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Must Women Keep Silent in the Church?
(Ver 1.6) Some may have noticed that this website does not avoid controversy. I believe we need to learn everything possible about every subject and take on even the difficult or controversial Bible subjects that many like to ignore or abuse. The Bible has some very difficult things written in it and on the surface the subject of a woman teaching and preaching in the church, is certainly viewed as one example of those. Vast numbers of people with limited knowledge of the Bible, have long proclaimed their dominant doctrine over allowing women preachers and teachers, in the church. This is a very legalistic Old Covenant approach to understanding the rest of the Bible and the New Covenant age of Grace. Hopefully everyone understands the Bible is divided into two major divisions of covenant relationship. The Old Covenant is dominated by laws, commandments, rules, and words that were to be followed to the letter. But Jesus came to fulfill this law and He has accomplished this, and in implementing the New Covenant relationship with mankind, He has brought about a brand-new creation that never existed before. Please keep this truth in your mind as a foundation when studying this subject of women’s roles in the church, to avoid extreme legalism.
The Old Covenant legalism viewpoint and attitude is placing all women in only subservient roles that appear to be based upon prejudiced or biased legal opinions. What causes alleged Christian people to think this way? The answer to wrong extreme legal thinking and believing, is not knowing who we all are, “In Christ”.
We should all know and understand that in the Kingdom of God there is always order. God is not a God of chaos, disorder or rebellion. What we will find with diligent Bible study, is that many people that believe women must always be silent in the church forever, only read a very few select, and limited number of scriptures that they whole hardly embrace, proclaiming them as the final basis of all their beliefs on this important subject. This of course forces people to ignore vast numbers of other scriptures that do not align with their desired doctrinal outcome or definition of their beliefs. We must understand that the Bible is a book of more than one scripture, and one truth. One of the greatest errors in understanding the correct interpretation of any subject, is to not take a single truth and make it the only truth higher than all others.
In studying the Bible on any subject, it is very wise to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into the fuller knowledge of His truth on any subject before we begin to read and study it. Then we must also ask the Holy Spirit to help us balance every verse on the subject, that He leads us to study. Finally ask the Holy Spirit to show us things that we have never seen before on this subject to grow our understanding of His truth.
If in our deep study of any Bible subject, if there is ever one scripture that He leads us to that we have never seen before, and this verse disagrees with our current beliefs, or one verse that we do not completely understand enough about the subject of women, then we must pray and ask again for the Holy Spirit to help us better understand what He wants us to know about that verse. It is only the Holy Spirit that can reveal something as truth, and He can resolve any and every conflict or controversy that we can encounter with other church members. God is the author of the book, and only He knows every verse, and every word and how they apply to the subject of women’s roles in the church.
Let us begin today by asking the Lord, have we ever studied the Bible on every scripture reference on the subject of women in the Bible? Then ask yourself and the Lord, “Do I totally understand every scripture in the Bible on the subject of women?” We should all believe and say that there is no way that any of us have studied and know everything about this complete subject enough to call our self an expert on the subject. The Bible is way too complex for anyone to say they know it all, except for God.
So how is it that there are some people in the church that can get up to teach and claim that women are not permitted to preach or teach in the church based upon their very limited knowledge on the subject? Please ask the question, who died and made these people higher than God to judge anyone else? Is not God the only person living that completely knows and understand the entire Bible to judge anyone? Be as wise as the man in Acts 5:39 “If this be of God, we cannot overthrow it, lest haply you be found to even fight against God”.
It would also be wise for these types of judging people to learn a lesson from the book of Job. God asked Job, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words with no knowledge?” When people teach that a woman is incapable of teaching or preaching the Word of God, I believe that this implies that they believe women do not have the brains or mental capacity to know or understand the truth of the Word of God. It would also imply that they believe women cannot ever hear from God and therefore should not even be praying to God. In other words, it comes across that women are not able to go directly to God to listen for His leading because they should only go directly through their husbands or the other men in the church first to hear God’s voice. Is this how God operates?
What a potential arrogant, and superior attitude of pride that attitude could possibly represent! It should remind us of the church in the dark ages, when only a trained priest was believed to be capable of understanding the Bible. In these days no one else was even allowed to read the Bible. What controlling spirit in that time of the church age, were they dominated by? Do you remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees? In Luke 11:52, Jesus said “Woe unto you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You have not entered in yourself, and you have hindered those that were entering in”. Perhaps we need to also read Jeremiah 31:34 that is quoted in Hebrews 8:11. In this verse, God writes to the church, that “everyone” will know Him, from the least to the greatest”. This would certainly include women. Therefore, we all know that women hear from God as well as any man.
People can be too dogmatic when it comes to a deep Bible study discussion like this. Please do not be so engrained into a deep trench of traditional human beliefs, that you are dug in too deep to get yourself out of it. What we are going to do is go through some key Bible verses that are often ignored or purposefully overlooked to examine what else God says in regard to references of His usages of women in the Bible and His selected roles for them.
Have you ever had a Godly woman influence you? I can only personally speak a testimony about women that have influenced me. I will tell you that if it were not for good Christian women in the church, I would probably not be here today teaching the Word of God. I believe that it was only because of their direct prayers, help, involvement and their leadings from God in ministry that I am even here today to write this lesson. So, I appreciate whoever God uses and I refuse to put limitations on what God can do through anyone. Let’s focus upon the root scriptures of controversy first:
1Ti 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
So here we go with the first doctrinal classic verse, about shut up and just learn silently in the church, speech. However, perhaps we need to know some basic facts. The Greek word G1135, translated as “women” is predominately speaking to married wives in relationship to their husbands sitting under the teaching of the Lord’s Word together. This verse must be applied to this application first. With futher study we will discover that Paul is addressing a very specific cultural issue in this verse for the time of the early church. In that culture women sat on one side of the church and men on the other side of the church. This would cause a great number of issues during the church service causing disordered distraction to everyone present. Therefore, Paul wanted everyone to be silent while the Word was going forth.
If anyone is distracted, talking to others while the Word of God is being taught, is anyone learning anything? No, of course not! This was the situation in this letter. Paul was addressing a very specific problem of distraction in a very specific Church, and he was not establishing a broader New Covenant law that women can’t ever talk. If the problem was that it was the males were talking in church, then I believe Paul would have said, you talking and distracting men keep quiet and learn. Humans both male and female were designed by God with a mouth, a mind, and the ability to talk and communicate intelligently, so to say a woman can’t ever talk in church, is very ignorant and domineering.
So now this verse ends in the word “subjection” and this is not a bad word. It means you are “not in control” and you are “not the head”. Everyone on this planet is in subjection to someone or something. This word applies to men equally and as strong as to women. If you have ever been in the military, you understand “subjection”. You follow orders from the day you join to the day you leave. You are not there to do anything but to follow orders. The corporate business world is very similar, but some people do get paid to be creative and come up with new ideas. However, this does not mean they can do whatever they want, whenever they want and to whoever they want. They still have to be submissive to those that they are working for. To be submissive is a normal way of life; it promotes order and a chain of command for authority, and this further designates who has responsibility as well as accountability.
Even the CEO of a large public company is accountable to the stockholders. There is really no one on the earth that is in complete control of anything. Submission is not a negative thing, and it should never be used to force anyone to do anything that they do not want to do or keep them from doing what God calls and desires them to do. Learn from God’s example, the utmost highest Spiritual Being who came to the earth in the flesh and while He was here, He washed the feet of His disciples. Please don’t make yourself better than God. If you are not serving someone else, you have become deceived.
1Ti 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
So here we go with another “Thus saith the Lord”! Oh yea, it doesn’t say God said this, it says Paul said this using the personal pronoun “I’ and that knowledge could make these words mean something very different. Did you know that it is possible, that Paul could have a personal opinion or belief, that could be his own and potentially biased or even wrong? Was Paul God? Did Paul know everything? Remember in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that Paul wrote that he and all of the rest of us are currently only seeing things through a glass darkly, and he personally said, that we only know the truth in “part”. Wow, that is an amazing revelation to apply to each of us personally. We need not think too highly of our self, and we believe that we know and understand everything about any Bible subject.
I would like to give you something new to consider. Did Paul when He was writing his letters, know that his personal words written in letters to his believing friends in churches, that God usee him to establish, were going to be taught in the future as God’s Holy Word and even combined and compiled together into a new greater “New Testament” with other 7 other writers? I personally do not believe that Paul had any knowledge that his personal letters, that were written to his friends in a few churches would be compiled and bound into a new book called the New Testament. If Paul considered these letters to be the official Bible, why would he not have written this in these letters? Also, why are there so many personal references to names of his special friends? Why in 2 Timothy 4:13, does Paul write and ask for someone to bring him his Coat that he left in Troas. He also asks for some special books and parchments to be brought to him. I find these types of personal references, to show us that Paul did not understand that what he was writing was God’s inspired Word. That does not mean it is NOT God’s inspired word, it only means, it is possible that Paul did not know that it was.
If God would have told Paul directly that this was happening, Paul would not have been living by faith, or walking by faith. Paul very clearly said, “the just shall live by faith”, quoting an Old Testament verse. In Acts 17:11 when Paul was preaching, he called the church at Berea more noble because they showed the diligence to verify what he was saying by finding it in the Old Covenant Hebrew writings. This tells us, that Paul believed those written Hebrew words were to be considered God’s inspired scripture containing God’s Word. But it should also tell us that even Paul needed the Old Covenant writings to confirm what he was teaching to the churches. DO NOT misunderstand what is being said, Paul’s words are certainly inspired words, but not all of them are to be considered, “Thus saith the LORD”.
Let us look at some other translations of 1 Timothy 2:12. The Modern King James Version says, “I forbid a woman to teach”. Again this represents a personal opinionated choice of Paul. The New American Standard Bible says, “I do not allow a woman to teach”. No mention of God’s command here either. The American Standard Versions says, “I permit not a woman to teach”. These are all common translations that harmonize together. There is no contradiction between any of the translations that it was only Paul’s opinion being given to the church for that specific day and that specific culture.
Were Paul’s personal views and words shaped by his life’s experiences and the culture of the surrounding world influences? I believe they were just as our views have a basis of our own cultural surroundings and influences. Please do not misunderstand me. I have no doubt that these words were inspired by God to be written down, but I believe that does not mean God said them. If we believe that every word in the Bible is a commandment from God, then we need to understand the Bible a lot more. There are quotations given by Satan who we know is a liar. Therefore, these are not instructions to follow or obey. Then there are a lot of quotes from men like Job, that we should know that he was rebuked by God for saying.
There are literally too many examples to teach them all that are found in the Bible. But I will mention a great example to learn from found in 1 Corinthians 7:6-12. In these verses Paul was very clear to teach us how he literally flipped into writing about his own personal opinion on the subject of marriage and divorce. Uh oh, this is speaking of husbands and wives again like we were reading about in Timothy. Please go and read these verses carefully and observe how Paul said, “I say, not the LORD” and other times “not I, but the Lord says“. This is just one great example that we need to learn from, to show how we must rightly divide the Word of Truth, and how easy it could be to wrongly divide the Word of truth.
Before we continue any further, please go and read the surrounding contextual verses to see what they say and how they fit with women being silent. Notice in verse 9 of 1 Timothy 2, Paul writes that women should dress moderately. So far so good for a lot of church women, but for others even this Pauline suggestion is not followed. But then Paul writes that women should not be wearing gold or pearls. Uh, oh? What just happened, how many women are following these as commandments. All of the sudden we have a Burger King religion of have it our way, or only eat selective doctrines we like from a larger buffet containing some choices that we don’t like. We eat from the words we like and the words we don’t like we leave alone. But to give notice, there are no quotations of “Thus Saith the LORD” in these words either. But we can still learn things to apply to us from them all.
Let’s talk about the Bible cultural influences that could have been used to contribute to the meanings of the Words written on the pages. In ancient days, were women ever in charge of anything when Paul wrote this? You can find a few instances of women like Esther, Jezebel, and Cleopatra who were in the world realm of royal power to have some very significant influence, power and authority for God and the devil. But for the most part, it was a total male-controlled world. There are many religions in the world that still hold to this domineering male philosophy, and I like to watch what the devil does to people in the world to learn from how he wants to pervert things to oppose God’s ways. Satan’s ways are usually the opposite of God’s ways. Satan seems to either want to keep women totally ignorant in a slave type of relationship or exalt them to the top of the food chain and make them run everything independently of male partnership. It is either total submission like in countries of Afghanistan or Iran, or total women’s liberation and independence like in Europe and parts of America. I believe both are perverted wrongs of extremism and the truth of God must be somewhere balanced in the middle. What I would like to say is if Satan uses women for his perversion, who says it is not possible for God to use women for His glory, righteousness and Holy purposes? If God is doing anything that resembles what the devil is trying to do in the world to women, that should raise a concern in our spirit, for us to ask when did God and Satan begin to agree on anything?
Only a few Christian churches seem to have the correct perspective of a balanced approach of the truth being somewhere in the middle. So here is another problem, I have heard from many extreme preachers and teachers that these verses written to Timothy should be interpreted that all women must not teach but rather to sit and keep silent in the church. According to correct Bible interpretation rules I need another witness that says this is the law of truth and so far I have not found it. The Bible says in the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses let every word be established and here we read one passage and people want to make it the rule of their doctrine and force everyone to adhere to it.
I searched through every N.T. verse that had any form of the word “teach” and this is the only verse that I found with the word woman used in this regard. I find that to be a major problem with some people’s interpretation. If anyone is trying to take one verse out of context and make it a rule of law, that does not work for me. So let’s look at some other verses in the Bible and see what God says about women and see if we can come up with a balanced approach to this subject. Let us turn to the book of Acts and see how the early church is described.
Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
In this verse in Acts, Peter is quoting the Word of God from the Prophet Joel. Right there we learn that this means we will possess two direct witnesses to what this verse says. So we are clearly on a much safer and firmer ground for our interpretation. Do you understand that concept? It is so very important. According to this verse, God will in the last days pour out His Spirit upon “ALL FLESH”! This verse would certainly include both women as well as men as you can clearly see. This verse continues to say that both your sons and your daughters would “prophesy”. So, let’s stop right there and ask the question what does it mean to “prophesy”? Can you or I prophesy in silence? No clearly this verse involves women opening their mouth and making audible sounds that can be heard by anyone present.
What is the difference between teaching people with the spoken words from the Bible which were given by the Spirit of God and prophesying with the words potentially inspired by the Spirit of God in a church? Can you think of any differences? Isn’t prophesying the act of speaking words out loud to someone else so that they can hear them? Then what is the definition of teaching? Isn’t teaching speaking out loud words for other people to hear? It would be useless for a woman to prophesy without someone present to hear her. Uh oh? You can automatically and quickly see that this verse directly conflicts with Paul’s declared command to keep silent. You also have to remember that Paul did not really tell women to keep silent, he said to “learn in silence” and that is something completely different than to never say anything. Let us see another example in the book of Acts that brings further confirmation:
Act 21:9 And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.
These 4 daughters were the children of Phillip the evangelist. We are clearly told that they were able to prophesy to others. This clearly means speaking out loud in an audible voice that can be heard and even directed at the men that were there in the house. Did you know that the early church met in houses? They did not have any synagogues, temples or church buildings to meet at, so they met in houses. If the daughters of Phillip prophesied in the house they were probably doing it during a church service. So we have a huge issue with should a woman always keep silent in the church. Please allow me to ask again, what is the technical difference between teaching and prophesying? Is there a difference? Are not both spoken words directed at listeners? I will also say this, if you do not have women prophesying in your church services, you do not have a complete New Testament church. You have deviated from God’s original plan observed in the book of Acts in favor of your ideas of order. Let us now approach this subject from a new direction and see how God teaches us something new to consider.
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
According to the Bible, God says that we are all His children. So, does God play favorites? Are the male children preferred above the female children? If you think that they are you are clearly in need of learning the truth. Let us keep reading:
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
We can continue down this chapter and see that every Christian has been baptized into Christ and that makes us ALL one with Him equally. This is an all-inclusive statement that includes both males and females. Then notice what God says about us all:
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
So here we go with another paradox and puzzle being presented. God says to us, that In Christ males and females are not different. But in the world, we can all clearly see that males and females are quite different, and even treated as such. This teaches us a new foundational difference, between Christians who are natural thinkers versus Christians who are carnal thinkers. We know in the world there are both males and females, but God claims in the spiritual dimension in Christ, we are all just members of one body. There is no difference within the Spirit realm from each other. I personally believe that men who teach male dominance usually are just very carnally minded individuals who look at external things and do not try to see things spiritually as God sees things.
If ignorant Bible teachers would just please read and study their Bible’s to see things within the Spirit and not in the flesh and how God sees them, they would discover that the church is called the “Bride of the Lamb”. Jesus is plainly revealed to be the Bridegroom of the church in the Spirit realm New Covenant (Luk 5:34-35). If you are a male preacher, does that bother you, to be called a spiritual woman bride of Christ? I think it does to many carnal naturally thinking people. But this means we (the church) are all collectively called one woman in the eyes of God. This is not something new. God did the exact same thing with the natural nation of Israel, calling Himself their husband, implying they were all His wife. So we are all in covenant and in subjection to our Head who is the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 5:24).
So how can Paul write that women should not teach in one place in the Bible and then write there is no difference between men and women in Christ in another place? If you do not understand the major conflict between these two contrasting and opposing statements, then you do not realize that we have a significant problem that God can only resolve.
Here is my opinion and I usually do not give you my opinion so you do not have to take anything to heart that I say next in this paragraph. I think from a natural perspective that men counseling women or women counseling men privately should never be done under any circumstance. There are just too many potential problems that could occur. I have seen the best married pastors get into physical affairs with women because of this natural physical and emotional attraction that God created within us. Women should counsel women, and men should counsel men. This just makes the most logical and common sense approach to me. So, I believe firmly that counseling between opposite sexed individuals in the privacy of an office type setting should never be done under any circumstances. By avoiding the appearance of evil, men and women will not fall into these types of traps that Satan can use against them. However, what people do in a public church service is not limited by these natural types of rules. That was my opinion and there is no extra charge for that. So let us see what else the Bible says about women:
Tit 2:3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
This verse is directed at mature women, but I was shocked at how it ended. To be a teacher of “good” things implies strongly that women have the ability and can teach. In fact, it clearly implies these women should be teachers. It further implies that these women have gained some wisdom that is worthy to be taught to others. Obviously, we have another verse that goes against the broad concept of a “keep silent” verse that some like to focus upon. So, we have another potential conflict of whether women should teach or women should never teach.
Tit 2:4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Here we have the follow up to the previous verse and it clearly says that it is OK for women to teach other women. Now it is interesting that this verse directly contradicts again that a woman should keep silent that some try to teach as the only gospel truth. If a woman has the ability to teach another woman, then she must also have the ability to teach anyone (PERIOD)! Any teaching ability is a gifting from the Holy Spirit, and it represents a special anointing given to her from and by God.
I would like you to go back and read chapter 1 of Titus, because in this chapter it is talking about Bishops in the church. God and Paul are clearly talking about women teaching in a church setting and not in a private setting. So instead of denying women who are called of God the right to preach and teach, we should be smart enough to recognize when God is doing something and we should not fight against God. If God is not behind it, it will not matter who it is that is teaching or preaching because there will be no anointing from the Spirit of God and it will eventually fail. My Bible says that unless the Lord builds the house, those that build it labor in vain (Ps 127:1). So if God wants to use a woman, we better bow to the wisdom of God and keep our mouth closed while we learn. Please learn the lesson that people try to only apply to women, learn in silence and we might be amazed at what God says through a woman.
We could go through the Bible from the beginning to the end to find that women play an essential part of the design of God’s purpose for humans. God promises the first woman that it will be a woman and her seed that will bruise the head of Satan with her heel. Wow, that sounds significant. Then at the end of the Bible we find a “Wonder Woman” standing on the moon which is a symbolic representation for Satan with her heels on top. Wow, again! We are seeing that God chose to use a woman to do this job!
Then read through the rest of Bible in between Genesis and Revelation and you will find other women used by God for very significant purposes. To name a couple notice Esther. Without her fulfilling her purpose to become a Gentile king’s wife, there would probably be no nation of Israel. A woman was the center character used by God to accomplish this. Then without Ruth a Gentile Moabite who decided to have faith to leave her nation to join in covenant with her mother-in-law to move to Bethlehem, there may have not been a Grandmother to King David. Read the account about Deborah who was one of the Judges (rulers) during the book of Judges. These are just a few of the women that are noteworthy to from. But there are other noteworthy women of faith like Sarah. Sarah was directly mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, the Hall of Faith of noteworthy examples of Old Covenant people.
CONCLUSION
Let us review our key verse again that causes many to stumble in the light of what we have just read from other parts of the Bible:
1Ti 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
Let me ask you again, how can a woman keep silent and still prophesy? She can’t! How can a woman teach other women in the church and still keep silent? She can’t! Did you know the word translated as “usurp authority over” is only in the entire Bible this one time in this verse and no other places? According to Strong’s it means “a worker” who acts of themselves. Do you know this is wrong for anyone to do regardless of gender? To act of yourself means to be self-appointed and self-sufficient. This means to promote yourself and raise your own ability to a level above where you should be. Men are guilty of this more than women are guilty of it. So I do not know of any verse in the Bible that says that a woman cannot be called by God, appointed by God, promoted by God and made to be a blessing to others in the church? Today, God has already raised up and promoted several women in the church with large ministries that are way beyond many of the ministries of men on the earth. So please, let us become wise and recognize God’s perspective of truth and please LORD, help me not to judge the message given by the gender of the person delivering the message. Help me LORD, to study what is taught and just see if what is said was what You said in your Word! Help me to learn to see people as You see people and I believe You will be able to cause Your servants to stand or fall.
I’ll end this Bible lesson with an important instruction that God gave to one man and you see if it is something that applies to you also today:
1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
Please do not become legalistic and bound by laws of limitations that put God in a box that claims a woman is unable to be used by the Almighty. Thank you for reading, studying and leaving me a comment if you care to. I love you all and I pray for all my readers that He will give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Amen.
Understanding the Book of Job? An overview of what it is and what it is not! Part 3
(Ver 2.1) This is Part 3 in a series of advanced Bible study lessons on understanding the book of Job. I have been attempting to give you some new perspectives on the meanings behind the book of Job by showing you how it fits into other verses found in the Bible. Only by using the Bible to interpret the Bible can we really see what God says in any other part of the Bible. If we attempt to interpret a verse, chapter or book in isolation, we are forced to rely on our own opinions and natural thoughts to figure out what it all means. But, I have noticed while studying the Bible that God was not stupid, He didn’t leave us in the dark with us trying to figure out what He said. However, I believe that we are required to search and dig deep in order to find out what His definitions and comments are on the subjects that we are studying. God says the natural man receives not the things written by the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14). So, if you do not understand the Bible, it is because you are either not saved or it is simply just the fact that you are thinking naturally. So if you have not read this series from the beginning I would strongly suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1” since I cannot repeat everything I teach in each lesson. What I have been trying to emphasize in these lessons is the fact that God is the originator of blessings and that Satan is the author of the curses encountered in this world. What I haven’t taught is why this transpires.
I will briefly make an attempt at a quick explanation of the origination of good and evil in the world before I continue with Job. When Adam was created, God placed Adam in the Garden with his wife and told Adam that he may freely eat from every tree except one. Everything created by God called “very good” by God’s own admission. There God did not create anything evil, bad or harmful and Adam knew only the goodness of God. There was one tree called symbolically the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that God say do not eat from. God told Adam that the day that he ate from this tree he would surely die. I personally know that this was a symbolic tree that represted a hidden spiritual reality because of what I have studied and found that the Bible says in other parts. In the past I did a couple of lessons on this subject and if you are interested you can read them by going to “Does Eating Fruit Kill You?”. I will not attempt to repeat these lessons here, but I will tell you that Adam made the wrong choice. Isn’t it funny how we keep coming back to people making choices in the world? If you recall I told you that Job made some wrong choices that opened the door for Satan to come in and attack him. These choices of Job involved wrong spoken words, wrong believing, fear, and no peace or rest. This attack of Job was a repeated pattern found from when Adam was given a choice by God and made the wrong selection to let Satan into this world. Adam’s choice resulted in him knowing the evil of Satan’s power. Adam already knew the blessings of God so this was nothing new. It was only Satan and evil that Adam gained or obtained by letting Satan into the world. So if God gave Adam a choice, he must also give every man the same choice after Adam. God does not control the choices of men. God gives each man the freewill to make their own selections. Job therefore had a choice between blessings and cursing. Job allowed Satan to continue working evil in his life. Both Adam and Job experienced the loss of children. I’m sure that both men regretted their decisions, but yet it was too late to take them back.
In the first two lessons on Job, I went through chapter 1, verses 1 through 19 on all of the bad things that happened in rapid succession to Job and his family. I also spent time in trying to reveal the actions that opened the door for Satan to attack Job. It is obvious to me that this was a staged planned attack by Satan to take away everything that God had blessed him with. So what was Job’s reaction? That is where we are going to start today?
Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
Job goes into a state of mourning and anguish; after all he just lost all of his children. I do not know of any normal parent that loses their children that is not devastated. To tear your clothing is a sign of sorrow, to shave your head is sign of mourning but, then Job still worships God. This is one of the only good things that Job still does and it describes why he was blessed by God in the first place. What we will find by reading is that even after all that has happened to Job, he does not turn against his God. If you learn any lesson from Job you should learn this lesson, always stay on God’s side no matter what happens to you. If you blame God and start to curse God, you are just digging your hole much deeper. God did not kill Job’s kids, Satan did. You see in the Bible it says this about kids:
Psa 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
What would it mean to be a reward? Children are clearly blessings from God. I told you earlier if God blesses you with children and then kills them to take them away, His house is divided. God would be both the author of the blessings and the author of the curses. How would you ever follow a God who was so crazy and inconsistent? I’m sorry but I could not. I also tried to teach you that the Bible says God is a constant and does not change. These verses prove that God is not the give of life and the destroyer of life simultaneously or God would have to change to do each. God is truly only a giver of life and the devil is the taker of that life, but only by the allowed access of man’s choices do either happen. So let’s see what Job was saying after all of this occurs to him and his family:
Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Here we have the famous classic Bible verse widely used at many funerals. This is clearly a misguided application of the words of a man in sorrow. If you just lost 10 kids, what would you be saying? I am probably going to get some ignorant Christians mad at me, but I am going to tell you that not everything you read in the Bible is true. These words of Job are truly in the Bible. These words of Job were truly spoken by Job. However, both of these facts together do not make his words the truth. Job was a man without a church, a man without a Bible, a man without a spiritual leader or a pastor and a man who tried to blindly follow his God the best that he knew how to do under these circumstances. It is true that Job had heard about God, but yet at this point in time no one knew that much about God. God had not yet given man any written words to read about Him and to learn from. The only words that Job could have had are the past experiences of Adam and the other descendants of Adam. So why would you think that anything that Job says came from directly from God? Did God come to Job and say I took your kids? I took your possessions? Did God say this or did Job say this? What people say out of their limited state of knowledge and ignorance can be what they believe whole heartedly to be the truth; however, does that ever make it the truth because they believe it to be the truth? Nowhere in this chapter does it ever say that God took anything from Job, only Job says this.
Here is where I should briefly discuss the fact that the Bible says that the Word of God was given by inspiration of the Holy Ghost (2 Tim 3:16). The Greek word in this verse literally means the Bible was God breathed. However, that does not mean everything in the Bible is true. It is like watching the evening news on TV, the newsman is speaking and telling you things and events that were reported to happen that day, but does that mean everything that he says is the truth because it is on the news? What if a news man quotes another man that says “I did not have sex with that intern”. Does that make it the truth because it was on the news? Obviously we learned that it does not. This is the way the Bible was also written. There are quotes in the Bible from men that were clearly ignorant or intentionally lying. For example, in Acts 5, there was a man named Anainias and his wife that fall down dead for lying to the Holy Ghost. Is what they said recorded in book of Acts the truth? Again, obviously not. I hope you can begin to see the struggle with reading the words of men in the Bible versus reading the words of God that were given to men. If the Bible says “Thus saith the Lord” you can count it being the truth. If the Bible says “thus saith Job” you are going to have great difficutly in convincing me this is the complete truth and I talk about this more in a minute.
Let’s talk briefly now about a hedge and the reason for a hedge to even exist. Chapter 1 of Job clearly says that God had placed a hedge of protection around Job. Therefore, who was God protecting Job from? There are only two reasons to build a fence. You do realize this yes? First, you only need a fence around your property if there are animals, enemies or things that can come in and steal from you or hurt you. Second, the only other reason to build a fence is to keep something in, like a prison. I personally believe that both of these were true based upon my knowledge of the Bible. I mean this is not rocket science; you just have to use your brain and think a little bit. So let’s talk more about the first reason on keeping someone out. Who is God guarding Job from? It has to be from Satan! Satan is a created spiritual being and he is capable of coming and going from the earth back and forth to the spiritual realm in heaven. Satan is free to come and go and Job is not. Job is definitely hedged into the earth’s natural and has never seen God or been to heaven. For that matter Job has never seen Satan either, so clearly there is a hedge that prevents this view. So what is a hedge by God’s definition? This is where it really starts to get more interesting. You see our definition is usually not’s God’s definition. This word hedge is only found 3 times in the whole O.T. This Hebrew word occurs twice in the book of Job and I personally believe this second usage of the word was the key to the definition:
Job 10:11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
Let’s briefly discuss the context of this verse. Job is speaking and he is describing his body and God’s intelligent design of it. Notice what Job says, Job is telling us that he is clothed with a body and that this body of flesh and bones is a “fence” around him. The Hebrew word translated as “fence” is the exact same Hebrew word that was translated as “hedge’ in chapter 1. Wow, I find that fascinating. This is what we discover happening when Adam sinned. God clothed Adam with a coat of skin. Pay close attention to the fact that the body as described is not Job nor Adam, but rather they were actually the spirit that is covered by the body. Isn’t this the definition of a hedge? To keep something in or to keep something out? What is Satan? Satan is a created spirit being. Satan is not allowed by God’s law to come into the natural realm to tempt or test as I taught in the first lesson. I believe that this physical body is our hedge of protection from the evil beings in the spirit realm. It is also our physical bodies that keeps us present in this world. But, I do not have time to fully expand that thought today in this lesson. It was simply an introduction to get you to think about something new. Think about this also, when Satan attacked Job, what did he attack? Did not Satan attack Job in the physical realm and not Job in the spiritual realm? Could Satan have hurt Job spiritually speaking? It is impossible to kill or hurt a spirit being, so Job was incabple of being harmed spiritually. Therefore, I believe that Satan attacked God’s designed hedge or protection that surrounded Job and this was the man’s body and his natural surroundings that he possessed. It certainly changes your perspective dramatically when thinking in these terms and I hope you are seeing them.
So let’s get back to the words of Job and what he said in chaoter 1 about the Lord taking and the Lord giving and determine if that is the truth or just his words. Do you understand that there are many accounts of people speaking in the Bible and some of these people are clearly ignorant and do not know what they are talking about. There are also many clear accounts of people who intentionally lie in the Bible as I just talked about found in Acts 5. Jesus taught us that Satan is the father of lies and the words of Satan are found throughout the Bible. Based upon the shear presence of lies being recorded in the Bible, do you understand how this information makes correct Bible interpretation more difficult? If it does not say “Thus Saith the Lord God” or the Words of Jesus in Red Letters, then you are taking the words that are potentially words of an ignorant man or woman and exalting them to the status of God’s words. Having said all of that there are Prophets of God who do speak God’s words, but even they sometimes quote Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar or someone else who does not speak for God. Correctly interpreting the Bible is not as easy as you think and it takes brains, thought, logic and seeing who is speaking, who they are talking to and then finally noticing exactly what they say.
So let me ask you this, is Job a prophet? Is Job speaking for God? I’ve been to too many funerals given by preachers who think that these are the Words of God Himself, just because they are written in the Bible. These are tough questions to answer based upon just the small parts that we have read so far. But let’s go to the end of the book of Job and see what opinion God has of the spoken words of Job. After all it really shouldn’t matter what you or I think about the Words of Job, it should really only matter what God thinks about his spoken words:
Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
As you can clearly see God is about to speak directly to Job and say something very significant to him. You should pay very close attention to the next words that do come out of the mouth of God and then go back and apply these to what Job said in chapter 1 about God taking things away from him:
Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
God basically tells Job you do not know what you are talking about, so why do you open your mouth and speak any of these words. According to God Job is speaking empty words from an empty head. Therefore, we can clearly see that Job is confirmed by God to be ignorant! God says Job has no knowledge to speak in the areas that he is attempting to speak in. So should Job be saying anything at all? Or should Job being doing what most Christians in the world should be doing and listen to God in order to learn. Instead of running their mouths on the internet, many people need to hear what God is saying and go get some knowledge before they try to speak anything. There are virtually many chapters of Job and most of these verses are just the empty words of ignorant men who should not be talking. Yet we have a vast number of preachers who want to quote Job’s words at funerals as if God had spoken them. That is just more demonstrations of ignorance in action. I hope that if you learned anything today you learned the lesson of what God thought of Job’s spoken words.
Job 1:22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
We finally see what the last verse in chapter 1 says, after all of Job’s accusations of God stealing his possessions and killing his kids God says that Job did not sin nor charge God foolishly. You see what people do or say out of ignorance is often overlooked by God. Especially in the case where there is no written laws of God to follow. Since Job had no Bible and was doing the best that he could to figure out what was the right things to do, God overlooked his accusations. Let’s see a verse that is applicable to what is stated in Job:
Rom 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Clearly God says where there is not law there is no punishment for sins. The law brings wrath and the law permits punishment, and this is true in the natural realm as well as the spiritual realm. You see there was a time when child pornography was legal, but was it right? Absolutely not, but yet because of the lack of laws, no one could be convicted of this crime. It was only after laws were passed that now people are punished. Because, Job lived during the time where there were no Mosaic laws of God written, there was no punishment that God could bring if He wanted to. So Job did not transgress God’s laws even if he did not do or say everything right.
The next time you go to a funeral and they start to tell you how God took somebody, or their children, I hope that you can at least see this was not true. God is not the thief who kills, steals and destroys. The only two times I saw God take anyone in the Bible, God did not have to kill them to do it. Enoch the Bible says was translated and poof he was gone. Elijah was caught up in a chariot of fire and Elisha saw it happen. So these are the only two times in the Bible that God is said to have taken anyone up beside the raised from the dead Jesus Christ. If you can see somebody go up in a chariot of fire, then you can claim that God took them, otherwise do not accuse God of doing something that He did not do. God does not have to kill anybody to take them to heaven; many people will find this out the hard way before too long when Jesus appears for the catching away of the church. Then the dead in Christ will arise first and those that remain will be translated as Enoch and suddenly all disappear from the planet. What a vast confusion this event will cause all over the world.
I guess I should briefly mention the subject of God’s judgment. There are times in the Bible, like Noah’s flood or Sodom and Gomorrah that God is forced to exercise judgment upon the earth. What happens when God exercises judgment? In both cases, Noah and Lot the righteous were spared and the others perished completely. So why do people want to apply God’s judgment to Job? If Job was an unrighteous man and fell into judgment, he would not have been around at the end of the book. Do not confuse judgment with attacks from Satan. Satan does not have to ask permission to attack you, all he has to do is watch for you to open the door and Satan has learned he is now free to do to you what he can get away with. In the book of Job you find that Satan is presenting himself with the other angels to learn what is valid and what is not valid for him to do. Why is Satan being so careful? You see you may recall that there are other references in the Bible to the “sons of God”. In Genesis 6, before the flood, the sons of God are again referenced. This time the “sons of God” see the daughters of men and see that they are physically beautiful. These angels have physical sex with the human females and create races of giants on the earth. This results in a polluted mixture of men and angels and God says this was an illegal perversion of God’s laws and design. This was clearly an example of the angels crossing over the hedge. You can see that by reading this verse in 2 Peter:
2Pe 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
If God threw some angels into hell (but not all of them), they must have violated some spiritual law or done something that was very perverted. Having sex with natural women would be an example of this type of perversion. The angels are obviously ignorant of what is permissible and what is not permissible for them to do. So believing that Satan is appearing before God in Job chapter 1 to accuse Job and to find out what is permissible makes perfect sense to me. Satan has certainly seen that some of his angels were already cast into darkness, locked up with spiritual chains. Do you understand that Satan must learn what is permissible and what is not? So I have gone long enough in this lesson for today and I have given you many new things to think about. I appreciate greatly your time in studying the Bible and if you have any comments or question about anything I have taught, please do not hesitate to leave me a comment. God Bless.
If you would like to continue to read in this series about Job, please go to “Part 4“.
Understanding the Book of Job? An overview of what it is and what it is not! Part 2
(Ver 1.2) This is Part 2 in a series of lessons on understanding the book of Job. The book of Job is a very tough book of the Bible to understand using just the reasoning found within your human mind. If you have not read this series from the beginning, I would highly recommend that you go back and start with “Part 1”. Too many Christians want to put themselves into the role of a Job because of all of the bad things that have happened to them and they find some peace or reason to help explain their situations in life. They use Job to help explain what is going on in their lives, because they think if God can test Job, then he must be testing me also. They want to see themselves as a Job being tested by God and this somehow makes them feel worthy of the bad things that have occurred. After all they think that God sent all of these evil things that were occurring in Job’s life to test him. That would be great if that was really what the Book of Job actually said, but that is just someone’s misinterpreted view of the book of Job and that does not make it the truth. Nevertheless, this view is widely taught this way and that is exactly the way Satan wants it to be taught. You see as long as you think that it is God sending you the curses of life you will have to accept them and just be patient until God changes His mind to bless you. You do understand the difference between blessings and curses? It is the difference between day and night and good and evil. Blessings are good and curses are evil. As you read the book of Job you need to figure out first who sends good things into your life and who sends the bad things to hurt you. If you think that God sends them all, you are sadly deceived and playing into the hands of Satan. Here is what my Bible says about God:
Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
So as you can see God is the sender of every Good and Perfect gift into your life. Then who sends the evil bad curses into your life, do they also come from heaven above? You see you cannot conclude that they do, because this verse also says God does not change. If there is not any shadow of turning in God, then God is not blessing you today and cursing you tomorrow. God is not having full confidence in you today and testing you tomorrow. This is so absolutely important for you to see and to understand. God already knows the future, he does not have to test you to know what you are going to do, He already knows. Whenever Christian think that God tests them, they automatically think that God is stupid and does not know the outcome. The Bible says that God makes known the end from the beginning, so he must already know the end. Do you get it?
The story of Job is a story of God’s blessings and Satan’s curses. If you confuse the two roles you are just going to be deceived. If you recall, we have already looked at the first 12 verses of the book of Job. Job was said to be an upright righteous man blessed of God with tremendous wealth. This is what God is guilty of doing for Job. Satan sees the hedge of protection that God has placed around Job and his family and Satan starts to look for ways into Job to force God into lowering the hedge of protection. I showed you that Satan is called the “accuser” of the people of God in Revelation 12. Suddenly Satan appears in heaven and starts the legal accusation process. God is a God who holds all power and all knowledge. God is an omnipotent God and only He sees the future. But just because God is all powerful, too many Christians want to think that God controls everything that happens in the world. This results in a “No Fault” Christian religion. In other words no matter what happens to me in life, it is not my fault. This makes it all God’s fault. People like to think that when good things happen to them it is God’s blessings, but when bad things happen to them that it is just God’s tests and trials. However, I showed you in Deuteronomy where God says I set before you life and death and blessings and curses, now you choose life. So it would appear that God places the choice for both life and blessings in the hands of men on the earth. But, here is Job’s problem, he didn’t have Deuteronomy to read and he certainly didn’t have the book of Revelation to read. Job is flying in the game of life blindly, by the seat of his pants trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. This is Job’s greatest weakness, his ignorance. In Hosea 4:6 the Bible tells us clearly why God’s people are destroyed and it declares that it is for their lack of knowledge. If only Job had possessed the correct knowledge Satan would not have been able to make inroads into his life. This is what I am attempting to teach you about so that you do not fall into the same mistakes as Job. There is a popular quote that says those that fail to learn the past are destined to repeat it. Are you learning anything from God and Job yet? We are about to see that ignorance is what it is that is controlling what is happening to Job. So let’s continue our Bible study of this valuable book:
Job 1:13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
This verse reveals that the children of Job have not changed their ways. They are still party animals and are in the process of having fun and fulfilling their fleshly desires. Here we find out that these are not young kids, for the eldest has a house of his own. At the least the eldest doesn’t live with dad Job anymore and it could be that every kid had their own house.
Job 1:14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
What we are beginning to see is the power of Satan being made manifest that God describes to us in verse 12. It is funny how a messenger is spared in each case to come tell Job of the bad news. It is also interesting to note that before one messenger stops speaking another shows up with more bad news. So you can see the rapid progression of simultaneous events. Let’s continue reading and see what happens:
Job 1:15 And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Do you see how Satan works? Satan does not come into this world and steal your stuff from you personally. Satan uses people in this world to steal your stuff from you. This is the only legal course that Satan can take. The Bible says there has no temptation overtaken you except that which is common to man (1 Cor 10:13). The words “common to man” means “in the natural course of things”. In other words it is illegal for Satan to tempt you supernaturally. But, the Greek word translated as “temptation” also means “to test”. Job is being tested, but it is certainly not God that is doing it. The Bible says in James 1:13, “Let no man say when he is tested that I am tested of God, for God cannot be tested with evil and neither does God test any man”. I changed the words that were translated as “tempted” to “tested” because that is what the word means in the Strong’s. Look it up for yourself, if you do not believe me. Prove all things and then hold fast to those that are true. The story of Job is definitely the testing of Job and how Job survives it using his patience and the grace of God. But, James says God does not test men, so God clearly had nothing to do with the tests of Job. Do you understand this? If you do we can continue, if you do not you should go back and reread James a couple of hundred times until you get it.
Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
It seems that the messengers just keep coming and bringing more and more bad news. God gets blamed for something in this verse that He did not do. This still happens today. People call earthquakes and hurricanes acts of God. These clearly destroy things and kill people and take away human life. Is this the God that you serve? It is not the God that I serve. My Bible says that God is Love! Love does not bless you today and take it all away tomorrow. That doesn’t make any sense for our God to do that. One of the most important verses in the Bible is John 10:10 and it clearly describes God’s role and Satan’s role in the world.
Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
This verse sound like a major problem for the God is testing us theory. What is the major difference being described to us in this verse? Who is the speaker and who is he speaking about? Jesus (God in the flesh) is speaking here to us personally and He said I came that you might have life and that life more abundantly. Now using this information if you try to say that God sends hurricanes on the earth when someone dies; then somebody lied when they wrote the Bible. Do you think that Jesus lied or was He just confused about His role with the Father God? God the Son came to Give us Life; but God the Father sends storms that will kill you. Would this mean that God’s house is divided? Is God opposed to Himself? Which one is God doing, giving life or killing you? What did Jesus say about a house divided? If God gives life to people and kills people this is a Dr Jekyll and a Mr Hyde type of God and that is clearly a problem to me. You better go and study your Bible a lot more before you accuse God of sending storms to kill people.
Job 1:17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Again we see another example of how Satan can influence people to come and attack you, steal from you and do you harm. So here we get to some of the most devastating news:
Job 1:18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
Job 1:19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
A strong wind from the wilderness; what is that? That sounds like a tornado if you ask me. I do not know of any stronger wind on this planet than one of these forces of nature. Can Satan cause one of these to occur? It would appear from reading this story that he can. The force of the wind was directed at the house of the eldest brother, was this a coincidence? It cannot be a coincidence given the sequence of events that have just transpired in rapid succession. The odds for all of these events occurring to Job in that short of time are astronomically impossible. You talk about bad luck; it seems that Job has just hit the bad luck lottery. Here we are just 19 verses into Job and most of his possessions are taken, his children killed and this all in the matter of minutes.
I am going to stop with chapter 1 and 2 and skip ahead in the book of Job to show why this is occurring and what Job did to open the door for Satan to do it to him. You see if you begin to understand things in the Bible, you can apply what you learn in other places to help you better understand places like Job. What we will do is see if Job gives us any clues to what choices he made in order to choose the curses instead of the blessings. What we are going to do is look for what Job did and not focus on what you think God did or did not do. So let’s skip forward and read the last 3 verse of chapter 3 and learn what Job says about what just happened:
Job 3:24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
Job 3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
Amazingly enough there are some critical clues in these three verses. These verses taken in light of other verses in the Bible clearly demonstrate where Job missed it and allowed Satan to have access to his life and his family. Let’s see what he says.
Verse 24 speaks of Job’s” roarings like water”, what is that? What happens when a lion roars? It is making vocal sounds. Well this is a clue that Job was running his mouth too much. What is water a symbol of in the Bible? The N.T. tells us that we are made clean by the washing of the water of the word (Eph 5:26). So water must represent God’s spoken words in this verse. God speaks words that can make us clean, so what kind of words does the enemy Satan speak? I believe these are words that make us dirty. So what kind of words are you speaking?
Pro 18:4 The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.
So Words are Water! I do not have time to teach you everything that the Bible says about words in this lesson but you can go read my other lessons on this subject. In James God tells us that our mouths are like water from fountains and asks can a fountain bring forth fresh water and salt water at the same time? No it cannot, but it can either bring forth only fresh water or it can also bring forth the fresh mixed with the bitter undrinkable salt water. It would appear to me to be a choice to which one that you allow your mouth to bring forth. I will tell you very plainly that I believe your spoken words are Satan’s number one access into your life. If you say the wrong things, you open the door for Satan to waltz right in and use his power to steal, kill and destroy you. You in effect give him orders that allow his work to be accomplished. It is like a spiritual permission slip that is granted to him. Let me help to prove what I just said using the Bible to back it up:
Pro 6:2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
Proverbs teaches us some very powerful lessons on the words that we speak. This is one of the most powerful lessons to learn found in this verse. God clearly tells us that we are “snared” or “taken” captive by the words of our mouth. To be “snared” or “taken” captive means to be imprisoned, enslaved, or to be trapped into something or somewhere that you do not want to be. Do you understand this? It is like falling into a pit and you did know was there. So is Job facing a situation that he did not want to be in? Of course he is, Job has been trapped or tricked into a series of things that were clearly not what he desired to happen to him. What happens to Job is based upon Job’s spoken words first and foremost, but that is not the entire problem revealed to us. Let’s look at the next verse in chapter 3.
In verse 25 of chapter 3, Job says that the thing that I feared the most has come upon me. That which I was greatly afraid of has over taken me. People, who do not understand faith in the Bible, do not know what Job has just told us. The Bible in the N.T. tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). So why is faith so important to God? And then what is faith so that we can please God? Again I cannot teach you the answers to either of these questions fully in this blog. It would take way too long. I can only begin to tell you what faith is not in this blog. Faith is not fear. Faith is not being afraid. In fact fear is the opposite of faith. If you would like to read about “Understanding Bible Faith” then you can go to this series of lessons that will better explain why Job failed. Fear opens up the door for Satan to cause what you are afraid of to come to pass in your life. Faith opens the door for God to bless you and fear opens the door for Satan to curse you. This is how the whole Bible works and it is a common theme from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.
Finally in Job verse 26 of chapter 3 we see more of the problem being described to us. To be in faith means to be in peace, but yet Job was in fear so he was definitely not peaceful and resting. The Bible says that to those who have believed they have entered into rest (Heb 4:3). When you have faith in God you can rest that he will do what He has promised. This is also having peace in your spirit. Job did not have this, so Job was open to the attack of Satan. Job was constantly in fear and was worried about his children and offered sacrifices to help his children and Job did this continually provring he was not in faith believing that it was working. This is not peace or rest, it is works based and the Bible says that no man is ever justified by his works.
Did you know that in any court of this land, you cannot go in and plead ignorance? Ignorance is never a valid reason for committing a crime. I’m sorry judge I didn’t know driving 140 was illegal. So it is with God’s spiritual laws. Just because you do not understand faith, spoken words, peace and rest does not mean you can get away with not doing them. You can clearly see that Job’s problem was at least 3 fold. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut; he was in fear for his family and finally he did not have any confidence in God’s ability so he could not rest. These are just Bible basics that God has hidden in the Word of God so that we can find them. We can also clearly see why God said everything that he possesses is in your power. It was Job’s own words and actions that open the door for Satan to come in. I would strongly suggest if you do not know much about faith and spoken words that you go study these two subjects extensively. If you can understand these, then you can clearly see how Job let Satan into his life. Then you can apply the lessons of Job to understand this is also how you let Satan have access to your life. So it is a vitally important subject to learn. I have gone too long in this lesson, so I’ll end it right here. I pray that you will continue reading in the next lesson so that we can learn some more from the book of Job. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series you can continue with “Part 3“.
Understanding the Book of Job! An overview of what it is and what it is not! Part 1
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 of a series about understanding the Book of Job. The book of Job is a highly controversial book of mostly confusing information. The book of Job has been widely given the theme of patience and we see this mentioned in the New Testament book of James. This reference in James is the only time Job is mentioned by name in the N.T. The name Job is mentioned only 54 times and mostly just in the book of Job. However, the name does occur in Genesis 46 and Ezekiel 14. The book of Job is primarily about the afflictions of Job. However, the initiator of the problems in Job’s life and the cause of the problems are widely misinterpreted. The book of Job is often quoted at funerals and this is another misapplication of the scriptures and I will probably get into these verses later. The first two chapters reveal the afflictions occurring to this righteous man and then starts the words of Job in chapter 3 in an apparent conversation with some of his friends that have come to tell him what to do and this continues for many chapters. The discourse between Job and his friends go back and forth and finally end when God comes into the conversation with some new information that shuts everyone up. The last chapter of Job ends with God’s blessings on him being restored more than he ever had before. Most Bible scholars agree that Job is probably the oldest book of the Bible. The timeframe of Job is probably somewhere between Noah and Moses since it does not refer to Israel, the Old Testament law or any reference to God’s covenant with Abraham. The author of Job is probably the man Job himself, but we do not know this for sure. There are several verses found in Job that reveal things to us that confirm that it belongs in the Bible and that it is the inspired information from the Spirit of God. So I will not attempt to do a verse by verse study of the entire book, there is just too much unknown information found in this book to do this. I will attempt to teach some key verses that I have seen and I will try to use other verses in the Bible to help us to interpret what we find in Job correctly. Always remember that the Bible interprets itself. Let’s start with verse 1:
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
The first verse informs us where Job lived and what his nature and character was in the eyes of God. God calls the man Job a complete man, in other words a righteous man. He was humble and feared God and resisted evil. This is the type of man that God can stand behind as we will find out shortly.
Job 1:2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
The man Job was married as we will also find out and he had 10 children. In the next verse we will see that the blessing of God were upon him.
Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
According to this verse Job was the greatest of all of the men of the east. This is strictly in terms of wealth and the blessings of God on his life. This is also a hidden hint to the reasons of things to come. If God’s blessing are on someone, he will get the attention of everyeone else physcially and spiritually speaking. When Satan sees the blessings of God upon Job, Job became a target. In verse 4 of Job 1, you can see that Job had problems with his children. They like to party, eat, drink and be merry. They were into having fun more than they were into work and doing right. This caused Job vast concern of what would happen to his children. This is the introduction to what Job worried about the most.
Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
So Job does some things that I find very interesting. His kids have stopped their partying and Job is offering burnt offering for the number of his children to the Lord. Where does Job get the idea for this? I honestly do not know. As far as I know there is no law, no priests and there was no precedence for doing what he is doing. Is Job a priest of God? I do not know? We know from the N.T. that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Heb 9:22). So Job was doing the right things, but where did he get this information? Plus was it doing any good since it was his children that were sinning and not him? This verse ends with the statement that Job did this continually so we assume that his kids were continually in a party mode. There is another scripture in the N.T. that I believe should be applied to this information we are given, and it goes like this “God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6:7). What were Job’s children sowing? Will they reap what they sow regardless of what their father does? I believe God says they will.
Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
So here we go with another introduction to some highly confusing information. The book of Job seems to change dramatic focus from the earth to a place in heaven. The “sons of God” are the angels of God and this would include all angels, the good and the bad. This verse says Satan came with them like he is not included in the group of “sons of God”, but I totally disagree with that interpretation and I believe that Satan was their leader and the most high angel. You can see this by reading verses in Ezekiel 28:14 that describe Satan as the anointed cherub and the covering cherub. Then in Isaiah 14:12, Satan is called Lucifer, the son of the morning. Morning is the “Early Light” and since God is Light we can see that Lucifer is called an early son of God.
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
We are now told that Satan has come from the earth, so we know that he is not on the earth while he is holding this conversation with God. We also learn that Satan is not omnipresent. He must walk across the earth and go from place to place. We therefore know that Satan is not everywhere on the earth at once. However, we do not know how many angels that Satan has under his control on the earth so there may be many angels tormenting people simultaneously and not just Satan doing everything. However, many angels there are, the Bible says in Revelation 12 that 1/3 of them are fallen with Satan. There is also another reality given to us found in the N.T. that helps to explain what is happing to Job. In 1 Peter 5:8 God informs us that Satan is our adversary and he goes about as a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. Is this not exactly describing what is happening here in Job? Satan had just come from walking the earth and he came across Job. He is obviously the adversary of Job that God has hedged out. But, he is seeking to devour Job as we will see as we continue to read in this chapter. We learn from reading 1 Peter 5:8 that Satan is not able to devour everyone if he is seeking ways to do this. This indicates that Satan is not omnipotent and neither does he have direct access to anyone unless certain conditions are met to allow him to come in. Keep 1 Peter 5:8 in your mind as we continue to read about Job:
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Why do you think that God brings up Job? I believe it is because God knows what you are thinking. God knows why Satan is there. Job is a spiritually righteous blessed man of God; there is none like him on the earth. In the eyes of God this is why Satan was there to contend for this man.
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Satan starts to ask God questions about Job. Why does Satan ask this question? Does Job fear God for no reason or for nothing as he said to God? This sounds like a complaint or accusation to me.
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Now we begin to see the problem that Satan has and why he is there to see God. Satan is questioning God’s authority to place a hedge of protection around Job and his family. You can clearly see what God is being accused of, the fact that God has blessed Job and given him great wealth and placed a spiritual wall of protection around him so that Satan could not touch him. What gives Satan the right to do this? That is an excellent question to consider, we know that Job’s children are living in sin in a constant state of partying. Job is continually offering sacrifices for his children who do not want sacrifices to be made or at least it appears that they do not care if they are made. The children of Job are not repentant or sorry for what they are doing, they are just being wild crazy rich kids who can get away with whatever they want, or so they think. We know that Satan is called the accuser of the brethren in the Revelation 12:10. This verse in Revelation says that Satan accuses the people of God on the earth both day and night. To accuse is a legal term that means “to charge with an offense”. You do understand that God is the ultimate supreme Judge of the Universe? Satan is the “Plaintiff” that brings accusations against righteous people before the Judge. So why does Satan do this? So these righteous people can be found guilty of violating the spiritual laws that God has established in the spiritual realm. Do you understand this? Satan is looking for a way into your life, he watches your every move, your every action, your every reaction and your every word to see what he can accuse you of doing that violates God’s laws. This is how it works until Revelation 12 comes around and Satan is cast down and he is no longer welcome to come into the heavenly realm to accuse us anymore.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
So here is where it starts to get even more difficult to understand and to interpret correctly. Satan tells God to stretch His hand and touch all that he has and Job will curse God to His face. So is God the curser or was God the one that blessed Job? If you recall from reading earlier we know that God was the one that blessed Job and made him exceedingly wealthy. It was God who had placed the hedge of protection around him and his family so what would happen if God changes and does the opposite like Satan just said for God to do? If God does what Satan just said, then God becomes a liar. That is pretty strong words, but that is what the Bibles says:
Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not;
According to the Bible, God is a constant never changing force of good. If God would have blessed Job and suddenly bent to the pressure from Satan to change and curse Job then God is guilty of changing. Do you understand that this is impossible? The Bible describes God as being Light. Do you know that the speed of light is a constant? The speed of light does not diminish or change it always stays the same. The distances of stars in our universe are measured in the terms of light years. A light year is the distance that light travels in the course of a year’s time. This is a constant value or we have a major problem on our hands. If you do not understand laws of physics and science about light and the speed of light, just fix your mind on God. If God blessed someone today and tomorrow takes it all away, then God changed and now God is a liar. That is a major problem with most people’s Bible interpretations, they interpret a book of the Bible like Job in a vacuum and ignore the rest of the Bible and this is not a valid interpretation. Here is another challenge for you to consider from something that God said in the book of Deuteronomy:
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
If God sets before us life or death, blessing or cursing and says to us to choose between the two, whose fault is it which one we get? Uh oh? That is a problem isn’t it? It would appear that if Job got curses instead of blessings, then he made the wrong choices to cause them to occur. Do you understand this?
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
So we now have God giving permission, or so many people think it says. This however, is not what this verse says. Nowhere in this verse does it say you have won your case, I give you permission. People just read this into the statement because that is what they want to see that it says. All God said was “Behold” and that means look, open your eyes and see. Do you understand that? That is not a statement of permission; it is a directive for Satan to see what has already happened. You cannot behold something that is not already there. I mean God can see into the future, but Satan cannot. If Satan is told to see something it has to be something that he can already see. This is clearly not rocket science, so surely you can comprehend the simple words of the Bible. Then God tells Satan that all that Job has is in his power. Again this is not I give you the power; this is a simple statement that says you already have the power. There is such a huge difference between those two perspectives. The only thing God does is limit what Satan can do and this was not to touch Job. So God was guilty of still trying to protect his righteous man Job. God never gives Satan permission to do anything. God simply said you already have the right to do what Job has chosen.
So who is the author of destruction? Who causes death and tornadoes? We will find out in our next lesson about the story of Job. I hope that you will join me as I continue with this series of very different Bible lessons. Thanks for your time and your comments. God Bless.
If you would like to continue reading in this series you can go to “Part 2“.
Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of the Church in the Bible
(Ver 2.2) This is my list of the Names, Titles, Descriptions, Types and Symbols for the Church of Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, this document helps to describe who you are and your place in the Kingdom of God. This is a living document of references to God. It will change and be updated as I find additional scriptures. A Name is a direct reference to the Church. A Title is a given direct identifying appellation signifying status or function. A Description is something that represents something in words. A Type is a real named person, place or thing that can be viewed to apply to a spiritual individual not named. A Symbol is a natural object that describes characteristics or features of a spiritual being you cannot see.
If you have found others that I may have not included yet, please share them in a comment. Thank you and God bless you in advance.
words. A Type is a real named person, place or thing that can be viewed to apply to a pattern of the spiritual individual not directly named. A Symbol is a natural object that describes the characteristics or features of a spiritual being that you cannot see or understand without first understanding the symbol. If you know of other references not named, please share them with me in a comment. Thank you.
|
Name, Title, Symbol, Type for the Church |
Description |
Scripture Reference |
|
12 Tribes |
New Covenant People in Jesus originating in His 12 Apostles, the fulfilment of Jacob’s 12 sons. |
James 1:1; |
|
Abraham’s Seed |
Those with Abraham’s type of Faith |
Gal 3:29; |
|
Babes |
Newborn (born again) Children of God |
Mat 11:25; Luke 10:21; |
|
Beloved |
The Bride of Christ |
Rom 9:25; 2 Ths 2:13; |
|
Blessed of My Father |
The Sheep of God’s Pasture |
Mat 25:34; |
|
Body, His |
Those married in Covenant to Christ |
Eph 1:23; Col 1:24; |
|
Body, the |
Those who are in Christ |
Eph 5:23; |
|
Body of Christ |
She Who is Joined and one with Christ |
Rom 7:4; 1 Cor 10:16, 12:27; Eph 4:12; Col 2:17 |
|
Born Again |
Those who are new Children of the Spirit |
John 3:3-6; 1 Pet 1:23; |
|
Born of God |
Children of the Spirit |
1 John 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 4, 18; |
|
Born of Him |
Born Again of the Spirit |
1 John 2:29; |
|
Bride |
Married to Jesus |
John 3:29; Rev 21:2, 9; |
|
Bridechamber, Children of the |
Those married in covenant to the bridegroom (Jesus) |
Mat 9:15; |
|
Brother |
Sibling of eldest brother Jesus Christ |
Mat 10:50; Rom 8:29; Heb 2:11, 17; |
|
Called, the |
Those chosen by God |
Rom 1:6, 8:30, 9:24; 1 Cor 1:24; |
|
Candlestick |
Lights in the dark World |
Rev 1:20; |
|
Chosen |
Those people that have embraced the Calling of God to follow Jesus |
Jam 2:5; |
|
Chosen Generation |
Highly Favored People |
1 Pet 2:9; |
|
Children |
Sons and daughters of God |
Rom 8:17; |
|
Children, Dear |
Those dearly Loved by God |
Eph 5:1; |
|
Children of Abraham |
A Spiritual family type of Israel |
Gal 3:7; |
|
Children of God |
Born of the Spirit |
Mat 5:9; Rom 8:16, 21; Gal 3:26; 1 Jn 3:10; |
|
Children of Israel |
Spiritual Nation of God’s people |
Exo 19:6; Hos 2:23; |
|
Children of Light |
God is Light, those who are His children |
Luk 16:8; John 12:36; Eph 5:8; 1 Th 5:5; |
|
Children of the Day |
Those walking in the Light of God |
1 Th 5:5; |
|
Children of the Free Woman |
A type of the promised child born to Sarah, those who are reborn from the spiritual woman Jerusalem Above |
Gal 4:31; |
|
Children of the Living God |
Those Born of the Spirit |
Rom 9:26; |
|
Children of the Kingdom |
Those Who Belong to God’s Kingdom |
Mat 13:38; |
|
Children of the Promise |
Children of God’s Spoken Word |
Rom 9:8, Gal 4:28; |
|
Chosen |
Those Favored by God |
Eph 1:4; 2 Ths 2:13; |
|
Christ |
Those with God’s Anointing and Jesus in their Hearts |
2 Cor 6:15; |
|
Christian |
A Believer in Christ |
Acts 26:28; 1 Pet 4:16; |
|
Christians |
Followers of Christ |
Act 11:26; |
|
Church, Glorious |
Noble and Honorable |
Eph 5:27; |
|
Church, My |
Those Who Belong to God |
Mat 16:18; |
|
Church of Christ |
Those who Belong to Jesus |
Rom 16:16; |
|
Church of God |
Called Out by God |
Act 20:28; 1 Cor 1:2, 10:32; 2 Cor 1:1; |
|
Church of the Firstborn |
Those gathered in and with Christ Jesus the Firstborn from the dead |
Heb 12:23; |
|
Circumcised Heart |
God’s children that have been circumcised by the hand of the Spirit |
Rom 2:29; Php 3:3; Col 2:11; |
|
City |
The home of God within His people |
Mat 5:14; Rev 21:23; |
|
City, Faithful |
She who will be a faithful wife to God’s Covenant |
Isa 1:26; |
|
City of My God |
Where God Resides; |
Rev 3:12; |
|
City of Righteousness |
Those abiding with God who is their righteousness |
Isa 1:26; |
|
City of the Lord |
Those of the New Jerusalem |
Isa 60:14 |
|
City Not Forsaken, A |
Those pursued by God |
Isa 62:12; |
|
Daughter of Jerusalem |
The Church who is reborn by the Spirit of God, His Word and the woman Heavenly Jerusalem |
Mic 4:8; Zep 3:14; Zec 9:9; Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22; |
|
Daughter of Zion |
She who is Born of God |
Isa 52:2, 62:11; Mat 21:5; Heb 12:22; |
|
Disciple |
The Student of God |
Mat 10:24-25; |
|
Ekklesia (Church) |
A Calling Out |
Mat 18:17; Act 2:47; Rev 22:16; |
|
Elect, The |
Those Chosen of God |
Mat 24:31; |
|
Faithful Brethren in Christ |
Those married to Christ |
Col 1:2; |
|
Fellow Citizens |
Residents of the City of God |
Eph 2:10; |
|
Fellow Heirs |
Joint heirs together of God’s Kingdom |
Eph 3:6; |
|
Fellow Servant |
Working Together in Unison |
Rev 22:9; |
|
Field, His |
God’s Garden |
Mat 13:24; |
|
Flock of God |
Those in God’s Pasture |
1 Pet 5:2; |
|
Followers |
Those that that imitate the Godly examples of others |
1 Cor 11:1; |
|
Followers of God |
Led By the Spirit |
Eph 5:1; |
|
Friends |
Jesus Laid Down His Life for Us |
Jn 15:13-14; |
|
General Assembly |
Universal Congregation |
Heb12:23; |
|
Glory and Honor of the Nations |
Where God Resides |
Rev 21:26 |
|
Good Soldier of Jesus Christ |
Those in God’s Army |
2 Tim 2 :3; |
|
Great City |
She Who is Mighty and Strong |
Rev 21:10; |
|
Ground, Good |
The Good Soil of the Kingdom of God |
Mat 13:23; |
|
Habitation of God |
The New Jerusalem God’s City of Living Stones |
Eph 2:22; |
|
Heir(s) |
He Who Inherits |
Rom 8:17; Gal 3:29; Gal 4:1; Tit 3:7; 1 Pet 3:7; |
|
Heirs according to the Promise |
Those who inherit |
Gal 3:29 |
|
Heirs of God |
Those Who Inherit |
Rom 8:17; Gal 4:7; |
|
Heirs of Promise |
Those who inherit by an oath |
Heb 6:17; |
|
Heirs of Salvation |
Those that inherit the Kingdom of God |
Heb 1:14; |
|
Heirs of the Kingdom |
Those that inherit the Kingdom of God |
Jam 2:5; |
|
Holy City |
He has made her clean and ready |
Isa 52:1; Rev 21”2; |
|
Holy Jerusalem |
Blameless City of Jehovah |
Revn 21:10; |
|
Holy Nation |
Blameless People |
Exo 19:6; 1 Pet 2:9; |
|
House, Christ’s |
The Dwelling of Christ Jesus |
Heb 3:6; |
|
Household of Faith |
Those in the Family of God by Faith |
Gal 6:10; |
|
Household of God |
Those in the Family of God |
Eph 2:19; |
|
Household, His |
Those in the Family of God |
Mat 10:25; |
|
House of God |
Where the Spirit of God Lives |
1 Tim 3:15; |
|
House of Israel |
The Spiritual Israel in Covenant with Jesus |
Eze 34:30; Heb 8:8 |
|
House of Judah |
The Spiritual Jews in Covenant with Jesus |
Heb 8:8 |
|
In Christ |
Those abiding in Jesus Christ |
Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 1:2, 3:1 15:22; 2 Cor 1:21, 2:14, 3:14, 5:17; Gal 3:28; Eph 2:6, 2:10, 2:13, 3:6; 2 Tim 3:15; |
|
Isaac |
The church called a type of the son of promise being in Christ |
Gal 4:28; |
|
Israel |
God’s people saved by Grace |
Rom 11:26; |
|
Jerusalem |
City Redeemed of the Lord |
Isa 52:2, 9; Dan 9:25; |
|
Jew |
Spiritual type of natural Israel; Circumcised of the Heart |
Rom 2:29; |
|
Joined Unto the Lord |
The Bride of Christ |
1 Cor 6:17; |
|
Joint-Heirs with Christ |
Those who Inherit |
Rom 8:17; |
|
Just, the |
Those Who are Blameless |
Mat 13:49; |
|
Kingdom of Priests |
Spiritual People |
Exo 19:6; |
|
Kings |
God’s Royalty |
Rev 1:6; |
|
Kings of the Earth |
Rulers of the Earth |
Rev 1:5, 21:24 |
|
Lamb’s Wife, the |
Married to Jesus |
Rev 21:2, 9; |
|
Light |
Those of the Day |
2 Cor 6:14; Eph 5:8; Php 2:15; |
|
Light of the World |
Those that Teach the Truth and demonstrate the Love of God |
Mat 5:14; |
|
Living Stone |
The New Jerusalem of God |
1 Peter 2:5 |
|
Members of Christ |
The Body of Christ |
1 Cor 6:1; |
|
More than Conquerors |
The church in Christ Jesus |
Rom 8:37; |
|
Mother |
Spiritual Mother of God |
Mat 12:50; Gal 4:19; Rev 12:1; |
|
Nation, A |
Those of Spiritual Israel |
Isa 55:5; |
|
Nations of Them Which are Saved |
The Redeemed of the Lord from every nation |
Rev 21:24; |
|
New Creature |
Those Born of the Spirit |
2 Cor 5:17; |
|
New Jerusalem |
The Lamb’s Wife |
Rev 3:12, 21:2; |
|
One |
One consisting of many in Christ |
Gal 3:28; Eph 1:10; |
|
One Body |
One With Christ by Marriage Covenant; |
1 Cor 10:17, 12:12; |
|
One Bread |
One With Christ by Covenant |
1 Cor 10:17; |
|
Partakers of His Promise |
Participants of the union with the Holy Spirit. |
Eph 3:6; |
|
Peculiar People |
Purchased Possession |
Tit 2:15; 1 Pet 2:9; |
|
People, A |
God’s Spiritual People |
Heb 8:10 |
|
People, Holy |
Those made blameless |
Isa 62:12; |
|
People, My |
Spiritual Nation of Israel |
Hos 2:23; Rom 9:25; |
|
People Israel, My |
Children Born of the Sprit |
Mat 2:6; |
|
Pillar in the Temple of My God |
Living Stone |
Rev 3:12; |
|
Precious Fruit of the Earth |
That Which is to Be Harvested |
Jam 5:7; |
|
Priests |
Those who bring the sacrifice of Praise to God |
Rev 1:6; |
|
Priesthood, Holy |
Those who bring the sacrifice of Praise to God |
1 Pet 2:5; |
|
Purchased (Possession) |
Those Bought with the Blood |
Act 20:28; |
|
Rachael |
The type of the Bride of God’s Week of Work |
Gen 29:18 |
|
Ransomed of the Lord |
Those Bought with the Blood of Jesus |
Isaiah 35:10; |
|
Redeemed of the Lord |
Those Purchased from the World of Darkness |
Psa 107:2; Isa 51:11; 62:12; |
|
Righteous, the |
Those Justified by God |
Mat 13:43; 1 Pet 3:12; |
|
Righteousness |
Those Justified by God |
2 Cor 6:14; |
|
Righteousness, Servants of |
Those who Serve God’s Purpose |
Rom 6:18; |
|
Royal Priesthood |
New Covenant Kings and Priests that praise and worship God |
1 Pet 2:9; |
|
Ruth |
A Type of the Bride of Christ |
Ruth |
|
Saints |
Sacred, Pure, Blameless |
Rom 1:7, 15:25, 16:15; 1 Cor 1:2, 16:1, 15; 2 Cor 1:1, 13:13; Eph 1:1, 2:19, 3:18, 4:12, 6:18; Php 4:22; Col 1:2; 1 Th 3:13; |
|
Saints In Christ Jesus |
Those blameless in Christ |
Php 1:1; |
|
Saints in Light |
Those blameless in God |
Col 1:12; |
|
Salt of the Earth |
Those who flavor and preserve |
Mat 5:12; |
|
Same Body, the |
Joined members of the same body |
Eph 3:6; |
|
Saved |
Those redeemed from Satan’s kingdom |
Rom 8:24; 1 Cor 15:2; 2 Cor 2:15; |
|
Seed, Abraham’s |
Those of spiritual Father Abraham |
Gal 3:29; |
|
Seed, Good |
Those planted by God |
Mat 13:38; |
|
Seed, the |
Those of the Promise of Abraham |
Rom 9:8; |
|
Servant |
Those in service to God |
Mat 10:24; |
|
Sheep |
Those in God’s Flock sorted at the right Hand of God |
Mat 25:33; Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 2:25; |
|
Sheep, My |
Those people dedicated to follow the Good Shepherd |
Jn 10:14; Jn 21:16 |
|
Sister |
The Sibling of Christ |
Mat 12:50; |
|
Sister Spouse |
Sister Married to Christ |
Song 4:9-10, 12; 5:1 |
|
Sons of God |
Those Born of the Spirit |
Jn 1:12, Rom 8:14, 8:19; Gal 4:6; Php 2:15; 1 John 3:1-2; |
|
Sons of the Living God |
Born of the Spirit |
Hos 1:10; |
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Sought Out |
Those pursued by God |
Isa 62:12 |
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Spiritual House |
The New Jerusalem God’s dwelling place |
1 Pet 2:5; |
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Spouse |
The Bride of the Son of God Jesus |
Song 4:8, 11; |
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Sweet Savor |
Pleasant aroma of Praise to God |
2 Cor 2:15; |
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Tabernacle, the |
God’s Eternal Temple |
Rev 21:3; |
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Temple of God, the |
God’s Dwelling Place |
1 Cor 3:16; |
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Temple of the Holy Ghost, the |
God’s Holy Living City |
1 Cor 3:19; |
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They which are written in the Lambs Book of Life |
The Church |
Rev 21:27; |
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Tree, Good |
Those who produce Fruit of the Spirit |
Mat 7:17-18; |
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Tree of the Field |
Those that bear fruit for God |
Eze 34:27; |
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True Worshipper |
Those people in the Spirit |
Jn 4:23; |
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Twelve Tribes, the |
The Spiritual Israel of God |
Jam 1:1; |
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Vessels |
Those of the House in Honor |
2 Tim 2:20; |
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Vessels of Mercy |
A saved human |
Rom 9:23; |
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Way, the |
Believers walking and following the Good Shepherd in the narrow path of eternal life |
Gen 3:24; Mat 3:3; Mat 7:14; Act 9:2, Act 16:17; |
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Wheat, the |
That which is planted by God for Harvest |
Mat 13:30; |
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Wife |
The Church aka the Bride of Jesus |
Eph 5:25, 5:31-32; |
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Woman, A |
The Bride of Christ |
Rev 12:1 |
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Workman, A |
God’s faithful servants |
2 Tim 2:15; |
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Zion, the |
Those of the New Jerusalem |
Isa 60:14; |
If you would like to read other reference documents about Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols here are some others that are available:
Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of Jerusalem in the Bible
(ver 2.0) This is Part 4 in a series of reference documents revealing the multiple Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of Spiritual Individuals in the Bible. This lesson will focus only on the subject verses describing Jerusalem found in the Bible. This is a living document of references to Jerusalem and it will change and be updated as I am led to additional scriptures. A Name is a direct reference to the individual. A Title is a given direct identifying appellation signifying status or function. A Description is something that represents the individual in expressive words. A Type is a real named person, place or thing that can be viewed to apply to a pattern of the spiritual individual not directly named. A Symbol is a natural object that describes the characteristics or features of a spiritual being that you cannot see or understand without first understanding the symbol.
Jerusalem is a central subject of the Bible and the capital of Israel located in the Middle East today. Jerusalem is also a major city revealed in end time prophecy. This city has captured the attention of the entire world. Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible directly around 767 times and indirectly many other times. However, it is very important for you to know that there is more than one city named Jerusalem in the Bible. In fact there are 3 separate and distinct cities all with this exact name. Knowing this information complicates correct Bible interpretation significantly. You must be wise enough to know which Jerusalem God is talking about when you see the name “Jerusalem” by itself. You may be asking yourself what are these three cities named Jerusalem and I will give you a quick lesson on them:
- The Jerusalem that now is as revealed in Galatians 4:25 and in multiple other verses and the primary subject of this document.
- The Jerusalem Above revealed in Galatians 4:26 and is called the Heavenly Jerusalem in Hebrews 12:22.
- The New Jerusalem revealed as the Lamb’s wife in Revelation 3:12 and 21:2.
From these references you should be able to recognize the existence of three cities named Jerusalem. This document will primarily focus on the one reference of the Jerusalem on the earth that now is. If you have seen other verses that I have not found yet for Jerusalem, please share them with me in a comment. Thank you.
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Name, Title, Symbol, Type for Jerusalem |
Description |
Scripture Reference |
| Abomination | Disgusting Idol Worshipper | Ezekiel 9:4; Ezekiel 16:2, 36, 51, 58; Ezekiel 22:2, 23:36; 33:29; Malachi 2:11; Revelation 17:4-5 |
| Adulteress | Unfaithful Wife | Jeremiah 3:1; Jeremiah 5:7; Ezekiel 16:32; Ezekiel 23:45; Hosea 3:1 |
| Afflicted | Depressed Woman | Isaiah 51:21 |
| Aholibah | My Tent is In Her; Whore | Ezekiel 23:4 |
| Ariel | The Symbolic Name of Jerusalem | Isaiah 29:1-7 |
| Babylon | The Whore | 1 Peter 5:13 |
| Bad City | Wicked City | Ezra 4:12 |
| Birthed in Land of Canaan | Where She was born | Eze 16:3; |
| Bloody City | Those that Kill the Prophets | Ezekiel 22:2, 24:6,9; Nahum 3:1 |
| Bond Woman | Spiritual Hagar Egyptian Slave | Galatian 4:24-25, 30-31 |
| Burdensome Stone | Load Carrier | Zec 12:3; |
| Castle of Zion | The Net or Snare of Zion | 1 Chron 11:5; |
| City | Inhabited by the Children of Israel | Judges 1:8; 2 Kings 23:27; Psalm 122:3; Zec 14:2; Jeremiah 26:9 |
| City, Chosen | Highly Favored of Jehovah | 1 Kings 11:36; 1 Kings 14:21; 2 Kings 23:27; 2 Chron 12:13 |
| City of a Stranger | Home of the Jebusites | Judges 19:12 |
| City of David | David the Great King’s City | 1 Kings 8:1; 2 Kings 9:28; 2 Kings 14:20’ 2 Kings 23:27; 1 Chron 11:5; 2 Chron 5:2; 2 Chron 21:20; Isaiah 22:9; |
| City, Faithful | She who is faithful to God | Isaiah 1:26; |
| City of Righteousness | The inhabitants have God’s righteousness | Isaiah 1:26; |
| City of the Great King | City of David | Matthew 5:35; |
| City of the Jebusites | Inhabited by the trodden | Judges 19:11; 1 Chron 11:4; |
| City Where David Dwelt | The City of David the King | Isaiah 29:1; |
| City Which Is Called By Thy Name | Married to Jehovah | Daniel 9:18; |
| City Which Killed Jesus our Lord | Those Who the shed Blood of God is On their Hands | Mat 16:21; Rev 11:8; |
| Covent Breakers | Those Who Broke Covent with God | Eze 16:59; Romans 1:31; |
| Curse, A | City which is cursed | Jeremiah 26:6; |
| Daughter | Female born of a woman | Ezekiel 23:2; |
| Daughter of an Amortie | Her Father was a Canaanitish Mountain Tribe; | Ezekiel 16:3, 45; |
| Daughter of a Hittite | Her Mother was a terrorist; Fear and Terror | Ezekiel 16:3, 45; |
| Desolate | Waste Land | Jeremiah 26:8 |
| Desolate City | Jerusalem laid waste | Eze 26:19 |
| Desolation | Waste Land | Zep 2:15; |
| Divorced Woman | She that was Put Away | Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 3:8; Hosea 2:2 |
| Dross | Backsliders; Those who draw back; Refuse of the furnace | Ezekiel 22:18-19; |
| Drunken | She Who is Drunk | Isaiah 51:21: Jeremiah 13:13; Ezekiel 23:33; |
| Egypt | Spiritual Name for Jerusalem; Where she played the Whore in Her youth | Hosea 11:1; Revelation 11:8 |
| Evil | Moral Wickedness | Jeremiah 25:5 |
| Evil Figs | The Spoiled Fruit | Jeremiah 24:8; |
| Family Know of God | She who was married to Jehovah | Amos 3:2; |
| Faithful City | She who was faithful in Marriage | Isaiah 1:21; |
| Filthiness | Not Gold; uncleanness | Ezekiel 16:36; Ezekiel 22:15; Zephan 3:1; Revelation 17:4 |
| Filthy | Disobedient and Rebellious | Zep 3:1; |
| Fornicator | Lover of Idols | 2 Chronicles 21:11; Ezekiel 16:15; |
| Fuel to the Fire | She which is consumed by the Lord | Ezekiel 21:32; |
| Gomorrah | Spiritual name of Jerusalem; | Isaiah 1:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14; |
| Great City | She which was Great | Jeremiah 22:8; Revelation 11:8; Revelation 17:18; |
| Hagar | The Egyptian Bond Woman; slave girl | Galatian 4:24-25 |
| Harlot | The unfaithful woman | Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 3:1: Ezekiel 16:15; Ezekiel 16:35, 41; Ezekiel 23:19;Ezekiel 23:44; Hosea 2:5; Hosea 4:15; |
| Harlot, Well-favored | Beautiful Adulteress | Nahum 3:4; |
| Heifer | Female Cow | Hosea 10:11 |
| Her with My Name | The Name of Jehovah shall be on her | 1 Kings 11:36; 1 Kings 14:21; 2 Kings 23:27; 2 Chron 12:13; Jeremiah 25:29 |
| Holy City | Sacred | Neh 11:1 |
| Imperious Whorish Woman | Vixen Adulteress | Ezekiel 16:30 |
| Israel After the Flesh | Natural Nation of Israel | 1 Cor 6:18; |
| Jebus | Aboriginal Name of Jerusalem; Trodden | Judges 19:10; 1 Chr 11:4; |
| Jebusi | Trodden inhabitants of Jerusalem | Joshua 18:28 |
| Jebusite | Trodden Amorites | Joshua 15:8; |
| Jerusalem Which Now Is | Earthly Jerusalem | Galatians 4:25 |
| Jeshurun | Symbolic Name of Israel | Deu 32:15, 33:5, 33:26; Isa 44:2; |
| Jews | Those of Judah | Romans 2:17; |
| Jezebel | A type of the False Religion of Adultery and Idols | Revelation 2:20; |
| Killer of the Prophets | Murderer of Those Who Are Sent To You | Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34 |
| Lewd Woman | The Adulteress Wife | Ezekiel 23:44; |
| Married Wife | She who has a husband | Isaiah 54:1 |
| Mistress of Witchcrafts | She who is deceived by Magic | Nahum 3:4 |
| Mocking to All Nations | She who is ridiculed; | Ezekiel 22:4; |
| Mother | She who has born Children | Isaiah 50:1; Hosea 2:5; Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34; Galatian 4:25 |
| Mother of Harlots | Her Children are like her | Revelation 17:5 |
| Mother’s Daughter | The female child; like mother like daughter | Ezekiel 16:45; |
| Mt Sinai | Where the Law Given to Moses | Galatians 4:24-25; |
| Mystery Babylon the Great | The Whore | Revelation 17:5 |
| Oppressing City | The City who is proud and violent | Zep 3:1; |
| Oppression, Wholly | She who has unjust gain; deceitfully obtained | Jeremiah 6:6; |
| Polluted | Trodden Down | Ezekiel 16:6; Zep 3:1 |
| Rahab | The Harlot, spiritual type of Jerusalem | Psalm 89:10; Isaiah 51:9 |
| Rebellious House | She who is disobedient and has become an enemy | Ezekiel 17:1, 24:3; |
| Rejoicing City | Joyous City | Zep 2:15; |
| Reproach to the Heathen | Disgrace to the Gentiles; | Ezekiel 22:4; |
| Salem | Peaceful the pattern and roots of Jerusalem | Genesis 14:18; |
| Seed of Evildoers | Fruit of Ungodliness | Isaiah 1:4; |
| Shalem | Early Name of Jerusalem | Gen 33:18; |
| Sinful Kingdom | A people to be destroyed | Amos 9:8; |
| Sinful Nation | A people led astray | Isaiah 1:4; |
| Sister | Woman with Siblings | Ezekiel 16:46; |
| Sister of Judah | The sister | Jeremiah 3:1; |
| Sister of thy Sisters | Sin runs in the family | Ezekiel 16:45; |
| Slayer of Innocent Blood | The City that Killed Jesus | Jeremiah 26:15; |
| Smitten | To Strike Down | Ezekiel 33:21; |
| Sodom | Spiritual Name for Jerusalem; | Isaiah 1:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14; Ezekiel 16:46-49; Revelation 11:8 |
| Thy Mother’s Daughter | Daughter of a Hittite (terror) | Eze 16:45 |
| Uncleanness | Religious filth | Ezekiel 36:17; |
| Where Our Lord Was Crucified | Jesus was hung on the cross there | Rev 11:8 |
| Whore | Adulteress Idol Worshipper | Ezekiel 16:33-34 |
| Whore, Great | Adulteress Idol Worshipper | Revelation 17:1; |
| Wife | She who is married to Jehovah | Jeremiah 3:20, 31:32; Ezekiel 16:8; Ezekiel 16:32; |
| Woman | The Great City | Ezekiel 23:44; Revelation 17:18 |
| Woman, Removed | Unclean Woman | Ezekiel 36:17; |
| Woman Who Breaks Wedlock | The Unfaithful wife of Jehovah | Ezekiel 16:38; |
If you would like to read other reference documents about Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols here are some others that are available:
Spiritual Visions! Real or Fantasy?
(Ver 1.5) This is now Part 2 of a series of important Bible lessons on the subjects of spiritual truths and realities. I had a reader try to tell me that the story in the Bible about Moses and Elijah appearing with Jesus on the mountain top was a vision that Peter, James and John experienced and therefore in a vision anything is possible. The entire context of his message comment was an attempt to explain away the reality of the existence of spiritual beings after their physical/natural death. These types of people are simply very ignorant and deceived by the devil into believing lies. They do not want to believe that people are spiritual beings that exist after death because they would rather believe that they go into a state of unconscious sleep until judgment day comes and God awakens them. They are attempting to justify their deception of the false “soul sleep” theology by explaining away what the Bible actually says on the subject either directly or indirectly. This is a common ploy of deception used by Satan, either ignore those things in the Bible that do not conform or fit with your version of the truth, or attempt to explain them away using your limited intellectual knowledge and human reasoning. There arises a great problem with this type of wrong thinking. We can easily find verses that contradict a soul sleep belief. People, without understanding what they are saying believe that my God was and is a willing participant to visions with lies of deception being embedded within them. They said that God can give people a vision of anything, like fairies, monsters, fantasies, imaginary figures or whatever simply because He likes to teach us something and it would be OK and acceptable for God to behave this way since He is clearly the sovereign God. All of his comment was a response to my explanation of “Is there Life after Death for Seeing Spirits” lesson that was recently written on that important subject. If you have not read this lesson you should go back and start with that lesson first, because I will not repeat any of it here. Because these people want to believe you go to sleep when you die, they try to explain away Moses and Elijah appearance with Jesus as a vision fantasy. Today’s lesson is on the subject of visions and it is directed at those who want to know the truth.
INTRODUCTION TO SPIRITUAL VISIONS
So today’s lesson is about the subject of spiritual visions and what they are! God will further discuss today in this lesson the purpose that His vision are given to people. We will learn today that there is more than one kind of spiritual vision. We will also discover that there are other types of a vision possible for other purposes. We will research and discover the truth using the Bible and ignoring the words of deceivers. According to the “deceived individual” a vision is simply an apparition or a fantasy of Biblical and Godly proportions where anything goes. So according to this person, God can communicate with people saying anything He wants to and even lie to them using a vision not found within reality. However, my Bible says that “It is impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18). In Titus 1:2 it says God cannot lie. Therefore according to written scripture there is absolutely no way that a vision from God can be a party to a lie or untruth in any way or form. Because people do not want to know the truth, they make up excuses to explain away the truth and they present them to fools who buy into them like they were eating candy. What a crazy mixed up world that we live in. It is just way too easy for Satan to deceive some people (Rev 12:9).
So what is a spiritual vision? In order to understand something we need to define it first. A vision occurs when a natural man is given a view into the spiritual realm either past, present or future. A vision is not a normal human experience. A vision is most definitely a gift from God by His sovereign choice that allows natural people to see unseen spiritual things, places, events, angels and people. However, these spiritual things are never fabrications or fantasies because they are more real than the natural things that we can see all around us. God who is a Spirit (John 4:24), created the natural world as a pattern after the spiritual world that He already lived in. It was the Supreme God of the spirit world that created this natural world.
2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The things that we perceive with our five natural senses are called the “Temporary” things of this world. This verse then contrasts the temporary things with the greater eternal things. What are eternal things? They are not natural things so they have to be supernatural things. These are spirits and the world that they live within. These are the eternal things and beings that God is comparing to natural seen things. Because people cannot see, feel taste, hear or smell the spiritual realm normally they do not believe that it exists. But, this is by God’s design and purpose not to allow man to know that he is a spirit being living in a temporary natural body, until after they are either saved or dead. Even after a person becomes a Christian they can still be a very “Carnal” Christian and still be flesh dominated.
Heaven is a very real spiritual location and place and existed way before the earth and the natural universe existed. What I am going to do today is to use the Bible to show you God’s usage of visions and see what we can learn from them. By standing firmly only on the Word of God and understanding what it says, is our only hope for not being deceived like some of these people that try to write me crazy responses, like they were trying to help me not to be deceived. I have learned better than to ignore God’s truth in order to follow a lie, I know who my God is and I know what His Word says, so I’m going to stand with Him and ignore the opinions of people.
THE FIRST VISION
The very first mention of a “vision” in the Bible comes in the Book of Genesis. This account is God speaking to Abram. If God is the one giving this vision then we know that God is communicating truth to Abram and these are not the words of any fantasy or fairy tale. Abram is able to perceive and understand the spoken words of God and here is this first mention of a vision in the Bible:
Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
So obviously God is lying to Abram and just telling him something He wants to trick him with. If you are spiritually blind this is what you might believe. If that is what you choose to believe then you might need to go read somebody else’s blog. What we can clearly see is that God holds a conversation with Abram in this chapter and informs him of what will happen in his life on earth and in the future to come. If you read the whole chapter you can clearly see that God gives Abram a covenant and reveals what will happen to his seed. These are spoken prophetic Words from God and not lies. There are no lies written here in this chapter because these are all of the true facts that will soon happen to Abram. God is not participating in a fantasy with Abram. It is very critical to note and learn the reason for the vision being given was for God to speak to a natural man named Abram. God did this by opening his spiritual eyes to see and hear something coming from the greater spiritual realm. God speaking to natural men with visions will become an established pattern of truth as we continue in this lesson. Please note that there is no other reasons given for the vision, do you understand this? Let’s look at another mention of “visions” in the KJV O.T. Bible.
ANOTHER CONFIRMATION FOR VISIONS
I am going to move to the book of Old Testament book of Numbers next. Here we should see God’s usage of visions and the further confirmation reason for their application usage. Remember in the Bible that God says let every word of truth be established in the mouths of two or three witnesses and that is exactly what I will do. Let’s read Numbers chapter 12 and verse 6:
Num 12:6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
God clearly informs us of how He uses visions to communicate to His servants the prophets. The prophets of God would receive spiritual information directly from God Almighty in the form of both visions and dreams. Again we see the only reason for God giving a vision to a human man is for God to speak to them. This means it has to be the truth, if it is coming from God. So I brought up dreams because this verse mentioned that God also uses them to communicate with people on the earth. I do not believe that every human vision or dream can only originate only from God, after all there are other spiritual beings that are alive and well on this planet. I have heard people say in church that they saw someone who they thought was Jesus and he appeared to them, but what he said to them tried to make them do something that the Bible did not say or confirm. So that type of vision could be the possible deception of the enemy Satan. The Bible says that even Satan can transform himself into an “angel of light” in order to try to deceive us (2 Cor 11:14). The only reason why Satan would transform himself is to be seen in a visual form. This clearly implies a vision into the spiritual realm. Therefore, if you do not know what the Bible says, you are an easy prey for this type of deception. I will tell you this plainly that God will never tell you anything in a vision that is contrary or opposed to the written Holy Word of God.
As you can clearly see in the above verse in Numbers 12:6, God uses visions to make Himself and His words known to people. So is God going to trick you with a false vision? Is God going to deceive you with a lying vision? Or is God going to speak ONLY the truth in a vision? What would make God known to us? I believe that only the truth is what comes from a vision from God for Him to make Himself known to us. So if Peter, James and John had a vision of Moses and Elijah speaking to Jesus was it fictional or real? I believe it has to be more real than anything we experience on the earth. The spiritual realm is not fictional, if it is, then God is a fictional character and I know much better than that. One of the key points to deception is to discredit the truth. Satan uses this ploy very often by inferring that God is the one that lies to people and that he is the one speaking the truth! This was his deception to Eve and he hasn’t come up with anything new for you either.
TYPES OF VISIONS
There are more than one type of vision in the Bible and in fact there are at least two types of visions that I have found in the Bible. One type of vision I will call an “Open” vision and the other type of vision I will call a “Closed” vision. Let me briefly show you the difference between these types of visions using the Bible. For example in the book of Job God says the following.
Job 33:14 For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Spiritually unaware men have a great difficulty in hearing the voice of the Spirit of God. Either their minds are cluttered with busy natural stuff or their mouths are opened too wide and speaking with empty words instead of listening for God. In either case, God does not interrupt your life and your agenda because He wants to say something to you. God is a Gentleman who does not rudely butt in on what you are doing and interrupt you. If you think He does, you are wrong. In Job this verse tells us that men and women have a great difficulty in perceiving the spoken Words of God. God can be speaking to you and you never even understand that it was God. One solution to this problem is God’s usage of dreams also called night visions while you are sleeping. This is an example of a closed spiritual night vision:
Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
As you can clearly see in this verse, God is saying that I will come to you in the night while your body rests and sleeps, because you did not hear me during the day when you were awake and busy. When you are in a deep sleep, your mind is usually very quite, you are not busy moving or talking and you can more easily hear what the Spirit of God wants to speak to you. Why is this possible? It is only possible because your spirit inside our sleeping natural body never sleeps. Just because your body sleeps does not mean the real unseen you ever sleeps. Only deceived people believe that spirits can sleep. While your body is asleep and your mind is not preoccupied, your spirit can hear directly from God in a night vision or a dream.
Job 33:16 Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,
God says that He is able to open the ears of the man in the night sleep so that he is able to hear the instructions from God. This is an example in the Bible of a closed spiritual vision. There is a key word given to us in this verse, and it is “opened”. This does not mean that the man was deaf and was unable to hear physically. It is only talking about the spiritual ears of the man being opened so that he can hear with his spirit. This type of vision is usually very personal and it is God speaking directly to your spirit for normally your benefit only. I guess it is important to note that even in a closed vision of the night, God must open something in order for you to hear it or see it.
So let’s contrast the difference between closed visions and an open vision. An open vision would be one that was in the likeness of the one experienced by Peter, James and John when they all saw Jesus speaking to Moses and Elijah on the mountain top. They were not sleeping, they were fully awake and they could clearly all see into the spiritual realm of reality concurrently something that they would have missed otherwise. If there was a third party watching this experience they would have seen Peter, James and John in a trance like state with their eyes fully wide open. But, these external observers would not have been able to perceive the presence of either Elijah or Moses unless God opens their eyes to see them. Let’s look at an example of this in the O.T.:
Num 24:4 He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
An open vision is usually one that occurs with your natural eyes wide open. When this type of vision occurs to you the people around you usually do not see what God is showing you in the spiritual realm, they only see you in a trance like state of existence. You are usually the only one that perceives the message from God sent from the Spiritual Realm. This is a method of God that allows you to see into the real spiritual world and it definitely is not a fantasy event of any type.
There are just many examples in the Bible of this type of vision and I will only give you one more example in today’s lesson. I just cannot go through every mention of the word in the Bible, it would take too long. The next story that I want to touch on is the story of Elisha in the O.T. book of 2 Kings. In this story the servant of Elisha comes to him and tells him some really bad disturbing news, he thinks. He tells Elisha that they are surrounded by the enemy and on the verge of their death. However, Elisha did not fret with this news or get worried in the least little bit. Why was this? What made Elisha able to see the situation differently than his servant? Remember that Elisha was God’s prophet and what did we read in Numbers about God speaking to His prophets? All Elisha did was this:
2Ki 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
Open the eyes of my servant so that he can see that there are more for us than there are against us. To open your eyes, does not mean your physical eyes were closed or blinded, his physical eyes were seeing fine the natural things that they were faced with. What Elisha was requesting for God to do was to open his spiritual eyes to let him see into the spiritual realm in order to see that there were flaming chariots of fire all around them. This was an example of an open spiritual vision of view into a real set of angels of God riding in chariots of fire. These angels were not “make believe” and these angels were not fantasy; they were simply seen only in the real spiritual realm and this the truth from God. So people, who want to believe lies, can go and explain away these real spiritual things in the Bible with their human reasoning for other spiritually ignorant people to devour.
CONCLUSION – FALSE VISIONS
I’ll wrap this lesson up for today with one final verse to consider. We have learned there are at least two types of visions, one open and one closed. We have observed that God’s visions are only given because God wants to speak truth to a natural man about things that he may not have been able to perceive otherwise. Now I want to briefly address a part of the subject that I alluded to earlier about false visions from other spiritual beings.
Jer 14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false visionand divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
God clearly tells us that He does not give anyone “False” visions so that they can preach lies to the people of God. Did you understand what God just said? Do you understand why and how this applies directly to the vision that Peter, James and John had? If the vision of Moses and Elijah was not real and the truth then it was a fabricated lie and must be called a false vision. This would be a deception that God says that He is not participating in. This verse clearly teaches us that God gives people only visions of truth and spiritual reality. God will not give anyone a fantasy vision, a fairy tale vision or an imaginary vision of fiction. That would make God a liar and this is not my God and never will be.
People who want to believe lies will ignore vital scriptures in the Bible that conflict with their erroneous beliefs. These scriptures were placed there by God to teach us the truth and every scripture on the subject of visions must be balanced with the other scriptures on the subject. This is basic correct Bible interpretation. Only when we allow the Bible to interpret itself can we come close to actually understanding the truth. The next time anyone gives you a verse and tries to tell you that it is not a real vision from God of truth you should respond with the Bible.
It is very interesting to note, do you know that it does not matter what you believe? It does not matter if you are right or if you are wrong? Wow, I probably just blew someone’s mind saying that. I guess I should rephrase those statements, because it does matter if what you believe is the truth for your salvation. But, what I meant to say was your version of the truth does not change the reality of the actual God given and intended truth. God is not going to change to fit and conform with your personal beliefs. God is not going to change His truth to align with your version of the truth. God is a constant, never changing, eternal God that only projects the truth in His word to those who want to see it. To those who are not interested in God’s truth, they are permitted to be deceived and follow their own misconceptions. This is the only way that God can give everyone a free will and a right to make a fair choice in this life.
I had another confused reader try to ask me, why can’t there be multiple choices available to the afterlife? In other words he seemed to think that people are all so different in this current world, so therefore God will allow them all to be different in the world to come. While people will not be identically cloned robots in the afterlife and they will be completely unique we must understand that an anything goes moral mentality and the freedom to commit sin, will not be a direct part of God’s future plan. This type of thinking was the erroneous philosophy of an all-inclusive religion of tolerance and acceptance called “Universal Salvation” where everyone will be in heaven even if they never made Jesus their Lord here on this planet. I have other Bible lessons that address this so I will not repeat them here. But these are false lies of Satan also that will send people to hell because they think they do not have to repent and get saved. There will be no evil in the afterlife for those that are saved because there will be no tempter to test us. Satan will be cast into the lake of fire and will not be able to tempt anyone. God help us all to see the truth.
If I were you I would become hungry and thirsty to know the real truth. Only by being open minded and examining the Bible closely to verify everything that you believe is true, can you ever be assured that you have not been deceived. If you are not willing to change when the truth is presented to you then you are in trouble. Pray and ask God to show you the truth, He is the teacher and will confirm to you the truth. Base your faith only on the Bible and not on anything that a man teaches. Thank you for taking the time to read and study the Bible and I hope this lesson will help someone to understand spiritual visions. God Bless!
Who’s Sending the Storms in Your Life?
(Ver 2.1) This is “Part 3” in a series of advanced lessons about “Understanding Hard Sayings” found in the Bible. We live in a pretty crazy world at times. Some Christians like to believe that God is in complete control of everything that happens to us, but what do you do with the times when it seems like you are facing some very challenging overwhelming circumstances? Did God send these negative circumstances to test you, prove you or maybe just to keep you humble? It is funny what many churches teach on this subject and most of them ignore what the Bible says in order to teach something that they have created in their minds. Human reasoning and religious thinking usually results in things that are directly opposed to the truth of God. Learn to be careful who you follow and make sure what they are teaching you is based ONLY upon the scriptures being correctly divided and interpreted. Also allow the Spirit of God inside of you to be your quide into the truth. He will also keep you from what is not the truth if you let Him. Always remember that whatever God says to you by His Spirit will always be in perfect alingnment with what He has said to you in His written Word.
Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
The Greek word translated as tribulation literally means “trouble” and “pressure”. So we have all been faced with the storms of trouble and pressure in our lives. These are things like losing your job and wondering what you are going to do now for money to pay the bills. How about getting attacked physically with sickness and disease? Having a child die suddenly? What about being pregnant and having a miscarriage?
Facing natural disasters like hurricanes, tornados, wild fires, earthquakes and floods. Look at the world’s economies on the brink of collapse. The plunging real estate markets and the rollercoaster stock markets. What about the price of food and inflation, droughts, famines, wars and I could go on and on We are all faced with an enormous amount of different kinds of pressures being put on us from every side it seems. The verse above in John 16:23 speak of these “pressures” in life. Jesus told us that tribulation is a part of the world that we live in. However, Jesus did not say God was sending them your way. Jesus said be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. Jesus directly links this “pressure” to the “world” that we currently live in. Jesus did not say be of good cheer because these are just God’s way of testing you, changing you, proving you or whatever else people like to think. I personally believe that if there was nothing to overcome in life that nobody would seek God for help. But, yet I also believe that God never sent any of these storms of life that we are faced with. I personally believe that God warned Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that Adam is the one that allowed evil to enter into the world that we reside within. I’ll try to talk more about this as we go to show you who the originator of these adversities and evils really is. Here are some Bible verses that I have found that helped me tremendously when I was studying this subject and I hope they are a blessing to you also:
Luk 8:22 Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the side side of the lake. And they launched forth.
In this story found in Luke, Jesus has been ministering to a group of people and it was now getting very late in the day. Jesus sends the people away and goes with his disciples to cross the sea in their boat . So far nothing new is happening that is very news worthy.
Luk 8:23 But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.
This is where the story starts to get really good. There are many people in churches that teach that Jesus was God in His full deity power. However, this verse should cause them a major problem, because the Bible says that God neither sleeps nor slumbers (Psalm 121:4). You can obviously see the potential conflict to that kind of teaching by simply reading the verses in the Bible that reveal to us the truth. I believe that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. However, I also believe when God became a man, He stripped Himself of His deity powers in order to lay down His life for us. You see it is impossible to kill an omnipotent God. Understand that how you are now is how God had to become. If you sleep Jesus had to sleep. If you eat then Jesus had to eat. If you ever get thirsty then Jesus got thirsty. If you could sin, then it was possible for Jesus to sin. These are just basic realities found in the Bible. So I got off of the subject for a quick side trip to help someone today. This verse informs us that as they were sailing, Jesus went to sleep. The winds picked up and a storm came upon them and it looked very bleak to the disciples. Some of the disciples were men who made their living on the water; they were intimately familiar with this sea, the weather there, boats and sailing. They obviously thought the situation was life threatening. So they had a problem; one of those storms of life had arisen around them that I talked about earlier and they believed it could be the end of them. The boat was taking on water, the wind was very strong against them and the outcome looked very bleak. Fortunately for them they had Jesus in the boat asleep. Let me ask you a quick question; do you have Jesus in you right now? If you do He is not sleeping!
So let’s stop right here and determine something. Who sent these winds and this storm to Jesus and the disciples? Was this the work of God? I thought God was in the boat? Of course God in the flesh was in the boat but God who is a Spirit was also everywhere else at the same time. But, did God send the storm? People like to think that the storms are the acts of God because He is the highest power in control? Certainly men on the earth believe they did not cause the storm, therefore they understand cause and effect so someone had to cause the storm! Insurance agencies like to have “Acts of God” clauses to define what they will cover and what they will not cover. I’ve even heard ignorant ministers claim a hurricane that almost destroyed New Orleans was an act of God’s judgment upon a sinful city. People sure can be ignorant and accuse God of doing some crazy things that I doubt if He is pleased with. Please let me introduce you to a new concept that is related to our subject today of who caused the storm:
Mat 12:26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Did you know that Satan had a kingdom? That is not why I picked this verse, but it is an interesting point to keep in mind. Jesus says that any kingdom divided against itself will be brought to nothing. This is a spiritual law from the mouth of God! What do we learn from this law? Can you apply this knowledge to our discussion today? Jesus claims that one party or one kingdom cannot fight against itself and survive. That is a very important concept to keep in your mind when thinking about did God cause the storm. So what is my point? If God sends the storm and then God is awakened in the boat to stop the storm, would that not be God working against Himself? That would make God divided against Himself, not in harmony and certainly not in unity. It is more like a Jekyll and Hyde type of God. You cannot send a storm just to give you something to do or to provide an opportunity to prove that you can stop it. It would not make any logical sense. The Kingdom of God would clearly be divided against itself if God sends the storm and then stops the same storm. Do you understand what Jesus is teaching?
Luk 8:24 And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.
As you can see the disciples woke Jesus up and said Master look we are perishing. Jesus got up and looked at the problem and spoke words to it! The wind stopped and there was a great calm. So let’s stop right there again and think. If Words stopped the storm, could words have started the storm? I think that is a very valid question. If it were Words that caused the storm, they cannot be the words from God or He would be divided against Himself. The Bible clearly says God does not change! To speak words to cause a storm and then to speak words to stop the same storm would cause God to be a shifting inconsistent unstable God! I find that a very interesting concepts to understand. As a result of spoken words there was a great calm that surrounded them. If the storm was intentionally sent to Jesus and the disciples what would have been the end result of the storm, if Jesus had not stopped it? For what purpose would the storm have served? Would the storm have been a blessing or a curse? I recently saw a post on the internet that said “adversity can be a blessing in disguise” and I thought immediately how confused this writer was. If you can read in Luke from the fear that the disciples possessed the storm seems to be designed to kill them, to destroy their boat and to steal their life, their time and their money away from them. There is absolutely no logical way to think that the storm in Luke could be viewed to be a blessing in disguise. What else is a storm good for? Right here is an amazing time to use your brain and think again. Is any major storm of life ever a blessing in disguise? I do not think anyone recently in Joplin Missiouri would think it was. So who does Jesus say causes these types of adverse destructive events in our lives? Did you know that the Bible tells us who is responsible?
Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
The thief is a synonymous reference or title for Satan. There are those in churches that think that God sends the storms of life upon them and if that is the case then God is the thief. I cannot speak for your God, but my God is not a thief. Anything that steals from you, tries to kill you or destroy what you possess, Jesus called it an act of the “thief” Satan. 
We also know that God is not the one who kills, steals or destroys because Jesus said in this verse that He came to give us life abundantly and that would be the opposite of someone who was coming to give us death. Hopefully you can see the difference and know who is behind each event that happens to you. Jesus said that the pressures of life would come, but that we should be of good cheer because He had overcome all of the pressures. Why is that important? Because according to 2 Cor 2:14 God declares us triumphant “In Christ”. Did you know you were in Christ? I guess I do not have time to teach that today, but this is why God can tell you to be of good cheer when storms come!
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
There are just too many people in churches who do not realize that we have a spiritual enemy and an adversary of spiritual opposition. This enemy is only interested in taking you out of this world. He wants to deceive you any way that he can. The term to wrestle is a physical conflict between opponents. If you are wrestling a friend you are not wrestling. The opponent is described to us as not being a physical being, but is clearly described to be a spiritual force. The term principalities refer to the chief rulers in the spiritual realm. These spiritual forces are described as being “wicked” that means evil and hurtful. They do not play the game or fight the battle by any rules. They are in a no holds barred match of spiritual wits against you. They will send whatever they can against you to take you out.
Luk 8:25 And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.
Getting back to our main lesson story found in Luke, Jesus calms the storm with words and turns to the disciples and asks them a very funny question that most people do not understand. Jesus did not say “Sorry fellows, I did not know, why didn’t you just wake me sooner”. I think that is what most religious people would like to do or think that Jesus said. Jesus was asking “Where is your faith?” Why was Jesus asking them like they should have had faith to do something about the storm? When you read the Bible you need to pay close attention to every word. What is said and what is not said. You do not ask a question like this if you did not expect something different. Everyone likes to pray to God and ask him to calm the storms of life and God’s response will always be “Where is your faith?” That is something that people do not grasp easily, because they do not know what faith is. The implied meaning of the question that Jesus asked was the disciples could have done the same thing that Jesus just did. I know that is going to go over big with some people and others it will be like I’m speaking heresy. We can’t do what God does, can we? We certainly are not God! I know that for sure. However, I’m just studying the Bible and trying to understand what it says. You can choose to believe something else if you like; I’m not your judge.
What I take away from this lesson of Jesus and the disciples is that Jesus is more than capable of solving all of our problems. But, His question will always be “Where is your faith?” I also learn from this story in Luke that God is not causing the storms in your life so He or you can calm them. God’s house is not divided and God must be consitently good or we woould not know if we should try to calm the storms, ask God to calm the storms or to simply let the storms kill us. After all if God sent the storm and you prayed to have the storm stop you have made yourself a new enemy to the will of God and that is why I peronsally believe that God never sends the adversities in your life. You of course can choose to believe what you like. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading in this series about “Understanding Hard Sayings” you may go to “Part 4“.
God’s Definition of Eternity! Are there any Limits to What We Can Learn?
(Ver 1.1) Today I want to do something different to stimulate and exercise your mind. I want to get you to thinking of some things that you may have never thought of before. God woke me up last night and taught me some new concepts about eternity that I have never even thought of before. I hesitate to tell people on the Web that God does this to me, because people sometimes think you’re crazy to believe things like God can actually talk to you and you can actually hear and understand Him. However, if this is not possible, then we have found something else that God can’t do, He can’t communicate with humans. Actually if you have ever read the Bible you have seen too many examples of God speaking to Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah and I could go on and on. Today, the problem with most people is that they are not spiritually aware enough to realize when God is saying anything to them. Knowing how God talks to you is the key to hearing from God and I will not comment on that any further. So this is what the Spirit of God said to me, “Are there any limits to what you can know?” I took this to mean will there ever come a time when we are in eternity with God that we will reach a point that there is nothing else for us to learn? I mean forever is a very long time. Humans cannot even fathom the definition of what eternity is. After we go beyond billions or trillions, most people stop trying to process what those kinds of numbers mean in our brain. We have no reference point to the experience of eternity that even comes close to what forever means. You see my computer has a 1 terabyte hard drive in it. That is a far cry from my first computer hard drive of 10 megabytes. However, even 1 terabyte is nowhere close to having an infinite hard drive space available to you. I mean even Google doesn’t have infinite hard drive storage space. We are born on this planet with a limited perspective and we may live even 100 years and this is nothing compared to eternity. It would be like one cell out of every cell in our universe combined. Even Adam or Methuselah in the O.T. never lived to be older than 1000 years old. Methuselah the oldest recorded living man in the Bible, only lived 969 years. This is a nothing numbers compared to living in eternity. So there is no human on the earth that has any clue of how long eternity is. So here is the key question today to challenge you to think; how much could you learn if you had forever to do it in? Are there any limits to knowledge? Are there any limits to what God knows?
Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
As you can clearly see, the Bible says that God lives in eternity. I looked up the word “eternity” to see the definition and it means “forever” or “without end”. Eternity is clearly just a concept to us that we have great difficulty in comprehending fully. God exists outside of the realm of time and yet sent Jesus Christ into the realm of time at the perfect time to accomplish what God needed to accomplish. So I believe that the dimension of time does not limit God. Einstein theorized that as we approach the speed of light that time would slow and then finally stop. I find that very interesting since the Bible says that God is Light! That is pretty awesome stuff to think on.
So here is where I’m going to start to get a bit controversial, surprise, surprise. Does God know everything? Is there anything that God does not know? These are almost trick questions. Because I do not know, if we have the answers to these questions. Most people believe that God knows everything. After all only He is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient to name three known qualities used to describe God. The term omniscient is a theological term that is used to describe God and it can actually mean “All knowing”. God can be described as having an infinite amount of capacity for knowledge and this is probably a very good thought. But, I also think that this is dependent upon your perspective. God certainly is All Knowing concerning us and the rest of His creation. The Bible certainly says that God knows some amazing details about us. God knows our every thought and with over 6 billion people on the planet, I do not understand how this is even possible. The Bible says God knows how many hairs are on our heads at any given time. Do you have a clue of how many hairs are on your head? Unless you are totally bald, you do not have a clue. This proves that God is the most detailed oriented being that I can conceive of. So what is the controversial part of my thought process today? If God holds the capacity to know everything that is possible to know but still does not know everything, then there is a possibility of an infinite amount of knowledge being available to learn. If God knows an infinite amount of information already, then there is nothing that He does not know. Which one is it? Either way, we have to conclude that there is no limit to what we can know and learn in eternity. Maybe this will come out clearer as I go forward; probably right now I have a bunch of people just scratching their heads and saying what did he just say?
Let me see if I can rephrase what I tried to say, either God already has infinite knowledge or the realm of knowledge is infinite and God has the capacity to know it all. I really cannot say which one is true using the Bible. If you say that God knows everything already, then you have to conclude there is no creativity in anyone else. Every book that can be written has already been written by God. Every song that can be written has already been written by God. Only God has creation power and the rest of us are just puppets imitating God’s preconceived ideas. That would mean that the Bible says we are made in his image but we do not have His power to create so the Bible lied. I haven’t found a Bible verse to describe any of this per say. If you know of one or two, please let me know. I would love to learn. I did see some verses in Job that describes God as having “perfect knowledge”. The term “perfect” would tend to mean or at the least imply “whole” or “complete” knowledge.
All I know is somewhere something or someone has to be infinite. Either the amount of knowledge available is infinite or the knowledge of God is infinite. Otherwise it would mean somewhere in the course of eternity we could potentially reach a point of the end of all learning and come to a state of knowing everything. If this could occur, what would we do then? Can you even wrap your mind around this deep subject today? Here is what I took away from what God said to me last night. There is no limit to how much you can know, because there is no limit to the availability of God’s knowledge. You see I totally believe that God has the capacity of knowing everything. I totally believe that God’s knowledge compared to my knowledge right now is a like a comparison of all of the water in all of the oceans in the world compared to my single drop of water, if that much. But, I also believe that eternity is a long, long time. So the bottom line is no matter how much we learn even in a trillion years of time, we would have just begun to learn what God can teach us.
Also God when he spoke to Abraham told him that his seed would be as the stars of the heaven or as the sands on the seashore (Gen 22:7). In other words more than you could count right now. However, if you had eternity to count them all, is it possible to do it. This has to be a finite number, just a very big number. Do you understand big number concepts? Is there any limit to how high you can count? I don’t think so, if you have the time to do it.
So I probably just turned off a bunch of religious or non-intellectual type people. I seemed to imply that there could be stuff that God still has left that He can learn and I certainly do not have any Bible verses to demonstrate or confirm this logic. But I will tell you this also; this is what else God said to me in the middle of the night. He told me to think about the number “Pi”. If you are not a math type person you probably do not know what I’m talking about. The number “Pi” is a number used in math and geometry in relation to measuring circles. A circle is a symbol of completeness. A circle could also be a symbol of infinity, since as long as you want to go around in the circle it will let you keep going. A circle is a line without ends. So a circle could possibly be representative of a picture of God. Here is the Web definition for “Pi”:
Pi: the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle
Pi is an irrational number, in decimal places it never ends and never repeats with any know pattern. To me I can see Pi as a picture of God. He has no end and never does He do the exact same thing exactly twice. However, God does utilize patterns to repeat things in the natural realm from the spiritual realm so we have some additional complexity to ponder. If anyone ever told you that studying the Bible was easy, they lied to you. What do you think of the concepts behind pi and how this number relates to God? So I believe that God invented math for us to learn about natural concepts and laws that we can apply to spiritual things. If you can learn from them and apply them correctly you will begin to see how they relate to other spiritual things. I use math laws in my Bible interpretations all the time. God taught me this method so I stick with it. So here is the problem that I am faced with, Pi is an infinite never ending number. No matter how many digits that you calculate the number Pi to, the number never ends. This is the definition of eternity again, demonstrated to us in the concept of a never ending number. When I was in the 10th grade I memorized Pi to like 8 or 9 digits; to me “Pi” was 3.141592653…” and I thought I was doing pretty well. Later in life when computers came along, I learned that “Pi” had been calculated out in the astronomical realms of numbers. However, even with all of this work they were not any closer to the end of the number than I was. Why did God create infinite things like this? Never ending number concepts? I believe it was to show us that there is no limit to what we can still learn in eternity. I mean think about it, if God can create a number that He cannot find the end of; that tells me that we have something truly amazing in store for us. So I probably offended someone again saying God could not solve Pi, but yet God would have to change the definition of Pi or round it off somewhere in order to stop computing the number. Do you understand this? God, who has far greater computing power than any computer we have on our planet, could spend the rest of eternity at calculating Pi and still never reach the end. That is the definition of something that is infinite, yes? So can an infinite God solve an infinite math problem? I think that is a very tough question for me to even try to think of how to answer. You see I think that an infinite God who lives in eternity could calculate Pi forever and still never reach the end of the number. There would always be another digit to add to the list of numbers. Wow, that is very deep, I know. So we can still look at this subject in different ways. We can say that the possible realm of knowledge is infinite or we can say that God already holds infinite knowledge. To me if God held infinite knowledge then God had Pi solved before we were given it. However, this means by definition that Pi is solvable and is not an infinite number. Then there is the concept of writing books or songs that I mentioned earlier. Is there a limit to the number of books that God could write? Is there a limit to the number of songs that can be written by us? I personally do not believe that there are a finite number of songs available for us to create. Do you understand the complexity behind these concepts that God has given to us? They are truly amazing, but yet they are nothing compared to what God has in store for us in the future:
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
When you start to think differently you begin to see old Bible verses in new enlightening ways. Is it beginning to get into your heart like it is mine? I think if it is, then we have only scratched the tip of the iceberg of knowing who God is and how much He loves us. Be a thinker, but begin to see God as He sees us. The Bible says that we have the mind of Christ, so begin to think like God. I know that I can hardly wait for the eternity of good things to come from God. I hope that I at least stimulated your mind to think today, like God did my mind last night. You may not agree with the things that I said, but that is OK also. Today was not a lesson on how to be saved so it really doesn’t matter that much. Today’s lesson was designed to get you to think eternally, infinitely, as a course for your future existence with God. If you disagree with anything that I said I’ll read it, but I probably won’t respond to the negative words of critics’ unless you can show me some Bible verses. You see I don’t know everything and I am perfectly willing to change to be right as long as I can see it in the Bible. In the meantime I’ll do my own search of the Bible using my computer to see if I can learn anything about what God has challenged me to think on. Mathematics is full of never ending number sequences and there must be a reason why God created them to be this way, so it is a challenge for you and I to find out why. Be continually blessed and encouraged in growing in the knowledge of Him.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! We Are the Seed of Abraham! Part 10
(Ver 1.3) Today I am writing Part 10 in the series of lessons that I have been doing on the spiritual concepts and laws surrounding God’s designed Seed planting principles. If you have not read this series from the beginning, I would strongly recommend that you start with “Part 1”. If you have been reading this series, then welcome back. When you get a hold of this teaching it will change a lot of what you think and know about God and the Bible. The concepts given in the Bible about seeds cannot be overly simplified because they are vastly complex in how God applies them throughout the Bible. The concepts of seeds are overlapping and run in parallel at the same time. Seeds concepts are truly woven threads in the fabric of God’s truth found throughout the Bible. The subject of seeds is a common theme given to us in every part of the Bible. You can find seeds mentioned in the beginning of Genesis 1 all the way to references to seeds in the last chapter of the Bible in Revelation 22. Seeds are everywhere in the Bible if you know what to look for and if you understand the concepts behind them. You see in Revelation 22:2 God speaks of the “Tree of Life” on each side of the river flowing from the throne of God. These “Trees of Life” produce 12 kinds of fruit. If you recall we learned that Fruit comes from planting seeds, naturally and spiritually. You plant a seed, you get a tree and then it produces the fruit to produce more fruit trees. It is a simple concept, yet so profound. So who are these symbolic fruit trees in Revelation 22? Do you recall reading back in Genesis 2 about the first mention of the Tree of Life? God created a Garden for man. In the garden God placed two trees, named Adam and Eve, I mean the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. It would appear to me that God’s plan was for man to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever, since this is the way it is described to end up in Revelation 22. So what can we learn here? We learned from the Parable of the Sower that the Word of God was the seed of God. We learned that the hearts of men and women in the world were the soil where seeds are planted. Let’s stop right there and analyze that statement. What is a Garden? A garden is where you plant your seeds to grow your fruit. Genesis 2 describes vast amounts of seed principles being applied by God. We have a symbolic Garden and we have 2 trees that are symbolic of something also. One tree is OK to eat from and one tree is not OK to eat from. Sounds like a good time for making the right decision. Since Adam did not make the right decision we still see that God says I will make the right decision and it will end up the way that I planted it to end up. After all it is my garden and my seed. Are you beginning to see the concepts being given?
When you begin to understand just a little bit about seeds you can begin to see that God is smarter than us all put together. I am a firm believer that God’s stated beginning in Genesis 1 & 2 was a symbolic representation of how He wanted it to end up when our time on this planet is completed. We know that God is the giver of the “Good” Seed. We know that we (the people) are God’s Soil or Garden. That would make God the Ultimate Farmer! Do you understand this?
Jas 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
Here is an amazing verse of scripture that describes God’s Farm System. The Lord God is described as being the “husbandman”. This Greek word translated as husbandman in the KJV Bible means “a worker of land” or literally a “farmer”. We can again see in this verse that Fruit is the desired anticipated outcome of God’s laborious seed planting. God sowed the good seeds to produce the good fruit from the earth. This verse is very symbolic in nature. The “Husbandman” is the Land Owner who Works the Soil to plant His seeds in. We can clearly understand that God owns the Earth, but that is only natural soil. God is not talking about a natural crop of corn in this verse. God is referring to a spiritual crop of fruit. But, realize that seeds do not produce fruit, seeds produce trees that produce fruit. This is a very critical part of the seed principle. This is why I called Adam and Eve trees that had no fruit in Genesis 2 and 3. Adam however, chose the wrong seeds and allowed the wrong fruit to grow, sinned and died. Adam in effect sold his birthright for some wrong fruit to Satan. We (the church) are now the purchased possession of God, by the redemptive price that He has paid with His own blood. Christians have been purchased, redeemed without money the Bible says. So we are God’s gardens that have allowed His Seed into our hearts to grow and produce fruit. We produce the Fruit that God is after. So when you read Revelation 22:2 and see the Trees of Life on each side of the river flowing from the Throne of God, we can understand that we are these trees producing this fruit every month of the year for an eternity to come. That is pretty cool stuff, if you ask me. If you can see it you will think it is pretty amazing also. Only by rightly dividing the Word of God have I come to these conclusions. By letting the Bible interpret itself and by understanding simple spiritual concepts like Seeds, Soil, Gardens, Planting, Sowing, Rain, Watering, Fruit, Reaping and Harvests.
So that was a quick introduction to an overview of how to apply the knowledge that we have gleaned from the Bible subject concerning Seeds. Like I told you before there are over 250 scriptures in the KJV Bible that directly mention the word “seed”. In many modern translations the literal meaning of the word “seed” is translated as offspring, children, or some other word that loses the true meaning that God was trying to get you to see. So while I do not try to tell you what to do, that is why I do not read many translations. They take too many liberties with God’s Word and change it too much. The best translation would be no translation, but since I do not speak Hebrew or Greek, I just look up the words in the dictionary and do the best that I can with God’s help. So the best translation of the Bible is the one that is the most literal and I can’t tell you which one that is, I just know some that they are not. People need to realize that God could have used any word that He wanted to and He picked “Seed” to describe these things we have been talking about. I guess translators think that God is stupid and He did not know the right word to use. Plus I use the KJV version because it is a FREE version of the Bible that is readily available to everyone without charge, limitations or restrictions. Jesus said freely you have received so charge the heck out of everybody and get all that you can. I think that is what some Bible manufacturers think, because this is the way that they act. It is only for the money they think. Oh, well I guess I’ll get off my soap box and keep teaching on the subject of seeds. Let me briefly review two concepts that I have touched on before, but this time using some new scripture verses.
Heb 11:11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Hebrews chapter 11 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible. But most people do not see what it says. The chapter is dominated by one Subject and that is “Faith”. We can learn that even though God did not reveal “Faith” in the Old Testament, He definitely made it a determining factor to what people received in their life. This chapter goes through many examples of Bible faith and in this verse we are told of Sarah’s faith in God’s Word. Sarah believed that God was faithful because He had promised them a child. Now she was 90 years old when this child came, but yet God was not too late was He? Many times God’s timing is not your timing, but yet we should not question God, just believe that it will happen like He said. In this verse there is the direct mention of “seed”. Sarah was able to “Conceive” Seed. Did you know that this is how that Mary got pregnant with Jesus also? These were examples of conceiving two different types of “seeds”, but yet the end results were both the same. Sarah conceived natural sperm of her husband Abraham’s natural seed. While Mary conceived the “Word of God”, God’s also known as spiritual seed. Both women were required to believe that it would happen like it was told to them. Both women heard the message, before it actually happened to them. Neither woman had any evidence or proof that it would ever happen, did they? There was no proof? This is a pattern of how to receive anything from God. If you want a baby and have not been able to conceive a child, here is your answer. God does not show any favoritism to anyone! God is no respecter of person! What God did for Sarah and for Mary, He will do for you if you choose to believe also.
So I got off the subject of the Seed of Abraham. That is what this lesson was supposed to be about when I started. I guess God wanted to talk to somebody out there and tell them there was hope. before I more on completely I also want to point out that God can exachange one seed type for the other by the lessons of Sarah and Mary. What God has created in the natural can still happen by an equivalent type of substance usage or exchange from the spritual realm. A spiritual seed can replace a natural seed and still give the same result. Let’s move on to an example of this using the seed of Abraham. The Bible clearly tells us that Jesus Christ came into the world as the Seed of Abraham. Let’s prove that statement by reading this verse and see what God reveals:
Heb 2:16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
The Bible is so complex, that it is impossible to teach everything that just one verse says in a short lesson like this. Why would God mention that Jesus was not born or created as an angel? That is a much more complex subject that I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned because I cannot talk about it in this lesson. It only gives you something new to think about. Learn to ask God questions when you read the Bible and you just may be amazed when He shows you the answers. So Jesus was not an angel, just load that basic fact into your mind for a future reference to a new unkown question. However, Jesus was born the “Seed of Abraham”. We need to review the basic seed concepts again that we have previously learned that should be firmly established in you by now. We learned that a man is a physical being that has “Seed” within himself. I showed you several times now that when Abraham paid tithe, his future descendant Levi was reported to have also paid the tithe at the same time. This was because the physical future seed Levi was in his great grandfather Abraham. If you do not recall this you should go back and review the earlier lessons, because this is a very critical piece of spiritual information to fully grasp. The principle revealed to us in this lesson was that every natural descendant of Abraham did exactly what Abraham did because they came from Abraham’s physical seed. Now that would be really good information if you were a natural seed of Abraham and I’ll tell you why soon. What about the rest of us on earth? We were called Gentiles by the laws of flesh in the world that were not born from natural seed of Abraham? Are we all left out because we were not born from the natural seed of Abraham? We will find out as we continue.
Keep in mind that the Bible is so much more complex than you give it credit to be. Also keep in mind that God is smarter than you and I are. His ways are not your natural ways, so it makes it very difficult for us to grasp these very spiritual things being taught to us. Let’s turn to Galatians and learn something brand new about seeds:
Gal 3:19 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.
You can see that this is a verse with wide seed applications attached to it. We talked earlier about that the word seed can either be singular or plural and you really have a very difficult time in determining which one it is by only reading on the surface. The word in this context is clearly singular. Jesus Christ is again called the Seed of Abraham as we can see. This verse tells us clearly of all the natural seeds that were “IN” Abraham, only one of them carried the hope of the promise that was given to Abraham. This was a very literal one in some several millions of future natural seeds, type of prophecy. God singles out and separates “One Seed” to be the “Chosen Seed”. We know that this Seed was God Himself. Knowing this now doesn’t sound very good for all the other natural seeds that came from Abraham. Can you see how the Bible presents us with puzzles and paradoxical predicaments? We read in one place that being a seed of Abraham seems to be a good thing, but now we read that only one of the seeds actually carried the promise. Wow are things getting complicated or what?
Gal 3:18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Let’s back up one verse in Galatians and see some of the context of what is being discussed around this subject of the “Chosen Seed”. I’ll try to stay on subject, according to what we just read in verse 19, we are talking about the Seed called Jesus Christ who we can see in this verse was promised the inheritance. So the inheritance was not promised to every seed, just the One! That is a pretty complex thing to think about and it can become a point of confusion, if we are not careful. What is an inheritance? Do you understand this concept? Have you ever seen or been to a lawyer’s office who reads someone’s last will and testament? Someone had to die in order for there to be an inheritance available to anyone. Do you understand this? This will certainly get more complicated than you can imagine when I tell you who died. Who died to leave an inheritance to the Chosen Seed? If you guessed that the Chosen Seed died you would actually be right! God gave Himself to be the sacrifice for man’s sin. God became the Chosen Seed of Abraham. This Seed died and was planted into the natural ground for 3 days and rose up spiritually alive again forever. God is the only one that I know of that is capable of experiencing death and then coming back to life to inherit that which He had left as an inheritance. I don’t know if you understand these concepts or not, but I know they are staggeringly powerful spiritual laws in action. Do you see how God used seed concepts and laws in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
What does all of this have to do with you and I? How does it affect us personally in the church? How do I apply seed information to me if I am not a natural seed of Abraham? I think that is what interests many people, what is the bottom line for me today? That is where I want to get to now. If you are a true Christian, a born again believer in Christ, then it has everything to do with you.
Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
As you can see in this following verse of Galatians 3, the promise was by the faith of Jesus Christ that it might be given to us who believe. Do you see why I included the scripture about Sarah? Do you see how she was given a promise by God and trough her faith in His promised words, she conceived seed? God has implemented a system within Christianity that is based totally and completely upon faith and seeds. Let’s look at Faith in the terms of “Seed” concepts briefly. If you went to your garden and planted some seeds in it, did you have any faith when you plant your seeds? Do you believe that what you are doing is going to result in anything good in the future? You see if you did not have any faith in these seeds you would not have planted any of them in the first place. A seed is not a magic potion; you do not plant them and poof there they are like some magic bean stalk! Faith is never a Jack in the Bean stalk reality or fantasy. It always takes time and care to develop and produce that which was planted. So farming is a faith lesson. God planted a seed and expected a harvest. That is the definition of what faith is in a nutshell; believing in a harvest by only planting seeds in the ground. Remember that natural seeds are invisible substances when placed in the ground. You see nothing for many days and only believe they are there by faith.
Are you a believer today? Then you believe in God’s Seed principles. Even though you have never seen Jesus personally, you believe that He is faithful who has promised. The Bible says “Why stare ye into heaven? This same Jesus that you saw go up into heaven, will come back down in the same way” (Acts 1:11). Believing only in the words of angels written down in a book with no basis of proof and no physical evidence that you can take to court, that is what faith is. God’s Word is the Seed, remember? If you believe God’s Word it will conceive in your spirit the same as it did for Mary. No, you won’t have a virgin birth, God did not promise you that, but you can go into the Bible and see what He did Promise you and believe for that.
Gal 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
This verse near the beginning of Galatians 3 makes a declaration that is not widely understood. As you can see this verse is addressed to the Church of Jesus Christ. How can a widely Gentile congregation of people be called the children of Abraham? If you look up the definition of the words, it actually calls Abraham our “father”. I thought God was our Father? Here is another perplexing puzzle given to us in the Bible. You see there is NO WAY that I am a natural descendant of Abraham. I was not born of the natural nation of Israel. But, yet God still calls Abraham my father. People obviously just ignore verses like these in the Bible, I guess? Since I am not a natural child of Abraham that only leaves me to be a spiritual child of Abraham. Do you understand this logic? There are only two realms of existence and these are the created natural realm and the original spiritual realm. If you are a living born again Christian on this earth you exist within both of these realms simultaneously. If you are not a Christian you only exist in the physical realm until you die physically. If you look at the context of this verse you can see that Abraham was justified by faith. Abraham believed God, Galatians 3:6 says to us. So this means that we have also been justified by the same faith that Abraham possessed. Not just believing in God, but believing God came to the earth personally and died for your sins and was raised from the dead. This is faith in God’s personal accomplished works and His Words.
Gal 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
You should make a valid attempt at understanding every verse in this chapter of Galatians. It describes who you are and reveals how you became what you are in very clear in-depth terminology. Let’s start by realizing that Abraham was extremely blessed by God. The natural descendants of Abraham have always been extremely blessed by God. The natural nation of Israel has controlled vast amounts of the world’s wealth ever since they left Egypt and took all they could carry. But, this verse says that the blessings of Abraham should come upon us, the Gentiles. How did this occur? It could only occur by you getting born again by your faith in Jesus Christ. Now that makes you of the same faith as your father Abraham. Again we see a principle of the seed within itself concept being given. Whatever our father spiritual Abraham did, that is also what we who believe God have done. Faith is a spiritual force of the human spirit. So you cannot see Abraham’s faith unless he does something to demonstrate his faith to us. When the lame man was brought to Jesus at the house where they tore the roof up to lower him to Jesus, the Bible says that Jesus could see their faith. So faith can be seen depending upon what people do. So what did our father Abraham do to demonstrate his faith? If you recall you might remember that God changed his name. When God changed his name from Abram to Abraham, Abram could have said that is not who I am and refused to go along with it. The name Abraham means “father of nations”. So by Abraham going around saying his name he confirmed that he was the father of nations even without having the promised child yet. This is another faith lesson that is an excellent story to show you how God works with people. But, this verse also says that the promise to Abraham was for us to receive the Spirit of God by this same faith. I honestly do not know how to explain that verse of scripture, so I just accept it by faith for now and trust the Lord God to reveal it to me later. Let’s skip down to the end of the chapter and see the last verse to wrap this lesson up:
Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
This chapter of Galatians ends with another seed concept and statement. If you are Christ’s, meaning that you belong to Him, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. We again see a reference to the promise of God made to Abraham and to his seed. God promised the Seed of Abraham that He would be the heir. This seed was Jesus Christ. But, now it calls us this same seed at the same time. Since you and I are not Jesus how do we explain what this verse says? That is a very strong question that many people do not fully try to comprehend how that we in the church have become an equal heir with Christ. God again exhibits His extreme intelligence in how He designed these things to work. We are joint heirs with Christ by marriage covenant. The church is the Bride of Christ and if you do not understand this, you should read the series of lessons that I did on this subject. By being joined to Him by marriage covenant we have become one with Him. The law of Genesis says that the two shall be even as one! We have just seen another paradox being presented to us. We have one body or seed but two heirs. We can only resolve this paradox by studying how Eve came from the one body of Adam to make two. So the Bible is complex I know and you may struggle with many of the things that I teach. I hope and pray that you at least go and read all of these verses in your Bible and look up the definitions and meanings of every word you can find and see for yourself if they are true or not. Do not ever take my word for anything, I am a man that makes mistakes, I am capable of failing since I am an imperfect growing Christian just like you are. So the bottom line of today’s lesson was the Church was called the Seed of Abraham. Did you know you were a seed? I bet you are beginning to see that you are a seed in more ways than one. I apologize for covering too much in one lesson and making it so long today. God Bless You, until next time.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on “seeds” you can go to “Part 11“.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! How are Spiritual Babies Conceived? Part 9
(Ver 1.5) This is a series of Bible lessons on the significance of understanding how Seeds work. I believe only by understanding how natural seeds work, can we really ever focus on how spiritual things operate. God gave us the natural things in our world to teach us about the unseen spiritual things through the wisdom of His intelligent design. Using many Bible verses and the Seed laws from Genesis 1 I have explored several subjects applying the knowledge of seeds to other scriptures in the New Testament. We have discovered that the Bible says there are multiple things that are all referred to by the title of a “seed”. This is just one of God’s techniques of concealing the truth in plain sight. God calls many things by the same name, title or description. This makes it more difficult for the reader to determine what type of seed He is talking about. From our study we have seen that there are natural seeds, like fruit seeds or grass seeds mentioned in the Bible. We have seen children called seeds all over the Bible. We have seen the male sperm called his seed. We have seen spiritual spiritual things like God’s Word being labeled as the seeds that are spread by teachers in the spiritual soil of a human’s heart. We have discovered that there exists two types of seeds in the Bible; one is the Good Seed and other is called the Bad or Evil Seed. By pattern association we can conlude these can be representative of the good words from God versus evil words from Satan. The Good seed was always sown by God exclusively and the evil seed was always sown by his enemy Satan. These are such important concepts to fully grasp. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning you should stop and go back to start reading with “Part 1” first. If you haven’t read from the beginning you have just missed more than I can possibly teach you in my simple introduction.
Today I want to discuss the previous seed concepts and seed laws in more detail to apply them to how a person becomes a Christian. I have alluded to this subject before in other lessons, but I will address it more completely today filling in some gaps. We have already seen that Jesus told us that the most important parable to fully understand is the Parable of the Sower. From this parable we should now know that God’s Word was the seed that the sower was spreading. We also learned that the soil in this parable was always the hearts or spirits of the men and women in the world. There were 6 revealed types of soil presented to us in this parable; 3 types of soil did not produce spiritual fruit and 3 types of soil did produce spiritual fruit in varying degrees of multiplication. This parable demonstrates Salvation to us very clearly and fully describes how you became a saved Christian. Those that hear the Word of God and allow other factors (spirits, natural attartions, etc) over rule their decision to be a Christian are those that were not saved. Those that hear the Word of God, understand it and choose to believe it, they are the ones that are saved and born again. All of this is really not that complex to me but I guess many people have not understood it and therefore do not apply it to the subject of how people become Christians.
So based upon the intimate knowledge of this parable of the sower, it would appear to say that the more Word of God we know the more fruitful we can become. Conversely the less we know about God’s Word defaults our fate to hell. Hopefully, we do understand this. Jesus teaching the parable of the sower was Him spreading the Word of God to the entire world. Every man, woman and child born from Adam represents the symbolic soil that is responsible to allow or permit God’s seed to be planted. It is much more the human rejection of the Word of God (the Seed) from the soil (the spirit) that causes people to go to hell than anything else that they will ever do. People like to think that sin is the key factor for going to hell, but this is simly not the case based upon the Word of God. The Bible says that everyone has sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:22). If everyone is a sinner there must be another factor for who is saved and who is not and it basically boils down to what type of soil we each choose to be. Do you realize that only you make the choices in your own life and for your life? I can’t do it for you, your wife can’t do it for you, your mother can’t do it for you and even God can’t and will not do it for you either. Do you also know that you have a spiritual enemy that is helping you to make the wrong choices? Only by studying the Bible can we better recognize the devices, plans and traps of this spiritual enemy. Only by continuing to study in the Bible are you able to grow and mature to being the overcomer that God has designed you to be. God is expecting to come back for a victorious church and not a defeated church.
So the Parable of the Sower gives us the basic overview for the whole plan of God for our Salvation. Jesus told us to “Go into all of the world and Preach the Gospel AKA the Word of God” (Mk 16:15). By preaching the Word of God you are sowing the Seed of the Word of God into the hearts of more people who can choose to let it grow. This is salvation or damnation in action. The human heart soil decides its own outcome by what seeds are permitted to enter and this is what determines what kind of fruit that it produces. Let’s look at this in action in the Bible:
1Co 3:6 I have planted , Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
The Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and to you and I. Paul says that he has planted. So what does it mean to plant something? And What was planted? As you can clearly see these are seed concepts that are repeated for us. Maybe you do not understand these concepts fully because you have never planted a natural garden in your back yard. You always start the process by putting seeds in the soil and you then conintue the process by watering the soil and they grow over time into something that you desired to have. If you look back at the previous verse you will see that Paul and Apollos were “ministers”. A minister is anyone that sows God’s Word by God’s design. If you hear someone speak in church that is not teaching from the Bible they are not a minister of God. If you go to a church and the speaker is teaching from a Reader’s Digest you need to find another church that works like God said it should. Paul sowed only from the Word of God to the people in Corinth and they believed it. Then there came along another preacher named Apollos and he watered the seed that was in the hearts/spirits of the people with more of the Word of God and this helped the seed take root and to continue to grow. But, it also says that it was God that gave the increase. In other words God Spirit caused His Word Seed to Grow! Therefore only God gets any of the glory in the process of salvation of any human. Do you understand that no farmer can take credit for what is grown in his field? Does any farmer fully understand how multiplied natural corn is produced from a single seed? Did the farmer create the seed that produces the corn crop? I think you can see that he did not. Neither the farmer or the minister created the seed they are sowing nor did they invent the growth process that takes place, only God did this. They just plant the seeds, water them and watch them grow like it was a miracle, and it is. However, this is just the supernaturally designeddesigned seed process from God using His created Seed. This is a really amazing concept of how the spiritual New Birth process works. It is a partnership effort with God working through men and women who preach to spread the Seed of the Word of God. So the human that is planting the seed is not as important as God because God created the process. But it is also plainly the word of God being planted that is the critically important part of His whole process. It is really a paradox and a puzzle, without men and women sowing the word of God no one would ever be saved. However, without sowing the Word of God no one is saved either. If you are sowing seeds of Buddhism no one will be saved no matter how much you teach on it. If you are sowing the seeds of Islam you are sowing words that never produce salvation. If you are sowing the words of Judaism you are also not going to be saved. It is not very good news for any world religion out there; God made only One Way into the Kingdom of Heaven and that was through His Son Jesus Christ. So do not throw stones at me, I’m just a farm messenger. I did not write the Bible!
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
So I think I have given this verse before in another lesson on seeds, but it bears repeating for our current discussion on how people are spiritually born again. The fact that we have been “Born Again” is attributable to us receiving the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God into our spirits. There are two terms given to us by God in this verse that are critical to understand. These are “Corruptible” vs. “Incorruptible”. The term corruptible means able to “decay” and you can state this to be equivalent to a man’s mortal body. The natural realm is a temporary realm of decaying particles. The laws of thermodynamics dictate that everything around us is decaying and not reorganizing like evolutionists like to believe. If you build a new car today and never drive it; it will become a pile of rusted metal in the course of time. The opposite of mortal is immortal. We have been born again from an immortal seed. You may recall that Jesus said “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mat 24:35). So the Word of God is immortal, and not capable of being eliminated. The Word of God is the incorruptible SEED that causes us to be born again spiritually.
Corruptible seed can be viewed as either a physical or a spiritual type of seed. The sperm of a man is a corruptible natural seed. But so also are the spiritual words (seeds) of Satan. Satan’s seeds can be used to produce corruption in the human spirit. Jesus does not appear to say that the words of your enemy Satan will be ineffective in the parable. No it appears to suggest the opposite is true by the soil with the weeds. Weeds come from seeds just like fruit comes from seeds. It all depends upon the seeds we allow in our hearts. So every false teaching and false religion can be eliminate fruit.
So we now have a dilemma of sorts of how to discuss natural things so that we do not offend anyone by comparing them to spiritual things. You see if being spiritually Born Again is a comparable pattern to being born in the natural realm the first time, then how are natural babies conceived? You can begin to see my difficulty, can’t you? God created sex for a reason and it wasn’t just to make you feel good. Sex is a part of the reproductive pattern of new life on our planet. So sex must be related to new spiritual life also. So how does natural sex relate to the spiritual New Birth? That is where we are today in this discussion. Get ready for a new concept that you may have never thought of before.
Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
We are informed that Adam “knew” his wife Eve and she conceived his physical seed. This is God’s definition of natural sex in the Bible. By the law of first mention, God again gives us the definition of what it means to conceive revealed in terms of spiritual information and descriptions. God could have described this act differently, but He specifically chose this Hebew word YADA which was translated as “knew”. The definition of this word is therefore very critical for us to understand in order to see how it applies to spiritual things like being born again. The Hebrew Word translated as “knew” means “to ascertain by seeing”. This is truly complex because men are usually visual types of people, they like to see. Women are not normally visual people and they do not want to see anything generally speaking. There is a widely used term for natural sex that is called “carnal knowledge” and this phrase is more suitable with the spiritual realm concept of obtaining word information that we can apply more correctly instead of thinking in human natural terms of having “intercourse”. We should be able to easily transfer God’s definition of natural sex as “knowling” into the spiritual New Birth process. We should be able to do this using our knowledge of the Parable of the Sower that we learned defines the process of order for any human to be spiritually born again. In this parable every soil (human heart) must receive “spiritual Word of God knowledge” from a teacher sowing the Lord God’s Word (Seed). This is not natural sex as many are thinking right now, is it? Of course not. However receiving spiritual seed (hearing words) is still a spiritual sex like act according God’s definition of the natural act. The human ability to “see spiritually” God’s Words causes us to conceive it.
However don’t forget there still exists an enemy to God’s created salvation process, who is trying to steal away the seed before or after being sown. The success or failure of the salvation seed sowing process is completely dependent upon the fact that some people value and choose to understand the Word of God and some people do not. This enemy’s method of causing some people not to understand is revealed more clearly in the New Testament scripture that says “the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not” (2 Cor 4:4). You see spiritual blindness is the inability to see or literally understand spiritual things. If you recall in the parable of the sower, Satan came immediately to steal the Word of God that was sown in their heart and he was able to do this only because they did not understand it (Mat 13:19). Therefore, clear focused spiritual eyesight is one key to gaining spiritual knowledge and understanding. I could talk a lot more about that part of the subject, but I’m running long in this lesson. I do pray that you are following me on these points and beginning to understand how people are born again. Let me end this lesson with one more verse from Paul:
Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
So here we have another very difficult complex deep scripture to try to swim through. The apostle Paul is not a natural female yet he speaks in the terms of being a spiritual female. Can you see this? Only natural XX Chromosome females give birth, yes? According to what I have seen in the Bible God created only natural females to give birth. So what exactly is Paul talking about? Paul is saying, I have spread God’s seed into your hearts by teaching God’s Word to you, and now I am interceding for your continued thirst for more understanding to take root so that Christ can be formed in you, resulting in spiritual fruit that is viewable from the actions you live externally.
According to God through Paul what is the key to this spiritual birth happening? It was the spiritual ability of a human to see or to gain “spiritual knowledge” who heard the word of God that will determine whether they will conceive Christ and be born again. Paul can sow all of the seed he wants to, but none of it will grow unless the soil of the hearer allows it to stay by understanding what was said. You can easily see how that you can read verses in the Bible and totally miss what is said, can’t you? You can also see that there is an implied reality that Paul is a part of a spiritual woman, called the Bride of Christ. So the complexity of the Bible is so great that it causes many people to stumble. People will never see the spiritual truth of God’s Word trying to figure it out using only their natural minds.
What we can begin to see is that Paul’s (Saul) new birth conversion on the road to Damascus by Christ was not Christ’s.ending final work to bring Paul into full spiritual maturity, but was only the beginning of Saul’s Christian salvation growth experience. Like new born natural babies continue to grow through feeding, Paul was still responsibility to feed upon the Word of God through study to cause his own spirit to mature. Then using this gained knowledge he would become able to share it with others for getting more people born again by sowing the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Getting more people Born Again by spreading the Incorruptible Seed, should become the goal of every Christian. This goal will result in the expansion of the new spiritual family of God in Christ. And the multiplication of Sowers spreading the Spiritual Seed of God by sowing His Incorruptible Seed into new soil.
Today’s lesson has been some of the basic Bible ideas of how natural people are born again using the laws and concepts surrounding Seeds in the Bible. I know I did not cover everything that I could have, I know I left out many verses that could have been included, but I did the best that I could in a limited time and space forum. God Bless you to see and to understand His Word! Thank you for your time in studying the Bible.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on seeds you can go to “Part 10“.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! If You Abide IN ME and My Words Abide IN YOU! Part 8
(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 8 of a series of lessons on the concepts and laws surrounding seeds found in the Bible. The Seed is a natural divinely inspired design principle revealed in creation that demonstrates vast complex spiritual revelation. In the previous lessons I taught on the laws surrounding seeds and demonstrated some of their applications given to us in the New Testament. Today I will be doing another one of those lessons about seed applications using the New Testament. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning I would highly recommend that you go back and start reading with “Part 1”. Only by following the series from the beginning will you have much of a chance at understanding what is being taught. Let me review briefly the Major Seed Laws from Genesis 1 that we have already covered:
- Fruit with Seed within Itself!
- Every Seed produces after its Kind!
- Seeds Produce Trees that Produce More Fruit!
- You Always Harvest more than You Sow! Seed Multiplication.
Seed concepts are not widely known in modern America. Very few people plant gardens and grow their own fruit, vegetables and crops. The farm concept was a widely known principle in early Bible days. This is one of the key reasons Jesus taught using these principles so often in the parable lessons that he gave us. In Jesus’ days on earth, if you wanted to eat you better grow it. Today modern children just think everything is magic that appears at the grocery store or at the market and they probably do not even have a clue how it is produced. As a result of this they have lost the essential concepts and laws of planting seeds and getting harvests. To lose sight of these concepts is to lose sight of God’s designed ways. The Seed concept is still a vital part of the End Time Plan of God. God has never lost sight of what seeds are and how seeds work. That is one of the key reasons I have spent this amount of time on this subject. I believe it to be absolutely critical to understand how God works in the spiritual realm and since we do not have any personal experiences in this realm we must rely on the natural realm that God created as a pattern of information for the unseen spiritual realm. Of course you do not interpret nature, you interpret the Word of God, using the Word of God to define the things that you find in nature and this is the key to seeing these Bible truths and hidden spiritual things.
Today I am going to expand on the topic of the “Seed within Itself” Law of Genesis 1 using some fresh New Testament verses. In earlier blogs on this subject we discussed how that Levi had paid tithes in Abraham, because he was a seed of Abraham (Heb. 7:9). Levi was a future descendant of Abraham, yet God counted what Abraham did as applying to what Levi had done. This is one of the most profound truths in the Bible that I have ever seen, yet I have not heard hardly anyone teach on it. The concepts behind this teaching are far reaching and apply to many things in the spiritual realm. Today I am going to give you an example of these concepts. Let’s start the lesson with a verse found in Galatians:
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
There are verses like this one in the Bible that will totally confuse you unless you understand the Seed Laws and apply them correctly. How can Paul have been crucified with Christ, when he was not even there physically with him? I hope that you are beginning to see how this is possible. Paul was not there physically, but he was there spiritually as a future spiritual seed of God. If natural children are natural seeds in the Bible, then spiritual children are also seeds, but of a spiritual kind. Remember everything produces after its own kind. Jesus was called the Seed of Abraham and the Seed of David in the Bible. Paul was calling himself a seed of Christ Jesus. Whatever happened to Jesus is what happened to US who are born again. Since the spiritual birth is a spiritual process that is patterned after the natural birth process we can very easily begin to see that Paul considered himself to be a spiritual descendant of Jesus. Paul looked at Jesus as being his spiritual father. Paul looked to Jesus as being the head of a new spiritual family of God as you and I are also in this family. Here is another verse that use to boggle people’s mind:
Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
As you can see this verse says that we have been raised from the dead with Christ and that we now sit with Him in heaven. Have you ever been to heaven? If you have then you probably died or saw a spiritual vision of heaven. No, again we see the application of the “Seed within Itself” Law being applied to us in the spiritual realm. Whatever our father Jesus accomplished we accomplished because we were “IN HIM” when He did them. Wow, that is so awesome! That is just a totally RADICAL concept to try to wrap your mind around, isn’t it? Everything that Jesus did, we did if you are born again! This is why in the New Testament you can search and find so many verses in the Bible that describe how we are IN CHRIST, IN HIM, IN WHOM. By finding out what Christ did, you find out what you DID!
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
There are just too many scriptures in the Bible that repeat the “Seed within itself principle for me to give you them all. I think I gave you this one before, but it is so good that I will briefly go over it again. Because the human race was “IN” Adam all must die. Adam’s death passed death to every one of His Seeds. This is the natural picture of the seed within itself concept being described to us very clearly. Then there is a spiritual contrasting truth that is now revealed to us that Jesus who is the Last Adam and that He is the spiritual procreator of a new people that will live. Because Jesus was raised from the DEAD, we have been raised from the dead because we were IN HIM! As in Adam all died, so those IN Christ will all live. You better make sure that you are IN Christ if you want to live spiritually in God’s family!
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Being IN Christ is essential to understanding your position today in the spiritual realm. Those who are spiritually born again have become a NEW CREATION of Almighty God. This means that we are something that never existed before. Adam had a spirit within his body, but did not have the Spirit of God in union with his spirit. You can see in this verse that translators have added 3 words that are not in the Greek. If you take these out, they basically say the same thing, but review it without these words:
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man in Christ a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
You can see a subtle difference now. The fact that we are IN Christ has not changed but only because we are IN Christ makes us a new Creature with Christ! God the Almighty Creator became a part of His creation by His designed purpose. I could try to elaborate why this was necessary but I might just cloud the current subject with too much extraneous information, so I’ll pass by that for now. What I want you to focus on is the fact that a man is now IN Christ and that is what also makes him able to participate as being a New Creature!
2Co 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now we can see why Jesus Christ was so different and why Satan did not know what to do with this man. Jesus was born a human male that had the Spirit of God within His Body. This is the SEED within Itself Concept being repeated. God provided Himself the Seed for our reconciliation. These seed concepts are so important for you to understand. It truly helps you to see what was accomplished by God and how He did them. God was IN Christ; the church was IN Christ so we are now IN God. Christ IN Us, the hope of Glory! Now the reverse concept is also applicable in the New Testament Bible. You can see that not only are we IN Christ, but Christ must also be IN us! It is a two way seed street reality. How do you get Christ in YOU?
Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it Abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye Abide in me.
More seed concepts are given in this verse statement of Jesus Christ. You can see the concept of fruit being given. Fruit is the end result that God is looking for in the lifes of every Christian. This fruit will always contain seed to produce more fruit. This is again the seed within itself concept. But we can also see the two way street that I just referred to and how that this works. While the SEED of God is in us, we are in the VINE of God. The VINE represents Christ and we are in Him. We the church, are the branches that produce the fruit as long as we abide in Him, Christ the Vine! But, we the church are also the ones that have the Word of God in Us! If you recall from earlier lessons on this subject, the Word of God was the Seed of God. We have been born again not of corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible seed, which is the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). So we are beginning to see how it is a full circle concept of Seed Salvation. Everything starts with the Word of God and everything continues to exist with the Word of God.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done untoyou.
Do you see what Jesus is telling you? Do you see how the seed concepts and seed laws are affecting what you get in life? Do you see how that if you abide in Christ the Vine (the Spiritual Seed of God) and if you allow the Word of God (also the spiritual seed of God) to live in you a natural seed (the Seed within Itself) that you can not only produce fruit but that you can also get your prayers answered by God? Everything hinges upon the Word of God which is the Seed of God that produces the results that God is expecting to harvest very soon. Seeds are everywhere in the Bible. The concepts of seeds are everywhere in the Bible. Different Seed types and seed patterns are repetitious, overlapping and intersecting with each other and this can make them vastly complex to understand. The intelligence of God is so much greater than our minds and therefore we are challenged to come up to a higher dimension of how to think about these spiritual things and God’s Word. May the God of Peace enlighten your minds so that you can comprehend these Seed Principles! God Bless, until next time!
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons you can now continue with “Part 9“.
Where DO BABIES Come From? A Bible Review of the Salvation Process!
(Ver 1.6) This is Part 2 in an essential basic Bible study series on the subject of Savlation and the Spiritual New Birth of God. What is it and how it occurs will be what I teach on today. If you have not read the first lesson I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1” first. I had a Reader(?) try to tell me that being saved is not tied to any certain or specific observable process or stated steps found in the Bible. He told me that “Salvation” was not a formula! He implied that you just can’t ever be assured of your eternal destiny here in this life. He clearly said that there was just no single point event that you could observe of when you were saved. By stating that he implied that there are no given steps, instructions or ways in the Bible to be saved. He implied you can just never know if you are really saved. Call me different, call me unique, call me stupid I don’t care, that is just not what I see that the Bible says. My question to this guy is, “Where do Babies Come From?” Do you know how natural babies are made? Can you ever know if you will have a baby or your wife will have a baby? Does the mother ever know when she is pregnant? Does the mother of a baby know when it is time to deliver a baby? Is there a single point of time reference that goes on the birth certificate of when a natural baby was born? Is not the birth of the natural baby the entry of the child into our natural present world? This may not be a good set of questions to ask a male, but I bet you any mature female could answer these questions correctly. This is what Jesus taught us in John 3:3.
Joh 3:3 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.
So have you ever thought about what Jesus said here? Jesus says that a man must be “born again” in order to see the Kingdom of God. To be “born again”, implies they were born once naturally already. Doesn’t it, isn’t this what this verse says? However, being born ONCE in the natural is not enough to get you into the Kingdom of God according to the words of Jesus. If I said, I’m going to drive to Detroit again tonight. Doesn’t that tell you that I have already driven to Detroit before? If we are required to be born again, how was the first birth accomplished? What you must realize is that Jesus is speaking of a first birth that is a completely NATURAL process. Was there a formula for making natural babies in the world? This is not a trick question! Is it a difficult or unknown process to create natural babies in the world? Come on and think with me for a moment! God is comparing a natural process to a spiritual process. Or are you spiritually blind enough to believe that THE spiritual things of God are somehow completely different than the natural things that God has created. I believe that many people think that God created natural things to be totally separate and independent from spiritual things and this is just NOT the truth (Rom 1:20). The natural process of things clearly point us to the unseen spiritual process and FORMULA! Naturally created things are clearly patterns of spiritual things that existed prior to God creating our world. God created natural sex as a pattern to spiritual things that you cannot see. Maybe you just don’t know or understand what it means and that is the root of your problem right now. But you should search your Bible and find the truth and then you will see that what I am trying to say is right. Let’s look at some more verses in John 3. When Jesus was speaking about being “born again” He was talking to a man named Nicodemus. This was his response to Jesus’ statement of being born again:
Joh 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Because Nicodemus was a carnally minded man, he was thinking only in natural physical terms. He asks Jesus how can a grown man enter back into his mother’s womb to be born again? Nicodemus obviously was smarter than a lot of men today, at least he knew where babies come from. However, Jesus was speaking of spiritual things and Nicodemus was focused on the natural process of birth only. This is the repeated problem with most Christian in the world today. They think like Nicodemus and not like Jesus when they read the Bible. Do you understand the difference and why it is important to see things from God’s point of view?
Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
So Jesus starts giving us the spiritual answer to Nicodemus’ carnal question. Jesus in this verse speaks of both kinds of births, the first and the second in a contrasting comparison. To be born of water is the natural process of you coming into the world when your mother’s water breaks and she gave birth to you physically. This is the “First Birth” of all humans and it is only natural. However, this natural birth is contrasted with the spiritual birth process of being born of the Spirit. Being born of the Spirit is the “Second Birth” process that a man can experience. Jesus clearly tells us that if you are not born naturally first and then spiritually second you will never see the kingdom of God. Also note that Jesus did not say that you will be born again and again. In other words spiritual brith is a onetime event, just like being born into the natural world is a one time event. Your natural mother does not birth you over and over and like this process when you are born again spiritually it happens only once. Always keep that in mind, that a man is never born again, again. Let’s look at the next verse in John 3:
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Jesus confirms what I have been saying in this next verse. You can clearly see that only natural mothers give birth to natural babies. You can see that only spiritual mothers give birth to spiritual babies. A natural mother does not birth a spiritual baby and a spiritual mother does not give birth to a natural baby. This is by God’s design and God’s laws of reproduction and procreation. Is this too complicated for you so far? Did you know that there were spiritual women who could give birth to spiritual babies? So I’m going to stop and ask you again, where do natural babies come from? Is there a formula for making natural babies? If there is a known formula for making natural babies then there is also a known formula for making spiritual babies. I am not spiritually blind to this truth like so many in the church! Are you understanding this new spiritual principle that I am attempting to teach you today? All you have to do is to open up your spiritual eyes, stop to look and study your Bible to find out the truth.
Let’ me now teach you that if you were “born again” to become a Christian right now that you had a spiritual birth mother. Did you know that you had a spiritual mother? Do you know that you had a physical natural mother? If you are here in this world reading this article posted on the internet you must have had a natural mother. It is just a biological fact of God’s designed creation. Again I will say if you had a natural mother to be born here in the flesh the first time into the world, then you must have a spiritual mother to be born into the spiritual Kingdom of God. So is there a corresponding spiritual mother for being “born again” into the salvation of the Lord? Of course there has to be a spiritual birth mother. You either never searched your Bible to find her or you must have just ignored her in the Bible and read right over the information. Here is your spiritual birth mother if you are born again:
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the MOTHER of us all.
Who was this letter and this verse written to? You should be smart enough to see that it was written to us in the church of Jesus Christ. If you are “born again”, here is your “spiritual mother” who gave birth to you to be in the new spiritual family of God. God tells us very clearly in a statement written to the church that the “Jerusalem Above” is our spiritual birth mother. Do you understand this? Is this complicated? So where do Spiritual babies come from? Do spiritual babies come into existence the same way that natural babies are conceived? Obviously NOT! Spirits do not have sex with each other, but that does not mean that the spiritual process is not very similar to the natural process symbolically. Natural things are most often used to symbolize spiritual truth that you cannot see. It also does not mean there is not a process to be saved or to be born again. If a natural woman gives birth to a baby and she knows when it occurs then a spiritual mother who gives birth to a spiritual baby would also know when she gave birth to a new child. Before we go there, let’s establish who this woman “Jerusalem Above” is and where this spiritual mother lives using the Bible.
Heb 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
So we now have an established point of reference for the identity of the woman who gives spiritual birth to the church. In this verse in Hebrews God says that this is the “Heavenly Jerusalem”, the city of the Most High God. The location of which contains the throne of God and where the angels of the Lord reside and surround and praise God’s throne. Did you know that a city can be a spiritual woman? Did you even know that this spiritual woman Heavenly Jerusalem existed? You should go back and study the Old Testament and see how many times the Earthly Jerusalem is called a woman, the wife of God, the whore, the harlot. Read, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea to name a few great places to start. See how many times God describes Israel as His wife in covenant. See how many times she is described as being unfaithful and sleeping with other gods. See how many times you can find where God says “I divorce” you for your unfaithfulness to me. What we begin to see is a pattern that a woman to God is a nation of people in covenant with Him. You can clearly see that if Jerusalem Above or Heavenly Jerusalem exists from the verses that I just gave you that this is a pattern of another woman called Jerusalem Below or Earthly Jerusalem. What we have established is that we have a city on the earth called a woman and a city in heaven called a woman, both with the name Jerusalem. You can clearly read about both of these women in more depth by exploring Galatians 4. The Jerusalem Below is said to be a type of Hagar in the O.T. The Jerusalem Above is said to be a type of Sarah. Sarah births the child of promise and Hagar and her son are cast out. Sarah was the older of the two women in the Bible and existed before Hagar. Hagar had a child before Sarah had her child. These are all physical patterns of the spirit realm and the woman that gave birth to the church. So I probably just taught you a bunch of new things that you did not know. Yet they are there in the Bible and you can choose to see them or go ahead and reject them like a spiritually blind man. So let’s get back to the fact does a woman know when she has a baby? A natural woman certainly does, but how about a spiritual woman? Here is what Jesus taught us about this birth process:
Luk 15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
As you can see the angels of God rejoice when just one sinner repents. What happens when one sinner repents? They are born again! Isn’t that what we are talking about? Are we talking about a single point in time when a sinner is saved and born again? If the angels rejoice when this occurs, they obviously have observed the second spiritual birth of the man. Where are these angels? You may recall that we read in Hebrew 12:22 that there were an innumerable company of angels in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Are these the angels of God that rejoice over the new birth of one spirit on the earth? You can try to explain it away if you want to, but I am convinced that these are the angels who rejoice. After all it is that city which is said to be our mother and every mother knows exactly when she gives birth to any new baby. People need to be smart enough to learn to put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly. I can see it very clearly, I guess you can too if you choose to believe what you read.
Did you know that only people who want to be saved, will be saved? No one repents if they do not want to repent. God does not force salvation upon anyone. Jesus says in Revelation 3:20 “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any many will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and I will sup with him and him with me”. 
That was the basic formula for salvation and being born again in a nutshell. Jesus first Knocks! The man either ignores the knock or listens for who it is that is knocking. Let’ me stop there and tell you that Jesus is speaking figuratively or symbolically in this verse in Revelation. Jesus is not going to come to knock on your physical house or apartment personally. No, your house where your spirit lives is your physical body. God’s Spirit is the Spirit of Christ that comes to knock on your heart’s door. The door that Jesus knocks on is your ears when a man like me comes and preaches the salvation Gospel. Yes, the Spirit of God is the Key partner to any salvation. No man comes to God unless the Spirit of God draws him. But, God doesn’t come in person, physically anymore to save anyone. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and He came for a short time to fulfill the plan of God for our Salvation and Redemption. But, He went back to heaven and has now turned over the responsibility of teaching and preaching to people like me and you. So when a man comes to you and tells you the good news of salvation, that is Jesus working through that man to help you see the truth. Then the individual who hears the words of God, now stands at a crossroad and at a time of decision; to either accept it or reject it. If they accept it, they believe what was said and can ask Jesus to come and be their Lord with a repentant heart. This invites Jesus to come in to sup. Jesus them comes in at that exact point in time. That is when you are saved, that is when you are born again. If that person refuse to hear the Gospel, then Jesus has no choice but to walk away from the door. Jesus is not going to kick the door down, just because He wants to save someone.
Any new born physical baby when first entering our world is sometimes smacked on the bottom and they take their first breaths of air and begin to cry. This is a joyous sound for the mother who has gone through 9 months of pregnancy and then labor. She now knows that all of the discomfort and pain was worth it. So also then the baby knows when he or she is born into the world because they can cry and the mother knows when she has given birth to the baby because she can hear their cry, something that they never did before. Is it any different in the spiritual realm? No I do not believe it is. Once a person believes in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior like Romans 10:9-10 says they are “born again”. The Spirit of Christ comes into their spirit and they are saved. The angels see the birth and rejoice. The mighty cloud of witnesses in heaven also see the birth and they now rejoice (Heb 12:1). This is just how it works by God’s design, if you do not believe it, that is your problem and not mine and it does not change the facts. I know that I am saved and I know how I got saved. Salvation was not a long process, it was not a complicated proces, it was just following the formula that God gave us in His Word that worked for me. So I’ll ask you one more time “Where do Spiritual Babies Come From”? I believe that you can see that we still have a lot to learn about how God does things in the unseen spiritual realm. If you are not a “born again” Christian and have had the pleasure of this new spiritual birth it is not difficult to make happen in your heart. If you want to read about how to be saved, you can go to “Salavation and How to Know if You are Going to Heaven” and follow the instructions. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading in this series you may proceed to “Part 3“.
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If you want to know how to get saved and know that you are with confidence you can go to: How to know that I am saved?
Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of Satan in the Bible
(Ver 2.2) This is Part 2 in a series of reference documents about the multiple Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of named Spiritual Individuals in the Bible. This document will focus only on the subject verses of the enemy Satan found in the Bible. It is not designed to teach anything other than give you a place to search from to find references to Satan in the Bible. This is a living document of references and it will change and be updated as I am led to additional scriptures. A Name is a direct reference to the individual. A Title is a given direct identifying appellation signifying status or function. A Description is something that represents the individual in expressive words. A Type is a real named person, place or thing that can be viewed to apply to a pattern of the spiritual individual not directly named. A Symbol is a natural object that describes the characteristics or features of a spiritual being that you cannot see or understand without first understanding the symbol. I will now give you the list of my references to Satan in the Bible and if you have others that I have not found yet, please share them with me in a comment.
|
Name, Title, Symbol, Type for Satan |
Description |
Scripture Reference |
| 666 | The Number of the Beast | Rev 13:18 |
| Abaddon | Destroying Angel – Jesus said the thief only came to steal, kill and destroy in John 10:10 | Rev 9:11 |
| Accuser of the Brethren | Legal Opponent in Court of Law – the devil is referred to as our adversary (court opponent) in 1 Peter 5:8 | Rev 12:10 |
| Adversary | The Opponent to the Church in a Lawsuit | 1 Peter 5:8 |
| Angel of Light | Impersonator, Actor, Stage Performer; Masquerader | 2 Cor 11:14 |
| Angel of the Bottomless Pit | Ruler of the Darkness | Rev 9:11 |
| Anointed cherub that coverth | The Winged Angelic Defender | Ezekiel 28:14 |
| Antichrist | Opponent of the Messiah | 1 John 4:3 |
| Appolyon | Greek Name of Hebrew Abaddon; Destroyer | Rev 9:11 |
| Baal | False God of the O.T. Type of Satan | Rom 11:4; |
| Balaam | False Teacher | Jude 1:11 |
| Bear | Kingdom of Satan Symbol | Rev 13:2 |
| Beast | Dangerous Animal; Venomous | Rev 14:9-10; Rev 16:10 |
| Beelzebub | Lord of the Flies; A god of Babylon | Mat 12:24, 27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18-19 |
| Belial | Worthless One | 2 Cor 6:15 |
| Bird, Hateful | Loveless | Rev 18:2 |
| Bird, Unclean | Foul, | Rev 18:2 |
| Blasphemer | Name of the One Who Vilifies God | Rev 13:1 |
| Cain | Murderer from the Beginning | Jude 1:11 |
| Chief of Demons | Prince of demonic gods | Luke 11:15 |
| Cherub | Winged Anointed of God | Ezekiel 28:14 |
| Cockatrice | The Viper | Isa 14:29, 59:5; |
| Deceiver | The One Who Deceives the entire world including Christians | Rev 12:9 |
| Devil | False Accuser; Slanderer a title and name of Satan identified to be the same individual in Revelation 12:9 | Mat 4:1-11, 9:33, 11:18, 12:22, 13:29, 15:22, 17:18, 25:41; Mk 5:15-18, 7:26-30; Luke 4:2-13, 4:33-35, 7:33, 8:12, 8:29, 9:42, 11:14; John 6:70, 7:20, 8:44-52, 10:20-21, 13:2; Acts 10:38 13:10; Eph 4:27, 6:11; 1 Ti 3:6-7; 2 Ti 2:26; Heb 2:14; James 4:7; 1Pet 5:8; 1 John 3:8-10; Jud 1:9; Rev 2:10, 12:9, 12:12, 20:2, 20:10; |
| Dragon | The Genesis 3:1 Serpent that has increased in power and strength | Rev 12:7-9 |
| Dragon, Great | Symbolic description of the Powerful Fabulous Serpent of Genesis 3:1 now having increased spiritual power and strength | Rev 12:9 |
| Edom | A Type of Satan, twin brother of Jacob, having characteristics hated by God | Eze 32:29; Joel 3:19; Mal 1:4; |
| Enemy | Adversary | Mat 13:39 |
| Esau | A Type Pattern of characteristics that the Lord Hates | Mal 1:2-3; Rom 9:13 |
| Evil One | Malicious; Wicked One | John 17:15 |
| False Light | The Opposite of the TRUTH of True Light Jesus. A description of the moon that makes not light of itself and can only reflect light from the sun who is Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:2) | 1 John 2:8 |
| Father | A Male Parent that has sown “Seed” to produce children. In Satan’s case they are lies of deception that are being sown. | John 8:44; Acts 13:10 |
| Father of Lies | Fabricator & Distorter of the Truth, | John 8:44 |
| Fiery Flying Serpent | Satan | Isa 14:20, 30:6; |
| Fiery Serpent | Satan | Num 21:8; Deu 8:15 |
| Frog | Unclean Spirit | Rev 16:13 |
| Fox | Cunning Spirit | Luke 13:32 |
| Goat, He (devils) | Devils (Hebrew Word for He Goat) | Lev 17:7; 2 Chron 11:15 |
| God of this World | Ruler of the Darkness and Night of all that are asleep to hear the truth | 2 Cor 4:4 |
| Gog | Symbolic Name for the Anti-Christ | Rev 20:8; |
| Great Red Dragon | Original Genesis 3:1 Serpent but now of Increased Power and Strength | Rev 12:3 |
| Herod | A Type of Satan the Murdering King Ruler | Luke 13:31 |
| Judas | Judah The Betrayer of Messiah | John 6:70-71; John 13:2 |
| King of Babylon | A symbolic name for the Ruler of Jerusalem | Isaiah 14:4 |
| King of the Bottomless Pit | Ruler of the Darkness | Rev 9:11 |
| King of Tyrus | Ruler of the Rock | Eze 28:12 |
| Laban | A type of Satan as a Deceitful Man | Gen 31:7 |
| Leopard | Kingdom ruler by Satan Symbol | Rev 13:2 |
| Lesser Light | Moon who Rules the Night and Darkness | Gen 1:16 |
| Leviathan | Serpent Monster of Babylon | Isaiah 27:1 |
| Liar | Falsifier; Deceiver | John 8:44 |
| Lion | Kingdom of Satan Symbol | Rev 13:2 |
| Little Horn | Rising King | Daniel 8:9-11 |
| Lucifer | Bright and Morning Star | Isaiah 14:12-14 |
| Man of Sin | Man faced Trespasser | 2 Thes 2:3-4 |
| Moon | Ruler of the Night and Darkness | Psalm 136:9; Rev 12:1 |
| Murderer | Man Killer | John 8:44 |
| Oppressor | He Who Makes Sick | Acts 10:38 |
| Perdition | The Destroyer | 2 Thes 2:3; |
| Pharaoh | A Type of Satan as someone that rules Egypt a Type of the World | Eze 31:2-18; |
| Power of Darkness | Superhuman Ruler of the Night Kingdom | Col 1:13-14 |
| Prince of the Devils | Ruler of All Evil Spirits | Mat 9:34, 12:24; Mark 3:22 |
| Prince of the Kingdom of Persia | Type of Satan as the Ruler of the nation of Babylon | Daniel 10:13 |
| Prince of the Power of the Air | Ruler of the Authority of the atmosphere needed for the production of Spoken Words | Eph 2:1-2 |
| Prince of this World | Ruler of the Evil Darkness | John 12:31-32; John 14:30; John 16:11; 1 Cor 2:6-8; |
| Roaring Lion | Powerful Sounding King of the Beasts attempting to devour All Christians | 1 Peter 5:8 |
| Ruler of the Darkness | Moon who Rules the Night | Ephesians 6:12 |
| Satan | The Accuser, the Opponent; Adversary | 1 Chron 21:1; Job 1:6-12; Job 2:1-7; Ps 109:6; Zec 1:3:1-2; Mat 4:10, 12:26, 16:23; Mark 1:13, 3:23-26, 4:15, 8:33; Luke 4:8, 10:18, 11:18, 13:16, 22:3, 22:31; Jo 13:27; Act 5:3, 26:18; Rom 16:20; 1 Cor 5:5, 7:5; 2 Cor 2:11, 11:14; 1 Thes 2:18; 2 Thes 2:9; 1Tim 1:20, 5:15; Rev 2:9, 2:13, 2:24, 3:9; 12:9, 20:2, 20:7; |
| Seducing Spirit | Imposter; Deceiver | 1 Tim 4:1 |
| Seraphim | The Fiery Serpent an Evil High Ranking Heavenly Angelic Ruler | Isa 6:2 |
| Serpent | Symbolic Name for Satan | Gen 3:1; Rev 12:15 |
| Serpent, Old | Symbolic Name for Satan; First Ruler of the earth | Rev 12:9; Rev 20:2 |
| Son of Perdition | Destruction’s Child | 2 Thes 2:3 |
| Son of the Morning | Satan a son of God’s First or Early Light | Isaiah 14:12-14 |
| Spirit, Foul | Perverted Spiritual Being | Rev 18:2 |
| Spirit, the | Satan a spiritual being | Ephesians 2:2 |
| Spirit, Unclean | Leprous Spiritual Being | Luke 9:42; Rev 16:13 |
| Star | Angel Cast Down to Earth | Rev 8:11; 9:1 |
| Star, Great | Angel Cast Down to Earth | Rev 8:10 |
| Star, Wandering | He Who Departs the Path | Jude 1:13 |
| Tempter | He Who Proves and Tests | Mat 4:3 |
| Thief | Robber; Burglar | Mat 24:43; Luke 12:39; John 10:10 |
| Viper | The serpent Satan | Isa 59:5; |
| Waster, the | He Who Destroys | Isaiah 54:16 |
| Wicked | Law Breaker; Evil Degenerate | 2 Thes 2:8; Eph 6:16 |
| Wormwood | Type of Bitterness | Rev 8:11 |
If you would like to references other documents in this series you may go to one of these:
Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of Jesus in the Bible
(ver 2.3) This is Part 1 in a series of reference documents about the multiple Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of named Spiritual Individuals in the Bible. This document will focus only on the subject verses concerning Jesus found in the Bible. It is not designed to teach anything other than give you a place to search from to find references to Jesus in the Bible. This is a living document of references and it will change and be updated as I am led to additional scriptures. A Name is a direct reference to the individual. A Title is a given direct identifying appellation signifying status or function. A Description is something that represents the individual in expressive words. A Type is a real named person, place or thing that can be viewed to apply to a pattern of the spiritual individual not directly named. A Symbol is a natural object that describes the characteristics or features of a spiritual being that you cannot see or understand without first understanding the symbol. Here is what Jesus said to us about himself:
Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
We know from what Jesus just said that the Bible is primarily about him, but you cannot find him directly named until the Gospels. However he was indirectly mentioned in almost every chapter of the Old Testament. I will give you a list of my references to Jesus in the Bible and if you have others that I have not found yet, please let me know about them.
|
Name, Title, Symbol, Type for Jesus |
Description |
Scripture Reference |
| Abel | Brother (a type of Christ) killed by Cain a type of Satan a murderer from the beginning | Genesis 4:2; |
| Abraham | Covenant Man of God a type of Jesus Christ | Gen 12-20; |
| Adam | A type of Jesus Christ; Gen 2:24 A man who leaves His Father to come to earth | Gen 2:; 1 Cor 15:45; |
| Adam, Last | Jesus referred to as the brother of Adam | 1Corinthians 15:45 |
| Advocate | Jesus Our Lawyer | 1John 2:1 |
| Alef and Tav, the | The first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet | Genesis 1:1 not in the English translation of the Bible only seen in the Hebrew |
| Almighty | The Supreme Powerful One | Revelation 1:8 |
| Alpha and Omega, the | The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, | Revelation 1:8 |
| Amen | God’s Final Word | Revelation 3:14 |
| Angel | God’s Messenger | Genesis 48:16; Exodus 23:20, 21 |
| Angel of His Presence | God’s Savior | Isaiah 63:9 |
| Anointed, His | God’s Anointed One | Psalms 2:2 |
| Appointed | He that was Chosen By God | 1 Sam 2:35; Heb 3:2; |
| Approved of God | He that Has God’s Favor | Acts 2:22; |
| Apostle, the | God’s Sent One | Hebrews 3:1 |
| Arm of the Lord | God’s Powerful One, The One at the Right Hand | Isaiah 51:9, 10 |
| Author and Finisher of our faith | God’s Inscriber of Faith | Hebrews 12:2 |
| Author of Life, the | Translated as Prince of Life in KJV | Acts 3:15 |
| Beginning and end of the creation of God | The Initiator and the Completion of all things made | Revelation 3:14; 22:13 |
| Beginning, The | Christ the Firstborn from the dead | Col 1:18; |
| Beloved | The One Loved By God | Ephesians 1:6 |
| Beloved Son | Son Loved by God | Matthew 3:17 |
| Bishop of Our Soul | Superintendent/Overseer of our Mind | 1 Peter 2:25 |
| Blessed and only Potentate | God’s happy Ruler of the Day | 1Timothy 6:15 |
| Boaz | A Type of Christ the Kinsman Redeemer | Book of Ruth |
| Branch, Righteous | God’s Seed that Sprouts Righteousness | Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 3:8 |
| Branch, The | The sprouting life of God | Zechariah 3:8 |
| Bread of God | The spiritual food of God | John 6:33; |
| Bread of life | God’s Spiritual Food | John 6:35, 6:48 |
| Brethren | The natural man of Israel | Acts 3:22; |
| Bridegroom | Jesus the Husband to the Church | Psalm 19:5; Matthew 9:15, Mark 2:19, Luke 5:34, John 3:29 |
| Bright Morning Star | Reference to Jesus Being the Sun, The Spiritual Light of the World | Revelation 22:16 |
| Brightness of the Father’s glory | God’s Sun Light Manifested | Hebrews 1:3 |
| Called of God | Jesus the Answer | Hebrews 5:10; |
| Captain of the Lord’s host | Leader of the Army of God | Joshua 5:14 |
| Captain of Salvation | God’s Deliverer | Hebrews 2:10 |
| Carpenter | God’s Builder of a Spiritual House | Mark 6:3 |
| Carpenter’s son | The Assumed Son of Joseph | Matthew 13:55 |
| Chief Shepherd | The Head of the Church | 1Peter 5:4 |
| Chief Cornerstone | The Stone the Builders Rejected, The First Stone in the New Jerusalem | Ephesian 2:20; 1Peter 2:6 |
| Chiefest among ten thousand | The Chosen One of Israel | Song of Songs 5:10 |
| Child | The Son of God and the Son of Man | Isaiah 9:6; Hosea 11:1; Luke 2:27, 43 |
| Chosen of God | The One Selected By God | 1Peter 2:4 |
| Christ | God’s Anointed One | Matthew 1:16; Luke 9:20; Acts 2:36; Heb 3:6 |
| Christ, The (Messiah) | God’s Anointed One | Matthew 16:20; Mark 14:61 |
| Christ a King | The Anointed King of Kings | Luke 23:2 |
| Christ Jesus | The Anointed Savior Jesus | Acts 19:4; Romans 3:24; 8:1; 1Corinthians 1:2, 30; Hebrews 3:1; 1Peter 5:10, 14 |
| Christ Jesus our Lord | Jesus the Anointed Supreme One | 1Timothy 1:12; Romans 8:39 |
| Christ of God | Acts 10:38 Says God Anointed Jesus of Nazareth | Luke 9:20 |
| Christ, the chosen of God | God’s Chosen Anointed One | Luke 23:35 |
| Christ the Lord | Anointed Supreme One | Luke 2:11 |
| Christ, the power of God | The Word Of God | 1Corinthians 1:24 |
| Christ the wisdom of God | God’s Application of His Understanding and Knowledge | 1Corinthians 1:24 |
| Christ, the Son of God | The Anointed Son of God | Acts 9:20 |
| Christ, Son of the Blessed | The Blessed Anointed Son | Mark 14:61 |
| Commander | God’s Chief Ruler, Prince | Isaiah 55:4 |
| Consolation of Israel | The One that Calls Israel to Good | Luke 2:25 |
| Cornerstone | The Stone the Builders Rejected, The First Stone in the New Jerusalem | Ephesians 2:20 |
| Counselor | The Giver of Advice | Isaiah 9:6 |
| Covenant of the people | The Divider of the People | Isaiah 42:6 |
| David Their King | Jesus the Seed of David | 2 Chron 6:6; Jeremiah 30:9 |
| Daysman | Jesus Our Attorney, Lawyer, Legal Representative | Job 9:33 |
| Dayspring From on High | Jesus the Sun or Righteousness, The Dawn of a New Day, The Rise of a New Light | Luke 1:78 |
| Day Star | Jesus the Sun Light of a New Day in our Hearts | 2Peter 1:19 |
| Deliverer | Savior and Redeemer | Psalm 18:2; Romans 11:26 |
| Desire of all nations | That Which Everyone Seeks | Haggai 2:7 |
| Door, the | The ONLY legal access to God | John 10:9 |
| Door of the sheep, the | The ONLY Access to God | John 10:7 |
| Elect | Chosen One | Isaiah 42:1 |
| Emmanuel (Immanuel) | God With Us | Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23 |
| Ensign | God’s Signal/Sign to Man | Isaiah 11:10 |
| Eternal Life | Our ONLY Way to Know God | 1John 5:20 |
| Everlasting Father | The Eternal Father | Isaiah 9:6 |
| Faithful | He who is trustworthy | Isa 49:7; Heb 3:2; |
| Faithful and True | The Dependable Truth | Revelation 19:11; |
| Faithful Priest | The True High Priest of God | 1 Samuel 2:35; |
| Faithful Witness, the | The Testimony of Truth | Revelation 1:5 |
| Faithful and true witness, the | The Testimony of Truth | Revelation 3:14 |
| Father to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem | Jesus the Everlasting Father | Isaiah 22:21; |
| Finisher of faith | He Who Brings Our Faith to a Completion | Hebrews 12:2 |
| Fire, A | A Light of Israel; | Isa 10:17; |
| First and last | The Beginning and End of all things | Isa 44:6, 48:12; Revelation 1:17; 2:8; 22:13 |
| First begotten | Jesus the First Born Again from the Dead | Hebrews 1:6 |
| First begotten of the dead | Jesus the First Born Again from the Dead | Revelation 1:5 |
| Firstborn | Jesus the First Born Again from the Dead | Psalms 89:27 |
| Firstborn from the dead | Christ the Heir of God | Col 1:18; |
| Flame, A | The Fire of God | Isa 10:17; |
| Foundation | The Spiritual Building Block of the New Jerusalem | Isaiah 28:16 |
| Foundation, Sure | Indestructible Rock | Isaiah 28:16 |
| Fountain | God’s Supply of Living Water | Zechariah 13:1 |
| Forerunner | He Who Goes First, The Trail Blazer | Hebrews 6:20 |
| Fourth, the | The 4th man in the Fire | Daniel 3:25 |
| Friend of sinners | My Friend Jesus | Matthew 11:19 |
| Gift of God | God’s Present to Man | John 4:10 |
| Glory of Israel | The Best of Israel | Luke 2:32 |
| God | Supreme Deity | John 1:1 |
| God blessed forever | The Eternally Happy Supreme Deity | Romans 9:5 |
| God manifest in the flesh | Emanuel God in a Physical Body | 1Timothy 3:16 |
| God of Israel, the Savior | The Supreme Deity that has Saved Israel | Isaiah 45:15 |
| God of the whole earth | The Omnipresent Supreme Deity | Isaiah 54:5 |
| God our Savior
|
The Supreme Deity that has Saved Us | 1Timothy 2:3 |
| God’s dear Son | Jesus the Son Loved By God | Colossians 1:13 |
| God with us | Emanuel God in Person | Matthew 1:23 |
| Good | Opposed to Evil | Matthew 20:15; |
| Good Master | The Sinless Lord | Matthew 19:16 |
| Good Shepherd | Leader of the sheep | John 10:11, 14; |
| Governor | Supreme Leader | Matthew 2:6 |
| Great Light | Jesus the Sun of Righteousness arisen in our hearts | Matthew 4:16; |
| Great Shepherd of the sheep
|
Head of the Church | Hebrews 13:20
|
| Greater Light, the | Jesus The Sun of Righteousness, Ruler of The Day | Genesis 1:16 |
| He that shall have dominion | The Ruler of Heaven and Earth | Numbers 24:19 |
| Head | Chief of the Body | Col 2:19 |
| Head of All Principality and Power | Supreme and Preeminent Spiritual Ruler | Col 2:10 |
| Head of the Body | The Husband to the Church | Col 1:18; |
| Head of the Corner | New Jerusalem Cornerstone | Matthew 21:42; 1 Peter 2:7 |
| Head of the ekklesia (body) | Leader of the Church | Ephesians 1:22, 23; 5:23; Colossians 1:18, 24 |
| Heir of all things | The Inheritor of the Kingdom of God | Hebrews 1:2 |
| High priest | God’s Eternal High Priest | Hebrews 3:1, 4:14, 7:26, 8:1, 9:11; |
| Head of every man | Chief Among Men | 1Corinthians 11:3 |
| Head of the corner | The Corner Stone in the New Jerusalem | Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11 |
| Holy | Morally Blameless | Isa 57:15 |
| Holy child | Morally Blameless Son | Acts 4:30 |
| Holy One | The Chosen Blameless Man | Psalms 16:10; Isa 10:17; Acts 3:14, 13:35; 1 John 2:20; |
| Holy one of God | God Sent Blameless Man | Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34; |
| Holy one of Israel, the | Blameless Man from Israel | Isaiah 41:14; 47:4; 54:5 |
| Holy thing | Our Example of Blamelessness | Luke 1:35 |
| Hope (our) | Our Great Expectation | 1Timothy 1:1 |
| Horn of salvation | The King that Saved Us | Luke 1:69 |
| Husband, One | The New Covenant Maker | 2 Cor 11:2 |
| Husband, Thine | The One we Covenant With | Isaiah 54:5 |
| I AM | Our Everything We Need, the ALL Encompassing One | John 8:58 |
| Image of God | The Restored Likeness of the Supreme God | Hebrews 1:3 |
| Israel | The Head of God’s Spiritual Nation of People | Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 49:3; Hosea 11:1 |
| Isaac | A type of Christ, God’s only begotten Son | Genesis 1:17; Genesis 21:10; Genesis 22:2 |
| Jacob | Type of Jesus, The Spiritual Head of the spiritual house of Israel; He will Rule as God | Genesis 32:28; Isaiah 41:8; Malachi 1:2-3; Romans 9:13 |
| Jacob my Servant | Faithful to God’s service | Isaiah 44:2; |
| Jehovah | The Most High God | Isaiah 40:3 |
| Jehovah’s fellow | Son of the Most High God | Zechariah 13:7 |
| Jeshurun | Upright One, Chosen of God | Isa 44:2; |
| Jesus | Our Spiritual Leader and Savior Joshua/Yeshua/ Jehoshua | Matthew 1:21; Used in over 600 verses in the N.T. for the name of God. |
| Jesus Christ | The Spiritually Anointed (Messiah) Joshua | Matthew 1:1; John 1:17; 17:3; Acts 2:38; 4:10; 9:34; 10:36; Romans 1:1, 16:18; 3, 6; 2:16; 5:15, 17; 6:3; 1Corinthians 1:1, 4; 2:2; 2Corinthians 1:19; 4:6; 13:5; Galatians 2:16; Philippians 1:8; 2:11; 1Timothy 1:15; Hebrews 13:8; 1John 1:7; 2:1 |
| Jesus Christ our Lord | Spiritually Supreme Anointed Leader | Romans 1:3; 6:11, 23; 1Corinthians 1:9; 7:25 |
| Jesus Christ our Savior | The Anointed Leader who Saved Us | Titus 3:6 |
| Jesus of Nazareth | Jesus the Natural Man/the Nazarene | Mark 1:24; Luke 24:19 |
| Jesus (of Nazareth), King of the Jews | Spiritual Leader of the Spiritual Jews | John 19:19; Matthew 27:37 |
| Jesus, the Son of God | The Son of the Most High Deity who is our Leader | Hebrews 4:14 |
| Jesus, the Son of Joseph | The Presumed son of Joseph | John 6:42 |
| Joint Heir | Co-Inheritor | Romans 8:17 |
| Joseph | A Fruitful Bough; A type of the coming deliverer | Gen 49:22 |
| Joshua | Leader into the Promise Land a type of Jesus | Joshua; Zechariah 3:8 |
| Judge | Supreme Lawyer of Justice | Acts 10:42 |
| Just man, Just person, Just One | Righteous Individual; Blameless Individual | Matthew 27:19, 24; Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14 |
| Justification, Our | Him who Justified Us | Romans 4:25; |
| King | Supreme Ruler | Isa 43:15; Matthew 21:5 |
| King Eternal | Everlasting Ruler | 1 Tim 1:17; |
| King of Israel | Supreme Ruler of Spiritual Nation of Israel | John 1:49 |
| King of the Jews | Supreme Ruler of the Spiritual Jews | Matthew 2:2 |
| King of Saints | Supreme Ruler of Spiritual Nation of Israel (the Church) | Revelation 15:3 |
| King of Kings | Supreme Ruler of the Church (New Jerusalem) | 1Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14 |
| King of Glory | Supreme Deity Ruler | Psalms 24:7-10 |
| King of Saints | The Ruler over the rulers | Rev 15:3 |
| King of Zion | Supreme Ruler of the Daughter of ZION (Church) | Matthew 21:5 |
| King over all the earth | Supreme Ruler of the planet | Zechariah 14:9 |
| Lamb | God’s Sacrifice for the Sin of humanity | Revelation 5:6, 8; 7:9, 6:16; 10, 17; 12:11; 13:8, 11; 14:1, 4; 15:3; 17:14; 21:9, 14, 22, 19:7, 9; 23, 27 |
| Lamb of God | God’s Sacrifice for the Sin of humanity | John 1:29 |
| Lamb that was slain | God’s Sacrifice for the Sin of humanity | Rev 5:12; |
| Lawgiver | God’s Scribe of Justice | Isaiah 33:22 |
| Leader | Military Commander | Isaiah 55:4 |
| Life, the | Our Source of Being | John 14:6 |
| Light | Jesus our internal Spiritual Sun | Mat 4:16; John 8:12 |
| Light, everlasting | Jesus our Spiritual Eternal Sun | Isaiah 60:19-20’ |
| Light of Israel | The Rising Sun of Spiritual Israel | Isa 10:17; |
| Light of the world | Jesus our Spiritual Sun who shines out of darkness | John 8:12, 9:5 |
| Light to the Gentiles | Jesus our Spiritual Sun who lights the way to God for every nation | Isaiah 42:6, 49:6; |
| Light, True | Jesus our Spiritual Sun and Source of Truth | John 1:9 |
| Lion of the tribe of Judah | Spiritual Ruler of the spiritual Jews (church) | Revelation 5:5 |
| Living Bread, the | The Word of Life | John 6:51 |
| Living God | The God of Eternal Life | 1 Tim 4:10; |
| Living Stone | The Living Corner Building Block of the New Jerusalem | 1Pet 2:4; |
| Lord | The One with Supreme Authority | Acts 2:36; Rom 1:3; |
| Lord and Savior – Jesus Christ | Supreme Ruler Who Saves | 2Peter 1:11; 3:18 |
| Lord Christ | The Anointed Supreme Ruler | Colossians 3:24 |
| Lord From Heaven | God Who Came From Heaven | 1 Cor 15:47 |
| Lord God Almighty | The All Powerful Supreme Deity Ruler | Revelation 15:3 |
| Lord Jesus | Supreme Ruler Jesus | Luke 24:3; Acts 1:21; 4:33; 7:59; 8:16; 9:29; 11:20; 19:5,10,13,17; 20:24,35; 21:13; Rom. 10:9; 14:14; 1Co. 5:5; 6:11; 11:23; 2Co. 1:14; 4:10,14; Gal. 6:17; Eph. 1:15; Php. 2:19; Col. 3:17; 1Th. 2:15; 4:1,2; 2Th. 1:7; Phm. 1:5; Heb. 13:20; Rev. 22:20; |
| Lord Jesus Christ | Anointed Supreme Ruler Jesus | Acts 11:17; 15:11,26; 16:31; 20:21; 28:31; Rom. 1:7; 5:1,11; 13:14; 15:6,30; 16:18,20,24; 1Co. 1:3,7,8,10; 5:4; 8:6; 15:57; 16:22,23; 2Co. 1:2,3; 8:9; 11:31; 13:14; Gal. 1:3; 6:14,18; Eph. 1:2,3,17; 3:14; 5:20; 6:23,24; Php. 1:2; 3:20; 4:23; Col. 1:2,3; 1Th. 1:1,3; 2:19; 3:11,13; 5:9,23,28; 2Th. 1:1,2,8,12; 2:1,14,16; 3:6,12,18; 1Ti. 1:1; 5:21; 6:3,14; 2Ti. 4:1,22; Tit. 1:4; Phm. 1:3,25; Jas. 1:1; 2:1; 1Pe. 1:3; 2Pe. 1:8,14,16; 2Jn. 1:3; Jude 1:4,17,21; Rev. 22:21; |
| Lord Jesus Christ our Savior | Anointed Supreme Ruler Jesus Who Saves | Titus 1:4 |
| Lord of all | Supreme Ruler of Everyone | Acts 10:36 |
| Lord of glory | Supreme Ruler of God’s Splendor | James 2:1 |
| Lord of Hosts (armies) | Supreme Ruler of the Army of God | Isaiah 44:6, 47:4; |
| Lord of Lords | Supreme Ruler of rulers | 1 Tim 6:15; Rev 17:14; 19:16 |
| Lord of the dead and living | Supreme Ruler of Everyone | Romans 14:9 |
| Lord of the Sabbath | Supreme Ruler of the Day of Rest | Mat 12:8; Mark 2:28 |
| Lord Our Righteousness, the | Supreme Ruler Who Makes Us Righteous | Jeremiah 23:6 |
| Lord over all | Supreme Ruler of Everything | Romans 10:12 |
| Lord, mighty in battle | Undefeatable Supreme Ruler | Psalms 24:8 |
| Lord’s Christ | Supreme Ruler of the Anointing | Luke 2:26 |
| Lord, strong and mighty | Undefeatable Supreme Ruler | Psalms 24:8 |
| Lord, your holy one | The Blameless Supreme Ruler | Isaiah 43:15 |
| Lord, your redeemer | The Supreme Ruler Who Has Purchased Us With His Blood | Isaiah 43:14 |
| Maker, Thy | Our Creator | Isaiah 17:7, 54:5 |
| Man, a | The Word of God became flesh (Adam) | Ezekiel 1:26 |
| Man Christ – Jesus | The Anointed Son of God/Man | 1Timothy 2:5 |
| Man of sorrows | Man of Pain | Isaiah 53:3 |
| Master | Head of the House | Matthew 23:8; Eph 6:9 |
| Master In Heaven | Head of the House of God | Col 4:1; |
| Mediator, the only | Our Reconciler, God’s Go Between Us and Him | 1Timothy 2:5 |
| Meek | The Humble God of all Power | Matthew 11:29; |
| Melchisedec | The King and High Priest of Jerusalem a type of Jesus Christ | Hebrews 7:15; |
| Messenger of the covenant | The Distributor of the News of Division | Malachi 3:1 |
| Messiah | God’s Anointed | John 1:41 |
| Messiah the Prince | The Anointed Ruler | Daniel 9:25 |
| Mighty God | The Undefeatable Deity | Isaiah 9:6 |
| Mighty one of Israel | The Undefeatable One of Israel | Isaiah 30:29 |
| Mighty one of Jacob | The Undefeatable One of Jacob | Isaiah 49:26 |
| Mighty to save | The Undefeatable Savior | Isaiah 63:1 |
| Minister of the sanctuary | Our High Priest | Hebrews 8:2 |
| Morning Star | Jesus Our Spiritual Sun who Rules the Day | Revelation 2:28 |
| Moses | A Type of Christ the Deliverer; the Lawgiver; Faithful servant; | Acts 7:35; Heb 3:5; |
| Most holy | Ultimate Blameless One | Daniel 9:24 |
| Most mighty | Omnipotent One | Psalms 45:3 |
| Nail, A | The Fastener of God | Isaiah 22:23 |
| Nazarene | Set Apart Man | Matthew 2:23 |
| Offspring of David | Descendant of David the King | Revelation 22:16 |
| Only Begotten | The Only Physically Born Son of God | John 1:14; John 1:18; John 3:16; John 3:18; 1John 4:9 |
| Only wise God, our Savior | The Unique Deity Possessor of Wisdom Who Saves | Jude 1:25 |
| Passover, our | The Lamb of God | 1Corinthians 5:7 |
| Plant of renown | God’s Seed of Righteousness | Ezekiel 34:29 |
| Potentate | Supreme Ruler | 1Timothy 6:15 |
| Power of God | The Word of God | 1Corinthians 1:24 |
| Physician | Healer | Matthew 9:12 |
| Precious Cornerstone | The Living Foundation for the New Jerusalem | Isaiah 28:16 |
| Priest Forever | Eternal Blood Shedder that Lives Eternally | Hebrews 7:17; Hebrews 7:21 |
| Prince | Supreme Ruler | Acts 5:31 |
| Prince of Life | Supreme Ruler and Giver of Life | Acts 3:15 |
| Prince of Peace | Supreme Ruler and Restorer of Tranquility | Isaiah 9:6 |
| Prince of the kings of the earth | Supreme Ruler of the rulers of the earth | Revelation 1:5 |
| Prince of the princes | Supreme Ruler of the rulers of the earth. | Daniel 8:25; |
| Prophet | The Anointed One Who Prophecies | Deuteronomy 18:15, 18; Matthew 21:11; Luke 24:19; Acts 3:22; |
| Propitiation (expiation, our Sin-offering) | The Lamb of God | 1John 2:2 |
| Rabbi, Rabboni | Teacher | John 1:49; 20:16 |
| Ransom | The Price Paid For Our Freedom | 1Timothy 2:6 |
| Redemption | He Who Purchased Us Back | 1Corinthians 1:30 |
| Redeemer | Purchaser of our field | Isaiah 59.20 |
| Redeemer of Israel | He who ransomed spiritual Israel with His blood | Isa 49:7; |
| Redeemer, Thy | He Who Purchased Us Back | Isaiah 41:14, 54:5 |
| Resurrection and the Life, the | Raised Back From Death to Life | John 11:25 |
| Redemption | He Who Purchased Us Back | 1Corinthians 1:30 |
| Righteous Branch | God’s Sprouting Seed of Righteousness | Jeremiah 23:5 |
| Righteous Judge | He Who Judges Fairly | 2Timothy 4:8 |
| Righteous Servant | Lawful Just Worker | Isaiah 53:11 |
| Righteousness | Our Justification | 1 Corinthians 1:30 |
| Rock, The | Cornerstone of Salvation | Deu 32:15 |
| Rock, Spiritual | Supernatural Stone | 1Corinthians 10:4 |
| Rock of Offence | The Stone that Offends | Isaiah 8:14; 1Peter 2:8 |
| Root of David | The Source of Life for David | Revelation 5:5; 22:16 |
| Root of Jesse | The Source of Life for Jesse | Isaiah 11:10; Romans 15:12 |
| Rose of Sharon | God’s Fragrant Flower | Song of Songs 2:1 |
| Ruler in Israel | King of the Jews | Micah 5:2 |
| Salvation | The One that Saves | Luke 2:30 |
| Salvation, My | He who Saved Us | Isa 49:6; |
| Sanctification | He Who is Set Apart | 1Corinthians 1:30 |
| Sanctuary | Our Holy of Holies | Isaiah 8:14 |
| Savior | The One that Saved Us! | Luke 1:47, 2:11; John 4:14; Acts 5:31, 13:23; Php 3:20; 1 Ti 1:1, 2:3, 4:10; 2 Tim 1:10; Titus 1:3-4, 2:10, 2:13, 3:4, 3:6; 2 Pet 1:1, 3:2; Jud 1:25; |
| Savior Jesus Christ | The One that Saves Jesus the Anointed | 2Timothy 1:10; Titus 2:13; 2Pet 1:1, 2:20, 3:18; |
| Savior of the body (ekklesia) | The One that Saved the Church | Ephesians 5:23 |
| Savior of the world | The Only Hope For Those in Darkness | Jn 4:4; 1Jn 4:14 |
| Sceptre | The Living Rod of God | Numbers 24:17 |
| Second Man, the | The Brother of Adam | 1Corinthians 15:47 |
| Seed, the | The Seed of God | Galatians 3:19 |
| Seed of Abraham | He Who Was In Abraham | Hebrews 2:16 |
| Seed of David | He Who Was In David | 2Timothy 2:8 |
| Servant | He who serves others | Isaiah 42:1, 49:6; |
| Servant of rulers | He who washes the feet of others | Isaiah 49:7 |
| Shepherd | The Overseer of the Flock | Gen 49:24; Psalm 23:1; Mark 14:27 |
| Shepherd and Overseer of souls | He Who Watches Over the Mind and Thoughts of Man | 1Peter 2:25 |
| Shepherd, Chief | The Overseer of the overseers | 1Peter 5:4 |
| Shepherd, Good | The Blameless Overseer | John 10:11 |
| Shepherd, Great | The Omnipotent Overseer | Hebrews 13:20 |
| Shepherd of Israel | The Overseer of God’s Israel the church | Psalms 80:1 |
| Shepherd, One | The only one that feeds us | John 10:16 |
| Shiloh | He Who Prospers | Genesis 49:10 |
| Solomon | Son of David the Builder of God’s Temple; a type of Christ | 1 Chron 28:9; 1 Chron 29:19; |
| Son | The Son of God | Mat 28:19; John 3:17; John 3:35-36; John 5:19-26; John 6:40; John 14:13; John 17:1; Rom 1:3; Rom 1:9; Rom 5:10; Rom 8:3; 1 Cor 15:28; Gal 1:16; Gal 4:4; 1 Th 1:10; Heb 1:2; Heb 3:6; Heb 5:5; Heb 7:28; 1Jn 1:7; 1 Jn 2:23-24; 1 Jn 4:10; 1 Jn 4:14; 1 Jn 5:9; 1 Jn 5:11-13; 2 Jn 1:3; |
| Son, Beloved | Son Loved By God | Mat 3:17; 2 Pe 1:17; |
| Son, dear | Loved Son of God | Col 1:13; |
| Son, My | The Son of God | Hosea 11:1 |
| Son, Only Begotten | The Only Naturally born Son of God | John 3:16; |
| Son Jesus Christ | The evidence that Jesus the Son was Messiah | 1 Cor 1:9; 1 Jn 1:3; |
| Son of God | He Who Was Born From God | Daniel 3:25; Mat 4:3; Mat 4:6; Mat 8:29; Mat 14:33; Mat 26:63; Mat 27:40; Mat 27:43; Mat 27:54; Mar 1:1; Mar 3:11; Mar 15:39; Luk 1:35; Luk 4:3; Luk 4:9; Luk 4:41; Luk 8:28; Luk 22:70; Joh 1:34; Joh 1:49; Joh 3:18; Joh 5:25; Joh 9:35; Joh 10:36; Joh 11:4; Joh 11:27; Joh 19:7; Joh 20:31; Act 8:37; Act 9:20; Rom 1:4; 2Co 1:19; Gal 2:20; Eph 4:13; Heb 4:14; Heb 6:6; Heb 7:3; Heb 10:29; 1Jn 3:8; 1Jn 4:15; 1Jn 5:5; 1Jn 5:10; 1Jn 5:12; 1Jn 5:13; 1Jn 5:20; Rev 2:18; |
| Son of Man | He Who was born of a natural woman a Son of Adam | Mat 8:20; Mat 9:6; Mat 10:23; Mat 11:19; Mat 12:8; Mat 12:32; Mat 12:40; Mat 13:37; Mat 13:41; Mat 16:13; Mat 16:27; Mat 16:28; Mat 17:9; Mat 17:12; Mat 17:22; Mat 18:11; Mat 19:28; Mat 20:18; Mat 20:28; Mat 24:27; Mat 24:30; Mat 24:37; Mat 24:39; Mat 24:44; Mat 25:13; Mat 25:31; Mat 26:2; Mat 26:24; Mat 26:45; Mat 26:64; Mar 2:10; Mar 2:28; Mar 8:31; Mar 8:38; Mar 9:9; Mar 9:12; Mar 9:31; Mar 10:33; Mar 10:45; Mar 13:26; Mar 13:34; Mar 14:21; Mar 14:41; Mar 14:62; Luk 5:24; Luk 6:5; Luk 6:22; Luk 7:34; Luk 9:22; Luk 9:26; Luk 9:44; Luk 9:56; Luk 9:58; Luk 11:30; Luk 12:8; Luk 12:10; Luk 12:40; Luk 17:22; Luk 17:24; Luk 17:26; Luk 17:30; Luk 18:8; Luk 18:31; Luk 19:10; Luk 21:27; Luk 21:36; Luk 22:22; Luk 22:48; Luk 22:69; Luk 24:7; Joh 1:51; Joh 3:13; Joh 3:14; Joh 5:27; Joh 6:27; Joh 6:53; Joh 6:62; Joh 8:28; Joh 12:23; Joh 12:34; Joh 13:31; Act 7:56; Rev 1:13; Rev 14:14; |
| Son of the Father | The Son of the First part of the Trinity | 2John 1:3 |
| Son of the Blessed One (God) | Son of the Happy One | Mark 14:61 |
| Son of the Highest One (God) | Son of the Omnipotent One | Luke 1:32 |
| Son of David | He Who is Born from David | Matthew 9:27 |
| Star out of Jacob | The Messenger from Jacob, the Sun of Righteousness | Numbers 24:17 |
| Stone, Tried | The Foundation of the New Jerusalem | Isaiah 28:167; |
| Stone, the | God’s Cornerstone of the New Jerusalem | Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 2017; Acts 4:11 |
| Stone of Israel, The | The Spiritual Cornerstone of Israel | Gen 49:24; |
| Sun, the | The Sun that Rules the Day | Psalm 19:4, 84:11,136:8; Matthew 17:2; Rev 1:16; |
| Sun of Righteousness | The Sun that Shines Righteousness | Malachi 4:2 |
| Surety (Guarantee) | He Who is Trustworthy | Hebrews 7:22 |
| Stone of Stumbling | The Building Block Rejected by the Builders | Isaiah 8:14; 1Peter 2:8 |
| Sure Foundation | He Who is Trustworthy and Strong | Isaiah 28:16 |
| Teacher | The Knowledge Giver | John 3:2 |
| True God | The Opposite of the false god | 1John 5:20 |
| True Vine | The Real Source of Life | John 15:1 |
| Truth, the | He who is Faithful and True | John 14:6 |
| Unspeakable Gift | The Indescribable Present | 2Corinthians 9:15 |
| Very Christ | Unlimited Anointing | Acts 9:22 |
| Vine, the | The Source of Life to the branches | John 15:1-5; |
| Way, the | The Only Path to God | John 14:6 |
| Which is, which was, which is to come | The Eternal One God | Revelation 1:4 |
| Wisdom | The Application of Knowledge and Understanding | Proverbs 8:12 |
| Wisdom of God, the | The manifestation of God’s knowledge and understanding | 1Corinthians 1:24 |
| Witness | He Whose Testimony is True | Isaiah 55:4; Revelation 1:5; |
| Witness, Faithful | He Whose Testimony you can count on | Revelation 3:14; |
| Witness, True | He Whose Testimony is True | Revelation 3:14; |
| Wonderful | The One Beyond Compare | Isaiah 9:6 |
| Word, The | God’s Power | John 1:1; John 1:14; 1 John 5:7 |
| Word of God | The Power of the Omnipotent Deity | Revelation 19:13 |
| Word of Life | God’s Power to make Alive | 1John 1:1 |
| Worthy | Jesus the Highest | Heb 3:3; Jas 2:7; Rev 4:11, 5:9, 5;12 |
If you would like to read other reference documents about Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols here are some others that are available:
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! The Seed of Resurrection! Part 7
(ver 1.2) This is now Part 7 of a series of lessons on the concepts and laws surrounding seeds found in the Bible. The Seed is a naturally divinely inspired designed principle that demonstrates vast spiritual revelation and today will be another example of that. In a previous lesson I taught on a parable that Jesus spoke on concerning the seed concept that if a seed ever produces fruit, it must first die and be planted (buried) in the ground (John 12:24). We looked at Jesus being this seed, but of course He was also a man like you and I in the world. The Spirit of God raised the man, Jesus Christ from the dead and He became the first man ever to be resurrected from the dead. We know that the man Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross in Jerusalem. We know that He hung there and died. We know the Roman soldier pierced His side and His blood and water from His body flowed from His side onto the ground. We then know His body was taken down and placed in a tomb. We can now begin to understand the seed concepts being presented. The body of Jesus was a seed. This seed died and was buried in a earthly tomb. But, after 3 days we know that God raised this man Jesus back to life in His own physical body. So far I’m just stating things that you should already know, especially if you have been reading this series. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would strongly suggest that you go back and start reading with “Part 1”.
Let us today start by discussing some basic seed concepts using a natural seed. Did you know that a seed contains 3 main parts? How many main parts does a man have? A man also has 3 man parts; man is a 1). spirit that has a 2). soul, who lives in a 3). body. So man has 3 main parts. I believe the parallels to natural things and spiritual things are quite amazing. God is also described as a 3 part spiritual being. God the Father, God the Word and God the Holy Ghost are the three parts that comprise the One True God. So what are the 3 main parts of a natural seed? They are the 1). Seed Coat, the 2). Endosperm and the 3). Embryo. These are the 3 major components of a natural seed. Let’s compare the makeup of a man to the makeup of a seed. The outer portion that we can see would be the “human body” and this would correspond to the “seed coat” which is the outer shell membrane. Then man’s next layer going from least important to most important would be his soul. The soul of the man is his “mind” and this component corresponds to the seed “Endosperm”. The final most important part of a man is his spirit. The “spirit of man” corresponds to the most important part of a seed, the “Embryo”. God can be very tricky to understand. As you might have seen God calls the children of humans their “Seed”. So God describes the human makeup of a man to be designed after a seed. As you can see from the natural description of a seed this information corresponds very closely. However, in another parable Jesus spoke of a man being the “Ground” that the seed is planted into. However, this time the seed is the Word of God. Jesus taught in the Parable of the Sower that man could be 6 different types of ground or natural earth. This is the part that makes many people scratch their heads and say “how can we be both”, yet God clearly calls us both of these. I believe it depends upon your perspective and the application that you are attempting to use it in. Clearly there are different types of seeds and this is part of the difficulty of interpretation, being forced to determine the context and the correct type of everything being discussed by God. No body that I know of says Bible interpretation is easy, if you think it is you have been deceived.
So I have gone through a long introduction, introducing some new things along with a review of some basic seed concepts that we should have all previously learned. Today I want to show you something new in the Bible that applies to God’s design of us being a type of seed. The subject of the resurrection is of course a potentially controversial subject, since not to many people know much about it. Some believe in it and some do not. It is no different today than when Jesus walked the face of the earth. You may remember in Matthew 22:23 that a group of people came to Jesus to ask Him a question. These people were members of the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. So it is really no different today, we still have people who do not subscribe to what the Bible teaches. So let’s discuss resurrection and what it is briefly. The “Resurrection of the Dead” is a basic foundational truth taught in the Bible (Heb 6:2). The Greek word in the Strong’s dictionary means to “raise up”, to “stand up again” or “to raise to life again”. These are those which were once alive who are stated to have died and behold are alive again. That is the concept of resurrection being described to us and this is a seed concept being clearly demonstrated. A seed lives, a seed dies and is raised again to a new life after being planted. So if a man is a seed and his makeup or design resembles a natural seed we should be able to see how God plans to use this concept in the resurrection of our physical bodies.
1Co 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
In this verse Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and answering some basic theological questions. There must have been some raging debate on the subject to cause God to respond in this manner. Of course it also helps us to learn what was being taught since we were not present when Paul taught it to them personally. Two questions are presented to God. First, how are the dead “raised up” and second what kind of body will they have? I think these are two very good questions and we will see if God answers these questions.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Backing up in the chapter we see some contextual verses that are also in reference to the seed resurrection principle. Adam caused all men to die because we were all “in” Adam when he sinned. Christ will cause all men to live again because we that are born again were in Christ when He was raised from the dead. This is not a universal salvation, meaning that everyone will go to heaven however. You see there are people trying to deceive others using these types of teachings where they only use the parts of the Bible that they like and then reject the parts that they do not like or that don’t fit what they desire to believe. Here is a verse that Jesus gave us on this subject of resurrection.
Joh 5:29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
To “come forth” is a Seed concept. You dig a hole in the soil, sow a seed in the ground, cover it with dirt and in the process of time it “comes forth” out of the ground. Then Jesus tells us that some who have done good things will be resurrected into life and these are the good seeds that God planted. However, then there is the bad news for the bad seeds, those that have done evil will be resurrected to damnation. Wow, not very good news for some people. Everyone is prophesied to be resurrected from the dead and come forth but there are two types of seeds being described and they are very different, even completely opposite. We learned this concept when Jesus taught us the parable about the man who sowed good seed (Mat 13). The enemy came and sowed tares among the seeds of wheat and they both came to bear fruit simultaneously. What we discover is that the resurrection for the dead is a reality that everyone will face in the future; it is really dependent upon what type of seed you are in to where they end up. Some will be very happy and some will be extremely sad.
1Co 15:32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
Here is a verse that I thought I would include simply because this is a common attitude found in the present evil world that we live in. People are massively consumed with self-indulgence and have a self-centered attitude towards life. If you have something and I want it I’ll just take it. After all there are no consequences to life, we are just the same as every other animal on the planet, they think and have been taught. If we evolved from monkeys and monkeys die that is the end of them so it is with us. There is no God, no Judge, no hell, no way are we going to bear any responsibility for our actions so live it up and be all that you can be for tomorrow you may die. People are so focused on themselves they do not know what they are doing to others. That is really going to be the hardest lesson to learn when it comes to judgment day.
1Co 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
So let’s get back to finding the answers to the two questions being asked by the skeptics. How is it possible that this resurrection will occur and what will I look like after it does occur?
1Co 15:36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
God begins to answer the first question using the seed principle. To quicken something means to be made alive. This is a changing or reversal from death to life. What God is describing is the basic seed concept we previously discussed. A seed is useless unless it first dies. Only after the death of a seed, can the new life come forth. I like Paul a lot. He is very straight forward and stands firmly behind what he teaches. He says that those who are ignorant are fools because they purposely reject the truth. You need to decide if you want to be a fool today or change to accept the wisdom of God. God is revealing to us seed principles that are very profound and they apply directly to us in this subject of the resurrection of our physical bodies. We wouldn’t be able to live again if Jesus did not die for us and plant the seed for our salvation. Here is the next verse so pay close attention to what it says:
1Co 15:37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
God almost gives us a contradiction of terms. One of the seed principles from Genesis is every seed produces after its own kind. An orange seed will produce only an orange tree. But, now we see another extension to the puzzle. You plant a seed and you get a tree and not just another set of seeds. In other words you do not plant a tree and get a tree. Or you do not plant a seed and just get more seeds. No the basic law is that you plant a seed and you will get a new living plant. God is saying in this verse in 1 Corinthians that the physical body that you have right now is nothing but a bare grain of seed. What God is alluding to is that your physical body you have now is not the spiritual body that you will have after the resurrection.
1Co 15:38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
While wheat seeds only produce wheat, God is saying that every human is still a uniquely designed individual. So while we are all human seeds, we look differently and have unique natural features like individual fingerprints and DNA. These unique features will produce a similar design in the resurrected us. In other words everybody will not be clones in the resurrected spiritual realm. You can clearly see in this verse God is calling us each a seed, but at the same time also calling us all unique seeds. That makes our seed discussion a little bit more complex, but yet same seed principles and laws still apply. So let’s go through some of the other information revealed to us:
1Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
I skipped down to verse 42 because it seemed relevant to our seed discussion. God says He will take the corruptible natural part of us and sow it to produce the new incorruptible part of us during the resurrection. That is pretty cool stuff, if you ask me.
1Co 15:43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
What was dishonorable and weak will become glorious and powerful. God is giving you a clue comparison of the difference between the old and the new. That which will become a new is highly better than that which was sown. This is a result of being born again of the incorruptible seed of God and not the corruptible natural seed of man.
1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Our natural bodies will be planted as a seed that will produce the spiritual resurrected bodies. God clearly declares that our future spiritual bodies are not the exact same as our current physical bodies. The new spiritual body will not get sick, or grow old, will not fail, or even grow tired. There are just too many new features to describe this new body. The new body will certainly have many of the same features of the old body and still be able to do many of the things that old body could do. The best of the old will continue to be present in the new. Jesus after being resurrected from the dead would still eat natural food with his disciples. So eating is a future good thing to look forward to and all the church people said amen! So I think I have gone long enough on the subject of the “Seed of Resurrection”. I hope and pray that you enjoyed the lesson and derived some benefit from reading it. God continue to bless you until the next time.
If you like to continue reading this series you can go to “Part 8“.
Understanding God’s Design of a Man! Man Made In the Image of God!
(Ver 1.2) There is a vast amount of confusion surrounding the makeup of the human design of man. Natural and carnal people think they are just a physical body much like every other mammal on the planet. Certain intellectual people in the world think and believe that they are just a mind in the universal consciousness of Nirvana, or some C.R.A.P. (Christian Reasoning Applied Poorly) like that. Please forgive my bluntness, but God is not an intellect or a mind over matter concept of a religion. There are only a certain number of Christians that realize the truth and of course not all of them really know very much about the details of the design of man and they mix up the components when speaking about them. There is just too many differing man made opinions on the subject and the definitions given to us in the Bible are being ignored. So today I will attempt to explore and to explain the 3 separate parts that make up the human design and teach you how they are related, what they are and where they exist using only the Bible to explain them. This will probably be a very long lesson on the subject, so I apologize for not breaking it down into a series of shorter lessons. We should start with the basics from Genesis, because this was the beginning of man and it states God’s initial design concepts and purpose for a man. Why is it important to study this subject? Primarily because how you see yourself reflects whether you came from a monkey or from a created design of God. Based upon the correct interpretation of Human design found in the Bible alone proves that the evolution theory of man is a myth. In Genesis, God gives us His stated purpose for creating a man and what we will quickly discover in Genesis is that God designed man after a divine pattern of Himself:
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the…
So here is the stated beginning of man. Man is a created being. Man had a specific stated point of origin. You could call it a point of origination, but God calls it a beginning. Genesis means a book of beginnings. However we can see that humans are uniquely designed after a pre-existing pattern of God. Uh Oh? That probably bugs natural thinking people who believe only in evolution. God who is a Spirit (John 4:24) existed before time and space existed. God is an eternal spiritual being. This of course is not the complete verse and I left out the ending to simply concentrate on the subject at hand of where did man come from? The rest of the verse speaks about man’s responsibilities and purpose for being here. However, I want to focus in on two specific words in this verse, one is “image” and the other is “likeness”.
Image
From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol: – image, vain shew.
This is an interesting Hebrew word from the Strong’s definition. It overall means a resemblance. In other words you could have looked at Adam and seen his family resemblance to his father God. I know there are many religious people who do not like me to call Adam a son of God, but yet that is what the Bible says so I’ll stick with it. I did not say that Adam was the Son of God, so put down your stones. Now let’s look at the word “likeness” and see the Strong’s definition for this word:
Likeness
From H1819; resemblance; concretely model, shape; adverbially like: – fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.
While this is a very similar word to the first, it is also a completely different word. So either God is trying to teach us something, or He is just repeating Himself and confused and I do not think that God gets confused. The key meaning of this word is “resemblance” as in the “family resemblance” was with Adam resembling his father God again. Similitude is another definition of this word. One definition of the word “similitude” is “One closely resembling another”. Adam when created closely resembled his Creator. What we can clearly see is that if Adam closely resembled God, then whatever God was, man was a very closely designed pattern of this God. You cannot look at one and not recognize the other. Adam possessed the traits of the family resemblance of God. When my son was born and grew up, everyone looked at him and said “He looks just like his father” and he did. What I want you to see is this same family resemblance is handed down from generation to generation. Here is a verse in the Bible that says something about Adam’s son resembling Adam:
Gen 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
As you can clearly see the same two Hebrew words are presented for another father and son combination. Adam’s son Seth bore the resemblance of his father Adam. Do you recognize a pattern? It is the same pattern between God and Adam, just being perpetuated down the line. Every generation of Adam contained the same resemblance to God. Man has never lost the family resemblance to the Most High. What I want you to realize is that whatever God is, that is also what man is on a smaller limited scale. If God is a Spirit, then man is a spirit. If God is a triune being, then man is a triune being. If God is a speaking spirit, then man is a speaking spirit. There are just too many qualities of God to list them all in this lesson. If you do not understand the trinity of God, I have written a blog on “Understanding the Trinity of God”. So go and read about God the Father, God the Word and God the Holy Spirit being One God in that blog. Now, what I want to do is introduce you to the concepts about the triune makeup of man. Man if created to look like God, must precisely follow the pattern of the makeup of God’s design.
What are the three parts that make up a man? Also, I use the term man generically as “mankind” and I’m not leaving women out, so please understand this. According to the scriptures that I have read and studied, the human makeup of man is that primarily of a spirit being. After all God is a Spirit. If a man had no spirit we would be purely just like a monkey. Animals do not have spirits. No animal was ever made in the image and likeness of God Almighty. Therefore, man did not evolve from animals. There are many idiots in the world that disagree and think God used evolution to bring us into the world, but they do err and make themselves to be fools.
Jas 2:26 For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Those who want to see what the Bible says clearly will accept verses like this one. However, those who do not want to accept the truth will be deceived into believing the lies of Satan very easily. Many times you just have to read the Bible and accept it for what it literally says and this is one of those times. Man’s body we are told is dead without his spirit being inside of his body. You can also read into this a complimentary implied truth that is given to us, if the body is dead, then the spirit has departed and is no longer in the body. People who do not want to believe this fact try to say this word “spirit” means breath, to respire, to inspire, to take in oxygen physically. After all God when He created Adam “breathed” the breath of life into his nostrils, Genesis 2 says. When you think naturally you think wrong and this is most people’s problem with their interpretations of the Bible. They forget who the author is; God is a Spirit and not a physical being. Because God wrote the Bible in a manner to give man a choice to be wrong, many think they are right and do not understand they are completely wrong. The Bible says that the “carnal” mind of man is enmity to God. Natural thinking is an enemy to the thoughts and ways of God. If you think that God came down to the earth and did mouth to mouth resuscitation on Adam to get him breathing and to live, you are clearly deceived. God breathed His Spirit into the body of the man Adam and Adam became a living soul. If you go back and look up the references in the Bible using the Greek word translated as “spirit” in James 2:6; you will find that it is used in context with every type of spiritual being. God’s Spirit or the Spirit of God, who is also called the Holy Spirit are examples found with this same word. The spirits of demons, unclean spirits and evil spirits are also defined using this word. Does God breathe oxygen? Does Satan breathe oxygen? Do Angels breathe Oxygen? If you said No!; you are correct. So then do not think that man only breathes oxygen and that is what makes us human. So man’s spiritual makeup is no different than God’s spiritual makeup, the makeup of angels, Satan or demons. The only difference is that we exist physically here on this planet and that means, we eat, drink, sleep and breathe to be here. Do not confuse natural things with spiritual things or you will be totally confused. I guess I still need to discuss the triune nature of man so I will introduce you to this using the Bible:
1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To declare something to be whole is to declare it to be complete, missing no parts. Man is clearly described as a “triune” being in this verse. Man has three distinct and separate parts that make up our “whole” existence. These are listed in order of priority from most important to that of least importance. The first part of man and the most essential component to man is the spirit of a man. The spirit of man is the part that God breathed into Adam from His Spirit. God is called the “Father” of spirits in Hebrews 12:9. So if God is called the Father of spirits then God is only the Father of Adam’s spirit and not the father of Adam’s body. Do you understand the difference? When Jesus was born into the world as the Son of God, He is called the “Only Begotten”. That means only Jesus was God’s naturally born physical Son. God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). You can clearly see the difference between Adam and Jesus. Jesus was born here and Adam’s body came from the dust of the ground. These are two radically different creative works of God. So getting back to our verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:25; we can see that Adam when created had to possess all three of these qualities in order to live on this planet. The Bible says that when God breathed the Spirit of Life into Adam; Adam became a living soul so we can see that the soul of Adam is different that the spirit of Adam. God did not put His soul into Adam, it says that Adam only “became” a living soul after God breathed into his nostrils and that is completely different. We have not discussed what a soul is, so that is probably the point of confusion for many people right now. The final component of man listed in this verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 is the physical body of the man. This is the part that we all can see and touch, but yet it is not the man, just the house that the man lives in. These are the three components that make up the human design. We are a triune being, consisting of three distinct parts. We exist in three different dimensions or realms of existence. These realms are the spiritual realm, the mental realm and the physical realm.
I have been in many churches and they sometimes use the words spirit and soul interchangeably. They seem to think that they are one in the same things. They will say after a church service that God saved 15 souls today in church. Or they will pray for the soul of Brother John, because he is going through a hard time right now. Or they will say God bless the soul of our dear sister. So what is the difference between a soul and a spirit? I guess we should first determine there is a difference. So let’s start with this verse:
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
So here we have a verse with the two key words used in contrasting styles and references. God calls the first man Adam a Living Soul; but then He calls the last man Adam a quickening Spirit. If the spirit of man was the same as the soul of the man, it would not be necessary to use different Greek words, would it? Jesus Christ is called the Last Adam and He causes spirits to live. The inferred reference or opposite truth to this is the clear association that the first Adam has caused spirits to die. Since it is impossible for spirits to die, then we have to figure out another explanation of what this means. I believe that it means that unrighteous people who are alive in the world are soul dominated or controlled. In direct contrast to this, true Christians in the world should be Spirit aware and controlled. If a person dies without knowing Jesus Christ and accepting Him as their personal Lord and Savior, they are now separated from God. So any way let me give you another verse that declares the reality that the spirit and the soul are not the same thing.
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
If God can divide the soul from the spirit, they are not one in the same things. What God is revealing to us is that these two things are clearly closely related or even work in conjunction with each other in a joint function or purpose, but that they are clearly and distinctly different components of the human design. God actually gives us a clue in the very last statement to the definition of these two words. The Word of God is said to be a “discerner” of the thoughts of a man’s heart. This word translated as “discerner” comes from a Greek word meaning a “Judge”. The Word of God is able to judge your thoughts. Where are your thoughts? Your thoughts exist within the realm of your mind and intellect. However, God declares that the thoughts are associated with your heart. Your heart is your spirit. So we can conclude that your mind is how you get through to your internal spirit. I think this is a good time to introduce you to the Greek Word translated as “soul”. Here is Strong’s definition:
psuchē
From G5594; breath, that is, (by implication) spirit, abstractly or concretely (the animal sentient principle only; thus distinguished on the one hand from G4151, which is the rational and immortal soul; and on the other from G2222, which is mere vitality, even of plants: these terms thus exactly correspond respectively to the Hebrew [H5315], [H7307] and [H2416]: – heart (+ -ily), life, mind, soul, + us, + you.
No wonder people are so confused. Using this definition is very confusing. It would seem to apply to everything from people down to plants and did you know that in a way this is correct. You see every animal on our planet has a soul. The predominate thing that I take out of this definition is the usage of the reference to the word concerning your “MIND”. Maybe you can clearly see that the Greek word “psuche” is where we get our words like “psyche” or words like “psychology” or “psychiatrist” come from this word. These are all Mind related curriculums and references. These are the study of your mental health and the human mind. This is the predominate realm of the soul of man. To have the ability to think, rationalize, process, calculate, make decisions, among other mental functions are all related actions of the soul of man. Your mind is of course a very complex part of your being, the ability to reason and to create come from God’s nature being imparted into man at creation. This is part of the makeup of man that makes him different than animals. All animals have limited soulish realms, but they do not create nor are they self-aware of their own existence! Sure animals have limited feelings but not like those of a human. Sure in very limited forms animals build themselves houses or things like that. But, I’ve never seen an animal write a song or even try to play the piano on their own without the prompting or training of a man. Animals are not wondering “Why am I here?” and “Who am I?”. Creativity is a part of the soul of man that is unique to us. We learned this trait from our creator God. But, your mind is more complex than just that. How about your memory? The ability to learn information and to recall facts and material on a subject in an organized fashion is definitely a mental function of the human mind. Many naturally thinking people in the world associate or attribute this to the physical human brain. However, this is not what the Bible teaches. Your mind, your reasoning, your memory have nothing to do with your physical brain and I can prove that to you using the Bible.
Luk 16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Jesus, God in the flesh tells us a real story about two men who both died. One man was a beggar on the earth and the other a rich man. The bodies of both the beggar and of the rich man are buried. The Angels of God come and take the beggar. Did you understand this? The spiritual angels of God came and took the spirit of the beggar to the bosom of Abraham. Now we are immediately told what happened to the rich man:
Luk 16:23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
The rich man now suddenly appears in hell. We are not told if the angels carried him there or if this is just where you go by default after you die. I find this story to be fascinatingly informative about the afterlife experience. Before Jesus was resurrected, a human could not die and go to heaven, so the righteous ones who died were transported to a place called “Abraham’s bosom” and this is a place different than hell. It is also interesting to note that the rich man could still “see”. Spirits have eyes. Interesting isn’t it? The rich man tries to ask Abraham who was a far off from where he was in hell, to send Lazarus to give him a drink of water because he was being tormented in the flames. Then the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to the earth so that he could tell his brothers not to come to this place of torment called hell. Are you seeing anything here? The rich man had all of his memory, his mental reasoning abilities; his entire soul realm was with him in hell. Jesus told us that his body was buried in the ground so that means your soul works outside of your body. Abraham was also physically dead and his body was buried and they were holding a conversation and using their minds to do it.
Luk 16:25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
Here is one of Abraham’s responses to the rich man in hell. He told the rich man to remember and this is clearly a mental function of the soul realm. People in hell even without their bodies can remember, think and process things using their minds. Many try to say this story that Jesus told is a parable and not a real story, but they make Jesus a liar then. Is Abraham a real man? Then if Abraham is real, the beggar is also a real man named Lazarus and finally the rich man must be a real man but one who is not identified by name. I don’t think Jesus wanted to name the rich man or you could see that he didn’t make it to heaven and feel very sad if you knew him personally or he was one of your family members.
This story of Lazarus in the Bible, clearly describes all three components that make up the human design. Every component is clearly identified and separated in one story. It starts in the physical realm and ends in the spiritual realm. The mental or soulish realm transfers wherever the spirit resides. There are just many other Bible verses that speak about the triune nature and the design of man to resemble God, but I guess I have gone too long for one lesson. I have certainly introduced you to some new concepts about the spiritual, mental and physical parts of the human design by God and I hope and pray that you can see them clearly. God Bless!
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Seed Laws Applied to New Testament Truths! Part 6
(ver 1.3) This is Part 6 in the study series about seeds in the Bible. In my last few lessons on this subject, I have been going through some of the parables of Jesus concerning the subject of Seeds. In these lessons we learned some very valuable spiritual information that apply to every Christian believer and unsaved non-believer. Jesus used these natural Seed concepts and laws to describe vast complex spiritual realities that we have never seen or could even attempt to understand. The Bible contains more than 200 direct references to seeds in the KJV Bible and certainly many, many more indirect references on the subject can be found. If you have not been reading this series of lessons from the beginning I would recommend that you go back and start with Part 1 first. Today I want to teach you some New testament truths by reviewing and applying some of the basic seed law concepts that we learned from Genesis. We will read and study several New Testament verses that we have not discussed up to this point and learn how seeds apply to them.
THE SEED WITHIN ITSELF LAW
One of the first seed concepts that I gave you was the “Seed within Itself” law and concept revealed in Genesis 1:11. If you do not understand correct Bible interpretation, one rule or law of correct Bible interpretation is called the “Law of First Mention”. By going into the Bible and finding the first occurrence of a subject you are introduced to some basic concepts that are usually critical to understanding the entire subject. So Genesis 1:11 says that the earth brought forth trees with fruit “whose seed was in itself”. We understand this to be a natural law which applies, to fruit as well as to the natural man and woman. This law represents a self-sustaining reproductive system that was designed and created by God. God created one thing and this thing contained the built in capability to reproduce indefinitely, sustaining the existence of the species.
1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
In reviewing the parable of the Sower we learned that the Seed of God was the Word of God. It was the Seeds of God’s Words that produces the spiritual fruit in our spirits. So this verse in 1 John 3:9 tells us that we are born of God. We should be able to clearly understand that this is a spiritual birth and not a physical birth and we can confirm that by reading the words of Jesus in John 3. We have previously seen that the human male sperm was called “seed” in the Bible and we can now begin to see a spiritual application taught from the pattern found within the naturally created reproductive process. This verse says that when we are born spiritually, and it came as a result of us accepting the truth of God’s Word. Now God’s Seed is in us and this is a spiritual repetition of the “seed within itself” law. The more of the Word of God you learn, the more of the Seed of God you have in you and the more fruit of God is potentially produced. It is a very basic concept, but yet very profound.
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
So here is another New Testament verse that describes the spiritual Seed of God to be the Word of God. This Spiritual Seed is compared and contrasted with the natural seed of the created man. The sperm of a man is called the corruptible seed. The Greek word translated as corruptible means “decaying” or “perishing”. This is interestingly enough related to the laws of thermodynamics that states everything is in a state of decay around us. Humans are in a state of aging from the moment they are conceived. However, we the body of Christ are Christians that are spiritually “born again”. This birth is not a natural birth, but is a spiritual birth that came as a result of us hearing the Spiritual Words of God. This would be symbolically analogous to our spirits being like the womb of a woman with the fertile egg present. By us lending our ears to God’s Word and hearing it and then understanding it, God’s Word becomes one with our spirit and then God’s Spirit becomes one with our spirit (1 Co 1:16). 1 Peter 1:23 teaches us that God’s word/seed will now “Abide” within us. Abide means to indwell and live in our spirits. This is clearly the seed within itself law from Genesis 1:11. If you have heard the Word of God and have accepted it and know it you have His spiritual seed on the inside of your spirit. Always remember that the Seed of God is in you!
EVERY SEED PRODUCES AFTER ITS OWN KIND LAW
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
God is talking to us about another law concerning seeds in this verse in Galatians. This law is also revealed to us in the first chapter of Genesis 1 in verse 11. However, here God is telling us about the seeds that are sown by a man. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? God says that every man will reap whatever kind of seeds that he sows. This is a basic spiritual application of the first law of seeds that every seed produces after its own kind. When I talked about this law originally, I told you that an apple seed will produce only an apple tree and an orange seed will produce only an orange tree. So what you get in life is determined by what you plant. This verse also says that God is not mocked by those who say this is not true and by those that say that this does not apply to them. In other words God is saying this is the way everything in the world works whether you believe it or not. That was a very strong statement from God. You should be beginning to understand a little better about the power of the seeds that you sow, if you have read this entire series of lessons. If you decide not to believe what you just read, God says you are not mocking the messenger Agapegeek, you are mocking God and I would be very concerned about doing something foolish like that.
Gal 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
The next verse in Galatians is just more conformation to exactly what God has said before. This verse reveals to us that there are two types of seeds that every man can sow in this world. The first type of seed is a natural or carnal seed type and this is another example of a corruptible seed type that will reap only natural death. Then there is a spiritual seed type that can be sown and this seed reaps life everlasting. So let me stop right there and ask you this, what is life everlasting? This certinaly does not mean that you will never die physically if you sow to the spirit. It also does not mean that you will ever cease to exist, if you do not do this. Man was created as a spirit being that will never cease to exist, after we die physically; our spirit will either go to heaven or to hell based upon our current relationship with Jesus Christ. The problem with most Bible interpretations is that people do not attempt to get God’s definition on any of the words that they are reading. They read every word and assume they know what they mean and then miss what God is trying to teach them. Here is a verse in the Bible that gives us God’s clear definition of what “eternal life” is in His eyes:
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
To me this definition changes the meaning to what I thought it meant to live eternally dramatically and it causes me to shift my thinking differently than I had ever thought before. Eternal life is not living forever; eternal life is your ability to know the True Living God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent forever. That is just a radically different perspective of life eternal. Those who die without this spiritual eternal life will never know God or Jesus Christ and will probably not have a clue why they went to hell. I guess they may have some idea since God speaks of a coming time of judgment and there will certainly be some discussion to the charges against them before judgment is passed if God’s court is like our courts. I guess that last two statements was just my opinions so please do not take them as scripture. I also briefly got off of the subject of seeds to define a term that I think is important for you to know.
SEED SINGULAR OR SEED PLURAL?
Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
I alluded to this seed concept in an earlier lesson on this subject. I talked about the fact that the word “seed” can be taken as either plural or singular and that it is only determined which one it is referring to by the contextual usage of the word and even that can be very difficult figure out. This is just one of the intentionally designed methods of God used to conceal the truth in the Bible. In this verse in Galatians God is referring to the promise made to Abraham. Since Jesus was in Abraham when God made this promise Jesus was the “Seed” within himself that was to receive the promise. Abraham naturally fathered several children. Ishmael and Isaac are the two obvious sons that everyone remembers from Sunday school. However, Ismael was cast out of the house by Abraham’s wife Sarah and is not the promised child. Isaac was the promised child, the future grand-father to the nation of Israel. But, yet Galatians say that Isaac was not the seed that was to receive this promise. However, again Jesus was also in his father Isaac as the seed. Then the two sons of Isaac were born, Jacob and Esau. Esau, the firstborn was not the selected path either, but the younger son Jacob was. Jesus was in His father Jacob as a seed. I could go on and on through every generation from Israel to Mary and see that Jesus was in each parent. But, none of these were the selected “seed”.
Galatians 3:16 says that the promised “seed” that was in Abraham was only Jesus Christ. This was clearly a singular occurrence and not a multiple pattern of seeds being referred to. Hopefully you can better understand how God can look at Abraham and make a promise about his seed, when God was speaking about Jesus Christ who was in Abraham. The Son of God was the promised seed able to fulfill the requirements of God’s conditions, to fulfill the law, to live a sinless life, to die and shed his blood for you and I and to be raised from the dead so that we could forever go and live with Him. To me that is just an awesome display of the wisdom of God. I think I will end this blog today right here. I have just selected a few New Testament applications of the Seed concepts and laws and tried to show you how God used them to fulfill His plan of redemption. Hopefully you are deriving some benefit from these lessons. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series you may go to “Part 7“.
Understanding the Eucharist! What is the Eucharist and Why do we Receive it? Part 1
(Ver 1.3) This is a difficult question to answer and a much more difficult subject to understand than many people give it credit to be. I had a reader ask me a question about why Catholics receive the Eucharist at every Mass? He said that the Eucharist is given out every day in thousands of languages. Do we have any scriptural basis for this and why would we do it so often? This is Part 1 of a series of lessons on the subject of the “Eucharist”. We will discuss; what it is, why we do it and how it applies to the modern church from a Bible perspective. I will explore many different aspects of this subject and give you quite a few new perspectives on this subject. I challenge you to read the entire series before you become a critic of any small part of the lessons. I will definitely warn you up front what I teach you will be different than what you might expect me to say on the subject, but yet I will only use the Bible to explore this subject and I will do my best to keep my opinions completely out of the discussion. What I am interested in is what God thinks about the subject and not what you or I think about it. I find that God’s opinion is much more important to me than your opinion.
In asking Catholics why they participate in receiving the Eucharist, I found that a vast number of answers to that question was “I don’t know”. Not one could give me a Bible verse or a Bible reason for receiving the elements of the Eucharist. Some knew that the bread and the wine represent the Body and the Blood of Christ. But why we receive it and participate in the ceremony, they could not tell me. Is there any benefit to participating in this ceremony? Is there a blessing attached to it? Or do we do it just because it is the right thing that we should do? What makes it the right thing to do? This might become a widely controversial subject before I’m through, so if you are interested in learning the truth keep reading, otherwise you might want to stop here and go to another website or blog.
So now I will begin to teach you some of the things that I know from the Bible about this subject of the “Eucharist”. There is absolutely no way I could tell you everything I know about this without writing a small book, so I will not be doing that. So today is just the introduction to the subject and like I said, it will probably be totally different than what you might expect. The Bible says that God is a Spirit (John 4:24). God existed throughout all of eternity, outside of the dimensions of time and space limitations that we exist within right now. The Bible says that God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). So God existed prior to the existence of this physical universe. We therefore know that the physical universe had a specific point of origin. When God created man in this world, God breathed the breath of life into him and this was Adam’s spirit which came from God’s Spirit (Gen 2:7). Hebrews 12:9 says that God is the Father of all spiritual beings. Therefore, man is technically a spiritual being that lives within a physical natural body (1 Th 5:23). Why is all of this important? Sometimes I just need to state the Bible basics before I try to introduce you to more advanced spiritual subjects found in the Bible and I do this to help refresh your memory. If you disagreed with anything that I have said so far, you will have greater difficulty with the remaining things to come. Let’s take a look at a verse that is not directly about the Eucharist but yet applies indirectly by the stated application.
2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The Bible says that we need to focus our attention away from the natural physical things that we can perceive with our senses in the world and instead focus on the things that we cannot see. This is a contrasting verse that is comparing the natural dimension to the spiritual dimension. The Bible tells us clearly that those things that are natural and physical are just “temporal”. The English word temporal is translated from a Greek word (G4340) that means “temporary”. Anything that is considered temporary is not eternal. What God is saying is that this world is disposal and will change to the permanent some day in the future. Therefore, physical things can be viewed as being “here today and gone tomorrow” or “easy come and easier go”. What God is saying to us is that there exists nothing in this physical world that is visible that we can call “permanent”. Do you understand this? Only your unseen spirit which is present inside of your body right now will exist forever after your death and this existence will be either in heaven or in hell depending upon what you have done in this life to receive or reject the finished work of Christ Jesus. Of course God will create a New Heaven and a New Earth someday and these will exist forever and we who have received salvation will live there (Rev 21:1).
So I have probably just confused you up to this point. I have not even mentioned the “Eucharist”, or have I? Let me ask you this, can you touch the “Eucharist”? Can you smell the “Eucharist”? Can you taste the “Eucharist”? If you answer yes to any of these questions then they are natural physical things. These natural and physical elements according to the verse that we just read in 2 Cor 4:18, these are just more temporary things that God says we should not be focused on. Uh oh? I warned you that this was going to be controversial, didn’t I? That may make it sound like I am saying we should ignore them, but that is not what I’m saying at all. What I am saying is that we should be focused on the eternal spiritual objects represented by these natural symbolic elements that are only temporary physical things used to teach us. I am definitely not saying not to partake of these; I am just asking you to figure out why you are partaking of these and focus on the meaning behind partaking of them and not to focus on the physical bread or wine. You see after you die, you can take the meaning with you into eternity, but the physical bread and wine will remain here on the earth and turn to dust. Do you understand the difference between what I just said? What I am attempting to do is to change your perspective from a physical viewpoint to a far greater spiritual viewpoint. Let’s see what Jesus says about the Eucharist:
Mat 15:11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Uh Oh? Jesus didn’t even mention the Eucharist, did He? As you should be able to clearly see He did talk about the Eucharist in an indirect reference. Jesus is talking about something going into your mouth as natural food. Unleaved bread and wine (grape juice) is normally used in the Eucharist church ceremony. What exactly is Bread and Wine? Here is another verse of scripture that is difficult to understand for many people. Jesus is speaking about the difference between natural things and spiritual things again. Jesus is saying that anything that you eat naturally and put into your mouth does not cause you to be “defiled”. To defile something is to cause it to be “unclean”, “polluted”, or to be “profane”. You can clearly see that Jesus is saying that it is not what you physically eat that causes you to sin and to become spiritually unclean. What would be the opposite truth (antithesis) to this statement that Jesus just made? I believe that it would be “There is nothing that you can physically eat that will make you “clean”, “pure” and “undefiled”. So what am I saying? I am saying that the “Eucharist” is a physical representation of something that is a spiritual truth that is more important than the physical pieces that you handle with your natural hands and put into your natural mouths. Jesus continues in this context to describe the things that you physically eat as being only natural things that are processed by the physical body and expelled down the toilet (Mat 15:17). So what makes the Eucharist elements any different? I think that is a very excellent question to consider. It would only be different if you knew what it all meant and how it all applied to your life as you partook of these elements. Without the knowledge and the reason for the action the action seems to be worthless to me based upon what Jesus just taught us about eating physical food. What we are seeing now in the Bible is a pattern of truths being revealed to us. There is a major difference between natural things and spiritual things. The natural things are placed here as temporary teaching tools and the spiritual things are the eternal things to be focused upon. Doing natural things without understanding the spiritual things behind them actually does you no good physically, emotionally or spiritually. I pray that you are grasping these important concepts.
What I am trying to say is DO NOT do things just because you are told to do them or asked to do them by a preacher or a priest. Do not do something just because others around you are doing them and you want to fit in. People have been poisoned and died by following that type of reasoning, simply because the cult leader that they were following determined it was time for everyone to die. What I am saying is find out why you are doing something in the natural realm using the Word of God and what it means and then use that information to determine if this what you should be doing. Follow God’s Word and not any man, any priest, any preacher, any denomination, group or whatever. Let God be True and every man a liar (Rom 3:4). I am attempting to teach the difference between religion and a real relationship with Jesus Christ. Religion is anyone partaking of a ritual set of elements without any knowledge of why they are participating. Relationship with Christ is worshipping the God in the knowledge of the one that offered His body and His blood so that we could be saved while we remember Him through partaking the elements. Let me give you another example of what I am trying to say from the Words of our Savior Jesus:
Mat 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Jesus is again contrasting the differences between temporary natural things and far greater spiritual things. Jesus is telling those that He was speaking to, that they were hypocrites. Why were they this way? Jesus said they were focused only on the outside of the cup (body) and not the inside of the cup (spirit). This was of course more symbolic representations for the temporary natural things of this world and the eternal spiritual things. Being focused just upon the taking of the “Eucharist” without knowing the reason why you are taking it would be an example of this type of hypocritical religious behavior. If you do something lacking any knowledge about why you doing it, the act becomes a pagan ritual or a religious rite that is attempting to please a god that you do not know and these are what Jesus was calling the actions of ignorant hypocrites. By only doing something externally while not knowing the reasons why you are doing it internally, you could be falling into a deceptive pattern found within any godless religion in the world. Do you understand that? What would make the taking of the Eucharist in a church any different than participating in an Islamic temple rite? I can literally see no difference between the two if they are both done in religious acts of ignorance. This is another statement Jesus said about these hypocrites:
Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Jesus is clearly saying that these men worship God in vain, because they were teaching the “doctrines” and “commandments” of men. So when you do something that you do not have any reasons for why you are doing it, how do you know it is not a humanly created doctrine of man? Perhaps it could even be something that was designed by Satan to deceive you into a lie? Jesus said by adding your thoughts on top of the Word of God, you render the Word of God to be of No Effect! (Mat 15:6) These are all very strong words of warning to all those who practice religion and do not know God. Your religion will not save you. The partaking of the elements will not saved you. Going to church will not save you. Becoming a member of the church will not save you. Being baptized in water will not save you. I could go on and on but you get the point, I hope.
In these verses Jesus is talking about a strongly religious group of people of the Jews called the “Pharisees”. These men came up with their own set of rules and outward traditions that they thought made them righteous in the eyes of God. What you must know is God is much more concerned with the eternal spiritual you than He is with the temporary physical you. What I am attempting to teach you today is that doing things in the natural are worthless if you are not aware of the reasons why they are to be done. The Pharisees clearly did many good looking things externally in this world but internally they were corrupt and this was their downfall. If we die physically and know Jesus Christ the Bible says that we will go to be with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8). However, if you die physically and do not know Jesus Christ, then you are eternally lost in hell. Physical things done in your natural body are just temporary things and God is much more focused upon your eternal spirit and your soul that is inside your physical body that you cannot see. Real salvation always starts on the inside in your spirit and shows up on the outside in what you do and say. God changes your heart inside of you and this will always show up in the things you do on the outside later. The opposite of this is Religion which is man’s attempt to change himself to please God and God said this will never work. (Gal 2:6)
Any Christian who can not give a scriptural reason for why they are participate in the “Eucharist”, do you now see why it might be important to find that information before the next time you blindly participate? Does it make a difference if you do something with our without knowledge? Is it just the fact that we did something that makes it right? Is the fact that someone blindly participates in something that causes them to be in God’s favor? I do not think that God would have written the Bible, if He wanted you to blindly parrot and monkey religious rites. What makes Christianity different than any religion in the world? It is the fact that we have a personal relationship with God and in other religions they are trying to just please a god that they do not personally know or understand. So I’ll ask you again, does blindly following a ritual cause you to derive any benefit from what you did? Not according to what Jesus just said in Matthew 23. Jesus told us these were just the action of religious hypocrites. Please do not be offended at what I just said. I am not naming names and I did not call anyone this by name. I’m just reading the Bible and people need to decide if the Bible applies to them or not. I’m not your judge, so I will not judge you or whatever you do.
I think I will stop this introduction to the subject of Eucharist right here for now. I know I did not attempt to define the term or explain what it is or how it applies to us today. I think these will have to be future topics that we discuss as we continue to learn. Today I wanted to get you to think afresh and I wanted to shift your focus off of physical natural things and get you to start focusing on lasting spiritual things. Quit being a person who does something and does not know or understand why they are doing it. There is a major difference between natural and spiritual things and it is time for the Church to realize it. Are the temporary things in the world more important to you than the eternal spiritual things of God in you? If they are God and anything else that I tell you from the Bible can’t help you. Be blessed in the knowledge of Him that is Faithful and True. If you have any specific questions or comments please feel free to share them with me. If you have any experience with participating in religious rites without understanding the reasons why you are doing them, please share those also. Until next time, God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading the next lesson in this series, you may go to “Part 2” now.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! The Kingdom of God is Like a Man that Sowed Good Seed! Part 5
(Ver 1.2) This is now part 5 of a series of lessons on seeds in the Bible. Hopefully if you have been reading this series you have started to understand the importance of knowing and fully understanding this subject. Jesus seemed to indicate that this subject was the key to understanding every other subject in the Bible. God has designed and implemented a wide variety of natural objects and laws as views into the spiritual realm that we do not know very much about. The natural laws concerning “seeds” are just one prime example of this revelation. God believes that you can plant just a single seed and expect a vast harvest. God planted the man Jesus Christ as a seed and He has been waiting for all of the fruit of this sown seed for the last 2000 years. Since I can not fully explain everything or repeat everything that is said in every blog, I would strongly suggest that you go back and and start reading with “Part 1” if you have not read from the start.
In the last lesson we discussed that Jesus was a seed. As you may also recall I also implied in a previous lesson that Adam was a seed. However, Adam was a natural seed and Jesus the Last Adam was a spiritual seed. In Genesis 1, God spoke to Adam and told him to be “fruitful” and to “multiply”. These are seed concepts that we have already discussed in some level of detail. Fruit comes from seeds and the fruit has the seeds to produce more fruit. This is the natural law of multiplication. Most seeds that you plant in the ground always produce multiple or multiplied new seeds. If you plant a seed of corn in the ground it will grow a new plant that can have anywhere from one to eight new ears of corn on it. Each ear of corn can contain anywhere from 200 to 400 new seeds. So doing simple math, we can say one kernel of corn seed is potentially multiplied into as many as (8 x 400=3200) new seeds. If you take these 3200 new seeds and plant them; potentially you get 3200 x 3200 new seeds that is more than multiplied growth, it is now becoming exponential growth. This represents the power of a single seed in the Bible. It only takes one seed to have potential explosive growth. God started with just one man named Jesus and this has resulted in a very large number of believers today. This is exactly why Jesus could say the Kingdom of God is like a man that plants a seed.
Today I want to explore some new concepts of seeds in the Bible using another parable that Jesus taught us. In this parable the Kingdom of Heaven is again being spoken of and a man is again planting seeds into the ground. It seems that Jesus used this seed analogy repeatedly to try to teach us new spiritual things. So let’s see what Jesus is saying now:
Mat 13:24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
So while Jesus is declaring another parable about a very similar subject, He is at the same time giving us additional information about the spiritual laws of seeds. In the last parable, Jesus qualified the noun seed with the adjective “mustard” meaning he limited the scope to a specific type of seed. In Matthew 13:24 Jesus does the exact same thing, but this time says this is “good” seed. With the addition of a simple adjective of “good” Jesus teaches us that there are also “bad” or “evil” seeds in the world. In my front yard I sometimes call these weeds, because these can be thorns and thistles and they are never anything that I planted. What we immediately conclude is that not every seed is “good”. Remember what God said was the “good” seed. Jesus taught us in the parable of the Sower that the seed was the “Word of God”. Obviously the Word of God is the Good Seed that potentially produced the Good Fruit. So what is “bad” or “evil” seed? I think we are about to find out:
Mat 13:25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
It is important to note that God’s good seed is planted to produce “wheat”. Wheat is a very specific crop with a very specific purpose. It is critical for you to see if God would have wanted corn, He would have planted corn, if God would have wanted potatoes, God would have planted potatoes. What we learn is that God’s seed is specifically designed to produce a very specific crop for a very specific purpose. Wheat is normally ground up and we create flour with it and this is the key component to making bread. It is interesting Jesus talked about He was the bread of life. We can clearly see an association between Jesus the grain of wheat seed being sown to produce the future bread. After Jesus arose, the explosion of the Word of God grew very significantly. This growth was in both the new written words of the New Testament and the increased understanding of the Old Testament.
Many will try to interpret this parable and say things that it does not say. According to the Bible, God does not sleep or slumber, yet Jesus as a physical man certainly slept. However, now we are not talking about just God anymore. We must recall what the soil represented in the Parable of the Sower. The soil represented people in the world. Now that changes everything. People do sleep both physically and spiritually. Natural sleep is a pattern for spiritual sleep. We all normally sleep at night and work during the day. These are symbols and typology for the hearts of man also. Those in the night are those in darkness and they are spiritually asleep. God has given to us the “Good Seed”, the True Word, but yet God is not here personally to give it out and teach it to us in the flesh anymore. So this is a parable about the good seed creating the new spiritual Kingdom of God. Where exactly is the Kingdom of God located? Many will try to say it is in heaven, but this is not what Jesus taught. If you read in Luke 17:21, Jesus told us that the Kingdom of God is now “within us”. We therefore know that this Kingdom of God is within our spirits, right here and right now. So what do you call those that have the Kingdom of God in them right now? You call them Christians, those that are in the light! The opposite to those in the light are those who are in the darkness. These are those who spiritually sleep and slumber. These are the men who slept that Jesus is talking about in this parable. God didn’t begin to give us the Bible (good seed) for over 2000 years of human history. The Bible has grown over the next 2000 years from a few books into our current 66 books of the KJV Old and New Testaments. This is another example of the multiplication of seed. While men were in the darkness and spiritually asleep, Satan came and sowed tares. We clearly see that the tares came from a false, bad, evil set of words being spoken. You can call them lies, falsehoods, deceptive words, deceits, fabrications and you can even call them “leaven” even though we have not really discussed what symbolic “leaven” is yet. Leaven is something you mix with wheat and it changes the bread makeup. This is a spiritual principle that Jesus taught us to beware the Leaven of the Pharisees. The Pharisees would constantly take the word of God and add their own rules and words on top of the true words. Thus they diluted the truth with lies. I hope that you do understand who this enemy of God is? It is certainly Satan who has sown the seeds of the tares. Satan is a spiritual being created by God who was found to have sin in him. As we have learned that field represents the hearts of man. So we have seen that an enemy has come and planted “bad” seeds into the hearts of people in the world today.
Mat 13:26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
What we have clearly learned from what Jesus taught us is that God has enemies. Spiritual forces that manipulate and deceive people into believing things that are not from God. God has given to us the “Good Seed” and this implies that Satan has sown “Evil Seed”. That means that not everything that comes along being taught is what God said. We can clearly see that false religions in the world are a trick of the enemy to distract and deceive you. We can also understand that false teachers will also come along and try to deceive you with enticing words.
All of this is just the practice of people teaching right or wrong things. The sowers are the teachers in the world today and the seeds are the words spoken. It is very rare that any man on earth teaches the pure Bible concepts without tares. Why is this? It is primarily because no man knows the entire Bible and everything that is in it and everything that it means. There is no man on the planet that is God who knows everything. So therefore, we must all become tolerant of each other’s ignorance and strive to come up higher and learn the truth. We are all on the paths of learning, or at least we should be on these paths. If you are not still learning new things then you are stagnating in a cesspool of ignorance. God tells us all to “Get more knowledge, but with all of your getting, get also understanding”. Jesus taught us to “continue” in the Word. To continue is an ongoing process, a never ending state of learning. Only by continuing, Jesus said you could be called His disciples and only then would you actually know the truth and be set free.
This parable continues to discuss many things concerning the Kingdom of God. God tells us that the seeds of the Kingdom will continue to grow with the tares of the enemy as long as it is not time to harvest. God tells us, if he would have torn out the tares, he could have taken out some of the wheat because the roots can be entangled with each other. However, there is coming a harvest time and I believe it is very near. It would appear to me that those in the darkness are growing stronger in their evil ways. The evil in the world is running rampant and unless God does something soon this will not be a good place to be.
Seed concepts are critical to understand for every Christian. I believe that if you grow spiritually you will be able to know the times and the seasons and be able to recognize the times of the impending harvest.
If you would like to continue reading this series you can go to “Part 6“.
Mine Eyes Have Seen the End to All Perfection!
The Bible says some really strange things. Sometimes I read them and just scratch my head. What do they all mean? Today I am going to teach on one of these concepts that made me think a lot. Often times I have heard many people claim that God is perfect and that when God created our world, God made it perfect originally in the beginning. Both of these are very broad statements with potential conflicts. In your mind, can you come up with a definition to what “perfect” is? Is there anything in our world that qualifies as being perfect? According to the laws of thermodynamics, everything in our world is in a state of decay. Meaning you can build a brand new car today and just put it up on blocks and park it for 50 years and it will be in a complete state of disrepair and aging with yet still zero miles on the odometer. You leave it parked long enough it will become rust and dust. So can you think of anything in our current world that qualifies as perfect? How would you define “perfect”? To me something that is made perfect is something that is incapable of failing.
So if you have ever read my blogs, you know I’m not perfect. If I could become better in any areas, it would be my typing and proof reading abilities. I constantly go back and reread my blogs looking for typing mistakes and for places that I missed it. The other day I wrote a blog about spiritual power and thought I said one thing. But, since I left out one word “NOT” it changed it completely to say something that I didn’t want it say. So if you ever read my posts, especially those that subscribe by email, sometimes the current version on the web has been updated, corrected, improved and hopefully made easier to understand. Why is that? Simply because, I’m not perfect! However, at times it totally amazes me that God uses imperfect people to try to help others. I would guess technically speaking that God has no other choices, we are all just imperfect people on this planet.
Psa 119:96 I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.
Did you know that if God is making a New Heaven and a New Earth, then there is at the very least some major flaws implied with the Old Heaven and the Old Earth? Have you read in Revelation about these new spiritual and physical places? Have you ever wondered why it was necessary for God to do this? I certainly have. This verse in Psalms 119:96 are the Words of God Almighty written to us. God declares that He has seen the end to all “perfection”. The Hebrew word “perfection” here means “completeness”. Have you ever thought about the fact that if God creates a new heaven and a new earth, what is wrong with these old places? Can’t God ever create anything perfect and incapable of failing? God created Lucifer and he failed. God created Adam and he failed. What is the deal? These are very difficult questions to come up with any good answers for. But, it would seem to me that in order for God to give His creation choices and free will, it would require that they are not created originally to be perfect. When God created our world in Genesis 1, I never see where God said anything was perfect. God said it was good and then very good, but that is a far cry from “perfect”.
Perhaps you have some ideas on this subject and I would be very pleased if you would share them with me. Today’s lesson is just a short thought provoking exercise into causing you to think about things in a new perspective. If God is “Perfect” and this verse in Psalms says “ALL” perfection will end, does that include God Himself? Now that is a very difficult question to answer also. But, as I think about Jesus coming to the earth as God in the flesh, I think that the Bible tells us that He was tempted in every manner as we are, yet without sin. The Bible tells us that God took on sinful flesh, to defeat sin and the consequences of sin. So if God was here on earth in a perfect form of His deity power it would have been impossible to tempt Jesus and it would have been impossible for Jesus to fail. It would have also been impossible for you to kill Jesus on a cross. I believe that Jesus in the form of flesh, was not perfect in the sense that God in heaven was perfect and incapable of failing. But, that is just what I have read in the Bible and I don’t know everything. Maybe you can come up with a better explanation of why God says “All” perfection will end. God bless you as you abide in the Word of God.
Understanding God’s Spiritual Power and the Power of Spirits!
(Ver 1.1) Today is the next lesson, “Part 9” in the series on understanding the Bible subject of spoken words. If you have not read this series from the beginning you should go and start reading with “Part 1“. Most Christians possess the belief that God is omnipotent. “Omnipotent is a theological term that is technically not found in the English translation of the KJV Bible. However the word “Almighty” (H7706, G3841) is found in the KJV Bible and it means “omnipotent. The word “Almighty” appears some 57 times in the KJV Bible with only 10 occurrences appearing in the New Testament and 9 of these are found in the book of Revelation. It appears to me that God emphasized His power and ability more directly in the Old Testament and has given the subject less emphasis in the New Testament based upon His word selection and distribution. The 9 instances of “Almighty” in Revelation seem to be related with God’s sovereign ability to execute judgment. Judgment is not a predominate theme of the New Testament except when you come to the book of Revelation. I did not say that you cannot find judgment in the N.T., I just said it was not the dominate theme of the church age. If you recall when Jesus was walking the earth, people brought a woman to Jesus who was caught in the act of adultery and Jesus’ response should have been that of a judge according to the law; however Jesus was mercy driven with compassion and told those who were without sin, to cast the first stone. However, did you ever think that the only one without sin in this group was Jesus and that He should have been the first one to cast the first stone, but did not? The mercy of God is a much greater predominate theme in the N.T. than the judgment of God. But that is another different subject to discuss at another time. Today we are talking about the subject of spiritual power and the power of spirits. Let’s look at the “Power” of God first. Does God have ALL Power?
2Co 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
The Greek word G3841 translated as “Almighty” is a word meaning “all powerful” or “omnipotent”. God has the power, strength and ability to do anything. The power of God is massively demonstrated throughout the Old Testament. From the creation account in Genesis 1 all the way to the flood of Noah, to the scattering of people at the tower of Babel, to the demonstration of power before Pharaoh in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, to the miracles in the wilderness. There are just too many examples found in the Bible to list them all. So we can easily understand that God has great and awesome power. But, does God hold “ALL” power? That was my question originally. Meaning ONLY God has any power? A lot of religious people think in these terms and miss what the Bible says on the subject.
Let me introduce you to a new concept and another term used to describe nature and character of God other than as the “Almighty”. This new term that I will show you is used in the KJV Bible approximately 48 times; again 38 times in the Old Testament and only 10 times in the New Testament. This term or name of God reveals Him to be the “Most High God”.
Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
Reading this verse we can clearly see that God is described as being “Supreme”. Meaning among spirits there is none greater or more powerful than He is. God is at the top of the spiritual food chain, proverbially speaking. What do we learn from reading this verse? If there is a “Most High God”, then there are other gods that are below him in rank, power and ability. That statement might get some people upset at me, but yet I’m just reading the Bible and seeing what is written there. Can you understand what was said by God? You do understand that the author of the Bible does not need to qualify the name “God” with the adjective modifier of “Most High” if there are no other gods that exist? It only takes limited basic logic and very simple reasoning to see what God says in this verse. Of course some will try to say that God is the only “True God” and all of the others are just false imaginary gods. However, the title “True God” is also found in the Bible and it is a different Hebrew word than “Most High”:
Jer 10:10 But the LORD is the true God he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
We can clearly see that the LORD is called the “True God”. So we can automatically conclude that there are also false imaginary gods that also exist. But this verse also claims God is the “Living God” meaning these false imaginary gods are only defined as those that are dead or have no life in them. A false god would be like when people in the world worship idols, the objects made by the hands of man. These idols are “false and dead gods” and they have no power on the earth whatsoever. Another example of a false god would be like those found in mythology. False, gods like Atlas, Hermes, Mercury and etc. These are gods made up in the minds of men that do not have any basis for existence. So what we have learned is that there are several different types of gods in the world. We created the following list diagram explaining what we have just learned with our God on left and others mentioned or implied on the right.
| Biblical Title of God | Antonym Opposite |
| Almighty God | Limited god |
| True God | False god |
| Living God | Dead god |
| Most High God | Lesser god |
So what is my point? Where am I going with all of this? What I want you to see and learn is there are other gods in the world other than our Almighty God. I am not talking about Greek mythology or Roman mythology or any other kind of imaginary, fictitious of mythological deity powers. What I am about to show you are created spiritual beings in the Bible that God has called other types of “gods”. You can clearly see these gods exist by the implications that we have just read in the Bible from the names given to us by our God. Here is a N.T. verse that you should be aware of, but I’ll remind you of it:
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
So who blinded the minds of all those that believe not in this world? This verse is not speaking of humans since they are the ones that have their minds blinded. No this verse is speaking of another spiritual power that exists in the world. This spiritual power is Satan and he is called the “god of this world”. This Greek word translated as “god” in this verse means “deity”. It can also mean “supreme”. This word occurs over 1000 times in the N.T. and is most often used for references to our God. For example in Matthew 1:23 where Jesus is described as “Emanuel” translated as “God” with us it contains the same Greek word. However, in 2 Cor 4:4 we have a new mystery being stated using the same Greek word in reference to Satan. Who gave Satan this title? Or did he steal it from someone? If Satan is called a god by the Most High God, do you accept it? In other words is God a liar? You see that is the problem with many Christians, they do not know that Satan exists and who he is. So if Satan is a god, what type of god would he be? He is not the “Most High”, nor is he the “Almighty God”. I cannot call him the “True God” either. He is certainly alive so he might fall into the living god category. It really depends upon your definition of death. Satan is not a physical being so he cannot die naturally. If you do not know it, you cannot kill a spiritual being or cause them to cease to exist. But, yet the Bible does talk about a “spiritual death” which can be defined as a separation from God. I believe that Satan is now and has been separated from God ever since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that if Satan would have known what was going to happen to himself, he would not have crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Cor 2:8).
Is Satan a lesser god than the Almighty God, I believe he is definitely on a lower spiritual plane than God Almighty. Satan is not omnipotent, and he is not omniscient, and neither is he omnipresent. So Satan qualifies as both a “lesser god” and a “limited god”. So the question arises does this god Satan have any power? I had one reader tell me that he didn’t think anyone could create anything other than the Most High God. God is the only being that has the power of creation. I’m not sure if I agree with that statement totally. Where in the Bible does it say that only God can create anything? If you know of a Bible verse like that I would be very pleased if you would share it with me. Also, please do not assume that I am saying anything that I have not said. God Almighty is the creator of everything that we see around us in our world. But, many people think that Satan has no power to do anything and that is just not what the Bible says. At least 3 times in Revelation the beast, the false prophet and Satan are stated as having done “miracles” (Rev 13:14, Rev 16:14, Rev 19,20). A miracle is defined as a “supernatural” sign and wonder. That tells me that Satan has significant abilities that he has not fully demonstrated to us. That tells me that Satan is not powerless. I learned a lot from what Jesus taught about Satan:
Luk 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the pwer of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Apparently Jesus did not think that Satan had no power either. There are two words in this verse, both translated as “power” but they are dramatically different Greek words. The first word translated as “power” (G1849) was spoken to us (the church) and it means spiritual “Authority”. Jesus gave the Church legal jurisdiction over Satan (serpent) and the rest of his demons (scorpions). The second word (G1411) translated as “power” is in direct reference to a symbolic serpent and some symbolic scorpions. These are the symbolic representations for the enemy of the church called Satan and his demons. This word for “power” means “miraculous power” or the “ability to do supernatural miracles”. So what is a miracle? A miracle would be anything that occurs that is not of the ordinary course of nature. If you scrape your leg and it bleeds, it will heal in the ordinary course of time and nature. However, if you lost your leg in a motorcycle accident and it grew back from a stump that is a miracle. So according to Jesus, Satan is capable of doing supernatural miracles. So do you understand that a spiritual being like Satan has a miracle working type of power? Jesus told us in John 10:10 that the thief came not but for to kill steal and to destroy. The thief is again a reference to “Satan”. To have power to kill and destroy something is the opposite power of giving life and creating new things. So does Satan have spiritual power and ability to do something supernatural in our world? I believe that the Bible says that he does. God’s word at the very least implies that Satan has great power in the spiritual realm. However, He is still well under the level of the Most High God in power and ability.
Then there are other references in the Bible that says people are gods. Jesus looked at the Jews in John 10:34 and said “is it not written in your law that I said ye are gods”? Jesus was quoting a scripture verse written in the O.T. in Psalm 82:6 where God told them they were gods. People in the church today struggle with believing that concept. Does man have the power and ability to do things in the spiritual realm or are we just limited to the natural realm? We understand from Genesis 1:26, that man was created in the image and in the likeness of the Most High God. If we were created to be like God Almighty that would mean that we had the similar features and characteristics that God had. If God had all power, we must have been created with the likeness of this power on a lower scale. You might call us gods of a lesser power. Here is another verse found in Psalms that speaks about the creation of man:
Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
As you can see, this verse places man in certain spiritual rank and position of ability. However, the translators really dis a very poor job with this verse ignoring what the original Hebrew language said. The translators did not believe that man had any spiritual significance. You see the Hebrew word (H430) translated as “angels” in this verse is the Hebrew name for God called “Elohiym”. This is the name of the Supreme God used in the O.T. Bible over 2000 times, and it is translated as “God” the majority of the time. What we discover from reading this verse, is that man (Adam) was created to be a little lower than the Supreme Most High God. That does not sound like anyone with No power or ability.
We are children of the Most High but not of the same ability to create worlds, planets and universes. One of our greatest weaknesses is that we lack the knowledge. While knowledge has increased rapidly in these last days that we live in, the ability of man to create real life in a test tube has not even come close to God’s knowledge. Man can create robots and simulated life but, we are not God and cannot create a human body. So man has creative power in a very limited form. Man can write new songs, books and create new movies. While all of these acts demonstrate God’s ability in us, we are still not anywhere close to God’s ability. We are lords, gods, and kings; we recognize our position but do not exalt ourselves above that position. We recognize that we have power, but note the fact that we are NOT all powerful. We can see ourselves as being so valuable to God that He came to purchase us with His own life and blood. We can therefore know that we are not worthless, we are not powerless and that we have great value to God. Knowing who you are and who you are not is very critical to knowing God. Recognizing your correct position in the spiritual food chain is critical for you to know your purpose in life. To know that you are not a nobody, while you recognize that you are also not the Most High.
So who knows how many religious people I have offended by telling the truth. If you are offended I’m sorry, but get over it and learn. We have learned from the words of God in the Bible that there are other spiritual beings in the Bible that are called gods. These spiritual beings have some power or limited power below the scale of the Most High God who holds Supreme Power. But, what is power? How does God define power in the Bible? To our natural minds power is simply someone’s strength and ability to use it. Naturally speaking the bigger your muscles are the stronger you are in this realm and this feature makes others think of you as being more powerful. Take the example of Olympic weight lifting. The strongest man can lift the greatest weight over his head. The winner is the one that lifts the most. That feat makes him the strongest man of the strong. That was a sports analogy of power. But, this is not what God says is power in the spiritual realm. What gives a spiritual being power?
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
You can read this verse and totally miss what God is saying. In this verse, God is informing us that His Word is His Power. The Word of God = the Power of God. Many modern Bible translations mix the words up in this verse and translate it as God’s “powerful word” or “mighty word”. However, if that is what God wanted to say he would have written it that way. God is not stupid; people are just ignorant and come up with these incorrect translations. The “Word” of His “Power” is exactly what God wanted you to see. This informs us that ALL of God’s power is in His Word. If you translate it the wrong way it only says God word has some of His power and this means that there is other power somewhere else not in His word. So if God’s Words are His Power, what are words? Words are thoughts, ideas, knowledge, understanding and wisdom expressed in a spoken language. I hope that you understand these basic concepts. To say that God is the Most High God would inform us that God holds ultimate knowledge, understanding and wisdom above all other spiritual creatures.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus is described 5 times as a being with a “sharp two-edged sword” coming out of his mouth (Rev 1:16, Rev 2:12, Rev 2:16, Rev 19:15, Rev 19:21). In Bible days when this was written, the sword was the weapon of war and wielded much power and strength by the one that was using it. It would be like someone with an AK-47 rifle today. These verses found in Revelation again confirm and demonstrate the location of the “Power” of God as being in His mouth and His spoken words. In Revelation 19:15 Jesus uses this sword to smite the nations that oppose him. In a recent news article I heard about a group of militia in some state that was arming themselves to help God fight the coming anti-Christ. I just laughed at their ignorance. Your little AR-15 will be no match for the Sword of God. What we have discovered is that God’s word is where His power is located and we can clearly understand this by reading Genesis 1 to observe how the world was created. In Genesis 1, God saw a problem, God said the solution and then the solution was. It is just very basic to conclude that it was the act of God speaking that released God’s power to create. I hope that you understand those concepts because I am not going to explain them in more depth today. Let’s move on to see what God says about this power in other verses in the Bible:
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Now we learn some new concepts. The sword of God’s mouth is not all of the swords that exist in the spiritual realm. If God’s sword is more powerful and sharper than all the rest, that makes God’s Sword the Sword Almighty, and the Most High Sword. But, do you see that there is more than one sword in the world? That is telling us that Satan has a sword coming out of his mouth, you have a sword coming out of your mouth and I have a sword coming out of my mouth. That implies power of a lesser or limited capacity. These are all just simple concepts, derived from reading the Bible. If you recall in Isaiah 14:13 Satan uses the sword of his mouth to say the following “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit…” and on I could go. Satan was wielding his power and making great plans to raise himself up to the Most High level.
But, God wielded His sword and said “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit”. Whose sword is sharper? Whose sword is greater? Whose sword will prevail in the end? These are valuable lessons for your life. Humble yourself and do not allow pride to exalt your own power, ability or knowledge to cause you to think that you can also be like the Most High.
If you would like to continue reading about the power of words you can go to “Part 10“.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Except a Seed Fall into the Ground and Die! Part 4
(Ver 2.3) This is now Part 4 of a series of lessons on seeds. Seeds are a vast complex subject found in the Bible. God uses natural seed concepts and applies them to spiritual things in repeated references found in the Bible. Today I will show you some more of the references that Jesus used to describe why He was here and how that He was both a physical and a spiritual “seed”. In the last lesson we reviewed the parable of the Sower and examined the symbolic elements to gain an understanding of what Jesus called the most important “parable”. In learning the concepts of this parable we can transfer much of that knowledge to other parables that Jesus taught us. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning, I would suggest that you stop and go back and start reading with “Part 1”. I have been going through the Bible showing you several different things that God calls seeds. Here is the original list again:
- Natural Grass Seeds
- Natural Fruit Seeds
- The Seed of a Man, His Sperm
- The Seed of a Woman, Her Children
- The Seed of a Man and a Woman, their offspring
- The Word of God
- The Seed of your Mouth, Your Words
- The Body of Jesus Christ
- The Church
- Your Body
These are of course not every type of seed mentioned in the Bible, only some of the ones that I wanted to show you. We have gone through and reviewed some verses about natural seeds in Genesis and learned some applicable laws that apply to every type of seed. The first law was that a seed always produces after its own kind. The second law of seeds is that the seed is always within itself. Both of these concepts transfer to many other types of seeds revealed to us in the Bible and you should understand them. If you recall I showed that every future generation or descendant of a man, is said to be in the man. God shows us that whatever the father did, is what their descendants did.
Today I want to show you another parable that Jesus taught us about seeds. After reading this you should become aware of why it is so important to know and to understand this subject. Let’s begin by reading in Matthew 13:31:
Mat 13:31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
Again, Jesus refers to the Kingdom of Heaven as being like a man who planted a seed. However, this lesson while very similar is very different than the previous lesson of the Parable of the Sower. Both are about a man, both are about seeds, and both involve planting seed in the ground to grow something. But, this time the seed is said to be singular. This is a new perspective on an old subject about a new type of seed or a new concept about the nature of seeds. In the Parable of the Sower the seed represented the Word of God (Luke 8:11). However, in this parable the seed is something completely different while being completely the same thing at the same time. Hopefully you will understand why I said that as we continue to learn. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a man that plants “One” seed and it grows into a massive tree in a field. Jesus is referring to a specific seed and qualifies it to be a “mustard” seed. Any time you qualify a noun you limit the scope of the noun and narrow the meaning. In other words, you exclude every other seed, for the type described. What we can see is that Jesus was teaching that NOT just any seed will work; it has to be a mustard seed. The mustard seed is not widely used in the Bible, but perhaps we will look at some more references to it later. What we learn is a symbolic meaning that not just any type of seed will work for what God wants to accomplish. God selected a specific seed to accomplish His plan and we will soon discover that Jesus was this seed:
Mat 13:32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Jesus calls this type of seed to be the least among all seeds. Jesus could be referring to the physical size of the seed, but yet I believe that is not what He is saying. We know today that there are many seeds that are smaller seeds than a mustard seed in the world. So Jesus must be referring to something else, a symbolic characteristic and not a physical attribute of the seed. What we should learn from this verse is that most great things have very humble beginnings. It is the classic analogy of the fact that the greatest oak trees come from little acorns. I know of practically nothing that starts big and just stays big. We are being presented a new perspective of the seed concept that all great things usually start as very small things. This goes against human nature, doesn’t it? Everyone wants to hit the lottery and win millions of dollars and then think that will solve all of their problems. However, God is teaching us a different lesson using seeds. This is part of the message that Jesus is attempting to get over to us. This is some of the key reasons of why the natural nation of Israel missed the first coming of their Messiah. Jesus did not come how they expected him to come, nor did He do what they desired Him to do. They were looking for a great and powerful savior and not a humble man that would not even save Himself. The disciples would ask Jesus “are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel now” (Acts 1:6). Israel was looking for the grand restoration and not for a small beginning. This is a classic example of the misunderstanding of the importance of how seeds work. Israel did not recognize the Seed of God as He walked among them. Jesus came to the earth as just a small, insignificant humble man. Jesus was God almighty who became like the least of all the men on the planet. Why would God almighty take the time to wash the feet of His disciples? Why did Jesus do this? It all goes back to seeds. God was planting a seed that would grow into a great spiritual Kingdom and not a physical Kingdom. This Kingdom did not come with a natural conquering mighty force, this Kingdom did not have a natural army with natural weapons, and this Kingdom did not come with much pomp and exalting circumstances. In fact this Kingdom cannot be physically seen at all, unless Christians choose to display it to others. Here is why Jesus said that He came to the earth:
Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Wow! That is a very deep statement about the reality of how seeds work. Who is Jesus talking about? Who is this seed? You should be able to see that Jesus is this seed that He is referring to. Jesus prophesied His death, His burial and the resulting fruit that would spring forth from that planting. Jesus predicts that there will be much fruit that will come from His death. How was Jesus able to do this? It was because Jesus understood the concept of seeds. Plant a little seed and get a great harvest. From little humble beginnings can grow great and mighty things. This is a key seed principle and law that applies to what God was doing on the earth through Jesus Christ. In John 12:24, Jesus says that a kernel of corn (a seed) will be alone if it does not die. I believe that God is trying to teach us that the Seed of Jesus has been planted to produce more people in the world like Jesus. This is just a basic typology of how the seed produces more of itself in the earth. Just ONE little seed planted can produce a huge harvest over time. Let me show you some prophetic verses in the O.T. concerning Jesus:
Jer 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
You can read the Bible without studying and totally miss what is said. In this verse if you do not look up the definition of the key words you will breeze right over what God is trying to teach you about. The Key word that I want to look at is “Branch”. It is qualified to be a righteous Branch so we know this is Jesus. The Hebrew word “Branch” in this verse is a word that mean “sprouts”, “springs up”, “buds”. These are all “SEED” concept words. You plant a righteous seed, and you get a righteous harvest. That is what God is attempting to get you to see. The coming Messiah was a SEED man! Let me show you another verse of prophecy about this seed of God:
Eze 34:29 And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.
Here is another verse about the coming Messiah and Israel missed it. God is saying I will “raise up” a “PLANT” of character. This word for “Plant” in the Hebrew means something that is planted in a garden. Sure sounds like a seed to me, how about you? I just wanted to show you some O.T. examples of this coming seed so that you would not think that I just make this stuff up. It is really amazing what the Bible says when you can see it.
What have we learned? We learned that God planted a seed, and this was a lowly humble man called Jesus Christ. But, through this humble beginning we see the growth that has transpired over the course of 2000 years. The church of Jesus Christ is now greater in strength and numbers than at any time in the past 2000 years. I am a firm believer that Jesus is expecting a triumphant church, a great church that has made herself ready. God planted the original seed, and it has grown over the course of time and developed further into this great prophesied tree that the birds of the air can now build nests within.
So maybe I should explain a little better the difference between the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Mustard Seed. You see in the parable of the sower, the seed is the Word of God. The Word of God is being spread by the teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ throughout the Gospels. But, if you have studied the Bible you also know that Jesus Christ is the Word of God!. According to John 1:1, “in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God”. By simple laws of mathematics we can substitute “Seed” for “Word” in this verse and see that it now says this:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Seed, and the Seed was with God, and the Seed was God.
From the laws of mathematics, we can apply the truth that if A=B, then B=A and “Word” = “Seed” and see a new simple truth, that God is the Seed and that God had the Seed within Himself. Then we can learn from reading down in the chapter the following:
Joh 1:14 And the Seed (Word) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
God’s Seed takes on flesh and lives and walked among us. We can now better understand how Jesus can call himself the Seed. We can also better understand how God can plant this Seed Jesus and expect a spiritual harvest. Jesus was a spiritual seed of God and God now expects a harvest of more spiritual fruit. God believes that you can plant a seed and get a harvest. The ending of a matter is always greater than its beginning. I think where people get confused is in the fact that Jesus is multiple seeds simultaneously and this certainly makes our life more complicated in understanding the differences. Let me give you a list of the types of Seed Jesus is Associated with in the Bible:
- Spiritual Seed = Word of God (Parable of Sower)
- Natural Seed of God (Mustard Seed)
- Spiritual Seed of God (Son of God)
- Natural Seed of Mary (Son of Man)
- Natural Seed of David (Son of David)
- Natural Seed of Abraham (Son of Abraham)
- Natural Seed of Adam (Son of Man)
This is probably not a complete list, but it is all that I can come up with right now. If I locate other reference, I will update this list. I will end this blog here and hope that you have learned some new things from the Bible. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading in this series, you can go to “Part 5“.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! The Parable of the Sower! Part 3
(Ver 1.4) 
This is a very advanced set of Bible lessons about the concepts, laws and information found in the Bible about “seeds”. As we study this subject we discover how these principles apply both to the natural realm as well as the spiritual realm. This is now Part 3 of the series and if you have not read from the beginning, I would suggest that you go and start your reading with “Part 1”. We have already covered a lot of information found in the Bible, some of which you may have heard before, but certainly a lot that is new to you. Studying the Bible on any subject is very difficult. Because God has chosen to hide information, and finding every reference to a subject is very challenging. To study the subject of “Seeds” we really need to search the Bible for every verse with that word in it and determine what it is saying. Since there is more than one thing in the Bible called by the name “seed” we must learn what each one is and determine if they are related to any other. But, that is not all of the verses on the subject. What we must realize is that there are related subjects that go along with it, such as soil, earth, rain, water, light, warmth, planting, sowing, fruit and on and on I could go. Then what about enemies to seeds, such as birds, insects, weeds, drought, rocks, heat, cold, floods and again on and on I could go. There are a vast number of dependent subjects that you should learn to see how they apply to what we learn about “seeds”. I am trying to demonstrate how complicated studying the Bible can be and why so many people do not know what the Bible actually says. In order to study the Bible correctly, you must dig and research the subject as thoroughly as possible. This also involves you doing a significant amount of work to find what God has hidden for you.
Today I am going to continue teaching on “seeds” in the Bible with a new perspective that is certainly very important to know. Jesus taught us many things when He was here physically on the earth. However, He placed an extraordinary emphasis on a certain subject as being a key to understanding all the other subjects found in the Bible. Jesus said that this one concept that He taught was more important to understand than any of the others found in the Bible. This critical subject was based upon “Seeds”. You can find this teaching in three books of the Gospel; in Luke 8, Matthew 13 and Mark 4. Let’s start our lesson by reading Mark 4:26:
Mar 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
Apparently the lesson is about the Kingdom of God, so right off of the bat we know it is of great importance. We also understand it is a spiritual Kingdom and not a physical or natural kingdom. At least I hope you understand these types of Bible basics. What does God tell us the Kingdom of God is like? God clearly says it is like a man who plants seeds into the ground. Jesus is teaching using the format of a parable that contains natural things that we can see, to help explain spiritual things that we cannot see. Then consider this, is Jesus a man? Is Jesus THE man that this parable is referring to? I think back and believe that when Jesus was on the earth, He was exactly this man. Since Jesus has returned to heaven, it gets more complicated. Jesus is still the man, but since He is not here physically anymore, He uses people like me who are here on the planet. So while I’m not God, I am a tool used by God. What I want you to see, is that God still uses people today to reach people. Now let’s go back to Mark 4:3 and discover the key Seed lesson that Jesus wants you to see:
Mar 4:3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
Jesus informs us that a sower went out to sow. When you sow, you are doing what? Of course you are planting seeds in a field or a garden. Sowing involves a spreading of seeds into the ground. So Jesus is discussing a farming lesson. I want to jump down to the explanation of the parable and interject the important stuff that we need to see while we are studying the actual parable about seeds. Here is what Jesus says about this parable being a key to understanding all the others:
Mar 4:13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?
It would appear to me that if you can understand this parable, then you are at the crossroads of understanding every parable that Jesus taught. This has some vast implications attached to it, so pay close attention. So here is Jesus’ explanation of what the sower is and what the seed is:
Mar 4:14 The sower soweth the word.
Now Jesus begins to let us in on the secret, the sower is planting words. Not just any words, though these are the Words of God according Luke 8:11. However, we can also understand the concept that any words spoken can become seeds. The problem is that many of these words are lies and half-truths and thus plant wrong things. Only God’s Word is Absolute Truth. What we have discovered is that words are seeds. We can also say seeds are words. We can also see that a sower is anyone that opens his or her mouth and speaks words. How do the Genesis seed laws apply to words? We have clearly learned that seeds always produce after their kind. What is the Word of God a kind of? What kind does the Word of God produce? We have also learned that seeds are always in itself. Now let’s examine some more of the parable:
Mar 4:4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
What Jesus does is give us some new related topics about the planting of these seed words. However, Jesus starts to shift the focus off of the sower and the seed and they are not technically mentioned after the beginning. Jesus begins to describe the types of soil or ground that are being planted in. Jesus also starts to reveal that the soil, the seed and the sower all have enemies. The fowls of the air come to devour the seed and thus render them harmless, non-productive or ineffective. Since the parable involves symbolic natural representations, we know that the birds of the air represent spiritual beings that we cannot see or perceive with our natural senses. So let’s examine the explanation of Jesus for these new symbolic factors given to us:
Mar 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
Jesus informs us that the soil is representative type of the hearts of people. The human heart is not the physical blood pump organ. The human heart in the Bible is their spirits. Jesus also says that Satan is the enemy that is trying to steal the words of God from our hearts. Ephesians 2:2 calls Satan the prince of the power of the air. The earth’s atomosphere is the current domain of Satan. This verse says that Satan comes immediately to steal the seed from us and that would be really bad news, if Satan could just take the word sown at will. However, by reading in Matthew we learn some additional details on this subject.
Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
This is why it is important to read every occurence of a lesson so that we can learn all of the details. This information in Matthew does not contradict the account written down by Mark, it only helps us to see what God is talking about more clearly. What are the potential outcomes whenever you sit to listen to anyone speak at a lecture or in a class room at school? I beleive that there are potentially three possibilities that can occur and your determination will cause the teacher’s words to either be effective or to be ineffective. You can ignore the teacher, you can hear and listen to the words only, or you can hear the words and get the understanding of them. Hearing anything valuable to know and not understanding any of it does you little to no good. In other words you derive no benefit of knowing the information.
There are a lot of people in the world that know Einstein’s equation of E=MC2, but very few that can actually teach you anything about what it means. So what we discover is that understanding what you hear is the greater key factor to whether the devil can come and take it away from you. That is a very important factor to learn. Understanding of any subject is the key to holding on to that subject. Keep in mind that we are talking about spiritual things here and not natural things. We have spiritual seed which are spiritual words being planted into spiritual beings, which are responsible to hear them and then to understand them or the spiritual enemy, will come and take them from you. Read through the rest of the parable and then I will discuss the symbols given in more detail:
Mar 4:5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:
Mar 4:6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
Mar 4:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
Mar 4:8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
As you read through the rest of the parable, you discover God’s goal for giving us His seed. God is looking for a people to produce spiritual fruit. The majority of the parable is a lesson of why people either produce this fruit or why they are unable to produce this fruit. If you know anything about farming, you know that the soil is not the master of the seed, but the seed is the master of the soil. Whatever is planted into the soil is that which is harvested. If you are the soil that Jesus is speaking of, then it matters what you allow in your ears. Do you understand why Satan has dominated the TV and radio air waves with lies and perversions? I guess we should stop and examine the soil in more detail. There are actually 6 different types of soil listed in the parable. They are generally representative of 4 different types of people on the planet and the list of soil types does not exclude anyone. If you analyze the list closely you can see that there are actually two groups of 3 that are being mentioned. There are three soils that are representative of saved fruitful Christians and 3 soils that did not receive the seed and let it produce any fruit at all:
| Type of Soil | Description |
| Wayside | These are those that can hear, but that do not understand what is said. Therefore Satan can steal the truth away from them very easily. |
| Stony Ground | These are those that turn away because of affliction or persecution. They lack any depth or foundational root knowledge. They are easily offended. |
| Among Thorns | These are those that care more about the things in the world, the distraction of riches, the natural lusts of the world. |
| Good Soil | These are those that produce fruit. A return of seed is multiplied to produce a bountiful supply. Some 30 times, some 60 times and some 100 times. |
We can learn a significant amount of information about why some people produce fruit and others are unable to. What have we learned? We have learned that God uses people to teach the Word of God and these are those that are sowing “good seed”. However, we have also learned that this good seed has many enemies. These things are designed to keep you from hearing and understanding the truth. Satan is hard at work trying to keep people from bearing spiritual fruit for God. God is looking for the spiritual fruit of the earth and that is one of the key factors that is keeping Him from returning for us today. God sees the harvest field is potentially great on the earth and God wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth of God’s Word (2 Peter 3:9). The Bible says God has long patience for this spiritual harvest of fruit (James 5:7). Here are the key symbolic elements listed in the parable and the descriptive meaning of each:
| SYMBOL | DESCRIPTION |
| SEEDS | Spoken Word/Words |
| SOWER | One who teaches with Words |
| Sowing | The process of teaching people |
| SOIL | The hearts/spirits of the people |
| Wayside Ground | Those who are easily deceived, they have no understanding and barely hear it at all |
| Stony Ground | Those that are easily tricked, those that have only a shallow understanding, those that cave to pressure, those who are easily offended |
| Good Ground | Those that hear and understand the Word of God and do not allow it to be stolen from them. |
| Evil Ground | Those that are deceived, lost and asleep in the darkness. |
| Roots | Those who have a strong foundation of the Word of God and are able to drink and partake of the Spirit of God. |
| Birds of the Air | Spiritual enemies that try to take the truth from you. Satan and his demons. |
| Thorns | Natural and Carnal things that take your attention away from the truth. It can be money, sex, drugs, alcohol, food, fame |
| Unfruitful | Those that are spiritually barren, unable to produce spiritual fruit, those who are nigh to burning |
| Fruitful | Spiritual Growth and Maturity, those who are doers of the Word of God and NOT hearers only. |
| Fruit | Spiritual results of those which God is seeking to find and harvest into His barn |
As you can see there are many valuable things to learn from this parable. Seeds play a key role in the spread of the Kingdom of God. Seed laws play a key role in understanding this teaching. God’s word will always produce more people like God. Those that let God’s word in, will grow and mature to be more like the one that gave us these SEED Words. It is the spiritual seed law of Genesis repeated in the spiritual diemension. A seed will always produce after its own kind. The planting of God’s spiritual seed will always produce a spiritual harvest. I think I will end this lesson here for now and expand it in my next lesson.
If you would like to continue reading this series, you can continue by going to “Part 4“.
O Lord, Guard The Door of My Mouth!
(Ver 1.3) This is now “Part 8” in a series of lessons about spoken words. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start with “Part 1“. Did you ever realize that your mouth was an opening to your spirit? You are a spirit being that lives in a physical body. Your physical body has doors and windows that allow your spirit to express itself and to learn new things. Your ears are a window to sounds, words and things to hear from God with. Your eyes are also windows for light, to observe and see things that are around you. These are one way gates into your spirit. But, your mouth is a two way gate that breaths air in and exhales air out. Your mouth also takes in natural food and drink for the nourishment of your physical body. But, the most important thing that your mouth does is speak words that originate from your spirit. Your mouth is the only exit for spiritual expression that you have. Your spoken words are the keys to everything that you do in this world. I will go a step further and tell you that your spoken words are the keys to everything that happens to you in this world. For example, your spoken words will become the key to your salvation or your damnation to hell. You may not understand that statement but it is based upon scripture and how God designed the process to work. Let’s start the Bible study by confirming that your words are the spiritual expression made manifest in this world:
Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
As you can clearly see from what Jesus teaches us, the words of your mouth are an extension of your spirit. Whenever the Bible talks about your heart, it is usually a figurative meaning referring to your internal spirit. The spirit of your being is the innermost real you that will live forever and I hope you understand this. The heart of a man is similar to the heart of a tree or the heart of an apple. The term is used to describe the center inner core of the object and that is the unseen spirit of the human in God’s triune design. Let’s look at another important verse that Jesus speaks on this subject of words originating from the human spirit:
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Jesus again tells us where words come from. The Spirit of God that was inside of Jesus’ body produced the words that gave us life. Jesus clearly tells us that it is the spirit that causes the flesh to live. He then says that His words are this Spirit! What we learn from what Jesus was teaching is that every person has a spirit and this unseen spirit is expressed in the spoken words coming from out mouth in our world. The only difference between our words and God’s Words, are His words are based upon infinite knowledge, understanding and wisdom and ours are too often just baseless ramblings built upon our own extraordinary ignorance. Let’s continue researching the connection between the spirit and the mouth, because God says in the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses let every word be established (Mat 18:16):
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
In this verse in 2 Thessalonians, God says that Jesus will do something with the Spirit of His Mouth that will consume the wicked. What do you think this is? Do you think that Jesus will breath fire like a dragon or are you smart enough to know that God just has to say a couple of words and whatever He says happens. What we learn from this verse is further conformations of spoken words being directly connected to spirits. Spoken word are not really just a connection to the spirit but more the displayed expression of the spirit. Technically speaking spoken words and spirits are one in the same in the eyes of God. God’s words are God and God is His Word (John 1:1).
Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
As you can read again, Jesus connects the heart/spirit of man to the spoken words of a man. Jesus speaking to the Jews, says how can you speak anything good? You have to have good in your spirit before you speak anything good from your lips. Jesus is implying that we can speak something good, but first we have to deposit something good in us in abundance. These are verses that demonstrate to us that man was made in the image and likeness of God. Jesus clearly links us to be like God in this capacity. Our words are linked to our spirit, just as His words were linked to His Spirit.
I have been doing a series of lessons on the spoken words coming from your mouth. We have learned from God’s word that we can curse people with our words and we can bless people with our words. We can speak good things and we can speak evil things. We can proclaim the truth and we can speak lies. The mouth is a weapon of incredible potential that we can do great good with or create great harm to ourselves and others. The same mouth has the potential to achieve great good in the world as well as great deception. That is why the Bible writes us a verse of prayer that asks God to place a guard at the door of our mouths. If you go to Europe and other places where they have palaces, the occupants are many times protected from the evil of others on the outside by placing guards at the gates of entrance or exit. This is not what the Bible is saying but the concepts are still applicable. Let’s start by reading the verse that reveals our mouth to be a door in need of a guard:
Psa 141:3 Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
A watch is someone who stays up to guard an entrance of a city. In Bible days a city would have great walls around it and they would place men on top of the walls during the day and night to watch for danger. Their job was to stay awake during those specific hours and to keep vigilant watch for any approaching danger. When danger was observed, the watchman would sound an alarm to wake the city to counter the impending danger. While you might try to apply this to the verse in Psalms, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense in that regard. You might need to watch what you eat occasionally, but God is speaking more about spiritual things that you need to keep a watch on than any natural things that are trying to enter in your body. Let’s get one more witness to the fact that our mouth is a gate before we continue:
Mic 7:5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
What we have is another verse found in the Bible that says your mouth is a gate. A gate is a door or entrance to a realm that you either want to keep people out of, or keep things within. You never design a building without doors, otherwise you can’t go in and you can’t get out. So what is God trying to keep from exiting your mouth by placing His guard upon it? Why would it be bad for you if something came out that shouldn’t come out? That is an amazing question to ponder! If your wrong spoken words had no consequences attached to them, it really would not matter if we had a guard, would it? However, God is implying that your words have great consequences positive or negatively upon your life and that is a potentially bad thing for you if you do not understand the concepts being revealed by God.
Pro 6:2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
When you learn to see what the Bible says, you become infinitely more aware of what you say. According to God, the words of your mouth can cause you to become a captive of your enemy. A snare is a trap. A trap is a deceptive device that renders you a captive. As you can clearly read in this verse, God says that you are “taken” (caught in a pit) by the words of your mouth. These have to be wrong negative spoken words or that would mean that any words spoken could be a pitfall for us. That statement would also indicate by the law of antithesis that you can be “freed” by the right words of your mouth. The things the Bible says about your words are some of the strongest warnings that God gives us in the Bible. It is so obvious to me that many people do not heed the warning of God and speak some crazy things. People let words come out of their mouths that I’m sure must cause God to cringe with disappointment.
Pro 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
God declares that your tongue has power. If you refuse to see this or to ignore it, does it cause it not to be true? If you do not believe in gravity, would that affect the law of gravity if you wanted to jump off a tall building? Of course it does not, you are still going die. Your wrong belief never overrides the truth. The same is true of ignorance, your ignoarce of the law does not affect your punishment for the violation of that law. So when God says that Death or Life is in the power of the tongue, does that make it not true, if you do not believe it? Again it does not! What God is revealing to us is that we have been given choices to make. What we achieve in life or that which happens to us in this life is determined by the choices that we made and words that we have spoken. Obviously many people do not believe this and they can’t figure out why things have happened in their life. Some think it is just bad karma, bad luck, or possibly just amazing coincidences or accidents that occur in their lives. Maybe you can discover a Bible verse that says that, but so far I have not found any.
So if God wants you to pray and ask Him to put a guard on your mouth, what is He trying to keep you from saying? It could be just simply that you should say only good things to people, good things about people and not to speak negatively about others and that is certainly applicable. However, God seems to indicate from the verses that we have studied today that there is much more to it than that in the Bible. If you can be taken captive or a prisoner just by your wrong spoken words or even die because of your words of death, would it be important not to speak those words that cause those negative results? I believe that it is entirely meaningful given the verses that we have just studied. So a watch on the gate of your mouth is not a physical guard to keep things out. I believe it is a spiritual guard that keeps you from harming yourself and others that you live with speaking words with negative consequences. What about your children, for example. If your words can affect you they can also affect your family and those that you are responsible for. Only you can allow God to place a guard on your mouth. God will not violate your rights or your will. God will also not force you into saying anything correctly. As you learn to cooperate with God, you will learn more about how the words of your mouth have great significance and are very important to keep under control. You should go and review the book of James and see what God says about the tongue and how important it is to manage.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words, you can go to “Part 9“.
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Plant a Seed, Get a Harvest! Part 2
(ver 1.5) This is now Part 2 in a series of lessons on the subject of understanding seeds in the Bible. The Bible contains a vast amount of information on the concept of seeds. There are actually several things in the Bible called seeds and I listed a few of them in the first blog on this subject. If you have not read this from the beginning I would suggest that you go back and start reading with “Part 1”. In the first lesson I talked about the first mention of “seed” in the Bible being found in Genesis 1:11-12. What God gives us by the law of first mention are some general concepts that are relevant to the entire subject of seeds. One of the concepts given was the fact that the “seed” is said to be “within itself”. This is a concept with complex implications attached to it. What we discover is that an apple tree produces apples that contain seeds. These apple seeds produce other trees to come into existence which produce more apples and more seeds. This represents a self-perpetuating system of apple reproduction. No matter how many apples come from the seeds produced, they all originated from the one. There is an old saying that goes “Only God knows how many apples are in an apple seed”. I want to take this concept and expand it to show what the Bible says about how this relates to people and other concepts found in the Bible. As you recall in the first lesson we also talked about children being seeds. We saw Seth being called the seed of Eve.
Now let’s talk about the natural human seed of a man. This is commonly referred to as sperm or semen in our world, but in the Bible God also calls it “seed”. Why does God use the same word to describe something that we have other words to describe? Either God didn’t understand any other words to use for this, or God is trying to teach us something new. That is a common mistake that modern Bible translators and interpreters make constantly. They take a word like “seed” and change it to “descendant” or a “child” and think they are helping us to understand what God said. What they do is lose God’s intended lesson on what a seed is and therefore we do not learn what God wanted to teach us. What we must do is be smart enough to realize that God could have selected any word to describe a subject and if He selects “seed” to describe the semen of natural man, then it has a purpose. Could it be that the seed concept of planting and harvesting is a truth that occurs when a husband and wife have physical sex? I think that we should see what God says:
Lev 12:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
The Hebrew word translated as “conceive seed” means “to sow” seed. To sow seed is a farming and agriculture type of term and represents a metaphor for a concept that God says is related. I doubt very seriously that many couples think of sex in these terms. It could be that a few do, if they are trying to get pregnant and to have children.
Lev 15:16 And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.
It is sometimes difficult to discuss every subject found in the Bible. It seems that God did not leave out anything. I assume since this is the way He created it, then we can assume that it has a purpose for existing. In this verse in Leviticus we again see the sperm of the man being called his “seed”. The term “copulation” means simply a sexual act like intercourse. I have heard narrow minded preachers teach that since a man has seed, a woman cannot. However, in the first lesson we saw that Eve called Seth her seed. So we must conclude that there are different types of seed, and different definitions for seed. This is truly one of the most complex factors of correct Bible interpretation that we are faced with. We can learn one definition of “seed” and then must realize that there exists other definitions of the same word and they may or may not be related to each other. So we have learned that the definition of a word can change based upon the usage and the context of the word.
We have now touched on the first five examples of the term “Seed” found in the Bible. We have seen physical and natural plant seeds in Genesis. We have seen the sperm of the man being called seed in Leviticus. We have seen the children of natural parents being referred to as “Seeds” in Genesis and Ruth. We have also seen that the offspring of other species of animals are also called “Seeds” in Genesis. We have learned that every seed reproduces after its own kind from Genesis 1. So dogs only produce dogs. Orange seeds only produce orange trees. Now I want to start discussing one of the most important concepts of seeds given to us in the Bible. This concept is a spiritual law that God has revealed to us using these natural examples. We have gone through the 5 natural examples, although not in a complete teaching but more in an overview high level pass of the subject, so that we can now focus on some spiritual applications.
We have learned that God calls the sperm of a man, his seed. We have also learned that Adam “knew” his wife Eve and she had a seed named “Seth”. What we see is a pattern of creation that God has designed to teach us. Adam and Eve were the first two humans in the world that we live in. They originated every other human being on the planet. So from 2 people we now have almost 7 billion people on the planet. That is what God calls being fruitful and multiplying. But, I want to demonstrate a seed law to you from the Bible. According to God, whatever happens to your parents is what happened to you. You probably do not understand what I am talking about right now, but you will soon.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
It truly amazes me how smart God is. You can see many things in the Bible and then you can read right over them and not even know what they mean or how they apply to other stuff that you just read. Did you notice that God says that YOU and I were “IN” Adam? I don’t know about you, but my father was not named Adam, but yet God says I was “IN” Adam. As you recall from Genesis 2, God told Adam do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you do, you will surely die. Adam ignored God’s command and ate and we all die because of what he did. Is that fair? I do not know, but yet it is what God says happened.
What we see is a demonstrated application of the seed law of Genesis, that the “Seed is in itself”. In other words Adam was walking around in the garden with the “seed” in his body that was everyone else in the world. Did you understand what I just said? God says that when Adam sinned, not only did he die, but he caused everyone that came from him to also die. That is an awesome revelation of the Word of God, for you see it also tells you how we will live in return. This verse ends with the statement “Even So in CHRIST shall all be made alive”. So by the law of the “Seed Concept” from Genesis 1, if you are in Christ, you have been made alive. We’ll talk about this more and how this works in a later lesson, but for now let’s confirm what I just taught you.
Heb 7:9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
When I read this verse and studied it for the first time, it truly amazed me. God clearly shows us another conceptual application of the law “the Seed Being in Itself” in this verse. So did you read the verse and did you see what God said? God clearly states that Levi was “IN” Abraham. So let’s figure out what God is talking about. Who is Levi? Levi was one of the 12 sons of Jacob and the head of the tribes of Israel. That would make “Levi” a great-grandchild of Abraham. We have Abraham who begat Isaac, then we have Isaac who begat Jacob and finally we have Jacob who begat “Levi” and his 11 other brothers. What we see is a clear concept of family lineage being established. Your ancestry represents a research into your past relatives that you descended from. While not everyone on the earth can trace their natural ancestry to “Levi” or “Abraham, we can all trace our ancestry back to Adam. What we are learning is some seed concepts describing our human family tree.
Heb 7:10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.
Now we have still further revelation of the seed mystery, Abraham is said to be the father of Levi, but yet Levi doesn’t come along for another couple of generations. Do you understand how that applies to us and Adam? Even though Adam was not our nearest father, he is by default the father of us all. That also means that every father in between Adam and us is also called our father. As you can clearly read God informs us that Levi was in the “loins” of his father Abraham. The loin is defined to be the pelvic region or the sexual reproductive organs of Abraham. That tells me that out of the millions and millions of sperm cells in Abraham, God knew which one that Levi would come from. That is some amazing attention to the details, isn’t it? This is God’s clear definition of the “Seed being within Itself” law from Genesis. So now pay attention to what this says. Levi is said to have paid tithes in Abraham, because he was in his father Abraham by God’s definition of a seed. Do you understand this concept? Whatever your fathers did, according to God, you did. That is not always very good news for most of us. You see a newborn baby, having just been born into the world has already done everything that their fathers have done even before they do anything themselves. Not really good news is it? I wish I would have learned this concept as a very young child, I might have done a few things differently as I grew up. Oh well?
Lam 5:7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
What we begin to discover in the Bible, is the law of seeds. We can then better understand how family curses, generational abnormalities and physical diseases are often times inherited within a family tree. Doctors constantly want to know if your parents had any diseases, because they want to see if they are appearing in you. Why is this? Why are some diseases contagious and others are more hereditary? It would appear that what one parent does, is passed down to future children and this is the basis for the existence of these hereditary diseases.
Mat 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
You see the seed concept again being alluded to in this verse of the Bible. The people of Israel are in the process of killing the Son of God and they say “Let His blood be on us and our children”. In other words whatever they were doing was being handed down to every generation that would come after them. That is not very good news for the children who were not there, is it?
The Genealogy of Jesus is given to us in Luke. Have you ever wondered why God thought this was so important to include in the Bible? You can clearly see every generation of Jesus going all the way back to Adam. There around 74 generations listed. Seventy four names of fathers of Jesus. If you are a little bit intelligent you realize that God did this on purpose. You can clearly see from what we have learned about seeds, whatever every father of Jesus did, Jesus is said to have done the same. So Jesus was in David, Jesus was in Abraham, Jesus was in Adam and every other name mentioned. This has far reaching consequences for Jesus, doesn’t it? Let’s briefly explore a couple of the references in the Bible as Jesus being a seed in his natural fathers.
Rom 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Jesus was born of the seed of David. This is telling us that Jesus was in David when he was king of Israel. Being a seed of David qualifies Jesus as an eternal ruler that will sit upon his father’s throne and that is pretty cool.
Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
We can clearly see that Jesus Christ is called the Seed of Abraham. This verse tells us that the intended usage of this word “seed” meant a singular example of the usage of this word. In other words, this seed is not plural. So now we can better understand the seed of Abraham being within him when God came to cut covenant with him. It is very interesting to note that if Jesus was in Abraham his father, then was God making a covenant with himself? I believe that is exactly what we can see happening.
Mat 26:64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Jesus called himself the “Son of Man” more than he called himself the “Son of God” in the Gospels. Why is that? Part of the reason why is to overcome the difficulty of man’s inability to accept God coming to the earth in the form of His creation. Jesus Christ being a physical man on this planet was also informing us that He was the Son of Adam. You know that Jesus was a Hebrew, yes? Did you know that the Hebrew word for man and Adam are the same words? This is why I can say that Jesus walked around and called Himself the son of Adam. Do you realize what that means based upon what we have learned? That means when God created Adam, Jesus was already in Adam as a future descendant of this first man. Jesus Christ was a future seed in the physical man Adam. What we can see is that God had a plan of salvation for man, even before man was created. God had already designed Himself into the body of Adam. God already knew when He was coming , how he was coming and where he was coming when He created Adam. God could look at Adam and see 74 generations down his family tree and see Jesus. That is some amazing forethought and planning. That is some incredible attention to detail. That is an amazing plan of salvation.
So what have we learned, since Jesus was “IN” Adam, whatever happens to Adam, now transfers to Jesus. Since Jesus was born the Son of Adam, he must die the death that Adam passed upon all of his descendants (SEEDS). These are the seed laws given to us by God in Genesis. Everything produces after its own kind and the seed is always within itself. Whatever happens to you happens to everyone that comes from you. Whatever you did, is what your seed did. I hope that you enjoyed learning some new concepts from the Bible on “seeds”. I pray that you will learn to apply them to what you do going forward. In my next blog in this series we will further explore spiritual seeds found in the Bible.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lesson on seeds you can go to “Part 3” now!
Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Plant a Seed, Get a Harvest! Part 1
(Ver 1.6) This of course is a difficult subject to cover, yet one that I believe is very critical for every Christian to understand. God said in the Bible some things that are very profound about seeds and if you can understand them, you will gain vast amounts of spiritual knowledge and understanding of how almost everything in the world works. I know that sounds like a very broad statement but, you obviously do not know very much about seeds right now or you would have to agree with me. Seeds represent concepts that apply both to the natural realm and the spiritual realm simultaneously. When you begin to understand them, you will begin to understand why things have happened in your life and how to affect or change your future results. Too many Christians think that what happens to them in life is predetermined by God. If it is God’s will I will live to be an old man, if not only God knows. While God does know your future, it is definitely wrong to say that you can not change it. If you do not believe me you should read your Bible more often. When you read in the Bible in 2 Kings 20, you will see Isaiah the prophet coming to King Hezekiah and telling him that the Lord says for him to “Set Your House in Order, for thou shalt Die and Not Live!”. The prophet of God tells the King what God has already told him will happen and these are the sayings of the almighty God. King Hezekiah ends up praying to God and as a result God tells Isaiah to tell the King he shall live 15 more years. What would have happened if Hezekiah had not prayed? He would have died. Who changed, God or Hezekiah to cause him to live 15 more years? The Bible tells us “I am the Lord and I Change Not” (Mal 3:6). So obviously God did not change his mind, so what happened? That certainly is a mystery that too many Christians do not understand. It is not totally up to God what happens to you, it is more up to you than it is up to God. However, since that is not my primary subject, we will continue learning about seeds and see if you can figure this mystery out for yourself. Here is one of my foundational scriptures for this series of Bible lessons:
Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
What God is revealing in this verse, is that there are established laws in the earth. These laws consist of physical laws as well as spiritual laws. These laws are representative of established natural patterns within creation and even reveal the hidden qualities of God. These laws represent established cycles that will not cease unless God causes them to change in the future. However, it is clear that God says these laws will persist as long as the earth is here, so they are not going away anytime soon. God mentions 3 of these cycles and laws in this verse. The first one mentioned is that of the law of seeds and harvests. You plant a seed you reap a harvest. The next cycle mentioned is that of our established pattern of annual seasons. Winter and summer are just two of the 4 seasons mentioned. Next we have the cycle of Day and Night and again this is representative of a 24 hour cycle of time that the earth revolves in every day. What I want to focus on is just the subject of “Seeds” in this series of lessons. You can read about Understanding Night and Day in another blog series that I have already done.
Planting seeds and getting harvests are a part of the essential design of God’s creation as well as being an essential part of God’s hidden nature and character. Hopefully you will better understand this as we go through the Bible on this subject. But, here is a challenge from God, there are multiple things in the Bible called “seeds” and this is one of the complexities found while studying the Bible. God calls multiple things by the same name and we are required to figure out which one He is talking about to correctly understand each verse. While the overall concepts behind each occurrence of the word can overlap, they are certainly not the same entity. Let me give you some examples of seeds found in the Bible:
- Natural Grass Seeds
- Natural Fruit Seeds
- The Seed of a Man, His Sperm
- The Seed of a Woman, Her Children
- The Seed of a Man and a Woman, their offspring
- The Word of God
- The Seed of your Mouth, Your Words
- The Body of Jesus Christ
- The Church
- Your Body
So I just gave you 10 examples of a thing that the Bible calls seeds and that is certainly not a complete list of all of them. Just for grins let’s start by looking up a dictionary definition of the word seed in a noun form:
A mature fertilized ovule of angiosperms and gymnosperms that contains an embryo and the food it will need to grow into a new plant. Seeds provide a great reproductive advantage in being able to survive for extended periods until conditions are favorable for germination and growth. The seeds of gymnosperms (such as the conifers) develop on scales of cones or similar structures, while the seeds of angiosperms are enclosed in an ovary that develops into a fruit, such as a pome or nut. The structure of seeds varies somewhat. All seeds are enclosed in a protective seed coat. In certain angiosperms the embryo is enclosed in or attached to an endosperm, a tissue that it uses as a food source either before or during germination. All angiosperm embryos also have at least one cotyledon. Many angiosperms were created with specific fruits for dispersal of seeds by the wind, water, or animals.
There are too many things in this description to take note of them all. Also I changed the last sentence to state that seeds were created and did not evolve as some deceived scientists have theorized. According to this definition a seed is a self-contained unit designed for the reproduction of a species. A seed contains specific qualities that enables it to work even after extended times outside of the normal environment that they like to grow in. We understand this because we can buy seeds at the farm and garden store to plant in our backyards to grow whatever we would like.
Seed is a unique word that can either be taken as a single unit or as a plural word meaning multiple instances of the same reproductive unit. In other words if I said that I have a package of watermelon seed, we do not know how many I have in the package. It is more than likely several and logically more than one, but yet it would be legal to just put one in the package and sell it with the same name. The plural word for seed can also be stated as seeds, so the complexity of the words can be significant. If you are a type of person who is into the details you will certainly get into these Bible lessons.
The first mention of seed in the Bible is within the context of the first chapter of Genesis when God creates the world that we all live in. In Genesis 1:11 God says “Let the earth bring forth grass yielding seed”. This is the first mention of seed and the first mention of the reproductive system for propagating the further existence of future plants in the world. Within the same verse, God also tells us of “the earth bringing forth Fruit Trees yielding fruit after its kind, with the seed in its self”. These are very important concepts being given to us from creation. Some have called this the “Law of Genesis”. Everything will reproduce after its own kind. In other words a cat doesn’t come from a dog. A watermelon doesn’t come from an orange. Everything that God created comes from and reproduces after its own kind. That means there was no evolution that took place at any time on the earth. Evolution is a fantasy embraced by ignorant people who deny the design of God. Everything that God created is self-sustaining and self-perpetuating. Today on the evening news I watched a humorous story about which came first the chicken or the egg? This has long been a debated controversial subject in the world. However, according to the news, and a group of scientists in England who studied the subject, they have concluded that the chicken had to come first based upon scientific evidence. They discovered that the shell of the egg comes from a protein found only in the ovary of a chicken. Since this protein does not exist anywhere else in the world, they have concluded that the chicken had to come first. But, they certainly did not say where the chicken came from. Isn’t that interesting? I can tell them where the chicken came from, but maybe another day. I’m sure if you search the internet you can find more information on this scientific discovery and why they concluded this.
There are over 250 verses in the Bible that speak directly about seeds in the Bible. I will not even attempt to go through all of these. Then there are many other indirect references of seeds in the Bible so the total number of verses on the subject is by far greater than that. We have already touched on the first occurrence in Genesis 1 of natural seeds from plants, so let’ move on to the second occurrence of seed found in Genesis 3 and it goes like this:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
I have written a blog on this subject, so I will not attempt to repeat that information again. If you want to learn about it you can go and read “The Seed of the Woman, the Seed of the Serpent!” It is noteworthy to see that the woman has seed and so does Satan and I’ll leave it at that for now. It is implied that these seeds are children, and we will find out more about this as we go. The third occurrence of the word “Seed” arises in Chapter 4 of Genesis and this is Eve speaking and she says the following:
Gen 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
Eve tells us that “Seth” is her Seed. His brother Cain had killed his other brother Abel and now she has given birth to another “Seed”. Obviously the implication is given to us that all of the other children are also her “seeds”. So we see a clear pattern that children are called seeds of their parents. Let’s find a confirming scripture to this fact from the book of Ruth:
Rth 4:12 And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.
We can clearly see that God refers to children as seeds. The term is related to a concept of planting and harvesting. This concept was first introduced in Genesis 1 when God said to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. You see two descriptive qualities of planting seeds, you always get a multiplied increase and it is always related to bearing fruit. What we discover is that each child produced has the built in capability to reproduce more of its own kind in the earth. The females carry the eggs, the males carry the sperms and they are joined together to produce more of the same kind as themselves. What we have in the world is an exponential growth seed pattern of the population of the world. From Adam and Eve, who were just two people on the planet just around 6000 years ago, we now have well over 6 billion and getting closer to 7 billion people on the planet. That is God’s idea of a plentiful harvest field. These are God’s plans and God’s designed laws of increase being demonstrated. All of these are basic seed concepts, seed principles and seed laws. I hope that you understand them. Let’s look at the next occurrence of the word “seed” found in the book of Genesis. You will find this one in the story of Noah and the flood:
Gen 7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
What we have is a reproductive biology lesson from the story of God’s creation. The stated law of how God can create the original pairs of each species, both males and females so that they reproduce and multiply and still be here today for us to enjoy. God informs Noah to gather and place on the ark, the male and the female of every species so that their “seed” would not vanish from the face of the earth. What we learn from this verse is that all we have to do is kill every animal of a particular species and that species is not coming back. That kind of kill’s evolution doesn’t it? Man is doing a pretty good job at eliminating species on this planet so what will the results be?
Gen 12:7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Obviously “seed” is a very important subject to understand. God in speaking to Abram tells him that his seed will be given the land. God is speaking about children or as we can read later in the N.T. God is speaking about a specific promised child. Too many times people like to read a verse in the Bible in isolation and try to interpret it without using God’s helpful commentary and definitions. This causes people to come up with erroneous teachings that results in confusion. You see you can take this verse in many different ways. Some try to take it literally and naturally and interpret it using their own human reasoning. But, later we will discover that God gives us more information and we should always use the Bible to interpret the Bible.
Gen 13:15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Again we have a great mystery presented to us. Is the land given to a natural seed or to a spiritual seed? You will notice that God did not tell Abram that it was his forever, because obviously Abram died and is no longer here to possess it. What we have to conclude is that whoever this seed is that will be given the land, must be an eternal seed or a seed that will live forever. That certainly changes the interpretation dramatically doesn’t it?
This has been an introduction to the subject of “Seeds” in the Bible. I hope that you have learned something that you can begin to apply to your life and to your understanding of the Bible. In the next lesson we will talk further about the other types of seeds that I have listed in the top of this lesson.
If you would like to continue reading this series, please go to “Part 2“.
Understanding the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ! Part 3 Getting Paul’s Input!
(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 3 of a series of lessons on the importance of believing in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. I have been attempting to give you some new spiritual Bible perspectives into the identity of the Son that was born to the woman Mary and the importance of us believing that she was a virgin. Too many people today who call themselves, Christians have an opinion that Paul never wrote about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, so they therefore try to conclude that it did not happen, or was not important or maybe even try to stretch to say that Paul didn’t believe in it at all. All of these are just people who are deceived into believing a lie from the enemy. If you have not read this series from the beginning, I would strongly suggest that you go back and read starting with “Part 1”.
While Paul may not have written directly about the virgin birth, that does certainly does not mean he did not believe in it. Nor does it mean that Paul did not write about the virgin birht indirectly using words that are dependent upon the existence of the virgin birth in order to be viewed as the truth. There are literally too many ways to say something without saying somthing directly to say that Paul never understood that the virgin birth was a basic truth. I personally believe that Paul was sent by God to teach the advanced revelation of other truths found in the Bible. Most of these truths could not possibly be true without the existence of the virgin birth so the virgin birth is implied in the writings while never being directly mentioned. Let’s start by analyzing some verses that speak about Jesus and see what they say about him.
Rom 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
There are at least two implied references to the virgin birth of Jesus in this verse written by Paul. Either people do not know how to read or they just do not know what to look for when searching for scriptures on this subject. To say Paul never wrote anything about the virgin birth is denying the original author of the Bible. God uttered the words, and men wrote them down. God is the author of the entire Bible and He says plenty about the virgin birth. In this verse in Romans 1:3 Jesus Christ is called the Son of God. Doesn’t that imply or mean Jesus didn’t have a natural father? So how did He get here and who was He born from? People obviously see what they want to see in the Bible and ignore what they do not want to see in the Bible. Then this verse tells us that “according to the flesh” Jesus was “made” of the seed of David. To be made something is an implied creative act of God. Anything that God creates He has made. So what does that tell us? That means Jesus didn’t come into the world, the natural way like you and me. What we have is an indirect reference to the virgin birth being revealed to us. We have Jesus who came according to flesh as being the Son of David, but according to Spirit, He was the Son of God. How can this be if it was not from a virgin birth? This represents the physical and spiritual union of God and the woman Mary and the result was a man named Jesus Christ.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Anytime Paul writes about Jesus Christ being the Son of God, He is inferring the existence of the virgin birth. Anytime Paul writes that God came in the flesh, he infers the virgin birth. Jesus Christ, who was God, took on the likeness of sinful flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh. We again see a clear reference to God’s union with the woman Mary to produce the physical man Jesus Christ. It is interesting to think that the Bible says “God is not a man that He should lie, nor the Son of Man that He should repent”. But, yet God becomes a man and a Son of Man. That is a perplexing mystery that causes vast numbers of Jewish people to reject Jesus Christ. You see when Jesus was on the earth in the flesh, He came to John the Baptist and told him to baptize Him. Why did Jesus do this? John was baptizing people for the remissions of sins, yet Jesus had not committed any sins. John tells Jesus in the 3rd chapter of Matthew that he needed to be baptized of Jesus and Jesus tells him do this to me to satisfy all righteousness. Jesus who was God in the flesh, was baptized of John for the “repentance of sin” (Mat 3:11). After John baptized Jesus, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove and God spoke out of heaven in a thundering voice and said “This is my son, in who I am well pleased”. So why didn’t God do this before Jesus was baptized by John? I think that is a really good question. Perhaps you can read some of my other blogs and get some clues to what happened, but for now let’s continue with the virgin birth:
1Ti 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
You see again that Paul writes a simple statement that God was “manifested” in the flesh. If this is not a clear reference to the virgin birth, then what is it? How did God come to be here in the flesh? The term “manifested” again refers to being “made” in the flesh. So how do you make babies? How does a Spirit being make babies? It is certainly not the same way that you do it. We know that God is a Spirit. We also know God is omnipotent. So how would omnipotent God become a man legally on this planet? I believe that He gets a virgin woman to agree with the plan and to believe that she will have His son. Isn’t it funny how Mary’s response to the angel of God was “Be unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary obviously believed it would happen to her even before it happened to her. That sounds a lot like someone with faith, someone who believed, and someone in partnership with God. Because Mary believed the words of God, she received the word and He became flesh inside of her.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Those that claim Paul never wrote about the virgin birth are clearly ignorant and foolish. This verse in Galatians compares two sons born of Abraham. The first is called him that is “born after the flesh” and the other one is called “the promised son”. As you recall Abraham was given the slave woman Hagar to have a child by his wife because Sarah was barren and he did. That is called the child after the flesh. This son however never received the blessing of the firstborn since Sarah miraculously conceived the promised child. While this was not a virgin birth by any stretch of the imagination, it was clearly a miraculous birth for a 90 year old woman to give birth to a son. So what is God saying to us? I believe that God is giving us a prophetic view of the virgin birth. You see Isaac was born in a supernatural way and this is a type of the birth of Christ who was born in a supernatural way. These were just types and shadows of another son that was promised. Jesus Christ’s birth was also prophesied to be a miraculous conception by the type of Sarah and Abraham having the son Isaac. However, Jesus’ birth is a much greater miracle than that of Isaac.
Heb 5:5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.
Again we see Paul writing to the Hebrews and he says a prophetic quote from God “Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee”. The Greek word that is translated as “begotten”, means to “procreate as of the Father“. What does the term “procreate” mean? To procreate means to bring forth offspring or children. It can also mean to “conceive”, to be “born” or “to give birth”. Anyone with any brains at all can figure out what he is talking about. If God is the Father and Mary is the natural mother, then how did God get this woman pregnant? It wasn’t the natural way. We have already seen very specific scripture that the Holy Ghost caused this to happen and that Mary was a young girl that had never known a man. So it is very clear to me that Paul believed in the virgin birth and thought it was a critical piece of information to learn. In other words it was a foundational part of his theology and his belief system.
Heb 1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
What we have is another witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is “begotten” by God. Never had God done anything like this before and never will he do this again, this is what took Satan by surprise. Satan did not know what to do with this man, Jesus. According to Jesus’ parable Satan thought this was the heir so they had to kill him (Mat 21:38). However, Jesus came into the earth to die and that is what defeated Satan. What you need to do is realize that anytime the Bible calls Jesus the Son of God that is indirectly calling him the one that was born of a virgin. Anytime you read about God coming to the earth in the flesh you are reading about a virgin birth.
Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
In the first lesson in this series I talked about the resurrection of Jesus being different than other people who were raised from the dead. I asked you to think about why the resurrection of Jesus was so important to our beliefs and our salvation. I showed in Romans 10:9 that it says that if you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and called him your Lord you would be saved. This verse in Hebrews again refers to Jesus being raised from the dead and this is in conjunction with the “blood” of the everlasting covenant of God. So where did Jesus get His blood? You might recall in another blog I talked about the blood of a baby being a union of the father and the mother’s blood type. So why is this important? What made Jesus’ blood an acceptable payment for our sin and the foundational basis of an everlasting covenant? Obviously Jesus’ blood was not the exact same as our blood, but yet at the same time it was. So we have another paradox, and a mystery of Biblical proportions. If Jesus blood was just like our blood then God could have picked anyone to pay the price for our sins. You should really think about the blood of Jesus for a long time, because it is very important and very significant to your salvation. You need to figure out why the blood of Jesus was sufficient to pay for your sins and why your blood is not sufficient payment for your sins. I’ll give you some clues and more information on this subject later.
Paul writes a considerable amount of scriptures about the blood of Jesus Christ and its value and power. What makes the blood of Jesus Christ so special? In order to understand this it comes back to the virgin birth? That is the only difference between my blood and Jesus’ blood. His natural father was the Holy Spirit and mine was not. My father’s lineage goes directly back to Adam and Eve and there lies the problem with my bloodline and yours.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Why, is Jesus Christ called the “Last Adam”? To me that was a really interesting thing to discover and to study. What we see is a direct comparison of two men. The first Adam is called a living soul and the “Last Adam” a quickening Spirit. One is said to be physical and natural man and the other is inversely spiritual by nature.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
As you read through this chapter you find that natural things always came first in the world and then spiritual things came later. This is a pattern for us to understand how God created this world. We were first born naturally, and then we were born again spiritually. Did you notice what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:47? He said the second Adam came from heaven! Uh Oh? We have another clear, but indirect reference to the virgin birth. God says that the body of the first man came from the earth. But, the body of the second man was born here, but came from heaven. We again see an implied reference to God coming in the flesh. This is the Lord of Glory being made a man.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
We can see that through Jesus, the Last Adam, He causes all men to have the ability to live. This is in direct contrast to the first Adam who caused all men born on this planet to die. So was Jesus Christ born a man on this planet? If you understand the Bible you know that He was. That means He had to die like everyone else that was descended from Adam. Realizing that Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh came to the earth to die is a basic part of theology that you must embrace in order to understand who Jesus was and why he came to the earth. What we have seen is two individuals, both are called a man, both are called Adam and both were made originally by God. The first Adam was a natural man whose body was formed from the dust of the ground. The last Adam came by the word of God through a virgin woman.
Now I want to talk about the Blood of Jesus Christ and give you some more insight and understanding on how it was able to satisfy the payment for our sins. Paul writes about the blood of Christ in numerous verses. You can read some of them in Romans 5:9, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 2:13, and Colossians 1:14. By reading these verses you find out what Jesus bought with His blood. There are many things that were resolved, there were many things purchased, there were many things that were forgiven, and there many things that were accomplished through the blood of Jesus Christ. All of these verses tell us clearly that Jesus’ blood was something of great value, something that would cover the cost of the vast expanse of the sin of all humanity. It also indicates that His blood was more valuable than our blood. Therefore we have reached again a full circle that states Jesus Christ must have been born of a virgin to make Him different than you and I. So what makes the Blood of Christ more valuable than ours? Let’s briefly examine the Bible and find out:
Gen 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
So what makes this flesh uneatable according to God’s commandment to Noah? It is the blood! The Blood of the flesh is said to be the Life of the flesh. Isn’t that interesting? Do you remember what Jesus told us? Jesus said “I am the Life” (John 14:6). Could Jesus have been referring to His blood?
Lev 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
You see we have another confirmation written in the Law of Moses that says the life of the flesh is the blood. So we then see God giving us another key piece of information. The payment of sin comes from the shedding of blood. It is the blood that will provide atonement for us. The Hebrew word translated as “Atonement” is an interesting word that means “to cover”. It can also mean “to forgive”, “to show mercy”, “to reconcile”, and “to cleanse”. These are all the works of God and what He has accomplished in Jesus Christ through His blood.
Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
So we have another mystery given to us. Clearly in the O.T. God implemented a series of laws that showed the people how to make sacrifices of animals for the sins of the people. However, we discover that God would later say that the blood of bulls and goats would never take away our sins. So why did God do this? What we have is another natural pattern that establishes a spiritual N.T. reality in Jesus Christ. Did you notice this verse didn’t say anything about a lamb? Jesus Christ is called the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29)! I’ll wrap this blog up with one more verse about the blood of Jesus Christ:
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
We have another paradox being presented to us. How can God offer Himself as a sacrifice to Himself? This is some really deep stuff, isn’t it? Maybe we can talk about that in another blog, but for now let’s keep going. If you recall from my last blog, there were three that agreed in the earth. These were the Spirit, the water and the blood. The blood represents the life of the flesh. The Bible also tells us that the body is dead without the spirit (James 2:26). We are now beginning to understand a little bit how the blood of Jesus could satisfy the price of our sin. The man Jesus Christ born of a virgin was God in the flesh. The omnipotent God gave His life, His eternal Spirit and His blood as payment for our sin. As Jesus hung on the cross and bled I am convinced that He was smiling on the inside. He knew what was being accomplished, He knew what was being purchased, and He knew the end result for all of His pain and suffering.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
So if anybody ever tells you that Paul didn’t believe in the virgin birth, tell them to go and read those letters again. Maybe you can help them now by telling them what to look for. God Bless!
Understanding the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ! Part 2
(Ver 1.1) This is now Part 2 of a series of Bible lessons on the importance of believing in the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many people who call themselves Christians like to try to convince you that they are believers, however they have been deceived into believing a lie from Satan. These are those that pretend that it is not important to believe in the Virgin Birth and they like to make you think that it doesn’t matter to your salvation either. I believe I showed using the Bible how wrong they are in the first part of this lesson. If you have no virgin birth, you have no basis for your salvation, you have no confidence in your savior then you are standing on very shaky ground. These types of people are called the spirit of “Anti-Christ”, those who are controlled by spiritual beings that are not from God and who do not represent God. They teach that God has not come into the world in the flesh and thus they nullify the salvation that was freely given to them. If you have not read the first part of this series you should go back now and start with “Part 1“. Today I want to talk about some other aspects of the virgin birth and give you some new perspectives to think about. So let’s go back to Matthew and look at what God says to us about the virgin birth:
Mat 1:20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
Joseph the future husband of Mary is said to have had a dream where an angel from God appears to him. In this dream the angel informs him that is OK to take this woman as his wife, because the child that is inside of her is from the Holy Ghost. This is the key reason for why it is important to believe in the virgin birth. The son that will be born of this natural woman, Mary will be the Son of God. So the child was a result of a union between God’s seed and Mary’s human egg. The resulting DNA would be unlike any man, except for Adam. You have to think and ask questions when you study the Bible. Where did Adam get his DNA? Where did Adam get his blood? Where did Adam get his spirit? All of these had to originate from God. So was Adam a son of God? Was Adam an older brother of Jesus? I believe according to the genealogy of Jesus in Luke, both of these are true. The DNA of Jesus Christ had to be a combination of His natural father and mother, Adam and Eve and his heavenly Father God. Jesus Christ was uniquely God and man in perfect unison. The Blood of Jesus was a result of the union between God and Mary. This is why God could promise David that one of his son’s would sit on his throne forever. Jesus Christ was the Son of Adam, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, and the Son of God all at the same time. We know from scripture that being born of a virgin is God’s legal entrance into the world in a physical form. God could not legally come into the world and pay for our sins any other way according to the Bible. This is what Jesus taught us:
Joh 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
In this verse in John, Jesus is discussing the world and the legal entrances into the world. The world is described as a symbolic sheepfold. According to Jesus the only legal way into the world is to enter through the door/gate. If you have never studied the Bible on the subject of gates, you should. You see this word for door also means a gate. You see if you build a fence around your house to keep stuff in or to keep stuff out of your yard, you always build into the fence gates that allows you to come and go easily. That is a basic concept that God created and man just uses. The subject of gates is a complex subject and one that covers many aspects that appear to be related, but yet are very different. Jesus said “I am the door”, meaning He was the way to God, but this is not the same door that he is talking about in John 10:1. The legal entrance into this world is being born here of a woman. You see a physical woman’s body has a legal portal entry point into the world that we live in. This natural gate is a two way gate, both an entrance and exit. People’s mouths are also called gates in the Bible. The mouth can allow food in and also speak words out, so it is also a two way gate of the human body. Other orifices of the body are only one way gates. Only expelling things or only taking things in. If you never studied about gates, you should you might be surprised at what you learn from God. Being born in the world gives you rights to salvation. Jesus told us that “You must be born again”. Meaning you must be born first naturally, and then born again spiritually if you want salvation. Jesus being born of a woman gave God certain rights to provide salvation to all of humanity.
Let’s go back to the dream of Joseph and the first chapter of Matthew where it tells us about the birth of Jesus Christ. In this dream the angel tells Joseph that the words of God must be fulfilled. These words were spoken through the prophet Isaiah and we looked at these words in the first lesson on this subject. So Joseph took hold of the words spoken to him by the angel in the dream and decided to take Mary to be his wife. Then it tells us this about their relationship:
Mat 1:25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
I do not know any husbands who do not have sex with their wives. But, clearly this is what this verse is saying. However, it does not say he never had sex with Mary, it only says not until after Jesus was born. Why is that important? I asked myself that question and had a difficult time coming up with an answer. Once you are pregnant, you cannot get pregnant again, no matter how many times you have sex. This is just a basic fact on human biology that you might already know. You see when God includes something in the Bible it is important, even though it is not mentioned again directly. I really do not want to get graphic here, but I believe it is important to understand. A woman as a virgin has a piece of skin that at least partially covers the opening to her vagina. There is no medical purpose for this piece of skin, but yet it is mentioned in the Bible a few times as evidence that a woman was a virgin when she was on her honeymoon. You can see that the bed sheets are presented as proof to her virginity. This small covering piece of skin is designed by God to produce blood when broken or torn during intercourse. Why did God do this? Everything that God does, has a purpose and a reason for existing. I believe that this is a natural pattern for a spiritual reality. The breaking of the female skin and the shedding of blood is representative of a covenant act between a husband and a wife. This is the foundation of a blood covenant relationship between two individuals. But, what would happen to this small piece of skin during the birth of a child if it was present? I believe that the same thing would have happened as if her husband would have had sex with her the first time, it would be torn and bled. Let us see what the Bible says about the birth of Jesus and see if this is in fact what happened:
1Jn 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
As you can see God is talking about the virgin birth. God then says that those who overcome the world are those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. So did God think it was not important to believe in the virgin birth? Obviously not! You can clearly see that those who do not overcome the world are stated as being those who do not believe in the virgin birth. Uh Oh? I think some people have a real problem to think about.
1Jn 5:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
So what does the Bible say about the virgin birth? Again you have to use your brain, just a little bit to see what God is saying. When a woman has a baby, and it comes time to deliver, she experiences something that is popularly called “her water breaking”. This results in a mess and this is a normal part of every child born on this planet. The water breaking is just another natural thing that God has designed to teach us something that we should see. Did you notice what God said in this verse? God says that Jesus did not come with just a water breaking mess, but Jesus came with the evidence of a virgin birth and that was the shedding of her blood. Notice NOT Jesus’ blood, I said her blood. Jesus when being birthed naturally would have broken the hymen of Mary and thus caused her blood to flow. Why is this important to include in the Bible? Obviously many people think that it is not important, however there it is.
1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Now why does God always change the subject? Or did He? God tells us that there exists three in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are all One! What we have is the trinity being described to us in very specific terms. We can conclude that since the context of this verse is preceded with verses about the virgin birth of Christ that we are going to learn some new information about this. Then we see this statement being made:
1Jn 5:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
So we have a new mystery being presented to us, one that is certainly difficult to relate to. Humans are described as being triune beings also but really we are just talking about Jesus and the virgin birth in a new light. The Spirit in this verse is the Holy Spirit which impregnated the natural woman Mary. The water is the natural birth process every human experiences in entering into this world. But the blood is only present for Jesus, the son of God born of a virgin. So we have God, the father, God the Word, and God the Holy Ghost coming into the world in the body of a man named Jesus, born of a virgin woman named Mary.
These 3 Bear Witness in Heaven
God the Father = God the Word = God the Holy Ghost
These 3 Bear Witness in the Earth
Spirit = Water = Blood
So what is God telling us about the virgin birth? God is saying we have 3 witnesses in heaven and 3 witnesses in the earth that the virgin birth happened just like He said it did. A witness is someone who testifies in a court of law to what they have seen. Because Jesus was born of a virgin, He came into the world with witnesses that prove His works. However, you still have an opportunity to not believe it and remain a spiritually blind man. . In my next blog we will review verses about how God used Paul to write about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ in indirect terminology.
If you would like to continue reading in this series you may go to “Part 3“.
Why is Believing in the Virgin Birth Essential to Being a Christian? Part 1
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in a series of Bible lessons on Understanding the subject of the “Virgin Birth” and why it is important and necessary to believe in it to be a Christian. This subject is a potentially explosive and very controversial topic among some Christians and churches. We have many Christians, who fully embrace the virgin birth of Jesus, then we have some who are indifferent to its importance and finally we have others who flatly deny that it ever happened. So can you be a real Christian and not believe in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ? I read one blogger who thought that you could and in a way I agree with a lot of what he said. However, why is it important from a Bible defense standpoint, to believe in the virgin conception and the birth of son from a woman who has not “known” a man? To me I can say, it is because if there was no virgin birth, then there was no payment for human sin and therefore no salvation, no redemption and we will all die and go to hell with no hope. You see if Jesus was not born of a virgin, then who is He? Or I guess I should say who was He? If He was just another human man, a descendant of Adam like me then I’m in some real big trouble. If you believe that He was just a man like you, then you are also in some major trouble. If Jesus was a man born exactly like every other man on the planet, that would put Him on the same level as a “Confucius”, a “Mohammed”, an “Aristotle”, a”Caesar”, an “Alexander the Great”, an “Ivan the Terrible” or whoever else that you would care to name. You see if you do not believe in the virgin birth, who then is your savior? What makes your savior different than Islam? What is your salvation based or built upon foundationally? To who or what have you placed your confidence in when you die and leave this world? If it is not in anything that God has personally done, and God’s Word, then you are lost in your deception.
Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
If Jesus Christ is not born of a virgin human woman, then He is not God in the flesh as this verse declared. If He was born of a literal virgin human woman without the involvment of a human father, then it is impossible for Him to be anything, but God in the flesh as the Bible teaches in many verses. I know that with modern technology, using test tube babies and in vitro-fertilization methods, it is very possible today for a woman to get pregnant without a man’s direct involvement. However, this was not the case nearly 2000 years ago when it was certainly not possible to get pregnant, except by the natural way that God had created created. If a natural human man was not involved, then God personally must have done something to intervene and circumvent the course of nature to cause the situation that Mary is said to be in in Matthew and Luke. In this verse in Isaiah God prophesies that a “virgin” would conceive. Now a virgin conception is not news, because that use to happen all of the time when she lost her virginity with her husband. But, a virgin woman with her hymen intact giving birth to a child, this had never happened before Jesus came along and entered into the world. The primary relevance from this verse is that there is no natural man mentioned in this future prophesied event in Isaiah other than the son being born. There is however, the direct mention of a spiritual being and that is God. God tells us that He will give us a sign. Signs are something that you are intimately familiar with if learn to drive a car. A sign gives us instructions, knowledge; information, guidance, direction and these are all applicable to God’s message in this prophecy. Do you see how essential the virgin birth is said to be? If you do not have this information or maybe you missed it, or maybe you ignored it, then you are missing an important “Sign” from God on the roadway of life. You have absolutely no foundation for being saved, because you do not know who you believe in or why.
The Hebrew name of the virgin’s son is said to be “Immanuel”, which when looked up, means “God With Us”. This was God in the form of a man. Now we are beginning to understand how a virgin birth is even possible 2000 years ago. However, important this information is, you would think that God would give us many verses that speak to this fact in the Bible. However, I have found that God is not that way. God does not give you overwhelming evidence to anything in the Bible, in order to let you choose what you want to believe in. If God wrote the Bible with clear evidence, you would be forced into believing the truth and that is not how God works by design.
Mat 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
God repeats the prophecy of Isaiah in this verse in Matthew and this is one of the only two times it is directly mentioned in the Bible. The name “Immanuel” in the O.T. is said to be “Emmanuel” in the Greek N.T., but it is the same Hebrew word and as you can see it means “God With Us”. Fortunately for us correct interpretation of the Bible only requires two witnesses to establish any truth. So just because there is only two direct witnesses to this truth does not diminish the importance of the information given to us. There are many ignorant teachers on the internet who like to say, Paul never said anything about a virgin birth, so therefore it is not important. People can be so spiritually blind sometimes. Just because Paul did not say anything directly, does not mean he did not write anything about it indirectly. Maybe I’ll talk more about that later. But, for now let’s continue on with the importance of knowing about the virgin birth.
1Jn 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Ask yourself this question, why is it so important for Satan to try to deceive people into not believing in a virgin birth? Have you ever thought about that? Obviously Satan is hard at work at attempting to get people not to believe in a virgin birth. Satan uses people who say they are Christians, but yet deny the virgin birth and thus they deny God came in the flesh and according to the Bible, this is the spirit of “anti-Christ”. Did you notice what John wrote in this verse of scripture? God tells us that the spirit of anti-Christ will deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Isn’t this the debate that is raging on the internet? Has Jesus Christ been born of a virgin woman? Who is this Jesus Christ? According to the Bible Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. You see Satan is denying that God came in person to the earth. This is directly related to the subject of Christians believing in the virgin birth. Do you understand this? You see if this verse says what I think it does, you cannot be a Christian and not believe in the virgin birth. Otherwise God says you are a part of the “anti-Christ” and that makes you by default as none of His. Now are you beginning to see the importance of believing in the virgin birth?
2Jn 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Again we see that God says there are those in the earth that are debating the deity of Jesus Christ and these are those that have the spirit of “anti-Christ”. In other words they are being used by Satan to deceive others into believing a lie. What benefit does Satan derive from you not believing in the virgin birth? What advantage does Satan possess when you don’t believe that God has come to the earth in the flesh? Satan gains you as his possession for eternity, and that is not a good place to end up. You do not have salvation, if you do not have a virgin birth. If you think you do, you are going to have to explain what you base your faith on.
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Let me give you one indirect reference to the virgin birth that is related to the salvation of every Christian. In this verse God says that if you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Him as your Lord you will be saved. What makes the resurrection of Jesus from the dead different than say the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43)? Didn’t God raise Lazarus from the dead after being in the grave for 4 days? Heck, Jesus was only in the grave for three days, it would seem Lazarus was a greater miracle and sign for us to believe in. What makes Jesus different than Lazarus and why aren’t we saved, if we believe that God raised Lazarus from the dead. Most people just don’t think when they read the Bible, I guess? I hope you are beginning to understand the importance of the virgin birth, at least a little bit. You see the only difference between Jesus and Lazarus is one of them was born of a virgin. One of them was God and one of them was not. Guess who that was? You see if you don’t know or your don’t believe it happened; you have no confidence in your salvation or your Savior. There were multiple people raised from the dead in the Gospels. Why don’t any of them save us? The major difference was that none of them were God. They all died again and were buried. But, Jesus is living in heaven seated at the right hand of majesty forever alive. So next time you meet someone who does not believe in the virgin birth, ask them who saved them?
If you would like to continue reading in this series of lessons about “Understanding the Virgin Birth” please continue with “Part 2“.
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