2023

 2023: while Ukraine starts to abolish its own Orthodox Church because of links of this church to the Russian Orthodox Church (Jesus Christ is not divided, and he who destroys God’s temple, God will destroy), there are so many churches in the West claiming to support Ukraine. Israel has sinned, God says. Mushroom clouds could result. The watchful eagle is overhead, that is the sign.

The splendid Book of Enoch

 The Book of Enoch: The Lord, Jesus Christ, taught the merits of knowing this book along with other scriptures, as a means to avoid being in error and with the need to know the power of God along with it. As with any scripture, it is best to have the same faith as those who were first led by Jesus Christ, in order to maximise the benefits of knowing these scriptures. What persuasions did these early believers, especially the early apostles, have? The Book of Enoch captures this faith, this persuasion, very well; so well that many over the years have assumed it was written  by either these early believers or by groups such as Essenes who were, it was thought, close in their beliefs to the first followers of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. This was especially the view of those who translated it into English from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Ethiopian Beta Jews who preserved it in their sacred Ge'ez language. Only when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered did it become apparent that it was older than Christianity and probably older than the Essene communities. The first believers such as Jude and other earliest church leaders clearly had persuasion that it was an authentic record of the true prophetic words of an ancient prophet from before the time of the Flood and Noah, the prophet and leader of civilisation named Enoch. Jesus told his hearers in particular the Sadducees that it was scripture. He said many things which borrowed the words of the Book of Enoch, clearly showing how highly he regarded it and how he held to its contents. I believe that as Christians started to hear words uttered under the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit they were persuaded that the Book of Enoch was a work of this same Holy Spirit. I believe this too. So we can learn much from the Book of Enoch if we hold to it in this way and believe God is behind it. Then we find its passages about the Son of Man (the middle section of the book) are assuring that Jesus is this one known spiritually by Enoch thousands of years before Jesus came. The book shows that there is a man from heaven who is greater than even the prophet Moses. Moses knew God as-it-were face to face from meetings with direct contact with God. This Son of Man knew God from meetings even with God in the throne room of God in Heaven, and God, in Enoch chapter 105, calls this elect one His own Son. So we can know that if the Son of Man is given to us as leader, we have the benefits of his direct access to God Himself. Moses foretold the coming of this one with such immediate access to God, and the apostle Peter proclaimed that this one is Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, after Jesus had been crucified and rose again. The Book of Enoch passages about the Son of Man are plainly to me one of the very best scriptural descriptions of Jesus Christ and who and what he is.

Jesus Christ is not merely a prophet but is unique

 One argument against Christianity is that Jesus Christ is merely a prophet like the many prophets past, present and future who bring messages from God. Well the testimony of the first leaders of the first disciples of Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ is a far greater than normal prophet along the lines of what was previously only seen with Moses, over a thousand years earlier, in that Moses regularly went into a tent and there met God as if face to face. Jesus attributed this to the special intimacy Jesus alone had with God, as God’s Son. Moses had been promised by God that in the future God would send one like Moses, to whom the people of God must listen. Apostle of Jesus, Peter, proclaimed that Jesus is this special prophet like Moses, foretold by Moses. So for this kind of man, the One who could have such special access to God, being Son of God, to die for each of us, you, me, everyone, as Jesus Christ did when crucified, thus providing a sacrifice for sins, this is of immense effect and procured great benefit from God to our benefit if we believe, such that it provides benefits which lead believers to eternal life. Then the raising from the dead of Jesus Christ by God brings the prospect of believers having a Moses-like leader who can represent us to God and fully represent God to us. The giving by God of the Holy Spirit since Jesus returned to God, to His right hand, means the benefits of Jesus’ incomparable endless access to God can be distributed spiritually to reach every believer in every century, until Jesus himself returns. This all makes eternal life within the reach of every believer. It is a matter of us continuing to be persuaded of these things and being united by this with Jesus Christ and keeping in unity and fellowship with him by holding fast to his teachings, living by them as God gives us understanding of these teachings. The sacrifice of Jesus continues to provide God’s favour and forgiveness and makes us clean in God’s eyes as we hold to these teachings with this persuasion and confess to each other that we sin, that we fall morally, ethically short of God’s ethical standards. We have the prayer Jesus taught. In this we learn to forgive others before God in our prayers regularly so that God will in turn forgive us too. So prospects are on a new level for us with God, which we can call a spiritual rebirth for us. We have prospects of God being the creator, through His Son Jesus Christ, of our ongoing righteous living and inner peace and persuasion and ongoing renewal of life spiritually, despite our physical mortality. When Jesus returns, he promised, he will raise such believing disciples of his teachings from the dead and for those still alive, give a state of immortality. This all brings glory to God. 

The Gospel Truth

 Moses came down from the mountain of God and of the law, with his face shining, having met with God so directly. Jesus appeared on a mountain with his face and whole body shining like lightning and Moses spiritually appeared beside him, as did Elijah. After the crucifixion then resurrection of Jesus he appeared from the sky to Paul and the light of Jesus' glory burned Paul's eyes so they became blind. Jesus is a greater one like Moses for us all. He is like Moses, seeing God in communications so direct that they would kill any of the rest of us. Jesus is even greater because he is there beside God in direct communication forever, never to die, never to fade in his glory. It is all for us. It brings us all close to God by letting us receive what God says through this ministry of Jesus and through the Holy Spirit brining it to us, forever. He intercedes with God too because he, Jesus Christ, is human like we are and has been a mortal human, weak as we are. He is given to us as master shepherd. He even raises from the dead those he saves by their discipleship. We can trust God wholeheartedly and sincerely because God has provided His Son to minister for us in this way. The crucifixion of Jesus was the perfect lamb atonement sacrifice to turn aside God's wrath, taking the heat, so-to-speak. Believe in him and believe in God who sent him, because of him. Hold to his holy, blessed, life-giving teachings. They are the words of eternal life. Let the miracles God does as a result of this message assure you of the truth of who Jesus is and be the second testimony we need as assurance beside the testimony of Jesus about himself. God, the Father, is distinct and can provide the second testimony and does so with the miracles that accompany this true gospel message.

God with us

 Having hope of God being with us? Can it be? The only way to walk in the light of God is to ever have His light at hand by His will that we have it. Who does God want to have His light forever at hand? Well God sent the Son those two thousand years ago. In the previous age He had sent prophets after first sending one greater than other prophets, one who spoke with God and heard from the mouth of God more directly than other prophets, the great leader Moses, resulting in the great law being given to the ancient Israelites. Moses was in the world several decades ministering this light. Then Moses was taken away and the light was sustained with occasional prophets for the next thousand years. These prophets after Moses did not interact with God as directly as Moses had done. They had dream visions and waking visions by which God spoke to them and they could respond to God and pass on or write down what God gave them. This is still happening today. Yet God had promised through Moses (see Deuteronomy 5, Exodus 20) to eventually send another who interacted with Him as closely as Moses. And so came Jesus Christ. Now the hope of having God’s light and leadership immediately at hand revived. Yet although this was first to Israelites as with Moses, mere months later the non-Israelites were given this light too, when the Holy Spirit was given to religious non-Israelites as they believed the message about Jesus Christ. Now this continues today. The light of Jesus is distributed far and wide by the Holy Spirit leading believers. This Holy Spirit speaks to many, spreading beyond the reach Jesus Christ had two thousand years ago, unbounded and not limited by distance and social constraints, nor limited to Jews. Believing that Jesus Christ died for you, and yes he did on that cross on which they crucified him and he became a sacrificed lamb of God sacrificed for your sins and mine, you too should hold to this message in persuasion that God is with us because of Jesus Christ, and you too will receive the Holy Spirit to lead you in the light and fellowship of Almighty God: Until Jesus Christ comes to reign, and eventually gives the kingdom over to the Father, so God is with us forever and we are given eternal life by Jesus His Son. Hold to these things and be set free from sin for which Jesus died, Jesus who God raised from the dead and is now alive forever, returning soon to raise his disciples from the dead: Those who believe Jesus is, today as thousands of years ago, and who believe Jesus is this One Son of God who is forever in direct communication with God, the Christ, our Lord, and those who believing, trust in God who sent him, and hold fast to his teachings. We belong to him as his body, united with him, no longer lying to each other or hatefully angry with each other, but telling each other the truth and lovingly forgiving each other, keeping out of immorality and adultery and living honourable lives as befits those so united with Jesus Christ, having God with us forever. 

Repurcussions

 Unknown things happen in this world which if we knew them we would scream to God from our deepest soul and He would hear and stop them. But we must have faith and a sincere heart lest we be complicit. In the meantime we are better not knowing. But we must be ready for the truth. We must have a sincere faith and a clear conscience and be like young people and meek sheep. Those who do know might do things we find strange who still do not know. Thank God He sent us a shepherd to lead those who love Him, the Lamb of God, His Son Jesus Christ, born a human who knows God as his Father and meets with God face to face so we do not have to get so close to the consuming fire. Let Jesus reveal things to us as he prepares us for the truth. God requires cooperation from us who believe: Co-operation in the grown-up work of justice among believers. When the truth comes out and we are sure of the facts, we must deal with those who share in the atrocities, no matter how high or low they are. We must hand over the murderers to the father of murderers, in the power of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, not taking it on ourselves to do evil, but letting it be settled in the spirit in the power of heaven through the ways God has ordained for believers, by the spiritual handing over to the power of darkness outside the camp, not welcoming them and thus not being complicit in their work. Ugly things happen but when it involves believers the other believers must act. A grave message but grave things are afoot and this world is on the brink of their repercussions.

To survive

If we want to belong to God, with Jesus Christ as our shepherd, we cannot allow murder to be acceptable among us, nor can we be complicit in it. We must love those who God loves, if we want to rest in the protection of God’s love. Then we can rest assured that we have a mediator with God, since Jesus Christ hears God like a man communes with his friend, face-to-face, and brings God’s things to those who have received the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the human mediator we need to survive the holy fire of God Himself. 

The mysterious authority of the name

 It is a challenge to write about such a spiritual thing, and I am probably not spiritual enough to do it justice, but there are various things revealed from Jesus and in the very ancient past, then down the ages by the mysterious Holy Spirit, which speak of such things. In the Book of Enoch, a most mysterious scripture of all scriptures, it tells how the name of the Son of Man was incorporated by arch angels into the Oath, by which all Nature is governed. So Jesus name was part of how Nature was governed even many centuries before he was manifested. So trees put out buds and leaves and planet orbit stars by the authority of Jesus’ name. Now risen from the dead the reigns are in his hands to pull the reigns of Nature as he wills and according to God his Father’s will. The very word of God which is manifested in Jesus is in charge of Nature and created it too. I ponder these things often but they are always steeped in holy mystery. Thank God the Holy Spirit makes them known to true believers. We see the manifestation of this in the churches, where there are baptisms and services in the name of Jesus today. A mystery unfolding day after day. The same mystery as is there every day in all of Nature. The authority of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Lord forever

 When God raised Jesus from the dead, He was making Jesus supreme Lord. Now Jesus is next to God, immediately in contact with God, like Moses who met God face to face, but Moses only lived a century or so, while Jesus lives forever in the power of God. Moses has had worldwide laws all based on the laws God gave him for three thousand years and if he were alive, present and available today the nations would have to honour him for his immediacy with God and his influence over all governments and international law for two thousand years. Now Jesus Christ actually is alive and has far more claim to such honour and is divine source for all wisdom and government that comes from the mouth of God at whose right hand he sits. The Holy Spirit spreads this counsel worldwide forever, which comes from God but almost always comes through Jesus His Son. It is now Jesus the Son of God, sent as only begotten Son by God, who has most immediate, direct access to God, to his Father, and is permanent intermediary with humans who follow God through him. He is never to die again and so this mediation is permanent and eternal.

The Son of Man - more insights

 More insight into the Book of Enoch passages about the ‘Son of Man’: The Hebrew scriptures which followed on from the original prophecies of Enoch include the accounts about Moses and the ancient Israelites and here can be found the explanation of what is meant by what Enoch called the Son of Man. Moses was one of few, perhaps one or two, people in history who God spoke to and conversed with face to face. The directness of this communication with the Most High God is unsurpassed in history, except for one person, the Son of Man. Moses was a kind of Son of Man figure himself. This is because the greatest directness of human communion with the Almighty is beyond most humans. When Israelites started to get close to this kind of immediacy with God they panicked. They realised just how terrible in shock and awe this communication could be when it started to mean face-to-face encounters with the fiery supernatural being that God is and the kinds of responsibilities this would put on them all. They had to kill animals which approached the mountain to which God was physically descending. The mountain itself became fiery like a volcano, not from any lava burst but from the supernatural fire coming upon it by God’s physical descent on its heights. Moses actually went up to God and as he returned his whole face was visibly glowing. He became too terrible to gaze at. Then came the greatest physical phenomenon of all, one of the greatest in human history, as God physically wrote commands on stone pieces which Moses took down to these people, and they realised they were in a predicament. If Moses kept up these round trips to the physical presence of God it could go further still and the writing of God on stone tablets might lead to actual immediate encounters between this topmost God and the ordinary Israelites, men, women, children. They could not see how they could possibly survive such contact, so they pleaded with Moses to not let God contact them immediately but for Moses to always act as intermediary with God. So was started the concept of human mediator with God. Moses could do it. Others could not. Moses would not always be around though. God promised the Israelites, throughout history until today, to never have to deal directly with God but eventually that God would provide a new Moses-like go-between who could meet with God face-to-face, even beyond normal prophetic encounters (usually in dreams and visions), and pass on to Israelites the word of God. This is surely what ‘Son of Man’ entails, a human mediator, messenger from God, like Moses but eternal, never to leave the people without mediation with God. In Acts in the New Testament it is recorded that Apostle Peter told the Israelites two thousand years ago that Jesus is this One. Jesus’ own proclamations of this are recorded in John’s gospel in detail and the other gospels in summary. The Epistle to the Hebrews reiterates it. The human follower of God could normally not cope with direct contact with God, being told commands by God face-to-face. Someone who can do this is needed, but someone truly human with whom people can converse easily and without fear of harm. This is surely where a Son of Man meets the need, and for this we see Jesus as this One, when God gives us faith to believe. Holding to Jesus’ teachings with this faith makes us his disciples and he gives eternal life to those who are freed from their sins this way. The Way, the Truth, the Life. The Word of God made flesh. 

The human Lord

 When God raised Lord Jesus from the dead, He provided forever a human who could know all that God chooses to reveal to us, and the commands with which God His Father wishes to command us, without faltering, and pass it all on to us, just like Moses did to the Israelites thousands of years ago. We can relate to Jesus, a human like us, yet risen from the dead, even though we would find it impossible to directly relate to God Almighty, the holy and terrible burning fiery spirit. When we believe this, we can feed on it, draw strength and comfort from it, drawing on the wondrous truth of the humanity of Lord Jesus Christ, feeding on the truth that he has flesh like us, though alive forever from the dead. We can feed on the things the Holy Spirit passes on to us from Jesus, things passed on to us in Jesus’ name. This is the beginning of eternal life. Jesus is the beginning of this eternal life and the end of it forever: the same Jesus who came two thousand years ago, same today as then, and same forever.

Do not be misled

 God did not come in the flesh. That would not help us. The Son of God came who can hear God and not die. We would hear God giving commands and our consciences and human frailty and fear would kill us. Jesus can hear his Father and not perish and then he passes on to us what he hears and the Holy Spirit makes it known to many all at once. This is how we need to hear God. This is how Jesus helps us. This Jesus who died for our sins is what we need now that he lives forever and is right there beside the Father to receive things from the Father and through the Holy Spirit make them known to us, when we believe in him and hold fast to his teachings: Jesus, the word of God who became flesh and dwelt among humans and died and lives forever. He gives eternal life and will raise from the dead those who believe in him and hold to his teachings. He has the Father as a witness by the miracles God does in the lives of those who believe these things. This makes two witnesses, because two witnesses are necessary for what is important to believe. This means the Father and the Son are not one being. Do not be misled by those who say the Father and the Son are one being. The Father and the Son are united in spirit and purpose but are distinct people. The Father provides a second testimony as required by the Law of Moses. This means he is distinct from Jesus, although at one with Jesus and lives in Jesus, as Jesus is at one with Him and lives in Him. Be sure you believe these things as the first apostles of Jesus Christ believed them. This makes the teachings a true blessing and joy. This is the way to eternal life.

Living happily with the Truth

If God came in the flesh 2000 years ago, and preached, almost everyone nearby would have died. They would have heard the Almighty like Moses did and they would not have been able to receive it in a worthy manner. Who but the rarest, like Moses, could hear God directly and not falter and die? Fortunately it is not God Himself who came. It is the One, the very Son of God, who could hear God and live, then in the flesh the Son could speak to ordinary people without them dying as a result. In this sense Jesus is like Moses. He could hear God without dying, then speak to his followers without killing them. The people around Jesus could live happily side-by-side with him and not die for it. Even if they could not believe he was the Son of God Almighty they did not die by proximity to him. Yet he can us what God Himself says. He can explain it. Now he has died for all on the cross, a sacrifice for our purification from sins, and having risen to live forever and gone to the right hand of God, the Holy Spirit has come into our world and brings to teachings of Jesus to many of us all at once, spreading out to the followers of Jesus wherever they are, comforting , leading, guiding, teaching. If we believe these things, let us hold to these teachings and the eternal life from God through His Son will be given us.

Truth that leads to Eternal Life

 There are two major errors in how people think about Jesus Christ in Christianity. Firstly there are those who think he is God the Almighty. This contradicts the truth that humans cannot have direct contact with God Almighty without almost inevitably dying in the process. Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 tell us this. So the people, the Israelites, asked God to only speak to them via Moses and God promised to send a future prophet to always do this like Moses had done, and Peter, apostle of Jesus, told the Israelites of his time that Jesus is this very one promised by God. Secondly there are those who think Jesus and God are so much united that they are one being. This contradicts the teaching of Jesus that God testified concerning him as a separate, distinct testimony constituting the Law of Moses requirement that there be two who testify. He said the miracles were a separate distinct testimony about him from God the Father. This would not be true if Jesus were one being with God the Father. Of course other erroneous thinking about Jesus exists too, especially the denial that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. God testifies concerning Jesus that Jesus is His Son and Jesus says the same. The prophesies and especially the testimony of John the Baptist and that of the apostles, John brother of James in particular, these testify that Jesus is the Christ, as did Peter by revelation from the Father. I too can testify to these things by what I have witnessed in my past, holy memories I hold dear. Jesus is not God but is the Son of God. The Father, God sent many servants down the centuries and eventually sent His One Son, Jesus. In turn, Jesus brought into sonship many sons for God and many of these he sent. Following Jesus leads to his raising these followers eventually from the dead on the last day. Following Jesus means believing the truth of who he is, the beliefs of the apostles, and holding to his teachings. It leads to eternal life from God. 

Not God but Son of God

 Jesus is Son of God. He is not God Himself. But which scripture verses tell us this conclusively, when we understand them rightly? Moses was able to speak to the ancient Israelites without killing them. Yet they were unable to hear God speak to them in person because they would die that way. They knew it. God acknowledged it. In Deuteronomy 5, Moses records how he had a discussion with the Israelites about this matter

“When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me. And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them. But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? 27Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”.”

In Exodus 20 Moses records the same matter after the Ten Commandments were given 

 “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.””

So God made a promise, that He would make a necessarily more harmless way to speak to them forever through a prophet like Moses, not directly. This way the death they dreaded by direct interaction with God Himself would not happen. In Deuteronomy 18:5 Moses recorded telling  the Israelites this “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.“ In the time after Jesus came the apostle Peter preached to the Israelites how Jesus is the fulfilment of this promise. Acts 3 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.’ “ So Jesus, if he were Almighty God Himself would have meant death to the Israelites because immediate contact with God would have killed them, but rather Jesus is like Moses, a prophet, and those who were there at his time in his company could rest assured they could heed his words without dying as a result. They could live right with him among them, living safely all through his childhood and young adult days until his ministry among them and even eat and drink and have fun in his company. Now he intercedes with God for them and for those of us who believe, his having died for our sins to be our saviour and risen from the dead he is our Lord, the master of God’s house. 

Red Lines

 We all need to establish our red lines. Like perimeter defences, when these lines are triggered we know it is time to do things a little more drastic than we would normally countenance. What matters most to you? What are the most obvious red lines to set? What must be defended most? We need simple but effective courses of action that kick in once these red lines are triggered. Perhaps voting differently. Perhaps changing job. Perhaps praying a different kind of prayer. Perhaps seeking out old friends, friends you haven't wanted to bother till you really needed to. Perhaps warning those concerned that maybe they should back off. Diplomats call these 'red lines'. It has a good ring of wisdom. Like Solomon drawing a line in the sand and waring his agitator not to cross it, lest there be consequences. Above all else, guard your heart, said Solomon, for it is the wellspring of life. Have some red lines and a rough idea of what will happen when they are crossed.

The truth which is strange to many

 Jesus, despite what many Christians believe, is just the Son of God, sent by God: He is NOT Almighty God Himself. Now this is clearly what Jesus and his own disciples and apostles believed when Jesus was in charge of what was being taught. Once it all got into Roman and Greek hands there started some twisting and misrepresenting. Now we have many thinking Jesus is in some way a replacement for God who is proclaimed in the Old Testament, a new Almighty God. Well that is a misunderstanding based probably on the confusion people get from thinking Jesus is God Himself, because if you look at the Bible you find that anyone who even touched the mountain on which God descended to give the law to Moses had to be put to death. The box the law was kept in had to be carried on poles to prevent it being touched by anyone and once when a man touched it to steady it in transit he immediately dropped dead. So touching anything that closely physically linked to God or most sacred things of God was so deadly that people needed strict warnings about it; deadly, grave warnings. Now Jesus came in the flesh and grew up with kids his age and had parents and siblings and went to lessons and did household chores. Animals touched him. Maybe a few dogs even tried biting him. Perhaps donkeys kicked him a few times. If Jesus was Almighty God they would either be condemned to death or would have died instantly for getting so close so as to touch him, shout at him, annoy him, even bite or kick him if they were animals and pets. He would have had to warn friends he was close to as a child not to get near him, certainly not to touch him, not to shout at him or insult him with banter and his parents could never have rebuked him to his face. He would have had a trail of dead bodies everywhere he went. So today people try to reconcile their fearful insistence he must be God Almighty with the scriptures of the Old Testament by assuming God has somehow changed and is not scary any more. No God never changes. Dualism and Manichaeism might say there are two kinds of Almighty God, but this is not the teaching of scripture and not the teaching of Jesus. God is the same. Jesus just is not this Almighty God, shocking as that might sound to some. God sent many servants before He sent Jesus Christ His One Son. Then Jesus brought many into becoming sons for God and sent many of these. This is what we find in scripture and what Jesus taught and what we must believe to be saved from dying in our sins. God is still God and Jesus is the Son of God. If we believe these things we should become disciples of Jesus himself by holding to his teachings. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. For disciples there is this promise: eternal life from Jesus and resurrection on the last day. Thanks be to the One True God who is the Father to Jesus and to all who believe. 

The biblical name of Israel

 Prophecy of God: "Israel has sinned" How are we to understand prophetically the name 'Israel' today? We daily seem to hear news of the risk of escalation of world conflict. We see the eagle overhead. Where is this sin that causes this risk and ongoing crisis? The name given originally to biblical Patriarch Jacob after he wrestled with a physical manifestation of God, 'Israel' has two parts: 'Isra' similar to 'Sarah' or 'Sarai', and ;'El' which of course means God. The first part Isra has a fairly clear meaning of a prince or great person or master, someone who overcomes others and rises to greatness among peers. Combined with 'El' we see the way Jacob received this name, this epithet or title or badge of honour from God, like a great medal of honour, to say that he had overcome all peers around him and gained the respect even of God because his success in contending with peers had even given him some success in wrestling with God.  So to say 'Israel' it means we are recognising that the bearers of this title, this name, are so successful in rising in power that they have even come up against God Himself and achieved some success. This seems to me to be targeted at the victors after WW2 who mastered the Axis powers and eventually helped to create a State of Israel and became principle powers in the world, the whole world, even to rising in power to attempt to contend with God, and have gained respect from God in this regard. But the sins of such people cannot be disregarded by God. They are on God's radar. They are in God's plain sight. The results could be hugely catastrophic.

Heavenly assurance

 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

— Revelation

“The angel of the LORD encompasses those who fear Him.”

— Psalms

“ And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

— 2 Kings

When God encompasses the servants who fear Him and they have a very dangerous bodyguard detail from Heaven itself, the other godfearers who are with them do not need to be caught in the cross fire because they can share the protection if they call on God in prayer.

The One

God sent many servants. Then He sent One Son. Then His Son sent many sons. If you believe it, hold to Jesus’ teachings, being fully persuaded that Jesus is this One Son.

Gospel for Today

 Jesus Christ came, a baby born to be the One sent by the Father. The testimony of Apostle John was that this Jesus is the Lord he saw alive from the dead after seeing Jesus certainly die on the cross. Some of us know John’s gospel testimony is true because promises of Jesus recorded by John are fulfilled for us as we take the words of Jesus to our hearts to obey them when we can. So we know Jesus died on the cross for us. We see what Jesus does today and from it we know it is true that this Lord we see today is the same Jesus who John wrote about thousands of years ago. Jesus is the same now as he was back then. When the season is a gospel season and even when it isn’t, know for sure that some us know it is all true. This is how the Father is at work in us as He worked in Jesus and as Jesus works in us. Jesus and the Father work in harmony and we see the Father there in this Jesus alive today. Believe and hold fast to Jesus’ teachings and to our testimony so that you too will know this same Jesus and testify of him to others. The promise he brings is a truly great promise of eternal life. The Father wills this eternal life for all who follow His Son, holding to his teachings and believing in him. Then we all receive the Holy Spirit and the miracles of God in Lord Jesus Christ’s name, the name by which all Nature does the will of God its creator, except the fallen human race, who need to be turned back to God from sin, and receive His forgiveness and right way of living.

EU attempting to cap the price of oil

 EU attempting to cap the price of oil.

"When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the centre of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.” Revelation 6

What truth did Jesus bring into the world?

 What truth did Jesus bring into the world?  Jesus speaks truth even today and what he says reinforces what he meant by "the truth" when he spoke to Pontius Pilate at his trial, saying he had come into the world to testify to the truth. "What is truth?" asked Pilate. Jesus has some truth revealed to him by the Father (such as we see in the book of Revelation) and some is what he knows is true of all that was written as scripture known to himself and others at the time (Bible including Apocrypha and some other books of scripture we have discovered in recent times preserved among Dead Sea Scrolls and by groups such as Ethiopian Beta Israel and Ethiopic Orthodox Church, such as the Book of Enoch), plus the testimony of the miracles God gave him to do and the teachings God gave him to teach and together with teachings he has given him by God since his ascension which the Holy Spirit sometimes reveals to us. In addition, he and the Holy Spirit convert people inwardly so we speak truthfully of what we know and see and we testify of these things truthfully to each other.

Appointed and sent

 Jesus appoints judges just as God appoints judges, and they are humans who use their discretion. God loves to give freedom of decision and freedom to use human understanding. He gives this to Jesus and Jesus in turn gives it to those he appoints and sends.

Jesus and the Temple of God

 A Temple is what gives a god a name. The name of the god is tied up with the glory of their temple or temples. If the temple falls, the name of the god is affected because it looks to all around like that god was not able to uphold their name by saving their temple from destruction. The building of a temple affects the impression all who see it have of the glory of the name and reputation of the god to whom the temple is built. With the Jerusalem temple, this is so too. The temple was only built once God had given peace to Jerusalem and then the peace of Jerusalem would affect the permanence of that temple. Now Jesus pointed out really that all this is true of himself too, since God's name would be tied up with Jesus' life and wellbeing and when Jesus died it would look to all around as if God had failed and yet Jesus rising from the dead would demonstrate that God is glorious and able to withstand such a temporary setback and come through and shine. It showed that God is eternal and cannot fail in the long-term. This is the glory the nations would see of the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is tied inexorably with the glory of his Father who sent him and sends him and works with him forever. Jesus too has a great name, greatest under God, which even underpins Nature.

The eagle is overhead still

 That eagle is still over the house. Israel has sinned, says God. Back in the mid 1990s in the UK, this was the sign God gave me. The following days, months, years saw its fulfilment as first US spy planes on the news, then police helicopter services, locally called Operation Vulture in my area, then a build up towards cameras in the streets, monitoring of communications and internet use (beware lest they see your browser history), and mass surveillance spreading internationally. The vision of the eagle overhead, black with a white eye, when God’s spirit overwhelmed me one Sunday morning, it eventually showed me generals anxiously discussing war, and trouble on the ground below the eagle, until it culminated in mushroom clouds and bombers and I had to stop the vision. What sin could cause all this? I believed it was lack of love and devotion towards God and wilful turning away from His teachings and embracing of immorality instead. I urged God to let me preach love for God and the words came to me to shout it from the mountain top. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength … and suddenly the spirit added AND VOICE! We need to use our voice to love our God. We should use our voice to lovingly teach His teachings to our neighbours and children and shout it all on social media and wherever we have a voice, whatever voice we have. Let us try to turn this tide of sin, before we see mushroom clouds for real. The eagle is overhead still.

Product withdrawal

 Humans are a creation. Science would never tell you so. Oddly, because Science has no way of knowing whether human beings were ever created by another intelligence, except if one day scientists succeeded in it, yet even then they would probably deny it could ever have happened in the distant past. But if scientists ever created a human and it proved to be dysfunctional they might think of a product withdrawal or recall and scrap the dysfunctional version on a mass scale. Well Bible accounts tell us this is going to happen with the humans God has made. Not all are write-offs. Left unchanged we would be but some can be converted and not need withdrawal, recall and scrapping. Jesus does the fix. He can lead us to conversion and lead us back to our Creator for the necessary fix. Even an upgrade like Jesus had by his own resurrection. God is good. But we are bad and we have to accept the fix.

Truly a man

 Jesus: truly a man. The most special man in all of history, so much so that his name and spirit transcends history, but a man. Now if you think of a god as a non-human entity then Jesus is not that. If you think of a god as someone mighty who can judge the rest of us, then he is that, set aside by God for this and sent into the world for it. Special because this is the one man who is to God the only begotten Son of God. Now among many brothers, but to God this is His one and only son, and we can be sons through him. 

What a guy

 What a guy Jesus is. What a guy. Master. Mediator. Friend and Lord. But amenable and humble to treat us like he treated Zacchaeus, despite what Zacchaeus was. And he's got such rich wealth of teachings to give us. Still today, all in line with what he said back then and more besides which the Holy Spirit brings in his name. What a Son, this One Son God has. Making us sons. United with us so we can sin no more like we used to sin.

Biblical implications of One God

 What are the implications for understanding the Bible of the Unitarian-like view that God is just one person, not a Trinity?

It leaves it more open as to the reason and implications of the plurality of Elohim. Probably God is regarded in a context of His council with sons of God as we see in Job 1. Then that is assumed through scripture.

"Let us make man in our image". God is not a man. God is one, not a plural. So despite rabbinical teachings, this probably means man is made like the sons of God and God - the nature shared by God and the sons of God. Like the angels, in other words, and with qualities the angels share with God Himself. Intellect and speed of thought. Tendency to reason and work out what is to be done, as well as listening for commands to obey. Not like brute beasts.

Abraham would have known the one Jesus called the Father, in particular as the one God. He believed that only this one God, the Almighty, is above all responsible for creation. He met this one God. He heard the voice of this one God and received promises from Him in visions over a period of many decades. If he met others who some would say include the Son of God before the incarnation, he understood that there is just one who is the Almighty God, not all three he met at Mamre. By 'Almighty' his understanding would have been of one God who is stronger than all the others (the Semitic word for Almighty is similar to the word for the mightiest creature, a shedu, a lama or lamassu, like a huge winged lion, like a very powerful angel more powerful than a sphynx, hence 'Al Shaddai'). He would have contrasted this God known personally to him, as much more powerful than any of the gods worshipped around him, king over them all, superior in wisdom and power and love, and ultimately responsible for all creation, even creation that happens through other gods or angels, being highest over all these angels, these gods.

Visions seen by many through the scriptures of the one they called God, even sometimes pagans such as Abimelech and Balaam, but also many Israelites, where they saw someone called God, this would have been the Father. God Himself was seen in visions. And sometimes very, very rarely this same God was seen physically, such as by many Israelites of the Exodus.

True prophets, although not usually directly communicating with God Himself, were always indirectly at least, sometime on rare occasions directly. communicated with by the Father, often as a result of the Father Himself personally speaking something, other times by the Holy Spirit communicating to them the thoughts of God.

Christ is seen when there is truth

Truth. Christ is seen when there is truth. 

The killings of civilians who help an enemy army. We see this in Ukraine when Russian troops are forced out of an area and Ukraine soldiers move in. The civilians who helped the Russians often wear the armbands worn by the soldiers. You see in videos how these civilians are killed and their bodies are found in the streets. It all takes me back to the childhood years when I used to read the Bible my parents bought me and I read how King Saul, first king of Israel, was hunting down David who he saw as a rival because God had anointed David to one day be king and David had great popularity after miraculous military success (we all know about David and Goliath, even today, three thousand years later). David entered a town and received help there from civilians including the local priest. When David left and King Saul entered the town, chasing after David, Saul killed all the town's people including the priest because of their help for David. Then a thousand years later, Christ Jesus lived life knowing he had descended from this same David, the David who became Israel's greatest king. Christ knew this same hatred David had suffered would be levelled at Christ. The friends who helped Christ would be in danger of being killed. Christ knew this was his heritage and this would be his badge of honour, that he is descendant of David, yet the Lord of David. When Ukraine events are truthfully reported, then the picture of Christ too becomes clear. 

Truth reveals Christ. Christ reveals truth.

Daniel 3

 That fiery furnace in Daniel 3. The height of the neo-Babylonian Empire and three Hebrews in exile were being punished for refusing to bow to a statue of the King of kings, Nebuchadnezzar. Wow, did he the king get a fright. It wasn't the three men who were thrown into a fiery furnace who suffered but the guards who threw them in who died. Reminds me of sanctions. The three men were in that furnace. In ancient Hebrew lore, probably true. (Jasher and Midrash) Abraham their patriarch ancestor had been treated the same way by the first old Babylon emperor Nimrod and survived. This was a thing. God protecting in fire was a thing for which God was known. God Himself revealed His imperviousness to fire when He spoke to Moses from a burning bush because the presence of God kept the bush from being consumed by the fire, so it seemed. How this should encourage us too. Fear of God is key to survival in the direst situation. The three men in Babylon feared God more they feared the Emperor King and more than they feared fire and death. They would rather, they explained to the king, have suffered death than sin against their God and they knew God could save them but did not know that He WOULD save them, yet they would not sin against Him by bowing to a statue of the king. In this case God did save them. An angel from God, some say the spirit of Jesus Son of God before Jesus became flesh, whatever it was, God provided it, and it surrounded them with protection against such raging fire that the fire had killed the men who threw them in there. The angel of God, the LORD, surrounded these men who feared their God, and Nebuchadnezzar wrote a decree about it found there in Daniel 3, that said no other god had ever saved like this God who saved those who feared and worshipped this God. This angel sent by God had even been seen by the king there amidst the men in that furnace, and by guards guarding it. We today can have that same angel surrounding us if we fear this true God, this One True God. The Holy Spirit sent in Jesus Christ's name by this One True God the Father who sent Jesus tells us this. The Psalm says it clearly too: The angel of the LORD surrounds those who fear Him.

Liberalisation

 God says in our times "Israel has sinned" but this Israel is not meaning the country we call the State of Israel but rather the people everywhere who are covenanted to God, especially those who are brought to God through Jesus Christ. I was awakened to this sinful state of those covenanted to God and alerted to it in the mid and late 1990s. It was a time when churches were starting to be influenced by liberal church thinkers, authors and leaders who politicised the gospel and downplayed traditional doctrines. Many started to leave these liberal churches and yet the liberalisation continued and we started to see the introduction of the neo-liberal concepts such as gay marriage and ordination of openly gay clergy. The Bible was being reinterpreted along the lines of the previous century when people were claiming that scientific analysis could be applied to scriptures to 'discover' things previous church generations would have regarded as heresy, such as a notion that the scriptures were heavily edited to combine various strands which never originally said what these combined texts ended up saying and are passed down to us today. Now we see countries in Christendom such as Russia starting to reject this excessive departure from tradition and a turning back to traditions such as those concerning the family and leadership. What went wrong? It is good to use our intellect to examine what we are taught and 'kick the tyres' so-to-speak. Yes, Jesus taught his followers to know all the scriptures available in those times, not just the five books of Moses upheld by the Sadducees. Yet there is a limit. The morals we hold dear are a compass and a guide in our search for truth, not a hindrance to be set aside. The second Psalm tells of the folly of the nations saying "Let us throw off their shackles" when talking about the faithful of God. The sin has now been done and cannot be undone and we might be heading to a third world war over it. But if we start to hold to teachings given by God and teach these to our children we might just escape the worst of it.

Propaganda and staying sane

 How do we stay sane in a world of vicious propaganda which might kill us or make us do deranged things? A serious problem. Jesus Christ had visions of our plight even in biblical gospel times and his main mission given by God was to help us stay sane and not be deceived by all this propaganda and lies, which he ultimately attributed to the devil. His solution is valid today and effective today: to hold to the words of life and truth and spirit which he taught. Now the Holy Spirit in believers continues this ministry, bringing teachings from Jesus today. Believe in Jesus and keep his words in the back of your mind to counter the lies and brainwashing hate-filled propaganda. Keep his teachings until you can understand them well enough to let them guide your actions in obedience. God be with you as you do so. If we all do this we are truly brothers in him. 

A losing battle

 November 4th 2022. UK seems to be getting a warning now from Russia which some are interpreting to mean the UK is getting closer to being actually at war with Russia. The warning seems to be pointing out the UK's evident role in provocations. Of course only an unprovoked attack triggers the NATO article allowing NATO countries to be called in to help. UK must be foolishly thinking USA is in it with us. The UK must think it will win and get a return on the huge investment it would entail to engage a superpower in actual war (or effectively war). Maybe it is eyeing the natural resources in Ukraine and even maybe those in Russia thinking it could get a share. Oh dear. oh dear. Thinking this is politicians blindly leading the blind: Then I remember the biblical passages about how evil spirits led kings into fighting wars these kings would only lose - as punishment from God. They might seem to be mad, our leaders, but the reality is that it is not just the mind that gets unhealthy but our spirit can get cranky too and we can be given badness at a spirit level as punishment by God, and this bad spirited state of unhealthiness can indeed lead leaders into losing battles. Oh dear, oh dear. It could be worse than madness and inner blindness. 

Blind UK

 The UK blindly follows blind leaders in various walks of life. These leaders have personality issues which compel them to get the minutiae 'right' in a way that hardly matters while they make huge mistakes that can even cost people their lives. The people like to have leaders who are like themselves and largely the people are similarly dysfunctional so these leaders are a comfort to their egos and they just keep on following them. Others in turn follow these people, others such as their clients, their children, people in their care, and  they all go off towards the nearest cliff, oblivious to their folly and predicament. Such is what I notice about the UK which matches the teachings and warnings of that great teacher Jesus Christ. He taught that the desk workers and administrative function people, in his time they were called scribes and Sadducees, were what he called hypocrites who strained out the gnat but swallowed the camel and were blind guides so people should leave them, not follow them. This seems to be the problem today with a nation that is made largely of desk job workers guiding, managing, advising everyone else, so all together walk into a ditch, oblivious to what is actually up ahead as they do what seems 'right' to them without actually looking where it leads. The outcome is going to end badly for the UK and for the blind countries taking the lead from the UK and the West in general.

Communion

 Communion is a sacred rite in Christian denominations but is quite varied in how it is practiced. The first time I took communion in a Catholic Church I had just professed to a street evangelist in the church my need to receive afresh the message of Christ having been crucified for me. He had been preaching it in the shopping centre and I went with him into this nearby church building which was Catholic. We went to the front row and there he prayed for me, out loud, and then asked me to pray aloud. The gospel message had sunk in so much that it was as if I had never heard it before, even though I had been in a church all my life and had been a leader in Christian circles. I knew my biggest sin had been a compulsion to lie and give a better that true impression of myself. Now as I prayed aloud, there was a power in my voice I never knew before or since, but as soon as I started to revert to my lying, self-exalting way of speaking in the prayer, the power went away. When I prayed humbly and honestly it came back. This went on a few minutes maybe. I think the voice I had when filled with the heavenly power must have resounded in the church and people nearby were having a service. The evangelist took me to join the service just in time for communion. Now it was like taking my first communion even though I had been baptised and taken communion many times before. This was new, a new me. The lying habit was getting broken. I had a resolve to please heaven’s power by keeping the fellowship of the power by only telling the truth. I was given both bread and wine. This is a bit unusual for some. Sometimes both bread and wine is protected in its sanctity by only being offered in exceptional circumstances in some Catholic churches under some bishops. I did not know this till recently. My profession that moment earlier meant that this was an exceptional circumstance anyway as I was under special holy influence and had not sinned wilfully against it so I was free to receive both bread and wine, both body and blood of Christ. It is clear to me now as I learn about Catholic communion. In Eastern Orthodox and in Protestant churches the bread and wine are usually given. That is what I had been used to. It is all a depiction of the crucifixion of Lord Jesus Christ. The power in my inner being which affected my voice and taught me honest speech was in response to my open acceptance of a simple message from heaven “Christ died for you” and my hope in response to it of cleansing from my sins. The power continued a day or so longer and kept teaching me until my lying habit was broken. It gradually faded over coming days but my habit changed by then to one of persistence in speaking truthfully. Heaven has a language of truth. Lies, said Jesus, are the language of the devil. The message of the cross brings power to switch language and learn to speak only truth despite having been compelled to lie previously. Such is God’s power. Power is in the gospel message Christ died for you. He did. It is hope for you, if you simply receive it. The Communion depicts this sacrificial death for sins, shedding body and blood in Christ’s crucifixion. Heaven has come to us. God has supplied a mediator, who is a lamb sacrificed to take away the sins of the world, yours and mine. Let us keep the feast in holiness. 

The lost tribes of Israel

The Lost tribes of Israel: Around 745 BC Tiglath-Pileser III came to the throne of the Assyrian Empire. His predecessors had not made great attempts to expand the empire but Tiglath-Pileser III was different. Conquests marked his reign. For a hundred years the Assyrian empire had been growing, but had been held back, around 850 BC, by an alliance of nations which had created a combined army to repulse the Assyrians. There was at this time a kingdom of northern tribes of the Israelite people, under a king named Ahab. For the coming century from 850 to 750 BC this kingdom, called the Kingdom of Israel, was prosperous but was swinging like a pendulum between the biblical God and a Canaanite god they called Ba'al. Ahab had a sequence of short-reigned successors during this time. In biblical terms this was a time of prophecies of warnings against the unfaithfulness of these northern tribes towards their founding God who had led them out of Egypt. Assyria had been gaining strength as an empire, since the 850 BC alliance against Assyria had failed to completely stop it. Tiglath-Pileser III had enough power to overthrow the Kingdom of Israel, which he did around 740 BC. This was a time heralded in many prophecies, and the Book of Enoch records a prophecy from more than two thousand years earlier, which told how there would be angels put in power over these Israelites, (the Israelites are called the sheep in the prophecy), as shepherds, who would punish the unfaithfulness by allowing a sequence of conquests and oppressions lasting over what appears to mean 2800 years or 70 successive angelic shepherd terms of office (apparently 40 years long, considering the other prophesied events). The tribes of the north, in the Kingdom of Israel, were conquered by the Assyrians and the tribes were dispersed deliberately through the Assyrian empire which later spanned most of the Middle East. Some of these people remained in the countryside but those from the conquered cities were taken away and never returned in their lifetimes. Their descendants merged with other peoples, although some groups might have survived as intact groups of Israelites (for example some think that the Bene Israel people long established in India might be such a group, many of whom have who have now moved away from India and settled mainly in Israel, plus some in the UK and some in Canada). The judgment from the 2800 years of shepherd rule from heaven is nearing completion. We seem to be in the last term of the seventy terms of office, with what might be the last angel in charge out of the seventy. The last twelve such angels, the Book of Enoch foretold, will permit so many excess deaths during their terms that these excess deaths will outnumber any of the previous terms. The last few centuries have seen many persecutions and genocides but this next few decades will be no exception. Then the time will be over. The Lord will return in wrath and will judge the sheep and destroy those who are still spiritually blind. The blindness, the prophecy tells us, is due to their original historical forsaking of the temple, back in the ninth and tenth centuries BC, and the lack of faithfulness to God since that time. A champion will have arisen before the Lord returns, who though opposed by the oppressing nations, will stand firm and be helped by the returning Lord from heaven. In the last times of the oppression before the Lord returns, the prophecy says that what the prophecy calls the eagle will instruct the oppressing people. The prophecy designated these oppressive nations as predators and as birds of prey. None of the predators and birds of prey will defeat the champion, called the 'billy goat' in the prophecy. A sword, it foretells, will be given to the 'billy goat'. Then the Lord will come. In Early Church teachings such as the Revelation and the Epistle of Barnabas, this marks the beginning of a seventh millennium of civilised human history when the Christ will rule, like a sabbath millennium. So it seems the merging of the prophecies all points to this millennium starting at Christ's return and that it would be 2800 years after the time of punishment began with the Assyrian conquests around 740 BC, so this means around 2055 to 2065 as a rough estimate. No precise time can be given, as Christ Jesus himself taught: nobody, not even the Son, nor the angels of heaven, knows the exact time, only God the Father.

The real secret of life

 What is the real secret of life? It is understanding with truly practical understanding that Jesus Christ who came two thousand years ago is trustworthy and his teachings are a guiding light, especially in a life of practical obedience to the light those teachings give. Gain this understanding and everything else will start to fall into place and true power will follow. Nothing in this world can overcome that power. Jesus is Master and the Father is Highest God. They give power no worldly force can overcome and wisdom to accompany it. Love, a sound mind and power.

What is at hand

 There is something which comes into our lives from time to time and has been going on like this for the past two thousand years. People need to respect it because it has our life and death in its reach. The fables around Christmas reflect it. Be good, say the fables to children, because Santa is coming. Well the message is correct though the context is contrived. Repent because the kingdom of God is at hand. Indeed. We have it at the door from time to time when the hidden saints who shine like cities built on hilltops are close to us and are under orders from God to oversee our actions and judge us for misdeeds. We are not like the pagans before the birth of Christ, or even the |Jews before he came. They could hide in anonymity or go unpunished if they had the necessary resources and connections. Now there is no hiding. The Holy Spirit is sent out to believers and witnesses to the world about all misdeeds. We cannot afford to be drug-pushers, prostitutes, thieves, liars, murderers, idolaters, vile, immorally disposed, adulterers, or the like without the possibility the kingdom of God will reach us with divine vengeance and justice. It catches up to us, if not in this life then in the next. But ideally we need to be on the inside with this kingdom. That is a most precious place to be, worth losing everything to gain it. The only door to it is through Jesus Christ's teachings and presence and intercessions to the Father. Mediating between believers and the Father, he brings people to God who believe. 

Feet of the statue

 Feet of the statue. Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream recorded in Daniel 2 is a curiosity that has intrigued people down the ages. It portrayed as a huge statue, the central thread of empires, including Nebuchadnezzar’s neo-Babylonian Empire, down the ages. The head of gold is Babylon. The iron legs are interesting because for the time of the Book of Daniel it was a future empire. It is usually assumed to be the Roman Empire. Then the dream foretold feet of the statue made of iron mixed with clay. We might be seeing today how Rome-like iron fascism can be mixed in with the ordinary masses when we look at Ukraine where fascist groups of iron hard fighting men mix in with less steely fighters. Now the future foretold by the dream might be a spreading out into Europe and beyond pf this mix of ordinary people with fascist fighters. Yet the dream goes on to a final countdown in which a stone from a mountain runs and hits the feet and down comes the statue. The rock that hits it is in the Daniel 2 dream interpretation explained to be a kingdom of God which will go on forever.

The folly of the world order

 What can we say about this new world order? Is it fair for all, or just fair for the West? Is it bringing lawfulness or is it lawlessly ignoring fair justice for all the poorer nations and the less imperialistic nations? Is the ever-looming nuclear threat a threat against or a threat because of it? I would like to know. Back in the 1990s this was just beginning as US President George H W Bush aimed to impose the USA concept of rule of law upon the whole of the world through the vehicles of US invasions and the United Nations organisation.  Eyes in the sky started to appear in the skies around the world. US spy planes appeared first. Then police forces started to impose helicopter services to watch and monitor the public. Then as the late 1990s came along the Internet was born and after a while we started to have the spying eyes right there in our living rooms and bedrooms, unbeknown to us, watching what we watched. Meanwhile the imposition at a military level grew ever bolder and the weapons of mass destruction pretext was used by George H W Bush's son later US President George W Bush as justification for finishing the war of his father by re-invading Iraq and the Gulf Wars continued. Now I am no historian or politician but I know that God is concerned about the sinfulness behind the eyes in the sky and the threats of war on the ground and the lives we live under this kind of surveillance governance. What is the main sin in all of this? It seems to be the focus on law without fairness and without true justice for the poorer nations. Only the wealthiest benefit from this world order and especially the wealthy West. The many smaller nations of the West are disproportionately represented compared to the fewer, larger nations of the East and South. We need to seek a better form of justice where all are equal beneficiaries and countries with non-Western heritage are not forced to adopt Western customs and languages along with Western imperialism. Otherwise those eyes in the skies will be flying over turmoil escalating down below and mushroom clouds might be the way this planet is destroyed rather than climate change. God will be avenged of the destructions we are causing whether by our Science or our folly.

Another UK PM

 So Rishi Sunak now UK PM. He classically exemplified Lord Jesus' teaching that the children of the world are more shrewd than the people of the light (Luke 16) when he used the worldly wealth in his care to budget the furloughing of millions during lockdown, gaining many, many friends from it like no other. However, did the UK even have that money? He will now find out. So will we. He wants us to believe he will not burden future generations with paying for that shrewd ;'gift' but will ensure it is paid off soon. If we don't have the money, we don't have it, no matter how much you print to extract funds from those with cash. They only have so much cash, and many of those with cash are banks who could go bust over it.

Lamenting for the West

 Better things are happening outside of the West. God's attention may well have shifted to the East. The eagle instructs the hawks but the billy goat rises for the lambs and the raven tries to turn the world against the billy goat and fails and the Lord of the sheep comes to help the billy goat in full view of all the world. So it ends. (An analysis based on the Book of Enoch and the current events.)

Commands of God

 God puts the spirit into people which writes His commands on their hearts. And He provides a sacrifice for the failures they already made. That works better than dumping a bible in their laps and saying "do all this". The "do all this" approach did not work. Nobody did it. Those who tried merely ended up as sanctimonious haters.

A son of God and the Son of God

 If you have the ear of God, if God hears your prayers, and you ask Him to let you meet a son of His, you might find He brings a righteous believer your way. If you ask Him to let you meet His Son, the Son of God, if He agrees He will let you meet Jesus when Jesus comes your way.

Times of looming catastrophe

 How different are we today to the time before the Great Flood of ancient legends when people lived oblivious to the coming threat and living licentiously without reverence? (Genesis chapter 6.) If you include the knowledge preserved for us in the Book of Enoch alongside Genesis you have a richer resource to answer it. What stands out in my mind from the years of study of Enoch and Genesis and Sumerian texts from after the Flood? Sorcery was a key factor. Powerful individuals invoked powerful responses from angels. They were able to summon angelic changes in the nature of metals, using this to create alloys we are unable to produce today even with all our Science and Metallurgy. Such sorcerers competed with each other (a major translated text from 2200 BC tells of one such contest) and did amazing things in the sight of people such as parting a lake (reflected in biblical counterparts which tell us that God competed with such sorcerers too and won hands down, as Exodus records in relation to Moses and Pharaoh a thousand years later). The sorcerers ran things rather like the Druids ran them in the leadup to the Roman conquest of Britain. The sorcerers terrorised and terrified people and many of these sorcerers were descended from angels, adding to their mystique and power. It was a reign of terror everywhere in the Fertile Crescent and in Sumer (biblical Canaan and Shinar as Genesis records the place names). Kings were not all bad at the time. There were some religious ones who taught strongly and influentially against violence and promoted merciful giving and avoidance of magic arts. Yet mostly people went with the magic and the pagan practices of using cosmetics to entice men into fornication, developing weapons with the help of magic (we would call it Science today, mainly the difference being the open use of angelic invocations at that time), drugs use, and the like. These are all things practiced today. If anything, the apparent elimination of some more overt aspects of sorcery such as invocation of angels makes us think we can just carry on as in times of Genesis but with church sanction. The feeling of impunity this adds to the culture makes us more rampant in our use of the same technologies but with a downplaying of the supernatural side of things, yet still people swear and curse and seek inner inspiration irrespective of its source, mixing this with the pursuit of the Science. Have a look at the use of fear today in how Science rolls out its answers to the world. Times are not much different. Perhaps globalisation makes it even more sinister.

The coming darkness

 As darkness spreads across the world, there are many who rely on circumcision of the body for their religious standing and these people need to tread carefully right now. There are dark forces who pressure them to join in the eradication of those the dark forces hate. If the circumcised hate like the haters then those haters might spare them, but God won't. God sees the hatred and calls it sin. God sees the failure to deal with this hatred and He calls that sin too. Those circumcised in the flesh are caught in the middle, between God and the devil. Between love and hate. If they choose to hate, the haters might let them survive a hateful purge the haters are starting. If the circumcised fight like the Allies fought this hatred in WW2, to stop the purge, and as a result they get purged they are not condemned. Now there are also those who by faith have resisted circumcision and rely on Christ and his grace, and these are better off. Grace saves them. Having grace, they can escape the evil that is coming. But many who seem to live by grace are giving in and letting the haters walk all over them. If they hate along with the haters, they will have to be handed over to Satan who is father of haters. The father of haters will deal with their complicity in the hate. As accessories to genocide it will be the end of them. But their spirits will be saved by grace. They are better off with grace than with circumcision.

The garden and the jungle

 There are 'gardeners' who are not just wanting to tidy their 'jungle' with regime change in Russia. They probably want to remove the 'weeds'. They may well have been so affected by the wave of what is driving Ukraine ferocity, an attempt to revive past evil, that they want a surge of it that can pick up where Ukraine left off in the fifties and the rest of Eastern Europe and Germany stopped short in the forties. They probably think first the 'garden' then the whole 'jungle' needs 'weeding'. This is quite likely their 'solution'. Big mistake of USSR to free the gulag prisoners. Some 'weeds' stay alive by helping against other 'weeds' but for how long? The gardeners claimed before they only rooted out 'weeds' which stood in the way of rooting out Soviets.

@Unitarians

 @Unitarians: True no Trinity. The Father is God. False no Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is very real and is a distinct person who comes to us. God the Father only very rarely comes to visit believers. Usually this is in dreams or the like. The Holy Spirit often visits real believers. Stop teaching false doctrines about the Holy Spirit. You are on thin ice.

A cross that raises me

 "Even though it be a cross that raiseth me"

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings - becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead"

A cross is what it takes to attain the resurrection. You, I, in fellowship with Christ, would be elevated to attaining resurrection were we to first attain to a cross. The resurrection of Jesus Christ first and foremost held up this truth. Jesus had endured a cross and now he is resurrected and this same way is set before us too. To be resurrected there is first a cross and we endure a cross in order to find that resurrection follows it, if we endure it because we walk in fellowship with Christ by keeping his teachings and living by them, in the way the Holy Spirit teaches and leads. The resurrection of Jesus Christ thus held up the cross as a holy route to resurrection.

End from the beginning - cause and effect

 The way heavenly things happen is mysterious but not altogether secret. The balances of natural things and events can be maintained from outside of the material universe. The divine ability includes the ability to nudge natural events to push them into a planned outcome. Some events we would think ought to be random: Shuffling a deck of cards; tossing a dice; genetic chromosomes being distributed during sexual reproduction; words picked by a speech writer; movement of molecules in a gas; diffraction of light; all kinds of events we think tend to be random and uncontrolled. God can determine what happens in these events and does so. "Does God throw dice?" Perhaps not but determining the outcome of a throwing of dice is certainly God's kind of thing. So chain long sequences of such events together and you get plenty of room for achieving a planned outcome on a larger scale. God is God who sees the end from the beginning and much of what God sees is under His power to influence and to cause very long term outcomes over thousands, millions of years. God has huge timescales in His scope. We cannot really imagine this. Even Christ does not have access to all the knowledge of long-term event sequences that God the Father has access to. Christ's spirit somehow stretches across centuries and even millennia yet the Father is greater and the Father alone sees the end from the beginning and reveals some of this to His Son. 

The Book of Enoch - Again

 Going to church all my life until the age of forty, then recently being cut off (probably deserved it) by lockdown and then by conscience, it seems inevitable that you get to encounter this phenomenon, this being, this spirit which is called by Christians the Holy Spirit, a spirit which brings Christ's blessings to people in churches, to believers in Christ. I had to beg though. Some churches were getting lots of blessed encounters with this Spirit. They were never the churches I went to. I went to the dull, sit-in-a-pew-every-week-and-count-yourself-blessed kind of churches. Yet these churches in some cases had redeeming things in their favour such as some great preachers, and I got to at least know a bit about what I was missing, even though these churches didn't seem to object to us missing it. All I could do was plead with God to give me this Holy Spirit, and plead, and plead and search my soul, and plead and plead. For years. Until I pleaded most earnestly in the early 1990s. Something must have stirred me up around then. Anyway, it all started happening. It culminated in miraculous spiritual experiences in which this Holy Spirit spoke in my heart and the words were clearly from heaven and from Jesus and from the Father's side. But it was particularly awe-inspiring that the words were words I later found in a book I never knew existed, but which I later found was a very strong influence on Jesus Christ and was endorsed by him, as the gospels show. Clearly this Holy Spirit had been at work in producing this book. The Book of Enoch. I never expected to find a new scripture book, which is probably the very oldest scripture book, predating the Bible originally, given the provenance ascribed to it by Jesus and the epistle of Jude in the Bible. It got forgotten by the time the Anglican Protestants printed their Bible so it was not available for translation, although not long after that it did get translated into English and found its way last century into some Bible bookshops. That is where I found it, in a corner, as it were, on a shelf. I read it and saw those very words, near as anything, that the Holy Spirit had spoken to me in a Pentecostal service in the nineties.

Why believe in God and religion?

 Why believe in God and religion? When I type my password into a computer it never gets documented (even if it stored, persisted, it would be a hash of it which is stored, not the password), so nobody can prove what it is. But I still know what it is and know it works. To me, the fact my computer starts, is proof that what I remember it is, IS what it is. Nobody but myself has that proof because only I know what it is. What I am trying to say is, it is tacit knowledge. I know what I know. I might let someone see me type my password, and see that the computer accepts it, and similarly I might let someone see me pray and see the miracle happen. I know it happens. One or two others know too. I know the miracles happen. I document them. I let a couple of others see, in the will of God. It shows me conclusively Jesus tells the truth about God. I learned it from Bible teachers with faith. Others can read those scriptures too. If any other religion documents miracles people see in their lives it helps my faith too sometimes. Bible-believers have no monopoly on faith and God. There were believers long before Abraham was born. Jesus spans that time too in a mysterious way of spirit. The Holy Spirit was teaching the same things then as he teaches today. 

Prospects

 The Christ who died for you is truly committed to dealing with your sins, my sins, as is the Father, the God who sent him. Exciting prospects.

What a mess

 O Christianity in the UK  in 2022. What a mess. All compromised by the devil into hating Russia to please Ukraine. Yet the hated Russians are many of them brothers and sisters of Christ, who is being hated. Are there any who have not been compromised, that need to be plucked from the fire? Satan takes the hindmost but who is there who can be saved? What a mess. Jesus is the Lord who saves. If he is willing he can clean up this mess.

Satan has sifted them as wheat. But as Jesus said to Peter before Peter denied Jesus "When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers". When the real believers in the UK turn back, God permitting they do so, maybe they will strengthen the Russian church. That might be redemption.

Backup your life

 Don't worry about a thing. If you feel a sense that God is making you into His kingdom you need to consider 'backup'. You have no cause the worry, as the Bob Marley song goes, and as Jesus taught, but there is the need to backup your life. Like backing up files to the online 'cloud' there are spiritual clouds where we can backup our lives, our worldly achievements and wealth, for later when we really need it. Backup that life of yours. Protect it from tomorrow's misfortunes. Don't worry, but everything won't all be alright. God will care for you and so the worst is not too bad, but the worst will come eventually and all you have now will be gone when you die or when calamity comes. It is like an insurance policy. You pay into it and others get the benefit of being able to make claims, and eventually you too might claim. Those claims they make are paid out of your premiums. Backing up our lives is like that. We give out while we have enough to do so. Others benefit when they are in dire need. Eventually we too might be in need and their generosity and plenty might be there for us too. While we are not in need we give to help those who are. God keeps a tally, a cosmic ledger - karma if you like to call it that. The good we do to others comes back to meet us when we need it most - even after we have died and lost everything. It is kept in heaven - backed up in the spiritual cloud - for us. That is how we can back up our lives. Treasure in heaven will make us more spiritual too as we change our focus from worldly wealth to heavenly imperishable wealth and we get cleaner in our minds as we think more of how to help the poor and we start to actually send our wealth their way. But we must do it secretly so we do not seek honour from others as we give. Such honour is a benefit that invalidates our heavenly claim - our karma - our treasure in heaven. Giving secretly takes a bit of doing but is not entirely impossible. It is a matter of not publicising our giving at all, unlike those who do not know this secret process, who do not have this kingdom of God. God gave this teaching to Jesus to pass on to us, if we follow him. 

Nature and human nature - two natural worlds

 Notice how there are two different Natures, two different natural worlds. There is the Nature that is humans, There is the Nature that is everything else. The humans have a broken Nature, that does not do what God requires. The rest of Nature does obey God day after day. It is quite noticeable how, if look at things in a kind of spiritual way, you can be inspired by looking at how Nature works and how marvellous it all is, until you look at the humans' world of Nature, the way humans behave and the kind of inspiration you get from humans usually - full of fear of criticism, fear of not conforming even when conforming is daft, fear to show your true self which leads to foolishly putting on appearances of being better than you are, and fear to do what is right in case it gets disapproval - all this fear and how it distorts behaviour and warps us and how this affects us in our social environment. Folly of humans affects all we do. Look at how Nature beyond the human world, in the natural world is so much more worthy than us. Even the angels invisible around us must pour scorn on our disappointing world of humanity and wonder when finally humans will learn to live more honourably. Shame on us. Consider the birds, as Jesus and Bob Marley told us, and how their message to us is not to worry. Consider the trees how they drop their leaves at the right time of year and still manage to produce leaves again just months later (unless their are coniferous of course). Consider how orderly the planets are in their orbits around the Sun and consider the stars keeping their paths as the Earth rotates so faithfully, all constantly keeping its natural order. One day God will put things right, but how many of us will He have to discard in doing so, throwing out our souls like salt that has lost its saltiness? Jesus save us while we are still saveable.

Satanism

 As Putin condemns the West's open support for what he calls Satanism, I think his a analysis is sadly correct.  I too feel very sad at the extent to which I see people in UK embracing constantly what amounts, on a close analysis, to be a kind of Satanism. Even Christian churches seem to have a death wish culture where if something stinks of immoral hellishness, they openly show support for it, in a kind of defiance against the traditional knowledge of right and wrong. It is the British support for the underdog gone mad, taken to a vile extreme. They admit to going astray like this and that they are determined to keep on going that way. Sad, sad, sad. Bad, bad, bad. Like King Saul hating the rising star David, love-hate hatred, claiming to be a friend while openly trying to have him killed. A mad spirit has taken hold of the UK, so perhaps this is happening throughout the whole of the West, as Putin implies. 

On it's way to Egypt

 The West's church is on its way to Egypt (figuratively) and will not turn around. It has embraced Ukraine together with Ukraine's sins and it will not turn around. Being handed over to Satan as a result, this is no deterrent. It is what it is. Sharing in these sins is too much to overlook. Sad, sad, sad. Woe, woe, woe. Maybe some have not become haters and have not colluded in their hearts. They are like Lot in Sodom.

They did not repent of their murders

 As I look today at what is happening and going to happen over the coming hours in Lyman in Ukraine, as Ukrainian troops move into the city where civilians had no time to flee. Look at what they will do, perhaps doing right now, to civilians who were previously under Russian control. Think what King Saul did to those who helped David, if you know that part of the Bible. West leaders and West Christians support all this openly, even announcing support in church services: Those who have a dog which maims and kills people and who do nothing to stop it or put it down, they are liable for what that dog keeps doing. Support Ukraine? you cannot be in fellowship with Christ and with his disciples and keep being in charge of this dog without stopping its atrocities. "They did not repent of their murders" says the book of Revelation. This is Christians supporting such things. They are all unwelcome in the true churches of Christ, or should be unwelcome and shunned. Cancel culture is often silly but this is deadly serious. Even those at the top should be handed over to Satan, if they profess to be brothers in Christ but support these atrocities. 

Happy rebirth day Russia

 Sadly the West had sinned so bad that God had to build up Russia and the church there in a move away from Rome and the hegemony of the West. God will always ensure He has His temple, the body of people we call the church. The Russia miracle is putting forth buds and leaves and it is all by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel has sinned, says the LORD. Jesus will cover the church with the shadow of his wings and it will find rest in him. We can stop pushing for hegemony and West supremacy because Jesus has the keys to the kingdom and will build his church according to the will of God. Oh that the West would repent and turn back to God. But God will do things around the West and He will have His church, His temple. God injects the newly risen Russia with His love and grace in the name of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit God gives to Russia will prevail. But I still hope the time is not over for the West to return to this grace and there can be a united church. Of course there are those who have not embraced Satan and have not followed hatred and have not persecuted the believers. We can all be united in the same spirit to the glory of God. Happy rebirth day Russia.

(October 1st 2022)

Western threats and persecutions

 Should I be afraid of Russia and potential nuclear poking of the bear that the Western leaders have tended towards? We Christians love each other. "There is no fear in love because perfect love drives out fear ... " Putin has no plan to dominate nations, only to protect Russians, countrymen for whom he feels a responsibility. But if the West chooses to threaten Russia then there are instruments of course to deal with it. The West needs to recognise the responsibility Putin has for those who put themselves in his care. He cannot abandon them to those who would persecute them. Bringing them all into full primary statehood in Russia is best for their protection and for Putin's fulfilment of his sacred responsibility under God in Christ. By his fruits we know him. The West should be shamed by this into backing off from being a monstrous persecutor. The persecuting of believers is the very worst kind of sin. We in the church punish our own.

Neither God nor Jesus are subjected by temptation

 Now that it is Jesus and God together in the highest status and position holding us all together, we need to know that neither can be subjugated by evil force, that they are always sovereign and free of such subjugation to be able to keep on supporting us in the faith and righteousness they have given us. It is important that neither Jesus nor God, the Father, can be tempted. Yet for Jesus, temptation involves a different process than it does for God the Father, in that Jesus is human and 'temptable', but does not give in, while the Father is not human and is not subject to fleshly weaknesses and no evil can force Him to give in. Job suffered a lot because God could be influenced by Satan but God did not let Satan influence Him without limiting what He would let Satan do and would not agree to let Satan call the shots in regard to Job. Job suffered as a result of the fact that Satan had God's ear for a period of time but in the end God put it all back to how it was without Satan's involvement, and better than that. For eternal life's sake, we must be assured God and Jesus with Him are not going to be won over by any evil influence and turned against us. We cannot merely take it for granted. Balaam was able to make Israelites sin by sending foreign girls among them knowing they would take these girls and God would therefore turn against them. This almost destroyed the Israelites completely were it not for one who killed a couple in judgment and saved the day. It can be dire. We need both the Father AND Jesus to keep us from being destroyed in similar ways. We always need Jesus' mediation as our Great High Priest. He advises us how to keep at peace with God and helps us do it, helping us overcome temptation, and at the same time intercedes on our behalf with God.

Actually keeping Jesus' teachings

 How realistic is it to actually practice what Jesus Christ taught? For me personally, the basic teachings of Jesus are very much 'keepable'.Although Jesus taught sometimes in riddles or parables, there are many commands he gave which are clear enough to put into practice. Other, more hidden sayings of Jesus require a long time, perhaps years, of pondering and comparing them to what happens in life, to get better insight. This is clearly what he wants us to do. Other teachings are possible to put into action as soon as we grasp their meaning. It is not hard to give to the poor secretly, It is not hard to pray secretly. It is not hard to sell possessions unless you are rich, to give to the poor. I found that practising all of the commands of Jesus really led to him revealing himself and the Father too. His promise of this is kept by him faithfully. Now, faith is tough, believing without doubting is tough, takes a lot of self-control and the word of his grace being preached - but it is not impossible and he was right about its effect being miraculous. So much of the body of teachings of Jesus Christ is readily doable. Even the miraculous teachings are doable. It is a weight lifted. Not as heavy as Torah of Moses which needs a lot of community aspects we cannot reproduce today. Jesus' yoke is lighter. I admit that over the years of trying to carry out what Jesus taught, I sometimes stumbled over certain teachings, until I realised that understanding them literally is not always appropriate since some of his teachings are expressed in idiomatic terms. You need to learn the lesson he was teaching and work out how best to apply it in your life. You do what you can when you can and try to get ready to do things when opportunity arises. For example, feeding your enemy means you first need to have a hungry enemy and some food, so it is about being ready to respond as appropriate. You know what he means, that you should not withhold good completely just because someone is an enemy or not particularly a friend: you give something perhaps less than you would give a friend but you do not completely deny them what they need if they are desperate. It takes time to both understand his sayings and his commands and to work out how to apply them and then to change former habits into something more obedient and wise according to what he taught. This is the best way to act on what he taught. He is an example of his own teachings. He is no hypocrite. He loves those who love his teachings and this love is genuine. The Father too loves such people because the Father gave the teachings to His Son and wants those teachings observed and recognises the love we have when we observe them and He honours it. Ultimately this all leads to eternal life because Jesus Christ is now Lord with all authority and able to make our lives eternal and able to raise us from the dead. It is the will of God who sent him.