important policies for countries
- Freedom of preaching and assembly for Christianity (especially, Protestants, and also any Christians)
Government help in printing (the most accurate version of) Bibles.
In English, that’s KJV. In Chinese that’s 和合本. In Russian, that’s Синодальный перевод, The Synodal version. In Arabic, that’s the فانديك (Van Dyck version) of 1860, faithfully translated by Syriac Church. - An agreement:
to maintain each country separate from one another, in governance
to not install financial organs in the other countries
to not cede to any attempt at world government
(WTO, World Bank, EU, NATO) - Protecting against paperwork-invasion by Corporations:
- Make all for-profit Corporations to have a limited time of existence, within each country.
Small (small in wealth) ones can get allowed to exist for nearly a human lifetime.
The major Corporations of much revenue, they need to re-apply at the government for permit to exist, every few years.
This way, harmful corporations can get denied the permit to exist, and get dissolved. - Put up Protectionism
resist privatization (resist capitalism)
resist free-market and free-trade - Protectionism means the government encourages domestic enterprises, and uses government help to make them more prosperous than foreign enterprises.Protectionism results in more employments, because if foreign Corporations provide most of the workplaces in the country, they will certainly provide less jobs, or worse jobs.For example, if American Corporations controlled most of the workplaces in Mexico, they will certainly put as many Mexicans out of work as possible, so that wages would get as low as possible. They would set the wages lower, when there are more desperate people, who would take lower wages. Lower wages means the Corporations pay less in salaries to the workers. The unpaid money would go to the salary of the wealthiest people in the Corporation: the manager and the directors. It also goes to the Corporation itself, so that it could become wealthier and more famous, for the vanity of a few managers.
This is how sweatshops exist.
This is also why unemployment exist (because of profit/greed, it is sin)Therefore, do not ever let foreign Corporations control many workplaces or many employment posts in your country. A foreign Corporation is any Corporation that has its decisions controlled by foreigners.Of course, this is all about major Corporations, like the 100 wealthiest of each country.
Small enterprises do not matter.Most of the workplaces in your country need to be held by your provincial governments, or by domestic-owned enterprises. These workplaces need to be supported by your country’s government, so as to make them sturdier than (major) foreign Corporations.
Protectionism prevents your country from getting invaded through the market.
This “free-market”/”free-trade” invasion (not through land, but through market) has been used since 1970s (because Americans lost Vietnam in 1970s, so they tried to find another way to invade countries, and that’s “free-market”.) This market-invasion has been especially used since 1991, with some success, since it has not been taught in textbooks in school yet.
Market-invasion and lack-of-Protectionism is the reason for the misery in much of the countries who have pursued “the market” since 1991. They have been invaded and pillaged by “the market” and they know it not. - Nationalize the major industries and major enterprises
Immediately ensure that all major national industries and resources (agriculture, food, water, transport, forests, mining, textiles, energy-generation, energy-distribution, and others) are nationalized. No foreign Corporations must be allowed to acquire even partial control of them.If a country has unemployment, it is because the wealthiest 100 Corporations are not nationalized.
A nationalized enterprise:
– has 100% of its revenue given to the country or the province
(a privately-owned capitalist enterprise only has about 20% of its revenue given to the country)
– has more employment provided, because the objective is not to make as much salary possible for the manager or the directors, but the objective is to hire as many employees as possible.
(a capitalist enterprise gets rid of as many employees as possible, so that the money that would have been used to pay those worker salaries, gets paid as increased salary to the manager or directors.
This is the reason for unemployment in many countries, because of the for-profit enterprises that should get nationalized.
The countries that need to nationalize their 100 wealthiest for-profit enterprises, are:
China, Russia, India, Mexico, Germany, all African countries, and all countries that pursued capitalism after 1991)
–
- Make all for-profit Corporations to have a limited time of existence, within each country.
- Maintain or implement universal healthcare and social welfareUniversal healthcare:
free medical care for every person (except perhaps those who abuse narcotics)
the funds would come from taxing the wealthier half of the population, so that if minimum wage was 20 thousand a year, maximum wage should be 80 thousand a year. Anything more is taken into taxation.
This would provide funds for free medical care for every person.Social welfare:
Homeless shelters in every city, handing out food, blankets and a place to sleep.
Some homeless shelters should teach how to get housing and work.
All homeless shelters should have Jesus Christ preached every day, with free bibles.
Christian churches can operate the shelters, with some government funding, if necessary.Also, in some situations, handing out some money for survival until people can find work.
This is funded by taxing the wealth that richer people would waste on yachts and luxury.
Britain and Germany should secede from European Union.
All countries of the world should resist globalization
(globalization is really an attempt at neo-Roman Empire, by some Corporations and transnational organizations – mostly based from America – attempting to invade all the other countries through paperwork, and media-disinformation. They have been secretly doing so since perhaps 20 years. American media is behind it, along with America’s government projects)
Also, each country should actively cleanse pornography from its section of Internet, and other publishing
claiming a different gender is lying and demonic, please ask God to cast the devil out of him
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and Canada Family Action (CFA) have spoken out against Bill C-389, a private member’s bill introduced by Vancouver-area MP Bill Siksay, which would add “gender identity” and “gender expression” as prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The bill has received very little media attention but has already passed second reading in the House of Commons. Both organizations noted that it is difficult to judge the impact of the bill because both terms are undefined but suggested that it could allow a man to enter a women’s washroom if he identifies himself as a woman.
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, Matthew 19:4
Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight. Proverbs 12:22
[Amnon feigned sickness to get near and then assault Tamar. Absalom knew yet did nothing.] So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Absalom’s house. 2 Samuel 13:20
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
Leviticus 19:17
Galatians 6:10, ‘As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially to them who are of the household of faith.’
[1.] By the law of charity I owe this office of love to all, for I should bring home as many to God as possibly I can. Neither age, nor sex, nor any condition of life doth deprive them of the benefit, nor exempt me from my duty to them. Unbelievers are our neighbours, and to be loved with a true love; besides philadelphia, ‘Love of the brethren,’ agapei, ‘love’ is required of christians: 2 Peter i. 7, ‘Add to brotherly-kindness charity.’ And therefore they must not be excluded from the common act and office of charity that belongeth to all men as men. Spiritual alms is no more restrained than bodily. Now upon occasion we are bound to relieve the worst in their great necessity, and none have such great necessity of being reduced as infidels, for they are further from God and more gone astray than others, and therefore most need information and warning of the danger they are in. An unbeliever may reprove a believer; so on the contrary: Gen. xx. 16, ‘And Abimelech said unto Sarah, Behold, I have given to thy brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes to all that are with thee, and with all other: thus was she reproved.’ This heathen king reproved her, because she wore not a veil, as wives are wont to do, but dissembled, and thereby she was in danger of being ensnared, and giving occasion of these mischiefs; as if he should say, Acknowledge freely hereafter that he is thy husband, and cover thy face in token that thou art a married woman, and that consequently he is the shield and defence of thy chastity; let it be a lesson and warning to thee to be more circumspect hereafter.From the commendable teacher Thomas Manton, sermon on Leviticus 19:17
http://www.newblehome.co.uk/manton/vol19-lev.html
The charity-concern for the danger/safety of females (who are half the population) surpasses any unjustified appeasing of deviant deliquents (and de-facto encouragement of all criminals, thieves, human traffickers late at night)
Half the population is endangered without their consent.
Please read this book about how many people suffer
about 2.5 million people around the world are ensnared in the web of human trafficking at any given time.
this book:
ISBN number 0231139608All police academies and law enforcement, in all countries, should have this as required textbook.
(especially in China, India, Russia and its countries, Germany, Netherlands, and countries geographically-near United States)
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying,
Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying,
Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Matthew 25:31-46
I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Isaiah 42:6-7
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.
Isaiah 58:6-8
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:79
If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain;
If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that ponders the heart consider it? and he that keeps thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?
Proverbs 24:11-12
Whoso stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
Proverbs 21:13
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Psalm 82:3-4
To Christians, about writing
In the multitude of words there lacks not sin: but he who refrains his lips is wise. Proverbs 10:19
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. Qoheleh/Ecclesiastes 5:3
He that has knowledge spares his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Proverbs 17:27
Apostle John was probably the nearest-to-God and wisest among the 12 apostles.
Yet he did not write much. Of all his writings, we only have Gospel of John, I John, II John, III John, and Revelations.
These are few words compared to the verbose writings of modern people, yet how much Christ-life is carried in these words. There are modern people who write entire books, yet in front of God they are less than a few paragraphs of Apostle John’s writings.
Therefore, when you write, seek not to write many words.
Seek rather to write few words that carry much Christ-life in them.
And if unclear on what to write, then do not write until you pray and receive wisdom from God.
And for Christians who write: sometimes one writing is sufficient for many days.
The neater and truer teachings about Christian life are from the teachers of the past, when people were yet unpolluted by modern entertainment.
Also, when you advance in wisdom nearer to God, so should you correct your previous works, so that all your works are found acceptable by God.
It is beneficial to always change to resemble God more and more, for the purpose of attaining perfection in Christ: how things should be.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are ahead,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Luke 12:31-34Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18
How to make decisions
The Word of God, along with the Holy Spirit, is the best teacher.
Among the Christians, nearly all the commendable (worth recommending) teachers are from before 1900.
After 1900, (especially after 1960) Christian teachers became incomparably shallow, compared to those before 1900.
So among the Christians, here are the teachers worth recommending (and learning from):
Very commendable
- Augustine
http://www.ccel.org/search/books/augustine - Martin Luther (his doctrine is commendable, only, he lacks some charity love towards Judeans)
http://www.ccel.org/search/books/Luther? - Hilaire de Poitier (here, commentaries on Psalm 1, 54, 131)
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf209.ii.vi.ii.i.html
Jerome: commentaries on Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Micah, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Galatians, Ephesians, Titus, Philemon
Commendable:
- Charles Spurgeon
http://www.apibs.org/chs.htm - George Whitefield
(here, all his sermons)
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/whitefield/sermons.toc.html - Dwight Moody
(here, many of his commendable sermons)
http://www.apibs.org/class.htm#moody - Thomas Manton
(here, many of his sermons)
http://www.ccel.org/search/books/MantonI recommend these:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/manton/manton06.toc.html
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/manton/manton07.toc.html
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/manton/manton08.toc.html
How to make decisions:
– serve the Spirit, not the flesh (Galatians 5:17)
– please God, not yourself (I Peter 4:2)
– love the brethren (I John 4:21)
– seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness
God forbids offering prayers to Mary
As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou might charge some that they teach no other doctrine
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned
1 Timothy 1:3, 1:5
The LORD God has no mother.
Because this would imply that the LORD has a beginning. He has no beginning.
Whether God has a beginning:
Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.
Psalm 93:2
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Psalm 90:2
Concerning the mother of Christians:
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Galatians 4:26
Concerning whom Jesus said was his mother:
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren
For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Matthew 12:49-50
This shows that:
if God refers to Yehovah, there is no mother of Yehovah (as far as the Scriptures tell us).
if God refers to Jesus Christ, then any Christian who does God’s will is his mother.
(and he would exclude Mary from being his mother, if she doesn’t live by God’s will. That’s exactly what he said in Matthew 12:49-50, because his disciples were living in his teachings, and at that time, Mary was not living in his teachings. This also shows that Mary sinned at least once.)
Therefore, there should be no special veneration given to Mary.
She was merely a servant of God, helping God to accomplish His purpose.
Therefore, it is inappropriate to offer prayers to Mary.
Prayers ought to be offered to Jesus Christ, or to God the Father (Yehovah) in the name of Jesus Christ.
No prayers for Mary or any saints or any angels.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1 Timothy 2:5
Also, please do not mix with Eastern religions, neither take up their names.
Christ is the Eternal Way.
-ism is an ancient paganism from China, it’s similar to the religion of the Canaanites (which is called “New Age” in the United States, when it’s very ancient paganism, abominable to the Lord God). It’s the blasphemous idea of deny God as a person, but rather pretending some inert pool of energy, to get tapped and used by people for their own purposes.
But the reality is that God is the Lord of the universe, and God is alive and active and sentient, He rules over us. People are made to serve God’s purpose.
Take heed to honor God with your words, that they are found clean in the sight of God.
Live life to please God in all things, not to please people of this world.
Also, Christian religion is written: 基督教
Orthodox church is written: 東正教会
It’s a church, not a religion.
Also, the Lord God ordered us to not make images:
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exodus 20:4
So the practice of looking to pictures of Christ is wrong.
Instead, Christians ought to looking to God in the heart, without pictures, as in the Early Church.
difference between a Christian, and a person of politics
Augustine has written an excellent work called “City of God”, about the difference between having a city in heaven (all the Christians with main affection rooted in Jesus Christ), and having a country on earth (people’s main affections rooted in this world, and some prestige or wealth or concerns of this world).
The text is freely available. You should either get the text and print it out at a copy shop (2 or 3 cents a page), or purchase a manufactured copy. Either way, you should read on paper, and not on a screen.
You should start reading at Book 11. If that’s too difficult, you should start reading at Book 14 or 15.
The difference between a Christian in Christ, and a person of politics (regardless of the faction name), is that a Christian has his main concerns in gaining more spiritual understanding of God, while the person of politics has his main concerns about the powers and wealth of this world.
The Christian labours to get his heart/mind nearer to God, in addition to himself approaching God, the purpose is to get God more known and admired by other people.
The person of politics labours to gain or keep government power within a group of people, to gain or keep wealth within a group of people. Some of them are nationalist and militarist. The purpose, is either to get a man or a group of people more admired, or to get a country more admired.
Love not the world, nor anything that is in the world. If any man loves the world, the love towards the Father (YHWH) is not in Him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world.
The world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he who does the will of God endures forever.
I John 2:15-17
“pride of life” includes especially, nationalism, or crowd-admiring a group of people, or crowd-admiring one person (or desiring such admirations).
Christians who speak in front of many people, they easily fall into this sin, if they don’t memorize the New Testament, and pray once every hour.
To pray once every hour is not “overdoing”. God actually commands us to pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17). I haven’t yet been able to accomplish this commandment, but praying once per hour is a start.
the sin of immoral-images
- self exaltation through lawlessness, or, pretending to be no longer obligated to obey God, but to have an illusion where you make your own rule in an image-universe.
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Psalm 2:1-5 - self-exaltation through having “servants” to yourself, even through the illusion of images.
Proverbs 11:20-22
Proverbs 13:25, 15:24, 16:17, 14:13 - self-exaltation through oppressing people, or participating in oppressing people (through viewing the images of others doing so). This is exalting the self by causing pain or embarrassment to other people, and rejoicing in other people being helpless in front of you.
Proverbs 16:5-6, 3:31, 1:8-15 - covetousness
The sin of videogaming
videogames:
to have (the pretended illusion of) easy victories over difficulties (or “victories” over “people”) in a virtual world of images.
This is done for the purpose of avoiding to confront, or avoiding to think about, actual difficulties in real life.
These difficulties in real life, not dealt with, become worse.
Thus, real life become worse and worse, while the illusions of the virtual images seem even more appealing.
God wants us to live in reality (where there is God), not in an image-world (where there is no God, and where it seems the ruler of that entire image “universe” is you).
Image-worlds encourage atheism, and turn people evil, because they forget about God.
I Corinthians 10:23
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
I Corinthians 2:23
While it is true that all the Word of God is the truth, not every person is ready to hear all of it. Depending on how much wisdom a person has, the person may only understand some. Therefore, present what truth the person is able to understand. After some time, when the person has gained more wisdom, then present more advanced truths.
This necessitates good judgment, or discerning when to teach people what. For example, some teachings may get appreciated by those of strong faith, but discourage those of weak faith.
For this topic, I will quote the teacher Thomas Manton, who wrote commendable sermons on each verse of the Psalm 119.
–
Thomas Manton’s sermon on Psalm 119:66
Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments . – Psalm 119:66
Many are wise in [theory] but they err in particulars.
(by “particulars”, he means “specific situations in life”)
They have a knowledge of principles, but their [practice] [has problems]. Particulars are nearer to practice, and very learned men are deceived in particulars:
An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Romans 2:20-22
Therefore, besides the general rule – the knowledge of God’s will – it is necessary to have the gift of discretion, when particulars are clothed with circumstances. There is an infinite variety of circumstances which require a deal of prudence to determine them. A man may easily discourse on general truths concerning God, ourselves, the state of the church, the privileges of Christianity; but to direct [this knowledge] to particular cases, to govern our own hearts, and order our own ways, that is a harder thing.
Hosea 19:9 Whoever is wise and prudent…
Proverbs 8:12 I, wisdom, dwell with prudence
To direct (to practice) is harder than to … distinguish.
It is easier to distinguish good and evil in general … but to [apply] our knowledge to practice in all cases, that is the great work of judgment, that we may know what is the appropriate time, place, company (companions) … and may have that ordering of our conversation aright.
Whoso offereth praise glorifies me: and to him that orderes his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God. Psalm 50:23
… that we judge what is due to the Creator, what is to be allowed to the creature, what is good, what is better, what is best of all; that we know how to pay reverence to superiors, how most profitably to converse with equals, what compassion to give to inferiors, how to do good unto them; how to behave ourselves as husbands, wives, fathers, children…
In short, how to love our friends in God, and love our enemies for God; how converse secretly with God, how to walk openly before men; how to cherish the [physical body] that it may not be unserviceable, yet how to mortify the flesh that it may not wax wanton against the Spirit; … when to speak, when to hold our peace; when to praise, when to criticize; … when to scatter, when to keep back or withhold; …
This is a great defect in most Christians, who often have good affections, but no prudence to guide and order them. They are indeed all affection, but no judgment; have a zeal, but without knowledge.
… then, should we not earnestly seek of God good knowledge and judgment?
This I pray, that your love may increase more and more in knowledge and all judgment, that you may approve what is excellent…
Philippians 1:9
our love and zeal should have a proportionate measure of knowledge and judgment going along with it.
“… that you may be filled with knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” “Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom.” … it is not enough to have warm affections, but we must have a clear and sound mind.
The mischief that arises from this defect is so great to themselves, to others, to the church of God.
– to themselves –
Our affection will deceive us, for they judge by interest and profit, not duty and conscience.
The consent (approval) of this world will deceive us, for they may conspire in error and in rebellion against God, and are usually the opposite side against God.
Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
[Seemingly well-behaved] men may deceive us; true and faithful ministers may err both in doctrine and manners.
Many men’s religion last but for an impulse, it comes upon them now and then, it is not their constant frame (of mind) and constitution. … men take up opinions lightly, and leave them as lightly again. Light chaff (“light” here = lacking substance) is carried about with every wind:
Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
If we receive truth upon the credibility of men, we may get led astray again, and we shall be ready to stagger when persecution happens, especially if we see those men from whom we have learned the truth fall away, if we have not a steadfastness of our own.
II Peter 3:17 Beware lest ye also, being led away by the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
[Christians] should have a steadfastness [belonging] to themselves, not stand upon the steadfastness of another, the example of others, the opinion of other Christian men, or the countenance or applause of the world.
All lawful things are not [appropriate] at all times, nor in all places, nor to be done by all persons …
the church of God has suffered not only from the persecution of enemies, but from the folly, rashness, and indiscretion of its friends.
There are different degrees of light (“light” here = illumination), some babes, some young men, some grown person in Christ Jesus.
I John 2:13 “I write unto you fathers, because ye have known him who is from the beginning. I write unto you young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one; I write unto you little children, because ye have known the Father.”
Now, children have their fancies, young men their passions, and old men their [temperaments or habitual-thinkings]. In young ones, there are great affections but little knowledge and judgment, they have a great zeal but little prudence to moderate it; … The devil loves to draw things into extremes, to set gift against gift, prudence against zeal, the youth of Christianity against age, and so confound all things … In general, all overdoing in religion is undoing.
(except, memorizing the entire Bible, preferrably silently)
Let all this press us to seek this benefit of good judgment and knowledge:
- consider the value and necessity of it
- if you would have it, you must ask it of God
Without His Spirit we cannot discern spiritual things:But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. I Corinthians 2:14 - You must seek it in the Word of God, that makes us wise to salvation, and by the continual study of it we obtain wisdom and discretion.It makes wise the simple Psalm 19:7
Let the world of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom, Col. 3:16
His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law does he meditate day and night. Psalm 1:2Reading scripture is every man’s work who has a soul to be saved. Other writings, though good in their kind, will not leave such a lively impression upon the soul. … God’s [own words] has a special energy, [there] must be your study and your delight.
Your taste is not right when you relish and savor human writings … more than the word of God.
(… this includes sermons by other Christians, including Thomas Manton’s sermons. You only read these to more-love the Word of God.) - Long use and exercise does much increase judgment, especially as it is sanctified by the Spirit of God.Who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Hebrews 5:14
As men of full age, by long use and exercise of the senses of seeing, smelling, tasting, have acquired a more perfect knowledge to discern what food is good and wholesome and what is unwholesome, so by much attention, studying and meditation, men who have exercised the intellectual faculty to find out the scope and meaning of the Word of God attain a more discerning faculty, and understand better the truth of the word, and can judge what doctrine is true and what is false, and more easily apprehend the higher [knowledges] when taught to unto them.
- Experience do much increase judgment.
- Avoid the hindrances to [developing good judgment]:- A passionate or wilful addictedness to any carnal things. Truth is a prisoner to their passions and affections, they reject all thoughts of their future happiness. A man cannot be wise unto salvation, and also passionately addicted to any temporal interest.
– Pride: it makes us either rash or presumptuous, either not using God’s help, or not humble enough to subject our minds to it.
“the humble and the meek will He guide in judgment, the meek will he teach his way” Psalm 25:9
Men who lean on their own understandings reject Him:
“Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not unto your own understanding: in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
The entire text of Thomas Manton’s sermons on Psalm 119:66 is found here:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/manton/manton07.xxii.html
Please translate the Manton sermons Psalm 119:1 – 119:40
Thoman Manton’s sermons on Psalm 119:1-119:40
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/manton/manton06.iii.iii.html
Our responsibility as Christians is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. His head is Christ. His body is the Church: all the Christian who sincerely believe in Him. The Church is nourished by correct teaching.
… all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increases with the increase of God.
Colossians 2:19If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
I Timothy 4:6
We nurture the body of the Lord by teaching the Christians in the Word of God, in correct doctrine. “Words of faith” means “the words of our faith”.
Even though Jesus Christ is in heaven, seated at the right hand of God, His body is still on earth, composed of all the Christians (all the sincere Christians).
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body‘s sake, which is the church.
Colossians 1:24For we (Christians) are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Ephesians 5:30
The Church needs correct instructions unto godliness, so that the pastors can maintain themselves godly, so that all Christians can discern false doctrines and false ways of life.
When the Church is well-fed (with good doctrine and good instructions), then it will increase in wisdom, in charity, and it will also increase in numbers of souls.
One of the easiest way to instruct the Church (that is, those who are already Christians) is to help translate the Psalm 119 sermons of Thomas Manton, into all the languages of the world, then put them online for free.
Please translate correctly. It’s far better to have 40 accurately translated sermons in a language, than many badly translated sermons.
It’s better to focus on the first 40 (Psalm 119:1 – Psalm 119:40), translate them well, and distribute them for free, especially in print.
Then spend more time translating the others, but during this time, the first 40 can get used.
Most Christians should read only on paper, and not on screen.
Most of China has no internet, and it should stay that way.
The languages that the Psalm 119 sermons should get translated in:
(Please first translate Psalm 119:1 – 119:40.
Distribute for free
Then spend more time in translating the other sermons)
Chinese (simplified) 中文
Hindi
Malay/Indonesian
Urdu
Punjab, Telugu, Tamil
Arabic-Egyptian
Dinka, Arabic-Sudanese
Swahili
Hausa
Vietnamese
Thai
Arabic-Iraqi
Arabic-Levantine (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan)
Igbo
Yoruba
Khmer
Farsi, Dari
Turkish
Pashtun
Korean
Spanish
Portuguese
Arabic-Moroccan
Arabic-Yemeni
Japanese
Sinhala
Azeri
Baluchi
Somali
The translated sermons must be online for free, because God wants the gospel to get preached for free.
The sermons must not get mixed with things unrelated to God, such as any nationalism. No “foreword”, no “introduction”, no “recommendation”, or any mentioning of modern names or modern organizations (especially, any modern-era Christians). No pictures.
Only Thomas Manton’s text.
Bibles also need to get printed in those languages, the most accurate Bible version (the 和合本 is, for the moment, the better version among the Chinese ones). The Bibles need to get given away for free.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he comes and knocks, they may open unto him immediately.
Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he comes shall find [them at their work]: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
Luke 12:34-38
I Corinthians 11:5, I Thessalonians 5:17, Christian women need to cover their head
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonours his head.
But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
I Corinthians 11:3-10Pray without ceasing.
I Thessalonians 5:17
Since we are all commanded to pray without ceasing, and since the head of each Christian is God, it follows that Christian women are to cover their head at all times.
Christian women have always covered their heads, so much that when Mohammed created Islam, he copied this from the Christians (and followers of Judaism).
Christian women have been covering themselves from 33 AD (the resurrection of Jesus Christ) until perhaps 1950s. Then television were popularized from 1950s till now. Movies also became more available. Atheists control most of the TV and movies. This is because God commanded to not make images in the Ten Commandments, therefore TV and movies are impious careers and activities to get involved in. The atheists have done so much propaganda with unveiled women in the TV and movies, that even Christians in America and Europe have forgotten God’s command in the New Testament.
The TV and movies try to portray a false world where the distinction between Christian religion and Islam is that the Christian women don’t cover themselves.
That is wrong. It’s portrayed that way in nearly all TV and movies, because most of the TV and movie production are done from the United States. In the United States, the women covered themselves as long as there were no movies to mis-instruct them. So all or nearly all women covered themselves in the 1700s and in the 1800s, even until 1899. But in 1900, movies were invented, and women started wearing only a hat, rather than a veil (however, some women still wore a scarf around the head). The wearing of the hat continued until perhaps the 1950s/1960s. Then Hollywood started mass-producing color-movies starting in the 1960s, all without head-covering for women.
So Americans forgot, even their church-teachers forgot.
And because of American movies and TV going to other countries, the Christians in other countries also forgot.
There is an evil done by American Christians (some of them don’t even love God) supposedly giving assistance to Christians in poorer countries. Such Americans not only give them printed images, but images deliberately portraying Christian women with head uncovered, pretending that covering the head is only in Islam.
This is evildoing against God. God specifically commanded that Christian women get their heads covered. In countries where there are many Muslims, such Americans are doing evil against the Christians there, because Muslim men assume that a women with uncovered head is a perverted person. This results in perception among Muslims that Christians are immoral (confounding mostly-atheist American living, with Christian living). This results in Christian girls getting molested by Muslims in Pakistan. This also gives wrong testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, I remind all the Christians everywhere, that the females are to cover their head, as statement that they are Christian and acknowledge Jesus Christ as their head. This is especially important in countries where there are many Muslims, so that our Lord Jesus Christ and His doctrine is not evil-spoken of.
God’s instructions on governance
Even though Jesus Christ’s kingdom is not on earth, Christians still have the duty to instruct those who do govern on earth, about matters of governance.
- A Practicing Christian
If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.
Proverbs 29:12 - Anti-military and anti-spying
this means, a person who would and does:
– downsize the military to what it was before 1917.
– close all the bases outside of America
– repeal “patriot act”, close Guantanamo and other false-accusation systems, obey the Constitution in lawyer access.
– dissolve Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, NSA, NRO, DEA, ATFThese six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Proverbs 6:16-19Spies:
they proudly look on people, in spying
they lie about spying
they shed innocent blood
they devise wicked imaginations in falsely accusing people
their feet are swift to hurry into evildoing
they are false witnesses who speak lies about other people
they deliberately fabricate evil accusations to divide people from their friendsThus, spies as a profession are of the most hated by the Lord God.
- Remembering the poor, not having in priority the rich (especially “the market” or CEOs).
This means a person who would, and does:
– put a 20% yearly taxes on the Fortune 500, the 500 richest Corporations in America.
– put a 20% daily taxes on the stock-gambling and on derivative-gambling
– set a maximum wage/revenue of 100 thousand per year, per person
– increase social welfare, food stamps, old people’s pension, child care (distribute to the poor, the wealth that was taken by taxing the rich)
– achieve towards free education from childhood to college
– achieve towards free health care for all, as in CanadaOnly they would that we should remember the poor; the same that I also was eager to do.
Galatians 2:10Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.
Daniel 4:27 (these words were given to the wicked king Nebuchadnez-zar, before God smote him)Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
Isaiah 10:1-3
Imperfections in the KJV English-translation
- יְהֹוָה YHWH 耶和華 is written “GOD” or “The LORD”.
It ought to be written YHWH. - אֲדֹנָי 主 אֱלהִים 耶洛恒 is written “Lord GOD”.
It ought to be written Adonai Elohim, or Lord(s) Elohim, or Lord(s) Elohi(s). - Joshua son of Nun 约书亚 and Jesus (Yoshua/Yeshua) 耶稣 ought to have the same name, or at least similar names.
So, either Jesus son of Nun, and Jesus Christ,
or Joshua son of Nun, and Joshua Christ. - Original measurements of weight/distance/currency are not preserved, but instead replaced with England’s weight/distance/currency names.
- “James” is actually Jacob (Greek manuscripts: Ἰάκωβος Jacobos), the king of England arrogantly added in his own name, putting himself as one of the apostles.
- I read in Arthur Pink’s “Gleanings in Genesis” that a great period of time was between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. This is because the earth was first created perfect, but then there were the Lucifer wars, where 1/3 of the angels followed Lucifer/Satan and became demons, and during these wars the earth was destroyed. Thus it was “without form and void” in Genesis 1:2. This was indicated by Genesis 1:2 starting with a word meaning “after some time”, so that Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 are not sequential.
If this is accurate, the Genesis 1:2 ought to start with “then the earth…”, rather than “and the earth…”.
Jacob (James) 2:1-5, poor in garment = not so good-looking
Hearken, my beloved brethren, Has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love him?
Jacob (James) 2:5
God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith.
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Jacob (James) 2:1-4
This is a parable. The Bible is first written for spirits, then for physical persons of this world. Garments worn by spirits are the bodies wherein they dwell.
Thus, this is first talking about the physical appearances of people in this world, then talking about their clothing.
“good-looking apparel” refers to a good-looking physical appearance.
“vile raiment” refers to a not-good-looking physical appearance.
Thus, Christians ought to remember that God sympathizes with the poor, meaning, the people who are not so attractive-looking. Christians ought to conduct themselves the same way towards people who are not so attractive, as towards attractive people.
And this also means that not-so-attractive people are more likely to become Christians, and also endure a lifetime with the LORD. But attractive people are rich in their appearance, and are more easily enticed to boast in their wealth, praising themselves rather than praising God.
中文圣经里翻译的不足
中文圣经里翻译的不足：
和合本是中文圣经中翻译的最可靠的，但是那只是在中文翻译中比较。（天主教翻译的最烂，连主的灵都没有）
和合本还是有一些不足，它的造句都翻译的非常好。比如，诗篇１１９：６段到７段，每段都分成两句。
１１９：６，前句是结果，后句是为了达到结果而需要做的事
１１９：７，前句是结果，后句是为了达到结果而需要做的事
１１９：１１，前句是为了达到结果而需要做的事，后句是结果
１１９：１６，前句是一句，后句是一句（没有先做一句，为了达到另一句）
在和合本里，这些（在原文里）造句的关系都忠诚的翻译出来了。
在其他的中文圣经里，有好几版是篡改意思，居然都翻译成没有因果关系，那么这样教书就缺了。
所以，和合本的造句都翻译的非常好。
但是，有些字，和合本翻译的不太清楚。信耶稣的，大多数都会是穷人，因为神的话说：上帝使这世上的穷人有丰富的信仰（能耐），雅各书２：５
那么，和合本里有些字，是农民看不懂听不懂的。而且，翻译的人自己都好像没有清晰的概念：
faith πίστει = 信仰
(信心是人自己的意志和欲望 ，不需要靠耶稣，只靠自己就行了，等于英语的 confidence)
grace χάρις = 恩慈 (这个概念包括：上帝对我们慈悲，宽宏大量，所以，恩慈更恰当。恩典，人不懂是什么意思，因为典那个字好比“字典”)
salvation σωτηρίαν = 恩救 (救恩的主要意思在“恩”，而不是在被“救”)
saved = 得救了, 或者 得恩救了 (在英语里，这个字就是得救的意思（但是是比“救护”更高的档次）)
gift (of the Spirit) = 灵功（功能）
哥林多前书１２：４，哥林多前书１２：８－１０
Augustine of Hippo, “The City of God”
This work is excellent, except it really starts at Book Eleven, when Augustine starts writing his commentary about the entire Bible, not exactly verse by verse, but in different topics, from Genesis all the way to the end of the world.
From Book One till Book Ten, Augustine makes rebuking of all the false philosophies of his day, and all the false gods of his day. This mostly consists of pagan Roman gods, pagan Greek gods, Platonism, patriotism of Roman Empire, various ancient philosophies, various popular beliefs (that were wrong) in antiquity.
These, he rebuke them with such eloquence, that I do wish he were alive on earth now, so that he could write the first part of “City of God” to refute the false philosophies of our days, and the false gods of our days (the present times).
From Book Eleven till the end, is the second part of “City of God”, where he makes a long commentary about the Bible, comparing the differences between the city of this world (a kingdom/country on earth) and the City of God (a kingdom of heaven only in the heart and spirit, without a country on this earth).
Augustine has excellent teachings.
This is a work that needs to get read by Christians of all languages. However, the ancient false gods and philosophies rebuked by Augustine are all extinct at this present day, thus the Book One until Ten need not to get translated. This is especially because many Christians are not learned in ancient world history (and they shouldn’t, because nearly all world history is about pagan ways and the sins of humanity, in self-exaltation and covetousness and envy).
Therefore, I recommend that “City of God” gets translated into all the languages, but only starting at Book Eleven.
There are several pages of writings about a man named Varro, in Book Nineteen, those are not very useful for the Christians of now, since the Varro philosophies are by now extinct.
City of God can be found for free at ccel.org.
Please copy/paste the text on your own computer, and most of you have the money to print it out at 3 cents a page, so please go to a copy shop and print it out (both sides of the paper), and read on paper. It is not good to read on screen.
note: Augustine sometimes writes “catholic Church”. Augustine wrote in the years 400s, when “catholic Church” meant the Church. Those were the days when the word “catholic” was an average dictionary word, and it meant “common”. The word has not yet been ignominiously used by a covetous and man-worshipping cult, Roman Catholic Popists, established in 800 AD, responsible for Spanish Inquisition, Crusades 1099-1492, persecution of Protestants, and the ridiculous insistence of a flat earth, and for this tormented Galileo.
However, the Orthodox Church always knew the earth is round, because they were Greek-speaking, thus they preserved some of the ancient Greek knowledges-of-this-world. Erathosthenes, who was a pagan Greek scholar some 200 years before Christ, knew that the earth was round.
So does the Word of God:
It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Isaiah 40:22
)
Thus, since “the catholic Church” (lowercase c) merely means “the Church”, in translations, omit the word “catholic”, and that’s the best translation.
–
Augustine of Hippo also has excellent Bible commentary on Gospel of John.
Psalm 1, the knowledge and the good works
A tree has branches and leaves, and the good trees produces good fruits.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth
Ephesians 5:9
The branches and leaves are the knowledges about God, the hearing of the Word of God.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psalm 1:2
The fruits are the following of God’s instructions: the good works.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psalm 1:1And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. Titus 3:14
To only hear (and even memorize) the Word of God, is to have branches and leaves. But to take God’s instructions, and then obey them, that produces the fruits.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Jacob (James) 1:22-25
God wants us to keep doing good works, even as a continual lifestyle:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10
In order to have the ability to obey God (and also delight in it), make sure to pray to God earnestly, each morning, to crucify your flesh, and live in the Spirit, to live not to please yourself, but live to please God.
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Galatians 5:24
Why people should refrain from kissing until married
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
I know a Christian couple who did not kiss until they were married.
Their marriage is better than most.
If you refrain from kissing, you will also refrain from doing other things.
If you kiss, you will get tempted to first touch the person with your hands, and then perhaps try to use your mouth to follow your hands.
There are girls who would foolishly try to set “limits” on how much of their body they would use to please themselves with a guy, before marriage. If that’s your practice before marriage, your marriage will be difficult.
Before you get married, that’s the time you should practice in being faithful to God, and not indulge in your affections for one another. When you have to choose between your affection for God’s holiness, and your affection for another person, that’s when you need to choose your affection for God. Because, even after you get married, you will also have to make such choices.
Explanation:
You are a girl (or, you are a guy) and you are not yet married to this person.
You know that God’s standard for adultery is: merely thinking about having sex with someone, that is adultery.
You know that kissing would lead to such thoughts.
So, you have to choose between:
- affection for God, which necessitates you remain holy, with God as priority
- affection for pleasing yourself, or affection for the other person (perhaps that’s used as excuse), with yourself as priority.
(you know that people whose priority is pleasing themselves, that’s the criteria for going to hell. The criteria for going to heaven, is people whose priority is pleasing God.)
And perhaps you tell yourself, “I am not married to this person, but I feel lonely, and would like to get some affection for myself, from a person.”
And your affection for God is the only thing standing between you and such an action.
And suppose that you put aside your affection for God (and put aside your living-with-God-as-priority), and put pleasing-yourself as the priority, and go obtain some affection from the person.
Perhaps you imagine (girls imagine that, perhaps guys as well) that your mutual affection and/or mutual attraction is so strong that it will endure forever. And you put your trust and your safety in your people-people mutual affection, and/or mutual attraction.
So before marriage, these things are between you and the other person:
- affection for God (and consequently, Christian love for one another)
- mutual affection of person-person (let’s call it friendship)
- mutual attraction of person-person
Then you are married.
After people get married, these things will happen:
no matter how attractive you are, you will get used to one another, like clothing that seems so original when you first get it, but after a year, you are totally habituated to having it, and it’s not anything noticeable anymore.
So, after about a year of marriage (maybe even earlier), no matter how attractive people were (and even with exactly the same faces), each person will be plain to the other person.
And anyone else who is not plain, will seem more attractive than your married person. (this is what I suppose, having never been married)
So as far as marriage is concerned, you are just as well marrying a pretty person as a plain person, because the prettiest person will seem plain after many day-to-day familiarity. So you really should look for person-quality, not for outward appearances (a great mistake that many people make). In marriage, you should have long-term planning for many years, not short-term planning for a few months.
So, after you are married (after some months or a year), these things are between you and the other person:
- affection for God (and consequently, Christian love for one another)
- mutual affection of person-person (let’s call it friendship)
Then the devil will cause to happen some argument between you and the other person. It will certainly happen at some time or other. And your friendship will temporarily diminish. On some days, you will not have affection (or not much affection) for the other person, and moreover, you will feel lonely, and in need of some affection from a person.
So after you are married, on some days, you will only have this between you and the other person:
- affection for God (and consequently, Christian love for one another)
Your affection for God, is also how much you would care for the other person, even if the other person is, or seems, uncaring towards you. Because this is the character of God, to be thoughtful towards a person even if a person is uncaring towards God. This is called ἀγάπη (pronounced aga-pei, Greek word for higher-love, I Corinthians 13, in the English of 1611, “higher-love” is written as “charity”. However the English-speakers have fallen from the high faith of earlier Protestants, so “charity” became only practiced in giving donations to the poor, but no longer towards people in daily life. The very meaning became forgotten.)
If you have much affection for God, then you would also have much affection for holiness. You would live life not to please yourself, but to please God (the criteria of people going to heaven). Consequently, you will hold your covenant (New Testament) with God in matters of holiness, and you will also hold your marriage covenant.
If you only get married to provide comfort for yourself, then when you lack affection from the other person (it will happen on some days), then you will switch to your usual habit of living life to please yourself, and not to please God.
Suppose then, that such a day happens when you have an argument with the other person, or both of you merely seems uninteresting to one-another due to familiarity (thus, there is no more the thrill of finding the other person exciting), or the other person is elsewhere temporarily, and you feel lonely.
And you know some other person has been interested in you.
Or, you wish for the flattery of some person being thrilled in thinking you are exciting.
And you have the choice of try to find affection from someone else already interested in you, or, you have the choice of trying to create/provoke attraction in someone else, perhaps only to get yourself momentarily flattered (which is really an excuse from Satan).
And perhaps you tell yourself, “I am not married to this person, but I feel lonely, and would like to get some affection for myself, from a person.”
And your affection for God is the only thing standing between you and such an action.
What is your choice?
Do you set your affection on God, deny yourself, and remain true to your covenant?
Or do you set your affection on yourself, deny God, and live life to please yourself?
That depends on
- how much you have been maintaining affection for God.Many Christian couples submit to Disney as false teacher and pagan teacher, they think marriage = guaranteed happiness, and put away Jesus Christ as priority, and start to put their own selves as priority.After you get married, if you stop praying an hour a day (especially declaring to God sincerely in the morning: Lord Jesus, today I live life to please God and not to please myself), if you stop memorizing the Bible everyday with the goal of memorizing it all in a few years, then you have ceased to live with God as priority. And you will lose affection for God, along with losing your ability to love other people (especially your married person). Your love for God’s holiness is proportional also with your ability to maintain love for other people. Also, to memorize the Bible and pray everyday (put your heart/mind near to Christ) is the only way you maintain the ability to love people who are hostile to you, as would probably happen in any marriage.
- whether you have made such a decision previously in life.Before each person’s marriage, there is such a choice, as previously described. You have the choice of setting your affection on God and not try to get affection from a person whom you aren’t married with, or you have the choice of setting God aside, and go get affection from such a person.Before you were married, such a person is the person-you-haven’t-yet-married.
After you get married, there will be such choices again, only with people outside the marriage.If before you were married, you did not practice saying no to yourself, then after you are married, you will have more difficulty maintaining your marriage, because you will have the same situations.
And God is very serious about marriage. In fact, God uses that as criteria to see whether people are qualified for heaven, how faithful you are with your wife, (or if you are a girl, how faithful you are with your husband).
For this reason, knowing that you will face more terrible choices after marriage, people need to practice denying themselves before marriage, and not kiss.
Remember to maintain the excellent (and necessary) habit of memorizing the Bible, have the objective of memorizing it all in a few years. All Early Christians (the best) memorized the Bible. Timothy memorized all the Scriptures when he was a child. All the Hebrew boys memorized all the Scriptures at a young age, during the Old Testament times. This is why God starts the Proverbs (Proverbs 2 and 3) with commands to memorize all the Word of God.
(some other Eastern religion keeps this tradition, which they copied from the Hebrews. They can memorize about the length of the New Testament within a year or two. The Christians everywhere ought to be ashamed to not catch up, first memorize the New Testament, then the Old)
If you are English speaker, king james version (KJV) is the most correct translation of Scriptures in English (available).
The other ones: NKJV, NIV, NASB, NLT, “the Message” are all false gospels, a different god.
If you are Chinese speaker, the He He Ben 和合本 is the most correct translation of Scriptures in Chinese (that I know of), except Acts 17:1 has a wrong transliteration for Amphipolis.
With any language, the most word-by-word translation, from original Hebrew and ancient Greek, is the best.
You need to keep memorizing the Bible, before marriage, and after marriage. That’s how you prepare for marriage, that’s how you maintain a marriage.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another …
Colossians 3:12-16 (one of the best parts of the New Testament)
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
John 15:4-6
Abide means to remain.
Christ is all the words of the Bible (in a correctly translated Bible), not the language-words, but their meanings (which can be written in many languages, but the meaning is the same, that’s the Word of God. – as you advance in understanding of God, you’ll realize that the Bible is merely the garment of Christ, or the flesh of Christ. However, first memorize the entire New Testament, praying according to the prayer examples in the Epistles, and God will give you to understand).
If you memorize the words of the Bible, some Christ abides in you (it may not be sturdy, if you don’t memorize much, or if you slacken in diligence and forget what you memorized).
If you memorize and remember all the Bible, all of Christ abides in you.
Pray with a sincere heart with the prayer examples in the New Testament (and some of the Psalms, excluding the angry parts; best Psalm is Psalm 119), and be diligent to follow the instructions in the Bible (if your life is filthy, or if your heart is filthy, then God refuses to hear your prayers Proverbs 28:9), if you are diligent to memorize, to pray, and to follow God’s instructions, if you are diligent to live life to please God and not yourself, then you will also abide (remain) in Christ.
And that’s also how you maintain a marriage.
But whosoever live life to please themselves, they will have great difficulty in marriage, in life, in everything.
criticism of Calvinism #2
Calvinism is a false doctrine, it does not correspond to the mind of Christ.
It has the wrong attitude towards sin, thinking that if a person started a Christian life at a previous moment in life, or been living godly for sometime, then that person is forever a Christian (having a “guaranteed ticket to heaven”).
Or, it has the belief of “once a Christian, always a Christian”.
There is no such thing.
I have to add Calvinism as a false teaching, a heresy among Christians.
Because:
he who endures to the end shall be saved. Matthew 10:22
If people have been living godly for sometime, or even achieved much wisdom, that is no “evidence” that they are guaranteed to go to heaven. Actually, such people have more responsibility for their increased knowledge about God. If such people then turn to sin, then God penalize them much more, even if they sincerely repent; whereas, if beginner believers sin, then God is more ready to forgive them, if they repent sincerely.
For example, in II Kings 2:26-27, Abiathar the high priest has faithfully served the Lord for many years, yet he later turned away from God and supported the covetousness of Adonijah. God did not guarantee him good by taking the previous life as “evidence” that Abiathar is guaranteed to go to heaven, but instead God took away his priesthood, because being more knowledgeable about God, he had responsibility to even more obey God.
Another example is Zechariah and Mary in Gospel of Luke, chapter 1.
Both of them did not believe the same angel.
However, the angel struck Zechariah dumb, but patiently persuaded Mary. Why? Because Zechariah was a full-time priest, and was more knowledgeable about God, and thus God expected him to be more holy, and more readily follow God. Mary was merely a believer and not full-time working as priest, and thus knew less about the things of God, and the angel was more patient with her.
For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
(to whomever is given more, more is expected of that person. This is especially true of knowledge about God.)
(so, those who are professional pastors, or more learned about Christ, God is more against them if they sin, because they have more knowledge about God, and should therefore live even more holy)
Luke 12:48
But under the wrong reasoning of Calvinism, there are two category of people, those destined to go to heaven (no matter what), and those destined to go to hell.
And Jean Cauvin (Calvin), a very unlearned man who reasoned wrong, decided that “evidence” is needed to find out who is destined to go to heaven or to hell. And the “evidence” is a time of continued good behavior, or a time of continued sin. If a person has been living in a time of continual good behavior, that’s “evidence” that the person is part of the category of people who are destined to go to heaven. And the opposite, for bad behavior.
And the result of such wrong reasoning, is that Calvinist Christians who live godly for some period of time, they would decide that they surely must be part of those destined to go to heaven, no matter what. So such Calvinist Christians would then decide to sin, and turn away from their godliness, thinking that God somehow has His hands tied, and would not throw them in hell anymore.
There is NO moment in life, no matter how well a person has lived, for how long … there is NO moment in life where God wouldn’t throw someone in hell, if that person turns away from God or holiness.
It’s utterly arrogant to suppose that people obtain an “unrevokeable entrance” to heaven, and they can sin in the meantime, while waiting.
Unrevokeable means it cannot get cancelled.
God is not a machine, that He should get tricked.
There is no such thing as people destined to go to heaven.
You have to constantly make effort to live in Christ.
If you stop, and go live in the flesh, then at that moment your life is not in Christ, but in the flesh. If God cuts off your life at that moment, I am not sure what happens, but I know that God accepts only sacrifices without blemish, and I also know that our entire life is offered as sacrifice/gift to God. “Without blemish” means as best as we know at that time, what we consider “without blemish”. This means a beginner Christian, if totally sincere yet lacking some information, but according to the limited understanding he knows about God, he does the best possible, God will yet accept such a person. But a more advanced Christian, who knows more information but does not follow them, then God does not accept him, even if his life seems more “religious” than the totally-sincere but less-knowledgeable beginner.
If you fall even further (that is, not momentarily), but so much that you lose all affection for Christ, and become even unwilling or reluctant to return to Him (it happens after some continual time of living in the flesh, due either to desire to show-off, or love of prestige in front of people, or love of wealth, or lust, but usually it’s self-exaltation and covetousness first), then if God cuts off your life at that moment, you also go to hell.
There is no such thing as any person having guarantee to go to heaven no matter what they do.
For this reason, Peter when writing his second epistle, to Christians whom he call “brethren”, he added as conclusion:
“…beware lest you also, being led with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.” II Peter 3:17
This means that even the best of Christians can get led astray, if they aren’t diligent to keep their hearts/minds near to God.
For this reason, Jacob (James) when writing to Christians, added this:
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one converts him,
let him know that he who converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
James 5:19-20
Evidently, if a Christian turns away from the truth, he becomes a sinner who is going to eternal death.
And whoever converts him back from his errors, save his soul from death.
Jacob (James) wrote “any”. That means any Christian can err from the truth, and change from going-towards-heaven, to going-towards-hell.
If there were a group of Christians who were destined to go to heaven no matter what, then Jacob (James) could not have written “any”.
But since he wrote “any”, this is proof that all Christians can go to hell (depending on if they turn away from God), and there is no group of Christians who are going to heaven no matter what.
And every word of God is true, and the Epistle of Jacob (James) is part of the Word of God.
In fact, those few words (James 5:19-20) totally disproves Calvin’s wrong reasoning of “once a Christian, always a Christian”.
Leviticus 19:17, Galatians 6:1 (the love of God/Christ includes criticizing people)
Thou shall not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shall in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not allow sin upon him.
Leviticus 19:17
The excellent Thomas Manton has written two sermons on Leviticus 19:17
http://www.newblehome.co.uk/manton/vol19-lev.html
(if your web browser says there is a problem with the newble.co.uk website, ignore your web browser. Copy this same URL, paste it in the long rectangle where you type the Web address, and re-try, and it will work)
I would add:
There is a fleshly definition of love, which is corrupt.
There is a Christian definition of love, which is true.
The fleshly definition of love (Psychology uses it) is to be comfortable and at ease in this world, enjoying food and entertainment and sins, and not getting criticized for sins or mistakes.
The Christ definition of love, is to deny yourself (including, what is described above), to follow all the commandments in the Word of God, and keep your heart and mind near to God.
This means that if other people sin, loving them requires you to criticize them, so that they know they are doing wrong, or are reminded that they do wrong, and have a chance at correcting themselves, and regain nearness to God.
That is love that is acceptable to God.
If you see other people sin, and do not correct them, then you actually hate them, because by sinning they are going toward hell and you don’t try to restore their heart/mind back to God.
However, in criticizing other people (when they sin), we have to keep in mind a few things:
- meekness:
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Galatians 6:1This means, you have to be gentle in correcting another person, lest you get tempted.
How would you get tempted?He who despises his neighbour, sins: but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he. Proverbs 14:21
He who is void of wisdom despises his neighbour: but a man of understanding holds his peace. Proverbs 11:12You would get tempted to despise the person who did wrong, because criticizing another person puts you in a position of teaching, which is some sort of power, and that would tempt you to rejoice not in Christ, but rejoice in being over other people, and even rejoice in other people having faults so as giving you an opportunity to speak about their faults, for the purpose of showing-off yourself. If you do so, then you are not loving God, nor are you labouring for the good of the other person, you are trying to get yourself admired, rather than get God admired.
- whether the other person would listen, or would not:
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. Proverbs 23:9
If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest. Proverbs 29:9
He that reproves a scorner gets to himself shame: and he who rebukes a wicked man gets himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Proverbs 9:7-8
A fool has no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself. Proverbs 18:2
Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Proverbs 14:7
He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. Proverbs 10:18If the other person is of such a character as would not listen, then don’t waste time. You have limited time on this earth, and there are many who don’t know Christ, but would gladly know Christ if told about Him. Then there are those who really don’t want to know Christ. Speak holiness to those who would listen. - How old the other person is
Rebuke not an elder suddenly, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren I Timothy 5:1″rebuke not an elder suddenly” is the original text. That means, you can rebuke an elder, as much as you would rebuke a neighbor to prevent him living in sin or making other people sin. However, rebuke an elder in meekness.
Rebuking is part of Christian duties.
Half the Bible consists of criticisms.
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. II Timothy 4:2
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: II Timothy 3:16
The wrong doctrine of “love, without Scriptures” or “love, without doctrine”.
There is a wrong doctrine that “God is love”, therefore, let us only preoccupy ourselves with the idea of love, and disregard Scriptures and doctrine.
Such wrong doctrine even use the saying of “love unites, doctrine divides”.
To such error, I have these comments, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ:
He that loves not knoweth not God; for God is love (ἀγάπη). I John 4:8
There are 4 loves in Greek language (the original New Testament was probably all Aramaic, for that was the language spoken by Jesus. But we only have the earliest translations in Greek. We know these are accurate because the Early Church was very faithful).
There are 4 words for love in Greek language:
χάρις (Xaris, pronounced: Charis with German “Ch”, or Haris, with hard English “H”) the mercy of God
Colossians 1:6 … since the day you knew the grace of God in truth
φιλαδελφίαν Philadelphia, or, brotherly kindness (II Peter 1:7)
ἀγάπη Charity love (I Corinthians 13)
Another Greek word for love is not mentioned in the New Testament. I don’t think it’s used in the Old Testament either. It’s ερως eros, or carnal love of the human body. This love is not relevant for heaven, seeing that in heaven we will have different bodies, so our preparation for heaven ought to be about virtues and wisdom and understanding of God, because that’s how love is expressed in heaven.
We know that I John 4:8 proclaims that God is ἀγάπη, or charity-love.
What is charity-love (ἀγάπη) ?
It is defined in I Corinthians 13:1-8
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity(ἀγάπη), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity(ἀγάπη), I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity(ἀγάπη), it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
This necessarily means that a person cannot have charity-love without first knowing the truth. It is not possible to rejoice in the truth, without knowing what is true. Or as Pilate said: “What is truth?” (John 18:38) He was in the presence of Truth, but he did not rejoice in it. Thus, whoever has charity-love, must first know what is true.
In the same way, grace is also known by knowing truth (Colossians 1:6).
How does a person know truth?
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, then ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:31-32
This means that a person must continue to follow Jesus’ instructions.
This starts with remembering the entire Bible. For if a person remembers not instructions, how shall a person follow the instructions?
As previously written, it is not possible to have godly-love, without knowing truth. And truth is known by remembering the Scriptures, and continually following the instructions.
Therefore, it is not possible to merely have the idea of love, without constantly depending on the Scriptures.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. I John 5:3
Without the Scriptures to remind us, even our idea of “love” is corrupt. We think that “love” is the highest idea that we can invoke. But without constantly remembering the Scriptures (and through them, remembering God), even our highest ideal is corrupt.
Love can get directed towards many things.
But godly love is very specific, we have to love God (and Jesus Christ). What is Jesus Christ, it’s all the words of truth in the Scriptures.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment. Matthew 22:37-38He who has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is who loves me … He who loves me not, keeps not my sayings John 14:21, 14:24
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I John 2:15-17
Love is good, but how much love?
… Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Matthew 22:39He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:37-38
Combine these two, and you will see that “love other people as you love yourself” also means the amount of love towards other people is the same amount of love as towards yourself. Then God says that if the amount of love you have towards other people exceeds your love for God, then you are unworthy of God (a polite way of saying that you won’t go to heaven). This necessarily also means that the amount of love you have for yourself must also not exceed the amount of love you have for God.
Or “he who loves himself more than he loves God, he is not worthy of God”
And there are affections (love) that must not be had:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature (this is talking about, firstly, women who encourage men to do things with them that are against nature.)
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Romans 1:25-28And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Galatians 5:24
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead (to this world), and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Colossians 3:2-5
The main part of the flesh, is actually affection for self-exaltation (self-importance) and affection for covetousness (greed).
He that hastes to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. Proverbs 22:28
For the love of money (love towards money) is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. I Timothy 6:10That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
…
But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
(you have not the love-toward-God in you)
I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
How can you believe, you who receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that comes from God only? John 5:23, 5:44-45And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus’ commandment Paul was brought forth…
Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost you persuaded me to be a Christian.
Acts of the Apostles 25:23, 26:28For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. Mark 6:20
(that is, Herod gladly heard the teachings of John the Baptist, and followed many of the instructions.)
(but his affection for the prestige in front of people, surpassed his affection for God and holiness.)
… Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee … she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by-and-by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and because of the people who sat with him, he would not reject her.
Mark 6:21, 25-26And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.
And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. Acts 12:21-23For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
John 12:43
The godly-love that pleases God, is not love in the flesh (love of ourselves, love of our prestige in front of people, love of getting attention from people, love of wealth and possessions, love of lust).
The godly-love that pleases God is love in the Spirit.
And they overcame [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Revelations 12:11
(that is, they kept themselves stronger than Satan, by the Spirit of God, and by the Word of God, which they used to testify of what is true. And they loved not their life in this world, but they love Christ, wherein is their real life. Their real/true alive-ness is in Christ and not in this world.)
And by “Satan”, I mean the invisible spirit in the spirit-realms who tempts people to sin and hinders your nearness to God.
All you Christians need to realize that merely the idea of “love” is not enough. You all need to be taught how to love God (and how much to love other people) by memorizing and following the Word of God (praying each day for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, Ephesians 1:17).
You also need to put away the flesh each day, lest your love is towards yourself, and not towards God.
Jesus Christ = all the words in (correctly written) Bible, from “in the beginning” in Genesis till “Amen” in Revelations
Jesus Christ is the Word of God.
In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Yohanan (John) 1:1
Does the Word of God only refers to the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), or does it refer only to the New Testament, or does it refer to all the Bible?
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1
In the beginning was the Word … John 1:1
… God…created all things by Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3:9
… in Him (is) Amen … II Corinthians 1:20
… Amen (the last word of the Scriptures) Revelations 22:21
Thus, this establishes that Jesus Christ is all the Word of God from Genesis to Revelations.
Of course, there is more of Him, there is Him as a Spirit-and-man living in heaven, even now seated at the right-hand of God. However, the tangible part of Him is the Word of God that we can grasp with our heart/mind. And the Word of God is also our portal into spiritual understanding, into nearness with God. It’s through absorbing the Word of God into our hearts (starting by memorizing, then by more and more understanding) that we get nearer and nearer unto God.
Do not seek happiness in this world. Seek holiness in God
There is no happiness to be found in this world.
There is holiness to be found in God, and true life.
There is no life in this world. Your life is hidden in Christ.
In English, unfortunately, there is only one word for life, but in Greek and other non-latin languages, there are two words for life:
βίος life, or a period of time from childhood till old age
ζωή life, or alive-ness, or vitality
When the Bible says, “your life is hidden in Christ”, it means that your alive-ness is in Christ. There is no alive-ness to be found in the activities of this world. But whoever believe in Christ, and put away love-for-this-world, will find that true life, true alive-ness is in the Word of God (rather, through faith, you will find that understanding the Words of God, and taking them to heart, that is true alive-ness. But entertainment and even feel-good in this world, it’s not alive-ness, it’s not even alive compared to finding your life in Christ).
But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he feareth not before God.
Ecclesiaste/Qoheleh 8:13Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Colossians 2:16-17
In other words, all the food and drink and all the time in this world, it’s not even alive compared to the life in Christ. It’s like being part of a shadow compared to being part of an alive-body, such is the difference between seeking happiness in this world and seeking holiness and true life in Jesus Christ.
A shadow seems to have the promise of something, but it really is nothing and you don’t quite grasp/apprehend the promise, because it seems to have the form, but not any inner substance of alive-ness. If you use your heart as a palm of a hand to take a shadow, you really have nothing.
But whoever reach/apprehend life in Christ, such a person really apprehends alive-ness with his heart and soul.
Whoever loves God, they will love the Word of God (the Bible from Genesis to Revelations, especially the New Testament), and they will find their alive-ness in it.
The difference between coming to Christ and coming to America
Coming to Christ:
if you endure till the end in good faith, you obtain immortality, and reach the Promised Land in heaven. (Matthew 10:22, Romans 2:6-11)
Your life is hidden in Christ, whose glory you partially glimpse through understanding the Word of God. When Christ is fully revealed at the end of the world, so will your life in Him be fully revealed. (Colossians 3:1-4)
Coming to America:
You have a mortal life in this life, in a land on earth.
Coming to Christ:
Your homeland is in heaven. Your citizenship is with all the saints (the 12 apostles, Timothy, Luke, Mark, etc), the household of Jesus Christ and of God.
Coming to America:
Your homeland is on earth. Your citizenship is with a country of this earth.
Coming to Christ:
Love of God (loving God) is to live in the Spirit, to love holiness and truth.
Coming to America:
Love of country (loving a country) is to live in the flesh: to love prestige and covetousness.
Coming to Christ:
Christian life is about pursuit of holiness in heaven, and denial of self-indulgence in this world.
Coming to America:
American life is about pursuit of happiness and self-indulgence in this world, forgetting about any final judgment.
Coming to Christ:
Those who love Christ want to expand their hearts so as to have more room to contain God, love towards God, and also kindness to be thoughtful about other people.
Coming to America:
Those who love America want to expand how much land is controlled by the United States, and expand the country’s prestige in the eyes of other people (this, at the consequence of oppressing other people, like Latin Americans. America is made wealthier by making Mexico poorer).
Coming to Christ:
The foundation of a Christian life is founded on Christ, the Word of God (all the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation).
Upon this foundation, you build a spiritual life, you build up your heart/mind in godly wisdom and virtues and understanding, to get nearer and nearer to God.
In a Christian life, God has central importance. In any day, most of the thoughts should be about God, and how to please God.
Coming to America:
The foundation of an American life is founded on traditions of men. These traditions vaguely acknowledge a Creator, but only ritually mention him; these traditions of men claim that the main purpose of life should be pursuit of happiness in this world, definitely not the pursuit of holiness in God.
In an American life, self has central importance. In any day, most of the thoughts would be about self, and how to please the self.
Coming to Christ:
How a non-Christian is transformed into a Christian:
You learn the Bible.
You go from living for the self, to living for God.
You go from being a slave to other people’s admirations, to having joy in getting God (and not yourself) admired.
You go from being a slave to sin, to having the choice of each day, crucifying the flesh and be alive in the Spirit with Christ.
You confess that Jesus Christ is God, Son of God, died on the cross for your sins and God raised him from dead to life after 3 days. You take him as Lord and Savior of your life.
You get baptized (into water, out of the water), and you get adopted as son by God. You become son of God. (Galatians 3:26, 4:6)
If you endure till the end, and still are faithful and godly, you go from a mere human, to reigning over the entire universe with Christ. (Revelations 3:21)
Coming to America:
How a non-American is transformed into an American
You learn English.
You go from living for the self, to more living for the self.
You go from remembering the poor, to becoming self-centered and forgetful of everyone else.
You go from seeking the meaning of life to denying such thinking through continual entertainment.
If you acquire citizenship, you merely go from one earthly country to another earthly country.
If you merely live as an American, then your only life is in this life, and after you die, you get judged by God, and since you didn’t live in Christ, you get thrown into hell.
History of true Christians:
always the minority surrounded by unbelieving people, or people who don’t care much about God. Christians depend on God, they pray to God much, because it’s God who manages all the cause and effects. Christians trust in God, they are neither in bondage to fear, nor are interested in putting other people in bondage to fear. Christians do not trust in wealth, because wealth corrupts, and also because it’s God who makes things happen. Even if people put efforts in something, whether the results happen is up to God to decide.
Jesus Christ also gave examples to all true Christians, by living as a servant, serving others, and not exalting himself as a man.
History of Americans:
Americans go by the majority of people, regardless of whether the decision is just or unjust. Americans are people who like to trust in themselves, in their wealth, and perhaps their ability to make other people afraid. They want to live as masters over others, and they want to get served and use other people as servants. Such has been the history with the Native Americans, the African-Americans, the Mexicans, the Latin Americans, and neo-colonialism.
How to become a leader of true Christians:
be a servant to all, live nearly poor (Mark 10:43-44, Mark 10:24-25)
have a blamelessly clean life, not greedy, not a man of violence (I Timothy 3:3)
not showing-off in front of people, not enjoy getting people’s attention (Matthew 23:5)
not have other people call you “father”, “master”, or impressive titles (Roman Catholic is not a church, only a man-worshipping cult)
not live life with, or have projects in common with, unclean or covetous people
How become a leader of Americans:
seek to have high social status, show-off in front of people, get their attention
partner with unclean and covetous merchants
have much greed, and like violence
show-off status and fame to impress people
live rich, and arrogantly expect other people to be your servants
Soldier of Jesus Christ
Glory is given to God (make God admired, not the self)
warfare is done by praying, by getting nearer to God and then praying, by teaching other people into righteousness
A soldier of Jesus Christ brings other people from unholy to holy, from death to life (every time a person believes in Christ and is baptized, such a person is raised from the dead into life, and remains alive, if the person remains living in Christ)
Soldier of America (or any country of the earth)
glory is given to self, or ethnicity (still self), or country (still self, the false reasoning of thinking country = self is done by nationalist propaganda)
warfare by violence, for exaltation of a group of people above others, for coveting the neighboring country’s wealth
A soldier of America (or any earthly country) takes people from life to death
If you love Christ/God:
then you will keep His words in remembrance and follow His instructions, and His Spirit will dwell with you and love you
If you love a country (such as America)
perhaps you will speak in favor of it, but the “country” is not something alive, it’s merely an idea. It will not love you. Besides, all nationalists are really interested in exalting themselves in this world, and people interested in self-exaltation are either treacherous or ever ready to oppress other people.
Freedom in Christ = liberated from the inability to stop sinning, or, liberated from the fleshly inclination of liking to sin. This is done with a daily prayed in the morning asking God to crucify the flesh and live in the Spirit.
Freedom in Christ = ability to pursue nearness with God, without being hindered by sinning
Freedom in America = freedom to pursue happiness on earth (within the bounds of civil law). There is freedom to become Christian, but also freedom to sin. And all the TV and movies teach about the freedom to sin, so most Americans don’t know what is freedom in Christ.
Final note:
There is no comfort nor happiness to be found in this world.
Jacob, a person who had four women, at the end of his life concluding:
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been… Genesis 47:9
Solomon, a man who had 3000 women at the same time, and all the wealth in the world, and many building projects, and could impress many audiences, and at the end of his life concluding:
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
…
I said in mine heart, … I will test thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:
I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:
I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:
I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:
I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
Ecclesiastes/Qoheleh 1:2-3, 2:1-11
There is no hope in this world, not in all the power over people, nor in all the riches, not in all the accomplishments, not in getting admiration and attention from people. It’s like empty things that your heart can’t eat. You can’t live on those things. But the Word (the Bible) and the Spirit of Jesus Christ, those things are for the heart to eat, and live, live in the Spirit.
There is no comfort in this world, only in heaven above, in Christ Jesus. And people can have that even in this life, by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God, He manifest himself by showing himself as words, all the words of the Bible.
English, French, Chinese, German, Russian, Hindi
http://wordproject.org/
Korean
http://www.wordplanet.org/kr/index.htm
Tamil
http://www.wordplanet.org/tm/index.htm
Thai
http://www.wordplanet.org/ti/index.htm
Viet
http://www.wordplanet.org/vt/index.htm
Indonesian
http://www.wordplanet.org/id/index.htm
Pray for this Persian pastor, and 1000 more to replace him if he is martyred
The Persian pastor Youcef Nardarkhani is being sentenced to death by the government of Iran for “thought crime”.
That government is imitating the government in the United States.
Pray that Iranian government finds other ways to protest the double-standard of evil people in the government of the United States.
Pray that Youcef remains to serve Christ in this world for some more years, and gets released.
Pray that each Iranian Christian gets a bible
Pray for the works of Thomas Manton to get (correctly) translated into Persian language and Azeri language (these languages are spoken in Persian), and that the works of Thomas Manton made available online for free.
here they are in English:
http://www.ccel.org/search/books/Thomas%20Manton?
God commands us to make the Christian teachings available for free, just like Jesus Christ did when he taught. (I Corinthians 9:18 “to preach the gospel of Christ without charge” – that is, without charging a fee)
How to have a Christian church/assembly in a place where many Muslims are
Get the Bible in Arabic.
http://www.arabicbible.com
print out
- Proverbs
- Gospel of Matthew
- Galatians chapter 5, chapter 6
- Philippians
- I Peter
- II Timothy
(if possible, purchase a complete Bible in paper)
(if not possible yet, only print out from computer)
Teaching:
Download works of Thomas Manton for free (best are 6, 7, 8, 9, these contain all his sermons on Psalm 119:1 – Psalm 119:176, his best writings):
(volume 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 20)
http://www.ccel.org/search/books/Thomas%20Manton?
(all volumes, from 1 to 22)
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=thomas%20manton
Thomas Manton has (nearly) the best teachings among all Christians in 2000 years.
The other best-quality teachers are Augustine, Jerome, and Martin Luther.
First start with Thomas Manton, because Martin Luther is slightly more difficult to read.
One sermon of Thomas Manton is worth in quality (and correct teaching) to 5 or 10 sermons of current American pastors (and they often teach wrong things, or have wrong heart).
Hopefully some person is translating Thomas Manton sermons into Arabic, and putting them online for free.
MEETING
Meet only by two or three people at first.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Matthew 18:20
Start meeting with prayer.
https://bookofjeremiah1eighteennineteen.wordpress.com/prayer-as-necessary-as-opening-eyes-in-the-morning/
For teaching, study the bible, and teach (either 1 person speak for 30 minutes, and you rotate person at next meeting, or each person teach for 10 minutes, and all two/three persons teach each meeting).
Then you sing some hymns, if possible.
http://www.haya.org/songshomepage.htm
If not possible, then pray again.
Half the meeting time should be prayer, half the meeting time should be teaching about the Word of God.
Then cook and eat together.
This is for any Christian.
I don’t recommend that the meeting increases to more than 10 people, if convenient, you can have many people that way. If not convenient, meet in many groups of 2 and 3, and perhaps all come together once per month (such as, when other people are having a festival or a celebration, for any reason)
A church is not a building of brick-and-stone.
A church is an assembly of believers. An assembly of 2 or 3 is just as holy as an assembly of many. Jesus Christ most often had only an assembly of Himself and 12 people. Although, He sometimes also had an assembly of Himself, 12 disciples and then 70 disciples (Luke 10:1).
The purpose is to get near to God, so as to have your spirits present in the assembly-in-front-of-God, in the heavenly places (Hebrews 12:22-24). Often, in an assembly of many people, people get distracted by “what other people are thinking of me”, so their heart is not near to God, but in this world.
The purpose of life is to have the heart/mind rooted in the Word of God (memorize it all, all the bible), and to be near to God in heart/mind. The objective is not to assemble for a ceremony, which is merely some physical bodies getting near to a building of brick-and-stone. The objective is to get the heart/mind of each person near to God in heaven.
If there were 5000 Christians, it is better for them to meet in 2 or 3 each week, and come together in groups of 50 (Luke 9:14) once every several weeks.
In America, they meet 5000 people at once, each week, all looking at one pastor. The pastor get perverted by the crowd-attention (Jesus Christ always avoided that, it’s temptation of self-importance displacing God’s importance, it’s the original sin, both of Satan and of Adam). The pastor then likes to get himself admired, rather than get God admired (so in America, there is the sin of really wanting to get oneself admired, while supposedly talking about how God is admirable).
And in a crowd of 5000, nobody really knows one another, so most people are like tourists, going there for the ceremony, and then forgetting God for the next 6 days (even for the other hours of Sunday).
But real Christians are to always remember God and always honor God.
Also, there is no holiness of geography location anymore, Jesus abolished it. The “Promised Land” has been moved from Jerusalem on earth, to Jerusalem in Heaven.
A sector of Heaven is called Jerusalem. The jerusalem on earth was only meant as a classroom-demonstration, using the whole earth as a classroom, it is as if a teacher would take one ball to represent the sun, and another smaller ball to represent the earth, and demonstrate about sun-and-earth. But that ball and that smaller ball are not the real sun, real earth, only demonstrations in the classroom to teach about the things in cosmos. So similarly, God used the whole world as a classroom, in the Old Testament times, to give example of how to go from fleshly-sin to spiritual life. Egypt symbolized the flesh, or bondage to sin (or lacking the ability to stop sinning, or lacking the ability to desire to stop sinning)
There is no holiness of time anymore, Jesus also abolished that. Galatians 4:10 Colossians 2:16
Sabbath (the day of resting, one day after 6 days of work) has been moved to heaven.
Christians are to always do spiritual work in this life (memorize Bible, honor God with the heart, strive against sin in subduing the flesh and living in the Spirit, and also teaching other people to bring them to knowledge of God, and also maintaining/encouraging other Christians to live in holiness and love-towards-God)
Christians will finally rest when they get to heaven (essentially, to transform from the thinking-ability of fishes or sheep, to having the thinking-ability of man. Even though we are men in this world, in God’s presence our thinking-ability is no more than that of fish or sheep. But God has adopted us as sons, as many as have committed their lives to Christ. Christ is God’s son in that He is an inner-component of God. We are God’s son in that God adopts us, because Christ asked God (one part of God asking the whole) to adopt those who love Him. So when we get to heaven to live with God, if we endure in faith and godliness till the end, we will get as near to God as Christ is near to God, and we will also fully gain that much more thinking-ability and existence.
There is no holiness associated with physical items (like food) anymore, Jesus abolished it (Colossians 2:16, I Timothy 4:1-4)
In summary, there is no holiness associated with physical items (like food of this world), or with geographical location (like jerusalem of this world), or with moments in time (like one day more holy than others).
So you can meet at anytime. You can meet on Fridays if you like, or on any weekday, or on Sunday evening. You don’t have to tell other people you are Christians by meeting on Sunday. That is not necessary. You should not be ashamed of the LORD (Mark 8:38)
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
Mark 8:38
But Lord Jesus is not a moment in time, or a geographical location (a Christian assembly can meet in any home, it can meet in a car, anywhere), or a physical item (Catholic is a man-worshipping erroneous cult, to assign holiness to items).
Lord Jesus is all the words of the Bible (John 1:1). Not the language words in Arabic, or English, or Persian, or any language, because the words are written differently in all those languages. Rather, Lord Jesus is all the meanings of the Bible, which are the same, though it can be written in different languages. This is what is meant by the Word of God, the meaning that God wants to convey.
Lord Jesus wants to dwell in your heart, by you memorizing and understanding all the Word of God. The Bible is God Himself, written into words. (make sure you have a correctly translated version, but any translation from before 1900 is probably accurate).
The Word of God is a mirror, through it you see not your material face (your physical resemblance), but God’s spiritual face (God’s spiritual resemblance: holiness, truth, purity).
Also, if you look as often as you can into this spiritual mirror, and look at God’s face, you will also become more and more resembling God, that is, you will acquire more holiness, truth, and purity.
But we all, with open face looking at, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
II Corinthians 3:18
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what resemblance of man he was*.
But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Jacob (“James” in English) 1:22-25
* that is, God created humans without sin, in the beginning. God created humans in His own image (Genesis 1:27), that is, God created humans in his own resemblance: not a material resemblance, but a spiritual resemblance (holiness, truth, purity).
So when we look into the Bible, we look at what we are supposed to resemble, what we have the duty to become, in our hearts and minds.
Revelations 19:10, I Corinthians 13:2 (or, the different between Old Testament prophets, and Corinthian prophets)
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelations 19:10
So who had the spirit of prophecy?
- the Old Testament prophets (Samuel, Elijah, Job/Yob, David … Isaiah through Malachi)
- John the Baptist
- Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit
- 12 apostles and the writers of the New Testament (I Corinthians 14:37)
The spirit of prophecy writes Scripture.
Scripture = Word of God = Christ = foundation of the faith (Ephesians 2:20, II Peter 3:2)
All these people are now in the Spirit, in heaven. The last apostle on earth was Yohanan (John), and probably died before 100 AD.
Other than those people, anyone else can only have the gift of prophecy.
The spirit of prophecy writes Scriptures.
The gift of prophecy is a gift of understanding the Scriptures and having knowledge about Christ.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
I Corinthians 13:2
This is the difference between Old Testament prophets
(Christ Himself speaking:) For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. Matthew 11:13
and the Corinthian prophets.
For this reason, the foundation prophets of Ephesians 2:20 can only be the Old Testament prophets.
No person now alive can claim they are “foundation prophets”, because the foundation of the faith is the Scriptures, and the prophets who wrote Scriptures were the Old Testament prophets (with spirit of prophecy), not the Corinthian prophets (mere gift of prophecy).
So Charles Peter Wagner has been terribly wrong in “new apostolic reformation” which does not serve Christ, but is a man-exalting deception. He has been trying to assign modern people as the “foundation of the faith”.
To make it even clearer, here are all the spirits and Spirits of God mentioned in the Word:
So here are the spirits of God:
- Spirit of God the Father (YWHW), written LORD in KJV-bible
Matthew 10:20 - Spirit of Christ the Son (Yeshua/Joshua), written Lord in KJV-bible
Acts of Apostles 8:39 - Spirit of truth, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost
John 15:26- gift of word of wisdom (I Corinthians 12:8)
- gift of word of knowledge
- gift of faith (I Corinthians 12:9)
- gifts of healing
- gift of working miracles (I Corinthians 12:10)
- gift of prophecy (I Corinthians 12:10, I Corinthians 13:2)
- gift of discerning spirits
- gift of tongues (I Corinthians 12:10, Acts of Apostles 2:4)
- gift of interpretation of tongues
- Spirit of adoption as sons of God (and no more of a human father. Romans 8:15
Galatians 4:6 - spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him:
(Ephesians 1:17) - spirit of glory – when persecuted
I Peter 4:13-14 - spirit of love, power and a sound (correct) mind
II Timothy 1:7 - spirit of prophecy
Revelations 19:10 - spirit of meekness
Galatians 6:1 - spirit of counsel and might
Isaiah 11:2 - spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD
Isaiah 11:2 - spirit of grace and supplications
Zechariah 12:10 - spirit of holiness
Romans 1:4 - spirit of (inner-holiness) discipline
Wisdom 1:5 - spirit of judgment and spirit of burning
(these are only for Christ)
(if Christians judge, we are to use spirit of meekness, John 7:24, Galatians 6:1)
Isaiah 4:4
Isaiah 28:5-6
John 21:6, 21:11 (Each congregation of 153 needs 7 pastors: 2 for each group of 50, and 1 elder pastor)
And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
John 21:6, 21:11
The net is are the standards of holiness. If the net breaks, then the standards of holiness are loosened, and the fish go back to living in their former ways.
The waters are the ways of the world and the unclean spirits of this world (self-exaltation/desire to show-off; covetousness and greed; nationalism/patriotism – a combination of self-exaltation and covetousness; lust; fear of man; fear of death; forgetfulness about God). Out of the waters rises the anti-Christ (Revelations 13:1, Revelations 17:15, I Timothy 6:9 “drown men in destruction and perdition”)
The shore is nearness-of-heart with Jesus Christ, and also living away from those evil spirits. Those who live in the water, their natural affinity is to live in those evil unclean spirits. Those who live on the shore, their natural affinity is to live with Christ, apart from the unclean spirits (and unclean thoughts).
Such is the carnal nature and the Spirit.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Galatians 5:17For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:6-8No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
[and God later adds in Galatians: You cannot serve both your flesh and Holy Spirit, you have to choose one. You have to choose each morning.]
Matthew 6:24For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but [made alive] by the Spirit
I Peter 3:18
So also each morning, you must pray to God to put to death your carnal nature, so that you live in the Spirit.
Your carnal nature may try to regain on you during the day, and usually regain on you during a sleep, because you weren’t thinking about God for several hours. Your carnal nature also regain on you if you haven’t memorized much Bible, cease to think about God at any moment, have filthy thoughts, look at filthy things, or have conversations with filthy-minded people, or disobey God in other ways.
153 is the maximum number of people that 7 pastors can pull to take their hearts out of the filthy spirits, and get all of them near to Christ.
A congregation of 153 needs 7 pastors.
That’s the maximum number of people for 7, without the net breaking (the godliness standards getting loose).
The people should be put into groups of 50.
For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.
Luke 9:14
And there should be 2 pastors per group of 50.
And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;
Mark 6:7
This means that 50 Christians need 2 junior pastors, and 1 elder pastor.
100 Christians need 4 junior pastors, and 1 elder pastor.
150 Christians need 6 junior pastors, and 1 elder pastor. (and the meetings should be 50 people only, at separate times. Else people aren’t close to one another, and there is also danger of crowd-exaltation for the speaker, merely from standing in front of a lot of people. The Early Church teachers avoided this corruption, because they could never meet openly, and the maximum number of people to put into a home was probably 50 at a time.)
There are ignorant doctrines in American about “church growth”, and they aren’t concerned with growing the heart/minds of the people.
They only want to grow numbers of people, and not for God, but for the pastor to show-off.
The Word of God never commands us to grow the number of people (except that God Himself does it). Rather, we are to grow in these things:
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Colossians 1:10But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
II Peter 3:18 (people only know grace through knowing truth, Colossians 1:6, so “grow in grace” still refers to “grow in knowledge of the Word of God”)We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is [appropriate], because that your faith grows exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
II Thessalonians 1:3And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11
Concerning growth: people should seek to be near God, and memorize the Word of God. God Himself will give the increase:
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
1 Corinthians 3:6-7
It’s not Christians who convert people. Christians upgrade their hearts/minds in God, and they speak about Christ to other people (the best thing in difficult countries, is to give out Bibles and written sermons, and let Holy Spirit Himself make the results happen).
There is no human eloquence that helps.
And seminaries in America greatly err in researching salesman-speech methods, having forgotten about God. Another reason to not go to seminary, but memorize the entire Bible and read the wisest teachers (Thomas Manton, Martin Luther, Jerome, Augustine).
It’s God Himself who converts people.
where there is a saying that 100 people is a threshhold that is difficult to get over. In American churches, they don’t try to learn from Early Church, they only put one pastor over all the people, and they also don’t sub-divide people into groups of 50.
So for 153 Christians, that makes 6 junior pastors and 1 elder pastor.
The chief pastor is always God/Christ. Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my pastor.
Christ = the Scriptures, because Christ = the Word of God.
So as Christ is the LORD, so is the Scriptures also in the position of LORD, over each Christian, including pastors.
Pastors need not go to seminary, because none of the best Christians went to seminary (Christ’s 12 disciples, the 72 disciples, then the Early Church Christians of 33 AD – 311 AD). Jerome and Augustine came after that.
They memorized the entire Bible, and they prayed every day. Holy Spirit taught them through the Scriptures.
They also were taught by the wisest teachers among Christians:
I recommend Jerome, Augustine
Their Bible commentaries are among the best treasures of the Church.
Martin Luther, and Thomas Manton (best of Protestants)
note: Calvinism is wrong.
Adding:
in Acts of Apostles 1:15 and 2:41, there are 120 pastors and 3000 Christians. First the 120 pastors made their spiritual lives ready, they were one heart with Jesus Christ (not merely one heart among themselves), then the LORD God gave them increase.
3000 = 60 groups of 50
120 = 60 groups of 2
Again, we see that God wants 2 pastors per every 50 Christian.
This shows that indeed, it is better to memorize the Bible and get taught by the Holy Spirit, than go to seminary, and get taught wrong.
All the best Christians (the Early Church Christians) did not go to seminary, but memorized the Bible and prayed, and were taught by the Holy Spirit.
Why the Bible must get memorized
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the [the heart-armor] of righteousness;
…
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Ephesians 6:14, 6:16
We know from Peter that God is telling us to gird the loins of our mind with the truth (pages of memorized Bible):
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
I Peter 1:13
If a Christian sin, then they drop the shield of faith, lose righteousness, so their heart is exposed to entry by demonic spirits.
If there is Word of God dwelling inside the heart:
… the Word of God is not bound (cannot get bound)
II Timothy 2:9
So demons can’t bind the Word of God, and can’t take over the heart.
But if there is no Word of God dwelling inside the heart:
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
Matthew 12:43-45
So memorize the Bible, and make sure there is Word of God dwelling in your heart.
Mark 4:36 (or, who is your main teacher?)
And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
Mark 4:36
As previously stated by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:6, 16:11-12, Mark 4:34), God only speaks in parables. Thus, the entire Bible is made of parables, and refers to the heavenly world as the main meaning, merely using vocabulary from this world.
The ships are churches.
Jesus Christ has a direct congregation of spirits in heaven
(Hebrews 12:22 – end)
Those who worship Jesus Christ directly, by memorizing His Word (all the Bible) and by depending on the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:17) (or, supper with Him, all the Bible = bread, the wine = Holy Spirit I Corinthians 12:13, Matthew 26:26-27), these are directly in the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which is the entire Bible, Jesus Christ’s heart and mind written out in words.
Those who depend on a human Christian teacher, or on the particular doctrines of a denomination, or on obeying a human pastor or obeying a church on earth, these are them who are following Jesus on a ship led by men.
If the men in it steer the ship well, then they follow Jesus to destination, which is Heaven.
If the men in it steer the ship wrong (if the pastor himself becomes ungodly, or get an evil conscience where he wants to get himself admired, rather than get Jesus admired – such are most American pastors, and most pastors of large congregations, they become that way), then they shipwreck their faith (I Timothy 1:19)
and the congregation live ungodly (live = how they live every day, not merely on Sunday), and they drown themselves in the torrents of lust and evil thoughts (I Timothy6:9).
So people ought not to depend on their human pastor so much.
But look at Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my Pastor”.
God is the main pastor, and in every Christian’s life, God is always the chief pastor/shepherd.
Have Christian respect for the human pastor, but beware, every human can get corrupted, especially if you praise him or give attention.
People ought to have Jesus Christ as their main teacher, and listen to human pastor only if the human pastor is godly, and teach according to Jesus.
But never have a human pastor as your main teacher, or the particular doctrines of a denomination.
You should memorize the entire Bible (provided, it’s an accurate translation. In English, it’s KJV), pray with Holy Spirit, and then you are directly taught by Jesus.
The difference between a mere follower of Jesus Christ, and a disciple of Jesus Christ.
A disciple of Jesus Christ memorizes the Bible, pray to God often in a day, and has Jesus Christ as the main teacher. A disciple of Jesus Christ can listen or read other teachers, but he knows Jesus Christ is always the chief pastor (Psalm 23:1), and by the Holy Spirit, he can notice errors in human teaching, so he doesn’t blindly follow any human teacher, but his main teacher is Christ (or, the Scriptures).
A follower of Jesus Christ has faith in Christ, but hasn’t yet learned to get near to Christ, and depends on a human teacher more than directly depending on Christ.
Psalm 135:7 and the Spirit(s) of God
He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.
Psalm 135:7
We know that in this world, a human life (in God’s eye) is merely a puff of vapor:
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
James 4:14
Thus, saintly people in God’s world (in heaven), exist in much greater dimensions than we in this world.
By this, we also know that Psalm 135:7 is a parable.
We must have the mind of Christ:
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
I Corinthians 2:16
and realize that it’s a parable, such as Jesus Christ demonstrated:
Then Jesus said unto them: “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees”
Matthew 16:6
How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Matthew 6:11-12
But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
Mark 4:34
We know that the entire Bible is the Word of God.
Thus, the entire Bible is spoken by God/Christ. Thus, the entire Bible is made of parables just like how Jesus demonstrated with Matthew 16:6, and he rebuked his disciples when they took his words only as if they were describing this world, and didn’t think into God’s spiritual world. And the Bible also said that “without a parable, Christ did not speak”, and that when his disciples were alone with Him (that is, not thinking together with the multitude, but thinking in resemblance to how Jesus thinks), Christ explained the meanings to his disciples.
Thus, we know that Psalm 137:5, like any other parts of the Word of God, is a parable that is not merely describing things of this world, but refers to greater things in God’s world, in heaven.
Notice, “wind out of his treasuries”. So these are not mere winds, these are spirits.
We know that there are 4 winds (from God) upon the great ocean (all the spirits of this world):
Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
Daniel 7:2
And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
Mark 13:27
So there are 4 spirits above the ocean (the world, and the unbelievers are fishes swimming in it).
But we also know that there are 7 spirits of God. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, … Revelation 3:1
I am not quite sure whether there are 7 spirits of God in total, and these subdivide (I Corinthians 12:11), or there are 7 spirits with God Himself (as parts within Him), and He also has more in his treasuries.
So here are the spirits of God:
- Spirit of God the Father (YWHW),
written “Spirit of the LORD” in KJV-bibleBut beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; *
And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Matthew 10:20* (Men will speak evil against you in their churches.
If a church loves the prestige among people more than holiness in the Lord, then people in that church may speak evil against true servants of the Lord, either because they are jealous, or because by merely living in holiness, you remind them of their sinfulness, you remind them of God’s existence and of eternal judgment, and they hate to be reminded of God.
And there are some people who hate holiness, so that if they are not living in holiness, then they wish to also to pollute other people’s holy lives, and bring down other people from holiness, so that they could pretend that there is no better way of living life. All this is because they do not want to repent from their sins, nor do they ask God for help, in giving them desire to repent.) - Spirit of Christ the Son (Yeshua/Joshua),
written “Spirit of the Lord” in KJV-bibleAnd when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
Acts of Apostles 8:39 - spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him:
[pray] That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: (Ephesians 1:17)
- spirit of glory – when persecuted
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. I Peter 4:13-14
- spirit of love, power and a sound (correct) mind
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7)
- Spirit of truth
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: John 15:26
- spirit of meekness
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Galatians 6:1 - Spirit of adoption as sons of God (and no more of a human father. The disciples closest to Jesus had no family names. Their family name is actually “son of God”, or “ben Yehovah” in Hebrew, “bin Allaha” in Arabic, “Yehovahsen” in Nordic, “Yehovahson” in English, and similarly in any other language. Such is with all Christians, those who realize it. Judas Iscariot was the only one who was attached to his earthly family name, and he was the one who betrayed Jesus. But those people who were closest to Jesus, they had no family name of the earth: Nathanael of Cana, Simon(Peter), Thomas, John 21:2 Simon, Andrew, John, Philip, Thomas, Matthew, Lebbeus/Thaddeus, Simon Matthew 10:2-3)
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Romans 8:15
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father
Galatians 4:6 - spirit of counsel and might
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD
Isaiah 11:2 - spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD
Isaiah 11:2 - spirit of holiness
And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
Romans 1:4 - spirit of grace and supplications
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Zechariah 12:10 - spirit of (holiness-of-thoughts) discipline
For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in.
Wisdom 1:5(this spirit, those who are highly advanced in nearness-to-God will eventually acquire, it’s the spirit with whom you are able to filter all unclean and daydreaming-distracting thoughts, so as to only have holy thoughts of God, or Word of God.
It’s not easy and probably takes years of memorizing the Bible, and practicing purity and virtues, to acquire and keep.)
(Wisdom is the only book that is not included in English-KJV, but it is a valid book, the only one of such a situation. None of the other books in Apocrypha are valid.
Book of Wisdom is valid because all the wisest Christians Augustine to Jerome to Martin Luther to Thomas Manton read it, and quoted from it.) - spirit of prophecy
(as much as I know, I think this spirit is only for Jesus Christ, and those who helped God write Scriptures: Moses and Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles, and Luke, Mark, James, Jude.)And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelations 19:10
–
There are also spirits (winds) of this world
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
Matthew 8:26
There are also spirits (winds) of incorrect doctrine:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Ephesians 4:14
Of the spirits of this world, and spirits of incorrect doctrine, there are:
- spirit of bondage to fear
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:15
What is the difference between “spirit of bondage to fear”, and the good spirit “spirit of fear of God”?
The spirit of bondage to fear is the fear of this world:
fear of death
fear of people (fear of displeasing people, and as a result, share in their evildoing to please them)The fear of God is reverence towards God, with love of God.
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. Psalm 19:9 - spirit of error
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. I John 4:6
- spirit of antichrist
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. I John 4:3
- spirit of the world
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. I Corinthians 2:12
- spirit of jealousy
Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. Numbers 5:30
(jealousy is self-based, based on importance of self.
but instead, the man ought to have life based on God, and rebuke sin based on love-of-holiness: spirit of love, power and a sound mind, and spirit of meekness, rather than jealousy, which merely thinks of self, and not of God.
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Colossians 3:14
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up I Corinthians 3:14
charity = not the current English meaning, merely handing some extra surplus to refugees, but charity means the meaning in 1611 English, when it meant “highest love”
English language (the mind of English-speakers) has degraded and become more immoral since 1611, when the English Bible (king james version) was translated. - spirit of infirmity
And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. Luke 13:11
- spirit of whoredom
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
Hosea 4:14 - spirit of divination
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying
Acts 16:16 - spirit of unclean devil
And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
Saying, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.”
Luke 4:33-34 - spirit of deep sleep, slumber
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
Isaiah 29:10
(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear) unto this day.
Romans 11:8
–
Then there is spirit of heaviness
( I would put this one with the good spirits, according to the word of God)
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Isaiah 61:3
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
Ecclesiaste (Qoheleh) 7:4
The Bible is first written for spirits, then for men of flesh. So the first meaning of the Bible is always the spirit-meaning.
That is, the spirits in Heaven, who are only spirits, they also read the Bible, and they think in spirit-thinking, not in flesh-thinking.
And we Christians must also think in spirit-thinking, think like God, like Holy Spirit.
From the view of spirits, their house is a heart/mind, then they dwell in a house of bricks and stone.
But humans think of houses only as those of brick and stone. Any person reading the Bible need to realize that the first meaning of “house” is always heart/mind, a house for a spirit dwelling in there.
Then you understand the Word of God, as God wants you to know.
So in Ecclesiaste/Qoheleh 7:4, the Word of God is not telling you to go live in a brick-and-stone house of mourning, but that your heart/mind should mourn for sin, and repent for your own distance from God, and also mourn for how many people live in evil and ignorance, and know not God.
Total opposite of atheist Psychology and atheist positive thinking, which say “let us eat and drink (and get merry), for tomorrow we die (and life is only material life of this world)”. Such people are foolish, and deny God. They also deny the need to mourn, seeing it as the thing to avoid. They also do not understand holiness, because they deny the existence of God.
).
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4
Draw nigh (near) to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
James 4:8-10
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Isaiah 57:15
The One God (plus two parts within Him) is equal in substance, but the parts are not equal in status
God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Spirit of truth)
are not three repetitions of the same, or are these three equally-great among themselves.
There is no Word of God that confirms this view, that they are equally-great among themselves.
Rather, God the Father is the greatest.
Then God the Son is submitted to the Father.
And the Holy Spirit is the spirit of/from both. Or, the Holy Spirit is a component of God the Father, and a component of God the Son.
I have the Word of God to support me in this, whereas people who say “they are equally-great among themselves”, merely read it somewhere, but do not have the Word of God as support.
First, I Corinthians 15:27-28
[27] For he (Father YHWH) hath put all things under his feet (Christ’s feet). But when he saith, all things are put under him (Christ), it is manifest that he (Father YHWH) is excepted, which did put all things under him (Christ).
[28] And when all things shall be subdued unto him (Christ), then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him (Father YHWH) that put all things under him (Christ), that God may be all in all.
This establishes that Yeshua and YHWH are not the same person repeated twice, but rather YHWH is the greater, and Yeshua is subjected to Him.
Furthermore:
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
John 14:20
Both of these combined establishes Yeshua as a sub-component of God YHWH.
And since Yeshua is a component-part of God YHWH, He is also of the same substance/content as God YHWH. Hence He (Yeshua) says:
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
John 14:11
About the Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit is the finger of God.
There are 7 Holy Spirits (each one of them can subdivide into many more, as He likes), so God YHWH has 7 fingers, and these are the Holy Spirit(s).
But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come to you.
Matthew 12:28
exact same conversation, and the same saying, but made more specific:
But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, then the kingdom of God is come upon you.
Luke 11:20
Thus, all this establishes that Jesus Christ is a component of YHWH, and subject to Him, and Holy Spirit (s) consists of 7 fingers of YHWH, and also subject to Him.
For this reason, the Word of God can unashamedly say:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD
Deuteronomy 6:4
However, I think the original text in Hebrew is (transliterated in Latin alphabet):
Shema O Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad.
Hear O Israel, LORD God (is) our, LORD is one.
The Word of God proclaims that God is one God.
This is because YHWH is one, and within YHWH, there are the components:
Jesus Christ, and also seven Holy Spirits.
What other components there are, is not revealed, but will get revealed to those of us who endure (in sincere faith and love of Him, pure living, and diligent godliness, and humility) till the end of the natural-life-on-earth (Matthew 10:22).
Why would Luke, from the same speech of Jesus, hear a higher knowledge than Matthew? Because Luke is more cultivated in heavenly understanding, he has more heavenly wisdom, so the Gospel of Luke is higher in wisdom (and a more advanced expression from God) than the Gospel of Matthew.
Jesus Christ would say something, but depending on the hearer’s spiritual cultivation (how purified is his heart/mind, and how much holy wisdom he has obtained from God), if the hearer is wiser then he will hear greater and better learnings. If the hearer is less wise, then he will not learn as much.
Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you, and unto you who hear shall more be given.
[more wisdom/understanding]
For he who has, to him shall be given, and he who has not, from him shall be taken even what he has.
Mark 4:24
For this reason, when you read the Bible commentaries of Early Church elders: Jerome and Augustine, you would notice that from the same words of God, they hear (understand) more learning than we do, because we are less cultivated in heavenly wisdom, but they spent years cultivating heavenly wisdom (James 1:5), despising earthly wisdom (James 3:14-16, II Corinthians 4:2, I Thessalonians 2:3-6, I Corinthians 1:22) and diligent to memorize the entire Bible (Proverbs 2:1-22).
Only one book of Origen is usable for reading, that’s his “Commentary on Matthew”. His other books are wrong.
Mark 11:22-24 and the fallacy of the “word of faith” wrong doctrine (and a comment about the evil of images)
[22] And Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in God.
[23] For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he said.
[24] Therefore I say unto you, Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Mark 11:22-24
There is a wrong doctrine invented recently (after 1960s)
(here are important years for the disappearance of Christian faith among many people:
1453 – Constantinople falls. The start of pagan “Renaissance” and massive production of paintings (images), which were not done before 1453. The very motivation of making those images was to imitate the pagan Romans (Roman Empire before 311 AD) and pagan Greeks (Greeks before Jesus Christ, 1 AD). Most of those paintings were blasphemous (portraying Christ with long hair I Corinthians 11:14), or
1900 – the invention of movies (moving images, displayed)
1960s – the popularization of television (moving images inside people’s homes, displayed)
1990 – the popularization of computers and internet (images than can be created and controlled by people)
2000 – the popularization of fast-speed internet connection
(videogames, pornography)
– the popularization of thin hand-carried computers: laptops
(so images can get accessed everywhere, not merely inside homes)
2005 ? – the popularization of handheld cellphones
2007-2010 I have yet to know what technology is being used
So images went from
only in a few rich people’s homes (paintings, 1453)
to accessible to common people in theaters (movies, 1900)
to accessible to each common person’s home (television, 1960)
to accessible and controllable in each common person’s home (internet and computer images, 1990 – 2000)
to accessible and controllable everywhere a laptop is carried (2000)
to accessible even on cellphones (2005)
to get displayed in people’s skulls without a handheld device (2007-2010)
and I know that sometime in this century, something so very ungodly will get invented under the guise of entertainment, it will be more ungodly than anything else before it. And it will make the raising of godly Christian kids nearly impossible, if they have access to entertainment.
Each and every time images became added into people’s lives, there was less Christian faith.
For example, hymns were written between 33 AD and 1900 AD. But after 1900, Christians lost the ability to write hymns, or godly hymns. Most of the hymns are from Martin Luther till 1900.
Between 1453 and 1900, the godliness of societies in traditionally-Christian populations remained about the same, only slightly decreased.
After 1900, each generation of Americans became somewhat more perverted than the previous.
After 1960, the downfall in perversion between each generation became much, and severe.
The American Christians became more and more perverted between 1960 and 2010. Many of the pastors became blind and turned away from Christ, seeking to make a name for themselves and not seeking to get Jesus Christ admired.
To measure whether a person loves Jesus Christ: if the person enjoys memorizing the Bible, he loves Christ. Otherwise, he doesn’t. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. So whoever loves Jesus Christ would also love memorizing the Bible, and know it’s the best spending of time and effort.
)
Continuing with the writing about Mark 11:22-24
Whoever reads the Word of God must realize that mountains represent heights of spiritual understanding and wisdom towards God.
Or, if in the Old Testament there are mountains (or high places) that were specialized for evildoing, that’s because they are heights of evil spiritual learnings. For example, if a person is advanced in the studying of Capitalism (covetousness), or in the studying of Psychology (Freud/Jung-demon), or in the studying of Marxism (false gospel), or in the studying of another religion, they have attained heights of evil with evil spirits.
Or you could even consider the mountain to be the equivalently accumulated knowledge/wisdom required in the heart/mind of a person. Whoever attains that much knowledge/wisdom in their heart/mind, would also be able to climb an equivalently-high mountain.
Do notice that in Matthew 5, Jesus Christ went to a mountain of godly knowledge, and only his disciples were able to climb to as much understanding as He had. The unlearned people stayed in the plains and were not yet able to understand that high.
And what He taught in Matthew 5 – Matthew 7, that was the mountain, or part of the mountain that He was on (spiritual understanding).
Do notice that Jesus Christ spoke Mark 11:22-24 while standing on Mount Olive. By this time, only the 12 disciples were able to climb with Him to reach there, even the 72 didn’t go that high.
And also, by this time, I think all his disciples (except one?) memorized all the Scriptures.
Sermon, Homily, Litany, and the use of music instruments
The Early Church (33 AD – 311 AD) was so high in the understanding of God, and were so truly dedicated to the LORD, that their enjoyment was in thinking about the Word of God, and speaking about it.
The Early Church continued from 311 AD till 800 AD, but some writers used the word “catholic Church”, or “universal” church. From 33 AD till 800 AD, the Christians were one group (as far as I know), and they remained godly, although the time of highest wisdom and holiest teachers were from 33 AD till 311 AD.
During the dark ages of Roman Catholic evildoings (800 AD – even 1600s AD), the Christian way of life was greatly hindered in the lands occupied by the Catholic Church (from Spain till the borders of Germany, also Italy and Croatia), because the Catholic Church’s objective even from the start was to gain prestige, wealth and admiration of men in this world (the very reason the crowds wanted to put away Jesus Christ, and instead choose Bar-Abbas the man who sought glory of this world).
So they who are born of the flesh (who seek to get admired by men in this world) persecuted they who are born of the Spirit (who seek to get commended by God in heaven, and often hated in this world).
In 1504, Martin Luther started the Protestant Church, and was used by God to get people back to godliness.
However, even though the Protestant Church made much of a return to godliness, it never attained (yet) the high devotion and wisdom of God as the Early Church, when they really thought about God all day.
So that from the start of the Protestant Church (1504 AD – now), there were only sermons.
But in the Early Church, they were so advanced in God-learning, there were several types of sermons: sermon, homily, and litany.
Unfortunately, I no longer remember the Early Church definition of those. I read it in an introduction, contained within a book of Augustine’s commentary on the Gospel of John.
Sermon
Homilie
Litany
To the limit of my memory, I think
sermon = preached on a topic, referring to Bible in many different places
homily = detailed explanation of one continuous Bible chapter or part, going line by line. Homily consists of speaking and commentary consists of writing, other than that, they are the same thing.
litany = short speeches (I am not sure)
Within that introduction, it was also mentioned that in the Early Church, new Christians had to attend readings-and-explanations about the Old Testament, chapter by chapter, until they have gone through all the books of the Old Testament. It takes about three years. Only then are they allowed to get baptized.
With that type of education, this is why the Early Church Christians were so edified in heart-and-mind in understanding of God and the Word of God, and how much they disregarded all the temptations and difficulties in this world.
Necessarily, these were taught by the Apostles or by the personal students of the Apostles. Even around the year 300s AD, this type of Church was maintained. But I think between 300 and 800 AD, some things were starting to get forgotten.
For instance, the Lord Jesus Christ did not use music instruments (Mark 14:16). We can be certain that He knows how to best worship God. The Apostles also did not use music instrument in the Early Church, and taught the successive generations.
But, music instruments were added into a church in the year 666 AD.
They were quickly removed.
But they crept in after some decades or centuries, especially after the initial church became split in 800, into cleaner Orthodox and perversely-covetous Roman Catholic. By the year 1000 AD, music instruments were use in some Roman Catholic churches, and more were added. The Orthodox seemingly retained the Early Church quality of no music instruments.
Early during the Protestant Church (1504 – now), there was a good putting away of ungodly traditions, and between 1504 and 1600s, music instruments were refused in Protestant Churches. But they started creeping in by later centuries, so that by now most people forgot that the pure Christian way is to sing without music instruments.
In the United States, only Primitive Baptist churches still remember, and they avoid music instruments. They use the word “Primitive” to refer to the Early Church of 33 AD – 311 AD.
Those who want a good example of how songs should be sung in church should imitate the example of these:
http://www.letgodbetrue.com/worship/songs/index.htm
http://www.friendshippbc.org/ (then click on Hymns)
Voice-only and every person participates.
Lyrics to (nearly) all these songs can be found at
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/
(scroll slightly, and you will see the 26 alphabetic letters, each contain a list of hymns.
Note: only those song with words/lyrics written before 1900, only those are good songs. It doesn’t matter when the music was written. It matters when the words/lyrics were written.
Songs before 1900 were written with correct doctrine and instructed unto righteousness.
Songs after 1900 were written with shallower words, and songs after 1960 – God forbid – were written with attempt to provoke feelings, but often contained errors of doctrine.
)
Luke 9:14, 9:16; Matthew 14:19
Many Christians only read the gospel of Matthew, and neglect the gospels of Mark and Luke, thinking that they are mere repetitions. They are not. If you read First and Second Chronicles and First and Second Kings, you would notice that there are different details, and because these details are different, you notice them.
Similarly, if you read the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and compare, you would notice that there are different details. And because these details are different, that’s how you notice them all the more. If God really repeated the same thing three times (with all details combined), then you wouldn’t notice it as much. But God put different details in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and these different details are very important things that God wants the Christians to notice.
In Luke 9:14, Luke 9:16, and Matthew 14:19
For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.
Luke 9:14
Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.
Luke 9:16
(may I add that the action of sitting down is referring to the heart and mind sitting down and settling down in front of Jesus Christ. I do think that in the Early Church – and nearer-to-God church – they often stood, or all sat on the floor, as is common in Middle Eastern homes, so it’s not necessary to have chairs at all, especially when in our times chair-sitting remind of movie theaters where the chair-sitters don’t participate, but merely spectate as tourists)
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
Matthew 14:19
Christ had 12 disciples and also 72 other disciples.
That’s nearly a hundred.
Christ mostly taught and trained these disciples, and then they passed on the teachings to congregations of 50.
Christ taught from a mountain of spiritual knowledge, the height of spiritual understanding. Only his disciples, those who were trained by him in detail, were able to also climb this height of spiritual understanding. Most of the people remained off the mountain, not have the spiritual strength or knowledge to reach the same, they don’t have the understanding necessary to directly receive high teachings from Christ. So Christ taught his disciples (12 and also 72), and then his disciples taught the multitude.
So in a church of 5000 people, there ought to be 100 junior pastors/shepherds (same word). The chief pastor is God (Psalm 23:1). Then there is the senior pastor, who mostly train and teaches the junior pastors. And each junior pastor teaches a congregation of 50.
The congregation size ought to remain 50 in each congregation.
This saves the need for a building, because a congregation of 50 can meet in nearly any home.
And a senior pastor can truly instruct upon people when he is only teaching 100. Congregations of 50 also very much prevent the “tourist” effect, which is common in American churches that seek to pack many people in one building, where mutual love is not practiced, because most people are strangers.
When junior pastors are ready, the senior pastor can send them out to make larger churches, and make Christians who have purified-and-matured to become junior pastors.
Proverbs 27:17, 27:19
People’s faces in front of God are not those of the physical body, and what people look like in front of God are not their physical shapes. Instead, the summaries of the intents and attitudes of the heart and all the thoughts and understandings of the mind, appear as a spiritual face in front of the LORD. That is what people look like in front of God.
The more a person’s heart and mind resemble God (that is, memorize the Word of God, all of it, and follow the instructions), the more the person’s face (in the Spirit world) is transformed to resembles God, and the more the person is familiar to God.
The more a person’s heart and mind have sin and impure thoughts/feelings in them, the more the person’s face (in the Spirit world) is transformed to resemble those of devils, and the more acquainted the person is towards evil thoughts, and the heart/mind of the Devil himself.
Whoever memorizes all of the Word of God (from Genesis to Revelation, and it’s possible to accomplish that with a few years), acquires much resemblance with God.
Of course, having remembered, you must follow the instructions. Then you are clean-hearted and same-minded with the LORD, and you resemble God as much as possible (and that is your best life possible, to memorize all the Bible and follow it).
(note: if you memorize in English, you must only use 1611 edition, KJV, do not use any other version, even NKJV is perverted).
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17
As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
Proverbs 27:19
The Bible is a holy book full of spirits, and the world of spirits (of Holy Spirit and spirits of saintly men in heaven) is the greater world, this material world is the lesser world (exceedingly less, like a small mound of dirt compared to a whole universe).
God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and when God thinks, He first thinks in Spiritual world, then He thinks about this smaller world of material things. So for nearly every part of the Word of God, whenever there is talking about this material world, there must (nearly always) be a ever greater meaning in the spiritual world. Any reference to this material world is more immediately understood, but it’s also the lesser meaning. For example, “eat” is immediately understood as referring to intaking food in this material world, but actually, God primarily thinks of “eat” as intaking holy knowledge and wisdom into the heart/mind and Spirit. And nearly all the “eat” in the Word of God does actually refer to that, it just happens that God uses the situations of this material world as metaphors to describe the spiritual world.
So that “water” mostly refers to spirit, in the greater world of spirits, where there are streams of spirit instead of streams of water. We know that, because Christ said that He is the living water (John 4:10, 4:14).
Thus, in Genesis 1:2, “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” = “the Spirit of God moved upon the surface of many spirits”. And in Revelations 13, the anti-Christ beast rise out of oceans; the oceans are described in Revelations 17:15 as many unbelieving spirits among the many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.
Continuing with the commentary about the Proverbs 27:17, 27:19,
We already know from the Word of God that “water” refers to spirit, so “in water” = in the spiritual realm.
Thus, we also know that as far as God (Yehovah) is concerned, what people look like is not the face of their physical body, nor their physical shape, but instead the appearance of their heart/mind in the spiritual realm, that is “the face” or “the countenance” of the person, as God sees it everyday.
For God is not a man, that His ways (perspectives and functioning) would resemble those of humanity.
Thus, the heart and the mind of a man, if the man lives godly (with a clean heart, and the mind of Christ, with much of the Word of God memorized), sharpens the heart and mind of his friend.
What does sharpening refers to? Probably it refers to the spiritual world where the face of his friend is getting transformed to more resemble God. This means the heart and mind is getting transformed to more resemble how God thinks and how God feels about everything.
How does the heart/mind of a man affect that of his friend?
Whenever you spend time with a person or accept communication from a person, you are getting affected or transformed by that person.
When you spend time or accept communication from people, then you are communing (yes, same as taking communion) your heart and mind with that person. In communion, you commune your heart and mind with the heart/mind of the LORD. But you do the same with people you spend time (or conversation) with.
If you spend much time with people of filthy mind (who will speak filthy words, steer your mind towards filthy thoughts, even add filth to any Bible they talk about and demonize the Word of God), then your mind gets “marinated” with the filth of their minds, and your mind becomes more like theirs. Your heart also becomes more and more filthy, becoming more like theirs. And since actions come from the intents and attitudes of heart/mind, you will also start talking and behaving more like them.
For this reason, God says to cut off communications when you start noticing that people’s mind are filthy, or that they are not sincere towards God, or that they think evil. You are to avoid getting influenced by such people.
Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceive not in him the lips of knowledge. Proverbs 14:7
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding. Proverbs 9:6
He that walks with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed [by God]. Proverbs 13:20He that hides hatred with lying lips, and he that utters a slander, is a fool. Proverbs 10:18
….. the folly of fools is deceit Proverbs 14:8
Fools make a mock at sin ….. Proverbs 14:9
He that is soon angry deals foolishly Proverbs 14:17
A fool has no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself. Proverbs 18:2
(All psychologists are fools, and you are to cut off interaction with them)He that trusts in his own heart is a fool …..
Proverbs 28:26
(those who take any desire of their heart, and call it a “need”, and then prioritize their life to satisfy “needs”, they are fools.)Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words
Proverbs 23:9
(don’t waste time rebuking people who are obviously foolish, rather spend time instructing people who are willing to learn, seeing that each person has limited time)The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.
Proverbs 24:9
(don’t interact with fools, or look at the words/images produced by them, lest your mind become like theirs, and you sin)It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. Proverbs 10:23
He that devises to do evil shall be called a mischievous person. Proverbs 24:8
For their hearts studie destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. Proverbs 24:2
Instead, you are to commune your heart and your mind with those who are of pure heart/mind, those who think holy thoughts. First of all, such a person is God.
If most of your intaking of words consists of viewing/hearing corrupt communications (words, images, sounds) made by filthy minds and wicked hearts, then your heart/mind will get “marinated” into becoming filthy and wicked.
If most of your intaking of words consists of viewing/hearing godly and clean messages from God or godly teachers (there are few in these times, most of them are from Puritan times and medieval times and Early Church), then your heart/mind will also become like God’s heart/mind.
God speaks in the Scriptures (Genesis to Revelations).
Make sure your own language-use is not corrupt. For instance, if you read “fruits”, you have to think “the good result of many months or years of spiritual cultivations”.
You need to memorize all Scriptures.
Godly men speak in their sermons and written works.
(the very best to read is Luther and Jerome. Then there is also Manton and Augustine, who have rare mistakes.
Until you finish reading all of Luther, Jerome, Manton and Augustine, stay away from Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley, because they are from after the Puritan era, they have greater imperfections and are sometimes spiritually malformed.)
The more current preachers are worth little compared to Luther, Jerome, Manton and Augustine. Furthermore, beware of any modern book in “Christianity” section (written by people still on earth), because they are nearly all of them polluted/corroded by Psychology, which is anti-Christ enemy of the Spirit of Christ.
Psychology is based on pleasing personal desires (propagandized as “needs”), with your own self as the center of the universe. It’s earthly, sensual, demonic (James 3:15)
Spirit of Christ is based on denying the self, and pleasing God, God’s needs, which are for you to (memorizing the entire Bible) know truth, justice, mercy, humility in front of God. God is the center of the universe.
Some examples of Psychology-based “preachers” and “counselors” (who are blind leading the blind):
Cloud&Townsend (“New Life Ministries”), Gary Smalley, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, John Eldredge, and any other based on experience/emotions rather than Scripture and correct doctrine.
Going back to the main topic:
Your face in front of God, is the quality of your heart and mind, the cleanness of your feelings and your thoughts in front of God. And also how much you know the Word of God (know = memorize and understand, and follow the instructions). These added up is your face in front of God.
The following are some parts of the Word of God further showing that when God mentions “countenance”, He primarily refers to the quality and content of the heart, and/or the mind. Only a tidbit refers to the physical face of the person.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Psalm 10:4
The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
Isaiah (Isa-YAH) 3:9
(this, about people whose heart/mind constantly think of sin, and commit sin openly
Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
Daniel (Dan-EL) 5:6
Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him
Daniel 5:9
Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.
Daniel 7:28
The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Numbers 6:26
food stamps for all low-wage workers (and also, about Christians getting involved in social-activism for the poor)
We know that the 500 richest Corporations on planet earth control one third (33%) of the world’s wealth, but they only employ less than 0.5% of the world’s population.
There is a severe lack of distribution of wealth. The few people who control 33% of the world’s wealth should also employ 33% of the world’s population.
However, not only they don’t employ many people, even the people they do employ, most of them are sweatshop workers, paid so little that, after they use their paycheck to purchase food and housing, they have nearly nothing remaining.
(in slavery era of America, the slaves worked on plantations and were provided food and housing. So they worked, and they had food and housing. Thus sweatshops is very same condition as slavery.)
These Corporations:
Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Disney, Denim, Gap, Nike/Adidas, Hanes, Old Navy, Chiquita (United Fruits Company), Dole (very likely) and others,
use sweatshop labor.
I have been trying to find a list of Corporations that use sweatshop labor. Some people should make a list on a common encyclopedia.
Those Corporations who use sweatshops, they ought to give a year worth of food-stamps (can only purchase food, no alcohol) to each worker, whose pay is around minimum wage, or any worker whose pay is less than one-and-half times the minimum wage, in any country where the work is done.
The equivalent of $2400 of foodstamp per year in California at the turn of this century.This is fair, and this is doing good to the poor people (ready to distribute wealth, willing to share wealth in common, storing for themselves in heaven a good foundation in the day of judgment, when God will judge each man according to his lifestyle and heart-attitudes I Timothy 6:17-19)
These organizations have mercy on the poor, and people should do similarly in all countries, especially in Asia and Africa and Latin America, where poor people have low wages and bad working conditions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Clothes_Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Committee
Very important comment:
Christian ought to have mercy on the poor, but keep in mind that most people in these social-activism organizations are not dedicated to believing Christ.
There is some good done by social-activism on behalf of the poor, as long as you don’t put your faith and hope into social-activism, as if re-organizing the governance of the world would make the world better and give more life to people.
That’s wrong. Your faith and hope need to rest in God, and in ever knowing God more each day by memorizing the Bible. Be careful that you aren’t led astray from putting your hope in God, by putting hope in this world (and then try to make a better world through changing governance style, and make that your attempt to save the lives of people).
Also, be careful that, if you get involved part-time* with a social-activism-for-the-poor group, you don’t average out your faith with the lifestyles of people in social-activism organizations, most of whom don’t believe in Christ. So it is possible to together help the poor alongside those people, but it’s not Church nor the body of Christ, so don’t think it’s replacement for Church, or a way to salvation.
* it can only be part-time. If you are involved full time, you’ll lose your heavenly perspective, and start to think that life is only in this world. In having mercy on the poor, a Christian’s first action is to distribute Gospel-knowledge and instructions unto righteousness to people who are poor in the knowledge of God, and secondarily, a Christian is to distribute to people who are materially poor, assistance in food, clothing, shelter (discriminating in wisdom, using godliness), and also when possible, help raise the minimum wage, help improve labour conditions of poor people in this world.
So be careful to get entangled in the secondary action, and even making the mistake of dedicating your zeal to it. Your zeal must be primarily to memorize the Bible, and getting to know God and instructing others in the same, having mercy on the poor (materially) ought to be a side-effect of your Bible memorization, not a replacement of it.
So there are two perils for Christians to get involved in having mercy on the poor at an organization of social-activism.
It is easy to have mercy on the poor through individual action, like speaking to poor people yourself, or donating to charity.
But when involved in social-activism, one peril for Christians is to dedicate their life or zeal to social-activism (already explained why it’s wrong), and another peril for Christians is to make those people into a replacement-church: the hearts and minds of the people in those social-activism groups, other than in the one-action of materially caring/helping the poor people, are not dedicated to Christ. It’s true that Christian hearts care for the poor, but an unbelieving heart also cares for the poor somewhat. In other words, caring for the poor, as a common activity, is not a sign of eternal life, not for most people in those organizations. Some of them may have unclean lifestyles. Some of them may have doctrines of salvation-through-making-a-better-world-in-this-life, godless doctrines putting hope in the effort of mankind to reform itself, kindhearted by the standards of people ignorant of Christ, but really misguided and fruitless.
You should consider it the same people-environment as when a group of people form a line in the street to donate to a charity, and you also participate. All those people are kindhearted somewhat for the poor, but most of them aren’t Christians.
Really, materially caring/helping the poor (including advocating that they have higher minimum wages and better working conditions) is not where life is at; it is necessary because a godly heart would care for the poor (and even people ignorant about Christ have a merciful heart of the poor), but true life is in the Spirit. To really care/help people, is to transform their heart/minds into a clean heart and the mind of Christ, so that they know how to live godly in this life and the next. The body is the lesser life, the Spirit is the greater life. To help maintain people’s bodies, is to give them some life, but to help people grow in heart/mind towards Christ, that is to give them greatly-much life.
Prayer request against powers of evil (motivated by spirits from hell)
Dear Christians:
Please in your prayers include prayers against these:
International Monetary Fund
World Bank
World Trade Organization (WTO)
and the world-empire minded groups, whose people offer ideas and motivation and funding in pushing for a one-world empire, remaking the tower of babel (when such a bureaucratic structure gets completed, at its head, the Anti-Christ):
- BlackRock (a finance and gambling group in New York)
- Bilderberg Group (United States & Western Europe)
- Council on Foreign Relations (United States & England)
- Trilateral Commission (United States and Western Europe, Japan as expendable auxiliary)
- Business Roundtable
- (and under them, banks. Banks are not only places to stash their money, but also bases of operation. By themselves, the bankers are weak. Their strength and action depends on bribing people in government, and/or brainwashing people, or “steer” people into wrong decisions, through spreading false information and through doing intimidation-scamming, or appearing in control when they aren’t.)
These banks are known as involved in financial crime of exceedingly great magnitude:
– JP Morgan Chase
– Citigroup
– Goldman Sachs
These banks are also involved:
– Bank of America
– Morgan Stanley
– HSBC
The type of crimes are similar to these.These bank crimes are responsible for most of the world’s dictatorships, corruption in government, narcotic drugs, pornography, prostitution, perverting of the youth through visual media, dissolving of family bonds through excess consumerism, materialism through advertising.
Indeed, these banks (used as proxies, or puppets, by the world-empire minded groups) are the installers of most of the dictators in the world, who themselves, though dictators over a nation, are installed as puppets in order to help banks (usually, those based in U.S., Western Europe, and less often Japan) and their international merchants launder the wealth of a country, at a cheaper price than if the country was governed by a fair government caring towards its own people.There seems to be no end of stopping corruption in government, drug trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and there is such a flood of filth in TV and entertainment in so many (seemingly separate) channels, that is because a few world-empire minded groups (with a few more banks) are deliberately doing these to increase revenue, but mostly to distract and debilitate people in their hearts and minds, so that few people would be intellectually awake to notice what they are doing, until it’s too late and the Anti-Christ gets installed as one-world dictator.
Drugs and prostitution debilitates, entertainment distract people in their minds so that they are habituated to no longer think seriously about anything, especially not noticing that other powers are trying to gain evil control over them, and the countries of the world.Corruption in government disrupts the functioning of civil government, results in dissatisfaction in (ignorant) people, so that the world-empire minded schemers replace civil government (more or less controlled by the population) with privatized Corporations (entirely controlled by the bankers, and totally not controlled by the population).
The bankers (and also the world-empire minded schemers) are not affiliated with any country in terms of their loyalty. They consider the richest 10000 people (or richest few tens of thousands) in the world as “their people”, and despise everyone else as a lower category.
They don’t care about the flag of any country, nor the patriotism, or the government of any country. They really want to colonize every country, including the United States.
For the moment, some of them are pretending that they are Americans. Some of them may even pretend that they are Chinese. But that’s merely a pretense. They really want to colonize every country, and make a banker-controlled one-world empire. Banks never take voting, never ask the population’s opinion
A map of Islam in Africa
Many Bibles ought to get printed in those languages, and distributed (not sold).
Usually, if there is a translation from 100 years ago, it is the most accurate.
The languages:
Arabic
Amharic (Ethiopian)
Tigrinya (Eritrean)
Amazigh (Berber)
Swahili
Hausa
Oromo
Somali
Yoruba
Many bibles can get printed from Ethiopia, others can get printed from Nigeria. Also from Cyprus.
John 17:20
It has often been said in tradition among some Christians that Matthew 6:9-13 is “The Lord’s Prayer”.
Actually, Matthew 6:9-13 is the disciples’ prayer.
The actual Lord’s Prayer is John 17.
That prayer was said by the LORD the day before His crucifixion and a few days before His resurrection. At that time, the LORD was with eleven disciples, so the people present were:
- Yeshua ben-Yehovah, HaMashiah (Jesus son of God, the Christ)
- Shimun Kephas (Simon Peter)
- Andreos (Andrew)
- Yacob ben-Zebdi (Jacob son of Zebedee, rewritten by England’s king James Stuart as “James”)
- Yohanan ben-Zebdi (John son of Zebedee)
- Philip
- Bar-Tolmei (Bartholomew)
- Thomas
- Matthan (Matthew)
- Yacob ben-Halpai (Jacob son of Alphaeus)
- Yehuda/Yudah ben-Halpai (Judah/Judas the brother of James), also Lebbeus, also Thaddeus
- Shimun Zelotes (Simon the Zealot)
At that time, Judas Iscariot was no longer at table (later he would get replaced by Paul the Apostle). So there were eleven men, plus the LORD.
These were all those who had him as LORD, I think (I am not sure about the seventy).
This was the beginning of the Church, the LORD, with only eleven men.
He prayed for them, and said:
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word.
John 17:20
That was around the year 33 A.D. All people of later years believed in Christ due to the words of these eleven men, because these eleven men wrote the New Testament (with the help of Paul, Mark, Luke, and Judah brother of Jesus).
What does this mean?
This means that any Christian alive on earth in the 21st century ought to be humble, because all Christians alive on earth now have believed in Christ due to the words of these eleven men (plus Paul, Mark, Luke, and Jude).
These eleven men (plus Paul) are called apostles.
This is why the entire Church is founded on the apostles (Ephesians 2:20), because throughout twenty successive centuries, the faith of Christians have been built upon words written by these eleven men (plus Paul). This is why there are only 12 seats for apostles in heaven (Revelations 21:14), even after evaluating the entire humanity from beginning till the end of the world.
Any other Christian (especially Christians alive on earth 2000 years later) trying to name themselves “apostle” are committing abominable self-exaltation. It’s a similarly abominable self-exaltation if any claim to have an “apostolic ministry”, same as claiming to be an apostle.
Also, the Bible is divided into
the Law of Moses: Genesis through Deuteronomy, and
the Prophets: Joshua through Malachi.
This is how in the New Testament the Word of God talks about “Moses and the Prophets” or “The Law and the Prophets”.
the “foundational prophets” of Ephesians 2:20 either referred to the prophetic books of Joshua through Malachi,
or referred to the prophetic books of Matthew through Revelations. The apostles were also prophets at the same time, because the Spirit often spoke through them directly. The entire Bible is a book of prophecy (Revelations 22:18-19), especially the New Testament (Revelations 19:10).
Either way, the “foundation prophets” of Ephesians 2:20 refers to people whose words are written in the Bible, and through reading these words, the faith of Christians for the subsequent twenty centuries are established. Thus, the Church is founded upon apostles and prophets.
They are very much alive. That is, Moses is alive now, Joshua ben-Nun is alive now, so is David ben-Yesse, (Solomon went to hell), so is Yehu-Shaphat, so is Yob, so is Ezra, so is Nehemiah, so is Agur ben-Yakeh, so are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, Micah, Zechariah, Malachi, Eli-Yah, Eli-sha, Yohanan the Baptist … , so are the twelve apostles, so is Timotheo, Luke, Mark, etc.
They are very much alive in the Spiritual world. And if you are a Christian living as God would want you to live, you would be living more in the spiritual world than the physical world. Your heart would be more in the spiritual world than in the physical world. You would care about things of the spirit more than the things of the flesh.
These people are very much alive, along with all the 2000 years of Christians who endured in the faith till the end. These people are very much alive.
There are Americans who live in the flesh, whose idea of “Church” (that is, all Christians combined) consists of all the Christians alive on earth now, in this era. That is not true.
Church consists of all the people who are alive in Christ.
That means, whenever the Word of God refers to “Church”, it refers to an assembly in the spiritual realm, in heaven, where Jesus Christ is the King and the Head, and then, the twelve apostles, then all the prophets mentioned in the Word of God, then all the spirits of 2000 years of Christians who endured in godly faith till the end.
Then, the spirit of any Christian who are now on earth, who live in the Spirit and not in the flesh (benchmark: whether you love the Word of God more than entertainments of this world, or when distressed, do you first go to the Word of God, or do you go to entertainments?).
The roster of the Church changes from day to day due to the Christians now alive on earth, because some Christians (now alive on earth) fall away and go live in the flesh, in spiritual death. The roster also changes because (less frequently) some such people repent again, clean up their life, and return to live in the Spirit.
Christ is very much alive now, the 12 apostles are very much alive now.
These 13 positions (1 Savior, 12 apostles) remain fixed forever, nor is any person added to them.
So it is error for some people to want to invent “new” apostles, their fleshly minds thinking that the ones nominated by the LORD are no longer alive.
Prayer request, that I find my friend
Prayer Request:
Dear Christians:
It’s not a hyperbole to say that the souls of all Christians are in danger worldwide. Our LORD said that to get to heaven, a person must endure in purity of faith until the last breath (throughout the entire lifetime). So if a Christian doesn’t endure in godliness, then he/she will not get saved at the end of life, regardless of religious activities.
This spy-propaganda wickedness (especially the signal-station about my brain, mixed with the spies’ evil words) is turning most Christians (in industrialized societies) into people who don’t care about the LORD, but instead imitate the wicked. The purpose of following Christ, is to transform the heart and mind more and more like God, but the people who put their ears to the signal-station, they are transforming their hearts and minds more and more like the wicked criminals, who specialize in thinking of evil and speaking of evil, oppressing me with the devices that they forcibly put in my body.
Since no one else has yet denounced this, I have strived to denounce this everyday, and in order to make other people aware of how wicked these spies are, I have to speak and denounce (which is “not presentable” to people who are not undergoing persecution). Yet, if I make myself “presentable” by not denouncing the spies, then the wickedness is not only oppressing me, but also turning so many other people wicked.
Yeah, instead of a conversion of people to resemble more and more Jesus, there has been an anti-conversion of people resembling more and more the devil (or the spies, similar heart and mind).
Please pray that I find my friend Rebecca, that together we denounce the spies.
Because we have arrived at a point where all the churches in America no longer have the spiritual strength to stand valiantly for the truth. No, all that they can think about, is their own, and none care for the things of the LORD (truth, justice, compassion upon tens of millions of people’s salvation, etc). We have to stop this evil-conversions of people, to salvage God’s heritage (most of the Christian souls worldwide), and also to protect ourselves from exploitation.
Please help me and pray.
What are our duties to God
We have these duties to God:
- To remember the Word of God
- To add holiness unto ourselves
- make our heart and mind unto a clean heart and the mind of Christ (resulting in actions that are pleasant to God)
- to instruct others into a similar heart and mind
- To discern and rebuke what is evil, in ourselves and in other people
It has been a practice of slave traffickers to bind the heart and mind of slaves into a wrong idea of debt. The slaves are pressured into believing that they owe a debt to the criminals enslaving them, and that slavery (or submitting to the wishes of the enslavers) is the method of paying this debt.
For example, women from Nigerian villages are enslaved by shamans, who uses witchcraft upon the heart and minds of the women to bind them into a “debt” (which is really nothing, except if the victims allow themselves to believe that they are bound). The women are then trafficked from Nigeria into slavery in Europe, where they are placed in Nigerian communities of people who approve of the slavery, and the women are pressured to sell their bodies, sometimes 20 to 30 times a day, and this would happen for several years, until the “debt” is “paid” to the enslaver.
A similar evil in Europe, where female from Eastern Europe are recruited by false job advertising (such as seeking restaurant workers) from far away countries, when they arrive in such countries, criminals (who posted the job recruiting) would first pose as very nice people, then ask for the females’ passport or visas, and then take these documents away. The females would get trapped in a country where they do not speak the language at all, and thus cannot escape. Then they are locked in apartments and other places, where they are forced to have “clients”, from 20 to 30 times a day, every day. They would be brainwashed by the enslavers into thinking that they owe a “debt” to the very criminals who oppress them (supposedly, because luring them from one country to another, requires some costs of transport). If the slaves try to escape, or if they are displeasing to the enslavers (or to a “client”), then the enslavers would increase the “debt”. Usually, the “debt” is set at many months or several years of putting the females into “sales”. Sometimes, the criminals would transfer their slaves unto other criminals, who then would restart the “debt”, adding even more misery. In those countries, the police often cooperate with the enslavers.
For example, Italy is an in-between transport point of slaves between Eastern Europe (Croatia and the Balkans are just across the Adriatic Sea) and Western Europe (there are perverse people in Germany, France, Belgium and Netherlands). There is such a tremendous problem of slave-trafficking in Italy, that the police know about it, and rarely do anything to stop it. Worse, in Italy, children as young as 14 are trafficked for the purpose of their organs. These are kids of Roma ethnicity, whose birth are not registered with the Italian government, because they are gypsies. Also, due to racism in Italian society (the Roma are darker in skin), the Italians despise the Roma, thus elderly Italians traffick Roma kids for the purpose of cutting up their bodies, stealing the organs (like poaching a fish), and then their bodies are dumped into the rivers in Italy. The organs (lungs, stomach, etc) of these young people are then transplanted into the geriatric bodies of rich elderly Italians, who would waste the lives of younger people, so as to gain a few years of earthly life, for an illusion of immortality.
There is also a problem of rich elderly people (of all nationalities) who approve or eagerly participate in enslaving young people into prostitution, because they want to gain an illusion of immortality by putting their elderly bodies (or their eyes) into female younger bodies.
Such people incur extra wrath from God, and, unrepented, will utterly perish in their corruption.
This crime is also done in the United States, where Mexican females are trafficked from Mexico into America.
There are also Europeans trafficked from Europe into American cities, for the same purpose, with the same “debt” brainwashed upon their minds.
Foreigners enslaved in a foreign country are rarely able to escape, because they don’t speak the languages of the places where they are.
(information from “Sex Trafficking”, by Siddarth Kara.
An excellent book that every person should read, to know that such evils are done in the world.
And all should work to prevent such evils from happening to people)
However, my main topic is to correct this false idea of “debt”.
I am familiar with this type of brainwashing, because one of my parents is of extremely wicked heart and mind, and tried very hard to brainwash into me the idea of “owing” her money merely for raising me (yeah, and tried to instill into me the demonic idea that because I was raised by her, then for the rest of my life, any income earned by me would belong to her.)
Of course, I did not yield to such a demonic spirit.
My message to those of you who have had the experience of wicked people trying to brainwash you into “owing” them:
You don’t owe people anything, except the distribution of Gospel (but even that, is because you have duties to God).
You have duties unto God, according to the Spirit of holiness in the Word of God, and according to the truth (the correct meanings) in the Word of God.
Spirit and truth.
If you only have the true statements (like, “Christians had all things in common and distributed to each man according to their need”), but you don’t have the Spirit of holiness (that is, being mindful that all must have the objective of teaching people to live holy and saint), then even true statements can be misused.
For instance, some wicked people could trick you into thinking that Christians should put their bodies to common use, and distribute their bodies to molesters, if molesters think they have a “need” of lusting.
But that is against holiness. Also, a person is not a thing. Also, God commands us to put to death the needs of the flesh, and tend to the needs of the Spirit (love towards God, love of truth, virtues, godliness).
(I add a message unto Rebecca:
whoever denounces the spies, — and that requires denouncing it unto me, in order to remove the spy-problem from the root, otherwise, it’s nothing but a pretense — take such a person as your pastor, because whoever denounces the spies truly cares about saving souls.
As long as that hasn’t happened, remain at home memorizing the Bible. You need strengthening in the Spirit, because many people wishes to brainwash you and enslave you. Don’t entertain yourself, don’t seek comfort in this world (eating, drinking, entertainments, etc.). Don’t go back to the previous employment. For the moment, don’t work at all except at memorizing the Bible.)
sermons #24 and #25 of Thomas Manton (please read them)
Dear Rebecca:
Gift for your soul:
Sermons #24 and #25 from Thomas Manton, [190 Sermons on Psalm 119].
(one of the best quote: “we should not measure the verity of a religion by the greatness of those who are with or against it”)
http://www.newblehome.co.uk/manton/psalm119/ps119gimel-g.html
http://www.newblehome.co.uk/manton/psalm119/ps119gimel-h.html
I hope that you have received the printed version from me, so that you would have, in printed form, one third of the 190 sermons, really a treasure trove of Christianity. If you haven’t the printed version, then you can find some on this webpage.
This, my kin, is what you seek when you are weary of life and go to the entertainment. Entertainment doesn’t quicken (revive) you, it really dulls you, and once you have had much, you get even more tired of life than before.
For you really sought life, spiritual life, and this is life (read the sermons, in a place where there is no electronic distraction). It is very appropriate for the strengthening of your heart and soul, at this time.
The spies slandered you by re-routing a phone call from me, to someone else, who then tried to make a false statement pretending to be you.
I pray to God that you shall be at Brother Yun’s event tomorrow, so that we can meet in-Christ. Trust in the Spirit of God.
For all the days spent underneath the idle tongues of the spies (for the moment, they have the upper hand in perverting people’s imaginations), there is a better way: we can modify the situation by speaking a paragraph of truth, and then the entire universe will be modified, because we would have the upper hand over the spies, not in gloating over them, but in turning the hearts and minds of the population away from covetousness, and (for some) unto righteousness. It would not only revive tens of millions of souls towards Christ, but it would also put our lives permanently off-limit to the spies’ covetousness.
God (YHWH Yehovah/Allaha) is One, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit are components within Him. Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega, Bible begins with Beth and end with Nun (good English Bibles are KJV and ESV). Get nearer to God by memorizing the entire Bible in your language, starting with new testament, and pray everyday. Read the works of Luther, Augustine, Manton 