Collision of Souls

112 REASONS

2012-02-02T15:57:00.007-04:00

112 REASONS TO BELIEVE IN GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY

AND

THE SALVATION OF ALL

1) Isa 46:10
2) Dan 4:35
3) Prov 16:9
4) Prov 19:21
5) Prov 16:33
6) Psa 37:23
7) Psa 33:10
8) Psa 33:15
9) Job 5:17-18
10) Hos 6:1-2
11) Deut 32:39
12) Psa 90:3
13) Jer 18:2-6
14) Lam 3:31-32
15) Psa 102:18-20
16) Isa 2:2
17) Joel 3:21
18) Gen 18:18
19) Isa 45:22
20) Isa 45:23
21) Isa 40:3-5
22) Psa 138:4
23) Psa 72:17
24) Psa 86:9
25) Isa 52:10
26) Psa 65:2-4
27) Isa 11:9
28) Psa 66:3-4
29) Isa 19:14-25
30) Ezk 16:55
31) Psa 68:18
32) Isa 54:5
33) Psa 22:25-29
34) Psa 145:9-10
35) Psa 145:14
36) Psa 145:15
37) Psa 145:16
38) Psa 145:9
39) Psa 145:10
40) Psa 24:1
41) Isa 25:6
42) Isa 25:7
43) Isa 25:8
44) Isa 25:8
45) Jer 32:35
46) Psa 135:6
47) Isa 26:9
48) Isa 53:11
49) Gen 12:3

1) God will do ALL His pleasure
2) God's will done in heaven & earth, none can stop Him
3) Man devises, but God directs his steps
4) Man devises, but God's counsel stands
5) THE WHOLE DISPOSING thereof is of the Lord
6) The steps of man are ordered of God
7) The LORD brings the counsel and devices of the heathen...to naught
8) God fashions ALL hearts
9) God wounds then He makes whole
10) God tears, but in the third day He heals
11) God kills & makes alive, He wounds but then heals
12) God turns man to destruction, then says return
13) God mars vessels & then remakes them
14) God will not cast off forever
15) God will loosen those appointed to death
16) ALL nations will flow to the Lord's house
17) God will cleanse blood not cleansed
18) ALL families of the earth will be blessed
19) ALL the earth commanded to look and be saved
20) Unto God ALL will bow & every tongue swear
21) Highway of God enables ALL flesh to see His glory
22) ALL kings will praise God
23) ALL nations will call Him blessed
24) ALL nations will worship God & ALL men blessed
25) ALL earth will see the salvation of God
26) ALL flesh will come to God
27) The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
28) Enemies will submit & ALL earth will worship
29) Egypt & Assyria will be restored
30) Sodom will be restored
31) God will lead (all) captivity captive to dwell in man
32) He will be called the God of THE WHOLE EARTH
33) ALL will remember & turn unto the Lord
34) God is good to ALL & merciful to His works
35) Raises ALL that fall & ALL that be bowed down
36) ALL wait upon God & He will give them meat in due season.
37) Will satisfy the desire of ALL living
38) The Lord is good to ALL
39) ALL Thy works shall praise thee
40) The Earth is the Lord's...and they who dwell therein
41) The Lord will make unto ALL people a feast
42) He will destroy the veil that's cast over ALL
43) He will swallow up death (ALL death) in victory
44) He will wipe away tears from ALL faces
45) Never in God's mind to pass anyone through the fire of Molech
46) The Lord did what pleased Him in heaven, earth, and the sea
47) In judgment...the inhabitants will learn righteousness
48) He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied
49) All families of the earth shall be blessed

(63 New Testament Listings)

1) Eph 1:11
2) 1 Tim 2:4
3) John 8:29
4) 1 John 4:14
5) John 4:34
6) John 12:47
7) 1 Tim 2:6
8) John 5:36
9) John 4:42
10) John 12:32
11) Heb 7:25
12) Col 1:15
13) Col 1:16
14) Rom 5:15-21
15) 1 Cor 15:22
16) Eph 1:10
17) 1 Cor 15:26
18) Philippians 2:9-11
19) 1 Cor 12:3
20) Rom 11:26
21) Acts 3:20-21
22) Luke 2:10
23) Eph 2:7
24) Heb 8:11-12
25) Luke 3:6
26) Titus 2:11
27) Rom 8:19-21
28) Col 1:20
29) 1 Cor 4:5
30) James 5:11
31) Rev 15:4
32) 2 Cor 5:17
33) Rom 11:32
34) Rom 11:36
35) Eph 4:10
36) Rev 5:13
37) 1 Cor 15:28
38) Rev 21:4-5
39) John 5:25
40) John 5:28
41) John 6:39
42) John 6:12
43) 1 Cor 3:15
44) Mark 9:49
45) 2 Cor 5:15
46) 1 John 2:2
47) Rom 11:15
48) Heb 2:2
49) John 3:35
50) John 17:2
51) John 6:44-45
52) 1 Tim 4:9-11
53) Acts 13:47
54) Gal 3:8
55) Matt 18:11
56) Matt 18:14
57) John 1:29
58) John 1:7
59) John 3:17
60) John 6:51
61) Col 1:28
62) 2 Peter 3:9
63) 1 John 2:2

1) God works ALL things after counsel of His will
2) God will have ALL to be saved
3) Jesus ALWAYS does which pleases His Father
4 Jesus sent to be the Savior of THE WORLD
5) Jesus to do the will of God who sent Him
6) Jesus came to save ALL
7) Jesus gave Himself a ransom for ALL
8) He will finish the works He was sent to do
9) Jesus is the Savior of THE WORLD
10) Jesus will draw ALL to Himself
11) Jesus is able to save to the uttermost
12) Jesus the first born of ALL creation
13) By Him ALL things were created
14) In Adam ALL condemned, in Christ ALL live
15) In Adam ALL die, in Christ ALL live
16) ALL come into Him at the fullness of times
17) Death, the last enemy, will be destroyed
18) EVERY TONGUE shall confess Jesus is Lord (Romans 9:10)
19) Cannot confess except by THE HOLY SPIRIT 20) ALL Israel will be saved
21) Restitution (Reconstitution) of ALL
22) Jesus will be the joy to ALL people
23) His grace to be shown in the ages to come 24 ALL will know God
25) ALL flesh shall see the salvation of God
26) Grace has appeared to ALL
27) Creation freed from corruption
28) ALL reconciled unto God
29) ALL will have praise of God
30) End of the Lord is full of mercy
31) ALL Nations worship when judgments seen
32) ALL becomes a new creation in Christ
33) .ALL subjected to unbelief, mercy on ALL
34) ALL out of God, thru Him, and into Him
35) Jesus will fill ALL things
36) ALL creation seen praising God
37) God will be ALL in ALL
38) No more tears, ALL things made new
39) ALL dead who hear will live
40) ALL in the grave will hear & come forth
41) And this is the Father's...I should lose NOTHING42) Gather up the fragments that...that NOTHING be lost
43) ALL saved, yet so as by fire
44) Everyone shall be salted with fire
45) Jesus died for ALL
46) Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD47) Reconciliation of the world
48) He is the heir of ALL things
49) ALL has been given into His hand
50) Jesus will give eternal life to ALL that His Father gives Him
51) ALL to be taught of God and will come
52) Jesus is the Savior of ALL
53) Salvation unto the ends of the earth
54).All nations shall be blessed
55) For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost
56) Not the will of your Father...that one of these...should perish (rf. 1)
57) Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of THE WORLD
58) That ALL through him *might believe
59) That THE WORLD through him *might be saved.
60) The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of THE WORLD
61) That we may present EVERY MAN perfect in Christ Jesus
62) The Lord is...not willing that ANY should perish (rf. 1 & 2)
63) And he is the propitiation...for the WHOLE WORLD

The word ίσως for*might is omitted in the Greek text.

Let us add that none of the scriptures listed will mean a thing to those who are not willing to concede to the truth, that is, who are Hardwired To Lie to themselves. Granted, some of these verses may seem not to be in total context of the subject matter, but looking at the whole picture they will in fact support the thought very well. In order to get a complete and balanced overview of God's great plan, which is he SALVATION OF ALL who came out of God, which is ALL, we suggest searching out all the scriptures (preferably in the Hebrew & Greek) concerning the wicked being judged, condemned forever, everlasting punishment, destroyed, etc. No doubt, there will seem to be conflicting verses, and it may involve many soul searching hours, but continue on with a genuine desire to know the truth, and with dedication and prayer until the Spirit of Christ settles it firmly in your spirit with immutable clarity.

We rejoice In the light of the above scriptures, however, never forsake the truth of God's judgments upon man's rebellion, for men must stand accountable for their thoughts, their words, and their deeds. But it is clear that God's judgments and man's torment are not forever, but age-lasting, as it is in the ancient texts. There is an end to both, else His pleasures would be frustrated and never be seen throughout all eternity. Let everyone know that God has always had a wonderful plan for every soul. Moreover, no one and no thing can frustrate it, and He will fulfill it according to His good pleasure.
Now, the challenge for those who do not embrace the truth of this matter; but they say if it is in the Bible, they believe and teach it. The above are 112 clear verses contained in the Bible. What about it? Do you believe it? If so -- will you declare it, and with joy share it to any and all, regardless of the reproach? To bring this forth will cost something; but that is often the price for truth. The Valley of Decision is a hard place; but don't abide there long, break the ties of dogma which have for ages flowed down the concrete channels of tradition lest you reason your way back to the well-beaten path, which sees God in man's image of being eternally feeble and uncaring for that which came from Him.

(Scriptures compiled by Elwin R. Roach)

Get Out of Babylon

2012-01-29T11:34:00.001-04:00

The Importance of Brokenness

2012-01-24T12:15:00.007-04:00

"So the Treasure is in the earthen vessel, but if the earthen vessel is not broken, who can see the Treasure within? What is the final objective of the Lord's working in our lives? It is to break this earthen vessel, to break our alabaster box, to crack open our shell."

ANYONE who serves God will discover sooner or later that the great hindrance to his work is not others but himself. He will discover that his outward man and his inward man are not in harmony, for both are tending toward opposite directions. He will also sense the inability of his outward man to submit to the spirit's control, thus rendering him incapable of obeying God's highest commands. He will quickly detect that the greatest difficulty lies in his outward man, for it hinders him from using his spirit.

Many of God's servants are not able to do even the most elementary works. Ordinarily they should be enabled by the exercise of their spirit to know God's word, to discern the spiritual condition of another, to send forth God's messages under anointing and to receive God's revelations. Yet due to the distractions of the outward man, their spirit does not seem to function properly. It is basically because their outward man has never been dealt with. For this reason revival, zeal, pleading and activity are but a waste of time. As we shall see, there is just one basic dealing which can enable man to be useful before God: brokenness.

The Inward Man and the Outward Man

Notice how the Bible divides man into two parts: "For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man" (Rom. 7:22). Our inward man delights in the Law of God. ". . . To be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man" (Eph. 3:16). And Paul also tells us, "But if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16).

When God comes to indwell us by His Spirit, life and power, He comes into our spirit which we are calling the inward man. Outside of this inward man is the soul wherein function our thoughts, emotions and will. The outermost man is our physical body. Thus we will speak of the inward man as the spirit, the outer man as the soul and the outermost man as the body. We must never forget that our inward man is the human spirit where God dwells, where His Spirit mingles with our spirit. Just as we are dressed in clothes, so our inward man "wears" an outward man: the spirit "wears" the soul. And similarly, the spirit and soul "wear" the body. It is quite evident that men are generally more conscious of the outer and outermost man, and they hardly recognize or understand their spirit at all.

We must know that he who can work for God is the one whose inward man can be released. The basic difficulty of a servant of God lies in the failure of the inward man to break through the outward man. Therefore we must recognize before God that the first difficulty to our work is not in others but in ourselves. Our spirit seems to he wrapped in a covering so that it cannot easily break forth. If we have never learned how to release our inward man by breaking through the outward man, we are not able to serve. Nothing can so hinder us as this outward man. Whether our works are fruitful or not depends upon whether our outward man has been broken by the Lord so that the inward man can pass through that brokenness and come forth. This is the basic problem. The Lord wants to break our outward man in order that the inward man may have a way out. When the inward man is released, both unbelievers and Christians will be blessed.

Nature Has Its Way of Breaking

The Lord Jesus tells us in John 12, "Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit." Life is in the grain of wheat, but there is a shell, a very hard shell on the outside. As long as that shell is not split open, the wheat cannot sprout and grow. "Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die . . . " What is this death? It is the cracking open of the shell through the working together of temperature, humidity, in the soil. Once the shell is split open, the wheat begins to grow. So the question here is not whether there is life within, but whether the outside shell is cracked open.

The Scripture continues by saying, "He that loves his life (Greek, soul) shall lose it, and he that hates his life (Greek, soul) in this world shall keep it to life eternal" (v. 25). The Lord shows us here that the outer shell is our own life (our soul life), while the life within is the eternal life which He has given to us. To allow the inner life to come forth, it is imperative that the outward life be replaced. Should the outward remain unbroken, the inward would never be able to come forth.

It is necessary (in this writing) that we direct these words to that group of people who have the Lord's life. Among those who possess the life of the Lord can be found two distinct conditions: one includes those in whom life is confined, restricted, imprisoned and unable to come forth; the other includes those in whom the Lord has forged a way, and life is thus released from them.

The question thus is not how to obtain life, but rather how to allow this life to come forth. When we say we need the Lord to break us, this is not merely a way of speaking, nor is it only a doctrine. It is vital that we be broken by the Lord. It is not that the life of the Lord cannot cover the earth, but rather that His life is imprisoned by us. It is not that the Lord cannot bless the church, but that the Lord's life is so confined within us that there is no flowing forth. If the outward man remains unbroken, we can never be a blessing to His church, and we cannot expect the word of God to be blessed by Him through us!

The Alabaster Box Must Be Broken

The Bible tells of the pure spikenard. God purposely used this term "pure" in His word to show that it is truly spiritual. But if the alabaster box is not broken, the pure spikenard will not flow forth. Strange to say, many are still treasuring the alabaster box, thinking that its value exceeds that of the ointment. Many think that their outward man is more precious than their inward man. This becomes the problem in the church. One will treasure his cleverness, thinking he is quite important; another will treasure his own emotions, esteeming himself as an important person; others highly regard themselves, feeling they are better than others, their eloquence surpasses that of others, their quickness of action and exactness of judgment are superior, and so forth. However, we are not antique collectors; we are not vase admirers; we are those who desire to smell only the fragrance of the ointment. Without the breaking of the outward, the inward will not come forth. Thus individually we have no flowing out, but also the church does not have a living way. Why then should we hold ourselves as so precious, if our outward contains instead of releases the fragrance?

The Holy Spirit has not ceased working. One event after another, one thing after another, comes to us. Each disciplinary working of the Holy Spirit has but one purpose: to break our outward man so that our inward man may come through. Yet here is our difficulty: we fret over trifles, we murmur at small losses. The Lord is preparing a way to use us, yet scarcely has His hand touched us when we feel unhappy, even to the extent of quarreling with God and becoming negative in our attitude. Since being saved, we have been touched many times in various ways by the Lord, all with the purpose of breaking our outward man. Whether we are conscious of it or not, the aim of the Lord is to break this outward man.

So the Treasure is in the earthen vessel, but if the earthen vessel is not broken, who can see the Treasure within? What is the final objective of the Lord's working in our lives? It is to break this earthen vessel, to break our alabaster box, to crack open our shell. The Lord longs to find a way to bless the world through those who belong to Him. Brokenness is the way of blessing, the way of fragrance, the way of fruitfulness, but it is also a path sprinkled with blood. Yes, there is blood from many wounds. When we offer ourselves to the Lord to be at His service, we cannot afford to be lenient, to spare ourselves. We must allow the Lord utterly to crack our outward man, so that He may find a way for His out working.

Each of us must find out for himself what is the mind of the Lord in his life. It is a most lamentable fact that many do not know what is the mind or intention of the Lord for their lives. How much they need for Him to open their eyes, to see that everything which comes into their lives can be meaningful. The Lord has not wasted even one thing. To understand the Lord's purpose, is to see very clearly that He is aiming at a single objective: the breaking of the outward man.

However, too many, even before the Lord raises a hand, are already upset. Oh, we must realize that all the experiences, troubles and trials which the Lord sends us are for our highest good. We cannot expect the Lord to give better things, for these are His best. Should one approach the Lord and pray, saying, "O Lord, please let me choose the best," I believe He would tell him, "What I have given you is the best; your daily trials are for your greatest profit." So the motive behind all the orderings of God is to break our outward man. Once this occurs and the spirit can come forth, we begin to be able to exercise our spirit.

The Timing in Our Brokenness

The Lord employs two different ways to break our outward man; one is gradual, the other sudden. To some, the Lord gives a sudden breaking followed by a gradual one. With others, the Lord arranges that they have constant daily trials, until one day He brings about large-scale breaking. If it is not the sudden first and then the gradual, then it is the gradual followed by the sudden. It would seem the Lord usually spends several years upon us before He can accomplish this work of breaking.

The timing is in His hand. We cannot shorten the time, though we certainly can prolong it. In some lives the Lord is able to accomplish this work after a few years of dealing; in others it is evident that after ten or twenty years the work is still unfinished. This is most serious! Nothing is more grievous than wasting God's time. How often the church is hindered! We can preach by using our mind, we can stir others by using our emotions; yet if we do not know how to use our spirit, the Spirit of God cannot touch people through us. The loss is great, should we needlessly prolong the time.

Therefore, if we have never before wholly and intelligently consecrated ourselves to the Lord, let us do so now, saying: "Lord, for the future of the church, for the future of the gospel, for Thy way, and also for my own life, I offer myself without condition, without reservation, into Thy hands. Lord, I delight to offer myself unto Thee and am willing to let Thee have Thy full way through me."

The Meaning of the Cross

Often we hear about the cross. Perhaps we are too familiar with the term. But what is the cross after all? When we really understand the cross we shall see it means the breaking of the outward man. The cross reduces the outward man to death; it splits open the human shell. The cross must break all that belongs to our outward man, our opinions, our ways, our cleverness, our self-love, our all. The way is clear, in fact crystal clear.

As soon as our outward man is broken, our spirit can easily come forth. Consider a brother as an example. All who know him acknowledge that he has a keen mind, a forceful will, and deep emotions. But instead of being impressed by these natural characteristics of his soul, they realize they have met his spirit. Whenever people are fellowshipping with him, they encounter a spirit, a clean spirit. Why? Because all that is of his soul has been dealt with.

Take as another example, a sister. Those who know her recognize that she is of a quick disposition, quick in thought, quick of speech, quick to confess, quick in writing letters, and quick to tear up what she has written. However, those who meet her do not meet her quickness but rather her spirit. She is one who has been utterly broken and has become transparent. This breaking of the outward man is such a basic matter. We should not cling to our weak, soulish characteristics, still emitting the same fragrance even after five or ten years of the Lord's dealing with us. No, we must allow the Lord to forge a way in our lives.

Two Reasons for Not Being Broken

Why is it that after many years of dealing some remain the same? Some individuals have a forceful will; some have strong emotions; and others have a strong mind. Since the Lord is able to break these, why is it that after many years some are still unchanged? We believe there are two main reasons.

First, many who live in darkness are not seeing the hand of God. While God is working, while God is breaking , they do not recognize it as being from Him. They are devoid of light, seeing only men opposing them. They imagine their environment is just too difficult, that circumstances are to blame. So they continue in darkness and despair.

May God give us a revelation to see what is from His hand, that we may kneel down and say to Him, "It is Thou; since it is Thou, T will accept." At least we must recognize whose hand it is that deals with us. It is not a human hand, nor our family's, not the brothers' and sisters' in the church, but God's. We need to learn how to kneel down and kiss the hand, love the hand that deals with us, even as Madame Guyon did. We must have this light to see that whatever the Lord has done, we accept and believe; the Lord can do no wrong.

Second, another great hindrance to the work of breaking the outer man is self-love. We must ask God to take away the heart of self-love. As He deals with us in response to our prayer, we should worship and say, "O Lord, if this be Thy hand, let me accept it from my heart." Let us remember that the one reason for all misunderstanding all fretfulness, all discontent, is that we secretly love ourselves. Thus we plan a way whereby we can deliver ourselves. Many times problems arise due to our seeking a way of escape, an escape from the working of the cross.

He who has ascended the cross and refuses to drink the vinegar mingled with gall is the one who knows the Lord. Many go up to the cross rather reluctantly, still thinking of drinking vinegar mingled with gall to alleviate their pains. All who say, "The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?" will not drink the cup of vinegar mingled with gall. They can only drink of one cup, not two. Such as these are without any self-love. Self-love is a basic difficulty. May the Lord speak to us today that we may be able to pray: "O my God, I have seen that all things come from Thee. All my ways these five years, ten years, or twenty years, are of Thee. Thou hast so worked to attain Thy purpose, which is none other than that Thy life may be lived out through me. But I have been foolish. I did not see. I did many things to deliver myself, thus delaying Thy time. Today I see Thy hand. I am willing to offer myself to Thee. Once again I place myself in Thy hands."

Expect to See Wounds

There is no one more beautiful than one who is broken! Stubbornness and self-love give way to beauty in one who has been broken by God. We see Jacob in the Old Testament, how even in his mother's womb he struggled with his brother. He was subtle, tricky, deceitful. Yet his life was full of sorrows and grief. When a youth, he fled from home. For twenty years he was cheated by Laban. The wife of his heart's love, Rachel, died prematurely. The son of his love, Joseph, was sold. Years later Benjamin was detained in Egypt. He was successively dealt with by God, meeting misfortune after misfortune. He was stricken by God once, twice; indeed, his whole history could be said to be a history of being stricken by God. Finally after many such dealings, the man Jacob was transformed. In his last few years, he was quite transparent. How dignified was his answer to Pharaoh! How beautiful was his end, when he worshipped God on his staff! How clear were his blessings to his descendants! After reading the last page of his history, we want to bow our heads and worship God. Here is one who is matured, who knows God. Several decades of dealings have resulted in Jacob's outward man being broken. In his old age, the picture is a beautiful one.

Each of us has much of the same Jacob nature in us. Our only hope is that the Lord may blaze a way out, breaking the outward man to such a degree that the inward man may come out and be seen. This is precious, and this is the way of those who serve the Lord. Only thus can we serve; only thus can we lead men to the Lord. All else is limited in its value. Doctrine does not have much use nor does theology. What is the use of mere mental knowledge of the Bible if the outward man remains unbroken? Only the person through whom God can come forth is useful.

After our outward man has been stricken, dealt with, and led through various trials, we have wounds upon us, thus allowing the spirit to emerge. We are afraid to meet some brothers and sisters whose whole being remains intact, never having been dealt with and changed. May God have mercy upon us in showing us clearly this way and in revealing to us that it is the only way. May He also show us that herein is seen the purpose of all His dealings with in these few years, say ten or twenty. Thus let no one despise the Lord's dealings. May He truly reveal to us what is meant by the breaking of the outward man. Should the outward man remain whole, everything would be merely in our mind, utterly expect the Lord to deal with us thoroughly.

- Watchman Nee

wit ·ness

2012-01-21T12:04:00.066-04:00

"My True Witness is sacred and pure like the blood of Christ the lamb of God, and its heavenly origin. But my Witness became mixed with the filth and greed of Babylon. My soul came to Christ for wholeness and intimacy and I ended up as a burned out manager for Denomination Incorporated. My first Love and True Witness was buried beneath the dead works and filthy rags of man's religion. Jesus wept. And then his eyes were set upon me and Babylon fell within. I am becoming a True Witness I was born from above to be. And that becoming has nothing to do with "getting sinners saved from eternal hell". I am now burning alive in the wilderness apart from their influence."

wit·ness (wtns) n. 1. a. One who can give a firsthand account of something seen, heard, or experienced

We have surveyed our spiritual encounters, explained and brought forth a passionate expression. This is the stuff of our witness, it is sacred, profoundly intimate and far too valuable to sell or expose to the marketplaces of human consumption. God never intended our witness to be something that we made a career out of and trusted in for our sustenance, or was packaged and placed on a shelf at Walmart.

I am here to report there was a time when my witness was used by the religious system to perpetuate their hierarchical, corporate agendas. A pyramid of power trained me, ordained me and put me in one of their religious manufacturing facilities, to churn out converts molded in their carnal imaginations. They passed down plans that included 5 steps to spiritual growth, 10 steps to a bigger church and every conceivable idea to increase the number of souls within their four walls. Massive carnal empires have been assembled in the name of Christ upon the testimonies or the witness of people who can sincerely give a firsthand account of Christ; for they have seen, heard and experienced him. But something is not quite right. And God is very much in control.

My True Witness is sacred and pure like the blood of Christ, the lamb of God, and its heavenly origin. But my Witness became mixed with the lies, filth and greed of Babylon. My soul came to Christ for wholeness and intimacy and I ended up as a burned out manager for Denomination Incorporated. My first Love and True Witness was buried beneath the dead works and filthy rags of man's religion. Jesus wept. And then his eyes were set upon me and Babylon fell within. I am becoming a True Witness I was formed to be. And that becoming has nothing to do with "getting sinners saved from an eternal hell". I am now burning alive in the wilderness apart from their influence.

Institutional religion has a mission and that mission is to 'save the world' from an eternal hell. Jesus' cross and the giving of himself for the world, is simply not enough for religion. Their mission is passionate, soulful and sincerely beguiled. Carnal, God-unconscious Adam, if he were here in his fallen flesh, could not promote this any better than what his descendants have conjured up. I guess they do have his mind and consciousness. Adam's mind has conceived a 'Good News' that states that Jesus died for our sins, God loves us but we'd better love him back or you'll get tortured forever. This modern horror is the evidence of a mind linked to a descendent who ran and hid from the One who loved him more than Himself. The spiritual vision gene of Adam has been inherited by every single one his descendents who has, or ever will live. This vision promotes a false witness of a God who is a terrifying monster, whose compassion is less than his creation, his love really doesn't conquer all, His 'free will' isn't powerful enough to overthrow man's will in bondage, or his plan, Christ, is bumbling Savior who only made it only possible to become whole and who will absolutely fail to save the world from the destruction of a never-ending hell.

If the above is true, why in hell are we promoting having children? Why aren't we promoting abortion and Planned Parenthood, because if the age of accountability doctrine is true, we should congratulate Planned Parenthood for sending millions to heaven. If the Holy Spirit gives you discernment of this issue you will soon begin to understand why institutional Christianity is Babylon and their Adamic minds and resulting doctrines are chaotic.

Religion's account is that God the Father was caught off-guard in some garden unaware of his creation and most of them will end up destroyed, not healed. This is the good news? The balls is completely in our court and we are laying dead in sins and trangressions on the other side of the net, we are blind, we have no racquet, no ability and no understanding of what the hell is even going on. Religion's preposterous notion states that God needs us to do something or we deserve eternal destruction. Pathetic!

I am a witness of Christ having experienced his consuming fires and having encounter a God whose passionate determination and will is to bring life and salvation to all. I am a witness to tell you that the reconstitution of ALL THINGS is an eventuality.

I desire to clarify a few things about the pathetic, powerless God of religion.    Let's start with the real God who sent Christ. The fire of Christ's eyes set upon us, at his choosing, will display for us a God of passion and holiness that will not be deterred. You will not resist his will and you will be freed from your bondage of self-centred consciousness and the deception of good and evil fruit consumption.

Religion has a God who is really not the true and living God; for he is really the pathetic and distorted image of man's depraved and carnal imagination, and therefore can't get his will done. He ends up torturing most of humanity in the fires of destruction. The bibles tells us the carnal mind is death. It has been religion that has lied and deceived us about our God. Remember that it was religion that crucified Jesus because he would not conform to their imaginations rendering of who the Messiah was. Religions lies are packaged so neatly, they appear good, but we are not supposed to eat from a tree labeled 'good'(or evil). For thousands of years, the masses have signed on to promote lies, but things are changing. The lies are being uncovered and those deceiving and those deceived are being awakened. I was both deceiver and deceived and my awakening about 4 years ago was earth-shaking and life-shattering.

My existence is now nothing more than my attempt to be a witness to what Christ is doing in me today. I falter at times, tainting my witness by sharing my ideas, opinions, worldly conditioning or religious indoctrination from the former passover age, when we aren't sure if the sacrifice is enough. But the truth is that a witness only tells what he or she has experienced and nothing more. This experience finds verification in the ancient Script. We are only witnesses for Christ when we have experienced his life in us, his holy consuming presence that removes the first-born identity of Adam; an lie that we think we are, when we are immature or babes in the faith. We are only witnesses when we give our eyewitness account of the Christ presence in us in the ever-present now. We may recall times, as I am doing now, when we were shattered and broken into shivers by the futility and frustration of the world, but it is the relationship we possess in Christ now that is becoming our passion. This is his passion in us! He is walking out his life in us and because he was perfected through suffering, we soon find out that the prosperity gospel and the gimmickry of Western Evangelicalism, is against Christ's plan to also perfect us through suffering. Are you counting it all joy when you face trials of many kinds? Do you not know that to enter the kingdom of God it will be through tribulation. If you not experiencing the overcoming consciousness of Kingdom of God, which is peace and joy, then you are still on the Potter's wheel and the Artisan's fingers will continue to press into your flesh to reveal the Christ buried beneath the carnal flesh of Adam. God's fires will burn in you until the wood, hay and stubble are removed and you will continue in your salvation 'but through fire' .

We are his workmanship after all and this Craftsman will not settle for anything less than a finished product labeled 'Made in His Image'. Do you know that the word is becoming flesh in you and that unimaginable travail must take place to birth Christ in you, your only hope of glory. True Christianity is an experience and a relationship in Christ, not a religious experience or the following of some 9 step plan of the latest author. The first-born son always loses the kingdom, but the second born comes forth and takes that blessing. The first born is always deceived and ends up wandering in circles. The second born wrestles with God but will reign.

I have had many spiritual encounters in my sojourn through the earth. I know there is a first-born in me that must die. Who will deliver me from him? Christ!

I have been called of the Spirit to undo a great many things in your mind, if you should dare to read the words brought forth. Words are spirit and they are life. You have accepted a great many words from others about life and about your identity. Most who will read these posts will have wandered through the feasts of Passover and Pentecost. These were to lead us to Christ and only Christ. Christ is the only way to the Father and that came in the person known as the man, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ is no longer Jesus of Nazareth and when he is done with you, you will not be the son of daughter of your Adamic lineage, but you will be aware and walking in the reality and spirit that you are born from your Father above. The deepest and most profound issues of your identity are rooted in who you think you are. You are either identifying yourself with your earthly heritage which is looking backwards and down your genetic line in the earth, or you are identifying with the Scriptures insistence that we are a new creation in the Corporate Son of Christ, the only begotten of the Living Father of all creation. Our consciousness of Adam is death. Our consciousness of Christ is life. I have insisted to the point of overkill that there there are only ever two trees, two sons, two kings, two thieves. This is a metaphor beckoning us to 'see' which one is us. We lose sight of this in our religious observances and wanderings and it is only after God shakes our lives up that we are awakened to the truth that we are born from above and that our Father is fully in control of the all things.

Religion and immaturity has allowed us to do as we pleased for a season. We seemed to enjoy seasons where we touched a wooden ark and it turned to gold, but then we enter a new season where the seeds we have sown are harvested. This can be a devastating time when God will no longer wink at our sin and darkness(ignorant thinking). We will be holy and enlightened. God presses us to repent, or to change our thinking, but we insist on wandering in circles to our own detriment. But the wilderness of Pentecostal fires burn until our minds are changed and we begin to again trust and only trust in the Lord alone. We leave the wilderness of religion and lay ourselves, as living sacrifices upon the alter. What is next is not often spoken of but is the reality of a living sacrifice. The fires of God fall upon the sacrifice upon that altar.

I came to a place where I failed, the world failed, family failed, religion failed, systems failed and everything I touched failed, failed, failed. I was locked down within failure (Romans 11:32) until I realized that there was no failure in Christ and I'd better get back in his boat. This encounter caused me to realize my utter sinfulness, my vulnerability to beguilement and I cried out 'Lord, I am a sinful man.' I took my boat and all my gifts to shore, I tied them up for good and left all to follow Christ.

Jesus said: 'you can not be my disciple unless you leave it all.'' He really meant that and I found that out. This was his mercy upon me, for he locked me into disobedience to have mercy on us all.' Many are called to follow him in this life into the depths of the kingdom of God, but few are chosen to fulfill it. This does not mean those not chosen get tortured. Such thinking is Adam, carnal, fear and religion. It's death thinking.

Many are looking out upon their lives, the nations, the financial systems, their careers, their families and seeing a collapse they have never experienced before. Christ is coming right now in them and all that they have put their trust in is collapsing within them. They believe they are having a hard time or some even might think they are cursed. I thought that when Christ came to the temple. They can not untie what he is tying up and they can not open doors he has shut. God will no longer wink at you. He is bringing forth the spiritual son he bought and paid for. God is determined to become your 'all in all' and he will do this. Many are getting a crash course in the sovereignty of God and the absolute futility of fighting against God and his (thelo) will. I have experienced this and nearly died a physical death (the bible calls this perishing) when he appeared in me. I was as first-born Cain bringing offerings before the Lord that were not of good quality (carnal and first born understanding). I was sincerely religious and sincerely full of self-effort.   I thought I was saved but I was lost in self-will and exhausted in religious wandering. But Christ's eyes of fire were looking upon me and the divine determination of Christ to make me in his image would not be tampered with. He would have me rest. What occurred was a divine dismantling of all things Dennis Brown and the grace abounding will of God to bring forth the second born son in Christ. It was my time to leave self, religion, exhaustion and enter into rest. Jesus came to his temple within me and took up residence in a new and powerful way that stripped me of everything I knew. I ran, he pursued. I was set ablaze by the fiery eyes of Christ, jumped into the ocean of fear and retreat, but the fires could not be put out.

This is my eye witness account, the very walking out of what the scripture states will happen as told my Malachi 3: 1-3

I, the LORD All-Powerful, will send my messenger to prepare the way for me. Then suddenly the Lord
you are looking for will appear in his temple. The messenger you desire is coming with my promise, and he is on his way. On the day the Lord comes, he will be like a furnace that purifies silver or like strong soap in a washbasin. No one will be able to stand up to him. The LORD will purify the descendants of Levi, as though they were gold or silver. Then they will bring the proper offerings to the LORD.

- To be continued.....

Death or Life: Adam or Christ

2012-01-18T09:41:00.094-04:00

"From the foundtion of the world, God has been planning our salvation and wholeness, not our demise."

Paul stated he was a pattern of salvation.

Paul stated he was a slave envoy of Jesus Christ.

Paul didn't chose Christ, rather he was apprehended.

The ascended Jesus Christ apprehended Saul of Tarsus.

Paul's words were 'what do you desire me to do, Lord.' (the emphasis added is mine)

Paul also wrote these words about the Author and Finisher of each man's faith:

"God always does what he plans, and that's why he appointed Christ to choose us" Ephesians 1:11

Most look past scriptures like these from Paul and follow the doctrines of men stating we choose Christ and man's will overtakes God's will. There is only one truth about God's plan for the world and that is the reconstitution of all things. This is the heart and spirit we get in Paul's writing, for Paul knew he was running in the other direction and Christ Jesus apprehended and overtook him.

Are you going to search these things out, or believe the broad road views of mainstream religion. ((Prov. 25:2) I caution you about running to religious men in mainstream religion to ask their opinion. You must search out and walk out these truths to be a true witness of Christ. Christ does this through you, in you and as you.

It was mainstream religion who crucified Christ. The Pharisees were zealous beyond most 'believers today; for they poured over the scriptures but they could not see the truth, Christ, standing in their midst. They did not have a heart knowledge or the spirit of understanding about the plans of the Father in Christ. God had not given it to them.

"He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. " (Mark 4:34)

"Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. " Deut. 29:4

We will all be apprehended by Jesus Christ, 'But each man in his own order.' Christ is the anointing that will return a reconciled, deathless, new heaven and earth to the Father. No death will exist. No death in anyone. No death anywhere. No rebellion in any heart.    Everyone knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ as Lord, this to the glory of God. The next time you encounter a person you have been taught is 'unsaved and lost', remember that God has already planned and finished their salvation from the foundation of the world. Experience the ensuing rest that overtakes your soul and be thankful that God is sovereign and you have been delivered to rest from the self-effort of religion.

We are being saved from our sin and death, not from an eternal hell. God has been planning our salvation and wholeness from the foundation of the world, not our demise. This will be fully accomplished by Christ, because this is the purpose of God for the whole world.

Adam thrust us all into his death. Do you believe that? It's the scriptures account.

Christ will thrust us all into his life. Do you believe that? It's the scriptures account.

You default mind setting can not see this being accomplished for all, for that mind sees the sin and death of Adam ultimately winning, but the Spirit can grant you faith and vision to see Christ and the cross as the victor.

Whether you believe in the age-lasting reign of Adam, or the age-lasting reign of Christ, who you believe is the eventual victor, it is him who you really believe in. Does Christ save the world, or does Adam keep the majority in eternal death?

I have been given belief in Christ and his life to defeat all death that came through Adam.

"For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. " 1 Corinthians 15:25-26

Is the scripture speaking of Adam or Christ in the passage above?

Religion has not been able to show you this because religion is about self-effort, but Christ is about victory and rest. His victory, his rest, his righteousness give to us freely, that no man can boast.

Most take the Lord's name in vain, for they call themselves Christians, but they do not believe in Christ or his cross to overturn what Adam did.   They believe Adam will reign in death with the majority of creation dead and in hell. This is the spirit of anti Christ in the world.

The Lion and Lamb Living Within (No Longer Me)

2012-01-11T09:29:00.016-04:00

This early morning. This initial and apparent wandering through aimless routines of everyday things. The night has passed and the light of dawn has flooded my soul. Ours is a ride upon the gentle breeze. Ours is the dawn and peace. But I am no longer me. You are becoming within. There is a Lamb living within me.

There is a beauty in my wandering through futility and frustration, for in this new morning in your presence, Father, Christ is revealed within me and ignorance and darkness is dispelled. Consciousness of self (death) and the outer world is about me; this world seeks to beckon me to its ever-dying-nothingness. Every imaginable distraction and empty lie presents itself before your throne. But there is You deep within and it is this consciousness of YOU that is the ever-growing enlightenment(light). Consciousness of YOU is life and peace. Consciousness of you that reveals righteousness(right-standing). I am in Christ and yet I feel alone? I die to these feelings. You are the consuming silence within this mind. I am dying to sin and you led the way. You have always been the still small voice after the Fire. There is Fire within. There is a Lion living within me.

The clearest image I have of you is your glory. And your glory is the full weight of your goodness and rightness. And the full weight of your goodness is your unwillingness to see any of your creation lost or remain apart from you. Your goodness is your passion to take our sin and death, within Christ, and transfer your righteousness to us. Your justice can not allow you to see us as lost and dying. It is that justice that cries out and your love runs and fill any need anywhere. You are love and you will not leave us undone, dying or in a place where we might not know that love fully. This required you to die to our sin and rebellion. Your cross speaks to me deeply within. You have forever displayed your humility and love for us all. You came down and you bowed down. You, as You really are. Our Father! Oh your willingness and passion to make us like you. And Your LIFE can never stop until it has extinguished all death and all separation. For we are ONE. Our God is ONE!

We
The divided and separated
In inner consciousness and outward reality
We
Must become One
Because You are One
It is You revealing yourself within
Our consciousness and apparent separation
There is a Lion
A Lamb
Living within

These fires have burned within and without for many, many years. I have been subjected to the ash heap. You have incinerated the wood, hay and stubble of self, religion, earthly stimuli, brutal worldly conditioning and the serpentine soul, to reveal the Christ 'neath the veil of this corruption. I am NOW putting on your incorruption. We are One now and forevermore. Our God is One. I am being pulled into the infinite depths of the your cross, your love, your glory, your power, you peace and joy.

Gratefulness pours forth from within the soul as I enter the garden...

'O Father, how good you are to me. O Father---dear and precious Father---this Oneness is beyond any understanding. What peace and joy is ours in this glorious now.'

With a raucous suddenness, a soulish, earthly distraction disturbs the heavenlies and I fall to earth and self-consciousness. This is death. This is hell. Separation and alienation of soul is hell. This is a lie!

And yet there are rivers of Life buried within me flowing forth to water this earth. Drowning self in the flood of Christ, swallowing death and the separation (consciousness) seeking to smother Christ within. You are my only hope of glory, this kingdom of rightness, peace and joy. There is nothing and no one that can dam the flow of Christ within now. Christ, the raging, ravaging, rushing flow of life pouring forth within me. Christ---the conquering Christ---riding victoriously within my soul and conquering every last bastion of Adam, any stronghold set up against the knowledge and power of God. It is all falling within me. Thoughts, imaginations bowing to the inevitability of kingdom reign in (my) earth.

There is a Lamb
In the midst of the throne
There is a Lion
Calling the pride
To their home
In Zion to dwell
These eyes can see
The dwelling place prepared
With Thee
From the disruption of the world
Never to be taken down
'Nor a one of its stakes
Will ever be removed
Nor will any of its cords be broken'
And though the earth moves
Beneath my feet
Shaking self from this house
Though sin ravages
And destruction plunders youth
God is now (my) inheritance
Secure in You (not me)
Never to be moved
There is a Lion
There is a Lamb
Living within
(No longer me)

What Did Jesus (REALLY) Do?

2012-01-01T12:32:00.008-04:00

"To discover the true nature of Christ’s atonement we first need to know our God. Truth leads to more truth, and error leads to more error. In our investigation we must first know who our God is, and understand His plan for the ages, and His ability to perform His will"

Is there anything more important than to know: 'What did Jesus do'. This appears to be a heavy subject. There are many different opinions about what it was that Jesus actually accomplished for us when he died for the world. Is he really the Savior of the World? Everyone? The bible says he is (see 1 Timothy 4:10, 1 Timothy 2:6), but some say, especially the religious hierarchy, that he is only the Savior of only those who believe in him. What does all this really mean? The atonement addresses these and many other issues.

What I will share here will address these questions directly. With a great deal of help from my previous training in Arminian theology, and specifically as an ordained minister in The Wesleyan Church, I will present to you a theological position that will hopefully provide hope and good news to you. There is so much hope and good news for man! This post is the compilation of ideas I have personally experienced, as well as the ideas from other theologians I have studied and searched out.

"We cannot detect error if we do not know truth. Truth is the light that reveals error. If we do not know who our God is in the light of Christ, we will accept error as our truth. To discover the true nature of Christ’s atonement we first need to know our God. Truth leads to more truth, and error leads to more error. In our investigation we must first know who our God is, and understand His plan for the ages, and His ability to perform His will!

In 1 John 4:8 we read that God is love. Love is not an emotion; it is defined for us in 1 Cor. 13:4-7. Since God is love, this defines who He is in the very essence of His being! Because He is love, love has to be the motivating force of everything He does. It was the motivating force of His wonderful plan for making man in His image. He was also the prime mover!   Any doctrine that either contradicts or obscures this fact is embedded in error.

So let’s examine this doctrine of Christ dying as our substitute in the light of this truth. We have been told that the punishment for man’s sin is an eternal death of torment in hell. Is this statement correct? God told Adam that if he ate the fruit of the forbidden tree he would die. If this death were an eternal torment in hell, God would have said that. But God did NOT say that! He said that Adam would die. In God’s foreknowledge and love, how could He bring into being a humanity of which the greater part would suffer in agony for all eternity?! That idea is against all logic and against the very essence of God.

Furthermore, this doctrine of substitution declares that God wishes to save man, but He cannot do so until His justice is satisfied. Someone must suffer the penalty before He can forgive the sinner and restore him to divine favor. Since that penalty is endless torment, the sinner is unable to be forgiven. Our curiosity is aroused, and we wonder about God’s standard of righteousness and justice. Since God did not tell Adam and Eve that the penalty for disobedience would be endless torment, is it right for God to add an extra penalty to death without prior notification? Where is the righteousness and justice of God in sneaking in such a horrible punishment as eternal torture for a single transgression?
To think of God as being so hard and unapproachable that He needed a human sacrifice to appease His wrath, not only hides, but opposes the very essence of His being - which is love. Man makes it appear as though God had outraged justice, and Jesus had infinite love. This is error. What do the scriptures teach us? “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Rom. 8:20-21) Since God subjected all to futility, it is only just for Him to get it out of its corruption. The atonement was not only the work of Christ, but “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” (2 Cor. 5:19) God’s justice does not find fulfillment in punishing man, but in His abundant provision for man’s salvation. Our God “is “a righteous God and a Savior.” (Is. 45:21) This distinguishes Him from every other so-called god.

Let’s look at another error in man’s doctrine of the atonement. According to the law, every violation deserves its punishment. To uphold the law, the Son of God offers to suffer the penalty instead of man. The Father accepts this substitution, and pours out His wrath upon His innocent Son, and God is reconciled and pardon is granted through Jesus Christ. Is this teaching scriptural? Does the absence of punishment change the sinner and bring him into the image of Christ? What an absurd idea! Our sense of justice also declares that having an innocent person suffer for a guilty one is outrageous. How would you feel if your beloved son would suffer the punishment for a murderer, so the murderer could be set free to continue sinning? We’d be enraged at the injustice, wouldn’t we?!

No wonder that this is not the teaching we find in the scriptures! Nowhere do they teach that Christ suffered as a substitute for guilty man, or that His death was to satisfy the justice of God. Christ both died and rose again that He might take humanity out of the death it was in and bring it into life!

On the cross Christ united Himself with sinful humanity and took it with Him in His death and resurrection. His union with sinful humanity was actually His death. He did this in order that He might be one with humanity so He could take humanity out of its death and raise it into life together with Him in His resurrection. This helps us to understand that Christ is a corporate man. In Adam all die and in Christ all are made alive. Christ is the second man, and in Him the old Adam ends. “He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.” (Col. 1:18)   He is the beginning of a new humanity that has been raised out of death into the life of Christ!

What kind of justice is involved when the substitute really does not suffer the complete penalty? When the whole arrangement will fail to accomplish the intended purpose – the salvation of the complete human race? One deception needs more deceptions to support it and make it believable. Although they say the Father accepted this substitution, Jesus did not suffer the complete penalty, for He did not suffer endless death, because they say that His sufferings as a divine person made up in quality what they lacked in quantity. Man says that God accepted the sufferings as being equivalent to the penalty of the broken law. So there is a substitution of victims and of penalty! The fact that Christ’s divine nature could not die, adds another complication. So we are told that He simply died as a human being. His divinity could not die, yet His divinity is supposed to make His death a full satisfactory penalty for the broken law.

This substitution theory also belittles God’s ability, and claims that the devil can thwart God’s ability to save to the uttermost. It claims that in spite of Christ’s sacrifice, God’s plan of salvation will only be accepted by a minority; the greater percentage of the human race will still suffer eternal torment. This negates God’s sovereignty, for it claims that God is unable to achieve His plan to save the whole world. (In a textbook we were given in China, it said that the devil was victorious because he would forever shake his fist at God and claim the victory – editors.) The substitution theory leads to this conclusion. Deception upon deception!

The scriptures invariably say that Christ died to reconcile man to God, not God to man! The difference between these two statements is as wide as the difference between the lie and the truth, and it puts God and His ways in a wrong light. It puts Jesus and God in opposition to each other. This theory magnifies Jesus as the One who loves mankind, and God is portrayed as so unrelenting that He could not forgive humanity without an innocent victim upon whom He could pour His wrath, and so unjust that He could accept an innocent person in place of the guilty.

Christ is our Savior – but under God! God is the supreme Savior! In 1 Tim. 2:3 we read, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” He is not an angry God who had to be pacified by the sacrifice of a loving Son. He does not need to be pacified or appeased with the blood of a victim, like a pagan god.

The scriptures declare, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Rom. 5:10)   We were reconciled to God! “And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” (Col. 1:20-22) You can check other passages on reconciliation.

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” (2 Cor. 5:19) Notice that God was reconciling the world to Himself, and that He is the prime mover in the atonement! Although Christ died for us, and He is our propitiation and our advocate with the Father, yet Christ did not initiate the atonement. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:16) God is the principal and Jesus Christ is His obedient Son. They are in perfect agreement! God is our Savior and Redeemer.
“God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30b-31)   God’s judgments are based on truth, for truth reveals the lie. Christ came to do the will of the Father, so the Father is the prime mover in the whole plan of reconciliation! God does not work through substitutes! The Father Himself loves us! (John 16:27)

The need of atonement implies that two parties are in disagreement with each other. They need to be brought into harmony and union. This is the meaning and intent of the atonement. In the case of man and God, this estrangement is all on man’s side. Therefore it is man who must be changed! To say that God had to be reconciled to man is blasphemous, for it would mean that God had to change – and He is a God who never changes!

“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” (1 John 4:9) Since the estrangement is all on man’s part, we need a mediator to show us our   ignorance! We need Christ to reveal the Father’s love to us! Christ is the express image of the invisible God! He is the revelation of the Father to us! “Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (Matthew 11:27) We love Him because He first loved us! But we first have to learn that He loves us.   The world does not know Him, and it cannot know Him until it receives a revelation of Him through Christ.

“ …and if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1) The term, “an Advocate with the Father,” seems strange to us. Since God is our Father, why do we need an advocate with Him? Does a child need the services of an advocate to plead his own cause to his father? If the child was estranged from him, he might suppose that he needed one. The Christian world supposes that it needs one, because it does not know the Father’s love. It does not know that the Father loves them. But the Father does not need an advocate because He was never unreconciled! However the children need one in order to make the Father’s love known to them.

Knowing that God is love, it follows that God’s plan for us is for our good! Therefore God’s plan for sin and evil to come into this world, causing our estrangement from God, and His abundant provision for our salvation and union with Him came out of a heart of love. We are God’s workmanship, created for good works! Since He planned that sin should come into this world, He also made abundant provision for all to be brought into unity with Him. Passing through the various stages of restoration brings us into a greater knowledge of who God is – of the riches of His grace and the depths of His love!

These truths deliver us from the false dogma of eternal torment. Endless torment is not the punishment for the broken law, and therefore man did not need a substitute to pretend to suffer this death for him. Moreover, since evil is one of our educators, we know that it is always ultimately for our good. God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. (Hebrews 12:10) Just as Jesus was made perfect through suffering, so we are perfected through sufferings. Then why should we be saved from these experiences? These are God’s blessings in disguise.

Since substitution is out of place in God’s dealings with us, how do we explain verses like, He “tasted death for every man…the just for the unjust…He bore oiur sins,” etc.? This is clarified when we notice that the preposition ‘for’ is used, and not ‘instead’. Jesus Christ died for us, but He did not die instead of us. In His death He was united with sinful humanity. He was not man’s substitute. He was the scapegoat that took away the sin of the world!   Christ’s death was a death to sin. (Rom. 6:10) We are to be made conformable to His death, and become like Him by receiving His life! (1 John 3:2)
There is no substitution in all this, but perfect union and identity of experience! We are one with Him in His suffering and death to sin, and one with Him in His resurrection life and exaltation! Christ took us with Him in His death and resurrection so we could become one with Him in His life. If He was only our substitute, He would also be our substitute in His resurrection. God’s plan is so much better!

The truth is that Christ died to save us, not from the penalty of our sin, but from sin itself; not from death, but out of death – out of being dead in our transgressions and sins! There would be no kindness involved in saving us from the penalty. God could remit that penalty without the intervention of a substitute or Savior. However, that would not solve the problem, for a prisoner can be freed from his jail sentence, but he would still leave that prison as an unchanged sinner. Humanity needs to be freed from sin. Our nature needs to be changed from sinner to saint. We need to be freed “from the body of this death”! (Romans 7:24)

Verse 25 gives us the answer to how we can be freed. It is through Jesus Christ our Lord! God makes us a new creation in Christ! (2 Cor. 5:17) This is the purpose of the atonement! We need to be delivered completely from the bondage of corruption, and this can only be accomplished by placing us in the new man - the Lord Jesus Christ! God in Christ does this work!

John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) He did not say “the sins of the world”, as referring to particular sins. The sin of the world refers to the body of sin, which is our sinful nature. This is symbolized in the law by the scapegoat that took away the sin of the whole nation of Israel. Christ’s work is even greater, for He took away the sin of the world – not just of one nation!

Christ came to seek and to save the lost. They were not in danger of being lost – they were already lost! Christ died to give life to a people who were already dead in their sins. He came to bring us abundant life! This shows us how completely the atonement is of God! A dead person cannot get himself back into life. He cannot help himself in any way.

In 2 Cor. 5:18-21 Paul wrote, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin (a sin offering – Concordant) on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Notice that the finished, completed work of reconciliation is the basis for entreating the sinner to be reconciled to God. The popular view is just the opposite. Repent sinner, and then you can be reconciled to God! But Paul says that reconciliation has taken place; therefore be reconciled! When we submit ourselves to God, we can enjoy a relationship with Him! This is in line with Isaiah’s message from the Lord, “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” ( 44:22) The reason for their return is that they have been redeemed! This is glorious news and reason for great rejoicing! (v.23)

Those who put the cause for the effect, and the effect for the cause, make the foundation for repentance the result of that repentance. This makes the accomplishment of God’s work dependent on poor weak man who is dead in his transgressions and sins, and represents the promise as no better than the law covenant. Surely there is an infinite difference between God’s, “ I have done it,” and “I will do it IF you will do thus and so.”

Isaiah pronounces a woe on people “who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!” (5:20-21)

The work of God in Christ enables us to become partakers of His divine nature!   “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (2 Peter 1:4)

Let’s look at another error in the popular theology of the atonement. In it God is represented as being wrathful and furious against man for having broken His law. Then Christ steps in and pacifies the Father by sacrificing Himself. This appeases God, His anger is turned away, and He begins to love mankind.   In this way the atonement is made the CAUSE of God’s love, and the love of God is represented as a RESULT flowing out of Christ’s work of reconciliation. The language of the creeds implies this. In fact the majority of Christians view the atonement as being the CAUSE of God’s love, when in reality it is the effect.

The truth is that God’s love led TO the atonement; it did NOT flow FROM it. The scriptures testify to this. “God so loved the world” – that is why He gave His only begotten Son! The atonement brought into our vision the Father’s pre-existing, but unknown love.   “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren…by this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” (1John 3:16;4:9) By discovering that He first loved us, our eyes are opened so we can begin to live in HIM.

You may have heard the story of the mother who said to her little boy, “Now, Johnny, if you are good and obedient, Mama will love you, but if you are naughty I can’t love you.” To this un-motherly speech the child sorrowfully replied, “Anybody will love me when I am good, can’t you love me when I am bad?” The love of God is so great that He never quits loving us! “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8) This makes it very plain that God’s love was the CAUSE, and not the result of the atonement. So let us not reverse this blessed truth, and put darkness for light, and light for darkness.

Some more good news is that the atonement will not be a partial, but a complete and absolute success! The work of God in Christ will not culminate in myriads perishing forever. It will not PARTIALLY accomplish the purpose for which He died, i.e. to reconcile the WORLD to God and to “destroy the works of the devil.” It will accomplish the work it was intended for!

How could the joint work of the Father and the Son fall short of a perfect triumph? The truth is that it will be MUCH MORE than enough!   Read Romans 5 and see how this glorious truth is emphasized. Paul’s MUCH MORE takes away all doubt as to the “exceeding abundance” of God’s provision for man’s universal redemption forever!

What would cause us to think that our almighty God could not accomplish the purpose for which He sent Christ, namely, the reconciling of the WORLD to Himself? He sent the Son to be the Savior of the WORLD! (1 John 4:14) How can God’s plans and purposes miscarry? How can a large portion of the world be lost forever in endless torment, when the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world? How could this be a testimony to God’s love? God said, “So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” (Is. 55:11) Christ is the Word of God. He will accomplish the work He was sent to do!

Let those who wish to limit the Holy One of Israel, and forget His awesome power, do so. (Ps.78:41-42) But we believe that God will do everything that He has promised to the full, for “He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” (Eph. 3:20)   Although this may sound too good to be true, it is actually impossible for anything to be too good to be true. We may truthfully say that a thing is too BAD to be true, as, for example, the doctrine of endless torment, but no human being is able to conceive or imagine a thing too good to be true – that would be equivalent to thinking of something better than God. Comprehending the love of God surpasses knowledge! Yet this comprehension is necessary in order to be filled with the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:19)

Here is a brief summary of what we have been saying:

The atonement was not given for the purpose of satisfying God’s justice, but to reveal His love.
The justice of God is not against the sinner, demanding his condemnation, but for him, ensuring his salvation.
God is not in contrast with Christ nor is He in opposition to Christ in the atonement, but in perfect harmony and accord.
The reconciliation of the world to God is not the exclusive work of Christ, but it is the work of “God in Christ”.
Christ does not have to plead with God to make Him willing to pardon the sinner. In Christ, God has already pardoned the sinner. This is the message His children are to bring to the sinner to make the sinner willing to be reconciled to God. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20)
The purpose of the atonement was to make God’s already existing love known to man and make man favorably disposed toward God - not to regain the good will of God.
Christ did not die as our substitute, but as us and for us.
Christ did not die to save us from the penalty of sin, but from sin itself.
Christ did not die that we might not die, but to deliver us out of a death in which we were already involved.
The atonement is not the cause of God’s love to man, giving rise to that love, but the result that flows out of His love.
The sinner is not redeemed because he repents, but he is called upon to repent because he has been redeemed.
The final outcome of the atoning plan, is not a partial success, but a perfect, absolute and universal triumph!

In these particulars the popular theology is the opposite of the truth. Although some of these errors are not formally listed, the language leads to these errors and confirms them. These errors are not small and unimportant, only slightly differing from the truth – but they are just the opposite of the truth!

They bring confusion (Babylon).

Let us rejoice that our God keeps His promises, and that His provision is greater than our need!" End Quote

Steve Jobs and The Still More Beautiful Later

2012-01-01T09:29:00.055-04:00

I want to share with you the story about Steve Jobs final words.

It's not necessary to discuss who Steve is.

Steve impacted this world in a way that few of us can ever fully imagine.

I know you may think that because his impact was worldly and merely technological, you might dismiss such an impact, but you would be unwise to do so. There is a valuable lesson I can see from his life.

Maybe some of what his sister said about Steve's final moments in a human body, maybe such words will reveal a truth you may not have considered.

"And he (Jesus) died for all.....So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer." (2 Corinthians 5: 15-16)

A worldly point of view is regarding whether the earthly, carnal, fleshly Steve did anything for Jesus. We view the earthly Steve and we are instructed by Paul that this determination is not valid. Of course that man did nothing for Jesus. That's religion and Jesus came to undo religion. And remember it was Jesus that did the work for Steve. We have righteousness (right standing) because of what Jesus did. Our self-efforts are not valid. Believing comes through God-imparted faith (Galatians 2:20), so no one can boast. And where does it say that this confession of faith has to happen while you're still in a body. There is no scripture that says all will believe and confess before they die. But it does say that 'every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Frankly, I know Jesus has it taken care of. Some of you will never be convinced because you have to believe man has a say in his wholeness or salvation. But you are missing it. We have nothing to contribute in coming to wholeness.

Is Jesus the Savior of the world because Steve Jobs made Jesus the Savior? Or is Jesus Savior whether we do nothing at all? If we do something to make him Savior, that would be OUR self-will and the bible is emphatic that man has no part in his salvation. None. I don't care what the clergy say. You need to think about this. Jesus is not Savior because we believe. He is Savior and the truth of this is the power that finds its way to us and this begins our healing. When we believe it is because God gives us the faith of Christ to believe.

What is written by Steve's sister and spoke by her at his funeral---and was there when he died, this is moving. I hope you are able to be moved by it, for there are such great things ahead for all men. Only because Jesus IS the Savior of the world. He really will heal everyone of this inability to know God. He's not the failure the religious crowd makes him out to be.

Can you focus upon God's love and grace for us all, even for Steve Jobs? Let yourself believe in God's mercy that never ends. Step above the doctrines that confine you. Step into the infinite, never-ending love of God that can not end. God is love! We have been taught that His mercy is new every morning but rarely are we impacted by the co-equal scriptural truth that God's mercy never ends. My deepest hope is for you to see---if you truly know God and the power of the cross---to see and begin to know things, to see things just as God sees things. When we see things as God sees things, Jesus' prayer 'on earth as it is in heaven' is being fulfilled.

Jesus Christ's mind is full of faith, hope and love. Is your mind like Christ's or Adam's. Christ's mind and will is life and peace for all. This will be done because God is omnipotent and not man. Adam's mind is full of fear, destruction and the inability to truly see God for who He truly is. Adam's mind believes God can't get it done. Adam believes man is too powerful and has a "free will" that can't be overcome by God. Adam is not sure about Christ's will and tends to lean towards God being omnipotent, but not really able to get His will done. Can we really call him God if he can't get His will done? And yet Jesus said 'for they know not what they do'. Not seeing freedom there. Nope, but I do see a will in bondage. I see man rejecting God but that rejection of God is forgiven by Jesus all the more. "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This is forgiveness for rejection. This is forgiveness because of human minds and wills in bondage. This isn't free will like religion says.

God's love and mercy endures forever and God's grace super-abounds when sin abounds. This position is an unending, never-changing stance, no matter what church doctrines say, for God lives in timelessness and we have all fallen short of his glory; isn't that a given? But we are all headed for His unimaginable glory. Only because of Jesus and his work are we all headed there.

Steve's sister, Rose, spoke so eloquently about such things:

'Dr. Fischer gave him a 50/50 chance of making it through the night.

He made it through the night, Laurene next to him on the bed sometimes jerked up when there was a longer pause between his breaths. She and I looked at each other, then he would heave a deep breath and begin again.

This had to be done. Even now, he had a stern, still handsome profile, the profile of an absolutist, a romantic. His breath indicated an arduous journey, some steep path, altitude.

He seemed to be climbing.

But with that will, that work ethic, that strength, there was also sweet Steve’s capacity for wonderment, the artist’s belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later.

Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times.

Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them.

Steve’s final words were:

OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.

Because of God's love and the cross of Jesus Christ, we all will have a still more beautiful later

O Wow!

"No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”Jeremiah 31:34

God Will Have All Men

2011-12-30T15:28:00.010-04:00

"I have been accused of belittling the Lord Jesus, saying it nullifies the great ransom He paid on the cross. Such a supposition is contrary to any form of sound thinking. The fact is, declaring that He will not save all those He died for would belittle Him and count His mission a failure. He came to save all, and He will save all. This is a truth that should be trumpeted from the house tops by every Christian home. Announcing such an all-encompassing victory over all sin, sickness, and death can never belittle Him nor nullify the ransom paid on the cross; but rather, it magnifies Him and the value of His shed blood."

I am reminded today of the enveloping promise of what God's will is: God 'who will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth". . (1 Timothy 2:4) And of course, we know, He works ALL THINGS after the counsel of HIS OWN WILL (Ephesians 1:11).

Whether one agrees or disagrees with this, it will not benefit anyone to argue the matter; for generally, as the late George Hawtin said many years ago,

"A theological argument is like a dog fight in a flower bed -- the only things that ever get settled are the flowers."

I will, however, express very briefly a couple of thoughts, hoping it will clarify some questions a large number of people have. I believe it will provoke those seeking greater understanding of eternal things to look beyond limited horizons of religion.

More than a few disagree on the point of God ransoming all by the blood of Jesus. Some are so angered that they would kill and condemn me to hell forever if they could; nevertheless, we present a few words for your kind consideration.

It has been said to me that "Our Father wishes all to accept His Son; but He knows many will go where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth." The above verses express the thought of God's will, yet those with the argument of eternal weeping, fail to see that God's sovereign will shall be carried out. I agree, weeping and gnashing of teeth will come for many, but it does not say forever. The context of the verses where Jesus spoke of weeping and gnashing of teeth is that of the Jews losing their inheritance and authority over God's Kingdom which began in 70 A.D. Paul made it clear in Romans 11:26 that ALL Israel will be saved, not to mention the whole world being reconciled and brought back into God (Rom. 11:15-36).

It is believed that there are a large number of scriptures, mainly in The New Testament, that refutes the statement that all will be saved. No doubt, such quotes would be from our ill-translated English versions that were influenced greatly by Roman Catholic theology laid down for over a thousand years during and since the Dark Ages. Other languages have adopted the same in their translations.

Many consider this teaching to be dangerous to those who believe it. How so? What danger could there be for one to believe in a God who loves His creation so much that He not only can, but will save them by drawing them to Jesus and His cross? Upon hearing this Good News would, no doubt, cause a few insincere "believers" to go into more apparent sin, saying, "If everyone is going to get saved in the long run, what's the use of serving God today? Why not have a little fun while I still can?" Sadly, such people were never serving God in the first place. They merely had the bit of the law in their jaws, and with the threat of eternal damnation removed, they promptly fill their lives with what was harbored in their wanton hearts.

I have been accused of belittling the Lord Jesus, saying it nullifies the great ransom He paid on the cross. Such a supposition is contrary to any form of sound thinking. The fact is, declaring that He will not save all those He died for would belittle Him and count His mission a failure. He came to save all, and He will save all. This is a truth that should be trumpeted from the house tops by every Christian home. Announcing such an all-encompassing victory over all sin, sickness, and death can never belittle Him nor nullify the ransom paid on the cross; but rather, it magnifies Him and the value of His shed blood.

To bring this into focus, let me ask -- if you paid the full price for 100 sheep that were locked inside a pen, would you settle for only the one or two that happen to walk through the gate after it was opened and invited to come out -- or would you go inside and drive, and drag if necessary, each and every one out of their captivity? Jesus would do no less. If He paid the price for all, He will not stop driving, drawing, and dragging until ALL are in His sacrificial arms of love.

Religious mind-sets cause people to believe that a person cannot be saved except by the volition of his own will. I partially agree. There is a willful act when a man or woman confesses Jesus as their Lord; however, this will originates in Christ and not man. Without the drawing of the Spirit placed in their hearts, it is impossible for anyone to desire God. For instance, ""The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). And, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him..." (John 6:44). However, there will be a day when every man, every woman, and every child will know God; for Jesus said with assurance --

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw (Grk. helkuo to draw, drag off; coil or wrap(heilisso) all men unto Me" (John 12:32). (See "Drag" Strongs #1670 )

I do not write today with the thought of defending what I believe, for truth can stand on its own and does not need me to vindicate it. I write with the hope that some may come to the knowledge of this truth, by which they can be released from the chains of age-old dogmas which originated with the Roman Church so long ago.

I realize such statements can be rather severe, especially when they are directed to someone who loves Jesus with all their heart; however, my concern for the true welfare of people outweighs my reluctance to cause discomfort. Simply put, embracing the doctrine of eternal torment will imprison (unknowingly perhaps) and chain people in darkness, preventing them from advancing into the truths reserved for this day. It is imperative for people to be made free.

The idea of eternal damnation was not generally taught by the Church as a whole for the first 300 years. It was not until the Roman Catholic church was established that it was instituted as a tenet of faith. This teaching was so successful in bringing people in line with the church that it became one of the primary elements of Catholic doctrine. By the time of Martin Luther, it was seared deep into almost everyone's mind as being true even though it could not be proven by the original manuscripts of the Bible.

This is one of the primary teachings that impregnates almost all the other teachings in not only the Catholic church but also that of the Protestants. This is the way dogma is formed. Dogma, as we know, is that which becomes established opinion, or a point of view put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds. It is by this which many are chained -- that which has become established opinion without adequate grounds.

As long as anyone holds to the doctrine that started in the Catholic Church which, incidentally, was borrowed from the teachings of pagan religions, they will be lacking in truth. The following is from the book -- The Prevailing Doctrine of the Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years By J.W. Hanson, D.D.

"The Pagan and Jewish religions, the latter corrupted by heathen additions, taught eternal torment. Classic scholars know that the heathen hell was early copied by the Catholic church, and that almost its entire details afterwards entered into the creeds of Catholic and Protestant churches up to a century ago. Any reader may see this who will consult Pagan literature and writers on the opinions of the ancients. And not only this, but the heathen writers declare that the doctrine was invented to instill a pseudo-reverence and fear and control the multitude. Polybius writes: 'Since the multitude is ever fickle there is no other way to keep them in order but by fear of the invisible world; on which account our ancestors seem to me to have acted soundly, when they contrived to bring into the popular belief these notions of the gods and of the hell regions.' Seneca says: 'Those things which make the hell regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat, etc., are all a fable.' Livy declares that Numa invented the doctrine, 'a most effective means of governing an ignorant and barbarous populace.' Strabo writes: 'The multitude are restrained from vice by the punishments the gods are said to inflict upon offenders, for it is impossible to govern the crowd of women and all the common rabble by philosophical reasoning: these things the legislators used as scarecrows to terrify the childish multitude.' Similar language is found in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plato, and other writers. History records nothing more distinctly than that the Greek and Roman Pagans borrowed of the Egyptians, and that some of the early Christians unconsciously absorbed, or studiously appropriated, the doctrines of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans concerning punishment after death, and gradually corrupted the 'simplicity that is in Christ' by the inventions of antiquity, as from the same sources the Jews at the time of Christ had already corrupted their religion. What is more natural than that the small reservoir of Christian truth should be contaminated by the opinions that converts from all these sources brought with them into their new religion at first, and later that the Roman Catholic priests and Pagan legislators should seize them as engines of power by which to control the world?" (Hagenbach, I, First Period; Clark's Foreign Theol. Lib. I)

My sincere prayer is that all who read these few words will come to the knowledge of this truth, and they can be released from the chains of blinding dogmas. It is my sincere desire for everyone to explore with an open mind the history of the doctrine of eternal damnation and see how it has infected so many of our beliefs, and then by the Word and Spirit of Truth be delivered from them all.

- Elwin R. Roach

The Age of Accountability Doctrine

2011-12-28T09:22:00.025-04:00

"No longer will a man teach his neighbor, nor a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:34

The age of accountability doctrine is a man-made tradition (see Mark 7:13) invented to cover the preposterous lie in mainstream Christianity of eternal torture. This entangling and subtle deception is entrenched and knotted in people's minds not only in Christendom, but Western culture. Let me try to untie these traditions and doctrines so knotted in our minds.

God has no intention, and has never thought of torturing people ETERNALLY in fire(see Jeremiah 19:5). Christ's successful plan will ultimately bring forth wholeness (salvation) for every man, for he will defeat any rebellion and all men will willingly bow the knee to him (see Php. 2: 10-11).

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces" (Isaiah 25:8)

Death is even now being swallowed up in His never-ending life; Christ delivering the creation to the Father presently accomplishing all that the Father sent Him to accomplish. Unless you believe the institutional church. They don't believe any of this. They believe the Lord will cast men off forever and this defies the scriptures teaching.

"For men are not cast off by the Lord forever." (Lamentations 3:31)

Most don't know these truths I have revealed to you above; believing instead that Christ will ultimately fail to deliver the whole of creation and defeat all death. This position teaches that most of the creation will be lost in eternal flames of destruction. This is outrageous and demeans the work of the cross and limits the power of God. It defies (Core Eternal Constancy of Salvation Within Christ) and defies Paul's declaration that all death will be defeated by the Living Christ's death to life progression. (see 1 Corinthians 15: 25-26).

The institution is teaching another lie, that God will reject those who reject Christ, (see Luke 6:35), not realizing their "rejection" of Him is actually and inability on their part to believe, only because they haven't been given faith to believe. Yet. And most people's rejection of the institutional church's God is a phony, imagined God anyway. Theirs is a God who commands us to forgive 70x7, but He won't. He is a God whose love fails, who does not love His enemies in word and deed and whose creation is commanded to outperform him. He can not be the true and living God of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So what about this age of accountability doctrine? It is a unscriptural invention of men that states that God will not torture babies, young persons, or the mentally incompetent. Why? Because they are not able to confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, which is a biblical truth necessary to begin the process of wholeness or salvation. Unfortunately, the institutional church also teaches that salvation is from eternal torture, an unbiblical doctrine of fear. But there are several glaring problems with this teaching. Here are a few:

the bible is emphatic that confession with our mouth of Christ as Lord and Savior is necessary to bring forth the progressive influence of salvation; this is not salvation from eternal torture but wholeness of the person spirit, soul and body.

the bible is clear that without this confession that this process of salvation or wholeness is not begun. The scripture does not state that wholeness or salvation is commenced or received by ignorance. This is where the invented doctrine of the age of accountability comes in. It is taught that those unable to confess with their mouth are covered by their ignorance. I am speaking specifically of those who are children, mentally incompetent, etc. But this is not scriptural. The cross covers all of us, but this is eventually. The bible states that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. This will be to the glory of God. The cross covers us all, but that will not be realized or the awareness not brought forth by God, in every man, until God determines this. He gives us the gift of faith and no one will boast that they 'chose' Christ.

The church has invented the doctrine of eternal torture or eternal hell and it is then necessary to invent more doctrines to cover the subtle deceptions already in place. (Another false doctrine is the doctrine of salvation before death or eternal torture). These doctrines are man's traditions; in this case nullifying or voiding the power of the cross in people's minds and in their lives.

The institutional church really is in a proverbial pickle, for they have created traditions that have no ground in scripture and they demean the nature or name of the Living God and His will to save or make all men whole. Those of us who have come out from among them to be taught, we see these lies and the institutional church can call us heretics, but it is not us who are enemies of the cross. (Php. 3:18)

Wholeness for a person comes by believing(receiving) and believing comes by faith and faith comes from God through Christ. God does NOT give faith to everyone in this life. Why? Because God's plan is to indeed reconcile all things, "but each man in his own order." All will be made whole! This is not their work, but the work of Christ. He became sin. We became righteous. (103 Reasons All Will Become Whole And God's plan is to do this through Christ and those he calls in this age. God calls some out before others. Remember God calling out one nation? And then Jubilee! A mature spiritual mind knows that faith is not present in us and must be given us as a gift. We bring absolutely nothing to the table in God's process of making human beings whole. This is all of God through Christ and that is who will get all the glory. Jesus said 'you did not choose me, but I chose you.'

As far as God torturing those who don't believe---a lie by the way---the institutional church can not let their God torture mentally ill, developmentally disabled or those who are under the age 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13(which age is it by the way, who determined this and where is the scriptural backing for this doctrine?), so this doctrine is invented and called the "age of accountability." Why do we need this doctrine? Because the above can not believe and so within the institutions belief system of 'believing and salvation' these would be tortured for eternity, because they 'can't believe', so it ends up being a confusion. Enter the age of accountability. It's all a joke.

You can look through the bible until your 111 and you won't find a scripture for this silly doctrine. God has no intention of torturing anyone for eternity. This is carnal and God is not carnal. His intent is to make all whole. Everyone will know the Lord! All things are returning to Him in eventuality. And that return will ultimately end in all things being reconstituted. Until that is brought forth in the plan of God, we'll have to suffer through the lies and silly doctrines of an institutional church that says God is love, but in the next breath states He is a cruel torturer of those who aren't given faith to believe and love Him back.

God's plan is the cross and it is salvation of all men, especially those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:10) This will be revealed to all eventually.

A Pale Blue Dot

2011-12-21T11:37:00.004-04:00

The photo above was taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 as it sailed away from Earth, more than 4 billion miles in the distance. Having completed its primary mission, Voyager at that time was on its way out of the Solar System, on a trajectory of approximately 32 degrees above the plane of the Solar System. Ground Control issued commands for the distant space craft to turn around and, looking back, take photos of each of the planets it had visited. From Voyager's vast distance, the Earth was captured as a infinitesimal point of light (between the two white tick marks), actually smaller than a single pixel of the photo. The image was taken with a narrow angle camera lens, with the Sun quite close to the field of view. Quite by accident, the Earth was captured in one of the scattered light rays caused by taking the image at an angle so close to the Sun. Dr. Sagan was quite moved by this image of our tiny world. Here is an enlargement of the area around our Pale Blue Dot and an excerpt from the late Dr. Sagan's talk:

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

I am not going to qualify, or disqualify, Carl Sagan's position or beliefs. I agree with a great deal of what he states and I am awaiting the day when, in (the) Christ mind, all of us will know the Lord.

"No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
   or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
   from the least of them to the greatest,”
            declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
   and will remember their sins no more.”
Jeremiah 31:34

ACCORDING TO THE PURPOSE

2011-12-21T11:04:00.002-04:00

THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN MAKING MAN

THE PURPOSE OF THE FALL
THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN REDEMPTION

"And this is in harmony with God's merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it--The purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one head in Christ; yes, things in heaven and things on earth, to find their one head in Him" (Eph. 1:9-10, Weymouth).

Long before there was a world or any man, God, almighty and all wise, planned every detail of the whole creation from start to finish. He not only planned each detail of the earth itself but with infinite wisdom He planned your life and mine before the foundations of the earth were laid. (2 Timothy 1:9). He planned the moment and place of your birth, the circumstances that were to prevail throughout your life, your down-sittings and up-risings, the trials and tribulations, the joys and sorrows that were to have their part in shaping you according to His purpose. He knows the appointed times and how many ages He will spend to bring you to the perfection He planned for you before the world began. I am perfectly aware that this is NOT church tradition. This is not what we were taught from our youth nor is this commonly accepted doctrine, but I affirm that this is truth according to the Word of God, and it is also according to the true longing of your own spirit within you.

Did not Paul teach us that we were chosen in Him BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD when he said to Timothy, "Be thou partaker of the AFFLICTIONS OF THE GOSPEL according to the power of God, who hath saved, us and called us with an holy calling, not according to OUR WORKS, but ACCORDING TO HIS OWN PURPOSE and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN." 2 Tim. 1:8, 9. And then again, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ according as He hathCHOSEN US IN HIM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.... Ephesians 1: 3-4

There will come an unbelievable transformation to your understanding together with a fresh and vivid relationship with God when the revelation of this truth dawns upon your soul teaching you that God is the author and finisher of ALL THINGS. He is the FIRST and the LAST. He is the ALPHA and the OMEGA. Not only is it true that God was there at the beginning and will be there at the end, but also that God IS the beginning and God IS the end. He IS the Alpha and He IS the Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) and consequently He is all the letters in between. "I am He that IS and WAS and IS TO COME." ALL THINGS, ALL THINGS had their beginning in Him and ALL THINGS, ALL THINGS will have their end in Him.

It is sad to say the least that for centuries Christians have taught that God is omniscient (ALL WISE) and yet they accuse Him of the grossest foolishness. Preachers have proclaimed that God is omnipotent (ALL POWERFUL) and in the next breath accuse Him of helplessness. They preach a God of love and in the next breath accuse Him of grotesque sadism that would make the tortures of Buchenwald look insignificant. The greatest need of Gods people today is to have a complete change of heart in their attitude and relationship to God. It is time for all men to see that God is GOD, ALL WISE, ALL POWERFUL, UNCHANGING, ETERNAL, glorious in power, fearful in praises, DOING WONDERS.

If God is all wise (omniscient), then there is no possibility of anything happening in all the universe without His knowledge. A God who numbers every hair of every head among the billions of earths inhabitants (Matthew 10:30) is certainly a God of infinite knowledge. A God who sees every sparrow that falls in death cannot be accused of inattention. And are ye not of more value than many sparrows? He has declared His knowledge of the THOUGHTS AND INTENTS of men's hearts, that He knows their thoughts AFAR OFF. Nothing is hidden from His eyes, nothing is beyond His knowledge, nothing is out of His presence. The light and the dark are both alike to Him. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Should we make our bed in hell, He is there. (Psalm 139:8)

We have long believed, and with abundant scriptural backing, that God knows not only the present but every minute detail of the future. He knows the end of every matter from its beginning. The fact that well over half of the entire Bible deals with prophecy telling in intricate detail the vast array of events still to come should convince any man that the future is not kept secret from the mind of God. But it is NOT ENOUGH for you to believe that God KNOWS the future in all its intricate detail; you must thoroughly know that every MINUTE DETAIL of the future was planned and purposed by God and that NOTHING can possibly change or alter the plan, for God is immutable (unchanging) as well as omniscient and almighty.

There is a wonderful prayer found in Acts 4: 23-28 that portrays the wisdom and foreknowledge of God and shows perfectly that everything that happens is ordained of God and is part of the eternal purpose. The disciples of Christ were under great persecution and in danger of death when they assembled for prayer to God. The following is the prayer they prayed: "And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, 'Lord, THOU ART GOD, which hast made heaven and earth and sea and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of Thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine VAIN THINGS? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou has anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for TO DO WHATSOEVER THY HAND AND THY COUNSEL DETERMINED BEFORE TO BE DONE."

Can anything be plainer than that? The crucifixion of Christ, the opposition to the apostles, the persecution of the church was appointed, ordained, and determined long before it happened by the counsel and the hand of God. Verse 28.I do not think it is necessary here to multiply scripture to p rove that God not only KNOWS the future, but that He PLANS the future and that the thing that He plans is part of an ETERNAL PURPOSE that He purposed BEFORE THE AGES BEGAN. Everything is planned of God before it starts. Everything is BEFORE ORDAINED. The blueprint is complete in minutest detail before the program begins. Eternal wisdom forbids the need of making changes, alterations, or additions. The finite architects of earth sometimes are forced to do such things, but the architect of the universe who is omniscient never has such need. The beginning is certain and the end sure, for God IS the beginning and God IS the end.

There is one more thought that should be mentioned here. It is the truth of Gods omnipotence. God is ALMIGHTY. God is ALL POWERFUL. I do not need to tell stories or refer to acts of omnipotence to prove this point, for the whole Bible and the whole creation in heaven and earth and the universe breathe, proclaim, shout and sing of the omnipotence of God. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and ALL THE HOST OF THEM." He speaks and myriads of worlds appear. He commands and they whirl away forever in their orbits. He says to oceans, "Thus far and no further: here shall thy proud waves be stayed," and mighty billows can but lash the shores and fall away at His command. "Praise ye Him, all His angels! Praise ye Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all ye stars of light! Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for HE COMMANDED AND THEY WERE CREATED. He hath also established them for ever and ever; He hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps: fire and hail; snow and vapors; stormy wind FULFILLING HIS WORD: mountains and all hills; fruitful trees and all cedars; beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying fowl; kings of earth and all people; princes and all judges of the earth; both young men and maidens, old men and children; Let them praise the name of the Lord: for His name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth and heaven." Psa. 148. By the word of the Lord were the HEAVENS MADE AND ALL THE HOSTS OF THEM. Angels and principalities and powers obey His wise immutable plans. He raiseth up kings and putteth them down. He sends forth His word and living things are created from things that are not. He speaks, and the whole face of the earth is renewed. He commands, and the sun hides its face at noon or retraces its steps in the sky. The stormy winds and the raging seas obey His ward. He hangeth the earth upon nothing. Not only were all things made BY HIM but all things were made FOR HIM. Beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, man, angels, principality and power ALL come from Him, were made for Him, and end in Him. Each existing thing, animate or inanimate, was designed for a purpose, and has a part in the great universal purpose of God. Nothing in heaven or earth was made without purpose. Nothing was made to exist without being part and parcel of the great eternal plan. Everything everywhere is a link in the eternal chain, everything a part of the purpose, everything a part of the plan, everything a cog in the intricate machine, every drop of water a part of the mighty ocean, every sunrise a part of eternal day.

One day during the Christmas rush I crowded along with the multitudes of shoppers on a Chicago street. People by the tens of thousands thronged about, all intent on their own little plan. Very few, I imagine, had any thoughts of God. Still fewer I knew anything of His purpose. Perhaps not one in a hundred I had that day read Gods word or lifted their hearts to Him in prayer. As I grew weary of being jostled about by so great a throng, I said within myself, "Lord, WHY DID YOU EVER MAKE ALL THESE PEOPLE?" And as though the Lord was speaking to me, He replied, "I HAVE A PURPOSE FOR EVERY ONE OF THEM." Ah, what a revelation of truth that was to my heart and what an infinite change it has made!

Can you not see what a vital, transforming difference is made to your understanding when you see PURPOSE, PURPOSE, PURPOSE written in flaming letters over everything created and made in all heaven and earth? Can you not see what a vital difference it makes in your attitude toward ALL THINGS and ALL PEOPLE whether good or bad when you understand that PURPOSE is ever present, partly for their sake, partly for your sake, partly for the sake of creation, but above all things for Gods sake? My attitude toward the rebellious and wicked King Pharaoh was for years an attitude of scorn and distaste for such a hard-hearted, rebellious enemy of God until one day I read these words in Exo. 9, 15: "For now will I stretch out mine hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed FOR THIS CAUSE I RAISED THEE UP, FOR TO SHOW MY POWER AND THAT MY NAME MAY BE DECLARED-THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." Listen to the enlightened revelation of Paul as he speaks of Pharaoh and says "It is not to him that willeth or to him that runneth, but of GOD THAT SHOWETH MERCY. For the scripture says of PHARAOH, even for this same PURPOSE have I RAISED THEE UP that I might SHOW MY POWER IN THEE and that MY NAME might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and WHOM HE WILL HE HARDENETH." Rom. 9:16-18.

When I saw from this passage that PHARAOH was raised BY GOD for a DEFINITE PURPOSE just as Moses was raised up for a definite purpose, my whole attitude toward him had to change, for anything that is a part of GODS PURPOSE must be treated with respect even though we do not understand it. Undoubtedly it was for this reason that Paul declared by the wisdom of the Spirit, "JUDGE NOTHING BEFORE THE TIME until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the COUNSELS OF THE HEART: and THEN SHALL EVERY MAN HAVE PRAISE OF GOD." 1 Cor. 4:5. Just meditate on that statement and see how it transforms your thinking toward all men. We are so inclined to be full of bombastic judgment because we see things only through our narrow slit and thus we miss the greater wisdom that God has ordained it thus to bring some part of His plan to perfection. Truly in this we see through a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face.

Because Michael, the strong and glorious archangel, understood Gods purpose and knew that even Satan had a part in that purpose, he would not bring a railing accusation against him but committed him to the Lords rebuke. How significant and terrible is the statement of Jude when he, speaking of men and their foolish judgments, says, "Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, DESPISE DOMINIONS, and SPEAK EVIL OF DIGNITIES. YET Michael the archangel, when contending with the DEVIL he disputed about the body of Moses, DURST NOT BRING AGAINST HIM A RAILING ACCUSATION; but said, The Lord rebuke thee. BUT THESE speak evil of those things WHICH THEY KNOW NOT; but what they KNOW NATURALLY as brute beasts in those things they corrupt themselves." Jude 8-10. Oh what a difference it makes in our attitude to and understanding of all creatures and all things when we see that divine PURPOSE is ever present. Did not Peter say that men who walk after the flesh DESPISE GOVERNMENTS, are SELF-WILLED and NOT AFRAID to speak evil of dignities, whereas angels which are GREATER IN POWER AND MIGHT bring not RAILING ACCUSATION AGAINST THEM BEFORE THE LORD. . . but these... speak evil of things they UNDERSTAND NOT and shall utterly perish in their own corruption? 2 Pet. 2:10-12. Paul adds his testimony to this truth by saying in Romans 13, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, FOR THERE IS NO POWER BUT OF GOD. THE POWERS THAT BE ARE ORDAINED OF GOD." Whenever men speak against Satan, demons, or Babylon in railing, reviling, or flippant terms, they shout aloud their lack of understanding of Gods purpose.

How my heart rejoices in all these things. The knowledge of them completely transforms my attitude toward all men, for God has concluded them all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon ALL. Romans 11:32. It transforms my attitude toward governments, for I see they are raised up to fulfill some design in the PURPOSE OF GOD. The fact that my puny mind does not understand the purpose means nothing at all. It changes our attitude toward principalities, powers, and dignities, and even towards Satan himself, for we can clearly see that THERE IS NO POWER BUT OF GOD and the powers that be are ORDAINED OF GOD. Romans 13:1. But best and greatest of all our entire attitude is changed toward God Himself, for we see His divine mind of wisdom, omniscience, and PURPOSE back of ALL THINGS. Here and here alone do our triumphant souls proclaim, "ALL THINGS ARE WORKING TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD and to them who are called ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE," (Rom. 8:28) and all creation echoes and re-echoes the refrain, "And we know all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the FIRST BORN among many brethren." Rom. 8:28, 29. Oh, the depth of the riches and goodness of God! How inscrutable are His PURPOSES and His WAYS past finding out!

Let me testify again that I never really began to love or appreciate God until I began to see that Gods divine infinite PURPOSE lay hidden behind all things and that all things in the universe, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers, creatures of flesh or angels of light-- all are moving by the power and wonder of the PURPOSE OF HIM who created all things according to the counsel of His will. Undoubtedly there is a day coming when every intricate detail of His fathomless purpose shall be revealed to our wondering eyes. Then and then alone shall we see the reason behind the storms that beset us. Then we shall understand the reason for pain and suffering and see what PURPOSE it had in our molding and making. Then we shall understand the PURPOSE of death and sorrow, and why it was that war darkened our horizons and disappointment deferred our hopes and dashed our ambitions. And though we cannot understand it all now, how it lightens our load and fills our hearts with love and understanding when we know that back of it all is one great revealing truth--GODS PURPOSE.

Divine infinite purpose lies behind all things and the moment this wonderful truth dawns upon your spiritual understanding, all things begin to make sense and your love for God springs from a new foundation, even the foundation of wisdom and understanding. You may not yet understand the purpose of any of the things that have puzzled you or the reason for the doubts and fears, the pains and woes that often come upon you, but your heart rejoices that in the process of your making God is using the proper methods to make you according to His purpose.

It is completely impossible for any man to truly love God until his spirit has been taught that before all things, through all things, in all things, and after all things is God, omnipotent, omniscient, immutable, eternal, filled with goodness, righteousness, love, kindness, forgiveness, and truth, that in Him and Him alone is light and in Him alone is life. He was before ALL THINGS and by HIM ALL THINGS CONSIST. There is no angel, principality, or power that does not hold his authority by direct permission and appointment of God. In Him all men and angels live and move and have their being. BY Him and FOR Him and TO Him are ALL THINGS. From Him everything comes, by Him everything exists, and in Him everything ends bringing glory to God forever and forever. Amen and Amen! The imagination that a thing can have its beginning in God and have its end in destruction and a flaming fire in separation from God is an imagination that comes from the mind of man and not a truth that comes from mind of God, for OF HIM AND THROUGH HIM AND TO HIM are all things; to Him be glory forever and ever! Amen! (Romans 11:36). Even more enlightening is the translation from Goodspeed which says, "Who has ever known the Lords thoughts or advised Him? or who has advanced anything to Him for which he will have to be repaid?

For FROM HIM EVERYTHING COMES: THROUGH HIM EVERYTHING EXISTS; AND IN HIM EVERYTHING ENDS. GLORY TO HIM FOREVER! AMEN." Rom. 11:34-36.

Or as Moffat's translation bluntly and beautifully words verses 34-36. "Who ever understood the thoughts of the Lord? Who has ever been His counselor? Who has first GIVEN TO HIM and has had to be REPAID? ALL COMES FROM HIM, ALL LIVES BY HIM, and ALL ENDS IN HIM. Glory to Him forever, Amen."

The words of this beautiful passage of scripture, even if left to stand completely alone, cast a ray of eternal hope across the gloomy pages of human tradition that for centuries has confused men's minds and made their feet to stumble and lose the way and caused their faith in the omniscience, immutability, and omnipotence of the Lord to falter and die. I have positively no hesitation in saying that NO MAN on earth can truly come to love God as he ought until he sees that back of all things and before all things is a wise designing mind that is filled with AN ETERNAL PURPOSE and with that eternal purpose is omnipotent power, ALL POWER IN HEAVEN AND EARTH, to carry to completion the design of His omniscient mind. If then God is both ALL WISE and ALL POWERFUL, we must conclude that He has the infinite wisdom to plan from the beginning to the end and the almighty power to carry out His purposes without let or hindrance from any source in all the universe. Nothing can stand before His wisdom and nothing can resist His power. Man in his present state of bondage and ignorance knows nothing yet as he ought to know, but love and trust must teach us that in the hands of Him who is omniscient, immutable, omnipotent, gracious, loving, and true all is planned and all is well.

THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN MAKING MAN

It should be abundantly evident that CREATION in all its forms must be one of the chief delights of Almighty God. The work of His creation goes millions of light years beyond the power of the mightiest telescopes ever devised by man embracing worlds and galaxies and universes unheard of and undreamed of. A galaxy is a luminous band of light encircling the heavens and consisting of numberless stars. As astronomers have swept the heavens with their mighty telescopes, they have estimated that there are enough galaxies in the heavens that one could be given to every man and woman that was ever born. In speaking of galaxies and worlds we are only speaking of dust, but Gods principal creation consists of glorious living things. It embraces the unknown wonders of the cherubim and seraphim and heavenly hosts glorious and innumerable of which the mind of man has never dreamed. When we speak of creation, we like to dwell upon the great, the universal, and the mighty, but Gods power to create things both animate and inanimate goes not only beyond the power of the telescope but beyond the power of the microscope as well where even drops of water swarm with living things and God giveth life and breath to them all.

Time will not allow us to dwell on the glories of Gods creations, but the Creator looked upon it all and saw that it was good, and by His Holy Spirit He inspired Isaiah to write, "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, HE CREATED IT NOT IN VAIN; He formed it to be inhabited; I am the Lord and there is none else." Isa. 45:18. We dare not endeavor to explore such vastness, and indeed our ability to even begin does not exist. The knowledge that must impress our minds just now is this: NONE OF THESE THINGS WAS CREATED WITHOUT A DEFINITE PURPOSE. God does not create things for a pastime. God creates all things FOR A PURPOSE. It may be now that we see no connection between many things of His creation, but eventually, when all is complete, they will fit together as the parts of an intricate machine.

Let us then bear these thoughts continually in mind as we read through the remainder of this story, for until we can see Gods PURPOSE we can see NOTHING. If Gods purpose does not stand out clearly and distinctly as the motivating factor in all He IS and DOES, then we have nothing but a HODGE PODGY of unrelated, meaningless creations with no more purpose than the shavings that fall from a whittlers jack-knife or the logs that drift meaninglessly on the tides of the ocean. By Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE, whether they be THRONES or DOMINIONS, or PRINCIPALITIES, or POWERS; ALL THINGS were created BY HIM and FOR HIM. Col. 1:16.

Not the least of the creations of God is the one we will now consider, that great and wonderful creation of God which is known as MAN. Great as is the creation of the earth yet it was made to be inhabited by man. All the things put in it and on it are there for mans sake. Man therefore is the most important creature on the earth and He has been created and made as part of the plan and purpose of the ALL WISE God. None of us will fully understand that purpose now, but we do not need to UNDERSTAND IT FULLY. All we need is to know that the purpose exists. It will then be easy to align our lives, our spirits, and our souls with the mind and will of God for this present dispensation.

It seems to me that if any man should announce his intention of making or doing anything, he should also be ready with a reason for his intention. If we announce some task that will take a life-time to complete and can give no reason for undertaking such a task, then I think we would be classed among the unwise and the fools. But if any man has a purpose and a reason for devoting his life to anything, be it ever so small, we must commend his vision and devotion and class him among the wise of the earth. Now surely what would be wise in man would be wise in God also, for there is no wisdom but of God. Therefore when the ALL WISE and ALMIGHTY God makes announcement that He will create a man and put him upon the earth, we may well expect that He will also have a definite PURPOSE for doing so, and, though He is under no obligation, we may expect that He will ANNOUNCE HIS PURPOSE to His creatures that they may better know His mind and do His will. This then is what we may expect, and it is certainly what God has done for all who have a mind to see.

During my brief life I have seldom heard any man even attempt to give a reason for mans creation or a PURPOSE for his existence. If you will think back upon your past, you will also agree that, while preachers talk glibly of "heavens to gain" and "hells to shun" and the awfulness of the fall and the punishment of sin, you could count on a fingerless hand the number of times these same preachers have even tried to explain why an omniscient God would have let His creation slip beyond the power of His Almighty hand, or what was His purpose in making man in the first place. It is small wonder that this negative nonsense has caused men to drift on seas of infidelity and wander in the deserts of agnosticism. No man on earth can have faith in that which has no purpose and it is a miracle that any man could trust such negative thought. God never intended that we should drift along without a knowledge of His will, and I say of a truth that the moment God announced His intention to make man and put him on the earth He also announced His reason and PURPOSE FOR SO DOING. These are the words spoken by the ALMIGHTY and ALL WISE God: "LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS, AND LET THEM HAVE DOMINION over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over all cattle, and OVER ALL THE EARTH, and over everything that creepeth upon the earth." Gen. 1:26.

This then is the first announcement of Gods intention regarding man and the first announcement of His purpose, but locked up in that glorious fiat is a universe of meaning that does not reach the eye and that the mind has never understood. When God announces that man should be IN HIS IMAGE, we try to visualize Adam as the final and finished product of Gods image, but it never enters our unenlightened minds that God was announcing His intention of taking ages and dispensations that would consume thousands of years to bring man into the image of God. And when I say MAN, I mean ALL MEN, great and small, black and white, yellow and brown, ignorant and intelligent, vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor--that they should all eventually come into His image.

Furthermore, after God had announced that He would make man in His image, He next announced that this man in His image should be given dominion over ALL THE EARTH. We are never told how long Adam lived in that wonderful garden where he enjoyed complete dominion over everything God had made, where every animal and bird and creeping thing obeyed his will, and where even plant life bowed in obedience to his godly mind, but that glorious reign of wonder and peace under the direction of a son in the image of God was but a type and a shadow of the day when a whole FIRST FRUIT COMPANY OF SONS IN GODS IMAGE would reign over all the earth and everything everywhere would be in submission to their godly minds and will. Ah! what an Eden of Gods glory it will be when the JUDGMENT IS UPON HIS SHOULDER, to order and establish it in justice and righteousness, when SAVIOURS shall come up on MOUNT ZION to judge the HOUSE OF ESAU (flesh) and the KINGDOM SHALL BE THE LORDS. Obadiah 21. Then shall the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Heb. 2:14.

But let us not pause here. Wonderful and glorious as was that Edenic reign, we must look beyond the book of Genesis to find the full purpose God had in mind when He created man and planned to take thousands of years to bring the entire human race into Gods image. David, speaking by the Holy Spirit, asked, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him and the son of man that Thou visitest him?" Then in answer to his own question he continues: "Thou madest him to have dominion OVER THE WORKS OF THY HANDS: Thou hast put ALL THINGS under his feet." Psa. 8:4, 6. This then was Gods purpose in making man---that man should be in the IMAGE OF GOD and HAVE DOMINION over all the works of Gods hands. We may reverently expect then that a creature who is being groomed and prepared for such a glory and majesty must be a special object of Gods attention. We must expect that God will take both ages and dispensations to bring him through every imaginable test that he may be perfect and entire in the complete image of God.

When David, with the pen of inspiration, wrote the eighth Psalm, he must have been overwhelmed by the knowledge that Gods intentions and purposes for man go far beyond the realm of this little earth on which we dwell; therefore his inspired tongue said, "When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, WHAT IS MAN THAT THOU ART MINDFUL OF HIM, AND THE SON OF MAN THAT THOU VISITEST HIM?"

What David was really asking is the same question we are asking now. "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" Or as we would say, "What have you in mind for man?" I think the answer from Gods own lips is this: MAN IN GODS IMAGE, filled with Gods mind, is eventually to govern all things, for that is the purpose of sonship. Let us read a little further on this same subject as the Apostle develops the theme in the book of Hebrews. "For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak, but one in a certain place testified saying, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: THOU HAST PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. For in that he put ALL in subjection under him, he LEFT NOTHING that is NOT put under him. But now we see NOT YET all things put under him." Heb. 2:5-8. We see NOT YET all things under man because MAN IS NOT YET READY. He is now in the process of coming into the image of God. He is in the process of coming into SONSHIP, and when that process is complete, he will take his place of lordship and dominion to carry the will of God into all the universe.

Though the Apostle says, "We see NOT YET ALL THINGS PUT UNDER HIM," it is beautiful to note that in verse 9 he says, "BUT WE SEE JESUS... CROWNED WITH GLORY AND HONOR,"--Jesus who said, "All power in heaven and earth is GIVEN UNTO ME," Jesus the first manifested Son, Jesus the Son in Gods image, Jesus the FIRST BORN OF MANY BRETHREN, Jesus who is BRINGING MANY SONS TO GLORY, Jesus who said, "BEHOLD I AND THE CHILDREN WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN ME," Jesus who said, "The GLORY WHICH THOU GAVEST ME I have given to them." No wonder he said, "WE SEE JESUS," for "AS HE IS SO ARE WE IN THE WORLD." We are on our way to His glory, not to strum harps and sit on clouds and walk golden streets shouting hallelujah, but in Gods image and likeness to take our place as lords of Gods creation, carrying His almighty will into the uttermost universe and fulfilling His MIGHTY PURPOSE. "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness and let us give him dominion."

It will be a help and a blessing to us here to read Weymouth's translation of this passage of which we have been speaking. "It was not to ANGELS that God has assigned the sovereignty of that coming world of which we speak, but as we know, a psalmist has exclaimed, "How poor a creature is man, and yet Thou dost remember him and a SON OF MAN and yet Thou dost come to him! Thou hast made him FOR A LITTLE WHILE lower than the angels; with glory and honor Thou hast crowned him, and hast set him OVER THE WORKS OF THY HANDS. Thou hast put EVERYTHING IN SUBJECTION under his feet. For this SUBJECTING the universe to man implies leaving NOTHING NOT SUBJECT to him. But we do not as yet see the universe subject to him." Heb. 2:5-9. (Weymouth).

These passages stagger the imagination with their wonder. Such things are too wonderful for me. In our fallen state while yet our eyes are dim through the ravages of sin and death, we can but see through a glass darkly. Though the centuries of sins awful night have hidden His face from our eyes, yet we shall stand in the latter days upon the earth and IN OUR OWN FLESH we shall see God. Though the centuries have made us deaf to the voice of the Eternal, still His inspiration rings in our spirits. "LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE." Glorious as are these great truths, they are almost terrifying in their reality. Any man who can read these things and feel proud and boastful in heart has never really seen them at all. Such a man has only heard with the carnal mind which always caters to his pride, but the holy sobering truth he has never seen. When my own soul thrills with this message, my lips seem to be sealed, for the wonder of it all is too great for me. Such merciful purpose fills me with repentance and such kindness for so poor a creature lays me in the dust of desolation. Those who see Gods purpose for man will fall in love with HIM afresh and breathe their holy adoration to His name. Gone will be self-seeking and pride, vanquished the human will. The hopes of earth for gain and glamour will vanish in the hopes and purposes of God and your will shall be one with His. "Such things are too wonderful for me; they are high; I cannot attain unto it."

THE PURPOSE OF THE FALL

As we are about to discuss the important subject of GODS PURPOSE in the FALL OF MAN, there are a few things I should like to mention in preparation. As soon as any one begins to see the design of God in a thing, he is bound to have to depart from his human ways of looking at things. When he begins to see the infinite wonders of Gods eternal purpose, his heart immediately begins to flow with infinite love for his wonderful Lord. Earthly desires and earthly wills begin to lose their grip upon him. He will be bound to find his life and will slipping into harmony with the eternal purpose. That which is bound up in Gods heart will become bound up in his. The purpose hidden in the mind of God through dispensations to be revealed in the last days will be the joy and wisdom of his own mind. The plans and purposes of his life will be forgotten and like water vanish into the sands as he joyfully exchanges his plans for time for His purposes for eternity.

The Lord Jesus Christ brought a dreadful indictment against the Pharisees and religious leaders of His day when He said, "You make the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." Matt. 15-6. This is a hateful thing indeed, but throughout all the ages of religious history it has been pitifully true. The great truths and revelations of the Spirit of God have been flung aside as heresies because they did not conform to established tradition. Jesus was always at odds with the Pharisees and doctors of the law because they rejected the counsel of God rather than cast aside their tradition. They had come to the place where it was useless to quote scripture to them, for their established ideas had become their true doctrine and mainstay. They were the people and wisdom would die with them, and all teachings conflicting with their long established creeds must of necessity be of the devil.

Now it would be folly to examine them and find them guilty, yet pass lightly over our own sad plight, for like the Jews the church in all its existing forms has established its traditions and doctrines and will rise up and cast out anyone who does not conform to them. You may quote all the scripture you wish, but few are moved by it and few have a mind to change the traditions of the past for the unfolding revelation of the days to come. Be assured therefore that every man on earth who is going to follow the revelation of God as it is revealed by His Word and by His Spirit will have to lay aside tradition after tradition and be willing to be branded as an heretic that he may walk in the glory of the light that falls from Gods presence.

Many people will be willing to follow me to this point. They rejoice in the truth that God is almighty, all wise, ever present, full of love, everlasting. They rejoice to hear that He is full of purpose and that nothing can come into the world or into existence without His divine permission. But it is right here that their established tradition comes into conflict with the truth they profess to believe. If God is omniscient, then nothing can happen without His knowledge. If God is .omnipotent (almighty), then He has all power to permit or stop anything that is not His will. If He is omnipresent (everywhere present), then He is always present to know and see even the sparrow that falls. How much more, then, did He notice the fall of Adam!

The story of the fall of man in Eden through the temptation of the devil is commonly looked upon as something that happened when God was not looking. True God walked and talked with Adam in the evening, but the idea is always foremost that, when Satan came to tempt the woman, God was not present. The fall of man is always represented as something that slipped unnoticed and unwanted into the plan of God. The pitiful story is preached of the lovely pair whom God had placed in His garden to dress it, and how Satan came and ruined the whole lovely plan. God forbid that I should stoop to cynicism, but if you know anything at all about the church's tradition, you also know that what I have stated above is the general idea that has been foisted upon the gullible ears of the people for hundreds of years. All this is enlarged upon and sermon pictures are always being painted of Gods holding a hasty conference in heaven to devise a scheme by which He could redeem the man that had fallen and the world that had fallen with him. Now do not assert that this is not so, for dozens of times in my life I have heard this stated both by pulpit and radio, and in my younger days I followed the same nonsensical tradition and stated the very same things.

To go into further detail in this regard would be a waste of time, but it is abundantly evident that any man who dares to say that the FALL OF MAN was NOT AN ACCIDENT brought about by the CUNNING WISDOM of Satan, but a DESIGNED PURPOSE of an all wise, almighty, ever-present God, will immediately find himself in conflict with the traditions of the age and will be cast out as an heretic. Notwithstanding I do affirm with every ounce of emphasis at my command that the fall of man was NOT AN ACCIDENT NOR A CHANCE, but was part of the plan of an all wise, omnipotent, and IMMUTABLE God and that through the plan of the fall and redemption of man the whole creation would be brought into the IMAGE OF GOD, and when I say the IMAGE OF GOD I refer to the image that God had in mind when He said, "LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE." It is true that Adam was made in the image of God, but Adam was in the precarious position of being innocent NOT KNOWING GOOD OR EVIL. Blessed as his condition must have been, I know of no condition more dangerous than complete innocence, and, left in this condition, he could have fallen into sin at any time throughout all eternity.

God was not planning a race of weaklings when He created man. He was preparing a whole race which He would bring to sonship and to whom He would give dominion over all the works of His mighty hands. God was looking into the ages yet unborn, purposing and planning a righteous government by His sons. Time means nothing to God, for He takes endless ages in preparation for His eternal purposes.

Now let us see what the inspired apostle Paul had to say about the purpose of the fall. Let us throw away our childish tradition about the harps and mansions in the skies while we listen with bated breath to the word of inspiration as it flows from the heart of God. Read in Romans 8:20. Paul emphatically declares that the fall was NOT the plan of the creature, but the plan and hope of the CREATOR. These are his words: "For the CREATURE WAS MADE subject to vanity, NOT WILLINGLY, but BY REASON OF HIM (GOD) who hath SUBJECTED THE SAME IN HOPE." Can any statement in the world be plainer than this in which it is plainly stated that God had a plan in mind when He subjected the creature (man and the whole creation) to the vanity of the fall?

The inspired apostle does not leave us in doubt as to what that hope and purpose was, for the following verses, 21-23, clearly show that Gods plan and purpose was to bring us to sonship, which he here calls ADOPTION. Notice carefully as we read it. "Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION into the glorious liberty of the children (sons) of God. For the WHOLE CREATION groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only they but ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the ADOPTION, (SONSHIP) which means the redemption of our bodies." Rom. 8:20-23. Paul is still on the same theme of sonship when he continues in verse 28 with these words: "And we know that all things work TOGETHER for good to them that love God, to them who are the called ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. For whom He did foreknow He did predestinate to be conformed to the IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He (Jesus) might be the FIRST BORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN."

Can you not see the tremendous value of the desperate vanity and night of the fall as you read these truths? Can you not see that by the travail, darkness, pain, and temptation of this dismal night of sin God is building something into the ENTIRE CREATION that will shine and blaze in transcending splendor in the glory of the ages yet unborn? Now listen further while we read the introduction to the above passage. In Rom. 8:18, 19 Paul says, "For I reckon that the SUFFERINGS OF THIS PRESENT TIME ARE NOT WORTHY TO BE COMPARED WITH THE GLORY THAT SHALL BE REVEALED, for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD." There is PURPOSE in the suffering of this present time. There is glorious unequaled design, for it is the suffering and night the world is enduring now that will bring forth unequaled and unexcelled glory, even the glory of SONSHIP in the image of God. There is definite purpose in all suffering. It is producing the very image that God desires. He cannot make the kind of sons He wants without the blazing furnaces of suffering and affliction. Do not forget this truth and do not forget that this kind of fiery trial that is to try you could not have existed without the FALL OF MAN. Oh, how much we miss by adhering to our jejune and stupid traditions which make the fall to be an accident brought about by the cunning of Satan and the inattention of the Lord.

Christians of all ages have diligently enquired, "WHY DO THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER?" The answer is very very simple in the light and understanding of His infinite purpose. Few subjects in scripture receive more attention than suffering an affliction and the Holy Spirit has constantly pointed out that suffering and affliction that come as a result of the FALL OF MAN are for our eternal benefit in bringing us to perfection and sonship. Even of the blessed Christ Himself it is clearly stated, "Though HE WERE A SON YET LEARNED HE OBEDIENCE THROUGH THE THINGS HE SUFFERED, and BEING MADE PERFECT He became the AUTHOR OF ETERNAL SALVATION." Heb. 5:8. Listen to James as he exhorts us. "Take, my brethren, the prophets as an example of SUFFERING AFFLICTION and of PATIENCE. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the END OF THE LORD; that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." Jas. 5:10, II. Listen to Peter as he declares, "For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, ARM YOURSELVES with the same mind:

For he that hath SUFFERED IN THE FLESH hath CEASED FROM SIN, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the WILL OF GOD." 1 Pet. 4:1, 2. And again, "But the God of all grace, who hath CALLED US UNTO ETERNAL GLORY by Jesus Christ, AFTER YOU HAVE SUFFERED A WHILE make you PERFECT, STABLISH, STRENGTHEN and settle you." 1 Pet. 5:10. Listen to Paul again, as he declares, "For our light affliction which is but for a moment is WORKING IN US A FAR MORE EXCEEDING AND ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY." 2 Cor. 4:17.

I cannot go on with the scriptures that show the vast benefits derived from suffering, affliction, sorrow, heartache, pain, deferred hopes, loss, disappointment, and the thousand other things men endure. You may study them all for yourselves. Let me assure you, however, of this: the anguish and sorrow of all these things are the furnace that refines the gold and brings us to SONSHIP AND THE IMAGE OF THE LORD. When God proclaimed, "LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE AND AFTER OUR LIKENESS," little did any creature know the eternal methods and fires He would use to perfect that image beyond the power of destruction. None of these things could have been accomplished without the FALL OF MAN, for without the FALL none of them would have existed at all.

When we realize that even some of the angels of heaven sinned and were cast down, we are brought to understand as never before why it was necessary for God to bring into being a race of sons who knew experimentally the dire results of sin, and so, being wise through knowledge and experience and not innocent, they would know both good and evil and could choose the good and refuse the evil. Never again will sin darken the universe, for a race of SONS OF GOD who have been redeemed and cleansed from sin shall reign in righteousness eternal.

Suffering and affliction, the results of the fall, are even carrying their eternal benefits to those who are still in the world of sin. This is clearly indicated by Peter when he says, "Whom resist in faith KNOWING THAT THE SAME AFFLICTIONS ARE ACCOMPLISHED IN YOUR BRETHREN THAT ARE IN THE WORLD." 1 Pet. 5:9. I have long believed that God saves some first and teaches them after, but others He teaches first and saves them after. But every day God reaps an enormous harvest from mankind.

THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN REDEMPTION

Now that we have seen that it was impossible for sin to surreptitiously slip into Gods plan and spoil His eternal purpose and that the FALL OF MAN was PART of the eternal purpose, we immediately find ourselves again at variance with established tradition. The established visible church has preached its multiplied sermons seeking to prove its tradition that the vast majority of Gods human creation will be LOST, finally, irrevocably, and eternally, and not only will they be lost to God forever and ever, but they will be given up to the most sadistic, inhuman, ungodly torments that could be devised only by the vilest fiends. According to the tradition of the church this hellish torment is to fall upon all who do not believe. It matters not a whit whether they had opportunity to believe or not. It matters not at all if they were born in the darkest jungles of Africa, the swamps of Borneo, or the deserts of India or China. The fact that they never heard there was a God will be no excuse whatever. The fact that they never heard that God had a Son will not impede their dreadful destruction. Heathen who never heard that God had a Son are, according to this teaching, faced with the same dreadful doom as men who heard the gospel from their birth and yet rejected it. To add to the stupidity of their teaching they make pitiful attempts to prove that this is the justice of God and that God is manifesting His love in the punishment of sin.

The doctrine of eternal punishment is based on a literal interpretation of some of the metaphors of scripture (to the complete neglect of many other scriptures which I shall presently show). No doctrine has ever been propounded with more confidence and greater bitterness nor with a grossness and coarseness more hideous and repugnant, and, in the face of the love and kindness of God, more inconceivable and incredible.

One of the theologians of the Church of England (Jeremy Taylor) speaks of the fate of the wicked in the following terms:

"In hell every sense and organ shall be assailed forever with its own appropriate and most exquisite sufferings. We are amazed at the inhumanity of Phalaris who roasted men in his brazen bull, but THAT WAS A JOY IN COMPARISON WITH HELL." And here is what the renowned evangelist, C. H. Spurgeon, said on the same subject. "There is real fire in hell. Thy body shall be suffused with agony; thy head tormented with racking pains; thine eyes starting from their sockets; thine ears tortured with horrid sounds; thy pulse rattling with anguish; thy limbs crackling in the flame; every vein a pathway for the fire to tread; every nerve a string on which the devil shall forever play the diabolical tune of hells unutterable lament."

Is it any wonder that in the face of such sadistic humbug there has been a wholesale manufacture of infidels? All these statements may be a show of oratorical eloquence, but they are nothing more. They hold no part of truth. They deny every attribute of God. They make wisdom foolishness, turn eternal love into exasperated hate, make omnipotence helplessness, and make the justice of God the grossest injustice in the universe. To say that I believe in such repugnance would be a lie of the first order. I do not believe it because it is contrary to the nature of God. It is contrary to the love of God. It is contrary to the word of God. It is contrary to the scriptures and it puts God in the ridiculous position of being the almighty King of kings and Lord of lords yet having in His dominion a pocket of hate and resistance that even He cannot overcome. Further than this it makes the mighty sacrifice of Christ that was made for all the world to be almost impotent in its power and scope. Worst of all it frustrates the purpose of God laid down in the beginning when He said, "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness and let us give him dominion."

Some will immediately ask me whether I do not believe in hell. My answer is very definite on this point. I most certainly DO BELIEVE in hell, but the hell of the Bible and the hell of human tradition are not the same thing at all. The hell of tradition is PUNITIVE, hopeless, and eternal, while the hell of the scripture like every judgment of God is corrective, remedial, and restorative. I do not understand enough of this great truth to make broad claims about it, but I do want to say that the whole doctrine of eternal punishment stands on the shaky foundation of a misunderstanding of the Greek word Aion. This word, which means age, has been translated into English in the New Testament by seven different English words. It is translated as age (twice), course (once), world (thirty-two times), eternal (twice). The adjective form of the word, aionios, appears as eternal (forty-two times), everlasting (twenty-five times) and forever (once). By translating the word AION which means AGE and has a TIME LIMIT by such words as eternal, everlasting, and forever, etc., it is small wonder that confusion arises as to what the true meaning really is. I do not profess to be a student of either Hebrew or Greek, but any good Greek-English New Testament or any good concordance such as Young's or Strong's will give the exact meaning of all these words. If you will take time to study this thought through, you will find as I have done that there is not one instance in the New Testament where any condemnation is final, irrevocable, or unending. In such passages as this, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," the true meaning is "Depart from me, ye cursed, into AGE LASTING FIRE," which is a very different thing, for it shows that the condemnation is for a period of time and is NOT timeless. You have often heard people speak of the UNPARDONABLE SIN, but, if you read it in the light I have mentioned, you will see that Jesus did not say it was unpardonable, but that it hath no forgiveness UNTO THE AGE. The following is from the Emphatic Diaglott. "Indeed I say to you that all sins will be forgiven the sons of men and the blasphemies with which they may revile; but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit has NO FORGIVENESS TO THE AGE, but is exposed to AIONIAN (age-lasting) JUDGMENT." Mark 3:28, 29. The same is true in each case where the word occurs.

This truth may come as a shock to you as it did to me when I first discovered it. Indeed, you may reject it and continue on with the hopeless old traditions of unending torment, but all who cling to this pagan teaching of a Babylonish church will be hard put to it to explain the scriptures which plainly declare that God has ordained a time for the restitution of ALL THINGS. I have positively no hesitation in saying that I thoroughly believe that as surely as everything began in God, everything will also END IN GOD, for "from Him everything comes, by Him everything exists, and IN HIM EVERYTHING ENDS." Rom. 11:36. (Goodspeed and Moffatt). Nothing but this could satisfy almighty power, omniscient wisdom, eternal justice, and fathomless love. Any other teaching than this makes God to be the loser of His own plan, His own purpose, and His own creation. It makes Satan to be wiser and stronger than God while the Lord almighty, omnipresent, omniscient, has to content Himself with a tiny handful that He has plucked in desperation from the devouring fire that He had not anticipated.

There is far more to coming out of Babylon than just leaving off some of their meetings. If we are going to leave Babylon we are going to have to leave those doctrines taught by her that cause men to lose sight of Gods glory and power, and spend their lives in the shallows groveling in fear and subject to bondage. The subject of this chapter is GODS PURPOSE IN REDEMPTION, and with that we intend to deal. We have dealt with the doctrine of ETERNAL PUNISHMENT only briefly, for as long as that sticks in the minds of people, they are blinded completely to the meaning of all the scriptures which speak of the complete restoration of the entire universe of God. With that obstacle out of the way, we can now deal more freely with the marvelous plans of God for the restoration of ALL THINGS TO HIMSELF.

The following scripture taken from Ephesians is one of the most ALL-EMBRACING declarations to be found anywhere in the Bible. It plainly declares that IN THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF TIMES God is going to gather ALL THINGS IN HEAVEN AND ALL THINGS IN EARTH INTO CHRIST. I will quote it from two or three different translators so that the full meaning may be impressed upon our minds. "Having made known unto us the MYSTERY OF HIS WILL, according to His good pleasure which He hath PURPOSED IN HIMSELF; that in the DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF TIMES He might GATHER TOGETHER IN ONE ALL THINGS IN CHRIST, BOTH WHICH ARE IN HEAVEN AND WHICH ARE ON EARTH, EVEN IN HIM." Eph. 1:9, 10. (Authorized).

The DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF TIMES is the dispensation that follows the KINGDOM. We are now in the dispensation of grace, the next is the dispensation of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the age following is the FULLNESS OF TIMES. It is the eighth day when all things are made new. It is the age when everything that came out from God will return to Him again. It is the day when every planet shall have completed its given orbit, when every sun that has set in the west will rise in the eternal day, when all the rivers that ran into the sea of humanity will return to the place from whence they came. It is the year of jubilee when all debts are canceled and all things return to their original owner, for from Him everything comes and IN HIM EVERYTHING ENDS.

We will now read the thrilling translation of Eph. 1:7-10 by Weymouth. "It is in Him and through the shedding of His blood that we have our deliverance--the forgiveness of our offences--so abundant was Gods grace, the grace which He, the possessor ALL WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING LAVISHED UPON US, when He made known to us the SECRET OF HIS WILL, and this is in harmony with Gods merciful purpose for the GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD WHEN THE TIME IS RIPE FOR IT--the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of RESTORING THE WHOLE CREATION to find its one HEAD IN CHRIST; yes, THINGS IN HEAVEN AND THINGS IN EARTH to find their ONE HEAD IN HIM." How I rejoice and how I exult in such a glorious hope of universal reconciliation! What a day it will be when the fires of God have devoured the adversary that has existed in every man, when every evil work has been burned up and every man p resented purified and faultless before the throne of His glory with exceeding joy.

If you have the translation of Moffatt, Goodspeed, Rotherham, and others, you will see they are all plain and emphatic on this final restoration of all things. Well do I know that such teaching is contrary to the traditions of Babylon, but we are not interested in Babylon's traditions. We are interested in the revelation of the Lord.

Every reader should notice especially how Paul prays that God would give us all the Spirit of WISDOM AND REVELATION in the knowledge of Him, and that the eyes of our understanding might be enlightened as to what is the HOPE OF OUR CALLING. See Eph. 1:17, 18.

How often we have heard preachers warn people that "the day of grace will soon be over forever." Now nothing can be further from the truth, for as long as God exists the GRACE OF GOD will be with us. Please notice that PAUL shows that the GRACE OF GOD is going to be made known in the AGES TO COME through those who have received it here and now in this dispensation. Eph. 2:7, 8. "And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, THAN IN THE AGES TO COME HE MIGHT SHOW THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. "Not only does this passage tell us of the great purpose of restoration in the AGES TO COME, but it also shows us that it is for this very reason that God is saving a FIRST FRUIT COMPANY now. The displaying of the grace of God in the coming ages, i.e., the kingdom and the fullness of times, is the true reason for the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD. God has no intention of bringing all the world into the fold now. The whole purpose of this age is to GATHER OUT A PEOPLE TO DISPLAY HIS GRACE IN THE COMING AGES. Eph. 2:7. James also declared this truth when at Jerusalem he said, "Simon hath declared how God at first did visit the Gentiles to TAKE OUT A PEOPLE FOR HIS NAME...that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and ALL THE GENTILES upon whom my name is called...Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:14, 17, 18.

The universal greatness of Gods purpose in calling out a people to display His glory in coming ages is seen in Paul's reference to PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS in Eph. 3:10. "To the intent that now unto PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES might be known BY THE CHURCH the MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD." This passage is too mighty for my feeble comment, so we shall leave it for the Holy Spirit to reveal to your heart. Surely, however, anyone can see that our calling is not merely to escape hell and spend our eternal lives in heaven, but rather that "He has saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according to HIS OWN PURPOSE WHICH HE PURPOSED in Christ Jesus BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN." 2 Tim. 1:8. It reaches far beyond the redemption of man to the restoration of all things in the universe. In one grand sweeping statement the apostle Paul includes everything in HEAVEN AND EARTH AND UNDER THE EARTH in the great redemption and sees them all confessing TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER that Jesus Christ is Lord. Phil. 2:9-11. "Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things UNDER THE EARTH: and that EVERY TONGUE should confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD to the glory of God the Father." Notice the universal magnitude of the statement of Col. 1:15-22. "For BY Him were all things created that are IN heaven and that are IN earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or PRINCIPALITIES or POWERS, ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM AND FOR HIM and He is before all things, and by Him ALL THINGS CONSIST... For it pleased the rather that IN Him should ALL FULLNESS DWELL, and having made peace by the BLOOD OF HIS CROSS, by Him to RECONCILE ALL THINGS UNTO HIMSELF; by Him, I say, whether they be things IN earth or things IN heaven."

It was this same theme that Peter had IN mind when IN Acts 3:20, 21, he declared that the RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS had been spoken of by every prophet since the foundation of the world. "And He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of the RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS, which God has spoken of by the mouth of His Holy prophets since the world began." Some have tried to interpret this scripture to say that Peter meant that only the THINGS spoken of by the prophets would be restored, but IN verse 24 he says, "All the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after...have likewise foretold of these days." Weymouth adds a weight of understanding when he words it thus: "Heaven must receive Him until those times of which God has spoken from the earliest ages through the lips of HIS HOLY PROPHETS... the TIMES OF THE RECONSTITUTION OF ALL THINGS." Verses 22, 23.

It is not at all fair to the subject at hand to deal with it thus so briefly, for the truth of final and universal reconciliation actually fills the theme of Scripture. Why do we pass so lightly over the great statements of Paul with reference to the fall and redemption of man? He points out continually that, as sin with all its dire results passed upon us all because of the disobedience of ONE MAN, so righteousness passes upon us all through the righteousness of ONE MAN, Jesus Christ. Notice the convincing terms used IN Romans 5:15-21. "Adam prefigured Him who was to come, but the gift is very different from the trespass. For while the rest of men died by the trespass of one man, the grace of God and the free gift which comes by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflowed far more richly upon the rest of men. Nor is the free gift like the effect of one mans sin; for while the sentence ensuing on a single sin resulted IN DOOM, THE FREE GIFT ENSUING ON MANY TRESPASSES ISSUES IN ACQUITTAL. For if the trespass of one man allowed death to reign through that one man, MUCH MORE shall those who receive the overflowing grace and free gift of righteousness reign IN life through one, through Jesus Christ. When then, as one mans trespass issued IN doom for all, SO ONE MANS ACT OF REDRESS ISSUED IN ACQUITTAL AND LIFE FOR ALL.

Just as one mans disobedience made all the rest sinners, SO ONE MANS OBEDIENCE WILL MAKE ALL THE REST RIGHTEOUS. Law slipped IN to aggravate the trespass; sin increased, but grace surpassed it far, so that while sin had reigned the reign of death, grace might also reign with a righteousness that ends IN life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Moffatt).

It should not be unnecessary to enlarge on this all-inclusive statement. Nothing could be more reasonable and just than that which Paul has explained IN the passage above--that since death passed upon ALL MEN because of Adams disobedience, so life and righteousness will eventually pass upon ALL MEN because of Christ's obedience. For as by the disobedience of ONE many were made sinners, so by the obedience of ONE shall many be made righteous. The multitudes of earth who have never heard of Adam are none the less affected by his disobedience. It is equally true that those who have not heard of Christ are affected by His righteousness. Christ is the Saviour of ALL MEN, especially of those who have the privilege of hearing and believing, for they are able to partake of the benefits of His redemption here and now.

The subject of redemption is so vast that no book can cover it, let alone the few pages at our disposal, but it should be very clear to all that, since there is a definite purpose IN the fall of man, there is every reason to hope for his universal redemption. The glorious Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8) was not slain because of a possibility that man might fall, but because both the fall and the redemption were fore-ordained of God.

Let us, then, conclude this chapter by noticing a few other scriptures that include all men IN the wonderful redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. "For this is good and acceptable IN the sight of God our Saviour who will have ALL MEN TO BE SAVED and come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim. 2:3, 4. "And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, Know the Lord, for ALL SHALL KNOW ME from the least to the greatest." Heb. 8:11. "For the grace of God that BRINGETH SALVATION hath appeared to ALL MEN." Tit. 2:11. "And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them heard I saying, BLESSING AND HONOR AND GLORY AND POWER BE UNTO HIM THAT SITTETH UPON THE THRONE and to the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5:13.

There are always those people who object to this truth on the grounds that the preaching of universal reconciliation will make Christians and unsaved careless. People who want to be careless will always find an excuse to be careless and they will have to suffer the result of their carelessness IN the judgment. The knowledge of Gods purpose does not make true men careless. It makes them long to become a part of His will and part of His eternal purpose. We can embrace every travail IN understanding, grace, and love, when we clearly see it is working for eternal good according to His purpose which He purposed IN Christ before the ages began.

Some have dared that if they believed that all men would eventually be saved, they would just throw up everything and have a good time. Such people might well ask themselves for what purpose they are serving God now. If they are only serving God because they live IN dread of eternal torment, then they are serving as slaves IN fear of a tyrant, but those who see God's purpose serve God because they LOVE HIM and long to partake of His glorious plan.

- Geo. R. Hawtin

Closed Parachutes

2011-12-16T12:11:00.320-04:00

"Minds are like parachutes. They only function when open." Lord Dewar

The closed parachute of our religious mind is a scary free fall I am surviving, but only because God is pulling my ripcord, my chute is opening, and my mind is being renewed inwardly. All of this brings forth life transformation.

These observations and thoughts I will share originate from my own free-fall experience in religion as a follower and religious leader. It is my experience that every man must be saved from Adam's religious mind, the resulting deception, guilt, shame and religious ploys and schemes that mind employs. This is its attempt to avoid God's love and passion to make us like him; to know him as we are known.

The truth is God has reconciled all men in Christ, God is holding no sin against any man, and God will reveal this as conciliation for every man 'but each man in his own order.' This is a progression of Christ within the soul conquering Adam's mind of darkness and bringing forth His resurrection life and mind. Enlightenment follows darkness.

Religion is the single greatest corrupter of the mind. Did you know the most religious being is satan. This statement surprises many because it is believed that satan is not religious. Oh but He is and Adam and Eve(and all of their earthy offspring) became the protege`. They embarked on a journey through the soul in an attempt to ascend back into an intimate relationship. Their journey was a 'go' at and in religion. But there was only one catch: the soul is a liar and is at enmity with God. The soul can never tell us the truth and paints God's face with brush strokes that do not display him as he is.

Consider when Adam and Eve were beguiled(not chose) to enter into the soul; though God never hid or moved from them, their new vision (or lack thereof) drove them to hide and cover themselves. They fell into deeper and deeper nightmare of guilt, shame and more perverted ways to cover themselves. They invented ceremonies and rituals to somehow appease their own minds of this perverted lens they now possessed. Eventually, their offspring demanded blood from animals and in absolute bondage(not free will) the blood of the perfect Lamb of God was shed.

"When Christ died for us He was not paying dues to the law but, with love beyond measure, meeting us where we were in our mentality that said, "We demand justice. You let the serpent in the garden. You penned us all up in disobedience. The buck stops at your desk. You should pay" . And pay He did." (read A Legal Mentality)

Every religion, and even Christendom, is a false covering. Christ alone and within us, operating with all authority in our spirit and soul, Christ is our hope of glory. We will eventually abandon it all and see that Christ is all we have and are. This is blasphemy to the religious mind. Jesus faced the same accusations.

Adam and Eve and their offspring have attempted to bring forth a self-righteousness that would appear holy, but it has been a failure. We know deep-down and desire for perfection. But we have an enemy and it is the carnal mind. The invisible soul and it's visible and outer replication---the human flesh and it's carnal mind--- is a failure beyond expression. The Word became flesh as Christ Jesus to display how a righteous soul and spirit could replicate and show forth the perfect image of God in flesh. Christ Jesus was the first of many brethren.

The mind and work of Adam can never present us before God as holy. God was building a man and in the progression of His revelation of Himself, he started with an earthy man, Adam. This man's origin was the dust and he fulfilled his destiny, by returning to that dust. God exposed Adam's inability to produce holiness by placing him in a garden where there was a tree and a tempter. This was God's plan and God has taken responsibility for the fall by providing the sacrifice(remember Abraham, Isaac and the ram for Isaac). God wants us holy, not because He is a stern lawgiver, but because He is passionate that His creatures be like Him, fulfilled, loving and perfect. But in the progressive unfolding of Christ, we must be subjected to the carnal mind(the first-born) and overcome that mind through Christ to become the second born who inherits the promise. Religion can not teach you this. This is a teaching of the Spirit of God for 'each man in his own order'.

Man's mind seeks to accomplish holiness and perfection starting from the position of God as the law-giver and judge. They see God like this because of the lens of the carnal mind. But Jesus said God was 'Our Father'. Man's mind can not discern this and always reverts back to law. In God's unsearchable wisdom, he placed mankind under the law and in a realm of duality (good and evil) to show us how incapable it was to bring forth righteousness within us. This was also done to frustrate us and drive us to him. This can only be accomplished as Christ is revealed within us, the mute of the soul is removed to this reality and every man eventually knows the Lord through Christ's work in us, the hope of glory. This work is all of God and even our faith is given to us as Christ's faith (Gal. 2: 16-20) We choose nothing. It is solely Christ's determination IN US that chooses as we die to self and awakened and resurrected to Christ in us. No one will boast when all is said and done.

Mankind has begun a long sojourn through the sin and death of the first-born soul. Once this has been completed by the unsearchable wisdom and power of God, we will then all return into God and experience the Oneness we had with the Father before we entered the earth. We were spirit in God long before we showed up here in a body, for processing, and we will return to Him.  (Job 38:7, Romans 11:36)

The default setting of every human is an Adamic or carnal and religious mind. That mind is death and it is locked into repetition, carnal conditioning, holidays, wilderness wandering and religious ceremonies. All of the above are extensions of the carnal mind but are also religious or false presentations before God. Christ Jesus is the true Son and image of God. Again, he is the first of many brethren.

The institutional church is the single greatest fostering agent of this evil mindset and it has affected the whole of history and the world. Institutional religion also fosters a deadly, deceptive separation consciousness.   Since Adam, the carnal mind has ruled the world. The results have been catastrophic. Death still reigns, sickness leads to death, mankind is locked into holidays and repetition and the creation awaits the revealing of the sons of God for it's release from bondage. Our very creation stands on tip-toe awaiting the sons who have been called out to be changed. Called out? Called out of religion!

The tragic subtlety of religion is that while one is in religion there is a belief that the answer has been found to the souls dilemma. Jesus of Nazareth disagreed then and Jesus, the ascended Son of God disagrees now, as he has entered our soul to conquer religion in us. Jesus will not tolerate religion and there is only one son He can not save and that is the son of perdition, the first-born carnal man.

Jesus is about to collapse the religious world in a big way in the souls of men. Judgment upon the carnal man has been initiated, and eventually, this conquest will be shown in the outer, visible world of men, for the Kingdom of God is within you. Since that Kingdom reign works from inside to the outer flesh, this is not visible to many yet. But they feel the shakings and even the earth knows what is coming. Judgment, a necessity in the love of God, is a a concept many in religion can not understand. Many are stating judgment was finished in Christ, but the judgment of God(not wrath) will come against the carnal man fighting this war within His saints. Christ's coming within His saints will consume this son of perdition or anti-Christ, this with the light of His coming. Without judgment the carnal mind runs loose and operates death. (Romans 8:6-7)

I was a religious, programmed robot of religion for many years, 7 of which I was the religious programmer. But God determined He was extracting me. Like yanking a wisdom tooth deep in the back of an infected mouth---with no freezing---God hauled me out. It is a painful and bloody operative and people actually died in the process. Your thoughts are skeptical of such a description? God is sovereign and the gates of hell (religion) can not stop Christ from producing sons. Christ has the keys to death, hell and the grave. He lets Himself in and out as He pleases. God really is sovereign despite what the clergy say.

The truth is that modern, evangelical Christianity is dead-set opposed to having thinkers in their (wilderness) circle. Thinkers would expose the obvious, confining prisons their followers are in and the curtain would come down on that show. Huge empires would cease to exist, men would be out of a job and power-players would be exposed as angels of light. Powerful men, though unintentionally and in ignorance, keep their sheep in darkness. Maybe that is why I have never, ever heard a sermon on the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans, Jesus' number one hate. The carnal mind is alive and well in religion and those who think with the Christ mind are usually not allowed or accepted in the circus tent of religion. The message of the Christ mind simply does not calculate or fit into the program.

Many Christians are confined in religious prisons of unbelief. Yes, unbelief. The tragedy is that they are told they are 'believers'. But they don't believe in God or the cross He gave us. They say they do, but when their beliefs are examined they really don't believe He has saved the world.   It is the institutions doctrines and unbelief that is the problem in the way of The Way. Since God knew it would happen, He simply is working out His plan with them in the picture, though they have no influence in the soul realm. 'Flesh gives birth to flesh. Spirit gives birth to spirit.' What we have in modern religion is a flesh and soul display with gimmickry elevated to bring forth bodies. But even the bodies that once came through the doors are no longer searching there.

Then she cried out, "Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!" When he woke up, he thought, "I will do as before and shake myself free." But he didn't realize the LORD had left him.

Can Jesus actually leave or forsake anyone? Ony one and that is the carnal man operating in the carnal mind. What that means is that God will allow the carnal mind and religion to play itself out and to follow their deceit and iniquity, until that deceit and iniquity is to the full. Only then and only as we reap what we sow in the laws of God will those minds and hearts turn to Christ. This is a subjection to futility, but in hope. This is a lock down in disobedience and religion but in hope. (Romans 8:20, Romans 11:32)

God is working through His sons; those who have been led to come outside the camp and suffer reproach. (Hebrews 13:13) Those who have been led to have their sinful nature extracted at a high price. It is Fire. God is a consuming fire. God chastens and disciplines His sons. A relationship with God is a walk in the passionate fires of God to transform us, to change our minds and to refine us in His passionate love and fire to become like Christ. Some are visited by the Fire of Christ's presence, but they can not see the day of their visitation and they instead turn to the world's or religions deliverance. What appears as a host of punitive actions by Christ, is actually the Living Christ visiting the inner soul and consuming 'our life'. Many have turned to the world's answers and diagnosis of this visitation. I will highlight one and that is "depression". This is the world's diagnosis and they are more than willing to sell your anti-depressants to deliver you from Christ conquering your inner man.

"But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. " Malachi 3:2-3

Those called out at this time are now alone and being taught by the Spirit. A small remnant of those who will see creation released as it begins it's slow descent out of the iniquity or lawlessness that is full in the souls and earth of men. This is God's work, not mans religious effort. Man is running to and fro in the earth exhausting himself in religious efforts to save mankind, but mankind is already in the cross, reconciled and all will be conciliated in their time. God is about restoring the creation and He will be all in all. These statements rely on the absolute sovereignty of God to call His chosen remnant in this age as the good news and ministry of reconciliation is preached in the earth. The institutions are not perceiving what God's heart and intent is and have sought to establish their own plans, programs and gimmicks, but it is the Spirit and sovereignty of the Lord which will call out His chosen people, refine them spirit, soul and body. There are sons of God in the earth. There will eventually be sons with the Spirit of God within them without measure and these will release the creation. God intends for The Word to become flesh over and over again. Jubilee will come to the entire earth. Christendom does not know this and instead seeks to escape(rapture) the trials and tribulations of God. It is also being taught that most of creation will die and be lost forever. This is not the heart or plan of God, for God's will is to be all in all.

Christendom does not believe in the sovereignty of God, but believes that man is God and has the power to thwart God "who will have all men to be saved" . (1 Timothy 2:4) As unbelievers, Christendom believes in the old lie that man chooses his eternal destiny, not realizing that makes man God of the universe. Worse, this makes Adam God for Christ was not able to overcome the transgression with His gift. But the scriptures tell us the gift is greater than the transgression. (Romans 5:15) Who are the 'many' that died in Adam. God has hidden it from the carnal and religious mind. The "many" are all and the same all are given the "free gift". Again, Christendom can not preach this because of the deception they are entrenched in and the religious traditions and doctrines that have voided God's Word in their minds. Jesus told the religious teachers of his day, men who had memorized the scriptures but attached their own interpretations and traditions; men who could not see the Father's love in him. Why? Because they refused to separate from their religious traditions and teachings. And it was these teachings that blocked their vision from seeing the truth.

"Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.” Mark 7:13

One of the first truths Father spoke to me upon pulling my ripcord was 'the lie goes deeper than you are willing to accept or admit". He also spoke to me 'Your foundation is not built on me, but on the sand of religion". When Christ appeared in me in a greater way, I was not able to stand in His presence. My whole life was set on fire, my earth quaked and my mind fell like a house of cards in a mighty rush windstorm. My house, built on sand, it fell with a mighty crash. The shock waves of collapse were felt in many lives and few could discern, even myself, Who it was that was visiting me in my desert and wilderness?

"Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert." (Isaiah 43:18)

Father told me I was seeing a work He would accomplish in the whole of every man's soul and then in the earth. I am now watching from an ascended position---watching the lives of many I know conquered by the Living Christ, but they can not see it. They do not know it is Him.

Modern 'believers' are actually programmed to follow instructions of their doctrines, institutions and hierarchical leaders.   We call the programmed religious mind---those Jesus even said were locked down in dogma, tradition and non-truth---we call them sheeple, for they are merely following the cues of the wolves in charge. Jesus called religious leaders wolves. The wolves do not know they are wolves. They not only fleece the sheep for their money and energy, but they lead them into the ditch of destruction. These are hard words. Religion is a hard "go". Give it a "go" and you'll soon see that you are exhausted, unchanged and have not progressed in the spirit of God. Few can admit to themselves that religion is ripe with corruption and man-led, because they are so deep in the lie. They are "all in" and their identity is so profoundly entrenched in the lie, they are unable to see that Christ is not the Head of this lie. To leave would mean the end of their identity and they are not prepared to leave. But they soon will the evil empires, employment and very lives collapse into rubble around them, and only then will they wake up from the nightmare of religion. This is God's passion to extract and reclaim His people from the serpent and the prince of this world.

Every denomination has their own little neat package and their package is supposedly better packaged and superior to the other packages. There are thousands of packages being delivered as "God's truth" in our world. Try to tell the ones who are the packagers, that that their package is "Babylon" or "confusion" and they will resort to the teaching of 'you will burn in fire forever". Since they can't do that literally anymore, they will call you names like 'heretic' or 'false teacher' and tell their flock that one will burn when they die. These are troubled men and women of power who will not be challenged. They attack dissenters; though we preach Christ coming in the flesh and dying on the cross for the world, this is not enough to them. Why? Because they want control and we do not ascribe to their letter of the law. Jesus told such religious men in his day 'your scriptures speak of me'. He said 'your scriptures'. He was exposing their carnal, deathly, interpretations steeped in man's ideas and traditions, all of which voided God's Living Word standing right in front of them.

Religious men harass and alienate teachers of the cross and warn their sheeple to steer clear. They are usually convincing, charismatic, intelligent and have been successful throughout the church age.    At the end of the day the bills need to be paid. This is why the empire always strikes back when truth is unveiled.

How can it be anything but a sign of blindness and love waxing cold when the preaching the cross of Christ and Him being the Savior of the World, is persecuted and teaching on financial gain (lucre) is heralded? Even this statement does not connect in the religious mind. These are enemies of the cross, Paul tells Timothy. The parachute is closed and the free fall into soul destruction continues.

Religion wrangles the sheep together. This is it's purpose, for we are divided humanity that wants to come together. We need to come together for it is our origin in His Oneness. Our origin is buried deep in our perfect spirit and troubled soul and it begs for a king(there is a war between the first-born and second born and Esau will lose the blessing). God told Israel not to take a king, but they would not listen. Saul, the first king, wrangled them, exploited them and lost the kingdom, but they wanted what others around them had (covetousness) and they could not escape their deep-seeded desire to be brought together; at any cost.

Even my words, if convincing, could be lifted up and there would be some who would want me to lead them. They need a leader and a man of flesh who can convince them of something. They are immature in the faith and look to men. They want to know the Truth, this is a good thing, but they think and believe they need a man up front and over them to do it. God allows it, but it is not where He is headed. In fact, He has left that age behind and you are being called to follow. Can you hear Him?

I will not lead men, I will not give into the temptation to proclaim 'I have the answer'! I do not have God wired. I do not possess any more truth than religious minds. We will all realize we had it buried under our nose, but God was waiting to reveal the buried treasure according to His will, time and choosing. More importantly, did we love and avoiding the clanging gong syndrome? None of this does not sit right with religious men and minds, for they believe a man chooses. Jesus said, 'you did not choose me, but I chose you.' This truth grasped opens our chute into rest and a glorious ride.

We must trust in Christ alone for ourselves. We must avoid propping up dead men and religious teachers---even me or anyone else who legitimately is riding the wind to freedom, for Christ IS our salvation and that will be revealed to 'each one in his own order'.

Until then, the show must go on in the world of religion. And the whole world is steeped in religion. And what a show it is.

The real trouble with religion and evangelicalism is that the obvious to everyone else is suspect by them. 'Yeah but you're deceived' is their line. They use deception and fear. Sheeple have been taught since they were little, that God tortures those who are deceived; FOREVER! This seed brings forth a harvest of control. The religious mind loves this teaching because it justifies their own guilt and shame passed down by Adam. It's a perfect deception and the serpent is the author of it. It is alive and well in modern evangelical Christianity and her mother, the Roman Catholic Church.

When God wakes us all up from our nightmare in religion and shows you who He really is, it is a very hard day (The Day of the Lord).   It is impossible to tell a religious person they have been beguiled and this is a work of the Spirit of God to orchestrate events and to storm the gates of their darkness (hell). It is hard for us to shake off their fig leaves(religion), or come out from   behind our religious brand or tree. It's easier to hide beneath the covering of someone else's ideas; some we may have never even searched out. But all of us must eventually stand naked before God and trust in His goodness and His cross. The cross is not enough for them and Jesus is really not the Savior of the world. This is why they work so hard. And hard they work.

Those in charge are men who believe they are mediators for God.    They believe they stand between God and men. But there is only one man who mediates in the soul and spirit of man and that is the man, Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5) Religious leaders and many of their followers, really don't believe Christ has it under control.   These men and follows act in a way that emphatically states: 'No, I got it'. They stand as one of the 10 looking into the Promised Land and the giants are too big for God. Unfortunately, they will wander in circles for the rest of their life drinking milk and wondering why their lives in religion never really get any better. The haunting truth for those in religion today is this: religion will not lead you into the Promise Land. But an awakening is underway. For us, who are already awakening, well, we already know and see where this is going. And where it is going is not through your institutions.

Those in charge; there is a ring of arrogance to that statement. They get paid to do it and they take it seriously. They are the elite. They are the protectors of the ideas and attack those made in God's image who don't agree or align. This is historical and it has served "those in charge" very well. Remember those who advocated a flat earth? They were wrong. The daughters of those terrorist are alive and well today. They are arrogant, stubborn and psychotically violent. A psychotically violent person in charge wreaks havoc on peoples minds. It's a subtlety of darkness disguised as light. It is a carnal and destructive concept packaged as light. But it is moonlight.

The whole of the religious system of the world is run by troubled, carnal minds. I am one of them and Father continues to yank me out to progressively save my soul, but not before I endured a collapse of that mind.

I am aware my words are offensive to "those in charge" because I will do not agree, I will not align and I refuse to terrorize the world or call for any more blood to cover sin. Jesus already did that and yet it wasn't enough for them. You know why it wasn't enough? It's because they believe the blood that was shed was not for the world but for their angry God. They believe God needed the blood to be shed. They believe sin separates God from us, and not the other way around. They can't see that it was Adam that hid, it was God who protected Cain, it was God who told them He wanted relationship, but they wanted Pastor Moses to mediate. It was our carnal, beastly nature that wanted blood sacrifices, not God. It was God who submitted to the revolt and rebellion by then offering His own blood. They can read Luke 23:34 "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" over and over, but it doesn't stick, because the carnal mind wants to slander God and it wants to see Him as angry, because it appeases their psychological state of guilt and shame.

I have met the Spirit of God. You are suspect. He lives in you too! I speak in a tone that is aggressive to your empires and threatens the kingdoms, those built on sand and imagined from your own minds. Listen, I have seen His throne and the Flame enfolding in upon itself. I have seen there is a Lamb in the midst of this throne. There is a lamb there who will wipe away every tear from every eye that has ever cried or has every sinned. (Revelation 7:17)

I have walked into His flame and "I" was consumed. The ego is being destroyed but the life of Christ in me is swallowing up the darkness within. This consuming is on-going and it is bringing forth a perfect love that casts out fear, because fear has to do with torment. (1 John 4:18)

My parachute is fully opening and I am falling into His glorious love.

I AM

2011-12-12T13:50:00.006-04:00

I AM there with you
When your fragile heart was stirred
The days when you were young
When calamity occurred

I AM there with you
When you cried in innocence
Watching loved ones
Say careless things
They didn't mean for you to hear
But you've remembered them for years

I AM there with you
When you hoped that life would notice you
When you made your gains through pain
Yet like your empty past
Everything has remained the same

I AM here with you
In every NOW there will ever be
Giving grace, faith and eyes
For you to see and worship only Me
There is coming a transformation
From this futility to Life
Abandon it all and follow me
To where I AM
I AM Christ the Lord

His Presence

2011-12-09T10:12:00.017-04:00

His Presence!
On Every Little Hill
Where Sculpted River's Run
Where Distant Mountain Peaks
Await My Ascent

"Please know that He doesn't need to get here from somewhere else. He IS Emmanuel, God with us."

Jesus Christ is present and progressively at work in the world. That fact may be the best definition of the essential meaning of eonian life---God in Christ, present in and moving on in the ages, from age to age progressively fulfilling the will of His Father and our Father, until every last human being has come to know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. That's the quality of life which is eonian. (Read Eonian and Eternal Life) But He is present as above, in two modes: veiled and unveiled. And both His veiling and unveiling are, under the ordering of God the Father, matters of His initiative, His choosing.

He veils Himself from us by His choosing, and chooses when and how to pull aside the veil. No pietistic, plaintive appeal of ours, nor self-initiating preparation on our part can change that. Every veiling serves an unveiling, and every unveiling leaves us still with some measure of futility that we--- that is, until the consummation of all things---do not yet fully see Him as He is.

The summoned gathering (the church) is most spiritually vital when living in the expectation of His appearing, which appearing, is the unveiling of Him who is already present. This is normatively a moment by moment expectation of measured, progressive fulfillment, a present dynamic building to a final consummation. Dear mainstream brethren, please know that He doesn't need to get here from somewhere else. He IS Emmanuel, God with us. His is still existentially a precious presence mostly veiled to us. We need to be reduced to---and only He can do this---loving His appearing above all else.
This is the great expectation. It is first God's own expectation, next the believers' expectation, but also that of all creation. Yes, it is, and must be, God's own expectation of Himself and His Son to appear in an unveiling. They are not expecting anything of us to bring this about. The Father expects it of Himself via His Son Jesus.

It is one thing to hear life-giving words from God to move us along further into the riches of glory in Christ Jesus, but it is another thing to behold the Word. We need His unveiled glory, and that need is finally met in beholding Him, not only hearing of Him, or even hearing from Him Himself. The ultimate is the face to face encounter which in itself says it all.

In the prologue of John's gospel, the relationship between God and the Word, when the Greek is carefully examined, is a relationship of the Word being toward God, so as to be face to face with God, while being God. The picture we get from the whole message of the New Testament, is of the Word being face to face with God, and remaining so while at the same time turning to us, and turning us to Himself, so that we can see in His face, what He eternally sees in the Father's face.

I have heard so many good ideas about God. That's pretty much the level at which institutional Christianity operates: a long string of good ideas about God, but by and large those ideas are all of the warmed over variety. We've been there with each of them in church history before, just dressed up a bit by contemporary acculturation. Do you realize how Hellenistic that is? It's very little removed from the Greek's idea of the Logos (the Idea, the Word, the Message).

The Greek philosophers, and their disciples, were always trying to improve their conceptual grasp of the transcendent ideal. St. John came along, and said (if I may paraphrase): "Hey, I've got a message for you, God's whole Message, the Logos, the Ideal of His purpose is here, and we, His envoys have heard Him, seen Him, touched Him. In Him God has given us a quality of life in that springs forth out of our innermost being bringing us to know Him, Jesus of Nazareth, God's incarnation. Our only and full expectation is for that life, which is Him in us, to bring us into the full knowledge of His breadth, length, height and depth, even of His love."

Our need is for that singular presence of that singular Person. Oh yes, I know it's been revealed to the saints afresh that we, as His body, are His appearing, but we are His appearing in the measure that we behold Him within and among us, in the measure that we love His appearing.

There is nothing like His appearing, His unveiling. Nothing like it; absolutely nothing. Lord, uncover Yourself to us, that we might truly be your uncovering. We are tiring of what amounts to be by comparison childish church-playing. I am lonely for you Lord. All that I need awaits You. You're unveiling is occurring even now, and will continue until we see you resplendent in the fullness of your glory. In this I rest.

-John Gavazonni

Eonian and Eternal Life

2011-12-09T09:57:00.003-04:00

"No two words in the history of man, mishandled by man, have contributed more to the physical, emotional and spiritual harm of so many, than these. You think I must be exaggerating. But I am not. It is the mistranslation of these two words that has foisted the false and destructive doctrine of eternal torment upon the church and the world."

The concept of eonian life is so foreign to our modern understanding, the word shows up as a spelling error on my computer. Believers have been taught about the concept of eternal life, but the term eonian life is a biblical term that you have probably never heard of. The concept of eonian life, although foreign to mainstream Christendom, appears throughout the original Greek and the marginal but very accurate translations outside mainstream, evangelical Christianity. You owe it to yourself to understand this concept. I like what Zender has to say about it and I want to share it with you, for your growth in Jesus Christ's grace and knowledge.

It is common knowledge among students of the Bible that, following this evil-ridden existence, there will be a one-thousand year kingdom on earth (Revelation 5:10; 20:4). Jesus referred to this as "the coming eon" (Mark 10:30). This gives way to a new heavens and a new earth (Revelation 21:1), which is yet another eon (Ephesians 2:7). Those who receive faith now live during these two future eons. This is the life Paul spoke of when he said, "the gift of God is eonian life" (Romans 6:23). Jesus spoke continually of this life. This is the way that Jesus referred to as "narrow" (Matthew 7:14). The narrow way had to do with Israel and the few who would enter immortal into that millennial kingdom, not with the eternal fate of the majority of mankind (Matthew 15:24).

The word eon will be strange to some. It mustn’t be any longer. This noun and its adjective ("eonian") appear in the New Testament over 190 times (in the original Greek) as aion and aionion. Why haven’t many recognized them in our English versions? Because "expert translators" have decided to interpret rather than translate. More on this in a moment.

No two words in the history of man have been so tortured as aion and aionion. No two words in the history of man, mishandled by man, have contributed more to the physical, emotional and spiritual harm of so many, than these. You think I must be exaggerating. But I am not. It is the mistranslation of these two words that has foisted the false and destructive doctrine of eternal torment upon the church and the world.

Eternal torment is built on the sand of mistranslation, slipped easily upon saints who would like eternal torment to be true, if only to anoint themselves "divine messengers" on a "great commission," mandated "by God" to lord fear and power over lesser men under the misnomer: "evangelism." It is where the King James and other versions unaccountably use eternal and everlasting (for aionion) to describe the chastisement of the wicked that a false Scriptural veneer is lent to an otherwise insane (and inane) concept.

What Is An Eon?

The following considerations are vitally important to your peace and understanding of God.

Our English word eon is derived from the Greek word aion. (Remember, the New Testament was originally written in Greek.) It even sounds like it and is nearly spelled the same. Obviously, it would be the perfect translation of aion. An eon is "a duration of time." So is an aion. (See W.E. Vine’s An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Vine defines aion as "an age, era; signifies a period of indefinite duration, or time viewed in relation to what takes place in the period.") Had this word been left to speak for itself (the Concordant Version does that, putting "eon" for aion, always, and "eonian" for aionion, always), the false terror of eternal torment would never have arisen to deceive the saints and turn the world from God. Several versions do translate it consistently. (Besides the Concordant Literal New Testament, Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible, and Young’s Literal Translation.)

The ineptness of the orthodox translators can be easily verified. Look up the words "ages," "world," "eternal," "everlasting" and "forever" in either a Strong’s or a Young’s concordance. (These reference tools list every word in the King James Version and their source word from the original languages.) You will find that these words, a veritable hodge-podge, are all interpretations of this single Greek noun (aion) and its adjective.

Such interpretations are not only disparate, they are asinine. The same Greek word cannot mean ages in one place and forever in another. Ages have to do with time and plurality, while forever is the opposite of time and defies duplication. (If the reader wishes to imagine two forevers, he may try it. Minors attempting the feat will require adult supervision.) Can one word mean both day and night? Neither can one word mean both time and no time. An orthodox bias has made fools of otherwise intelligent men.

Yet here is the rub. Even where the scriptures speak of the life of believers as eternal, an error is an error.

Eonian a Timely Word

Eonian life is falsely reported in the King James version and elsewhere as "eternal life." It will come as a shock to many to learn that neither Jesus nor Paul ever spoke of eternal life but rather eonian life, or that life which endures through two future eons (the thousand-year kingdom eon, already discussed, and the new heavens and new earth). If this disclosure spoils the meter in some beloved Christian hymns, let truth conquer cadence.

The initial knee-jerk reaction to this truth is that, since eon and eonian pertain to time, the saints must not live forever. This is faulty reasoning. The saints do live forever, but not because of eonian life. The saints live forever because they are made immortal (1 Corinthians 15:54). Immortal people can’t die, no matter how hard they try.

Eonian life defines life during the coming eons only. As not everyone has this, this term distinguishes those who do. As the eons end (and so they will, see 1 Corinthians 10:11 and Hebrews 9:26), so ends the appellation eonian life. And yet the saints live on, for at the consummation of the eons death is abolished (1 Corinthians 15:24-26). If you have enough water to make it to a well, do you die of thirst? Neither does a saint who has eonian life die when the eons yield to deathlessness.

Many suppose that eonian must denote endlessness when describing God, as in Romans 16:26- "the eonian God." (King James wrongly makes this, "the everlasting God.") No. It’s another overreaction.

This verse isn’t trying to tell anyone that God lives forever. Everyone already knows God lives forever. Psalm 102:27 testified long ago that "His years shall have no end." It’s old news. The vital question is: Does God sit on high, removed from our struggles in time, or does He care what happens during the eons? He cares. Thus, He is the eonian God. This does not limit Him to the eons any more than "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" limits Him to those patriarchs.

What about His everlasting mercy? This, too, is limited to the eons. (And yet, verify this, the church would rather teach a lie than rewrite a hymn.) Mercy presupposes unworthies, of which someday there will be a blessed lack. Eternal mercy demands eternal imperfection. Mercy finds no object when all return to Him.

Won’t the saints reign "forever and ever" as King James reports in Revelation 22:5? No. They will reign for the eons. Reign presupposes insubjection, another deficiency unworthy of Christ. Not even Christ reigns forever and ever. scripture says that "He must be reigning until He should be placing all His enemies under His feet" (1 Corinthians 15:25).

The King James Version contradicts itself on this count. The KJV translation of Revelation 11:15 reads, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Yet their rendition of 1 Corinthians 15:25 reads, "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet."

An accurate translation of Revelation 11:15 eliminates this discrepancy. The Concordant version has, "The kingdom of this world became our Lord’s and His Christ’s, and He shall be reigning for the eons of the eons." (As the phrase "king of kings" highlights one king among others, thus also "eons of the eons" highlights two eons among others. Neither phrase carries the idea of "an endless succession," as commonly supposed.) Discrepancy disappears when God’s words are respected.

It’s a slap in the face of Christ to say that Christ reigns forever. Does He never perfect the universe? He does. He will one day subject everything to God, who will then be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:27-28). With no more insubjection, reign becomes impossible. Christ reigns so well during the eons that He eliminates the need for it for eternity.

Those not blessed with belief now miss these glorious, future eons. They will be dead while the eons run their course, unaware of the passage of time. Is it their fault? No. But Christ died for them just the same. While they miss these eons, they certainly do not miss living with God for eternity, for He is "the Savior of all mankind, especially of believers" (1 Timothy 4:10).

Note that the inspired statement does not say He is the Savior exclusively of believers. That would be the lie of Christianity. He indeed saves all, but only those who believe now live through the two future eons. This is the "especially" salvation of the context.

This news should relieve the troubled saint who, as he has been reading this chapter, has ruminated to himself, "You mean they are going to be where I am?" Happy day; they will be dead while you live through the eons. The gift of belief grants you eonian life; they don’t have it. Yet they rise to immortality later at a time known in scripture as "the consummation" (1 Corinthians 15:24), when God abolishes the one thing holding them back: death (1 Corinthians 15:26). If they don’t rise to immortality, then God isn’t their Savior and the scriptures lie.

I prefer to believe that religion lies. - End Quote

Walk Away

2011-12-02T18:05:00.026-04:00

Is there not something screaming within you "this is not what I was made for!" Your life is hidden in Christ and is yet to be fully revealed. We are seeing through a glass darkly and only in part.

Christ confronts each of us 'but each man in his own order'. This is an inner work of the soul, for the Kingdom of God is within you. Christ is no longer riding a donkey in our outer world, but is riding a white horse and conquering within those appointed souls for conquest.

Our souls are so tied to this world, our possessions, our families, our loves and likes. When Christ appears within us our lives are shaken. What once fulfilled us is now dead to us. The very depths of God bid us to come. Jesus told us to come and follow him where he now is.

Deep calls to deep in the roars of your waterfalls; All your waves and breakers have swept over me Psalm 42:7

We will all eventually be asked to leave 'our live's behind and to walk (away) into His glorious love and rest. It can be done in this life or it can be done when we cross over from this temporary realm of duality.

Can you walk away, emotionally, from the life that you have been living? Is the price He may ask you too high to pay? Are there things in your life that consume your time and thinking; all of which draw you away from total dependency upon Christ and Christ alone. Christ alone! Christ is our ever-present NOW and our inevitability. Is it too hard and too much for Him to ask us? I have been to the bottom and there is nothing to fear. If you can't abandon your life of servitude in Babylon, well, consider this a divine lock-down toward your inevitable freedom. Babylon is falling within us and then it falls outside of us. We are awakening.

If this voice---the real you---does not bust through the locked gate of the soul(5 senses domination), with all it's blaring lusts and shallow peripheral distractions, I'm sorry to say that you , my friend, you have been numbed into submission by Babylon. Most do not hear His true voice. Some hear, but it is not His voice. 'My sheep know my voice.'

We have to be willing to walk away from it all. Does this mean literally leaving everything? For some it does, because those of us who have lost it all know that there is nothing but Christ anyway. Most are not prepared to face the reality that eventually we will have to walk away and leave all this behind.

Every true believer has been asked to daily pick up their cross, deny themselves and follow. The truth is that most have can not leave behind their old lives. We have been conditioned in the soul to our comforts and conveniences and the idols we now worship, we are possessed by them. The whole of our lives are now an enslavement for the maintenance and increase of those idols we spend our time thinking about within.

Our imaginations and minds were made for the Living God. But we have been beguiled by the soul for the lesser gods of this world. The still small voice of God has been drowned out by the outer world of stimulation and excess. We are living in Egypt and Babylon as their slaves. These terms are to be discerned. Religion and the world wants you and needs you working for a work that God has already finished in Christ. Religion says 'do'. Christ says 'Done!!'. The new heavens and the new earth will be remade through those who are resting in His finished work, having been tried by the fires of God and having overcome.

There is within the souls of many---right now--the Spirit of God sweeping through, preparing for unimaginable change and blessing. But great fear is entering the earth by those who do not want change to come. Fear is being deployed on weak minds. But we have to stay the course in Christ and believe that the greatest changes the creation has ever seen are coming forth. And we must resist selling our souls for the lesser things of trinkets and shallow material things, for these things have proven never to have satisfied our deeper longings. We can walk away.

Promise: Painted In My Sky

Look around you and know that all of it is an illusion. It's all going to change. Maybe today. Maybe the next day. Maybe next month or year. So don't get locked into a conditioning, a rhythm and a repetition that is only going to blow back on you when it all falls down. Untie yourself from those things which command your soul and heart.

Because it is all falling down. But only to remade better. And without all the greed and lack of kindness and concern.

This is not what I was made for. Adam's world must come to ruin, so Christ's world can reign in love. I need joy and peace and beauty. I'm done with Babylon.

Let it all fall I shout, let it fall! I have no stake in this. And I no longer want anything to do with it(do you hear me, Father?).

I've walked away.

Progression Into Divine Rest

2011-12-01T11:06:00.013-04:00

This glorious progression and growth in Christ, our Author and Finisher, Beginning and End, this is his work coming forth in us. But what pain we encounter before joy sets in. There is travail before the birthing.

This movement is not our determination, but His determination IN US. Who is God after all? He alone is God and He IS our savior; we are saved from our foolish, carnal thinking ruled by the soul.

Christ is coming forth to rule and reign over what we have perceived, in immaturity, to be our kingdom of self. What a lonely kingdom of chaos this has left us with. The soul has left us battered and broken, because it is focused on the outer world in an apparent unrepairable fragmentation.

We are children believing we are the focus and center of things. But we require teaching, discipline and chastening to leave self and enter into the larger family of the all things. There is only ONE WAY to deal with the beguiled soul of man and that is the Spirit's baptism into repentance and into the fires of the Holy Ghost.

John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them."

Note that this is good news. Religion says that the fires of God are only punitive and destructive; yes, destructive to the carnal soul, but to the man Christ is becoming in us, these fires are corrective and bringing forth the spirit. We enter into his sufferings to fully realize and recognize our need to die to self, so that Christ may resurrect within us. Resurrection is now.

Christ rules and reigns in His kingdom and what was once perceived to be ours, this is being turned over to its rightful ruler. No soul will outlast His love or unending mercy. God is love and His mercy endures forever. The Fires of God are good news.

Paul said something akin to "all things are of Him, through Him and into Him. (Romans 11:36. )This is the divine progression for every soul and spirit, for the worm dies not. The consuming fires of God are the progression beyond repentance. (Hebrews 6: 3-8)

Luke's gospel refers to John as baptizing through water into repentance (Gk. eis) but He will baptize you into fire'. In both baptisms the Greek word is eis and it means into. This is the progression of the work of God into the soul. It is the baptism of Christ that is greater than the baptism into repentance. Did the Hebrews writer not say the once enlightened if they fall away that renewal to repentance could not occur? But the writer points out the consuming fires of God will pick up where repentance or the unchanged mind faltered. Jesus is standing at the souls door abiding in Spirit, he is knocking on the souls door and desiring to come in, but that entrance is an entrance into the Holy Fires of God in Christ.

Our beguiled soul is the whole of the issue. It was Eve, the soul, beguiled. Our soul is whoring with the five senses, but the spirit is purely virgin from God and is birthed of Father in all His glory. The carnal man is not subject to the law of God. But the carnal man is subject to God because God is sovereign and there is only His will.

It is God who worketh in man to will and doeth of His good pleasure. It is God who holds the heart of the king and turneth it anyway He pleases. It is God In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

You think your 'free will' is determining your eternal destiny? This is a lie you are believing. Let go of your arrogance birthed from a beguiled soul and know that Father is God, not you or your will, and He will accomplish His will. You must come apart from these carnal doctrines to be ushered into the depths of God's will and sovereign power.

"None of us, experiencing this reality we foolishly call life, are in control of anything. We are being led by the same force and that is God. It matters not if we are aware of the truth of this world or not, we are all being led by God and are all exactly where we need to be all the time. We learn that when we look down on another or a system for any reason, we are looking down on ourselves. We work to reveal the lie, but the fact that we work so hard should be our first clue. God’s truth requires no work to be revealed, only rest. One day we will be given the realization that everything we have ever done in this reality has been by the sweat of our brow. We will realize that God’s truth doesn’t require any work to bring about, only rest. We will realize that it is when we quit trying to change others and ourselves for whatever reason, and there are literally millions of reasons we try to change others and ourselves, that God’s truth begins to come forth. For example, when a person has finally had enough of man made religion for whatever reason and leaves it, they are no longer working for their salvation, it is then that the truth of God begins to rise up within them. It is when we get fed up and stop participating in the rituals and ceremonies and practices and disciplines that all require great amounts of work and rest from it that the truth of God begins to rise up within us. So if it is God’s will for you, rest from your works and judgments and criticisms of others and live and let live and you will finally feel freer than you ever have." End Quote

This is the glorious rest of God and He commands us to enter in. Repentance, Fire and the realization of Christ within. What a glorious progression into Christ has been mapped out for all birthed of Adam, that same all birthed into Christ, for He is our Beginning and End. He is our death and our Resurrection.

This is the glorious progression into His divine rest

The Manifestations of the Sons: Concealed Part 2

2011-11-28T11:42:00.006-04:00

'Do you ever feel buried, hidden, concealed, out of sight, ignored, neglected, unnoticed, unappreciated and dumped-on? Well, everything's normal. Everything's OK. Every things proceeding the God Way, everything is very Christlike. Your life, plain and simple, is concealed with Christ in God.'

The display of Jesus' life in signs, wonders and miracles catches our attention easily, but it takes considerable reflection to fully appreciate the concealment factor of the life of the eternal Son of God as He dwelt in the midst of men. His birth was concealed from all but a very few men. A few shepherds (who, of any importance, would take them seriously?) and a few great but strange men from the east with no local credentials.

He lived most of his life obscurely in an obscure village and, even when He took the first steps toward revealing His identity, it was without the fanfare that one might expect of God's incarnation. Certainly, it is true, that there were those treasured times of divine display in the earthly life of God manifest in the flesh, but He never, never sought to create a momentum and then ride its crest into a greater display of supernaturalism.

There was almost a rhythm of display and then retreat; repeatedly, display and then retreat to a place away from the crowds. Heal a man and tell him not to tell anyone. Show His power over nature itself, but do it in view of only a small boat load of men in the dark of night in the middle of a lake. Show forth His glory to the point that His clothing shone with heaven's brightness, but invite only three disciples to be witnesses.

I can't help noticing and being impressed with the fact that, contrary to what might be our preference, His Father never arranged for Him to "perform" before the Sanhedrin or the Roman governor. That's the sort of thing that must have driven Judas nuts. Jesus neglected so many opportunities to really get the show on the road. Time and time again, by Judas' reckoning, Jesus failed to take the advantage when it was His for the taking. I'm convinced that's what motivated Judas to manipulate a confrontation between the temple authorities and Jesus on the night of His arrest.

He was sure that when the chips were down, when it came down to the wire, when it was a matter of life and death, the Master would seize the moment and with a sweep of His hand immobilize those who came to apprehend Him, and then demand to be recognized as the true King of Israel, the Messiah, the Heir to the throne of David.

Judas just knew in his heart that he'd been chosen for this very hour and that he'd been sovereignly endowed with the necessary courage, street smarts and savvy that could arrange the kind of crisis that would precipitate the scene he treasured in his religious imagination. But we know how his plan backfired; backfired in his mind, but in the mind of God, it was a perfect part of His perfect plan for the redemption of the world.

Back to us. Why are we surprised that our Father mixes concealment with display in our lives? The mix is different with different saints. Some know virtually nothing but a life concealed with Christ in God. With others display seems to be more the norm with only brief times of obscurity. And then there are those who have known an extreme polarity of both elements.

This should not surprise us, for, if we are children of our Heavenly Father, we ought to have the characteristics of His nature in our lives, and our Father is the God who hides Himself in darkness, who shines out of darkness and often chooses to work in such unsensational ways that sometimes it takes months or years before we realize and exclaim, "Oh Lord, I see it now, that was you at work in my life and I didn't even recognize You."

He is the God who arranged for the crucifixion of His Son in such a way as to rivet the attention of the whole city and the powers of that day, but raised Him from the dead in a most discreet manner by comparison. The resurrected King of Glory then concealed Himself in such a way that He was thought to be a gardener by an adoring disciple. Though she finally recognized Him, her report of the encounter sounded to others like a woman in a state of hysteria because of her extreme grief.

And let's not forget His ascension into heaven----a very private affair, seemingly inappropriate to the event, wouldn't you say?. And what about Pentecost when He returned in the Spirit? Wouldn't you think He'd do that in a way that wouldn't require explanation. Something quite dramatic was happening, of that, all in the immediate vicinity were aware, but just what was going on? Peter had to explain it to them.

Peter had to explain that the same Jesus who had walked among them had poured forth His Spirit and that was the reason for the phenomenon they had just witnessed. Jesus had come again with both display and concealment working together to effect the true economy of God. Remember that: display and concealment working together.

Do you ever feel buried, hidden, concealed, out of sight, ignored, neglected, unnoticed, unappreciated and dumped-on? Well, everything's normal. Everything's OK. Every things proceeding the God Way, everything is very Christlike. Your life, plain and simple, is concealed with Christ in God.

'Deep within God is Christ, and deep within Christ is our life '

- John Gavazzoni

The Manifestation of the Sons: Concealed

2011-11-27T15:33:00.010-04:00

'So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. ' (Exodus 20:21)

Such a tiny thread of light the spirit has been sewing in my mind in these moments. Light is native, piercing and glorious to our spirit man, but let it be known that it is darkness to the carnal mind of the soul, for the dark mind of man can not know the light of the spiritual realm. (1 Cor 2:14)

It has been revealed that Father is one who conceals and hides Himself in the darkness of spirit, completely invisible to the human carnal mind and those senses entrenched in a physical realm of the beguiled soul.

"Truly You are God, who hide yourself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.' (Isaiah 45:15)

"All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “ I will open My mouth in parables;   I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 13:34

We are hidden in Christ Jesus, Christ is hidden in God and God has hidden himself in darkness to the carnal mind. The Script also speaks of the truths of the Kingdom being hidden to only those whose time it is for those mysteries to be revealed. God is sovereign and is orchestrating the salvation of all men, 'but each man in his own order'. (1 Cor. 15:23).

Christ Jesus, while walking the earth, hid all truth in parables according to the gospels. He did this that only those chosen to understand---at that time---would understand.

We are awaking to the truth that Christ was all but hidden to those who the Father chose to reveal Christ to. We are told in Isaiah that his image was marred beyond recognition. That is generally understood to the mind to mean that the beatings of Christ Jesus made him unrecognizable. Yes, but also, the spirit is also saying that the image of Christ is hidden, marred, concealed in lowliness to only those who He is revealing to.

It was told to Peter his discernment and awareness of Jesus being the Christ, was revealed to him by the Father and this did not come to him from his natural mind or understanding. Did you know that soon after this, when Peter sought to stop Jesus' walk of humility to the cross, this same Jesus told Peter 'get thee behind me Satan.' Here we see two minds at work in Peter. One mind sees Christ, but is only revealed by the Father and one mind is the mind of carnal Adam and the serpent. The carnal mind is death and knows nothing of the spirit, wants to know nothing of the spirit of life and is, in actuality, at enmity with spirit. (Romans 8:6-7)

Fathers nature is goodness and His goodness is His glory. This goodness to conceal Himself and the glory of His loving nature is astounding but hidden. Now I want you to consider that thought for a moment. 'It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.' (Prov. 25:2) The magnitude and scope of such a truth is perplexing and rearranges the entire construct of our religious thinking and world.

I must decisively say 'no' to this and much of mainstream, carnal religious thought being perpetrated upon our minds. It has never been God's nature to come in pomp with innumerable heavenly hosts announcing His presence and glory. Yes, when God arrived to Israel in the Old Testament we see thick darkness, but let this be understood in context.

'So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. ' (Exodus 20:21)

The mindset of the carnal mind puts a lens on man's understanding that views God as darkness, smoke, thunder and lightning and it causes carnal man to shrink back and hide. Adam hid. God still pursued him. Adam was ashamed and covered himself with fig leaves (the tame religious nature of man thinking church, ceremonies and religious behavior will appease their angry Father) God covered him with a sacrifice. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden by a loving Father who did not want them to live in earthly bodies forever with minds that were bathed in guilt and shame, so God told them they could not live forever and they could not eat of the tree of life. Christ was already on the way in the unfolding plan of God. Adam had fulfilled his work in the earth to bring for the law of sin and death to all mankind; a work the last Adam would fully undo.

Adam was formed of the earth and his destiny was to return to the earth, because in the unfolding revelation of God and Christ, Adam was the foundational understanding or the ground(earth) that needed to be used to build the superstructure that God was building. Remember God is spirit and is going to inhabit man God will be all in all. When you build a beautiful temple to inhabit, one doesn't start with with ceiling. Adam is the dirt, the sin and carnal nature of our lives that we need to come to terms with, but which we can not continue on with, if we are to explore the glorious depths of our Father. God's wisdom to intentionally subject Adam to a no win situation, only to reveal His humble and loving nature and the hope we have in Christ(Romans 11:32, Romans 8:20), this wisdom is said to be unsearchable. I consider this my call to seek Him who is hiding. My life has been apprehended and now His life in me is to pursue Father no matter the cost to my earthly man. And frankly, this is the only way you are going to find him, when all your heart is engaged, you humble yourself and die to the life religion, the world and you think you need to live.    (Prov. 25:2, Jer. 29:13)

Adam promoted himself and Adam learned that such ways are death. I don't believe man has learned much, because Adam still walks in the earth as the mind of men captivated by the glory of man, heroes and heroines, self-promotion and the 'good life' and everything related to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. You can not love God and love the world. If it isn't obvious why, you are not looking at the cross and seeing Christ impaled there, Christ submitted to the ultimate rejection of man and saying 'Father, forgive them, for they are NOT doing this with 'free will', but because they are in bondage.' (My paraphrase). Man never rejects the Father from the Christ mind but from the carnal mind of Adam hiding in rebellion and bondage. Religion does not grasp this and the majority of Christianity believes mankind is rejecting an angry God from a 'free will'. Both are worlds away from the truth.

When Jesus came as a man, the angel announced the conception to a young Jewish girl whose story is anything but convincing. The time of the birth of Christ was announced by the heavenly hosts too, but there were only a few rag-tag, beaten-down and socially-rejected shepherds in fields at night. At night! The actual birth was only known to those shepherds and a few faraway kings 'with no local credentials' who understood the celestial announcement of his coming, but the whole of the world lay in darkness and sin to the coming of the Living God. Concealed.

The carnal mind would not have done it that way. The carnal mind insists on overkill of display and ceremony, for no other purpose but sensory impact, and self-fulfilling glory, this is the world's way. This is the way of the soul as beguiled through Eve.   But this is not the humble way and glory of God, who is loving and kind and conceals himself to the lowest place, even the humiliation of an inescapable impalement on a Roman pole, for all of religion and carnal minds to see. What was Father's message to us upon that wrecking pole of utter humiliation at Golgotha, the place of the skull: 'learn from me, for I am humble and gentle; get it through your head that you don't need to run and hide from me. I love you, unconditionally. I love you, even when you reject me.'

The carnal mind can not know this Father and it will never know this Father. Their minds are divided preaching about His goodness (Romans 2:4) and unconditional love, but communicating to sinners who are dead in those sins and trespasses that they must do something or this angry Father is coming to exact revenge on the outer world for their deeds. Religion does not know that sinners have been reconciled. Religion does not know no sin is being held against any man. (2Cor. 5: 18-19) The lies of the carnal mind and and the serpent who feeds on that dust are very much alive and well in the air. Those lies conjure up all sorts of carnal ideations about Father: Him needing revenge, being angry and torturing billions of souls for eternity in His consuming fire, probably because that is exactly what they would do. But Father has even hidden the truth in His word, for His glory is His goodness and that glory conceals itself. It is the glory of His sons to seek Him out.

Jesus told us the Kingdom of God is within you. There is nothing in this outer world of illusion and futility, but it is entirely built by the Adamic mind, that cannot reveal with Father, for He is ultimately and completely hidden from us. He is not in the collapse of the financial world that will wreak havoc on people's lives, He is not in the earthquakes when the faults shift. Nor is He is the tornadoes and hurricanes that bring devastation on our outer world. But our Father IS the still small voice that is within you; a voice that is there and will always be there, but only after you have searched and exhausted yourself in the outer world and found nothing there. Only then will you realize that within you is the Kingdom and what you were searching for was hidden by a veil of flesh and right under your nose all the time---hidden in glory and love and concealed in darkness by a world and a carnal mind that does not and can not know the ways of God. Light is darkness to the carnal mind and hopefully you are figuring that paradox out.

There will be shock and awe upon the return of Jesus Christ, as a thief in the night WITHIN His saints. And I would dare to say that the ushering in of the Kingdom of God upon the earth will be a fascinating disappointment to the carnal mind. There will be little fanfare and it will likely be utterly lacking in drama and sensory stimulation. God NEVER does what we expect Him to do, because His thoughts are not our thoughts. Why? God's thinking is humble but man's thinking is arrogance and self-promotion. Our thoughts are of the bright lights, celebrity and hero variety, but the Christ mind is of the humble, hide yourself and the least-of-these, lowest seat variety. And that is why the carnal man will be devastated when that man comes to the realization, and all will, that there is no place for Him in the Kingdom of God; no bright lights, no celebrities and no one who wants to be first will ever find peace and joy there. This is the lake of fire the bible speaks of that will burn off that carnal man, but out from the fire will come the spiritual man, but great loss will ensue, because of the beguiled carnal mind. But through fire we will be saved, Paul tells us. There is only one Jesus said could not be saved and that was the son of perdition. That is the first-born carnal man and he will not enter in.

Silence and solitude, humility and brokenness is the beginning of the Kingdom of God, because the King of that Kingdom, Christ, is humble beyond your (carnal) imagination. Whether you possess a prestigious title, a drawer full of degrees, a high position in a religious organization or even a firm handle on biblical doctrines with a notable prayer life, if such things as these written have not been revealed to you, and you are still searching that outer world built by an angel of light, turn inward and know that Father is not out there, but Father is within, concealed and humbly waiting for you to give up and rest in His finished works. This is His glory and He is hiding in that glory. Only a heart truly wanting to seek Him out will find Him.

A Word To My Enemies

2011-11-23T12:32:00.033-04:00

"I cannot crucify myself, and friends will not do it. So it takes you, my enemy, to bring me to the cross. And to the cross I must come, if ever I am to come to the glory of perfection. I have learned that the road to glory is by way of the cross. Without you I would not have found the way."

The past 12 years could be described as a devastating and crushing experience. Oh, but years of untold growth and revelation because of the passionate fires of God bringing forth the spiritual from the carnal. There has been no thing in my earthly life that remained untouched by this glorious love, by the laws of reaping and sowing. And yet all of it has been used by Father's sovereign, loving hand. This has been a judgment upon me that has been my olive press (Gethsemane) to bring forth the image of Christ. I am a better son, though a lesser man in flesh, human will and earthly ambition. The truth is this: I will only overcome as a son, because Christ in me is the enduring force into and through the trials; into and through chastening and the necessary suffering to put that first-born son---the carnal man---to death. He can not be rehabilitated or remade. He is of the mind of Adam, Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Goliath and Saul. He is the Judas Iscariot who sold Christ. He is the Peter who denied him three times. He must be crucified and his head(thinking) removed. Only when the old man and his destructive ways are daily crucified, can anyone love their enemies and see them as friends. Only then can we be sons of the Most High. (Luke 6:35)

"You are not really my enemies at all. In reality you are some of the best friends I have. You who have lied about me, spread false and damaging rumors about my life and teachings. Through your efforts there has been a work of grace wrought in this heart of mine that could never have happened without you.

But, believe me, I speak in sincerity and truth, there can be no perfection in the lives of God's elect without the chastising work of a real enemy. For when a bitter vicious person begins to do all they can to destroy me and my work for God, then there is a work done that brings out all the wrong and evil attitudes and spirits that lie hidden and deeply rooted in my heart. When a friend extols all my good virtues and praises me from their heart of true friendship, I feel nothing but love for them. But, when I hear of an enemy who has unjustly brought shame upon me, there rises up a spirit of defending myself, and a spirit of "righteous indignation" to refute the enemy. It is then that the precious Holy Spirit does His office work and reveals to me the wrongness of my own spirit. I see in me then, the things I did not know were there before. With repenting and sorrow of heart I cry to God, and He delivers me from that which I have seen in my life. It was hidden, lying dormant, until you, my beloved enemy brought it to light with your crucifying process. The prophets of old would never have had the glory of being stoned for the Word of God-and no martyr's crowns could ever have been won by the early Christians without real enemies.

You see, I cannot crucify myself, and friends will not do it. So it takes you, my enemy, to bring me to the cross. And to the cross I must come, if ever I am to come to the glory of perfection. But I have much progress yet to make before coming to the image of my lovely Jesus . There is so much I must yet learn. And, my enemy, you are teaching me. I have learned that the road to glory is by way of the cross. Without you I would not have found the way. Someone had to crucify my Jesus. Not his friends, not his disciples, and He could not do it Himself. So Satan and the princes of this world stirred up hatred in the hearts of His enemies, and the work was done. Had they known that they were bringing Him into His glory, and bringing about the salvation of lost mankind, they would not have done it. And I'm sure that if you knew the good your efforts are working out in my life, you would not want to help me so much. But the work is being done, and I have learned to love you because of it. "Love thy enemies," He said, and I wondered how I could do it. But you have taught me. For because of you I have grown in God, increased in His Grace, and partaken of His divine nature.

Also because of you many have been turned away and refused to hear the truths imparted unto this vessel. Their ears have been filled with lies, and no doubt have thought that "no good thing could possibly come from such a one." But even here I have seen the hand of God. For those who have had ears to hear the voice of the Spirit have not believed the lies you have told them, and they have opened their hearts to the message for these last days. Thus, God has weeded out the chaff from the wheat, and is in the process of separating His own unto Himself. All things are working together.

So, my friends, for in reality I have no enemies in flesh and blood, your work has been sharp and cutting, and many times I was hurt and wounded deeply. But out of these trying experiences I have come forth a better Christian, and further on my way to being an overcomer. I doubt that you will receive any rewards for your lies and your efforts to destroy me, for "Woe unto them through whom these offences come." But I want you to know that though your loss may be great in the day of judgment, I love you and appreciate the ministry you have had in perfecting this life of mine.

NOW JUST A WORD TO ALL WHO HAVE READ THIS. I trust that you have understood that this word has not been applicable to me only, but should apply as well to all of God's dear children. May the Spirit speak to your heart and open your eyes to this great truth, that without chastisement and the work of enemies we can never come into full Sonship. And when we see how much our persecutions and afflictions mean to us in maturing our spirits and bringing us into His image, then we can truly "Love our enemies," and "bless them that curse us." Praise God for His marvelous plan! Remember, all the enemy can destroy in the fires of persecution is "hay, wood and stubble," and all they will melt and bring into His image is the "gold, silver and the precious stones." So let us be willing to burn that which will burn, that those things which will not burn may stand forever!" (End Quote)

The Narrow Door

2011-11-19T10:44:00.022-04:00

In the same way
any of you

who does not give up
everything he has
cannot be my disciple

(Jesus in Luke 14:32)

Each of us
In eventuality must face
The Narrow Door
It is set before the enlightened soul

This Door devastates
Our vision of the peripheral world
It draws us to a confrontation
With the outer flesh of man
By The Light of the World
Beckoned
To come and walk
Into our inheritance

God is our inheritance

The Door is so narrow
Too narrow
It seems
For our present state and life
The inexplicable complexities
Within and without
Our very heart and mind
Our patterned life
So tied and bonded
So conditioned
To so many earthy things
Bonded to our family in love
Tied to our dreams in this life
Clutching our trinkets with closed fists
We've worked for
The sweat of our brow
To gain and maintain (see Jeremiah 51:58 here)
But none of this
Can go with us
Through The Narrow Door
Even our fleshly body
This is a war
We are fighting
Within!

'For no man ever hates his own flesh
but nourishes and cherishes it'

Even this flesh
We believe is us
Must be discarded
As every man ever has
And every man ever will
To see the second born
Spirit-man enter
Victoriously through

Let your Fire burn in me
Until nothing is left
But Thee!
My will
Being only your will
For it is only You
Within me
That leads me through
The Narrow Door

Then he said to them all:
"If anyone would come after me,

he must deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me.

(Jesus in Luke 9:23)

(the underlined word is my emphasis)

Why 153 Fish in One Net?

2011-11-17T11:50:00.012-04:00

'It is quite easy, because we are not hearing the Lord as clearly as we would like, to fall back onto DOING SOMETHING instead of RESTING in Him!!!'

After these things, Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples . . . They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. . . As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, ‘Bring of the fish which ye have now caught’. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY AND THREE: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples dare ask him, Who art Thou? Knowing that it was the Lord. (from John 21)

THE ACCURACY OF GOD

To understand the tremendous importance of this number, which was not a random count, one must first be fully aware of the value of numbers in the scripture. If you desire to understand numbers in scripture and where their meanings come from, we recommend that Bible Numbers Are Mighty be studied as it will certainly help in this more detailed account of one specific number . . .153! Keep in mind that Jesus ministered entirely on the Kingdom of Heaven/God.

In John 2:11 we read, This beginning of miracles did Jesus... The Greek word translated ‘miracles’ is SEMEION which means SIGN, MIRACLE, WONDER and TOKEN. It has a root word which means TO INDICATE. This opens up an intriguing journey through John’s Gospel. There are (8) miracle signs (SEMEION) recorded in this Gospel of John. There could have been more, but that was not God’s intention. There are (7) signs before the Cross and the climax sign-miracle after the resurrection. We now look briefly at this miracle, because it points towards God’s tremendous climax in His plan for us.

There were (7) out of the (11) disciples chosen by God to witness this ‘miracle sign’ . . . in fact be a part of it! They had KNOWLEDGE & TESTIMONY that Jesus had been raised from the dead. They knew Jesus was alive from the dead, but that knowledge didn’t DO anything for them; it didn’t change their vision and expectation. So they were a little disappointed especially now that Jesus had not showed Himself again. They could only recall, ‘The things that I do, ye shall do also and greater. . .’ In the realm of the 100-fold experience of faith where we are not yet moving in, it is quite easy, because we are not hearing the Lord as clearly as we would like, to fall back onto DOING SOMETHING instead of RESTING in Him!!!

For many of us, we are active and efficient people and find it hard to ‘be still and know that the Lord, He is God’. Peter was in that clan and voices his frustration, “I’m going fishing”. That was at least something HE COULD DO! It sparked the same feeling in the others . . . so all (7) get in their ship centering their minds and their bodies on a different subject. Their efforts produced NOTHING even in an area where some of them were skilled! In the darkness of the night depicting their ignorance of the wrong choice of action, they were unaware of what God desired to teach them.

A NEW DAY

‘In the morning’ — the beginning of a NEW DAY — with enlightenment dawning upon their circumstances and thinking, the resurrected Christ was there! In the daybreak Jesus was there on the shore but was not immediately recognized! Jesus speaks, ‘Have you any food?’ A corporate voice declares that they hadn’t caught anything. Their net had been hauled into the ship in frustration and probably disgust! Jesus was on ‘higher ground’ than they were as the beach or land is always higher than the water! From where He was (in heaven while on the earth!) He had a clearer vision than those disciples in their (fellow)ship. Jesus speaks and it comes over clearly as a command, ‘Put the net in on the starboard side’. The disciples heard the voice that had authority and obeyed without question, dropping the net overboard . . . AND the net was immediately filled with fish. Here is the insight in the spirit — out of the whole fish population of the Sea of Tiberias, just (153) fish HEARD HIS VOICE. The effect was that they came to the net and laid down their lives irreversibly. It is noted that these (153) were GREAT FISH . . . they were fully mature! John, because of the word from Jesus and the effect upon him of that word, recognised the Lord and declared who He was. Peter’s love was demonstrated — he grabbed his coat (‘guilty-conscience’) and quickly covered his flesh! Such magnificent timing by God . . . they were 200 cubits from the shore. ‘200’ in scripture means ‘insufficient with what you have’. Truly without the pertinent word for the moment from Jesus Christ, we too are 200 cubits from where He would have us be . . . where He is — on higher (resurrection) ground! Please note that the disciples did not put these ‘153’ fish into their (fellow)ship!!! They brought these mature ones to the higher ground where Christ was. Jesus already had some smaller ‘fish’ prepared for this occasion . . . no wonder, considering that He was the greatest ‘Fisherman of men’!

Now why does the record say so specifically that there were (153) fish — no more — no less! It was a precise count (I wonder if these fishermen were in the habit of counting their catch?).

“BENI HA-ELOHIM”

The 8th. and last ‘miracle sign’ of John’s Gospel is climaxed with these 153 fish. As we have seen, the ‘’gematria’ (the mathematical value of a word)’ of the Hebrew phrase Beni Ha-Elohim which means SONS OF GOD, is 153. This phrase occurs a total of seven times in the Bible and one of them is in Job 2:1, where the sons of God are accompanied by Satan. God does not change; therefore His purposes outlined in the Old Testament are clarified and fulfilled in the New Testament. Here the Old Testament phrase is the key to revealing what God’s miracle-signs are pointing towards. Out of all the ‘Christian fish’ in God’s sea, there was only 153 who heard the voice of Jesus at that specific and important time. These fish were mature (that was why the record declares that they were great fish) . . . they were overcomers seeing that they hadn’t been caught by the nets of traditional bondage . . . they immediately responded to the voice of Christ and came to the net which is to fully embrace the word of the kingdom. The result would then be a full laying down of one’s old life, one’s old thinking.

Let us first factorize the 153 and observe the initial blessings; 153 = 17 X 9. The sons of God (153) have within themselves an unchangeable (9) victory (17). All the ingredients of this victory (17) are contained in the sons of God. We see this by adding up all the numbers from 1 to 17, and we find the sum = 153.

'THE NET’

Now we will touch upon the hidden 153’s that show up in the gematria of numerous phrases, etc., in the Word. THE NET which speaks to us of the vision of the Kingdom of God, has a value of 153 X 8 which translates in the spirit to this: that the sons of God (153) will experience resurrection life (8) when they have TRULY laid down their identities in the net of His Kingdom. This vision will bring us from the ‘right’ side of the boat to the higher ground of the King’s presence.

God’s great care of His people, coupled with His desire that all come forth into His Kingdom, is shown to us in numerous phrases. Here are just some of them that show the hidden 153’s declaring the nature of ‘SONSHIP’ within. Luke 9:13-the word ‘fishes’ =153 X 8. Mark 8:34-‘follow me’ = 153 X 12.

John 14:6- I am the Way = 153 X 8. WAY + TRUTH +LIFE = 153 X 8.

Luke 13:25-The Door = 153 X 6. John 10:7-I say unto..down to...of the sheep = 153 x 37.

Matthew 7:13-The narrow gate = 153 X 13. John 10:1 Entereth not by the.......sheepfold = 153 X 41. Mark 1:17- Fishers of men = 153 X 14.

Matthew 4:18- Casting a net into the sea = 153 X 20. (=sons bringing redemption) For they were fishermen = 153 X 4. Mark 1:18-Immediately......follow him = 153 X 41. Luke 5:6-ltitude of fishes = 153 X 16. John 21:6 - Cast the net......ye shall find = 153 X 27.

John 21:11-Drew the net...........fifty and three = 153 X 54.

Rev. 3:20- If anyone.......will come in = 153 X 39.

JOINT HEIRS

‘Joint heirs’ of Romans 8:17, the gematria = 153 X 7. The phrase declares that the sons of God (153) will attain completeness (7) in Christ and become heirs, inheritors of the Kingdom along with the Pattern Son, Jesus.

THE CREATION OF GOD of Revelation 3:14 has the value of 153 X 8 and shows the identification of the sons of God with the Son of God who came forth first in the New Creation. This same net-word has been placed before us saints many times as we have struggled in the darkness (ignorance) of the fact that Jesus is on higher ground calling to us with the vision and enabling for us to become a part of that ‘153’ fish company of sons! We are at the beginning of a ‘new day’; God’s timing for the coming together of His firstfruit sons into one ‘netted’ expression of Himself. At the voice of the Lord, lives become fully surrendered, brought to higher ground (thinking) where the resurrected Christ is waiting to clean us some more, add a touch of fire, so that we can be meat in the Master’s hand to feed the hungry.

‘8’ FOR DINNER

There were a total of eight dining together — a new beginning (8) manifesting resurrection life (8). It was also the third time Jesus had revealed Himself to them. We have met the resurrected Christ in our Salvation-Passover experience, then in our ‘baptism in the Spirit’- Pentecost, the down-payment of the fullness of His enabling power, and now this is the third feast that we experience, namely Tabernacles — the fullness of the Spirit (God), the harvest of the Seed - Christ Jesus sown in our earth. (Every seed brings forth after its kind).

153 BLESSED ‘SONS’

It is the purpose of God to bring His 153 - mature sons as the first wave of His end-time plan. It is not a literal number of mature firstfruits . . . this is showing the principle of God’s plan. By passing through His gentle but firm hands, they will be brought to corporate full stature of Christ and the effect of such a work will be that they will do the things that Jesus did — seeing that they will have the same power. ‘Wave upon wave’ - we’ll see the next order coming into that fullness until every man in his own order completes His plan.

One of the greatest insights concerning this number, show the 153 fish to be representing the 153 people mentioned in the four gospels that Jesus blessed during His walk on the earth. Each one of these, upon further study, shows amazing pointers to God’s ultimate purpose of having a corporate (harvest) son in the image of THE SEED, Christ Jesus. FIRST, WE HEAR HIS VOICE Oh, that each one of us would have ears to hear the Master’s Voice! Having heard His word, we would move from wherever we are in the lake of our daily living to the net that will take us to Christ. In this place of genuine, complete surrender, we will be fully teachable and thus usable. This net (the revelation of the Kingdom of God) can handle the 153 great fish without breaking. This net will cause the 153 to become corporate (John 17:21 ‘that they all may be one; as Thou Father, art in Me and I in Thee), whereby each one will lose his individuality. This process of the ‘net ministry’ in making us truly one, culminates with a further cleaning and with the baptism of fire (a part of or effect of the baptism in the Holy Spirit). They will then be meat in the Master’s hand. His plan is to feed the hungry and the feeding will not be limited.

- Ray Knight

Pretending

2011-11-04T23:31:00.023-03:00

We can pretend to control and manage our lives. We can play gods and goddesses but eventually it all unravels and slips away. If you've never seen it slip away, you will see it unravel someday. It may not happen till your dying breath but you're going to lose all of this world; a world you have poured your life into. All your working and striving through the soul is coming to an end. We have been chosen to see and enter into the rest of God. We have been chosen to abandon the soul for Spirit-rest.

I am no longer pretending to want or love this world. With Christ being born in me, there is no longer any desires for this. Christ is not of this world. The kingdom is within, the things of this world grow strangely dim.

I am what I am by the grace of God. This is peace and rest. Some are not happy about my state, for I am not what I was; nor am I what they expected me to be.

Our flesh veils the One beneath.

We need the faith of Christ to see who our Father is. We need the courage of Christ to recklessly throw ourselves upon the grace of God and see where His love takes us.

Does the Script not say:

'Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.'

He believed God! What does it mean for you to believe God?

To believe God means that Abraham had to come the end of Abram, that God might bring forth Abraham. Abram lost 'faith' in himself and God's faith became the dominant realization, so Abram could see the absolute confinement of himself, but the endless possibilities in God. God was behind Abram seeing this. God is always the determinant force behind us seeing who God really is.

Abram by the faith and sight of God in him, came to see there was no life left in his mind or his body whatsoever. Abram burned out in the fires of God's passion to renew him. There was no one there to rescue Abram; there was no prescriptions to dull the fires of God, no wellness programs to divert his breakdown, no all-inclusives or sporting events to distract him. Abram faced the end of himself and that was a good thing. The end of self and its strivings is the beginning of God in us.

Abram came to the end and by the grace of God realized there was no future in his (genetic) fathers house. He had to leave it behind. There was no possibility that any divine life was coming forth from him. Abram was done with Abram and it was only at this point of death that God arrived and indued Abram with the very breath of God. Abram, filled with God's breath, became Abraham. The Life of God entered into the surrender and the death of man. Unless a seed dies the promised son can not come forth. Unless you leave your present life you can not have the new life ahead. We must get out of the old and walk by faith into the new. This is how God does things. Abraham believed God.

Do we really believe to do as Abraham? I think not. Not unless God brings us to the place of death and surrender do we believe to do. Did you hear me? Not unless God brings us to that place. It is His courage, His faith, His divine activity within us that brings us to that place. And then it is His sight and His discernment that is the causitive and determinative action within us that brings forth the life and breath of God already within us. The battlefield is the mind. Christ led us in these things as a patterned Son, crucified at Golgotha(the Place of the Skull), outside the city and cursed by religion and hung on a tree. But Christ arose from all of that.

Paul was also an off-shoot of that pattern---to us, of the divine leading in and through man. Consider Paul's experience with Jesus. Paul was running with religion in the opposite direction from Christ when(his) life was devastated and humiliated. Paul was chosen. Paul did not choose Christ. This is obvious to the spiritual mind but cloaked to the carnal mind.

We will all be brought to the place of losing it all for Christ. We are then crucified at our Golgotha by the perfect orchestration that is His sovereignty at work. He is the Potter and we are the clay. The Potter will break the Adamic man to shivers before He remakes the new man in the image of Christ.

We pretend to control and manage our (futile) lives. We play gods and goddesses but eventually it all unravels and slips away. If you've never seen it slip away, you will see it unravel someday. It may not happen till your dying breath but you're going to lose all of this world; a world you have poured your life into, all your working and striving through your soul will come to an end. We have been chosen to see and enter into the rest of God. We have been chosen to abandon the soul for Spirit-rest.

No one has ever entered into the next step of God's plan in a human body or taking anything of the carnal soul with him. This life is slipping through our fingers despite the extent of the determination, no matter the brilliance of the tactics we employ. 'The world and it's desires are fleeting but the man who dies to this world is already alive.' And many are chosen but few can enter into Christ's life because the trap of the soul is profoundly subtle. It was Eve, the soul who was beguiled. This is Paul's emphatic statement to Timothy.

We have a cloud of witnesses in the heavenlies cheering us on. And what are they cheering? They are cheering for us to realize that God is resting because the works are finished from the foundation of the world. We are to enter into His rest. They are saying

'Dennis, just give up on trying to be something you are not in the flesh. Quit exhausting yourself, trying to perform for others and yourself. Give up the insecurity and silly antics and ploys and outer games that seek other people's validation.'

God gave me that opportunity and actually pushed me into His rest. It didn't look good to me or others. God's plans to destroy the Adamic man and mind never look good to those trapped in that life and mind. Can you discern this? Those who are not resting don not approve. They use earthly and controlling words to describe rest as 'irresponsible, lazy, uncooperative, incompetent', or even 'mentally ill'. Of course you are mentally ill when you forsake this world because you are forsaking the prevailing mind of that world, Adam's mind, to take on the mind of Christ which is not of this world.

Most get up every day and hate their lives, they can not and will not say 'to hell with this and let it fall'. They are afraid Father will not take care of them or that they will lose their reputation. Children never think this way. They do not worry about material substance or concern themselves with the things of this world. Time is meaningless. Jesus said to enter the Kingdom(love, joy and peace) you must become as a child.

The truth is that Babylon(confusion) is already falling. But it falls on the inside of us first, for the Kingdom of God is working on the inside of you, initially, not outside of you.

The truth is that I am validated by my daily dying to all this confusion. I know you know all the working, buying, paying bills, consumerism-Babylon-confusion is draining your soul. That's what God designed it to do. Read Romans 11:32 and Romans 8:20. It is intentional. It is a lie and some of us have figured out the lie. But to live out what you've figured out isn't as easy. When everyone else is living the lie and they haven't figured out the lie yet, well, they are going to fight you, reject you and label you. They think you have lost it, when you have actually found it.

I am surrendering and I am no longer pretending. I am awakening.

Video: Just Believe Part Four

2011-10-27T09:47:00.011-03:00