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Introduction

While working as a physician for the past 50 years I first looked at medicines and surgeries, then at exercise and diet for health and then, besides private patients, shared publicly in many nations concerning the latter two.  Then I took special note of what made people content with themselves and their world, at peace with settled joy, contributing members of their families and their society and noted their excellent health, somewhat independent of diet and exercise.  Newer studies confirm one’s life’s relations are more powerful contributors to health than the earlier studied, though still significant physical aspects.   Studies concerning each of these can be found throughout the internet.  As a young physician at age 30, I began to realize standard Christianity, which when viewed carefully deals primarily with relationships, held many incongruous beliefs that left patients with cognitive and emotional dissonance about their lives and relationship with God.  I’ve found that when one interprets the whole Bible on a subject, taking as first prominence, multiple clear comments on a topic and interpreting outliers upon that established foundation, as we do in science, the Bible becomes congruous Genesis 1 through Revelations 22, thus leading folk to emotional coherency and awe of God with unshaded admiration and love.  The result, better emotional, behavioral and physical health.  It also reveals accurate, though ancient, diet, exercise and the intra and interpersonal relational directives that modern science is only now confirming. In this blog are some of these observations.  I hope they can help you find peaceful longevity for your life both here, and when He comes, beyond.  Humans search for power, recognition, pleasure, human love and truth, and in your search for the most noble of these – truth – have you considered?

Doc Wilson. 

note: Biblical quotations are from the NIV, KJV & ESV unless otherwise noted. (S) indicates Strong’s Concordance and (MW) Merriam Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.

 

The 10 Instructions / Commandments / Laws / Prescriptions in the NT!

There are some who have difficulty seeing the law, the commandments, the instructions, the prescriptions of Ex 20:3-17 in the New Testament.  Even in Christ’s inaugural Sermon on the Mount.   So let’s just take a short overview then of Mt 5-7.  

Blessed = “I restore happiness” .. “to the (those that)”:

…”poor in spirit” = sense their spiritual poverty & feel their need of Christ .  Poverty of spirit came first from humans chosen disobedience of God’s “command” given as a testing law/instruction/direction in Ge 2:17 & the essence of a coming Redeemer 3:15.

…”mourn” = deep sorrow for sin ( sin can easily be seen as anything harmful, mentally, morally, spiritually, relationally, physically )  1 Jn 3:4  gives one biblical definition of sin; “sin is lawlessness”

…”meek” = enduring real or supposed  injury with patience & without resentment.  This would negate 6-10 of the Ten Words

…”hunger & thirst for righteousness” = righteousness [in Strong’s/Merriam Web. dictionaries +]  = “following / doing / acting in accord with God’s standards / moral code” [Ten words] => “they will be filled”; not by our attempts but by the infilling of God’s character of righteousness. ( no more prideful “I will do” of Ge 4 or “we will do” of Ex 19:8 ; Joshua in 24:19 knew & told them they couldn’t.)   “..they will be filled..”

…”merciful “= grace to the unworthy, “all have sinned…”  thus to all our fellow human travelers.  Again fulfilling here 5-9 of the Ten Words

…”pure in heart” = pure means without alloy – no sin.  Meaning no heart desire for harm to our originators or fellow travelers as defined by all the Ten Words, & note it’s not our doing but  -“in heart.”   “I will write my law (instructions/prescriptions {for life} in your heart”

…”peacemakers” = All Ten Words #’s 1-10.   Peace, with those who originated you and with your fellow human travelers.   

17: “do not think I have come to abolish the law”!  { Why do so many thumb their noses at this plain statement of Christ’s in His inaugural sermon?}  –  “but to fulfill them” – in the same way I fulfilled the criteria to become a physician – not by abolishing the criteria  but accomplishing them.———Then Christ, as the Second Adam offering His perfect genetic character to us!!!  Un-worthy though we are.

21:“…do not murder” – Mt 5 – if you are meek & merciful  you will not be angry / disturbed thus have even no desire to harm [ foundational to murder whether physically or relationally ].

27:“.. do not commit adultery” = if you have the heart / the character as is being outlined of Christ.   You will not even look lustfully.   As above, the heart foundations of #’s 1-4 & 7 of the Ten Words 

38: you will not want to harm or kill if you choose not to resist while choosing to give even greater benefits then required.  It’s a foundational heart thing.

43: “love”  NT principle? No!  Note it was an expert in religious law (Pharisee/Scribe/Lawyer) who in knowing the Old Testament –  better than you or I – & especially the OT law, knew the law in short was: “Love the LORD you’re God with all your heart …. & your neighbor as yourself”  Lk 10:25.    Heart love leading to action – again “pure in heart” – foundational!   See  Rev 22:11,14 for the end time reality of the law / the commandments / the instructions continuing to define right and wrong moral behavior.  

6:25 – 34:  Speaks of trusting the One who is worthy.  The failure of our first parents.

6:33  “seek His righteousness”  His heart, His character [Gal 5:22], to act in accord with divine law.  Instructions easily understood as Prime non Nocere.

7:12  “In every thing, do unto others as you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law”  { All Ten Words Ex 34:28; Dt 4:13; 10:4} “and the Prophets.”   {ie:  hesed or loving kindness. }   We are not looking at rules of repression but at laws of & for life!

Could the Ten Words  & Mt 5-7 relationship be any plainer?

In summary the in-heart foundation of the OT Ten Words are beautifully expressed in Christ’s inaugural sermon of Mt 5 – 7.   The gospel of Christ can be stated/seen as: 1] Christian (child of God’s) behavior [the Ten Words] as a manifestation of internal divine virtues.   Or 2] True Christianity is a matter of the heart revealed in behavior.  Or again 3] the gospel is Christ’s enablement of the law to be exemplified in and through each individual’s character.  [Though not limited to or by these descriptions.]  

 Yes,  re-made back into our original character image of Ge 1: 26-7 by His life, death resurrection and continuing ministry Heb 7-11.  Yet again:  “Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit…” 

God is saying; ‘I wish for you and all to have restored happiness in your lives’

………….

For fun let’s try another, say Mt 15: 4 & 19.

19: “For out of the heart” as did Mt 5-9,  along with the teachers of the theology of the time realize – the heart is the true source and finish of the timeless  Mt 5:18, Rev 22:14  law/instructions  OT, NT – God’s prescriptions were & are not time sensitive according to best present knowledge  like mine were – but timeless! 

Mt 15 the Ten Words  

vs 19 #’s 1-4 “come evil thoughts” = “Morally oppositional doubts about God” [Strong’s]

vs 4 #5 “honor your father & mother”

vs 19 #6 “murder”

#7 “adultery, sexual / spiritual immorality (a Mt 5-9 addition)

#8 “theft

#9 “false testimony”

#10 “slander” (a harmful problem arising from coveting)

Some might call for scriptographic outlines of the first four, then turn and state the obvious about any other subject – in that a picture is worth a thousand words or actions speak louder than words.  So let’s pan-out in our observations, first concerning Word 1  by noting Christ’s words in Jn 17:3,6 “That they may know You…I have revealed You” & in Gethsemane “Not my will but thine be done”, & on the cross” Father into thy hands I commit my pneuma/wind/breath”  Lk 23:46; Ge 2:7 –  ie: “No other god’s” Ex 20:3 .  For Word 2 we find Christ frequently worshiping but never to an image but to the unseen God.  No idol.   Word 3 Jn 14: 9-11 “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father….”  Christ did not “carry away the renown” {Strong’s dictionary of Ex 20:7}  “of the LORD,” by his words or actions.    Word 4 actions do speak louder than words as He – the Son of Man – met with His Creator [ as the Son of Man] on His specified relational visitation day of Ge 2: 2-3 > than 1700 times – in humble relational gratitude, not to gain/not to earn, but to joyfully relate.  Then Word 5 – “Dear woman, here is your son,” & to the disciple,”Here is your mother” Jn 19:26-7. 

What is God’s unchanging law other than descriptions of selfless love stated variously – succinctly or in narratives – as nomologic a necessary prerequisite to the gift and continuation of perpetual life.  And to be seen in contradistinction to the chaos of unsustainable self-love – “my way” – nomologically ending in the absence of existence. 

  And there are other similar repeats in the NT such as in MK 7:20-23; or Rev 13 &14.  Mt 15 though is fundamentally a question about the Jew’s placing tradition above God’s plain words in the simple Ten & His actions in Words 1-5 do speak louder than words.   And it’s a question for us: do we?   And it’s a question of our hearts – not to gain, earn or obtain, but out of admiration, adoration, gratefulness & love for our Creator & Redeemer & patient Inviter via His invited forgiveness, life, love & power within say: Yes, LORD yes, to your will and your way.

NIV,ESV

a

1 KINGS  13   

There is a little recognized story, a story that some theologians use to side with Lucifer and Cain in their misunderstanding of God.  A story with its background in 1 Kings ch. 11,12 and  occupying chapter 13 that is redolent with meaning.  Another dispute within God’s family :   Adam & Eve “ this woman…,”  Cain & Able;  Jacob & Esau;   Here within the Israelite family  

IN 1870  a pastor by the name of Paul Geyser wrote a booklet about this story under the title THE SINS OF JEROBOAM.   Sixty years later, 1930, dissenting German Christians reprinted the booklet when it became clear that the official church was willing to subject its-self to the dictates of the nationalist-socialist government of Adolf Hitler.  They, the dissenting church recognized that the government had borrowed a page from the strategy of the first king of the 10 tribes of Israel in gathering both political and religious power into the hands of the state.  The re-publication of Geyser’s booklet was not lost on the millions of Christians who supported Hitler.   Feeling them selves the target of the booklet they called on the secret police to intervene thus it was placed on the list of harmful and unwanted writings.  It’s a story with three fascinating scenes.  

THE First Scene  we’ll look at is in 1 Kings 12:25-33 & is the one that was hijacked by Hitler.  

The prologue is in Chapter 11 & the first of 12.  King Solomon did not continue following the Lord as he grew older so God through prophet Ahijah met Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon’s and tearing his own robe Ahijah gave 10 pieces of it to Jeroboam saying he would become the leader of ten tribes. Ahijah then shared with him the word of the Lord:   “if you listen…walk in my ways and do what is right …by keeping My commandments.  I will be with you”.   In other words a separation of religious [ if you walk in My ways & keep My commandments ]  and political powers.  Jeroboam was entrusted with political powers but here he was specifically denied control of the religious domain. Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son by his Ammonite wife, became king and chose to continue and even increase the heavy burden of taxation garnered for royal privilege by his father.  So the former servant, Jeroboam, stepped in & by promising less taxes took with him 10 of the 12 Hebrew tribes.  Yet in his early inaugural moves as king he went for control also of religious expressions –  ie. Church and state under the control of one – the vice of the classic ancient world and even now of many modern states. 

Jeroboam in short order set up two alternative places and objects of worship – golden calfs in Bethel & Dan in place of the Sanctuary in Jerusalem  –  he also set up a new calendar of worship which “he alone devised”  or “of his own choosing”12:32,33.  He then set up a system of patronage that would make the new non Levitic priesthood subservient to his temporal power thus fully solidifying his power as supreme.  We see this classic combinational state-church vice later imitated in church-state  by the Roman religio-imperial system and then with Napoleon’s state-church after the French revolution.  

In Scene Two 1 Kings 13:1-10 we see here Jeroboam officially assuming the plenary powers of king and priest on a religious day that might have been equivalent to our presidential inauguration.   Jeroboam was going “up to the altar as high priest to offer incense  –   but at that moment was interrupted by an uninvited guest appearing from nowhere.  A man of God from Judah, sent by God pronouncing that the new altar would be desecrated by the human bones of the priests Jeroboam had appointed and also a new line of kings would be inaugurated in place of Jeroboam’s linage.  Then as Jeroboam stretched out his hand of religio-political power declaring “seize him” his arm & hand were immediately shriveled and the altar torn down by an unseen power.  Suffering profound public humiliation Jeroboam took on the role of suppliant, asking the visitor to pray to his God for healing – and in God’s typical divine mercy –  listened and gave mercy – as He had earlier listening to Cain in Ge 4, the Adversary in chaps 1&2 of Job and later in mercy to the demons who desired to be sent into the pigs in Mt 8.  Jeroboam then in sudden sweetness, in a political move to decrease his public humiliation, invited the prophet of God to a royal lunch, which then would be broadcast on the evening newscast with the king giving a speech & toasting the man of God from Judah at the royal banquet in an attempt to blunt the impact of the prophets rebuke.  Thus through diplomacy the kings respectability would be restored.  

The Third Scene which will reinforce the totality & reliability of God’s instructions about the realities of life.  A bottom line question to be answered here about the man of God from Judah is : –  was the mission given to him in Judah received out of a feeling of duty/fear/necessity or had it begun and continues out of deep love/adoration/admiration & commitment to his freely chosen leader, his Creator God, who in love operates only in granted total freedom & in descriptions of realities not in demands, nor sentences, nor unnecessary RESTRICTIONS ?   ——The duty/fear/necessity seems to be the more likely motivation here.   

Enters The old prophet – the secondary human focus of scene three –  while the prophet from Judah begins his return to Judah going by a different route.  

An acceleration of the active fall of the man of God from Judah is noted here on his way back as he stopped to rest – rest under a tree.  As any soldier knows, resting in enemy territory can be fatal.   The rest here allowing an “old prophet” (of which 1 Kings chap 22 notes there were up to 400 false prophets in the active employment of the kings service)  allowing him to catch up.   The old prophet invited the man of God to come back and eat.   As before, the man of God, like Eve, dallied & began a dialogue and the old prophet who in deception said vs. 18, “I too am a prophet, as you are (not revealing a prophet of whom)  saying “that an angel”  (again not revealing in whose employment the angel messenger was)  “said to me ‘bring him back and feed him.” –  instruction Directly contradicting the word that God had personally instructed the prophet from Judah.   I think as you can see, it was again but a repeat of the test given in Gen 2:17 – “thou shalt not eat of the tree…,” – taken & failed in Ge 3: 1-4.  The test revealed what was in Eve’s heart.  God had warned / instructed / revealed –  Eve dallied and discuss leading to her being deceived.   The man of God here in 1 Kings 13 pondered instead of moving immediately away from temptation, dallied, discuss & was deceived and went with the old prophet.   Excessive Hunger?  Not likely. – He was likely less than 2-3 days total on his mission.  And like Eve / the Israelites with manna in the desert in Ex 16 / & like Christ later in the wilderness of temptation –  he, the prophet from Judah, was being tested.   “Tested in all points – here in each noted case – involving food – like as We” Heb 4:15.   – And do we have a willingness to dally & discuss?   The prophet from Judah revealed a lack of conviction / trust / love / & full commitment in & to His Creator thus like Eve caught by deceit.

As OT scholar D. W. van Winkle quite appropriately stated “ the man of God should have recognized the assurance of the old prophet to be false since it encouraged him to violate the commandment of God.”  (Comments on 1 Kings XIII p. 31-43).  At the least, since it was a direct contradiction of God’s word to him, he should have taken to his knees in prayer.  His problem – a lack of tenacious faith, & when & if needed –  negligence of asking God – while putting his belief in action. – As also should have the Israelites with the Gibeonites in Josh 9.  

Later Christ in the wilderness of temptation revealed commitment & faith – due to His constant prayer and trust Christ nailed, passed His test and not after just a few days of hunger – but 40 without food or ? water [see. Ex 34:28-35]  Then it was, that Satan appeared to Christ – not as an old prophet but as a beautiful angel from heaven, claiming that he had a commission from God to declare the Savior’s fast at an end.  “If thou be the Son of God, he said to Christ, “ command that these stones be made bread” Mt 4:3.  But in Satan’s insinuation of distrust, Christ recognized the enemy whose power He had come to earth to resist.  He would not dally, not accept the challenge, nor be moved by the temptation nor enter into dialogue .  He stood firmly to the affirmative.  He said only the words of God had given Him in Dt 8:3:   ”Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” Dt 8:3.  Christ stood by – and only by  – each, only & every word of God, and He prevailed.”  

Mirror images / metaphors revealed by a God in whom there is no shadow of turning.  When He says something – it is reality – because He deals in revealing realities.  Though they may appear to us as threats or punishments or as incomprehensible meaningless instructions of a tyrant, offensive to our sense of justice –  but they are but a revealing of realities, road signs given in love to warn of dangers unseen & direct us to benefits unknown.   We see here in this prophet from Judah again a distrust, a distrust in every word of God which Prov 30:5,6 had warned about & again we by Jesus in Mt 4:4.  A distrust like Abraham’s being told by God he would become a great nation through his wife Sarah, yet in disbelief & lack of trust he took Hagar to bed and through Ishmael trouble is still rolling through our world.  

What about the finality of the mission?  We see the lion who killed the man of God from Judah after he had left the old man with whom he had eaten – the lion standing on one side of the prophets lifeless body and his donkey on the other?  To disobey God even in that which we consider the least is the start of a deadly fall.  I climbed Mt Hood on Oregon USA a number of times in winter and saw a number of deadly falls from seeming small faults – they count!  We do not know of this man of God’s potential repentance on his shortened and aborted journey back to Judah so we might be able to speak to him in heaven.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn summarized much of the reality of this scene – while not speaking of this event – but in his address to Harvard grads in 1978.  “Truth eludes us a soon as our concentration on truth begins to flag.  All the while leaving the illusion that we are continuing to preserve it”.   Yes, the prophet from Judah’s concentration flagging as he rested under the oak tree, in enemy territory with his shield of faith leaning against the trunk and his sword of the Spirit on the ground by his side.

On WHAT or WHO is your concentrated focus?  Jesus, The Creator, the Atoning Sacrifice, the One who saves you from sin –  from doing harm thus ultimately being harmed,  the One who says ; “I am the way the truth & the life.”?   Who says: “I came to give you life and life more abundantly?  On whom is your concentration?   We need a faith, a concentration, that can endure weariness, delay and hunger.  We need a quickness to turn from sin.

The final take away lesson from “the man of God from Judah” in scene 3  is found in Eph 6 : 1-18:  Here 1-14:  “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand – not rest under a tree but stand –  stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and comic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, too stand firm.”  What ever God –  in whom there is no shade of turning has said – it is for your best good.  Yes, the devil is still going around as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pe 5:8.   

 We are on Enemy territory Eph 6 is telling us!   We can Stand with-in the armor – because we are motivated by what is recorded in Gal 5:6:  “The only thing that counts is faith expressing its-self through love.”    

Soon – as the crowning act in this great drama of deception –  Lucifer, Satan, the great dragon the ancient serpent, the Devil, the adversary  – not as a serpent this time, nor an old prophet, nor as an angel messenger – as in Christ’s wilderness temptations – but in dazzling brightness will appear in the assumed personage of Christ   [Rev 12:7-9; 2 Cor 11:14 ], and will then claim to have changed the Day the LORD established for relationship with Him in Genesis 2:1-3 so we could get to know each other {Mt 7:21-23} and affirmed as such through out scripture, —- to a day, – like Jeroboam’s places, objects & times of worship – of ours ? or of his (Lucifer’s, Satan’s) own Choosing–  (yes, in reality it was not Constantine’s political State -Church in 312 AD, nor later the Roman Catholic’s Church -State’s Laodicean council of AD 363-4 that made a new day for worshipful relationship of their own choosing)  – but the continuing behind the scenes choice of the Adversary himself – desiring worship on the day of his own choosing  1 Kings 12:33, 2 Cor 11:14-15, Isa 14:12-14, Dan 7:25 – & we?.

Continuing in Eph 6:  “Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth – that’s His Word – , and having put on the breastplate  – ( the breastplate is what protects your heart) – “ the breastplate of righteousness”  ( in Hebrew & in English righteousness is defined as acting in accord with divine law )1  –  That’s why Rev 22:14 says “Happy are those who do His Commandments” (pleural )  – note James 2:10 warns if you ignore one piece of advice you will eventually fall in all, as we saw here in the prophet from Judah & I repeatedly on Mt Hood.  Why?  Because they who do them “will have the have the right…. to go through the gates into the city.”

– —- You want to stand and then have the right?    – Put on the full  “breastplate of righteousness —- in a faith that’s expressing it’s self through love”!

WHAT WILL BE – metaphorically HAS BEEN – & what metaphorically HAS BEEN – WILL BE 

1 Strong’s & Webster’s Dictionaries

THOUGHTS WORTH THINKING 2026 #2

“Shalom” means peace, and it’s Hebrew letters literally mean:  “to destroy the authority attached to chaos.”  See Genesis 3:15; Jer 29:11; Rev 20:10.

Its been well noted that:  The strength of a ship’s hull is measured by the destructive, disruptive forces which it overcomes – not by those which overcome it.  Mt 4:1-11 & Heb 4:15  speak of you and an open book test  – “you will be tested in all points like as He.”

Christ, as the Divine Creator of heaven & earth was unveiling the unbounded love of Elohim as He incarnated, lived a life of perfect trust & dependence on His Father, then offered Himself as man’s Atoning Sacrifice, thus creating a pathway for any and all humans to, by their free choice,  reunite with their Father.

A translation of Isa 56:2-6 & 58:13 using denotations & connotations taken from Strong’s and Websters Dictionary’s:

“A heightened state of happiness and joy from good fellowship has the man who does this:  who keeps My Sabbaths, not using them secularly and keeping his hand from anything harmful   while doing what is good & right.”

True Christianity begins with a knowledge of, contemplation of, appreciation of, & gratefulness for, God’s unbounded, limitless, love.  Love leading each heart to pursue purity and nobility empowered by His absorbed and reflected character of measureless love.

In speaking of each of the “Ten Words” [Ex 34:28; Dt 4:13;10:12} of Exodus 20, the reciprocity of each in the New Testament  is revealed exceedingly more by demonstration than vocalization.  Don’t  hide behind supposed lack of inscribed lists.

Our life’s proper focus is not on what he/she/they have done or are doing to me, or any one,  but who am I representing to them.

Jeremiah 6:16 with word variations from Strong’s & Webster’s Dictionary’s: “Thus says the LORD, stand/halt at the intersection/crossroads and consider/look and ask (who? “The LORD”)  for the most ancient/forever/eternal way/behavior 1,  where the good/the best of the highest worth conduct is, and walk in it 2,  and you will find rest for your souls” 3 

      1)Ge 2:2-3 the finishing day, the crown of creation week, the most ancient description of  human behavior with it’s reciprocity made implicit in Ge 3:8 then imperative in Ex 20:8-11& 35:1-3, demonstrated > than 7000 times by the Christ while on earth, continuing through Rev. 14:7,11 then on through eternity Isa 66:23.    

    2)   Isa 56:6-8 ; 58:12-14; 1 Jn 2:6.    

    3)     Heb 4:5-11, with your Creator; the “Holy” of Ge 2:3.

A wilderness cabin of real value:

Picture a night, a night in which you had stepped out of your home for an evening walk.  It’s dark and as you turn to go back a quickening cold wind makes you shiver.  You see your home, maybe it is just a cabin in the woods but a beautiful glow comes from its windows and a brightly burning fire radiates warmth, peace, shelter.  Then you hear God’s quiet voice speaking.  The night is long, dark and cold for many of my children.  They do not know me, They are alone in the dark, in the woods, in the coldness.  Be for me at least a cabin in the night woods.  Let me build a fire on your hearth.  Let me fill you with warmth, peace and light.  Let my light shine out in the dark, so even my wildest creatures will be drawn.  Be for Me a cabin in the cold dark night woods.

The uniqueness of the Creator God as opposed to all “isms” lies in the infinitely high value He places upon humankind and on each individual.

The happiest people are not those getting more but those giving more.

Judge each day not by the harvest, but by the seed sown. 

The Old Testament reveals what God was doing, made necessary by us, so He could get us all a Redeemer.

God is not about burdens but blessings.

The most dangerous neighborhood on planet earth is the human mind – Always take Jesus with you!

Seek to bless, not justify nor impress.

As with the Greek Athenians where nike (victory)  was determined by Effort & Rules, ending in a  prize, so the Christian life is dependent upon: Effort 1 Cor 9:27 &  Rules Gal 6:15-17; 1 Thes 4:7; Php 2: 12-13  ending in a Prize Jn 3:36.

In Ghana, Africa I talked with a 16 y/o girl who had been raised Hindu but after hearing of God’s love, chose to follow Jesus and worship on the day He made, blessed, and made holy.  Consequently in the previous 12 months she had been threatened by her butcher father to be cut to pieces in her sleep.  She‘d been stripped and beaten with a horse whip till bleeding over her entire body.  When I asked about how she felt, she simply and quietly said:  “Jesus died for me.”

Are you a Jesus fan or follower?

The gospel of Christ is the enablement of the selfless law of God to be re-exemplified in the lives of fallen man via the infusion of His character welcomed into the life.

P  redictors – that will mold your future – handle them well.

R  eminders – that we are not self-sufficient.  We need God & others to help.   

O pportunities –  that pull us out of our rut and comfort zones & cause us to think creatively.

B lessings – that open doors that we usually do not go through.

L essons – with each new challenge asking to be our teacher.

E verywhere  – no place nor person is excluded from them.

M essages – that warn us about potential dangers.

S olvable  – No problem is without a solution through Him.  Jn 5:3; Php 4:13

The Hebrew word for evil is “ra” and the name of the Egyptian sun god is Ra.  

Character is not the law nor the keeping of the law.  Christ is the standard for the Christian character & is the essence or material of a purified character.  The law is a concise outline of His character boundaries especially fitted to help direct fallen man back to Him.

God’s Sabbath of Gen 2:2-3 is spoken of every 10 pages in the OT & every 5 pages in the New.

“Where there is no law, there is no liberty.” Benjamin Rush

While numerous religions, past & present mime the serpent in Eden claiming that man can become a god.   Only the Holy Bible proclaims & reveals that God became a Man – so to offer character redemption to all willing.

The Devil is out for blood – your blood – and he’s going to get it if you don’t get and remain under God’s wings  Mt 23:37.

The temporal intended result of the gospel message is for God’s people to catch the reflection of the smile of God and reflect it to others.

The kingdom of heaven might be described as self-control motivated & empowered by boundless other-centered love – with Atonement the ingenious, infinitely costly, formed, paved  and offered path back.

The true overcomer (victor) since Ge 3:15 has not been and is not defined by any nationality, denomination or creed Jms 2:19; Jn 10:16.  True Creator (Messianic, Anointed One, Christ, adoration, respect & honor, is a humble appreciation of, an acceptance into (Rev 3:20) and the revealing through one’s entire being of a divinely enabled purity and selfless loving kindness – the overcoming of self & the installation of selfless loving kindness.   Ro 12:2; 2 Cor 3:18; 1 Jn2:14; 5:4 ;Ge 32:28; Rev 3:21; 21:7 Ge 14:18; 5; 6:22; Jn 16:33 ; Ex 2:6; Dan 4:37; Ro 11:26, 2:28-29.

The foundation of the character of God & the kingdom heaven is faithful, everlasting, selfless loving-kindness.

The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it as soon as we perceive it.

When seen aright – to give is not a sacrifice but a rich privilege.

Christianity is less a noun than a verb activated by His Spirit within.

Death is not an obligation nor a sentence but a reality that will occur because of our choice as a race and as individuals. Yet God in His love has given us the choice of 2 out of 3 deaths [ #1,#2, #3].     A:  die to self & live for God (#1) then the temporal death (#2):   B: live for self then die the temporal death (#2) followed by the eternal – elimination – death (#3).

A bat sees light but does not delight in it.  And like a bat we may see the light of truth yet opt to dive back into the cavernous darkness of our desires, traditions & errors.  Truth is a reality, not merely words or thought.  And even if a thousand old beliefs & desires are ruined in our search for truth we must continue searching with the realization that the greatest homage we can pay to truth and life is to use it as soon as we perceive it.  To choose not to apply that light plunges us back into the cavernous blackness & loss of error.  Search for and follow truth found in creation, in the didactic and in He who is the Living Truth so that you may be sons & daughters of light Jn 12:36; Ge 1:3. 

You will be judged by your standard of life – not by your standard of living;  by your measure of giving – not by your measure of wealth;  by your simple goodness – not by your seeming greatness.

God in love carved out a sanctuary in time for both of us too, in voluntary reciprocal love meet and rejoice together.  Then we in a power play refuse and demand He come to us on our choice of time & then foreshorten that time 90% from 24 hrs. to 2.5.  Try that with your boss, surgeon, plumber, auto mechanic, lawyer.  Who will be the one who will truly loose?  Ge 4:3 ; Amos 3:3.

The old covenant and the new covenant are: not different in substance but in motivation; not different in what but who – [not “I” but Christ, not “we” but He], not in necessity but in submission; not in must, but in gratefulness; not in accomplishments but in acceptance; not in duty but in love.  The change occurred in the removal of the fallen human “we” & “me” replaced with the perfect Messiah, the Son Of Man taking fallen Adam’s place as head of our human race & then saying: “I will,” a reality, if accepted, generated from the foundation of the world Ge 3:15; Rev 13:8; 1 Cor 2:2,7,8; Eph 1:3-6;3:11-12; Titus 1:2; Isa 54:10; Mt 25:34; 1 Pe 1:20.  It’s all about the need of a relationship.  We submit to, not out of base necessity or desire for gain but out of deep appreciation born out of our knowledge, appreciation, belief and trust in our Creator’s eternal love  Php 3:9; 2:13; Gal 2:20; Jn15:4.

The gospel of Christ effectuates the law/instructions/prescriptions to be exemplified in the individual character via the fruits of the Spirit.

Romans 7:21-25  – There is a story, while known to have happened quite frequently by compassionate American folk, that is likely an agglomeration of many becoming an allegory. A story of a large scarred slave who unknown to himself was being purchased for manumission (freedom) &  while on a slave market block, repeated with increasing volume with each bid, “I will not work for you”.  He was purchased eventually for a high price and while being driven in a wagon home by the purchaser, repeated again and again “I will not work for you.”   The new owner saying nothing eventually stopped by a lovely cottage by a river.  The slave asked where is this?  And was answered, “this is your new home, your’e free.”   After a few minutes the slave broke down in tears saying master, I’ll work for you forever!”  Working not for freedom but because of being set free.  Obedience to Christ  –  Genesis1:1 to Revelation 22:21  was not and is not to gain salvation but because of salvation Mathew 1:21; Mt 23:34; Jn 8:36; Jn 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; 1Cor 15:51-57; Rev 21 & 22.

In Philippians 2:12b & 13a Paul describes a reality that is commonly translated in a way that on the surface seems contradictory, both within its self and with Paul’s wider description of the [and there is only one] gospel.  A denotative/paraphrase translation that makes Paul’s message clearer could read:   “…let out that which you have requested and has been grown by God with-in you.” (my translation)  A translation consistent with Christ’s words in Mathew 5:14-16 & Paul’s in Galatians 5:22-25.

Romans 7:21-25  – There is a story, while known to have happened quite frequently by compassionate American folk, that is likely an agglomeration of many becoming an allegory. A story of a large scared slave who unknown to him was being purchased for manumission (freedom).   Who while on a slave market block repeated with increasing volume with each bid “I will not work for you”.  He was purchased eventually for a high price and while being driven in a wagon home by the purchaser, repeated again and again “I will not work for you.”   The new owner saying nothing eventually stopped by a lovely cottage by a river.  The slave asked where is this, and was answered, “this is your new home, your free.”   After a few minutes the slave broke down & in tears saying master, I’ll work for you forever!  Working not for freedom but because of being set free.  Obedience to Christ  –  Genesis1:1 to Revelation 22:21  was not and is not to gain salvation but because of salvation Mathew 1:21; Mt 23:34; Jn 8:36; Jn 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; 1Cor 15:51-57; Rev 21 & 22.

Romans 7:21-25  – There is a story, while known to have happened quite frequently by compassionate American folk, that is likely an agglomeration of many becoming an allegory. A story of a large scared slave who unknown to him was being purchased for manumission (freedom).   Who while on a slave market block repeated with increasing volume with each bid “I will not work for you”.  He was purchased eventually for a high price and while being driven in a wagon home by the purchaser, repeated again and again “I will not work for you.”   The new owner saying nothing eventually stopped by a lovely cottage by a river.  The slave asked where is this, and was answered, “this is your new home, your free.”   After a few minutes the slave broke down & in tears saying master, I’ll work for you forever!  Working not for freedom but because of being set free.  Obedience to Christ  –  Genesis1:1 to Revelation 22:21  was not and is not to gain salvation but because of salvation Mathew 1:21; Mt 23:34; Jn 8:36; Jn 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; 1Cor 15:51-57; Rev 21 & 22.

In Philippians 2:12b & 13a Paul describes a reality that is commonly translated in a way that on the surface seems contradictory, both within its self and with Paul’s wider description of the [and there is only one] gospel.  A denotative/paraphrase translation that makes Paul’s message clearer could read:   “…let out that which you have requested and has been grown by God with-in you.” (my translation)  A translation consistent with Christ’s words in Mathew 5:14-16 & Paul’s in Galatians 5:22-25.

THOUGHTS WORTH CONSIDERING JANUARY 2026

Obedience is a surrender of the heart to the sovereignty of love.

True holiness [ wholeness ] is the all consuming active selfless love of God incrementally re-infused [ implanted ] into each wiling individual heart.

The foundation, the raison d’eter, the focus for human worship is our peerless Creator who due to our following fall freely chose to become our Redeemer, our Atoning Sacrifice, known on earth as the Anointed One, Christ the Jesus who came to save us from our sin(s).

Bible prophecy is not based on the nation of Israel with its synonyms given less than 3000 times but on Divinity {GOD, LORD, JESUS, CHRIST, CREATOR, MAKER}  & referred to greater than 40,400 times!  That’s 13 times + more frequent!  The current common focus on the nation of Israel is but another bypass meadows of J. Bunyan’s PP. 

Law is to protect general safety, ensure rights & provide order in pursuit of the highest good of the individual where danger exists.  God’s spoken, written & preserved law was kept encased in mercy as & in a temporary structure existing until the basis, the foundation of the law – selfless [other-centered} love is re-installed, re-implanted, re-infused into the hearts of all willing individuals.

Let the melting mercy of the love of God into your heart, & the quickening influence on His Holy Spirit into your mind.

Neither Life nor judgement is about how people treat or treated you, but about how you treat people.  Is your attitude one of deference or defense? Do you revel God’s re-infused character or your fallen one?

Chose your weapons:  Love, mercy, gentleness, long-suffering, kindness, forgiveness, truthfulness, compassion, prayer…   Or human bitterness, anger, annoyance, irritation, jealousy –  we are in a war of values – values if condensed are:  the Selflessness of other centered love verses the Selfishness of self love.

When God calls us to rest: it means to honor, respect, celebrate, & relate  in acknowledged  other-centered love. 

God saved & saves not by nations nor denominations but by individuals given and accomplishing, in love, their given task of witnessing. 

To bring Peace literally means to destroy the authority attached to chaos.

Heart is emphasized 700 times in the old testament & 100 times in the new.

The 3 CCC”s of Christianity:  Creation, Cross, Coming.  Of Salvation: convinced, convicted, converted.

Sanctified afflictions become spiritual promotions.

Ideally we do not teach our children that we don’s steal / lie / fornicate / kill, because it’s wrong.  We teach them it is wrong because harming someone, something,  including self is detestably antithetical to the loving selfless kindness of God & godliness. 

Attitude is more important then belief

Motivation is more important than action

And experience is more important than knowledge

The question is not: “Am I saved?” nor “Are you saved?”  but “Is Christ in me – in You – today?”  If He is then you have Him – Eternal Life now in you & if you do not turn Him out you are assured to being with Him eternally.  John 6:54; 1 Jn 5:20; Jn 17:3, 1 Jn 5;11,13.  Know, like Paul, each new day that you have died to self and invited Christ in.  1 Cor 15:31; Gal 2:20

In our search to know God better through His revelatory Word, let us never become antagonistic nor argumentative, nor accusatory, nor puffed up, but allow each to be fully convinced in their own minds through study, prayer, experimental application, respectful collegiality, affability and humble service.

Evolution at its foundation demands that there is no intelligent Creator,  Thus is unscientific by it’s foundational definition since science by definition looks at all options. – thus as a religion, evolution has destroyed greater than 100 million humans physically as the foundation of  the French Revolution, Marxism, Communism, Nazism & hedonistic secularism.   

Genesis 1:1-28 condensed:  In the beginning GOD brought into existence the heavens & the earth….and asked us to maintain calmness under a self-government of other-centered love with the acknowledgement of Celestial rulership.

The true prosperity gospel is found in Genesis 2:2-3.  Under the word “Blessed” God conferred prosperity & happiness on and from the Seventh Day of the week.  And also made It “holy” thus setting it morally apart by and with His repetitive special presence – that is true prosperity.  A week is the week that the world still keeps.  

We are saved by grace through faith {trust} and our faith is measured by His character growing in us, revealed by His works thus seen through us.  

Abrahams’ repeated failure of trust in God with Pharaoh, Abimelech,  and Hagar led to a closer test entailing a typology and affirming the  prophecy of Gen 3:15, a revelation of the reality of the ensuing Atonement Sacrifice.

Christian Music style is individual yet for each piece of music the driving force, the propulsive strength should  be approximately 70/30 x2.  70 % message – 30% accompaniment;  70% message – 30% emotion.

Genesis 32:28 reveals the divine etiology and definition of “Israel.”  Meaning in Hebrew “to let God prevail”,  thus “overcomer”  [Bible in Basic English]  per God’s definition in the last of vs 28. a name to inspire, innervate, actuate, motivate & encourage.  Overcomer of:  self pride, self infatuation, self protection, self righteousness, self reliance – all in God’s strength.  Taking as does the Greek “Nike” meaning of victory; a victory though that depends solely on choice, motivation, effort & rules, but likewise ends with a prize. 

If God is non-coercive and He is as life proves – there is no demand in His command, only pleas for your welfare.

Punish / punished / punishment means to impose the payment (wages) of banishment.  (Strongs, Roget’s Thesaurus)  Ro 6:23.

Nomological: expressing basic physical laws (for life) and rules of reasoning making a fact (eternal life) intelligible (M. Webster)   God’s instructions once understood as such, full obedience to God & duty, dissolve into grateful response.  Dt 10:12-13

The 7th Day of Creation & of the 4th instruction speaks not of a law / rule or code but of Christology.  The 7th Day anchors His identity as our Creator -“ I am” – He is God because I / HE created 67 times in 24 books of the Bible (ex. Job 38-40 & Lk 3:38.  Our Divine Parent always desiring that which is best & desiring to meet with us on “THE YOM”  Gen 2:2-3; 3:8; Mk 1:21-32; 1 Jn 1:3.

Christ came to further teach and demonstrate the realities of the laws of life & provide the way of salvation for  all who will chose.  

The ”Moral Law” =  Honor to our Divine Parentage 1-4, our temporal parentage 5  & our neighbor as ourselves 6-10.  Repeated three times in the New Testament  in Mt 22: 37-39; Mk 12: 30-31; Lk 10:27. 

Resting {to honor, to respect, to celebrate in acknowledgment of & with God on His 7th Day of Ge 2:1-3 speaks of: 

HONOR NOT LAW

GRATITUDE NOT NECESSITY

RELATIONSHIP NOT OBLIGATION

ORDER NOT CHAOS

PURPOSE NOT PURPOSELESSNESS

BELONGING NOT ALONENESS

INTENTION NOT CHANCE

NASCENCY NOT ORPHANCY 

LOVE NOT DUTY

CELEBRATION NOT DRUDGERY

ACCEPTANCE NOT ASSERTIVENESS

FREEDOM NOT LEGALISM

JESUS THE CREATOR NOT THE JEWS

The Creators  signature in & of time

BLOOD = LIFE IN THE EXCHANGE OF THE SANCTUARY:  The shed blood in the courtyard  represented imputed righteousness, forgiveness, justification.  The sprinkled blood in the Holy Place represented imparted righteousness, sanctification,  The  blood sacrifice ministered by the High Priest in the Most Holy Place once a year represented consummated rightness & the cleansing of the temporal / spiritual temple 1 Cor 3:11 & the divine Heb 4; Rev 11:19..   

New Testament:  The expanded commandments according to Jesus the Christ x 6:  (the numbering as per Exodus 20).

A: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts” {‘morally oppositional doubts about God’ Strongs Conc.} instructions 1-5; “Murder” 6; “Adultery” 7; “sexual immorality”7,8;  “false witness” 9; “slander” 10  Mt :19-20.

B: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come harmful thoughts” { ‘morally oppositional thoughts about God” Strong’s Conc.} 1-5; “sexual immorality” 7, 10; “theft” 8; “murder” 6; “coveting”10; “deceit” 9; “sensuality”7; “envy, slander”10.   All these evil {‘harmful’ Strongs Conc.) things come from within, and defile a person” Mk 7:20-23.

C: And behold a man came up to Him, saying, “Teacher what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” ….”You shall not murder” 6;….”commit adultery” 7; …”steal” 8; “not bear false witness”9, “honor your father  and mother” 5, “ and your neighbor as yourself” 6-10…If you would be perfect, go sell what you possess”10; and give to the poor…and come and follow me” 1-4  Mt 19:16-22.

D: Mt chapter 5 reveals the internal foundations of the Ten Instructions, Prescriptions (Strong’s C.) = Advisories  

E: Mt 22:37-39, Mk 12:30-31, Lk 10:27 All these NT references condense the TEN to “Love the LORD your God and your neighbor as yourself”.   Which also  is but a repeat of Dt 6:5

F:  One will also find all 10 in Rev. chapters 13-14.

A] “It (Ge 2:1) is finished”   1)  End of Creation week Ge 2:1:  2)  End of work on the Tabernacle Ex 40:33:  3)  End of work on Solomon’s temple 1 Kings 7:5.

B] “IT” (Ge 3:15) ”is done”   1)  Cross Jn 19:30:  2)  Investigative/Vindictive judgement of humans Daniel 7:25; 12:17  3)  those to be saved, saved & safe in the ark of Gen cha. 7 – & those saved by being “in” the Ark of  the covent Rev. 12:17.  4)  The final judgement of the wicked – the summary vindication of God. Rev 21:6

Offerings:  Burnt = gratitude for the LORD’S providing

Peace= gratitude for the LORD’S destroying of chaos

Repentance is a Hebrew verb that is – past, present and future.

Jesus came to expiate, wipe clean, erase, to extinguish our guilt and not to appease or regain the favor of God:  “For God so loved the world….” Jn 3:16.

Hate is based in fear: fear of rejection, abandonment, mortality, of not understanding and is a way (though poor) to restore a sense of power & exhibited in going an opposite way.

The essence between the old and new covenants is: “we will … ” – verses asking Christ in, to be our hope of glory.

To paraphrase Dt 22:5 into a parable:  A chicken should not try to swim like a duck, and a duck roost like a chicken.

The 7 epochs, eras of human earthly history: 

1. Eden ~1450 years

2. Antedeluvians ~1450 years

3. Postdeluvians ~1450 years

4. Israelite nation ~ 1450  years

5. Catholic Christianity ~ 1450 years

6. Protestant Christianity ~ 2000 years  Mt 24:48; 2 Pe 3:9

7. Second coming – heaven …Eternity

WHAT – no – WHO is the Bible about?  

The Hebrews / Jews / Israel who’s names appear ~ 3000 times in Scripture?  Or:   GOD / LORD / JESUS / CHRIST / CREATOR / CREATED / MAKER appearing greater than 40,400 times.  That’s greater than 13 times more frequent!   ( if one adds the personal pronouns  – He, I – following the nouns, it makes the references greater than 60,600 times)    Don’t get caught on the minors such as the nation of Israel!  – Major on THE MAJOR – the WHO of scripture.  JOHN 5:39  “THESE ARE THEY THAT TESTIFY OF ME” Genesis 1:1 ”In the beginning God….”  Revelation 22:21 ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all…”

Job was hit from 21 + different angles, yet though not understanding remained faithful – Job 19:25-27 – even while confused about the source of his troubles Job 9:24 – see Job 1:12 & 2:6.

The one double pinnacle of the Scriptures occurs at  Psalms 118 & 119.   The first focusing on God’s love for us  & the second on His gracious instructions for life and life more abundantly.  Get the view from the top!

The riches of righteousness.

Martin Luther:  “WE should learn to view our death as a fine, sweet & brief sleep which brings release from …all misfortune of this life & we shall be  secure and without care, rest sweetly and gently for a brief moment, as on a sofa, until the time when He shall call and awaken us together with all His dear children to His eternal glory and joy.”  And again: “that soul immortality is a heathen doctrine and among the monstrous fables that form the Roman dunghill of decretals.”  {Works of Martin Luther 6:287-288; Luther’s Words, vol 32, Career of the Reformer,II}

Tyndale:  “The concept of the immortal soul, separate from the body entered Christianity in the late second century AD  as early Christians thinkers, Tertullian, Origin, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine of Hippo integrated Greek platonic philosophy into their theology – termed dualism.  Departing from the Hebrew Bible’s view of the person as an integrated, indivisible whole.”  

Soul = life in Hebrew & Spirit = Breath. { Burns, Christian Moralism 101; / Froom, Conditionalist Faith 2:94}

The Biblical words Anger & Wrath are translated from 10 Hebrew & Greek words together used ~ 450 times with equal concentration OT / NT.  Anger: meaning a strong feeling of displeasure.  Wrath: meaning retributive [meaning “dispensing wages”] punishment.  In other words the allowing of the distribution of the full wages earned.   Man’s anger/wrath is born out of envy, greed, loss.  God’s anger is born out of compassionate love and granted freedom rejected  resulting in man’s & His  loss of their companionship forever.  Ge 1:27; Isa 5:4; Isa 28:21; James 1:20.  His strange act of Isa 28:21 speaks of an act / deed – not attitude, emotion, feeling – but a foreign, alien act (S) with an attitude of unfailing love affirmed greater than 77 times in Scriptures  such as 2 Chron 7:3. 

Isa 9:6  “the government shall be upon His shoulders” (S).  We were given dominion under His rulership in Ge ch 1 & we traded it for an “apple” in Ge ch 3.  Now He has regained it (our dominion) for us by His selfless love revealed again in His Atoning Sacrifice as the Son of Man on Calvary.

“For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.  But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice….Jer 7:22-23.  Ex 19:4-8 & 16:4; Jer 7:23,24,28; 1 Sam 15:22;  Isa 1:11

Visible religion has remarkably increased world wide.  We’re now finding ourselves adrift in a gallery of bowed heads, stooped, staring statues, peeping through windows in the palms of our hands or enlarged screens beckoning us on.

The book of Daniel: Allusions, images of Christ: Chapters 

1 Christ as Lord of Daniel

2 Christ as King of kings 

3-6 Christ as Lord of lords

7 Christ as Judge

8 Christ as High Priest

9 Christ -the Anointed One as victor via becoming on time the perfect Passover Lamb thus our Atonement

10-11 Evidence of Christs omniscience 

12 Christ will end all evil

Michael:  In Hebrew = a rhetorical question:  Who is like God? or Gift from God.  And in Greek = Who is like God.

All Christians need not be praying for a revival as much as praying to be the revival, uprooting and supplanting evil first in our hearts then homes – planting the seeds of humility, loving kindness and truth while praying the revival will grow and spread under the care of the Master Gardener.  May this be the day of new beginnings!

“Esau I hated” meaning I found as distasteful, was repelled by (Strongs, Oxford dictionaries) Mal 1:2-3.

“Christ was the end of the law”  meaning He was the ultimate purpose of the law is Christ in you the hope of glory Col 1:27 is the law fulfilled in us.  Fulfilled like one fulfills the requirements for a high school diploma or college degree while never subtracting from the path.   Upholding the law leads us to Christ Rom 3:31, Gal 5:22 3:24.

   CHRIST’S 

C rucifixion Gal 2:20; Mt 16:24

R esurrection Rom 6:15; Jn 3

O bedience 2 Thess 1:7-9; 2 Cor 10:5 

S acrifice 1Jn 3:16; of self through-

S ervice Mt 10:25 = worship

Sin is demonstrated in that we suffer  –  Christ is demonstrated in how we suffer!

Contrary to the Elihu of Job’s fame or St Augustine of Hippo, or Martin Luther or Karl Barth  – the sovereignty of God is scrutable, eternally loving, & never arbitrary, and is thrown open in invitation by God to full transparency for our comprehension, yet veiled from the shallow or non-committed or just curious.

Mt 5:19  of Christ’s inaugural address paraphrased via Strong’s and Oxford’s dictionaries:  “Anyone who breaks / unties / dismisses that which one believes to be most trivial of these Ten  Words / commandments / instructions / prescriptions  and teaches others to do the same, will be called zero in the kingdom of heaven” 

True Christianity:

By looking at the love of God, which is brilliantly displayed in Creation and in the Creators incarnation as Jesus the Christ, we see and confess our feculence.  Desiring to be like Him, yet recognizing our inability too.  We thus, via our free choice, in joy, submit to His freely offered ability.  Then in continued looking too and at Him, we grow in Him and He in us, obtaining His internal motivations thus rectitude.  Christianity is the natural outworking of the internal affirming & verifying the reality of the Eternal.

Some equate Gehena to the valley of Hinnon outside Jerusalem with fabricated tales of burning trash and corpses.  Archeology has not supported this fabrication noting no evidence of major fires but positive findings of many broken urns with infant bones revealing the ancient Israelite pagan practice of child sacrifice as recorded in places such as Jer 7:31; 19:2-6; 32:35 & 2 Ki 23:10.  That archeologic fact brought to light the sham originating with Rabbi David Kinchi ~1200AD.   Hinnon was really a valley of pagan rites necessitating a re-adjustment of current concepts of an ever-burning hell.

Mt 16:24-25   Since we live in a materialistic, mammonistic society allow me, if you will, to exchange two closely related words of inverse value.  Words who’s interchange becomes more real the further one travels from an agrarian society.  “Then  Jesus told His disciples, “ If anyone would come after me, let him deny his money and take up his cross and follow me.  For whosoever would save his money will loose it, but whosoever loses his money for my sake will find it.”

As the Holy Spirit begat, by her permission to enter the physical Mary, so the Holy Spirit begets, by our invitation, to entertain the spiritual Christ in us.  Jn 3:5; Gal 5:22; Rev 3: 20; Col 1:27.

The gifts, the worship, of service fall flat without the greatest gift of righteousness via the fruits of the spirit — who’s greatest talent, gift, is not worship nor service  – but love. 1 Cor 13 :3-4.

Jerusalem was often used in reference to the nation of Hebrews (Jews, Israel) as in Mt 23: 37-38.  Here stating the final rejection of this “stiff-necked” people.  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophet and stones those who are sent to it!  How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!  See your house is left to you desolate”  House meaning family, lineage.  Desolate meaning   forsaken or renounced as something once cherished with-out intent recover – abandon. (meanings from Strong”Conc. Webster Dict..) This is but the final with the predictions including  Mal 4;6; Lev 25:23; Gal 3:28; Dt 9:24; 11:10-17; 28:45; 1 Ki 6:13; 13:34; 2 Ki 14:27;  17:18-23; 2 Chr 7:16; Acts 13:46; Jn 4:21-24; Lev 26 & Dt 28 ; Jer 3:8 & Hosea 4:6,17 & ch 11.  The nation was rejected as His witness in this world, yet as individuals, all remained and remain savable by their individual choices like those from every nationality and walk of life.  This nation as a witnessing nation became defunct.  And in Christ’s words He originated it’s replacement as the “Church” in Mt 16:18.  Quit looking at the nation of Israel, yet pray for each Jewish individual.as you do for your neighbor.

Punish / Punished / Punishing / Punishment means to impose the payment (wages) of banishment (Strong’s & R. Thesaurus)  2 Thes 1:9; Mt 25:46; Jude 1:7

The wine offered to Jesus in Mt 27: 34 was yanin meyushwshan  or very old wine that had gone bad as a sour vinegar, paint thinner, with nail polish remover smell, burning the nasal passageways similar to horseradish.  

To paraphrase  Jesus’ words in Mark 2:27-28 concerning the Sabbath:  ‘It is the LORD”S Day & I am the LORD!’

The kingdom of Christ is established by the implanting of Christ’s nature in willing humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The difference I find between the common confused Protestant theology & Seventh-day Adventist theology is like the difference between a Yugo and a Bugatti.  Yet the benefit of that difference is nearly lost in its journey from the SDA mind to the SDA heart!  See Luke 18:18

THE 7 ASPECTS OF THE GOSPEL:

1 The actions:  Began at Creation revealing God’s love Rom 1:19, then faith in His promise of Ge 3:15, then centralized in Christ’s condensation, life, death, resurrection  & continuing ministry for fallen man.  Heb 7:25;  9:15; Zech 3;  Dan 7

2. The Persons: El & Elohim  {singular & pleural}

3. The effects:  Forgiveness & Christ in us – via the Holy Spirit 2 Cor 6:16 { “in” x 2}

4. The power: Selfless Love = True Love

5. The application:  Beholding – a feasting with the eyes, the mind, the ears, the heart, the body

6. The message:   God loves the world Jn 3:16

God loves you  Mt 16:15

God loves me  Mk 10:21

7. The result:  An unfathomable metamorphosis in character, then environment.

A good marriage partnership consists of a man & a woman being acutely, humbly aware of, and owning &  repenting of their own failings, errors, short comings & sins while focusing on their partners fruitions, long-comings & virtues.  This is made available by inviting our Creator to be the third partner. 

Warnings recorded about sun worship:

Job 31:26 ~1800BC Patriarchs 

Ex 32:4,20,35 ~1445BC Israelites – golden calf = Ra = Egyptian sun god

EX 38:13 ~ 1445BC Israelites – entrance to worship with back to the sun

Deut 4:19 ~1445BC Israelites – do not be enticed to worship the sun

Deut 17:3 ~1445BC Israelites – “bowing to the sun”

2 Chr 33:3,5 ~ 680BC Israelites – “stary hosts”

2 Kings 17:16 ~630BC Israelites – “stary hosts”

2 Kings 23:5,11 ~630 BC Israelites- “stary hosts”

2 Kings 23:11 ~630 BC Israelites – “sun & moon”

Jer 8:2 ~ 600BC Israelites – “sun & moon…they have worshiped”

Neh 9:6 ~ 530BC Israelites – “You alone are LORD.You made..the start hosts

Ez 8:16,17 ~575 BC Israelites – “back to the temple..bowing to the sun”

Mt 16:23 ~34AD Christian Church – “Get thee behind me Satan” KJV

Mk 8:33 ~34AD Christian Church – “out of my sight Satan” NIV see:  Ex 38:13; Ez 8:16,17 above

Jn 8:12 ~34AD Christian Church – Jesus – “I am the light of the world”

Acts 7:42 ~34 AD Christian Church – “God turned away..& gave them over to the worship of heavenly bodies”

Ro 1:25  ~60 AD Christian Church – “worshiped and served things made…”

Rev 14:7 ~60AD Christian Church – “Worship Him who made the heavens” See Ge 1:16

Rev 21:23 Heaven All who have chosen – “no sun..God gives it’s light.”

Rev 22: 5 Heaven All who have chosen – “… needs no.. sun..for the Lord   God will be their light” ESV

Current days of the week in English are named after Germanic  / Norse gods.

God’s desire for humans & this earth are the synonyms of peace & rest.   1) At creation He began each day with rest  – “& the evening and the morning were” …Ge ch. 1;   2) the first day of human life – rest & the peace of His presence –  six days are for labor but the 7th  Ge 2:2-3;    3)  The first desire for the Hebrew slaves – Israel – Ex chs. 5 – 11 & 16 – rest & peace;   4) There remains a rest Heb chs 4, Rev 21:4.    If there is one thing that I have learned from reading God’s word, is that His bottom line desire for us is happiness, peace and joy with unnumbered blessings waiting for us.  Mt 11:28’29; Rev 22:17.

Atonement spoken of > 112 times in OT {first in Ge 3:15} & 5 times in NT is not about extinguishing the law –  but  extinguishing the guilt incurred by intentional {iniquity}, rebellious {transgression}, & inadvertent – sin.  Nor has It anything to do with appeasing our God who”so loves the world that He gave His Son…” Jn 3:16

Is your assurance of salvation founded in your choice or action past, present or future or is it founded in your trust in /of His steadfast love?

Christ fulfilled the law: meaning: to make full, to put into effect; to develop the full potentialities of ; to convert into reality – in you

“Once saved always saved?”  Adam? Eve? King Saul? King David? Jer 18? Ez 18? Mt 26:33? Mk 14? Lk 22:32? Gal 2:20? 1 Cor 15:31? Php1:21?  Salvation is daily assured in & by your daily granted freedom of choice: “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve” Joshua 24:15

The delectables at the banquet were prepared at infinite cost are the fruits of the Spirit. 

THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF 3 DIFFERENT DEATHS!

The first and last are based on our freedom of choice. The middle death was decided by our forerunners. The first is the given option that by our free choice, to humbly die daily to the other wise unstoppable harms of selfishness.  

The second death was determined both by our first parents and by our succumbing to our propensities to sin.  The third and eternal cessation may be avoided by our choice of & acceptance of Christ’s selfless life of love to exist in us thus dyeing daily to self as did the apostle Paul 1 Cor 15:31.

The apostle Paul speaks to young Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:8 telling him, ”Now we know that the law is excellent,..” {Strong”s Conc.}.   Excellent indicates it goes far beyond standards, being extremely good, superior, exceptional and is one on the strongest compliments available  {Oxford dict.] !  So Paul charged Timothy in 6:14  “to keep the commandments unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” …”who alone has immortality…”  Immortality is a word used 5 times in scriptures and is always either an attribute or gift of divinity given at Christ’s second coming.  Be wary of attempts to claim it earlier via pagan greek platonic dualism. 

Ton-hesed  meaning:  mercy, compassion, grace, love, faithfulness, eternal & limitless that comes to life in actions is used 250 times in the Old Testament.  Yes, the Bible is one whole – in speaking of the OT Jesus said, “these are they that testify of me.” Jn 5:39

The Bible is about God, referred to 32 times in Genesis 1 and again 32 times in Revelations 22.  God separates light and darkness in Genesis 1:3 and again in Revelation 22:14.

“God is light,” so “walk in the light” 1Jn 1:5-7,  & Jesus said: “I am the light of the world” Jn 8:12.  Will your future be light or darkness?

(S) = Strong’s  Strongest Concordance

Sabbath, Jurisdiction, and the Revelation of God’s Character

Why do modern societies still argue about Sabbath rules? From colonial-era “blue laws” that shuttered commerce on Sundays to contemporary court fights over religious accommodation at work, we keep circling the same tension: should a human government regulate sacred time? The question is older than America—it’s baked into how we read the Ten Commandments themselves, traditionally split into two “tables”: honor to God and respect to parents & neighbors. Yet the last of the honor to God —the Sabbath—seems to sit uneasily between them. But suppose that the Moral Law is not merely a set of administrative decrees but rather the ontological scaffolding for freedom—the preconditions that make life among free, volitional beings possible, something analogously to the way that primary forces like gravity make physical reality possible—then the Sabbath command (and its neighbor, honoring parents) stands at the hinge between God and humanity. An ontological reading offers a richer insight: the Sabbath is not just a “rule about rest” but the first disclosure of who God really is, and what kind of reality He has made.`

The Sabbath as More Than Rest: Arrival and Revelation

Genesis says God “rested” on the seventh day, but not because He was weary. Creation was complete, but more importantly, it was ready for fellowship. Sabbath is not absence of activity but arrival in purpose—like a ship coming to rest in harbor, not to recover from exhaustion but because it has reached its the destination.

But even that is only the surface. Sabbath is the first great revelation of God’s character. It is the Alpha and the Omega in miniature: the Almighty God stepping down from transcendence, choosing to be “with” His creatures. The very first full day of human existence was not toil but shared communion with a God who gives Himself.

This is not merely communion but self-disclosure. As Paul puts it, the “mystery hidden from ages” is now revealed: the infinite God is not only sovereign but servant, not only First but Last, not only highest but lowest – and everything in between. The Sabbath is the first whisper of the same reality that bursts forth in the Incarnation, in Christ washing His disciples’ feet, in the Lamb who looked as if slain.

The 24 elders in Revelation fall silent for half an hour when they see/perceive the slaughtered Lamb—gobsmacked, as we might say—because the deepest truth of God’s being is unveiled: worthy is the Lamb, because He has chosen servanthood. That same reality was already encoded into creation’s first week: the seventh day is not just time off but God’s unveiling—“This is who I Am, forever. I Am for you. I am with you.”

Reframing Sabbath: Ontological Reality, Not a “Blue Blade”

Imagine the weekly cycle as a seven-bladed pinwheel: six white blades of work, one blue blade for “religion.” That’s the materialist imagination—Sabbath as specialized activity. A better metaphor is no seventh blade at all: a gap in the wheel through which another order of reality shines. In Genesis, God “rests” not from fatigue but because creation has arrived at its purpose—a world ready for fellowship. Rest is not absence of activity but presence: God with His creatures; creatures with one another under God. Think less “time off,” more ship in harbor: not weary, but arrived with a festival of arrival .

Seen this way, Sabbath belongs to the same ontological fabric as truth-telling, fidelity, and reverence for life. Each command protects the space where freedom can flourish. Without truth, speech collapses. Without fidelity, trust erodes. Without reverence for life, no domain for agency remains. And without Sabbath, time itself becomes a treadmill—all journey and  no arrival.

Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel called Sabbath a “palace in time.” It is not simply different activity but different reality—time set apart not to recharge for work but to disclose the order of existence itself. In that gap, humanity sees the God who does not exploit, dominate, or demand—but gives, stoops, and delights to dwell with His creatures.

This reading also illuminates Scripture’s snapshots of “Sabbath reality”:

  • Incarnation: God steps into creaturely life—presence, not performance.
  • Jesus washing feet: authority kneels; communion reorders status.
  • The three Hebrews before the furnace: competing jurisdictions are clarified; God’s reality outranks the king’s decree.

In each, Sabbath isn’t a ritual slot. It’s jurisdiction—which kingdom defines reality?

Why Human Jurisdictions Keep Missing It

Here’s the rub. When the state enforces Sabbath (blue laws), it confuses its jurisdiction. It can compel outward conformity—closed shops, quiet streets—but cannot deliver ontological communion. Coercion mimics Sabbath while hollowing it out. So what happens when Caesar tries to legislate the Sabbath? History shows two tendencies:

  • Enforcement (Blue Laws): Mandating external rest or worship by statute. This coerces outward conformity but hollows out the ontological meaning. The state can direct behavior, but it cannot open the gap of eternity.
  • Accommodation (Religious Exemptions): Protecting individuals’ right to observe their chosen Sabbath. This is better—guarding conscience—but still treats Sabbath as a consumer preference. It reduces sacred time to lifestyle management.

Both misfire because both confuse jurisdictions. The Sabbath belongs to God’s authority over time, not Caesar’s. To legislate it is a category mistake. Human law cannot create Sabbath; it can only distort or trivialize it. Put simply: Caesar can close a store; only God can open a Sabbath. Communities that know the difference will be both freer and more humane—and far more likely to experience the harbor, not just circle the wheel.

Why the Stakes Are Higher Than They Seem

Reducing Sabbath to utility (“rest improves health” or “family stability”) is like reducing marriage to tax benefits and sex. True as far as it goes, but it misses the elephant in the room: relationship and the revelation of God’s nature.

This is also why the 7th day matters. Sunday is justified by man holding it up as a celebration of the resurrection – a gift of acknowledgment and worship from humanity to God – a noble thing in its own right. But consider what that really means: Jesus pointed out that to give is better than to receive, and when we say to God that we would rather GIVE a gift of worship to Him rather than RECEIVE His gift of relationship with us, we communicate that we are attempting to claim the better thing for ourselves – the privilege of being the Giver; and even then our gift is only a comparatively paltry one of worship when His rejected gift was one of infinite relationship and communion. This difference is what makes the 7th day Sabbath the seal of God, the badge or mark of His kingdom on earth. When the Hebrew worthies without batting an eye chose burning to death over the extraordinarily simple bending of a knee it was this difference they were choosing. Of course in our sinfulness one can readily turn a 7th day ‘worship’ time into a subtle way of bragging that “we have it right” which like Sunday completely misses the point. Sabbath will always remain a matter of relationship and never one of correctness and we will only truly ‘get it right’ when His instructions/prescriptions (law) is written into our hearts with the ink of love by & for Him – when obedience and duty dissolve into grateful response. 

Without Sabbath, freedom collapses into endless striving. Without Sabbath, God is mis-seen as just another, albeit bigger, Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar—another cosmic tyrant demanding output. Sabbath reveals the opposite: God is the servant of all, who built into creation a day that says, “You are not defined by labor and behavior. You are defined by being with Me.”

And the biblical story is consistent:

  • In Genesis, God rests from His works with humanity.
  • In Exodus, behavioral rest is reopened to land, animals, slaves and masters.
  • In the Gospels, Christ embodies the Sabbath rest by healing, restoring, redefining original reality.
  • In Revelation, eternity itself is described in Sabbath terms: arrival, worship, & relational dwelling with God & all His creation.

Everywhere the refrain is the same: God is faithfully for us and with us…forever.

Objections and Responses

  • “But society needs a shared day of rest.” True—but legislating sacred time creates inequity and coercion. Better to protect labor dignity and allow each individual and communities of faith to embody the rhythms they are convinced & convicted of.
  • “Without blue laws, capitalism devours all time.” Correct, and this is why Sabbath is so radical: it resists the market not by statute but by revelation. Human law can guard against exploitation, but only communities of faith can manifest the gap of eternity.
  • “Isn’t Sabbath obsolete under grace?  1 ” If Sabbath is ontological, it is not abolished but fulfilled. 2   Christ doesn’t erase it; He embodies its meaning: “Come to me…and I will give you rest.” 
  • “Is this just communion?” No—it is communion grounded in revelation. Even demons know God exists; Sabbath shows what kind of God He is: almighty, yet humble; infinite, yet servant; with us, not against us.

Conclusion: Arrival, Not Striving

If the Ten Commandments are conditions for existence as free beings, then Sabbath is their luminous hinge. It is not a blue blade of different activity but the gap through which eternity enters—the first unveiling of the deepest mystery: that the Alpha is also Omega, the Highest is also Servant, the God of power is also the God of humility – God with us, and we with Him. This is why Sabbath cannot be legislated by human governments or be substituted with our gifts; it can only be received. Put simply: Caesar can close a market and go to church, but only God can disclose His own character. 

Every seventh day since creation, humanity has been invited not to do but to remember: we do not live in Caesar’s world. We live in the Lamb’s world. God is for us. God is with us. Forever.

1: Grace began being physically exhibited to and for us in Gen 1:1 – 2:3 then 3:8,15 ; 4:6-7; 43:29; Ex 22:27; 33:5,11,19; 34:6; Ps 103:8; 112:4; 116:5; Ps 119:29; Ne 9:31 to note but a few.

2:  Fulfills – As one fulfills – satisfies –  the qualifications for a high school diploma he does not negate the qualifications, similarly the qualifications for a college degree, nor the criteria for a pilot license.  Christ’s character in you through relationships is the realized culmination &  purpose and  not the negation of the Sabbath.   Similarly we are not under the condemnation of the LAW via the LAMB slain who atoned for our sin – yet we remain under it jurisdiction & protection.

3: It might be noted as an aside that, though commonly ignored,  “Sabbath” means “Seventh day” in 130 modern major languages.

Of Law, Lawlessness, Legalism, Obedience and Righteousness

Law:

Law: “ a rule of conduct prescribed” (MW 9th New Collegiate Dictionary).  There is no social organization whether club, sport, entertainment, government, state, nation, gang, den of thieves, no existence, animate or inanimate without codes, regulations, protocol, laws, instructions written or unwritten to guide, and so with the kingdom of heaven.  Why there?  “So that we might always prosper and be kept alive” Dt 5:24, “that it may go well with you” 6:18  “enjoy a long life” 6:2.  “so that it may go well with you and your children forever” 5:29.   Since with God there is no coercion, no compulsion there is no demand in His command, only a burning desire, a plea, a “perfect” plea (Ps 19:7), “pure” plea (Pr 30:5) for our individual and collective non-paralleled best good.  This is why the word translated command or commandments OT or NT can be equally translated instructions or prescriptions.  The external Law was given to protect us from destroying ourselves while the plan of salvation was being implemented in temporal time.  That’s why Paul said, “Christ is the end of the external (AIT) law” my contextual translation of Ro 10:4, and that, “the law was our school master (guardian) to lead [to being us unto (S)] Christ”.  The LORD encourages us to keep His commandment/commandments/instructions over 850 times.  With obey, obedience, obeyed greater than 250 times in scripture including 82 times in the NT.   Examples of disobedience began in Genesis 3,4, with encouragement “to keep” and “do” seven times in the last 14 verses of Revelation 22.   Prescriptions given for our best good from the LORD who is “the only law (instruction, prescription) giver” James 4:12.  The law was attempted to be kept ‘because He says so’ under the covenant that we as followers of God unthinking and faultily made with God saying, “everything the LORD says we will do” Ex 19:8; Heb 8:8.   Yes, ‘the spirit was/is willing but the flesh was/is weak’ Mt 26:41 KJV.  The new covenant, the “new law of Christ” Gal 6:2, encompassing love of God and love of fellow man Mt 22:37-39, was actually the oldest law from the beginning  Dt 6:5; 1 Jn 2:7-11; Gen 2:1-3, and is an allusion to the life, teachings, offered character change and the empowerment enabling and assuring the external do (Ex 19:8) by the blooming beauty of the internal be of other-centered selfless love Gal 5:22; 2 Pe 1:3-10.   This was/is made possible by the human Christ through total submission/trust in His Father thus keeping our side of the old covenant Jn 5:19,30.  Then that character was gifted by Christ to/in us Jn 14:10-11;17: 10, 22-23, so that we may rejoin the kingdom of heaven Col 1:27.  David understood God’s plan in its prospective and retroactive aspects via the sanctuary service, and requested,  “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps 51:10) .

Lawlessness: 

Lawlessness: “not regarding law”(S),“not restrained by law” (MW), “contrary to law” (The Interlinear Greek-English NT p.118).  Sin is lawlessness (1Jn 3:4) and Lucifer (Satan, the Adversary ) is the man of lawlessness (2 Thes 2:3).  Some interpret the name Satan to mean the ‘author of chaos’, and science, mathematics, sports, education, life (physical or moral) , anything and everything animate or inanimate is chaos without directions, rules, laws.   2 Peter 3:17 warns us “not to be carried away by the error (deception, delusion) of lawless men”.   And God affirmed the Ephesian believers for not following the antinomianism (lawlessness) of the Nicolaitans Rev 2:6.  If “anyone breaks [destroys, dismisses, unties (S)] what they think (“There is a way that seems right unto a man but the ends thereof are the ways of death” Pr 16:25) of as the least of His instructions they will be called least [emphatically excluded (MW)] in the kingdom of heaven” Mt 5:19,20.  Why?  Because every word of God is flawless Pr 30:5.  We should not presume to add too or subtract from the meanings of His words Dt 4:2; 12:32; Pr 30:6; Rev 22:18.

Legalism: 

Legalism is not in the keeping, doing, obeying, the following of instructions, or prescriptions.  If that were true Eve as well as Adam and Cain and all friends of Christ (Lk 15:14) would be legalists.  Also your child and dog, if they were to obey your communicated best judgement would be legalists.  Nor is it legalism for an apple, a comet or your foot to fall to the ground.  If so we could trumpet legalism, as well when God says, “Happy are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the tree of life” in Rev 22:14.  Yes, we could be standing outside the City walls stammering about legalism!  Christ say’s, “If you obey/keep my commandments, ye shall (“will” NIV) remain in my love” Jn 15:10.  Legalism is in the why, the motivation, not in the keeping, doing, obeying.   Do you follow the instructions because you feel you have too, to obtain favor, to avoid distress, to earn something desirable, or even ‘not do’ too ‘prove’ ones not a legalist?   If so, that is legalism in yourself or in the one next to you but you need not continue in legalism.   Attempting to do spiritual things on our own will end up as legalism since we will find ourselves inadequate due to our fallen races’ epigenetic’s to accomplish our desires and we’ll find our “righteousness (due to both motives and actions) is but filthy rags”  (Php 3:6).   Going through a school zone above the posted speed purposely is lawlessness; at posted speed complaining is legalism; driving a non-recommended, out of the way, different route may be ignorance or rebellion;  driving at posted speed because it’s posted might be legalism or trust; driving at posted speed or under because of your love for children, is true obedience – obedience from the heart.   Legalism may also be defined as ‘demanding external compliance of yourself or others, even when circumstances might truely negate it’s possibility or again ‘applying law without encompassing the circumstances with mercy and grace’.  Judaism was not meant to have been a religion of legalism (Dt 6:5; 10:12; 30:2,6; Jos 22:5; 1 Sa 12:20) but was kept by many legalistically from wrong motives and from attempts to do it on their own. 

Obedience:

Obedience has, is, and always will be the gold standard, whether that is permission to eat of all the trees except the one in the middle of the garden Ge 2:17, or “if you love me you will be keeping my commandments”Jn 14;15,23; 15:10; 1Jn 2:3; 5:3, or  “Let the righteous still do right” Rev 22:11.  The overcomer has always been the apple of God’s eye.  As we call a precious daughter a princess, God called a nation “over-comers” (Israel) and we “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16) are to overcome as Jesus, the Anointed One (meaning of ‘Christ’), “overcame and sat down by His Father” Rev 3:21.  Overcome self-centeredness and thus harmful behaviors by following His prescriptions/instructions in His granted character power for our best good.  We can’t find the capability nor the purity of motivation with in us.  It has been properly said that we cannot obey our way into heaven (it is a gift), but we can disobey our way out of the option as first proven by Adam and Eve.  Pure obedience comes as & with a complete surrender of the heart to the sovereignty of selfless love, a love available only from God through Christ as fruits [reproductive bodies (MW)] of the Holy Spirit Gal 5:22.

Righteousness:

Righteousness is defined in Hebrew (OT)  as, “acting in accordance with God’s standard,” and in Greek (NT) as, “acting in accordance with God’s standard expressed in covenants,” and in MW 9th New Collegiate as “acting in accord with divine law”.  “Your laws are righteous” Ps 119: 7,62, 65,106,138,160, Ro 1:32;7:12.  We were/are being created to be like God – in His image Ge 1:27 –  in true righteousness and holiness. Eph 4:24, and weare too “seek His righteousness” (Mt 6:33).   Zephaniah  2:3 and 1Jn 3:7 tells us “he who does right is righteous” and 1 Pe 2:24 says,  “…so that we may die to sin and live * righteousness” *(“for” NIG).  But HOW hinges for us on WHO.   Jeremiah 23:6 clues us in with,  “He will be called the LORD our righteousness” repeated in 33:16.  It is a righteousness that comes from God through faith Ro 3:22, Php 3:19, a submission to the sovereignty of selfless Love welcoming the fruits of the Spirit into our lives Gal 5:22.   Romans 6:16 NIV tells us, “obedience which leads to [towards (S)] righteousness.”  Yet it is not our obedience or righteousness, not a righteousness we obtained from keeping the law, which will always be from wrong motives and inadequately due to our sinful nature.  It is the righteousness of Christ (His character) obtained, gifted through request and faith.  Christ came not to abolish the law Mt 5:19 nor obedience to it, but to fulfill {measure up to, convert into reality, develop the full potential of (MW)] thus enable us, by we inviting His life, His character, within, giving us a second chance, through submission to Him, to keep the law of life [“The way of righteousness there in is life” Pr 12:28]— through faith in the faith of Jesus – and request His perfect life of obedience His mercy and love to now enable us by transforming us from within.  Justification by our faith in the faith of Christ will be made manifest in our transformation of character, changed form the inside out Gal 5:22; 2 Pe 1; Mt 18:23-35; Ez 18:5-9,24-26.  Those who may accept forgiveness yet reject the gift of transformation to Christ’s righteousness Mt 18: 21-35 are rejecting the attributes that fit them for heaven.  The change at His coming is not in character or to His desired behavior but to immortality 1 Co 15:50-57; Rev 22:11.  

Of law, lawlessness, legalism, obedience, righteousness — The unimaginable deep desire, & wisdom of the Father and the Son who through the Son engineered in love, mercy, grace and ultimate sacrifice a way for us to return into their kingdom, a kingdom of unity without uniformity making perpetual life possible by the unshackled universal freedom of selfless – other centered love.  Christ forgiving and dwelling within in temporal time is the gospel  Gal 2:20; Col 1:27, with its final gifted results realized at His second coming Jn 14:3; Acts 1:11; Rev 22: 7,12, 20.

The Christian cognates of Soul &Spirit with Hindu, Islam, voodoo

The ‘Christian’ cognates of S&S with Hindu, Islam, voodoo & spiritualism 

The popular Christian concepts of the human spirit and soul are actually the “expanding intentions” (S) and the stretching of intended purposes” (MW) of simple Hebrew and Greek words.  “Additions” (MW) to personify & hominify the unpretentious & clear Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT) words that each literally mean “breath” (S) along with an English word literally meaning – breath, to indicate or imply an existing human “spirit”.   Additionally “expanding the intentions” (S) of the Greek (NT) word for wind/breath (S) along with a Hebrew (OT) word meaning “psyche” (S), [which implies  “that which lies outside of knowledge” (MW), and/or “life”(S): defined as “that quality that distinguishes the manifestation of a living from a dead body” (MW)], and stretch interprets (S) them to, “soul”.   The expanding, stretching, or enlarging  in scope these simple, clear words enables the unintended Biblical concept of an existing human entity termed a spirit, or a soul, to enter into Christian thought.  This was accomplished first by Philo (20BC-40BC) infiltrating the Greek philosophies of Plato & Socrates into Christianity then revivified by Justin Martyr (100-165). [The apostle John noted in 1Jn 2:18 that, “even now many antichrists” (anti: opposing, hostile too, combating MW) “have come”.]  These pagan Greek philosophy were further ensconced into Christian thought by Clement of Alexandria (d. 215), Origen (ca 184-254) then Augustine in the fourth century AD.  Thus entered into Christian thought the concept of some form of life or animacy to possibly have existed prior and/or to exist beyond the demise of the body, thus carrying on the first recorded open faced lie on earth as recorded in Genesis 3:5, “You will not surely die (pass out of existence (MW)”.  This veiled reincarnation and propagation of the lie implies that some portion of rebellious humans cannot be extinguished or extirpated but will at least live/exist on forever in a heaven, a purgatory, or a hell –  a purely pagan philosophy traceable in modern history to Plato. 

The reality, the truth, is Biblically put together simply in Genesis 2:7 by the statement that God breathed (“sent out by exhaling a specified kind of air” MW or “breath or nothingness” MW)  into man – the wind of life – and man came into existence (S).  Into a state of breath (inhaling and exhaling MW) in contrast to death (S).  As Isaiah puts it “Who giveth vital air to the people on it, and breath to them who tread there on” 42:5 Sept.   A divinely revealed unsophisticated truth which only by the expanding (S) and stretching (MW) of intention (S) became todays popular Christian non-biblical cognates (spirit/soul) of Hindu’s reincarnation, Islam’s Qadar, voodoo’s zombies and the teachings of spiritualism.    

When God says the reality (“wages” Romans 6:23) of sin is death, He simply and foundational means the loss of His gift of breath – thus nonexistence.  As Ecclesiastics 12:7 literally states “the breath/wind returns to God who gave it” causing the nonexistence of the previously breathing, living being (see Ps 116:8; 23:14; Ez 18:4,20; Mt 8:26).   This is the sad end for those who refuse His freely given, hard earned offer of forgiveness and other-centered character transformation that would re-enable them to receive the gift of an harmonic eternal life.  He still, in deep loving desire pleads:  turn ye, turn ye from your harming ways for why will ye pass out of existence (see Ezekial 33:11; Zechariah 1:3-5)? 

Of monotheism , the Godhead, the tree, & sun worship

THE ANCIENT REOCCURRING QUESTIONS: WHO IS GOD AND WHO ACTUALLY IS YOUR GOD?   Viewed from the angles: OF MONOTHEISM, THE GODHEAD, THE TREE  & SUN WORSHIP  

Our home base text will be DEUTERONOMY 6:4 

“HEAR, ‘O ISRAEL THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE,” NAS, ESV, NIV.   That’s the translation of the Hebrew words used in the main text of 60% of English versions of the Holy Scriptures.  With this text as the foundation, we will review Monotheism, the Godhead, the Tree and Sun worship, seeing them not as disjointed revelations but as streams on a river delta flowing into, out of, and again in to each other. 

Deuteronomy 6:4:  This is the famous monotheistic text of Judaism who’s understanding was retained and further restricted by Muhammad, of Islamic repute, as he started to preach on the singularity of God, in his initial attempts to reform the falling Christian church some 600 years after Christ.  This concept was latter taken up by Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many Pentecostals.  So let’s take a closer look at this text on monotheism since it’s possible a partial truth promulgated as a whole truth can become an untruth.   We’ll start by splitting it into its three parts, (a), (b), & (c).  

Starting with part (a)  “Hear ‘O Israel.”  “Hear”: meaning to gain a knowledge of by ear;  “‘O”: an expression of divine desire;  “Israel”:  since family names in Near Eastern peoples were nearly nonexistent, names were of individuals to which great significance &/or expectations of character were attached.  God’s new name for Jacob after a night of symbolic wrestling, in Ge 32:28, was “Israel,” and thus each individual descendant of Jacob would be divinely encouraged/desired/expected to have the same character – Israel & Israelites are the same Hebrew word.  Thus the nation of Israel was and is more correctly thought of as a collection of Israelites.  The meaning of “Israel” was defined by divinity as : “prevailed by persistence or overcomer”  (Strong’s Concordance, NIV, The Bible Basic English and the meaning of over 100 English translations using “prevailed, won, victorious, or overcomer” ).  Thus each descendent was divinely desired to be an overcomer.   A name that we may also have, by chosen commitment per Romans 8:15; 9:6,24-26; 1Cor 10:18; Gal 6:16, which calls Christians, “the Israel – or Israelites – of God.”   Names influence personalities, important decisions, create meaning and affect how we feel about ourselves (Psych today July 19,2021, Insight June 2022).   A reality God knew.  The individual reality in the name [overcomer] is necessary to inherit the kingdom of heaven Rev  2:7,11; 3:17,21;15:2.  “He who overcomes [as I overcame Rev 12:11] will inherit all this.” Rev 21:7.   

Dt 6:4’s “Hear ‘O Israelites” – is divinity’s burning desire for us – not as a part of an ancient, nor current nation, but foundationaly then and now as individual overcomers by persistence in a chosen commitment for & to the invitation of the God of selfless love.      

Parts b and c of this verse are best and most clearly translated from the Hebrew words used in the text, the immediate context, and the larger scriptural context as “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.”    Listen carefully to the difference:  “The LORD is one” or  ” the LORD alone.”

This less common translation, “The LORD is our God, the LORD ALONE,” OR “ONE AND ONLY” OR “ONLY GOD” is used as the text of 22 of the 55 English translations or  40% (1),  plus given as an alternate in the the margins of a number including the NIV & ESV, NKJV.  This wording, “The LORD is our God, The LORD alone” is in line with the possible wording of all versions  since “one” per Strong’s Hebrew lexicon equally means  “ALONE OR ONLY”.   This along with the immediate context [Dt. 4:35,39; 5:7; 6:13-14; 8:19; 10:17; 11:16; 32:12,,16,39; Ex. 20:3];  and the larger context of scripture [Isa. 43:10-12; 44:6,8; 45:11-12, 18-22; 46;9; 57;12; Jer. 7:6; 25:6; Ge. 1:1; Jos 22:34; 24:16-23; Judges 2:3, 11-13; 3:7; 6:10; 10:13; Joel 2:27; Rev. 4:11; 19:1].   All contexts meaning: the Lord alone/only.

“The LORD is our God, the LORD alone” also aligns with the word “God” in the text (meaning: Maker) used in scripture greater than 4,400 times, and “LORD,” used twice in this text (meaning: “He who causes to exist,” thus Creator) used over 7,600 times – together greater than 12,000 times in scriptures.  Both parts b & c of Dt 6:4 state – He alone is our progenitor (forefather, first ancestor Gen 1:26 (“Let us make man…).   Our nascency, meaning birth origin, as noted again in Lk. 3:38 “Adam the son God,” and in Jesus’ words in Mt 6:9 & 24 “our Father which art in heaven”. Here Christ addressing our birth origin).  This translation of Dt 6:4 is also consistent with Christ’s words in Lk 12:29 given to the adversary in the wilderness of temptation where He quotes Dt 6:13 to the deceiver. “It is written you shall worship the Lord (He who causes to exist) your God (Maker) and Him only shall you serve.”  Again in Mt 12:29 when questioned about the most important commandment Jesus answered,“Hear ‘O Israel, “The Lord our [relationship] God (YLT) “The Lord alone”  (your Bible could read “is one,” yet again Strong’s dictionary gives ‘alone’ as an equal translation of the Greek word “one” used here).   “The Lord alone.”   The NEB’s compatible translation of this same verse is, “The Lord our God is the only God.” 

Deuteronomy 6:4’s word & contextual meaning of phrase (b) (“the Lord is our God”) address’ and reveals the LORD our God’s unique ontologic specificity (ontologic meaning the reality & nature of relationships of being – here our originator) and phrase (c) “the Lord alone” addresses God’s numerical singularity  – the LORD, the One, the Genuine, the Only – because He was/is our progenitor. 

Further, the English word “LORD” in this text comes from the Hebrew Elohim – singular in the plural form – and is used twice here in this verse to imply one single.  Phrase (b) points strongly to the ontologic (relational) specificity while again phrase (c) the numerical singularity.  A numerical single takes the quantity in its meaning from the base to which it is attached.  Monocular has a base of one eye, one hour has a base of sixty minutes, one day has a base set of 24 hours.  Monophonic being not a single note but an unaccompanied (alone) melody line of more than one note.  The numerical singularity (not ontologic – relational – specificity) must be determined by and from the source describing its base or base set.  A base set is the number of things of the same or similar kind that belong together ie: a week has a base set of composed of ‘days’.  Some will try to limit the number of elements in this base set in question by texts such as Jn 1:14,18; 3:16,18 which state, “one and only” or only begotten” or Lk 1:32 which says, “will be called the Son of the Most High” using these to deny Christ’s preexistence.  Letting the scriptures be their own expositor we first note the temporal timing in, “today I have become your Father,” or “today I have begotten thee” Ps 2:7, Acts 13:33, Heb 1:5 & 5:5.  Today, is a temporal time factor [Genesis chapter 1 “and the evening and the morning were the x day”] not a heavenly factor where “a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years as a day” 2 Pe 3:8, thus the begotten event occurred on earth and as such recorded in Lk 1:26 – 2:11.  Revelation 1:5 speaks of the “first begotten of the dead, and He was, in temporal time on earth, resurrected from the dead as noted in John chapters 20,21.   Jesus who was the root and offspring of David Rev 22:16, in Lk 1:32-35 was introduced by “He shall/will be called the Son of God”.   Note the tense is future, not present or past.  Yes, He became God’s first born (and only born) Son by His choice in earthly time (“today”).   A time inaugurated at the Creation of this world.  A day in temporal time when the elements of the God set took a new reality – “begotten” – one becoming the only begotten Son, and the other, note this: God the Father – (“to become the father of” is a meaning of ‘begotten’ given in Strong’s Gk. dictionary).  Yet some texts speak of the “Son of God” prior to the incarnation just like Rev 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” KJV.  This is true because when God says He’ll do something Gen 3:15, it is as good as done thereby – here, making a level salvation playing field of justification and sanctification for all from the fall to evil of the human race.   The earthly titles, “Son of God” and “the only begotten Son” and even the Father, are God given handles to best communicate the eternity past, present and future, to fallen mankind.  The early patriarchs of Ge 4:26 “publicly declared (margin ESV) the name (ie: righteous character) of God” – that’s Ge 4:26!   Noah, the tenth patriarch was a preacher of [Christ’s Jn 1:3] righteousness 2 Pet 2:5.   These patriarchs lived long before Christ walked on earth, while Moses was resurrected Jn 17:3 prior to Christ’s temporal death & resurrection, yet by divine promise in Ge 3:15 He was to crush the devils head and become, in temporal time, the first born of the dead of earth.  John 1:1-14 identifies Christ as the co-Creator, first introduced in Ge 1;1 long before His earthly sojourn as Elohim (singular in plural form – a single set with plural equal elements]  [see also 1Cor 2:7; Eph 1:3-6; 3:11-12; 1Pe 1:20; Mt 25:34; Titus 1:2; Isa 54:10; Micah 5:2].  Elohim is used as the name of the God set more than 3000 times in OT scriptures.   

In summary here, Deuteronomy 6:4 home base text, parts a & b; along with Acts 2:34-35; Heb 1:5 & 5:5 speak with the rest of scripture, of  1) the ontologic (relational) specificity of the God-set  2) of the genuine single base of procreators whose elements are God, 3) with two of the elements taking on new role identities for our benefit in temporal time, for eternity, for communication, and to explain eternity past for our best potential of understanding.  One becoming the Son of God and another element here in the God-set becoming ‘The Father’.  This is also in line with the angels announcement to humans of the birth of Jesus in Lk 2:11 saying, “For unto you is born this day a Saviour who is Christ” (in Hebrew: “the Anointed One” “of God” {Strongs Gk dictionary & MW} ) “the Lord” (the Greek for Lord in this text is YAHWEH – the personal name of God).   And Simeon in the same chapter of Luke verses 26-32, the devout man who met Mary & Joseph in the Jewish temple at the presentation of the infant Jesus, called Him “the Lord’s” (the Greek is possessive, YAHWEH’S – thus the Father’s) “Christ” (thus “Anointed One” yet to be).   Here Christ is YAHWEH and the Father is YAHWEH.   “It is the LORD (Elohim) your (relational) God (set) you shall (revere, respect, honor [S])….You shall not go after other gods…” Dt 6:13-14 — Which is the immediate scriptural contextual interpretation of Dt 6:4.  To translate Deuteronomy 6:4 independent of overwhelming scriptural context has led, allows and leads many to go down devastating rabbit trails:  “The LORD is our God, the LORD ALONE” – both in ontologic, or one could say relational specificity, and in numerical base set singularity.   Even the Jericho prostitute Rehab knew, saying, “the Lord (Elohim) your God, He is God (Elohim, singular pleural form) in the heavens above and the earth beneath” Jos 2:11.  Worship Him alone for He alone is worthy (see Rev 4:11; 5:12) – or “Serve Him alone (“only” meaning also “alone” S Heb. lexicon).” 1 Sam 7:4.

The above reality interdigitates closely with another revealed truth on the elements of the God-set or as the apostle Paul termed it: “the Godhead” in Ro 1:20 KJV,  interpreted also “divine nature” (Weymouth),  as the translators wrestle for the best English words available to match the OT Hebrew word ELOHIM, which again is singular in pleural form and used over 3000 times in OT scripture beginning with the introduction of the Godhead in Ge 1:1.  This understanding Lucifer in heaven was the first to dogmatically refuse, denying the One whom we know as Jesus the Christ [both earthly titles] as part of the Godhead, and feeling that he himself was worthy to be a part of the God-set [see Isa 14:12-16; Ez 28:11-19; Rev 12:12-14; 20:2].  Envy leading, as recorded in Ge 3:1-5 to a first on earth, frontal attack on the character of Elohim at the single Edenic tree warned against by God.   Lucifer’s envious defamation of the ontological (relational) specificity and numerical set singularity of the truthful, merciful, patient, kind, faithful, gracious, loving character of Elohim – the Godhead – is still echoing down through time both in and out of Christianity.  Study carefully that multifaceted assault. 

Others try to limit the elements of the base set in the Godhead to just these two, excluding the Holy Spirit.  The three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit conspicuously appear together in the first chapters of 16 of the 66 Scriptural books (24%), to whit: Genesis, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Peter, 1 John, Jude, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ (YLT).  The three appear together as well at the major adjustment in the human population occurring at the Noahic flood of Genesis 6 (recently reaffirmed by Nathaniel T Jeanson humans genetic history traced back on the Y chromosome to three men 4500 years ago published in his book TRACED 2021).  The three are also noted together at Jesus’ temporal anointing at the Jordan River as He became the Anointed One (Gk Christ) [of God, S & MW]  Lk 3:32,  and spoken of together again by God’s Christ as He gave us His commission in Mt 28:19:  “baptizing them in the” [singular article].  name” (Gk “onoma” –  singular in the Greek – ‘name’ is a word MW defines as: “a word or phrase that constitutes a distinctive description of a person, and entity or [single] family) “of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”  This was Christ, putting into Greek the Hebrew ‘Elohim.’  The elements of the same Greek word He used in Mt 6:9 teaching – “Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name” –  (onoma),  both defining the elements of the single ontologic and numerical singular base set.  In the book The Revelation of Jesus Christ the last five verses of the last chapter in Scripture places the three (Spirit, God, Jesus) together Rev 22:17-21, thus bookending – Genesis 1:1-2 and Revelation 21:17-21 – the entire Scriptures with the full elements of the Godhead set!  In Jn 15:13-14 Jesus personifies the Holy Spirit by “the” & “he will guide…he hears, he will speak..he will declare…he will take”.   And in Mt 28:19 Jesus revealed that the Holy Spirit is named, and in Jn 14:17, he is identified as a helper/counselor, and in Lk 12:12 the Spirit teaches – together revealing the Spirit has attributes typical of a person. 

For those who have been blessed through the Adventist progression of the Protestant  Reformation, it is helpful to note the Bible commentator EGW’s comments on the Holy Spirit’s  1) importance – such as “God’s image” (what we lost with our fall) “is restored in men through the Holy Spirit” TM 378, along with more than 2500 references on the important works of the Holy Spirit and asking “ministers to dwell more on the (importance of) Holy Spirit” 1SM 156-7.   2) Yet regarding the nature of the Holy Spirit she states in AA 52: “it is not essential for us to be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is …The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery men cannot explain.”   Some in various faiths (including the Adventist faith) will voice that originally their newly forming denomination did not believe in the three part Godhead (sometimes termed at least in Adventism, Historic Adventism).  To hold this position would be to deny Mk 4:28 defining the reality of growth thus negating among other things, in the Adventist faith – the health message leading Christians back to Genesis 1:29; 2:15 & 3:18 & 1Tim 4:3 [“foods created to be eaten”] and the weekly day of His faithful divine visitation, the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord Ge 2:2-3, –  [early advent believers commonly ate “foods not created to be eaten” and as well honored the sun along with most Christians who still do].  Yes, here in these areas of understanding the men & women of the Adventist faith, along with Bible commentator Ellen White progressed in knowledge, wisdom and practice ‘for our best good’ Dt 10:13 as noted in places such as 5 BC 1110 to review a few, “the three holy dignitaries of heaven” (ms 92,1901), and “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, powers infinite and omniscient” (ms 22 1/2, 1900), “the three dignitaries and powers of heaven” (ms 85,1901), “those who are baptized in the threefold name [base set] of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost” [the elements] (ms 27 1/2, 1900), or again “the three great powers in heaven” (ms 57,1900).  

THE TREE: Some others will reject a truth, & specifically this revealed truth, on the basis that wayward denominations down through the centuries following Christ earthly sojourn have come to believe that specific truth.  Not appreciating the reality of Genesis 2:9,17 which reveals that truth is often mixed in with error to improve its palatability by naming the tree – the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil”.  That’s why God through Paul told us to “test all things, hold fast to what is good” but “Abstain from every form of evil” 1 Thes 5:21-22.  Yes, there are truths that each denomination hold in common with other Christian denominations and even non-Christian religions [marriage for instance].  The original apostles too grew [see Acts 15:1-35] before the downward slide as predicted & noted in places such as 1Jn 2:18 & Rev 6: 1-10.  Note that new truths build on, or remind us of older truths without denying their validity.

In conclusion here, what we term the trinity (set), the elements of which are revealed to us as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, seems to be the best working concept of the Godhead.  Not understanding, or an honest misunderstanding of this or any revealed truth will not keep you from heaven Ex 3:5; Jos 5:15; 6:25; Eze 45:20; Acts 3:17; 1Ti 1:13.  A right understanding will not save you [Eph 2:8 makes it plain we are “saved by grace through faith”].  But a militant dogmatic wrong understanding of this or any revealed truth will exclude you, as demonstrated by Lucifer turned adversary and those angels who followed him.  Pray, study then pray before respectfully speaking even the truth, as you see it, in love.

The truth of this textual interpretation of Dt 6:4, “Hear ‘O Israel, The LORD (Hebrew: He who causes to exist) is our God (Hebrew: Maker), the LORD (He who causes to exist) ALONE” lies closely with another related practice – sun worship.  “Sunday: a day of exposing oneself to the rays, the glory, of the sun,” “a Christian analog (similar but different in structure and origin) of the Creator’s 7th day Sabbath,” “resembling but essentially different” (all definitions of ‘Sunday’ and ‘analog’ from the Merriam Webster 9th New Collegiate Dictionary).  Plainly stated, sun worship in recorded secular history dates readily back to Mesopotamian’s sun & usually chief god under the names of Shamash, Shamshu and Amar-Sin, and Egypt with RA. RA being the Egyptian sun god and chief god for much of their history.  One of the greatest of ancient Egyptian cities was Heliopolis or Sun City.  Today built upon its ruins is Baalbek, translated in Arabic as “a minister or ambassador” of Baal or nature worship.  In Hebrew recorded history the use of the created in worship began with Cain in Gen 4.  Then Job (circa 1800 BC) spoke against sun worship in Job 31:26.  400 years later the Hebrew people exiting Egypt (circa 1445 BC) were warned three times against sun worship in Dt 4:19, Dt 17:3 and again in Dt 23:1 yet 80 years later Judges 2:4,17 record them serving the Baals – created things.  Then in 2 Kings 23:5-9 (circa 1000 BC ,another 400 years) as well as the prophet Ezekiel in 18:16 revealed that Israel’s religious leaders had led the people into worship of the sun among other ‘deities of nature’.  The emerging Christian church was warned about worshiping “things made”(S Gk lexicon) in Romans 1:25  [see Gen 1:14-19 for what was made on the 4th day of creation].  Worship your one and only Maker, HE alone is your God.

In recorded language history, the English word Sunday, literally “the day of the sun,” was derived from Hellenistic astrology where it was the “day of the sun,”   It was then introduced to Rome and on to the Germanic peoples as Sonntag (sun’s day) from the Latin dies Solis (“day of the sun”).  Old English picked it up before 700 AD as Sonnandaeg or (“sun’s day”).  In most Indian languages the word for Sunday is derived from Sanskrit’s day for Surya  (“the Sun deity”).  Chinese, Korean and Japanese all term the first day “sun day of the week”.  InHebrew, Arabic,Persian and related languages all names of the day mean “first”.  In Slavic languages our Saturday is always literally, or in its derived meaning “Sabbath”, meaning a “time of rest” (MW).  Christian worship on “the day of the sun” slowly entered the Christian scene through various secular, political and life protection modes and reasons.  Christ’s resurrection was not used as a reason until at least the second century.  It wasn’t until 363 AD with the 29th canon of the Laodicean Council of the Roman Catholic Church that Christians were prohibited – by Christianity – to worship on the seventh day as the Sabbath and strongly, even forcefully encouraged to rest and worship on “the day of the sun,” – Sunday.   The day’s name was then changed around the 13th century in the modern Greek and romantic languages as well as French, Romanian and Spanish to “the Lord’s Day”.  [the above mostly taken from Wikipedia: Sunday,  summer 2023] 

Worship of “things made” Ro 1:25, like the ancient Baal [nature deities] worship – now as well as then – includes the sun.  Worship of the sun is still, via smoke and mirrors, thriving through the father of deceit (Mt 24:11; 2Tim 3:13; Rev 20:8; 2Cor 11:3; Rev 20:10; Jn 8:44) far beyond the confines of Egypt’s Baalbek to this day.  The next to the last call in Rev 12:17 of scripture for humanity to return to respect/admiration/adoration of their progenitor, their nascency, their originator, their Creator (Genesis 1: 27; 2:2-3; 3:8; Lk 3:38, Isa 1:2-3), and to meet with Him on His day (Mk 2:28; Lk 6:5) is implicit (understood but not expressed)  via its reference to “those who keep the commandments of God”, commandments which include a reminder, a call, a repeated invitation to: “Remember the Sabbath day (of Ge 2:2,3) by keeping (cherishing [S]) it holy.  Six days shall you labor… but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord (Elohim) (literally possessive “the LORD’S Sabbath) … for in six days the LORD (Elohim) made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that in them is (Ge 1,2) but He rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the LORD (Elohim) blessed the Sabbath day (literally “the day of Yahweh) and made it holy” Ex 20:8,9,10a,11  (‘it and ‘the’ are definite, not general, articles and are the literal translations as noted in YLT).  

Scriptures last call to worship in Rev 14:6-7 becomes no longer implicit but explicit [leaving no ambiguity, no question as to the intent] in this matter –  “worship Him who made heaven and earth (Jn 1:1-18), the sea and springs of water.”  Only He is “worthy” of worship Rev 5:9,12. 

Of monotheism, the Godhead, the tree & sun worship  – back to the fountain head. 

Because God does not coerce there is no demand in His command but only a plea and invitation for our best good Dt 10:13; Dt 6: 3,24; Mt 11:28.   (A truth again picked up by Muhammad who wrote the Quranic verse, “There is no force in religion” Al-Baqara 2”256.  A truth not practiced in Islam any better than in historic Christianity.  Jeremiah 5:31 cautions: “The prophets  (preachers – ones who give instruction in religious matters MW) encourage obedience to falsehoods (Heb. S lexicon), and My people love it so but what will you do at the end of it all (Moffit).”   A true cautionary note for all who make forgiveness/belonging or works their end goal with out making knowing/understanding & understanding written truth along with confession and repentance their penultimate goal and their ultimate goal, His truthful selfless love internalized by in submission inviting the Anointed One of God , the living TRUTH to live within thus making living the truth His righteousness in us possible.   

God’s first commandment [instruction, prescription (S)] from Mount Sinai as recorded in Exodus 20: 3 and Deuteronomy 5:7 is – “You shall have no other gods besides me” in eleven English versions plus a number of marginal readings including NIV & ESV).   We are reminded of again in Revelation 22:14 by Christ’s statement, “Blessed are they who do (obedience through his indwelling) His (“no other gods besides me”), commandments (no other god’s instructions) so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.”   This again is consistent with Deuteronomy’s 6:4’s  (a), (b) & (c) phrases best word and full contextual translation.  Can it be any plainer?   

“Hear ‘O Israelite (Overcomer),  The LORD is our God, the LORD ALONE”.  

 May He in His fullness be, and He alone, in every aspect of our overcoming lives.  

References include Strongs Concordance & dictionaries (S), Merriam Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (MW),  unreferenced Scripture may include NIV, KJV,  NKJV, YLT or ESV.

  1. NLT ,NRS, CEB, GNT, GWT, LET, NCT, NIVREADERS, NRV, NJPST, Tyndale, GW, ICB, ISB, TLB, MSG, NABRE, NCV, NCB, NIRV, NRSVAC, NRSVUE, VOICE.
  2. Bold, italics, underlined words or those in parentheses are mine, used in hopes to enhance understanding.

Christianity 101

CHRISTIANITY 101:  Christianity is a religion of salvation via a personal relation, not of self-realization, merit, appeasement or of passing intellectual or cultural fashions.  Biblical salvation is by God’s grace alone (Eph 2:8,9).  It is pure gift that begins, progresses and ends with the other-centered love of God (Isa 54:10).  Biblical Christianity centers around creation and the Creator’s (Jn 1:1-3) incarnation, life, death, resurrection and High Priestly mediatorial ministry (Heb chap 4-9).  The actions of the man Jesus the Christ, the second person of the Godhead, who buy choice was gifted by the love of the Father to the human race to extinguish the guilt from sin accrued.  Christianity enters humanity through the Son of God’s condescension, divine-human life, death and resurrection personally received by faith, and through trust in God, continues its transforming work in harmful, hurtful humans as broken but trusting individuals allow God’s Holy Spirit to make them whole.  Biblical salvation is God’s supernatural work through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit without a thread of human contribution.  Jesus’ death on the cross broke the power of Satan and paid all entitled wages humanity has earned from Satan (Ge 2:17; 3:1-6; Ro 6:23; Rev 20:10) because of their sin, reconciling humanity back to God.  Romans 3:25; 1 Jn 2:2 and 4:10 reveal clearly that Christ atoned, meaning expiated:  extinguishing the guilt accrued.  Reconciliation is actualized when the sinner accepts it by faith.  Jesus’ resurrection conquered what the Bible calls the second death (Jn 5:29; Rev 20:6,14; 21:8) for those who enter into communion with Him by faith.  God sent and sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within them (Ps 51:10) to heal their inward brokenness via the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) making them holy/whole, via His internalized selfless love – once again in the image of God (Ge 1:26,27).  That atonement was activated “from the foundation of the world”  (Rev 13:8; 1 Cor 2:2,7,8; Acts 2:23; 1 Pe 1:19,20; Isa 54:10, Gal 3:8 2 Tim 1:8,9; Titus 1:2 Col 1:15; Mt 25:34; Eph 1:3-6; 3:11,12) since God speaks and it is done (Ps 33:9) even before accomplished in earthly temporal time (thus giving all humanity, past, present and future a level playing field).  Underlying all of this is the reality that humans are indeed badly broken by sin (selfishness), and sins (the harmful actions of selfishness), a result of defection from God.  This inward corruption brings harm that mars, yea destroys the image of God in us.  We are guilty by choice and behavior and deserve the wages we’ve earned.  Sin is an irreducible reality.  It is a falling away from our intended trusting purity and other-centered selfless love – the image of God – toward a harmful, hellish diminishing of all existence – of hiding then running from God (Ge 3:8; Ps 23:6).   Biblical Christianity reveals our human condition is helpless apart from God’s intervention of giving each individual a personal free choice to be pulled out of the bottomless pit of sin.  The Bible is overwhelmingly plethoric in revealing God’s great unbroken, unbelievable, everlasting love; harshly realistic about our fallen condition; and full of hope in God’s forgiveness and freely given overcoming power to defeat selfishness, deceit and it’s sure sequel of the permanent second death by what Jesus the Son of God, the Son of Man has done, and is now doing as our mediator against accusations of the Devil in heaven’s court (1 Tim 5:24; Dan 7:13,14; Ez 9:6; Rev 22:12; Heb chapters 4 through 9, Lev 23:26-32;16:29-34; Zech 3).  

With all this said and done, the bottom line is that Christianity or salvation is not a certain belief or set of beliefs, not a belonging, not a state, not purchased, not earned via accomplishment or merit, not an event, not even an isolated choice but a turn and a walk, a graciously capacitated growth in becoming Christ-like, being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory (Ro 12:2; 2 Cor 3:18; 2 Pe 1:3-12), back into the image in which we were created.  

Said another way, true Christianity, thus salvation involves individual choice, intent and commitment leading to action, faithfulness and growth divinely empowered by the Holy Spirit’s infusion of selfless love in all its virtues into our hearts and lives, gracefully engendered and supplied by beholding and asking of Him as long as our life’s duration affords (Acts 16:31).  Christianity graciously, personally offers salvation from the guilt of harmful thoughts and ways, salvation from the powerful draw of self-centered thoughts and ways, leading to salvation from the presence of harmful thoughts and ways with the words: “ENTER THOU INTO THE JOY OF THY LORD” (Mt 25:21,23). 

Of whom then shall we be afraid?

OF WHOM THEN SHALL WE BE AFRAID?

MATTHEW 10:28,  LUKE 12:5

Let’s touch on two widely, as I read, misunderstood texts in Christendom which can bring a more unified clearer picture of the reality of God’s character.  Answering the question of King David in Ps 27:1: “Of Whom then shall we be afraid?”  and of Job in Job 9:24: “if not He than who?”

Mt 10:28:  “Do not be afraid (Gk phobeo) of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid (Gk phobeo) of the one ( God OR Satan?) who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”  And Luke 12:5: “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid (Gk phobeo) of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.  But I will show you whom ( God OR Satan?) you should fear (Gk phobeo);  Fear (GK phobeo) him (The Creator God OR Satan?)  who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell.” NIV – (ensuing biblical wordings originate in NIV, ESV, NKJV or KJV unless otherwise noted, in these brackets [ ] will be Strongs Exhaustive Concordance definitions))

Combined phrase 1:   “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more” (that’s man).  Combined phrase 2:  “rather (Wms) I will (TCNT) [warn] you whom [‘one’ NIG,AIT] you should fear (Rhm), be afraid of him who [along with] killing the body has [the right to, the dominion (note Job 1:12), the authority],  and who [is able to] destroy both [heart, mind] and body throwing you into the valley of (ESV) [Heb. Ge Hinnom].”  Yes, the soul [heart and mind] can die, see also Ps 109:31 “For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from those who condemn him”; Isa 53:12  ‘He poured out His life soul unto death” (soul = psyche ESV); Ps 56:4,13 In God I have put my trust I will not fear….for you have delivered my soul from death.”  And Christ as the third witness in Mt 26:38. “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death.”  But the foundational question considered here is, ‘do we commonly make a misapprehended assumption as to whom (God Or Satan) these are referring to, thus either misapplying afraid/fear or use the contextual argument for ‘phobeo’ when used with divinity to mean respect, awe while still leaving the Creator God as the active destroyer’.

The valley of Ge Hinnom was a descending 600 foot dry gorge SW of Jerusalem’s wall, into which prisoners and unknowns were buried.  There wayward Jews sacrificed their children in the flaming arms of the Ammonite god Moloch, where general garbage was burned and likely the one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers destroyed by God’s angel were burned. 

The valley of Ge Hinnom (Heb.) in the non inspired inter-testament rabbinic literature had become the stylized symbol of end time destruction under the Greek name Gehenna (now translated “hell”) of the NT.   It was variously called “the accursed valley,” the station “of vengeance” of “future torment,” the pit of destruction,” and the furnace of Gehenna” (see THE FIRE THAT CONSUMES, EW Fudge, 3rd edition 2011 pp 85-115). 

Full, as well as specific truths about God come into clearer focus only as we view His actions from the verity of His totality, which is perpetual, unbroken, unbreakable, everlasting selfless love personified Ge 1:1; Lk 23:34; 1Jn 4:16; Ps 103:17; Jer 31:3; Rev 22:20,21.  Since God is a God of undeniable love who changeth not Mal 3:6 and is the same yesterday, today and forever Heb 13:8 in whom there is no shadow of turning Jms 1:17,  and because true Love [agape] never fails 1Cor 13:8, how then do we understand what is termed His strange act (or acts) Isa 28:21 KJV, or the multiple Biblical references, OT & NT to God’s or the LORD’S wrath / anger,  when as noted in Ps 19:19 that a man of great wrath shall suffer [penalty (S)] punishment, or in 27:4 where wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, or again when God councils us to get rid of all bitterness rage and anger Eph 4:31, & Ps 37:8 tells us to cease from anger and turn from wrath…it only leads to evil?  In Mt 5:22 God instructs that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement (the phrase “without cause” is not found in many manuscripts, this is consistent with vs.5,7,9  & 1 Cor 13:5 where “easily” (KJV) is not NIG), and Ecc 7:9 informs us that anger tangibly “lies in the lap of fools.”

In a nutshell God’s anger/wrath is more akin to that of the loving parent of a small child, who truely feels far greater pain than does the child to whom they, in deep compassionate love only,  yet respecting their child’s freedom, are applying redemptive, edifying discipline or are allowing the detrimental results of the child’s choice/action to take full or in that love modified effect for the sake of the child’s long term mental, moral, physical health.  This action has a totally different and opposite set of emotions than fallen man’s epitomized anger.  This emotional aspect of God’s anger/wrath is demonstrated in places such as Hosea 11 with “how can I give you up, how can I turn you over, My heart recoils within me…,” or His children attracting anger/wrath in Mt 21:14,15.  “For man’s anger ( wrath NKJV) does not bring about the righteous life that God desires” NIV Jms 1:20.  

Man’s anger is an emotion, possibly leading to an action –  neither of which are born out of overflowing, selfless love, but out of fear, self-defense, self-justification, self exaltation, arrogance, or pride causing the internal release of a witches brew of chemicals that generate internal physiologic havoc to the holders of the emotion. Anger commonly does more reliable damage to the holder of the emotion than to the recipient.  Man’s anger / irritation / aggravation / annoyance / impatience when repeatedly indulged or dwelt in decreases human life by 5-9 years as revealed by decades of multiple longterm medical studies.  God’s final wrath, referred to here in these verses under consideration, is biblically better understood as a heart-breaking turning away, a giving up, handing over [see refs. below] by the removal of His long-suffering, patient protection, seen here as His strange final act starting with Rev 7:1-3 of allowing the reality of the freely made choices of the self-focused and rebellious to take full effect Rev 20:10,15.  This is the final culminating reality occurrence that will happen with the full unveiling of His relational presence Rev 22:20.  A relational presence that began unveiled in Ge 2:2,3, then after sin entered was in love veiled, and is soon to be reinstated in full intimate relational glory.  A time of beginning again at which His desire was/is that all, like Paul, will have invited Christ (His character), to live in them  Co 1:27, allowing each to exist in the everlasting burning of Isa 33:14; 2 Sam 22:13; Ps 18:12; Rev 1:16; Ez 1:4,27; 2 Thes 2:8 9 (splendor = brightness, radiance, glory, forth-shining).

Let’s note a few further realities.  Lk 1:74 & 12:32 tell us God will enable us to “serve Him without fear” and in perfect love 1Jn 4:16 which “casts out all fear” 1Jn 4:18.  And since there is no fear in true agape love, Rev 1:17 tells us “do not be afraid.”  All these echo the immediately following context and text of both, Matthew’s 10:28 and Luke’s 12:5 (the verses under consideration),  verses which tell us God notices even the lives of sparrows “so don’t be afraid.”  

Thus even the immediate context of whom to fear in these texts negates the common exegesis of “God.”   So “of whom then should we be afraid” asks King David in Ps 27:1?   A question Job in searching asked, “If not He then whom?” Job 9:24    The manifest, distinct answer is:  be afraid of your own fallen nature following temptation, and more directly of the one who has/will Ge 3:1-6 temptingly lead you into the paths that will accumulate for you the wages of sin, which is death Jn 10:10, Ro 6:23 – of the life, mind and heart [‘soul’ (S)].  This is the adversary who stole the dominion of the earth from our race and desires our inclusion with him in his rebelliousness and eventual destruction.  Now we see through a glass darkly yet as that glass is cleaned we can see more completely.  It’s been my experience, working at times with inmates in local jails and state prisons that those who are incarcerated, are there in their own minds, rarely because of an act they have committed or been led to commit, but because of the policeman or the judge.  The same misdirected thinking here is telling us to be afraid of the loving Creator, Redeemer, and merciful Judge, and not ourselves being led by, or the “one,” Satan, the Adversary (see Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7; 40:15-24; 41:1-34) who led and leads us into destructive behaviors.  Behaviors that destroy via their reality of the temporal wage of the first death and if not repented of, the reality wages of the second or eternal death.  Yes, garnering the reality wages that our loving Creator has kindly, in great patience protected us from, but in respectful freedom will eventually “allow”or “hand (us) over [to]” “give (us) up (eternally) to” (Ez 7:21; 11:9; 16:27,39; 21:31; 23:24; 23:28; Ro 1:24; Ho 11:8; Ro 1:24; 1 Co 5:5; Hosea 11).  Christ Himself used these terms at least a dozen times.  Hand them over to the full force of their freely chosen wages that are the inevitable reality of following the liar Jn 8:44, the deceiver Rev 113:14; 20:10, the thief — the thief who has come and comes to kill and destroy Jn 10:1,10 (yes “in dying you will die” Ge 2:17).   Not by the desire of the One who created life and then who came and comes to bring life and life more abundantly Jn 10:10; 3:16,17,  but by the graciously delayed passive reality that does and will occur in their destruction/annihilation at the eventual unveiling of divinity for full reinstatement of trusting, intimate, growing relationships.   Note that in Isa 33:14,15; Ps 18:12; Rev 1:16;  Eze 1:4,27; 2 Thes 2:8 & Ps 104:1,2  God is described as wrapped in and dwelling in light and everlasting burning, a fire that will destroy sin and sadly any human that by choice remains attached to sin OT Ge 19:21, Isa 33:14 & NT Lk 33:20; 2 Pe 2:6  to “ashes…extinction… example” ESV, when His unveiled presence, His glory, which in love He has hidden around fallen humans Ex 19:18, Job 22:14, Rev 6:16, is opened to view.   A glory which by nature will destroy sin (foundationally selfishness – which by nature harms) and all who choose to remain attach to it.  A reality occurring at His unveiled second coming Rev 20:7-15; 2 Thes 2:8; 1 Ch 16:27; Acts 26:3; 2 Sam 22:12; Isa 62:1 ESV.  It is a deep and deepening re-instated relationship with us that God so passionately desires. A relationship that has inspired Him at infinite expense to Himself to provide a way, and to invite again and again each of His fallen created humans to return to that pure state and life of selfless love that will enable all wiling to live and thrive in joy with Him in that glory, that brilliant splendor of holiness.  Yes, from the Lord comes not death but “escape from death” Ps 68:20.  Notice again that God, instead of using death as a tool, throws death and Hades (Gehenna) into the lake of fire in Rev 20:14!  

There is a time of judgement coming, bringing an end to the earthly reign and presence of evil and thus distress, degeneration, disease sorrow, death – and all its persisting perpetrators in the universe.  That is, for humans, the second or eternal annihilation/death of Daniel 12:2 & Rev 21:8.  Jms 1:15 states: “For each person is tempted by his own desire, thus desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth {“gives birth” (Wey), “breeds” (NEB) “produces” (Beck) “means” (Phi)}  death [annihilation].”  The second death from which God has provided a way out for all willing to return to the purity of selfless other centered giving love.   God alone possesses immortality 1 Tim 1:17; 6:16; 1Cor 15: 53,54.  The remains of sin and those stubbornly attached to sin will exist only as ascending smoke Rev 19:3 and ashes under the feet Mal 4:13 both of which we observe for Sodom and Gomorrah in 2 Peter 2:6 & Jude 7, consumed as well noted in Rev 20:9-15.  The final completeness of God’s words in Ge 2:17 & 3:19 will come to fruition.  All tears, death, mourning, or pain gone since these former things have passed away Rev 21:4.  “Tormented” Rev 20:10,  yes, with the eternal result of non-existence.  Notice inspiration never says tormenting or destroying, or punishing, [while Biblically “weeping” always describes great sorrow and “gnashing of teeth” rage, seen here as the rebellious’ last view oftheir great loss Rev 20;7,8  just prior to the unveiling of His glory in verse 9].  For “age eternal” gone Rev 20:10 — gone from the unexcelled joy of other centered, selfless, giving love where they could have lived and thrived forever!  The most severe torment is mental torment, as experienced by our Savior in our stead if we so choose Mk 14:34.  A torment that is far beyond anything physically possible. The death, Jesus, the Son of God died for all was and is freely and substitutionally available if we but choose – a death that had no hold on Him because He lived a perfect life by a faithful trusting dependence in His Father’s loving wisdom Jn 14:30; Ps 89:34.  A life He will live in us 2 Cor 3;18; 4:16; 5:14,15; Gal 2:20 & 4:19; Jn 17:26  for the asking, and our willing, trusting submission. The Bible tries to get us to understand the first death by viewing it as a sleep at least sixty-six times in 17 of it’s books (that’s 25%), because there will be (though the Sadducees denied them) resurrections 1 Cor 15:20; Jn 5:28,29.  Jesus twice tried to explain this concept to His disciples in Mt 9:24 & Jn 11:4,11,14  and with a final time to us, His end time disciples, in Rev 20:4-6.

The writer of Hebrews was and is correct, “the one who has the power of death [both of the first (sleep) and the second (annihilation)]  is, the devil” Hebrews 2:14.  God’s words of loving warning in the original Hebrew recorded in Genesis 2:17 is not “I will kill you,” but a description of the mercifully divinely delayed reality:  “In dying you will die”.  {see below for a closer look at that foundational comment.}

The answer to the question “of whom then shall we be afraid” is Biblically resoundingly clear from the first to the last — the one to be afraid of in Mt 10:28 & Luke 12:5 is dual in reality –  of our own potential choice of saying yes to temptation, but foundationaly the one, the deceitful liar, that lures us to destruction – that “ancient serpent, the dragon, the devil or Satan”  Rev 12:9,16,17.  

Yet of even greater import to know (andthere are no glitches Isa 54:10) — “God” who “is love” 1 Jn 4:16 “is the same yesterday and today and forever”  Heb 13:8,   HIS “LOVE NEVER ENDS” 1 COR 13:8.

Non-biblical commentary (EGW) that might be of interest to some: PP65, TM134, AA576,577,MOB 30, 14MR 3(1833), PC 136(1894), MS 134 (1898), GC 614(1911) or (LDE 242).

The question will arise in the above context:   “DOES  GOD KILL”?

A short look at GENESIS 2:17 –  the foundational words upon which all understanding of death ride, is thus appropriate here. 

That honest, or doubt introducing question, the Godhead has been in the act of clearly, expansively answering, even to un-fallen intelligences, since before Lucifer was removed from heaven.  Appearances and partial truths floated as full or possible truths can be and were deceiving and that’s why an indiscerptible answer to this question has taken even God so long.  A question that in full reality is far beyond fallen human minds to completely surround.  Yet an analogous reality has been clearly revealed, and that is God’s attitude, emotions, His fervent feelings as His precious children – regardless of their choices – receive the results of their selections —see 2 Sam 18:33; Mt 26:50; Jn 8:6-9.  1John 2:6  tells us we are to walk just as He walked, while Prov 24:17,18 states not to rejoice when an enemy falls.  Upon these and similar evidences we can rest our confidence in His character.   

Genesis 2:17 :  “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day of thine eating of it dying thou shalt die,” these are the closest we have to the literal words of God per Hebrew, (S), (YLT) on death. 

Has the God of/in history occasionally been active in the first “dying” of Ge 2:17 which He purposely and frequently relates to sleep – 66 times in 14 books?  Biblically yes, yet only after a human’s harm causing behavior (“evil” S, MW) has filled their cup of iniquity and He deems that behavior necessary to be stopped.  (Sodom and Gomorra Gen 19 :1-29; Ammon, Dt 2:19 not yet; Korah Dathan and Abiram, Num 16:1-33, the fifty soldiers coming after Elijah 2 Kings 1:10-12, or Ps 75:8; Isa 51:22; Jer 25:15, or the 185,000 Assyrians of 2 Kings 19:35, not forgetting the antediluvians of Ge 6:1-12, Nineveh repented and was preserved).  When other nations/peoples fill up their cup of iniquity with evil/harm causing behavior, in God’s wise and careful evaluation Gen 18,19, divine biblically recorded temporal actions leading to their temporal cessation may occur based on their choices – prior to their individual final end-time judgement which might vary (see Ge 18:32) (although common human cessations appear to humans as permanent).  The foundational verse Ge 2:17 for understanding death is rarely dissected:  “dying (1) you will die (2)” Ge 2:17.  “Dying” is a present participle thus describing not an event but a process. Death is the event.  Dying is a physical/psychologic process, (yet we’ve been given the option of a spiritual process).  Solomon describes the physical process in Eccl 12:1-7 ending in the grave Eccl 9:5,6.  Paul describes the psychologic realities leading to and causing the dying in Eph 4:17-20; 5: 3-8 & Col 3:7,8 as darkened in understanding, ignorance, hardness of heart, thus giving themselves up to sensuality, greed… .  He goes then on to describe a spiritual option in (1 Cor 15:31; Ro 8:13; Php 1:21; Ro 6:8; Eph 4:23-24) as dying daily to selfishness and being renewed daily in the spirit of your minds.  The writer of Hebrews in Heb 9:27 makes it obvious that, “every one is appointed once to die” – that’s “the curse of the law” Gal 3:10,13, foreseen and warned of by God in Ge 2:17, and  “after this the judgement.”  All  fallen humans experience the physical part of the first dying termed “sleep” in the grave occurring whether ‘naturally,’ by the direct activity of the Adversary, through others, or occasionally hastened by God for damage limitation.  The process of dying that ends in grave sleep will occur to all because all have sinned and fallen short, leading to the second resurrection and the death of annihilation (S).  Help though has been made available and comes from the Lord Mt 27: 32-55; Mt 11:29,30.  In accepting His death for us daily, the dying to self and selfishness Phi 1:21, 1Pe 2:24, our ‘final’ death, via our earned wages, has been and will be vanquished/expiated by our Redeemer.  This has been the gospel’s invitation and 

 This has been the gospel’s invitation and good news since Gen 3:15.  One is invited to be daily dying to self and then sleep having accepted Christ’s sacrifice as replacement of their earned wages credited to their account and then be raised in the first resurrection to eternal life.  A reality having been outlined in the Jewish daily sanctuary service, the feasts and the yearly Day of Atonement. — Yes, His death as ours then sleep, or sleep and then be judged on our own record.  Hebrews 9:17 makes it clear that if we’ve chosen our final judgement to be based solely our record we will be respectfully granted our freely chosen wages of annihilation, termed the (second) death or “die” as noted in Genesis 2:27.   That death has been “appointed (S),” from wages earned Ro 6:23, and mercifully “stored up” (S) while patiently withheld through multiple invitations by God for repentance and transformation individually and corporately.  But late sleepers, men of the second resurrection, will now join in the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels Mt 25:41.  Destroyed root and branch Mal 4:1 and remain only as continually arising and dispersing, vanishing smoke/stench till they both are vanquished  Isa 34:3; Rev 14:11; 19:3; Jude 7, with remnants as temporary as ashes or stubble at the time of harvest under foot Mal 4:3; 2 Pe 2:6.  

Put another way: “The wages of sin (self-centered thus harmful behavior) ( sin – not the devil) is (the reality of) eternal death.”   In living a perfect life of submission to His Father’s wisdom Jesus, the Son of Man intercepted then took the second annihilation death debt for all willing. 

This is my best purely scriptural description, yet as Eccl 8:16,17 reminds me, “though a wise man (I recognize that mostly eliminates me)  attempts to find … the words/works of God that are done under the sun…, he will not be able to find it”  (NKJV)  “he cannot really comprehend it” NIV.  Yet it speaks well of and is in consistent line with the character (Isaiah 63:7) of our trustworthy God of love .

As to further questions regarding soul mortality or immortality I’d refer you to: Froom, Leroy Edwin. The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers 1965, and Fudge, Edward William. The Fire that Consumes Third edition 2011.