A Ramble About What Heaven Is

 Where is heaven? The word "heaven" itself comes from Anglo-Saxon "heofon" and just means "sky". The same is true of the Greek word "ouranos" used throughout the New Testament and generally translated "heaven." Ouranos also just means "sky." So, we have a cultural heritage of associating the dwelling of the divine with the sky, and all of our images of God's "dwelling" reference somewhere in the sky.

Now, where does the omnipresent, infinite God, the foundation of all existence, Yahweh, actually dwell? Everywhere, everywhen, and in every conceivable dimension, universe, and alternate timeline or reality should they exist. The multiverse cannot contain Him. All things exist within Him, time and space move through Him and not the other way around. All particles of matter and all particles of energy transmission vibrate, spin, and have charge by means of and within His fundamental, elemental, and foundational energy.

So, where is heaven as we understand it to be God's dweling place? Every possible direction, every possible vector, every possible dimension, and every possible reality around and within you. Heaven forms the underlying substructure of all creation because God forms the underlying substructure of all creation.

So, is heaven, as such, a definite, finite location in space and time? No. It cannot be as God dwells everywhere and everywhen. This is the necessary logical outcome of omnipresence. So then what is it?

Based on these understandings, I would define heaven, as such, to be that overwhelming, all consuming experience of the reality of Yahweh where one's union with God through Jesus Christ is finished, and we fully realize and actualize being one thing with Him, just as Jesus Christ is one thing with the Father, as He said and prayed in the Gospel of John. I would also make the observation, from various readings and documented experiences, that it is possible to receive glimpses and experiences of prior to physical death, though these experiences do not appear to be of a permanent nature prior to death due to the human brain's common neurological malfunction called "Hamartia."

These experiences are generally recorded by those who intentionally draw closer to Yahweh through Jesus Christ through prayer and meditation. Jesus Himself commanded those who follow Him very clearly to remain in Him, and that on the one hand nothing would happen if they didn't, and on the other hand everything would open up if they did. In other words, the experience of heaven can and should begin in the here and now by drawing closer to Jesus Christ and remaining in Him. Those who do not, should not expect it to.

If then God is everywhere and everywhen, and thus heaven is everywhere and everywhen, no matter where one is, if one is receptive to Jesus Christ upon physical death, one's psyche, free from the previous neurological disorder, should immediately experience that becoming of one thing with the Father and the Son as He described. Those who are knowingly (dare I say deliberately) unreceptive to Jesus Christ still transition from their physical bodies, but have no connecting medium, so to speak, because they deliberately refusing the connecting medium which exists. Instead of finished union with Yahweh, they remain separated by their own choice. What undesirable psychological torment that follows is a direct result of this self-imposed separation, and not because of anything Yahweh Himself imposes upon them.

Heaven and salvation are about more than just being absolved of wrongdoing by God because of Jesus Christ. Salvation is about a finished union with God through Jesus Christ, and being freed from this Hamartia neurological malfunction in the here and now as well as after physical death. It is about being loved by God, loving God in return, and God loving all others through you as you move closer and closer towards finished union with Him.

A Ramble About "Not By Works"

    I’m not sure where to begin here as there’s a lot to unpack. I started thinking about this Ramble after a recent debate with a friend on Facebook on the relationship of faith and works in Christian faith and practice. In my opinion, that friend totally misunderstood what I was saying. It was as if we were on two completely different pages. The thing is, I should have expected it. I really should have. The relationship of faith, grace, and works in Christianity is a push-button for passionate, heated arguments and accusations of heresy, apostasy, and simply not being “saved” or even Christian for that matter among most Christians of the Protestant traditions.

    The problem, the real problem, is the misunderstanding of the nature of faith, or belief, and works which was passed down from the Protestant reformers to virtually every descendant church and theological system. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and the others interpreted the writings of Paul in particular in the light of the abuses which were being practiced in the Catholic Church of the period. During this time, it had been taught by most in the Roman Catholic Church that you had to do good works to merit less time in Purgatory, or acquire the additional merits of the Saints to spend less time in Purgatory. Of course this isn’t what the New Testament teaches, and that became immediately obvious to the Reformers whose battle cry against the Roman Catholic Church became “Faith alone, Grace alone, Scripture alone.”

    This battle cry of faith alone is frequently taken to the extreme so that nearly every command or teaching of Christ is excluded as a “work,” as it was by my friend recently. Repeating what Jesus said for a Christian to actually follow Christ in submission to Him as He submitted to the Father became “justification by works.” The mere mention of actually doing what Christ taught, or what He specifically said would happen if one didn’t, becomes one advocating for needing to earn one’s salvation, which is ridiculous. Obeying Jesus Christ and actually being His disciple as He instructed somehow makes His work on the cross insufficient, which is of course nonsense. 

    What the reformers failed to understand was that belief and action are two sides of the same coin. A person will never act on what he does not believe in that moment in some way. Likewise, a person’s actions will always reveal what he actually believes in that moment. Like Jesus said, you will know a tree by its fruit. Good trees don’t produce rotten fruit, and rotten trees don’t produce good fruit. A person who actually believes in Jesus Christ will act like he believes in Jesus Christ. He will at least make the attempt to do what He said, imitate Him, and learn from Him. A person who doesn’t, won’t no matter what he says. He might do so as a deception for a short time, but the truth will eventually be made known in his actions. As Justin Martyr wrote, “Let it be understood that those who are not found living as He taught are not Christian—even though they profess with the lips the teachings of Christ.”

    Let me be clear on this point. One cannot earn one’s salvation from the universal human malfunction with any amount of good works or actions because, as Paul teaches in Romans, the malfunction is biological in nature. As I have previously written and preached on (https://youtu.be/_YWAuvQlXDU), it is hardwired into the limbic system of the human brain, and most likely the hypothalamus specifically. Every work we achieve, every action we take, every thought we think, and every word we say; our entire natural psychology is affected and informed by this malfunction. It is no different than the behavior of a person with ADHD being informed and affected by the ADHD hardwired into his frontal cortex. He likely hates that he has this disorder, but everything he does, whether he wants it to or not, is affected by it. No amount of good works will rid him of the ADHD. The same with Autism Spectrum Disorder. No amount of good works will rid someone with ASD of their ASD. It is hardwired into the brain from the DNA genetic coding. It is the same with any other neurological disorder, and it is the same with the malfunction which the Greek language calls “hamartia.” Because of where it is and what it is, we simply cannot do anything about it ourselves without causing brain death.

    Thus Jesus Christ, and faith in Jesus Christ who was given to make us right through His death on the cross, burial, and resurrection, and our union with His death, burial, and resurrection. We don’t have to earn anything, we can’t. No amount of good works will undo our own DNA. But we do have to respond to Him and follow His instructions if we want to be delivered from our own malfunctioning psyches and behaviors. And in order to bypass our own malfunction, we do have to submit to His psychology in place of our own natural psychology. Either He’s the one acting and speaking through us, or it is our own biological brains doing the acting and speaking (see my YouTube sermon "The Dual Psychology of Christians," https://youtu.be/DBnYBga0cXA). 

    Thing of it is, God does make us right with Jesus Christ freely, but He won’t force it on anyone. We don’t have to bring anything to the table except ourselves, but we do have to believe Him and real belief implies the actions of belief. It is no different than if one were to go to the doctor and the doctor prescribes a course of treatment. If that person believes that the doctor knows what he’s talking about, he will follow that course of treatment. If he doesn’t, then he won’t.

    I’ve rendered some of the salient passages in question below literally from the Greek. I would encourage you to follow the links I have included in this Ramble to my YouTube sermons on this subject.

 

“And we know that as much as the Torah says it is talking to those within the Torah, so that every mouth would be shut and all the world would come to be brought to God for trial; because every biological being will not be made right from the works of the Torah in front of Him, since through the Torah is the recognition of the malfunction. And at this point in time, separate from the Torah, God’s right state of being has been manifested being testified to by the Torah and the Prophets, yet God’s right state of being through the faith of Jesus Christ for everyone believing. Because there isn’t a  distinction, since everyone malfunctioned and fails to reach the glory of God being made right without cost by His charity through the ransoming which is with Christ Jesus; whom God set out a mercy seat through the faith with His blood for a display of His right state of being because of the passing over of the malfunctions of our progenitors with God’s holding back, towards the display of His right state of being at this time now, for Him to be right and making right the person from the faith of Jesus.”

Romans 3:19-26

“What then will we say? The Torah is a malfunction? Absolutely not. But I wouldn’t have known the malfunction if it wasn’t because of the Torah; because also I wouldn’t have seen ‘Desire’ if the Torah wasn’t saying, ‘You will not desire.’ And getting the opportunity, the malfunction achieved every desire within me through the command; because separate from the Torah the malfunction is a dead body. And I was alive without the Torah at one time, yet with the coming of the command the malfunction lived again, yet I died and the self-same command which was for life was found within me for death; because the malfunction getting the opportunity through the command deceived me and through it killed [me]. So also on the one hand the Torah is holy and the command holy and right and good. Has what is good for me become death? Absolutely not. But the malfunction, so that the malfunction would shine, is achieving death through what is good for me, so that the malfunction would become exaggeratingly malfunctioning through the command. Because we have seen that the Torah is spiritual, yet I am biological having been auctioned off by the malfunction. For I don’t know what I’m achieving; since I am not practicing this thing I wish, but I am doing this thing which I hate. Yet if I am doing this thing which I don’t wish, I am agreeing with the Torah that [it is] beautiful. Yet at this point in time I am no longer achieving it but the malfunction residing within me. Because I have seen that the good thing doesn’t reside with me, that is, within my biology; because the willingness is available to me, yet the achieving the beautiful thing is not; since I am not doing the good thing which I wish, but I am practicing this bad thing which I don’t wish. Yet if I am doing this thing which I don’t wish, I am no longer achieving it but the malfunction residing within me. I am finding therefore the rule, for me who is wishing to do the beautiful thing, that the bad thing is available to me [instead]; since I rejoice together with God’s Torah according to the inner person, yet I am looking at a different rule among the parts of my body soldiering against the rule set of my intellect and capturing me with the rule set of the malfunction which is among the parts of my body.”

Romans 7:7-23

“And you being dead bodies by your false steps and malfunctions, by means of which you walked at one time according to the eon of this world, according to the chief of the authority of the air, of the energy which at this point in time is working among the sons of the disobedience; among whom also we all have returned at one time with the desires of our biology doing the volitions of the biology and the reasonings, and we were children by nature of burning anger like also the rest; yet God being wealthy with mercy, because of His much love which He loved us, and He made us alive together with Christ being dead bodies by means of false steps—you are having been delivered by charity—and He awakened us together with and seated us together with [Him] among the high heavenlies by means of Christ Jesus, so that He would display among the coming eons the overwhelming wealth of His charity with the lovingkindness upon us by means of Christ Jesus. Because you are having been delivered by charity through the faith; and this is not from you [people], [it is] God’s gift; not from works, so that not anyone would brag. Because we are His opus, having been created with Christ Jesus upon good works which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk among them.”

Ephesians 2:1-10

“Wasn’t Abraham our father made right from works having brought Isaac his son up upon the sacrificial altar? You look at that the faith was working together with his works and the faith was finished from the works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was figured to him for a right state of being’ and he was called a friend of God. You see that a human being is made right from works and not from faith alone. Yet in the same way also wasn’t Rahab the prostitute made right from works welcoming the messengers and throwing them out on a different road? Because just like the body is a corpse separate from the spirit, so also is the faith a dead body separate from works.”

James 2:21-26

Thoughts on the Roman Occupation of Judea

  Frequently within the Christian churches, the Romans in the gospels are portrayed as vicious bad guys on the order of the faceless Stormtroopers from Star Wars. But not once have I ever heard in a church how the Romans came to occupy Judea to begin with, or when. It’s always assumed in sermons and religious media that they came as brutal invaders.

The truth is that they were asked to come to settle a civil war, and restore order. From a certain point of view, they came and stayed as an ancient equivalent of the modern day United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. The Romans were big on what they saw as bringing Roman law and order to the world. They dealt with pirates in the Mediterranean, establishing safe trade routes. They also interfered in the politics of other kingdoms where there might be a potential threat to that Roman order, though when a kingdom was brought into the empire as a client state, they were generally left to run their own affairs, worship their own gods, and attend to their own business as long as there was peace and they posed no problems for Rome. 

In the 60s BCE, There was a violent and vicious civil war in Judea between the two potential heirs of the Hasmonean dynasty established by the Maccabees as to who would take the throne and the high priesthood. This civil war had raged across Judea, and was destroying it. The Hasmonean queen, Alexandra-Salome, had died leaving two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus who both claimed the right to the throne and the high priesthood. The Sadducees sided with Aristobulus and the Pharisees sided with Hyrcanus. Things weren’t going well for Aristobulus and the Sadducees as Hyrcanus and his forces had pushed them back to the Temple, where they were holed up. Aristobulus sent a message to Pompey’s representative in Syria, Aemilius, begging for help. He then promised Aemilius 8000 kg of silver if he would back him. Aemilius did, and Hyrcanus was routed. Then Aristobulus sent a message to Pompey claiming that Aemilius had extorted 8000 kg of silver from him. Pompey came to see what was going on for himself. Pompey arrested Aristobulus for his treachery and supported Hyrcanus. Hyrcanus gave Pompey access t0 the lower city, but things got worse as Aristobulus’ followers, the Sadducees, holed themselves up in the Temple. Then Pompey led his forces to siege the upper city and take the Temple, killing Aristobulus’ remaining defenders. This was when Pompey entered the Temple and the Holy of Holies. He saw everything which was in the Temple, and then left, ordering the Temple cleansed for normal worship the day after, setting up Hyrcanus as High Priest and thus ruler of Judea as a client kingdom under Rome’s jurisdiction, redistricting it so that only Galilee in the north and Judea in the south were under direct “Judean” rule. Samaria, the coastline, and the part of the kingdom on the other side of the Jordan were all placed under direct Roman oversight under the Legate of Syria.

For the next hundred years or so, from the time of the Siege of Jerusalem in 63 BCE to the crucifixion of Christ in 33 CE, there were constant insurrections and rebellions by the Judeans against the Romans. It’s almost certain that a great many of these insurrections were political rather than truly religious in nature stemming from the original civil war between the Pharisees and the Sadducees which brought the Romans in the first place. These insurrections were violent. Roman soldiers were killed just doing their jobs over and over again.

All of these events provide the historical and political context for what we see happening in Judea and Galilee in the Gospels.

Consider the modern day analogy of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. These soldiers were sent to bring threats to the United States to justice, and restore and maintain order within these countries. Almost twenty years later, those soldiers are still there trying to maintain order and rebuild those countries with religious terrorists continuously attempting to murder them and tear down everything they try to do to establish order and a lasting peace. Soldiers who manage to come home from these countries are often deeply scarred emotionally and psychologically, and many are very bitter against the very people they were trying to help. The same was true of the situation in Vietnam where, after so many years of terrorist attacks, American soldiers couldn’t tell friends from foes any longer.

What didn’t and still doesn’t seem to be understood, is that had the Judeans done what Jesus taught towards the Romans, they would have drawn down their forces and left Judea to its own devices as a self-governing province. Had they quit trying to rebel, had they turned the other cheek, had they loved their “enemies” and gone the extra mile, the Romans would have had no need to keep so many troops stationed there. The crucifixions would have stopped. The only reason the Romans grew increasingly more brutal was because of the constant insurrections and murders. Jesus was literally telling those listening to Him, Pharisees and Sadducees alike no less, how to restore the kingdom and they preferred rebellion and murder, continuing their civil war by other means. Had they listened to Him, had they listened to what their God Himself was telling them to do, they would have virtually been given their nation back by the Romans. They refused to do it. The reason why the Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE was because of another insurrection, and Rome was done with them. They wanted order and they were going to make certain of it.

Notice also that Jesus never once speaks ill of the Romans or the Roman occupation. He never once condemned them, spoke against them, or encouraged rebellion in any way even when they were nailing Him to the cross. I would venture to say that He knew perfectly well why the Romans were there, why they were acting the way they were, and that they didn't really want to be in Judea any more than the Judeans wanted them there. By the time we meet the Romans in the Gospels, they had been there for less than a hundred years, and had been dealing with insurrectionists and religious terrorists the entire time. It occurs to me that, contrary to popular opinion, the Roman occupation of Judea was a kind of temporary reprieve or mercy from God towards the people there. If they hadn’t established control over the region, the Judeans would have destroyed themselves with their civil war.

Here should also be mentioned the Gospel portrayal of Pontius Pilatus, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to death. It’s clear from the Gospel accounts he wanted nothing to do with it. He had no desire to intervene in questions about their religion. He really didn’t want to risk starting yet another insurrection. He actively sought a way to find a compromise to where Jesus wouldn’t be sentenced to death. He knew it was because of the same group of people who were still embroiled in their own political conflict that Jesus was brought before Him, and he wasn’t going to take the bait if he could help it. The Romans also considered justice a virtue, and Pilatus knew that this wasn’t about justice. The only reason, according to Scripture, he gave Jesus over to be crucified was to avoid another insurrection at the hands of the High Priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees, and he himself squarely placed the responsibility for His execution on their heads, literally washing his hands of it.

It’s difficult to look at it this way, but there was also a reason why the Roman soldiers were so cruel to Him in the Praetorium. They had spent who knows how long being terrorized by Judean insurrectionists, watching friends die at their hands. Now, they have a prisoner whose charge is being "King of the Judeans." In other words, an insurrectionist leader. They called out the cohort to enjoy torturing Him as a way to avenge themselves by proxy on those insurrectionists. You see a similar psychology at work with soldiers today when they lose buddies to terrorists and IEDs. You see something similar with police officers too when they lose a comrade and then catch the killer. Mercy is not on their minds. Jesus knew this, and knew it wasn't about Him. "Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing!"

There are always two sides to a story. Roman involvement in Judea during the time of the Gospels has always been told from a very one sided point of view, and history is always more complicated than just bad guys versus good guys. The Romans weren't always good guys, no. They were just as complicated as American soldiers and mercenaries are. But like those American soldiers and mercenaries in Afghanistan and elsewhere, they weren't always the bad guys either.

On the Union of Yahweh and Human Flesh and Blood in the Person of Jesus

 I’ve been thinking more lately on the Trinity, the Hypostatic Union, and the relationship of the Son to the Father. In traditional Orthodox theology, there is God the Father, God the Son who is Eternally Begotten of the Father, and God the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father (the western inclusion of “and the Son” in the Nicene Creed is a later addition which began with Spanish bishops and worked its way throughout the entire western Catholic Church by the tenth century or so; it wasn’t a part of the original Creed documented at the Second Great Ecumenical Council). These three are one Being in three Hypostases. The thing about the Orthodox Doctrine of the Trinity is that, while it is developed from the Scriptural accounts, this description and formula are nowhere to be found in either the Old or New Testaments. Rather, they were developed to uphold the New Testament understanding of Jesus Christ as being fully God and fully human, as well as the understanding that Jesus Christ is “I Am,” the God of Israel, while maintaining the distinction between His Father and Himself, and keeping to the declarations in Scripture that “Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one” and there are no other gods next to Him. The problem comes in however that, as much as the doctrine of the Trinity attempted to clarify things, it actually managed, and continues to manage to this day, to cause more confusion on the subject.

Our main problem stems from identifying the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three separate personalities prior to the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It seems very clear in the Old Testament that Yahweh is presented as a single personality; an omnipresent, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, and transcendent Being who is nonetheless immediately immanent, and who is always identified with being the Creator and originator of the skies, the land, the seas, everything in them, and the cosmos in general. On occasion, we see Him taking a bodily form of some sort in the Old Testament, particularly in Genesis. In the New Testament, John, using the philosophical language of the day, refers to this avatar of Yahweh as the “Logos,” a concept which his immediate Greek readers would have understood very well. In Genesis 3, He is heard walking in the Garden. In Genesis 18, He and two angels are received and entertained by Abraham and then they go for a walk together. In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles with Him all night and sees Him face to face and lives. In Exodus 3, Yahweh speaks to Moses out of a thorn bush which appears to be on fire, but not burning. In Exodus 24, Moses and the leaders of Israel see the God of Israel, Yahweh, standing in a humanoid form as if all of space and time are bending around His shape, and then they feast in his presence. In Judges 13, Samson’s parents recognize the Angel of the Lord as the Lord Himself and make sacrifices to Him which He accepts. And of course, Daniel has a vision of the “Ancient of Days” sitting on His throne in a humanoid form  lit up like the sun. In every case here, there is no distinction revealed in personalities between the unseen and transcendent Yahweh (what we would call “God the Father”), and the bodily avatar of Yahweh with whom people walked, talked, and interacted (what we would call “God the Son”). They are taken as the same person by the Biblical authors. We do not see this avatar being referred to as the Son of Yahweh, but Yahweh Himself. 

In the New Testament, we see something very different. We see Jesus regularly distinguishing Himself as a separate personality from His Father. We see this in the voice from Heaven which calls Jesus His beloved Son at least twice. We see this in Jesus’ regular prayer to His Father. We see this in Jesus regularly referring to the Father as a distinct personality from Himself in the third person, even as He also refers to Himself several times in the Gospel of John especially as “I Am.” We know that Jesus is a human being. He was born from human flesh and blood regardless of the unusual nature of His conception. He ate, he drank, he slept, presumably he used the toilet, he sweated, he wept, he got tired, and every other indication of total humanity. And, according to Scripture, Jesus Himself had a definite point of origination. He had a beginning. There was a time when Jesus Christ did not exist because He had not been born, He had not been given a distinct name, He hadn’t been conceived.

It is my belief, that prior to the incarnation, there was no separate personality between the invisible, transcendent Yahweh and His physical manifestation. While He had no need for an avatar subject to space and time to know and understand us, human beings had a need for an avatar of Him to interact with directly. He and His avatar had been one and the same personality.

This changed when Jesus was conceived. By joining His avatar to human flesh and blood which grew around it and intertwined with it, and which flesh and blood would develop its own personality as it experienced its environment, that avatar would forever be a separate personality bound to the memories and experiences which programmed the brain of that flesh and blood human being. Yahweh grown together in a womb with human flesh, bone, blood, and DNA all contributed by the mother. Yahweh relinquishing His own identity as Yahweh to adopt the unique identity of a human being, who then in turn would later do the same, submitting as a separate and unique personality in thought, word, and action to Yahweh with whom His psyche was intertwined from conception. There then, at the moment of Jesus’ conception, becomes a distinction between the personalities of God the Father and God the Son precisely because there now exists a Son of God in space and time where there had not before.

We fall into false teaching when we overemphasize either Jesus’ humanity or His divinity. It is equally wrong to claim that Jesus is only God as it is to claim that He was only a human being. It is equally wrong to claim that Jesus existed from eternity as it is to claim that He was an ordinary man. Yahweh, both transcendent and bodily avatar, existed from eternity without beginning and end, but Jesus, as a human being, had a beginning.

When the Holy Spirit Leads People Elsewhere

 All too often, whether we're conscious of it or not, we are taught to adhere to the idea that our denomination of Christianity is the only one to which the Holy Spirit will lead people. If someone really wants to "get saved" they need to come to "our church." They need to listen to "our pastor" preach. They need to adhere to our theological bullet points. They need to be a part of our tribe and not someone else's. The truth is that this sentiment is the very definition of heresy and one of the primary things Paul was trying to combat in 1 Corinthians.

The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit leads people to Jesus Christ. There are dozens of denominations and churches out there where a person can draw closer to Jesus Christ, fall in love with Jesus Christ, and be discipled to follow Jesus Christ. Do any of them have it all exactly right? Does the Catholic? No. Does the Orthodox? No. Does the Lutheran? No. Does the Calvinist? No. Does the Mennonite? No. Does the Baptist? No. Does the Mormon? Certainly not. Does the Evangelical? No. If someone slavishly adhered to the theology I've written about, would they have everything completely accurate? Nope. I try, but I'm not that good. But each one of these does have Jesus Christ. Someone can get to know Jesus Christ through each one of these. Someone can start the journey of drawing closer to Christ, walking with Him, learning from Him, and remaining with Him through all of these.

History bears me out on this. There are saints and saintly writings and accounts of the intervention of the Holy Spirit from all of these denominations and churches, and have been over the last two thousand years. Questioning one's devotion or even salvation because they're "not a part of our group" or because their practice or theological framework looks a little bit different than yours is the beginning of the very factionalism that Paul was trying to combat.

Yes, there were some doctrinal issues which Peter, Paul, and John explicitly touched on in their letters. There were people that Paul got really upset with because of what they were teaching. Let's look at that for a minute. The biggest one he got upset with was when people were teaching that following the Jewish Torah and being circumcised was necessary. This of course was nonsense because the Torah had been fulfilled by the New Covenant and was no longer in effect. There was no Torah to which to return. It was pointless. He wrote specifically about the resurrection because either Jesus rose from the dead and was taking us with Him or it was all for nothing. There was no in between. Another which John explicitly wrote about was the idea that Jesus hadn't actually been a physical, biological human being. To John, this was absolute nonsense too. He had seen Him, known Him, ate with Him, probably slept around the campfire near Him. He had seen Him, heard Him, touched Him, heard him belch and so on. The same was true with those who declared that Jesus wasn't the Son of God. John himself had seen Jesus display powers only God or a god could have and humble the gods of Rome on their own turf. It was ludicrous and blasphemy of the Holy Spirit to tell people that Jesus wasn't the Son of God when those who saw Him knew perfectly well that He was. Also realize that John was writing when Jesus was still within living memory for a lot of people, and he was writing to combat propaganda being spread among the Jewish people by the Sanhedrin about Jesus.

The differences between most churches and denominations have nothing to do with any of this, but tend to veer into the differences of practice, worship, church leadership, and minor arguments of theological mechanics that no one can actually verify and don't actually affect one's devotion to and practice of Jesus Christ in the long run. Yes, the Mormon church teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate beings. Yes, it's contrary to the Ecumenical Councils, the Nicene Creed, and the testimony of both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon itself. But in the long run, even this really isn't an obstacle for someone to devote themselves to and become a disciple of Jesus Christ. God's big enough to handle even a misunderstanding like this. There's a reason why the disciples never really tried to nail down the Trinity or Hypostatic Union in their writings. It just wasn't important enough to them. It was enough to know that Jesus was both a flesh and blood human being as well as Yahweh, as well as being distinct from His Father. The details of the when and how just weren't a thing; probably because Jesus Himself didn't elaborate.

Our focus should never be to lead people into "our church," but to help people learn to love Jesus Christ and be His disciple; to encourage them to Love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, intellect, and strength, and to love the people next to them like themselves. This is the priority and should be the priority. They need to know that He died for their sins, was buried, raised on the third day, ascended, and plans to take them with Him. They need to know what He taught and how to put it into practice. They need to know that they need to stay put in Him and not walk away. They need to know that, in order to be His disciple, they can't trust their own physical or biological responses, but they have to step aside for Him to live His life through them.

The external trappings of Christianity are going to look different with different people, and so are some of the explanations. That's actually okay. We don't need to bring them into line with our theological or cosmological frameworks in order for them to benefit from Christ and be His disciple. But what always needs to be present is the devotion to Christ, the remaining in Him, and the practice of unconditional, self sacrificing love towards God and every other person. If God wants to correct their theology, that's His prerogative.

We are Moving to Kentucky

 After almost seven years, my family and I will be leaving California for Kentucky in mid April. The journey to this point has been long, and has taken a lot of twists and turns which we didn’t expect, but what has become clear is how God has guided it the entire time.

As many of you know, I began seeking recognition as a pastor within the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019. This led to my taking online courses with the Master’s Institute, in addition to my extensive previous coursework, to round out what was agreed upon as my possessing the equivalent of a Master’s of Divinity for this purpose. After this, I began searching for a pastorate within the LCMC on a contract-call basis to complete the requirement laid upon me that I should serve in a remunerated position as either a pastor or an intern for one year. You may also be aware that after applying to nearly twenty different churches, and interviewing with over a half dozen of these, none of them worked out. I have since been seeking the Lord’s will in turning my focus of ministry to those Christians who have left the churches hurt, confused, or even abused by them; or “runaway sheep” as I have called them. These have been on my heart for many, many years now and I believe that the time to really concentrate on them has now come.

What you may not be aware of is that during this process of time, my wife Heidi and her friend Cindy have not been idle either, and have been working very hard on what God has been leading them to. For the past two years, Heidi has been doing online coursework for a degree in alternative healthcare and wellness given how much it has done for her own medical issues. About a year and a half ago, Heidi’s friend Cindy came to her and told her that she felt like God wanted them to start a wellness coaching business together. Cindy, a retired CEO of a credit union, would do financial coaching and Heidi would do wellness coaching. Last winter and spring they had just been about to take their plans live and begin small seminars when the COVID-19 crisis happened and all in person gatherings of large groups were banned in California for health reasons. After it kept going and going, they began seeking the Lord’s will and this past fall, Cindy and Heidi began to talk about starting a permaculture farm out of state which they could also use as a base of operations for their coaching business. Initially, we thought it might coincide with one of the pastorates I was applying for, but as they continued to pray, they believed that the Lord was leading them to Kentucky. As I was still applying for churches, and I believed things were getting serious with a church in Wisconsin, we didn’t know how that would work and for a time we thought we might eventually only see each other once a month, but then Wisconsin fell through as well and the more I prayed, the more it seemed like my own pastoral focus was supposed to be different from what I had been seeking.

Around the New Year the search for farm properties in Kentucky really began in earnest. Cindy and Heidi knew though exactly what they were looking for, the size of the lot, the distance from Louisville, the cost of the property, the size of the house on the property, and so on. They were so specific, the realtor they’d been working with said they were looking for a unicorn. Easily more than a dozen properties were looked at one by one. We were all praying that God would keep them from the wrong property, and for Him to lead us to the right one. As a result, one property after another fell through for one reason or another. But always, with each property we seemed to be getting closer, and new doors kept opening.

Finally, a property opened up which matched what Heidi and Cindy wanted exactly, and we jumped on it. It had the right house, the right size lot, the right soil, the right amount of timber on the property and more. Then, just as the deal was about to be closed, without warning the owners decided not to sell at all and pulled their house from the market. We were all devastated, and really struggling for days. Cindy had already reserved a moving date for near the beginning of April, and Heidi had already contacted a local dog breeder to speak with him about reserving a puppy from a litter which would be available in April. They were that certain of this house going through. But it didn’t, and we were all asking God why, and what all of that was about.

Heidi had to email the breeder again and let him know what had happened and that the timetable was still uncertain again. As it turned out, the breeder was also a semi-retired real estate agent. He asked to know the specifics of what kind of a property Heidi and Cindy were looking for. The next morning, Heidi sent them by way of email. He texted her back and asked her to call him. She did. He then explained that what Heidi had told him matched his own house and property perfectly. He then explained that he and his wife had been considering retiring and selling their property, but they had not put it up on the market because they wanted to sell to the right people, and now they are offering to sell thirty acres of their property, including their house, barn, and lake to Heidi and Cindy to start their farm. Heidi and Cindy will be traveling back out to Kentucky at the end of this month to speak with him in person, and if all goes well they may be under contract by the time they come back. The move date is still in place, as is the puppy Heidi has reserved as one of the dogs for the farm.

In addition, Heidi and Cindy already have numerous contacts in Kentucky, lawyers and accountants lined up for their business, potential buyers for the farm’s products, and plans drawn up on the how, what, where, and when of the farm’s construction and operation.

Today, the farm property has been put under contract, and we occupy it on April 23rd. We should be leaving California by April 15th to set out for Kentucky.

Tressa, Kalissa, and I will be going with Heidi in April to permanently relocate to Kentucky, start building things up, and get them moving. Aidan is entering the Navy and will be leaving for Boot Camp by March 8th. Cindy and John are hoping to permanently relocate there a little later once all the loose ends here in California are tied up.

Eventually, once the farm is up, running, and turning a profit, the plan is to segue into what we have come to call “Transformations of Love” which is the adoptive (and potentially foster) farm home for kids with special needs we have been planning and plotting for many years now and which some of you have encouraged us on when we were researching such homes during our time in the R.V.

I would ask for further prayer that things continue to move forward, and the doors continue to open for this. I would also ask for prayer for my own ministry focus that doors would open for me to be more intentional and more active regarding it. I know it isn’t going to look like a traditional pastorate, but its a matter of understanding what it is going to look like.

Thank you again for your prayers.

Unforgivable Sin and The Wedding Feast

  The Good News is that Jesus Christ has already saved you, with no past or future action required on your part regardless of whether or not you realize this. Everything can and will be forgiven, including ignorance of Him, except deliberately and knowingly rejecting the truth of Jesus Christ. This is the fundamental and frequently obscured truth of New Testament soteriology. It is practically screamed by Jesus as He recounts the parable of the wedding feast, the invited guests who refuse to come, and the stewards going out and bringing in anyone and everyone they meet on the streets, back alleys, and ditches, the homeless and destitute alongside the middle class and respectable. The salvation of the world is an accomplished fact with no further input required by us. Those of us who know the truth of Jesus Christ are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ, apprenticing to Him and His teachings, so that the world might know the Man who saved them through His disciples. We are the stewards informing the rest of the populace of the invitation to the wedding feast, or bringing them in on stretchers if need be.

Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ. This is a truth which is foundational to Christianity, and cannot and must not be compromised. Jesus Christ alone is “the” Way, “the” Truth, and “the” Life. But the great deception, however intentional or unintentional it might be, is that the Church has set itself up as a gatekeeper for a salvation which has already taken place and is freely offered, declaring instead, "Salvation comes only through the Church." The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches declare this boldly and overtly whereas the Protestant churches and denominations tend to be more subtle and discreet to varying degrees, but their practice and preaching cannot be any clearer. We act like gatekeepers for an event which has already transpired. We seek to "get people saved." What misguided arrogance we have be handed down over the centuries.

Jesus Christ has already died for the sins of the world and risen from the dead. Nothing anyone can do can get someone more saved than they already are because of Jesus Christ. Should a man die in total ignorance, not having rejected Christ overtly or intentionally by any means, he would still be greeted by the God who loves him without limit because of Christ. What is done is done. The salvation of the world has been accomplished. This is why arguing about how one might be saved, and what one must do is absolutely worthless and pointless. This is also why Jesus said to "Disciple the nations, baptizing them." He said, "Preach the good news!" He did not say, "Go get people saved! Go rescue them from the fires of damnation!" Because He had already accomplished this through His own death and resurrection. 

So then what remains? That we ourselves become disciples and disciple the nations as He commanded. That they all know Him through us. That we love as He loves. The His words are spoken through our lips, and His actions performed through our hands just as the Father’s words were spoken through His lips and the Father’s actions performed through His hands. We are not gatekeepers of the kingdom of God but ambassadors of it, and we have forgotten the difference. 

There are only two sins in the New Testament that Christ is clear on them being unforgiven. Deliberate, knowing rejection of the testimony of the Holy Spirit about the truth of Jesus Christ, and refusing ourselves to forgive others the wrongs they have done us. The first is a deliberate, knowing turning away from Christ and rejection of the salvation He has brought for one's own selfish ends and delusion. The second is a deliberate refusal to love the other person as He taught. We are not talking about struggles, we are not talking about difficulties in trying to follow and obey, we are not talking about the ups and downs on the path. We are talking about deliberate choices on the part of the individual to either refuse to love God or to refuse to love their neighbor. It is the refusal and rejection of the God who is love which sends a person into outer darkness, and it is their choice to go there.

The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is knowing Christ to be true, knowing Jesus is the Son of God, and deliberately rejecting Him for selfish and self serving reasons. This can be done by either the non-Christian who recognizes Christ for who and what He is, or the Christian who has experienced Him, tasted of His Spirit, and become intimate with Him. This was the context in which Jesus described it, and this is the context in which the author of Hebrews brings up the unforgivable, that of Christians having known His Spirit and throwing Him away to return to Mosaic (or shall we say, Pharisaiac/Sadducaic) Judaism out of self preservation or personal gain. These are the people whom Paul references in his letters  as having their god as their belly, and to whom John refers as having come from us but were not genuinely of us. This is unforgivable precisely because the person, in the depths of his hamartia insanity, knowing the truth of Jesus Christ, having experienced Him and shared in His life, has denounced and denied Christ in order to get some selfish worldly gain out of it. 

This was the case with the Pharisees who, knowing Him to be Messiah (it couldn't be more obvious), deliberately slandered Him and sought to destroy Him for their own selfish ends. This was the case also with Judas Iscariot. It is also this state to which the author of Hebrews refers in 6:4-6. As long as one remains in this state, it is unforgivable because they have deliberately and knowingly cut themselves off. Paul, as a Pharisee, was forgiven for his attacks and opposition to Christ because, according to his own account, he acted against Christ in his ignorance. He did not recognize Him for who He actually was. Yet the Pharisees who constantly tried to trap him, and the Sadducee High Priests, Ananias and Caiaphas, knew perfectly well who He was and deliberately worked to destroy Him. Being the High Priests, it was perfectly obvious to them that Jesus of Nazareth was the real Messiah, and thus was a threat to their power. 

The soul that commits the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a soul that rejects the Love of God because it is the God who is love. This is a soul that has made its choice to love the darkness deliberately and reject the light. This is an insanity that is willfully incurable, that knows there is a cure and slaps it away, devolving into further derangement and delusion. This is also the depth of Lucifer's insanity, and many if not all of his demons. There is literally nothing more which can be done because they do not want anything done, and so they must be secured away to stew in their own self reinforced insanity, and burn with their own delusions.

It is a revolutionary and controversial thought to consider that the Buddhist Abbot who honors both “Lord Buddha” and “Lord Jesus” would enter the wedding feast before a baptized Christian who has knowingly turned away from and against Christ. The ignorant person who may not have worked towards Christ, but has never rejected Him as such will find himself being generously given a wedding garment. The man who is not knowingly against Christ in God’s eyes is welcome to the wedding feast as for Him. God is not willing that anyone should be destroyed, but that all should come to repentence. Christ did not come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Our evangelistic message was never to be the gatekeeper’s message of “you must go through my booth alone in order to cross,” but to go and tell people they may cross freely, the toll has already been paid, the party is waiting for you on the other side.