Spiritual Authority

I am taking a short break from spending my time in writing my book to post the following message.

There is a false teaching and attitude that has been circulating around the Christian community that fosters sin and rebellion.  It is an evil taint and twisting of scripture.

It is one that I have encountered this week while studying Galatians.  It is one that has been tugging on me since February when I first encountered it when reading about the beliefs of a ministry on the internet.  It is very close to home right now, and I am grieved over it.  Many churches and ministries fondle this passage to promote the human notion of equality within community and even within governance.

The passage:

” For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” — Galatians 3:26-29

Many have wrongly taken this passage to mean that everyone is equal as Christians.  It does not matter if you are male or female, young or old, we are all equal.  There are no barriers between us any more.  What a man can do or want to do, A woman can also do.  The authority of a bishop or pastor is no greater than the member.  We are all equals in authority.  This is a heresy and goes against the context of this passage and against the rest of scripture.  It is true that all who come to Christ are equally redeemed from their sins and enjoy the abundant new life God gives, but it does not mean that all are equal.

This passage needs to be coupled with the following particularly as it relates to roles within the church.

” For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” — Romans 12:3-8

When both scriptures are rightly applied, the Holy Spirit is instructing Christians that not all members have the same function.  This particularly applies to other passages of scripture that forbid women being pastors, overseers, bishops, or elders. see 1 timothy 3:1; Titus 1:6.  This is a hard saying for some, but one I must say.  The church is not a community of equals.  God appoints Pastors to watch over them and Deacons to care for them.  As spiritual authorities and leaders they have been delegated authority by God and been given gifts to watch over the members, members need so show them obedience and submission, just as Jesus showed us in the garden before he went to the cross to bear our sins.  He submitted and was obedient.

Members need to submit and be obedient to our God appointed spiritual leaders.

Repent Christian of your rebellious heart;

Seek Forgiveness from your Spiritual Leader now–Do not wait, Again I say NOW!.

Humble yourself before God and His appointed and delegated authority.

Your Brother in Christ.

Expelled — Movie Review

In an effort to keep my thoughts from drifting into inexpressible emotions, I present this review of the Movie expelled. My thoughts and prayers will drift back to those more personal ones, but they are silent griefs without words for now.

Last night I watched the movie, Expelled. The documentary hosted by Ben Stein. It explores the conflict and one-sided debate surrounding the dogma of the Theory of Evolution versus the theory of Intelligent Design. It is critical of the expulsion of Scientists and Reports that even give mention of the Theory of Intelligent Design. Those few and small who break against the monolith of Darwin’s creation: The origin of Species. Who dare not swallow the pill without first questioning and reviewing the evidence and science of Darwin.

Ben Stein is a Jew. He focused his attention first on the intellectual freedom of science being under attack and then his personal connection to Darwin in investigating the connection that Hitler’s Third Reich, and the Nazi’s had to Darwin’s Theories of Natural Selection and the Origin of Species. He cautiously connected them as Hitler’s fascination with the process of Natural Selection, but his desire to speed up the process to create a more evolved human or a master race. He toured a hospital in The Nazi Empire where undesirables were slaughtered . The place is hollowed ground where thousands of innocents were massacred.

A common thread for all the scientists and advocates that continue to spread the gospel of Darwin is unbelief in any God, whatsoever. And that many of them once had faith in God, but in studying and exploring the theory of Evolution they found the natural process to become their new god.

There was no mention of Genesis chapter one or the bible in any of the discussions. Just the foggy notion that some intelligence was behind the creation of life–and there is the new out for science. Admitting a designer of life, but keeping that designer removed and apart from what was made. The old recycling of the Theist-an absent clockmaker. It will be a slow rising tide, but evidence will eventually lead to Intelligent design just because of the myriads of unanswered questions that continue to go without logical answers or supporting evidence from the Darwinist. Therefore Religion and Science will still be separated and the world will swallow the next lie that does not deny god, but puts god into a little box of being a now absent designer without any regard for the science experiment began in a small petri dish and has now walked away from it and even may have forgotten about it.

In an aside, I still continue in my disciplined study, meditation, and teaching of the bible. I still hold that God–reveal in the Bible–Is the creator of all life and all things. And that I belief in a young earth and that creation was a six day supernatural event, and at the beginning of my academic career studied geology and found the Theory of Catastrophism more in line with the laws of physics than uniformitarianism–particularly the second law of thermodynamics. In fact, this week I have been reading and studying from the Prophet Isaiah. I will share a brief explanation and then shall quote him afterward, these words affirm God as the creator of life and Sovereign of All, even the unbelieving.

God tells the world both a timely message to the Ancients of Judah and to all the world though his prophet. Three basic truths that are still in the headlines more than 2,700 years later.
1) God is the Creator of everything including human life in the womb. (Isaiah 44:24; 45:8, 12)–affirming that human life begins in the womb and each life is a special creation of God. (Isaiah 44:24)
2) God is the only true God there is no other. (Isaiah 45:5)
3) God is the Sovereign of the Universe (Isaiah 45:1-4)
Each of these Truths about God are implied in each verse and throughout the rest of the bible.

The death and decay of the world including America that started with a single taste of the forbidden fruit in paradise will continue as our society blows around in the wind without a solid anchor. Chasing after the pursuit of knowledge but denying wisdom when they see and hear it screaming to them from the complexity of what was suppose to be simple and the simpleness of the answer. In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. God is still supreme, He was able to use a pagan Persian King to rebuild his holy city and temple, who else will God use for His divine and righteous purposes, even the unbelieving and uncooperative? Maybe even an evolutionist.

I am still waiting for the Evolutionist to explain to me the mechanism for the creation of a seed and its ability to grow into a giant redwood tree or a blade of grass. So much time and effort is made in making man into an animal, that half of the life on this planet continues with no “scientific” theory for its origin? What is the origin of species for a tree? Even the smallest child knows that only God can make a tree.

Isaiah 44:24-45:13 (New King James Version)

24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer,
And He who formed you from the womb:

“ I am the LORD, who makes all things,
Who stretches out the heavens all alone,
Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;
25 Who frustrates the signs of the babblers,
And drives diviners mad;
Who turns wise men backward,
And makes their knowledge foolishness;
26 Who confirms the word of His servant,
And performs the counsel of His messengers;
Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’
To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’
And I will raise up her waste places;
27 Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry!
And I will dry up your rivers’;
28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd,
And he shall perform all My pleasure,
Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,”
And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”’

Isaiah 45

1 “Thus says the LORD to His anointed,
To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—
To subdue nations before him
And loose the armor of kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:
2 ‘ I will go before you
And make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the LORD,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.
4 For Jacob My servant’s sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other;
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the LORD, do all these things.’
8 “ Rain down, you heavens, from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation,
And let righteousness spring up together.
I, the LORD, have created it.
9 “ Woe to him who strives with his Maker!
Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth!
Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?
10 Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’
Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’”
11 Thus says the LORD,
The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:

“ Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons;
And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.
12 I have made the earth,
And created man on it.
I—My hands—stretched out the heavens,
And all their host I have commanded.
13 I have raised him up in righteousness,
And I will direct all his ways;
He shall build My city
And let My exiles go free,
Not for price nor reward,”
Says the LORD of hosts.

Not voting for Satan’s brother

Another Web log has a much more thoughtful response to this same event. It is written by Bill McKeever, The Relationship Between Jesus and Lucifer in a Mormon Context. My response here is more emotional.

There are two items from a news story about Governor Huckabee commenting on Governor Romney’s beliefs that I wish to comment on. They relate to the progressive truth revealed by false Mormon prophets that all humans are spiritually begotten by the Mormon God and that Jesus was first among this spiritual offspring and that Lucifer (the Devil) and every other human are among them.

One.
Why is acceptable to have LDS define what Christianity believes, but not for Christians to define what LDS believe? I am not going to sit in silence at allow for the LDS church spokesman (I thought it was the prophet’s responsibility and duty to lead the church not a spokesman) to define what Christians believe. Their definition has all ready been given by their founding false prophet, Joseph Smith, jr. He basically said that they all Christian denominations and beliefs are false. If LDS really believe that all Christianity is false then why try and have the same beliefs when it comes to trying and place Mankind as equals to Jesus. I will not allow Christ to be stripped of His divinity, nor will I allow for man to be elevated as equal to the Son of God. I am not going to let them talk out of both sides of their mouths. Maybe Mormons should read past James chapter 2 and see that He also warns us from having a tongue of fire (speaking in vague half-truths). Christianity acknowledges the Triune God as the Creator of all things. Jesus, the Son of God as spoken by John was with God in the beginning, and is not a created being. Mankind is created in the image and likeness of God, but is not an exact copy. Humans are not of the same species as God.

Two.
Angels are not Humans either. Again the founding false prophet of the LDS church states that a heavenly messenger or angel appeared to him in his room to reveal that their were some hidden golden plates that he had written some 14 centuries before. This basic belief that angels were once men or women that have died or have not yet been born is a fundamental teaching of the LDS church. By connecting the dots of the belief that LDS have of all humankind being spiritually created before birth including the devil and his angels, Jesus, and all the rest of us. Again this fundamental belief is still maintained and its tangled branches reach into the concept that Jesus and the Devil are spiritual brothers both begotten spiritually by the God of Mormonism with one of his heavenly wives. So by default that would make Mitt Romney the brother of the devil, why would anyone want to vote for Satan’s brother to be President of the United States?

Foundations of the World-A Biblical View

Unlike my previous two web log entries, this is the view I hold. The first view, a Mormon view, is supported by the belief of modern revelation to alleged prophets in these latter days or from extra-biblical writings considered scripture to Mormons. This progressive view can be updated to a more complete truth as more modern revelation is provided to these prophets. The second view, a human secular view, is supported by observable phenomenon and is logically deduced from those observations, as more investigation and observations are made this view may also be updated to include future observations. This final view is based on passages found within the Bible. A translated message provided by scholars of theology and language for all people. A message from the voice of God through the Holy Spirit to His servants.

Chapter 1. Foundations of the world

Passages from the bible that clearly state that God is the Creator of the universe. It did not exist before Him and did not happen through natural phenomenon. It was a supernatural event that lasted 144 hours.

Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (NKJV)

John 1:1-3
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (NJKV)

Psalm 90:2
“2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. ” (NJKV)

Further passages only continue to confirm that God, alone, made the universe and everything that is contained within it. He also initiated the salvation of man from the beginning.

Psalm 102:25
“Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.” (NKJV)

Isaiah 51:13
“…the LORD your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth;” (NKJV)

Ephesians 1:3-6
“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (NKJV)

Further passages again outline the order of creation: The heavens were created first. The earth was created next. Finally, man. God created the physical universe including the earth and man before He forms the spirit of man within the clay physical body in contrast to Mormon belief that the spirit came before the physical.

Zechariah 12:1
“… Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him” (NKJV)

Genesis 1:1, 2:7
“…God created the heavens and the earth”
“7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (NKJV)

Next Chapter Two. The earth is created-Mormon view, Human Secular view, and Biblical view.

Foundations of the World-A Human Secular View

First, I am not a Secular Humanist, and have never followed that philosophy. Also, I have little knowledge of astronomy or astrophysics. This is a simple explanation maintaining some of the scientific names compiled from web sources from NASA and JPL. Basically, the formation of the universe amounts to an explosion of hot particles that started to cool down and combined together to form gaseous elements like hydrogen.

Chapter 1. Origin of the Universe (the heavens)

Approximately 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the universe. Before this event all of the matter and energy of space were contained in a single point, called a singularity. This explosion was not a conventional explosion but rather an event filling the universe with all of the particles rushing away from each other. This explosion laid the foundations for the universe.

The result of these particles, matter and antimatter, rushing apart in all directions caused the universe to be tremendously hot. It started to cool. There existed an almost equal amount of matter and antimatter. They began to collide and destroy each other creating pure energy. There was slightly more matter than antimatter allowing the universe to mature in a way that favored matter over antimatter. As the universe first began to expand, the discrepancy between matter and antimatter grew larger. The particles which began to dominate were those of matter. As the universe continued to expand and cool, common particles began to form. These particles are called baryons and include photons, neutrinos, electrons and quarks. They became the building blocks of matter and life.

After the universe had significantly cooled, a radical transition began similar to the phase transition of water turning to ice. Composite particles such as protons and neutrons, called hadrons, became the common state of matter. However, no matter more complex could form at these high temperatures of 3000 degrees Kelvin. Other lighter particles, called leptons, also existed, but did not react to these heavier particles. Eventually conditions cooled and allowed these leptons, including electrons, to join with their hadron kin. This union continues to define the nature of common matter.

When the universe was three minutes old, protons and neutrons began to react with each other and created Deuterium, or heavy hydrogen. This element soon collected another neutron to form tritium. Rapidly following this reaction was the addition of another proton which produced a helium nucleus. The ratio of one helium nuclei to ten single protons was set during these first few minutes and persists to the present. After further cooling, these single protons would be able to capture an electron to create common hydrogen and the helium nuclei were able to capture their electrons to make helium.

Foundations of the World-A Mormon View

Since no one within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, including their prophet, wants to record in a single brief narrative an account or a clear and concise explaination of the fundamental Doctrines of Creation and Pre-Existance according to the Mormon Faith. The following is provided by a former member of the Church.

Foundations of the world

Chapter 1. Origin of Heaven
1. At some time, an Exalted Man, known to His creation, Elohim, God, the Father, beget many spiritual sons and daughters. They were formed from existent material, intelligences, entering into a spiritual body in the image of God. His eternal wife(s) conceived and gave birth to them after the manner of spiritual birth.
2. These spiritual children lived with God, the father, on a distant celestial world named Kolob, where a day is as a thousand years.
3. Their firstborn son, Jesus Christ, achieved exaltation and became God, the Son, before the creation of the terrestrial order into the highest celestial order. Another the lastborn was to act as the Holy Ghost; God, the Spirit. Thus the Godhead was formed: God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit.
4. A council of the spiritual sons and daughters of God was ordained by the Godhead, after God, the Father and his wife(s) had born and given spiritual birth to all of humanity for the coming dispensations. The council was called by the Godhead to determine how the children of God would achieve Exaltation.
5. God, the Son presented the eternal plan of Exaltation, given at the foundation of all worlds whether yet organized or yet to be organized. This plan of free agency held freedom as the greatest virtue. Were all of the children of God would be free to chose to become Exalted like their parents by forsakening their personal ambition, both the spiritual and the physical, and remain under the authority of their eternal Heavenly Father by faith and obedience to His commandments.
6. But to make it a true choice, all would have their minds veiled upon terrestrial birth. Each would retain their godliness until the age of accountability for most at age eight at which time, sin introduced by the choice of Adam, his Exalted name to be Michael, a mighty general in the coming war, would take hold of the flesh and the battle between the natural man and the spiritual child for control of the pre-existent intelligence, the soul, would begin.
7. Achieving Exaltation would required the Blood of the Lamb of God mixed with the faith and obedience of the children of God.
8. The Blood of the Holy One would first be given in the Garden, next on the Cross, and finally in the Tomb. As a sacrifice for the sins of man.
9. As Saviour and Redeemer, the Son would leave his terrestrial tabernacle and rise in an Exalted Body of the highest radiance of the Glory of God. All would receive an Exalted resurrected body of differing earned glories, glories celestial, glories telestial, and glories terrestrial, depending on their faithfulness and obedience to The Sacrifice. The faithful that first labored for their own righteousness and fulfilled the sacred and holy ordinances of this plan would have that completing measure of grace, the Blood of Christ as a gift.
10. All the holy ordinances of exaltation would not be fully revealed until the final dispensation. Those living before would place their faith in the works of the valiant saints of the Latter Days to preform these Exalting ceremonies. Thus, was the plan of Exaltation.
11. Lucifer, another highly favored son presented an alternative plan of forced exaltation. All would be saved, but the price would not be the Blood of Lamb and the faith of the saints, but the loss of that wonderful gift of free agency.
12. The Godhead chose the eternal plan-that same plan from the most ancient that God, the Father had followed to become an Exalted Man.
13. One-third of the spirit children of God wanted this forced exaltation and fought a war against the other two-thirds of the spirit children. Victory finally came through the valor of the saints to the greater part. The lesser part were forced to leave their home. They were forever condemned. Never to taste of the flesh and remain in as only spirits.
14. Thus, becoming enemies to their Father and their open rebellion against Him and His valiant children began and continues even to the final dispensation. Their fiery weapons of lies and deceit continue to attack the valiant. Tempting them to be disobedient to God. It was through theses fallen children that sin entered the world to come.
15. The victorious were crowned with blessings from their Father. Radiant glories based on their actions during the war in heaven. Their achievements in battle determined their birth order in the dispensations to come. Many of the valiant saints were held in reserve for the dispensation of the fulness of time, the Latter Days. The rest for other dispensations dependant on their valor in battle.
12. Among the most valiant would be the given the office of dispenser. First Adam, or Michael, God’s general. Second Noah, or Gabriel, God’s messenger. Third Abraham, God’s faithful; Fourth Moses, God’s lawgiver; Fifth John, the baptist, God’s prophet; Sixth Jesus, The Only Begotten in the physical flesh; Seventh Joseph Smith, God’s restorer. These are the most valiant of the Sons of God. Others of renown to be given authority of high priestly offices and given keys of power and named as patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and saints.
13. After the spiritual war, the earth was created after the manner of other worlds. After the manner of worlds. Even that ancient world that God matured to His exaltation. The ancient and renewed planet, Kolob.
14. The honored children of God aided the Son in this organization of a world. All things being created first in spirit and after second becoming physical in form.

These are some of the commonly held beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in convenient verse format for easy reference, and rebuttal. If you ever wondered what a Mormon meant when they talk about the Pre-Existance, this is it.

Future Articles.
Chapter 2…The organization of an earth.

Foundations of the World-A Humanist View.

Foundations of the World-A biblical View.