Yeshua - on the Cross - hupomeno

You see, not fearing comes in a context of responding to the greater ministry that God has for us who are the Royal Family of God. We are to be living a life wherein Bible doctrine is functioning in our soul via the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in us and through us.

εὐλάβεια (eulabeia) - reverance

By the way, in the context for the verse which we reviewed last week, the fear in verse 28 of Hebrews Chapter 12, is εὐλάβεια (eulabeia), and means to have reverence, caution, care of attention because of the source. We give attention to what comes from God, because it comes from God.

This is an authority orientation that defaults to God, and the special revelation of His word. Your job, where you sit, is to respectfully listen to what is taught and to diligently test these things to see if they be true.

Acts 17:10–11 NKJV

10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

You are also exhorted to test the doctrine of teachers.

1 Corinthians 12:1–3 NKJV

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4:1–3 NKJV

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

Galatians 1:6–10 NKJV

6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. 10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

We are all to be engaged in the work of testing the doctrine of teachers. And part of my job is to teach you how to do that, and take you through the examination of wrong teaching. It is part of the road to maturity that we must walk together.

Now there has been teaching, you may have heard of it, that makes reference to something called the Right Pastor doctrine. There is no text or passage in all of the bible that teaches anything like the Right Pastor doctrine. In fact, I had a conversation with a gentleman who runs a doctrinal group on Facebook, who told me outright that they only allow postings in the group that pertain to the teachings of certain recognized Right Pastors - all of whom teach exactly what a certain pastor (who is with the Lord now) who uniquely devised this vocabulary taught. And I have had very recent conversation with a pastor you all know very well and likely respect who is a leader in our camp.

Now, to be clear - the doctrine of Right Pastor is not a doctrine built from Scripture, but built from analogy to the dubious doctrine of Right Man Right Woman. It is a theological conclusion - not something taught anywhere in the text of scripture.

We will review this when we work our way in the near future through the biblical teaching of the doctrine of the church or ecclesiology, and review what is taught about leadership, and terms like pastors, elders, deacons, etc..

In short - my job is to equip the saints for service, as according to Ephesians 4:, and to build up the body of Christ

Ephesians 4:13 NKJV

13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

You, on your part must never confuse faith in biblical truth with faith in a particular teacher, as your final doctrinal authority.

To be perfectly clear, I do not teach grammar and vocabulary, and delve into exegetical material so that you will believe in me - but I do so, so that you have the breadcrumbs to the text that show that God’s Word is the source of truth, and that you will believe IT. My breadcrumbs reveal my work, even let you test my work - but God’s Word is the authority.

So, we have been discussing issues pertinent to the respect we are to have for God’s Word.

φοβέομαι (phobeomai) - fear

Whereas, in contrast, the fear in Hebrews 13:6, is φοβέομαι (phobeomai), the classic meaning of fear, to be afraid, to be intimidated. We get our word stem of phobos or phobia in English from this word.

So we are not to live in fear

Here is another example in 2 Timothy 1:7:

2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The context?

2 Timothy 1:3–12 NKJV

3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, 5 when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. 6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

Did you realize that the opposite of living in fear is to live in the realm of the fullness of the power of God in your life?

The power of God the Holy Spirit in our life is exceedingly powerful and impactful. The key to not living in this power is to be sidelined by fear. Fear destroys your capacity for spiritual life. Fear will rob your soul of the source of life overflowing.

Back to James 1:2-4

James 1:2–4 NKJV

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

We chose in the moment based on doctrine in our soul, “knowing” that faith produces patience.

We do now what we know gives benefit later.

Continuing to do now, gives accumulated benefit in the future.

When exercising in the moment, we know it will have impact on the future. continued exercise will have accumulative impact.

Weight lifting may bring muscles.

Aerobics bring cardio-respiratory conditioning.

Stretching brings agility.

We know that if we work, we will gain earnings. If we invest, we can grow capital.

If we study, we will learn.

This is standard results oriented thinking. This is far different than the mystical based view of the book Dune that we mentioned last week, where the culmination of humanity is to overcome fear, different than other presentations of pantheism that join creation with deity. It is different than all other religious thinking.

God has vested in creation the concept of consequences of actions. What we do determines what we gain or what we lose.

Story of hanging in Jacksonville to teach kids the concept of consequences of actions.

We see in our text in James 1, that there is a choice to be made, that produces consequences. Look at James 1:3

James 1:3 NKJV

3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Patience is our word ὑπομονή (hypomonē) which means not just patience, but the result of patience.

Now I facetiously refer to patience as stretch marks. Those of you who have born a child, gone through pregnancy know what I mean. Men who have worked out and grown their muscles faster than their skin could keep up with in terms of elasticity - they know what I mean.

I had a friend in college who worked out and put on too much muscle, too quick. STORY

But in the realm of our soul, these stretch marks are not marks on the skin, they are not the artifacts that are scar tissue records of overstretched skin, they are rather the enabling and empowering benefits of having been through difficulty and trials. It is in actuality denotative of the ability to bear up under pressure. This is the functional change to your person and character via the functioning of Bible doctrine in your soul while under pressure.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

we will pick up this morning slightly before where we left off last week at the end of 2nd service.

Hebrews 12:2

Back to Hebrews 12:2

Hebrews 12:2 NKJV

2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

We are dealing with the subject of the finishing. The finishing completed by the finisher. Yeshua-Jesus is He who has the role of finishing faith, in Hebrews 12:2.

Now this finishing is completed by the Lord on several levels.

We have the finishing of dependence which Yeshua-Jesus performed while here in earth in his first hypostatic union, yet while existing under kenosis—meaning the laying aside of the prerogative, use, and dependence upon His own deity. Christ existed in dependence upon God the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Word of God while here on earth in what we call the 1st advent. He maintained this up through His crucifixion on the cross, and through His judgment for the sins of all mankind on that cross, and through until the moment that He dismissed His human spirit, as seen in Luke 23:46

Luke 23:46 NKJV

46 And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last.

Now some see this passage as an indication that jesus could endure no more - and having reached His end, not able to handle anything else,He died.

But that assessment is wrong on several levels.

First, we note that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” His communication was loud and unmistakable. It was not muttered or whispered in a feinting end to His life. Jesus spoke deliberately and so as to be heard and understood by everyone around.

Second, notice that having said this - “He breathed His last.” Some people say that this is a euphemism for “He died.” But it isn’t. Now there is another passage where that euphemism IS used: Acts 5:1-11

Acts 5:1–11 NKJV

1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. 2 And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. 6 And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him. 7 Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?” She said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. 11 So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

Now the word used in Acts 5 verse 5, and again in verse 10 is not the same word as our word in Matthew 27:50, it is rather the term ἐξέψυξε exepsyxe or ExePsuche. Psuche is the life force, which is why BDAG (Bauer/Danker/Arndt/Gingrich) say this generally means “to lose the life force.” We might say in our age - the guy is brain dead, his brain stopped. So the ancients equated losing the life force to stopping breathing. ergo, our translation.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates it “drop dead”, which the complete Jewish Bible does as well. the Darby translates it expire:

Acts 5:5 DARBY

5 And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and expired. And great fear came upon all who heard it.

Darby’s is one of the better translations, almost a transliteration of the Latin exspiravit.

This Greek word is also used by Dr. Luke in Acts 12:23, we will start in verse 20.

Acts 12:20–24 NKJV

20 Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king’s personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king’s country. 21 So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. 22 And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” 23 Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. 24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.

But that word used by Luke in 3 places is ἐξέψυξε (exepsyxe), and our word in Luke 23 is not that word. In fact, it is another word that is only found twice in scripture.

You see, our word in Luke 23 is also in Mark 15:39

Mark 15:39 NKJV

39 So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”

Mark is here writing of the the exact same moment on the cross that Dr. Luke mentioned. The two different writers used the exact same word to reference this final act of Yeshua-Jesus on the cross.

Now I want to put these two words side by side, which we have examined so far, and compare and contrast them:

ἐξέψυξε (exepsyxe)

passive voice (happened to)

lose life force

not gave-up-life-force

ἐξέπνευσεν (exepneusen)

active voice (did it)

activeley stopped breathing

Additionally, Matthew weighs in on our cross event as well in Matthew 27:50

Matthew 27:50 NKJV

50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

This time, in Matthew 27:50, yielded up His spirit is not a compound word, but separate words: ἀφίημι (aphiēmi) and τό (to) and πνεῦμα (pneuma) — yielded His spirit. Active voice, yet again.

Christ, did not die—He stopped breathing, from sheer choice, because He had fulfilled every single one of His objectives. The phrase is not a euphemism for dying. He literally dismissed His spirit.One of the last was to adopt His mother out to the apostle John.

Now speaking of John, he document the active cessation of the life of Jesus, but he also documents what Jesus said earlier on in John 10:15 , 17-18

John 10:15 NKJV

15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

John 10:17–18 NKJV

17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

then in John 19:30 we read:

END 1st SERVICE

John 19:30 NKJV

30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

In this instance, in John 19:30, gave up is παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) in the active voice, along with τό (to) and πνεῦμα (pneuma)

So, Christ again, gave up the spirit - and the ver is in the active voice.

Here is a noteworthy thing to perceive from our 4 textual accounts of the final moments of Yeshua-Jesus on the cross. In each case, He actively dismissed His human spirit. This is significant on several accounts:

As mentioned in John 10:18 - no one took His life. He laid it down. At every step of the process, Christ was actively in charge, and did that which provided Himself for the sins of the whole world, and provided for the resurrection proof that the sins of the whole world had been provided for.

Now additionally, we want to notice that Yeshua was quoting from Psalm 31:5

Psalm 31:5 NKJV

5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

Our word redeemed here is the Hebrew word פָּדָה pā·ḏāh - meaning to release or redeem, Oh LORD God of truth is a YHWH, EL (God) of אֱמֶת (EMETH ) - which is a substantive word that means Firmness, Trustworthiness, Constancy, Duration, Faithfulness, Truth. And Yes, doctrine is a good conclusion.

So our Meshiac Yeshuah-Jesus was completely dependent upon and trusting in the provision of God, up until that moment when He dismissed His Spirit.

So we saw that Christ was dependent upon God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in His operation of the divine dynasphere of provision from God.

Now Christ prototype for us the use of the divine dynasphere - our unique vocabulary that means, Yeshua Jesus laid aside His divine prerogative and instead relied upon the power and provision of God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, through the knowledge and awareness of scripture, for every single need and necessity of His life, without exception.

First, based on our text in Hebrews 12:2, we see that Yeshua-Jesus demonstrated for us complete dependence when He endured the cross.

Now we mention this so that we can bring back something concerning the author and finisher … He is the pioneer and the one who brings final attainment of faith or pistis - that is Bible doctrine which we depend upon functioning in our soul.

Remember teleiotes?

τελειωτής (teleiōtēs) comes from the root teleios, from which we translate mature or finish or complete. In this new form, with the -otes ending it should mean one who is a completer or the one who brings to final attainment. That is the concept here. It is the Lord Jesus Christ and the point of occupation with Christ that brings us to the final attainment of the objective - to have bible doctrine finishing in the soul.

And for us - Our Lord finished, He completed, this dependence upon Bible doctrine functioning in His soul while on the cross. That is … He tested Bible doctrine to the ultimate while in this life, and while on the cross. Christ tested reliance upon doctrine to the point of breaking far beyond what any sinful man had ever been able to rely. There is no greater example in all of the universe than He of what it means to depend upon Bible doctrine - to have it functioning in the soul while under the greatest maximized pressure conceivable or possible.

Now we must not let dependence upon doctrine obscure the fact, for any without doctrinal awareness accumulated, that in equal fashion this Yeshua-Jesus, the messiah of Israel, the second Adam of humanity did not take on an exercise of adherence to doctrine in even the perfect power of His humanity - but He depended on the complete strength and provision of God the Holy Spirit. We cannot separate the two. If we speak of dependence upon Bible doctrine, part of that doctrine is that we exist in dependence upon the ministry and work of God the Holy spirit.

So too empowered, with eyes fixed upon Him, we might likewise undergo the greatest of pressure with Bible doctrine functioning in our souls.

πίστις (pistis) - the faith

Then comes the ascensive καί (kai) — “even of our faith.” The words “of our faith” is wrong. First of all there is no pronoun. Secondly, we have the ablative of means in the singular of the noun πίστις (pistis), and πίστις (pistis) does mean faith but it also means two other things, it has a triple connotation. Here it means what is believed and/or doctrine.

Jesus is the pioneer and the completer of the πίστις (pistis), of Bible doctrine functioning in the soul.

So we have the ablative of means for doctrine functioning in the soul. The ablative is not the regular grammatical case for expressing the concept of means that role normally falls to the instrumental case. So if something happens by means of something else - that something else is placed in the instrumental case.

When there is an implication of source or great value, then you would expect the case to be in the ablative instead of the instrumental to express the means. However, the ablative of expressing means is a very unusual situation - so many will not notice or see it in this passage. The idea of the ablative is to express the source or direction … from a place, and we typically use ‘by’, ‘with’, or ‘from’.

The source of this something of value, in this case Yeshua-Jesus functioning in Bible doctrine, is God Himself. So God, the source, has provided Jesus Christ as something of the highest value. And it is the basis of beginning something - reliance upon, living by means of Bible doctrine functioning in the soul. We fix our eyes on He who initiated and dwelt in what we have designated as the divine dynasphere - the system of power for Christian living that comes from God.

So Christ is to be looked at as the pioneer of the divine dynasphere, and the person who tested it to the maximum. In the computer realm, it became aparent that we needed to test things well before we roll updates and changes out, which if they do not work correctly, can have a catastrophic impact on the business.

I recall how this didn’t work, and then did work at Harry & David, during the 20 years I worked in their Computer Division.

in 1992 - there was a catastrophic failure following the roll out of a brand new order entry system for entering the orders of customers.

Then we learned to do a series of testing - System Tests, Stress Tests, Load Capacity Tests, Customer Acceptance Tests, and Regression tests, to name a few.

Now it is salient, of interest to us, to realize that Jesus Christ is the founder or the originator of the royal family of which we are a part. Each one of us are first in line, as expressed back in and now that we are first in line we need to take a look at something. What is our source? Our source is the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is our end? There is no end. We are in the royal family forever, we will never lose this status. Since you are born royalty there has to be a system for making you understand and function in royalty, and there is. it is Bible doctrine in the soul.

Enhanced Translation of the verse“Be occupied with [be concentrating on] the Lord Jesus our prince-ruler-pioneer, even the one who brings us to the attainment of the supergrace objective by means of Bible doctrine functioning in the soul.”

This is the beautiful ablative of means, giving it great emphasis, and by changing from the instrumental of means to the ablative of means the writer under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit has told us in a half a sentence what the Christian way of life is all about. What is it all about? It is doctrine functioning in the soul; the soul is the issue, the soul is the basis for capacity for life. The real you is in the soul.

October 30, 2022

Who For The Joy

Hebrews 12:2 NKJV

2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The word “who” is the subject of our clause, or the nominative singular from the relative pronoun in Greek ὅς (hos) and its antecedent—or who the subject is pointed out to be—the Lord Jesus Christ. This Greek pronoun is beginning a simple classical grammatical construction in the Greek. This pronoun is starting the explanation of what He did so that we might face this high issue in the book of Hebrews, the goal of the Chapter 11 review, of rising to the occasion of having doctrine functioning in the soul of the believer.

“for the joy” — this is a Classical Greek prepositional phrase. We have the preposition ἀντί (anti) plus the ablative of χαρά (chara). This is a substitutionary prepositional phrase. One thing is replaced by another and therefore it is translated, “who instead of his happiness.”

Now the NKJV uses “for” in part to keep the goal of translating one word in Greek into one word in English. This goal can be frequently accomplished, but not always. Notice what the KJV does:

Hebrews 12:2 KJV 1900

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

and the NASB:

Hebrews 12:2 NASB

2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Even the ASV

Hebrews 12:2 RSV

2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Darby tried, but his Greek wasn’t quite up to snuff here:

Hebrews 12:2 DARBY

2 looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith: who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Darby used ANTI here in the sense of standing away from, or standing in view of ...

But it should be “instead of” or “in place of”.

This is important to establish, even though it is simple Greek, so I want to show you two other places where the genitive is used with ANTI. Matthew 2:22

Matthew 2:22 NKJV

22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee.

Luke 11:11 NKJV

11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?

So you can see that our ANTI is a reference to in place of or instead of. The idea is of one for one exchange.

We also have the possessive pronoun here. It is a possessive pronoun based upon the intensive pronoun αὐτός (autos)

In other words, we are talking about the +H of the deity of Christ. There was a time when the +H of the deity of Christ was set aside — “who instead of his happiness.”

"was set before” is simply one word in Greek: πρόκειμαι (prokeimai), a present active participle, in the ascriptive use, simply means “present” — “who instead of his joy that was present” or maybe “who instead of is present joy”.

This is a reference to the happiness or joy of Yeshua-Jesus.

Now let’s clarify something about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. In His deity He is +H; but in Kenosis, He laid aside all support that might come from deific prerogative. He did not take the happiness of His deity as the 2nd person of the godhead and utilize it in His humanity.

Relying on the happiness of His deity would disqualify Yeshua-Jesus from being a perfect lamb in multiple ways. You see, God cannot judge God for the sins of man. So if part of the essence box, the fictitious compartment that contains all of the attributes of God, which we use for teaching, leaks into the humanity of Christ - He would not be fully human, and therefore could not qualify as a man, as our kinsman redeemer. Nor could God’s wrath be poured out on Christ on the cross, if He had an attribute of God. Perfect righteousness cannot be judged.

This is important to know -because many do not know this. Preachers preach on the idea that there is an eternal gap between sinful man and righteous God, and that only the death of the god-man Jesus, with emphasis on God can fill that gap. This is an abstracted way of viewing the process of salvation that really does not reflect on the details of the doctrine that we know as atonement. Their atonement requires that the God-man utilizing the essence of deity bridged the gap for us, only because of reliance on His deity. It is a pernicious error that destroys the doctrine of soteriology or salvation and the doctrines of sanctification and spiritual living.

We are NOT saying that Jesus was not the perfect sacrifice; or that His perfect provision did not bridge the gap. We are simply stating that Jesus functioned fully in His humanity and did not ever at any point, even while on the cross, rely on any aspect of His own deity to accomplish the mission of being the son of man, who qualified as the perfect paschal lamb in every way without exception.

Because Yeshua-Jesus had functioning Bible doctrine in His soul, in His humanity, He was able to have maximum joy under pressure.

But in His human soul where He had perfect happiness the Lord Jesus Christ at one point in His life had to have a substitute for that happiness. So we have Christ substituting the misery of the cross for that happiness. The substitute was the misery of the cross bearing our sins.

All the time that He was being tortured and all the time that He was under physical pain on the cross this did not require the removal of +H. In fact, +H was a part of the doctrine that sustained Him. But once He started to bear our sins, once He began to provide our salvation (for three hours He was on the cross in great excruciating pain) then +H had a substitute, and that was total misery. He had great misery instead of happiness — “who instead of his present happiness.”

Now, I want us to see another side of the use of the preposition ἀντί (anti) which we have already reviewed, in the sense of, not this but instead that. To examine that we will look at Matthew 20:28

Matthew 20:28 NKJV

28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” — He came to serve in the sense of providing salvation — “and to give his soul a ransom” — and then we have ἀντί (anti) — which we should translate as “in exchange for the many.”

So we see here in our Matthew passage that ἀντί (anti)is used to express the substitution, Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the cross.

In our Hebrews 12:2 passage, ἀντί (anti) is used for the fact that Jesus Christ was on that cross with +H in His humanity and that He had to exchange misery for it as He bore the burden of our sins - that is the judgement of the many.

What caused our Lord to exchange His full and present happiness for the misery of the cross? And what motivated His substitution in our place on our behalf?

The answer is found in Bible doctrine resident in His human soul.

Bible doctrine resident in the soul oriented Him to the plan of the Father. It was the plan of the Father that He bear the sins of the world, that He become the only saviour. He was unique in His entrance into this earth through the virgin birth. He was unique in His life upon this earth. In His humanity He was perfect and He was the God-Man in hypostatic union. So the objective of this first advent was the cross. His uniquely perfect humanity was presented on the cross and achieved the full satisfaction of God the Father in every way for the fall of man, the transgressions of man, the hostility of man, the sinfulness of man.

And as this judgement achieved a perfect satisfaction - we see it as the uniquely sacrificed lamb of God emerged on the other side of judgement and uniquely yielded His Spirit to death to demonstrate:

1) that He was indeed intact as a man having not sinned even in receiving the judgement of sin.

2) that He might enter into death to demonstrate that death had no hold over His humanity because the curse of sin had no hold over Him - He died at will.

3) that in resurrection He might demonstrate that He overcame sin, overcame death, and was now free to fulfill the remainder of the will of God.

The remainder of the will of God in commissioning the church, unveiling the mystery teaching, ascending to take His place in cession at the right hand of the throne of God, and again return in full glory as the messiah of Israel who will fulfill the next step toward the redemption of humanity as must be expressed in the transition from Civilization 2 to civilization 3 of the Messianic Kingdom and the rule and ministry of Israel to the whole world, and finally the transition to Civilization 4 in the new heavens and new earth.

Bible doctrine motivated Him to keep going. Just as we have an objective today, the high ground of supergrace, so he had an objective. His objective was to get to that cross, to bear our sins. Bible doctrine motivated Him not only to go but to stay on that cross. So doctrine resident in His soul motivated Him to endure the cross. Just as doctrine motivated Christ to advance so now doctrine is designed to motivate us to advance to the high ground of supergrace - following in the fullness of the provision of Yeshua-Jesus on our behalf.

Sunday, November 6, 2022

I want to clarify for your note taking sakes some things to pay attention to.

Paragraph or Major flow of discussion in the text or subject

When I flash an Orange placard slide in front of you, this is letting you know that we are setting up a teaching paragraph for you, or a subparagraph. Knowing this should give you exceptional ability to bunch and group and indent the following material in your notetaking. I’m not going to say, paragraph A, paragraph B, etc. Everyone has a different way of taking notes. I take notes in a text app on my phone with a keyboard, and I punch out notes with paragraphs, indentations, sub-indentations, principles, etc. I do the same thing on paper.

I learned to take notes by watching my father as a child. He took notes, wrote points and subpoints, recorded verses, put his own conclusions and observations in his notes in parenthesis. This gave me a good basis to see how to record information given in a message into notes on paper.

I also learned to outline from Jeanne Struck while I was in Junior High and attended the Jr. High/High School class that she facilitated. There I learned the traditional Roman Numeral outline method that you can see as an option in your word processor.

From both my dad and from Jeanne, I picked up short hand note taking, which is far easier to keep up with than writing things out longhand. So G/HS for God the Holy Spirit, G/F for God the Father, SUD for sin unto death, etc. When referencing a big word, I substitute the capital letter for the word: So if talking a lot about the doctrine of the Hypostatic-Union, I might abbreviate it as HU.

When examining the text of the passage in the original language or getting into some technical background, presenting the original language words to you, discussing syntax, exegeting the grammar, etc. I will present the information to you on parchment paper looking background, like this:

Where we discussed the first word in the phrase of our clause, “who for the joy.”

Or here, were we discussed the second word of the clause, FOR, in “who for the joy”

You may find the information pertinent, and want to record it. It will always be relevant. Future discussion will likely turn on at least a portion of what is presented on this type of slide. It will provide data to help you understand the flow of meaning that will be discussed.

Some people nap when these slides pop up. In understand. it is hard to keep the engine revving at a high RPM at all times - but this is really not that hard to understand. I never put the difficult stuff that I have to wrestle with up here. If I do, it is simplified, and then simplified, and then written in crayon.

At this point, let me encourage you - to pray your way through your lessons. Do you do this? If you aren’t then you are leaving one of the major provisions of your spiritual life on the table while you are in Bible Class. I sure hope that does not apply to anyone hearing my voice. You see, God is your teacher. You should be listening academically, engaging your full faculties in attempting to learn and understand - but you should also be functioning in your royal priesthood, praying to God the Father, asking for insight in what you are learning. This is called prayer, and constant bubbles should be ascending as you are taking in God’s word. If you aren’t praying, you probably aren’t learning. You are also far less likely to be producing functioning bible doctrine in your soul.

If there is a principle or a note that I want you to see and or follow I will put it up on the chalkboard.

Are you prayerful as you take notes?

Principle: praying your notes as you take your notes, is one of the ways in which God helps you understand. Learning is often the other side of unlearning - which is why we talk about epistemological rehabilitation.

I have a tendency to summarize what I’m going to teach, then teach it, then summarize what I’ve taught. Often, I come back the next week, or sometimes two or three weeks later, and summarize what was taught over those two or three weeks. If you stick with it, you will notice the patterns. People who have the most problems following a current teaching are usually the ones who missed the previous teaching or teachings, or who aren’t connecting the dots from week to week. People who pop in every once and again are probably not going to be the people who stick around here and connect with the teaching. Since they aren’t connecting with the teaching, they aren’t being fed here, and they are not functioning in the congregation as God has called them to. They will typically disappear. Some people come here for the wrong reasons. You who are consistent and plugged in are in a unique place to pray for those who don’t have the discipline or consistent ability to be fed here, or who are simply not instruction oriented. They want to preached to, not taught; they want devotional fell good content, not truth. They need your prayer support - even more they need to learn the doctrine of assembly, they need to learn to assemble doctrine in their soul. Don’t ever judge or condemn, but do support them in prayer.

We do have almost everything that I have taught here at Trinity Bible Church recorded going back to 2019. That isn’t all the way back to the beginning of our excursions in James, but it is a good jumping in point.

To our Bible text for this morning:

Last week we were examining the text of Hebrews 12:2.

Hebrews 12:2 NKJV

2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

We were looking specifically at the phrase, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame.”

There are several aspects of this phrase that we have reviewed over the last few weeks.

We have looked into the example that Christ has set for us. As He developed the prototype means for the spiritual life and utilized it perfectly He has demonstrated the means for living the spiritual life by grace, which He simply laid out for us as abiding in Him as He abides in the Father.

The apostles took His teaching and further elucidated the spiritual life by grace for us, as they taught us about the doctrine of the filling with the word of God from Colossians 3 which also show for us what having functioning bible doctrine in the soul looks like. They also taught us the doctrine of the filling by means of the Spirit as expressed in Ephesians 5 in parallel to Colossians 3.

We looked at the motivation of Christ, in following the Bible Doctrine in His soul in obedience to God, in fulfilling the perfection of the prototype divine dynasphere - being the idea of depending upon the providential will of God the Father, the provisional support of God the Holy Spirit, and the epistemological equipping of the word of God.

We looked at the work of Christ in handing to us, the same provision of grace that He relied upon - the ability to exist in the divine dynasphere in dependence upon God the Father, God the Spirit, and the epistemology of scripture. He also transferred to us the same royal heritage that He had.

ὑπομένω (hypomenō)

Now we come to that very important word which we find in both verbal and noun form in our text.

The verb form used is “endured” in English, and in Greek is the aorist active indicative of the verb ὑπομένω (hypomenō), which is ὑπεμεινεν (hupemeinen) meaning literally to stay under or actually to endure.

The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. it takes the occurrence of Christ on the cross being judged for our sins and gathers it up into that entire three hours when our Lord was bearing the sins of the world.

In other words - the endurance specified is when Yeshua-Jesus was under maximum pressure of judgement.

The active voice: Christ on the cross produced the action of the verb and He did it through motivation of doctrine resident in His soul.

The indicative mood is declarative for doctrinal dogmatic historical reality and certainty. This did indeed happen.

The verb ὑπομένω (hypomenō) is a reminder of the prepositional phrase in the previous verse where we had διά (dia) plus the noun ὑπομονή (hypomonē). In other words, We are enjoyed to endure in Hebrews 12:1

Hebrews 12:1 NKJV

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

We are to run this race, in a manner described as “with endurance”

We are enabled to run with endurance, as we look at the endurence of Christ in Hebrews 12:2

Hebrews 12:2 NKJV

2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Yeshuah-Jesus modeled for us this endurance, which is a result of Bible doctrine functioning in His soul. We can say that Yeshua-Jesus demonstrated functioning Bible doctrine in the soul, so that we might follow Him by means of functioning Bible doctrine in the soul.

In verse 1, ὑπομονή (hypomonē) was translated “let us advance on the run with endurance.” “With endurance” is a result of Bible doctrine functioning in the soul. Throughout this passage endurance is the result of functioning Bible doctrine in the soul. So the verb to endure — doctrine functioning in the soul; the noun — functioning doctrine in the soul. This word “endure” in this passage always has the same connotation.

So we understand that hupomone is reflective in this context of Bible doctrine in the soul meeting every exigency, every problem, every heartache, every adversity, and every blessing. That same Bible doctrine is the capacity for blessing as it is the ability to endure adversity.

Now here is our Lord on the cross, and again the indicative mood is declarative, the doctrinal and historical reality. Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is the illustration of endurance. Why did He endure the cross, why did He stay on the cross? And the answer is, Bible doctrine functioning in His soul caused Him to endure the most awful three hours in history, the three hours when he was bearing our sins and taking our place. So endurance must be understood as a result of doctrine functioning in the soul including under maximum pressure in life producing victory in the spiritual life, and positive testimony in the angelic conflict. The royal family must have endurance. Endurance comes from doctrine functioning in the soul.

The Cross

our next word in our describes what Yeshua-Jesus endured:

“the cross” — the accusative singular direct object of the noun σταυρός (stauros) refers to everything accomplished on the cross, and specifically includes the saving work of Christ on the cross: propitiation, reconciliation, redemption.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes:

“The word cross in the Greek text does not have the definite article. It is not “the” cross but simply, endured cross. When Jesus was on the cross, He both began and finished the work of salvation. The soteriological work of redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation was accomplished by Him on the cross.”

Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Messianic Jewish Epistles: Hebrews, James, First Peter, Second Peter, Jude, 1st ed. (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 2005), 171.

Fruchtenbaum marks the ignominy of being on the Cross. This is the most ignominious of deaths one can have, by virtue of being sentenced to the Cross. But as we know, Christ did not die because of the Cross but despite it. The life He gave was not taken. The judgement He took was willingly, not unwillingly. Jesus was not sent to “The Cross” but he went to Cross for us. It was not the cross that was important - but that he went to a cross as a place of judgement for us.

Despising

Next we have the word “despising” — the aorist active participle of καταφρονέω (kataphroneō) which means to disregard, to treat with contempt or disregard. It should be translated here, “having disregarded.”

This again is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. it takes those same three hours and gathers them up into one entirety. Because of doctrine functioning in His soul Yeshua-Jesus disregarded the shame.

The active voice: Christ produced the action, He endured the cross, he disregarded the shame. The participle is circumstantial and has simultaneous action with the main verb. This means it is a sub-aspect of His endurance. In enduring, He disregarded the shame.

Shame

The word for “shame” is the objective genitive singular of the noun αἰσχύνη (aischynē) and it means shame, disgrace or ignominy. Here it means disgrace. He disregarded the disgrace.

And is set down

“and is set down” — “and” is an enclitic particle τέ (te) used to connect a couple of clauses. it is used to connect clauses where there is a very close relationship.

There is a close relationship between the cross and Jesus Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father

Before we exposit the phrase, let’s reflect on the context. Our context is back in verse 1 of Hebrews 12 where we are told that we are indeed to understand that we are surrounded by a great cloud, and we are to run the race with endurance and we are to look to Jesus.

The Eerdmans Commentary inform us that

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible The Perfect Model of Faith: Jesus as Pioneer (12:1–3)

Moreover, this is not simply to the “person” of Jesus as such, but to the Jesus who, as a paradigm and pioneer of perfect faith, passed, bloodied, through the ring, to win victory by his faithful “endurance” of suffering and “shame” to the very end. Thereby as victor he received honor and glory from God, that is, he is “seated at God’s right hand”

You see we are not to look to Yeshua-Jesus generically, but we are to look to Yeshua-Jesus who ran the race, won the prize, and as the prizewinner pictured has been seated at the right hand of the throne of GOD.

“is set down” is the perfect active indicative of the verb καθίζω (kathizo) which means to sit down. It is a verb that is used only of people. It is never used of animals sitting down. “Sit down” refers specifically to the humanity of Christ.

Christ sat down in hypostatic union, but like everything else in hypostatic union you have to explain what is what. Deity is omniscient, imminent and transcendent, and doesn’t sit, whereas the humanity of Christ sat right down at the right hand of the Father.

This is in the context of the Greek style games of competiition - we are in the context of verse 1 and 2 of Hebrews 12.

This is the quintessence of victory in the angelic conflict and obviously is in the perfect tense.

This is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. In the intensive perfect you simply have an action completed and the results go on forever.

The active voice: Christ produced the action of the verb, completed it, and the results go on forever. He completed strategic victory and we are a part of the results.

The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of dogmatic historical and doctrinal reality. He sat down in the past with the result that He remains seated in the highest place of honour, i.e. at the right hand of the throne of God.

The doctrine of ascension and session

1. Definition.

a) The ascension is that doctrine of Christology pertaining to the change of residence of Jesus Christ after the resurrection when He went from earth to heaven in resurrection body.

b) The session is that doctrine of Christology pertaining to the glorification of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union being seated at the right hand of the Father.

c) These doctrines are closely related to and based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

d) Both ascension and session were accomplished in resurrection body.

e) These two doctrines form the climax of the strategic victory of Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict.

2. The capabilities of the resurrection body. The resurrection body of Christ was capable of horizontal and vertical travel. In horizontal travel He could go through walls or open doors. The atomic structure of the resurrection body is of such a nature that it passes through walls or closed doors without any trouble. Vertically the resurrection body has unlimited ability to travel anywhere in the universe without any damage to body at all. Our Lord Jesus Christ travelled through the outer atmosphere, the stellar universe, and then entered the third heaven, the throne room of the Father, the abode of God.

3. The historical account of the ascension — Acts 1:9-11.

4. The significance of the session of Christ.

a) The first significance has to do with the prophecy of the session. It was so important that it was prophesied in the Old Testament as an integral part of the angelic conflict. The prophesy is found in Psalm 110:1 — “The Lord said unto my Lord,” — the first use of Lord is for deity, the second use of Lord is for deity — “Sit down at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” This particular prophecy indicates the strategic victory of angelic conflict, so the session is related to that.

b) The session and the authority of Jesus Christ — Romans 8:34, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” The Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father is the only one who has the ability to condemn. We stand or fall through Jesus Christ . He has appointed the scripture as the means of giving us standards whereby as believer priests, members of the royal family of God, we can condemn ourselves, which is what we do every time we use the rebound technique.

c) The session and the ministry of the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 1:20, “Which power [of the Holy Spirit] has been operational in Jesus Christ” — Jesus Christ was indwelt by God the Holy Spirit in His humanity during the first advent, during the time of His hypostatic union on earth — “the Father having raised him from the dead, and having seated him at his own right hand in the heavenlies.” The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is related to the death, burial, resurrection and session of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, since God the Holy Spirit sustained the humanity of Christ during all of these things there is a relationship between the session of Christ and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. In fact it sets the pattern for the royal family in relationship to the Holy Spirit in the dispensation of the Church.

d) The session and mental attitude — Colossians 3:1,2, “If, therefore, you have been raised in Christ, keep on desiring to possess and endeavouring to obtain the above things” — referring to doctrine — “where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father. Keep thinking about above things [doctrine], not things on the earth.” Due to the fact that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father we have the privilege of mental attitude dynamics divine viewpoint, and this of course is related to doctrine.

e) The session and the celebrityship of Jesus Christ — Hebrews 1:3, “Who being the radiance, the flashing forth of the glory, and the exact image of his essence, also sustaining all things by the verbal expression of his power, having himself accomplished purification of sins, was caused to sit down at the right hand of the majesty in high places.” In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is portrayed during the period of His hypostatic union the manifestation of the members of the Godhead, He was deity, He was the exact image of His essence, He sustained all things by His verbal expressions. While He was on earth he held the universe together, He accomplished eternal salvation at the cross, finally entering into the heavens and the very presence of God, and was seated. All of this is related to His celebrityship.

f) The session and the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:13, “But to which of the angels has he said at any time, Sit down at my right hand until I appoint your enemies the footstool for your feet?” No angel was ever told to be seated at the right hand of the Father, once again the significance of the doctrine of session. Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father as a man and the moment He was He became superior in His humanity to all angels. As deity He is infinitely superior to all of the angelic creatures, and as humanity He was raised to that high station and at that point He became superior forever to the angelic hosts. Because of this we are members of the royal family of God and in our resurrection bodies we will be superior to angels also. At the present time we are inferior creatures to the angelic hosts but all of that is going to change in resurrection.

g) The session and the priesthood — Hebrews 8:1, “Now the main point on what is being communicated is this: We have such a category of high priest who is sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.” In that particular passage Jesus Christ is pointed out to be superior to all Levitical priests of the past and all high priests. They dealt with shadows; He dealt with the reality. They could only offer animal sacrifices; He offered Himself. They never sat down in the tabernacle, and therefore Jesus Christ by sitting down is pointed out to be infinitely superior to all. So the session is used to show the superiority of Jesus Christ as our high priest.

h) The session and the sacrifice — Hebrews 10:12, “But this one [Jesus Christ], when he had offered a unique sacrifice on behalf of sins for all time, sat down on the right hand of God.” To indicate that the sacrifice of Christ was totally efficacious and that it is the only way of eternal salvation the Lord Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father. This demonstrates the principle “it is finished,” and indicates the fact that what was finished was totally and completely efficacious, so that anyone at any time in any part of the world who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ immediately enters into the palace forever. The baptism of the Holy Spirit makes every believer a member of the royal family of God forever.

i) The session and occupation of Christ — Hebrews 12:2.

j) The session and strategic victory — 1 Peter 3:22, “Jesus Christ who is at the right hand of god, having gone into heaven after the angels and authorities and powers had been subordinated to him.” All angelic forces, evil type, all types of demons, have been subordinated to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely superior and has dominion over all creatures. This is demonstrated by the session.

5. The session, therefore, confirms the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. The ascension and session of Jesus Christ completed His glorification and the second person of the Trinity in hypostatic union has received the maximum glory — Acts 2:33, “Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God.” Acts 5:31, “He is the one exalted at his right hand the Prince and saviour.” Philippians 2:9, “Therefore also, the God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.” As eternal God Jesus Christ is pre-eminent. As the God-Man at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ is unique, overwhelming. He has the distinction of highest nobility and the most illustrious of all celebrityships. His eminence and prominence defy hyperbole.

6. The strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The ascension and session of Christ form the basis for strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Hebrews chapter one teaches this principle. Furthermore, the ascension and session of Jesus Christ begin a new sphere of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:20-22, “Which power has been operational in Christ, the Father having raised him from the dead, and having seated him at his own right hand in the heavenlies, over and above all principality [the super demons], and authority [the commissioned demon], and power [the gifted demons], and lordship [the ruling demon],” — in other words, Jesus Christ is superior and over all of these categories of demons — “and every name that is named [rank and file demons], not only in this age but also in the one to come; and he has subordinated all demons under his feet, and has given absolute sovereignty over all the royal family of God with reference to the Church.” And there lies the intensification of the angelic conflict, the demons who have been strategically defeated and are still tactically resisting, and the Church, the royal family of God.

The same concept is amplified in Ephesians 4:7-10. This means that the Church Age is the dispensation of the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The royal family of God is therefore subjected to the most unusual types of pressures throughout this dispensation.

7. The ascension and the royal family of God.

a) Jesus Christ is a resurrection body is seated alone at the right hand of the Father.

b) It is not good that the last Adam should be alone. This is what was said about the first Adam.

c) Therefore the Age of Israel is interrupted and a new dispensation is inserted or intercalated.

d) The Church Age is destined to call out the royal family of God so that in eternity the last Adam will not be alone. And the royal family is the basis for providing a bride for the last Adam.

e) In eternity the palace of heaven will be filled with royal family and/or the Church Age believers.

f) The royal family is formed by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as mentioned by Jesus Christ in Acts 1:5.

g) For the first time in history, then, God the Holy Spirit actually takes up His residence in the body of every believer. That is because we are royal family of God — 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

h) This could not occur until Christ was glorified — John 7:37-39.

8. The ascension and the new priesthood.

a) The ascension and session of Christ abrogates the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood was a specialised priesthood, they had special holy days related to this priesthood, a lot of special activity, but they did not have the effectiveness that we have today.

b) The Levitical priesthood is replaced by the royal priesthood of the Church Age — 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race [a race of election], you are a royal priesthood, you are a holy nation, a people of God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light ” Cf. Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father is the new high priest — Hebrews 10:1-10 — and our high priest even makes intercession for us — Hebrews 7:25.

9. The ascension verifies the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross — Hebrews 9:23, 24, “Of necessity, therefore, on the one hand that the copies [or models] of things in heaven be cleansed with shadows; but on the other hand the heavenly realities themselves with better sacrifices than these” — the work of Christ on the cross is superior to animal blood on the altar — “For Christ has not entered into a holy of holies made with hands [the tabernacle], a model of the reality [heaven], but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God on behalf of us.” The Levitical priesthood dealt with shadows; our priesthood deals with realities. However, these realities are not realities apart from Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

10. The ascension and the ultimate defeat of Satan. The ascension and session of Christ begin operation footstool, according to Psalm 110:1, quoted in Luke 2:42 and 43, and quoted again in Acts 2:33,34 and Hebrews 1:13. The quotation of the prophecy in those three passages indicates the fact that operation footstool began with the session of Christ. The second advent terminates operation footstool. Christ will superseded Satan as the ruler of the world at that time — Daniel 7:14 describes that, “And to him was given dominion, glory and sovereignty, that all peoples, nations and languages might serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, furthermore his kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed.” Zechariah 13:2, “And it will come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; furthermore I will also remove the false prophets and demons from the land.” The removal of demons means that they are bumped off the earth as it confirmed by Revelation 20:1-3. Colossians 2:15 describes the same thing, “Having disarmed demon archons … he made a public display of them, having celebrated a triumphal procession over them by means of him [His victory].”

Verse 3 — this is the third paragraph now: the enemy forces: reversionism. Once again we begin with the particle which always connects things up in the Greek language, gar. This particle is an explanatory epexegetical one which means now we are going to get a reason for all of this. Why are we commanded to advance? Why are we commanded to strip for action? Why are we commanded not to be distracted? Why are we commanded occupation with the person of Jesus Christ? Because we have opposition, the most intense opposition in all of human history. With the royal family on earth we are now in Satan’s territory. We are the aggressors.

Our next word means that when you are aggressive you have to think. You have to think in any kind of an aggressive action. Aggressive action demands the best possible mentality. As has been demonstrated in military history, the smaller, better-trained army that advances destroys the larger army. We are in the aggressive part of the angelic conflict, and being in it obviously there is great pressure and great intensity. Therefore you have to have a good mental attitude. The next word is “consider” — aorist middle imperative of ἀναλογίζομαι (analogizomai). ἀνα (ana) means again and again; λογίζομαι (logizomai) means to think. It means to think again and again, to weigh in the mind, to ponder, consider. In other words, it means heavy thinking. “For begin thinking about.” You have to realize that once you are on the offensive and you are the aggressor you have to be sharp, you have to think, you have to have a mental attitude. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist in which the action signified by the aorist is contemplated at its beginning. That is why we translate it “begin thinking.” It denotes entrance into a state of learning doctrine. You begin thinking as an aggressor the day you start learning Bible doctrine, and the more doctrine you accumulate the more your mental attitude improves. The more your mental attitude improves the greater becomes your aggressive ability in the great spiritual conflict, the angelic conflict. At the same time we must come to know and love Jesus Christ, and it is in that order. We do not love Jesus Christ until we know Him. Capacity for category #1 love is based on maximum doctrine resident in the soul. So, “begin thinking about.” In the previous verse we had a command to be concentrating on Jesus Christ, now we are told to begin thinking about. And in that we also have a middle voice, the permissive middle. It represents the agent or the believer as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action or to secure results of the action in his own interest. In other words, “thinking about” is the utilization of doctrine. The imperative mood is a command. “Keep thinking about him.”

V. 3. “Consider Him”

The doctrine of mental attitude

1. Definition.

a) Mental attitude is the function of the right lobe or the heart of the believer.

b) The sum total of all thought impulses which emanate from the launching pad of the believer’s right lobe are called viewpoint.

c) If the thought emanating from the right lobe is human viewpoint then it is an expression of cosmic norms and standards of life. It is an expression of the Satanic side of ruling cosmos diabolicus.

d) The antithesis is divine viewpoint or the expression of biblical norms and standards of life.

e) Every thought impulse of the believer can be categorized basically as divine or human viewpoint.

2. The real you is what you think. What a person thinks in the right lobe of his soul is what he really is. Mental attitude, therefore, determines both the character and the life of any individual. Mental attitude determines both your character and capacity for life. To think you must have a vocabulary. Thinking is the real personality — Proverbs 23:6,7. The passage portrays hypocrisy as the background for principle. In a person a person thinks hatred, implacability, but he or she invites you to sit down and eat. The real person is not the one who offers you the hospitality but the one who thinks hatred and implacability toward you. A person can appear to be on the surface to be hospitable, gregarious and nice, and inside to be a vicious person. Thinking is the real personality.

3. The conflicts of mental attitudes in the believer. Every believer is a walking battlefield. This often explains why, at least for a while, some Christians are quite kooky, get mixed up in a hurry. It is because they have an inner conflict of mental attitudes. This is described for us in Isaiah 55:6-9 — “Seek the Lord while he may be found [positive volition toward doctrine in time], call upon him while he is near” — the principle of prayer and other spiritual dynamics related to the believer — “Let the reversionist forsake his way [negative volition toward doctrine], and the unrighteous man [reversionist] his thoughts [human viewpoint], and let him return to the Lord [reversion recovery], and he will have compassion on him; and to our God; and to our God; for he will abundantly pardon.” The reversionist has a bad mental attitude. He is full of mental attitude sins and he is a complainer. if anyone ought to forsake their way it is the reversionist. What is his way? Negative volition toward doctrine producing complicated results in his life. “And the unrighteous man his thoughts” — the most dangerous thing in your soul are your thoughts when you are in reversionism. The thoughts go through and through until they make you a kook, and all of the psychotic problems and the neurotic problems that exist right now, and all of the people who are truly mentally ill are mentally ill because of the thoughts that course through the soul.

“For my thoughts [divine viewpoint] are not your thoughts [human viewpoint], neither are my ways [the ways of God] your ways [reversionism].”

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

4. The command to divine viewpoint. Since doctrine is the mind of Christ, as per 1 Corinthians 2:16, attitude toward doctrine determines viewpoint of life — Philippians 2:5, “Keep on having this mental attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus” — a reference to His humanity and a reference that He had a maximum saturation of doctrine. This command is obeyed by the consistent and daily function of GAP. Maximum doctrine in the soul is the only source of divine viewpoint and our only protection. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 tells us what our attitude and what our concept in the royal family should be — “(For the equipment and the weapons of our conflict are not human attributes” — we are fighting in the greatest of all warfares, the angelic conflict, older than the human race, and we are not fighting it with human attributes. The power is in the soul — “but the attributes of power [resident doctrine in the soul] through God against the destruction of fortifications)” — Satan’s fortifications, Satan’s concepts. Satan has many fortifications in the world today, e.g. the United Nations, the concept of socialism, communism, the ideologies of the day. Therefore these fortifications cannot be destroyed by a good punch or counter punch, these things are in a greater warfare and a warfare that demands the skill of the soul. The skill of the soul is our mental attitude based on doctrine resident in the soul — “assaulting and demolishing cosmic thoughts [human viewpoint], and every obstacle of pride which attacks against the objective of knowledge of God [divine viewpoint], and makes a prisoner of every human viewpoint system of thought to the authority of Christ;” — in other words, your greatest fighting capabilities in the angelic conflict are in your soul. You can have a weak body and be totally out of it as far as your physical body is concerned and you can have the most dynamic powerful attack. You possess in your soul the great capabilities for fighting. However, like any good weapon, the soul has to be loaded; and loading and locking is Bible doctrine in the soul. You have to load the weapon — “holding in readiness to punish all deviation from obedience [reversionistic human viewpoint], when your obedience [daily function of GAP] has been fulfilled.” So the whole principle is that we must load up this great weapon that God has given us, the human soul.

5. Rapport in the royal family is also based on divine viewpoint — Philippians 2:2, “Fill up the deficiency with inner happiness, that you keep on thinking the same thing [divine viewpoint], having the same love, soul rapport, in thinking.” Love is a mental attitude. Soul rapport in thinking is the basis for love. What is love? It is soul rapport in thinking. So the power of anything that is great in life, the dynamics of everything that is wonderful in life, is based upon what goes on in the soul.”

6. The function of the royal priesthood, therefore, demands a new mental attitude — 2 Timothy 1:7, “For god has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power [resident doctrine], love [the capacity for life which comes from that doctrine], and stabilised mentality” — nobility is based upon stabilised mentality. Romans 12:2 — “”And stop being conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, namely that the will of God is good, and acceptable, and perfect.”

7. Divine viewpoint from doctrine produces confidence — 2 Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down [physical death], we have a building from God [resurrection body], a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Verse 6 — “Therefore, we keep having confidence, and knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” As long as we live in this life we can have great confidence based upon knowing. Verse 7 — “(For we walk by doctrine [our confidence] resident in the soul, and not by sight). Our whole instrument system is doctrine resident in the soul. Verse 8 — “We keep having confidence, and take mental delight in the fact that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.” So consequently, everything in life that is important for the member of the royal family of God, his nobility, his impact, his dynamics, his glorification of the Lord, is related to what goes on in his soul, what he thinks in his mind.

8. The areas of life involving mental attitude.

a) Stability is a mental attitude — James 1:8.

b) Prosperity is a mental attitude — Philippians 4:7.

c) Giving is a mental attitude — 2 Corinthians 9:7.

d) Worldliness is a mental attitude — Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:2.

e) Evil is a mental attitude — Matthew 9:4.

f) Arrogance is a mental attitude — Galatians 6:3.

g) “Therefore, as many as are mature, let us continue objective-type thinking [the result of being spiritually mature], and if you think differently in anything at all [and you do], this also will God reveal — Philippians 3:15.” In other words, the answer to divine viewpoint, the answer to the dynamics of objective thinking is all bound up in Bible doctrine.

Verse 3 — “For begin thinking about him,” the accusative singular of the definite article is used as a part of the articular participle, but more important, the definite article is used here as a demonstrative pronoun to call special attention to an important object or person. It is used for what is relatively near in thought, such an immediate demonstrative. Therefore “him” can be translated “such a person as Jesus Christ.”

“that endured” — one of the key words that we are finding throughout this passage is the verb ὑπομένω (hypomenō) and its cognate. The noun that goes with it, the substantive, is ὑπομονή (hypomonē), ῆς (ēs)

James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (N. Both the noun and the verb refer to persistence in taking in doctrine no matter what distractions, what problems, what adversities come your way. In other words, enduring is the consistency of positive volition, building up residency of doctrine, so that as life gets more and more complicated so you can meet and overcome every problem, every difficulty in life. So it was with the Lord Jesus Christ — “having endured”, perfect active participle of ὑπομένω (hypomenō. The perfect participle is very strong.

“such contradiction” — the word “such” is a correlative demonstrative used as an adjective, toioutoj. Toioutoj means that the opposition that He took was greater than any opposition or pressure that we would ever face; “contradiction” is the accusative singular direct object from the noun a)ntilogia. Satan threw everything against Him, from religion down to the very form of death which He died — “having endured such opposition.”

“of sinners” — this is a prepositional phrase, u(po plus the ablative plural of a(martwloj. Sinners here refers to the fact that all who were opposed to him were evil. It is to take the opposition to Christ from religion, politics, and buffoons, and gather it all up into one antagonism.

“against himself” is e)ij plus the accusative of the reflexive pronoun, e(autou, and it means “against himself” as translated. Ordinarily it would mean “with reference to himself” but we learn from Luke 12:10 from the Greek there — e)ij ton u(ion, which means “against the Son.” “Who will speak a word against the Son” is the phrase. The MSS that have been recovered from the papyri and other sources indicate that e)ij can be used as “against” where ordinarily we have another preposition — a)nti. When e)ij is used instead it indicates that the opposition was so great and so well defined that it doesn’t need the ordinary preposition, they are merely referred to as a pressure overcome. The implications of the use of this preposition indicate the fact that the pressure against Jesus Christ on the cross was overcome.

The word “lest” is the conjunction i(na plus the negative mh, used for a final clause. The combination of these two words introduces a negative final clause which denotes purpose, aim, or goal — “in order that you do not become weary” is wrong — the aorist active subjunctive of kamnw which means to be fatigued or exhausted. This means not to be weary but to be exhausted, a much stronger word. This is the fatigue of reversionism, however. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the various stages of reversionism. The active voice plus the negative means that the royal family is forbidden to have a tired soul. The subjunctive mood plus the negative mh is prohibitive, and this then becomes a command. You are commanded not to have a tired soul.

The word “and” is not found here but the word “faint” is, a present passive participle from e)kluw which means to become feeble or to faint. This is a retroactive progressive present which denotes what was begun in the past and continues to the present time. Taking it in its context it means that the believers in Jerusalem in AD 67 were fatigued, exhausted in their souls and they had fainted. That is reversionism. the passive voice: the believer who is reversionistic becomes fatigued, despondent, discouraged, fainting in his soul.

“in your minds” is an incorrect translation. We have the locative plural plus the definite article used as a possessive pronoun, and then we have yuxh which means “soul”.

Translation: “For begin thinking about such a person as Jesus Christ having endured such opposition by the sinners against himself, in order that you do not become exhausted [or fatigued], fainting in your souls.”

The fatigue and the fainting is in the soul.

The doctrine of reversionism

1. Definition.

a) Reversionism in its simplest terms is a negative status toward doctrine in phase two. It means to resist doctrine, to reject doctrine, to undergo the spiritual changes and the decline that comes from neglecting Bible doctrine.

b) It is characterised by two principles: negative volition toward Bible doctrine resulting in failure to function under GAP, and secondly, perpetual carnality resulting in a life of perpetual divine discipline.

c) Reversionism, then, is recession from any stage of spiritual growth, partial or completed. It is retreat from supergrace status.

d) Reversionism is lack of spiritual growth, neglect of Bible doctrine. In effect, both are these are true and interchangeable.

e) While supergrace is the progressive state of the believer in time, reversionism is retrogressive in time.

f) Reversionism in the believer becomes analogous to apostasy.

g) Reversionism in the unbeliever is rejection of or departure from the laws of divine establishment.

h) Reversionism must be distinguished from carnality in the same way that reversionism is distinguished from supergrace.

i) Spirituality is an absolute status of the Holy Spirit controlling the soul of the believer. Supergrace is a relative status of maximum spiritual growth or maturity.

j) Carnality is an absolute status of being out of fellowship through sin. Reversionism is a relative status of varying degrees of spiritual failure.

k) The carnal believer is positive toward doctrine but the reversionistic believer is negative.

l) Therefore the carnal believer rebounds and continues to grow. He is positive toward doctrine. The reversionist does not rebound and continues to move toward the sin unto death.

2. The mechanics or stages of reversionism.

a) The reaction stage. We have the presence of reactor factors in the life. These include discouragement, boredom, disillusion. Each one is a different facet of reaction. Discouragement is a reaction to circumstances. Boredom is a reaction to a combination of circumstances and people. Disillusion is a reaction to people. A reversionist in a reaction stage has all of these. Boredom is the lack of capacity for life. It has to do with soul fatigue, not physical fatigue. Out of these three come three more: inability to cope with loneliness, self-pity, frustration.

b) Rejection of authority is another primary factor reaction. All reactors reject authority at some point.

c) Reaction includes mental attitude sins. Mental attitude sins include pride (which is rejection of authority) jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity or a guilt complex. All of these lead to some form of subjectivity and reaction toward Bible doctrine.

d) Operation vengeance is another factor in reaction. This is a secondary factor whereby the individual seeks to build his happiness by setting someone else down. The principle is, you cannot build your happiness in someone else’s happiness.

e) The reaction stage includes also distractions. Distractions are both primary and secondary. For example, distractions which lure the believer from the routine of consistent intake of doctrine. These are first of all social and sexual. Secondary distractions come from that — pleasure, entertainment distractions, family distractions, health distractions, and so on.

Stage two of reversionism is the frantic search for happiness.

There are at least five different concepts of frantic search for happiness.

a) The function of the reactor factors in the life result in a frantic search for happiness. In other words, you may be discouraged, bored, disillusioned, unable to cope with loneliness, overcome by self-pity. You may be bitter, vindictive, implacable, jealous, arrogant. You may find that you are in some kind of a personality conflict. There are various things that lead to reaction but reaction always results in moving to the opposite trend. b) The frantic search for happiness becomes the alternative to the daily function of GAP. You react against the system for communicating the Word of God. The accepted solution to the frustration is your brand of happiness.

c) The frantic search for happiness follows the trend of the old sin nature.

d) The trend toward asceticism leads to a frantic search for happiness. It leads to a false emphasis on experience — the victorious Christian life conferences, throwing a fagot on the fire, etc. The tongues movement is a frantic search for happiness, and it is a devastating one. It is very harmful to the emotion of the soul. It destroys the emotion as a responder to good things. Then there is the frantic search for happiness in the field of asceticism through legalism. In legalism you give up things for God — good whiskey, smoking, cards, etc. It makes you feel good to give these things up.

e) The trend toward lasciviousness. It includes drunkenness, debauchery, chasing, seduction, becoming a user of narcotics and drugs apart from medicine, etc. These, too, are frantic search for happiness but in another area.

So the point is, when a person gets away from doctrine by reaction he follows his trend toward asceticism or toward lasciviousness and winds up in stage two, the frantic search for happiness. This leads to stage three …

3. Operation boomerang. In other words, the frantic search for happiness intensifies the original reactor factors. No matter which way you go, toward asceticism or toward lasciviousness, frustration is the order of the day and eventually you are brought back to an intensification of whatever disturbed you in the first place.

4. Emotional revolt of the soul. The emotion is simply a responder to what is in the right lobe. But when the emotion takes over the soul, the emotion cannot think, cannot reason, has no common sense, has no norms or standards, and that is when the soul is in trouble. We call this the emotional revolt of the soul. This is when people become neurotic, psychotic, and when people get into some terrible soul illness of some kind.

a) The emotion is the female part of the soul designed to respond to the right lobe or heart, the male part of the soul.

b) The heart or right lobe of the soul is equivalent to the right man whole the emotion is equivalent to the right woman. Therefore the emotion is designed to be subordinate to your thinking.

c) Emotional revolt of the soul is tantamount to emotion fornicating with the old sin nature instead of responding to her right man, the mentality of the soul. The emotion comes under the domination of the old sin nature rather than under domination of the heart or the right lobe of the soul.

d) First of all, emotion has no doctrinal content, no mentality, no character. It can only respond to what doctrine is found in the right lobe. So emotion is our of sorts in this revolt.

e) Once the emotion revolts it becomes the aggressor, loses capacity for life, becomes distorted and the tool of the old sin nature. A person in emotional revolt, whether a believer or an unbeliever, has absolutely no capacity for life and is always miserable and in trouble.

f) Revelation 2:23 describes emotional revolt of the soul. “And I will kill her children with death [the sin unto death]; and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the emotions and the right lobes; and I will give each one of you according to your function.” In other words, if the right lobe dominates there is blessing. If the emotion dominates the soul there is cursing.

g) The emotion and reversionists in reversionism resist Bible doctrine and Bible teaching — 2 Corinthians 6:11-12. “O you Corinthians, our mouth is open to you [in Bible teaching], our heart is enlarged [maximum doctrine in the soul to communicate]. You are not hindered from learning doctrine by us, you are hindered by the emotions of your soul.”

h) This is why believers are commanded to separate from reversionistic believers involved in emotional revolt. Romans 16:17-18.

i) Emotional revolt of the soul causes the emotion to respond to the old sin nature. The result is obvious. When emotion is responding to the old sin nature — which means revolt against the heart of the right lobe — then certain kinds of sins are produced. Mental attitude sins: always jealous, always arrogant, always implacable, vindictive, and occasionally bothered by guilt reaction which is another type of sin. But the person is also motivated by mental attitude sins to commit sins of the tongue — is a gossip, a maligner, a judger, constantly picking at other people, constantly dissatisfied.. At the same time the area of strength is producing human good, trying to solve the problems of life by legislation, becoming involved in organisations that seem to be doing something for the downtrodden, and so on. So the area of strength produces human good which is rejected by God. The lust pattern is up under emotional revolt, and approbation and power lust are especially very prominent. This is really the source of any kind of revolution. So the emotion takes over the dictatorship of the soul, becomes the aggressor, neutralises Bible doctrine, and the heart or the right lobe is put down. This means immediately that doctrine begins to fade out of the soul. The believer who lives by emotions or uses emotion as the criterion becomes apostate, disoriented, degenerate, reversionistic, and eventually enters into warning discipline, then intensive discipline, and finally dying discipline.

5. Negative volition toward doctrine.

As a result of reactor factors, frantic search for happiness, intensification of reaction and emotional revolt, the believer becomes confirmed in a strong negative attitude toward doctrine. The characteristics of this negative attitude are several.

a) Indifference or apathy toward Bible teaching.

b) Too busy for Bible teaching or Bible class.

c) Antagonism or personality hang-ups regarding the pastor and his authority.

d) Antagonism or personality conflicts with members of the congregation.

e) Failure to utilise grace provision — the provision of a local church, failure to rebound, lack of respect for authority, poor manners, lack of concentration, no poise or objectivity as members of the royal family of God.

f) Inability to handle prosperity. Some people get into confirmed negative volition because the are in the other stages of reversionism in a period of prosperity. Remember that the warning stage of reversionism includes periods of prosperity. These periods of prosperity are very important because they do several things. They cause your friends to say it doesn’t make any difference if you neglect doctrine, look at so and so, they’re happy. But these periods of prosperity are set-ups for divine discipline in the warning stage. This is not prosperity from doctrine, it is prosperity permitted by God to set up for divine discipline.

g) Disorientation to factors of living grace. Under living grace God keeps a believer alive in the devil’s world providing food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and disorientation is failure to appreciate these factors. 8) Active campaigning to discredit, to remove, to destroy anyone’s ministry who is teaching the Word.

6. Confirmed negative volition starts an attack upon the left lobe of the soul where objectivity of information exists. A vacuum is opened up by this negative volition — mataiothj. Through this vacuum comes false doctrine, false doctrine about everything. None of these things exist in the soul until a person reaches this stage of reversionism. So we have then the blackout of the soul. Negative volition produces a vacuum. This vacuum is called mataiothj or “vanity” in Ephesians 4:17. Through this vacuum come the doctrine of demons of 1 Timothy 4:1. These include religionism, liberalism, plus human effort to solve the problems of life. This is known as demon influence in contrast to demon possession. Once the doctrines of demons enter the left lobe of the soul you have demon influence. No believer can be demon possessed, he can be under demon influence which is an attack upon the soul.

7. Scar tissue of the soul. Scar tissue affects the right lobe of the soul. This refers to the freezing of the valves of the right lobe or the heart so that doctrine no longer functions in the frame of reference or in the memory centre, and this means that vocabulary and the categorical storage of doctrine is out, and it means that the believer is no longer capable of seeing life from the divine viewpoint. This is mentioned as a part of the blackout of the soul in John 12:40 — “He has blinded their eyes, and he has hardened their hearts; lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive by means of their hearts, and be turned around and I restore them.” In other words, the Lord is dealing with a reversionist here and He describes his condition. He said to be blinded in his perception — blackout of the soul; hardness of the heart — scar tissue of the soul. This condition has made it impossible for him to be restored or turned around. Scar tissue of the soul or hardness of the heart does a lot of things that are obvious from the scripture. One of the first is it rejects military preparation and de-emphasises national defense. This has been a characteristic for thousands of years of the reversionistic believer — Proverbs 21:29-31. Scar tissue of the soul is also revolt against the Lord personally — Nehemiah 9:16,17. “Hardening the neck” is scar tissue of the soul. It includes revolution, reversionism, rejection of authority. Cf. Jeremiah 7:25-27.

8. Reverse process reversionism. This final stage of reversionism is the antithesis of supergrace. The believer under reverse process reversionism cannot be distinguished from an unbeliever. The believer become enamoured with pseudo objects compatible with his spiritual condition. For example, in category #! love he should be occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, but instead he is occupied with pseudo objects — in the Old Testament it might be Baal, or now with his own self-projects, whatever it is. But in category #1 love he reverses the object of love. In category #2 the right man is occupied with a wrong (pseudo) woman instead of his right woman. Under category #3 love there is the true friend and the pseudo friend.

3. Divine discipline of the reversionist.

God keeps believers alive to spank them. In fact God keeps every believer alive for one of two reasons: to either bless him because he is positive toward doctrine or to discipline him because he is negative toward doctrine.

a) The warning stage. The warning stage of discipline is designed by God to warn the believer regarding his spiritual condition. That is, negative volition toward doctrine has moved him away from the plan of God for time — phase two. This type of discipline is generally found in the first four stages of reversionism, that is, when a person is reacting, when a person is in the frantic search for happiness [operation boomerang], or the emotional revolt. This stage includes birth adversity and prosperity. However the removal of prosperity is a part of warning discipline. Warning discipline is mentioned in Revelation 3:20.

b) The intensive stage. For those who reject the knocking on the door by discipline, by the removal of prosperity, there is a second stage. The category of discipline is generally found in the last four stages of reversionism — negative volition, scar tissue of the soul, blackout of the soul, and reverse process reversionism. This stage is described in Psalm 38:1-14. This is the category of strong delusion found in 2 Thessalonians 2:11.

c) The dying stage — the final stage. This is the sin unto death, and this reversionism is caused by remaining in reversionism. This is the most horrible thing that ever happened to anyone.

4. The principle of reversionism — Galatians 5:4.

“Christ is become of no effect, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace.” This KJV translation is incorrect, it ignores the Greek text here completely. The first word, kathrghqhte is the aorist passive indicative of the verb katergew which usually means to be useless, to be neutralised, and it refers to a believer becoming a casualty in time in the angelic conflict. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The Galatians had entered into legalistic reversionism, and it gathers up into one entirety the fact that some of them were in the reaction stage, some of them had already gone to the frantic search for happiness, some were in operation boomerang, some were in emotional revolt of the soul. It simply gathers up into one ball of wax the stages of reversionism which are expressing themselves in legalism. Legalism here is salvation by keeping the law. Here we have the fact that they had become casualties. “You have become a casualty” is the way you translate katargew. The passive voice: the reversionistic Galatians receive the action of the verb, they have become casualties to the angelic conflict. The indicative declarative mood is historical for an historical reality. “You reversionists have become a casualty” — ineffective, useless, neutralised. Then the word “Christ” occurs as the object of the preposition — a)po plus the ablative of Xristoj which means “from Christ.” This is a believer, he hasn’t lost his salvation but he is a casualty as far as being effective as a member of the royal family of God. In other words, this verse is saying that he is on the road of reversionism instead of on the road to supergrace. Being on the road to reversionism is to become a casualty in phase two.

The next word gathers up all of those who are so involved in Galatia. “Whosoever” is a nominative masculine plural from a relative pronoun o(stij. This is a qualitative relative pronoun and it is therefore referring only to a certain category of believer, not all believers. The words “of you” are not found in the original at all. It is simply, “Whosoever are being vindicated [or justified]”, the present passive indicative of the verb dikaiow which actually means to be vindicated. Sometimes it refers to spiritual vindication or salvation and sometimes it refers to vindication in time — God vindicating a believer. They are seeking to be vindicated by keeping the law — “by means of the law.” The historical present plus the passive voice indicates it was going on at the time that Paul wrote to them.

Now we have the problem — “you are fallen” is the aorist active indicative of the verb e)kpiptw which does not mean to fall here. It is used in a navigational sense. it was used in the ancient world for nautical navigation and it means to drift off course. They haven’t fallen, they have drifted off course. The line that glorifies God is from saving grace to living grace, from living grace to supergrace, then the high golden bridge of dying grace, and then on the other side, surpassing grace. That is the road to glory. God is glorified when you reach the high ground in time, He is glorified when He can give you eternal reward and blessing over and above your resurrection body. At this point the apostle has said that the Galatians have drifted off course. So literally, “you have drifted off course.” The active voice: the reversionist produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative indicates the historical reality.

“from grace” — the ablative of source from the noun xarij. Xarij or grace is used here for one reason only, to portray the road to glory from salvation to supergrace, dying grace and surpassing grace.

“You reversionists have become casualties [ineffective] from Christ, whoever are being vindicated by means of the law; you have drifted off course from the grace.”

The principle of reversionism is drifting off course from grace. Reversionism is the rejection of God’s grace, rejection of God’s plan by ignoring Bible doctrine.

5. A few of the categories of reversionism.

a) There is lascivious or phallic reversionism — 2 Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; 5:5; Colossians 3:5; Revelation 2:14, 20-23.

b) Legalistic reversionism — Galatians 5:4; Colossians 2:16-18; Hebrews 5:11; 6:16.

c) Monetary reversionism — Ecclesiastes 5:10-16; James 4:13,14; 5:1-6; Revelation 3:14-20.

d) Alcoholic and narcotic reversionism — Isaiah 28:1-9 and Galatians 5:20.

e) Antiestablishment reversionism. The person who ran away from the draft because he said it wasn’t biblical, etc. — Romans 1:18-32; Hosea 4:1-7.

f) Mental attitude reversionism and verbal reversionism. These simply take reversionism when you drift off course and people get their happiness from hating people and vengeance, or they get their happiness from verbal reversionism, running down others. The two go together.

6. Nomenclature. How is reversionism described in the Bible? It is described in at least nine ways, including the one we have just considered in Galatians 5:4, “drifting off course from grace.” Or, being an enemy of the cross in Philippians 3:18, or uncircumcision of heart — Jeremiah 9:25,26, or failing of the grace of God in Hebrews 12:15. The reversionist is also described as a tortured soul in 2 Peter 2:7,8 and as an unstable soul in 2 Peter 2:14. He is also described in Revelation 2:4 as having left his first love, or “fallen” in verse 5, or in Revelation 3:15,16 as lukewarm. So we have a number of different descriptions of reversionism in the Bible.

7. The profile of reversionism — Psalm 7:14-16. “Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.” The word “mischief was considered to be evil in its connotation some 300 years ago. So obviously we cannot derive too much information from the King James version. Therefore we must go back to the original Hebrew here to discover what is meant by the “pate”, by “mischief”, and other words which in their antiquity have lost their meaning to us.

Verse 14 — the first word is “Behold”. In the Hebrew it is hineh and it is one of those words used to focus attention on a subject.

“he travaileth” is the piel imperfect of the verb chabal which means to have labour pains prior to giving birth. The piel emphasises the intensity of the pains. Whenever we find a male having labour pains obviously we are dealing with an analogy. Obviously also the third masculine singular suffix which brings out the correct translation, “he shall have labour pains” is referring to some analogy to the spiritual life. It is figurative, euphemistic rather than being literal. And immediately we discover what causes the labour pains: reversionism.

“with iniquity” — the noun awen means vanity or nothingness. It describes the way in which the believer becomes negative toward doctrine, and “iniquity” is quite technical here for the first four stages of reversionism: reaction, frantic search for happiness, intensification of reaction and/or operation boomerang, and emotional revolt of the soul. In other words, reversionism rarely begins with negative volition toward doctrine consolidated. Reversionism always begins with some form of reaction. Therefore the first four stages of reversionism are described as vanity or emptiness. These are labour pains, the situations which accompany warning discipline to the reversionist. So whatever system makes the believer distracted or makes the believer react toward doctrine the first four stages plus the warning stage of discipline are involved in having labour pains. The third masculine singular is used because in all languages often the masculine gender is used for all both sexes in the human race.

“and he hath conceived” — the qal perfect of harah means to become pregnant, and it should be translated “because he has become pregnant.” To become pregnant means to become reversionistic. And we also discover he has become pregnant with something …

“mischief” — the noun in the Hebrew amal means frustration. Frustration here refers to misery from frustration. Pregnancy, then, is reaction to people, to authority, to a pastor, disenchantment, boredom, apathy, self-pity, bitterness, jealousy, loneliness, any of the reactor factors. Pregnancy illustrates the reaction stage of reversionism. Frustration is the misery that comes from frantic search for happiness boomeranging or failing to produce the desired results in the life.

“and brought forth” — the qal perfect of the verb jalabh. Jalabh plus the inferential waw should be translated, :”therefore he has given birth.” Birth is analogous to the fifth stage of reversionism or the negative volition stage.

“falsehood” — literally, “deceit.” The word sheqer means a lie. He has given birth to deceit or a lie. It refers to a life of deceit. It refers to the blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, and the function of reverse process reversionism. In other words, every reversionist lives a lie. He is born into a life of duplicity and deceit, his soul is dishonest and his life follows suit.

Translation: “Behold he shall have labour pains [warning discipline] of vanity [first four stages of reversionism], because he has become pregnant [reaction] with frustration [intensification of reaction], therefore he has given birth to a life of deceit [negative volition, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, reverse process reversionism].”

Note the sequence of the analogy: a) Pregnancy is a reaction stage of reversionism. Labour pains of vanity include the first four stages of reversionism. b) Birth of a deceitful life is a believer in the last four stages of reversionism. Negative volition toward doctrine, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, and reverse process reversionism. c) All of this is accomplished through the free will or the volition of the individual believer. d) Every reversionist, therefore, lives a lie, he is born into a life of hypocrisy and duplicity, a life of deceit, and through his own volition he digs his own grace.

Verse 15 — “He made a pit” is the qal perfect of karah and it means to dig your own grave. The qal perfect means he has already as a reversionist dug his own grave. The digging of a pit or a grave is the intensive stage of divine discipline and it comes from the free will of the reversionist. The key to the fifth stage of reversionism is obviously negative volition toward doctrine. As free will turns down Bible doctrine eventually this fifth stage of reversionism corresponds with the second stage of discipline which is the intensive stage.

“and digged it” is not quite correct. We have the qal imperfect of chapar means to explore — “and he explored it.” The exploration of the grave refers to the function of the last three stages of reversionism, and every believer in the last three stages of reversionism is actually exploring his own uncomfortable grave. And he becomes more and more aware of the fact that he is going to die and he is going to die horribly the sin unto death.

“and is fallen” — the qal perfect of naphal plus the inferential waw is “therefore he has fallen.” This is a reverence to the sin unto death.

“which he made” — the qal imperfect of paal which means to construct it all by yourself.

Translation: “He dug a grave, and explored it, therefore he is fallen into the grave which he has constructed.”

The reversionistic believer manufactures by negative volition and the various stages of reversionism his own torture chamber and he follows it up with a miserable death. He must take the responsibility for rejecting grace and blessing which is the road to glory.

Verse 16 — “His mischief” takes us back to amal which is his misery, self-induced misery. His misery is frustration. This refers again to operation boomerang or the third stage of reversionism.

“shall return” — the qal imperfect of shubh indicates the intensification of reaction, and it indicates operation boomerang. Returning here is the frantic search for happiness coming back to intensify the original reactor factors — “on his own head.”

“and his violent dealing” — this is the noun chamas which means violent oppression. It refers to the reversionistic believer refusing to take the responsibility for his own failure plus his ability to make other people around him miserable.

“shall come down” is better translated “shall descend”, it is the qal imperfect of jaradh. It means to come down as a heavy weight or something that hurts.

“upon his own pate” — the word “pate” in the Hebrew is qadqodh which means the top of his head, the crown of his head, and the whole principle is that no reversionist can ever build his happiness on someone else’s unhappiness, and the plug that he uses to hit someone else always bounces back and hits him.

Translation: “His frustration shall return to his own head, his violent oppression of others shall descend upon the crown of his head.” Here is the whole principle of self-induced misery.

Summary

1. Every believer must take the responsibility for his own decisions which are contrary to doctrine. That is why God has the systems of discipline.

2. God Himself will take the responsibility for all decisions made in compatibility with doctrine.

3. The reversionist must take the responsibility for his own negative and sinful decisions. This is why he gets warning discipline followed by intensive discipline and eventually dying discipline.

4. God sponsors the consequences of decisions which are positive toward doctrine.

8. The contamination of reversionism — Hebrews 12:15.

“Looking diligently” is the present active participle of the verb e)piskopew which means to be an overseer, to be the foreman of a ranch, the manager of a business. It means also to take responsibility when used of an individual believer. You must take the responsibility yourself for certain things. This is the imperative use of the participle which is peculiar to Koine Greek and the papyri of Patristic Greek. The present is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice is a command to all believers related to the imperative participle. So the best way to translate something like this is, “See to it [take the responsibility yourself].”

Next we have the first of two negative purpose clauses introduced by the word “lest” which is merely the Greek negative mh and, of course, something is left out. We do not have, for example, i(na the conjunction. Nor do we have e)imi in the present subjunctive. Instead we merely have the negative mh, but we can expect that now because the writer of Hebrews was a student of Classical Greek and he often goes back to Classical Greek in some of these forms. The omission of any conjunctions here merely gives great strength to these negative clauses. We will have to translate this, “See to it that there be no one” or “See to it that no one.” The particle tij is an indefinite pronoun and is very impersonal.

“fail” — the present active participle of u(sterew means to fall short, it also means to fall back, to fail with regard to some standard, to be substandard or below standard. The tendencial present tense here represents what is inclined to occur or tends toward realisation. The active voice: the reversionistic believer tends to produce this. We have a circumstantial participle. All reversionists have a tendency to fall back from grace. They are alive by grace but they fall back from supergrace.

“of the grace of God” is the preposition a)po plus the ablative of xarij — “from the grace of God”, therefore “falling back from the grace of God is the best translation.” Reversionism falls back from the grace of God in this sense. The reversionistic believer has trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, has received Him as his saviour. He functions under living grace because he is alive, he has food, shelter, transportation,. whatever it takes to stay alive. Also available to him is Bible doctrine. There is somewhere his own right pastor, his right local church and the text book, the bible. Now he has fallen back because he has failed to follow the colours — the function of GAP, assembling himself, listening to the teaching of the Word of God, growing in grace, receiving maximum resident doctrine in the soul. So he has fallen back from the high ground, SG2. SG2 was designed for every believer in eternity past.

The second negative purpose clause starts out “that not one”. We have mh tij again, only this time tij is in the neuter — “that not one root.” The word for “root” is the root of a tree, r(itza. It is something that is developed, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15:36, by a seed dropping into the ground. Below the ground the seed dies, and by dying it sprouts, and from that comes a root, and another root and another root, and so on. Soon there is something above ground and eventually you have a tall tree. But the root always comes from the death of a seed. The seed dies before the root can sprout and that is exactly what we have here. The seed refers to sin. What has actually died here below the ground is the sins and failures of reversionism. That means that there are roots now and that there is a supergrace life — the ECS and then eventually the high ground of supergrace. So the sins died, they are no longer an issue, they have been rebounded, they are past. Yet, there is a great danger to anyone who is advancing toward the high ground, that they remember something that has been buried below the ground. They remember something that someone did, for example, and as they remember they become bitter, vindictive, and from there they go to operation vengeance, and from there they fall down and go back into reversionism.

“bitterness” is a descriptive genitive singular of the noun pikria which really refers to a cluster of mental attitude sins. First of all there has to be jealousy or arrogance. With these there is vindictiveness, implacability, then antagonism, pettiness, and all of these work together to start a war against someone, to start operation vengeance. The “root of bitterness”: the sin is dead, bitterness has come out of a sin that has been forgiven and cleansed.

“sprouting up” — the present active participle of fuw. We now that it means to go up because we have with it the adverb a)nw which means to go upward. We have a retroactive progressive present here denoting what has happened in the past and continues into the present time. It denotes the first four stages of reversionism. The active voice: the reversionist tried to move up the hill and has failed in this way and is producing the action. The participle is circumstantial, he is now in root of bitterness status.

“trouble you” — the word “you” is not here. We do have the present active subjunctive of e)noxlew which means to cause trouble, and it causes trouble for the individual — that is what e)n means, “inside”. This is self-induced misery. This is a customary present to denote the fact that this habitually occurs when people have mental attitude sins as a reaction to a sin that is dead. The active voice: the reversionist produces the action causing the trouble. The subjunctive mood is potential depending upon whether the recovery is complete or partial.

“and thereby” — literally, “and through this”; “the many” o(i polloi, “be defiled.” The word miainw does not mean to defile exactly. In the ancient world it meant to dump a chamber pot on someone and contaminate them. The word “defiled” means to be contaminated with sewage. The stench of being such a victim made one socially unacceptable, therefore the person who had sewage of bitterness in his soul was unacceptable. In this way reversionism dumps sewage in the soul, and the soul that is filled with the sewage of mental attitude sins always overflows to others. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the reversionistic believer polluting by the reaction in his soul and contaminating others. The passive voice: other believers become the victims, they receive the sewage. The subjunctive mood is potential, depending on whether you contact them or not.

Translation: “See to it that no one falls back from the grace of God; and that not one root of bitterness sprouting up causes trouble, and through this the many be contaminated.”

9. Psychosis and reversionism — 2 Peter 2:15-19.

Verse 15 — “Abandoning the straight road [the road to glory], they have been deluded [all reversionists are under delusion], having pursued the road of Balaam of Beor, who loved the reward of wrongdoing.”

Verse 16 — “But he received a rebuke for his own transgression: the dumb ass having preached eloquently with the voice of a man had forbidden the psychosis of the prophet.”

Verse 17 — “These [reversionists] are wells without water [doctrine], clouds being driven along by a squall line [they are unstable]; for whom the blackness of darkness [blackout of the soul] has been reserved.”

Verse 18 — “For bombastically speaking arrogant words from the source of the vacuum [mataiothj], they keep enticing unstable souls by lust, by lasciviousness, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error.” In other words, one reversionist captures another.

Verse 19 — “Promising them [the intended victims] freedom, when they themselves exist as the slaves to corruption: for by whom anyone has been defeated, this same one [the reversionist] has become enslaved.” All reversionists are slaves to something.

10. Reversionism eliminates special blessing paragraphs for time and eternity — Hebrews 3:10-12.

11. Reversionism in the book of Hebrews. Various epistles in the New Testament emphasise different types of reversionism. For example, we have legalistic reversionism in Galatians, phallic reversionism in Corinthians, monetary reversionism in James, religious and ritualistic reversionism in Hebrews — Hebrews 5:11,12.

12. Reversionism leads to perversion — Romans 1:26,27.

13. Reversionism intensifies suffering — Psalm 77:1-10.

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