITIONAL TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE rather than focusing on doo-goods or entertainment. I happened to chance upon at least five guys on Trinity Broadcasting Network who DO teach Scripture FOR ITSELF. So if over a few days I could find even five who TEACH at all on "TBN", the MALE teacher for YOU is 'out there' at a level which you find comfortable.

Conversely, a lot of Christians go overboard on the fact we each need a teacher and misinterpret Heb10:25 as a mandate to physical gathering in a church; and brand those who do NOT do this, as heretical. Well, then all those New Testament epistles were heretical, since they weren't 'face-to-face'? People gathered to HEAR THE LETTERS READ: they didn't have the internet, you know. They didn't gather to socialize, either: socializing was incidental to LEARNING CHRIST, for crying out loud. Greek word "didaskalos" means TEACHER TEACHES A GROUP. In the days while the New Testament was being codified, there were teachers armed by the Holy Spirit with pre-knowledge of what would BECOME Canon (1Cor13 is on this topic), and people assembled to LEARN. Just as the Jews did, in synagogue. It's not a social order to 'assemble', but an order to LEARN. Under a TEACHER. Whoever the teacher is, for YOU. HOWEVER you get that teaching, is "forsaking not". Socialization is optional, but getting the teaching, is REQUIRED.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH KEY ==> Being under a TEACHER OF SCRIPTURE is critical. It doesn't matter if you physically go to some building called a 'church' to GET that teacher's teaching. It also doesn't matter if he's not very advanced, and it doesn't matter if he's correct on all doctrines. We all needed secular teachers, to grow up; but LIFELONG, we all need spiritual teachers, to grow up in Christ. For, the Holy Spirit APPOINTS the (male, never female) teachers, so teaches them, and thus us: this is what Eph4:11-16 STRESSES in the Greek ('mistranslated). SO WHAT DOES MATTER IS TO KNOW WHO the Holy Spirit wants you to be under. Don't disregard His Voice. Frankly, though, you should aim at the 'uncomfortable' level as soon as possible: many a Christian who should 'graduate' to a more-deep teacher refuses to budge. That's the same as disregarding His Voice. What would have happened if you refused to go to high school, because you wanted to stay under your junior-high history teacher?

Differentiate between equal spiritual position, compared to UNequal spiritual authority on the 'team', the Body. Understand, that it doesn't matter which gender door you enter the spiritual life: see Galatians. Females get to learn how to HANDLE BEING IN AUTHORITY mostly through the 'door' of being UNDER authority; males get to learn how to handle being in authority through the 'door' of having authority. Granted, the Bible's idea of viable female authority encompasses things like running business, so is broader than most would understand. But there is a clear demarcation between SPIRITUAL authority and gender, which isn't necessarily true in the secular realm.

And -- get this -- the spiritual demarcation of AUTHORITY is there, BECAUSE both male and female are EQUAL in Christ. It's just HOW we learn to become KINGS. Yep, KINGS. There is NO gender differentiation, post-death. So to have the differentiation now and OBEY it where appropriate, BETTER TRAINS YOU. As Galatians and Corinthians and all those kingship verses repeatedly stress, ANYONE OF ANY GENDER can get to Pleroma (Eph3:19-21), the threshold of spiritual development which VESTS your Kingship promise, for any Church believer COMPLETING that phase. So gender is only a part of the overall CIRCUMSTANTIAL FORMAT in which you learn Christ, and is never a limitation; just as, no physical or social handicap hinders anyone from growing up to Pleroma, either. So don't EVER regard not being eligible for pastoral/evangelist roles due to feminine gender, demeaning. Unless, of course, you love being spanked by God, lol.

Just because we are equal in Christ, we are NOT equal in spiritual authority. A woman might have more doctrine than a male pastor, but that fact COUNTS FOR NOTHING, in the BODY's hierarchical structure. Eph4:11-16 is the succinct depiction of how the pastoral structure, WORKS. Look: just because Deborah was a judge in Israel; just because some women can teach other women ADJUNCTIVELY; just because some women in PRE-CANON times were given 'prophetess' roles, does NOT mean that PASTORAL WORD TEACHING was given to women. Believe me, if I could prove otherwise, I'd say so, because a whole lot of folks over the years have bugged me to teach, and I lost a good friend by REFUSING! A female with doctrine has a LOT of important roles which DON'T WORK unless ABSENT authority: this, because sometimes the WORD is easier to ACCEPT or understand if the speaker has NO authority. So the woman can encourage, pass on data, witness, report, and most important of all, THINK TOWARD FATHER; she can maybe even assist a pastor's research (I'm not sure how much), but she is NEVER an authority.

Wives, obey your husbands it says in Peter and Ephesians. Why? Because CHRIST IS OUR HUSBAND, and look what HE did?! He obeyed all the way THROUGH the Cross (Phili2:5-10). So, the man, he gets to learn the whole realm of Christ's Thinking in a 'fatherly' kind of way, being in charge. The woman, gets to learn the whole realm of Christ's Thinking in a 'motherly' kind of way, looking UP. Both, really, end up REFLECTING CHRIST ON THE CROSS, by life's end, if they grew to Pleroma. It's a very meaningful life. We shouldn't let cockroach-y ideas about authority, infect it...

Worse, those UNDER him EXPECT him to be a kind of 'god', just as children are so traumatized if their parents make (what the kids think is, or truly is) a mistake. This expectation INTENSIFIES the stabbing nature of command pressure. So, mistakes intensify, too. The biggest category of mistakes in this category is to DEMAND OBEDIENCE. It's RIGHT to demand it, but NOT right to squelch the learning, by squelching VOLITION. Thus you understand how Christianity's tyrannically-abusive "don't question!" standard got innocently developed: like parents to kids, "just DO it!"

What distinguishes authority and makes it BETTER, even if the individual in it might be less-qualified, is the WILLINGNESS TO MAKE THE TOUGH CALLS. Other qualifications help aid the COMPETENCE in making those calls -- but an authority can have ADVISORS, to get that information. The advisors, being advisors, are NOT equipped to make the tough call -- they are equipped to weigh pro's and con's, analyse the best answers -- but NOT, to RULE on them. It matters, this WILLINGNESS and STRENGTH to RULE ON. All by itself. Some men are better able than some other men, to do this; in the spiritual realm, ONLY men are kitted out by God, to have this RULE-ON ability. It matters, and whatever else may be 'wrong' with the person, is COMPENSATED in other ways. God knows what He is doing.

What God is doing, is SANCTIFYING. Matt23 statements about what is ON the altar, IN the Temple, being SANCTIFIED by it. Hebrews 10, Sanctified for all time. Eph5, Husband SANCTIFYING the wife. God SANCTIFYING us. Idea of the AUTHORITY SANCTIFYING what is the decision -- making it have a HIGHER meaning than if apart from that AUTHORITY. Surely anyone understands that AUTHORITY SANCTIONS a thing, so SANCTIFIES it, makes it ACCEPTABLE. Someone must be in charge. So, GOD is in charge. How, though, to represent that idea, to humanity? Well, in a marriage, in a corporate structure, in a SPIRITUAL structure, there must be a HEAD to make HOLY, what is BODY. So, that's called "male". So, the male is GIFTED to be a HEAD: in marriage, in spiritual matters. Not every male is for every female. Not every male is equal to every other male. But for AUTHORITY communication, the pastor must be MALE. Not, because he is anything, but because the AUTHORITY GIVEN HIM, is from God. Simple and beautiful, as that.

Dunno about you, but if I have to do something only for myself, it has FAR less meaning, than when doing it for someone else. So if I have to work, and it's for someone ELSE, I get far more satisfaction from it. So if I have to clean, and it's only for me, well.. not too interesting. But if for GOD, well -- even though HE doesn't need it, but my THINKING during it can be MADE valuable -- Doctrine -- then it's worth cleaning, or .. doing anything. So it's BEAUTIFUL that Someone Else Sanctifies the thing done, by some standard of AUTHORITY which makes the thing of MORE VALUE than it, itself. Or, than it, for merely "me".

When you make a DECISION, you SANCTIFY the choice. Hagiazw, lit., meaning to set apart. You SEPARATE the decision from all its alternatives. You MARRY the decision. The next moment in time, can't reverse the decision. You can only later DIVORCE the decision -- which is why, frankly, you can't become UNSAVED once saved -- you can't TURN BACK, time. God doesn't divorce you, if you divorce Him, 2Tim2:13. So, AUTHORITY makes that decision of SETTING apart. Your volition, is an authority. However, since TEACHING requires an authority to represent GOD's, it must be a male who has it. Again, this is more for our sake in JUSTIFYING acceptance, than because God needs it to be "male" or "female" (God is neither). WE NEED it. So, that's how it is. Females are associated with NURTURING, not 'the last word'. People need BOTH types of authority -- one which LAYS THE LAW, sanctifying -- and the other, which WORSHIPS the law -- being sanctified. Christ and Church. Male and female. Filling all in all, Eph1:15-end Chapter.

So, this is how to be under your right pastor. A pastor you're under may not always be the right one for you: times change, and people change. If this condition becomes true in your case, you will be caused to a) become aware of it, and b) know under which succeeding pastor you should 'sit'. At which time, you quietly depart: for those remaining under the pastor you're leaving, how do YOU know if he's not the right pastor, for THEM? For, we aren't perfect: only GOD is Perfect. So we don't have perfect authorities, parents, rich people, etc: but GOD gives them whatever offices they have (1Tim2, Romans 13). So it's up to GOD to run the show with respect to them, and it's up to us to OBEY HIM. Which we do, by aiming continually at TRUE RESPECT, "neither to the right (slavish obedience), nor to the left (overthrow)."

Sorry for the satire, here.. breaks my heart that academes who WORK SO HARD are sooo deluded. We're all human! Pray for these people, ok? We need authority. We also need to discern between the 'spirit' of error and the Spirit of Truth, as 1Jn4 puts it, for the Highest Authority (Who by the way can FIX those spirits of error, so we needn't try) -- is GOD. Having determined which is which, we don't CRUSADE against the spirits of error, we just LEARN what the Spirit of Truth, teaches by such exposure...

God being INFINITE, wants INFINITE INTIMACY with whatever He creates. So, that means SHARING His Thinking, to have that COMPATIBLE intimacy. Which means, FREE WILL on God's Part, to TEACH us His Thinking; which means, free will on OUR part, to LEARN that Thinking. Has zippo to do with works, but EVERYTHING to do with WANTING GOD. So, GOD'S TEACHING GOD'S WORD to a person, such that it is written in the heart (BELIEVING part of soul) and mind (ACADEMIC PROCESSING part of soul), is the biggest promise of the OT, and THE reason to live. Third and Fourth Reasons in LordvSatan3.htm explore the ramifications of this promise for Church, in great detail.

So, the task is, who can be DEVELOPED in this Thinking to EXHALE it, in Writing? Theopneustos, God-breathed, Bible Keyword. So, first, to TEACH a person means that the person obviously NEEDED the teaching; so, obviously, didn't KNOW until taught; so, obviously, didn't necessarily YET know ALL of God's teaching. So, obviously, when God taught certain truths to a person such that the person COULD 'breathe out' God's Meaning wholly accurately, God could use that person to WRITE SCRIPTURE on those topics.

So, obviously, we can indeed learn well enough to really KNOW God, since the writers of Scripture were taught enough to PERFECTLY WRITE whatever God had assigned to them. It wasn't automatic writing. It was CONVERSATION, faithfully converted into the writer's OWN style of writing, without waiving anything God wanted said the WAY God wanted it said. God knows how a person thinks. God knows how a person will COMMUNICATE what he learns from God. So God knows HOW TO TEACH a person, to get the desired OUTPUT God wants. All this, without waiving any human characteristic in the person, and DEFINITELY without waiving his free will. (Sheesh. People give God no credit whatsoever when they tie themselves in knots over the Inspiration of Scripture.)

Frankly, this BREATHING in by the BREATH (heh -- Holy Spirit, the Breath of our Spiritual Life!), is the same method as for spiritual growth in any believer -- difference is, the believer doesn't get the learning to WRITE SCRIPTURE, since it is perfect/complete/finished -- since Christ is Seated and all the apostles are dead (John died last). Instead, the believer gets this COMPLETED WORD, to learn and LIVE on it: "living stones", as Peter calls us (wordplay on his own nickname).

So: just as we don't learn the whole Word at once, neither did the WRITERS of Scripture. That's why certain things are omitted by one writer, but covered by another. So, for example, each Gospel writer has a particular underlying framework on which his deposition is constructed, by means of, and under the direction of, the Holy Spirit Himself. So, God's Word fits together perfectly, but there's a PROGRESSIVE REVELATION quality to it, since the books are written by different folks at different dates who had differing UNDERSTANDING. NO MAGIC to this. It's LEARNING. Better than magic, this: it shows GOD directed them all, especially since each one didn't know all of the being-revealed truth. Many misinterpretations of Scripture will be avoided, if this how-did-Scripture-get-written history, is remembered.

So GOD ORCHESTRATED ALL THESE DIFFERING GROWTH RATES, all these folks, throughout OT and NT; AND ORCHESTRATED the meanwhile, via the TEMPORARY spiritual gifts like prophecy, visions, teaching and knowledge, what was GOING TO BE IN WRITING. Thus HE orchestrated was taught to the then-current crop of believers. The so-called 'spectacular' NT temporary gifts like tongues, miracles, and healing were given as letters-of-credit, to prove that those TEACHING were really from God -- because, there WAS no written NT available, yet. Just as, in the OT, during the time when Israel was yet positive enough, to even hear anyone. Sadly, by the days of Malachi, they were so NEGATIVE, Malachi has to be the last guy -- book ends on the prediction that Elijah will return to proclaim Messiah, which we of course know as John the Baptist (see Gospel of John for the Lord's statement to that effect).

Note how strange: between Malachi and the PREDICTABLE DATE of the Lord's First Advent per Daniel 9:25, there were no prophets. Just the Word. Jews knew that, also, and busied themselves collecting and collating the Book just as Christians would later do, in Constantine's day. [It's remarkable how the OT collection dates mirror the date that the WHOLE BIBLE collection under Constantine, was institutionalized. Seemed to be 300 or so years on either side of His Birth. Hmmm. That would make a great topic of study, why man is so slow to wake up and be careful about the Word. Every 200-300 years since, we've gone through something similar, an AWAKENING of interest in Scripture, somewhere in the world. It's a pattern you can test in history.]

Meanwhile, this guy named Alexander, also predicted and arriving on time per Daniel 9, swept over the Middle East and most of India. As a consequence, this guy insisted everyone learn his language, a polyglot Greek known as "koine" (common -- idea that all Greeks would speak one COMMON version). So, the conquered peoples learned that GREEK, just in time for the COMPLETION of the OT to be made IN that Greek, which we know as the "LXX". Just in time for the language to be so natural, when the Lord ARRIVED on time, that LXX was the Bible. For the Jews had largely forgotten, their Hebrew. Even more amazingly, within 200 years AFTER the Lord was here, no one could READ that Greek; the vernacular had changed too much. So notice how precise is our PROOF of when LXX was translated, and NT Scripture was written -- the language itself has a very narrow time window of fluency. Then, all you have to do is look for the historical markers, aka "isagogics", to get the WRITING DATES within a year or two of the ACTUAL date written. Even if using a copy many centuries hence. (It's not that they didn't have the Hebrew text, but that the majority were LESS COMFORTABLE, using it. It was the less-familiar of the two Inspired Texts, for the NT more often quotes from the LXX. We know that there was a Hebrew text extant, for some of the quotes are from what we call the "Masoretic" (aka BHS, one of the Masoretic manuscripts), which is VERY close.)

This is usually called the 'science of textual criticism.' It's more an art than a science, for language doesn't lend itself to hard-and-fast formulas. There's lots of Attic Greek in Bible, because Greek drama and Greek culture, were COMMON. So, if a PARTICULAR POPULARITY only applicable to a certain YEAR was written about, then you know WHAT YEAR the writing was made. Trick is, to be sure what the item is, and to what year it belongs. That's painstaking work. Similarly, the USE OF WORDS has a dated quality to it. Well, there are many variables to mention which make up the clues you need to correctly date Scripture. However, none of them require genius intelligence: plodding and 1Jn1:9, is more the need...

So, bring the idea home: look for His Orchestration EVERYWHERE in your life. Now that I can spot it in Scripture, I can spot it anywhere in my own life -- so will you. Bible shows how this orchestration WORKS in any narrative, in the way words are used, and.. in the CHRONOLOGY and PROGRESSIVE REVELATION process which unfolds as you study Scripture. [My websites are sprinkled with personal anecdotal information for that reason: so you can get an idea of how to spot God's orchestration IN YOUR OWN life. BTW: Satan orchestrates, too -- an TESTABLE empirical model of his orchestration is embedded within the "Thinking Out Loud" series. I learned of this model via Doctrine, but it lends itself to repeated empirical testing. Works every time.]

Additionally, God's ORCHESTRATION offers thousands of applications which affect every speck of dust in life: THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS. If He orchestrates TIME, then nothing is accidental. A thing is free to occur, as it freely is, but that doesn't mean God can't turn a lemon into lemonade. Doesn't mean God can't turn lemon scholarship into lemonade even the scholar who WAS ONCE a lemon, will himself, savor...

Think how James must have felt, having been a lemon SO LONG, though being The Lord's Own Half-Brother. (Jude, too). Think how Saul must have felt, that consummate SCHOLAR among the Hebrews (Phili3), to have MISSED the meaning of all that prophecy! Boy, they sure must have been TEMPTED to feel they were lemons, undeserving as they were of so much grace. You have to understand: these were two of the greatest experts in OT, of that time. Yet, look! God made them DELICIOUS lemonade for the millions and millions of us who have the privilege, to read what God enabled them to write!

Today's lemons will have the same satisfaction, though everyone puckers, now. There has long been a very UNscholarly practice of oh-so-slightly DEBUNKING the Divinity of Bible, by sly intonations which accompany a term like, "Pauline". As if some verse or epistle were Paul's idea, not God's. Like the debate over whether Luke COPIED from someone else -- oh, he couldn't get it from the Holy Spirit? Or they debate the DATES of the letters to see who COPIED from someone else. Mark's Gospel is disputed. If any of today's lemon-scholars actually spent time CROSS-REFERENCING and thinking over the words, they'd see GOD WROTE IT through these people. So a 'scholar' who debunks like this is automatically UNqualified, sorry. Such a person wouldn't know the Bible if it bit him, and it does; and it shows. But then, he's in good company, for once upon a time, even James and Paul were lemons. As indeed, all of us...

So, the puckering Bible debunkers and weak believers think it rational to expect that within a year or so after the Crucifixion, believers would be SO trained in God's Thinking, they should just spew out the Gospels; for, critics are forever debating what they consider the 'late' Gospel writing dates (45 or 50-96AD). Oh, these books were written so LATE, they must be inaccurate memories. LOL! What, is the HOLY SPIRIT unable to remember? What, are John 14:26 and 2Pet1:20-21, 3:15, and Heb4:12 and missing in their Bibles? What, do YOU go from babyhood to being a nuclear physicist in only one year after the most politically-traumatic event in history, the Cross?

It positively amazes me how no one recognizes the tremendous UPSET the Cross created for all the polities in and around Israel at the time; within a generation or two, how it traumatized every so-called 'civilized' society all over the world. Christianity spread like wildfire. Everyone and his brother either wanted to kill believers, or ape them; counterfeit 'gospels' abounded. Every religion extant at the time underwent MAJOR revision, partly to keep their adherents. Jews, in particular, under James (maybe he was forced), ran around trying to track these folks down and KILL them. That's what Paul was trying to do when the Lord APPEARED to him in Resurrection Body (badge of apostleship, that). WOW: it's SO patent how devastating the event was WORLDWIDE, how there was a massive attempt to either piggyback onto the new "Way", or to crush all reference to it -- even, in the acerbic comments of Tacitus and Suetonius.

Look at today's problem of American culture 'infesting' all other polities on the globe. Even in the remotest parts of Amazon you'll find children with DKNY T-shirts! Iraqis, who are supposed to hate us, giving their kids Mickey Mouse T-shirts (recent TIME or LIFE photo shoot of "21 Days to Baghdad"). Of course, that's why Osama wanted us attacked: we are the Great Satan, see -- decadent. A threat to the young. Yep, and we BEGAN to be that threat as a result of our victory in WWII, when an exhausted Europe no longer could keep hegemony. We are the big bear in the candy shop, the evil moneybaggers, you name it. We have a secular, not a religious culture. And everyone WANTS what we have. Which is why the entrenched authorities, feel compelled to debunk US. The loudest critics reflect a populus which is the most threatened. That's always been true historically; right now, it's US; by BREATHING, we are the object of OTHER PEOPLE'S insecurities, just because we exist. And our behavior, gives them an excuse to condemn. 100 years ago, political consciousness was LOW, because there was less FREEDOM in the world. Now, with more freedom, well.. more vociferousness. But then why are our products, popular? We don't FORCE people to buy our T-shirts and videos, for crying out loud...

WitnUS.htm has details, and can be clicked from the "Quicklinks" box of the Home Page. Basically, the anti-US sentiment is a sense of INFERIORITY by other nations to combat the WANTING of what we have among their people. On the other hand, we ourselves, never having progressed spiritually beyond the third grade, CAN'T PROPERLY COME TO CONSENSUS ON HOW TO USE our size such that others are not so intimidated; such that the terrorists are wiped out like the cockroaches they all are. THEY are the ones tyrannizing the world with their religious satanisms, but WE get blamed -- no matter what we do, right or wrong -- because we are BIGGER. Because everyone WANTS what we have, and that upsets the established orders -- encouraging them to HELP the terrorists, to defend themselves, against US. Before, it was a problem of USSR vs. USA, much easier: just play off BOTH sides. But now, the (incorrect, imo) perception is that there is but ONE side, the US. So everyone's feeling antsy, and our spiritual childishness at home, only makes our situation FAR worse...

So also, back in the Lord's Day, the news about salvation galvanized the world; MANY WANTED IT. Which thus made the Gospel the biggest threat in the world, to date. For, state religion was an integral part of every nation's political STRENGTH. Its culture and its religion were so intertwined, this new "Way" threatened the entire political cohesion, in the eyes of rulers like.. um, Claudius. Nero. Every Roman Emperor after them. And, of course, the littler states surrounding SPQR were affected too. Remember the riots which kept persecuting Paul, like the one in Miletus? Gallio? See: what happened then is like what America represents to polities today: a threat to their POWER. It was NO small thing, the Crucifixion.

NOTE WELL: GOD'S MIRACLES ALWAYS HAVE A RATIONAL AND NORMAL PURPOSE. The Crucifixion's upheaval needed special treatment. God is the God of Authority, so miracles were used to CALM DOWN people, so they WOULD NOT REBEL against authority; thus the miracles were first of all, AUTHORITATIVE 'credit cards' -- ORDERED to prove that these many spectacular claims of Messiah, weren't FALSE. That's what prophecy was FOR, the ESTABLISHMENT of TRUTH, not titillation: you compared the claim to its fulfillment, so you could separate the sheep from the goats. Then, you wouldn't NEED to rebel against authority, for the superior authority handling ALL authority, is God. (Like today's Christian right, like Hitler, false messiahs throughout history are always about overthrowing existing human authority. The Lord turned DOWN that offer when Satan made it, when the Zealots made it, when the Palm Sunday crowd made it, when Pilate queried it.)

So God managed, thank you, to teach people what they needed to know while the apostles and writers like Jude and Luke were being grown up enough to write their assigned books. Which, the meanwhile, the HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF also communicated -- just as He had always done since time immemorial (OT verses are loaded with Spirit-empowering clauses) -- to the other folks who wouldn't yet see Canon. So much for the tawdry argument that NT writers needed some other eyewitness. LOL!

For example, John's Gospel is the basis for his letters; his letters, like the Gospel, are in the 90's; note how in the LETTERS, VERY LITTLE is said about basics, and in fact, MUCH is said about how the addressees, ALREADY KNEW the basics. In the Greek of 1Jn, he uses TEMPLE and other OT and GOSPEL KEYWORDS throughout his epistle, to remind them of the NT upgrades THEY ALREADY know; he doesn't spend time explaining WHAT THEY MEAN; and his focus, is on how to grow up, and avoid false doctrine (which is also the theme of his other two epistles). By contrast, John DOES remind them of that basic generation of the spiritual life, 1Jn1:9 to stay online with the Spirit, using TEMPLE words; and he stresses by means of dramatic parallelisms, beginning in v.5. Which tells us right away that the problem was REMEMBERING to USE 1Jn1:9 -- which almost NO Christians even use, today. Same problem then, same problem, now...

Yet when you read the older Romans, Paul painstakingingly traces the origin of our spiritual life out from the OT version. Similarly, Hebrews, written due to Paul's execution or near it, sketches the same thing because what believers weren't hearing, was the Matt24 warning. Again, same problem then, same problem, now.

What's really interesting when you do this chronological comparison, is that each writer uses his OWN keywords. For example, the beginning of 1Peter is an awful lot like Ephesians 1, but in PETER's shorter style. We know at the end of 2Peter that Peter was familiar with what Paul wrote, but only CONCEPTUALLY do you find commonalities: the VOCABULARY is different; complementary, but different.

What common keywords the NT writers all draw on, ARE IN the Gospels and the OT; which thus means the AUDIENCE had something of that material in writing already; or, well-taught ORALLY (more convenient -- ancient memories were better than ours). Because, seldom does a writers spend time EXPLAINING definitions; but by contrast, they all spend a LOT of time on how to USE the information. HOW TO THINK WHAT YOU KNOW is the driving purpose of all these epistles.

See? We always overlook the obvious: you don't need to write about what people already know. You need to write about what they DON'T know, or are still getting confused. So, remember that as you read: what is NOT said tells you volumes about what HAD BEEN said, prior.

The fact that each writer of Scripture corroborates other writers, in that each one is given the same basic doctrines to explain, PLUS the fact that each of the writers is given some unique things to teach, should be borne in mind when you read Scripture. Ask: what DOCTRINES does the writer express? What DOCTRINES does the writer UNIQUELY express? What DOCTRINES does the writer corroborate? Then, HOW does the writer express, express uniquely, corroborate? For, just as in a corporation, everyone has some tasks in common, so also each one has some unique duties.

Paul, for example, is at the top, for he's got the 'job' of writing about CHURCH: the other writers didn't GET the information at the same level he did, so most of that PORTION of God's Word is ONLY revealed in Paul's writings, viz., the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher of a local church, Eph4:11, was NEW, replacing 'prophet', 'teacher' and 'knowledge' gifts of the pre-Canon period.

So, for example, when you read what another writer writes, viz., James, you should FIRST ORGANIZE CHRONOLOGICALLY, and then ADD together the portions of James which tie to CHURCH that Paul wrote. There is a lot of overlap, but James' job assigned by God was not Paul's, and vice versa: the problem of the Jerusalem church was that they DID NOT ACCEPT what the Holy Spirit gave to Paul; so James has to talk about what they DO accept. To not recognize the CHRONOLOGY and AUDIENCE is to misinterpret Scripture. For, only when you ORGANIZE the epistles by their DATES and then LOOK to see how they all fit together, do you avoid the many controversies in Christendom's history.

Apostacy began immediately after the Session, as Acts so painfully reveals. Just as was true with Israel from its foundation forward, so also for Christianity, over 90% of believers never get beyond spiritual childhood. There are periods where belief in Christ might reach 10% or more of a populus, but that populus never grows up. The pious noises are just so much eyewash, but with the Lord's Name splatted on for attention. Just as the Lord explained in the seed parable (i.e., in Luke 8). So opposition is THE NORM, and as it progresses, it progresses into activism and -- finally, violence. Kinda like, today in the US. Just like Paul explained in his letters, how he MORALLY caused the destitution, imprisonment, and death of Christians.

James became a believer, just as Paul did, owing to the Resurrection appearance of Christ to each of them. That appearance constituted their appointment as apostles (James replaced Matthias). James, as head of the Jerusalem Church, helped Paul (Acts 15:20) but also was behind the persecution of Paul by the Judaizers (was influenced/forced to go along, by the other leaders in the Jerusalem faction). Paul, distinct from the other apostles, taught the full Church doctrine, a doctrine he got directly from the Holy Spirit; a doctrine which you can see unfold in his letters, if you arrange them chronologically. Everyone else, was somewhat confused.

So not everyone knew what CHURCH actually was -- except, through Paul. And the others, opposed the idea of the Mosaic Law being abandoned. So, yes: James wrote the book of James, but his ACCEPTANCE of all doctrine was not complete when he wrote it. Yet, God gave him that slot on the team of the Body of Christ, anyway.

So, even today, you'll find that most of Christendom interprets the spiritual life as quasi-Mosaic Law, which both the Book of Hebrews (talking about the changeover to Church in Judaic terms) and the book of Ephesians expressly DENY. For, most of Christendom continues that old apostate controversy which started after the Session, rejecting CHURCH as Paul was given to teach. Check it yourself. We've always been a Body of mostly dingbats. Yet, even dingbats can be used to harvest a crop! Yet, even the worst of us dingbats, can be grown up by the Holy Spirit, and we all grow up at different, fluctuating, rates!

Further, these follies exposed also tell us what they DIDN'T get wrong, what they WELL knew which today WE DISTORT. For example, THEN everyone grasped the fact that baptism was but a witness ritual, only; everyone knew the doctrine expressed by 1Jn1:9; that everyone knew about the Filling of the Spirit and that Canon was being developed to complete the WRITTEN "Mind of Christ" for CHURCH.

Principle: these were real people, who had real problems, who were NOT fully versed on all doctrines at the time of writing. NONETHELESS, they were qualified in some respects, and GOD USED THEM WHERE THEY WERE QUALIFIED. So also, does He use us. I have this particular fact on my refrigerator to constantly remind me: it's a question of FIT, not merely competence, and one doesn't have to be COMPLETED to have a FITTING role.

Another Principle: God STILL communicated His Full and complete message by means of these writers. That's why Canon CLOSED with John's Apocalypse; that's why the counterfeit bible books are all scams (obvious, except to those yet hooked on emotion). So there is more to the message than they themselves understood at the time of writing. They knew ENOUGH to express it rightly, but they didn't NECESSARILY understand at the time of writing all the meaning in the words they wrote. "Verbal Plenary Inspiration" means GOD KNEW and GOD DIRECTED, but the individuals' own attributes, understanding, personality, etc. are nonetheless expressed in the writing as well. So for the student of Scripture, it's critical to notice what THEIR understanding was, compared to GOD'S message in their words. That requires the constant use of 1Jn1:9 and study under one's right pastor. It takes time.

Try this experiment: While under the Spirit, try writing out a doctrine you yourself know. Give it your all, don't be dilatory. Then, read it over, edit and revise anything, add corollaries you discover. You should find that you express a thing rightly, but when writing it you yourself did NOT see certain facets of meaning IN THOSE WORDS -- until you re-read what you wrote! If you do this enough, you'll notice a huge DIFFERENCE in your competence here -- versus the rest of your life. That's a SPIRITUAL competence the Holy Spirit is building. Try to detect it early, so you won't get cocky and mistake it for your OWN ability, yikes!

One helpful clue as to the difference -- while in VPI the Holy Spirit doesn't at all interfere with volition, so also in what He teaches you and you manage to write down -- you WILL notice that your own personality is NOT the only one present. See, just because what you write while filled is NOT perfect, NOT Canon -- doesn't mean it won't REFLECT Him. In fact, it can't HELP but reflect Him, if you are FILLED when thinking and writing. That's what getting His THINKING, DOES to you. At each discrete consent, of course.

So, often I cringe when reading these webpages, for I'm a withdrawer, a tribble: not at all inclined to criticize. It's not that I'm afraid, but I can't stand confrontation: perhaps it is more like impatience mixed with too much empathy for how the words SOUND to a hearer/reader, I dunno. By contrast, God is TOTAL LOVE, so nothing He says, however confrontational, is a put-down. God puts UP, not down. So while God doesn't really criticize the way we humans do, He doesn't mince words, either. I do, though. So to see that yes, I really wrote this, but see how STRONG it is -- the natural 'diplomat' in me, recoils. Worse, the more I practice this THINKING the LESS 'mincing' I myself want to be: what is happening, yikes! Now it makes sense that the no-holds-barred Paul, actually ASKED people in one of his letters to PRAY THAT HE WOULD HAVE COURAGE to speak the Gospel fearlessly. Yikes! Hits Home! So you might find something of that observation helpful in your own detection -- so you WON'T MISTAKE what you should LEARN for something great you yourself are. That mistake is pure poppycock, thank God!

It's really important to do this experiment, so you can get a hands-on idea of what "verbal plenary inspiration" means; so you won't mistake the human author of Scripture for the Divine One empowering him. This latter mistake is made by most people, e.g., the incredibly-stupid practice of putting only Christ's words in red letters. ALL BIBLE IS HIS THINKING. That He used a human mouth, is no less VALID, capisce?

You gain confidence in your own spiritual life if you recognize that just because a DOCTRINE is in your head, doesn't make it less valid. 'As well as, seeing how the spiritual life 'plays' when trying to USE a doctrine you've learned. So you'll see it's NOT magic, but LEARNING: it's more like math, where you know the answer but when you REVIEW the answer, you see more TRUTH there than you saw while solving the problem; which leads to many corollaries, reveals more postulates, etc.

For example, as noted earlier, God gave it to PAUL, not the other writers, to explain the NEW gift of LOCAL CHURCH pastor-teacher (hendiodys in Eph4:11, poimen kai didaskolos, Granville-Sharp rule). This NEW gift was explained further in the Timothy epistles. If you remembered that Scripture, whether OT or NT, was PROGRESSIVELY revealed, you'll quickly understand how it is that the Christian apostacy of ecumenism remained: just like those Christian Jerusalem legalists back in 58AD, their spiritual progeny stuck to 'big' and 'monolithic' and 'institutional' -- holdover from the old Mosaic Law. But the Law was rescinded (Heb7:18 and elsewhere), because Christ was Seated. So, a NEW teaching system was promulgated. By 96AD, the new gift was well-established, for John is writing about the seven CHURCHES of the province of Asia, in Rev1-3.
Principle: pay attention to the CHRONOLOGY of the Bible Books when you interpret, being sure to take into account all SUPERCEDING doctrines. Like, Heb7:18 and Eph4. Instead of Mosaic Law. Like, 1Cor13, which is about how the future completion of Canon will END the temporary spiritual gifts; instead of, apostleship, etc. which Bible proves there and elsewhere were merely temporary, because "greater gifts" (1Cor12:31 keyword, ties to "better things" elsewhere in Scripture) would REPLACE them. [In GREEK, "BUT" is a contrast-word which applies to what's mentioned AFTER it, not before. In English, the term is more ambiguous. So people almost always MISorganize and thus MISinterpret the role of temporary spiritual gifts, thinking that 1Cor12:31 refers to what was said BEFORE the "but". Of course, 1Cor13:8-13, 1Cor15:1-10 NEGATE the MIS-sings, but -- what the heck.]

Chronology will help you prove that God means there to be ONLY a local church gift of pastor-teacher. Paul's epistles to Timothy were about how a pastor-teacher should conduct himself, and were written roughly 65AD (my memory may be wrong). Peter's letters don't use the word pastor-teacher, but in 1Pet5:1-2, he uses the term presbuteros in the context of sheparding ("pastor" means "shepard"), followed by some behavioral criteria which are similar to Paul's. John writes as Peter does, but without the detail; yet stresses, in Revelation1-3, the TEACHING side of it, via the word "angelos" ("messenger", lit., so means pastor -- idea of giving God's message; angels were teachers in Mosaic Law times).
So you have a matching in the later letters, thus the CONCEPT which only Paul coined, was UNDERSTOOD LATER by Peter and John. More particularly, John's usage in Revelation is important, for John had BEEN the pastor of all those churches, but was no longer; because John is EXILED at the time of Revelation. NB: God would not have allowed that, if sufficient interest in Bible, remained. Test this yourself: whenever interest in GOD declines, the Word itself is less taught, and instead, SUBSTITUTES for the Word are promoted. Like today, all the emphasis on feely-ritually-religious claptrap. Maligning God in the extreme, passing itself off as Christian -- yet no one on Christian TV, even gets the GOSPEL, right? See? Historically, the Word itself GOES LOST when interest declines sufficiently. "My people perish for lack of knowledge" in Hosea is a TREND you can document historically. Even today.

So Paul's sole use of the term "pastor-teacher" IS in fact God's meaning as interpreted above, since it is referenced elsewhere, but with variant emphasis, since the role is dual-sided. (Eph4:11, a hapaxzlogomena: all Bibles mistranslate it, even though the Granville Sharp rule is first-year-seminary Greek! Notice also how easily he wrote it -- axiomatic style -- MEANS EVERYONE KNEW THE DOCTRINE ALREADY. He didn't have to EXPLAIN what it meant. See why 'omission' is an important interpretative key? All he does is SUMMARIZE how the pastor's role builds up the church, in vv12-16. So naturally, all the translations are mangled, lol. LvS4b.htm will eventually have the right translation in its "Father's Criteria" table. But it will take awhile to craft; lots of old notes on exegesis must be coalesced.)

Of course, the idea of 'sheparding Israel' and the Lord as the Good Shepard are OT doctrines of long standing. The question was, Judaism WAS monolithic: its splintering was a sign of apostacy. BY CONTRAST, this new "pastor-teacher" role REPLACED the monolith with local churches, PRECISELY BECAUSE THE GOOD SHEPARD WAS NOW RISEN AND RULING. So, no more need for one organization on the earth. For, the Mosaic law was rescinded (stated several times in several ways in the Book of Hebrews, and each epistle of Paul's). See how important it is to know WHEN a thing CHANGES?

One of the cardinal rules of "hermeneutics" (finding Bible's OWN interpretation of itself) is that you compare Scripture with Scripture. That's how one VALIDATES whether a verse or book is of God, and is one of the skills required in textual criticism, far more important than the age of the manuscript media. So, yet again, first-century problems and foibles, keep on replicating in every Generation of Church. We face the SAME DEBATE.. and keep on flunking it...

A quick look at church history reveals a lot of the power plays which happened throughout its shameful story thus far are based on allegations that there should be ONE denomination. Thus, denominations form and fight, each one trying to be "the" one -- kinda like the tongues crowd -- not knowing, THEY ARE NOT AUTHORIZED BY GOD. God's use of Hebrews, Paul and John and Peter here completely shatters the denominationists' incompetent interpretations (or lies, I GLADLY can't tell which); and John's Revelation 13-17 explains WHY. See how important it is to be CAREFUL how you study Scripture?

Dunno about you, but when growing up with my Bible it always BUGGED me how God seemed to be saying the same thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. You pick one prophet, he's always saying the same thing as the next -- no matter WHERE you open the OT. Why? I kept on wondering. So this pondering wasn't, strictly speaking, an admiration. Of course, I was being a lemon. Heh.

Christians find it DISTURBING that Scripture is so fragmented, as if somehow its fragmentation, was 'inferior', or that the collection of Scripture, was MAN-MADE. Bible's endless critics make much of the collecting done pre-NT, and during Constantine's Day. Catholic Church claims CREDIT, for crying out loud, that IT IS HOLY because IT did this. GUESS AGAIN! Ohhhh, no -- quite the OPPOSITE! This fragmentation and GOD causing it to be found and collected -- never man -- proves more conclusively that God wrote BIBLE, and proves it better than any other empirical factor. Second only to the CONTENT of the Word itself, this fragmented history of Bible, proves GOD WROTE IT.

Sure, the Catholic Church was involved, and we owe it a debt of gratitude; sure, sects since have had a LOT to do with getting those manuscripts so we can see the ORIGINAL languages of Scripture, all nicely put together, in what we have now; we owe ALL these organizations and people, our UNDYING affection, for their work is enormously sacrificial. But let us NEVER forget that GOD orchestrated it all, never man.

For if it is really GOD's Word, it is really attacked by Satan&Co. Sure enough, you don't hear people make a swear word out of "Allah", or "Krishna".. you don't see people trying to attack Divinity by attacking those books.. ahh, but they all attack what? THE BIBLE. And if the Bible is ATTACKED, it NEEDS a 'buddy system', so that people can GET IT, anyway. Even if a torn portion, as is so hungrily desired in Africa and some parts of China. Yeah -- and that teeny portion, can save a life...

Look: when the Catholic Church collected what IT called Scripture, it stuck in 7 extra books of the most INSANE stuff ever to be written. Even the three volumes a Catholic is obliged to purchase (Missle, Prayer Book, and a sort of primer -- mine being from Cardinal Stritch's day, 8/53) -- even its own books tell you that these 7 added books contain "fanciful" material in the Life of Mary subbook.

Here's an important example, which you can look up in LvS4d.htm, by searching on "kauthesomai". That verb's FUTURE PASSIVE belonged to Byzantine times, and DID NOT EXIST in Paul's day. Some scribe didn't like Paul's use of kauchesomai in 1Cor3, because he found it insulting. So, he changed ONE LETTER of the word. Well, GOD ORCHESTRATED that scribal 'error' to TEACH BETTER what Paul was saying in the verse. We know God had to orchestrate our FINDING the error, see. It's been a subject of controversy for centuries, and Bibles today split over which of the two verbs to use -- without excuse, since kauthesomai DID NOT EXIST in Paul's day. So we see not only God's orchestration, but man's uneven POSITIVE ATTITUDE to God's PROOF.

As just noted, Catholicism doesn't pretend their Apochrypha is Divine, only that Pope pronounces it so. Well, it's nice they are so honest with their parishoners (or were, back in the red-leather edition I have). Same kind of distinction is usually made, with respect to OTHER sects which ADD BOOKS or SUBTRACT Books from Bible. So, look: it's not as though no one recognizes there's a difference, k?

Frankly, even Satan gets in on the act: every fake holy book of satanic authorship ADVERTISES that fact. It's very subtle, as the wordplays are made on BIBLE VERSES IN REAL BIBLE in the ORIGINAL Languages. I couldn't believe my eyes for a LONG time, once I discovered this: frankly, I felt like one of those wild-eyed weirdoes who talk of the evil of Satan and the end times -- which is not me at all. So, to make SURE I wasn't descending into a looney bin of my own making, I spent more than a year vetting the Appendix of the "Thinking" series (LordvSatan pages) for that reason; that page walks the reader through some examples, so he can do his own empirical comparisons.

The results are something of a shock. My pastor had long taught us Satan was more erudite and urbane, nice and attractive, yet chock-full of apoplexy -- because he ADMIRES God, as well as despises Him. All at once. But I really didn't EXPECT to find the PROOF of that in the fake holy books, the ghost stories and UFO tales. Which items, by the way, were GIVEN to me or URGED upon me by folks who know NOTHING about these websites. So I was OBLIGED to read them, anyway. And I certainly didn't expect to find them CORROBORATE the Bible ON PURPOSE. It's really surprising, how much Satan&Co. MOCK anyone who DOESN'T believe in Bible, yet also HATE us, when we do. Too clever for human authorship, just as Bible verses and their fragmented lost-then-found history, are WAY TOO CLEVER for any human tampering. Which, by the way, always sticks out -- like a kauthesomai, a square peg in a round hole, burning itself away...

So we are EXTREMELY blessed to have a RELIABLE SET OF WHOLE CANON available to us. It's only in the last 150 years that this is true (click on Canonicity link at pagetop). It's only in the last 50 years we had truly-reliable Greek grammar (found in the 50's). Granted, earlier versions of Bible did exist, particularly Geneva and KJV -- but these were based on inferior manuscripts (more copying errors in them than the best ones later found). Moreover, until the last 150 years or so it was VERY hard for the common man to GET a full Bible. So, most people made do with a few Bible books: historically, mostly some Psalms and some Gospels. Most other people in HISTORY have never been able to do the kind of research urged in this webpage. Most other people have gone through their lives GUESSING what God means, based on VERY LITTLE information.

During OT times, most folks didn't have it, either: even though, most of the time it was 'lost', it was really FORGOTTEN, lying in the Temple. In short, we are a privileged group of folks, since the time England embarked on its imperialistic venture, and we should be VERY grateful to her for that (imperialism was FAR more beneficial than revisionists would have you believe). In short, if all those past people couldn't get God's WORD, but WE DO, how much more responsible will WE be at the Judgement Seat of Christ for how we used this WORD? (2Cor5:10, Bematos, genitive of "Bema", a catchword among Christians today, ties to 1Cor3. BTW: a "bema" is a technical word. Survives in drama, to mean 'stage'.)

How did all those folks survive, then? How did they grow spiritually? Well, to see how, take this test: using ONLY the Gospel passage of John 3, run out all the corollaries of it LOGICALLY -- see how much about God, about Christ, about the spiritual life, you could DEDUCE from only that chapter. Then, you'll see how the Holy Spirit can take even a TORN PORTION of Scripture, and craft from it, spiritual growth.

Remember also people had a LOT more time on their hands than we do; that they LOVED words more than we do; so they had MORE time to think than we do. Also, 'logic' itself was more the provence of the common man, since his life was so much more dependent on logic, for survival. It's LOGICAL to assume that if I sin, I should name it to God. No need for a Bible to tell me so -- but if there's a verse, then that much BETTER. It's LOGICAL to assume God exists, and that He had to provide something akin to a salvation package, since I know I'm not worthy of Him. Don't need a BIBLE to tell me that. (Well, HS does it, and no age or IQ is barrier.) So, WITH a Bible, however abridged, I've got MORE to work with. Logically.

Why didn't they get the Scripture WE GET, since even our COPIES of the manuscripts are surely old enough, dating from (so far) 100-400AD? Well, what do you think the answer MUST be? If I want God, won't He make Himself known? If I don't want God, won't He be a 'gentleman' and say little? So, then:

• if I wanted God back in the Dark Ages, I'd become a priest so I could SEE that heavy Bible; or,
• I'd become a monk so I could WRITE COPIES or hear it at meals. In fact, the way we got Codex Sinaiticus was from one such monk -- who HID it in his cell (while another manuscript at the same monastery had been ERASED, rewritten over and used to make FIRES at night)! Or,
• a sick duke or duchess might have started studying. Or,
• a slave or servant might have 'assisted' such a person in study. Or,
• someone who had a Bible and got 'mad' at it gave it laughingly to someone ELSE who wanted it. Or,
• someone died and a relative who secretly longed for a Bible came into possession of the dead one's Bible.
One could spend a lifetime writing all the permutations of how a person could get Scripture, even grow to Pleroma (Eph3:19, highest maturation threshold) on a LITTLE Scripture! Look back on your OWN life for the many things which you just KNOW God orchestrated. So, then: wouldn't He all the MORE orchestrate getting the WORD out to whoever REALLY wanted it, despite the fact that Bibles were routinely locked away from the common man?
Time for another personal anecdote. Long ago, when I finally got over being recalcitrant about DAILY study, I had began daily study tapes of my pastor's, which are always heavy on exegesis. During a break at work I had a conversation with someone which turned into my noting that I was doing such study. The gal told her sister; the sister insisted on meeting me PERSONALLY in order to get a CATALOG of what I was studying. Just that: she would not allow me to just give the catalog to her sister. So, we met at my apartment. You should have seen her EYES when I handed her this little catalog -- you'd have thought it was a MILLION DOLLARS. For, it was.. to her. NOW WHO DO YOU THINK ORCHESTRATED THAT? Certainly no human.

In short, there always WAS a way to get Scripture -- if you wanted it. Never easy, of course, to get it. Nor is it easy today: look at all the RESEARCH one must do, to even begin to understand it properly? And how many are WILLING to do it? Precious few. Very precious, very few. Most prefer their idea and use that. Which means, feel-god, form-god, ritual-god, works-god. Even when the REAL God is 'hiding' in plain sight. Whose Nature even a primitive tribesman or developed-nation child could DEDUCE. So we needn't ASSume that God was hamstrung by the satanic kidnapping; we needn't ASSume that people couldn't get or know Bible; we shouldn't ASSume that because we so easily have it now, there is no extra liability to KNOW what others (however negative, doesn't matter) didn't even have AVAILABLE to them. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, if we aren't a more NEGATIVE group of folks, than they were? Makes you wonder, doesn't it, if we aren't a more POSITIVE group of folks, than they were? Makes you conclude, doesn't it, that BOTH previous (rhetorical) questions must be answered, "TRUE"?

If you track the story of Scripture's being written, lost, discovered, and then compare how its history OF EXPOSITION has transpired, you get the very distinct impression that BIG DUE-DILIGENCE DISCLOSURE is going on, right under our noses. That has to mean UNUSUAL positive AND negative volition in the world! In other websites I try to analyse MORE of what this phenomenon means, which is partly why my sites focus so much on mistranslation and misinterpretation of Scripture -- I'm trying to TRACK SATAN's ABUSE of Bible, for we are all cannonfodder. It's not about human error, which is constant and axiomatic; but rather the PATTERNS of what gets screwed up, tells you more about the CONFLICT going on. Christians are SUPPOSED to be wise, not foolish.

Conclusion thus far: certainly, there is a HUGE crop of unprecedented positive volition. Beyond that, I'm not sure my OTHER interim conclusions are accurate, i.e., will Christianity LATER HARLOTIZE (homogenize) worldwide, causing a new 'dark ages'; inter alia, that outcome seems likely, so Satan can get Scripture BACK UNDER HIS CONTROL. Still, here's again the OBVIOUS CONCLUSION: you are richer in Scripture than they were. USE IT. For, it's an UNPRECEDENTED opportunity, our generations have, to see Him better. Let us not flub it.

It's super-easy to flub it. An arcane example should dramatize the ease with which sincere believers can really screw up recognizing God's Word. Back in Israel's day, during its own inter-testamental period (after Malachi), Israel was busy collecting its Tanakh. A big debate arose over the Book of Esther, because the standard monikers of Divine Authorship were missing. You'll find, maybe extant, some of the conversations about this debate in one of the Talmuds. Anyway, EVERYONE missed NOTICING the uppermost truth: that Israel was always cast as BRIDE, that if the BRIDE rejects Her Husband (Jehovah Elohim, but as Sacred Tetragrammaton), then He would reject Her, but not forever. Every prophet talked about this: so why, then, didn't anyone notice how the refusal of Vashti and 'grafting in' of Esther was LIKEWISE the same theme, THIS time warning Israel as 'Vashti'? How could we all miss that meaning, since the story is set in PERSIA, the land of Diaspora, for crying out loud?

BOOK OF ESTHER ENTIRELY DEPICTS ISRAEL'S PRESENT AND FUTURE. Just as much, as ANY prophet's discourse. Totally amazing. 'Esther' is the outsider, normally NOT eligible for brideship, so depicts the GENTILES. Having Grafted Her in Vashti's place (a Gentile, but playing the rejecting Israel), in order to SAVE the Jews from their persecutors. Think over all the parallels! I don't know if anyone in the Talmud had a commentary to that effect (I've only gone through Mishnah), but doggone it: see how the uppermost truth hides in plain, sigh? It's not as though the Lord Himself didn't USE this analogy repeatedly, from Matt16 onward. Check it out, for yourself!

While it's true that Church was never forecast in the OT, because ONLY IF ISRAEL REJECTED Messiah could there be a Church (so avoid anti-semitism like the plague), there WAS this veiled warning in Esther. Paul echoes it in Romans 11, so we CHURCH should be very chary of missing the boat on this OBVIOUS ADVERTISEMENT of unprecedented ACCESS to Scripture. Another group of believers, can easily replace us. One branch within Church withers, but another is being grown; one nation of believers going apostate can easily be PRUNED -- still saved, still in heaven. But no rewards.

The US is withering. When a nation dies, like a star it first gets much brighter. Never let that light fool you. See Jeremiah 25ff. We Americans who are growing in Christ CAN BE USED to keep our nation whole. No other hope. Let us not let our country down, by NOT growing in Christ! My pastor estimated that if only 250 believers got to the Pleroma stage, the nation will be preserved. The massive "Thinking" series on Home Page is all about this blessing-by-association, structure.