Gen. Jim – POW – 5/21/22
I was reading a conversation that took place between a student of history & philosophy of the Bible & his professor. The professor told the student that the story (genre) of religion started out as idolatry, evolved to the worshipping of a “God of Vengeance,” & then culminated in the worshipping of a “God of love” – as taught by Jesus. Well, many teach this & believe this today.
Did religion, i.e. Judaism, evolve or was it revealed to men by God Himself? If religion evolved then what are we to do about revelation, i.e. God reveals Himself/His will & way to humankind? Remember how God revealed to Daniel secrets that no man knew. It was the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar who said, “… Truly your God is the God of gods… & a REVEALER of SECRETS…” – Dan. 2:47 [revealer: Hebrew // gelâh/gelâ/gâlâh = “reveal, publish, shew, uncover, bring over” // reveal: Heb. // same Heb. words. [Greek: apokaluptō // reveal = “to take off the cover, i.e. disclose;”
[Note: one should look up “revealed,” “revealer,” revealeth,” “revelation” / revelations” in the Heb. & Gk.]
Neither God nor His Word evolved. The God of History is eternity & in time declares Himself, His Word/His Will to men & women. They – the Word & God of the Word has always been. No revelation was added or taken away.
-Greek / “Revelation”-
We find in the N.T. writing the words “revelation” & “revelations” mentioned in Rom. 2:5, 16:25; 1 Cor. 14:6,26; 2 Cor. 12:17; Gal. 1:12, 2:2; Eph. 1:17, 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:13; Rev. 1:1. Each of these Greek words tell us things we need to know about who & what God is & does. The Greek word is akin to apokaluptō/apokalupsis = “disclosure, appearing, coming, manifestation, be revealed, revelation.” The opposite of “revealing” is kaluptō = “to cover up (lit. or fig.): – cover, hide.”
Paul Prayed
“… that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom & revelation in the knowledge of Him.” – Eph. 1:17
God is God
He is God, the same God in the New Testament as He was in the Old Testament.
He lost nothing nor gained anything.
The author of Hebrews says, “God, who at various times & in various ways spoke in time past to the father by the prophets, has in these lost days spoken to us by His Son…” – Heb. 1:1,2.
Jesus, the Word (“Logos”) in flesh, is written about; His preexistence, incarnation, & exaltation (1:3). Christ was before the world was created; He became human: He was God in the flesh (Jn. 1:14). He Himself was revelation.
The Hebrews’ letter opens with an intro, consisting of a reflection on the climax of God’s revelation to the human race in His Son, Jesus. God (the Father) revealed His saving purpose to the Human race. The Word/Logos are used in Philo.
How many Bible scholars/teachers & preachers believe that “religion” evolved (was not revealed). Paul wrote about “the revelations of the mystery kept secret since the world began,” in Rom. 16:25. He went on to write “but now made manifest(Gk.: phaneroō), & by the prophetic Scripture made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith,” v.26. Paul, by revelation received revelation of the mystery kept secret – the “secret” was that the Gentiles were gonna have the chance to receive Christ as did the Jews.
Paul used the word “manifest,” meaning to render apparent (lit. or fig.), appear, shew forth: the Gk. word was taken from another Gk. word, phanenos = shining, publicly, abroad, made known, made open. Paul says that this “mystery” was revealed to him then to the nations after it had been kept secret since the beginning of time.
Paul wrote about coming “to visions & revelations of the Lord” in 2 Cor. 12:1,7. In Gal. 1:12 he wrote, “I make known to you… that the gospel which was preached by me in not according to man (v.11). For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but is came thru the revelation of Jesus Christ” (v.12). In Eph. 3:3 Paul makes mention again of the mystery being revealed (not evolved).
So
The word “revelation” is used as “appearing” & “being revealed.”: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ…” Rev. 1:1
The Scriptures are not Darwinian, i.e. evolved over millions of years. They came as the LORD intended them to be revealed to humankind. They did not start out in a cosmic soup & finally evolved into Scripture. All that is written, was written under the inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16,17) was at one time in the heart of the Living God – not in part, i.e. fragments, but complete in themselves.
God was not (is not) a God of “Leve” possessing the attributes of all the platonic ultimates. Jesus was not (is not) the Son of God who was created/evolved, but was with God from the beginning, meaning from the beginning of time when the Father/Son created the world. Since “eternity” has no beginning & end, we use such words to describe starting points.
Believe it or Not
There are “professors” with several degrees that teach that God is “a God” we made up in our minds. The truth is the nature & identity of God has been taught to men from the very beginning.
This current WAR this nation is in, e.g. WAR against the God of Scripture v. the god of communism is heating up. As stated, Karl Marx, from the beginning, had the idea to create a great human colossus with him as the brain/builder & all other men serving him as other parts of the body. He dreamed of a gigantic SOCIAL IMAGE which conformed completely to Marx’s dream of a “perfect society.” But in order to make his dream come true, a total annihilation of all opposition was needed! He would never tolerate a reveal, such as the Bible Revelation of God! He would never stand for a democracy whereby the people ruled, not the government itself. His sick mind visualized a breed of Pavlovian men/women/children whose minds could be triggered into action by signals from their “masters.” Homo-Marxian was Marx’s dream. Well, folks, if you believe in such a dream, which, in reality is a nightmare, you will be disappointed. Even Red China could not build a society without capitalism.
He was convinced that a REVOLUTION would never be successful unless the working masses had a “Revolutionary Philosophy” of history (distorted of course). In his writings he showed why the VIOLENT overthrow of the present order was not only justified but inescapable! The rest is history: millions were killed, starved, imprisoned.
In 1867 Marx had his first vol. published. He wrote several more vols. but it was after his death that they went to press. (Engels had them published: 1885 vol.2 published: 1894 vol.3 was published.
So, my dear readers, Marxism, like Darwinism, has been around for decades & decades – taught in colleges /universities /schools just about every sphere of society – both “isms” are anti-Christ at their core. This is what the current democratic party/far left et al. are teaching/preaching. They are careful not to use the “C” word but all of the Communist goals I mentioned have been fulfilled. (See 45 current commie goals.)
In short, Communism enslaves; Christianity frees; Communism kills; Christianity heals. There is no place in society (in the U.S.) where this damnable, egregious BS has not touched. You would think the Church would be impervious. Not so. Goal #27: “Infiltrate the churches & replace revealed religion (note the word “revealed”) with ‘social’ religion. Discredit the Bible & emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a ‘religious crutch.’” And, so, here we are: churches that are far from God, worldly, sinful, shameful. The whole “get rich” trick swept the church BIG TIME in the 70s/80s/90s. Lewd & crude entertainment has replaced old time gospel religion. The word “repent” has been trashed cause it infers people sin. What we have is Babylon churchianity where each member can live like HELL & still go to Heaven – so says the “liberated” clergy. “Whatever feels good, do it!” God loves you are, hence, no need for change or growth. Being born again (what the Scriptures teach) is a thing of the past. We live for the present – Heaven is ours for the taking. Repentance is of the “old order.”
Some churches are so lewd, crude, even nude that they make the devil blush. Wife/husband swapping, the LGBTQ camp has been welcomed with open arms (& legs!). Abortion is promoted, lying, theft is common. You name it, it is in today’s “liberated,” “woke” church.
Sad but True
What has evolved (correctly used here) is out of the New Testament Ekklesia, i.e. community of born-again believers who had repented of their sins (as John/Jesus taught: Mt. 3:2 & 4:17), were forgiven by the LORD/Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38 mentions repentance/receiving HS), came the slowly-but-surely over-expansion of institutionalized religion. The “guardians,” i.e. church leaders of the Christian’s spiritual welfare choked off the Spirit’s flow, i.e. quenched the Holy Spirit (1 Thes. 5:19) & permitted humanism, religious humanism rule.
Instead of quenching the fiery darts of the wicked one (Eph. 6:16), the clergy quenched the leading/guiding of the Holy Spirit! The Gk. word for quenched is sbennumi, which means “to extinguish (lit. or fig.), let go out or put out.” Freedom in the Spirit was replaced by dead, organized religion & oppressive rule of doctrine of devils, including socialism & communism. Seducing spirits coupled with DOD took hold of much of the Church – over a period of time – see 1 Tim. 4:1/Heb. 13:9/Eph. 4:14/1 Tim. 1:3,10, hence the church began not to endure sound doctrine (2 Tim. 4:3). The Scriptures are plain that we are to adhere to good & sound doctrine: Socialism /Communism are the antithesis of such.
Socialism/Communism was not around when the New.Testament Scriptures were written but “divers & strange doctrines of men & demons were . Paul warned against false teachers/prophets. He made it plain that it was the HS that was speaking out against UNholy spirits of demons & evil men. He said “these people are hypocrites & liars, & their consciences are DEAD!” – 1 Tim. 4:2.
Today’s liberal church has enmeshed its members [note: in the beginning the word liberal/liberals were called so because they desired to liberate the world from man-made systems]. Today’s liberals want to liberate the “Christians” – so called – from those “harsh & unloving” doctrines of Scripture, which are morally obligatory, i.e. binding for all time. This was the dream of Marx et al. who followed his man-made/demon-inspired teachings, to liberate the world from democracies/capitalism etc. Now we have staunch Spirit haters, anarchists, revolutionists that are bent on making the U.S. an intolerable place to live IF you believe in The Only True God. All this evolved into a unique religious (negative) philosophy worthy of our attention.
In short, it is either Heaven or Hell!