(Illustration) Gustave Dore's, Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones

What is An Ear to Hear...?  Who Has Them...? —and Why...?

[The Meat of the Word is What is on the Menu... —Spiritual Cotton Candy not served here.]

“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15)

 

As I have said for over a decade:

Why should God deliver us from what we are willing to tolerate?

Why should God stand up for us when we do not stand up for Him?

When God’s people get serious about repenting, God will get serious about delivering.

The majority of “Christians” don’t even know what sin is, or what God requires—or care.

When God’s people turn their backs on Him, He promises to turn His Back on them.

The curse causeless shall not come.

You reap what you sow.

I wrote 30 years ago in my book, The War Between the Children of Light and the Powers of Darkness that the majority of God’s people think that they fart cotton candy. They think that everyone else is the problem, but that God is just so gosh darn lucky to have them on His Side.

This is delusion sent from God.

True Repentance will demonstrate itself as in Christ’s Parable of the Prodigal (Luke 15), as in Isaiah 4:1, as in Nehemiah’s Prayer.

But the natural / unregenerate man hearing the Truth of God’s Word is like a fool beholding himself in a mirror (seeing all his imperfections, things that need to be addressed: booger in his nose, hair growing out of his nose, dirt on his forehead and cheeks, a pimple that needs attention, hair unkempt, unshaven, etc.—and IGNORES it all) and goes straight away and forgets... unconcerned. Those who are dead have no response; not repentance, obedience, appreciation, agreement, spreading of the truth, soul searching... nothing. They are spiritually flatlined__________.

 

 

All individuals are born spiritually deaf—because all are born spiritually dead; most never receive spiritual hearing—because most are never called from Death unto Life. All are born with a sin nature, spiritually depraved; no one is born “innocent”. The carnal (unregenerate) mind does not like, rebels against, and rejects any notion that presents man in any unfavorable light (weak, sinful, under God’s Authority, not in control of his own destiny); thus, the majority invent their own humanistic fantasies and attempt to project them onto God, by corrupting His Word with spurious, humanistic, blasphemous interpretations. Their thinking and actions are delusion sent by God as evidence that they are not His (II Thessalonians 2:9-12). They would rather argue than repent before God—because like Cain and Esau, repentance is not in them. They are not hardwired for it; the software of Life is incompatible with their ROM (Read Only Memory; that is, their hard drives are “write protected”—nothing can be written onto them; “reality”, in their CPUs, remains what they want it to be). The carnal mind is at war with God and cannot be in subjection to God, cannot receive the things of God and cannot please God (Romans 8:7,8; I Corinthians 2:14; Hebrews 11:6). The carnal mind deludes itself with false “good thoughts” of self. Such humanists, deluded into thinking that they are Christians, don’t view it as being at war with God, but merely “having a difference of opinion”; being so spiritually dead they do not realize that they have no standing to have a difference of opinion with the Almighty Creator and Lord of the universe. This too is delusion sent by God: for such are ordained unto disobedience / disbelief and Judgment. God’s Thoughts and Ways are not like man’s, but are astronomically higher—and Perfect and indefatigable.

Herein is a collection of Scripture, connected and interpreted according to the only valid method of Biblical Interpretation—that which finds the harmony, founded upon the unchanging, Perfect, and True Nature of God. All else is humanism, superstition, mythology, idolatry.

How—HOW can a “Christian” hear the Word of God, hear the Power of God’s Word (even once, let alone repeatedly), how can he see (hear, read, etc.) the Truth and yet remain apathetic, unconvicted, be not stirred to repentance and action, fall not on his face and truly acknowledge and worship and obey God, be not moved in his soul? How can his mind remain unchanged, complacent, ill concerned? How can he ignore God’s Word, His Decrees, His Commands? How can he ignore the messenger (God’s minister) as well as the message...? How can an alleged Christian hear Sound Doctrine that is either rarely or never taught—and not want to learn more? not inquire? not be grateful? not yearn for more? How can a Christian reading deep, sound teaching remain unmoved? How can he not tell his family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and all fellow-Christians whom he knows, so that they also can learn...? The only answer seems to be that they are of the walking dead; like the 9 lepers completely ungrateful for Christ having given them their entire lives back; so ungrateful that they did not even return to say, “Thank you!” If a person is truly moved and grateful, he will not have to be begged to say thank you. It will be as natural as breathing. If God’s Holy Spirit is in such a person, he will not have to be shamed into doing what is right, or telling others—it will be natural, automatic; even as repentance will be; even as seeking counsel and discipleship will be. Many unregenerate minds remain unmoved; and reject God’s Law and Order: His Hierarchy of Spiritual Authority; while other grovel in fear, superstition, and idolatry in false denominations and cults.

All of the evil that is happening at warp speed in Christendom is not happening because God is happy with us; yet, it seems that most “Christians” either are utterly unregenerate (that is, they are not truly Christians) and don’t even notice that there is a problem; or they prefer to continue in ignorential bliss (as unfaithful stewards, who shall be rejected), not wanting to know when the tsunami will hit them: caring only to “eat, drink, and be merry”—and continue in their irresponsibility and apathy and rebellion against God (even deludedly thinking that their rebellion is obedience). The primary essence of delusion is that the delusion precludes one’s awareness of it. However, it is an entirely different beast that is not only deluded, but when he hears that there is a good chance that he himself is in delusion, he does not even care to investigate. That is deadness of heart. That is wilfull ignorance;* not mere delusion. If there was a general announcement in the news that a mass of counterfeit bills had been dumped into circulation... only a fool would not get out his wallet and use the special marker-pen to investigate and see whether any of the bills in his possession were counterfeit. Yet, the majority of “Christians” do not do this with doctrine or with their own hearts (II Corinthians 13:5), because they are unconverted (and merely a member of some pseudo-spiritual country club) and don’t care. Well, in reality, they do care—they reject Reality and Truth in favor of their person bias and lusts. God commands us to prove all things; and the Bereans were praised for so diligently comparing all that they heard being preached, with what the Word of God said. However, the unregenerate / carnal mind looks at God’s Word, and then like a fool beholding himself in a mirror, goes away and forgets, unconcerned with the filth on his cheeks, the pimple on his forehead, the hairs protruding out of his nose; his hair unkempt, etc.; rather that being ashamed and making needful corrections (James 1:23,24)—again, because the carnal / unregenerate mind receives not, rejects, and refuses to submit to the things of God.

[* I have called this for over 3 decades, “The Three Stooges Syndrome”: They cry out, “I can’t see! I can’t see!” and when someone, concerned, inquires and asks, Why not? What is wrong?, they respond, “—my eyes are closed!” Ignorance itself, after a certain period of time has passed, is sin itself: because God commands us to study His Word daily and He commands us to know the truth, to prove what is true.]

How can a “Christian” hear an uncommon minister declare that God’s Law has not been abolished (though the vast majority teach the opposite), and back it with a wealth of Scripture, including Christ’s very own Declaration—and yet remain ill-concerned? How can he not be shocked to the core of his soul and stop what he is doing, overwhelmed that without realizing it, he may be sinning against the God whom he claims to love and serve? If a man was married to a woman, and some of the woman’s relatives confronted the man, in private, and said, “You probably are not aware of this, but did you know that when you [do this and this and this and this... a whole list of things] it really offends, hurts, and angers your wife...? She does not show it, and may not ever confront you about it, because she told you this when you first met her, but clearly you were not paying attention...” —if that man truly loves his wife would that revelation not rock his reality? not shock and grieve him to his soul? would he not want to stop his offensive behaviour, entreat her, ask forgiveness, and reform his ways...? Of course, to use a more-Biblical example, imagine if the wife was the one who was so dense, selfish, and offensive—and imagine that her husband was the king! and that it was the husband’s relatives, dukes and princes who confronted her in private for her sake, as well as for the king’s: for the king sets a bad example if he allows such insults to be perpetrated against him in public, known to all; and the king, therefore, must eventually adjudicate the matter, especially if some of the offenses were actually crimes that his bride was committing, due to her having been raised in ignorance of many points of morality. Most modern “Christians” act like independent liberated women.

How can professing “Christians” hear the Word of the Lord and the indictment of their own sin, and not even bat an eyelash? let alone fall on their faces before God and confess their sins and ask forgiveness? How can they not be convicted? How can they not be grateful to the one who just showed them the error of their folly? Imagine a person, driving on a road on a moonless night, in thick fog—not knowing that the bridge is out. Imagine someone who does not even know the many others driving on the road, who frantically pulls his car off the road, putting his life on hold, putting himself in danger, then runs along the road, jumps up and down waving his arms, warning the cars driving toward the bridge that the bridge is out. Only fool would just keep driving without investigation? How could a person, who possibly heeded the warning, and turned his car around, be so dead-hearted that he would not be grateful to the one who tried to save his life, and try to seek him out to thank him and maybe even join him in his crusade to warn others?

The only answer is that they are unregenerate and devoid of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture says, “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). This “hide” cannot refer to “covering up to evade justice”—for that would violate a wealth of Scripture. This Greek word indeed means hide, cover, conceal. However, there can be only 2 valid interpretations:

1. This “hiding” is actually hiding from future history by having turned the sinner from the error of his ways so that he is reformed and does not commit those sins, which, therefore, will never be found: hid from becoming reality; or

2. The Greek and Hebrews words for atonement mean, “to cover”. The same word was used for the pitch and the pitching of the wood comprising the hull of Noah’s Ark. This hiding or covering is directing the sinner to the Sacrifice of Christ where his sins are covered by Christ’s Blood; and Scripture soberly warns,

“26For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins, 27But a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and Fiery Indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28He that despised Moses’ Law [God’s Law delivered by Moses] died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace? 30For we know Him that hath said, ‘Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense’, saith the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord shall judge His people’. 31It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God.” (Hebrews 10)

Understand, a person truly regenerated cannot be “unborn again”. You cannot lose your salvation, if truly saved; because it is of Christ / the Holy Spirit and not of man. However, if the conversion “experience” does not result in the change of life, thinking, attitude, behaviour (which is the natural result of birth, grown, and maturity), then quite possibly (most probably) there was no regeneration, only a pseudo-spiritual emotional experience. Those who feigned being washed and dressed in new, white apparral, who continue to wallow in the mire, thinking it wonderful, had no change in their nature (which the Holy Spirit would have affected at the time of Regeneration, if Regeneration occurred).

All sin is sin. All sin breaks fellowship with God. All sin must be adjudicated. All sin must be confessed and turned from; and obedience replace sin. God says if you sin and be without His chastisement, you are not His sons but bastards. How can any Christian hear that Divine Indictment and not be thunderstruck and fall on his face? How can he not want to learn more, so as to not sin against God, either out of love, or, if for no other reason, out of fear of Judgment...?

There is only one answer as to why, and it all revolves around the title and topic of this treatise—and the majority of all the passages that will be discussed explain why (if the only valid method of Biblical Interpretation is understood and employed); and the graphic on the front (and to a lesser extent on the back) cover illustrates the reason.

They don’t love righteousness. They are lovers of themselves and pleasure more than lovers of God (which Scripture tells us will be the norm in the end times; II Timothy 3:1-5). They don’t love the Truth and they use the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18); they are only interested in the truth if it turns out to be what they want it to be. But this itself is still a symptom and not the problem itself; the will only obey if it is something that they want to do (which is not obedience; but merely doing what they want, which just happens to be what God commanded). Here is the reason (which shall be explained throughout the rest of this treatise, and which verses can only be understood in the Framework of true Reformed Doctrine: and as I alone have pinpointed as the only valid method of Biblical Interpretation—the one that finds the harmony with the foundation being that God is Immutable, does not change His Mind, and is the Source, not the by-product of man’s doings; He determines all; He does not “react” and does not engage in damage control; He is not a spectator in His universe, but Master of it; nothing exists that He did not create and nothing writes its own script or makes its own destiny).

[See my books, Does God Repent...? — Can God Change His Mind...? [And an Utter Demolishment of the Humanistic Myth of Man’s “Free Will” and Arminianism], 506pp., 25.00 + P&H and God and Evil: Did God Create Sin and Evil? [and The Facts of My Imaginary, Evanescent Heresy Trial - The Death Knell of Arminianism at the Hand of the Word of God], 280pp., pb., 18.00 + P&H.]

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“9And He [God] said [to the Prophet Isaiah],

‘Go, and tell this people, “Hear ye [continually] indeed, but [ye] understand [heed] not; and see ye [continually] indeed, but [ye] perceive [acknowledge] not”. 10 [Therefore, I Yahweh will] Make the heart of this people fat* [thus, figuratively, complacent*], and [and I will] make their ears heavy, and [I will] shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed’.” (Isaiah 6)

[* literally, “greasy”. The notion is one of apathy that is the result of prosperity and over-indulgence. The notion incorporates the state of health of the heart of someone someone who is obese, over-indulges, and does not work and does not exercise. Thus, the Hebrew word #8082 shaw-meyn can also infer laziness due to irresponsibility, over-indulgence, licentiousness, excess, glorying existentially in the gift, not in the Giver [God]. The cardiac organ does not think or understand; and as with the vast majority of all times that the Hebrew (leyb) or Greek (kardia) words for heart are used; the mind / intellect is what is intended. Imagine if the blood that the heart pumped was grease. What nutrients or oxygen would get to the brain? What then would be the state of the mind...?]

Understand the profoundness of this declaration by the Almighty—and evidence of His Absolute Determinism. Most all other passages on this topic are spinoffs of this one, and must be understood in the context established by this passage concerning Who is “cause” and who is “effect”. The notion of God sitting back on His Throne, wringing His Hands, crossing His Fingers, hoping that His children make the right decisions, but being impotent to do anything about it is NOT Theology, but humanism and paganism. What is the only inference of God blinding and deafening so that they will not be converted or saved? The implication, logical inference is that it is His Will that they not be saved. This, of course, does not refer to the elect of His people, but only to the nonelect and to the vessels of wrath.

What is a clear evidence of a true Christian with a regenerate mind...? —he will care about getting his own heart right with God, not arrogantly judging his Creator for not being “fair” to everyone. Such a person who Judges God, rejects God’s Decrees and His Right to so decree, thinks that he knows more than, and is holier than God Himself.

God’s Thoughts and Ways are Perfect, and by comparison, His Thoughts and Ways are as high above man’s as the (planetary) heavens are above the Earth. Sinful, ignorant, arrogant man will always find something to judge God for (because the carnal mind refuses to admit that God is Boss).

- God did not give individuals free will, and thus most complain about that (and choose instead to believe the delusion that God did give them free will, and that they are in charge of their own destiny; which, in reality, is a notion of a “self-god” cult).

- If God had given individuals free will, they would complain that it is not fair to give sinful, damaged-minded creatures “free will” concerning a world and Eternity and Judgment that they do not understand; why, it would be like letting a child play with gasoline and matches and razor blades. What evil parent would do that?

- Most “Christians” think it would be “unfair” (or even “evil”) for God to predestine the nonelect to Hell.

[God rebukes:

“9Woe unto him [Curs.ed be he] that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd [useless bits of broken pottery] strive with the potsherds of the Earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, ‘What makest Thou?’ [what do You think You’re doing without consulting me...?] or [shall the clay say concerning the end result, final product of] Thy work, ‘He hath no hands?’ [He is a really poor-quality Creator.] 10Woe unto him [Curs.ed be the son] that saith unto his father, ‘What begettest thou?’ or [Curs.ed be the sonwho says] to the woman [his father’s wife], ‘What hast thou brought forth?’ ” (Isaiah 45).]

- Some “Christians” that think it would be unfair if God let people choose to go to Hell (having never been there, and not understanding it).

- Some “Christians” think that God would be “unfair” (or even “evil” and “cruel”) if He made any Hell for any reason.

[And thus, many “Christians” instead choose to believe what makes them happy, what seems more “fair”, “good”, and logical to their sinful, fallen minds. This is called psychosis—those who operate in their own fantasy, not reality. Others, who are no-less deluded, but at least more honest, reject the Bible entirely and instead believe that God does not exist.]

- If God made man so that man could not sin, man would complain that he has no free will; that he is a mere robot (and this is sort of the false accusation that Satan made in the beginning of the Book of Job, but concerning God’s Blessings on Job being the only reason that Job obeyed God, and thus the Blessings served to insulate Job from temptation; which itself is the very opposite of reality—for it is usually due to an over-abundance of blessings that anyone (Christians included) become over-indulgent and then indifferent to sin and holiness (Solomon being the prime example).

[See my [See my S.T.E.Commentary The Book of Job - Introduction and Chapter 1, 60pp., 6.00 + P&H and S.T.E.C. on Ecclesiates, 554pp., pb,. 30.00 + P&H.]

- If God had given man free will, man would then also complain of the consequences of mistakes that he makes in the practice of that all-coveted free will.

[There is no freedom without responsibility; actions have consequences. Man’s problem is his irrationality, which, in reality, is immorality.]

In man’s perverse mind, God is damned if He does and damned if He doesn’t...! The reasons that man could think up to accuse God of being unfair are endless. Thus, the majority of “Christians” are not Christians, but Hindus, who create their god(s) in their own image, after their own likeness, the way that they think god should be. This is paganism and it is idolatry. However, again, the carnal mind likes to entertain an overly flatting self-opinion, and does not like the sound of “paganism” or “Hinduism”, or even “humanism”—and so, he engages in further deceit and calls his abominable self-religion “Christianity”.

The bottom line is that the carnal / unregenerate mind rejects God and His Law and does not want to be told what to do. This is why Evolution was invented. If man acknowledged that God created the world, man would have to admit his obligation to obey God, since God owns everything, including each person. Therefore, the majority of sinful men choose to believe the most-insulting (to both God and to Adamkind), anti-intellectual (and even unscientific) foolishness possible, in his desperate and immoral perverse need to maintain the delusion that man is in control of his own destiny and that there is no Creator or God (and hence, no Lord).

[Yet in most everything man does, he only affirms the existence of his Creator (even the wrath of man shall praise Him). Scientists are incapable of creating something from nothing, or creating life from nonlife. Even in a laboratory environment, in which they fudge all the factors (moisture, heat, electric current, minerals, etc.) they are unable to create life (or even the building blocks of life, both left and right amino acids). Furthermore, even if they were able to do so, it would not prove Evolution, but “Intelligent Design”. Furthermore, in almost no area of life does man simply sit back and “let stuff happen / evolve” (though savages do). Man is continually working against the effects of nature, entropy. He thinks, builds, labors to create—all mirroring the Image in which He was made (which Image he denies exists). See also my: Biblical Textual Evidence that God did not Create the World Via Any Form or Type of Evolution “Theistic” or Otherwise - A Brief Commentary on Genesis Chapter 1 as it Pertains to Evidence Refuting Evolution, 88pp., 7.00 + P&H and Stephen Hawking: Cosmic Tragedy — Hawking Fake Science... & A New Evolutionary Theory of The Universe, 78pp., 7.00 + P&H (refutes atheistic anti-God evolution and utterly shreds Hawking’s illogic).]

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“9Stay yourselves, and wonder [be amazed]; cry ye out, and cry: [for] they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep [stupor], and hath closed your eyes: the [eyes of the] prophets and your rulers, the seers hath He covered [covered over, thus, blindfolded or plastered over]. 11And the [whole] vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed [locked shut], which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, ‘Read this, I pray thee’, and he saith, ‘I cannot; for it is sealed’; 12And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, ‘Read this, I pray thee’ and he saith, ‘[I cannot, for] I am not learned’. 13Wherefore the Lord said, ‘Forasmuch as this people draw near [unto] Me with their mouth, and with their lips [they] do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men:* 14Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish [wander off and be lost], and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 15Woe unto them that seek deep [(dig) deep(ly)...?] to hide [conceal] their counsel [scheming, conspiracy, (evil) plans] from the LORD, and [because] their works are [commited] in the dark, and they say, ‘Who seeth us?’ and ‘Who knoweth us?’” (Isaiah 29)

[* Cross-reference:

“22And Samuel said, ‘Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the Voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken [is better] than [having to offer] the fat of rams. 23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity [vain lusting] and idolatry’.” (I Samuel 15)

Those who are spiritually blind may teach that sacrifice is unimportant, as they, being spiritually blind, “spiritualize away” everything that is real, into vacuous fantasy; reducing the Bible to a mere “quaint idea”, and blinding all to their responsibility before a Holy and Just God, and filling their heads with “sweet little nothings”, such as “All you need to do is ‘luv’.” Love does not replace obedience (obeying the Law of God), true love results in obedience; even as true faith results in good [obedient] works / doing what God commanded (not in impotent daydreams). No spiritual “lesson” invalidates or replaces that which is actual. The letter of the law is not tossed away and the spirit exalted as all that matters. The spirit of the law cannot be kept without the letter: They are inseparable. An analogy never replaces that which it explains. The “thought” of a hamburger cannot fill a starving belly as can a real hamburger. The dark-hearted King Saul had in this specific instance seriously disobeyed God’s very Commands, and Saul, instead, did something else that he thought was better.

[Most “Christians” do the same with the entire Word of God, and to justify what they want, with itching ears, they run after any false prophet / false teacher who will tell them what they want to hear. Thus, the majority of “Christians” believe that the Law of God was abolished and they reject True Doctrine in favor of humanism; and embrace, marry, and adopt the heresy that man is in control of his own destiny, and that God is “ALL ‘luv’,” and that He will never judge (let alone, damn) anyone: “Touched By An Angel” [but a fallen angel!] Theology, whose mantra was mentioned at the end of most episodes of the heart-warming, but unbiblical t.v. series, “God loves you just the way you are; you don’t need to change a thing”].

Saul (in I Samuel 15) disobeyed God’s clear Commands (ignoring the letter of the law) under the guise of “obedience” (which is also a violation of calling ‘good’ what God declared to be evil and vice versa), presumably, following the “spirit” of some other law. The only way that you can “obey” the “spirit” of the law while ignoring the letter is if you invent your own delusional fantasy and expect God to enter your disobedient delusion with you. God commanded that NO prisoners be taken captive from the battle against the Amalekite (an especially wicked sub-tribe of Edomite-Canaanites). However, Saul, extending “professional courtesy”—without authorization and in violation of what God commanded—spared the wicked King Agag’s life, even giving him reassuring words that he would be safe. The godly Prophet Samuel grabbed a sword and hacked Agag to death (I guess Samuel did not “get the memo” that God is “ALL LUV”...!). Saul also seized the finest of the herds and flocks, the booty of war, even though God commanded the Israelites to utterly destroy all the Amalekites (both man and woman, infant and suckling; or more likely, both male and female, suckling infant and nursing mother) and utterly destroy all their flocks and herds (ox and sheep, camel and ass) and presumably, just like Jericho, to take no spoils; though Saul had justified his disobedience in saving the best of the clean animals, by claiming that the people had done it, and that they did so in order to offer them to God (offering disobedience as worship... which the majority of “Christians” today also do, being “friends of the world” having married and adopted all that God forbade, under the auspices of pleasing God!*). More probably, the people saw Saul spare King Agan, and then the people, seeing Saul disobey God, then also disobeyed God, following his lead. For these 2 flagrant violations of what God commanded, God rejected Saul from being king. It is with this background that the above statement by Samuel is made. It is NOT saying that God does not want people to sacrifice to Him as He commanded (even as NO other verse so says, which verses are also ripped out of context, such as “thou delightest not in sacrifice” or I despise thy feasts and new moons). The point is: If you obey what God commanded, you will not have sinned, and will not need to offer sacrifices for sin. Fellowship will not be broken; thus, fellowship will not need to be restored. Wickedness will not be spawned, therefore, blood to cover it will not be necessary. This simple truth is twisted by humanists masquerading as (or deluded into thinking that they are) Christians into “God abolished what He required for obedience and holiness and all you need to do is ‘luv’.” Such luv is not love; but perversity (and thus, it is no surprise that society is now filled with immorality and perversity—even by prominent “Christians” who preach and write and sing songs declaring that sin is not sin, immorality is not immorality, abominations are wonderful; and by “preachers” and “priests” who not only do not preach against sin, but allow those in flagrant sin, openly living in immorality and committing abominations as a lifestyle, to “feel welcome and accepted” in “church”. Such are the enemies of God prancing around as if they are His greatest prophets and worshippers.

* This is probably one of the examples of “asking amiss”:

“3Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 4Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4)

The Greek word rendered amiss in the English text is #2560 kahks, does not merely mean asking a bit off—it means worthlessly, depravedly, evilly, or as I prefer, “putridly”. I believe the Latin caca and the Dutch kak, which both mean “dung, poop, feces”, have their origin in this Greek word. 95% of English / Saxon words are derived from Hebrew, many of them by the way of Greek (which was derived from Hebrew) and Latin (which was derived from Greek). The rest of the verse that follows the word “amiss” gives you an idea of the vileness of what these terribly sinful “Christians” were asking for in prayer—asking God to bless those very things that He had forbidden.]

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“8And the Word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, 9‘Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, “Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother [kinsman]: 10And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the [kinsman-]stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother [kinsman] in your heart”. 11But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. 12Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the Law, and the Words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former Prophets: therefore came a Great Wrath from the LORD of hosts. 13Therefore it is come to pass, that as he [My Prophet] cried, and they would not hear; so they [themselves] cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts’.” (Zechariah 7)

[“The curse causeless shall not come” (Proverbs 26:2); “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7) “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his [own] steps.” (Jeremiah 30:23) “For every tree is known by his own fruit.” (Luke 6:44) God gives the nature that each has; and the nature produces the acts; not vice versa.]

Understand, the passage in Isaiah 6 explains every other passage; as does the understanding of true Doctrine / Theology. God is not a spectator in His own universe. He does not “react”. He is Immutable. Nothing takes Him by surprise—because He determined everything before the foundation of the world; and nothing can deviate from what He ordained. His Foreknowledge is not passive, but active, deterministic—for God is not passive. No thought or act of any man or creature can force itself into God’s Mind. Any thought that God had He Masterminded; He did not merely read someone else’s mind. No creature, no particle of dust is random or independent of its Creator and Lord. All of creation is His Drama—which He wrote, planned, directs, and produces, and no man or creature “ad libs” or writes its words or actions in His Script.

Therefore, when a Scripture subsequent to Isaiah 6:10 says that “they shut their ears” or “they hardened their hearts”—that is the means by which God Himself did what He ordained in Isaiah 6. God did not put their eyes out or puncture their ear drums to make them deaf; the means by which He did it was causing their own wicked hearts to be bitter, resentful, complacent, selfish, immoral, dishonorable, etc.

“The king’s heart is in the Hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will.” (Proverbs 21:1) Do rivers flow randomly, with their twists and turns...? Did God merely set the “stuff” of energy and matter into motion and let it “evolve” on its own...? —of course not! Does God control solely the hearts of kings...? —no. God controls all; even as a computer programmer programs every last detail in the program and the computer. However, God does it on a sub-atomic level, mechanistically (every electron in every atom the comprise all matter and energy) and on the macro level (every astronomical heavenly body and partical of energy in the galaxies)—but God does not merely pull animals and angels and humans by strings like a puppet, or program them like a robot. What God created is far more complex, with a mind and emotions, as well as a physical body—and God “pulls the strings” of the heart and the mind and the mood and the attitude and the physiology to do exactly what He ordained before the foundation of the world.

“Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” (Isaiah 14:24) God is always the Actor and the Source, never that acted upon or the by-product. Those who believe otherwise are humanists with a “God-fetish” who invent their own god and superstitions according to how they want their god and “reality” to be and then project that onto God, as if throwing a Halloween costume on the ground at His Feet and barking, “Here—put this on!” Thus, they possess no true faith (which is based solely upon the facts in the Revealed Word of God) and they are also psychotic—and that is the very delusion that God said that He would send:

“I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine Eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.” (Isaiah 66:4).

“10...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (II Thessalonians 2)

However, understand, if man has it not within his ability / nature to choose or do good (apart from God), then doing evil is the only thing that he can do; and therefore, it is not a choice either. The nature can only do what is within its nature. A rattlesnake can never be like a dove. It is in a dog’s nature to do all the things that a dog does. It is in a sheep’s nature to do all the things that a sheep does. It is a sheep’s biological DNA that makes it clean—but the sheep has no choice in the matter. It is what God ordained.

[See my books, Does God Repent...? — Can God Change His Mind...?, 506pp., pb., 25.00 + P&H and God and Evil, 280pp., pb., 18.00 + P&H. P&H = 10% / 6.00 minimum P&H within the U.S.]

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“10And [after Christ had spoken a parable unto the multitude, those of] the [twelve] disciples came [to Him, privately], and said unto Him, ‘Why speakest Thou unto them [the multitude] in parables?’ 11He answered and said unto them, ‘Because it is given unto you to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given.* 12For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 13Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14And in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Esaias, which saith, “By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them”. 16But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear’. .... 34All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake He not unto them: 35That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying, ‘I will open My Mouth in Parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world’.” (Matthew 13)

[* Where is the “free will” in this...? The “whosoever will” of the Gospel is not the twisted humanistic notion in which the individual decides and chooses his own fate—it refers solely to the elect of God’s people whose ears God has opened so that they can hear; and whose hearts and necks He has softened so they will receive; and whose minds and natures He has changed so that they can believe, desire to do good, and actually obey. It refers solely to the elect of His people whom He has regenerated to new life then filling them with the Fruit of the Spirit, which includes the faith whereby they can believe and live.]

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“38That the saying of Esaias the Prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, ‘Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed?’ 39Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40‘He [God] hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them’.” (John 12)

[Free will...? The “whosever will” cannot refer to those whose ears God deafened, who cannot hear hear the Gospel to respond to it. Those who are dead respond to nothing. The Gospel is not a humanistic fantasy. Wedding crashers will be expelled. Whosoever will is determined by God. There is none righteous—NOT ONE; there is none good; there is none that seeketh after God. If any are good, righteous, if any do seek after God, it is only because God has elected them unto Life and ordained for them to seek Him, and deposited a small bit of His Goodness in them.]

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“24And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. 25And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word,

‘Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet unto our fathers, 26Saying,

“Go unto this people, and say,

‘Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them’ ” ’.” (Acts 28)

It seems to me to be possible that the “they” that closed the eyes of the people, is different than the “they” (the people themelves). It seems possible to me that this “they” is intended to mean the Godhead. God is both Three and One. Scripture is replete with switching back and forth, with God speaking, then the Prophet speaking, without any indication that the speaker changed (except in the dialogue itself changing from speaking in the first to the third person). Even in the above passage, we have a quote within a quote within a quote; which I have helped separate by indenting each individual speaking; but then at the end, all 4 sets of quotation marks bunch together like a 4-car pile up. In Genesis 18, in reference to God appearing to Abraham in the form of three men or angels, Abraham interchangably addresses God as “them” in the singular and in the plural, even does Scripture itself in reference to “them”.

Thus, in this passage in Acts 28, the language seems similar to that God spoke after Adam and Eve had sinned and eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. At that time, God said among Himself: “

22And the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a Flaming Sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life.” (Genesis 3)

[I believe these Cherubim (Cherubim is the plural of Cherub, so Cherubims is redundant) and the Flaming Sword which turned in every direction, was none other than a form of the Ark of the Covenant and Mercy Seat, on either side of which was an angel, and the flaming sword was the Shekinah Glory, the Manifest Presence—the Pillar of Fire, that was more like a fiery tornado that did not merely drift upward, but which appeared to be alive.]

Understand also the monumental tragedy if they had eaten from the Tree of Life in their sinful, unredeemed state—they would haved forever in corruption, unredeemable. Death, in such a state, is a blessing—if death actually ended existence. However, death solely ends the life of flesh and blood.

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“Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.” (Deuteronomy 29:4)

Those whom God has not given a heart, eyes, or ears to see—whom God has not given Life; cannot obtain those things on their own.

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“14And Jesus returned in the Power of the Spirit* into Galilee: and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. 15And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. (Luke 4)

[* Again, we have evidence of Two Persons of the Trinity; and the Three are brought together in the beginning of v.18.]

16And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, and stood up for to read. 17And there was delivered unto Him the Book [Scroll] of the Prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the Book [Scroll], He found the place where it was written,

18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor [destitute: morally or physically]; he hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable Year of the Lord[’s Propitiation]’.* (Luke 4)

[* Understand: The Gospel is the “Good News” (of God’s Promises to His people)—but the Gospel itself includes the reason why good news was needed! This is the fact the majority overlook, focusing solely on a generic “happiness” and miss the entire purpose. So also it is with Christ’s declaration of the passage of Isaiah [61:1ff.] that He read—that passage is entirely meaningless without first understanding the passage in Isaiah 6 and why (and what type of) blindness existed in order for it to need to be healed. Indeed, Christ healed physically blind eyes—but that was a parallel to the real blindness: spiritual blindness, which, if not healed will result in darkness and blackness forever; and having 2 good eyes to be cast into Eternal Judgment would be utterly useless. The physical healing of the eyes of someone physically blind, even as the feeding of the thousands, or giving water to the thirsty, or the healing the ears of the deaf, or even the raising of the dead would be utterly futile if his everlasting spirit was left unchanged to then experience the first death, followed by the second death.* Christ performed these miracles (of healing, feeding, etc.) to get the people’s attention, so that they would know that He was indeed the long-awaited Messiah (but even then, the majority of people Christ left spiritually blind and ignorant, which is why He spoke in parables). However, the miraculous acts that He performed had a spiritual parallel (and the spiritual does not replace the physical): the healing of the blind, deaf, crippled, the raising of the dead, the feeding of the thousands with bread and fish, the turning of water into wine, etc. all have spiritual lessons.

* We shall discuss this in depth, later; but Christ Himself also expressed these sentiments:

“26Jesus answered them and said, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 27Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto Everlasting Life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed.” (John 6)

Christ, earlier (in John 4) expressed similar sentiments to the Israelite woman living in Samaria, when she came to draw water, and He spoke of Living Water, which, if a person drinks from, shall never thirst again. See my Apologetic Exposition: John 4 - Samaritan Woman at Well & Samaritan Leper —Israelites Living in Samaria, 46pp., 5.50 + P&H.

The first part of Christ’s Declaration is dumbfounding... (or, at least it is until you actually stop to think and analyze it) the masses, Christ says, did not follow Him (at least, not this current batch of individuals) because He performed miracles—but because each one benefitted from the miracles: They got a free meal. And if they didn’t even follow Him to see miracles performed, they certainly were not interested in the Truth that He taught. Although watching, a few times, individuals being healed is novel and exciting (if it is real and not a sham), unless you yourself need to be healed, or unless a loved one of yours needs to be healed, the majority will have little interest in seeing, over and over, people they don’t know being healed. But the majority, who are not independently wealthy, (who have employees and servants doing all their work for them), have to earn their daily bread to eat, clothe their family members, and pay the rent, and can’t be gallivanting all over the land for amusement.

Things are different in our modern age, in which socialist programs pay lazy, immoral people not to work, so that they can go to movies, amusement parks, malls, etc., instead of working. So, if Christ came back today to perform miracles, for the most part, the most-worthless (which is actually an oxymoron) segment of the population would be following Him for a free show and meal; and that is why He would still speak in parables.]

20And He closed the Book [Scroll], and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. 21And He began to say unto them,

‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.’

22And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His Mouth. And they said [among themselves], ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’*1 23And He said unto them, ‘Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, “Physician, heal Thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country”.’ 24And He said, ‘Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. 25But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias [Elijah], when the heaven [sky] was shut up [without rain] three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; 26But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon,*2 unto a woman that was a widow. 27And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus [Elisha] the Prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian [Aramaean]. 28And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29And rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. 30But He passing through the midst of them went His way.” (Luke 4)

[*1 From this passage alone one does not see the full picture of the nature of their “wondering”, and concering their expression of knowing Him and his father Joseph (that is, Christ did not descend from someone prominent, such as a long line of prophets, and He was someone they group up knowing, someone “normal” and ordinary, as they themselves were)—to then warrant their attempt to murder Him. Their “wondering” is explained in another Gospel:

“54And when He was come into His own country [Galilee, specifically, the city of Nazareth*1], He taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, ‘Whence hath this Man this wisdom, and these mighty works? 55Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not His mother called Mary? and His brethren,*2 James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?*3 56And his sisters,*2 are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?’ 57And they were offended [es-kahn-dah-lid-zon-to*4] in Him. But Jesus said unto them, ‘A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.’ 58And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13)

*1 —which appears to have been in the territory of the Tribe of Zebulun, right near the border where the territories of Naphtali and Issachar meet.

*2 This does not necessarily mean literal siblings, but very close kinsmen and kinswomen; even as Jesus being called “son of David” does not mean a literal son, but grandson of any amount of generations.

*3 not Iscariot.

*4 a form of #4624 skahn-dah-lidz; to be explained later.

*2 This does NOT mean that the woman was a Sidonian-Canaanite. Many “Bible maps” show Sidon / Zidon being a town on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, about 15 miles north of the border of Israel (specifically, the most northwesterly territory of the Tribe of Asher). However, Andrew Robert Fausset, in his Bible Dictionary, claimed that Sidon was within the territory of Asher; but the passage he offered as evidence says no such thing (Isaiah 23:2,4,12; which must be an error); though Joshua 19:24-28 indicates that Asher’s territory extended all the way to Zidon. Judges 1:31 seems to indicate that Zidon indeed was part of Asher’s territory, but that the Asherites were unsuccessful in driving out the Zidonians (or they did not try to drive them out); but this does not mean that the Israelites did not settle the city; just that they shared it with the Zidonians, as did the Israelites of the Tribe of Benjamin and Judah who did not drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem. Originally Zidon was a Canaanite town (founded by the Zidonian-Canaanites); but then after the Conquest it fell to the Tribe of Asher, but the Phoenicians (a Greek tribe, being descended from Hebrews or Israelites) eventually gained control of it, even as they had wrested the city-state town of Tyre, which was originally an island only about .3 miles from the coast (from which all of Syria later derived its modern name; in the Old Testament, nearly every appearance of Syria / Syrian is a mistranslation for Aram / Aramaea / Aramaean); though Alexander the Great filled the ocean in with land, in his attempt to overthrow it, making it a peninsula. Both Tyre and Sidon became important and powerful Phoenician mercantile and fishing ports.]

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“28Then said they [individuals from the crowd of thousands that Jesus had fed by miracle (or others who had heard of the feeding by miracle), who had followed after Jesus from Tiberias, to Capernaum, then crossed over Galilee and found Him] unto Him, ‘What shall we do, that we might work the Works of God?’ 29Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘This is the Work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent’. 30They said therefore unto Him, ‘What sign showest Thou then, that we may see, and believe Thee? what dost Thou Work? 31Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat”.’ 32Then Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven; but My Father giveth you the True Bread from Heaven. 33For the Bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven, and giveth Life unto [the elect of His people in] the world’. 34Then said they unto him, ‘Lord, evermore give us this bread’. 35And Jesus said unto them, ‘I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. 36But I said unto you, That ye also have seen Me, and believe not. 37All that [those whom*2] the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.*2 38For I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine Own Will, but the Will of Him that sent Me.*1 39And this is the Father’s Will which hath sent Me, that of all which [those whom*2] He hath given Me I should lose nothing,*2 but should raise it [the same] up again at the Last Day. (John 6)

[*1 “If ye love Me, keep My Commandments.” (John 4:15) Jesus had no commandments or will of His Own—His Will and Commandments are identical and One with the Father. A nebulous “luv” does NOT replace or “fulfill” the Law (you cannot fulfill something by not doing it: Could you fulfill being a good spouse by being a bad one?); obedience to all that God commanded is the true demonstration of Love. “For this is the Love of God, that we keep His Commandments: and His Commandments are not grievous.” (I John 5:3) Those who do not obey what God commanded (running after the first false prophet who will teach him—as did the Serpent [Satan] in the Garden—that you don’t have to obey God, so that they can pursue their own lusts with a semi-functioning, but wilfully deluded conscience DON’T KNOW GOD and the TRUTH [Christ, the Holy Spirit] is not in them (I John 2:3,4)—that is, they are unregenerate. Every tree is known by its fruit. God declared what is good and evil—and it never changes; morality never changes. The tree or the branch on the tree does not determine what is “good”—but the master orchardist.

*2 This, of course, refers solely to the elect of His people: “According as He [God] hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world...” (Ephesians 1:4) Note, no verse contains every last bit of information; but numerous different passages include different parts of the full picture, and the other pieces of the puzzle are mentioned elsewhere (God expects us to put on our little spiritual thinking caps and not forget everything He already told us—and He will never contradict Himself or “change His Mind”): the true interpretation is the combining / resolution of all related passages to create the complete thought, according to the only true method of Biblical Interpretation, founded upon the fact that God is Immutable and True, and so are His Decrees, Covenants, Promises, and Law.

Truly the Bible is one of those things that “the whole cannot be known without understanding its individual parts; and its individual parts cannot be understood without understanding the whole”. Imagine if you knew no language. Reading the definition of any word in a dictionary would do you no good—because the understanding of any individual entry / specific word in the dictionary requires knowing all of the individual words used to define it. Truth is interconnected; not disjointed and independent; not illogical or anti-intellectual; not esoteric or mystical—all those notions are delusion. Truth is not subjective.

When Christ said that any who come to Him He will in no wise cast out, that is dependent upon other information that Scripture reveals and refers solely to those whom God has drawn unto Him (it not refer to curiosity seekers, party crashers, tares, “wanna-bees”, tares, etc.)...! Indeed, “many are called, but few are chosen”—but the vast majority are never called. The parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:1-14 is to be considered in light of Christ’s Parable of the Drag Net of 13:47-50 (immediately after the parable of the wheat and the tares). The message was given to invite far and wide to the Wedding Feast; one man without a wedding garment was thrust out and into Hell (like the tares and the vile fish). Why? He was not wearing a wedding garment. He was not of the elect, not regenerated, not clothed in the Righteousness of Christ / sealed by the Holy Spirit (the Members Only admittance card). Why was he there? Clearly he saw others who had been bidden to the feast, and he tagged along, as a wedding crasher, hoping to get a free meal. Clearly he didn not know the rules; for he had not been invited. Clearly he did not care of the rules, that mere common sense would dictate. We shall see later, in John 6, significant information in this regard concerning many “disciples” who had been following Christ. Yes, Scripture also says, “For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). But there are other requirements beyond mere vibrations spoken into the air by any set of vocal cords. Can not a parrot be trained to cry out, “Jesus save me!”...? No verse of Scripture is an island unto itself. A single jigsaw puzzle piece does not cast off the rest of the puzzle and exist by itself, but fits perfectly into place with all the rest of the pieces within the greater whole. If you are on a scavenger hunt and are told to search for something red, new, hard, plastic, round, and heavy, finding some item that fulfills merely one of those requirements would be incorrect. This is common sense in any form of problem solving. So also it is with understanding Scripture. When reading a novel, only a fool would think that the pronoun “he” referred to every individual in the novel. God does not change His Mind, His Decrees, His Covenants, His Promises, or His Law. “Free association” of Bible verses may reveal an individual’s inner confusion, angst, and other dynamics—but it does not change the only true interpretation of the Word of God. Christ also declared,

“21Not every one that saith unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven. 22Many will say to Me in that Day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils [demons]? and in Thy Name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity [anomia, “no law”, thus, lawlessness].” (Matthew 7).

Here we have evidence of those who did “come” unto Jesus, and who did “call upon the Name of the Lord”—who shall be cast into Hell. Coming unto God is not by individual choice—it is By Appointment Only (and God makes such appointments solely with the elect of His people, whom He in Christ chose before the foundation of the world). Coming unto God and calling upon the Name of the Lord operate according to God’s Rules, not man’s. God calls—and the elect of His people irresistably respond (even as Lazarus, called forth from the dead, could do nothing to resist; even as God / Christ spoke all of Creation into existence—and all came to be exactly as He ordered).

The majority of “Christians” entertain the profound delusion that their “salvation” is some type of Spiritual Diplomatic Immunity—and that they can, therefore, sin with impunity and no charges will stick and they cannot be judged. They employ false preachers for hire to teach that God abolished His Own Law, and therefore, they are not “violating” it because it no longer exists. This is the delusion of a 3 year-old playing hide-and-seek, who closes his eyes and thinks that no one can see him. They shall have the mother-of-all rude awakenings on the Day of Judgement, as those in Christ’s discourse in Matthew 7 above; such reveal that they are not His by not knowing Christ’s Voice—by believing the very opposite of what He said. What can it be, other than profound delusion, if so MANY “Christians” think that they are “serving the Lord”, even doing, “wonderful works” in Jesus’ Name—but they are actually violating everything that God commanded?

Furthermore, note also that only by a correct understanding of Theology can one understand the correct teaching of this Christ’s declaration in Matthew 7. True Christianity is Doctrine, not “feelings” or “personal experience”. “Doing the Will of My Father which is in Heaven” does NOT “cause” a person to “earn” entrance to the Kingdom. A tree does not become an apple tree by bearing apples; an apple tree bears apples because that is what its Creator ordained for it to bear (and if it does not bear fruit, it is hewn down and cast into the fire—because that is what God ordained). A boy walking in his father’s footsteps and obeying all the father taught does not “make” the child his father’s son; a boy is his father’s son by the will and act of the father in procreation. A boy demonstrates himself an honorable son, who will inherit of his father, by obeying all that the father commanded. The regeneration and subsequent indwelling of the Holy Spirit changes the nature of the individual elect child of God (if regeneration actually took place) to then obey what God commanded, out of love and desire to please God. The elect child of God, after regeneration, will then learn and grow and be conformed to obedience through the Living Word of God—demonstate the fruit that God ordained (sanctification*) and adopt God’s Ideas as his own knowing that they are not only what God commanded, but that they are the ONLY Way, the only Truth, and the only Reality—and that they are Life itself. Obedience to the Law of God, good works, bearing fruit, walking in the Spirit (which are all synonyms), are all by-products (sanctification) of salvation (regeneration), not the cause of or contributors to salvation. Both regeneration and sactification are 100% of God. God cultivates the fruit out of us (if He has ordained us to bear much fruit, if we are truly Christ’s Body, the elect of His people). Obedience to all that He commanded is the “good works” which He before ordained that we should walk there in (Ephesians 2:10; Isaiah 30:21; Deuteronomy 5:33; 13:4).

Regeneration is a one-time thing (like conception or birth); sanctification is a life-long process (like growth or maturity). However, a branch cannot bear fruit of itself. If severed from the tree, it has no life. Both Regeneration and Sanctification are revealed in us by God’s Grace through Faith (also a gift from God), by daily reading the Word of God, directed by ministers / teachers after God’s Heart, the elect child of God will truly understand that Word to be more than mere words, but recognize the Word of God as Truth and Life. God is All in all (I Corinthians 15:28). It is in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). He is our life (Colossians 3:3,4). In all things He must have the pre-eminence (Colossians 1:18). If we walk in the Spirit (in the direction that the Spirit is going, by understanding the actual Word of God, not humanistic notions) we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh—everything that God forbade (Galatians 5:16-21). He must increase; we must decrease (John 3:30)—that is, recognize that He is All; and that we are nothing apart from Him; as King David referred to himself as a mere worm (maggot) in his own merit and in his own insignificant being in comparison with the size of the Earth, in relation to the size of the universe, in relation to the Omnipotent God Who spoke it all into being with a mere Word—not merely setting it into motion to “evolve”; but in His Words were every single bit of internal atomic structure and every single bit of history / interaction in space and time of every single bit of energy and matter through time. Those who believe otherwise are humanists and have a very small god (since they create their god in their own limited, faulty, sinful mind, after their own image).

Christ declaring that He would lose no (that the Father gave Him) one presupposes that He is only talking about the elect of His people—and He is not talking about the nonelect of His people or aliens, even if they had followed Him and feigned faith; or even if they sincerely wanted to be His sheep (God does not turn dogs, pigs, wolves, rattlesnakes into sheep; nor tares, thistles, thorns, briars into wheat, grapes, figs, or olives). Who would not want to be heir to a billion-dollar fortune? But is is not of him that desires, but of God Who determines (Romans 9:16). Those who are not happy with that have a “God-complex” (thinking themselves to be the boss, or smarter and holier than God—and they need to confess those sins and beg God for Mercy) and are humanists; not Christians. Christians follow Christ in submission and believe, accept, and do what He commanded (they do not argue or think that they know better, and expect Him to conform to them). Elsewhere, Christ declared (and we shall see shortly in the latter part of this passage in John 6), “Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil?”* (John 6:70) and “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy Name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the Son of Perdition;** that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17:12).

[** Just because all 12 were chosen does not mean that they were all chosen “for the same purpose”. The meaning clearly is, “Not a single one of them is lost; except the son of perdition [who was not one of My sheep; but who chosen for destruction, and thus given the role he would perform]” (see Acts 4:27,28—God pre-ordained it all). Judas was a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction. This verse (John 6:70) is the only time in the Bible in which the word devil(s) appears, when it is not in reference to Satan himself, and it is not a mistranslation. All other instances in which the word devil(s) appears and it is not in reference to Satan, are mistranslations for the word demon (daimonion). There is one Devil (Diabolos); there are many demons. The Greek words for Devil and demons are completely different and unrelate. Judas is here called “a devil” because he was a chip off the old block, descended from the Canaanites and Cain. Satan did not leave such an important task (upon which his destiny lay) as the betrayal of Christ to any of his underlings, but did it himself, as Scripture records, “And after the sop* [which Jesus gave to Judas] Satan entered into him [Judas].” (John 13:27).

* Peter had asked Jesus privately, who would betray Him, Christ then whispered the answer to Peter, which the others did not hear, “He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it”.

In their Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of John (1980), Newman and Nida, in their expanded translation, write, “...not one of them was lost, except the man bound to be lost...”; and in their notes they record,

“NAB*1 ‘him who was destined to be lost’... traditionally rendered ‘the son of perdition’.... This word is frequently used in the New Testament of the final fate of those who are without God... The phrase ‘son of (literally ‘man of’) perdition means ‘one who is going to be lost (eternally).’ The same expression appears in 2 Thessalonians 2.3 and is rendered the... One... who is destined to hell in TEV*2.”

*1 New American Bible

*2 The English Version. Notes mine. R.A.B.

The Concordant Literal New Testament (1926) renders it “son of destruction”.

Son of Perdition means “the man to be destroyed”; that is, a vessel of wrath. In general, it applies to any in that category; in reference to Judas, he was the epitome, the most-extreme example (the very one who would betray to death the Innocent Blood, the Spotless Lamb of God) of those ordained unto condemnation. In Hebrew and Greek, “son of ____” refers to the highest (or lowest*) example of the type of individual being discussed; the archtype, superman, epitome, ultimate example. In English, we have similar phrases, such as, “the mother of all wars”, or the exaggerated superlative, “superdooper”.

* An example, in a negative sense, of greatest of the lowest would be the highest example of the most-worthless type of individual; as expressed in the phrase, “sons of Belial” in II Samuel 23:6. It is a bit of an oxymoron, someone being the highest example of being the bottom rung of the ladder / scraping the bottom of the barrel, the “most-worthless”; which is a sort of inversion of comparison; the inversion of ultimate; the “highest” negative number. The “highest” or “lowest” example could be referred to as the “ultimate” representation, archetype, even Federal Head. Sometimes God referred to a certain Prophet, such as Ezekiel or Jeremiah; it would seem this was because they were appearing as representative before God and His spokesperson / embassador to the entire race of God.

It seems that the name Belial (bel-ee-yah-el) means, “aspiring to failure / destruction / worthlessness”. Similarly, the concept appears in the name Beelzebub, or “lord / god of Dung”, which is a seeming parody or implication of Beelzebool (Greek form of the Aramaic, Baal-zebub), “lord / god of flies”; the intention, it would seem, is that where there is dung or a rotting carcase, there will be flies also; thus, the implication would seem to be “lord / god of corruption / filth / death”. The pagan “logic” or worshipping such a god was not one of love and admiration, but fear and appeasement; being similar to the purpose of savages throwing a virgin into the mouth of a volcano, to appease the gods and, so that maybe death would not touch the individual or his family. For the same reason wicked Israelites (learning the way of the heathen Canaanites around them) sacrificed their newly born infants by burning them alive to Molech; or as some sacrificed their firstborn son by killing him and laying him in the foundation of his new house, or the gates of a city. See my, Apologetic Exposition on The Book of The Prophet Ezekiel, Chapter 20 & 19, 88pp., 7.00 + P&H.]

40And this is the Will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth* on Him, may have Everlasting Life: and I will raise him up at the Last Day. (John 6)

[* Again, the majority of “Christians” (who are actually humanists, and not truly Christians) invent their own narrative (one other than that which Scripture teaches) and reject Sound Doctrine, which God revealed in Holy Writ. Faith originates in no man. It is a gift of God via the Holy Spirit to the elect of God’s people at the time of regeneration whereby they believe unto salvation. God in Christ determined* the elect of His people before the foundation of the world. Coming to / following after / calling upon Jesus, believing—salvation is not a “free choice” trough in the barnyard, always filled with food, that any animal can come and take at his own will. Neither is it a pile of dung or a rotting corpse which is “fair game” to all flies or other insects, scavengers, carrion eaters. It is “Members Only By Invitation Only”—and that “invitation” is not “optional”—it is like an arrest warrant; or more properly, like a King’s Ransom paid in full demanding that the prisoner be delivered up to him. The Holy Spirit does not whimper a request... the Holy Spirit of God falls upon the elect, and they cannot resist, but only obey. So also are the wicked in the same manner, but in the opposite direction: “The ungodly are not so [they are not so blessed as are the righteous] but are as the chaff which the wind driveth away.”** (Psalm 1:4) God is Master of His universe—not an impotent spectator.

* often translated “chose”. But God’s choosing is not like man’s choosing. God does not choose blindly via “eenie, meenie, minie, moe” or any other random scheme. God’s choosing is never, in any way (random or volitional), a “selection or picking from among many different options. God is Perfect, Immutable, Omniscient. There can only be one way—His Way, the Perfect Way, which never changes: for He never changes: for He is Perfect. God has no potentiality (He is Immutable and Perfect), and therefore, neither can any of His “Choices”.

** Here we also see the wicked predestined unto perdition. Jacob have I loved; Esau have I hated—due to nothing inherent in themselves. God determined and then gave each the nature that would fulfill God’s Determination. God harvests the wheat into His Barn but gathers the tares and drives away the chaff to be burned. God separates His sheep from the goats, who are cast into Hell. God gathers His olives, figs, grapes, but burns the thorns and briars with unquenchable fire.

Those who reject God’s Word reject God. God is not a Food Buffet, which I refer to as “Smorgasbord Theology”, in which any individual picks and chooses what he likes and throws the rest away. You either accept God or you reject Him (which is evidence of whether He has chosen or rejected you). How many of God’s Attributes and Decrees and Doctrines can you refuse to believe in and still believe in the True God? Only God knows that answer, but those unconcerned demonstrate their unregeneracy. Those truly regenerated will want to see how close they can come to God (by invitation only; Psalm 65:4; John 6:65; 14:6), believing all that He revealed, adopting it as their own, being conformed into the Image of Christ (the real image, not the humanistic notion of Jesus, more like Gandhi). To those unregenerate, God / Jesus is merely a part-time ritual, nearly obsolete folkway, a nice inspirational thought; they live their lives as they please, as if they are their own, and they see how far they can stray from God and not be rejected. But most don’t even consider being rejected an option: for they think that they are in control of their own destiny. They think that the Law of God was abolished (so what is there to be saved from?); and if they even think of sin, they compare themselves to the most-vile of sinners (rather than to the Standard of Holiness), and imagine themselves to be “so much better”, thinking, “Why on Earth would God reject me?” They have a an irrational, unrealistic image of their own “goodness”, because they are humanists and reject God’s never-changing Standard in favor of man’s ever-changing notions of morality (because they are utter strangers to God and have NO concept of Holiness). Their minds are unregenerate. They are spiritually dead and think carnally as the humanists they are.

The term humanism / humanist in the modern day* is the doctrine that man is the center and sum of all things and that he chooses his own destiny by his own choices, and—though most-often on a subconscious level—invents his own concepts of “morality” (with zero authority to do so). Humanism is opposed to God; and man does not obtain these notions on his own, so Humanism is merely a euphemism for Satanism: for Satan is the Prince of the Power of the Air, the god of this world, the sower of discord among the brethren, the Deceiver—whose sole objective is to overthrow the One True God (often by the manufaturer of a myriad of false gods, to confuse the masses). Satan’s main method of overthrowing God is to turn all of God’s people from God (which, when done, the individual child of God is like a baby chick that has squeezed through the protective chicken wire and has strayed his mother’s guardianship, and is certain to be devoured). Satan’s ultimate goal is to cause God’s people be completely absorbed by the world, to the point of extinction; which is why the entire Third World is invading Christendom. God promised to preserve a remnant—not of just anyone, but of His very people. If God can fail in any one area, then He is not the Almighty, Omniscient, Perfect God that He says that He is; and if God can fail in any one area, then Satan will renew his hope that he can overthrow God completely. He knows his time is short. He is engaged in a frenzied last ditch effort. That is why the influx of Third World peoples and the rising of militant homoperversion and every other abomination and antichristian philosophy and practice is being carried out at “warp speed” within Christendom. We are the pawns in the game; we are the weakest link. However, God is in complete control. Satan thinks that he is his own person (even as most “Christians” deludedly imagine they are) and he is blinded by his own power and pride and does not realize the delusions of grandeur—with which he is consumed—are also from God. God is in absolute control and Satan is merely following the Script that God wrote—and nothing that Satan does can deviate from God’s Script. The greatest flaw in the mind of fallen man and fallen angel is astronomically underestimating God’s Absolute Power: “...thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove [rebuke and correct] thee, and set them [Truth] in order before thine eyes.” (Psalm 50:21)

* Before the Modern Era, the term humanist referred to a person who loved truth and studied the “humanities”, arts and sciences. That term has been polluted by Secular Humanism, which is a man-centered religion that is intended to replace God (of which Evolution was a major step).]

41The Jews [Judeans] then murmured at Him, because He said, ‘I am the Bread which came down from Heaven’. 42And they said [among themselves], ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that He saith, I came down from Heaven?’ 43Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, ‘Murmur not among yourselves. 44No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the Last Day. 45It is written in the Prophets, “And they shall be all taught of God”. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me. 46Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. 47Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath Everlasting Life.* (John 6)

[* Again, faith originates in no man. Man does not choose to believe or choose to come to God. Faith is not dispensed like candy from the “Christmas train”, Santa tossing it freely to all. Faith is a Gift of God to the elect of His people—and to no one else. It is the right of a father to determine who his children will be; and a righteous father rejects imposters.

How would you like it...? if alien infants (offspring of your enemy) were thrust into your house, as if under a communist government, with the order: You will adopt and raise these children and they will inherit everything that you own; and you can impose no rules on them; they will live as they please.

It is the Goodness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4); and goodness exists in no man (Romans 3:10-12) unless deposited there by God’s Holy Spirit at the time of regeneration; and that faith is then daily worked into the soul by the washing of the Word upon the mind (if the individual believer reads, meditates, absorbs, conforms to the Word, daily). The “whosoever will” refers solely to the elect of God’s people whom God has regenerated, giving them ears to hear and faith to believe, and the desire to seek God, and the ability to repent and obey. Other people can have “ideas” or know “information”—but it is the difference between delusion and reality; it is the difference between knowing facts (such as that recorded in Norse mythology) and actually believing those facts as truth. If pigs were told: “You can follow the Good Shepherd and be adopted as sheep and live forever”—only the most-degenerate of swine would not “follow” and “believe”. But their “choice to believe and follow” does not make them sheep. Not only do they continue to wallow in the mire of their own feces and urine—but actual sheep then learn their foul customs and mindset and attitude by having swine in the sheepfold (some deluded / immoral sheep even “adopting” piglets and raising them as sheep; which is meaningless existentially, but forces the less-intelligent and less-principled sheep into entering the same abominable delusion).

Since the majority of sheep today (deceived by wolves and pigs in sheep’s clothing) believe the lie that Jesus abolished the Law of God (even though Jesus said that He did NOT), then it is a logical, unspoken conclusion that there is no need to repent, there is no need to change, there no need to be forgiven or saved. It is the “best of both worlds” (God’s and Satan’s): You can sin however you please and God will still accept you—Jesus died for everyone and for all sins past and present and future. This is antichrist doctrine. Due to the misinterpretation and misapplication of the “Great Commission” and the “Gospel”, the Law of God and Christ’s reiteration of it in His Command, “Give not that which is holy to the dogs... cast not pearls before swine...” has resulted not in the Christianization of pagan savages, but the paganization of Christendom, and its return to barbarism and, “The Post-Christian Era and the New Dark Ages” (see my book with this title).

Jesus is not Saviour of those for whom He is not Lord—those who do not obey what God / Jesus commanded* and who live as if they are their own were never redeemed, were not bought with a price, were never regenerated, are not Christ’s sheep.

* Jesus came to do the Father’s Will and obey His Commandments, and Jesus’ Commandments are the very same as those of the Father because He and His Father are One.]

48I am that Bread of Life [#2222, dz-ey]. 49Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50This [Me, the Person that you see before you and hear speaking] is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51I am the Living [#2198, dzah-] Bread which came down from Heaven: if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever: and the Bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the [the elect of God’s people in the] world’. 52The Jews [Judeans] therefore strove among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat?’ 53Then Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, ye have no Life [#2222, dz-ey] in you. 54Whoso eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath Eternal Life [#2222, dz-ey]; and I will raise him up at the Last Day. 55For My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. 56He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. 57As the Living [#2198, dzah-] Father hath sent Me, and I live [#2198, dzah-] by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live [#2198, dzah-] by Me. 58This is that Bread which came down from Heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever’. 59These things said He in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum. (John 6)

[* Of course, Christ was speaking figuratively, not literally. That is one method by which God hides the truth from those not meant to know it. Not only does He cause them outright to believe it not; but in many cases, He sends them delusion to believe a lie—to “spiritualize” that which is literal, and to think literally concerning that which is figurative (which is a form of calling good “evil” and evil “good” and adding to or detracting from the Law and / or Prophecy of God—of which not one jot or tittle shall fail). Some spiritually blind people (thinking themselves “ever so spiritual”) have an unnatural ability to interpret incorrectly most any passage of Scripture. The only thing that can explain such uncanny ability to be wrong, nearly every time, is that God has blinded their eyes so that they cannot believe—and then God “ordains” the blind to follow the blind to their mutual destruction (as my back cover illustration depicts).]

60Many therefore of His [self-assumed, “fair-weather”] disciples, when they had heard this, said, ‘This is an hard saying; who can hear it?’*1 61When Jesus knew in Himself*2 that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, ‘Doth this offend [skahn-dahl-id-z] you? 62What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?*3 63It is the Spirit that quickeneth;*4 the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life. 64But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew*5 from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. 65And He said, ‘Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him [invited] of My Father. 66From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.”*5 (John 6)

[*1 —certainly not those who cannot understand it!

*2 Here we have an evidence of Jesus’ Divinity.

*3 This appears to be a rhetorical question in which the second half of the question is actually left unsaid. The implication seems to be: “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before? —would you then believe? or would you still be offended...?” This has the flavor of Christ’s revelation (NOT a “parable”) in His sharing of the reply of Abraham in Paradise (the “air conditioned portion of Hell, also known as Abraham’s Bosom) to the desperate entreaty of the rich man on the other side of the great canyon, in “Hell Proper”, begging Abraham to send someone from the dead to warn his brethren about the reality of Hell (indeed, once Judgment begins, NO one shall doubt its reality) lest his brethren also be damned. Abraham replied, “If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

*4 #2277 dz-op-oy-eh- = “(re)generates, gives you life, makes you live, causes you to be born (again)”. Again, those who are spiritually dead are deluded thinking that they are indeed already alive—so what need have they (reason they, in their minds) for someone to give them life...? There is none so blind as the blind man who thinks that he can see. Getting many individuals “saved” is not the problem, but causing them to realize that they are lost, sinful, spiritually dead. Humanists like to think of themselves in the most favorable (even delusional) light. Humanists worship self. When self is offended, they react hostilely. How dare you offend their god of self! However, many humanists still cherish the fond idea of a “Jesus fetish”; and knowing that they themselves are not God (which could easily be proved by anyone to ask them to perform a miracle, create a universe, etc.), they like to retain the inward fantasy that they are the boss, and in charge. However, they still give a tiny bit (on their terms) of impotent lip service that “God is God”, while essentially also stripping Him of all His Right and Attributes. They have God bow to man and demand that the “old antiquated” God conform to the modern world and accept man’s perverse notions of reality, doctrine, and “morality”. In their minds (whether they realize it or not, it is the actual inference of the “doctrine” they espouse that) sinful man determines what God is and is not allowed to think, say, or do. If He were not to so conform to modern sinful man’s ever-changing notions, they would adjudge Him in their minds as being “evil”. Therefore (in their minds, in which actual thinking rarely takes place; the brain-center has been emptied of all “thinking apparatus” and it has been rennovated into a modern “recreation center”, in which only politically correct propaganda and emotionalism is allowed to be practiced) God has to do what man says; such as, love and accept every last individual on man’s terms, and give up those antiquated ideas that God recorded in those archaic, out-of-date, horrible “Old Testament”—you know, the very ones that Christ quoted, called “the Scriptures”, of which not one word shall ever pass away. Such mentally challenged, spiritually dead “Christians” then project their unbiblical notions onto God, as if those notions are God’s.

Again, this perversion of Doctrine is the sin of calling good “evil” and evil “good” and adding to or detracting from the Word of God; and like the Pharisees, substituting for the actual Word of God, sinful man’s own corrupt notions; and by those denominational or individual traditions they render of no effect the Word of God. Understand: “It is the Spirit that quickeneth [gives life]”; and even as Christ Himself said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”* (John 8:36), the inverse of these statements is also true: Those whom the Spirit does not give Life shall not live; and those whom the Son does not free shall not be freed. “He that believeth on the Son hath Everlasting Life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life; but the Wrath of God abideth [shall ever be abiding] on him” (John 3:36; reiterated in I John 5:12). Similarly, Christ said of His sheep, “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5) and “My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them, and they follow [obey] Me” (John 10:27) and “If ye love Me, keep My Commandments” (John 14:15). The inverse of these is also true: Those who follow the voice of strangers [not knowing the difference between their voices [teaching / doctrine] and Christ’s Voice] are not His sheep; those who do not hear [recognize] Christ’s Voice and do not obey Him are not His sheep (and neither are any dogs or pigs who may “follow”** Him), and if you do not keep My Commandments, you do not love Me. Again, reality, morality, and responsibility and the very nature of those things are defined by God’s Decrees—not by what sinful man wants them to be.

* It should be here noted that when Christ spoke these words, the Edomite Pharisees masquerading as Israelites, took offense to His Words, again, misunderstanding them, for it was not given unto them to understand the truth, and repent, and be forgiven (and the little truth that they did perceive offended them, because it was spoken against them. They demonstrated that they were not true Israel, though they were claiming that they were Abraham’s seed (illegitimately through Esau). They claimed that they had never been in bondage to any man (despite the fact that the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt for about 144 years, and then in Israel and Judah’s respective captivities in Assyria (possibly for 100 years) and in Babylon (for 70 years). Those whose minds God has closed to the truth—their minds shall forever remain closed to the truth unless God in His Mercy opens their minds, softens their hearts and necks, opens their eyes and ears, grants them the gift of repentance and the Holy Spirit.

** Understand, stray dogs that are hungry will follow anyone, hoping for a handout. For the same reason seagulls follow fishing boats—but they do not follow because they are “believers”. All they believe in is a free meal (which they will even steal, if given the opportunity).

*5 Again, Jesus’ / God’s “knowledge” is NOT passive, but deterministic. God in Christ chose the elect before the foundation of the world. The wicked are ordained unto condemnation; the vessels of wrath are made for destruction (think “crash-test dummies”; Hollywood building a house on a movie site, or purchasing a car, boat, or plane for the sole purpose of blowing it up). Furthermore, the very fact that Christ spoke words that offended them was for the very purpose that it would cause them to stop following Him. Again, “the wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away”. The wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, even as, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).]

“67Then said Jesus unto the twelve, ‘Will ye also go away?’ 68Then Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of Eternal Life [#2222, dz-ey]. 69And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the Living [#2198, dzah-] God’. 70Jesus answered them, ‘Have not I chosen* you twelve, and one of you is a devil?’* 71He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray Him, being one of the twelve.” (John 6)

[* The elect are predestined unto Life and the wicked unto perdition. God gives each the nature fitted to each destiny and purpose; the Holy Spirit draws the elect (sheep) and drives away the swine / dogs / wolves / serpents. The elect are fashioned to be vessels of honor, the nonelect are fashioned to be vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. Christ chose the 12—but He did not choose all for the same purpose: Judas was the son of perdition fitted for destruction: “for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Likewise, God created all things—but He did not create all things to share the same nature, identity, status, or purpose. Clean and unclean animals did not descend (or “evolve) from a common parent-ancestor. God separated clean and unclean in the very act of creating them unrelated and different. That is the two-edged sword of dual predestination. It cuts both ways. So also it is with people.

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“If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 7:16)

[The only ones with ears to hear are those whom God in Christ has ordained unto Life, whom the Holy Spirit has quicked unto Life, whose ears are then opened to hear. Understand, Lazarus, dead in the tomb did not ask to be resurrected. His corpse, being dead, could not even hear—but when the Master of the universe ordered, “Come forth!” even dead tissue and Lazarus’ spirit in Abraham’s Bosom could not but obey—controlled by His Power. THAT is regeneration: calling from death unto life; opening blind eyes; opening deaf ears; giving a new nature / mind / heart / spirit. “Free choice” turns Christ’s Bride into a barnyard, with no difference between clean and unclean and no difference between domesticated [obedient, lawful] and wild [rebellious, lawless]; and the husbandman / rancher is reduced to an impotent caretaker who is a mere spectator and servant cleaning up after the animals, with no authority to make any demands upon them, receiving nothing in return from them (milk, eggs, butter, cheese, wool, chicken, mutton, beef).]

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“Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28)

Deluded Preterists concoct the notion that Jesus returned in a.d. 70, ignoring a mass amount of Scripture that they make of none effect, in their ignorant attempt to squeeze out of this verse an interpretation that make sense to their confused minds—even though the resolution of this declaration is fulfilled in the very verses that follow! Yet, they persist in the belief that it was fulfilled some 37 years later (a.d. 70), which Scripture nowhere mentions. They demonstrate that they do not understand God’s Plan revealed in the Scriptures. The only way this is possible is profound delusion sent by God—and as evidence of it, I venture to say that none has ever earnestly prayed to God: “God, if I am in delusion, please deliver me from it and show me the truth and engraft it to my heart, so that I do not stray, and so that I do not lead even a single of Your people astray.” Here, in the very next verse begins the fulfillment of Christ’s Prophetic Declaration:

“1And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart [from the other disciples], 2And was transfigured before them: and His Face did shine as the sun, and His Raiment was white as the light. 3And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him. 4Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias’. 5While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a Voice out of the cloud, which said, ‘This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him’. 6And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.” (Matthew 17)

[The Law [inseperable from the Priesthood] and the Prophets are here represented—and Christ the King. Christ appeared in His Glory, even as He shall be when He returns (Peter, James, and John were given “a preview of coming attractions). Christ shall appear with the holy angels to separate the wheat from the tares and Christ shall sit in Judgment:

“When the Son of man shall come in His Glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the Throne of His Glory.” (Matthew 25:31)

This Glory is His Kingdom, represented by the New Jerusalem in the Eternal Kingdom:

“And the City had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the Glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof.” (Revelation 21:23)

Note that concerning v.4, I have heard some preachers claim that Peter was babbling stupidity and suggested that these tabernacles were for worshipping all three of them: Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. This is stupidity and shows that such pastors / Bible teachers did not understand the simple Word of God; and they accused Peter of such mindless blasphemy. Tabernacles are for dwelling in. John, recollecting this, wrote:

“1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The Same [This Very One] was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men .... 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled]* among us, (and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father,) full of Grace and Truth.” (I John 1)

* #4637 skey-nah-, “to tent or encamp”.

It was an incredible experience, seeing Moses and Elijah (maybe like our seeing Martin Luther and George Washington)—transfigured, hovering in the air above the mountain, Christ shining in His near-blinding radiance. Peter did NOT suggest that they would bow down to and worship all three...! The tabernacles were for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah to temporarily dwell in, as Peter hoped for an extended visit. Peter wanted the experience to last (not commit blasphemy and idolatry!); and since he did not suggest building tabernacles (tents, booths, huts) for himself, James, and John, in humility, Peter was willing to sleep in the open and his only concern was that Moses, Elijah, and Christ (whom Peter had just confessed as “The Christ, the Son of the Living God”) would be comfortable and have a suitable temporary place to sleep.]

“11And I saw Heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in Righteousness He doth judge and make war. 12His Eyes were as a Flame of Fire,*1 and on His Head were many crowns; and He had a Name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. 13And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His Name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies which were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15And out of His Mouth goeth a sharp Sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a Rod of Iron: and He treadeth the Winepress of the Fierceness and Wrath of Almighty God. 16And He hath on His Vesture and on His Thigh*2 a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19)

[*1 “But a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and Fiery Indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:27)

*2 In Scripture, a man’s thigh represents strength (on a woman, it represents beauty, and is the courtyard to the reproductive inner chamber; which is why the thy would rot, if a woman was guilty of infidelity, and accused by her husband before the priest; Numbers 5:21ff.).]

“But those Nine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before Me.” (Luke 19:27)

“7And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8In Flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel*1 of our Lord Christ Jesus: 9Who shall be punished with Everlasting Destruction*2 from the Presence of the Lord, and from the Glory of His Power; 10When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that Day.” (II Thessalonians 1)

[*1 Note that the Gospel is something to be obeyed! Note that those who are “appointed unto disobedience” (as we shall see shortly) cannot obey; even as those who are deaf cannot hear.

*2 Note that if destruction ends it is not “everlasting”.]

Humanists who fancy themselves “Christians” caricature God and Jesus and take a few Attributes / Divine Perfections / Aspects of Divine Nature (“love”, “goodness”) and blow them out of proportion as if those are God’s only Attributes (and they throw all the rest away, as if God / Jesus have “useless” spare parts). They take Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, Look upon a little child” and imagine that is “all” there is. They forget that only the first time Christ came as a Lamb—and the second time He shall appear as a Lion—to avenge His Bride. However, it won’t be a “pretty” lion, bathed and groomed for a photo shoot. After a lion has take its prey and devoured it, it is covered with blood from its nose and paws to its chest and shoulders. Those spiritually dead “Christians” who think that God will never judge anyone worship a false god. God indeed is Love. But He is not love for His enemies whom He hates. God is not double minded. He is not “All Love” without boundaries (which are established by His other Attributes). Love is one of His Attributes. His Love is Absolute in quality and quantity—but it is not Absolute in its application / distribution: It is not “universal” and given to every last creature. None of God’s Attributes vies for supremacy and elbows and shoves and crowds out any of His other Attributes. None of God’s Attirbutes are in opposition to any of His other attributes: All of His Attributes are in complete harmony with the others, for He is Perfect.*

[* See my highly annotated edition of Arthur Pink’s, The Attributes of God, 199pp., pb., 17.50 + P&H.]

“God is a* Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:24)—that is, in order to truly be worshipped, He must be worshipped according to His Own Self-Revelation in the Word of God, and according to His Decrees and Commands. In Spirit—via God’s Holy Spirit, and in Truth, according to the only Reality and Truth that God has decreed and revealed in His Word (not according to the silly notions of sinful men).

[* This is a translational error. God is not “a” Spirit. God IS SPIRIT. Likewise, God does not have a Mind—He IS TRUTH. God does not have an arm—He IS POWER.]

Such humanists who think that God will never judge anyone, ignore or are ignorant of the above passages (Revelation 19, Luke 19, II Thessalonians 1), and numerous others, and they also forget—

“1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven .... 8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3).

and that God declared:

“The LORD [Yahweh] is a Man of war: the LORD [Yahweh] is His Name.” (Exodus 15:3)

and

“9Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the Faithful God, which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love Him and keep His Commandments to a thousand generations; 10And repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them: He will not be slack to him that hateth Him, He will repay him to his face.” (Deuteronomy 7)

[Note also, God can only “keep Covenant” with those with whom He has covenanted.]

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“Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” (Matthew 18:7)

Woe, when context dictates, is an expression of grief, remorse, pity, shame, futility, such as the older English word “alas”; or as expressed in the phrases, “What a pity!”, “What a Tragedy!”, “Oh how unfortunate!”, “Oh how awful!”, or even “For shame!”, when context indicates.

However, it is also an expression of denunciation and imprecation, when context dictates, and therefore, could be replaced with “Curs.ed!” or even “Damned!” Thus, “Woe unto them that call evil ‘good’ and good ‘evil’, is an imprecation “Curs.ed / damned be...”; not merely an expression of sorrow. In Matthew 8, the word woe is used twice: The meaning of the first “woe” is sorrow—sympathy for the suffering of the world generically (not the evil world—for they deserve more evil / Judgment, not pity). However, the meaning of the second “woe” clearly means, “Curs.ed be ...!” or “Damned be ...!” the one by whom (the vessels of wrath) the offences come.

“26For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins, 27But a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and Fiery Indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28He that despised [and violated a law worthy of death as established in] Moses’ Law [God’s Law delivered by Moses; such an unrepentant sinner] died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace? 30For we know Him that hath said, ‘Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense’, saith the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord shall judge His people’. 31It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God.” (Hebrews 10)

“17For the time is come that Judgment must begin at the House of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? 18And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (II Peter 4)

[Again, notice that the true Gospel is something that is to be obeyed—for there is no peace with God, there is no forgiveness, if the individual child of God has not repented of and confessed his sins and then, as Christ commanded: “go and sin no more” (meaning, stop sinning and obey what God commanded). There is NO repentance without stopping sinning and beginning obeying—there is only a pseudo-spiritual emotional experience that is sterile and fraudulent. Works play no part in salvation—they are the natural by-product of regeneration. Where no works are evident, the Holy Spirit is not Resident. An infant born that does not show signs of life is dead. So also it is with regeneration: If truly regenerated, you will shows signs of true life; even as a plant or a tree sprouts, grows leaves, branches, and bears fruit—the fruit that its Creator ordained that it should bear. Remember, when Christ came upon a fig tree, that was not bearing fruit at the time that it should have been—He cursed it and it shrivelled up and died (Matthew 21:19,20). Every branch that beareth fruit, He pruneth that it may bear more fruit; and those branches that do not bear the fruit that He commanded (the natural fruit of being a branch on the True Vine, Christ Himself), He cuts off and casts into the fire; and whole trees that bear not His Fruit are hewn down and cast into the fire (John 15:1-6). If this is the fate and Judgment of God’s very people who are unregenerate—what is the fate of those who are not His people, who hate Him, who attempt to destroy His House, True Doctrine, Christendom...? If all nations (other than His Own people) to Him are no more than a drop of water in a bucket, or the fine dust of the balances—so insignificant that would change the weight of nothing (Isaiah 40:15), what then is any individual to Him? God does not change or even bend the rules for anyone. All are to conform to Him or suffer the consequences. Those who live in sin and do not fear God’s Judgment do not know God—and God declares that they are not His sons, but bastards (Hebrews 12:8). Again, all the evil befalling Christendom is not happening because God is happy with us, rather:

“1Behold, the LORD’s Hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His Ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His Face from you, that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59)

“10Thus saith the LORD unto this people, ‘Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins’. 11Then said the LORD unto me, ‘Pray not for this people for their good. 12When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence’.” (Jeremiah 14)

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” (Hosea 4:6)

Our children are the next generation of us: no more children—no more us. The prognosis does not seem encouraging. God is separating the wheat from the chaff. [See my, Calling the Remnant..., 88pp., 7.00 + P&H.] Those who cry out to God, then when He does not answer immediately, go back to their old way of life are made for Judgment. Those who truly desire to be forgiven and delivered will not take “no” for an answer, but throw themselves upon the Mercy of the High Court of Heaven and lay hold to the horns of the altar—until delivered or taken in death. When God’s people get serious about repenting, God will get serious about delivering. Until then, He is culling His herd / flock, until all that are left are those who are repenting. As I have written for over a decade: Why should God deliver us from what we are willing to tolerate? God commanded that hate evil. Instead, God’s people ignore it, tolerate it, include it—even hold hands with, adopt, and marry it.]

Understand, Christ Jesus, God the Son, is God and co-equal and co-existent with the Father and the Holy Spirit. God the Son (Christ Jesus, the Word of God), God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are all Creator (John 1:1-4; Job 26:13; Genesis 1:1-3*); all were involved in Predestination; all were involved in Christ being offered up; all were involved in Christ’s Resurrection, all are involved in regeneration of the believer; all are involved in prayer; all are involved in the giving of the Law, all are involved in Coming Judgment.

[* The irrefutable conclusion of logic is that if all 3 created the world, then all 3 are God. The Triunity of God is seen even in Genesis 1:1-3. Clearly mentioned are God, the Holy Spirit, and Christ “the Word” (what is it that is “said”...? —words. Jesus made numerous declarations of His Divinity, which a casual or humanistic reader will not notice. In Matthew 19:17, Christ replied to the rich young ruler: “Why callest thou Me good? there is none good but One, that is, God”. Christ did not say, “Don’t call Me good: for I am not God”. The unspoken implication of what He did say was, “for I AM God”. Elsewhere, Christ was blatant, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) and “...he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father...” (John 14:9). However, although the Three Persons of the Trinity are One, They are also Three, and distinct; though even as we cannot dissect man’s soul and spirit, thoughts and intents, neither can we dissect God:

“For the Word of God is quick [alive], and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” (I Corinthians 2:11)
I shall give one example of the distinct individuality of the persons of the Trinity, in one aspect:

“31Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 32And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” (Matthew 12)

Again, not being forgiven in the world to come infers Everlasting Judgment: for if the wicked ceased to exist before the next world began (in the Judgment at the end of the old world), then those who “don’t exist” could not be “not forgiven”.

However, God is not 3 Gods (as Christ attested to in John 10:30; 17:22); there is One God (Deuteronomy 6:4; I Timothy 2:5; Ephesians 4:4-6), in 3 Persons (not merely 3 roles or 3 offices). Neither did Jesus suffer the psychosis of Dissociative Identity (Multiple Personality) Disorder; or merely have neurotic visions of grandeur. As I have written for 3 decades, “God’s Being and ability to be is not limited by man’s inability to understand God’s Being and ability to be”. If God were perfectly and completely understandable by finite man, then He would not be God—just some really powerful dude! The “god” of the average “Christian” is very small, very weak, very limited, very incapable, and even unsovereign, ill-concerned, overly polite: too “polite” to “interfere” in any “individual’s” life. The god of such “Christians” is like the billions of gods of the Hindus—each created in the mind of each individual, the way that each thinks his god is, or rather, should be. Most “Christians” imagine Jesus in the (false) notion of Gandhi—a gentle, all-suffering pacifist who will simply endure any abuse and smile and say something esoterically profound. Jesus is not Gandhi...! —and neither was Gandhi.* Jesus endured abuse for a specific time and a specific purpose (and as Predestination, that Purpose for which He endured suffering is a two-edged sword)—to take upon Himself the Judgment for the whole elect of His people, and to serve as means of the wicked “filling up the full measure” of God’s Wrath, the Judgment that God determined for them: “The LORD hath made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the Day of Evil [Judgment]” (Proverbs 16:4). Hell was made for the wicked and the wicked were made for Hell—a match made in Heaven! It is truly horrific and sad to think about—however, that is the wrong thing to focus on. What you should focus on is the fact that God is Holy, Just, Perfect, Omniscient, and Right in all that He does. We are to focus on trusting and obeying Him. We are to focus on the doing all that we can to be a witness to the Truth, to all that are dear to us, and to the greater body of our people. Some ignorant Christians who reject sound doctrine (and thus, who reject God—for you cannot reject God’s Decrees, Laws, an Ideas without rejecting Him) think that Predestination causes hearts to be cold, thinking that since God has already predestined all, why should we even witness. Again, such persons are ignorant and show their utter lack of understanding Scripture, because they are selfish and self-centered. We are to witness to our people because God commanded us to! We are to witness to our people because God’s people are usually the means by which He accomplishes His Will, including reaching the lost sheep (Romans 10:14). We are to witness to our people because if the roles were reversed and you and I were unregenerate one step away from Eternal Judgment, would not you or I want one of our kinsmen to care enough about us to pray for us, to witness to us? God controls the Harvest. Our duty is to obey and plant seeds.

However many “Christians” think that they can declaw and neuter the Almighty Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and file down His Teeth so that He can “eat straw like an ox”, and render Him docile and harmless—a “Trophy God” simply to look nice on display, but not interfere in “man’s” life. Those who think and live as if their lives are their own, most probably were not bought with a price...! Christ is not Saviour of those for whom He is not also LORD: for if redeemed, they were bought with a price and they are not their own (I Corinthians 6:19,20). This toothless, clawless old purring lion on a vegetarian diet, a smiling old pudding-minded grandfather, a gentle pacifistic Gandhi is NOT the picture that Scripture paints of Christ’s Return. Furthermore, Jesus is not merely going to “wing it” upon His Return—the End was planned with the Beginning.

* Gandhi (like Mandela) was a terrorist who wanted to destroy the British government in India, who realized that the British Empire (now destroyed from within**) was too powerful to fight in actual warfare, so he feigned pacifism (like Mandela) to destroy from within. This destruction from within are accomplished by destroying from within the 2 things that make Christendom Christendom: the true faith and the true people.

** Destroyed through absorbing the Third-world aliens of its former colonies, in violation of the Law of God and Christ’s own Command (Matthew 7:6; Revelation 18:4); even as the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, South Africa, and every other nation of Christendom is being destroyed. This is the fulfillment of Revelation (the Dragon / Serpent vomiting forth a Flood to destroy the woman and her child, God’s people) and Daniel (the feet and toes made of iron and clay, which represents integration, and which represent the last Kingdom of this Earth’s Age: the Kingdom of Heaven being reduced to Babylon: “confusion by mixing”; and the more we absorb, the less “Christian” we become). See my, Calling the Remnant... and The Other Side, (1991 / 2008 / 2022 2nd rev. / expanded edition) 3 in-depth examinations on: 1: False Prophets of Peace: Is Communism Really Dying?; 2: Public School Education in America Today: Programmed to Fail Through Educational Warfare; 3: Who’s In Charge, Who’s To Blame?: The Crises Facing America and Christendom Today; 648pp., 6x9 pb., 32.50 + P&H detailed comparison of older and current statistics crime, prisons, immigration, police and military, powerful quotes and information exposing education, false religion, and a corrupt socialist government, thoughts and philosophy on freedom, Constitutional and Common Law, etc. Illustrated; 648pp., 6x9 pb., 32.50 + P&H.  See also, Are Celestial Mysteries, History, and Prophecy Revealed in the Orion Nebula, the Stars, the Constellations, and the Zodiac...?, 82pp., 8.5” x 7”, pb., 58 illustrations, 2 page color; 12.50 + P&H, What’s Keeping God from Delivering America, Britain and Europe from Destruction...?, 112pp., pb., 9.50 + P&H, and The Futurist and Rapture Conspiracy, 164pp., pb. illustrated, 13.00 + P&H.]

Jewish communist revolutionary Karl Marx wrote, “England seems to be the rock against which all revolutionary waves are broken”. Queen Victoria expressed, “The Bible is the secret to Great Britain’s greatness.” French philosopher, political theorist, and historian, Alexis de Toqueville almost prophetically expressed, “America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good, she shall cease to be great.” That has happened, by hook and by crook, by the “redefining” of “goodness”—the “bait and switch”. The younger generations are completely ignorant of the switch, having grown up only knowing current events, and they think that being a multicultural, multi-religion, gender-perverse nation in which 27,000 murders take place each year, and a woman is raped every 6 minutes, and political corruption, “government” overreach, a $32 Trillion-dollar debt, etc. is all “normal” and that “it has always been that way”—when it has not!

[Again, see my, The Other Side for a slew of statistics and history.]

God pronounced another “Woe” (not merely a helpless, handwringing, passive, impotent, “Alas” —but an outright Curs.ed be...!) upon those who would call good “evil” and evil “good”—perverting everything that He established by Decree and by His unchanging Law, the Only Standard of Morality. And what can be expected when the blind shepherds, and the evil shepherds—prophets for hire and tares sown in among the wheat—have declared that God abolished His Law...? even though Jesus said that He did NOT, and that not even the slightest pen stroke of the Law would EVER pass (Matthew 5:18; Luke 16:17). Those who follow false christs (which is what “Christians” do when they believe false / blind pastors / teachers who claim the very opposite of what Jesus said) are led to destruction—like moths driven to the flames. Jesus said that HIS sheep know HIS VOICE and FOLLOW (obey) HIM and that His sheep will not follow the voices of strangers (John 10:5,27). Scripture says that those who claim to know God, but violate His Law do not know God and the Truth is not in them (I John 2:3,4). The only logical inference of those “Christians” who believe (and do) the very opposite of what Jesus said, is that they are not His sheep and that they do not know God. Can a person be a “Christian” if the Truth (Jesus said, “I am the... Truth” and called the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of Truth”) is not in him...? Of course not! The average “Christian” entertains a pagan, semi-superstition of the god that he (or his denomination or favorite guru) has created in his own mind and then projects that onto the God of the Universe as if it were Him. But God does not stoop and put on the humanistic Halloween costume! Such “Christians” continue on in delusion that He sent them.

However, the One True God made all things for Himself, for His Own Glory, for His Own Purpose, after the Counsel of His Own Will.]

“...for it must needs be that offences come.”

The notes in my KJV Open Bible (Thomas Nelson, 1975) renders must needs be as “is unavoidable”, which sounds passively fatalistic, mere happenstance (and out of God’s Control) and this also renders the word a negative, and therefore a paraphrase that departs from the text; and not a translation; though I again point out it is in “a note”, not in the text. The Bible Hub, Online Bible, which is often quite good, renders it, “it is necessary”. Both of these I believe are deficient and lack force, direction, and purpose (though “it is necessary” is better than “it is unavoidable”).

Why “must” it “needs be”...? —because God determined it! As He has thought, so shall it come to pass; as He has purposed, so shall it stand (Isaiah 14:24). God determined that there were to be villains (and victims) in His Drama, which is His Will acted out into our “reality”, to display the full Panoply of His Attributes.

The word in Matthew 18:7 for offenses is the Greek word #4625 skandalon (whence our word scandal / scandalous is derived; and it is, of course, the same word-family used in the verse back in Matthew 13, in our study of Luke 4 in which the wicked men of Nazareth at the synagogue were offended at Jesus’ words and tried to murder Him). Strong and most other authorities claim of this Greek word: “[probably from a derivative of #2578 KAHMP-t, “to bend, bow”]; a trap stick (bent sapling), that is, snare (figuratively cause of displeasure or sin):—occasion to fall (of stumbling), offence, thing that offends, stumbling-block.”

However, KAHMP-t bears no rootish resemblence to skandalon. Furthermore, the main verse in which skandalon is used and given association with stumbling or tripping is:

“And a Stone of Stumbling, and a Rock [#4073 petra]*1 of Offence [#4625 skahn-dahl-on],*1 even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.”*2 (I Peter 2:8)

[*1 Understand the humbling experience of Peter being moved by the Holy Spirit to write the above verse, in consideration of the fact that when Peter, not understanding Christ’s words, Peter contradicted Christ’s words and interfered with God’s Plan, Christ “...turned, and said unto Peter [#4074 Pet-ros], ‘Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence [#4625 skahn-dahl-on] unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:23). #4073 petra is the feminine form of #4074 Pet-ros. Christ was not saying that Peter was Satan, but was revealing the fact concerning who clouded Peter’s mind to so misunderstand and interfere.

*2 Again, notice that the wicked are “appointed unto disobedience”; even as in Jude they are “ordained unto condemnation”.]

However, the Greek word in this passage used for “stumbling” and “stumble” is not skahn-dahl-on or KAHMP-t, but it is the unrelated #4350 pros-KOP-t, “to strike at, that is, surge against (as water); specifically to stub on, that is, trip up (literally or figuratively):—beat upon, dash, stumble (at)”.
Thus, it seems to me that a false association between skandalon and “stumble, trip” has been drawn. It seems to me that the more-likely origin of #4625 skahn-dahl-on is the very next word in Strong’s Lexicon, #4626 skahp-t, “to dig”. David clearly expresses the intention of such digging, “For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul” (Psalm 35:7) as does Jeremiah, “Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul” (18:20). These verses, of course employ Hebrew words, as they are in the Old Testament; however, they express the same meaning.

Note also that the Greek word for disobedience and disbelief in the passage in I Peter is the same word (likewise, these two English words, in Hebrew are the same word). The last part of this verse explains the reason and the reason within the reason. It is by the Determinism of God.

[Again, God blinded / shut the eyes, etc., of all—and God opens only those of the elect of His people: Ephesians 1:34; John 6:64; 15:16. Nonexistent fetuses don’t choose to be conceived or choose who shall conceive them. Unborn babies don’t choose to be born or choose who their parents will be. Sheep don’t choose their shepherd or rancher. Slaves don’t choose their masters. Olives, grapes, figs, or wheat do not choose their orchardist, vine dresser / vinter, or farmer. Dead corpses do not choose to come back to life.]

Those who do not believe what the Word of God clearly says cannot obey* God, even as those whose natures are not “good” cannot do good.

[* Incidentally doing what God commanded is not obedience. Obedience entails knowledge of what is required, and actually doing it. Picking and choosing which of your master’s orders that you will obey is not obedience either. Doing what you want is not obedience, if you only choose to do the parts that you like; and it is not obedience if you don’t know what is required. It is serendipity. However, there are also other factors that are involved in actual obedience.]

“Good” is not existential; nor is it defined by any human. For someone to do that which is actually good—

1. the nature of the doer must be good;

2. the motivation* of the doer to do the act must be good;

3. the spirit and letter of the deed must be good; and

4. the target for the deed must be good (in accordance with #3); or, at least “appropriate” for the act.

[* This motivation also applies to attitude. If someone’s attitude is shameful, it is not really obedience, but mere compliance. If a father orders his son to do something specific, that order entails doing it the right way, the way instructed, which also includes a good attitude—for a bad attitude is a poor reflection on the father and on the business. Similarly, if a wife does what the husband requires, but with a resentful, hostile attitude, as the ice queen—to make the husband regret having dared be the head of the wife as God commanded, that certainly is not obedience; even as if someone in the Old Testament offered the required thank offering or sin offering, while cursing God out and giving Him the middle finger or shaking his fist toward Heaven, would be neither worship nor repentance. No one would marry a woman, or tolerate his children, or hire a servant / employee (or buy a slave, if we are talking about ancient times) who exhibited hostility, hateful glares, mumbling curses under his breath, having a bad attitude, being argumentative, doing the task the way that he wants to do it, not as he is told, picking and choosing which of the orders he feels like doing. All of those things factor into the full equation that = obedience. They may be unspoken and “understood”, but they are all part of the job description for obedience, in addition to the specific task at hand.]

Those who do not believe what God clearly revealed are spiritually dead. They cannot resurrect themselves or change what God ordained. There is none righteous—no not one, there is none that doeth good, there is none that seeketh after God (Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Romans 3:10,11). Therefore, if any do, it is solely because God has so ordained, and elected, and called such of His people from death unto life, and imparted the faith to believe and the ability to obey: “for without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). The only way the elect of God’s people can do “good” is if they are “in Christ”—clothed in His Righteousness, “walking in” the Spirit (that is, walking with the spirit in the direction that the Spirit is going, not turning to the left hand or the right—or making a u-turn; or sitting down in the middle of the road), being a branch on Christ, the vine / tree. The wicked were appointed unto disbelief / disobedience and unto destruction (see also Jude 1:4). The steps of a good / righteous man are ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23). God predestined the elect unto salvation and the nonelect unto perdition. Just because sinful man is horrified by such a notion does not mean that God is! The majority of parents are too squeemish to spank their children. Sweden actually outlawed it in 1979. Yet violent crime continues to escalate, year after year (and properly spanking children as God commanded prevents them from turning into criminals—if you also do not allow the public schools or the television set to raise the children). The vessels of wrath were made for destruction. It is not a pretty thought to our minds, but neither you nor I created the world; and neither you nor I are smarter or holier than God.

[See my book, The Mystery of the Law and Grace Solved! (1995) for more detailed discussion of being “in Christ” and His being “in us” (190pp., pb., 16.00 + P&H; Hb., 22.00 + P&H).]

Sin begins in the mind. This was the focus of Christ’s teaching that a man who lusts after a woman has already committed adultery in his heart (mind), even if never acted upon; so also with a man hating his kinsman-brother without a legal cause. In these two, Christ was not changing the Law, but expanding the narrow minds that had forgotten (or rejected) the 10th Commandment—which itself is evidence that sin begins in the heart. The misunderstood and forgotten 10th Commandment (even as the 1st Commandment), if obeyed, will prevent the violating of any of the other; as will the injunction / remonstrance known as the Royal Law / Golden Rule: Do unto your kinsmen as you would have them do unto you. You would not want any of your kinsmen to violate any of God’s 10 Laws against you. You would not want any of your kinsmen to rob you, murder your son, commit adultery with your wife, rape your daughter, worship false gods, which will bring God’s Judgment on all, etc. So even if you don’t obey God’s Law to obey God, you should do so keeping in mind the Royal Law as well as the Law of the Harvest, “you reap what you sow”.

[The 10 Commandments are not merely 10 individual laws; they are 10 Categories of Law under which the entire Law of God is organized. See my book, Ten Commandments for You^th, 440pp., 6.25 x 9.25, pb., 25.00 + P&H]

The words mind and heart are synonymous in Hebrew [leyb] and Greek [kardia, whence our word cardiac is derived]. The heart does not (but rarely) refer to the emotions, but refers to a source of life, vitality. Scripture says, “as he [a man] thinketh in his heart” (Proverbs 23:7). The heart does not think. The mind (brain) thinks. However, the ancients knew that the heart was a vital organ. A forceful blow or stab to the head or chest both end in death. Although they may not have realized that the brain is what thinks, and sends impulses to the other organs concerning their individual jobs, since pain / anger is often felt in the heart (as well as in the head, face, brain, eyes) they did not realize that the constricting of the arteries, and the resultant increase in blood pressure, etc., was due to signals that the brain sends for the release of hormones and other substances that then cause those reactions. Regardless, they knew the importance of the language and they even sometimes used words for kidneys / spleen / liver (some even translated “bowels”, which is technically incorrect, and should be “inward parts”) in similar ways, though not translated literally as the words “heart” and “mind” are. They used these words because sadness, bitterness, anger, etc. often result in acid indigestion, stomach upset, digestion troubles, etc. As Dr. Gordon H. Clark has irrefutably demonstrated, 95% or more of the times that the word “heart” appears in the English text, “mind” is what is meant. Proverbs 23:7 as quoted above is one of the most-blatant examples.

As a final thought to our text from Matthew 18, we read, immediately after the verse (7) that we considered concerning offences coming into the world:

“8Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into Everlasting Fire. 9And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into Hell Fire. 10Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in Heaven their angels do always behold the Face of My Father which is in Heaven.” (Matthew 18)

If Hell merely meant “the grave” or the burning garbage dump outside Jerusalem that Christ used as an “illustration” of a literal Lake of Fire called Hell. Christ was NOT talking merely about the Valley of the sons of Hinnom.* Tell me, if a person is dead and in the ground, what difference does it make if he has 1, 2, or NO eyes? The point is, that having 2 eyes does him no good in perpetual Judgment. Ceasing to exist is not judgment, for physical death of the body is common to all creatures, and is no greater punishment than that which happens naturally, to all, whether wicked or righteous. However, for those who have endured a lifetime of suffering, pain, heartache, injustice, tragedy, etc.—ceasing to exist would be a blessing! Such a blessing would certainly not be “Judgment”. Furthermore, Judgment that ceases is not Perpetual / Everlasting. If the fire consumed those thrown into it, why then would the fire burn forever if there was nothing in it to burn? Just because the thought is horrifying (the notion of Hell / Judgement is not supposed to give you the warm fuzzies!) does not mean that God did not create and decree it. Slaughting entire families, women, children, and infants, most people would also consider to be horrific; but does that mean that God did not command it? God also commanded the death penalty for many things. God also commanded that if a woman in a fight grabbed a man by his testicals her hand was to be cut off. God often commanded all the livestock of an evil city or family to be slaughtered. At the dedication of Solomon’s Temple Solomon had the priests slaughter and offer 120,000 sheep and 22,000 oxen. After battle against the Syrians (more properly Aramaeans) David had thousands of their horses houghed (hamstrung). Again, there is no limit to the number of things that sinful man would consider “evil” about God and His Word. That does not make it so.

[* Greek #1067 Gehenna; from the Hebrew #1516 gah-ee + #2011 Hinnm.]

Neither are the fires of Hell for refinement or purification—which is not Judgment and is not Everlasting. Furthermore, if angels are merely “human messengers” (as modern-day Sadducees adamantly believe), why do does Scripture say that young children have “messengers” in Heaven...? What messages are ever delivered to young children...? How can “human” messengers deliver messages to human children if the human children are on Earth and the “messengers” are in Heaven? Scripture says that we can “entertain angels unawares”. Angels can appear as human, and if they do not reveal their true identity, you can’t know it. If this verse meant merely human messengers, how can you be “unaware” that you entertained a messenger? If you are sleeping you did not “entertain” a messenger. If he delivered a message, you know that he was a messenger. If he did not deliver a message, he was not a “messenger”. Simple, deluded minds make the Word of God of none effect.

[See my, What the Devil...? —What the Hell...?, A Comprehensive Study Identifying Angels, Satan, the Devil, Evil Spirits, Demons, Fallen Angels, and Hell, 798pp., pb., 40.00 + P&H.]

_______________________

See also these links at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/

Profound Theological Existential Philosophic Introspective Question

Questionnaire: Are you a Christian or a Humanist...? (Updated)

As evidence of deadness of heart, despite 2,500 who have visited the first above link, not one has asked what the question means; and of the 7,000 people who have visited the second above link, not one has asked for the answer key. How concerned can they be? Do they merely come to be entertained? Are they mere curiosity seekers? party crashers? Why do they come back and continue to read each new article? The words clearly don’t touch them. The words are foreign to them; like an outsider / stranger at a family reunion who merely crashed the gate for a free meal. The words strike no chord in a kindred soul. Every tree is known by its fruit. Do they find this teaching anywhere else? Does their pastor teach the Full Counsel of the Word of God? If yes, then why are they here? If not, why is he their pastor. If they have no pastor, why not? Furthermore, like the 9* thankless lepers, the majority (if not all) demonstrate their deadness of heart (mind / spirit) by not wanting to learn more; by not inquiring; by not showing appreciation; by not obeying God; by not telling others. It took around 100 hours to write this article that is posted for free (and it takes the same amount of time per page as every other article posted for free). The majority probably have netflix, cable, magazines, newspaper subscriptions; they even pay for a meal at a restaurant and tip the waitress, but the minister who labors to freely feed any who wander into his pasture / barn is unworthy of any honor? Party crashers? If the Holy Spirit has truly regenerated and fills such, how can their minds never even think what should be natural thoughts? “When ye have not done it unto the least of these My kinsmen, ye have not done it unto Me”... and what does that say for not doing it unto a dedicated minister who labors long to reach the lost sheep, whose work they read year after year—who are so dead-hearted that ordering a book, supporting the ministry, expressing appreciation, asking a question are never thoughts in their minds; even when told, repeatedly, it is still not a thought in their minds? Not only that, they don’t even tell others. Why do they even read?

[* 1 out of 10 would be a miraculous improvement on 0 out of the 7,000 to 52,000 who visit any article or book page at this AHF site.]

Every tree is known by its fruit. Trees that don’t bear Christ’s Fruit are not branches on the True Vine. Bearing fruit is natural. If fruit is not borne (or if it is vile fruit), it is not in their nature. If there is no appreciation, no desire to learn more, no desire to obey God—and no desire to tell others,* there is only deadness of heart; selfish feeding.

[* The majority of “Christians” will tell everyone they know, those whom they care about, concerning a new restaurant they like, or song, movie, book, coffee shop, t.v. show—just about anything—but not that which truly matters. They care about earthly things. God is not in all their thoughts.* It is not in their nature. They are friends of the world (and therefore, enemies of God). Not even a spiritual defibrillator can shock them to life if God has not called them from Death unto Life. They seek not counsel. They heed not rebuke. The thought of repenting and obeying God is not only a matter of indifference, but something that they reject. The Holy Spirit in a believer is like a radio receiver that receives transmissions from Headquarters (the conviction and ability to receive and the power and desire to obey is of the Holy Spirit). Those spiritually dead receive no signals for they have no receiver.

* He is hardly in their thoughts at all; which is evident by how they live and how evil continues to flourish and triumph over good—to the point that for the first time in all of history Christendom is about to fall, and can hardly be called “Christian” (and they remain passive and unconcerned). Sir Edmund Burke, Anglo-Irish statesman famously expressed, “All that is required for evil to triumph over good is for good men to do nothing”. However, I interject, if men do nothing in the face of evil, they are not good.]

If Christians centuries ago had been as apathetic, fearful, selfish, stingy, worldly, and lazy as they are today, the Protestant Reformation and the American Revolution would never have taken place. A person cannot lead if no one shows interest, follows, supports, or defends. Dead hearts achieve nothing. You reap what you sow. The curse causeless shall not come. Be sure your sin will find you out. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

Romans 13:7; I Timothy 5:17; Luke 10:7; Malachi 3:8-11.

 

See also (at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/ )

Apostate Christianity — How to Recognize It... and what to do about it [and those who find it of no interest are probably part of it]