Tuesday, March 16, 2010
EAT THE SUN..BECOME THE SUN
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Paul the Apostle says...
"I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was “caught up” to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.”
So there you have it. As Paul himself said there really is no place to go. Heaven is not in this world..it is located inside each of us and it is in another dimension or sphere..but inside. Remember “The Kingdom of God is “within” so forget the escape plans dear flesh, just dig deeper inside to find that spring of pure clean water inside your belly says Jesus..”living water’ and hydro electric power untapped. I’ll go into more depth about all this later as we explore our source of light on earth, the sun, and how it corresponds to the pure Light of Gods presence and His world apart from this fallen one. Like a camera lens the sun is a reduced form or focus of Gods light, mind, power, radiance, take your pick, of His spiritual essence, and it is a peek or keyhole into Paradise. It is the door, the gate into, the portal, the main street, the power supply and food for the trip, the manna that came to them in the morning daily to the children of Israel as they inched by stiff necked inch their way across the desert towards that “promised land” we all long to inhabit.
Remember the crux of the rapture notion seems to be “that we shall all be taken up in a twinkling of an eye”, so once I can explain what that means in depth you hopefully will change your perspective and jettison that fictional flesh loving, collective fantasy, for the honest truth. “We shall all be taken up in a twinkling of an eye” is a scripture that I shall use often because it is so vital to becoming like Him and acquiring “the mind of Christ” that we will so desperately need to survive the soon coming battles for our spiritual loyalty. Remember Christian, “even the very elect will be deceived” unless He shorten the Day.
Peter Sorcher is the producer of EAT THE SUN
He will announce the release of the film on his Facebook
page..search..EAT THE SUN
1046 Erica Road
Mill Valley, CA 94941
p: 415.381.8992
f: 415.634-1304
c: 415.999.3234
info@sorcherfilms.com
http://eatthesunmovie.blogspot.com/
EAT THE SUN
Synopsis
Is it possible to stare directly into the sun and not eat food? Meet Mason.
Eat The Sun is a feature length documentary that focuses on a young man’s
journey into the little known world of sungazing -- an ancient practice of looking
directly at the sun for long periods of time.
San Francisco, CA; 2003. A flyer at school advertising a lecture by an elderly
Indian gentleman sparks the imagination of Mason, a young man in his late
twenties. The flyer reads: “You can become solar powered.” It also states that
the Indian man giving the lecture, who goes by the acronym HRM, has not
eaten in over 8 years; a direct result of sungazing.
Intrigued, Mason begins this simple practice along with a few otherclassmates. Every day, in accordance with HRM’s protocol, they stand bare- ooted on the bare earth looking directly into the sun and every day they add 10 seconds to their sungazing time. The goal, according to HRM, is to reach 44
consecutive minutes of looking directly at the sun -- which could take 9 to 12 months to achieve -- at which time one would be “fully charged”, meaning not only cured of all mental and physical ailments but also now without the desire
or need to eat food.
In many ancient civilizations -- from the Incas and Aztecs to the Greeks and Egyptians -- this practice was exclusive to only the high priests and forbidden to“ordinary” people. Today, with the help of the Internet, this revived practice is gathering global momentum.
Modern day sungazers claim a multitude of health benefits including better eyesight, enhanced vitality, weight loss and, in some more profound cases, a complete loss of the desire and need to eat food. The main theory of how this is possible focuses on the stimulation of the pineal gland from direct sunlight entering the brain via the eye and retinal-hypothalamic tract. (The pineal, once believed to have no function, is now considered a master gland, controlling the secretion of melatonin and serotonin). Brain scans of HRM, age 70, reveal a pineal gland 3 times the size of a normal man, despite his advanced age when the pineal tends to shrink. (HRM was part of a 411-day medical study during which time he did not eat).
Mason soon discovers that this journey is going to be a lonely one, as society seems to revolve around food; family gatherings, social functions and dating all center on eating. But as his sungazing time increases so do the positive effects. As a former Olympic hopeful in ski jumping and cross-country skiing, Mason has felt both physical and mental strengthening and he finds that sungazing is far more potent than anything he has experienced before. On the downside, he is alienating himself from society; his girlfriend breaks up with him because of his obsession with sungazing.
When Mason approaches 40 minutes of sungazing his desire to eat fades. The only reason he eats anything at all is because of social expectations and some self-doubt. Can this really be happening? Is it possible?
Mason’s loneliness and curiosity fuel his desire to meet other people who look at the sun - other than a 70 year old man - in hopes that they can share their stories and experiences so he can better understand this phenomena. Eat The Sun follows Mason on a cross country tour that links him with a variety of
colorful sungazers: a Hollywood lawyer, a practicing Mormon with 5 kids, a religious group that believes Jesus was a sungazer and even a sungazing ophthalmologist -- some of whom have been sungazing for over 20 years.
Interspersed with Mason’s journey are interviews with scientists and doctors. And we see Mason struggle with the not-eating aspects of sungazing - he goes a full month without eating. But Mason’s conflicts seem to be socially and culturally driven and counter to what he is actually feeling.
When Mason gets his eyes examined at the UCLA Jules Stein Medical Center, he results send him into a tailspin, causing him to question not only sungazing but also how he has been expressing this practice to others who have begun to
sungaze after viewing his enthusiastic website and blog.
Mason’s confusion builds as he navigates through the subculture of sungazing. His story culminates in his final decision to continue and finish HRM’s 44 minute protocol. Will Mason succeed? What will happen to him when he reaches 44 minutes of staring directly into the sun? Has HRM been truthful? Is it really possible to live without eating?
Eat The Sun is the story of one man’s struggle to uncover the truth and,ultimately, reveals the power of the mind.
Copyright 2009, Sorcher Films
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DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
From Peter Sorcher; Director – Eat The Sun
This project really started shortly after I moved to the San Francisco area in 2001. I met Mason Dwinell, our main character, at a mutual friend's party and he had a natural inquisitiveness that I liked. After another encounter with Mason some 6 months later, he told me what he was up to.
"You're looking directly at the sun and this will lead to a life without eating food?"
Welcome to San Francisco.
I immediately had two thoughts: The first was that he was crazy and the second was that there might be a film idea in this. After another encounter with Mason some 6 months later, he was even more excited about sungazing and the positive affects he was feeling from it. I arranged for a test shoot in August of 2003 and interviewed Mason and a few of his classmates who were sungazing along with him. I was intrigued not only with Mason's continued enthusiasm but also the corroboration of many of the affects of the sungazing by his classmates. I viewed the test footage and was hooked.
Initial research did not lead very far; the Internet did not yield much at that time when you Googled ‘sungazing’. Vinny Pinto, one of our characters in the film, became a pivotal person when he started the first sun gazing website and Yahoo! web group for sungazers. Vinny has been a sungazer since the early ‘80s and It was through his web group that I found many of the characters in the film. The project gained traction as I decided to follow Mason on his journey into this unexplored and burgeoning sub-culture. With a crew of 3, we took to the road in Mason’s van, meeting and talking with a variety of sungazers and self-professed non-eaters - both new and experienced - as well as scientists and doctors to try to find out some truths about this supposedly ancient notion of staring into the sun. I didn’t know what we would find or what would happen to Mason once he reached his goal of 44 consecutive minutes of staring at the sun - an amount of time based on a progressive sungazing technique that is promoted on the Internet and through lectures by an Indian gentleman who goes by the acronym HRM. (It was through a lecture by HRM that Mason found out about sungazing).
Between the sensations that Mason was reporting after actually building up his time to 40 minutes of looking directly at the sun and all of the information that we received from other sungazers, it was hard not to concede that something was happening, whether real or imagined. (In a scene that I love that did not make the final cut, Mason locks himself in a motel room and doesn’t eat for a whole month, the first week without fluids either!)
Luckily, enough human drama surfaced throughout the course of our journey out of which we were able to stitch together a story with a 3 Act structure. Our quest uncovered an Internet landscape of thousands of sungazers all over the world, some of whom ultimately challenged our deepest held beliefs. And it was belief that became the central idea in the film. The sort of people who engaged in sungazing after reading about it on the Internet or seeing HRM lecture all wanted to believe. The fact that the practice was simple and – according to HRM’s protocol – finite seemed to appeal to our modern culture’s affinity for the quick and easy. The fact that you could permanently damage your eyes seemed of little or no concern for most of these believers. When we took Mason for an extensive eye exam and they found a burn in the center of his retinas, he was disheartened and discouraged and he stopped sungazing. Why he ultimately decided to continue sungazing to reach HRM’s goal of 44 minutes and risk even further eye damage was testament that he was after something bigger than the physical.
Between Mason’s internal struggles, HRM”s demise and the discovery of an organized Christian-based religion that believes that Jesus was a sungazer, I became convinced that there was indeed a story to tell.
At the end of our journey, the world and how most of us have been conditioned to live in it seemed almost a quaint and outdated notion. And, at least for a little while after the cameras stopped rolling, the impossible seemed possible. You just had to believe.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Underground Rivers and Streams
Isiah 43:19- See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
"Beloved. believe not every spirit. but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
•
I John 4:1
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. I Timothy 4:1
this will be as difficult as Galileo trying to prove the sun was the center of the solar system to the church
Let me see how many Christians I can offend here in the following treatise. Not that I want to but the erroneous lessons being dispensed for the last seventeen hundred years have been taught so persuasively and persistently and for such a long time now that the believers are in a very deep state of trance or mass hypnosis. But here goes anyway. At least it will be an interesting and exciting ride.
Having said that..I must add..there are those that are “predetermined” to belong to that great Army of God..Joels Army. (see Joel 2 and read on). There will be an army of God, guaranteed, they are appointed and they are Gods anointed. and they will be forged into a mighty force to represent God on earth. This mighty force of truly Spirit realized Christians..wil attack and conquer all that oppose it, and all that stand in their way. This mighty army will be carriers of the fire and will prevail against any and all opposition from the enemy..because God Has A Plan!
Like rivers and streams on the surface of the earth we have many religions in many many forms. The Christian religion has had a very checkered history and has assumed a wide variety of forms..each claiming to be the most perfect “river of truth” or the healthiest, purest water or the latest and most updated tributary, ie. closer to the original source of the fountain of truth of the scriptures in all its attributes and beliefs. The fatal flaw in all of them is that they all ignorantly, subconsciously, and enviously, copy the Roman Catholic Church notion of a single “supreme” leader (Pastor, Priest,, Pope, etc.), and a central government, that they (the Roman version of the early church), copied from the political system of the Roman Empire form existent at the time the Roman church. If, like Janus, we look backwards to the origins of that philosophy we discover that same efficient but worldly form was inherited it from the ancient and cursed form from ancient Babylon the aftermath of the original man made system that reached its zenith and was destroyed by God when he scattered mankind into many different languages to confuse humanity, at Babel when he brought down their efforts to build a tower to heaven without His instructions or permission. It is the epitome of mans desire to erect material edifices and temples to parade in and receive honors and tribute from their fellow man.
The Roman Catholic Church dominated (and decimated) Christianity, and repressed any other form that had developed within the long arms of the un “Holy” Roman empire. That form that prevails today usually requires a central “corporate” headquarters from which its satellite churches are all connected. As you watch the birth of any new effort today..the tiny storefront variety, the intimate “home church”, the “breakaway” garden variety of today's “let's do it right this time” rebellion against the status quo, they always are formed around one dynamic person. One leader that the others all look to for that warm fuzzy feeling of adoration, so they can kow- tow and kick back and relax like adolescents grooving on their game shows or video games (or zealously work their little behinds off to bring others into their “special” spiritual nursery). Then, as they grow and prosper they inevitably “go public”, rent that humble storefront, empty church building, or cut a deal with their local the Seventh Day Adventist church to have a Sunday service because the Adventists only hold services on Saturdays to escape the crime of Sunday meetings they consider heretical, (of course they don’t mind the income from the heretics)
The Roman Catholic version that has evolved over the centuries is the oldest and in terms of numbers the most dominant Christian sect (actually the largest cult), and all the rest of the Protestant versions as much as they claim to have reformed the Roman Church have really only changed slightly the form, the trappings, the garments and costumes of the priesthood, and change the focus to other simpler sets of doctrines, but still reform and reorganize themselves in the same hierarchal, male dominated, corporate structure, ignoring the absolute autonomy of the “local” churches that were intended by God, in the New Testament.
Churches today are loathe to admit that they are violating Gods plan for His church as they blithely shape their “reformed” churches into mini corporations with mini Vatican's and petite popes as Pastor Kings, to spread their reformations and sometimes “doctrines of devils” like the Rapture idea, a goofy “escapist” proclamation made by John Darby am eminent theologian of the 1800’s, that apparently heard it first from a Scottish parishioner/prophetess Margaret Macdonald in 1830, who claimed she had a vision that suggested the “rapture” idea to her as she lay dying in her home. See how that notion has proliferated throughout the entire organism called “the body of Christ”? I’ll have a tough time challenging that carnal belief since it suggests that the Christian will not have to face the fiery trials and tribulations that the antichrist engineers, and which are soon to come..but will be “rapturously” lifted away into the sky, hopefully and blissfully with their luxury cars and TV sets no doubt ..and their credit cards in case they run out of some necessities “up there”. Later in this book I will present a much more de”light”ful experience available to all Christians, so they like Paul himself acknowledged, along the lines, when he proclaimed
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was “caught up” to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.”
Remember the crux of the rapture notion seems to be “that we shall all be taken up in a twinkling of an eye”, so once I can explain what that means in depth you hopefully will change your perspective and jettison that fictional flesh loving, collective fantasy, for the honest truth. “We shall all be taken up in a twinkling of an eye" is a scripture that I shall use often because it is so vital to becoming like Him and acquiring “the mind of Christ” that we will so desperately need to survive the soon coming battles for our spiritual loyalty. Remember Christian, “even the very elect will be deceived” unless He shorten the Day.
So there you have it. As Paul himself said there really is no place to go. Heaven is not in this world..it is located inside each of us and it is in another dimension or sphere..but inside. Remember “The Kingdom of God is “within”, so forget the escape plans dear flesh, just dig deeper inside to find that spring of pure clean water inside your belly says Jesus..”living water’ and hydro electric power untapped. I’ll go into more depth about all this later as we explore our source of light on earth, the sun, and how it corresponds to the pure Light of Gods presence and His world apart from this fallen one. Like a camera lens the sun is a reduced form or focus of Gods light, mind, power, radiance, take your pick, of His spiritual essence, and it is a peek or keyhole into Paradise. It is the door, the gate into, the portal, the main street, the power supply and food for the trip, the manna that came to them in the morning daily to the children of Israel as they inched by stiff necked inch their way across the desert towards that “promised land” we all long to inhabit.
Can we as modern Christians learn from the past..the Old Ways, that we need to discard? that stubborn and stiff necked attitude that clings to the“leeks and garlic” of Egypt, as we attempt the crossing of the dessert of carnal inconveniences to enter in to the wonders and “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I will show you later that we literally can be filled with that effervescent glory), state of mind?
In Gods plan the local church is autonomous and should be thought of as simply a “radiant” cell of His cosmic “body” of believers with Himself as the Head, the almighty sovereign and ruler of each of the local communities called local churches, one in each town. Instead of that original ie biblical model we have countless rulers, or single leaders in the many local churches today. Innumerable objects of our attention and desires (false gods I might add).
The New Testament church was created in each city, town or village that the Apostles traveled to as they announced the Gospel to the then known world. As a single cell of the mystical body only, the localized church and, any and all of its doctrines or beliefs, some of which were the result of their carnally minded, unbiblical or biblically borderline at best, that become part of the groups “beliefs”, because of their “itching ears”, can be confined to that assembly and dealt with as a heresy (by the Apostolic ministers) before it spreads throughout the organism like a rampant cancer. Like Paul had to do wherever he reveled throughout Asia Minor and the other regions of the world, he had to be constantly dealing with false doctrines that inevitably would creep into the infant church from Satan's saddle bags, as he followed Paul, sowing his seeds of dissension's, false doctrines, quickening the many false prophets, inciting clamor, sending argumentative lording and divisive spirits, spiritual pride, and all the rest of his arsenal of dirty tricks much like today as many of the televangelists spread their political, carnal and worldly biases, deceits, opinions, and false teachings to the entire body of avid TV watchers lounging around whining to be fed by the celebrity evangelist, like the Pied Piper leading all the global viewers, (spiritual lemmings) to the very edge of spiritual destruction. Of course dear reader that does not include you.
If the Holy Spirit has something fresh and new to tell the church, she (yes this is not a typo..She..but more about her later) is perfectly capable of doing so..if the churches were set up properly as receivers of instruction and revelations like the bible teaches.
Every so often mostly in American churches, there is a movement or a reformation commonly (academically) called Restorationism. It is an effort to reform Churchianity that typifies a religious movement that makes an effort to rediscover and/or reestablish the original form of Christianity from the first-century dynamism of the or Apostolic era. Restorationist movements and denominations make the argument that the Roman Catholic Church essentially changed much of what Jesus Christ and the scriptures and his Apostles taught. They added to the Word with their own invented doctrines over the centuries sometimes to placate the inhabitants of the new territories they occupied as an arm of the conquering state they served and collaborated with.
The religious movements referred to as Restorationists ordinarily sought a restoration of "primitive" or first-century Christianity that is described from its birth in the book of Acts and is further defined in its form through the rest of the New Testament by the writings of Paul and the other Apostles. But God holds all the cards when it comes to advancing His plans for mankind and He shares them with His people “with eyes to see and ears to hear”, and always has streams and rivers of knowledge to feed His people that really care for Him and are not satisfied by the pottage handed out by the Pharisees of each and every generation peddling their wares to an unwary herd of sheep.
I believe that the true church, the Bride of Christ, has been hidden but always available to mankind. For example, during the thousand years or so of the dark ages there were “underground” streams and rivers of believers gathered together in secret, who had access to information about the scriptures and more profound interpretations than taught by the surface church and its fanatical dogmas forced upon the unwitting masses. One prime example is found in the study of the legends (first German then French of the Holy Graal, Alchemy, and even the secretive artistic guilds (stone masons the forerunners of the Masons of today), that designed and built the fabulous cathedrals in the middle ages. Cathedrals that inspired the masses and lifted their consciousness up out of the miry clay and swamps of ignorance and the fatigue of slave labor to their masters, the Kings and Princes of Europe, in ways impossible before.
Remember, they did not have access to the scriptures before Guttenberg “rolled his presses” (actually flattened since they were plates or wooden panels at first) for the first time. Plus they were for the most part illiterate and lived lives filled with fear and suspicions because of the lack of knowledge and superstitions that haunted and beset them. That long and dreadful period of hundreds of years during the dark ages before the “Enlightenment”, and Renaissance, before the development of chemistry, medicine, knowledge, and eventually in what what we call the sciences.
Sir Isaac Newton, the accredited “Father of Science” who almost single-handedly created the form and context, rules and disciplines, observations, vocabulary and discoveries that we now enjoy and take for granted, left behind over one million words in his personal journals and letters of correspondence to friends and colleagues, treatises on alchemical thought and in fact what we call chemistry is an outgrowth of that symbolic “psychological” system that was encoded in esoteric language and presented to the serious truth seeker as a discipline and the psychological and intellectual resource, using natures ingredients of metals, salts, minerals, the moon, the sun and the planets as symbolic information to transform their carnal nature, thoughts and beliefs into the spiritual gold that rewards those diligent assayers with an eternal deposit in their spirits.
Bro Newton, who stated his view that, the bible, as well as other ancient sometimes hidden or concealed esoteric systems of study inherited from the ancients, like the Stoics, Pythagoreans',
all contained “Truths” that were above the common herd, under the veil of religious rites and numerical symbols Amongst these mysteries, he believed was the knowledge that the earth orbited the sun and not vice-versa as the then above ground church was teaching devilishly, "it was the most ancient opinion that the planets revolved about the sun, that the earth, as one of the planets, described an annual course about the sun, while a diurnal motion, it turned on its axis, and that the sun remained at rest."
Newton's profound intellect and scholarship enabled him to lay the foundations of physics as a modern intellectual discipline. His specific achievements had included epoch making discoveries in mechanics, optics, astronomy, and mathematics (the binomial theorem and the differential and integral calculus), huge steps forward in the understanding of the nature of light, and -above all else- the formulation of the universal law of gravitation which had altered forever mankind's vision of the cosmos.
What was much less well known about the great English scientist, however, was the fact that he had spent a significant part of his adult life deeply immersed in Hermetic and Alchemical literature (more than one tenth of his personal library had been taken up with alchemical treatises) Furthermore, he had been obsessed, -literally obsessed- with the notion that a "secret" wisdom lay concealed within the pages of Scriptures: Genesis, Ezekiel, Daniel of the Old Testament and John of the Revelation particularly attracted him because–'the language of the prophetic writings was symbolic and hieroglyphical and their interpretation required a radically different "method" of thinking.
Newton's pursuit of this method perhaps explained why he had immersed himself in an exacting study of some twenty different versions of the Book of Revelation. He had learned Hebrew in order to do the job properly, and had then carried out a similarly meticulous exercise on the book of Ezekiel. It was established that he had drawn on the information contained in this latter work to produce a painstaking reconstruction in a model form of the floor plan of the Temple of Solomon described and detailed in the bible. Why?. Because he had been convinced that the great edifice built to house the Ark of the Covenant, had been a kind of cryptogram of the universe; if he could decipher this cryptogram, he had believed, then he would know the mind of God (in some matters.)
Meanwhile the seventeenth-century scientist had expressed his other 'theological' findings and observations in private writings that had totaled well over a million words. In the mid-twentieth century these rather surprising manuscripts came to light and were purchased at auction by John Maynard Keynes. "Newton was not the first of the age of reason,' the obviously shaken economist later told the Royal Society, the last great mind which looked out on the world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than ten thousand years ago.' Keynes made an extremely careful study of the manuscripts and concluded -significantly-” in my view- that Newton saw the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had hid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher's treasure hunt to esoteric or hidden knowledge. He believed that these clues were to be found partly in the evidence of the heavens and in the constitution of the elements, but also partly in certain papers and traditions handed down by “the brethren” in an unbroken chain back to the original cryptic revelation.”
Isaac Newton: "I looked a very little while upon ye sun in a looking-glass with my right eye and then turned my eyes into a dark corner of my chamber and winked to observe the impression made and the circles of colors which encompassed it and how they decayed by degrees and at last vanished. This I repeated a second and a third time. At the third time when the phantasm of light and colors about it were almost vanished, intending my phansy upon them to see their last appearance I found to my amazement that they began to return and by little and little to become as lively and vivid as when I had newly looked upon the sun. But when I ceased to intend my phansy upon them they vanished again. After this I found that as often as I went into the dark and intended my mind upon them as when a man looks earnestly to see any thing which is difficult to be seen, I could make the phantasm return without looking any more upon the sun. And the oftener I made it return, the more easily I could make it return again. And at length by repeating this without looking any more upon the sun I made such an impression on my eye that if I looked upon the clouds or a book or any bright object I saw upon it a round bright spot of light like the sun. And, which is still stranger, though I looked upon the sun with my right eye only and not with my left, yet my phansy began to make the impression upon my left eye as well as upon my right. For if I shut my right eye and looked upon a book or the clouds with my left eye I could see the spectrum of the sun almost as plain as with my right eye, if I did but intend my phansy a little while upon it. For at first if I shut my right eye and looked with my left, the spectrum of the Sun did not appear till I intended my phansy upon it; but by repeating this, appeared every time more easily. And now in a few hours time I had brought my eyes to such a pass that I could look upon no bright object with either eye but I saw the sun before me, so that I durst neither write nor read but to recover the use of my eyes shut myself up in my chamber made dark for three days together and used all means to divert my imagination from the Sun. For if I thought upon him I presently saw his picture though I was in the dark." [The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol. III (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1961) pp. 153-154]
(The survey of Newton is partly from “The Sign and the Seal “ by Graham Hancock, a Touchstone Book, Simon
and Schuster, 1992)
Since the beginning of the Church at Pentecost two thousand years ago there has been a gradual loss of vital truths that the early Christians shared and that the Apostles taught to their flocks. The enemy has plundered the treasures that rightfully belong to God’s people and in his cleaverness and expert deceitfulness has managed to put a veneer of his own concoctions over them in order to disguise and hide their value from those that have chosen to follow Jesus and have experienced that priceless gift that we call “Salvation”.
Many of the jewels of Truth have been stolen away by craft and cunning as the "New Pharisees" creating new laws and ordinances erected false frameworks and false doctrines and false teachers and prophets by the thousands in their constant and evil machinations and stealth designed to undermine and disarm the “People of God”.
Early in the formation of the New Testament church the efforts of Satan were patently obvious as the Apostles wrestled with the invisible forces that were unleashed against the infant church in its radical departure from the established Jewish religion and its various schisms and traditions present during and after the ministry of Jesus and after His death by their hands and His amazing Resurrection and reappearance to the bewildered Apostles and disciples a few days later.
One of the major underground streams that carried some of the vital spiritual nutrients and practices was the community we call the Essenes today.
The Essenes were a communal community of Jews that had dedicated themselves to the preparation of themselves for the long predicted Teacher of Rightousness that the Old Testament described would reform the Jewish religions and herald a great awakening and restoration of the ancient truths that the scriptures described through the mouths and lives of the prophets. The Kingdom of Heaven was destined to be combined with the Kingdom of Earth and the King of Rightousness would take His Throne and install God’s spiritual ralities on earth for all to enjoy..and the curse of death and the dominion of Satan would be crushed and destroyed forever forces
CHRISTIAN YOGA
My yoke (yoga) is easy my burden is light.”
It is an unfortunate tendency in virtually all of the world religions that they become very insular and possessive. When people began to organize Christianity, to place dogmas and rigid rules around it, Christianity had the misfortune to be scarred with battles between sects, intolerance of other races and culture, and male authoritarianism. Nevertheless, I believe there is a real Christian Yoga that stands beyond that, and talks about universal principles. When Newton discovered the process of gravity he did not tell people they could only receive instruction in it if they belonged to a certain society or group. It was a principle universal in nature. Likewise, what the earliest Christians found is in a similar category.
You do not have to believe in and apply a lot of rules and dogmatic regulations described by organizing bodies to use the principles of electricity. But many of us see Christianity as needing to live rigid rules and regulations laid down by the organized church. But the underlying principles are about universal processes. Even if we believe the idea of a personal God, it is strange that a being that is said to have created the universe limits any approach to itself to a particular organization or sect.
A study of Newton and his childlike mental agility will prove to be the basis for a whole new form for Christianity to finally fit into. Finally Christ will be described in His fullness as the holistic unifier of the entire cosmos..the Grand Architect of everything we call life and all it contains, animal, vegetable, mineral and man, all part of the One “unified field” and His Oneness as the creator and sustainer of everything. Another part of this effort to redefine (enlarge the general perception..connect all the dots between Science and Religion), Christ as the intelligent governor, designer, and Master Builder of the entire creation, and all that is in it, will be that “New Science” itself. Like Newton's study of Solomon's Temple as is detailed in the bible, and the scale model he built, the New Science will be shown to be the model and methodology to be studied and practiced to prepare us spiritually as citizens of “light” in the New Heavens and the New Earth. As members of this movement and departure from the old ways of traditions of men, (I call that old, decayed, and ossified impulse, Uncle Traditions Of Men) and a return to the Full Gospel of the whole bible and its revelations, we move into the final stages of our evolution here on earth to conform to the perfect man Christ wills, to our everlasting benefit. As it is described in the Book of Revelations Chapter 21 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband.”
then a bit later we see..Revelation 22:1-5
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
So, as soon as we get started on this project of the final stages of spiritual transformation the better. What we will be doing is ridding ourselves of the global dependence on oil, the commodity that has almost ruined the world with its nasty side affects like wars and such. It did get the Model A and T’s running and souped up “progress” and mechanization across the country and the world, but the cost in pollution, wars, political wrangling, and technological inefficiency has passed up its usefulness a long time ago. In the New Jerusalem, the sun will be the fuel of choice as we transition to the ultimate of Gods purest “Glory” light. In other words we will bring back together again Science (Reason) and Religion just like Newton did in the 1600’s and just like God almighty did in the beginning before we fell from grace and were banished from paradise with a “flaming” sword “turning in all directions” (again, visualize in your minds eye the sphere created by a “flaming” sword turning in ALL directions, and you will see the sun), guarding the way back into Gods Kingdom. Incidentally don't waste time trying to square Darwin's theories with Gods creation. Remember we have “fallen”, plummeted down, banished from, forced to vacate, disconnected, from a more perfect state. we are lower forms..less luminous..less intelligent,,weaker and less enlightened than Gods citizens, the angels and archangels and other beings in heaven or Paradise. Angels are awesome and huge beyond description. A whole different scale of things than what we perceive down here..”but the times they are a changin”, as Bob Dylan announced a while back.
Bro. Frances Bacon, in his work "Organum Scientarium", and his tale about “the secret brotherhood”, “The New Atlantis”
(see www.artopea.com/FBatlantis.html)
said,"Man by his fall, fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over nature. Both of these losses, however, can, even in this life be in some part repaired. The former by Religion and Faith, the latter by the Arts and Sciences."
Therefore science as Science (art as Art), was understood by him, to be in the best sense, a spiritual activity. Bacon did not see Science as an independent or autonomous development. It was placed within the revelation of the scriptures at the point of the fall yet within that "form", Science and Art, were free and at intrinsic value before God.
Autonomous, Science or Art, is mistaken if it tries to free itself from what God has told us in His Word. You must have the scriptures speaking truth about the area where the Bible touches History and the Cosmos.
On the side of infinity we are separated from God entirely, on the side of personality we are made in the image of God, so God can speak the truth about himself, not exhaustively but truly.
The revelation of Christ comes from scriptures. Jesus himself, did not make a distinction between his authority and the authority of written scriptures. He acted upon the unity of his authority and the content of the scriptures.
In a similar vein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, (nuclear psycisist, Sanskrit scholar and yogi seer) one of the creators of the atomic bomb said, "Christianity created a climate of thought which put man in a position to investigate (navigate) the form of the universe.
Copernicus, the Renaissance astronomer whose theory of a heliocentric universe had overturned the earth-centered complacency of the Church in the Middle Ages, had said quite openly that he had arrived at his revolutionary insights by studying the secret writings of the ancient Egyptians, including the hidden works of Thoth (Hermes) himself.
Christian..please keep in mind that the bible starts out in Genesis, eons before God singled out the Jewish nation under the fatherhood of Abraham. There is much information as well as many clues in the Old Testament that describe ancient truths about mankind and our nature that we need to consider as part of the story about the origins of mankind and about the plans and purposes of God.
Newton's quest for truth and his determination to spend his life unlocking so many of natures (Gods) truths were based on his personal mystic awareness of the unity of all things starting with the bible and by extension nature and the entire cosmos. Newton believed that we need to look backwards in time into antiquity as well as lookingorward, to find the purest forms of the information and knowledge we need to advance spiritually.
He believed that the ancients, the Egyptians, the Greeks, Persians, and others, had discovered essential truths that are required to better shape our understanding about life, nature, God and the cosmos itself. Remember Melchizedek, the strange personage that blessed Abraham at a critical moment of crises? The Word calls him King of Peace (Salem) “He had no father, no mother no beginning and no end of days”, (which means he is still around), and has been a a priest forever and Jesus was made a high priest after him..after his authority not the Levitical Jewish priests that came after Melchizedek in history. But that’s another story for later.
It is no secret that “the church” has always been slow to accept new ideas and discoveries outside its narrow confines, like hand me down clothes within a family, inherited traditions ar passed down from generation to generation without question. The above ground church is notoriously rigid and because of its formula, business as usual, mentality with its “in house” rules and teachings that do not deviate from the party line, and their cemeta..Ooops seminaries that teach each particular sects dogmas, they tend to be closed minded to information that is discovered outside its walls and borders, especially if it conflicts with some of its pet doctrines, even when it is based on the Holy Scriptures. Remember the trials and tribulations that martin Luther suffered when he discovered the profound truth in the Holy Scriptures that “we are saved by faith and not by works lest any man should boast” That certainly is not what God intended when He started this enterprise but it certainly is what has happened by the men that try to control her..the church that is. God will always find a way to circumvent the status quo whenever and wherever He wills.
The birth and the growth of this United States from its prayerfully and carefully crafted origins by devout men and women, from many and diverse religions, philosophies and beliefs, attests to the fact that freedom of thought is vital and paramount to the success of invention and discovery. The wisdom that went into the founding of this nation was awesome and the words of Jesus of “render unto Caesar what is Caesars and render unto God what is Gods” has proven to be exactly why we are (or were, before this current “theocracy” has attempted to capture the minds and hearts of the masses with their efforts to drag us back into the past, back into the medieval domination by the politically ambitious priests with dark hidden agendas), the envy of the world. The freedom to choose what if any, “organized”, religion we want to study or practice is essential to build and invent and create the pluralistic (ie, democratic not autocratic or theocratic) society we enjoy today..but it is under attack as never before because Satan has failed in Heaven and was thrown down here for his final titanic efforts to bedevil, derail, and destroy us, and especially the Lords church..so lets open our minds and hearts to this “new thing” Jesus is preparing for His bride, the pregnant Woman Clothed by the Sun, standing on the moon with a crown of twelve stars” about to give birth to a new thing, a child. Remember “a little child shall lead them”.
I am going to leave you with some clues that will be developed later in this treatise..
Ecclesiastes Chapter 11-7 Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
Eccles. 7 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
In the morning Sun I find it, there my eyes are fix'd, in happy copulation.
Bro. WILLIAM BLAKE Vision of the daughters of Albion.
Matthew 6;22, The light (lamp) of the body is the eye: therefore, if the eye is single, thy whole body will be filled with light. (So the corollary is also true, if the whole body is filled with light the eye will be single.)
Cor. 15;51 We shall all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye... think SUN
"Beloved. believe not every spirit. but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
•
I John 4:1
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. I Timothy 4:1
this will be as difficult as Galileo trying to prove the sun was the center of the solar system to the church
Let me see how many Christians I can offend here in the following treatise. Not that I want to but the erroneous lessons being dispensed for the last seventeen hundred years have been taught so persuasively and persistently and for such a long time now that the believers are in a very deep state of trance or mass hypnosis. But here goes anyway. At least it will be an interesting and exciting ride.
Having said that..I must add..there are those that are “predetermined” to belong to that great Army of God..Joels Army. (see Joel 2 and read on). There will be an army of God, guaranteed, they are appointed and they are Gods anointed. and they will be forged into a mighty force to represent God on earth. This mighty force of truly Spirit realized Christians..wil attack and conquer all that oppose it, and all that stand in their way. This mighty army will be carriers of the fire and will prevail against any and all opposition from the enemy..because God Has A Plan!
Like rivers and streams on the surface of the earth we have many religions in many many forms. The Christian religion has had a very checkered history and has assumed a wide variety of forms..each claiming to be the most perfect “river of truth” or the healthiest, purest water or the latest and most updated tributary, ie. closer to the original source of the fountain of truth of the scriptures in all its attributes and beliefs. The fatal flaw in all of them is that they all ignorantly, subconsciously, and enviously, copy the Roman Catholic Church notion of a single “supreme” leader (Pastor, Priest,, Pope, etc.), and a central government, that they (the Roman version of the early church), copied from the political system of the Roman Empire form existent at the time the Roman church. If, like Janus, we look backwards to the origins of that philosophy we discover that same efficient but worldly form was inherited it from the ancient and cursed form from ancient Babylon the aftermath of the original man made system that reached its zenith and was destroyed by God when he scattered mankind into many different languages to confuse humanity, at Babel when he brought down their efforts to build a tower to heaven without His instructions or permission. It is the epitome of mans desire to erect material edifices and temples to parade in and receive honors and tribute from their fellow man.
The Roman Catholic Church dominated (and decimated) Christianity, and repressed any other form that had developed within the long arms of the un “Holy” Roman empire. That form that prevails today usually requires a central “corporate” headquarters from which its satellite churches are all connected. As you watch the birth of any new effort today..the tiny storefront variety, the intimate “home church”, the “breakaway” garden variety of today's “let's do it right this time” rebellion against the status quo, they always are formed around one dynamic person. One leader that the others all look to for that warm fuzzy feeling of adoration, so they can kow- tow and kick back and relax like adolescents grooving on their game shows or video games (or zealously work their little behinds off to bring others into their “special” spiritual nursery). Then, as they grow and prosper they inevitably “go public”, rent that humble storefront, empty church building, or cut a deal with their local the Seventh Day Adventist church to have a Sunday service because the Adventists only hold services on Saturdays to escape the crime of Sunday meetings they consider heretical, (of course they don’t mind the income from the heretics)
The Roman Catholic version that has evolved over the centuries is the oldest and in terms of numbers the most dominant Christian sect (actually the largest cult), and all the rest of the Protestant versions as much as they claim to have reformed the Roman Church have really only changed slightly the form, the trappings, the garments and costumes of the priesthood, and change the focus to other simpler sets of doctrines, but still reform and reorganize themselves in the same hierarchal, male dominated, corporate structure, ignoring the absolute autonomy of the “local” churches that were intended by God, in the New Testament.
Churches today are loathe to admit that they are violating Gods plan for His church as they blithely shape their “reformed” churches into mini corporations with mini Vatican's and petite popes as Pastor Kings, to spread their reformations and sometimes “doctrines of devils” like the Rapture idea, a goofy “escapist” proclamation made by John Darby am eminent theologian of the 1800’s, that apparently heard it first from a Scottish parishioner/prophetess Margaret Macdonald in 1830, who claimed she had a vision that suggested the “rapture” idea to her as she lay dying in her home. See how that notion has proliferated throughout the entire organism called “the body of Christ”? I’ll have a tough time challenging that carnal belief since it suggests that the Christian will not have to face the fiery trials and tribulations that the antichrist engineers, and which are soon to come..but will be “rapturously” lifted away into the sky, hopefully and blissfully with their luxury cars and TV sets no doubt ..and their credit cards in case they run out of some necessities “up there”. Later in this book I will present a much more de”light”ful experience available to all Christians, so they like Paul himself acknowledged, along the lines, when he proclaimed
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was “caught up” to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.”
Remember the crux of the rapture notion seems to be “that we shall all be taken up in a twinkling of an eye”, so once I can explain what that means in depth you hopefully will change your perspective and jettison that fictional flesh loving, collective fantasy, for the honest truth. “We shall all be taken up in a twinkling of an eye" is a scripture that I shall use often because it is so vital to becoming like Him and acquiring “the mind of Christ” that we will so desperately need to survive the soon coming battles for our spiritual loyalty. Remember Christian, “even the very elect will be deceived” unless He shorten the Day.
So there you have it. As Paul himself said there really is no place to go. Heaven is not in this world..it is located inside each of us and it is in another dimension or sphere..but inside. Remember “The Kingdom of God is “within”, so forget the escape plans dear flesh, just dig deeper inside to find that spring of pure clean water inside your belly says Jesus..”living water’ and hydro electric power untapped. I’ll go into more depth about all this later as we explore our source of light on earth, the sun, and how it corresponds to the pure Light of Gods presence and His world apart from this fallen one. Like a camera lens the sun is a reduced form or focus of Gods light, mind, power, radiance, take your pick, of His spiritual essence, and it is a peek or keyhole into Paradise. It is the door, the gate into, the portal, the main street, the power supply and food for the trip, the manna that came to them in the morning daily to the children of Israel as they inched by stiff necked inch their way across the desert towards that “promised land” we all long to inhabit.
Can we as modern Christians learn from the past..the Old Ways, that we need to discard? that stubborn and stiff necked attitude that clings to the“leeks and garlic” of Egypt, as we attempt the crossing of the dessert of carnal inconveniences to enter in to the wonders and “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I will show you later that we literally can be filled with that effervescent glory), state of mind?
In Gods plan the local church is autonomous and should be thought of as simply a “radiant” cell of His cosmic “body” of believers with Himself as the Head, the almighty sovereign and ruler of each of the local communities called local churches, one in each town. Instead of that original ie biblical model we have countless rulers, or single leaders in the many local churches today. Innumerable objects of our attention and desires (false gods I might add).
The New Testament church was created in each city, town or village that the Apostles traveled to as they announced the Gospel to the then known world. As a single cell of the mystical body only, the localized church and, any and all of its doctrines or beliefs, some of which were the result of their carnally minded, unbiblical or biblically borderline at best, that become part of the groups “beliefs”, because of their “itching ears”, can be confined to that assembly and dealt with as a heresy (by the Apostolic ministers) before it spreads throughout the organism like a rampant cancer. Like Paul had to do wherever he reveled throughout Asia Minor and the other regions of the world, he had to be constantly dealing with false doctrines that inevitably would creep into the infant church from Satan's saddle bags, as he followed Paul, sowing his seeds of dissension's, false doctrines, quickening the many false prophets, inciting clamor, sending argumentative lording and divisive spirits, spiritual pride, and all the rest of his arsenal of dirty tricks much like today as many of the televangelists spread their political, carnal and worldly biases, deceits, opinions, and false teachings to the entire body of avid TV watchers lounging around whining to be fed by the celebrity evangelist, like the Pied Piper leading all the global viewers, (spiritual lemmings) to the very edge of spiritual destruction. Of course dear reader that does not include you.
If the Holy Spirit has something fresh and new to tell the church, she (yes this is not a typo..She..but more about her later) is perfectly capable of doing so..if the churches were set up properly as receivers of instruction and revelations like the bible teaches.
Every so often mostly in American churches, there is a movement or a reformation commonly (academically) called Restorationism. It is an effort to reform Churchianity that typifies a religious movement that makes an effort to rediscover and/or reestablish the original form of Christianity from the first-century dynamism of the or Apostolic era. Restorationist movements and denominations make the argument that the Roman Catholic Church essentially changed much of what Jesus Christ and the scriptures and his Apostles taught. They added to the Word with their own invented doctrines over the centuries sometimes to placate the inhabitants of the new territories they occupied as an arm of the conquering state they served and collaborated with.
The religious movements referred to as Restorationists ordinarily sought a restoration of "primitive" or first-century Christianity that is described from its birth in the book of Acts and is further defined in its form through the rest of the New Testament by the writings of Paul and the other Apostles. But God holds all the cards when it comes to advancing His plans for mankind and He shares them with His people “with eyes to see and ears to hear”, and always has streams and rivers of knowledge to feed His people that really care for Him and are not satisfied by the pottage handed out by the Pharisees of each and every generation peddling their wares to an unwary herd of sheep.
I believe that the true church, the Bride of Christ, has been hidden but always available to mankind. For example, during the thousand years or so of the dark ages there were “underground” streams and rivers of believers gathered together in secret, who had access to information about the scriptures and more profound interpretations than taught by the surface church and its fanatical dogmas forced upon the unwitting masses. One prime example is found in the study of the legends (first German then French of the Holy Graal, Alchemy, and even the secretive artistic guilds (stone masons the forerunners of the Masons of today), that designed and built the fabulous cathedrals in the middle ages. Cathedrals that inspired the masses and lifted their consciousness up out of the miry clay and swamps of ignorance and the fatigue of slave labor to their masters, the Kings and Princes of Europe, in ways impossible before.
Remember, they did not have access to the scriptures before Guttenberg “rolled his presses” (actually flattened since they were plates or wooden panels at first) for the first time. Plus they were for the most part illiterate and lived lives filled with fear and suspicions because of the lack of knowledge and superstitions that haunted and beset them. That long and dreadful period of hundreds of years during the dark ages before the “Enlightenment”, and Renaissance, before the development of chemistry, medicine, knowledge, and eventually in what what we call the sciences.
Sir Isaac Newton, the accredited “Father of Science” who almost single-handedly created the form and context, rules and disciplines, observations, vocabulary and discoveries that we now enjoy and take for granted, left behind over one million words in his personal journals and letters of correspondence to friends and colleagues, treatises on alchemical thought and in fact what we call chemistry is an outgrowth of that symbolic “psychological” system that was encoded in esoteric language and presented to the serious truth seeker as a discipline and the psychological and intellectual resource, using natures ingredients of metals, salts, minerals, the moon, the sun and the planets as symbolic information to transform their carnal nature, thoughts and beliefs into the spiritual gold that rewards those diligent assayers with an eternal deposit in their spirits.
Bro Newton, who stated his view that, the bible, as well as other ancient sometimes hidden or concealed esoteric systems of study inherited from the ancients, like the Stoics, Pythagoreans',
all contained “Truths” that were above the common herd, under the veil of religious rites and numerical symbols Amongst these mysteries, he believed was the knowledge that the earth orbited the sun and not vice-versa as the then above ground church was teaching devilishly, "it was the most ancient opinion that the planets revolved about the sun, that the earth, as one of the planets, described an annual course about the sun, while a diurnal motion, it turned on its axis, and that the sun remained at rest."
Newton's profound intellect and scholarship enabled him to lay the foundations of physics as a modern intellectual discipline. His specific achievements had included epoch making discoveries in mechanics, optics, astronomy, and mathematics (the binomial theorem and the differential and integral calculus), huge steps forward in the understanding of the nature of light, and -above all else- the formulation of the universal law of gravitation which had altered forever mankind's vision of the cosmos.
What was much less well known about the great English scientist, however, was the fact that he had spent a significant part of his adult life deeply immersed in Hermetic and Alchemical literature (more than one tenth of his personal library had been taken up with alchemical treatises) Furthermore, he had been obsessed, -literally obsessed- with the notion that a "secret" wisdom lay concealed within the pages of Scriptures: Genesis, Ezekiel, Daniel of the Old Testament and John of the Revelation particularly attracted him because–'the language of the prophetic writings was symbolic and hieroglyphical and their interpretation required a radically different "method" of thinking.
Newton's pursuit of this method perhaps explained why he had immersed himself in an exacting study of some twenty different versions of the Book of Revelation. He had learned Hebrew in order to do the job properly, and had then carried out a similarly meticulous exercise on the book of Ezekiel. It was established that he had drawn on the information contained in this latter work to produce a painstaking reconstruction in a model form of the floor plan of the Temple of Solomon described and detailed in the bible. Why?. Because he had been convinced that the great edifice built to house the Ark of the Covenant, had been a kind of cryptogram of the universe; if he could decipher this cryptogram, he had believed, then he would know the mind of God (in some matters.)
Meanwhile the seventeenth-century scientist had expressed his other 'theological' findings and observations in private writings that had totaled well over a million words. In the mid-twentieth century these rather surprising manuscripts came to light and were purchased at auction by John Maynard Keynes. "Newton was not the first of the age of reason,' the obviously shaken economist later told the Royal Society, the last great mind which looked out on the world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than ten thousand years ago.' Keynes made an extremely careful study of the manuscripts and concluded -significantly-” in my view- that Newton saw the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had hid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher's treasure hunt to esoteric or hidden knowledge. He believed that these clues were to be found partly in the evidence of the heavens and in the constitution of the elements, but also partly in certain papers and traditions handed down by “the brethren” in an unbroken chain back to the original cryptic revelation.”
Isaac Newton: "I looked a very little while upon ye sun in a looking-glass with my right eye and then turned my eyes into a dark corner of my chamber and winked to observe the impression made and the circles of colors which encompassed it and how they decayed by degrees and at last vanished. This I repeated a second and a third time. At the third time when the phantasm of light and colors about it were almost vanished, intending my phansy upon them to see their last appearance I found to my amazement that they began to return and by little and little to become as lively and vivid as when I had newly looked upon the sun. But when I ceased to intend my phansy upon them they vanished again. After this I found that as often as I went into the dark and intended my mind upon them as when a man looks earnestly to see any thing which is difficult to be seen, I could make the phantasm return without looking any more upon the sun. And the oftener I made it return, the more easily I could make it return again. And at length by repeating this without looking any more upon the sun I made such an impression on my eye that if I looked upon the clouds or a book or any bright object I saw upon it a round bright spot of light like the sun. And, which is still stranger, though I looked upon the sun with my right eye only and not with my left, yet my phansy began to make the impression upon my left eye as well as upon my right. For if I shut my right eye and looked upon a book or the clouds with my left eye I could see the spectrum of the sun almost as plain as with my right eye, if I did but intend my phansy a little while upon it. For at first if I shut my right eye and looked with my left, the spectrum of the Sun did not appear till I intended my phansy upon it; but by repeating this, appeared every time more easily. And now in a few hours time I had brought my eyes to such a pass that I could look upon no bright object with either eye but I saw the sun before me, so that I durst neither write nor read but to recover the use of my eyes shut myself up in my chamber made dark for three days together and used all means to divert my imagination from the Sun. For if I thought upon him I presently saw his picture though I was in the dark." [The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol. III (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1961) pp. 153-154]
(The survey of Newton is partly from “The Sign and the Seal “ by Graham Hancock, a Touchstone Book, Simon
and Schuster, 1992)
Since the beginning of the Church at Pentecost two thousand years ago there has been a gradual loss of vital truths that the early Christians shared and that the Apostles taught to their flocks. The enemy has plundered the treasures that rightfully belong to God’s people and in his cleaverness and expert deceitfulness has managed to put a veneer of his own concoctions over them in order to disguise and hide their value from those that have chosen to follow Jesus and have experienced that priceless gift that we call “Salvation”.
Many of the jewels of Truth have been stolen away by craft and cunning as the "New Pharisees" creating new laws and ordinances erected false frameworks and false doctrines and false teachers and prophets by the thousands in their constant and evil machinations and stealth designed to undermine and disarm the “People of God”.
Early in the formation of the New Testament church the efforts of Satan were patently obvious as the Apostles wrestled with the invisible forces that were unleashed against the infant church in its radical departure from the established Jewish religion and its various schisms and traditions present during and after the ministry of Jesus and after His death by their hands and His amazing Resurrection and reappearance to the bewildered Apostles and disciples a few days later.
One of the major underground streams that carried some of the vital spiritual nutrients and practices was the community we call the Essenes today.
The Essenes were a communal community of Jews that had dedicated themselves to the preparation of themselves for the long predicted Teacher of Rightousness that the Old Testament described would reform the Jewish religions and herald a great awakening and restoration of the ancient truths that the scriptures described through the mouths and lives of the prophets. The Kingdom of Heaven was destined to be combined with the Kingdom of Earth and the King of Rightousness would take His Throne and install God’s spiritual ralities on earth for all to enjoy..and the curse of death and the dominion of Satan would be crushed and destroyed forever forces
CHRISTIAN YOGA
My yoke (yoga) is easy my burden is light.”
It is an unfortunate tendency in virtually all of the world religions that they become very insular and possessive. When people began to organize Christianity, to place dogmas and rigid rules around it, Christianity had the misfortune to be scarred with battles between sects, intolerance of other races and culture, and male authoritarianism. Nevertheless, I believe there is a real Christian Yoga that stands beyond that, and talks about universal principles. When Newton discovered the process of gravity he did not tell people they could only receive instruction in it if they belonged to a certain society or group. It was a principle universal in nature. Likewise, what the earliest Christians found is in a similar category.
You do not have to believe in and apply a lot of rules and dogmatic regulations described by organizing bodies to use the principles of electricity. But many of us see Christianity as needing to live rigid rules and regulations laid down by the organized church. But the underlying principles are about universal processes. Even if we believe the idea of a personal God, it is strange that a being that is said to have created the universe limits any approach to itself to a particular organization or sect.
A study of Newton and his childlike mental agility will prove to be the basis for a whole new form for Christianity to finally fit into. Finally Christ will be described in His fullness as the holistic unifier of the entire cosmos..the Grand Architect of everything we call life and all it contains, animal, vegetable, mineral and man, all part of the One “unified field” and His Oneness as the creator and sustainer of everything. Another part of this effort to redefine (enlarge the general perception..connect all the dots between Science and Religion), Christ as the intelligent governor, designer, and Master Builder of the entire creation, and all that is in it, will be that “New Science” itself. Like Newton's study of Solomon's Temple as is detailed in the bible, and the scale model he built, the New Science will be shown to be the model and methodology to be studied and practiced to prepare us spiritually as citizens of “light” in the New Heavens and the New Earth. As members of this movement and departure from the old ways of traditions of men, (I call that old, decayed, and ossified impulse, Uncle Traditions Of Men) and a return to the Full Gospel of the whole bible and its revelations, we move into the final stages of our evolution here on earth to conform to the perfect man Christ wills, to our everlasting benefit. As it is described in the Book of Revelations Chapter 21 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband.”
then a bit later we see..Revelation 22:1-5
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
So, as soon as we get started on this project of the final stages of spiritual transformation the better. What we will be doing is ridding ourselves of the global dependence on oil, the commodity that has almost ruined the world with its nasty side affects like wars and such. It did get the Model A and T’s running and souped up “progress” and mechanization across the country and the world, but the cost in pollution, wars, political wrangling, and technological inefficiency has passed up its usefulness a long time ago. In the New Jerusalem, the sun will be the fuel of choice as we transition to the ultimate of Gods purest “Glory” light. In other words we will bring back together again Science (Reason) and Religion just like Newton did in the 1600’s and just like God almighty did in the beginning before we fell from grace and were banished from paradise with a “flaming” sword “turning in all directions” (again, visualize in your minds eye the sphere created by a “flaming” sword turning in ALL directions, and you will see the sun), guarding the way back into Gods Kingdom. Incidentally don't waste time trying to square Darwin's theories with Gods creation. Remember we have “fallen”, plummeted down, banished from, forced to vacate, disconnected, from a more perfect state. we are lower forms..less luminous..less intelligent,,weaker and less enlightened than Gods citizens, the angels and archangels and other beings in heaven or Paradise. Angels are awesome and huge beyond description. A whole different scale of things than what we perceive down here..”but the times they are a changin”, as Bob Dylan announced a while back.
Bro. Frances Bacon, in his work "Organum Scientarium", and his tale about “the secret brotherhood”, “The New Atlantis”
(see www.artopea.com/FBatlantis.html)
said,"Man by his fall, fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over nature. Both of these losses, however, can, even in this life be in some part repaired. The former by Religion and Faith, the latter by the Arts and Sciences."
Therefore science as Science (art as Art), was understood by him, to be in the best sense, a spiritual activity. Bacon did not see Science as an independent or autonomous development. It was placed within the revelation of the scriptures at the point of the fall yet within that "form", Science and Art, were free and at intrinsic value before God.
Autonomous, Science or Art, is mistaken if it tries to free itself from what God has told us in His Word. You must have the scriptures speaking truth about the area where the Bible touches History and the Cosmos.
On the side of infinity we are separated from God entirely, on the side of personality we are made in the image of God, so God can speak the truth about himself, not exhaustively but truly.
The revelation of Christ comes from scriptures. Jesus himself, did not make a distinction between his authority and the authority of written scriptures. He acted upon the unity of his authority and the content of the scriptures.
In a similar vein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, (nuclear psycisist, Sanskrit scholar and yogi seer) one of the creators of the atomic bomb said, "Christianity created a climate of thought which put man in a position to investigate (navigate) the form of the universe.
Copernicus, the Renaissance astronomer whose theory of a heliocentric universe had overturned the earth-centered complacency of the Church in the Middle Ages, had said quite openly that he had arrived at his revolutionary insights by studying the secret writings of the ancient Egyptians, including the hidden works of Thoth (Hermes) himself.
Christian..please keep in mind that the bible starts out in Genesis, eons before God singled out the Jewish nation under the fatherhood of Abraham. There is much information as well as many clues in the Old Testament that describe ancient truths about mankind and our nature that we need to consider as part of the story about the origins of mankind and about the plans and purposes of God.
Newton's quest for truth and his determination to spend his life unlocking so many of natures (Gods) truths were based on his personal mystic awareness of the unity of all things starting with the bible and by extension nature and the entire cosmos. Newton believed that we need to look backwards in time into antiquity as well as lookingorward, to find the purest forms of the information and knowledge we need to advance spiritually.
He believed that the ancients, the Egyptians, the Greeks, Persians, and others, had discovered essential truths that are required to better shape our understanding about life, nature, God and the cosmos itself. Remember Melchizedek, the strange personage that blessed Abraham at a critical moment of crises? The Word calls him King of Peace (Salem) “He had no father, no mother no beginning and no end of days”, (which means he is still around), and has been a a priest forever and Jesus was made a high priest after him..after his authority not the Levitical Jewish priests that came after Melchizedek in history. But that’s another story for later.
It is no secret that “the church” has always been slow to accept new ideas and discoveries outside its narrow confines, like hand me down clothes within a family, inherited traditions ar passed down from generation to generation without question. The above ground church is notoriously rigid and because of its formula, business as usual, mentality with its “in house” rules and teachings that do not deviate from the party line, and their cemeta..Ooops seminaries that teach each particular sects dogmas, they tend to be closed minded to information that is discovered outside its walls and borders, especially if it conflicts with some of its pet doctrines, even when it is based on the Holy Scriptures. Remember the trials and tribulations that martin Luther suffered when he discovered the profound truth in the Holy Scriptures that “we are saved by faith and not by works lest any man should boast” That certainly is not what God intended when He started this enterprise but it certainly is what has happened by the men that try to control her..the church that is. God will always find a way to circumvent the status quo whenever and wherever He wills.
The birth and the growth of this United States from its prayerfully and carefully crafted origins by devout men and women, from many and diverse religions, philosophies and beliefs, attests to the fact that freedom of thought is vital and paramount to the success of invention and discovery. The wisdom that went into the founding of this nation was awesome and the words of Jesus of “render unto Caesar what is Caesars and render unto God what is Gods” has proven to be exactly why we are (or were, before this current “theocracy” has attempted to capture the minds and hearts of the masses with their efforts to drag us back into the past, back into the medieval domination by the politically ambitious priests with dark hidden agendas), the envy of the world. The freedom to choose what if any, “organized”, religion we want to study or practice is essential to build and invent and create the pluralistic (ie, democratic not autocratic or theocratic) society we enjoy today..but it is under attack as never before because Satan has failed in Heaven and was thrown down here for his final titanic efforts to bedevil, derail, and destroy us, and especially the Lords church..so lets open our minds and hearts to this “new thing” Jesus is preparing for His bride, the pregnant Woman Clothed by the Sun, standing on the moon with a crown of twelve stars” about to give birth to a new thing, a child. Remember “a little child shall lead them”.
I am going to leave you with some clues that will be developed later in this treatise..
Ecclesiastes Chapter 11-7 Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
Eccles. 7 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
In the morning Sun I find it, there my eyes are fix'd, in happy copulation.
Bro. WILLIAM BLAKE Vision of the daughters of Albion.
Matthew 6;22, The light (lamp) of the body is the eye: therefore, if the eye is single, thy whole body will be filled with light. (So the corollary is also true, if the whole body is filled with light the eye will be single.)
Cor. 15;51 We shall all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye... think SUN
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Church must be “born again”, or.. Gods “New Thing”
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.
T.E. Lawrence: “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom”
What I am about to present to you dear reader is that “new thing” This radical departure from traditional or “orthodox” Christianity is the apogee or culmination of a stream or series of revelations I have experienced over the many years that I have been a born again or “born from above” Christian. I have had to keep most of these bible based insights to myself for they were received from the guidance and illumination of the Holy Ghost but are of such a nature and so far removed from the modern or contemporary or “acceptable” forms of “church” organizations that we see scattered all over the landscape. I had to grow in wisdom and knowledge in order to fully understand the applications to Gods people, the church, His body. After many years of prayer, bible study, and personal experiences, much of which included laboring in the vineyard, serving side by side with brothers and sisters as we carried His message of salvation to those that had not yet heard it..or who had heard it but did not yet receive it correctly, Now is the time to express this “new thing” to those with ears to hear.and eyes to see. what Malachi saw at the closure of the Old Dispensation when he wrote,
"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the Lord Almighty.
What follows in this essay is how to better understand our Savior and how to be filled with his light in a new, way, as we discover together the appellation of “the Lord is the Son of God” manifesting in the Sun of Righteousness.
In the entire bble..the Lord says He will do a “new thing” only twice, so listen up!
Isaiah 43:19- See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Jeremiah 31:22 How long will you wander, O unfaithful daughter? (the church), The Lord will create a new thing on earth-- A WOMAN WILL COMPASS (surround) a man."
22 How long will you waver,O faithless daughter?For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth A WOMAN ENCIRCLES A MAN
(English Standard version)
22 How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN.
(Douay-Rheims)
22 How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth-- A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN."
(King James)
Huh? A woman will surround a man? What kind of talk is that? How can a woman surround a man you may wonder. Here’s how, speaking in biblical ways as types, symbols, and literally, all in one fell swoop.
Revelation 12:1-2
A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Romans 8:22 - We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Galatians 4:19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,
Now in the words of the Master Himself
Mt. 13:8 -Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
Mt 24:8 - All these are the beginning of birth pains.
The Church itself self must now be “Born Again.”.says the Holy Bible, the Word of the Lord,. because she has fallen asleep, and has grown anemic, slothful, and ultimately “unfaithful”. She has failed in many ways to adhere to the Full Gospel, the bible in its entirety, and as a result not managed to keep herself pure and in conformity to His entire Word, in her growth and development throughout history. Somewhere along the way she has been misguided by the many leaders and teachers that have wittingly or unwittingly fed her incorrectly and who have failed to pick the best and most nutritious fruit from Gods garden, the Holy Scriptures and bountiful beautiful nature, the amazing resource He has given us to teach, edify, inspire, and satisfy the deep longing all born again Christians has to intimately and personally unite with the Godhead, the fountainhead of pure undiluted, daily manna and wellspring from on high, the Most Holy and Absolute El Sahddai.the breasted one.
We as “born again” or “born from above” Christians are all familiar with the basic assumption that we are the “body” of Christ, and it is He who is the head.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (King James Version)
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
In these climactic “Last Days”, or “daze” as most Christians seem to be experiencing, if you can believe the polls and judged by the Christians inability to achieve conformity to the likeness of Jesus., we have much work to do before He can return to claim His bride.
Revelations 19: 7-9
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands symbolizes righteous acts of the saints.)
Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
There are so many gaps and unconnected dots between the actions of those called “followers of Jesus Christ”, or “Christians”, and our operations manual, the Holy Bible, which is quite explicit in its warnings of the deep, unparalleled, levels of deception that Satan unleashes in “these;last days”, to confound and confuse (Babylon means confusion), those that are still locked into the values of this world..as opposed to the values of His Word and His World, “The Kingdom of God”.
Since the early days of the church, when it’s first converts and members were “born from above” by the amazing, unparalleled, arrival of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, as cloven tongues of fire fell on them all and entered into each of the one hundred and twenty followers of Jesus, in that “upper room”, that auspicious Day of Pentecost,and they all, one hundred and twenty of them, disciples and Apostles of Jesus, “spoke in tongues”, as the Spirit gave them utterance. They raised such a commotion of extraordinary joy and amazement, that thousands of Jews that had gathered in Jerusalem, to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, heard the ruckus and murmured to each other outside, some accused the celebrants in that upper room of all being drunk, and others were amazed since they were hearing the assembly speaking in all the languages of the various visiting Jews from all over the known world at that time So Peter had to go out on the balcony and shout his first sermon to the crowds gathered below, “We are not drunk as you suppose., but this is that spoken by the prophet Joel,.we have all been filled with the Holy Spirit to fulfill the visions of Joel in the Old Testament.... Joel Chapter III
Joel; 1-6, After this I will pour out my spirit on all flesh,Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,your old men will dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions Even on the slaves, men and women, I will display portents ion heaven and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
So began the church that auspicious day with a “new thing”, so surprising, so unexpected and so revolutionary and revelatory (and so strange..speaking in tongues with stammering lips),that it eventually turned the world upside down, and inside out.
For awhile the early newborn church was a mighty force and fortress, until it gradually became weakened (attacked by the Roman Empire version of Christs Church a counterfeit version, a Roman Empire version as an arm of the "State". That Roman Empire version "overwhelmed" the original Holy Ghost formed and supervised community of believers, that had developed after the "outpouring" of the Holy Spirit on that Pentacost Day. and drove it underground), and dissolute over the centuries.and lost its luster, and attractiveness until today, where the miracles have lessened to a trickle, the unity and love has all but vanished, and the Christians themselves seem to have reached the end of the journey where they sit on a bench at a crossroads , not certain where to go, what "brand" of church life to "BUY INTO"and attendm of the thousands on the shelf to choose from, who to believe, or what to do to revive themselves and Unite as One into that mighty force that once changed the world for Christ, that phenomenon we call Joel's army. But perhaps that army is yet to come.
Until your eyes (spiritual eyes that is) are opened you will not understand that the existence of Luciferic powers has been the bane of mankind and the church (ie all religions) since the earliest stages of human history..and until Christians in particular, achieve the objectivity in their quest for truth, to undertake truly objective cleansing of or from, the many existing "denominational" heresies,
(denominations,,sectarianism, squabbling over words and phrases instead of lovingly and prayerfully arriving at “Truth” together via The Holy Spirit” as a local church thus functioning as the Bible declares.. in Unity and Love. The divisions and the heretical notion of denominations is a result of Lucifer's relentless attacks with his arsenal of “spirits" and demons that divide and subdivide the impatient and slothful Christians who are ignoring the scriptures that warn against just that tendency..along with the false prophets and false teachers that proliferate the church today) it will never be the shining light on the hill for all to seek refuge and sanctuary and healing.
The good news is that our founder and true leader Jesus, predicted the ignominious condition of today's version of Christianity..it is called Babylon..or more precisely..the Whore of Babylon..and since Babylon is now a rebuilt city just sixty miles South of Baghdad..and since a very large segment of that American Christian population supports our invasion and occupation..we are witnessing the final countdown to the reckless and imbecilic march into the awaiting hands and plans of that long predicted and long debated "man of sin", that miracle worker that will so astound the world that all religions will fall to his feet like the willing slaves that they are. Willing slaves to what? Willing slaves to human leaders hell bent on personal power, materialism, idolatry, and greed.
"The Crack of Doom is Coming Soon"
Joel 2:1-32
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand-- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste-- nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle. At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale. They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks. They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows.
(Jesus says that when He comes again it will be as “a thief in the night”}
Before them the earth shakes, the sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?
"Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning". Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing-- grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, "Spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"
Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. The Lord will reply to them: "I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. "I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise." Surely he has done great things. Be not afraid, O land; be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things. Be not afraid, O wild animals, for the open pastures are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm-- my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.
28 "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
(this is a forecast of the true church where all gender issues have disappeared forever, where men and women are treated equally in His church, where the feminine aspect of God is fully and finally revealed to bring balance, nurturing, purity, peacefulness and long-suffering back into the fold we call the church. In Christ there is no Jew nor Greek or racial distinctions at all as well there are no gender issues of male nor female. In Christ we are all One!)
I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
New International Version
And so we are now faced with another “new thing” to finish what Jesus started and what He died for, a church without spot or blemish so that there can be a wedding, the long awaited and long debated “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” to bring His body, the church into intimacy with Himself as the One and only only Head.
Ephesians 25, 26, 27, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
A woman is used as a symbol many times in the Scriptures... "Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh." (Isa. 62:11.) Here the reference is to the Church. Again Paul (Gal. 4:31) says, "Ye are not the children of the bond woman, but of the free woman." Most are agreed that here the free woman represents the Church. Again (Rev. 21:2), John sees the New Jerusalem descending adorned as a bride to meet her husband. The bride, the Lamb's wife, here and in the ninth verse, indeed in every place spoken of, is the Church. Once more: Paul speaks of Jerusalem, the mother of us all, alluding again to the Church. This symbol, then, is a common one to represent the Church, and we are justified in declaring that to be its meaning in this passage.
Romans 8 8:19-22
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.
Malachi, "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the Lord Almighty".
Often I have experienced during deep intercessory prayer the groanings and even the pain and tears for the world and especially for the church itself in its obviously slumbering,divided, materialistic, condition of sheep think.,.that dread disorder that plagues the entire human race but especially disconcerting is the hunger in Christians to be told what to think and what to do and how to interpret the bible instead of learning how to trust the Holy Spirit as their teacher and Jesus as the only true Head and Husband of His Bride, the Church..not the man they see, and hear every Sunday standing on a box in front of the boxy buildings they call church. I of course realize that the leaders of the churches will be quite offended by my message..but that is not my problem is it? If what I am saying is what the bible teaches then I am on safe ground..or standing on the rock which is Christ Himself.
One part of the message I am about to deliver to you is that it is now time to leave the box that confines and suffocates and step outside where nature and the Sun of righteousness is calling you to free you from ecclesiastical hum drum and and doctrinaire straight jackets outfitted in the salons of faint hearted narrow minded traditions of men and their dogmatism. Come out from her (Babylon, the carnally minded, proud, materialistic, politically powerful organization called “The Whore of Babylon), and learn from her (nature)..just like Jesus preached and still proclaims today. Nature and the light of day.the Sun, who shines on the just and the unjust, unbounded by walls of separation and the false security of buildings designed to keep people in line like cattle or sheep in stalls and rows
( And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall) . entranced and hypnotized by the show up front and the leader demanding their attention each and every meeting time.
The Visions of Annie.
Annie, a young Argentine woman, was gifted and anointed by God to be one of the human vessels in the "last days" to experience supernatural visions and dreams in order to help clarify and throw the "light of understanding" on the the scriptures regarding the Apocalyptic "last days" events foretold in the Bible. Many of the visions experienced by the prophets and recorded in the Holy Scriptures were to be sealed until "the time of the end" as stated in the book of Daniel (12;9)
. Annie was caught up into the heavenlies by the Spirit as a young teen age girl and a "new born" child of Christ. The visions and experiences she had were so staggering in their uniqeness, magnitude, and purity of the transcendent realities in the heavenliness, that to even find words to try to describe them was very difficult and painful.for her. Her Pastor, Edward Miller, worked with her patiently over long periods of time to write down and carefully phrase each of the visions as precisely as humanly possible, even though the experiences and visions usually defied the scope of the "ordinary reality" either of them had ever experienced before.
Annie's experiences were foreshadowed and described by the Apostle Paul who said "I know a man whether in the body or out of the body I know not, that was taken to the third heaven. And I know that this same man (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know -God knows) was caught up into paradise, and heard words so secret that human lips may not repeat them.( 2 Cor. 12;15),
In Annie's case, she was authorized and instructed by the Lord to express and describe her visions because they are directly related to the last days revelations and warnings that the church needs to hear in order to better understand the plans and purposes of God Almighty as He unfolds His plans in the face of the agenda of the archenemy, Lucifer, the Fallen One.
Quoting from the introduction of Book One written by Bro. Miller. "It seems that in the group of visions He has desired to introduce us to some of the hidden mysteries concerning the church and His dealings with it as well the works of the enemy and the mystery of iniquity and in a small measure how it operates.
These visions are in parable and symbolic form and many times in a cryptic manner, yet throughout the ancient times it was ever so that God spoke through his prophets. There were things that they themselves could not understand nor even decipher.
We are made to realize with a terrific impact of truth that the hour of the bringing forth of His End Time manifestations and his revealing of these hidden things of the mysteries is now upon us. We cannot postpone any longer into some distant future our beliefs, but know that these things in reality are upon us and He is telling His own ones who have a hearing ear. For He has promised to His own Sons of Light that these things should not come upon them "as a thief in the night", but that they should be warned and informed before that time.
Our prayer is that unto the Sons of Light and to those who have been given a hearing ear, there shall be given also the quickening of the Holy Spirit to read and to understand these things."
What follows are some visions from the book; “I Looked and I saw the Lord”, which is book one of three books recording the visions of Annie.
“Three times today He took me into the spirit and told me to loose and bring forth what he had given me to tell, but I could not understand it at all. Then in the service that same evening He came again and loosed my tongue: "Mark this date on your calendar (September 3, 1971) for today the prince of evil is loosed. My people are not to fear, but are to take and declare their place in me for this prince of evil cannot harm them." Then He showed me that not only had he loosed this prince of evil who would slowly bring in his evil reign, but that this prince could see beforehand the manner of his own destruction and those whom God would use to destroy him and his kingdom: he would be dethroned and his kingdom destroyed by God's own ones as they walked in Him. Then I saw this prince begin to put into action the operation of his kingdom which was built slowly, with great care and with many astute wiles of evil.
Then He showed me His own ones like an army prepared for battle who were marching in victory with fire under their feet- the fire of his kingdom of evil that was loosed. In nowise could this fire of wrath hurt them.
Over their heads there was still another fire-the fire of God- which was for them a covering by day and by night. Under their feet was the fire of evil and the prince of evil loosed, and over their heads was the fire of God. These two fires were so totally different that there was absolutely no resemblance between them at all.
Above the fire of God there marched another army-Gods army of powerful forces which marched with his army below and gave them strength and power for victory by these powerful forces of God that accompanied the army of His own ones who were marching under the fire of His covering love and victory. These powerful forces of the heavenly armies of righteousness were put into action by the action of the faith of His army upon the earth. Because they were continually taking faith for victory, these powerful forces were continually in action giving them the victory. Those heavenly forces did not fight with any visible or spiritual weapons, but simply by exerting their own mighty forces and powers.
I understood that this kingdom of evil shall not appear as evil at first, to the contrary, to be able to deceive His own ones (if this were possible), it shall come camouflaged as good, for the enemy desires at all costs to hide from reality what he is doing.
Yet at this very moment God shall awaken in his own ones a powerful uprising and warfare against the very movement of deceit which, as a sedative, had lulled them to sleep.
However, even before the chaos of this storm of evil breaks, God shall liberate in His own army a victory of faith which shall enable them to walk upon the fire of his flood of evil. The powerful faith which shall be given as a gift of God, is the only thing that shall be effective against the kingdom of evil that shall be loosed at that time”.
SCENE ON THE SCREEN
“On this day August 20, I found it very hard to enter into His presence in prayer. I was in much desperation of spirit and in many tears. Suddenly I found m myself in the spirit. There was Jesus in all His usual beauty and splendor and the angels with Him. Immediately, all the sense of desperation left and there flooded my being that tremendous love and peace that He ever radiates upon me. All welcomed me with such tender looks and sweet smiles. But right away Jesus spoke to me , telling me to look. As I did so, I saw as it were, a large screen before me like a window into another world. The angels with me also turned to look at the scene so strangely portrayed before me. In that scene, I saw Christ seated upon a throne, Around Him were many angels.
But how strange it was! This Christ that I saw before me was a manifestation so vastly different from the One who stood beside me and bade me look. There He was so high, so filled with glory and splendor and so vastly increased in size and majesty. All the angels standing around Him also were of a type of beings I had never before seen. Because they were distinctly different in their whole beings and vastly much brighter and greater in size, I knew immediately that they were of an order of angelic beings much superior to those hitherto and to those who were with me looking at this portrayal or manifestation. They were so much more beautiful and perfect in their harmonious beings, yet they radiated tenderness and love and great kindness. The Christ so glorious and beautiful ao far, far superior to those glorious beings surrounding Him, allowed me to see His wounds. Oh how different they were! He wore them as blazing jewels. They shined forth in beautiful rays and He wore them like beautiful ornaments of His Person. This Christ was so mighty, brilliant and awesome that I was filled with dread. But the Jesus who stood beside me and showed me this manifestation of His greater self in majesty and power spoke to me telling me not to fear. Then this fear left me.
In front of this Christ seated upon a throne was a great white (clear, transparent) stone like marble. It was white, polished and very beautiful but it appeared dead (skull) This was the first time I had ever seen anything dead in the regions of heaven. As I watched this more glorious Christ so filled with majesty and power spoke to me. His words coming to me caused a great impact in my inner being. It was like a great bolt of electric current passing through me. I fully understood what He said to me but when I came out of that place I was not enabled to remember what He said
Then He spoke to the great stone that was before Him and His words seemed to enter into that stone and it began to change “(grace grace unto it”) Life entered in to it and it became a living stone. Life was plainly visible within it. Then it began to have movement in itself and changed its substance and became filled with light, shining forth in radiant splendor. This caused me much wonder.
Although all were so very different from the angels and Jesus at my side I was made so certain that it was one and the same Jesus but in a higher and so much more sublime realm. From Him-even though so much higher and majestic- I could feel that same tender love. He was so filled with goodness, kindness, sweetness and tenderness that He did not cause me any fear, though otherwise I knew that I would have been terribly afraid.
THE MAJESTIC CHRIST
... Then He showed me something very wonderful that He held in His hands. It was glorious and filled me with wonder. The angels also showed me something that they had in their hands which was very wonderful. All this while , the power that had come forth from His mouth sustained and upheld me so that I fainted not at the glory of that sight. High above the head of Jesus were great clouds of glory nd light and luster, but I could not look into them at all. In these clouds there was someone hidden, a person with whom Christ was conversing. I could hear the conversation and the voices, but I was not enabled to remember either the words they spoke or what the thing was that they showed me in their hands.
THE WRATH OF CHRIST
As I was lying on my prayer mat worshipping the Lord, I was taken into the realms of the spirit. I found myself placed under a transparent canopy of pure love. It was the strangest and loveliest feeling, very real and tangible, like a living substance given to fully cover me, as it were in a hiding place. I felt myself overflowing with the love of Jesus. It was not like anything ever before experienced and I felt so at rest and so utterly secure. I saw Jesus at close distance to me in the highest plane yet visited. So mighty, He seemed larger than the greatest mountains. He was the very same glorious and majestic Christ I had seen the evening before.
But how terrible was his face and visage! He was utterly transformed from the loving Jesus I had known before. Now He was in great wrath and his fury was awful to behold. I have seen the visage of furious animals when they are fighting, but the face was far more terrible than any animal in its fury. It was so dreadful that had
I not been totally covered, I would have perished by the sight. He was directing all His wrath in the opposite direction from my place of refuge. I saw Him rise up in His mounting fury and step up on a terrible ball of shining fire. But it was not a kind of fire like the fire of love. It was a consuming, burning, destructive fire like a huge sun, but far larger and brighter than the sun has ever shined. In the heat of His fury, He mounted up at terrible velocity upon the frightening, living fireball. From His head there shot forth rays of great power and terrible destruction. As He began to rise up, He spoke to a waiting group of tremendous angelic beings who were in rank and order like a mighty host of warriors. All of them were angels of the highest order and rank belonging to this sphere. They were all in great brightness and they too were all terribly furious. They all seemed to fully reflect in their own beings the terrible wrath of the Christ against His enemies. As He spoke to them rising up in great speed and violence, the angels shot precipitously down in the direction of His wrath, also in great speed and violence against the enemies who to me were unseen. They all rushed downwards as if they were anxiously seeking prey to destroy. From their hands also shot forth the same rays of power which had come forth with such violence from Jesus hands.
In spite of all this terrible and frightening display of divine wrath, in spite of His visage so utterly transformed into rage that I had never imagined possible, I felt secure in my covering of Love. So secure was I so loved and loving him. But at the same time I found myself fully approving of His wrath and fury. I felt it was so right and so just, so correct in spite of the fearsome aspect. Nothing in all the worlds nor under the worlds nor in heaven itself could stand against such terrible fury and divine WRATH. So powerful was it and so violent that words can never tell the frightening wonder and splendor of such fury. I knew in me that something was about to take place.
When I first saw this scene, all were waiting in the full manifestation of expectancy for Him to rise and put on His great wrath. I felt no fear nor dread for I was so fully and securely covered with His Love. Nevertheless, I never want to see this beautiful, tender and powerful Jesus arise in fury like that ever again.
WRATH CONTINUED
Looking at this Christ, I saw Him mounted upon this great ball of terrible fire which increased in fury and size until it utterly enveloped Him and even seemed to consume Him, but at the same time it did not consume Him. This took place not all at once, but as it were in a process of time and before it fully enveloped Him. I saw Him throw something very great and brilliant to the mighty angels waiting below Him in eager expectancy. When He threw this to them, they caught it and with extreme care and keenest interest rose up and formed a guardian circle about it, taking the greatest care of it while his fire and wrath fully enveloped Him. I saw what it was that He threw to them but I was not given to recall what it was afterwards. These guardian angels were very similar to the warrior angels I saw previously, but this time they were not participating in his fury and were not in any aspect prepared for war. They were of the same powerful and mighty
class who were all set to maintain careful guard over this treasure.
THE TWELVE STONES
.....I saw Him in the glory cloud...Beneath the cloud was an immense Saphire-Crystal stone, transparent and filled with glory light and life. Within this great Saphire-Crystal I saw as it were a great edifice built. And within this edifice there were living stones each one a different color and shape but of the same size. They were most wonderful to behold, so full of glory life, and so brilliantly shining with that inexplicable celestial light that I knew they were of great importance. I looked again and saw that there were twelve in number. I did not count them but I was made to know this even without counting for He gave me to understand their number.
Each one of these twelve stones had directly under it a large number of like stones all arranged according to its head stone. These under stones though somewhat smaller than the head stones were of equal color, brilliance, and glory and were equal in size one with another. The number of the under stones I could not tell nor was I informed. Also within this great Sapphire were myriad's of angels praising and ministering.”
I am not going to launch out here on an interpretation of theses unusual and provocative dreams..that will come later but as you can see they are colossal in their magnitude and majesty and can fill us with a new sense of wonder in our Spirits.just what God intends for us so we can be liberated from the carnal mind that plagues us today in Christendom.
What an event that was. Just imagine one hundred nineteen other people, like yourself, all praying together and suddenly “like a mighty wind”, you all were filled with “tongues of fire” and all of you “spoke in tongues.”
So after that kind of experience they were all pretty well persuaded that they must do something for all their friends and neighbors from all parts of the known world so they started preaching and declaring the’ Good News” that Jesus had promised them before He left to assume His rightful place as Lord over all and to begin building His church, as He had envisioned it before His crucifixion and resurrection. In His words..
JOHN 17:20 "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
EPH 1:22-24 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
So church there is only one Head and one body..not the many headed hydra we call churches or that we try to pass off as Christianity to the unsaved world. We must return to the Apostles admonition to speak with one voice again. As long as we sincerely point to Jesus and lift Him up only..not our favorite politicians or celebrity preachers or tired teachers but Jesus only, He has promised that “He will draw all people unto Himself” and we will truly see the fire again falling on His weakened, separated, starved, thirsty, grumbling and whining people.
So..church,..our leader, Jesus, demands of us that we achieve a type of Unity that simply does not yet exist. on this planet in Christendom. That we all become one body..like in Ezekiel when the bones in the bone yard, (we are all dead and buried in Christ..I must remind you because what will follow might seem a bit harrowing to you that have forgotten all our dread past circumstances once born again)..
”The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy up King James Version
Ezekiel 37:1-14
on these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
Jesus said that He would build His church, that is His assembly of called-out, saved people, His body. He did not promise to build many separate, fractured, warring, disparate churches, like thousands of splinters on His cross, that would fight against one another over pet doctrines, that would pursue racist policies, create monolithic, male dominated authoritarian organizations and preach “hate thy neighbor..if he does not believe the same lies as you do.”. He desired that His church (assembly of called out ones that all must be “born again” and receive His Spirit just like the early, primitive church of Pentecost, ) be unified upon the Word that the apostles taught. And, in the first century, this was the case, one church with people following one Word delivered by the authority of Christ's apostles.
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
Isaiah 5:20
Let’s talk about light..What it is and what to do with it to nourish and empower those that are more thirsty and hungry and dissatisfied with her (the church) condition of apparent helplessness, in their innermost desire to follow Jesus only, to submit Gods plan for her.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.
then...
Ge 1:16 - God made two great lights--the greater light to govern (rule) the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
Ge 1:17 -God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth,
Ge 1:18 -to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Isaiah 45:7
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.
Samuel 23:1-7
1 These are the last words of David: "The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs: 2 "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: 'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, 4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.' 5 "Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? 6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. 7 Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear; they are burned up where they lie."
Ecclesiastics 7:11-22
11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. 12 For wisdom is a defense, F21 and money is a defense: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
Matthew 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
The eye (soul) is the lamp (inner light) of the body - And what the eye is to the body, the sun to the soul. If thine eye be single - Singly fixed on God and His Kingdom above and not preoccupied with her carnal needs and materialistic desires, thy whole soul will be full of holiness and happiness. Also, the corollary of this insight is also true..If the body is filled with light..the eye (of the soul) will be single.
The brain (mind?) of man is a many faceted organ that has many levels and depths of activity. Consciously it is like a beehive of activity swirling with thoughts, ideas, beliefs, insights, fears, depressions, inspirations, aggressions, passions, and a multitude of emotions that constantly erupt to the surface in mostly random ways. Try as he may (or she), the mind is uncontrollable until focussed with an exertion from what we call “the will”, but even then “self will” lacks the spiritual power to sustain that pristine and pure awareness of Jesus in our constant attempts to maintain that precious relationship nmo matter what our circumstances may be. Faith of course is the seed that can grow into a mighty tree but few are those that attain that kind of faith..but without it is is impossible to please God
To bring the mind completely under control is the task of every Christian, in order to totally submit oneself to the Will of God..as Jesus did. (Remember even Jesus Himself agonized all night long, even sweating blood from exertion in order to bring His mind and His will totally under submission to the mind and will of His Father in Heaven. A Herculean task indeed but one that we must emulate and attend to in order to achieve that same state of “Oneness” and submission to the perfect will of God Almighty)
Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit in order to empower us to live a holy life and it is up to each of us to undertake that extremely difficult task. I believe that the early church was taught disciplines that the scriptures allude to but as teachings today have been all but lost over the centuries as civilization (including of course the first Christians), has evolved into the complex material laden..comfort driven..entertainment engaging..pleasure seeking..sensory satiated..nature disconnected society of today. Keep in mind that the early “primitive” church was a far simpler society that lived very close to nature and was deeply rooted in an agrarian mode of survival. They planted and harvested in tune with nature, their festivals and days of remembrance were tied to the heavens and the sun and moon were constant reminders of extreme importance and reckoning because they measured and calculated everything in accordance with their seasonal movements.
Matthew 17:1-13
1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
But, even before the end of the first century, the apostles were warning Christians, especially the leaders (elders, bishops) in local churches, there would be some even from their own ranks who would present false teaching and lead others after them.
ACT 20:28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
20:29 "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
:31 "Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.
32 "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
1 TImothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
1 TImothy 4:2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,
1 TImothy 4:3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.
1 TImothy 4:4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude;
1 TImothy 4:5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.
OK how did we depart from the early pure church that behaved itself unselfishly in obedience to the twelve apostles?
Whatever groups and so-called churches that have come about down through the years all, in some way, began to spring from these sources. Men, especially those with authority over local groups, began to become corrupted not only in their teaching, but in how they exercised authority over the Lord's people. One elder began to take charge of the other elders in a local church. Then, over time, that elder would take charge over other local churches. Finally, in 606 A.D., the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church was officially recognized. But, God had not instructed or intended any of this. When the apostles were alive, they appointed elders (plural or collegiate body), for each congregation and their authority was to be over that congregation only and not over any other local church.
ACT 14:23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
When Christ Himself spoke to Paul and called him, He could have opened his eyes at once and made known to him the way of perfection; instead He sent him to Ananias and told him to learn from him the way of truth, saying: Arise and go into the city, and there you will be told what you must do (Acts 9:6). In this manner He teaches us to be guided by those who are advanced on the way, so that the vision rightly given to Paul should not be wrongly interpreted; otherwise it might lead later generations presumptuously to suppose that each individual must be initiated into the truth directly by God, as Paul was, and not by the fathers or elders that have gone before.…
Then, as time passed, people began to react to the corruption and false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and from this came all of the Protestant churches that we know such as Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist and so on. To their credit many of these leaders and scholars had the intention of rejecting Catholic authority and false teaching and they went back to the bible depending again on the Hoply Spirit as their source of authority, however, too often, Catholic tradition was simply replaced with a newer more refined Protestant tradition. Therefore, instead of one corrupt church, now there were many by the end of the 18th century.
Therefore, there are so many churches because people have been given the choice as to what they will teach, believe and follow. And, unfortunately, many, who do not know any better, have followed the traditions of men, rather than what is written in the Word of God. The only way we can overcome this is to examine honestly the Word of God and our own actions to see if we are following that which has been given to us by God through the apostles. In this way, we can be Christians, members of His church, not belonging to any false church(s), but worshipping and working with those who are similarly seeking to only follow the New Testament and the hidden,metaphorical and symbolic meaning of the Old, as their primary source of spiritual authority and be called by His name, not by any other. We can be just Christians, member of the church of Christ and as far as God is concerned, that is enough for any of us in this life.
ACT 17:10 ¶ And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
ACT 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so.
ACT 17:12 Many of them therefore believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
2 Timothy 3:17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
ACT 11:26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church, and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
GAL 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
GAL 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (remember in the last days the true church will emerge as a woman “clothed in the sun”, to supplant the historical “churches” ie Babylon traditions)
GAL 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Somehow we must achieve that UNITARY state of mind again like the early apostles. We must become apostolic soldiers again, so can actually feel the pain of the divisive, slothful, shallow, carnally minded, churches, lest we become part of “The Whore of Babylon”.
GAL 3:29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
In short, I am pleading for all to examine the teachings of whatever church they are members of, compare with the Bible and if it is against the Bible, reject it and the so called authority behind it which perpetuates it. Although difficult, this is not impossible for, since the first century on, all generations have been faced with this dilemma. We should not be called or follow the Baptist, Catholic, Mormon or any other church because we can neither read of them directly nor infer indirectly that Jesus or His apostles authorized them in any way. They are the creation of the mind of men and the traditions handed down by that particular organization, and although may follow some things that are in the Bible, the whole basis for their even existing is to be challenged by the simple Word that we can all read in the New Testament. Even during the lives of the apostles, Christians began departing from the faith of the gospel as the apostles preached it. Despite warning of dire consequences (Gal. 1:6-9, e.g.), people were perverting the gospel. The book of James was written in part to combat the notion that one is justified by "faith alone" (that is, without having to DO anything), while the book of Romans was written in part to combat the idea that one could be justified by "works" (by "doing good"), apart from the gospel's faith. The book of 1 John taught against the notion that some Christians had that Jesus did not really come in the flesh at all. The entire gospel had been revealed prior to the death of the last apostle, but once there were no apostles, men began "taking their places." For example, in Acts 14:23, we find that elders (plurality of overseers..not one human leader, a collegiate group agreeing together by the Spirit) were appointed in every church. It was the duty of the elders to guard, teach and pastor the flock. This was not to be the responsibility or authority of any one man, even in a local congregation. In Acts 20, Paul summoned the elders from Ephesus and warned them that among their own number savage wolves would come, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29-31). Then, as now, the only remedy would be to hold fast the word that the apostles taught. But as certain elders grew more influential, there were appointed "chief elders," or bishops, of each congregation. Soon, among the collection of bishops there also arose those who were over the others. By the time of Constantine (300's) the church had digressed from leadership by local elders over local congregation to the sectarian system of most churches today, which leads to the Babylon's model of a hierarchy that rules and reigns like a monarchy system that has so ruined and corrupted Christianity over the centuries. Instead of the priesthood of the believers that the bible teaches we have an elitist system that is perpetuated age after age until today's fragmented and divided church quarreling over pet doctrines, and leading their congregations astray dangerously close to what the Book of Revelations calls, “The Whore of Babylon., a backslidden, carnal, arm of the state instead of the church that jesus is forming His bride without spot or blemish.”
Isa 43:19 - See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Jer 31:22 How long will you wander, O unfaithful daughter? The Lord will create a new thing on earth-- a woman will surround a man."
Huh? A woman will surround a man? What kind of talk is that? How can a woman surround a man you may wonder. Here’s how..speaking in biblical ways as types, symbols, and literally all in one fell swoop.
Revelation 12:1-11
1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
The woman is the bride of Christ here or daughter of God..a supernatural woman who surrounds a man.. engulfs and encompasses him, in order to create within him a “new thing” destined to replace the unfaithful daughter, the Whore of Babylon, the fallen church.
We have to be very very careful here as we attempt to define and delineate the church of history and the new church the new thing God has promised to do for His Son..or as is said in Malachi the “Sun of Righteousness” to represent him more perfectly to this world in dire need for redemption, sanctification and transformation.
OK a woman clothed (surrounded by the sun)..about to give birth to a son (man child) surrounding the man (child) in her womb.
1, 2. A woman clothed with the sun. A woman is used as a symbol many times in the Scriptures. "Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh." (Isa. 62:11.) Here the reference is to the Church. Again Paul (Gal. 4:31) says, "Ye are not the children of the bond woman, but of the free woman." All are agreed that here the free woman represents the Church. Again (Rev. 21:2), John sees the New Jerusalem descending adorned as a bride to meet her husband. The bride, the Lamb's wife, here and in the ninth verse, indeed in every place spoken of, is the Church. Once more: Paul speaks of Jerusalem, the mother of us all, alluding again to the Church. This symbol, then, is a common one to represent the Church, and we are justified in declaring that to be its meaning in this passage. The fact that she is clothed with the sun symbolizes the fact that the true Church shines with the light of the Sun of Righteousness as predicted in Malachi. The moon under her feet represents the Old Testament, or dispensation, which shone by a reflected light and is subordinate to the New Covenant of the Church. The crown of twelve stars is explained by the twelve apostles, lights of the Church and a crown of glory to it. 2. She being with child cried. Again we must let the Scripture explain its own meaning. "As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." (Isa. 66:8.) The travail of Zion causeth an increase.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Malachi
1 "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. 3 Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the Lord Almighty.
8 Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah 9 Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
and yet..
and yet..
Judges 5 5:31
"So may all your enemies perish, O Lord! But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength." Then the land had peace forty years.
Revelation 1
1:16
In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
Revelation 19
19:17
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God,
in its entirety
1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." 3 And again they shouted: "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever." 4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!"
5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!" 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) 9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God." 10 At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Psalm 19
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.
11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great." 19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
SEE BOOK OF REVELATIONS SEVEN CHURCHES
ALSO “Christian Book of the Dead”(my attempt at humor)
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit! And having said this he breathed his last.
Matthew 2727:45
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: ~this is jesus, the king of the jews. 38 Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. 45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah." 48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him."
ACT 20:28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
ACT 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.
ACT 2:30-47 "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, nor did His flesh suffer decay.
"This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
"Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
"For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: 'The Lord said to my Lord,"Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet. "'
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified."
¶ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"
8 And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
"For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself."
And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"
So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
¶ And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common;
and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
T.E. Lawrence: “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom”
What I am about to present to you dear reader is that “new thing” This radical departure from traditional or “orthodox” Christianity is the apogee or culmination of a stream or series of revelations I have experienced over the many years that I have been a born again or “born from above” Christian. I have had to keep most of these bible based insights to myself for they were received from the guidance and illumination of the Holy Ghost but are of such a nature and so far removed from the modern or contemporary or “acceptable” forms of “church” organizations that we see scattered all over the landscape. I had to grow in wisdom and knowledge in order to fully understand the applications to Gods people, the church, His body. After many years of prayer, bible study, and personal experiences, much of which included laboring in the vineyard, serving side by side with brothers and sisters as we carried His message of salvation to those that had not yet heard it..or who had heard it but did not yet receive it correctly, Now is the time to express this “new thing” to those with ears to hear.and eyes to see. what Malachi saw at the closure of the Old Dispensation when he wrote,
"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the Lord Almighty.
What follows in this essay is how to better understand our Savior and how to be filled with his light in a new, way, as we discover together the appellation of “the Lord is the Son of God” manifesting in the Sun of Righteousness.
In the entire bble..the Lord says He will do a “new thing” only twice, so listen up!
Isaiah 43:19- See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Jeremiah 31:22 How long will you wander, O unfaithful daughter? (the church), The Lord will create a new thing on earth-- A WOMAN WILL COMPASS (surround) a man."
22 How long will you waver,O faithless daughter?For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth A WOMAN ENCIRCLES A MAN
(English Standard version)
22 How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN.
(Douay-Rheims)
22 How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth-- A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN."
(King James)
Huh? A woman will surround a man? What kind of talk is that? How can a woman surround a man you may wonder. Here’s how, speaking in biblical ways as types, symbols, and literally, all in one fell swoop.
Revelation 12:1-2
A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Romans 8:22 - We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Galatians 4:19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,
Now in the words of the Master Himself
Mt. 13:8 -Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
Mt 24:8 - All these are the beginning of birth pains.
The Church itself self must now be “Born Again.”.says the Holy Bible, the Word of the Lord,. because she has fallen asleep, and has grown anemic, slothful, and ultimately “unfaithful”. She has failed in many ways to adhere to the Full Gospel, the bible in its entirety, and as a result not managed to keep herself pure and in conformity to His entire Word, in her growth and development throughout history. Somewhere along the way she has been misguided by the many leaders and teachers that have wittingly or unwittingly fed her incorrectly and who have failed to pick the best and most nutritious fruit from Gods garden, the Holy Scriptures and bountiful beautiful nature, the amazing resource He has given us to teach, edify, inspire, and satisfy the deep longing all born again Christians has to intimately and personally unite with the Godhead, the fountainhead of pure undiluted, daily manna and wellspring from on high, the Most Holy and Absolute El Sahddai.the breasted one.
We as “born again” or “born from above” Christians are all familiar with the basic assumption that we are the “body” of Christ, and it is He who is the head.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (King James Version)
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
In these climactic “Last Days”, or “daze” as most Christians seem to be experiencing, if you can believe the polls and judged by the Christians inability to achieve conformity to the likeness of Jesus., we have much work to do before He can return to claim His bride.
Revelations 19: 7-9
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands symbolizes righteous acts of the saints.)
Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
There are so many gaps and unconnected dots between the actions of those called “followers of Jesus Christ”, or “Christians”, and our operations manual, the Holy Bible, which is quite explicit in its warnings of the deep, unparalleled, levels of deception that Satan unleashes in “these;last days”, to confound and confuse (Babylon means confusion), those that are still locked into the values of this world..as opposed to the values of His Word and His World, “The Kingdom of God”.
Since the early days of the church, when it’s first converts and members were “born from above” by the amazing, unparalleled, arrival of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, as cloven tongues of fire fell on them all and entered into each of the one hundred and twenty followers of Jesus, in that “upper room”, that auspicious Day of Pentecost,and they all, one hundred and twenty of them, disciples and Apostles of Jesus, “spoke in tongues”, as the Spirit gave them utterance. They raised such a commotion of extraordinary joy and amazement, that thousands of Jews that had gathered in Jerusalem, to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, heard the ruckus and murmured to each other outside, some accused the celebrants in that upper room of all being drunk, and others were amazed since they were hearing the assembly speaking in all the languages of the various visiting Jews from all over the known world at that time So Peter had to go out on the balcony and shout his first sermon to the crowds gathered below, “We are not drunk as you suppose., but this is that spoken by the prophet Joel,.we have all been filled with the Holy Spirit to fulfill the visions of Joel in the Old Testament.... Joel Chapter III
Joel; 1-6, After this I will pour out my spirit on all flesh,Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,your old men will dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions Even on the slaves, men and women, I will display portents ion heaven and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
So began the church that auspicious day with a “new thing”, so surprising, so unexpected and so revolutionary and revelatory (and so strange..speaking in tongues with stammering lips),that it eventually turned the world upside down, and inside out.
For awhile the early newborn church was a mighty force and fortress, until it gradually became weakened (attacked by the Roman Empire version of Christs Church a counterfeit version, a Roman Empire version as an arm of the "State". That Roman Empire version "overwhelmed" the original Holy Ghost formed and supervised community of believers, that had developed after the "outpouring" of the Holy Spirit on that Pentacost Day. and drove it underground), and dissolute over the centuries.and lost its luster, and attractiveness until today, where the miracles have lessened to a trickle, the unity and love has all but vanished, and the Christians themselves seem to have reached the end of the journey where they sit on a bench at a crossroads , not certain where to go, what "brand" of church life to "BUY INTO"and attendm of the thousands on the shelf to choose from, who to believe, or what to do to revive themselves and Unite as One into that mighty force that once changed the world for Christ, that phenomenon we call Joel's army. But perhaps that army is yet to come.
Until your eyes (spiritual eyes that is) are opened you will not understand that the existence of Luciferic powers has been the bane of mankind and the church (ie all religions) since the earliest stages of human history..and until Christians in particular, achieve the objectivity in their quest for truth, to undertake truly objective cleansing of or from, the many existing "denominational" heresies,
(denominations,,sectarianism, squabbling over words and phrases instead of lovingly and prayerfully arriving at “Truth” together via The Holy Spirit” as a local church thus functioning as the Bible declares.. in Unity and Love. The divisions and the heretical notion of denominations is a result of Lucifer's relentless attacks with his arsenal of “spirits" and demons that divide and subdivide the impatient and slothful Christians who are ignoring the scriptures that warn against just that tendency..along with the false prophets and false teachers that proliferate the church today) it will never be the shining light on the hill for all to seek refuge and sanctuary and healing.
The good news is that our founder and true leader Jesus, predicted the ignominious condition of today's version of Christianity..it is called Babylon..or more precisely..the Whore of Babylon..and since Babylon is now a rebuilt city just sixty miles South of Baghdad..and since a very large segment of that American Christian population supports our invasion and occupation..we are witnessing the final countdown to the reckless and imbecilic march into the awaiting hands and plans of that long predicted and long debated "man of sin", that miracle worker that will so astound the world that all religions will fall to his feet like the willing slaves that they are. Willing slaves to what? Willing slaves to human leaders hell bent on personal power, materialism, idolatry, and greed.
"The Crack of Doom is Coming Soon"
Joel 2:1-32
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand-- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste-- nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle. At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale. They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks. They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows.
(Jesus says that when He comes again it will be as “a thief in the night”}
Before them the earth shakes, the sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?
"Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning". Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing-- grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, "Spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"
Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. The Lord will reply to them: "I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. "I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise." Surely he has done great things. Be not afraid, O land; be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things. Be not afraid, O wild animals, for the open pastures are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm-- my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.
28 "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
(this is a forecast of the true church where all gender issues have disappeared forever, where men and women are treated equally in His church, where the feminine aspect of God is fully and finally revealed to bring balance, nurturing, purity, peacefulness and long-suffering back into the fold we call the church. In Christ there is no Jew nor Greek or racial distinctions at all as well there are no gender issues of male nor female. In Christ we are all One!)
I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
New International Version
And so we are now faced with another “new thing” to finish what Jesus started and what He died for, a church without spot or blemish so that there can be a wedding, the long awaited and long debated “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” to bring His body, the church into intimacy with Himself as the One and only only Head.
Ephesians 25, 26, 27, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
A woman is used as a symbol many times in the Scriptures... "Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh." (Isa. 62:11.) Here the reference is to the Church. Again Paul (Gal. 4:31) says, "Ye are not the children of the bond woman, but of the free woman." Most are agreed that here the free woman represents the Church. Again (Rev. 21:2), John sees the New Jerusalem descending adorned as a bride to meet her husband. The bride, the Lamb's wife, here and in the ninth verse, indeed in every place spoken of, is the Church. Once more: Paul speaks of Jerusalem, the mother of us all, alluding again to the Church. This symbol, then, is a common one to represent the Church, and we are justified in declaring that to be its meaning in this passage.
Romans 8 8:19-22
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.
Malachi, "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the Lord Almighty".
Often I have experienced during deep intercessory prayer the groanings and even the pain and tears for the world and especially for the church itself in its obviously slumbering,divided, materialistic, condition of sheep think.,.that dread disorder that plagues the entire human race but especially disconcerting is the hunger in Christians to be told what to think and what to do and how to interpret the bible instead of learning how to trust the Holy Spirit as their teacher and Jesus as the only true Head and Husband of His Bride, the Church..not the man they see, and hear every Sunday standing on a box in front of the boxy buildings they call church. I of course realize that the leaders of the churches will be quite offended by my message..but that is not my problem is it? If what I am saying is what the bible teaches then I am on safe ground..or standing on the rock which is Christ Himself.
One part of the message I am about to deliver to you is that it is now time to leave the box that confines and suffocates and step outside where nature and the Sun of righteousness is calling you to free you from ecclesiastical hum drum and and doctrinaire straight jackets outfitted in the salons of faint hearted narrow minded traditions of men and their dogmatism. Come out from her (Babylon, the carnally minded, proud, materialistic, politically powerful organization called “The Whore of Babylon), and learn from her (nature)..just like Jesus preached and still proclaims today. Nature and the light of day.the Sun, who shines on the just and the unjust, unbounded by walls of separation and the false security of buildings designed to keep people in line like cattle or sheep in stalls and rows
( And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall) . entranced and hypnotized by the show up front and the leader demanding their attention each and every meeting time.
The Visions of Annie.
Annie, a young Argentine woman, was gifted and anointed by God to be one of the human vessels in the "last days" to experience supernatural visions and dreams in order to help clarify and throw the "light of understanding" on the the scriptures regarding the Apocalyptic "last days" events foretold in the Bible. Many of the visions experienced by the prophets and recorded in the Holy Scriptures were to be sealed until "the time of the end" as stated in the book of Daniel (12;9)
. Annie was caught up into the heavenlies by the Spirit as a young teen age girl and a "new born" child of Christ. The visions and experiences she had were so staggering in their uniqeness, magnitude, and purity of the transcendent realities in the heavenliness, that to even find words to try to describe them was very difficult and painful.for her. Her Pastor, Edward Miller, worked with her patiently over long periods of time to write down and carefully phrase each of the visions as precisely as humanly possible, even though the experiences and visions usually defied the scope of the "ordinary reality" either of them had ever experienced before.
Annie's experiences were foreshadowed and described by the Apostle Paul who said "I know a man whether in the body or out of the body I know not, that was taken to the third heaven. And I know that this same man (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know -God knows) was caught up into paradise, and heard words so secret that human lips may not repeat them.( 2 Cor. 12;15),
In Annie's case, she was authorized and instructed by the Lord to express and describe her visions because they are directly related to the last days revelations and warnings that the church needs to hear in order to better understand the plans and purposes of God Almighty as He unfolds His plans in the face of the agenda of the archenemy, Lucifer, the Fallen One.
Quoting from the introduction of Book One written by Bro. Miller. "It seems that in the group of visions He has desired to introduce us to some of the hidden mysteries concerning the church and His dealings with it as well the works of the enemy and the mystery of iniquity and in a small measure how it operates.
These visions are in parable and symbolic form and many times in a cryptic manner, yet throughout the ancient times it was ever so that God spoke through his prophets. There were things that they themselves could not understand nor even decipher.
We are made to realize with a terrific impact of truth that the hour of the bringing forth of His End Time manifestations and his revealing of these hidden things of the mysteries is now upon us. We cannot postpone any longer into some distant future our beliefs, but know that these things in reality are upon us and He is telling His own ones who have a hearing ear. For He has promised to His own Sons of Light that these things should not come upon them "as a thief in the night", but that they should be warned and informed before that time.
Our prayer is that unto the Sons of Light and to those who have been given a hearing ear, there shall be given also the quickening of the Holy Spirit to read and to understand these things."
What follows are some visions from the book; “I Looked and I saw the Lord”, which is book one of three books recording the visions of Annie.
“Three times today He took me into the spirit and told me to loose and bring forth what he had given me to tell, but I could not understand it at all. Then in the service that same evening He came again and loosed my tongue: "Mark this date on your calendar (September 3, 1971) for today the prince of evil is loosed. My people are not to fear, but are to take and declare their place in me for this prince of evil cannot harm them." Then He showed me that not only had he loosed this prince of evil who would slowly bring in his evil reign, but that this prince could see beforehand the manner of his own destruction and those whom God would use to destroy him and his kingdom: he would be dethroned and his kingdom destroyed by God's own ones as they walked in Him. Then I saw this prince begin to put into action the operation of his kingdom which was built slowly, with great care and with many astute wiles of evil.
Then He showed me His own ones like an army prepared for battle who were marching in victory with fire under their feet- the fire of his kingdom of evil that was loosed. In nowise could this fire of wrath hurt them.
Over their heads there was still another fire-the fire of God- which was for them a covering by day and by night. Under their feet was the fire of evil and the prince of evil loosed, and over their heads was the fire of God. These two fires were so totally different that there was absolutely no resemblance between them at all.
Above the fire of God there marched another army-Gods army of powerful forces which marched with his army below and gave them strength and power for victory by these powerful forces of God that accompanied the army of His own ones who were marching under the fire of His covering love and victory. These powerful forces of the heavenly armies of righteousness were put into action by the action of the faith of His army upon the earth. Because they were continually taking faith for victory, these powerful forces were continually in action giving them the victory. Those heavenly forces did not fight with any visible or spiritual weapons, but simply by exerting their own mighty forces and powers.
I understood that this kingdom of evil shall not appear as evil at first, to the contrary, to be able to deceive His own ones (if this were possible), it shall come camouflaged as good, for the enemy desires at all costs to hide from reality what he is doing.
Yet at this very moment God shall awaken in his own ones a powerful uprising and warfare against the very movement of deceit which, as a sedative, had lulled them to sleep.
However, even before the chaos of this storm of evil breaks, God shall liberate in His own army a victory of faith which shall enable them to walk upon the fire of his flood of evil. The powerful faith which shall be given as a gift of God, is the only thing that shall be effective against the kingdom of evil that shall be loosed at that time”.
SCENE ON THE SCREEN
“On this day August 20, I found it very hard to enter into His presence in prayer. I was in much desperation of spirit and in many tears. Suddenly I found m myself in the spirit. There was Jesus in all His usual beauty and splendor and the angels with Him. Immediately, all the sense of desperation left and there flooded my being that tremendous love and peace that He ever radiates upon me. All welcomed me with such tender looks and sweet smiles. But right away Jesus spoke to me , telling me to look. As I did so, I saw as it were, a large screen before me like a window into another world. The angels with me also turned to look at the scene so strangely portrayed before me. In that scene, I saw Christ seated upon a throne, Around Him were many angels.
But how strange it was! This Christ that I saw before me was a manifestation so vastly different from the One who stood beside me and bade me look. There He was so high, so filled with glory and splendor and so vastly increased in size and majesty. All the angels standing around Him also were of a type of beings I had never before seen. Because they were distinctly different in their whole beings and vastly much brighter and greater in size, I knew immediately that they were of an order of angelic beings much superior to those hitherto and to those who were with me looking at this portrayal or manifestation. They were so much more beautiful and perfect in their harmonious beings, yet they radiated tenderness and love and great kindness. The Christ so glorious and beautiful ao far, far superior to those glorious beings surrounding Him, allowed me to see His wounds. Oh how different they were! He wore them as blazing jewels. They shined forth in beautiful rays and He wore them like beautiful ornaments of His Person. This Christ was so mighty, brilliant and awesome that I was filled with dread. But the Jesus who stood beside me and showed me this manifestation of His greater self in majesty and power spoke to me telling me not to fear. Then this fear left me.
In front of this Christ seated upon a throne was a great white (clear, transparent) stone like marble. It was white, polished and very beautiful but it appeared dead (skull) This was the first time I had ever seen anything dead in the regions of heaven. As I watched this more glorious Christ so filled with majesty and power spoke to me. His words coming to me caused a great impact in my inner being. It was like a great bolt of electric current passing through me. I fully understood what He said to me but when I came out of that place I was not enabled to remember what He said
Then He spoke to the great stone that was before Him and His words seemed to enter into that stone and it began to change “(grace grace unto it”) Life entered in to it and it became a living stone. Life was plainly visible within it. Then it began to have movement in itself and changed its substance and became filled with light, shining forth in radiant splendor. This caused me much wonder.
Although all were so very different from the angels and Jesus at my side I was made so certain that it was one and the same Jesus but in a higher and so much more sublime realm. From Him-even though so much higher and majestic- I could feel that same tender love. He was so filled with goodness, kindness, sweetness and tenderness that He did not cause me any fear, though otherwise I knew that I would have been terribly afraid.
THE MAJESTIC CHRIST
... Then He showed me something very wonderful that He held in His hands. It was glorious and filled me with wonder. The angels also showed me something that they had in their hands which was very wonderful. All this while , the power that had come forth from His mouth sustained and upheld me so that I fainted not at the glory of that sight. High above the head of Jesus were great clouds of glory nd light and luster, but I could not look into them at all. In these clouds there was someone hidden, a person with whom Christ was conversing. I could hear the conversation and the voices, but I was not enabled to remember either the words they spoke or what the thing was that they showed me in their hands.
THE WRATH OF CHRIST
As I was lying on my prayer mat worshipping the Lord, I was taken into the realms of the spirit. I found myself placed under a transparent canopy of pure love. It was the strangest and loveliest feeling, very real and tangible, like a living substance given to fully cover me, as it were in a hiding place. I felt myself overflowing with the love of Jesus. It was not like anything ever before experienced and I felt so at rest and so utterly secure. I saw Jesus at close distance to me in the highest plane yet visited. So mighty, He seemed larger than the greatest mountains. He was the very same glorious and majestic Christ I had seen the evening before.
But how terrible was his face and visage! He was utterly transformed from the loving Jesus I had known before. Now He was in great wrath and his fury was awful to behold. I have seen the visage of furious animals when they are fighting, but the face was far more terrible than any animal in its fury. It was so dreadful that had
I not been totally covered, I would have perished by the sight. He was directing all His wrath in the opposite direction from my place of refuge. I saw Him rise up in His mounting fury and step up on a terrible ball of shining fire. But it was not a kind of fire like the fire of love. It was a consuming, burning, destructive fire like a huge sun, but far larger and brighter than the sun has ever shined. In the heat of His fury, He mounted up at terrible velocity upon the frightening, living fireball. From His head there shot forth rays of great power and terrible destruction. As He began to rise up, He spoke to a waiting group of tremendous angelic beings who were in rank and order like a mighty host of warriors. All of them were angels of the highest order and rank belonging to this sphere. They were all in great brightness and they too were all terribly furious. They all seemed to fully reflect in their own beings the terrible wrath of the Christ against His enemies. As He spoke to them rising up in great speed and violence, the angels shot precipitously down in the direction of His wrath, also in great speed and violence against the enemies who to me were unseen. They all rushed downwards as if they were anxiously seeking prey to destroy. From their hands also shot forth the same rays of power which had come forth with such violence from Jesus hands.
In spite of all this terrible and frightening display of divine wrath, in spite of His visage so utterly transformed into rage that I had never imagined possible, I felt secure in my covering of Love. So secure was I so loved and loving him. But at the same time I found myself fully approving of His wrath and fury. I felt it was so right and so just, so correct in spite of the fearsome aspect. Nothing in all the worlds nor under the worlds nor in heaven itself could stand against such terrible fury and divine WRATH. So powerful was it and so violent that words can never tell the frightening wonder and splendor of such fury. I knew in me that something was about to take place.
When I first saw this scene, all were waiting in the full manifestation of expectancy for Him to rise and put on His great wrath. I felt no fear nor dread for I was so fully and securely covered with His Love. Nevertheless, I never want to see this beautiful, tender and powerful Jesus arise in fury like that ever again.
WRATH CONTINUED
Looking at this Christ, I saw Him mounted upon this great ball of terrible fire which increased in fury and size until it utterly enveloped Him and even seemed to consume Him, but at the same time it did not consume Him. This took place not all at once, but as it were in a process of time and before it fully enveloped Him. I saw Him throw something very great and brilliant to the mighty angels waiting below Him in eager expectancy. When He threw this to them, they caught it and with extreme care and keenest interest rose up and formed a guardian circle about it, taking the greatest care of it while his fire and wrath fully enveloped Him. I saw what it was that He threw to them but I was not given to recall what it was afterwards. These guardian angels were very similar to the warrior angels I saw previously, but this time they were not participating in his fury and were not in any aspect prepared for war. They were of the same powerful and mighty
class who were all set to maintain careful guard over this treasure.
THE TWELVE STONES
.....I saw Him in the glory cloud...Beneath the cloud was an immense Saphire-Crystal stone, transparent and filled with glory light and life. Within this great Saphire-Crystal I saw as it were a great edifice built. And within this edifice there were living stones each one a different color and shape but of the same size. They were most wonderful to behold, so full of glory life, and so brilliantly shining with that inexplicable celestial light that I knew they were of great importance. I looked again and saw that there were twelve in number. I did not count them but I was made to know this even without counting for He gave me to understand their number.
Each one of these twelve stones had directly under it a large number of like stones all arranged according to its head stone. These under stones though somewhat smaller than the head stones were of equal color, brilliance, and glory and were equal in size one with another. The number of the under stones I could not tell nor was I informed. Also within this great Sapphire were myriad's of angels praising and ministering.”
I am not going to launch out here on an interpretation of theses unusual and provocative dreams..that will come later but as you can see they are colossal in their magnitude and majesty and can fill us with a new sense of wonder in our Spirits.just what God intends for us so we can be liberated from the carnal mind that plagues us today in Christendom.
What an event that was. Just imagine one hundred nineteen other people, like yourself, all praying together and suddenly “like a mighty wind”, you all were filled with “tongues of fire” and all of you “spoke in tongues.”
So after that kind of experience they were all pretty well persuaded that they must do something for all their friends and neighbors from all parts of the known world so they started preaching and declaring the’ Good News” that Jesus had promised them before He left to assume His rightful place as Lord over all and to begin building His church, as He had envisioned it before His crucifixion and resurrection. In His words..
JOHN 17:20 "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
EPH 1:22-24 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
So church there is only one Head and one body..not the many headed hydra we call churches or that we try to pass off as Christianity to the unsaved world. We must return to the Apostles admonition to speak with one voice again. As long as we sincerely point to Jesus and lift Him up only..not our favorite politicians or celebrity preachers or tired teachers but Jesus only, He has promised that “He will draw all people unto Himself” and we will truly see the fire again falling on His weakened, separated, starved, thirsty, grumbling and whining people.
So..church,..our leader, Jesus, demands of us that we achieve a type of Unity that simply does not yet exist. on this planet in Christendom. That we all become one body..like in Ezekiel when the bones in the bone yard, (we are all dead and buried in Christ..I must remind you because what will follow might seem a bit harrowing to you that have forgotten all our dread past circumstances once born again)..
”The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy up King James Version
Ezekiel 37:1-14
on these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
Jesus said that He would build His church, that is His assembly of called-out, saved people, His body. He did not promise to build many separate, fractured, warring, disparate churches, like thousands of splinters on His cross, that would fight against one another over pet doctrines, that would pursue racist policies, create monolithic, male dominated authoritarian organizations and preach “hate thy neighbor..if he does not believe the same lies as you do.”. He desired that His church (assembly of called out ones that all must be “born again” and receive His Spirit just like the early, primitive church of Pentecost, ) be unified upon the Word that the apostles taught. And, in the first century, this was the case, one church with people following one Word delivered by the authority of Christ's apostles.
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
Isaiah 5:20
Let’s talk about light..What it is and what to do with it to nourish and empower those that are more thirsty and hungry and dissatisfied with her (the church) condition of apparent helplessness, in their innermost desire to follow Jesus only, to submit Gods plan for her.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.
then...
Ge 1:16 - God made two great lights--the greater light to govern (rule) the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
Ge 1:17 -God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth,
Ge 1:18 -to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Isaiah 45:7
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.
Samuel 23:1-7
1 These are the last words of David: "The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs: 2 "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: 'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, 4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.' 5 "Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? 6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. 7 Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear; they are burned up where they lie."
Ecclesiastics 7:11-22
11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. 12 For wisdom is a defense, F21 and money is a defense: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
Matthew 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
The eye (soul) is the lamp (inner light) of the body - And what the eye is to the body, the sun to the soul. If thine eye be single - Singly fixed on God and His Kingdom above and not preoccupied with her carnal needs and materialistic desires, thy whole soul will be full of holiness and happiness. Also, the corollary of this insight is also true..If the body is filled with light..the eye (of the soul) will be single.
The brain (mind?) of man is a many faceted organ that has many levels and depths of activity. Consciously it is like a beehive of activity swirling with thoughts, ideas, beliefs, insights, fears, depressions, inspirations, aggressions, passions, and a multitude of emotions that constantly erupt to the surface in mostly random ways. Try as he may (or she), the mind is uncontrollable until focussed with an exertion from what we call “the will”, but even then “self will” lacks the spiritual power to sustain that pristine and pure awareness of Jesus in our constant attempts to maintain that precious relationship nmo matter what our circumstances may be. Faith of course is the seed that can grow into a mighty tree but few are those that attain that kind of faith..but without it is is impossible to please God
To bring the mind completely under control is the task of every Christian, in order to totally submit oneself to the Will of God..as Jesus did. (Remember even Jesus Himself agonized all night long, even sweating blood from exertion in order to bring His mind and His will totally under submission to the mind and will of His Father in Heaven. A Herculean task indeed but one that we must emulate and attend to in order to achieve that same state of “Oneness” and submission to the perfect will of God Almighty)
Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit in order to empower us to live a holy life and it is up to each of us to undertake that extremely difficult task. I believe that the early church was taught disciplines that the scriptures allude to but as teachings today have been all but lost over the centuries as civilization (including of course the first Christians), has evolved into the complex material laden..comfort driven..entertainment engaging..pleasure seeking..sensory satiated..nature disconnected society of today. Keep in mind that the early “primitive” church was a far simpler society that lived very close to nature and was deeply rooted in an agrarian mode of survival. They planted and harvested in tune with nature, their festivals and days of remembrance were tied to the heavens and the sun and moon were constant reminders of extreme importance and reckoning because they measured and calculated everything in accordance with their seasonal movements.
Matthew 17:1-13
1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
But, even before the end of the first century, the apostles were warning Christians, especially the leaders (elders, bishops) in local churches, there would be some even from their own ranks who would present false teaching and lead others after them.
ACT 20:28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
20:29 "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
:31 "Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.
32 "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
1 TImothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
1 TImothy 4:2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,
1 TImothy 4:3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.
1 TImothy 4:4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude;
1 TImothy 4:5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.
OK how did we depart from the early pure church that behaved itself unselfishly in obedience to the twelve apostles?
Whatever groups and so-called churches that have come about down through the years all, in some way, began to spring from these sources. Men, especially those with authority over local groups, began to become corrupted not only in their teaching, but in how they exercised authority over the Lord's people. One elder began to take charge of the other elders in a local church. Then, over time, that elder would take charge over other local churches. Finally, in 606 A.D., the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church was officially recognized. But, God had not instructed or intended any of this. When the apostles were alive, they appointed elders (plural or collegiate body), for each congregation and their authority was to be over that congregation only and not over any other local church.
ACT 14:23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
When Christ Himself spoke to Paul and called him, He could have opened his eyes at once and made known to him the way of perfection; instead He sent him to Ananias and told him to learn from him the way of truth, saying: Arise and go into the city, and there you will be told what you must do (Acts 9:6). In this manner He teaches us to be guided by those who are advanced on the way, so that the vision rightly given to Paul should not be wrongly interpreted; otherwise it might lead later generations presumptuously to suppose that each individual must be initiated into the truth directly by God, as Paul was, and not by the fathers or elders that have gone before.…
Then, as time passed, people began to react to the corruption and false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and from this came all of the Protestant churches that we know such as Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist and so on. To their credit many of these leaders and scholars had the intention of rejecting Catholic authority and false teaching and they went back to the bible depending again on the Hoply Spirit as their source of authority, however, too often, Catholic tradition was simply replaced with a newer more refined Protestant tradition. Therefore, instead of one corrupt church, now there were many by the end of the 18th century.
Therefore, there are so many churches because people have been given the choice as to what they will teach, believe and follow. And, unfortunately, many, who do not know any better, have followed the traditions of men, rather than what is written in the Word of God. The only way we can overcome this is to examine honestly the Word of God and our own actions to see if we are following that which has been given to us by God through the apostles. In this way, we can be Christians, members of His church, not belonging to any false church(s), but worshipping and working with those who are similarly seeking to only follow the New Testament and the hidden,metaphorical and symbolic meaning of the Old, as their primary source of spiritual authority and be called by His name, not by any other. We can be just Christians, member of the church of Christ and as far as God is concerned, that is enough for any of us in this life.
ACT 17:10 ¶ And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
ACT 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so.
ACT 17:12 Many of them therefore believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
2 Timothy 3:17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
ACT 11:26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church, and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
GAL 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
GAL 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (remember in the last days the true church will emerge as a woman “clothed in the sun”, to supplant the historical “churches” ie Babylon traditions)
GAL 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Somehow we must achieve that UNITARY state of mind again like the early apostles. We must become apostolic soldiers again, so can actually feel the pain of the divisive, slothful, shallow, carnally minded, churches, lest we become part of “The Whore of Babylon”.
GAL 3:29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
In short, I am pleading for all to examine the teachings of whatever church they are members of, compare with the Bible and if it is against the Bible, reject it and the so called authority behind it which perpetuates it. Although difficult, this is not impossible for, since the first century on, all generations have been faced with this dilemma. We should not be called or follow the Baptist, Catholic, Mormon or any other church because we can neither read of them directly nor infer indirectly that Jesus or His apostles authorized them in any way. They are the creation of the mind of men and the traditions handed down by that particular organization, and although may follow some things that are in the Bible, the whole basis for their even existing is to be challenged by the simple Word that we can all read in the New Testament. Even during the lives of the apostles, Christians began departing from the faith of the gospel as the apostles preached it. Despite warning of dire consequences (Gal. 1:6-9, e.g.), people were perverting the gospel. The book of James was written in part to combat the notion that one is justified by "faith alone" (that is, without having to DO anything), while the book of Romans was written in part to combat the idea that one could be justified by "works" (by "doing good"), apart from the gospel's faith. The book of 1 John taught against the notion that some Christians had that Jesus did not really come in the flesh at all. The entire gospel had been revealed prior to the death of the last apostle, but once there were no apostles, men began "taking their places." For example, in Acts 14:23, we find that elders (plurality of overseers..not one human leader, a collegiate group agreeing together by the Spirit) were appointed in every church. It was the duty of the elders to guard, teach and pastor the flock. This was not to be the responsibility or authority of any one man, even in a local congregation. In Acts 20, Paul summoned the elders from Ephesus and warned them that among their own number savage wolves would come, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29-31). Then, as now, the only remedy would be to hold fast the word that the apostles taught. But as certain elders grew more influential, there were appointed "chief elders," or bishops, of each congregation. Soon, among the collection of bishops there also arose those who were over the others. By the time of Constantine (300's) the church had digressed from leadership by local elders over local congregation to the sectarian system of most churches today, which leads to the Babylon's model of a hierarchy that rules and reigns like a monarchy system that has so ruined and corrupted Christianity over the centuries. Instead of the priesthood of the believers that the bible teaches we have an elitist system that is perpetuated age after age until today's fragmented and divided church quarreling over pet doctrines, and leading their congregations astray dangerously close to what the Book of Revelations calls, “The Whore of Babylon., a backslidden, carnal, arm of the state instead of the church that jesus is forming His bride without spot or blemish.”
Isa 43:19 - See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Jer 31:22 How long will you wander, O unfaithful daughter? The Lord will create a new thing on earth-- a woman will surround a man."
Huh? A woman will surround a man? What kind of talk is that? How can a woman surround a man you may wonder. Here’s how..speaking in biblical ways as types, symbols, and literally all in one fell swoop.
Revelation 12:1-11
1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
The woman is the bride of Christ here or daughter of God..a supernatural woman who surrounds a man.. engulfs and encompasses him, in order to create within him a “new thing” destined to replace the unfaithful daughter, the Whore of Babylon, the fallen church.
We have to be very very careful here as we attempt to define and delineate the church of history and the new church the new thing God has promised to do for His Son..or as is said in Malachi the “Sun of Righteousness” to represent him more perfectly to this world in dire need for redemption, sanctification and transformation.
OK a woman clothed (surrounded by the sun)..about to give birth to a son (man child) surrounding the man (child) in her womb.
1, 2. A woman clothed with the sun. A woman is used as a symbol many times in the Scriptures. "Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh." (Isa. 62:11.) Here the reference is to the Church. Again Paul (Gal. 4:31) says, "Ye are not the children of the bond woman, but of the free woman." All are agreed that here the free woman represents the Church. Again (Rev. 21:2), John sees the New Jerusalem descending adorned as a bride to meet her husband. The bride, the Lamb's wife, here and in the ninth verse, indeed in every place spoken of, is the Church. Once more: Paul speaks of Jerusalem, the mother of us all, alluding again to the Church. This symbol, then, is a common one to represent the Church, and we are justified in declaring that to be its meaning in this passage. The fact that she is clothed with the sun symbolizes the fact that the true Church shines with the light of the Sun of Righteousness as predicted in Malachi. The moon under her feet represents the Old Testament, or dispensation, which shone by a reflected light and is subordinate to the New Covenant of the Church. The crown of twelve stars is explained by the twelve apostles, lights of the Church and a crown of glory to it. 2. She being with child cried. Again we must let the Scripture explain its own meaning. "As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." (Isa. 66:8.) The travail of Zion causeth an increase.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Malachi
1 "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. 3 Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the Lord Almighty.
8 Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah 9 Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
and yet..
and yet..
Judges 5 5:31
"So may all your enemies perish, O Lord! But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength." Then the land had peace forty years.
Revelation 1
1:16
In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
Revelation 19
19:17
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God,
in its entirety
1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." 3 And again they shouted: "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever." 4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!"
5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!" 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) 9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God." 10 At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Psalm 19
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.
11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great." 19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
SEE BOOK OF REVELATIONS SEVEN CHURCHES
ALSO “Christian Book of the Dead”(my attempt at humor)
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit! And having said this he breathed his last.
Matthew 2727:45
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: ~this is jesus, the king of the jews. 38 Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. 45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah." 48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him."
ACT 20:28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
ACT 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.
ACT 2:30-47 "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, nor did His flesh suffer decay.
"This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
"Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
"For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: 'The Lord said to my Lord,"Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet. "'
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified."
¶ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"
8 And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
"For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself."
And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"
So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
¶ And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common;
and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
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