Deception

Oh no! Satan’s dead!

eejoseph, ,

“A city set on a hill cannot be hid” is one of the iconic sayings of Yeshua of Nazareth.  It addresses the unmistakable visibility of anything he causes to stand up. If Christ said you are light, you will stand out as light.  You do not have to imagine how many people contradict that statement with their speculations and their surmising.  “Oh my God Satan’s dead” is an exclamation that we are going to hear in the bye and bye, but a more confusing exclamation addresses the destruction of the Devil’s work: more confusing because people want to act as if it’s not true.

Works destroyed

It is finished (spoken by Yeshua from the cross) is another saying opposed by people who think they’re pretty smart. All the people who want to send demons to hell, and they want to literally kill demons are obviously in the grip of a demonic delusion. Christ has allowed the appropriate amount of demons to run loose in the world, while the others are under house arrest in Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4).  The text indicates that defeated angels are reserved for judgment (κρίσις, krisis), i.e. their condition – tartarused – is not final.

The extent to which we can take “destroyed the works of the devil” is not a mystery.  Are we willing to apply what the text says?

7) Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8) the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:7-8)

How was sin – the perennial work of the devil – destroyed if not by the cross, and why does Christian occupation with sin, as if it has not been decisively routed, continue as a tool for discrimination and doctrinal terrorism by those who see themselves as victorious over sin?

Beyond deception

The puritans and reformers of the 21st century can be found giving themselves outlandish names.  Whatever happened to simplicity? Since when was “Church of Christ in Mecca” not perfectly acceptable? Or when did churches stop being named after Christ/God and the locality? Their experience is beyond being deceived: they commit to deceive others to assert their inventions.

The benchmarks of evil’s augmentation are extant in the hub of deception; deceiving and being deceived, planôntes kai planômenoi.

But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

2 Timothy 3:13

They say we, believers, are not alive, but merely on life support. Since Christ has disarmed the

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

Colossians 2:13

They have a lineup of arguments to show that there still decrees that block the path of the justified.

having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:14)

We are sure we died with Christ but they would have us live as always subject to some other authority.

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, (Colossians 2:20) “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (Colossians 2:21)

On top of that, another witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, John, tells us that Christ destroyed the works of the devil, and so it is mindboggingly pathetic that people choose freedom and soon forget it.  While “Satan is dead” is something you might hear from the preachers of prosperity and positive thinking, the truth is that until our faith brings us to die once for all with Christ and until we rely exclusively on the apostolic witness we will never awake to life in Christ. The real surprise is in the “Oh no!” to the death of the person you used to be.  There is no going back to the works of the darkness and tradition.  You’re dead!  I’m dead!

We do not know

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Are you kidding? Sixty-six books and we do not know what God said, do not know what he wants. Books are written even when the weightier matters are undoubtedly fully explored. The biblical narratives fully illustrate justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt 23:23), but since the reformation books spew out of the blackholes of pretentious accountability like rain after thunderclaps. “The Bible is not sufficient” is what we say when our churches fail to witness to the power of the cross. “We do not know” is a lame excuse, and all the commentary, visionary or ecstatic, put into books is the even lamer platitudinous smoking gun of all time.

Things revealed

Do not think we are kidding. All those adults with their treasured achievements and rational explanations do not amount to much. The visions and insights acquired in dreams and trances turn out to be  God’s proper gifts to children.

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; Matt 11:25

So we construct more fables and juvenile nonsense than the mind can process with a straight face. We do not have to imagine the effect of Christ saying about working on the Sabbath “I and my father have been working since we paused the creative works”. We are not only American Robins that arrive in the breeding grounds two days before a deadly chill and snowstorm, we are also the parents who register children before they are born. The American frivolity of turning everything into hateful and colonial political is another deadly symptom of ignorance.

Really don’t know?

Take Gaza, prominent in the news, and famous for the capture and imprisonment by the Philistines of the Israelite hero Samson 30 centuries ago in Gaza. The wool in Israelite and Christian eyes could not be more effective. The modern state of Israel, capitulating to racist and xenophobic ideals, has set a goal of ridding the planet of Hamas, a terrorist group that was the legitimate choice of Gaza’s Palestinian population. I say thank God for the Bible, because it reveals that the first known suicidal terrorist was an Israelite named Samson. The wanton destruction of property and displacing people from their homes is excatly what the Jewish state has been doing for 70 years. Wait! It is what the Bible said Yahweh authorized the Israelite to do to fulfil his promise to Abraham. On top of all that, Israeli politicians want to have the right to override the law (Mosaic and common), in short, make the law irrelevant. Go figure. All the information and exhortations that are not in the bible are irrelevant, and may be shown to be the result of demonic inflence.

Make your own book of the law

We are not so naive as to think that God’s instructions to the Israelites through Moses and the prophets were intended to be implemented by all nations. A notable insult to God’s intelligence is the attempt to co-opt Old Testament and New Testament principles under the banner of “Judeo-Christian”. The crimes of the nations claiming a Judeo-Christian heritage are too obvious to warrant further comment. It is the religious people, carving out Israelite space for their operations, destiny and identity. There is not a second kick at the can for Israel, no people can repeat Israelite history, and no rational imitation of ancient Israel or ancient Judah impresses anyone. God is not asking anyone to imitate Israel or Judah.  The rebellion, idolatry and organized crime are sufficient warning.  Calling our own inventions statutes, judgments, testimonies or principles our ignorance of what God says only increases.  The Passion of Christ – his death and resurrection – declared the full counsel of God.  Daring to leave it out of reflection or discussion leaves no conclusion except that we have been bewitched.

Accordion-playing liar

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Squeezing out another deluge of lies

As soon as those soiled hands take the accordion playing position you know lies are streaming out of the hollow recesses of the republican mind.  A similar phenomenon is on display when a preacher keeps trying to impress his audience with “I believe…”.  People have been known to believe absolute balderdash and only the gullible and cult-prone are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to hear what their spiritual leaders (or peers!) believe. Teachers ought to teach what they know, and preachers or to preach the revelation that convinces them. Belief is not knowledge.

Accordion player

The accordion-playing hands may be an imitation of a great prophet parting a large body of water, or it may be an attempt to show clean hands, as a person does when praying.  In either case this accordion player has neither clean hands nor water parting powers.  If you have the time you should close your eyes and start fact checking the Duke of Doodoo as soon as you see the hands begin to play the invisible accordion.

The new dangerous alliance

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When the funding of the Freedom Convoy came to light the deer frozen in the beans were churches and parachurch organizations, many of whom were proponents of religious liberty. There never was an official barrier to the expression of religious faith in Canada except the campaign to snuff out First Nations culture. A nastier alliance is hard to find. Christians who have nothing to hide have no fear of government. Those who want to turn Canada into an imitation of any of the religious states of ancient or modern history are intoxicated with the wine of male chauvinism and intolerance. They do not see how every state claiming to have a religious foundation has descended into fascism, thinly disguised civil dysfunction and civil war. They do not see Rome, London and Washington as little bits of tinder-dry kindling. They learn nothing from Pakistan and the Islamic Republics. They are creating a narrative bolstered by legal jargon about the denial of fundamental rights. The Freedom Convoy, they say, was a peaceful protest, as if Canadians are all drunk with visions of a state dominated by right wing Catholics and colonialist Protestants and everything between.

The Freedom Convoy had everything to do with terrorism. Conservatives who want to copy the wild American West are the only ones begging for violence to be a mainstream means of conversing with the government. It is a complete red herring. It is poorly disguised Islamophobia. It is a lack of sensitivity to the plight of Canada’s First Nations to be pushing legal buttons in pursuit of a doomed to fail front seat in government.

Real Christians are nauseated by religious government. Since churches cannot come up with a regime to enforce their internal administration of justice, they will never find one for the country. The fundamental rights of Canadians are secure. The Church needs no alliance, not with Caesar or any of the many wannabe emperors and kings. The priorities of any state and The Christ will eventually be seen in stark contrast no matter how similar they appear. The book is rightly thrown at the Freedom Convoy and its funders.

More from the dark web

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The 45th president was and still is a despicable brat, unprincipled even in business, which was his livelihood, and a proven liar. Those who admire him are a generation of vipers, xenophobes and fly-by-night warriors for justice and truth.

Do today’s intellectual minds want us to see every pastor as a theologian  and exegete, even though most of what they do is tell us what the Bible says and not what it means? 
Far too many do not read well enough to ensure our congregants have even a surface understanding of the Bible’s content.

Do you want to hear us  say that every prime minister is a very decent human being and every head of state is a kind and gentle spirit.

You know full well that believers do not hate any one, no matter how many times a psalmist might sing that he does.

Give us a break please.

Human Sleight

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Paul warned the Ephesians about the activities of deceivers  (4:14) the result of which, is that believers acting as juveniles are “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming”; it is a magician’s m.o. to have people believe everything they see.

Yahweh, God the Almighty and the Lamb are heaven’s temple

Old is not new!

The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 8). Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 9). Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. (10)

Hebrews 9:8-10 

Believe the Bible or believe in God

Cutting the fat from the spiritual diet simply means recognizing that there are things done and recommended in the Bible that we have no business embracing.

The separation of temporary measures from permanent arrangements often eludes us.  Accurately interpreting the messages in the Bible is not merely a function of separating the Old Testament from the New.  A kind of cowardly laziness has kept Christian witness from its blazing and pervasive perfection.  We dilute the wine by mixing it with every ancient liquid we can find. It is as if Moses did not say that the buck did not stop with himself.  Reducing the royal priesthood to a Davidide person executing levitical operations is perhaps the most deceptive of international approaches.

What is in heaven?

A structure with all the installations for dealing with sin located in heaven or on earth says the same thing: people are going to sin.  A temple in heaven is an outright fable.  The permanence of salvation never depended on created space, such as a laver, a lampstand, a covenant box. It most certainly has no need for the intervention of human agents. 

Access to God through Christ does not need the help of a building. Even if the Jewish people built another temple its functions would have nothing to with redeeming humans.  It would be desolate from the start because animal blood is inadequate.  Christ, in his atoning work, is all alone.

The devil gets a hold of our doctrine and turns it into a geography lesson, a nutrition regime, a priesthood system,  anything beside the actual work of God’s Only-Begotten; authorizing sonship for anyone who believes.

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 11) Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us,(12)

Hebrews 9:11-12

The trickery of men will always end up grounded, exposed as empty clanging, because Christ is not the Alpha and Omega of their reasoning.

One would have to be pretty messed up to think that the true place of atonement is a location where hands and feet are washed, where blood is sprinkled, where bread is laid out etc. The heaven of Hebrews 9:24 is more than God’s residence. It is the eternal fact of essential saving grace in the face of Christ.

One can read the fact in plain language in Revelation 21:22,
“I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple:.

Not another video

eejoseph

Moral sense has little to do with to watching any video. That source of information does not work for me. It is rare to find a video, whether of teaching, preaching, or power demonstration, that brings the stills and clips of the Bible leaping into our reality. I hope you vet your video shares and not expect your contacts to wade through a pot pourri of half truths and unholy concoctions.

Beware of the video glut and learn to read your Bible without idiot middlemen.

if you have not noticed yet this is a good time to take particular interest in seeing how many of our brothers and sisters are being taught by videos (or zoom meetings where credible contributions are seen as hostile) whose sources remain either hidden or are openly questionable.

Beware of nonsense content! I recently received a version of THE OLD RUGGED CROSS in which the lyrics were “for a world of lost sinners was saved”.

Are you telling yourself Deuteronomy 28:x?

eejoseph

I recently received a “tell yourself” video featuring things – a selection of Bible verses- people should tell themselves. I do not want to tell myself anything that I shouldn’t, just because it is in the Bible, and Deuteronomy 28 is not a blanket of blessings anyone who was not there can wrap himself in. In that video I could not get past “Tell yourself Deuteronomy 28 … I am the head and not the tail”. It is this kind of mixing truth and lies that has brought the world of information sharing to a destructive new low both in the political and religious world

Today, yesterday and careful compliance

How can I tell myself what the Bible says about me without a full hug, unless the self-talk is just a thing to create a good feeling or adjust our comfort level with reality? The only way to be head and tail is to get in touch with what Moses was saying as Israel neared Canaan.