2024

 As I wrote this, 2023 was near its end and 2024 was already here in some countries. Time. It is a funny thing. A mystery. To God it is no mystery. The God who is Father of Jesus has no problem with time. He knows 2024 like He knows 2023. 3024 too. We tend not to care about 3024 because we expect we will not be alive, but not quite true for some of us. Not everyone will be dead by then. Some will be alive immortal raised from dead, probably nearing 1000 years since it happened. Some will be immortal having never died. But it seems too far away to be of concern. Remember that by 3034 there will be solemn thoughts in circulation that as 1000 years of the rule of Jesus nears its close, armies will start preparing to oppose him. Weapons will be amassed after more than 950 years of peace. The devil will be released after more than 950 years in chains. Armies will amass weapons and get ready to fight with him. Our descendants might be among them. It will end badly for them. They cannot hope to win against God and His Christ. But what of today? 2024 and all that? Do not think Jesus is bound to return imminently. Allow for several decades. The five wise and five foolish maidens parable tells us to be prepared for a longer wait than expected. Keeping the lights on tonight as midnight of New Year is hours away, my lights are on and I am ready dressed to go out to celebrate. I know it will be five hours from now when midnight strikes and I need to be awake till then. But waiting for Jesus to return and the big feast to begin we do not know how long to wait. So we need not just to keep the lights on, metaphorically, and stay ready, but we need to be ready for a longer wait than expected, just in case. I remember everyone in evangelical circles was saying 2000 would be the year, with millennium bug problems exacerbating the tension. It wasn’t. Folly to even think our year numbering had significance. Our year numbering started in some random year, not the year of Christ’s birth, and nobody in heaven was watching for two thousand years. God had other plans. The Book of Enoch even records the plans to some extent, and 2000 years AD gets no mention. Most likely the phophecy speaks of 2060 AD, 2800 years after the Assyrian Conquest. I could be wrong. Even Jesus does not know it precisely. Be ready for it to be decades from now. More than fifty years could be a problem with Enoch’s predictions so probably it is less than that. Build into your plans a long enough wait so you do not under-prepare. Do not be like the five foolish maidens. 

Gospel of the Son of Man

The gospel is the existence of a pure judge without sin. “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” We use a phrase ”pot calling the kettle black” to describe people clearly guilty of wrong doing trying to bring justice against other people for doing wrong. Jesus Christ’s reputation for sinlessness, purity, lack of any wrong doing, combines with God’s will that Jesus Christ be our judge. It makes sense when you realise that crucial to this is Jesus’ humanity. He had no free pass regarding temptation. He has lived a human life. He is human yet having done no wrong. Were he somehow more God than the typical human, he could not judge us without us retorting to God that it is OK for Jesus, he did not endure being weak and human the same as us, invalidating Jesus’ just right to cast the first stone. People guilty of wrong doing would love it to be true that Jesus were some kind of special human, fully God and fully human. It would render Jesus unsuitable to be judge. So there is a notion, now made the orthodoxy, that Jesus is both fully man and fully God. Not like us at all. Different. Special. Barely able to sin because God cannot sin. Yet when charged with claiming to be God, Jesus ponted to human examples of  people called gods in scripture, because they are judges and saints, and he went on to point out that God has set him aside to be judge of all, hence he is as human as all of us are. God would not have appointed him for this if Jesus were not a human: A human who judges and is apponted to judge everyone by God, everyone including those who sin out of human weakness and out of not being God, hence Jesus is not God except in so much that he is appointed for this. Being Son of God by necessity does not make him God. It would negate his just appointment to be judge of all, lord over all. God gave him existence and gave him a virgin birth body but without negating him being a normal human weak like us. This made his sinless life efficacious for being judge of all and it also made his death on a cross efficacious as the one sacrifice to purify us from sins when we repent and believe. God raising him from the dead made him the first of many truly human brothers and sisters who would likewise be raised when the chosen day comes. This is what Jesus taught. He did not teach the kind fully-God-fully-man dogma there is today. His existence is cricially important in God’s plan for salvation and is efficacious for this. That is why Jesus identified as the Son of Man. Do you believe in the Son of Man?  Receive the true gospel which efficacious is for your salvation. 

Keeping it simple

 Jesus loves his Father and would never usurp Him. Likewise the Father always acknowledges Jesus as His Son. No need to complicate things with foolish philosophy of this age.

Jesus warns us today

 Here is a rare message. It introduces one aspect of the gospel rarely heard. It came from tongues in a church. It was interpreted by the speaker. A moment previously I heard the interpretation directly by the Holy Spirit and both interpretations were an exact match. Here is the interpretation. ‘Consider the trees. They put forth buds and leaves. They do so by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.‘ (It continued in a similar vein about planets in their orbits around their stars, but I did not remember the exact words.) Weeks later I walked into a Christian bookshop. I saw a book I had never seen before and assumed might exist because it is quoted in scripture, but this was first time I knew it was available to read today. I read words so reminiscent of those Holy Spirit words. “Observe ye how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed and know with regard to all His works, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so. And all His works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for Him, and their tasks change not, but according as God hath ordained so is it done.” “And through that oath the stars complete their course, And He calls them by their names, And they answer Him from eternity to eternity. … And this oath is mighty over them And through it ⌈they are preserved and⌉ their paths are preserved, And their course is not destroyed. And there was great joy amongst them, And they blessed and glorified and extolled. Because the name of that Son of Man had been revealed unto them.” It was clear to me that the same inspiring Holy Spirit was behind this book too, the Book of Enoch. I bought it and read it, taking years to understand and learn it: The Spirit leading me into all truth. The prophecies of this book are unique in scripture and I have confidence Lord Jesus Christ intends it to be known today. It warns of the next forty years. The holocaust kinds of deaths were under auspices of a governing angel and now a new angel is in governing oversight, but will allow similar things. We must brace for horrible things to be metered out against the same people. It could affect all believers in Jesus too. It is going to be an awful last forty years before the angel completes its term of power. Then Lord Jesus will come and judge these and the previous five centuries worth of angelic governors. Twelve including the one today. Then the believers and religious devotees will be judged too. Those who are like blind sheep will go to the same end as the death-allowing angelic governors. Seek Jesus to give you sight, spiritual sight, like the blind who met the Son of Man and were healed and their physical sight restored. It is a symbol of spiritual healing of sight. Do not forsake Lord Jesus’ temple of God, his body of believers. Forsaking the material  temple led to blindness in centuries past. Do not go that way. 

A refuge in the rain

 We need to hold to Christ’s teachings, believing in him, if we are to escape the world. We need to obey his teachings if we are to experience him and his Father, God. We need to experience him by his own volition, coming to us. We need to find ourselves the subject of his Father’s loving demonstration of that almighty sovereign power, wielding Nature for our protection. We need to see how Jesus operates. We need to see how he and the Father cooperate. The Father supplying the power over Nature. The Son having the faith to present that power to you, in a way that matters to your situation, knowing he has the Father’s love as well as all that power to back him up. The Father has his back and he has yours, if you are target of his love, if you love him and obey his commands. Jesus Christ died for you. Now he is Lord and he wants to be the one who holds up the umbrella over your head so you can put your umbrella down and not get soaked by the rainstorm. 

Jesus and the Jews

 Jesus did not belong to any of the Jewish sects. He was not a Pharisee, nor a Sadducee, nor even an Essene or a Zealot. His earliest church did have some from these backgrounds but they all found refuge in Jesus whatever their background. Jesus sometimes referred to Jews as “we”, such as when speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, so he did not identify as Samaritan, but more as a Jew by comparison, but when speaking in private to his closest disciples, such as at his “last supper”, he referred to Jews as “they”, and as ”of the world”, identifying instead with his disciples as “from above… not from this world”. In speaking to Jews who believed in him, he told them they were of the devil because they lied and murderously hated him, yes even though they believed. They must hold to his teachings before he would consider them disciples. He classed these and other Jews as “the world” because there was no love for him amongst them, nor for his Father, God. In private he was clearly including the Jews as “the world” when he told his disciples not to be surprised that the world hated them. The disciples are coming out from this world and that is why it hates them. 

Marooned but free

 The slaves of the 1600s and 1700s sometimes escaped and were called maroons. Marooned is a word we use about people left out away from a main group of people and who are left alone and needing to fend for themselves. The maroon slaves, escaped slaves, had to hide deep in forests lest they be made to pay for escaping in grievous ways. They had to band together in groups if possible, finding a group and joining it, or having to survive on their own. The gospel frees us if we are persuaded of it. The masses are slave to superstitions,feelings of fear about what happens if powerful spirits invisible to them are not kept happy, with sensitivity about omens and spooky happenings, causing compulsions and adherence passed-down traditions. Mostly it is a mix of knowledge and ignorance, knowledge only coming from dodgy sources such as practitioners of deeam interpretation, healings, potions, drugs, medicines, foul sounding curses and invocations. Into this comes Jesus Christ bringing truth. Persuasion from his teachings and miracles leads to knowledge of truth and efficacious healings and cleansing from sin, resulting in freedom from the superstitions and ignorance. Yet being freed can mean being marooned. Just as it did with literal slavery. Those who do not escape and those who hold in bondage and control are angered by escapes. They hunt and persecute to discourage others from escaping and to try to sacre escapees into returning, only to punish them if they do. Find a group but be sure they are genuine escapees. Ask God and His Son for the Holy Spirit to help with life of marooned freedom. 

The efficacy of the true gospel

 People do not like the efficacy the gospel might be having on others who receive it. Plus it might be that those who receive it are enabled to escape the customs and life traps of the social group. So to hinder such escape from social control, to hinder those who receive the message with full persuasion of it from escaping the clutches of the community, the individuals of the social group would welcome and confusion and obfuscation of the message. The Romans were no exception. They may have been happy if the doctrines of three in one Trinity God got a bit confusing, obscuring the message, muddying the water, clouding the air, making it harder for others to accept it and control of them be lost. The gut feeling more educated people might have that this is a distortion of the truth, that it does not really tie in with the  gospel message as found in scripture, this only helps assure them that nobody hearing it will be empowered by real faith and persuaded to follow Jesus Christ. To really cement the confusion it might have helped to have a stamp of officialdom applied to the Trinity orthodoxy, making it even less likely that effucacy of the true gospel would prevail in hearers. Hearing is by the word of God and persuasive faith is by hearing the true gospel, but if that gosoel gets corrupted with philosophical notions like three person one being Trinity God rather than one being one person Father God, then persuasion cannot take effect. Find the true gospel and hear it clearly preached, saving your soul. Jesus Christ died for you.

Looking for alternatives?

 The Trinity doctrines give those who embrace them a way to escape having to listen to the true gospel. The gospel challenges us. The cross scares us. The obedience of Jesus even unto death on a cross scares and challenges us. It means we effectively died because he died for us. We must retire from sinning. It hurts to hear it. The One True God is an individual we ought to love with all our hearts and even before we believe in His Son we should believe in Him, the One who sent Jesus and for whom Jesus gave full obedience in love. This God is simply an individual with a single personality and singular sovereign authority. Not some complex philosophical concept. Who can love a complex multiperson being. That is the escape for many. Flee to the multiperson being concept doctrines as a way to hide like Jonah fleeing to Tarshish. Tell those who preach a true gospel that they are unorthodox. Make orthodoxy the lie of refuge. That is the side-effect of those of Roman Empire worldly authority who introduced it to allow them to control the believers. Alternatively, love the truth. 

Confusion due to gospel abuse

Saying “Jesus is fully human and fully divine” is not quite the same as calling him God. Saying Jesus is God, this is abuse of the gospel. But saying he is fully God and fully human is really flirting with such abuse, playing with words. Any powerful ruler is fully god, small g, and obviously fully human. It is that subtle use of God big G that is where gospel abuse sets in. We all know it really. We are not innocent. We then go hunting for verses to prove our point and justify this abuse, such as Thomas’ words at end of gospel of John which are obviously abused to try to justify the distortion ploy. Anyway, the abuse is so rampant that people think safety in numbers, if everyone is doing it, who can accuse. Yet there are those who have repented and like the people of Nineveh can stand and accuse at the Judgement. Each must be careful because each of us are going to have our works tested by fire. If they are burnt up, … Not a nice scenario. If we judged ourselves we would not be judged. But if by our words we confuse a brother so they sin, our judgment will be severe. Many give up on church because the confusing “fully God, fully human” and “God the Son, Son of God” makes such little sense. Scripture does not say such things. Scripture was written in wisdom and love and power. Consider your hearers, saving them. Love God with all your voice.

Spiritual warfare

 Those who preach that Jesus is God are overemphasising his divine aspects and falsifying the gospel. If he were God, then his baptism by John the Baptist would do nothing to make him like us since we are not God. To say simply that Jesus is God misses the whole point of his baptism. How would I address this? Well all I am doing is warning that it is God the Father who addresses the abuse of the Bible and the teaching of a false gospel. “Israel has sinned”, He says. The eagle over the house is the sign. I get the feeling there will be no repentance. This looks like a wider and wider war response looming. I do not personally sanction war but in view of how it is spoken of by God, I increasingly acquiesce to it. Yet, this is a spiritual battle too. There are angels in charge of such judgments of the house of Israel (the people as distinct from the country though it may include the country too, as recent events suggest). These angels have already in the past almost five hundred years allowed too many deaths and the last right now will be little different. It is a balance of punishment and mercy, and God is not forcing it one way or the other. 

The baptism of Jesus Christ

 Those who preach that Jesus is God are overemphasising his divine aspects and falsifying the gospel. A key fact in the gospel is that Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. This is the most historically attested fact about Jesus Christ since records of it even outside of the gospels exist today. It would make no sense for Jesus to have been baptised by John the Baptist unless Jesus was a human the way that we are human. He was baptised to, in his own words, “fulfil all righteousness” and to be like us in that we humans need to repent of sin and seek forgiveness. He had no sin, and were it not for this need of the gospel ministry he was fulfilling to become like us, he would not have needed to be baptised. If he were God, then baptism would do nothing to make him like us since we are not God. To say simply that Jesus is God misses the whole point of his baptism.

Gospel truth

 The gospel is about having the opportunity to live your life according to what is true. Before Jesus Christ came there was no certainty about truth. Nobody was both knowledgeable and honest enough. Then Jesus brought truth into the world. What a shame when people continue their lives without it.

Useful analogy

 It seems to me that Jesus is like God’s kingdom’s authoritative police chief who arrests us (think Paul on Damascus road) and then for free legal representation the Father gives the Holy Spirit, e.g. to those so arrested. Not an exhaustive model/analogy but it has areas where it is accurate. 

The kingdom of God is near you

 The kingdom of God is near you. You have to reach out and let it be within you by accepting its power, its teachings, its love, its soundmindedness. Bring it in. Grab it. Overcome the hindrances. Block out the doubts. Believe. Take the yoke of the Teacher and bear it daily. Learn Jesus Christ. He is near. When those he sends are near, receive them and hear them. Let the kingdom in. Do not keep it at arms reach. Embrace it. God bless you. 

It is the Lord

 The rain poured in torrents from the sky. It had been a time of flooding locally with homes destroyed. Now my umbrella was all that stopped me getting drenched. It was torrential like seldom seen in our area. I had just been reading in the Bible: “Come see the works of the Lord the destructions He has wrought” and “The Lord presides over the flood” so I went down to a river nearby to see the river in flood and better know and worship God. On the way back I had up a huge umbrella (golfing umbtella) keeping me dry in the torrents as I walked up Blackswarth Road in Bristol, UK. Suddenly it was like a crystal clear voice in my mind said “Put down your umbrella!” It had such absolute authority to it that immediately I put down the umbrella in the torrential rain. The drivers of cars driving past could see it happen. The rain just stopped completely in an instant. It was so sudden that there was not a single drop, it seemed, that touched me, as I folded up that huge umbrella. I said to myself “It is the Lord” and remembered the disciples saying it too after the resurrection when Jesus stood on the shore as they fished and told them to put the net on the other side and they caught loads. I asked confirmation it was actually Jesus himself. I lived on my own and never had visitors. Near my bed was a nail in the wall and on it had hung a dressing gown for a long time, unworn, never used. I asked this Lord who had come to me, “Lord if that is you, if you are Jesus Christ, may the dressing gown be off the wall by the morning”. Of course I imagined I would wake up and see it on the floor. I went to sleep. In the middle of the night I was suddenly, in my sleep, felt a tremendously compelling spirit deep inside my deepest being in my mind compelling me to wake up immediately. I jumped out of bed. Instinctively I reached out and grabbed the dressing gown pulling it off the nail holding it there. As soon as I did so, I remembered my prayer. I knew Jesus is so much my master that he reached deep into my deepest mind with that lordly spirit and commanded my very being. This is my living Lord. This is the Son of God. 

The Feast

 Give your gifts, put berries on your evergreens, feast on meals reminiscent of sacrifices to gods now considered to be idols, scatter the red blots and blotches over everything and everyone like sacrifice blood, but now a greater sacrifice is made, a greater gift is given, a purer blood is scattered and celebrated in communion and mass, the Son has given his blood on a cross and with it has blessed all Mankind, and God the Father, the One True God has accepted it and set aside what wrath He would otherwise have kindled, as He sees the blood shed for you and for me of His perfected, sinless, beloved Son, Jesus. Jesus has done it, when nobody else could do it. He has given his obedience even including death on that cross and we are all blessed by it because we needed a once and for all effective and holy sacrifice because of our sins, and God has raised him to life again to be our Lord forever. This is our feast once we believe and hold to his teachings.

The December Feasts

As the season trimmings appear in December, maybe one in ten of the apartment doors around the apartment building in which I live are adorned with a circular reef of either evergreen leaves or some modern fashionable equivalent. Inside those apartments I can only assume some ancient traditional customs for Yule or Saturnalia are being practised. Christ Jesus was born into this world to turn us from sacrificial feasts centred on elemental spirits and ancient gods to the One True God, the Father who sent him. Christ appeared onto the world scene to create a new Temple, a Temple of living people who are willing to regard these old gods as idols and turn to service of God in spirit and truth, inspired to their tasks by the Holy Spirit given them by God the Father in the Son Jesus’ name. This way is made possible by the death on the cross of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead by God the Father sealing the sacrifice Christ thus made to deal with the Father’s wrath against our sinful shortcomings and grievous acts. The only requirement is that we believe and hold to his teachings and abstain from the sacrificial system of the elemental spirits and idol gods. There is a new feast in Jesus’ blood that obviates the blood of sacrifice of meat devoted to the idol gods. A new food which is Jesus Christ and his grace. Water welling up which is the Holy Spirit welling up within believers with grace of Christ.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom

 As I have travelled at times over the years, I have noticed marked differences in senses of freedom, where some countries and areas in countries have it and others don’t. It is very noticeable to me that where there is the most freedom you find a greater adherence to spiritually charismatic forms of religion, of Christianity in particular. The gospel rings out loud and clear in those places. Elsewhere the religion is more formal and legalistic, with principles imposed by the letter of the law of those religions rather than welling up from within the adherents. Legalistic religion is the slave offspring of the Abrahamic faith, while the free offspring are those who embrace the living gospel and the water of life you get as a result, welling up in manifested outflows of gospel truth and worship of the One True God. It is a disgrace of a people for them to resist the true gospel and instead bind themselves to externally imposed constraints of the letter of a religious code. it is a glory of a people, often a poor demographic full of faith, to accept the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Spirit and let freedom flow from within.

They have not ceased

What happened in church history about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? They have not ceased. 

John Chrysostom (AD 347-407):

“This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place. And why do they not happen now? Why look now, the cause too of the obscurity hath produced us again another question: namely, why did they then happen, and now do so no more?” (Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXIX, 1)

Paul wrote in Romans 8: “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” He also wrote in 2 Corinthians 13: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”

Jesus said “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.” John 14.

So what happened in church history about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? 

Augustine in Homily 6 on 1 John wrote around 430 AD: 

“10. In the earliest times, the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spoke with tongues, which they had not learned, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:4 These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to show that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening, and it passed away. In the laying on of hands now, that persons may receive the Holy Ghost, do we look that they should speak with tongues? Or when we laid the hand on these infants, did each one of you look to see whether they would speak with tongues, and, when he saw that they did not speak with tongues, was any of you so wrong-minded as to say, These have not received the Holy Ghost; for, had they received, they would speak with tongues as was the case in those times?”

Augustine 430 AD

They have not ceased. They just are not given to those who are not Christ’s. As Romans explains. I have witnessed them, some first hand. 

They have not ceased. Here is what I wrote about it in 2018, two decades after it occurred but while I still remembered it all clearly. 

‘Have I received the Holy Spirit since I believed? Yes it happened to me in 1994 and 1995. I asked earnestly for the Holy Spirit in 1994 or sometime around that time and had a vision: a bucket of builders’ sand was emptied out in front of me and what was like subtitles said “Build the Temple”. I asked for confirmation to happen three times to prove this was the Holy Spirit. I went to a church service where all were allowed to take part. Three girls from Sunday School had written a song and they sang it: “Build build build the Temple; build build build the Temple; build build build the Temple”. A man with a guitar sang then spoke about King David being speechless when told his son would build the Temple. Then an older man spoke about building the Temple. I undetstood it meant to preach and use gifts of the Spirit to build up the church. Then I experienced the Father speaking to me in a dream then weeks later Jesus made Himself known to me out in a storm which He calmed. Then Jesus confirmed it was Him showing me He is my lord. Then some time after this a friend took me to a church I had never been to because he said I would witness the Holy Spirit there. A leader spoke a message in an angelic language so awesome and in my mind it turned into English saying: “Consider the trees how they put forth buds and leaves. They do so by the authority of the name of Lord Jesus Christ” and then the leader said those same words too in English. Weeks later I was in the bath and meditating like I often did in the stillness and the word of God came to me out of the blue “Israel has sinned” and told me a sign is the eagle with the white eye overhead. I watched the news and the sign was there twice: the beginning of police helicopter services in Bristol overhead with white searchlights and cameras - and American spyplanes. So vision then later the tongue interpretation then later the prophecy was all the manifestation of the receiving of the Holy Spirit God had lovingly given me. God is love.’

Did you not receive them? Are you Christ’s? 

I later saw a copy of the Book of Enoch in a bookstore. I never saw it before. I started leafing through it and saw words exactly mirroring the words interpreted from the tongues. Clearly the Lord wants us to know this book is inspired. Believing this led me to so much truth I never knew before and no other human could tell me: no other human except Jesus who learns it from the Father, His Father.

“He will lead you into all truth”, said Jesus about the Holy Spirit. 

The way to life

 We can read the Bible all wrong, if we presume to put ourselves in the place of the writer. The writers had the Holy Spirit because they believed as God persuaded them and held to what God taught them. Much better to put ourselves first into place of ignorant and blind and relatively foolish learner enquiring after the wisdom of scriptures, to learn from its authors and from the Holy Spirit inspiring them. Then we can learn until eventually we might actually become like these teachers instead of presuming to be like them in the first place. Enter by the door, by the gate. Not by jumping the fence like a thief. Become a newborn first, in God. Grow from there. How hard for those expected to be mature and wise and learned right now or paid to teach and lead. It is hard to become a baby if that is your role. Let go and learn realistically. Keep it real. First ask yourself if you believe and are persuaded deep down really that Jesus is the Christ and alive from the dead. Start there. Get this right. Then learn his teachings. It might mean baptism or even rebaptism for you. Keep to what you learn from Jesus with persuasion from him, and from those sent by him, and the Holy Spirit sent in his name. This is the way. To learn him this way, you might have to learn other things too so you have an understanding heart to receive the seed of the word fruitfully. Learn all you can, but wuth wisdom guiding you and avoiding evil teachings. Seek truth. Seek persuasion about who Jesus is and what happened to him. Then learn his words of life and spirit and keep them until you understand. It takes time. Years maybe. Do mot foster a facade of being expert. Be a child in faith but truly in the Holy Spirit.

Turning to the One True God

 Pagan philosophy got included in the Trinity doctrines. It was at a time when the Holy Spirit was pretty much unknown among the leading theologians. It was at a time when doctrine was controlled by the pagan Roman Empire. If people would turn to the human Jesus Christ, alive from the dead, then hold to his teachings and those brought by the Holy Spirit, they would find the one true God, the Father and He might say to them as He did to me, “I am God” and show then that the human Jesus is His true Son, beloved by Him. And He would give to them the Holy Spirit to seal the whole matter. 

Essentials of salvation

 Christians nowadays know very little about pagan religion. They may know scriptures about pagan religion but not knowing that these scriptures are referring to pagan religion. The arguments of Protestant leaders and thinkers centuries ago that only certain truths are “essential to salvation” might have applied back then when pagan religions and witchcraft were still around, but nowadays you need to know a bit more than just scripture if you want to understand salvation. Otherwise you will end up knowing scriptures about how to be saved but have no idea what they mean. 

“You believe in God. Believe also in me.”

“You believe in God. Believe also in me.” Words of Lord Jesus Christ. This sums up our entrance into the persuasion of his discipleship. To be his disciple, one must first believe in God and in Jesus the Son of God, the Christ. How can a Trinitarian avoid clouding this teaching? It is important to know, setting aside Trinitarian dogmas, that Jesus means the Father when he says ’God’. Once we believe in God and in the Son, then to be a disciple, a true disciple with eternal life hope, one must hold to the teachings of God which come through the sayings of Jesus and now through the Holy Spirit. 

A Christmas Carol by ChatGPT

 A Christmas Carol by ChatGPT

In December's embrace, with red blotches we grace,

On plates and on trees, a tale we embrace.

Centuries ago, a different scene was displayed,

Sacrifices to idols, in blood, were arrayed.

But apostles proclaimed a message divine,

Abandon the feasts, to the One God incline.

Jesus, the sacrifice, on the cross was laid,

Purification achieved, in His resurrection displayed.

Gone are the idols, to obedience we yield,

The Father in heaven, our only true shield.

No more flickering blood on household domain,

Now red berries and lights, a festive refrain.

The message of gospel, spreading its wings,

Abandon the gods, let the joyful choir sing.

Believers now gather, with wine red as wine,

Broken bread, a symbol, of a love so divine.

The household of God, a sanctuary so grand,

A jealous God's love, throughout the land.

Misdeeds forgiven, by the cross' sacrifice,

Teaching Christ's law, leading to eternal life.

No more feasts for gods, a new era we see,

The sacrifice of Christ, sets our spirits free.

Red wine, broken bread, symbols profound,

In the household of God, eternal life is found.

Resurrection's promise, for those who believe,

Eternal fellowship, with God we achieve.

The One True God, the Father above,

Guiding us with principles, rooted in love.

Seasonal decorations

 In many places in the West and not only the West the month of December is marked by decorations. In particular we see red blotches on everyday things. Depictions of red berries on home items such as plates and cards and trees. This is a celebration of the ending of sacrifices to idol gods which ended centuries ago. Two millennia ago the time of December and full moons around that time were marked by feasts in which sacrifices were devoted to gods and blood from the sacrifices was flicked onto household items and the trees and the people gathered there participating. The feasts for these gods were about to be abandoned in obedience to apostles of Jesus Christ whose only God was the Father in heaven. Other gods were commanded to be considered idols. The cross sacrificial death of Jesus Christ was for purification from unprincipled deeds and the resurrection of Jesus Christ proved it was accepted by God the Father. Now the message of this gospel was spreading and feasts to gods were being abandoned in obedience to the apostles’ command. Nowadays the sacrifices to idol gods are hardly ever known and instead there are seasonal celebrations with red blotches denoted with red berries and small bright decorative lights. The gatherings of believers are now marked with red wine and broken bread denoting this sacrifice on the cross of the Lord of the household, Jesus Christ. This household is household of the Father in heaven, the One True God, a jealous God but the One who dealt really and truly with misdeeds of unprincipled living which had led to death and instead taught the principles of the law of Christ which lead to eternal life. The outcome? Resurrection for many and eternal fellowship with God, the Father in Heaven, the One True God, God of Jesus and of those who hold to his teachings. 

Flawed Bibles

 We may learn enough about our Bibles that we discover they have some flaws. Yet, the inaccuracies in translations of scripture and copying of it down the centuries, it is still adequate for relating to us today some of the testimonies of apostles, from which it is still evident that Christ died for you and me to purify us from our sins. The power of God in the Holy Spirit seals this message for us still today. The promises of Jesus are still clear enough and commands accurate enough in the translations for us to find the promises fulfilled in our lives by the living Father and His Son today.

Interesting to ponder

 Interesting to ponder: At the resurrection when the saints in Christ are raised to judge the world, when Moses too is raised, will Moses still speak to the Father face to face? Will there be two mediators, Moses and Jesus? Well it is not too much a mystery how Jesus and Moses will relate to each other, because they met already where it was witnessed by Peter, James and John, as was recorded in the gospels, on the mountain at Lord Jesus’ transfiguration. They conversed. It was cool. Elijah was there too. Elijah has a difference in the resurrection in that, like Enoch he has never died. At some point Enoch will be brought along to fit in with that resurrected set of leaders and Elijah will be there perhaps like Enoch, witnessing the growth of the kingdom of Christ in the world till all Christ Jesus’ enemies are made a footstool for his feet. Not long now. I expect many under the age of seventy will be there at the beginning of it when the dead rise to rule. Some will be raised with them but not from death, since they will be still alive, just needing to be made immortal with the others. That transfiguration was a foretaste. 

Asking a difficult question which concerns most of us

 Can your pastor, cleric, minister, priest, vicar, rabbi, pujari, brahmin, monk, granthi, sheik, imam bravely let you ask difficult questions and answer without shutting down the subject matter to further debate? Do they hide ignorance behind a veil of indignation? Well a pastor probably can’t help with big questions, for example, nothing is recorded of Jesus’ teachings or any teachings in scripture of how it is decided where we go after death. If it is binary, or a three-way decision, how does Lazarus get distinguished from the rich man (as in Jesus’ teaching about the Rich Man and Lazarus)? The ancient Egyptian Anubis answer seems to be the only one on offer. The scales weighing good and bad actions, good and bad points. How does this follow on from death? Has Jesus ever revealed it through the Holy Spirit? I can imagine some church in history being told it by prophecy and maybe it being recorded in some records somewhere like the Vatican or some secret annuls in Ethiopia or Mount Athos. It would be nice for clarity on what determines each one’s destination before the resurrection, whether burning or refreshed or waiting to be avenged. How can a pastor help? Or moreover, how can scripture knowledge help since in the Rich Man and Lazarus lesson Abraham implied the answers and warnings are all in the scriptures. Even the Book of Enoch has sparse detail on the subject, though it emphasises restraint from violence as a key tip. How kind or otherwise to the poor warrants one destination from the other? 

Christmas

Should winter solstice be a celebration for Christians? It seems to have originally been a celebration feast for pagans. Most pagan celebration feasts were times of sacrifices to gods and other spirits, which the original apostles commanded be avoided. They were times of sprinkling of blood of sacrifices onto the feast participants and then eating of the sacrificed meat by the participants in the name of the god or spirit. Once Christians converted to only worshipping the One True God, the Father, they were duty-bound to forsake such ceremonies, although for some it was very difficult to do so. This difficulty might be why Christmas was eventually celebrated at solstice time, to allow celebrations to coincide with pagan feasts to allow Christian converts to continue celebrating but with a Christian narrative instead of a pagan one. Hence pagan traditions got incorporated into Christmas - presumably to allow a compromise where feasts could continue under a different guise. But the original command to Christians is to forsake the things associated with sacrifices to such gods, regarding these gods as idols, and just to worship the Father as God. Now it could break up families and churches if a believer in Christ were to stop celebrating Christmas so I leave it for personal discretion. Personally I try to avoid such associations with pagan customs, in obedience to the command to cease from idol meat and blood. How far you go in this dissociation is a matter of conscience, but the general attitude of obedience to the command of the apostles is a matter of acceptance into church life. We cannot participate in worship of other gods and spirits once we turn to worshipping God the Father, it is not allowed. The Father is a jealous God. 

Each one must think about how their obedience affects their family and associations, jobs, careers, lives. Those who give guidance must bear in mind that the consequences might be regulated and they be made answerable for the effects their advice has on others. Plus the apostles strongly rebuked teachers whose teaching destroyed families. So we should exercise an abundance of care. My own life and family has been greatly affected, negatively, by my obedience in things such as this and sabbaths too, so I know it can be very costly. Sometimes even deaths can result. So yes, glory to God when we endure hardships for His sake but be extra careful it truly is in the line of duty and not some badly worded advice or misunderstanding or falsity that led to the problem. For example, although we might avoid pagan traditions once associated with pagan feasts which Christian apostolic teaching calls idolatry, it is worth noting that the idolatry might be long gone and those traditions have no modern association with sacrifices to deities or spirits we call idols. It is hardly part of our lives today in highly Christianised countries and communities to come across sacrificial feasts to idol gods. So there is not the same need that there used to be to avoid the pagan traditions now that they are vestigial and harmless. It is not worth breaking up families over it, or losing a job over it. We have to judge it for ourselves in our own situations or those of the people we might advise. Discretion and individual conscience. 

Sects or Kingdom

  It is remarkable and notable that Christianity has developed the same two major kinds of sects as were around in gospel times. Catholicism/Orthodoxy is like Sadducceism, a sect for the secular and the governments, while Protestantism is like Phariseeism, a scripture-embracing, scripture emphasising sect for those who like to be seen as more religious than the other sect. In between is something more akin to Essenes which is like the baptism of John the Baptist, more for devoted truth-followers, and then there is the kingdom of God itself which is preached by Christ himself. John the Baptist recommended the latter, even over his own teachings. This is the pearl of great price worth giving up all the rest and all the establishment and mainstream acceptance to achieve it. It means truly believing in the Christ himself, Jesus, the Son, and holding constantly to his teachings.

The kingdom of God is near to you

You can read scriptures and study notes and church laws like the Westminster Confession, but when someone with the Holy Spirit speaks to you from the Holy Spirit you have the kingdom of God right there nearby and you can accept it and enter it. If you reject it, it is still there nearby. The kingdom of God is near you. 

Do not get absorbed too much in Bible study

  It is great to have scriptures and notes for study of them. If pondering things of God we can be guided to such notes like cross references and from there to truth we need to help us understand the things of God we ponder. The Holy Spirit can do this guiding once we have accepted the teachings of Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. Accepting gifts of the Spirit brings us from proximity to the kingdom of God, actually into the kingdom of God. Then we are told “Build the temple”. Instead of merely knowing scripture verses about God and notes about those verses (the Pharisees loved to write such notes), we can love God and cherish His commands obediently and be visited by God, to know Him, and by His Son to know His Son, and by the Holy Spirit to know the Holy Spirit. Then God can tell us what He wants to tell others to build up the Temple. “Israel has sinned”, He says. And the eagle with the big white eye overhead is sign of this. God can help us root out sin and bring His kingdom near to others. But merely knowing scriptures and studying is no substitute for all of this, all of this of which they testify. We need the reality in our lives, realities of the kingdom of God. 

Blood, idol meat and blot feasts

 Keeping away from blood? There is something in Christianity which for me was a baffling part of its scriptures. The original apostles commanded new Christians from non-Jewish roots to abstain from heathen idols and from blood. What did they mean? Well it helped me when I came across the word ‘blot’. Blot is a word in English from Viking origins. It is used in various ways. Mainly it used to mean a feast where blood was sprinkled from a sacrifice onto all of the attendees. It tied the attendees to the benefits of the sacrifice offered to gods or other spirits. It united those attendees to each other as common recipients of this blood. Now that Christ has offered himself and believers receive benefits of his sacrifice to God, to the Father, these Christians must no longer share in these other sacrifices. The meat offered and blood sprinkled is associated with the gods and spirits which are now to be regarded by Christian believers as idol gods and spirits, so they are to be avoided. For many through history of Christianity it has been very very hard to avoid these idol things. The feasts were (and for many still are) enforced such that participation by everyone in that community would be the only option. Leaving or distancing from such communities tied to such feasts is often the only way to avoid participation. Sometimes a fine was levied to pay for non-participation and persecution of non-participants was and still is a further price to pay to stay out of the feast meat eating and blood sprinkling. Even in churches there are ways the practices creep in and get enforced. The Christian feasts can preserve aspects of the idol sacrifices. Sometimes to practice obedience to the Apostle’s command we must even dissociate from certain aspects of church life. It is costly but part of what Christ has given as the will of God. The sacrifice of Christ overflows into our lives when we go his way. 

We are creators

 We are like creators, made in the image of the Creator. He who made us can be certain in His single-mindedness about something that He brings it to existence by expressing that certainty in a few words. He makes us the same. He gives His Son this faith, in loving fellowship Jesus Christ has with His Father. His Son teaches it to us, those who believe. He teaches us faith in himself too. We become creators like him as we express that faith in words. The love of the Father makes the creative word become reality in Nature. We hold hands with the Father and create with Him, in fellowship divine. Such is the power Jesus brings into our lives. And we can harness it against our sins.

Worded as a song by ChatGPT 3.5

In the image of the Creator, we stand,

Makers of reality, with faith at our command.

He who shaped us with certainty's decree,

A few words bring existence, like waves upon the sea.

Jesus, in loving fellowship divine,

Imparts the faith that in our hearts does shine.

Teaching us to create, to believe and aspire,

In the power of words, our souls set on fire.

We're creators, reflections of the divine,

Holding hands with the Father, our spirits entwined.

Through the love that He imparts,

Our words become art, shaping worlds in our hearts.

His Son carries the faith, a torch in the night,

Guiding us through shadows, into the purest light.

Teaching us to craft, with words as our tools,

Expressions of faith, breaking earthly rules.

Jesus, in the fellowship so divine,

Transcends our doubts, like a sparkling wine.

Teaching us to believe, in ourselves, in Him,

Creating with purpose, breaking through sin's grim.

We're creators, reflections of the divine,

Holding hands with the Father, our spirits entwined.

Through the love that He imparts,

Our words become art, shaping worlds in our hearts.

Hand in hand with the Creator, we stride,

In fellowship divine, where our doubts subside.

A canvas of Nature, our words bring to life,

With Jesus as our guide, overcoming every strife.

A power within, against sins we stand,

Harnessing the strength, etched in the Creator's hand.

Through faith, we rise, like a phoenix from the pyre,

In the symphony of creation, our souls dance higher.

We're creators, reflections of the divine,

Holding hands with the Father, our spirits entwined.

Through the love that He imparts,

Our words become art, shaping worlds in our hearts.

In the image of the Creator, our journey unfolds,

A melody of faith, where our story's told.

Creators we are, in His likeness we find,

A song of creation, in our hearts, forever bind.

“Israel has sinned” God says

 

Symphony of the Unseen, a song by ChatGPT 3.5

In the dance of life where science takes its stance,

Visible forces twirl, a captivating trance.

Yet behind the scenes, in the shadows they reside,

Unseen factors waltz, where mysteries abide.

Nature's canvas painted with empirical grace,

Yet there's more to this song, a mystical embrace.

Invisible beings whisper, their tales untold,

A symphony of forces, a narrative unfold.

Not just the seen, but the unseen, profound,

In the tapestry of life, where mysteries abound.

Day by day, a melody of science and lore,

Harmony of the visible, and the unseen encore.

Song by Chat GPT 3.5

Gaza

 If British, Israelis and Americans have malevolently tried to tie these multi-ethnic people to words Philistine and Canaanites, having led them to identify as Palestinians (I might have done so myself in the past, tempted to read too much into the unfortunate etymology, beguiled by certain writers and analysts in the nineties), then it could be that this is the very sin that is leading to the West’s increasingly dystopian, 1984-like, mass-surveillance riddled police-state with world war hanging over us like a cloud (mushroom variety?) or hovering over us as an eagle, and leading to the current trouble in the Middle East and Ukraine. God is a fearsome judge who hates sin. 

Upon that cross

Upon that cross where Jesus bled,

A healing power for us spread.

From misdeeds, lying, and unjust hate,

The Savior's love can liberate.

Oh, the cross, a symbol true,

Cleansing power, making all things new.

Rest assured, His grace profound,

The Holy Spirit freedom found.

In thefts and unfaithfulness, we roam,

Yet on that cross, our sins atone.

For every soul, a cleansing plan,

In Jesus' hands, redemption's span.

Oh, the cross, a symbol true,

Cleansing power, making all things new.

Rest assured, His grace profound,

The Holy Spirit freedom found.

God raised Him from the silent grave,

Healing body, souls to save.

As Lord and Master, He reigns above,

Equipping us to serve in love.

Tasked by God to build His shrine,

Through Christ, His Son, the plan aligns.

Believe and hold to teachings pure,

In freedom's light, our spirits soar.

Oh, the cross, a symbol true,

Cleansing power, making all things new.

Rest assured, His grace profound,

The Holy Spirit freedom found.

So, let your heart in faith entwine,

With Jesus' love, forever shine.

In teachings held, in spirits free,

The cross, our guide to victory.

(Worded as a gospel song by ChatGPT 3.5 AI)

Christ died for you: Believe and hold to his teachings

 That cross on which Lord Jesus Christ died for you symbolises healing power for you to heal you from your unprincipled misdeeds, your lying, your unjust hating, your unfaithfulness, your thefts, your neglect of the needy. That cross means he has your need of cleansing from wrongdoing in hand. You can rest assured he has the power to set you free, the Holy Spirit power to give you. God raised him from the dead and can heal your body and save your soul. God puts him over you as your Lord, with power to be your Master. God can task you and equip you to build His Temple. It is because Jesus Christ is His Son who died for you. Believing, hold to his teachings and be set free. 

Vertical alignment, a gospel song by ChatGPT 3.5

In the realm of creation, where upright trees find their station,

Rooted in the concept of correctness, a divine foundation.

As they grow vertically, a testament of strength,

In their towering grace, a reflection of God's wavelength.

Vertical alignment, a symbol of rightness,

From the roots of nature to our human likeness.

A cornerstone in construction, a guide in our ways,

A harmonious dance in life's grand ballet.

The right angle's embrace, in this vertical space,

Adds depth to the concept, a correctness we embrace.

Just as trees stand tall, unaffected by the ground,

Civilization echoes this truth in wisdom profound.

Journeying from construction to modernity's hand,

The vertical concept shapes our progress, firm and grand.

In the ever-evolving landscape, where innovation flows,

It stands tall, inspiring how civilization grows.

Vertical alignment, a symbol of rightness,

From the roots of nature to our human likeness.

A cornerstone in construction, a guide in our ways,

A harmonious dance in life's grand ballet.

In the teachings of Jesus, righteousness takes its place,

A new paradigm revealed, divine love and grace.

No longer bound by ancient laws, or living without aim,

But a principled life, through God's righteousness, we claim.

The Holy Spirit's well, a source of living water,

Brings these teachings to hearts, a divine order.

Manifesting God's kingdom in meetings and more,

A mingling of righteousness, blessings to the core.

Vertical alignment, a symbol of rightness,

From the roots of nature to our human likeness.

A cornerstone in construction, a guide in our ways,

A harmonious dance in life's grand ballet.

So let the righteousness flow, like light in the night,

A kingdom within, a divine, holy sight.

In this dance of life, with vertical grace,

We build, we create, in God's embrace.