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PERSON® — Design for Transhumanity/Divinity

White Paper

Faith shows! So apart from who we are in Christ internally (i.e. already divine AND immortal by virtue of being grafted to the vine and receiving the sap/Spirit/Word – Jn10:35), which is all that matters to God, our façade or persona (i.e. what we did with our faith) distinguishes us from our Christian brothers and sisters. Of course, a façade by itself is nothing if there is no content–the “beauty of holiness” of the inner man.

Secondly, we are living in a “connection economy” (Seth Godin). So PERSON® is not merely about who a person is from conception, but who he is in connection with, not only physically but also spiritually/wordily/technologically (Jer1:5; Luke1:44; 1Cor7:14; cf. Jn6:63).

To the question, “What would you say is the best thing in the world?” …

 

For, to be united with the divine is to become more and more divine!

Mission: Rehabilitate the faithful to their genesis perfect/divine state using:

Person® is not an unemploying, enslaving or parasitic “wear” or robot-in-sheep’s-clothing (competition) but an ecosafe design for rehabilitating man to his genesis perfect state, patent pending as Augmented and Extended Persona (US 13/516,443).  With both blue-collar and white-collar jobs being gobbled up by the beast, a severe, sustained, global recession is well underway. “We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.” Unless the safe Ecosystem™ (Pan-Environment Super Cyborg) against #MachineTyranny, terrorism, and globalization is deployed, mankind is asking for extinction (Omohundro 2013; Wakefield 2016). The Super Cyborg is a result of yoking and reinventing the network-is-the-super-computer and “making it safe” (Deut22:8MSG).

But wear, we must, strength (Isa52:1). Apart from the transhuman experience, wearing PERSON® can also be thought of as “putting on Christ” (Rom13:14) with the system enabling you to do what Jesus would do in a particular situation, even proactively. For, “the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” (1Jn3:7).

Our plan is to colabor (1Cor3:9) with God and align with His plan of filling us with His fullness (Eph3:19b) by offering a trans-humaniser or persona extender for becoming perfect, over on top of being “complete in Him” (Col2:10), having put on Christ (Rom13:14). Thus rehabilitating man to his original perfect state. It is for those who have already been initiated into divinity and in good standing, availing Engineering Divinity – 101.

It is based on the premise that Adam is a son of God (Luke3:38) and therefore divine. “When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God.” (Gen5:1b MSG). Apostle Bakht Singh, in the book, “Fullness of God,” says:

“God gave the first man Adam a very strong and healthy body to enable him to have dominion, authority and power over the whole creation (Gen1:26). “

With the fall, however, Adam got cutoff (disconnected) and lost fellowship with God. Thereby he lost divinity, being no longer spiritual, having no access to eat of the tree of life. Along with divinity, Adam also lost dominion, authority, and power, which are needed to care for planet earth.

When we speak of dominion, power and authority, we are not speaking about lording it over others for its own sake. Our patent pending Christocratic New World Order & Government, made possible by Agape TiE® Ecosystem™, lends itself to real servants of God, precluding anyone from lording it over those in bride-space, as per the promise, “I will make you the head and not the tail.”

Enter Christ in the fullness of time, and now divinity is being restored to mankind even as people are being grafted into the vine, receiving the sap/Holy Spirit. Apostle Peter too writes of becoming partakers of divine nature by way of God’s promises, which inspire us to do more goods & services.

But perfection is possible only with “perfection in unity” (Jn17:23; 14:20; 15:1-10; Heb11:39-40). Enter PERSON® & Agape TiE®–an image of God technology–now for perfection.

As we contemplate on what it means to be a Super Cyborg PERSON® using the Super Cyborger invention, we drive home the point that technology is part of the image of Creator God and of who we are in Christ. John Edmiston writes:

God is a highly competent technician. He created wing structures, eyes, chemical factories like the liver, lightning bolts and even nuclear furnaces called stars –long before man was there to advise Him. He even created and designed the human brain – a self-replicating, fuzzy logic, multi-media, self-programming, organic computer. If we are to be in the image of God then we will share His excellence in design, invention and implementation. The notion that technology is alien to spirituality is false. Technology is the expression of spirituality. Technology and spirituality are integrated with each other. Technology is our means of expression of the image of God within us.

The Lamb’s wedding with the Church, His Bride will be naturally supernatural.

dBride.ME™ Super Cyborg (a Wedded Avatar of Christ) is the superset of the invention, which is a corporate entity to enable the Bride to reign with Christ, each member profiled according to holiness in a Totally Integrated Environment® Ecosystem w/ eThrone for a Christocratic New World Order. In comparison, our copycat competitor’s ecosystem is a machine-centric one, where the machine with exclusively economic considerations reigns supreme and controls and subjugates the entire ecosystem, without empathy, values or any other humane consideration. In essence, competition is #MachineTyranny.

In addition to having power, and divinity being holiness (Rom1:3-4), the above trans-human experience is attainable!

Vicar Nicky Gumbel writes in “Become Great in the Order of Holiness:”

Our magazines and TV screens are filled with stories of the rich, the beautiful and the strong. Our culture places these things on a pedestal and many of us aspire to achieve them. There is nothing wrong with these things – but they are not everything. The French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, spoke of three orders of greatness. Riches, beauty and strength fall into his first category of superficial ‘physical greatness’. Above this is a higher, second level of greatness. It is the greatness of genius, science and art. The greatness of the art of Michelangelo or the music of Bach or the brilliance of Albert Einstein – these stand way above superficial physical greatness. However, according to Pascal there is a third kind of greatness – the order of holiness. (And there is an almost infinite qualitative difference between the second and the third categories.) The fact that a holy person is strong or weak, rich or poor, highly intelligent or illiterate, does not add or subtract anything because that person’s greatness is on a different and almost infinitely superior plane. It is open to every one of us to become great in the order of holiness.

But Satan constantly says especially to ADOPTED sons & daughters of God, who may or may not be great in either the first or second plane/level mentioned above: “Are you really the son/daughter of God (divine)?” This is nothing new, as he likewise tempted the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the wilderness (Matt4:3).

On the other hand, something more subtle is going on. Satan has effectively defeated us when he makes us believe that we have already arrived in righteousness and holiness that which is supposedly imputed to us through the death of Christ. What has been credited to us is the minimum balance (faith of no boasting–Rom4:5; Eph2:8-9) that enabled us to open an account in heaven. We are forgiven and given a clean slate to write on, so to speak. And it is only in Him (abiding–Jn15:1-10) that we ultimately become (future tense; cf. 2Cor5:21) righteous. Meanwhile, Satan is feeding God’s children with the “doctrine of demons” (Calvinism & Lutheranism; 1Tim4:1) saying, “Perfection can never be attained on this side of heaven,” effectively implying, “don’t even try (holiness or righteousness).” And all the while he is singing the lullaby of sin: “once-saved-always-saved (sleep/sin) thou shalt surely not die.” Poison—a lie mixed with truth!

As for our quest for holiness, in our walk of faith (faith-in-action/works/love), we can resist (Acts7:51), grieve (Eph4:29-32), quench (1Thess5:12-22) and even run from the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Helper, who is not “the doer” here. Synergism! Calvinism is intrinsically bad. To show that it is good, you have to quote some obscure scripture, twist it out of shape, quote it out of context, thereby even making God look bad. So away with hyper-grace and sovereignty-thumping that holds God responsible for our wrong-doing! Agape love entails freedom of the will (freewill) with absolutely no control over it except in omnipotence to defeat us as his enemy and relegate us to hell with Satan.

Now, in order to understand how we frail humans can become divine, we need to understand the nature of Christ.

Jesus Christ Himself is divine ONLY by virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus WAS divine/Word at one time (Jn1:1; Micah5:2NASB; Isa53:1). As humanity and divinity are mutually exclusive, He became incarnate, meaning, He emptied Himself (Phil2:6ff NASB) of His divinity and became man–the Word became flesh (Jn1:14). Any divinity attributed to Jesus Christ over on top of what we ourselves enjoy in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit, disqualifies Jesus from the requirement to be the PERFECT sacrifice AND model (Phil3:3-5 NASB) for you and for me. Jesus did not merely set aside His divine prerogatives like in the illustration of a king going into the streets as a beggar (king-incognito). It is a poor example of what Jesus did for us in becoming man. A better illustration is a man becoming an ant. Jesus, the divine Right Arm of God (Isa53:1; Ps98:1), went down humbling to that extent in His incarnation of becoming a man. In His passion & mission to save us, He “burnt the ships that brought Him” to earth, so to speak. It is either die with mankind in our fight with the devil, or ensure victory with we ourselves getting the empowerment (the raison d’être for the Wedded Avatar of Christ) to slay the devil and his entourage, while saving as many as we can!

Eternal life for us and those in Christ, who in-turn is in us, is a colaborment with Him!

Agape TiE® is Saints — Past, Present & Future — in one!

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Testimony 24×7

 

A lord 24×7

The concept of a lord 24×7 is not going to go well with a pseudo-democratic society that is hell-bent on equality.

C.S Lewis cautioned:

“There is no spiritual sustenance in flat equality. When equality is treated not as a medicine or a safety-gadget, but as an ideal, we begin to breed that stunted and envious sort of mind which hates all superiority. That mind is the special disease of democracy, as cruelty and servility are the special diseases of privileged societies. It will kill us all if it grows unchecked. The man who cannot conceive a joyful and loyal obedience on the one hand, nor an unembarrassed and noble acceptance of that obedience on the other – the man who has never even wanted to kneel or to bow – is a prosaic barbarian. Where men are forbidden to honor a king, they honor millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead — even famous prostitutes or gangsters.”

Jesus gave the medicine of serving-lordship for unbridled lording-over by those above. He set an example for us by washing the feet of His disciples. And also saying, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mark9:35). Jesus offered a serving-lordship, not servility or equality, which is an aspect of abomination of desolation.

Now, our Lord Jesus Himself was a 24×7 Lord. He worked 24×6 and went down on record as being Lord, also of the Sabbath (Luke6:5NKJV; Mark2:28NKJV). So let us not allow the devil to contain us in 24×1, while we are getting our bearings right. Because they have said, “The lord is a god of the mountains (spiritual realm on Sundays), but He is not a god of the valleys (earthly realm on weekdays),” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the lord24x7 (rhema through 1Kings20:28 through Pastor Rick Warren). Jesus was particularly eradicating the wrong interpretation of the Law in Jewish traditions, which meant not taking care of father and mother for instance (Matt15:5-6) who offered their entire selves 24×7 to God. Jesus clearly taught in Matt25:1-30 that His Servants must use the gifts and talents that were given to them and do business with it, making a profit.

A White-collar Beast of Burden

The Holy Spirit’s Rhema through Matt21:5-8 on 7th June, 2015:

“Say to Zion’s daughter–the Church,
‘Behold your king is coming to you,
Gentle, and mounted on a donkey (in humility),
Even on a colt, the foal of a [white-collar] beast of burden (the-internet-is-the-computer in exaltation).’ ”
The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them,
and brought the beast of burden, and laid their coats (today: works) on them…

A 24×7 holy GOODs & SERVICEs Church (Rev22:14)

In order to enter into the celestial city we need to wash our robes (Rev22:14), which means to turn our works into holy goods & services. In the Bible, garments always stand for works (1Tim2:9-10; Rev19:8; Matt22:11-12; 2Cor5:4NKJV; Ex28:4; cf. Diaper Righteousness).

“Christians have a biblical commission—to be salt and light in a dark world—in addition to the Great Commission of evangelism and discipleship. We are to be the “good infection,” in the words of C.S. Lewis, touching our neighborhoods, communities, schools and businesses with the compassion and truth of Christ.” – Franklin Graham. This means all of our works must be washed. That is, all of our works 24×7 must become holy. If you, Laodiceans, do not have 24×6 clothes, let alone wash them, buy them from the Lord and be “further clothed” (2Cor5:4NKJV). This is also the original intention of naming them GOOD.

Now, no matter how flowery it may sound, for the Church to be “the conscience of the state” (MLK) is merely being its critic. As Seth Godin puts it, “Criticism is easy to do, but rarely worth listening to, mostly because it’s so easy to do.” It is time the Church became a 24×7 testimony!

You see, today, with Pastors sticking to Sunday worship service, supposedly in keeping with John2:16KJV (cf. Matthew21:13; Mark11:17; Luke19:46), the Church is perceived as merely a 24×1 institution, completely severed from 24×6. The concept of profit (Matt25:14-30) and of GOODs & SERVICEs during 24×6 is seen as alien to church activity because the church does not have a corporate 24×6 testimony of its own, other than books and giving oneself to prayer. What’s more, today, on the one hand, within the church, leadership sees 24×6 activity as worldly; and on the other hand, without, the world sees church folk as crazy because they are so irrelevant and unconnected with ground realities. Of course, we do not stick what the foot treads on into our eye. That would not be giving each one his/her due per Gen1:28; Mark12:17; 1Cor11:3; 1 Cor12:28; Rom13:7, which is precisely what Jesus was setting straight by overturning the tables of money-changers and sellers of doves who occupied a place inappropriate to what is due them. But Jesus’ intention was not to throw away the “body” altogether that is in fact doing the legwork.

I hereby call on the Church to put forth a 24×7 testimony, without having to diminish the high on Sunday. Let us be lovers of GOOD (cf. 2Tim3:3).

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Helpful Lordship Salvation

Martin Luther’s doctrine of Sola Fide (Justification by faith alone), enhanced by Calvin’s doctrines of “Once-Saved-Always-Saved,” and supposedly “predestined (not, IN HIM) before the foundation of the world” lulls people to sleep—the perfectly orchestrated lullaby of Satan, “doctrines peddled by demons” (1Tim4:1), essentially saying as usual, “(sleep) thou shalt surely not die.” Poison—a lie mixed with truth!

First off, God has not given us the righteousness of one who has died for his neighbor. That belongs to Him; reason why He is Lord, and His name is the name above every name. On being born-again, we merely got ourselves the righteousness of faith (Rom4:5)—a boastless work in the work of Savior Christ. After being born-again, God did not immediately carry us over to His abode in heaven. Having wiped away all our past sins (Rom3:25; 2 Pet1:9) He left us here on earth to get us qualified for heaven. And He gave us the Helper, a Holy Spirit living inside of us, to achieve that goal. Christ saves sinners, in whatever wretched condition they are in, not that they be better than others but become better than their past selves. And ultimately to become like Christ Himself, primarily in the attribute of love because love is the greatest (Rom13:13). He qualifies us using the Holy Spirit living inside of us. It is bewildering at first with a clean slate with nothing to show, to start with. We will have merely good intentions, a heart inclined to do good. God understands that. He does look at the heart (1Sam 16:7) and the intentions of the heart (Heb4:12). But we will be fooling ourselves to believe we can sit smug, twiddling thumbs the rest of our entire life with a supposedly “good heart” and “good intentions” and supposedly “a faith,” without showing results to back it up. Fruit! Of course, we do not need to labor & toil (Luke12:27) like those who hope in their own strivings alone, supposedly to earn their way to heaven. But as for us we simply do the will of God, promptings of the Holy Spirit, telling us where to invest our love, even in our enemies sometimes. This is not self-righteousness, but rather imparted righteousness–a “walk by the Spirit” (Gal5:16). It is neither merely a law-keeping nor of the “flesh” per se. Love is a product and evidence of our faith, not in a NOW dead, dumb, or blind god, but One that is risen & alive, still speaking, all-seeing Lord. For an intention/will/plan of God to become a reality, energy of tongue and limb alike of the body of Christ must be launched into operation (HT: Walt Kelly). If that is not work, what is? “You see, a man is justified by works and not by faith alone, [where initial belief itself in the sacrifice of Christ is also a work (Jn6:29) that will take you to heaven if you die the instant you were born-again like the thief on the cross]” (James2:24). All the heroes of faith in Heb11 demonstrated their faith by doing the will of God. And true faith will enable us to surpass even the righteousness of those who depend on themselves (Matt5:20). What’s more our faith in the Holy Spirit will enable us to overcome the whole wide world (1Jn5:4), let alone bear a bunch of fruit.

Meanwhile, to be a Christian means, to wear the mask of Christ (Rom13:14). In fact, you start off as a sort of hypocrite but that does not mean you are not authentic. Surely, there must not be even an iota of masquerading in humility or posturing from pride. It is just that, as you repent, you move from glory to glory. You self-actualize as you go.

That “first love” of faith is merely the minimum balance (like a dollar) to open a bank account in heaven. It is not something you can boast about (Eph2:8). In other words, in the language of the Bible, which uses clothing for righteousness, we merely have a diaper-righteousness, as newly born-again babes in Christ. We must mature, grow, and “continue in the faith” (Col1:23), further clothing ourselves, “making treasures for ourselves,” crediting that account in heaven. The faith that enabled us to initially believe in the sacrifice of Jesus should now enable us to love like Jesus, in the incarnational mission we have on earth that did not stop with Jesus. Those are the “wedding garments” of Matt22 that we put on, over on top of our under-garments (which by providence exist even in today’s clothing to help declare this truth). It is the careful attention we give our “clothing” lest we be found naked (Rev16:15). This is what God instructs us to wear. Yes, these are works prompted/counselled by the Holy Spirit, omissions & commissions. But unlike the work on the cross by Jesus, these are YOUR works, both in talk/profession & walk/practice. And ultimately, these are the “fine linen garments” of Rev19:8, the “righteous acts of the SAINTS (not of Jesus, not of the Father, not of the Holy Spirit).” It is then, and only then, we “BECOME the righteousness of God IN Him” (2Cor5:21). It is a righteousness commensurate to how well we have put our faith (in the WILL of God for us in particular, here and now) into action. This is how we abide in Him (Jn15:10), hearing His voice daily, affectionately & willingly submitting, and doing His command/will. It is a Lordship salvation. It is being a true Muslim, who does the precise will of God right from the start. And not some vague and indefinite will, as the takfir or apostate muslims do, who have not availed the provision of Allah/God–the elementary will–to get a head-start by way of the sacrifice of Jesus, having been corrupted by Muhammad, who simply lacked knowledge and conducted himself as “a wild donkey of a man” (Gen16:12), true to Ishmael before him. As you can see, it does not happen by some sort of virtual osmosis. But as grafted branches, it starts with aggressively suckling at the teats of the mother Church that has many babes to care for, going on to maturity, doing and learning as you go. Thereby bearing much fruit; fruit that will last! Built on the solid rock of putting to action/practice the will of God (Matt7:24).

It is a Helpful Lordship Salvation: Grace + Faith + Fruit! Saying any otherwise is of Satan to lull you to sleep and keep you fruitless.

Bro. Michael Hudson helps in adding:

If a man denies the Son of Man he will be forgiven. But if a man denies the Spirit that had led the Son, which now also leads him, he will die (Matt12:31). For, abused grace (fruitlessness) deserves greater punishment than those who are not even recipients of grace (Luke12:47-48; Heb10:26-29). Love is greater but without truth, it is out of wack and not love to even begin with. Conversion followed by transformation/repentance is really the bitter portion–the greater love of truth–of the sugar-coated pill, setting a man free unto eternal life. However, we can’t love with that great agape love unless we have faith in doing the will of the Holy Spirit and hope of eternal life with rewards for doing, embedded right inside. Therefore, the world does (and it should) trust us because our primary incentives lie in the after-life, not the here-and-now short term profits. But faith and hope without love is dead (James2:20). We must bare fruit of our faith that in turn nurtures & encourages the heart to do better. This nurturing of the heart, which can mean a pat on the back or a one-minute praise, if you can accept it, is really prudence of “carrying that oil” (Matt25:4) to sustain us until the coming of Christ. But we musn’t for even a moment believe in our heart. Rather we must direct our heart to believe in God.

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Online Salvation

Legalism is defined as: Not reading a portion of scripture in the spirit it was intended. So, we don’t want to be legalists for sure.

Online Baptisms

In the wake of the proliferation of cloud or sky communities, an online baptism would look like this: A sinner encounters the Word either through an online interaction/presentation of the Gospel (Good News that Jesus came to die for our sins and rose again). Wants to receive Christ into His heart. He may testify in social media by posting a video clip of himself getting a wash. I know that this is the will of God as i, inadvertently, just now (24th August 2013), picked this worship song to hear:

“My Jesus” song by: Leeland

Lyrics:

Here on the bank I stand / In the water is the hope of man / Unclean I fall before You now / Jesus, come wash me inside-out / I’m running to the water now / I’m running to the water now. And I’m lost in Your love and Your mercy Lord, Your beauty is so overwhelming I’m thankful for Your truth. I’m so in love with You. My Jesus. My Jesus. All things are new again / Covered in waters of love I stand / All my chains are broken / All things are new again / Covered in waters of love I stand / All my chains are broken / As I’m washed inside Your ocean / You make all things new / You are so good to me, Lord, yeah / So thankful, Lord, so thankful, Lord / I’m a new creation / You make all things new, oh, Lord / You are my foundation / You are just so beautiful / I’m a new creation / You make all things new, oh, Lord / So in love with You…———-Copyright 2009 Meaux Mercy (BMI) / Meaux Jeaux Music (SESAC)

The Lord confirmed His intention today (17th March 2014) asking me to have a faith that would move even a mountain (such as the Muslim world) and baptized in the ocean. Plus this verse from Matthew15:2a telling me not to follow traditions.

Online Communion


 
Jesus’ use of shock of eating His flesh and blood in Jn6:41-58 was to filter-out the bad people. Peter says, “Where can we go, You have the Words of eternal life.” Once it became clear that they “leaned not on their own understanding” but trusted Jesus wholly, then Jesus at the last supper decodes what He meant. We live on account of His sacrificial death. So if we are living an eternal life, in effect, the food that we are eating is not ordinary food for living but symbolically His flesh and blood.

He does filters out the bad guys. See Matt13:10-17. What i have stated is to show that it is only symbolic. Trans- or consubstantiation  makes you a cannibal. We don’t want that. Reading Jn6 out of context (without including last supper) makes you think that Jesus wants you to become a cannibal, primarily. But in the context of Jn1:1, 14 and the last supper we are lead to understand that the elements of the Communion are not the end but a means to tell us to take a COURSE of the Word, as daily as food is ingested.

Thus said the Lord to me on Thu Aug 12, 2010: Matthew 22:8-10 NASB.

At the expense of being ridiculed, i believe that the Skyfeast.org is the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God as it spans the whole globe–“the ends of the earth” (Matt24:14). Allow me to explain.

Like in Jesus’ days when the disciples wanted Him to bring about a forced overthrow of the then government, today we might want for the rapture to be like a SIGNificant event. But God says, “Christ’s work happens quietly.”

The NIV of the Holy Bible correctly translates John 6:63 as: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh COUNTS for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” You see, the flesh counts for nothing. We could be sitting next to each other in a crowded bus/train/plane/building but our minds/spirits could be miles apart in thinking. Brother Victor Thyagaraj of Jehovah-shammah, Chennai agreed with me in spirit that Communion is only possible in the spirit. The concept of a physical fleshly rapture, is a Hollywood’s take on it. “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Cor 15:50 NASB). But consider an eCommunion such as Skyfeast.org. Millions could gather together there and feast on the “Bread of Life.” This symbolic Bread is the Word, which had become flesh and dwelt amongst men (John 1:14 + John 6:48 + 1st John 1:1). Today, that Flesh of Jesus is once again the Word/Holy Spirit indwelling in us–Christians. So in keeping with the command of the Lord in Matthew 22:8-10 above, i invite all to come hither to Skyfeast.org in spirit, and partake of the global eCommunion!

Once again the Lord gave me the portion from Matthew 22. Then i asked the Lord, “Am i the one not going to the wedding feast (the Table) which has been organized at Jehovah-shammah, Vepery, Chennai, India? Or is the Wedding Feast at Rottelaillu.org — the invitation being given by me through Facebook and Twitter to all the people?” THUS SAID THE LORD THROUGH Matthew 16:5-12 GIVING ME A BREAKTHROUGH: “Just because you are not distributing physical bread at Rottelaillu.org it does not become disqualified to be the Wedding Feast nor does Jehovah-shammah become qualified as the place where the Wedding Feast is held just because they are giving out physical bread.” Moreover i have to be aware of the teachings of the neo-Pharisees and the neo-Sadducees who also do not know the info-highway.

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Just Punishment

God’s face (Justice) and not His back (Goodness), is the best of Love (Exodus 33:17-19; John 1:14; cf. 1Jn4:8). God taught His children, even as early as Abel, to kill, to keep us from being a wimp in doing justice.

Jesus “affirmed retributive justice by His own death on the cross” ~ Dr. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League.

A dead man comes back to life to show that a man need not die if he is clean (Rom1:3-4; cf. Rom6:23; Gen2:17). That a totally innocent man needs to be put to death so that “his blood would be upon us and our children” and then for him to rise again from the dead to show that our sins have indeed been forgiven IN him, is self-evident, requiring no evidence to defend it.

That God loves us, is true. But there is a limit to His tolerance, beyond which we can find ourselves in hell. When we live by the Golden Rule and don’t cross His line, He will not cross ours. God has provisioned a framework (church) for self-correction. No use feeling sorry after you are caught.

Here is the basic problem of lawlessness in the leading edge of society today that is driving the whole earth to its demise: “To escape the error of salvation by works we have fallen into the opposite error of salvation without obedience” (AW Tozer). In the name of liberty and freedom, everything goes. The result: 42nd Street in New York City, Abortion-on-Demand, Same Sex marriage, etc, etc. At this rate, 10 years from now, I would not be surprised if sex/marriage with animals too will be legalized. Next thing you know, we are the late great planet earth.

When the Bible says that Jesus atoned for our sins, it does not mean that even our future sins were washed away in the Waters of Baptism, obviating the need for any subsequent obedience per se. In Romans3:25 and 2Peter1:9, the Apostles clearly teach that only sins previously committed were atoned for by the sacrifice of Christ. This means that the inadvertent sins that are committed after the washing of Baptism, if they are not confessed and “feet-washed” (forgiven through the ordinance, which is in the order of John20:21-23), will remain as charges in God’s books, pending payment of a penalty.

The second kind of sins (omissions and commissions) that can get accumulated are the wilful sins or the presumptuous sins, which David dreaded. Hebrews 10:26ff reads: “For if we go on sinning  wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no more sacrifice [of Jesus Christ] is left but only a fearful expectation of judgment and the fury of fire…” In Luke12:47-48, Jesus Himself speaks of greater punishment for those who know the will of God and don’t do it, when compared to those who sin not knowing the will of God, to begin with. Listen! Abused grace/mercy deserves double or even treble punishment.

Woe unto those who soft-pedal God’s justice and have turned Christianity into a yes-man!

In view of the above two types of unpaid sins, a people who practice Christianity, if they want to see Justice, Peace and Wealth—the three metrics of good governance—to exist, they must put in place some sort of retribution, including the Death Penalty for those deserving it. Individuals do not have the right to kill another, but a Christian state (two or three Christians gathered in Jesus’ name to bind or loose anything on earth as per Matthew18:15-20) has that prerogative to do so. Bro. Nicky Gumbel writes in an article on “How to love”:

The New Testament makes a distinction between the dealings of the state and personal morality. Governing authorities are established by God and ‘the one in authority is God’s servant to do you good… They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer’ (Romans 13:4). The state is concerned with the protection of others. To stand by and allow injustice would actually be unloving and unchristian. It would be to allow evil to go unchecked, and to ignore the pain of the victims. Yet, in personal morality we are told, both by Jesus and the apostle Paul, not to take revenge (Matthew 5:38–42; Romans 12:17–19). This attitude of love and forgiveness is not to deny justice, but rather it is an expression of trust in God’s ultimate justice (see Romans 12:19). As we trust in God’s justice, we are empowered to imitate his love.

Here, the raison d’être of Just punishment is not for the sake of deterrence, since the indwelling Holy Spirit is sufficient as a Restrainer for Christian individuals, in so far as the conscience is sensitized for any given sin. But if victims are to be healed, and perpetrators to be reformed, then Just punishment, even though it is a basic provision, is necessary. It is also consistent with a just and loving God, who declares: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed,  for God made man in his own image.”

Apostle Paul takes issue with those who turn the grace of God into a license to sin: “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law” (Romans3:31). As to how God establishes the Law through Jesus Christ, we read in Romans8:3: “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and offering Him for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.” That is, Jesus’ death on the cross vindicated the Father of His wrath on any transgressed law. While it is not for an individual to kill a person for any reason, it is the state’s prerogative here, not merely for the sake of deterrence, but also, in the name of Christ, to judge and execute those deserving retribution & capital punishment. “The just use of executions, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this (Fifth) Commandment, which prohibits murder” ~ Pope Pius V, The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566). If being pro-life does not mean death for those who do not value it, what does?

You may ask: “what about the woman caught in adultery in Jesus’ time?” Jonathan Merritt writes, “Jesus served as a one-man jury on this death-penalty case. The woman was guilty of the capital offense and had been caught in the act by at least one witness. The law mandated her death but Jesus prescribed a different response: “Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone.” He was teaching that only a perfect being—only God—should have power over death and life. Yes, it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE” (Hebrews 10:30). My answer is that she would be saved by Christ Himself, in the future, on the cross. Jesus is the saviour for all people past, present and future. While we in the present look back in time for a saviour, those in the Old Testament time looked into the future for a saviour, including the woman caught in adultery. Jesus did not throw the first stone because He chose mercy in HER case. Laying down a pattern for us, who are to carry the cross, He was Himself paying the penalty in her case. Jesus was certain that she would respond positively to the Gospel if it were presented to her (cf. Romans2:11-16). Jesus had confidence in this woman in particular because she was not in league with teachers of the Law, or some other lofty status in life, for one thing. Conceivably, she possessed the requisite humility for receiving the Good News (Gospel) in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. C.S. Lewis so eloquently put it this way:

“Prostitutes are in no danger of finding life so satisfactory that they can’t turn to God: the proud & self-righteous are in that danger.”

The fact that He sacrificed Himself to death, affirms, first and foremost, the principle that a sin has to be paid for.  Just as a teacher of the Law is more accountable for sins committed than a layperson (James3:1), a nation who KNOW fully well the full import of why Jesus had to die such a cruel death, which is never to be repeated again for any sins of theirs, should have in place the strictest, most severe, capital punishment; even torture, followed by death. But for cases that are “too hard” for us, to send them to God per Deut1:17 using a painless lethal injection is justifiable, even virtuous. Jesus declares that this truth is self-evident by saying: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more” (Luke12:48b). For this same reason, Prophet Muhammad (exclusively judged here) and all those who:

  • Presumptuously believe Allah will provide Christians as substitutionary sacrifices in place of Muslims in order to enter paradise per Hadith Sahih Muslim 37:6665, 37:6666, 37:6668
  • After having acknowledged most of the truths in the Torah, Tanakh, and Injeel, now believe in diversions from the truth (i.e. interspersing truth with lies/diversions/mischief such as Koran 2:111 and Koran 2:135)

are condemned to be tortured, followed by death. Unless of course, they, as an Ummah (Muslim community) seek mercy.

You see, forgiveness is available only for those who do not know what they are doing (Injeel Luke 23:34).

However, those convicted to death, must be given ample time to set themselves right before God, before the execution is actually administered. The convicted can then give himself the benefit of having received Christ into his heart and in so doing, be satisfied of having already crossed over from death to life (Jn5:24) before his execution. For he knows that the resurrection of Jesus Christ had to have happened to show that death is only for sinners and not for him, who got all his sins washed away in the waters of Resurrection Baptism. He can rejoice with hope that his name is written in the Lamb’s book of life and join with Apostle Paul, who defiantly told death: “O death, where is thy sting?” For, it is the second death a Christian is more concerned about. As to whether this is sufficient relief for a Christian on death row, we must assert that willful sin must be paid for!

But it is a whole different scenario where a nation have not yet got the full import of why Jesus had to die such a cruel death, which we Christians fully know is for those very inadvertent sins we commit daily, sins for which we come again and again to wash our feet, so to speak. Here, the state cannot take upon itself the duty of cutting short the grace period of anyone before they can enter into eternal life. Within a nation where the Gospel is not fully preached, Capital Punishment robs a person from repenting—a process that is gradual—and being born-again. Such states are commanded to allow the work of missionaries, who follow Jesus, taking upon themselves His incarnational mission by being living sacrifices, and save that soul from eternal damnation; not snuff it out deliberately and even corporately before God’s appointed day for him/her.

I am not suggesting that execution need to be postponed until they accept the Gospel. Neither am i saying that they should be executed soon after they do. The execution and disciplining need to be handled separately. As to how much time is enough time, can be arrived at through consensus in your legislative assemblies. That a fixed time be given for repentance, is consistent with our own lease of life that God allots to us–70 years or at the most 80 years (Psalms90:10). God will not strive with man forever; neither should the state.

And yet again, there is a whole different scenario for those who are under the Law of Moses, having been circumcised, just as Jews and Muslims are. For these, deterrence is the issue; the state should take an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, until the state itself gets macroscopically evangelized to Christianity, which is of a higher order. In an upcoming post, i hope to deal with the issue of Dual-Covenant Theology, which is close on the heels of this article.

No one can say that they have not heard the Gospel. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom1:20). Today, all nations more or less, have this great cloud of witnesses as well, surrounding them. No one can afford to neglect so great a salvation–a provision of God, who liberally gave us His Son, even to die for us on the cruel cross of Calvary. It is blasphemous on the part of any nation’s leadership to reject the very remedy for sin, which causes death in people. It is an unpardonable sin for which not even prayers can be offered.

Every nation is obliged to legislate this self-evident Just Punishment, which is based on the Gospel truth.