Knowing God

Post 290

Besides knowing the very nature of your enemy, there is another point that must be firmly seated before we cross our river into the unfamiliar war (Joshua 3:4). I feel it is important to expand on the passage of I John 2 which we lightly discussed recently in footnote *5 of Post 287 The Three-Part Yin (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-three-part-yin.html). This additional point is the intimate knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10):

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord” II Peter 1:2(+3).
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John did not break up his letter into chapters; that was done much later for our benefit of study. So as Chapter Two opens with “My little children, these things write I unto you…” it is clear that John is speaking of everything he is including in the whole five-chapter letter we now identify as the book of I John: John is calling “His little children” all those believers that are learning from his letter.
The significance of his meaning becomes more pronounced when in verse 12 he begins to distinguish between the faith of little children from the faith of mature fathers (v.13a) and makes a further refined distinction between those two by including the faith of young men (v.13b) as yet a separate “level” of maturity in the faith.
So does this mean that because I am transitioning in my faith from young man to mature father that John’s letter to little children doesn’t apply to me? Of course not, John says clearly that he is writing to fathers as well, even though in faith those mature fathers are little children to John’s unique Jesus experienced faith that has something inspired to tell them as instruction from an experienced father to an inexperienced child.
Now if we use this perspective and go back and read Chapter one, we see a marvelous thing happen; as mature intellectual fathers in the faith we become open minded little children in the faith as John reminds us of the simplicity of Salvation in Christ Jesus who was from the beginning.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” I John 1:1-3.

The Apostle John is our father in the faith if for no other reason that he walked with Jesus Christ in the flesh! But that is not the only reason; The Holy Spirit through John tells us this same Jesus-- that John himself walked with-- is the same one which was from the beginning, and which they had heard and touched. So what does that mean? It means that this same man of the flesh-and-blood Jesus was revealed in the very earliest writings of Scripture and the prophets had pre-declared, it was this Jesus that these apostles were long taught in the Synagogues to watch for. I expounded on some of this in Post 232 New Old Commandment (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-old-commandment.html).
John makes it clear that a child-like comprehension of faith is important to maintain in order to properly handle the intellectual details.

Jesus Christ himself warns:

“…Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 18:3-4.

Everyone; young men, fathers, disciples, and even Apostles, were included in his warning; we are all to become as humble little children in the faith of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul reflected this instructional warning:

“And that from a child thou (Timothy) hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” II Timothy 3:15.

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:26.

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” Galatians 3:7(+).

Don’t misread Paul’s admonition to Timothy as if it automatically applies to you because you are a Christian, Timothy was taught the Holy Scriptures (Old Testament) from childhood and he knew them well. This Old Testament education is what was able to make him wise unto salvation, specifically through the fresh New Testament faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
So what about you if you don’t know the Old Testament knowledge that pre-declared the Son of God? II Timothy 3:15 doesn’t apply to you until you do. But do you need it to be saved? Not if in the Spirit of God you accept in a child-like faith Jesus Christ, in the knowledge of the New Testament revealing of that same Son of God (see the above Galatians 3:26). This is little child-like faith that is good enough! It really doesn’t matter if you don’t know the details of how this links you to Abraham; it is faith in Christ alone that makes you so (see the above Galatians 3:7). A child of Abraham is anyone who believes in Jehovah like Abraham believed (Genesis 18:19+Matthew 3:9=Romans 9:6-9+).

John is writing to us all, even all the well-educated and knowledgeable “Timothys,” that the faith still must be held simplistically as in the eyes of a little child:

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you,
that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” I John 1:5-6(+).

It’s just that simple; It’s as simple as light and dark, Love and Hate, Good and Bad… Sin and Don’t Sin.

“My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not.” I John 2:1a.
(“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” James 4:17).

But John does not end his thought there, though the sentence and meaning does end there. While John is declaring this instructional information is to restructure our mindframe to forbid the thought of permissive sin by intellectual rationalization, what if we do sin, are we forever lost?
So John continues with an additional instruction of comfort to the earnest believer, which is also basic to the yet unbeliever:

“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation (2434) for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world” I John 2:1b-2.

Propitiation 2434 hilasmos; atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator:-- propitiation.
Propitiate: …To appease and render favorable; conciliate… - Webster’s.

Atonement; (Exodus 29:19-33+Revelation 1:6 = John 6:53-57 [in a strange preparation for a yet future post-Crucifixion Type sacrifice prophesied in Ezekiel 39:17-24, but don’t miss the rest of the chapter for the event’s final completion and purpose!]).

So where is the wrathful God in John’s VERY inclusive grace of forgiveness if anyone would but turn to Jesus Christ our sacrifice after we have sinned? The wrath of God is discovered when we refuse to repent and accept his one-time, life-changing, cleansing Sacrifice of Propitiation as is shown in the above referenced Ezekiel passage.

If we accept that we are sinners and therefore separated from God by our sin, then in simplicity we can gratefully accept his atoning sacrifice that reunites us with the Perfect God in whom is no sin, and by consuming the very being of Jesus Christ to nourish our very fiber (John 6:51-63), we become sanctified priests of God. Exodus 29:33 makes very clear that anyone not a priest of God (exclusively devoted to His way) shall not participate in consuming the Ram of Consecration even though the atonement was publicly made.
I know this sounds all technical, and if you can simply grab ahold of “Do not sin” as the instruction to a child, then you perhaps don’t need the technical details… but what child does not constantly ask; “WHY?” In otherwords; “I want more information so that I can understand how to rightly apply the instruction.” This is how a child matures, to practice his learned faith in the real contest of warfare as a young man.
False theories blindly followed become defenseless when attacked. And while the child simply obeys blindly in expectation that the instruction is sound, the young man observes the success of obedience in practice, and the fathers have a history of success to be confident of their understanding.
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Fathers and Little Children:
So if we are all to approach God through the humble obedient faith of a little child, what then makes the difference between the simple inquisitive child and the informed father? By John’s inclusion of them both in his “little children” address of the simplicity and importance of salvation, we know that the approach to salvation itself is not what makes the distinction. So let’s explore the specific distinction that John provides:

I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake” I John 2:12.

Again, to John we are all his little children and each of us are to approach the forgiveness of our sins in the simple obedience of a little child. But for whose sake are we forgiven? Not our own, read it again.
And a child wants to know why, so John is writing to the child-like faith; The Why mechanics of their salvation. They already have salvation in obedient faith, but what does it really mean?

“I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning” I John 2:13a.

Like Timothy these fathers know a lot about the Son of God, and that intellectual knowledge describes Him (Christ) as being from the beginning:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;” I John 1:1.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made” John 1:1-3.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and God said, Let there be light: and there was light” Genesis 1:1-3.

This is just a simple presentation of how the entire Old Testament proclaims the Son of God from the beginning. But you have to know the Old Testament to know that the One you know is he that is from the beginning:

“I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning…” I John 14:a.

Now as a child, you may have a Holy Ghost unction that this is true (I John 2:18-20), but the informed fathers are the ones who know this by tested information i.e. experience. So how is the information tested?
These fathers were once young men, which is the second half of the verse:

“I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” I John 2:14b.

Why the sudden past tense “have written” “have overcome”?
The answer is found when we see again that we all are being called the little children in the present discussion:

“Little children, it is the last time: and ye have heard…” I John 2:18a.

This transitional sentence brings John’s recap topic to the present in application. The simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is extremely important to maintain in the complexity of the time. To the Fathers who have long known the scholarly information and application of Christ throughout history, You know the nature of Christ very well, but don’t forget to maintain that simple faith lest all your knowledge rots your brain by a Spritless intellectual application. You young men who are strong in the Lord and have the recent experience of overcoming the wicked one (2:14b), be careful not to loose sight of the simplicity that your salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ and not in your youthful strength:

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 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 2:15-16.

Why is this warning important to remember here in this application?

“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last time:…” I John 2:17-18a.

Throughout this work I have shown that the last time which John speaks of, has been an age far longer than the average self-focused Christian has patience for. The Fourth Diverse Beast of Daniel 7 began the last days, and with that several-part Beast, began the several-part rise of the Roman Catholic Church whore which continues through several forms until it finishes as the Great Whore of Revelation 17:1-6.
The warning of I John 2:15-20 is because this is an additional something that appears unwarlike, that sneaks up unexpected in the intellectual or physical battle of the faith. ONLY the child-like faith that knows the Father will discern this additional breach of the faith through the unction of the Holy One (v.20), and John informs us that both the knowledgeable fathers and the strong young men are accountable to have this child-like unction as a part of their spiritual arsenal:

“But ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things” I John 2:20.

“I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth” I John 2:21.

But here is the dilemma in this present phase of the unwarlike deception; What about all those Christians who think themselves to possess the unction, but nonetheless are swallowing the lie hook-line-and-sinker?! This is not the odd Christian among many but rather the norm, so WHAT HAPPENED?! Did God lie about them having the unction that defends their faith?
Hardly, rather, in believing the lie they have assumed they are Christians in spite of the warning! Today we have a whole generation of unrepentant Simonized “Christians” who fill the churches and by democratic vote they drive out the Peters whom they feel “judge them without love,” just as prophesied they would:

“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me (Jesus)” John 16:2-3.

So how do these “Christians” get to such a state of warlike antagonism against the saints of God rather than having a Holy Ghost unction that would empower them to recognize even the deception of the unwarlike entity that destroys? Such a state of theoretical faith comes from neglecting to grow in the knowledge of God by testing their faith in a real battle with the enemy to observe the results with realistic eyes. My most regular and vocal detractors are “Christians” who don’t read their bibles, live comfortably in sin, and base their faith upon opinions of what they imagine the bible to say “God is love, God doesn’t judge, God accepts us as we are, you shouldn’t judge, you’re a legalist, you’re unloving”. What can I do? (Psalm 11:3).

Do you suppose John was actually writing to these kind of “Christians” at all, perhaps as simply ignorant little children that just needed to be educated? I don’t think so. I propose that as a co-apostle with Peter (II Peter 2:20-21), John would and does likewise make it clear that a lack of repentance from their iniquity shows a dangerous person who has no idea what Christianity is, but has the ability to destroy it in many real Christians if left unchecked (see Acts 8:9-25, Hebrews 12:15, Ephesians 4:29-32).
Simply put; Christians have the Holy Ghost unction if they are Christians, the problem is that the Gospel has been so loosely scattered by corrupt ministers that many like Simon now believe they have the unction when they don’t. Since the Holy Ghost unction is the thing that confirms you have Christ, how do the righteous convince these Simons that they are not Christian? (Psalm 11:3 again).
So, how can we know if we are Simonized? By getting to know the Father intimately and observing the power of salvation through repentance, in the heat of battle. Do you love the world? Do you love the things in the world? Are you struggling with giving up those little things you know are sin? Like the lust of the eyes because you are deeply and helplessly attracted? Do you take pride in pride as a strength and not an abomination to God? Do you commit sin because “you’re only human”? John tells us:

“He that commiteth sin is of the Devil; for the Devil sinneth from the beginning” I John 3:8a.

Do you believe this is wrong? The Lie tells us that we can be sinners and Christians at the same time, and you can find independent verses of scripture that validate that lie if you want to.
Obviously John would not have written I John 1:4 and 2:1 if a single sin condemned a faithful Christian to hell without remedy, so clearly this verse, in keeping with the enter book of I John and the rest of the Scriptures, is speaking of an unrepentant lifestyle choice of the “Christian” that I am here questioning. These particular so called Christians are not double-agents who know their deceptive rolls, but rather are Manchurian agents of the enemy (*1), thinking themselves to be on the same team against Satan.
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The depth of the meaning in John’s warning against this peaceful deception soon to explode as the “Yang” savior of humanity is the subject of my next work. But here in this preparatory Post we begin to see clearly that the enemy is not actually the Catholic, the Jew, the Evolutionist, or the Muslim, etc.; the enemy is the dark spirit that drives anyone to believe the lie, even “Christians” who by an unrepentant nature follows the antichrist of a (C)hristless but (c)hristfilled peace (*2):
“Little Children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us… no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” I John 2:18-22.

Today most Christians are so busily waiting for the Antichrist to appear in violence that they have no idea that the spirit of antichrist is already among them leading them astray with Dirty Grace. Will Antichrist actually rise? Yes, but before he does, the prophecy applies to you today, so you better learn it well or be deceived by its peace (Daniel 8:25).

If a sinless Christianity (I John 3:6), secured by our advocate Jesus Christ in the protection of Grace (I John 2:1) is not coupled with a true understanding of the very nature of the enemy, this battle will come to a quick failure.
But almost as important is the knowledge that this war will not soon be won on the temporal plain; we are now going into captivity; not freed from it, and the complexity of simultaneous “peace” and violence will make finding the narrow way even that much more difficult.

“…Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of Salvation” II Corinthians 6:2. (See also Hebrews 12:1-2 &17, 28-29, &…).

The book of Hebrew is a complex study of the simple truth; Jesus is the Christ. But like Allah presenting himself to be that Creator in place of Jehovah, so the Islamic Isa is not this Jesus.
The seeking Jew and the seeking Muslim will find a very enlightening revelation as Hebrews chapters 1-10 directly applies the truth of the Law fulfilled in Jesus the Son of God, and the remaining chapters speak of that faith as it applies to them. But another faith will apply it very differently and the result will be destruction.
So to recap: we have learned that it is very important to go into battle knowing the nature of your enemy and knowing your God intimately.
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Deuteronomy:
Have you ever wondered what the long book of Deuteronomy was for?, it’s basic information was already included in the first four books of Moses.
From verse 1 of the first chapter, to verse 5 of the last chapter, Deuteronomy is Moses’ recap of all that the LORD had commanded his people on the long journey of re-education, and this recap was given just before Joshua led them across the Jordan River into victory. In a very real way Deuteronomy was the John-the-Baptist kind of straightening the crooked paths in preparation of Joshua’s successful work. Moses’ job was finished and he died because all the fearful first-generation Exodus people were now dead; the new people were free to accomplish the job in bold faith with Joshua in a new spirit of fellowship with God… but only as a Type of the Hebrews 8:10 covenant yet to be made!
Deuteronomy came after a whole lot of experience, because only after experience comes mature eyes to be able to comprehend what was heard in ignorance but not understood. But right after Deuteronomy we need Hebrews, because Hebrews is the Joshua of Deuteronomy’s Moses!
I trust you are actually reading these Scriptures, rather than just gleaning insight from the work of others.
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(*1) “The Manchurian Candidate (1959), by Richard Condon, is a political thriller novel about the son of a prominent US political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.
The novel has been adapted twice into a feature film by the same title, in 1962 and again in 2004.” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate).

(*2) The Christless Peace:
This is a topic we will be exploring in great detail in the next section.
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