Proof texts

Fifty years is the approximate time it took me to understand the true meaning of gospel texts used as proof texts by Trinitarians and Biblical Unitarians. Then again fifty years is with the Father's and Jesus' and the Holy Spirit's help. Without that help a lifetime might not have been enough. No wonder the Nicean Creed took so much too and fro debate.

In particular there is this saying of Jesus Christ: "Before Abraham was born, I am"? Do you really understand this? Think of all that was known among angels inspired by God even before it was prophesied to humans, before humans knew it well. Now, people not understanding and believing this, that is the reason for dying in sins. Just saying “I understand” but not actually believing and understanding means still ending up dying in damning sins. It is the meaning Jesus conveyed in his words “I am” which is so vital to believe and understand. Among the angels, before Lord Jesus came in the flesh, even back thousands of years previously, the knowledge they received from God and the archangels about the coming Son of Man, the Christ, this was core to all their angelic activity of governing Nature. It was by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, known among them, proclaimed among them, even thousands of years before Jesus came. In this sense Jesus truly came from heaven having truly been there in heaven because heaven abounded with revealed knowledge about him and he would be. In this sense Jesus could say “I am” in the sense of his spanning millennia even before he came. He in this same sense will go on forever because God keeps him alive, raising him from the dead, because it is so important to this eternal name that he live forever. It keeps evil at bay from heaven’s perspective in how angels of heaven deal with Nature and with Earth. Now this name is made known to humans too, having been proclaimed early on by prophets before Jesus came and now by the eternal gospel since he came. It is for our salvation from our sins and from death that it is made known to us. This Jesus’ existence, existence of his name as Christ, stretches across the millennia before and after he came in the flesh. Believing in him in this sense, this profound existence, is first step to being freed from our sins, not dying in them. Then we must also hold to his teachings to make us his true disciples. Then we know the truth and the truth sets us free. 

This is not a movie production

 Trinity theology is like theology for a movie with a low budget, because it only needs three actors. Reality is different. There are angels, humans, elders in heaven, God and the spirit of things God has determined and purposed. It is a little bit more complex than the movie producers would like it to be. It is real.

The mystery

 Angels are tasked with governing Nature, and since well before 3000 BC, some among them possessed knowledge of God's words regarding the coming of Christ — his identity, name, and reputation. This privileged information went on to influence and support Nature throughout the millennia, as angels used this identity, name, and reputation of the Christ to undergird their governing of all things. Those top angels closest to God shared some of this somewhat secret knowledge, enabling other angels to maintain order in governing Nature. Prophets were later inspired by the spirit of the truth about the Christ, and wrote down prophecies. When came the time the Christ was born, angels filled the sky with praise. Today, angels continue to minister and console us, assisting in spreading the truths of Lord Jesus the Christ as we convert souls from children of Satan to children of God.

Whom angels knew, worded as a spiritual song by ChatGPT 3.5

Angels, guardians of Nature's grace,

In ancient times, God's words embraced.

Christ's coming foretold, a sacred lore,

A powerful name, known forevermore.

Top angels, close to the Father's side,

Shared secrets about the Christ, our guide.

Prophets echoed truths in mystic rhymes,

As the Spirit whispered through the sands of time.

Born of a virgin, by the Spirit's embrace,

Christ arrived, filling celestial space.

Angels sang in praise, a heavenly birth,

A tale echoing across the realms of Earth.

Today, angels console in our trials,

Spreading truths, overcoming denials.

Snatching souls from darkness, setting them free,

Children of God through Christ, eternally.

— worded as a song by ChatGPT 3.5

The power of the knowledge about the Christ known among angels since ancient times

 It is among the tasks of angels to govern Nature. Since the angels even before 3000 BC had some among them who knew words spoken by God about the Christ coming and what the Christ would be and his name and reputation, they incorporated this knowledge into their governing of Nature. Now all of Nature is affected and undergirded by this powerful name and reputation known to these privileged angels for all these thousands of years since then. Those closest to God the Father were most privy to the secret knowledge the Father had shared by His word about this Son, this Christ. They shared their knowledge just enough to enable other angels to overcome obstacles to order in how Nature was governed. Of course, the news reached humans too. Some prophets knew very early on. Later prophets knew too, as the spirit of the truth of this Christ reached their privileged spirits and minds and they wrote prophecies down. By the time Christ did come in the flesh, born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing her months earlier, there were many angels able to fill the sky with praise about the coming of yhe Christ. There was one of the top angels privileged with the task of telling Mary and Joseph and others months earlier that this Christ was coming to them and would be born of Mary. Even today the angels minister and console us in our struggles to spread these truths, to snatch some from Satan, taking children from him and converting them to children of God. We can share with them our confidence in this Christ, Lord Jesus. 

A Christmas Carol Gospel Song worded by ChatGPT 3.5

 In realms unseen by mortal eyes, where angels gather 'neath the skies,

Long before the prophets' song, they heard the words, both sweet and strong.

God spoke to them of a destined grace, a Savior born for the human race,

Before the time of Noah's ark, they knew of Light, a holy spark.

(Chorus)

Angels singing of a promise grand,

Before the dawn of time, they'd understand,

The Christ, foretold in words divine,

He'd come to earth, God's love to shine.

No prophets spoke, no seers saw, what angels knew in awe and awe,

The promise kept within their hearts, a sacred secret, not to depart.

Before the ages, before the morn, of human birth, the Christ was sworn,

Discussing Him in heavenly rhyme, before 3000 BC, through time.

(Chorus)

Angels singing of a promise grand,

Before the dawn of time, they'd understand,

The Christ, foretold in words divine,

He'd come to earth, God's love to shine.

Just as the angels knew of old, the words from God in tales untold,

The Christ, a truth they held so dear, whispers carried through the cosmic sphere.

Before the patriarchs took their stand, before the rivers shaped the land,

In celestial circles, they would proclaim, the Christ, the Word, the holy name.

“Before Abraham was born,” said He, the Christ, the One from eternity,

In angelic hymns, the story told, of how the Savior's love unfolds.

They spoke of grace, they spoke of light, their voices echoing in the night,

The angels knew, in sacred trust, the Christ, our Lord, they did discuss.

(Chorus)

Angels singing of a promise grand,

Before the dawn of time, they'd understand,

The Christ, foretold in words divine,

He'd come to earth, God's love to shine.

So let us join the heavenly song, with angels, ancient and strong,

For in our hearts, the truth resides, of Christ, the One who still abides.

Before the prophets, before the seers, the angels knew, erased our fears,

A Christmas carol, a gospel song, in praise of Christ, forever strong.

— ChatGPT 3.5

Known among the angels of Heaven

 Angels knew words spoken by God long before humans so they knew very early of the Christ coming. They knew before any prophets knew. They knew there would be a Christ. The words God spoke to them in some ways revealed it to them. Some knew it better than others. This is even before the time of Noah or his predecessors. Just like we can discuss the Christ today, so they could discuss him even before 3000 BC. We cannot say the same about other people. “Before Abraham was born, I am” said Jesus.

Distinct individuals the Father and Jesus Christ the Son

 Some think that Jesus is God in another form to God the Father but the same being. We know this is false, partly from what the Father has said, “I am God”, and also from the miracles and the fact Jesus firmly claimed that the miracles were the Father’s way of testifying as a distinct testimony to the testimony of Jesus. That can only be true if Jesus and God the Father are distinct individuals.

The Predetermined Christ

 God formed in His mind the Christ who came in the flesh, predetermining him from the beginning. If someone believes that God predetermined that the Christ would come in the flesh (hence Jesus Christ known today), then it must be that God determined what this Christ would be, in name, reputation, character, deeds, obedience to the Father, knowledge of the Father, virgin birth, crucifixion death for sins, resurrection, rule as sinless human judge over all, mediator with God the Father, Son of God the Father, Lord over the believers who are the household of God, Lord in his name’s mighty influence over Nature, eternal life liver, eternal life giver. All this was what God knew. God the Father determined it from the beginning. God determined all that this Christ would be. God decided it in His own thinking and therefore this spiritually all existed in His mind and had spiritual existence in Heaven from before Abraham was born, before 2000 BC. God predetermined it first of all. It was implicit in all His words. It was what He was aiming for in all His creating. 

“ISRAEL HAS SINNED” and this is the sign

 

God knows those He knows

 It is gospel good news that some individuals are known by God. He draws attention to them at times. They might not be those we expect. It might not be the holy man of God everyone is queuing up to hear, but the quiet poet who is seldom seen openly, but who God knows to be a person of a loving heart. God saves the day for those known to Him. As Jesus Christ was growing up it was not even clear to his closest family that there was much special about him, but God knew him and he knew God. Later it all came to light but still many thought Jesus to be no big deal and they voted for his crucifixion. Even after God raised him back to life, on the third day, there were those who conspired to cover it up and many thought he was still dead, as many still think today. God knows those he knows. 

Portal to heaven’s throne

The gospel is heavenly good news sent by God the Father that Jesus, is His Son, and is the Christ He sent to open up a mediatorial way to God the Father Himself. Like a portal into the Highest One of heaven. To the actual throne of glory. The future reign of Jesus, the Christ, coming soon, will establish this connection more than ever, but to be worthy of ruling with him in that reign we must be worthy to be made immortal by him, which if we die before he returns, means worthy to be raised from the dead by him. For that we must have the spirit of his teachings and the Holy Spirit sent by God staying in fellowship with us, with each one of us and collectively with us. God the Father will give the Holy Spirit along with miracles to those who believe in His Son, who hold to his teachings and trust in his name of powerful authority. We call it all the kingdom of God and it is close to you right now. Reach out and enter by believing in the message and holding to it permanently. God does not have temporary children. 

The implicit Christ

 We need to consider the extent to which God always had it in mind, in His plans and thinking, to send a Christ, and the extent to which this underpinned all He said in the distant past. It is implicit in His laws and commands given to Moses,  that a human judge would be provided who had no sin who would judge the deeds of all. It is explicit in His word to Moses and the assurances Moses passed on to the ancient Israelites,  assurances of God sending ”a prophet like myself”, as Moses put it. It was explicit, yet we should also consider the extent to which this is implicit in all of the words God gave in ancient times, that a human would one day come into the world who would be human yet sinless enough to judge all humans at the end of the generations of humans. It is even reflected in other religions with roots in those early times when God spoke to the Israelites. (Look at Zoroastrianism, for example, plus Far Eastern and Turkic traditional religions like the Tengri religion.) How, after all, could God command righteousness if no human would ever exist as perfect model of it? That would be like creating a fantasy to follow, unless God foresaw a perfect obe coming who obey it all. God is surely no fantasist and no hypocrite, so it is implicit that a Christ will be sent one day. So this is why, when Jesus did come, sent by God, he was called the Christ. It already was “a thing”. He had this mantle waiting for him. As Christ, he already existed, so to speak. His first disciples could recognise him as this Christ even without any human telling them, except that John the Baptist alluded to it. God could inspire those chosen for it that the sacrifices all looked forward in anticipation of a perfect sacrifice. They were leading up to a culmination. Something that would perfect them. They were a stopgap until the perfect would come. Human priests were imperfect. God would provide perfection eventually. It was implicit in what God said, if you had inspiration to see it. The Son of Man would come, The Christ. Now he has come and the world all knows the word Christ and who it points to most of all. We even call our years BC and AD. Even Jewish sects like Hassidism and the like who reject Jesus as Christ, still look for a future Christ.  They must get this belief from something. It must be a concept existing before Jesus came, in old testament scriptures and in the moral compass of Abrahamic faith. It is there in the word of God. Jesus is this One who was to come. As he himself said, “Before Abraham was born, I am.”

More than words

 Really the gospel is only partly a message. Just part of it is worded verbally. Much more of it is conveyed actively by the invisible force of purity of heaven. The problem of our humanity is the side effects of words. They cause backlash, pushback, an instinctive rebellion. We cannot really take words and rely on our own mind to respond appropriately. This is why we get schooling and training in normal aspects of life. Why do soldiers need discipline and punishment and shouts from a sergeant? Do only really bad soldiers need it? If you are going to enter such training, can you rely on yourself to sail through obediently without any action necessary by others to put you right? When we hear the gospel, and the commands of God through Jesus Christ, can we rely on our inner state of character to respond appropriately? God invested His Son’s body and blood on a cross to put us right and make us worthy. Will He trust it all to our mental responses to process His gospel in a way that saves us? I tell you He will back up His investment if we let Him and try to correct us if we won’t. He does so with spirit power from heaven, by powerful spiritual intervention. Just reach out in the belief that He who invested in your salvation with Christ dying for you personally, trust that He will also give you heavenly power by the Spirit of purity to carry it through. This power can finish the job and make the difference, so you actually do what is right, not merely hear it explained as a code of words. Power, love and sound thinking comes from heaven to accompany the gospel message. This is the main part of the gospel .

Make it count

If we believe the message recorded in the bible gospels of the gospel testimony of Jesus Christ we will want to live our lives in this world in a way that maximises our prospects in the next world, the place of our spirits after we die. Looking out for the poor is vital in this. So too is refraining from excess luxury, and not spending too much on ourselves, leaving something for the poor and needy. Maybe our government enforces this in some way to some extent by making us pay towards some kind of welfare fund which is used for benefits of those in need or difficulty or severe illness. How does it all get tallied up when we die. I have no idea, nor do scriptures in the bible say. Ancient Egyptians recorded their belief that some kind of angelic reckoning happens after we die to determine where we go, weighing the deeds. How did they know it? Perhaps from Enoch and Noah. Perhaps less reliably. Perhaps from shamanic visions. The Book of Enoch adds detail to what Jesus is recorded to have said about it. Then the gospel leads us to also seek to be worthy to be raised by Jesus in the resurrection, when he returns, or to be made immortal if we have not died by then. This is about being willing to suffer death for his testimony, and being faithful in keeping his testimony in the gospels and from the Holy Spirit, believing in him. This life and how we spend it is great in its impact on what happens later, after death or after he comes, which ever is first. God sent Jesus to die for you and raised him back to life when he did so. That is what God is investing in your prospects. Yours. Mine. Everyone’s prospects. Make it count. God is seeking those who will be worthy to reign and to judge alongside his son after the resurrection, and then continue in fellowship with God and His Son forever afterwards. Like angels, yet distinctly human too like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

To be worthy

 It is a major part of the Gospel that we should, through hearing it preached, and holding to it, seek always and permanently to be worthy of the resurrection, worthy to be raised from the dead by Jesus Christ when he returns, or, if we have not died by then, be worthy to made immortal by him. For this we really need to have the Holy Spirit to powerfully help us. 

The unspiritual side to Jesus’ gospel

 Jesus preached a gospel about the non-spiritual as well as the spiritual. Although he encouraged a mindset prioritising attainment of treasures in heaven, he also requires his subjects and servants to make profit out of worldly things on his behalf. He taught he will return and expect to see those he entrusted with worldly investment to turn it into worldly profit by trading up. Take what you can do, see what you can profit from it, then see if next time you can improve on that return, and improve again, and again, until you have plenty more than he gave you. Then there will be something to show for his investment when he returns. If you can do this with worldly wealtg entrusted to you, and you actually do this, faithfully doing better and better at it, so as to show a worldly return, you might then be entrusted with spiritual things and rewarded with worldly rule. Surprising he has this practical worldly gospel, besides the spiritual? Well this is his teaching. If you ignore such teachings because they are about worldly things, it will be charged against you as hypocrisy, where there is worldly benefit to be made but you lift not a finger to help. The worldly benefits can become a harvest for Lord Jesus to reap to share with the poor and needy. Then your worldly profitability can be counted as heavenly treasure too. He too will be turning worldly into heavenly as he does this. He practices what he preaches. So give it a try. What you can make in profit from your best efforts, try doing it next time with ten fold improvement, and again after that, and after that, for his sake. Be a profitable servant. Do not brush off such merit as worldly. It is the merit he looks for first from his servant. He can always switch it up for spiritual merit once you prove worthy. Eventually it can be shared with the poor so they benefit from this worldly wealth generation, and then you will be rich in heavenly treasure. Just don’t make a song and dance about that aspect, since you lose it if you turn it into social credit. Take care not to choose social credit over treasure in heaven.

Persuaded of Christ’s teachings such that they sit well with you?

Are you sufficiently persuaded about the teachings of Christ and the spirit of Jesus Christ's teachings, as well as the spirit sent in his name, that his teachings and the spirit of his teachings sit well with you? This is the position to attain, in order to be at peace with God. Achieving this state requires a significant investment of time, patience, and discussions. However, it proves to be a worthwhile endeavor, and the powerful spirit of God can help the process, especially for those favored by God when the gospel is faithfully preached, perhaps even supported by miracles and manifestations of the power of God. While waiting for opportunities to obey these teachings according to God's will, being certain enough to maintain a position of willingness and acceptance establishes a state of justification and peace with God.

Light before the darkness takes over

 We see Russophobia consuming the world. Soon Antisemitism will accompany it. Prophecy hinted at it happening right now as an Apocalyptic countdown to Armageddon begins. Before this darkness takes over, we need to put the truth out there. Genocide is murder. God does not want random human-dictated genocides nor does God commend murder. Murderers have no eternal life in them. Yes God once commanded genocides of people who had grown to the limit of evil behaviour. But today so many people all do evil such that God sent Jesus to command restraint from judgment if we are guilty of the very things we want to judge. Now God commands that we bear in mind that Jesus will soon bring righteous judgment and much can wait till then. In the meantime beware lest zeal to judge others incurs murderous charges on you too. So let truth have preeminence before darkness blocks it out. 

Do not be confused

 The Trinity doctrine is sometimes merely a factious slant on truth, but it can be used by state religion as a siege works device against the true gospel. It encourages people to say that Jesus is God, confusing those who have only just learned the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. It is potentially confusing. This potential is sufficient when your goal is to control the religious and prevent individual following of truth, forcing people to belong to state religion. Be assured: The Father alone says ”I am God”. Jesus does not say that. No lie. The Father acknowledges Jesus as His Son and loves him. Jesus acknowledges the Father as God and as his Father in Heaven, and uses faith in his Father to ask his Father to do works of power on our behalf, giving us life. Jesus is human like us. Even raised from the dead and alive forever, he is human like us. He is no demigod, half-human, half-God or fully human fully God. Being Son of God he us still human like us. If he were God we would not be able to approach him on a basis that he knows our weakness as one who has been weak. Mixing words to say he is God but emptied of God status to be human, this only confuses. He is human. He is the Son of Man even when he returns in power. We can trust him to truly represent us and teach us as a true human like us. We are not God. He is not God. So he can mediate with God for us. Like Moses did for the Israelites long ago.

The Fathers three levels of fatherhood

 The really good part of the gospel good news is the new level of fatherhood being undertaken by the Father, by God. The first to receive this is Jesus, the Lord. Then there will be a huge rollout by the Father and the Son. Millions will receive it. Ten thousand times ten thousand will receive it. This is not the same as unique fatherhood given only to Jesus, by Holy Spirit overshadowing of his mother, virgin maiden, hence virgin birth, which only Jesus Christ has received. Only begotten Son of God. Not this fatherhood, it is more again. Jesus living sinlessly, filled with God-given principles and faithful to them, that is another level of fatherhood God gave Jesus and gives to those who believe and hold to Jesus’ principles expressed in his teachings. That is another level of fatherhood but God has one more greater still which so far only Jesus has received. God raised Jesus to eternal immortality after Jesus obediently died on the cross. This was in the same vein as Jesus raising Lazarus, but Lazarus went on to die again, long ago. No Jesus never dies again, kept in eternal immortality by the power of God. This is fatherhood by God given at a new level to Jesus. Soon, perhaps only decades from now, at a time only the Father knows exactly, Jesus will raise millions, hundreds of millions. It is imbuing these with Fatherhood level three. Good news for those who follow Jesus today. For those who will be found worthy. Who hold to his teachings and do God’s will to the end. Come Lord Jesus. 

Jesus’ law is underpromoted

 Keeping laws of Moses is strongly promoted by Jewish groups. Yet the keeping of Jesus’ laws is underrated. I hear many on the social media promoting keeping Moses. Feasts. Feasts. Oh and … did I already say feasts. I guess feast sound like fun. Not often, maybe never, do I see posts about kindly giving money to the poor and helping them with court cases, like unions do with their worker members. Not often do people post about laying hands on the sick and these then recovering. Not often about how to believe and not doubt when commanding Nature. Do people actually obey Jesus these days. I do sometimes see posts about forgiving. Not enough though. Never do I see genuine speaking in tongues on YouTube and facebook. Jesus commanded it be proclaimed from rooftops, so to speak. I remember books coming out in the time of Jesus People, but not much since where actual obedience to laws or commands of Jesus is encouraged and explained. 

The Christ who was to come

 “The Christ … who was to come …” Jesus affirmed these words. Yes, he is the Christ. AND he is the Christ who WAS to come, to come into the world. That crucial concept WAS TO COME. Before he actually came, he was to come. There was, in  other words, a time before he came, when he WAS (note this is a kind of existence) to come. That note: there was the time when he had not yet come. But at that time, the Christ WAS to come. It might seem a fine point to make, but do not miss it, because it is a vital part of what Peter and Martha expressed about their belief about the Christ, and their persuasion that Jesus was this Christ. The Christ had a kind of existence of sorts, even before coming, where there was the existence of a reality that the Christ was coming. To a person living years beford the birth of Jesus Christ, they would gave known a time when the Christ existed as a person of prmoise who was going to come. At that point no human Christ Jesus was conceived by the overshaddowing of a virgin maiden by the Holy Spirit, yet this Christ was there as something foretold, something in people minds planted there as a seed of thought by God through prophecy, a promise, the word given by God Himself that a Christ was going to come. This is not a complete lack of existence. Before Abraham was born, even. Even then. Even before laws were given, before Moses, long before John the Baptist, or even the foretelling of John the Baptist coming. Even then. 

Blessed fellowship

 Those who say proudly ”Jesus is God”, let me ask, do you feel fellowship with God, saying this? Does it keep you in fellowship with the Father who says ”I am God”?  Does it keep you in fellowship with the Son who prays to the Father ”that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent”? If you want this fellowship, to walk in this blessed knowledge, you must keep to what Jesus himself teaches and the Father teaches through him. 

The gospel family of God

 The good news is that there is a circle, we never know everyone who is in it, of those who have more than mere words. They have power. They have love. They have soundness of mind. They have a kind of righteousness many will ignore and not recognise, but to God it is real. God and His Son are but two of this circle. There are many, many people in it stretching back through history and forward beyond today. It is a growing family. The family which God owns as His own. Those to whom He gives of His Spirit. Each one in it will ever have fellowship with God and His Son as long as each one keeps the teachings of the Son, the Lord, Jesus Christ. Here there is love and power and soundness of mind. Here there is the righteousness of God. Here is what the Lord Jesus Christ bought with His own holy blood and body on that cross. Here is what he has given him by God who raised him from the dead to be forever the head of this body, in whom it is all built in love into a living temple as each one does their work. until the day he returns to raise all these to be immortal and live with God and himself forever in fellowship. This is the good news, the holy gospel of God.

The one who was to come into the world

 Preexistence. Look at a firework, a sophisticated one. See the complex explosion of multiple colours in the air in a complex and glorious pattern. Yet this firework needed to first exist inside its tube and as a predetermined design in the thinking and expertise of the manufacturer. It preexisted. The manufacturer’s name was at stake in ensuring the assembly of the chemicals in the tube would result in the beautiful display and the exact timing would be right of the fuse and the order of explosions. The firework before being lit had to be what it had to be. When Christ was foretold by the Father it was all already determined how his name as Christ would excel all others given among men. Made known to angels and prophets, that name, reputation, existence of hunan excellence and salvation had power which affected Nature. He was always the one who would come into the world. When Jesus was conceived within the virgin maiden uniquely from the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and then born a human, thus called the Son of God, it was a promised coming of the word of God. This God the Father sent him into the world, to save his people from their sins. The word became flesh and dwelt among men. The glory of the Father was made known in him, the beloved only begotten Son.

Freedom from a dire end

 There is going to be a lake of fire and not everyone will escape it, as it will surely swallow even some who think themselves saved. So who will go into it? Liars. They go in. All kinds. Murderers. They go in. That obviously includes those contributing to genocide. Idolaters. In. But idolatry might mean those paid to be religious, if it is correct that this is the original meaning of the word used. Now it gets awkward. Pharmacists. It is a Greek word Pharmakoi meaning druggies and the makers and the purveyors of drugs, medicines, poisons of various kinds (historically including those used for abortions), combined with an element of swearing and invocation of spirits as with shamans, witchdoctors, etc, but the latter is not always obviously part of it. Unbelievers. Gigolos. Cowards or those living in dread. These go in. Worried? We need to be worried about the possibility of dying in the state of being someone like those in the above list. We need to be worried about facing the consequences. To be saved, we must believe in who Jesus really is, and hold to his teachings, and be set free from all such sinful ways. Dying in those ways means sharing in this second death too. God the Father says so. Jesus the Son, the Christ who was to come, says so. The Holy Spirit says amen. Rather than be worried, we need to see Jesus as the one sent by God to help. It is Jesus who is worried for us. He can set us free from being enslaved by these kinds of behaviour and he can save us from dying in these ways. Only if we believe he is the one, the Son, sent by God as the Christ, sent to save us from all of this. Then only if we hold to his teachings. Then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. 

How to be sure

It is very difficult indeed to know for sure what the people who wrote the scriptures believed about Jesus Christ. Nuances of words unknown to us. Historic background unknown to us. Idioms unknown to us. Awareness of scriptures unknown to us. We might think we know what Peter believed about Jesus but are we sure? There is a way to know. We must know Jesus personally by following his teachings, believe he really is the one to follow. He makes himself known and we can put our faith in him in our lives right now. Even without perfect knowledge of scriptures, we can grasp enough of his teachings in practical things just enough to confidently put them into practice in our lives. We can be kind to the poor. We can work hard to have something to share with them. We can look out for anyone else who might be following Jesus and see them as brother or sister and be honest with them in that light. If we do, he promises to make himself known and he promises that the Father too will make Himself known. Then we can believe in Jesus as the one provided by the Father to be the human we need who is there with the Father who knows the Father truly and can be the mediator we need. 

Revelation gospel

 The gospel message in Revelation is in some ways unique among gospel themes in writings called scripture today. In it, Jesus continues the message he started in lessons recorded in the gospel scriptures which were those he started before his crucifixion and continued after his resurrection but before ascending to the Father. In Acts it is the Holy Spirit revelations which guided apostles Peter, Paul and others. In Revelation it is again directly Jesus himself, now ascended, who gives the gospel extended message given to him by the Father. Here are new themes, in some ways rejected by many churches since then, but taken more seriously following events of modern times such as the reestablishment of Israel, land and people, and the possibility of a new temple in Jerusalem and of world destruction catastrophes along the apocalyptic lines included in Revelation. So if we take the book more seriously and as actually predicting real future events leading up to and following on from the arrival of Jesus Christ on earth, we ought to take seriously the gospel it also preaches. We might baulk at some of it. There is going to be a lake of fire and not everyone will escape it, as it will surely swallow even some who think themselves saved. Liars. They go in. All kinds. Murderers. They go in. That obviously includes those contributing to genocide. Idolaters. In. But idolatry might mean those paid to be religious, if it is correct that this is the original meaning of the word used. Now it gets awkward. Pharmacists. It is a Greek word Pharmakoi meaning druggies, makers and purveyors of drugs, medicines, poisons of various kinds (historically including those used for abortions), combined with an element of swearing and invocation of spirits as with shamans, witchdoctors, etc, but the latter is not always obviously part of it. Unbelievers. Gigolos. Cowards or those living in dread. Have I missed any? We can take it at face value. This is what Jesus says and what the Father also says. They each say it in Revelation final chapters. The same list. It is a matter of dying in the state of being someone like this, then facing these consequences. To be saved, we must believe in who Jesus really is, and hold to his teachings, and be set free from all such sinful ways. Dying in those ways means sharing in this second death too. God the Father says so. Jesus the Son, the Christ who was to come, says so. The Holy Spirit says amen.

Armageddon

 As we entered twenty twenty-four, we saw Ukraine being pulled into extended fighting and leaders of West and Russia being pulled in too, with economic and human losses continuing. We also saw Israel fighting Gaza city inhabitants resulting in growing anger against Israel. Is this going to continue into Armageddon over the coming decades? The prophecies of Armageddon, include a gathering of many nations against the land and inhabitants called today Israel. The Ukraine phenomenon has similarities to the hook in the nose concept of the prophecy, with a tax lord, ‘Ros’ (compare the Kievan Rus of the Middle Ages), pulling nations into seeing the land and people of Israel at peace and invading it. The growing sentiments against Israel and the growing warlike stance of Kievan Rus successors in Kiev, might well develop over two more decades into an Armageddon scenario. It implies the Israel situation will develop into one of peace over the coming decades, before it all turns nasty. But Armageddon is a war won by God, turning into salvation for the land and people of Israel and the destruction of the invading armies. Israel has brought the hatred on itself but God will have mercy and will save. Then, a little later, the Christ will return, the Lord, Jesus.

The Kingdom of God

 “Thy kingdom come.” Look how Jesus said that the kingdom of God comes within a person and how he told Nicodemus you cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born of spirit. If we want the kingdom to come, it is a matter of something happening inside each of us, something started by the will of God, something started by the work of Spirit, the spirit of the words of Jesus, the Holy Spirit bringing from what belongs to Jesus - power, love, sound-mindedness - and making it known to us. It starts with spiritual rebirth. It starts with resurrection of Jesus giving us new improved prospects, brought about by God Himself. Then it develops into the kingdom of God within. It is worth everything we have to find it and to receive it within us, individually and corporately, collectively, uniting us who have it within. But to others it is invisible, so they might not even believe it exists. Jesus Christ died for you. God raised him from the dead for you. God wants you to have His kingdom within you and did all this. How much more will He do, having done all this, including giving you the Holy Spirit when. believing, you ask.

Being ruled by Jesus Christ

 True the full rule of Jesus Christ is still to come. But think what a man can do when in immediate presence of the Father and think what a man can do when Holy Spirit facilitates his reach to servants high and low in every part of the world, and think what a man can do when millions of angelic spirits wait on his commands. No wonder we already see him in the clouds of heaven presiding over all the judgments of God and especially taking top place in affairs of all believers. Yet true of course that the time is near when everyone will start to experience what it is to be brought under his rule, like it or not. And be ruled and judged by the many resurrected.

Explaining who Jesus is

 Imagining a great world leader, let’s say with a name like John Omni, and someone claiming to be truly close to this leader, having a social media channel, and calling their channel Son of Omni, with a view to educating people about John Omni as someone so close that they call themselves Son of Omni. Some might believe this channel is truly someone close to this world leader with direct personal knowledge. Maybe John Omni the leader might actually endorse this channel, shouting it out, and reveal that this actually is his son and the ideal person to speak for him. This is similar to how it has been with Jesus Christ, who always referred to himself as the Son, implying Son of God, Son of the God known to his hearers as Yahweh. He referred to this God as the Father, his Father but also father to his followers.  God even spoke from the sky by means of an angelic voice to say Jesus is indeed His Son. Note, it does not at all mean what some say, that Jesus IS God. He is next to God, so close to God the Father that he can speak very knowledgeably and authoritatively about God and represent us to God. This representing of us to God the Father is completed, supported totally adequately, by having done God’s will to sacrifice his body and blood on a cross to disperse away from us God’s wrath caused by our sins. To prove this is satisfactory to God, God raised him from the dead, making it certain and complete that Jesus is now both Lord and Christ over us all. 

Jesus wept

 Before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus wept. God the Father sent us a real human who cries weakly so that we can rest assured that God the Father can hear us weak humans just like He heard Jesus His Son. When a human is heard by God even the dead might rise. Our weakness is merely the canvas on which God paints His glory.

Baptism

Baptism holds profound significance within a community of believers, as it represents a conscious commitment to follow Jesus. A church, comprised of individuals who willingly undergo baptism, becomes a valuable asset in earnestly seeking to align with God's will and adhere to His commands. The essence lies in the collective dedication of each believer who, of their own accord, commits to this spiritual journey. It is not a mere ritual performed on their behalf, but a personal commitment undertaken by each individual.

However, the efficacy of this shared commitment hinges on the unwavering unity and truthfulness among the believers. Doubt and a lack of transparency can jeopardize the collective pursuit of God's will, as God, who sees the heart, may not recognize them as genuine followers of Jesus. The withholding of the Holy Spirit becomes a possibility when true belief is lacking, emphasizing the need to genuinely believe in the truly human nature of Jesus and that he truly is the Son of God.

Baptism, in itself, proves ineffectual without this foundational belief. The true disciple is born not only from the act of baptism but from a prior, sincere persuasion of the truly human nature of Jesus as the Son of God: To hold steadfast to Jesus' teachings requires an authentic belief in his identity as the Son of God in human nature. Only through this genuine commitment can believers collectively receive the Holy Spirit, thereby enabling them to speak truthfully to each other in the actual truth of being as one unified body in Christ. Let us live this way in truth.

Sent by the Father

 Each miracle worked by Jesus is direct communication of the Father with mankind. Take the healing of the man born blind, sent by Jesus to wash in a pool. Not just any pool. Its name Siloam means ‘sent‘. By sending him to this specific pool, Jesus set up the conditions for the Father to testify that He sent Jesus. If the Father healed this man, it was confirmation to us all that He sent Jesus. 

A name is a kind of existence

Existence includes things like “name”. It is not a Western concept but an ancient one. Similar western concepts are things like brand, logo, flag, reputation, spirit. The “name” (brand, logo, flag, reputation, spirit) of Christ, of the Lord Jesus Christ, existed before Abraham was born. When Jesus said “I” he included his name (his reputation, flag, spirit, brand, logo). “Before Abraham was born, I am”. His name transcends his physical human body, since before ancient times. By its power even the trees put forth buds and leaves. Life is from his name. 

2024

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

Gospel of the Son of Man

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

Keeping it simple

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

Jesus warns us today

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

A refuge in the rain

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

Jesus and the Jews

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

Marooned but free

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

The efficacy of the true gospel

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

Looking for alternatives?

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

Confusion due to gospel abuse

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

Spiritual warfare

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

The baptism of Jesus Christ

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

Gospel truth

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

Useful analogy

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

The kingdom of God is near you

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

It is the Lord

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

The Feast

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

The December Feasts

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

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom

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

They have not ceased

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

John Chrysostom (AD 347-407):

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

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

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

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

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

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

Augustine 430 AD

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

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

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

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

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

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