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CHAPTER SEVEN

THE CHRISTIAN PRESCRIPTION

ON STAND-BY
BUT NOT IN FLIGHT

PATHOLOGY, BY-PATHS AND BLIGHTS, AND FORGOTTEN HEIGHTS
Time to Soar...
 

 

The Question of Stand-by,

the Quest for Truth and the Quenching in Flight

PRELUDE

 

Although much of this treatment of  STAND-BY has appeared long ago on this site, it is now divided up in roughly equal chunks, with additions, extensions, new references and extended endeavour to transmit perspectives, applications and realisations, as the Lord enables.

Without Him, no good thing is possible, but through Him all things are possible: for WITH GOD, as He wills and enterprises Himself,  all things are possible. We who are His, seek like sheep to follow His call within His word, the Bible,  and His will. Hence the biblical references throughout are extensive, and their  applications are numerous, to alert us and help us not to fall, to warn us and exhort us to find in Him inestimable treasure and to encourage to walk with Him, in Him, so that He in you and you in Him might be exceedingly fruitful (John 15:7).

 

PART  I

I

TASK

Today,  we look at the idea of stand-by, where  airline passengers  are prepared, for lower  fare, to await the first plane with a vacant seat. You are intending to  fly, want it more cheaply, and so consent ot WAITING until a flight*1 comes which,  not fully booked, will take you.

Many who flirt with Christianity, similarly are not  actually committed, unless ... they get  something else as a sauce or meat substitute. Correcting this trend helps faith to flow, and hence life  to become vital  and practical, with Christ, thus fulfilling the conditions of Luke 14:27ff..The quest  for truth if intense, leads into the fold of Christ through the door of grace and the opening of the Cross-cancellation of guilt and the accord of pardon, giving power through companionship with God. Then  thirst is quenched and the flight in faith proceeds.

Consider it again.
 

MANY are on stand-by when it comes to being a "Real Christian", by which is meant simply, a Christian, for an unreal Christian is merely imaginary. They neither stand nor confirm themselves in Christ. Some are unstable, some unconverted, being shallow soil, some are treacherous, some busy-bodies; and many have private ideas of which commandments to obey. Sin thus becomes through token faith, an optional extra; and re-definition of biblical commands, in fact tortuous self-deception,  can become the way to hell.

Let us face it, I John 3:9 expressly states that :

and it goes on to tell us that such a person, a Christian, CANNOT make a practice of it. Perfect ? Not at all! but the slave of another lord - equally a distortion (I John 1:8; 1:7- 2:1, Luke 6:45-46, Romans 6:2)! In retrospect, you see this in Isaiah 26:13.

"O LORD our God, masters besides You have had dominion over us,
but by You only we make mention of Your name."

There is the transition from going to and fro like a trucking firm in its travels, and coming to terms with His grace. You are as free as  to fall into the bottomless pit, to disobey; and as free to construct by imagination other lords, commands and mixtures. This merely adds lèse-majesté to revolt, if not duplicity to denial. Alas, many are the fallen former churches which seek to retain their Christian name, but pollute the inheritance of grace, like a fungus in bread.

The concept that some cultural background "allows" you to do this when the word of God does not, is as old as the earlier rebellions of the Jews for which they have paid a plenty. It is not, however,  limited to them, for God is no respecter of persons; but they are an example (cf. I Corinthians 10:1-13 for a great challenge to faith and stimulus to heart). God is staggeringly merciful but not slack, tender but not duped: II Timothy 2:20-21.

If you are planning to make a practice of sin, do not plan to use the term "Christian". It is not that Christians are perfect, but they ARE willing to follow the Lord and HE IS ABLE to keep you from falling (Jude 24). If you have faith, then ask and prevail; if not, then get it. (For getting on with it, see below, 3 & 4. )

 

2

 

TYPES

Initially

13 Types of Deviation and 6 Sub-Types

Notice here that most of the following types of folly MAY be the expression of spiritual frauds, people who are confused, those who think or hope they are Christians, but are not. Some, on the other hand, may be temporary ailments befalling Christians, in process of deliverance BY FAITH, which is NEVER without works because it is ALIVE and Christ is ALIVE and ALL-POWERFUL (Matthew 28:18-20).


A) THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. This is a simple negative. Here indeed a miss is as good as a mile. Think of Herod, that monster, in Acts 26:28. If it weren't for SOME things he could do ALL things ... but...! ALMOST you persuade me to be a Christian! he tells Paul. If however you ALMOST invest in a property, it will not be yours at all.

B) THE PRE-CHRISTIAN - Luke 9:62. He fiddles with the plough, always about to start.

He cranks: no roar responds. He scurries, never soars, has no lift from the Lord, never believes, makes assent but never consents. His heart stays where it always was (cf. Ezekiel 11:19-12:2). Perhaps something fascinates such a person, whose mind never finds a stay on what remains. Jonah, sufficiently warned, exclaimed (2:8):

"Those who regard worthless idols ("lying vanities")

Forsake their own Mercy... "

Vanity itself can be an idol, emptiness a "god".

Note that it is MAN'S OWN MERCY, the only God whose profound pity is so salient, that is forsaken, not something exotic. This makes poignant the folly of such endless non-beginnings, avoiding the place where reality is found, and where God makes Himself available
(cf. Galatians 6:14, Matthew 11:28-30, Micah 7:18-20).

C) THE DREAM-TIME CHRISTIAN. Jeremiah 23:17-28. Dream?

"The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream;
and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat ? says the Lord."

II Kings 17:33 has this:

"They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods - according to the rituals of the nations". (Cf. Zephaniah 1:5.)

Yet ONLY ONE MASTER is permitted by Jesus Christ (Matthew 23:8-10) - Himself: God must be loved with ALL the heart and mind.

MANASSEH, paragon of wickedness -

"even set a carved image... in the house of God, of which God had said...
I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land...
only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them,
according to the whole law" (II Chronicles 33:7-8).

Indeed, another self-adoring object for worship in due  course to be found within the TEMPLE is called by Jesus Christ: "the abomination of desolation" (Matthew 24:15-21, II Thessalonians 2) - the utterly horrible, religiously invasive thing which brings on ruin, desolation! And if it grow into a religious person, the very acme of religious renegacy, it is the worse folly, finding the worse end.

As to the spirit of the matter, there progressed, it has small beginnings at times, and compromise is a preferred fabrication before utter fall! Yes even the Jews were not allowed their OWN culture, and one playing with fire in this case needs to find ... a fireman. You cannot put out GOD! (See the papal action at Assisi, at P) below, where the dream mould and the radical man mix.)

Those governments, like a modern Babylon, which try to forward a religion, culture, combination, moral-ethical synthesis, as the Australian government appears to be doing with aborigines in this land, are catalysts to catastrophe and heap folly on themselves, from which the people need to seek an early deliverance, lest the whole nation suffer. To CHOOSE to follow your own desires, British, aboriginal or other, and your own morals and ways and your own god or gods, that is one thing; and its end is death. Yet to AID or even INCITE others to do so is the wildest folly.  Speaking of this land as belonging to original owners and such anti-God folly (for He, not they or we made it, and it is we who integrated it), is a religious statement, contravening the Commonwealth Constitution, tending to establish a religion. It damages all, the aborigine because all delusion is dangerous, and first come first served is not a religious matter, or transcendent, let alone a religious element of a culture.

Outrageous that such myth ever be uttered (NOT because of whom it mentions but WHAT it implies), it is grand to see Victoria wisely backing out of the pure folly of making it requisite before certain public meetings, so that Commonwealth law is not directly contravened by State compulsion!

Nor is this the only culture which is advanced by law. Even sharia, offspring of a false prophet (cf. *3 below), is desired by some new Australians who find it apparently right to seek to instal a totalitarian religious rigidity into the free land of their settling. It is well the Government in this case, has awakened to the folly. IF any body, aboriginal or Islamic or other, should gain a majority in the polls, it has certain powers. Even then, however, the Constitution, speaking in terms of relying on the blessing of Almighty God, does not allow establishment of what is unfree in religion. It is strange that new Australians, in this case, do not seem to have read or heeded this facet of their new country.

 

Vigilance is necessary, before alien religions, under the guise of philosophy based on nothing, establish themselves, and make a divided land committed to hideous breaches of liberty, while maintaining that this is not so: so providing the addition of hypocrisy to a floating fancy in derogation of the only God who has this testimony, that His word is truth and is testable, verifiable and validatable (cf. SMR, Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ), in whose well-understood name this current civilisation was founded. 

Culture, then can  come laden with religion, direct or inferential, and bowing to it as if sacrosanct becomes a religious act. It happens; but it is quite different to require it, subservience to it, let  alone on grounds indistinguishable from those of religious awe, acquiescence or elevation.

If a nation must be aware in this field, before slipping into inane worship by default, merely acquiescing in the tortuous contortions of proselytisers, how much more an individual.

Culture ? ANY CULTURE which dares to assert:

its thoughts, dreams, ideas, values, ideals in the FACE of the Lord,

as if HE would accept input from without (Proverbs 30:6),

CANNOT combine with Christ;

for, He declared,

"WHOEVER OF YOU DOES NOT FORSAKE ALL THAT HE HAS

CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE"

(Luke 14:27-33).

Forsake it as an ingredient to be merged with the things of God,

or make no claims on Christ, none to be a Christian.

It may have some kind of resemblance or be obviously the antithesis,

but impure chemicals are OUT!

The standard is the mouth of GOD directly delivering HIS WORD to man.

Therefore, if YOU are ...

or your PEOPLE

or your TRADITION

or your HEART

or your LIFE

or your national, tribal or regional life ...

is to be a contributor along with the word of God: then forget it.

Alas it would make of you, what ? A 'non-forsake' rejecter who CANNOT be Christ's disciple. After all, it is HIS name, and this, recorded in Luke, is what He has declared.

D) THE WESTERN DREAM-TIME CHRISTIAN. Consult II Timothy 4:3-4, 6:20, Jeremiah 2:27. The god of magical evolution - for that is truly what it is, a resourceful not-being who does all that creation is, without even being there to do it: this is the dream time of Europe and Russia and America: though recently there has been report of some strong movement in Russia back to creation.

It is merely the old story of worshipping a stone, dust, earth, an ingredient, the paper as if the material written were not really anything added! (Cf. A Spiritual Potpourri, Chs.5 and 7, and in Chapter 4, pp. 50, 34-39, Section 4, and Section 6, p. 42; That Magnificent Rock. Ch.1 and The Kingdom of Heaven, Ch.8, pp. 127-139.)

That is what you have; and it is what you get. This COMBINATION with Christianity is just an idol, and idolatry is unacceptable in the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (I Corinthians 6:9-10).

E) THE FREE-STYLE CHRISTIAN.

For this pathology, the WORD OF GOD IS TOO NARROW so use your common sense, or whatever occurs to you, and call it intuition, perception or vision, what you will. However the WAY IS NARROW - Matthew 7:13-14. Thus small or large, a church must be obedient (Acts 5:32.) Size can readily degenerate into idolatry where the magnificence of truth is traded for the multitude of people or monies; or at the individual level, for the quasi-spiritual spectrum of self-indulgences.

F) THE "MY WORKS" CHRISTIAN. I am so full of works that any good God will just HAVE to have me, and indeed should WANT me, seems the last line here. It is the pure heart, not the bragging improviser which God desires. See Romans 3:23-28, Matthew 7:22-23. This is tragic. Mixing your works with God's, to gain acceptance is hideous presumption (Ephesians 2:8-10).

G) THE "GAY" CHRISTIAN. This means the one who takes the implements of love and child-production for spontaneous self-expression at will. God forbids this abuse and allocates exclusion from heaven as the destiny of those unrepentant in such affairs - I Timothy 1:9-10, I Corinthians 5:8-13, 6:9, Romans 1:17-32). This applies to adulterers, homosexuals, lesbians, catamites, to those who disobey the directives of God. Free among the dead, libido may there burn in shame (Psalm 88:5, Matthew 5:30, Daniel 12:2, Leviticus 18:22-30). If you want to write your own book, rise from the dead and append it; but if you want to relate  to the Lord Jesus Christ, listen to His words and follow them. If you want to use His reputation to attest your ideas, keep to His. But then they are no longer yours. God being infinite, has a word worth more than yours. If you believe in Him, follow the testimony to truth (cf. SMR); but if you do not, follow your feet where they walk, and being guideless, perish in revolt, whether oral or silent, poetic or philosophic, gilded or guileful: there are options, with but one result.

Proverbs 14:12 tells us this: "There is a way that seems right to a man; but its end is the way of  death."

H) THE PART-TIME CHRISTIAN. Christianity is all right, but one has to attend to oh! SO many things that one has to be REASONABLE. See Matthew 13:22 and consider thorns. Are you governed by thorns,

or do you consider the thorns in His crown - and yours as you follow Him; for "the servant is not greater than his master, neither is he who is sent greater than he who sent him," (John 13:16).

I) THE "COCKTAIL" CHRISTIAN. This is a figure and means selective synthesis with the world, the flesh, and diplomacy with the devil. A 'Church' special, it speaks spiritually and acts carnally at will, measuring and meting out Munich appeasement with evil, while it harms the godly ... II Chronicles 16:7-10 provides a startlingly impactive example of this disease.

The "Coat-Tail" Christian tends to mix it too, rather making some mere man the way - "I of X!" - of Calvin, of Wesley, of Luther, of some preacher, theologian or personage recent or modern, as a criterion.
In fact, rejoice in the good points as edifying, but rejoice greatly in ALL SCRIPTURE as determinative (II Timothy 3:16, Matthew 5:17-20, John 12:48-50). It cannot be broken to the jot or tittle and will control history for all its fulfilment, as originally given (Matthew 5:17-20). God has invented our minds, and tongues, and talk capacity; to use these to decry Him is like a robot turning on its maker, but far worse; for if that is wrongly made, it will wrongly act. Yet man is made upright, but in his heart are many inventions to waylay, to purloin the word of God, to practise raw revolt and ignore reality and love alike, faithless, fathering fiasco, and often blaming God for the crashing results, in order to elevate the revolt to rebellion! (cf. Ecclesiastes 7:29). 

"God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes."

A delusive refinement of this can readily be found in the factional and factitious error of being a coat-tail Christian.

I Corinthians 3:3-11,21-23 categorically condemns this foible, which can be more than that, when division and lack of discernment follow, as they may, from the near idolatry of holding fast to coat-tails, satin-lined though they be. The better the person the more dangerous the practice in this, since much may confirm when little dissuades, so that the errors of the great become the starting points of the followers. As to "name" as a criterion, it can be only of Christ, of the Father, of the Spirit. Many are the unnecessary divisions which have compromised the purity of the Church, and some of these are identified and biblically corrected in The Bay of Retractable Islands, to aid the unity of the Church, and move from past forking to a better unison.

J) THE SOME-TIME CHRISTIAN - John 13:2, 18:2-6. You hear of the Sometime Professor of Music - he once held such a post! Even Judas could pretend to that, but any time with God as His child is ALWAYS (I John 5:13, I John 3:9, John 5:24, 4:14, Ephesians 1:11). IF you CEASED to be a Christian, then you NEVER WERE. See Matthew 13:20-21.

The EXPERIENCE of being touched was real enough ("at once ... with joy"); but there was STONE UNDERNEATH, no real repentance. It was "temporary", not in the heart. The real thing is "REPENTANCE NOT TO BE REPENTED OF" (II Corinthians 7:10).

"Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be repented of."

K) THE SUMMER-TIME CHRISTIAN - Matthew 19:16-22. It doesn't hurt to enjoy yourself, so why not make it a condition of ANY religion YOU will have! Here we have the rich young ruler episode. Lovable as the guy was, his heart so intense and his mind so willing - he came RUNNING to Christ: yet OTHER THINGS were 1st..

Adapting from this, many run to religion as an experience primarily, "my life" supplanting Christ as pre-eminent (Col.1:18, Phil. 2:8-11). His mouth is closed at will, His book disregarded as needed, because "life in Christ" is so stunning, you can't be expected to remember He is Lord (Luke 6:16) and has spoken (Matthew 5:17-20). See John 14:21-23 for the contrary declaration of Jesus Christ.
Winter comes here, with His return whose name was so mangled. (See alternate fantasy in in M  below,  for will.)

L) THE COTTON-WOOL CHRISTIAN. In fact, while an attack of cowardice may seem to be in mind, it is in the ear that the cotton-wool may be placed, since some are sensitive to great heights, and cannot bear sitting in heavenly places, or setting their minds on things above (Colossians 3:1-3, Ephesians 2:6, Micah 7:18-19, Isaiah 40:27-28). The two aspects may be related!

M) THE "MY LIFE" CHRISTIAN. See Jeremiah 43-44, esp. 43:10,17. These people were WILLING to do WHATEVER Jeremiah told them from God - UNTIL he told them! This is simply misplaced will-worship. It has  various  varieties, with plus or  minus adventurism.

i) You worship not your wallet or your beauty, but your WILL! Also known as 

ii)  THE CAPTIVE CHRISTIAN, sin-slave (John 8:34-36), serving sin while calling Christ 'Lord'.

Luke 14:27-33 gives the rebuke: it is IMPOSSIBLE! It is CHRIST OR WILL! Potential, preference, satisfaction - MINE! - becomes the criterion; whilst the satisfaction that CHRIST secured, was that of HIS FATHER (John 8:29, Philippians 2:1-12). Self-centred Christianity is like using bias bowls for a tennis match. It is not just wrong: it is ludicrous!

Similarly in essence, you have the

iii) THE COP-OUT CHRISTIAN. Here there is a substitution of some element of the way for the way itself, a near-to idolatrous concentration on a misconception. The knowledge of Christ and the power of God, as in a short-circuit, can thus be bypassed, faith entangled in a mass of false leads. Thus

iv) sacramentalistic pseudo-saints can be so strong on the sacrament, that either they turn it into Christ, reserved (as Acts 3:19-21 tells us - cf. John 6:62-63, SMR Ch.10, pp. 1042-1088H) in heaven till the "regeneration of all things", and go right ahead and worship it; or else imagine it gives them a sort of ration of strength, as if God were limited to such intrusions of symbols to strengthen His saints with might in the inner man. It is those who "WAIT UPON THE LORD" who renew their strength, and that with exuberance (Isaiah 40:31). Again

v) End-time quasi-saints can be so concerned about the undoubted near approach of the return of Jesus the Christ, that they stop their conscientious endeavours, and abstract from their duties, as if knowledge of His return meant a cancellation of responsibilities (cf. II Thessalonians 2 - and see Ch. 17, pp. 234, 238 ). Some prefer

vi) the fellowship cushion camaraderie, allowing the desire for fellowship to displace the duty of obedience and faithfulness to Christ, selling whatever it takes to preserve "unity" over the body of the throat-slit scriptures. (Cf. The Kingdom of Heaven... Ch.10, Part 3, Blood-Sport.)

 

RETURN TO THE RESERVED SEAT

A Preliminary Perspective

 

If YOU in your heart  desire the light of Christian preference to darkness, slithery, unworkable, irrational and brutal, to  the atmosphere of pretence: if you despise consequences  without cause and magic without mastery, and seek the reasonable, reliable Rock that never changes, never moves, always stays the course and stands before, during and past our times,  Maker of man's mind, then avoid triflings, and live with the  truth; for Christ demonstrably  IS the way,  the truth and the life (SMR).

Having found the truth in Christ Jesus, cease all scattery quest for another god, another glory; for, as in Galatians 1, there is no other Gospel, nor validated word from God. Having your thirst quenched in Him, and in His goodness, His sacrifice and demonstration lesson through His very presence on this earth, then fly with the light, into the light and for the light, knowing this is your inheritance with the children of light (Psalm 36:9, Ephesians 5:8-15). ERRORS ARE NUMEROUS, but truth is single, singular and centred in the  Creator, restored in the Redeemer, bringing sheer joy (John 16:22) to the redeemed.

 

 

 

PART  II

Continuing

2

TYPES

 

  12 Deviations, One Devotion
 

In the first part, we began to look at erratic departures from biblical faith in Christ. It is faith and not a twitch of preference which is indispensable, the word of God and not philosophy which is to be revered. It is Christ as the living word of God, with no additives, for whom all must be forsaken (Luke 14:27ff.), including all these mischievous mis-programmed distortions of biblically required reality.

We come today to some more with the same admonition. In PART III,   in ending the deviations, we focus the right way more fully. Now, we turn directly to avoidance of what avoids Him, deterrence from what distracts from Him, and clear continuation in commission from the most High in the ONLY NAME which gives access: that of Christ Jesus, undoctored, undiminished, undimmed, undeviatingly.  In Part III, then, we shall complete this series. We have reached M, in Part I, and now we come to ...

N) THE PORT-HOLE CHRISTIAN - Matthew 13:19-22. This is the SOME-TIME Christian in early stages. The word is still growing in the shallow soil, or is not yet picked up by the birds, symbolising the devil in this instance, and it is not yet smothered; abroad. Thus,  port-hole peeps on the kingdom of heaven are taken from the Self-Liner cruising along the coast. Stimulating it may be, but spiritual it is not. There is no consistency or growth (versus II Peter 3:18, 1:1-11). The liveliness of what lives and thus grows in its time, is missing, like a heart in palpitation. Indeed,  for this cruise and lose situation, "the whole heart is sick," Isaiah 1:5.

O) THE SACRED LIFE CHRISTIAN - II Timothy 4:10. Demas has forsaken us, having loved this present world. For one's sacred life one must give worship, take liberties, follow one's desires, will, thoughts. For the real Christian however, it is the "MARK of the HIGH CALLING in Christ" to which one looks, not the petty putty of one's personal predilections. Do you "hate your own life also" as prescribed then ? (Luke 14:26) and are you aware that those who are Christ's

You will notice that it is accomplished. Warfare may remain, but the victory is Christ's (Galatians 5:16-24) with the outcome noted in verse 24, and lived as in Galatians 2:20, where Paul exclaims:

What is SACRED here ? It is CHRIST. What SHOULD BE made holy ? ... we who are Christians. It is we who should be ... wholly consecrated to God, the living God (cf. Romans 12:1): not to imaginations about religion - or ourselves. Desire to save your life ? Lose it! Lose it for HIS sake ? you'll save it (Mark 8:35, Romans 12:1-2).

P) THE LIBERAL CHRISTIAN: Mark 8:38, John 12:48ff., 5:43-48, Matthew 5:19-23. These people would re-write the Bible at their taste and discretion. This word of God however will JUDGE THEM. Interfering with the manufacturer's handbook will not change the way you must treat your car. (See The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, Chs.1, 10 and Appendices C, D.) If, said Jesus the Christ of Moses (John 5:41), "you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words." Christ is the culmination, and Moses was no cul-de-sac. Though the bud of the Old  Testament came before the bloom of the new, it is integral to it, in the great Gardener's hand (Matthew 5:17-20). God ALWAYS knows what He is doing and His word is truth (I Kings 17:24, Psalm 119:142, I Thessalonians 2:13, John 17:17).

Q) THE RADICAL CHRISTIAN - See II Corinthians 11:4.

Put Christ on the mantel-piece, "your" christ whom you mould, along with your other idols. It could be your personal creation, that of some sect, corresponding to the "Mary" delusively created by Rome.

It is however "the Lord's Christ" - Luke 2:38, who is Jehovah in the flesh (John 8:58). HE ALONE saves (Isaiah 43:10-12, Acts 4:10-12). And as to Him, He saves ALTOGETHER (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 5:8-10, John 10:9,l 27-28, I John 5:12-13, John 4:14, 6:51-54). Other 'christs' are man-manufactured apprentices whose status compared with Jesus Christ, the Lord, zooms towards the sub-infantile (Isaiah 28:5, 9-11, 29:13-14); for man is infinitely below God, and created gods are mere flamboyant derogation of God (Isaiah 41:21-24, 43:8-11, 45:21-24, 48:3-7, II Corinthians 11). Debased, they debar.

Much Pentecostalism comes here, creating counter-commandment concepts with a "liberty" that has no licence from God (Isaiah 28:9-11, 29:13-14 & see A Question of Gifts); and we think of Eliphaz in Job 4:13-8:

So spiritual! But he STILL went on to make shallow judgments on Job: and had to be prayed for by this saint, at the end, that he might be forgiven! Dreams, visions, feelings, frenzies and spiritual perceptions are added to the word of God as basic to life: folly, even if no personal pride is added.

God may guide in any way of course, but HIS WORD has no additions: NONE!

If however it is to be moulded for ecumenical convenience, as when a Buddha with papal authority was placed by the Dalai Lama on the altar in St Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Assisi Italy (October 27, 1986 ... cf. Psalm 96:5, Galatians 1:6-9, Isaiah 43:10-14 48:4-8), for example, officially set on the place of masses where a movable christ' is carted about at will: then you have a double defilement.

Hybrid Christians ? These merely acquire deformities and defile with defamations, the name of Jesus Christ. (Cf. II Corinthians 11:1-15.) (See SMR, pp. 1008-1088H, 743-744, 750B-E, 864ff., 953ff., 842ff.)

R) THE SUPERBLY-SPIRITUAL CHRISTIAN. Some resemblance to 0)... but see Luke 18:10. THIS person is too spiritual to condescend to the ordinary folk, yet is very thankful not for sins forgiven but for being superior (cf. John 8:37-45). Yet, said Christ, the rank sinner whom he despised, who cried -

S) THE BALANCING ACT CHRISTIAN. See II Corinthians 1:19-20, Proverbs 8:8. BUT!, says one, I ALSO read this, so I shall not need to do that! I will do only the part of the word which appeals to me, which seems suitable, attainable. Why try for the impossible; and anyway, I do not see how ... if I do this, I CAN also do that! The word of God however is neither twisted nor in default; if it says it, the only wise course is to do it (Proverbs 1:33, 2:10, 9:10, 13:13, 21:16, 22:17, 28:7-9, 30:5-6).

T) THE "WHO-ME?" CHRISTIAN. See Hosea 7:10,16. This one is guaranteed absent when it counts, certain to avoid suffering, not to be seen in the godly works of construction, while compromising the while with rebels... where? In the sleazy slums of unspirituality.

U) THE BURROW-FURROW RABBIT CHRISTIAN ... burrows in the word, but runs in the fields with a white flag behind, when confronted (Isaiah 59:14, Jer. 9:1-6, Ezekiel 33:32, John 6:58-66).

V) THE CIRCULAR CHRISTIAN - Psalm 95:6-10, Jonah...

Here the problem is that a conscious desire to serve God may be present, but in the way, the flesh speaks with languorous tones that sentimentally may sound a little like sanctity (Galatians 5:17ff., II Corinthians 11). The individual prays, pleases him/herself, and prays without Biblical faith so erring; and then for the error, very probably pays. It should be the Lord says, I pray and HE is pleased.

W) THE NOT-BEGUN CHRISTIAN - see I Corinthians 10:1-12. He has no fear of God though he may have terror of trifling. The "clean" fear of God is replaced by the trepidation and consternation of uncertain troubles and vague perils. Think of the Jews failing to ... enter the promised land (Numbers 14) - with GOD WITH THEM!
It is a case of SHRINKING FROM REALITY, a pitiable plight that forsakes the divine pity in self-indulgence and pre-occupation. As Jeremiah 2:13 has it :

"For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns - broken cisterns that can hold no water."

·         X) THE CRANIAL CHRISTIAN and the Danielic Depth-

·         Superficial virtuosity can lead some into professorial chairs where their foolish faithlessness becomes a curse to the church which should never have called them; a trap to the local congregation, perhaps blinded by verbal facility.

 

·         Knowing all 'the answers', few of the questions, those afflicted with this disease are likely to fall for, or become part of the Corinthian syndrome of II Corinthians11 where Paul rebuked the Church for its terrible tendency to accept ANYTHING from usurpers such as those who would bring in a "new Jesus" or "another Jesus", "another Gospel" with "another Spirit". Such appears the way of much twentieth century churchianity (see The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, pp. 864, 904ff.; 743-744,750A-E).

 

·         Pressing consequences include:

·         disloyalty, treachery, betrayal of the faith once delivered,

·         plausible combination with

·         the exotic, despotic, erotic or theologically neurotic,

·         clamour, spiritual mutation,

·         restlessness and a diffuseness resulting from spiritual cataracts.

·         Nil-faith nostrums abound and philosophy protrudes like bulging eyes.

 

·         This pathetic pathology is to be carefully distinguished from Danielic Depth, where in long humiliation before the Lord (Daniel 10), a Christian learns to 'eat meat' (I Cor. 3:1-3, Hebrews 6:1-3, Galatians 6:14) and to help in its provision for others. Thus Daniel was noted for being enabled in the area of "an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles and explaining enigmas" - Daniel 5:12 - cf. Ephesians 1:17-19 ("the eyes of your understanding being enlightened"). The spirit and the understanding in reality GO TOGETHER, each bowed before and lifted up by the hand of the Lord (Isaiah 66:2).

 

·         Y) THE DOMINANT CHRISTIAN or the Encouraging Servant of Christ - Matthew 18:1-5, 20:20-28, Mark 9:33-37. Recall also the express case of much unappreciated Diotrephes (III John 9-10), one of whom it was said: "who loves to have the pre-eminence among them" and "does not receive us".


Glory appears so to have tainted his wings that he found an apostle unacceptable. Many nowadays would not say, admit or even perhaps conceive this to be their fault, but to lead is one thing, to shove another; and to push preconceived ideas is as far different from exhorting to righteousness which may indeed be done with passion, that the one may lead to anti-apostolic glamour and the other to a return to the faith.

 

·         Health and happiness in Jesus Christ acknowledges ONLY God as Lord, and it is HE who is the LORD Jesus Christ who said, "Why do you call Me Lord, Lord and not do the things that I say!" - Luke 6:46. With "leadership" of a carnal, worldly, self-important type, agreements can be broken, the covenant of Christ can be slighted and a head-full of exalted rubbish can replace the fact that even Christ did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). The Gentiles, said Christ, love to domineer, "yet it shall not be so among you" (Matthew 20:25-26).

 

·         To help, exhort Biblically, share vision of service, encourage in the right walk, supervise affairs with zeal and personal modesty, this is the right side of the dominance which so appeals to the peoples, as Jesus indicated, and the apostle John showed. How sad that diseases of the spirit can foil the wonders of teamwork of the faithful; but the facts are plain and the way must be chosen so that neither is the stimulus of supervisory saintliness lost nor is the dominance of carnal presumption gained.

 

THUS

 

·         Weak pushings and wavering promptings fail: in the Lord be STRONG then in the power of His might, and let neither the corrosive capture faith, nor domination, unspiritual, undivine,  rule sanctity. Be godly and of good courage and heart, and in the Lord you have abundant grace.  

'N  NOW, it is time for

 

PART  III

2 

TYPES

Concluded with the Zth

and the HEIGHTS of the Crescendo in Christ Jesus the Lord

 

Direct Dealing for Those who Cannot Stand Stand-by

 

The Passage is Narrow, the Glory is Great

We move through dangerous waters of confusion to the clear sight of the ocean vastness of the truth. We move through the shallows to the grandeur available in that ocean of wonder, the Lord Jesus Christ, only Saviour, Lord of all.  Having moved through 25 or so diversions, we move through the 26th to a better way. 
 

Z) THE FOOT-DRAGGING CHRISTIAN - Isaiah 35:3, Hebrews 12:4,12, Isaiah 42:3.
 

"Encourage!," says Isaiah, "the exhausted, strengthen the feeble!" and again, of the Messiah, "A bruised reed will He not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish" (NASV).

There is glory, that even here, where some might surrender the task, Christ is more than equal to it, and has proved Himself strong in weakness and undeflectable in purpose.

Beaten and bruised Himself, He does not abolish the bruised, but rather heals - in Hebrew, the words are specifically similar in 42:3 and 42:4 - for HIM who gives, and for us (cf. Hebrews 4:15-16, 2:17-18)! Foot-dragging may come from a problem in the area of the spine, and strengthening is called for; or from exhaustion, and refreshing is needed.

Where slowness to perform the will and word of God is however based in rebellion or obstinacy, the case is different and through deviousness can quickly degenerate into apostasy. Nevertheless, the children of God are to be cured from weariness and weakness, even David once feeling "ready to halt" (Psalm 38:17), and the Messiah has a tenderness which is an elixir through which His strength flows (Isaiah 40:10-11, John 8:1-12, 21:11-19).

As for being a bruised reed, at times the signal changes. You become more pressed like crushed berries, producing the juice of humility in the framework of Christian service to God and man. Indeed, as Isaiah 40:10-11 has it,

"Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.

"He shall feed His flock like a shepherd:
He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom,
and shall gently lead those who are with young."

His real zeal is shown not only in His beauty of holiness, as in Hebrews 5:7-8, Luke 22:44, but in His exposure of frauds at the constant and imminent danger of death (Luke 11:52-54), finding His people among the false leaders and comforting them with His own power and presence, love and zest. It was just as Ezekiel foretold (34:14-16):  contrasting the betrayal of those appointed to act, but consuming their time on themselves  (34:1-5), with what ? It was this: with that utter fidelity that the Good Shepherd, God Himself would come to show.  Indeed He CAME to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 15, 19:10). God came, Christ His definitive incarnation (Hebrews 1, John 8:58).  Salvation ? He did it Himself!

In all this, God does not forsake His people, but encourages them as they are made white, as Daniel puts it, and purified, strengthened and moulded, given more grace as is for the lowly in mind and meek in spirit. Look at the encouragements given to Daniel (Ch.10), to Paul (Acts 18:9-11, II Corinthians 12:9-10), and to Christians who suffer for Him who sent them (I Peter 3:14-15, 4:12-14).

Look again at the triumph past  all tragedy in Isaiah 42.

"A crushed reed He will not break, and the dimly burning flax, He will not quench;
He will bring forth judgment  to truth.
He will not BE crushed, nor dimly burn, until He has established justice in the earth,
and the coastlands will wait for His law."

That is, the tender mercies that He will show,  in His atoning agonies as in His bracing miracles, in His endurance as in His patience, in His power as in His spiritual vitality: these will be shown to Him. HE will not be broken, nor suffer discouragement, He will not smoulder but in flames of spiritual fire blaze with incandescent vigour, unsubdued, though smitten; and in Spirit He will be masterful and massive, even when in body subjected to squalor and violence; but hurling His spiritual arrows at the underbelly of sin, He will be neither quenched nor subdued.

Like mercury, He will not be contained, and like fire He will not be put out; and His compassionate kindness and mercy will surge to those whose contrition calls in faith to Him. He will pursue His program of pity, His triumphal task of truth,  and continue His work till the  entire earth, mutinous in murders, becomes subject to His law, and the entirety of His mission is accomplished. But all this, it is not for the sake of gaining the earth, but that it might be enabled to behold His beauty, and the suffering and groaning creation behold with relief the spectacle of the children of God (Romans 8:17ff.), the transformed testament of beauty, the denizens of duty, the offspring of God. When this is done, this earth and heavens will be despatched by their Maker, now that the  glory of God has been shown in the face of Christ Jesus (Isaiah 51:6, Matthew 24:35), and He has found and saved  His own.

Therefore be encouraged.

Consider Isaiah 40:1-3, where a people have come through to trust in the Lord after a bleak beginning, and Psalm 37:2 where you are taught to rest in the Lord, and to "delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart".

So work, but do not put your trust in your works (John 9:4), but in Him who gives you the call to serve Him (Psalm 40:4, Proverbs 3:4-5); pray, but do not trust in your prayers but in Him who can answer them (Ephesians 3:19-20).


And be with those who are

We return now from our task, the first concern, from the deviations, our second ground of reflection, back to the wake of truth. Let us leave the pathology and see the perspective of holiness, godliness, simple continuance in grace, and its ambit, before finally we pass to the BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN, by no means perfect, but one held in the accomplished perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ by inseparable bonds, indomitable power and grace both ineffable and ineffaceable.

 

 

  3

 FULL CIRCLE

 

 

 

ON THE WAY IN THE BETTER WAY


The RETURN to the ELEVATED BASE


IN HIM,  WHO CAME THAT WE MIGHT RETURN
 

(Ephesians 2:6*1)


 

 

 

THE CIRCULAR QUAY CHRISTIAN -

John 10:9

 

Notice here that in Sydney there has been a central quay to which the ferries would come, and from which they would be despatched to Manly outside the Heads, and various inner places. There the people went, from there they were transported in the open sea, or even ocean.

This reminds us of the fact that ONCE you HAVE entered that door which is CHRIST by faith as in John 10:9, THEN you belong to Him and WITH HIM go in and out and find pasture. HE is Circular Quay in this parable, and TO Him those who are His go, in order to find IN HIM the next destination, step, event in their journeys, and to GO AND DO IT (Luke 17:8-10). The ocean reminds us of the pure joy in serving the Lord and the ferries of the potent power available to those who are in Him and work and live for Him (Ephesians 1:19).

So with holiness have help, in help have service, in service have strength and in strength have a journey in the peace of Him who MADE the seas and works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11). Never forget that, and if you are His, trusting in His blood - symbol of substitutionary sacrifice for believers, in His power by which His body was raised physically from the dead (Romans 10:9, Luke 24:39), then what have you to fear! Fear God and love the Lord, for in Him is everlasting strength (Isaiah 26:4).

Thus we are led to the articulation of the form, format and provisions for the Biblical Christian. Here is the Christian Prescription.

It is not absent, nor illusory, nor changeable, nor ephemeral, but based on the Book of the Lord, founded in the Christ of the Lord, confounded by nothing, as sure as creation and surer yet, surer than the universe, which was run up and has since been running down; for that is for a time, and in time, but the Lord has eternity, and made time, that fabricated, legally astute, brilliantly modulated, carefully formulated vehicle for the function of law and will, thrust and thrill, the achievment of much and the payment of the bill for folly, the establishment of truth before all, the illustration of the realities of eternity, the profound opportunities of life, and even eternal life. When it is all taken down, like the passing constructions for viewing a car race, then the results will not pass. They are a matter of record.

Indeed, the ultimate records are already in place (Ephesians 1:4, Isaiah 46:8-10), for God knows the end from the beginning. This is not to say that liberty lapses; but that its outcomes are not subject to time and tide, though they may occur IN both! They are secured in the omniscience of God, who neither wavers in His love, nor in His hatred of what ruins, confounds, soils and spoils the wonder of His creation, by blindly seeking to harass or even harness it, without wisdom, right or reality.


   

4

 

THE BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN

FOR WHOM

TO LIVE IS CHRIST ...*2

(Philippians 1:20-21,Col. 3:1-3, Romans 6).

 

This is one who ...

LOVES the Lord, and KEEPS His word. Although imperfect and not fully mature (Philippians 3:12-15),

and this one

understands where to find forgiveness at once (I John 1:7-2:2),

runs and is not weary (Isaiah 40:27-31): BECAUSE waiting on the Lord,

renews his strength;

walks on the Rock (I Corinthians 3:11),

knows the Lord (John 17:1-3, Jeremiah 9:23-24), and that salvation is indeed his
(Isaiah 33:17, Titus 3:5, II Timothy 1:9-10, Ephesians 2:1-8),

co-operates  with Christ's team, who abide in His word (I Cor.12,John 17:8-9),

exhorts and is exhorted (Hebrews 3:13),

is alive and therefore has Christian vitality (John 4:14),

dies daily (Romans 8:36, I Corinthians 15:31),

hates his/her own life, as autonomously or rebelliously assertable (Luke 14:26) but

pants for the word and friendship of God (Psalm 119:11,20,24, 43:1, John 15:14-15 - and note that He DID call THEM His friends),

knows the power of God (I Corinthians 1:24), because God has it and so makes it available to His children (Ephesians 1:19),

knows the companionship of the Lord who guides by grace, calling His sheep as it pleases Him (John 10:27-28), giving eternal life and gracing it with His presence,

falls but calls on the Lord (Psalm 142:1-3, 9:12, 34:6, 4:3, 61:1-4, 138:3, 57:2, 65:4) is lifted up (Prov. 24:16) by the divine ambulance and rushed to the spiritual hospital in Christ with a humble and a contrite heart (Isaiah 66:2).

 

THEREFORE:

Avoid these pathologies (A-Z) if you belong to Christ;

but if you do not,

then seek Him, repent and submit yourself

in contrition and faith,

asking the Father for Christ's sake to accept you, purge and clean you, making your heart as He would (Titus 2:11-15, 3:2-7),

planting your will in His love

as He also plants you in His kingdom;

and BE THANKFUL for His mercies, for the Lord delights in mercy (Micah 7:18-20). You are not being 'trying' when you seek the mercy HE LOVES TO GIVE!

If you ARE CHRIST'S and find any of these pathologies lurking or energised within you, repent, submit your fault, folly or failure to the Lord, call the ambulance, go to His operations unit, and by faith be delivered. If for any reason, like Elijah, by faith you have for a time to stand alone, be fortified by faith to fulfil your mission, and seek in love for the blessing of those who are faithful.

 

5

 

Apologetic Significance
 

and Unapologetic Exhortation
 

The strictly apologetic significance of this flight survey as here presented,  is this.

Much that is vague, vain and illusory masquerades, parades or even chaotically chums up with the concept of Christianity. The latter is as defined in the word of God, in the life of Christ, in the gospel of life. God is its origin, man is its target, truth is its way, and immutable are its ways: they are everlasting, in grace, by faith, and never fail. When therefore what is definitive of Christianity is systematically absent, or constantly contravened, contradicted or confused, this is alien pathology, not relevant to the question of the church. It is a convening of imitation, an art of artificiality, if by any means the very elect might be deceived (Matthew 24:24).

DO NOT however, be deceived. Avoid what is of this type (Romans 16:17). 

Often the term 'Christian' is used through re-definition (as in neo-Orthodoxy) of major terms, or some may hold to it with the implicit heresy that believing does not impel to doing (contra James 2:17 cf. SMR pp. 520-532). In fact, it does. Some even attempt to re-define the Christian faith (as in neo-evangelicism); or even to re-define God Himself, with the soaring grandeur of blasphemy, in one's own fallen  image or desire, along the lines often displayed in the Mormon structure, taking the glory backwards, not proceeding from its infinite Source who declares His mind (Isaiah 43:10-11); while others move in terms of the diabolically immoral concepts of theistic evolution, which are as far from the evidence as from the self-declaration of God (cf. That Magnificent Rock, Chs. 1,  6, SMR pp. 179ff. ). Man who would make an immoral god is doubly immoral. Morality is not to be found based in slime, or slickness, in psychic torments or philosophic torrents. 

In man there is

bullet

an impetus to  do wrong (even by his own standards, very often,
indeed all but universally), and
 
bullet

desire (sometimes flaming, sometimes tamed) to do good things, worthy,
wonderful, amazingly helpful, spiritually delightful things
(sometimes cynically smirked away at the corners of the besotted mouth), and
 
bullet

a yearning for God (often in disease, deceased, but always threatening to rise,
just as Christ DID rise, showing the end of the beginning of spiritual beggary
which He bore, for those who would follow Him)

Empirically, man may and often does move through the ropes of these areas, like a boxer, fighting with this, some other thing, in an embroilment, a turmoil, that while it may be stricken at times with paralysis, as with a knock-out blow, does not cease to accuse, to come back dizzily seeking to excuse (Romans 2:14-15 attests such things). But these are ineradicable at length, arising with the seemingly artless frankness of the mind, to remind and to indite.

The empirical will not go  away. We KNOW in our hearts and in our memories the tinges of colour in the grey, the truth of reality in our minds, and even the most astute suppression merely is anodyne, not deliverance. Weighing the immoral act, or the crime, the pretence, the pretension, the lie, the evasion, the prevarication, the anti-Samaritan slither from service, the selfish option, the guilty movement to irreconcilable positions for convenience' sake, may intemperately be  dismissed; but such things as these do not become myths because it might seem to be convenient if they were.

Moral realities do not budge, just as KINDS in the world of creation, do not budge (cf. A Spiritual Potpourri Ch.   5, News  74; The Defining Drama Ch.  10). It is the same with God Himself: make something of nothing in delirious, naturalistic dreams,  and you ever remain where you began: a magician in myths, irrational. Start with something, and it is inadequate for the results or adequate. If adequate, then it has ALL required in its powers for the mental, moral, aesthetic, metaphysical, verbal, intellectual, spiritual, intelligent manifestations which in fact has come. Call it anything you like, but its feature do not change, and the necessary requirements do not alter (cf. SMR). Work yourself up to a lather, and the realities of what is found do not change (cf. TMR).

Some seek themselves, or their inventions, ruling as kings; some seek God, who IS King.
When it comes to  God, you find,

bullet

as in the technical, vastly beyond our own powers (Worn-Out Earth and Coming King Ch. 4,
Christ Jesus: the Wisdom and the Power of God Ch. 8),
 
bullet

as in the moral, in the quality of love,
 
bullet

as in the beauty of holiness,
 
bullet

as in the ingenuity and grace shown in man's own mansion of life,
equipped before and beyond all the human architects,
 
bullet

as in the Jesus Christ who came and did not only all predicted for this His advent,
but showed what no other has or had in power, purity, truth and wonder,
acting with both the authority and dynamic of God Himself, under any test,
in the face of all duress (cf. The Magnificence of the Messiah, Repent or Perish Ch. 2 :
 
bullet

so the majesty before all the Hitlers, Gadaffis, Husseins, Muhammads, Commissars,
popes and presences that men insist upon, now here, not there, killing, now this time, now that, as the inventions come to go*3.


Thus Christ, though in the infinitely superior form of God, voluntarily proceeded to anti-survive - such was the love in Him, such the plan of His Father for salvation (Philippians 2) - in order that those defeated in sin should arise and be adopted as children of God. Paul accordingly adjures us, "We then who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves" - Romans 15:1.

The climax of His call was the death on the Cross,  forever ending animal sacrifice, and the consequence was His breach-birth from death, overcoming it with a life that nothing could crush (Acts 2:24ff.). It is all to be found in Him; and in Him  ...   when you come  to this same Jesus Christ:

May the LORD BLESS YOU AND GIVE YOU REST (Matthew 11:28-30), as He does to all who seek Him with all the heart, and finding Him, find peace, power and purity restored.

 

 For more perspective and basic overview,  as on apologetic significance, see *2 below.

 

 

NOTES

 

*1

IN FLIGHT

Ephesians 2:6 shows the Christian "sitting in heavenly places", suggestive of being indeed "in flight". While STATUS is vital here, being saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8), operational power is also relevant (Ephesians 1:19), as is the perspective and discernment that "height" brings (Ephesians 1:17-18). If you are a Christian, part of your heritage is the PLACE BY GRACE, and part the OPERATION IN GRACE! To change it, a planted tree is ALSO an operational one (Isaiah 61:3, Romans 6:5).
 

 

*2

EXTENSION on APOLOGETIC SIGNIFICANCE

and LIFE IN CHRIST ALIKE

bullet     Christ, in whom the Christian lives

(for Christ being risen, and the Holy Spirit being at work,
this is empirically to be found as a life and way of life that verifiably works),

bullet is the crux cruxorum  as in Colossians 1:18, Ephesians  1:20-23.

He is in life, joyfully pursuable, delightedly knowable, and is not for sale. Indeed,  nothing else will avail. Here only is the consolidated, concerted, multi-partite and immovable testimony of reason, revelation and knowledge,  all bound as in a book

(cf. LIGHT DWELLS WITH THE LORD'S CHRIST

WHO ANSWERS RIDDLES

AND WHERE HE IS, DARKNESS DEPARTS

Bible or Blight, Christ or Confusion:
The Comprehensive Resolution of Man's Intractable Problems
is Found Only in the Bible, the Word of God).

Indeed, the designs of the Lord, what He has in mind for man, this spiritual Architect, this Majesty above man, are not only found in the brilliantly variable-about-a-system findings made in micro-biological research, in the reaction modules and capacity provisions inserted into living forms,  for response of the thing made within its own capacities richly endowed, so that it may continue to be what it is (cf. The Vitality, the Perspicuity and the Wisdom of the God of Creation and Redemption Ch.  1, Waiting  for Wonder Appendix). There are not only the famous biblical KINDS, in other words. We do not only have in visible, empirical reality, these kinds. It is not here alone that this phenomenon is found; for this continue amid the immovable laws that govern matter, discovered by mind, moving among the characterisable products of mind in creation.

We capture the output of the input, and find the mind of God in what our minds can mind, being mindful of the criteria and characteristics of mental action, as of moral, physical, spiritual and personal. Illicit reductionism, which is really merely a method of reducing the scope of facts one is willing to  face, is merely a plaything. Empirical reality, given tough and insular treatment, takes revenge in not allowing itself to be  covered by such dreams. It is like blinkers, precisely, on a horse: comforting a little, but perilous for perception.

The way, will and mind of God in its  distinctive operations, is not only found in this durability and modular mobility, which adapts but does not transmute*A. It is exhibited not only the material, the biological, but the spiritual is no less. As to this, in essence it too is a matter of the immovable, which though subjectible to insult and insulation, does not in its kind, alter. It is found above all in the word and work of God for man. He does not alter, though situations develop. He does not abdicate (Acme ... Ch. 8), though confrontations multiply. He has  specified history before it happened in our day, in vast and even prodigious detail (cf. SMR Chs. 8  -   9, Answers to Questions Ch. 5 for example). Such things are within His creator's domain, pre-time, pre-space, like an engineer, architect, aeronautical inventor, seeing before action. Time is merely the building of it.

Man  may vary, but only about a norm, already carefully provided, that he may the more amply show his liberty, his love and his hatred, his spoiling and his soiling, his infantile prides and specious glories, his desires and thrusts, his ramifications and realisations, his strong seekings and his artful bleatings,before capitulation or captivity, surrender or sundering. He remains man over all history, just the same, except for the work of God to transform him, not into superman despite Shaw, but into what he was made to be, and redeemed (Colossians 3:10). It is essentially redemption or rubbish (cf. Matthew 13, John 3:16-36). One item in the  programmed variation module, one option that can become very pressing indeed,  is death, for which in turn there is remedy; and another variable, which can become intense and intensive, is pathological incompetence of heart or mind or spirit, and there are degrees of all of this.

It is all provided for. It is ALL designed. That there is freedom for man as created does not alter this. That he may yearn vainly for this liberty, as he habitually does, whether in cities or nations or fragments of nations, or personalities, or in fractured personalities: this does not alter, but merely illustrates this. WHAT he is, has been designed; HOW he may respond has been designed; the LIBERTY to do so has been designed.Similarly, the power to CONFUSE oneself on purpose, or in hidden folly, is a provision. It did not arise  like nothing from nothing on one fine morning that was not there. It had a cause, a rational one such as those who argue MUST posit or abandon rational  argument. There is a delicious freedom, which abused, becomes an extravanza of horror, like civil war. The freedom is profound, and not the less so because of its submersion in much in the murky mud-flows of self-induced muddle (cf. Romans 1:17ff.). Like a bogged car, its motion capacity is merely the more obvious from its strange arrest.

We cannot make it evaporate by pretending "who me ?" as if we did not use this freedom continually. We could not know truth with which to deny or defy it, if we were really mere flux in reactions innumerable, pointless, heartless, meaningless. It would be by the very model in view, impossible. Truth would not exist. It could not therefore be conveyed, paraded or argued for. In such a world, debate  would be an illusion, and those pursuing and seeking to defend any such topic would be inane or insane, confused or dysfunctional. The case is not much better when the model imagined for this world is such, and yet many who hold it pretend they can even argue at all, without sheer antilogy.

It would all be a work of nothings, nothing to start, nothing to sustain rational argument about truth. This world however, based on causation, which cannot without USING this very thing, be imagined to be explained away, has something for its commencement, not ordered, not delimited, free. It is not only sufficient but efficient; and its  works stand, and its understanding stand, and nothing can even begin to match its versality in explaining all, knowledge in showing all needed for grand  and coherent vision of His works. His ? It would bne unusual to call what has mind and power and decision, ít' , a contradiction in terms;  so we move  to the relevant personal  pronounce.

The fact that commonly what is excluded by MODEL is included by vacuous pretence of argument, merely again, illustrates the confusion which misused liberty enjoins, but does not enjoy. To  believe what on one's own basis is impossible, is irrational. All escape is irrational.

There is even design (cf. Deity and Design, Designation and Destiny) for this being so, since If you are without Christ, then sin is sovereign (John  8:30).Why is this so ? It is because in each human being SOMETHING ULTIMATE IS, and if not God by recognition, then some fragment, fractured from reality, is in control, and in this, escapist modes can be distorted to serve as ESCAPES FROM GOD, not escape to Him, as in Hebrews 6:19! You can misuse many a design; but this does nothing to remove it. You can fracture many a divine provision; but this does nothing to remove guilt. Personal vandalism does not change because one did it oneself!

We operate by design; and while original liberty allows us to run away from the Designer, in frustration of the design, it does not alter reality. The constant collisions with it, indeed with Him, make for further modules of pain, suffering, breed further antipathies, efforts to become like God, or to rule over Him, or other abstractions of fantasy. People  fictionalising God, like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, do not fictionalise results of so acting. This lines up with that great mystery of iniquity of which Paul speaks in II Thessalonians 2. Sin so  maddens that  such  purveyors of biological racism, theological nihilism, class dictatorship, personal ideas as if God, merely ruin their societies, abrade the world,  leave specious pretences instead of actual care, and end in the same cantankerous self-righteous  speciousness  with which they began.

There is neither logically nor personally, any substitute for God, and as from the first (Genesis 3:5),mankind in Eve has toyed with exultation, so to the last, it will play this game (II Thess. 2:4ff.). That it is ludicrous, for programmed bodies, limited minds and soiled spirits to  do so, will not  alter the result of such fuzziness, splendiferous imagings  and craze. An ultimate CREATED by man always fascinates many,  as does cooking the books in accounting. It does not however work. Truth always wins, since reality is not manipulable, the words of deceit and deception, however devious, being overcome by the works of reality, vested in God who made it all (Romans 11:36).
 

There is even design for the slavery to sin which results from its pathology, and the deliverance of man beyond his own fallen capacities and capabilities, in the free gift of divine grace from the Maker (Romans 3:23ff., Titus 2-3, Ephesians 2). This, the Eternal God, not only makes, but remakes; not only allows folly, but provides wisdom; not only shows love but enables its response, if not directly where sin rules (John 1:12), then from the first in His divine foreknowledge (Ephesians 1:4), where His love finds truth and those who are His being foreknown, are predestined, a security measure, and a wise provision.

As Einstein saw, God does not use dice. In this, he was right! However, it is not a mere mathematical equation; it is not complex in essence, though magnificent in performance. God chooses on the basis of man's preference, foreknown before sin damaged his insight, or paralysed his perception where this matters most. IN so doing, the love of God is as manifest as it was in Christ as in Luke 19:42ff. God does not play-act. The Cross was not a cosmetic. The security about this spiritual gift is admittedly intense; and only by the operation of the Holy Spirit, applying the redemption in Christ is it to be found (John 6:62). Only in woeful folly is it to be lost. The security of foreknowledge, so far from distancing the reality of liberty, secures it eternally. There is NO ONE whom God would not seek to save; there is NONE who in any mystery imagined for the heavens, He would not have won, and reconciled. He says so again and again (cf. I Timothy 2, Colossians 1:19ff.).

The ultimate reason for rejection is PREFERENCE by man (John 3:19), known to God, the preference for darkness in the  face of His light (John 3:15ff.). Any other imagination is straightly and utterly contrary to His desire NOT to condemn the world and to save whoever receives Him, even in ambit of  love. For this He came! He says so. In the ambit, WORLD, GOD, PURPOSE, non-condemnation of the world is the aim, love is the generating motivation, and darkness is the escape clause, and it is on the part of man selectively, as known to God.

ALL in heaven and on earth, that is the scope of His saving desire (Col. 1:19ff.). We know because He says so, and it is He ONLY who knows His own heart. There are no other earths or worlds or situations in view. It is the God who created all things so that there is nothing made that was not made by Him, which is in view, not some other notification.  The ultimate ground is Himself; but the ultimate trip-wire is man's stated preference. God does not demur at this, but affirms it constantly, consistently. Love is like that: it may be utter and pervasive; but it is not force, and it does not reach beyond what it is, as if to become invasion.

That God does not defile His sovereignty by abdication of it, is obvious; but the NATURE and CONTENT of that sovereignty is equally one who is LOVE (I John 4:7). Whatever the consequences of rebellion against reason and reality, against indeed God Himself, nothing changes that. You choose a brick wall for your sports car's impact: do not blame the car or the manufacturer.

This is found in the entreaties of heart from God in history, the laments, the pursuits...

It matches, like an Autumn outfit. It is all coherent, in style...

There is no ground for being miffed, cynical, sceptical (cf. SMR Ch. 3). There is ground for salvation; and ONLY because in the knowledge of God, and thus in REALITY, someone prefers darkness CAN it be the final lot of any human being. Screaming in revolt and being collared for heaven ? It does not happen. Peaceably settled in the heaven of a detested haven, it COULD not happen. Opt  out and be out.

But God has all this designed and provided for: it is impossible to miss Him, to be left out in regrettable omission unfairly, though actually and ultimately preferring light, His own, to darkness: because of His knowledge both past and before all sin, of  all dispositions, preferences and desires. There are no mistakes or mishappenings; there is no case where because His declared love for the salvation of all is in some peculiarly Calvinist way, or indeed in any other, short-shrifted or short-circuited. That is man in intrusion. God remains Himself in exclusion, and what He has said is not adjustable by theologians or anyone else.

NO ONE can be settled in final guilt except by desire. That is the biblical model, and modems distorting this need correction. The Bible, Book of the ages declares this. Let those who want to be dragged in deranged to heaven undesired (a heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ rules), consider their mental schism, bordring on schizophrenia.

If you want this, then you WANT it, and the want transcends the screaming. You merely seek to avoid the passage. If however, it is not for you: then this hinges on your choice, be you ever so paralysed at the present, pathologically. Just because you are inept because of sin NOW, to make the decision does nothing to remove your responsibility before God, who has neither technical problems nor power shortages in knowing your case from eternity. HE knows you. If you really want Him,  then like anyone else, COME to Him, repentant and receptive, and let His blood, that is, His imported life, given judicially in your place as offer, be seen in its result: then it is so simple, for then you HAVE come and He HAS saved you. If not, why complain about fate or chance or other incoherent ramblings that have nothing to do with the realities of God, of the Bible and of Christ. 

God is not immersed in systems; He has designed otherwise for time, with this exception, that man can rove and seek and may find Him, beyond all systems, in whose glorious mountainous perspective, all may be understood and realised, if not in extravagant detail (I Cor. 13), then in outline with the uttermost reality.

Man has this way to elevation; but he often rejects it, and then as in Psalm 1, he may indeed be like the blown chaff. There is little dignity in defiance of what one in fact is, and of Him who made it so. Nor is there reason for it. Who WOULD be immersed in his own systems, but one already dead to what he is! And God, HE cannot die; but as to man, he both can and does, except as with Elijah and Enoch, God takes Him,  as He will take all who are His when the time comes, that it is being timed out.

You say, then that is something He cannot do ? Yes, but WITH GOD nothing shall be called impossible. He can do what He will. This is not what He will, but wholly contrary to what He is.  That He does not relinquish being Himself is not something with Him, not a thing to be desired; for it would mean He was not what He is: the eternal Being who knowing all from the first, and before time, is what He will be, and is satisfied with what is, having nothing beyond or before Him, and as inventor of time, having nothing to learn from it. Time is both irrelevant to what He is, and under His mastery. Change would make of Him  a creation,  contrary to His glory. He made the ways for change; but He does not inhabit them personally, any more than an author his book. If He sojourns with His characters, even then, He is not under them or under their rule, and if He submits to much for good reason, it is not because He cannot do otherwise, but designs the case to gain a better destiny for many of our human race.

Many are those who want to make personal or impersonal mock-up gods; but gods from the mind of man are subjected to man, whereas in fact, man in creation, birth and death is manifestly himself subject. He is no god, nor can he make any but in expensive dreams (cf. Jeremiah 23).

Confusion about substitutes is common in the mind of man commercially, medically;  and it is not missing in this field as well!


STRUCTURES AND EXPLICIT ERRORS

Whether such declivity or error  be found

it is of little consequence in this. It is NOT a matter of Christian practice, any more than is that of some medical man whom the profession disowns, an exponent of their standards (in that case, right or wrong; but with God, always right, always Biblical).

At times, however, it is NOT chronic, NOT systematic. It is, as with Peter, an error of a night (Luke 22:50-62), or as with Mark, the weakness of a journey (Acts 12:25, 13:13, 15:36-39, II Timothy 4:11), or of a moment or phase of oppression (II Cor. 1:7-11) or repented weakness of heart (Matthew 8:25ff), a failing in watchfulness (Proverbs 24:16), or a time of acute spiritual weakness when one's failings are enlarged to one's eyes, and one finds a drifting with the wind of the world or its ways, without having at first realised it (cf. Psalm 73).

This is all part of the variety, of the growing pains, of the developmental diversity in the Christian life (cf. I Peter 1:6-7), which may be required. It can produce sensitive and newly acute awareness of great themes and graces (as in I Peter :3-6, preceding v.7), or perhaps in II Cor. 12:7-9. There can come correctives, as in guiding a yacht through a choppy sea, avoiding the sudden squalls and winds, or overcoming them (cf. Ephesians 4:14). THIS, it is very different from being UNWILLING longer to endure sound doctrine, which can happen when the heart is not in fact converted, and the call of the flesh, temporarily in abeyance in some religious frame of mind, re-asserts itself.

Much is bogus, some things are prima facie look-alikes to Christianity AT FIRST (as indicated in the famed parable of Christ of the wheat and the tares - Matthew 13:24ff.).

However WE do not need to JUDGE an individual, where the VERBAL statements appear sound but there is some listing to stern, some drifting to port. We seek correction, apply the word of God, show patience and trust in the Lord. In the end, many things which looked good, are no more sound than was Judas Iscariot; and some things which appeared weak and wobbly, are as with Peter, made of the toughest stuff, only need time to manifest the reality of Christ within them.

It is marvellous that we do not need to judge, and even better is this: IT IS FORBIDDEN (cf. Matthew 7:1). That is the point about a tree and its fruit, knowing the bad tree, the false prophet, the stress in the context of Matthew 7:16ff.). We do indeed find IN THE LONG RUN, the reality of the tree and the fruit, but, fortified indiscreetly with this, many try to judge things before their time, something also explicitly forbidden (I Cor. 4:3-5).

If a man murder, he murders, and has become a murderer. But the case is often a matter of feeling and estimation, of "judgment" which the mighty often seem to take upon themselves as if you could, without "judging" nevertheless categorise and impose your value assessment on some soul for whom Christ died, and to whom as Master, he stands - if His indeed (Romans 14:4).

False prophets however are readily detected by comparing their often large speech with the word of God. Secret judgments about fellow workers is another matter and can readily lead, being forbidden, to the state of affairs which bordered on need for sharp apostolic intervention in the seething straights about Corinth (II Cor. 12:20ff.). This, as there, can often result from a lack of discipline on evils which do NOT involve judging, in that they are merely an observational reality (like ... good or bad fruit, when you have eyes with which to see it - as, to change the image,  in the case of the widow's mite!)
 
 

DISCIPLINE AND DELINQUENCY

Though then there are areas when the word of God must simply be applied and purging of evil effected, as in the human body when it needs medicine after bad food; there are also many areas of a different type, and misusing the permission to look at fruit, by failing to heed the admonition in the SAME CHAPTER (Ch.7, Matthew) about subjectivity, and mistaking the emphasis of the passage, many lead to divisions and clamour.

In this present survey, STAND-BY, we are in the happy position of merely examining TYPES of fruit, TYPES of folly, TYPES of error, or soundness, trends and dangers as seen in a construction of imaginary people. They are MADE TO TYPE so that there is no danger of 'misjudging' the soul of any, since none of these passengers have souls, being creatures of the imagination. Nevertheless, let him/her who has eyes, see.

Now at the apologetics level, this is a warning about being too concerned at the flotsam and jetsam which washes about on top of the deep waters. It is there. It is not the ocean. It is not the ship.
 

The ship manifests itself by the DIRECTION of its sailing, the FIDELITY of its course, the FAITH of its life, the USE of the chart, the BIBLE and the GRACE of its motion. Denominationally, some bodies leave it and some join it, for the 'name' and 'past' does not constitute the church, but the reality. At this, consider Revelation 2-3 and the warnings to some bodies which could cease - if not forthwith, then very shortly -  to be accounted as part of the Church of Christ, though they might not act publicly to reveal their fall!
 
 

CONTINUITY OF COURSE
AND FIDELITY TO HIM
WHO IS CALLED LORD

Like a mighty stream, with eddies and rivulets, with tributaries and swellings, the tide of Christ's church continues, always active, always moving in one direction. The dupings are numerous.
After all, the greatest of publicity agents on earth, under the Lord, beneath the Christ, is at work with deception and confusion as a part of the game. However, the realities stand firm: the word of God as required (Matthew 7:13ff.), and the action of life as designed by it.

Weaknesses are not for bath-water, but for spillage down the drain. Failures are not for models, but for confession and repentance, before the Lord.

In the midst of the growth and development realities of particular Christians and churches, are the distortions and degradations of falsity which comes to rule in some bodies; and their number now grows according to the predictions of the Lord and His apostles (cf. Matthew 24:24,7, II Thess.2, II Tim. 3, II Peter 2). Nevertheless, the foundation stays firm (II Tim. 2:19-21, cf. Luke 6:16):

"Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows those who are His. And, Let every one who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity."

is the spiritual reality of Christ within you, the hope of glory, HIS truth, HIS word, HIS grace and HIS power which, as it has generated the world,  was exhibited also by HIS Father when Christ was raised from the dead. This same power, according to His word, is deployed as He conducts history and prepares the world for His return (Colossians 1:27, Ephesians 2:1-10, II Cor. 12:5ff., Ephesians 1:17ff., II Timothy 3:16, John 14:21-23, I Cor. 16:22, Galatians  6:14, Luke 14:27ff.).
 

In fact, without taking up your cross and following Him, as Luke, just quoted, relates from His lips, you CANNOT be His disciple. What can do so and does by His enablement, forms a corps and a corpus which flows on with the joy of Christ in His presence, equipped to serve now, as ever, in Him who has come and will return.

The Jews have returned to their land; now it is HIS TURN - to the world!

Despite the depredations of governments, the calumniations of the world, the betrayals of the Judas squadron of this world, the treachery of some who having loved this world in the beginning, continue with it at the end, like Demas; despite the fall of many structures, long dead, and the departures of some merely attracted, not grounded in salvation (Matthew 13:21, 15:13), the community in Christ continues, always, like the stream we pondered, re-assembling, reviewing, watching and waiting for HIM who is its Lord (Matthew 25:1-10). Its course leaves a wake of white which contrasts strongly with the excitement of this world in its continual storms, complacency and pretence, oscillating like waves without crests, lost in the end without name.

When it goes, with its testimony of power and peace, its restraint and its call to truth and righteousness, withdrawn from this world to its blessed Lord (Matthew 24:36, I Thess.4, II Thess.2:7ff.), then Armageddon will come; and not without reason!

Meanwhile, let no one be confused. The pathologies and the pathogens, the devilish tricks and political impositions, the personal psychic gloryings and the social abuses which misuse the people of the Lord, neither one of these nor all is sufficient to betray the work of Christ; for where He is, there is purity and health and help, as at the first. It is well to be walking with open eyes, then, and to avoid confusion through the subtleties and dissavours of war (Ephesians 6).
 
 

NOTE

*A

On this, see for example the work: Scientific Method, Satanic Method and the Model of Salvation, from which this excerpt is taken.

Worshipping forces without intelligence, and without basis, in non-reason, or the devil without reason, mankind thus increasingly is making war on God just as Revelation 19:19 declared would be the case. The plagues and pitfalls, the curse and condition which is the divine response to sin is made companionable, as if the lord of life, and so does man worship his discipline, covet the curse, and follow its impact like the eye of some debased physician, watching an erotic movie while performing a medical operation!

This same lust for man's greatness, that of his life, it may also be found in the idea of some genetic surge; though the attested existence of any such thing to the investigative eye, examining in the utmost care and with microscopic resource, is nil. Again, it may  be found, discovered, in idea of exhibits of past 'performances' in paleontology, though the greatest freely admit that the presence of evidence of such transition there,with incompetent trials littering the littoral of history, is in fact absent. Indeed, this absence has been deemed one of the "trade secrets of paleontology". That gem of admission is one that we have earlier reviewed (Gould cf. Wake Up World! ... Ch. 6), while Denton and W.R. Thompson (cf. SMR pp. 199-208, 312-313) show that this concept of basic organic transition of life forms is as far from the truth as you can go.

 DISCONTINUITY, not continuity, is de rigueur, they indicate, and Denton adds that the only place where continuity in this realm is to be found, is in the mind of man! It is not in the observable facts of 'nature'.

 

*3

See such sites as:

 More Marvels ... Ch. 4,

Jesus Christ, Defaced, Unfazed ... Ch.    5, Acme ... Ch.  9 , Great Execrations ... Ch.    3, 

SMR p. 1O88D - three major religions in some ways in concert, astray,

News 138,  Beauty for Ashes Chs.    4,   7,   SMR pp. 1074ff., esp. 1079, 1081ff.

 

Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch.   8;

The Grating Grandeur ... Ch.   2; SMR  pp. 925ff., 971-972;

Beauty for Ashes Ch.    6
(and Hong Kong, and the movement of nations in the last century a concern),

with News 98, News 37, Aviary of Idolatry, 

Delusive Drift or Divine Dynamic Ch.    5,

News 37. 44,  69, 97 (the exploiters, the fanciful, the Communists, the de-godders and the realities), 
News 98, News 150 - Taiwan;

 

and SMR 911ff., 1032-1088H.

 

See further in Index-Mini.