Month: July 2024

Listen intently for the “Yeshua”

eejoseph

If you go to Church you will know that preachers are famous for either putting you to sleep or annoying you relentlessly.  Teaching is rare, and when it surfaces from the morass of evangelical or Catholic doctrine we find a corrupt mix of misogyny, racism, fascist ideology, antisemitism, colonial, and sheer ignorance about the settled nature of the gospel. The annoyance  comes from the unforgivable pursuit of miracles.  Words Ike testimony,, gospel, righteousness and salvation are now part of a brand perversion scheme.  It is not a coincidence that the modern apostasy closely mirrors the priorities of the Jewish leaders in New Testament times.  Once a preacher starts talking about everything but the crucified Christ  you know the gospel is not going to be the bedrock and anchor of the homily.  Still I stay tuned, or deliberately tune out, hoping for the mention of the Anointed to jerk me back to active listening.

The crucified Christ covers the essentials and more

Of all the things people can choose to make the high points of their devotion to Christ levitical priesthood should not be one of them.  Christ is a priest and his ministry does not depend on any understanding of the levitical processes.  Before Christ died the temple in Jerusalem was desolate, empty of significance.  When Christ died he returned to Glory, far above the heavens, passed through the heavens, to be far above the heavens, and thence sent the Holy Spirit to seal the believers as his own peculiar possession.  Christian heritage is therefore higher than the heavens.  Everything that is said to come from heaven in the covenant relationship with Israel is off the chart once the glory of Israel arrives.

The essentials

  • Christ died because of love
  • People are saved from unbelief
  • People are lost because of unbelief
  • Faith to believe the gospel is itself a gift
  • The gift of the Holy Spirit is irrevocable
  • Believers pass from death (death row) to life
  • There is no review of God’s choice
  • There is no Levitical process to the salvation operation

So when we say “cross” we are not only talking about the execution of an innocent man, but we tag (a) a finished atoning sacrifice (b) the exaltation to the highest place, (c)  a fully effective intercession, and (d) the seat of honour without duties.

Ten Commandment Morality

If there ever was cheap morality it has to be the one that awards righteousness on the basis of things not done.  Following the logic of the Sinai Covenant it is clear that one can lock a person up in a dark room, put a blindfold on him, handcuff him, and assign no task to him, and the law-abiding verdict is assured. 

Western democracies flirting with the Ten Commandments as basic civic law have no idea of the corruption that they might unleash if they can convince the population that morality springs from the Mosaic instruction.  If there was a law that could save Israel Moses would have enshrined it in the golden box.  But, wait.  It was not what the box contained that made Israel free from sin or righteous.  It was the shedding of blood, supposedly.  However, everyone knows that the blood of rams, bulls and goats does not remove sin.  

The Ten Commandments have no seat in life without the statutes and judgments, and these, for the most part, are treated as ceremony and ritual, as if the Ten Commandments do not include a festival. Levitical models that we use to explain atonement effectively sever the ties to God’s amazing grace.   If Levitical processes allow for people to invent a righteous without an ever-living intercessor, then  frankly atonement is not Messianic and eternal life is a loan with human payback expected.  People are not lost because they violate the Ten Commandments, and if they are are so if everyine who claims to comply with the Ten Commandments.

Though a promise, not the law

People everywhere need salvation because they have not come to trust God to save them. They want to save themselves by (a) enduring to the end (b) by being obedient, supposedly following all the rules God ever spoke and (c) by treasuring up an impenitent heart towards others forgetting that the grace of God led us all to repentance. If you read Scripture looking for the Messianic revelation you will be all the wiser.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Gal 3:21-22

Destroying the evidence

eejoseph

Whether is it a religious authority or a civic authority the practice of destroying the evidence is well-known. The Judean puppet king, Herod, turned his ire against the followers of Christ, and had James executed.

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. Acts 12:1

He killed James the brother of John with the sword, Acts 12:2

and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. Acts 12:3

Roman power allied to local authority

Peter was in custody, guarded by sixteen Roman soldiers. When he could not be found the day after his imprisonment, the obvious triumph of divine power, and specificaly, Messianic prerogative, was too obvious to be allowed to spread. Sixteen men knew that they it was not due to their lack of military diligence that Peter was awol. The rapid spread of the narrative of the Church as told to them by Peter and the complete ignorance of the soldiers constituted a massive commendation of Peter’s God.

And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.

Acts 12:4

Peter’s testimony and Herod’s folly

Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

Acts 12:18

Peter was free and thought what he had experienced was vision, and even when the believers saw him standing before them he gestured to them to not be loud about it. Had he not done so the believers may have started loud shouts of praise. Having told the church what had happened Peter asked them to tell James and the other apostles what had happened, then he departed to another undiaclosed place.

Herod, ever aware of his public image, ordered a search for Peter, then he examined the soldiers. Remember, two soldiers had Peter between them, and the other 14 would have been stationed along the way from the cell to the prison’s outer gate(s). The answers they gave to Herod were such that he ordered them killed.

And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

Acts 12:19

Violence and murder are the signs of love lost. Let us not put it past the alliances of our times to try to silence the voice of gladness. The campaign to empower the state with so-called religious powers will fail to recognize the common decency of neighbourly love, and in doing so will trample on the divine standard and commit murder. This will not be a new thing. Paul is an exmple of homicidal intents towards the followers of Christ.

Criminal and sinful heroes dominate

Worms of their own creation are eating out the vital organs of life in the western democracies. All that is left of the autocracies and religious republics are whited tombs. The hollowed out jurisprudence and the corruption of law and order in the service of the rich and infleuntial are the proper allies of the skeletons of the innocent people who have fallen by the sword. Crowds cheering on obvious immorality and idolizing violent overthrow of government can never be synonymous with Christian doctrine or practice. The politcal spin and religious silence are proceeding exactly as predicted. Christian nation, like templar Judaism and levitical Christianity, are desolations. The elect know the facts; they are not sucked in by the drama which the media wants to pass off as truth.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matt 23:27-28