Two Masters

Post 208

Why have I regularly gone off on these tangents while attempting to reach the interpretation of the Beast of Revelation 17:7? Am I actually ever going to get there?

The purpose of my writing is not actually the delivery of the clinical interpretation though that is primarily what the reader wants. Although the revelation of the prophecy is very exciting to me, what I am really excited about is the revelation of the understanding behind the prophecy.

In a reversal of perspective, my “rabbit trails” in getting to the interpretation are not the tangent, the clinical interpretation desired is the tangent *1.

What I am laboriously showing is the deceptive spirit of the lie that makes up the nature of the beast and the whore that rides it. The intent is to show the system of the lie that provides a great and terrible evil which the majority will naturally run from, and the apparent lesser evil appearing good in comparison as the designed trap that will be run to *2.

This evil is not some future entity we are to be looking for to avoid (though that entity is indeed rising now); rather this is all a part of Daniel 7s - 4th Diverse Beast with three parts, described in greater detail as the three part Daniel 2:33 Beast of Iron that first came upon us way back at the rise of Rome and has been growing by degree ever since (with a short setback in a chronological period of respite by the birth of America; that nation built on the principle of Jesus the Christ in the image of the Kingdom of Heaven).

Now at the useful end of that nation by her schizophrenia of faith (two masters), we cannot deny that by the evidence of our current condition the fault lies at the feet of the Christians who have departed from the right way through a subversion (overturning) of the faith. The faith itself has not been destroyed, but it’s use has been as we saw in the previous post.

And so we arrive at this post; a further clarification in an attempt to help the confused identify themselves thereby allowing a departure from the iniquity and a clear and earnest return to the LORD left behind in the subverted faith.

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise 2706 *3 the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” Matthew 6:24.

This short, simple verse speaks incredible volumes of which I will only touch the surface here.

In an overall comprehension of its clear meaning the first and last parts cannot be stated any clearer: Pick your God, you cannot serve both.

But we are a people who by nature work a concept to death as cattle trampling a spring; “If the simple statement conflicts with my life, I don’t change my life but rather massage the concept in great detail until somehow it does.” The fact we end up swallowing polluted mud does not seem to matter.

So God provided some detail in the center of the grand concept to help us understand what was made so clear just in case we can’t see ourselves in the accusation of serving two masters:

If you try to serve two masters you will not be able to avoid one of two outcomes; in serving both you will hate the one and love the other, or else you will cling to the one and despise the other.

I would like to paraphrase it so you might understand it better but it cannot be stated any clearer.

It is easy to naturally assume we are loving the right one and hating the wrong one, or clinging to the right one and despising the wrong one. In this way we  allow ourselves to feel we are doing the best we can under the circumstances of being trapped, but the very fact that we are serving two masters means that we are choosing the wrong one! It is the right one that is hated, it is the right one that is despised because we HAVE TWO MASTERS; its not about a right choice between them, its that we shouldn’t have two.

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Hate and Love or Cling and Despise.

So what is actually the difference between the two outcomes of hate or despise? They seem about the same:

Why would someone stay with a master that he hates?

There are actually many reasons that compound as such a relationship continues in its course, the best descriptive word of them all is “Trapped”.

We are a people caught in this trap of serving two masters and the result is indeed one of these two outcomes in every case: We hate our jobs but don’t quit because we have become dependent on the money. We hate our marriage but are obligated for the children’s sake, etc., but in each case the problem lies in the service of two masters and not actually the entities themselves:

WHY do you hate your marriage; because it does not provide what you want, thus the second master; your inordinate desire. WHY do you hate your job; because it does not fulfill your idea of the way things should be: as an employee you want to run the company that employs you, but since you don’t have the ability, you have two masters. At the chosen service of a second master grows a hatred of the first, and the first is hated because you just can’t break away entirely. The first master, that was once served in favor, is now seen as a predator that demands your service and so receives your hate.

Why would someone serve a master they despise?

Clearly the verse shows these have made their choice by clinging to only one and despising the other, yet for some reason they cannot make the break from the one they despise.

“Cling” is not love but a result of desperation of something desired. Since what is clung to is not based on love but a self-centered desire of return, then hate is not a resulting emotion either but a despising because it does not provide what the one clung to does *3.

If the second master clearly stripped the authority of the first there would be no two master problem, but because of the inability to leave the first master there is evidence that we know the first master has value, but the second master gives us what we want. So we continue to serve the first master though we despise it because of the clinging to the second.

But Jesus does not say it will be a struggle to serve two masters, he says it cannot be done. The hated or despised master is not actually a master at this point but an anchor you cannot cut loose because you know it is actually the right one that you should love, it is the one that you should cling to, but you don’t. Therefore it is a troublesome master in your heart and mind only but in reality it is not your master.

The focused meaning in the verse is made easier by the last clarifying statement: “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon (3126).”

So what exactly is mammon? (Luke 16:9, 16:11, 16:13).

Mammon 3126 mammonas; of Chaldian origin; (confidence, i.e. figuratively wealth, personified); mammonas, i.e. avarice (deified).

Avarice: Excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness after wealth; covetousness; cupidity.

To deify (make a god/master of) avarice, is to put your serious trust in what you desire greatly. Only a slight rabbit trail is the god cupid; the little cherub that draws to you the heart of one you want, implied; against their natural will. This “wish” to Cupid is avarice personified making Cupid mammon.

Anything of such an avarice mindframe is mammon though most easily recognized in the concept that wealth will provide what you want in life as Cupid brings whom you love in life.

So what is this verse actually declaring? It is explained from the other side of the issue in Romans 6:16; “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”

You CANNOT serve both God and confidence in something else to provide your desire. In fact you cannot serve both God and your desire.

And since our short clear verse said it so perfectly, more words can only muddy the water. Yet if you don’t get it in the pure form perhaps a bit of trampling might make it more palatable to your acquired taste:

The desire for something is not what is condemned here. We all have God ordained natural desires. What is condemned is transferring the confidence that rightly belongs on God alone, to something else on which you trust to fulfill your desire. This transference usually happens when God will not provide what you want, and is what deifies that alternate confidence.

Are you unhappy because you just don’t have enough money? Are you confident that if you did you would be happy?

Are you unhappy because you don’t have a boyfriend/girlfriend? Are you confident that if you did you would be happy?

Are you unhappy because you are not lifted up in the eyes of those who know you? Are you confident that if you did you would be happy?

“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” I John 2:16 (see also Nehemiah 9:28-30-35 and just now entering 36-37).

Here John is making it very clear that these inordinate focuses have nothing to do with serving God but are sourced of this world. So what do you do now knowing that God is not there to fulfill your inordinate desires? Do you find another master to add to your faith that will give you what you want, or do you surrender your desires to your single Master's will that has other plans for you? Do not get so bogged down in the defined specifics to the missing of the point; Yes there are three specifics identified in the verse for the hard of hearing, but to the spiritual these are three principles of life that cover a larger scope. In an attempt to expose these three general areas I will reveal the three subversions of the minister’s faiths I referenced  in a previous post:

Timidity:

Just this week I witnessed a very sad example of this minister’s great internal struggle between serving two gods. Due to circumstance he simply did not have the strength to avoid he found himself preaching a Social Gospel of blasphemy to a godless audience. My meaning of Social Gospel is best defined as an empty religious message of false hope that is tailored to society's palate. The true gospel of Jesus Christ (which I am confident he thinks he follows) was completely lost in the Social Gospel he felt forced to preach due to the setting. While I could empathies with his situation I must condemn the choice that he made while here attempting to avoid the condemnation and address the cause.

This subversion of his faith is a result of his II Timothy timidity which Paul was instructing him to avoid. The minister has two masters: The Lord Jesus Christ and the praise of society. The fear of hurting people became a master equal (or apparently greater) than the clear direction of the Savior to preach Christ; the Word of the LORD (Acts 8:5, 10:34-42, Romans 10:8-9, I Corinthians 1:17, II Timothy 4:2-5, Titus 1:3, I Peter 1:25). I place this under the category of lust of the flesh because it is the inordinate desire to be liked without conflict that has weakened this minister’s faith unto ineffectiveness. His clinging to the wrong master makes him despise the other he is determined to follow in conflict.

Greed:

The second minister though having a great ministry built upon a great faith has compromised his great faith by the experience of failure. He knows beyond question that Jesus Christ is the right way but the persistent failure of God to “protect” him in temporal reality has subverted his faith.

He still has strong faith but it is subconsciously adjusted to accommodate perceived reality. To him it is clear that God does not protect us from the evils of the world and so the passages that promise such things must be reinterpreted to fit his experience of reality.

There is a supernatural willingness to turn a blind eye to the scripturally pre-explained causes of God’s apparent failure to protect and simply conclude that God does not protect. This is the very heart of the Jews in facing their horrible experiences. Endurance is now the extent of their faith.

Without realizing it this minister’s faith has been subverted from real and practical to analogy and spiritually disconnected. This minister has fallen into the trap of the lust of the eyes. I put it here in this category because it is the lust to have what we see but don’t have that produces greed.

God has been faithful to, in a curse like way, take from him the “stuff” he puts his confidence in. The ownership of the stuff is not the sin but the confidence in stuff in order to feel successful is transference of deification that belongs only to God. This minister has two masters. As he clings to the  one, it causes him to despise the other.

This was similar to the problem of my own heart that caused God to remove all my confidences in mammon before I could comprehend that truly God is alone the only place where our confidence belongs. Similarly, I honestly don't think there is a person who knows me, including myself, that would think of my problem also as greed, but the confidence in things that can provide what I want belongs in this category.

Pride:

The third minister has a great amount of scriptural knowledge and by conversation has shown a great amount of comprehension of what it says. In general he conducts his life in an un-reproachable manner yet the spirit of his very Being, oozes general pride. It does not take a deep search to discover that what he does usually has an ulterior motive that centers around his own glory. This is the pride of life; “Associating with that which makes me look good". I have seen this minister actually fulfill the passage of Luke 14:8-11 in a very non-analogy way and it was not a surprise because it is in his nature to possess that place of honor by passive conquest.

This is not a condemnation of these men but an attempt to show that even while we commit to serving the Lord with our lives, through error we can ignorantly allow our faith to be subverted, thinking to be doing the right thing we are actually working for the other team by failing our job.

All this falls under the concept of showing you the nature of the last Gentile GDE Beast (Global Dominate Empire) and the Great Whore that in combination are THE LIE that cannot be avoided except for the diligent follower of Jesus Christ THE TRUTH.

Do not wait for the deception to come, it is already here and you are likely already an unknowing participant. If my writing seems to you as negative gloom and doom that encourages a choosing of sides among men, it is because you only practice one part of the two-part mixture:

“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” Hebrews 4:2.

This is not saying they just didn’t hear the gospel preached, it is saying that while they heard it and thought they understood it they did not get the produce (profit) it provides.

Why? Because they lacked the faith needed to combine with the knowledge that produces the useful comprehension.

The struggle of choice between the Yin and the Yang is a blindness to the fact that the whole circle is evil *2. Lift up your eyes beyond yourself and your overwhelming problems, to focus in the realm beyond the circle. That is where God is and it is only God that can transform the entire circle to become something else entirely where there is no Yin and Yang.

The very real and overwhelming problems of America today are no different. The solution is not found within the circle of “finance the debt” vs. “don’t raise the cap”, these are the Yin and Yang of the choices before congress. The solution is found beyond that problem because the source of the problem is also found beyond spend/don’t spend.

This economic problem is simply a national curse that comes as a bi-product for rejecting God and can only be fixed by a return to the perspective which gave us this great nation in the first place.

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*1 Tangent: Touching; touching at a single point; specifically, Geometry, meeting a curve or surface at two or more consecutive points and hence having there the same direction as the curve or surface; -

*2 Yin and Yang:

“But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:23.

Where is the light in this passage? THERE IS NO LIGHT FOUND HERE.

So if our perspective of light is “graded on the curve”, what we are sure is light by comparison to known darkness is not light at all but darkness, then contemplate the darkness of what even we think is darkness! There is nothing here that approves of the stuff we think is light in this context. What it is saying is that if you chose to live in the circle of Yin and Yang evaluating light and dark comparatively, your entire eye (comprehension) is evil and nothing you come up with is light even though you clearly see it as such. The white in the Yin and Yang circle is simply a different shade of the same darkness also found there as black.

*3 Despise 2706 kataphroneo; from 2596 and 5426; to think against, i.e. disesteem.

By definition this despising seems to come as a result of a new attention that takes the place of a previous. The thing disesteemed must have first been esteemed. The second master provides a new thinking that opposes the first master and belittles it in the despiser’s eyes.

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