The momentum tests that are involved in enduring because of who and what Jesus Christ is

1. The OSN test. The OSN is Satan’s inside agent for producing temptation in the area of sins of cognisance or sins of ignorance or human good or evil. The OSN resides in the human body and is the source of all temptation. The volition or the freewill of man faces daily the temptations of the OSN inside the cell structure of the body. The volition or the freewill of man guards the soul.

The objective of the OSN is to control the soul. It cannot control the soul because the soul has human volition and so the OSN throws up temptation. Once it reaches the gate all the volition has to do is say, “No,” and the OSN is defeated. But if the volition says, “Pass through,” then that becomes sin. The origin of sin has always been human volition. Only when volition passes the temptation into the soul does the OSN control the soul and the individual enters the cosmic system. The decision is made outside the divine dynasphere.

2. People testing. It is inevitable that we are going to live around people. People become a major distraction to momentum when the believer gets his eyes on people. There are two ways to do it. One way is to love them personally; the other is to hate. Either way you are preoccupied with a person to the point of distraction or potential distraction.

The reaction of a person in love is disillusion and bitterness followed by implacability and vindictiveness as you continue in the cosmic system. The reaction of the believer to personality conflict is hatred, revenge motivation, personal insensitivity, the expression of all forms of arrogance, hostile subjectivity. The solution to people testing is the function of impersonal love under the various mandates of the royal family honour code. The reason God allows evil people to live long when often the good die young has to do with the cosmic system. He keeps the mean s.o.b. alive for a purpose - people testing in order to accelerate our spiritual growth.

3. Thought testing — generally related to the believer’s negative volition toward doctrine. There are two kinds of negative volition toward doctrine: Gate 2 of cosmic 1 is negative volition based on preoccupation with self. Gate 1 of cosmic 2 is antagonism toward some form of doctrine. There are two different ways in which negative volition toward doctrine is developed: you are arrogant and preoccupied with yourself and therefore doctrine is excluded, or you are antagonistic toward its content, it attacks you in some area, you are hypersensitive about some principle. Thought distraction can simply relate to one’s arrogance or preoccupation with self or it can originate from some prejudice that you have, some inflexibility that causes you to resist, doctrinal teaching that hits that area of prejudice.

Many times doubts in thought testing can result from neglect of doctrine, lack of daily function of GAP, and often the believer tries to reconcile his favourite academic subject with Bible doctrine. If reconciliation is impossible then he is distracted by taking the side of the academic subject.

The solution to thought testing includes rebound, the function of the faith-rest drill with emphasis on the essence of God rationale or the plan of God rationale which is of course the concept of logistical grace.

4. System testing. Sooner or later in life someone is going to be unfair to you and if that some is not just an individual but an individual in a system then you have system testing. The believer becomes the victim of a rotten system which requires him to have both the function of impersonal love plus the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

The world is filled with bad systems which seek to destroy the integrity and the honour of individuals. Bad systems always have their victims and likely as not if you are doing a good job you may be the victim of a bad system sooner or later. Many organisations become rotten and corrupt when the leadership of such a system is rotten or corrupt through involvement in the cosmic system. Many illustrations exist, e.g. the judicial system where the judges are sociologists instead of interpreters of the law; they favour criminals, they ignore the victims. Many people become bitter and disillusioned about doctrine simply because someone whom they love becomes the victim of such a thing.

System testing distracts from momentum of gate 4 when the believer becomes preoccupied with himself, when he resents human injustice to the point of self-pity, when he becomes bitter and full of hatred and implacability, when he seeks revenge tactics instead of leaving the problem in the Lord’s hands. System testing is a major source of peer ostracism. In addition to the function of impersonal love and the faith-rest drill as solutions there must be social life with God, gate 5 — worship, spiritual life, occupation with Christ.

5. The direct attack of cosmic 1. Every one of the 26 gates of cosmic 1 is waiting to entrap you and to get you out of the momentum line.

6. The direct attack of cosmic 2.

7. Disaster testing — where the believer faces both personal and collective disaster — personal disaster for blessing or warning for being in the cosmic system, collective disaster is a historical trend and we are the products of our own decisions as a nation.

8. Prosperity testing. We must all face the prosperity test before we can attain maturity. God will provide in logistical grace some system of prosperity, some system of human recognition, something that can be construed as prosperity. Does that change our scale of values? Does that prosperity make doctrine secondary? If so many many people flunk just before they crack the maturity barrier.

The concepts of arrogance, as we have noted, and the historical trends apply to almost every facet of life and this includes the principle of culture as well. In a book called Libro Nero, by Giavani Papini, is a very excellent confession on the part of Picasso, the one whose innovation brought about what we call cubism.

Giavani Papini gives an account of an interview with the so-called top god of modern art. Here is what Picasso had to say, quoting from the book: “From the moment that art ceases to be the food that feeds the best minds the artist can use his talents to perform all the tricks of an intellectual charlatan. Most people can today no longer receive consolation and exaltation from art. The refined, the rich, the professional do-nothings, the distillers of quintessence, desire only the peculiar, the sensational, the eccentric, the scandalous, in today’s art. And I, myself, since the advent of cubism have fed these fellows what they wanted and satisfied these critics with all the ridiculous ideas that have ever passed through my head. The less they understand me the more they admire me.

“Through amusing myself with all of these absurd farces I became celebrated and famous very rapidly. For a painter celebrity means sales and consequent affluence. Today, as you know, I am both celebrated but also rich. But when I am alone and do not have the effrontery to call myself an artist at all — not in the grand old meaning of the word — I consider myself a publican, a clown, a faker, a mount-te-bank. I have understood my time and exploited the imbecility, the vanity, the greed of my contemporaries. It is a bitter confession, this confession of mine, more painful than it may seem. But at last it does have the merit of being honest.”