Kingdom Come

Key precept: Humans are not action figures  –  the results of our actions reverberate through our world.

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time The Chosen One / Messiah / Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, The Chosen One / Messiah / Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Ro 5:6-9)

To understand how Messiah’s death saves us from sin, we need to understand what sin is, and what it had to do with death being imposed on humanity just because they ate the fruit.

Continue reading “7) Forgiveness of Sin”

Key precept: Freedom isn’t free.

Remission and atonement allows us to re-establish a relationship with God.  But what about that relationship humanity established with Satan when our ancestors sold themselves into slavery to sin? Human freedom, ownership and dominion had to be bought back, or redeemed, from the one to whom it was sold.

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us…And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament [testimony, tangible proof, legal evidence of commitment to accomplish something, like a last will and testament] that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament [death as a consequence of transgressing God’s moral and physical law], they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. ” (Heb 9:12-15)

Continue reading “8) Redemption and Restoration”

Key precept: Freedom is won through natality – the birth of a helpless infant.

“And the LORD God said unto the serpent…I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise [slam down on] thy head [therefore destroy you], and thou shalt bruise his heel [slow down progress but not destroy].” (Gen 3:15)

The Seed of the Woman became the serpent’s nemesis. Destroying it, his obsession.

“…and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born…that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan...” (Rev 12:4,9)

Satan did, in fact, destroy Eve’s first two children – by turning Cain to the dark side and inciting him to murder Abel. No doubt Satan thought, once again, that he had gotten the victory.  Not so.

“And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.” (Genesis 4:25)

Continue reading “9) The Seed of the Woman”

Key precept: How Satan fathers his children.

Every one of these posts is the product of current study during which I make myself available to the Holy Spirit to guide me into new understanding. Not automatic writing. A true teacher-student relationship, where I set my own opinions aside, set aside time to study, come prepared with the text and tools, and listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to me. I experience this like a mental nudge, bringing to mind the Bible passages pertinent to the topic at hand. It wouldn’t work if I didn’t already know scripture.

One example of the process of being guided by the Holy Spirit is the question that came to my mind one day that had never occurred to me before.

How does Satan father the antichrist and yet is not imprisoned like the other angels who bred children with human women?

Continue reading “10) The Seed of the Serpent”

Key precept: Freedom is the ability to choose one’s actions, not to escape the consequences of those actions.

People are quick to blame God when things go bad, even faulting him for having the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden because, being omniscient, he knew full well that human beings would eat the fruit and become captive to sin.

The reality is that the tree gave us freedom – defined as “the power to determine action without restraint.” Without the opportunity to choose, humans would have been drones, always controlled by an outside authority.

Continue reading “11) God is Pro-Choice”

Key precept: Humans are intrinsically self-centered, we simply can’t stop ourselves from ruining essential relationships thus causing self-harm.

• “There is none right-eous [always doing the right thing], no, not one: 
• There is none that understandeth [always rational, we are often controlled by our emotions or physical desires despite awareness of negative consequences of actions],
• there is none that seeketh after God [wanting to be morally correct]. 
• They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable;
• there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
• Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 
• Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 
• Their feet are swift to shed blood: 
• Destruction and misery are in their ways: 
• And the way of peace have they not known: 
• There is no fear of God before their eyes…
• For all have sinned…)” (Letter to the Romans 3:10-18, 23)

That word sin has become unpopular in current society, especially when applied to specific behaviors that are no longer illegal. I propose that we define “sin” as any behavior that an individual engages in, or fails to undertake, at the expense of others. This is why any size group of individuals need laws, from as small a group of two with a safe word and process of conflict resolution to the whole world, to safeguard and balance the rights and needs of individuals who depend on each other.

Continue reading “12) Sin City”

Key precept: Immortal hyper-dimensionals need mortal collaborators to function in the lower four dimensions.

Noah 1056 AM – 2006 AM

“And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Gen 6:13)

It didn’t take long for humanity to come to the brink of extinction. Just six chapters covering roughly 1,500 years record human history from Creation to the Flood.

If we analyze this narrative like any other book report as we learned in elementary school, we will realize that the first five chapters established

• the setting
• the characters,
• the problem
• and solution, i.e. plot.

Chapter six wraps it up already with the solution, and chapter seven with the climax.

Continue reading “13) Days of Noah”