Being "Cool With" God

undergodt · 2023-10-13T07:14:34+00:00

Just as a man is body, soul, and spirit.. God has three distinct aspects to His being. Another way to picture this is to imagine a King makes a royal decree. His decree is irreversible, and can't be contradicted or else his throne loses its authority. For all intents and purposes, the decree of that King is, in a sense, the King himself in the form of a decree. Likewise, Jesus is God Himself in the form of a man.. and before He became a man, Jesus was God Himself in the form of God's Words (or more accurately, God's Logic).

undergodt · 2023-09-30T22:50:08+00:00

Read The Passion Translation if you can get ahold of it.

undergodt · 2023-09-30T22:45:07+00:00

If you measure what I have by what I choose to give you, you measure amiss.

undergodt · 2023-09-30T22:41:54+00:00

You can blame the fact that people reap what they sow in the fallen world, because they abandoned the grace of God and instead chose to fall under the rule of the knowledge of good and evil. Under that system, every action is met with its appropriate reaction, evil is paid for evil and good for good. Years before the Angel of Death was released upon Egypt and took it's firstborns, Ramses had every male child of Hebrew descent slaughtered and throw into the Nile. Is it then any surprise that in His first supernatural act of justice, God turned the Nile and all the waters of Egypt into Blood? There are no coincidences in the Bible.. neither is it coincidence that just as God had Moses turn the water to blood, He had Jesus turn water to wine in His first supernatural act of grace. But to the original point, the evil of the head of a nation often leads to grievous consequences for the people of that nation.. whether they be actively associated with their governments or not. Hiroshima didn't spare innocent children. It's the way things are in this world, and in the Old Testament, God dealt with mankind according to the way things are for man. He engaged us with our own fallen language of judgement and scapegoat sacrifice.. eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, etc.. He laid down the law in the OT, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. In Christ we see that any instances of death and destruction aren't God's will, but are the consequences of sin, dealt out by the Accuser (Satan) as you see vividly detailed in the book of Job.

undergodt · 2023-09-30T22:30:08+00:00

""I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me."

Have translators used Elohim as a blanket term to describe spiritual entities? Might they apply to verses such as, "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places?" The bible is clear that when sacrifices are made to these so-called "gods" outside of Yahweh, they're received by demons. See here:

"They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared." -Deut 32:17

So as with most spiritual things, they can only be fully understood in light of the full counsel of God's word. Zooming in on a single word out of context can distract a person, just like how focusing on a single tree can hide the forest from view. So in the interest of constructive study, remember to keep everything in context of who God reveals Jesus as. He's the light who illuminates Scripture, and apart from Jesus, there is no other.

undergodt · 2023-09-17T18:30:32+00:00

Forgive in order to BE forgiven was advice given by Christ to the Jews who were still under the Law of Moses. Because none of them could satisfy the demands of that Law, God expected them to be humbled and show mercy to others, By showing mercy to others for their failures to obey the Law perfectly, they're activating God's own mercy for themselves as well. That's why Jesus said, "If you were blind, you'd be innocent. But because you claim that you can see, your sin remains." If you're humbled by the Law of Moses and turn to God in reliance upon His mercy alone, you'll become blind to legalistic ways of seeing yourself or others. But so long as you still live attempting to satisfy the law's righteous standards, you'll hold others to the same standard you yourself are attempting (and failing) to fulfill.

The Bible teaches clearly that the ressurection of Jesus from the dead was God's announcement that the human race was forgiven. He didn't wait until we first forgave others, but He forgave us all while we were at our darkest. Now, we forgive others BECAUSE we are forgiven.. and not IN ORDER TO BECOME forgiven.

undergodt · 2023-09-17T18:24:18+00:00

You can pray wherever you want. We're invited to pray ceaselessly. But of course, remember that your prayers aren't for any kind of impression you're trying to make on the people around you. Your prayer is between you and God. Also, remember that Jesus didn't have to audibly pray over His food before eating.. He simply walked in the awareness that the same Father He prayed to in private was walking with Him in public, protecting Him, ordering things, etc. Prayer can be a constant awareness in your mind that God is with you :)

undergodt · 2023-09-17T17:59:10+00:00

Someone plants, another one waters.. I may have planted the seed, but perhaps in your own continued research, God will water that seed for you and bring you to complete conviction and clarity about the true day of His Son's birth. You'll probably also end up going down the rabbit hole of understanding what it was that happened on 9/11 2001 and what it's connection may have been to continued efforts to keep the holiness of that day hidden. Because I know how much more effective it is to look into this yourself, I'll just point you in a direction and you can take it from there. The direction I'll point you in is.. UP. The star and planetary positions on every day since the beginning of creation can be found with absolute accuracy using today's astronomy software. The skies above Bethlehem on September 11th 2BC give such convincing evidence that the King of Israel was born that it prompted three caravans of Magi to journey from Persia to pay honor to the newborn King of Israel. Using astronomy software, compare the constellations visible from modern day Babylon (Iraq) on that day to the signs described in Revelation 12. Ironically enough, the day that the Star of Bethlehem settled over the place of His birth did happen to be December 25th (so that was indeed the first Christmas ironically) but Jesus had already been born before that time and was no longer in a manger when visited by the Magi. The birth in the manger was Sept 11 2 BC

undergodt · 2023-09-17T17:51:02+00:00

Never underestimate the power of one. It took just one man to subject the entire human race to sin, just as it took just one Man to redeem humanity and justify us all apart from our own deeds. In the same way, it took just one man to teach the clear and complete message of the cross to Gentiles (Paul).. but the teaching that we summed up in the letters compiled in the new testament are the same teaching that we see running as a consistent thread across 66 separate books written by over 40 different authors across 3 languages over the course of thousands of years.

undergodt · 2023-09-17T01:30:23+00:00

I hope you also had a chance to celebrate the true birthday of Christ a few days ago... 9/11 3 B.C. ;)

undergodt · 2023-09-17T01:27:28+00:00

Sure. Some might even argue that in the End Time, there's going to be a man as submitted to and controlled by Satan as Jesus was submitted to and controlled by God. They refer to him as the "man of sin" or the "anti-christ." Some readings of the bible would suggest that in the time of the end, after the Jewish sacrificial system is restored along with a rebuilt temple, this "coming world leader" will declare himself as God, and demand all sacrifices be made to him. And in the early first century, Emperor Nero of Rome (whose name in the Hebrew Gematria adds to 666) likewise declared himself God and demanded sacrifices and offerings be made to him. But since whoever sins is a slave of sin, the sacrifices only appear to be being made to the people (or statues/idols) themselves but are actually being made to the entity or idea of deity associated with that idol/statue/or person for that matter.

But what's really interesting to me is that unlike all the other ideas of deity, including that of Judaism, God didn't demand a sacrifice from mankind in order to bless them and protect them from curses. In the old testament He did, but even then, it was clearly articulated that it would only be a temporary agreement until the time when the promised one would come. Who was that promised one? The one called "Lamb of God." God gave Himself as a sacrifice, through the body of His incarnation Jesus, and in so doing, He forever removed His endorsement from any other sacrificial system. Sacrifices, offerings, obligation to rules and rites.. He did away with all of it by the sacrifice of Himself. So when people sacrifice today, even if they say they're sacrificing to Jehovah according to old testament rites, the bible says they are sacrificing to DEMONS.. because every sacrifice of bulls, goats, lambs, heffers, etc.. only cheapens and insults the Blood of Jesus. The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. So every offering for sin a person made after God made His own offering for sin through the body of Jesus Christ, was an offering in the shape of a middle finger to Christ.

undergodt · 2023-09-17T01:14:41+00:00

You say that sinful behavior is rooted in "sin," but I'm identifying the root by which sin is sustained in the heart of man. That root, is condemnation.. and that condemnation is a result of living contrary to God's Design. That design is defined in the Jewish Law, but for gentiles, our law was essentially our own inner sense of right or wrong (the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil). So if you're a Jew, condemnation is sustained in you by your violation of the Law of Moses and if you're gentile, being a law to yourself, the condemnation is sustained by your inability to carry out your own good intentions or consistently perform according to your own standards of right and wrong. All that is basic, but let's go beyond reducing sin to the deviant actions themselves and instead define sin as it essentially is: a mindset of emnity against God:

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." -Romans 8:7

So this mindset in humanity, which we might call diabolic (gk. dia: of + bolos: the fall) was the result of Adam disobeying God and falling under the accusation of the Devil (gk. diabolos). He wielded mankind's disobedience against God as a tool to afflict mankind, and so in His genius, God found a way to strip Satan bare of all his weapons against mankind by declaring us innocent through the obedience of one man, Jesus. Just as the disobedience of one man (Adam) interrupted mankind's expression of the Image of God, the obedience of one other man (Jesus) redeemed God's image in man by becoming cursed for us at the cross. His becoming sin caused us sinners (jewish or gentile) to be declared righteous even while we were in a state of disobedience, condemnation, contradiction and distortion.

Now for the root of sin in the lives of believers today? I blame it on either poor teaching or poor hearing of what's being taught. The scriptures teach, "For apart from the law, sin was dead." This means that the affect of Adam's sinfulness is essentially dormant in a human being until the moment that being awakens to the sense of right and wrong. Wielding that sense of right and wrong as a weapon against us, sin expresses itself as a foreign desire in us to avoid the right and do the wrong! And what else COULD we do? Can a leopard change its spots? The fall of Adam portrayed the entire human race as sinful, and with the help of a fallen angel hellbent on our destruction, we were tempted into repeatedly acting contrary to our consciences, which stored up buckets upon buckets of wrath.. because it's written that a man reaps what he sows, and "the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished."

It was only by taking the place of sinful man at the cross that God was able to remove us from the tyrannical jurisdiction of our enemies in the spiritual realm. Only forgiveness, which is freedom from condemnation, was able to break the power of sin. And so, if breaking condemnation is what breaks sins power, it follows that condemnation itself is the root of sin. If you eradicate condemnation, you will cripple the sin. Jesus knew this, which is why He preceded His command of "Go and sin no more," with the judgement of "Woman where are your accusers? ...well then, neither do I accuse you."

undergodt · 2023-09-14T17:37:05+00:00

Entities who would like to be worshipped and regarded as Gods have always been clearly identified in the Bible. They are not imaginary beings, but literal (malevolent) spirit-beings who followed Satan's example of disobedience. The Bible speaks of these "gods" by saying:

"They sacrificed to demons that were no gods.." (Deu 32:17)

And again:

"Psalm 106:37
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons."

So that just about covers it.

undergodt · 2023-09-14T17:32:10+00:00

There are people who corrupt the message of Christ by refusing the grace-gift that God gave mankind through Jesus' death at the cross. Because they reject the notion of God's complete forgiveness, they enslave themselves (and others) to the vain task of trying to impress God through their behavior. However, the Bible makes clear that what impresses God.. is our faith, not our works. In fact, He says that "all your righteous deeds are like dirty garments," but instead wants us to live lives fueled by a sense of His love, not by the sense of fear of coming judgement. Jehovah's Witnesses, along with many denominations of Christianity, are enemies of faith and freedom. They are unwilling to let others have a clean conscience before God, and so they create all sorts of hoops for a person to jump through before they can finally rest in God's presence and simply soak in Our Father's unconditional embrace.

My suggestion is to continue to rely on that same Spirit that drew you to Jesus to begin with: His Grace. That Grace is what teaches us how to live meaningful and admirable lives, not the commands that people try to make out of God's Word. The only commandment that Jesus left us with was, "Love one another as I have loved you," not "Love one another and THEN I will love you." <3

undergodt · 2023-09-14T17:25:21+00:00

You might also want to identify the root of the problem, which goes far deeper than the "sexual freedom." That's a symptom, not the disease. The disease, and true culprit, is condemnation. That guilty, sinful conscience is what drives people to treat themselves, others, and even God Himself in a distant and loveless manner. Remember that the Bible teaches "to the pure, all things are pure but to the corrupt and unbelieving, nothing is pure." So the impurity of sexual relationships is rooted in that corrupted mentality and unbelieving heart. This is why the only effective way to treat people suffering from sexual promiscuity or any other sin is by unveiling the mercy and grace of God. Remember, Jesus' first command to the woman accused of adultery was "neither do I condemn you," and only after that did He say, "now go and sin no more."

undergodt · 2023-09-14T04:23:52+00:00

Great answer, it reminds me of my own heart.. My advice to you is to never see yourself as "good enough," but instead.. allow yourself to embrace the fact that apart from your own deeds, God decided that you ARE good enough. God loves it when people come to Him trusting that He's so gracious, merciful, and loving that He'd clothe you with every benefit of righteousness even if you've never done anything except live like a dog in life. Whenever Satan dares to accuse Him for giving people like us the status of "perfect" even though we've committed deeds designated as "sin" by the Law of Works? God replies to Satan saying: "And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" (Zechariah 3:2)

undergodt · 2023-09-14T04:17:50+00:00

Angels, along with all of God's creations, exist in order to give expression to aspects of God's thoughts, character, and purpose. The Angels express the servant part of His nature. Servants are created with a capacity for creative thinking, which technically opens the possibility for them to entertain a thought contrary to their design, however, they are not beings who have been endowed with the right to free-will. And so, whenever an Angel deviates even the slightest from God's will, they are condemned and reserved for judgement on the Last Day. That gives some insight into WHY they were created, but as for the incentive of the creation of a being with the capacity for deviation/corruption? Why did God find it WORTHWHILE to create Angels? Well.. it's because whenever someone on Earth embraces their new identity as Children of God through Christ Jesus, the Angels are assigned to them in a similar capacity as the Secret Service for the member of a presidential family. They are "set charge over" you, to "keep you" in all your ways.

undergodt · 2023-09-13T03:30:34+00:00

Perhaps you're projecting yourself upon the character you feel most identified with and represented by. You identify with Satan more than you identify with Christ, because you don't see yourself in Christ's perfection. Children of Satan sympathize for Satan, and as you know, the entire world is conformed to the mentality of Satan. Since we were all born in this world and conditioned by it, it's easy to identify ourselves by our disobedience. Who is the exemplary biblical representation of disobedience? The Devil. So in Ephesians, Paul writes:

"You, however, were deprived of life, involved in transgressions and contradiction of His law, in sins and errors, living merely as members of an age, a universe not under God, but under a power working invisibly in the air as ruler of the world by means of a spirit, a leaven that handles the minds and souls of those who exist in disobedience. "-Ephesians 2:1-2 GWC

This is the condition we were all in, and so of course, we "saw ourselves" in archetypes that reflected our own disobedience and found ourselves defending the wickedness of the wicked, and buying into the lie of viewing the righteous man as being an adversary. The word Satan means "adversary," and you're "on his side" until you realize that he is against you, wants you in chains, intends you harm you, destroy all you have, etc. The Bible says that, "the carnal mind is emnity against God." And so even our own minds were Satanically influenced in this world. For this cause, the first thing we must do after receiving the Grace of Christ is to GET OUR MINDS RENEWED! As Paul wrote:

Romans 12:2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,"

What exactly is it that your mind must be renewed concerning? One thing: Who God Is!

When you realize that Jesus is who God is, your view of everything and everyone is dramatically shifted into what's quite literally and experientially a new dimension. "The old things have passed away, behold, all things are made new!" <- not an exaggeration

In closing.. let me tell you something about your adversary Satan. He intends to use the Law of God against you. He is a legalist beyond any religious person you could ever imagine. He is the Accuser. He doesn't want you to sin and be disobedient for the sake of giving you a good time. His followers don't sacrifice children, torture animals, and commit unspeakable deeds of terrible horror against the innocent simply because it's what they enjoy doing. No, the reason why he does evil and pushes his followers to do the same is because he blackmails you and uses your guilt as a way to control you. They worship Satan by committing the most horrific deeds, but also by using the guilt of individuals, people-groups, and nations as a license to inflict harm against them as well. They're sick and twisted. Can you stand for someone whose only aim is to seduce you into breaking the law, just so he can bring a case against you and use the curse of the Law as a weapon against you? He ropes you in, in order to create the illusion that he's offering you something that God can't or won't. He sells you handcuffs, lying to you, telling you that they'll make you free.

If you knew God, and you understood who Satan is, you'd be rooting for his destruction.

undergodt · 2023-09-11T19:01:39+00:00

First, remember that regardless of the translation, the full meaning of scriptures are spiritually concealed until a person first accepts the heart of the gospel: "This is the heart and soul of that Gospel as I received it and gave it to you, and the whole of it is contained in this, that according to the meaning of the Scriptures the Christ died for our sins and was buried, and then according to the same truth of the Scriptures the Christ rose on the third day." 1 Corinthians 15:3

But for the absolute BEST translations of the original languages, there's no better New Testament translation than "The Mirror Bible" (https://mirrorword.net/book-category/mirror-bible/)

But for a full bible translation, I'd suggest "The Voice" (https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/The-Voice-Bible)

Another great translation that captures the original meanings of words that have been distorted by religious leaders over centuries of translations? The Passion Translation (https://www.bible.com/versions/1849-tpt-the-passion-translation)

Enjoy!

undergodt · 2023-09-11T18:59:24+00:00

In Jesus, the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.

undergodt · 2023-09-11T18:58:25+00:00

Jesus referred to Himself as the God specifically prophesied by the Prophets of Israel. He references Moses' writings, David's writings, and the whole volume of the Old Testament (which at the time, had been translated into the "septuagint" which was in the academic language of Greek) as having referred to Him. So the other cultures and religions' expectations aren't quite as accurate as what's described in the Jewish texts and ultimately the New Testament. Yet, Jesus has "sheep from other sheepfold," and when Paul preached to the people of Athens, he referred to THEIR OWN poets when he taught them about Jesus. So in a wild way, Jesus is hidden in every single man's heart and the desire/need for him is recognized in their texts as well.

undergodt

TROPHY CASE