tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78627693409289836062024-03-18T23:25:06.137-05:00Growing in Grace and KnowledgeMotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-7698680169258604292015-12-12T20:15:00.001-06:002020-11-06T19:12:24.996-06:00Two Upcoming Posts on ForgivenessI still have not finished my series on forgiveness, and I really want to do so. The first post was on the <a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2013/07/two-typesstages-of-forgiveness.html">two types/stages of forgiveness</a>, and the second one was on <a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2014/03/forgiving-oneself.html">forgiving oneself</a>. I had intended on making two more posts, and then I stopped blogging here and started blogging at my new blog at truthsearching.com after realizing I was an atheist. However, the last two installments I had planned to write on forgiveness are important, and I don't want to leave the series undone. I've thought a lot about it over the past year and a half. <br />
<br />
I have finally decided to still do them using mainly the bible as a source from which to quote, even though I could do it many ways. <br />
<br />
The final two posts will cover:<br />
<br />
1. When Forgiveness Runs Out<br />
<br />
and<br />
<br />
2. Blocking the Vibrations of the Unforgiving<br />
<br />
I'm not sure when I will type this out, as I've got some posts already planned for my truthsearching.com that I want to add soon, but if you are stopping by, and these topics interest you, be sure to check back, but first read the first two installments, if you haven't already.MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-76796319017801224792014-06-28T18:58:00.003-05:002015-12-12T20:26:19.363-06:00Armstrongism and Eating Out on SabbathI came to learn over the past few months that <i>all</i> the churches of God that splintered from Herbert Armstrong's church violate the Sabbath day by eating out. Some even do their garden work and enter grocery stores on that day, I was shocked to learn during fellowship. I had come across the knowledge that some pastors in the churches were teaching it was ok to eat out on the Sabbath and to fly on commercial airplanes to get to services, over the last several years, but I thought they were isolated incidents. I would stop listening to such teachers once I learned that, because what they push the most to everyone to prove they are the true church of God is that they keep the Sabbath.<br />
<br />
Once I realized all these people in the United Church of God, which for years I've thought was much better than all the other big groups since they don't have a one-man-on-top heirarchy, were eating out on the holy days together and ordering pizza to be brought after services on the Sabbath, I looked for their teaching on their website, which is found <a href="http://www.ucg.org/doctrinal-beliefs/how-keep-sabbath-day-holy/">here.</a><br />
<br />
While some of the things in that article are all fine and good, I am going to share the part about eating out on the Sabbath here and then comment. The parts of that article will be in <span style="color: #d9d2e9;">lavender</span>.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Eating Out on the Sabbath</span><br />
<span style="color: #d9d2e9;"><br />The question of eating out on the Sabbath sometimes comes up. We have a paper, "Principles of Sabbath Observance, Eating Out on the Sabbath." It is on the Web site at www.ucg.org/papers if you wish to get a copy. It goes through all of the scriptures and all of the principles that have to do with eating out on the Sabbath. The Church has never taught that it was wrong or a violation of the Sabbath to eat in a restaurant on the Sabbath. Clearly Christianity involves an individual choice as to what you do. It is a judgment that individuals have to make.</span><br />
<span style="color: #d9d2e9;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #d9d2e9;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #d9d2e9;"><br />Paul took certain positions about not eating meat if it made someone stumble. But the act itself of going out to eat is not a matter of sin. It is the view of the Church that it is not a violation of the Scriptures if one chooses to eat out.</span><br />
<span style="color: #d9d2e9;"><br />Those who object to purchasing a meal on the Sabbath usually base their argument from two principles—causing someone else to work on the Sabbath or exchanging money on the Sabbath. There are two scriptures they use, one in Nehemiah 13, and the other in Amos.<br />If you look at these two scriptures with this particular paper, I think you will see why the Church teaches what it teaches. The prohibition that you find in both places is against setting up a market on the Sabbath or a Holy Day. The Jews had become a people that made the Sabbath a secular day where it was acceptable to go to a market. The principle expressed in these scriptures is, don't make the Sabbath a market day or a day to do your weekly shopping.</span><br />
<span style="color: #d9d2e9;"><br />Nehemiah 13 has nothing to do with eating out in a restaurant. After you look at the scriptures on the subject, if you as an individual feel compelled not to eat out at a restaurant on the Sabbath, so be it. No one should look down, no one should criticize, no one should judge.</span><br />
<br />
First of all, it's a big red flag whenever you see that they are upholding a man-made religion, namely Christianity. I absolutely hate to be associated with that word. But that is indeed what they are walking, just one of the many variants of a man-led religion.<br />
<br />
I agree it's an individual choice, just as it's an individual choice for <i>anything</i>. The problem is not with an individual's choices. The problem is with the corporate group UCG claiming it's the true church of God (which it's not, because the true Church is a spiritual entity) and leading thousands of people into Sabbath-breaking, because they are taught that they are walking the right path <i>not</i> by making individual choices, but rather by following UCG's corporate board members' decisions on doctrine.<br />
<br />
They teach that eating out on the Sabbath is not a sin, but since it is a sin, they are in <i>huge</i> error. They are dividing Christ.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple</i>" (Romans 16:17-18)<br />
<br />
Yes! They are deceiving the hearts of the simple! The ones who are being deceived are the ones who have just been brainwashed for years and years and who have lost their nerve to say, "No, uh-huh, that's not what the scriptures teach, and if we're going to use the scriptures to decide, this corporation is lying and leading people astray and profiting from them."<br />
<br />
What Paul said about eating meat has nothing to do with eating out on the Sabbath. It dealt with people offering meat to idols, and the law of Moses forbade Israelites to eat meat that had been offered to idols, but under the new covenant we are to be led spiritually and know that the idols to which meat have been offered are nothing, so it doesn't truly affect the meat (at least Paul didn't believe so, and I don't know what science would actually prove).<br />
<br />
<b>Okay, now to the real BIG DEBUNK. </b><br />
<br />
The author claims that those who "object to purchasing a meal on the Sabbath" use two main scriptures for an argument. He claims that they are scriptures in Nehemiah and Amos. Well, I'll get to those shortly, but first, let me say, "Uhhhh, NOPE. Really if you just read the commandment, there is nothing to argue."<br />
<b> </b><br />
So let's do that! Let's set these abusive "ministers" straight. And yes, they love to abuse and play mind tricks. And the worst thing is that those who have been hurt and abused and have become frustrated with this organization and others like it, is that too often they stay in it to be abused more and more!<br />
<br />
The commandment in Exodus 20:9-11 makes clear that you shall do no work, <i>nor make your servants work for you.</i> Check out the Deuteronomy 5 version, too, because it talks about Israel being brought out as servants to Egypt.<br />
<br />
So what is it that these people think they're doing when they failed to prepare their meal ahead of time and so sit in a restaurant and hire servants to cook their food and serve/wait on them? Are they not your servants? Didn't Salvation say that the Sabbath was made for man?<br />
<br />
The argument that those people would choose to work there that day, anyway, because they do not keep the Sabbath, is pathetic. Is it okay, too, to engage in sex with a whore, because she's going to do that, anyway, if you don't do it with her? That somehow makes it right?<br />
<br />
And suppose that person engaged in a conversation with you and mentioned them going to church the next day, and they invited you. Suppose they are one of the many who truly keep the first day of the week holy by not eating out in restaurants, shopping, etc. There flies out any true opportunity for you to properly share the truth!<br />
<br />
Another foolish argument I've heard made over the years claims that the commandment says no one within "your gates," and that ancient Israel had to keep that commandment, but since we can't make our whole nation keep the Sabbath, that law doesn't apply to us, and we can have servants work for us in restaurants or at airports and in airplanes. Hmmm...<br />
<br />
Two main points, and I'll move on. So, suppose an Israelite was on a journey to other lands. Was he free to break the Sabbath and treat it as an ordinary day when he was elsewhere? And even if he did live by that carnal mindset, is it any way to live out our walk under the new spiritual covenant where the Nation of God is a spiritual entity not marked by physical borders? Also again, how did one expect to broaden the borders of God's Kingdom to cover the earth when not setting the right example for others?<br />
<br />
Now on to Nehemiah 13 and to Amos, since the author thinks that is where the main argument is.<br />
<br />
The author claims the scriptures say that the Sabbath shouldn't be a market day and that one shouldn't do shopping. And indeed that's so true (even though at least one person in the congregation I attended did shop on the Sabbath and also worked in her garden).<br />
<br />
Yes, if you go to Nehemiah 13 and read, Nehemiah claimed that it was an evil thing to profane the Sabbath day by buying and selling (conducting business, marketing). Let us reason together, shall we? It's a marketplace. They were selling and buying produce, wine, grain, fish, and probably all sorts of clothing and dishes and no telling what all. There were probably people selling freshly baked bread and other foods. Regardless of whether there were tables where people could eat their freshly-made foods (people have done this throughout the ages, not just today), there's no doubt that there was food being sold, because Nehemiah named foods. Does it matter whether you went to sit at a table provided by that particular merchant or whether you took it home? Isn't that asinine thinking, that somehow the lack of a table outside the merchant's booth or permanent shop makes it wrong to buy food in the marketplace?<br />
<br />
Why didn't Nehemiah just tell the marketers to bring tables for the people to sit so that they could eat their purchased food? Then it wouldn't be sin! <br />
<br />
Seriously, isn't it a problem when people like Fred Coulter, Roy Holladay, and others, just because they're gray and wrinkled, can lead the masses astray, because the people fail to do the thinking and working themselves? <br />
<br />
Why are so many profaning the sabbath? Why are so many walking their walks according to what some corporate group tells them? Why are they calling them "Mr." this and "Mr." that if Salvation taught we're all brothers and sisters? Why are they eating just as poorly as the mainstream and depending just as much on conventional medical care as the mainstream? Why are the honoring the late self-exalting prideful Herbert Armstrong rather than striving <i>not</i> to live as Armstrong did? Why are they shutting themselves in some veteran's building or something else for numerous hours at a time to conduct close-minded services on the memorial of creation each week?<br />
<br />
Continuing, the UCG author wrote:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">We simply ask that individuals keep that as a personal decision and not make efforts to persuade others, because this is a teaching of the Church. We must understand that attempts to persuade others is divisive, and that behavior simply cannot be tolerated in the Church of God. We call that sowing discord.</span><br />
<br />
Yep, you got that right on the "we." "We call that sowing discord." It sounds like he's addressing a five-year-old. "Little Timmy, we call that sowing discord." <br />
<br />
No. Sowing discord is when you stir up strife among friends or brothers, getting one to be mad at another. It has absolutely nothing to do with standing up for the truth, opening your mouth and saying, "Hey, this is wrong!"<br />
<br />
This is why we are to separate from groups with false teachings and false teachers that teach them, who are deceiving and being deceived. I could not stay and put up with the ever-mounting feelings of imprisonment, because they are a subtle cult, yet still controlling and abusive.<br />
<br />
It's no wonder so many have left those groups and have gone back into the world. I for one have gone back to living in my own temple reigned over by the loving and wise guidance given by my Creator, and I know many other souls out there doing the same thing. We are scattered! But we are free, and we are one. There may be little differences, but we know we are being guided individually, and we don't judge each other, because we all know that is our Creator's job, NOT the job of some corporate entity that sets itself up as the "true church."<br />
<br />
<i>They are divisive</i>. They are the ones who have caused division. Armstrong caused division. There were already people walking the right path, being guided spiritually. He divided Christ and did many evils. And the people in those groups are still under that power.<br />
<br />
And for anyone who is wondering, no, I didn't "try to convince" anyone. It was known what I believed, because I failed to take part in their sins. My example was enough. But it would be nice, wouldn't it, if they would also not try to persuade people the other way around? Because that is what they have tried to do, and apparently a lot of people are persuaded.<br />
<br />
What about you? I'll leave you with some more of the article author's very own words:<br />
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Ezekiel wrote about the severe consequences when the people defiled God's Sabbaths (Ezekiel:20:11-13). God was very serious about the Sabbath being a test commandment. How we keep God's Sabbath tells God something about how much we really want to be in His family.</span>MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-70601935842712236602014-06-08T13:10:00.000-05:002014-06-08T13:10:06.685-05:00Eternal Life: Free for Just Believing? (A Pentecost Message)My firstborn got out my laptop this morning and was going to pull up the daily devotional for himself and his siblings, which we use from Biblestudyplanet.com. I skimmed it, as I always do first, because I simply skip some altogether, and I realized the main point was that eternal life is a free gift. That much is true, but it didn't stop there. The dad in the story declared that all you must do is believe eternal life is a free gift and accept it. <br />
<br />
<i>Really</i>? Anyone who simply believes eternal life is a free gift can accept that free gift? So, regardless of how a person lives his or her life, that person will live on paradise earth with the rest of us <i>forever?!</i> It wouldn't be a paradise. What would be the point of creating us with earthly bodies in the first place, when our Creator could have simply cloned himself numerous more times, just as he did with his first son (who also later lived in an earth body to prove himself). If God could asexually reproduce himself one time, why should we think he couldn't have done it many times over? He could have! He can! But he later came to realize that would be evil, because he realized that some do not desire to live under his authority. He had created beings rebel. So that is the reason why we're in earthly bodies in the first place, so we can be given <i>choice</i>. And if that choice is to live in an evil way toward others, changing that person into a perfect spiritual being is a force to live forever against that person's will. That person would not want to serve God and so to make that person perfect would be forcefully making that person someone he or she does not want to be.<br />
<br />
Those in the Protesting Catholic groups who are part of the horrid Christianity religion (and not all, but most of them) go straight from the meaning of Passover (sacrifice for our sins) to the meaning of Pentecost (receiving the begettal of the God Spirit), totally skipping over the meaning of the feast and holy days between—Unleavened Bread (repenting and ridding one self's life of sin).<br />
<br />
Today is Pentecost, and it's an awesome day! It pictures persons being conceived with the God Spirit, which helps them walk on the right path and comforts them through life's trials. It also guarantees that those persons will be reborn as spiritual-bodied children of God at the Anointed's return to this planet to set up the Kingdom of God, so long as the begotten child does not abort at some point in this life due to horrid malnutrition (exposure to bad things and lack of exposure to good persons, good writings, etc.) or to extreme injury from which he or she does not attempt to recover (like the death of a child or other loved one, loss of limbs, etc.). <br />
<br />
But the Spirit is only given to those who have demonstrated obedience and the desire to get the needed help to continue (Acts 5:32; 2:38).<br />
<br />
You <i>cannot</i> cut out the step between the Passover sacrifice and the Pentecost spiritual gift. <b>There is a prerequisite before the Spirit-begettal that is the free ticket to eternal life. You <i>must repent!</i> </b><br />
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The reason eternal life is "free" is because all have sinned and come short of what Holy Father expects. Salvation, the Anointed Firstborn (called by most "Jesus Christ" or by some "Yeshua Messiah")<b> </b>showed the expectation. He's the glory of God, the glory-child. We've all come short of <i>that</i>. So the reason eternal life is free is because the two holy ones chose to save us, regardless of our sin, <i>if and only if</i> we repent and live a <i>lifestyle</i> of righteousness. That means striving to do our best. That means for men to strive to be like Salvation, and for women that means to strive to be worthy of having been his wife. In stricter terms, it means we all should try to be a perfect glory-child, knowing we won't reach that perfection in our carnal bodies, but in our <i>hearts</i> that is who we are and so how we strive to get our brains and bodies to work to follow.<br />
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Praise our Great Father and our Beloved Lord Salvation for this wonderful holy day and for all it means, but don't forget that the meaning of the Unleavened Bread feast also represents an attitude that should be ongoing in our lives, and the gift of Pentecost is not possible for those who skip the meaning of Unleavened Bread.MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-24549493965352375772014-04-21T18:23:00.000-05:002014-04-21T18:23:12.139-05:00On Hanging Sacrifices as TrophiesI'm well-accustomed to the hanging of animal trophies on the walls, because I grew up in an area where a lot of hunting is done. I come from a hunting family, and I'm married to a hunting husband. There is nothing wrong with hunting for food. If we were to need to survive in the wilderness here in the winter, we wouldn't have a chance if we didn't hunt. We'd need those sacrificial kills if we were going to live. <br />
<br />
However, I've always been a bit disturbed by the hanging of deer heads on the wall. I'm quite used to it, as I've never lived in a home where it wasn't done. My daddy has deer heads on the wall, and my husband has them on our wall. I don't make a big deal out of it and never have, though my husband does know I think it's a little twisted. I much prefer the Native Americans' way. They used the hides, the antlers, almost everything, for useful things like clothes and tools. <br />
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When I was still a kid I felt like the deer were staring at me. I knew they weren't alive, of course, but it was just haunting and sad to me. And now I wonder what my own children must think about it. What's the point of hanging deer heads on the wall?<br />
<br />
I personally do not even understand why people, especially men, target the biggest, most beautiful bucks. It makes more sense to me to leave them out there for us to behold and for continued good breeding. Why does it make some people feel good to kill those particular deer, especially when they are not nearly as good-tasting nor as healthful meat as a younger deer is? I think it's a power thing, like they outdid that deer. "I overcame you, and now I'm going to boast about it to everyone by hanging you on my wall." <br />
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That is how it seems to me. Now I may be offending someone here, but this is my fair opinion. As I said, my husband knows my opinion well, but he doesn't get offended. We can get along while still disagreeing. He lets me hang things I want on the wall, too. <br />
<br />
But the last time I meditated on this, while I was sitting eating breakfast one morning and happened to look over at the deer who was staring at me (like he always does; he was a beautiful deer, and I had to help drag him out of the woods), I thought of the people who hang what is supposed to be a portrayal of Christ hanging on a cross, on their walls.<br />
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The "crucifixes" have always disturbed me. I do not know why people would want to focus on Christ's dead body. He's alive in heaven! Let's focus on that.<br />
<br />
But at that moment during my meditation, I was even more horrified. It's a sacrifice trophy. <br />
<br />
Now I know many who hang these horrid things in their homes or wear them around their necks don't see it that way. They would protest that they aren't boasting about his death. <br />
<br />
But how does Christ see it, I wonder? Does he like being reminded as he peers into your home or sees you walking with that necklace, of the horrible way he died, when many of you are crossing yourselves before engaging in a premeditated sin? It's usually Catholics who sport the crucifixes, whereas the Protesting Catholics prefer sporting crosses without a body. What does the Lord Salvation think when he sees those grotesque replicas hanging here and there and everywhere by people who use his grace as a license to sin?<br />
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Ironically, those are the ones who claim to celebrate his resurrection on a pagan goddesses' feast day, Easter, but they are showing off his death all day, every day. On the contrary, those who do not celebrate any resurrection day (which was symbolized by the Firstfruits wave offering, which is counted from to celebrate the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost) and who instead observe the <i>commanded</i> Passover feast to <i>remember</i> Christ's death each year do not sport the horrid crucifixes, nor any image that is supposedly an image of Christ. That would break the second commandment, which the church in Rome conveniently deleted and cleverly divided the tenth commandment into two so that they'd still have ten. <br />
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So what is the reason usually given by those who hang crucifixes? I'm curious to know. From my earliest days in life I have never understood why anyone would want to show off a representation of Christ's dead body. Of course, I also do not understand the Christianity practice of believing that the eucharist bread and the wine literally become our Lord's flesh and blood, either, so that they believe they are sacrificing Christ daily, as if the <i>one</i> time he died as our Passover Lamb didn't do the job. That is disturbing, too, especially regarding those who take it all lightly and go on living a lifestyle of sin (which certainly does not describe many Catholics, for there are many out there who are truly trying to live righteously, albeit ignorantly concerning many things). <br />
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<b>Regardless of a person's reason, one thing is for sure. Displaying what you call Christ's body dead on your wall or necklace (or whatever else) is a sin, the transgression of the second commandment. God isn't going to conform to Rome's changing His law, deleting the second commandment. He will rather judge based on the way He wrote His law. </b><br />
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To be covered by the Anointed Salvation's sacrifice, you must repent of breaking the second commandment, and all other nine commandments. Hanging animal trophies is one thing, but hanging a dead "Jesus" up as your Christianity trophy is a sin. <b> </b><br />
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<br />MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-76326213450290397662014-04-19T21:43:00.001-05:002014-04-21T15:38:16.406-05:00Contrasting God's Unleavened Bread with Pagan-Catholic Lent<span style="color: #b4a7d6;">Note: This is a long post, and the actual contrast of UB with Lent is well into it.</span><br />
<br />
This week "spiritually virgin" Christians—they are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12)—have been keeping the commanded Passover and Unleavened Bread feasts and holy days. Meanwhile "spiritually whore" Christians—they are those who testify Jesus is Christ but walk in Babylon rather than keep God's commandments (Revelation 17 & 18)—have been keeping a season of fasting called <i>Lent</i> (simply meaning "spring") that leads up to their holy day Easter. Many of the protestors of their mother church, the church of Rome who went a-whoring, only keep Easter and so do not know much about Lent. <br />
<br />
The scriptures mention both of these times, in a time long before the birth of Christ, and the scriptures show that the Eternal forbids keeping these pagan holy times. It makes clear He absolutely <i>hates</i> them.<br />
<br />
The prophet Ezekiel was being shown various things that the house of Israel was doing and what the house of Judah was doing. The Eternal God started off with one thing and then escalated to "greater abominations" and even "greater abominations," worse and worse.<br />
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A little over halfway through the chapter, at verse 13 and 14 it explains that the people were doing some abominations greater than the ones listed prior, and this included women weeping for Tammuz. I'd wager that most who belong to the Catholic Christianity religion and those who are part of the many protesting Catholic Christianity sects (Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Episcopalian, Lutheran, etc.) do not know who Tammuz was, even though they participate in many of the pagan traditions of worshiping him. Tammuz was the son of Semiramis (or Asthtoreth/Astarte/Easter, etc.), the ungodly Nimrod's wife. You can read about Nimrod in Genesis 10:8-10. He was a mighty ruler who started Babel (Babylon) and other lands. He was mighty but ungodly, and after his death his wife claimed the son she later birthed was Nimrod reborn, and he was worshiped as the sun god. That was the beginning of the unholy trinity doctrine that you see in all the pagan religions (like in Egypt with Osiris, Isis, and Horus), including Roman Catholicism (supposedly Father God, Mary the Queen of Heaven, and Jesus). The protesting Catholics reject worshiping Mary, so their trinity is Father, Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, as if the Spirit of God is its own person! (This <a href="http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/trinity.html">wicked doctrine</a> leaves out any chance for us to also become children of Father God.)<br />
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Tammuz supposedly lived for forty years and was killed by a wild boar. His worshipers kept a 40-day period of mourning, a day for each year of his life, in his honor, which led up to the day in honor of his whore mother Easter, worshipped as the sex and fertility goddess (think Easter eggs and sex-crazed rabbits). People celebrate Easter by eating ham in Tammuz's honor, since he was killed by a boar.<br />
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Now on to the even greater abomination, in verse 16 we can read about people at the door of God's temple, facing away from the temple, toward the east to worship the sun. Sound familiar? What comes right after the weeping of Tammuz (renamed "Lent")? The feast of Easter. And what do people do at Easter services? Many of them hold what they call "sunrise" services. They face the sun and watch it rise while services are conducted.<br />
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If you're thinking, "Oh, big deal. We are keeping it in Jesus' name." Well, let's see...<br />
<br />
Very next verse, <i>Then he said unto me, Have you seen, oh son of man? <b>Is it a light thing </b>to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and lo, they put the branch to their nose (vs. 17).</i><br />
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<i>When the ETERNAL your God shall cut off the nations from
before you, where you go to possess them, and you succeed them, and
dwell in their land;<b> <span class="reftext"></span>Take
heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them, after that
they be destroyed from before you; and that you inquire not after their
gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do
likewise. <span class="reftext"></span>You
shall not do so to the ETERNAL your God</b>: for every abomination to the ETERNAL , which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons
and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
</i><br />
<div class="reg">
<span class="reftext"></span><i>What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it</i> (Deut. 12:29-32).</div>
<div class="reg">
<br /></div>
<div class="reg">
<i>You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: you cannot
be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils (</i>1 Cor. 10:21). </div>
<div class="reg">
<span class="p"><br /></span></div>
<div class="reg">
<span class="p">See also: 1 Kings 18:21 (one of my personal favorites); Matt. 6:24; 2 Cor. 6:15-17</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<i> </i>Yes, those of Judah (Jews) have filled their land with violence even today, but so has the house of Israel, the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, the peoples are who mostly reading this (as per my site statistics that show places all over the world, but by far the most from the modern nations of Israel like the United States, Britain, and Canada). They're all war-mongers! They LOVE war! You tune in to a "christian" radio program like American Family Radio, and they love war. Same old story with the Catholics and protesting Catholics. All through the ages they are no better than their enemy Muslims. And YES, they all DO claim to worship exactly the same God. I've read the Qur'an completely, and their beliefs <i>almost</i> perfectly match Protestants'. Isn't that interesting? But it's true. And they <i>both</i> reject what is written in their holy books. What other violence? Abortion. Most who get abortions in the U.S. state that they are "Christian" in religion. Same old story as the pagans. Child sacrifice, sacrificing the firstborn.<br />
<br />
In the future, if they don't repent, they will also be deceived by the "beast" power. The coming "Antichrist" and "false prophet" will be from the Christianity religion. So the ones in the Christianity religion will be the ones supporting these two wicked individuals. The ones in the Christianity religion will think God's two faithful and true witnesses are the beast and false prophet. <b>THEY WILL GET IT ALL BACKWARD! The scriptures warn that God will give them over to strong delusion so that they will believe a lie, because they <u>RECEIVED NOT</u> THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH! </b>Rather they believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, which means breaking God's commandments<b> </b>(See 2 Thess. 2:11-12).<br />
<br />
<b>I CAME OUT OF THAT SYSTEM!! I GREW UP AS A PROTESTANT, BEING THE ONLY ONE FOR MOST OF MY YEARS GROWING UP TO GO TO CHURCH. I PAID ATTENTION TO WHAT WAS TAUGHT AND QUESTIONED THINGS EVEN THEN. WHEN I GOT IT FIGURED OUT, THAT THEY WERE LYING, AND THE BIBLE DIDN'T TEACH THOSE THINGS, I GOT OUT!!</b><br />
<br />
Before I reached that point, I'd read some mainstream Christian prophecy books, so I know the basic end time beliefs<b> </b>of theirs, and I've since studied the bible and know what really shall happen, and the overall general teaching they teach is EXACT OPPOSITE of what the scriptures teach. It's NO WONDER THEY'LL BE DECEIVED! Now, if they will had been reading their bibles themselves and PROVING whether what they were taught was really true or not, they will not have gotten themselves tangled in the delusion. You see, they teach that the Antichrist will be Jewish. Isn't that interesting? The bible doesn't teach that at all. They also teach that Christians who follow the Ten Commandments, particularly the fourth commandment that teaches the Sabbath and true annual holy days, are being Jewish. Of course God's two witnesses will be true Christians. The false witnesses (beast/antichrist and false prophet) will both come from the false Christianity religion. They will be Catholic.<br />
<br />
Satan is VERY clever indeed.<br />
<br />
Now back to what is different from the Heavenly Eternal God's commanded Unleavened Bread feast (Lev. 23:6-8; I Cor. 5:6-8) and the earthly enemy god's deceptive substitute Lent feast...<br />
<br />
As the apostle Paul explained to the Corinthians, leaven represents sin, and by ridding our homes of leaven and leavened breads during the feast, we are reminded to examine ourselves, to make sure we are ridding ourselves of the sins in our lives, because Christ is our Passover Lamb sacrificed for us, so that if we repent, we will be covered by his grace.<br />
<br />
Lent involves fasting from meat, or as it's evolved, from whatever vices with which a person struggles (food and drug addictions, porn addiction, or whatever). But afterward people return to whatever it is from which they were abstaining. It's supposed to be a time of mourning over these sins, but it's more like a, "I'm sorry for being this way, but I'm not sorry in the way that will bring me to true repentance. I don't want to change. Feeling sorry is enough."<br />
<br />
Not only that, but there are other days that Catholics keep, like Ash Wednesday, Maudy Thursday, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, and Shrove Tuesday. This last one is also known popularly as Mardis Gras (also "Fat Tuesday"). It's pretty much a sinful festival of lust, gluttony (lots of sugar and meat), drunkenness, revelry....you know, a huge sin fest. At midnight this sin fest abruptly ends (where it's largely celebrated, like in New Orleans, US and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and Lent begins. It's meat and sugar from which people abstain during Lent, so they really gorge on it beforehand. <br />
<br />
Since true Christians know when the feast of Unleavened Bread is about to begin, it's common to start using up all the yeast and leavened breads beforehand, since we live in a day where we may keep yeast packets in our cabinets. Now it's wise to use it up rather than wasting it if you've spent money on this (in ancient Israel, things worked differently, you just had your lump of leavened dough you kept, and you added it to the daily bread and kept a lump back again), but the point I want to make is that we should focus more on the spiritual meaning of the feast and make sure we are properly keeping this feast in its new covenant way. Let's not let take it to the extreme with the attitude of, "Let's feast greatly on yeasted breads before Unleavened Bread begins, because we won't be able to eat it then." And for all I know, there may be those who are spending the entire week of Unleavened Bread desiring to return back to eating leavened bread. I actually enjoy how eating our normal breads in an unleavened state sets as a constant reminder of what the feast is really supposed to teach us.<br />
<br />
Let's not let our attitudes be like so many of those who follow the pagan Christianity religion, who have made Christ to be their "lord of misrule," who turn his grace into a license to sin and who decide to worship him in whatever way they see fit in their own eyes, who do not question what in the world the word <i>Easter</i> means or what eggs have to do with Christ's resurrection or why the Easter rabbit lays eggs. I was a <i>child</i> when I questioned these things within myself! I failed to see what any of that had to do with Christ or what any of the Christmas stuff had to do with Christ. There were lots of things I just failed to understand, because I used my logic. I do not understand why or how so many can just go along in life just doing everything the way someone says it should be done, just because everyone is doing it that way, even though it makes absolutely no sense at all. But it's WRONG, and it's IRRESPONSIBLE, and it's LAZY, and it's COWARDLY. <br />
<br />
I remember in 2004 my husband, firstborn son, and I temporarily lived in Texas. My husband and his friend walked into a liquor store to buy some beer. I sat in the vehicle with my son, and I watched as a man walked toward the door and did the trinity crossing ritual across his face and chest, which Catholics do, and then he opened the door. My mouth must have dropped open. What that said to me is that it was his belief that drinking alcohol was wrong (or that perhaps only that excess drinking is wrong but that he planned to do that), but if he did the crossing thing before he did it, he'd be pardoned. I told my husband about it, who spent part of his years growing up in Texas, and he said that it was a common thing with Catholics to do the crossing thing and then do a sin. <br />
<br />
Does grace cover premeditated willful sins? (See Heb. 10:26) Sure, a person can repent and then be judged by his lifestyle afterward. But if you <i>live a life</i> of willful sin, I don't care how many times you do that crossing thing or how many beads you touch while you utter hail Mary's or anything else numerous times, it will do you no good. Those things are utter folly, anyway. You have turned God's grace into a license to sin (see Jude 4), and you shall NOT RECEIVE ANY GRACE for your sins. <br />
<br />
Many are still ignorant. There are many still growing up in Catholic or Protesting Catholic churches who are going along with Easter and Lent, because that is what they've been taught. Some of those children are wise enough to spend time meditating about those things, though, and questioning why none of it makes sense. <br />
<br />
But for those who have already been shown the truth and have been given the opportunity to prove the truth, and you have chosen to not receive the love of the truth, you currently have no grace. You <i>know better</i>. It's not that you are ignorant. You have <i>rejected</i> the truth. You do not love the truth. You love lies and liars. <br />
<br />
<i>The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means;
and <b>my people love to have it so</b>: and what will you do in the end
thereof?</i><span class="p"> (Jer. 5:31).</span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p">See Psa. 52:3; Eze. 13:19; Psa. 62:4; 4:2; Rev. 22:15; Isa. 30:10....and on and on I could list.</span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p">Read that Rev. 22:15. Use your bible. Almost all who are reading this own one, though they may not read it or study it. </span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p">"Many are called but few are chosen," and "Narrow is the gate into life, but broad is the path to damnation." This<i> </i>doesn't refer to the ignorant masses who really do not know God's plan of salvation. This is about the many who <i>have</i> been shown the truth, who do know better, but who reject it! They are "cowardly," "unbelieving," and "love lies and make lies." </span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p">They are <b>cowardly</b>, because they are too wimpy to stand up to all those who will persecute them for their "strange" beliefs. They are too afraid they may lose their job. They are afraid they'll lose friends. They are afraid their family members will hate them. If it's life or death, as it has been many times, they are afraid of dying.</span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p">They are <b>unbelieving</b>, because they show with their actions that they refuse to obey. They don't believe the truth, because they don't like it. They'd prefer to believe lies.</span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p">They <b>love lies and make lies</b>, because that is what they were taught, and that is what they choose to go on teaching to others, because they do not have the love of the truth in them.</span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p">Satan has a substitute many of God's holy days! All his days have long-ago pagan roots. The church in Rome strayed from the truth and adopted the pagan days and changed the names of some to make them sound Christian. They plugged in Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) and Mary for the resurrected sun god and queen of heaven, and they kept all the festival dates so that things would continue on as they had before. They persecuted Jews and true Christians for keeping the true seventh day as the Sabbath and even murdered them. They allowed only those who kept Sunday as the sabbath to be able to buy or sell. </span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p">God's holy days are all on different dates. There are just seven feasts and seven holy days, and they reveal the TRUTH, the real God and his real plan of salvation.</span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p"><b>Easter and Lent are wicked substitutes for Passover and Unleavened Bread. You will only find hate language toward the practices now called Easter and Lent in the bible.* Passover and Unleavened Bread are both <u>commanded feasts</u> of God. They are statutes that fall under the fourth commandment of the Law of God. They have not been "done away." You will find that Christ commanded at this last Passover that we have new symbols for the new covenant Passover, but the Passover is still a commanded feast. It is commanded to be a night to be "much observed," for that is the night Christ was arrested to be killed, to be taken away to be our Passover Lamb </b>(and not the night afterward as many in the churches of God teach). </span><br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>
<span class="p"><b>As the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, we are to <u>KEEP</u> THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD with sincerity and truth. </b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="p"><b>He was the same one who rebuked the Galatians for returning to their pagan feasts (Gal. 4:8-10)</b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="p"><b>DO NOT BE DECEIVED. PROVE ALL THINGS. COME OUT OF BABYLON. PURIFY YOURSELF TO BE A CHASTE VIRGIN FOR CHRIST'S COMING. WALK IN GOD'S LAW, HIS TEN COMMANDMENTS. DO NOT GIVE HONOR TO THE GREAT WHORE CHURCH OF ROME. YOU GIVE HONOR TO THE FALSE CHRIST, THE GOD OF THIS WORLD, SATAN, WHEN YOU KEEP SUNDAY, EASTER, LENT, CHRISTMAS, ETC. YOU GIVE HONOR TO THE GOD OF HEAVEN WHEN YOU KEEP SABBATH, PASSOVER, UNLEAVENED BREAD, TRUMPETS, ETC.</b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="p"><b>*</b>The translators of the King James bible tried to justify their keeping of Easter by translating the Greek <i>paschal</i>, which is the word for Passover, in Acts 12:4 as <i>Easter</i>. They shall have to answer to that accordingly. But don't be deceived. If you're reading this, you've got the Internet and can go to bible.cc (biblehub.net) to see yourself. All other translations properly translated it as Passover. The Jews didn't even keep Easter, so that was a pretty stupid stunt on the part of the KJV translators. <b> </b></span>MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-33079825751539612482014-04-16T13:55:00.000-05:002014-04-16T13:59:43.761-05:00In the Blink of an Eye... (More Passover Meditation)...your life can end. In the blink of an eye, you could die. It happens all the time. One moment you're alive, the next moment you're dead. I even watched my second-born son die before my very eyes eight and a half years ago. You don't imagine your child dying before you. One moment he was breathing, the next moment he was white as a sheet, and I couldn't bring him back. No amount of breathing for him or screaming at him did the trick.<br />
<br />
The following is a small portion of my Passover night entry in my prayer journal, the entries of which are to my Eternal Father God and also for my Lord Salvation the Anointed Firstborn:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>I also thought about how quickly our lives can end. I had told the kids that, in the afternoon before this Passover night, because a squirrel had been electrocuted. That explains why the previous morning or two mornings before, there was a loud boom, followed immediately by the electricity flashing off and back on. Then later Nathan went to get ice, and he came across that terrible wreck. Again, it's a reminder that your life could end just that suddenly, or at least be changed drastically in that instant.</i></div>
</blockquote>
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I was getting the kids ready for bed at the beginning of the evening of Passover, and my husband (currently agnostic) left to go get ice, just about a ten- to twelve-minute drive from here. A good while had passed, and he sent me a message to say he was ok, that there had been a wreck. He had been on his way back, and he'd noticed a pole down and the line across the road. Then he saw the crashed vehicle. He was the first on the scene of the accident, quickly followed by a young guy and gal, the latter of which turned out to be a friend of the victim. My Love and the younger guy searched for the driver. The one guy looked in the demolished vehicle. At that time my husband heard the victim. He was making a horrible "snoring" noise at a quick rate and was totally unresponsive. Nathan was sure he was witnessing the man dying. He was lacerated all over, and it appeared by his position that his arm(s) and neck and vertebrae were broken. He'd been ejected at least ninety feet from the vehicle. Nathan instructed the younger guy to not attempt to move the victim, and he left to drive down the road to get cell service so that he could call 911. Before he got in the truck, though, the girl who had stayed at their vehicle asked whether her friend was going to be ok. He told her he was in trouble and needed immediate help, so she broke down. When he got back, another couple had stopped who also knew the victim. A different girl asked my husband whether he was alive, and he could said that he was breathing, but it wasn't good, so then she broke down.<br />
<br />
This was all a very traumatic ordeal. Nathan came home pale and distraught. Thankfully, though, this story has a good ending. He found out the next day which hospital the man was in and called to check on him. The injuries were considered "moderate." Amazingly his head did not receive any injuries. The nurse said it was a miracle. He had a broken vertebrae and something else (I think that one arm was broken) and then cuts all over, none of them major. He'd only finally come to a few minutes before Nathan called and was informed of where he was and that he'd been in an accident. His terrible breathing had been as I suspected, due to the traumatic nature of what had happened to him.<br />
<br />
His accident was almost certainly due to folly, driving too fast on that potentially very dangerous road. Thankfully the fellow will live to be given the opportunity <b>to change</b>, to make sure he's driving safely and to urge others to do so. My husband is also apt to drive too fast much of the time, and this helped him to realize what can happen. He said he'd resolved to slow down on these roads.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for the aforementioned squirrel whose life ended abruptly by electrocution, he or she will not get a chance to change its ways and not run down the electrical lines anymore. Sometimes the same goes for people. Sometimes an act of folly will be the last thing a person does in this life.<br />
<br />
There were a couple different things that triggered meditation from these events, one of them being that our Lord's friends must have reacted in much the same way as those frightened girls of the vehicle accident victim, when the Lord's friends heard of his plight and saw him beat and then later staked/nailed to wood to hang. I could imagine their cries and hysteria, and it caused me to be grieved, too, as if I was really there.<br />
<br />
But more so I meditated on the fact that <b>we</b> <b>do not know when our last moment of life in this body will be. We do not know when we will draw our last breath. </b>And when we die, do we want to die with hope and expectation or with dread and fear of the second death? Christ is our Passover Lamb who has made it possible for us to escape the second death! But it's not a guarantee for all. That is what links the message of the Passover to the message of Unleavened Bread. <b>We must repent</b> of our sin—transgression of the Ten Commandments—if we want to be spared the second death in the lake of fire. Christ was sacrificed, but the prerequisite to being <b>begotten </b>by the Royal Sperm—the God Spirit—is repentance! We must make the choice to obey the Law (Acts 5:32; 2:38), and <i>then</i> we will receive the Helper, which is God's very own spirit DNA. But we must keep ourselves pure so as not to corrupt the gestation and spontaneously abort, or we will not make it to our birthday at Christ's next coming.<br />
<br />
We need to carefully examine ourselves each Passover and Unleavened Bread week and note which areas need work in our lives. We also need to watch other brethren and spend more time with those who are zealous and strong in their walk and be more cautious about others, because "a little leaven can leaven the whole lump" (1 Cor. 5:6; Gal. 5:9). I've observed very well over the years that you become like the company you keep, so we should be diligent to keep the right company. I prefer to keep my closest friends as ones who value truth the most, are not lukewarm, who will set a good example for me, and who will reveal my errors (which doesn't always require them saying anything; sometimes it just takes seeing that they're doing it right, and I'm not). I also want to make sure that I'm a good friend and keeping my friends on the right track.<br />
<br />
Younger siblings, by nature, mimic and follow the older ones, regardless of whether the older one(s) are doing what is right or wrong. Since we are fallen, though, it does <i>not</i> come natural to us to follow our Lord Brother the Righteous Firstborn. We must make a voluntary choice to do so, and then we must choose wise siblings in the Royal Family to imitate. When things are working the way they should, you are imitating them, and they are imitating you, and you keep each other on the right path that way.<br />
<br />
<b>What about you? Have <i>you</i> come close to death before or have been close to someone who has unexpectedly died or nearly died? Did it cause you to re-examine your life?</b><br />
<br />
You do <i>not</i> know when you will die! You can be healthy and full of life one moment and be out of the game the next. You can be rich one year and poor the next. You can walk on two legs one day and be sitting in the hospital with no legs the next. You could see one hour and be blind the next. We should be thankful for all that we've got and be diligent to make the best of what we've got when we've got it. We must repent and stay on the path of righteousness while we can.<br />
<br />
In the blink of an eye, your life can end. Do not wait until it's too late.MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-60717806073320304562014-04-14T20:01:00.000-05:002014-04-16T14:04:14.665-05:00New Covenant Passover Plus My Passover Meditations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-size: small;">"This is my body which is given for you: this do in
remembrance of me. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is
shed for you." ~Anointed Lord Salvation</span></i></div>
<br />
Under the carnal covenant, Passover was kept as a memorial of God freeing Israel from bondage to Egypt. Under the current spiritual covenant, Passover is kept as a memorial of God freeing believers in Christ/Messiah from bondage to sin. It's a memorial of our Lord and Christ's sacrificial death.<br />
<br />
Under the carnal covenant a lamb was sacrificed to remember how the lamb's blood had saved the firstborns of Israel in Egypt when it was smeared on the doorposts before the death angel visited. Under the spiritual covenant we symbolically eat Christ's body (unleavened bread) and drink his blood (wine), because He is our Passover Lamb who was slain once for all sins (those of which would be repented), and in reality we "eat" of His spiritual nature to become more like He is, for it is true that we are what we eat.<br />
<br />
There are two false religions, one of which claims to keep the carnal covenant (Judaism) and one who claims to keep the spiritual covenant (Christianity), but both hold to their man-made religious doctrines and traditions rather than keep the truth as written in the scriptures. That is why those who follow Judaism keep the carnal covenant Passover, and those that follow Christianity keep the pagan Easter. Then there is the marrying of these two religions that produced Messianic Judaism, which also follow after some false doctrines from both religions. They reject the pagan Easter, but they keep a largely carnal covenant Passover, eating a seder (meal), believing not in a new spiritual covenant but a renewed carnal covenant.<br />
<br />
I've written extensively and very in-depth on topics concerning the carnal covenant verses the spiritual covenant, including contrasts to the carnal covenant Passover and the spiritual covenant Passover. These are among my most popular studies. For more info, you may visit the following links to my blog posts and website articles:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2011/04/forever-in-old-testament-does-it-always.html">"Forever" in the Old Testament: Does it Always Mean Eternal?</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-covenant-does-not-abolish-law-but.html">New Covenant Does Not Abolish Law But Does Abolish Old Covenant</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-law-was-added-because-of.html">What "The Law Was Added Because of Transgression" Means</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/carnalcovenant.html">Old Covenant Carnal Showings</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/paulrejectors.html">To Silence the Paul-Rejecting Carnal Covenant Lovers: Proving Jesus and Paul Were at One</a><br />
<br />
Now to share some of my meditative thoughts from this Passover night just passed...<br />
<br />
As I was reading one of the gospel accounts of my Lord's execution, I stopped to meditate for a while when I reached the part that records that He asked our Holy Father to forgive the ones who had a part in putting him to death and their supporters, telling Father that they were ignorant of what they were doing. I spiritually jumped back in time and imagined the social climate of Judah during the last three and half years of the Lord's life on earth. By the end of his three-and-a-half year ministry, many of the people knew of him. I'm sure it would be like today in the U.S. when a figure becomes publicly prominent. Rumors spread. Even if the person is doing what is good, people who are biased against him (or her) who have power can quickly cast the person in a negative light in the eyes of the majority. There are always the minority who will support the person, and the minority can number in the thousands or even millions (depending on the population involved) but still very much be a small minority.<br />
<br />
I thought of the numerous things about which the majority of the people are deceived today. The list is unending. There are many who possess knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, but they still make up the minority by far. And what of the majority? They think they are the ones who possess good sense and think the minority as crazy and/or stupid. And the somewhat prominent figures who spread various truths (whether it be health, biblical, legal, environmental, agricultural, parental, etc.) are persecuted and branded by the mainstream media as nut jobs.<br />
<br />
That must be what it was like in Salvation's time. There were a growing many in the know, but they were few compared to the majority. The ones who had power were afraid enough of what would happen if they openly went against him, because just like any gathering today where a teacher is speaking, those minority people are going to make up the majority in attendance. But their power was great in that they still maintained their influence over the mainstream majority.<br />
<br />
It was true then just as much as it's true now that many are very ignorant in what they believe and how they act toward others. They believe they are doing what's right in how they live their lives, how they bring up their children, and how they perceive those who believe differently. And God has kept them in blindness for the time being. So they may rail wickedly against those who are really good and teaching and living by the truth, but they don't realize they are against God and truth. They believe they're in the right. Their blindness is fogging up their mind. Now if they were <i>serious</i> enough about seeking and living by truth, they would be more likely to prove things and then realize the minority people are right about things. But they are carnal-minded, choosing rather to try to enjoy life as much as possible without investing time in asking important questions and investigating into things.<br />
<br />
But we have <i>all</i> been this way for a time, <i>at least to an extent</i>. Some of us have always been more likely to investigate and ask questions and want truth, but we've all been guilty of going along with what the mainstream teaching on a matter is. Who is to know whether we change down the line and open our eyes?<br />
<br />
There were probably quite a few people who were strongly against Salvation the Anointed, because they'd believed the mainstream lies against him and lacked in understanding, who then later came to the truth and repented and were followers of the Lord. So this is why our Lord would have asked Father to forgive them. They were ignorant but would not allow themselves to be forever.<br />
<br />
What wonderful grace and long-suffering our Eternal Father and His Righteous Firstborn possess! Yes, so wonderful that They were both willing for the latter to come spend over 34 human life years (including gestation in the womb) on earth and endure all the hardships and temptations humankind go through, and ultimately die as our saving sacrifice! And for this reason we remember our Anointed Salvation's loving sacrifice annually on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month.<br />
<br />
I will save the other meditative topic I want to share for tomorrow, to post on the first day of Unleavened Bread.<br />
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Until then...MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-36472505887470148722014-04-13T16:45:00.001-05:002014-04-13T16:45:58.069-05:00Passover: A Night to Be Much ObservedMy fellow brother in Christ, Keith Hunt, years ago detailed why Passover night is a "night to be much observed" or "much remembered." Many erroneously believe it is the following night—the fifteenth day of the first month—which is the first day of unleavened bread and a holy day. <br />
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The details of the study can be found here: <a href="http://www.keithhunt.com/Nightto.html">Night to Be Much Observed</a>.<br />
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Tonight is the annual Passover, a night to truly be observed and remembered, for it is the death anniversary of our Lord Salvation (Jesus Christ/Yeshua Messiah). This is truly the night that I have always "much observed," meditating on what my Lord Brother-Spouse did for me, studying the scriptures, praying...all after partaking of the unleavened bread and wine to symbolize his body and blood. <br />
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As for the annual holy days, I have always made the big celebrations during the daylight hours: the big feasts to be eaten mid-day and the remainder of the day to spend in study, meditation, fellowship with like believers and family. Besides abstaining from servile work on the night of unleavened bread, I do not do anything particularly special. I do the normal things I do on any other annual Sabbath (the weekly Sabbaths the big feast and dessert I fix to eat at the beginning of Sabbath and have leftovers for the following day, as we are not to even fix big meals during the hours of the weekly Sabbath), get clean, and go to bed. There's nothing I spend time late that night that would fit under the "much-observed" category.<br />
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I believe it's most definitely Passover that is the night to be much observed, as it would seem pretty clear from account in Exodus and also from the account of our Lord's last Passover. They "much observed" that night. That's the night that, under the carnal covenant, the Israelites were FREED FROM BONDAGE TO EGYPT; and it's the night that, under the spiritual covenant, we are FREED FROM BONDAGE TO SIN. <br />
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Please fellow brothers and sisters in the Royal Family, make this night a "night to be much observed."MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-9091585869247960342014-04-07T13:55:00.004-05:002014-04-07T19:42:21.826-05:00The Coming Blood Moons NOT the Heavenly Signs ForetoldI first heard about the coming blood moon tetrad a few months ago while riding in the vehicle with my family. My husband and I were listening to something on the radio. At that time I did not learn very much about it. I finally looked more into it two nights ago to see what people were saying.<br />
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If you don't already know, according to NASA calculations we will experience four lunar eclipses ("blood moons")—two in the Roman year of 2014 and two in 2015—and two solar eclipses in 2015, and each one of these eclipses will land on one of the Eternal God's feast days.<br />
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Persons like World Net Daily's Joseph Farah, El Shaddai Ministries' Messianic rabbi Mark Biltz, Protesting Catholic pastor John Hagee, and others are proclaiming on Youtube videos and more that these coming blood moons signify something and could be linked to the tribulation. They all refer to the scriptures on the heavenly signs foretold in the scriptures of the moon turning to blood and the sun turning black as sackcloth (<i>see Joel 2:31; Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20; Rev. 6:12</i>).<br />
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They purport that the soon-coming eclipses will be an alert or warning of some sort, because Genesis does indeed tell us that the sun, moon, and stars are also to be used for signs and not just to mark days, years and appointed times (misleadingly translated "seasons" in most English bibles). <br />
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But then I noticed over and over again that they go on to attempt to prove their "warning" belief by noting past tetrads that each occurred on God's holy days. There have been few tetrads since our Lord walked on the earth as a man, and the only ones where each occurred on God's holy days (or so claimed, as I've not confirmed whether this part is even true, but for the sake of this writing, we'll assume it is) were in 1967 and '68, 1949 and '50, and 1492 and '93.<br />
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They claim that in each of those occurrences, something big happened with Israel. Now, really they mean the Jews only. In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain, in 1948 "Israel" became a nation again, and in 1967 the Six Day War where Israeli territories were recaptured.<br />
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Ok, does anyone else see what I see? How are blood moons that occur <i>after the fact</i> "warnings" or "alerts?" 1949 and 1950 come <i>after</i> 1948, unless I'm just <i>that</i> bad at math. And did the first blood moons of 1967 and 1492 occur before the events started happening? And even if so, what was the point of the ones the following years?<br />
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Perhaps the blood moon tetrads that land on God's holy days are meant to speak <i>afterward</i>. I don't know. But I do know that they're pretty useless for <i>forewarning</i> people of something, agreed?<br />
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The blood moons are said to land on Passover and the first day of Tabernacles in both years (2014 and 2015). There should be a correction here, though. The date is actually when the first day of Unleavened Bread starts, rather than Passover, which is the day before. Their error here is due to the Jews wrongly keeping Passover on the 15th day of the first month, rather than on the 14th as the law commands. The first day of Unleavened Bread is a holy day, though, a Sabbath. (Passover is actually not a high Sabbath.)<br />
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<b>Probably the biggest error is the suggestion or even just the insinuation that the coming blood moons are the heavenly signs foretold in the bible to signal Christ's soon return. </b>Let's look at what the bible says about this:<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Immediately <b>after</b> the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: <span class="reftext"></span>And
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. <span class="reftext"></span>And
he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other </i>(Matt. 24:29-31, bold emphasis added).<br />
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<i>And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, see, there was a
great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the
moon became as blood; <span class="reftext"></span>And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. <span class="reftext"></span>And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. <span class="reftext"></span>And
the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every slave, and every free man,
hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; <span class="reftext"></span>And
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face
of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: <span class="reftext"></span>For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (</i>Rev. 6:12-17).<br />
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The SIXTH seal, right before the seventh seal where the seven trumpets sound (of which the Feast of Trumpets foreshadows), unleashing the wrath of God and ushering in God's Kingdom with the resurrection of the firstfruits. THIS is when the heavenly signs occur. Immediately AFTER the tribulation, as Christ said before that, as Matthew recorded for us. AFTER the tribulation, but before the "day of the Eternal," or "great and dreadful day of the Eternal," the "day of God's wrath," or simply the "Lord's day," as John refers to it in Revelation 1:10. <br />
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The period of the tribulation plus God's wrath spans a little over three and a half years (there are extra days mentioned tacked on after the tribulation at the end of Daniel for those paying attention).<br />
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The ones talking about the blood moon tetrad as if they mean the heavenly signs spoken of in the scriptures all assume a seven-year tribulation, even though the bible speaks of no such thing. Over and over again, in many places, it explains that the tribulation is three and a half years. That is how long the faithful believers will be in the wilderness to where they fled (forests, caves, etc.), and that is how long the two chosen witnesses of God will represent the Truth in Jerusalem against the two false witnesses ("beast" or "antichrist" and "false prophet") and do their signs and miracles while the two false witnesses also do theirs. Three and a half years! There is no seven years with a peace treaty broken in the middle and all that nonsense. False prophets use ONE place in the bible to teach this doctrine, and that prophecy has absolutely nothing to do with the tribulation in the last days. It deals with the Messiah's first coming and dying.<br />
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Another issue is the belief of a third temple before the tribulation. The scriptures teach there will be a temple built <i>after</i> Christ's return. The CURRENT TEMPLE is made up of Spirit-begotten Christians. The false christ tries to sit in true believers, taking their bodies away from the true God. There is some left of the last physical temple (the "Wailing Wall"), and it will be finished off in the end.<br />
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But the "abomination of desolation" that kicks off the tribulation is spelled out in Luke's record that is parallel to Matthew's and Mark's. Please compare all three, and you will get your answer. It's Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, and Luke 20:21. Matthew and Mark both have added words to them, warning people you must read to understand. Go over to Luke and read, and you will understand. <br />
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NOW, at least one of the guys I watched on Youtube said there will not be another tetrad for another 600 years or so and not another tetrad where all four moons are on God's feast days for about 1,000 years or so from now, so basically he was trying to say that THESE upcoming lunar and solar eclipses <i>must</i> be the heavenly signs, even though it seemed none of the men wanted to boldly say that they were. They certainly want people to believe that, though.<br />
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<b>LISTEN! </b>If you want to know what I believe, I do not think that NASA's predicted eclipses mean anything! I have a theory of my own, based on what facts I do have. First, I've paid attention to how eclipses work over the years, and never does the whole earth see each one. It depends on when it occurs. Same with solar eclipse, if it happens when it's night on this side of the planet, but it's day on the other side, and they see the eclipse.<br />
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Second, I'm not so sure we should believe that we'd be able to predict when the heavenly signs will occur.<br />
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Third, I know that pole shifts and such can affect things, and I'd imagine if the earth was knocked off orbit somewhat, all of NASA's predictions would mean nothing.<br />
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I couldn't recall exactly when chronologically the huge earthquake that knocks everything off course was prophesied, but now I know, and when combined with my theory, I think there's a good chance my theory may play out this way. Look back again at Revelation 6:12-17 that I included above. WOW!!! Do you see it? The HUGE earthquake is to happen, and notice what happens RIGHT AFTERWARD. It's the so-called, presupposed solar and lunar eclipses*! It's going to be <b>CRAZY</b> when it happens! It's not going to be some normally-occurring eclipses like we enjoy seeing. The earth is going to be shaking off its course! It's going to be <b>FRIGHTENING</b> like nothing we've known. A horrible earthquake and being so scared because we know the earth must be going off its axis in order to be seeing the crazy things in the sky. The islands and mountains will be moved from their places! The sky leaving like when a scroll is rolled up?!?!?! (See also 2 Peter 3:10). <br />
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Yes, my friends, it is my belief that that huge earthquake is going to cause us to see those heavenly signs, and THIS is NOT predicted by NASA. You better just sit back and enjoy the coming eclipses, perhaps sip on a nice drink, because you will be in danger of having a heart attack from fear when the so-called ones foretold in the bible occur. As a matter of fact, the scriptures also foretell that of many wicked people. It says their hearts will fail them because of the fear. As for the true believers, when God's wrath is being unleashed, you will be kept safe.<br />
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*Note: A true solar eclipse only happen during a new moon and when it lines up between the earth and sun. A true lunar eclipse can only happen during the full moon (two weeks later) and is when the earth lines up right between the moon and sun. Clearly the "blood moon" and "black sun" in prophecy are not what we understand as lunar and solar eclipses. Something clearly does happen for these signs, as well as the "stars" appearing to fall (Rev. 6:13; Matt. 24:29). If you go on to see what happens a short span after that earthquake ordeal and the signs, there is "hail and fire mingled with blood" being cast upon the earth, causing the trees and grass to burn up on the earth. We already know that the sky seemed to have departed, which sounds like we are going to lose some protection from outer celestial things that could enter our atmosphere. A great "star" falls and makes the waters bitter. The third part of the moon and the sun and the stars were darkened, so that a third of the day there was no light on it. On and on. So it seems to me that most definitely the "heavenly signs" that are not related in any way whatsoever to lunar and solar eclipses as we know them, and that these signs cannot be predicted by NASA.<br />
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This is <b>GOD'S WRATH</b> we're talking about! He is going to <b>GET ANGRY</b>, He will have been provoked to the point of no return, because of men's sin! Maybe he pushes a button to activate a huge rock to head our way. Whatever he does, it lines out in the bible that there's a massive earthquake, the earth teeters "like a drunkard"(Isa. 24:20). There's a little here and a little there in the various prophet books. You've got to piece it together. But there's the bad earthquake, damage to the earth and sky (heaven/atmosphere), and a whole lot of horrible things to come from the heaven (outer space) to hit this planet. <b>SO, THERE IS REALLY NO REASON TO BELIEVE NASA CAN PREDICT THESE HEAVENLY SIGNS. </b>If you're paying attention to the scriptures, you can know when the tribulation begins. Years after that you can witness the heavenly signs and know God's wrath is about to be poured out and that soon thereafter we will see Christ come back. <b> </b><br />
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As for any "rapture" belief tied in with all this, all you need to do is read your bible, and it's <b>EASY</b> to see there is no such rapture, no Christians being pulled up to heaven to be spared the tribulation. It's just not there! It was only when I started really reading my bible a lot ON MY OWN, rather than listen to my Protesting Catholic pastors (and trust me, you must pay attention to the pastors and other teachers in the churches of God, too, because NOT ALL of what they teach is true, as I've gone through my bible and have seen over and over that they are wrong plenty themselves) that I read the truth and asked myself, "How in the world do they get the rapture idea? Isn't this pretty clear?" And indeed it is. Over and over again, it's clear that the tribulation begins, true believers FLEE TO THE WILDERNESS (and no way does that mean one particular location on the earth, so if you sit around waiting for some angel to lead the way for you or rely on some false teacher's instructions, you are going to end up being caught, because you were unprepared!), and then later God's wrath is poured out, and THEN Christ comes back, and believers meet him in the clouds and continue with him down to Jerusalem where they will reign.<br />
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As my high school world history teacher always said the day before a test: "Read it. Study. Come prepared." MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-36533629011817926442014-04-05T20:25:00.000-05:002014-04-05T20:27:38.156-05:00Goddess Easter's Fertility Eggs RitualThe false goddess Easter (Isthtar/Eostre/Ashteroth/Astarte/Semiramis/Isis, etc.) worshiped as the "Queen of Heaven" by pagans for thousands of years has a feast dedicated to her annually on the first "Sunday" after the first full moon following the spring equinox. Legend has it that Easter dropped from heaven into the Euphrates River, hatching from an egg and turning a bird into an egg-laying rabbit. This can be confirmed in many historical sources, and if you're reading this, it means you have a whole Internet full of free encyclopedias and free books on Google, etc. so that you can easily and quickly verify this.<br />
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Some already know this pagan history, but many do not know how exactly the <i>dyeing</i> and <i>hiding</i> of Easter's eggs fits into pagan history. I'll soon get to this most disturbing truth. Read on.<br />
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There are two groups of Christians, as put forth in Christ's parables and in His revelation to John. In chapter 12 of Revelation there is depicted the true Church of God, all the spiritual virgins who keep themselves pure by "keeping the commandments of God and the testimony of Salvation the Anointed (Jesus Christ)." Then there are chapters 17 and 18 which depict the spiritual whores who have fornicated true worship with pagan worship and breaking the commandments of God in order to keep the traditions of men.<br />
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Today most who call themselves Christians more closely follow Rome's false religion of Christianity rather than follow Christ. They keep the feast of Easter to celebrate Christ's resurrection, <i>without any authority from Christ</i>. Historically Easter's feast celebrated her son Tammuz's resurrection from the dead, as he was killed by a wild boar at the age of forty, and it's said that is why ham is customary to eat during Easter's feast. <br />
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Those who worshiped Easter and Tammuz would go Easter's temple. Virgins would be impregnated by the temple priest(s). The following year, each and every year, the three-month-old infants would be sacrificed. Eggs would then be dyed red with the infants' blood, buried in hopes of good fertility (for the land, etc.), and the belief was that they'd hatch several months later on Tammuz's birthday, December 25. <br />
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Still today in some churches (Catholic and Orthodox and perhaps some Protesting Catholic churches) Easter's eggs are only dyed red. It is explained to the sheep that it symbolizes Christ's blood, but where in the scriptures do we find a feast of God that involves dyeing eggs and celebrating Christ's resurrection?<br />
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The scriptures say:<br />
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<i>When the ETERNAL your God shall cut off the nations from
before you, where you go to possess them, and you succeed them, and
dwell in their land; <span class="reftext"></span>Take
heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them, after that
they be destroyed from before you; and that you inquire not after their
gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do
likewise. <span class="reftext"></span>You
shall not do so to the ETERNAL your God: for every abomination to the ETERNAL, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons
and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.</i>
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<div class="reg">
<i><span class="reftext"></span>What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it (Deut. 12:29-32).</i></div>
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<div class="reg">
<i>However, then, when you knew not God, you did service to them which by nature are no gods. <span class="reftext"></span>But
now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how
turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire
again to be in bondage? <span class="reftext"></span>You observe days, and months, and times, and years. <span class="reftext"></span>I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed on you labor in vain (Gal. 4:8-11).</i></div>
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Are you keeping rituals in your Christianity religion that you do not understand? Are you letting your children participate in Easter's egg dyeing and hiding? Do you believe it's innocent fun since you're using commercial synthetic dyes and not sacrificed infants? Or are you horrified that you've been taught that such traditions have been adopted by the Church of Rome and are still kept by her protesting daughters? Do you believe keeping such things honors Christ, or would you rather not keep the adopted pagan holy days and instead keep the holy days God commands under the new covenant?</div>
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<i> </i></div>
<div class="reg">
The days are found in Leviticus 23 of your bible. They were kept differently under the old carnal covenant than they are now under the new spiritual covenant, but they are still the Eternal's holy days, and they foreshadow things to come (see Colossians 2:16-17). It's important to know the meaning of these holy days that the true Holy Father commands and to stop following after the traditions of the false holy father of the false whore church in Rome.</div>
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<div class="reg">
To understand more about these feasts, see <a href="http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/feastplan.html">this brief outline</a> on how <a href="http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/feastplan.html">God's feasts</a> outline His true plan of salvation.</div>
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Stay tuned with the upcoming blog posts leading up to the new covenant Passover and Unleavened Bread feasts. I'll be giving away one free copy each of two books, my <i>God's Law of Love, the Perfect Law of Liberty: Jehovah's Ten Commandments Still Apply Today</i> and fellow brother in the Lord Keith Hunt's <i>The Biblical Prophets for Today. </i>These are testimony to the law and the prophets.</div>
MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-40182113839882847732014-03-22T17:37:00.001-05:002014-03-22T18:22:53.400-05:00Forgiving OneselfIf you have not already done so, I highly recommend that you read my <a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2013/07/two-typesstages-of-forgiveness.html">post</a> about <a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2013/07/two-typesstages-of-forgiveness.html">forgiving others </a>and possessing a forgiving spirit before you read this one.<br />
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There are some who have no trouble forgiving themselves but struggle greatly with forgiving others. Then there are other persons, like I, who struggle more with forgiving oneself than anyone else. Perhaps you hold very high standards for yourself, trying greatly to be perfect, so then when you fall short of your standards, you figuratively beat yourself, and beat yourself, and beat yourself some more, and all that mental beating can truly harm your physical health, in addition to your spiritual health. </div>
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If we do not forgive ourselves of a transgression, then we will either simply hate ourselves for it for the remainder of our lives, or we may even continue in the sinful practice in order to pretend like it's not bad in order that we don't hurt terribly from the guilt the transgression invoked. In either case, without confessing the sin, repenting of it, and forgiving ourselves in the belief that God has forgiven us, we will not be able to move on to bring forth good fruit. We not only hinder ourselves when we do this, but we also will go on hindering others when we choose to walk in unforgiveness toward ourselves.</div>
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Sometimes we may think our sin is so great and awful that we don't deserve forgiveness from God, and so then we don't forgive ourselves. But is there any sin too great for God's forgiveness, except the one from which is not repented?</div>
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Let's examine some men and women from the scriptures and ask ouselves whether we think they forgave themselves of their sinful actions:</div>
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<br /></div>
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*Adam and Eve: Whose burden is more difficult to bear than theirs? They passed on a sinful inheritance to us all. Would they forgive themselves, though? I know I forgive them, if they truly felt/would feel bad. Would any of us have done any better in their positions?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
*Abraham and Sarah: What about their agreement for Abraham to take Hagar to bed to have a child with her? Wow, they must have really regretted that! From what evidence we have, they greatly did, although I know Abraham loved his son Ishmael, of course.</div>
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*Samson: What foolish decisions he made! As physically strong as he was, he certainly was weak with lust as to give his secret away to a woman who had already shown two or three times that she could not be trusted. Did he forgive himself?</div>
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<br /></div>
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*King David: We know he greatly regretted his murder and adultery (and therefore also blasphemy, as he was the king of the greatest nation and represented the nation of God). Since he believed God forgave him, surely he forgave himself. I know he also loved his son Solomon who came from the wife (Bathsheba) with whom he'd committed adultery beforehand.</div>
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<div>
*King Solomon: There is great evidence that he must have repented from his great idolatries, fornications, revelings, etc. at the end of his life. If he believed God is forgiving and forgave him, surely he could forgive himself. </div>
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<div>
*Manasseh: It's imperative that you read of Manasseh the king of Judah in order to fully understand or refresh your memory of the extent of evil this man lived out and with which he led the nation of Judah. He was guilty of much extreme evil, including causing his own son to pass through the fire in child sacrifice. But then read about how he was punished, humbled, and how he turned himself around and ordered the nation to serve God. Surely he would have had to forgive himself if he was able to move on and bring forth any good fruit (See<i> </i>2 Kings 21 and 2 Chron. 33:1-20 and also the extra-biblical <a href="http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/manasseh.html">Prayer of Manasseh</a>).</div>
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*Saul/Paul of Tarsus: This man dragged early Christians to their brutal deaths, and he purported to do it all in the name of God. He thought he was acting for God and that the Christians were blasphemers. He murdered true practicing believers, the very begotten children of God the Father and brethren of the Lord Salvation (Jesus Christ). Later, after his repentance and living out life as a faithful Christian himself, he referred to himself as the "chief of sinners" (see 1 Tim. 1:15). His story can be read in the book of Acts.<br />
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We've all done wicked acts with which we struggle to live, at which we look back and think, "How could I have done that," or "How could I have allowed that to happen?" Yes, it's true that some carry out worse things than others, but as I explained in my<a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2013/07/two-typesstages-of-forgiveness.html"> last post</a>, some have inherited worse sin tendencies with which to begin. This doesn't in any way excuse any sin, but a person thinking back on things might realize that he or she very likely would not have engaged in that sin if he or she would have been able to be steered down a better path in early life.<br />
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Even if given a good early life path, some will go the wrong way for a time for whatever reason, and there is still forgiveness available. Think again of Manasseh, king of Judah. His father Hezekiah was a righteous man and one of the best kings to ever reign over Judah (though, like us all, he did stumble and make some mistakes). His faithful-to-God father died when Manasseh was only twelve, as God had promised fifteen years earlier that he would extend Hezekiah's life when he was gravely ill. This may have been a starting point for Manasseh to go in the wrong direction. He may have greatly questioned God for taking his righteous father who was so devoted to God, when he was only in his fifties, leaving a twelve-year-old son behind.<br />
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<i>Many</i> have fallen away after losing a loved one. If this is you, it's not too late to turn back to God. He wants to use the bad things in our lives to refine us and to help others. After I lost my infant son before he turned a month old, I was later able to help comfort another woman who lost her infant daughter. She struggled greatly with her faith and was very distraught, because she had sons, but that was her only daughter, which she'd wanted badly. God used me to greatly help her through her grief. It also led me to research genetics, epigenetics, and environmental toxins and write and publish a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Genetic-Heavy-Metal-Toxicity-Explaining/dp/059548056X">book</a> to help others. My faith was made greater in the long run. It wasn't so for my husband. He cursed God after our son's death and has struggled ever since.<br />
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One of my favorite chapters in the scriptures is Ezekiel 18. God pleads and pleads for people to repent. He loves his creation of man. He wants each to become his child. We are each unique in our own way, and He's got forgiveness available for each of us. He said He doesn't take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. If you are a parent, think of the way you plead with your child when he is being contrary. Above all you just wish your child would obey, because you do not want to punish him. You do not take pleasure in doing so. Also think of the most wretched thing(s) your child(ren) has done. It may be something that is very literally abominable to you, and yet you still find that you love your child dearly. You still see the good in your child and just want your child to turn away from his wickedness so that you can lavish upon him all the good things you have in store for him.<br />
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Whenever you are are wallowing in your torment, hating yourself and wishing death upon yourself, think of how you view your children (if you're a parent). Then realize that is how your Father in heaven views you. He wants to forgive you. Just <i>believe</i> that He will forgive you, and then <i>move on</i>. Repent, turn from the sin. Try your very best to do what is right. Use whatever you can from the evil you did for good. That may be going on to prevent others from going on that path or counseling others who have gone down that path. Whatever it is, you will be shown what to do, if you allow Father God to show you. Whatever we experience in life, whether it is sin or anything else, we are expected to use it to be fruitful in some way.<br />
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You must <i>forgive yourself</i> by seeing yourself the way your Holy Father sees you. He sees you as His child that he dearly loves, no matter what wretched thing you've done or have been doing. It doesn't matter how vile or violent or vicious it was. He blessed David, He freed Manasseh, and he called Paul. If He is willing to forgive those wretches, He is willing to forgive you, and so you should forgive yourself. You must if you are to go on to bear good fruit in life. This is God's will for you.<br />
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What happens if you do not forgive yourself? You will either commit suicide, like King Saul of Israel or Judas Iscariot, both recorded in the scriptures; or you will poison your health with your torment. Your self-hatred, rebellious justification, guilt, and/or other emotional actions will affect your physical health, in addition to your spiritual health. When the scriptures talk about "rottenness in the bones" and "a sick heart" and other such things, it's referring to the physical maladies that can result from spiritual emotions, whether it is heartbreak due to a loss or another's sin or whether it is self-inflicted because of one's own evil deeds. Bitterness, guilt, self-hatred, no grace toward ourselves...these are no way to live our lives.<br />
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I recently read the sad story of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_%28feral_child%29">Genie</a>, a badly-abused child who was born in the 1950s, as part of my sociology course work for college. Her abusive father ended up committing suicide. It was his escape. This is not good! That is the end. There is no time to confess, repent, and then bring forth good fruit. You just end your life on bad terms. Does this make anything better? It's easy to hate Genie's father, because most of us cannot imagine a human being doing all that he did to his child, regardless of his background. He was still a responsible adult who should have admitted he had a problem and sought help. Quite likely he would not have easily found forgiveness from fellow human beings, and perhaps someone reading this feels the same way. Perhaps you've done something that indeed most people would not be willing to forgive. But God is not that way. I can assure you that God wants to forgive you and help you overcome and walk the rest of your life in holiness with His help. <br />
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I've learned that seldom anything turns out the perfect way we have envisioned. We want to be perfect. We want our spouses and our children and our friends to be perfect. We want our house to be perfect, our yard to be perfect. We want our vacation to be perfect. We want our visit with friends to be perfect. We want our grocery store trips to be perfect. We want things to be perfect, but they won't ever be what we want them to be, perfectly. We can properly work for perfection in all things, but when we fail, the only way we're going to be able to go on in contentment is if we seek the Only One who <i>is</i> perfect. The more we want things to be perfect, the more it can hurt when we see that it doesn't end up that way. It can so easily lead to self-hatred and unforgiveness toward ourselves when we want to be perfect and are not. If we hate ourselves, then we're not going to be doing the best we can to serve others in this world. If, on the other hand, we attempt to make ourselves feel better by continuing on in the wicked ways and justifying it, we are still not going to be doing the best to serve others, and we're only killing ourselves, albeit in a different way.<br />
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If you <i>want</i> that perfection, then be perfect <i>in Him</i>. Forgive yourself, as He wants to forgive you, and then walk as best as you can as Christ, the Beloved Firstborn, walked. You won't do it while dead, and you won't do it while hating yourself or justifying yourself. You'll only do it if you forgive yourself. <br />
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<a href="http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/manasseh.html">Prayer of Manasseh</a>:<br />
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<i>O Lord, Almighty God of our fathers, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed; who hast made heaven and earth,
with all the ornament thereof; who hast bound the sea by the word of thy
commandment; who hast shut up the deep, and sealed it by thy terrible and
glorious name; whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power; for the majesty
of thy glory cannot be borne, and thine angry threatening toward sinners is
importable: but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; for thou
art the most high Lord, of great compassion, longsuffering, very merciful, and
repentest of the evils of men. Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness
hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee:
and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they
may be saved. Thou therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, hast not
appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, which
have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am
a sinner: for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My
transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied: my transgressions are multiplied, and I
am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of mine
iniquities. I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot life up mine
head, neither have any release: for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil
before thee: I did not thy will, neither kept I thy commandments: I have set up
abominations, and have multiplied offences. Now therefore I bow the knee of mine
heart, beseeching thee of grace. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I
acknowledge mine iniquities: wherefore, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O
Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquites. Be not angry with me
for ever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me to the lower parts of the
earth. For thou art the God, even the God of them that repent; and in me thou
wilt shew all thy goodness: for thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according
to thy great mercy. Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the days of my
life: for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory
for ever and ever. Amen.</i> (King James version)<br />
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Prayer of David:<br />
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<i>Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness: according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight: that you might be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence; and take not your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors your ways; and sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, you God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open you my lips; and my mouth shall show forth your praise. For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good in your good pleasure to Zion: build you the walls of Jerusalem. Then shall you be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks on your altar</i> (Psalm 51, American KJV).<br />
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MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-54727644075659652112013-07-31T18:28:00.004-05:002014-03-22T18:33:19.702-05:00Two Types/Stages of ForgivenessIt recently came to my attention that the opposite topic of judgment and condemnation—forgiveness and pardon—is perhaps as confused and misunderstood as the former.<br />
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I've explained elsewhere before (not sure whether on this blog), as have others the right understanding on judgment. If you already understand this, feel free to skip down to the bolded "Forgiveness" after the first line of asterisks. I'm not about to go into depth on it now, deeply quoting scripture, but summarily:<br />
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Many twist the meaning of the scriptures and ignore much scripture on the topic of judgment and/or simply do not understand. People say you should not judge anyone for their sinful behavior, "...because Jesus said not to." The fact of the matter is that our Lord and Christ said to take heed and be careful with our judgment, because with the same measure of judgment we apply to others, our Father God will apply to us (Matt. 7:2). Basically, it was a message of not being a hypocrite and a lesson on God's righteous judgment toward us being what we apply to others.<br />
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When you read other scriptures, it becomes clear that Christians are expected to be able to judge righteously. Christ told us to "judge righteous judgement," and "not according to appearance" (John 7:24). Paul rebuked the Corinthians for taking brethren to the judges of men, saying, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" (I Cor. 6:3).<br />
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<span class="p">If we lacked good judgment, how would it be that we could choose not to engage in sin like those around us? If we did not judge that dishonoring God, idolatry, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking, dishonoring parents, murdering, adultery, stealing, lying, coveting, and such are sin, we are sinning! </span><br />
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<span class="p">So you say, "Oh, but you should judge the sin, not the sinner." But the scriptures say a different thing than what <i>you</i> say. Oh, sure, the scriptures do say that we should not judge those without, meaning not DECIDING (one meaning of judging) whether the person is doing what is right or wrong, but meaning that we can't go PENALIZING those without. Paul said to the Corinthians, <i>"</i></span><i>But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother
if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler,
or a drunkard, or a swindler-- not even to eat with such a one. <span class="reftext"></span><span class="highl">For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?</span> <span class="reftext"></span>But those who are outside, God judges. Remove that wicked man from among yourselves" </i>(I Cor. 5:11-13).<br />
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But then on the other hand, the scriptures teach us to rebuke the wicked: <i>"Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself"</i> (Ezek. 3:19)<br />
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Basically we are to JUDGE what is right and wrong and walk in that, as Christ walked, not going against our conscience. We are to not be hypocritical with our JUDGMENTS, making sure if we JUDGE our neighbor or brother in something, we are not guilty of the same. We can penalize a sinning brother or sister by casting them from a church group or from not associating with them, if they choose not to repent, but we cannot penalize those without. We are going to be around sinners in this world, and we are to be lights (but not choose those people as our closest buddies). We can judge them by DECIDING what they are doing is wrong and by REBUKING them, just NOT PENALIZING.<br />
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If a person is an unrepentant and practicing liar, whore or whoremonger, or thief, is it wrong to judge by saying the person is a liar, whore or whoremonger, or thief? Of course not! What nonsense! It's called the truth, and some people just hate the truth, and so they misquote scripture.<br />
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Okay, now on to <b>FORGIVENESS</b>.<br />
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First we know that we must be willing to forgive others if we want God to forgive us:<br />
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<i>And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses</i> (Mark 11:25).<br />
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<i>And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses</i> (Matt. 6:12, 14-15).<br />
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<i>So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses</i> (Matt. 18:35). This is the conclusion of the story of the wicked servant, which I'll write more about shortly.<br />
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We have <i>all</i> sinned and done horrible things. It's easy for us to look at others and judge what they've done as worse than what we've done, but have you considered that in many cases you may be wrong? Have you considered that you're judging by appearance, rather than righteous judgment? Remember, God judges the heart. Have you considered that most of the persons you are judging as being worse than you started with a genetically worse sin inheritance to struggle against and grew up in a worse sin-saturated environment to also struggle against? Have you ever stopped to consider that those persons hate their sins, too, and struggle badly against them? Have you ever meditated on whether you might actually be worse in God's eyes than some of those persons, because He is looking at the heart, and even though those other persons stumble and fall with worse outward sins that appear to man to be more horrible, that person is more repentant at heart and is trying harder not to commit those sins of heart and outwardly than you are with your lesser outside sins?<br />
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We have all sinned and fall short of God's glory child, the Perfect and Righteous Firstborn, Salvation the Lord (Rom. 3:23). We are all filthy compared to my Beloved Salvation. Since it's hard to read the hearts of some, and we know also that some judge us wrongly, because they don't know our hearts and how we may struggle greatly with certain things, we need to focus on our Lord and be so grateful He chose us and died for us so that Father will forgive us, if we repent of our sins.<br />
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Since we're so grateful for Father and Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua), we need to be just as forgiving as they are.<br />
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<i>A Maskil of David.</i> <i>Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered</i> (Psalm 32:1). This was repeated by Paul in Romans 4:7. <br />
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<i>And rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the ETERNAL your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil</i> (Joel 2:13).<br />
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Now, indeed there are those who have repented and have been forgiven by God, but the scriptures also make clear that there are those who God has not and will not forgive, because they have not repented. God plans punishment for those who are sinning, but<i><b> </b></i><b>IF </b><b><i></i> they repent, He forgives.</b><br />
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"Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin" (Jer. 36:3). <br />
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Repentance is required for forgiveness of God. A few more references: Acts 8:22; Hosea 14:2; Ezekiel chapter 18 (highly recommended read). Quoted from my book God's Law of Love, the Perfect Law of Liberty: Jehovah's Law Still Applies Today, pg. 30:<br />
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<i>Those who do not keep God’s law will not inherit eternal<br /> life (Romans 2:6-13; 6:16, 23; 8:9; I Corinthians 6:9-11; Galatians<br /> 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:3-6; II Thessalonians 1:7-9; Hebrews 5:9; 6:4-6;<br /> 10:26-31, 38-39; James 5:19-20, II Peter 2:20-22; 3:9-18; Revelation<br /> 3:5; 21:7-8; 22:12-15; Exodus 32:33; Psalm 1:6; 5:5-6; 15:1-2; 34:16;<br /> 37:9, 20, 22, 27-31, 38; 119:155; Proverbs 2:21-22; 10:30; Isaiah 24:5-<br /> 6; 66:24; Ezekiel 18:4, 20-21, 23, 26-28, 3.—32; Hosea 4:6; Malachi<br /> 4:1-6; Matthew 4:17; 5:7-20; 7:21-23; 19:17; 24:12-13; Mark 1:15; Luke<br /> 10:25-28; 13:3; Acts 2:38; Acts 5:32; Acts 17:30<br /> and more).</i><br />
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In other words, those who don't repent will not be forgiven, as you must be forgiven in order to inherit eternal life. <br />
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<b>If God does not forgive those who do not repent, does that mean we should not forgive? </b>This is where a lot of people are very confused. That is the reason for my strange title. The answer is both yes and no. I will explain in depth. The answer is in the scriptures.<br />
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<i>Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, <b>rebuke</b> him; and <b>IF he repent, forgive him</b></i><b> </b>(Luke 17:3).<br />
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<b><i> </i>Does it say, "And whether or not your brother repents or not, forgive him?" No, it doesn't. BUT, it also does not say you should seek revenge or harbor bitterness in your heart. In other words, you should possess a FORGIVING SPIRIT</b>.<b> You do not know whether that person will later repent. You are to REBUKE the person (in kindness of spirit, of course) and possess a forgiving spirit. IF the person repents, forgive him (or her).</b><br />
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Again, except this time it is not for a brother in the Royal Family, but for the "wicked":<i> </i><br />
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<i>"Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself"</i> (Ezek. 3:19).<br />
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The following details the same conversation quoted above from Luke, recorded from Matthew, and explains what to do if your brother (or sister) does NOT repent:<br />
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<i>Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: <b>but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican</b> </i>(Matt. 18:15-17).<br />
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So, rebuke the transgressing brother, and if he doesn't listen, then take one or two more with you to confront him again, and then if he still doesn't listen, take it to the whole local church community, and THEN if he or she <i>still</i> doesn't listen, it says you should regard your brother or sister as a HEATHEN. You should regard the person as one of the wicked, one of the ones "without" the church. In other words, the person is NOT FORGIVEN, until the person REPENTS. Does that mean you harbor hate and bitterness toward the person? NO! <b>You should maintain a FORGIVING SPIRIT and LEAVE IT TO GOD.</b> In the end, if that person returns to the world and is overcome with wickedness and never turns from his or her ways, God will avenge you for his or her transgression(s) against you.<br />
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Before the story of the wicked servant:<br />
<i>Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven</i> (Matt. 18:21-22).<br />
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The above scripture is after the one I posted right before it, but it's before the one I posted that concluded the story of the "wicked servant." So, it's in the context of a REPENTANT person, who after rebuked, repents. Soooo...you should forgive your brother or sister who has sinned against you, but how many times? What if the person transgresses multiple times? Should you forgive each count? When Salvation said not seven times but seventy times seven, he meant that you should be willing to keep forgiving, as long as you can detect the person is truly repentant at heart and is sorrowful about what he or she is doing against you.<br />
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A good example of this is the spouse who struggles with substance abuse. Say one partner has an alcohol addiction or tobacco addiction. That person is not just affecting him- or herself. This kind of sin affects the spouse and other family members. An addiction like this can be very hard to overcome. For those who struggle with such an addiction or are married to a spouse who struggles with it, you know over the course of many years that the person can quit for periods of time and relapse over and over again. It's difficult! But you know he or she is trying, else the person wouldn't bother trying so hard to quit and wouldn't be so sorrowful over it and the problems it causes. So forgive, forgive, forgive. There are other examples, too, like the person who stands you up over and over, forgetting your meeting, or a spouse or friend who keeps slipping up with an Internet pornography addiction. <i> </i><br />
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<i>So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow</i> (2 Cor. 2:7).<br />
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Again, this refers to a repentant person, someone in sorrow. It's bad enough for the repentant, sorrowful individual to cope with his or her own sin. It's just <i>too much</i> for that person to also bear the sorrow of friends and family (and especially members of the Royal Family) rejecting and not forgiving him or her.<br />
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<b><i>Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots</i> (Luke 23:34). </b><br />
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<b>Christ said the people who were dividing up his clothing and mocking and saying ugly things about him when he was on the cross knew not what they were doing.</b> They didn't realize who he was and that he was innocent. They must have thought he was receiving just punishment, that he was a blasphemous troublemaker. Notice Christ did NOT say, "Father, whether or not they know what they're doing, forgive them." Of course not! What was the point of Christ's coming to earth and dying for the transgressions of mankind if God is willing to forgive everyone, regardless of what they do?<br />
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Now, sometimes it can be difficult to get to a place of forgiveness toward someone, while in other cases it's relatively easy. If you've done the same sin and understand it, you might find it very easy to <b>POSSESS A FORGIVING SPIRIT</b> toward the transgressor, unless you are hypocritical, like Salvation said of those who judge without removing their own sin first.<br />
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In the last two or three years I've had to change my debit card number twice, due to fraudulent use. I do a lot of my purchasing online, so I memorize my card number. It's irritating to me, more than anything, whenever I have to get a new card and to file a report for unauthorized charges on my account. NEVER have I cursed the persons who have done this to me, NEVER have I possessed an unforgiving spirit toward the transgressors, and it's quite easy for me, because my husband and I were guilty of the same many years ago (before conversion). We transgressed against around 70 different people for an amount of $30k to $35k, fraudulent use of a credit card across interstate lines, when I was seventeen years of age. I understand why people are driven to do such things.<br />
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Do I know whether the people who have transgressed against me have repented of their deeds? I do not know. <b>Have I forgiven them? I hold a FORGIVING SPIRIT toward them. This means that I do not know whether they've repented, as I DO NOT KNOW THEM. It's between them and our Creator. It's up to God to forgive, IF they repent. I've done MY part. God knows I possess a forgiving spirit toward them. If they don't repent, then God will eventually punish them for their sin.</b><br />
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<b>Now what about sins that we can't relate to and struggle with forgiving? What about forgiving adultery when you can't imagine doing something so atrocious, or how about the murder of your spouse, child, parent, sibling, other relative or one of your best friends? </b><br />
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Remember how we've all sinned and done horrible things? We've not all done the same things. We've not all committed adultery or murder. But remember the way God sees things differently than we do? Remember how some struggle with worse things? (And remember that the HEART is what God judges, and some people desire such horrible sins in the heart, but they fear consequences from man if they transgress outwardly.)<br />
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I used to be guilty of murder in my heart in my teens. I carefully premeditated different persons' murders. I know, it's awful. It's absolutely appalling to me now. I've since repented of my sin of murder. Did I actually physically kill someone? No. But I still was guilty of the sin of murder before God. I've repented and feel terrible about it. What if I'd have actually physically carried out a murder? And then, as I have in my real life, I later had terrible remorse and repented? Would I not seek for forgiveness from those whom against I trespassed? Would I not hope for forgiveness from the victim's family and friends?<br />
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Murder is a difficult thing to forgive, even for those who understand it, whether it's premeditated or whether it's a result of rage, and even more difficult if it's a child kidnapping-rape-murder. <b>But we are basically all guilty of our Lord Brother's death, because of our sin. He was murdered for us. God expects for us to forgive even murder....IF the transgressor repents.</b><br />
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<b>Of course there are unsolved murders and unknown adultery partners and unknown thieves. </b> <b>There are a lot of persons out there who have transgressed against us whom we don't even know! We can't rebuke them! Do we just forgive them? What if we struggle with forgiveness? </b><br />
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<b>I think it helps to imagine the unknown person realizing before you that they've transgressed against you and apologizing in great sorrow to you. You can SEE in your MIND'S EYE that they are deeply sorrowful (even though they may never meet you). They feel absolutely awful for what they've done against you and are totally repentant. Is that not how you have felt before our Righteous and Good Father and our Beloved Lord Salvation? THAT is how you can then find that FORGIVING SPIRIT. </b>That's ALL YOU NEED. If you do not know your transgressor, try this out! It HAS WORKED FOR ME before. I have unknown transgressors out there who committed horrible acts against me, and I hold NO BITTERNESS OR HATRED OR REVENGEFUL THOUGHTS against them. God knows my heart is filled with a FORGIVING SPIRIT toward those unknown persons. If they repent, God will FORGIVE them, and that pleases me. I will also say, on the other hand, if they do not repent, I know God will PUNISH them. He will AVENGE me for their transgressions against me, and that also pleases me.<br />
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This is perfectly holy, righteous, and good, no matter what anyone tells you. We do NOT have to sit around feeling that we must forgive unrepentant people who love wickedness and hate us. That is NOT what God expects of us. <b>He expects for us to possess a FORGIVING SPIRIT, not a spirit that allows people to just run all over us. We are NOT to possess a REVENGEFUL, HATEFUL, BITTER SPIRIT. </b><br />
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This is what I meant in the title by "two types/stages of forgiveness." There's the FORGIVING SPIRIT and there's actual forgiveness. And then there's manly forgiveness and Godly forgiveness. For example, a person may forgive someone for becoming an unrepentant practicing homosexual, but will God forgive it? No, He won't. God doesn't go by man's rules.<br />
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<i>And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; <b>your sins are forgiven.” And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” </b>And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” And he got up and went home. But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men</i> (Matt. 9:2-7).<br />
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We can't forgive men the way God can. As you see above, the scribes realized that God is the only One Who can truly forgive as far as our spiritual standing is concerned. We may forgive things that we do not think are sin, but God is the ultimate Forgiver/Pardoner.<br />
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Moses had asked God to forgive Israel and to blot him out of God's book in their place, and the ETERNAL said:<br />
<br />
<i>"...Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book"</i> (Exo. 32:33b).<span class="p"><br /></span><br />
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Notice what these perfectly righteous Children of God of the scriptures said about UNREPENTANT SINNERS, when it comes to FORGIVENESS:<br />
<br />
<b>Jeremiah and Jeremiah Quoting the ETERNAL God:</b><i> </i><br />
<br />
<i>Yet, ETERNAL ONE, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger</i> (Jer. 18:23).<br />
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<i>Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame
at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the
fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the ETERNAL</i> (Jer. 6:15).<br />
<br />
<i>"Why
should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken Me And sworn by those who
are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, They committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot's house. They were well-fed lusty horses, each
one neighing after his neighbor’s wife. Shall I not punish these
people," declares the ETERNAL,“And on a nation such as this shall I not
avenge Myself?"</i> (Jer. 5:7-9)<br />
<br />
This speaks of punishment rather than forgiveness, BECAUSE they would not repent after continual rebuke.<br />
<br />
<i>"We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven"</i> (Lam. 3:42).<br />
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<b>Nehemiah:</b><br />
<b> </b><i> </i><br />
<i>Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders</i> (Nehemiah 4:5).<br />
<br />
<b>David:</b><br />
<b> </b><i> </i><br />
<i>You, ETERNAL God Almighty, you who are the God of Israel, rouse
yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to wicked traitors</i> (Psalm 59:5).<br />
<br />
<i>May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the ETERNAL; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out</i> (Psa. 109:14). <br />
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<i>It is time for you to act, ETERNAL; your law is being broken</i> (Psalm 119:126).<br />
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<b>Paul:</b><br />
<br />
<i>Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works</i><span class="p"> (I Tim. 4:14).</span><b><span class="p"><br /></span> </b><br />
I've said this a few times, and I know many righteous Christians pray this way. This is a very wise way to put it, because the Lord knows whether the person will repent. If Alexander the coppersmith repented (even if he never saw Paul again, he could have cried out to God and felt horribly sorrowful about what he'd done and wished he could take it back), then the reward for the work of repentance was forgiveness, but if he didn't repent in due time, he would have "gotten his," if you know what I'm saying.<b> </b> <br />
<br />
<b>Isaiah:</b><br />
<b> </b><i> </i><br />
<i>So people will be brought low and everyone humbled-- do not forgive them</i> (Isa. 2:9)<br />
<br />
This last one is talking about the time of great wrath of God in the future, when he will have rejected his people Jacob. The context speaks of the land being full of materialism, idols (think of the Washington Monument phallic/penis obelisk and the sun god/goddess "Statue of Liberty"), tons of horses and chariots (think of all the fancy motor vehicles), and many fortune-tellers.<br />
<br />
And finally, in Revelation, God's True Children symbolically cry out:<br />
<br />
<b>AND THEY CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, SAYING, "HOW LONG, O LORD, HOLY AND TRUE, DO YOU NOT JUDGE AND AVENGE OUR BLOOD ON THEM THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH?" (</b>Rev. 6:10).<b> </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I have done as Jeremiah and the others have done toward certain ones on this earth. For example, one of my most-hated targets is the evil ones at the top of Monsanto and the evil ones in our governments and the evil ones at the top of other corporations who knowingly unleash evil upon the peoples of this earth and DO NOT CARE! Yes, I cry out to God, "WHEN will it be that you send my Beloved to PUNISH these evil ones?!" <br />
<span class="p"><br /></span>It is PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS to want vengeance on evil persons or people who sin against us who do not repent. BUT WE LEAVE THIS UP TO GOD TO DECIDE, because we simply DO NOT KNOW whether a person will repent, especially if our transgressors are unknown.<br />
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****************************** <br />
<br />
<b>So again—and as summary and conclusion—we are to possess, as Children of the Most High God and brethren of the Lord Salvation the Perfect Firstborn, a FORGIVING SPIRIT without thoughts of hate, revenge, or bitterness against our transgressors but a RELAXED AND TRUSTING knowledge that IF the transgressors do not repent, we will be avenged by our Loving Father and Lord Salvation.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>And if we truly TRUST God, and we are patient for that day of Christ's return, then it's not <i>too</i> difficult to possess that FORGIVING SPIRIT toward ANY transgressor, meaning we're willing to forgive anyone who repents. And for those who don't, we keep our pure spirit as not to defile ourselves and suffer with bitterness that will poison us, and we trust that God will avenge us.</b><br />
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<br />MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-15241256464899086022013-05-19T22:40:00.002-05:002013-05-20T15:37:13.853-05:00Pentecost: A Lesson on New Life<br />
On the weekly Sabbath day (May 18, 2013) my firstborn son Jaden William (nearly 10 years of age) found a newly-hatched chick when he went out in the morning to let the chickens out. Three weeks before he had marked two eggs of his favorite, chicken Grace, one day apart, with a black marker, so that he would not remove them from the nesting box. He had tried twice (once last summer and once this spring) to use an old incubator to hatch chicks. He finally concluded the incubator needed to be broken apart and the parts recycled.<br />
<br />
Leaving the eggs with the mother brought about success. The other egg has not hatched (and may not have been fertilized). If it does, William will leave the chick with Grace, its mother. William chose to take the first chick for himself, though. He has lovingly cared for the baby bird by providing water, cutting up worms and letting it peck at insects and spiders, as well as letting it snuggle up to him practically all day. If he leaves it for a minute, its peeping becomes loud and urgent. Anytime William leaves its sight, it becomes frantic-sounding, just as any human baby attached to its mother. Oh, how he loves that chick!<br />
<br />
We enjoyed Pentecost (May 19, 2013), the holy day of our God that teaches us about new life in Christ, receiving the begettal/conception of the Spirit of God so that we can be born at the first resurrection as a spirit-bodied Child of God. That Spirit is a Helper to us when we repent of our sins and are baptized and have hands laid on us. It's too difficult to overcome sin with the spirit of man alone. We live in bodies of flesh, no different than the animals do. The God Spirit is perfect, though, and so it helps us walk in righteousness and comforts us in our weakness.<br />
<br />
Just as the little chick, the chicken child of Jaden's Grace (the hen), is a new life and is helped by William, children of God our Father and His Grace (the Firstborn of our Father, our Lord Salvation the Anointed One who is our Elder Brother) are helped by the Spirit our Holy Father gives to us. The Spirit nurtures and nourishes us spiritually so that if we remain faithful and abide in Father's will, we will be successfully born into the Family of God at Christ's return to this earth, and we will assist as kings and priests to the King of Kings and High Priest our Lord Salvation, in teaching mankind the Way of God. <br />
<br />
I yearn for the day I am born into the Family of God. I strive to keep myself spiritually fed with the help and guidance of my Father's Spirit (Seed/Sperm) so that I do not prematurely abort. The wonderful Pentecost feast annually reminds me of my begettal/conception as a child of God and my future spiritual birthday and marriage into the Royal Family and the death of this horrid body of flesh. <br />
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Godspeed that day. Father, YOUR Kingdom come, YOUR will be done on this earth as it is in heaven (and right now, as a whole, God's will is NOT carried out on this earth).MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-29683229360590235622013-01-30T13:03:00.002-06:002013-01-30T13:14:39.764-06:00Davidic Covenant Genetic Code to Immortality?If you're saying to yourself, "What?" when reading the title of this post, you're not alone. I just finished debunking John R. Clark's book <i>The Davidic Covenant Genetic Code to Immortality The Mystery of God.</i> He claims it's the "little book" of Revelation 10. <br />
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You can find the in-depth article under the false prophets heading on my website <a href="http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/davidiccovenant.html">here.</a> For a summary, read on:<br />
<br />
<div class="p5">
<b>1.</b> John R. Clark is a self-exalting brother in the
Church who thinks Herbert W. Armstrong baked a cake and that he (John)
has now iced the cake to finish it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He
believed that in 2011 (copyright year of book) we were in the time of
the seventh (the last) angel trumpeting, which would mean the
tribulation was coming to an end, and that his Davidic Covenant book is
the "little book" spoken of in Revelation 10.</div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5">
<b>2.</b> He believes that the "Word" and "Christ" are the
same individual who existed with Father God from the beginning but that
"Jesus" was just a man and not the Word or Christ, though he later
became the Christ.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He
believes that Jesus was the product of King David's of Israel sperm and
Mary's ovum, and that is why Jesus was called the son of David.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He doesn't understand what that means.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Does he surely think that David, being called the son of Abraham in Matthew 1:1, is the direct product of Abraham's sperm?</div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5">
<b>3. </b>John C. wrote, "Jesus was of the kingly genetic bloodline, that came through Nathan and Mary his mother.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jesus
is not only the king, but also the high priest, therefore to fulfill
the law of the priesthood , Jesus must also come from the bloodline of
Aaron the Levite" (pg. 45).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He also stated that Jesus could not be Melchisadec. There was no prophecy that foretold of that, however.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Also
both the genealogies listed (one from Mary and the other from his
earthly adoptive father Joseph, though not his bloodline) go back to
Judah.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jesus was the high
priest called Melchisedec, who Hebrews says had no beginning, no father
and mother, etc. If one reads the sixth and seventh chapters of Hebrews,
you can get a real good idea that that Melchisedec was indeed our Lord.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It
also clearly lays out how Levi was not even born yet nor his seed even
in Jacob's sack when Abraham met Melchisedec (the time recorded in
scripture).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>For that matter, Jacob wasn't in Isaac's sack, and Isaac wasn't even conceived in Sarai/Sarah yet!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Those chapters are all about how the Melchisedec order of priesthood is superior to the Levitical priesthood.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It
also states clearly that Jesus sprang forth from the line of Judah of
which Moses spoke nothing about concerning the priesthood.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Read it!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Prove it for yourself.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The
big point is that Jesus did NOT come from the Levitical line and that
he most definitely did not need to come from that line, because the
Melchisedec order (organization) of priesthood is BETTER!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And it was around BEFORE the Levitical one!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I'm
not sure why John is so confused about why Jesus was made high priest
after the order of Melchisedec if he were already the priest.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Uhhhhh….remember,
God made a physical/fleshly/carnal covenant with Moses and the physical
nation of Israel with the Levitical priesthood.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When
that covenant was instated, the Melchisedec order was temporarily ended
and the order of the Levitical priesthood was established.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When the new and better covenant was instated, we returned to the order of Melchisedec!</div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5">
<b>4.</b> He believes that Jesus' 100%<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>human
genetics had to be pure and from the Jewish bloodline with no
intermarriage, yet if David's sperm sired Jesus, then he was one-eighth
Moabite, because David's grandmother Ruth was a Moabite, making David a
quarter Moabite.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The law of
Moses forbade foreign marriage on spiritual grounds that those who
worshiped other gods would turn believers from God and didn't have
anything to do with physical genetics.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The law of Moses forbade sibling marriages, because marrying too close is what causes problems.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Even
today marrying cousins or even ones of the same nation is causing too
many like mutations to be passed on in double to offspring.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It's also seen in other animals like dogs that purebreds have far more genetic diseases and deformities.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Furthermore
Moses himself had an Ethiopian (black) wife (in addition to his
Midianite wife), and when Miriam gave Moses a hard time about it, God
punished Miriam with leprosy.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>John R. Clark's teaching that all interracial marriage is wrong is unbiblical.</div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5">
<b>5.</b> On page 61 he said, "The Word was not Jesus and
Jesus was not the Word, rather the Spirit mind of God [the Word] was in
Jesus, thus Jesus had the mind of God in him. Philippians 2:5-Let this
mind be in your which was also in Christ Jesus…"</div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5">
It might be helpful for you to read I Corinthians 2:11-16 to get a better understanding.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Read it, pray, and meditate upon it to understand. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Perhaps read through it a few times.</div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5">
Anyone in the God Family, even those simply begotten have
the Spirit of God within them and the "mind of God" or "mind of Christ"
(same thing, because it's the same Spirit in any member of the God
Family).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Men tend to think the same way, apes think the way apes think, dogs tend to think a different way, and so on.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>No big mystery here.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Dogs understand dog things, because they have a dog mind enabling them.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Man
understands man things due to possessing a man spirit, and those with
God's Spirit can understand God things, because the God Spirit enables
them to do so. </div>
<div class="p5">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5">
MEDITATE ON THIS:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IF
THE WORD/CHRIST WAS WITH FATHER GOD IN THE BEGINNING, AND THEN HIS MIND
WENT INTO THE BODY OF THE MAN JESUS WHO HAD ANOTHER MIND OF HIS OWN,
AND THEN JESUS ALSO BECAME THE CHRIST AND WAS RESURRECTED AND ASCENDED
TO LIVE WITH GOD, THEN THAT MEANS BOTH THE WORD AND JESUS ARE HAVING TO
SHARE A SPIRIT BODY OR ELSE THERE ARE REALLY TWO OF THEM IN SEPARATE
SPIRITUAL BODIES UP THERE WITH FATHER.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TWO
CHRISTS, SINCE THE SCRIPTURES MAKE CLEAR THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, EVEN
THOUGH JOHN R. CLARK ADMITS THE CHRIST/WORD EXISTED BEFORE.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IF
THERE WERE TWO DIFFERENT PERSON'S MINDS IN THE BODY OF JESUS, THEN
JESUS EITHER COULD HAVE REJECTED THE WORD'S BEING THERE AND SINNED SO
THAT THE WORD THEN LOST OUT ON GOING BACK TO SHARING FATHER'S GLORY WITH
HIM, OR THE WORD COULD HAVE OVERPOWERED JESUS' WILL, THEREBY NOT GIVING
JESUS A TRUE CHOICE IN OBEDIENCE OR NOT.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND
NOW THEY BOTH STILL MUST SHARE A BODY IN HEAVEN ABOVE, WHICH IS REALLY
NOT FAIR AND CERTAINLY NOT THE HIGHEST HONOR, SINCE EACH OF WE OTHER
SONS OF GOD WILL GET A BODY THAT WE DO NOT HAVE TO SHARE WITH ANOTHER
INDIVIDUAL. <b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5">
<b>Prove all things!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keep Christ as your only Church Head.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Do NOT follow after a man leader who exalts himself in any way.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Stay cautious! </b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p4">
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MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-2358518528930912892012-11-08T19:49:00.001-06:002014-03-22T18:25:17.621-05:00Romans 13...Inquiring Minds Want to KnowRomans 13. It's the "submission to government" chapter, quite famous as well as quite misconstrued and taken out of context.<br />
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I think a lot of people have been wondering about this topic lately. A family friend of ours said to me a couple months ago that he saw something on television where a man quoted a verse from Romans 13 to give Christians the notion that they should always submit to the current occupying governing authority in their land. My friend wanted to know whether the bible really taught that, because he questions a lot of what the government does and says we should do.<br />
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Then a dear sister in Christ asked me yesterday about Romans 13, because a friend of hers was struggling with confusion over the matter. Must we submit to the governing authority no matter what?<br />
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Rather than isolate a verse or two from one chapter in the bible, let's do three different things:<br />
<br />
1. Examine scripture's teaching as a whole.<br />
<br />
2. Look at real examples in the scriptures of Godly people's dealings with the governing authorities.<br />
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3. Pray and meditate on this subject to make sure that we're both using good logic and being led by the Spirit of God.<br />
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The physical nation of Israel was to be an example nation to the rest of the world. They were ONE NATION UNDER GOD. They were FREE. They were given a written law made up of commandments, statutes, ordinances, and judgments. They had a priesthood, and there was supposed to be elders as judges. But the nation wanted a man king like the other nations had. The Eternal viewed this as evil, because in asking for a man king to reign over them, they rejected His reign. You can turn in your bible to I Samuel 12:17-24 and read that it was evil that they did that, but they should still "Only fear the Eternal and serve him in truth with all your heart..." (vs. 24a). To get the background of Israel wanting a man king, you can turn back to chapter 8 and read.<br />
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All throughout the scriptures you will find that man should obey God. If man's government conflicts with God's, then man should disobey man. Let's look at some biblical examples real quickly. On your own you can study it more in depth by reading the references I give. These examples are not all inclusive, but this is a good list I have compiled for you:<br />
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*The Hebrew midwives disobeying the Egyptian pharaoh and deceiving him to protect the lives of the male infants. Make note that the sixth commandment ranks above the ninth (Ex. 1:17-19).<br />
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*Rahab the harlot hiding the Israelite spies and lying to her government officials, because she believed God (Joshua ch. 2).<br />
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*Elijah fleeing from Jezebel (certainly not submitting or handing himself over to the authorities) after killing the prophets of Baal (I Kings 19:1-4).<br />
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*David avoiding death by Saul (I Sam. chs. 19-24).<br />
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*Esther entering the king's court without being called, which was illegal and could end up reaping the death penalty, to risk her life to save her people (Esther 4:10-11).<br />
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*Shadrach and friends disobeying Babylon's law to bow to the image (Dan. 3:8-18).<br />
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*Daniel praying to the Eternal God, despite the new Persian law demanding that all prayers go only to King Darius (Dan. 6:11-13).<br />
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*Our Lord Salvation calling Herod a fox when told Herod wanted to kill him (Luke 13:31-32) and many recorded instances of disobeying Pharasaic man-made laws, sprinkled throughout the gospel narratives.<br />
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*After his arrest, the Lord answered the high priest's question sarcastically and received a slap for it (John 18:19-23).<br />
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*The apostles disobeyed the mandate given to them to not spread the Good News, saying we should OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MAN (Acts 5:27-29).<br />
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*After his arrest Paul spoke before the high priest and was slapped, and afterward he cursed him and then spoke sarcastically to those who objected (Acts 23:1-5; see also Acts 21:27-28 to see what got him in trouble). <br />
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The previous examples I laid out in order as the books go in a KJV bible, so it should be easy to look up the references, read the context, and be able to pray and meditate on them. Now let's look at Romans 13 itself:<br />
<br />
The first verse is "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers [governing authorities]. For there is no power [authority] but of God: the powers that be are ordained [appointed by] God."<br />
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At this point, you can go and review Daniel 2:44.<br />
<br />
Continuing on to verse 2, it says that whoever resists the authority resists God and therefore shall receive damnation. So if one stops at these two verses and do not look at the rest of the bible, like the scriptures saying that we should obey God rather than man, that we should only fear the Eternal and obey Him, and all the examples of Godly people resisting the governing authorities, we could falsely teach that we should not resist ANY government's authority for ANY reason. But let's continue on.<br />
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Verse 3: "For rulers are NOT A TERROR TO GOOD WORKS, BUT TO THE EVIL..." and "...do that which is good, and you shall receive praise [from the governing authority]."<br />
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Verse 4 says that the governing authority is the minister of God to thee for good.<br />
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STOP! Let's meditate on what we've read so far. Was the Egyptian pharaoh ministering to the Israelites for their good? Was the Babylonian king who wanted to throw Shadrach and friends into the fire for not bowing down to the image (which breaks the second commandment of Eternal) ministering on behalf of God for their good? Were the Jewish leaders ministering on God's behalf for the good of Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) and of Paul? Was Hitler a minister of God for the good of the people? Is the United States government serving the people on God's behalf by starting wars, allowing abortion, allowing multiple divorces for any reason, allowing homosexual marriage and homosexual adoption, pushing harmful synthetic drugs and requiring toxic vaccinations while outlawing good God-made drugs, approving GM foods and unhealthful meats like pork and lobster and shrimp, attacking organic foods, etc.?<br />
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Is the U.S. or any other government on this earth God's servant for our good? WELL, to a point, yes. When someone is murdering people or robbing others or raping women or doing some other evil, and the government punishes that person, then YES, THAT GOVERNMENT IS SERVING GOD'S PURPOSE FOR A GOVERNING AUTHORITY.<br />
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Skip down to verse 10: <i> <b>Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore <u>love is the fulfilling of the law</u>.</b></i><br />
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This is worth repeating: LOVE is the fulfilling of the law. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. Is something loving? Do not resist it. It's for our good. It serves God's purpose, and we should feel no fear unless we're doing something wrong (verse 3). If it's not loving and contradicts God's law, THEN IT'S NOT FOR OUR GOOD, AND IT'S TO BE RESISTED.<br />
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This is important to thoroughly understand, because a TIME OF GREAT DECEPTION IS COMING. It will be the time when the last resurrection of the "Holy Roman Empire" reigns over the western world. Most people think of Antichrist to be secular in nature, but that is what's most deceptive. It will be a FALSE CHRISTIAN system. Those who obey in thought and deed (symbolized in bible by forehead and hand) the false system will be resisting God. Those who obey in thought and deed God's Ten Commandments will be resisting the false system. For the latter group there will be two options: FLEE to the wild or be a martyr.<br />
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There's the true Church pictured in Revelation 12 and the false church pictured in Rev. 17 and 18. You NEED to know the difference. You NEED to know what's coming. You NEED to be STUDYING (not just reading) the bible. You NEED to be paying attention to world events. I have an article on the "mark of the beast" on my website. It can be found here: http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/markofthebeast.html<br />
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I also recommend my book (you don't have to buy it but can find it in ebook format free of charge on my website) <i>God's Law of Love, the Perfect Law of Liberty: Jehovah's Ten Commandments Still Apply Today</i> and also Keith Hunt's book <i>The Biblical Prophets for Today</i>. You can find his book in website article form on his website keithhunt.com under the prophets section. Both books are available in hard copy on Amazon.com.<br />
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For what is coming, the true Christian MUST NOT submit to the governing authority, because to do so will be to resist the Governing Authority. It will be a choice as to WHICH governing authority to which you wish to submit: God's or man's.MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-5355475692657356562012-11-06T00:02:00.002-06:002014-03-22T18:27:59.682-05:00Choosing an EvilTomorrow many of my fellow United States citizens will go to the polls to cast their votes in the quadrennial presidential election. I will not be among them. I voted in <i>one </i>presidential election, back in the year 2000, which was prior to my true conversion. Toward the end of a time I had been drifting and getting caught up in a lot of the wrong ideas (due to lack of reading the Word and praying as I should) I voted in a primary election, February of 2008, for Congressman Ron Paul. He's certainly vastly different than the rest of them, but he's still not representing God's government. Besides that time I have not voted for anyone, for anything, during my time being a citizen of God's spiritual nation, nor do I plan to ever do so again.<br />
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So why not, you may ask. Do I not think it's important to try to vote in the "lesser evil?" No, I don't. I don't think it's important to vote for <i>any</i> evil. Admitting both sides are evil should be enough. End of discussion. If you admit that both sides are evil, how do you then determine which is less evil, and how do you even know that? I think a lot of the time those who think they're voting for the lesser evil are voting for the more evil. Only God knows, really.<br />
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Concerning the two main presidential candidates (since most of my fellow U.S. citizens continue to be so foolish as to ignore anyone but the two main guys), both support different evils. Some of the evils they both support. And besides what they openly say they support or oppose, how do you know they're not just lying? <br />
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Obama supports human fetus murder. Romney says he's against that, but he's a big hypocrite when he says he's pro-life (as opposed to anti-abortion), because he's the bigger supporter of war between the two. More innocent people are murdered and otherwise harmed in war than any evil people they claim they're after. And all the so-called Christian right-wing extremists who tune into the Catholic-owned Fox News base their vote on two main issues--abortion and homosexuality. Whichever candidate is against those two things (especially the former) is their pick. Ironically, the right-wingers are the pro-war side. I guess it's fine for countless Arab in-utero babies to prematurely abort or be born terribly deformed due to all the chemical warfare to which they and their mothers are exposed. I guess it's okay to them that some pregnant mothers and children of all ages are killed by U.S. forces. Or maybe they're just too brainwashed and sadly ignorant to even consider that these things happen, because the news they watch doesn't bother telling them this happens, and they live in la-la land. <br />
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These same people don't bother to get on the Internet and look into these things. They don't bother to sit and simply meditate on what must happen over there in the Middle East. They also apparently don't bother to read what the real Christ taught about war. True Christians do <i>not</i> engage in war, they do not support war, and they do not vote in the elections in the governments of men. <br />
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This is what God's servant Samuel said to the people of Israel when they desired a man to rule over them (taken from KJV):<br />
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<span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-12.htm" style="color: #99d6ff; text-decoration: none;"><b>12</b></a></span>And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the LORD your God <i>was</i> your king. <span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-13.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>13</b></a></span>Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, <i>and</i> whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you. <span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-14.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>14</b></a></span>If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God:<span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-15.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>15</b></a></span>But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as <i>it was</i> against your fathers.<span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-16.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>16</b></a></span>Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes.<span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-17.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>17</b></a></span><i>Is it</i> not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain; <b>that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness <i>is</i> great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king</b>. <span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-18.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>18</b></a></span>So Samuel called unto the LORD; and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel (I Sam. 12:12-18, bold emphasis mine).</div>
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<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="22" cellspacing="0" class="mainbk" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: #b9e3ff; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr valign="top"><td class="bluebk3" style="background-color: #f9fdff; background-image: url(http://kingjbible.com/lline.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat repeat; text-align: justify;" width="98%">Now the scriptures spell out the reasons why the Eternal says it's evil to ask for a king (or president or any other name for a leader). You can read it all for yourself, all the details about being taxed heavily and having your children go to war, etc. Sound familiar?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none;"><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="22" cellspacing="0" class="mainbk" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: #b9e3ff; display: inline !important;"><tbody style="display: inline !important;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none;"><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="22" cellspacing="0" class="mainbk" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: #b9e3ff; display: inline !important;"><tbody style="display: inline !important;">
<tr style="display: inline !important;" valign="top"><td class="bluebk3" style="background-color: #f9fdff; background-image: url(http://kingjbible.com/lline.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat repeat; display: inline !important; text-align: justify;" width="98%"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><b style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-19.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;">19</a></b></span>And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins <i>this</i> evil, to ask us a king.</div>
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none;"><br /><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="22" cellspacing="0" class="mainbk" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: #b9e3ff; display: inline !important;"></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Now pay attention carefully to what Samuel said to the people after this:</span><br />
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<tr valign="top"><td class="bluebk3" style="background-color: #f9fdff; background-image: url(http://kingjbible.com/lline.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat repeat; text-align: justify;" width="98%"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-20.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>20</b></a></span>And Samuel said unto the people, <b>Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart;</b> <span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-21.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>21</b></a></span>And turn ye not aside: for<i>then should ye go</i> after vain <i>things</i>, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they <i>are</i> vain. <span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-22.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>22</b></a></span>For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people. <span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-23.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"><b>23</b></a></span>Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: <b><span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-24.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;">24</a></span>Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great <i>things</i> he hath done for you. <span class="reftext" style="color: #001320; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; vertical-align: text-top;"><a href="http://bible.cc/1_samuel/12-25.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;">25</a></span>But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.</b><br />
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Only reverently obey the Eternal. He's our Father, and we are to obey him as did Father's Glory Firstborn, our Lord Salvation, did so. Did Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) get into Roman politics or even Jewish politics when he tabernacled among us in the flesh? He clearly did not. The Jews of his day (and still to this day) thought he was coming to establish God's Kingdom on the earth (and he will, but that is not what he came to accomplish during his first coming). The religious and political leaders of his day thought he and his supporters were going to rebel against the Roman government. The Lord made clear, though, that his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36), and if it was then his servants would fight (which definitely puts an end to any notion that Christians should engage in warfare). <br />
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The Church, made up of a spiritual priesthood, the begotten children of God--destined to be born as spirit-bodied Sons of God at the beginning of the next age, upon Christ's return--is a spiritual nation that has no physical national boundaries on this earth. We are a people scattered all over the earth, and we live as secondary citizens in various man-ruled governments. To participate in these unGodly governments (there is no government on this planet that truly teaches a nation under God to abide only by the Ten Commandments with Christ as the Judge) is treason against the Government of God, because you are working against the principles of that<i> </i>spiritual nation. If you CHOOSE (vote) anyone to rule over you but Christ, you are rejecting his rule and rather choosing the other. We ARE God's government. We are to represent it. We are not representing the coming Government of God if we are choosing the flaw-filled men and U.S. government principles to have rule over us. We are an EXAMPLE nation, a holy nation. <br />
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We are to pray God's Kingdom come and for Father's will to be done. We can't in good conscience do that while we are seeking for the world to become Godly by the hands of man. It's NOT going to happen. Why should we who are spiritual be choosing the unspiritual to rule over us? How insane is that? Stop a few minutes and seriously meditate on this.<br />
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There is much scripture on this subject, and if you do not yet understand the truth about God's government and how his elect are going to become Sons of God and reign over mankind to show them the way of Peace, then you should open your bible and get to work studying it now. May the Spirit of Truth guide you and open your eyes to His awesome way.MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-57754016086791591612012-05-12T17:22:00.001-05:002012-05-12T17:33:37.698-05:00Answers to Jessica's ("Raggthyme") QuestionsJessica aka Raggthyme posed some questions in the comments section of my post entitled <a href="http://taratorah.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-covenant-does-not-abolish-law-but.html">New Covenant Does Not Abolish Law But Does Abolish Old Covenant</a>. I could not post my answers in the comment section, unless I were to make comment after comment after comment. I posted a reply to get an email address, but I have not heard anything in these last months, so I have decided to share the answers here in a blog post. Perhaps it will also be of help to others. I will quote Jessica's questions here, and then I will post my answers after each.<br />
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<span style="color: black;">Thank you Tara. I read your article on the Paul rejectors, it was full of info and very interesting. These folks I've come across who reject Paul do so (it seems) because they believe Jesus, being the word of God made flesh, was actually the Torah in flesh. I will write out some of the things I've read and then post what I am struggling with and what I disagree with.</span></blockquote>
But not as the carnal “old” covenant based on letter. <br />
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<span style="color: black;">1.They say that He commanded we follow Him, that He did not come to abolish the law but to live it perfectly. And by giving us His Spirit, we are able to walk as He did. And when we sin, He is the propitiation for our sins, being that he died and rose again. </span></blockquote>
True, except he did it truthfully, from the heart, not limited to some letter [of the law] to simply avoid penalty.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
2.They mention John in his first epistle a lot, who says that if we say we abide in Him we ought to walk just as He walked. This, in their estimation, means that we obey all the commandments of God the way Jesus did. </blockquote>
True again. All ten commandments and all that they encompass. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
3.That Jesus was angry with the leaders because they didn't keep the Torah as God intended, but they added all the commandments of men to weigh people down and keep them from entering the kingdom, not having a heart for God but for themselves. Jesus came to draw men to Himself, the Torah (teaching, instruction) in flesh to fulfill it from the heart.</blockquote>
True. Men did add and add (just as our own leaders in the U.S. do), taking away liberty. At the same time, they were corrupt at heart and didn’t keep commands where they count, themselves (again, just as our own leaders).<br />
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4.They say in Rev. 2:2 Jesus is referring to a trial of Paul at Ephesus, where they tested him and found him (and others) to be false apostles. They say there are only 12 Apostles which Jesus Himself commissioned to go into all the world, to all nations (Jew and Gentile), and Peter says that by His mouth the Gentiles should hear...</div>
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This is false assumption regarding Rev. 2:2, and they are foolish to think apostles would stop with the first twelve. They died just like all other men. They are not here today to do the work of an apostle. <br />
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5.They also say that Jesus, condemning the eating of meat offered to idols in Rev. was referencing Paul, a type of Balaam, since Paul said an idol is nothing, suggesting that the conscience of a man supersedes the Law of Moses, causing the children of God to sin.</div>
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Jesus said himself that some things were allowed under Moses because of carnality. Furthermore, a lot of physical/carnal ordinances applied (penile circumcision, tassels, etc.) Idols truly are nothing, and how are we to know whether someone sacrificed meat to idols and why bother asking whether someone did, because we know they are indeed nothing and are not going to truly defile the meat, as long as the meat was good to begin with--not an animal not intended for food (like pig or dog) and free from disease and/or loads of hormones and antibiotics.<br />
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<div style="color: black;">
6.They bring up the fact that Jesus only wrote to the 7 churches in Asia because they were the only churches He established and rebuked in love. </div>
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Those were true physical church groups, but there is a bigger message there, likely representing ages of the Church and the dominating characteristics, all of which serve as a warning to each of us as individuals, too.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
7.They say Paul admits all in Asia had forsaken him and that means they didn't receive his doctrines. Jesus commends the church in Ephesus for standing firm in the faith, testing those who say they are apostles and are not.</blockquote>
Paul’s doctrines were the same as the others and the same as Christ’s, so what was said to Ephesus has nothing to do with Paul. Those in Asia simply rejected truth. People rejected the truth when received by other apostles as well.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
8.They say James was written for a trial of Paul, specifically correcting the doctrine of justification by faith alone, saying Abraham was not justified by faith alone, but by doing what God commanded, thus his faith was made perfect.</blockquote>
There is no contradiction between what Paul and James wrote, and those that teach such obviously ignore all of Paul’s words. He taught very clearly that one must keep the law as defined by the ten commandments (in their spiritual intent, of course, just as Jesus magnified examples for us, recorded in Matt. 5). We <i>are</i> saved by grace through faith, <i>not</i> by works, <i>but</i> if we are not abiding by the commands and we have no works, then we don’t have true faith. If we believe something, truly have faith in something, then we do that thing. If my son has faith in me, then when I tell him not to walk into the road by himself, then he will work obedience. Those who do not have works to back their faith do not have true faith and do not have grace, either. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
9. They say Jesus told His 12 Apostles "freely you have received, freely give" whereas Paul taught that the Scripture about not muzzling an ox was written for men and that he should be allowed to reap their material benefits.</blockquote>
Paul freely gave and worked his own trade, but he was correct that some of our tithe money can go to those who are devoting most of their time evangelizing. Think of how difficult it must have been for Paul with all his travels, need of food, etc., and all the time he put into teaching, leaving little time to do his regular work to support him. <i>We</i>--the member of the spiritual Church Body--make up the new covenant priesthood. <br />
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10. They say that Jesus warned that if any man says He returned, believe him not. And Paul was given a whole lot of instruction from this Jesus he met on the road to Damascus that added to what Christ taught His Apostles. </blockquote>
He never did return bodily to the earth. John also was revealed things and heard Christ speak (the Revelation). Wonder how they neglect to remember this. In neither case did Jesus return bodily or ever contradict any previous teachings.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
11.They say all the factions of Christianity come from Paul and his letters, not from the teaching of Jesus Himself. That there is one flock and one Shepherd, there are not supposed to be shepherds/pastors or teachers in the congregations of the Lord's people. This has led to much error. </blockquote>
Paul taught the very same thing in his first letter to Corinth. Peter also warned about people twisting Paul. Paul is not liable for people twisting him and making a religion(s) based on their misinterpretations of his teachings any more than Mary is liable for people worshiping her as the “Mother of God” and “Queen of Heaven.”<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
I would say first, I myself question Paul because of some of the things listed above. I am asking God for wisdom, which I believe He gives liberally to those who seek to know the truth and not follow the ways of any man. I'm asking that He root out all error from my heart and show me what is true.<br />
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So if you don't mind, I will start with my struggle with #11. I have always questioned the countless number of denominations that all name the name of Christ, but hold to so many different doctrines. Jesus said that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. All these teachers teach something different because they all interpret the Bible differently, especially Paul's writings. This divides. If we would have followed Jesus teaching, no one would be called "teacher" or "leader" save Jesus alone and all brethren would heed His words spoken in the gospels. He has the words of eternal life. These are recorded in the 4 gospels and I believe the words that came out of His mouth are our Father's words and are fully sufficient for knowing Him in truth. John even says that the Son has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true. The word was made flesh and dwelt among them. This is that Prophet to whom Moses testifies, saying that God would command Him what to say and all should heed His words. My sheep hear MY voice... amen?<br />
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Now Paul comes along, with this vision of Jesus, never having met Jesus in the flesh. He just sees this bright light who proceeds to give him much doctrine in revelations etc. I am not at all saying this isn't from God, but I want to test ALL things. Shouldn't we test every vision and revelation? Even Paul says, let God be true and every man a liar. So my question is this.. John says that Jesus Christ (Eternal Life, the Word of the Father) has come IN THE FLESH, and by this we can know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. I believe this means that every word which proceeded from Jesus own mouth came of the Father, that we may live thereby. This is the Spirit of truth. Jude says they were to contend for the faith which was ONCE FOR ALL delivered to the saints. Was there really a need for a second appearing of Christ (not in flesh) to teach much doctrine and mysteries never taught to the disciples? Maybe so, but I still want to make sure I'm hearing His voice alone. Jesus tells His own that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth and would bring to their remembrance all that He taught them. If Paul met Christ on that road and repented and believed, wouldn't you think he would have gone to the twelve to receive Jesus doctrine? He even prayed "I pray not for these alone (his disciples), but for all who would believe in me through THEIR words." <br />
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I have to say it is interesting that Paul refers to these revelations he had, and that John also had a Revelation and wrote it down for the 7 churches. The difference though is that John said that it was a revelation of Jesus Christ, which "God gave him to show his servants" and he sent and signified it by his angel to John. So that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. Whereas Paul, all alone, heard this voice and received instruction privately, then taught this to the churches. I don't understand why the Lord wouldn't have revealed Himself like He did with John, since He Himself said that He comes in His Father's name, by His authority. Not speaking on His own authority or by His own name. Some say the Jesus who was revealed to Paul spoke by his own authority, not in His Father's name. I won't go so far as to call this one an "angel of light" as they do, but I still question and want to test this against Jesus own words. He says He goes away and sends the Spirit to lead them into all truth. </blockquote>
Concerning visions, you’re forgetting that the Lord told Ananias in a vision that Saul (who became Paul) would come and that he should baptize him. Peter also had a vision of animals, and the Lord spoke to him in that, revealing that he should not consider gentiles as unclean.<br />
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While Paul gives a TON of instruction to his churches, teaching so much doctrine on practical living and mysteries and such, John writes in his first epistle to the church with such simplicity, that they needed NO MAN to teach them because the anointing they have from God teaches them, His word abiding in them. Jesus said the words He spoke to them while He walked on the earth were "spirit" and "life." John says that the Word is that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was made manifest to those who saw and touched and walked with Him. That they were actually the Father's words, commanded (as Moses said in Deut) by God to be spoken to the people so they would heed them, (every word) and live by them. <br />
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I myself do not believe the these folks who say Jesus commanded us to follow the Torah. I believe He commanded us to follow Him. That He alone is the Good Shepherd and the Way to life. I believe that He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets when He spoke God's words to us and finished the works of His Father. I believe that Christ Himself is our Law. If we abide in His teaching, found in the gospel accounts, believing and obeying all that He taught, we will ourselves fulfill the requirements of the Law. And when we fail, He is the propitiation for our sins. The Spirit is given to us to do all of this, not by our own strength, or by the flesh, but by the Spirit of God we walk in obedience to Him and know Him. And this is eternal life.<br />
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At least that's my understanding of things so far. I am always open for God to help me see where I am in error. I don't know what to believe about Paul, but I don't think one needs to read his writings to understand that Jesus brought about a New Covenant. He said that the Law and the Prophets were until John. He is the New Covenant. So I figure if I just spend my time reading the gospels for awhile, and letting that soak in really deep, I think all the other things will fall into their rightful place. Thanks for letting me share with you, Tara. I hope to hear what you feel about these things I've mentioned.</blockquote>
Well, Jesus himself said before he left to “teach” all nations, baptizing them... Some have the gift of teaching, while others have different gifts. Many teachers even can learn one from another. BUT, everyone with God’s Spirit conception has the ability to search the scriptures to make sure the teachings are correct and can also be led in right or wrong by the Spirit. So there is no contradiction. We can be led by the Spirit, but not all have a teaching gift, which is a very useful tool to help other members in the body grow.MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-17674984210541141132011-12-03T19:00:00.000-06:002011-12-03T19:00:44.873-06:00Earth's Pregnancy and Impending TravailThe earth is becoming sick of being pregnant and is nearing evermore to her time of travail. She's at the point where she is starting to groan and complain about the pregnancy, the last days. There's still some time left yet, but it's not too long. It won't be long before it's the <i>very</i> last days where each day drags out in which she begs for travail to bring forth, just to escape being pregnant any longer.<br />
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Her frame aches from all the heavy movement and weight, as her inside is also tapped largely for resources to keep her children living, developing, and growing. She is nearing the point where she is ready to be shaken with the violent force of contractions within that will open the surface to bring forth.<br />
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She will burn with heat as a result of such powerful labor. She'll eventually open and push forth the new creation.<br />
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Will she love the still-living children from her last birth after this one? Will she love these children? Will she become bloodthirsty and murder her children as Kali Ma in the pagan Hinduism? Will the world become dark and cold...and dead? Or will she be past the pregnancy hormonal outbursts and return to a peaceful, loving, and nourishing mother? Will the world vibrate with a new light and warmth...life?<br />
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Just as God is the Father of creation, the earth is depicted as the mother he chose to bring forth many living creatures, humankind included. But the scriptures speak of a different kind of birth in the future:<br />
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<i>Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? says the ETERNAL ONE: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? says your God (Isaiah 66:8-9).</i><br />
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The Lord spoke about being "born again." We are first begotten/conceived with the Spirit/Sperm/Seed of God, and at the last trumpet at Christ's return, we will be born as new spirit beings, just as Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) the Firstborn of God is, and help him reign during the new age--the Kingdom of God age, the next world.<br />
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<i>Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).</i><br />
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<i>Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. <span class="reftext"></span>Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, <span class="reftext"></span>In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. <span class="reftext"></span>For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal </i><i>must put on immortality (I Cor. 15:50-53).</i><i> </i><br />
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<i>And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24:31).</i><i> </i><br />
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<i>And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become </i><i>the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. 11:15).</i><i> </i><br />
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<i>Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is (I John 3:2).</i><i> </i><br />
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The nation of Israel will live up to its name in that day. And God will open the earth to "bring forth" his new spirit-bodied children. People will come up from their graves and their physical bodies will be replaced in a flash with spiritual bodies when Christ returns with their spirit minds that were returned to God upon death (see Ecc. 12:7).<i> </i><br />
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Under the reign of God's firstfruits--his Firstborn and those called in the Church age--the earth will eventually transform into paradise condition, as the original Paradise of Eden was. There will be no wilderness with evil beasts and poisonous plants and thorns and thistles. Evil acts will not be tolerated. The earth will be a peaceful, loving, and nourishing mother.<br />
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<i>The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust </i><i>shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the ETERNAL ONE (Isaiah 65:25).</i><i> </i><br />
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<i>The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.</i><i> And the nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.</i><i> (Isa. 11:6).</i><br />
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The waters and trees in the holy land:<br />
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<i>Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river </i><i>were very many trees on the one side and on the other. <span class="reftext"></span>Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: </i><i>which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. <span class="reftext"></span>And it shall come to pass, </i><i>that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. <span class="reftext"></span>And it shall come to pass, </i><i>that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a </i><i>place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. <span class="reftext"></span>But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt. <span class="reftext"></span>And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine</i> (Ezekiel 47:7-12). <i> </i><br />
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At the end of that time period, this earth will be destroyed, there will be a new heaven and earth, and God the Father will come down with the new Jerusalem. The truth of this can be read in Revelation chapters 21 and 22.<br />
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Before the JOY of the saints' receiving their new bodies and eternal life in God's family and the JOY they will bring to this earth and its inhabitants, there will be SORROW. This world is full of sorrows, and the greatest sorrows are yet to come. It can be likened to a woman's labor and birth. First comes the sorrow, but then comes the joy! The latter makes the former worth the trouble.<br />
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<i>Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. (John 16:20-22).</i><br />
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And so may we the saints ENDURE the sorrow and hardships in this world and especially those suffered for the saints living during the last three and half years of this age, so that we can receive the overwhelming JOY of a new birth--our individual spiritual births and the birth of the perfect nation of Israel. <br />
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<i>I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:13).</i>MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-55214407187409085122011-04-15T14:46:00.001-05:002011-04-15T15:51:15.066-05:00"Forever" in the Old Testament: Does it Always Mean Eternal?There is a growing number of people in Christendom coming to see the truth that the religion of Christianity started by Rome is a mixing of the truth with pagan/heathen doctrines. Many are coming to understand many truths, such as the true Sabbath being the seventh day of the week--not the first, and that God's seven annual feasts and seven holy days are the ones found in Leviticus 23 and do not include the pagan Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and other wicked days in disguise that are listed on the Roman calendar.<br />
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However, a large number of these people, rather than carefully PROVE ALL THINGS, put themselves under the old carnal covenant. Many of them are in effect rejecting, at least in part, the new better spiritual covenant. They are still blind, having a veil over their eyes. They do not understand the teachings of Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) our Savior, the Firstborn of God, the Word. They do not understand the teachings of Paul. Some of them go on to reject Paul, which is dangerous, because truly to reject Paul, one must also reject Salvation, for Salvation's teachings and Paul's are one and the same. Yea, I recently found that one friend of mine no longer believes Salvation was the Messiah/Christ/Savior. But, as the scripture in both the old covenant times and new covenant times teach, you don't really know the Father if you do not know the Son. You can't have one without the other, because they are one, just as Salvation and Paul are one. And all that are Spirit-begotten and are walking in the Spirit, growing in grace and knowledge, recognizing Christ as their head and Father as Christ's head, should all be at one.<br />
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I'm about to explain one of the things that seem to so confuse those who have decided to throw away their love of the new covenant and what our Savior did, and so rather than keep the law (including the holy days) under new covenant law, they believe they are to keep the old covenant, which is INSANE, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep it perfectly. There are many things that are impossible to do. There is no temple, no Levitical priesthood, etc. These people MISS THE BOAT! They teach penile flesh circumcision is still a must. They teach wearing tassels is a must. Oddly enough, though, though they condemn themselves with their own WORDS that they must keep ALL OF THE LAW OF MOSES IN LETTER, I don't know any of them that wear scriptures on their hands and foreheads. Oh, there are Jews who still wear phylacteries on their foreheads. Looks absolutely ridiculous! Just do a Google image search. Does that honestly help them keep the law? Certainly not the way God expects one to. ONLY having the begettal of the God Spirit helps keep the law in spirit as God intends. The person always is WANTING to do what is right and is so properly led to do righteousness. My almost-eight-year-old son is just a child, and even he understands. He says, "Momma, it's hard to not do the wrong thing." And I did a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKwTOP0M_w">video interview</a> with him regarding penile circumcision, and he revealed how absolutely carnal and ridiculous the people with carnal covenant mindset are. He understands one must be changed IN THE HEART. Carnal people are concerned with OUTER SHOW.<br />
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FOREVER! The carnal covenant people are stuck on this word "forever" in the old covenant scriptures. Some of them seem to even think it means "eternal." Well, I'm sure we'd all agree that we should NEVER commit adultery. We should ALWAYS/FOREVER keep our marital vows. Right? But, what does NEVER, ALWAYS, and FOREVER mean? Man marries. God does not. When we are no longer in the family of man but are in the family of God, there will be no marriages. No need for such a law for eternity, is there? Even in the family of man, FOREVER does not literally mean FOREVER, does it? What if the covenant is broken by death? Is not the person freed from the covenant to his or her spouse?<br />
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If I told my young children to ALWAYS hold my hands or hold each other's hands before walking across the road or parking lot, to NEVER not hold my hand, what does that mean? Are they expected to be attached to me literally ALWAYS/FOREVER until I die? When they become adults, does that rule still apply, even though I said ALWAYS/FOREVER? Of course not! People who actually REASON in their heads know this is not the case.<br />
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I'm now to going to quote what I said in another recent blog post that discusses the "forever" issue:<br />
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<blockquote>2. Under the old covenant, per the law of Moses, a person is commanded to choose a physically unblemished lamb, a male yearling, on the tenth day of the first month of the year and keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, take the blood and paint the doorposts of his home, roast the lamb whole (no boiling) and eat the flesh of the entire lamb along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Ex. 12:13). It was to be an ordinance throughout Israel's generations, forever, to remind them of God's saving power to deliver them from Egyptian bondage (vs. 14, 17). However, under the new covenant, Salvation the Anointed King is our spiritually unblemished (I Pet. 1:19) Passover lamb, and he commanded us to keep the NEW covenant Passover with unleavened bread and wine to symbolize his broken body and shed blood and that we are to keep it to remind us of his death, which is God's saving power to deliver us from bondage to sin (Luke 22:20; Matt. 26:28). Do you keep the old covenant Passover or the new covenant one? <br />
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Uh-oh! Those old-covenant teachers MUST reject Salvation's teaching, if they are going to reject Paul for adding or taking away from the law of Moses, because Salvation did it!!!!!!!!! THEIR MOUTHS NEED TO BE SHUT! They keep leading people astray. This goes back to the scriptures Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the Jews were so foolish that they could not see in the reading of the old covenant that the old ordinances were to come to an end. They were TEMPORARY! A daughter is to obey her father FOREVER! But, unless you are a complete fool, you know that the meaning of "forever" that I just used is not as long-lasting as some would like to make you believe that the "forevers" in the old covenant are. When a daughter is given in marriage, she then belongs to her husband and obeys him! IT NEEDS NOT TO BE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND!</blockquote><br />
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<blockquote>6. Under the old covenant, it was commanded that we hate certain enemies, for example the Ammonites and Moabites (modern-day Jordanians) were not to enter into God's congregation forever (Deut. 23:3). Oh, look! There are those words "for ever" again (even though it had just said ten generations, so we can use LOGIC and conclude that "for ever" in this verse meant that UNTIL the ten generations were up, the people were forever not to let those people in God's congregation). The Lord Salvation taught that we should love our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48) and be forgiving and merciful. We shouldn't judge anyone by what their ancestors did.</blockquote><br />
Do you now understand that "forever" doesn't mean "eternal" like some will have you believe? Yesterday, a friend of mine posted something on FB about Passover being a commemoration of the exodus of the [physical] Israelites from the Egypt. I commented and said that the old covenant Passover was a commemoration of that event, but the new covenant Passover is a commemoration of our Savior's death, and it has new symbols. HE is our Passover Lamb, and we now partake of unleavened bread and wine as the symbols to symbolize his body and blood. We don't eat his physical body. Those things SYMBOLIZE partaking of his divine nature. In the carnal covenant, people ate a carnal (fleshly) animal--a lamb without physical blemish, but the new covenant Passover is all about remembering the spiritually unblemished Lamb of God who rescued us from SIN. Being released from the bondage of Egypt was a TYPE of being released from the bondage of sin. Another person commented on the post and said that the Passover was commanded to be an "eternal ordinance." I simply replied and said the scriptures taught no such thing. And they don't. Once the plan of salvation, as pictured by the seven feasts and holy days, is complete, there will be no need for the Passover. There won't even be the sun and moon for our times and seasons. There will be no such thing as a solar year, so definitely no Passover in its season. No need for that. The former things will be passed away, our sadness forgotten. And as for THIS TIME, while the Passover DOES still stand, the old covenant one has been REPLACED by the new covenant one.<br />
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Of which Passover will you partake? Will you be having a meal of lamb, unleavened bread, and herbs and be spending your time thinking of the physical nation of Israel being led out of Egypt, or will you eat your meal of whatever before you partake of the new covenant Passover, which is not a meal but the partaking of unleavened bread and wine while meditating on Christ's death and how we need to partake of his Godly spiritual nature? Old covenant law or new covenant law? If you do the former, you break the latter. You decide. The old covenant is DEAD, just as a husband of a wife can die. I'm betrothed to Christ. Which covenant have you entered?MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-27348419526157113122011-03-19T15:24:00.004-05:002011-03-19T20:26:44.620-05:00New Covenant Does Not Abolish Law But Does Abolish Old CovenantThis is somewhat of a continuance of my last post. Friends, are we humble and wish to honestly grow in grace and knowledge?<br />
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Those who claim with their lips and the words of their mouth that they accept Salvation--Jesus Christ/Yeshua Messiah--but who then turn around and teach that all must still keep the entire old covenant law are in actions rejecting Salvation. Some openly reject Paul and all his writings, but since Paul was very much at one with Salvation, they also reject Salvation's teachings with their actions, though they don't dare do so with their words.<br />
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Friend, are YOU one being deceived by such teachers? Are YOU then turning around and teaching others they must do the same?<br />
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<div style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>THE NEW COVENANT CERTAINLY DOES NOT DO AWAY WITH THE LAW OF GOD, BUT THE NEW COVENANT <u>DOES</u> DO AWAY WITH THE OLD COVENANT!</b></div><br />
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<b> </b>First, you must identify whether you truly are a Paul-rejector or not. Some openly reject Paul, but others know if they reject Paul's writings, the validity of all the scriptures then comes into question, so they accept Paul's teachings with their lips, but in their actions and their teachings to others, they in fact reject Paul. <span style="color: red;">In rejecting Paul, people are truly rejecting Salvation, too, </span><u style="color: red;">although they may not realize it.</u><span style="color: red;"> </span> Now, read the following words of my sleeping brother Paul, and ask yourself whether you are allowing yourself to be blinded and whether you ACCEPT or REJECT Paul's words:<br />
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<b> </b><i><b>But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. <span class="reftext"></span>But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart</b> (2 Cor. 3:14-15). </i><br />
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Before I write more, I want to share the commentary on verse 14 by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Barnes_%28theologian%29">Albert Barnes</a><i>, </i>the 19th century Protestant theologian, as his commentary on this is very applicable (my bold and underlining for emphasis):<br />
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<i>But their minds were blinded - The word used here (πωρόω pōroō) means rather to harden; to make hard like stone; and then to make dull or stupid. It is applied to the heart, in <a href="http://bible.cc/mark/6-52.htm">Mark 6:52</a>; <a href="http://bible.cc/mark/8-17.htm">Mark 8:17</a>; to persons, in <a href="http://bible.cc/romans/11-7.htm">Romans 11:7</a>; and to the eyes, in <a href="http://bible.cc/job/17-7.htm">Job 17:7</a>. <u><b>Paul refers here to the fact that the understandings of the Jews were stupid, dull, and insensible, so that they did not see clearly the design and end of their own institutions.</b></u> He states simply the fact; he does not refer to the cause of it. The fact that the Jews were thus stupid and dull is often affirmed in the New Testament.</i><br />
<i>For until this day ... - <u><b>The sense of this is, that even to the time when Paul wrote, it was a characteristic of the great mass of the Jewish people, that they did not understand the true sense of their own Scriptures. They did not understand its doctrines in regard to the Messiah.</b></u> A veil seems to be thrown over the Old Testament when they read it, as there was over the face of Moses, so that the glory of their own Scriptures is concealed from their view, as the glory of the face of Moses was hidden.</i><br />
<i>Of the Old Testament - Greek, "of the old covenant." See this word "testament," or covenant, explained in the notes on <a href="http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/11-25.htm">1 Corinthians 11:25</a>. This, I believe, is the only instance in which the Scriptures of the Jews are called the "Old Testament," or covenant, in the Bible. It was, of course, not a name which they used, or would use; but it is now with Christians the common appellation. No doubt can be entertained but that Paul uses the terms in the same manner in which we now do, and refers to all the inspired writings of the Jews.</i><br />
<i>Which vail is done away in Christ - In the manifestation, or appearance of Jesus the Messiah, the veil is removed. The obscurity which rested on the prophecies and types of the former dispensation is withdrawn; and as the face of Moses could have been distinctly seen if the veil on his face had been removed, so it is in regard to the true meaning of the Old Testament by the coming of the Messiah. What was obscure is now made clear; and the prophecies are so completely fulfilled in him, that his coming has removed the covering, and shed a clear light over them all. Many of the prophecies, for example, until the Messiah actually appeared, appeared obscure, and almost contradictory. Those which spoke of him, for illustration, as man and as God; as suffering, and yet reigning; as dying, and yet as ever-living; as a mighty Prince, a conqueror, and a king, and yet as a man of sorrows; as humble, and yet glorious: all seemed difficult to be reconciled until they were seen to harmonize in Jesus of Nazareth. Then they were plain, and the veil was taken away. Christ is seen to answer all the previous descriptions of him in the Old Testament; and his coming casts a clear light on all which was before obscure.</i><br />
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Adam Clarke's commentary may be even better, and it's shorter and more to the point:<br />
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<i><b><u>But their minds were blinded - By resting in the letter, shutting their eyes against the light that was granted to them, they contracted a hardness or stupidity of heart.</u> </b>And the veil that was on the face of Moses, which prevented the glory of his face from shining out, may be considered as emblematical of the veil of darkness and ignorance that is on their hearts, and which hinders the glory of the Gospel from shining in.</i><br />
<i>Until this day remaineth the same veil - <u><b>They are still ignorant of the spiritual meaning and intention of their own law</b></u>, called here παλαια διαθηκη, the old covenant. See the word explained in the preface to St. Matthew.</i><br />
<i>In the reading of the Old Testament - Here is an evident allusion to the conduct of the Jews in their synagogues: when they read the law they cover their whole head with a veil, which they term the טלית tallith, veil, from טלל talal, to cover; and this voluntary usage of theirs, the apostle tells us, is an emblem of the darkness of their hearts while they are employed even in sacred duties.</i><br />
<i>Which veil is done away in Christ -<u><b> It is only by acknowledging Christ that the darkness is removed, and the end and spiritual meaning of the law discerned. </b></u></i><br />
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Aha! The false teachers out there who are into this "Messianic Judaism" religion and others who teach the new covenant is not really the new covenant but rather a "renewed" old covenant are BLIND like the Jews, not understanding the meaning of the old covenant scriptures. <b>They do not want to accept the new covenant so that they can have the veil removed, because they are too concerned about LOOKING OUTWARDLY RIGHTEOUS TO MEN! </b> (Note: I blow to pieces the false teaching of the "renewed covenant" by going to the actual Hebrew. <a href="http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/paulrejectors.html">Click here for my study article.</a> It's the first point after the introduction.)<br />
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If a person would just READ the gospels and Hebrews and Paul's writings, I would think the confusion would go away, mostly, anyway, but I'm not sure what people are doing. I think they are too busy listening to their false teachers and desiring to look outwardly righteous, instead of actually READING and STUDYING the scriptures.<br />
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Let's look at some of the laws that CONDEMN the false teachers out there who teach we must go by ALL the law as given to Moses, the written law that was given as what we now call the old covenant. <b>Remember first, the promise of the Savior was given to Abraham 430 years BEFORE the old covenant, so the old covenant could not annul the new covenant (see Gal. 3:15-29). Please get your bible, and CHECK the scripture references. PROVE what I'm saying, whether it's right or wrong:</b><br />
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1.<b> </b>Under the old covenant, the law states that gentiles must be circumcised (in the penis) in order to partake of the Passover (ref. Ex. 12:48). The new covenant Passover was instituted by Christ (ref. Luke 22:20; Mark 14:24; Matt. 26:28). Under the new covenant, gentiles who wanted to join God's covenant, circumcision is not required (ref. Acts 15:24; Rom. 2:28-29; I Cor. 7:19; Gal. 5:12-13, 15) and for those of Israel or Judah who enter the new covenant, at that time it would have been irrelevant to discuss circumcision, because such men were already circed in the penis from infancy. What our parents do to us during infancy has no bearing on what kind of person we end up being and whether we choose to serve God when we become adults. We are to examine ourselves before partaking of the new covenant Passover so that we do not partake of it unworthily. If the old covenant regulations still stand, then an uncircumcised male (regardless of blood heritage) would be partaking of it unworthily.<br />
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2. Under the old covenant, per the law of Moses, a person is commanded to choose a <u>physically unblemished </u>lamb, a male yearling, on the tenth day of the first month of the year and keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, take the blood and paint the doorposts of his home, roast the lamb whole (no boiling) and eat the flesh of the entire lamb along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Ex. 12:13). It was to be an ordinance throughout Israel's generations,<u> forever</u>, to remind them of God's saving power to deliver them from Egyptian bondage (vs. 14, 17). However, under the new covenant, Salvation the Anointed King is our <u>spiritually unblemished</u> (I Pet. 1:19) Passover lamb, and he commanded us to keep the NEW covenant Passover with unleavened bread and wine to symbolize his broken body and shed blood and that we are to keep it to remind us of his death, which is God's saving power to deliver us from bondage to sin (Luke 22:20; Matt. 26:28). <span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Do you keep the old covenant Passover or the new covenant one? </span></span><br />
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<b>Uh-oh! Those old-covenant teachers MUST reject Salvation's teaching, if they are going to reject Paul for adding or taking away from the law of Moses, <u>because Salvation did it!</u>!!!!!!!!</b> <u><b>THEIR MOUTHS NEED TO BE SHUT!</b></u> They keep leading people astray. This goes back to the scriptures Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the Jews were so foolish that they could not see in the reading of the old covenant that the old ordinances were to come to an end. They were TEMPORARY! A daughter is to obey her father FOREVER! But, unless you are a complete fool, you know that the meaning of "forever" that I just used is not as long-lasting as some would like to make you believe that the "forevers" in the old covenant are. When a daughter is given in marriage, she then belongs to her husband and obeys him! <b>IT NEEDS NOT TO BE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND!</b><br />
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<i> </i>3. Under the old covenant law of Moses, a person was commanded to pay damages for physical hurt done to another human being (Ex. 21:24-25; Lev. 24:20), but the Anointed One pointed out that we should have mercy for those who deserve it (Matt. 5:38-40).<br />
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4. Under the old covenant law of Moses, it was permissible for a man to write a bill of divorce to his wife, if she did not find favor in <i>his eyes</i> and that she could then be another man's wife (Deut. 24:1-2; Matt. 19:7). But, Salvation said that unless she was put away for fornication, one should not divorce, and if one does and marries another, it is adultery and causes the woman to commit adultery if she marries another (Matt. 19:9; 5:31-32). He said, <b><i>Moses, because of the <u>hardness of your hearts</u> allowed you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so </i></b><i>(</i>Matt. 19:8). <b>DID YOU CATCH THAT? READ IT FROM YOUR BIBLE. <u>MEDITATE ON IT</u>. FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO! JUST LIKE FROM THE BEGINNING, A LOT OF THINGS DONE UNDER THE OLD COVENANT WAS NOT SO. IT WAS A CARNAL COVENANT MEANT TO BE A TEMPORARY SCHOOLTEACHER, BUT SO MANY STILL DON'T GET IT.</b><br />
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5. Under the old covenant law of Moses, vows were to be sworn unto Jehovah by His name (ref. Deut. 23:23). Salvation, however, when he came to preach the Kingdom of God (Matt. 11:13; Luke 16:16), taught that we should not swear by the name of God nor anyone or anything else, but let our yes be yes and our no be no (Matt. 5:33-35).<br />
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6. Under the old covenant, it was commanded that we hate certain enemies, for example the Ammonites and Moabites (modern-day Jordanians) were not to enter into God's congregation forever (Deut. 23:3). Oh, look! There are those words "for ever" again (even though it had just said ten generations, so we can use LOGIC and conclude that "for ever" in this verse meant that UNTIL the ten generations were up, the people were forever not to let those people in God's congregation). The Lord Salvation taught that we should love our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48) and be forgiving and merciful. We shouldn't judge anyone by what their ancestors did.<br />
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7. Under the old covenant, in order to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, you were commanded to take the fruit of good trees, the branches of palm trees, fruits of thick trees, and willows of the brook. (Wonder how I'd obey, when there are no palm trees here. Lev. 23:40) Under the new covenant, of course, a visit to Jerusalem is not required to keep the feasts of God, and the new covenant temple are the members of the Church, the Body of Christ. Jesus, our Lord Salvation, said that the Father sought those to worship him in SPIRIT and TRUTH, and so would not be worshiping in Jerusalem (John 4:21-24). This applies to everything else festival-related that was required under the old covenant to be done in Jerusalem. <b style="color: #3d85c6;">Are you reading the scriptures? Are you checking these things out for yourself? Are you either blindly agreeing with me or blowing off what I say so that you can continue on believing as you are setting your heart to do so, or are you putting away your laziness and checking these scriptures?</b><br />
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8. Under the old covenant, the priesthood was of the tribe of Levi (Deut. 18:1; 21:5; 31:9). Priests were to be chosen only from the Levites. In addition, such men were not to bear any <u>physical blemishes</u>, such as blindness, lameness, flat nose, hunch-backed, scarred or scabbed up, etc. (Lev. 21:18-23). Under the new covenant the priesthood is headed by Christ (who was of Judah), his being the high priest and all those during the Church age who are begotten with God's Spirit--the Holy Seed--make up the new covenant priesthood. Whereas the Levitical priests offered up physical sacrifices of grain, flesh, etc., we are to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Study the following scriptures: 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:27; Rev. 1:6; 5:10. Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) was prophesied by Isaiah not to be a good-looking man that any person would naturally desire him for his looks (Isa. 53:2). It says no where that he had any deformities, but he was not handsome. It was to be deliberate. God desires sons who look at things as He does, judging the spiritual things and not the physical. Believe it or not, this was revealed here and there throughout the old covenant writings! It was repeated that one should circumcise his heart and that one should not judge outer appearance and that God didn't desire sacrifice but obedience and on and on.<br />
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If you read and study carefully, you'll notice the very few people you read about in old covenant times who possessed God's Spirit were not carnal. David did not even visit the priests for sin sacrifice after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah (Psa. 51:16-17). He spoke to Heavenly Father and said that he knew God did not desire burnt animal sacrifice, OTHERWISE HE'D GIVE IT, but he knew God wanted a broken spirit (over his sin) and a contrite heart. He and the priest also broke the law of Moses at another time when he was running away from Saul, by eating the shewbread (I Sam. 21:1-6; Matt. 12:1-7). Yet, David has been chosen to be the king heading the entire twelve tribes of Israel during the Kingdom of God age on this earth (Eze. 34:23-24). Of course, Salvation shall be the top King of all, and there will be ranks. Underneath David, but also over the twelve tribes of Israel, will be the original twelve apostles (not Judas Iscariot but Matthias, his replacement) over each tribe, and so on. David was truly a man after God's own heart, and he could see past the old covenant rituals. He understood that they were a schoolteacher for carnal men. <b>He knew it was a man's covenant, a carnal covenant, to point out the fault of the way a man thinks and judges things, all based on OUTWARD SHOW in the FLESH. Then the new covenant shows God's heart, His view, the perfect way God thinks and judges things, all based on the INWARD HEART in the SPIRIT. </b><br />
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<div style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>If you want to please God, you need to start thinking the way Salvation did, the way David did, the way Paul did, the way all God's true Spirit-begotten servants think. You need to stop thinking carnally, because you cannot please God that way, though you may be deceiving yourself and others that you can.</b></div><br />
9. Under the old covenant, Israel was commanded not to eat an animal that died of itself. We who live with our modern advanced knowledge don't need an in-depth explanation of this. We know why it's not a good idea to do this. The animal may have died of a bad disease, which could then be passed on to you. Now, it was allowed, however, to be given to the gentiles who lived within Israel's borders (Deut. 14:21). Now, if you have a Godly heart, I would hope that you do not have BLINDERS on your eyes, that you cannot see a problem--a FAULT--with this. Now, as I explained in my recently published book <i>God's Law of Love, The Perfect Law of Liberty: Jehovah's Ten Commandments Still Apply Today</i>, for a very poor gentile neighbor, if he had nothing to eat and would otherwise be starving, eating the flesh from such an animal might be a better risk than not having anything to eat at all, but if you truly have the HEART OF A SON OF GOD, and you could afford to do so, then you would rather let the death of such an animal be a REMINDER to offer a GOOD and SAFE animal's flesh to your foreigner neighbor who is living in poverty. What true Christian person thinks with the mind of, "My cow just died, and who knows what caused it, but I'm going to give it to my black neighbor to eat. He's just a Blackie. He's not as clean as I am, all white and sanctified by God because of my white flesh. It may not be safe for me to eat, but ol' Blackie can eat it."<br />
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How SICK, if you actually think this way! Do you not READ through the law of Moses and see the GOOD principles, but do you not also see the FAULT, the SHORTCOMINGS of some of it??? Are you BLIND to it all, as Paul said of the Jews of his day? Are you so carnal? Some things were ALLOWED under the old covenant, because of the HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS, the CARNALITY of the people. But those who possessed Godly hearts lived more Godly than what the law of Moses allowed. They did not seek divorces over little things. They did not seek<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> out multiple wives. They did not give animals that died of themselves to their foreigner neighbors. </span><b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">They did not feel the need to wear phylacteries on their foreheads (ironically enough, Jews still do this today, as seen</span> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDlTTrw9kquKp9LSaP2bsHyZTGNPZ8f0dV_Q2Eiy2CEGVzGDTnuyDVlO15hAGCuQN0qpJXLB7mn8FeuBxYVlDNUsjuZ2JLpnYT5rXueePhyo9gjDtznkEQOcrdzGsa1pzI9cm_gTr1_iLq/s1600/Phylacteries.jpg" style="color: #3d85c6;">here</a><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">, but I've YET TO SEE those who insist on penile circumcision of their sons and wearing of tassels in their clothes wear phylacteries on their foreheads. </span> </span>INSANITY!!!!!! HYPOCRITES, HYPOCRITES, HYPOCRITES! CAN YOU SAY, "HYPOCRITES?!" Oh, yeah, of all those who hurl their condemnations at me because I live the new covenant and will not live their old covenant ways and teach others to do so (b/c they won't to make a boast in the flesh--Gal. 6:13), NOT ONE have I seen wear phylacteries on their foreheads and things attached to their hands!</b><br />
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Now, is it SIN to circumcise your sons or to wear tassels or any of these other things? NO, absolutely NOT! But, it <i>is</i> a sin to reject the new covenant by mandating that others keep the old covenant (the promise of Messiah was BEFORE the old covenant, do not forget). And they are certainly putting themselves under a CURSE, because CURSED is the person who enters the old covenant and who fails to do all the things commanded therein. Many of the things are IMPOSSIBLE to keep right now, for there is no temple in Jerusalem, and many could not visit three times a year, every year, even if there was. <b>Just CRAZY, the things people believe and teach.</b><br />
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<b> </b>10. The last example I care to give time to give (ten is enough) is that under the old covenant women who gave birth to a child were to go through a cleansing period (Lev. 12:1-8). Now, it is true that a woman should rest and recover, and it is true that a woman should abstain from sex until she is finished bleeding and goes through her physical cleansing. Usually the bleeding lasts no longer than six weeks (or around the 40 days the law of Moses prescribed for cleansing for a male child). The law of Moses, though, prescribed EIGHTY days for a female child. In addition, during the entire time of this cleansing, a woman was not allowed to go to worship services or to touch ANY HALLOWED THING. Can you imagine that God, who wants to be worshiped in SPIRIT and in TRUTH, would mandate a woman under the new and better covenant not to touch her bible so that she can read the Word of God for six to twelve weeks? The HOLY Word of God. Do you believe a woman is to stay away from her congregation (if she has one) for six to twelve weeks? What about the sacrifice that she is to make at the temple afterward? You are not doing a good job of keeping the old covenant if you are not visiting the Jerusalem temple to make the commanded sacrifices! A bit of a dilemma, wouldn't you say?!<br />
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Of course, if you are reading this and have any sense at all, and especially if you have the heart of God, if you are truly a begotten son of God and know or are learning to know how to please God, you surely realize how UTTERLY RIDICULOUS some people can be, and they are DECEIVING many. False prophets abound!<br />
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<b style="color: #3d85c6;">The bottom line is this: The new covenant does not do away with doing good, keeping the law in the spirit, but it does do away with the old covenant!</b> <b>People loved God and their fellow man BEFORE the establishment of the old covenant. People kept the Ten Commandments BEFORE Moses delivered them at Sinai, BEFORE all those added old covenant things were enacted. People put God first, worshiped Him in Spirit and Truth without bowing to images, they did not worship him in vain or blaspheme His Holy Name, they kept the Sabbath holy, they honored their parents, they did not murder, they did not commit adultery, they did not steal, nor did they lie, nor did they covet. They kept the dietary and agricultural regulations that were given from the beginning. All that was done by righteous men BEFORE the old covenant, and it can surely be done now. </b>MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-66785324320723797332011-02-21T20:51:00.000-06:002011-02-21T20:51:16.159-06:00What "The Law Was Added Because of Transgression" MeansThere is a great deal of confusion surrounding the meaning of Paul's words to the Galatians when he said:<br />
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<i>Wherefore then [serveth] the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; [and it was] ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator (</i>Gal. 3:19).<br />
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It's really simple, though. Of course, I encourage each one to read the entire context. Here, though, I simply want to lay it out for those who <i>still</i> don't get it, even after reading the context and reading the entire bible.<br />
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In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve on the sixth work day. He didn't lay out an endless number of statutes for them. He didn't overwhelm them with a lot of rules. Anyone who honestly just reads the opening of Genesis can see that he put them in the garden, told them to take care of it and told them what they could eat for food. The tree of life was also in the garden, and t<b>hen there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and God told Adam and Eve that they were not to eat from that tree, <u>or else they would die</u>. </b>We then know the next day was the seventh day that was sanctified and hallowed, so right from the beginning we see the Sabbath day, the signature mark of the Creator. So things started out in a very BASIC way. <br />
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Now, we must ask, WHAT is the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil?" WHAT is the knowledge of good and evil? <b>What do we call something that lets us know what is good and what is evil? Would we not call that law? </b>Of course! Adam and Eve were alive and well, and everything was going smoothly, until they allowed themselves to be deceived by the serpent. Notice what happened. Back in Genesis 2:25 Adam and Eve were naked but were not ashamed, just as young children that do not yet know good from evil are not ashamed. They thought nothing of it. No one TOLD them it was wrong. God did not say, "Oh, and make sure you stay dressed with clothes, because it is not good for you to be naked." But, after they had eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly realized they were naked and covered themselves. They later told the Lord (the one who is the Firstborn of the Father) they were hiding from him because they were naked. He replied, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree from which I told you not to eat?"<br />
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Does this not remind you of what Paul said several thousand years later? Read Romans chapter 7, where he talks about how the law gives knowledge of what is good or evil and that he was alive once without the law, but then the commandment came, sin revived, and he died.<br />
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<b>EVERY person on this earth, since Adam and Eve ate from the fruit, if they live long enough, comes to a point where their eyes are opened, and they know good from evil. Infants start out innocent and UNKNOWING of good and evil.</b> Small children do not know that being naked in front of others is bad. They do not know that putting their fingers into electric sockets is evil. Little kids do not realize that crawling off the high bed is evil. They don't know these things bring bad consequences! <b>Not until they transgress! THEN once they transgress, they know there is good and evil! </b>W<b>as killing and stealing and lying and such wrong from the beginning, before Adam and Eve knew it was wrong, before they ate from that tree? Of course it was! Did they have such ideas? <u>Was there any written law with judgments laying all this out?</u> No, there was not! Would it have been good for them to have clothes on from the beginning? Yes! But, were they at fault for not having on clothes? No, they had never been given any idea that it was wrong! </b><br />
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If you read my <a href="http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/treeoflife.html">study on the tree of life</a>, you will learn that the tree of life represents Christ. How do we get eternal life? There is only ONE way to salvation, and that is through Salvation the Anointed One, Jesus Christ (Yeshua the Messiah). It's his sacrifice in our place that gives us the gift of eternal life <i>for those who repent of sin [transgression of the law]</i>, are baptized, and the receive the Holy Spirit (the seed of God so that we can be born as sons of God at the resurrection).<br />
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I try to keep it as simple as possible for my children. The Ten Commandments are summed up by love God with all your heart, mind, and life and love your neighbor as you love yourself. I tell them the Ten Commandments teach us how to do these things. I do not bombard them with a laundry list of things they should do, though, to protect themselves, to protect others, and to protect property. <b>BUT, if they transgress in some way, it becomes needful at times that I ADD LAW.</b><br />
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Just last night my husband was saying to my parents, concerning buying a third game controller, "I've been needing to buy another one, anyway, in case the kids tear up one." This was said in front of our children. This is a no-no, of course, but who is not guilty of doing this at some point? Most parents realize that suggesting this sort of thing in front of our kids puts the idea into their head to do evil. Whereas before, doing such a thing probably would not have crossed their minds, now they are tempted to do just that. Now, does this also sound familiar? Remember what Paul said about the law killing him, because we tend to want to do the opposite of what it says? Any experienced parent knows this is the case with children.<br />
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Would I tell my young child, "I just put some matches up in this cabinet. Now don't get into these and start a fire?" NO! I would put the matches up there in hopes that my child will not be snoopy and get into such a thing. I am not going to put the idea into his head to get into the matches. Most children will have a strong temptation to do the exact opposite of what you commanded. Not all children would actually follow through with it, but there would be a strong temptation, whereas if you kept your mouth shut, it would likely not be an issue. Now, let's say nothing was said, but one day the child got into the cabinet for one reason or another, and he happened to see the matches then. It was an unlikely event, but it happened. He was then tempted to use them. Still, a child could make the choice not to do so. But, sometimes a child does. If the latter occurred, THEN law would have to be added. YES! That's right. Oral or written law added AFTER transgression. <b>The law is holy, just, and good, meaning what is good is good, but what was good was good before the giving of the law <u>in a written organized form, full with judgments and then the added rituals. </u> There were faithful and obedient people serving God BEFORE the added law. There were already people following the spiritual law, as written on their hearts, not killing, fornicating, stealing, etc. <u>Yet, some transgressed, so it was needful for an ADDED law in written form, complete with JUDGMENTS for transgression. The animal sacrifices, human priesthood, etc. was to REALLY POINT OUT TO CARNAL-NATURED PEOPLE HOW SERIOUS TRANSGRESSION WAS. </u> </b><br />
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Is that not why so many statutes are ADDED to the U.S. law code (or ANY law code)? The invention of motor vehicles, for example, as a new thing here. AFTER transgression, namely wrecks that caused people's bodies to be flung through the windshields, law was ADDED to include use of seat belts. At some point, law was ADDED for babies and young children to be put in car seats. Is someone foolish enough to say that this law is bad? What fool is willing to say this is a bad law? Is it for the GOOD? Is it to save lives? YES! Now, would there be some fool out there who claims that this is wrongful adding to God's law? Probably so. Now, it is indeed BETTER, as it is under the new covenant, to be led by the Spirit, to have God's law written on our HEARTS, choosing good because we want to do what is right, NOT because there is some written law that has judgments if transgressed. In that case, all that would have to be done is seat belts and car seats would be invented, proven to save lives, and then what fool would not want to use them? A wise person uses them, because he is following God's law of love as written on his or her heart, NOT because the U.S. law mandates them, for we know that not all man made laws are good. SOME are, though, and if it's a life-giving law, then why wouldn't a person follow it?<br />
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<b>With increase of KNOWLEDGE, there is more to be decided on what is good and evil.</b> I've written explanation time and again of this. If Moses lived today and was told to give a written law to Israel, it would NOT simply say, concerning safety in housing, "You must build a rail around the top of your roof so that no one falls off." Why, that would likely not even be included, because it DOES NOT APPLY. We do not have flat roofs that we walk upon and use in our every day lives, like people did in ancient Israel. However, there would be statutes like, "Don't let bare wires be exposed in your homes," and "Do not leave electric sockets exposed so that young children do not stick their fingers in them." It would not be just, "Eat only animals that have split hooves <i>and</i> chew the cud," etc., but it would likely be, "Do not eat McDonald's french fries," etc. What fool is there out there who would actually say that the food regulations as given in the law of Moses is good enough and everything else is fine to eat without control? We do not live in that age! <br />
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Of course, those of us who are Spirit-led and have God's law written on our hearts, following the law in the spirit, understand this. Believe it or not, though, there are folks out there who believe ONLY what was written by Moses for that day is what applies and that there is no new covenant, only a renewed old covenant. Makes you wonder why those people even bother claiming they have faith in the Messiah, for what would the point of his coming and sacrifice be if the old covenant was simply going to be renewed. That could have been done by any prophet, and there would have been no need of Salvation's sacrifice. There would be no need of a new covenant Passover Lamb. If the old covenant was good enough, some prophet simply could have come on the scene to remind people to be circumcised in the penile flesh, go to the temple in Jerusalem for the feasts, have the priests offer animal sacrifices for the people's sins and their own, etc. <br />
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If people would READ the words of people like David, who lived in the time of the old covenant, but who had the Spirit of God, they would see that those few people who lived in that time who had God's Spirit had a new covenant mindset. I don't think people are reading the scriptures for what they say!<br />
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Yes, the fact is that most people are CARNAL. They are fleshly-minded. Many do not care to follow any law, certainly not to have it written on their hearts. But, there are others who like others to THINK they are righteous (think of the carnal Pharisees whom Jesus criticized over and over), and so they cling to the old covenant things like penile circumcision, wearing fringes in the garments, etc. so that they appear righteous to others and so they can say to those who don't do those things, "Look at us. We are pleasing to God." Really? What goes on in their hearts, we must wonder. What kind of daily fruit do they bear? In my experience, those who believe old covenant regulations are binding (like penile circumcision) are so much like the Pharisees that Jesus called hypocrites.<br />
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<b>Those who believe the law was not ADDED because of transgression need to get studying the scriptures.</b> They need to get a solid understanding of the first two chapters of Genesis, because they obviously do not already understand it. Christ is even recorded of giving examples of where the law of Moses fell short. He said certain things, like a man divorcing a wife if he was not pleased with her, was allowed for the HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS (yes, that's right, they may have had circumcised penises, but they had uncircumcised hearts), but FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO. YES!!!!!!!!!! Even the Lord said with his own mouth that the law of Moses was ADDED. Obviously is was, if something was not so from the beginning, but it was then allowed in the old covenant law of Moses to be more lax. Obviously penile circumcision was not from the beginning. Of course not. That would mean God would have made a mistake with the penis, since he could have just made the penis without the foreskin that extends beyond the head of the penis. It was ADDED. It was given to Abraham as a sign of the covenant. Then later some of his descendants (namely the children of Israel) became slaves to Egypt, and so God worked out a way for them to be freed from bondage, and then he had Moses give them the law and the Levitical priesthood, etc. That was the beginning of the old covenant. BEFORE the Levitical priesthood, there was a different priesthood. People offered to the high priest Melchisadek, which was really the Lord. NOW it is as before. <b>The old covenant with its law, priesthood, sacrifices, etc. were TEMPORARY. They were to last UNTIL it was replaced with something better.</b><br />
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I hope that if you have not before grasped what "the law was added because of transgression" means, that you now understand it. God did NOT bombard Adam and Eve with a bunch of regulations. He kept it simple. They ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, sin entered this world, and much later the law of Moses was ADDED because of all the transgression. Y<b>es, there was law that was being broken BEFORE the law being added in a written form (along with additional rituals and sacrifices), just as if a child does something he shouldn't, but just because the transgression occurred doesn't mean the law had been given. If there is transgression, law then becomes needful so that if continually transgressed, punishment can be given. </b><br />
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BUT, if people have God's Spirit to circumcise their hearts and so have the law written on their hearts, there is LIFE. <b>There is no need for the old covenant set-up, because the promise was given--Christ. And <u>the PROMISE OF THE MESSIAH WAS GIVEN TO ABRAHAM HUNDREDS OF YEARS BEFORE THE OLD COVENANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</u>!</b> As the law states, and Paul repeated, one is CURSED to not do all the things in the law of Moses, if one chooses to enter that covenant. Many of those things are IMPOSSIBLE to do, seeing as we have no temple in Jerusalem, etc. Now, does this all make those things wrong? Is penile circumcision wrong? No, but it is wrong to say it must be done for salvation. That was the old covenant that said, "Cursed is the man who does not do all the things of the law." Of course, no one could ever do it perfectly, and the death of animals and penile circumcision (especially when done to a child who did not make a conscious choice of having it done) does not save a person. Only the Spirit of God and obeying Him in Spirit will save a person, under the new covenant that was instituted with Christ's blood being shed.<br />
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The law of Moses was indeed ADDED because of transgressions. People like Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham all served God in obedience in faith (looking forward to the promise) BEFORE the law of Moses was added. So it is now no different under the new covenant. Many obey God--putting Him first, not bowing down to images, not holding up His name in useless worship, keeping the seventh day holy, honoring their parents, not killing anyone, not committing sexual sin, not stealing, not lying, and not coveting what is not rightfully theirs--all in its spiritual intent. <b>That means they are not even thinking of these evils. They don't need some judgment clause in a written law to keep them from committing acts. No, they do NOT WANT to even think about doing those things. They hate evil in their hearts.</b> They do not feel the need to have outer symbols in the flesh that only serve to receive praise from men. Only God fully knows our hearts, and regardless of how good we act on the outside, if we're not clean on the inside, the outside stuff doesn't matter.<br />
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Even the other nations who do not have the knowledge of the fourth commandment passed down, if following the law as written on their hearts (knowing there must be a Creator and so being thankful to Him, taking care of the earth, honoring their parents, not killing, not fornicating, not stealing nor destroying property, not lying, nor wanting something not rightfully theirs). When they are raised up to life during the "Great White Throne Judgment," they will have their eyes opened to the truth of who God is and what his Sabbath was, etc. These people who did what was right in their hearts, because they wanted to do what was right, will put to shame those who had penile circumcision yet did not have the right heart.<br />
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Just as those BEFORE the law was added obeyed, we obey.<br />
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My closest co-worker in Christ, Keith Hunt, has written more about this, found within his expounding of Galatians. The part which deals with the law being added because of transgression is found here: http://www.keithhunt.com/Ntacts21.html. If you want to study further, I recommend the link.MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-21972035414026744872011-02-10T17:19:00.000-06:002013-05-18T20:34:18.603-05:00Review of the Movie "Stone"Recently, I watched a newly-released-to-video movie called <i>Stone</i>. I want to first say, as I do in any movie review I do, if you do not want the details of the movie spoiled, if you plan to watch it, then do not read this until after you've watched the movie. Furthermore, I want to state that this movie is an adults-only movie. Not only is there a violent stabbing scene, numerous calling down of curses from God and many profane words, but there is <u>sexual content</u> and <u>partial nudity</u> that is <i>better off not seen by anyone. </i><br />
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Wikipedia calls the movie a "box office bomb," stating that it brought in only a third of its production budget. I do feel that this is a disappointment, because it has a message that most in our nation really need to grasp. I have observed, though, that though I and a minute few others actually get something out of movies, most only seek to be entertained by the violence, sexual content, the looks of the actors and actresses themselves, etc. and do not really pay attention to the underlying MESSAGES that so many movies reveal.<br />
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The movie's four main characters are about-to-retire Jack Mabry, Jack's wife Madylyn, 20-or-30-something Gerald "Stone" Creeson, and his wife Lucetta. The movie starts out with a non-introduced young Jack and Madylyn Mabry and their young daughter. The woman carries her daughter to her bed upstairs and kisses her so that she can continue her nap. She sits on the bed for a minute staring at a fly buzzing around the screen of the open window. She then goes downstairs and tells her husband something to the effect of, "You're keeping my soul in a prison. I'm leaving," to which the non-introduced Jack responds by jumping out of his chair and storming upstairs.<br />
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Obviously worried, Jack's wife runs up the stairs after he's gone up, shouting after him. She finds him in their daughter's room, hanging his daughter out the window and threatening his wife that if she leaves him, he'll drop their daughter. She says she won't leave and pleads for him to bring their sleeping daughter back inside. After he lays the girl back on the bed, the wife hurries to the window and slams it shut on the fly, which kills the latter. I think the fly's death is something most won't even think much about, but I find it interesting that it was included. A creature with a nasty job, viewed as a nuisance was killed by the woman who saved her daughter from being killed. <b>It was if it was a just substitute. </b> The man had removed the screen, so the fly then had the opportunity it wanted to leave, but it must have swarmed around the room. Before it could finally be free, it was killed.<br />
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Then the movie moves to the present, showing scenes of an Episcopalian (Protestant Christian) Jack Mabry and his wife attending church services; scenes of Jack, a corrections officer, in his office talking to Gerald Creeson; scenes of Jack and Madylyn in their home, often with prayer and devotionals at meal times, it being clearly evident that Madylyn is serious about her faith, whereas Jack is not so much; scenes of Jack driving in his car, usually listening to radio with Christian broadcasting; scenes of Lucetta calling Jack or meeting Jack; and scenes of Lucetta visiting Gerald in prison.<br />
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Toward the beginning of the movie, Jack meets with Gerald in Jack's office. Gerald has served eight years of eleven sentenced for arson. He's available for possible parole, so Jack is reviewing his case. Gerald demands to be called "Stone," because that is what everyone who knows him calls him. He talks with an attitude, and his language is heavily laced with profanity. His hair is in rows of tight braids. He tells Jack that he's ready to get out, and Jack asks him whether it's because he's reformed, to which Gerald says that he's paid time, and he's ready to get out. He has not really gone through any change for the better, though he does say something interesting to Jack. <b>He inquired why he had to be in the prison and why Jack could be free, and Jack said that he hadn't "broken the law." Stone (Gerald) basically said, "You mean to tell me you haven't done anything wrong in your life?"</b><br />
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Stone calls his wife from prison and urges her to talk to Jack and do anything she could to get Jack to give Gerald a good report so that he could be released. Lucetta more or less stalks Jack, calling him at home and stopping him outside his workplace. He finally agrees to meet privately with her. She plays the sweet and seductive role very well. Long story short, she persuades him to go to her house, and she gets him drunk and has sex with him.<br />
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Meanwhile, Stone is having a difficult time being in prison. He desperately wants out. He goes to the prison library and starts sorting through religious literature. Poor guy. There are so many things from which to pick, he's not sure where to start. He finally chooses a pamphlet on a religion Zangkugor or something. I can't remember the name of it, nor do I know whether it's a real religion or made for the movie. It teaches a doctrine of karma and reincarnation and that humming a certain way will help you get in a certain zone where then you can hear a natural sound, like a bee buzzing and find harmony or God in it.<br />
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It is not within the scope of this review to deeply discuss such religions as Zangkugor or whatever it was called, and the true God does not call everyone to understand truth during this phase of his seven-step plan of salvation for mankind. But, the <i>main point</i> is that Gerald did go through a spiritual change. He finally felt guilty for burning his grandparents' house down. He started asking questions like, "What is forever?" He cleaned up his speech tremendously. It was no longer filled with profanity, and he spoke more intelligently. He got his hair out of braids (certainly not to say that braids are sinful).<br />
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At the same time, Jack feels convicted of his adultery with another man's wife and clearly feels very uncomfortable around both his own wife and around Gerald. The tables have turned, and Jack is the one whose language is filled with profanity and yelling, where Gerald sits calmly and asks Jack questions out of concern, which only enrages Jack more. Jack is obviously a tormented soul, and Gerald is at peace. He said it didn't matter now whether he was in prison or out. <b>Gerald's spirit was free within him, where Jack's spirit was in tormenting bondage to his sin, because he really did believe there was a God but wanted to deny it in order to justify his sin to himself and so to avoid confessing his sin and apologizing to those he wronged and repent--change, get on the right track.</b><br />
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Jack's wife is visibly hurt but also disgusted with Jack's behavior. She has her womanly instincts and wise discernment and asks Jack whether there is anything he needed to tell her. He's very short and profane with everyone with whom he has contact now.<br />
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Jack decides he wants to change the good report on Gerald, even though <i>now</i> it should be clear to a wisely discerning judge that Gerald has true grounds to be released. <b>He's truly gone through a spiritual change, serving in liberty under some law in which he believed.</b><br />
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Madylyn leaves Jack, after burning their home down and getting away with it (the same crime Gerald had done for other reasons), and goes to their daughter's home. The daughter says to her mother that she is so surprised that she waited so long and didn't leave a long time ago. She said, "I tried once..." as she stares into another time, not answering her daughter's inquiry, "What happened?" We're left to wonder whether Madylyn tells her daughter the story about her father hanging her out the window. <br />
<b> </b><br />
It also appears that Gerald left his whorish wife Lucetta. I find it interesting that the name Lucetta was chosen for her character. Her name means "light," but she's very deceptive and seductive, only <i>appearing</i> as a person of light. In one scene she showed to be at work at a daycare or school, out on the playground with young children, and she was very patient and gentle-spoken. She was sugary sweet when seducing Jack. In truth, she was full of darkness. She verbally expressed to Jack, upon being asked, that she did not believe in God. She made her own good and bad, delighting in what she saw right in her own eyes.<br />
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Jack is driving down a street one night and happens to see Gerald walking. He stops, takes a gun from his car, gets out of the car, and chases Gerald down. He has him in a place of darkness and starts cursing him and pushes him up against the wall of a building. He presses the barrel of the gun to Gerald's forehead and falsely accuses Gerald of ruining his life. Gerald is calm throughout the whole scenario, which pisses off Jack even more. He threatens, "You don't think I'll kill you?!" Gerald calmly replies, "No, I don't." He's right, as Jack eventually takes the gun away and leaves. <b>Jack (meaning "man") has an exceedingly sinful heart, but he does not want to break the PHYSICAL law of the land and so be imprisoned physically. Nevertheless, he's in SPIRITUAL bonds, spiritually imprisoned, in bondage to his sin. </b><br />
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<b>A person can be free in God's eyes while in physical bondage (in prison), and a person who is physically free can be in spiritual bondage. There are many who care about what man thinks and so will put on outward show of being righteous, but they are not fooling God who judges the heart and mind. Many do not want to humble themselves and repent of their sins. They have hearts of stone. Gerald started out as "Stone," and he was indeed hardened. But, he underwent a spiritual transformation, and his heart softened. In the end, it was Jack who had the stony heart and chose to remain in tormenting spiritual bondage, rather than humbly confess his sins and repent. There are many who sit in buildings made by man, imprisoned who are spiritually free, and there are many, many more who, although physically free, are imprisoned by their sin and their refusal to free themselves by humbly repenting.</b><br />
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At the age of 18 I was charged with credit card fraud across interstate lines. When I was 20, I was served papers by the Secret Service and a U.S. marshal and summoned to court a U.S. district court to enter a plea. I entered a plea of guilty. I had shown a complete turnaround. In the end, I was not convicted of the crime, though I was guilty and had pled guilty. I received GRACE upon my repentance. Many looked down on me with great judgment for one of the lesser sins of the Ten Commandments, one of the only sins that did not require the physical death penalty if physically transgressed. Those same people were guilty of greater sins and great sins of the heart, sins of which they do not repent. But, those physical sins and those greater sins of the heart are not punished by the law in place by man of this land. Though those same people claim to be Christians, they care more about the law of man and what man thinks than what God thinks.<br />
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<b>Which are YOU? Were you a Stone that is now changed, or are you a Jack who is physically free and looked upon through the eyes of man as "a good person" but are in spiritual bondage to your sin and "wicked" through the eyes of God?</b>MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-3236357419496849542011-02-01T20:27:00.000-06:002011-02-01T20:27:49.172-06:00Books, Courses, and Documentaries of 2010 and a Look at 2011This post lists the books, documentaries, and courses I read and watched during the course of the last Roman year, and then I'm posting my planned books-to-read and courses-to-watch for this Roman year. This does not include the various scientific and historical studies and articles I've read, scientific magazines, things read to the children, nor any other educational reading, nor does it include my bible readings and studies. This kind of post each year is <i>helpful to me</i> and is not necessarily helpful to anyone else. <br />
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<b>Books I Read in 2010:</b><br />
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Finished reading <i>Nature Got There First: Inventions Inspired by Nature</i> by Phil Gates<br />
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<i>What a Difference a Daddy Makes</i> by Dr. Kevin Leman<br />
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<i>DMT: The Spirit Molecule</i> by Dr. Rick Strassman<br />
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<i>Too Busy Not to Pray </i>by Bill Hybels<br />
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<i>The Truth Shall Set You Free: Herbert Armstrong's Empire Exposed</i> by John Tuit<br />
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<i>Women in the Church: A Biblical Study on the Role of Women in </i>the Church by Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi<br />
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<i>The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality </i>by Catherine Blackledge <br />
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<i>The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook </i>by Nancy Jenkins (does not include reading all the recipes included) <br />
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Almost finished with <i>Married for Life </i>by Bill Morelan<i> </i>(reading along with Nathan)<br />
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I wrote and published the book <i>God's Law of Love: The Perfect Law of Liberty</i><br />
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<b>Courses I Watched in 2010:</b><br />
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<i>Linguistics: The Science of Language </i>by Professor John McWhorter<br />
<br />
<i>The Story of Human Language </i>by Professor John McWhorter<i></i><br />
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<i>The History of the English Language</i> by Professor Seth Lerer<br />
<br />
<i> </i><br />
and part of <i>Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution </i>by Professor Richard Wolfson<br />
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<b>Documentaries I Watched in 2010</b>:<br />
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<i>11th Hour</i><br />
<br />
<i>Love, Hate, and Propaganda</i><br />
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<i>Botany of Desire</i><br />
<i> </i><i> </i><br />
<i>Collapse</i><br />
<br />
<i>I.O.U.S.A.</i><br />
<br />
<i>Constantine's Sword</i><br />
<br />
<i>***************************</i><br />
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<b>Books I Plan to Read in 2011:</b><br />
<br />
To finish <i>Married for Life</i> by Bill Morelan (reading w/ Nathan)<br />
<br />
<b> </b><br />
<i>In Search of Dad</i> by Charles Newbold, Jr.<br />
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<i>DNA and the Criminal Justice System: The Technology of Justice</i> edited by David Lazer<br />
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<i>Adam, Eve, and the Genome </i>edited by Susan Thistlethwaite<br />
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<i>Girls! </i>by William Beausay & Kathryn Beausay<br />
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<i>Faith Training: Raising Kids Who Love the Lord</i> by Dr. Joe White<br />
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And re-reading the content of what is about to become the book <i>The Biblical Prophets for Today </i>by Keith Hunt<br />
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<b>Courses I Plan to Watch in 2011:</b><br />
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<b> </b>To finish <i>Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution </i>by Professor Richard Wolfson<br />
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<i>Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality</i> by Professor Robert Sapolsky<br />
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<i>Understanding the Brain</i> by Professor Jeanette Norden<br />
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<i>Understanding Genetics</i> by Professor David Sadava<br />
<br />
and <i>The Joy of Science</i> by Professor Robert M. Hazen<br />
<br />
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<b>Documentaries I Plan to Watch in 2011:</b><br />
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<i>I AM</i> (will be released in theaters Feb. 18)<br />
<b> </b><br />
and whatever else I decide through the coming months<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i></i>MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-68336201018878307192011-01-17T23:59:00.000-06:002011-01-17T23:59:16.306-06:00Some Miss the Rebellious Years in the Prison School SystemRecently, I've been carefully meditating on the prison school system and the adolescent rebellion that is common in mainstream society, as well as the difference between those who are glad those years of sin and rebellion are behind them and those who miss them with a yearning to be able to go back.<br />
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These reflections are a result of a lot of comments over the years by various individuals about missing public school. Well, I am one who can't imagine what is wrong in the head of someone who would actually miss being locked away in an institution for eight plus hours a day, five days a week, where you are made to sit in desks and be force-fed information you may or may not care about or of which may or may not be true, where you are punished for talking or questioning and for needing to visit the toilet, where you are not allowed to keep water or chew gum or eat a snack or, or or...<br />
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I've noticed a common theme, though, among most people who miss those days. They miss things like the memories of cheating on school work, sneaking this or that, and getting away with numerous other things. In other words, they miss themselves and their fellow peers all acting in rebellion with each other and getting a kick out of it. Interesting, I thought. Then I thought of the many in prisons who actually enjoy being there, because they have criminal minds, and they enjoy fighting, stealing, doing drugs, engaging in fornication, etc. inside the prison walls. These are the same things that are increasing in public schools. Even when locked away, they get away with evil. <br />
<br />
I chose to do a quick research on people who actually enjoy an adult prison, and a blog with an <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200909/why-don-t-students-school-well-duhhhh">article on the child and adolescent prison school system</a> caught my eye. I agree very much with his <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200909/why-don-t-students-school-well-duhhhh">post</a>. <br />
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I've for many years called the public school system a prison. There is no freedom and no joy in learning, and so the love of learning dies in most people by the time they finish their sentence. Thank God I survived. I always loved learning and exploring, and I feel as if I was VERY robbed of precious time during those years. I also was not spending my adult-training years learning beside my mother how to be an adult woman. Instead, I spent my time being force-fed repeated basics and then nonsense that I would never use in my life, and then getting in trouble with my peers, both in and out of school. <br />
<br />
So then I was thrown into the world with a major handicap, plus I'd been morally defiled. By God's grace, I chose to live as a truth-seeker, ever-growing in knowledge, and I chose to keep my children at home where they can function normally, learning in a normal environment. They learn the basics of reading, writing, and math, and they learn everything else by asking and exploring and reading. They learn to follow the law of God, and they go with me to places so that they can learn how to do things in the real world. When they enter their teen/adolescent years, they should be ready to start their adult training, beside the parent of the same sex. <br />
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My adolescent years, just like the adolescent years of <i>most</i> people in this nation, are <i>stained</i> terribly by SIN and REBELLION. I remember in my elementary school years, my best friend and I were called "Goody Two Shoes" and were often persecuted for being studious and well-behaved. As we entered our adolescent years, things became much more difficult. We were under tremendous pressure to "be cool," and to be cool among your peers, you had to be bad. Adolescents dishonor their parents, fight and say hateful things to others (some even kill others), abuse food and drugs, engage in sexually immoral behavior, steal, lie and cheat, and are never satisfied with what they already have. <br />
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Oh, I feel just AWFUL about my adolescent years. It's a time I want to ERASE from my memory. I sure do NOT want to return to those days of imprisonment and sin. <br />
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The public school system really is much like the prison system, even down to the poor quality food. Just as criminals in our society are looked upon as "cool" if they've done time in prison, and the more they've done, the "cooler" they are, adult sinners of my generation and the one that followed crave the time of crime once again. They look on those days as "the good ol' days," but most of us who have turned to God look back on those imprisoned and sinful years and loathe them. We remember our sins, and we remember being locked up, and we are glad to have been set free.MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7862769340928983606.post-37565890368029815822011-01-01T01:43:00.000-06:002011-01-01T01:43:05.636-06:00By Grace We Are Saved, Not by Works: A Lesson to My SonThis week when the children and I went to the market, my seven-year-old firstborn son exhibited behavior with which I was displeased. He is usually my superstar helper when we go to the market. I had to repeatedly remind him to do his responsibilities as he should and to not fool around. <br />
<br />
I told him after we left that I was going to give a bad report on him to his daddy. It's close to an hour's drive back home, and when we were about twenty minutes away from home, Will said, "Momma, if a person does bad works, and then if he does more good works, does that [cancel out] the bad works?"<br />
<br />
I knew why he asked. He had been sitting back there formulating a plan to get out of the probability of being punished by his father. He wondered whether he could get home and do all sorts of good works to get me on his good side, and then I would just cancel out his bad works with the good works of which he would have more, and so then he'd be saved from punishment.<br />
<br />
I responded to his question, "No, sweetie, it doesn't work that way. That would be salvation by works. A person cannot be saved from punishment for bad works by doing more good works than he did bad. Salvation from punishment can only come from grace."<br />
<br />
I continued, "However, a person who does not stop his bad works and start doing good works won't receive that grace, but the fact remains that he did bad works. Think of it this way. Say I go out and murder someone. I say to the judges that I am sorry, and I'll now do only good works. I'll do the good works of not killing anyone else and will do all manner of other good works. But, not killing other people doesn't and cannot make up for the person I did kill. Only if the people who were hurt by that person's death gave me pardon, gave me grace can I be saved from punishment. But people don't give grace to a murderer who feels no remorse and clearly has the mindset of murdering again."<br />
<br />
Will said, "I need grace! Momma, will you please give me grace and not tell Daddy?"<br />
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I told him that I knew he was usually well-behaved and that he needed to make sure it didn't happen again; next week when we go to the market, he'd better act the right way. I added that he also needed to make sure he walked the path of righteousness for the remainder of the day, to the time his daddy would get home. I ended by telling him that I forgave him and that I wouldn't bring charges against him to his daddy.<br />
<br />
Well, much to my disappointment, Will let his own will get out of control for the rest of the day. He can be so wonderful, but that day was not one of those days. I told him he'd be getting a bad report. I did give his daddy a bad report, and it included the market details. The promised grace was no longer valid, because he had fallen from grace.<br />
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Our relationship with our Holy Father and with our Lord Brother, Salvation, is no different. We are saved by grace, because we have all sinned, and the Perfect Firstborn, Salvation, sacrificed for us. Big Brother took the blame for our wrongdoings. He took the punishment from Father. The punishment did not belong to him. Salvation did no wrong in Father's eyes. He was Father's Perfect Firstborn, playing a life out in human flesh without sin. Salvation is Number 1 in Father's eyes, his most beloved Son. None of us will ever come close to comparing, and certainly no number of good works is going to cancel out any bad works. ONE bad work, ONE sin, and we come SHORT of God's glory, and Salvation, the Firstborn, is Father's glory. We should all bow the knee to Salvation, because he's EARNED his right to be Father's Top Son. None of us have EARNED anything...but death. We all have at least ONE sin. Salvation had NO sin. We had better all bow to Salvation and do our best to be like him, and he'll give a good word to Father. Father will see that we are trying to be like Salvation, though knowing we'll never be as good as Salvation, and honor Salvation before Father. <br />
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That is how we get GRACE. We have to have the heart of wanting to do everything right and trying to walk on the path of righteousness the way our Elder Brother Salvation did. If we are not even trying to obey Father's household law the way Salvation did and do not care or only care about some commandments but not others, then we shall not get grace from Father.<br />
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It's interesting to me that most of those who call themselves "Christian" shout to those who keep Father's commandments and do not play the whore in Father's household but keep themselves as a virgin in his Royal Household, "We're not saved by works! We're saved by grace." Well, those of us who keep Father's commandments are not seeking to be saved by works. We are seeking to be saved by grace. We truly were remorseful that we had broken Father's commandments--all ten of them--and we turned to good works. No matter how many times we don't steal, it won't make up for the time(s) we have stolen. No matter how much we do not murder, it won't make up for the times we did (even in heart). We're not saved by works. But, we know we're not going to get covered by that promised grace through Salvation before Father's throne if we do not change our ways. <br />
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If Will acts up at the market next week, he'll <i>really</i> be in trouble, because it is known that he can conduct himself properly and make me very proud, and so if he does not even try to do what is right and instead acts out of line--off the right path--he won't receive grace. It'll be even worse. It's pretty bad when someone gives a transgressor grace, and then he goes back to the evil deeds he had claimed to be remorseful for and turn away from.<br />
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So, those saved by grace won't be those who shout loudly to Father's righteous sons that they're "saved by grace, not by works," but those saved by grace will be the ones who sought grace and then stopped breaking the commandments. Most of those "saved by grace" shouters agree that one should not murder, steal, commit adultery, lie, etc. It's mostly the fourth commandment with which they hate. They prefer to fornicate--to play the harlot in Father's Royal House--by keeping pagan-originated holidays, like the weekly "Sunday" first day of the week and the annual holiday feasts of Easter and Christmas, etc. They do not want to walk as Salvation did, keeping the commanded holy days of Father that outline our plan of salvation. Father and Salvation are not pleased that those who claim to be in their Household do not keep Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and 8th Day. This reveals the true Salvation, the true Christ. <br />
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Oh, how I LOVE the TRUTH...how I love and meditate daily in Father's royal law. I aim to please him daily. I cry when I fail miserably to compare to my Brother Salvation. Oh, but I then THANK Father for his grace and Salvation for his name, because he is my Salvation. I have FAITH that I am under the loving GRACE of my Holy Father, because I invite him to search my heart so that he knows I love him and aim to please him and follow Salvation's footsteps and because I honor Salvation as the rightful TOP HEIR and am just thankful that I even am called worthy enough through grace to co-inherit my Father's possessions. <br />
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PRAISE you, Father, Most High, and my Beloved Lord Salvation. Blessed are you both by those in your Royal Household who LOVE and SERVE you in SPIRIT and in TRUTH!<br />
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Amen!MotherTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903535973645217080noreply@blogger.com14