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Trumpets W8 - W12

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This page contains the last 5 of the 12 War College Trumpets. To access the War College Index with its description of the contents of all 12 essays, and to access the link to the page containing W1-W7, and to have the option to download the complete War College as a bookmarked PDF document, click the navigation button above.

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W8 The Trojan Horse of Theology
W9 Brothers-at-Arms
W10 Brothers Disarmed
W11 Our War is All About Words
W12 You Fight Like You Train

War College Trumpet W8

The Trojan Horse Eve Let In: THEOLOGY

A man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” (Mt 10:36)

 

God’s people lost the very first battle in the Bible. It was fought over the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the battle is important not just because it is among a number of other “firsts” in the Bible, but because it is an epitomized blueprint of the War: It shows what God wants us to do, and it shows how Satan tries to “help” us serve God.

God’s weapon is His literal word. Properly using His Sword requires submissive obedience to what it literally says. God literally said, Don’t eat the forbidden fruit. No theological analysis was required; it was a no-brainer for Adam and Eve: Don’t eat the fruit!

Satan isn’t an idiot; he knows the Lord’s literal, inerrant weapon isn’t mighty just because it exists, it is mighty because of what the Holy Spirit does behind the scenes when believers faithfully do what the Bible says. The problem Satan faced was the fact that God is our arm of strength, and He doesn’t require much of His people: all they had to do was exactly what He said – a duty that merely required submissive obedience, not brains. Again, that simple obedience was important not because of the action in and of itself, but because it would cause/allow the Holy Spirit to become involved. That was what Satan had to prevent. Hmm, how could Satan defeat the church without letting the majority of Christians know what was happening? Being obvious by asking Christians to oppose God wouldn’t work because even carnal Christians aren’t that stupid, so Satan had to come up with a way to make the Sword of the Lord – His inerrant literal word, which is the only weapon the church has – of no effect. The Sword of the Lord is the one and only “gate” by which Christians can access God’s help. But that gate is strait and narrow because it is only opened if:

 

1. Christians have what Eve didn’t – enough faith to believe the literal Thus saith the Lord, and

 

2. do what Eve didn’t – do exactly what God said...as if He really is God Almighty, and we really are His humble, faithful servants who live not by bread alone, but by every word of God.

 

Faith is the victory! So all Satan had to do was undermine faith and belief in the literal truth of God’s word while making it look like theology was helping the church, thus making well-intentioned Christians think theology was their friend because its tools were helping them serve and please God by figuring out what He really meant to say...instead of obeying what He literally said.

 

That’s why Satan invented theology. He wants well-intentioned leavened Christians to subvert the church from within by convincing other well-intentioned Christians that theology is not only their friend, it’s a much-needed ally because it’ll help them figure out “what God really meant”. It’s as simple as that. Theology could not exist and would have no purpose if Christians had the faith to believe what God said about His word. If faith and belief in God and His word are present, they allow the Holy Spirit to make His Sword efficacious. Therefore, in the garden Satan needed to convince Christians that using their God-given brains was the true key to success – not simple obedience.

Eve could not refute Satan’s Reason-based theology: Knowing what things were good and what things were bad really did seem like a good way to please God by being smart enough to do “good” (rather than being faithful enough to simply do what He says). Satan’s theology took advantage of a simply-worded Bible verse about good and evil that seemed puzzling: Even today most theologians, preachers, and pewsters have no idea why God would consider it bad to have a knowledge of good and evil. So theology convinced Eve to find a deeper, better meaning behind God’s words. But theology failed mankind; God really did mean what He literally said, so the Lord had to accept defeat by kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden.

History has shown Eve to be a type of well-intentioned-but-subverted modern Christians whose respect for theology has caused them to reject faith in God and His inerrant literal word by trying to figure out what He “really meant to say”. And history has shown Adam to be a type of half-assed KJVers whose tolerance for theology and modern Bible versions has allowed a huge percentage of Christians to be completely unaware that a single Book (the KJV) and its adherents (Bible believers) are under a relentless assault by Enlightened theologians and modern-version-using Christians. KJVers should make it loud and clear that the ERROR manuscripts and the versions that come from them are dangerously subversive and those who use them will not enjoy the fellowship of Bible believers. Walk away.

I say again in case I haven’t made it obvious enough: Well-intentioned KJVers have, via their silence and their willingness to tolerate and fellowship with born-again brothers who use modern versions and/or layman’s aids, created a subversive “peace, peace, when there is no peace”. That peace has allowed many of our brethren to not even know God’s household is divided into two groups:

 

  • The larger group does not believe God’s inerrant word exists in any Bible version or manuscript on earth, and therefore relies on Reason and research via theology to establish doctrines and to determine how we should live and serve God.

 

  • The smaller group accepts the miraculous and unique inerrancy of the AV1611 as God’s proof that He really has preserved His word for us, and KJVers therefore rely on faith and the Holy Spirit via Bible study in order to make the literal word of God our sole authority in all matters of faith and practice.

 

All Christians need to know that the term Bible believer is synonymous with KJVer; they need to know all Bible believers reject theology as evil and subversive; they need to know all Bible believers live by every literal word of God; and all Christians also need to know Bible believers do not fellowship with non-KJVers or with those who espouse theology and use layman’s aids. KJVers are always nice to their subverted brethren, and are always ready, willing, and able to help them understand the reasons the Bible version controversy exists, but Bible believers will not go in among them and fellowship with unclean dumpster divers.

Way too many Christians have no idea that the Bible version controversy exists or what the issues are. They don’t know “the original autographs” don’t exist, they don’t know modern-version-using preachers have redefined God’s word because they reject the existence of God’s word as the Lord defines it, they don’t know why their layman’s-aid-using brethren are pompous fools, and they don’t know that when theologians are asked what theology (as opposed to Bible study) has revealed that has actually helped Christianity they babble and sputter and can only come up with inconsequential trivialities. If KJVers would make it very clear that theology and Bible study are at enmity with each other more of our brethren will want to look into the issue and many – like we were – will be drawn to the Light. A couple of examples:

A 48-year-old Baptist pastor with a wife and daughter was looking online for graphics he might use. As a KJVer he found some wallpapers he liked at TheSwordbearer.org  At first he didn’t pay attention to the doctrinal stuff because he told me he thought it’d be the same stuff he was already preaching. But my pro-Bible-study / anti-theology stand made him wonder what could possibly be wrong with theology...and he began to read some of the online chapters, was drawn to the Light, and then studied The AOR. Once he understood the Reason-based nature of theology and how it undermines faith, he carefully used Bible study to examine his doctrinal beliefs...and like the Bereans in Act 17:10,11 faithfully based his doctrines on Thus saith the Lord rather than on what his denomination had taught him. The point: His stumbling across someone who is clearly opposed to theology helped him. He had never heard anybody do that before and had therefore erroneously thought theology was a good part of Christianity.

Second example: Many Christians who visit TheSwordbearer.org are intrigued by the undeniable fact that the Bible version controversy (Is the Bible the inspired, inerrant word of God...or is it “just a translation”?) always focuses on the KJV and never on other versions. Others are surprised to learn that the modern versions say Elhanan killed Goliath. Others are curious about why those stupid rabbits are all over the web site. Others are surprised to learn that all modern Bible versions are full of errors – they had previously (like you and I did) ignorantly assumed all Bible versions are inerrant and pretty much the same. These brothers and sisters are often surprised, delighted, encouraged, and strengthened when they understand the doctrinal significance and importance of the KJV’s unique inerrancy.

Why are so many Christians as ignorant as you and I were about the two very-different groups in Christianity? Because they didn’t need to decide which group they should join! They thought we were all Christians and all Bible versions were OK to use. They thought KJVers were just a little too biased and narrow-minded, just like they knew there are Christian groups that espouse various issues that they tend to grouse about every now and then. But the existence of the inerrant literal word of God is not a trivial issue: The miraculous inerrancy of the literal words is what sets the KJV apart, gives it its unique authority, and proves God is not the inept bungler that theologians claim He is. If there were other ways to get to know God and learn how to please Him the Bible version issue would lose its importance. But there isn’t any other source of God’s truth than His holy Bible, and that fact gives the KJV-against-the-world issue the utmost importance. I say again, the only way we know God’s word really does exist, and the only way we know the KJV is His word, is the fact that only the KJV is inerrant.

Christians need to know an important division exists in Christianity over the existence of the word of God. The fact that the few who are already aware of the division and think it exists merely because KJVers are but one of many hobby-horse groups in our midst is sad testimony to the fact that Satan’s tactics have been so effective that even KJVers have begun treating theology and modern versions and layman’s aids with respectful tolerance! That has got to stop, brother! Our born-again brethren who lack the faith in God to believe His word exists today – as proven by the KJV’s inerrancy – must be politely shunned. If KJVers would do those things, naively-ignorant Christians (like you and I were) will quickly become aware that “an elitist group of fanatics” thinks God’s inspired and inerrant word still exists. And they will (like you and I did) wonder what’s wrong with thinking God’s word exists? And many will (like you and I did) “seek”...and the Good Shepherd – always true to His literal word – will make sure they find. Some of them will turn away and depend on theology; but some who have ears that hear the Good Shepherd’s voice will glorify God by embracing faith-based Bible study and will mature into always ready, willing, and able Bible believers.

In order for Satan to win the war all he has to do is get the church to not submit to the literal word of God. The very first battle the church lost to Satan was in Genesis when he undermined the literal truth of the word by inventing Greek/theological skepticism: Yea, hath God said?

I wasn’t specific enough when I said earlier that theologians can only babble and sputter about inconsequential trivialities when asked how theology (as opposed to Bible study) has actually helped Christianity. That statement also applies to modern version users, and to anybody who lacks the Christ-honoring faith to actually believe Bible study. You have completed The Swordbearer Bible study and have therefore seen how the amazing literal words in God’s inerrant Bible reveal God’s truths and doctrines and show how apostate Christianity has become. But Christians who reject the existence of God’s word (by redefining it as “corrupt translation”) are blind and ignorant. Therefore they Naturally will applaud the following radical changes theology has made to Christianity and society:

 

  • Theology caused many Christians to think old manuscripts that are so corrupt they don’t even agree with each other should be accepted (even in the absence of any authoritative decree) as some weird kind of “final authority”. I say weird because what the manuscripts actually say is overruled and rewritten to agree with what modern Christians think.

  • Modern corrupt Bible versions that are known to be the fallible words of man are blasphemously called “God’s word.” 

  • Modern Bible versions are so bad that even ignorant, airheaded lightweight Christians think they can quickly and easily make “improvements” to them by casually consulting a layman’s aid.

  • The three points above collectively establish the shocking-but-undeniable fact that theology has created such uncertainty that the real “final authority” in modern Christianity isn’t old manuscripts, or theologians, or modern “better, more accurate” Bible versions – it’s Self! This point is supported by the fact that outrageous Bible versions like the Queen James Version and the Inclusive (egalitarian) Version are all produced by theologians who have been relatively conservative when using the humanistic tools of theology to bring about change. (In support of that statement I refer you to point 6, which contains – in the eyes of God and all unEnlightened Bible believers – changes wrought to Christianity and society that are far more subversive than these outrageous-but-laughable attempts to legitimize homosexuality and bestiality. I say again, the actual impact of the Queen James Version and the actual harm it does to Christianity will pale in comparison to the widespread subversion caused by “respectable” versions like the NIV, NAS, and ESV.) 

  • Another fruit from the evil tree of theology is the plethora of modern cults: They all use the humanistic tools of theology to justify their existence! 

  • The items on the following incomplete list will also be touted by theologians and Enlightened Christians as examples of how theology has introduced “beneficial changes” to Christianity and society: equality, Reason, democracy, capitalism, freedom, etc., etc.

 

The sad fact is theology has made theologians so faithless, carnal, and blind that none of them had any idea that Satan, by using the exact same tactics he used on Eve, deceived all of them into being modern exact copies of Eve by swallowing the exact same lie that evil is really good and good is really evil. And based upon that evil foundation, theology subverted the doctrine of authority and replaced it with “right and wrong”.

The list of evils in the above point 6 should be enough to convince you why we must not be at peace with or tolerate theology, theologians, the ERROR manuscripts, modern Bible versions, or layman’s aids: They have subverted modern Christians to the horrible extent that those blind souls will agree with, preach, and defend to their deaths most of the above cancers that have been and are killing Biblical Christianity by using Yea, hath God said to subvert faith in Thus saith the Lord.

Theology and its tools have done nothing but defraud the church. That is fornication, and it is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. We are at war, and the church is being damned from within because our foes are they of our own house. Subverted brethren and their evil tools must be shunned so ignorant Christians (like we were) who have some faith left will see that the issue of the existence/non-existence of God’s word has divided God’s house against itself...and then they can look into the issues (like you and I did) and find out about the miraculous and unique inerrancy of the KJV so the Good Shepherd can lead those with ears that hear His voice out of darkness into the Light of His word. I say again, if they have not yet been subverted they will respond to God’s beacon of Truth just like you and I did.

We can only win the War if the Lord fights for us. And He will not do so if we do not have enough faith in His omnipotence to glorify and trust Him by humbly submitting to His literal words – whether we fully understand them or not. When Satan said Yea, hath God said, he was not (on the surface) trying to get Eve to disobey and displease God, he was attempting to appeal to her Reason in order to help her come up with a “better, more accurate” translation that was closer to what God actually meant to say – but didn’t. Modern subverted Christians and theologians have learned nothing from the first battle our church lost in the garden of Eden...and therefore history is repeating itself.

In these dark last days of the New Testament era God has ordered us not to go in among them and fellowship: After the first and second admonition, walk away!

“Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.”

*****

War College Trumpet W9

BROTHERS-AT-ARMS: Receiving the Holy Ghost

 

In this trumpet and in the next two, W10 and W11, I’m going to emphasize the commonly-known fact that we cannot win this war unless the Lord fights for us. We already know the Bible is His Sword, and we already know we are to be doers of His word, but I want to emphasize why our being doers of His word is so critically important: Being doers of the word is a prerequisite to the Holy Spirit’s involvement. The Holy Spirit’s part in the war is often misunderstood and misrepresented today, but it’s really pretty simple: He/They (the Trinity, our plural God) will do His part if we will do our part.

The Holy Spirit uses His literal words in His Sword to shepherd us. That is an important fact, so I’ll take a minute to show how Charismatics and other gibberish-talkers try to get you away from taking God literally at His word. As you read, I want you to think about how common it is for people today to profane God’s Holy Bible by treating it as if it were merely the word of fallible man, and they do so without realizing they are committing fornication and blasphemy against the Holy Ghost by subverting both the word of God and faith, which happen to be the two absolute necessities for Christianity itself and for fighting the good fight. Here are some quick examples of things gibberish-talkers (and others who focus on the Holy Spirit) like to preach. (The following is gleaned from their web pages...emphasis is mine.)

 

The Scriptures and how to study them: As the woman pastor of this church I accept the Scriptures as the revealed, inspired Word of God, and as the all sufficient and infallible rule of faith, conduct, and practice as long as what it says is not contray [sic] to reason. The King James version of the Bible will be the one we use just simply because it has been my companion for many years. The King James version goes back to the early copies and closely coincides with the manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are many ways to study the Bible but our fundamental endeavor will be to try to understand the spiritual message because God is a Spirit, and those that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit [sic (we must be careful with words)] (Jn 4:24) and in Truth. It is so easy to look at the literal word of God, but because that often ignores reason and love we must look beyond the literal to the spiritual message of Truth taught by the Holy Spirit Himself.

 

The Evidences of Salvation and the Baptism in the Holy Ghost: The inward evidence to the believer of his/her salvation is the direct witness of The Spirit (Rom 8:16). All Believers are to ardently expect and earnestly seek the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. This wonderful experience is distinct from and subsequent to the experience of the new birth (Acts 2:38; 10:44-46; 11:14-16; 15:7-9.) This Baptism of believers in the Holy Spirit is evidenced by the initial physical sign of speaking with other tounges [sic] as the Spirit gives utterance, and by the subsequent manifestation of spiritual power.

 

Does the Bible really say women shouldn’t preach? No! The real meaning of the Bible will only be clear if we allow The Holy Spirit to work in us! Let The [sic] Spirit of God guide you as you think about the fact that the Bible mentions women prophets several times! (Ex 15:20; Jud 4:4; 2 Kin 22:14; Luk 2:36-38; Acts 21:8-9; Acts2:17-18). The New Testament’s literal restrictions on women preachers, pastors, and congregants don’t apply to any New Testament women today because Scripture plainly says “there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28), and “there is no respect of persons with God” (Rom 2:11). Keep this equality of all believers in mind and let The Holy Spirit lovingly teach you that the literal meaning of 1 Tim 2:11-14 is misleading: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” Also open your heart to The Holy Ghost and be freed from 1 Cor 14:34,35: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” Many preachers have been misled by the literal meaning of those verses, but the love and power you get from the anointing of the Holy Ghost will override what those verses say by letting the anointing guide you in accordance with 1 John 2:27:  “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

 

I find the above to be so appallingly un- and anti-Scriptural, faithless, and destructive of faith and the Bible and Christianity that I normally wouldn’t pay it much attention. But because most Christians agree with the above view of God’s words (which in turn leads to a variety of false doctrines) I’ll use the above as an example of how careful we must be about doctrine. In other words, if we don’t find out the doctrinal beliefs of fellow Christians (and “Christians”) we cannot know if they need to be helped or avoided. Let’s compare the above false – indeed, subversive – teachings about the Bible and the Holy Spirit with what God actually says about the Holy Ghost and about how and when He ministers to us when we do take Him literally at His word.

 

THE SCRIPTURAL WAY TO RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST

The Bible is often vague about the Holy Ghost. Combine that with the sad fact that many people do not believe the Bible and therefore do not accept what it actually says when they try to formulate doctrine, and you’ll realize why so many churches teach so many different things about the Holy Spirit and how to be baptized in Him. Let’s examine some verses.

 

Ac 19:2  He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

The above verse and many similar verses make people think some ceremony (such as physical baptism) or special “blessing” will give them the Holy Ghost. But these verses never actually say anything specific. Most people agree the Holy Spirit did certain things such as little flames sitting on the heads of Christians and miraculous tongues in order to show early NT Christians that God really had ended the OT era, and that Christians who would now be widely scattered around the world instead of bunched in one nation like Israel, would not be alone; the Comforter would shepherd those who remained faithful to the word of God.

 

Act 5:32  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

God gives the Holy Ghost to obedient Christians. But is there any specific act of obedience we need to do to get the Holy Ghost?

 

1 Cor 6:19,20  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Cor 12:3  Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

The above verses appear to be talking about Christians who have done nothing but faithfully try to submit to the word of God...and are therefore indwelt by the Comforter. But is there something we’re supposed to do to initially get the Holy Ghost to indwell and empower us?

 

2 Cor 13:14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

“The communion of the Holy Ghost.” Hmm, we commune with each other around the word of God. But so far the Scriptures aren’t telling us how and when the Holy Spirit comes to us. But that changes in John chapter 14. I’ll put the bulk of Jn 14 here so you can reference it when I make comments about it:

 

Jn 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.

12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 

  • Verses 7-11 above in Jn 14 deal with two members of the Trinity.

 

  • Verses 15 & 16 begin to provide the info we’re looking for. If we do the specific action of keeping His commandments, the Father will give us the Comforter. And once we get the Comforter, He may (not shall) abide with us forever. The word may suggests that under certain unmentioned circumstances the Holy Spirit may leave us. We’ll keep that thought in mind as we proceed, and then in the next trumpet look at blasphemy against the Holy Ghost – which is fornication.

 

  • V.17 appears to be using the same type of “Trinity language” as the earlier verses above, but this time it says the disciples already know the Holy Spirit because He is already dwelling with them (in the person of Christ) and shall be in them (in the person of the Holy Ghost).

 

  • V.18 confirms that Christ in the above verse was saying He and the Comforter are members of the Trinity. And applying everything this chapter literally says about the Trinity (such as, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”, and the Comforter will come/I will come/the Father and I will come, etc.) we see that because the three persons of the Trinity are all one, and because those three are involved with the word of God, we begin to see how all-important He/They consider His/Their word.

 

  • V.21 says those who keep the word of God are those who love Him. And then after the colon Christ says He will manifest Himself to those who “love Him” (which was defined before the colon as those who keep His commandments).

 

  • In v.22 Judas (not Iscariot), drawing on Christ’s earlier statements that “the world” wouldn’t see or know Him, asks how Christ will manifest Himself to His people but not to the world. This was Christ’s chance to explain that the way He/the Holy Ghost would manifest His arrival/presence would be to make His people dance around, roll on the floor, and start speaking gibberish. But He didn’t say that; He said He’d do it in a different way, and that way was so subtle and non-dramatic that Charismatics and Judas (not Iscariot) missed it!

 

  • In v.23 Christ “answered” Judas’ question by patiently repeating a third time what He’d said earlier twice. That means Judas already had the answer and missed it! Christ’s answer to Judas’ question consists of three pieces of info: 1) those who love Him 2) are those who keep His words 3) which results in the Lord manifesting Himself to them. Verify that by comparing this verse, 23, with a careful reading of verses 15-21. The salient points being:

 

  1. In verses 15 & 16 He says the first time: love me, keep commandments/word, Comforter comes/manifests.

  2. In verse 21 He says the second time: love me, keep commandments/word, we come/manifest.

  • V.24 says Christians who aren’t doers of His written words do not love Him.

 

  • V.26 says the Comforter/Holy Ghost will help us remember the word and teach us the word. Notice in this verse that “all things” is defined as “whatsoever I have said.” This is consistent with His Great Commission in Mt 28 and Mk 16: The “all things” in Mt 28:20 is defined as “whatsoever I have commanded you.” And Mt 28’s teach all things is shown to be synonymous with preach the gospel when compared with Mk 16:15. And then when we keep in mind the Comforter’s job description (ministering the word of God to doers of the word) in Jn 14 above, we can see in Mt 28:20 Christ’s “I am with you alway” shows He and the Comforter are one.

 

Jn 14 is important because it tells us when we get the Holy Ghost: It happens when we are proper doers of the Bible (see also Ac 5:32). Jn 14 also points out that the Holy Ghost’s job is not to help us ignore/revise what the word of God literally says (as gibberish-talkers and layman’s-aid-toting theologians claim), His job is to bring to our remembrance what the Bible says.

 

But now let’s look at what Jn 15:26 says:

 

Jn 15:26  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

 

Jn 15:26 is important because it puts the info we learn in Jn 14 and other places into proper perspective. By that I mean it tells us to focus on Christ. The verse specifically mentions God the Holy Ghost and God the Father...and then tells us not to focus on them because both the Comforter and the Father want us to zero in on Christ. That message is supplemented by Luke 9:

 

Lk 9:33-36  And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said. While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone...

 

As a brief aside: You can easily recognize various cults by whom they glorify. The Bible tells us to focus on Christ, but many cults don’t do that:

 

  • Gibberish-talkers ironically contradict the Holy Ghost by emphasizing the Holy Ghost. I say ironic because the Bible makes it clear that the Holy Ghost’s job is to emphasize Christ. Gibberish-talkers also undermine the importance of the actual words in the Bible by promoting their foolish nonsensical tongue trilling.

 

  • Jehovah’s Witnesses ironically contradict Jehovah by emphasizing Jehovah. I say ironic because Jehovah tells us to zero in on Christ alone.

 

  • Catholics don’t zero in on anybody: not wanting to leave any bases uncovered they exalt Jesus, Mary, Joseph...and more saints than you can shake a stick at – including some who never existed like “Saint Christopher”. In fact, Muslims in Southeast Asia recently won a court case against the Vatican because Rome was trying to gain converts by advertizing that Catholics also worship Allah.

 

  • Mormons say Jesus is not God.

 

  • Many Christian denominations, mega-churches, and cults also do not worship Jesus; they worship “Jesus”. The true Jesus of the Bible warns us that there would be many false Christs among us. How can that be? Modern Christians who do not know the true word of God is available think all we have is corrupt manuscripts and corrupt Bible versions. Therefore they carnally, logically, and Reasonably use theology’s “ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” to invent erroneous doctrines and beliefs that result in the many different “Christs” of today.

 

The physical act of baptism in water is a ceremonial act of obedience that symbolizes the legalities of our being reckoned to have died with/in Christ. His death is the sacrificial atonement for our sins. Then we symbolically rise from the water/grave to walk in newness of our spirit life by learning the Bible and obediently applying it to our lives. Physical baptism is a one-time ceremonial and symbolic act.

Once we begin faithfully submitting to the Bible by being doers of the word and not hearers only, the Holy Spirit begins His work of Husbanding us in order to teach and train us to be obedient wives He can actually depend upon to faithfully serve Him anytime, anywhere, and no matter what He wants of us (e.g. Job). In other words, the real baptism of/in the Holy Spirit is an ongoing growth process (see Rom 6) during which our Parent / Guardian / Comforter lovingly trains us to be soldiers He can count on to fight the good fight. I say again, as good as physical baptism is (the ceremonial act of obedience), it is just a prelude to the real and important lifelong baptism when the Lord trains us to make Rom 6 part of who we are. (Training is required, not just teaching, because Rom 7 is a reality for all of us.)

If you think about the big picture you’ll understand how important and how (relatively) trivial our lifelong acts of submissive obedience are:

 

  • As important as physical water baptism is as a symbolic beginning, it pales in comparison with the ongoing process of becoming a mature and confidently-obedient servant of Christ. Now I’ll reword that in order to make clear this paragraph’s opening sentence:

 

  • As important and necessary as our lifelong doing the word is, what we do pales in comparison with what the Holy Spirit does behind the scenes in relation to those acts of submissive obedience. That in no way means we can slack off; our acts of obedience are part of our growing love for the Lord, and they are physical prerequisites to His spiritual involvement in the war.

 

But our understanding of this topic cannot be complete if we don’t include faith in the big picture: “Matt Seven” (our AOR character from Mt 7) did all of the above Scriptural works...to no avail! The missing ingredient was proper faith. Why do I say “proper” faith? Because although faith and belief are essential to Christianity and to fighting the good fight, they are difficult to understand. For example, the Bible says faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Ro 10:17). Matt Seven and many other OT saints heard the word preached many times, and if Ro 10:17 had said “and hearing the word of God” you’d think they’d gain faith. But they didn’t gain faith, which makes us ponder God’s use of the word “by”. The reason Matt Seven didn’t grow in faith is because somehow he didn’t have faith/belief:

 

Heb 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

 

Therefore, when today’s Christians who do not by faith believe what God has said about His word, that lack of “proper” faith makes the mighty Sword of the Lord of no effect because faith and works and belief are synonyms (AOR p.H1-2) and are prerequisites to the Holy Spirit’s behind-the-scenes involvement. I think by the word of God” above means the Holy Ghost uses the amazing, inspired, inerrant word of God to discern if the hearer has “proper” faith or not...which is similar to what this verse says is done by the word of God:

 

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

Keeping in mind that water in the Bible is associated with the Holy Ghost, look at these verses that are interesting because they not only also say by the word of God”, but they seem to go along with what I’ve been saying about our lifelong baptism/immersion in the word/water/Comforter as He leads us into maturity:

 

Eph 5:23,25-27  ...Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body...Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

 

Having the big picture in mind about how this war is properly fought, we see that, as important and necessary as our acts of obedience are, they are but the tip of the iceberg; what the Lord then does is how the war will be won. We are pawns on a spiritual chessboard. The Lord cannot force us to move; He puts gates/“circumstances” before us in order to direct our paths. If we truly do use His word as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path to go through the right gates He’ll use those gates to maneuver us to victory. That doesn’t mean He won’t need to sacrifice a pawn every now and then for the good of the war and church, but ours is not to question why, ours is but to do and die to self daily in order to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14).

 

The reason we want to receive the Holy Ghost is so we can learn and grow and become better vessels for His use. All three members of the Trinity are involved in delivering and ministering the word to us. And they come to us and feed us and guide us when They discern that we are properly-faithful doers of the word. The Lord is our arm of strength...but only if we faithfully and obediently use His Sword. We cannot be good soldiers if we aren’t good servant-wives, and we shall lose the war if the Lord doesn’t fight for us. His only weapon is His inspired, inerrant Sword, but the Sword of the Lord is ineffective if He isn’t wielding it. Therefore the true value of our being faithful Swordbearers who glorify Him by humbly doing His word is in making His Sword available to Him so He can use it behind the scenes as He sees fit. Our doing is what makes the word of God efficacious in this war because that’s when the Lord fights for us: Our doing the word triggers His involvement, and His involvement is what wins the war.

 

Ex 14:13,14  And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

 

2 Chr 32:7,8  Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles.

 

Ps 20:6,7  Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

 

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross.

Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in His strength alone;

The arm of flesh will fail you; ye dare not trust your own.

Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.

*****

War College Trumpet W10

BROTHERS DISARMED: Losing the Holy Ghost

 

In the previous trumpet we used the context of receiving the Holy Ghost to examine the importance and necessity of God’s involvement in our lives and development. In this trumpet we’ll continue examining God’s involvement in the war, but we’ll do so in the context of losing the Holy Ghost. And just as we saw in the previous trumpet, and just as in life and in the war everything always revolves around the word of God.

 

THE POWER BEHIND THE SWORD OF THE LORD

We’ve seen that all three members of the Trinity are involved in ministering to faithful believers who are doers of the word, which underscores the importance of the word. The following verses show that the Trinity also uses the words in the Bible to judge those who were not faithful doers:

John 12:48-50  He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

 

Use the below verses to think about why the word of God can be such a powerful mentor, parent, shepherd, friend, and comforter, and think about why we’ll be victorious in this war if we internalize God’s words by making them part of who we are: God will arrange “circumstances” or “gates” in our lives that, assuming we deal with them Scripturally, will lead us along paths of righteousness for His name’s sake:

2 Pet 1:8,10-12  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ...Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things...

 

Now read the below Eph 3 prayer as an addendum to the above verses, and consider this paraphrase: “May you doers of God’s word be strengthened by the Holy Spirit’s word-centered ministry so your faith and love mature, and you grow into the kind of comprehension (synonym: know, as in “I never knew you” in Mt 7 and in Trumpet Bravo 10) all mature saints acquire about how hugely glorious, fulfilling, and satisfying (above all we ask or think!!) it is to walk with the Lord.” The vague reference to vast behind-the-scenes spiritual stuff that is part of this war helps us see how necessary it is for us to draw upon the Holy Spirit’s “power that worketh in us” by faithfully using the literal tactics in His Weapons Manual.

Eph 3:14-21  For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

 

The above verses build upon 1 Cor 2, which says God hides His glorious truths behind the spiritual veil of the literal written word of God (as contrasted with the well-intentioned words of theologians). The mysteries behind that veil are only revealed by the power of God when the Holy Ghost ministers to us via His word – not the word of theologians who err by substituting worldly wisdom for faith:

1 Cor 2:1,4-7,11-13  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom...And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world...But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom...But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God...For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

 

These verses give us a glimpse at why the Bible says things like the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, the Lord is our arm of strength, and the word of God is our Sword: We only win the war if the Lord fights for us. And, because of the rules of war He and Satan agreed to, He must fight in strict accordance with the Bible – which means He cannot do the above sets of verses unless we are strict doers of His word, which includes His orders about when to retreat. This war is all about the Lord and His word; you and I are mere foot soldiers, servants, whose job is extremely simple to understand: do what He says – no matter what we think. The battle in the garden of Eden showed us that God wants us to be humble servants who faithfully and submissively do what He says, and Satan wants us to be “good Christian heads” who rely on man’s wisdom to decide what God really wants:

 

  • True Bible believers are humble, submissive housewives who, if they will learn anything, ask their Husband to reveal it.

  • Bible “correctors” are liberated, independent, equal, rebellious shrews who rely on Self by consulting flesh and blood if they want to learn anything.

 

  • Bible believers are armed with the faith-based Sword of the Lord and are therefore shepherded by the behind-the-scenes power of the Holy Spirit’s ministry.

  • Theologians rely on dumpster-diving research, which means they are not only unarmed, they are contributing to the widespread disarming of the church and are keeping God out of the war. They do not have God’s Sword; indeed, they don’t think it exists. Therefore they are not faithful Swordbearers: There is no faith-and-belief-based submissive obedience to God’s word, so their works are not delivering the Lord’s Sword to Him to use in the war. That means they are preventing both the church and the Lord from properly fighting the good fight because the one and only weapon in this war is the Sword of the Lord.

 

Now I’ll illustrate why faith, belief, truth, and doing are so important and necessary to our being proper Swordbearers whose works deliver the Sword of the Lord to Him so He can use it in this war:

NIV, NASV, etc:  2 Sam 21:19  ...and Elhanan...killed Goliath...

NIV, NASV, etc:   John 11:35  Jesus wept.

NIV, NASV, etc.  Jn 5:4  [Blank, or it has brackets, parentheses, footnotes, or asterisks that say it shouldn’t exist.]

 

Apostate Trojan-horse Christians want to destroy your Biblical faith and replace it with Greek Reason because they think God’s word (as He defines it) doesn’t exist. Here’s what happens when they read, preach, do, and live their lives in accordance with their modern versions:

 

  • When they read 2 Sam 21:19 they don’t believe it because they think it’s wrong, and that error proves it’s not God’s word. When they read Jn 11:35 they think it’s fairly accurate, but they do not think it’s God’s word because they read something somewhere that claimed it really should say “wept bitterly”. When they see Jn 5:4 it doesn’t bother them because nothing is God’s word. They don’t preach 2 Sam 21:19 because they don’t believe it. They preach Jn 11:35 because they think it’s fairly accurate, but they don’t believe it’s God’s inspired, infallible word – and that unbelief renders all verses in modern versions (including factually-correct verses) of none effect.

 

  • When they refer to their modern version as “God’s word”, “Holy Bible”, “Scripture”, etc., they are being two-faced equivocators. That is not honest, it is not Godly, it is not Christian, and it suggests something in their character makeup is Pharisaical.

 

  • When they tell you no Bible version on earth is God’s word because they all contain errors, and you reply that the KJV has no errors, they will reply that 2 Sam 21:19 in the AV1611 is an error because the reading doesn’t agree with the “authoritative reading” in what they refer to as the “Word of God” / “the original autographs” / the ERROR manuscripts! They are being hypocrites because, first, they know the “originals” don’t exist. And second, even though they just told you the Elhanan error in the NIV proves it isn’t God’s word, they do not hesitate to ignore the exact same Elhanan-killed-Goliath error in the ERROR manuscripts and hypocritically treat those corrupt manuscripts as the authoritative word of God that should be used to “correct” the errors in the KJV and all other Bible versions!

 

  • When you refer to their correct statement that the Elhanan error in the modern versions proves they are not God’s word, and then ask theologians how they can use the “correcting authority” of the ERROR manuscripts in 2 Sam 21:19 to correct the 2 Sam 21:19 error in the modern versions, they will start sputtering. So you try to make your question clear by asking, “Since the Elhanan error in the modern versions disqualifies them as the authoritative word of God, why doesn’t the exact same error in the ERROR manuscripts disqualify them as the authoritative word of God? In other words, how can one ‘Elhanan killed Goliath’ error correct another ‘Elhanan killed Goliath’ error?”

 

  • Now that you have used logic to pin them down, theologians will be forced into losing face and admitting they are hypocrites when they refer to the ERROR manuscripts as “God’s word” and use them as “correcting authorities” that “prove” the correct reading in the KJV is incorrect! You may be so shocked and appalled by their deceitfulness, hypocrisy, evasiveness, inconsistency, and illogical betrayal of the very Reason they claim to live by that you’ll spend time in the Bible researching and thinking about faith, belief, eyes and ears that see and hear, and how many times those things are connected by doing the word of God to the behind-the-scenes ministry of the Holy Ghost that you’ll come away – as I have – realizing there is a lot more to faith, belief, hearing, and the truth, spiritual power, and necessity of the word of God as He defines it than modern Christians think.

 

  • When you pin them down and they’re forced into admitting the ERROR manuscripts are not God’s word, they will admit they do not think God’s word exists as He defines it. When you review their above contradictory, evasive, unscriptural, hypocritical, deceitfulness in order to show them they have chosen to live in darkness and cynicism they will eventually say something like, “It’s not our fault! It’s God’s fault; He’s the one whose word no longer exists because He’s the one who failed to preserve it! We theologians are trying to cover for Him by 1) making ignorant Christians think the word of God exists, and 2) by making informed Christians think it honors and glorifies God to revise and downgrade the definition of His word to ‘word of man’, ‘corrupt translation’, ‘corrupt-but-authoritative old scraps of manuscripts’, and ‘scraps of food picked out of garbage cans’.”

 

Some thinking points:

 

  • The inerrancy of the word of God is how we know which Bible version is of God (apply Jer 28:9). This (the true word of God) is the necessary starting point and foundation for Christianity...

  • ...because it engenders and feeds and increases that all-important ingredient, faith (see Heb 4:2), which in turn...

  • ...gives us eyes that see and ears that hear as the Holy Spirit does His job of helping the seed of the word grow and bring forth fruit/maturity in our relationship with the Lord...

  • ...by allowing us to build a Scripturally-correct framework of doctrine that allows us to recognize and get to know and serve (through ever-faithfully doing the word) the true God (Jer 9:24).

  • The Hananiahs among us who promote theology and error-filled modern Bible versions are spreading the subversive leaven that God’s word (point 1) no longer exists; which destroys faith (point 2); which makes the word of God / the work of the Holy Ghost (point 3) of none effect; which allows well-intentioned-but-false theology-based doctrine to create false Christs (point 4).

 

Now we can better understand why Hananiah’s blasphemy/rebellion/witchcraft against the word-promoting work of the Holy Ghost was not forgiven by God.

Over time as your Biblical understanding broadens and deepens you’ll arrive at the point where you understand how devastatingly subversive theology is to faith, belief, the word of God, and Christianity. You’ll also see that theology helps the Devil because inside many Christians when the seed of the word of God is sown and heard, it may immediately spring up, but then thorns grow up and choke the word and the word becometh unfruitful and no longer efficacious because the behind-the-scenes work of the Comforter stops. This theological subversion is so effective it has defeated millions of Christians today, which illustrates why God killed Hananiah and why He orders us to walk away after the first and second admonition.

 

FORNICATION AND BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST / SON OF GOD

Fornication is the only sin that justifies divorce. Fornication is defrauding the church. And fornication is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost / the son of God (not the son of man). Because the Holy Ghost / son of God minister to faithful doers of His words, any Christian who profanes/speaks against the words of God is fornicating/defrauding the church and blaspheming the Holy Ghost / the Word of God.

Why is speaking against the Holy Ghost blasphemy...but speaking against the Son of man (not God) isn’t? In order for blasphemy to be worse when it’s against the Comforter than when it’s against the Lord Jesus Christ there has to be some kind of difference between the two. We know from Jn 14 and other places that Christ and the Holy Spirit are the same because they are God/part of the Triune Godhead. And that makes us zero in on God’s literal wording, the Son of man. The mortal Christ came to be despised and rejected and sacrificed. But the divine Christ is the same as the Holy Spirit, and we learn in the Bible that the Holy Spirit’s job is to exalt the word of God in order to feed, instruct, exhort, rebuke, correct, and guide us in such a way that we emphasize the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, Husband, Shepherd, and God. Why does the Comforter exalt, teach, and bring the words of God to our remembrance? Because in order to discern the real Christ from all the false Christs that are so prevalent in today’s apostate “Christianity” we must go by “Thus saith the Lord.” That’s why God exalts His word (which reveals the true Christ) above His name (which teaches us nothing): His word is the church’s only weapon...but only if our faith and works trigger His participation. The literal words allow us to learn correct doctrine, bolster our faith, and know and serve the true Saviour, which is absolutely essential to winning the war. And that is why “speaking against” the Holy Ghost is blaspheming the “word of God” (not the Word of God” – see Titus 2 below). And that helps us begin to glimpse the big picture behind why God killed Hananiah for blaspheming, for teaching rebellion, which is witchcraft against God (Jer 28:15,16) by undermining the Holy Ghost’s work of exalting the word by using Yea hath God said theology to destroy faith by casting doubt on the existence and inerrancy of the literal word of God.

 

Mt 12:31,32  Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost [whose ministry is to use the word to glorify God in the name of the Word/son of God/Christ Jesus] shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man [the mortal Christ, not the divine Christ/the Word], it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost [whose ministry is to use the word to glorify God in the name of the Word/son of God/Christ Jesus], it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. [The mortal Christ (son of man) came to be abused, crucified, and then go back to heaven; therefore blaspheming Him is forgivable. However, blaspheming the immortal members of the Trinity (such as the son of God) will not be forgiven because their purpose is to minister the word of God to us...and the word is absolutely critical and necessary to the war because it is our only weapon.]

 

1 Tim 1:12,13  And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

 

Heb 6:4-8  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened [and therefore no longer ignorant], and have tasted of the heavenly gift [of the word], and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost [by doing the word], And have tasted the good word of God [God’s Scripture is always involved; note it says good, not garbage], and the powers [behind-the-scenes spiritual activity] of the world to come, If they shall fall away [from the good word of God after having tasted it / partaken of the Holy Spirit’s ministry], to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God [which makes the sin unforgivable blasphemy] afresh, and put him [the word-ministering Trinity] to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers [after receiving the good word of God] is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned [and this divorce is only permissible for the sin of fornication / blasphemy against He who ministers the word to us].

 

Heb 10:28,29  He that despised Moses’ [written word] law died without mercy [because their sin was fornication / blasphemy / speaking against the Sword of God] under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God [not man], and hath counted the blood of the [new written word] covenant, wherewith he was sanctified [partaker of the Holy Ghost via the word], an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? [Whose job is the word.]

 

Fornication is defrauding the church. Attacking the validity of God’s word undermines faith and thereby blocks the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which is both fornication and blaspheming the Son of God (not man). We and the Lord must fight the war in accordance with the rules/words in God’s Book. Even when Matt Seven was a “doer” of the true word of God his works were actually “iniquity” because those well-intentioned works were not complete or whole because they did not contain the p.H1-2 synonyms such as faith, belief, and true love. But surely Matt thought he loved the Lord! Yes, but his love did not contain the H1-2 synonyms, which meant God’s words were thorn-choked and no longer internalized parts of who he was (as described in Trump W11); those good words of God moved back out to his “periphery”, which made their use nothing but tinkling cymbals and lip service (1 Cor 13:1-3). That weakened his inner word-based framework that filters out verbal and written words that are contrary to Bible-based beliefs, which (as we move into modern times), combined with the harmful illocutionary impact (Trump W7) of the constant barrage of images in today’s electronic media, and rendered Matt vulnerable to leaven on both flanks. God’s word must be internalized so it can be the “whole package of synonyms” so the Lord can fight for us and not only preserve His words in our hearts but also cause them to bear fruit an hundredfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Beware of modern dumpster-diving Hananiahs who are undermining faith and belief in the literal character-building fruit-producing inerrant literal words God gave us. There is no greater sin than undermining faith in God and His word.

Now I’m going to cherry-pick some info from Titus chapter 2, so you may wish to consult the full chapter to see if I’m wresting Scripture or if I’m applying the Scriptures in a way that conforms to the Scriptures above. My point is to show that it is not wresting Scripture to say Christians who subvert faith in God’s word are, in fact, blaspheming the Holy Ghost / fornicating / defrauding the church by committing a crime more heinous than that of the Pharisees when they nailed our Lord to the cross.

 

Titus 2

v1  But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: [Sound doctrine is based on the word of God (v.5), and teaching and doing correct Bible-based doctrine is “adorning” God’s doctrine (vv.3,10).]

 

v2  That the aged men be...sound in faith... [In addition to the inerrant word of God being absolutely necessary in order to formulate correct doctrines, Christians absolutely need Biblical faith; without faith nothing is efficacious because God isn’t pleased, isn’t glorified, and doesn’t work behind the scenes for us.]

 

v3  The aged women likewise, that they be...teachers of good things; [It is not good to teach things that are bad, that undermine faith, that say God’s inerrant word doesn’t exist, and it’s not good for doctrines to be formulated in accordance with theology and society’s latest revisions to morality, scientific “findings”, and Reason-and-equality-based good intentions.]

 

v5 ...that the word of God be not blasphemed. [Actions, teachings, and doctrines not in accordance with / not based on the literal written words of God are blasphemy against the word of God, which undermines the authority of God Who gave us His word so we could properly bear His Sword (by doing) so He can fight for us behind the scenes. This series of events – 1) pleasing God with faith in the word, and 2) then pleasing Him by doing His word with synonyms, combine to 3) trigger His active involvement – lets us see why Hananiah’s blasphemy against the Holy Ghost when he used Yea, hath God said theology to undermine faith in the literal truth and reliability of God’s word caused the Lord to kill him: faith and doing can move mountains in the war because they get the Lord involved, and without Him the war is lost.

 

v7 ...in doctrine shewing uncorruptness... [Uncorrupt doctrine is based on the inerrant word of God. Today’s corrupt doctrines are based on theology’s garbage-can versions and layman’s aids.]

 

v10 ...that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. [God does not say “most things”, He says all things, and ignoring that fact is suicidal...as Hananiah found out the hard way. When modern Christians say God’s inerrant word no longer exists and therefore we must scrounge around in garbage cans looking for scraps of the bread of His word they are adorning nothing; they are blaspheming God and His word, and they are committing fornication by defrauding the church.

 

v15  These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

 

If anybody disagrees with the above and says theology’s anti-KJV crusade isn’t fornication, isn’t blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, isn’t resulting in false doctrines, isn’t undermining faith, and isn’t helping Satan prevail against the church, you probably ought to issue a first and second admonition and – depending on his answers – walk away, for he is subverted:

 

  1. First admonition: “Knowing the foundational necessity of faith and the word of God, what sins do you think are more harmful to Christianity than the sin of claiming God’s word – as He defines it – no longer exists? After all, sins like murder, homosexuality, and adultery are never going to subvert the church because they’ll always be sins. Your answer, sir?”

 

  1. Second admonition: “I see you carry the NASV. When you went shopping for a Bible you had to choose between the KJV and the NASV. Knowing that over the last several hundred years the KJV is the only Bible version or manuscript on earth whose inerrancy has caused a significant portion of born-again Christians to accept that inerrancy as God’s Scriptural proof that the KJV is His inspired word, and knowing that nobody has ever claimed the NASV to be God’s inspired word, and knowing that everybody knows the NASV is full of errors...what possessed you to eschew the KJV and get the NASV?!”

 

Closing note: In general, I think I’m preaching to the choir about the Bible version issue. And therefore I worry about belaboring the point and repeating myself too many times. However, many KJVers don’t hear this stuff and don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. The result is they don’t really understand this topic’s breadth and depth and multi-faceted importance. For example, some of the facets include:

 

  • The meaning of the KJV’s inerrancy.

 

  • The reality and necessity of faith, works, and the other synonyms in conjunction with the true word of God.

 

  • The word of God is our only doctrinal source and foundation.

 

  • The word of God is the only weapon the Lord and we Bible believers have in this war.

 

  • The real power behind God’s Sword is – not surprisingly – God.

 

  • Yea, hath God said theology really has been one of the Devil’s main Reason-based tactics since the garden of Eden.

 

  • The reason theology’s pro-ERROR ms / anti-KJV Yea, hath God said arguments are so hypocritical and contradictory is simple: theology is based on false assumptions and outright blasphemous lies because its foundation is human Reason; whereas Bible believers’ pro-Bible-study stance is based on the fact of inerrancy and faith in our mighty Saviour.

 

  • In addition to eroding faith and belief, all facets of theology undermine authority: God didn’t do what He said He’d do, His word isn’t as reliable as we once thought, therefore we can’t take Him literally at His word and must figure out what He might have meant to say. That caused doctrine to no longer be written in stone because the words in the Bible can no longer be taken literally, and therefore doctrine changes in accordance with what we think. With the authority of the Bible subverted, which is our only source of doctrine and the church’s only foundation, Christianity is set adrift and morphs into just another humanistic religion. And with the authority of the Bible subverted, which is our only weapon, the church is disarmed – which prevents God from fighting for us.

 

1 Thessalonians 2:13  For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.

*****

War College Trumpet W11

OUR WAR IS ALL ABOUT WORDS

This trumpet is part review and part points to ponder. And it is an attempt to praise and glorify God by trying to glimpse – through a glass darkly – some of His power and authority and why His name is

The Word of God.

 

OUR WORLD AND LIFE OF WORDS

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word spoke the worlds into existence, and without Him was not anything made that was made, for by Him all things consist.

When we are born, we are born into a life of words. At first it’s simple; our parents teach us our names, what yes and no mean, and how to use words to communicate. But then it gets more difficult; our parents tell us to do things we don’t want to do, they tell us to stop doing things we want to do, and they add words to our vocabularies that they want to become parts of our character, parts of who we are. Some of these words include behave, obey, self-control, and patience, and they are in direct conflict with our Natural carnal childish selfishness...and we find ourselves involved in a conflict between mere mental concepts and physical reality. As we see it, the words our parents are forcing upon us are not “real”, they are just invisible outside concepts or meanings; but our carnal feelings and wants, on the other hand, are real and persistent and important to us. So we attempt to live in accordance with our very real Self rather than in accordance with mere words our parents seem to like.

This juncture during our formative years is very important because if we are to be successful in secular life we must be able to subdue Self and live by words, and if we are ever born again we’ll have to let “mere” words rule our lives and cause us to die to Self daily. If our parents spank us we tend to get off to a good start in life. If parents don’t spank they assume they can accomplish the same thing by reasoning with their children. The flaw in that is the use of “mere words” (that aren’t yet real to children and therefore exist only out on their periphery) is actually harmful because 1) children do not yet have the depth of character (internalized words) needed to appreciate and value those qualities, and 2) undisciplined kids quickly learn how to use lip service and lies (because they, too, are “mere words”) to their advantage. For example, babies (who have no vocabulary) and young children learn that crying and temper tantrums can be used to manipulate their parents. (When my siblings and I’d try that tactic my dad would give us a stern look and say, “If you keep that up I’ll give you something to cry about.”)

thinkerG.gif

As the illustration shows, character-defining words exist out on the periphery of our being. We know they’re there and we know what they mean...but they’re “out there”, and Self is “in here.” And during our formative years the best, fastest, and most effective way for those “mere words” out on our peripheries to be internalized, to become part of our character, is via the rod of correction. As children we have neither the depth of character nor the experience-based understanding we need in order to appreciate the value and importance to life of those “mere words.” But we do understand pain, and it’s a great motivator...so we quickly take the external physical discipline imposed upon us by our parents and we turn it into internal self-discipline and use that new control to be more obedient, honest, patient, etc. One of the most important words/concepts we learn during this process (even if it is unspoken) that  we  carry  throughout  life  is authority:  As  we  grow  we

correctly walk the straight and narrow “because Mommy said”, then “because teacher said”, then “because it’s right” (which usually refers to morality, tradition, denominational doctrines, etc.) As years and experiences go by, our growing understanding combines with what character we have and we find ourselves appreciating the life of a “straight-arrow goody two-shoes” and begin to voluntarily internalize more and more of those good words out on our periphery. And if we’re born again the seed of the word of God that is sown in our hearts tends to fall on fertile ground because we quickly understand the authority of Thus saith the Lord outweighs morality, Mommy, tradition, theology, and even Self. This path produces humble servants whose faith in God causes them to recognize the KJV’s inerrancy as God’s trademark...and they begin lives of doing what He says.

Unprincipled people without self-discipline aren’t stupid, so they talk the talk by rendering lip service to the peripheral words of character. But when nobody’s looking, fear and temptation cause them to yield to Self. And if they’re born again the seed of the word of God that is sown in their hearts tends to fall on shallow soil because Self is still the real authority in their lives. This path results in Reasonable Christians who haven’t internalized the principles behind inerrancy, truth, and God...so, at the deeply-fundamental level of inward-directed well-intentioned Self (rather than outward-directed service to God) they “worship” “exalt”, and “glorify” God by “correcting” what He says as if He is a below-average fourth-grade student and they are teachers who use red circles and exes and cross-outs to “correct” His spelling and grammar and factual mistakes in His essay homework.

It was good for you and me to have our vocabulary and grammar corrected by our teachers because we were embarking on a life of words; it was good for us to learn to be proficient with words so we could read, hear, understand, and analyze the millions of words we’d encounter in life. Words would gradually shape the character of our souls, our intellect. The kind of people we turned out to be would depend on which words were and were not internalized. Those words that were internalized formed the framework of our character, the basis of our values and beliefs, and became the primary determinates of our words and actions. Yes, even before the Lord gave us spirit life, words and our relationship with words became a primary determinate of our course through life.

 

OUR SPIRITUAL WAR OF WORDS

1 Cor 1:17,19-21,25-27  For Christ sent me...to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words [theology], lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect [lack of faith]...For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise [theology], and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent...hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world [such as theology’s contradictory, evasive, unscriptural, hypocritical, deceitful speech and error-filled fruit]? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom [theology] knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching [faith in the word] to save them that believe...Because the foolishness of God [e.g. the inerrant AV1611] is wiser than men [theology’s corrupt versions]; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world [faith] to confound the wise [Reason]; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world [e.g. faith] to confound the things which are mighty;

 

Isa 55:8,11  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD...So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void [it will discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, true faith, etc.], but it shall accomplish that which I please [via the Comforter], and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it [as in Jn 14 below].

 

Jn 14:10-26  ...the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works [He did the works in Christ]...He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; [how do we do greater works? It’s because...] because I go unto my Father...And...the Father...shall give you another Comforter [we don’t do the big behind-the-scenes works; they’re done by the Comforter]...Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive...I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you...If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father...and we will come unto him...the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you [it’s always about the word].

 

He 4:1,2,11,12 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it... Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

Heb 6:4-8  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift [of the word], and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

 

What happens to born-again saints who tasted the “good” word of God (“good” means God’s inerrant Bible, it does not mean theology’s corrupt garbage-can versions) if they shall fall away by rejecting the existence of God’s word like Hananiah did? In that case they no longer “partake of the Holy Ghost” and no longer “receiveth blessing from God” because they have committed blasphemy against the Trinity’s ministry of using God’s word to husband us wives (He 6:4-8). You’ll notice the above verses don’t actually say blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, but they do say these faithless fallen brethren, “whose end is to be burned” “made dead to themselves the Son of God” – and we learned earlier that speaking against the Son of man can be forgiven...but not speaking against the Son of God / the Word of God / the word of God / the Sword of the Word because in order to win the war the Trinity must exalt the inerrant Bible above the name of Jesus in order for Him to actually be the Great God Almighty.

This topic helps illustrate why I prefer to refer to myself with the specific term Bible believer instead of the term Christian, and why I always say, A man’s relationship with the Bible is an exact picture of his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Today’s Enlightened Christians have no idea how important the written word of God is to all three members of the Trinity – and why it is so important that The Godhead exalts it above the name of the Son of man. And not knowing why the Bible is so important to God, Christians also have no idea why it is so hugely important to Satan...and why it should be all-important to Christians.

Those of you who have done word studies that compare what the Bible says about Jesus Christ with what it says about the words in the Bible know the Word of God and the word of God are synonymous. Christ is also called “the voice”, and the voice walks (Gen 3:8). Christ “the voice” speaks and can be seen (Rev 1:12,13) and heard and handled (1 Jn 1:1), and the “voice” of God is synonymous with the “written” word (cp. Deu 28:45,58). The Word was in the beginning, and was not only with God, He was God. All things were made by Him; the Word spoke the worlds into existence, and by Him/His word all things consist. The Word became flesh in two ways: 1) He became true man, 2) He became our true manna from heaven when we “eat His flesh” by doing His written words in His Bible. In sum, God has chosen not only to identify Himself as the Word, but He has chosen to do everything in this war with His words, and that makes His Sword all-important to Him and to us.

You know from some of the earlier trumpets that word usage is under attack. Even Christians who are good with words and have excellent reading and hearing comprehension are vulnerable on a subliminal level to some of today’s methods of visual communication and entertainment. Ratings and advertising revenue are causing intelligent, comprehensive, informative news coverage to wane, as more people watch 15-second TV and online video clips because people prefer the visceral reaction to visual stimuli (a non-intellectual gut-level emotional response) over the intellectual attention and concentration required to read and hear and evaluate words. Part of the problem is the news writers and reporters reveal by their vapid reporting (their words) that their inability to effectively inform isn’t so much because of their poor grammar and choice of words, it’s because the reporters’ inability to mentally process, understand, and evaluate the words they received from scientists, government officials, politicians, etc., renders them incapable of realizing their questions weren’t answered, their follow-up questions were useless, and their reporting conveys nothing...and leaves the discerning reader/listener frustrated. This state of affairs bothers me – not because I really care about the news, but because I’m worried about Christians (who grew up in our “modern” world) who pick up the Bible and have little experience and understanding about the very medium of communicating (words) that God is and that He has chosen to be our schoolmaster and Sword and source of faith and doctrine. For example, every now and then I run across something a “respected” theologian has written on certain topics and doctrines, and I realize he, too, isn’t very good with words. I’m not talking about his foolish use of Greek and Hebrew, I’m talking about his inability to read a simple Bible verse and understand what it specifically says as well as what it doesn’t say. And because he doesn’t think the words should be taken literally he cannot use and profit from “breadcrumb trails” and cause-and-effect. Therefore he is less capable of realizing the verse doesn’t say what tradition told him it says, can’t build correct doctrine, and doesn’t know (via the “two-way street”) the Lord Who only manifests Himself to proper doers who have “Rahab’s faith.”

Yes, I am aware that the Comforter can and does open our understanding even if we’re not English teachers. But the downhill slide of Christianity appears to be linked to the fact that modern Christians don’t like reading. Reading Christian material, highlighting sentences, writing notations, and discussing it with comrades (communion) helps us focus, understand, and learn as the Comforter does His behind-the-scenes works and makes the fishes and loaves multiply in our hearts, minds, and lives. And all of that “handling the word of life” has the additional benefit that it takes up time in our days – time that we’d otherwise squander on things like 15-second video clips whose “illocutionary impact” can be (from a Biblical perspective) harmful and subversive. In fact, the more my understanding increases, the more I get horrible glimpses at how all-inclusive the Devil is in his use of almost everything in society to undermine faith and belief. I even told one faltering brother (who was having such a hard time dealing with outside distractions that he had little time left for Bible reading/study) that he needed to lock himself in the bathroom if necessary to get away from distractions. The reason everything in life (that isn’t glorifying God and edifying His church) is vanity and vexation of spirit is because those pursuits take us away from our relationship with the Lord via His word. If a Christian isn’t comfortable with words (and therefore may not have built up a value framework/filter of internalized words) he’s more likely to respond to the gut-appeal of electronic media which was created for the carnal masses.

THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CARNAL:

How God’s Spiritual Words Become Efficacious

 

Heb 11:1-3,6,8  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear...But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him...By faith Abraham, when he was called...[by the Word of God] obeyed...

 

The inerrancy of the King James Bible only has import and significance to born-again saints who have Biblical faith. Biblical faith consists of beliefs based upon the written words of God. A careful reading of the above Scripture shows how interdependent faith and the words of God are. For example, the word substance means that of which a thing consists, and it usually refers to things that are physical. The word evidence means proof; ground for belief. But since words are not physical; and since anybody can say anything, true or false; how can words in the Bible become efficacious? Efficacious is defined as the power or ability to produce a desired change, result, or effect.

The words in the Bible are different from “normal” words out in life because first, truly submitting to the Bible requires dying to self, and second, we generally don’t have authorities like parents beating us into submission to the Bible. But when we were kids if we had parents who beat us into taking words from the periphery and internalizing them, our character, self-discipline, and understanding of authority combine to help us more quickly begin the process of internalizing the “mere words” in the Bible. However, with words in the Bible it’s much more complicated than that. The following is an incomplete list of factors that enter into our Christian growth, our internalizing the very words in the Bible that most Christians only pay lip service to:

 

  • The words in the Bible are not the usual words of worldly wisdom; they are somehow connected to the Holy Spirit and to “power”: 1 Cor 2:1-7,10-14. Carefully read v.4&5 and apply what they say about faith to theology (“the wisdom of men”) and to the inerrant KJV (“the power of God”). And carefully note that the power and involvement of God/the Holy Spirit depends on the words being His.

 

  • Faith. The 1 Cor 2 verses say our faith should not have that worldly stuff (theology/men’s wisdom) as its foundation, our faith is to be based on the substance and the evidence of God’s invisible words that have the power to create and sustain the universe. But beware: the Bible says even though God’s word is “quick and powerful”, and even though the OT Jews regularly heard Bible preaching, their lack of Biblical faith caused the word to not profit them because the power of the word of God is dependent upon the Holy Spirit’s getting involved (as in Jn 14)...and He doesn’t get involved if our hearing isn’t “mixed with faith” in the “words” we hear (Heb 4:1,2,11,12). In other words, if we do not think the words in the Bible that we preach, hear, and read (even the KJV) are God’s inspired, inerrant words, that lack of faith makes us guilty of unbelief – and the word of God is no longer efficacious because the Comforter refuses to utilize His power to help those “periphery words” be internalized. That is one of the reasons modern garbage-can versions are subversive to Christianity – faith isn’t efficacious if it is based on a disbelief that the words are God’s words.

 

  • But even if we believe the words are God’s, the Comforter doesn’t get involved unless we obediently combine our Biblical faith with doing the word. In other words, the Sword of the Lord (also called the Word, the word, and the Holy Spirit) really does discern our thoughts and intents and He withholds His “power” and His “efficaciousness” if He doesn’t think we are contributing to the cause of Christ, glorifying His words, and furthering the war effort. The seed of His word accomplishes what He wants, and if He doesn’t see the right kind of soil in our hearts, He will not allow the seed to germinate and bear fruit. If the soil is sterile, rocky, and thorny (made up of the words of men’s wisdom), no fruit is produced. But if the soil is – via faith and belief – made up of organic matter (the Word/word become flesh, Christ’s flesh, the manna from heaven) the Comforter causes the seed to grow and bear fruit as long as we continue to eat the word by being proper doers.

 

  • The verses used to support the above contribute to the overall big picture that this war isn’t dependent on us; the Lord is our arm of strength and He will win the war if we properly manifest Christ in us, the hope of glory. We do that by being faith-filled servants who believe everything He says...and do it.

 

CONSUMMATION VIA THE WORD OF GOD

In Trumpet B10 I discuss the fact that being proper doers of the word is a two-way street; it allows us to “know” God and it allows Him to “know” us. We’re now going to look at an interesting application of the fact that knowing and consummating are synonyms.

At Judgment Matt Seven is told by the Lord he can be put away/divorced because He never knew him. Let’s look at it this way: The Lord is the Word, and the Word became flesh/the word of God. Those words are spirit and they are life...and at first they reside without us, they reside out on our periphery. The Lord has told us He/the Comforter will come to us and be in us if we love Him by being faithful doers of the word. Therefore, when the seed of the word/Word gets inside us and germinates and grows and becomes part of who we are, we are becoming “one”/“one flesh” with Christ, which may be at least part of our process of consummation.

Matt Seven and Heb 6:4-8 above show it is possible to be a born-again Christian who partook/had the Comforter indwell him...and still lose it. Does that mean consummated unions are terminated by the death of one of the parties (Rom 7:2), as in “crucified to himself the Son of God” (not man, which means we’re talking about blasphemy/fornication) and therefore the bad saint is going to be “burned”/made dead in the lake of fire? Also, if the “consummation” process of taking the words of God from our periphery and incorporating them into who we are is as complex and as dependent upon various prerequisites as the above discussion of faith and belief suggests, could it be that the two-edged Sword of the Word of God discerns when the intents of our hearts are half-assed and when they’re fully committed...and He therefore withholds the consummation from non-committed brides such as Matt Seven?

Could it be that good saints at Judgment will be told by our Husband that He has already consummated the union (“I already knew you”, which is the opposite of what He said to Matt Seven) when He/the Holy Spirit allowed the internalized seed of the word to germinate and grow and mature in us until we were “one flesh” with Christ?

Or could it be that when God’s words germinate in us and take root and spread and grow and bear fruit as we mature over the years and grow closer and closer to the Lord that the process of consummation – the process of becoming “one flesh” with Christ – increasingly conflicts with the ugly fact that our flesh is our old man body which was made out of this corrupt earth? That internal conflict (described in Ro 7) causes us to yearn more and more to be clothed upon with our new-earth glorified body (2 Cor 5:1-10). And when we get that heavenly body its pure soil and heart are so perfect that the internalized word of God takes over inside us so completely that we truly become one flesh with the Word of God – so completely that the word of God will reside in / be inscribed upon our hearts forever?

I tend to think the lifelong process of being baptized in the Holy Ghost is the washing of water by the word, and is doing the word, which is growing to maturity and bearing fruit, which is the process of being consummated...and all of this is husbanded unerringly behind the scenes by God because His word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

People like Hananiah and Matt Seven obviously lack the proper ingredients, the proper synonyms, that are required for a proper Biblical “two-way street” relationship with the Lord. Matt Seven’s failure to be a “synonymous” doer, and Hananiah’s denying the inspiration and inerrancy of God’s word appear to have been why God never consummated them...because they were fornicators who blasphemed – rather than adorned (Titus 2) – the word of God.

That suggests that consummation is something that happens over time to Bible believers as their relationship with the Lord via His word becomes such that the two are inseparable. And it suggests that fornication / blasphemy vs. the Holy Ghost / divorce can be defined as a failure to establish a proper relationship with the Lord via His word.

 

“WORSHIPPING A VERSION”

Sometimes when I’m thinking about the importance of words – from the beginning when the Word, through His creating everything with words, to communicating with words, to fighting the good fight with the Sword of His word, to the end when He uses His words to judge us – I’m reminded that dumpster-divers often try to deflect the undeniable truth of KJVers who point out the KJV’s unique inerrancy and the shocking fact that users of modern versions do not believe in the existence of “the Holy Bible” (defined as a single book or manuscript containing nothing but God’s inspired and inerrant word) by accusing Bible believers of “worshipping a version.”

The problem with Bible rejecters is they have failed to distinguish between the word of God and the Word of God Himself. Admittedly it can be difficult for Christians who have not rightly divided the living word from the living Word of life (1 Jn 1:1) to discern what is being said by Bible believers because of the confusing (to young and apostate Christians) fact that everything God’s Book says about the word it also says about the Word, and because of the overlapping involvement the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit have in ministering the word of God to us, and because of the fact that God exalts the word above His name (the Word) because the word is the only way we have to learn who the real Word is in order to avoid false “Christs” and false “Bibles”.

Those whose faithless unbelief in the existence of the word of God renders them blindly incapable of rightly dividing the word (that they think doesn’t exist!) in order to discern true doctrine, also are unaware of the doctrine of expediency. The existence of expediency and its proper use reveal that true Bible believers who may appear to be “worshipping a version” are not doing so...because we Bible believers want to please and serve the Word of God, not the word of God, and expediency means we’re continually doing the word of God in order to get to know the Word of God well enough that we’ll understand when we should sidestep the word of God in order to please Him. In other words, we Bible believers are properly using the word of God as a tool – a schoolmaster – in order to become dedicated servants of a person (the Word) rather than a thing (the inspired and inerrant word in the AV1611).

We are not “worshipping a version” as they claim. But when they say the word of God does not exist, or that it exists in “garbage cans”, they are

 

  • profaning God’s word by treating it as common or base, and they are

 

  • committing blasphemy by not adorning the doctrine of God, and they are

 

  • committing fornication by subverting authority, faith, and the efficacy of the Sword of the Lord, which all mean they are

 

  • assisting the Devil’s Yea, hath God said crusade against the literal words of God in order to prevail against the church.

 

However, if apostates want to define the following as “worshipping a version”:

 

By faith accepting the miraculous and unique inerrancy of the Authorized King James Bible as God’s inimitable way of identifying His inspired word and separating it from theology’s garbage-can versions

 

I’m perfectly happy to stand and declare myself, “Guilty as charged!” Or, as Patrick Henry said when (correctly) accused of treason (not that I’m particularly fond of Patrick Henry):

 

“If this be treason, make the most of it!"

 

BIBLE STUDY: Having faith in God makes us believe His inspired word exists. The singular inerrancy of the literal words in the KJV identifies it as God’s Holy Bible and causes us to eschew theology and to trust God by turning to Bible study.

THEOLOGY: Theology insults God by being skeptical of what He has said, and it destroys faith in His word by making it of none effect. And dumpster-divers insult Bible-believers by thinking we’re deluded idiots for – based on the demonstrated inerrancy of the KJV – having enough faith in God to believe He actually did what He said He’d do.

 

There is a lot of stuff going on in this war. I do not fully understand the Big Picture. Indeed, I don’t even understand the complex nature of faith and belief. But I know they are so important that even the all-important-and-necessary word of God (as defined by Him) is not efficacious unless the Comforter sees a proper combination of ingredients including faith, belief, and doing the word. Therefore, that which we need to keep in mind is do our jobs! If we’ll properly exalt and love God by doing the word, His Holy Spirit will indwell us and Husband us.

Everything about God and this war has always had to do with the Word of God and His word. And nothing the Lord has ever said or done remotely suggests that His word was, is, or will be contained in garbage cans. And therefore at Judgment when He is confronted by theologians who will accuse Him of hiding His true words among all the errors in garbage-can “Bible” versions and ERROR manuscripts, the Lord will not have to shrug and say, “Ooh, good point! You’re right, but, gee whiz, I did the best I could to be true to my word...but I just couldn’t do it.”

 

WORDS AS ANCHORS OF THE SOUL:

The Authorized 1611 King James “Memo”

When I grew up everybody spanked their children, divorce was frowned upon, teachers were obeyed by children and supported by parents, and certain rules of grammar and pronunciation were adhered to by educated people. During my short lifetime I have seen the opposite of all of those things become commonplace. And that troubles me; not because I care what pagans do or don’t do, but because those starkly-dramatic and fairly-rapid overthrows of the existing order happened “all by themselves.” For example:

 

  • A few years ago when I asked a parent who didn’t spank his kids what he read or studied that convinced him the spanking used throughout history was wrong or harmful, he got offended and defensive because he never looked into it at all. In fact, he never made a decision to not spank his children – he “just didn’t spank them”, and then he defended his actions with trite rhetoric he’d “heard somewhere”.

 

  • Divorce used to be shameful because post-consummation divorce is contrary to the Bible. The Bible hasn’t changed, but today society’s ignorant majority has more influence than God’s word.

 

  • It is common for parents today to angrily denounce teachers who try to control their bratty, mouthy children in class. That was unheard of only a few years ago when good parents disciplined their kids and appreciated the help of teachers.

 

  • Certain rules of pronunciation and grammar in the last ten years have been so universally violated that I’ve actually looked them up to see if things had officially changed that maybe I’d not been aware of. I’ve missed nothing: people are just mindlessly and with no justification going with the sludge.

 

The force behind all of this change is the Devil’s all-encompassing effort to herd (not force, and not shepherd) pagan society and well-intentioned Christians into going with the sludge while not even being aware of what is happening. We’ve discussed some of Satan’s methods and tactics in AOR and the earlier War College Trumpets. The multitudes of people who abandoned spanking, ignored authority, and lost so much faith in God’s ability to keep His word that even the miraculous inerrancy of the AV1611 couldn’t renew them to repentance didn’t do so in a vacuum; they were herded like the beasts their carnal minds made them. God’s good sheep who know the Shepherd’s word/voice aren’t herded; they follow His word/voice. The critical difference is God’s inspired words...because only they are spirit and life.

As a child if I’d make a mistake by saying around my father something like, “6 x 7 = 50”, he’d look at me and say, “Six times seven wasn’t fifty when I was in school!” His point being that until what he’d been taught was proven to be wrong, he’d stick with it. These days when I’m talking with people about some of the above dramatic changes, I word it differently from my dad but say the same thing: I acknowledge the changes to parenting, respect for authority, social taboos, pronunciation and grammar, or one of the other things that are now “in vogue”, and then I ask, “Who changed it? Did I miss the memo?” My point is: No authority changed anything, and no authority issued any rule-changing memo.

My point for you soldiers of Christ: If people change their actions and beliefs without authoritative words (such as “Mommy says” or a rule-changing memo), they are mindlessly going with the sludge. I choose to stand fast and reject societal and doctrinal changes that are contrary to the words that were put into my “periphery” by my parents and then beaten into me when I was a young boy. And as a young Christian I read that God defines His word as inspired and inerrant. In other words, as a young Christian I “got the memo” about God’s word...and it had God’s authority behind it so I immediately internalized it by making it part of who I am. I say again, I base who I am on words that I have heard, read, analyzed, understood, and that I decided to move from out on my periphery into my soul, into who I am. Therefore, when the wind blows different directions, and when the sludge of society and of “Christianity” flow in different directions I stand fast on what I previously learned was right and Biblical. And later when I began hearing more and more apostate Christians say the word of God is actually a corrupt modern translation, or it’s an old corrupt manuscript, or it no longer exists, I asked, “Where’s the memo?!”

 

There never has been a memo! Christians who have not internalized God’s words have no anchor to prevent them from drifting with the sludge! Nobody with any authority ever told them we should reject God’s definition of His word and replace it with the inconsistent, contradictory un- and anti-scriptural blasphemy that theologians invented! Theologians have tried to get me to join their dumpster-diving acceptance of ERROR manuscripts, modern versions, and layman’s aids. But because God has issued no memo changing the way we are to recognize His inspired word, I’ll stick with Thus saith the Lord: His words are my rock, my anchor, and my rod and staff. They are spirit and they are my life. And no Eve, no Hananiah, no theologian, and no apostate brother will ever get me to allow theology’s Trojan horse to move God’s words out into my periphery.

Society and “Christianity” have changed dramatically because Satan has been very successful at using a variety of weapons to get people to abandon the old paths and to go with the sludge – without authoritative memos! Most people do not anchor who they are on words. It doesn’t matter if those words were parental rules, rules of grammar in school, or Bible-based doctrines: they never submitted to the authority of those words by making them part of who they are. Without authoritative words we have no values, beliefs, or character! And if we didn’t have a Bible whose inerrancy identifies itself as “The Authoritative Memo” we’d have no anchor for our souls and would be adrift in a conflicting, chaotic, ever-changing sea of theology, morality, ignorance, uncertainty, and apathy.

 

“I AM” ...AND THE INSPIRED, INERRANT WORDS OF GOD

We must – for Jesus’ sake and that of His church – be very zealous about His words. If we are, we’ll be able to use them to fend off theology’s claim that His word no longer exists, and theology’s redefinition of His word as “a loose collection of miscopied manuscripts and corrupt translations” by asking our brethren, Where’s The Memo that authorizes you to reject God’s definition?”

In our NT era the written word of God is the only way God represents Himself. The fate of God’s church depends on our resisting Satan’s use of Genesis-2 theology to subvert the authority of His literal words. The literal words that are His Sword must become our foundation, the framework of our souls, our intellect. Nobody understands how the intellect works, and nobody understands how “mere words” out on our peripheries can either move inside and become a part of who we are, or stay on the periphery and merely be lip service.

The words in the Bible, if they move from the periphery into our very makeup, are our defense against the “illocutionary impact” of today’s graphic brainwashing techniques. Gods literal words anchor us to truth and allow us to resist our carnal old man’s Natural tendency to go with the world’s sludge around us.

Words are everything in human existence. We learn words and their meanings. We reject some and internalize others. We communicate with words and use them to teach, correct, love, and preach. But we saints have an advantage over the unregenerate: God’s words really are – through faith – available and efficacious to us. The unregenerate cannot know the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned. The sad reality is that the power behind God’s Sword (the hidden work of the Holy Spirit) is absent in the lives of born again saints who lack faith in God and in His word, For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it (Heb 4:2).

At Judgment I don’t think any of God’s good and bad saints will have any problem instantly understanding how and why God’s literal words had to exist and had to be both spirit and truth (inerrant). In other words, I think we’ll all instantly know why His words had to be exactly as He defined them. That realization/understanding will occur instantly because as soon as we’re in His presence, His majesty and His omnipotence and everything about Who He IS will make us feel and glimpse the magnitude and power and breadth and depth that are part of the eternally-amazing fact of GOD. If we were to ask Him today why His words are so important, so necessary, and why they must be literally true and exact He’d reply, “Because I AM”, as in “Because I EXIST”. I say again: All of God’s saints, the sheep and the goats, at Judgment will have absolutely no doubt – when they get their first glimpse of God – that His inspired, inerrant words not only existed on earth, but that they were and are a lot more important than any of us truly realized. I think in that instant of awe and fear our self-based pride will vanish and we’ll all find ourselves flat on our faces before the Word of God in accordance with the literal word of God (Rev 1:17; 14:7).

With the internalized word of God as our framework, if we continue being faithful doers of His words He’ll bring the spiritual power of His spiritual Sword into our lives in order to give us knowledge, understanding, and wisdom as He Shepherds us through the strait gates into green pastures for His name’s sake. As that is going on we’ll realize we’re becoming more and more like He is; we’re being very careful about words we hear, read, write, and speak. We’ll examine them to understand what they do say as well as what they don’t. And above all we’ll zero in on the truth (or lack thereof) of the words we hear and speak – because GOD IS, and we are being transformed by His words into His faithful servants who will inherit His kingdom.

 

On Christ’s inerrant word I stand, all other versions are sinking sand.

Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.

*****

War College Trumpet W12

GRADUATION DAY: You Fight Like You Train

 

In the earlier War College trumpets I dealt mostly with issues that are black and white, issues that apply to our being good soldiers. In this trumpet I’m going to get into some things that are less definite: First, I want to stress that Satan’s subtlety when combined with our carnal, deceitful hearts is not something to be taken lightly. Second, I want to make the case that, unless we are good wives, we can be neither good nor successful soldiers. And third, I hope to use an imaginary Millennial Reign scenario to sober you into a deeper appreciation for the New Testament tactics and subjects we’ve covered in the War College curriculum.

 

WATCH THOU IN ALL THINGS

Eph 5:15,16  See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

 

I’ll begin with something interesting I learned from my wife, which I’ll briefly summarize before I move on and get to my point: Processed foods that are sold commercially often have large amounts of refined sugar in them, and we are told that refined sugar is bad for us. It turns out sugars and starches are carbohydrates (which is a name that derives from their molecular structure). Carbs become fuel for our cells that burn only when their molecular structures are broken down into glucose, which is essentially the gasoline that our cells/engines burn. Now keep in mind that the Bible says we must work for our food (Ge 3:19a,23b; 2 Th 3:10) as you read this: Starches, which are molecularly-complex, and complex sugars such as molasses and honey are “good” carbohydrates because our bodies must work to break their complexities down into useable fuel/glucose/gasoline. That work takes time, which allows our bodies to properly use/burn that steady trickle of fuel. Processed sugar, however, is molecularly simple, and therefore our bodies don’t have to work to convert it into glucose/fuel. Therefore the conversion happens much too fast for our bodies to handle: the flood of glucose is just too much gasoline to burn all at once...so our bodies are forced to store that glucose by turning it into fat, which hinders our bodies in a number of ways.

The above is interesting to me because it’s but another indication that God’s word always has been way ahead of all of us in so many ways and on so many levels – even down at the molecular level (by Him all things consist). Therefore, the very things we like and want – foods containing processed sugar – are bad because the sugar is simple and does not require work; but foods that contain natural sugars such as honey are good because they are complex and do require work.

Why did I bring up something that is not a sin, such as eating simple sugar? Well, it’s certainly not because I’m trying to influence your eating habits. But I am trying to introduce (with perhaps too minor a point) the fact that the world has many more ways to condition us to yield control to the wants of our bodies than we can figure out in several lifetimes. Yes, it may be that our sinless wants can be harmful...as demonstrated by our basing which foods we eat on liking the taste...and in very small, subtle ways like that it may be that we are being trained to mindlessly make daily choices based purely on what our bodies want. Let me be clear about the point I’m trying to make: In many different ways the world is making us accustomed to following the lead of our carnal minds and bodies by bypassing the governing cerebral activity of discernment. That is bad because it severs the 1 Cor 11:3 chain of command that leads to and glorifies God by making Him our Head and Ruler. The active chain of command establishes God as our King, and it establishes us as His servants. Bypassing discernment is, in practice, the same as severing or disabling our new man’s head; it is surrendering control to the body, which is what Adam did when he meekly followed Eve’s lead, what Noah did when he got drunk, and what King Saul did when he democratically surrendered to the will of the people. Carelessly ignoring discernment makes us independent. The problem with bypassing discernment isn’t the activity itself; the problem is our new man isn’t in control – which makes us carnal.

The Apostle Paul spent a lot of time in his inner sanctum applying the word of God to everything in life. And as a result the Comforter directed his thoughts to fertile ground for our edification. Paul says his Natural concupiscence, his carnality, became apparent when he applied the meaning of covetousness to Lust A and Lust B in order to understand sinless Lust A can become sinful if we thoughtlessly go through life. Let’s look at some Scripture:

 

Rom 7:7,8,14 ...I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence...for I am carnal, sold under sin.

 

Eph 2:2,3 below contains a good definition of concupiscence: fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, but in it we also learn that living according to our “natural” desires is one of the ways Satan tries to make us fail:

 

Eph 2:2,3  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath...

 

Paul then realized the Lord has given us His words so we can use them to overcome our Natural concupiscence/carnality:

 

Rom 7:24,25  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the [carnal] body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind [the soul, our cerebral participation by using the Bible’s words to govern Self] I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

The word of God made Paul aware that walking after the Devil/the flesh doesn’t merely involve obvious sins like adultery and stealing, it also includes thoughtlessly living according to our mental and physical wants. In other words, sinless activities – if they are the result of carnality / yielding to Selfbecome sinful because carnality is violent enmity against the Headship/Lordship of God, and because carnality is the opposite of discernment, which is always required. In other words, Paul used the word of God to carefully and in detail examine his own life...and he recognized his own daily carnality. Carnality is when the body acts independently of Biblical discernment. Paul saw that his “sinless” actions and choices all day long were actually sinful concupiscence if they were done “instinctively” – that is, Naturally. The “Devil was in the details”, and that’s why Paul didn’t recognize the subtlety of his sin until the word of God pointed out that anything we do that does not include some degree of discerning oversight is an independent action! That is carnality; it is violent enmity against the Headship of the Lord; it is rebellion because it is culpable neglect of our duty to be full-time servants as opposed to “95% servants” (see Trumpet A7). Paul saw that we brides of Christ are required to be faithful wives who are “keepers at home” with the Lord in our inner sanctums 100% of the time; rather than wives who are “at home” with the Lord in our inner sanctums 95% of the time...and out whoring with Self 5% of the time. Paul admitted he had a tendency to “step out” of his inner-sanctum home when doing sinless things like playing sports with his buddies, going along with the latest fad, and when failing to control his emotions and his tongue. The problem, Paul realized, wasn’t just “sinful” activities, the problem was more broad-based: it was “stepping out” on God by “forgetting” Him. Feeling overwhelmed because he was trapped inside a body of death, Paul realized that as long as he “kept at home” with his Husband via discernment in his mind, he wasn’t “stepping out”, he wasn’t being independent, and therefore the Lord would judge him as a good and faithful servant. Paul’s Romans 7 revelation was intimidating because he knew achieving that kind of mental circumspection, discipline, and watchfulness was difficult, unNatural, and would require a lot of work. And that caused Paul to make the keeper-at-home striving of 1 Cor 9:25-27 (below) part of every minute of every day of his life – it became an important tactic in his war against Self.

Our wifely keeper-at-home relationship with the Lord cannot mature properly if it isn’t constantly feeding on and doing the word in order to grow in understanding, then wisdom, then appreciation, and then true love for the Lord. In order for all of this to happen, we must be “keepers at home” by spending time alone with our heavenly Husband. If we utilize this private time, this communion of the Holy Ghost (2 Cor 13:14), the Comforter will respond in the same way every husband and master reacts to servant-wives who love them and please them: an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet 1:11). Now go back and read that verse again while applying I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:25) and Jesus the author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2). And then get the context of v.11 by thoughtfully reading 2 Pet 1:1-10.

But how can we make discernment always active? There is a well-known adage that says You fight like you train. It means we must be disciplined in our training by doing everything correctly, over and over and over. If we train properly the learned response replaces our natural response and we’ll be better prepared when we find ourselves in the unpredictable chaos of combat when that which we least expect and most greatly fear causes rising panic and an overwhelming urge for self preservation.

 

Job 2:4,5  And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life...put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

 

It is easy to sit in a classroom and correctly answer test questions about how we should respond in emergencies, and it is easy to tell ourselves we’ll do the right thing when sudden fear rears its ugly head. But the truth is when in stressful situations we all tend to resort to doing what comes most naturally. Our training, therefore, must include both mind and body, and our training must be effective enough and often enough that the proper responses become part of who we are – the words out on our periphery must become internalized parts of our character. Our Christian walk and war is cerebral.

And that is the answer to how we can make discernment always active: We do so by walking in a continual state of awareness in which everything we think, do, and say is filtered through discernment, which serves to train our old-man minds and bodies to always submit to our headship (and therefore the Lord’s Headship – 1 Cor 11:3), and to train our inner sanctums to be always actively alert and in charge. Or, as the Bible puts it, Having mastery over our carnal minds and bodies in all things by being temperate, by being in control.

 

1 Cor 9:25-27  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things [even sinless things]. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly [but deliberately]; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection [to the ruling authority of my discerning head]: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway [as a result of not having gained mastery over self in all things].

 

Since we are instructed to “die to self” by using the governing awareness of our discerning new man to control our Natural tendencies to allow our carnal minds and bodies to make everyday “unimportant” and “sinless” choices, let’s consider a few examples in order to perhaps better understand what the Apostle Paul was talking about.

Why do people simultaneously and with military-like precision (as if they were trained! – see Eph 2 above) suddenly turn their ball caps around and wear them backwards? Is it because their carnal old-man self likes that fad, and/or is it because they want to “go with the sludge” and emulate the mindless masses? (Apply this example to hundreds of different “trends” in speech, clothing, body piercings and tattoos, hairstyles, etc.) Are we so intellectually weak that we actually do things merely because our carnal minds/bodies tell us to “go along” with things as vain as fads?

Compare what we discussed about Rom 7 above with Gal 5:16-21,24,25 below in order to better understand concupiscence. And then think about how important gaining mastery over our mental and physical desires is as you read vv. 16,17 again).

 

Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit [via discernment in all things], and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

 

17 For the flesh [mindless carnality] lusteth against the Spirit [thoughtful discernment], and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other [because the war is cerebral]: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would [because our spiritual minds haven’t gained proper mastery over the everyday non-cerebral wants of Self].

 

18 But if [note the conditional if] ye be led [via cerebral mastery/discernment] of the Spirit, ye are not under the law [because you’re not walking in the carnal flesh].

 

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

 

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance [to be different from our Instruction Manual], emulations [to strive to make oneself equal or similar to something or someone], wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

 

21 Envyings [discontent at not being like the world, a person, or a fad], murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified [cerebrally mastered] the flesh with the affections and lusts [have died to self via temperance in all things].

 

25 If we live in the Spirit [are born again, have faith], let us also walk in the Spirit [because discernment prevents carnality/independence/concupiscence – see v.16 again].

 

Why do people in churches claim to “believe” certain doctrines (such as immortality of the soul, evolution, and “foul” language is a sin); and why do they reject plainly-worded Scripture (don’t get married, greet each other with a kiss, women silent in church) even though they have never studied those issues? Is it because they have failed to gain mastery over self and have become accustomed to mindlessly (and therefore carnally) taking the path of least resistance through life (drifting with the sludge)?

Why did so many people of my generation (who were reared by loving parents who properly spared not the rod of correction) simultaneously and with military-like precision (as if they were trained!) suddenly jump on the “spanking is evil” bandwagon even though they never studied the issue!?

I have witnessed in my lifetime a society that fervently defended certain “rules” of morality, with astonishing rapidity and almost military precision become so amoral that I have become an anachronism. Was the change the result of intellectual participation and research...or were these wimps mindlessly going with the sludge that is orchestrated by the god of this world?

Why is it increasingly difficult in the U.S. to find certain healthy food products on store shelves? Is it because most Americans want to purchase and consume foods that are more appealing to the flesh? Are people’s diets the result of intellectual participation and research...or do people mindlessly go along with the mental and physical desires of the god of their belly?

Could it be that God gave us Scriptures such as the above because He expects us to meditate on them like Paul did in order to realize we Bible believers need to stop drifting mindlessly along? Doesn’t the Bible make it clear that we need to strive with ourselves in order to gain complete mastery over all things in our lives? Don’t the above examples indicate that the world entices, pressures, and even bullies us into living our lives with less and less intellectual/Scriptural participation by surrendering the ruling authority of our minds to the dictates of the god of our bellies – and therefore to the god of this world? By making more and more of our choices in life (notice I didn’t say decisions in life) in accordance with mindless wants, are we unknowingly training ourselves and conditioning ourselves to be intellectual and Scriptural wimps because we’re not striving/working to be “keepers at home” in our inner sanctums like good wives of the Lord’s? And at the same time are we making our biggest enemy – our carnal Self – stronger and stronger and stronger? I trow so, bro.

If striving/training ourselves to always have mental participation, discernment, alertness, and deliberate control over all things is so important and necessary in order to avoid the concupiscence of mindlessly walking through life, could it be that all the – cell phone bells, whistles, chimes, ringtones, vibrations, and tweets; combined with the Internet’s funny video clips, the porn, the TV shows, the music videos, the sporting events, the news, and the social media; combined with all kinds of real-life jobs, and shopping, and hobbies, and social events, and family functions – are used by the god of this world as sinless time-wasting vanities that will keep us mentally distracted from the all-important tasks/strivings mentioned above? Could it be that all of the ways used by the Devil to train and distract us have the (to him) all-important objective of keeping our old man alive, and that Satan’s job is made easier because those things aren’t sins and they come so Naturally?

 

WE MUST BE GOOD SOLDIERS AND GOOD WIVES

Within the context of temperance in all things I want you to think about wanting. I’m talking about “innocent, non-sinful” desires of the flesh and of the mind. I’m not talking about good wants that are the result of Biblical discernment such as, I want to serve the Lord. I’m talking about the same “innocent”-but-independent (and thereby carnal, and therefore sinful) wants we’ve been discussing above. Food for thought:

 

A SHORT ESSAY ON WANTING

Wanting is a very unattractive quality or state of being. Wanting means we are not happy, we are not content. Wanting is a weakness because it exalts Self over servitude. Peter and Joseph in prison did not want; Job did not want...(but his wife did). David’s adultery was caused by a temporary weakness when he allowed himself to want. The only proper want the new man/inner sanctum should have is the Lord’s will. Sadly, most of our wants originate in our carnal old man’s mind and body. Think of the old man and his wanting as a big part of our learning experience because in order to become proper servant-wives of the Lord’s we must die to Self (we must fast to Self) by cerebrally discerning and ruling well our wants from our inner sanctums, which is the Romans 7 struggle. Wanting is a lifelong temptation and challenge that will exist as long as we have our old-man minds and bodies. Good wives and servants are very much alike because their primary satisfaction in life is the complete and proper performance of their duties. In fact, when the performance of their duties necessitates self sacrifice (defined as subordinating what Self wants to the call of duty) it actually makes duty more rewarding. The absence of carnal wanting – the selflessness in doing our duty – is what makes duty so noble. That truth contributes to the fact that our Christian calling to be servants, soldiers, and wives is a high and noble calling. The Lord has designed us to be servants, and therefore true contentment is in doing somebody else’s will (duty), not in doing what Self wants. We must never allow the wants of our carnal old-man’s mind and body to slip unnoticed past the Biblical framework of words we have spent so much time and energy building in our heads, or to allow that framework to be weakened/corrupted by illocutionary influences. We are at war, brother, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal – they are the words of God, the sword of the Lord.

 

Notice above I said wanting is a lifelong temptation. That means wanting – like any temptation – isn’t a sin unless we yield to it, at which point it becomes covetousness, which is always a sin. Therefore, since we are talking about non-sinful wants, we must discern when they are and are not sins. And bringing carnality into the picture helps us figure out the difference. Carnality is always enmity against God because it is not being under His control, His Headship, His authority. Therefore, if we – as heads properly ruling our bodies under Christ – make a command decision to go buy a ball cap and wear it backwards, we have kept ourselves from being carnal/independent because we did not mindlessly submit to our bodies’ sinless wants, and because our discerning heads remained intellectually involved and in complete control. Our walk must be cerebral, and that is why dying to self – temperance in all things – is so important.

 

Another reason wanting is an unattractive attribute is the domino effect: If we get into the habit of yielding to our wants, our intellectual self-control withers and weakens over time...which causes us to become whiners when we don’t get what we want. Society is full of unhappy weaklings who disgust everybody around them by whining that they wish they could stop smoking, stick to a diet, lose weight, quit spending so much, save money, turn off the computer and study the Bible, be on time, keep their word, etc. ...“but I just can’t.” Peter and Joseph in jail – because they lived in their inner sanctums – did not want; so they made the most of the situation and glorified God. We need to always submit our wants to our intellects for evaluation and for approval, modification, or rejection. Again, the way to “strive” to gain more and more discerning control over our wants is to be temperate in all things because fasting from self makes us weak to self and mighty in spirit. And self is – by far – our biggest problem and obstacle and challenge! Having a self-disciplined reserve, an ability to continually impose upon ourselves temperance in all things physical, all things mental, all things emotional, and all things spoken is the key to walking after the Spirit, to not being carnal, to dying to self, and to being a “keeper at home” at the Lord’s feet so He can lead our thoughts into green pastures for our edification and for His name’s sake. That ability to hold Self back just a little bit in all things and at all times is how we strengthen our ability to rule with discerning wisdom, and it’s how we weaken our selfish desire to yield to the Natural wants and likes of our carnal minds and bellies. Temperance in all things is an effective way to wax strong spiritually with discerning self control, which leads to the John 14:26 inner sanctum relationship with the Lord that deepens our love and our wisdom. Temperance in all things is good training because it mentally controls our wants.

 

Now let’s think about some people God put in the Bible for our edification. And let’s apply the discussions above to their successes and failures in order that we might get a deeper understanding of how to properly subdue the flesh and walk in the Spirit.

Because all of us can identify with the Romans 7 struggle, I consider Matt Seven to be one of the scariest people in the Bible. He illustrates the fact that our deceitful and wicked hearts (Jer 17:9) can blind us to the need to die to self daily by striving to be always in a constant state of intellectual watchfulness and control (discernment). On the surface Matt Seven and the Pharisees were good, law-keeping Christians – certainly better (by judging the outward appearance) than King David. But the Lord rejected the former and favored the latter. Why?

Forgiveness and the doctrine of expediency teach us something about sins and about the law: As big and as important as we might think sins are (perhaps especially “biggies” like adultery and murder), love is revealed to be bigger, more important, and more powerful than everything else.

 

Love defined: Having a proper two-way-street relationship with the Lord. (As discussed in Trumpet B10.)

 

In other words, a proper relationship with the Lord must be our primary objective. David somehow had a proper relationship with the Lord, and Matt Seven and the Pharisees somehow didn’t. So the logical question is, How could an adulterer and murderer have had a better relationship with the Lord than people like Matt Seven? We can discern the answer when we apply James 2:10,11 to the “carnal (not under proper mental control) concupiscence” in Romans 7 that made Paul realize we are “sold under sin” and therefore must “strive for the (mental) mastery.” Notice Paul then says every man that striveth for the mastery “is” temperate in all things. He does not say we should “strive to be temperate”; he says “being temperate in all things is striving.” And that fact makes us appreciate how large a role in our training/growth temperance – restraint imposed by the mind – plays. Did David strive for the mastery and succeed most of the time? Yes, because David mostly avoided the daily “concupiscence sins” discussed above by keeping his inner sanctum active and in charge; and, yes, David also had a few times when he sinned. Matt Seven, on the other hand sinned every day numerous times by not continually walking with the Lord in his inner sanctum; and because of Jam 2:10,11 those numerous everyday “sins of concupiscence”, those “sins of carnally leaving the Lord out of his thoughts when doing ‘non-sinful’ things”, those “sins of independent ‘non-sinful’ thoughts and actions” were no different from murder and adultery...and those habitual sins show that Matt Seven’s carnality/enmity against God was a “normal” part of who he was even though he didn’t realize it (Jer 17:9; 1 Cor 9:27). And that is what made Paul recognize the seriousness and necessity of our full-time cerebral participation in this war: he didn’t want a Matt-Seven-like mostly-independent daily routine of “thoughtless carnal concupiscence” to prevent the Comforter from “manifesting Himself” to Paul in order that a proper Husband-wife relationship could develop. Paul is warning us that if we do not properly subject Self to the full-time rule of discernment we run the Matt-Seven risk of having the Lord say to us at Judgment: “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity; I never knew you because you weren’t a keeper at home!”

So, the bottom line: David was a proper wife because for the most part he was a keeper at home in his inner sanctum with the Lord – therefore David’s sins were forgiven. Matt Seven was not a proper wife, did not walk cerebrally with the Lord – and was therefore carnal, sold under sin. Matt did not have a proper two-way-street relationship with the Lord, and therefore the Comforter did not manifest Himself to him because the living word of God looked around in Matt’s inner sanctum and saw that Matt was AWOL! And not only that: the divine word also discerned the thoughts and intents of Matt’s heart and found that his absence was because he was carnal – which made everything he did a sin, which made Matt a “worker of iniquity” (Mt 7:23) and a loveless tinkling cymbal (1 Cor 13:1).

What this means, of course, is our relationship with the Lord is supposed to be real, it’s supposed to be personal, and it’s supposed to be paramount. “OK, no problem”, thought Matt as he drifted with “sinless” vanities. And that is why he was shocked and indignant enough at Judgment to argue with God Almighty – which itself is but another proof that he didn’t spend nearly enough real time with the Lord. No matter what words we use – temperance, discernment, self-control, walking in the Spirit, praying always, being under subjection, being in our inner sanctum, walking circumspectly, being watchful, or waiting on the Lord – the objective is the same: to conquer our Natural independence, our Natural carnality, because they can make us castaways.

I want to try to highlight the difference between the Davids and the Matts. On the surface it looked like Matt was a good husband/soldier who did all of the “manly” stuff like being separated from bad Christians, learning the Bible, and being a doer of the word in order to foster/create an environment in which his “wifely part” could “stay at home” with the Lord and build a proper relationship. But somehow Matt failed to develop that wifely relationship.

David was an adulterer and murderer, so on the surface we might say he was not as good a husband/soldier as was Matt. But, the primary purpose of the husband/soldier part of all of us is to create an environment around us and inside us that will help our wife part stay at home with the Lord where He can manifest Himself to us. Therefore, in spite of his headline-grabbing sins, David was obviously a pretty good husband/soldier because “she” and the Lord developed such a real and close and trusting relationship that when David sinned the Lord – in effect – held out His royal scepter (Est 5:2). Therefore, even though we cannot and should not reduce the importance of our husbandly/soldierly duties, we must keep in mind the fact that neglecting the all-important wifely relationship with the Lord is apparently what caused the Lord to withhold His scepter from Matt.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, we must each incorporate all of the word of God into who we are (like David did) so we can be good soldiers and good wives. Being good wives may sound simple but it isn’t...for two reasons. First, people like Matt Seven show it’s possible (and maybe easier) to be a good husband/soldier without being a good wife. We need to always keep in mind that all of our husbandly and soldierly duties exist primarily so our wifely relationship with the Lord can flourish.

The second reason being good wives is difficult is the fact that so many Christians seem to need constant activity. They seem to be unable to sit still for two seconds without having to jump up and go do something. That means spending time quietly sitting in their inner sanctums will be difficult to incorporate into their daily lives. In fact, studies have shown that many people are so addicted to mental and physical activity and entertainment they can’t even force themselves to sit quietly and think for 15 minutes. 67% of men and 25% of women in the studies chose to electrically shock themselves rather than sit for 15 minutes, and most began shocking themselves before half of the 15 minutes had passed. This may mean all of the modern worldly ways we have to keep ourselves “busy” are, indeed, impediments to forming proper relationships with the Lord...and that may underscore the wisdom of be keepers at home and study to be quiet. Also, the percentages may mean Christian men will have a harder time sitting quietly than Christian women. We might also conclude we present day Bible believers have a bigger Romans 7 problem in trying to curb the carnal desires of the flesh and of the mind than did the Apostle Paul, and that may mean being temperate in all things while we strive to master dying to self will be as unattainable for many of us as it apparently was for Matt Seven and the Pharisees.

The Bible tell us to be temperate in all things for the obvious reason that we have a Natural tendency to overindulge our mental and physical lusts (Eph 2:3). And when I say overindulge I’m not merely referring to profligate binging, I’m referring to the Natural everyday types of concupiscence Paul spoke about in Rom 7 that caused him to realize we must be temperate in all things. That means walking circumspectly is a full-time job that requires maintaining at least some part of our discerning consciousness (inner-sanctum awareness of the Bible and the Lord) and control (temperance) no matter what we’re doing.

Being temperate in all things (not just most things) in and of itself seems (by today’s self-centered standards) like a pretty big task. But when we zero in on the fact that the word is means equals we realize the following is an accurate rewording of that verse: “He that is not temperate in all things is not striving; he’s not even trying.”

That means being temperate in all things can be properly defined as always being with the Lord by always being aware of Him, which can be called a never-ending state of prayer (1 Th 5:17; Ep 6:18) – is only the beginning because it is merely striving (as opposed to achieving)! That seems to indicate that the real objective of striving / being temperate / being continually with the Lord is to learn from Him and put what we learn from Him into action as His servants. And that objective is not possible if we aren’t trying/striving by being temperate in all things!

With all of the above discussion in mind (about daily concupiscence, temperance in all things lest even Paul lose it like Matt Seven did), see if that discussion might complement these difficult sayings of the Lord’s:

 

Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?

 

And he said unto them, Strive [as defined above] to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able [because they didn’t even strive by being always temperate / always present with the Lord].

 

When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

 

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men [being with men] this is impossible [therefore come out from among them, consult not with flesh and blood, avoid distractions and leaven]; but with God [being always present with God] all things are possible [because He is our Mentor and our arm of strength. Therefore if we wives want to learn how to be proper soldier-wives we should ask our Husband at home (1 Co 14:35) in our inner sanctums].

 

It says “all things are possible”; it doesn’t say guaranteed, because it’s still up to us to be doers. In other words, it says the same thing as this verse:

1 Cor 10:13,14 God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way [strait gate, being with Him so we can learn] to escape, that ye may [if we are doers of what we learned] be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry [Flee from Self – the daily concupiscence of living in accordance with our “non-sinful” lusts of the flesh and of the mind – lest we ourselves should be castaways].

 

How do we flee from the deadly subtlety of our Naturally-concupiscent Selves? By being good soldiers/men who prudently provide a quiet lifestyle for our wife/female part so she/we can be with the Lord in our inner sanctums rather than with Self (idolatry, see next verses) via unthinking concupiscence.

Phil 3:19  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

Co 3:5,6  Mortify therefore your...evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

 

We are Christian soldiers in mortal, carnal bodies trying to fight a spiritual war against supernatural beings who are way too smart and powerful for us. Therefore it is impossible for us humans to win (Mk 10:27a)...unless we are “with” the Lord, for with God all things are possible (Mk 10:27b). And the only way to be “with” the Comforter – according to Jn 14 – is by being proper doers of the words in the Bible. Whenever our daily lives are not spent with God via intellectual ruling discernment we have left our Husband at home with nobody to serve Him, we have shown that “me time” is more important than “Thee time”, and we have usurped His ruling authority by doing and choosing things based purely on what we want, on what we like – and are therefore idolatrously glorifying the god of our bellies. The Christian walk is fighting the good fight against Self in order to become a pleasingly-submissive wife who is one-flesh with the Lord – a real living, breathing, walking, talking member of His body/church. The real purpose of being in our inner sanctums is to become closer and closer to Him until we can’t stand being apart from Him...and the resulting love will make the Romans 7 struggle and the “earnestly desiring to be clothed upon” more and more real to us.

We need to be hermits who live in the exclusive sanctity of our inner sanctums. This solitude is good and important and necessary. And that is why our husbandly duties are important – we must deliberately and prudently build a lifestyle conducive to quiet, and we must protect ourselves from outside influences and distractions so our wifely part can mature in love and strength and wisdom...because our wifely relationship may be the key to our successfully enduring to the end of the Millennial Reign.

THE MILLENNIAL REIGN: THE LAST DAY OF THE WAR

I don’t normally write about future events because we cannot be dogmatic about them, and speculating about them often doesn’t help us with our Christian walk now. However, I’m going to speculate about the Millennial Reign in a way I hope is sobering, helpful, and shows how serious we must be about the things we’ve discussed over the course of the War College curriculum. There are things that happen during the thousand years that may have a lot more significance than tradition attaches to them. Some of these things I touch upon, and they include:

 

  • Before the war started the Devil agreed to be locked up for a thousand years, which suggests he did not think his imprisonment would significantly impact his war effort. There is a reason for that.

 

  • For the first and only time in history the entire church will be together. There is a reason for that.

 

  • The war’s rules of engagement require the Devil’s release toward the end of the war. There is a reason for that.

 

  • We are told very little about what the Lord will be doing and what we will be doing during Satan’s incarceration and release. That is why much of what I say below is speculation.

 

  • Although we are told the Lord will use fire to end the final battle between Satan and the church, we are told nothing about the nature of the battle or the purpose of the battle. That, together with the fact that the battle is apparently both important and necessary, contribute to my belief that some prudent speculation can be edifying.

 

  • Since Biblical history repeats itself, we may be able to apply some things that happened in the past to future events, and I do just that.

 

But remember, the primary purpose of this discussion is edification; its purpose is to exhort Bible believers to faithfully live and strive by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God in order to become better soldiers and better wives.  Most of our text comes from Rev 20:

 

Rev 20:

1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

 

V.2  Satan is locked up for the thousand years of the Millennial Reign.

 

V.3  He is locked up for a specific reason: During most of the thousand years he won’t be able to influence or deceive us. But when the thousand years are “fulfilled” Satan “must” be released so he can resume trying to influence and deceive us.

 

V.4  Verse 4 is about us saints who are counted worthy to rule and reign under Christ for the thousand years. By applying Heb 11:40-12:1 we can say the cloud of good saints who lived before us must join us and successfully get through the 1,000 years in order that we all can be made perfect (Heb 11:40). Let’s press on and see what “being perfected” might entail.

 

V.5  Verse 5 begins with some parenthetical information: The word “But” contrasts these “rest-of-the-dead” bad saints with the good saints who rule and reign. The bad saints who had died and gone to hell lived not again (were not resurrected on the Seventh Day) until the thousand years were finished. This may mean they are resurrected in order to stand Judgment (Rev 20:11,12), or it may mean they are resurrected at the same time Satan is released so they can prove with their fruit they really are bad when they join the Devil and war against the saints during Satan’s last-gasp effort to win the war. Now that the parenthetical info about the bad saints is done, this verse gets back to the good resurrected saints mentioned in v.4 – these good saints are the “first” resurrection. Does this mean there are more numbered resurrections? For example, does this mean the bad saints are in the “second” resurrection? Maybe so; that doesn’t seem to contradict anything...but it doesn’t say.

 

V.6  Continuing to talk about the good first-resurrection saints, this verse begins by telling us being in the first resurrection is a good deal, a blessing. Why is it a good deal? Obviously it’s a good deal because it means the Lord counted us worthy to “keep the sabbath” during which we get to rule and reign under Him...but there’s more: It says the second death hath no power on these good first-resurrection saints. Now, just like the modern “tongues” tradition causes people to think tongues and gibberish are the same, could it be that the modern “eternal security” tradition causes people to think this phrase means either eternal security is true in general, or that it specifically means these good saints who rule and reign under Christ during the Millennial Sabbath can never “lose it”? I think both eternal-security arguments are specious and go against the grain of the rest of the Bible. So, without being dogmatic, and trying not to wrest the Scriptures, I’ll tell you what I think this means. First, a definition of “power” in Rev 20:6 from our trusty English dictionary:

 

Power: Having the strength, ability, or authority to affect or influence people or events.

 

Now I’ll describe a way of looking at verse 6 that does not support “eternal security”: It may be similar to verses 2 and 3, which deal with Satan’s being locked up during the thousand years. In other words, the second death having no power and Satan’s being locked up may be “blessings” because neither has any power to affect or influence the church. Therefore the second death hath no power may refer to a “Satanless” thousand-year “time out” in the war; it may mean most of the Millennial Reign is an intermission in the war during which the church gets to practice being the Lord’s servants, comrades to each other, and rulers. And, as with all practice sessions, the failings and mistakes we make during that practice don’t “count” – they don’t affect us – and are therefore not held against us at Judgment – which effectively means the threat of the second death – the First Testament Law of sin and death – is suspended (“hath no power” = “hath no strength” see 1 Cor 15:56; Rom 5:13; Est 5:2) temporarily during the Millennial Reign (more on this in a minute when I deal with history repeating itself). Notice that v.6 doesn’t say “Blessed are they in the first resurrection: (colon) because they shall reign with Christ.” What it does say is, “Blessed are they in the first resurrection”:because they are not affected by Satan, and because the First Testament Law has no power/strength when the Lord’s scepter is raised.” Also notice: If “no power” meant “eternal security” the verse would say, “the second death has no power and they shall reign under Christ forever.” Alas, however, the verse only guarantees us a thousand years. Also, the verse continues with a “but”, which indicates there are two different-but-related messages: First, no second death/no Satan; and second, we reign under Christ. We always tend to concentrate on the good news (ignoring the 1,000-year time limit) about reigning under Christ – even though something we were already told in v.3 (what happens at the end of the thousand years) is ominously repeated in v.7:

 

V.7  Satan is released at the end of the thousand years! In fact, Satan “must” be released. Why is he released? So he can resume influencing events and the church. In other words, during the thousand-year sabbath/”intermission” we priests of God will not be lying around eating grapes and getting fat; we have lots of work to do because the “practice session/timeout” isn’t for no reason; it’s to prepare – to train – us for our upcoming final test...and that test will make everything else we’ve ever gone through pale in comparison – including (in some ways) the tribulation. The thousand-year Day of the Lord is when our iron-fisted Drill Sergeant lovingly runs our asses so that we will be able to pass the final-battle test when Satan is released:

 

1 Cor 10:13 ...God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape [compare this with 2 Pet 1:11], that ye may be able to bear it.

 

Now note the above verse says the Lord will not (“will not” is a guarantee...as opposed to “may not”, which isn’t) allow us to be tested above our abilities...but then the Lord drops the word “will” and uses “may” – which means the outcome isn’t a sure thing, and even though we “are able” to succeed we “may” fail because we have a choice to endure to the end/to overcome...or not. In other words, our Drill Sergeant will make sure we are properly prepared for the final test, and He will patiently give us a thousand years of practice, and He will make it a “no-penalty” practice session...but we may (might) not pass that final test that Satan so eagerly and confidently looks forward to giving us when he is released. And the possibility that all of us may fail underscores the fact that the purpose of Satan’s release isn’t so we can laugh at his clownishly-inept and impotent attempts to prevail over the church: he is released because he can still win the war (that means defeat us), and we are going to have to have our loins and hearts and minds girt about with the whole armour of God and be ready for anything because the finale may be frightening, brutal, and demanding in ways we’ve never experienced before. I’m reminded of a sentence in AOR’s introduction:

 

Modern Christians understand neither war nor the total involvement needed to successfully participate in war.

 

V.8  Satan will quickly use his “power/influence” to deceive and turn the whole world against the church, which will result in the decisive, cataclysmic, final battle of the war. That means this battle is very, very important. I say again, it won’t be a joyous event at which we saints, reclining in lawn chairs, cheer and laugh as Christ crushes Satan and his minions.

 

V.9  The evil population of the earth surrounds the camp of the saints...and is then destroyed by fire.

 

V.10  The deceiver is cast into the lake of fire.

 

Now I’ll try to put some flesh on the above in order to emphasize the importance of the subjects and tactics covered in this War College.

 

THE DAMNING POWER AND INFLUENCE OF SELF

One of our big priorities during the Millennial Reign will be to continue bringing Self under absolute subjection. Yes, it’ll be nice not having Satan around, but as the centuries go by we’re going to understand more and more how much of a problem Self has always been. In order to illustrate my point about how hugely-damning Self can be, let’s divide history into three periods:

 

  • No Satan and no First Testament: When God originally created the evil of equality in order to test His children, there was no Satan. God’s children (Michael, Lucifer, Gabriel) had no evil influence on them – except for Self. Michael and Gabriel did pretty well, but Lucifer was deceived by Self...and he became Satan. I say again, Lucifer’s downfall wasn’t because he had an adversary walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour. Lucifer did not have to stand against the wiles of the devil – because there was no devil and there was no second death in existence. In spite of that double blessing (the same Rev 20:6 blessing the Millennial saints will have – no Satan and no First Testament to worry about), God’s beloved Lucifer fell and God established His First Testament. Lucifer fell because of self.

  • Satan actively involved: Today we must be able to resist Satan’s influence/power – as exampled in the Bible by Job, David, Judas, and Christ.

  • Satan locked up and the First Testament suspended: During the Millennial Reign history will be repeated; neither the Devil nor the second death will be an influence (until the very end), just like they weren’t back during period 1 above. But, alas, we are going to learn that just as Self was a problem for God’s angels back during the pre-Satan/pre-First Testament era, Self will be a problem for all of us.

 

Therefore, in order to effectively resist the damning power and influence of Self we are going to have to go on unto perfection (Heb 6:1) in order to identify and resist the wicked deceitfulness of Self – which means we must be cerebral by living full time in our inner sanctums...rather than be “good” saints 95% of the time and Satanic whores 5% of the time. Passing the end-time test will require not only the active participation of our “husband and wife” parts, it will require the other members of our body – the church.

 

COMMUNION, CHARITY, HUMILITY...AND THE CORPORATE BODY OF CHRIST

During the Millennial reign the members of the church will be all present and accounted for. That’ll be a first in human history, it’ll be for a thousand years, and it’ll be a very, very important day for us. The Lord may give us varying kingdoms to rule and assignments to carry out all over the world. Being busy doing all of that might tend to distract us from the necessity of being with the Lord – at home as His wives in our inner sanctums at all times. Being busy with our individual duties may also distract us from our duty to take care of the church, which will require making sure Self/selfishness remains as weak as possible. Above, I listed communion because talking, discussing, asking, teaching, etc. is very good for us because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal – they are words. I listed charity because it is an active combination of love and works: we must actively take care of each other and make sure we aren’t sinking into Self. And I listed humility because we’ll no longer be mostly alone like so many of us are in these dark days. Being alone allows us to be more selfish and to get away with putting on the pious act – because we don’t have a lot of close interaction with good Christians day in and day out. But during the Millennial Reign we will have constant interaction, and there will be many times when we’ll need to lovingly rebuke, shoulder each others’ burdens, pray together, study together, and confess our mistakes, shortcomings, and sins to each other. We’ll need to be truly intimate with each other, we must trust each other, and we must help each other mature as much as possible before the Devil is let out. I think finally having a big happy family in which we’re all dedicated to the Lord will be a tremendous relief and joy, but I fear it may also lull us into a false sense of complacency. Therefore, all during the Reign we need to keep in mind the fact that we need to be preparing ourselves – as a church, as a community, as a unified body – for the final battle at the end of the thousand years.

It may be that one of the ways Matt Seven failed to develop a proper two-way-street relationship with the Lord had to do with the corporate body of Christ – the church. Notice for example that the Lord tells us about Matt right at the end of His sermon on the mount (Mt 5,6,7). That lengthy sermon deals with the fact that true Christian love requires us to be guilelessly pure in our relationships with the Lord and with His church. Perhaps Matt concentrated too much on being “pious” and not enough on edifying his brothers and sisters in Christ, which would indicate his lack of true Christian love. And perhaps the Pharisees, too, used their deceitful hearts to obscure the fact that their “edifying works for the church” were based on selfishness rather than the guileless purity of true love. If we’ll take Matt and the Pharisees seriously enough to look in the mirror (as if our Schoolmaster put them in His Book so we would do just that), we might realize “being sinless” like Matt Seven, and “serving the church” like the Pharisees are not enough. Yes, we have to have a good relationship with the Lord, and yes, we have to have a good relationship with the church – but without the guileless purity of true outward-directed unselfish love (as opposed to the hateful deceitfulness of inward-directed selfish love) we are nothing but tinkling cymbals. In other words, could Self be such an enormous problem that all of our well-intentioned preaching about the evil subtlety of Self doesn’t even scratch the surface? Could it be that Self really is – and always has been – our biggest enemy and challenge, and that’s why our loving Good Shepherd in His infinite wisdom is going to give us a thousand-year “practice session” during which all Satanic distractions are locked up? I say again, comrades, we may have no idea how enormously and completely true Jeremiah 17:9 is: The desires of our carnal flesh and minds (our hearts) are not merely wicked, they are so desperately wicked they actually become the most deceitful thing in our lives. Will it take 500 years for the Lord to get this fact through our carnal skulls, and then another 500 years for us to bring Self under enough subjection that we at least have a fighting chance to successfully endure to the end of the final battle (1 Cor 10:13)?

Yes, on the last day I think we’re going to need a lot of communion with the Lord and with His church in order to learn, and a lot of humility to accept unflattering truth about Self, and a lot of charity in order to make 1 John 3:16 part of who we are.

 

AN IMAGINARY SCENARIO

During most of the thousand years we might be distributed around the world, ruling over various pagan societies. For the most part we’ll probably think all is well, but – again – we need to be continually working on Self and helping the brethren...because when the Devil is released all hell will break loose.

Right about the time Satan is released we’ll be recalled (it’ll actually be a tactical retreat) from around the world to Jerusalem (not the new Jerusalem, because that will be on the new earth – Rev 21:1,2). Satan will know he has but a short time until the end of the 7,000-year war, so he will hold absolutely nothing back (including unprecedented supernatural forces) and will deceive and frighten and convince many that he will win the war. The camp of the saints and the beloved city will be surrounded. Some circumstances will make our situation look doomed. For example, the Lord might disappear up into heaven in such a way that it looks like we’ve been abandoned and are on our own facing impossible odds that may seem worse than those that so frightened God’s people in Numbers 13 & 14 that most saints from every tribe thought it had been a fatal mistake to follow the Lord (14:3). That fear among God’s people was so great and so widespread that those who stuck with the Lord were astonishingly few (14:6-10). Therefore, during the fulfillment of the thousand years it may be that many saints will be frightened, enticed, and deceived into making sinful, independent, Reasonable, carnal, self-motivated decisions like Adam and Eve did – things that the Bible calls “all manner of concupiscence”, “enmity against God”, “rebellion”, and “witchcraft”.

Why would saints who were counted worthy to be there for the Millennial Reign, and had served happily under the Lord Jesus Christ for so many centuries, resort to concupiscence? Because they never quite got Self under subjection; because they never became 100% members of Christ’s body with Him as the only Head; because they were 95% faithful wives, which meant they always kept deep within themselves a secret room for Self, which meant the Lord was never really their only head. And because they never took their tactics and training seriously enough. You and I have never faced fears as great as those that overcame the saints in Num 13&14, neither did we witness God’s miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea like they did. It therefore seems entirely possible that at least some of us will falter when faced with Satan’s unrestrained supernatural powers because Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life (Job 2:4). Why “unrestrained” Satanic powers? Because of 2 Thes 2:6,7: now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time – and even though tradition tends to only apply this to the tribulation, who’s to say it can’t also apply to the time when Satan is released from prison? For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way (as in 2 Chr 32:31; Mt 27:46; Ps 22:1; Gen 22:12). And with those verses in mind, who’s to say Christ hasn’t already agreed with the Devil about the following:

 

  • After our thousand-year training Satan “must be loosed” from prison and the First Testament must be reinstated.

 

  • Christ will leave Jerusalem and “be taken out of the way” by going up to heaven (thus explaining why our reign under Him is limited to a thousand years).

 

  • Christ’s absence allows Satan to use his full powers...

 

  • in order to see if his gates of hell can prevail against us...

 

  • and in order to try us, that God (and we) might know all that is in our hearts.

 

Could it be that the reason the Devil wants us to

 

practice routine NT marriage, bear children, stop spanking, participate in democracy and politics, clamor against authority, depend on medical science, have TVs and computers and cell phones, and have noisy, busy, distracting lives filled with vanity, and be tolerant of faith-subverting theology and modern garbage-can Bible versions, and have weak intellects that are conditioned to yield to our bodies by a never-ending parade of wants such as fads and sugar and popularity and life-saving medical science, etc...

 

is because he knows the supernatural weapons of his warfare during the last battle are going to be devastatingly effective against saints who used their wicked, deceitful hearts to ignore, conceal, and preserve their last vestige of Self; and against saints who fail to become proper corporate members who help and depend on each other in times of need? Will Satan frighten or entice us so much that any little weakness in our armour might cause us to “unthinkingly” (and therefore carnally) do something that goes against our long-established practice of relying on the framework of internalized “mere words” of the Bible? A single carnal blunder by us at just that critical climactic closing moment of the war may be just what Satan needs in order to win. Will this final battle cause the “real” us to surface as we bare our hearts and souls and demonstrate whether or not our faith and belief and discipline and determination and love for the Lord outweigh our love for Self when we are faced with supernatural tactics that are beyond anything we ever imagined? Could it be that today’s busy, noisy, “always-connected” society is purposely intended to lure us away from the quiet “boredom” of our inner sanctums (where all we have is words) so we won’t be able to grow into the kind of souls who really do live and die by every word of God?

I don’t know, but I’m afraid it makes too much Scriptural sense to completely discount it. And I think we need to be using this day of preparation in such a way that nothing about us or about our lives matters as much as glorifying God in strict accordance with His literal living word. Even if my imaginary end-time scenario doesn’t happen, we need to become the kind of wives, soldiers, and saints who will never, ever fail to glorify the Lord by having His word always front-and-center in our minds. The war is over our minds, and it takes place almost entirely in our minds. The weapons of our warfare are words, God’s words, and if we build the proper framework in our inner sanctums – and live and die according to it, now and during the Millennial Reign if need be – our love for Self will be displaced by love for the Lord and will enable us to overcome/endure to the end by sticking with Thus saith the Lord.

The Devil has known all along that he’d be locked up for a thousand years. And even though that seems like a tremendous handicap to his war efforts, he apparently thinks he can take advantage of the Natural weakness and fear in us elite saints that we will fail when he is allowed to pull out all the stops. Everybody knows God Almighty can crush Satan and his minions with His little finger, and Satan has never thought he could defeat the Lord – that’s why he wins if he defeats the church. The Devil’s no-holds-barred last-ditch weapons he can use against us might be so overwhelming that our “soldier parts” realize they can no longer protect us. Or perhaps Satan’s tactics will be so subtle that we won’t realize what’s going on unless our “wife parts” have been proper wives whose quiet time with the Lord resulted in the kind of mature faith, wisdom, love, trust, and selfless discipline needed to overcome our fears and wants and to always make discerning decisions that glorify God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If this imaginary scenario is even remotely close to reality, it means none of us saints in eternity will ever look at David (who defeated Goliath) or Moses (who faced the fearsome power of Egypt) or Abraham (who was willing to sacrifice his only son) and think, “Gee, I wonder if I’d ever be able to pass those kinds of tests? Maybe – compared with them – I’m a second-class saint.” No; if we somehow manage to hang onto our wifely love and loyalty to the Lord – even when our husband part looks at Satan’s power and sees that he (the husband-soldier) can do nothing more to protect the “wifely” us, and if – even unto death – we refuse to be bullied (or enticed) by Satan’s awesome supernatural power, all of us saints in eternity will be on level ground because everything else will pale in comparison to the trials of those closing days or hours of the Thousand Years. I’m not saying we’ll be presented with greater tribulations than the horrors of the Great Tribulation; but I am saying we might face enticements that are so supernaturally overwhelming that our husband parts surrender like Adam did, or that are so supernaturally convincing that our wife parts are deceived like Eve was. In other words, for some or for many of us history may repeat itself – again.

Will the supernatural things with which we are confronted cause us to be so “astonished out of measure” that we go beyond wondering “Who then can be saved?” (Mk 10:26,27), and begin – similar to God’s people in Num 13 & 14 – wondering if following God was a mistake? No matter what happens, if we will control our panic (via temperance) and stick with the Lord and with each other, just at that moment when the surrounding hordes are about to overwhelm us fire will come down from heaven...and we’ll live happily ever after.

When the dust and ashes of the final conflict settle, and we’re gathered thankfully and excitedly around the Lord, He might tell us that our complete selfless love for Him was exactly what He needed to win the war...because our humble selfless service in the face of what looked like sure defeat may be required in order to trigger/permit (as discussed in War College Trumpet W10) the Lord’s active involvement in the Final Battle. That is what being 100% faithful is all about. I say again, the reason Satan agreed to fight against The Almighty All-Powerful God is because the Lord cannot get involved and defeat the Devil unless we wimpy, selfish, covetous, easily-distracted, easily-leavened, and incredibly-vain carnal humans have the faith, belief, maturity, and love for the Lord to be proper doers who really will die to Self by faithfully trusting the Lord when He “finishes our faith” (Heb 12:2) by putting us through the ultimate trial of our faith / baptism of fire that finally burns away the dross at the end of our long Pilgrim’s-progress journey. Job 13:15  Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him...

Or perhaps during that final battle we good saints will properly subdue Self and decide we’d rather die as we’d lived – by glorifying the Lord – and thinking we’re going to die, we truly die to self by drawing our swords and charging the gates of hell...and that triggers the Lord’s involvement: As we take our first charging step (Joshua 3:15-17) something miraculous happens: the windows of heaven are opened and we are surrounded by a flood of fire (Gen 6:17; 7:11; 2 Pet 3:7,10,12; Rev 20:9)...

 

...and in that dramatic instant everything we’ve ever known and experienced radically changes:

 

  • Because this is the very end of the seventh day, the 7,000-year war is suddenly over. As soldiers who have endured hardships (to put it mildly) we can’t help but cry tears of relief and joy (Trumpet B7), which will be wiped away by the Lord. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away (Rev 21:4).

 

  • When we all see the Lord Jesus Christ He will not be, and will never be again, the suffering Saviour, or the mere human-appearing reigning Messiah on the throne in Jerusalem: He will be Almighty God in such a glorious and powerful way that the tremendous supernatural power we just saw Satan demonstrate a few minutes before will pale into wimpy nothingness in comparison.

 

  • The fire all around us was the final baptism, the baptism by fire. It will burn away any dross still in us (but we won’t be hurt by the flames – Dan 3:25) and suddenly we’ll be perfected...and consummated. And for a brief instant before our old-man bodies burn away we’ll have a kind of longing to be clothed upon with our new glorified bodies that makes Romans 7 and 2 Cor 5:2-4 pale in comparison because our new circumcised hearts (remember, in addition to this being the end of the 7th day, this is the beginning of the 8th day – the day of circumcision) will hate being associated with our old carnal bodies.

 

  • The fire from the Lord that came down from heaven will mark the transition from the end of time at the very end of the seventh day, to the beginning of eternity on the eighth day...and therefore the fire will continue to burn, consume the earth, and spread throughout the universe to form the everlasting lake of fire.

 

  • We’ll receive our glorified bodies, be transported through the Deep to the new earth, clothed in white robes, and given new names.

 

Obviously I’ve ignored major events such as Judgment and the Marriage Supper, and I’m not pretending that I’ve listed these events in any kind of correct order. My only purpose with this imaginative scenario is to exhort you comrades (and so much the more, as we see the day approaching) to be weak to Self and strong in the Lord...and to not be caught off guard and unprepared if our darkest hour is just before dawn. And, for the sake of argument, let’s say my imaginary scenario of the thousand years is completely wrong and we will be reclining in lawn chairs watching the Lord crush the forces of evil: Will our having done the very best we could to make ourselves the kind of soldier-wives who are so completely dedicated to the Lord that He can count on us to be ready, willing, and able to do anything, anywhere, and any time be wasted effort or be disappointing to Him? No, of course not, because no matter the scenario we want to be pleasing in His sight. (In Trumpet Delta 6 I show how important it may be for all of us to be one body under one Head during the Last Battle.)

I pray that this War College curriculum has helped you understand not only that the leaven cannot be stopped because it is so infectious, widespread, and subtle, but also that we’ll never truly understand how such seemingly small and innocent things can be so harmful. If we are discerningly aware as we look around at society and as we look in the mirror, the Comforter will help us discern that the rapidly-spreading apostasy isn’t happening in a vacuum; it is caused by many things we won’t be able to put our finger on. But when we talk with people and realize their actions and “decisions” and doctrines and “beliefs” have neither Scripture nor real intellectual substance behind them, the Lord will show us how powerful, irresistible, and subtle the course of this world (Eph 2:2) really is. And that will help us understand that this war is largely cerebral, that our old man must be carefully husbanded by the tactically-correct soldier part of our new man, that our new man must be an expert on the Bible whose daily Bread is the word, and that our wife part must be a keeper at home in the cerebral realm of words in our inner sanctum so we can learn from our Husband and develop a real two-way-street relationship with Him so that no matter what happens we will not let Self keep us from being good and faithful servants.

Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.

*****

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Have ears that hear...

and endure to the end, comrades!

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