The Ontological Absolute

Absolutes are needed which do not depend on wisdom and ontology. The Messianic sacrifice is such an absolute. It is wise even to a fool but foolish to the wise.

The Key to All Knowledge

The truth that is knowable is the Messianic sacrifice. Therein is the knowledge of the Creator and the key to knowledge of Creation. When you receive knowledge of the Messianic sacrifice (for you) you receive the key to the knowledge of all things.

The Big Bang

Whatever the Big Bang was (I think it is still theoretical) if it did happen (can something ‘happen’ when there is no time? big question), the Son was there (where? big question) and the Father was ‘there’ ‘then (when? big question if time was yet to exist) and whatever it was, they must have started it and survived it (such must be the nature of spirit).

The Existence of God

It is said that the inability to explain the complexities of the universe is not an argument for a Creator. The ability to explain so much of the universe - that IS an argument for a Creator - that is the main argument. His wisdom in making it makes so much of it explicable. Yet the experiential tacit knowledge that comes because of the Messianic sacrifice when that sacrifice is preached is the perfect way to know the Creator and demonstration of His power is the perfect way to believe in Him. Tacit knowledge cannot be shared so you might be unable to prove what you tacitly know through experience yet this truth can include certainty that the Messiah died for sins and lives today and lived thousands of years before He came, sent by God His Father.

Owned

You know there is that feeling you get on being “owned”. Yet the feeling is so profoundly deep when it is direct from the Son of God. It goes deepest and is utterly permanent. More adoption by God than being used by God. Being used is a matter of temporary service. Permanently owned is a matter of adoption as sons. Jesus does that. He utterly owned me such that I am permanently His for your sake and your benefit. That is sonship.

What I Think About Jesus

The key thing I think about Jesus is the importance of self-identification Jesus used “the Son of Man”. It links in with the same term often used in writings called the Book of Enoch, written back in the Fara Period apparently (3000-2500 BC). Enoch who wrote it testified to being taken into the place where the Son of Man is together with God [1]. This identifies Jesus as “pre-existent”, which seems short of meaning but captures what is necessary to grasp and maintain as a matter of faith: “Except you believe that I am you will die in your sins” and “Before Abraham was born I am” says Jesus in John’s gospel (chapter 8). There is more,m to who this Son of Man but this pre-existence is part of it. Ongoing existence is a major part of it too, as is historical crucifixion (sacrifice to pay humans’ debt of ethical shortfall) and resurrection and future eternal existence. The word “pre-existent” is confusing. It does not mean existing before existing. It refers to His existence before becoming a fully flesh-and-blood human. It is a well-known, often-used term so it is useful. Yet it merely states that He is a being, not what sort of being. It misses “heavenly being” existing together with the Lord of Spirits, a heavenly being to whom Enoch was taken up. It misses “uniquely human heavenly being”, hence “THE Son of Man”. 

Ref [1]: The Book of Enoch chapter 70: 

“1. And it came to pass after this that his name during his lifetime was raised aloft to that Son of Man and to the Lord of Spirits from amongst those who dwell on the earth. 2. And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them. 3. And from that day I was no longer numbered amongst them: and he set me between the two winds, between the North and the West, where the angels took the cords to measure for me the place for the elect and righteous. 4. And there I saw the first fathers and the righteous who from the beginning dwell in that place.”

Walking in the Light of The Christ

At its simplest level “walking in the light of Christ” can amount to merely reading the sayings of Jesus recorded in the gospels and dwelling on them seeking to understand some of them and find a way to practice it properly in life. I would say even doing this with just one or two sayings of Jesus will not be regretted. Much will come of it. Yet it can go further when you realise Jesus is still alive and teaching today and coming under His training program is possible and hugely beneficial. Essential even. He teaches both directly and via the agency of the Holy Spirit and His modern day disciples. This is why it is described broadly as “the light”. 2 John 1:9 is evidence that years after His resurrection the teaching ministry of the Christ was still being followed personally by individuals “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” Just the same it can be followed today by seeking His true teaching ministry and finding that narrow way into learning on His personal teaching course. Then letting Him be teacher in life and not shrugging off His training program and rushing off on a course of our own but rather letting Him apply His teaching at the pace He personally knows suits our abilities to learn well.

Rebirth from God

I find a growing awareness exists that the sayings of the Son of Man, such as those found in John’s Gospel (chapter 3 and chapter 8, for example), teach that basic humans are lying and hating children of Satan, religious or not, but rebirth can take place to change all that and then a child of God is formed by God Himself. The Son of Man taught this and taught that since He Himself is from God and speaks the teachings of God by the Spirit of God this means He is centrally instrumental in God making such children of God. In fact the Son of Man constantly referred to God as the Father and Himself as the Son. The awareness of this work of the Messiah seems to be growing even among those who seem to be hateful towards children born of God this way and scornful about these sayings. Yet what does this rebirth entail? We each only know in part and the depth of the nature of this rebirth is profound. Yet it seems to be there are several important factors to understand about it. Firstly it is only a work of God Himself at root so the child of God is truly a child of the Father. Secondly it is a work primarily wrought in the events of God’s dealings with the Messiah Himself. Thirdly it is a rebirth taking shape in the individual by their being given by God a hope and faith and love that washes away in stages their natural former nature of being hateful and lying as a child of Satan and instead they become characterised by new improved prospects of being purged of ethical failure of immoral and hateful and lying ways. They believe instead in the veracity of the teachings of the Messiah and His messengers and they believe in the true nature of the Messiah. They love anyone else who shares in this transformation. The central way this comes about was wrought by God’s action of raising His Son from the dead and His Son living eternally to keep these believers in Him purified forever. Being at the Father’s right hand and having these believers always in His prayers and dealings this Son is central to the constant wellbeing and salvation and ongoing purification of these believers whose lives are inextricably intertwined with this Messiah’s life and God’s purpose and eternally loving embrace. The blood shed by the Son on that cross those centuries ago is effective in dealing with their guilt even if they fall from time to time, learning to confess such failings. All these things bring about this rebirth as children not of Satan, not of the world, not of natural human failing tendencies and morally substandard nature but of God. Of course this is just a part of what is the unseen fuller picture. Add to this the giving to these believers of the invisible but ever efficacious Holy Spirit as His mysterious but wondrous ways transform a believer ever more fully into a child of God; a true saint who puts off Satan’s ways and rises above their former ways. Add to this the incorporation into a mystical union spiritually with all other such believers as a Body of the Son of Man and a family of God. Add the involvement of the individual in putting off the hating and lying but with mysterious teachings from heaven to do so exercising the heart. Add the joint partnership and mutual support of all believers in keeping each other in their prayers for purification and their rebukes and gentle restoration from waywardness as and when needed. Add the future of better and better purification from sin that results. Add the need to believe the Messiah truly is. Add the need to follow this Messiah’s teachings by keeping them as adherent disciples along with teachings from the Holy Spirit and true servants of Messiah. Add the promise of the Messiah to bring each believer out of their sinful state into true nature as a child of God so they do not “die in their sins”. Add the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer which by the message that the Messiah died for them and follow-up powerful lessons imparted by this Holy Spirit sets them on the path to ever greater purification of their ways. Add that this must continue through all eternity if it is to be a true work of God because only eternally permanent children of God are true children of God. No children of God are ever temporary. They remain in His family forever or else they are mere servants or slaves.  It all adds up to this rebirth by God Himself working in the believing follower of His Son.

Isa

The name of the Son of Man is much disputed in social media forums today. Many try to derive its original spelling but it might not have been written in the first languages of those who known the original name. Perhaps the best preserved form is that used by speakers of Aramaic-like languages today and the related language, Arabic. An anglicised form is Isa. The beginning of the prophet Isaiah‘s anglicised name is not by accident a good rendering of the Son of Man’s human name. Isaiah in chapter 8 of his book had hinted by prophecy that he himself, Isaiah, was a sign just as his children were signs: and how were his children signs? By their names. So Isaiah was a sign by his name. His name Isaiah started with Isa. Isa means ‘delivers’ or ‘saves’. Isaiah means Yahweh saves. So the sign of Isaiah’s name is that the Son of Man would come to save, as salvation coming from God. Much of Isaiah’s prophecies were about this Son of Man, the Messiah: Isa al-Masih, as it is written in anglicised Arabic form today.

Atheism and Dishonesty

We probably all of us start life as atheists. After a while we experience nature and experience discipline from peers. Out of animal instinct we learn from nature and peer discipline and parents. We make basic deductions. We start to reason. This reasoning makes us ask ‘why’? about everything and expect answers. The answers become our first taste of wisdom. Why do things happen in nature the way they do. When a wise answer is given we get a taste for wisdom and ask ‘why?’ even more. At some point we realise it all adds up to wise reasons being a result of Someone wise. If we are all too human we get scared at this point and fearfully reject such theism. We thus get scared into rejecting the lines of reasoning that lead to such theism. (Perhaps we are scared of where the reasoning leads in terms of duty it implies and guilt it proves.) This is a matter of being dishonest to ourselves so we get habitually dishonest. 

Morality

Morality is common in most higher animals. Look at Jungle Book or Lion King. No seriously. Animals which are social have ways to ensure young ones grow up to keep the rules of normality. The older males correct the younger ones which behave in ways these older males consider out of order. Good behaviour is possibly rewarded with social inclusion, service (such as feeding, grooming and mating), progression (such as to leadership) and loyalty. Bad behaviour is punished with aggression or even, in the extreme, social exclusion which might result in death. The difference between norms of what is rewarded and what is punished is constantly studied by biologists and well recorded. Calling this scale of behaviour ‘morality’ is not unreasonable. Of course humans have all this built in. Reasoning is built in too. We might call this reasoning by philosophical names such as Ocham’s Razor but it is built in. We apply it just like animals do when we are punished having just overstepped a moral line - we realise what that line was by naturally and morally applying Ocham’s Razor: If that action we last took, which was abnormal,  seemed to be the trigger of the punishment, then probably it was. It is the same reasoning we apply when we deduce that if all these wise things of nature have pleasantly wise reasons to be part of nature then we reason that it is because there is a wise One making it so. Morality is not part of religion but it leads naturally to religion.

Ocham’s Razor

Scientists keep looking for why nature is like it is and they keep finding answers. We like this because there is so often wisdom in those answers: Those wise why’s. Ocham’s razor encourages us to extrapolate these wise why’s back to a wise One behind it all.

The Apostle Paul and Torah

The Apostle  Paul  did  not  write  saying  people  should  stop  keeping  Torah (the Law of Moses).  He  simply  pointed  out  that  it  is  no  simple  matter  to  simply  keep  Torah.  You  get  problems  like  reverse-psychology.  Like  dieting,  when  focusing  on  food  and  counting  calories  actually  increases  the  appetite.  You  get  misunderstandings  and  mishandling  of Torah  with  heresies  and  schisms.  In  the  end  it  does  not  make  you  a  permanently  righteous  person  because  it  leads  to  pride  and  self-righteousness.  Paul  had  kept  it  to  the  letter  from  childhood.  He  excelled  in  it  with  ultimate  understanding  of  it  beyond  that  of  most  who  have  less  ability  to  keep  it  and  keep  on  keeping  it.  But  it  did  not  stop  him  hating  followers  of  the  Messiah.  It  made  him  more  keen  to  stamp  them  out  and  kill  them.  Then  he  met  the  Messiah, the Son of Man.  Suddenly  he  saw  a  way  to  permanently  remain  righteous  no  matter  what  happened:  A  trustworthy  rabbi  living righteously  for  aeons  past  before  Abraham  and  forever  into  the  future.  The  Messiah  Himself.  

Following Him, keeping His teachings; and being kept by Him in return. This  was  a  more  certain  and  viable  long  term  eternal  prospect  of  righteousness. This Messiah is ever righteous and ever lives and He cleanses from wrongdoing and heals. He makes righteous and keeps righteous those who believe in Him and keep His teachings. Paul knew that in keeping Torah he was having to do so as an individual struggling against his natural tendencies. Keeping the teachings of Messiah, on the other hand, meant having the eternally living, ever righteous, utterly competent teaching and healing master of righteousness, the Messiah Himself, to ever help him: This Messiah who is there with God at God’s right hand.

By the time Paul was doing this it was the Holy Spirit who was imparting the Messiah so Paul in following the Holy Spirit was thereby following the Messiah. The same applies today. 

Paul stated explicitly in his letter to the church in Ephesus, Ephesians chapter 4: “... That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin” : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.” 

This corresponds to teachings of the Messiah such as recorded in John 8 where we see how strongly the Messiah condemned lying and hating and giving the devil a foothold: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” But this Ephesians passage aside, Paul usually focused on the Holy Spirit as teacher, since the Holy Spirit applied the Messiah’s teachings and way - as seen in Galatians and Romans 8. This is still the same today and forever - Messiah is forever and leads into righteousness forever. Forever cinsistent. 

Enoch’s Central Message

ENOCH’S CENTRAL MESSAGE

The Book of Enoch has much to say about the best way to live and the centrality in that of the Son of Man but it begins with a look at nature and the need for unending, unwavering consistency. Not many ways can enable such consitency as is seen in nature. Only one way can enable it. It occurs to me that we live our lives by standards and moral influences of those around us or of some group to which we seek to adhere. In troubled times that group might not be our best of guides and we might find it is actualy no longer trustworthy. The Son of Man is however unwaveringly trustworthy having been righteous and faithful from times before Enoch and on into the prophesied future as far as prophecy has ever seen. This is the central theme of Enoch’s prophetic message to all, especially to those who live in troubled times when wicked people are being removed and righteousness is essential for survival. 

Falling Babylon the Great

The apocalyptic Beast empire foretold by God to His Son (Book of Revelation) arises out of instability in the Middle East centred perhaps on Syria (the raging sea) but what seems to hold it back, keeping Macedonian regions apart from Iran and Iraq, (leopard apart from bear and lion) might be Balkan Muslim countries being members of the EU. It seems a likely possible trigger of the formation of the Beast empire for the EU to collapse as part of the fall of Babylon the Great (Rome rooted in Ancient Rome). Watch this space.

He is

HE IS

The Book of Enoch is a real marvel. Most marvellous is its age. Archaeology is consistent with it predating the Bible and Torah. It shows us the Son of Man was telling the truth when He said “Before Abraham was born, I am”. In ancient times of Enoch this Son of Man existed. Enoch knew He is, way back then. Still today we need to believe He is - so we will be released from our sinfulness by Him.