Consequently, when these Jews heard, in this parable, about someone refusing to put on the king’s free wedding garment, which clearly represented the garment of righteousness which their King and God promised to freely provide for each of them, the garment of God’s salvation that would be granted through His “Anointed One,” they would have been horrified. And they would have instantly recognized that man’s real motive for not putting on the garment. For all had seen why their chief priests and the governing servants refused to wear the garments of God’s righteousness. All those
“called ones” of God sold their righteousness for financial gain through selfish ambitions, so they could gain status and self-indulgent wealth in Satan’s world order. Almost all current religious and secular servants of the people compromised on justice, truth and every other aspect of love, or even mere decency, in order to obtain the rewards of the devil. And that was an outright betrayal of their King and Owner, even a deliberate sabotage of His just, loving kingdom on earth. When those false
“called ones” refused to wear their free garments of righteousness, they revealed their hatred of the one God, as well as their intentions to steal from God’s people and lands. So those traitors deserved banishment, not only from His kingdom on this earth, but also eternally from His heavenly kingdom.
Now remember, Jesus used a negative with the perfect participle form of the verb ἐνδύω, to not only indicate that this man did not put on the wedding garment, but also that he did so with an ongoing effect or result of now wearing his old clothes. So Jesus was suggesting that this man preferred to remain in his old clothes. Jesus implied that this man had no intention of changing, no will to wear the king’s gift of a new wedding garment, and that we must never be like him. Rather, all elect souls need to follow the inherent desires which the King created in their spirits, allow their spirits to learn from Him, and rightly manage the wills of their amoral flesh, so their lives can be changed by Him.
All elect spirits inherently desire change. All elect sin, yet also long to wear the garments of God’s righteousness, to be just, wise, honest and loving, to be humble brothers and sisters of their oldest Brother, Jesus, to be called the faithful and beloved priests and ministers of their Lord and God. So, every elect spirit desperately wants to hear the teachings of Christ’s Holy Spirit. The elect covet the things of His kingdom on earth, and nothing else. All inwardly long to be honest, for the sakes of their loved ones. Their hearts seek justice and strive to construct genuine love upon the truth. All hope to build up inward trust within God’s family; to freely give rather than steal; to make loving covenants of their spirit instead of exploiting to feed the lusts of the flesh; to build up life and never murder; to honour their heavenly Father, rather than tear apart all He established in the beginning; to take rest in the peace of God’s atonement, by refusing to oppose His will; to teach God’s intended meaning of His words and revelations, while nullifying the false teachings of liars; to reject god delusions, so they can esteem and serve only the Spirit who created all existence; and to make all critical decisions of life for the purposes of their Owner, King, High Priest and Counsellor alone.
All elect spirits even desire and need infinitely more than all this. This does not even begin to truly fulfill the desires of the spirits born from God’s inner essence, created in His image. Elect spirits all feel compelled to find a love in a far more rich and beautiful way than the little sprouting seedling growing in them while they dwell in limiting flesh. It is actually impossible to use words of the flesh to express what every elect spirit knows it must acquire to be truly content. Only music and the art of God in nature come close to an elect spirit’s expression of longing in the chamber of one’s soul. So an elect spirit realizes that the wedding garment of thee King was created to fit only one’s new body, made of a spiritual substance, which each will receive after life on earth, at heaven’s gates, on that last day of completing and perfecting. In the meantime, our High King has made us very fine, albeit lesser garments for His wedding feast, for our days on earth designated to a celebration of His Son’s wedding with His true church, for an eternal New Covenant salvation that He already consummated.
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For wedding feasts in those days were not celebrations of an oath taken by a couple that day. Rather, a king’s marriage covenant would have been made decades before the celebration, when the bride and groom were children. And their marriage would have been consummated long before the feast.
Today the elect in His true priesthood of Israel can put on His freely granted wedding garments, so they might justly serve the High King of heaven and earth through love. True elect spirits are now able to hear the Holy Spirit of Jesus, learn His ways, and grow to be one with Him. We not only will attend His wedding with His church, but are His bride. And our Bridegroom is not only the sole Heir of the King, but is our current King on earth and in heaven above. For there is only one uncreated Spirit existing outside of created times, which is the omniscient, omnipotent life, mind, heart and power of both the King and His Heir. For both the Father and the Son are one. And soon His holy and unstoppable Spirit will return to us, here on earth, in a body of human flesh. He will come to His church, whom He gathers into His banqueting hall on earth, where He feeds and teaches beneficial wisdom to our spirits. Thus, all wearing His free garments of just love will say in their hearts: “Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let us give the glory to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” (Rev. 19:7-8, WEB).
Yes, some non-elect will creep in among us, pretending to be one of us, speaking the same words our spirits utter through our flesh, copying the actions that our spirits cause our flesh to do through our love for our King, in our service of His kingdom. Yet we will know them by their fruits, since they all will refuse to wear His free garments of just, equitable, God-like love. For non-elect pretenders love only the rewards of their hellish father, and are incapable of clothing themselves in any kind of true righteousness, not even in the King’s presence. The non-elect cannot help but sell their free wedding garments for a profit, and seek gain in their father’s unjust world order. Every generation of pretenders is exactly like the fake “called ones” in previous generations, whom the soldiers of our King have been destroying for two millenniums now. They are all like Ananias and Sapphira, the fakes who lied through their selfish ambitions, who sought status in God’s priesthood, which governs the consciences of all powers on earth. That man and his wife sold their wedding garments, their righteousness, thinking they deceived God’s true church and were undetected by our King’s Holy Spirit. Yet our King found them out, and cast their souls into the eternal outer darkness (Acts 5:1-5).
Many are “called ones,” serving as chief priests and decision-making positions on earth. Yet few are God’s chosen ones. Throughout history, the elect have allowed countless pretenders to teach, judge and bear decision-making authority over them, even in their assemblies dedicated to serving God, where all men have been commanded to serve only one Head, who is the living, resurrected Lord, Jesus the Christ. For many centuries, false churches and other false religions have been very busy convincing their people to raise Satan’s children into places of authority, to rule as kings and gods over the people and the lands belonging to the real King and true Creator God. And His elect have not only partaken in these illicit appointments of fake “called ones,” but have joined those pretenders in their rebellion, to usurp the High King’s authority. Yet, for every church and secular elder we set over us, our King commanded: “You shall surely set him [as a teaching and judging authority] over yourselves, whom Yahweh your God chooses. You shall set as [a teaching and judging authority]
over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother” (Deut. 7:15, WEB). And all the ones whom God chooses are made evident by their fruits.
God commands all organized bodies of people to be just democracies. And God told all who are able to hear His voice, to elect only those whom He has chosen, called, taught, trained and sent to them as their decision-making elders in all their religious and secular bodies of people. The elect must never Page 1417
allow any foreign non-elect souls to teach and judge them. And make no mistake, all authorities of every kind on earth—in all churches, all levels of government, all businesses and all other organized bodies of people—are both teachers and judges. Every word and deed of every kind of authority either explicitly or implicitly teaches and judges the people. And all this teaching and judging is actually done in their owner’s name, since all are stewards, obligated to serve their owner’s people and property. Therefore, we must choose only those who are owned by the High King, our God. We must never choose any who are owned by Satan. For we need servants of God to make decisions for our people, to teach and judge rightly, honestly and ably in His name. Now let the elect only elect elders from among their brothers, from both their awakened and unconscious elect siblings, from those who serve God well. Only those who wear the free garments of God’s just, equitable and loving righteousness are qualified for elections to positions of teaching, judging elders in our midst.
Mat. 22:15-22,
The Evangelicals Fall
“Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap Him in His talk. They sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that You are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter whom You teach, for You aren’t partial to anyone. Tell us therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?’
“But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, ‘Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?
Show Me the tax money.’ They brought to Him a denarius. He asked them, ‘Whose is this image and inscription?’ They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then He said to them, ‘Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ When they heard it, they marveled, and left Him, and went away” (Mat. 22:15-22, WEB).
Typical of all the non-elect who pretend to worship God and fake a knowledge of the Scriptures, these evangelicals, these Pharisaic elders, believed that all human beings, even Gentiles from other religions, should be forced to obey the traditions they invented for themselves. That is, they desired a theocracy, but not one ruled by God alone. Rather, they lusted after a theocracy ruled by them alone, for their own personal gain, as a means of exerting their carnal wills upon God’s creations. And, keep in mind, although these evangelicals called their man-made traditions the “laws of God,” their traditions actually had very little to do with God’s actual laws, and often absolutely nothing to do with them. Furthermore, all their traditions related to the flesh, not to the spirit, and were, therefore, always ruthless, unjust and outright Satanic. For none of these evangelicals ever considered how God Himself interpreted and applied His own laws, nor did they ever really attempt to harmonize God’s Law with all His other teachings in the Bible. None ever considered how God Himself had rightly judged the motives and intentions of the heart, then graciously forgave repentant sinners, so they could follow His examples and do likewise. In fact, those evangelicals actually nullified or outright opposed many of God’s laws, especially regarding matters of worship and justice. Worse yet, their traditions led the people away from any kind of true fulfillment in God’s just and loving ways. For their traditions were entirely to gratify their own flesh, never designed to feed elect spirits.
The ultimate goal of these evangelicals was to create a world where their man-made traditions would become the laws ruling over their entire land, even over all the earth. And they intended to become the only human gods who would be allowed to interpret their own laws, regarding every judgment in their land, in every matter of life and faith. In other words, their goal was to replace the one Creator God with themselves. What they actually wanted was to be worshipped as gods instead of God, to be Page 1418
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esteemed and served above all gods. Those evangelicals were just like every cult leader and secular despot who ever lived. Not one had an elect spirit which was able to acknowledge what God’s Word clearly declared. Not one of them ever accepted the fact that God is the only Saviour of all, that God alone is able to cause an elect human spirit to recognize Him as one’s own Creator and Father, that He alone is able to cause a spirit to desire the fulfilling of His just and loving ways in one’s own life.
Of course, by definition, an evangelical claims to worship the biblical God alone, that the canon of Scriptures are the inerrant and infallible words of God, and that His words obligate them to teach all the earth about God and His truths, since they must serve as His priests. These Pharisees claimed all this. Therefore, they were the evangelical sect of the church at that time in history. However, just like many evangelicals today, many Pharisees worshipped themselves above all gods, and actually hated the truly just, loving heart of the real God. They also despised God’s true words with a passion, then replaced all of them with their own inventions of self-serving teachings and practises. Yet they did commit themselves to fervently and zealously evangelizing their invented religions and their twisted traditions. In fact, they searched the world to find disciples who would serve themselves. For an evangelical “leader” who convinced the most loveless, ruthless little toadies to worship him, more than any of the other pretenders, would receive the highest status and the most power in their own fake denomination, in their own false church. Also, since this kind of selfish ambition would bring them great financial rewards as well, evangelism was something these greedy souls would diligently labour at, night and day. They became complete slaves of Satan, blind soldiers in his army, warring against God and ruthlessly destroying every true, just person and thing in their land, in order to build up the devil’s despotic kingdom of hell on earth, where they could be their father’s little puppet gods.
Now the toadies, those who did the dirty little violent works of the “leaders” in the fake evangelical churches, were brainwashed to become twice the sons of hell as the “leaders” themselves, twice as evil as the human gods they worshipped. Most were twice as blind, zealous and ruthless in their pursuit of their perverted religious goals. But their evangelical human gods were far more political than religious, since they had to protect their own money and power, far more than than the religious doctrines they had invented. This is why Herodians joined in the works of evangelical “leaders,” and why they both became co-conspirators against Jesus. Although Herodians resembled the politically deceived secular minions of Hitler, Trump and other fascist despots, and seemed to have nothing in common with the evangelicals, both groups worked as one against their God Jesus. In spite of their great religious differences, Herodians became the tentative friends of the evangelicals because both were more political than religious. And, although the Herodians definitely did not want a theocracy, since they worshipped the psychopathic and illicit dictator, Herod, they saw how Herod had also granted favours to some evangelical “leaders” too, even some status and destructive power in his own Satanic kingdom. Thus, all those equally psychopathic evangelical “leaders” were following the same Herodian traditions of cajoling and bribing Herod for their own selfish purposes. In reality, both the Herodians and evangelicals were all brothers in the same dysfunctional family of Satan.
Make no mistake, these were not good evangelicals. They were religious fakes deliberately trying to murder the sinless body of the one and only Creator God dwelling among His elect on earth. Luke also described these evangelical “leaders” and their intentions in this way: “And, after making scrupulous observations, they sent out spies on a mission, pretending to be righteous themselves, so they might trap [Him in] His reasoning, in order to hand Him over to the ruler and to the decision-making authority of the governor” (Luke 20:20, from: Καὶ παρατηρήσαντες ἀπέστειλαν ἐγκαθέτους
ὑποκρινομένους ἑαυτοὺς δικαίους εἶναι, ἵνα ἐπιλάβωνται αὐτοῦ λόγου, ὥστε παραδοῦναι αὐτὸν τῇ
ἀρχῇ καὶ τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ τοῦ ἡγεμόνος, SBLGNT). So, first of all, these evangelicals were gathering Page 1419
information to use against their God and His truth. Second, they were pretending to be righteous, but were not. They were actually criminals plotting the murder of the most sinless flesh that ever walked on earth. Third, their plan was to send out spies to trap Jesus, to take whatever Jesus said and twist it into some kind of slanderous lie. Fourth, their goal was to deliver Jesus over to Herod, a local ruler, and to the governor of the region, so they could execute Jesus. For this would allow them to tell the people that the arrest and execution of Jesus was “out of their hands,” that they were unable to do anything to save Him. For once the Romans had Jesus, their religious authority could not interfere.
So the evangelical “leaders” and Herodians devised what they thought was a perfect plan, with a
“win win” contract between one another. For the Herodians, who served Rome, wanted to kill Jesus because He claimed to be a king, which just might incite a rebellion against Herod and Caesar. Then the evangelical “leaders” feared that the truths Jesus taught would cause their dupes to turn against them, and those dupes provided them with all their illicit power and income. Therefore, both the evangelical “leaders” and Herodians basically shared the same goal and both were willing to work together for the murder of Jesus. The Herodians would gladly take the blame for Jesus’ death, since their Roman comrades would credit them with this “patriotic” deed, and they cared nothing for the religious kinds who followed Jesus. Then the evangelical “leaders” would lie about Jesus dying a hero, like all the other martyrs of Israel who rebelled against the evil, pagan Romans. The “leaders”
of the evangelical would pretend to be proud of Jesus, to appease those who loved Jesus, and could to have nothing to do with His execution. So both thought that, aside from God’s own intervention, nothing could possibly go wrong, since they both knew their dupes were stupid enough to be fooled.
Of course, one obvious problem with this plan was that the Herodians’ supported the Herodian dynasty, and therefore Rome, since Herod was a pagan Roman appointed king. So the Jews who were brutally oppressed by Rome did not have much sympathy or trust in the evangelicals who were conspiring with the Herodians. And, naturally, since Herod tried to please the evangelicals with his building projects, only the evangelical “leaders” who benefited from those projects, and held some power through the will of Herod, had any use for the Herodians. But all those evangelical wanna-be gods were seen as hypocrites by the majority of truly devout Jews, when they plotted to murder their God, Jesus. Therefore, a vast number of devout Jews did not believe the evangelical “leaders” when they tried to escape their guilt for murdering Jesus, and thousands sided with Jesus despite their lies.
And both those evangelical “leaders” and the Herodians made the mistake of assuming they could use the same tactics they had employed to trap their rivals, who tried to steal power from them. That is, they thought they could employ flattery against Jesus, so He might drop His guard and utter words they could then manipulate for His condemnation. So they approached Jesus with respect and complements, to get Him to respond to loaded question about paying taxes to Rome, which would condemn Him no matter how He answered. If Jesus supported the popular lie of some evangelical zealots, who believed that no true Jew should ever pay taxes to pagan Gentiles, then the Herodians would report His words to the Roman government, who would then kill Jesus as a rebel. For money mattered more to the Romans than just about anything else, and any possibility of rebellion against paying their taxes would instantly rouse their merciless violence. But, as a backup plan, even if Jesus did publicly oppose the zealots’ popular lie, and told the people to pay the Roman taxes, evangelical elders could then rile up the people, make them believe that Jesus deliberately broke God’s laws and that Jesus even worshipped the pagan gods of Rome, who also received those taxes. For they could easily convince their dupes to stone God’s body to death, even though the Romans would then come and kill them for rioting and for protesting against Roman taxation. Either way, the Herodians and Page 1420
Mat. 22:15-22, The Evangelicals Fall
“leaders” of the evangelicals would be get what they wanted, though many Jews would die. Then they could return to the “good old” status quo, to their lucrative jobs of appeasing the Romans again.
Matthew explained their their devious plan to trap Jesus in this way: “Then, after departing, the Pharisees took counsel together, how they might completely ensnare Him in [His] reasoning. And they, with the Herodians, sent their disciples on a mission to Him, reasoning: ‘Teacher of life and faith, we have seen and now know You are true, and You are teaching the way of God in truth. Also, it certainly never causes concern to You, not about anything, for You take heed against the outward appearance of the people. Therefore, tell us what You think. Is it lawful to give a census for Ceasar
[so we can be taxed by him], or not?’” (Mat. 22:15-17, from: Τότε πορευθέντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι
συμβούλιον ἔλαβον ὅπως αὐτὸν παγιδεύσωσιν ἐν λόγῳ. καὶ ἀποστέλλουσιν αὐτῷ τοὺς μαθητὰς
αὐτῶν μετὰ τῶν Ἡρῳδιανῶν λέγοντες· Διδάσκαλε, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀληθὴς εἶ καὶ τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν
ἀληθείᾳ διδάσκεις, καὶ οὐ μέλει σοι περὶ οὐδενός, οὐ γὰρ βλέπεις εἰς πρόσωπον ἀνθρώπων· εἰπὸν
οὖν ἡμῖν τί σοι δοκεῖ· ἔξεστιν δοῦναι κῆνσον Καίσαρι ἢ οὔ;, SBLGNT). And notice the most devious part of their trap, how they sent their own young and innocent-looking disciples, the ones who were most thoroughly brainwashed and loyal to them, to pretend to believe in Jesus. For the faces of the evangelical “leaders” and Herodians were far too scarred by cynicism and hate to ever pull off this kind of scam. None looked innocent enough to play that role and get Jesus to believe them. Yet Jesus was always careful to “take heed against the outward appearance of the people.”
Jesus was able to perceive the hearts of those unthinking, blindly loyal youths. Our God saw how some, perhaps the future apostle Paul himself, had elect spirits which remained in an embryonic state, in a deep and mindless slumber, with their inner eyes completely closed. Then the spirits of others were non-elect, and perhaps some had even been awakened by the whip of their hellish father, to become full psychopaths. For Satan loves to rouse his religious children, so they can work his ruthless bullying in his fake churches. And destructive child labour is a passion of the devil, so neither the evangelical or Herodian servants of Satan worried about sending those youths to do their dirty works in their enemy’s camp. But the outward appearances of all these young, faithful disciples from the evangelical leaders and Herodians had to suggest innocence. And the esteemed blind teachers of these blind youths made them rehearse their flattering lines and innocent looks they would use for their attempted deception, so they would be perceived as disciples of the sinless Jesus.
First their duped youths must butter Jesus up, make Him think they respected and admired Him, in the exactly same way these religious “leaders” loved to hear empty flattery, and in the same way those fake religious “leaders” pretended to respect and admire Yahweh, the God of Israel. Then the wide-eyes youths must ask Jesus the loaded question and bring His answer back to them. For this question was designed to have only two possible answers, either a positive or negative one, and they could not conceive of any other kind of response. So, if Jesus said “yes,” and declared that the Jews should pay the extremely burdensome tax to Caesar, to a pagan oppressor of God’s people and to their demon gods, the evangelicals would use His answer to stir up hatred against Him, and cause their dupes among the zealots to kill Jesus. But, if Jesus said “no,” the Herodians would report this to Herod and the other Roman governing officials. Then the duped Romans would arrest and execute Jesus for inciting treason against their government. But our God did interfere with their perfect plan.
Since Jesus is God, His Spirit was able to clearly see the spirits of all people, both the young and the old. Jesus did not simply judge by external appearances and the actions manifested through the flesh, as we do. So the rehearsed flattering words uttered by those lying tongues and lips of the flesh did not deceive Him. Furthermore, Jesus knew that not everything is black and white, and that questions like this often have a more complex answer than a simple “yes” or “no.” Yes, the utterly loveless and Page 1421
godless psychopaths always think in oppositional terms, and will either hate or like, either approve or condemn, but never reason through to the truth. Thus, these men believed there could only be a
“yes” or “no” answer, which would either oppose them or Rome. For the spirits of these loveless human gods assess all other human beings and all things to be either beneficial to their own selfish interests or not. They judge every living creature or thing to be either useful or worthless to their personal causes, either for them or against them. And this delusion is reinforced by a few realities, since some things are indeed purely good or entirely evil. But only some spiritual things are entirely good or totally evil, and not even all spiritual realities are. Some spiritual entities can be both, even at the same time. For evil spiritual entities can be used to teach and train God’s elect children to love Him and His loving ways with a more zealous passion, which can make the evil entities “good” for promoting holy love between God and His children, for binding together the entire family of God with stronger bonds than would be possible if evil did not exist. Yet the non-elect cannot think that deeply, nor even imagine anything existing outside of the tiny, dark delusional worlds they create in their own little minds. So they deem all to be good or evil, and all souls to be either “us” or “them.”
To non-elect spirits, there can be no complexity in their judgments, only the “good” that serves their selfish ambitions, or the “bad” which does not serve their personal interests. This is also why the non-elect spirits establish their steep hierarchies, where only one dictator, ultimately Satan himself, becomes the sole lawmaker and ruler of all. For each individual’s selfish interests contradict the selfish interests of the others. So only one can always get his way, while all the others must live only to appease that one. Yet one spirit is never able to compel all the others into subservient compliance.
So the one at the top must have a number of bribed but thoroughly subjugated slaves below him, who force the next lower class of souls into compliance. Then that lower rank of slaves must also subjugate another lower rank, until all ranks are forced into blind obedience. All this comes from that kind of black and white kind of thinking in the spirits of the non-elect, from their selfish, foolish way of thinking. But Jesus, and those who learn from Him, can use that weakness to their own advantage.
Of course, all minds of flesh tend to engage in this kind of black and white kind of thinking, since minds of flesh are never wise, and the flesh loves to categorize all people and things as being either good or bad for it. Consequently, everyone’s flesh is also prone to accept the hierarchical systems offered by the non-elect. But awakened elect spirits begin to love in the way God loves, and begin to think in the way He thinks. So these elect spirits start to see the wondrous complexity of the physical and spiritual systems in God’s kingdoms, which their Father designed both here on earth and in the heavens above. They also see that they are not gods, and cannot control anyone or anything for their own selfish purposes, not even their own bodies, not without terrible errors with horrible results. For they see, with all certainty, that all the truth, wisdom and love in their own spirits did not originate from them, and is never under their own control. Thus, if their spirits need to truly love someone or something, according to their spirit’s inherent propensities, it will never be due to a decision made by the minds of their spirits, but only if God decides to show them how to love. And the same is true regarding their spirits’ hatred of evil. Elect spirits naturally hate evil, but cannot explain why, and do not know how to nullify that evil. After all, their love and hate were created in them by God, then shaped into extremely complex and wise formulations that the immature cannot comprehend. In the end, love and hate originate solely through the created attributes of their eternal spirits, which are being transformed into the image of their Father, the Spirit from whom they came. And absolutely no amount of “free will” can possibly alter the love and hate which their elect spirits grow inside them.
Yet love and hate are definitely freely willed. As love and hate grow in the minds of their spirits, they spontaneously express it, and make decisions about how to express it. Thus, the awakened elect Page 1422
Mat. 22:15-22, The Evangelicals Fall
desire to be free to express themselves, and the truths upon which their love is built. And they begin to see that life is not about letting any entity “save” them by controlling their lives. Rather, life is about growing inside. All that exists simply does just that, grow a love for God in them, as well as a hatred of all that opposes God’s just, equitable, free and loving ways. All elect spirits were created to grow eternally in love, with a hatred of anything which interferes with the growth of their spiritual love. Then they also see through the lie that love and hate are merely delusions in the mind of flesh, evolved mechanisms designed to ensure the survival of human life on earth. For physical survival is no reason to love or hate. Rather, it is the other way around. Love and hate provide our only reasons for surviving, our only true purposes in life. Love for others, together with a hatred of evil, are also the reasons we sometimes sacrifice our own bodies of flesh. And the only logical reason to sacrifice our own bodies of flesh, so that others can live free and loving lives, is if our love for them and our hatred of those trying to take them are aspects of our eternal spirits, since the physical survival of those we love actually means absolutely nothing if eternal spirits do not exist and love is a delusion.
If an eternal spirit’s love and hate does not exist in any person, animal or plant, then the physical survival of humans and living things is utterly meaningless, and all the rest of existence is also meaningless. Then, if we “embrace” that meaninglessness, as some say we should, we also will be embracing lawlessness, so that any psychopath can murder, torture, enslave and destroy according to his or her own whims, with none bearing any real right to stop them. For literally all laws are based on principles of a spirit’s just and responsible love, as well as a hatred of spiritual evil, a disdain for loveless motives and intentions of self-aware spirits. And there can be no true consciousness or self-awareness either, if spirits do not exist. If life is not being perceived by non-material entities bound to flesh, and flesh is merely a part of a material space-time continuum where energy does not move through space in a time which is only a “now” (without past or future), then nothing actually exists.
If love and hate are mere delusions in temporary and arguably non-existent minds of flesh, which will instantly end when the flesh dies, since love and hate do not originate in eternal spirits, then there can be no logical reason to perpetuate the existence of anyone or anything. We cannot justify the survival of any humans, since all are sinners who have caused pain and death, more than any other creatures on this planet. And all other living things on earth also cause pain and death for one another, though without inwardly evil motives and intentions, since only humans possess that, with every kind of irrational impulse to covet, steal, exploit and senselessly destroy. If love and hate are simply delusions in minds of flesh, then that delusion can also be eradicated by anyone for any reason, because nothing, not even love can be deemed to be good, nor bad for that matter. And there is no rational reason for anyone or anything to either love or hate, live or die. If eternal spirits do not exist to love and hate, it definitely is not logically beneficial to make everyone loveless and hateless so all will “act rational” for the survival of our species, nor to kill all humans so all other “beloved”
living entities might have a better chance to survive. Yet, if love and hate are delusions in the mind of flesh, it is also not logically beneficial for some human beings to manifest love, nor even to think that anyone or anything is real, since there can be no verities and truths. Nothing is real or of value.
Yet the most honest ones on earth, those who see both spiritual and physical realities and rationally analyze the interconnectedness, order and harmony of it all, have actually loved people and life in a just, wise way, in a way that has benefited and enhanced all forms of life on earth—not just in their own temporary and delusional way for their own gain, but in a truly effective manner over the long term, in solid and truly permanent ways. Those honest, loving ones have also genuinely hated lies, delusions and evil. Then those honest ones have universally testified that they have eternal spirits, and that their spirits were created in the image of a loving, uncreated Spirit. All these say their spirits Page 1423
came from a non-material Being who created all physical and spiritual existence. They all proclaim that they have spirits which perceive eternal spiritual realities all around them, in all life. Only the dishonest souls, who speak self-contradicting lies, who even lie when they claim to be rational, say there are no spiritual realities, only material existence, then live for self-indulgence. Thus, who are we to believe, those honest ones or the self-serving lovers of lies and delusions? Who is right, the honest and loving ones, who all testify that they have spirits born of a Creator God, or the dishonest and psychopathic ones who command us to esteem and serve them like gods, as our worshipped idols? If we have elect spirits, and are able to build love on a foundation of truth, is that not itself hard evidence of the Creator God’s existence? For who else formed these universal attributes of our eternal spirits, as we all eventually come to a common consensus about justice, truth and love, then share a hatred of the same kinds of evil, as we discover these concepts in nature and in God’s Word?
With all this in mind, we can now begin to understand Jesus’ response to the deadly trap set by those evangelical leaders: “So Jesus, having known their malice, said, ‘Why do you test Me, hypocrites?
Show Me the money for the tax.’ Then they brought a denarius to Him and He reasoned with them,
‘Whose is this, the image and inscription?’ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then He reasoned with them,
‘Therefore, repay things from Caesar to Caesar and things from God to God’” (Mat. 22:18-21, from: γνοὺς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὴν πονηρίαν αὐτῶν εἶπεν· Τί με πειράζετε, ὑποκριταί; ἐπιδείξατέ μοι τὸ νόμισμα
τοῦ κήνσου. οἱ δὲ προσήνεγκαν αὐτῷ δηνάριον. καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· Τίνος ἡ εἰκὼν αὕτη καὶ ἡ
ἐπιγραφή; λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· Καίσαρος. τότε λέγει αὐτοῖς· Ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ
τοῦ θεοῦ τῷ θεῷ, SBLGNT). There are volumes of meaning in what Jesus said here, in how He drew a line between the delusions of men and the realities of God, even between the material and spiritual.
In context, Jesus was speaking to disciples of the evangelicals and Herodians, to younger men whom those wanna-be gods deluded, deceived and dispatched to trap Jesus, to get Jesus to utter words that could be used by zealous worshippers of religious or secular despots to murder the body of the one God. These were teenagers and young adults training to be the future upstanding church and political
“leaders” of the land, an innocent and promising hope of the people. Yet the “leaders” they followed were not leading anyone, merely manipulating and enslaving those youths. And Jesus knew the real malice their teachers instilled within their easily deceived hearts. As young as they were, they were now growing spiritually evil, spending their most productive learning years in πονηρία (a “state or condition of a lack of moral or social values, wickedness, baseness, maliciousness, sinfulness,”
BDAG3). The blind guides of these blind youths were transforming these young men into hypocrites (ὑποκριταί) like themselves, into pretenders who acted as though they worshipped God and served His creations, but actually served only themselves together with the other enemies of God. Their youthful faces did not hide the delusions about money and power that Satan poured into their minds.
We tend to think that young people in church groups and political rallies are all innocent and loving souls, all blank slates whom our best people might teach and train to become the builders of our land’s spiritual and physical well-being. Most believe the youth only become corrupted later in life, through the temptations of money and power. But that is not true. For many of the young disciples of those Pharisees and Herodians began their apprenticeship at twelve years of age. Yet Jesus saw the corruption of those youths who could not have been much older than that. God-like, just and pure love is learned by infantile minds of elect spirits, not by infantile minds of flesh. And it is the Holy Spirit of God to teaches those spirits until those spirits gain an ability to love, and to better manage their minds and bodies of flesh. In youth, the mind of flesh is the dominant mind in the chamber of the soul. But a mind of flesh is utterly incapable of loving anyone or anything, neither God nor other human beings. Only elect spirits can learn to love in an equitable, just, committed, unconditional and Page 1424
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God-like way. Thus, the youths without elect spirits will never learn to love. But youths with elect spirits are not much better, if they are trained to think primarily with their amoral minds of flesh. So even elect youths can be led into utterly evil, ruthless, cruel, stupid and destructive behaviours too.
Our humanistic societies, which worship human beings, want to believe the devil’s doctrine that all human beings are created equal, all with the same ability to love and make themselves “good.” Then humanists also punish according to that assumption, and use terrorism in an attempt to force all the supposed “free wills” of the people to choose “good,” which they define as bowing to the whims of the elite human gods. But, if our elect spirits will truly worship the real Creator God in truth, we must not believe those lies, since even the honest empirical observations of material creations prove to be false. Not only does God’s Word teach predestination according to the plans of God for the teaching and training of individual elect spirits, but so does physics, psychiatry and every other kind of rational analysis of the universe and human condition. From genetics to metaphysics, all testify to the fact that all human beings have flesh and spirits predestined by the original attributes put in them at birth, and by the teaching, training and experiences they passively receive to shape their existence.
We somehow think, even against all spiritual and material evidence to the contrary, that, if one wills to be good, that one will be able to make oneself good. Due to this utterly irrational and thoroughly disproved belief, our human gods then set out to ruthlessly terrorize the people into willingness, into submitting to them with total compliance. All must adhere to their man-made norms and traditions, which are psychopathic principles benefiting only the elite at the top of delusional hierarchies. Then, to maintain this perverted order, which fear-mongers train us to cling to, we seek the most cunning psychopaths to rule over us, thinking they alone are brave and smart enough to “save” us, by their ability to ruthlessly terrorize everyone into blind submission, so all will obey the exploitative laws created by those self-serving human gods we chose to rule over us. So, instead of training our children to love with their spirits, in the way God Himself loves, and to think rationally about His created spiritual and physical realities, we threaten them into compliance, so they will spend their lives walking according to the desires of their flesh, and let their spirits remain slaves, captives of their minds of flesh. Then, if our children do not embrace this insanity, they will be dead to us, no longer accepted as our responsibility and our cherished ones. Furthermore, the more one heeds the doctrines of a fake so-called Judaeo-Christian church, the more one believes this lie and wars against the real God, and against all true members of His real Old and New Covenant churches. For the greatest evangelists of this destructive humanistic religion and spiritual immorality throughout all of history have been the greedy, power-grubbing psychopaths ruling over the fake priesthood of God.
Lest we forget, throughout history, the illicit psychopathic church and secular “leaders” have all stolen the youths of their institutions, so they might corrupt them and employ them as their weapons against God, and against His faithful servants. All have been just like those evangelical “leaders” and Herodians who were trying to trap and murder Jesus. And all have had the same motives, to protect their stolen god-like power and sources of income, by destroying all who threaten to nullify their lies and evil works. All have sent brainwashed young disciples to beat, torture, murder and terrorize for them, to spy against their own siblings and parents for them, to fight brutally unjust wars for them, and to do all this without mumbling protests from the inner consciences of their spirits. For their spirits are either infantile and sound asleep, or loving the opportunity to serve their hellish father.
Every cult “leader” and despot in history has discipled youths for one purpose, to do their dirtiest works. The Roman church was famous for doing this. Every evil king did this too. Hitler and Trump both sent youths as their trained attack dogs against their opponents. And there is a good reason for this, because youths do not have well-developed, rational and deeply loving spirits, so they are the Page 1425
easiest to manipulate and can be the most ruthless of killers. It is because the spirits of elect youths are not yet awake and thinking clearly, so their minds of flesh can be readily tricked into saying and doing evil without hesitation. Better yet, the malicious spirits of the non-elect youths will rejoice in the vile things they are sent to say and do, and in their training to become the most valued servants of the human gods they worship, although some can also become usurpers of their owners’ illicit thrones. All this is actually why evangelicals emphasize the proselytization of youths, but do not spend any time reasoning with adults who have experienced life, who have real questions about life and faith, where the true answers to those questions are able to stir the spirits of elect youths into genuine inner growth. Rather, evangelicals keep everything shallow and fleshy, then send their deceived young disciples, together with the young deluded disciples of the Herodians, who loyally follow men like Hitler or Trump, to do their dirty work for them, to trap and kill the loving and honest elect who faithfully serve the High King, especially awakened elect true disciples of Jesus.
But Jesus did not simply utter a response. Rather, Jesus demonstrated a principle. For His elect disciples were gathered around Him. And Jesus also might have seen some deluded elect youths among the those evangelicals and Herodians too. Since His elect siblings would remember and understand a physical demonstration better than mere words, Jesus asked for a coin minted by the Roman government, the kind used to pay secular taxes. After they brought one to Him, He did not touch it, but asked whose image and inscription was stamped on the coin. Since a likeness of Caesar and his words were pressed onto the coin, indicating that it was the property of the Roman Empire’s secular government, Jesus commanded: “Therefore, repay things from Caesar to Caesar and things from God to God.” Of course, Romans were humanists who literally worshipped Caesar as their god, then also worshipped money as one of the most critical gods in their state as well. Nevertheless, from the perspective of our Creator, even pagan governments, such as the idolatrous Roman Empire, were His servants, those whom He owned and entrusted with His people and earthly property. Even if the Romans worshipped their Caesars as gods, as much as the Pharisees worshipped their chief rabbis, and both the Jews and Romans were practising humanists, this did not free their judging and teaching elders from their duties as God’s stewards. Caesars and rabbis remained under a solemn and inalterable obligation to provide real truth and godly justice to all God’s people and lands on earth.
When Jesus commanded this, He used a second person plural aorist imperative form of the verb ἀποδίδωμι. In this context, it meant, “meet a contractual or other obligation” (BDAG3), and referred to the people’s contractual obligation to pay taxes to their secular government. So, with this aorist imperative verb, our God Jesus commanded, in a final and completed way, all His people to provide their secular governing workers with the wages, equipment and supplies they required to do their works for the good of all people and all God’s other creations. Then God’s servants in the secular government were also under a contractual obligation to build and maintain roads, provide essential public services, keep the people safe with just policing and judgments, as well as to perform all the other tasks required for the well-being and health of God’s people and all life existing in His lands.
For instance, when God raised Joseph into a position of secular power over the pagan land of Egypt, God caused Joseph to tax all the citizens except the pagan priests, who taught the moral and spiritual principles and values to both the people and to the government (Gen. 47:26). And God did not allow Joseph to discriminate against or condemn the people of any other religion, race or creed in the land, but to save God’s people of all kinds from starvation, chaos and death. Therefore, of course, since God used dreams and other forms of His power to raise up Joseph so he could do these works, then we must realize that such works are the works of God, who cannot sin, who does only good. Thus, Jesus and His faithful apostles of His true church (Rom. 13:1-8) confirm these same true principles.
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When our God Jesus told the Jews and evangelicals that their heavenly Father obligated them to
“repay things from Caesar to Caesar,” the Caesar at that time was Tiberius. This servant of God, to whom the people awarded the highest position of authority over themselves, was a pagan Gentile, not a Jewish believer, not a devout descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Rather, he was a brutal and unjust psychopath, whom God thoroughly condemned. Then the entire secular government led by Tiberius was also extremely evil, causing untold suffering and the horrible deaths of countless souls, whom their blinded eyes did not recognize as their equal brothers and sisters. Rome murdered uncountable innocent lives, enslaved siblings who served God and their lands far better than they did themselves, and cherished the complete darkest of demonic delusions, always embracing the devil’s chief religion of humanism. In other words, Rome was just as evil, unjust, oppressive, exploitative and utterly godless as the United States, Great Britain, all the other humanistic nations and churches have been in recent history. Nevertheless, that vile government, which God gave to a vile people, also served their people and lands at times, through God’s intercessions and manipulations. When they were not too busy warring against God, they built good roads, stopped deadly and disruptive criminal activities, created enough order for the people to peacefully grow crops, and provided an opportunity for the people to carry food over safe roads to hungering souls in marketplaces, so famines would not destroy them. Although sin, corruption and stupidity characterized that illicit government of Rome, it still had some redeeming qualities. Much improvement was needed, through the worship of our just and loving God by the people. God had to work many changes in the hearts of Rome’s elect, who allowed those foolish despots to serve in their secular ministries, as unworthy stewards of God’s people and lands. Still, that government did do some works of God, for His people and His lands, because God retains ultimate control over all. Thus, taxes had to be paid to support it.
Also, it was not only Jewish evangelicals who recognized that something was very wrong with that government of Rome. For many Gentile souls were disgruntled too. But, actually, only the elect had legitimate reasons for being dissatisfied with that government. For only elect hearts in that empire, both the Gentile and Jewish elect, saw the ruthlessness, injustice and darkness of the Roman servants governing the lands of God. And some then realized that it was their own deceived elect siblings who put those loveless non-elect into the highest positions of secular governing ministries. All the elect were aware that those whom God entrusted with an obligation to justly, wisely and lovingly care for them, were not faithfully doing their job. In fact, those in the highest positions of decision-making authority not only failed to do their duty, but also frequently and intentionally opposed God’s will. Most deserved the death penalty, since most were psychopaths whose hearts compulsively sought the kind of evil which destroyed God’s people and lands. Still, like Jesus, those elect did not want a bloody rebellion, led by equally psychopathic men, would never do any good at all. The elect realized that God had granted the people what their hearts desired, selfish rulers like themselves. It was because they did not love God’s just, equitable truths that God handed over their land to the delusions of the devil, even many of the elect. Still, like Jesus, they realized that paying taxes was necessary, since the only way to permanently remove the wicked governing authorities, and replace those filthy despots with truly faithful servants of God and His creations, was to change the hearts of the people. For it was actually the people who had raised those self-serving psychopaths to positions of illicit power in the first place. First the elect had to let God teach and train their spirits, so they could stop living according to their easily manipulated minds of flesh, but subjugate their flesh to the minds of their spirits, after God had created just, wise, loving consciences within their spirits’ minds.
Then God’s power would do the rest, as they served Him faithfully, even in their fallible capacities.
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Only if some of the elect in a land, even less than a tenth, would realize their obligation to repay the
“things from God to God,” could life become more just, equitable and loving in their nations, so that God’s good will could be done in His own earthly kingdoms as it is done in His heaven. Only if a few of the elect might acknowledge the wise, just loving truths that God is incessantly teaching and training their spirits to apply, could there be true liberty for all, the kind of freedom which takes full responsibility for all of one’s brothers and sisters living in God’s temporary earthly kingdom. For God not only teaches and trains their spirits, but also empowers their good works in His service. And all God’s truths, set in a foundation of stone upon all His material and spiritual creations, were made to serve God and His works. Therefore, all those material and spiritual creations would aid them in restoring justice and love to their lands. Nature itself would help them, and so would almighty angels from heaven. Even the core nature of all material and spiritual creations would be caused to labour together with His elect, for all good purposes willed by God. And this advantage over the non-elect children of Satan ensured that the elect shall always defeat psychopathic despots and their minions.
The question is, “Should we support a bad government by giving Satan’s invention of money to it?”
The answer is “yes.” Things from the devil’s kingdom of the current world order should be repaid to it. But all secular governments and decision-making authorities of every kind belong to God alone.
And all are obligated to do God’s just, equitable, loving will on earth. Then, the more their power and decisions might affect the welfare of God’s people and creations, the more harshly God will judge their lies and sins. But, if the elect will obey God—by choosing only the authorities whom God has chosen to serve Him in those secular ministries, by electing only authorities willing to hear and do the will of God—God will abundantly bless our lands. Even if only a core minority will repay “the things of God to God,” the good works that our spirits, souls and flesh owe Him, then our God and His creations will serve our lands in a just, equitable, loving way too. But rebellion against those authorities, even the refusal to repay Satan’s invention of money, will accomplish nothing but more suffering and death, because more exploiting despots will rise up to rule over us. Only if some elect will labour for God, can we dispense with the need for the devil’s invention of money. Only then will all will receive all they need for a blessed, joyful life filled with love. Since all works and goods belong to God, all must be distributed according to each individual’s needs. And Jesus will come to ensure this. When Jesus returns to rule the earth, money will become an oddity of the past.
Now who can dispute this obvious truth? Clearly, Satan’s world order had created and owns all the money. So their money should be returned to them. But God created and owns all else, even the paper that money is printed on. Thus, all else should be returned to God, and used solely for His good purposes. And this is why those fake evangelicals and Herodians had nothing they could twist from the Scriptures to dispute this. On the contrary, God’s Word repeatedly and demonstrably had confirmed these truths on every page. So the trap laid by these cunning religious liars failed, in a way that utterly silenced them. They could not believe the answer was not a simple “yes” or “no,” as their little minds believed with all certainty. Here Jesus harmonized a vast, timeless, spiritual reality with physical realities, to expose their reasoning as irrational, in a way they never expected. Their subservient image of their own personally invented creator god, created in their own minds and in their own image, had always confirmed their dark delusions, and upheld their illicit, usurping power over the real God’s creations. But now their fake god fled from them. Jesus proved that the real God did not approve of their doctrines nor their stolen authority. They had categorized all things in black and white terms, according to what was for or against their own sinful lusts and desires. Then they taught that their fake god had revealed all they believed to their great and god-like selves, so they Page 1428
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could pontificate in that god’s name. Yet Jesus publicly confounded them, blew away their beloved delusions and lies like smoke in the wind. So they now slithered away, back into their dark holes.
Mat. 22:23-33,
Mainline Churches Fall
“On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to Him. They asked Him, saying, ‘Teacher, Moses said, “If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed for his brother.” Now there were with us seven brothers.
The first married and died, and having no seed left his wife to his brother. In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.’
“But Jesus answered them, ‘You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.’ When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at His teaching” (Mat. 22:23-33, WEB).
The sect of Sadducees had scholars and rabbis who taught some doctrines that were much like some secular humanist philosophies of pagan Rome. For they strove to harmonize their religious teachings about life and faith with pagan Roman traditions. In other words, the Sadducees resembled Roman Catholic, high Anglican, United Church and other mainline denomination pastors and scholars, as well as the rabbis and scholars of the Reformed Jewish synagogues. And, because many secular Roman scholars saw the teachings of the Bible as ignorant superstitions, so did the Sadducees, much like the mainline churches and Reformed Jewish synagogues of today. For they were an arrogant and ignorant sect, who laboured hard for the respect of the irrational, biased and psychopathic secular scholars, and attempted to prove that they were just as “rational.” Of course, the secular scholars were simply using rhetoric to justify their lusts of the flesh. But this fact did not deter the Sadducean scholars from zealously striving to appease those enslaving, exploiting and murdering scholars of secular Greece and Rome. They worked diligently throughout their lives to worship and serve human gods just like those vain, empty, biased, destructive secular scholars. For self-esteeming, torturing, slaughtering stupidity was always fashionable and profitable in the Greco-Roman world. And one of the doctrines mocked by secular scholars, and therefore by the Sadducean scholars as well, was the biblical prophecy about a resurrection of the deceased worshippers of God into the spiritual realm of heaven, where God Himself lived. For that teaching implied spiritual motives for living on the earth.
It was very important for both the secular and Sadducean humanists to deny this teaching from the Bible, because a resurrection of the dead into the realm of heaven, or even into the kingdom of the Messiah on earth, inferred two things: (1) Our lives must focus upon our eternal rewards, not on the earthly rewards for the flesh offered as bribes and wages by wanna-be human gods who sought to usurp God’s authority over His people and creations; and (2) Man is not the ruler of his own destiny, especially his own eternal destiny, since God’s will and power alone can resurrect the dead and judge who will enter and serve His kingdoms, as well as who will not. And these two implications severely threatened all that the pagans and Sadducees valued in life. Consequently, since the core premise of both secular and theistic humanism is that man must be his own god, and the biblical doctrines of the resurrection attacked this foundation of their religion, they had to defend themselves against it. They Page 1429
had to convince themselves and their dupes that only their false premises were true. And they taught that the only reason we need to obey God’s Law was to maintain order and to prosper in the flesh.
But death ended life, and we would not exist at all after death. We certainly would not live with God, because the Greeks and Romans taught that only the gods lived with the gods, and humans were not gods. Thus, humans will not be resurrected from the dead. And the Sadducees needed those pagan Greco-Roman lies to be true, since they had to use those lies in their “logical” constructs to create a false impression that their irrational lusts of the flesh were rational. Then this deception would trick the people into thinking all rational truths, those found in both God’s creations and in His Word, were irrational and false. After all this was accomplished, Rome’s psychopaths and religious toadies could then exploit and enslave with total impunity, for the profit and pleasure of their own carcasses.
So, immediately after Jesus humiliated the evangelicals, who were rivals of these Sadduceans, the Sadducees saw an opportunity to steal some disgruntled disciples from the evangelical liars, to make them into their own tithing and serving disciples. And their Sadducean scholars were as confident in their own brilliance as the failing evangelicals were in the beginning, before Jesus exposed their lack of intelligence, biases and faulty reasoning. For both sects were merely humanistic worshippers of man who strove to murder their rivals, and often did so in cowardly ways, like the Romans did, such as through empty rhetoric that enraged their dupes so those inferiors would do their dirty works of violence and murder for them. So now these Sadducees decided to trap Jesus themselves, and show the Pharisees how political deception should be done, properly. For they were the wisest of all men.
All humanists place all the faith of their hearts in the strength and cunning of themselves, or in their pathetic little human gods who are wretches just like themselves, in those who love and serve the same darkness of the same lies and delusions they do. So these Sadducean scholars strutted up to Jesus and uttered one of their strongest arguments against the biblical teachings of the resurrection, an argument which had repeatedly and successfully stumped the evangelicals who believed the pagan Roman doctrine that a wife was the property of a man, who assumed that a wife would remain her husband’s chattel for eternity. Every time they presented this logical problem to the evangelicals, they silenced them, since those evangelical doctrines of marriage and the resurrection contradicted one another. Thus, Sadducees often earned themselves a good laugh at the way evangelicals proved to be so irrational and inferior. However, those Sadducees did not seem to realize that Jesus was not actually an evangelical. Yes, Jesus’ teachings were closer to evangelical doctrines, since both Jesus and the evangelicals believed that the whole canon of the Old Covenant Scriptures were written through the commands of God’s Holy Spirit, while Sadducees vaguely trusted in only the first five books. Yet Jesus was not like most evangelicals, because Jesus did not lie about the Scriptures for His own carnal purposes. Also, at the same time, the Sadducees did not realize that they were just as deluded as the evangelicals, although not as deeply entrenched in lies designed to oppress daily life.
Although the Sadducees were far more passive and lazy in their war against God, and simply sought the means to enjoy the pleasures of their flesh, their utterly shallow lives still required some kinds of justification. So they had to somehow confound the teachings of their God Jesus. And, since none of the Sadducean teachings were able to encourage suffering disciples to endure and overcome the gut-wrenching tragedies of life, they naturally chose to attack the biblical doctrines of resurrection, since those teachings explained that suffering in the flesh caused elect spirits to seek answers to deeper questions of the heart, and made our spirits focus more upon God’s spiritual and moral truths. Now many Sadducees were wealthy and powerful, comfortable in their empty, carnal existences. So the petty delusions and lies formed by their minds of flesh were able to provide their cold hearts with all the comfort they needed to face their insignificant physical problems. And even the deaths of loved Page 1430
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ones did not disquiet their souls, especially when it meant they would inherit property. So now these Sadducees set out to destroy faith in Jesus’ teachings about the resurrection. And, just like the evangelicals, they also pretended to be respectful while approaching their God Jesus, as they baited their foolish trap for Him, since they also did not want to offend the crowds who believed in Jesus.
Thus they pontificated: “Teacher [of life and faith], Moses said, if someone might have died, not having children, his brother will marry his wife and raise up seed for his brother. Now there were seven brothers from us and the first, after marrying, finished life. Then, not having a seed, he left his wife to his brother. Also, the second and the third [did] likewise, until [the death] of the seven. So, after all [of them], the wife died. In the resurrection, therefore, of which of the seven will she be a wife? For all had her” (Mat. 22:24-28, from: Διδάσκαλε, Μωϋσῆς εἶπεν· Ἐάν τις ἀποθάνῃ μὴ ἔχων
τέκνα, ἐπιγαμβρεύσει ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀναστήσει σπέρμα τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ.
ἦσαν δὲ παρʼ ἡμῖν ἑπτὰ ἀδελφοί· καὶ ὁ πρῶτος γήμας ἐτελεύτησεν, καὶ μὴ ἔχων σπέρμα ἀφῆκεν τὴν
γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ· ὁμοίως καὶ ὁ δεύτερος καὶ ὁ τρίτος, ἕως τῶν ἑπτά· ὕστερον δὲ
πάντων ἀπέθανεν ἡ γυνή. ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει οὖν τίνος τῶν ἑπτὰ ἔσται γυνή; πάντες γὰρ ἔσχον αὐτήν, SBLGNT). As these humanists mocked the marriage and resurrection doctrines of the evangelicals, they proved their own misogyny, by declaring that each of the seven men gave his wife to the next brother, as though the woman was an owned property. Yet they were “liberals,” supposedly believing that women had the same kind of eternal spirits as men. But we can see, by their words, that they thought men could create both their earthly and eternal lives, through their own wills, words and deeds, then also determine the eternal lives of their wives. They thought men were their own gods, but that God made women like the animals, and that males could own both animals and women.
These “open minded” mainline scholars loved to show off their knowledge and wisdom gained by their diligent studies of pagan philosophies. And feminism was popular in their day. But that kind of feminism was affirmed by these humanistic religious scholars for the same reason that men affirm it in our day, so they can more easily exploit women for the sexual and financial gratification of their own flesh. Yes, some of these religious men blabbered on about how women were spiritually equal to men in the eyes of God. But they uttered these words through the intellects of their flesh, and did not believe this truth in their spirits. For even the spirits of the elect among them were thoroughly suppressed and imprisoned by their minds of flesh. So even the elect trapped among the Sadducees had dull, lethargic, sleeping spirits. Then the rest had non-elect spirits, which lied about everything for personal gain, no matter how much damage their lies did to all their innocent neighbours. Thus, none of these mainline scholars knew much about God’s spiritual laws, and a man’s spirit usually was not able to make a true marriage covenant with the spirit of a woman. In reality, although they mocked the marriage doctrines of the evangelicals, they were just as bad as them, often even worse.
In God’s created physical reality, men and women can equally love or hate. That is, the elect spirits in both male and female bodies are able to make or break unconditional covenants of love, which bind their spirits to God’s Spirit, and to other human spirits, even to spirits of other living entities.
Then both male and female bodies fulfill their covenants of the spirit by serving the ones they love.
The only real difference is that the spirits in female bodies tend to serve God together, with a greater communication level existing in the soul. Thus, women tend to focus more upon the needs of their loved ones’ bodies and emotions of the flesh, more than their purely spiritual needs. And, due to this, women will more easily compromise on spiritual or moral truths, in order to serve the physical and emotional needs of their loved ones. But men are better at separating the thoughts of their minds of flesh and the thoughts of their spirits within the soul, in a more clear and distinct way than women can. Thus, men are better at serving the purely spiritual needs of their loved ones, in a more direct Page 1431
and clear way. And men can engage in a more unfiltered dialogue with the Creator God, through their ability to dismiss thoughts about bodily and emotional needs which come from their minds of flesh. Consequently, the roles of males and females are different while the elect spirits of both dwell within bodies of flesh on earth, yet precisely equal, since these differences were created and ordained by God who forbids all forms of humanistic hierarchies on earth, since God alone is the Head of everyone and owns everyone. So, while we live on earth, women tend to do more works related to the needs and desires of the flesh, while men tend to do more works related to the needs and desires of the spirit. Men are better at teaching and judging according to spiritual principles, as well as tasks requiring greater physical strength, including war, which requires both right spiritual judgment and physical strength. Then women have bodies designed for a more consistent but lower level of bodily strength, and are better at the myriads of tasks required for the physical and emotional well-being of the people, including the tasks of gathering information required for right decisions made by judges.
But, either way, the awakened elect spirits in both males and females love in exactly the same way, although their flesh expresses love differently. Of course, only some elect spirits let God teach their spirits about love, and how to build spiritual covenants on truths created from His essence, so they can worship God in their spirits and in truth. Many elect do not let God do this, then suffer great loss.
For love cannot grow on a foundation of delusions and lies. The nature of all that is not true and unreal is the continuous alteration of its configuration until it dissipates into nothing, causing love to constantly distort itself around that morphing lie and eventually collapse with nothing to support it.
Still, true love is a potential attribute of all elect spirits. And love can grow, if a solid structure of truth is provided for a spirit, the truth which God usually builds up through the works of men, and which God usually expresses to His people and creations more adeptly through works of women.
This love from God proves the equality of spirits in men and women. Yes, only a few elect spirits learn to love. But enough love exists to be verified as a genuine reality. Of course, there very many non-elect spirits who love only lies and delusions. Therefore, they always remain loveless and their spirits evangelize only hatred, since hatred can easily thrive on lies and delusions. So we all see how the spirits of both men and women hate, even in ways beyond what their flesh can possibly tolerate, in thoroughly inexplicable ways, spontaneously from their spirits. Nevertheless, even this hatred from the spirit proves that the spirits of men and women are equal, since both male and female spirits can hate equally. A spirit’s love or hate is everyone’s motivation to remain alive or fear death, as well as what causes the responses of all human souls to laws and traditions. In fact, a spirit’s love or hate affects literally every aspect of physical life. And we often see how an elect spirit’s deep hatred of injustice and other forms of evil can cause that spirit to more zealously pursue love’s justice and truth, although absolutely no material reason exists which can possibly cause anyone to call anything either good or evil, much less choose one over the other. Therefore, by our physical and empirical observations of corporeal effects of spiritual love and hate, we find the reason for our belief in the existence of non-material realities, and also know that the same kinds of non-material spirits exist in both men and women, where the only differences between sexes are purely physical.
Since our spirits express love through our words and deeds of the flesh, while our spirits bear with these very limiting bodies on this training ground of the earth, it is the will of our God for men and women to express the love of their spirits differently, though the naturally sexually different bodies and sexually different brains of flesh granted to each individual. At the same time, we must never prioritize the needs of the flesh above the needs of the spirit. For all works of God and all sins are defined through spiritual criteria alone, in a way where all just judgments must be based upon the motives and intentions of the spirit, never on the impulses and properties of the flesh. This is why the Page 1432
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physical differences of the sexes are not relevant to any of the Ten Commandments, although those Ten Commandments summarize all of God’s 613 laws, where some of those physically oriented laws only apply to men and some only to women. Now, way down on this list of God’s ten summary laws, the seventh order laws reveal His will for marriage and the just application of sexual lust for the good of our bodies, as well as for the good of our families and our neighbours. But God is a Spirit, and primarily concerned about eternal spirits of His elect children. And this is why all His laws are called “spiritual laws.” Therefore, in His seventh order laws, we must realize that God cares most about the covenant which one spirit makes with another human spirit, though each spirits dwells in a body of the opposite sex. So a body’s gender and all its physical attributes, as well as all the flesh might experience in life, is merely secondary to the attributes and experiences of the spirit in that body. And God loves that spirit as His eternal child, not the temporary body which that spirit dwells in. Our flesh is only relevant to us and to God because it is useful to our spirits on this earth, so we can express our spirits’ just, equitable, God-like love to others through its words and deeds.
Life cannot be fulfilled solely because the flesh is either married or single, nor because the body may be either beautiful or ugly in the eyes of other flesh, nor because the flesh might be rich or poor until the day death removes God’s stewardship over all material things, nor because the body was born into a particular family or race, nor because the body can adequately perform certain physical or intellectual tasks, nor because the flesh meets any other physical criteria. Life is entirely about our spirits, and no material goal must ever bear any priority over God’s goal for each individual. What God teaches, trains and calls our spirits to express through the words and deeds of our flesh is all that really matters in life. Although our weak and infantile spirits often forget this one and only reason for living in flesh on earth, and frequently do not recognize the will of our Father for our spirits, the fact remains that only our spirits can live eternally, and only the love of our spirits matters to God and to the rest of humanity. In every rational and veritable way, our physical survival itself depends entirely on the honesty and God-like love of our spirits, not on the other physical things provided by our Creator God. For we can get all the needs of our flesh and still destroy ourselves, and now even the whole earth, if our spirits simply allow our flesh to believe the lies and delusions of evil spirits.
Now these Sadducean scholars read the words of some Scriptures, but did not believe that the Spirit of the Creator was personal enough to reveal concepts and truths to the spirits of mortal men, such as the prophets whom God sent to His priesthood of Israel after Moses had passed away. And, since those latter prophets explained and expounded upon God’s revelations to Moses, those Sadducees interpreted God’s Law in a more physical and less spiritual way than the evangelicals or Jesus did.
And God’s Law seemed more like the unjust Roman laws to them. And, since this perspective meant that God’s Law could be more easily manipulated for their own purposes, the Sadducees expressed a love for God and His Law, although they only likes the particular laws which they could apply to current situations in the deviant ways they desired. Although they thought Moses himself invented this Law, they embraced it. This included the law requiring a man to marry the wife of a deceased brother, if that brother had no living children (Deut. 25:5). For this would provide a home for his widow and, if she bore a child, it would also provide an heir for his dead brother. Now the Sadducees realized that, if they set this law of God against the pagan Roman doctrines about women, which both the evangelicals and themselves believed, they could expose the irrationality of the resurrection doctrine. And it did do just that, but only if one assumed that both God’s Law and Roman teachings about women were true, like the evangelicals did. But only God’s Law proved true and effective.
Clearly, the widows in those days needed a home, and could seldom provide one for themselves, since women were never paid as much as men, and were not allowed to do the higher paying jobs.
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Furthermore, God’s Law allotted land to every man in Israel, so none would be poor and his family could have a home, so each man could work the land to provide food for his family. Thus, every man also needed a son to inherit his property and work his land, or the family might starve if he died. So, considering all this, the Sadducees believed this law was good. But the Sadducees wanted nothing to do with the spiritual aspects of God’s Law, such as the spiritual reasons for this law. They did not believe that a man should feed his family through the love of his spirit alone, and so should the heir to his estate. Rather, the Sadducees thought a man should feed his wife and family for the same reason he fed his livestock, to keep his valuable property alive. For the beliefs of this mainline church were purely humanistic pragmatism, a materialistic approach to all matters of life and faith.
Their religion was much like the secular humanism of Rome, although not quite as psychopathic and destructive. So their beliefs kept their people together and relatively stable in the good times, but left them empty and totally unable to think with the minds of their spirits during times of great suffering.
Since this mainline church focused solely on a comfortable and enjoyable life for their flesh, they disdained any talk about a resurrection or eternal human spirits, anything to do with a hope of eternal life. They hated spiritual truths, especially the fact that nothing but spiritual reasons exist for literally all moral concepts. Thus, they remained wilfully ignorant of the spiritual realm, and thought, if the evangelicals were right about the existence of an eternal life in a heaven, that heaven must be exactly like this earth. For all their thoughts originated exclusively from their minds of flesh, and their spirits were blind. They could only imagine material things, that which their flesh could see, never eternal spiritual things which those material things symbolized. Then, if any of the elect soul among them ever woke up enough to desire food for the spirit, they would crush those thoughts with mockery, derision and threats of expulsion, or even violence. So they effectively kept all their disciples in a state of constantly suppressing their spirits, unable to hear anything from God, and forbidden to enter the chambers of their souls. They expected everyone in their flock to lock up their spirits, take them captive and silence them throughout their entire lives. So the Sadducees oppressed the spirits of their people in the same way that the secular humanists did. And this was why Satan invented the religion of humanism, to maintain the focus of his slaves in the world order upon things of the flesh, while suppressing their spirits. And these Sadducees loved Satan’s invention, with its rewards for the flesh.
Yet Jesus realized exactly what they were implying in their little theological trap. He knew their petty and irrational thoughts were not able to take into account any of the spiritual realities existing in them and literally everywhere around them. So Jesus chose to publicly rebuke and correct their delusions and lies, lest any elect souls might be deceived by their false reasoning. For, although the Sadducees correctly applied a logical construct, the assumed premises of that construct were clearly false. They had placed garbage into their assumptions, so their conclusion from those assumptions was garbage too. Then Jesus simply and effectively exposed their self-serving assumptions as lies:
“You people are being deceived, not having known the Scriptures nor the power of God and now lacking understanding. For, in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are married, but are as God’s angels in heaven. Now, regarding the resurrection of the dead, did you not read the word for you from God, reasoning, ‘I AM the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob!’ He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Mat. 22:29-32, from: Πλανᾶσθε μὴ εἰδότες τὰς γραφὰς μηδὲ τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ θεοῦ· ἐν γὰρ τῇ ἀναστάσει οὔτε
γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται, ἀλλʼ ὡς ἄγγελοι θεοῦ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ εἰσιν· περὶ δὲ τῆς
ἀναστάσεως τῶν νεκρῶν οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑμῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ λέγοντος· Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ
θεὸς Ἀβραὰμ καὶ ὁ θεὸς Ἰσαὰκ καὶ ὁ θεὸς Ἰακώβ; οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ θεὸς νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων, SBLGNT).
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At the very start, Jesus used the present passive indicative form of πλανάω to indicate that these confident scholars were being deceived, caused to stray from the truth. But who was deceiving them? We know why they were deceived, because Jesus told us why. Jesus used the perfect tense of the verb οἶδα to indicate that they had not known the Scriptures nor the power of God and, as a result of that ignorance, they currently lacked enough knowledge and understanding to keep themselves from being deceived. In other words, Jesus thought more highly of these scholars from the mainline churches than He did of the evangelical scholars. For Jesus, as our just God and Judge, considered ignorance to be an excuse for some sins. Jesus did not allow the evangelical scholars to use this as an excuse for their sin of testing God, since those evangelicals knew and acknowledge that all of the Scriptures were infallible precepts revealed by God Himself to His faithful servants, the prophets.
Yet here Jesus used ignorance as an excuse for the sin of these Sadducean scholars attacking Him.
While claiming to believe the inerrancy of the Bible, the evangelicals actually abused God’s words for their own selfish purposes, sometimes nullifying them, when it was convenient, and often adding unjust and destructive content to His words, so they could pretend that they held the authority of God’s almighty name when they attacked those who threatened their carnal pride, status, income or illicit authority. And that is why Jesus did not excuse those evangelicals, why He was more gracious to Sadducean mainline scholars. This is why Jesus was actually more friendly and less condemning with those ignorant mainline scholars than He was to the evangelical scholars. Still, Jesus did not actually tell us who had deceived those mainline scholars. And, actually, there was no point in doing so. For all their original deceivers had died many decades before those scholars were born. The men who invented the mainline church’s doctrines of cessationism—the lie that God no longer worked miracles, like revealing truths to prophets, and the lie that all Scriptures written after the days of Moses were nice, but merely unreliable inventions of men—were just cowardly fools, too afraid to search the depths of life, death and spiritual realities, lest they may need to change their ways of life.
And they also remained ignorant because the Greco-Roman secular humanists reinforced their lies.
These mainline scholars were talking about the biblical teachings about the final resurrection of all the dead into heaven on the judgment day, since they referred to a resurrection of all seven brothers and the woman who was the wife of all seven, and how they would dwell in heaven after that final day, after God destroys all material existence. Obviously, these Sadducees were not talking about the resurrection of the deceased faithful elect into the Messiah’s earthly kingdom during the end times, when He returned to rule the earth. And, since these mainline scholars did not know the writings of any prophets very well, except the books of Moses, they never really studied and understood the Scriptures about that resurrection very well. And, since they did not follow Jesus either, they could not possibly have understood what Jesus had previously taught about it. But, if the Sadducees did study the other Scriptures with the books of Moses, they would have learned about the resurrection.
More than 400 years before Moses, Job, a contemporary of Abraham, wrote about the eternal spirit of a dead man resting until the skies no longer existed (Job 14:1-15; 19:23-29). So Job wrote about the resurrection of the dead at sometime between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries BC, although those Sadducees did not accept his words as Scriptures. Then, about 400 years after Moses, and about a thousand years after Job, psalmists proclaimed that the deceased sanctified ones are excellent, in the present tense, and how their eternal souls do not slumber in Sheol after they die (Ps.
16:1,7-11); but their enemies, those of the world order, have only a portion in this earthly life. The psalmists also told us that God’s servant will awaken them so they will see God after death (Ps.
17:14-15). Then the psalmists commented on how so many of the wicked exploiters seem to think Page 1435
they will live forever, although possibly in name only, even though it is only the just and loving who will see a new day, a morning when they rise to leave Sheol and God receives them (Ps. 49:5-15).
Thus, from the beginning of God’s progressive revelations to His priesthood of Israel, long before the other prophets added to the canon of Scriptures, God already had been revealing truths about the eternal lives of spirits, as well as some knowledge about the resurrection of the faithful into heaven.
Then, a few hundred years after the psalmists, Isaiah prophesied about the coming of the Messiah to the mountain of Jerusalem and how He would “destroy ... the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations” (Is. 25:7, WEB). This Messiah, their God, would save His own people in a way where “He has swallowed up death forever!” (Is. 25:8, WEB). The wicked would not rise from the dead to see true life, not like the inwardly righteous elect would. For God would destroy the spiritually wicked (Is. 26:14), in what Isaiah meant to be merely a somewhat cryptic reference to their “second death,” by being cast into a totally empty existence in hell. Yet Isaiah’s God assured His own people, who learned the righteousness of just love: “Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits” (Is. 26:19, WEB). So not only would all the elect be raised from the dead into heaven, but some elect would even be raised to life on earth.
Then, a couple hundred years after Isaiah, Daniel prophesied, “... there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who shall be found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:1-3, WEB). So there will also be a resurrection of the dead from the earth into everlasting existence, some into heaven above and some into hell below. But notice how Daniel’s words, and those of the other prophets, never implied that any kind of resurrection will differentiate between genders, or that any of the resurrected will marry or remain married? And, in all these prophecies, if couples were eternally bound in marriage, but one spouse had a righteous spirit while the other had an unrighteous spirit, would both go to heaven or to hell?
So we must conclude that, since the only difference between those resurrected “to everlasting life” in heaven, and those resurrected “to shame and everlasting contempt” in hell relates solely to the inner righteousness or wickedness of each individual, marriages are not eternal. And God never said that marriages were eternal, only that the two spouses would become one the works of their flesh. In Daniel’s prophecy about the final resurrection of deceased elect, eternal life will “will shine as the brightness of the expanse,” suggesting an entirely spiritual existence which has nothing to do with things of the flesh. All will become like asexual “stars” which shine “forever and ever.” So they will be like stars in the material universe, but will actually be eternal “stars,” which we call the heavenly angels. And angels do not breed, since they are spiritual beings, and all elect spiritual beings must be created by God, including our own spirits. Then spirits cannot die. Only flesh can die, which is why our earthly bodies breed. Because our earthly bodies are created by other bodies and die, our bodies need to create new bodies for new spirits to dwell in, and to take our places on earth once our own temporary bodies perish. And the only reason God created flesh to reproduce flesh is because He wanted His elect human spirits and some other heaven-bound spirits to learn to serve as parents, like He Himself serves all spirits as their Father. But our spirits cannot breed. For none but God’s Spirit is able to create the elect spirits of humans, as well as the spirits of his angels, animals, plants and other creations that will dwell in heaven. Then God also granted Satan’s spirit a limited and controlled ability to produce non-elect human spirits in his own image. But God granted no other spirit any Page 1436
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permission to create other spirits. For every spirit is made of spiritual substances, and God retains absolute sovereignty over all spiritual substances, just as He does over all material substances. So, in the end, not even flesh can reproduce apart from God’s will. And the flesh is subordinate to the spirit of life within it. The flesh never initiates and maintains activities done by the minds of our spirits. It is always the other way around. Only spirits initiate and maintain life in the body and mind of flesh.
Obviously, God only created the flesh with an ability to reproduce, but did not grant this ability to any spirits. For God created Adam’s spirit with all its inherent attributes. Adam’s spirit was made in God’s image. But Adam found no other creature under heaven with a spirit like his spirit, and Adam could not create a compatible spirit himself. Likewise, although all living entities on earth did indeed have spirits too, and even though heavenly angels also existed on earth, none of them could create spirits either, certainly not a spirit that would be a suitable companion for Adam’s spirit, not a spirit with whom Adam could share an equally reciprocated spiritual covenant. What Adam required was a being with a spirit like his, which is why God brought Eve to him. God created Eve to be a suitable companion, with a spirit also made in God’s image, with a spirit like Adam’s spirit (Gen. 2:18-25).
Now, in Genesis, it tells us that humans were created in this way: “Yahweh God formed mankind above the dry earth and breathed the breath of life into the nose of the land and mankind became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). The Hebrew text can be interpreted in a number of ways, and many think it means: “Yahweh God formed man/Adam from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man/Adam became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7, based on WEB translation). And the nouns translated here as “man” or “Adam” here are masculine and singular in the Hebrew, from the word “adam,” a cognate of “adamah” (“soil, ground, land, earth”). But “adam” can also be translated as “mankind.” So this verse might actually be telling us something quite different from what many translations imply. First, did it mean that God walked on the “dry land” (aphar), on the lands not covered by water. Then the Creator God Yahweh personally “breathed the breath of life into the nose of the land” (adamah), meaning that God sent the substance of His own Spirit to a hill or “nose” on the face of that land, where He made mankind into “a living soul” (nephesh ... chay), that is, where He made one person, representing all mankind, into His image. So, since God had previously created all the animals on the same day (Gen. 1:25-27), can we really say, without a doubt, that God created man out of “dry land” or “dust,” and that God did not create the very first human being from one of the other animals, such as from a species of ape, by placing a life-giving spirit made in His own image into the soul of that ape, a spirit resembling the very Spirit within God Himself? And should Jews and Christians insist on warring against the scientific evidence of DNA shared between physical bodies of humans and animals when they do not even know God’s own intended meaning of what He revealed to the prophet who originally wrote this verse of Scripture?
Actually, we cannot assume too much from the creation story in Genesis. For it was written in the highly flexible Hebrew language, not in a language created to convey precise philosophical and even scientific information. In addition to this, to produce most of the book of Genesis, Moses and his scribes likely redacted a number of smaller works collected by Abraham and the patriarchs, from multiple scrolls that Jacob and his sons brought to Egypt, which their offspring had stored there for hundreds of years. This collection likely included one scroll with Genesis 1:1 to 2:4, another with Gen. 2:5-25, and so on. And the book of Job was also likely with those scrolls, although it was not included with the books of Moses. So Genesis was a collection of works by prophets sent by God to reveal only certain specific pieces of information to mankind during various times, whenever the people were ready to hear those truths. Furthermore, everything God revealed to mankind about the origins of the material space-time continuum before the fifteenth century BC would have been Page 1437
written in phenomenological terms, not as a scientifically verifiable cosmological theory. Rather, God revealed that information for one purpose only, so we might know the spiritual calling and origins of humankind. Those revelations were never meant to be a scientifically accurate account of creation which we were to defend through endless meaningless debates. Those prophets were sent by God to teach us that our human spirits are not entirely like animal spirits, because we bear a greater capacity to love, even in the same just, responsible, wise way God loves. So why should we place so much focus on the physical timeline of creation, instead of upon the spiritual and moral messages?
Because earthly time is entirely relative to our spirits’ perception, but exists as one moment with all the past and future existing in one moment of spiritual “now,” and does not actually pass linearly as our spirits perceive it to unfold, nor at the same pace for all spirits, we cannot rigidly cling to a timeline of creation events measured in earthly years. Yes, the Bible gives us a clear timeline for the priests descended from Adam and Seth. So this makes it impossible to establish a time, in terms of our perceived earthly years, for creation events occurring before Adam. But the six days of creation events occurring before God formed the spirit of Adam, could have each actually involved far more than 24 hours each. There could have been a “night” of figurative darkness, when one type of existence struggled to grow into its final form, followed by a morning and daytime of figurative light, when that type of existence had achieved its God’s intended purposes and goals. For we see that God does not create much of anything suddenly, as a whole and complete entity, but chose to make all things in nature through gradual processes and growth. And each of those six days of creation may have been relative to what human spirits experience in 24-hours. Yet more than a few billion years of earth’s rotations and revolutions around the sun may have actually occurred in what human spirits now experience in just one 24-hour period. For all time is relative, even for individual humans, and a day is much longer in each one’s childhood than it is when one becomes much older.
Likewise, why try to say that none of the animals died until Adam sinned, since that is based on false logic, by interpreting a lack of information as a proof. But, if the animals did not kill or die, then why would God set Adam and Eve in a secluded, protected, safe garden apart from the rest of the world? If the entire world was perfect and without deadly danger, why did God place His own two elect children in the Garden of Eden until they matured enough to handle the outside world? The fact is that all the plants and animals also have eternal spirits, and God ordained that literally all of those other spirits would only temporarily experience existence in temporary bodies of flesh on earth, for a very limited time, to train each individual plant and animal spirit for its heavenly purposes. And it would be utterly cruel and unjust for God to leave any spirit trapped in the educational equipment of its earthly body any longer than necessary. So, yes, there surely was death before God created Adam.
So the account of God’s creation of human beings in Genesis is about God forming human spirits in two bodies of flesh, in a man and in a woman, spirits made in God’s image, unlike the other spirits.
Then, after Adam and Eve sinned, God rebuked that sin. And God essentially gave both of them exactly the same warning that He gave through another prophet in later years: “Yahweh has been Witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant. Did He not make you one, although He had the [remainder] of the [human] spirit? Why one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth” (Mal. 2:14-15, WEB).
God wants us to love one another, and sin is the opposite of love. His entire reason for placing us in this material space-time continuum was to teach and train us how to love. And, at the core of our education is the family unit, which educates us in all the basic principles of all other family units, including relationships in neighbourhoods, at work and in all civic, state, provincial, national and Page 1438
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international governing bodies. So marriage relationships are critical to all this, although some are not married, but are members of non-biological families. And, in a marriage, a male body’s spirit is to make a covenant with a female body’s spirit, and vice versa. These are promises of both their spirits, to use their bodies together for the good purposes of God, working as one body. Their two bodies of flesh will be one unit, one flesh. Then their two bodies might bear new bodies of flesh, with individual spirits in them, but never spirits created by either parent. Then parents must serve God by raising those children according to His will for each of those children. For the spirits of the parents and the children, throughout their lives, belong to God alone. So, even all that spirits might commit to spouses is ultimately for God. And God is the only authoritative Witness of their marriage covenants. None but God’s Spirit can make any covenant between spirits legal, and only God can maintain covenants of human spirits, so a husband and wife will be made able to serve Him as one flesh, until the flesh of one passes away. And neither can overcome this authority of God. Thus, the spirits of males and females are equal companions, just as all elect spirits in heaven will be equal companions. No spirit can ever become the property of another, nor can anyone ever own the flesh that God gives a spirit the right to exert stewardship over. Then, after humans die and receive new heavenly bodies made by God from spiritual substances, all the elect shall be one in our God Jesus, so all serve Him as one unit in the infinite heavenly lands. Thus, there cannot be a marriages of two
spiritual bodies. For there can be no children, with new spiritual bodies, born of parents, thus no need for marriages. After all, parents could not bear spirits of children while on earth. So how can their spirits dwelling in spiritual bodies ever be able to bear entirely spiritual children in heaven?
If these scholars had been paying attention to the Scriptures, as well as to all spiritual and physical realities created everywhere around them through the power of God, they would have known that God is a Spirit, and that His heaven is a spiritual realm, where human beings cannot marry nor remain married to their spouses that their bodies of flesh united with upon this earth. Yes, for the elect in true marriages ordained by God, the covenants of companionship between their two spirits will still remain while in flesh on earth, even in a stronger and purer way. Yet the their spirits will make covenants of love with God and all other human spirits in heaven too, and none will have any gender. For there will be no need for the messy, compromising, multi-tasking mind of a wife, mother and companion, who stores countless unrelated details in her instantly accessible memory of flesh.
Nor will there be any need for a male brain to build a spiritual and moral structure for his family, nor to judge spiritual matters, not to rise up in anger against a foe, real or falsely perceived. In heaven, there will be no need for physical bodies to serve as one, since their new spiritual bodies will be strong enough to do all that each must do, without any nuclear families requiring the limited strength of the earthly bodies of two parents to care for all their needs. There, all elect human spirits will be companions of God and each other, in one big family. And no enemies will exist there. In heaven, all human spirits will be more male-like and angel-like, in that none will compromise on God’s truths.
So these scholars knew neither the Scriptures nor God’s power manifesting spiritual and physical truths through His creations. And, since they lacked any understanding, they were deceived about all these matters pertaining to gender, marriage covenants of the spirit, and life after death (in either heaven or hell). Also, all these Sadducean scholars had heard God’s Law and the teachings of Moses in the Torah (the Pentateuch or first five books of the Bible). Yet their lack of understanding caused a blindness to even the truths written there. For all of them read what Yahweh God said to Moses, “I
AM the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6, WEB). And God used the present tense here. God did not say, “I was the God” of those patriarchs, who had all died long before God said this. Rather, God told Moses that He is currently the God of Page 1439
those patriarchs, as though they were still awake and alive, with Him at the present time. In fact, all elect spirits whom God wakes, teaches and trains to love in a just and God-like do remain awake and with our God Jesus at the gates of heaven after death. These do not sleep in “Sheol” after death, waiting for the judgment day. All will walk with Jesus in land above, growing brighter every hour of their stay with Him. For their one, true, Creator God “is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
Now the name God gave Himself was Yahweh, meaning “I AM.” And, in Greek, it is translated as
“Ἐγώ εἰμι.” So God’s name is the present tense linking verb. For God is not only present around and in all His spiritual and all His physical creations, but God’s currently exerted power is literally all of His spiritual and physical creations, as well as infinitely more. And all spiritual time is a “now.” So all earthly time is also one “now,” since the entire space-time continuum, including all its past and future, is God’s spiritual power being exerted “now.” What I mean is that all material and spiritual existence is a part of the one God, who exists outside of all His created times. That is, the will of God’s mind uses His power to make all spiritual and physical existence exist. All that is real, in both spiritual and material time and space, originates from the mind, will and power of God, and all is maintained by His mind, will and power. So God’s thoughts are real time, where all time and space are relative to His thoughts. All the past, present and future currently exist in God, in His eternally present time, and God is time, and beyond time, outside of all spiritual and physical time, since all time is a creation of His mind, will and power. Also, because God is very real, all that He creates through His real mind, will and power is also very real. Nothing from God is an illusion. Only that which God allows a mind to imagine can be unreal. God used His mind, will and power to create all real spiritual and physical entities for His own real and personal purposes. God, a Spirit, creates so He might have spirits to love, and so those spirits will love Him in return, where both He and those spirits can also express love through bodies; He through Jesus’ body and us through our bodies.
Therefore, since God created all for His loving purposes alone, He is an entirely personal God, with no impersonal indifference that can possibly exist in Him, nor in any of His creations which He made to dwell eternally beside Him in heaven. For His own omnipotent Spirit, who creates and maintains literally all spiritual and material existence in real time, made all elect humans, angels, animals and plants to love and be loved. Thus, logically, neither God nor any of these elect spirits can be impassive, nothing which exists as even the least part of Himself. It would be an impossible thing for such a God, whose mind wills all to exist, and therefore fully knows all the past, present and future that is currently existing in His mind, to not care about even the least of all these existing eternal spiritual entities which He made to love and to be loved. For, if He did not personally desire even one subatomic particle to exist at one time in the past, present or future, it simply would not exist. God must personally care about literally all that exists because, if He did not personally care about its existence, it could not exist. And God even created evil through His love, to teach and train the elect spirits on earth to love Him and His ways more than they could without seeing any evil.
Neither is God able to “forget” about the existence of even the smallest and least of all that exists.
For, if anything escaped His thoughts and will, it would instantly cease to exist, because only the personal thoughts of His own mind, expressed by His power working entirely according to His will, can cause anything to remain in existence. But this does not mean that this creating and maintaining Spirit, whom we call our God, who dwells in His eternal “now,” does not prioritize His love for some more than for others. Yes, God definitely must love all His elect creations, or none would exist.
Yet God does not need to love all equally, although He can love “kinds” of creations equally. There is nothing that prevents God from loving the the spirits whom He created in His own image more than all the other eternal spirits He created, just as parents love their own children, whether adopted Page 1440
Mat. 22:23-33, Mainline Churches Fall
or biological, more than others. And His Word tells us that He loves all whom He has adopted as His children equally, but more than other spirits. Only those He created from His own “breath,” only the spirits He created from the essence of His own Spirit, are loved above all other spirits. And this is because those elect human spirits are able to love Him and His creations in the same way He loves.
Through love, God serves all the spirits He created. And all the spirits He created for heaven do the same. But not all spirits bear a capacity or a will to love in the same just, wise and sacrificial way as God. The only spirits capable of growing God’s kind of love are elect human spirits. Yet literally all elect human spirits are born on earth as infants, and must learn this kind of love directly from the personal Spirit of their heavenly Father and oldest Brother. For the Father and Brother of our elect humans spirits wants all us to grow closer to Him through our daily relationship with Him, in a true covenant of love with Him. And, to grow love, we must learn the difference between what is Godlike and what is not God-like. That is, we need to become wise enough to truly differentiate between what is spiritually good and what is spiritually evil, as well as what is neutral and can be used for either good or evil. But this requires a far longer and more intense period of training than any mind of flesh can possibly endure. Therefore, all the elect human spirits must be taught and trained during a long judgment day at the gates of heaven as well, where our earthly experiences shall be studied and examined more closely. Also, since many mistakes are made during our earthly training time, this process has to be completed and perfected outside of heaven, at the gates of heaven. We will not be able to enter our heavenly homes in the new Jerusalem until we have been made ready to handle our responsibilities there. Each elect human is a seedling during one’s time on earth, which will only fully mature at the gates of heaven on the last day. Nevertheless, not even one elect child of God will ever be forgotten or left incomplete. For God loves these spirits most, and all will become like Him.
Now the people who had gathered around Jesus, and those Sadducean scholars, were the kinds who had attended countless teaching times in local synagogues, every Saturday throughout their lives. So they all heard elders and other men thoroughly analyze and dissect prophecies about the resurrection.
They all saw how those men applied their limited knowledge of God’s attributes and teachings in ways which resulted in many different conclusions about various aspects of the resurrection. When it came to understanding the details of what happens after the resurrection into heaven, some discussed things such as which man would own a woman as his wife, in a pagan Roman way, if she had been married to seven brothers during her life on earth. An elder might say something like this: “Some rabbis say she might the wife of her first husband but others say she might be the wife of her last husband. Then I, like some of the most wise rabbis, think she will likely be the wife of her most righteous husband. Still, we cannot know with all certainty, because God did not reveal this to us.”
In other words, they all made the false assumption that a pagan Roman kind of marriage would also exist in heaven, and all the words of all their rabbis were extremely ambiguous and very limited in scope, all kept within the little boxes of the narrow and carnal traditions which had been invented by their own unduly esteemed and worshipped “great” teachers. But none had spirits that trusted only in God, spirits that sought only God’s opinions regarding His own prophecies and teachings, which He had given to His priesthood of Israel through His servants, the prophets. None sought God’s opinions about His own words. But Jesus did not speak like them. Rather, Jesus spoke with certainty, and in a way that made sense, in a way that logically and fully harmonized all the words from God for them.
“And the crowd, after hearing [these words of Jesus], were amazed by His teachings [about life and faith]” (Mat. 22:33, from: καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ ὄχλοι ἐξεπλήσσοντο ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ, SBLGNT).
Jesus began by categorically stating, as a fact, that these men did not know the Scriptures nor the power of God. And Jesus made this judgment without any doubts, as though He had clearly seen Page 1441
indisputable evidence of all that He declared, as though it was not possible to come to any other rational conclusion. Jesus spoke as one who knew the very mind of God, and was able to see the inner thoughts of human minds and hearts as well, then could judge human thoughts and actions in a perfectly just and accurate way, according to the words and will of God. Yet only God Himself could do this. Thus, Jesus indirectly claimed to be God when He spoke in this way, and said all this in His own name, without claiming to speak in God’s name. Then Jesus went on to prove that this judgment was right. And, when Jesus taught the real truths of God’s Word, He revealed some facts that were never allowed inside the little boxes of beliefs held by either the mainline or evangelical churches.
Both the Sadducees and evangelicals assumed that the spirits in women were not like the spirits in men, since they equated spiritual realities with their humanistic delusions about physical realities, and thought spiritual existence was just a less-real version of a more-real physical existence which the Greco-Roman philosophers described in their discourses about how to run a slave state. Yet Jesus revealed the opposite, that the spiritual realities are the permanent, more solid, original structures.
Then our fleeting physical realities temporarily stand beside our spirits, like a scaffolding used to do some finishing works upon our spirits. And God made certain concessions for the existence of our temporary flesh, specifically the creation of sexes for the procreation of the flesh. But this transient quality of gender is totally unnecessary for eternal spirits, and for the new bodies that all spirits will receive at the resurrection, since all those new bodies will be made of an eternal spiritual substance.
The implications of all Jesus so clearly and confidently taught were perfectly harmonious with all the teachings and laws in the Scriptures. In the words of Jesus, none could prove any contradictions, errors or imaginings of vain men. Every word of Jesus easily and seamlessly fit into every Word of God in the entire Bible, like the pieces of a puzzle which none of their rabbis and scholars were ever able to assemble into a whole picture. Now this puzzle that Jesus was assembling for them, began to reveal the very face of God, His true attributes and character. So, after their lifetimes of fruitless and confusing religious teachings (and threats), His words truly astounded them, in a most beautiful way.
Mat. 22:34-40,
The Quintessential Law
“But the Pharisees, when they heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him. ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The whole Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments’” (Mat. 22:34-40, WEB).
Many times during His earthly ministry, our God Jesus had to answer this particular question and pass this kind of test, to prove that His doctrines aligned with Scriptures. Likewise, so did John the baptizer and every other teacher of God’s Word. And, to pass this test, a teaching and judging elder not only had to quote these Scriptures from God’s Law, but also live these commands to their spirits in their hearts. Jesus definitely passed this test, and so did John. Yet most priests, pastors and rabbis could not pass this test, though they could preach eloquent and witty sermons on the quoted texts.
Here a lawyer (νομικός), an expert in God’s Law, seemed to sincerely want to know whether or not Jesus was a cult leader or true servant of God. For thousands of devout souls were now trusting this Man. And that lawyer’s question was legitimate, asked by loving elect men throughout history, by all who were deeply concerned about the welfare of their people. This was the one question that should Page 1442
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be asked above all others, to determine which teachers had been sent by God. This good lawyer was
“testing,” examining, scrutinizing and assessing (πειράζων) Jesus, because he had heard some good and some bad things about Him. Now he wanted to find out whether or not the rumours were true.
Some slander came from the evangelical pastors (Pharisaical rabbis), who gathered to share their very negative views about Jesus and discuss plans about what they could do about Him (Mat. 22:34).
Yet other evangelicals were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, God in a body of human flesh.
Clearly, in these verses, Matthew was telling us how this lawyer heard a group of evangelicals speaking about Jesus, and witnessed how some angrily condemned Jesus, because Jesus was not like them. And this lawyer also saw how some tried to trap Jesus, in order to slander Him, but failed. But, as an expert in God’s Law, this lawyer knew the greater failures and sins of those pastors who hated Jesus, as well as his own lack of love. This lawyer had also probably witnessed how those esteemed Jewish elders often falsely accused their own disciples of the same inadequacies and uncleanness continuously carried with them in their own lives, then even chastised their apprentices for failing to ensnare Jesus, though they could not do so themselves. So this lawyer, knowing God’s Law never allows the condemnation of the innocent, and demands the cross-examination of all testimonies, came to find out the motives and intensions of Jesus for himself. This lawyer inwardly needed to know who and what Jesus actually was. And he seemed to be honestly attempting to determine if this popular Jesus was a deceiver who threatened the spiritual welfare of his people, or a saviour from the lies and sins which the false teachers led the people into. So, unlike the previous two questions by the Pharisees and Sadducees, this question was not designed to trap Jesus, but to real His heart.
Matthew mentions nothing about this lawyer’s motives for asking the question, since the question itself indicated a pure intention to discover the worth of Jesus and what He taught. But Mark told us that this scholar of God’s Law and Word (γραμματεύς) heard how Jesus had very wisely answered the false “leaders” of evangelical and mainline churches when they tried to trap Him: “And, after hearing them reasoning together, one came from among the scholars. Perceiving that [what He said was] usefully good, he was responding to them. He asked Him [i.e., Jesus], ‘What authoritative word is first of all” (Mark 12:28, from: Καὶ προσελθὼν εἷς τῶν γραμματέων ἀκούσας αὐτῶν συζητούντων, ἰδὼν ὅτι καλῶς ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς, ἐπηρώτησεν αὐτόν· Ποία ἐστὶν ἐντολὴ πρώτη πάντων;, SBLGNT).
Of course, in context, this lawyer was asking about which teaching or law in the Scriptures was first among all the other authoritative words of God in the Bible. For Jesus was a Jewish Teacher, whose primary mission was to exegete and expound upon God’s Word, regarding literally all matters of life and faith. Then we see this lawyer’s concern for right teachings about God’s Word more clearly in Matthew’s account of this event, since the lawyer’s question is more respectful. Matthew likely quoted that lawyer more accurately when he wrote that he had said: “Teacher of life and faith, what
[is] the greatest authoritative precept in the Law” (Mat. 22:36, from: Διδάσκαλε, ποία ἐντολὴ μεγάλη
ἐν τῷ νόμῳ;, SBLGNT). And, when this lawyer referred to the “Law” (νόμος), he definitely meant the first five books of the Bible, where God revealed His 613 laws to mankind. For all the true and honest biblical scholars and teachers knew that every teaching and law of God directly related all of them to the spirit’s love for God, which is expressed through love for all God’s creations, through a love for all the people and living creations whom God brings into the sphere of one’s life. Thus, if a teacher of God’s Word did not believe and live this truth, then that one was definitely a false teacher.
Now many false teachers, who actually loved and worshipped no one but themselves, would loudly and dramatically quote: “You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart” (Deut. 6:5-6, WEB). Yet those deceivers were often ruthless liars, and clearly lacked a loving elect spirit in Page 1443
them, since they had absolutely no capacity to love God or anyone else. Nevertheless, those cunning, psychopathic, cult leaders would pontificate about this Scripture with great, swelling arrogance, and sound deeply earnest in their delivery of this authoritative teaching of God, even emphasizing that it was indeed the greatest of all God’s thrice-holy commandments. For these loveless and self-serving exploiters knew that this is what the people expected to teach. Then they would conclude, “If you love God, then open your wallets to give me all your cash and worship me, the servant of God, with all your heart, soul and might.” And after they made an obligatory reference to this quintessential law of God, some might add an emotional exegesis of God’s second greatest commandment, which was like the first: “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh. You shall keep My statutes”
(Lev. 19:18-19, WEB). Then they would tell their people that they must forgive their unrepentant selves, if they had been caught doing anything wrong. For they were just humans, and God clearly commanded His people to not bear a grudge, but to forgive. And these deceivers loved to use the word “great” to describe people and things, since each thought of himself as the “greatest,” even
“greater” than God Himself. Yet those fakes never actually knew God, and the minds of their dark spirits knew nothing about the bright, beautiful, wise, just, equitable love of God. Only elect spirits were able to truly love God with their whole beings, with the highest esteem for both Him and all that reflected His nature, with a strong desire to serve Him in all that He willed them to say or do.
If any man was a true teacher of the Creator’s revealed Word, that man’s love for God would manifest in all his words and deeds, through a genuine worship of God, directly from his spirit. But, rather than letting God write His law upon their hearts, the fakes scribbled a few words of Scripture on papers, put the papers in a black little boxes, then tied those boxes to their foreheads and hands, to make an outward “proof” of how they loved God. They created phylacteries, to fool the people into thinking that they were devout, that they diligently meditated upon God’s Law and obediently did all that God commanded their hands to do. And this lie was very effective. For it convinced most of the people to trust them, to place their faith in these deceivers, to serve them as though they were true servants of God. Yet, of course, in reality, these liars hated the real God and only used His Law for their own purposes, often with vengeance against critics and to enslave gullible souls to themselves.
This lawyer seemed to be fully aware of those hypocrites, all those utterly loveless fake teachers who plundered God’s priesthood of Israel. This is likely why he used the word “greatest” (μεγάλη) in his question. This lawyer wanted to see whether or not Jesus was one of the liars who pontificated on the “greatest” of people and things, or one who would correct or expound upon his use of this word.
If a teacher interpreted the word “greatest” in the usual pretentious manner, he was a fake. But, if a teacher expounded on the true meaning of “great,” acknowledging that neither a human sinner nor his works could ever be called “great,” since none but God and His works are “great,” then that teacher might warrant further examination, since he was beginning to understand the truth. And, yes, this lawyer definitely would have realized that most exploiting liars also would dutifully answer his question by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, while likely adding Leviticus 19:18 as well, to “prove” that they were true, orthodox teachers of God’s Law. For this was a common question, which all church authorities asked biblical teachers, to test their knowledge and orthodoxy. So all deceivers learned to parrot this correct answer, to fool their testers into thinking they were honest servants of God. Thus, this lawyer did not merely want to know if Jesus could quote those two commandments, because all teachers, good and bad, would answer his question by quoting those Scriptures. Rather, this lawyer was testing the heart and Spirit of Jesus. This lawyer was trying to determine if Jesus would answer his question with simple, inward and meaningful words, and wanted to study the tone of Jesus’ voice Page 1444
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and His mannerisms while answering it. As Jesus answered his question, the lawyer examined the entire demeanour of Jesus, striving to peer into His Soul, not merely to hear Him reiterate the data.
So Jesus answered: “Each of you will love the Lord, the God of each one of you, in the whole heart of each one of you, and in the whole soul of each one of you, and in the whole mind of each one of you. This is the greatest and first authoritative precept. Then a second [is] like it. Each of you will love the one within the sphere of the life of each of you, as [each loves] yourself. The whole Law is hanging within these two critical precepts, even the Prophets” (Mat. 22:37-40, from: Ἀγαπήσεις
κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ καρδίᾳ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ψυχῇ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ διανοίᾳ σου· αὕτη
ἐστὶν ἡ μεγάλη καὶ πρώτη ἐντολή. Δευτέρα δὲ ὁμοία αὐτῇ· Ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν.
ἐν ταύταις ταῖς δυσὶν ἐντολαῖς ὅλος ὁ νόμος κρέμαται καὶ οἱ προφῆται, SBLGNT). So Jesus made a point of repeating the word “greatest,” then further defined the way in which He used it. Jesus did not merely quote the the two obligatory Scriptures expected from all teachers. Rather, when Jesus repeated the first Scripture, He slightly altered those words to define their meaning more accurately.
Now, when the law of Deuteronomy 6:5 is quoted in the synoptic Gospels, it is usually quoted from the Septuagint, but always with one correction, by adding the word “heart.” For the Septuagint tells each individual to love God in a way that originates from one’s mind (διάνοια), soul (ψυχή) and the p ower or ability of both one’s mind and body (δύναμις). The Septuagint says: καὶ ἀγαπήσεις
κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίάς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς δυνάμεώς
σου (Deut. 6:5, although some versions actually do replace διανοίάς with καρδίας). But the first word in the original Hebrew verse is “heart,” not “mind.” So English versions translate those three Hebrew phrases like this: “with all your heart ( laybawb), with all your soul ( nehfesh) and with all your might ( mehode, meaning, in this context, something like ‘a vehement or intense desire of the will’).” Now notice, when Mark quotes what Jesus said during this incident, he quotes the Septuagint while rearranging the order of the words, then also adds a phrase about the heart and substitutes the word δύναμις (general power or ability), found in the Septuagint, with the word ἰσχύς, (referring to physical power or strength). That is, according to Mark’s Gospel, Jesus said each individual must love God “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your
[physical] strength” (Mark 12:30, WEB, from: ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου
καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος σου, SBLGNT). And this true, but not likely what Jesus actually said. Since Mark was not an eye witness, he simply quoted the Septuagint in a way that reflected the teachings of the apostles and the true church. Since the heart is the dwelling place of the spirit, it refers to the spirit and the spirit’s properties. So, since a spirit is the preeminent part of a person, as well as the only part which is able to love God or anyone else, Mark placed the heart first in this list of the ways we express love for God. Next, Mark listed the soul, the part where the mind of the spirit meets with the mind of flesh, to make decisions and manage one’s life. For one must express love by making decisions. Next, Mark lists the mind or thoughts from the brain of flesh (διανοίας) and the strength of one’s body of flesh (ἰσχύος), since the spirit uses the brain and body of flesh to express love. Since this is a standard Jewish and Christian order, Mark simply quoted this.
Then there is another passage that quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, found in Luke’s Gospel. That quote was made during another event, one which is not likely related to this incident discussed in Matthew’s Gospel, although it is quite similar. Luke wrote about a lawyer who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. So Jesus responded by asking that expert on God’s Law, “In the Law, what was effectively written? How are you reading [it]?” (Luke 10:26, from: Ἐν τῷ νόμῳ τί γέγραπται; πῶς
ἀναγινώσκεις;, SBLGNT). So here Jesus was testing that lawyer in the same way the other lawyer Page 1445
came to test Him, because this is the ultimate test of biblical teachers and scholars. All who are truly called, taught, trained and sent by God will know that God commands us to have a just, loving spirit.
Then the lawyer in Luke’s Gospel answered in the way a true Jewish rabbi, lawyer or scholar was expected to respond, by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5: “Each of you will love the Lord, the God of each of you, out of the whole of the heart of each of you, and in the whole soul of each of you, and in the whole [physical] strength of each of you, and in the whole mind of each of you, then [love] the one within the sphere of the life of each of you, as yourself” (Luke 10:27, from: Ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν
θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ψυχῇ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ἰσχύϊ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ
διανοίᾳ σου, καὶ τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν., SBLGNT). Here this lawyer also changed the order found in the Septuagint, listing the heart first, in the place of primary emphasis, like the Hebrew text does. Yet he listed the mind last, which is actually the place of secondary emphasis. That altered order would have been very noticeable to the Jews, who knew the Hebrew and Septuagint orders of this list very well. So this lawyer was making a statement, saying it was most important to love God with the spirit in the heart. But he was also saying that loving God with the mind of flesh was the second most critical aspect, because one had to use the mind of flesh to study and exegete God’s words. To this lawyer, the mind of flesh seemed more critical in the expression of one’s love for God than using the chamber of the soul or the strength of the flesh. And Jesus confirmed that this was true, at least for this lawyer, since a lawyer made his living through the use of his mind of flesh.
Our omniscient God Jesus told that expert on God’s Law: “You have answered correctly. Do this
and you will live” (Luke 10:28, from: Ὀρθῶς ἀπεκρίθης· τοῦτο ποίει καὶ ζήσῃ. , SBLGNT). In other words, Jesus was telling this man, and all of us, that the motives and intentions of our spirits, as we learn to truly and rightly love God and those whom He brings into our lives, are far more important than a physical compliance to His 613 laws, because only love can possibly fulfill any and all of His 613 laws. And love is infinitely more critical to our salvation into an abundant and eternal life with God in heaven than any traditions invented by self-righteous religious leaders, since most of their rules and regulations oppose God. By the order of what was listed and the words used while quoting this verse from Deuteronomy, we see that God clearly emphasized a personal individual application of these two laws of love upon one’s own life. Then we also discover that, to our God Jesus and to devout Jews, a precise quote was not what mattered most. Our God Jesus does not want the truly elect children of the Father to merely quote the Scriptures, but to understand what He intended His words to mean, then diligently and rightly apply that true meaning throughout their personal lives.
Now look at the words used this lawyer, by the expert in God’s Law described by Luke. The first preposition used in this lawyer’s quote is ἐξ (a form of ἐκ), while the other three prepositions are ἐν.
But, in the Septuagint, as well as in its quotation in Mark 12:30, the entire quote only uses one of these two prepositions, ἐξ. However, when Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 to the other lawyer in Matthew 22:37, Jesus used the preposition ἐν throughout the entire quote. Since ἐξ (ἐκ) and ἐν have very different implications, the differences in the ways that the lawyer described in Luke’s Gospel and Jesus each used these prepositions is notable. It seems strange that, when Matthew recorded Jesus’ quote of Deuteronomy 6:5, Jesus used only the preposition ἐν, although the Septuagint uses ἐξ
in every phrase. Then the lawyer also exchanged the last three instances of ἐξ for an ἐν in Luke 10:27. And Matthew’s version of Jesus’ quote was very likely accurate, since Matthew witnessed the event and spent much personal time with Jesus. Then Mark’s version states that Jesus used the preposition ἐξ throughout, just as the Septuagint does. But the eye-witness Matthew is likely more accurate than Mark, who merely interviewed witnesses. So Jesus, through Matthew and the lawyer in Luke seemed to be telling us something when they deliberately used the preposition ἐν instead of Page 1446
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ἐξ. And remember, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus approved of how that lawyer said that the spirit’s love for God “out of” (ἐξ) the whole heart, then used ἐν elsewhere, which seemed to suggest that love for God was “resting or residing inside” (ἐν) the whole of an individual’s soul, bodily strength and mind.
Jesus seemed to want us to possess an internal, stable and abiding love of God “in the whole heart of each one of you, and in the whole soul of each one of you, and in the whole mind of each one of you.” The preposition ἐν implied this. Yes, if a love for God rests in the whole of our beings, it will also often pour “out of” (ἐξ) our hearts, souls and minds. And that is good. Yet ἐξ implies only the love’s movement out from the object. Thus, to some, it might suggest a temporary and dissipating action of love, mere emotional feelings of love produced by the mind of flesh, which eventually and permanently pass away. In other words, if one loves God “out of” the heart, soul and mind, in a way where emotions spontaneously originate from those places, but temporarily, and usually only when things are good and one feels blessed, that is worthless, even if one’s whole physical strength will accompany that feeling. For emotions of the flesh are easily used for evil, then quickly dissipate and vanish as soon as things get bad and life is not so rosy. Thus, Jesus exclusively used the preposition ἐν to imply a lasting state of rest or permanence in the object, an indwelling, long abiding condition.
Jesus described an abiding, eternal and spiritual love that should be in us, which also spontaneously comes “out of” of us. For love for God “in” the spirit, soul and mind is the eternal attribute which He grows “in” each heart, soul and mind, even a God-like love. This is what Jesus wants us to have.
Now the Jewish lawyer in Matthew’ Gospel surely would have noticed how Jesus exchanged every ἐξ for an ἐν, and the implications, since he was an expert on God’s Law, with a thorough knowledge of both the original Hebrew and the Septuagint. Then he would have noticed how Jesus expounded on that word “great” (μεγάλη), which that lawyer likely inserted into his question to test whether or not Jesus was pretentious. So that lawyer saw how Jesus did not simply respond by saying, “This is the greatest authoritative precept....” Rather, Jesus said, “This is the greatest and first (καὶ πρώτη) authoritative precept....” Thus, Jesus did not define “greatest” in the usual pretentious way that the hypocrites did. For those deceivers used the word “greatest” to mean the most highly esteemed and the most valuable for their own purposes. Then they abused Deuteronomy 6:5, to stir up feelings of guilt in their dupes, to get them to bow their heads in shame and submit to their own fake “loving”
and “godly” authority, as their human gods, through a purely fleshy emotional “love” for God. To the deceivers, this “greatest” of all commandments was the “greatest” chain they could place around the necks of their slaves, to keep them obedient and submissive. Yet Jesus defined this word differently.
Jesus’ perception of “greatness” was about being “first” and foremost in God’s eyes. Jesus called Deuteronomy 6:5 the “first” and preeminent precept of God, thee one which all the other precepts of God’s Law followed, and from which all the others were derived. Then, when Jesus quoted the second “greatest” authoritative words of God, that is, God’s command to love those whom He brings into the sphere of one’s own life, Jesus stated that this was basically the same law. He said, “Then a second is like it.” For, if anyone’s spirit might truly love God, that spirit will also love His creations, and especially His elect children, since His creating Spirit made all elect human spirits in His own image. So loving the created spirits whom God gathers into the spheres of our lives, those He calls us to become aware of and love, actually fulfills God’s first and preeminent command to love Him.
And, after all this, the lawyer also heard Jesus say, “The whole Law is hanging within these two critical precepts, even the Prophets.” Now, of course, by His phrase, “the whole Law,” Jesus meant literally all 613 laws found in the first five books of the Bible, all the laws God revealed to Adam, Abraham, Moses and the rest of His priesthood, to all whom He gave the name of Israel. Then, by His phrase, “the Prophets,” Jesus referred to all the rest of the canon of Scriptures, to all the writings Page 1447
of the “major” prophets and “minor” prophets, as well as the histories, the wisdom literature, and the songs (psalms). All the truths God revealed to the spirits of His elect throughout history currently “is hanging within” these two laws from God. Every “critical precept” or “authoritative word” (ἐντολή) found in the entire Bible is “hanging” (i.e., the verb κρέμαται is the present passive indicative form of κρεμάννυμι, indicating a durative or ongoing action of continuously “hanging”) from that one law which commands us to fully love God. It is a part of the whole body of biblical revelations which describe God’s attributes and which are exemplified by God Himself, in all He has ever done for us.
So this lawyer heard Jesus answer this “test” in a way which stood out from the way that hypocrites usually answered it. Together with the candid, open, sincere behaviour of our God, Jesus, the words of His response deeply satisfied this lawyer. This lawyer would have especially appreciated the last clause, explaining how all the words of God in the Scriptures were hanging upon the way that each one loves God, and upon our love for other souls brought into our lives. All Jesus said, and the way He said it, confirmed that He was indeed a true and wise Teacher of life and faith. After witnessing this event, Matthew testified about it rightly and well, although briefly and subtly. In Matthew’s account, we are left with much to ponder and learn. Still, Mark’s version tells us what the apostolic church, the true and faithful church, actually believed about God’s Law. So it is helpful to us as well.
We do not find as much “insider information” in Mark’s account, but he does provide the preferred wording of this biblical teachings in the church, when it still remained faithful. To begin with, the lawyer supposedly asked Jesus, “What authoritative precept is first of all?” (Mark 12:28, from: Ποία
ἐστὶν ἐντολὴ πρώτη πάντων;, SBLGNT). So we know that, at the time Mark was serving in the true church, it was still calling Deuteronomy 6:5 the “first” or preeminent word of God, as Jesus taught them to call it, likely from the response Jesus gave to that lawyer on that day. Then Mark wrote Jesus’ answer in the standard way his church elders were trained to answer this question: “The first is: Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And each will love the Lord, the God of each of you, out of the whole heart of each of you, and out of the whole soul of each of you, and out of the whole mind of each of you, and out of the whole physical strength of each of you. This [is] the second: Each will love the one within the sphere of the life of each of you, as yourself. There is not another authoritative precept greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31, from: Πρώτη ἐστίν· Ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ, κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστιν, καὶ ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς
καρδίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος σου.
δευτέρα αὕτη· Ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν. μείζων τούτων ἄλλη ἐντολὴ οὐκ ἔστιν, SBLGNT). For the early Gentile church, to whom Mark wrote his Gospel, used the Septuagint as their version of the Scriptures. So Mark based his quote on the Septuagint, with only a few minor alterations, even the same changes made by the Old Covenant Jewish rabbis. Thus, the quote from Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel was more likely what Jesus actually said, and bears a deeper meaning.
But Matthew did not tell us what that lawyer thought of the answer he received from Jesus, while Mark did: “Usefully good, Teacher [of life and faith]. You speak on behalf of truth, because He is one, and there is not another except Him. Then to love Him out of the whole of the heart, and out of the whole of the intellect and out of the whole of the [physical] strength, as well as to love one in the sphere of one’s life as oneself, is greater than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:32-33, from: Καλῶς, διδάσκαλε, ἐπʼ ἀληθείας εἶπες ὅτι εἷς ἐστιν καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλος πλὴν αὐτοῦ· καὶ τὸ
ἀγαπᾶν αὐτὸν ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς συνέσεως καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος καὶ τὸ ἀγαπᾶν
τὸν πλησίον ὡς ἑαυτὸν περισσότερόν ἐστιν πάντων τῶν ὁλοκαυτωμάτων καὶ θυσιῶν, SBLGNT).
This lawyer’s delight in finding that Jesus both knew and taught the truth is clearly evident here.
Then Mark, who may have known that lawyer in later years, said he answered Jesus “wisely” or Page 1448
Mat. 22:34-40, The Quintessential Law
“prudently” (νουνεχῶς), and that Jesus told him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34, from: Οὐ μακρὰν εἶ ἀπὸ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ, SBLGNT). Mark informs us that our God Jesus recognized this lawyer as one of the heavenly Father’s elect children. For this lawyer’s spirit loved God and His creations, with a love that spontaneously responded to the wants and needs of his loved ones, even in freely giving and selfless ways that God recognized as his true offerings and sacrifices to Him. Mark helps us gain a more complete understanding of what occurred that day, by providing information about the good intentions of this lawyer, when he had come to “test” Jesus.
Of course, we must never test our God Jesus, not in the way evangelicals and mainline churches did on that same day, when they tried to trap Jesus into saying something they could use against Him.
We must never attempt to force our own opinions or desires upon our God, or try to coerce Him into surrendering to our own wills, so we can selfishly and wickedly obtain gain for ourselves, especially not in a malicious way which tries to destroy God’s works, or even God Himself, so we might get power, money and other things of Satan’s world order. Yet it is not wrong to “test” God in the way that lawyer did. For that lawyer’s motives and intentions of his spirit were to discover the motives and intentions of our God. The test of that lawyer was to find out if Jesus did come from God, if Jesus was the Messiah. And our God wants us to honestly strive for a better understanding of His true character and wisdom, to “test” Him in the way this lawyer did. If we “test” our God Jesus like this lawyer did, Jesus will delight us with true, wise answers that shall satisfy the core of our beings.