JOYFUL SONGS [773bh]

Two favourite songs.

RESURRECTION [1916a]

Resurrection has two appearances, the final act of creative power which restores the faulty creation to its ultimate final state at the end of time, and the initial act of creative power as seen through the resurrection of Jesus of that which God intended from the beginning.

In order for the final act of resurrection to occur, it has to first be enacted within the mortal body. Resurrection as an act of faith, as the result of faith, occurred in Jesus’ body, and the result of that was then provided for the same thing to occur in OUR bodies, except that ours was an act of faith in response to His act of faith, and we gained this resurrection of HIS within ourselves, by the action of faith in BELIEVING that His life was a GIFT to us which was to be received by faith, by BELIEVING IT WAS OURS TO RECEIVE.

We receive His life by means of receiving His Spirit. Though some might try to claim that His Spirit is only something imputed to us by way of assimilation of correct biblical knowledge, the record of Pentecost shows that it was indeed His own personal Spirit, given to be received by us, to live in us as our own personal connection with God, who IS Spirit.

Nevertheless, we receive a NEW SPIRIT of life* to replace our OLD spirit of death. It is this HIS SPIRIT which “gives life to our mortal bodies”, it, He, RESURRECTS US WITH HIM in what is called “The first resurrection”. We know it also as being “born again”. If this resurrection does not occur in THIS LIFE, then it will never occur in the life to come, but it WILL then consequently manifest as “The Second Death” instead.

So don’t be deceived – “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom.6:20-23.

[*This new Spirit is only available through the New Covenant, not the Old].[1 Tim.1:5-11][“He became a life giving Spirit”][“If the righteous are scarcely saved, where will the sinner stand?”]

RESURRECTION [1916]

Resurrection has two appearances, the final act of creative power which restores the faulty creation to its ultimate final state at the end of time, and the initial act of creative power as seen through the resurrection of Jesus of that which God intended from the beginning.

In order for the final act of resurrection to occur, it has to first be enacted within the mortal body. Resurrection as an act of faith, as the result of faith, occurred in Jesus’ body, and the result of that was then provided for the same thing to occur in OUR bodies, except that ours was an act of faith in response to His act of faith, and we gained this resurrection of HIS within ourselves, by the action of faith in BELIEVING that His life was a GIFT to us which was to be received by faith, by BELIEVING IT WAS OURS TO RECEIVE.

We receive His life by means of receiving His Spirit. Though some might try to claim that His Spirit is only something imputed to us by way of assimilation of correct biblical knowledge, the record of Pentecost shows that it was indeed His own personal Spirit, given to be received by us, to live in us as our own personal connection with God, who IS Spirit.

Nevertheless, we receive a NEW SPIRIT of life* to replace our OLD spirit of death. It is this HIS SPIRIT which “gives life to our mortal bodies”, it, He, RESURRECTS US WITH HIM in what is called “The first resurrection”. We know it also as being “born again”. If this resurrection does not occur in THIS LIFE, then it will never occur in the life to come, but it WILL then consequently manifest as “The Second Death” instead.

So don’t be deceived – “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom.6:20-23.

[*This new Spirit is only available through the New Covenant, not the Old].[1 Tim.1:5-11][“He became a life giving Spirit”]

THE PROMISES OF JESUS [1915]

He who WAS the promise, also made promises to us. His assurance to us was that whoever believed in Him would not die but would have eternal life which would not be taken from him.

He who believes in me will never die. He will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. He will never see death. He will not be harmed by the second death.

This was because anyone who took His sacrifice to heart, would gain power over sin. It was sin, the corruption of the creative design, which brought death to the human body. The sacrifice of Jesus was meant to be emulated by empathy with Him in recognition of His empathy with us.

“Those who are His HAVE CRUCIFIED the flesh with its passions and desires.”

One of the great tragedies of theological deception is the teaching that Paul was displaying Christian nature in Romans chapter 7, when it was in truth, the DEATH chapter of that great book, to be followed of course by the LIFE chapter, chapter 8.

The DEATH chapter 7 reveals the nature and operation of indwelling sin and how it brings about sin in man’s mortal body, which is why it is mortal.

The LIFE chapter 8 reveals and then displays the LIFE that is given through the Spirit of Christ in order for SIN to be overwhelmed and destroyed in the body of faith, that understanding and stance taken when one believes in that great victory over sin which Jesus achieved for us, and then gave TO us.

If you are a believer, then: You will never die. You will never see death. You will not be harmed by the second death. You will live forever. PROMISED by God.

[The destruction of sin enabled and enables the creation of love][Go and sin no more].

THE SIMPLICITY OF LOVE [1914]

This post may be a bit ambitious, but I just want to convey to you what a complicated mess this Christian religion has been made out to be, when it should be very simple. By the time everyone has had a go at crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s, the Christian faith has become a myriad complex labrinth and maze of intricate doctrines and doctrinal ideas and stances which form into different denominational groups, sects and cults.

There are “Calvinists” and “Catholics” and many other such people who have formed groups around one person’s interpretation of scripture in opposition to many another single person’s interpretation of scripture, so that the thing which may be of the simplest importance gets lost in this complicated rigmarole of nonsensical division over what amounts to hair splitting and choking on gnats while swallowing camels as Jesus said.

Events of the past and future are disputed in terms of reality and timing, literalness or spirituality, analogy or symbolism, or lost in some form of mysticism or other. Some like the Mormons climb right outside of conventional revelation to claim their own separate revelation of golden plates and angels. So we end up with raptures and multiple resurrections with many various ideas about what the kingdom is or means, what you have to do or be to get into it, or to qualify for it.

So there are complications about how you get to where you are supposed to be, and who you are supposed to be, which should not become such immense interfering factors in the gospel message as they indeed are.

So it may be beneficial to consider some reverse engineering, to work backward from this kingdom of God to see what it consists of and how we get to be there.

Firstly, the kingdom of God is said to NOT be a matter of eating and drinking. You can extrapolate that statement to include the rudiments of many ordinances and commands. The kingdom of God is said to be a matter of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So the next step backwards brings us to LOVE. Love is an essential ingredient and necessary requirement in order to be a member of the kingdom of God. No one will be in the kingdom who has not loved, and who does not love ongoingly. They must become of the same nature of God, which is to love and to be loving. The requirement is for us to be partakers of the divine nature. If you examine the divine nature you will find it devoid of all those things listed for example as being the works of the flesh. You will also find a list of the things that are present in the natural hardened heart.

All of the things opposed to the nature of God are to be found in the creature who is NOT in God’s kingdom or a candidate for the same.

There will NOT be an examination about your theological knowledge or your abilities to discern good from evil, because you will contain within you the one who has already performed this discernment and who has discarded that which is evil, so as to make available to us only that which is love, so that He (and we) choose love every time over anything else that is NOT LOVE and is not OF love.

You will love God if you love His Son and not otherwise. If you love God and His Son and everyone else as well, then you are a subject of the Kingdom of God. And, like the Spirit, love is light and never darkness, and is the only thing empowered to overcome darkness, because it already HAS. Jesus overcame the darkness in Himself to make available to us His light, the light of life.

The problem with all the nonessential beliefs is that they cause confusion and fill up those parts of you which need to be given over to His Spirit of love, being that the interpretation and presentation of these ‘errant’ beliefs is both variable, inconsistent, and often faulty, wrong, and in error of the truth.

Needless to say, the fact that scripture is given to HELP us becomes a betrayal by those who purport to know the truth yet have made an artform out of the lie.

God IS love and wants us to be so as well. Once you have love and are able to present yourself in this way (as Jesus did) to others, you can have confidence that you are on the kingdom pathway, that you are a child of God. It is indeed as Paul said, a matter of the simplicity of the gospel.

WHERE IS KING DAVID? (revised) [935o]

Along with Stephen and Lazarus who have been shown to be “asleep” meaning they are DEAD, we have the description of King David in Acts where not only is he shown to be “asleep” and “dead” but also that his body DECAYED. HE decayed. Acts 13-36.

At what point will people cease to continue to try and assign a continuation of identity beyond the grave, which is unsupported by scripture?

David had served the purpose of God.

David fell asleep.

David was laid among his fathers.

David underwent decay.

WHERE IS DAVID?  In the ground, decayed, dust. (“Asleep”).

[Otherwise, what would be the point of “resurrection”?][Christ the first fruits, then when he comes… those that belong to him.][But I go to wake him up]

Acts 13:36 “For David, after he had served the purposes of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid amongst his fathers, and underwent decay;…”.  DAVID UNDERWENT DECAY. Not “his body”, “HIM.”

Acts 2:29 “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.”

Acts 2:34 “For it was NOT DAVID who ascended into heaven…” [but Jesus]

Acts.2:30 “And so, because he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants* upon his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ*, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, [place of the dead] nor did his flesh suffer decay”.

FURTHER.    1 Corinth. 15:6  After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;…”

12. “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 17. and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

20. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ, ALL shall be made alive.

23. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.“

51. ” …..we shall not all sleep, [death] but we shall all be changed, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and WE shall be changed.”.

56.57. “The sting of death is SIN, and the POWER of sin is THE LAW; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

AND.  1 Thess. 4: 13  “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the DEAD in Christ will rise first.. 17. Then we who are [ still ] ALIVE and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.”.  AT THE RESURRECTION.

[See Luke 20:38. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for as far as He is concerned, all ARE alive]

[See Daniel 12:2]

The Christian hope is the resurrection of the body Rom.8:23.

AND I SHOW YOU A STILL MORE EXCELLENT WAY [1913]

1 Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter right? Chapter 12 starts out “Now concerning spiritual gifts…”. Then chapter 13 starts out, “If I speak with the tongues of men… BUT DO NOT HAVE LOVE…”. Then chapter 14 starts out “Pursue LOVE…”

There was great immaturity in the Corinthian camp, they were “stuck” on the gifts and not moving beyond them into the real reason for the coming of the Spirit, which was TO ENABLE LOVE.

So, after describing the gifts in chapter 12, he starts chapter 13 by ending chapter 12 with these words, “AND I SHOW YOU A STILL MORE EXCELLENT WAY”.

What was the more excellent way? THE WAY OF LOVE.

It was LOVE that was the subject of “When that which is perfect has come”, it was LOVE that was the excellent, PERFECT WAY. And it is PERFECT LOVE which is the final coming perfection.

[When that which is perfect is come, then that which is imperfect is done away with][love never fails][we know in part, but when the perfect comes the partial will be done away][faith hope and love continue, but the greatest is love][Pursue love][He who does not know love does not know God, for God IS love][We know in part = we do not know love completely][Maturity, fullness, completeness, excellence, perfection][filled up to the measure of the stature of Christ]

FAITH CREATES THE REALITY [1517b]

VERY EXPLORATORY THEOLOGY

In another post (1514 and 1514a) there is a link to videos of someone outlining the sequence of events of the second coming of Christ. He talks about “Phase 1” and “Phase 2” of the second coming, and the “rapture” and the bride and the bridegroom parables.

People see these things in a literal sense when they were never meant to be seen that way. He talks about “Phase 1” where Jesus comes back for the believers to take them into heaven, called the ‘rapture’, followed by a great tribulation of several years? ‘time and time and half a time’ being the so many days of Daniel etc.? And then “Phase 2” when He again returns in flaming glory to mop up the earth and establish the kingdom of 1000 years duration. [After 1000 years then this “kingdom” is “handed over” to God the Father, but I haven’t heard him say that yet, but that is the supposition brought about by scripture].

Given that I already see the “First Resurrection” as being a spiritual one where those “born again” are resurrected with Jesus already, in fact it is essential that they be so; It has occurred to me that his “Phase 1” actually equates to the faith held position of the reality of it all, and that his “Phase 2” equates to the actual reality as it (the faith position) is manifested at the end.

So rather than being a whole set and sequence of events in themselves, they are simply the manifestation of that reality already created by faith in accordance with the created design pattern set forth by God, as in the person of Jesus Himself, to whom we join by faith to bring about the reality of it inside and around ourselves, in order to prepare us for this manifestation, indeed in order for the reality of this to be created in us beforehand.

So that truly by His word are all things created, with a purpose to bring about by faith now, in every believer, the substance of that which is required to ‘qualify’ a person to be ‘fit’ to ‘enter’ (having already ‘entered’) the ‘kingdom’.

With that in mind, Jesus’ words about not leaving us as orphans, but returning to us (as the Spirit), and His words of prayer “that they may be where I am to behold my glory”, become essential to the premise of it being a reality for them, (and for us), at the time, not as some end time event. So that EVERY BELIEVER through the ages might by faith, experience the glory of the (HIS) Spirit, and the ever present ‘comforter’ in their lifetimes, which lives become by faith the living reality of what it means to be a believer, a Christian, and one who is futuristically glorified with Him even as we are glorified with him already, now.

So when it is said that believers are lifted up with him ‘into the heavenlies’, to be seated with Him (as He is seated with the Father), this is the faith reality to be experienced now, to be confirmed as the “actual” reality when He returns in power and glory THEN.

So his Phases 1 and 2 are really the faith position and the manifested position, the former NOW in every believer through the ages, where the collective church with His authority “reigns on the earth as kings and priests” and the latter the “actual” return of Christ to the earth.

He mentions the distance between heaven and earth and muses about the time it took for Jesus to ascend to ‘heaven’ and then ‘return’ to the earth in His glorified body, and seems to be connecting this with the “Rapture” as if to justify some extension of his thinking about the phase 1 phase 2 situation as them being literal events around the end times, around the “second coming” and the taking away of the saints for a period of time while the earth undergoes trauma; and then the return of those same saints along with the dead, to possess the earth and set up the “kingdom”. So far, none of this includes the ‘time’ when the Father is actually HANDED the ‘kingdom’, because there is yet to be the existence of the ‘millennial’ 1000 years supposed literal reign on the earth.

The church is supposed to be reigning NOW in the reality of their faith position in Christ. When Jesus returns AGAIN, (“second coming”) it will be to take to himself that kingdom which has been composed of and filled by the saints who are ready for the bridegroom and the consummation of ALL things and ALL times. It should be truly the “end”, “BEGINNING” without further ado.

One of the dangers of the literal held ideas of these end time events, is that it leaves it wide open for any “anti-Christ” to step into a still physical earth situation, and take over by force, in replication or duplication (in duplicity) of these supposed literal happenings. It seems to me that when Jesus returns, the second coming, that there will be no chance to do anything at all, and that the old earth will be dissolved by fire so nothing further can take place on it. This is the difference of scenarios between the real Christ and the anti-Christ. The “great tribulation” may fit in with the anti-Christ scenario, I don’t know at this time..

The link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WTRSund6Zs

Rapture misunderstood? https://leorningcniht.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/fequently-misused-verses-one-will-be-taken-and-one-will-be-left/

 

THERE IS NO 1000 YEAR REIGN OF CHRIST [1912a]

Along with many other commonly accepted ‘old wives tales’ in Christianity today, there is NO “Millennial” or 1000 year reign of Christ. NOR are there two resurrections, those stated as being at either end of this “millennium” period.

So ALL of the stories about “rapture” and the timing of end time events, are ‘all out of whack’ because of the misunderstanding of scripture.

The only thing left in doubt is who will come first, the Christ or the Anti-Christ? If the function, purpose and meaning of “The anti-Christ” cannot be clearly defined, then such a ‘person’ or political event MAY NOT EVEN TAKE PLACE.

This would mean that those expecting the antichrist will in fact, be opposed to the coming of Christ. Not that this would matter because, contrary to millennialist thinking, there will NOT be a kingdom set up on the earth with Jesus ruling from Jerusalem, and His favoured followers exercising judgement upon all and sundry who do not agree with them; so the question is moot.

If on the other hand people are expecting Christ to return next, then they would not be disappointed, UNLESS they also are of the former description and are expecting a literal establishment of a literal “government” to be set up on this literal earth, again with Christ ruling from a literal country for example.

[By way of explanation it is true that there are two resurrections, but the former is the spiritual “resurrected with Christ” (born again) and the second is the (physical) actual literal end time event].

THERE IS NO 1000 YEAR REIGN OF CHRIST [1912]

Along with many other commonly accepted ‘old wives tales’ in Christianity today, there is NO “Millennial” or 1000 year reign of Christ. NOR are there two resurrections, those stated as being at either end of this “millennium” period.

So ALL of the stories about “rapture” and the timing of end time events, are ‘all out of whack’ because of the misunderstanding of scripture.

The only thing left in doubt is who will come first, the Christ or the Anti-Christ? If the function, purpose and meaning of “The anti-Christ” cannot be clearly defined, then such a ‘person’ or political event MAY NOT EVEN TAKE PLACE.

This would mean that those expecting the antichrist will in fact, be opposed to the coming of Christ. Not that this would matter because, contrary to millennialist thinking, there will NOT be a kingdom set up on the earth with Jesus ruling from Jerusalem, and His favoured followers exercising judgement upon all and sundry who do not agree with them; so the question is moot.

If on the other hand people are expecting Christ to return next, then they would not be disappointed, UNLESS they also are of the former description and are expecting a literal establishment of a literal “government” to be set up on this literal earth, again with Christ ruling from a literal country for example.

[By way of explanation it is true that there are two resurrections, but the former is the spiritual “resurrected with Christ” (born again) and the second is the (physical) actual literal end time event]..