THE HUMAN ANIMAL

The Bible says Christ, in order to save us from the curse of the law (Ga 3:10,13), had to die in our place. But since angels are spirits and it is not possible for spirits to die, Christ had to be made a little lower than angels so He could die (He 2:9). In other words, He became a flesh-and-blood descendant of Abraham – a mortal human – so He would be able to die (He 2:14,16).

OK, if mortal beings are considered “lower” than spirit beings because mortals die and spirits don’t, how do we mortal humans rank with mortal animals? After all, animals became – when God put into their nostrils the breath of life – living souls that die (Re 8:9; 16:3; Jb 12:10; Ps 49:12,20; Ge 7:21,22) just as humans became – when God put into their nostrils the breath of life – living souls that die (Ge 2:7,17; Ezek 18:4; Ro 6:23), so what’s the difference? The Bible answer is none; the unsaved human who is just body and soul (no spirit) is no different from animals (Ec 3:18,19). Tradition has long taught that animals don’t have souls because of the embarrassing difficulty of trying to explain why the theory of the immortality of the soul applies to the souls of people but not to the souls of animals. It was much easier for Christians to ignore what the Bible said, claim animals didn’t have souls, pretend the intellect (soul) is what separates us from and elevates us over animals, and cast stones at anyone who said otherwise by calling them “evolutionists.” To see more evidence that the Bible doesn’t differentiate between the souls of humans and animals compare Josh 6:21 where the “all” that they killed included humans and animals, with Josh 10 where the “all that breathed” that they killed (v.40) were souls (v.28,30,32,35,37,39). Also, when God’s people settled in the Promised Land, God gave them different instructions on how they were to treat nearby cities and those cities far away. In the distant cities that were peaceful all could live (Dt 20:10,11). In the distant cities that were not submissive only the women and animals could live (Dt 20:12-15). But in the cities within the Promised Land “nothing that breatheth” was to remain alive (Dt 20:16-18).

Both humans and animals are lower than angels simply because mortals are not immortals. Things that die are in fact – from an eternal perspective – insignificant. Not only does the Bible say, “man hath no preeminence above a beast” (Ec 3:19), but about humans it says, “they themselves are beasts” (Ec 3:18). The fact that unsaved humans, animals, plants, and insects die means they are temporary from the perspective of time, and insignificant from the perspective of eternity.

The explanations you’ve heard for why God and His people referred to the unsaved as dogs (such as, “The word dog is a misleading, unfortunate, and offensive literal translation because the word should be viewed as an allegorical reference to cute, lovable, cuddly little puppies; it was a term of endearment”), are misleading, unfortunate, and offensive because they are un- and anti-Scriptural. Preachers usually just make stuff like that up because, lacking doctrinal understanding, they’re embarrassed that taking Christ literally seems to make Him an equality-rejecting, demeaning, uncivilized bigot toward unsaved people – and they’re trying to cover for Him. He doesn’t need their help, and it is correct to take Christ literally.

God’s people, including the original New Testament Christians, used to understand all of the above, so they accepted it, incorporated it into their thinking, and literally referred to the unsaved, who were merely body and soul (no spirit), as DOGS: Ex 11:7; Ps 22:12,16; Mt 7:6; 15:23-28; Ph 3:2; Re 22:15. Even though this topic is a mystery today, it was no secret back then; even the pagans understood how God’s people viewed them (Ru 2:10,13; Mk 7:26-28; Jn 4:9).

But as time went by, Greek philosophy’s Reason and equality made deep inroads into the way people thought, causing them to no longer understand Bible verses about dogs, especially Dt 23:18: “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God”; and Ph 3:2: “Beware of dogs…”; and Ps 22:16; Mt 7:6; Re 22:15. They didn’t know dog referred to unregenerate humans whose carnal minds made them abominations at enmity against God. (The Scriptural reasons the carnality of the unregenerate is so offensive to God are covered on page 5.) A historical example of people who misunderstood the Biblical topic of dogs is Muhammad (570-632 A.D.). Scholars of the Koran (Qur’an) illustrate this misunderstanding: “Muhammad believed money from the sale of a dog was as evil as that made from prostitution, witchcraft, and usury. Something about dogs disturbed Muhammad deeply. His strange statements about dogs may have been influenced by cultural bias or pagan concepts, but they led to cruel treatment of dogs in the Islamic world. The Qur’an contains no specific statements regarding the treatment of dogs, but they abound in Islamic religious texts such as the Hadith [a collection of oral traditions about the teachings of Muhammad]. These traditions are a primary foundation of Islamic theology and laws, which render dogs as ‘impure’ and Satanic. Per Muhammad’s orders most dogs, and all black dogs, are to be killed. In fact, if a Muslim has a pet dog, Allah will take away heavenly rewards.” The Hadith also says, “We do not enter a house in which there is a dog.” A similar Bible verse is 2 Jn 10, but it is referring to humans: “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

Back in the days of Adam, all people were Christians – there were no unregenerate humans, dogs. But when God divided the human race with His call of Abraham (Ge 12:1,2), the era of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of all mankind ended. God chose Abe and changed his name from Abram to Abraham to symbolize the fact that Abe was going to be the third patriarch, the father of many nations (Ge 17:5). And when God spoke with Abe about his children being different from all other humans, for the first time He said His people and Gentiles would be “strangers” from each other (Ge 15:13; 17:8,12). When Abe first began to tell other people (who were all born-again Christian descendants of the first two patriarchs, Adam and Noah) that God was now only his God, they didn’t believe him. In order to give credence to Abe’s religious teachings to his family, when God appeared to Abe’s son, Isaac, He introduced Himself not as “God” but as “the God of Abraham thy father” (Ge 26:24). And years later when God spoke with Isaac’s son, Jacob, He introduced Himself as “the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac” (Ge 28:13). People who had contact with Abraham and therefore knew of his “divided human race” belief, witnessed the fact that God, rather than being angry with Abe for having a “divisive, unloving, and false doctrine”, seemed pleased with him because He repeatedly blessed and protected him. When Abe’s servant was sent to get a wife for Isaac, the servant was careful to pray specifically to the “the LORD God of my master Abraham” (Ge 24:12,27). When speaking with others, Abe’s servant also carefully gave credit specifically to Abraham’s God (Ge 24:42,48). That kind of speech was unprecedented because, ever since the days of Adam, everybody on earth had the same God. But now the Hebrews were referring to “their” God as if He were no longer the God of all men. Jacob, for example, told Rachel and Leah, who grew up in a Gentile home, he had more cattle than Laban because “the God of my father” had blessed him (Ge 31:5). Even though Laban had Catholic-type images/gods (Ge 31:19,30), he probably thought his God was the same as everybody’s. Therefore, even though God specifically introduced Himself to Laban as the God of Jacob’s father (Ge 31:24,29), and even though Jacob spoke specifically of the God of his fathers (Ge 31:42), Laban couldn’t help but stubbornly refer to God in a way that hearkened back to the days when all men believed He was their God – back before God divided the human race when Abe, his brother, Nahor, and their father, Terah (Ge 11:27), all had the same God (Ge 31:53). But pagans grew accustomed to the Hebrew’s belief in the exclusiveness of the God of their fathers (Ge 43:23). And when God performed miracles to get the attention of Gentiles, He was careful to make sure they knew He wasn’t their God, He was the God of the Hebrews, and only the Hebrews were “my people” (Ex 3:18; 7:16; 8:21-23; 9:26; 12:27).

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It became common for God and His people to refer to Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a reminder that He was no longer the God of the whole human race. He was now specifically and only the God of Abraham’s seed (which is a reference to Christ, the True Seed of Abraham, which means all Christians, through Christ, are sons and daughters of Abraham and worship the God of Abraham). But over time Gentiles, like Laban, began to worship images and false gods, and the different religions of the world evolved – and they each claimed their God was the only true God. But once the Enlightenment exalted Reason, men quickly decided to ignore doctrine, which allowed them to think all men of all religions have the same God.

Take some time now to reflect on what we’ve just covered, how different it is from tradition even though it is plainly written in the Bible, and how you really have had to gird up your loins and deliberately spend time in the Bible as you’ve gotten into this doctrinal half of The Age of Reason. That is not going to change; we’re only getting started and we’ve got a long way to go. If you’re still dutifully consulting the Scriptures as you go along, think about this: If you found nothing unscriptural in the above but you still think man has at least some preeminence above beasts rather than none, or that men are not themselves beasts, you are having a problem with Satanic, humanistic, evolutionary, scientific, philosophic tradition making the word of God have no effect on the way you view things. The way to learn and to grow mighty in the Spirit, on the other hand, is to accept what He says so we can later apply it to other things as we learn, and build upon it. I have tried to organize this book in a way that will help you build more quickly. But the Lord designed His Book to be like a parable in order that many people would simply not get it. So, I can try to be helpful, but I’ll never be able to help anyone whose eyes and ears the Lord hasn’t opened. Having said that, I think you’ll find that some of the things in this book that didn’t connect with you in the first reading will, when combined with some of what you did learn the first time, fall into place during your second reading – if this book hasn’t ended up on the dunghill by then.

THE HUMAN ANGEL

If unsaved people are no different from dogs, what happens to them when they are born again and acquire a spirit body? When saved, people differ from angels only in that we are still stuck with the old man. But the new man, the spirit, is just like the angels. In fact, the saints in both Testaments are often referred to as angels, and angels are sometimes referred to as men. “Angel” is not a specific term. Just as “mortal” can be applied equally to men and animals because both die; “angel” and “immortal” are just terms for those with everlasting life. In the Bible, God refers to Himself, to good angels, to devils, and to saints as angels because the people in those four groups are all immortal, they are spirit: ANGELS: Ge 18:2; 19:5,10,12,15,16; Ju 13:6,11,16; Ps 103:20; Da 3:25,28; Zech 1:8-11; Mt 18:6,10; 22:30; 25:41; Mk 12:25; Lk 20:36; Ac 6:15; 7:53; 12:15; 1 Co 6:3; 2 Co 5:1-7; Ga 3:19; 4:14; He 2:2; 12:22,23; 13:2; 1 Pe 1:12; Jude 5,6; Re 19:10; 21:17; 22:8,9; Jn 6:70. Jn 6:70 shows that, unless you are more specific, when you refer to a saved human as an “angel” you could mean either a good angel or an angel who has fallen from grace (“lost it”).

Angels, including devils and saints, are spirits because they were birthed by God the Spirit. Hence, they and we are called sons and daughters of God (Jb 1:6; 2:1; 2 Co 6:18). The true God is called God. False deities are called gods. But God’s children, both angels and saints, are also called gods. (Hence the opposite of a saint, a god, is a dog – the reverse spelling – because gods have everlasting life and dogs do not.) Review the gods: Ge 3:5; Ex 15:11; 18:11; 20:3; 22:28; Dt 10:17; Josh 22:22; 1 Sa 28:13,14; 1 Ch 16:25; 2 Ch 2:5; Ps 82:1,6; 86:8; 95:3; 96:4; 97:7,9; 135:5; 136:2; Da 2:47; 11:36; Jn 10:34,35.

So if you are saved you are a god, which is the same as a spirit. You have two natures, the old man and the new man. You are a god in a dog’s body. The god part of you, the spirit, the new man, is supposed to rule in accordance with the Bible over the dog part of you, the carnal old man. Because they’ve gotten away from the Bible many people are hesitant to call saints gods because they’re afraid and ignorant, and those two things together form superstition. But God is a Spirit. And angels and saints are spirits because that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. God is God, and His children are gods.

Note: The word spirit has various meanings. It can refer to a particular outlook, as in the spirit of democracy is the spirit of antichrist; the spirit of fair play; and the spirit of reconciliation. It can also refer to inner feelings or energy, as in to break a person’s spirit; and his spirit soared when he got the news. It can refer to temper or disposition, as in meek in spirit; and his indomitable spirit. It can refer to a general meaning or intent, as in he complied with the spirit of the law but not the letter of the law. Therefore, when you see the word spirit used in conjunction with the unsaved in the Bible, don’t force the everlasting-life meaning into the word just because tradition tells you to.

OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS WERE CHRISTIANS BECAUSE THEY WERE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST

● Ac 7:37,38: “This is that Moses…that was in the church in the wilderness.” Christ’s church existed long before the cross.

● Ac 7:45: The OT saints crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land “with Jesus.”

● Dt 31:3: Jesus (“The Lord thy God”) and also Joshua led the OT saints across the Jordan. (This verse proves God’s KJV is correct to say “Jesus” in Ac 7:45.)

● 1 Co 10:3: The OT saints “did all eat the same spiritual meat.” This “spiritual meat” is what all of God’s OT and NT children must eat: Jn 4:34; 6:27,51,53,56; Jn 1:14; 6:63; Je 15:16; Ezek 3:1-4; Re 10:8-11.

● 1 Co 10:4; Dt 32:4,15,18,30,31: Our OT brethren all drank “the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock…that Rock was Christ.” (1 Co 10:3-14 is the same as He 6:4-12.)

● 1 Co 10:9: NT saints are not to tempt Christ, just like OT saints weren’t supposed to tempt “Christ.”

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● Ep 5:25: Who gave Himself for “the church”? It was “Christ.”

● Ac 20:28: God “purchased” the NT church with His own blood. And long before the cross the OT “congregation” (called the “church” above) was also “purchased” (Ps 74:2). They were walking around saying to each other, “We’re bought with a price, brother!” long before we began saying it (Dt 32:6).

● He 11:25,26: The OT saints in Egypt suffered for none other than “Christ.”

● Da 3:23-25: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were seen with “the Son of God” long before the cross. See also Ps 2:12.

● Mk 9:2: Moses and Elijah were seen with “Jesus” before the cross.

● Ac 24:14: Don’t let the modern tradition-bound institutionalized church teach you that OT saints weren’t supposed to be followers of Christ by making you incorrectly focus on OT institutionalized religion, which had apostatized into Bible rejecters like the Pharisees and Sadducees. This verse says those who believed “all things” in the OT did follow Christ.

● Both Old Testament and New Testament saints worship and follow the same – and only – “Holy One”, “Saviour”, “Redeemer”, “Creator”, “Maker”, “King of Israel”, “Lord of Hosts”, “God Himself”, “the Lord thy God”, “Jesus”, “the first and the last”, to Whom “every knee shall bow”: Ps 16:10; Is 5:24; 41:14; 43:3,11,14,15; 44:6; 45:9,11,12,18,21,22,23; 48:12,13,17; 49:26; Ezek 39:7; Ho 11:9; Mk 1:24; Lk 4:34; 19:38; Mt 27:41,42; Jn 1:49; 12:15; Ac 2:27; 3:14; 13:35; Ph 2:10; 1 Jn 2:20; Re 1:7-11.

ONE FOLD, ONE SHEPHERD, ONE PRIESTHOOD, ONE HIGH PRIEST, ONE NATION, ONE TESTATOR

● 1 Pe 2:5,9: NT saints are priests, NT saints are an holy nation; NT saints are a peculiar people. Ex 19:5,6: OT saints are priests, OT saints are an holy nation; OT saints are a peculiar people. And since Christ is the one and only High Priest, the OT saints/priests are serving Him just like we are.

● Ga 3:24,28,29: The OT saints studied the law, which was a schoolmaster. The schoolmaster leads people to “Christ Jesus.” And OT and NT saints “are all one in Christ Jesus.” For example, the Jew’s Passover Lamb was none other than Jesus Christ Himself.

● New Testament: The fact that the New Testament is Jesus Christ’s testament makes us zero in on the word “New.” That word means Jesus Christ has a previous testament, which is called the Old Testament, which means children of both Testaments are serving the same Testator – Jesus Christ. If Christians understood the Bible there would be no question about the exact second the NT era began: He 9:16,17. And they would understand that “the church”, which is Christ’s body, does not belong to any testament (as in, “the church, which is the New Testament’s body”, and “the Jews, which were the Old Testament’s body”). No, it doesn’t work that way. The church is the body of the Testator – not the body of His testaments. I say again, OT and NT saints have always been following, eating, drinking, serving, talking with, trusting in, and waiting for the exact same Lord, Saviour, High Priest, Testator, and God.

THE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS WERE BORN AGAIN

● Ga 4:22,23: Verses 22 and 23 talk about two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. Notice that the pagan Ishmael, who was born of Hagar the bondmaid, the bondwoman, was born after the flesh. But the Christian Isaac, who was born of the freewoman, was by promise (the promise God made to Abraham).

● Ga 4:28,29: V.28 shows that we NT saints are “the children of promise just like the OT saint, Isaac, was. And v.29 says two things: First, it says Ishmael was born after the flesh, but Isaac was born after the Spirit. Second, the verse says, “even so it is now.” That means, according to what the verse says literally, we NT saints (who are born after the Spirit just like God’s OT saints) are also going to be persecuted by the unsaved who are merely born after the flesh.

● In order for anybody to be God’s people, the Bible says they must be born again. Being born again is the only thing that makes us God’s children, of His house, His church, His priests, and children of the Testator whose Testaments reveal His promises to us. If the OT saints were not born again they would have been merely born once – of the flesh like Ishmael, and therefore would have been 100% carnal without the ability to walk after the Spirit. Read, believe, and apply 1 Co 2:14, Ro 8:7,8. And then accept the consistency and literal truth of Is 63:8-12.

● Above I said, “being born again is the only thing that makes us God’s priests.” Everybody would agree with that statement as long as it only applied to us NT saints because Christ says, “Ye must be born again”, and we are priests serving Christ. But some who don’t know the Bible as well might balk, saying they don’t think being born of God is the only way to become a priest, because these balkers were told OT saints were not born of God – even though the Bible obviously says the OT saints were also God’s priests. So, let’s look at He 5:4-6,10. We’ll have to think as we read it:

V.4:“No man taketh this honor (being an high priest) unto himself.” OK, so how does a man become an high priest if he cannot assume the job on his own? Ah, the second half of the verse says a man, such as Aaron, can be “called of God” as high priest. But because everybody is running around today claiming God “called” them to do this or that, we have missed what being called of God means in these verses – so we need to continue.

V.5: “So also Christ glorified not himself (like Aaron, Christ didn’t take the honor upon Himself because God says, “No man…) to be made an high priest;” (and here is where we have to pay attention and think:) “but” (the word but is contrasting what is about to follow with what was just said about no man making himself high priest) “he (God the Father) that said unto him, Thou art my Son” (how does one become a “son”? Read on…) “to day have I begotten thee.”

What does that tell us? The word “but” is important. Go back very carefully and notice verses 4 and 5 are saying exactly the same thing: they both lead off saying what we can’t do on our own, then “but” connects us to the second part that tells us how it does happen. Prior to “but” it says nobody, including Christ, can become an high priest on his own. After “but” it says you have to be “called of God”/”born of God.” In this context “called of God” and “begotten of God” mean the same thing. Therefore, Aaron, in order to become an high priest, was “begotten of God” just like we are.

Someone might hastily object that v.4 uses “called of God” for Aaron, but v.5 is different because it says Christ was “begotten of God”…therefore Aaron wasn’t born again. Let me show you why his objection was too hasty: V.10.  See what I mean? “Called of God” and “born of God” mean exactly the same thing when it comes to high priests. And that doesn’t surprise us one bit because no man who isn’t born of God can serve God because of the stark reality of 1 Co 2:14 and Ro 8:7,8. All Christians today are “priests of God” because we were “born of God/called of God.” Now you’ll begin to pay more attention to the wording in the Bible in places like 1 Co 1:23,24: V.23 says the apostate Jews who have returned to their vomit and therefore have carnal minds, and the unsaved Greeks who have nothing but the carnal mind, are living examples of 1 Co 2:14 and Ro 8:7,8. V.24 says “them which are called”/born of God, whether they are Jews or Greeks, are living examples of the necessity to be sons of God in order to acquire the potential to serve Him. The bottom line: The OT saints are saints and priests merely because they were “called/born of God.” And we NT saints are saints and priests merely because we were “called/born of God.” Nothing has changed – not even the wording. God saved and called us not because of us, but according to His own purpose and grace (2 Ti 1:9).

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● 1 Pe 1:10-12: The Bible not only says God’s prophets had “the Spirit of Christ in them”, it also says those OT saints weren’t just preaching to OT saints – they were also preaching to us NT saints.

● Jn 3:10: Now you know why the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked Nicodemus (before the cross!) for not understanding being born again; God’s OT saints were expected to already understand “the facts of life.”

● Mt 10:28; Lk 12:4,5: When you compare these two you see that Jesus Christ says the people in hell had their first/mortal body in the grave while their soul and their second body were in hell. Question: Since we know the first body that rots in the grave is the one we got after the flesh of Adam, from Whom do we get another body? Right! The Bible says the second body comes from being born again. The first body is flesh/mortal; the second body is spirit/immortal. Some modern Christians hate this teaching of Christ’s because the second body that He says is down there in hell destroys some of their major religious traditions. But you and I have learned from Christ that no soul goes to hell without the second body, and we have learned to despise and attack traditional religious doctrines that make verses like these of none effect.

● 1 Pe 3:19: After Jesus rose from the dead He went down to hell to preach to His OT priests in Abe’s bosom. These people, like Isaac, Moses, Elijah, Rahab the harlot, and Noah were children of the Spirit of God, which obviously means they had spirit bodies. That’s why this verse refers to them as “spirits.” That fits with everything the Bible taught us above.

● Because the OT saints in Lk 13:28 could see the Kingdom of God, Jn 3:3 says they were born again.

● Mt 25:41-46: Verses 42-45 are important because they show that at Judgment God had expected these goats on His left to please rather than disappoint Him! But a quick review of Ro 8:7-9 and 1 Co 2:14 shows that God would never expect the unsaved to please Him.

● Jn 6:70: In talking to His 12 disciples before the cross, Christ used the present tense “is” when He said “one of you (Judas) is a devil. Devils are spirits (who are born of God the Spirit) that go bad and go to hell. Judas was already a devil before the cross and before he died a mortal death. That means after the cross when Christ went down to hell to preach to the “spirits” in Abe’s bosom, Judas was one of the fallen spirits across the great gulf. Judas’ spirit body was his second body. He got it the same way Ga 4:29 says Isaac did – he was born of the Spirit. We also saw that Aaron had to have been born of God in order to be a high priest. And the fact that Judas was not a high priest – but he was a priest/son of God just like all Old and New Testament saints – shows that God’s priests don’t take that honor upon themselves…God births them into the job.

● While we’re down in Abe’s bosom let’s pause and figure out what was going on and why. We’ll begin by drawing upon our Bible knowledge of testaments and testators. Why did Jesus go to the OT saints right after the cross? He 9:15 says He died for “the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament.” And the verse goes on to link the death of a testator with the “inheritance” spelled out in the testator’s will and testament. In other words, the OT saints’ inheritance is from the same Testator, Christ, as ours. Christ went down there because He is the Testator and they faithfully obeyed His Old Testament.

● In the OT “good sinners” weren’t executed; they went to a city of refuge to live until they were set free by the death of their high priest. Yes, the saints in Abe’s bosom were in a city of refuge, and they were only released when their High Priest, Christ, died to set them free. The OT saints serve the same risen Saviour we do – and they always have.

PHARAOH

A good example of the difference between God’s people and dogs is Pharaoh. God is the potter and humans are the clay (Je 48:38). Vessels are made for different purposes. Pharaoh was never intended by God to be anything but a beast, a mortal. God had a purpose for Pharaoh (Ex 9:16): he was to be used and discarded in order to show the saints that no matter how important and frightening a worldly power may seem, safety lies in trusting and following God. In other words, God made Pharaoh just to kill him so the Hebrews would learn to honor Him. That’s why God had Pharaoh be born a Gentile and that’s why He did not give him the second birth. Did the unsaved dog, Pharaoh, go to hell? Of course not! And the Bible nowhere says he did, opinions to the contrary notwithstanding.

The miraculous plagues God put upon the Egyptians were enough to cause anyone, saved or unsaved, to gladly let Moses lead the Jews out of Egypt. But God didn’t want Pharaoh to make that normal decision, so He deliberately hardened Pharaoh’s heart. The following verses show that Pharaoh hardened his heart because he had no choice and no free will to react otherwise: PHARAOH’S HEART: Ex 7:3,4,13,14,22; 8:15,19,32; 9:7,12-17,27-30,35; 10:1-3,7,20,27; 11:1,9,10; 13:15; 14:1-5,8,17,18,24,25,28; Ro 9:13-22. God also hardened King Sihon’s heart (Dt 2:30) because He wanted the Hebrews to kill him (Dt 2:24,25,31-34). See also Josh 11:18-20.

Was it mean of God to have His people kill animals as sacrifices (as the animal rights activists say)? No, because they were mere insignificant mortals – beasts. Was it mean of God to kill Pharaoh, to sacrifice him for the benefit of His people? No, because he was a mere mortal – a beast. And as such, Pharaoh went to hell only if animals go to hell when they die, that is, only if souls without the spirit body are immortal. For the same reason, when God’s people moved into the Promised Land, God was not mean to order them to kill all the pagan men, women, children – and the livestock. (I must confess that my proof that God is not “mean” in these examples is not proper because it suggests it’s mean to send someone to hell. It’s not; hell is a just dessert. I’m merely trying to make the point that mortals, whether animal or human, cannot enter a realm designed for immortals unless they receive everlasting life via the only possible method according to the Bible – the new birth. I’m emphasizing that any mortal creature, because it is already dead from the immortal perspective, is without any significance because it has never received true life, and has but a temporary imitation.) People who think Pharaoh went to hell usually try to justify it (to keep God from appearing mean) by saying, “Personally, I think God just knew in advance what free choice Pharaoh would make because God is all-knowing.” In other words they think God, in order to ensure that Pharaoh would make the free choice He already knew he would make, hardened his heart in order to lock in that decision He already knew Pharaoh would make! That type of reasoning makes you wonder if these people are as prosaic as they seem, or if they have been blinded because they’re not really seeking the truth.

People also tend to reject what is said in the above Pharaoh’s Heart verses by wildly throwing out verses like 2 Pe 3:9 and 1 Ti 2:4. In the former they don’t notice the promise is made to the same people the whole Bible applies to – God’s people, “us” (2 Pe 3:1,8,9), not the unsaved. And in the latter verse they are trying to make a New Testament passage, written under the Great Commission – which results in Ga 3:28 – apply to an Old Testament situation governed by Ex 11:7. Don’t be slothful – look ‘em up.

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SAINTS AND AIN’TS: DIFFERENT RULES

God wrote the Bible for His people. It applies only to His people. The Bible does not apply to the unsaved and they are neither expected nor required to live by it. They have their own masters and their own rules. In the Bible, for example, the unsaved in Egypt were neither expected nor required to live by God’s rules. It was OK for them to pick up sticks on the sabbath and it was OK for them to be homosexuals. In fact, the only time pagans were required to abide by certain rules in the Bible was when they were in God’s nation of Israel because that put them under God’s jurisdiction. Some examples:

● Ex 11:7: God says saints and ain’ts are different.

● Ex 33:16; Nu 23:9; 1 Ki 8:53: By the favor of God and by separation, saints are distinguished from dogs.

● Dt 7:1-16; 14:2: Heathen religions and practices were allowed to exist – but not in Israel. God’s people are “special people” and are “above all people” on the face of the earth. The word “above” was used in this Old Testament passage not only because God’s people were expected to rule over the heathen back then, but also as a reverse application of He 2:7,9,16. Saints are “above” mortals because mortals, lacking real life, have temporary, insignificant existences.

● Dt 32:21; Ro 10:19: Not only are God’s people “above” all other people, but pagans from God’s perspective aren’t even real “people” because they are like the beasts that perish, dogs. 1 Pe 2:10 says the unsaved before they obtain mercy are “not a people”, but when they get saved they become “the people of God” and “men” (Ezek 34:30,31).

● Le 17:10; 20:2: Only when pagans were in Israel were they expected to live by certain of God’s rules.

● Le 25:39-54: One of the best practical illustrations of the difference between saints and ain’ts is that God said pagans could be bought and sold as slaves, but saints should only be hired servants.

● Dt 15:2,3: Loans to Christians had to be forgiven during the year of release, but not loans to the unsaved.

The unsaved are insignificant because they do not have spirit life. Furthermore, because dogs have only the carnal old man they are absolutely incapable of knowing the things of God (1 Co 2:14), they are absolutely incapable of pleasing God (Ro 8:8), and they are not only not subject to the Bible (Ro 8:7) or to the rule of God (Is 63:18,19), neither can they be (Ro 8:7)! They are just dogs who at death are not penalized for being dogs; they merely die like dogs. In fact, because only saints can go to hell, the Bible says it is better to be an unsaved dog than a carnal saint who lives like a dog (2 Pe 2:20-22). People who think the unregenerate go to hell cannot handle these verses. They either change the subject or claim these verses actually mean the opposite of what they say! They also reject the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in Mt 10:28 where He says His Old Testament saints who were thrown into hell went there with both a soul and a second body. Because Christ’s teaching contradicts their denominational traditions they simply ignore it! (Religious tradition really does make the word of God of none effect.) Mt 10:28 gives us insight into how the Lord in Jn 3:10 could rebuke Old Testament saints for not understanding the new birth – their salvation was no different from ours.

God’s people are different from the unregenerate because saints have significance because they are real, they are permanent, they have been given true life; they are real people – spirits. They have a new man and an old man that war for supremacy (Ro 7:22-25). These two natures are not supposed to be equal; the new man is supposed to learn what God’s will is and then conquer and rule over the old man. The old man will always try to usurp God’s prerogatives by becoming an independent head, by using Natural Reason. The new man, after learning the Bible, should be a body (a submissively-obedient member of Christ’s body) by doing the will of God even when you don’t like it. When something the Bible says offends or scares your old man, your new man is supposed to look at the old man from an eternal perspective and realize and accept the fact that things that are mortal are insignificant and, armed with belief, use that to overrule the old man. If saints deny self (the old man) by accepting and doing what the Bible says, they inherit forever God’s kingdom. On the other hand, if saints are self-willed (carnal) they can’t be punished with the first death because they’ve been saved, so they join the self-willed Devil and his angels in the lake of fire, the second death.

When we are born again we begin our Christian walk in our Natural, brainwashed, carnal, opinionated old-man’s body, which will be with us until our mortal death. The deadly Natural tendency, therefore, is to assume that what we think is right and good is the same as what God wants. So we continue to live in the comfortable and familiar old man while deceiving ourselves by redecorating it with Christian furnishings (Mt 12:43-45; 23:25-28). When we try to move into the new house of God as our Bible knowledge increases, we find, for various reasons, we simply do not like it as much as our redecorated old carnal house, so we slide back to it (2 Pe 2:20-22). It is a very subtle process because it is Natural.

WHY THE DIFFERENCE IS IMPORTANT

What we’ve just learned, that the unsaved cannot know the things of God, cannot please God, and therefore cannot be subject to the Bible, is important because it is the key to understanding Philosophy and the Age of Reason. Let’s examine why God says those things about the unregenerate.

The unsaved have a soul, an intellect – the mind, not the physical brain. How does that soul, that mind, learn things and acquire beliefs, values, prejudices, and opinions? That’s easy; the soul learns everything from the inputs of the physical body. The body sees, hears, touches, tastes, smells, reads, talks, eats, laughs, fights, etc. The intellect takes all of that in and forms a foundation upon which it bases its outlook on life. Then along comes the Bible. But in this case our unsaved example only reads the Bible, goes to church, and picks up the lingo – he was never saved. Did you get the significance of that?! He was never saved! That means he was never given a spirit body! The spirit body, like the physical body, is not there for decoration; it has a job to do, a function. The spirit body is the conduit by which the soul receives spiritual inputs so the mind can form the proper foundation based on Truth. The spirit body is the connection, or stem, between the Vine and the soul. Without a spirit body to provide those spiritual inputs from the Bible the soul is handicapped, incapable of seeing the light, blind! Carefully read 1 Co 2:14 and Ro 8:7 again and realize Is 6:9,10; 29:10-14; 32:3; Je 5:21; Ezek 12:2; Mt 11:15; Mk 8:17,18; Ac 7:51; 28:23-28 are talking about the inputs of the spirit body to the soul – not the inputs of the physical body.

But how does our mind receive inputs from our spirit body? Nobody knows; it’s a mystery. In fact, in spite of our detailed knowledge of the physical brain, neither do we understand how the inputs of the physical body interact with the invisible workings of the minds of animals and humans – such as instincts, thoughts, knowledge, memory, judgment, personality, learning, character, values, and beliefs. We have dissected numerous physical brains and we still don’t understand the invisible contents and workings of the mind. I say again, we don’t understand how either the physical body’s inputs or the spirit body’s inputs are received, stored, evaluated, accepted, rejected, and utilized by the invisible mind. This lack of understanding causes some to use the invisible, mysterious, and non-physical workings of the mind, which is also called the soul, as a “proof” that all human souls are spirit and therefore immortal. The fatal flaw in this thinking, of course, is that animals also have minds and the breath of life. Scientists think someday they’ll be able to construct from scratch a new “being”, but they cannot call it a “living being” because they have no idea how to turn the elements of a physical brain into a mind, a living soul. It seems the only one who can give physical animals and humans the breath of life/minds/souls is God, and only He can put life back into a dead person. When doctors and scientists have a dead human or animal on a table, and the still-warm body contains all of the physical elements already correctly put together (including brain, heart, blood, nerves, and DNA) they simply have no idea how to give it the breath of life, a mind, a soul.

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Something else not understood by modern science is the subject of God-given talents. We know animals are born with certain abilities (birds have the ability to navigate and migrate, for example), and we know humans are born with certain abilities (some people are blessed with mental abilities, and some are blessed with physical abilities, for example). Scientists say all these things are stored in DNA and passed from parents to offspring. But they cannot explain why some “DNA talents” – such as the ability to migrate – are so dependably passed on in birds, but “DNA talents” in humans – such as mental and physical abilities – may or may not be passed from parents to children. It seems that God alone has the ability and the prerogative to give talents, mortal physical life, and immortal spirit life to whomever He will.

What happens to the unsaved human, who had already received the breath of mortal life and certain talents from God, when God decides to also give him immortal life via the second birth? He gets a spirit body that enables him to begin receiving knowledge from God via the Bible. The spirit body is that which enables Christians, and only Christians, to see, learn, and understand Scriptural truths that are contrary to the artificial, temporary, physical “reality” of this world (1 Co 1:19,21; 2:14; He 11:1,3,6; Ro 10:17). That’s why, among all the people on earth, only God’s people are required to subject themselves to His rule (Is 63:18,19), which is why only God’s people are punished for disobedience (Am 3:2).

So now the new Christian has two bodies that want to provide inputs, but there is only one soul to receive those inputs. And the soul has already been preconditioned by the carnal body and its damning baggage – tradition, science, medicine, education, morals, opinions, pride, Reason, confidence, common sense, etc. Like any newborn babe, the young Christian instinctively hungers and thirsts for spiritual truth. As a result he often grows rapidly. But he has many Reasonable hurdles in his path. For example, contrary to Jn 7:15; Ac 17:11; 1 Co 3:21; 4:6; Ga 1:16, he is told that Knowledgeable Christians are those who paid flesh-and-blood professors to give them a denominational education at a Translation/Version School. (It shouldn’t be called a Bible School because it teaches that, instead of the word of God, all we have is the word of translators in fallible, uninspired versions. In fact, because Version Schools require their pupils to value denominational tradition over the words in any version – by requiring denominational answers on pop quizzes in order to pass – they could also be called Religion Schools; calling them Bible Schools is blasphemy.) And these blind Pharisees then go out and stand behind pulpits all over the world and spew the leaven they were fed in Version School. In fact, today’s Christian has so many Reasonable hurdles that appeal to his already brainwashed Reasonable soul, and he is surrounded by so many Reasonable Christians who conform to their Reasonable societies, and he has so many textbooks full of Reasonable doctrine for sale in the Reasonable, poly-denominational “Christian” bookstores, that his initial rapid growth rapidly stops. He then has no Reasonable alternative but to go back to the comfort and familiarity of the pagan house of his old man, garnish it with “Christian” furnishings, and become a Reasonable Christian by justifying himself before Reasonable men via theology.

When a Christian goes back to using Reason his thinking again becomes no different from unsaved dogs. In other words, the carnal Christian, in practice, stops being a he – as in a person, and becomes an it – as in an animal. This doctrine is supported by God in His King James Bible: Modern Enlightened Christian scholars have long scoffed at the Bible’s “confusing” use of his and its in certain verses like Mt 5:13. That lack of doctrinal understanding has resulted in all modern Bible versions rejecting the inspired wording of the KJV in Mt 5:13, which says [with my clarifications added]: “Ye [the personal pronoun refers to people/saints] are the salt [discerning saints] of the earth: but if the salt [discerning saints] have lost his [personal pronoun refers to God’s discerning people] savour, wherewith shall it [neutral pronoun shows God’s people have started acting like unsalted carnal-thinking beasts as in 2 Pe 2:12; 20-22] be [re]salted? [as in He 6:4-8].”

God views disobedient saints who have fallen from grace as beasts. Look up carcase (carcass) in an English dictionary: the word refers only to an animal’s dead body, (but can be used as a contemptuous figurative reference to a human body). But God is our only authoritative source of word meanings, so let’s verify the dictionary by seeing how God uses carcase in the Bible: He uses it to refer to bodies of dead animals (Le 5:2; Ju 14:8), but, interestingly, God teaches us more by also using it to refer to dead pagans/dogs (Josh 8:29; 1 Sa 17:45,46; 2 Ki 9:37; Is 34:2,3). And God calls Lucifer’s dead body a carcase (Is 14:12,15-19) because in the lake of fire Lucifer will be truly dead. That’s one reason God refers to him as an animal in Ge 3:1,14: the very day Lucifer fell from grace he became mortal (just like Adam). When Lucifer is cast into the lake of fire he will live forever as the carcase of a dead beast. God also uses carcase to contemptuously refer to the dead bodies of His saints whose disobedience has caused them to fall from grace and be cast away (Le 26:14,18,21,23,27,30; Nu 14:26-33; Dt 28:15,26; 1 Ki 13:21,22; Is 5:24,25; 66:24; Je 7:2,3,24,32,33; Ezek 6:1,2,5). But God never uses carcase in reference to the bodies of His obedient servants because, unlike mortal beasts that die, obedient saints live forever.

Like the Bible, The Age of Reason is anti-Reason. Its purpose is to help Reasonable Christians repent. The war between God and Satan is within us. They are warring for control of our minds, our souls. The only people in the lake of fire will be Reasonable Christians. We must understand that fact and by faith surrender to the Bible by accepting what it says. Truth is spiritual and eternal, and is revealed when our spirit bodies feed on the word of God. Dogs have no spirit body and cannot see the truth because all they have is Reason! Reason is blindness! That’s why unregenerate dogs cannot see or enter the spiritual Kingdom of God. In order to develop the mind – not brain – of Christ (1 Co 2:14,16) we first need the spirit body of the new birth. Then we must overcome the Reasonable hurdles in life. Even high-hurdle topics like evolution and Bible versions will topple with study and faith. Most Christians, however, shrink from learning the Bible, so they become captives of Reason. Any differences (aside from denominational differences) between them and unsaved Mormons, Roman Catholics, and social conservatives vanish because they all think alike. They will all eventually join ranks in ecumenical efforts to fight for issues that seem right and good to their carnal minds. Come out from among them and be ye separate.