How many Gods?

 For some people their God died on a cross having become human. My God sent His Son to do it. My God is not a man nor a son of man. Some end up sacrificing to the Son instead of to God, thinking it is the Son who is the one God. Even Jesus, the Son, called His Heavenly Father “My God and your God”. 

Jesus’ trail of breadcrumbs

 Jesus is alive and can teach us to have a mature view of things but we must follow. He leaves breadcrumbs. Not literally of course. He leaves trail like the breadcrumb trail left in the fairy tale. We need to recognise the trail and follow it into truth. The writings of Revelation are a part of that trail. Hints at better knowledge than we learn at school. Read the writings Jesus left us after His ascent to the Father. Take it to heart. Ponder it on your bed. Tell these things to your children. Discuss them in your circle. The Holy Spirit can add more if we show we are following that trail. Faithful in little, faithful in much.

Faith

 FAITH: rooted from the ancient Greek word for persuasion. Being persuaded and persuading. Our ideal faith is persuasion from God Himself.

The Methuselah texts

 The Book of Enoch says a lot about Biblical Methuselah (the man who lived such a long life) and has several sections authored by him, but few realise there are some secular texts in existence other than the Book of Enoch, very ancient texts, perhaps the oldest texts in the world, which mention someone likely to be Methuselah. These texts are copies of one document called the Instructions of Sharappak. One text is kept in a museum in Chicago, the other in a museum near Oxford in England. They document the wise sayings of the father of Noah written for Noah. They mention the grandfather of Noah, calling him Ubara-Tutu, but this is probably Methuselah from the Book of Enoch and the Book of Genesis. The texts clearly hold him in high regard. Another set of texts supports the identity of Ubara-Tutu, and records that he was king in his time, successor to Enmenduranki, probably the contemporary name of Enoch.

Meaningful events

 All the things we do where God is intrinsically involved become a meaningful message, not mere random events. They spell out the nature of Jesus. With me, storm calming by faith depicts how Jesus is the giver of peace to the mighty.

When the 2800 years are over

 Just a few decades short of the 2800 years after the Assyrian conquest of Samaria and captivity of Israel around 730/740 BC foretold by Enoch in the Book of Enoch, what comes next? What follows that soon to finish time of God’s anger? What happens when the anger is fully actioned, anger first kindled when God was rejected and ignored by the northern people of Israel; anger burning ever since? Enoch foretold a series of judgments follow. There are two or three times of judgment involving lakes of fire. The Lord Jesus told of the master of disloyal servants returning from a journey to find there are some servants deserving judgment. He told of sorting sheep from goats. Enoch foretold blind sheep being cast into a lake of fire after overly violent angels are judged similarly. This is not the very final judgment but a precursor to it. The final judgement will come more than a thousand years later. “Even so, Come Lord Jesus”.

God’s ongoing anger

 GOD’S ONGOING ANGER

The Book of Enoch shows us our times and the anger of God still ongoing for the decades in which we live. God’s anger was kindled, Enoch foresaw, in the times of what we now know as Isaiah’s and Hezekiah’s times in Jerusalem (Isaiah chapter 9), when God was rejected and ignored by the northern people of Israel. He showed anger by allowing Assyria to invade but that anger continued, Enoch foretells for us, until our time and the next few decades. Almost 2800 years on from the time that anger was first kindled and its time is just decades from ending (2800 years after the Assyrian conquest of Samaria and captivity of Israel around 730/740 BC).

Evidence of God

 My posts are evidence of my persuasion and my persuasion and memories are the evidence of God and the Christ and the Holy Spirit and a believing church.

Holy Wit

 The Holy Spirit has a great power of wit. No not wit in the comedy sense. Wit in the skill in wisdom sense. Wit in finding ways to do difficult things with deft and completely competent ability. A maze is difficult to navigate but someone might conceive of a way to overcome all the difficulties in such a way it becomes utterly achievable with complete confidence. That is wit like the Holy Spirit wields with flourish like a champion expert fencing swordsman. Like Zorro. Slash, slash, slash and the mark of mastery is cut in the cloth. Look at tongues. He can make light work of the need for proof of identity and authority. No need for fancy identity cards. He can simply give one person a message on their lips which they cannot understand, in an absolutely alien language, welling up from their spirit involuntarily. Then He can give a person hearing that message an inner certainty of what it means by causing the words in their native language which match the message to well up within them. And these two separate pieces of the puzzle fit together so there is no need to doubt that it came from the Holy Spirit if those words of that message glorify Jesus as Lord and Christ bringing the truth from Jesus to the ears and spirits of the hearers who believe. It is double-entry proof. He is not limited to one such piece of wit. He can whisper words that are initially like a mysterious riddle but when followed like a treasure hunt clue lead to wisdom that prove the words whispered were from Him and could not possibly have been imagined. Unbelievers do not know these things because they do not know this Spirit, yet. It must all sound so far fetched. Yet when you know, you know.

Prospects

 The Book of Enoch tells quite a tale, so powerful it can greatly improve the prospects of anyone who believes it. It’s central chapters tell of Enoch being taken up into a place where the Head of Days and the Son of Man dwelt. The final chapters tell that these two awesome beings forever help the righteous and lead the righteous eventually into a fellowship with them that never ends. The opening chapters tell how creation obeys the commands of this Head of Days. Other chapters tell how angels use the name of that Son of Man to counteract evils and keep Nature on an even keel. The whole Book of Enoch comes to life when its sacred contents are picked up by Jesus who identified Himself with the Son of Man, then Jesus’ brother Jude confirmed the truly heavenly prophetic nature and authenticity of the prophecies it contains. When we realise by heaven-granted holy intuition that this Jesus is the Son of Man unto whom the ancient prophet Enoch was taken up before the days of Noah then we find our prospects suddenly elevated: This Jesus is alive now and forever so by believing and obeying His teachings we can obtain His help and have it keeping us in fellowship with Himself and with His God. This Son of Man and the Head of Days. 

Belief in God

 People believe in God because God manifests Himself. As do angels from time to time and ghosts. But belief in God goes beyond just belief in His existence. It includes persuasion that God can be relied on to properly answer prayers and send saving help. The cross of Christ persuades some of this.

Original concept of scripture

 Book of Enoch chapter 104: “ 10. And now I know this mystery, that sinners will alter and pervert the words of righteousness in many ways, and will speak wicked words, and lie, and practice great deceits, and write books concerning their words. 11. But when they write down truthfully all my words in their languages, and do not change or minish ought from my words but write them all down truthfully--all that I first testified concerning them. 12. Then, I know another mystery, that books will be given to the righteous and the wise to become a cause of joy and uprightness and much wisdom. 13. And to them shall the books be given, and they shall believe in them and rejoice over them, and then shall all the righteous who have learnt therefrom all the paths of uprightness be recompensed.'”

Maybe this passage is strong evidence of the origin of what religions call scripture. Looking at early origins is a good technique for discovering the root of a concept or belief. Here we find one of the first prophets, Enoch, writing about his own writings. He distinguishes his writings from other writings and quotations. He teaches that instead of quoting each other, if people instead translate and quote his writings there will be holy blessing. This is perhaps what is truly meant by ‘scripture’: words written which bring holy blessings when faithfully copied and translated without perverting them, bringing blessing when taught rather than quoting the teachings of more common, less holy teachers. Such blessed writings are credited to the workings of God in holy people such as Enoch and other prophets like him. Modern understanding of ‘scripture’ is a perversion of this, focusing instead on canonisation, a human process of distinguishing writing from writing. Jesus Christ came and taught about scripture according to this original concept of it, not the canonical concept which developed centuries later which is prevalent today.

“Israel has sinned”

 The rejection of both the Messiah and the Holy Spirit have constituted rejection of Israel’s God, the Father. Yet it did not only happen two thousand years ago. That sin by ‘Israel’ in Jesus’ time has been perpetuated when the Church let Jerome lead them into rejection of the Book of Enoch along with any scriptures not found in the accepted set of scriptures the Jews of Jerome’s time in the fourth century AD collected as the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible of that time was compiled at the discretion of Jews who had firmly rejected Jesus as Messiah. So although New Testament Greek scriptures were accepted by Jerome in addition to this Hebrew set, his rejection of scriptures not in either set, such as the Book of Enoch, and then the Church following suit after Jerome, this was tantamount to alignment with those who had rejected Jesus, and this is highlighted by Jesus and Jude and John and Peter having shown strong support for the Book of Enoch the Church was rejecting. The Church was rejecting the judgment and counsel of Jesus the Messiah and Jude His brother and the Holy Spirit who had inspired Jude.

Proof behind closed doors

 Does finding God count as enough verifiable evidence to be called proof? When God comes in a dream and tells you things which then lead to proof it really is God, for the one visited that is proof enough. There is nothing unusual about a closed door set of evidence given to a jury who return a verdict. The fact nobody else sees the proof does not negate it being proof. If the things the evidence proves go even beyond the mere existence of God and create a whole religion and faith right inside you that is kind of life changing too. You get to be the brunt of unbeliever ire and the victim of their tortious interference. And maybe even some among friends and family think you are making it up. You cannot let them share the proof you believe but it is still proof.

The glorious mystery

Angels and humans becoming biological partners was so contrary to God’s will, the Book of Enoch records for us, that God severely punished those angels who engaged in it. Angels do not need marriage and children. This, God pronounced, is because angels are not mortal so they have no need of it. Humans are mortal so they have human partners to comfort each other and provide children for each other. Suppose the Holy Spirit takes you back to the beginning of time, by revelation, you find Jesus is there. Actually there. Not just by foretelling prophetic foreknowledge. Actually there. The Son of God from before creation. Among the angels but hidden from Mankind. Enoch saw Him. Enoch was taken up to Him, instead of dying, the Book of Enoch records. The Son of Man so much closer to God than any angel. The One by whose name the angels make petitions to God, invoking the Son’s name. Yet what could allow, in the will of God, this Son to be like a husband to believers, taking the church of all His believing followers as a bride for Himself? It was that He became the flesh and bone genuine and mortal human we know appeared 2000 years ago in our human history. He was destined for this and so they called Him from time immemorial the Son of Man. Having died and risen He is something not yet fully revealed but the church of His believing followers will share this new nature too. That will be a marriage truly made in Heaven.

Actually there

 Suppose the Holy Spirit takes you back to the beginning of time (which He can and does do, as He did with me, by revelation, just a glimmer but a living one, ongoing), you would find Jesus is there.  Actually there. Not just by foretelling prophetic foreknowledge. Actually there.

Sons of God

Being God. Only the Father is that. Being equal, pretty much, to the Father. Only the one and only Son is that. Being other sons of God is the most we can be and if we receive Jesus we can have power to be it, with the power Jesus gives. 

Genesis

 Genesis: God created - first life, then faith.

Truth that sets free

Knowing and following the Son of Man leads to freedom by the knowledge of truth about this Son of Man and His God, and the Book of Enoch supports that truth in writing, to encourage us as we learn the truth. We find a man eventually born human whose God works through Him by His faith and this God’s love. The truth is we too can have that same kind of unity with this God. The Book of Enoch tells of this God and His Son. It tells of living by the Spirit sent from this God instead of by carnal cravings. It tells of this Son supporting those who rely on Him. It tells of an eternal blessed state of harmonious fellowship between the God of this Anointed One and the Anointed One Himself, the Son, and the righteous who have learned to live by these truths and been saved by this Son of God. It encourages us to look to this way and to love one another as we learn to walk in it, assured of a glorious future for those who are led to overcome their spiritual blindness and who adhere to living as God’s temple, not forsaking His glorious house.

Cheeky Trinitarian translators

 Titus 2:13 is an example of how Trinitarian translators into English all conspire, perhaps unconsciously, to change scriptures to make them look Trinitarian. 

See also https://biblehub.com/text/1_timothy/3-16.htm for another example. The word God is inserted by English translators to make the verse seem to support a Trinity doctrine. 

Jerome’s Scripture Opinion

 If by the second century AD most Jewish religious leaders and scholars had already firmly rejected Jesus as a Messiah, why did the Christian religious leaders such as Jerome later give so much importance to second century AD Jewish religious leader opinions about what was and what wasn’t, in their eyes, canonical scripture? Shouldn’t they rather have valued beliefs of those who believed Jesus to be Messiah, such as Jude who proclaimed Enoch’s writings to be true prophecy? Doesn’t it say something dire about the leaders such as Jerome and those who put them on a pedestal (as many do so ever since). “Whose side are they on?!” seems an obvious question. (Admittedly, though, Jerome was actually put on trial by the church for being too secular and more devoted to teachings of Hellenistic pagan Roman orator Cicero than to teachings of Jesus Christ. So this question was indeed being asked by his contemporaries.)

How ancient are the Book of Enoch passages describing the Son of Man?

Jesus once asked “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The Book of Enoch was very popular in Jesus’ time. It seems scholarly opinion tends to believe this included the passages about the Son of Man, even though they are not found in Dead Sea Scroll fragments of the Book of Enoch.
Reality check: Were the ancients aware in Old Testament times of these passages describing the Son of Man? If they were, we would expect the Old Testament to have some evidence of this. Is there any?
Where would such evidence be most likely to appear in Old Testament scriptures? Did Abraham know about the Book of Enoch? Writings from Jesus’ time suggest Abraham was aware of the book. Would that mean Abraham knew about the Son of Man? Is there any evidence he did? The Book of Genesis does not mention it. However Jesus did say “Abraham saw my day and rejoiced”. How did Abraham know about Jesus and His day? One way might be these passages in the Book of Enoch.
The other most obvious place to find the Book of Enoch evidenced in Old Testament scriptures is the Book of Daniel which has so many similarities with it that it implies one influenced the other. No passage shows greater similarity than the seventh chapter:

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, a coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
— The Book of Daniel chapter 7

Compare this to chapter 46 of the Book of Enoch and you see the similarities. Now note that this passages is from the sections of the Book of Enoch missing from Dead Sea Scrolls (those publicity available at least) which mention the Son of Man.

“And there I saw One who had a head of days,
And His head was white like wool,
And with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man,
And his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.
And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, (and) why he went with the Head of Days? And he answered and said unto me:
This is the son of Man who hath righteousness,
With whom dwelleth righteousness,
And who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden,
Because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him,
And whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness for ever.
And this Son of Man whom thou hast seen
Shall †raise up† the kings and the mighty from their seats,
[And the strong from their thrones]
And shall loosen the reins of the strong,
And break the teeth of the sinners.
[And he shall put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms]
Because they do not extol and praise Him,
Nor humbly acknowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed upon them.
And he shall put down the countenance of the strong,
And shall fill them with shame.”
— The Book of Enoch chapter 46

So if Daniel had translated the Book of Enoch or at least if he had a copy in a language he could read (and clearly he was a brilliant scholar of his time) and he knew this passage in particular, then he would have known about the Son of Man. What other information about the Son of Man would he have known? The following passage shows he could have known that this Son of Man had existed in the time of Enoch who met Him when ascending to heaven. And Daniel would have believed that the same Son of Man was the one like a son of man he himself had seen in his vision (Daniel chapter 7).

“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. And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them. 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. And there I saw the first fathers and the righteous who from the beginning dwell in that place.
— The Book of Enoch chapter 70

So as Jesus asked, do you believe in the Son of Man?

“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’
‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’
Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’”
— The Gospel of John chapter 9

Friend and Master

When you know Jesus has the keys to your deepest heart then you know He is both friend and master.

Helpdesk

The Lord Jesus: The heaven-sent Helpdesk agent who can command angels and storms and fix any problem Nature sends. Nice that He kindly wields that power now on our behalf. And the Father, He is just like Jesus, but God, not human.

Love God most

A person loving others more than God will only obey God’s command if it doesn’t upset those they love.

Why I believe in the preexistence of Christ

I have always believed in the preexistence of Christ. Changing away from some aspects of Trinitarian doctrine I did need to maintain certainty about preexistence, especially when faced with Soccinianism arguments which I had never heard before and had to weigh up carefully. The belief I have is that the truth that nature itself depends on Christ’s name’s power must surely mean that name has persisted through all creation’s history and if Christ only existed in recent history it would be too unimaginable for creation to depend so fundamentally on something only existing prophetically then switch only two thousand years ago to fundamentally depend on something existing actually. That would be such an immense metaphysical change in the nature of things that it would warrant major doctrines and revelations. The fact the conception of Christ came so “silently, silently” necessitates the belief that He already existed and already held nature together by the power of His word and name. This is all consistent with scripture.

Preexistent Christ

People might like to think Jesus did not exist until His conception but they have to ignore a lot of important scriptures in persisting that idea. Ultimately they cannot get a true concept of the Christ; what Christ is. You need to get it clear what Christ means, to believe Jesus is the Christ and so be saved from dying in sin.

Churches today

How long would Christ or an apostle last today in a Trinitarian, Unitarian, Oneness Pentecostal, Jehovah Witness or Soccinian-Arian church today? How long before they said something that got them thrown out or effectively gagged for not towing the dogmatic line? In John chapter 8 we see how telling the Jews about His preexistence almost got Jesus stoned to death.

True theology about Christ

A quick scan on all the theological Christian groups  mentioned in Wikipedia such as Trinitarian, Unitarian, Arian, Semi-Arian, Binitarian, Jehovah Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, it seems to me the closest to the teachings of Christ in scripture and beliefs of the first apostles about Christ is Semi-Arianism, although it too tries to be too specific about matters not mentioned in scripture such as the substantive nature of Christ before He became flesh. It holds to a belief that Christ was the Son of God before creation and is a person having life and existence created by God but distinct from God. To my understanding and beliefs about Christ He did exist as Son of God before creation and God produced Him as His Word from God Himself before any creation and gave Him His own life to have in Himself as a being in His own right. This seems to me to sum up what we find in John’s gospel and consistent with teachings from the Holy Spirit down through history and today.

Definition of a Christ

A Christ is a chief person who is so much what God wants in a person that God is not ashamed to call Him His Son.

A visit to Cyprus

This year, 2020, before the pandemic, I visited Cyprus as a tourist and stayed near a church where the tomb of Lazarus’ second burial was found. In another part of Cyprus are similar tombs dating back to that time when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and the local traditions say Lazarus lived another few decades before dying the second time. It is a welcome reminder that it was at an actual time and place and in what is today called the land of Israel but back when these tombs were soon going to be used that Jesus the Christ, the son of God who came from heaven into this world, died on a cross to make amends for our sins then rose from the dead to mediate for us forever with His God and Father. We have this Christ now and forever; ours if we believe in Him and hold to His teachings.

Oneness, Unitarian and Trinitarian error

In the mid 90s the Father and Son and Holy Spirit together proved to me that the Unitarians and Trinitarians and Oneness are each partly wrong. The Father appeared in a dream and told me He is God (He said “I am God”, not ‘we are God’). He also showed me His high regard for ordinary people. The Son did a miracle for me and in doing so proved He is the Son of God the Father and they work together in unity. The Holy Spirit proved that Jesus existed before Creation and that Jesus’ authority keeps all Creation together. The word from them then said “Israel has sinned” which I take it to mean everyone is getting it wrong and holding to false doctrine about God. Years later the Holy Spirit spoke to me and I heard Him as a person and He proved He exists as a real person. He used scripture to do it. Everyone doubts scripture except when it seems to support their doctrine so we need first hand revelatory experiential knowledge from God besides scripture too, to correct our mistakes which our Bible readings do not correct.

What is true

Humans can judge what is true and be led into truth but humans do not get to decide what is true.

The son of God Christ

When the Jews of Jesus time spoke of a son of God who was to come into the world, it was an existing son of God like the sons of God mentioned in the Book of Job. This is what they meant by the Christ.

Is Trinitarian doctrine true doctrine?

The formulating of the Trinity idea did have a little basis in truth in that the Father and Son have great unity. The Holy Spirit comes as a distinct person too. That is why the Father waited until Jesus had returned to Him (mission accomplished) before sending the Holy Spirit. Being sent by another person is a crucial indicator that someone is a distinct person. You do not SEND your own spirit to anyone. Of course it got very confused by Tertullian’s unfortunate collaboration with his gnostic opponents. Nice diplomacy for the expediency of debate outcomes, but in giving way to Gnostic and Hellenistic love of the number three and three-fold pantheons, Tertullian caused terrible risk of dividing traditional Christians and muddying the waters of doctrine. God is not the author of confusion. 

What is a Christ?

It is crucial to understand that the Christ who came 2000 years ago was Christ even before He came. A Christ is a chief person who is so much what God wants in a person that God is not ashamed to call Him His Son. God fully approves of the Christ in every way. This is crucial to the chief task given the Christ which was to die on a cross as atonement to purify the disciples from their sins, and then to rise and lead them into eternal life.

Lord by nature

When Jesus said “you call me master and lord and that is what I am” He declared that master is not His role but His nature. In contrast Paul spoke of leaders of this world “who by nature are not gods”. If you become a leader you realise you are never really by nature a god but sometimes you are expected to behave like one. No matter how high we rise, lifted up by God to higher social status, we are aware we are by nature not noble, even though nobility gets thrust upon us. Yet Jesus could declare himself to be master and lord without even having risen to lofty social status. This means He must have had even early in life already a lofty status. It did not come during childhood or short three years of ministry. John the Baptist declared Jesus as greater than himself when Jesus was still obscure and just starting a public ministry so Jesus had status already even before many knew about Him. 

The origin of Lord Jesus

Jesus is the Word who came forth from God before anything else existed. He came forth having been part of what God is. A human or other organism makes offspring in such a way that the offspring originally is part of the parents. Then at some point it gets given a separate existence and a life in itself. This captures what it was before any creation existed for the Son of God to be given life as an entity in Himself, before creation came into being. Then God created all things through Him. (John 1 )

Jesus existed aeons before His birth

Jesus really did exist long before we see Him appear in history, aeons before.

Firstly there is the prophecy by John the Baptist who proclaimed that Jesus surpassed him because He existed before him. Jesus existed before John the Baptist, said John by the Holy Spirit, yet John was born months before Jesus was born.

Secondly, Daniel had a vision in which he saw one like a son of man entering the presence of God, the Ancient of Days. Later he saw Jesus in detail and described what he saw in a way John writer of the Apocalypse centuries later (with hindsight knowledge of Jesus) exactly used again when he saw a vision of Jesus, signifying to us that Jesus is this one seen by Daniel. The one seen by Daniel centuries earlier put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder to encourage him. This was not future but was a man alive in Daniel’s time. Jesus was there with Daniel as an angelic man, like a literal man (son of man), centuries before being born from a virgin.

Thirdly, Micah foretold the coming of Jesus centuries before Jesus came but used these words, telling us Jesus had existed and was active from an almost infinite time in the past: “And thou, Bethleem, house of Ephratha, art few in number to be reckoned among the thousands of Juda; yet out of thee shall one come forth to me, to be a ruler of Israel; and his goings forth were from the beginning, even from eternity.”

Fourthly, Jesus Himself proclaimed (John 8 ) that “before Abraham was born, I was/am” and those who heard Him, in their lack of belief, tried to stone Him for proclaiming something which could only be true for the Christ. The Christ, who they knew the prophecies like Micah’s had foretold as existing since time immemorial and being sent to Israel.

Fifthly, the apostles such as Paul proclaimed in their scriptural writings that Jesus was the firstborn over all creation through whom God the Father made all things.

Sixthly, there are other proofs such as what the Holy Spirit tells through prophecies.

Seventhly, there are other books regarded as scriptures in Jesus’ time in Israel such as the Book of Enoch which tells of Enoch being caught up to the Son of Man in heaven.

Jesus is alpha and omega. He is with the first believers such as Abraham, Enoch, Noah, and with the last such as those today and those who will come later.

Proving Jesus is the Christ foretold in prophecy

Signs that Jesus is the Christ who was to come into the world:

John the Baptist: a preacher telling the one with two coats to give to him who had none, who fulfilled the prophecy that a voice would be heard in the wilderness lifting up valleys (those with no coat receiving a coat) and bringing low mountains (those with two coats giving one away) so there is a level ground for the Lord to be revealed, and who is that Lord who came after John? Jesus. He came after John the Baptist but was before Him in time. (Isaiah 40 )

The times are controlled by God, the Ancient of Days, but one goes into this Ancient of Days’ presence who is like a son of man. So Daniel foretold the exact time of the crucifixion by describing seven years at a foretold time in history and in the middle of those seven dies the Christ being cut off and having nothing. And so Jesus was crucified at that exact time in history and was in the ground (in the underworld) half of a week, before rising again. This time was linked to the command for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem seventy sevens earlier and the time of the crucifixion was followed by resurrection in which after three days Jesus rebuilt the temple of His body and started the building of His church. Only God the Father can bring about such exact timings foretold centuries in advance because only God has enough dominion over time. So Jesus is shown to come from God, foretold as Christ. (Daniel 9 )

The name of Jesus is really best translated similar to the name of Isaiah but withou the -iah. This is how Aramaic spells it as Isa (Arabic too) which is the language of Jesus’ people and time. Isaiah foretold this similarity and foretold the significance of it since Isa means Salvation. So the angel who gave Jesus that name foretold Jesus saving His people from their sins. Isaiah linked this aspect of Jesus with the followers of Jesus given Him by God. These He saves. (Isaiah 8 ).

So here are three proofs from prophecy that Jesus is the Christ, i.e. the Son of God who was to come into the world.

Jesus, Salvation

Note the meaning of Jesus’ name. It means Salvation. It means Deliverance. “For He shall save His people from their sins.”

The Christ

What did the apostles mean by calling Jesus ‘the Christ’? They meant ‘the Christ: i.e. the Son of God who was to come into the world’. They didn’t mean God. If they did mean Jesus is God Himself then they  would have confessed it instead and risked execution. Even confessing Jesus as ‘Son of God’ risked similar fate. Given the possibility of charges of the capital crime of blasphemy they would be very careful what to confess, that if it meant potentially fatal backlash from strict Jewish brethren they would better be in trouble for truth than error. Yet by confessing Jesus as the Christ’ they knew what that meant, namely the Son of God who was to come into the world from God. A person with all God’s characteristic makings and righteousness and chosen by God to be sent for the saving of the Jews. Not God Himself. The God-chosen, God-made mediator between man and God. 

The reason the apostles called Jesus the Lord

Note why the apostles called Christ Jesus ‘the Lord’. A Lord in those days was the master of the household slaves and head of the family. So service was constantly directed at this Lord of the house. Yet it did not count as idolatry of course. God alone was still God alone, worshiped as God alone. This is why they recognised Jesus as Lord and never confused Jesus with God, God the Father.

Recognise the evidence

It is sensible, so they say, to know your enemy. Those who defy God and attack His prophets and other servants should try to find out what they can about the One they are deriding because Vengeance is His name, not only on His own behalf but on behalf of His servants the prophets. If atheists who attack God and His servants learn who they have made their enemy they might decide to stop being silly and seek peace before it is too late. A cross makes it possible to be put right if they trust the mediator sent by God, God’s Son. In the mean time sit back and watch, those who rail and say “where is evidence?“ God shows Himself mighty on behalf of His servants and children. Do not mistake His mercy for weakness.

The Kingdom of Heaven: an invisible superpower on your doorstep.

The Kingdom of Heaven: an invisible superpower on your doorstep.

Alive today

You need to believe in the one who gave the world the Good Samaritan phrase. You need to hold to that phrase and the others like it. Then the truth will set you free from your dishonest ways. This one will set you free.  I encountered one who I have every reason to believe is this one. The one who introduced me to him gave me every reason to believe it is this one who gave the world the Good Samaritan teaching. These do, I’m convinced, live today. Forever. You need to believe in these and hold to their teaching. To anyone who lies in whatever ways: You each need this or you’re going to be in serious trouble with the one I encountered who gave the world the Good Samaritan teaching.

Your need

You need to believe in the one who gave the world the Good Samaritan phrase. You need to hold to that phrase and the others like it. Then the truth will set you free from your dishonest ways. This one will set you free. 

The fall of angels

The fall of angels. What if it is happening, as prophesied? Who will they influence? My guess is Big Pharma. 

2020

You might happily break some silly rules, like not really reading those terms before clicking the box to say you did. But I bet you wash your hands and wear a mask when WHO is watching you. A kind of innocent recklessness doesn’t do what it is told by WHO. Such recklessness costs lives, they say. If it really does, then too many lives and you incur a severe penalty. Too few and you save yourself. But washing your hands a lot is just hypocrisy. The real problem is cruelty. WHO would be guilty of cruelty? Mmm.

God appeared to Solomon

It was obedience that led to God appearing to Solomon. Solomon had completed the main task God gave him of building the Temple. That was Solomon’s obedience. The sacrifices were the consecration of that Temple. If you seriously want God to appear to you or come to you as a fellow, you need to learn to lovingly obey His Son. I found this to be true having prayed for God’s appearing to me, praying on and off through thirty years since childhood, but it was only when I read in John 14 about obedience to Jesus being necessary and set about that duty, that then God did appear to me like He did to Solomon, and not only God but the Son of God and Holy Spirit too, just as I had prayed. Interestingly it was just a while after the Holy Spirit told me “Build the temple” and I had started to preach to obey this command. God has His ways and His will.

How reliable are the scriptures for finding life in Jesus?

How reliable are the scriptures for finding life in Jesus? I would tend to rely on scriptures overall but be mindful that any individual verse might have translation errors. It is possible to read them with both of these in tension. I guess historians acquire the skill more than the rest of us when reading translated texts. Some scriptures are not even available in the original languages. Taking to heart what is the gist of a passage is good but if a particular verse is important to your understanding, best to research it a bit. I offer my contribution in this matter by saying that my overall understanding of John’s gospel led me into actual meetings first hand with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit as those passages said Jesus promised so the English translation must be pretty good. I did try cross referring to the Greek using an interlinear a lot but the overall meaning in most English translations of passages such as John chapter 14 is good enough. Now when it comes to obeying the commands of Jesus we have to be careful and research them fairly well or it could be dangerous. If we misunderstand them or use a poor translation and then go and try to obey it on that basis, that could be disastrous. Once sure of the meaning, obeying is how to show love for Him and His promise ensues. How reliable are the scriptures for finding life in Jesus? I would tend to rely on scriptures overall but be mindful that any individual verse might have translation errors. It is possible to read them with both of these in tension. I guess historians acquire the skill more than the rest of us when reading translated texts. Some scriptures are not even available in the original languages. Taking to heart what is the gist of a passage is good but if a particular verse is important to your understanding, best to research it a bit. I offer my contribution in this matter by saying that my overall understanding of John’s gospel led me into actual meetings first hand with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit as those passages said Jesus promised so the English translation must be pretty good. I did try cross referring to the Greek using an interlinear a lot but the overall meaning in most English translations of passages such as John chapter 14 is good enough. Now when it comes to obeying the commands of Jesus we have to be careful and research them fairly well or it could be dangerous. If we misunderstand them or use a poor translation and then go and try to obey it on that basis, that could be disastrous. Once sure of the meaning, obeying is how to show love for Him and His promise ensues.  I tend to think it best to hold onto the sayings even when it isn’t clear what they mean or how to obey them, until it becomes clear. For example for years I pondered what “keep your lamps trim and burning brightly” means in practical terms. Clearly nothing to do with actual lamps. Now writing all this it makes sense. I must keep my words clear and in tune with His teachings. That takes discipline and effort. But getting lax and fuzzy is not what He wants from me. So as you serve, you learn. Obeying in what you have already as much as you find you can do so, and getting ever ready to do more as becomes possible later, that is acceptable to Him. That is love for Him. He rewards it with visits, fellowship, and with blessings from the Holy Spirit, eventually when the time is acceptable to God the Father. Fellowship from the Father too.

Time perspective of Jesus

The time perspective of Jesus is huge. He is. This is where that present tense is used to say something is now, is ages ago, is ages to come. I think some languages have a special tense for it. Not English unfortunately.

Slave to the Ultimate Master

I love being a slave to Jesus, who is indeed the ultimate Master. By having Jesus as master, nobody else can claim me as their slave. Yet slavery to Jesus means freedom, ultimately from the death sentence of ethical downfall. How foolish to fall slave to lying and hating just from fear of belief and courage.

A faithless predicament

A faithless, blameful death is to be feared. That is why, in times before being fully assured of faith, I was afraid to find I did not have a worthy faith. The realisation pulled the ground from under me. It had to dash home from overseas fearing I’d have a nervous breakdown. Years later I realised believing and following Jesus was the way out of this predicament. It led me to the assurance from God Himself that created real faith within me. Faith created by God. Beliefs about the Son of God fathered by God the Father Himself.

Fathered by God

You are fathered by God when the beliefs you have about the Son of God are created within your heart by the Father. So the Father makes occasional checks on these beliefs like a baker checks the progress of a cake cooking in an oven. 

The Son of Man in the Book of Enoch

With regard to the Son of Man seen so often in the Book of Enoch and believed to be there in the versions of the book known to Jesus, who identifies with the Son of Man teaching, why ‘the Son of Man’? The parallel with the Book of Daniel chapter 7 passage on “one like a man” is clearly important to understanding the title. Likewise the reference back to a similar passage about this man in Daniel chapter 10 from a passage by John in Revelation chapter 1 describing Jesus is more important still, bringing into the picture the humanness of Jesus, the Christ Himself. Yet Enoch parallels Revelation in importance because to be called Son of Man is more precise than Daniel’s passage and mirrors John’s Revelation contribution to the understanding of this person because even angels are described like men in the Book of Daniel but describing a being as LIKE a man is not as precise as describing the being as the Son of Man. If Jesus merely became a man it would not be saying as much about that humanity as when scripture, by calling Him ‘the Son of Man’ says this person humbled Himself to actually be a child of humans taking cellular form and embryo and foetus form growing in a womb and being born from that woman’s womb, growing up as a child of human parents. Adam was called Man, yet did not live as a Son of Man because as a direct creation he had no earthly parents, whereas the Christ would be born as a Son of Man, as humble and fully human as we are, yet having existed as the Son of Man mysteriously in Enoch’s time of ascension into Heaven. So this utter humanity (yet without sin and fully the son of God) is what the righteous humans need to help them cope with life in this world and eternally continue as children of God, and what every human needs in a mediator with God the Father.

Soundness of mind

If people spend a long time wanting to know about something important but unable to find out reliably (such as the well-being of a distant loved one or the success or failure in an exam), especially if the mind is weakened by isolation or illness or fear, it is easy for involuntary thoughts to take the place of that missing knowledge. With a weak mind that might turn into delusion. That might be why we place such importance on social interaction, churches, government agencies, media and families to help us stay sound in our minds and opinions. “Be careful that the light within you is not darkness.” Our natural tendencies are not the thing to live by, because left unchecked it can lead to sometimes deadly errors.

Hope even for the unsound mind

It takes a sound mind to reason so some are unable to be reasoned with. So if reasoning were the only way then there would be no hope for those with unsound mind. But there is bit more hope because there is the effect down through time, rippling out from the crucifixion of the Christ for every one of us.

The Nietzsche Nightmare

Having probably caused both WW2 and the Cold War, and foresighted awareness of it possibly leading to his madness and suicide, Nietzsche knew full well about gazing into the abyss and the angel of the abyss seized the opportunity. So yes, prewar Germany fought the nightmare of imperialist religiosity and defeated the pseudo-faith of the enlightenment sorcerers making the masses believe atheism had triumphed but every action has a reaction and the alternatives became a worse nightmare with first Communist atheism, then Nazi atheism then both waging war on nominally religious imperialism and on each other to find the overlording master ideology, but imperialism came back like a boomerang and mastered the West, leaving just the Far East outside its imperial reach. The real war is the attempt to escape the clutches of religious imperialism. Brexit shows the peaceful way - just walk out.

Stochastics and Soul

It might be that free will and soul and spirit can be detected scientifically as being beyond the laws of physics. If you sum many different possibly physics-consistent stochastic equations with many ranges of Eigen vectors and Eigen values and reality matches a field of all possible values it might be feasible that reality is devoid of wills. If reality does not fit such possible results then will might actually exist, and therefore soul. Possibly spirit too. I think we discern spirit because inwardly our brains do all that maths to work out the physical nature of our environment and when something is outside the normal range we discern it is spiritual. Such as with dreams. We can guess all the normal kinds of dreams we might dream, by extrapolation and interpolation and intelligently summing possibilities, then we recognise a more cognisant externally inspired dream, perhaps by clarity of a prediction within it and this prediction coming true, for which stochastic models could not possibly allow. Stochastics by nature only takes the recent state and predicts the imminent. Nothing beyond the imminent is predicable by known maths. If it were the insurance industry would be far richer, as would bookkeepers. Spirit can predict it.

Einstein used Brownian motion as use case for his calculus and that calculus is normally used for things like predicting share prices, insurance premiums, etc. Black Scholes is the usual further development of the calculus used for these. Stochastic modelling. So human behaviour is no different. It has a random element and a vector (direction and speed) based on most recent data and a variation component. My memory is a bit rusty so I might have the details wrong. But it is usual to extend such calculus and partial differentials to cater for biological processes such as behaviour, population modelling, force field analysis, etc. No problem using it for looking at predictable behaviour of all kinds except when the system is very volatile. Then you compare predicted behaviour with actual behaviour. The harder part is modelling based on physical laws. That is alright to land a probe on Jupiter but not so good with modelling a disease or pandemic or betting on a race. But not impossible. So why isn’t it being done, with high profile? Perhaps fear of discovering God, soul, free will.

So take a set of laws affecting humans, such as tendency to stay stood upright and the mechanics involved in that. Add a random factor plus preconditions at time immediately before monitoring. Write an calculus equation (partial differentials) to predict very next movement based on these factors. Observe actual next movement in many cases. Adjust the equation to see that randomness is correct and orders of magnitude of forces affecting outcome are correct. Then wait and monitor occasions when actual movement exceeds expected. This is the kind of thing along with machine learning, neural networks, they probably use to monitor people in smart systems, so the maths must exist. Investigate anomalies to see whether physical laws plus randomness alone explain observed movements. If not, look into it further. Was there free will involved? Spiritual effects? Evidence of soul?

If you look at micro level. Macro effects like social ones have too many unknowns. Start with what is supposedly fully understood. Movement is a good fit with the maths. Lots of the factors of movement are known well such as energy availability in form of muscle phosphorus content which can be monitored using a scanner (CAT, NMR). Movement is physically limited to phosphorus I think. ATP, etc. Impulses into muscles can only come in finite ways. These could be monitored and modelled. Physics and chemistry account well for movement and topological freedoms of movement. Movement is well analysed philosophically and metaphysically too. So it should be predictable at microscopic level and it should be subject to only finite physical laws and the randomness should be knowable too. I know that the God series presented by Morgan Freeman mentioned similar studies in brain activity of meditation as example of scientific study of theology.

Spirit and life

Living without help to stay out of trouble is like a released convict living without a probation officer. There is a huge risk of offending or reoffending resulting in a possible harsh sentence. Ultimately, taking justice beyond the justice systems and social vengeance also into account, it might mean death. And religion says this all extends beyond death too, where further justice applies. So people need more than just guiding, they need saving. We each need a Saviour. The extent of saving power is not a matter of religious system or culture or heritage but it extends beyond these things just like natural laws of nature. It is spirit. Spirit keeps people on track. Jesus said His words are spirit and are life. Jesus’ words like all of the Spirit given in His name provides a guide but more than just a guide, a liberation, leading into liberating truth. Liberating and saving from ways of judgement and death.

What do we mean by ‘God’?

Really the concept of God is a matter of history. It requires context. Even children learn the concept of God, learning it from society as they grow up so it is not too complicated to learn, but they learn it for their context. It is harder to generalise it universally. There are several components to the ancient world concept of God. The context of that world changed, though. It became more polytheistic, judging from Hebrew and Sumerian scriptures, including the Book of Enoch, and extant texts. Initially it meant the topmost being. Only one Father is father of all beings and Lord of all and maker of all and highest over all. Topmost Creator. The tree-like status hierarchy of all beings has just one at the top. (Note that later in the time of Christ Jesus, the Son called God His own God, the Father. So the Christ declared one greater than Himself who gave Him His existence.) Top of hierarchy is singular. God is the One God. None other besides is God the way the Father is God. The matter of blessedness of this topmost being is important. Praised by many as such. This too is singular. Only one Father deserves all praise because He of all beings is so praiseworthy. God is the one who answers prayers and saves those who trust in Him and call on Him. Eternal might is also implied. God will remain God forever, always able to save. Lastly, everyone will acknowledge God as topmost God and only God, as all other gods are recognised as subject or submissive to Him and recognised as those required to worship Him. This is not an exhaustive description but it attempts to capture the essence of what the ancients and the scripture writers meant by God and what God Himself means by God. Into this context we find there is one special other being sharing many such characteristics but not God, rather the Son of God. The Christ. God plans to share eternity in this Son’s company but also in the company of many righteous children brought to God through this Christ.

Book of Enoch chapter 105:

“In those days the Lord bade (them) to summon and testify to the children of earth concerning their wisdom: Show (it) unto them; for ye are their guides, and a recompense over the whole earth. For I and My son will be united with them for ever in the paths of uprightness in their lives; and ye shall have peace: rejoice, ye children of uprightness. Amen.”

Heaven?

The Book of Enoch description of the place where Enoch saw God is like the geological phenomena of crystal caves within mountains, an example of which is found in Naica, New Mexico. Yet one detail is puzzling. The description tells of the ceiling of the cave being like the path of the stars in the heavens. It occurs to me that another geological structure might be involved, in addition to the crystal cave. A transform fault running deep into the mountain. This could manifest as a slit going from the cave up to the surface. Archaeology and geography of one region fits with the description and with other ancient sources about a mountain cave abode of the supreme God, that of the Lebanon and Hermon mountain ranges through Lebanon. It matches accounts from sources such as the Epic of Gilgamesh about the Cedar Forest associated with God’s habitation. It runs South even towards Jerusalem too via the Jordan valley. It runs on further into the Red Sea and then the Rift Valley. It is such a fault. Light from the stars might somewhere in the mountain ranges of Lebanon penetrate down to deep mountain caves. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Transform  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transform_fault https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Crystals ) 

The Christ

The Christ is distinct from God. He is very similar, being in the image of God and without sin and from everlasting to everlasting. Yet God has made Him distinct, just as we too are distinct. It is the Father who is God and there is no other who is God. The Christ is the Son of God. Now the Christ is manifested as flesh and bone, it is clearer why He is called the Son of Man, but He was called this before becoming flesh too. God is not flesh.

Trinity confusion

The Trinity confusion might stem from the way it is expressed about the mystery of how Christ’s history came about, from His origin from God (step 1), through to His being given life in Himself, through to His existence in Heaven before becoming flesh, through to His becoming flesh. That first step (I labelled it step 1) is possibly what gets misunderstood or misrepresented. John 1 expresses it as past tense. Many Trinity dogma adherents express it as present tense and so falsify it.

To be a child of God

Christ could work closely with God, and still can, by faith. His utter belief in God’s love for Him along with knowledge of God’s power enabled Him to do what He did rather than being any different from any other human like ourselves. Ignorance of this can make people mistakenly think Jesus was not made fully human but is somehow God in a bodily form. God gave Jesus life to have as the Son of God distinct from God Himself. Then this life became human flesh. So Jesus is both Son of God and human like us, Son of Man. God is in Him and He in God in just the same way God is in those who confess all this and they in God. So there are many sons of God. A son of God is not to be called God. Neither is Jesus to be called God. Jesus calls the Father His God. We can only hope to have this Father as our God too and our Father too through Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. Believing all this, that is the first step in discipleship leading to permanently becoming a child of God and being freed from the kind of compulsive wrongdoing which can get a person into serious trouble and even lead to deadly results. The next step is to take on board the teachings of Jesus about how to behave rightly. Holding to these teachings is what makes a disciple. The promise of Jesus is that this disciple will know the truth and be set free from the wrongdoing by the freedom which comes from this truth. So stop that wrongdoing where possible. Learn to believe in these things and that Jesus is, that His existence is from before the world began. Believe that His living existence will be forever. Believe that He is the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Then hold to His teachings to truly be His disciple. Then, and only then, you will know the truth and be free to cease wrongdoing and live forever as a child of God.

The Book of Enoch

Through the Book of Enoch, God catches the wise in their craftiness. Do not underestimate it. God keeps something hidden for that purpose. When Jesus warned the Sadducees they were in error for not knowing the scriptures it was the Book of Enoch He was pointing to. Only this book of scripture tells about angels not being allowed to marry, which was what answered the Sadducees’ trick question. Jude knew Jesus well enough to know He would approve of Jude quoting it. At that time it was one of the most popular scriptures in circulation, as the Dead Sea Scrolls now show. It was addressed to our generation so no coincidence it has resurfaced after centuries lost to the West. It is like an auditor’s check sum to shine light on church doctrines.

The Person of Christ

Much truth hinges on knowing the way the power of God works together with a believer. Ignorance of this can lead to misconceptions about who Christ is. Christ could work closely with God, and still can, by faith. His utter belief in God’s love for Him along with knowledge of God’s power enabled Him to do what He did rather than being any different from any other human like ourselves. Ignorance of this can make people mistakenly think Jesus was not made fully human but is somehow God in a bodily form. God gave Jesus life to have as the Son of God distinct from God Himself. Then this life became human flesh. So Jesus is both Son of God and human like us, Son of Man. God is in Him and He in God in just the same way God is in those who confess all this and they in God. So there are many sons of God. A son of God is not to be called God. Neither is Jesus to be called God. Jesus calls the Father His God. We can only hope to have this Father as our God too and our Father too through Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.

Misrepresented truth

Misrepresenting truth but telling it as truth is more damaging and wicked than outright lies. Outright lies are guarded against and tested as fake. Truths distorted to hide real truth are more damaging because they are like a Trojan horse and are accepted into holy places and yet the receivers of them think they have truth and so do not seek it, plus they reject real truth when they hear it because it differs subtly from what they already received as truth. Thus they stay ignorant and enslaved but are very difficult to set free. Antichrist knows this full well.

The Son

Only the Father IS God. The Word WAS God in the beginning but the Father gave the Son life of His own: Life in himself.

Jesus has life in Himself

https://biblehub.com/text/john/5-26.htm
 Jesus is not God. Jesus has life in Himself. He said so. The Father gave Him this.

Do you want to know the truth about Jesus?

Do you want to know the truth about Jesus? Do what Jesus said to do in John 8. Stop sinning. Believe that He is. Believe that His existence is from before the world began. Believe that He existence will be forever. Believe that He is the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Then hold to His teachings to truly be His disciple. Then, and only then, you will know the truth.

Evolution or Creation looking the same from the fossil evidence

If a being is created, precedence can be used to create that being using existing beings as a template. There might be subtle variations each time it happens. An almost extant record of such an event is found in the early texts of the Epic of Gilgamesh with the creation of Enkidu, a wild man created to subdue the roguish Gilgamesh. Each creation can therefore improve on or modify the previous one to better fit the current environment. In effect this kind of creating will leave all the same fossil evidence as if there were macro-Evolution taking place. 

The Cross

The cross has great, ancient meaning, before the Christ was crucified. That is why it is so prevalent in medicine too. In most ancient times the cross (‘MASH’) meant a sacrifice opening the way to the gods giving revelations to humans. Christ’s crucifixion opened the way for God to give the Holy Spirit to those who believe and receive Christ and His teachings, holding to them. This Holy Spirit wells up within them and leads into all truth. This truth sets free from the sinful ways that lead to death. This Spirit therefore gives life. Abundant life. All purchased by that cross of Christ.

Trust and Obey

Meeting the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and receiving a teaching from them and a commission gives my life meaning, purpose. It starts with faith and obedience. Initially that obedience is to the teachings of Jesus and truth of Jesus in scriptures but when the Holy Spirit gives vision from heaven it must include obedience to this too. The outcome of meeting the Father and Son and Holy Spirit proves these scriptures are a true enough record of the teachings of Jesus that they can lead to this outcome once obeyed. Translation issues come to light but the tenets are sound enough to start things off and the Lord fills the gaps and makes essential corrections. His grace is sufficient.

Scriptures

A chief value of religion is its preservation of scriptures. When I personally found God and Christ and the Holy Spirit the words of Jesus in John’s gospel helped when I found Jesus is indeed a doorway to God. The man whose existence and proximity to a disciple and also to God makes Him the one door. The mediator. Discovering this truth personally is helped by the scriptures of John and Paul because they confirm in words what I find in reality. They prove what I discern. My reality in turn confirms to me the truth of these scripture writers’ testimonies.

I am He

“I am He”. Jesus was explaining to men that He is the One mediator between God and man. That unless they believe this, they will die in their sins. He was explaining that before Abraham was born He exists. His existence as mediator covers all time, is from everlasting past to everlasting future.

The real meaning of Christ

By zealously insisting that Jesus’ use of the phrase recorded in John’s gospel “I am ...”, insisting it is tied to Trinitarian ideas that He declared Himself Yahweh people are in danger of missing what Jesus actually said and meant. Don’t mess with this. John’s gospel, such as chapter 8, provides a document of the terms of covenant which is the basis for your eventual salvation (if you ever listen well enough to receive it instead of merely looking for Trinitarian support verses). See the end of John’s gospel where he writes about the reason for the gospel, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. By “I am He” Jesus meant “I am the Christ”, “I am the Son of Man”, “I am the Son”. There are many such “I am ...” sayings of Jesus recorded in this gospel and they all amount to the same thing, building up a description of what it means that He is the Christ. It is essential to not only assent to calling Him the Christ but to believe what it is that He is. Remember He said that unless you believe He is this one, you will die in your sins.

Two new commandments

The Christ effectively added two more commandments to the Ten Commandments. 1. To live by the truth revealed by His appearing in history. 2. To recognise how He loved His disciples (and does so still) and imitate that love towards His disciples too.
These are not entirely new commandments but are extensions of the existing ten, extended to include the event of His coming in history and His impact on people then and now.

Trinity ideas and the KJV

I always thought the KJV was quite a good Bible translation but look at Titus 2:13 to see how it and so many other Bible translations distort the original meaning to push the Hellenistic Roman ‘Trinity’ idea of Christ being God. The original Greek means “Jesus Christ is the blessed hope and is the appearing of the glory of the great God and is the Saviour of us.” (Literally translated it reads “the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and Saviour of us, Christ Jesus”. See https://biblehub.com/text/titus/2-12.htm). Yet the mainstream translations twist it to make it say Jesus Christ is the great God, rather than the appearing of the glory of the great God. https://biblehub.com/titus/2-13.htm

Absolute Truth

Truth is made in heaven. Truth is against the nature of mankind. All Cretans are liars, said the Cretan. Yet the Cretan was the prophet of Zeus and so was able to tell the truth by prophecy. Truth starts in heaven where truth is still the regime. It comes to humans chiefly by the power of the message that Christ died for us. This is how we know the truth of God. Then the power of heaven can make us truthful. Then it’s up to us to persist that truthfulness by making it habit. This breaks the cursed cycle of lies. Once the lying is broken the truth can be known and since its source is heavenly it can be pragmatically absolute, a phenomenon of real religion.

Difficult words

Picture a child faced with a word like Saviour and the concept of Jesus being able to save them from what bad deeds they might otherwise do in life. I remember the difficulty growing up in a church environment hearing words like Saviour and singing the word in hymns, it was so frustrating not understanding the words but being expected to just go along with whatever they meant despite not knowing what they meant. Some end up as adults still not understanding. Yet I also had dreams in which I learned how Jesus can and does save me from dire situations, especially when I was in trouble on His behalf for standing up in support of His veracity. So I did know Him as my Saviour even before I knew this by that word. Now I realise how saving me during troubles is all part of how He saves me from committing sins which could render my life forfeit, and saving me from having to take matters into my own hands. So this leads to a dynamic peace in which to live for Him, which is what His way is all about. Just a pity the English language doesn’t have easier ways of expressing it so a child can understand. Yet heaven filled that gap once I started to believe in Jesus. Today I know it as by His crucifixion, dying to sin in order to live to Him.

Not in His own name

If the Son of Man came in His own name, what glory would that be? It is His glory that He comes in Yahweh, His Father’s name and the glory is that it is not His own name. So the glory of the Father is seen in Him. Rejecting this truth blinds a person to seeing the glory of Yahweh in the face of the Son. 

Your God

People look for a better option than 911. Very sensible. Especially if a pandemic ever destroyed the health services. For a better option than 911 you need an entity to call on who hears such calls, loves you enough to answer, powerful enough to help. Enter the human, Christ Jesus, always heard by the Father, crucified out of love the Father has for us, raised from the dead by the power of the Father to save. And in His name the Father sends believers the Holy Spirit, working miracles among those who believe His message. This Father is God. Make Him your God.

Son of Man

The Book of Enoch repeatedly teaches us about the Son of Man. Jesus repeatedly called Himself the Son of Man. The Book of Daniel chapter 7 links the Son of Man with the Book of Enoch. It describes the Son of Man just the same way Enoch did using such similar words and concepts that they could not be coincidence. Revelation chapter 1 links Jesus with the Son of Man in the Book of Daniel chapter 10. It describes Jesus just the same way Daniel described the Son of Man using such similar words and concepts that they could not be coincidence. So this Son of Man is the same in all three scriptures and is Jesus. So what is so important about the term Son of Man applied to Jesus? Jesus’ own teachings tell how the reason God gives Him authority to judge is because He is the Son of Man. In scriptures we see God makes His teachings targeted at all of us no matter what stage we are in life. God takes this to the ultimate degree by targeting the very beginning of human life. So He made His Son start from the very beginning of what it is to be the tiniest stage of human life and grow from there to bring God’s teaching to all making it relevant and fit for the tiniest human to the greatest. For this Jesus became what a son of man is. A cell growing to an foetus to a baby to a child to an adult. So God can put everything into Jesus that He wants to give for the benefit of humans. All authority, all of the Holy Spirit, all of His glory, all of His life, even the life force authority to raise the dead. All because Jesus is the Son of Man. But Jesus had to be human unto death. Yet also human unto resurrection from the dead. And now Lord to fill the universe with His authority and glory. Do you believe all this? You need to believe it.

Still human

Jesus, the Son of God is still human, hence He will still be called the Son of Man even when He manifests Himself soon. “Men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven.” He can act as spirit though, reaching out from the throne of God to a believer to strengthen them, as He did with Paul, coming and standing at Paul’s side in the night. He did it even to me a couple of times. Others testify to it too. He can reach out by ‘His angel’. He entered the upper room His disciples were meeting in even though the door was locked. Yet He at that time told them “a ghost does not have flesh and bone as you see I have” so He is not a ghost. He is really a unique first being who is raised from the dead and human having been mortal but is now immortal, and He had some angel-human-like existence from before Abraham was born and was before all things yet became flesh. 

Jesus before John but born after John

It is a bit bizarre to me that people think that the only way Jesus could exist before becoming flesh was for there to be a Trinity or for Modalism to be true. Neither is true. Jesus called Himself Son of Man because there were scriptures in His time showing the Son of Man in prophesy having existed centuries beforehand and John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus was ‘greater than me because He existed before me’ even though John was born first. Jesus was happy to be regarded as a deity in a loose sense, the sense in which any great, mighty person who judges can be regarded as such but Jesus is not in any sense the God He called the Father. He is not God in that sense. He was not telling anyone to break the first of the Ten Commandments. 

A right spirit

Heritage, birthplace, race. It is not what matters. What matters is spirit. The kind of spirit we each of us has within. We need to discern the spirit within us. We need to have a spirit acknowledging that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Thinking of Jesus wrongly hinders our salvation through Him. He is human. The Father is not human. When Jesus says ‘God is spirit’ He means the Father. When Jesus says ‘a ghost does not have flesh and bone as you see I have’ He means Himself. We each need to check what our inner spirit leads us to think and if it is not like this, then to ask God ‘Renew a right spirit within me’.  We also need to believe that Jesus is ‘before Abraham was born’ for our salvation. It is essential. It is all about pursuing saving faith and a right spirit within.

If it were not so

When Thomas exclaimed “my lord and my god!” Jesus could have said “blessed are you Thomas for you have discovered the Trinity!” But He didn’t. He had already assured them He would not keep from them anything important for them to know “if it were not so I would have told you”. So this would have been a perfect opportunity to tell them about the Trinity. Obviously Jesus knew the Trinity was not so.  So He did not tell them about it.

Misconceptions about the Bible

It is a misconception that the Bible comprehensively describes the faith of Christianity. There are important aspects of this faith which are only very briefly mentioned and only believing itself provides the clarity of what those verses mean to make them unambiguous to the believer. For more comprehensive descriptions of the Christian faith it is necessary to look at books of scripture such as the Book of Enoch excluded from the sixty-six book Bible and included in less known canons such as the Ethiopian Orthodox greater canon and other sources such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. On certain matters of belief it is necessary to refer to later Christian writings. Indeed much of the modern norm of Christian doctrine is not found in scripture at all. So scripture has only ever provided a springboard and reference for major Christian beliefs. Many believers claim their beliefs come as much from the work of the Holy Spirit among them as they do from the Bible. Of course there are questions as to how much other influences have crafted doctrines, and limits of a sixty-six Book Bible might account for divisions over debated doctrines and dogmas.

Faith is Persuasion

If you are persuaded to trust the veracity of something then you have a belief, but who or what persuaded you? If your persuasion, your faith, is from human argument and reasoning, will you be persuaded later that those arguments were wrong and then have to change your practices based on those persuasions? If your persuasion comes from miracles you have witnessed or which those you trust have witnessed, and from works the Holy Spirit has done in you or those around you, perhaps in church or meditation, then the persuasion is from God and is religious faith. This is more rock steady than faith based on scientific arguments.

Washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb

We consider that His blood absolves us from the guilt of what we sinfully used to do so we do such things no more, once we are sure they are wrong but also sure that the sacrificial covering of His blood is for past sins and sure that to continue wantonly to repeat those sins mocks that sacrifice. Sins we later learn are sinful as time goes on, we set aside too, as and when we recognise them, understanding and believing that the blood pays for the guilt of these as well.

How old is Jesus?

It is extremely remarkable (and therefore hard to believe because it is rare for things to be so remarkable) that Jesus actually is, right now. Even those who believe this because of the resurrection, yet deny the existence Jesus had before conception,  have to concede this means extreme longevity, and never dying or ceasing to exist in the future means such longevity only increases. Personally I find the evidence compelling that Jesus existed an extremely long time even before conception as a being similar to angels yet far more like a human than they are and in a more special sense the Son of God the Father. John the Baptist is recorded in gospel of Apostle John as having said Jesus is greater than him because Jesus existed before him, despite John having been born before Jesus, and Jesus said “Before Abraham was born, I am”. Daniel the prophet saw one exactly matching Apostle John’s Revelation description of Jesus. The Book of Enoch said Enoch went up to the Son of Man and gives descriptions of the Son of Man which match Jesus. The name power and authority over all Nature ascribed to Jesus by the Holy Spirit only makes sense for a person, a being, existing from before the beginning of Nature. Apostolic statements affirm this.

How to follow Jesus

Many teach the way of Jesus and you might know teachers commended to you in some way by miracles and loving care. Teachings of Jesus Himself I find are best suited for me because I don’t really know very much about others who serve Him. Jesus Himself always helped me even when teachers and leaders failed me. You have to find the best teachings of Christ’s way that are available to you. I use the Bible to tell me Jesus’s teachings and this works for me because I have learned gospels such as John’s gospel all my life. Alright so how do we practice these teachings? If it were me (suggesting otherwise would be hypocrisy) I would go through all His teachings and see which are clear enough to me to practice, then keep practicing them, while aiming to bring on board His other teachings and teachings of those He sent (Paul and other apostles and maybe modern teachers we know are ultimately from Him) as soon as I can understand how they apply. All this while holding to the belief that He exists and is always there to help and intercede for us with God and that His blood seals it. Then God does miracles and gives signs by the Holy Spirit in our lives to seal it for us individually and together.

The New Covenant

The Gospel of John chapter 8 is like the terms and conditions for God’s covenant through Christ, while the covenant itself came later - the crucifixion. The woman caught in adultery is like the definition of terms for you and I. The “he who is without sin cast the first stone” is the sample of what Christ, the Son of Man has on offer - able to negotiate a way out even for a convicted felon on death row - on condition they go sin no more and trust His continuing support forever. Details come later - terms are as follows: You believe He exists, then you hold to His way, His rules, His sayings, His teachings. He leads you to truth. Truth sets you free from the sinning that could get you killed, that could lead to a fatal demise. That means lying too. Lying is prime example of what you, I, need freeing from to become a permanent child of God (only kind there is). Then soon after giving this formal statement of intent, the covenant is sealed and put into force by His crucifixion. God shows good faith by the resurrection, a promising turn of events for us all raising our prospects anew as a kind of rebirth coming directly from God Himself, the Father Himself. Now the Holy Spirit has been given us because Jesus took His completed victory back to heaven, to God, mission accomplished. Not bad at all.

Saint Peter’s Dream

The dream of Peter recorded in the Bible, in the Book of Acts, is perhaps the most groundbreaking scripture of all scriptures. It happened in the first stages of the spread of Christianity, not long after the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension of Christ and initial growth of the church before it spread to include Romans or Greeks. Peter would possibly never have preached to Romans or Greeks directly or allowed the church to include such people if it had not been for this dream. It was while he was praying that he fell into a kind of trance sleep and saw a vision. Now move forward two thousand years to today when Christians tend to insist no dream can ever change Christian doctrine or add anything to Christian mainstream beliefs and teachings which is contrary to what is found in scripture. Yet this ignores the dream of Peter. He saw in his vision dream a cloth full of unclean animals the eating of which is explicitly forbidden in scripture. Yet despite the scriptures and in direct contradiction to them, Peter was told by the vision from Heaven to “kill and eat” these animals. In spite of his protests the heavenly vision told him not to regard as unclean what God called clean. Peter accepted it. Yes Peter always tested visions so as never to be deceived by misleading spiritual experiences, and taught doing so. Yet Peter did not use scripture to rule out accepting this vision or reject it as phoney. He accepted it as coming from God and accepted that God may overturn scripture. Wow! Eat that!

Mediation

The idea of living nowadays by the Torah, the Old Testament Law, is not understood by those who teach it. The Law imposed a slavery system on Israelites by requiring the execution of family members or even entire villages who stopped worshipping God and starting worshipping gods of other nations instead. This harshness is little known even though it is hidden away in the Old Testament. The answer was the coming of a mediator who would stand between humans and the Father who commanded this harsh imposition of Law. The alternative these days is to imply there is a distinction between the God seen in the Law and the Father worshipped in Christianity. That is not the way Christ taught. Rather we can acknowledge this God is the Father and is one throughout history but the mediation of Christ mitigates this harsh scenario by providing a once-and-for-all crucifixion sacrifice of His blood and pleading for mercy on our behalf, just as is recorded in the beginning of John chapter 8 regarding the way Jesus mediated for a woman about to be legally stoned for adultery according to the harsh Law, the Torah. He is alive forever now to continually mediate this way, setting before God the sacrifice He has made by God’s loving will.

Inaccurate Doctrine

Saying Jesus is God is a prevalent religious tendency these days but God is the Father and is not human. Jesus existed before coming in the flesh. He was even a kind of human, hence called the Son of Man. Becoming flesh did not mean He had not already been a kind of human; angelic but human as distinct from other angels. His preexistence was called Son of Man. That is what He meant in John 8 and 9. So insisting Jesus is God is too inaccurate and prone to misinterpretation.

How reliable are the gospels?

How reliable are the gospels, since they are by far the greatest source of information about Jesus’ ministry in the first century? That depends what kind of person you are, whether you take them on trust, because those who do so find the promises within them are fulfilled in their lives, which proves for these people the gospels’ veracity. Believing in the veracity means believing in the Christ. Believing the Christ leads to understanding that these gospel writers influenced by Christ were influenced to hate lies and lying and learned veracity of word, which in turn would mean they would write truthful accounts about their trusted Master. Those who trust the gospels discover their trustworthiness.