Blog Archives
Where DO BABIES Come From? Dealing With A Religious Spirit! Part 3
(Ver 1.1) This is Part 3 and followup to a previous lesson on the subject of “Salvation” and “Where do Spiritual Babies Come From?” If you have not read the series from the beginning I would recommend that you go back and start your reading from “Part 1“. Some people are more interested in arguing with you than they are about learning and seeing the truth in the Bible. These are people used by the devil to distract you and take your time from you. I recently had a commenter that clearly knows more than God Himself come to me to give me his opinions on everything. In his mind he has exalted himself to be the only authority of the truth in the Bible. He never says anything positive, and only criticizes and tells you all of the places where you are wrong. What a prideful arrogant attitude of mindless boastings. These are EMPTY WORDS from EMPTY HEADS. I tried to be nice just to get him to see another perspective. But obviously his vast knowledge must not allow him to be a blessing to others. He acts as the Judge Jury and Executioner and makes Himself God! His knowledge must go way beyond the capacity for any simple minded men like me to understand. So I guess I’m just going to have to be a little more direct today in my final response to his religious arrogance. Hopefully if he doesn’t want to know the truth, he will go away and read somebody else’s blog that will agrees with what he wants to see in the Bible. I am not changing to fit the ideas of a fool. God has taught me too much in the Bible for me to go away and follow the leadings of false teachers. I have learned from Jesus that He only confronted one type of person in the Bible when he was here personally on the earth and that was a religious person who thought they knew it all. If you do not understand this you should go and read the gospels again and see what Jesus said and did. You might think that I have been too confrontational with this man for a web site devoted to spreading the Love of God (Agape). However, Jesus looked at the Pharisees and called them a “generation of vipers” (Mat 23:33). Jesus said “You are of your father the Devil!” (John 8:44) Jesus did not mix words up and I will follow His example today of loving those who want to be loved and those who think too highly of themselves, well you can already see what I think of them.
In my first lesson on this subject I discussed the “New Birth” process as being a parallel to the “Physical Birth” process. If you know when the physical birth takes place, you can also know when the spiritual birth takes place by God’s design. What you must realize is that this is a “limited knowing” being described to us and that is what I will discuss today. None of this that I wrote obviously helped the man that wants to argue because he says that I did not address his scripture of John 3:7-8 which he claims is the answer to Nicodemus’ question of how a man is born again. I left this verse out because it had nothing to do with how a man is born again but he thinks that I am just being ignorant and wrong. For some reason this man wants to ignore everything that I have just said in the last lesson for something that he thinks is so important that this verse in John 3:8 says. He just could not understand why I intentionally left it out of my discussion. Oh well? I guess that I have just not learned how to teach everything found in the Bible in ONE LESSON! I guess some people want you to teach everything you know in a single sessioon and there is just no way that anyone can do that. I bet you this guy would criticize Jesus for the way He taught. I do not recall Jesus ever trying to teach everything He knew in any one lesson. I left John 3:8 out because it was really not that important to the subject being discussed about the New Birth. But, I will spend some time today to explain it and why I left it out. I doubt very seriously if any of this will help him, but there will be someone out there that will be able to use it. Most of the times religious people are too closed minded to see the truth, they are just too narrowly focused in on what they want to see as being important and you cannot help them no matter what you try to say. This is why this is my last response to this commenter about the subject of salvation. So here we go with the verses he thinks are so critical for us to understand:
Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
If you recall in verse 6, Jesus taught us that those who are born of flesh are flesh but those who are born of the spirit are spirit. Meaning there is a major distinction between these two types of births. One is totally natural and one is completely spiritual. One you can see and one you cannot see. However both are still called “births”. Get it? This is just not that hard to understand. Now in verse 7 Jesus says to Nicodemus not to be shocked that He said that you must be born again in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. Jesus is saying to Nicodemus don’t try to wrap your natural mind around this spiritual birth truth, you are not going to be able to grasp it right now! The Bible says the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God! (1 Cor 2:14) So how can I discuss spiritual things with a man who does not even understand natural things. It is probably just impossible!
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
So I do not see this verse to be that highly controversial, but yet my commenter obviously changes it to say something that it clearly does not say. Isn’t that interesting how the Bible is written that way. God always allows you to be wrong. So what exactly is Jesus talking about here in this verse? What is the intended purpose for this statement? 
We can clearly see that Jesus is talking about the natural “wind” in the first part of this verse. What does the natural wind have to do with spiritual things? What is the point that Jesus is attempting to make? What I can see in this verse is the fact that here in the natural, no man can explain the wind. They do not know where it comes from, they do not know where it is going and they do not know how it got started in the first place. It could have been a butterfly in Africa flapping his wings that causes the breezes in Australia for all we know. There are jet streams in the upper atmosphere, wind patterns, pressures zones and vairous factors that determine our weather. I mean the weather man on TV gives you his best guess at what he thinks will happen tomorrow but this is not always very dependable. I assume that this is what my commenter is so focused in on. He thinks that because Jesus is comparing the wind to the spiritual birth birth process and since we do not understand the wind, we cannot understand the spiritual birth either. I assume this is where his natural mind is at? This would be a typical wrong interpretation for this verse by a carnally thinking man. Since I try to think spiritually this is not the way that I interpret this verse. All you have to do is use your brain just a little bit to see a new and different perspective on the subject. Quit trying to interpret the Bible in the dark! Stop ignoring the rest of the Bible by focusing in on just one verse in complete isolation. The Bible will always interpret itself, so God gives us the meaning of this verse in the other parts of the Bible if you want to look for them. You must change your perspective to see things spiritually. What Jesus is talking about here in John 3:8 is that to the outside natural observer, they cannot see an internal spiritual birth take place with their physical eyes. Just like you cannot see the wind blow, you cannot observe when someone is actually saved from a natural point of view. Jesus is linking the natural wind process to the spiritual birth process of a man as both being unseen events. The wind is a natural thing that we cannot see, like the spiritual birth is something that we cannot see. We are always required by God to take spiritual events by faith only. Here are the Words of Jesus again on the exact same subject in a different book of the Bible, but notice what He says here:
Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Here the religious Pharisees ask Jesus a direct question about the when is the Kingdom of God coming to the earth? They said “When will this happen?” Didn’t they? Isn’t this what my religious commenter was trying to ask me? This is a clear example of naturally minded men thinking only of physical things and asking Jesus a purely spiritual question. Is Jesus going to answer their question naturally or is Jesus going to answer their question with a right spiritual answer in His mind from His point of view? Jesus takes a natural question from natural men and gives them a spiritual answer. However, notice that instead of telling you that you can’t understand the new birth, Jesus says you can’t see when this New Birth happens. We are still talking about the coming into the Kingdom of God? Yes? Jesus clearly answer that the Kingdom of God comes without observation of any man! No natural man will ever be able to see the Kingdom of God. But, yet it is still here inside of me right now. They do not observe it coming into the life of any man, they do not perceive when it occurs and they do not understand why they have changed. Only the spiritual realm can see it when it happens, God sees it when it happens, the angels can see it happen, Satan can see when it happens, but us in this world live in the natural realm and we are dominated by our 5 physical senses. So I assume that because my commenter cannot observe this spiritual birth act of God taking place he does not believe that it has taken place? That is pretty ignorant! If you want to observe something in the natural to prove it has happened in the spiritual realm you will never experience it. The Bible says that the JUST shall live by FAITH and NOT by what they SEE, TOUCH, TASTE, HEAR, SMELL!
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Jesus continues His explanation of the Spiritual NEW Birth by saying no one will be able to say here is the Kingdom of God or there goes the Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU! This is an internal SPIRITUAL KINGDOM, a SPIRITUAL BIRTH from the Spirit of God that only occurs on the inside of a person within the unseen spirit realm. That is why you cannot see it come or go. You have never seen your spirit! You have never seen God’s Spirit. You probably have never seen a spiritual angel. You have never seen Satan. However, all of these spiritual beings exist in the unseen spiritual realm. You cannot observe the spiritual birth outwardly no matter how you try to do it. If you want to observe something before you believe it Heaven help you to see the truth. This is the reason that Jesus compared the Spiritual Birth process to the natural wind on our planet. It wasn’t because we can’t understand it, it was simply because an outside observer can’t see it happening. Just because I cannot see you being born again, does not mean that you after being born again cannot know when it happened. This is also true of you not being able to see me being born again and that does not prove that I will not know that I am born again. People cannot mix scriptures up to make them say what they do not say. There is a major difference in me seeing you get saved verses you knowing that you are saved. Just because YOU cannot observe the fact that I was saved does not discount the fact that I KNOW that I am saved! Do you understand this? Can’t you see that this was Jesus’ main point in His statement of John 3:8? The verse in John 3:8 has nothing to do with how people are Born Again but has everything to do with whether anyone else in the natural realm can see it happen. Obviously you will see what you want to see so that is all I can do to help you. God can’t make you see the truth and I can’t make you see it either.
God wants to help people and that is the only reason that I responded to this man’s ignorant comments. However, neither God nor I can help anyone who does not want any help. He is the one that is trying to get me to change. But, ignorance becomes way too obvious once you have been exposed to the truth. I have not named any names to who this individual is, so as to protect his identity. I have also deleted his comments from my site so that you cannot find him either. This will give him an opportunity to do the right thing and remain anonymous. I have found that religious people just want to challenge your faith with there erroneous ways and for you to buy into their wrong beliefs, because only they see themselves to be so right. They neither know God or have the love of God in them so they do not know how to be nice to others. What this man needs to do is to get saved, born again and he will then be able to understand spiritual things. God says that the “carnal mind” is an enemy to the Spirit of God (Rom 8:7). So no matter how much I would like to help this man, only his mind is responsible for what he lets into his heart. My Bible says that the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe wrong so that they cannot perceive the truth of God! (2 Cor 4:4) So to all of those out there who read my blogs and can see spiritual things, please forgive me for trying to help someone who hasn’t seen. To my ignorant commenter, I will not respond to any more of your critical comments so DO NOT LEAVE THEM! I will not accept any more of your comments either. Perhaps you can unsubscribe to my blog so that you are not bothered with the truth any more. This will allow you to walk in your ignorance and be happy. So if I haven’t offended you enough by now I’m going to leave my response with this cartoon lesson because it seems to be more at your current spiritual level of understanding. Learn the lesson of Thumper in the Disney Movie Bambi, whose mother told him “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all!” If I wasn’t having to deal with such a religious spirited person I would not have had to be so blunt! I pray that you see the truth before Jesus comes back very soon.
****************************************************************
If you want to know how to get saved and know that you are with confidence you can go to: How do I get saved?
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“.
****************************************************************
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 the Concepts of Deception Used by Satan!
(ver 2.0) This is Part 2 of a series of Bible lessons on the subject of deception. If you have not read from the beginning, it is suggested that you begin with “Part 1” to begin your study. Let’s read one of the series foundational Bible verses to get us started. This verse reveals a great deal of information about our spiritual enemy, including his identities, and his tactics.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Today will be a different type of Bible lesson from many others. As you can see from our Key Bible verse above, Satan is called the deceiver that is deceiving the entire whole world. That means, this statement includes Christians and non-Christians alike. Satan is an equal opportunity deceiver, and he shows no favoritism. He is interested in causing us to be deceived from believing and knowing the Truth of God by any means that he can. So, I’m going to introduce you to some new things to think about that God has taught me personally. You will hopefully see that these few things that I present you to think about could be a very effective tool of our enemy Satan. I do hope that you understand that God’s enemies are Christian enemies also. If Satan is an enemy of God, then he is our enemy here and now on the earth. Satan’s greatest weapon on the earth has always been the subtly of deception. But Jesus told us that if we continued in His word we would be His disciples and that we would know the truth and that the truth would set us free (John 8:31-32). That sounds like our freedom is dependent upon us continuing in the word, recognizing the truth, knowing the truth and then using this knowledge of God’s truth to set us free. If Satan can keep you from knowing the truth you will be forever bound by his deception. That is why he is trying diligently to do everything in his power to distract you and to keep you from knowing more about the Bible. In fact deception is one of his only weapons that he has to defeat you. If he can get you to think and believe wrong, he has accomplished his plan of deception, and you are now a party working in conjunction with him to deceive others in the world. There are false prophets, false teachers and false apostles in the world everywhere we look. The numbers of these false distributors of lies are so many today that it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christians to recognize all of the ways that Satan uses to deceive people. I will discuss just a couple of the ways that God has taught me over the years that Satan uses and I pray that you can see them also.
I am going to start with one method of deception which I feel is critical for all Christians to understand. This method of deception is to take a small but critical piece of the truth in the Bible and then to possess it or claim it is something that it is not. False teachers take bits of information out of context and then teach it in a false religion with new imbedded lies attached to it. For example, we can find the “Golden Rule” of the Bible found in almost every religion of the world in some alternative form. Because all of these other religions have attached themselves to this verse in the Bible, they have in essence diluted the true meaning as having come from God and they change it to fit what they prefer it to say. Most Christians just automatically discredit the teachings of Satanism and Cultic organizations. But, where did these false religious organizations get their information and why is it so important for them to claim it all as their own original ideas? Think about this a long time, where did all knowledge come from? Was it not our Almighty God who holds all knowledge? I think I should stop here and tell you that what I am saying I am saying to only mature Christians who have been in Christ for many years. I do not want you to think that it is OK to explore Satanism, or to go and study other religions looking for the truth. That would be very foolish to go to a source of predominately lies and try to determine which words are true and which ones are false. That is exactly what Satan wants you to do. What I am saying is study the Bible and ONLY the Bible and find the truth and then do not reject it because Satan has tried to pervert it. Do the sayings of Jesus from John 8:31-32. Continue in the Word was the first step of the command. That means you do not search history books, you do not search textbooks, you do not search other religions and you only stay with the BIBLE for your total and complete source of the truth!
I am not convinced that Satan has ever had a completely original idea in anything that he does or says on the earth. It would appear to me that Satan takes what God does and perverts into something useful for his purpose of deception. You must realize that Satan is a highly intelligent being that can run spiritual circles around what you know right now. Satan has been in the presence of God and seen what He does firsthand, have you ever stood before the throne of God? I doubt seriously if you have. Satan has been deceiving man for the last 6000 years, how old are you? Does your experiences match Satan’s experiences? I say Satan has had a lot more practice at deceiving people than you have had at resisting him. What Satan likes to do is take little key principles from the Word of God and to pervert them so that many Christians will automatically reject them because they are taught as a part of a cult lesson. Do you understand how powerful this is? By taking a truth and by discrediting it, he can now cause many people to more easily reject that truth and be deceived into believing a lie. This is a common political tactic used in our political system. A candidate for office simply discredits his opponent with some perverted mixture of truth with lies. By discrediting them they make themselves to be a more positive answer for the people. I usually do not like to name names but I will give you an example of this type of behavior of Satan. I was told by a reader that a small part of what I teach is a concept that is embraced by the Mormons and used to promote evolution. Since the Mormon religion is a false cultic teaching, does that make everything that they teach a lie? If I do not teach evolution using this same concept does that make what I say a lie? No, what I say is not a lie, but it has been discredited by a cult taking it and perverting into their lies. Does what they teach discredit everything that I say using the Bible? Again, I am not telling you to go read the Book of Mormon and try to figure out what is true and what is false. That is clearly a ploy of the enemy. The book of Mormon is promoted as ANOTHER Testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ given to a false prophet and written down so that you will not read the REAL Testimony of Jesus Christ. Jesus actually warned us not to read things that people ADD to the bible. Jesus clearly told us not to take away any words or to add any words to those that have been written in the Bible (Rev 22:19). The enemy has produced this book of Mormon simply as a tool to get you to not read the TRUE Word of God and His Holy Book of Truth. As long as Satan can distract you with the false you are never going to recognize the Truth. But, if the Mormons try to teach something that is a part of the truth just to discredit the truth; that does not mean the truth is not present in the Bible.
So let me give you another example of something that I may teach that is perverted by a satanic symbol. A common satanic symbol is a five-pointed star with a symbol of a male goat with horns on it. Why did Satan choose this symbol to pervert it? What is the significance of this symbol and the meaning of this symbol? Why did Satan pick a goat to pervert it? Now anything in the Bible that God uses for the symbol of the goat is tainted with this perverted image. Because the goat and the 5 pointed star symbols are used for a direct reference to Satan, anything that the Bible now attempts to use them for are more easily rejected by Christians. If someone suddenly came to you with a new revelation of what God said a “star” represents; you will more than likely retract from it. Now, if anyone comes to you with a revelation of what a goat is a symbol of in the Bible, you will automatically throw it aside. This is typical human nature to throw away even the good because someone used it for evil. It is an automatic death sentence for any symbolic object that Satan has used to describe himself. This death occurs by the simple association of any truth by associating with the lies or symbols for Satan. All Satan has to do is to get someone in the world to take a Bible symbol and to pervert it into a symbol for Satan and every Christian will automatically run very fast away from it.
The Bible informs us that Satan presents himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). Why would Satan then try to present himself with strong demonic images of himself being a very evil being with a pitch fork, horns and a pointed tail? It is because when he shows up looking like a glorious spectacular supernatural being or even as a normal looking person, he will be able to trick you into believing his lies. After all you are looking for an evil ugly being and not a handsome good looking fellow. It is the classic bait and switch approach to advertising; you present one image and then you switch out another new image that is completely different and try to get people to be a sucker for something they didn’t expect to get. This is a very prominent ploy used in deception. Make people think this is true and then present them with a set of lies that are believable. Satan used people like David Koresh and Jim Jones to deceive people. They looked normal, they sounded normal and presented some very subtle words of deception. As a result, many people died because these men decided it was time to die. Understanding how your enemy Satan operates may save your life someday.
I’ll end this blog with one more example of deception. If you did not know it, the Ram is a Bible symbol for God the Father. However, Satan uses this symbol for himself. Satan is attempting to exalt his throne to the equivalency of that of God’s throne. Satan is trying to deceive people into believing that he is god. When the anti-Christ comes in Revelation he will be setting himself up to be this most high god. So where is God a Ram in the Bible? We can find this several places in the Bible but we will start with Genesis 22:
Gen 22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
When Isaac asked his father Abraham “Where is the animal for the sacrifice?” Abraham replied, “God will provide Himself as the lamb”. Jesus is repeatedly called the Lamb of God in the N.T. This is a symbolic name for Jesus Christ our sacrifice Lamb. Who is the father of a Lamb? A Ram is the father of a Lamb! As you can see in this verse in Genesis 22, instead of Abraham sacrificing Isaac God provided a Ram. This Ram was a symbol of Himself being the sacrifice. Abraham sacrifices the Ram a symbol of God coming to the earth in the flesh to pay the price for the sins of all mankind with His blood. So God’s symbol is that of a Ram and Satan now produces this symbol to represent himself. What is Satan trying to do? He is trying to discredit the truth of the Bible. He is taking a real symbol found in the Bible and trying to present you a false symbol. This is a classic ploy of deception. Take the real and pervert it.
So this blog was different, I know! It was an attempt to challenge you to think. Use your brain for something more than a place holder of useless information. Take the real and reject the fakes, the false, and the lies of the enemy. God Bless you to know the difference!
If you would like to continue reading about deception you can continue to “Part 3“.
****************************************************************
If you want to know how to get saved and know that you are with confidence you can go to: How do I get saved?
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! 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“.
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 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!
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“.
Understanding How to Become a Light to a Dark World! Part 2
(Ver 1.3) We are studying an advanced spiritual Bible lesson of “How to Become a Light to an Unsaved Dark World”. This is the second lesson in the series and we have already covered many new ways of thinking about this very important subject. If you have not read the first lesson, I would highly recommend that you go and start with “Part 1” since I cannot repeat everything in every lesson or I would never be able to teach anything new. What we have learned so far is that there are two dimensions of spiritual condition. These were called Light and Darkness or Night and Day by God we were introduced to this concept in Genesis 1:16. In this same verse we learned that these realms also had rulers that controlled each. The Sun ruled the Day and the moon ruled the night. I then taught you clear verses that Jesus was the Sun that rules the day and gives us spititual light. We have also uncovered a new Bible definition for what “Light” is in the eyes of God. According to Bible examples, to give light is the method of teaching people the truth. We also learned of the Bible existence of the “True Light” which was just another title for Jesus Christ. However, the existence of any “True Light” reveals the implied presence of “false light” that must also exist in the world by the law of antithesis. We have reviewed approximately 10 verses that confrimed Jesus Christ’s identity as the symbolic Sun that rules the symbolic spiritual realm of the Day, giving you more than enough references to Him in this capacity. Today I want to continue the lesson with information about other lights that exist in the world besides Jesus the true light called the Sun of Righteousness. In knowing this truth, you will suddenly realize that you have a cmpetition to teaching the truth.
Understanding There is More than One Source of Light!
Getting the correct Bible interpretation of the Truth of God is highly dependent us upon getting God’s definitions of the words spoken in the verses being studied. Given our new definition of what light is (teaching others God’s knowledge and giving them true understanding), only God had all light until He started sharing it for others to learn by Jesus teaching them. Now, whoever, hears the truth and understands it also has the same light from God in them in a very limited capacity. So at one time God had all of the light in Him, but each of us who has heard and believed now has a little bit of His light in us right now. I believe I have just introduced you to how to become a light to the world. There is a concept given to us by God in this lesson that if you do not know anything or understand anything in the Bible then you would be classified as someone who is in the darkness (lacking and true light) and I will give you several verses in the Bible to confirm this later. But, when you believe in Christ and have made Him the Lord of your life, you now have heard the Gospel and let that light shine inside of you.
If you look at the night sky, you might realize that most of those star lights in the sky are far greater in size and intensity than our Sun? The only reason they appear so small and insignificant to us, is because of the distance from our planet. There exists well over a billion suns in our universe and most of them are many millions of light years away from the earth. So obviously God did not create a universe with only One True Light source as an example to get us to think differently. This however, does not mean there are many ways to God or many religions that can give you the true light. We just have to learn there are many sources of light in the world, at least one of them is called the True Light, but yet the others still exist and some of these might qualify as even being a false light. If you understand the Bible, the “stars” in some verses can be a symbolic term used to describe “angels” (for example stars in Rev 1:20 , Rev 12:4). These little lights in the sky can be symbolic of angels and guess who Satan was? Satan of course was one of the chief angels. Oh, well maybe we’ll get into that more later. What I want you to start to see, is that Satan can be called a light producing spiritual being. It is very much like the old saying that goes “God taught Satan everything that he knows, but God didn’t teach him everything that He knew”. If Satan holds some knowledge and understanding of spiritual things, then he is by definition a light carrier or spreader. We will talk more about that later.
What I will now attempt to do is show you scriptures that will inform us of the existence of other stated lights in the world. By establishing the existence of other types of lights in the world other than Jesus Christ, we can begin to see how we can become one of the true lights to a dark world that can counter those that are false lights. I will start this part of the lesson with a description that Jesus gives us when speaking about John the Baptist:
Joh 5:35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
Jesus was speaking about John the Baptist using the terms that he was a witness to the truth. Notice that John the Baptist was not an apostle of Jesus. John was not even a member of the church, since the church does not exist yet. Still, John the Baptist is spoken of in terms that were rarely seen to describe anyone in the Bible up until this point. If you study the Bible closely you should discover that John the Baptist was in the ministery category of a “prophet” of God, but yet he was still just a man like you and me. Jesus calls John a burning and a shining light! That sounds a lot like a description for a sun, but it could also represent a torch type of fire light, or maybe even a description for a candle. We know John is not the Jesus the Sun of Righteousness, but yet he is described using similar terminology. What we can clearly see is that he is never described using any of the characteristics of the moon. The moon shines, but it does not burn. I find that very interesting don’t you? So what made John the Baptist a burning light? I believe it was because he went about teaching people to “Repent and be baptized” ? John is said to be the one that was to prepare the way for the Christ. When John was born, his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy about John and Jesus. In this discourse in Luke 1, you can read that John is called a Prophet of God. Then you can see this statement and it tells us why Jesus called John a light:
Luk 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
John’s father prophesied that John would “Give the Knowledge of Salvation” unto the people of Israel concerning “the remission of their sins”. Wow that is some strong information being given to us. John was a light, because he taught people about the coming works of the Messiah. Jesus came to Save His People from their sins and this was very good news for everyone to hear. What we have just learned, is that John was a light, before Jesus Christ was a light to the same dark world. Interesting, isn’t it? You can obviously see that Jesus is not speaking physically or naturally, so Jesus was definitely speaking figuratively and symbolically about the forerunner and this witness of Christ. John brought the knowledge and understanding to the people that the Messiah was coming, so Jesus called him a bright light to the people. John brought the truth and taught the people and Jesus said it was very good.
Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Jesus also confirms, that we the church are now the light of the world. Here we have Jesus speaking to the apostles, the founders of the church of Jesus Christ, calling them lights, before they were even born again. I find that very interesting to study. This verse in Mat 5:14, is an exact duplication of the same Greek words and phrasing that Jesus used to describe Himself in John 8:12. Jesus said “I am the light of the world”, then in Matthew 5:14 Jesus says “You are the light of the world”. So is Jesus trying to teach us something new? Both of these verses describes us in the same terms of being “Light” as He is the “Light”. This Greek word means to “shine” as with “rays”. It also has an inferred meaning of “fire”. All of this sounds like the sun light and not the reflective moonlight.
Rom 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
We can clearly see that we are the light to them that are in darkness. I guess you could wrongly conclude that means we represent the moon. The moon is in the night sky being illuminated by the sun and that makes good logical sense. However, this verse does not say we reflect the light of Christ, it says we are the light of Christ. Do you understand the difference? This is almost exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14 that we read right before this verse. Have you ever thought or seen where the Bible says “We are the Body of Christ”? Have you ever given that much thought? To be the body of Christ would indicate that we have the same Spirit in us that Jesus Christ had in Him. If that is true, then we are the True Light and we are not just a reflection of the True Light. Maybe you should go and read, Romans 12:5, 1 Cor 12:12-27, and Ephesians 5, where it describes the Church to be the actual body of Christ. That is actually a very important truth to know. Where you go, Christ goes, because the Spirit of Christ is in you. Here is another very relevant scripture that Jesus describes Christians in terms that we need to understand:
Mat 13:43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
The church is called those who are righteous(Rom 10:10). Therefore the church is spoken of in terms of being the true light from the sun and not just a reflection of that light. If the church is the moon, this would have been a good opportunity for God to tell us that. Instead of saying the church will shine like the moon, we are described in terminologies of the direct sun. I find that very relevant to our understanding of who we are and what we do.
So what does it mean to be called a light of the world? To be a shining light of the world means to be a deliverer of the knowledge of God and a teacher of the Gospel of Christ. The word of God is the Light of God. If you understand it, you can teach it to others. So far in the Bible, I have not discovered any scriptures that describes the church or believers in terms of just being reflections of the light of Christ as the moon does. What you actually see in the Bible is more terms that describe us to be like the sun, than the moon.
Where is the Location of the Light and the Darkness?
Now let’s describe where this light and darkness is located. By understanding the location of the light and darkness, we can better understand what they really are. We of course know that the sky above us is the domain of natural light and natural darkness. But, since I am talking about spiritual things instead of natural things, where is this spiritual light and spiritual darkness? You see if Jesus says we are the light of the world, that could imply that we just glow in the dark in the night, but clearly that is not what the Bible is talking about. Given my earlier definition of light as being “knowledge” and “understanding” where does this exist? You could say in your brain, or in your mind or within your intellect and that would be very closely related to the truth. Your mind is not your spirit and your spirit is not your mind. However, your mind is in contact with your spirit. I have not given a direct lesson on the human makeup, but I have alluded to it in other blogs. People are spirit beings, that have a soul, who live in a body. That just so happens to be a triune being, made in the image and likeness of God. The soul of man is comprised of your mind, your will and your emotions. Your mind/soul exists between your body and your spirit. Sound waves of spoken words enter your physical ears, and are transferred into your mind by your inner ear, which can allow these words to enter into your spirit, if you choose to believe what you hear. These are just basic Bible truths that I hope that you understand already. So let’s continue to locate the spiritual light using the Bible:
Joh 11:10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
Jesus tells us something very profound here, Jesus says a man that walks at night without the light “IN HIM” stumbles. Where is the Light suppose to be? The light is said to be internal, inside your body, this is the location of the spirit of the man. So where is the Night? It is also inside a man in their spirit? How do you stumble in your spirit? That again is a question that you should ask yourself. Obviously this is not a physical light source, if you cut open a Christian’s body you do not see light rays shooting outward. So what is this internal light a symbol of? The internal light is simply a symbolic representation of spiritual knowledge and understanding that we possess. In actuality there are two types of spiritual light that are related, the light that is in us, is the light we possess internally, because we see and understand parts of the Bible. Being a light to the world is taking this light that is in us and sharing it with those who live in the darkness so that they might also know and understand.
So do Christians have this Light IN them always and forever? Jesus gives us very explicitly the location of the light, to be in our spirits. We can see that a man who has no light in him is in darkness and said to be in the Night and he stumbles. Why does he stumble? Because of his mind and his thinking and his lack of knowledge and understanding. What Jesus is talking about are the differences between those that understand the Bible and those who do not understand the Bible. If I understand the Bible, or at least a part of it, I have some light inside of me. This light came from God, and from His Word. There are tons of people in the world who do not have a clue what the Bible says or means and these people all live in the darkness of the night, because of their ignorance and lack of understanding. Here is a very valuable scripture to see in our discussion:
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.
What is darkness and how is it related to Blindness? Both of these are the absence of light or the inability to spiritually see the light. No Light, then you have No Sight! Satan has blinded the minds of ALL of them that believe NOT, this verse says. Because of this blindness in their SOULS/MINDS, they are unable to see the light of the gospel of Christ in THEM (their spirits). Did you notice that the Gospel of Christ is called the LIGHT of GOD? What is the Gospel? It is the good news of what Jesus Christ has freely given to every man, woman and child. So we can conclude that those who do not believe in Christ, do not understand the Gospel, because Satan has deceived them into believing something else and therefore they do not see the light of the Truth in their spirits. The Light is again spoken of in terms of being spiritual knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Knowing and understanding God’s word would be the ability to see the True Light. Jesus is said to be the giver of the Light, but Satan is at work diligently to block the light. How does Satan do this? He presents false teachings, false religions, false gods, false prophets, and false apostles to deceive you into a lie. Also, Satan can place thoughts, ideas and suggestions in your mind to cause you to be distracted from the truth.
So I have given you two major scriptures that inform us where the light is suppose to be. This location is said to be in the spirit of man. Also, keep in mind where the darkness is located, it is in the spirits of men and women. So to be a light to them that are in darkness is a practice to tell people the truth of the Word of God and pray that they believe it and understand it. If they choose to believe the truth, the spiritual Sun can rise inside of them also, then they will be born of the Day and no longer live in darkness.
Defining Spiritual Night and Day!
We have been talking about the subjects of darkness and light and I have mentioned that these are clearly synonymous terms for night and day. Correctly understanding the Bible means, finding and understanding God’s definitions of the Bible terms and symbols presented. God many times uses these types of natural symbols to teach hidden things that men think they already understand. But, because we do not get God’s definition for the subject, we are usually confused and live with what we think the Bible says. But, if we can get God’s definition for the words, then we can have greater assurance of a more accurate interpretation for what God wanted us to know in the first place. We have already read many scriptures in this lesson so far on this subject, but let’s go find new scriptures that help us to define what Night and Day is to God using His Word.
1Jn 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
As you can read again, Jesus is referred to as the “True Light”. But, it also says that to those who have accepted Him, the darkness has passed. Meaning Christians no longer live in the realm of darkness or in the spiritual night. Therefore if the light is present in us, the spiritual sun (Jesus) has not set, He has only risen internally in our spirits. Day and light and night and darkness are synonymous symbolic terms. Therefore from this verse we can see by implied antithesis that the day has appeared in us. The term “True Light” infers the existence of “False Light” as we have already discussed. People can of course dispute this or explain it away by their human reasoning and their definition of the word “True”. However, in my way of thinking if something is said to be true it would have to be something that was the opposite of a lie, or the opposite of that which is false. Any cleaver lie can appear very real on the surface and be taken by many to be true. It is very much like watching a Hollywood, movie. Everything in the movie is usually based upon lies, but they are presented in a format that appears to us to be so absolutely real. This is exactly how deception is presented in the world by Satan.
What you need to do is see what the Bible says. In this verse in 1 John 2:8, there is a direct connection to the Word of God and the light that shines in us. John writes a new commandment to us, yet this new commandment is more directly called the Word of God which gives us the light. These words are said to be True in Christ and now also in us! All of these words are in direct relationship to the spiritual light that is now shinning in us, because we have heard and accepted it. We have already seen the location of the light as being “In Us”. So we can conclude that the reason for the light that is now shinning in us, was given to us from us hearing, knowing and understanding the Word of God.
2Pe 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Reading this verse carefully, it describes a spiritual process that has occurred within every believer. Our hearts use to be called a” dark place” without Christ, that would indicate that we were of the night and did not understand the Word of God. However, now it says that the “Day Star” has arisen in our hearts and the Day has Dawned within us. Do you understand that the sun rises every day and that begins the daylight hours? Jesus is called the “Day Star” and this is representative of our closest star that we observe during the daylight hours. So does the spiritual Day Star ever set in Christian hearts? I have not found any verses that say that occurs, in fact we just read a verse that said the darkness had passed. So the light is always present, when it arises in us, it is there for good. This is just another reason to see that we are not the moon who goes completely dark. The Christians are now described as being of the spiritual Day, because of the “Day Star” that has arisen within us. That would indicate that wherever we go Christ the Day Star goes also. It would also mean that we now have understanding of the Word of God in our sprits that it is permanently resident there.
1Th 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
As you can see in this verse we (the Church) are again confirmed to be of the Day and not of the night. The moon only shines at night and not normally during the day so we have to fit what we believe to what we read in the Bible. I hope that you are seeing and understanding these verses. This verse says that we are the children of the Light, which infers there are also children of the night, but these are not Christians. You can clearly see that there is an established division being stated. This separation between Day and Night is very explicitly defined. The day is a 12 hour period of light, the night a 12 hour period of darkness. These are two separate and distinct spiritual conditions. I believe that the earth symbolically represents both those who are saved and those who are lost. You can understand how I got to this conclusion by studying the parable of the Sower in Mark 4. Jesus tells us that the earth or the soil represents the hearts of people. Now think in terms of the earth and the earth’s counter clockwise rotation. Those on the dark side of the earth that have turned away from the Sun, represents those who are lost. Those who have turned to the Light they are the ones that are saved. Those in the night are ruled by the moon who they can occasionally see at night. The moon appears to be a reflection of the True Light, but yet it has a dark side that is not revealed to people. However, the Sun represents God and His light radiates in every direction lighting the good, the bad, the pretty and the ugly at the same time. The Sun rules the Day and those who are in the light and they do not see the moon, only the Sun. The Sun shines during the day and the moon is seen mostly in the night. It is just so obvious to me, that I can see it so very clearly. I guess I can understand how difficult it is to see for others who are new to these Bible verses.
Rom 15:21 But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.
Here in this verse we can see that it is prophesied about a people who will begin to see. That would be the opposite of blindness and those in darkness. But, it also declares that they will hear with their ears and understand what is said. So we have a people spoken of that were spiritually blind, but now understand and know the truth. Those that see because of the Light of God and those who do not see because they live in darkness.
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Here is another witness to what the light is representing symbolically. In this verse the “eyes of your understanding” is spoken of as being something that is spiritually able to see or perceive the knowledge of God. Just as your body has natural eyes that observe physical light rays, the spiritual eyes have ability to perceive the truth or lies presented to it. All I am trying to do is to get you to see why I described what light and darkness meant in the symbolic usage that we have clearly observed in the Bible.
Eph 3:4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ
What we observe in the N.T. is a repeated pattern, that the Bible contains mysteries and things which are difficult or impossible for the natural man to see and understand. This information is concealed from them that do not believe for a purpose. But, to them that are open, God grants light to see and understand these hidden mysteries.
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
There are just so many verses in the Bible that speak of this spiritual situation of darkness and the inability to understand, that I cannot give you them all. I hope and pray that I have given you enough to see them for what they are. Spiritual blindness is a condition of the heart/spirit whereby men are incapable of understanding anything that is spiritual. In this verse in Ephesians, knowledge is spoken of in terms of a beneficial way to the life of God. It is also reported that ignorance or the lack of knowledge is a determining factor that keeps people from the life of God. All of this is spoken of in terms of the ability of the spirit of man to see and to understand. I’ll just do one more scripture and I’ll quit trying to get you to see the definition of light and darkness, day and night.
Col 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
God’s Word and His Spirit are again implied to be the Light that is rising within the hearts of these people to bring them wisdom and all spiritual understanding. That is an awesome prayer to pray for yourself and those that God sends you to. What you must realize is that if there is “spiritual understanding” that it must be different than “natural understanding”. People want to look at natural things and use human logic to determine the meaning of life. However, God says these people are just blind and they do not know where they are going or why they stumble and fall.
So we have seen a number of verses that inform us that there exists two spiritual dimensions. One is called the Day and one is called the Night. These two dimensions of light and darkness represents two groups of children. Those that are children of the day are the children of God. Those who are children of the night are children of Satan. You can theoretically pass from either state or dimension to the other simply by choosing to believe or disbelieve. I hope this is has been an informative lesson and that you have learned a lot. In the next lesson on this subject I will specifically talk about the symbolic identity of the moon. God Bless!
If you like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 3” now.
A No Fault Religion! A Blameless Sinner Theology!
(Ver 1.1) This is now “Part 7” in a series of lessons on spoken words. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1“. Man is guilty of one very poor behavior trait that is a major short coming in everyone’s life at some point. It would seem that people like to think that no matter what happens to them or how bad the results, it was not their fault! We have all been faced with the reality of doing something wrong and then being faced with the consequences and suddenly we come up with all kinds of reasoning, excuses and blame shifting of why we did what we did. People would much rather shift the blame to someone else, either God or their spouse, or their children or maybe their boss, or maybe those in authority, or whoever is just available or present. It was because of this reason or that reason, or it was their fault. It would seem to me that people want a God and a religion that alleviates them from any personal responsibility or even accountability to what transpires in their lives. I call this the popular modern “No Fault” Religion, and the “God of the Blameless Sinner Theology” philosophy. If you do not realize it, this is not what the Bible says, it is nothing that Jesus ever taught, nor is it something that you can correctly interpret from the Bible. Let me give you a definition for the term “No Fault” that we have in the world found in the insurance business:
NO FAULT: in which a claimant is compensated for actual economic loss without blame being assigned to a particular party; in which neither party is assigned blame
A “no fault” policy is one that allows for compensation regardless of who’s is said to be at fault. In other words no one gets the blame, no one holds any responsibility in any matter and everything is put back to the way it was before it all happened with no admissions of guilt. This concept has crept into the human life of reasoning and even into Christian theology. In the legal court system they have developed a Latin term that gives some people an alternative way to plead their case. This term is called “Nolo Contendere” and it neither declares your innocence or your guilt, but shifts the responsibility to the judge to decide. In other words the person pleading this way in court neither admits quilt nor declares their innocence. They are in effect saying it was not my fault, I hold no responsibility in this matter. This is just another example of the “No Fault” Religious Philosophy that has been growing in prevalence in the church. However, we need to learn what God says about the situation and our responsibility in every matter and then you will see there is a major difference with God’s approach.
I want to start by giving you an example of this behavior found in the Bible. In the book of Genesis, God puts man in the garden. God tells the man that he can eat from every tree but one. Satan comes along and deceives Eve into eating and then Adam follows her example, and they both are now hiding out in the garden of Eden from God. God calls out to Adam and Adam reluctantly answers. Adam tells God he was afraid and hid himself because he was naked. God then asks him directly, “Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from”. This is Adam’s modern theological response to God’s question:
Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Adam obviously shifts the responsibility of his actions to his wife. In other words if God had not given me this woman, I would not have been in this situation. The ultimate responsibility was being shifted to everyone, but Adam. Adam took no responsibility for anything that he had done. It is a classic example, of the philosophy of a “No Fault Religion”! Adam says I did it, but it was not my fault. Isn’t it funny how people do this still today? God then asks the woman in the garden, “What is this that you have done?” and again we see the classic “No Fault Religion” response of the woman:
Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Eve immediately passes the buck to the serpent, it was the serpent’s fault and not mine. If it were not for the serpent, I would not have been deceived. It was his fault and not mine. In this story, suddenly God stops asking questions when he comes to the serpent. It seems God’s is tired of hearing people pass the buck and He starts telling each of them the consequences of their actions. God names a list of things that will happen to each party involved and suddenly there is no more to say. So was it anybody’s else’s fault that each did what they did? Or was this just man’s attempt to shift the responsibility off of them to someone else? Normally this is exactly the motivation for this act of selfishness. If Adam and Eve had not been caught red handed, figuratively speaking, they would have probably never had admitted to doing anything. However, once confronted with overwhelming evidence people immediately start by shifting the focus to someone else to get the judge’s eyes off of them, or so they hope.
In some recent news article in America, I ran across this attitude still being used today. In a local story in one of our surrounding cities, a woman took a gun, that looked like a real handgun and robbed a drug store and got several illegal pills. The woman then calls her mother and tells her what she has done and that she plans on killing herself with the pills by overdosing on them. A few minutes later, her car is spotted by the police and they surround her. After all she had just committed an armed robbery. The woman’s mother had called 911 to report the situation and tell them that the gun that she had was only a BB gun and not a real gun, so please don’t shoot her. Before the police could get this information, the woman gets out of her car and points her real looking gun at the police officers. The officers had no choice but to shoot her. So now the family of the woman gets on the local news and starts shifting all of the blame of everything that happened to the police. They should have known better than to kill an unarmed woman. They should have handled the situation differently. Do you see the pattern of what the family was saying? Was it all the policemen’s fault for protecting themselves and the safety of others and for killing this woman unnecessarily? Does this woman have any responsibility in what happened? Obviously NOT according to her family! Does the family have any responsibility of not recognizing the signs of depression or suicidal changes in this woman’s behavior, Obviously NOT according to the family. According to the family, nobody is to blame except the ones that shot her and that is crazy thinking. I do not understand how people can come to these conclusions and how the news media can even report them as legitimate pieces of news. We live in a crazy world that has things completely backwards.
Let me give you another example, of stupid behavior and thinking. It seems that the family of Michael Jackson is now suing in civil court the doctor that allegedly administered the drugs that killed their relative Michael Jackson. Isn’t it amazing that if Michael had no money that he would not have been able to pay a doctor for dangerous prescription drugs. I do not attempt to justify what the doctor did, however it was not entirely the doctor’s fault. Michael Jackson was a addicted to drugs. He thought that he needed them to perform and that he needed them to sleep. Do you think if there was no doctor present in the house, that Michael would still be alive today? I do not know, but yet do you think that it was just the doctor’s fault and Michael held no responsibility to what happened to him? In my opinion, I would say Michael holds more of the responsibility than anyone else, but his family obviously does not agree with that reasoning.
How can people get any more stupid and still be alive? Do people have any responsibility in what happens to them? Does the Bible say it is not your fault that you are in the mess that you are in right now? Does the Bible put all of the blame for everything that happens to you on Adam, Satan or someone else? Did Jesus ever heal someone and tell them, I’m so sorry this happened, it was just not your fault that this happened to you? If you search and actually read and see what the Bible says on the subject, you will find that is just not the case. People actually hold more of the responsibility of what happens to them, than anyone would care to admit. Let’s see what Jesus said in one example:
Joh 5:14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Jesus after healing this man in John 5, told him “I’m sorry this happened to you, I know it was just not your fault!” No, Jesus did not say this, did He? Jesus actually warns this man that what you do affects what you get in life. Jesus tells the man very clearly NOT to go and intentionally sin again, or his sins would allow or cause something worse to potentially happen to him. There is a clear implication that what happened to him was caused by something that he had previously done in the first place. Isn’t that what Jesus said? What we see in the Bible is a Spiritual Law being spoken of. Many Christians are not familiar with this Spiritual Law even though it governs their daily lives, 24×7. Here is the Spiritual Law that Jesus was talking about:
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
This is a broad statement with broad implications and consequences attached to it. These are the words of the Living God and He tells us very clearly that He will not be mocked! What does it mean to mock? What is mocking? Jesus was mocked at His trial and even as He hung on the cross, the Bible says. The Bible says that Jesus endured words from people saying “Hail the King of the Jews”. To mock someone or something means to ridicule them, slander them, make fun of them, speak words out of your mouth that are the opposite of praise! It can also be the way you say it, that makes it disrespectful. You could say something good in a sarcastic way and this could be mocking someone. It would seem to me that God is at the very least referring to what people say in Galatians 6:7. Isn’t that what God is talking about in this verse? God gives us a farming principle and an agricultural law in direct relationship to what people say. God tells us very clearly that whatever we plant, that is what we harvest in life. You can apply this to things we do, but primarily God is talking about your words. If you read the Gospels you will find that Jesus talks a lot about farming principles, crops and agricultural things like that. However, Jesus was not a literal natural farmer and he was not talking about natural things at all. Jesus was discussing spiritual things in relationship to natural things that we could observe and understand. Do you realize that it is almost impossible for God to discuss spiritual things with people who barely know anything about natural things? In one of the parables that Jesus reveals to the people, he discusses the Sower and the soil. In this parable the soil was of course, the hearts of men. Then the seeds that were planted in this soil were the “Words of God”. We are taught that God’s words are seeds that produce the good harvests in our life.
Did you know if God’s words are the positive seeds, then every other person’s words are also seeds and they can become negative seeds if they are opposite to what was spoken by God? Man was created in the image and likeness of God. Meaning that man was an exact duplication of the God kind of being! The angels of God could look at Adam and recognize God’s spiritual DNA. We were not created on the same level or at the same capacity as God’s ability, but that does not mean we have no power to control what happens in our lives. What is a seed? Have you ever planted a real natural seed in the soil and watered it and watched it develop over time and grow? A seed is a self contained system that has propagative properties to produce postive or negative things. A seed holds properties to replicate it’s kind and produce more of its species. Seeds rarely work by themselves and are dependent upon other factors. Correct soil, light, temperature and water are just a few of the dependencies that many seeds require. All of this is very similar to e the place of words in the world. People say things constantly and most of them they do not mean or even believe will happen. People say “that just kills me”, “I laughed until I died”, “You gave me a heart attack”, and other crazy sayings. If people’s words would suddenly come true, most of the time none of us would be here right now.
If words are seeds that people plant, and these seeds produce crops in your life then what have you been planting? Can you look back on things that you have said in the past and see anything about what you have and are experiencing right now? Maybe, yes and maybe no? Nevertheless, the Bible if you study it correctly never alleviates you from any responsibility. If you die and go to hell, you will not be able to plead it was not my fault. You hold great amounts of responsibility to what happens in your life. If you turn down the wrong street at the wrong time, if you choose to take a flight that will crash, if you go to the wrong side of town, if you eat the wrong foods, if you drink the wrong drinks, if you buy the wrong drugs, if take the wrong drugs or if you do whatever. You see what you choose to do in life matters. Where you choose to go in life matters. Who you associate with in life matters. Who your friends are in life matters. What you eat matters. What you drive matters. Where you walk matters. Where you go to church matters. I’ll go further than that, and say what you think also matters. What you say matters. Your decisions and choices in life ALL have consequences attached to them. Wise choices come only from knowing God and His Word and poor choices come from listening to Satan. The Bible says that those who are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. That also means that there are plenty of those who are not being led by the Spirit of God and they therefore make bad choices in life. Jesus told us that wide is the path to destruction and narrow is the path that leads us to salvation, peace and safety. Now realize that God has set the choices in front of you and you are the one making the choices for your life. If you don’t like what you are reaping right now look back and see what you have been planting! Then change what you plant!
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words you can go to “Part 8“.
Changing Spiritual Diapers! Feeding Spiritual Babies with Spiritual Bottles!
(Ver 1.1) Except when natural babies sleep, they are in constant dependency upon their parents for all of their physical needs. If you have had children, you know this is true. Babies would never survive without the care and nurturing of a parental figure. Mothers of course play a central role in this care, but this does not alleviate responsibility of the father. Natural food is not automatically provided to a child without the mother’s cooperation, at first children are not even able to feed themselves, they cannot walk, they cannot talk, they are only able to cry if they need something and then the parent has to figure out what that need is. Normally, this is not a difficult process, if you haven’t fed them in a while, then you feed them. If you have fed them recently, then you check their diapers and see if they need changing. The process of raising children is not overly complicated, yet we sometimes forget that these natural things are repeated in the spiritual realm. Just like we have physical babies in the world, we also have many spiritual babies in the world.
Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
Many times we get people born again and immediately expect them to walk and talk the spiritual language and know what to do in every situation. This is not how it works in the physical world and it is not how it should work in the spiritual world either. As I read the internet Blogs from people who call themselves Christians, I can tell who is a little mature and those that just think they are mature but are just crying out loud and making a noise to be heard. It would appear that the baby Christians are the ones that make the most noise and the ones that cry for the most attention. The Baby Christians are sometimes the ones that need their spiritual diapers changed and those that need to drink more milk to learn more of the truth.
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
God is giving you some amazing spiritual information in this verse. This verse says that we are not born again in a spiritual full grown, mature state of existence. It means there is a spiritual growth process that should be followed for new Christians. You should not make a new Christian and expect them to work like one that has been around 30 years in the church. It means you should have structure established to feed them and to help them in order to teach them in the ways that they should go. God tells us in Proverbs 22:6 to train up a child in the way that they should go and when they are older they will not depart from it. If you have any wisdom at all, you can apply that verse to both the physical and spiritual realms to know how to treat physical and spiritual new babies. New baby Christians are going to need structure, a planned growth cycle, a parental growth partner, and a time to grow spiritually. Baby Christians do not automatically know what to do in every situation. If you leave them alone they will just normally go back to their own old ways and life situations that they already know. If they were alcoholics before being saved, Satan will try to get them back in the bars. If they were thieves and robbers before being saved, Satan will attempt to try to revert them back to what they already know how to do.
Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Jesus speaking here is not talking about a physical house. If you think he is you are very ignorant of spiritual symbolism. Jesus is speaking of the heart of man. Jesus is also speaking of evil spirits who live in the hearts, minds and bodies of people. You see if you save someone in the world, you might get the evil spirit out of a person temporarily, but Jesus says they will try to return.
Mat 12:44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Evil spirits always try to return to the house they exited from. It is a familiar place that they know and they like. People who are born again and new baby Christians do not know what to do when these spirits return.
Mat 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
If you are a mature Christian that witnesses to someone and gets them born again, you should understand what Jesus prophesied that will happen to people who become new Christians. Just because you are a Christian does not mean, Satan is through with you. He is still in the business of deception and he wants to trick you into going back to your ways that you previously knew. Jesus tells us about a house, that has been swept clean and is now empty. You do understand that Jesus is speaking of a person without any understanding of spiritual things. This clean house is said to be vulnerable to a stronger attack of the spiritual forces of darkness. This spirit will bring back seven other spirits to try to get back into the house that the one lived in. Jesus says if they are successful, the condition of that man will be worse than the beginning. Keep this in mind when dealing with new converts. They may be under attack and not realize it. If you read in Ephesians 4:14, it tells us how spiritual children are very vulnerable to false doctrines and the deception of the enemy. These are important things to know. Spiritual babies are very open to deception, simply because of naivety and ignorance. It is a spiritual situation of not knowing what you do not know that makes them extremely vulnerable.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
We are told to desire the sincere milk of the Word of God in 1 Peter 2:2. In this verse found in 1 Corinthians 3:2, God is again using a symbolic analogy of natural substances in relationship to spiritual truths. The Milk of God’s Word are the representative types of the basic foundational truths found in the Bible. The basics are the foundation to building a strong understanding of more advanced topics found in the Bible. Truth always builds upon truth. Advanced topics are totally dependent upon a full understanding of basic topics. These advanced Topics of God are called the meat of the Word. Just as natural babies are unable to eat natural meat, spiritual babies struggle with eating the strong subjects of God’s word. I believe that is why many people spiritually choke on some of my blogs, but that is my opinion. Advanced subjects in the Bible are not understandable to baby Christians. So what are the Basic subjects that you should already know fully? Some of them are listed in Hebrews:
Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
As you can read this verse is talking about spiritual growth. The term translated as “perfection” does not mean that we will become perfect and not make any mistakes. No, the term “perfection” means “maturity”. God is expecting Christians to grow spiritually, and to become mature Christians. This is only possible, if they continue drinking the Milk of God’s Words and learning to understand the basics therein. The term “Principle Doctrines” is referring to the initial or first teachings of Christ. These first teachings are the basics. Every church with new converts should have a basic class for new born Christians. These classes should include subjects that cause them to learn Christian fundamentals. The identity of Jesus Christ, the Blood of Christ, the Word of God, Salvation, Redemption, and the Holy Spirit. That was some of my list of items, but here are some more that God gives us in the Bible:
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
God says these are also basic doctrines that we should be intimately aware of. I rarely see anybody speaking on any of these subjects. Maybe they do, but it is just not where I notice it. Bible basics are the most important things to get to new Christians. If they can understand the basics, then they are better able to grasp the tougher stuff that they also need to learn about.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Caring for spiritual babies is a lot like, caring for natural babies. They need a lot of attention to get to where they can do things right for themselves. They will need you to feed them spiritual milk until they can eat solid food on their own. Many times you will have to also change their spiritual diapers and that involves putting up with some of the smelly stuff that they produce. There are many rewards with doing this right, you can see in the Bible that Paul and the disciples spent a lot of time with people, feeding them and caring for them to get them to grow up.
1Co 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
I hope that you enjoyed my spiritual lesson on babies in the church and I pray it will help you to deal with people more closely. God Bless!
Getting The People Out of Egypt is Easier than Getting Egypt Out of the People!
(Ver 1.1) God gives us some very valuable information from the Children of Israel in the Old Testament. They spent nearly 400 years living in the foreign land called Egypt, governed by a Godless people who became their masters. Of course the picture is given to us from the New Testament that these things were written to give us patterns of things to come as examples to those in the last days on the earth (1 Cor 10:11). What lessons can we, the church learn from the information given to us concerning the natural nation of Israel? Let’s look at some scriptures in Acts 7 and see a sermon given by the man Stephen.
Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
God delivered Israel from the bondage of the world slave system of Egypt. God did this by demonstrating a series of great signs and wonders through the faithful service of His servant Moses. So far we have a story with many major spiritual patterns being revealed to us. Egypt is a type of the Word System controlled by Satan. Moses is a type of Jesus Christ our deliverer. Just as Moses was sent to Israel after 400 years of Israel’s captivity, Jesus Christ was sent to the earth after 4000 years of human bondage to the captivity of sin. The people of Israel are representative of the those who are saved who are now members of the church of Jesus Christ. As you read this sermon found in Acts, you can see some of these things being revealed to us. This story tells of Moses being given the Law of God on Mt Sinai and how the children of Israel ignored it.
Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Here in Acts 7:39, is the beginning of the key part of this lesson. The children of Israel after spending time in the wilderness, thought it was better to go back into their life of slavery and return to Egypt. All because things got a little tough. This is the title of this lesson, you can get the people out of Egypt, but getting Egypt out of the people is a much more difficult job. What was it that made Israel want to return? Had they forgotten already how much they asked God for a deliverer to free them from their task masters?
Act 7:40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
It’s funny how people see things, isn’t it? These people thought that because Moses had gone up on the Mountain to meet with God and it was such a long time that God did not care about them anymore or maybe God did not really exist. It would appear that they no longer even believed there was a real God. The people all told Aaron to make them gods that they could see. You have to assume that meant they did not have any faith in a God that they could not see. Seems like we still hear that compliant today. You can see that the culture of Egypt was so prevalent within them, they were more comfortable with that old life style and the Old Egyptian ways of worship. They totally ignored all of the great signs and wonders that they had seen God do and wanted to fall back into a system that they had seen was defeated. All they could remember is how they had seen the people of Egypt worship gods that they made with their hands and this was all that they focused on during this uncertain time of trouble. It would seem that their long term memory took over and their short term memory vanished. Maybe they forgot that God killed most of the Egyptians in the Red Sea and there was really not that much to go back to. How do you know what they were thinking, all you can see is what they did. They reverted back to their old lifestyle and this is a major problem found in the church today.
Act 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
So the children of Israel, got their way and they made gods that they could see with their physical eyes. They sacrificed offerings to these gods and they worship them. This verse ends with the statement that they rejoiced in the works of their hands. Isn’t that a great way to put what we see in the world today? People make things today and still worship them with their money and their time. Hollywood movies are a great example of this. Oh well, I guess I won’t go there.
Jud 1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
I often wonder, why save a people if you know you are going to have to destroy most of them. Thankfully, God is not like people on the earth. People on the earth would not go through that much trouble to bring anyone out of Egypt, if only a small number of them were going to make it into the promised land. However, God would come to the earth and still die for you, even if you were the only one that was going to be saved. You have more value to God than anything. God gave everyone the same opportunity to believe and go into the promise land, because the people did not believe, was not God’s fault. The people of Israel can only blame themselves for not believing God.
Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
To show you things from God’s point of view, God tells us a secret here in Revelation 11:8. The spiritual name for Israel and Jerusalem, is still Egypt. This just goes to show you how difficult it is to shed your past. God took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but God never really succeeded in getting Egypt out of the children of Israel. You can read this chapter in Revelation 11 and see that this is speaking about a coming prophetic event during the time of the tribulation. So you can pretty much still see that even then, God calls Israel the spiritual Egypt.
We all have pasts and things we use to do. We all have had experiences that we would have rather not gone through. These are the patterns of the Egypt in our lives. What the church should learn from this lesson, is that new converts into the body of Christ will always be drawn back to what they know in their natural past. Until a new Christian grows up spiritually and matures, they are extremely vulnerable to the deception of the enemy. There will always be times in every Christian experience where it will appear that you are going through a wilderness type journey. When in these spiritual wildernesses, you will find yourself, many times asking where is this God that saved me? It is during these times that strong church leadership and mentoring will be required. Just as you should not give birth to a natural new baby and expect them to feed themselves, new Christians need special attention also. In order to continue to grow in spiritual things, people need to continue in the Bible and their personal relationship with God is essential. The encouragement from a Christian mentor, will go a long way in helping new Christians make it into the promise land. When times of adversary come, and you are tempted to go back to your old familiar ways, spend time with God and God’s Word to find direction and purpose. Seek the face of God, like Moses did on the Mountain Top. Renew your mind with the Word of God and eventually, the old ways will not be desirable. Keep walking and do not give up, the wilderness does not last forever. Pretty soon the wilderness will appear as only a distant memory that helped to make you stronger. Only you can make the choice to not try to return to Egypt and die in the wilderness. What’s on the inside of you?
The TOP 10 Reasons Jesus Christ Came into the World?
(Ver 1.4) Many times we study the Bible and only see one perspective, because that is where our focus is. Our minds, our preconceived thoughts and prejudices can cause us to miss what the Bible actually says. People’s Bible study approach is very much like my approach to proof reading my blogs. Many times I type what I think I should say, but when I go back and reread it a few days later, it turns out what I typed was not actually what I had originally intended. Also, many times my typing errors are missed, because I read what I thought I typed and not what it actually says. All this does is prove that people can look right at the words written on a page and still not ever tell what they exactly said or meant. Students in school prove this everyday with their textbooks. This is why I believe that many times people do not see what the Bible actually says either. They see what they think it says and ignore what it actually says and they end up missing what God wanted to teach them in the frist place..
I have already blogged on the fact that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. God purposely becoming a man can cause many people to stumble. The Creator becoming a part of His creation, that just boggles many people’s minds. However, God did this and you either have to accept it or choose to reject it by your onw freewill. Today I want to discuss some of the top reasons that I have found, why God did this. What does God and the Bible say, were the top reasons for God’s personal appearance on this planet? If you think it was just for one reason, you would be greatly mistaken. God rarely does only one thing at a time for a single threaded purpose or plan. God is a highly complex and intelligent being that can accomplish many things with one simple act. We just have to be smart enough to read and find out what these were and then why God said that He came to visit us. While I do not profess to know every reason I will give at least 10 of the top reasons that I have discovered from the Bible.
1. To Die
I believe the number one reason why Jesus came to the earth and was born a human man, was so that he could die. Did you know that it is impossible to kill God? God is a supreme spiritual power and it is impossible to eliminate God from existence. But, that does not mean that God as a man could not die a normal physical death. It is pretty obvious that Jesus proved that after hanging on the cross. When Jesus said it is finished, He fulfilled His number 1 purpose for coming into the world. His death accomplished more than you can imagine right now, but read this verse:
Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of Jesus, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Jesus Christ was born a human male on the earth so that he could taste death for all of us. The Bible says that it is appointed unto every man, once to die (Heb 9:27). In becoming a man we can clearly see that God did not intend for Jesus the man to live on the earth forever or to set up a natural kingdom or rule in this dimension of time. God specifically came to the earth in a very temporary capacity, on purpose with the set goal to die after 33 years of being present as a man. Death is also a separating force that terminates covenants. You can learn this by reading the words of Ruth, when she says “Until death separates me from thee”. If God wants to die on the earth, you can conclude that He wants to end whatever covenants that He was previously tied to. I know that is not a popular teaching, but it is a logical deduction based upon the facts established in the Bible. You do realize that the living mortal man Jesus of Nazareth did not establish a New Covenant with anyone while He was here in His mortal physical state? You see the New Covenant was implemented by the risen from the dead Jesus Christ. The Risen Jesus is now an immortal and omnipotent spiritual being and only He can implement a new eternal covenant that never existed before. This is a fact that you rarely hear taught in church. Jesus Christ is the first born from the dead and the heir of everything (Heb 1:2). What is an heir? An Heir is only someone who inherits what someone who died has left. Uh oh? Who died? What was left? Who are the heirs? You see why the Bible is so difficult to understand for most people? The Bible is more complex than most understand.
2. To Save Sinners
I believe the number two reason Jesus came to this planet in a physical form was so that He could save us. We of course are like everyone else and we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Even though we are not really worthy of salvation, God chose to save us anyway. I have heard many people in the world say we just want what we are deserved. In other words in their minds the government owes them something and they deserve to get it all just because they belong in this country. That is an attitude that is based upon pride and error. You do not want what you are deserved, you are far better off asking for mercy.
1Ti 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Sin was a separating force from the righteousness of God. God had to do something with the sin problem of man, if we ever were to have any hope. God does this by becoming the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). God’s own personal blood was shed to pay the price for our sin. The Bible says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb 9:22). It also goes on to say that the blood of natural bulls and goats cannot take away the sins of the world. So it required a higher price and only the blood of God Himself could satisfy this price.
3. To Save That Which Was Lost
This reason I will probably not be able to elaborate on fully in this lesson. Many will read this next verse that I give and think that it is talking about the previous reason, but I do not personally think that is what Jesus was talking about. Jesus did tell us that He was sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Mat 15:24). So we do understand that people are spoken of in the Bible as being lost. What I think is that it was more than that, which Jesus was talking about in this next verse.
Luk 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Did you notice that this verse does not say, “Those Who Were Lost”? Why is that important? Why is that necessary to see? What was lost? What must be saved? Many just think we the people were what was lost and that is the only thing that God came here to save. That of course is a very narrow minded focus on what God is capable of doing. Let me answer these questions by asking you a question. Why is it necessary for God to create a new heaven and a new earth? You should really give that some serious thought before you try to answer that question. Could it be that is what was lost? I only buy a new car because something happened to my old car, either a wreck, or just old age and it died. Some people trade cars like they buy new underwear or socks, but God is not this way. You have to realize that there is a major problem with the old, if God implements a new anything. I mean think about it, can’t God ever create anything that lasts? Is He not God? It would appear that something happens to the old heaven and the old earth that causes God to create a new physical and spiritual realm. So I do not deny that people are also lost. In 2nd Corinthians 4:3 it says “If our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost”. But, this word can mean “destroyed” or “perishing”. So while you could say people are lost, you actually find this statement:
Col 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
You see you can find more scriptures about people having been reconciled back to God in the New Testament than you can find scriptures that speak about people being lost.
Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
So the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ’s death is that we have been reconciled back in right relationship with God. I think I will leave the rest of this discusion to a future lesson on the subject.
4. For The Resurrection of the Dead
God told Adam, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and said that in the day that you do, you will surely die. That of course represents the poor choice that Adam made that perpetuated death upon the entire human race. Death ruled man, man feared death, death is an enemy to man and God came to solve the problem of death. Here is a scripture verse that helps us to see this:
1Co 15:21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
Jesus Christ is called the “Last Adam” and because the first Adam brought death into the world, Jesus was able to come as a second man to end death’s domination over us. You see death was a separating force that kept us from God because of Sin. Adam sinned and sold himself into the bondage of sin and Christ came and paid the cost for our redemption with His blood. It is an awesome work of God that He has accomplished. The immortal God becomes mortal and dies so that the mortal men and women in the world can become immortal and live with Him forever. It’s all a part of God’s great exchange offer. Exchange your life for His life and you become the winner!
5. To Undo the Works of the Devil
I hope that you do understand who the devil is? I hope you also understand that Satan is not on God’s payroll and does not work for God. You see God has the power to tell Satan what to do, but yet is this the way God is? Is God pulling all of the strings in heaven and causing everything in the world to happen exactly like He wants it to happen? You see I do not think so. You do understand that the Sovereign God is able to give man “freewill” by His choice and design? If you do not understand that man has a “freewill” you do not understand that it was you that chose to get out of bed this morning and not God. If you think that God controls what you do every day, then you need to come to understand the Bible with greater clarity. Let’s keep going and look at what the Bible says about Satan:
Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Both of these verses speak of God attempting to “destroy” the devil or the works of the devil. Why would this be necessary, if God is in control of the devil already? You see the problem that some seminaries teach, don’t you? The term “destroy” does not mean to obliterate into non-existence as you would think it does. It means to “loosen”, “dissolve”, “undo” or “reverse” the actions of the devil. In other words Jesus came to undo the consequences of something that Satan directly caused. I hope you understand the concept of “cause” and “effect” found within the physical sciences. I think I first learned this concept in a High School Physics class, that every effect that we can observe always has a root cause. For example, when you see waves in a pond, you can deduce that something was thrown into the pond to cause the waves. It is not a hard concept to grasp. What you have to ask yourself is what were the effects of Satan’s work that God had to come personally to reverse? This is a tough question to answer in this lesson, so we will continue on.
6. Jesus Came and Died, So that the Holy Spirit Could Come In and Abide
This is a simple truth, but yet very important to understand. Without Jesus’ death we would not have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us today. Of course the Holy Spirit is only in those who have received Him and not in everyone. God does not force His entrance into the spirits of anyone. Here is a verse of scripture that tells us something that Jesus said to us personally:
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and will open the door, I will come in a sup with him”. So Jesus said I will come inside, if you open the door to your house and let me in. This is a symbolic representation of the heart of man. The comforter residing on the inside is a benefit, that nobody possessed before Christ died. Jesus told us that it was better that he go away so that he could send us the Comforter (John 16:7). While Jesus was here in the flesh, that would have been really cool to see. However, Jesus clearly tells us that it is better the way we have it now than the physical Jesus when He was here. You see a physical Jesus was the manifestation of the omnipotent God of Creation with limitations. Jesus could only talk to a limited number of people at a time. Jesus could only say one thing to everyone at the same time. Jesus had to eat, sleep and do other business, just like we do every day. Jesus was God with severe limitations and restrictions. If you do not understand that statement, I’m sorry I do not have time to explain it. Now that every Christian has God on a personal internal level, they have a teacher, the guide, the comforter and a true friend on the inside that cam speak to everyone independently and say something different to each of us at the same time. That is the benefit of the Holy Spirit over the physical Jesus.
7. To Fulfill the Law
Jesus made several statements about the law that are very profound. One of them was that heaven and earth would pass away but the law (God’s Word) would never pass away (Luke 21:33). This would indicate that the Word of God is something that is eternal. What does it mean to fulfill something said? I believe that it means to perform that which was spoken.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
God’s words are prophetic and contain information about coming events. God tells us that the “End is declared from the Beginning” (Isa 46:10). God therefore knows the outcome even before He started. God always recorded the outcome in the Bible for us to see before it actually happens on our timeline. Before God did anything, God spoke and then it happens. Jesus spoke repeatedly about the words of the prophets being fulfilled while they were walking about. Jesus declared that everything written about him would be fulfilled. We can therefore logically conclude that Jesus came to fulfill the Words of God that were prophesied about him.
Luk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
As you can see the Old Testament Law of Moses is said to be words that describe Jesus and what He will do and accomplish. These are very important things to note.
8. To Reveal the Hidden Wisdom and Words of God
The Natural Nation of Israel and the Natural Jews have held the Words of God for thousands of years and yet they still do not understand what they say. Jesus tried to teach as many who would hear the truth, but not very many people actually grasped the truth. What you must realize is that the Bible was written in a manner that concealed information making it difficult for natural men to understand. I believe that Jesus came to give us understanding and teach us the truth. Now that Jesus is raised from the dead, I believe this understanding has been made available to us by the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
Mat 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
God has recorded many of the hidden wisdoms of God in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Jesus came and taught about natural things in the form of parables that revealed vastly profound spiritual truths, yet most of the listeners did not understand them.
Luk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
You can go into many of the verses in the New Testament and see what Jesus revealed to His disciples. Jesus went through the Old Testament starting with Genesis and showed these followers that He was written about on almost every page. All of this was secrets hidden from the plain view of man. I call this hiding the truth in plain sight. God used many techniques to disguise the truth, but yet it was right there for us to see. Did you know the term “mystery” only occurs in the New Testament? While God wrote the mysteries in the Old Testament, God did not specifically tell anyone that they were there. Jesus came along and read the scriptures and could see and understand the hidden secrets in the Word of God, since the Author of the Word was inside of Him. Jesus took these secrets and opened them up for people to see and after He was raised from the dead the disciples finally got it.
9. To Build a New Spiritual City
Jesus Christ became the chief cornerstone to a new spiritual City of God, called the New Jerusalem. This spiritual city reflects a new beginning, with a spiritual people who are called those who are righteous in the eyes of God. This organized spiritual structure is a new spiritual family of God and many of the old family members of God’s previous family have been omitted. That is not very good news for them.
Heb 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
You see even as Solomon built God a temple in Jerusalem as a type and pattern for the future spiritual work of the One that is greater than Solomon, Jesus came to the earth to become the builder of a new name of God. As the Son of God, a son’s responsibility is to marry and carry on the family name.
1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
God tells us very clearly that each of us in the church is a “Living Stone” in a “Spritual House”. Do you understand this type of building project? Probably not, but yet God is using natural things to describe a spiritual structure made up of people. This new spiritual house is the Bride of Christ, called the New Jerusalem in Revelation. If you want to learn more about that you can go and read my blog on that subject, “The Bride of Christ Revealed“.
10. To Divide
Here is my reason number 10 for the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. This is of course a controversial reason for the coming of Jesus Christ, because it is not widely taught nor understood by many. As you read this statement that Jesus makes, it would appear to contradict what the Bible says in other places. Let’s just read and see what Jesus said personally about coming to the earth:
Luk 12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
Jesus is called the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6), yet here in Luke Jesus said this is not why I am here. That is a pretty radical statement being made by the Son of God. God says I came to divide the earth and not to bring peace on the earth. What is God talking about? If you have read my other blogs you may already know the answer, but I will tell you again briefly. On the 4th day of creation God divides Day from Night and gives the Sun to Rule the Day and the Moon to Rule the Night. The Night is a 12 hour period of darkness, the Day is a 12 hour period of Light. These two separate divisions are symbolic representations for what Jesus is talking about in this verse in Luke. Jesus is called the “Sun of Righteousness” (Mal 4:2). Jesus is called the “Light of the World” (Jo 8:12). Jesus is called the “True Light” (Jo 1:9). Jesus is called the “Day Star” (2 Peter 1:19). Jesus is called the “Bright and Morning Star” (Rev 22:16). All of these are synonymous terms for the Sun that produces light on our planet. Jesus came into the world as the spiritual Light of the World and His Word causes illumination in the hearts of men and women so that they no longer live in darkness. Being children of the light and children of the day, we are the ones that have been divided from those that remain in the darkness (1 Th 5:5). All of this is a division that is taking place in the spiritual realm. God is dividing those who belong to Christ from those who belong to Satan. The end result is said to be completely different for both of these groups.
Mat 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Jesus speaks of two divisions of people in this one basic statement. Those that are righteous go to a realm of life everlasting, and those that are unrighteous to everlasting punishment. Two different results, two different people, two different divisions. This was one of the key reasons Jesus came to the earth and God declares it. You can choose to believe it or reject it.
The Spiritual New Birth! The Importance of Learning Spiritual Things in the Bible!
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in an essential basic Bible study series on the subject of Savlation and the Spiritual New Birth of God.. So many bloggers on the internet want to ignore the real important eternal spiritual things of God and want to only focus on the temporary natural things that mean very little. Because they think carnally they have been blinded spiritually to the things that God wants to teach them. I hope that I am not talking about you. Today I want to discuss a Bible Basic Truth that every Christian should already know a little bit about. This is the subject of the New Birth, a subject that totally revolves around spiritual actions of God and not the natural thoughts of men. What you should see when you study the Bible is that God gives us natural things as patterns for us to understand the hidden spiritual things. Of course if you do not understand these natural things, you will not understand the spiritual things either. Here is the challenge that God throws down to us in 1 Corinthians:
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
How natural are you? We are all a little bit natural and many are more natural than they are spiritual. God is very clear when He states the problem we are faced with in the church today. We have many people teaching spiritual things and many people that are just not able to grasp it because they are not able to understand it without getting the knowledge past their flesh and minds and into their spirits. People want to figure out God using only their natural human minds and reasoning and God says your mind is incapable of understanding anything about His spiritual things. The more natural thinking you are the more difficulty you will have with understanding anything that is spiritual.
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
Every new Christian starts as a spiritual baby in Christ. Just as natural babies cannot eat steak and the food that grownups eat, baby Christians have trouble digesting anything that has great substance and meaning to it. Have you ever noticed that kids and children often times think they know more than they do? They like to pretend that they are highly intelligent, even teenagers tend to think they know more than their parents.
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.
This is why many people even in churches today are unable to understand anything about the spiritual things that other people teach. Jesus made a definite requirement to enter into the Kingdom of God. What does it mean to be 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?
This is a classic example of a spiritual teacher trying to teach something to a natural thinking man. Jesus is attempting to discuss spiritual things and this man in John 3 wants to ask a natural question. Nicodemus asks Jesus how a man when he is old can enter back into the stomach of his mother. To Nicodemus it was a good question, but to Jesus it was just a clear indication that this man did not understand what he said.
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.
Jesus tries with another statement to explain the process. I would doubt that you fully understand this scripture either. Jesus is not speaking of Water Baptism in this verse and I would bet that most people think that is what He is talking about. Jesus is comparing two different births, one natural and one spiritual. When you are in your mother’s womb, you are surrounded by water. When her water breaks, she knows it is time to deliver. Jesus is comparing this natural event to the spiritual birth process. Again Jesus tells us that unless a man is born naturally and spiritually you will never make it into the Kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We can again see the comparison being confirmed in this next verse in John. Jesus tells us very clearly that being born again has nothing to do with the flesh. To be born again is a spiritual birth process and something that happens inside of you. No one can observe it when it happens, but they can observe the changes that it makes in you externally. This verse represents a spiritual law being revealed to us. Whoever is born of the flesh is just that, flesh! But, whoever is born of the Spirit, they are now a new spirit.
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
You see the spiritual birth process dramatically resembles the natural birth process, but yet it is completely different at the same time. Both birth processes were initiated by planting seed. The natural seed of a man is called sperm and it impregnates a woman and a natural child is born. This natural seed is called corruptible seed and this is directly compared to the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Everyone that becomes a Christian does so as a result of hearing God’s Word.
1Co 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
You see these people in Corinth were disputing among themselves, again thinking naturally and carnally and missing the spiritual things of God that Paul was trying to get them to see. This is the same chapter that Paul said earlier that he could not talk to them about spiritual things because they were still baby Christians. Paul reveals a part of the spiritual birth process in this verse. Paul planted the incorruptible seed of the Word of God into the hearts of the people and Apollos came along and watered it to get it to grow. If the people understood any of it, it would eventually begin to grow and produce fruit unto God.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
You may not fully understand the process of being born again, but yet you can still participate in it and learn about the process later. God designed a specific plan and a specific process for getting men and women born again. This process is actually outlined in this verse in Romans. It seems to start with a preacher being sent to the people. The preacher tells the people about Jesus, what He has done for them and the people can choose to believe it and to accept Jesus as their Savior. It is not a long or complicated process, but yet it is also very profound. Salvation is a system based upon Words and Faith. If you have ever read any of my other blogs you know that I say some pretty new things about these two subjects from the verses found in Bible. God’s Word System of Salvation is vastly criticized and ridiculed by those who think naturally and do not understand it.
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.
This verse found in 2 Corinthians speaks about the new birth. God informs us that we have become a new creation. This of course is a creation within the spiritual realm of God. The term “new creation”, means we are now something that has never existed before. We are something “fresh” and “brand new”. Being born again spiritually, gives us a new start, a new beginning as this verse says. The old things, the old ways, the old behavior and the things we use to do have now passed away or vanished. You could say the old you was buried and the new you has been raised to life. The Old Man was natural and carnal with a self centered focus. The New Man is a person that sees things differently and has a new spiritual perspective on life and others around them.
When God says “All” things have become new, you have to understand what the term “All” means in this context. It does not mean everything as in an all inclusive new you. While the inside spirit part of you is new, the outside physical parts of you are still the same. The body still wants the same foods you ate before you were born again. The flesh still wants to do the same things that it has always done. Then there is the mind and you have the same mind that you always had. You still have the same memories, the same experiences, the same way of thinking and all of these things are part of a spiritual growth process that begins when you are “Born Again”. God tells us in Romans 12:2 that “we should not conform to this world’s ways”. He then tells us “to be transformed by the renewing of our minds”. To renew your mind is a lengthy process that involves you learning spiritual things that will allow you to grow and mature in Christ. Just as children take many years to mature physically, so it is with spiritual babies. They need time to learn and understand the new spiritual things that God wants them to learn.
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
What we learn by reading the Bible is that there is a growth process. It starts with the Word of God and will end with the Word of God. The milk of the Word represents the basic concepts, ideas, facts and information that provide you with the foundation for your spiritual beliefs. Most of the time, these concepts are not as simple as you would like them to be, however you keep drinking them in until you grow enough to mature. As you mature you will be able to grasp more complex and advanced topics in the Bible. These are not always easy to digest either, but yet if God gave them to us, then they have a purpose for us to know and to understand.
This has been a comprehensive overview of the New Birth process. This is a spiritual reality that occurs when you accept Jesus as your Savior. What God has done in the natural is a direct pattern for what God has done in the spiritual realm. If you can learn and understand this process, it might help you to share it with others.
If you would like to contiue reading in this series of lessons you may go directly to “Part 2“.
****************************************************************
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?
God’s Word Based System! Are ALL Spoken Words Prophetic?
(Ver 1.1) Today will be another lesson (Part 6) from the Bible on the spoken words of God and man. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1“. As we read the Bible we can clearly see that God assigned certain men in the Bible with a gift of “prophecy”. These men were called the “Prophets” of God and they wrote vast amounts of scriptures about future events. So a prophetic word is one that could be taken as a future prediction of events to come. I’m really not a big fan of that definition of Prophecy. You see you can very easily confuse the words of “Nostradamus” as being future predictions, but did they come from God? Were they “Prophetic” or were they just someone writing down random thoughts of what they think will happen? I personally do not think they were prophetic or from God. Here is what I believe about prophecy and the realm of time. I believe that God lives outside of the limitation of time and space. The Bible says “In the beginning, God created….”. So we know before the beginning of time and space, God already existed. I believe that God can see all of humanity in a single view from start to end. The Bible says “I make known the end from the beginning”. Therefore, I believe that when God showed men in the Bible what to write about concerning future events, in the eyes of God, they had already happened from God’s perspective and God was just reporting what happened, before it actually happens in our time line. This is of course very difficult to comprehend how this is possible, yet men like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein probably could better see it with many of the things that they have written about, to name a couple of modern day people who think outside of the box. So God’s prophecies are not predictions of things that might happen, they are just news reports of things that have already happened on our timeline. This is of course not predestination either. God did not cause all of them to happen, many times God just knew what men would do and used that for His purpose and plan. There is a major difference in the two perspectives of Prophecy. Every day, economists and people on Wall Street predict where the market is going based upon world events and factors that they observe around them. However, many, many times they are totally wrong so what they say did not come from God and was not prophetic and God did not perform what they said to fulfill it.
The complexities of the Bible are so huge that this is a very difficult subject to teach on. There are many factors and dependencies that we need to be aware of that it is impossible to teach on everything at once. Right now I am primarily concerned with the subject of Spoken Words so that will be my main focus of the rest of this lesson.
A while back I wrote a blog on “Speak to your Rock” and then I wrote a follow-up to that about “Idle Words“. At the very least, it would appear that God is trying to teach men, that what they say has significance to what happens in their lives. So I had a reader ask me this question, “Are words spoken by people prophetic because God showed them what will happen and therefore, they speak it and then it comes to pass in their lives”? Today’s blog will be an attempt to answer this question and hopefully explain what I meant in the other blogs that preceded this one on Spoken Words.
We can clearly see that every word spoken by people does not immediately happen to them. I believe this is by God’s design, if things happened exactly like people say, very few would have made it past a very young age. You see we have many people who say things out of ignorance and they generally do not mean a thing. You have many other people in the world who lie and these words generally do not mean anything. You have many other people who say things as a joke to be funny and these generally don’t mean anything either. Then there are words of slang that have crept into our mainstream that say the opposite than what they normally mean. Michael Jackson use to say “Ilm Bad” when he really meant “I’m Good”. There are just too many examples of people saying things that never happen so how do you balance that with other specific examples of men and women who have said something and it actually happens, exactly like they said? Was it a coincidence or an accident or was it something greater? In one blog I told you about Elvis Presley who was heard more than once to say that he would never out live his mother’s age when she died. Elvis died in 1977 at the age of 42, His mother had died in 1958 at the age of 46. So did what Elvis say cause what happened to him, or was it just a prediction that accidently occurred? You have to at least think about it and see that it is pretty amazing. I also gave you another example of my personal grandmother. She was getting older and did not like to drive her car in traffic. She was over heard by some other family members to say that “Some crazy driver would be the death of me”. One day as she was leaving one of her son’s houses and on the way back home, she pulled out in front of a couple of teenagers who were racing on the street where they should not have been. They broad sided my grandmother’s car and she was killed instantly. So again, we have to ask the question, did what she say cause it to happen or was it just an amazing coincidence? I could give you more examples like these, but I think we should shift focus to the Bible and see what we can find there about this subject. What the Bible says is far more important than any personal testimonies of people you cannot verify what they said.
In the O.T. in the book of Numbers chapter 13, God gives us an example that is very profound and has great significance to our current subject of spoken words. In this chapter, God tells Moses to send out 12 spies into the land that He has given to them. Their job is to look at the land and see if it is good and come back and report it to the people. Moses chooses 12 men, one from each of the tribes of Israel and they go and spy out the land. They then return to make their report back to the people after 40 days bringing large clusters of grapes. The twelve spies were divided into two groups. Ten said that there are strong people and walled cities. Two of them Joshua and Caleb said, “Let’s go up and take it, we are well able”. But, the ten said “We are not able, for they are stronger than we are”. The ten spies said “We are but grasshoppers in their eyes”. The ten spies stir up the majority of the people to believe they were unable to take the land that God had given to them. As a result of the “Evil Report” they began to say “Let’s go back to Egypt, and it would be better to die in the wilderness”.
In Numbers 14, Joshua and Caleb try to convince the people that they are able because God is with them and the defense of the inhabitants of the land has departed from them. What can we learn from this lesson found in the Bible? The Bible says these things happened and were recorded to be examples for us, the church. Two spies said “We can do it” and ten spies said “We are not able to do it” and both of these groups of people got exactly what they said. This is a lesson that you should begin to apply to your life and see how it applies to the things that you say. Review what you have said in the past and see if it is not what you are getting right now!
Let’s look at another example of a Bible story, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established. In 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath is a classic Sunday School story of how God used David to kill the giant Goliath. But, how was God able to do this with David and not with any of the other thousands of soldiers in the army of Israel? What was different about David? If you notice when you read this chapter, David was not afraid of this giant and all the other men in the army were terrified. Does this sound familiar with the story of the 10 spies? Weren’t they all afraid of the giants also? If you read this chapter closely you will also notice exactly what David said that made the difference to allow God to use him and not anyone else.
1Sa 17:37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.
This is the beginning of a series of positive things that David says. David has great confidence in God’s ability to deliver. David has great confidence in God’s covenant. David says “God will be with me and deliver me from this Philistine”. Isn’t this like what Joshua and Caleb were saying? Can you tell the difference between a good report and an evil report? Both are spoken words, but one says “I will win” and the other says “I will lose”. Does what you say have any bearing on what God is able to do? If you do not understand that it does, you will forever be deceived into thinking that you have no responsibility in the outcome of your life.
Now let’s examine the real battle of David and Goliath. In Numbers 17:43 Goliath who also has a mouth full of words for Israel, starts to speak to David and asks “Am I a dog that you send out a boy with a staff?” Goliath curses David with his gods and tells David what he is about to do to him and his flesh. Can you see this is the real battle? David could have believed what Goliath said and run back home to watch the sheep and said forget this war stuff. Instead, David says this:
1Sa 17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
These are the words that permit God to do mighty things. Because of David’s faith in God and God’s ability to save, David continues to speak and declare the end even before the beginning:
1Sa 17:46 This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
As you can see David got exactly what He said. The stone left his sling and hit the giant in the only exposed spot on his body that was vulnerable and David ended up taking the giant’s head off with the giant’s own sword. As a result of David’s victory the rest of Israel suddenly got religion and remembered the God of Israel and were not afraid anymore. The army of God was victorious over the Philistines that day because of the words of a shepherd boy who would eventually become King. Did David’s words have anything to do with David becoming King? You bet they did exactly that. There are many Bible lessons that speak of things exactly like this. Because you have never looked for them, does not mean they do not exist.
What you discover by digging deep into the Bible, is that the world is based on a word and faith system. God tells us in the Bible that everything we see was created from things that we cannot see (Heb 11:3), these things that we cannot see are words. The words of God became the things that we see around us. If you look at Genesis 1, you will notice the Bible repeatedly would say “And God Said….”. These words that God spoke originated from God’s Spirit and became the things that we perceive with our natural senses. If Words created our universe that we live in, then Words can still change it. Of course are these changes only limited to God’s Words or does the words of others effect what happens in the world? That is a big question to consider. Many religious people like to think that God controls everything that happens in the world. A huge volcano eruption that was God’s work, so they think. A big hurricane, that was also an act of God, so they think. I guess what we need to figure out is, is this what the Bible says?
Jesus Christ is called the Word of God in Rev 19:13. Then in John 1:1 it says “In the beginning was the Word and the Words was with God and the Word Was God!”. So we cannot separate God from His word, they are said to be one in the same. In John 1:14, it says “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” in speaking of God becoming a man in Jesus of Nazareth. John 1:14 gives us an example of how God’s word, by His Spirit can become something natural and physical. So God is His Word and the Word of God is God! God’s Word can also become a physical something that we can perceive with our senses. So far so good?
Then we see Jesus teaching us a farming lesson in Mark 4. The parable given there is about a farmer who throws seeds into different types of soil and some of the soil produces fruit and some does not. There are numerous symbolisms given to us in this parable, the soil is said to be the hearts of man. The birds of the air are demonic forces that attempt to eat the seed so that it will not produce. Finally, Jesus tells us that the seeds that are being planted are “The Words of God” (Mark 4:14). Now let me ask you a simple question, if God’s words are seeds, are all words that are spoken seeds? Is this possible? If you read another parable you might begin to see that it is entirely possible. In Matthew 13:24, Jesus tells us another parable about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is like a man who sows good seed in his field…”. Remember the fields are the hearts of men. The Good Seed is the Word of God. What is the opposite of Good Seed, I believe it would be Bad or Evil Seed. Uh Oh, remember the “Evil Report”? So in verse 25 of Matthew 13 Jesus says “an enemy came in and sowed tares among the wheat”. If you read on you find that the tares have become the children of the enemy and the wheat the children of God. Who is the enemy? Satan would qualify as the enemy of God who has sown the bad seed or evil words into the world. So now we have two different kinds of seed being spoken of, one evil and one good. Those from God are good seeds, those from Satan are evil seeds. I hope that you are understanding that people now have a choice of what to speak. They can choose to speak the “good seed” or they can choose to speak the bad or “evil seed”. In Deuteronomy 30:19, God says “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that you and your seed may live”. Did you notice the reference to seed again? This is a double reference to two different things simultaneously. Seeds can be your children and seeds can be your words. In this verse this is spoken of in terms of blessing and cursing again and we can see more implied references to your spoken words. Jesus cursed the fig tree and blessed the little children with the same mouth. Jesus gave us object lessons of how a mouth can produce two completely different results based upon the seeds that they sow. One was a blessing to the children and one was a curse to the fig tree. So man can choose to live or die by their spoken words. Is this what the Bible says? If you read in Proverbs you find a very powerful truth being spoken of and it says “Death and Life are in the Power of the Tongue, those that love it shall eat the fruit thereof”. So did you notice what this verse said? It said your tongue has power and your words are the seeds that produce results, either good or bad. Do you understand this?
So words are seeds that are planted in your heart that produces some result or crop in your life. You can plant good seeds from God’s Word or you can plant evil seeds from Satan. The soil of your heart really does not know the difference. Someone asked me if I thought that your words were prophetic? I would ask you, if a farmer planted a field full of corn seed, is that the crop he will harvest in the process of time? Did the farmer prophesy “corn” into existence or was it the fact that he planted the seed and the crop grew up and produced what was put in the soil. So Words are seeds and produce either the good or bad things that were spoken or planted in your heart? I of course oversimplified this lesson because it takes more than just speaking words to get something to happen in your life. Faith must also be present. Faith is the belief and expectation of something or someone that you do not see or feel with your physical senses. You believe in God and that He exists, even though you have never seen Him, that is faith. You believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead, and that is faith, since you were not there to witness it personally.
What people say with their mouths and believe in their hearts, that is what will happen in their life, either positive or negative. It is the law of Faith. Faith always existed in the world from Adam until now. Galatians 3:23 tells us that “Faith was Revealed” in the New Testament, meaning it was present in the Old Testament, but hidden from man and they did not understand it. So the Law of Faith existed when God told Moses to Speak to the Rock and God said that because you did not believe, you will not enter into the promise land. Moses did not believe, that is the opposite of faith. God told Moses what to do and Moses didn’t do it.
This is why God did not reveal the secrets of the Bible to the Old Testament saints. If they would have figured out how spiritual things worked back then, before Jesus came and provided salvation, we could have been in some real big trouble. God is now revealing how spiritual things work in these last days before Jesus comes back. Those who are spiritually mature will be able to see them and understand them, and those who are still childlike will reject them more than likely. I pray that you have understood these Bible verses and the spiritual laws revealed in them and now can apply them to your lives so that you can get Good Results and you and your seed will Live!
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words, you can go to “Part 7“.
Understanding Spoken Words! From the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth Leaks!
This is now Part 5 in a series of lessons about spoken words found in the Bible. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading from “Part 1“. God woke me up this morning and spoke to me. I read a guy on the internet and he blogged about God being allusive and hidden and so he concluded that God must not exist. A few minutes ago God woke me up in the middle of the night to convey some things to me about spoken words. People who say God does not talk to them do not know how God speaks so they are not listening to what He says. Today I want to discuss spoken words in the context that they are proof that God exists. Have you ever thought or asked yourself why people are communicators? Humans are social creatures that like to talk. Do you think that if no one was there to listen you would talk so much? What if you were on a deserted island and there was no one there to talk to, would you still talk to yourself or to God? Being made in the image and likeness of God we can clearly see that man was made for a purpose. By the design of God, man was made with the ability to communicate with God. God listens to your words no matter where you are or what you say. There is a direct spiritual connection between your mouth and God’s ear. Since there are billions of people on the planet and only one God, I do not know how He keeps track of everyone’s words at the same time, but He does and it must be easy for Him to do. God tells us in Matthew 12:36 that every idle word that we speak, we will give an account of each of them in the day of judgment. So apparently God has some ability to record and recall every word spoken from every human being that has ever been alive on this planet. Being a computer programmer, that is some amazing demonstration of power. That makes Google look like small potatoes. Google over the last 12 years or so has accumulated literally astronomical amounts of data, but this pales in comparison to what God is tracking in heaven.
Just the existence of your mouth and your tongue proves that someone was there to hear you even when you didn’t think that someone was listening. It goes to a simple debatable point that men sometimes try to make about a tree falling in the forest and no one being there to hear it, they always ask does it still make a sound? You see what difference would the sound be if there was no hearers. The sound would be just waves of energy that go nowhere and mean nothing. Atheist have a problem with answering why we are how we are. How we got here and why we have these intelligently designed features like a mouth that communicates with others and ears that have the ability to hear the sounds that others make. Nothing in the world that has any useful purpose got here by chance or accident. It is absolutely STUPID to think that man just evolved into what we are today. There is too much evidence to the contrary.
I have written hundreds of pages and thousands of words on a blog, why? Because someone takes the time to read some of them. Because I write, proves that you are out there reading. This is a very simple concept and a very profound truth. Because we can speak words, proves that God is listening to them. You might not like my logic or you might just ignore my logic, but nevertheless it is based upon truth.
Jesus taught us that our words have a spiritual connection to them. People do not understand this, clearly they are oblivious to the truth. Words spoken are not meaningless or mindless, even though many words are spoken without any thought given to them. This is what Jesus spoke to the Jews one day:
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.
The heart of man, is the spirit of man. If you do not understand this you should study and use your brain to figure it out. Jesus clearly gives us a direct connection of the words that people speak to what they have in their spirits. You could say what comes out of your mouth comes out of your spirit. Jesus tells this group of people because of the evil that they have abundantly in their heart, it is impossible for them to speak anything but evil. Jesus repeats this statement in Luke 6:45. Good men speak good things because it is what they have abundantly in their hearts. Evil men speak evil things, because it is what they have abundantly in their hearts. This is some amazingly important information, yet people generally do not attempt to understand the significance. Here is another set of words spoken by Jesus about His words:
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.
This is again some very significant information about the spiritual realm. The spirit has precedence and dominance over the flesh. The only reason your body is here reading this blog is because your spirit is in your body to give it life. To quicken in the KJV Bible means to “give life to”. Why is this important? It is very important because of how Jesus ends this verse. Jesus said “My Words are spirit and life”. Jesus was informing us where the words came from, that He spoke. His words were from God’s mouth and God’s Spirit. Because God put abundantly good things into the heart of Jesus, Jesus was able to speak good things that caused people to live. You cannot separate God from His Word. You cannot separate the Word of God from God either. Both of these are the same person. God’s words are God’s Spirit!
So what does all of this have to do with you and I? If you can agree with these things that I have said from the Bible. How do they apply to the here and now? Since you were made in the image and likeness of God, you can easily make some assumptions that if God’s words are His Spirit, then your words are your spirit. After all that is what Jesus said, from the abundance of what you have in your spirit, your mouth speaks. Jesus is described in the Bible as having the “Sword of the Spirit” coming out of His mouth. This is just another way to say what Jesus said in John 6:63. The sword of God’s sprit is His spoken words. The sword of your spirit is also the words of your spirit and what is abundantly in it. Many people in the world, utter curse words and blaspheme God’s name in every other sentence. This represents what they have abundantly in their hearts. Whatever you have abundantly in your heart is what will leak out of your mouth, this is a law of God and the way things work and connect to the spiritual realm from the natural realm and vice versa. Your mouth produces words that originated from the spiritual realm. These words are a result of whatever you put in your spirit, good or bad. In Proverbs God said this:
Pro 18:21 Death and Life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Those are some of the strongest words found in the Bible about the words that come out of your mouth. This verse in Proverbs tells you very clearly that your tongue has power and as a result of what you say, you either live or you die. Please keep this in mind and learn what God is trying to get you to see. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words, you can continue with “Part 6“.
Understanding God’s Circumcision of the Heart!
(Ver 1.2) This is of course a potentially explosive subject of an extremely controversial nature. There are well over 100 verses in the Bible that have a related topic or subject. I will of course not be trying to speak to all of these verses. What I will be attempting to do is focus on God’s typology from the O.T. and how it applies to the spiritual realm in the N.T. The Bible can be very complex, God can speak of natural things and spiritual things and call them by the exact same names. This makes Bible interpretation very difficult for many people and causes a great number of people to be very confused. Today’s subject is a key example of this point. Circumcision is normally thought of in natural terms only, but we soon discover that God gave us this natural example to teach us of something that we could not see with our natural eyes. Here we go with today’s Hot Topic, the Circumcision of the Heart. Let’s start by looking at an Old Testament prophecy and see what it says:
Deu 30:6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
If you can read and see what this verse declares then you will better understand the verses that we will look at next in the New Testament. This verse tells us that God will do something that we are unable to do. This verse is not speaking of your physical heart, it is speaking of your spirit. In this verse God says I will circumcise your spirit. This of course is a symbolic spiritual operation and not a physical operation. After you are born again your spirit is uncovered, enabling you to see spiritual things. We’ll probably talk about this more soon, but notice this is an Old Testament verse so it has to be a prophetic future event. It also mentions your heart or your spirit and your soul and your flesh or body is the implied reference of circumcision. This helps us to see that man is a triune being made in the image and likeness of God.
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
As you can clearly see in these two verses in Romans, God is contrasting and comparing two different groups of people. Both are referred to as being Jews, but one group is said to be circumcised by God and the other group by the hands of men. What do you think this is talking about? I’m sure if you do not want to accept what it says, that you must have already created an alternative interpretation. What we discover in the Bible is that, God initiated natural circumcision in the flesh way back with Abraham. This was an outward sign of the Old Covenant. Of course this was only a male practice and not done to females. This was not something God did personally, you do understand that, don’t you? So down through the centuries, the priests of Israel would perform this ritual to the male child on the 8th day after birth. This is the circumcision done by the hands of men that God is speaking of and comparing it to the real circumcision. God says very clearly in Romans 2:28 and 29 that these are not the true Jews. As you can see that is an extremely unpopular verse of scripture in many churches. Of course I added the word “True” before Jews in order to introduce a qualifier or an adjective to distinguish one kind of Jew from another kind of Jew spoken of in the Bible. So you may not totally agree with my adjective, “True”. You see God calls them that have been circumcised inwardly of the heart and the spirit to be the “real” Jew. God does the inward circumcision in man’s spirit and this is a fact whether you are male or female in the natural realm. What God does in the spirit realm is the Real Deal and everything else that man does is just a temporary patterned type of the real.
When God says something is “inward” and describes this in relationship to the terms of “hearts” and “spirits”, God is revealing a world that we cannot normally see with our eyes. Unless God gives you a vision into the spiritual realm, you are limited to your natural perception of reality. You can of course learn about the spiritual realm of God, by correctly observing what God teaches us in the Bible. The Bible says that God is a Spirit (John 4:24), have you ever seen God? The Bible actually says no man has ever seen God (1 Jo 4:12). So God is speaking of a Spiritual Realm or Dimension that is different than the natural realm that we live in here. I would venture to say that there are many Christians in the world that must not know this.
So why did God give Israel the Law and all of these outward practices that they have done such a poor job at keeping? I believe one reason that God gave Israel the Law was to prove to man that he was incapable of keeping it. Meaning God recorded the law for man to see God’s level of expectations and His requirements to obtain or earn righteousness by works and no man has ever fulfilled these requirements, except for Jesus Christ.
Rom 2:25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made un circumcision.
We can again see in Romans that God declares that man could achieve righteousness of his own works if he was able to keep all of the law of God. But, since everyone has broken at least one law, God declares that you are guilty of breaking all of the law (James 2:10) So as a result of breaking the law, God says your outward physical circumcision has been rendered useless, you have become like the un-circumcision. So apparently the fact that you are circumcised in your flesh has been superseded by a spiritual requirement that you were not aware of.
Act 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
These are the words of Stephen speaking to the natural Jews on trial for his life as witnesses came before the elders and priests and lied to them about the words of Stephen. God further confirms that those who are judging Stephen are not the True Jews that God is looking for. God did not care about their fleshly signs of the Covenant of Old. God was using Stephen to look into their hearts and see that their spirits needed this circumcision done by God’s hands. You do understand that both Stephen and Paul were circumcised in their flesh and they counted this as unimportant. I guess I should change that, they saw a need for a greater circumcision done by God to be more important than that which was done by the hands of men. You can also learn that this circumcision involves your ears also. Did you know your spirit is connected to your ears? The Bible says “Faith comes by hearing”. Faith is a spiritual force and a factor that comes from hearing the truth of God’s Word. The truth can be easily rejected, as evidenced by the number of denominations in the Christian body. Evidently part of God’s circumcision results in the ability to hear the truth. Men can still choose to reject it and thus we have such a vast array of writings about what the truth is.
Col 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
This is another verse that declares the church to be the “circumcision” made without the hands of men. This of course is a spiritual circumcision done by God. This verse informs us that God has cut off the body of the sins of the flesh. What is this talking about? Just because we become a born again believer in Christ, we still have the same body that we did before we were saved. So God must be talking about something symbolically that occurred within us that has not occurred in those in the world. If you do not know what I am talking about, I would be concerned that I am not saved. You see Christians should be becoming more and more spiritually aware as they grow in Christ.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spiriit, that we are the children of God:
God is a Spirit and if you are born again the Spirit of God has now come into your spirit on the inside of you and He now is the witness to the fact that you are a child of God. Isn’t that what this verse is saying? Apparently according to this verse, Christians are suppose to be spiritually alive and aware. If you have become more aware of spiritual things and less aware of natural things, then you are a Real Christian. If you have more concern with things about your body, than you do with your spirit, I would be very concerned. God gives us a fact that the circumcision of the body is a removal of the dominance of the flesh that every non-believer still experiences. People in the world are more concerned with how they feel and how you make them feel than they are about you personally. This becoming spiritually aware is the circumcision of the body from the spirit of man done by God. God gives you the ability to focus on what is more important. God gives you the ability to focus on eternal things more than the temporary things of this 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.
What are these things that you can see being referenced in this verse? You can see your face in the mirror, you can see your food on your plate. You can see the house that you live in. You can see the car that you drive to name a few things that God said that are not that important. What are the things that you cannot see that God said were eternal? If your body is not eternal and God said you are, then you must be a spirit being that will live forever somewhere. Within the body of every human being is a spirit being that will exist somewhere forever. God is a Spirit and He will live forever. Every spiritual being is eternal. Did you know that the only thing that you will take with you to heaven or to hell is your experiences and memories on the earth. You will get a new body eventually, but that is not the body you have now. So what are the eternal things that you should be concerned with? I believe it is your job to get as many of your friends saved as you can. I believe it is your job to tell everyone that you can about Jesus and what He has done for them. These are the eternal things that you can take with you. Thank you for reading my Bible study on the circumcision done by the hands of God.
The Book of Ruth, Types and Shadows Revealed
(Ver 2.1) This is “Part 5” in a series of essential Bible lessons on “Understanding the Book of Ruth”. We have explored a lot of information, but have conceivably left out a lot of information at the same time. It is almost impossible to fully cover any subject in the Bible, because no one knows everything about the subjects in the Bible, except for God. I am a firm believer that God created this book of the Bible with an infinite number of thoughts and ideas, words and phrases, subjects and topics that are so well connected that it near impossible to discover them all in a human lifetime. I have already given you a significant amount of evidence that the type of Ruth appears to correspond to the spiritual characteristics of the church of Jesus Christ called His bride. We have also seen evidence that Boaz appears to be a type and “the” pattern representative of the spiritual savior and kinsman redeemer named Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There are a lot of Christians who do not understand these hidden types found within the Old Testament patterns. There are even some preachers who teach against these symbols being Christ and the church. I have heard several internet bloggers and teachers that attempt to convince us that the natural nation of Israel represents Ruth as the Bride of Christ. The claim proposes that only natural Israel can represent the woman Ruth who will be married to Jesus. These teachers further claim that since the Bible says the Church is the Body of Christ, they also call the church the husband to Israel. What they do is take one truth found in the New Testament and fail to balance it with other truths correctly. That is a major problem for the source of confusion.
I am saddened how people can be so ignorant and come up with such wild and crazy theological theories. These types of theories have such broad holes of contradictions within them and these can be easily seen if desired. But people do this and Satan enjoys the confusion that is caused in the church. Opinions and theories like these, do not hold water when analyzed correctly using the Bible. If you have not read this series of lessons from the beginning I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1“.
First of all, we need to remember that Ruth was a Gentile and that is obviously the first problem with this erroneous interpretation of Israel being the bride of Christ. A gentile by definition is not a natural Jew or a descendant of natural Israel. Ruth was a Moabite and a descendent of Lot, Abraham’s relative, but clearly clearly Ruth did not descend from Abraham. While reading the book of Ruth it is very challenging to see and know everything about what applies and how they apply to each of the given types and shadows. God selected truthful natural events, peoples and places in the Bible to represent future spiritual patterns that have or will occur in the future. However, the natural people, places and events do not always fit exactly and perfectly with what we know at this time. So it becomes difficult for some to understand how they all fit completely together. Much like a shadow being cast on the ground by the bright sunshine, a natural object makes a recognizable pattern on the ground, and so it is with Bible types and shadows also. The spiritual shadows found in the natural things of the Old Testament Bible leaves out most of the details of the coming spiritual reality that is causing the shadow. This is just how Bible types and shadows work by God’ design. Shadows always represent broad strokes of truth with a limited direct set of all of the details. But God is very wise and kind to insert enough clues to teach us how they are representative of the real spiritual realm. I hope we all understand this concept going forward. At the minimum please understand a lot of the details were omitted by God on purpose to both conceal and reveal the truth simultaneously. The fact that we do not know everything, we are blessed and should be thankful to God for our ability to see the parts that were revealed to us. Thank you LORD!
Let’s start today’s lesson by listing the primary themes and patterns that are found in the book of Ruth. I will list these in no particular order, and give you a brief description of what I believe they mean and then we will look at how to apply them.
|
Themes Found in the Book of Ruth |
Description |
| Life and Death | Elimilech and his sons all die after leaving Bethlehem. Death is said to be a separating force from the living. Thus represents the end of a covenant/marriage between a husband and wife as is said in many marriage vows, “until death do we part”. Therefore, Death is also the simultaneous ending of two in unity and the beginning of the problem of needing someone to be the answer/redeemer that can only come from someone that is living (Rom 7:1-4). |
| Families | One major theme of the entire book. Ruth is the story of one family’s struggle with life’s difficult circumstances and how a close relative comes to redeem and save them to create an heir so that the family’s name would not be erased without an heir. |
| Hunger and Famine | A lack of food that causes people to do things that they would not normally do under better circumstances. |
| Widowhood | God’s legal separation for a marriage covenant between a wife and her husband (Rom 7:1-4). |
| The Law | The plans and rules of God based upon His wisdom to help man learn their need for a redeemer. |
| Faith and Faithfulness | Faith is believing in something is true even when it looks like it is not true. Faithfulness is remaining loyal to someone or something even though it does not look like the best choice at the time. |
| Humility | The opposite of pride. A humble person always obtains the favor and the grace of God. |
| Wheat Harvests | A crop of intentionally planted seeds. |
| Passover | A specific time of the season for remembrance and the partaking of a covenant meal. |
| Near Kinsman | A relative that is living who is legally qualified and required by law to become our redeemer. |
| Love | The central theme of all the Bible. |
| Grace | That which is given to us freely, even though we do not deserve it. We partake of God’s grace by our faith. |
| Redemption | The act of restoring one’s former sold possessions back into your legal ownership. |
| Marriage | A covenant between a man and a woman. The two shall become one flesh! |
| Children | The primary reason for redemption of the dead brother. A redeemer would marry the dead brother’s wife and have a child. This child would be raised up as the dead brother’s heir of his property. Therefore, this child would keep alive the name of the dead. |
In reading through my list of the primary themes found in the book of Ruth, I hope that you can begin to see how they fit into the spiritual picture of Christ and the church.
Now let’s list the primary people and places found in the book of Ruth and see if we can determine who they possibly represent by looking at the definition of their names from the Strong’s concordance.
|
Name |
Definition of the Name |
| Elimilech | God of the King |
| Naomi | Pleasant |
| Mahlon | Sick |
| Chilion | Pinning destruction |
| Ruth | Friend |
| Orpah | Mane, back of the neck |
| Boaz | Unknown Root Word of unknown Meaning |
| Obed | Servant |
| Mara | Bitter |
| Bethlehem | House of Bread |
| Moab | The Mother’s Father |
BETHLEHEM
These are most of the primary characters and places revealed to us in the book of Ruth. As you can tell by reviewing the list, we still have a lot to learn. Let’s start near the end of the list first with BethlehemJudah. Places are often times used in the Bible to signify a spiritual state or a realm of existence. BethlehemJudah as it is called in verse 1 of Ruth chapter 1 is like the key place where the descendants of the tribe of Judah lived. When Joseph and Mary were about to have the baby Jesus, they were required by decree to go to Bethlehem, because they were of the lineage and descents of King David who came from the House of Judah. Because of this royal command of a census they were required to travel to their home city to pay their tax. Thus Jesus was born in the exact prophesied location (Micah 5:2), even though his parents did not live there. That was a very tricky thing for God to accomplish. If you recall, the Jews thought Jesus was from Nazareth and thus missed the coming of their Messiah. We can conclude or at least assume that the story of Ruth is related to Jesus, because of this given specific location.
Most of the time, the names of people and places in the Bible have meanings attached to them. Many times these names help to reveal the characteristics and types of the spiritual realm entity that they represent. Often times the meaning of names reveals clues that are definitely important to understanding the meaning of the typology in the story. Judah is a Hebrew word that means several things and has vast implications attached to it. Judah comes from a word that means “to throw with your hands”, it also has implications of reverence and worship as in to “praise”. In other words to “worship” with “extended hands”. Bethlehem as we have already seen means “the house of bread”. We can see that the word “house” means a family of relatives. The term bread means “food for the implied life and strength of men”. Are you seeing anything that sounds familiar? Jesus said He was the bread of life (John 6:48). So we must be talking about the family of God in this story of Ruth. This would mean that Judah represents the people who praise God, who are part of the city and the family of God.
MOAB
Moab is of course much more difficult to get people to see, because they have really given it no thought or deep study. Moab was the incestuous son of Lot and his daughter. Moab the son of Lot was also a half-brother to his mother. Moab was both the son of Lot and the grandson of Lot and all of this just complicates things. The term Moab means “the mother’s father”. The region of Moab was where Elimilech traveled when he thought there was no food (bread) in Bethlehem. These Moabites were Gentile people who were not in covenant with God and were not the children of Abraham. So we can see that this has an implied meaning of those outside of the family of God. This could be representative of the unsaved world and the all the people in it. Ruth of course was a Moabitish woman and therefore came from the realm of the unsaved to be married in covenant with the Savior and her redeemer. Moab is mentioned more than 100 times in the Bible and most of the time it is not a positive place or reference. Moab is usually a better place to be from than a place to be living in now. We can understand this is a picture of the Bride of Christ. Those who have come out of their Moab and now live in the House of God’s Bread of Life. The type of the church is a very good picture of those who have come out of false gods, to know the true living God. Ruth is a great type of this picture and I believe this is why God put her in this book of the Bible.
RUTH
The name “Ruth” means “a friend”. Jesus picked up on this in the book of John and revealed to us the connection when speaking to His disciples:
Joh 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
Jesus clearly speaking to the future church calls them His friends. Do you think this was an accident or a coincidence that Jesus did this? I definitely do not think so. I believe it is a clue that represents His connection to the book of Ruth and helps to identify the symbolic reference to the bride of the redeemer. We know that Ruth exemplified certain qualities in the Bible that are related to those of the church today. The primary quality that qualifies Ruth as a type of the church is “faith”. Ruth trusted in a God she did not yet know and God came through for her above and beyond all of her expectations. Next, the quality of “faithfulness”. Faithfulness is related to faith, but yet still different. To be faithful to your spouse is what Ruth was to Naomi and eventually to Boaz. The third quality of Ruth that qualifies her for the type of the church is “humility”. The true church should be humble in their attitudes and come with respect and reverence towards their Savior and Redeemer. Humility is the opposite to pride, and pride was the downfall of Lucifer. By remaining humble before God we are qualified to receive the grace of God.
I want to add a fourth quality. Ruth trusted completely in a religion and a people that were not her people. As sinners we are not in the family of God. We were born naturally as uncircumcised (not in covenant) with God people. But Ruth saw something in this family that was different than how she was raised and she followed her mother-in-law into this path of becoming a part of her family. The Jewish family of Naomi became her family. How does this pattern fit the church? We should know by reading the New Testament that the New Covenant began with only Jewish people. The 12 disciples were Jewish, the 120 in the upper room in Acts 2 were all Jewish, the apostle Paul was Jewish, etc. So when God moved to save the Gentiles, they all had to trust what these Jewish people were telling them was true. Wow, I think that is amazing. I thank God for the Jewish people that spread the message of Good News to everyone in the world.
BOAZ
Boaz has a name that has no direct definition attached using Strong’s definitions. But the BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs) says it means “fleetness” and the NASEC says it means “quickness”. This appears to indicate a person who is fast in motion, reaction or response. But, I believe the best description of Boaz comes from his personal title descriptions. These seem to help us identify his spiritual position within the story in precision. We saw earlier that Boaz was called the Kinsman Redeemer. That means a near relative who has the legal ability and responsibility to redeem. That is exactly what Jesus is. Jesus left heaven and became a man just like one of us. Because of Jesus’ unselfish acts of kindness and love we have an unmerited opportunity for salvation made available to us.
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
We can clearly see in the N.T. that it talks of Jesus being the redeemer of the church. He has bought us out of a situation that we could not solve ourselves. This was exactly Ruth’s situation in the O.T. As you recall Ruth was from Moab and we have found that this represents the unsaved natural world.
1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
The church is said to have been bought with a price and we have become His property from the purchased price of His shed blood. This is exactly the pattern of the transaction that took place in the book of Ruth. Boaz redeemed the property of his dead brother and also bought the woman Ruth to be his wife in the transaction. This is what God did, and it was God’s idea, God’s plan for redemption, and God’s system of salvation. To humans it does not make much sense, but to those who can see , it is a great and wise plan. Boaz is called a near relative, Jesus you could say was our near relative. Because Jesus became a man, like one of us, that qualifies Jesus to be our redeemer. Boaz demonstrated love, kindness, grace and extends favor to his future bride when she is unable to do anything to save herself. This is also a perfect picture of Christ and the Church. By Grace are we Saved through Faith.
The Marriage of Boaz the Jewish Brother to Ruth the Gentile
While the Bible is very complex, it does present us some clues to the relationship of Jesus and the church. There are specific verses found in the Bible that declare the Gentiles will trust in the coming Messiah. Ruth obviously trusted in Boaz enough to lay by his feet on the threshing floor. Ruth put her confidence in her redeemer and this was a picture of church to Christ.
Isa 42:6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
This verse in Isaiah is referring to Jesus Christ, who is the picture of Boaz. In relationship to Jesus, He is mentioned to be the “Light of the Gentiles”. We can easily see how this fits with the picture of Ruth. So while the name Ruth is not directly mentioned in the Bible, the type of Ruth is mentioned in verses like these that I am giving you. Here is another one that is applicable:
Isa 11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
The Root of Jesse is again a reference to Jesus Christ our redeemer. The reference is given to us in this verse that the Ruths of the world will seek after Him. In reading the story of Ruth, you notice that Ruth goes from a poor widow field laborer to a woman married to one of the richest men in the city. Do you think Boaz’s rest was good for Ruth? How does the wealth of Jesus compare to that of Boaz’s money and possessions?
Mat 12:21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
Speaking of Jesus, in Matthew, the Gentiles put their confidence in Him. This is the church to their redeemer. Isaiah 11:10 is also quoted in Romans 15:12 and declares that the Gentiles have put their trust in their Boaz. The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son….”. We could say it in another way also, that “God so loved Ruth from Moab that he gave His Boaz to redeem us…” and all I did was change the names to the symbolic names found in the Book of Ruth. We can easily see that Boaz was motivated by love when he did what he did for Ruth and Naomi. Because of Ruth’s faith towards God she is now the wife of the savior and redeemer. A marriage in the Bible is a covenant in the eyes of God and a covenant is a marriage. You can see this revelation clearly by examining verses found in Jeremiah31:32 and Malachi 2:14 to name a couple of the obvious verses that you can find and read in the Bible. So far the picture of Ruth as the church and bride fits with other verses in the Bible that state Jesus is the bridegroom (John 3:29, Revelation 21:9).
ELIMILECH
Elimilech is a very specific Hebrew name that means a very specific thing. The name “Elimilech” means “God of the King”. Right there is where the difficulty begins for most Christians. That is a Hebrew word that has the name of God “Elohiym” joined to the Hebrew word for “King”. This of course has widespread implications written on it everywhere. As you recall from the book of Ruth, Elimilech dies. So who in the Bible is the “God of the King”? David was a popular King in the Bible and the God of King David was “Elohiym”. But I do not believe David is the correct answer for who this represents.
Maybe we should start with who is the real King? Our King is said to be Jesus Christ. Jesus is called the King of kings (Rev 19:16, Rev 17:14). David was told by God that one of his descendants would sit upon the throne forever as eternal King. Jesus also qualifies as a Son of David for this position. So we can fairly easily conclude that Jesus is the King. Who is the God of Jesus? You can begin to see the challenge starting to get much deeper now and much harder to understand. We all should know that Jesus was God and there is none beyond or above Him. The God of the Bible is the only true and living God. We can begin to see glimpses into the complexity of God’s manifested and revealed natures and personalities. There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and yet these three are all still One God.
So anyway, Elimilech must represent our Creator God the Father, just using the name’s definition. But how is this possible? It is technically not possible for God a Spirit (Jn 4:24) to die, however if God does not personally die for our sins, our sins are not forgiven. Thus, we have a paradox and a puzzle presented to us from the Bible. Jesus Christ was the Son of God, yet at the same time He was still God in the flesh (2 Cor 5:19). We also know that Jesus said, “When you have seen me you have seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). Therefore, whatever happened to Jesus, happened to God. This is just basic logic using the verses that we have covered. If Satan and the Jews hang Jesus Christ on a cross, they are hanging God himself on the cross. Do you remember what Jesus said in a parable about killing the “heir” (Luke 20:14)? Jesus tells of a field that has been let out to a husbandman and the owner of the field sends servants to collect of the fruit, but they come away empty. Now, finally the owner of the field sends his son, saying they will respect him, but they do not, instead they kill him because he is the heir of the property that hey do not own but are using temporarily. By killing the Son of God, they think they have possessed the inheritance. Instead, they have sealed their fate.
It is important to note that Elimilech in this story represents God who dies. Through His death a redeemer is now required to save the property that He had owned. The Redeemer is of course also God and His name is Jesus Christ. Do remember what Romans 7:1-4 teaches us? Paul writing to Jewish people in these verses because they know the law, tells them they are under the bondage to the LAW and their covenant with God the Father until He dies. Then in verse 4 Paul gives them the good news (Gospel), that they are now freed from that law because of the death of Jesus on the cross. But, by Jesus having died, the Old Covenant was terminated for everyone that accepts God’s New Covenant righteousness by faith in His risen from the dead “Son” (Rom 4:13). Now the Jewish people bound to the law were legally free to enter into another marriage covenant with someone and Paul informs us this should be the Risen from the Dead LORD JESUS CHRIST. Wow, this should cause a lot of new light to begin to shine within your spirit.
NAOMI
Naomi is called “Pleasant” by the meaning of her name. Since she is married to Elimilech who represent God the Father, then we can conclude very easily that Naomi is an allegorical representation of the people in the natural Nation of Israel and those that were under the law of Moses. Naomi represents the Old Covenant relationship with God. Israel was the female wife of the Old Testament God of Abraham (Jer 31:32). She knows the law and uses the law to try to obtain her righteousness by works. In the book of Ruth Naomi is the mother-in-law to Ruth and she tells her what to do based upon her knowledge of the law to get her redeemer. This again is an exact picture of the early church. Do you realize that the only Bible the early church had was the Old Testament? Jesus taught exclusively from the text from these O.T. books. Peter taught from the O.T. in the book of Acts. The New Testament contains a whole bunch of quotes from the Old Testament. What God did was finally reveal the true meaning of the Old Testament to the church. Before, the church came along the O.T. was a giant spiritual puzzle of information that no man could understand. However, the New Testament is written largely from the revelation given to Paul and the other apostles about the things that explain what the O.T. really means. However, it also gives us a pattern that God can still hide more information for us to discover, even today.
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
As you can clearly see in this scripture written in Jeremiah, God says that His Old Covenant was a marriage to the people of natural Israel. God is said to be their husband, they are implied to be the wife. We can therefore conclude that this is a revealed pattern of the coming New Covenant also. If one covenant was a marriage, the other covenant is also a marriage. The first is to a natural people, and the New is to a spiritual people.
So Naomi was married to Elimilech and Israel was married to Elohim (God). Naomi became a widow after her husband died, and so did Israel. So it still is a little bit difficult to understand, I know. We know that Ruth is faithful to Naomi and this seems to be a perfect picture of the Church’s continued faithfulness to the nation of Israel even today. It seems that the whole world wants to destroy the nation of Israel, except for a few that are controlled by a predominate Christian presence. The hatred towards the nation of Israel is extremely unique among all nations. I do not recall any other nation being so easily maligned and attacked in so many different ways. It is noteworthy to mention that the nation of Israel receives support from the Christians of the world and this is a picture of Ruth. Just as Naomi benefited from Ruth’s marriage to Boaz, Israel benefits from the church’s marriage to Jesus Christ. However, it is still important to note that Boaz was not married to Naomi, only Ruth was in covenant with Boaz and this is how the New Covenant is today also. Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God is in covenant with the Church and not natural Israel. Israel can receive benefits from the church’s relationship, but they are required to be born again and join the same church for salvation as everyone else. The Bible says that Israel is being provoked to “jealousy” (Rom 10:19). What makes you jealous? What makes women jealous? Other women make women jealous. Jealousy occurs when someone has something that you do not have. The church now has a better covenant with God, that Israel does not have anymore and this is the point of jealousy.
Rom 9:25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
God prophecies something in Hosea that is very profound and reveals the coming jealousy of Israel. Israel who were God’s people are now said not to be God’s people. Yes or No? Of course that is what it says, whether you like it or not. The nation of natural Israel who was the beloved wife of God, is now not the wife of God. These are physical vs. spiritual truths being presented to us. God is saying that I will make a New Covenant with a people that were not my people and now they will become my New Covenant spiritual people and my new beloved wife. This is the picture of Ruth and Boaz given to us in this story of love and redemption.
Death and Marriage
Now let’s examine a new aspect that the Bible talks about that maybe you have not seen before. If you recall I said earlier that death was a legal separation of marriages. That means when Ruth’s husband died she was now free to marry another man without retribution or the accusation of adultery. This is a Bible principle and a law found in the Bible that I refer to as the “Law of Marriage”. This is what Jesus says about the subject:
Mat 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
These are the words of God himself and they tell you exactly what God thinks about people’s wrong attitudes in the world today. I believe the divorce rate within the church is up to around 50% and that is crazy. So what does this have to do with the story of Ruth, you ask? This is what it has to do with the story of Ruth:
Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
In this chapter of Roman God is discussing marriage covenants and He says that a woman is bound to her covenant husband by the established law of God (Gen 2:24). If you recall in Genesis 2, when God created woman (Eve), she came from the body of her husband Adam. God then gave us the law of marriage. “A husband shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall be one flesh”. So just because you get a divorce that does not solve the “one flesh” part of God’s covenant arrangement. As you can see in Romans 7:2 the wife is joined to her husband as long as he is alive. But, since Ruth’s husband was dead that changes everything. Let’s keep reading in Romans:
Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
So a woman who divorces her husband and marries another man is called an adulterer. So what does this have to do with Ruth, well you have to just read the next verse in Romans to find that out:
Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
In this chapter of Romans, God is speaking directly to the natural Jews and not the Gentiles. Why is that important? Because the natural Jews were the people that were married to God in the Old Covenant and if they now wanted to be married in covenant with another man while their first husband was still living, they would be in adultery. This is of course a very difficult thing to think about. God is a spiritual being and it is impossible to kill a spiritual being. That is why God became a natural and mortal man. By becoming a natural human man, God can now experience death (Heb 2:14). As you can see in Romans 7:4 it says very clearly that because Jesus died, they (Jews that know the law) are now legally free to “marry” another husband. This is a picture of the risen Jesus and the New Covenant. Did you realize that the New Covenant is with the Risen from the dead Jesus and not with the natural Jesus who walked the face of the earth as a natural human mortal male? Did you realize that this is an important fact to know?
The risen from the dead Lord Jesus is an eternal being and now a manifested permanent member of the Godhead. So the difference between Jesus the natural man and the risen Jesus, is that the natural man was born of a woman as a mortal man who could die and the risen Jesus was born of the Spirit cannot die anymore. The risen Jesus was born of the Spirit and He is the Immortal God Man. There are some big differences between the two. In Hebrews 13:20 God informs us that Jesus was raised from the dead in order to implement an everlasting covenant marriage. This statement has staggering implications that other covenants not implement by the same Power of God are potentially not everlasting. In fact Jesus claims in John 14:6 that He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by and through Him. Wow, that is an amazing statement. This would seem to imply angelic beings as well as every human on the planet, past present and future.
I know that Jesus our savior we have a covenant with Him alone. I also know that He was God in the flesh, but yet He was not God in His full Omnipotent Powers, or it would have been impossible to kill Him. Jesus was a man that was able to be killed and that is not God in His FULL Deity Power. So did God die? If God did not experience death then you and I will soon have to experience it and we won’t like the end results. We know that “through death he (Jesus) destroyed him that had the power of death (Satan)” (Heb 2:14). So it is important to note that Jesus died physically and through his death he accomplished many positive things for us. Thank you Jesus
The Coming Wheat Harvest
This story of Ruth is a natural example of a spiritual truth that has occurred and is occurring already in the spiritual realm. We the church are gleaning and gathering in the harvest of God’s spiritual crop of people in the world which is God’s harvest field.
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.
You see in the book of Ruth, the woman works the field to bring in a ripe crop. This is all typological to the story of the Church reaping the harvest of God’s precious fruit that He is still waiting patiently for. There will come a time when the harvest is over and that is a day of grave consequences for many, yet that is the reality of God. Jesus told us in Matthew 9:37 that the “harvest is truly plenteous but the laborers are few”. God is of course not talking about a natural harvest, but a spiritual harvest of people. Jesus taught numerous things about spiritual things, using crops, fields, seeds and laborers. You should go and study all of these and see how they relate to the story of Ruth. I believe you will find them very important to know.
The Nearer Kinsman Redeemer
I would like us to look at the “unnamed” man in the story of Ruth that is referred to as the nearer kinsman redeemer. It will be good for us to stop and understand what the meaning of a “Nearer Kinsman” is defined to be in the Bible. This term “nearer” is referring to the eldest living relative, and most of the time refers to a male that is a related blood brother by birth. We learn this concept in several examples of the Bible. For instance, reading the story Judah and his three sons in Genesis 38. This eldest son Er was given a wife named Tamar, but he died before having children. The next eldest son was given the dead firstborn son’s wife next. He refused to have children by her because it would ruin his inheritance. He died and now the youngest son would have the final chance, but he was not given to her. Tamara seeing this, dresses as a prostitute and has intercourse with Judah the father of her husband. She becomes pregnant and because of this the blood line of Jesus remained intact.
Another nearer kinsman example is found when Jewish religious leaders ask Jesus a question to test Him about the resurrection (Mat 22:22-28). In this test, they create a story of 7 brothers who all share the same woman as wife. Each died without creating a child and then they ask which husband will be married to the woman after the resurrection, since all had her? This again teaches us that the Jewish people who knew the law understood the law of redemption. Each brother from the eldest firstborn, to the last youngest would have married the same woman to raise a family heir. They would have accomplished this responsibility in the order of birth, from eldest to youngest.
The parallel example of the eldest to youngest near relative takes place in Chapter 4 of Ruth beginning at verse 1. It might be good for you to go and reread it to see the details given to us by God. Boaz goes to the gate of the city. This represents the place of government and business. Boaz requests the elders of the city to witness what he must do. Then a man that Boaz recognizes comes by the gate and this is the nearer kinsman redeemer that has the first right of refusal to buy the land of Naomi. Boaz tells the nearer relative that he must buy the property of their brother Elimelech and if he does not, he will do his family responsibility to buy it. But Boaz also informs this nearer kinsman redeemer that he must also marry Ruth the Moabite gentile to raise up a seed for the dead brother. This when the nearer kinsman informs everyone that this will “mar” his inheritance.
The Hebrew word H7843 that is translated as “mar” literally means to “ruin”. This nearer kinsman redeemer believed that by him taking this dead brother’s inheritance it would cause him to lose his own birthright. It is a very interesting problem. When is the first time this situation occurs in the Old Testament? It happens to occur in Genesis 38. In Genesis 38 God describes the story of Judah, his wife and his 3 sons. Judah arranges a marriage for his firstborn son and her name is Tamar. The firstborn son’s name is Er and he died without having any children with Tamar. Judah then gives Tamar to be the next in line kinsman brother named Ono. But this son is just like the nearer redeemer in Ruth and refuses to have a child with Tamar because he would be raising up seed for his dead brother and not for himself. Onan finds displeasure with God for this act, and he dies. There is a third son named Shelah and he is too young for Tamar, and she is asked by Judah to wait until he is old enough to become his wife. But this never happens. It would appear that Judah fears to lose this son also by marrying him to Tamar.
Now we get to Tamar’s righteous deception again. She tricks Judah into thinking she was a prostitute, and she has Judah’s children. One of these twins becomes the continuation of the family line that produces Jesus the Lion from the tribe of Judah. Wow, this child for the dead was the one that carried the family line forward for Christ. Wow! Ok, what do you see in all of this typology? Remember that Ruth was a Gentile that became pregnant to carry on the same family lineage for Christ. Notice, how the Hebrew word that is translated as “daughter-in-law” in the book of Ruth is the same word used in Genesis 38 for Tamar. This is God connecting them together by His word selection, family lineage and repeated pattern. It is important to see the patterns being repeated with the parallels and similarities in these two stories.
Who could this nearer kinsman redeemer represent in our Bible typology examination? I see him as a mystery in the puzzle since he is unnamed. This is a very challenging spiritual person to solve. I have learned to observe what Satan is attempting to deceive us with in the church and the world. By carefully observing Satan’s plans to distract, discount and discourage us from believing in what the Bible teaches us, he causes people to have doubt like Eve. “Has God really said?” One thing I have seen is there has been a satanic agenda that has been extended in the world to try to get people to believe that Jesus our Lord and Savior (God in the Flesh) had physical children on the earth while He was in His mortal human body. The accusation is made that Jesus had a physical relationship with Mary Magdalene and she gave him natural children upon the earth that are still existing today. Wow, this is such nonsense. But it became a huge movie in 2003.
So why would the mortal Jesus not want to take a natural wife and create His own family on the earth? The answer is simply because this was NOT the plan of God. We need to go and read Romans 7:4 again. This verse reveals that the marriage covenant with the church is with the Risen from the Dead LORD Jesus Christ. This is so very important to know. The Risen LORD is now fully deity absent of mortal flesh. He can then legally send His Spirit to live on the inside of each of us (His Body & Bride). This is one of the main reasons why Satan would have never crucified the LORD of Glory (1 Cor 2:8).
We will end this section with this information that is new to many Christians. Why did Jesus say a man must be born again to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Did Jesus include Himself in this statement or was he implied to be excluded in the statement because of His sinless life? I believe the statement was ALL inclusive and Jesus spoke of Himself prophesying His destiny to be God’s “FIRST” chosen Son and Heir. You see in Colossians 1:18 where Jesus was called by God to be the “FIRSTBORN from the dead”. God then tells us very clearly why this planned choice took place. God says He was born “first from the dead” in order to give Him “preeminence”. What does that mean? This Greek word G4409 means the first in rank and order.
God is teaching us that before Jesus was the first born from the dead, he was not the first in the order of rank or “preeminence”. Ok, now we are getting somewhere good. Boaz was not first in order when it came to his kinsman redeemer status to marry Ruth. So, they went to another to legalize the purchase of Naomi’s land and the marriage of Ruth. Because natural Jesus refused to make any covenants this indicates there could have been others that were above Him in rank or order that had the right of first refusal to covenant with the church. I believe this could have been Lucifer aka Satan. But the time to rejoice is Satan thought this would cause him to lose his legal inheritance in heaven. Of course that was my opinion and I am still looking to confirm this in the Word of God. It is interesting that most humans and many Christians do not believe in a devil! Let us wrap this section up.
Nevertheless, since Jesus is now “preeminent over and will always remain this way, every other spiritual being that came before Him has been eliminated from claims to us. The church now has their legal kinsman redeemer that will allow us to live forever (Jn 3:16) and have a marriage covenant that will not cease (Heb 13:20). Praise the LORD!
The Heir of the Dead
This was the book of Ruth and while we did not attempt to go into every detail or every type given, I gave you enough details to get you started. I will leave you with this thought. If Ruth does represent the church and Boaz represents the Risen Jesus Christ. Why did Boaz marry Ruth? The primary purpose and responsibility of every kinsman redeemer is to raise up an heir for the dead. So how does this apply to the main story characters: God, Israel, Jesus, and the Church?
Boaz has a son through the Gentile woman Ruth, they called this son Obed, which means “God’s servant”. Who died? God died, Adam died, Jesus died to name a few obvious choices and candidates. Jesus the eternal God Man now resolves two primary spiritual and natural patterns. By Jesus’ death on the cross, God is now free from every previous covenant relationship, whether this was Israel, Adam, or Satan. By the Risen Jesus establishing a New Covenant that is said to be better, man’s eternal separation from God has also been resolved, if you want to receive it. In the Book of Ruth, Ruth has a child that is the heir of the dead man’s family. If Jesus is the husband and the church is the bride, you have to see that Jesus will have a spiritual child through His new covenant bride/wife. This child has to be the Spirit of God, since the church is a spiritual woman and Jesus said that which is born of spirit is spirit (John 3:6). So we can see that the church must be going to have a child some day that will become the heir to everything that is or was in the spiritual and natural realms and the ownership of both of these realms will revert completely and totally back to God forever. We can see a prophetic view of this coming pregnant woman and her child in Revelation 12. From this point forward in Revelation God reveals the end and the demise of Satan’s future and decrees Satan’s destiny from the heavenly Judicial system using the law of God. This of course is all new stuff, so I anticipate it will be difficult for you to accept until you learn more. I would recommend that you not throw it away, just because it is new and different. At least study it and see if it is true. Thanks for studying the Book of Ruth with me. God Bless.
The Book of Ruth, The Man with a Shoe Loose and The Marriage of the Bride! Chapter 4
(Ver 1.1) We are now in chapter 4 of the book of Ruth. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning you should go back and start with “Part 1“. As you read chapter 3 of Ruth you should have noticed that Boaz tells Ruth that there is a closer relative than himself and he will have to see if the closer relative is willing to fulfill the law and marry her. You should remember that the law gave a specific order of precedence for the fulfillment of the requirement of the law. The order went from the closest or nearest relative to the most distant relative and always included the oldest male first down to the youngest male. So Boaz was not the first in the line of living relatives to marry Ruth according to the law of Moses. Therefore, Boaz in chapter 4 goes to the city gate and finds the nearer relative to discuss the situation with him. Boaz at this point must already know his intentions because Boaz has gathered the elders of the city to witness the discussion between himself and this closer relative.
Rth 4:3 And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s:
Boaz starts with the good news first. Naomi the widow of our dead brother, is come back and she is selling his property. So far this is a deal for any man that has money to buy it. To own land is a sign of wealth and to own a lot of land is a sign of great wealth. But, that was the good news and not the complete picture so here goes Boaz to explain what else is required.
Rth 4:4 And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.
So Boaz before the witnesses of the elders of the city informs this relative that it is his responsibility and his decision to make. He then informs him that besides them, there are no other relatives that are able to redeem the land of Naomi. This means that they are all either dead or there were just no other living male relatives born in the family.
Rth 4:5 Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
Now Boaz starts in with the potential bad news. I guess it depends upon your point of view, but it is either good or bad based upon how it will affect you personally. Since Boaz was the younger brother in this relationship, it affects him differently than the older brother. Let’s think about this and how it affects each man. Boaz says that by buying the land from Naomi, they must also buy it from Ruth since she was married to the son of their brother. According to the law of Moses, this involves marrying the widow of the dead so that the family name is not removed from the face of the earth. Whatever son that Ruth and the redeemer has, becomes the heir of Elimelech ‘s land. You see it starts to get a little complicated at this point, since the future heir is now the owner of the dead family’s property, the relative that married the widow has no family or heir. I know this is not technically correct, but yet this is the way that these people viewed the situation. You can see that by the reaction of the closer relative to the news of marrying the widow Ruth.
Rth 4:6 And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.
Did you see what the nearer kinsman said? He told Boaz I can’t redeem this land or marry the widow, because it will mess up my inheritance. In other words everything that he is in line for and everything his heirs are in line for will revert to the dead brother’s family and he would end up with nothing, so he thinks. So the nearer kinsman tells Boaz, I won’t redeem it, so you redeem it. This is of course what Boaz wanted to hear happen, yet the process had to be followed in the law and the procedures must be satisfied in the eyes of God and all legal actions satisfied with the elders of the city who were the witnesses.
Rth 4:7 Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: and this was a testimony in Israel.
Rth 4:8 Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe.
As you can see, the nearer relative’s house is now called “the house of him who has his shoe loosed”. In the eyes of the law, Boaz has satisfied all requirements and responsibilities and is now free to legally marry Ruth. Boaz tells the elders and the people of the city that they are all witnesses to the fact that he has bought the property of Naomi and Ruth.
It might help you to understand what just happened based upon another story found in the Bible. In Genesis chapter 38 there is a story of another family who is directly related to our story. The story of the son of Israel named Judah. He has three sons and the firstborn is named, Er. When Er grows up big enough to marry, Judah gets him a wife named Tamar. Remember Tamar? The Bible says that Er was wicked in the eyes of God and so he died very young. Judah then told Er’s brother to take the dead brother’s wife and have an heir for his dead brother, the firstborn Er. But, the Bible says that Onan knew if he had sex with Tamar and had a child that it would be for his brother and he would not get anything. So Onan basically refused to fulfill his requirements and the Bible says that he was found to be evil in the eyes of the Lord and he also died young. So far not a good story, but yet this is how those in the Bible dealt with these matters. Judah tells the widow Tamar to wait for the third and last son to grow up and she would become his wife and then that son would raise up an heir for the dead firstborn. In the process of time, Tamar waits, but nothing happens. Apparently Judah was not a man of his word. Judah’s wife died and one day he went up to the city to do some business. Tamar hears about this and takes off her widow garments and dresses up like a prostitute, covers her face and waits for Judah to come by. She deceives Judah into having sex with her and she becomes pregnant. Judah did not have the payment for the sex, so he left her his signet ring, a bracelet and his staff as collateral security until the agreed payment could be sent to her.
Tamar was not there for the sex or the payment that was promised to her. She was there because Judah had not fulfilled what he had spoken to her and her dead husband, Judah’s firstborn had no heir to continue the family name. So even though her methods were not very admirable her intentions before God were highly commendable. So Judah eventually sends the payment back for the harlot that he could get back his collateral, but they could not find any prostitutes to pay.
Then time passes and three months later Judah is informed that Tamar has played the harlot and has become pregnant by harlotry. Judah is outraged and tells them to get her and she will be killed for her error. So she appears before Judah and tells him that before you do anything, I am guilty of nothing. Here is the father of my child and she shows him, his signet, bracelet and staff. Judah’s reaction is shock and immediately says she has been more righteous than him, because he had not given her to his younger son to be his wife. Like I said, this is not a great or a highly positive moral standard Bible story that you want to teach your children in Sunday School, yet it has great significance to the story in the book of Ruth. It helps to explain the dilemma that the nearer relative was experiencing. Tamar is also a name mentioned in the Genealogy of Jesus so it must have some relevance to something we need to know. If you search the Bible, you will discover that the term “daughter-in-law” is not widely used. In fact Tamar and Ruth are only two of four women in the Bible called by this title. So they are directly related and tied together meaning they share some commonalities that are very distinctive. As we continue through Ruth chapter 4 you will see why I went over this story.
Rth 4:10 Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.
Boaz tells everyone to be witnesses to the fact that he has bought the land of the dead husband and he will marry the widow wife to raise up the name of the dead.
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.
The people of the city now speak a blessing on the actions of Boaz. Did you notice the name of Tamar being mentioned? You see if it was not for the illicit actions of Tamar there would be no Bethlehem or people to witness these deeds of Boaz. There would be no elders of the city, there would be no Elimilech, in fact there would be no Boaz. Everyone present was a descendant of the house of Judah whom Tamar his daughter-in-law bore to him. All of these people recognized that they would not be present if it were not for Tamar and they could foresee that down the road in the future there would be many people born on this planet who would be grateful that Ruth was there to raise up and continue the family name of the tribe of Judah. In fact looking at the genealogy found in the Bible, if not for Ruth and Boaz, there would have been no King David and eventually no Jesus Christ.
Rth 4:15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.
Boaz fulfills the requirements of the law and marries one of the few women in the Bible that get mentioned by name in the genealogy of Jesus our Savior. Boaz is called the redeemer, the restorer of life. and a nourisher. These are all terms that could describe Jesus to us today. The story of Ruth is different than what many people think of when thinking of Jesus and the church. Yet it has many natural patterns in it that are very significant to this spiritual reality. In my next blog I will try to explore more of these patterns given to us in the Book of Ruth.
You can continue reading this series, by going to “Part 5“.
The Book of Ruth, The Marriage Proposal! Chapter 3
(Ver 1.1) We have already seen in chapter 2 where Ruth has found favor in the eyes of Boaz her potential kinsmen redeemer and she has even eaten with him in resemblance to a covenant type meal where they have shared bread. We can tell that Boaz likes this woman and grants her grace beyond all others. Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law knows the law and has recognized who Boaz is. In this next chapter we will see that God has orchestrated the answer to Ruth’s problems because of Ruth’s faith. God has answered her confidence in Him beyond her wildest imagination. It is amazing what trusting God a little can do. If you have not read the first part of this series I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1“. Now, let’s now look at chapter 3:
Rth 3:2 And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.
Apparently, Naomi has some inside scoop on what Boaz is up to. Either Naomi is very nosy or Boaz has been dropping some clever clues in some obvious places. You figure out which one it is. Naomi knows that tonight Boaz will be working late in the threshing floor with the harvest. Of course all of this is symbolic and has meaning. Threshing in the Bible times was the harvest time activity by which the grain was removed from the husk. The husk represented the tares (or false grain) when it was separated from the actual usable good pieces of the plant. It really does not matter how this is done for this story, just the fact that it is being done is the part that is significant to what we need to know. If you study the words of Jesus you find that there is another coming harvest of people in the world in Matthew 13. Jesus informs us that the world is the field and that the wheat is the children of the kingdom of God. The tares are the children of the evil one. So we can see the Book of Ruth is prophetic in nature and speaking of something, an event that is coming soon. You should go and read Matthew 13 and find out the pattern of things to come. Then you will better understand the shadows contained in the book of Ruth.
Rth 3:3 Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking.
Obviously Naomi knows the law of Moses and tells Ruth to clean up herself really good and dress in her best garments and then to go to the threshing floor to meet Boaz. You can see that this is the picture of the church given to us in Revelation 19:7 where it says “his wife has made herself ready”. But, she tells her not to do anything until after he has eaten and finished drinking. It almost sounds like wait until the party is over and then do the following:
Rth 3:4 And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do.
Here is where it gets complicated to understand. Maybe Naomi knows something I don’t, but Ruth is instructed to uncover Boaz’s feet and then to lay down and wait for him to wake up or return to a sober state and see what he has to say and then do what he says. The best that I have been able to figure out is that in Leviticus 18 God tells people not to uncover and make nude certain relatives for sexual purposes. God gives us a long list of individuals including your children and your grand children and says the reason why is if you see them naked, it is your nakedness that you are looking at because they came from you. What we can deduce from this, is that the practice of uncovering someone even partially is for sexual reasons and it is only OK for the husband and the wife. So in effect, Ruth is saying you are my husband, I have seen you naked. I know she only uncovered his feet, but it is a symbolic gesture that he realizes when he wakes to find her there at his feet.
Rth 3:7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.
So Ruth told Naomi that she will do what she has spoken and that is exactly what she does. Remember Naomi is the one that knows the law and Boaz is the one that is suppose to follow the law and fulfill his obligation to the dead. So Naomi is in effect speeding up the process and making it happen. It would appear that Boaz is either dragging his feet (figuratively speaking) and not doing what he is required or there is more to the story than we know right now.
Rth 3:8 And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.
Now midnight comes around and we can assume it has been at least a couple of hours. Ruth must have went to sleep also at the feet of Boaz waiting for him to wakeup. Midnight is a very specific hour. It is the 6th hour of the night, the beginning of the 3rd watch of the night and represents the middle of the darkness. It is interesting to note that this is the hour when people are easily frightened and become scared. It was around midnight when the death angel visited in Egypt and killed the firstborn who did not have the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. It is also interesting to note that in Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the 10 virgins. It just so happens that the bridegroom shows up at midnight and 5 of the virgins had oil and 5 of the virgins did not and were called foolish. So there is some significant parallels being given to us. Jesus Christ is called the “bridegroom” and the church is His bride. We can again see the connection between Jesus and the man called Boaz.
Rth 3:9 And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.
The word that is interesting in this verse, is the word for “skirt”. This word actually refers to the wing of a feathered bird like an eagle and is translated like that many places. It is also used to refer to the hem of a garment or robe. The priests were required to sew tassels on the hem of their garments. Then there is this reference in Deuteronomy that seems to be in reference to an elicit sexual encounter.
Deu 22:30 A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.
You can see that the man’s father and his father’s wife are spoken of in terms of being one. By the son uncovering his father’s wife he is said to uncover his father. So obviously Ruth must have learned something about the law herself. Boaz wakes up and is startled and asks who are you in the middle of the night. Ruth tells him I am Ruth and you are my near kinsmen redeemer. Now here is the other part that you miss reading the English part of the translation from the KJV Bible. This word “skirt” also occurs in the previous chapter, but is translated in a completely different way:
Rth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
Reading this verse we can better understand what Ruth was trying to say to Boaz. Ruth was telling Boaz you are God’s answer to my problem, spread your wings over me and I will put my trust in you. If this is not a marriage proposal I do not know what you would call it. Wings are spoken of as a covering, and a place of safety in the O.T. Bible like in the Psalms. Many times this is God’s people under the wings of God’s protection. This is the picture of Ruth and Boaz as well as the Church and Jesus.
Look at this verse in Ezekiel and see if this is not what the woman Ruth is saying for her Redeemer to do to her.
Eze 16:8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
God says to Israel, when I looked upon you I spread my skirt over you. You can again see the reference to nakedness and being unclothed. In association with these words God says I have entered into a covenant with you and you have become mine by marriage. This is a very clear picture of Christ and the church. If you recall in the N.T. the church is said to be clothed with Christ. We wear Christ as a symbolic garment. This is a covenant marriage description when the husband covers his bride.
Rth 3:10 And he said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my daughter: for thou hast shewed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich.
A reference to the kindness of Ruth is exemplified by Boaz. She is also portrayed to be a woman of character and integrity who is not doing things just for her on good. Her thoughtfulness and the fact that she followed her wiser mother-in-law’s instructions all proved that Ruth was a great candidate for a wife. We do not know how old Boaz is, but by implications given he is not a young man. Based upon him potentially being one of Elimilech’s brothers who has already died, we can assume that he is closer to Naomi’s age than to Ruth’s age. Nevertheless, Ruth is commended for doing what she has done.
Rth 3:11 And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.
Boaz says that the whole city knows that she is a virtuous woman. Of course remember we are in Bethlehem, the future birthplace of Jesus. The Hebrew word translated as “Bethlehem” means the House of Bread. Another symbolic term for God’s spiritual house. Boaz commits to Ruth to do whatever is necessary to accomplished what she needed to satisfy his Lawful duty. Boaz has committed to do whatever is necessary to make her his wife. This is a marriage commitment and a verbal contract. Boaz has committed to redeem his dead brother’s debts and to raise up an heir for him, by marrying his dead brother’s son’s wife. This is the law of God, but also the wisdom of God and a picture of Christ and the church.
If you would like to continue this series of lessons, you can go to “Part 4“.
The Book of Ruth, Introduction to the Redeemer! Chapter 2
(Ver 1.1) In chapter one of Ruth we were introduced to many of the characters of the story of Ruth, but not all. If you did not read Part 1 of this series I would suggest that you go back and read the foundation and introduction and all of the information that I covered in chapter 1. I will not normally repeat myself so if you missed it, you just missed it.
So far we have seen that Naomi and Ruth have returned to Bethlehem during the time of the Barley Harvest and that they are in desperate shape financially. All of the men in their family have died and they have great needs just to survive. So let’s get into chapter 2 and the introduction of another primary character that will come to save the day.
Rth 2:1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
We are immediately introduced to some new concepts and a new character in the very first verse of Chapter 2. Boaz is described as a near relative of Elimelech, the dead husband of Naomi. This is where it starts to become important to learn and know what the law says. Because of God’s wisdom, the law provided for the situation that Naomi and Ruth now were facing. The law says that if a man should die without leaving any heirs, that a brother or near relative of the dead man was required to marry the widow and to have a child by her to become the heir of whatever was owned by that man who died. This would also mean that the dead man’s family name would not perish from the face of the earth. One of the men that was qualified to fulfill this requirement was a man who just so happened to be a very wealthy man and his name was Boaz. Here is the law of Moses that pertains to this matter:
Num 27:8 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.
Num 27:9 And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren.
Num 27:10 And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father’s brethren.
Num 27:11 And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the LORD commanded Moses.
What we see is an order of precedence and responsibility being established by the law of God. God declares a specific inheritance order when a man dies. God does this by design and for a purpose, that I will not get into in this blog. Let’s look at the order and analyze it, the order is always from the firstborn son, then the next born son, until the youngest son. If the man who dies has no sons, then his daughters can inherit in the same order from the firstborn to youngest. Next, if he has no living children, then the inheritance goes to the brothers of the man who died, again from the firstborn to youngest in that order. If he has no living brothers you go up the family tree to your father’s brothers, from oldest to youngest. The responsibility is thus passed to whomever is still living in the family from oldest to youngest, to inherit the dead man’s possessions. But, of course it is more complex than that. You also get the man’s debts and you must pay off those debts and redeem them. You just don’t get to take whatever he owned and make it yours, especially if his wife is still alive. Because she was also his and by the law of marriage she was one with him. So she has now also become your responsibility and there is more to it than that also. Here is more of the Law concerning widows and the brothers obligations:
Deu 25:5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.
Deu 25:6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.
Deu 25:7 And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.
Deu 25:8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;
Deu 25:9 Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house.
Deu 25:10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.
This is some very strange stuff, however as you continue to read in Ruth you see that they definitely follow these rules and protocols as the law of God dictates. God says that if a woman is a widow it is up to her husband’s brother to marry her and raise up an heir for his dead older brother. If you recall it was the eldest who inherited everything anyway and the younger son would have had to work for the older son because he would have inherited it all from their father. This was just how it was in the Law. By the younger son refusing to marry the older son’s wife they had legal recourse to take it to the elders and thus the reputation of the younger son who refuses to take his brother’s wife, his name would be disgraced and he would no longer be a person of any significance within the House of Israel. They would change his name to “Him that has his shoe loosed”. We will talk about this more later as we go through the rest of the chapters of Ruth. For now let’s go to verse 2 of chapter two:
Rth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
Obviously Ruth and Naomi are hungry and in need of food. Ruth asks Naomi if she can go into the field and glean to find food for them to eat. Fortunately for Ruth and Naomi God also provided for them in the law of Moses. God wrote a commandment that establishes a principle that we should probably even be following today:
Lev 19:10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
God told the children of Israel not to pick their crops totally bare. Harvest time was a time to go and reap the crops, but it was also a time to leave some for the poor to come and get also. However, this was not a welfare system like a US government type of program. God did not give anyone anything for free. If the poor wanted to come and work and pick the crop to eat, they could eat, but if they wanted to have someone come and drop it off at their feet, they would go hungry. We can clearly see that Ruth had to go into the field and work to gather their food supply. Being a lone individual, she was unable to get rich from what she picked, but at least they could eat and not go hungry. Ten times in chapter two, it speaks of Ruth going into the harvest field to glean. Boaz happens to own the field that Ruth is working in and he sees her and asks his people who is this and they tell him Ruth the Moabitish who returned with Naomi from Moab. Boaz makes some commands and grants Ruth some extreme favor and grace. He commands his workers to help her gather and not to touch her. She is granted the ability to rest in their facilities and to drink from their water pitchers. This Gentile woman has found extreme favor with the right man and she does not even realize it yet. However, Ruth has one quality that exemplifies her beyond any other that might also be gleaning, she is humble. Humility is always the key to receiving grace.
Rth 2:10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
The Bible says “God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble” (James 4:6). This is a Bible law and an established principle for receiving what you need. Boaz speaks further to Ruth and tells her that she has done well to stay with her mother-in-law and to live with a people she did not know. In other words Boaz was telling her that she had made the right choices:
Rth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
Boaz now tells Ruth that she is trusting in the God of Israel. Because she has placed her confidence in the true God, God will reward her. Another way to say this is there are benefits to trusting in God. Ruth left her relatives and walked away from her old familiar life into a place she did not know and she has now found the favor with God. What made Ruth different than the other hundreds of widows that were in the land at that time? Ruth had faith, she trusted God. I really have not discussed applications of any of these scriptures up until this point. I have told you that the book of Ruth contains many significant types and shadows, which are natural examples of spiritual truths. I guess you might have already noticed that Ruth appears to be a type of the church. Those who have left their old lives and followed after the living God, trusting in His grace by faith. Does this sound familiar? It ought to if you are a Christian.
Rth 2:14 And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.
Continuing through the 2nd chapter we see another pattern being discussed. Boaz invites Ruth to eat with him and gives her bread and vinegar. Did you know that in Bible times you did not eat with someone casually, because by eating with them you were entering into a covenant with them. Simply by sharing bread with someone a covenant is established. If you do not understand covenants, this is not something you do with your enemies by accident or chance because it could cost you your life. A covenant is a marriage in the eyes of God so that is why you do not enter into them by accident. Boaz obviously likes Ruth a lot and has decided by this action to enter into a covenant with her, for her to become his wife. After all of this Boaz commands his reapers to grant her even more favor and let her pick anywhere she wants, even from the parts they are working in. The reapers are further ordered to leave handfuls on purpose for her to get easily. I would say Boaz has a plan.
Ruth goes back to Naomi and tells her all the good news that she knows so far. How she met a man named Boaz and what he had said to her. Naomi becomes ecstatic and almost can’t contain herself and says the following:
Rth 2:20 And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.
Naomi realizes and knows the law of Moses and God. She recognizes now that God has not forgotten them or their dead husbands. It is important to note what Naomi says next about this man named Boaz. She calls him a near kin. That means he is not a distant relative. It could place Boaz in the category of a brother to Elimilech. She then calls him “one of our next kinsmen”. It is interesting to note now that she does not say our next kinsmen, just one of the next kinsmen. What’s the difference? Remember God had a specific order of priority and the oldest always had first responsibility to fulfill the law first. Now here is the introduction to one of the keywords found in the this Book of Ruth that you definitely need to know. The word “Kinsmen” is a Hebrew word that means a “Redeemer”.
What is a “Redeemer”? Obviously a Redeemer is someone who redeems? So what does that mean? It is often compared to someone who visits a modern pawn shop and sells a valuable item for cash. The owner of the pawn shop usually pays them pennies on the dollar for their item in hopes of them not coming back to redeem their item. To redeem your item means you pay the price to get your item back. Does any of this sound familiar? Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, he has paid the price for our sin and bought us back. This is redemption by God from the fact that mankind sold themselves to Satan.
Isa 52:3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
This is God’s message to the church. God declares that we have sold ourselves for nothing and therefore we would be bought back without money. In other words God was not going to pay any money to get us back, but that did not mean it didn’t cost anything. You see Jesus Christ gave his blood and life to pay the price of our redemption and this was more valuable than any money, gold or natural wealth.
At the end of chapter two of Ruth, Ruth tells Naomi that Boaz asks her to only work his field until the time of the end of the harvest season. I really do not know how you can read this story and not see the church and Christ throughout it. Christ owns the harvest field and the church are the laborers that are working to bring in the harvest. There is a coming time of the end of the harvest when it will be over. Jesus said in the Gospels “the harvest is great, but the laborers are few”. Jesus is not talking about a wheat or barley harvest or a natural crop. I guess because the natural Jews do not know the New Testament, they do not see the types and shadows given to them so clearly. It reminds me of a shadow portrait my son had done when he was young. I could look at it and recognize his profile immediately even though it was just an outline and showed no facial details. But, I could do this because I knew him and if you did not know him you would not know who it was a picture of. This is how the Bible is to those who do not know Jesus Christ. Because they do not know him personally, they do not recognize when they encounter a shadow that is projected and points you to him.
If you would like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 3“.
The Book of Ruth, An in Depth Study of the Church and Christ! Chapter 1
(Ver 1.1) I like the book of Ruth a lot. It is a very unique book of the Bible and a story full of types and shadows of the Messiah. The Bible is full of complex hidden information and this book contains some of the keys to information found in other places of the Bible. While the early church started with only Jewish believers and the disciples of Christ, today the church is widely considered to be a Gentile majority. There certainly exists Jewish Messianic believers and they are very valuable in the church, but yet they are a clear minority. These Jewish believers are called the “Remnant” in the book of Romans. What makes the book of Ruth unique, is the fact that the book is primarily the story of a Gentile woman. The life of a woman outside of the covenant of God’s Old Testament family. Why would God put a story of a Gentile in the Jewish O.T. Bible? Why is this significant? What information does it convey and reveal to us? Is the book of Ruth a prophetic statement on events to come? I will be going through this book of the Bible chapter by chapter and then wrap it up with a study of the typologies and symbolism given to us in the book of Ruth. In the entire Bible the name of Ruth only occurs 13 times in 13 total verses. There are 12 times in the book of Ruth and once in the book of Matthew. So other than the Book of Ruth itself, there is no direct references to Ruth, except in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. God must have a special reason for naming this woman in the genealogy of Jesus our Savior. You see in the Genealogy of Jesus in Matthew only 6 women are directly mentioned and only four by actual name. One woman in the genealogy of Jesus is a symbolic spiritual reference. These women are 1.) Tamar 2). Rahab, 3). Ruth 4). the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba) 5). Babylon and 6). Mary the mother of Jesus. That is some very unique company, and a very honorable mention, isn’t it? What does Ruth have in common with these other women that God included them all in the genealogy of Jesus? I mean what a mixture of women they are, one is a deceiver Tamar who plays like she is a prostitute, 2) Rahab a woman who actually was a prostitute, 4) Bathsheba a woman who committed adultery with King David. Babylon is called the Great Whore in Revelation. Why mention any women and not all the women? Why pick what seems like some of the worst possible women to include in the Genealogy of Jesus? Both Ruth and Mary seem like saints compared to the others. You should really ask these kinds of questions, if you want to know the truth. God does nothing by accident or chance in the Bible. Every word, every name, every mention has a purpose and is designed to conceal or reveal information. Obviously these women are all mothers, so they have that in common. If it were possible and you could check the mitochondrial DNA of Jesus you would also see that Jesus’ DNA had signatures of each of the women encoded within His DNA. It also appears on the surface that all of the women mentioned in the Genealogy of Jesus are also widows. While it does not say that directly about Rahab, we can assume it. It does call Tamar a widow, Ruth is a widow, Bathsheba became a widow. Mary also became a widow. These are interesting little points to keep in the back of your mind. Perhaps we will get into more of the similarities between the women later, but for now let’s concentrate on just Ruth.
Let’s start by listing some of the characters found in the book of Ruth. There is of course Ruth, but she is not mentioned at first. What we discover is the underlying story is about a family from Bethlehem, the same city of the birth of Jesus. We can already begin to see some implied meanings based upon the city of David being the originating place of residence. The story starts with the mention of a famine being in the land around Bethlehem. The book of Ruth mentions that this family of four is forced to move in order to look for food. The head of the family is a man named “Elimelech” and his wife is called “Naomi”, and they have two sons, one is called “Mahlon” and the other is called “Chilion”. The Elimelech family is a family who has descended from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. The book of Ruth starts by telling us that the story occurs during the time of the judges. This would have been after the children of Israel had taken the promised land and before the appointment of Saul as their first King. This would have occurred somewhere around 450 years after Jacob had his 12 sons. We do know that Israel was in captivity in Egypt for approximately 400 years and they wandered in the wilderness for another 40 years. So somewhere after that we can see that there came a famine in the land of Israel.
Elimelech decides to up and move his family to the land of Moab, because they have heard reports of there being food there. Now Moab is a region where the descendants of one of Lot’s sons lived, also named Moab. If you recall the story of Lot, Abraham asks God to spare him from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and God did. However, as they were leaving the cities, the wife of Lot looks back and turns into a pillar of salt. Now that only leaves Lot with his two daughters. So the story of Lot is that his two daughters get their father drunk so that he could have children or sons through them and their father’s name and family could continue. Not a very good story is it? It seems like the more you dig into the book of Ruth the more strange things you discover. What you must realize is that if there was no incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters there would be no story of Ruth. So while I do not say incest is good, God can cause good to come from anything that man does, no matter how wrong. So Ruth is a descendant of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters.
The book of Ruth does not actually say how long they lived in Moab, but it implies that it was at least a little while, at the least many years. We do see in Ruth 1:4 that after Elimilech died and the sons married that there was a span of 10 years mentioned. We are not told how long it was before this or after this period of time is spoken of. So Elimilech moves his family to Moab. After a time there Elimilech dies and we do not know why. After this his two son’s find themselves wives to marry from the women in Moab. One wife is Ruth and the other wife is named Orpah and not Oprah! It then declares that after another passage of time, the sons also both die without having any children or heirs for the family. All of this so far is the just the first 5 verses of the book of Ruth and it covers several years of information.
Let’s put into perspective the family of Elimilech and the given time frame of these events. We know that Israel had departed from Egypt, being led by Moses and during this time period in the wilderness God gave Moses the Law. God is establishing a covenant relationship with the natural nation of Israel. God gives Moses the first 5 books of the Bible often times called the “Torah”. We also know that during this time period of Ruth that it was during the time of the Judges. So there were judges who ruled the people of Israel with the help of God’s prophets. Judges represent a legal system that is based upon laws. If anyone did wrong, they would face the judges. Moses had been given patterns of the temple of God, the ark of the covenant, the inclusion of the Levitical priests and the origination of animal blood sacrifices. So what do you think would happens if the covenant people of God would move away from all of this and go and live with a group of people who were not in covenant with God? Could this be the reason they died? I really do not know, but I can make logical assumptions based upon what happened, that it was at least related.
We know from reading the rest of the Book of Ruth that Naomi was familiar with the law of Moses. So they did not move away in ignorance, they moved away knowing what they were doing. However, since Elimilech was a descendant of Judah and not Levi, there were probably no more sacrifices being made for them. Unless of course they traveled back to Jerusalem to the temple and there is no reference to this happening. So Naomi, Ruth and Orpha are in a quandary. A predicament of tremendous proportions. Without any men left in the family they are doomed to a life of poverty and homelessness or either a life of prostitution. Naomi of course is older and is in the worst situation. Naomi tells her two “daughter-in-laws” to leave and go back to their families, thinking they have the best chance of finding new husbands with them. Her daughter-in-law Orpah does that and returns to her family and to her previous gods. However, Ruth demonstrates a different resolve, a different spirit of confidence. Even after Naomi told her that she is too old to have any more sons for Ruth to marry, Ruth tells Naomi, “Where you go, I go, Where You Live I will Live, Your People will be my People, Your God will be My God”. That if you do not realize it, is very strong covenant words for a lady who was not previously in covenant with the Almighty God. Then Ruth makes this statement:
Rth 1:17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
I made mention earlier that the book of Ruth contains clues to other events in the Bible and this is just one of them. The mention of death as a separating force is the only natural force that is capable of breaking a human covenant relationship. When a man marries a woman, in many ceremonies that I have attended, there is a clause in the vows that says something like “till death do you part”. In this statement, the participants are vowing to remain committed to the marriage covenant until one of them dies. Death is the only legal separation allowed from the law of marriage. Once you have sex with someone of the opposite sex you are legally married in the eyes of God and you are not separated legally until one of you dies. Because, Ruth’s husband had died, she was free from the law of marriage and is now able to legally marry another man. She could have chosen to go back to her family and find another man, but she chose to trust the God of her mother-in-law “Naomi” and the results of her faith was tremendously greater than she could have imagined. Ruth was also married to the older firstborn son of Elimilech, meaning she has a significant advantage over the other daughter-in-law. For Orpah to gain the same benefits as Ruth, would not have been possible according to the law, but we will get into that more later.
Let me briefly talk you through the law of marriage. The law of marriage is given to us first in the book of Genesis, chapter 2. God creates woman, a wife for the man Adam. God makes the woman’s body from parts of the man’s body. Adam saw Eve and said “She is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. In other words Eve was the body of Adam in a different form. God then declares “that for this reason, shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh”. That is the law of marriage covenants, between a husband and a wife. Ruth was joined to her husband and the covenant of God, becoming one flesh with him. Ruth was technically under the law by marriage. However, since her husband died she was freed from the law.
Because Naomi had heard that God had visited the people of Israel and that there was again bread in the city of Bethlehem, they return back to Naomi’s former home city. Upon arriving, the people still remember her and are excited to see her, but she is really down and depressed that she left full and came back empty with nothing and very little hope. Naomi changes here name to “Mara” and tells people to call her that because it means “I’m bitter”. It is funny how people will accuse God of doing something that was of their own making. I never read anywhere that God told them to leave Bethlehem, so just because the circumstances didn’t look like they should stay, that did not mean they were suppose to leave. Did you understand what I just said?
So this is some of the basics found in chapter 1 of Ruth. Naomi and Ruth have returned to Bethlehem and it is in the time of the beginning of the Barley Harvest. So we know that Naomi had returned in or around the time of Passover, which can occur somewhere near March or April. In my next blog, I’ll talk more about the other primary character of Ruth that I have not introduced you to yet. This character is named Boaz and he is called the “kinsman redeemer” and we will discuss why this is also.
If you would like to continue reading this series you can continue with “Part 2” where we talk about chapter two, the introduction to the Redeemer.
Are You Hungry Yet? Blessed are Those that Hunger After Righteousness!
(Ver 1.1) God is asking you a question today, are you hungry yet? Too many times we in the world live in a state of contentment. Totally satisfied with who we are, what we know, what we have and where we are and being completely oblivious to wanting anything more in life. I am not talking about wanting more stuff, a bigger house or a new car or things like that. I am talking about being satisfied with what you think you know about the truth of God’s Word. We have vast numbers of church denominations in the world that are happy and content with everything they think that they know. They think they have arrived at a spiritual state of there not being anymore or any higher state of knowledge. I guess Christians like these have been deceived into believing they know as much as God. When in truth, they know little to nothing about God. People who sit in dead churches, eating stale bread of the doctrines of man and theological theories of seminaries are starving spiritually and they do not understand why. If you were in the middle of a desert where there was no fresh water around and you lived there so long that you were about to die, would you be smart enough to move? Clearly many Christians are not that smart. They live and die in a church that teaches nothing relevant, nothing new, nothing refreshing, nothing that satisfies the people’s spiritual thirst. People have become content with nothing and not knowing and thus live their life deceived.
Joh 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Jesus himself speaking, says that He is the “bread of life”. Bread is a staple and a basic food group requirement. The spiritual lessons of bread are vast in the Bible and you should spend a long time learning about them. Jesus tells us that because He is the “bread of life” those who come to him will never go hungry. Jesus is speaking figuratively, symbolically and spiritually and not naturally. Those churches that teach the full truth of Jesus will give people something that feeds them spiritually. Jesus while he walked the earth taught some radically different things in a manner that people never heard before. Jesus taught these truths with authority and power. Jesus said some very difficult things that most churches ignore. There are some churches that only want to concentrate on salvation and getting people saved and ignore the rest of the Bible. While this is an important part of the message of Christ, it is not the complete message. Once you get people saved, then what? Are they supposed to go through life defeated?
Did you realize that eating is not something people do once in their lives and they are done with it? That is the attitude of many Christians and that is not right. Eating is a continual process, something we do multiple times a day, every day. Morning, noon and night we eat physical food. Is spiritual food suppose to be different? Did God give us these natural things to teach us about the Spiritual things? Too many times Christians want a to go to church on Sunday for a cold spiritual snack and they think that will carry them spiritually for the rest of the week. What you should do is read and study the Bible just as much as you spend time eating natural food. In this way you will be as strong spiritually as you are physically. Plus there is some great news, you can’t get too spiritually fat! It is impossible to eat too much spiritually. There is no extreme where you can have too much of the Word of God. In fact it is really much different than people think. In the book of Joshua, God told Joshua to mediate day and night on the Law of God and by doing this God said He would be successful in life.
Luk 6:25 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.
So Jesus says something that is a warning to those that think that they are satisfied with what they know and what they have already learned. Because they think they are full now, they will soon become spiritually hungry. What does that tell you? It tells me not to be satisfied no matter how much I know and that we should make an effort to plan our next spiritual meal. Do not think that you know more than you do? Have you made yourself wise in your own eyes? Are you proud of what you can do, or what you have done? Do you place your confidence in your own ability and knowledge to solve your every problem? These are common traps of the enemy. Get people thinking like a teenager who thinks they know more than their parents.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
If you read the context of this verse you will discover that Jesus is not talking about natural things, but clearly about spiritual things. The disciples had asked Jesus why do you speak to them in parables? Jesus said it is not for them to “know the mysteries of Kingdom of Heaven”. But, to you it is given. So Jesus makes a direct division between two different groups of people. Those who can see spiritually and those who cannot see spiritually. Are they both spiritually hungry? I would say yes, they are both in need of the same spiritual food from God. But, Jesus says not everyone will get it. What is he talking about? Jesus is saying that those who think they know everything will lose even what they think they already know. But, to those who are truly hungry for the truth, more truth will be given to them. That is exactly why there are so many people blogging on the internet who do not know anything, but yet they blog like they do. These are empty heads speaking empty words to people with empty spirits and nobody is ever satisfied or grows spiritually. Get hungry for the truth and the truth will find you. Be diligent to seek the Knowledge of the Truth and God will cause it to move in your direction and overflow your cup of knowledge with good things that only God can show you.
Are You Hungry YET?
The Agapegeek Blog 