Thus, Jesus will reject some souls. Jesus does not call all into His church. He will never call any of the non-elect into His true church, since all are destined for hell. But Jesus does not call all the elect either. All whose spirits are drawn and compelled to treasure Jesus’ truths, as their most valuable possessions, are the elect. For their spirits were breathed out of God’s Spirit, and the inherent nature of their spirits is to love in a just way, just as the Father of their spirits loves. Then, when these elect hear the words of Jesus, and comprehend them, they cherish those words. But our High Priest does not call all of these elect to be taught and trained by Him on earth, to become His priests who will consciously serve His earthly kingdom beside Him, with spirits dressed in His priestly garments. For Page 568
He has other callings and other purposes for many elect to fulfill, both on earth and in heaven. Thus, the spirits of these elect must learn other lessons through their earthly struggles and triumphs. He does not grant those elect an inner compulsion to follow Him, to become His disciples on earth, since their teaching and training time on earth is preparing them for different tasks which they will joyfully labour at in heaven. If some elect souls are drawn to consciously serve Jesus through a compulsion of their spirits, that inner desire to be His disciples is because Jesus will teach and train these ones to serve with Him in heaven involving tasks requiring those skills. In conclusion, people enter churches through two very different sources of influences, and for two opposite reasons. That is, Satan often commands the spirits of his children to seek Jesus and become fake disciples, but only to sabotage, weaken, confuse and nullify His words and works. So, if Jesus turns these spirits away, and does not allow them to enter His true church of priestly disciples, it means they were created to to serve only hell. But, if Jesus commands the spirits of His children to follow Him, it is because He wants them to learn to fulfill God’s loving Law on earth, in preparation for their works up in heaven.
The Rejected Scholar
Now look at Matthew’s two examples of men coming to Jesus and attempting to become His disciples. Luke actually repeated an account of this event, but gave three examples. These men had followed Jesus for some distance after hearing Him preach, and likely approached Him after the crowd had thinned out, when Jesus and only His core disciples were walking by themselves. The first seems to be an archetypal figure of the kinds of people Jesus would not allow to follow Him as His disciples, would not permit to serve as apprenticing priests in His New Covenant branch of His one and only church of Israel. Matthew said the first man was a scholar (γραμματεύς). In Scriptures, this most often referred to a professional interpreter of the Scriptures, who was also a rabbi. This man seemed to be quite proud of his persistence in following Jesus. He seemed to think he was much stronger and more dedicated than all the other “lesser” disciples who had, by now, gone home to serve their families and friends, to tell them all they had learned from Jesus, and all they experienced on their trip to see Him. So this scholar told Jesus, “Teacher, I will follow as Your disciple wherever You might travel” (Mat. 8:19, from: Διδάσκαλε, ἀκολουθήσω σοι ὅπου ἐὰν ἀπέρχῃ, SBLGNT).
In context, the verb and dative pronoun in the phrase ἀκολουθήσω σοι indicated that this scholar wanted to become a disciple of Jesus. For the dative pronoun means “for your benefit/purpose,” and a disciple works for the benefit of his rabbi. Then the verb was commonly used to indicate following as a disciple, to heed the teachings and commands of a rabbi. So the phrase meant, “I will follow as Your disciple.” And it is clear that this man resolved to become a disciple of Jesus through his own will alone. For he did not humbly ask Jesus if He would accept him as His disciple, then wait for an answer. It was quite obvious that he assumed he, as a scholar, would be accepted by Jesus, as a highly desired as a disciple, with no chance of being rejected, since others esteemed him. Now most Jews were somewhat literate, since all devout Jews attended schools from early childhood. In fact, the Jews have set up schools for their children wherever they went throughout history. So every child was given at least some education. But Jews only called professional students of the Scriptures by the term “scholar” (γραμματεύς). Then almost every scholar held a position of high value and respect in his community, whether or not that respect was deserved. So, by calling this man a scholar, Matthew was emphasizing how this man assumed he would be a valuable asset to Jesus, a strong, contributing “team member,” whom Jesus could not afford to reject. For everyone else in his community held a very high opinion of him. Thus, he possessed a very high opinion of himself too.
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But look at what Jesus said to him: “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky [have] nests. Yet the Son of Mankind does not have a place where He might recline the head.” In other words, this was an indirect way of telling this man that he was a nuisance, that his didactic pontifications were more of a hindrance than a help to His works of God on earth. All the convoluted questions and superfluous speculations of that scholar, with all his examples taken from Jewish myths, would merely waste time, as Jesus was trying to teach deep truths, train the elect to effectively apply those truths, and built up God’s kingdom on earth. Therefore, that scholar should leave now and let Jesus give His body of flesh some rest, so He could do His work. Jesus saw right through the vain self-importance of this man, then cut through to the essence of that man’s problem. For that man assumed he would be critically valuable to Jesus, and that his offer to become His disciple would be rewarded with great exuberance and appreciation from Jesus. Yet, instead, Jesus basically told this man to go away and not bother Him any more, because he was being nothing but a hindrance to His works and life. Right now, Jesus needed rest, and so did all His chosen disciples following Him. Most of the other disciples had already gone home. Most were loving enough see and understand this need, and could empathize with their bodily needs. And that empathy is a primary aspect of just God-like love.
Now this “brush off” did not mean this arrogant, wilful and self-aggrandizing man was not one of God’s elect. But it did mean that he certainly was not ready to follow Jesus yet, since he did not even have enough love and empathy to let the body of Jesus rest when His body desperately needed that rest. And Jesus was not merely being cranky when He said this to that man. On the contrary, Jesus ministered to that man, giving him the kind of rebuke he needed most. At the heart of that man’s troubles was a lack of humility, an inability to see that he was no better than anyone else. This man needed to see that all human beings alike are sinners, and that even he fell far short of God’s good opinion. For he did not even possess common courtesy. But he could not see his own weaknesses and faults. And this lack of humility caused his lack of empathy. In his eyes, the world revolved only around himself. Then everyone around him reinforced that world view, by admiring and respecting him, even when he did not deserve it. Everyone in his life had likely enabled his delusions about himself. Thus, Jesus gave him the gift he needed most, a blow that knocked him back into reality.
Still, we must be careful about the way we judge others when we see their arrogance and lack of basic empathy. Consider how Jesus’ body was exhausted at this time, since He actually declared that it was. And our flesh tends to become even more cranky when we are tired. Yet the response that Jesus gave to this man was not angry or condemning at all, when we compare it to the way Jesus called many other scholars “sons of the devil” and literally condemned them to hell. Rather, Jesus simply rebuked this scholar’s pride and insensitivity, albeit in a way that would surely hurt him. And this kind of gentler hurt would likely lead to godly sorrow, self-questioning for self-realization, even to a spirit’s repentance into the truth about oneself, and into the truth about God’s just, loving ways.
So this scholar may have gone away thinking to himself: “The most amazing Teacher of God’s Word that I have ever witnessed just called me a nuisance, a troublesome brat who was annoying Him!
Does He know I am the most highly sought-after scholar in my synagogue, a pillar holding up my community? But His teachings were astounding, so insightful that I cried. And even as I was hearing His words, I realized how wrong and foolish my own teachings had been. That’s why I need to be His disciple! Yet, could this mean my admirers are wrong and He is right. Maybe I am nothing but a bothersome, insensitive fool who knows nothing and does nothing truly helpful to anyone!” Then that scholar may have done some deep soul-searching and reassessed his interpretation of Scriptures.
Also consider that, just because Jesus did not allow a person to become His disciple at one particular time, it does not mean that Jesus will forever reject that person from becoming His disciple. Who Page 570
knows, this scholar may have been the apostle Paul himself, or some other man who later became a faithful disciple of Jesus. In Jesus, our God, people and their world views can change radically, in ways we cannot even imagine. Sure this man might have walked away offended and bitter, possibly even becoming an enemy of Jesus. But that bitter emotional reaction may have only been temporary.
He may have later come to his senses, once his delusions about himself subsided and he began to see reality. Then this scholar may have become a valuable apprentice of Jesus, serving in His priesthood.
The Accepted Mourner
Notice how Matthew actually calls the second man a disciple: “Then one of the other disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, please first allow me to depart and to bury my father’” (Mat. 8:21, from: ἕτερος δὲ
τῶν μαθητῶν εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Κύριε, ἐπίτρεψόν μοι πρῶτον ἀπελθεῖν καὶ θάψαι τὸν πατέρα μου, SBLGNT). This man was not from the inner circle of twelve disciples, since Matthew called him
“one of the other disciples” (ἕτερος τῶν μαθητῶν). But he was a disciple of Jesus, because the words of Jesus confirmed this: “Yet Jesus reasoned with him, ‘Follow Me [as My disciple] and abandon the dead to bury their own dead” (Mat. 8:22, from: ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτῷ· Ἀκολούθει μοι, καὶ ἄφες
τοὺς νεκροὺς θάψαι τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς., SBLGNT). When Jesus used this verb with the dative first person pronoun (Ἀκολούθει μοι), it was a call to follow Him as His disciple, to be taught and trained to serve as a priest in His church, and a disciple of Jesus does not minister to the dead. For the dead are now spirits in new spiritual bodies, either sleeping in darkness until their judgment, or awake and now being taught and trained by Jesus at the gates of heaven. So there is nothing a spirit can do for any of the dead, not while a spirit is bound to the flow of earthly time in a body of flesh.
Rather, if an elect spirit is called as a disciple of Jesus, that one shall be taught and trained to serve the living on earth, to teach, help, heal, comfort, encourage, warn and otherwise minister to living people and other living creations of God. Yes, a true disciple can attend a funeral, but only to serve those the dead have left behind. We do not to sit around and grieve the dead, who are alive and in the hands of God, totally inaccessible to the souls still bound in flesh on earth. Pagans sit around and grieve about how the world has lost such a valuable soul, and will even lie through their teeth about how the dead were such “great” people. I have even heard eulogies brag about the great accolades and accomplishments of virtual psychopaths, who spent their whole lives exploiting other souls for profit or for sex. True disciples of Jesus want none of that! His real disciples want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For all love, and all that effectively serves the living, must be built upon truth alone. If one builds love or any of love’s works upon lies, or even if only one lie is added to the truth as a cornerstone in the construction of a narrative, love and its works eventually crumble into a useless heap of rubble. And often, at funerals, the people become captive to lies about the dead, and seek to emulate the dead, and do not hear the truth or move on into real and abundant life. Some never learn the truth, but cling to lies for the rest of their lives. Therefore, it is sometimes not possible to minister, in a real and godly way, through pure and honest love, to the survivors at a funeral. Jesus knew about this about those attending the funeral of this disciple’s father, and called them “the dead.” He knew the survivors of that father were not ready to hear about true life in God.
Luke added a few enlightening words from Jesus during this event. Luke wrote this: “Abandon the dead to bury their own dead. But you, leaving [them] behind, thoroughly preach the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60, from: Ἄφες τοὺς νεκροὺς θάψαι τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς, σὺ δὲ ἀπελθὼν διάγγελλε
τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ, SBLGNT). Jesus used two imperative forms here. One was a form of the verb ἀφίημι (“... to move away, with implication of causing a separation, leave, depart from ... give up, abandon ... leave (behind) to go on to something else,” BDAG3). The other was an imperative Page 571
form of the verb διαγγέλλω (“to make something known far and wide, proclaim, spread the news concerning/about; to make a report, announce, report,” BDAG3, with implication of thoroughness).
So Jesus commanded that disciple to abandon “the dead,” who were his relatives and friends that were burying his own father. Jesus commanded this disciple to do something else instead, that is, to
“thoroughly preach the Kingdom of God.” And the earthly Kingdom of God includes all the love, truth, justice and needs of the living. His kingdom, both on earth and in heaven, consists of no one who is dead. All in His kingdom are alive, and will forever be filled with abundant life. Also, all the human beings in His kingdom consist only of the elect, both those in His ministering priesthood of His true church on earth and all the other unconscious elect souls scattered throughout the earth. On top of this, His kingdom will hold all God’s other living creations now on earth, along with myriads that have existed only in heaven from the beginning. This is why Jesus, our God, commanded this man to teach and demonstrate the good attributes of His kingdom to His living creations alone. As for that man’s father, as well as those attending his funeral, Jesus obviously did not think much of them. For Jesus called them the “dead.” So this man’s father must not have been a very loving man.
Like this man, who was just a common “other” disciple, every true disciple, every true Christian called into the priesthood of Christ’s true church, is also commanded to serve the Kingdom of God in some way. Not all are called to preach God’s Word, as teaching elders, like this particular disciple was. Yet all elect spirits brought into Christ’s household of disciples are surely commanded to work for the living in His kingdom on earth. Some will serve His people and some will serve His animal creations, each in the way that fulfills the desires of the heart, which God created in each one. Some will serve as His assistant teachers, like this man. But Jesus also calls some to serve as physical helpers of the needy, some as healers, some as agricultural workers, some as guards who protect all, some as counsellors of the weak, some as the providers of governing services and some to do godly and needed works of other kinds. For the Old Covenant priesthood of Levites, who were the symbol of the New Covenant priesthood in the Messiah Jesus, were called to do many different works, every kind of good and loving work possible. God commanded the Levites to abandon all worldly goods and every kind of physical inheritance, since their only inheritance was to be God Himself. And they had to do this so they could dedicate their entire lives to Sabbath works, so they could physically, emotionally and spiritually focus on the many kinds of task needed for the good of God’s creations.
The Rejected Rich Man
Luke gave us an account of a third kind of person who wanted to become a disciple of Jesus through his own will. But Jesus also rejected him as well. Luke told us: “So even another said, ‘I will follow You [as a disciple]. Yet first allow me to make orderly arrangements for things at my estate.’ Then Jesus said, ‘No one having laid the hand upon the plow and continuously looking at things behind is fit for the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61-62, from: εἶπεν δὲ καὶ ἕτερος· Ἀκολουθήσω σοι, κύριε·
πρῶτον δὲ ἐπίτρεψόν μοι ἀποτάξασθαι τοῖς εἰς τὸν οἶκόν μου. εἶπεν δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Οὐδεὶς ἐπιβαλὼν
τὴν χεῖρα ἐπ’ ἄροτρον καὶ βλέπων εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω εὔθετός ἐστιν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ, SBLGNT).
Here, considering the context of Jesus’ response to this man, the Greek phrase, ἀποτάξασθαι τοῖς εἰς
τὸν οἶκόν μου, cannot possibly mean, “to say good-bye to those who are at my house,” nor anything as trite as that. The aorist middle infinitive form of the verb ἀποτάσσω can mean that in some other contexts. But it certainly cannot mean that in this context. For Jesus definitely would not have said what He did if that was all this man was requesting. Furthermore, just because the middle voice is most often used “to express a formal farewell” (BDAG3), it does not mean that a “formal farewell”
cannot include making business arrangements for one’s estate. In fact, the main purpose for many Page 572
“formal farewells” from many wealthy people has been solely for this purpose, to arrange for the orderly handling of affairs on their estate while they are away on an extended journey. And this rich man planned on travelling with Jesus for a year or more, with special privileges, of course. We can see what this verb meant from a definition that better fits this context in another lexicon: “to set apart, assign specially” (from: Liddell and Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1889). However, we can only derive the primary intended meaning, within this particular context, from its literal meaning: “to be from the bringing about of an order of things by arranging” or “from giving instructions as to what must be done” (based on BDAG3 for ἀπό +
τάσσω). And the middle voice would be reflexive, indicting arrangements are made for his benefit.
What this man was actually implying was that he was quite wealthy and first had to go and make the proper arrangements for handling his money and possessions, while he was being taught and trained in religious doctrines and practises by Jesus, as His disciple. He had likely listened to the Sermon on the Mount, thought Jesus was an excellent Teacher of Scriptures, then decided to hire Him, since he wanted to rule as a “good master.” And we can see that, like most wealthy men, he was very literate and almost a scholar, since he chose to become a disciple of Jesus through his own resolve after he understood our God’s meaning of His Word. Yet Jesus did not tell this man, “Follow Me,” as He did with the man whose father had died (Mat. 8:22, Luke 9:59). Since this rich man was so confident, and assumed Jesus would surely want a disciple like him, and the income he could bring into the ministry, he must have been someone who was highly respected and esteemed in his community. So, considering his need to make arrangements for his estate and his self-confidence, he was probably quite wealthy, with a princely status, and was not used to having his requests turned down, even his most impulsive and stupid ones. Most likely he thought a financially limited Rabbi like Jesus would jump at the chance for a wealthy young man like himself to join His group of assistant teachers, as one of His core disciples like the twelve, and give him special treatment too, since he was able to offer substantial funding. Yet Jesus said that he was not “fit” or “suitable” (εὔθετος) for this work.
But serving God requires only the heeding of the spirit, not ever the help of Satan’s invention of money, nor the blessings of one of his chief demons, like Mammon. So Jesus did not need a rich man’s help, since Jesus is God, who owns the earth and all that is upon it. Jesus even owned the body and soul of this rich man, as well as all he so foolishly considered to be his possessions. At a mere word or thought, Jesus could create all He needed, but those who relied on money could not buy their spiritual needs of loving equity, which they needed more than than the gourmet foods, expensive cloths or mansions which they coerced the poor into giving them through their artificial financial control over them. And Jesus could also destroy the wealth of any who worshipped the demon Mammon, within seconds, if He chose to do so. For every person on earth had to serve Jesus.
Every tree on earth lowers its fruit-laden boughs to Jesus’ hand, because Jesus gave every tree life and the ability to produce that fruit. And Jesus did this for the sakes of all His people and all of His other creations, not for a few wealthy men to steal and use to force the hungry masses to serve them.
Every vein of pure gold was created to serve His purposes, from the beginning of time, and was not meant to be grasped by a few greedy souls who murdered their siblings just to get more of it. All that God created was good and for good purposes, and He made nothing for the purpose of enslaving other souls. Nor did God create Roman, humanistic domestication. For God is an utterly wild God.
Therefore, no rich man can domesticate God and make God submit to his own carnal will. Our God Jesus lived in the nature He created, took from it all His body’s necessary food, clothing and shelter, but always without the frivolity of human delusions and traditions. Jesus also knew how demons, like Mammon, distracted hearts and minds of men away from truth and God’s purposes. A man can Page 573
serve either God or money, never both. In a choice between what was “financially responsible” and what God called one’s spirit to do, Mammon would press hard upon a man’s mind of flesh, attempt to intimidate the man’s mind of the spirit, and enslave him. Mammon tries to force everyone to serve money instead of God. That demon will fill the mind of flesh with anxious thoughts about how one could lose all of one’s “hard-earned possessions,” and be thrown into poverty, if one let one’s elect spirit “foolishly” heed the calling of Christ, our Creator and God. So that ruthless demon causes the mind of flesh to ignore its manager, and “take captive” the human spirit, although it is the more rational and loving spirit which should be making all major decisions in one’s life. If flesh exerts control over all one says and does, in meek obedience to that demon lord, one always rejects the calling to love one’s own siblings in need. And these sins of omission, this apathy which refuses to do what one is able to do for others, plunges one’s whole soul into a prison of unfathomably dark delusions and lies, where the light of the only exit is lost to sight. This is why it is so rare that a rich man will enter the kingdom of the heavens. It is impossible for the wealthy to serve both Mammon and Jesus at the same time. All will serve one and hate the other, but can never love and serve both.
Jesus told this man, “No one having laid the hand upon the plow and continuously looking at things behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Obviously, Jesus meant that, if one truly became His disciple, if one was learning how to serve His creation as God’s priest, it was like laying one’s hand upon the plow. It involved a life of hard work, but the kind of labour that always hopes and takes joy in what one’s hands have done in God. It is like turning over sod to make room for the sowing and growth of fruit-bearing crops. And that work was totally incompatible with the works demanded by Satan’s deluded world order, which mostly involved theft through usury, price gouging, and denying workers a fair share for their hard labours. One had to leave all those works of theft behind, if one laid one’s hand upon God’s spiritual implements used for cultivating, sowing and harvesting His spiritual fruit.
No true Christian, nor any other kind of servant of God, even secular governing officials, can focus on the works of God, for God’s people and the rest of His creations, yet also fulfill the demands of Satan’s world order. One needs to leave behind the life and ways of Satan’s world order, especially the ways of demons like Mammon (the deceiving spirit of money making), Nabu (the arrogant spirit of fake reasoning and destructive false narratives) and Baal (the ruthless spirit of terrorism and brute power). One cannot keep one’s eyes upon both God and those demon masters at the same time. If one serves God, one must completely forsake the devil’s world order, and focus on all that God commands one’s spirit to do. Thus, plowing is a good example of God’s works. Even with modern tractors, if one looks behind for even an instant, instead of focusing on keeping the cultivator aligned with the rows and property lines, the cultivator will stray from the row. Then one will need to go back over the same row to make it straight, and double one’s workload. And, if one is frequently or continuously looking back at the past rows, none of the field will be plowed correctly. Then one may even stray off onto the pasture lands needed by the cattle or sheep, or through fences, causing much loss and damage. At the very least, one will waste much of life’s precious time. Also, there is only a very limited window of time between the cultivation and the sowing of the seeds. So the one who is continuously looking back can actually forfeit the opportunity to seed anything of real value at all.
To obtain a good harvest, a farmer needs workers who pay attention to the task at hand, using all the knowledge and skill they have been taught and trained to apply. If they pay attention to the highest priority current matters, all will go well. But, if they are obsessing about past mistakes, instead of learning from them and using that knowledge for the work at hand, it will result in much damage and loss to equipment and property, and possibly end with severe injuries or deaths. This was true in those days, when the fields were plowed with oxen or horses, as much as it is in our day, with our Page 574
high-tech farming equipment. For the plowman in those days not only needed to pay attention to the course of the plow, but also to the speed and direction of the animal pulling the plow, as well as all the little things that might distract or frighten their helping animals. Then they also had to care for all their animals’ physical and social needs, to keep them healthy and happy. But a worker’s unwavering attention is even more critical now, since our massive highly efficient equipment can cause far more extreme damage, harm or death. And our technology has also made evil, inequity and injustice far more effective than ever before as well, enabling the rich and elite to virtually enslave everyone.
In Jesus day, the rich used their money to manipulate souls into debt, so they could then get their hired judges to allow them to enslave those debtors as the payment for their debts. Or the rich would simply purchase their siblings from other lands, after hiring psychopathic armies to conquer and enslave those people. Then they worked their sibling slaves to death, and exploited them in many other ways, to gain even greater profits and pleasures for their flesh. So the rich were definitely evil, true children of devil. But the rich in our day are far worse. Now they use technology to manipulate souls into debt, so their hired politicians and judges can enslave them, for the profit and pleasures of the elite rich. And, with this technology, they can not only control the food, clothing and housing of their enslaved victims, but also their very thoughts, by feeding them whatever lies they want their slaves to believe, while suppressing whatever truths they do not want their slaves to believe. Then some whole nations ruled by Satan’s servants can hire psychopathic armies to imprison anyone who might disturb the system developed by these rich elite psychopaths. And, of course, they own those prisons too. Thus, the purpose of those prisons is not to protect the people, but to enslave souls, and to keep them in prison for as long as possible, so their slave labour can make the rich even richer.
In one way, these times of advanced technology make life easier, since the productivity of each worker is greatly enhanced. On the other hand, human errors and inattention also cause far more loss and damage, as well as far more injuries and deaths, both to nature and humans. This is not only true for physical tasks, but for moral/spiritual tasks as well. No matter what one does, it can be either far more productive or far more destructive than it was at any other time in history. Today, an elect soul has faster and greater access to useful information, such as about the original languages of the Bible or about archaeological and historical data, even about all that God’s elect have learned in the past.
So a servant of Jesus can find more truth more easily, and be more useful to Jesus than ever before, if one’s elect spirit heeds Jesus’ Holy Spirit while interpreting all that information. Then a disciple of Jesus can broadcast God’s wisdom and truth to millions of souls all over the world, within seconds.
Unfortunately, servants of Satan can do the same. But Satan has always been able train his servants in a very short time, since his disciples can easily learn to invent an infinite number of simplistic lies to oppose the complex and finite truth, or do any of an infinite number of different kinds of evil and destructive works in wrong and unjust ways. Meanwhile, God must teach us the real truth, which requires time to research, prove and digest. Then it takes God even more time to train us to apply the truth in the right ways. Thus, God cannot provide well-taught, well-trained and “fit” disciples to build up His healthy, honest, complex, equitable, just and loving kingdom on earth as fast as Satan can provide servants who can simply utter lies and follow evil lusts to build up his kingdom. All loving and equitable justice always requires much labour and time, then more time to guard it, while Satan’s injustice can be accomplished in a mere moment of madness. So, since God’s servants need to be taught and trained for a lifetime, then during the entire judgment day (which is comparable to a thousand years of Christ’s personal discipleship on earth), we cannot expect them to produce as much as quickly as the devil’s servants can. Technology, which applies God’s natural laws for our Page 575
benefit, can help us learn and do God’s works more effectively and quickly. Yet we must realize that Satan’s lies and destruction can also use technology to do more effective evil more quickly as well.
Thus, the devil has a clear advantage. Satan can teach and train his servants to adequately lie, cheat, steal, destroy and murder in an hour, although he also takes the time to train some for years, so they might perfect those vile skills in ways that cause the maximum destruction and the greatest number of deaths. It is easy to teach a loveless minions to light a match that burns a plow or a ripened crop of grain, and to ignore the results of their actions, such as how the people will starve because of what they have done. Destruction and ignorance can be taught without much effort by anyone. Also, the match used to burn good things is very cheap. Meanwhile, it is far more difficult to train highly skilled and adept workers to create a good plow, or how to prepare the ground for seeding, or to sow, water, preserve soil moisture, harvest, and store crops in ways that prevent damage from rot or pests, or even to finally transport crops for distribution to His people and other creatures. God’s workers not only require much time and effort to learn to do all this, but also many costly resources to carry out those works. Nevertheless, although Satan’s cheap and easy works of destruction, pain and death can be done by even the most inept fools, they can now destroy millions of lives with the help of modern technology. Their weapons of mass destruction threaten the whole earth, and they can spread their lies around the globe instantly. The devil and his chief minions now possess tens of millions of enslaved disciples. Yet all their evil works eventually destroy those destroyers themselves, not just their many victims. Thus, Satan must continuously replace his slaves, and will soon lose them all.
Yes, Satan’s rich and elite disciples, who oppress and exploit for him, often live long and carnally comfortable lives. But their works crumble and perish after they die. So his works on earth have no lasting power. That devil must constantly invent new lies and new ways to destroy souls each day.
Meanwhile, God’s truths never fade or die, and His works endure into eternal heaven. Then His own servants grow more abundant life inside them daily, so they will never die the second death, never end up cast into a bottomless garbage pit once they lay aside their flesh. They all live forever. Yes, God does raise up His adept workers far more slowly than Satan does, along with His just soldiers and guards to serve them. But then He employs those disciples and apprentices for all eternity, so all might continuously become more wise and skilled in their works, forever. And each truth, as well as each work of God, has built upon the other throughout history, preparing for the day of His return to the earth. So that devil and his minions, even his rich elite, will soon feel the power of God’s skilled workers at a world-wide revival. After that, our almighty Lord Jesus will come. And He will crush Satan’s head into the ground, destroying his destructive mind and power forever. For, in the end, Jesus always wins. Then His poor and meek elect will inherit a restored, just, equitable, loving earth.
In the meantime, let His true churches learn this from Jesus, that the rich do not make good disciples, no matter how well-educated they might be, and no matter how much they are willing to financially support our ministries. For literally all of the rich make their wealth by stealing from God and from His creations. They steal by refusing to share their profits equitably with their enslaved employees, who are forced to work for them, or else go homeless and starve. They steal from their own siblings, whom their businesses are supposed to serve, by inflating prices whenever they can, and seldom ever charge a fair price for best product they can possibly produce. They steal through usury, by charging interest to their siblings in the family of mankind, by demanding a profit from the money they stole from them, or by greedily grabbing dividends from stocks in companies that worry more about pleasing them than about justice, the welfare of the people or the environment. Literally everything that can make a person excessively wealthy is considered to be a form of theft in God’s Law. And almost all that theft causes the suffering, oppression and deaths of God’s people and His other good Page 576
creations. Furthermore, since those deaths are through deliberate and intentional greed, they are acts of murder. Therefore, neither Jesus nor any of His true disciples allow the rich to work beside them.
Mat. 8:23-27,
Fear No Trouble Nor Death
“When He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. Behold, a violent storm came up on the sea, so much that the boat was covered with the waves, but He was asleep. They came to Him, and woke Him up, saying, ‘Save us, Lord! We are dying!’ He said to them, ‘Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?’ Then He got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. The men marvelled, saying, ‘What kind of Man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’” (Mat. 8:23-27, WEB).
Many “violent storms” rise up suddenly on the Sea of Galilee, within minutes. And many a boat has been swamped and sunk by those storms, leaving the passengers on board with little chance to save themselves from drowning in the windswept waves. Now this particular kind of fishing boat was a larger skiff, big enough to hold twelve people, Jesus and His eleven teaching assistants. Yet even these larger skiffs on that lake in the first century, like the one used by Jesus and the others, could sink in those wild storms. Archaeologists have found one such boat, likely identical to the one used by Jesus and the others on that night long ago, at the bottom of that lake. We know it was likely identical, since very few boat builders existed there back then, and they built very few types of boats.
This storm occurred after a long day of teaching. And Mark tells us that they left in the evening.
Therefore, this sudden wind storm occurred in the night, but likely a cloudless night, with the moon providing some light. For, if it was cloudy, or a new moon provided no light, they would have waited until morning. Then Mark and Luke both mentioned that Jesus said: “We should go to the other side”
(Mark 4:35, Luke 8:22, from: Διέλθωμεν εἰς τὸ πέραν). Of course, if they were on “the other side” of the lake, opposite their home base in Capernaum, they must have been on the south shore, possibly up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) away from Capernaum. So this would be a long trip for those tired men. In a sailboat, if they headed straight for the opposite shore, the trip would take at least four hours, or up to eight hours, depending on whether the winds were favourable or not. Of course, small vessels, like theirs, usually stayed close to the shores. For fishermen on the lake had no instruments to set a course straight for the opposite shore, and they also wanted to be able to beach the boat more quickly on solid land, if a storm suddenly rose up. But hugging the shore would have made the journey about two to six hours longer. So it seems that Jesus wanted them to cross right down the middle of the lake, in the approximate direction of Capernaum, to save save time and effort, even though it would be more dangerous. Then, just as those experienced fishermen feared, a sudden and violent wind storm hit the lake, possibly due to the angry thoughts of our God Jesus while He slept.
Since they left in the evening, night fell shortly after they set sail. Now these fishermen were used to sailing at night, since they most often fished after dark, when they could use lanterns to draw fish near to their nets. Yet they seldom ventured into the middle of the lake, knowing that wind storms came very suddenly in that region, and the waves could easily lap over their shallow gunnels, filling the boat, making it uncontrollable and possibly sinking it under the large waves. And that is exactly what was happening. Now they were taking on water fast, and it seemed as though they would soon drown in the terrifying darkness of those deep waters. In the meantime, Jesus lay on a cushion at the back of the boat, fast asleep (Mark 4:38). And not even the violent heaving boat not the panicked shouts of His disciples woke Him. Thus, His body must have been extremely exhausted. But it also Page 577
shows us how much confidence Jesus had in His ability to control any dangers He might face, that is, until He chose to die at His appointed time. For anyone resting this peacefully has no fear of danger.
Yet His very mortal disciples obviously did not have that kind of confidence. So they it seems that they shook Him to wake Him. Then some told Him that their deaths were immanent (Luke 8:24).
Others became angry with His lack of concern regarding this dire situations, and asked our God Jesus: “Does it not concern You that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38, from: Διδάσκαλε, οὐ μέλει σοι
ὅτι ἀπολλύμεθα;). They sounded just like we do when we pray during our times of trouble. For our fleshy nature often accuses our God of not loving us when we face danger, or if He is not doing what we want Him to do. But Matthew said at least one man there possessed enough confidence in Jesus’
wisdom and power to beg Him, “Lord, please save [us]!” (Mat. 8:25, from: Κύριε, σῶσον, where the aorist imperative form of σώζω indicates that he politely begged Jesus to entirely save their lives).
Keep in mind that this was an impossible situation. You cannot fight creation’s need to move its air, water or land masses, that is, unless you happen to be thee Creator who maintains all that creation.
So these men had a right to be very afraid. Death would be inevitable out there in the middle of this large body of water at night during a ruthless wind storm. Their little lamp would soon go out, and the waves would swallow them, nullifying every shred of hope that they could make it to the shore.
Yet at least one of them actually actually believed that Jesus was thee Creator God, the Spirit who made and controls all the material universe. For one of them actually asked Jesus to save them, as though he knew Jesus was able to miraculously stop the wind or else carry the boat back to shore.
All the disciples knew that Jesus even cast out demons who possessed enough power to overcome any kind of human being, and that Jesus healed infirmities which could never be healed by man or nature. So they all realized that Jesus possessed some of the power and authority of the utterly holy, creating, maintaining Spirit of God. Yet most were not yet fully aware that the whole of the Creator God actually existed inside Jesus. So Jesus, through that Spirit inside Him, then spoke through the mouth of His body and rebuked them, saying: “Why are you men of little faith afraid?” (Mat. 8:26, from: Τί δειλοί ἐστε, ὀλιγόπιστοι;, SBLGNT). Here Jesus called His core teaching disciples, the assistants He personally chose from the most adept of all His disciples, “men of little faith.” So they were just like us. And He clearly implied that they should not be timid or fearful, as long as He was with them, even if they were in a situation where unconquerable nature itself provided no escape from certain death in darkness of the night. Though they were beyond the help of man and all human resources, cunning or authority, He was there! They had all seen His power and authority, how He was able to command obedience from both material and spiritual realities. And they all believed He was able to cast out demons and heal. Their elect spirits possessed that much faith in Him, which is far more faith than we have in Jesus. But now it was time to grow that little bit of faith a little more.
This time, Jesus would not merely command demonic spirits and human bodies of flesh to do His own bidding, but even the incomprehensible forces of nature working within hundreds of miles of that location. He told the high and low pressure areas in distant places, which caused the winds of the storm, to instantly change, according to His will. This calming of the storm was actually a very complex matter, involving many forces of nature to be immediately and radically adjusted, even the ear canals in the people and creatures within those affected areas. Yet all Jesus said to those forces of nature was this: “Remain silent! Be entirely muzzled and remain unable to bite!” (Mark 4:39, from: Σιώπα, πεφίμωσο, SBLGNT, note the perfect passive imperative form of φιμόω). Then we are told,
“And great tranquility came” (Mat. 8:26, from: καὶ ἐγένετο γαλήνη μεγάλη, SBLGNT). The will of Jesus’ Spirit stopped the roaring waves and muzzled the wind, through His own authority and two short commands. And those two figurative commands were uttered for the sakes of His disciples, so Page 578
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they might know the storm suddenly ceased through His will, that it was not a natural event. All of them realized this too. This is why they were so amazed. His power was beyond their imaginations.
Again, I repeat that this event of Jesus quieting a storm occurred just before Jesus called Matthew to become one of His twelve core disciples, to serve Him as His assistant teachers. Yet Matthew spent every day with Jesus and those other eleven disciples for almost three years, during almost the entire time of Jesus’ ministry. Matthew witnessed Jesus as the King of Israel and the world, as the baptized final High Priest of Israel and as the authoritative Great Prophet. So Matthew learned more about Jesus and the eleven than Mark and Luke did. For Mark and Luke acquired most of their information third hand, that is, from eye-witnesses of the events, and long after the events occurred. Neither Mark nor Luke lived with Jesus and the twelve during those three years. So, of the three synoptic Gospels, we mostly trust the order of events and other details described by Matthew, and Matthew’s Gospel is the most accurate in terms of what the eleven disciples on that boat were thinking after Jesus calmed the storm. Now, since all three Gospels recorded what those disciples in the boat were thinking, we know their thinking held some kind of significant doctrinal information that they and God wanted us all to know and and understand. Also, we know that Matthew, Mark and Luke all heard what the eleven were thinking and saying directly from the mouths of at least some of those eleven who were in the boat. Therefore, we need to seriously examine and ponder what they thought.
The thoughts and words of those eleven disciples were not mere frivolous emotions, not just a trite little observation of comically their minds of flesh reacted to seeing Jesus calm the storm. And, having seen reactions to other miracles, I can testify that this account of their thoughts was much more than that. Matthew tells us that the disciples thought and privately said to one another: “What kind [of man] is this, that even the winds and the sea heed Him?” (Mat. 8:27, from: Ποταπός ἐστιν
οὗτος ὅτι καὶ οἱ ἄνεμοι καὶ ἡ θάλασσα αὐτῷ ὑπακούουσιν;, SBLGNT). The mind of flesh cannot make sense of a miracle or supernatural event when it sees it. So it will either try to comprehend it, simply accept what it saw, or immediately attempt to wipe that event out of its memory. And those whose minds of flesh refuse to accept what they actually saw will actually retain the details of the miracle in their minds, but only as a sort of unconscious “feeling,” but will not marvel at a miracle at all. Yet some minds of flesh will look for physical causes, or for some kinds of physical tricks that caused a false appearance of a sign or wonder. These want a rational explanation. After all, the flesh is part of the material world, and seeks to explain all it sees in terms of physical causes and effects.
The eleven in that boat were all realists, all men who sought to understand all they saw around them.
And, in fact, this was one of the reasons Jesus chose them to be His assistant teachers, because God created these men with minds of flesh of this kind, to help their spirits do their earthly works of learning and teaching the truth. Their temporary mind of flesh, made of carbon-based compounds which will soon pass away, could not help but always question things and seek answers, because God programmed their genetics to form brains which would do that. So a man seeing a miracle like Jesus calming a storm with a verbal command, would first assume the wind and sea must have been calmed so rapidly due to some kind of a natural phenomenon. Yet they lived next to this lake, and had fished on it daily for many years. So they knew this lake and its storms extremely well. They spent their lives watching and predicting the weather. But this storm calmed far to quickly to be any kind of natural event. Then there was the fact that Jesus uttered a command for the storm to cease at the very moment it stopped. Of course, this might mean that Jesus was the only one who had the presence of mind to observe that the storm front was moving on. Yet He was sleeping just a seconds before He gave the command, and was not an experienced sailor like them. Meanwhile, they had all been peering into the storm looking for a chance that it was abating, but saw only signs of it growing Page 579
stronger. Furthermore, why would Jesus try to trick them like that? For Jesus was always a totally honest and serious Teacher. Thus, their fleshy thoughts about this being a natural occurrence could not be justified at all. They found it impossible to reconcile what they clearly saw with any kind of natural and logical outcome that should have occurred. They were forced to conclude that a miracle occurred before their eyes. And the absolute power of it amazed them. Consequently, we need to trust those eleven honest and reliable witnesses, who were experts on weather patterns in that region.
And the only rational conclusion we can come to is that this calming of the storm was definitely a supernatural event, not a natural event. We cannot be so irrational as to think, because we have never seen an elephant, that elephants must not exist, and that these men were either duped or just lying.
In our day, many completely irrational materialists claim they are more rational than theists because they alone blind themselves to all the evidence that is contrary to their biases and blind faith in their humanistic systems. Yet it is obvious that the rational, honest, expert minds of flesh in those eleven men could not come up with any feasible, logical explanation for the way this event occurred. For that storm instantly ceased throughout that entire area, for as far as they could see. They knew that lake and its weather better than anybody, since they had to become experts for their own survival, as fishermen on that lake. Yet they all witnessed how that storm ceased immediately after Jesus uttered those two short commands, in a way they never saw before. So who are we to believe? Should we join the camp of biased doubters or should we actually believe these eleven honest, reliable experts?
Still, I have seen some minds of flesh reserve judgment about a witnessed miracle until they can reconstruct the event of that miracle in their own imaginations, until they can change the details into something that their minds of flesh can accept. Their memories are conformed into some kind of plausible physical explanation. That is, they lie to themselves, so they will not have to face the fact that they saw real evidence of spiritual forces that exerted power over physical existence. This is most common among those who practise blind faith in the religion of materialistic humanism, who worship only human beings and nature. However, even these retain the memory of those events in the minds of their spirits, since the minds of spirits never forget anything. So even those materialists inwardly admit that they saw a true miracle when they are deeply confronted by a demand for their confession. They bitterly fight that reality, but cannot always suppress the “feeling” that they did actually see what they actually saw. But, most often, they can simply blank the miraculous event out of their minds and avoid anyone who might remind them about it, so they will not need to face the consequences of knowing that life is more than meeting the needs of their flesh, about obtaining all the pleasures of the flesh possible before they grow too old to enjoy them, or die. Then there are a those vile non-elect souls with awakened spirits who comprehend spiritual forces at work, but try to either exploit them for personal gain or lie about them, to slander God in some way. On the other hand, there always will be elect souls with awakened spirits too, whose minds of flesh will logically analyze what they saw and conclude that it is beyond the natural, then accept those spiritual realities.
If we look at how the disciples in that boat reacted to this miracle, we find evidence that they were the latter kind. Clearly, they had elect spirits which were fully awake. So they honestly assessed and accepted the occurrence of that miracle, and all it implied. This is what Matthew, Mark and Luke, who had all seen many different reactions to miracles, were telling us. Those eleven men were thinking: “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea heed Him?” None but the one God, who created and maintains all existence, could possibly do what Jesus did, in that way on that day. All knew this as a fact, as an accepted reality. Of course, all of them had also seen how Jesus’
body of flesh possessed the very same weaknesses that they had. For Jesus’ body also grew hungry or thirsty, became tired and required sleep, just like all of them did. In fact, they had just witnessed Page 580
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His flesh fall asleep. So they all knew Jesus was definitely a human being, like them, with flesh and blood requiring food, clothing, shelter, everything they also needed to remain alive. Yet they also saw him instantly heal and cast out demons too. And Jesus did those miracles in the same way He calmed this storm, that is, according to the will of His own Spirit, in His own name. But doing miracles for one person at a time was one thing, since their minds of flesh could somehow explain that away. Perhaps the wills of those who were healed cooperated with the will of Jesus, to work the power to heal or cast out demons. But that was not true. Actually, only the will of Jesus healed those people or cast out those overpowering demons, sometimes against the recipient’s human will. But now they saw how even mighty inanimate forces of vast lands, air and water obeyed Jesus. And this was far too much for their compromising minds of flesh to explain away. This truly amazed them.
God, who maintains all existence in real time, whose hand is causing each event as it is occurring, cannot sleep for even a tiny fraction of a second. If God ceased from exerting His power and energy for just one immeasurably small moment, all existence would instantly vanish. And God is without any needs whatsoever, since He existed before all time, even before His created time in heaven, and before all other spiritual and physical entities existed. Thus, He created all existence, and all needs Him, but He needs nothing. Also, since God is the only entity existing outside of both material and heavenly time, He is, therefore, the only entity without a beginning too. Yet this God, who is a Spirit existing outside of all the temporary material time, space and energy that He will someday cause to cease from existence, can be fully inside any part of that material existence. For He is not limited by any of His material creations of time, space or matter consisting of physical energy, which is actually His spiritual power transformed into material existence. So literally all of God is in any person or place He chooses to be at any time, even while He is everywhere at the same time. And now the eleven realized that the Spirit of life inside the body of flesh called Jesus was the Spirit of God, even the whole of God. Before this, they knew that some of God resided in Jesus, since Jesus commanded miracles to occur in His own name, through His own will, authority and power. Yet this event drove home the fact that the entire whole of the Creator God, the Spirit existing outside of time, dwelt in Jesus. The Spirit maintaining and controlling the events of all material existence in real time, the Spirit bearing literally all of the one God’s attributes and power, was Jesus’ Spirit inside that body.
After Jesus’ body of flesh rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, He sent His Holy Spirit of Yahweh to many elect whom He had humbled and awakened, the Spirit of life that had dwelt in His body of flesh, the Spirit who is fully and wholly the Creator God. Now the whole of God Himself comes to dwell in chambers of human souls, beside the awakened elect spirits of His children, inside those He calls into His priesthood of His true church of Israel. God Himself comes to teach and train sinful, deceived, foolish human lives to justly love, to minister to His creations in right, wise ways.
Now the omniscient Designer and Creator of truth, wisdom and laws of nature draws nearer to us than Jesus was with those disciples in that boat on that day. Therefore, just as those eleven disciples should not have feared the power of nature, although it was far beyond their control and threatened certain death, but should have remained calm, because their almighty Creator and God was in that boat with them, then we should also remain calm in our storms. For He is with us too, even in us.
Jesus’ Spirit was not yet dwelling inside the eleven. But, after those disciples received Jesus’ Holy Spirit in them, all walked courageously, even into the death of their flesh. Not one of those faithful disciples, when their spirits prayed, let fear consume them. Now we also need to turn the eyes of our spirits toward our God Jesus, and heed Him. We too must bravely, faithfully and confidently say and do the just works of love He calls our spirits to accomplish in His name, through His will, power, authority and commands. For our wills shall not be done. But His will is always completed in full.
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Mat. 8:28-34,
How God Allows Evil
“When He came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way. Behold, they cried out, saying, ‘What do we have to do with You, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’ Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them. The demons begged Him, saying, ‘If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of pigs.’
“He said to them, ‘Go!’ They came out, and went into the herd of pigs: and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea, and died in the water.
“Those who fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons. Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw Him, they begged that He would depart from their borders” (Mat.
8:28-34, WEB).
After battling the storm throughout the night, and shortly after Jesus calmed the wind and waves, the disciples headed for the nearest shore. They needed rest, as well as a place to dry their clothes and gear. Here we see that the storm drove them near the east shore of the lake, about half the distance to the shore of Capernaum, near a town called Gergesa—a town which seems to be associated with the city of Gadara, more than it was with the nearer city of Hippos. And both of these cities were part of a region of ten cities called the Decapolis, in what is now Syria. It was an antisemitic Gentile land, Hellenized for centuries, but rife with superstitions and idolaters who worshippers demonic spirits.
Then a strange event of casting out demons into pigs occurred, one which is far more difficult to understand than most. Matthew incites to ask what it meant and why it occurred in the way it did.
And, before we can comprehend it, we first need to consider a number of biblical teachings, such as the immutable nature of God, the unalterable way He created the sinless spirits of animals, the rebellious nature of demonic spirits, as well as how God will often grants permission for demonic spirits to sin, yet in a way where His uncompromising holy nature always transforms their sins into a greater good. Here we see how everything the demons touch ends in ruin and death, but everything Jesus touches becomes a sane, open-eyed, purposeful, constructive, beautiful and full of eternal life.
Mark (5:1-17) and Luke (8:26-37) provide more details about this event, and also reinforce the idea that this miracle bears significant meaning, that we need to understand why it occurred and the spiritual implications of it. For, if all three synoptic Gospels recorded this event, there is obviously something about it which all the apostles, led by Jesus’ Holy Spirit, wanted us to know. But Mark and Luke primarily focus upon one of the two demon-possessed men, while Matthew tells us about two men. And there must have been two, one man who was possessed by a “Legion” of demons and one who was his demon-possessed side-kick. For Mark said the man with a “Legion” of demons had already heard Jesus say, “You, the unclean spirit, come out of the person” (Mark 5:8, from: Ἔξελθε
τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἀκάθαρτον ἐκ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, SBLGNT), and Jesus said this before He cast the legion out of the other man. So, knowing that demons cannot disobey Jesus, this must have been when Jesus cast out the demon from the other man. Then Luke told us that the man who was possessed by the “Legion” spoke to Jesus for a reason, since he saw Jesus do something at a previous time: “For He commanded the unclean spirit to come out from the person” (Luke 8:29, from: παρήγγελλεν γὰρ
τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἀκαθάρτῳ ἐξελθεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, SBLGNT). And Luke said this before He Page 582
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cast the legion out. So both Mark and Luke hinted that Jesus already cast the demon out of one man.
But Mark and Luke were not as well-informed about the historical event as Matthew was. So they heard the story from an eye-witness, did not understand that there were two men there, then simply wrote what they knew, but did not record what they were not certain about. Yet Matthew knew there were two men, although he also focused primarily on the man with the legion, and also only implied that Jesus first cast out a demon from another man, before He also cast out that legion of demons.
Clearly, if Jesus had already told a demonic spirit to depart from one person, it already had left that man, since no demon can possibly disobey Jesus. Yet the legion of demons, in the man whom Mark and Luke spoke about, still remained in that man. For those demons began speaking to Jesus, asking if they could enter the herd of swine. Also, why would those demons say such a thing, unless they had already seen how Jesus cast a companion demonic spirit into hell, from the other man? What the legion of demons wanted was to remain in this temporary material world for a time. The “Legion”
seems to have asked to be cast into a herd of sinless animals after Jesus had already cast out the other man’s demon. Thus, we can logically conclude that, since there were two demon-possessed men in Matthew’s account, Mark and Luke simply glossed over this fact, in order to focus on the part of this event which contained the deeper theological implications. And the eye-witnesses interviewed by Mark and Luke likely did the same, so Mark and Luke may not have even realized that a second demon-possessed man was there. That is, all three Gospels can be harmonized, if we assume that Jesus first cast out a demonic spirit from one man. Then Jesus turned to other with the “Legion” of demons in him. But, before Jesus could speak again, the “Legion” tried to strike a deal, and asked if they could enter the swine pasturing nearby. And, remarkably, Jesus allowed those demons to do so.
All three synoptic Gospels merely provide a synopsis of this event. Each apostle provided a brief and compressed version of this event, where each omitted some details that he deemed insignificant and not worth mentioning. But none of the three apostles actually contradicted the others. Each wrote from a different perspective, and each chose what he did or did not need to write down on his limited amount of expensive parchment. So now—instead of lying, as some do, by saying these apostles contradicted one another and that this story must therefore be a lie—we need to piece the different accounts together. We need to be diligent detectives, judges and juries, weighing the testimonies of various honest witnesses until a feasible, comprehensive account can be compiled from them all.
So there were two demon-possessed men, and both ran to confront Jesus and the other disciples, likely hoping they would leave this pagan Gentile territory, and return to their church of Israel on the other side. For those demons would have believed that they owned these Gentiles, that the men had sinned so much and so badly that God had rejected them. Thus, those demons came running to that boat almost as soon as it was beached on the shore. For the demons in those two men obviously sensed our God Jesus approaching. And everyone in that area likely thought something spiritual was about to occur too, since they all had seen a raging storm suddenly and supernaturally cease just hours before this. Then the Spirit of Jesus certainly knew those demons were coming as well. In fact, Jesus must have commanded those demons to come, so He could cast them out of those two men.
This also suggests that Jesus knew that at least one of the two men had an elect spirit, that at least one of the two who were entirely controlled by demonic spirits was an elect child of the heavenly Father. For Jesus could have just as easily caused the boat to land on the other side of the lake, where His priesthood of the Jews dwelt. He did not come to that Gentile place by accident, but deliberately caused the winds of the storm to carry the boat to that particular shore for His own reasons. We assume this because we are told how the man with the legion of demons reacted after he was healed.
That Gentile man begged Jesus to let him follow Him as His disciple. Yet Jesus appointed him as His Page 583
minister to the Gentiles of that region instead. And the formerly demon-possessed man obeyed Jesus.
Our God Jesus granted him the ability to announce the advent of the Jewish Saviour and Messiah to very many Gentile souls in the Decapolis region (see Mark 5:18-20; Luke 8:38-39). And we know that only the elect truly want to follow Jesus like this man did. For God only calls the elect to preach, then only grants the elect the ability actually go and effectively teach about Him and His truths. So Jesus intentionally came to this Gentile region, to the lands that had treated Jews as their sworn enemies for more than a hundred years, since the days of the Maccabees. And He went there to save just one Gentile elect man from the torment of multiple demons who who ruled over his elect soul.
Now, notice how the demons in that legion were violent and warlike, suggesting that they were the false gods of war. So this demon possessed man could have once been soldier and had worshipped pagan gods of war. Perhaps there was a time when he prayed for those gods to give him the strength to defeat an enemy, a time when his very spirit invited them into his soul for some kind of spiritual reason, such as because that enemy had killed his loved ones. So those demon gods gladly granted his request, but chose to permanently stay in him, to cause death and destruction through his soul and his flesh. Of course, there are many kinds of demonic spirits, and the worst are cunning liars, the deceivers dedicated to nullifying truths and empowering psychopaths. But these particular demons were a lesser kind, the physically destructive kind that merely made men strong enough to kill other flesh and manipulate material things, such as breaking iron chains. These were simple demons who enabled men to attack and defeat other human beings. Matthew said there were “two men tormented by demons coming from the tombs, very dangerous, so that no one [was] ever to be strong enough to travel through that way” (Mat. 8:23, from: δύο δαιμονιζόμενοι ἐκ τῶν μνημείων ἐξερχόμενοι, χαλεποὶ λίαν ὥστε μὴ ἰσχύειν τινὰ παρελθεῖν διὰ τῆς ὁδοῦ ἐκείνης, SBLGNT). Considering that the nature of these demons was to guard and violently attack, as well as the fact that these demons called themselves by the title of “Legion” (a Roman military term for about a thousands soldiers), it seems that these lesser demons were Roman gods of war, useful to soldiers, not corrupters of nations, not like the worse demons worshipped by false churches and humanists throughout the world in our day.
Mark said this about the man with the legion of demons, that he “had been making [his] residence in the tombs.” So these demons were obsessed with killing and death, just like all the pagan demonic gods of war have always been. Then Mark told us that “not even with chains, no one was able to bind him any longer.” And demon gods of war always lure their dupes into worshipping them by making the false promise to “liberate” their faithful slaves from their perceived enemies. According to Mark, he was “many times shackles and chains [were] to have been effectively binding, and
[were] to have been thoroughly broken by him. The chains and the shackles shattered and none had been strong enough to control him. Also, through all the night and day, in the tombs and in the hills, he had been crying out and cutting himself with stones” (Mark 5:3-5, from: τὴν κατοίκησιν εἶχεν ἐν
τοῖς μνήμασιν, καὶ οὐδὲ ἁλύσει οὐκέτι οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο αὐτὸν δῆσαι. διὰ τὸ αὐτὸν πολλάκις πέδαις
καὶ ἁλύσεσι δεδέσθαι καὶ διεσπάσθαι ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ τὰς ἁλύσεις καὶ τὰς πέδας συντετρῖφθαι, καὶ οὐδεὶς
ἴσχυεν αὐτὸν δαμάσαι· καὶ διὰ παντὸς νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας ἐν τοῖς μνήμασιν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν ἦν
κράζων καὶ κατακόπτων ἑαυτὸν λίθοις, SBLGNT, note the perfect passive forms of δέω and διασπάω, indicating “with effect” or “effectively” and “thoroughly”). This perfectly describes the absolutely ideal tragic Greco-Roman soldier who has been empowered their demon gods of war.
Luke adds that the demons tormented him “for a long time” (χρόνῳ ἱκανῷ) and “he did not put on a garment” (οὐκ ἐνεδύσατο ἱμάτιον), meaning he walked around naked, just like the pagan Greek and Roman soldiers did while exercising or training. From all this evidence, we can clearly see that this man was not merely an average insane and violent man. Rather, he was supernaturally empowered Page 584
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Greco-Roman soldier, whose life was enslaved by very real demons who could even manipulate physical matter. Yet he must have had an elect spirit, though he suffered from demonic possession.
Before Jesus cast out demons from this second man, the worried legion of demons spoke to Jesus.
Mark said the man possessed with the “Legion” also fell down prostrate before Jesus (προσεκύνησεν
αὐτόν, Mark 5:6). Both men likely did this, since all demonic spirits are completely terrified of God, of the almighty Spirit who bears the power to manipulate the substance of their spirits in any way He chooses, who can not only cast them into hell for all eternity but is even able to cause them to cease existing altogether. So the legion pleaded with Jesus: “And, behold, they cried out, reasoning, ‘What
[is] for our benefit and for the benefit of You [i.e., mutually beneficial], Son of God? Did You come here to torture us before the appointed time?’” (Mat. 8:29, from: καὶ ἰδοὺ ἔκραξαν λέγοντες· Τί ἡμῖν καὶ
σοί, υἱὲ τοῦ θεοῦ; ἦλθες ὧδε πρὸ καιροῦ βασανίσαι ἡμᾶς;, SBLGNT). Mark also points out that the demons knew Jesus’ name, and called Him “Jesus, Son of God the Most High” (Ἰησοῦ υἱὲ τοῦ θεοῦ
τοῦ ὑψίστου). Then Mark’s account told us that the man with the “Legion” begged Jesus: “I am enjoining You, God, please do not complete the act of torturing me” (Mark 5:7, from: ὁρκίζω σε τὸν
θεόν, μή με βασανίσῃς, SBLGNT). So the man with the legion of demons already felt tortured by the demons, and somehow thought our God Jesus came to kill him and send him to hell, together with all the demons inside of him. This man likely thought this because he was such a terrible sinner. We can assume this because that would be what he meant by asking Jesus if He came to “complete the act of torturing me.” Therefore, this demon-possessed man was humble, and knew he had sinned.
Now Matthew also may have implied that both demon-possessed men spoke to Jesus, while Mark says only one man spoke. But we can assume that only the man with the legion of demons spoke, and that the other man already had his demon cast out of him. Then, in context, Mark’s use of the negative with the aorist subjunctive form of βασανίζω indicates a polite entreaty of the man with the legion of demons in him. That is, he was begging Jesus to not perform the completion of the act of torturing him. But Jesus did perform the completion of the torturing, but in a way the man did not expect. Instead of sending that elect sinner to hell forever, Jesus cast out that legion of demons and restored him to a normal loving life, where he could serve God and God’s creations, so he could be loved by others, instead of feared by them. Yet the demons, when denied the right to exploit God’s good creations in hell, must forever remain frustrated in their own dark delusions, without any ability to express their hatred of God and all that possesses God’s attributes. And they all will be sent to hell, just before the judgment day begins. And both this man and the demons inside him were indeed referring to the final judgment day when they mentioned the appointed time set by God from the very beginning. Thus, Matthew and Mark agreed about the general content of the words spoken by the legion of demons. That is, those demons were worried about losing their ability to use this man to express their hatred of God and their chance to continue the destruction of God’s good creations on earth. That is, they certainly did not want to be sent into the empty pit of hell for all eternity. But Matthew and Mark each paraphrased those words of the demons and this possessed man differently. Matthew’s version was likely altered the most, to clarify what the demons’ words actually meant. But the words of the legion and the man were recorded more accurately by Mark.
Luke essentially agreed with Mark, indicating that the man with the legion of demons fell prostrate before Jesus and spoke to Him. Luke then said this man begged Jesus: “What [is] for my benefit and for the benefit of You, Jesus, Son of God the Most High? I beg of You, please do not complete the act of torturing me” (Luke 8:28, from: Τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί, Ἰησοῦ υἱὲ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου; δέομαί σου, μή με βασανίσῃς, SBLGNT). Now, since Luke did not copy Mark’s words exactly, Luke’s version did not come directly from Mark, although they travelled together for a long time and Luke had the Page 585
opportunity to copy Mark’s words. But their two versions were so similar that both likely came from the same eye witnesses. Mark and Luke probably received the account of this event directly from the eleven disciples who were with Jesus that day, and possibly received it at the same time. Of course, Matthew also received this from the eleven, but spent much more time with them and learned more about the meaning of this event. But both Mark and Luke said only one man, the one with the legion of demons, uttered these words, while Matthew may have implied that both demon-possessed men spoke. Still, although both demon-possessed men may have been there, only one would have been the spokesman for both of them. Only one man likely uttered the words, and said what the demons wanted his brain and his mouth to say. So the man with the legion of demons would have been the only one speaking, and his words would have included what his spirit was thinking, but the thoughts of his spirit would have been coerced or highly influenced by the demons within his heart and soul.
Thus, Matthew might have implied that both demonically vexed men were present, and that one man spoke on behalf of both of them. And the words of the man with the legion of demons were likely more like Mark and Luke claimed they were. Then Matthew changed those words slightly, possibly to indicate that both men were standing there when the words were spoken. Matthew paraphrased the words of the spokesman to make it clear to his audience that the demons were very worried about being sent to hell before the “appointed time” of God’s judgment. But, most likely, Jesus had already cast the demon out of the other man, which made the legion afraid of being sent to hell. Then Luke added, as a side note: “And they were counselling Him [i.e., Jesus] so that He might not make a command for them to go into the abyss” (Luke 8:31, from: καὶ παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν ἵνα μὴ ἐπιτάξῃ
αὐτοῖς εἰς τὴν ἄβυσσον ἀπελθεῖν, SBLGNT). Yet Luke seemed to describe what the legion was thinking, not what the two men were thinking. So Matthew’s account likely was too. Jesus had likely already cast the demon out of one man and now the legion of demons were worried about going to hell before their appointed time, that is, on the last day. Mark wrote a different version: “And he [i.e., the legion] was counselling Him [i.e., Jesus] many times, so that He might not send him on a mission out of the region” (Mark 5:10, from: καὶ παρεκάλει αὐτὸν πολλὰ ἵνα μὴ αὐτὰ ἀποστείλῃ ἔξω τῆς
χώρας, SBLGNT). So the army of demons not only wanted to avoid being sent to hell, but also did not want to leave the Decapolis region, where those demons were probably being worshipped by the pagan Gentiles there, making it easy for them to influence those souls. So, since these demons were so specific about their fears of being sent to hell or being removed from the area, it seems that they had just seen Jesus cast the demon in the other man into hell. This must have been why they were now desperately trying to strike a deal with Jesus. Although we are not told when Jesus had cast the demon out of other man, Jesus likely did so before the legion of demons spoke through their man.
So, after Jesus cast the demon out of one man, He then asked the demons remaining in the other man, “What is your name” (Mark 5:9, from: Τί ὄνομά σοι, SBLGNT, cf., Luke 8:30). Note the singular pronoun in this question. So by using this singular pronoun, Jesus wanted the demons to reveal the the name of their group. Yet why did Jesus ask this? Surely Jesus knew He was addressing multiple demons, thousands of them. And the Spirit of God in Jesus must have known the names of each and every individual demon, as well as what they called their group. So here Jesus was actually asking them to reveal what they called themselves so we could know. He wanted us to realize what those demons, as a coordinated body of demons working together as one unit, called themselves.
Jesus wanted His disciples to hear and understand who they were and the kind of demons they were.
The only reason Jesus would have stopped to ask for their group name would be to force that army of demons to utter that name in the presence of the disciples, so the disciples would see how the Gentile Greeks and Romans gained their power. It was through demons, like these who called Page 586
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themselves by a Roman title for an army of soldiers. These were demons worshipped by Greece and Rome, by the Gentiles in regions like this Decapolis. Demons caused inner fears and the dread of Satan’s religious Roman kingdom in the hearts of their enemies, and enabled their demon-possessed flesh to overcome the flesh of all their opponents, even enemies who were also just as demonic. He wanted His disciples to know that these violent warrior demons were called by a Roman military term, by the name of “Legion,” and that Satan granted these demons authority over the other pagan demonic gods, because that devil was establishing his greatest false religion of Roman humanism through them. Since Satan desired all his kingdom to become Roman, he used violence to coerce the myriads of other fake religions on earth to conform to his ultimate blasphemous religion. And, since spirits operate under a different kind of time in a different realm, they could possess any number of physical bodies and souls at the same time. So now they possessed this particular man living in that particular Greco-Roman area of the world, and were attempting to use that man for their purposes.
Jesus was showing His disciples where the power of Satan’s four kingdoms came from. Rome corrupted, conquered and enslaved all the nations in their empire through an army of demons, who called themselves by the Roman military term “Legion” (λεγεών). The commander of that demon army had to answer God with the truth, and declared: “Legion [is] my name, because I am many”
(Mark 5:9, from: Λεγιὼν ὄνομά μοι, ὅτι πολλοί ἐσμεν, SBLGNT, cf., Luke 8:30). Surely “Legion” is a very specific name for a body of many demons, the Roman name for about a thousand soldiers. So we need to ask ourselves why did these many demons choose this particular Roman name? They could have called their group by one of countless other names. Also, we must ask why Jesus wanted His disciples to hear this name? And why did Mark take the time to specifically mention that this army of demons did not want to leave this particular thoroughly Gentile, Hellenized, Greco-Roman region, the place where biblical prophecies (Dan. 11:21-31) told us that a prototype of Satan’s beast, named Antiochus IV Epiphanes, had once reigned? And why did Jesus then grant them their request?
Surely there was foreshadowing here, even a prophecy telling us that these demons would be active in shaping the future of that region, used to advance Satan’s fourth Roman kingdom of the beast.
Perhaps these demons were to aid the Romans in the predestined events of destroying the temple in Jerusalem and temporarily expelling Jews (i.e., in AD 70 and 135), and serve the devil until the end times. They may even help in the end-time events of the beast. So we should take note of this name.
After the legion of demons revealed their name, they tried to bargain with Jesus. Matthew tells us:
“Now a herd of many swine, having been set out to pasture and remaining there, was far away from them. So the demons had been counselling Him, saying, ‘If you are casting us out, send us on a mission into the herd of swine.’ And He told them, ‘You [demons] go!’ Then, having departed, they went into the swine” (Mat. 8:30-32b, from: ἦν δὲ μακρὰν ἀπʼ αὐτῶν ἀγέλη χοίρων πολλῶν
βοσκομένη. οἱ δὲ δαίμονες παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν λέγοντες· Εἰ ἐκβάλλεις ἡμᾶς, ἀπόστειλον ἡμᾶς εἰς τὴν
ἀγέλην τῶν χοίρων. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Ὑπάγετε. οἱ δὲ ἐξελθόντες ἀπῆλθον εἰς τοὺς χοίρους, SBLGNT). Note the second person plural imperative form of ὑπάγω here, indicating that Jesus did actually command those demons to enter the swine. Both Mark and Luke confirm these details from Matthew’s account, and Mark also mentions there were about 2,000 swine in the herd (Mark 5:13).
So this was an extraordinarily large legion, more than most Roman legions were, numbering about 2,000. And they wanted to enter pigs, the kind of animals that were sacrificed to the Greek and Roman gods of war, by torturing them to death, so they would utter terrible human-like screams.
And now we may ask why Jesus, our God, allowed and even commanded those demons to enter the innocent souls of those animals? After all, every animal has a sinless spirit, since none were granted any ability to discern between good and evil. All animals merely do what they were created to do, or Page 587
react to circumstances in the ways they were created to respond. Yes, pigs and other sinless animals were offered to psychopathic demonic gods, but against their wills, obviously. But those animals had absolutely nothing to do with those demons. Satanic spirits loved to have sinless animals tortured to death in their names solely because God owned them, because it was tantamount to spitting in God’s face. Yet it is impossible for any animal to ever have any motive or intent to do anything against God. And all real sins are intentional actions directed specifically against God and His property, with malicious motives of a spirit. Therefore, only demons and humans are capable of truly sinning. But, although animals may do what we call “bad” or even “evil, they simply act through the love, hate, hunger, curiosity, fear, anger, disorders of their physical brains and spirits, and the wills of their spirits cannot ever deliberately oppose God or His truths. Thus, animals can never truly sin. All of them remain forever sinless. Only human spirits, as well as the spirits of demons, were granted the ability to discern between good and evil and, thus, possess an ability to intentionally do evil. So it seems wrong for Jesus to have command the evil demons to enter the souls of those sinless swine.
However, we need to remember a few things. First, in that Hellenized part of the world, all of their butchered animals were sacrificed to their pagan gods, even the same false gods in this legion of demons. So the fate of those pigs was most likely to be flogged to death as sacrifices. And the Greco-Roman method of flaying their sacrificed pigs was an extremely painful and cruel death! But drowning is one of the least painful kinds of deaths since, after the panic subsides, the mind begins to hallucinate and often enters a state of total peace. So, by appointing those pigs to die by drowning, Jesus spared them the kind of tortuous death that their human stewards would have awarded them.
Second, every living creation on earth is owned by God. So the eternal spirit of every animal will returns to God after death, just as God’s Word declares. Also, all animal spirits hate and resist all that opposes God, the Spirit of their Owner. Thus, the demons might have “possessed” those swine for a moment, because God allowed it. But Jesus would have only granted a very brief and partial kind of stewardship to those demons, definitely not an eternal “possession” of those swine, nor any kind of influence over their spirits. For all demons remain forever and completely limited by God. All are forced to remain on earth until God casts them into hell on the judgment day, and none can truly possess anything, since all that exists ultimately belongs to God alone, even the demons themselves.
A demon can only temporarily “possess” a human sinner in earthly time. Demons can only coerce, tempt or otherwise cause a human spirit to do its bidding and sin, and thus “own” or “possess” that sinner’s soul. Demons can also use a human sinner’s mind of flesh and its own power to deceive that sinner’s spirit, in a way which “takes it captive” and silences or rules that spirit, to control every thought in that sinner’s soul. But a demon cab never even begin to control a sinless animal’s spirit.
Thus, the spirits of those swine chose to commit suicide rather than allow demons to live in them.
And, as soon as those swine died, their eternal spirits would immediately go to the third heaven and all would be granted new bodies made of spiritual substances, to dwell forever in peace with utter joy. For God’s Word says that all animals will receive what elect human spirits in earthly bodies shall be granted. For God told us, “the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21, WEB). Since we know “the creation”
refers to living entities on earth, and that all “the children of God” go to heaven, so do all animals.
Third, we know that demons can only manipulate sinners through carnal lusts that always involve a totally unnecessary gratification of those desires, and where those desires are permitted either by very immature, ignorant, weak elect spirits or by non-elect spirits. Demons control people through temptations, by promising to gratify superfluous lusts through a loveless sin. But all animal spirits were created to be much like the mature and fully developed spirits of angels, of heavenly creatures Page 588
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who have never been on earth. So animal spirits are capable of learning, but also bear all the fully developed wills and attributes they will ever possess. So their spirits are much like the spirits of elect angels, and you will never find an animal whose spirit wants to gratify cravings for useless things.
Animal spirits never desire more money, so they can deceive and control the lives of others. Nor do animals ever want to degrade the soul of another animal, such by using sex to dehumanize. Rather, all animals simply have sex through their innate desire of the flesh to propagate and ensure that their genetics are passed to the next generation. Only elect human beings are born with infantile spirits, so the minds of their spirits need to grow and develop their wills and attributes over a period of time.
Thus, only elect human spirits can be led astray by the lies of demons. Since animal spirits have mature wills, albeit simpler wills dedicated to specific purposes, they remain untempted and utterly sinless when demons try to deceive them, and are totally incapable of truly evil intentions or sinfully malicious motives. Demons cannot corrupt elect animal spirits, only infantile elect human spirits!
Jesus, our God, who is far more wise and powerful than all of the demons put together, knew these facts. However, I doubt if those demons realized all this at that time. And how could they know, since it is doubtful that God had ever allowed demons to enter the souls of any animals throughout all of the previous history, nor at any time since then. God allowed demons to appear in the forms of animals, or even humans. God let Satan make Adam and Eve think he was a wise serpent. The devil caused their minds to see his spirit as that creature. But Satan did not possess a real serpent, or the serpent would have reacted just like those swine, and would have killed its own body of flesh. For the inevitable result of letting demonic spirits into the hearts and souls of sinless animals is always the same: “And, behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea and died in the waters” (Mat. 8:32c, from: καὶ ἰδοὺ ὥρμησεν πᾶσα ἡ ἀγέλη κατὰ τοῦ κρημνοῦ εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ ἀπέθανον ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν, SBLGNT, cf., Mark 5:13, Luke 8:33). Perhaps the demons somehow thought pigs were like humans, able to be tempted into sin, able to be handed over to Satan’s own kingdom on earth. Maybe they thought God called pigs “unclean” animals because their spirits were sinful. But God merely called them “unclean” because of what the pagans did with those swine, in their worship of demon gods, not because of what those animals thought and did themselves. Thus, as soon as the sinless spirits of those swine felt the presence of those evil spirits in the chambers of their souls, they fled into death, to rid themselves of those demons, knowing those evil spirits could not follow their sinless spirits into God’s heaven above. So the spirits of the swine lived happily ever after, in new bodies and with true joy. But the destroying demons would need to wait in darkness on earth, without any access to a physical body, until God let them enter other human sinners someday.
We can now begin to see how and why our God Jesus may sometimes grant permission to demons, and allow them to do evil. There are always ulterior motives in God’s heart when He lets demons do what they desire. God always has good and just reasons for it. In the end, a better good comes from the effects of that evil. God sometimes lets demons enter the souls of human sinners, allows them to overcome the souls of those sinners and cause them to do evil works. But our God only allows this for a limited time, only until the demons cause harm to themselves. That permission God grants to demons will always result in God accomplishing a more beneficial result for His own property, in the very end. So, yes, God is good and loving. Just love is an immutable attribute of God. And it is utterly impossible for God to be altered in any way, since He created, maintains and controls all that exists, leaving nothing that is able to change Him and His nature in any way, nor anything that can ever alter what He predestined to be. So, when God created demons without the attribute of love, then allowed Satan to create some loveless human spirits as well, God did so to accomplish His own loving purposes. In the end, all the loveless deeds of those demons work together for the good of Page 589
those who have elect spirits, who all innately love God and love all that God represents. And even animals like pigs have elect spirits that actually love God, as well as love all the just ways and deeds of their God. Thus, God gives them all mercy. For the drowning of those pigs was far better than being flayed in a slow, tortuous death. And eternal life in heaven will more than compensate for any and all the kinds of suffering that any kind of body of flesh might endure for a moment on the earth.
The demons received what they wanted, but could never possess and become the gods of the swine, not like they could become the gods of human sinners. So God showed “mercy” to those demons, and set them “free” into the world again. However, demons always remain highly limited by God, are always kept in spiritual “chains” while in this material universe. Then Jesus also knew those demons would abuse His “mercy,” and eventually cause their own eternal destruction. So these demonic spirits were not immediately cast into hell, but their temporary “freedom” also meant that they ended up where they started, bound in a dark spiritual confinement on earth, just as they were in the very beginning, when God first cast these loveless, self-worshipping spirits down from heaven.
These demons were almost definitely the pagan gods worshipped by men in that land, the spirits to whom they sacrificed their pigs, the kinds of gods that were obsessed with war and revenge, just like Satan is, and just like Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome always were. Yet they did not have the power to stop those mere pigs from sacrificing themselves, by drowning themselves, to send those demons back into the spiritual darkness of their original confinement. Those “mighty” war gods had no power to sacrifice those good and sinless creatures in the cruel way they wanted, and actually never had that power. Always, those spirits had to get sinful, inwardly dead, totally duped, idiotic human beings to do that for them. And, as those animals demonstrated the weakness of those pagan gods to all those pagan idol worshippers, Jesus also used those pigs to demonstrate how their fake gods can only lead souls down into the depths to die, in the same way they caused those swine die.
But remember, some demon worshippers are God’s elect children, and not all will share the same fate as those swine. Yes, all non-elect spirits who worship demons in lies will go down to hell just like those demons, and remain there with them forever. In the meantime, on earth, they will spend their empty lives demonstrating the absolute superiority of God’s words and ways, while they also prove the inferiority of everything that deviates even slightly from God’s created truths. So those demons and their dupes shall all ultimately serve God’s purposes, and glorify Him in the end. Yet the elect trapped in those false religions, such as that elect man with the “Legion” of demons in him, will all be rescued and completely freed from those demons—either during their lives on earth or on the judgment day. But those duped demons and their deceived brood will actually help God teach and train these elect spirits, for their full repentance into all of God’s truths. Still, the idol worshipping non-elect children of Satan will not stop worshipping their demon gods, slavishly serving them so they can gain ever more emptiness and futility on earth. So we must be watchful, always ready to nullify their lies and cruelty, while continuously working to build up God’s just, loving kingdom.
“Then the ones tending [the swine] fled and, having come into the town, they reported everything, even things about those being vexed by demons. And, behold, the whole town went out for a meeting with Jesus. And, after seeing Him, they counselled that He should depart from their shores” (Mat.
8:33-34). Mark also said that, by the time the town arrived, the man with the “Legion” cast out of him was “sitting fully clothed and of a sound mind” (Mark 5:15, from: καθήμενον ἱματισμένον καὶ
σωφρονοῦντα, SBLGNT). When the pagans saw this, and the great power needed to accomplish this,
“they were frightened” (ἐφοβήθησαν) and begged Jesus to go away (Mark 5:15-17, cf., Luke 8:34-37). Now, by the time all those people arrived, the clothing and equipment belonging to Jesus and His disciples would have dried up in the region’s hot weather. So they packed up and continued their Page 590
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journey to Capernaum. However, because these terrified pagans did not comprehend what Jesus had done, Jesus called that man whom He freed from the “Legion,” who was a native of the region, to go out and testify about all he experienced, and introduce them to their true Creator God. Then the Holy Spirit of God in Jesus would also continue to teach that man’s elect spirit more truths about God as did God’s works among those Gentiles. Before He left, Jesus only taught him for a few hours. Yet many would believe that man’s testimony, because Jesus had cast such a powerful “Legion” of demons from his soul, even thousands of malignant spirits. Then, later, the Holy Spirit of Jesus must have taught even more truths to that Gentile’s spirit, since that man seems to have become an adept teacher of God’s Word and the Gospel of salvation in the church of Israel. For Matthew, Mark and Luke seemed to know something about him, in future years, by the time they penned their Gospels.
All three synoptic Gospels seemed to imply that this man preached truth in that region after that day.
Now, of all we are told about this miraculous casting out of this Gentile’s legion of war-like demons, we should notice one thing above all else. That is, the pagan method of handling this supernaturally violent man, with the “Legion” inside him, was to send in a more powerfully violent force of skilled warriors to bind him in chains. So now we must ask why they did this. Why did they not simply kill him, since he was frequently threatening the lives of their local citizens? Or why did they not call one of their pagan priests to try and cast the demons out of him? Well, obviously, they did not want to kill that dangerous demon-possessed warrior, and they probably knew their pagan priests were utterly incapable of casting out that man’s demons. Therefore, it seems most likely that they wanted to put him in chains so they could control him and the demons in him, perhaps to use him as a weapon against their enemies, or as a gladiator in a Roman arena—so he could kill people for their own military purposes, profit or entertainment. For this is how the Greco-Romans thought in those days. They used and abused “inferior” people for the purposes of their elite. And this is also how the elite in our Roman societies think today, in humanistic nations all around the world. However, Jesus had a different solution. Jesus saw that this pagan, demon-possessed man was one of the Father’s elect children, that his spirit was able to love and be loved. Therefore, Jesus cast the demons out of this man and restored him to sanity, so he could see and walk in the spiritual and physical realities of life on earth, to serve God’s people and creations through his love for God and God’s kingdom. That is, Jesus nullified the works of the devil and worked first for the benefit of His just, loving kingdom.
Of course, this kind of work is exactly what the Holy Spirit of Jesus has always been teaching and training all of His true elect disciples on earth to do. We are all learning to share in these same kinds of works that Jesus did, to nullify deeds of the devil and to build up God’s just, equitable, loving kingdom on earth, so all His people are freed to love and be loved. Therefore, all who claim to be in the church of Israel, all who say they are “Jews” or “Christians” but only think in terms of using violence against violence, or think in terms of how they can exploit others through violence, for a financial profit or for their own sick entertainment, are not true Jews nor true Christians at all. All who desire stiffer penalties against crime, to terrorize souls into submission, are citizens of Satan’s Roman Empire, not citizens of God’s kingdom. All racists, fascists, capitalists and communists, all who seek to employ the devils power to become an elite ruling over inferiors, are Romans. Those fakes are pagans, even the worst kind of pagans, even Satan’s humanistic Greco-Roman children in his unjust, destructive, demonic, dark world order. All those who want to rule by force, to violently capture and enslave their siblings in mankind for their own profit and perverse pleasures, have spirits born of the devil. But even those should never be tortured or murdered. For, even if we need to use deadly force against violence at times, we must not become like Satan’s children. Our goal in life is Page 591
to simply nullify the devil’s works so we can build up God’s just and loving kingdom, and to do all this in the name of Jesus, according to His will, by His commands and through His almighty power.
Mat. 9:1-8,
Jesus is God
“He entered into a boat, and crossed over, and came into His own city. Behold, they brought to Him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a bed. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, ‘Son, cheer up! Your sins are forgiven you.’ Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man blasphemes.’
“Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven;” or to say, “Get up, and walk?” But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...’ (then He said to the paralytic), ‘Get up, and take up your mat, and go up to your house.’ He arose and departed to his house.
“But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled and glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Mat. 9:1-8, WEB).
The Order of Events
Now Jesus began to more openly reveal that the very Spirit of God, the whole of the Creator, dwelt in Him. For He knew exactly what they would be thinking when He said what He did at this time. In fact, all the Old Covenant Scriptures—all that Moses redacted for Israel in God’s name, along with all that God’s appointed spokesmen, the true prophets of subsequent generations, revealed about the one true God—had been preparing Israel to think these thoughts in this way. For all those Scriptures proved to them that Yahweh God owned all physical and spiritual existence, and that literally all sins involved crimes against His property. That is, all sins were against God alone. And this meant that absolutely no one, except God Himself, had any right to forgive any sin, even the smallest of sins.
This event occurred just after Jesus returned from casting the “Legion” of demons from a man living near Gergesa, in the Gentile region of the Decapolis. Later that same day, Jesus also called Matthew to become one of His core assistant teaching disciples (Mat. 9:9). So Matthew’s first conversations with the other eleven core disciples would have been focused on these two events; how Jesus cast a Legion of demons into the swine at Gergesa and how Jesus forgave the sins of a man in order to heal him. After Matthew was called, and while Jesus and His eleven teaching assistants remained in Capernaum, Jesus and the eleven would have been discussing these events, while Matthew stood among them and listened. And, of course, Matthew was in Capernaum when Jesus forgave and healed this paralyzed man. So Matthew may have actually witnessed this event, may have seen Jesus forgive the man’s sins, in His own name, as though He were God Himself. Matthew may have heard the very words Jesus spoke. In fact, this may have been why Matthew began to believe that Jesus surely was the promised and prophesied Messiah, Immanuel, God in a human body walking among us. The reason Matthew believed in Jesus was possibly because he saw Jesus forgive and heal this man, in a way that only God Himself could do. Then Jesus called him to be His assistant teacher.
Although Matthew had previously somehow become a hated tax collector for the despised Romans, through unrevealed circumstances, he clearly possessed a very thorough and solid knowledge of the Scriptures, before he was called. Otherwise, Jesus would not have called him to become one of His twelve assistant teachers. So Matthew must have come from a good Jewish family who provided him Page 592
with extensive biblical training during his youth. And, although Matthew rejected those teachings at one time, and sought to gain wealth as a Roman tax collector, he suddenly repented into the truths of God that day, so He could follow and serve Jesus. Thus, it was likely because Jesus performed this miracle in this way that he repented. So this is no ordinary miracle in the ministry of Jesus, that is, if any miracle can be called “ordinary.” Rather, this was a special miracle, to Matthew and to us all.
We are certain that Jesus did actually utter the words Matthew recorded here: “Be brave, child. Your sins are forgiven” (Mat. 9:2, from: Θάρσει, τέκνον· ἀφίενταί σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι, SBLGNT). All three synoptic Gospels confirm this (see also Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26). But the order of these last two events during the ministry of Jesus was not the same in all three Gospels. Still, we can be sure that Jesus definitely cast out the “Legion” of demons before He He returned to Capernaum, before He forgave and healed this paralyzed man, and that Matthew’s testimony is the most reliable out of the three synoptic Gospels. For instance, Mark implies that Jesus first forgave and healed this man (Mark 2:1-12), then cast out a legion of demons from another man (Mark 5:1-20). Yet Mark also wrote that Jesus called Matthew to be one of His twelve core disciples just after this paralytic’s forgiveness and healing (Mark 2:13-14, cf. Luke 5:27-28). However, if this were true, then Matthew would have been with Jesus and the other core disciples when that legion of demons was cast out into the swine; although Matthew himself also testified that Jesus called him just after He forgave and healed the paralytic, but also told us that this occurred after the “Legion” was cast out. And Matthew himself would have known that he became a disciple after Jesus had cast out the “Legion.”
Since Mark was writing to a Gentile audience and from a different theological perspective (where he sought to illustrate the just, loving compassion and power of the Jewish Messiah to Gentiles), and since he was not with Jesus and the twelve during that time, but had to rely on the information he gleaned third-hand from eye-witnesses, his order of events is not as reliable as Matthew’s order of events. Then Luke was also a Gentile and writing to Gentiles for similar purposes, although Luke seems to have spent more time with the twelve than Mark, and was somewhat more fastidious about getting details correct. Yet Luke also places the event of Jesus casting of the “Legion” after the event of Jesus forgiving and healing paralytic (Luke 8:26-40). So perhaps Luke was influenced by Mark’s Gospel, which was written earlier than his Gospel. However, consider how both Mark and Luke wanted to make a theological point in their Gospels to the Gentiles, that Jesus loved the Gentiles too.
By delaying the account of the event of Jesus casting out the “Legion” of demons from a Gentile man, Mark and Luke seemed to be trying to illustrate why Jesus ministered to Gentiles more frequently during the latter part of His ministry. First they told how the Jews in the established church of Israel used Jesus’ words (“Your sins are forgiven”) to accuse Him of blasphemy, and to turn the Jewish people against Him. Making this point seemed to be important to both Mark and Luke, more important than getting the actual order of events correct. Then they waited until later before they told their Gentile readers how Jesus ministered to an extremely sinful Gentile, so their Gentile readers would see how the Jews were driving their Messiah out of Israel and towards a ministry to the Gentiles. And that is true, the Jews were doing this. Also, neither Mark nor Luke actually lied about the order of events, but simply wrote about different events at different times to make their readers better understand a valid point about what was happening during Jesus ministry.
On the other hand, the way Mark nor Luke presented this order of events certainly does not imply that they even hinted at anything like any of the various doctrines of replacement theology. For both Mark and Luke considered themselves to be Gentiles brought into the church of Israel, to be with the Jewish apostles in the priesthood God established through Abraham. The only concept that Mark and Luke wanted to illustrate was how God also intended that Gentiles shall be joined to His true church Page 593
of Israel, through His New Covenant salvation. Yet Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience, who all realized that God has always been gathering Gentiles into His church of Israel. Also, those Jews saw how Jesus was continuously claiming to be Yahweh God dwelling in a body of flesh, every time He cast out demons or healed in His own name, through His own love, will, authority and personal power. Thus, to these Jews, this clearer instance of Jesus claiming to be God, by forgiving a man’s sins, was exciting. But Matthew did not record this event for the same reasons that Mark and Luke did in their Gospels to the Gentiles. And Matthew kept the correct order of events as well. The point is that we can be certain that Jesus healed the paralytic after He had cast out the legion of demons.
The Accusation of Blasphemy
Now some might wonder why these Jewish biblical scholars were discussing these words of Jesus among themselves, why they were saying, “This man is committing blasphemy!” (Mat. 9:3, from: Οὗτος βλασφημεῖ, SBLGNT). For all Jesus said was, “Your sins are forgiven.” Now, since Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience, he did not explain why they were so offended when Jesus said those words. But Luke, who wrote for Gentile readers, explained their thoughts and reaction a little more clearly and in greater depth: “The [biblical] scholars and Pharisees began to discuss [these words], reasoning, ‘Who is this who utters blasphemies? Who is able to forgive sins except God alone?” (Luke 5:21, from: καὶ ἤρξαντο διαλογίζεσθαι οἱ γραμματεῖς καὶ οἱ Φαρισαῖοι λέγοντες· Τίς
ἐστιν οὗτος ὃς λαλεῖ βλασφημίας; τίς δύναται ἁμαρτίας ἀφεῖναι εἰ μὴ μόνος ὁ θεός;, SBLGNT).
Mark confirms that this is what those biblical scholars and orthodox elders thought and debated among themselves (Mark 2:6-7). And, if Jesus was just an ordinary man, His words would have indeed been a sin of “blasphemy,” that is, the slandering of God’s good and holy name by claiming that God’s words in the Bible are not correct, since God’s Word declares that only God can forgive.
The concept of slandering God, and committing the sin of blasphemy, is almost completely unknown and unrecognizable in churches today. For pastors, priests and parishioners now do it every day and in every way. Almost all so-called “Christians” today will say to a person, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Priests and pastors will say this after a sinner partakes in the fake “sacrament” of confession or after a sinner recites the “Sinner’s Prayer” at an evangelical rally. Some may add, “in Jesus’ name,” but they still imply that humans somehow possess the personal authority and power to forgive sins by performing deeds through their own human wills. Thus, it seems very strange to these poorly taught religious people in those humanistic churches that Jewish biblical scholars would react in this way.
But we should realize that God’s Law does actually declare that forgiving a sin through one’s own human will is blasphemy. Therefore, all those priests and pastors are surely committing blasphemy, frequently, almost daily. And those so-called “Christians” who refuse to believe that their trusted, friendly priests and pastors are sinning, are partaking in those sins of blasphemy, by accepting this lie that a human being can have the power to forgive sins! Unless a priest or pastor is truly speaking in God’s name, unless God has personally commanded that elder’s spirit to proclaim His forgiving of a sin, or unless a human being is truly prophesying in the name of the real God, by uttering words that God’s Holy Spirit has commanded him or her to utter, those priests and pastors are indeed committing the sin of blasphemy. And God’s Word condemns them thoroughly. In fact, God’s Law, which Jesus came to fulfill, says this sin is worse than murder or rape, since this sin of uttering lies in God’s name has often been used to incite souls into committing sins like war, murder and rape.
However, Jesus did not commit the sin of blasphemy here. For Jesus had already proved, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the Spirit of life in His body was the Creator God Himself, not an infantile human spirit. Jesus’ Spirit is the whole of God Himself, the uncreated Spirit who owns the earth and Page 594
all that is upon it, including every human being. Jesus instantly stopped the wind and waves through His own will. Jesus cast out demons, which no human spirit had any power to resist. Jesus healed the physical bodies of obviously infirmed Jews and Gentiles, directly through His own will. Jesus did all of this in His own name, while accurately teaching God’s truths from the Law and the Prophets. So, since Jesus did all this openly, and all saw this, no one could deny that Jesus was the one true God.
And let me repeat that any unjust harm done to any person or any thing through any kind of wrong motive or intention is a sin against God’s property, and all sins are against God alone. Literally all sins are offences against the Owner of all physical and spiritual existence, that is, are sins against God and God alone. So none but God bears any right to forgive any sin against anyone or anything.
And surely, even if one sinned directly against God Himself, such as through the rebellion of one’s spirit against the will and words of God, Jesus, who is one with the Father, who created all spiritual and physical existence, also has the authority to forgive sins, through the will of His Spirit, since His Spirit is the one God. Whatever sin that paralytic may have committed, Jesus saw his repentance and did bear the authority to forgive that sin. Then, as God, Jesus also had the power to heal the man too.
God’s Law states: “Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein” (Deut. 10:14, WEB). His Law also declared to His eternal church of Israel: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice, and keep My covenant, then you shall be M
y own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; and you s hall be to M e a
kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6, WEB). Then David, a prophet and king, also proclaimed: “Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! For a ll that is in the heavens and in the earth is Y ours . Yours is the kingdom, Yahweh, and Y ou are e xalted as H ead above all ” (I Chron. 29:11, WEB). Therefore, no matter who or what one may sin against, even if one sins against oneself, one is ultimately and solely sinning against God, who is the one and only Owner of anyone or anything that one might have harmed or destroyed through sin.
So, for example, if a man named Paul intentionally and maliciously harmed or destroyed the body or home of a man named Peter, then Paul’s spirit later repented from this sin, Paul may ask for Peter’s forgiveness. For God had granted Peter stewardship over his own body and home. But Peter would not have the right or authority to forgive Paul, not unless Peter’s spirit had first been granted God’s permission to forgive Paul. And, ultimately, the only one Paul really needs to ask for forgiveness is the true Owner of that body and home. Paul needs to ask the true Owner of Peter and all physical things for forgiveness first. Then Paul can also ask God’s steward for forgiveness as well, to make peace with Peter too. And, since Paul is owned by God too, Paul’s greatest sin occurred when his human spirit rebelled against God’s will, in order to harm his Owner’s property. Thus, Paul simply cannot be forgiven by anyone except by God Himself. However, if God did forgive Paul, Peter’s forgiveness would actually mean very little, other than to provide an opportunity for two brothers to walk in peace with one another, and perhaps love and help one another. But, if God had refused to forgive Paul, because Paul’s spirit did not repent into His created realities and truths, then Peter would not have any right nor authority to forgive Paul. And it would be pointless for Paul to ask for Peter’s forgiveness, since Peter would be opposing God and endorsing Paul’s unrepented sin, if Peter opposed God and forgave Paul. And Peter’s sinful desire to forgive Paul against God’s will would also cause Paul to think that he did not need to repent. Then Paul might continue to commit the same kinds of horrible sins. Thus, either God will forgive, or there can be absolutely no forgiveness at all, not by a priest nor by any other created being on earth or in heaven. And, if any human being is not a true prophet speaking words that God Himself commanded one to utter, yet proclaims that another sinner is forgiven, then that one is committing the sin of blasphemy (by falsely claiming that God Page 595
said what He had not actually said, by lying about God’s forgiveness, thus portraying God as one who forgives and allows a sin to occur without first requiring the sinner’s spirit to repent into truth).
Most Jewish scholars knew that only God is able to forgive sins, and no man could forgive sins. For most understood God’s Law and its implications. Likewise, so did David, the king of Israel—who committed adultery with a married woman, murdered her husband, then tried to suppress and hide the truth about all of it. So David, after he sinned, and in his prayer to God, proclaimed: “Against
Y ou
, and Y ou
only, have I sinned , and done that which is evil i n Y our sight ; that You may be proved right when You speak, and justified when You judge. [Surely I writhed in iniquity. It was a crime when my mother conceived me.] [Note: The WEB version provides a more traditional translation of this verse, one that is used to support the false doctrines of original sin, and it goes like this: “Behold, I was born in iniquity.
In sin my mother conceived me.” But here David is actually expressing contempt for himself, before God, declaring that he is an unworthy sinner who did not deserve to be born.] Behold, Y ou desire truth in the inward parts . You
teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:4-7, WEB). So here we can clearly see that the prophet David, filled with and led by the Holy Spirit, who is Yahweh God, knew that His forgiveness, and even his own repentance into the truth, depended solely and entirely upon God. God alone could save him.
The elect spirit of David possessed the truth, with knowledge that he truly was a sinner, born with strong propensities of the flesh to sin, and totally unworthy of the completely unmerited grace of God, who loved him unconditionally in spite of the great evils he had perpetrated upon innocent siblings in God’s family. Furthermore, David knew that literally all his sins were ultimately blows against God Himself, and against God alone. Thus, he sought forgiveness from God alone, not from any human beings, not even forgiveness from the wives and loved ones of the men he had murdered.
David fully realized that, without forgiveness from the Creator of all spiritual and physical existence, he could not obtain any real forgiveness at all, and would remain in the guilt of all his sins, entirely condemned to suffer the penalties of all his sins—not just a physical death, but also the “second death” of eternity in hell. So David did not merely strive for acceptance from the people around him, and did not simply want to convince them that he should be allowed to fellowship with them in the church of Israel. Rather, he knew that he must repent into the whole truth and nothing but the truth, into all that God’s Spirit taught to his spirit, so God would restore His right relationship with him, so his spirit could be accepted by God and fellowship with Him. In other words, David relied solely and entirely upon God to cleanse his spirit from an otherwise unwashable, deeply penetrating stain of sin on his soul, since no human being, nor any other entity, could do this. David sinned against God alone, so he repented to God alone, realizing that God alone could teach his spirit the truth, so he could love and be loved again, a truth that would overflow into repentance, which would result in an inner plenary forgiveness of all his deadly and soul crushing sins, in order to restore a right, loving relationship with the Father of his spirit. David sought life in God, not merely a good public image.
All the true prophets fully comprehended the implications of God’s ownership of all existence. For instance, through Isaiah, God commanded Israel: “Bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.... Yes, since the day was [i.e., since He created time] I am He [i.e., “I AM” is God’s name, Yahweh]; and t here is no one who can deliver out of M y hand . I will work, and who can hinder it? ... Yet you have not called on Me, Jacob [i.e., “Jacob refers to all the people in His church of Israel]; but you have been weary of Me, Israel.... but you have burdened M e with your sins .
Y
ou have wearied M e with your iniquities . I, e
ven I, am H e who blots out your transgressions for
M
y o
wn sake ; and I will not remember your sins. P ut M
e in remembrance . Let us plead together.
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Declare your case, that you may be justified. Your first father sinned, and your teachers have t ransgressed against M e . Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult” (Is. 43:6-7, 13, 22, 24b-28, WEB). First notice that God desires both His “sons” and His “daughters” equally, since both possess the same kinds of spirits born of His Spirit, although He obviously distinguishes between their attributes of the flesh. Then notice how God declared that none can “deliver” out of His hand, so none can forgive any sin to free that one from God’s wrath and condemnation. On the other hand, none can “hinder” God from forgiving a sinner either. If God forgives one, and we do not forgive that one, then we become the worst sinner.
God alone can blot out our transgressions and forgive our sins, to restore our loving relationship with Himself. And God does this for His own sake, because God created us to be His beloved children, because He made us to eternally dwell within this kind of loving relationship with Him. And not even the elect themselves can “hinder” God’s works to restore this relationship. God will forcibly tether and lead an elect soul into the truth, and cause that one’s repentance, if He needs to. And He will do this for all the elect, even the most stubborn ones He ever created. Either He will do this very painfully while they live on earth, or infinitely more painfully on the judgment day. But He surely accomplishes all He desires in the end. Thus, although there is no one who can deliver a sinner out of God’s angry hands, neither is there anyone who can hinder God from saving a sinner into heaven by the end of the judgment day. But, now and throughout history, we have had to endure false teachers who oppose God’s words. And, if God’s elect listen to them, His almighty power and authority will surely allow those wilfully deceived souls to be filled with dark delusions, until they become a curse and an insult to all God’s creation. Then God will turn the pagan sources of their lies and delusions against them, to destroy their flesh, just as He sent Assyria and Babylon to destroy the flesh of Israel.
Then Isaiah prophesied: “This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: ‘ Don’t be afraid, Jacob My servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen [i.e., Jeshurun literally means “upright one,” and would refer to all the Jewish and Gentile elect, all who are“chosen” by God, in contrast to just the physical descendants of the man Jacob/Israel]. For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I wi
ll pour M
y Spirit on your seed [upon the infantile elect spirits
brought into His church of Israel], and My blessing on your offspring ... I am the first, and I am the last; and be
sides M e there is no God .... Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are My servant.
I have formed you. Y ou are M y servant . Israel, y ou will not be forgotten by M
e . I have blotted out, as
a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Re
turn to M e, for I have redeemed
you.... I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by Myself; who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men ba
ckward, and makes their knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of H is servant, and performs t he counsel of H is messengers ’” (Is. 44:2-3, 6b, 21-22, 24b-26, WEB). God alone causes repentance in the souls of His elect, and turns His priesthood of Israel back to Himself. Then God also always
“frustrates the signs of the liars” and “makes their knowledge foolish,” just as He did with all of the lies uttered by those fake religious deceivers who supported Hitler and Trump. Furthermore, our God Jesus also “confirms the word of His servant,” proclaiming the teachings of His genuine servant to be the real truth. Then Jesus makes effective all the works that His servants do through their spirits in His name, through His will and commands. He “performs the counsel of His messengers,” to build a good opinion of His name in His real children, through His love for them, for their eternal benefits.
Now we know how many devious Jewish religious scholars deeply hated Jesus, just because Jesus revealed so much truth to so many of their duped minions. They hated Jesus because His truth led their valuable enslaved elect sources of income away from those false teachers, and caused them the Page 597
loss of much income, status and power of influence. There is nothing false teachers hate more than to see their mentally and spiritually enslaved disciples abandon them and their lies for the real God and His truth, and the real God, with all His truth, dwelt inside that Messiah Jesus. Yet, in those days, even many of those self-serving deceivers had to admit that God alone could forgive sins. For there was no other logical conclusion, since everyone knew that God “makes all things,” causes all events, and manipulates the minds of men, that God alone frustrates lies or confirms truths in minds of men.
Even the devil, the father of those fake rabbis back then, could not prevent the people of Israel from coming to this logical conclusion, that is, until he made his religion of humanism popular. Starting in Babylon, then slowly and progressively building up his religious lies through his elite oppressors in Persia, Greece and Rome, Satan gradually deluded more and more souls into believing his fictitious world view and doctrines about a supposed “free will.” Of course, even fools realized there could not be forgiveness for easily manipulated human wills whose lives were predestined by powers beyond their own control. Clearly, their Creator God alone could forgive and heal their hearts and minds, since all needed God to first teach a sinning spirit the truth, then grant that spirit the desire to repent into that truth. Only then could a sinner begin to follow the just and loving ways of reality that God created for His spiritual and physical realms through His own will, according to His own nature.
Yet Satan is also a predestined creature, created without any ability to stop himself from opposing God and His truth. For all loveless spirits, like the devil, desire only one thing, to be their own gods, so they can create their own self-serving laws. And all hate God’s just ways, since God wants all His creations to responsibly serve one another through honest and wise love. Loveless spirits oppose God’s ways of love because they’re loveless. Likewise, all spirits like Satan are incapable of any repentance for forgiveness, since the unloving bear no desire to live a life of loving and being loved.
Rather, all the loveless want is to do whatever they will to do, as the rulers of their own egocentric destinies, and even want to rule all the living spirits they can possibly enslave to serve themselves.
All this is why the devil invented the religion of humanism, including his critical supporting false doctrine which irrationally declares that each spirit possesses a god’s omniscient, omnipotent “free will.” Through such deceptions, Satan, together with his fallen angels and all his non-elect children following close behind, can dive into the same deep, dark delusions together. And this lovelessness is also why the demons and their human offspring had to lie about and denounce the sign of that elect paralytic’s repentance into God’s truth, why they had to slander the forgiveness worked by God’s Holy Spirit in the Messiah Jesus. If they did not slander that work of God, their captive elect dupes might understand it, repent, seek forgiveness for themselves, and begin to worship the real God, and forsake the worship of human gods. Those devils had to keep the infantile spirits of their valuable elect slaves faithful to their delusions, distracted from their real purposes in life, lest God teach and train them to love in wise, responsible, just, equitable, loving ways, to benefit all of God’s creations.
In reality, since the days of Babylon, Israel had been becoming increasingly humanistic. Fake rabbis had been leading them further into the hierarchical systems of humanism, which worshipped certain elite human beings as their law-making gods. And those fake rabbis who opposed Jesus that day were indeed humanists, men who strove to become chief human gods within that system. Then fake pastors and priests from false humanistic churches have done the same ever since. In particular, the ultimate Greco-Roman hierarchy is now called fascism or extreme right-wing capitalism, which will be the religion of the Satanic messiah called the “beast” in the end times. Basically, it is simply a criminal gang with a very steep pyramid of human gods ruling over lesser human gods, where all the gangsters agree to obey one man at the top of the hierarchy. Of course, those loveless members of the gang will not love that man at the top, since they love no one, except themselves, and actually Page 598