Coronavirus

Here is God’s healing olive branch:

“Flee from Babylon!
Run for your lives!
Do not be destroyed because of her sins.
It is time for the Lord’s vengeance;
he will repay her what she deserves.
Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand;
she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
therefore they have now gone mad.
Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
Wail over her!
Get balm for her pain;
perhaps she can be healed.
“We would have healed Babylon,
but she cannot be healed;
let us leave her and each go to our own land,
for her judgment reaches to the skies,
it rises as high as the heavens.”

“Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
For her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.
Give back to her as she has given;
pay her back double for what she has done.
Pour her a double portion from her own cup.
Give her as much torment and grief
as the glory and luxury she gave herself.
In her heart she boasts,
‘I sit enthroned as queen.
I am not a widow;
I will never mourn.’
Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her:
death, mourning and famine.
She will be consumed by fire,
for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

Sin that leads to death

Corporal punishment is not the sole domain of religion nor of the commands of God and laws of God. Mankind started writing laws even before Moses. Hammurabi and others wrote laws. Later towards Moses’ time the laws started to carry death sentences in some cases. It was already happening before Moses and is ever happening since that nations make laws for which breach of them can carry death sentence, and not really for breach of them alone since the action would carry a death sentence in society even if there were no law being broken. Parents trying to handle a devilishly violent or vicious son might resort to local judges and magistrates even if no law were broken, rather than just keep enduring an impossible situation. These magistrates might take drastic fatal action to deal with it. This is not just a religious issue. It is extremely tragic but part of life. Unfortunately. It always will be part of life. Christ coming and making Himself an atonement did not change this aspect of life. He wants to stop death sentences being inevitable by helping the sinner get sorted out before the worse can happen. It sometimes involves death though.

God with a capital G

There are several components to the ancient historic concept of God. One is singularity. God is the One God. None other besides is God the way the Father is God. Another is topmost status. Only one Father is father of all beings and Lord of all and maker of all and highest over all. Topmost Creator. The tree-like status hierarchy of all beings has just one at the top. (Note that even Christ Jesus, the Son called God His own God, the Father.) Then there is blessedness. Only one Father deserves all praise because He of all beings is so praiseworthy. God is good and great and is dearly loved by many and first loved many. Another is prayer. God receives prayers. God is the one who answers prayers and saves those who trust in Him and call on Him. Then there are key attributes ascribed to this God such as that His righteous blessedness is eternally constant and that God is almighty in power to save.

Saint Lazarus

I was in Cyprus, in Larnaka, last week and was astonished to see that the orthodox Saint Lazarus church is built over the former tomb of Lazarus who Jesus raised after Lazarus was dead for four days. How can any Greek Cypriots not believe? I suppose if not believing is your normal disposition and coping mechanism you just get used to ignoring invisible implications of what is visible right in front of you. The Orthodox Church still meet in that building over the sarcophagus that held the ‘man twice buried’ (now three or more times buried since the Crusaders moved the body long ago) and perhaps this makes it one of the oldest churches. I stood watching a service take place but could not understand the Greek. Greek Orthodox are so fortunate to have such history plus the best chance of correctly understanding scriptures which were preserved in Greek better than they had been in Hebrew.

Proofs

To a Westerner like myself with religious ideologies all around, the possibility of proving the existence of God has always been instilled into me as like discovering cold fusion or the Holy Grail. Nobody told me it had already been done many times, such as the proof by Leibniz. Proof, though, is a Greek idea. It is not primarily for convincing people but more for starting a dialogue and maybe even a school of thought, as with Zeno’s proof that movement is impossible. There is also the Hebrew concept of proof which is more about giving sanction to what already has traction, such as when early Christians ‘proved from scriptures’ that Jesus is the Christ. None of this is for persuading. Persuading might depend on factors such as social pressure and government laws. Mafia use violence to ‘persuade’. China and North Korea use imprisonments. West uses media. God uses His words and the power of His Spirit.

Upgrade on the Law of Moses

The old ancient ways of God which God introduced through Moses which still stand today are yet superseded in favour of the way of God introduced though His Son Jesus which comes by the giving of Holy Spirit and gifts like tongues with interpretation which I witnessed in church in the nineties and never end completely even though for centuries it became a rarity. This Spirit giving manifestations in churches and individuals brings grace which feeds right living and understanding. This is greater than that old way. It is trustworthy even though opening the door of trust means having to guard that door to keep out false pretences. This new way involves a wider view of life that encompasses the hereafter in which a balance exists where if great good is all that this life holds and evil judgments are exercised in this life oppressing others such as the poor then the next life will have balancing evils. So we best look at the long term and love the poor and avoid excessive luxury in this life and have hope then for the next, the hereafter. This is the law of Christ. As is love for one another within a framework of believing in Christ. This is the upgrade on the law tablets.

Imagining God?

“What is the difference between imagining God and knowing God” That is the eternal life question. I do at last know the difference between imagining God and knowing God. For decades I wasn’t sure. I knew God from His constant answers to my prayers and from the sending of Jesus to be crucified for me for purification of sins, which showed His love (since I believed this), yet like many I probably did constantly imagine God too. This is why I asked over and over to see Him (to see Father and Son and Holy Spirit).

After much asking, finally God came, appearing in a vision to me as I slept one night at the end of 1994. It seems His visit was such so as to be evidence convincing me but only me personally. God does that, showing Himself to one but not others. It seems to require qualification of love towards Him before He shows Himself personally. So in this dream said “I am God” then He told me there was something I would get put on my desk tomorrow and I must look at it carefully. I never normally got things put on my desk because I was always the person at work distributing post to others. Then the next day an envelope arrived and you I looked at it and saw I must forward it by 4pm and it was five to four when I saw it so I rushed it to the person concerned, remembering their name had been mentioned in the dream, even though I had never met them before. I did it just in time. I realised that dream could not possibly have been a mere dream but had actually been God, as He had said. I immediately told my colleague and word got around. This is the Father, God.

Now at the moment, in February 2020, the UK River Severn is flooding badly. Last time it flooded as badly was probably the 1995 storm. This was just days after the dream vision of God in which the Father appeared to me. I was living next to a river near the Severn (Avon in Bristol) with similar flooding. I read in scripture that the Lord presides over such things as judge so I decided to walk to the river and see the flooding and try to think how it might be it is God judging and Jesus presiding over it. On the way back a voice shouted at me inside my head “Put down your umbrella!” I was carrying a huge umbrella like golfers use which kept me dry despite the downpour but I sensed such authority in the ‘voice’ that I folded it immediately and as I did so the rain stopped so abruptly I just knew that voice was Jesus. To be really sure I later asked for a sign and as I went to bed I saw a dressing gown never used hung on a peg. I asked that if it was really Jesus may that come down off the peg before the morning. I slept but halfway through the night I felt suddenly deeply compelled to wake up and get up. I took the dressing gown off the peg and suddenly remembered the sign request. That is Jesus.

A while later a local lay preacher heard I wanted to witness gifts of the Holy Spirit in church. He took me where he said I was sure to witness it. I felt heaviness keeping me in a vice grip of awe as we went and during the worship service. The leader spoke at a microphone in a wondrous and eloquent angelic language. The words entered my mind triggering English equivalent words. “Consider the trees, they put forth buds and leaves. They do so by the authority of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” and some more about orbits of planets I think. Within seconds the speaker himself gave the interpretation of his angelic words and they were just those same words that came to me in my head. That’s the Holy Spirit. 

Primary Sources

The inability to draw certainty from history due to ever inadequate knowledge is why I try to learn not from concocted ideas of God such as consensus dogma of ancient Romans or more recent Muslims and Protestants and Babylonian Jewish Geniuses (Talmud teachers) but rather from the real being who appeared to me as God and showed Jesus to me personally as His Son and whose Holy Spirit proclaimed to me this Jesus. I know all this was no concoction. I know personally. I do not believe quotes of verses as primary sources of truth (because they are often misapplied and misunderstood) but my primary sources are the one who told me He is God, the one He showed me (and who showed Himself to me) as Son, and the Spirit speaking through others and directly telling me who Jesus is, Lord, Christ, owner of the brand of Nature and living things. This God I fear: Who gives His angel charge over me. This is where my lessons come from. Those I learn and those I teach.  I believe in the Father who visited me, the Lord Jesus who came showing Himself Son of this Father, the Holy Spirit who sealed it through gifts of tongues and interpretation and later in speaking directly and giving me the word to prophesy. All this. Not the limitations imposed by others” preconceptions and misconceptions. 

Grisly Religion

Figure out God and religion. We might figure out someone called God is top God but understanding the history of how He created a people with just Himself as their only God can be helped by hearing or reading what is said or written by those who object to it all, at least, object to His methods involving a lot of deaths. Very grisly. Part of that method included His Son dying on a cross to purify the falling short of His people. That makes this Son worthy. Everyone should know this, grisly though it is.

The Brand of Nature

Life has a brand. ‘Jesus’ is that brand. The name that is the brand of Nature. Take that brand upon yourself in baptism, believing in it and in Him.

Lord and Christ

Of all the heavenly beings, it was the Son of Man who was chosen to provide sin purification for the humans. This surely sets Him apart and above all the others except the Father Himself. This awareness is an awareness of glory which makes all the difference to priorities and proportion. It means a human being is at top place over all things, bested only by the most supreme of all. We humans matter. We should make an effort to ever live up to that. There is someone human to help too. He has our backs. He has it covered. The Father is rooting for the human race, especially those He has chosen and determined to know His beloved, precious Son.

Smart Cities, Digital Cities Programmes

Do the authorities really not think we Bristol citizens will realise these ‘digital cities’, ‘smart cities’ technologies and their supposed much heralded ‘benefits’ are merely excuses to spy on us? Do we look like we are that blind? Blind maybe but blind and demented too? And all this pretence that it is to help us in old age. Spying in sinister ways on us even in our homes ‘for our own good’. Adult social ‘care’. Really sinister. Sneaky. I guess it might happen like 1984 but do we look like we won’t notice? Or twig? Yes. We wrong-doing Brits indeed deserve to be spied on by the eagle in the sky with the big white eye. But we can’t be expected to welcome that eagle into our homes. No not even us sinners here in Bristol, UK. But don’t worry everyone; it will be coming to you too. And when that eagle is up above, all hell down here below. Just like the prophets prophesied.

Climate Awareness

The last five or six thousand years of human history have seen two spurts of increased self-awareness. There is a recent growing sense (awareness) that humans as a whole are a problem for this planet. There was a long time past awareness around the first and second millennia BC that the universe has a balancing mechanism which is quite human-like. Zoroaster recognised it (or his followers did later). Then Pythagoras and Heraclitus, sages of Ancient Greece recognised it. Put these two together and you might easily recognise the likelihood of an imminent balance redress being about to happen. Christianity is starting to change its own doctrines about this and rebelieve in a coming Millennium of Christ.

Of the devil

“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭3:8-9‬ ‭KJV‬

If you look for the fuller meaning of this in Jesus’ sermon recorded in John chapter 8 you see that the reasoning is that lies are not God’s way, but are the norm for Satan, so lies are a clear example of sin where those who lie as their norm are seen as bearing the makings of Satan rather than God. He goes on to include murderous hatred - hatred without due cause and hatred manifesting in enjoyment of harm and causing death - as the kind of sin which characterises Satan and those whose behaviour is outcome of Satan’s doing.

Obviously the true meaning of this passage is not a lie, coming as it does from the Son of Man who received His teachings from the Father who is only light with no darkness - but how you understand it and think about it might not itself be true. Some tend to twist its meaning to seek to accuse believers of being evil.

These ferocious, yet outwardly religious students of scripture should be careful how they explain the passage because it is easy to misinterpret it as saying that any wrong-doing at all means you are not a child of God.

We need to understand how people like John were writing, that it was not how people of western cultures write. It was more rhetorical: More about setting one viewpoint against another, less about being definitive.

John in the same epistle stated how to deal with children of God sinning so he was not saying children of God who sin are children of Satan. It is important to learn (from God) how to see it the way John saw it (John had learned it from Jesus and the Holy Spirit).

God does not approve of His children sinning. He does not endorse it. He is not accepting of it. He sees the devil’s influence in causing it. If all you do is sin then you are totally under Satan’s influence and control, like the world is. If you are born of God that level of sin will be gone from you. It is not to say it is so complete that you never sin. Jesus said about how bad it is if someone causes a child of God, a true disciple to sin. You can be caused to sin. It is possible. But sin is not permissible for you and must not be allowed to characterise you and if it does you are slave to that sin and need to be freed. The Son of Man sets people who believe free if they hold to His teachings which are liberating.

There are some who use this passage as accusers of the brethren, like their father the devil, but if they believe that Jesus is the Christ and hold to His teachings, they too will be set free by Him.

Afterlife

Do you doubt there is an afterlife?

Consider the kinds of animal which become inanimate but can reanimate - some kinds of frogs, some species of caterpillars, etc - and consider those kinds of grubs and caterpillars that turn into a cocoon state of a virtually inanimate pool of chemicals without organs or any form and then reanimate as a completely different animal form. These all have a period in which their body is inanimate. Yet they as individuals still exist. They can exist for months in that state of their body being inanimate yet somehow their essence as individuals, their identities persisting. How can you doubt that there is a more general science to this which applies to humans after death?

Happy New Britain!

You shall go out with joy
And be let forth with peace,
And the mountains and the hills
Will break forth before you.
There'll be shouts of joy
And the trees of the fields
Will clap, will clap their hands.