Like a lot of people, I take to the Word everyday. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t go to my Bible to have devotionals or to have the Lord give me some kind of psychological pick-me-up to get me through my “hard day” of Western civilization. I go to the Word so that my [...]
Like a lot of people, I take to the Word everyday. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t go to my Bible to have devotionals or to have the Lord give me some kind of psychological pick-me-up to get me through my “hard day” of Western civilization. I go to the Word so that my eyes might be enlightened to redemption, the efficacious work that Jesus did on the cross and in his resurrection. And, instead of seeing God as some kind of drunk, slurring his words as he tells us of the truths of our eternal redemption and others’ eternal damnation, I take it that he inspired his writers with all deliberateness and clarity.
This morning, I picked up my studies with Hebrews 2.14.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (KJV)
The modern take on the plan of redemption is that Jesus didn’t go any further than physically dying on the cross; he died on the cross, but his spirit man on the inside never experienced the kind of separation from God that Adam suffered in the garden. But that thinking hits a wall in Hebrews 2.14 because it doesn’t stay true to the verse’s parallelism of death—the Greek uses the same word, θανατου (thantoo), for both Jesus’ death and Satan’s power. Compare:
Modern Interpretation:
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through [physical] death he might destroy him that had the power of [spiritual] death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2.14, KJV)
Literal:
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death (θανατου) he might destroy him that had the power of death (θανατου), that is, the devil;
A minister friend of mine told me once that knowing the kind of death that Jesus suffered on the cross isn’t material to walking out one’s salvation and that I shouldn’t revisit this so-called controversial doctrine.
I don’t believe that and I will.
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In 2005 I was visited by the Lord Jesus and four gaurdian angels. It was not a vison. He was not wearing a white robe. He had short black bushy hair. He was about 5″7. No scares or holes. He used the F-word against the societal system that has nebulously and obliviously enslaved me at birth by my own fellow Christan brothers ,familiy, friends, nieghbors and government. Back then I was still a Calvinst in my sin nature so I could not ask Him to do anything about it. But now that I am sinnlessly Holy Ghost Baptized in righteousness I can come boldly to the throne of grace. Three years ago I was hopelessly standing on this verse:
Pro 11:21 [Though] hand [join] in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered
But because I was still satanically as “wicked” as the rest of society it went answered. But now I am truly the seed of the righteous and I can confess this promise to a good God with confidence.
In Christ Jesus,
Jim Cronfel
I didn’t know Jesus would use the F word back in 2005
Dear Grant,
It wasn’t until 2005 that I learned that I was silently and invisibly segregated from others at birth. In 1997 as I was waking up out of sleep in the morning Jesus whispered in my inner right ear “I love you.” I opened my eyes and looked around my bedroom to see if He was standing there. The next morning He whispered “Just love others how difficult can that be?” I felt his breath in my inner right ear both times. Jesus is very upset with the sociological arrangement I am under against my will. But I have theological no explaination of His use of language. I don’t use curse words myself. When I do I am convicted of sin and I repent. I am not condoning it. But I am telling the truth. I am not neccesarily going to claim it to everyone about it. However I will say that He was very upset with my sociological alienation from my own brothers in the Lord. It is not truely loving somone who you see to keep them as your unwitting slave. Total strangers establish eye contact with members of my own family and my parents that I have never been able to accomplish. People have never talked with me they always talk to me. When others support me it is like I am a pet. But often there is persecution to spook me. I few months ago they left foreign clothing in my belongings. I have scars on my body that I woke up with that I did not go to sleep with the night before. Believers think this system is Biblical?
In Christ Jesus,
Jim Cronfel
Dear Peter,
I am sorry that I am writing so much on your blog. You have revolutionised my life! Here are some verses that Evangelicals don’t know about:
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” (1 John 3:8-10)
“sin is of the devil” vs “born of God doth not commit sin”
“children of God” vs “children of the devil”.
“for his seed remaineth in him”.
Protestants have no comprehension of these verses. Penal Substituion is a lie of the devil. It is arguable that Evangelicals are still children of the devil in the sense that they don’t know it. They are saved from hell but still functionally and practically children of the devil becasue they think that God is not love and the devil is love. They are still walking in satan and sin but saved from hell. The “seed that remains” in us is the rhema in our hearts.
In Christ Jesus,
Jim
Right on right on right on