Tag Archives: righteous

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Gay Marriage

homo hetroThe Bible directly states that a gay relationship is wrong:

Lev 18:22
22 You will not lie with a man (זָכָר) as with woman (נְקֵבָה): it is abomination (תּוֹעֵבָה).
MKJV

But it is much deeper than that. Homosexuality is a sign of something much, much worse (not saying it is a greater sin). Such a thing is naturally shameful and done in secret. When it is no longer done in secret it shows that our society has become full-fledged ungodly. Abomination here is toavah (תּוֹעֵבָה) meaning ‘disgusting’. Pictographically it means, ‘behold, the sign that the house of the eye has been established.’ The eye is that symbol on the back of our dollar bill. Its modern origins date back to ancient Babylon with the tower of Babel. However, it’s meaning dates back to when Adam and Eve sinned. The Serpent promised them illumination; that is what the eye in this context represents, the promise of the Serpent. Satan appears as a messenger of light because our Savior, God is light. The anti-messiah spirit doesn’t just mean ‘against to the Messiah’ but to copy Him in every way shape and form to deceive the very elect if it were possible.

Part of the reason why this is such an issue in the Church is because it has been taught the Torah, the first five books of the Word of God, has been crucified. To what degree a person believes this to be so determines where they stand on homosexuality. But it was established at creation and embedded in nature that heterosexuality is how God formed our world to operate.

Gen 1:27
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male (זָכָר) and female (נְקֵבָה) created he them.
KJV

Zachar (זָכָר) means ‘male’. The action is ‘to remember’ by speaking and acting on behalf of another, ‘to give’; the concrete is ‘male’ or to ‘perforate’; and the abstract is ‘memorial’. One modern English term would be ‘penis’.

N’qavah (נְקֵבָה) means ‘female’. The action is ‘to pierce, to receive’; the concrete is ‘female, hole’ or ‘to be perforated’. One modern English term would be ‘vagina’.

The concepts that go along with these words have more to do than just with anatomy; they include the God-given function of a male and female (not roles!). A male is to be the initiator, that is why the sign of the covenant is in his flesh; circumcision. That which initiates must first be set apart and cleansed before it can give the seed (Word of God) to another. That is why our hearts must be circumcised. If it is not then the seed we produce is not the Word of God but our own seed or that of the Adversary. This is why the Messiah was born a male; He is to initiate or act on behalf of God.

A female is to be a receiver. This is why the Messiah was born of a virgin. A virgin is someone who has not known a man and received his seed. The seed that produced the Messiah came from God passed down through Eve, not a man (Gen 3:15). The female is to take what she has received and use it to produce a blessing. We, the Bride of the Messiah, are to take on the function of the female. God is the one who initiates, gives us His seed/ Word, and we are to use it to produce a blessing in our life and the lives of others.

1 John 4:19
We love Him because He first loved us.
KJV

In the society we live in today, nobody knows the functions of a male or female. This can be viewed as the spiritual preparation for the physical manifestation of blatant homosexuality. Our generation no long knows what to think of such things. Most don’t feel that is right, but neither do they feel that it is necessarily wrong. Yet, because of the draw of society, they are forced to at the very least tolerate it and be so ‘open minded’ that their brain falls out. If a person or organization does not tolerate it, they are attacked, ridiculed, and viewed as ‘primitive’ and ‘barbaric’. It should be obvious that such behavior is not born of God but from our Adversary. Our Adversary always expresses a perverted function of the female when he is week; namely he gets what he wants via coercion and deception. When he becomes strong, he expresses a perverted function of the male; namely he gets what he wants by force and abuse. We are on the verge of reentering the Dark Ages when Christians and Jews who cling to God will be persecuted, even unto to death. Our Messiah said such would be so in the End of Days.

We are not responsible to judge those who are not born of faith. Even those born of faith, we must be given the responsibility of a judge before we judge them. Our society today is composed of Godlessness. We and those who cherish our country long to hold on to what we have and many strive to do so. The only way we can change the fabric of society is to change the individuals who make up that society which is something only God by His spirit can ultimately do. In regards to the Church; homosexuality is a sin like any other. If a person truly has a sincere relationship with Jesus, they will strive to remove sin from their life as we all should. Paul never tolerated sin. If a person continued in his sin and did not repent, Paul admonished the churches he was responsible for to excommunicate them. If we practiced the same today, churches would be pretty empty.

The thing we must realize is that we are at a crossroads. God is sifting His people to find those who are truly His and those who aren’t. A separation is coming and will soon be at hand. Those who are truly His will be hated by both the world and those who say they are His but are of the synagogue or church of Satan. We need to make sure our heart and life is right. He has promised that in this sifting none of those who are His will be lost.

Amos 9:9
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
KJV

We are on the verge of being called out of Egypt. Something I realized just the other day when I was reading about God make a way so He could dwell among His people:

You know how the books in the Torah are named based on one of the first word that appear and how that is the theme of the book? If we squish them together they tell us a story.

  • בְּרֵאשִׁית – in the beginning; family of heads; first family
  • שְׁמוֹת – names; character
  • וַיְּקְרָא – and he called/ proclaimed
  • בְּמִדְבַּר – in the wilderness; word/ thing (of God) produce a family
  • דְּבָרִים – words; things (of God)

So what we have is, “The names and character of the first family which God proclaimed His word producing a family according to the things of God.”

  • b’rashiyth tells a story about the first family God called.
  • shemoth tells a story of the character of the family He called to which He gave His name and showed His character. Namely, He is the one who delivers us, leads us into the wilderness to speak to us and enter into an intimate relationship with us and makes a way so He can dwell among us.
  • viyiqra tells a story about how the people He called fellowship with Him, how they set themselves apart, and He gives them His moedim.
  • b’midbar tells a story of how God purifies His people removing the rebellious making a people ready to enter His rest; it is by His word.
  • d’bariym tells a story about how Israel must hear and obey His word. If they do not then they will be under a curse but if they do then they will be blessed. It also foretells of a generation (the last) that will embrace the words/ things of God and be His people and He will be their God.

Remember to look up, our Redeemer is drawing close.

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Prov 4:20 – 27

These series of verses are about walking the path or righteousness.

Prov 4:20
20 My son, attend to my words; incline your ear unto my sayings.
(N)KJV

Solomon starts with ‘my son’. I.e. he is instructing us as a father instructs a son: with love.

‘My words’ in Hebrew is dabar (דבר) which is word/ thing. So it is more than simply words but action that have physically manifested themselves.

‘Incline your ear’ is like an idiom. Think of how attentive you become when you start to overhear some gossip. You find it hard to concentrate on what you are actually doing because you are so focus on what you are hearing. And it’s not even necessarily because you want to hear it.

Prov 4:21-22
21 Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart.
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
(N)KJV

‘Let them not depart from your eyes’. In other words, they should always be before you. Not necessarily your physical eyes, but your mind. In Hebrew eye (ayn – עין – ע) is a referent to a person’s two physical eyes and their third eye which is their mind (mind’s eye). So what Solomon is really saying is ‘think about them all the time’. And this is tied to Matt 6:22-23, Joshua 1:8, and Ps 1:2.

‘Keep them in the midst of your heart’. What was in the midst of the Garden? The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Solomon is referring back to agriculture again. Specifically, he is talking about protecting (keep) the Tree of Life. Verse 22 is the result. Doing so will produce life and health just as the Tree of Life (Gen 3:22, Rev 22:2).

We can also draw from this that our heart is a garden where trees grow and produce fruit. Remember when I talked about sin and temptation?

Solomon is also referencing back to what Moses said in Torah at the conclusion of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.

Deut 30:10-20
10 If you will listen to and obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if you turn unto the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.
11 For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off.
12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
14 But the word is very close to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.
15 See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 In that I command you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply: and the LORD your God will bless you in the land where you go to possess it.
17 But if your heart turn away, so that you will not hear, but will be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce unto you this day, that you will surely perish, and that you will not prolong your days upon the land, where you cross over Jordan to go to possess it.
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live:
20 That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may cleave unto him: for he is your life, and the length of your days: that you may dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
(N)KJV

Prov 4:23
23 Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
(N)KJV

This is another way of saying verses 21 and 23 but it gives us another perspective (4D Bible).

‘Diligence’ is netsar (נצר) in Hebrew which means ‘offshoot’, a reference to agriculture again (and why Jesus was referred to as a netsareen (Matt 2:23)). It is also known as grafting where a person takes a part of the parent tree and grows it into a new tree. You could say that Solomon is telling us to not only guard our heart but everything that comes out of it because it will grow into a new tree.

‘Out of it flow the issues of life’ is an explanation of why we must guard our heart and gives context to ‘diligence’. This is where words come in and what happens when we speak. If we speak life, we are actually planting trees of life in the garden/ heart of the people who hear us. Else we are planting other trees which produce other fruit.

Prov 4:24
24 Put away from yourself a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from you.
(N)KJV

Now, we need a dictionary for this.

Froward: willfully contrary; not easily managed.

Perverse: Lezooth (לזות) – to depart.

Okay, a ‘forward mouth’ means a person’s tongue is unruly also known as ‘running at the mouth’. James talks about this a lot (James 3).

‘Perverse lips’ (poor translation), Solomon is admonishing us not to speak words that would cause us or others to depart from the path. What path?

Prov 4:25
25 Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you.
(N)KJV

Generally speaking, where your eyes look, there you will go. If you want to walk this path of life, you must direct your eyes and your mind down the path of life. Should you look to the right or left, there is a good possibility you’ll go in the ditch and get stuck in a rut. Solomon is referring back to Deut again when he says this:

Deut 5:31-33
31 But as for you, you stand here by me, and I will speak unto you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which you will teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.
32 You will observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: you will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
33 You will walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
(N)KJV

Prov 4:26
26 Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.
(N)KJV

‘Ponder the path of your feet’. Your feet take you where you want to go. If you are ‘pondering’ (Solomon is taking us back to verses 20 – 23), you are directing your mind’s eye which your feet will follow.

‘Let all your ways be established’. How are we established? By our faith. Faith, if you recall, is trusting in a firm foundation which is truth. And this firm foundation is the Rock, aben (אבן) or the Father and the Son united (Deut 6:5, Luke 20:17-18 (Ps 118:22), John 10:30). Our ‘ways’ (derek (דרך) – road or walk), if it is on the ‘path’ Solomon is describing, will ultimately lead to God. But remember, the path may lead us home, but its relationship that invites us in.

Prov 4:27
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove your foot from evil.
(N)KJV

The ditches on both sides of the path are ‘evil’. I.e. They destroy what God has made for a purpose. In this instance, it is the person that departs from the path. What Solomon is basically saying is, “Get out of the ditch!” as a loving father who is in panic because he sees that his child is in imminent danger.

So what is the path? This path is the emphasis of what Solomon is talking about here. How we walk this path is summed up in the word ‘righteousness’ (Remember, righteousness by definition means to walk a straight path). Plainly stated this path is the statues, commandments, and ordinances of God. I.e. the instructions for life. They were given to us as a loving father instructing his children so that we might live and be in good health and be prosperous in whatever we set our hand to do. When we go in the ditch and bad things happen to us, God is desperately calling to us to get out of the ditch, stop going in there (remember, Jesus often said, “Sin no more” after he healed people). Yet we have a tendency to blame Him when it’s our own fault because we refuse to obey Him. We expect Him to come over, pick us up and put us back on the path. And He will should we cry out to Him (repentance). But all too often we say, “I’ll do it!” and stay stuck in a rut continuing to live and think and do things our way.

May we hear Solomon’s words and the words of our Father. Words of love, words of instruction, words of life.

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Physics and Definition of Sin, Repentance and Forgiveness – Part 11: We Sin Less than we Think

 

Sin is a broad subject with a lot to talk about.  I don’t want to talk about sin without talking about repentance.  I don’t want to talk about repentance without talking about forgiveness.  The few things I want to cover are:

If you do not understand something I’m saying, please ask.  The concept may be hard to grasp at first but it will change how you see yourself and your life when you do.

We Sin Less than we Think

This is kind of a hard point to address.  Sin has become such an abstract word that it means different things to different people.  If sin is a physical condition, like we have discussed, what must be done for something to be constituted as sin?  An action must take place.  James the brother of Jesus sums it up like this:

James 1:15
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

This is why Jesus spends so much time talking about our thoughts.  Our thoughts are where our spirit battles with our flesh.  It goes back to the principle of the seed.  Temptation is a seed and our mind the field where it is planted.  When that seed is planted, like a weed, it doesn’t take much care to grow.  Once it is grown, it produces fruit.  Fruit is action.  When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, corruption entered their body.  That corruption gives birth to desire which gives birth to sin which will eventually bring death.

This is why Jesus makes statements like, ‘If a man looks upon a woman and lusts after her he commits adultery with her in his heart.’ (Matt 5:28).  Number one, he is referring back to David and Bathsheba but more importantly he’s addressing the weight of our thoughts.  We need to weed our thoughts and think on things that are good (Phil 4:8).  Our thoughts are where we chop a tree down to the root (Matt 3:10).  Its best to do this before it has a chance to bear its bad fruit which is the sin.

We can’t avoid temptation, especially in our day and age; its everywhere.  Temptation comes from anything we see and/ or hear.  Temptation is not sin.  Jesus was tempted yet did not sin (Heb 4:15).  Dwelling on temptation is not sin.  But if we entertain it until it becomes a desire or lust, it is like Eve holding the fruit in her hand drooling over it.  She hadn’t sinned yet but was imminently about to.  She believed the lie that she couldn’t touch the fruit.  When she touched it and did not die, she reasoned that she could eat it and not die.  You know what its like to be starving and walking into a kitchen with the sweet smell of food.  All your senses, your entire focus turns to food.  You’re stomach begins to scream in a gravely voice, “Feed me!”  Any other fleshly appetite is no different.  If we believe that these appetites are sinful when they are not, we will eventually reason that there is likewise no penalty when we feed them.

You can think about donuts all you want, but is that going to make you fat?  No.  You can think about sex all you want, but is that going to make anyone pregnant?  No.  Does that mean we should necessarily think about these things?  No.  Most of us get upset and repent for our thoughts.  We are not commanded to repent for our thoughts because they are not sin.  This is a problem because we usually end up tearing ourselves down for what we think about.  I used to do this a lot but no so much any more because of a question Paul Nordvik asked me; thanks Paul.  In your life, you need to discern what is temptation and what is sin.  You may find that you don’t sin as often as you think you do.  When you do sin, you should be able to be specific in confessing that sin.  If you can’t, then either you haven’t sinned, or if you have, that sin hasn’t been revealed to you yet (Lev 4:27-28).

It is said that our sin separates us from God, but does it (Is 59:2)?  When Adam and Eve sinned, who did the separating?  Adam and Eve.  Who hid?  Adam and Eve.  When we sin, we tend to think that it is God who separates from us which is backwards.  We think he moves far off but we are the ones who distance ourselves because we are ashamed.  Our mentality is the same as the younger brother in the story of the Prodigal Son.  “I’m not worthy because . . . .”  We think God can’t be in the presence of sin yet God is omnipresent (Ps 139).  Think about that for a moment and let it sink in.  We think all these things because this is what we’ve been taught (by doctrine) most our lives and it hinders our relationship with our Creator.

Stop looking at yourself as a sinner; it puts the focus on you and your sin.  Thinking you are a sinner while knowing you’ve repented and that works don’t justify or condemn you is an oxymoron.  A sinner is someone who continues to walks in sin and does not repent.  You have repented and are striving towards home.  That means you are on the path of righteousness.  Someone who walks the path of righteousness pressing towards home is righteous.  Our Father looks at us as righteous.  Just like in the story of the Prodigal Son, we are part of God’s family, clothed with his robe of righteousness.  This should not fill us with pride but humble us.  How we see ourselves makes a huge difference in our relationship with God.  When we see ourselves the way God see us, it allows his Spirit which dwells inside of us to be greater just as John says (1 John 4:4).  It will change your whole perspective on life, strengthen your relationship with God, reflect in your actions and make you closer to our Messiah which is our goal.

References

*all scripture is from the NKJV unless otherwise noted.

  • A Concordance to the Septuagint – Edwin Hatch & Henry A. Redpath
  • Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds:  2012 Pure Seed Book! – rareseeds.com
  • God’s Key to Health and Happiness – Elmer A. Josephson
  • King James Version of the Bible
  • New King James Version of the Bible
  • Strong’s Concordance to the Bible
  • The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible – Jeff A. Benner – August 29, 2005
  • Wildbranch Ministries – Brad Scott – wildbranch.org
 
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Physics and Definition of Sin, Repentance and Forgiveness – Part 9: What Defines Sin: Apostolic Scriptures

Sin is a broad subject with a lot to talk about.  I don’t want to talk about sin without talking about repentance.  I don’t want to talk about repentance without talking about forgiveness.  The few things I want to cover are:

If you do not understand something I’m saying, please ask.  The concept may be hard to grasp at first but it will change how you see yourself and your life when you do.

What Defines Sin

Deut 32:46-47
46 and he said to them: “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe — all the words of this law.
47 For it is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”

Sin is the transgression of the commandments of God.

1 John 3:4
4 Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
KJV

There are generally four sources that are used to define sin:

  1. Torah or Law of Moses which is the first five books of the Bible
  2. Gospels
  3. Apostolic scriptures
  4. Doctrine
  5. We don’t really know but we think . . . and then make something up that sounds religious

Apostolic Scriptures

The apostolic scriptures were not meant to be a source of commandments yet they are the primary source for the majority of doctrine.  This is one reason why there are so many denominations.  One day, we will have Q and A with Paul and he’ll exclaim, ‘You said I said what?!?’.  Peter says this very well:

2 Peter 3:15-16
15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation — as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

For example, some people use Paul’s dialog about long hair and head coverings to shape their whole way of life.  In short, the people of Corinth worshiped Aphrodite by cross-dressing.  The believers of Corinth were divided about what constituted cross-dressing and therefore should not be done by believers.  Paul explains the pagan practice and sums it all up by saying:

1 Cor 11:16
16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

Another example is when Paul said:

Rom 3:10
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
KJV

What does this mean?  From this one verse stems all sorts of doctrine that basically causes us to look at ourselves as worthless sinners.  It is used to motivate people to perform penance by crawling up steps until their knees bleed and other forms of self-mutilation.  This is what I like to call ‘sound-bite doctrine’ where one verse is used in exclusion of all others to build whole doctrine.  What does Jesus say on the matter?

Matt 23:35
35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Remember righteous means to ‘walk a straight path’.  If you veer of to the right or left, repent and get back on the path.  In context, Paul is talking about fools and people who do not repent of their sin.  Specifically, people who say in their heart there is no God.  He is summarizing Ps 5, 14, 53, and Prov 1.  Solomon says “A righteous person falls seven time and get back up again . . .” (Pr 24:16).  When you look at it in its simplicity, it makes perfect sense that there is not a single righteous sinner.  You are either a servant to sin, or a servant to righteousness; you cannot serve both masters.

How many times have you heard the sound-bite that we shouldn’t forsake the assembling of ourselves together?  Has that statement been used to encourage people or to tear people down for not going to church?

Heb 10:25
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Most often that middle part of the verse is omitted where we are to encourage one another.  Moreso, who was the apparent audience?  Hebrews who had a prior knowledge of what is meant by ‘assemble yourself together’.

Deut 16:16-17
16 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.
17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.

Its not that we can’t get together more often if we desire, but we are only required to do so three time a year.  When we do get together, it should be for the purpose of encouraging, building one another up and glorifying God.  This is why Jesus and his disciples and all the people were in Jerusalem for Passover.  This is why the disciples were in the upper room on Pentecost and why Jews and proselytes from all over Rome were there to hear them (Acts 2:8-11).  Remember, Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem.  I.e. don’t go anywhere between now and then (Luke 24:29, Acts 1:4).  And this is why Jesus and his disciples went to Jerusalem for Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths.

When reading the Apostolic Scriptures, it is important to note who the author is writing too.  The author may be writing to people who have prior understand and knowledge of the scriptures in which case he will not take time to establish the foundation upon which he is making his statement.  This is how abstract thought in Hebrew is formed.  A thought that is abstract with no foundation can be mean pretty much anything; it’s abstract.  But abstract thought, built on a foundation, can only mean things that fall into the confines of that foundation.