Category Archives: Christian Anthropology

Your Words Always Carry Authority

Sometimes the faith preachers can go too far in their teaching on words, confession, and giving Satan authority through your words of unbelief. Most of the mistakes boil down to one of two things. First is their demonic doctrine of Arminianism. Their denial of the Bible’s sovereignty leads them to say God gave up some of His power and authority and handed it to man, and then man passed it to Satan, and so on. The second is a borderline superstition about words. Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead” (John 11:14). This did not cancel His ability to raise him from the dead, because Jesus said it along with the statement, “we will go and wake him up” (John 11:11). Jesus did not say he was dead in unbelief, fearful that Lazarus could not be raised from the dead, but as a statement made on the human level of observation. Jesus said what could be observed, but contradicted empiricism by faith: “We will go and wake him up.”

With that being said, there is some truth to what is being said, and we need to address it. Proverbs 18:21 declares that life and death are in the power of the tongue. The most obvious way to see this is in salvation. If you believe and confess with your tongue, you will be saved (Romans 10:9-10). However, sometimes the confession of the tongue can be as simple as tears. For Jesus said to the woman who washed His feet with her tears, and to whom He said all her sins are forgiven, “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 7:50). Jesus, the most God-centered man who ever lived, did not say, “God saved you”; no, He said, “Your faith has saved you.” Thus, we see it is more than just words, but words backed up by faith.

Moses said, “I present before you life and death; choose your path” (Deuteronomy 30:19). And the way we choose is by unbelief or faith. If unbelief, then words of unbelief will follow. If faith, then words of faith in God will follow. This is why Jesus said to the woman, regarding the forgiveness of her sins, “Your faith has saved you,” rather than saying “God saved you.” Faith-filled words or unbelief-filled words determine the course of your life. Your position in life is finalized by your confession.

Talk about a divine mic drop—your tongue’s basically a cosmic remote control; hit ‘faith’ for blessings, or ‘unbelief’ for the eternal buffering screen.

God Is Sovereign and Still Is

Because God has not given up any of His direct and absolute control over all things, He therefore still does all that He wants. He defines His own creation and establishes connections and cause and effects. He was sovereign when He made the promises, and so He is sovereign and faithful to do them, no matter how incredible they are.

Thus, when God made the earth, God gave dominion of the earth to man, commanding man to steward it (Genesis 1:28). God did not stop being the only real cause of all things, but on the relative level, because God is in control of all things, it was His choice to put the earth under man’s authority and stewardship. Adam did not ask for this authority and dominion. It is because God is sovereign that Adam had this responsibility and authority even though Adam did not ask for it.

Because the earth was given to man, when Adam sinned, much authority and power was transferred over to Satan, by God’s choice and design. Even though Adam did not ask for the stewardship and responsibility of managing the earth, it was his because God sovereignly made it so. Thus, even if Adam did not want the responsibility for his choices and words of unbelief to result in earthly authority being transferred to Satan, he had no choice in the matter because this dynamic was established by God. The devil said to Jesus, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to” (Luke 4:6). Jesus did not refute Satan. After Jesus’ resurrection, He said to the disciples, “All authority has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18). Jesus took it back, and all those united to Him not only have the original authority and stewardship given to Adam, but much, much, much greater; it is as great as the authority Jesus has. Jesus has made us royal priests in Him forever (1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:6). We are not just sub-heirs, but co-heirs with Jesus (Romans 8:17). We are united to Jesus’ body; therefore, because all things, including all powers, authority, rulers, and dominions are under Jesus’ feet, they are under our feet (Ephesians 1:22-23). Jesus has given us the privilege and authority to use His Name to ask for whatever we want and get it (John 14:13-14, & ch 15, and 16). He has endowed us with the power of the Holy Spirit; the same Spirit that empowered Him (Acts 1:8).

As a believer, I did not ask to be made a royal priest in Jesus. And yet, this position of authority and power is mine, whether I want it or not. By my words, as a royal priest, I can command sickness to leave and rebuke Satan to his face. I do not go in and out of being a royal priest who can use Jesus’ name. I always have this position, whether I want it or not. Thus, my words always carry royal priesthood weight and authority because in God’s mind, He thinks I am a royal priest in Jesus. For example, if a king mutters to himself, “I want some water,” even if he did not intend for a servant to go get him water, a servant will get him water, because the word of the king is law. This is exactly what the Canaanite woman did with Jesus’ word (Matthew 15:21-28). Jesus’ word put her as a dog in the house, under the table. Thus, the woman demanded some crumbs, because it was Jesus’ word that put her there, even if Jesus did not intend for her to get healing. Even though the woman hijacked Jesus’ word, on the other hand, she honored His word as that of a King, whose word is law. Jesus was in a position of authority, and the woman was demanding that Jesus honor His word.

 Sovereign God hands out authority like candy at a parade—Adam fumbled it to Satan, Jesus snatched it back, and now we’re co-kings; just don’t trip over your own tongue, or you’ll end up cursing yourself.

This is what we mean by our words having life and death. It is not that we have inherent power in our words, but God in His sovereign choice has put us into positions of authority and power, whether we want it or not. It was this way from the beginning with Adam. Adam lost much of this authority, but God began to give it back starting with Abraham, and in Jesus much more has been given to the believer. It does not matter if you acknowledge your position of authority and power, because God in His mind thinks you are in a position of authority and power, therefore, God will see to it personally that the words you speak will bring death or life to you. It is because God is sovereign and we are accountable to Him that words bring life and death. It is because God is sovereign that I have the power to command sickness to leave, to shut the mouths of demons, and tell mountains to fly away (Mark 11:23).

This results in a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you can curse yourself with death, pain, sickness, shame, and demons, or you can bless yourself with life, peace, prosperity, the Holy Spirit, health, and glory. Even if you shut your mouth, just your tears are enough for God to use His sovereignty to ensure they either damn or bless you.

There is only one word in the Bible for demon possession, and it means to be demonized, and it includes anything from being slightly harassed to outright possession. Because Adam sinned in a position of authority, this led God to give man’s authority over to the devil, and this allowed Satan to demonize mankind. For example, in Acts 10:38, Peter says Jesus healed all those being victimized by the devil. Thus, much sicknesses are caused by demons, and so sickness is largely caused by being demonized. If you are sick, then it is likely due to being demonized, although sometimes it can be just God’s curse at the fall (Genesis 3:16-19).

This is why words are so important. If the doctor says you have stage 4 cancer, and in unbelief and fear you repeat this, because God thinks you are in a position of authority, you have just authorized death and pain for you. You have given permission for demons to demonize you. If you say, “getting old means I get arthritis and feeble and fall,” then it will be true for you. You have chosen death. You have chosen unbelief and curses. God thinks you are a steward in authority over the earth, He thinks you are royalty, He thinks you are a priest, and so your words of unbelief have authorized your flesh to be sick, weak, and in pain.

Once you realize you are always in a position of authority and power, then the intelligent thing to do is use your words to confess the goodness of God over yourself, and use the Name of Jesus to get good things from God.

This is why Christianity started with Abraham, whose very name is a confession of faith in God: “I am the father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5). Christianity started with faith-filled words in God’s good promises of health, wealth, fame, and blessings. Both the Old and New Testaments say this: “We believed and so we have spoken” (2 Corinthians 4:13; Psalm 116:10). This is Christianity 101.

Satan knows this and so he has demonized the faithless into confessing death, and by confessing unbelief they are doing Satan’s job for him. They will say, “We are the worst of sinners,” and so they are (1 Timothy 1:15, but misused here). God thinks they are in a position of authority (even if it is only a mere shadow of the stewardship Adam once had), and so they authorize their souls and actions to be sinful and unrighteous. They say things like, “This sickness is sent by God to teach me something.” The ten spies of the Israel came back from spying on the Land and gave a truthful report about their observations saying, “we are small, and the people are giants, we can’t do this.” It was correct; however, God was angry because God’s promise contradicted their observations. They chose their observation over God’s promise. God made their words to be a self-fulling decree. Thus, God in His sovereignty makes unbelief a self-fulfilling prophecy of sickness, because God considers our words have weight

 Think about it. The faithless and traditionist mock the faith preachers for decreeing and prophesying. Yet, just like the 10 spies, they decree they are sick and are too weak to defeat stage 4 cancer, because that is what the doctor confessed. They prophesy about how old age makes them feeble and how arthritis bends their hands; they decree this because they already observe how their bodies hurt. They decree that they are small, but confess that sickness and old age are giants. They prophesy that sufferings from everyday troubles of life will eat away at their life, libido and happiness. And just like the Israelites who confessed their own smallness, defeat and sufferings, God made their decrees reality, and made their prophecies manifest. They speak against the faith teachers for decreeing, but their mouths pour out an onslaught of decrees and prophecies, but in the negative. And we see it come to pass. They see their confessions manifest, not because they have inherent power in words, but because the sovereign God thinks their decrees have authority and power. Their lives are a living testimony of the power of decrees and the reality of prophecy. Their doctrine is against decreeing, but their lives are a constant endorsement of it.

It does not matter if you do not want your self-deprecating statements, or observations about how your body feels, to be self-fulling prophecies, God in His sovereignty ensures your words authorizes them to be so. This is how God is using His sovereignty, so deal with it. Deal with it by speaking faith filled words in God’s blessings.    

Satan’s sneaky script flip—get the faithless yapping negativity, and poof, they’re self-sabotaging superstars; meanwhile, God’s like, “I glued the mic to your hand, it will amplify your words, so think carefully what you will say!”

There is a reason Jesus preached so much. Faith comes by hearing the word of truth (Romans 10:17). By hearing the truth, our hearts are filled with faith. When our hearts are filled with faith, we open our mouths and confess His blessings over our lives. In the Gospels, Jesus kept saying things like, “Ask what you want using my Name and get it” (John 16:23-24). And then, “What you SAY, if you believe, then you will get it.” And if you “SAY to this mountain it will move” (Mark 11:23).

Notice how many times Jesus says, “SAY.”

Mark 11:23-24: “Truly I tell you, if anyone SAYS to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they SAY will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you [SAY] for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Lastly, we are instructed to always be praying, praying in tongues, rejoicing, and praising God (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Corinthians 14:2). God knows that He sees us in authority and so commands us to continually be saying faith-filled words about His goodness, salvation, and blessings over us. Our faith, our words, and confessions need to catch up to our identity in Christ, to our high position of already sitting in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:6), and to our position as always being a royal priest. Our words have power and authority because God is sovereign, and because He loves us. Jesus enjoys seeing the people He died for use His Name to say and command good things for themselves.

Just as speaking sickness opens a foothold for you to be demonized (Ephesians 4:27), speaking in tongues is a foothold for the powers of God to flood into your life.

Your words are like spiritual WiFi passwords: Mutter curses and invite demonic hackers; confess faith and unlock God’s unlimited data plan of miracles.

God Did Not Ask Or Consult Me

You did not ask to come into existence. Its not about you. Reality is God’s playdough, and He creates reality how He wants for His own goals. I was given the gift of existence whether I wanted it or not.

Reality is God’s Lego set, but unlike Legos, He created the stuff to build the stuff. H2O does not naturally make water; it acts like water because God decided to make it consistently behave that way. Reality is God’s arbitrary choice.

Some try to play down God’s sovereignty for various reason, but some do it because they think it hurts our ability to have faith and work miracles. This is a shame, because the bible specifically uses election and predestination as a foundation for more faith and miracles and answered prayers.

This is also true when we consider sin and righteousness.  Take for example Romans 9 and 5. We are told God chooses to love one and hate another based on His own choice and not based on the good or bad choices of the person.  God molds each person from a neutral lump of clay, for His own goals. In Romans five we read Adam fell, and thus, this fall includes God being the ultimate cause. There is no dualism in the bible. Man is responsible because man is not free, but under God sovereign control and command.

In romans 5, it says all people after Adam are born sinners, or born with a sinful mind already in them. Because God is the only cause in reality, He therefore creates every person after Adam with a sinful mind. Because we reject pantheism, then it means God caused the sinful nature, but is not sinful Himself. God is not what He creates or causes. God is not a tree, even though He creates a tree and causes it to be a tree.   

The same God who created you caused you to be born as a sinner. I did not ask to be born I did not asked to be born with a pre-installed sinful mind. God did this all on His own. I was never asked or consulted.

The list of sins in my mind is irrelevant. God said He is the judge of reality, and only His on thoughts about my list of sins or obedience is the list that matters. God never asked me about this, or asked if I wanted this.  Its His Legos, its His playdough, its His program, its His story.

Same God who caused all of this is the same God who caused me to be righteous. Out of favor to me, God sent His only Son to be a propitiation for my sins. In the Father’s mind, my sinful list was transferred to Jesus’ list, and so the Father punished Jesus for having my sinful list. In addition to this Romans 5 says, in the Father’s thoughts, He considered Jesus’ righteous action to be transferred to my list, as if I did it. Because of this, my sinful nature is removed, I get born from above with God’s mind, and I rule in life with Jesus.

Just as with everything preceding this, I did not ask God to send His Son out of love for me. God did not ask me or get my permission. He just did it, because reality is His personal Lego set. He put me together. He originally put me with the bad guys, in the Lego playground He made. However, later He gave me a new Lego head and relocated me in the good-guys part of the Lego set. He did not ask or consult me about it. He did it, because He wanted to. When God gave me faith, it was when God was letting me know the good things He did for me.  

The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is to bulldozer over any sense of lack and over any consciousness of sin.

It is about God, not you. When Satan or your old way of thinking wants to condemn you, or remind you of past sins, the goal is to make it all about you. The goal is to make you fight a battle on the wrong hill. The hill that matters, which will determine who wins or loses, is God’s actions, not yours.

As Romans 5 says, it is the gift of unearned favor and righteousness that makes me rule in life with Jesus. Just as the gift of existence was given to me without my asking or consent, and likewise, the gift of unmerited favor and the gift of Jesus’ righteousness was given to me without my asking or consent. It is about God’s work, not mine.  The Holy Spirit causing me to believe this is God letting me know about what He did for me. Just as the gift of existence does not come and go for me, the gift of unmerited favor and my righteous standing, and sonship, and my royal priesthood does not come and go. Just like a child pulling off a red leg piece, from a Lego man, and then replacing it with a green leg piece, God did this for me in Jesus Christ. Being righteous is my definition, my identity and my reality.  It is about Him, not me. It is about what Jesus already did for me, and what is already me and already mine.

In the sense of affirming reality and my definition, then it is about me. God has already finished the atonement and caused me to be born from above. I am already a new creation, with new definitions. I am the righteousness of God. I am what I am, by the grace of God, but I am still what I am. I am the righteousness of God. I am a royal priesthood. Jesus has given me the royal authority to heal all sickness and cast out all demons. Jesus has given me the position to boldly march into His royal throne room to ask and receive. Jesus has given me the position to sling His Name around to ask whatever I want and get it.  It is about God and not me. This reality is God’s Playdough, and this is how God has shaped and made me.

Thus we have boldness in the Day of Judgment. Because just as Jesus is, so are we in this world. God’s love is perfected in us, when we have no fear, but only faith, joy and confidence, for all the good things God has done for us.

The God of Real Good Real Estate

The Christian God is a God of wealth and for our present focus, a God of good Real Estate. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. We are told every day how God made the earth better and better real estate. After making a perfect and good real estate God created man. God gave the dominion of this luxury real estate to man. God commanded man to use his dominion, to dominate the earth, to be blessed and multiply. God gave the world to man.  However, man sinned against God, by believing the word of a snake over the word of God. The first doctrine man learned in this, was the doctrine of faith. Man should have believed God.

God cursed man for his sin. Because man had dominion of God’s rich real estate, God’s curse greatly effected this aspect in two primary ways. First, this good real estate was cursed with corruption. This premium real estate that worked with man, now worked against him.  Second, the dominion of the earth that was given to man, God revoked and transferred into the hands of the devil (Eph. 2:2, Luke 4:6).

However, not all was lost. After man learned the importance to believe God and not other epistemologies, God made a promise that a savior would be born from a woman, who would destroy the devil. An important consequence of the savior destroying the devil would arise. The devil would lose his dominion over the earth that he received because of man’s sin.

The start of God transferring His premium real estate back to man, started with Abraham. God promised Abraham an onslaught of good things, and among these good things was the world itself. Paul says in Romans “God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on [righteousness] that comes by faith.”[1] Paul summed up all the good things promised to Abraham by boiling it down to good real estate. Also, Abraham did what Adam did not. Abraham believed God.

God started the entire world transfer with promising Abraham a specific piece of good real estate. When Abraham’s children were later slaves to the Egyptians, God told Moses that He must bring the Israelites to the “Promise” Land, because God “promised,” Abraham that land. God is faithful to His promises. Jacob must possess his inheritance.

In Jesus Christ the gentiles have been grafted into God’s promise to bless Abraham. Paul argues, it was a promise based on grace, not works, and is received by faith. Jesus’ atonement does not make it obsolete, but ensures those who are saved by His atonement also receive the blessing of Abraham. Paul sums up the blessing of Abraham as the Spirit and miracles.

Paul also makes a substitutionary contrast with Jesus taking on our curses, and giving us the blessing of Abraham. Part of the curses that came with the law was bad real estate and/or having no real estate. One curse was to have your real estate filled with wild animals that would attack and harass you. Jesus was not only nailed to a tree, as a curse of the law itself, but had a crown of thorns on His head. This symbolized the curse of the ground from Genesis, which mentions thorns.  In exchange Jesus gave us the blessing of Abraham.

We can see how the blessing of Abraham overrides the curse of Genesis, when Issac reaped 100-fold in a time of famine and drought. The curse should have worked against Issac. The land was not producing and was doing its job to work against man. But Issac, through the blessing of real estate, override the curse and produced 100-fold. The passage goes on to say that Issac was made wealthy because of this. His blessing over real estate made him wealthy. This wealth from real estate was God’s mercy and love to Abraham and his descendants. This wealth made him the envy of kings. It gave Abraham and his descendants fame and gave them audiences with powerful people.

Because the blessing of real estate from the start was a “good” thing, and because it was a “good” thing given to Abraham, and a “good” thing ensured by the atonement of Jesus, it means it is a good thing for God’s children to be people of wealth and real estate. It is good in and of itself, and it is good because by such, Christians can richly fund the advance of the gospel. Rather than giving only 10%, they can give 20, 30 and 60% of their abundance to the gospel. Even if a Christian is a masochist, who likes being poor, they should stop being so selfish with their so-called faith and by it gain wealth and real estate, so they can give it all away, to the gospel, worthy widows and ministries.

Also, heaven is a real place. It is real, real estate. God’s elect have houses there. They have fantastic real estate promised them. Jesus is not invisible. He sits on a real throne, on the best real estate. Hell is also real. It is the worst sort of real estate. It is a land you do not want to live on.

The Christian God is a God of real estate. It was so from the beginning. It was so in Abraham, and it is so through Jesus Christ. We need to take off our limited, self-debasing thinking and embrace the God of real good, real estate. It is given freely by God, by unmerited and undeserved favor, and is received freely by faith in Jesus Christ.

[1] Roman 4:13 NLT [] by author.

Receiving God’s love

“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28NIV)

 “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages to our glory,” (1 Corinthians 2:7 LSB)

“She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,  but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:39-42 NLT)

“For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:14-20 NLT)

For many this seems like the opposite of Christian ethics. Does not James say religion is taking care of widows and orphans and staying unpolluted from worldly lusts? This is correct, but it is only partially correct. I do not want to undermine the importance of this. If a man does not work to supply for his family he is not even a Christian but worse than an unbeliever. Paul has guidelines for helping widows who have been faithful Christians. Orphans need help and guidance. The New Testament constantly stresses the need for sexual purity and how our relationships are founded on the same forgiveness and kindness that God showed us. But in the category of ethics such things are in the category of human interactions. God has also given commands in how we are to view our relationship with Him.

The first commandment is to love God, with all your mind soul and strength. Some infer this to mean that our relationship with God is about us giving to God, but this is a mistake. Loving God with everything does have this broad idea of giving God the best of your intellect, time, focus and admiration. This leads us to the study of the Word and theology. However, when we give our time and focus to the Word and theology, we realize it says that “Love is not that we loved God but that He loved us and gave us His only Son.” We realize “Jesus chose us” and not that we chose Him. We read that Martha was serving God and God was serving Marry, and God said Marry chose the “better part.” Marry was letting God serve her, and Jesus approved this as the better. Jesus said He came to “serve man.”

When the scripture says it is more blessed to give rather than to receive, it is referring to human relationships. It is not referring to our relationship to God. Jesus said that Marry chose the better thing by receiving from Him rather than giving to Him.  In our relationship to God it is better to receive from Him and not give. The gospel is one immeasurable gift God gives to us. God serves and glorifies man. As Paul says so boldly in 1 Corinthians 2, God “predestined” the gospel to glorify man. The gospel values, honors and glorifies man. It is not that man is already these things or already possesses these, rather, it is Jesus’ finished atonement that conveys these things on His chosen ones.  God wants us to approach Him knowing He will serve us in giving, helping and freely supplying all the good things He has promised.

Even with sanctification it is better to receive. The New Contract says God promises to write His laws on our minds. Hebrews 12 says our sanctification is looking to Jesus who is the author and perfector of our faith. We do not “give” better performance to God in sanctification; rather, we look to God to be faithful to do what He promises, and we “receive” sanctification from Him by faith. This does not mean we do not work and consider how to obey God better. It means as we strive for these things, we look to God to give us the sanctification He promised. By faith we receive sanctification power. We do not work to get sanctifying power, we receive this power by faith and then because we have the power, we walk in godliness.

Paul says in Ephesians that His prayer is that we can know and receive the length, width, depth and height of God’s love for us.  He does not pray that we love God with our length, width, depth and height, but that we receive His great love. His prayer is that we both know how great His love is and experience this great love, here and now (not just later in heaven). By receiving His love we become complete with His life and fulness. We do not become complete by giving Him our love, but by receiving His love. Since the blessing of Abraham and the gospel has good things that effect the inner man, body, finances, relationships and ministry, we therefore know, experiencing God’s love is receiving fruitfulness in all these areas. When we receive fruitfulness in all these areas by faith, we are made stronger and grow more into God’s fullness.

Paul wants our inner man strong. Paul says by receiving His great love for us, Christ lives in our hearts more and more. We receive His love by faith. The explanation is simple. By faith we receive His love, then Christ lives in our hearts more, and the outcome is that we become stronger in our inner man. To be stronger in our inner man is to be more mature and more developed as a Christian. This happens not in our giving to God, but in faith receiving His love for us.

Paul then says that God will answer our prayers exceedingly and beyond all that we ask. This shows us what type of application Paul had in mind when instructing us about knowing and receiving His love. The application is to ask and have God give us much more than we ask. Think about all the extra baskets left over from the feeding of the 4 and 5 thousand. According to Paul this application is how you experience God’s love. Asking for good things and God giving these to you in overflow is how you experience God’s love; this is how you become stronger in your inner man. This is how you mature as a Christian and how Christ lives in your heart more and more.

When you ask for healing and God heals you of cancer and you also feel stronger than ever, then you become stronger in your inner man, mature as a Christian and are more complete with God’s fullness. When you ask for financial help and God causes 7 times more money to be sent to you, then you become stronger in your inner man, mature as a Christian and are more complete with God’s fullness. When you ask God to bless your spouse or children with their heart’s desires and God gives them more than they dreamed, then you become stronger in your inner man, mature as a Christian and are more complete with God’s fullness.

Vincent Cheung helped me to understand this better in his essay, What is Mature doctrine, saying:

 “As Paul said, “However, we do speak a message of wisdom among the mature…what God has prepared for those who love him…that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:6, 9, 12). What is mature doctrine? It is not what we do for God, but what God does for us (1 John 4:10).

Jesus said that a person cannot be his disciple unless he first counts the cost, and then renounces everyone and everything to follow him (Luke 14:26-33). This is not the pinnacle of spiritual maturity, but it is the beginning. This is what spiritual infants do. We repent of our transgressions and reorient our lives on Jesus Christ. We become God-centered…

Although the gospel demands total commitment, since the beginning it is not about what we do for God, but what God does for us, in all areas of our lives, by Jesus Christ (Romans 8:31-32). We truly come to know him as the Father that Jesus talked about, the one who is greater than all (John 10:29), the one who supplies everything (Psalm 103:2-5, Matthew 7:32-33, Philippians 4:19)…

Therefore, spiritual maturity must entail learning more about the benefits that God has given us in Christ, and then receiving and experiencing them (1 Corinthians 2:12). For this reason, Paul prayed that Christians would receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God, to know the gospel hope and inheritance, and to know the super-surpassing power that God has put to work in us, which is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:15-22). He prayed that Christians would be strengthened with power in their spirits, to have power to grasp all the dimensions of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Do they teach you how to receive things from God by faith? Jesus taught these things as gospel, intertwined with the doctrines of faith, the atonement, and the Fatherhood of God (Matthew 6:32-33, 7:7-11, 8:16-17, Mark 9:23, 11:23-24, Luke 8:50, 18:1-8, John 11:40, 15:7, 15:16, 16:26-27, and many more). .. It takes spiritual power to grasp the magnitude of divine love toward us. Learning more and more about God’s love for us in more categories is not for babies, but adults, because it takes spiritual strength and maturity to grasp it.

If you are selective about the blessings of God, then you are spiritually feeble and immature. If you accept his forgiveness but reject his healing, then you are weak. If you embrace his discipline but refuse his prosperity, then you are a baby. You are not some epic apologist, some defender of the faith. You are just a crybaby…”[1]

It is interesting that Paul defines a “message of wisdom for the mature” is about knowing and receiving all the free blessings God has given us. If you listen to many theologians (past and present) they seem to say the opposite. They teach denying yourself and fearing God is wisdom for the mature, but this is reversed. Such things is wisdom for babies to start on the good path. Vincent is correct. To deny yourself, to fear God and follow Him, rather than your selfish lusts, is the beginning of wisdom not the maturity of it. The fear of God is the beginning, not the maturity of wisdom. The fear of God will start you on the path of wisdom and it will keep you firmly planted on it. Because the fear of God will keep you on the path of wisdom it is always relevant to remember the fear of God; but again, it is not the height of wisdom.  Mature wisdom is receiving all the free goodies of God.

As Vincent says, “it takes spiritual strength and maturity in the inner man to receive from God.”[2] The bible teaches that it takes power in the inner man to fear God and deny yourself, but it takes even more power in the inner man to receive free goodies from God like healing and prosperity. Those who receive healing, prosperity and miracles from God prove they are mature in their inner man, and they prove they can handle at least some level of higher tier wisdom. Those who rebuke the “health and wealth” guys, if they don’t want to be hypocrites, at the very least must prove they have greater wisdom and more inner maturity by more healings, more prosperity and more various miracles. However, one who teaches Expansionism and God’s true level of absolute sovereignty has the correct place to rebuke the health and wealth guys, along with cessationist.  

According to Paul you cannot claim to be spiritually mature and able to handle greater wisdom if you don’t prove it by receiving God’s freely given blessings in your life. You can give your money to the poor and help widows and receive forgiveness, but if you cannot heal the sick, cast out demons and receive various miracles, you are not mature and you cannot handle greater degrees of wisdom. You are still a baby who needs to be instructed.

Because denying yourself and the fear of God is the starting of wisdom, pastors who keep their message on this level either think their listeners are babes in Christ who never grow, or they are deliberately keeping their listeners stunted and deformed. When the bible tells us to run the race as if to win it, these pastors keep Christians crawling on all fours with wishful hope they might cross the finish line dead last. I am saying this nicely, because my rebuke could be ruthless here. Remove yourself from such teachers. They are your enemy, not friends. They are your worse type of enemies. They are brutal taskmasters employed by Satan. They are worthless at applying mature doctrine. They are trash who refuse to receive God’s love and free blessings. There is no healing, no casting out of demons and no obvious signs of God working miracles to help then. They know they are garbage with no proof of God’s love on them. They instruct you to be twice as worthless at receiving God’s blessings as they are to make themselves feel better. They trample Christ to hide their feelings of jealously.

Thus, even if history prizes certain Christians in the past as heroes, if they did not heal the sick, cast out demons and receive regular miracles from God, they cannot by definition of scripture be wise and mature. Scripture, not historical fame, defines if a Christian was wise and mature.

As shown in the previous section on the gospel, the gospel includes for this life healing, prosperity and excessive fruitfulness for all areas of life. Even if forgiveness of sins is a greater blessing in the gospel, in the since it takes one from hell to accepted, yet God commands us to receive all gospel blessings. It is not optional to obey commandments. To disobey and disbelieve any promise of God is not maturity, but immaturity and stupid. It takes a strong inner man and higher wisdom to believe the entire finished gospel and receive all its benefits. It takes a little wisdom to receive forgiveness but refuse the rest of the gospel. It is mature wisdom to receive all of the gospel.

Lastly, consider the Lord’s Supper. This is something Christians do all the time or should be doing constantly. It is the only repeated religious thing we do. The whole Old Testament religious activities has been boiled down to this one thing, the Lord’s Supper. What is it that we do in our one religious activity? We remember and receive God’s love for us. This is Christianity. We do not give to God, God gives to us.

In a correct understanding of ethics (God’s commands), this is the beginning and foundation of ethics. God commands us to be saved by faith in His Son, to receive His forgiveness, receive His love and receive all good blessings. It is on this ethic we receive strength to do other ethics that involve human interactions and purity. Receiving God’s love is the primordial ethic.

[1] Vincent Cheung. What is Mature Doctrine.
From the ebook, Fulcrum. 2017. Pg 69-70.

[2] Paraphrased from source.

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Because we Know God Served us

“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews 8:13

“After He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.  For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being Sanctified.”
Hebrews 10:12-14

“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.”
Hebrews 10:1-3.

God has once-and-for-all forgiven and forgotten your sins as a believer. This forgetting is not spiritual Alzheimer’s. God knows all things. However, God unlike us, has perfect and compete mastery of His mind. Thus, if He chooses not to consider our sins (i.e. to forget), then He does so with perfect control of His Mind. There will not be a moment when something triggers Him, and He then considers all your sins “against you.” This is something Christians need to imitate their Father more in. They need to have mastery of their minds so that the emotions they experience is by their own control and timing, rather than their emotions controlling them like dumb animals.

Hebrews 8 says “where there is forgiveness, there no longer remains a sacrifice.” If our future sins needed to be forgiven, then there would remain a need for a sacrifice to remove them. But if they are already forgiven by Jesus and accepted by the Father, then there is no need for any more sacrifices. Jesus sat down because it was finished.

In Romans 6 Paul says for us to reckon yourself dead to sin, or assent to this as a truth about you. We are not perfect, as both James and John remind us in their letters. Thus this is essentially a “Word of Faith confession,” on faith and not by sight. By faith we assent and declare we are sinless and dead to sin. If we did this by our experience, then we could not say this. It is by faith in God’s promise alone we can say this.

Hebrews 10 says that if worshipers are truly forgiven, then they would not be “conscience” about their sin. As with God, it is not as if we cannot technically remember our sins, but because we know they are forgiven, and God has declared us righteous, we do not recall and consider them anymore. In fact, the bible’s meaning for “do not worry,” means “do not think” about this or that. The passage goes on to say that Jesus has already, “perfected” us who are being sanctified today. We are perfect in God’s eyes. This is the only real relevant thing that matters.

Thus, if you are mindful of your sins today, more than how righteous, how perfect, blameless, favored, a child of God and a co-heir with Jesus, then you are weak in your inner man; you are weak regarding faith in the finished work of Jesus.

Why then do we confess our sins to God, you ask?

The simplest reason is the most obvious, which is why I guess people miss it. God commands that we do. Jesus gives a daily prayer (The Lord’s prayer) that has in it our confession for mercy. Even if we are given no explanation as to why, this is all the reason we need to know. Christian responsibility is solely on God’s command and nothing else.

Even though God does not consider our sins against us, and we are not conscience of our own sins, because they are forgiven, yet we are still in a relationship, fellowship and communion with God. We love Him. We fellowship with Him daily. We communion with Him more than or own family. We love Him so much. He saved us. He is the world to us. If we sin, it was against Him. It is good as ask forgiveness and mercy from Him. Also, the devil can use this against us. However, if we confess our sins, God is “just” (not merely merciful) to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. This cleansing is about our conscience toward God, and renewing our thinking. It is not about the official record against us, or that God suddenly considers our sins against us. It is not as if the Father takes the List Jesus nailed to the cross, and daily rewrites new sins on it, until we confess. It was nailed to the cross because our entire record was delt with and finished. Our confession helps to protect us. Thus, there is no room for the devil to accuse us. It renews our mind by reminding us that all our sins past, present and future are already forgiven, and we are holy in God’s sight. This is putting on the new-man.

We ask, not because our futures sins are not forgiven. We ask from a position of victory and superiority. God as removed all our sins and Jesus at that place and time, endured the punishment for them.  In God’s mind, (which is the only Mind that matters) He considers all our sins punished on Jesus, therefore they were. The receipt was printed off and nailed to the cross. It is done.

Many focus on sins way, way, way too much. They do this because they do not actually believe they are forgiven, and so they can’t move on from that point.  Forgiveness of sins is the doorway of the gospel. The content of the gospel are the many blessings, miracles, favor, healings and prosperity. Many stands at the doorway of the gospel and stop. They never enter in the gospel. They think they are honoring the Master of the house by admiring the door, but the Master is sitting at the table waiting for you to come in and dine with Him. He is only pleased once you enter and partake of the table. To stand at the door and never partake of His good things, is a dishonor and insult to the Master of the gospel.

The same with endless prayers. You have the authority to use Jesus Name one time and command Satan and sickness to leave. One mention of the Lord’s prayer is all you need to ask forgiveness. If you want to ask more, I will not tell you not too, but only say watch your own mind and ask if you are being sin or righteousness conscience.

Many are sin conscience. But we just went over the fact that if we are truly forgiven, we are NOT sin conscience, but rather righteousness conscience. I do not know another man’s conscience, but they must be honest with themselves. You are commanded to be constantly conscience of your righteousness, your sonship and companionship with God, not sin. Satan is constantly mindful of our sins. Many act like their father the devil.

 Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 say our old man is already gone, dead and does not exist. We are now, a new creation. If you are not a new creation you are still unsaved. A few verses later Paul elaborates on what this “new creation” is by saying we are the righteousness of God. Do not think on the old man. This why Satan, tries to deceive Christians to label themselves with titles outside of Jesus Christ, to keep them weak and defeated. He does this with sinners (I am pathetic, a vile sinner, a slut, a grasshopper) so that it is harder to accept the truths preached by Christianity.

At any rate, we think about reality. If someone is born-again and keeps thinking about the old man in unrighteousness, they are delusional and disconnected form realty in their mind. They are in essence putting the old-man thinking back on and taking the new-man off.  

The reality is that I am the righteousness of God. We are commanded to put off the old man, and its way of thinking, and put on the new-man and its thinking. This new man thinks he is the very righteousness of God and not merely a sub-heir, but a co-heir with Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of Power. This is who I am.

 “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
Hebrews 4:16

If you are sin conscience, do not expect to “boldly” approach the throne to receive help. We hope such persons will have help despite their disobedient, cowardly and non-bold approaching, but for us we will be conscience of our righteousness when approaching the throne. By this we will approach boldly. We will not serve God like Martha, because we know God served us and gave us His favor, sonship and righteousness. Thus, we will sit at His feet and keep receiving His unmerited supply. We can boldly receive this because we know we are so righteous and perfect and glorious. Because God’s unmerited favor is the foundation for all our good things, His praise will forever be on our lips and His worship on our tongues.

Nazism, Communism and Christianity

Hitler used the emotional pull of nationalism (appealing to nationalism is something almost all governments in all times have done—in some form– from its people since the dawn of time), as a slip of hand, to enforce his Darwinian Eugenics.

When the Japanese government wants to protect the Japanese way of life and its borders through rallying the people, (thus engage in nationalism) it is not as though they are now Nazis. When Israel says it ought to protect their way of life and its borders from those around them (i.e. nationalism), it is not as if they are Nazis. Or does nationalism make Jews Nazis? That would be a logical fallacy in more than one way. If a liberal gets their wish and this very hour the government is transformed into their ideal form of government, does it make them a Nazi or fascist because they are now proud or like their government? But I digress.

Nationalism is a tool to be used. It is a sub, sub category of other philosophy questions: it is not an ultimate question about First Principles of knowledge, Logic or of Metaphysics or Ontology or Ethics.

In America, biblical principles were used to form the government, although it was only partial, for there were other philosophies used as well. For example, I do not believe the bible supports a democracy. This is where things get a little convoluted. To “conserve” (i.e. conservatives, or conservatism) means to stay with your initial or original starting point, or standard or epistemology. This is often called the “right.” To be liberal means to liberate from this original starting point because you believe all or part of it is false. This is often called the “left.”

Therefore when referring to the scripture, it is always wrong to be liberal, and always right to be a conservative. However, with governments, this get complicated because their starting points are often mixed and or unclear. Since the Western world was so heavily influenced by Christianity, and the much modern liberal movement (for the last 100 years) is about liberating Christianity from the government, homes and culture, we will broadly define the terms from this point, although there is more to it.

Thus any philosophy of government that liberates from biblical principles is “liberal,” “left,” and any attempts (as imperfect as they are) to stay with biblical ones are conservative or right. Thus, Nazism and Communism are both far left or liberal governments, for both heavily liberate from the Biblical and its worldview.

Totalitarianism is ruling a people, with all power given to one or a few. King David as a king ruled by totalitarianism. Jesus does as well. But neither King David or Jesus are Nazis or Karl Marx. Just because a star is round and an apple is round, does not make them the same thing. Since the bible is the starting point for all knowledge, then any correct aspect of government was first stolen from the bible, and then corrupted with additional speculations from men.

We will deal with Nazism in particular, but fascism is the same. It is categorically impossible to say fascism(or Nazism) is right and communism left because both fascism and communism are founded on the epistemology of empiricism and the metaphysical of Darwinism’s evolution and survival of the strongest.  Hitler’s form of fascism argues a more direct connection from Darwinism to fascism but fascist like Mussolini went from Darwin to Nietzsche to fascism. Nietzsche using Darwinism said God is dead and man is a “superman” who rules by strength and not weak things such as kindness. Thus all forms of fascism is a denial or contradiction of Christian epistemology, metaphysics, logic and ethics. All forms of fascism are liberal to all Christian foundations and doctrines about reality. Every answer of ultimate questions that Christianity gives, fascism liberates from it.

Let us go over the basics of these government’s ultimate questions.

**Nazism: is Darwinism plus Eugenics with the ethic that they ought to force natural selection and survival of the fittest with totalitarianism. Fascism, in general would replace direct Darwin ethics with Nietzsche ethics, which are founded on Darwinism.

Nazi Epistemology – Empiricism (knowledge through sensation).
Nazi Metaphysis – naturalism and natural selection
Nazi Ethics – People OUGHT to enforce a natural selection for the good of man by totalitarianism. (or Fascism (Nietzsche: The new superman ought to rule by might)

**Communism: is Darwinism plus the theological idea that man is inherently good, plus the ethic that man ought to have this goodness in man ensured by the force of totalitarianism.

As a side note I must say as irrational as Hitler was in making a “ought” from descriptive premises of metaphysics, at least I understand his invalid, inductive direction. He sees survival of the fittest (thinks he does), and then metamorphoses (invalidly) this into an ethic. Marx was beyond stupid and irrational. He believed in evolution and Darwinism, but instead of embracing survival of the fittest as an ethic as Hitler did, he decided to neutralize the metaphysics he affirmed as an ethic. LOL? So he both invalidates what he affirms as a metaphysics, and then metamorphoses this into an ethic. Its like saying, “humans are organic. This is a human. Therefore, we will use government to replace their bodies with non-organic material, because it is morally good to not have an organic body.” Beyond stupid. There are so many category fallacies its hard to keep up.

Communism Epistemology – Empiricism (knowledge through sensation)
Communism Metaphysics – is naturalism and Darwinism.
Communism Ethics – it is morally good to oppose survival of the fittest observed in Darwinism and use government to force (people who are born inherently good -whatever that means) to be economic and social equals.

**Christianity: The scripture is the only starting point. Metaphysics is God’s absolute and direct control over all things. And ethics is God’s command.

Christian Epistemology – Contradicts Empiricism.
Christian Metaphysics – Contradicts Naturalism, national section and contradicts that man is inherently good.
Christian Ethics – contradicts government “ought” to use force to ensure natural section, and contradicts that government “ought” to enforce the inherent goodness of man by equalizing economic and social levels.

Thus, Christianity has no contact with Nazism or Communism in any important aspect of ultimate questions. To conserve to Christianity would be to liberate from both Nazism and Communism. Also to conserve to either Nazism or Communism would to be liberate from Christianity.

The question is who does have contact with the important philosophy topics of these two systems? American liberals. Liberal theologians.

Who has empiricism for their Epistemology?
Who has naturalism or Darwinism for their metaphysics?
Who has Nietzsche as their ethics?

Those who do, have foundational contact with Nazism/fascism and communism the ultimate questions of life. These are liberal, left government philosophies, for they liberate from the ultimate questions given by scripture and conserve to anti-biblical epistemologies and metaphysics.

The Order of the Divine Decrees

This is cannibalized from my now retired book: The Divine Decrees(2007, 2013). This book was mainly about going over Jonathan Edwards book: “The Divine Decrees in General and Election in Particular.” I showed how Edward’s was a supralapsarian in the doctrine of God’s decrees broadly, but tried to make a hybrid in the particular points. Therefore, Gordon Clark and Vincent Cheung[1] are better at teaching on this topic, for they are consistent to a logical order. Thus, this original appendix was the result from studying all three individuals. 

This is an important aspect of Christian ontology and so I wanted to put a basic essay on this topic here. The order of the God’s decrees is in philosophy jargon, the logic of ontology. It is the logical order of how God directly controls all reality.

 

Defining the terms:

With the assumption that most who have an interest in this Biblical doctrine will know the terms supralapsarian and infralapsarian, I shall move on; and if you do not know, these will be explain in context through other terms.  These terms are loaded terms and so I will prefer not to use them, but I do mention them so that some might have a vague reference point of where I am coming from.  The lack of this distinction of God’s purpose or goals and historical execution[2] has caused more than a small amount of confusion.  Let us remedy this.

When God’s decrees are laid out from Top to bottom or that is, when they are laid out from the perspective of what God chose as His goals first, then we call this the, “Purpose perspective.”  This is what some know as supralapsarian.

When God’s decrees are laid out from the Bottom up or that is, when they are penned down from the perspective of executing His goals we call this, “historical perspective.”  Although, in the truest since this is not a description of decrees; rather, it is the execution of the decrees: that is, it is the historical execution of God’s intended goals.

 

In our reach for a complete biblical understanding of God’s decrees we need to have the purpose order, for it is the natural meaning of decreeing or planning.  The perspective of God’s “purpose” is greater not only because it is the natural meaning to plan something, but also the historical order is derived from it.  In fact, when we think about an all Sovereign God planning, (not reacting) is this not in terms of choosing ones goals first?  This is why the perspective of God’s goals or purpose in the Decrees are so important and to which the Bible addresses.  I would even go as far to say the historical perspective of God is an incorrect doctrine, if left by itself, because in light of an all Sovereign God “decrees” naturally point to purpose rather than history.  Without the “purpose” perspective in the decree the historical perspective turns God into a God of reaction rather than a God of total sovereign design and working out His original intended goal from top to bottom.  Likewise, without the historical, the purpose perspective looks incomplete for the God’s decrees regard why and how God ordered public reality.

Regarding the purpose or goal perspective what God chose as His first goal is last in execution, and what God purposed last in his goals comes first in execution or history.  I will explain this more.

Take for example a kid after thinking about life decides he wants to be a great baseball player.  This is his first “purpose,” or goal that is.  His second choice to support the first is that he needs to be an All Star baseball player, so that he can be a great player.   Thus, his third choice in purpose is to get great averages in hitting (etc.) so that he gets chosen to be an All Star.  His next is purpose is to be drafted to play in the Major League.  His next purpose is to start playing baseball at his local high school.  See, what he first intended was accomplished last in order, while that which was purposed last was accomplished first in history or in execution.  Ecclesiastes 7:8, “The end of a thing is better than its beginning,” because the end was the original goal.

This analogy with the baseball player is in the perspective of “purpose.”

 Now back to purpose and execution.                                          

For the sake of argument, what is important is that both are to be taught from scripture and that the “purpose” be ordered Top to Bottom and the “historical” be ordered from Bottom to Top. The purpose order needs to be shown as the natural meaning of God Decreeing and the historical order as the effect of this being executed.  The lists need to make sense when read in either direction, whether from the perspective of purpose, or from the perspective of execution. (Or in an argument, The purpose (p) is the antecedent, and the historical is the consequent(q))  Furthermore, the decrees encompass all things, so it is impossible for a simple list to include everything.  Depending on what topic or doctrine I was teaching on I could focus or bring to light these in the decrees: both in the purpose or historical.  What needs to happen is someone puts emphasis on God’s election in a historical perspective and then they emphasize God’s election in the purpose perspective in another sermon or book, then the ordering needs to agree with each other.

Below is a simple list of decrees.  The first section is from God’s Purpose perspective (top to bottom) and the second is the Historical perspective (bottom up.)   You will see how the second list mirrors the first so that what is decreed first in Purpose is executed last in order Execution.

 

TOP DOWN, ORDER of PURPOSE

1.) Glory.  God decrees out of delight in Himself, to create the full displaying of His Glory in a public creation. God decrees to do this particularly by creating the world for His Son: that is, for His Son to be the only living fountain, the Head, the first born, central axis, the Preeminence in all things in His public universe; the invisible God glorifies Himself by making His Son the Public Supremacy.

2.) Jesus Christ.  God decrees to elect Christ to become the Central public-Person; that is, He becomes the preeminence before a public audience. Therefore, God decrees to elect His Son to be the uniting-savior  for a special group, and likewise for the sake of this first group God elects Christ to be a Rock for which another group will be crushed upon.  His uniting-mercy given to one group will lead them to be in the perfect place live in public-joyful love to Christ, and the damnation for another group will support this.  Thus, Christ is elected to be glorified as the central dividing line for all public minds, both human and spiritual, because by this Christ becomes the Central pubic Supremacy.

3.) Election. God then Decrees to unconditionally elect and give infinite happiness to a certain number of persons by unconditionally electing them for and through His Son for salvation; and furthermore, by this they are given both existence and the guarantee for eternal happiness, for from infinite happiness by them being for His Son’s glory by being in His Son, God thought of a certain number.  Furthermore, God elects a certain number of others who He will not show His love to; rather, He decrees to support those in His Son those this certain number: this supporting is by having His wrath and justice displayed one day in them. (Before the twins were born or had done good or bad choices it is written: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.)  Both will be, for there is no other power in the metaphysical.

4.) The Fall. To imprison the whole human race to the slavery of sin and disobedience—so that the pervious decree of unconditional elect practically works out, so that the previous decree of Jesus’ public Saving and judging comes into fruition, so that Christ becomes the central-public-supremacy in a rejoicing public audience who are untied to Him.

5.) Creation. God decrees to bring into being a grand universe suitable and perfect for the grand exhibition of God’s glory through Christ’s public supremacy.

 

BOTTOM UP, ORDER of EXECUTION

6.)  Creation.  God decrees to bring into being a grand universe suitable for the grand displaying of His glory; a gift worthy for His only Son, by giving Christ public supremacy.

7.)  The Fall. God decrees to imprison the whole human race to the slavery of sin and disobedience, by creating Adam in such a way he would not be able to rest all temptations.
8.)  Election/calling.  I say election, but at this point, because we are in history it would be more apt to call it summing or calling.  God now elects or summons for mercy from the disobedient human race the particular people, whom He decreed originally to crown with His infinite love.  Furthermore, to fulfill His election of the reprobate, God now chooses the level of wickedness that each vessel of wrath will fall while on earth.

9.)  Jesus Christ.  In order to accomplish the election of Christ, God calls His Son, to come into the world and provide perfect righteousness, complete forgiveness, and the purchasing of the Holy Spirit for so by this costly mercy and special uniting the elect becomes the perfect audience to ascribe the best eternal love and public praise unto Christ’s supremacy: and likewise, God calls Christ to be a rock for which the non-elect will be crushed upon for the praise of His Son’s supremacy.  The result is that Christ becomes the historical and future center point of the universe before a public audience best suited for His praise, by their enjoyment of Him.

10.)  Glory.  The sending of His Son a second time for the final and compete separation of the people of wrath and children of His love, so that Jesus will have all evil closed off from His presence and the final intimate gathering of His chosen people (and all elect creatures) to Himself—to the Father.  In this Jesus truly becomes the Public Supremacy before all public eyes, and in becoming so He (the image of the Father) causes His invisible Father to be glorified as the Supremacy.

 

Scripture:

Ephesians 1:9, “having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-in Him.”

Colossians 1:18, “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence (Supremacy).”

1 John 4:9, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Proverbs 16:4, “The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.”

Romans 9:21, “Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 (namely) that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory.”

Romans 11:27, “For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!  “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?” “Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

 

—–Endnotes—–

[1] I would recommend, Vincent Cheung’s essay, Supralapsarian. This essay is from this, Systematic Theology, book.

[2] This particular two word contrast of ‘purpose vs execution’ about ‘top down and bottom up,’ I got from Vincent Cheung, see chapter on Supralapsarianism, in Systematic Theology: 2010, pg 114-118.