Chapter 2

The first historical trend of the Church Age is mentioned in verse one.

The word “angel,” a)ggeloj, means messenger and it should be translated here, “to the messenger.” It is referring to a future pastor who will take over the pulpit after John disappears from the scene.

“the church,” e)kklhsia, “of Ephesus,” e)n plus the locative of E)fesoj. This church resides in a local area, it is a local church. Paul founded a church in Ephesus that became the greatest church of the ancient world. It had the three greatest pastors in the ancient world — in this order: Paul, Timothy, John.

Some isagogics regarding Ephesus: Greek civilisation gradually replaced the oriental-asiatic civilisation of the Anatoleans. Ionic Greek became the language of Ephesus. It was that language that turned the whole world around. You see, all reality and life is not related to circumstances. All reality and life is related to vocabulary. Happiness is in thought. Ionic Greek became the most revolutionary, the most dynamic language of the ancient world. Next to it was Attic Greek.

Application: Some people will never truly orient to life because they have never done anything to increase their vocabulary. Then greater the vocabulary, the greater the potentiality for thought. And in the day in which we live emotion has been substituted for increasing one’s vocabulary. Therefore, emotions have become meaningless and they are reduced to their base aspect which is simply to feel good at all costs which becomes the basis for drug addiction, and a lot of things that people do trying to find some good feeling and sustain it, and prolong it, and continue it. This is, of course, part of the degeneracy that comes to any great society. When you have an entire generation of people who cannot think, then you have a generation of people who live by their feelings, by their emotions. When this happens they destroy themselves because degeneracy is the inevitable result. (Thought animates).

“write” is aorist active imperative of grafw — “write.” The culminative aorist views writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the completion of the canon of scripture, a textbook of world history from the time of John to the end of time. It presents all of the historical trends and eschatological implications of history.

“saith,” legw. It is our Lord who is speaking; “he,” o(dh, the one who is communicating these things; “holding,” kratoj denotes legal power and authority.

Lit. translation: “He [Jesus Christ] who has empowered says.” The present tense of kratew is the present of duration. It denotes what has begun in the past [the beginning of the Church Age] and continues in to the presence.

“the seven stars,” touj e(pta aster, the pastors of the seven churches.

During the course of the Church Age there will always be somewhere a pastor teaching Bible doctrine. He will be teaching the laws of divine establishment; he will communicate the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he will teach categorically Bible doctrine. These pastors are positioned by our Lord and given authority and power on the basis of interest or positive volition. He does it for two reasons: positive volition toward doctrine or coming judgment from God. It is Bible doctrine which is the fuel burning in the lamps and giving true light to the events of history.

e)n decioj a)utoj, “his right hand.” The hand of approval with our Lord. Jesus Christ both approves, authorises and empowers those pastors who teach Bible doctrine in the local church.

The provision of power includes the following facts for the pastor who faithfully teaches doctrine:

1. He has power from a spiritual gift, the gift of pastor-teacher.

2. His function in the divine dynasphere is both preparation and communication of Bible doctrine.

3. Through spiritual growth and divine guidance the pastor is prepared spiritually, physically, mentally, academically, and through personal character traits, to teach Bible doctrine.

4. Personal character traits include the importance of personal humility, impersonal love, objectivity, and professionalism.

5. Personal character traits include both the motivational and functional virtues plus passing momentum tests.

6. Professionalism is the ability of the pastor to study and teach and not be distracted by inconsequential tradition.

“walketh,” peripatew, keeps walking; “in the midst,” e)n mesoj e(pta luxnia — of the lampstands. The lampstands are the seven churches, a reference to local churches where Bible doctrine is taught. They become the light of history.

Translation of verse 1: “To the messenger, the future pastor of the church at Ephesus write: He who has empowered the seven stars [pastors who teach doctrine] on his right hand [the delegation of authority and power] the one who keeps walking in the middle of the seven golden lampstands [the local churches where the believers reside in the divine dynasphere and learn doctrine] communicates these things.”

We now have our first and most important historical trend of the Church Age. It is the communication and the reception of Bible doctrine. This is the basis for any historical uptrend or age of prosperity in history. There is no true prosperity apart from Bible doctrine. Though Satan has tried desperately as the ruler of this world to simulate true prosperity he always fails, it always collapses.

There are two keys to the historical uptrend: the provision of the divine dynasphere as the divine provision and divine plan for the Church Age, and the provision of the Word of God, the New Testament canon, as the permanent receptacle for Bible doctrine. From these two power systems originates the uptrend of history.

Principle

1. This verse brings together everything related to historical uptrend. It is the verse of historical uptrend. While this is the devil’s world, Jesus Christ controls history.

2. Jesus Christ controls history, however, in compatibility with human freedom. He does not contradict or coerce human freedom. The sovereignty of God and the freewill of man are related, not contradictory. He controls history through positive volition toward truth choosing the divine plan instead of Satan’s cosmic administration.

3. Therefore, there are no tragedies in histories.

4. The reason why there are no tragedies in history is because people individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions.

5. Historical disaster results from wrong decisions which destroy future options for blessing.

6. Too often people individually and collectively make wrong decisions by treating their freedom for what appears to be security, or what appears to be pleasure.

7. The exchange of freedom for security results in cosmic involvement and historical downtrend as noted by the rise of socialism, liberalism, the welfare state, redistribution of wealth, and other Satanic philosophies which offer security instead of freedom.

8. While God has not overlooked our security in logistical grace freedom is the real issue in the continuation of the angelic conflict in human history.

Through freedom the believer chooses from his freedom both eternal and temporal security as secondary considerations in the plan of God for his life. Reversing the course of historical disaster then is a matter of positive volition toward truth which is always available in every generation. In other words the uptrends of history are related to the communication and reception of Bible doctrine. The downtrends of history are related to a maximum number of people, both believer and unbeliever, living in the cosmic system.

Therefore, there are no tragedies in history, only in drama. Historical disaster is related to certain cosmic trends such as “the demand for power exceeds the need for power.” Arrogance, of course, is the motivation for evil. Arrogance, the motivating evil of the cosmic system demands power and authority not authorised by the laws of divine establishment. Therefore disaster occurs when arrogant people and nations fail to see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others. Disaster occurs when bad decisions create bad environment known as degeneration. Disaster occurs when jealous people or envious nations fail to see their own sins and evil production, only the sins and evil production of others. Innovation without truth brings disaster. Emphasis on peace and security at any price or at the price of freedom brings disaster. Disaster comes when the weak control the strong.

By the way, the weak always manipulate the strong under the principle that the strong have integrity. Why can the weak control the strong? Why can a nagging wife control a magnificent man and vice versa? Because the strong has integrity. Why do teen-age children control their parents today? Because the parents have integrity. What makes the person strong also makes him vulnerable to manipulation. One of the first signs of degeneracy in a nation is when the weak control the strong.

Disaster is inevitable when a nation fails to pass the prosperity test.

Verse 2, An estimate of the situation in Ephesus.

“I know,” o)ida. It is used as a perfect active indicative for divine knowledge or omniscience regarding the status quo of the church in Ephesus. It should be translated, “I have known.” The speaker is the Lord Jesus Christ and He is speaking from His deity, not His hypostatic union, not from His humanity but from His deity. The present of duration denotes what has begun in the past through the omniscience of our Lord Jesus Christ as God and continues into the present.

“I have known” brings into focus one of the major issues in Biblical theology. How can Jesus Christ as God control history and at the same time man function under his freewill? That is the major question. We have the sovereignty of God and the freewill of man. The problem is they are not contradictory. It isn’t the sovereignty of God versus the freewill of man. They actually function together.

Billions of years before man existed God knew. God has three kinds of knowledge. He has self-knowledge. God is eternal, His knowledge is eternal. God is sovereign, His knowledge is infinitely superior to angelic or human perception or genius. The future is as perspicuous as the past to God. Since God is a person He possesses both self-consciousness and self-determination. Therefore God as a person acts rationally in compatibility with His absolute will and perfection. God is Himself, He knows Himself. He knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any other being. God is infinite, His knowledge is without boundary or limitation. Therefore God’ knowledge is never complicated with ignorance, absurdities or any of the things whereby emotion destroys the rationale of the human mind. God existed eternally, unsustained by Himself or any other source. Therefore His knowledge is as unalterable as Himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ controls history.

God’ knowledge exists in three categories: self-knowledge, omniscience and foreknowledge. God’ self-knowledge is related to the other members of the trinity as well as to Himself. God has eternally known Himself and He has eternally known the other members of the trinity. Each member of the trinity then, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, has perfect subjective knowledge of self and perfect objective knowledge of the other two members of the trinity.

But our understanding of this first verb in our passage does not relate to God’ self-knowledge. While God’ self-knowledge related to His own divine attributes and knowledge of the other members of the trinity, omniscience is a technical term relating to man. God’s objective knowledge of the universe and all of its creatures is the correct definition for omniscience.

The divine decrees establish reality in human history. It is the omniscience of God which feeds the computer which we call the decrees of God. Programming of this computer which we call human history is accomplished by the omniscience of God. The divine decrees establish reality, omniscience includes all that is in the divine decrees. God is sovereign but in His sovereignty He did not interfere when He programmed the computer and He does not interfere in the printout of the computer. The computer does the work itself. God in His omniscience programmed it, God in His foreknowledge got a printout from it, but the sovereignty of God does not interfere with the freewill of man in what he wishes to think or do or how he is motivated or what he decides.

There are a lot of things which were not entered into the computer. We can call these alternatives, alternatives to motivation, alternatives to decisions, alternatives to thoughts, alternatives to actions. These are also included in the omniscience of God.

This leads in historical trends to two ways in which prosperity can exist and two ways in which historical disaster comes about. The omniscience of God knows the alternatives of history under the category of probability. The alternatives are a part of the omniscience of God.

Omniscience is defined as God knows perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously, all that is knowable, both actual and possible.

Now the foreknowledge of God must be distinguished. Foreknowledge is not the same as omniscience. Between omniscience and foreknowledge stands the computer of divine decrees. Omniscience programs the computer with historical facts — thought, decision, action, motive. Foreknowledge is the printout of the computer of divine decrees. Nothing is foreknown until it is first decreed.

When our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to John and said, “write these down,” and He said with regard to the church at Ephesus, “I have known,” He was speaking from His foreknowledge.

Nothing is foreknown until it is first decreed. Only the computer of divine decrees establishes reality, which means that foreknowledge follows as a printout of the divine decrees. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain but acknowledges what is certain, the content of the divine decrees. So when the Lord Jesus Christ communicates prophecy it is from His foreknowledge. The omniscience of God, the omniscience of Jesus Christ, fed the facts into the computer but the one who talked to the apostle John was the Lord Jesus Christ speaking from His foreknowledge.

Therefore we have a concept with regard to the fact that the sovereignty of God and the freewill of man coexists in human history and that the sovereignty of God may reach down and punish man based upon His integrity, or He can prosper man based upon His integrity, based upon the principles that are involved, but He never interferes. Only man has the temerity to interfere with the privacy, the rights, the freedom, the functions of other people.

“works,” the accusative plural direct object from e)rgon plus the possessive genitive of the personal pronoun sou. Lit. “I have known your accomplishments.” The word e)rgon means accomplishment or production. The result of the Christian modus vivendi, royal priesthood, the invisible part of the Christian way of life, in the function of our royal priesthood.

Next we have the doubling of the conjunction kai. It is kai kai and when you have it in that form it is translated “both and.” In between there is a clause or two which is involved in the “both and” connotation.

“labour,” kopoj, hardship, trouble, difficulty, toil, pressure, labour, work. Should be translated here, “both the strenuous effort.”

“patience,” u(pomonh, patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance. Should be translated “perseverance.” The noun connotes courageous endurance and refers to residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Persistence in functioning inside the divine dynasphere. And this means both positive volition toward Bible doctrine and consistent use of the rebound technique to avoid spending too much time in the cosmic system.

Corrected translation: “I have known your accomplishments, both the strenuous efforts and your perseverance ...”

“and,” kai, furthermore. This advances the argument; “canst not,” is dunh , the present middle indicative of dunamai, the verb. A few people. the church at Ephesus, are carrying the whole Roman empire at this moment. Believers advancing to maturity are actually saving the country. Translation: “furthermore you are not able.” The present tense is a customary present. It denotes what habitually occurs or maybe reasonably expected to occur when the believer reside and functions inside the divine dynasphere.

“bear” is bastazw and this refers to the believer only who is inside the divine dynasphere. It does not refer to those who are wasting their lives in the cosmic system; “evil,” — kakoj means evils. It is a reference to categories of evil [because it is in the plural] which result from residence and function in the cosmic system.

Corrected translation so far: “I have known your accomplishments, both the strenuous efforts and perseverance, furthermore you are not able to tolerate categories of evil ...”

The Doctrine of Evil

1. Evil is the adverse trend of society. It is the destruction of society, the malfunction of society, the removal of the legitimate authority and its function under category one truth, the laws of divine establishment.

Evil is Satan’s policy and function as the ruler of this world. Evil is Satan’s failure to produce a system of good in mankind and in society that would bring in a pseudo millennium. Evil is Satan’s system by which he administers the rulership of this world. Satan cannot restrain sin as the ruler of this world and Satan’s human good is inevitably parlayed both into sin and evil. So evil then is the modus operandi and the modus vivendi of Satan as the ruler of this world.

All evil has two sources: sin and erroneous thought or human good and erroneous thinking. Evil includes sin, human good and all thinking motivation; inevitably, then, the function of mankind in the cosmic system. Evil is the function and innovation of that person who is consistently involved in the cosmic system.

2. The origin of evil. Evil originated and existed before human history. That means that evil overlapped from some previous creature existence. And the means by which it was transmitted from previous creature existence to human history is Satan himself. The origin of evil is Satan’s genius to devise a system to oppose God. So evil originated in a higher form of creation; it originated in angelic creation. It originated with the greatest of all creatures to come form the hand of God, Satan himself.

Profile of Satan

This originator of evil is the highest of all creatures. He is the ruler of at least a third of all angelic creatures. As the ruler of all fallen angles he is so described in Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18,19 and other passages. If ever there was a super creature it is Satan or the devil, or as he was original known Lucifer the son of the morning.

Satan is the great antagonist of the angelic conflict. As a super genius he is the greatest organiser who has ever lived. But along with all of this facade of administrative ability he is the original murderer. There are two sides to him — the attractive side and the evil side. And where evil exists, no matter how great the attraction, the attraction amounts to degeneracy.

Since the fall of man Satan has been the ruler of this world. He is so described in Luke 7:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2. As such he has put his genius to work and he has set up a system of administration whereby his attractiveness and his evil can function side by side. Satan has devised a system whereby people can be nice, lovely, wonderful, as far as society is concerned — society gives them a high mark — but behind that facade of good, of sweetness and light, there lurks a person who is evil and destructive, not only to society but to the truth, Bible doctrine. And the system that Satan has developed with regard to human beings so that they always appear good, even though they are evil, is a system which we call arrogance; only it is not called arrogance, it is called self-respect, it is called hypocrisy, it is called self-righteousness.

While arrogance is a temporary stabiliser it cannot possibly keep the person from coming to a maximum function of evil which we call degeneracy. And degeneracy too often is related to the gutter instead of to where degeneracy is spawned, in churches, in academic classrooms, by erroneous thinking. But the erroneous thinking is related to arrogance and therefore there is no stability so that you have sweet Dr Jeckle walking around being complemented by society when in reality he is Mr Hyde. And eventually Mr Hyde wins and then society is degenerate.

Satan has to have an overall plan. His plan as the ruler of this world is related to a number of things, including racing for the tape, the tape being the Millennium. The second advent of Christ introduces the Millennium. Satan would like to introduce a perfect world which would exclude the Millennium. And the more the genius of Satan works toward producing a perfect world the more the world goes into degeneracy when it follows his plan. This proves that the greatest plans that man can devise cannot solve the problems of the world.

Satan’s plans always look good to the stupid but they inevitably result in degeneracy. To the extent that we permit socialism into our country, to that extent we have degeneracy developing. Note: Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, p100-111, L.S. Chafer.

Believers are distracted by secondary things so that the very objective of the Christian life, the purpose of logistical grace by which we are supported, is all set aside by the believer’s involvement in the cosmic system. Being so involved they get off the track and become a chief source for the production of evil, the Satanic system. This, of course, means failure to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

Satan has strategy regarding nations. He also has strategy regarding unbelievers, cf. 2 Peter 2. Furthermore Satan has strategy with regard to each one of us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, mentioned as a principle in 2 Corinthians 2:11. Satan is constantly working to frustrate the will of God with every believer, to neutralise doctrinal application, to keep us away from the function of taking in doctrine, and to destroy the believer’s focus so that he gets his eyes on other people and things instead of the Word.

3. The system of evil. This brings us back to the cosmic system, cosmic 1 and cosmic 2. There are two cosmic dynaspheres: No 1 we call interlocking systems of arrogance, it has twenty six gates. Arrogance is the way in which those who are in the cosmic system function. The command in connection with cosmic one is: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit.” Cosmic 2 is composed of nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. The command with regard to cosmic 2 is: “Quench not the Holy Spirit.”

Cosmic One

1. Mental attitude arrogance which includes more than arrogance and pride. It includes jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, guilt feelings, operation over think, anything that is related to preoccupation with self to the point of abnormality.

2. Negative volition arrogance. This is found in both cosmic one and in cosmic two but in cosmic 1 negative volition arrogance is related to preoccupation with self, whereas in cosmic 2 negative volition expresses itself in antagonism toward others and toward truth.

3. Impulsive arrogance whereby a person who is preoccupied with himself to the point where he abuses whatever authority he has in life.

4. Institutional arrogance. An institution in life as a system of authority, a policy, a purpose, or objective. Institutional arrogance rejects authority in some legitimate organisation or some organisation for which you work. It also means you reject the purpose of that organisation or the policy of that organisation.

5. Blind arrogance which is really the arrogance of legalism. It is divorcement from reality through preoccupation with self in contrast to psychopathic arrogance in gate 9 where there is total divorcement from reality — here it is a partial factor. Here it can be sociopathic rather than psychotic. Blind arrogance is the allegation of the believer who claims a unique experience in the fields of emotion, self-righteousness or self-sacrifice. It isn’t limited to these three fields but they illustrate the concept.

6. Conspiracy arrogance which is simply a step in advance of gate 4. It results in rejection of authority, rejection of authority results in conspiracy to overthrow the purpose, the policy, the authority of an organisation.

7. Criminal arrogance. This is total divorcement from reality as far as category 1 truth is concerned, i.e. the laws of divine establishment. The criminal is not only a con artist, a liar a thief, but he is a revolutionist. He is the person who tries to solve the problems of life through violence. The criminal is totally occupied with self, therefore he is anti-authority, antiestablishment, and very often the criminal is very self-righteous and saturated with self-justification for his evil deeds.

8. Crusader arrogance. Under this principle you find self-righteousness parlayed into trying to straighten out the world, ignoring all points of freedom, ignoring all principles of privacy. Preoccupation with self plus self-righteousness and arrogance motivates one to try to change his periphery. Under this arrogance the individual places his personal standards often above the law, or any form of authority, or any form of establishment. Crusader arrogance often interlocks with gate 7, criminal arrogance, by encouraging revolution, supporting terrorism, trying to solve problems through violence (such as assassination), creating change by means of violence.

9. Psychotic arrogance. There is no such thing as a system of psychosis that is not related to arrogance. The theory that psychosis that psychosis is inherent and is a matter of genes is absolutely ludicrous as far as the Word of God is concerned. Psychosis is the result of two factors: making your own bad decisions and finally closing doors, and seeking to deal with the frustration of bad decisions in arrogance. So this becomes total divorcement from reality.

Typical of psychopathic arrogance is egocentricity, total subjectivity and preoccupation with self, intense concentration on self excluding and squeezing out such things as a sense of humour. Emotional control of reason, imbalance and instability are factors.

10. Sexual arrogance. Sex without love, preoccupation with self, making sex a means of satisfying self and ignoring anyone else involved. Sexual arrogance may be manifest through polygamy, fornication, homosexuality, incest, rape, etc. Sexual arrogance then is preoccupation with the body to the exclusion of the soul.

11. Genetic arrogance. Ancestral pride assuming that greatness in life is inherited. This is also the arrogance of frustrated parents who seek to attain recognition through the achievement of their children.

12. Political arrogance. Human panaceas for the problems of life generally start in the local periphery but they move out to cover the entire country. Man’s preoccupation with self to the exclusion of category one truth results in political arrogance.

It is not really liberalism versus conservatism in politics, it is really arrogance versus humility — that is the more basic issue. Political arrogance rejects certain necessary separations in life. For example, the function of freedoms, the separation of church and state.

13. Client nation arrogance. This emphasises the laws of divine establishment and the function of government leadership in terms of arrogance versus humility. There are three basic forms of government but whether they are successful or not depends on whether there is humility or arrogance as a national modus operandi. For example monarchy is a legitimate form of government, the rule of one man in the interest of the common good, but if this becomes arrogance monarchy becomes tyranny, the rule of one man for his own advantage. The next best form of government is aristocracy. (The fewer the people running the show the better it is because there is less opportunity for malfunction.) Aristocracy is the rule of a group in the interest of the common good. If it becomes arrogant it becomes oligarchy, the rule of a group for their own benefit. The third form of government, in order of merit, is republic. Republic is the rule of the better part of the people in the interest of the common good. But when arrogance comes in you have the worst form of function in the name of government — democracy. Democracy is the rule of the worst part of the people for their own benefit. Under client nation arrogance we have the failure of our elected representatives and arrogant bureaucracy trying to control the government.

Once you degenerate in any of these there is always a struggle for power. Under tyranny there is a struggle for power that results in revolution. Under oligarchy there is conspiracy in the struggle for power. Under democracy there is the most violent, vicious struggle for power which is divided up among the evil. And when the evil are splitting the pie, in their struggle against each other they destroy any vestige of government and integrity in government. Client nation arrogance is the collective arrogance of people involved in cosmic 1.

14. Authority arrogance. (The satanic syndrome). Through arrogance and preoccupation with self the individual fails to make the most difficult transition of temporal life, the transition from authority in the home to freedom in life. We are born under a system of authority called the home, organised humility. The organised authority are parents, enforced humility. When we respond to parental authority that becomes genuine humility. Genuine humility is necessary to become mature as a person, it has nothing to do with age. Rejection of overt authority in life results in rejection of inner authority (of the soul) and that destroys self-discipline and therefore you open the doors for drug addiction, for example.

15. The arrogance of ignorance. The two most difficult problems in life are related to transition in the temporal and spiritual realms. In the temporal realm the transition from authority in the home to freedom in life; in the spiritual life the transition from ignorance at the point of salvation to the cognisance at the point of maturity. Each transition requires a basic virtue which is genuine humility — teachability. The arrogance of ignorance is failure to make the transition from ignorance to cognisance in the Christian way of life.

16. The arrogance of unhappiness. People who are ignorant are going to be unhappy. This is not talking about education, this is talking about ignorance of Bible doctrine. Self-centredness and preoccupation with self eliminates any possibility or capacity for happiness. Involvement in cosmic 1 actually guarantees unhappiness not matter how much you succeed, no matter how much you possess. It leads to erroneous ideas about what constitutes happiness and therefore people who live in cosmic 1 are unhappy people. They are demanding attention, they are expecting everyone to make them happy. The myth of arrogance is that people can make you happy. Those who have the arrogance of unhappiness generally have a martyr complex associated with it. This results in trying to control people by giving them a guilt complex from your arrogance of unhappiness. Unhappy people always try to control everything around them. Unhappy people are motivated and have tremendous energy in controlling everything around them.

17. The arrogance of disillusion and disenchantment or iconoclastic arrogance, the feet-of-clay syndrome. You put someone you admire on a pedestal and you worship at that pedestal until one day you see their feet of clay. The you become disillusioned and disenchanted and you react to whatever they represent.

Arrogance creates an idol of enchantment and illusion. And when the idol is shattered, the feet of clay appear, arrogance then is shocked and distracted and disoriented to life. Arrogance demands attention. Once the attention is lacking the arrogant creator of the idol begins to look for flaws. It is easy to find flaws in anyone because none of us are perfect and therefore illusion becomes disillusion, enchantment becomes disenchantment and the arrogant creator of the idol seeks to destroy that idol. This is a revenge in which the person can only gain his self-respect by destroying the thing that has allegedly destroyed his self respect.

Disappointment with friends, loved ones, pastors, rulers, bosses, is normal. But disenchantment from the arrogantly created idol is abnormal and evil. Illusion created by arrogance is illusion destroyed by arrogance.

18. The arrogance of morality. The self-righteous arrogance of superimposing false standards of morality on others. When a system of morality created by arrogance is superimposed on true establishment morality or on true Christian spirituality the result is arrogance of morality. It is a form of bullying from arrogance.

19. The arrogance of emotion. This is irrationality. Arrogant people stop thinking and once they do they become emotional. Emotion becomes a substitute for thought. There is nothing wrong with emotion as a response to thought but emotion as a substitute for thought is a disaster. This is the irrationality of emotion dominating the soul instead of thought. This is illustrated of course by the tongues movement in which arrogance divorces itself from the reality of doctrine and emotion dominates the soul. Emotional arrogance not only eliminates rational thinking but results in a total preoccupation with self related to emotion.

Knowledge is the environment for thinking, not emotion. Bible doctrine is the environment for decision, not emotion. Emotional arrogance converts reality into illusion and hallucination and therefore it fantasises and collapses under pressure. When you fantasise in normal situations you will always collapse under pressure.

20. The arrogance of pseudo-generosity. This finds a person giving or being generous because of preoccupation with self. A desire for attention, a desire for approbation, ingratiation or an attempt to buy happiness or friendship. The principle of generosity is found in 2 Corinthians 9:7. The function is found in verse 11.

21. The arrogance of Christian service. Loss of momentum in the spiritual life comes from rejection of doctrine and substituting Christian service as spirituality. Of course you become preoccupied with yourself, you become impressed with having witnessed today, you can make so many sacrifices doing this and that. This becomes the disaster which leads to totally blotting doctrine out of your life. Legitimate Christian service therefore often becomes a distraction to momentum when the person involved neglects doctrine.

22. The arrogance of discouragement. This is preoccupation with self under circumstances of testing and pressure. Adversity and unexplained disaster in the life often tempts the believer into a state of self-pity or preoccupation with self. This is called discouragement and it becomes a form of arrogance. Depression is often a form of arrogance though it may be physiologically as well as psychologically induced.

23. The arrogance of lust. When legitimate desire is linked with arrogance it becomes lust. Lust is inordinate desire. Inordinate means unrestrained, unregulated, and hence used with desire it converts normal desire into lust. There are many legitimate and normal desires in life. Desire in itself is not wrong. It is lust which can be either sin or human good or evil. Lust is arrogant preoccupation with one’s desires.

24. Pseudo-intellectual arrogance. This is the arrogance of superimposition of human IQ over spiritual IQ. This means that arrogance accepts the human viewpoint of life and rejects the divine viewpoint. This is one of the basic functions in the cosmic system that also helps to throw off doctrine and reject it. Without the truth of Bible doctrine and the absolute standard of life, intellectualism becomes meaningless and sometimes becomes very harmful. Pseudo-intellectual arrogance either glorifies human speculation to the exclusion of Bible doctrine or seeks to reconcile Bible doctrine with false philosophical, psychological and scientific concepts. In the early church pseudo -intellectualism was manifested by gnosticism.

25. Pseudo-love arrogance. This is the attempt of anyone to duplicate the principles or function of love while residing in the cosmic system.

26. The ultimate arrogance, the function of suicide in total preoccupation with self. It is a totally locked in self-centredness which motivates taking one’s own life.

This is only part of the third point of the doctrine of evil but it is a very important part of it because it is the basis for all evil. Arrogance motivates. You can take a legitimate subject and put arrogance with it and you have evil. You can take almost anything and if you are arrogant you can emphasise it out of its context so that a true thing becomes false. Satan uses truth to get people away from the greatest of all truth, Bible doctrine.

Cosmic 2

Cosmic dynasphere number 1, part of Satan’s system, can be summarised very simply as preoccupation with self. It is the function of arrogance that makes, the members of the human race who are in the cosmic system able to function.

In cosmic two the key is antagonism, and that’s why it is called the interlocking systems of hatred. Preoccupation with self, for example, makes the believer in cosmic 1 go negative toward doctrine. But in cosmic 2 it is not because he is preoccupied with himself, he is actually overtly antagonistic toward doctrine. He resists the doctrine. Cosmic 2 is a hatred complex that is antagonistic toward truth, antagonistic toward God, antagonistic toward the things of God. We use nine gates simply to categorise it. The person who chooses it spends his life in antagonism to God’s plan.

1. Negative volition toward doctrine.

There are three categories of negative volition: negative volition at God-consciousness, Gospel hearing, and the rejection of Bible doctrine.

2. Cosmic degeneration.

Inevitably when you become antagonistic toward truth you individually enter into the state of degeneracy. If there are enough people like you in society as believers the society will become degenerate, and it will be manifest by degenerate acts. But long before degenerate acts you have degenerate thoughts. Degeneracy is in the thought. Romans 1:24-27 is a perfect illustration of cosmic degeneration: “Therefore God delivered them [people whose thought pattern was in a state of rejection of doctrine] over to the lusts of their right lobes to an immoral status that their bodies might be degraded among themselves, they who have exchanged the doctrine of God for a lie.” When you leave the divine dynasphere and go into gate 2 of cosmic 1 you have rejected truth and you have exchanged it for a lie.

They have “worshipped and served the creature [Satan] more than the creature [the Lord Jesus Christ] … Because of this God has delivered them over to the passions of dishonour [they themselves choose the passions of dishonour, He just doesn’t stop them] ...”

Under the principle of the angelic conflict God cannot coerce volition. People are the products of their own decisions. If they choose to be homosexual this simply becomes the act of degeneracy which is first manifest by the decision to go to degeneracy and the thought pattern that accompanies it.

3. Antiestablishment.

When the human soul with the human mind is antagonistic toward the truth of category 1, laws of divine establishment. Its beginning, cf. 2 Timothy 3:2 -7. Gate three is also called “the hatred of establishment.” No greater illustration of this can be found anywhere than in Romans 1:28-32.

4. The cosmic panaceas.

Man’s attempts to improve the world are always conducted under the sponsorship of Satan. When anyone seeks a solution to life, individual or collective, apart from divine truth in its three categories, they move into the system of cosmic panaceas.

This gate not only rejects the laws of divine establishment but rejects any form of salvation by grace and spirituality by grace. It becomes in effect the satanic administration of planet earth, or how Satan keeps so many of his disciples of the streets! Instead of freedom there is a demand for equality but equality can only be achieved by coercion and slavery. Therefore the means — coercion, violence, slavery — always justifies the end at this gate. Equality demands the full mobilisation of envy, hence to promote it the successful are taxed out of existence, which destroys success. There is redistribution of wealth where the money is given to the scum and therefore, through legislation you destroy success and failure, and therefore you destroy freedom. Freedom demands success and failure.

Cosmic panaceas lead toward big government and little people. The citizens are the slaves of the state. The state owns your property, your life, your children, your mind, your soul. The more you have freedom the state becomes the servant of the people.

This gate is also what we call utopianism. The neologistic arrogance of recreating and refashioning all forms of human existence. The cosmic panaceas lead to violence, terrorism, revolution, under the principle they call social engineering. The application of what is false to life. Social engineering is the function of gate four. The state must train children to the dictates of the state rather than their parents, therefore disobedience to parents is part of the principle. In other words at total rejection of freedom and authority under the laws of divine establishment.

5. Religion.

Religion is Satan’s counterfeit of the plan of God for believers in Christ. Religion is a part of Satan’s policy of evil. It should be pointed out that Christianity is not a religion. Religion is man by man’s efforts seeking to gain the approbation of God. In Christianity man is related to God through faith in Christ and God provides for man in grace.

6. Demonism.

7. The anthropocentric academic speculation.

The motivation for this is gate 24 of cosmic 1, pseudo -intellectual arrogance. Pseudo-intellectual arrogance becomes the basis for trying to reconcile philosophical and scientific speculation with doctrine. And when this cannot be done such a person often rejects doctrine, enters into gate 1 of cosmic 2, becomes hostile to doctrine and seeks a substitute.

Motivation and momentum of the divine system, the divine dynasphere, demands that we remain in the divine dynasphere. This is the only way we can avoid getting involved in academic speculation.

8. The Old Sin Nature gate.

9. Evil as the policy of Satan.

4. The mandate regarding evil.

Our mandate regarding evil is found in Romans 12:21: “Stop being conquered by evil, but conquer evil by means of the good — a)gaqoj, [fulfilment of the plan of God from the standpoint of imputation].”

What hinders the momentum of this plan? The answer is evil. Evil is to be conquered by means of the good. The good is the function of the plan of God inside the divine dynasphere and therefore the divine mandate of Romans 12:21 can only be executed by residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Ephesians 5:6 is another mandate: “Redeeming the time because the days are evil.” So the only way that you can purchase time that God has given you is to function under the plan of God. What hinders is evil. Evil is the modus operandi of the believer inside of Satan’s cosmic system.

5. Two categories of evil: Satan’s systems of motivational and functional evil.

Inside of gate 1 of cosmic one we have motivating evil — arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, and other forms of preoccupation with self. Motivating evil is thought directed toward self. With this we also have functional evil which is the result of motivating evil. When, for example, you are jealous then you are going to function toward people under jealousy.

6. The biblical principles of evil.

a. We must distinguish between the honourable and the evil in matters of spiritual growth inside the divine dynasphere. Evil is not simply a synonym for sin. Heb. 5:13,14.

b. The divine dynasphere is the believer’s only real protection against evil. 1 Cor. 13:5.

c. The believer in the cosmic system is constantly frustrated by evil. This is illustrated by two passages: Romans 7:19; 3 John 11.

d. The laws of divine establishment are designed to protect the citizens of the client nation from evil. Romans 13:3,4.

e. The domination of good in the client nation determines its historical prosperity, while the domination of evil determines its historical judgment. Proverbs 12:20; Psalm 34:16; Isaiah 13:11; 47:10,11; Micah 1:12.

f. God protects the believer inside the divine dynasphere who has positive volition toward doctrine. He protects him from evil. The principle is noted in Proverbs 12:21: “No evil happens to the righteous, but the evil are filled with trouble.” cf. Psalm 37:17; 91:10; 97:10; 119:101; 121:7; Proverbs 1:33; 2:11-13.

g. Believers are often led into the cosmic system and evil by their Christian friends. 1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Thess. 3:2,3.

h. Evil is distinguished from disease and war, Jeremiah 28:8. This verse indicates three different categories. They are not the same. This verse indicates then that evil must be distinguished from war and disease. Sin and evil occur in warfare but war in itself is not evil or sinful, it is the basis for national freedom. Disease as a category is not evil though it may be divine punishment for sin, human good, and evil.

Principle: Separate something that is perfectly all right from the fact that it is often distorted by sin, by failure, and other things. Sin is committed in war, sin is committed in crime. All crime is sin but war is not sin. Crime is an evil to be stamped out; war is a necessity and an inevitability under historical trends.

i. Motivating evil which is the basis for all functional evil exists in the thought pattern of the soul. Evil starts with a thought, degeneracy starts with a thought, Matthew 6:23; 15:19.

j. The attitude of the mature believer toward evil, Psalm 84:10.

7. Testimonies concerning evil.

The testimony of Jacob, Genesis 48:16, “The angel who has redeemed me from all evil.” Through rebound he was redeemed from evil.

Joseph in Genesis 50:20, “You intended evil against me but God meant it for good” — so evil was turned into good.

David’s testimony in Psalm 48:10, 37:25-27. The believer who reaches maturity is the believer whose blessing overflows after his death to his progeny.

Job in Job 28:28, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; to shun evil is understanding of doctrine.”

Solomon in Proverbs 16:6,17; Isaiah in 59:15; Jeremiah’s testimony is found in several passages in his prophecy, 23:21,22; 9:3. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the true Lord’s prayer of John 17 had something to say about evil in His prayer: “I do not ask you to take them [the believers of this dispensation] out of the world but to guard them from evil.”

7. The final mandate which is found in 2 Thess. 5:22. “Abstain from every form of evil”.

Verse 2:2b, “and,” kai; “tried,” pairazw, to test for the purpose of discovering whether a person is good or evil. Such testing refers to cognisance of doctrine therefore those believers who are ignorant of doctrine cannot fulfil this function. The basis of testing is the absolute standard of the Word of God.

“say,” legw, which here means to call. Translated “those who call.” It refers to the Gnostic teachers, including the Nicolaitanes of verse 6. Gnosticism has infiltrated Ephesus and in fact Ephesus is the headquarters for gnosticism.

“they,” e(autoj, lit. “themselves”; “apostles,” a)postoloj, in this case it refers to false teachers who have great influence, the teachers of gnosticism who had a tremendous anti-Christian influence.

They allege to be apostles but they really are not. Gnostic pastors and Gnostic teachers were never apostles but through doctrinal testing the believers of Ephesus discovered it for themselves. And what is so wonderful about it is the fact that a mature believer learns the principle of privacy. And under the principle of privacy he does not depend upon others for deciding but he uses his own doctrine. He decides what is being taught does not agree with doctrine and he therefore departs from that person.

“found,” e(uriskw — intellectual discovery based on observation or reflection, examination or discovery. Translation: “You have discovered.” Discerning believers with maximum doctrine in the frontal lobe use their own knowledge of doctrine to discern false teaching and false teachers; “liars,” pseudhj, false.

At the time of writing Revelation chapters two and three where the seven churches are located, the rural area was the area of atheism, agnosticism, and the polytheistic worship of the gods. Christianity was located in the cities, and there were seven cities that carried the Roman empire for over three hundred and fifty years. This was because in those seven cities were the churches where Bible doctrine was taught. And in these large cities was a large pivot of believers that actually carried the empire, gave it its prosperity, and when it failed the prosperity test it was because the shrinking of the pivot occurred.

The seven golden lampstands are churches in large cities. Christianity did not spread in rural areas. Even to this day rural Christianity cannot in any way be compared with the vigour of urban Christianity. Of course large cities means large populations and that means more exposure to the teaching of doctrine and to the preaching of the Gospel. No nation in modern history ever became great until it had large industrial cities.

The ultimate solution to any problem in life, in any client nation to God, must be the advance to maturity on the part of believers, forming a large pivot for blessing to the nation. That means maximum knowledge of doctrine and recognising the difference between sin and evil, between human good and evil, and we must be able to see when human good becomes evil and when sin becomes evil, and not tolerate it.

Verse 3, “and,” kai should be translated “furthermore” because it is going to add something, it introduces a result from what precedes; “hast”, e)xw, you keep having. The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past [residence and function inside the divine dynasphere] and continues into the present. The active voice: believers who reside and function inside the divine dynasphere produce the action of the verb. So your impact historically is in that active voice, your advance to maturity. The active voice means that your impact on history comes from your spiritual advance.

During the period of the Antonine Caesars the impact of the pivot produced a period that historians are still astounded about when they study it.

The name of the game is pressure. The name of the game, God’s game plan, is momentum pressure. We are going to have periods of pressure and testing — some of them very painful and some of them related to the greatest of prosperity.

“and hast borne,” Lit. “furthermore you keep having perseverance,” i.e. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Principle

1. You keep having perseverance as the basis for the historical uptrend of Roman history during the time of the Antonine Caesars.

2. The military conquests of Rome were made mostly during the time of the Republic. The empire became a defensive, civilised state. With rare exceptions its wars were not for conquest. But this was not the Roman republic that was the first Gentile nation to God, it was the Roman empire.

3. We have noted the basis for Rome becoming a client nation to God and the prosperity which came form the pivot of mature believers.

Perseverance was the key to the greatness of the Roman empire. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. The perseverance of believers in advancing to maturity is the key. The word “perseverance” is u(pomonh, inside the divine dynasphere, historical uptrend, great prosperity, they all go together.

“and,” kai followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb bastazw, endure. Lit. “and you have endured.” The culminative aorist tense views the believer’s residence in the divine dynasphere in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely passing the momentum tests. (On the path of advance there are eight major momentum tests.) The active voice: the believer inside the divine dynasphere produces the action of the verb. dia plus the accusative of a)noma, person or name. Dia plus the accusative is translated “because of my name.” This is reference to our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union seated at the right hand of the Father where He now enjoys His third royal patent.

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.”

2:3, the final phrase: “and”’ kai plus the perfect active indicative of the verb kopiaw, to become weary, to become tired, to faint under pressure. With it we have the negative o)u indicating that they did not faint under pressure, and in the perfect tense we translate that “and you have not fainted under pressure.” The dramatic perfect tense emphasises the result of the completed action. This is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect for a fact or condition which results from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Because they passed the eight momentum tests, going from gate four to gate eight, they actually contributed to a large pivot from those churches. They made AD 96 — 180 the greatest period of prosperity in human history.

Anticipation that there would eventually be discipline comes from the manifestation of a downtrend. And with the exception of the church at Smyrna every one of these churches had believers who were on a downtrend, who were involved in the cosmic system. Outside of Smyrna there was a criticism of every one of these churches. In verse four we come to the criticism of the Ephesian church. As we do let’s recognise a principle: There is no such thing as a perfect church.

Verse 4, One of the reasons why believers fail is because they leave their first love. One reason why historical downtrends occur is because believers in a client nation to God leave their first love.

“Nevertheless,” A)lla, an adversative conjunction. It sets up a contrast between the commendation of the previous verse and the condemnation of this verse. In other words the congregation is divide.

“have,” e)xw, present active indicative. It means to have, to hold, to possess: “But I hold this”; “against thee,” kata plus su., “against you.” In being critical our Lord Jesus Christ shows how the trends of history go; “that,” o(ti.

Believers in the cosmic system produce no virtue. Virtue is the exclusive function of the divine dynasphere. That is why in the game plan the mandates call for each one of us to live in the divine dynasphere. “the,” thn, the accusative singular, definite article which occurs twice is used generically for a category of love, the motivating virtue of personal love directed toward God. Two things always go when you live in the cosmic system: there is no motivating virtue, which means personal love directed toward God. Secondly there is no functional virtue, impersonal love directed toward man.

“thee,” the genitive of relationship from the personal pronoun, su. It refers to the fact that the believer so involved once resided and functioned inside the divine dynasphere where they produced the motivating virtue of personal love for God from their royal priesthood and their functional virtue, impersonal love toward man, from their ambassadorship.

“first,” the accusative singular from the adjective prwtoj. This adjective is used for rank or degree and it means first in the sense of most important. Our most important love in life as a believer is the Lord Jesus Christ; “love”, accusative singular of a)gaph. Not used here in the sense of impersonal love as it often is, but objective love toward one who is unseen, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Corrected translation: “But I hold this against you, you have forsaken your most important love.”

1. This is the equivalent to reverse process reversionism.

2. In verses 2 & 3 of this chapter we noted the Ephesian believers residing in the divine dynasphere. They had not abandoned their most important love.

3. But in verse 4 we see believers living in that same congregation living inside the cosmic system under the control of Satan, in reversionism. They have deserted their most important love.

Cosmic involvement and reversionism results in the downtrends of history and the inevitable disaster. So we can’t blame disaster on anything but our own self-determination. Believers living in the cosmic system are the reason for any downtrend in a nation.

5. Therefore, believers are the products of their own decisions.

6. This historical downtrend occurred during the period known as the Antonine Caesars. It snowballed and while at the moment Ephesus enjoyed great prosperity by 180 AD there would be a great disaster caused by the increase of the number of believers living in the cosmic system.

7. The prosperity experienced by Ephesus under Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pious, and Marcus Aurelius, came to an end under the brutal rule of Commedus.

“Therefore” is the inferential conjunction o)un, a transitional particle. It denotes an inference from what precedes and is generally translated “therefore”; “remember,” present active imperative, mnemoneuw, to remember, to recall, to recall to mind. Translation: “Therefore recall to mind.” It is time to think about the situation. The Ephesian believers who are living in the cosmic system, who are contributing to the historical downtrend are to produce the action of the verb by mandate. The imperative mood is the imperative of entreaty, it does not really have the finality of a command because it demands participation from your own freewill. Therefore, it has the force of an urgency or a request; “whence,” poqen, from what place, or better, from what state. It is a status quo adverb. The status quo should be residence inside the divine dynasphere the only Christian status in which the plan of God can be fulfilled; “you have fallen” perfect active indicative of piptw. This is a reference to living in the cosmic system. To get into the cosmic system you have to use your own volition. The perfect tense is the tense of completed action and with the indicative mood the action is completed from the viewpoint of present time. And from the completed action comes existing results. Therefore we call this the intensive perfect, i.e. the existing results of sin are intensified through residence and function in the cosmic system. When special attention is directed to the results of the action [cosmic involvement] stress on the existing facts are intensified. This is the emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact or a condition — the believers involvement in the cosmic system and resultant historical downtrends.

The solution: “and,” kai and the aorist active imperative of the verb metanoiew, repent.

When this word came into the Koine Greek it was strictly a mental function and it means: noiew means to think, not emote or to run around and feel sorry for something. And meta means to change, so the word means to change your mind. This is exactly what the word means in the Old Testament too — the verb in the Hebrew is nachan. Cf. Exodus 13:17, “Lest the people, when they see war, change their minds and run back to Egypt.”

The word “repent” is used in connection with salvation. Salvation repentance is simply: upon hearing the Gospel and understanding it, changing your mind. If you believe in Christ you have changed your mind. Repent is a synonym for believe. You have changed your mind about Christ, therefore you have believed in Him. The change of mind, conversion, is called repentance, cf.. Mark 1:14,15; Matthew 12:41; Luke 13:2,3; 15:7, 10; Acts 17:30.

Change of attitude toward doctrine is the basis for reversion recovery. But that change of attitude first demands the rebound technique which is described as repentance. The change of mind toward doctrine is described as repentance.

When God is the subject of repentance it is an anthropopathism; God cannot change His mind. An anthropopathism ascribes to God a human characteristic which He does not actually possess, but it explains divine policy and function in terms of human frame of reference. Anthropopathisms are language of accommodation.

“repent,” Change your mind, which means the use of rebound to recover residence in the divine dynasphere. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. It views the function of rebound in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results — residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The only way to get back into the divine dynasphere is the rebound technique.

The next phrase emphasises the function of the believer at the various gates. Therefore this verse emphasises the filling of the Spirit which also results from the rebound technique, called here repentance.

“and,” kai plus the aorist active imperative of poiew, execute, accomplish, do. The culminative aorist views the function of the believer inside the divine dynasphere, walking by means of the Spirit, functioning at the various gates of the divine dynasphere, and regards it from the viewpoint of its existing result, momentum from function inside the divine dynasphere.

The direct object of the verb is composed of three Greek verbs. The first is the accusative plural of the definite article, “the,” ta. It is a generic definite article representing that category of believer who not only rebounds to recover from residence in the cosmic system, but perpetuates his function in the divine dynasphere. Next is the accusative plural from the adjective prwtoj — most important. It is used as an adjective of rank or degree, not first in matter of time, but in manner of rank or degree. Correct translation: “ … accomplish the most important production”; “works,” e)rgon, production. That means walking by means of the Holy Spirit. E)rgon is used for the perception and application of doctrine at Gate 4 of the divine dynasphere.

The alternative to repentance be gins with the three words, e)i de mh which are an idiom for “otherwise”; “I will come,” e)rxomai. The futuristic present tense denotes an event that has not ye occurred. Divine discipline for the individual believer, loss of local church franchise for the group of believers so involved. It also regards divine discipline for cosmic involvement as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The middle voice of this verb: the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action of the verb. This is a potential indicative of obligation: persistence in the cosmic system demands that our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history administer punishment to believers so involved; “thee,” the dative of disadvantage of the personal pronoun su which refers to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are living inside the cosmic system; “quickly,” there is no such word here in the Greek; “will remove,” future active indicative of the verb kinew, to remove. Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action of the verb in removing a local church franchise, which means the inevitable destruction of the client nation. First the churches go down, no doctrine is taught in the churches because there is no demand for it. Once there is no demand for it then the people have made their own decision and they have brought upon themselves the divine discipline that follows.

The indicative mood is potential of obligation. Our Lord’s obligation to the human race demands that in any given period in the Church Age both personal and collective punishments are necessary for those involved in the cosmic system. In this way history is perpetuated and God’s plan continues to the end of time.

“candlestick,” luxnia, lampstand. With it we have the possessive genitive su, your. Every church is a lampstand, a light in the client nation to God, and as goes the local church so goes the national entity; “out of his place,” e)k plus topoj. Lit. “from its place.” The removal of the lampstand is the end of the nation. When the churches are no longer teaching doctrine they may continue but they no longer have light. Loss of client nation status results from the failure of believers to respond to Bible doctrine. The removal of the lampstand is tantamount to the decline of the client nation to God, or to divine judgment under the five cycles of discipline. Principle: As goes the believer, so goes the client nation to God.

“unless,” e)an, is used to introduce the protasis of a third class condition. (The protasis is the premise of a debater’s technique.) Ea)n means that rebound is a possibility but it does involve your own volition under the function of your own royal priesthood before God. It is correctly translated “if.” It is accompanied by the negative mh, “If not.”

“repent,” the aorist active subjunctive of metanoiew, a change of mind. It has to do with the rebound technique. It can be a momentary action or a succession of actions occurring over a period of time.

Corrected translation of verse 5: “Therefore recall to mind from what state you have fallen, and change your mind, and execute the most important production; otherwise if you do not I will come to you in discipline, and I will remove your lampstand.”

Principles

1. Daily decisions of the believer determine the historical uptrend or downtrend of the client nation to God.

2. All momentum in the Christian way of life results from perception and application of Bible doctrine, the function of gate 4 of the divine dynasphere.

3. The first three gates of the divine dynasphere are the support for the momentum of learning doctrine, while the last four gates are the result of that momentum.

4. The uptrend of history is related then to the believer’s residence and function inside the divine dynasphere on a daily basis.

5. The downtrend of history is related to the believer’s residence and function inside the cosmic system.

6. The prosperity of a nation depends on two factors: From the standpoint of the laws of divine establishment the prosperity of a nation depends on the combination of the three components of manifest destiny; Bible doctrine gives the capacity and the stability to pass the prosperity test. From Bible doctrine then the size of the pivot of mature believers is the issue.

Principle

1. Not only believers, but all mankind, are the products of their own decisions — not their environment.

2. This is why there are no tragedies in history, only in drama.

3. This also explains the principle then: as goes the believer in his daily life, so goes the client nation to God.

4. Arrogance is not only a motivating evil but the primary reason for any client nation to pass the prosperity test. When divine judgment is administered to the client nation the pivot of

mature believers is always spared.

5. When divine discipline comes to a client nation a large pivot of mature believers means national deliverance, but a small pivot of mature believers means national destruction under the 5th cycle of discipline.

6. Therefore another historical trend. A large pivot of mature believers preserves the nation in time of disaster and catastrophe, but a small pivot generally means the destruction of

that nation.

7. God always uses the most evil nation available to administer the 5th cycle of discipline — the destruction of a client nation.

The solution is divided into two parts: the actual solution and the alternative. There is never an offered solution without an alternative. The corrected translation of the solution: “Therefore recall to mind from what state you have fallen, and change your mind, and accomplish the most important production.” The alternative is used with three words, “and if not,” e)i de mh. The first of these three words is the conditional particle e)i, and used with the negative mh it means “if not”; de, the post positive conjunction, emphasises the contrast between the believer who uses the solution and the alternative, the bad decision which includes both personal divine discipline as well as national disaster for the nation. The literal translation is “but if not,” but this is simply an idiom used after the affirmative clause and is translated “otherwise, or else.” This is the idiom of alternative.

There are two things that are necessary in this life if we are to have objectivity. Objectivity is the only way in which to look at life and avoid all of the pitfalls of neurosis, psychosis, sociopathic behaviour, and anything else that would be negative as far as this life in concerned. This first thing that has to be establish in our souls is an absolute and complete understanding of the significance of physical death. All objectivity in life must eliminate any fear, any concern, about physical death. As soon as the doctrine of death is understood from the standpoint of the Christian, objectivity asserts itself. We have no fear of death, we have no concern about how the Lord is going to take us out, and therefore all possible subjectivity, fear and concern is eliminated.

But there is also another problem in relationship to objectivity. That has to do with impersonal love and the ability to distinguish between people and their failures; the ability to understand the principle of motivating evil. Gate 1 of cosmic 1 is the area of motivating evil. It includes such things as arrogance, pride, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, revenge motivation, self-pity, or even guilt reactions to life. All of these combine to form in the soul a total subjectivity.

Verse 6 — a manifestation of a historical uptrend. Note that they did not hate the Nicolaitanes. You and I as believers in Jesus Christ cannot afford to hate anyone or anything. The moment you do you have at that moment become a subjective person and have lost all objectivity in life and, having done so, there is no possibility that you can cope with life.

One of the great tests in momentum in the spiritual life is the people test. You must learn to distinguish between people and the things into which they become involved. You must learn to hate sin, hate human good, hate evil, but not to hate the people who are involved in it.

“But,” A)lla (adversative conjunction) — “nevertheless.” The conjunction usually sets up some kind of a contrast. Here the contrast is between the downtrend, verse 5, and the uptrend, verse 6. “At least” is the best translation; “hast,” present active indicative of the verb e)xw, you have. They have a system of objectivity; “this”, o(utoj — refers to an area of objectivity which will be explained. “At least you have this,” and the idiom implies, “in your favour”; “that”, o(ti, here a causal conjunction. Translated “because” or “namely”; “thou hatest”, misew, a verb usually indicating sin. It means to hate and is a part of the mental attitude sins of Gate 1, Cosmic 1. But here it has a good connotation without sin. It has an objective connotation. The Ephesian believers have the ability to distinguish between the person and his sins, his human good, his evil; “deeds,” e)rgon, correctly translated “deeds.”

“Nicolaitanes,” nikolaitai, the deeds of the Nicolaitanes are rejected. The Ephesian believers have too much doctrine, too much objectivity in life. The Nicolaitanes are the licentious branch of Gnosticism, the great enemy of the Church in the first two centuries. The leader of the cult was a woman who was given the Bible name of Jezebel. The problem underlying the Nicolaitane controversy is the relationship of Christianity with paganism. There is a separation issue here. The compromise with paganism among the Nicolaitane Christians was a preview of things to come in the future. The Nicolaitanes represent the Gnostic phallic cult.

The issue in this verse is the ability of believers learning Bible doctrine and growing in grace to distinguish between people and their weaknesses and failures. Under the mandates of impersonal love the Ephesian believers do not hate the Nicolaitanes, they do not hate the people who are involved in this cult, only the deeds and the functions of the phallic cult. (The word Nicolaitane means “conqueror of the people” and certainly the phallic cult attracted people.)

The Lord adds His own attitude: “which,” o(j as a relative pronoun refers back to e)rgon, the deeds of the Nicolaitanes; “also,” kagw, a contraction made up of kai and e)gw, and is translated “I also”; “hate,” misew, hate or detest. The attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ toward evil. The very fact that there is a separation from evil is a matter of correct perspective for the believer living inside the divine dynasphere: the ability to separate the person from the problem.

There are two things that are necessary in this life if we are to have objectivity. Objectivity is the only way in which to look at life and avoid all of the pitfalls of neurosis, psychosis, sociopathic behaviour, and anything else that would be negative as far as this life in concerned. This first thing that has to be establish in our souls is an absolute and complete understanding of the significance of physical death. All objectivity in life must eliminate any fear, any concern, about physical death. As soon as the doctrine of death is understood from the standpoint of the Christian, objectivity asserts itself. We have no fear of death, we have no concern about how the Lord is going to take us out, and therefore all possible subjectivity, fear and concern is eliminated.

But there is also another problem in relationship to objectivity. That has to do with impersonal love and the ability to distinguish between people and their failures; the ability to understand the principle of motivating evil. Gate 1 of cosmic 1 is the area of motivating evil. It includes such things as arrogance, pride, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, revenge motivation, self-pity, or even guilt reactions to life. All of these combine to form in the soul a total subjectivity.

Verse 6, a manifestation of a historical uptrend. Note that they did not hate the Nicolaitanes. You and I as believers in Jesus Christ cannot afford to hate anyone or anything. The moment you do you have at that moment become a subjective person and have lost all objectivity in life and, having done so, there is no possibility that you can cope with life.

One of the great tests in momentum in the spiritual life is the people test. You must learn to distinguish between people and the things into which they become involved. You must learn to hate sin, hate human good, hate evil, but not to hate the people who are involved in it.

“But,” A)lla (adversative conjunction), nevertheless. The conjunction usually sets up some kind of a contrast. Here the contrast is between the downtrend, verse 5, and the uptrend, verse 6. “At least” is the best translation; “hast” present active indicative of the verb e)xw, you have. They have a system of objectivity; “this,” o(utoj refers to an area of objectivity.

“Nicolaitanes,” nikolaitai, the deeds of the Nicolaitanes are rejected. The Ephesian believers have too much doctrine, too much objectivity in life. The Nicolaitanes are the licentious branch of Gnosticism, the great enemy of the Church in the first two centuries. The leader of the cult was a woman who was given the Bible name of Jezebel. The problem underlying the Nicolaitane controversy is the relationship of Christianity with paganism. There is a separation issue here. The compromise with paganism among the Nicolaitane Christians was a preview of things to come in the future. The Nicolaitanes represent the Gnostic phallic cult.

The issue in this verse is the ability of believers learning Bible doctrine and growing in grace to distinguish between people and their weaknesses and failures. Under the mandates of impersonal love the Ephesian believers do not hate the Nicolaitanes, they do not hate the people who are involved in this cult, only the deeds and the functions of the phallic cult. (The word Nicolaitane means “conqueror of the people” and certainly the phallic cult attracted people.)

The Lord adds His own attitude: “which,” o(j, as a relative pronoun refers back to e)rgon, the deeds of the Nicolaitanes; “also,” kagw, a contraction made up of kai and e)gw. Translated “I also”; “hate,” misew, hate or detest. The attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ toward evil. The very fact that there is a separation from evil is a matter of correct perspective for the believer living inside the divine dynasphere, the ability to separate the person from the problem.

Verse 7, “hath,” e)xw, verb means to have. Present tense is a static present. It represents a situation assumed as perpetually existing: the possession of one or more ears. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb.

Connected with your ears is a principle called volition. You can learn anything you want to even though it may take you a little while to do it. The ear represents the grace system of perception: “an ear,” o)uj, no-one earns or deserves the right to have ears. Hearing has always been one of the major systems of perspicacity. God has provided a grace system for the perception of Bible doctrine, a system where IQ is not an issue, only positive volition and the consistent decisions to learn doctrine; “hear,” a)kouw, this goes far beyond merely hearing sound. It deals with motivation and volition and your desire to learn, your teachability. What you learn today motivates you for learning something in addition to that tomorrow. Doctrine is built on doctrine and each doctrine learned becomes motivation for learning the rest. The mandate for the Christian life is perception of doctrine — consistently; “what,” tij — what sort of thing; “Spirit,” pneuma, reference to God the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is the power by which the divine dynasphere functions; “saith”, present active indicative of legw, to say, to speak, or to communicate. The customary present tense for what habitually occurs when believers reside and function inside the divine dynasphere. The believer residing in the divine dynasphere is filled with the Spirit and therefore qualified for perception of doctrine regardless of IQ. God the Holy Spirit produces the action, teaching Bible doctrine to believers, John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27.

The mandates regarding the Holy Spirit

1. The mandate for residence in the divine dynasphere, Ephesians 5:18: “Be filled with the Spirit.” That refers to gate 1, that’s the power in God’s power system.

2. The function in the divine dynasphere, Galatians 5:16: “Be walking by means of the Spirit.”

The two negative commands deal with the cosmic system

3. Ephesians 4:30: “Grieve not the Spirit of God.”

4. 1 Thessalonians 5:19: “Quench not the Spirit.”

These are four mandates and in each one you are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. If you are filled with the Spirit you have entered the divine dynasphere, you are always indwelt. If you are functioning at the different gates you walk by means of the Spirit and at the same time you are indwelt by the Spirit. If you are in cosmic 1 you grieve the Holy Spirit but you are still indwelt by the Spirit. If you are in cosmic two you quench the Holy Spirit but you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit does not preclude the communication of Bible doctrine by the pastor but aids it and enhances it.

“churches,” e)kklhsia, the thing that made Rome great. All teaching is conducted in the classroom of the local church. The reason for that is academic discipline. There must be a system of authority.

Translation of verse seven so far: “He who has an ear, let him hear what sort of thing [Bible doctrine] the Spirit communicates to the churches.” If you learn your doctrine, if you grow in grace, if you advance to maturity, there is a future reward in eternity.

The tree of life

The tree of life is the total happiness for which man was designed by creation before man sinned. Any references to the tree of life are confined generally to three books in the Bible, the first and the last, Genesis and Revelation, and some interesting references in Proverbs. Full capacity for eternal blessing and happiness is related to the tree of life and as we have it in this passage (Rev. 2:7) it is a special reward that belongs only to a few.

The tree of life of course is related to immortality, for capacity for blessing and happiness; it is perpetuated without any act of volition. In eternity there will be no volitional tests whereby we can lose salvation or anything related to salvation. In other words, in eternity man will not be able in his resurrection body to repeat the fall of our original parents in the Garden. The tree of life is related to immortality under the status of eternal happiness; there are degrees of happiness in heaven. The losers and the winners are the two categories of believers in heaven, in eternity. The winners are those who cracked the maturity barrier, advancing from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere. The losers are the believers who lived out their lives in the cosmic system. The losers or cosmic believers have a resurrection body but they do not have the privilege of eating at the tree of life.

“in the midst of the paradise of God,” en plus the locative of paradeisoj, a transliteration from the Persian word which came through the Hebrew, pardes — a place where you had a great time. It was a place where the Persian kings threw their parties and therefore it is associated with happiness. In eternity, in heaven, there is a special park, the Paradise belonging to God, where stands the tree of life. Access is open to everyone in Paradise but the privilege of eating from the tree of life belongs only to the winners, believers who live inside the divine dynasphere and advance to maturity.

There are four categories of trees in the garden of Eden, Genesis 2:9. First category: every tree being desirable to the sight; second category: and those good for food; third category: and the tree of life in the middle of the garden; category four: and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Category one is a category designed for the prosperity of the soul. All happiness in mankind must relate to man’s soul: to his self-consciousness, to his frontal lobes, the emotion (which by itself is a disaster) which was designed to be responsive to thought in the soul, the volition which is not an issue in eternity but is an issue in time. All happiness is related to what you think, and if doctrine is resident in your soul then you have happiness. If you have in the soul capacity for happiness from doctrine, then what you are doing, no matter what it is, is the expression of that happiness. Circumstances make no difference. The first tree in the garden relates to the principle of happiness of soul. Man was created in an environment of happiness for the soul. The woman was taken from man and created in an environment of happiness for the soul. Category one, then, was designed for man’s pleasure of soul, for his capacity for happiness. Man in his original state then derived great pleasure from the observation of category one trees, the trees being desirable to the sight. As created from God, then, man had perfect capacity for happiness. Therefore the state of innocence in the garden was the epitome of great happiness. Man reaped what God sowed, and even though man moved into a state of sin the principle of happiness never changed. The trees were gone but the principle remains: happiness is a state of soul; misery is a state of soul. In the original creation man was created to be a creature of happiness. When man left the garden of his own volition he also walked out on perfect happiness.

Category two trees, mentioned in Genesis 2:9 — “and those good for food.” Fun and happiness has always been associated with eating, and the reason for that is that God designed the taste buds. Then taste buds are not the soul, they are related to the body. And the fact is that man in the garden had happiness of soul and happiness of body. Food was designed to express happiness, to satisfy, to stimulate, to perpetuate health in the human body. Again, the grace principle of blessing: Adam in innocence reaped what God sowed. Stimulation of the taste buds was a reminder of God’s grace before sin, just as eating the bread of the communion table is reminder of exactly the same thing. In our soul, if we have doctrine and when we eat the bread of the communion table it is a reminder of God’s grace after man sinned. The body is the home of the soul. Therefore the first two categories of trees in the garden provided blessing for both body and soul.

Category three tree is the tree of life. The tree of life was both the capacity for happiness plus blessing — total appreciation of God’s grace. Hence the tree of life is the total happiness of man designed by God when He created Adam. By creation, man was created to be happy. He had a perfect soul in a perfect body. Therefore he had perfect origin of happiness, perfect expression of happiness. The temptation came not to Adam but to the woman. And the woman became unhappy. Why? Because she thought God had put one over on her! She thought that God had forbidden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for one reason: because God was afraid that if the woman, arrogant woman, ate from that tree she would be as smart as God!

By creation man was designed for happiness, blessing, prosperity, which was perpetuated indefinitely unless he used his own free will to reject it all. The only way man could be unhappy was to use his own free will to disobey God and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, only negative volition toward the plan of God. Man was perpetuated in happiness in the garden indefinitely, there was no termination on the contract unless man terminated it. Only disobedience could destroy the perfect happiness and the perfect capacity for happiness which existed in the garden. The tree of life combined immortality with perfect happiness and could only be lost through Adam’s disobedience. The first sin in life was not a sin related to morality. The greatest sins are never related to morality, they are related to the plan of God. And man’s first sin was simply to eat from a tree on which the fruit was forbidden. Therefore, the first sin and the greatest sin involved no morality at all. What it involved was rejecting perfect happiness provided by God; it was rejecting perfect prosperity provided by God; it was rejecting perfect environment provided by God. In other words, the tree of life would be useless to man in a state of spiritual death from sin, which is his state today. Obviously then the tree of life was provided for man as the ruler of this world. A ruler ought to be happy. If a ruler is happy it filters down. The tree of life would be useless to man in the status of spiritual death. Why? It is impossible to be a sinner and to be happy. Sin destroys happiness. That is why you cannot sin inside the divine dynasphere, and you have to make a decision to get out. This tree was man’s use, then, of positive volition toward the plan of God which made man the ruler of planet earth. And the tree of life is God’s grace provision for man as the ruler of this world. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict and for an indefinite period of time man had perfect happiness and continued to use positive signals toward divine prohibition. Man was created, however, with free will in order to resolve Satan’s appeal of his sentence to go to the lake of fire, Matthew 25:41. Therefore the tree of life was the expression of man’s positive volition toward God’s provision: perfect happiness, perfect environment. The tree of life was provided under the principle of grace. Man didn’t earn it; man didn’t deserve it.

When man sinned and went into negative volition toward the divine prohibition toward the fourth tree he was driven out of the garden of Eden and cut off from the tree of life — Genesis 3:24. In other words, the tree of life represents two things: perfect happiness and perfect happiness perpetuated. It was cut off so that perfect happiness cannot exist in the human race through the tree of life. As close as you can come to perfect happiness is the status quo of maturity at gate 8. And just as eating at the tree of life meant happiness, so (eating — taking in the Word of God) doctrine in the soul is as close as you can come to the perfect happiness of the garden. There is no other way. And you can destroy that perfect happiness the same way that Adam did: by the use of your own volition. We are the products of our own volition. If man in the status of spiritual death had eaten from the tree of life his human volition or free will would no longer be the means of solving the angelic conflict. Immortality in that status of spiritual death would condemn the human race to the lake of fire with Satan. So in Genesis 3:22-24. You can’t have an old sin nature and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is a contradiction of destruction. You can’t have perfect happiness and sin. You cannot choose simultaneously both the plan of God and the cosmic system of Satan because they are mutually exclusive. Man would have no free will after the fall if he had been permitted to eat of the tree of life, and therefore the tree of life was put out of his reach so that his own free will would determine where he spends eternity — that’s faith in Christ at the cross — and his own free will would determine whether he would be happy or miserable in life. By expelling man from the garden the eating the tree of life was no longer the issue, but the eating of another tree, the cross. Eating is an illustration of faith; it is a non-meritorious function.

The tree of life is total happiness for which man was designed by creation before man sinned. When Adam was created by the Lord he was absolutely perfect and he was designed with a soul and a body to enjoy perfect happiness. Full capacity for eternal blessing and happiness is related to the tree of life as we have it in this passage. It is a special reward for happiness, the highest form of happiness that can exist in a resurrection body. In other words, in eternity man in his resurrection body will not be able in his resurrection body to repeat the fall of the original man. He will not be in a position to use his free will to deny the perfect happiness and to reject it as he had it in the garden. The tree of life is related to immortality under the status of perfect eternal happiness and environment. There are degrees of happiness in heaven just as there are degrees of happiness on earth.

By creation man was designed for happiness and blessing and prosperity which was to be perpetuated indefinitely, and as long as man was positive toward God’s plan that is what happened in the perfect environment of the garden. The prohibition to not eat from the fourth tree was the only thing necessary, he only had to obey this one command. Only disobedience to this one command could destroy his happiness and his relationship with God. Only negative volition, then, toward the plan of God as it was then expressed and revealed was all that could destroy that perfect happiness. The tree of life, of course, combined capacity for happiness with immortality [perfect happiness and immortality go together] and could only be lost by a negative action on the part of the man and the woman. In other words the tree of life would be useless to man in the spiritual status of death. And since man died spiritually when he ate of the tree it was absolutely necessary that the tree of life be closed down until a future time, i.e. eternity. Obviously then the tree of life was provided for man as the ruler of this world. The tree, then, was man’s use of positive volition toward the plan of God. And it should be remembered that the soul is not only the source of great happiness but that happiness is never divorced form virtue. Motivating virtue is virtue directed toward God, worship is a motivating virtue, it has its counterpart in a functional virtue, morality toward man. Then there is personal love for God, which is a virtue, and impersonal love which is directed toward man is a virtue. Confidence in God is a virtue; courage toward man and circumstances is a virtue. Obviously then the tree of life was provided for man to demonstrate as the ruler of this world in perfect environment, both virtue and happiness. Since both are related to the soul and the content of doctrine in the soul they obviously stand or fall together. Man was created with a free will in order that he might continue to choose God’s perfect provision or to reject it.

The tree of life, then, was provided by God’s grace to be associated with man’s positive volition expressed in his free will for the plan of God, while he functions as the ruler of this world from his headquarters in the garden of Eden. And when man sinned or went on negative volition toward the divine provision and the plan of God for perfect environment on planet earth — perfect happiness and perfect virtue — he lost the rulership of this world and he was removed from the garden, the Paradise, Genesis 3:24. The tree of life was forbidden. No longer can man have happiness simply by partaking of the tree of life, and therefore, of course, a new tree had to be selected in order for happiness to exist. The principle is quite obvious: you cannot choose simultaneously both the plan of God and the cosmic system of Satan for they are mutually exclusive. Man would have no free will after the fall if he had been permitted to eat of then tree of life. Happiness in a state of sin is totally incompatible with God’s plan and therefore they cannot coexist, and the tree of life was closed down. And, therefore, by expelling man from the garden the eating from the tree of life was no longer an issue. There is no way that God is going to permit sin to coexist with happiness. Virtue is what coexists with perfect happiness.

Category four tree in the garden: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

After man had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he was spiritually dead. If man in spiritual death possessed the sin nature of Adam and eats from the tree of life, then you have the coexistence of happiness with sin. Human life is imputed to man immediately after birth and it is imputed to his human soul, because that means that God, even after the fall of man, has designed a system whereby man can have happiness in time and far greater happiness in eternity. So the soul still exists and there is the human life being imputed to the soul. Human life will always exist in the soul whether the individual goes to heaven or to hell. At the same time Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature in the body. The imputation of Adam’s sin means that we have been born physically alive and spiritually dead. But it also means that if anyone dies before reaching the age of accountability he has automatic eternal salvation without going through the usual route by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Note that we are condemned at birth before we are able to use our volition to commit our first sin. Eventually as an expression of our old sin nature we do so, and therefore we accumulate in our lifetime personal sins. All of these personal sins were sent to another tree; this time the tree is the cross, not the tree of life. This is the tree of eternal life. When our Lord Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross all of our personal sins were imputed to Him and judged. Therefore we have the way of salvation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

After the fall the purpose of the creation of man could only be perpetuated by cutting mankind of from the tree of life, and providing a new tree of life which is the cross and eternal salvation. In this area we have the use of the fourth tree, the knowledge of good and evil. “Good” is one of the two words for the plan of God. Good in the sense of absolute good is a)gathoj: X+Y+Z = a)gaqoj. The other is dunamij, where we get our power sphere, the divine dynasphere. By remaining in the garden in status quo spiritual death man would have been immortal with unhappiness. Therefore, God in His wisdom shut down any possibility of the tree of life.

Now we have the issue of the fourth tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The first three categories of trees in the garden should be summarised. They should be noted because there is a great principle that comes out of this related to our subject of historical trends. Category one trees, the trees that provided happiness in the soul — prosperity and blessing — and made the soul the seat of human happiness, first of all existed in the garden in perfect status. The trees were perfect, the one who ate from the trees or looked at the trees was perfect, and the result was perfect happiness. Perfect happiness excludes boredom, therefore the reason why man sinned or rejected all of this was not boredom. Category one tree relates to capacity for happiness in the soul, a capacity that keeps you from boredom. Category two trees provided prosperity and happiness for the human body. The human body became the recipient of happiness overflowing from the soul. Therefore the principle: All capacity for happiness must reside in the soul and without that soul capacity there cannot exist that basic prosperity of capacity for life, love, and happiness. Category three tree is the tree of life which perpetuates happiness and prosperity in both the human soul and body in perfect environment in the garden. But the tree of life is only good and only fulfils its purpose in perfect environment. So the first three categories of trees are related to the plan of God for man in innocence and for the believer in resurrection body in eternity. The use of all three categories of trees is tantamount to positive volition toward the plan of God in status quo innocence. As long as man made good decisions of eating from the proper trees in the garden and refusing to eat from category four he perpetuated his options for more decisions, greater decisions, which perpetuated his happiness, his blessing, and his prosperity from God.

There is only one category of tree, of course, which man was to use and to demonstrate his volition in a negative way: category four, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating from this tree destroyed man’s original prosperity and happiness. Man actually stood there and had his choice between the woman and unhappiness outside the garden and the perpetuation of perfect happiness inside of the garden. Man has been making those choices ever since. Man has the propensity with his old sin nature of choosing, making decisions, whereby he makes himself miserable. Once man ate from the forbidden tree the immortality of eternal life must be attained in some other way: the tree of eternal life, the cross, where our Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. As long as man continued in the garden without sin or that state of innocence he did not need the fruit of that fourth tree. Man did not need to know good and evil. It was unnecessary as long as he had the first three categories of trees. In spiritual death the options of free will and the function of man’s decisions are then related to good and evil. Good is the plan of God while evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world.

Remember that good is the plan of God: X is human life imputed at birth plus Adam’s original sin = the first potential: salvation. Plus the pertinent doctrine, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ = hope1 (absolute confidence that when we believe in Christ we have eternal life), plus the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and possess eternal life. Now we are immature believers in Y radical. Here we have a judicial imputation. Judicial imputation number one took place at birth: Adam’s original sin was imputed to us. Our personal sins were imputed to Christ on the cross. Plus judicial imputation number two: the imputation of divine righteousness to us at the moment we believed. That leads to a second potential replacing the first: the potential of great blessing in time, for all blessing is imputed to the indwelling righteousness of God. Plus the pertinent doctrine = hope² — absolute confidence that when we persist in perception of doctrine — gate four of the divine dynasphere — we reach gate eight, maturity. Plus maturity adjustment to the justice of God. Z radical brings us very close to the tree of life, for in Z radical we have the imputation of eternal life at salvation, plus the imputation of great blessing in time from advancing to gate eight = the third potential, the potential for great blessing and reward in eternity. Plus the pertinent doctrine = hope³, absolute confidence that after the Rapture of the Church at the judgment seat of Christ we are going to receive the imputation of great reward and blessing for advance in time. This equals “the good,” all things working together for good — a)gaqoj. And the means of execution of this is also provided by God as the prototype was provided for the humanity of Christ, and that is the divine dynasphere with its eight gates. You cannot accomplish X+Y+Z except inside the divine dynasphere. That is why only inside the divine dynasphere, at the eight gates, you have degrees of happiness, something that is comparable to the tree of life in the garden. The believer must choose constantly between residence in the divine dynasphere and living in the cosmic system. All uptrends and downtrends of history are related to the decisions of believers in choosing life either in the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system. In the garden of Eden man was the ruler of this world, but outside the garden Satan is the ruler of this world. Inside the garden man could only sin by eating from one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Inside the garden neither good not evil were issues because of the first three categories of trees. In innocence man did not have to understand good and evil to have a relationship with God. Only in sinfulness and spiritual death must man understand good and evil and make the choice, first at salvation and, afterward the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system.

Proverbs 3:13-18

What is the issue in the book of Proverbs with regard to the book of life? It is the issue of happiness in relationship with God, happiness in relationship to what God has provided as a substitute for the first three categories of trees in the garden.

Principle

1. As indicated by the first three categories of trees in the garden God created man to be happy. But that happiness demanded perfect environment, a soul designed for happiness, and its perpetuation through the tree of life.

2. Therefore God provided the perfect soul, the perfect body, the perfect environment for man’s happiness.

3. When Adam sinned it was not a sin of morality but a sin of rejection of God’s plan and God who invented happiness for man. It was a rejection of God’s plan and of God Himself and of God’s invention. The trees were all invented for man’s happiness in perfect environment. Happiness had to be perpetuated by the function of free will. Therefore one tree was forbidden. Happiness is a matter of decisions related to the soul.

4. Adam in the fall lost the divine provision of perfect happiness.

5. After salvation man can recover happiness but it is all related to a divine invention, the divine dynasphere and the daily perception of doctrine inside that dynasphere. Doctrine perceived in the cosmic system is useless, therefore the importance of the rebound technique.

6. As indicated by the first category of trees in the garden happiness is first of all the status quo of the soul, and if there is not happiness in the soul you can have everything associated with happiness in life and be unhappy with it.

7. As indicated in the second category of trees happiness is expressed from the soul to the body. Man’s food was not necessary to sustain his body, the trees that were good for food stimulated the body, stimulated the taste buds.

8. Believers who are winners live in the divine dynasphere consistently but believers who are losers live in the cosmic system.

9. Therefore cosmic believers are not only losers but are unhappy as well.

10. However, cosmic believers are always seeking happiness and they seek it in some area associated with happiness. But their unhappy state of soul guarantees their unhappiness in seeking and finding their associations.

11. For example, marriage is often associated with happiness. But when an unhappy person gets married he has an unhappy marriage because he brings unhappiness into the marriage. The status of the soul is not changed by marriage.

12. Often associated with happiness is becoming wealthy. But the cosmic believer may be wealthy and be a very unhappy millionaire. Happiness is not the status of the individual financially, it is the status of the soul.

13. You may change jobs in seeking happiness but even in the perfect job, if you are unhappy of soul, you are unhappy in your job.

Principle

1. The cosmic believer is a soul minus doctrine, or what doctrine he has has no relationship to happiness and blessing. Therefore the cosmic believer is a very unhappy person.

2. The rejection of Bible doctrine — which is, of course, rejection of life in the divine dynasphere — is tantamount to Adam’s rejection of perfect happiness in the garden. He used his own free will to reject it, just as we as believers make wrong decisions in life, and when we do, we simply create our own unhappiness. Unhappiness is created by man’s volition. Happiness is the invention of God, and God only administers it to those who are making right decisions. Therefore the importance of the divine dynasphere.

3. Once man had sinned from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, eating from the tree of life would have simply perpetuated his status of unhappiness in the garden. Therefore the tree was shut down.

4. The Church is a Christian institution and designed for happiness. But the believer in the local church minus doctrine is an unhappy person in an institution designed for happiness.

5. Marriage is a divine institution, in contrast to a Christian institution, and designed for happiness, but believers who are unhappy of soul are unhappy in the divine institutions. There is nothing wrong with the institution of marriage and there is nothing wrong with the Church, it is just that the people who are involved make it appear so.

6. You take your soul wherever you go, which means you carry your unhappiness with you, and you take it into happy circumstances and they become unhappy. One wet blanket at a party can ruin a party! One rotten apple spoils the barrel.

7. You can be unhappy at a happy party, you can be unhappy at a happy church, you can be unhappy in a happy business, you can be unhappy on a happy vacation, you can be unhappy with a million dollars, or anything you associate with happiness, and it all adds up to unhappiness. There is nothing associated with happiness that will bring you happiness if you are unhappy. That is the state of your soul.

8. Happiness and happy circumstances belongs to the happy, believers with maximum doctrine in the soul, just as happiness in unhappy circumstances belongs to the happy.

9. This is another way of describing the believer who is a winner. The happy believer is a winner because he lives his life in the divine dynasphere. Happy believers have a soul filled with Bible doctrine from residence and function at gate four, interlocked with gates one, two and three.

10. Therefore it is inevitable that the winner, the happy believer, should have access to a special reward in heaven, in eternity. And he does! It is the tree of life.

Learn then from the tree of life that happiness is not success, promotion, wealth, fame, approbation, recognition, sex, social life, or even health, for even unhappy people are involved in all of these. Happiness belongs to the believer who lives and functions in the divine dynasphere. In eternity happiness is that ultimate which belongs to the winner only. In other words, God takes the happiness that is engendered in the divine dynasphere, gate 8, and perpetuates it to the tree of life, and only a few believers in every generation are going to have the privilege in eternity of eating from the tree of life.

With that understanding you can begin to appreciate why in Proverbs the tree of life is mentioned three times. Why is the tree of life mentioned? Because the tree of life is related to the subject of human happiness. The book of Proverbs has something to say about the subject — 3:13-18.

Verse 13, “How happy is the man who finds wisdom” — wisdom is maximum doctrine applied — “the man who gains understanding of doctrine.”

Verse 14, “For its profit is better than the profit of money, and its gain than fine gold.”

Verse 15 now takes doctrine, which is a feminine gender word in the Hebrew, and translates it by the word “she” [the personification of Bible doctrine]. “She is more precious than jewels” — the possession of jewels was not only a sign of wealth but a sign of enjoyment of those things — “and nothing can compare with her [Bible doctrine].”

Verse 16, “Long life is in her right hand” — doctrine is a basis for long life — “in her left hand are riches and honour.” These are the rewards in time through advancing to maturity.

Verse 17 ,“Her ways,” the ways of doctrine; “are pleasant ways, and her paths,” the paths of doctrine; “are prosperity.”

Verse 18, “She is a tree of life,” doctrine is the tree of life. And the tree of life in the garden is forbidden but there is a tree of life in time — the perception of Bible doctrine in the soul produces happiness in the soul, without which there is no capacity for love, for life, for prosperity in any form; “to those who take hold of her [doctrine], and happy are all who hold her [doctrine resident in the soul].”

So perception of Bible doctrine is analogous to eating from the tree of life in the garden. In time, learning Bible doctrine is as close as we can get to the tree of life in the garden. Those who persist in the perception of doctrine in time will eat from the tree of life in eternity. In eternity there is an ultimate reward, and that ultimate reward in the resurrection body belongs to those who discover something in this life, the true secret of happiness: eating from the tree of life which God has provided for our happiness now. This is another way of saying the perception of Bible doctrine through residence and function in the divine dynasphere.

Proverbs chapter 11:11-31; 13:10-16; 15:1-5. Cursed by association; blessed by doctrine

When Adam sinned it was not a sin of morality, it was a sin of rejecting God’s plan and God’s invention of perfect happiness. After salvation man can, of course, recover happiness through his residence and function inside the divine dynasphere for there is a new tree of life since the fall of man which is the cross. And when a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ he becomes a possessor instantly of eternal life. This means that the door for happiness is opened in this life, and the door of happiness is residence and function inside the dynasphere. The first three trees in the garden emphasise happiness as a state of the soul. The second category of trees in the garden represented or expressed the happiness relationship between the soul and the body. In time learning Bible doctrine is as close as we can get to that tree of life in Paradise, and those who persist in the perception of doctrine in time will eat from the tree of life in eternity and ultimately receive that fantastic reward. In other words, the tree of life in our context, Revelation 2:7, is the ultimate reward and blessing for the believer whose consistent and persistent positive volition toward doctrine results in spiritual advance to maturity. Therefore, in this dispensation this is only possible through our life in the divine dynasphere, which means constant decisions to reject the evil tree of the cosmic system.

In addition to the concept of the tree of life found in Revelation 2:7, it is also found in several other passages in Revelation. For example, it is found in Revelation 22:2. There the tree of life is found in the location of the new Jerusalem of eternity. It is located there for the availability of those Jews who reached maturity in the past and did so through Bible doctrine but without the benefit of the divine dynasphere. Revelation 22:14 also mentions the tree of life in relationship to eternal happiness and blessing. It is associated there with the great reward that comes to the winners — “Happy are those who wash their robes [the use of rebound in time to recover residence in the divine dynasphere] and continue their momentum, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates of the city.” The mature believer has as his ultimate reward in eternity for ever and ever access to a special super happiness that will not belong to the losers in eternity. So he has the ultimate in happiness in time and it is fitting that he should have the ultimate of happiness in heaven in eternity.

The principle of cursing by association with people versus blessing by association with doctrine.

If you are going to be happy in time, if you are going to fulfil God’s plan, if your life is going to glorify God, this principle must become real. Happiness does not come to you by your association with people. If you are a happy person associating with people that is one thing, but if you are an unhappy person association with people isn’t going to improve your situation.

1. There was a tremendous conflict in the garden of Eden which continues to have repercussion until this day. The woman sinned first, the sin of ignorance, and by her act of disobedience she had rejected and lost the perfect happiness of the garden of Eden. But she did so motivated by arrogance. She thought that by taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil it would make her as smart as God. But what she discovered immediately is that that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when you are under the control of Satan, is human good and evil, for human good is synonymous with evil. She didn’t have any idea of good as the plan of God.

2. At the time of the woman’s sin and her spiritual death Adam was still in a state of perfect happiness. Adam and the woman had a perfect relationship because they had perfect happiness in the garden. So before the woman sinned it was a person coalescing with a person., combining perfect happiness with perfect happiness in any possible expression of happiness.

3. Adam could choose perfect happiness with God in the garden or unhappiness with the woman outside the garden. They had perfect happiness in the garden; they were created for perfect happiness. And as long as they stayed away from the forbidden tree that perfect happiness would be perpetuated by their eating at the tree of life. But when the woman sinned she was minus that perfect happiness, she became plus the old sin nature. But Adam remembers her and the good times together in the garden, and therefore he does something that creates a principle. In thinking of her as she was and the good times together he forgot the source of all of our good times, God. He had to choose between the Source and the memory of fun. So he said No to the Source, to God, and he took the fruit from the hand of the woman. But he did it on the basis of memory of the wonderful times they had had together, not the memory of the Source of happiness. For happiness you always have to go to the source and the only way you can do that is to recall doctrine at the right time in your life. This is the tragedy of so many Christians: they forgot to apply doctrine at the right time and make the right decision.

4. Unhappiness with the woman won. Adam could choose perfect happiness with God in the garden or unhappiness with the woman outside of the garden. Unhappiness with the woman won and the power of the principle of cursing by association became a major factor in human relationship throughout history. Man chose to be unhappy. We are the products of our own decisions.

5. Unhappiness always attacks happiness for happiness is the invention of God to be maintained by means of our new tree of life — Bible doctrine resident in the soul — Proverbs 3:13-18.

6. You cannot remain happy by association with unhappy people, except under one condition: the life in divine dynasphere and the daily perception of Bible doctrine. It’s the only way you can handle unhappiness.

7. You can associate with unhappy people in business life, social life, married, life, home life, professional life, and spiritual life. And unless you possess Bible doctrine in your soul and its constant application and formation of a true scale of values, you will become unhappy through the principle of cursing by association.

8. The pull on Adam in the garden before he sinned was stronger in the direction of the unhappy woman who had sinned than in the direction of God who had provided the trees in the garden for his happiness. This problem continues today: the people with whom you associate may be unhappy. We can associate with them but none of us are strong enough to do it on our own. The only way you can do it is life in the divine dynasphere. Unhappy people will get to you every time if you don’t have that doctrine. [If you say No to the Source, then you’ll say Yes to the sourceless every time!]

Principle: Unhappiness breeds unhappiness

1. The believer associated with unhappy people is vulnerable to unhappiness.

2. Therefore, believer beware that in your association with unhappy people you do not reject or ignore your source of happiness — remember God. Your source of happiness is Bible doctrine.

3. Unhappiness is contagious unless you function at gate four of the divine dynasphere, perception and application of Bible doctrine.

4. In some cases decisions must be made in the direction of separation. In many cases, like marriage, home life, business association, there is no physical separation possible. The believer must therefore use doctrine to endure. But you can’t endure grimly. If you do not endure in a state of happiness, your own personal happiness, then you are never going to make it in life and you are going to wind up under the principle of cursing by association. The point is, can you hold your own when you are associated with someone who is an unhappy person? Adam didn’t, and Adam was stronger than we are. Therefore we have to have something stronger than we are to do it. And the only way to do it is to go to the source, eating from the tree of life, your daily perception of Bible doctrine. So enduring in a state of happiness it does not mean to hang on grimly, it means that you are not in any way affected by the unhappiness of someone associated with you.

5. Some situations are endured with happiness while other circumstances simply demand separation.

6. Sorting this out, however, requires maximum knowledge of doctrine for the wisdom to do so. And that doctrine must come from the basis of happiness in the human soul. The believer who does this consistently is a winner and will be rewarded by access to the tree of life in eternity. the ultimate in happiness forever and ever.

Proverbs 11:11-31

Verse 11, “By the blessing of the upright [the mature believer] a city is exalted [blessing by association], but by the mouth of the wicked one [the cosmic believer] it is destroyed.”

All gossiping and maligning has it origin in unhappy souls.

Verse 12, “He who despises his neighbour [hatred: gate one, cosmic one] is destitute of doctrine [he lacks sense], but a man of understanding minds his own business [function of the doctrine of privacy].”

Happy people have no problem in giving privacy to others.

Verse 13, “He who functions as a talebearer [a violation of privacy] reveals secrets, but he who is faithful of spirit conceals the matter.”

Verse 14, “Where there is no guidance [from doctrine], the people fail; but where there is no lack of leadership there is deliverance.”

Verse 15, “He who is a co-signer of a note for a stranger will suffer for it, but he who hates co-signing is secure.”

In other words, friendship and compatibility is not based on doing something for someone, but true rapport is based on two happy people.

Verse 16, “A grace woman acquires integrity [or honour], a strong man in doctrine attains happiness.”

Verse 17, “The grace man benefits his own soul with happiness, but the cruel person [cosmic believer] troubles his own flesh.”

We are, as unhappy people, our own worst enemies. God invented happiness to remove that problem.

Verse 18, “The wicked [the cosmic believer] earns the wages of a lie, but he who sows righteousness has a true reward.” The true reward is the tree of life.

Verse 19, “The truly righteous believer lives, but he who persues evil [the cosmic believer] goes to his death [doctrine of the sin unto death].”

Verse 20, “The Lord detests men of distorted right lobes [an unhappy person], but the upright in the way [the believer positive toward doctrine] are his delight.”

Verse 21, “Be sure of this, the evil will not go unpunished; but the descendants of the righteous will be delivered [there is blessing by association].”

Verse 22, “Like a ring of gold in a pig’s snout, so is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion [or wisdom].” In other words, the woman can be beautiful, but if she has an unhappy soul you may as well put the jewel in the pig’s nose.

Verse 23, “The desire of the righteous is unique good, but the expectation of the evil [the cosmic believer] is wrath.” In other words, they make decisions that bring disaster upon themselves.

Verse 24, “One man gives generously yet gains even more; another man is stingy and comes to poverty.”

Verse 25, “A generous man will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed”.

Generosity goes with a state of happiness in the soul.

Verse 26, “People curse the man who hoards grain; but blessing crowns the one who is willing to sell.” Verse 27, “He who seeks good finds grace blessing; but evil comes to him who seeks it.”

Verse 28, “He who trusts in riches will fall, but the righteous will prosper like the green leaf.”

Verse 29, “He who causes sorrow to his family will inherit the wind; and the fool will be the servant of the wise in the right lobe.”

Notice from all of this context, happiness versus unhappiness.

Verse 30, “The fruit of the mature believer is a tree of life” — happy people witness properly. They are motivated for it. Miserable people, unhappy people of soul (unhappy believers) are ineffective in witnessing — “he who wins souls is wise.” But that wisdom must come before the soul winning.

Verse 31, “If the righteous will be rewarded on earth [the mature believer who has happiness on earth]; how much more the cosmic believer and the sinner will receive discipline.”

Proverbs 13:10-16

Verse 10, “Through arrogance comes nothing but strife [arrogance means unhappiness], but wisdom is found in those who take advice.”

Verse 11, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” Verse 12, the principle: “Hope deferred makes the heart [right lobe] sick; but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” In other words, you will never find happiness through your hopes in getting something you associate with happiness. Your happiness will only come from feeding on the tree of life — Bible doctrine.

Verse 13, “The one who despises the word will pay for it, but the one who respects the mandate of God will be rewarded.”

Verse 14, “The teaching of the wise pastor is the fountain life, turning a person from the snares of death”.

Verse 15, “Good understanding of doctrine wins favour, but the way of the unfaithful does not endure”.

Verse 16, “Every wise person acts out of knowledge of doctrine, but a fool [the cosmic believer] exposes his folly.”

Proverbs 15:1-5

Verse 1, “A gentle answer [a happy person doesn’t have to get up on his high horse when he is challenged or when someone is being unkind] turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger.”

Verse 2, “The tongue of a wise person makes doctrine good, but the mouth of a fool [cosmic believer] gushes folly.”

Verse 3, “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere [the omniscience of God], keeping watch on the evil and on the good.”

Verse 4, “A soothing [healing] tongue is a tree of life.” What is the healing tongue? The healing tongue is the teaching of doctrine. And that is the tree of life — “but perversion in it is the crushing of the spirit [distorting doctrine crushes the spirit].”

Verse 5, “A fool despises his father’s discipline, but he who regards correction shows prudence.”

Notice the relationship: the pastor is in view in the first part of the passage; the father is in view in the second. Generally people who have respect for their parents in childhood [enforced and genuine humility] are teachable from the pulpit where Bible doctrine is taught. And generally the people who have no respect for their parents reject doctrine, resist the Word, and wind up as losers in the Christian life.

Verses 1-7 dealt with the church at Ephesus; verses 8-11 deal with the church at Smyrna. In verse 8 we have the encouragement of the local church.

It begins with the connective conjunction kai, showing that all of these churches are related in a common function. The principle of the connective conjunction here is to show that the Roman empire, while it persecuted the Christians many times, was actually sustained and supported by them since they were the first Gentile client nation to God in the times of the Gentiles which began in AD 70. With this we have a dative singular, indirect object, from the noun a)ggeloj, which ordinarily would mean angel (a transliteration) but it actually means a messenger. Here it refers to a pastor. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act is performed. This is a reference to a future pastor who replaced John, after John’s death, at Smyrna. And since at the moment John is the non-resident pastor this is addressed to those who would follow, who would succeed him. It is also a dative of advantage since it is to the advantage of the local church at Smyrna to have a pastor whether he is resident or not. The believer in this dispensation actually cannot learn doctrine without the gift of pastor-teacher. This is a part of the function of the divine dynasphere with regard to perception of doctrine. The pastor is the authority by which God communicates doctrine to the believers, and also it is the test. The existence of the pastor is the test for the first three gates of the divine dynasphere — the filling if the Spirit, basic impersonal love which is your objectivity (you cannot learn any subject at any time without objectivity. The subject being taught becomes the issue rather than the personality of the one who communicates). Gate three is the basis for teachability — enforced and genuine humility. So, of course, these three gates all depend upon having God’s Word communicated directly to another human being, who has an old sin nature, who has the weaknesses and the strengths that belong to the human race, who is a fellow number of category homo sapien. Therefore the importance of the local church as the classroom and the gift of pastor-teacher as communicator.

Next comes the genitive singular of relationship from the noun e)kklhsia, used for the local church. E)kklhsia is used in classical Greek for the meeting of the council who run the city state. It is also used in technical areas for the function of the royal family of God. Every believer is in the body of Christ and/or the Church in relationship to God, the basis for the royal family concept, and also there is the local church where we assemble to learn doctrine. With this we have the generic use of the definite article, indicating the principle of the pastor’s authority over the local church through the communication of Bible doctrine. And in this case the local church is the congregation at Smyrna. Smyrna today is Izmir, the second largest city in Turkey. We have then the preposition phrase e)n plus the locative of Smurna in the Greek. In transliteration the “u” becomes a “y” for some reason. By the way, we know the name of the next pastor. His name is Polycarp; he is going to succeed John.

Smyrna

— a large ancient city on the west coast of what is now Turkey, but called Asia Minor. It is at the head of the Gulf of Smyrna which reaches 30 miles inland from the Agean Sea. The city of Smyrna was originally settled by a group of people called the Lelages. These were one of those Asiatic peoples who are identified with the Carians, who were identified as the famous mercenaries of the ancient world. About 1100 BC Smyrna was taken from the Lelageans by the Aolean Greeks. In 688 BC Smyrna was taken over by the Ionian Greeks and in 627 BC the Ionian city was taken over by the Lydians. And the Lydians are the key to a lot of things, not only in western Turkey but also as far as the entire Mediterranean basin is concerned. They are definitely connected with the origin of the Romans who were a very different people from the people around them called the Latins. The real key to blessing by association is Smyrna which is the city that really started the Romans.

The secret to the rise of Rome was three things: respect for law, tremendous self-discipline, and the ability to sacrifice for their government. All of these things were a part of their concept. The thing that would sustain Rome and make it great is the divine dynasphere, function inside the divine dynasphere as over against believers being in the cosmic system. The uptrend will come from the believers on the west coast of Asia Minor, and the downtrend will come from all over the empire wherever believers became involved in the cosmic system. Under the concept of manifest destiny any great nation has to start with landed aristocracy. Eventually, of course, there will be an industrial complex as there was in Rome. And there is always an undeveloped frontier. People who can’t make it under the landed aristocracy will go out to the undeveloped frontier. But eventually if the nation is going to be great there must be the leadership of the industrial complex. You can never defeat a good industrial complex, and there is a reason for that under the doctrine of manifest destiny. Manifest destiny says that if a nation is going to be great it will eventually combine all three factors in manifest destiny. The landed aristocracy will combine under the leadership of the industrial complex and eventually they will take in all of the undeveloped frontier. It is not a racial issue, it is an issue of the laws of divine establishment or category one doctrine. And the combination produced outstanding leaders, outstanding soldiers, etc. The Spaniards had the advantage of numbers, the Gauls had the advantage over the Romans in physical strength, the Carthaginians had the advantage of mental sharpness, the Greeks had the advantage of culture, the Latins and the Italians had the advantage of shrewd common sense, but Rome conquered them all. Notice the distinction between the Romans and the Latins and the Italians. They were not the same people. The Romans conquered the Latins and the Italians and eventually gave them citizenship. After the city state was developed it conquered Italy and after it conquered Italy it conquered everything in the Mediterranean basin which became the basis for setting up the first Gentile client nation to God. Before we finish our study we will see how the entire world was evangelised because the Roman legions went successfully all the way to the Euphrates, to the southern Danube, to the Rhine, all of the way to the Caledonians in Scotland. And while they could go no farther there was one thing that stepped beyond the Roman eagles and standards of SPQR — the Christian missionaries who crossed the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and went beyond Hadrian’s wall. And by so doing one of the greatest periods of missionary activity that has ever existed came about. The Roman conquests were often cruel because war is often cruel but while there is cruelty in war but that doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with war. Without war we would have no freedom, we would not be evangelised, we would not have a civilisation or the greatest blessings of modern time.

The key to everything then is Smyrna. It was Smyrna which provided the greatness of the Roman empire. In 688 BC the Ionian Greeks took over and when Alexander conquered the world he went through and took Asia Minor, and after his death the city of Smyrna was ruled by the Macedonians. And one of the Macedonian generals who took over the city was Lysimachus. He rebuilt the city which had been destroyed. When he rebuilt the city he located it at the head of one of the chief highways of that area. Therefore its magnificent port became a trading centre and one of the most prosperous in all of the ancient world. Along with Ephesus and Pergamum, Smyrna became one of the most brilliant and prosperous cities of Anotalia or western Turkey. The population of the city at the time that John wrote was about 200,000. Thanks to the planning of Alexander the Great and the execution of his city planning, Smyrna had wide, paved streets. For that reason alone they could expand and expand, and it became the centre of commerce and for several hundred years it was one of the most prosperous cities in the ancient world.

In AD 23, less than a century before our passage opens up, a temple was built in honour of the emperor Tiberias and his mother Julia. It was connected by a wide golden boulevard. This became one of the most famous of all boulevards in the ancient world and people would actually travel thousands of miles just to walk on the golden boulevard. Because the trade there was so great the Jews moved in and there was a large Jewish population. There was also a very large Roman population, a large Greek population and, of course the Asiatics. There were a strong group of believers in Smyrna. The church is one of the greatest of all time. It is the only one of the seven churches in Revelation 2 & 3 which was not criticised. It became the bulwark of the Roman empire. Under the principle of the pivot and the sustaining of a client nation to God, this one was the greatest. By 300 AD the majority of the people in Ephesus and Smyrna were believers, they became almost totally Christian cities. Smyrna was the last city to hold out against the Mahommedan invasions, it did not fall to the Turks until the year 1424 AD. It was the discovery of America and the discovery of the sea routes to India which eventually ruined Smyrna’s trade.

Polycarp, the pastor who succeeded John was one of John’s parishioners. He was a young person in John’s church in Ephesus. After the death of John he went to Smyrna where he was accepted as the pastor. It was during a pagan festival that Polycarp was brought before the proconsul, Philip, who tried to force him take an oath to revile Christ. Of course, Polycarp refused. His answer was very simple: “For eighty-six years I have been a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my Lord and King, my only saviour?” Polycarp was then seized and burned at the stake. The Roman empire had many horrible Caesars and very few good rulers. They had many things against them and yet, because of the city of Smyrna, because of the tremendous advance of believers in the divine dynasphere, it became the secret that carried the Roman empire for 300 years plus.

The mandate from our Lord Jesus Christ to John in verse 8: the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, write. The culminative aorist views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the completion of the canon of scripture, the history of the world from the time of writing (AD 96) down to the end of the world. The book of Revelation is a text book of world history. We have already seen this in chapter one. In chapters two and three we have the historical trends of the Church Age, the dispensation of no prophecy. The next prophecy is the resurrection of the Church. In the meantime everything is discerned through historical trends. Then, Revelation in chapters four and five the removal of the Church, the royal family of God — the Rapture. In Revelation chapters 6-18, three aspects of the Tribulation. Chapter 19: the second advent of Christ and the changing of the rulership of this world from Satan, who is at that time incarcerated for a thousand years, to our Lord Jesus Christ. Then there is the Millennial reign of our Lord, one thousand years of perfect environment. And then at the end of that Millennial reign, the loosing of Satan, the Gog revolution, followed by the last judgment — the second resurrection, the destruction of planet earth by God Himself, which means that there is no way that mad men pressing buttons can destroy this earth with sophisticated weaponry.

The active voice: John, under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, produces the action of writing under the ministry of the Holy Spirit a text book of world history. Every historical trend, every eschatological function of the future is involved in this book.

Next we have the encouragement of the congregation. This follows a very definite pattern throughout. It starts out with the accusative neuter plural, direct object, from Tade. This is a strange type of demonstrative pronoun because it was used originally as a part of the introductory formula for the translation of the Persian kings’ decrees into Greek. The Persians ruled so many Greeks that the decrees first came out in Persian and were then translated into Greek. And they always started out with this accusative form, tade. It is used here as the introductory formula of a decree and a mandate from our Lord Jesus Christ and as His estimation of the situation in Smyrna. With it we have the present active indicative of the verb legw, which means here to communicate. The aoristic present tense of legw sets forth an event as now occurring, therefore punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, the communication of an estimate of the situation. The indicative mood is declarative, representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The rest of the verse is really the subject of the verb.

Then we have a big subject, because the subject not only has our Lord Jesus Christ but a relative clause in there to indicate who is doing the communicating. We start then with the definite article, o(, plus the nominative singular from the subject, prwtoj, correctly translated “the first.” With this a connective kai and then the generic used of the definite article plus the nominative singular subject again from e)sxatoj. Translation: “the first and the last communicates these things.”

What is the meaning of our Lord’s title, “the first and the last’? This is not the same as a)lfa and o)mega. It actually has a fourfold interpretation.

Twenty six years after the times of the Gentiles began in AD 70 the apostle John, during the rule of the Caesar Domitian, was banished to the Isle of Patmos in hopes that he would die there. Instead he sat down under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to write the last book of the canon of scripture, the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is the text book of world history from the time of John, AD 96, to the end of time. In chapters 2 & 3 we are studying historical trends. Once we understand these things we can determine exactly what is happening today, we can determine what has happened in any period of history, and we can see the entire issue of this dispensation and our relationship to it.

We have now gone into some isagogics in order to understand what we are studying with regard to these churches. Why the western coast of Turkey? Why the seven churches located in that area? Why not something in historical trends written to Rome or to Antioch or to Jerusalem? Why these? Because these seven churches, through residence and function in the divine dynasphere, carried client nation SPQR for a record time for any nation which has been a client nation to God. And for a period of time, from 96-180 AD, thanks to the mature believers who advanced from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere and formed a pivot, we have one of the greatest periods of prosperity in all of human history.

The origin of the Romans includes the geographical area we are now studying. Many of the seven churches were located in the area of ancient Lydia. The source of Rome’s original leadership came from the area of the seven churches and specifically from the city of Smyrna. So it is fitting that the same area should provide mature believers from all races to provide blessing by association which would carry the Roman empire through the greatest period of prosperity that the world has ever known. There was an amalgamation of races resulting in the rise of Rome. But it was not a racial issue, it was a respect for law, respect for authority, respect for good government; it was a system of integrity developed by the Romans. But the thing that sustained them and the thing that made the empire greater than the republic was on the west coast of Asia Minor: manifest destiny, combined with the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia, turned the Roman empire into a great client nation. Christianity was tested under the Roman empire but that testing prepared them for the greatest missionary thrust the world has ever known. Missionaries out of the Roman empire, after going through the ten times of persecution ending with Diocletian, went far beyond any area where Roman eagles and the standards of SPQR ever went.

The first and the last — verse 8b

There are four meanings.

1. First of all this refers to Jesus Christ as the God-Man; it refers to the hypostatic union which started at the virgin birth or the incarnation of Christ. Jesus Christ as “the first” is eternal God, coequal and CO-eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. As eternal and infinite God, Jesus Christ pre-existed history which He controls from the computer of divine decrees. Jesus Christ also concludes history as “the last”. He is the God-Man, He concludes history as “the last” in hypostatic union. So He is eternal God and true humanity in One person forever. Jesus Christ as the author of history never loses control of history. He is the first and He is the last. He began history by personally creating man — Adam. And as the last Adam He will personally conclude history with the destruction of the earth. Even though history is the record of man’s thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions, it is Jesus Christ, the first and the last, who controls history. Therefore, there are two sources of judgements and disasters in history: the sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.

Principle: People are collectively and individually the products of their own decisions. And remember that decision creates environment, not environment decision. For example, there is no such thing as a homosexual because of environment or because of genes, it is a matter of decision. In other words, we are the products of our decisions, not our environment. Our decisions create the environment; the environment does not create our decisions.

2. The second meaning has to do with the two great prophecies of history. The title “first and last” also refers to these two great prophecies because they refer to our Lord Jesus Christ. They are the first and second advents. So many prophecies in the Old Testament deal with the details of our Lord’s first advent, all of which are a part of “the first.” The Church is located in between these two great prophetical periods of human history and therefore the Church Age becomes the dispensation of no prophecy. Everything pertaining to the first advent was fulfilled prior to the beginning of the Church Age — the virgin birth, the incarnation, the hypostatic union, our Lord’s residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere, His resultant impeccability, His saving work — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation — His death on the cross, His physical resurrection, His ascension, His session, etc. The dispensation of the Church is designed, then, to call out a royal family for our Lord’s third royal patent. Therefore the Church Age is the dispensation of historical trends, but no prophecy. The next prophecy is the termination of the Church Age, the Rapture of the Church, the resurrection of the body of Christ. And because the Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy the next event prophetically, eschatologically, is an imminent event. In other words, there is no intervening prophecies that have to be fulfilled before the Rapture occurs. The Rapture was imminent even in the time of the apostles and still is. Therefore Christ is the first, related to the first advent and the strategic victory of the cross. Christ is the second related to His tactical victory of the second advent. The first and the last, then, is a title of our Lord Jesus Christ as the prophetical key to human history.

3. The third meaning of our subject, the Lord Jesus Christ under the title of “the first and the last,” refers to the uptrends and downtrends of history related to the believer in the lord Jesus Christ. Christ is either first or last to every believer; there is no in between because every believer is either inside the divine dynasphere or inside the cosmic system. If you are living inside the divine dynasphere — gate 5: love of God; gate eight, which includes occupation with the person of Christ — this means that Christ is first. But if you are a believer living in cosmic dynasphere number one, cosmic dynasphere number two, then Christ is last. So the up and down trends of history are related to this particular title of our Lord. In other words, as goes the believer in Christ so goes human history in any generation. When the believer puts Christ first in his scale of values it is because he lives inside the divine dynasphere which contributes to the uptrend of history; when the believer puts Christ last in his scale of values it is because he lives in the cosmic system which contributes to the downtrend of history. Therefore, “first and last” also emphasises the function of human volition in history. It emphasises the importance of occupation with the person of Christ as well as the place of Christ in one’s scale of values and daily priorities.

4. “First and last” also refers to the source of both temporal and eternal blessing for the believer. Our first blessing relates to time while our last blessing relates to eternity. “First and last” is the fulfilment of the Christian way of life resulting in the imputation of both logistical and super grace blessing in time plus the imputation of eternal blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ.

The first two points are interpretation of our Lord’s title; the last two points are application of our Lord’s title.

Now for the relative clause. We start out with the nominative singular from the relative pronoun o(j, whose antecedent is “the first and the last.” So it is translated: “the first and the last who.” Next comes the aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai, which means “to be” and it also means “to become.” We will translate it “who became.” This is the dramatic aorist tense, it states the present reality with the certitude of a past event — the death of our Lord on the cross. The idiom, of course, is a device for emphasis. The middle voice: our Lord’s humanity participated in the results of the action. This refers to His physical death on the cross. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine.

Next we have the predicate nominative from nekroj, which refers to our Lord’s semantic death on the cross. Literally, “who became dead.” But it is an idiom and should be translated “who died.”

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb zaw, which means to live. It is used for dead persons who return to life, hence to become alive again. And it should be translated: “who died and came to life again.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. It views the resurrection of our Lord in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the continuation of human history past the first advent. This continuation of history is the subject of the book of Revelation. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His physical, literal, bodily, resurrection from the dead. The indicative mood is the declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine — the doctrine of the literal, physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

Verse 9, “thy works” is not found in the original manuscripts. The verse begins with o)ida, which means cognisance, present active indicative, and it refers here to our Lord’s divine knowledge or omniscience regarding the status quo of this second church which contributed to 350 years or more of glory of the Roman empire, i.e. glory from the divine viewpoint, not the Roman empire as such, but the client nation Roman empire where over several hundreds of years millions and millions of people were led to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The accusative singular, direct object of qliyij comes up next. It refers to pressure, to afflictions, to the various disasters that often occur in life. It is translated: “I know all about your pressures.” It is in the singular, gathering up all of the pressures of these people into one concept.

Then we have the conjunction kai which should be translated here, “even.” It is followed by an appositional accusative of the noun ptwxeia — poverty, and with it the generic use of the definite article thn, indicating that the poverty was categorical. Ordinarily that is what it means, poverty, but here it is more than just poverty and we will translate it “including the destitution”. It indicates that the poverty is categorical. Smyrna was a wealthy city and many believers were, or had been, financially extremely prosperous. But they had become victims of the ten percenters throughout the Roman empire. The ten percenters began with the Domitian persecution of the Christians. The idea was that if a person could find a Christian, preferably a wealthy one, and prove in court that he was a Christian and he was sent to jail, the Roman empire confiscated his wealth and ten per cent went to the informer. Many of the believers in Smyrna were impoverished as a result of this action. There were people who made this a profession. There was also a wealthy Jewish coalition who delighted in eliminating and destroying Christians in business enterprise by using some kind of business tactic. All of this was suffering for blessing on the part of the believers.

The spiritual status of these believers is mentioned next. Their financial status was mentioned because they were under pressure and were suffering privation because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The spiritual status of the believers is given after the adversative conjunction a)lla. It is correctly translated “but.” It sets up a contrast between the poverty of the believers of Smyrna and their fantastic spiritual wealth through living and functioning inside the divine dynasphere and, above all, through passing the momentum tests dealing with the adversities they have faced. With this we have the present active indicative of e)imi, “but you are. The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past, i.e. the believers of Smyrna have cracked the maturity barrier by reaching gate eight. They did so at the cost of all of their wealth and possessions, but even though they are in a state of poverty they possess something that few people in history have actually possessed, and that of course is the edification complex of the soul. Of all of the possessions in life that must be related to wealth and success there is none greater than the ECS. That makes the believer who possesses it a multimillionaire spiritually. It is the highest and greatest thing that can happen to anyone in life and its repercussions go far beyond the possession of that ECS on arriving at gate eight of the divine dynasphere, because it is the ECS and the person who possess it who contributes to the blessing of the client nation and the uptrends of history. All greatness, all achievement, all aristocracy, all high-class versus low-class, all came out of one thing. Everyone started on the same basis, the use of volition and having established a system of priorities and the right scale of values: doctrine first.

Next we have the noun plousioj, which means rich and refers to the status of being a mature believer. It refers to spiritual wealth.

We then note that there was opposition from the Jewish community. This opposition is stated with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai. This time kai is translated “also. Then we have an ellipsis which demands the repetition of o)ida — “also I know.” This is followed by the accusative singular, direct object from the noun blasfhmia, which means slander. Then we have the source of the slander, e)k plus the ablative plural from the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, plus the present active participle of legw. We translate: “from those who allege. The descriptive present tense is for what is now going on; the active voice: racial Jews, also religious Jews, produce the action of the verb. Religion motivates to evil; Christianity motivates to good. This is a circumstantial participle.

Then we have the accusative of general reference of the proper noun, ‘I)udaiouj, which means a Jew by birth or race, a Jew by country or by religion, but not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. In other words, it is referring to the unbelieving Jew. The Jewish population of Smyrna was very antagonistic toward Christianity for they considered Christianity as dangerous to their own relationship with the Roman empire. The emperors of the Roman empire were constantly confusing Jews and Christians because so many Jews were Christians.

Then we have the accusative plural from the reflexive pronoun e(auton, which is translated “they themselves. This is a part of the idiom of the accusative of general reference, plus the infinitive of indirect discourse from the verb legw, “they allege that they themselves are Jews. The present active infinitive is next, e)imi, “they are (Jews). The static present for something taken for granted as a fact; the active voice: racial and religious Jews produce the action but they produce it as unbelievers. This is the infinitive of actual result called the infinitive of indirect discourse.

Then we have the connective use of the conjunction kai —“and. And again we have the present active indicative of e)imi, but this time it is plus the negative o)uk —translated, “and they are not. The perfective present tense denotes the continuation of existing results. These people have personally rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as saviour. They have accepted the God of Israel in His Alpha glory but they have rejected the God of Israel in His Omega glory. The active voice: racial and religious Jews produce the action of the verb. They are not true Jews, not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; they are not born again. The difference to the true and the false Jew is his attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ who is the God of Israel, as well as the saviour of the world. Jewish business monopolies in Smyrna had effectively impoverished the Christian community. The royal family of God in Smyrna was constantly facing people testing from both the Jewish community and, of course, the greater pressure of the hostility of Rome and, therefore, in effect, the hostility of the entire cosmic system.

Then we have the final reference. All of this enmity, the hostility from the Roman government, hostility from the Jews, hostility from the ten percenters, all comes under one category; it is opposition from the cosmic system. So again we have the adversative conjunction a)lla which sets up the contrast again. The ellipsis demands the repetition of e)imi —“but they are. And then we have the predicate nominative from sunagwgh, which is translated synagogue but it means congregation actually. There is no definite article here, it is being set apart as a specific category of history. It is not a synagogue, that’s Jewish; it is Gentile and Jew; it is the government involved; it is the Gentiles in the Roman empire and the Gentiles in Smyrna specifically; it is Jewish people in Smyrna specifically. It isn’t a racial oppositional type thing.

Then we have the possessive genitive satanoj, “Satan,” taken from the Hebrew shatan and it means enemy or adversary. Translation: “but they are a congregation of Satan.

Verse 10. In this passage we have principles related to the opposition to the plan of God.

1. The first is fear. We begin with the mandate which is found in the present middle imperative of the verb fobew plus the negative mh. It is correctly translated, “fear not” or “do not fear.” The present tense is a progressive present plus the negative which prohibits the continuation of the action of fear. It is possible to learn a great many doctrines and yet to fall apart in some emergency or pressure situation. Sudden disaster often places the believer in some panic alley situation where he can’t concentrate. If you can’t concentrate you can’t use the doctrine you have learned. Concentration is required both to learn and to apply doctrine to any situation. (Actually, concentration is required for good living) Adversity or disaster destroys concentration and this is why believers fall apart under pressure. They cannot recall any doctrine that would be applicable to the situation because in fear they cannot think at all. Fear is lack of thinking. Because of this there are many biblical imperatives about fear.

Believers in all stages of spiritual growth can find themselves functioning under the fear syndrome because of sudden adversity. Sudden adversity is simply a test to see if you can apply doctrine under pressure. There is a principle which David enucleated in Psalm 56:3 when he said, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in you (the Lord).” In other words, he would come around to being able to think under pressure. And even in the greatest of pressures, the pressure with regard to death: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” This principle is the basis for establishing the faith-rest drill as the concept in applying doctrine that has been learned. So in the first principle that we have in opposition to the plan of God we have a solution in the faith-rest drill — the importance of the faith-rest drill in testing.

The middle voice is the direct middle, emphasising the agent as participating in the outcome of the action — freedom from fear, therefore the ability to think under pressure. And the ability to think means the ability to concentrate. The two of them together mean courage, for courage is thinking and concentration under pressure. The imperative mood plus the negative mh is the negative of prohibition which forbids the continuation of an action which is the initial reaction to suffering, pressure, or disaster.

With this we have the accusative neuter plural direct object from the relative pronoun o(j — “Do not fear what.” The word “what” is the issue, indicating the principle that fear represents the absence of the faith-rest drill and the inability to think under pressure. Therefore this phrase emphasises the fact that if you are going to execute the plan of God as a believer, your life must be free from any form of fear.

2. Principle number two is the source of opposition and testing. It begins with the aorist middle imperative, a form of the verb o(raw, which means to see. But it becomes a particle — i)dou, translated “behold,” but it would probably be better to translate it into modern English, like “note well.” So this becomes a demonstrative particle with no exact English equivalent. And then the subject is the nominative diaboloj, which is almost transliterated “devil.” Not only is Satan the author of the cosmic system but through the influence of Satan’s cosmic system there are periodic persecutions of believers, especially at the starting of a new nation. And with this we have the present active indicative of the verb mellw, which means “to be about to be.” We could translate this: “Note that the devil is about to.” The customary present tense denotes what habitually occurs, or may be reasonably expected to occur, when a believer lives inside the divine dynasphere. Inside the divine dynasphere, of course, he is going to have three things going for him in learning doctrine: a. The filling of the Holy Spirit — the power for perception of the Word of God; b. Basic impersonal love — the objectivity for perception of Bible doctrine; c. Enforced and genuine humility — teachability for perception of doctrine. That means momentum and that means testing. This momentum testing is in view at this particular point because there is going to be opposition to any believer advancing.

Satan doesn’t attack directly, he attacks through his system. Satan has delegated the system — the 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance and the 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred — to be the opposition to the Christian way of life. Indirectly, Satan is in tremendous opposition to any believer who is moving from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. But that isn’t really the issue here, the issue here is that he has delegated the responsibility and, as a result, we get attacked from all sides. Satan rarely has to tamper with his system because it works so well. The only counter to Satan’s genius and his fantastic system for administration of the rulership of this world is the perception and application of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb as the greatest executive of all time who has delegated the responsibility of attacking us to the 26 gates of cosmic one and the 9 gates of cosmic two, plus his inside help from the function of the old sin nature. And mellw never stands alone, it always has some kind of a verb form with it, generally an infinitive.

So next we have the present active infinitive of the verb ballw, which means to throw, to cast, to put, and we will translate it: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer: note that the devil is about to cast some of you into prison.” Note that mellw plus ballw is preceded by mellw plus pasxw, which means to suffer. Now you are about to suffer, you are about to be put in prison. Mellw, in each case, indicates a system is going to attack you, not Satan himself. You are going to suffer because there is a system the ruler of this world has. This system which is the invention of Satan is administered in two ways: through angelic creatures where necessary, and it is also administered through homo sapien: believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system.

Then there is people. In this case the people represent one of the greatest nations ever to exist in history — SPQR. The people of the Roman empire represent the government. In some cases it was the senate which was responsible for persecuting Christians, in some cases it was the industrial complex leadership, in some cases it would be the emperor.

The present tense of mellw is an iterative present and it almost appears to be a customary present denoting what is reasonably expected to occur when a pivot is being formed in a client nation to God. The active voice: the believer under momentum testing produces the action of being destined or about to suffer. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of momentum inside the divine dynasphere, and therefore the anticipation of testing. So: “do not fear what you are about to suffer.” Then again we have mellw, plus ballw, and that means, “note that the devil will incarcerate some of you.” The present active infinitive, ballw, means to put or to cast. Then we have a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative plural of the personal pronoun su, “some of you.” Definitely all who were taking in doctrine; definitely all who were taking in doctrine. His is suffering for blessing, for momentum, for acceleration of that momentum. And then we have one more prepositional phrase: e)ij plus the accusative singular of fulakh, “into prison.”

3. Principle number three is the historical trend of Christian suffering as testing. We begin this principle with the conjunction i(na, which has many uses. This conjunction introduces a final clause, denoting a purpose, aim, or objective. It is translated, “in order that.” Then we have the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb peirazw, which means to be tested for the purpose of discovering what you are made of, testing for good or evil. The culminative aorist tense views momentum testing in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Passing the test and accelerating spiritual momentum to maturity. The passive voice: the believer living inside the divine dynasphere receives the action of the verb. I(na plus the subjunctive denotes the purpose clause. And what we are about to study is the basis of the greatest missionary movement of all time in history. It would be sown in the blood of martyrs throughout the entire Roman empire over a period of two hundred years. The historical trend or Christian suffering and testing is related to the Roman empire as a client nation to God. Many of these people are going to die in the most horrible way and yet they are the basis of one of the greatest counters to Satan’s administration of the rulership of this world that history has ever known.

Next we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, meaning “and,” plus the future active indicative of the verb e)xw, which generally means “to have.” Translation: “and you shall have.” The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact regarding prosperity testing anticipating the tenure of Rome as a client nation and the contribution that this suffering would make. These ten major persecutions of Christians became the basis for millions of people being in heaven right now. And while the legions and the genius of Rome and its military activities advanced to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and Scotland, it could never accomplish what born-again believers advancing across these borders accomplished. It was sowed in martyrdom and it rose up in the most magnificent type of spiritual power.

We have the accusative singular, direct object from qliyij, which means pressure, suffering, affliction, testing, “and you shall have adversity.” Then we have the indeclinable numeral deka, which means “ten.” With it we have the objective genitive plural h(mera, which generally means “days” but here it refers to a longer period of time. We will translate this: “And you shall have special persecutions ten times.” The ten special persecutions of Christians are related to the times of the Gentiles and Rome as the first Gentile client nation to God. And when the 5th cycle of discipline was finally administered to Judah in AD 70, just 40 years into the Church Age, that was the end of any Jewish client nation to God. The “times of the Gentiles” began and it will continue throughout the Church Age until the Rapture. During the dispensation of the Church, which is the time of historical trends, only Gentile nations can be client nations to God.

It was not the Roman republic which was a client nation to God. Before Rome could ever be a client nation it had to be an empire. It had to be an empire where often the rulers of the empire were incompetent, but the genius of Julius Caesar set up a system of administration that would function perfectly, regardless of whether the emperor was good or bad, competent or incompetent. Ten times rulers of Rome tried to wipe out Christianity in the empire not realising that they would be destroying Rome, that as long as there was a pivot of mature believers Rome would continue to be the client nation to God. In the midst of all of this attempt to wipe out Christianity, Christianity not only grew in the Roman empire but it expanded beyond the Roman empire. Rome survived in spite of itself. It survived because believers in these seven churches made decisions to reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, and by making those decisions SPQR as an empire continued until 476 AD, by which time there were too many cosmic believers in the empire and missionary activity ceased to exist. It was not until Constantine the Great and the edict of Milan, in the year 313 AD, that the Church ceased to be persecuted by Roman rulers. And then a new danger came up: the union of Church and State. So Christianity failed the prosperity test; they were happy to be a State religion and that was wrong. The Church can never function when it is sponsored by the State. The Church cannot be the State; the Church must operate under the State, under government, but never be the government. So the combination of Church and State was another test for the Church in which failure led to the Dark Ages.

Note also that these “ten times” do not include Nero’s persecution of the Church. It is excluded for the most obvious reason. He executed the apostle Paul in the year 68 AD and in that year the Lord answered Nero, he was assassinated. So he died in 68. What does that mean? The times of the Gentiles did not begin until 70 AD. And now we are at 96 AD and these ten persecutions start in 96 AD. Nero did persecute the Church, but it is not one of the ten times.

There are two reasons why Christians suffer. One of them has to do with blessing and one of them has to do with cursing or divine discipline. All suffering for blessing occurs inside the divine dynasphere and it is a part of momentum testing going from gate four to gate eight which is the objective of the spiritual life. All cursing, all divine discipline is related to the believer residing inside of the cosmic system. Whenever we suffer for blessing there is a great advance spiritually and there are wonderful things in store for the individual. Furthermore the problem of suffering itself is no difficulty where the believer has lived and resided inside the divine dynasphere, and under the perception of Bible doctrine is able to apply the doctrine to his experience. Honing the believer fine, making him strong, developing everything by way of capacity for happiness and blessing is related to suffering. Suffering and prosperity are the two greatest tests that we face as believers. Both require the application of Bible doctrine to experience, both require the flexibility that comes from virtue that comes from inside the divine dynasphere.

The ten special persecutions of Christians are related to the times of the Gentiles and Rome as the first Gentile client nation to God. In the Roman empire there would be the test of great suffering and then there would be the test of great prosperity. They would have to pass the suffering test, they would have to pass the prosperity test, and as a result Rome as an empire would then become a missionary base. Rome is the first Gentile client nation to God. The church at Smyrna survived all the persecutions of Christianity by the Roman empire because of their residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, and this means they survived because of their perception and application of Bible doctrine at gate four of the divine dynasphere. We do not include the persecutions of Nero in the ten special persecutions.

The ten special persecutions

1. The first one occurred during the time of Domitian — 81-96 AD. Domitian is the last of the Flavian emperors. He died in 96 AD because of his persecution of John, just as Nero died for his execution of Paul. Domitian was jealous of his older brother Titus who had been emperor from 79-81 AD and his arrogance eventually turned to insanity. He demanded that his subjects treat him like a god. He degraded the senate, he persecuted Christians, he announced his own deification, and he banished John to the Isle of Patmos. His wife, Domitia, arranged to have him stabbed and thus the Flavian emperors ceased to exist with Titus Flavius Domitianus.

2. The second great persecution occurred long after in 161-180 AD under Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius was a very fine unbeliever, the last of the good Antonine emperors. He was austere from his stoic beliefs but he was very philanthropic in his domestic policies. He was forced through economic disaster to debase the coinage. Whenever the industrial complex begins to collapse because capitalism fails, because there is a State attack upon capitalism, because there is some form of redistribution of wealth, some concept of the welfare state, there will always be the beginning of the cracking of the nation in its economic modus operandi. It was in AD 161 that the Parthians attacked the eastern frontier and while they were driven back the soldiers who fought them brought back from the area over the Euphrates (Persia or Parthia) the Asiatic plague which became a tremendous disaster in the Roman empire. It was actually a divine punishment and millions of people in the empire died. The Christians were blamed for it and this is how Marcus Aurelius came to persecute them. The Christians would not worship the pagan Roman gods and seek help from them and so the emperors became very antagonistic toward Christianity. Marcus Aurelius never really paid much attention to the Christians until the Asiatic plague, and then under pressure the Christians were severely persecuted. This was the second of the ten special persecutions. He died at age 59 in what is now Vienna. He was allegedly poisoned.

3. The third persecution, 180-192 AD, was under Commodus. By his persecution of the Christians Marcus Aurelius lost his wisdom and made a lot of ruinous decisions. One of his worst decisions was to elevate his son Commodus. Never had any Antonine emperor ever used any of his natural progeny to succeed him, they had always adopted someone who would be the next emperor. But here was the exception and as a result of this terrible decision it would be used of the Lord to punish SPQR for a period of some twelve years. The eighties were the worst period of all of the first century. When Commodus became emperor at age nineteen his insanity caused him to return to the Roman throne. He instituted a reign of terror, he was savage and cruel as an individual, and nothing had ever been seen like this in Rome since the time of Nero’s degeneracy. Commodus had great, great arrogance about his physical strength. He would appear in the arena dressed as a gladiator but he always had unarmed opponents and he always killed these opponents. He appeared in the streets of Rome wearing a lion’s skin, and called himself Hercules. He carried a club and if he didn’t like the look of some of his citizens he would club them to death right there. If these gave him any opposition, out of nowhere would appear one of the special companies of Praetorian Guard to despatch the person who wouldn’t lie down and die neatly! He would go into the senate and pick out senators and slaughter them on the senate floor which ran with blood. He persecuted the Christians and these persecutions were unspeakable, until a believer became his mistress. Her name was Martia. When it was discovered that Commodus intended to kill Martia because she was a believer, and kill all of the palace attendants, they formed conspiracy to assassinate him. A wrestler by the name of Narcissus was hired to strangle him to death. Thus ended the third of the ten special persecutions.

4. The fourth special persecution was under Severus — 193-211 AD. He was an African and very superstitious. In 202 Severus adopted an anti-Christian policy. He forbade Christians to witness and promised death to any Christian who would talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. Any person who believed in Christ was to be persecuted as soon as he was found. The persecutions first broke out in Alexandria. Severus had not been unfavourable toward the Christians at the earlier part of his reign and actually gave his son a Christian nurse. But the policy of Alexandria finally prevailed. Mobs of Egyptians ran loose and killed Christians, robbed, raped and stole in the name of destroying Christianity. Among the Christian martyrs in Alexandria were Felicity and Perpetua of Carthage, very famous for their stand for the Lord before they were horribly killed.

5. The fifth persecution, 235-238 AD, was under Maximus Thrax. He was an eight-foot giant of tremendous physical strength and was as brutal as he was strong. When he became emperor he ordered all Christian leaders to be put to death. And because Christians were honest and had integrity they had predominated in the civil service for some time. Pontian, the bishop of Rome, was deported to Sardinia where he died. Christian churches were burned. Origen took refuge in Cappadocia where the Roman legions functioned but they ignored the orders of the emperor. Eventually, Maximus Thrax stepped out of his chariot and a bunch of people came out of the bushes and killed him.

6. The sixth persecution was under Trajianus Decius. He sought to exterminate all Christians in the Roman empire but he didn’t get to finish his persecutions because he was killed in Gothic war.

7. The seventh was under Gallus — 251-153. He continued the persecution started by Decius but he was so successful he was murdered by his own son and eventually replaced by Valerian who continued the terrible persecution.

8. Number eight is Valerian — 253-260. His persecution of Christians throughout the empire were distracted by a Persian invasion. When he had to go and fight he was captured and horribly tortured. He eventually died while being skinned alive. When the Roman envoys came to sue for peace they were presented with the skin of Valerian. As a result of this the Christians had peace for ten years.

9. Then along came Lucius Domitianus Aurelian. When he began a persecution of the Christians his generals decided they didn’t like him and they murdered him. He defeated the Persians and the Goths but he could not defeat the wall of fire around the Christians.

10. Diocletian — 284-305 AD. Outside of his persecution of Christians he was very effective as a ruler. He was a Dalmatian, the son of a freed slave. He was a strong worshipper of the sun god, Jupiter, and under the influence of one of his cohorts he started the greatest of all persecutions of believers. In February of 303 he sought to completely root Christianity out of the empire. He ordered all copies of the Bible surrendered and burned, all churches destroyed, all meetings abolished. Christians were deprived of their civil rights, including the holding of public office. He retired to Dalmatia.

With the retirement of Diocletian, Galerius took his place and he continued persecution of Christians until the pressure was too great and he issued reluctantly an edict of toleration which cancelled all persecutions of believers and pardoned all Christians who were still living. In 313 Constantine issued at Milan the edict which terminated these ten special persecutions of our passage. “We grant,” he said, “to the Christians and all others free choice to follow their own mode of worship, whatever they wish ...”. Ten emperors administered these persecutions which prepared the church to evangelise the barbarians knocking at the gates of the empire waiting to be converted.

Because the church went through these persecutions so magnificently in so many cases two kinds of believers were manifest at the time. First of all there were believers living in the divine dynasphere contributing to the uptrend of the Roman empire. These are the ones who went to death so magnificently. These are the ones who died under dying grace and there is a special reward with regard to them. But many believers renounced Christ to escape death, to escape torture, to escape the confiscation of their property. These had already contributed to the downtrend and they continued to live in the Roman empire to be a disaster to it. But there was a purpose in all of this: God was toughening up the Church for one of the greatest missions it has ever faced — the evangelisation of the entire world. The Romans could not conquer the world but the pivot of believers sent missionaries to China, to India, to Armenia, to Parthia, to Africa, and to all of the areas of the world that Rome had never been able to conquer. And from these barbarians would come future Gentile client nations, and it was not the eagle standards of Rome but the Christian missionaries who went out from these pivots. The martyrdom of the Christians demonstrated a principle that the barbarians could not understand. All of the barbarians were magnificent in their physical strength, they were fierce as warriors and great as conquerors, but they lacked one thing: death frightened them.

Principle: How you live is determined by your attitude toward death. Sooner or later death will become a reality and you will discover an amazing thing: things that you thought were important, things that you spent your life doing, the pleasures you sought, your ambitions to succeed and to get ahead and become famous and great and to excel above your peers, all of these things when you face death as a reality will not give you one moment of peace or blessing or courage in time of your dying. If you haven’t solved the problem of dying by your scale of values, and where doctrine stands, and the perception and application of doctrine in your life, then you are never going to be able to face death. Death is going to be a horror, a time and moment of truth when you will look back on your life and realise what a fool you were to spend all of your time seeking happiness when it was there in the form of Bible doctrine.

The Church is never ready to evangelise and to send out missionaries until the Church is toughened by testing, and then, having passed the testing, they have to also pass the prosperity test. Testing toughens and prosperity softens, and so to pass both tests we have the history of the first three centuries of Christianity related first of all to persecution and then to prosperity. Persecutions, then, even in a client nation to God is a historical trend until the day the Lord removes the Church by resurrection and terminates this dispensation.

Principle

1. The historical trend is there and the precedent has been set by the ten persecutions which were predicted in verse 10. There will always be in the world an eruption of persecution of believers. God often permits this because too many believers have become involved in the cosmic system and, therefore, the remnant in the pivot are toughened and their values are re-established by persecution.

2. Therefore any persecution of Christians has two purposes: either divine discipline of believers living in the cosmic system or spiritual momentum and special blessings for believers living in the divine dynasphere.

3. From the time of Constantine the Great, 313-337, another historical trend will become obvious: the problem of separation of Church and State plus the importance of the Church staying out of politics. When the Church becomes involved in politics the nation is destroyed; when the Church stays out of politics and advances spiritually to maturity the nation is saved. Our job as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and collectively as the Church is to stay out of politics, to advance to maturity, for the only thing that can save a client nation to God is the enlarged pivot of mature believers and the blessing by association which results from it.

4. The same historical trend of cosmic failure in the Church exists today in the so-called social action of the Church.

5. Under the principle of historical trends all suffering, pressure, and persecution directed toward believers is designed for either divine discipline or divine blessing. The way to determine the purpose is whether those involved are living in the divine dynasphere — suffering for blessing, or living in the cosmic system — suffering for punishment. The historical trend, then: when the Church us separated from the State the State often persecutes the Church, but when the Church becomes the State or becomes involved in social action, the Church does the persecuting of the State. Both are wrong, the State persecuting the Church or the Church persecuting the State.

Verse 10b begins with the present middle imperative of the verb ginomai, to be or to become. Here it is translated “keep on becoming.” The progressive present tense is for action in the state of progress or persistence, therefore present linear aktionsart. The middle voice: it is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning: believers are commanded to produce the action of the verb through resistance of persecution inside the divine dynasphere, or, better stated, to handle all persecution from inside the divine dynasphere. Resistance of persecution is by functional virtue, not by violence. The imperative mood is the imperative of command.

Next is the predicate nominative from the adjective pistoj, meaning faithful or dependable, hence a reference to consistent residence and function in the divine dynasphere so that when any pressures and persecutions in life come along you handle them individually from virtue. That keeps you from ever becoming a persecutor yourself. And the only virtue by which you can meet these things is the virtue manufactured inside the divine dynasphere. Here, of course, the context views residence inside the divine dynasphere from the standpoint of pressure, adversity, persecution, suffering.

Next comes the improper preposition a)xri plus the genitive of qanatoj — “until death.” Qanatoj separates phase two from phase three, apart from being alive at the resurrection. Faithfulness until death is residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Principle

1. The reality of death is the test of the believer’s spiritual condition and true scale of values.

2. In the face of death there are many things people value that are absolutely useless. For example, if you are dying money is no good, success is no good, wealth or promotion or social life is no good. Everything that you put before doctrine immediately becomes obsolete, useless. Dying can be the greatest happiness in life or the greatest misery, and it depends upon the content of Bible doctrine in your soul.

3. The experience of dying is a test of our living values.

4. Therefore if Bible doctrine is not first in your scale of values dying is a nightmare.

5. The ten special persecutions from Domitian to Diocletian made death a reality to millions of people who were believers.

6. Believers living in the cosmic system when facing the threat of torture and death renounced their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

7. Believers living in the divine dynasphere, when facing the same threat of torture and death, were not afraid. Many of them surrendered their lives under the principle of dying grace. It was not a tragedy, they could not have departed from this life apart from the Lord’s permission. But they had been prepared by their attitude toward doctrine.

8. But for cosmic believers fear of death became fear of life. If you are afraid of death you are afraid of life.

9. If there is nothing worth living for there is nothing worth dying for. But only those mature believers in the pivot understood that issue. It took the persecution of the Church to give the perspective for missionary function. In fact, the persecuted Church sustained the Roman empire.

Principle

1. Bible doctrine resident in the soul removes fear of death as well as fear of life.

2. The believer living inside the divine dynasphere is not afraid of torture and death. That means that martyrdom death is never in vain. Martyrdom without renouncing Christ, when that is the issue, is one of the greatest rewardable functions in eternity.

3. Before Constantine the Roman empire was evangelised through dying testimony; after Constantine it was evangelised through living testimony. In history it takes both. Dying testimony requires, like living testimony, that Bible doctrine is more real than anything in life. Otherwise, when called upon to live or die for the Lord Jesus Christ, if He isn’t real to you, you can’t do it. Jesus Christ is not real to the believer who has neglected Bible doctrine.

4. The success standards of life must be replaced by the success standards of God’s plan. And the judgment seat of Christ will reveal that many people who have a comparatively humble station in life were the true great ones as far as God’s plan is concerned.

5. Only through Bible doctrine can God and His plan be more real than people, situations and pleasures.

6. Beware that you do not compromise your principles through arrogant ambition.

7. Beware that you do not run your life on the basis of human viewpoint, on the basis of rationalising doctrine to fit your ambitions and functions in life. In other words, if you do not watch your step and put doctrine first in your scale of values, and establish your priorities on the basis of doctrine first — priorities related to residence and function in the divine dynasphere — God is going to send to believers of the client nation a plague of special persecution. But out of that special persecution will come a different brand of Christian than we see today.

The divine viewpoint must override peer pressure, and arrogant ambition must be replaced by doctrinal perception. When that happens and you fulfil the principle of being faithful, even unto death, there is a special super reward in heaven.

The ten special persecutions from Domitian to Diocletian made death a reality to millions of believers in the Roman empire over that period of time. Believers living in the cosmic system when facing the threat of torture and death often renounced their faith in Christ. This didn’t mean they lost their salvation, they still had eternal salvation, they had merely saved their skins by their act of cowardice. Believers living in the divine dynasphere when facing the same threat of torture and death were not afraid and departed from this life under the principle of dying grace. But for the cosmic believer fear of death became fear of life.

It took the persecution of the Church to give the perspective then for missionary function. In fact the missionary church sustained the Roman empire. So the Bible doctrine resident in the soul removes fear of death as well, of course, fear of life. The believer living in the divine dynasphere is not afraid of torture and death, and their martyr deaths were not in vain. Before Constantine the Roman empire was evangelised through the dying testimony of martyrs and after Constantine it was evangelised by the living testimony of mature believers.

But doctrine must be more real than anything else in life and the success standards of life must be replaced by the success standards of God’s plan. Only through Bible doctrine can God and His plan be more real than people and their plans. Ambition to excel above one’s peers is a trap; it is designed to destroy both your happiness and your spiritual life by giving you either a superficial or a false scale of values. So beware that you do not compromise your own principles because of inordinate ambition. And beware that you do not run your life on the basis of human viewpoint and rationalise doctrine to fit your own ambitions. If we do not watch our step then as believers and put doctrine first in our scale of values, and establish priorities related to residence and function in the divine dynasphere, God is going to send the believers of this nation a plague of special persecutions.

The believer with maximum doctrine in his soul cannot be corrupted by fear of death any more than he could be corrupted by fear of failure in life. If your goals are set and related to advance to maturity then you have nothing to fear in life and you have nothing to fear in dying or how the Lord may choose for you to depart from this life. Divine viewpoint must override peer pressure. Arrogant ambition must be replaced by doctrinal perception so that your motivation is in line with the plan of God. Two people may arrive at the same point of success but the one who has false motivation in getting their is a weak sister. The one who has the correct doctrinal motivation in getting there will be very strong and will glorify the Lord in such advance.

The final phrase in verse ten starts out with the connective kai, translated “and.” Then we have the future active indicative of the verb didomi, and it means here to give — “and I will give.” The predictive future anticipates special blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the prince ruler of the Church produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. Every believer gets his evaluation for what he did with logistical grace from the time of salvation to the time he departs from this life. Our Lord Jesus Christ from His omniscience does the evaluation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of eternal blessing and reward above and beyond the possession of a resurrection body for believers who crack the maturity barrier. Volition is the great issue in the angelic conflict. From salvation you are free to advance to maturity and you are free to fail, so that there will be great inequality in the perfect environment of heaven. Perfect environment always represents the function of freedom and therefore inequality is healthy because it indicates the use of our own free will to succeed or fail.

The dative singular indirect object from the personal pronoun su closes out our exegetical study of this verse. It is translated “to you.” The dative of indirect object indicates the mature believers whose advance in the divine dynasphere results in getting great eternal blessing and reward above and beyond the resurrection body. This is also a dative of advantage. Then finally the accusative singular direct object from the noun stefanoj, which can be translated either crown or wreath. When used in its athletic connotation which came from the Hellenistic culture of the Roman empire it is a wreath, but when used in its military connotation it has to do with special Roman decorations. With this we have the descriptive genitive of the noun zwh, life. The crown of life was given to that believer who advanced to maturity through living in the divine dynasphere and learning Bible doctrine. However the crown of life emphasises the believer passing the momentum tests, advancing from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere which is the power system for the Christian life.

Translation of verse 10: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer: note that the devil is about to cast some of you into prison in order that you may be tested; and you will have special persecution ten times: keep on becoming faithful [residence and function in the divine dynasphere] until death, and I will give to you a crown of life [eternal reward for living inside the divine dynasphere].”

The doctrine of the judgment seat of Christ

1. The judgment seat of Christ or the evaluation of believers in phase two of the plan of God occurs at the termination of the Church Age. It follows the receiving of a resurrection body. (Whether a believer succeeds or fails he will have a resurrection body)

2. The purpose of the judgment seat of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one of us [believers in the royal family of God] may receive what is due him for the things accomplished while in the physical body [phase two], whether good [a)gaqoj] or worthless [or evil, fauloj].” If the believer lives his Christian life inside the cosmic system what he accomplishes is worthless or evil or both, fauloj. On the other hand if the believer lives his Christian life inside the divine dynasphere what he does is categorised as intrinsic good, a)gaqoj.

3. A))gaqoj refers to the plan of God from the viewpoint of imputation [X+Y+Z = Good]^. Here again we have the principle: a)gaqoj means, first through X radical, human life imputed at birth plus Adam’s original sin. The imputation of Adam’s original sin means spiritual death, and that sets up the first potential for salvation, plus the pertinent doctrine — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation, justification, all of those things related to the work of Christ on the cross. That equals hope 1, absolute confidence that of you believe in Jesus Christ you have eternal life plus salvation adjustment to the justice of God through faith in Christ. Now you advance to being an immature believer: Y radical. Here you have judicial imputation #1 — our sins are imputed to Christ on the cross, the basis of our so great salvation. Judicial imputation #2, the basis for our relationship with God. We have God’s righteousness, one half of divine integrity, and also at the same time God has created a target for all logistical grace — imputation, and all supergrace blessing — the possession of the righteousness of God. So a new potential is set up: the potential for great blessing in time, plus the pertinent doctrine equals hope #2 — absolute confidence that you and I as believers using the divine dynasphere advance to maturity, plus maturity adjustment to the justice of God, going from gate four to gate eight. In Z radical we have the imputation of eternal life at salvation plus the imputation of supergrace blessing, blessing in time at the point of maturity, and that equals the third potential, the potential of eternal blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ above and beyond the resurrection body. Plus the pertinent equals hope three, absolute confidence that by attaining maturity, advancing from gate four to gate eight, we are going to receive great blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ. This equals the good, a)gaqoj, all things working together for good — Romans 8:28. This second Koine word a)gaqoj occurs in 2 Corinthians 5:10 — “that each one of us [royal family of God] may receive what is due him for the things accomplished in the body, whether good, a)gaqoj, or worthless.” The purpose of the judgment seat of Christ is the evaluation of each believer’s life on earth between salvation and his departure.

4. The loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ is a major issue.

a. The gain or loss of reward and blessing above and beyond the resurrection body is determined by your personal volition. Your choice of dynasphere determines gain or loss of reward, 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

b. Loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ does not imply loss of salvation, 2 Timothy 2:11-13. “if we endure” is persistence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Enduring here is u)pomenw. This is God’s game plan for the Christian life, residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. And if you persist in making decisions consistent with the divine dynasphere in phase two there will be reward in phase three. “If we refuse,” i.e. to function under our Lord’s plan (X+Y+Z); “he will also refuse us (i.e. reward, not salvation).” Eternal security is a divine gift at the moment of salvation through faith in Christ. What God does for us cannot be lost, cannot be changed, cannot be removed. Eternal security depends upon the integrity of God while confidence toward God depends on the integrity of the believer, he must have doctrine resident in his soul. Failure to live in the divine dynasphere may destroy the believer’s confidence in God but failure to live in the divine dynasphere can never destroy your eternal security. Therefore the principle of 2 Timothy 2:11-13: eternal security is permanent and cannot be destroyed by Christian failure. Confidence in God is a motivating virtue which can be lost through the believer’s residence and function inside the cosmic dynasphere. The principle of eternal security: John 10:28; 1 Peter 1:3-5. Eternal security is never an issue at the judgment seat of Christ.

c. However, the cosmic believer in losing reward at the judgment seat of Christ will experience, at least for that period of time, shame. He will be in a resurrection body but there is that implication of shame at loss of reward. Perhaps this is the closest thing to any lack of happiness that can ever exist in heaven, in eternity. And this appears to be only temporary at that moment and does not seem to be perpetuated into eternity. Philippians 1:20, Confidence in time implies reward in eternity. Phil. 3:18,19, “for many keep walking in the cosmic system ...” The apostle Paul had an emotional response to his observation of cosmic Christians: “they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” What is the end of such believers? — verse 19, “whose end is destruction [the sin unto death], whose God is emotion, whose glory [at the judgment seat of Christ] is their shame, who keep thinking about earthly things [a description of cosmic involvement].”

1 John 2:28, “And now dear children, keep on residing in it [the divine dynasphere]; that if he [Christ] should appear [the Rapture, the resurrection of the Church], we might have confidence, and might not be put to shame by him in his presence [at the judgment seat of Christ].”

5. The divine dynasphere and its relationship to the judgment seat of Christ.

Note James 1:25: “But the one who looks intently into the perfect law [Bible doctrine] that gives freedom [perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere], and continues to do this [momentum in the divine dynasphere], not forgetting what he has heard but doing it, this believer will be blessed [or happy] in what he is doing”. The perfect law and looking into the perfect law which gives freedom is our life inside the divine dynasphere with emphasis on perception of doctrine.

James 2:12-13, “So keep speaking and so keep doing as though who are going to be judged [evaluated] by the law that gives freedom [perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is the basis for our evaluation]. For judgment for those who have not produced mercy [have not manufactured virtue inside the divine dynasphere, or better, who do not show compassion]; compassion triumphs over judgment.” This is an interim point to emphasise the fact that the judgment seat of Christ and our evaluation is related toward the many decisions for or against the divine dynasphere, residence and function therein.

6. Therefore the application of virtue to the judgment seat of Christ. Note one application found in Romans 14:10-13, “You there [the weak believer who lives in the cosmic system], why do you judge your brother? [Principle of the weak controlling the strong] or you also [the strong believer] why do you regard your brother with contempt [Lack of toleration and impersonal love]? for all will be present at the tribunal of God. For it stands written [Isaiah 45:23], For surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me [the big genuflect after the Rapture of the Church], and every tongue will confess to God [these are believers]. So then each one of us [Church Age believers] shall give an account to God concerning himself [You are responsible for your own decisions]. Therefore let us no longer judge one another: but rather make up your mind, [determine this] not to place an obstacle or distraction in front of his brother”. This is application of virtue to the judgment seat of Christ. The only possible way to do this is inside the divine dynasphere where the motivating virtue of personal love for God is counterparted by impersonal love for mankind. There is where you get your toleration to tolerate believers in all stages of growth so that there is no distraction to their positive volition toward Bible doctrine.

7. An athletic analogy to the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:5 — “Now if anyone really competes in the athletic games he does not receive a winner’s wreath unless he trains according to the rules.” The Roman empire, in copying the Greek games, copied the whole system, including the rules, and the athlete couldn’t compete unless he trained according to the rules. There were two types of athletes who existed in the Roman empire. The first group were called aqletai and were the people who entered state gymnasiums in order to train and compete in the games. There was also another category of athlete called a)gonistai and were the muscle or body builders who did not enter the games and train under the rules. So we have a)qletai and a)gonistai, two categories of athletes. And we have two kinds of believers, those who are in the divine dynasphere [comparable to the a)qletai] and those in the cosmic system [comparable to the a)gonistai]. We have the cosmic believer who doesn’t train according to the rules and we have the believer in the divine dynasphere who does. Not only did the Roman athlete live inside the gymnasium for ten months but he followed a set of very strict rules which constantly tested his motivation, his decisions, and his momentum. This was a part of the system. The concept of perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere is analogous. Once the athletes went back to their home town they received rewards which are comparable to the judgment seat of Christ.

This was Paul’s subject, then, in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run [analogous to the games in the Roman empire and the function of gate four, the perception and application of doctrine necessary for momentum in the Christian life], but one receives the prize [in each event]?” analogous to the attainment of spiritual maturity or advance from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere. “Run in such a way that you may win,” a command for residence and function in the divine dynasphere ; “And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-discipline in all things. They [the athletes] do it to receive a perishable wreath [or crown]; but we [mature believers] an imperishable crown. Therefore [Paul’s application] I do not run like a person without an objective; I do not fight like a person beating the air [cosmic believers are shadow boxers]: Instead I discipline my body, and keep it in training [residence and function in the divine dynasphere]: lest having preached [communicated doctrine] to others, I myself should be disqualified” [disqualification from both temporal blessing in time and eternal reward at the judgment seat of Christ].

8. The rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. During the Roman empire there were two Greek words used for crowns. One of them, stefanoj, which is pertinent is a reward in two areas of life. It is a reward in military service and in the empire games. There is a second word for crown which occasionally we find in the Bible, diadhma. This is a crown used for a king. Certain rewards to mature believers at the judgment seat of Christ are called stefanoi, crowns. There were six categories of such crowns given by the Roman empire. In order of merit the six categories each had a monetary reward that went with it. All six were in the form of a golden crown that you could wear for the rest of your life.

We have in the scripture, not six of the crowns, but three listed for believers. There is the crown of righteousness for the fulfilment of the plan of God in the Church Age [in other words for advancing from gate four to gate eight]. There is the crown of life for passing all of the momentum tests as you go from gate four to gate eight. And there is the crown of glory, a decoration for pastors, evangelists and faithful communicators of the Word of God.

There used to be a phrase among fundamentalist Christians about living your life in the light of eternity. Of course it is a very sound concept, a very doctrinal principle, that while we are living a day at a time as per the mandates of our Lord, we are also to live with eternity in mind. That is exactly what we have in verse 10 with regard to the judgment seat of Christ.

There are three crowns mentioned in the Word of God. The first one is the crown of righteousness, 2 Timothy 4:7,8. The corrected translation of verse 7 is as follows: “I have fought an honourable fight [a reference to the advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere. It refers to going from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. It indicates that the apostle Paul has attained spiritual maturity at gate eight], I have completed the course [the fulfilment of God’s plan for his life], I have retained the doctrine [not ‘I have kept the faith’. And it refers to perception and application of doctrine resulting in the construction of the ECS]:”

Verse 8, “In the future [reference to the judgment seat of Christ] a crown of righteousness is reserved for me, which crown the Lord, the righteous evaluator, will award me on that day: ...”

The crown of righteousness is awarded to the believer who executes the plan of God during the Church Age.

“ … and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved his appearance [the appearance of Christ at the Rapture].”

The second crown is the crown of life, the one which is mentioned in Revelation 2:10. This crown is related to momentum testing. Momentum testing is only for those believers who are advancing, those believers who are taking in doctrine. The believer who faces momentum testing inside the divine dynasphere accelerates his advance to gate eight. There are two biblical references made to this second crown, James 1:12 which says, “Happy is the individual who perseveres under testing: for he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who consistently love him [referring to our life inside the divine dynasphere].” The second reference is found in Revelation 2:10. So the crown of life is actually a martyrs decoration and reward and also an eternal decoration for those believers who remain in the divine dynasphere under the greatest pressures of life, and advance to maturity in times of historical disaster or historical downtrend.

Note that both the crown of righteousness and the crown of life are preceded by some form of dying grace, and that includes martyrdom. Therefore both crowns or decorations awarded to believers in eternity and believers whose priorities are so linked with Bible doctrine that in time of disaster, pressure or heartache of any kind, doctrine is more real to them than the actual suffering which they endure. And they do not compromise their doctrine or their stand or their love of the Lord because of some pressure.

The third crown is the crown of glory. This eternal decoration is given to pastors who not only reach maturity through their own personal residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, but who through faithful teaching of the Word lead others to spiritual maturity. The crown of glory belongs primarily to the pastor; firstly the apostles, and to the evangelists and prophets who taught the Word of God before the canon was completed, and afterward to the pastors. No pastor can lead his congregation, however, beyond his own stage of growth. In other words, as they would say in Rome, “No man can transfer to others rights more extensive than that which he possesses.” Therefore it behoves the pastor to get cracking and get to maturity as rapidly as possible in order to lead the way; not by example, but by content of doctrine.

Philippians 4:1, “Therefore, my brethren, loved [impersonal love] and deeply desired ones [positive believers living in the divine dynasphere], my happiness and my crown ...” Paul recognises those listening to him and advancing to maturity as his crown, the crown of glory; “in this way [residence in the divine dynasphere] keep on being stabilised by the Lord ...”

1 Thessalonians 2:19,20, “For who is our hope [confidence], or happiness, or crown of boasting? Is it not you [mature believers] in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ [the judgment seat of Christ] at his coming? For you are our glory ...”

1 Peter 5:4, “And when the chief Shepherd appears [the Rapture of the Church], you will receive the unfading crown of glory ..” In the context he is talking to pastors.

Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unjust to disregard your occupation [of pastor-teacher], also the love which you yourselves demonstrated toward his person [learning Bible doctrine in the divine dynasphere and teaching it to the congregation], having ministered doctrine to the saints, and continuing such ministry.”

There are certain rewards mentioned in the scripture that do not belong to the royal family of God. They actually belong to believers of other dispensations. For example, the reward of cities in Luke 19:12-26, or Abraham’s special city, the new Jerusalem, which is mentioned as a reward in Hebrews 11:9,10,13,16 and Revelation 21:2,10,11. There is the harvest analogy in Matthew 13:3-9, 18-33, for Old Testament believers.

There is another type of reward called “ruling with God,” referring to believers of this dispensation, the Church. We are royal family of God, we are designed to rule. We are designed to rule in eternity, we are designed by logistical grace to rule. There are a number of approaches to ruling:

The first is the a fortiori approach of Romans 5:17, “For if by the transgression of one [Adam’s original sin] spiritual death ruled through that one; much more they who receive in life the surplus from grace [the exploitation of logistical grace is parleyed into supergrace — surplus of grace] and the gift of righteousness [imputed righteousness], much more they shall rule through that one, Jesus Christ.” Those who exploit logistical grace inside the divine dynasphere are going to rule with Christ.

There is a sarcastic approach, 1 Corinthians 4:8. Paul says to the Corinthian Christians who are in the cosmic system: “You are already filled, you already have become rich, you have become kings without us: [and then he adds sarcastically] how I wish you really had become kings, so that we also might rule with you.” Now the truth of the matter of that sarcasm is very simple. The Corinthians, on the course they had already charted, were going to have no rulership in heaven, whereas Paul is going to be one of the greatest of rulers.

There is the approach from the standpoint of eternal security, 2 Timothy 2:12: “If we endure [residence and function in the divine dynasphere] we shall also rule [has to do with reward at the judgment seat of Christ].”

From the standpoint of Rapture hymnology, Revelation 5:10, “And you have made them a kingdom, even priests to our God, and they will rule on earth.”

In addition to this there are rewards related to historical trends for those who had maximum impact to historical uptrends in their life in the divine dynasphere and the resultant momentum. We have just noted the crown of life in Revelation 2:10 which is a reward related to historical trends. Momentum testing is related to historical trends in the client nation. As a result of passing persecution testing mature believers prepared the way for one of the greatest missionary movements in all of history.

Next coming up is the hidden manna and the white stone with a name on it. Actually there are seven different rewards related to historical uptrends.

There are certain historical trends that are very interesting and certain parallels between Rome as a client nation to God and the USA. For example, Rome started out as a city and then the seven hills and the amalgamation of the two races that lived on four of those hills, the Villanovans and the Sabines. From there the amalgamation included the Etruscans who came along. First Rome was a city and then it began to reach out and grab the races around it: the Italic people, the Latins as they are sometimes called, the Gauls, etc. In other words, Rome as a nation was an amalgamation of races, it was never one race. It was actually held together by its law. When people wanted to become Roman citizens it was because it was an improvement of their lot. Therefore they left their culture behind and adopted Roman culture which was based on law an order. Later on Rome would adopt Greek culture and that would be the basis for all western European civilisation. It was not Greece that brought us western European civilisation, it was Rome with its law and order. Eventually, Roman citizens numbered every race and every kind of person, but the thing that pulled them together was their respect for Roman law, their respect for Roman economy, their respect for Rome’s administration of the law. And they were unicultural: one culture, and out of one culture eventually came Christianity. There were many religions in the Roman empire but Christianity eventually dominated as the most important because, after all, without Christianity there is no such thing as civilisation. Christianity embraces every brilliant philosophy and every false system of philosophy and tolerates what is false and accepts what is true.

Now we face a problem today where we are about to destroy ourselves as client nation. We have tolerated the wrong things — cultures that are decadent, cultures that have destroyed people. There never was a black culture in Africa which ever protected the Africans and when the Africans come here they should want our culture, our system. For it is our system and our culture which allows blacks to live like kings here. In Africa they would be just someone else in the bush. So we have here now a black culture and a Hispanic culture, etc. In the Roman empire the Gauls and the Germanic people couldn’t wait to learn Latin, to enter into the culture of something they recognised as superior to their own. And no nation has ever survived the toleration of all the cultures of decadence that come in, and we won’t either. When people come in and say, “You must accept my culture”, that is arrogance, and that type of arrogance demands that instead of a unilingual language which is universally taught in schools that it must be their language which is taught because they say, “We are not going to learn yours” .There should never be tolerated anything but English being taught in the schools as far as teaching — all communication in English. Why? English is the language of the Anglo-Saxon culture, English is the language of law and order, English is the language of the Protestant ethic, English is the language of prosperity, not Spanish. People south of the border are starving to death, they are victims of every kind of evil and their language hasn’t improved their situation a bit. People have come here from Vietnam and they have learned the language because they know it is a better place to be. But it is better because of the Protestant ethic. Those who know European history know the story. The Heugenots brought prosperity to France — the Protestant ethic, free enterprise. Then when they were kicked out through the revocation of the edict of Nants they went to Switzerland and Switzerland became prosperous. They went to north Germany and north Germany became the centre of prosperity from the last century into this one. They went to England and in England there was the same prosperity. They went to the United States and everywhere where the Protestant ethic went there was capitalism, there was free enterprise, and if you had what it took you could make it. That isn’t true any more because of the welfare state and socialism which is anti-Christian and anti-sanity. Japan is a nation which has done well. Why? One culture is acceptable in Japan. And if you went to Japanese schools you learned to speak Japanese!

Does that tell you something? We have created out of great potential American scum in all races, in all categories — white scum, black scum, yellow scum, brown scum — and it always is done through socialism, through the welfare state, through that evil concept of redistribution of wealth. That is where we are in our historical trends in these United States today. And the tragic thing is that we have yet to recognise our problem, we have yet to recognise the difference between freedom and what it means. Freedom is destroyed by tolerating many cultures — freedom is destroyed, respect for law is destroyed. These people do not come in respecting our laws, except in rare cases, they come into the United States because they recognise they have bettered their situation.

Therefore, when you come to this country you are no longer white, or black, or brown of skin. Your colour is no issue. You are no longer whatever your background was, you are in the United States and there is one culture and only one. But we have departed from that attitude because the same thing that destroyed the Roman republic is destroying the United States. We have opened the franchise and allowed people to vote who have no interest in this country or the understanding of it. We have opened the franchise to immigrants who understand nothing of this country. What is an American? There is no such thing as defining an American by race. We aren’t a race. We are like Rome, we are a large group of races. When Julius Caesar took in the Gauls and others as citizens he shocked Rome but it was the beginning of the greatness of Rome because they were taken in on the basis of Roman culture. There is no racial issue in this country, it is a created issue for evil politicians to exploit black people, brown people, Vietnamese people, etc. There is no race, there is no issue with colour. These are false issues that have been created and all they have done is to produce arrogance so that people say, “My race has been maltreated here.” But their race has in fact had the best opportunity it has ever had. Who are these people we are catering to who say they are the downtrodden? People are only downtrodden because they are the products of their own decisions, they have made decisions to be downtrodden.

Now we move to a principle which is the background for all of these rewards. These great decorations and rewards which come to those who glorify the Lord, who fulfil the plan of God, who reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, they all are based on a principle, temporal and eternal security. Once you decide to believe in Jesus Christ you enter the plan of God and you can’t get out — that’s phase one. Inside the plan of God there are many options. Good options result in opening the door for greater options. Inside the plan of God are the opportunities for bad decisions. Bad decisions destroy the options and make your life miserable (there are various types of divine discipline). And, of course, in eternity there are degrees of reward. You can make wrong decisions all of your life as a Christian, you will be miserable, but no matter how many wrong decisions you make you cannot lose your eternal salvation. So we have temporal security, the principle of logistical grace supplied, and we have eternal security, the principle of the saving work of God applied.

So we now move from the principle of rewards and decorations at the judgment seat of Christ plus the tremendous degrees of happiness and prosperity which are provided in time, and we move to the ones who fail. Security orientation from life and momentum in the divine dynasphere is the principle. The basis for temporal security — verse 11a: “He who has an ear.”

We begin with the articular present active participle from the verb e)xw, which means to have. The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and refers to the fact that believers in Jesus Christ are equipped from the moment of salvation to understand Bible doctrine, regardless of academic ability or human IQ. The present tense is a static present representing a circumstance — having ears — which is assumed as perpetually existing. The active voice: the believer produces the action, the participle is circumstantial. The accusative singular direct object from the noun o)uj, which means an ear, follows. The ear represents the grace system for perception of Bible doctrine. All kinds of people have ears and can hear, no one earns or deserves the right to have ears. The whole point of having ears means volition. You have free will; you have your own volition; you can choose to hear or not to hear. “He who has an ear,” then, refers to the principle of grace perspicacity. God has provided a grace system for the perception of Bible doctrine, a system where IQ is not the issue, only positive volition and the daily use of positive volition fulfilling the principle of residence and function in the divine dynasphere. God in His matchless grace has provided through logistical grace everything necessary to perpetuate momentum in the spiritual life.

Next, the mandate: the aorist active imperative of the verb a)kouw, which means let us hear. And in the imperative mood it is a command, it is a mandate for the Christian life. You must use your own free will for or against doctrine. If you use it for you will expose yourself to doctrinal teaching. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a fact extended over a period of time, the taking in of Bible doctrine, the residence in the divine dynasphere, God’s power system, God’s game plan for the Church Age. The active voice: this is a third person suffix of the verb and indicates that the positive believer living in the divine dynasphere produces the action although the mandate belongs to all Christians. And the accusative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij indicates the object of hearing doctrine, correctly translated “what sort of thing [the categories Bible doctrine].”

Then we have the nominative neuter singular subject from pneuma, referring to the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. And it relates to the function of gate one of the divine dynasphere. Then we have the present active indicative of the verb legw, which here means to communicate. The customary present tense is for what habitually occurs when the believer resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere and is positive toward the teaching of Bible doctrine. Such Bible doctrine can only be learned and applied under the status of the filling of the Spirit who is the teacher of doctrine. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb teaching positive believers under the ministry of their pastor, as per John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. Apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit there is no perception of Bible doctrine. The only legitimate area for the use of divine power in perception of Bible doctrine, the fulfilment of the plan of God, the production of the Christian life, the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ and, inevitably, the ultimate in happiness in time, is the ministry of the Spirit; all of these depend upon gate one or the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Next we have the dative plural indirect object from the noun e)kklhsia, which is the classroom for learning Bible doctrine, correctly translated “churches.” It refers to the local church. All teaching is conducted inside the classroom of the local church and the congregation functions as students without portfolio. The minister is the teacher, therefore his authority as the pastor must be linked with the higher authority of Bible doctrine which is the mind of Christ — 1 Cor. 2:16. This is a dative of indirect object, it indicates the ones — believers assembled in the local church — in whose interest the act of teaching doctrine is performed. Therefore it is a dative of advantage, it is to your advantage to hear and to absorb Bible doctrine. Consequently the greatest decisions in life are those positive decisions made toward Bible doctrine. These decisions are related to your priorities in life, whatever they happen to be. If Bible doctrine is number one in your scale of values then you are positive toward doctrine. In other words, the believer is equipped through logistical grace to understand Bible doctrine but he must use his own volition or free will to learn the Word of God.

Furthermore, the perception of Bible doctrine properly relates to the function of freedom and security. Freedom is the origin of all true security in life and therefore the function of freedom must be directed toward the divine mandates regarding residence and function in the divine dynasphere.

Degeneracy has many forms and is always a functional evil. All degeneracy starts with arrogance. Arrogance is a part of gate one, cosmic one, and preoccupation with self when carried out leads to psychosis, neurosis, and many other things. It also results in the principle that we are the products of our own decisions and an arrogant nation is a self-destructive nation. But you never begin actually by just suddenly breaking through all barriers and moving into degeneracy. Instead there is a thought pattern which comes first.

In time of degeneracy the public is especially bad. They vacillate very easily. And very quickly they become a weapon in the hands of the demagogue. But there is a way in which this can be corrected and in which you can think for yourself. But you have to go back and take a look at the only perfect person who has ever been on this earth: our Lord Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union, manifest to His own country, “he came unto his own and his own received him not.” Certainly one of the greatest demonstrations of historical fickleness is related to our Lord Jesus Christ and how easy it was to arouse the crowds against Him. The more truth He gave and the more He was right, the more the people in power demonstrated great vacillation and fickleness. And once you become aware of this historical trend it is very easy to become discouraged by it. But there is always a factor, a factor related to Bible doctrine, a factor related to truth which can turn it all around and bring stability into the life and crystallise your opinions and your standards and your priorities. And that is, of course, the remembering of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the communion table is, the recalling of who and what Christ is. It is a stabilising factor for those who have Bible doctrine because it calls upon them to use their concentration, the same concentration used in the perception of doctrine, the same concentration which is used in any facet of life. The concentration is required for remembering our Lord Jesus Christ. Memory is a concentration effort just as prayer is a concentration effort.

Perception of doctrine properly relates to the function of freedom to security. Freedom is the origin for true security in life, and therefore, the function of freedom must be directed toward the divine mandates regarding residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The security of believers begins at the point of salvation through faith in Christ. At that moment they receive two categories of security: eternal security related to the possession of eternal salvation as a work of God and guarantee that we shall spend eternity in the presence of God; temporal security which is related to the imputation of divine righteousness, forming a grace pipeline for the flow of logistical grace support. The believer cannot earn, deserve, merit or work for either category of security. People often relate security to happiness or a change of circumstances instead of to freedom, and that is a disaster.

Believers are the products of their own decisions, like all other members of the human race. Therefore, decisions to live inside the divine dynasphere provide that confidence in God as a motivating virtue — which also brings to us awareness of security — while decisions to live in the cosmic system do not actually cancel the security but they do cancel our awareness of both temporal and eternal security. Therefore the result is that instability, that vacillation, that insecurity, which comes from trading freedom for a system of false security. The philosophy of the cosmic system and the welfare state, socialism and communism. Socialism offers pseudo security instead of genuine freedom. God has not overlooked the believer’s security but freedom is the true issue in the angelic conflict.

Verse 11b, we start out with the articular present active participle from the verb nikaw, which means to be a winner, to be victorious, to conquer, to overcome. It should be translated winner, or he who is victorious. The definite article is a nominative masculine singular and is used as a personal pronoun in the subject. The present tense is a perfective present for a fact which has come to be in the past: initial entrance into the divine dynasphere at the point of salvation and, of course, is now emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the believer in the Church Age and/or the royal family produces the action of the verb — being a winner.

In the previous Church — Ephesus, in chapter 2:7 — the emphasis was on perpetuation of the Christian life in the divine dynasphere resulting in momentum and maturity, and therefore reward in eternity. But here the emphasis is on the initial victory at salvation when the believer enters the divine dynasphere, because not only is he a winner for the moment but at the same time he receives something he can never lose. He can’t throw it away by wrong decisions. Wrong decisions have a great deal to do with failure in life, and great unhappiness and misery, but you can make wrong decisions as a Christian all of your life and you still do not lose your salvation.

For the mature believer of Smyrna the reward is a decoration called the crown of life. Victory over the cosmic system begins at salvation with that initial entry into gate one, the filling of the Spirit. At that moment the believer in this dispensation has received 40 things from God, he has come under the support of logistical grace, and he resides in the driver’s seat inside the divine dynasphere. This initial point of victory over the cosmic system at the point of salvation is also described in 1 John 3:9, which says that at the moment when anyone is born from God — salvation through faith in Christ — he is not sinning, because his seed — God the Holy Spirit — keeps residing in it [the divine dynasphere]. Furthermore he is not able to sin [i.e. inside the divine dynasphere. He is able to sin all right but any decision to sin moves him outside of the divine dynasphere]. And the reason he is not able to sin is because he has been born from God, he is in the divine dynasphere. To sin he has to step outside. Perpetuating residence in the divine dynasphere for the believer, then, is a matter of one of two things: resistance of temptation from the old sin nature residing in the body or having sinned and consequently having become involved in the cosmic system to use the rebound technique. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere is God’s game plan for the Church Age believer and this is the power system He has provided for our weaknesses.

Then we have the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb a)dikew, which also has with it the strongest possible negative you can have — o)u plus mh. Mh ordinarily goes with the subjunctive mood; o)u goes with the indicative mood but is used here in combination with mh to form an extremely strong negative. A double negative in the Greek is a stronger negative; the double negative in the English is a positive. We will translate that then, “shall not ever be hurt [injured or damaged].” The gnomic aorist tense is for a doctrine, the doctrine of eternal security, so absolute and so certain as to be axiomatic in character. The passive voice, plus the double negative o)u mh, emphasises the fact that the believer cannot ever receive the action of the verb because of eternal security. The mature believer, then, under martyrdom, dies under the principle of dying grace. The believer can only die once. Whether he dies under dying grace or the sin unto death — judgment, divine discipline for failure — the fact remains he cannot lose his salvation.

It is not possible to lose your salvation. This is stated with the prepositional phrase in terms of the lake of fire — e)k plus the ablative of means from the adjective deuteroj plus qanatoj.

Altogether it means, “shall not ever be hurt, injured or damaged by the second death.”

The concept of death …

What is the second death? Obviously if there is a second death somewhere there is a first death. If there is a first and second death there may be more deaths and, of course, there are. There are seven deaths which are found in the Bible:

a. Physical death or the first death of the human race. It is defined as the separation of the soul from the body so that the person involved no longer lives on planet earth. But such death cannot separate the believer from God — Romans 8:38,39. Physical death is a matter of God’s sovereign decision as to when to take us home to be with Himself, Psalm 68:19,20. But God can and does prolong physical life on the earth and Psalm 102:19,20,23,24 tell us the whole story. God also delivers the believer from death many times before he dies, Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 56:13; 116:8. The believer who attains maturity departs from life under the principle of having wonderful death, death is the greatest experience of his life, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his mature ones.” Psalm 23:4, “Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil”. Resurrection is the victory over death, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57. All of this adds up to the fact that there is a first death and all of us will face it apart from resurrection, the Rapture may occur and will occur before one group or generation actually dies physically.

Security belongs to both the winners and the losers in the Christian life. All of the way through this historical trend dissertation in Revelation 2 & 3 are a tremendous amount of security phrases. What is the meaning of these security phrases? We have a doctrine called “temporal security” as well as “eternal security.” While people are struggling and scrounging, vainly often, to find some kind of security, if they are where the Lord wants them to be they couldn’t be more secure. The way to be secure is to stay in the divine dynasphere, and when you get out of the divine dynasphere you have rejected the wall of fire where there is no place you are secure. In the second chapter of Revelation we discover that our life is not dependent upon social interaction, the functions of governments, the functions of Satan who would like to remove believers for obvious reasons — they foul up his administration. We are perfectly secure. Verse 11 is addressed to people who have failed as well as to people who have succeeded but they are still winners in the sense of security.

Physical death is a part of the security package. The security package started at the moment you believed in Christ. It includes dying. You are going to die in the way that the Lord wants you to, so what is your concern? It also indicates that whether you fail or succeed you are going to be in heaven. And, furthermore, even the worst failure, after he dies physically, gets an interim body and a great interlude of happiness before the resurrection. We have a perfect security package and there is no reason, then, for fear. It is mandated that we are not to fear. There is reason to fear if you like to live in the cosmic system and you like to ignore the Word of God. Then it is inevitable that you will be frightened, but there is no way that you can have any fear once you understand a principle: failures are just as much under the security package as winners.

Physical death is defined as the separation of the soul and the spirit from the physical body so that the person involved no longer lives on planet earth. The fact that we have a soul means that we will live forever, either in the lake of fire or in heaven. And such death cannot separate the believer from God. Death does not mean separation from God, on the contrary it means coming face to face with God in an interim body. Physical death is a matter of God’s sovereign decision, and God knows better than we do what we should have. We make all of the decisions up to the moment of our dying but the Lord makes that one. The Lord knows best for each one of us.

The second death in the Bible has nothing to do with physical death, it is spiritual death. It is something we all had at birth; it is a type of death that accompanies life while we are alive. Since the moment we became alive we have had spiritual death. Spiritual death is the penalty of sin. And given as a warning to our original parents in the garden — Genesis 2:17, they were told that “dying they would die.” That means that eventually they would have physical death but long before physical death they would suffer spiritual death. At the moment of birth we have a death called spiritual death, the imputation of Adam’s original sin to the genetically formed old sin nature. We are born physically alive and spiritually dead. The sign of that death is the existence of the old sin nature, genetically formed in the body and controlling the soul when we sin.

The solution to spiritual death is stated in Romans 6:23: to believe in Jesus Christ. That is why we are said to be born again. When we were born physically we received human life imputed to the soul. We received Adam’s original sin imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. When we are born the second time we receive the imputation of divine righteousness and eternal life is imputed to the human spirit. Being born again is solving the problem of spiritual death. So our personal sins were never imputed to us for condemnation but imputed to Christ on the cross, as per 1 Peter 2:24 and Isaiah 53:6.

The third death is positional death of the believer. This has to do with something which happens at salvation: God the Holy Spirit entering us into union with Christ, which we call positional truth. It is defined as identification with Christ and it is defined two ways: retroactive positional truth identifies us with Christ in His death; current positional truth identifies us with Christ in His resurrection. So we have a type of death that is actually retroactive positional truth and it means that through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation the believer is identified with Christ in His death. In His death Christ was judged for our sins but He rejected both human good and evil. Human good and evil are a great part of Satan’s plan for administering the rulership of this world. Our Lord rejected human good, He didn’t bear human good on the cross, He didn’t even bear our evil, only that part of evil that relates to sin. He was judged for our sins only and since we are identified with Christ in His death we as believers must reject and separate ourselves from human good and evil, and we do this by obeying the mandates of residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. There is no human good and there is no evil (and actually no sin) inside the divine dynasphere with its eight gates. All sin, all evil, and all human good is associated with cosmic one and the 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, and cosmic two and the 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred. So the positional death of the believer is a very important concept.

Retroactive positional truth or positional death is identification with Christ in His death where He was judged for our sins, where He rejected human good and evil, the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. Therefore we can only sin outside the divine dynasphere and only produce human good and evil inside the cosmic system. Therefore all personal sin places us immediately inside the cosmic system.

Furthermore, the next category of death is cosmic death, the believer involved in the cosmic system. This is the same as carnality or reversionism. It is the function of the believer’s volition converting temptation into sin. Whether the believer knows that he is being tempted or not is not even the issue. The real issue is: Does he want to do it? And whether it is a sin of ignorance or a sin of cognisance he still wanted to do it and he is responsible. The decision automatically places the believer inside of the cosmic system — physically alive but said to be dead in such passages as James 1:15.

The next type of death is the production of dead works. This category combines the arrogance of Christian service at gate 21 of cosmic one with the function of human good at gate nine of cosmic two. In other words, Christian production is dead if it is performed inside the cosmic system.

There is also a category called sexual death, only found in two passages both of which deal with Abraham, Romans 4:17-21; Hebrews 11:11-12.

The seventh death is the “second death,” the one we have in verse 11. This death is for the unbeliever only. It is the final judgment for the unbeliever, the one who has rejected Jesus Christ as saviour. It is eternal separation from God and its locale is the lake of fire. The lake of fire does not exist now. There is a hell but it is a part of Hades, and there is a difference between Hades and the lake of fire. The lake of fire is found in the judgment of Hebrews 9:27. It is so described in Revelation 20:12-15. The lake of fire is the second death.

There is one other death, the sin unto death, which is maximum discipline for the believer.

Verses 12-17 have to do with the church at Pergamos. This was a great church in a most unusual city.

We have the connective use of the conjunction kai, indicating that we are continuing our subject of historical trends but we are moving to a different locale. It is followed by the dative singular, definite article, toi. The generic use of the definite article is used for a category known as the second estate, the clergy — pastors of the local churches. Any kind of communicating profession always has those who communicate the truth and those who do not, those who distort the truth and those who do not. And it is very important for us to understand a principle here. We have good reporters and bad reporters in the news media, we have good clergymen and bad clergymen. You have those who teach what is truth and those who teach what is false; you have those who teach what is slanted in both. And if you get rid of the news simply because you have people who falsify it you also get rid of any system of freedom in communication. That means you also get rid of the clergy. Rather, the point is: Let’s learn the truth so that we can recognise what is false and what is slanted, and discern. Freedom demands discernment. That is our first principle and it comes from a definite article. Discern what is true, and to do that you must have the truth. If you desire the truth, the truth is available: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” You have to discern where clergymen are concerned. The whole basis of the fact that men stand up in pulpits and teach what is false and men stand up in pulpits and teach what is true doesn’t change the principle: you have the right of discernment. Discernment is based upon your own scale of values and your knowledge of Bible doctrine. Therefore, the key is to learn the truth and the truth makes you free to discern. Therefore, you do not abolish communication systems just because they falsify information. Instead you discern what is true and what is false. You are always going to have the true and the false standing side by side and the point is not to destroy what is false but to recognise it and reject it. In any generation where you have a large number of people who understand truth and reject what is false you always have a great historical period. When you don’t have that you have confusion. But it is far better to have freedom and confusion than no freedom and the lie — dictatorship.

Next we have the dative singular, indirect object from the noun a)ggeloj. This word can be transliterated “angel,” in which case we are talking about a super creature. But we are talking here about human beings. It means “messenger,” used here for a technical messenger — future pastors of Pergamos. The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the act is performed — the future pastors in the city of Pergamos. The dative of advantage also has in view the advantage to the local church of having a local pastor in residence: face to face teaching, or nonresidence. Believers cannot learn doctrine without a communicator of doctrine who is in the business of communicating; a pastor-teacher by gift, by preparation, by academics, and by everything that is necessary to communicate doctrine and to go into the original languages and separate the wheat from the chaff, the true from the false.

Then we have the genitive singular of relationship from the noun e)kklhsia, which refers to local churches, not denominations. You have to remember that this was the first century when this was written and for three centuries thereafter you have local churches, like at Pergamos. Believers had fellowship as they travelled back and forth but they never formed a denomination. And you have to remember that there was no such things as the words “Catholic” and “Protestant” as we know them today until the seventeenth century and thereafter. The e)kklhsia was simply a classroom where people learned doctrine, and all believers throughout the Roman empire, and everywhere else there were believers, gathered to learn doctrine. When we talk about the church here we are talking about the church as a classroom where Bible doctrine was taught.

“in Pergamos,” e)n plus the locative of Pergamum. And then we have the mandate to the apostle John, the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, which means write. The culminative aorist tense views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety, but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, plus the encouragement of future pastors to study and to teach the content of the Word of God. The active voice: the apostle John, under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is an order, a command.

It will be noted by now that we have taken up three cities, Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamos, so it is time to look at isagogics again with regard to the Roman empire at this time. The first principle is the urban interpretation of Roman history. Rome as an agricultural country was a republic; Rome as an urban nation was an empire.

1. What is often categorised as the Roman empire is really not an empire at all. It is really an association of large cities, and these cities were made up of all races, of all peoples, and everything but nations. Rome as an empire was an association of cities, large and small.

2. Without the Greek civilisation (the Greek civilisation of city states) preceding the Romans there would have been no Roman empire. There was a Roman republic but there never would have been a Roman empire apart from the Greek civilisation of city states.

3. Roman civilisation became an urban civilisation for the city of the Roman empire was its important entity. What does that tell us? The same thing it tells us about the USA and her manifest destiny. The south was an agricultural area; the north was industrial. Where do you get your large cities? From industry. The north had the large cities, the south was agricultural — landed aristocracy. Once the war between the states was settled the US began to prosper because the undeveloped frontier was an area of townships, ranches, farms, and so on. What is it all today? One of the major parts of the undeveloped frontier is now a state of large cities — California. But the greater the urban development the more is the dependence upon the farmer. No urbanised civilised has ever survived the loss of water and food. Roman government got into the business of water and food and through the genius of Caesar and the system he set up, Rome had for 450 years, water and food. And the empire was an association of cities. All of the churches were located in cities, there was no country church in the Roman empire. 4. The cities were to the Roman empire what cities and states are to the USA. Cities were permitted and encouraged to manage their own affairs. One thing about the Roman empire: they had literally thousands of cities in the empire and they allowed the citizens of the city to manage their own affairs. That was Caesar’s idea. They had provincial governors acting as a general supervisor in large cities like Ephesus. The population of the Roman empire considered themselves citizens of the city and thus they lost racial identity and racial prejudice. Therefore, a person considered himself an Alexandrian, and Athenian, a Corinthian, a Philippian, etc. They were all races and of different colours of skin but they were all citizens of their city and they just simply had no racial prejudice. In other words, the conquests of Alexander the Great and the consequent Hellenistic monarchies paved the way for the Roman empire to be an association of cities. Rome became the master of a galaxy of cities which flourished in Hellenistic times.

Rome was not an empire as we understand empires. It was simply an association of prosperous cities, free trade between thousands of cities. On one side the Atlantic, on the other side the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, all of the way up to Hadrian’s wall and all of the way south to the Sahara desert. That large chunk of the world had thousands of cities and they traded — free trade — and prosperity was fantastic. Capitalism was the order of the day and people were prosperous everywhere.

And, of course, it was related to the rise of Christianity. The state of the cities plus their prosperity was the index for the condition of the Roman empire, and when something went wrong with the cities the empire went down; when the cities prospered the empire went up. Obviously the cities are necessary for the existence stability of local churches where Bible doctrine was taught, and the cities became prominent in the Roman empire. In those cities you have large groups of people together, like the apostle Paul, the apostle John, and Peter and many others. What did they do? They went to cities where there were populations and they evangelised in those cities. They did missionary work inside the Roman empire which would eventuate in the Roman empire being a strong client nation to God and a base for missionary activity outside the Roman empire to the entire world.

So there were local churches where Bible doctrine was taught and a maximum number of mature believers in any of these cities caused an uptrend in SPQR.

What held the Roman empire together, then, was the triumph of Christianity. Christianity was in the cities, and while in the rural populations they would cling to the ancient religions, generally in all the large cities Christianity became the factor. The country folk had to come to the cities to participate in their religious worship and in the cities they were evangelised. This means that the great conflict existed in the cities of the empire. There was a conflict between the Bible doctrine of the divine dynasphere and the religious and philosophical traditions of the cosmic system. Christianity took over the cities of Rome eventually through evangelism, through Bible teaching, through the functions of the Word of God.

Pergamos was one of the more important cities in the Roman province of Asia along. of course, with Ephesus and Smyrna. It was north of Smyrna and three miles from the river which flowed into the Agean sea 15 miles further on. The early people of the city were the descendants of Greek colonists who intermarried with the Myceans. Lysimachus took over the city after the death of Alexander the Great and he deposited there nine thousand talents of gold which was the basis of turning the city into a great area later on in the Roman empire. After the death of Lysimachus there was a garrison commander there by the name of Philaterias who took over the control of the city from the garrison. He ruled the city for twenty years from 283 to 263 BC and he used the wealth that had been deposited there and established an independent Greek dynasty called the dynasty of the Attalids. In founding this particular dynasty he began one of the smartest groups of rulers in the ancient world. He was succeeded by his nephew Eumenes who became the first king of Pergamos. Eumenes increased the power of the small city state and made a nation out of it, so it became the nation of Pergamum. He even defeated the Seleucid empire, the same empire that tried to overrun Israel. His successor, Attalus the First, defeated the Gauls from the kingdom of Galatia who like the Seleucids tried to overrun this kingdom. So one thing about the freedom of this kingdom: it was based upon military victory. They never lost their freedom during the rule of the Attalids. And so it was Attalus who correctly interpreted the history of his own generation by foreseeing the rise of the Roman republic, and he did another thing: the Roman republic looked to him like the nation of the future so he made an alliance with Rome and he made sure that Pergamum was always on the side of Rome in the politics of the Mediterranean. The influence as a result of this was fantastic. The Roman republic came to power and Pergamum rode in with them on their coat tails. The kingdom of Pergamum reached its peak under Eumenes the Second, the ruler from 197-159 BC. He was succeeded by his brother who took the title of Attalus the Second. He held the rulership until Eumenes’ son was old enough to take over and then we have Eumenes the Third. He ruled from 138-133 BC. He died leaving behind a very powerful small nation and in his will he made Rome his heir, he had no legitimate son. And a smarter move never occurred because now the Romans took over the protection of this city. And the Romans never forgot the fact and always gave preferential treatment to Pergamum.

At the time of writing Pergamos was the medical centre of the Roman empire. It was a royal residence; it was a very famous university town. It was also the centre for the phallic cult in that part of the world. In addition to the manufacture of its parchment Pergamos was famous for its pottery, its tapestries, and the greatest perfumes in the Roman empire. It was also a big source for silver and therefore was a source of coinage for the Roman empire.

Verse 12b, “These things saith.” The present active indicative of legw, which means to speak, to communicate, to say. The active voice: we will discover shortly that the subject is the Lord Jesus Christ. He produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

Next we have the accusative neuter plural, direct object from the demonstrative pronoun, o(dh. The demonstrative pronoun was used originally as an introductory formula for the Greek translation of the decrees of the Persian king. When Persia was a great empire they had many Greeks under the Persian king and the king so admired the Greeks that he always translated all of his laws immediately into Greek so that the Greeks would stay up to date with what he was thinking. And o(dh was the key word. This was the one that introduced the decrees; here it is used for introducing the commands, the decrees, the mandates, the will and the plan of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is used at this point as our Lord’s estimate of the situation of the church at Pergamos. All we have so far is a partial sentence — “Communicates these things,” legw plus o(dh.

Next we have a subject and it is the simple pronoun “he,” referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. We find that in the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw. The definite article is used as a personal pronoun to describe our Lord Jesus Christ as we have previously noted Him in Revelation 1:16. This is a descriptive present tense. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. We translate is then: “He who has.” The object of the participle is composed of six Greek words in the accusative case. Three are the definite article in the accusative form, thn. Then we have a couple of adjectives, o)zuj, which means very very sharp; distomoj, a composition of two words, di for two and stomoj for mouths. It is used for a double-edged sword, the Greek word r(omfaia referring to the famous Thracian broadsword. Translation: “He who has the sharp double-edged broadsword communicates these things.”

The broadsword is a reference to divine discipline of a nation or people through military disaster or something that causes death like violence, terrorism, crime, revolution, guerrilla warfare, conventional warfare. And the divine discipline is administered to believers living in the cosmic system and in some stage of reversion. If we do not use the laws of divine establishment to keep our house in order the Lord Jesus Christ will do it for us. In that way our Lord protects the local church where evangelism and Bible teaching is absolutely necessary. So divine discipline in the form of a double-edged broadsword is reserved for a society out of control and for believers in that society who are living in the cosmic system. In other words, it takes a lot of bad decisions to become the recipient of the sword of the Lord. Good decisions provide options for greater decisions and divine blessing in the divine dynasphere, but bad decisions related to the cosmic system destroy those options and result in the divine discipline of the sharp double-edged sword. The historical trend of disaster results from negative and bad decisions of the believer.

Principle

1. The believer’s decisions regarding doctrinal teaching determine the historical trends of a client nation.

2. The believer has a choice of being taught doctrine by his right pastor or the divine discipline of the double-edged broadsword, including violence, crime, terrorism, revolution, guerrilla warfare, conventional warfare, etc.

3. Should individual believers or the entire nation be devastated by the broadsword from the Lord in any of these specified forms, many would say immediately: “What a tragedy.”

4. But there are no tragedies in history, only disasters brought on by individual and collective decisions within a national entity.

5. Because we as a nation have rejected truth — the laws of divine establishment, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Bible doctrine — we become liable for discipline from the sharp double-edged broadsword. And that sword can be any form of terrorism, any form of violence, a rise in crime. Which means unrestrained crime, uncontrolled revolution, predatory dictatorships, vulnerability to international blackmail, victimisation by world-wide terrorism, and either humbled or destroyed by conventional, guerrilla or nuclear warfare. And there is an overriding statement to all of this: As goes the believer, so goes the client nation. A maximum number of believers in the divine dynasphere means blessing for the nation; a maximum number of believers in the cosmic system means divine punishment. The broadsword of historical disaster is a continuing historical trend until the second advent of Christ.

We have seen how the believer’s decisions regarding doctrinal teaching determined historical trends in the ancient world as well as today. The believer has a choice of being taught doctrine by his right pastor or divine discipline from the double-edged sword.

Verse 13, “thy works” is not found in the original Greek. But we do have the perfect o)ida used as the present active indicative for the omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ in the evaluation of the church at Pergamos before the evaluation material had become history. “I have known” is the way we will translate it. This phrase is based upon the doctrine of divine knowledge and the doctrine of divine decrees. The present tense of duration denotes what has begun in the past: the function of the omniscience of God in eternity past before man existed. The omniscience of God knew every thought, every motive, every action, every function of every person in history. And the omniscience of God entered that information into the computer of divine decrees. He also knew the alternatives, the things that didn’t happen but could have happened, had each individual made different decisions at different times. But it is the printout for Pergamos that is in view when He says: “I have known.” The active voice: Jesus Christ as eternal God produces the action of the verb. He always knew it, there never was a time when He didn’t. The indicative mood is declarative for an accurate assessment of the situation which contributes to the doctrine of historical trends.

Next we have the interrogative adverb, pou. This adverb is used in indirect questions and it is simply translated “where.” Location has to do with type of thought, the type of thought that you have finally developed whereby you are either a mature believer or you are a cosmic believer. In other words, like a piston being seated in a new engine. Then we have the present active indicative of the verb katoikew, which means residence. Translation so far: “I have (always) known where you live.” The present tense is a perfective present. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised now as a present reality. The active voice: believers in Pergamos produce the action of the verb. In effect it is saying to us: “I know where you live.” Billions and billions of years ago God knew all about us. The indicative mood is declarative, representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality.

Then we have the particle o(pou, which is the particle of place translated “where.” It is used in answer to indirect questions, presenting the divine viewpoint of Pergamos. Pergamos could go either way: it could become a place of historical disaster, a place of affliction, a place of pressure, or it could be a place of greatness.

And now we see what the big problem is: the nominative singular, o( qronoj, which means “the throne.” The throne is probably related to the famous altar of Zeus in Pergamos. There was in Pergamos a tremendous amount of idolatry and therefore this is where Satan’s throne was. The phallic cult, emperor worship, all of these things are a part of the modus operandi of the cosmic system. With this we have the possessive genitive of the noun satanaj, and it is a Greek transliteration from shatan of the Hebrew. It means enemy. With it we have the generic use of the definite article specifying a category, “where the throne of Satan is located.”

Principle: wherever the throne of Satan is there has to be a lot of idolatry and a lot of demonism.

1. Demonism is always associated with idolatry and Pergamos was saturated with idolatry. So Satan made his headquarters there. Satan, like all creatures, can be at one place at one time.

2. Pergamos was a centre for the phallic cult, as illustrated by the presence of the Nicolaitanes, but it wasn’t the worst place for the phallic cult. Here the cult which involved demon possession is apparently in the hands of male priests.

3. Furthermore, Satan worship or serpent worship was conducted in the temple of Esculapius.

4. Demon-motivated persecution of believers will be noted in the context.

5. What is more important is the fact that believers lived in the city which was the headquarters of Satan, and believers living in the divine dynasphere were as safe in this headquarters city for Satan as any place in heaven. Which means: living in a dangerous place is not necessarily dangerous. What is dangerous is living in the cosmic system, not your geographical location. Your security is related to your residence in the divine dynasphere, and inside the divine dynasphere there is safety even though you live in a dangerous place.

6. This establishes the fact that believers can live in perfect safety, in perfect security, in the most dangerous place in the world. But you can also live in the safest place and be in great danger all of the time if you are a cosmic resident. The wall of fire exists for residence in the divine dynasphere only. Safety and security is not where you are located but to whom you are related.

Now we have one of those unusual uses of the conjunction kai. God does not promise us freedom from adversity but He promises us the solution to adversity only inside the divine dynasphere. So we have the connective use of the conjunction kai emphasising an unexpected and noteworthy fact; it is translated “nevertheless.” And this “nevertheless,” what comes now, is very important with regard to your temporal security and your temporal safety. The present active indicative of kratew follows. It is not where you are, it is what you hang on to. Kratew means to hang on, to cling, to hold, to hold fast, to retain, to hold fast to someone so as to be closely united with him, to hold on to something that belongs to you. The Homeric Greek used kratew when it meant to possess power, and that brings us down very close to the meaning here. In Attic Greek the verb meant to rule, to win, to seize, to arrest, to imprison, to retain. Here it means to hold on,. to hold fast, to remain true or faithful. “Nevertheless, you hold on,” is the translation. The present tense of duration connotes what is begun in the past — residence in the divine dynasphere — and continues into the present with advance to maturity, gate eight. The active voice: mature believers and believers with momentum produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of mature believers living in Satan’s headquarters, right under his nose in Pergamos.

And then we have the accusative singular, direct object from the noun o)noma, which means both name and person. It refers to the person of Christ because of the possessive genitive from the pronoun e)gw, my name. “Nevertheless, you hold on to my name.” What does that mean? It means that right under the nose of Satan in Pergamos believers were advancing to maturity, they were passing momentum tests, they were constructing an ECS, and they were fulfilling the principle of occupation with the person of Christ. But to hold on means to be in the divine dynasphere where it all takes place, and as a result of residence and function in the divine dynasphere it indicates the fact of holding on to the name of our Lord, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. In Pergamos there was a pivot of mature believers right under Satan’s nose, and the Roman empire — the first Gentile client nation to God — was being sustained. And the point is that Satan is a genius, Satan is powerful, and he is the ruler of this world; so he is far greater and far more powerful than any of us as members of the human race. And with all of his power and all of his tremendous demon army believers did not leave the city of Pergamos because of problems or because Satan was there. Believers were not only living under Satan’s nose but were advancing to maturity, right there. That gives us some idea of the tremendous power of the divine dynasphere and the tremendous provision of logistical grace. In the midst of the evil of this city the plan of God advanced because positive believers resided and functioned inside of the divine dynasphere.

Pergamos was where the throne of Satan was at this time, and the amazing thing as that there were many believers who had advanced to maturity inside the divine dynasphere in Pergamos. This establishes the fact that a believer can live in perfect security in the most dangerous place in the world, provided he is living inside the divine dynasphere. As Satan’s headquarters Pergamos was the centre of all the religions of that time. The believer living in the divine dynasphere, however, was safe and secure. Believers living in the cosmic system were constantly subjected to persecution, torture, and death.

“and thou holdest fast my name.” No one can hold fast or remain true to the person of Christ apart from positive volition.

We have a connective conjunction kai used here as an expletive conjunction, translated “that is.” Then we have the aorist middle indicative of the verb a)rneomai, a word which means to deny, to refuse, to repudiate, to resist. The original meaning of the verb was to say, No. It describes a negative attitude toward something which here, of course, would be Bible doctrine. But with the negative it means, “You do not refuse,” or, “You do not reject.” The culminative aorist views positive volition in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results — the advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere. The direct middle voice is one in which the subject, believers in Pergamos, have advanced to maturity and participate in the outcome of the action. The indicative mood is declarative, representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute reality. With this we have the accusative singular, direct object, from the noun pistij. Pistij has numerous meanings. Some of these meanings are very simple, like the first one which is non-meritorious perception in an active sense. That is translated trust, confidence, or faith. It is also used as an attribute, hence faithfulness or reliability. It has a passive meaning, which is in view here, that which is believed — Bible doctrine.

Corrected translation of verse 13 so far: “I have known where you live, where the throne of Satan is located: nevertheless you hold fast to my name, that is, you do not refuse, reject or resist my doctrine.”

Principle

1. No one can stay inside the divine dynasphere `without being positive toward the teaching of the Word of God. It is impossible. No person can hold fast or remain true to the person of Christ apart from consistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine.

2. Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16, and is vitally necessary for the believer living in the hottest part of the battle field. Just as Pergamos, in 96 AD, was the hottest part of the battlefield so our own locale may be the hottest part of the battlefield today. But it is perfectly safe for the believer who is consistent in the perception of doctrine.

3. Without residence in the divine dynasphere and the consistent perception of doctrine the believer cannot survive in the devil’s world.

4. Negative volition toward Bible doctrine, as expressed in the verb a)rmeomai, is self-destructive to the life of the believer — spiritual life, social life, business or economic life, professional life, etc. The believer in the cosmic system is a fish out of water and there is no way that he can survive anything in life, in fact he will not, he will be destroyed by the ultimate punishment from God — the sin unto death.

5. The rejection of doctrine/negative volition is a guarantee that the believer will spend his life on earth inside the cosmic system, the slave to Satan. Satan offers many pleasures, many activities, but they are all dead ends. (Pleasure gives a fleeting moment of stimulation but it always winds up in frustration and a dead end and great misery. Misery is manufactured out of pleasures in life)

6. The cosmic believer has a miserable life as a Christian, both as the product of his own wrong decisions and the recipient of divine discipline, eventuating of course in the sin unto death.

7. All successful believers, or winners in the Christian life, function as a result of the gates of the divine dynasphere — Gate five: love of God; Gate six: right man, right woman; Gate seven: advanced impersonal love; Gate eight: the construction of the ECS and great maturity.

We are going to study a man whose name was Antipas, a man who is unknown apart from his name and apart from the few words that are written about him in the Word of God, but a man from whom we can understand from the standpoint of the Word of God and the Bible doctrine of the Johanine epistles and Revelation chapter 2. He was a most unusual person; every day was a wonderful day for him. He lived every day as unto the Lord; he lived his life inside the divine dynasphere. Therefore his life was wonderful as he functioned under the filling of the Spirit, under impersonal love, under humility, under love of God, etc. He died in what most people would say is a horrible and gruesome way and yet the Word of God says he died gloriously, honourably, and with integrity died in a horrible and gruesome way, demonstrating the fact that Bible doctrine is greater than any source of pain, any problem, any adversity, or any difficulty in life. Later in the text we come across a believer of the Old Testament who is set up by way of contrast, Balaam. And Balaam lived his life in the cosmic system, he thought more of money than anything else in the world. He knew doctrine, he was a born-again believer, but he was greedy for money.

The phrase in verse 13 begins with the conjunction kai which has two adverbial uses. One use is called asensive, in which kai is translated “even,” the other is called adjunctive and the translation is “also.” So whenever kai is translated “even” or “also” it is a conjunction with an adverbial connotation. Here we have the asensive use of kai translated “even.” The word “even” takes us to a historical moment, to something that happened just prior to the writing of this passage to the church involved. Therefore, it becomes something of great importance.

This is followed by a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of h(mera, meaning day. It is in the plural so it is “in the days.” It is a reference to the reign of Domitian, the last of the Flavian Caesars who ruled from 81-96 AD. And we should translate this “even in the times.” The word “wherein” is not found in the original.

Next comes the nominative absolute of the proper noun, A)ntipaj. The nominative absolute is used for proverbial expression and it is translated like a genitive — “of Antipas.” Antipas is simply a nickname for Antipater and refers here to a former pastor of Pergamos before John took over as the non-resident pastor. The reason John had to take over s the non-resident pastor of Pergamos is because Antipas was martyred. The priests of the temple of Esculapius became antagonistic toward Antipas, and under cover of the Domitian persecution they seized him and put him inside of a brass bull, which they heated up and roasted him to death. At the same time there were other believers in the church who were also murdered but only Antipas is mentioned here because he is the one who died so honourably. Only Antipas is mentioned because Bible doctrine was so important and so real that the excruciating pain and the torture which he endured and the manner in which he died was completely set aside by the reality of the Word of God in his own soul.

With this we have an appositional nominative from the noun martuj. Unfortunately it is often transliterated martyr but that is not correct. Martuj means witness. And with it we have a possessive genitive from the pronoun e)gw, and this means that this witness is one who belongs to God. Therefore it is translated “my witness.” Martuj means a witness in the legal sense of one who tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That is exactly what Antipas did. He told the truth about doctrine in a very special way to us: that there was no pain, no matter how excruciating, nothing more important in life for him than Bible doctrine. And he took the witness stand, first in the pulpit of the church at Pergamos, but then being roasted alive inside of a brazen bull. The truth, of course, is Bible doctrine, and as a faithful witness Antipas functioned not only as a great pastor in Pergamos but he also in time of greatest possible stress refused to renounce the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was cruelly murdered by the priests of the temple of Esculapius.

The nominative of apposition from the adjective pistoj follows. It is correctly translated “faithful one.” He was faithful as a minister but he was faithful as a person who witnessed to the fact

that Bible doctrine was more powerful, more meaningful than anything in life. Then we have an explanation as to what happened to him. We have a nominative singular relative pronoun from o(j, referring to Antipas. It is correctly translated “who,” “Antipas who.” Then comes the aorist passive indicative of a)pokteinw, which means here to murder, to deprive a person of his life illegally — “who was murdered.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety; the passive voice: Antipas received the action of the verb, being assassinated after torture by the priests of the temple. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the fact that God takes note of it both now and forever. Here is a name that only occurs once in the Bible and yet it is very meaningful to us.

Next comes the prepositional phrase para, plus the locative plural form the personal pronoun su, correctly translated “in your,” and it means in your presence; it is an idiom. The problem here is with para. Para has three different meanings. Para plus the ablative means “from.” Para plus the locative means “by the side of,” “in the presence of” or “before.” That is what we have here. Para plus the accusative means “by” or “beside” or “beyond” in a comparison. The basic connotation of para plus the locative is nearness. Therefore, it connotes the city, it connotes something that happened inside of that particular area. The meaning is very obvious: everyone in Pergamos knew about Antipas and that he refused to renounce Christ under pressure. No one in that generation would ever forget it.

Next comes an adverb of place, o(pou, translated correctly, “where.” Then the nominative subject again, satanaj. Obviously this was a Satan-inspired function to break the back of the church in Pergamos. Then we have the present active indicative of the verb katoikew. Why repeat the fact that Satan resides there? Because Satan took Antipas as a personal challenge. Here is the exception to the principle that the wall of fire inside of the divine dynasphere functions all of the time. But because of this man inside of the divine dynasphere had so much doctrine, and because doctrine was number one in his life, the Lord permitted him to be taken by these people. And even though the wall of fire was removed as far as his dying was concerned the wall of fire in his soul of Bible doctrine remained in a constant frame, constantly applied to the situation. “Where Satan resides” — a retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past and continuing into the present time. The active voice: Satan made his headquarters in Pergamos, so Satan produces the action of the verb, a comfortable place for Satan because of maximum idolatry in the city. The indicative mood is declarative for the

principle that Satan as the ruler of this world always has his headquarters in some major city in the world. It also demonstrates the fact that Satan can only be in one place at a time.

This assassination made a great impression on Satan because he realised that throughout

history he must do everything he can to distract believers from Bible doctrine. It was quite obvious that anyone who ever gets that much doctrine can ever be shaken by the power of Satan. It was a case

of Goliath and David all over again. But life in the cosmic system gives no power to face this issue.

The death of Antipas did not, however, intimidate believers whose scale of values found doctrine as number one. They were not intimidated; they were living inside of the divine dynasphere,

and they continued faithful to the Word of God in spite of all persecution. Others followed Antipas to martyrs graves but doctrine was more real than death and they died magnificently, honourably, and

with great courage, making a permanent impression. The permanent impression is related to the noun martuj, for it does not mean martyr, it means witness to the truth. The truth is Bible doctrine and

they witnessed to the importance of doctrine by the manner in which they died.

Believers living in Pergamos were also impressed. They realised how important doctrine was, and therefore when John started his non-face-to-face ministry they assembled to hear his letters and to

hear his Bible teaching; they realised the importance. So the witness for God is Antipas. He impressed Satan with the truth so that Satan would seek to use every method possible from his genius to destroy,

to distract, to disturb, so that truth would not be an issue.

And there was a third category of those impressed — unbelievers. Many of those very priests of the temple of Esculapius were impressed, and as a result of watching this man die. Others had been

burned to death and had screamed their lungs out, and begged for mercy, and pleaded for help, but here was someone who was different and as a result they were impressed. But there was also someone

else who was impressed, the members of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Antipas now has a permanent memorial in the Word of God. Satan in his own

headquarters city of Pergamos could not shake mature believers from their faith, so that Pergamos contributed to the pivot of mature believers who sustained the Roman empire as the client nation to

God. The power of God, the power of the Word, the power of the divine dynasphere are not only great in life but they are even greater in death. And they are infinitely greater than the power of Satan. This principle was demonstrated at Pergamos, the headquarters of Satan, at this period of history.

Numbers 22:1-35, Balaam in monetary reversionism; his ass.

In order to understand the next verse in Revelation we must turn to Numbers 22. Money is the subject. In order to understand Balaam you have to understand that there is a river that runs through Palestine called the Jordan. Just north of the Dead Sea is the oldest city in the world, Jericho, and in Numbers 22 the Jews are camped in the plain of Moab, across from Jericho, their next objective. This is the basis for studying Numbers 22:1.

Verse 2, Balak is the king of Moab. The Amorites had controlled all of this land and had previously defeated Moab and so they were shaken that a nation that drove them down south into the area of the mountains suddenly is defeated by the Jewish infantry.

Principle: Many of the most dangerous situations that we will ever face as believers are unknown to us until a later time. God in His principle of logistical grace kept the Jews alive and it was not until they failed and went into the cosmic system that they ever learned of what had happened to them. God was faithful to a faithless people and they didn’t even know it at the time. The great attacker here is a man by the name of Balaam, and Israel did not know that a Gentile believer living in the cosmic system was looking down from the high mountains to the south and the east of them and he was actually trying to destroy them for a large fee. Balak was the king of two countries: the Midianites who were Arabs and the Moabites who were cousins of the Jews. Remember that the Moabites were descendants from Lot; they got their start through Lot getting drunk and getting involved in incest. These two have combined now to stop the Amorites — they didn’t have to because in walked the Jews and there was no longer an Amorite problem. Balak was thinking: “We are a wealthy nation and we have a tremendous armed force, but I don’t think we can handle the Jews. So let’s get them cursed; let’s get them through demonism, divination, and all the other things that we are good at.” So instead of launching their troops against the Jews they are first of all going to use the first phase of their religion — divination, spiritism, and demonism — and then when that fails they are going to use the second phase — the phallic cult, which was a religion related to demonism. But they want reinforcements for their religion. Their religion is no good unless they can get someone who can conjure up demons and through divination can actually put a curse on people so that the people are destroyed by that curse.

So verse 5, Balak “sent a messenger to Balaam, son of Beor, at Pethor which is near the river [Euphrates] ...” Pethor is south of Carchemish; it was the Magi town for the Babylonian Magi. Balaam means destroyer of the people, and Beor, his father, means the one who destroys by burning them up. So they had titles of divination. Balaam was in the business of cursing, a service for which he charged. But something had happened to Balaam, and he not only knew but confessed the Lord in the presence of the messengers from Moab and Balak. He also asked the Lord’s will and to some extent followed it.

Verse 6 -7, Balak’s request. Obviously, before his conversion Balaam had been a very successful divinator. Notice that Balaam was very famous and there is an application from verse 6 where the salvation Balaam who had been demon-possessed before, and he had practised magic and witchcraft. And the call to Balaam came when he was a believer and today of course the real power of believers is spiritual power. Our influence on our country is spiritual And there is a counter to this: Satan influences countries through the antithesis of the spiritual power of doctrine, he does it through religion. Religion is as detrimental to a nation as believers advancing in the divine dynasphere is a blessing to a nation. So many believers prefer the substitution of human power for divine dynamics and this is how they get into the cosmic system. If Balaam had been in fellowship with the Lord and not in the cosmic system he would have just told them to leave — forget it! But already his lust for money is working him into a lather and he just can’t wait to earn that fee. Of course Balaam’s problem in verses 9-11 is that God’s conversation with him has to do with the will of God. And while God doesn’t talk to us in conversation today He does through doctrine, and we know His will through doctrine. Basically there are three principles of the will of God here: the directive will of God — You will not go; the permissive will of God. God cannot coerce human volition but from His integrity He can discipline any disobedience to His will; and there is the overruling will of God which we will see. Balaam will never be permitted to curse Israel because this involves Satan and demons rather than human freedom and volition.

So we find God speaking to Balaam about the matter, verse 9. He wants Balaam to explain who these men are. And in verse 12 God said to Balaam: “Do not go with them: you shall not curse these people; for they are blessed”. That is the directive will of God. The only one who can curse Israel is God Himself. The people in the client nation can bring down punishment on themselves, they can even punish themselves by wrong decisions, but there is no outside power that can destroy a client nation to God.

In verse 13 Balaam refused to go with the representatives of Balak. He is fulfilling the will of God. It was not that he was in fellowship, he just had enough discipline to be smart enough to recognise that he couldn’t get away with it. That becomes a deterrent until you are too far gone in reversionism.

So in a further attempt to attract Balaam, Balak not only offers a tremendous amount of wealth, but with it he offers power: “I will do whatever you say.” Three times he was approached (he finally succumbed), three times he stood on different mountains, looking from them, — the first two mountains on part of the host of Israel and could only bless them, and on the third time he gave a prophecy that goes all the way to the Millennium; it covers the same area as the book of Revelation without all the detail.

Balaam is a believer under restraint; Balaam does not close the door, however, on the temptation when he says in verse 19: “Now please, you also stay here tonight” — He is going to try to work out a way! — “and I will find out what else the Lord will speak to me.” He wants that fee and he wants that power. Furthermore, he knows that the Mideanite women are the most beautiful women in all the world and he is not opposed to a little sex with all of those millions and his power!

Verse 20, the permissive will of God. God cannot coerce human volition and God reads the mind of Balaam. Balaam has made up his mind to go. Why? Not just the money alone, which is enough to make him drool, but at the same time he is going to have power.

Principle: When you as a believer have done something contrary to the will of God and are still alive, remember that you are under the permissive will of God, not the directive will of God. And there is no blessing under the permissive will of God except to be alive; all of the blessing is under the directive will of God. How does that translate into the Church Age? The directive will of God can only exist for you inside the divine dynasphere. Inside the cosmic system you are alive because of logistical grace but you are in the permissive will of God.

Verse 21, we have a change of pace. God cannot violate the volition of Balaam and Balaam had already made up his mind. In verses 21-35 Balaam is going to get three warnings. He is in the permissive will of God and just like all of us in the cosmic system God warned him. We get warnings; we get warning discipline. This is grace before judgment. Once you get in the cosmic system you divorce yourself from reality. His lust for money through arrogance is converted into lust for power. The lust for money is always a starter but it must be turned into power. There is a lust for power that goes with money and therefore arrogance is the converter.

Verse 22, the angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ. This is an anthropomorphism. God uses the form of an angel in the Old Testament to reveal Himself. We call this a Theophany. In the New Testament the resurrection appearances of our Lord are called Christophanies. In this verse the Lord Jesus Christ stood in the way against Balaam.

Verse 23, when the ass saw the angel of the Lord sanding in the way with a drawn sword in His hand, the Bible says the ass backed off from the way and went into the field. Balaam struck the ass to turn her into the way. This, of course, was his first warning. The ass which had always responded had now responded to protect the master.

Verses 24, 25, we have a second warning. The ass does something peculiar, something out of the ordinary. The ass sees the danger, long before Balaam did! Balaam struck the ass again. (People who are out of kilter with life demonstrate the fact by their treatment of animals.)

Verse 26, all of this time the only one who was seeing the Lord Jesus Christ is the dumb animal. Verse 27, when the ass saw the angel of the Lord she lay down under Balaam, and Balaam was angry and struck her with a stick.

Verse 28, in time of cosmic degeneracy people will only listen to an ass. “What I have done to you that you have struck me down these three times?” But when you get divorced from reality even unusual things don’t impress. Then you’re in trouble!

Verse 29, “Then Balaam said to the ass”! He is now going to talk to her about it!

Verse 31-32 Balaam’s faithful animal had saved his life three times. Balaam once again is getting a warning that the Lord practices capital punishment with believers, the sin unto death.

Verse 34, Balaam’s rebound. Once he is in fellowship he wants to do the will of the Lord. That is always true. The Lord now instructs Balaam to go with the men. So Balaam went along with the princes of Balak, the permissive will of God and it will be used to further the plan of God. And even though Balaam will get out of fellowship again and seek to curse and destroy Israel God will used Balaam to declare the prophecies of the first client nation in history and to actually present some historical trends.

Revelation 2:15, “which thing I hate” is not found in the original manuscript. We start with the last Greek word in the sentence which is the adverb of analogy, o(moioj, which indicates that the believers at Pergamos were repeating the failure of those in client nation Israel in the time of Balaam. So we can translate it: “In the same manner.”

Then we have the adverb o(utoj. Both of these adverbs go together here to form a principle. It refers to what precedes and is translated “so” or “in this manner.” So we will translate the two adverbs: “So in this manner.”

Next is the nominative singular personal pronoun, su, “you.” The subject refers to believers in Pergamos and it refers to us today by way of application. The adjunctive use of the conjunction kai is one of eight different uses of the conjunction. It is translated “also.” Then we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, which means to have, to hold, or to have and to hold. The present tense is a perfective present. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the church at Pergamos produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of what we are about to note. “So also in the same manner you have believers ...”

Next is the participle: the present active participle of the verb kratew, which means to seize, it means to hold. Here it means to hold to or to adhere to. It is a descriptive present tense for what is now going on. The active voice: the believers in Pergamos produce the action of the verb. It is a circumstantial participle with the accusative singular direct object of the noun didaxh, for doctrine or teaching. And we have a progressive genitive plural from Nikolaitai, for the Nicolaitans.

Corrected translation: “So also in the same manner you have believers who adhere to [or hold to] the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.”

What we have in the Nicolaitans is a combination of gnosticism with the phallic cult. The Nicolaitans were the cult of gnosticism which we have to call the licentious type of gnosticism. It trapped believers into the cosmic system through the function of the phallic cult. Remember that gnosticism would accept almost anything and amalgamate it into its system, making some kind of a mystery out of it, making it somehow spiritual when it really was not. The Nicolaitans are derived from two Greek words, the noun nikh, and laoj for people. The two together would mean the winner over the people, defeating the people, or overcoming the people. Balaam found a way for Balak to be a winner over the people of Israel and, therefore, the function of the phallic cult infiltrated into Israel through his teaching. The phallic cult possessed a twofold distraction to believers. The religious part was the idolatry and the system of theology that went with it. The modus operandi of the system included drunkenness, fornication, feasting, not just eating things sacrificed to idols, it was partying in relationship to the idols. They also had their own special ecstatic experiences. But the combination of these made an attractive package for a person whether he was a cold intellectual or a warm licentious type; there was something there for everyone. While the phallic cult of the Nicolaitans was rejected in Ephesus [Revelation 2:6] it was effective with many of the believers in Pergamos. The phallic cult is designed to perpetuate a downtrend in history through involving a maximum number of believers in the cosmic system. The reason can be seen for this. Pergamos was Satan’s headquarters as we have noted and it did not do Satan’s cause any good to have believers advancing to maturity in Pergamos, right under his nose. The power of doctrine, the power of the divine dynasphere acting as a wall of fire: as long as believers stayed within that wall of fire, the divine dynasphere, they were perfectly safe right under the nose of Satan. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans justified lasciviousness and antiestablishment behaviour through a system of substituting religion for Bible doctrine, and for the spiritual experiences, a licentious system. Principle: Religion rationalises; doctrine discerns.

Verse 16, the reversal of the downtrend. We start out with the inferential conjunction o)un, which demotes an inference from what precedes. Generally it is translated “therefore.” Then we have the aorist active imperative from metanoiew, a mandate to believers inside the cosmic system. The word means a change of mind. The constative aorist tense is for a fact or action extended over a period of time which will result in a historical uptrend. The only way for the believer to get out of the cosmic system of Satan is through the rebound technique — the function of his priesthood. And this is the only function of his priesthood out of fellowship. Remember that the plan of God is divided into two parts: the visible and the invisible. The invisible function of the plan of God is the believer’s relationship to God inside the divine dynasphere. It is the function of his royal priesthood. The visible part of the plan of God is the function of his royal ambassadorship directed toward man’s circumstances and history. Both of these function at gate four — the function of the priesthood: perception of doctrine; the function of the ambassadorship: application of doctrine.

We will translate this so far: “Therefore change your mind.” The constative aorist is for the fact or action of rebound, the use of the rebound technique plus residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, with emphasis on the function of gate four, the perception and application of Bible doctrine. The active voice: believers in the cosmic system, through the function of the phallic cult, are commanded to produce the action of the verb. They are commanded to change their mind. This is a mandate for all believers living inside the cosmic system. Apart from rebound there is neither personal nor national recovery for the client nation to God. The client nation so involved in the cosmic system is punished by God and eventually destroyed. So the consistent use of rebound is a good decision which opens the door for greater decisions, while failure to rebound is a bad decision which destroys options and closes the door for future decisions, fulfilling the principle that we are the products of our own decisions and, first of all, we provide punishment for ourselves by our involvement in the cosmic system. But eventually God adds to that His own divine discipline: warning discipline, then eventually dying discipline. So we note that all historical uptrends relate to the believers use of rebound and his consistency of living in the divine dynasphere. Only in this way can a pivot be formed which will carry the client nation to God. The larger the pivot the greater the function of the client nation to God. The pivot is made up of mature believers only who have arrived at gate eight. A large pivot means historical blessing for that generation. But if the pivot shrinks and becomes very small and you have a large spin-off of believers involved in the cosmic system, then you have the downtrend. Therefore the mandate is given which is the rebound technique and resultant residence inside the divine dynasphere.

Principle

1. There are historical disasters but these disasters are not tragedies since both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions, not their environment.

2. Life in the cosmic system produces both motivational and functional evil — the cult of envy, that power lust in which the demand for power exceeds the need for power.

3. In that historical downtrend of the phallic cult the weak control the strong in social life, in business life, in culture, in professional life, in government, as well as all too often in the congregation of the local church.

4. Cosmic involvement results in preoccupation with self whereby the weak in society control the strong.

5. Therefore, human history is all too often the narrative of man’s weaknesses, not his strength.

6. Consequently good decisions are made for the divine dynasphere while bad decisions are made for the cosmic system.

7. The phallic cult is designed to lure believers into a pattern for making bad decisions. Satan made bad decisions and in his genius he knows how to cultivate bad decisions in believers.

8. Bad decisions made inside the cosmic system destroy the options for future decisions so that the believer through the exercise of his own free will loses future options and, through freedom of self-destruction becomes the slave to Satan who is the ruler of this world.

9. The options for the believer are simple. The believer must either decide for God’s plan and God’s power which is related to the divine dynasphere, or the believer will choose Satan’s plan and Satan’s power which is related to the cosmic system. One of the manifestations of life in the cosmic system is the modus operandi of the phallic cult as portrayed by the Nicolaitans.

Now we have the statement of alternative. We begin with the post positive conjunction de which emphasises a contrast with regard to believers. It is a contrast between the believer who uses the solution and the alternative to that solution which is divine discipline.

With this we have the conditional particle e)i plus the negative mh. They mean “if not” but it is an idiom meaning “or else” or “otherwise.” Then we have the present middle indicative of the verb e)rxomai, I will come. This is a futuristic present. It denotes an event which has not yet occurred — divine discipline for cosmic involvement and adherence to the cult of the Nicolaitans. The futuristic present regards divine discipline for cosmic involvement as so certain that in thought it may be regarded as already occurring. Living in the cosmic system demands punishment from our Lord Jesus Christ. With this is the dative of disadvantage from the personal pronoun su, you. “Otherwise I will come to you.”

With this we have a neuter singular form of the adjective taxuj, used for the certainty of divine judgment. It can be translated “soon, at once, shortly,” or possibly “without delay.”

The people in the client nation are the products of their own decisions. Combined with man’s free will is the fact that man is weak. Therefore he must use his volition to identify himself with a power system that is greater than himself. The alternatives are simple. Either the believer must use his volition to reside in the divine dynasphere or he must use his volition to reside in the cosmic system. There is no in between. Either you are in one or the other. Life in the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend for the client nation as well as spiritual momentum and advance for the believer. But life in the cosmic system means historical downtrend and, of course, spiritual failure means cursing by association to that client nation. This is the difference then between prosperity — personal and national — and disaster — personal and national. Historical uptrend from residence in the divine dynasphere means historical blessing while historical downtrend from the cosmic system involvement means historical disaster. Therefore the importance of the above mandate to rebound.

We have next the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, translated “in fact,” followed by the future active indicative of the verb polemew, which means to make war against. With this we have a prepositional phrase meta plus the genitive plural from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. A)utoj is used in the Koine Greek for the third person personal pronoun. It was not brought in from the Attic Greek, and therefore a)utoj doubles for that. “Against them,” since this is the plural. Translation: “In fact I will make war against them.” The future tense of polemew is a predictive future, it anticipates divine discipline against believers who live in the cosmic system and cause the historical downtrend of the client nation. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb by punishing cosmic believers with historical disaster. This historical disaster can be administered in many ways, depending upon the decisions that individuals make in the client nation. It can be for uncontrolled crime or terrorism or revolution or guerrilla warfare, or nuclear warfare.

Next we have a preposition e)n plus the instrumental of r(omphaia, the sharp double-edged sword associated with all categories of violence. In Revelation 6:8 the broadsword is carried by the rider of the fourth horse, known as death. Here we find the broadsword coming from our Lord’s mouth. The ablative of source, stoma plus the possessive genitive of e)gw, “my mouth.” The ablative of source indicates the original source of violence: the integrity of God, the justice of God under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. The fact that Jesus Christ controls history is manifest in two ways: by divine punishment administered to a nation or an individual, or by divine blessing administered to a nation or to an individual. And even though history is the record of man’s thoughts, motives, decisions and actions, it is Jesus Christ who controls history.

There are, then, two sources of judgment in history. First of all, the erroneous decisions of the individual. Every erroneous decision you have ever made is a part of discipline to yourself and to the client nation. Secondly, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as to the natural consequences of erroneous decisions. The omniscience of God enters every thought, every motive, every decision, every action, of every person into the computer of divine decrees without interfering with man’s free will. The printout of the computer is history with its prosperity on the one hand, its judgements on the other. The source of divine judgment is cosmic involvement, and the source of cosmic involvement is human volition.

Corrected translation: “Therefore change your mind; otherwise I will soon visit you with divine discipline, in fact I will make war against them [the believers involved in the cosmic system] with the broadsword of my mouth.”

Making “war with … the broadsword of my mouth” is significant because this phrase applies to the Church Age, and one of the historical trends of the dispensation in which we live is the fact that when a nation goes too far into degeneracy — and we are the products of our own decisions, individually and collectively — then we are going to feel the broadsword. We must remember who is swinging the broadsword. As long as the Lord is swinging it you don’t have to duck! It is not something to frighten the believer but to encourage.

Verse 17, the motivation for the historical uptrend. “He that hath an ear.” The key to the whole thing is to have an ear and to obey a mandate with it — “let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.” Churches, bodies of believers, are the key to the historical uptrend. Historical uptrend is not related directly to things that we often think of in terms of recovery — the passing of laws, getting rid of laws, etc. Many of the laws we now have are absolutely detrimental to living, and they should be rescinded.

Principle: Momentum and maturity means blessing by association. Therefore the basis for all historical uptrend is reduced to the principle of your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

We start out with the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw, a verb that John loved almost as much as the verb “to be.” We translate it: “he who has.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and refers to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who from the viewpoint of salvation are equipped through logistical grace to learn Bible doctrine. Grace has overcome every human handicap in learning, and therefore perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is the basis for momentum and the historical uptrend of blessing by association. The static present tense represents the circumstances of possessing ears, a status which is assumed as perpetually existing. The point is: All people have ears and ears become the analogy to the supernatural perceptive system our Lord has established for learning Bible doctrine, and from learning that Bible doctrine to grow in grace. So the static present tense represents circumstances: each one of us has ears. If the believer has ears he also has the ability to learn Bible doctrine, in fact all the realm of doctrine. The ears become the illustration for volition and motivation in learning. In John’s day most people learned, not by reading, but by hearing. If this was written in the 20th century it may we have been, “he who has eyes” — for reading. There are two basic systems of learning: hearing and reading. What is the difference between them? Hearing is motivation directed toward someone else as a communicator; reading is doing it on your own. The communicator has put it in writing. When it comes to Bible doctrine number one is the system because hearing means you must accept the authority or the credentials of the one who teaches. So it is not accidental that we have eyes omitted here because you see you can sit down and read the Bible but Bible doctrine which causes spiritual growth is communicated under a system of authority from someone else outside of yourself. And the secret to spiritual growth from the standpoint of your personality is the issue of humility versus arrogance. Arrogant people are not teachable.

Next we have a circumstantial participle in the accusative singular direct object from o)uj, which means ears.

Principle: The ear refers to teachability, therefore to learnability. If you have ears, and you do, it also means you are able to learn doctrine as a believer. All kind of people have ears for perception and no one earns or deserves ears. Just as you come equipped with ears from birth, so from the second birth you come equipped with a system of perception necessary to learn doctrine. The only problem is volition. No one hears apart from his own volition, and therefore the importance of positive volition in learning doctrine. The ear represents the grace system for perception of Bible doctrine: gate four of the divine dynasphere. Learning doctrine is the basis for momentum; momentum is the basis for attainment of spiritual maturity, therefore the glorification of Christ, and that spiritual maturity is the basis for blessing by association — the historical uptrend of the client nation, forestalling the Lord’s use of the broadsword.

Any believer is qualified to learn doctrine, we all have ears. Mandate: aorist active imperative from the verb a)kouw. “Let him hear” is the way it is translated. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a fact or action extended over a period of time. Over the period of your entire lifetime as a believer you should never stop learning doctrine. Positive volition toward doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is the secret to whether we survive as a nation. So regardless of the extent or duration gathered up into one entirety is your life as a believer. That means your life should be characterised by the daily intake of doctrine. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, it is a mandate for the royal family of God in the Church Age — perception and application of doctrine, the function of gate four of the divine dynasphere. The accusative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij takes us back to the content. It is correctly translated “what sort of thing,” a reference to the categories of doctrine. Remember that all blessing by association in life, whether it is personal or national, all comes from the believer’s perception of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere.

Then we have the phrase dealing with God the Holy Spirit, the nominative singular subject from pneuma, referring to the third person of the Holy Trinity — the power of the divine dynasphere, gate one. Principle: No one can learn Bible doctrine apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit, the function of gate one of the divine dynasphere. And with this the present active indicative of legw, meaning here to communicate — “what the Spirit communicates.” The customary present tense for what habitually occurs when the believer resides and functions in the divine dynasphere. This includes the fact that the believer in the divine dynasphere must be positive toward doctrine and must be teachable. Humility is necessary for learning any subject. It is always better to assume, even though you may be fairly familiar with the subject, that you know nothing, and therefore you always learn something that you didn’t know before. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb in causing the believer to learn doctrine, and therefore the Holy Spirit replaces the normal function of human IQ in perception of doctrine. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine regarding the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. And apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit there is no spiritual IQ for the perception of Bible doctrine and the resultant momentum in the Christian way of life. Therefore residence and function in the divine dynasphere is the only legitimate area for perception and application of doctrine.

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are never going to find any happiness, any blessing, and orientation to what God has for you in this life apart from Bible doctrine. Times of economic disaster are also times of punishment for believers who think that they can live without doctrine. We are the products of our own decisions and many believers today, and for some time in the past, have been making wrong decisions with regard to the Word of God, wrong decisions with regard to the establishing of their scale of values. You’ve heard it so many times about the importance of doctrine but it can go in one ear and out the other, and something attractive or something interesting, or something that sets up a spark of motivation, comes along. Many times this is merely a test to see if you have what it takes or not.

So let’s establish a principle that comes from the hidden manna that we have begun to study in Revelation 2:17: there is no happiness for the believer in this life apart from Bible doctrine being number one in his scale of values. Any system of priorities or scale of values that even puts the hidden manna [Bible doctrine] in second place is a personal disaster to you. And you can achieve everything associated with happiness in this life, wealth, prominence, prosperity, success, promotion, everything that people associate with happiness, and you can be the most miserable of creatures. And there is no way that you are going to get around this principle of you have already accepted Christ as saviour. If you accept Christ as saviour and neglect doctrine you are guaranteed a miserable life. And you will do it all by your own wrong decisions.

Just as the visible manna was stored in the ark as a permanent memorial to God’s grace, so Bible doctrine is stored in the soul as e)pignwsij as a permanent memorial to God’s grace. Only Bible doctrine learned inside the divine dynasphere can be used in the construction of the edification complex of the soul. Blessing from hidden manna is blessing from maximum perception of Bible doctrine. There is no way that doctrine can be second to anything in your life and you can survive it. All blessing to the believer is related to the hidden manna, the manna that is preserved as Bible doctrine in the ark of your soul. Ungathered manna is like the doctrine we did not learn. It cannot be used for momentum, application, or spiritual growth. There is no advance in hearing doctrine, it is learning it that counts.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, plus the future active indicative of the verb didomi, to give. The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates a future event in eternity. If you take in the hidden manna, if you have a soul filled with hidden manna, you are going to get a special reward in eternity. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for reward and eternal blessing to the believer who has great historical impact through his perception of Bible doctrine.

Then comes the dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, which became a personal pronoun in the Koine Greek. The reason is because the third person Attic Greek pronouns were not passed on, therefore a)utoj is the substitute for them. Since this is the singular it is translated, “I will give to him.” The dative indirect object indicates the believer, the mature type, the one who has maximum hidden manna in his soul, is the one in whose interest the eternal blessing and reward is given. The accusative singular direct object follows, it is composed of two words: the adjective leukoj, translated “white,” and with this we have the Greek word psefoj, which means a pebble. It does not means a rock or even a chip out of a rock, that would be petra and petroj. Peter was the chip off the Rock, Christ Jesus. Translation so far: “And I will give him a white pebble.”

The juries in the ancient world voted privately. They had a box which was passed around in which were black pebbles and white pebbles, and each one selected a pebble and put it on the table. A black pebble was guilty; a white pebble was a vote for acquittal. The primary usage was in voting, then, or in counting. The white pebble here is the Lord’s vote for acquittal for the believer — Romans 8:1. There is no judgment, no lake of fire, we are acquitted because we have personally believed in Jesus Christ. The Lord votes with a white stone for acquittal for every believer in the human race. Christ died for every person in the human race. Those who reject Him get a black pebble; those who accept Him get a white pebble. Whatever the evaluation or judgment at the judgment seat of Christ it does not include loss of salvation. Therefore every believer gets the white pebble. It has two meanings: adoption and resurrection. All believers have a resurrection body.

Adoption: The word in the New Testament is u(ioqesia, and that would be “son-placing,” literally, but it actually means adoption.

Every Roman son who became adult and was recognised as adult became officially adopted. Being a natural son was not enough. The eldest son had to be adopted as the heir. Now he had the right of marriage, he had the right of military service, he had the right to function under a bank account, he was an adult and responsible for his own actions. He was also given an official name, and this official name was a part of this white pebble we are about to study. In this white pebble is the name that you are going to have in eternity, if you have one at all.

The Romans were the most famous people in the ancient world from the standpoint of a name. They were called the trinomen people, they had three names. The first name was called praenomen, which was a name given at birth. It was not a family name. The second name was called nomen, and that was the name of the original Roman family, the clan or the family. The third name was called cognomen, which was a nickname but eventually it had other connotations as well. A nickname was often given as a descriptive name or a branch of the family name. Later it became an additional honour. A praenomen might be Gaius, or Lucious, or Marcus. A nomen might be one of the famous families of Rome, Cornelius, Fabius, Julius, Claudius, etc. A cognomen can be a nickname or a descriptive name. Take Julius Caesar: Gaius [praenomen], Julius [nomen or family name], Caesar [cognomen — it means in the Latin, “hairy”]. Romans generally addressed each other by the cognomen.

So the new name or the white stone in heaven means that you are a special person. And to have a white pebble with a new name on it is about as high an honour as you can have, and it is to show what you have done over the period of your lifetime since salvation. At the judgment seat of Christ all believers get a white stone, a resurrection body. Why? Because they are saved and are going to live forever. But there are going to be a lot of white stones with no names on them. The only white stone that has a name on it is the believer who day by day takes in the hidden manna. To have a name on that stone is the highest possible decoration for historical impact outside the order of the morning star.

Adoption in the Roman empire was an honour, and adoption meant a new name. The new name was a reward, it gave one the highest area of aristocracy. Hence the white pebble is not simply a resurrection body, it is a special reward that accompanies the resurrection body. It puts one into the highest area of aristocracy in heaven. The white stone speaks of freedom from condemnation in a resurrection body forever and ever, plus adoption for the purpose of honour. But there is no adoption for the purpose of honour except for the winner.

“and,” kai, here means “furthermore.” Then we have the prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of psefoj, plus the perfect passive participle of grafw, write. Translation: “On the stone has been written.” The prefect tense is a dramatic perfect representing the existing state in eternity for the victorious believer. He is given the highest possible aristocracy in heaven and all the privileges pertaining thereto. There are going to be very definitely levels of society in heaven. The participle is circumstantial for the reward given by our Lord Jesus Christ to winners only.

With this we have the accusative direct object composed of two words, the adjective kainoj, which means new in species, and the word o)noma, name — a new name, new in species, a new aristocracy exists in heaven.

Then the new name is described, the accusative neuter singular from o(j, referring to o)noma. And on that new name “which” we have an adjective o)udeij, meaning no one. And then the perfect o)ida, used as a present, “which no one knows.” The pictorial present tense of o)ida represents to the mind the future event of standing before all of your contemporaries in the Christian life and receiving the highest possible reward of aristocracy. The active voice: “no one” produces the action of the verb, which means everyone in time. Only eternity will reveal the true extent of rewards and blessings of believers who persist in functioning inside the divine dynasphere. No one knows it now; everyone will know it then.

Then we have e)i mh, meaning “except,” and the articular present active participle of the verb lambanw. No one knows except the one who receives it.

The church of Thyatira is covered in the rest of the chapter, verses 18-29.

Verse 18, we begin with the connective use of the conjunction kai, translated “And,” followed by the dative singular definite article toi, and category to whom it is addressed is the second estate state, pastors or clergy. With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the noun a)ggeloj, sometimes translated correctly “angel,” and sometime translated correctly “messenger.” Here it refers to messengers or communicators. It is used technically for future pastors of the church at Thyatira. A)ggeloj is used for angels in passages like Matthew 1:20; 4:6; Acts 5:19; 2 Corinthians 11:14; 1 Timothy 5:21; Hebrews 1:4,5; 2:9; 1 Peter 1:12, etc. However, a)ggeloj or angels is used for messengers or human communicators in the following passages: Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; James 2:25; Revelation 2:1, 8, 12, 18. We have here the dative indirect object which indicates the ones — the future pastors who serve at Thyatira in whose interest the message from our Lord Jesus Christ is now given to the last of the apostles, John himself. Therefore this becomes a dative of advantage.

Next we have the genitive of relationship from the noun e)kklhsia used for the body of Christ as a whole and used for the local church or the classroom for the perception of Bible doctrine. “And to the future pastor or the messenger of the church.” Location: preposition e)n plus the locative Quateira, “in Thyatira.” Then comes the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, “write.” The culminative aorist views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, not only the completion of the canon of scripture and encouragement to future pastors but a textbook of world history to the end. Furthermore, understanding the context will give the pastor insight into the historical trends which are necessary for relating his ministry to contemporary history. The active voice: the apostle John under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a divine mandate to complete the canon of the New Testament and to complete a textbook of world history from the time of John to the end of time.

Thyatira is located on a very fertile plain of the Lycus Valley, fifty-eight miles north east of Smyrna. As a sequel to the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great it was established in BC 290 as a Macedonian colony. Thyatira became an important station on the Roman road from Pergamos to Laodicea and became a very wealthy city in northern Lydia in the Roman province of Asia. As a Hellenistic city it was a garrison post for the Seleucid empire. As a Roman city it was an important link in the Roman network of roads. It was to the Roman empire what Bastogne was to the Ardenne. Seleucis Nicator regarded the city as holy because it was the world centre for the worship of the sun god Apollos, worshipped under the title of Tyrimnos, the Lydian name for the sun god. On the early coins of Thyatria this Asiatic god is represented as a horseman carrying a double-headed axe similar to those found in the Hittite monuments. This double-headed battle axe also relates to the Lydians, to the Etruscans, to the Romans.

Thyatira was famous for its labour unions. It was the most completely unionised city in the Roman world. Every artisan in Thyatira belonged to a labour union and every guild or labour union owned property in its own name, made contracts for construction, and had tremendous power and influence. Most famous were the coppersmith unions, and the dyers’ union whose purple dye was in demand all over the world. The unions sponsored also the phallic cult and various idolatrous cults, and were opposed vehemently to Christianity. In this context Thyatira is threatened with divine punishment through economic disaster. People are the products of their own decisions and the unions will make bad decisions which will destroy the economy of Thyatira unless corrected by Bible doctrine.

So far we have: “And to the messenger [future pastors of the church in Thyatira] write.”

Then we have who is ultimately communicating this information. The unions have almost destroyed the town; now how can they be saved from this power control. The answer is very simple: the advance of believers inside the divine dynasphere.

We begin the with the nominative subject( u(ioj plus the definite article o( plus the genitive of qeoj, “the Son of God,” the royal title of our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God, therefore this emphasises His deity. He is speaking as God. The present active indicative of legw means to speak or to communicate: “The Son of God communicates.” The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The point is: No matter what reason people form guilds and unions, no matter for what reason people do anything by which they get together, when their power exceeds their purpose they become destructive. In this case we are talking about unions; in the cases of others areas we might be talking about dictators or political rulers. Anyone can get some power somehow, whether it is through a union or through politics or through some fame or success principle; and once they do and they link it up with arrogance then you have trouble. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Then we have the accusative neuter plural direct object from o(dh, a demonstrative pronoun used originally as an introductory formula for the Greek translation of the decrees of the Persian kings; used here, however, as the introductory formula for our Lord’s estimate of the situation in the local church at Thyatira — “the Son of God [the subject] communicates these things.” Between the subject and the predicate there is a relative clause divided into two parts. The first half of the relative clause is the articular present active participle from the verb e)xw, the verb to have. It is translated as an articular present participle, “the one who has.” So between the phrase “the Son of God” and the verb “communicates,” and the object “these things,” is this relative clause that begins “the one who has.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is the Son of God, the subject — “the Son of God who.” The present tense is a descriptive present. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. This is a circumstantial participle. With this we have in the relative clause an object of the participle, the accusative direct object from the noun o)fqalmoj. And with this we have a possessive genitive from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as the third person personal pronoun, “the one who has his eyes.” The ellipsis demands e)imi. Then we have “like,” the comparative article o(j, which means “like” here although on other occasions it has other meanings, and then the descriptive nominative floc, which refers to a flame. With it we have the descriptive genitive pur, which means fire. So: “the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire.” The flame of fire connotes divine judgment related to historical trends. Remember we are the products of our own decisions, we bring disaster on ourselves, but along with it the Lord Jesus Christ also judges individuals and nations constantly. Our first principle of historical trends: Jesus Christ controls history. John 5:22,23 puts it this way: “For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has delegated all judgment to the Son in order that they all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him”. Since the first advent of Christ the issue is that Jesus Christ controls history.

For the unbeliever eternal salvation is offered before the last judgment and the principle is always the same: grace precedes judgment. Grace often means living longer, surviving to have another opportunity, facing some disaster and re-evaluating your life and then moving on. For the believer logistical grace is always offered before the judgment seat of Christ. The provision of a definite plan and logistical grace includes temporal security, and of course temporal security precedes the evaluation of the believer at the judgment seat of Christ. God has made you secure in the devil’s world. “Greater is he who is in us than he that is in the world.” While Satan has the most phenomenal power and the great genius system of Cosmic one and Cosmic two, yet God has provided us fantastic security. For the unbeliever the option is simple: either receive Christ as saviour in time or else face our Lord Jesus Christ as judge in eternity. For the believer there is no such thing as a simple option such as that. For the unbeliever the option is “What think ye of Christ?”; to believe in Him eternal life, to reject Him eternal condemnation. But for the believer there are many options. However they are related to God’s plan, and God’s plan is related of course to the divine dynasphere with its eight gates. The principle then is: Jesus Christ not only controls history but Jesus Christ is the issue in history. For the believer in Jesus Christ there is great blessing in making decisions for the plan of God, great punishment for making decisions for the cosmic system. There is no such thing as happiness for the believer outside the divine dynasphere. Satan tries to manufacture a pseudo happiness but when you come up against the realities of self-induced misery, the reality of divine judgment, the reality of death, then of course it disappears entirely. The issue of punishment or blessing requires decision from your free will, and you are on your own. Decisions should be based on facts and all the facts are found in the content of Bible doctrine, and therefore the importance of daily perception of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere provides both happiness and security while Bible doctrine provides the necessary information to make consistent decisions for God, God’s plan and the uptrends of history.

So we have the eyes like a flame of fire and they are for those believers who make wrong decisions after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The eyes like the flame of fire do not become an issue until after salvation, then you have the option and then you face the option. Which way are you going to go? Positive toward doctrine or negative toward doctrine. Are you going to live your life in the divine dynasphere where there are degrees of happiness or are you going to live in the cosmic system where misery is piled upon misery until the intensification becomes a horrible thing.

The eyes of the Lord being a flame of fire also refers to our Lord’s integrity in punishing believers who spend their time in the cosmic system. Believers in the cosmic system are sustained by logistical grace. Whether you are in God’s plan, the divine dynasphere, or in the cosmic system you are always indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Remember the mandate: “Be filled with the Spirit,” that is the command to reside in the divine dynasphere. The mandate from Galatians 5:16 is to walk in the Spirit, that is the function at the various gates. If you are filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But the negative commands are there too. For cosmic one, “grieve not the Spirit.” If you are living in cosmic one you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit; if you are in cosmic two you are quenching the Spirit, I Thessalonians 5:19, “Quench not the Spirit,” but you are still indwelt by the Spirit. So matter what your status you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Another principle: Whether you are in the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system you still receive logistical grace support. You will know when logistical grace support ceases because you will cease to breath! Physical death will be the very clear indication of that.

The believer then in the cosmic system is sustained by logistical grace and therefore the Lord punishes the misuse of His grace in serving self and in serving Satan in the cosmic system. The eyes of the Lord are like a flame of fire and this refers to both divine punishment of cosmic believers and divine reprimand at the judgment seat of Christ through loss of certain blessings, loss of decorations, loss of rewards, loss of some of the super happiness systems of eternity. This doesn’t mean that you are going to be miserable in eternity but there are definitely degrees of reward and definitely degrees of happiness. The eyes of the Lord as a flame of fire, then, is a challenge to every believer to make good decisions from his human volition. It is a challenge to human volition in the angelic conflict.

There are three sources of judgment in history. The sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of born again believers living in time. The eyes like a flame of fire are a warning against believers making bad decisions.

The second half of the relative clause starts out with the connective use of the conjunction kai, and with it we have a nominative from the word pouj. It refers to feet. And with it the possessive genitive singular from a)utoj, translated “and his feet.” The predicative nominative masculine plural is from the comparative particle o(moioj, and because it is in the nominative it demands the use of the verb to be, “and his feet are like.” O(moioj means like, and after o(moioj we have an associative instrumental case from the noun xalkolibanon, which means bronze, “and his feet are like bronze.” It is a reference to historical judgment to the nations of history from the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. For example, bronze is used for economic judgment of a client nation. Note the use of the word “bronze” [not brass] in Deuteronomy 28:23-25. These are judgements that come to client nations who fail. They fail because of the downtrend — believers residing in the cosmic system rather than in the divine dynasphere.

Principle

1. Bad decisions bring on economic disaster as a manifestation of cosmic involvement with evil and degeneration.

2. These bad decisions from human volition result in divine judgment.

3. Jesus Christ picks an evil nation and sends it against the client nation to destroy it. To be destroyed by an evil nation is the greatest shame and loss of integrity.

Other examples: Bronze is used for slavery after the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline to a client nation, Lamentations 3:6-8. The divine judgment on a cosmic ruler named Zedekiah, king of Israel, 2 Kings 25:7.

4. The pattern of historical disaster begins with economic disaster and social degeneracy but it culminates with military disaster.

5. The only guarantee against divine judgment in historical disaster to the client nation is the resident and function of the believer inside the divine dynasphere.

6. Historical judgment is the manifestation of the fact that the essence and character of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be compromised by evil or destroyed by cosmic involvement.

7. The trends of history never compromise the character of God.

One of the great principles in the Word of God is living your life in the light of eternity, and when you live your life in the light of eternity you have a wonderful time in time. When you live your life in the light of the moment then you are going to be totally and miserably disoriented to life, and the great tragedy occurs in eternity at the judgment seat of Christ when born again believers who cannot lose their salvation by anything they do after believing in Christ get the greatest shock of their living experience forever and ever — the shock of being in a resurrection body without anything to show for this life. Heaven is a perfect place and like all perfect places there is no equality. Equality is an invention of the genius of Satan in order to facilitate his rulership of the world. Equality is a myth, an impossibility. The idea of equality has never existed in the plan of God, but certain things are open to everyone — happiness, for example.

Our Lord Jesus Christ comes the second time at the beginning of the Millennium when He will take over the rulership of the world from Satan. He will rule for one thousand years under perfect environment. Those believers who advance from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere are going to have special authority and rule with Him, and even have a decoration which they receive at the judgment seat of Christ seven years before the second advent, a decoration called the order of the morning star, one of the highest decorations for historical impact. So we have after salvation a purpose — Gate 1, the filling of the Spirit; gate two, basic impersonal love; gate three, enforced and genuine humility; gate four, perception and application of doctrine; gate five, love of God; gate six, right man, right woman; gate seven friendship, advanced impersonal love, gate eight, maturity which is the objective.

So the Lord Jesus Christ is the issue of history. The Lord Jesus Christ also controls history. In the control of history at the present time He controls through the laws of divine establishment, He controls through historical trends, and He controls through discipline, judgment and punishment of individuals and groups forming nations. There are two sources of judgment in history: wrong decisions — we are the products of our own decisions; the sovereign, honourable decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have noted the trend: As goes the believer, so goes the trends at any point in the Church Age. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend while involvement in the cosmic system means historical downtrend. So whether we survive or not as a nation depends on believers either living in the divine dynasphere or believers living in the cosmic system. The Lord Jesus Christ has chosen to control history through the Church in this dispensation. Nations rise because of an enlarged pivot of mature believers and nations fall because of a spin-off of apostate believers living in the cosmic system, but in this way the believer is the key to history until the Rapture. Historical trends are related to objective reality or life in the divine dynasphere versus subjective reality or life in the cosmic system.

Too often history is the narrative of man’s weaknesses, not his strength. Inside the divine dynasphere the battle is the Lord’s, and you win; inside the cosmic system the battle is yours, and you lose. There are no winners in the cosmic system, just different categories of losers. There are, of course, winners in the divine dynasphere and, again, there are different categories of winners. This is a part of the great conflict between the arrogance of the cosmic system and the humility of the divine dynasphere. There is no substitute for humility. Inside the divine dynasphere men’s lives are changed by doctrine and, of course, inside the cosmic system men’s lives are changed by arrogance and by evil. So knowledge of the truth is the basis for manufacturing freedom. Freedom is a manufactured product. When you make decisions for Bible doctrine you manufacture in your soul the concepts of freedom by which you live. You learn the principle of live and let live, you learn to respect the privacy of others, you learn to respect the property of others, you learn to control yourself in circumstances which are not to your liking.

Motivation of resurrection and eternity

When our Lord Jesus Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father He received His third royal patent, and therefore a history of the world had to be written regarding the use of that royal patent. First of all there had to be the calling out of a royal family, since there was no royal family to go with this patent. Therefor the sudden halt of the Age of Israel and the dispensation of the Church, a dispensation of historical trends — no prophecy, simply historical trends. The next prophecy is the Rapture or resurrection of the Church followed by the continuation of the Age of Israel called the Tribulation, and finally the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. This will be followed by 1000 years of perfect environment, the rule of our Lord upon the earth, He will remove Satan from the rulership of this world. Then comes of course the Gog revolution at the end of 1000 years — revolt against perfect environment — demonstrating the fact that environment is not the solution to man’s problems. Then comes the end of the world, the last judgment, the destruction of the universe by nuclear fission. This will be provided by the Lord Himself, it is impossible for the universe or this earth to be destroyed until our Lord does it. Then we have the new heavens, new earth, the new Jerusalem, and the eternal state beginning. All of these things are a part of world history, starting in John’s time and going down to the very end so that the book of Revelation is the history of the world during that period of time.

Our subject at the moment is historical trends. Historical trends are based upon the principle that we must as believers have a definite influence on history. It is an invisible unseen influence but nevertheless it is there. In fact the greatest influence on history is the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The principle of doctrine: As goes the believer, so goes the historical trends. All historical uptrends are related to the believer fulfilling the plan of God by residence and function inside the divine dynasphere with its eight gates, God’s game-plan for the Church Age. When believers are involved in the divine dynasphere there is an uptrend but when believers become involved in Satan’s cosmic system then we have a downtrend in history. All uptrends and downtrends in history are determined by believers living on planet earth and this is the story of Revelation chapters two and three. Seven churches in the Roman province of Asia sustained the Roman empire for over three hundred years.

1 Thess. 4:13 — “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren.” This is a general statement as well as a specific dealing with this particular passage. Ignorance is the greatest disaster for the history of the world as well as the individual believer, for the believer’s cognisance of doctrine is the basis for historical impact as well as historical uptrends; “concerning those who are asleep” — being asleep is one of the ways of describing Christian death as it relates to the body only. We note that the soul leaves the body in death and the soul of the believer is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, enjoying an interim body where there is no more pain, no more death, the old things are passed away; “that you may not grieved like the rest” — the rest of the world being the world of unbelievers. Attitude toward Jesus Christ divides the human race into two parts: those who believe in Christ have eternal life, those who do not have eternal condemnation; “who have no hope” — there is no hope apart from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, therefore, and so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” — a reference to the resurrection of the Church, the Rapture, the next prophecy in history.

Verse 15, “for this doctrine in the word of the Lord we communicate to you, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord” — there will be one generation of believers who will be alive when the resurrection takes place; their mortal bodies will become immortal; “shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

Verse 16, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a command, with the voice of the archangel [the ruling angel of elect angels], also a command from the trumpet of God: in fact the dead in Christ shall rise first”. Notice that at the resurrection there are two commands. The voice command of the archangel is for the resurrection of living believers on the earth, mortal believers becoming immortal. They will be changed in a moment, they will receive a resurrection body. There is a trumpet command. Trumpet commands were used at the time of writing, it was one of the major means of controlling armies in the ancient world. The trumpet command is for the resurrection of the dead believers, corruption turned into incorruption.

Verse 17, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, for the purpose of meeting the Lord in the air: and so we shall always be with the Lord” — that is, in our resurrection bodies.

Verse 18, “Therefore, comfort one another with these doctrines.”

There is a time coming when we are going to face the Lord in a resurrection body. All physical death at the present time simply means to be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord in an interim body, and this is an interim of great blessing until the resurrection takes place. Then the trumpet command brings into the air those who are dead in Christ. The voice command brings those who are living into the air and all receive a resurrection body. The next event on the calendar is called the big genuflect in the sky, described in Philippians 2:9-11. Then comes the judgment seat of Christ described in 2 Corinthians 5:10. This is not judgment for gain or loss of salvation, this is evaluation for what you did between the time that you believed in Christ on earth until the day you departed, either by physical death or by the Rapture, whichever occurs first. You will be evaluated simply because during this period, however long it is, you are under the support of logistical grace — everything necessary for you to fulfil the plan of God — and you are going to be evaluated in that future time on the basis of what you did in time. After salvation your attitude toward Bible doctrine determines whether you are going to be rewarded or not in eternity. You have free will; we are the products of our own decisions; you can make decisions for or against the plan of God as a believer. You cannot lose your salvation but you certainly can lose blessing in time as well as great blessing in eternity. Positive volition toward Bible doctrine and the execution of the plan of God means not only blessing in dying but also great reward in eternity. But for the believer who is negative toward doctrine there is first of all divine discipline as well as personal self-induced misery — again we are the products of our own decisions — and in eternity he will have a resurrection body minus the old sin nature and all human good, and that is all! There is no equality in heaven and in eternity there is going to be great differences between believers.

Bible doctrine is the key to growth versus failure. Whether you are a winner or a loser in the Christian life, whether you have historical impact or whether you contribute to the downtrend of history is determined by your attitude toward Bible doctrine. Some believers waste their entire life. Apart from perception of Bible doctrine you are going to be a loser. There are many categories of losers but a loser you will be, living in the cosmic system, being miserable all of your life. And some are going to be winners, and winners are those who take in doctrine on a daily basis and through the momentum of perception of doctrine advance to maturity — those who construct the edification complex of the soul. So there will be great differences in heaven just as there are great differences on earth. The inequalities of life are going to be reflected by inequalities in heaven, the only difference being that inequalities in life are often based on something that is unfair. But in heaven everything is perfectly fair. You had your opportunity in time to take in doctrine, and the fact that you failed and made erroneous decisions only emphasises the doctrine: good decisions open options for greater decisions, bad decisions destroy those options until no options are left, only the sin unto death. Good options are related to your decisions to live and function inside the divine dynasphere, bad options are related to your decisions to live inside the cosmic system.

Then comes the next item on our chronology, the second advent of Christ. When the second advent occurs we as believers in resurrection bodies return with Him. So this is the profile of the resurrection body. You receive it first at the Rapture of the Church. Then you take your resurrection body into the air for the big genuflect. The first thing you will do in your resurrection body is what you are really or allegedly doing now, worshipping the Lord. That will be the first time you worship Him in a resurrection body. Then there will be the evaluation. During the Tribulation on earth you will have a turn at the judgment seat of Christ. You will receive your royal family efficiency rating. You will either flunk or you will pass with good grades or high grades or the highest. And it all depends on the decisions you make while in this body of corruption. After the Tribulation is over Jesus Christ returns to the earth. His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives. Coming with Him will be the royal family of God. We will be in resurrection body even as our Lord’s humanity will be in a resurrection body, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, “… at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his royal family [saints].” And then we have something that we have never had before. We are manifest as the key to history during the dispensation of the Church. All believers who were winners, who advanced to maturity, who used the time on earth to glorify the Lord — perception and application of Bible doctrine — are going to be presented to the world. In other words, we are unknown in time. As we move through this life with a positive volition toward doctrine we are not in anyone’s history book, we are not even news, we are not even regarded in any way. And that is as it should be. You see, history depends upon our attitude toward Bible doctrine, therefore no publicity is necessary and no publicity is desired. We are here for a purpose, we are involved in a great unseen, invisible war and the trends of history depend upon our attitude toward Bible doctrine. So we live relatively unknown; we die anonymously, but the Lord knows all about us. Therefore we become known at the judgment seat of Christ to the rest of the royal family. The plan of God is going to be a great revelation at the judgment seat of Christ, and there you become known, you are presented to the royal family of God as one of the great ones. You receive your decorations and your awards. You are relatively anonymous and you will only become known as a winner, first to the Church at the judgment seat of Christ at the resurrection, and secondly, to the entire world at the second advent of Christ. Then you will be on the permanent page of history, if you are a winner, if you reside and function inside of the divine dynasphere, Colossians 3:4, “On the occasion when Christ our life [“our life” indicates the attitude of the mature believer] shall become manifest [the second advent] you also [the mature believer rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ] shall become manifest with him in glory.”

When our Lord returns one of the first functions is operation footstool. After AD 70 of the Church Age we begin what is called, in Luke 21, the times of the Gentiles. From BC 1440 all of the way down to AD 70 the Jews were the client nation to God. When the Jews went out under the fifth cycle of discipline in AD 70 there could only then be Gentile client nations in this dispensation. So the history of the Church Age is the history of Gentile client nations beginning with the Roman empire and going right up to the client nation of the present time. For some 2000 years only a Gentile nation could be a client nation to God, and so it will be until the second advent of Jesus Christ. When that occurs there will be a special operation in which we participate. During the Tribulation there will be no Jewish client nation but 144,000 Jews will function in place of a client nation, Revelation 7 and 14. When the second advent then occurs operation footstool is one of the first items on the agenda. It is first mentioned as a prophecy in Psalm 110:1. This is a prophecy so important that it is quoted numerous times in the New Testament, Matthew 24:22; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43; Acts 2:35; Hebrews 1:13; 10:13, among others. Operation footstool begins at the second advent and includes the coup de tat in which Satan loses the rulership of this world to Christ. Both Satan and all fallen angels are incarcerated for a period of 1000 years. Those of us who are winners are involved in operation footstool.

Operation footstool is described as a triumphal procession which was quite well-known at the time of writing. During the period of the Roman empire one of the greatest things that could happen was for a general to receive a triumphal procession, it was considered the ultimate in life. It was very simple. First of all the victorious general would have in the procession his army, those who were guarding the prisoners. The prisoners and the things captured would go first through the streets and they would be followed by a royal golden chariot. In that chariot, with a crown held over his head by a slave, would be the triumphant general. The slave would repeat to the general, sic transit gloria munde, sic transit gloria munde, sic transit gloria munde, a reminder not to lose his cool, not to get arrogant, and it means simply from the Latin, “For the glory of the world passes away”. This was the ultimate in glory in the Roman world. Then following would be the army, and when the triumphal procession would finally come to its termination, at that point all of the captives would be seized and thrown into prison. Some would be executed, some would be disposed of in other ways. So the triumphal procession is the way in which operation footstool is described in its fulfilment. It follows the same format and procedure as that Roman triumphal procession. The prisoners in this case: Satan as the ruler, and the demons, are marched in front of the triumphant General who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Then comes the triumphant consul or tribune or leader with the crown. That, of course, is our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. Then follows the army. In this case it is the royal family of God, the Church Age believers, many of whom have been decorated, have received rewards. When the process ends the captives are then cast into prison, and the army does this. It is the privilege and the honour of believers who are winners in this life to incarcerate the demons who are removed from the earth so that perfect environment can exist for 1000 years during our Lord’s Millennial reign.

In the triumphal process of the second advent then the demons are disarmed and publicly displayed in the triumphal procession. This is the subject of Colossians chapter 2, especially verse 15 which says: “And having disarmed demon archons and commissioned officers, he [Christ at the second advent] made a public display of them [triumphal procession], having celebrated a triumphal procession over them [i.e.. demons and fallen angels] by means of it [the strategy of the cross].”

At the end of the triumphal procession we have a description of what happens in 1 Corinthians 15:23-25, “But each man in his own battalion,” describing the resurrection. There are two battalions in this review in resurrection. There is the first and second resurrection. The first resurrection has to do with eternal life; the second resurrection has to do with eternal condemnation. At the end of the Church Age is the resurrection of the Church; at the end of the Tribulation Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs are resurrected; at the end of the Millennium there are all of the Millennial believers who will receive a resurrection body. This is all the first resurrection; this is the first battalion. The second battalion is the unbeliever resurrected at the end of the Millennium, judged, and cast into the lake of fire forever.

Verse 23, “Each man in his own battalion: Christ the firstfruits [our Lord Jesus Christ in His resurrection]; after that those who are Christ’s at his coming” — this is the second part of the first battalion, all of those in the Church Age who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 24, “Then comes the end [end of the Tribulation, the second advent of Christ] when he delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father” — our Lord Jesus Christ takes the rulership of the world away from Satan in the coup de tat, gives it to the Father who in turn gives it back to the Son as the last Adam of Hebrews chapter one, verse two — “when Christ has abolished all rule [the rule of Satan] and all authority [the dictators of the Tribulation, the two beasts of Revelation 13] and the power [the removal of demons],” as per Zechariah 13:2 and Colossians 2:15.

Verse 25, “For he must reign [for 1000 years] till he has put all enemies under his feet.” So we have a special passage which deals with the incarceration of Satan. This is found in Revelation chapter 20, verses 1-3. We also have the wedding feast of the Lord. Remember the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. It deals with believers and unbelievers in the Tribulation. But in the wedding supper of the Lord when all of these things are brought together at the second advent it is found, however, in Revelation chapter 19 verse six and following, the Church as the bride is prepared for this wedding supper by resurrection, by the judgment seat of Christ after the resurrection. The doctrine of ultimate sanctification is the believer in the resurrection body. The tremendous rewards that some will receive are the result of what they did during their life on this earth as believers — perception and application of Bible doctrine, residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The coronation of Christ as the groom precedes the wedding supper of the Lord, and this coronation is recorded in Revelation 19:6 where it says: “And I heard as it were a sound of a great crowd of people” — these are the Church Age believers, this is a prediction about you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ — “and I heard the sound of many waters” — these are the Old Testament believers who have just received their resurrection bodies, as per John 3:29, the friends of the groom; “and the sound of many thunderings” — these are the Tribulational believers at the second advent who will be the initial population for the Millennium, as per Matthew 25:1-13. All three are gathered together for a purpose, for the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ; “saying, Hallelujah: because the Lord God [Jesus Christ], the total ruler has been crowned.”

Then comes the wedding supper in Revelation 19:7-9. “Let us have extreme happiness” — happiness is something that resides in the soul, it is a capacity which begins in the soul and relates to things in life, good or bad, adverse or wonderful; “and celebrate, and let us give glory to him [our Lord Jesus Christ]: because the marriage of the Lamb and his bride is come” — the preparation of the bride again is the resurrection.

Verse 8, “And it was given to her that she should be attired in fine linen” — imputed righteousness parlayed into great blessing at the judgment seat of Christ. It is said to be bright, related to perfection in the divine dynasphere, unsoiled, total freedom from contamination of the cosmic system; “for the fine linen is the ultimate righteousness of the saints.” All of this is a resurrection scene in the future.

Verse 9, “And he communicates to me, Write, Happiness belongs to the ones who have been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” There are invitations issued to three categories: believers of this dispensation, the royal family of God; friends of the groom, the Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs who receive their resurrection bodies at the second advent; then there are the friends of the bride, and that is the Tribulational believers who survive the terrible things of Revelation chapters 6-18 and who will be the initial population in the Millennium, “Furthermore he communicates to me, These are true doctrines from the source of God.”

This brings us into the field of motivation, for you are going to spend a very short time on this earth. Life is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity and there is no way to make a comparison between the few years of this life and eternity. It is eternity that counts, that which is invisible to us now and for many not very real at all. The winner is the one who will be great in eternity. The winner is the mature believer of the Church Age who will rule with Christ after this wedding feast. The winner will be identified by the awards and decoration received at the judgment seat of Christ, and all of these awards are related attitude toward Bible doctrine. He has access to the gazebo in the garden of Revelation 2:7. He will receive the crown of life, the highest decoration for living in the divine dynasphere. He will receive that decoration which has to do with his passing all momentum tests from gate four to gate eight. He will be awarded these things at the judgment seat of Christ after the resurrection. He will have authority then to rule during that period of perfect environment. This authority is mentioned in Revelation 2:26, “Furthermore the winner, even he who keeps my assignments to the end,” keeping our Lord’s assignments has to do with perception of Bible doctrine, “to him I will give authority over the nations,” this refers to the Millennial reign of our Lord. For example, in Revelation 20:4, “I saw thrones and they that sat on them,” Who is going to sit on these thrones? Every mature believer of the Church Age, “and judgment was given to them,” Revelation 5:10; “and you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God and they will rule on earth.” That is future, and it has to do with the future rule of the mature believers. Romans 5:17, “Much more then, they shall rule through that one, Jesus Christ”; 2 Timothy 2:12, “If we endure [that has to do with residence and function inside the divine dynasphere] we shall also rule.” This function is restricted to the order of chivalry in the Church Age, those who are knighted with a new name and a new title. It begins with the hidden manna, maximum doctrine resident in the soul; it goes to the resurrection body, the white pebble, the vote of God for your eternal life; and it ends up with a new name, the knighthood title you will receive at the judgment seat of Christ.

Now all of this has a point, this review of the various chronological things related to your resurrection body, and the point is a very simple one. All historical blessing and prosperity in the Church Age results from unknown and unnamed believers living inside the divine dynasphere, advancing to maturity, forming the pivot for blessing by association to the client nation of God. The mature believers who provide the basis for blessing and prosperity are not named in history. They are not found in the textbooks of world history, they are anonymous and unknown. They are unsung heroes.

These mature believers, then, who provide the basis for all of our blessing and prosperity in time are the only solution to the problems we face at the present time, economic depression, social degeneration, and military disaster just around the corner. While these believers are unknown today they will be well-known at the judgment seat of Christ to the Church, and even better known to the entire world at the second advent of Christ. At the resurrection of the Church, called the Rapture of the Church, they will have the white pebble, the resurrection body. All believers, including the losers will have the white pebble, the resurrection body, but the winners will be knighted with a new name, a new title. The most important factor in history at this time is the unknown factor — the spiritual dynamics that come from believers who reside and function in that divine dynasphere. But in the future the winning believer, the believer who advances to maturity, will become well-known. At the Rapture, again, in his resurrection body he will receive great decorations, the knighthood, the crown of life, and he will be presented to the entire world to reign with Christ during the Millennium. He will become well-known, then, to the entire world at a future time.

Therefore the challenge is presented to you: Will you live your life, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the light of eternity to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ?

John 11:25,26 puts it this way: “Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in me shall live even if he dies: and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Thyatira was famous as the centre of labour unionism in the Roman empire. The first Gentile client nation to God found itself faced with a very serious union problem. Thyatira was the most completely unionised city in the Roman world, therefore it was impossible for many of its believers to ever advance to maturity because they were more under the influence of loyalty to unionism than to what the Word of God had to say. Therefore we are not going to find it the same as Ephesus or Smyrna or even Pergamum. The unions were the ones who sponsored the phallic cult and various idolatrous religious activities, and the unions took a stand at that time which basically has never changed: they were anti-Christian; they were anti-doctrine. It is very rare for a born-again member of a union to ever become a mature believer because of a conflict of interests between the union and Bible doctrine, for unionism is a form of power grabbing where power is not authorised under the laws of divine establishment. In this context Thyatira is threatened with divine punishment through economic disaster, for where the unions rule economic disaster is inevitable.

Too often today the unions have become a sacred cow. To even say anything unkind about the unions is considered to be political suicide, and that means that the unions have a power which has become evil. This doesn’t mean that people don’t have a right to decent wages but when people working for unions are making more than college professors and professional people something is terribly wrong.

Verse 19, we begin with the perfect o)ida, used as a present active indicative. O)ida is a verb of cognisance used here for divine knowledge [omniscience] regarding the status quo of the church at Thyatira. We will translate this, “I have known.” The present of duration or retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past through omniscience, feeding the computer of divine decrees, and continues into the present with a printout of history. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action; the indicative mood is declarative for a statement of an absolute and dogmatic fact known to our Lord in eternity past.

With this verb we have the accusative plural, direct object from the noun e)rgon, which can be translated works, deeds, production, or accomplishments. It refers to whatever the individual believer does, moment by moment, during his life in this earth. With this we have the possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun su, referring in this context to every believer in Thyatira in the year AD 96, but also referring to every believer in the history of the Church Age. There is nothing unknown to the Lord, “I have known your accomplishments.”

We have following a double use of the conjunction kai, and when it is doubled in a phrase it generally is translated “both and.” But here, of course, we have the explanatory use of the conjunction kai explaining the meaning of the accusative direct object, and therefore it is translated correctly, “namely.” Plus the following appositional accusatives are given, one is not found in the original. We first of all have the accusative of a)gaph. A)gaph has to do with virtue, integrity, and all Christian production has to do with virtue and integrity; which takes us right back to the Christian way of life inside the divine dynasphere, invisible and visible. The invisible is the function of the royal priesthood, it is always directed toward God. The visible is the function of the royal ambassadorship, and it is always directed toward man. In this particular area we are talking about integrity. All Christian production is based upon virtue and integrity. All Christian production is meaningless unless it is based upon virtue and integrity. Take love, for example. Personal love is never a virtue unless it is directed toward God. The functional virtue is impersonal love which is directed toward all mankind. Personal love exists in the human race: category two, right man, right woman; category three, friendship. But they are only successful when they are based upon virtue, and the virtue of love directed toward mankind is impersonal love, the application of doctrine from gate four of the divine dynasphere toward mankind. So the first item of production is not some work, not something you do. All production in the Christian life is based on thought and the Christian way of life is what you think. Action merely results from good motivation.

The second area of Christian production follows. It is also an appositional accusative from the noun pistij. It refers to the three stages of the function of the faith-rest drill. Stage one: faith reaches out and claims a promise. The reason for that is because of inability to think. Fear and cowardice is lack of thinking; it is an emotion without any rationale. To overcome it faith reaches out and claims a promise. Stage two: The doctrinal rationales which are applied to the situation. The essence of God rationale applied to the situation, the plan of God rationale applied to the situation. Often it is simply the logistical grace rationale applied to the situation. Stage three: You reach doctrinal conclusions whereby you deal with the situation from the standpoint of the application of Bible doctrine. The faith-rest drill is absolutely necessary in passing the momentum tests between gate four and gate eight. To solve your own problems you have to have the doctrine and these two techniques.

Next we have a third appositional accusative. The words “and service” do not occur in the original, but we do have the appositional accusative of diakonia. It is of course related to the noun diakonoj which is transliterated “deacon” and translated “ministry.” This word also refers to an administrative service, to behind the scenes activity, the function of believers in a local church. Like members of an air crew or combat team it takes the dedication of many different believers to form the function that is mentioned here. We are going to translate it, “and the ministry.” In this dispensation every believer is a member of the royal family of God and this results in the universal ministry of the believer. There is no such thing as full-time Christian service inasmuch as every believer is in full-time Christian service as a royal priest and as a royal ambassador. Therefore every believer as a minister of God in full-time Christian service is in view. And without this background whatever production is accomplished it is meaningless, it is wood, hay, and stubble, unless it is based upon these three appositional accusatives.

We do have the fourth appositional accusative and that is the accusative of u(pomonh, which means ordinarily in the Greek, patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, and persistence. It has a technical connotation here. The noun even connotes — going back to Classical Greek — courageous endurance, and here it refers to something very similar to that, the believer’s residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. We will translate it, “and your perseverance,” but it is technical for your life. You must live (persevere) in the power sphere provided by God, the divine dynasphere. All of us are weak in this life and the ruler of this world is Satan who in his genius has provided a power system that is far stronger, far greater than we are. And when we reject the divine dynasphere we move into Satan’s cosmic one or cosmic two. We become negative toward doctrine from cosmic one through preoccupation with self, that’s grieving the Holy Spirit; in cosmic two we become antagonistic toward doctrine. The combination of the two makes us enemies of the cross, as per Philippians chapter two.

So here we have “perseverance.” Note that with it we have the possessive genitive from the pronoun su, which occurs in this and in the next appositional phrase only. It is, “your perseverance.” And then finally we have the appositional accusative to summarise the fact that all production in the Christian life is dependant upon these four. We have the appositional accusative once more of the noun e)rgon, and again it means works, production, deeds. We will translate it simply, “your works.”

Translation of the verse up to this point: “I have known your accomplishments [Christian production], namely the love” — the function of virtue inside the divine dynasphere; “and the faith” — the modus operandi of the three stages of the faith-rest drill; “and the ministry,” the function of your royal warrants (ambassador and priest); “both your perseverance,” your decisions to live inside the divine dynasphere; “and your production” — the result of living in the divine dynasphere.

Then he adds one phrase, the nominative neuter plural subject from e)schatoj, which means last. As an adjective it must find a noun, e)rgon, “your last production.” Then he adds the accusative neuter plural direct object, pleion, the comparative of poluj. It means greater. And since greater is in the accusative and last is in the nominative obviously we have the need of a verb here, “the last works are greater.” Then we have the comparative, the ablative of comparison from prwtoj, “first.” This is a reference to the momentum of believers who consistently live inside the divine dynasphere and are faithful in the perception and application of doctrine. Therefore this phrase refers to the believer passing the momentum tests.

Corrected translation: “I have known your accomplishments, namely the love, and the faith, both your perseverance and your works; the last works are greater than the first.”

Several principles in closing out this verse: The secret to the Christian life is not your spiritual gift here, and it is not all of the things that God has provided — though these are true. But here we have an additional thing. The secret to the Christian life in this verse is one word: consistency. What this is saying in effect is that you cannot live the Christian life unless you are organised. That is what consistency means. The only way you can be organised is to be consistent in your thinking and in your action, to be self-disciplined in your thinking and in your action.

Consistency as far as the Christian way of life is concerned has three basic principles:

a. Consistency in living inside the divine dynasphere, which in effect means consistency in the use of the rebound technique which is the only way to recover and re-enter the divine dynasphere and regain and retain the filling of the Holy Spirit.

b. Consistency in a scale of values — Bible doctrine first, in other words, and the decisions based on that system of priorities, having the right priorities, the right scale of values, and making your decisions on the basis of your right priorities.

c. The ability to keep plugging in spite of failure, distraction, disillusion and setback. Keep plugging, keep going; don’t let anything get you off the track no matter how discouraging any set of circumstances happen to become. That is why we have the last phrase at the end of verse 19 — “the last works are greater than the first.” This also means something else: it refers to the fact of having consistency and therefore passing momentum tests.

There are eight categories of momentum testing

a. The old sin nature test. The old sin nature constantly seeks to gain control of the soul. Guarding the gate of the soul is your volition. All temptation comes from the old sin nature and it moves in the direction of that gate, your volition. To say No ends the matter. To fail the temptation though and do it, whether you know it is a sin or not, means that the old sin nature now controls your soul and you are now living inside of the cosmic system. The consistent use of rebound is the way to stay out of the cosmic system.

b. People testing — reaction to people, distraction from people. Love or hatred can both be a people test. All of the people tests can only be solved through the existence of a functional virtue called impersonal love.

c. Thought testing. This can only be resolved by the daily routine and habit of doctrinal perception.

d. System testing. At some time or another we are all victims of a bad system, a bad organisation, an evil organisation, and there are three solutions. There is the function of the faith-rest drill toward the problem in the bad system. Secondly the function of impersonal love directed toward personnel in the bad system. Thirdly, occupation with the person of Christ, or a social life with God to give you the ability, the virtue and the integrity to rise above your circumstances.

e. The attack of cosmic one. For example, mental attitude arrogance, negative volition arrogance, impulsive arrogance, institutional arrogance, blind arrogance, conspiracy arrogance, crusader arrogance. The answer is again rebound and maximum growth inside the divine dynasphere.

f. The direct attack of cosmic two. For example, negative volition, degeneracy, antiestablishment, the cosmic panaceas, religion, demonism, academic speculation, the old sin nature, evil. The answer is rebound and maximum growth inside the divine dynasphere.

g. Disaster testing — always personal to you. This demands the function of the faith-rest drill.

h. Prosperity testing. Usually individual prosperity results from achievement of spiritual maturity, the arrival at gate eight. To pass the test the believer must have capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, capacity for prosperity, and capacity for love and virtue.

To avoid being depressed, which is always a great danger in all of these tests, the believer must have great capacity for thanksgiving, a great appreciation for things in life. He must also have enthusiasms in life. Prosperity testing can only be passed where these things exist. Prosperity testing is always a maturity test or a final test which leads to maturity.

Only by passing these eight momentum tests are the “last works greater than the first,” as per our passage. And note once again that discouragement and depression accompany all of these momentum tests. They always accompany to see if Bible doctrine is more important and more real than anything else in life and to make sure that the invisible God in heaven are more real than anything else in life — people, circumstances and, of course, more real than all the systems in Satan’s ace trump which is arrogance.

We now look at how the church at Thyatira failed, why they failed, how they failed, and how this has become a part of human history from AD 96 to the present.

Verse 20, We begin in the Greek with the use of the adversative conjunction a)lla, which is a conjunction of contrast which sets up a contrast with the preceding verse. We now see what the Lord has against the church at Thyatira. It is correctly translated “but.” With it we have the present active indicative of e)xw, the verb to have. “But I have” is the descriptive present tense for what is now going on. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as eternal God and the prince ruler of the Church. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that many believers in Thyatira are living inside the cosmic system. Then we have the prepositional phrase kata plus the genitive of the personal pronoun su, which is translated “against.”

What follows, then, is an indictment against those believers involved in the cosmic system. Involvement in the cosmic system results in a historical downtrend of a Gentile client nation called SPQR, the Roman empire. The phrase “a few things” is omitted simply because it is not found in the original. The translation is simply: “But I have this against you.”

Then we begin what He has, and we start out with the conjunction o(ti which introduces the content of the indictment of the Thyatira church. It can be translated “that,” but it really means “namely that.” Then we have the verb, the present active indicative of the verb a)fihmi, which means to tolerate here. We have seen toleration which is a virtue but there is also a toleration which has no virtue at all, it is simply a sign of cosmic living. Remember that in the cosmic system there is a great deal of toleration of all Satanic ideas and concepts and that is exactly what we have here. There is a right toleration; there is a wrong toleration. Right toleration is related to the doctrine of impersonal love but here we have toleration of that which is false and that which is evil. The active voice: believers living in the cosmic system produce the action of the verb.

Remember there are four mandates of the Christian way of life related to God the Holy Spirit. For example, he mandate in Ephesians chapter five verse eighteen — gate one of the divine dynasphere. Then the command of Galatians 5:16, “Walk by means of the Spirit,” function at the eight gates in the divine dynasphere, which is God’s game-plan for the Church Age believer. There is also a negative command dealing with cosmic one, the interlocking systems of arrogance: “Grieve not the Spirit.” And there is another negative mandate dealing with cosmic two: “Quench not the Holy Spirit. These two cosmic systems together form Satan’s system of controlling believers, as well as Satan’s genius in the administration of the rulership of this world. The cosmic believer is grieving the Holy Spirit and he is quenching the Holy Spirit, and therefore he is completely out of God’s will and out of phase with God’s plan.

The word we have next is gunh, translated “woman.” If there is anything that is really dangerous it is a smart woman, and a smart woman who has great beauty can be a “bomb” can be very dangerous or very magnificent. There is no in between! Now here is a beautiful woman with brains and ambition — the accusative singular direct object from the definite article thn, and then in the accusative gunh. We have it correctly translated “namely, you tolerate that woman.” Then we have an appositional nominative case from the indeclinable proper noun I)ezabel, our English word Isabel. There is also an articular present active participle from legw, and that plus h( a)utou means to call one’s self something. So it is translated, “who calls herself Jezebel.”

Translation so far: “Bit I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself.”

The very word Jezebel means beauty and brains, otherwise she would not have been so designated by the writer under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. This isn’t Jezebel coming back to life from the Old Testament, this is a beautiful smart woman. But we add something: she was an arrogant ambitious woman. There is nothing wrong with being beautiful and there is nothing wrong with being smart but it is the word “prophetess” where we begin to find something very much amiss; profhthj, “who calls herself a prophetess.” We have here a double accusative of direct and predicate object, h( a)utou is the direct object, the reflexive pronoun translated “herself,” and then the predicate object is profhthj, prophetess. In order to advance her own aims in order to gain attention, in order to fulfil inordinate ambition, she gave herself a title to which she was not entitled. There were no female prophets in the Church at this time. The male prophets had died out and no prophetesses existed. She was alleging to have a gift from God that did not exist, which brings her into focus as a very arrogant and ambitious woman.

Principle

1. Jezebel is not really her name. It is a pseudonym but everyone knows who it is. Jezebel merely describes what the woman was like — beautiful, smart, ambitious. So it is a reference to a very smart and beautiful woman living in the city of Thyatira as the head of a phallic cult. She was also using religion to make a name for herself.

2. She had succeeded in luring believers away from doctrine into the phallic cult in a manner similar to the historical Jezebel who invaded Israel. One of the greatest invasions that Israel ever faced was not the Assyrian army, but one woman, Jezebel.

3. The Word of God strongly opposes female leadership in spiritual things — Revelation 17:1-6.

4. The pattern for this Bible objection goes back to the Garden of Eden and the historical trend related to the principle of the weak controlling the strong. The Bible calls the woman the weaker vessel, not because she lacks courage or character but simply because she is dependant on the man.

5. The woman sinned first and at that moment became weak, while Adam had not yet sinned and therefore is classified as strong. So in the Garden when Adam looked on the first sinner she was weak and he was still in a state of perfection or innocence, he was strong.

6. From the very beginning of man’s failure on planet earth he was the victim of the weak manipulating and controlling the strong.

7. Adam took the forbidden fruit from the hand of the woman, not from the tree. Jezebel, the weak, ambitious, beautiful, smart, arrogant woman controlled one of the greatest soldiers of her day. Ahab was a great military man who even frightened the Assyrians he was so great.

8. Jezebel in Thyatira is controlling believers, luring them from the blessing of the divine dynasphere into the cursing of the cosmic system. Many of these believers were like Ahab, they were strong in their field but were led astray very easily.

Translation so far: “But I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess.” To understand this phrase we must begin with the historical trend of how the weak control the strong.

1. There are two categories of weak people: the evil weak and the good weak. A lot of weak people are obviously evil, but just as weak are self-righteous good people.

2. The good weak are not involved in this study. The divine dynasphere was provided by God for the protection of the good weak.

3. Therefore in this study we will deal with the evil weak. From now they will simply be called the weak in our study.

4. Weak, insecure, irresponsible, thoughtless, selfish, arrogant people — the evil weak — control policy, procedure and people as a historical trend. They control them in social life, business life, government life, professional life, cultural life, spiritual life, sexual life, etc.

5. One of the signs of a declining society is the sign of the weak in society dominating the strong, and the weak in society controlling people through arrogant self-righteousness, violence, liberalism, or whatever is the going, acceptable thing in current Satanic trends.

6. The scum, the criminal element, the liberals, the hippies, the irresponsible, control the strong as an historical trend toward cosmic involvement and inevitable degeneracy.

7. This why a nagging wife who pouts, makes scenes in public, can dominate, control and manipulate what is often an honourable husband, a person who is kind, considerate and thoughtful. And this is how a power-mad fourth estate plus an irresponsible press without integrity can dominate the thinking of a nation and often destroy an truly great leader.

So under the principle of the weak controlling the strong human rights advocates destroy human freedom. Terrorism and crime are the tools by which the weak control the strong. When crime is out of control and terrorism is the order of the day then in society the weak control the strong. When liberalism is out of control teenage kids dominate and control their parents.

The solution to the historical trend called the weak controlling the strong

1. The Garden of Eden was to Adam, when he looked at the first sinner and was tempted, as the divine dynasphere is to the believer when faced with temptation and manipulation by the weak — such as Jezebel. (Jezebel is the pattern of the weak controlling the strong)

2. Inside the divine dynasphere the battle is the Lord’s and you win, you make a right decision; inside the cosmic system the battle is yours, and you lose, you make a wrong decision.

3. There are no winners in the cosmic system, there are just different categories of losers. Among the categories of losers are the group who follow the principle of being strong but controlled by the weak.

4. There are no losers in the divine dynasphere, just categories of winners.

5. Obviously some, in fact many believers, have rejected the lure of the weak controlled by the strong.

6. Starting with Adam’s wrong decision there would be no human history without wrong decisions. This is a part of the great conflict. Man must choose between arrogance and humility as an extension of the angelic conflict.

7. If you think you are strong you really become weak and you become entangled with the system stronger than you are — the cosmic system of Satan whereby he administers the rulership of this world.

8. If you know that you are weak you become strong in choosing the divine dynasphere. Once Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil history became a matter of self-determination, and human volition exercises the options of life, the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system.

Once you choose a power system in which to reside as a believer your decision merges into a power greater than you are so that your decisions take on the character of your choice. You either as a result of choosing the cosmic system take on the character of the cosmic system or you take on the character of the divine dynasphere, if you so choose. Therefore good decisions are made for the divine dynasphere and Bible doctrine while bad decisions are made for the cosmic system where the weak control the strong. Good decisions are made inside the divine dynasphere where the strong become stronger and options are created for more and greater decisions leading to the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ and fantastic human happiness. But bad decisions are made inside the cosmic system where the weak control the strong, and both freedom and the options are destroyed so that the believer becomes the servant of Satan under the title of everything that runs the gamut from carnality to reversionism.

To understand the phrase, “that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess,” we need now to examine the Jezebel profile. We have simply stated that the solution to the weak controlling the strong is residence and function inside the divine dynasphere but now we need to amplify this Jezebel of Thyatira. She is not a reincarnation of Jezebel of the days of king Ahab but she follows the same pattern.

The author of the book of Kings makes no bones about the fact that Jezebel was an implacable dictator, a very clever intriguer, a shameless trollop, besides which she was a high-class whore. She was the high priestess of the phallic cult called Ashtaroth. Jezebel came from the palace of Hiram, king of Tyre, who had done so much business with Solomon when he was king of Israel. Her father, Ethball, had been a priest of Ashtaroth before he took over the throne in a palace revolution. His neighbours, the Jews, were still his best customers. In the northern kingdom there was a strong warrior king by the name of Omri. He ruled from 882-871 BC and he built a new strong fortification which became the capital of the northern kingdom and was called Samaria. He was involved in a weak controlling the strong situation which began with king Omri who like his son was one of the great generals of his day. He was led astray by a weak king, Ethbaal of Tyre. It was Ethbaal of Tyre who saw that the Jews were going to be the great warrior nation in the Middle East in the ninth century BC. King Omri was a very strong man and a great soldier but he was led astray by a very weak person, Ethbaal, king of Tyre at whose suggestion there was the marriage between his son, Ahab, and Omri’s daughter Jezebel. And it was inevitable that just as Ethbaal controlled Omri so Jezebel controlled Ahab.

Like his father, Ahab was a great soldier and he would have been a great king except for the fact that he was a victim of a very evil weak person controlling the strong. In her marriage to king Ahab Jezebel changed her nationality but she didn’t change her religion, the phallic cult. By controlling Ahab she brought great apostasy into Israel, the greatest invasion of the cosmic system into Israel in all of its history. This is why God raised up first Elijah and later on Elisha. But it was about 871 BC when Jezebel married king Ahab, 1 Kings 16:31ff, and thus established an alliance between two of the most vigorous people of that century, the Phoenicians and the Jews. And under the principle of the weak controlling the strong Jezebel was permitted to bring her priesthood into Israel. So she brought the phallic cult into Israel She sponsored 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Ashteroth. With her foot in the door she also arranged the assassination of the Lord’s prophets — 1 Kings 18:13; 2 Kings 9:7. The evil of weak people is seen in Jezebel’s murder of Naboth. This resulted in Elijah’s prophecy as to how she would die, the dogs would eat her bones — 1 Kings 21:19-29.

After the Elijah revival on Mount Carmel she neutralised the revival by threatening to kill Elijah and scared him off. In this case the weak Jezebel controlled the strong Elijah, just as the weak Jezebel controlled the strong Ahab. In Israel during the time of Jezebel there were only 7000 believers who continued faithful to the Lord, just as in Thyatira at the time that John wrote this passage there were few believers inside the divine dynasphere. Jezebel survived Ahab by some fourteen years. She was a beautiful woman with brains and she was evil; she was the weak controlling the strong; she neutralised everything related to doctrine. When Jehoram, her son, was killed by Jehu Jezebel attempted to seduce Jehu. She failed and Jehu ordered her thrown from the balcony and when her body hit the courtyard the prophecy of Elijah was fulfilled — “the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field.” What the dogs didn’t eat they tossed out into a field and as such the weak always end up.

The Jezebel of Thyatira was a beautiful woman, obviously, like the Jezebel of the ninth century BC in Israel. She was also a very smart one and also made an allegation that gave her great credibility with the dumb people in the church. She went around saying she was spiritual and when this happens there are inevitably those who will believe it. We have studied before how the Roman empire was a nation of cities, an urban empire. The country people always followed the religions of Greece and Rome, the ancient religions, and all of the ancient religions had two or three things that we should bare in mind. They had human sacrifice, all the sex they wanted and more, and they had ecstatics like the holy-rollers. They put the whole package together, and when you have sex and the tongues movement, and include a human sacrifice, it seems to cause a great evangelistic push! Just as the original Jezebel used sex in the phallic cult under the principle of the weak controlling the strong, so the Jezebel of Thyatira did exactly the same thing — they evangelised with free sex. Because she was a priestess of the phallic cult and totally involved in the cosmic system Jezebel was an evil, weak woman. This made her a great attraction for the strong. Jezebel was a great manipulator of the strong so that what Jezebel wants, Jezebel gets, whether it is Naboth’s vineyard in the ancient world at the time of Elijah or control of the people in Thyatira. She did it all by combination of sex, religion, ecstatics.

This brings us back to the Greek text. What is she doing? Well, we have the combination of two conjunctions, kai, kai, the double conjunction translated “both and.” So with the first word kai we will translate “she both,” and then we have the present active indicative of didaskw, “she both teaches.” In other words, no woman or man can start a religion without some form of doctrine involved, false doctrine in this case because it was a religion. Religion and Christianity are not the same. In religion man seeks to gain the approbation of God by his works; in Christianity God seeks man through the work of the cross. “She both teaches,” the present progressive tense for an action in the state of persistence, therefore present linear aktionsart. The active voice: Jezebel of Thyatira produces the action of the verb. Then we have kai again in the present active indicative of planaw, which means to deceive or seduce or to lead astray.

When you use teaching you use it for one of two reasons, to clarify the issues of an organisation and give policy to an organisation, or you use teaching in order to deceive people. Jezebel’s organisation was religious, therefore it had to have justification, for sin, evil, self-indulgence, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, bitterness, implacability. These things had to be justified in a religious system, just as Islam today does the same thing. The Mohammedans are a religion who justify their violence. The reason behind all of this is very simple: you have to have a doctrine, a system to justify violence. One of the interesting things about terrorism at the present time is that many of the terrorists are anarchy groups who have no rhyme or reason to what they are doing. Others have an organised system of doctrine and they are the ones that seem to do the best as far as representing communism or whatever their personal interest is.

So we have: “she both teaches and seduces [leads astray, causes to wander].” That is exactly the function of a religion. It is to use some form of teaching and doctrine to lead astray. The perfective present tense refers to a fact of cosmic involvement in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. With this we have the accusative plural direct object composed of two words, the accusative plural from the possessive adjective e)moj, and is correctly translated “my,” and with that the accusative plural from the noun douloj, which means slave. So “she both teaches and seduces [leads astray, causes to wander] my servants” — the Lord’s servants, believers. This is a clear-cut illustration of the weak controlling the strong. The believers in the Lord Jesus Christ by comparison strong, but they are controlled by the weak. So here is the weak controlling the strong because the strong refuse to live within the sphere of their strength.

We are not strong in ourselves, we are strong by virtue of the fact that we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our strength comes from being born again. Our strength comes after salvation from living inside the divine dynasphere. We are not strong in ourselves, we are strong because of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. After salvation that relationship must be in terms of the mandates of the Christian life, residence and function in the divine dynasphere. Our strength is potential depending upon our residence in the divine dynasphere. No one is free from the power systems which exist during the Church Age for this dispensation is the age of the power systems — the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system. The options for the believer are very simple: either choose God’s plan and God’s power related to the divine dynasphere or choose Satan’s plan related to the cosmic system. When we get out of the divine dynasphere we are led out by the weak controlling the strong.

Normal weakness must be distinguished, of course, from evil weakness. Normal weakness implies the fact of the problems of life and our inability to solve those problems. Evil weakness is association with the cosmic system, and evil weakness is what we have in view in this verse. Evil weakness seeks to solve the problems of life by ignoring the problems, rejecting the problems, or using cosmic solutions such as being involved in the religion in Thyatira.

Hence the historical trends. We are the products of our own decisions related to either God’s power system or Satan’s power system. We are the products of our own decisions for volition creates environment, not environment volition. Note that all forms of apostasy is preceded by some form of inculcation which precedes the actual function of apostasy or reversionism. There is cosmic propaganda and there is cosmic philosophy. The believer does not have to listen to false teaching or inculcation but he will do so every time if he has neglected Bible doctrine and wandered away from the power system of the divine dynasphere.

In the human history phase of the angelic conflict man must be free to fail and he must be free to succeed, and therefore the source of either failure is success is the same, the function of your own free will, the function of human volition under the principle of freedom and self determination. Freedom is useless without a sense of responsibility to ensure correct function of that freedom without distortion. And freedom carries the responsibility of making decisions on the basis of integrity and the laws of divine establishment, not on the basis of motivating evil of arrogance — gate 1, cosmic 1. Man must be so inculcated with truth and doctrine that he will take the responsibility for his own decisions in life, plus the consequences of his own decisions. Consequently, recognition and evaluation of our own personal weaknesses is neither degrading nor demeaning, but the means of recognising the principle of doctrine that God has an answer for every weakness in the human life. He alone can convert weakness into strength.

There must be a search for power to overcome weakness rather than a search for weakness by which strength is overcome, and the believers in Thyatira were failing because they were searching for weakness by which strength was overcome — as per Jezebel and the popularity of the phallic cult at that time. And by taking the responsibility for his own failure and his own bad decisions the individual believer learns his own inherent and acquired weaknesses and seeks the solution by rebound and re-entry into the divine dynasphere, God’s power system. It is a system that is greater than all of our weaknesses for the divine dynasphere is greater than all believers.

We have noted that all apostasy is preceded by some form of teaching, some form of inculcation, which precedes the actual function of apostasy or reversionism. Remember that cosmic involvement doesn’t mean that you are instantly ready to be a good servant of Satan. Satan must train you, and therefore the whole system of cosmic two is going to Satan’s school, and when believers serve Satan it is the greatest disaster of all. They are sincere, they are motivated into thinking they are doing something for God, and in reality they are serving the ruler of this world, his majesty the devil. The negative volition of cosmic two is entirely different from the negative volition of cosmic one. In cosmic one negative volition is related to preoccupation with self, to being so interested in entertaining yourself that doctrine ceases to be important, whereas in cosmic two you have an active antagonism toward Bible doctrine. The difference is inculcation, false teaching, and the degeneracy, the antiestablishment, the cosmic panaceas, becoming involved in some religious concepts [religion and Christianity are antithetical], the academic speculation which is often tied into cosmic one [pseudo intellectual arrogance]. All of these things add up to the effectiveness of going to school in the cosmic system, the effectiveness of inculcation of human viewpoint. We see human viewpoint on every hand, we use human viewpoint to justify decisions and activities in which we are involved today. The only defence against this is to learn for yourself Bible doctrine so that you can discern for yourself.

Before we get through with this passage we are going to see how Christian friends are one of the major systems of evangelism for Satan’s cosmic system, and that Christian friendships can very sustaining if everyone involved is pro-doctrine and living in the divine dynasphere, but that born again believers are the devil’s best evangelists for entrance into the cosmic school for inculcation of the human viewpoint of life. Christian friends are the best system for leading you astray.

In the human history phase of the angelic conflict we have noted that man must be free to fail and that he must be free to succeed, for all historical trends are based upon good decisions or bad decisions. And we have seen that good decisions open options for greater decisions whereas bad decisions destroy those options. So the source of either failure or success is always the same — the function of your individual volition, your self-determination under the principle of freedom and self-determination. Freedom is useless without a sense of responsibility to ensure the correct function of that freedom without distortion and to avoid that pitfall of justifying what is wrong in your own life or in others. Freedom carries the responsibility of making decisions on the basis of integrity under the laws of divine establishment, not the motivating evil of arrogance as per cosmic one, gate one. Man must be so inculcated, then, with Bible doctrine that he will take the responsibilities in life, the good ones and the bad ones. Consequently recognition and evaluation of our own personal weaknesses is not degrading or demeaning, it is the means of recognising the principle of doctrine that God has an answer to weakness, converting it into strength, and that there must be, again, decisions made for the power system that gives us the ability to convert our weaknesses into strength rather than to be strong and led by the weak.

Next we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb porneuw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for an action or a fact extended over a period of time. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Fornication is a sin but that isn’t the issue here, it is a system of evangelising for religion. Religion is the devil’s ace trump. The active voice: cosmic believers produce the action through involvement with the phallic cult. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate plan or objective, and therefore the blending of purpose and result. With this we also have the word for eating food which is a second aorist active infinitive preceded by the word kai, the aorist active infinitive of e)sthiw which means to eat. The constative aorist is for an action or fact extended over a period of time and hence contemplating the action in its entirety. The cosmic believers produce the action of the verb through involvement in the phallic cult, so it has some form of eating which has to do with this religion. The infinitive again is intended result and the two of them together can be simply translated: “But I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess; she both teaches and seduces my servants [cosmic believers] to fornicate, and to eat food … “ Then we have the accusative plural direct object from the neuter noun e)idwloquton, which means food which has been sacrificed to idols, to eat food sacrificed to idols. It has to do with the function of the phallic cult.

Principle: Believers must be very wary with whom they party and have their social life. The people with whom you socialise often have the greatest influence in your life. Eating food offered to idols is not the issue, it is the association and influence leading to the weak controlling the strong, and you must constantly make decisions to guard your social life. In effect this says: If you want to stay out of the cosmic system guard your social life and guard your sexual life. It is quite obvious that people who influence are related in these two areas.

There are two principles related to fornication. There is fornication as a social sin, sometimes called adultery although there is a technical difference between the two terms. Then there is fornication related to religion, and that is the phallic cult. One is a sin; one is a system of evil. Religion, being evil — all religion originates with Satan and is used as a distraction from doctrine — always throws in sex as a part of the function of the religion. This has been the case from ancient religions right down to modern religions.

We have noted the significance of fornication and the food sacrifice to idols. As we continue we begin to note some principles which relate to this passage. First, that believers involved in the divine dynasphere are strong and believers involved in the cosmic system are weak. And it is the weak believers who come into this type of activity. Once, living inside the divine dynasphere, they had the strength to produce the activities found in verse 19, but in verse 20 we find the negative side of the picture. From their own free will decisions believers became the strong being controlled and manipulated by the weak Jezebel. So we have again the historical trend of how the weak control the strong. Here were people who were strong at the start but by their failure to persist inside the divine dynasphere they became victims being led by the strong. It all starts with decisions to tolerate and it ends up with decisions to participate. This is the principle: we start out by tolerating that which is wrong and we end up by participating in that which is wrong. We do it from our own free will. Man is the product of his own decisions, and he cannot blame anyone else for decisions he has made. God has given each one of us a free will to make our decisions and when we make erroneous decisions then we wind up under the category of the weak controlling the strong. From the next verse we will learn that Jezebel of Thyatira was a believer who had both time and opportunity for rebound but did not ever recover her residence inside the divine dynasphere. The believers at Thyatira started out in the divine dynasphere but they began to tolerate and then to accept this woman who had entered gate one of cosmic one. Remember that the mandates of God the Holy Spirit always deal with these power spheres. In the dispensation of the Church we have the cosmic system versus the divine dynasphere. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit — Gate one of the divine dynasphere; we are commanded to walk by means of the Spirit — the function of the various gates of the divine dynasphere. By way of negative commands we are commanded to “grieve not the Spirit.” That is functioning in cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; we are commanded to quench not the Spirit, the function of cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. It all started with this woman entering gate one of cosmic one. This became the motivating evil for this woman called Jezebel of Thyatira. Next, of course, she moved over to interlock with gate two of cosmic one, which is negative volition. This negative volition is not the type that is antagonistic toward Bible doctrine, it is simply preoccupation with self to the exclusion of doctrinal teaching. And then because of her tremendous beauty and because she was a very brilliant woman she got into gate ten, sexual arrogance; gate seventeen iconoclastic arrogance; gate nineteen, the arrogance of emotion; gate twenty-three, the arrogance of lust. And, of course, she interlocked with cosmic two immediately. Gate eight of cosmic two is the old sin nature gate and she became involved there. Gate nine is evil.

The weak controlling the strong, then, began with toleration of the weak. Note in verse 20: “But I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel”. Toleration is a wonderful thing if it extends from the virtue of impersonal love. But never does impersonal love tolerate beyond the point of compromising your life in making wrong decisions. That is exactly what happened here. They abandoned the concept of toleration as they began to fail in the function of impersonal love as a virtue, and the more they failed in the function of impersonal love as a virtue the more they began to tolerate what was doctrinally in error. As a result they finally opened the floodgates to allow this cult to develop inside the church. So we have the case of the weak controlling the strong and it always begins by toleration — the strong tolerate the weak, they have the strength of toleration but they misplace it — and then using one’s free will to be inculcated and taught by the weak. So that the weak influence the strong by some system of teaching or inculcation and finally become involved in the cosmic system advocated by the weak. And then the believer’s involved with Jezebel began to make wrong decisions. Wrong decisions result in further cosmic involvement and they require the rebound technique to escape, as we will see in the next verse, but instead of using that and re-entering the divine dynasphere they continued to become enmeshed in the cosmic system. The greater the function of our volition under the principle of freedom the more we as believers must be aware of our inherent and acquired weaknesses so that we turn to God’s provision of the divine dynasphere for the ability to cope with these things and not let them become a means of tripping us up.

This brings us to our first principle with regard to the interpretation of verse 20: We need God, we need God’s provision, we need God’s plan for our lives:

1. God’s plan is first of all salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it continues after the moment of salvation with residence and function inside the divine dynasphere which He has provided for us under the principle of logistical grace.

2. Man is neither the master of his fate nor the Lord of his destiny. This is illustrated by the historical trend which we have developed before in which the weak control the strong. The weak control the strong in business, in government, socially, in all forms of organisations, even in some churches. Man is not the master of his fate. As a matter of fact he is the product of his own decisions but that doesn’t make him the master of his fate.

3. Man lives in the devil’s world and he is therefore vulnerable to involvement in the cosmic system.

4. Therefore through wrong decisions: every terrible thing that comes to us comes through wrong decisions we have made, we can never blame anyone else, we must take the responsibility for our own decisions, that is a part of growing up. The believer becomes involved in the cosmic system of Satan as the ruler of this world and the genius who has developed this unusual system.

5. Without the power of the divine dynasphere and the provision of logistical grace man cannot withstand the pressures and temptations to become involved in the cosmic system. In other words, none of us as believers on our own are stronger than the cosmic system. We find ourselves therefore caught between two systems. We are human and therefore naturally weak. We find ourselves forced to face the issue: Which system do we choose, the cosmic system of Satan or the divine dynasphere system of our Lord? One offers great happiness and blessing, the other offers pseudo happiness and pseudo blessing and inevitably trips us up in wrong decisions. We are the products of wrong decisions. The more wrong decisions we make the more we become involved with Jezebel of Thyatira.

6. Apart from doctrine and the divine dynasphere man does not have the power, the strength, the ability to resist life in the cosmic system. Therefore the believer lives by his own volition and chooses something greater than himself by which to live.

7. Each one of us must choose in what power sphere he is going to live. This does not mean that because you made a one-shot decision you will always do it. This is the decision that is made every day. Some times it is made through the rebound technique and sometimes it is made simply by positive volition towards Bible doctrine. But every day you have to face the same decision all of the way to the end of your life on this earth — to choose one system as over against another, recognising the fact that our power is not in our inherent ability but in the volition, the freedom we have to choose one system as over against another.

8. There will always be some Jezebel hanging around to push man or mankind into the cosmic system through the historical trends of the weak manipulating the strong. This is talking about someone who is attractive, not someone who is beautiful and dumb, which is not attractiveness all. This is talking about the dangerous combination which has the ability to manipulate through hypocrisy and at the same time to attract the men through the obvious system — Adam meets Eve!

Again the corrected translation: “But again I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess; she both teaches and then seduces [leads astray] my servants to fornicate and to eat food which has been sacrificed to idols.”

Believers in Thyatira began to lean on their local Jezebel rather than on Bible doctrine. They began to lean on her and the cosmic system rather than the divine dynasphere and the other provisions of logistical grace. They became the strong controlled by the weak and they did so by abandoning the divine dynasphere and neglecting the perception of Bible doctrine. Therefore they began to live on borrowed strength, and once you begin to live on borrowed strength from Jezebel you immediately become weak. Once you begin to lean on people then you start to borrow strength. It often starts out with asceticism, with conversation; this is a smart woman. It starts out with conversation, with attraction, with asceticism. This is the front for the phallic cult — asceticism. And to go from asceticism to ecstatics then you go through the phallic modus operandi. So their association with cosmic Jezebel was a social one, a conversational one, and it led them into the cosmic system and the fulfilled the pattern, then, of 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived, evil companions corrupt good morals”. They borrowed Jezebel’s standards and made Jezebel’s standards their own. It started out with strong asceticism, often a reaction to salvation.

Note: People, if they get the wrong teaching, think they have to give up everything.

So by so doing they abandoned the standards of doctrine. They had learned these things inside the divine dynasphere but they walked away from them. They began to neglect doctrine in preoccupation with self because the Jezebel approach has never changed. It is to get you to become preoccupied with yourself. The Jezebel approach is to find something nice in you and exploit it. The point is, when a person uses their beauty, their cleverness, to appeal to your arrogance you are in the cosmic system. Many a person has become “Gung ho for Christ” on the basis of a nice smile from a pretty girl! or from a soft-spoken counsellor: “Now you have a real talent here, you should be using that for the Lord.” So you have all the athletes up their giving their testimony! When you identify with an organisation that says you are important, although you may be the worst cluck in the world, you go for it. That is how religion recruits. These believers related their volition to what Jezebel was doing rather than what they had been doing in the divine dynasphere. Therefore they came under the principle of borrowed strength. Borrowed strength is weakness; acquired strength is power; that is the principle.

They followed Jezebel in the cult of phallic reversionism to live out their lives in the cosmic system. They ignored the dynamics of 2 Corinthians 12:9.10, “My grace (logistical) is sufficient for you, for the power (divine dynasphere) functions in our weaknesses. Most gladly therefore I will rather demonstrate confidence toward God in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ (the divine dynasphere) may pitch a tent over me. Therefore, for the sake of Christ I find contentment (happiness) in the divine dynasphere ...”

Verse 21, the principle of grace before judgment. Jezebel is a believer; she is given time to repent of her fornication, “and she repented not.” Fornication here means a great deal more than simply illicit sexual intercourse. It has to do with the entire phallic cult.

We start out in the Greek with the connective use of the conjunction kai which expresses a result from what precedes. It is translated here, “And so,” or it could be “Furthermore.” Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb didomi, the verb to give, to grant — “And so I gave.” The culminative aorist tense views the decision opportunity for rebound in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, Jezebel of Thyatira’s option to recover fellowship with God and re-enter the divine dynasphere. This woman had many opportunities to use her own free will and walk out on the deal in which she was involved; but she liked what she was doing, it appealed to her arrogance. She not only felt important but she got her kicks out of controlling people. Both male and female find happiness in running the show when they reach a certain stage of arrogance — happiness comes from controlling people. That is why we get so many lousy politicians instead of real statesmen. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb; the indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the principle of grace before judgment, the option to use grace provision of rebound to cancel out the divine discipline for cosmic involvement on the part of this Christian woman. With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used for the personal pronoun, third person, and it is correctly translated “to her,” “And so I gave to her.” The dative of indirect object indicates the one, Jezebel of Thyatira, and unknown Christian female, in whose interest additional time is given for rebound and recovery to the divine dynasphere.

The word that follows is an accusative singular direct object from xronoj, the word for time, “And so I gave her time.” One of the provisions of logistical grace that God has for all of us is whenever we fail, when we make wrong decisions, God gives us additional time, either to rebound and recover or to get more deeply involved in the cosmic system. He always holds off discipline so that when He finally does punish us it comes as such a terrible shock that we lose our poise and we are forced to face the reality of the situation. It is a sort of a last call to rebound and recovery of the divine dynasphere. The options of grace, then, exclude the fact that every believer is the product of his own decisions. The decision to live in the cosmic system brings on self-induced misery and the principle that we are the products of our own decisions. Many of the things that we suffer we blame on someone else but in reality we have made the decisions that place us in that situation. Furthermore, the options of grace determine whether the believer is suffering for blessing or suffering for divine discipline. The provision of time is a part of logistical grace for every believer and none of us have ever failed and not been given time to rebound, to recover, to remove ourselves from that failure. For some believers the provision of time is an opportunity to advance to maturity in the divine dynasphere, and thus fulfil the plan of God and move on to greater things. For other believers the provision of time is simply grace before judgment or an additional opportunity for rebound and to recover for the divine dynasphere and, of course, refusing it. Still other believers the provision of time is simply for the purpose of extending one’s life for divine discipline. That was the tragedy of Jezebel.

Principle: Logistical grace belongs to the reversionistic and cosmic believer just as much as it belongs to the advancing and mature believer. Logistical grace is for all believers, the winners and the losers; those who fail and those who succeed. And one of the manifestations of logistical grace is time. God gives each one of us a day at a time: a day in which to make decisions to recover, a day in which to make decisions to become more involved in our misery. The difference is how the believer uses or exploits logistical grace provision and the exercise of his options, and the options have to do with Bible doctrine. The believer exploits logistical grace only through the perception of Bible doctrine. There is therefore no substitute for the daily perception of the Word of God. Positive believers parlay logistical grace provision into great blessing both in time and in eternity, whereas negative believers use logistical grace to make themselves miserable and to experience divine discipline in time, and loss of reward in eternity.

“And I gave her time to repent ...”

Jezebel had time, and the reason for that is because Jezebel of Thyatira was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and one of the provisions of logistical grace — one of the major provisions — is time. What do we all have in common right now as believers? We all are recipients of one paragraph of logistical grace: time. We are alive, our time has not run out. We are given time and this is a provision of logistical grace. We are all given time before God steps in to discipline us. Long before we are hit with divine punishment or discipline we make our own bed of misery, we make our own disaster, we are the products of our own decisions individually as well as collectively. Therefore when we make wrong decisions we pay the piper for them, and we even intensify the natural results of our wrong decisions by whimpering and crying and carrying on, without even offering the one prayer that can turn around lives, namely the rebound technique. Around the corner from every problem there is great blessing, but for the wimpy losers in Christianity, those who neglect Bible doctrine, we are the products of our own decisions, and we pay every day for our failure to take in doctrine. Doctrine is not only the key to spiritual advance and recruiting for the pivot which changes history but doctrine also is a key and daily test for your volition — the rejection of Bible doctrine on any given day, the resistance of it. Preoccupation with yourself because you are involved in hedonistic activities is another way of saying no to doctrine. Preoccupation with self is negative volition from cosmic one; antagonism toward doctrine is negative volition from cosmic two. But they combine so that you make your own life by your own decisions, and when your decisions are bad you definitely make misery for yourself constantly.

The options of grace exclude the fact that every believer is the product of his own decisions and therefore grace gives us the option to recover from our bad decisions. That includes time; God gives each one of us time. The options of grace determine whether the believer is suffering for blessing or for cursing, and the provision of time, then, is a very definite part of logistical grace. For some believers the provision of time is opportunity to form a part of the pivot and, from that, great blessing by association, whereas for other believers the provision of time is simply grace before judgment or additional opportunity for rebound recovery and re-entry into the divine dynasphere. For other believers the provision of time is for divine discipline and the inevitable administration of the sin unto death.

That brings us now to the purpose clause which is actually made up of two words: the conjunction i(na, which introduces a sub-final purpose clause. A sub-final purpose clause denotes the direction of the action of the main verb toward a given result, which result is sought or anticipated through the function of one’s free will. We can translate it “that” or “in order that.” With it we have the verb, the aorist active subjunctive of metanoew, mistranslated “repent” in the Bible. Actually, “repent” is anachronistic, it has no meaning today except to feel sorry for something that you have done, and that is not the meaning of repentance in the Bible at all. The modern connotation of repentance is emotional and there is no emotion in this word. Meta means change; noew means thinking, not change of emotion. So it is correctly translated, “in order that she might change her mind”. It becomes a technical word here for rebound. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the rebound technique in its entirety, including the decision to confess to God one’s sins. For some the constative aorist would take less then a minute; for others it might take several hours, depending how good the memory was and how long it has been. The active voice: the believer out of fellowship, known as the carnal believer, the cosmic believer, the reversionistic believer, produces the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood: a potential subjunctive implying a future reference; it is qualified by the element of contingency.

The element of contingency is, What hits you first? What makes you realise? If you are in the cosmic system and you are neglecting doctrine, you are not interested, there are two things that can cause you to change your mind. First, your bad decisions result in a tremendous amount of trouble, self-induced under the historical principle: we are the products of our own decisions. You finally get into some kind of a jamb that is so bad that you stop and think. Remember that repent means to think, to change your thinking. And you may have ignored the trouble you have produced yourself, you may have justified it, you may have blamed it on someone else. Therefore the next step is warning discipline or punishment from God. If that doesn’t do it then we move to intensive discipline. Failing that God will take you out under the sin unto death. The only reason some believers are not dead under the sin unto death is simply because they have Christian friends who haven’t passed the people test, that’s all.

Next we have the phrase, “of her fornication.” The phrase is out of place in the King James version. In the Greek text this phrase comes at the end of the sentence, and so repentance has nothing to do with fornication but it has to do with any sin or any system of evil.

Jezebel had a great deal to confess to the Lord her arrogance, her jealousy, her vindictiveness, her implacability, her gossip, her lying. She told hundreds of lies every day in the inculcation of false doctrine. We move to the connective conjunction kai, emphasising a fact as surprising, or unexpected, or noteworthy. We translate is, “nevertheless.” Then we have the present active indicative of qelw, plus the negative o)u, and we translate that, “she did not wish [or will, or purpose, or desire],” it was not her desire to rebound. She enjoyed being the head of a great phallic system. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present known as the present tense of duration. It denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: Jezebel of Thyatira, an unknown Christian female of great talent and beauty produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a locked-in negative volition, she refused. Then we have the verb metanoew again, this time in the aorist active infinitive — “she did not wish to change her mind.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. God dealt with her through the historical trends, she was the product of her own decisions. Then He dealt with her with warning discipline. She still refused.

Then we have “fornication” finally. The preposition e)k plus the ablative of porneia, and it means “from her fornication,” the whole function of the phallic cult, the literal sin of fornication plus everything that went with it in the cult. That included mental sins, verbal sins, overt sins. They were concentrated into a system of evil. It is an idiom here, so it should be translated: “about her fornication.”

Corrected translation: “And so I gave her time in order that she might change her mind [the function of the rebound technique] nevertheless she did not wish to change her mind [rebound] about her fornication.”

This is grace before judgment. Under the provision of logistical grace this Christian female involved in the phallic cult was given extra time for rebound and recovery of her fellowship with God — the chance to get back into the divine dynasphere. But in spite of the grace provision of time she refused to rebound and therefore she must take the temporal and eternal consequences of her negative volition. We, therefore, all of us as individuals and collectively, are the products of our own decisions.

We resume with the manifestation of the historical downtrend. In verse 22 we note divine discipline the alternative to rebound. We begin by noting the discipline of cosmic leadership. Jezebel represented cosmic leadership in Thyatira where she is by far the greatest leader for evil.

We begin with the demonstrative particle i)dou, a word which is derived from the aorist middle imperative of the verb o(raw, which means to look, to see. But here it is used for a call to clear consideration, for contemplation. So we could translate it best “consider.” But that doesn’t quite get the imperative in there, so let’s try something from the Navy, “Now hear this.” This is exactly what i)dou means.

Remember a principle of historical trends. No nation can survive multicultures, but any nation can survive and will survive many religions. Why? Many religions means freedom but a client nation to God which is prosperous only has one culture that brought prosperity. Culture reflects prosperity. Culture is what you do in your spare time, it is your system of music and art, literature, drama. Culture is related to your entertainment. No nation can survive unless it has one culture.

The culture that made Rome great was Greek culture. It was a manifestation of their prosperity. Rome became a powerful nation through self-discipline, through law, the laws of divine establishment. Rome was started by the Sabines and the Etruscans and others, like eventually the Latins and the Gauls, many races. You can have many races but you cannot tolerate many cultures. And what made this country (America) great was Anglo-Saxon culture. When you go to a country you like the first thing you do is adopt their culture. Why? Because their culture is a reflection of their prosperity. You are going to that country because it is a country of freedom and prosperity. That should be the attitude. No nation ever survives the dominance of many cultures, for a nation’s greatness comes from the fact that it has one culture. You can have many religions, that’s freedom; but only one culture, and the culture must reflect in some way the laws of divine establishment.

Three things are sacred under the laws of divine establishment. Human life is sacred and therefore when you have a culture of arrogance that seeks to destroy human life to save one’s honour — aristocracy duels — you have a bad culture. Human life is sacred; property is sacred; freedom is sacred; and the three stand or fall together. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have freedom without privacy and privacy demands property. You must have property for privacy and freedom. And when you try to divide them and say, Yes, you should do something about murder but let burglars go, then we are saying that we believe in the sacredness of human life but we don’t believe in the sacredness of property. If you don’t believe in the sacredness of property you don’t believe in the sacredness of human life.

“Now hear this.” Cults often intrude on the concept of freedom of religion. In a basic sense a cult is not a religion because a cult not only talks about God or gods but it also sets up a system of life. So apart from what you do to earn a living you have a culture. Cults encourage uniculture under the title of toleration. Basically a religion is intolerant of others because man is seeking to gain the approbation of God by his own works, his own function, by his personality. Remember that Christianity is not a religion. You can have many religions in a nation under the principle of freedom (concept of freedom of religion) but you can only have one culture and survive. When you get into multicultural aspects you are destroying the very foundations of category one truth, the laws of divine establishment.

We have the present active indicative of the verb ballw, which means to throw and it means to cast: “Now hear this, I will cast.” The futuristic present denotes and event, divine discipline, which has not yet occurred but which is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be regarded as already coming to pass. Jezebel and the cult are going to get their “comeuppance.” The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ, the prince ruler of the Church, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of divine judgment on believers involved in the cosmic system.

With this we have the accusative feminine singular direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, and we remember that a)utoj is used as the third person personal pronoun since the Attic third person singular word, and the plural word did not come into the Koine Greek, so a)utoj is used instead. We translate it simply “her,” “I will throw [or cast] her.” Then we have a prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative singular of the noun klinh, “into a bed.”

Jezebel fornicated around Thyatira as a form of religion, not just as a sin. That is a part of religion as well: parlaying the sin of fornication into the evil of fornication. But remember the principle: people are the products of their own decisions individually and collectively. Nothing horrible ever happens to us apart from our own decisions. And God doesn’t start out punishing us, we punish ourselves under the principles of category one truth. If you make bad decisions then you are going to start making your own misery. God will add to it if you do not wake up and realise that you are on the wrong track. Obviously Jezebel of Thyatira did not wake up. She was accustomed to getting into bed for fun; this is not fun any more. And when you do things that are wrong for fun eventually the fun turns to the most intense type of misery. None of us can get away with sin for pleasure.

The Lord said: “I will cast her into a bed.” This is a bed of punishment.

Principle

1. Since the bed is associated with fornication and also associated with illness and disease it is used to describe the nature of Jezebel’s discipline from our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The Jezebel of Thyatira, from her own free will, chose a bed of fornication. Therefore our Lord chose for her punishment a bed of illness and decay.

3. Promiscuity results in both total frustration and unhappiness as well as added divine discipline. The road to happiness goes through the Word of God, the divine dynasphere, not through the bedroom of Jezebel.

4. We as believers are the products of our own decisions. Likewise, Jezebel of Thyatira as a believer was the product of her own decisions.

5. She chose fornication and thereby chose for herself a life of misery, frustration, unhappiness.

6. She was seeking pleasure but she found self-induced misery and unhappiness to which God will eventually add (futuristic present) divine punishment, the bed of illness, disease, incapacitation.

7. Since God designed sex as an expression of category two love between one man and one woman He will not permit the distortion of sex into sin and evil.

8. Illicit sex offers a moment of pleasure and a lifetime of misery and unhappiness.

9. Promiscuity then is a distraction from the road of happiness, a dead end for what could otherwise be a very wonderful and happy life.

10. God who invented sex for happiness also invented happiness which can only exist inside the divine dynasphere and under God’s rules. Legitimate sex related to the divine dynasphere is an expression of human happiness, but any form of illegitimate sex inside the cosmic system guarantees misery, frustration, unhappiness, and punishment from God.

The second principle in this verse is the discipline of her cosmic followers. A lot of believers followed her into this phallic cult. Now we have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, and the corrected translation is “also.” With it we have the accusative plural direct object from the definite article touj. This is the generic use of the definite article representing that category of believers who are involved in the phallic cult, involved in the cosmic system of Satan. The definite article is used here as the immediate demonstrative pronoun and translated “those,” “Also those.” Then the present active participle of moixeuw, which means to fornicate or to commit adultery, “Also those who commit adultery.” The progressive present signifies action in a state of persistence. This isn’t one act of adultery, it is a continuing action and it is parlayed into evil because it is related to religion. The active voice: cosmic believers who are the followers of Jezebel are involved in the phallic cult of Thyatira, phallic Gnosticism. This is a circumstantial participle and it is followed by a preposition, meta plus the genitive singular of that same intensive pronoun, a)utoj, “with her.”

Then we have another prepositional phrase: e)ij plus the accusative of the adjective megaj and the noun qliyisj, and it means “into great disaster.” There are three basic kinds of historical disaster: economic depression, social degeneration, and military disaster. This one refers to social degeneration. When a large part of the population of any nation are practising and condoning fornication it is the beginning of social degeneration. It eventuates in fornication being turned into homosexuality and other degeneracies. There is a whole area of social degeneration that starts with fornication between a man and a woman and ends up with all of the distortions. By the way, social degeneration always precedes military disaster. You can’t fight a war with socially degenerate people.

Note that the female leader, and her followers made individual bad decisions. These bad decisions resulted in both self-induced misery and punishment from God. In closing out this verse we have a conditional clause in which we see the alternative to divine discipline. We begin with the conditional particle e)an plus the negative mh, which introduces the alternative to divine discipline but not the alternative to self-induced misery. The translation of the two words together is “if not,” but it is an idiom meaning “unless.”

With this we have the third person plural future active indicative of metanoew, meaning to change the mind in the technical sense of rebound, “Unless they shall change their minds.” With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of e)rgon, and with it the genitive of a)utoj the intensive pronoun used as the personal pronoun, translated literally, “from her deeds,” but it is an idiom meaning “about her deeds.” Corrected translation: “Unless they shall change their minds [rebound] with regard to [or about] her actions.” The future tense of metanoew is a predictive future, it anticipates the alternative to divine discipline, the use of the rebound technique. The active voice: each believer must rebound for himself to recover residence in the divine dynasphere and cancel out the divine discipline. The indicative mood is potential indicative of obligation. The reality of cancelling the divine discipline and the conversion of suffering for punishment into suffering for blessing is an individual decision, an individual modus operandi.

Corrected translation of verse 22: “Now hear this. I will cast her into a bed of punishment, also those who commit adultery with her into great disaster [pressure, affliction], unless they shall change their minds [the priestly function of the rebound technique] about her actions [the phallic cult into which they had been drawn].”

Before we move on we have to note a principle which has to do with suffering. Suffering may be related to many things but there are two general categories. There is suffering for blessing and there is suffering for cursing or discipline. There is always an issue in suffering, it is not accidental. There is no such thing as accidental suffering and there is no such thing as being “innocently involved”. All suffering is either for divine discipline or for divine blessing — that is, for the believer. The issue as far as discipline is concerned is very simple: it can be sin or evil, or even human good. It is always sin, cosmic involvement, reversionism, apostasy, which is the issue of suffering for discipline. The issue as far as suffering for blessing is a very simple one: grace, a means by which God can bless you with undeserved blessing. The issue then is sin versus grace. The category involved in each one is very simple: the category for suffering for discipline is unbearable; the suffering for blessing is bearable, you derive blessing from the adversity. In each case there is a concept from the dynasphere involved. For example, if you are suffering from divine discipline it is always accompanied by arrogance. Arrogance intensifies everything that is negative and bad in this life, for arrogance takes the most objective person in the world and makes him subjective. You cannot approach life from the standpoint of subjectivity without making yourself miserable and, of course, everyone around you. Remember also: there is no solution to subjectivity as long as you are in that status, even if you are counselled until doomsday! On the other hand suffering for blessing is accompanied by humility. Humility always brings objectivity, they go hand in hand. You cannot begin to see any purpose or meaning to your life without humility.

Suffering for discipline and suffering for blessing each has a solution related to it. If you are suffering for divine discipline the solution is rebound, a change of mind. The solution for suffering for blessing is the three stages of the faith-rest drill with emphasis on the rationales. The objective is for all suffering to be turned to blessing but in order for suffering to be turned to blessing a number of decisions have to be made, rebound for example, or the function of the faith-rest drill, the application of doctrine.

Verse 23, divine punishment and historical trends. We start out with the connective use of the conjunction kai, which adds something to the concept. We simply translate it “furthermore.” Kai introduces the result from making wrong decisions regarding the cosmic system and the phallic cult. With this we have the future active indicative of the verb a)pokteinw, used here for the administration of the sin unto death for cosmic believers. For believers who live their lives in the divine dynasphere there is nothing but blessing and spiritual growth, both in time and eternity, but for the believer who lives in the cosmic system there is self-induced misery from wrong decisions, followed by warning discipline, followed by the intensification of divine punishment, and eventuating with maximum divine punishment for the believer, the sin unto death. The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates the administration of the sin unto death for the cosmic believer who does not rebound or “repent.” The active voice: Jesus Christ, the prince ruler of the Church, the judge of the royal family, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the doctrine of Christian capital punishment, not for crime as such but something worse than crime: a believer living under the control of Satan in the cosmic system. The sin unto death is defined as maximum divine discipline from the justice of God resulting in a very painful physical death for the culprit. Since the sin terminating unto death is living inside the cosmic system it is not a specific sin, it is a series of sins. It includes therefore carnality. It is a series of evil functions, motivating evil as well as functional evil. Maximum punishment administered through the sin unto death does not imply that the believer, however, will be miserable before the Rapture. In heaven he will have great interim happiness.

The sin unto death is rejection also of establishment truth. The sin unto death means that the believer has rejected several categories of doctrine: category #1, the laws of divine establishment; category #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; category #3, Bible doctrine for the believer. Category #2 is not an issue here, the person has already accepted Christ as saviour and he can renounce Christ and still not lose his salvation. But he rejects doctrine and this always moves into the laws of divine establishment. Remember that in the laws of divine establishment three things are sacred: life, with the exception of criminals and the concept of capital punishment, plus the concept of enemy in warfare; property, which is just as sacred as life, they must go together; freedom is sacred. These three stand or fall together. If property is rejected as sacred then freedom to hold property, to gain, to own, to make profit, is gone. And eventually this applies to life, which will belong to the state if you have no freedom and you have no property. All systems of crime violate these three principles. So it is not surprising that in passages like Jeremiah 9:13-16 we see people dying the sin unto death simply because as believers they have rejected establishment truth.

It says here in verse 23 that He is going to kill the converts to the phallic cult who are believers. “Furthermore I will execute [kill, put to death].” And then we have the accusative plural direct object from teknon, and while it is ordinarily translated “children,” a child in relationship to father and mother or descendants, it also means “students” because of the authority principle. We will translate “her followers.” “Furthermore I will put to death her followers,” i.e. believers who have become involved in the cosmic system, and with her. Next we have how they are going to be dealt with, a prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental of qanatoj, and it is translated “by means of death.” Dying horribly and miserably is the means of removing from this life those believers who are perpetual losers and failures through involvement in the cosmic system. This is capital punishment for cosmic believers. There is no place in the plan of God for residence and function in the cosmic system, especially as God has provided in rebound a way to recover. The believer enters the cosmic system through sin. He remains through failure to use the logistical grace provision of the rebound technique. And because of logistical grace provision there is no excuse for any believer spending much time in the cosmic system. It is simply a matter of good decisions versus bad decisions. Every believer is the product of his own decisions and every believer must take the responsibility for his daily decisions in life in phase two of the plan of God.

The verse then goes on to explain why capital punishment is necessary in Christian circles. God provides capital punishment. God is perfect; His decisions are perfect. Capital punishment is provided under the laws of divine establishment for criminals who have been convicted in a court of law. But God Himself is judge and God Himself removes from this life certain believers under the same principle of capital punishment. We continue with the connective use of the conjunction kai, translated here “And so.” It introduces a result from what precedes. With this we have the nominative plural subject composed of three Greek words. First we have the nominative plural from the adjective paj, and then we have a definite article a(i, and with it the nominative plural from the noun e)kklhsia, “And so all the churches.” A church is just another way of describing a believer, just like battalion is another way of describing a soldier. And so all the churches, all the believers, all the battalions, emphasising the fact that the local church is a class room for the perception of Bible doctrine and that perception of doctrine is the basis for blessing in the client nation as well as future reward and decoration for glorifying the Lord. The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates the results of cosmic believers dying the sin unto death — cognisance and the inculcation of the power and the integrity of God.

“shall know” is the future middle indicative of ginwskw, meaning to know. Never let your ambition, your goals, your lifetime desires separate you from the plan of God. If you do you will not only have self-induced misery but in addition to that there will be punishment from God. The predictive future anticipates the results of cosmic believers being executed under the principle of capital punishment — executed by God, dying horribly and miserably. Cognisance and inculcation of the power and the integrity of God results. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it emphasises the agent, believers gathered up into their battalions, local churches, as producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of inculcation from the administration of the sin unto death to cosmic believers, to losers. With this we have the conjunction o(ti, used after verbs of cognisance to give us the content. It is translated here “that,” “And all the churches will know that.”

What will they know? First of all we have the content, the nominative subject from the personal pronoun e)gw, which refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God, the evaluator of every believer in the royal family in this dispensation. It is correctly translated “I,” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ who commands all the churches, all the battalions, who is the prince ruler of the Church and in charge of both blessing and punishment. Your decisions will determine whether to you our Lord administers blessing or whether He administers punishment.

Then we have the present active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be. It is correctly translated “so all the churches will know that I am,” static present tense for the fact that the deity and essence of our Lord Jesus Christ is infinite and eternal, and that as the God-Man and having the third royal patent plus His deity He is in charge. Next we have the active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the reality of His hypostatic union, the reality of two sources of authority from one person: authority from the fact that He is eternal God, the creator and the sustainer of the universe; authority from the fact that in His humanity He achieved the highest thing that any member of the human race can do as the morning star.

“am he who,” the next phrase is quoted from four passages in the Old Testament: Jeremiah 11:20, “But, O Lord of the armies.” It was Jesus Christ who put a wall around Israel as the Lord of the armies; “who judges righteously,” divine integrity, “who tests the kidneys [emotions] and the heart [right lobe].”

17:10, “I, the Lord, search the heart [right lobe], I test the kidneys [emotions], even to give every man according to his modus operandi” — the Lord judges from the facts. The facts are what you think and how you emote in your soul. So our Lord never makes a mistake in executing any Christian under the sin unto death, or in administering punishment of any kind.

Psalm 7:9, “O let the evil of the reversionist [cosmic believer] come to an end, but establish the righteous [mature believer]; for the righteous God tests the hearts [right lobes] and the kidneys [emotions].”

Psalm 26:2, “Examine me, O Lord, and test me; test my kidneys [emotions] and my heart [right lobe].”

Now for the quotation in the Greek. It starts out with an articular present active participle from the verb e)raunaw, and it means to investigate: “I am he who investigates.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun, referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. The retroactive progressive present tense denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. Our Lord is constantly evaluating every living believer on the face of the earth. He tests the right lobe, what we think; He tests the kidneys, the emotions, which either respond or control the soul. If they control it is a sign of being a cosmic believer. The active voice: Jesus Christ is eternal God. He produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, the present tense can also be a customary present tense to denote what habitually occurs, the evaluation by our Lord Jesus Christ. In this usage the temporal element is remote since the act or state is assumed to be true in the past, the future or the present. Furthermore the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb which is “I will give.”

Translation so far: “Furthermore, I will execute her followers by means of death; and so all the churches will know that I am he who investigates …”

Now we need an object. We have a dual direct object. First, the accusative plural direct object from nefroj, which means kidneys. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the noun, and it is translated with the definite article, “the emotions.” The emotion responds to both life in the divine dynasphere and the perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere. Psalm 16:7, “I will praise the Lord who has counselled me, even at night my emotions correct me [instruct me, punish me, exhort me, train me]”. We are trained by our emotions. Happiness from life in the divine dynasphere or unhappiness from life in the cosmic system are reflected in each one of us emotionally.

So the emotion and the cosmic involvement becomes a major issue. For example the believer who lives in the cosmic system is negative toward doctrine. The believer’s emotion reacts to lack of Bible doctrine in the soul plus failure to live in the divine dynasphere. Remember that emotion is a responder to what exists in the frontal lobe. Emotion can respond to doctrine or emotion can react to doctrine. Emotion cannot think, cannot reason, cannot learn. In fact emotion without thought is always, inevitably arrogance. Emotion responds to thought but cannot replace thought. Inside the divine dynasphere emotion responds to thought; inside the cosmic system emotion dominates or replaces thought. Therefore divine discipline and punishment of believers is related to the emotions of the soul. The destruction of the emotions of the soul demands that the justice of God execute such a believer by means of the sin unto death. This destruction of the emotions results from the believer residing and functioning in the cosmic system. For the believer living in the divine dynasphere the emotions function normally in great happiness and capacity for life is wonderful, but emotions are a sign in the cosmic system of your own cosmic failures. There is terrible pain emotionally in the soul for the believer living in the cosmic system. For the believer living in the cosmic system his emotions have great capacity for misery, unhappiness, frustration; it even explains some forms of depression. The believers emotions cannot function normally in the cosmic system.

Therefore these emotions are constantly investigated by God for the purpose of providing happiness and blessing, or investigated for the purpose of providing punishment and even death.

“and so all the churches will know that I am he who investigates the reins [kidneys, emotions].” The Greek word for reins is the word nefroj, and it means kidneys. Actually it refers to the Hebrew kiljah. The kidneys are used in the Bible for emotions, just as the heart is used for the right lobe where we do our thinking. The adrenal glands secrete many hormones, one of which is adrenaline, the emotional hormone of fright, flight and fight. The secretion of the adrenaline accomplishes four things which are related to the principle of emotions: increased pulse rate, cardiac blood output, increased blood to the muscles and increased glucose. The reins or kidneys are comparable then to the right man, right woman analogy. The right man of the soul is the frontal lobe where we do our thinking and the right woman is the emotion which responds to what we think. Since the reins or the kidneys refer to the adrenal glands where the emotional hormone of fear is secreted, it is so linked with fear in Job 16:13; 19:27. And for the believer living inside the divine dynasphere perception of Bible doctrine, the function of the other gates, is related to the various degrees of happiness and emotions respond to happiness as well as other things.

We have the left and right rein and we have an analogy there as well. The left rein is the function of the believer’s royal priesthood in responding emotionally to God. It is a part of worship. The right rein is the function of the believer’s royal ambassadorship and responses emotionally to people and situations. Emotions work in both directions — toward God and toward people, and situations. In other words, the left rein is the capacity for spiritual life in responding to Bible doctrine which is perceived at gate four, while the right rein is capacity for temporal life in applying doctrine. Happiness from life in the divine dynasphere or unhappiness from life in the cosmic system are reflected in the emotions as well as in the thinking.

Note some passages of scripture:

2 Corinthians 6:11,12, “hindered by your own emotions.” People react emotionally to doctrine, to the communication of doctrine or the communicator, person or content. That is because people live by their emotions rather than by thinking. You cannot react emotionally and be objective in life. Emotional reaction also goes with drugs, and people who are searching for happiness in the wrong direction. Emotions are designed to respond to the right lobe, they are not designed to run the soul. People whose emotions are out of control are miserable, unhappy people and will never change.

Romans 16:17,18, “for such believers do not obey our Lord Jesus Christ [they do not live in the divine dynasphere], but they obey their emotions, serving themselves; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the right lobes of the stupid [the cosmic believer].”

Philippians 3:18,19, “For many [cosmic believers] keep walking [in the cosmic system] concerning whom I have communicated to you many times and now continue communicating, even though weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ” — believers living in cosmic one with its twenty-six gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, or cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred, are the enemies of the cross. They are so involved as believers in Satan’s program that they become the enemies of the cross. Emotional revolt of the soul is a part of this. In cosmic one they are grieving the Holy Spirit, in cosmic two they are quenching the Holy Spirit — “whose termination is destruction [the sin unto death], whose god is his emotions, whose fame is by means of his dishonour and who keeps thinking about earthly things [the propaganda of the cosmic system].”

That brings us to the second part of the direct object, and we have next the accusative plural of the noun kardia. And just as nefroj means kidney kardia is translated heart. The corrected translation: “Furthermore I will execute her followers by means of death; and so all the churches will know that I am he who investigates the emotions and the right lobe.”

Let’s stop and take a look again at the heart. We have two Greek words here. The first one we have noted is nefroj, the second is kardia. They both have physiological connotations and the physiology of the kidneys, as we have already seen, has spiritual illustration of emotion. Emotion is a definite part of the soul. It can be good or bad, depending on the status quo of the believer. Kardia also in its physiological function has analogy to thought, for the thinking of the soul is done primarily with the right lobe — the true thinking that leads to wisdom. So emotion and thinking are a part of the soul. Therefore they are used throughout the scripture because of the analogy. For example, in the Bible the word “heart” is never used for the physiological heart, the heart is always used as a part of the soul, as the most important of the real “you.”

In the Bible the word “heart” is only used for thinking; the Bible never uses “heart” for emotion. The mentality of the soul is divided into two lobes. The left lobe is called the nouj, and the right lobe is called kardia. The nouj produces a type of thinking called gnwsij, a limited type of thinking, whereas the heart or the kardia produces a tremendous type of thinking called e)pignwsij. Gnwsisj and e)pignwsij are both functions in the soul for the unbeliever as well as the believer. We are only going to study them in relationship to the believer. The heart or kardia is the dominant lobe designed by God to dominate the soul. Therefore the heart in the Bible is the organ of thinking. For example, 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the Lord said to Samuel,” when Samuel was trying to anoint a son of Jesse, “Do not look at his outward appearance because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks [evaluates] on the basis of outward appearance, but the Lord [looks on the heart] evaluates on the basis of thought in the soul.” The Lord’s evaluation of you is what you think, not how you look. The heart is used in the Bible for the place of thinking, the place of processing thought, the location of vocabulary and categories with which to think. Therefore the heart is the thinking function in the Bible.

Proverbs 19:2 tells us that we have two lobes. We also have a response to those two lobes — emotion. Emotion responds to thought in the normal soul; emotion dominates thought in the abnormal soul. One of the basic differences between normality and abnormality is the place of your emotion. If emotion dominates thinking then you are abnormal, temporarily or permanently. If thinking dominates emotion so that emotion responds to thinking, then you are normal.

We also have volition of the soul. Man is the product of his own decisions, and decisions make environment, not environment decisions. Those who use their volition to crack the maturity barrier and have maximum historical impact are going to have a phenomenal series of things in eternity that will make them as superior to the average Christian in a resurrection body as the archangel is superior to the ordinary angel. There is not even equality among angelic creatures because both angelic creatures and human beings have free will. We are always the products of our own decisions, individually and collectively.

The frame of reference is the antechamber for Bible doctrine. Proverbs 4:4 — “Then he taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast my words.” Learning is the heart holding fast words. The memory centre is the second part of the heart. Things do not often go from the antechamber to the memory centre — until you have heard it anywhere from five to five hundred times. Then you file it and you can keep it and use it, you remember and identify with it. Memory centre circulates doctrine into various parts of the right lobe and heart. The heart circulates blood; memory centre circulates doctrine.

Lamentations 3:20, 24, “Surely my soul remembers,” notice, the soul remembers, “and is humbled within me. “This [doctrine] I recall to mind,” there is the memory centre working, “therefore I have confidence.” And what does the person here involved recall? Logistical grace. “The Lord’s grace support never ceases, his grace expressions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, [the Lord is the source of logistical grace] therefore I have confidence in him”.

Psalm 119:16, “I shall delight in doctrinal principles; I shall not forget your word.”

Psalm 119:109, “My life is in continual danger, yet I do not forget your doctrinal categories”

The third part of the heart is the vocabulary storage. In other words, every doctrine you learn has some technical words related to it. For example, the hypostatic union. In any technical field there are technical words that have to be learned on which the concepts of that science are constructed.

And then there is categorical doctrinal storage which is the basis for classification of doctrine. The heart or the right lobe is the storage or the residence for Bible doctrine in the soul by which there is a maximum adjustment to the plan of God.

Proverbs 2:2, “Make your ear attentive to wisdom,” concentrate on doctrinal teaching, in other words — “Incline your heart to understanding.” Concentration requires not only the function of the heart [right lobe] but the function of the volition toward the subject.

Proverbs 3:3, “Do not let grace and truth [doctrine] leave you; bind them around your neck,” make notes, “write them in the tablet of your heart.”

Proverbs 15:14,15, “The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on folly. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but a good heart [perception of doctrine daily] has a continual feast.”

Proverbs 18:15, “The heart [right lobe] of the wise acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.”

The heart also contains suneidhsij, which means conscience. The conscience extrapolates from doctrine norms and standards for life. It is a separate compartment of the heart. It is so used in Romans 2:15;9:1; 13:5; 1 Corinthians 8:7; 2 Corinthians 4:2;5:11; Titus 1:15; Hebrews 9:14.

Finally there is the launching pad, the place of application of doctrine to experience, the place of applying doctrine to the momentum tests for accelerated advance to maturity.

On the other hand the right lobe can be a place of failure as far as the Lord is concerned. The thinking of the reversionist is mentioned in Psalm 10:6, “He [the reversionist] says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; Throughout all generations I shall not be in adversity,” stubbornness, stupidity. Verse 11, “He [the reversionist] says in his heart, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”

Verse 13, “Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said in his heart, You will not punish me. “

Rationalising maladjustment is one of the functions of the heart. Isaiah 47:10, “And you felt secure in your evil and said, ‘No one sees me,’ Your evil wisdom and knowledge have deluded you; for you have said in your heart [right lobe], “I am, and there is no one beside me.”. That is locked in arrogance.

Thinking arrogance is always related to the heart. Luke 9:46,47, “Now a controversy entered in among the disciples as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing that they were reasoning in their heart, took a child.” And then He used the child as an illustration.

Luke 2:19, “Mary treasured up all of these things, pondering them in her heart.”

There are various facets to heart function. Proverbs 5:12-14, “How I have hated instruction! And my heart spurned reproof! And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors! I was almost in utter ruin in the middle of the assembly and congregation.” Nothing will ruin a person faster than the malfunction of the heart — rejection of truth.

Proverbs 6:14, “Who by perversity in his heart devises evil continuously, he is the one who spreads strife.” Verse 18, “The heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil.”

Verse 23b, “and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” We start out with the connective kai, “and,” followed by the future active indicative of the verb didomi, which means to give, and here it will be translated “administer.” The predictive future tense anticipates the administration of divine discipline to cosmic believers who fail to rebound and recover residence in the divine dynasphere. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the of divine discipline of the cosmic believer. It is followed by the dative indirect object of the adjective and substantive e(kastoj, and it means “each one,” plus the dative plural of disadvantage from the pronoun su, “each one of you.”

We have noted how Jesus Christ controls history and we noticed that He does not interfere with free will or volition. We have also noted that when things reach a certain point, when the human race would be in jeopardy, then at that point our Lord Jesus Christ interferes and we have the administration of the cycles of discipline. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and one who is consistent in the perception of doctrine you ought to begin to recognise certain signs, certain characteristics, certain categories, not only historically but individually. For example, historically you ought to be able to recognise that there are three categories of historical disaster. There are no tragedies in history, only disasters. The reason there are no tragedies in history is that we are the products of our own decisions. If we were not the products of our own decisions then there would be tragedies. Tragedy belongs to drama. Good decisions open options for greater decisions, bad decisions destroy the options.

The uniform of glory which is worn over the resurrection body has a counterpart in time, the uniform of honour. The uniform of honour belongs to the believer who resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere. There are certain characteristics of the uniform of honour. The person who has it lives by virtue: motivating virtue directed toward God, the function of his ambassadorship; functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances, which would be the function of his royal priesthood. The uniform of honour is going to be parlayed into the uniform of glory in eternity. Those who wear the uniform of honour, a modus operandi of the soul, in time, are going to have a “new name written,” and that is the knighthood. They are going to have the privilege in eternity of functioning at the gazebo in the garden, the tree of life in the Paradise of God. The uniform of glory in eternity and the decoration which goes with it, the order of the morning star, means that there will be a presentation in the court of heaven for a few believers out of every generation, those who make the pivot, those who advance to maturity, those who function inside the divine dynasphere. After the Rapture of the Church there is a special court presentation. At the second advent of Christ those who wear the order of the morning star are going to be presented to the population of the world. In the Church Age these believers advanced to maturity between the time of salvation and departure from this life. God under logistical grace provides the believer a certain amount of time on this earth. That time is terminated either by death or resurrection, whichever occurs first. During that time on earth the believer is sustained logistically so that he can receive this decoration in heaven. Those who parlay logistical grace into supergrace are the believers who are going to receive the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory that goes with it, and all of the privileges pertaining thereto. The during the time of the Tribulation on earth there is a special court presentation for the VIPs of the Church Age. The only way to get into this presentation is to wear the uniform of glory and be decorated with the order of the morning star.

But that is only a part of the story, because generally speaking the person who is making the great contribution to history is the believer who advances to maturity. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God, and the believer living in the divine dynasphere contributes to the uptrend of the client nation, and the believer living in the cosmic system contributes to the downtrend of history. It is the historical impact of the unknown factor, the unknown factor being as goes the believer so goes the historical trends of any given generation. So at the second advent there will be a presentation to the entire population of the world of every person who has the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory. And the believer wears this decoration also at the wedding supper of the Lamb, at the coronation. The authority of this particular decoration is phenomenal because for one thousand years of perfect environment on the earth, the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, the person who wears the uniform of glory, the same uniform that our Lord presented at the mount of transfiguration even before He had a resurrection body, will rule nations and act as judges of the world. And then in eternity some unique privileges belong to the believer who wears the order of the morning star.

You are going to begin to recognise in your own life what it means to wear the uniform of honour which is parlayed into the uniform of glory in eternity. You will be able to recognise through the honour code, through the various categories of virtue, and when you recognise these in your own life: the motivating virtue of personal love for God, the functional virtue of impersonal love for man, the motivating virtue of confidence toward God, the functional virtue of courage directed toward man and circumstances. You will be able to recognise the signs in your own life.

But there are certain signs you ought to begin to recognise in client the nation, signs which are very similar to the signs which occurred in client nation SPQR in certain stages of its history. For example, the three categories of historical disaster: economic depression, social degeneration, military defeat. They are interrelated and they are also related to rejection of the three basic categories of category one truth, the laws of divine establishment. Three things are sacred under the laws of divine establishment. One is individual freedom. You cannot have that individual freedom of course without privacy, which is a part of the concept. And there must be law to establish that privacy. Secondly, there is the sacredness of property. In a society where property is not sacred you have a decline of that society. Property includes not only land but anything that you can earn through the normal functions of business in life, anything you can accumulate. The third is human life. These three are absolutely sacred according to the Word of God and they are the basis for the modus operandi of the angelic conflict. Economic depression is an attack upon freedom. Men are not free to go out and use their money under the principle of capitalism and form a country or organisation or business, to invest. Military defeat is inevitable if you have social degeneration. You cannot fight a war with social degenerates.

The major factor with all of these things is, What does the believer do spiritually? The major factor in history has always been, since the beginning of the times of the Gentiles in August of AD 70, the spiritual life of the believer. Negative volition toward doctrine means historical downtrend; positive volition toward doctrine means historical uptrend. A maximum number of believers in a spin-off from the pivot then you go through the cycles of discipline and the downtrend.

“and I will give to each one of you” — “each one” refers to the principle that we are the products of our own decisions, individually and collectively. If individually we are negative toward doctrine and live in the cosmic system, and there are enough of us who make that decision, it is inevitable that our country will go through a period of terrible historical disaster just as occurred at the end of the Antonine Caesars. In AD 96 when John on the Isle of Patmos wrote the book of Revelation as the textbook of history from then until the end of time, once he completed the last “Amen” of chapter 22 the Roman emperor who put him there died. Then along came Nirva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pious, Marcus Aurelius, from 96 to 180 AD. During that time there was a maximum pivot from the seven churches in chapters two and three so that this is one of the greatest periods in all of history. Then from 180-192 AD was the decade of disaster.

The issue in recovery from a downtrend is, What do you do? What is your attitude as a believer? You are the key.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, kata plus the accusative plural from the noun e)rgon. E)rgon means deeds, actions, accomplishments. It is a reference to actions inside the cosmic system. Translation: “according to your activities,” believers living in cosmic one and cosmic two, the system by which Satan administers the rulership of the world.

Translation of verse 23: “Furthermore I will execute her followers [believers in the cosmic system] by means of death; and so all the churches will know that I am he who investigates the emotions and the right lobe: and I will administer punishment to each one of you [cosmic believers] according to your activities [inside the cosmic system].”

So the noun e)rgon, translated here “activities,” refers to the entire function of human good, sin, and motivational and functional evil inside the cosmic system. Based on complete facts in every case there is a tremendous amount of divine discipline and punishment administered to cosmic believers, falling into two categories: that which we bring on ourselves and that which God administers. The ultimate punishment is mentioned in this context as the sin unto death which does not cancel salvation but guarantees no rewards or decorations in eternity. This verse is dealing with the cosmic or carnal believer only, the believer in various stages of reversionism.

The degeneracy related to Jezebel of Thyatira and the revival of the Phoenician-Canaanite phallic cult is the basis for many warnings in the Old Testament, so much so that we can understand why this famous woman who had beauty and brains in one person is called Jezebel in our context. Deuteronomy 23:17,18 gives us a clue as to the meaning of Jezebel: “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute [religious prostitute, priestess], nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute [men who acted as priests in this function]. You shall not bring the hire of a temple prostitute or the wages of a dog [male prostitute involved in homosexual activity] into the house of the Lord your God for any votive offering [used to fulfil a vow], for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.”

1 Kings 14:22-24, “And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord … For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim [the naked female statue used in the phallic cult] on every high hill and beneath every beautiful tree. And there were also male cult prostitutes in the land.”

The children and female virginity were always sacrificed to the phallic cult, plus homosexual acts among the males. Women sacrificed their virginity at the shrines of Ashtarte, and they did so in the belief that this propitiated the goddess of love — called Ashtarte, Aphrodite, Venus, Ishtar, depending on the language — and the goddess would then give them blessing and good fortune in life, and give them a wonderful husband. So the licentious rites were motivated by the desire to have a wonderful life. They were always accompanied by the worship of the reproductive sexual organs, whether it was the worship of Ishtar in Babylon or Aphrodite in Greece or Venus in Rome or Ashtarte in Phoenicia and Palestine. It was always the same function. The woman would have to go and sit in the temple and wait for someone to go and throw some money at her feet. With this stranger she would have to have sex, no matter who he was. The symbol of the phallus was a part of the worship for it expressed to their decadent minds that through submission in sexual intercourse with a male or a female prostitute of the temple all the citizens communicated to the power of God. Sexuality was the mystery copulation of living for one moment, the moment of sex, and that moment was contact with God. It was a moment of forgetting the past and forgetting the future. The sexual act was an act of concentration in devil worship. So we are not talking about normal fornication, we are talking about religious fornication. Religious fornication actually brought in a concept of God, that during the sexual act in the concentration of pleasure you are actually having contact with God in some mysterious way. So sexuality was the mystery copulation of living for that moment of sex which was contact with God. The sexual act, then, became under the phallic cult an act of worship and therefore was justified by those involved as contact with God through the reproductive organs.

All of this is pertinent to what we have been studying concerning Jezebel of Thyatira. This is all done by believers and this is a part of their cosmic involvement. By involvement in cosmic one they became preoccupied with self, by involvement in cosmic two they became antagonistic toward the Word of God and Bible doctrine. As they did so, gradually their concepts of God changed and as their concepts of God changed long came the evangelist. The evangelist was the person who sold them on the phallic cult. Evangelism was very successful under this system and is still successful today. We have licentious Gnosticism in a rather crude form as illustrated by the Jones cult. It is a major distraction to historical uptrend because it contributes to social degeneration and no nation can survive social degeneration, combining religion and sex into a cult degeneration.

Verse 24, We begin with the post positive conjunctive particle de, which sets up a contrast between believers living in the cosmic system which we have just studied in verses 20-23 and believers living in the divine dynasphere which we will be noting from now on to the end of the chapter. The divine dynasphere is God’s plan for the royal family of God in this dispensation. Living in the divine dynasphere is the basis for glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, bringing historical blessing to the client nation. When too many believers live in the cosmic system then there is a historical downtrend — living in cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance or cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred.

We now have a contrast. The first word is translated “but,” the conjunction de setting up a contrast between believers of verses 20-23 living in the cosmic system and believers beginning in verse 24 living in the divine dynasphere, the place of solution. Next we have the present active indicative of the verb legw, which means “I say” — “But I say.” The aoristic present tense is for punctiliar action in present time. The aoristic present sets forth an event as now occurring. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His messenger, the apostle John, who is the non-resident pastor of the local church in Thyatira. You ask the question: Which is the most advantageous, to have face to face teaching or non-face to face teaching? The answer is very simple: whatever is available. It has to be doctrinal teaching. Having a face to face pastor is no good if the pastor isn’t teaching doctrine. The whole purpose for assembling in the local church is for the royal family to learn doctrine. Everything depends on it whether it is worship or production or any other factor related to the Christian way of life. There is no momentum apart from perception of doctrine; there is no capacity for happiness, capacity for love, capacity for blessing, apart from perception of doctrine. Perception of doctrine is the whole story; it is the issue and everything else revolves around it; it is the hub on which the wheel turns.

For those in Thyatira there was no pastor teaching doctrine and therefore they received doctrinal teaching through the apostle John. They didn’t have the advantage of modern technology which we enjoy today and therefore John would have to send letters to the local church in Thyatira. In that way they would receive their doctrinal lesson. In some generations there is an abundance of pastors for teaching doctrine and a general state of prosperity. However, in other generations there is a lack of pastors and a general state of historical disaster. The issue is not which is the most advantageous but what form of Bible teaching is available to match your positive volition.

Principle: Positive volition demands Bible teaching. Therefore believers with positive volition must be particular. The issue is not which is most advantageous, face to face or non face to face, it is a matter of what is available.

The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of doctrinal communication from the Lord Jesus Christ through a non-resident pastor. With this we have the dative plural indirect object from the personal pronoun su, translated “you,” “But I say to you.” The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the communication of doctrine is given. Therefore there is a the dative of advantage whether you are getting it face to face or non face to face. The people of Thyatira to whom this is addressed were getting it non-face to face; it came to them in written form, yet it was to their advantage to have it that way. Please note: Here was a congregation with a non-resident pastor and yet it is to their advantage to have a non-resident pastor because the non-resident pastor is the apostle John and he is orthodox and biblically accurate, he is teaching Bible doctrine.

Next we have a dative plural of advantage from the second definite article toij, and it is used as an immediate demonstrative pronoun referring or calling special attention to those believers who reside and function inside of the divine dynasphere, with emphasis on those mature believers who have reached gate eight of the divine dynasphere by passing all of the momentum tests, by persistence in the perception of Bible doctrine. This second definite article toij is translated “those,” “But I say to you, those.”

Then we have the word loipoj, which goes with the first definite article. It is translated “others,” “to the others.” So far: “But I say to you, the others,” believers living in the divine dynasphere, believers who are in contrast to the Christians of Thyatira who are living in the cosmic system. Then to make sure we know that this is a local problem all the way, e)n plus the locative plural of Quratira, “in Thyatira.” “But I say to you, the others [believers living in the divine dynasphere], those of you who are in Thyatira.”

Principle: In Pergamum we noted that believers were advancing to maturity right under the nose of Satan where Satan’s headquarters is. Now in Thyatira we note that believers were advancing to maturity in spite of the distraction of the phallic cult. This advance to maturity in areas of special pressure and distraction is because of the grace provision of the divine dynasphere, whether it is Houston, Texas in the twentieth century or whether it is Thyatira in the first and second centuries. It makes no difference whether you live in a large city with many pressures or live in a quiet out-of-the-way place where pressures are relatively small and practically non-existent. You can advance to maturity as easily in a pressure context as you can in a quiet, pleasant country area. Without the divine dynasphere and its wall of fire such normal Christian living in abnormal circumstances would be impossible. The wall of fire only exists for the believer in the divine dynasphere and it works just as well in a large city as it does in a quiet rural area.

In both Pergamum and Thyatira believers were living inside the divine dynasphere, fulfilling the plan of God in spite of every possible distraction. Satan’s headquarters was in Pergamum. In Thyatira the Gnostic cult was flourishing under one of the most dynamic women of all times. Inside the divine dynasphere Bible doctrine is number one on the believer’s scale of values but involvement in the cosmic system destroys the importance of Bible doctrine and replaces it with a variety of things, including putting pleasure first. Those who put pleasure first have the least amount of pleasure in this life. The believer living inside the divine dynasphere is impervious to the charms of Jezebel and the attractions of the phallic cult. Permanent Bible doctrine in the soul is far more important than a few moments of pleasure. (Of course the person who puts doctrine first is not denied any pleasure, he just enjoys his pleasure) Furthermore, after those few moments of pleasure comes the frustration, the unhappiness, the misery, the depression, the discouragement, for making bad decisions. Good decisions related to the divine dynasphere and Bible doctrine provide options for greater decisions but bad decisions destroy those options and leave the believer in a wake of self-made disaster and misery.

Next we have a nominative plural subject from a correlative relative pronoun, o(soj, translated “as many as.” With it we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, plus the negative o)uk, “as many as do not adhere to.” It means “have not” literally, but it is an idiom meaning “do not adhere to” or “hold to.” The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice plus the negative indicates that believers living inside the divine dynasphere do not produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of reality, namely believers living inside the divine dynasphere and learning doctrine on a daily basis do not succumb to false teaching, they are not suckers for the phallic cult or any other pressure that comes along. With this we have the accusative feminine singular from the immediate demonstrative o(utoj, part of the direct object. The immediate demonstrative gives special emphasis to a designated object, namely the false teaching of Jezebel of Thyatira. With this the rest of the direct object, the accusative feminine singular from the Greek noun didaxh, which means doctrine. Here it means false teaching, the false teaching of licentious Gnosticism. This would include both the Nicolaitanes and the Jezebelites.

Translation: “But I say to you, the others, those of you who are in Thyatira, as many as do not adhere to this false doctrine [licentious Gnosticism].”

Principle

1. The phallic cult is a part of licentious reversionism, or licentious Gnosticism, and is actually referred to in passages like 2 Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; 5:5; 3:5; Revelation 2:14, 20-23.

2. Phallic reversionism is always related to demonism. It combines demonism with licentiousness. The link between the two is idolatry. Idolatry was therefore specifically forbidden client nation Israel when they entered the land, Exodus 20:3, 23; 23:24; Deuteronomy 4:28; 5:7; 6:14; 7:16; 8:19. No nation can survive the spread of the phallic cult, it is a part of the principle of social degeneration.

3. The fact that Israel was a client nation to God from the time of the Exodus (BC 1441-AD 70) is documented by, for example, Exodus 19:4-6, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice to keep my mandates, then you will be my own special treasure among all the peoples, the Gentiles, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation [two ways of describing a client nation to God].”

4. This explains, then, the universal priesthood of the believer in the Church Age since the function of the Gentile client nation to God depends upon the number of royal priests in that nation who attain maturity.

5. Idolatry is the subject of the first two commandments in the decalogue. Idolatry is the enemy of freedom. Wherever idolatry is practised freedom does not exist, as in India. The first commandment prohibits mental or soulish idolatry, Deuteronomy 5:6,7; the second commandment prohibits overt idolatry, Deuteronomy 5:8,10. Obviously then idolatry begins in the soul or in the mind and proceeds to an overt practice. Mental idolatry precedes overt idolatry, Judges 2:10-13; Ezekiel 14:7. Scar tissue of the soul and cosmic involvement precedes the modus operandi of idolatry. It starts with negative volition toward doctrine; it starts with residence in the cosmic system — Romans 1:18-25. For this reason idolatry is often called spiritual adultery because it is unfaithfulness to the Lord, Jeremiah 3:8-10; Ezekiel 16:23-43; 23:24-30; Revelation 17:1-15. Idolatry is also the basis for contacting demons, demon influence or demon possession. For the unbeliever this means demon possession; for the believer this means demon influence. The believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and he cannot be demon-possessed, but demon influence means false doctrine controlling his mind as he lives in the cosmic system; it means scar-tissue of the soul. Idolatry, then, is the basis for contacting demons, Zechariah 10;2. Idolatry is called the devil’s communion table, then, in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21. Note that the believer can only be under demon influence through false doctrine, while the unbeliever can experience actual demon possession. Idolatry also motivates the entire realm of sexual sins and therefore idolatry is related to the phallic cult, Ezekiel 22:3-18; 23:37-39.

The phallic cult includes the following functions: immorality of all kinds, Leviticus 18:3-25; demonism, either demon influence or demon possession, Leviticus 20:6; idolatry as related to the phallic cult always includes human sacrifice — Leviticus 20:1-5.

Remember this: All cults link the phallic function with demons through idolatry. In the ancient world the phallic function and the demon function always had design to lead people to some form of ecstatics where the emotion controls the soul and reason disappears completely. In the ancient world this form of ecstatics always reached its climax with human sacrifice. Today human sacrifice seems to be out so the tongues movement does the same thing. Ecstatics completely removes all the stops. The tongues movement is totally evil. Born-again believers in the tongues movement are the servants of the devil. We also have something else that comes out of the phallic cult: the rejection of establishment authority. When you get into the tongues movement today, as with the phallic cult in the past, the things that are sacred under category #1 truth — the laws of divine establishment: first of all freedom; secondly, property; thirdly, life — are all rejected. Wherever you find cults you find these things. They reject legitimate authority; the reject establishment authority — Leviticus 20:9. Also, the phallic cult has spiritual, cultural and social degeneracy, Leviticus 20:10-23. We might also conclude with the fact that idolatry with its ecstatic cultism is the origin of homosexuality, bestiality, incest, etc., Deuteronomy 12:29-31. So licentious Gnosticism and the phallic cult practised in Pergamum and Thyatira posed a serious threat to the continuation of the Roman empire as the first Gentile client nation to God. Idolatry and the practice of the phallic cult was responsible for the historical downtrend in Israel as a client nation, the basis of the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, Isaiah 2:8, 18-20; 21:9; 36:18-20; 37:12-19; Jeremiah 3:6-11; 2:27-30; 7:17-20; 17:1-4; Ezekiel 6:4-6.

Phallic cult evangelism

The best illustration in the ancient world mentioned in the Word of God are the Canaanites. The Canaanites became the Phoenicians when they mixed with the great sea peoples. So we will use the Phoenicians as the background for phallic cult evangelism. By the time of the Roman empire the phallic cult was carried on by this beautiful and brilliant woman called Jezebel. Why is she called Jezebel? Because Jezebel was a Phoenician who married a Jewish king who was a brilliant soldier but a jackass otherwise!

The Phoenicians, who were the evangelists of the phallic cult, are descendants from two peoples — the Canaanites and the sea peoples. The Old Testament prohibited idolatry and the practices of idolatry by the Canaanites is well documented. You might say that the Canaanites who occupied the land before Israel were landlocked as a people until they combined with Oddities.

In about 1200 BC the sea peoples invaded the near east: Anatolea, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Palestine. The fall of the Hittite empire, the destruction of Troy, the disappearance of the Minoan civilisation, the pressure of the Dorians who forced the Maecenians to go to their ships and leave Greece, resulted in having peoples wandering. There were great migrations by sea as well as by land. Out of this came new races, new peoples. There were the Philistines, the Phoenicians, and the Greeks and the Romans also came from these same wanderings or migrations. The Phoenicians are the result of intermarrying with the Canaanites and establishing a great maritime empire which gave both an alphabet to the world and a religion to the entire area covered by the Roman empire. That includes western Turkey. In both the Bible and in Homer the Phoenicians are called Sidonians. In Africa they were called the Carthaginians. The word “Phoenician” is derived from a Greek word, Foinic. In the Greek it means crimson or purple colours, dye which was manufactured in Tyre and Sidon. The land of these people was called in the Greek Foinikh, which we translate Phoenicia. The people were called Foinikeij, which we call Phoenician. The word Canaanite in the Hebrew is kanan, and it means Canaanite or merchant, a dealer in crimson dye. In 1 Chronicles 1:13 it says: “And Canaan became the father of Sidon [Phoenicia].” The demand for purple and crimson dye, plus the great maritime free enterprise system, made the Phoenicians and Carthaginians the only empire in history without a strong federal government. For over 1000 years they were a great people and a great empire — strictly free enterprise and no federal government. They never went into debt, they always had a balanced budget. They had one of the most stable governments. The senate of Phoenicia was composed of business executives, no elections, and the senate ran the country. They were a mixed race held together by free enterprise and maritime power, plus the fact that they only had one culture.

The religion of the Phoenicians

The source of information about the Phoenician-Canaanite religion in the Bible plus one other book — The Epic of Ugarit. The chief god of the Phoenicians was El, and he is the counterfeit God the Father. He has a son — Baal, the counterfeit Son of God. Baal had a struggle with Mot, the god of death, but Mot overcame Baal and killed him. This is the Satanic counterfeit of the crucifixion of Christ. You see, they had a trinity and they had a devil called Mot. Now where things get sticky is that Baal had a sister who was also his wife. Her name was Anath. Anath found his body and she brought it back to life — counterfeit resurrection. She was the goddess of sex, murder, warfare, and love. They all go together because the sex was violent, the murder was violent, the war was violent, therefore the love was violent, as of the phallic cult. She was also the founder of the greatest criminal organisation of all times, Thugs. Anath was also called something else — Ashtarte. Baal means lord, the second person of the Phoenician trinity. he was worshipped under hyphenated titles — Baal-shamen [lord of heaven]; Baal-melquart [lord Hercules]; baal-gad [lord of good luck]; Baal-merodach [Jupiter the sun god]; Baal-hanan [lord of heat].

Dionysius, the god of wine, was another of the favourite gods. He was not discovered by the Greeks but by the people of Asia-minor and Anatolea. In Lydia Dionysius was called Bacchus, so the Romans at an early stage worshipped the god of wine. It was through the worship of Baal that the Omri dynasty of the northern kingdom of Israel — the great warrior dynasty: Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah and Jehoram — attempted to fuse the Phoenicians and the Jews into one powerful race. The Phoenicians were the greatest maritime power and the Jews were the greatest military power at that time. Ahab and his father before him, Omri, were great soldiers, the greatest generals of their day. So in order to fuse the two people Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Phoenicia, was married off to Ahab the son of king Omri. The evil of Omri is mentioned in 1 Kings 16:25,26 while the evil of Ahab is summarised in 1 Kings 16:30,31.

Our subject is the Phoenicians as evangelists of the phallic cult and why the word “Jezebel” occurs in our context. Jezebel didn’t come back to life but her facsimile was there in person and she herself was a believer who attracted many others into the phallic cult.

Idolatry begins in the soul and proceeds overtly to practice. Mental idolatry precedes overt idolatry. Scar tissue of the soul and cosmic involvement always precedes the modus operandi of idolatry, therefore idolatry is the manifestation of negative volition toward doctrine and living inside the cosmic system, as per Romans 1:18-25. For this reason idolatry is often called spiritual adultery. It is also the basis for contacting demons — demon influence or demon possession — depending on whether you are an unbeliever or a believer. If you are a believer you cannot be demon-possessed, you can only come under demon influence. The believer can only be under demon influence through false doctrine, living in the cosmic system. Idolatry also motivates the entire realm of the phallic cult, Leviticus 18:3-25; demonism, Leviticus 20:6; human sacrifice, Leviticus 20:1-5; rejection of establishment and authority, Leviticus 20:9. In Leviticus chapter 20:10-23 we have spiritual, cultural and social degeneracy from the phallic cult. Idolatry is one of the things that originates such things as homosexuality, bestiality, incest, and so on, Deuteronomy 12:29-31.

We have seen how the sea peoples combined with the Canaanites to form the Phoenicians. We took up the religion of the Phoenicians as the foundation for the phallic cult and how the Phoenicians were the evangelists for the phallic cult with religion, licentiousness, human sacrifice, demonism, and ecstatic abandonment to pleasure. The entire Baal system for the phallic cult spread to the area we are studying where names were changed by the Greek and Roman people; they changed the gods to fit into their own language. The worshippers were required to submit to violence, rape, murder, and therefore Jezebel of Thyatira brought the same system of power politics to Christianity that Jezebel of Phoenicia brought to the court of northern Israel, so that the religion of Baal was the religion of licentious Gnosticism, designed to make slaves of cosmic believers and exploit the common man. The cult led by Jezebel of Thyatira was a facsimile, then, of the Baal cult which Israel faced in the time of Elijah and thereafter. Therefore it is not surprising that in the next phrase of verse 24 we have this cult described as the deeper things of Satan. Anath, Astarte, Ashera, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Isis and Venus, are different languages for the same person, the goddess of love in the Baal cult. In both Phoenicia and Israel Anath, the wife of Baal, was depicted as a nude woman mounted on a lion with a lily in one hand and a snake in the other. The significance of this has been brought out by archaeology. The lily symbolised sex, the snake in the other hand fecundity, the lion conquest and power.

It would appear that this Jezebel cult was far worse than the Nicolaitanes which we studied in verse 15. This was a revival of the old Phoenician cult and this is why Jezebel was used for the female leader in Thyatira. The doctrine of Jezebel is the depths or the deep things of Satan. This cult has not distracted nor caused apostasy among positive believers, those who are living inside the divine dynasphere and those who are learning Bible doctrine on a daily basis.

So we pick up again with the nominative masculine plural subject of the qualitative pronoun o(stisj, and it is a qualitative relative pronoun emphasising a quality by which the preceding statement is to be confirmed. So we can translate it, “such a category who.” We are talking about mature believers, believers who are positive toward doctrine, believers who have doctrine first in their scale of values. This is followed by the aorist active indicative of the Greek verb ginwskw, and with it the negative o)uk, “such a category who have not come to know.” It means to know, to understand, and it is used for the mystery doctrine of Gnosticism, or the mystery rites of the various phallic cults that are related to it. The ingressive aorist tense is one in which the action signified by the aorist may be contemplated at it’s beginning. It denotes entrance into a state or condition. Here with the negative o)uk it denotes not entering into the state or condition. In other words, not being evangelised by the phallic cult of Thyatira. The active voice: believers living in the divine dynasphere produce the action of the verb by resisting the revival of the Baal cult in Thyatira. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. The reality is residence and function in the divine dynasphere insulating these believers against this phallic activity. We also saw last time the relationship between the modern tongues movement and the phallic cult.

The accusative neuter plural direct object follows. It is from an adjective, baquj, which means deep things or deep secrets, a reference to doctrine related to demonism and the phallic cult. The next phrase is an idiom used as an adjective to be translated either to be alleged or so-called. In this idiom we have two words: a relative adverb o(j, and the verb legw. Ordinarily it would be translated “as speaking,” but here it is an idiom meaning “alleged.” So we translate it, “alleged deep secrets,” a phrase used as an adjective. With this we have the possessive genitive from the proper noun for Satan, and it is correctly translated, “of Satan.”

Translation: “But I say to you, the others [believers living inside the divine dynasphere], those of you who are in Thyatira, as many as do not adhere to this false doctrine [the revival of the Baal cult], such category of mature believers who have not come to know the alleged deep things of Satan.”

Next we have a present active of the verb ballw plus the negative o)u. It ordinarily would be translated, “I will not cast” or “I will not throw,” but here it simply means “I place no.” The idea is conceived as independent of any particular verbal relationship, and so with it we have a nominative neuter singular of an adjective a)lloj, plus the nominative masculine singular baroj, meaning burden or weight. Altogether it says, “I place no other burden.” With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of su , “on you.” The present tense of ballw is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur when believers live in the divine dynasphere. They face the whole problem of historical trends, they have the ability to cope and they understand the solution. They are in the field of active panaceas even though they are unknown to history. The people who make the greatest impact on history, either pro or con, are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. As goes the believer so goes the historical trend. Believers living in the divine dynasphere contribute to the uptrend of history, believers in the cosmic system contribute to the downtrend of history. The active voice: our Lord produces the action of not putting any other burden on them because they are obviously involved in the historical trend.

The entire passage says: “But I say to you, the others, those in Thyatira, as many as do not adhere to this doctrine, such a category who have not come to know the alleged deep things of Satan; on you I place no other burden..”

This anticipates the subject of the uniform of honour which we will be studying in Revelation 3:4. Those who do not adhere to this false doctrine are the mature believers who in eternity are going to wear the uniform of translucent light over their resurrection body, they have not soiled their clothes. No additional burden or mandate is given to these mature believers who live and function inside the divine dynasphere. It isn’t necessary to emphasise the negative with believers who are positive toward doctrine. In other words, believers who are positive toward doctrine do not need a lot of negative mandates, they are functioning in the positive mandates relating to residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. They actually fulfil certain doctrines we have studied. For example, the divine dynasphere and the edification complex of the soul; for example, the royal family honour code which we studied in Romans thirteen. For example, the concept of virtue we studied in 1 John chapter five, and also the functional virtue of impersonal love which we studied in that chapter.

Verse 25 then gives us the mandate to these people. They have passed the major momentum tests, they have advanced to maturity, therefore they don’t need a lot of negative hoopla. Instead, one positive statement given in this verse.

The adverb plhn which begins this is actually an adverb used as a conjunction to break off a discussion. It isn’t necessary, positive believers simply do not need the negative, mature believers especially. You don’t have to tell a positive believer, Don’t do this and Don’t do that. Just give them the positive mandate and they will carry it out. So for the mature believers who have advanced from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere the negative is unnecessary, therefore the negative is cut off by the adverb used as a conjunction and translated “Only.” Then with this the adverb conjunction goes with the aorist active imperative of the verb kratew, a positive mandate. It means to hold fast or to hang on. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the believer’s residence and function inside the divine dynasphere in its entirety, but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the momentum of going from gate four [perception and application of doctrine] to gate eight, which is maturity. This also implies passing the eight momentum tests. They have moved along, now they need simply to stand fast. The active voice: positive believers produce the action, they have produced it by advancing to maturity, passing the momentum tests. The imperative mood is a command or mandate to positive believers in Thyatira.

With this we have the accusative neuter singular direct object from the relative pronoun o(j, and as usual translated “who” or “what”; here as the accusative, “to what.” And then the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, “hold fast to what you have.” The present tense of duration denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. This includes parlaying logistical grace into maturity and utilising to the maximum the divine dynasphere. The active voice: the positive believer produces the action of the verb although all believers possess logistical grace and the divine dynasphere. But only positive believers utilise this grace provision and turn it into something absolutely fantastic in time, contributing to the historical uptrend, having great blessing and happiness individually. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the provision of logistical grace and the provision of the divine dynasphere. “Only hold on to what you have.”

Then we have one more phrase, the improper preposition a)xri plus the relative pronoun o(j, and it is translated “until which time,” it is an idiom. The genitive from the relative pronoun o(j introduces an indefinite temporal clause and “until which time” is the correct way. There is also in this idiom a small, small word made up of two letters. It is called the mobile a)n, a small particle which is very important because it denotes that the action of the verb depends on some circumstance implied in the context. The circumstance here is the Rapture of the Church. The temporal clause a)n plus the subjunctive describes an event which will occur in the future, namely the Rapture of the Church, but when it occurs cannot be assumed with certainty. In other words, this is another way of saying no one, absolutely no one, knows when the Rapture is going to occur. No one knows if they are in the Rapture generation or not. That is the importance of one Greek word, often not even translatable. In the temporal clause plus the subjunctive it is described as an event that will occur, namely the Rapture, but when it occurs cannot be assumed, says this particle. The Rapture is imminent but no one knows the day or the hour. In this idiom neither the relative pronoun o(j nor the mobile a)n are translatable, we simply take the three words together and translate them “until” because they are introducing an indefinite temporal clause. No one knows when it will happen but everyone knows it will happen sooner or later. Only the time is unknown.

Next we have the aorist active subjunctive from the verb e(kw, correctly translated “until I have come,” i.e. the Rapture of the Church. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the Rapture or the royal family resurrection in its entirety as a momentary action, an action which will be unknown by all who participate. Only God knows and that is the way it should be. We are to carry on as usual. If you are doing what is right — the will of God — you don’t have to anticipate any event which is coming up. The active voice: Jesus Christ will produce the action of the verb at the Rapture, and the subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive implying a future reference regarding the Rapture, plus the indefinite temporal connotation of the imminency of the Rapture.

Corrected translation: “Only hold on to what you have [the residence and function inside the divine dynasphere] until I come [the Rapture].”

The divine plan for the Church Age never changes. The provision of logistical grace plus function in the divine dynasphere for the royal family of God demands that we as believers keep on doing what we are doing. All the mandates of the Christian way of life are related to residence and function at the various gates of the divine dynasphere and therefore John emphasises to positive believers in Thyatira the importance of just doing what they are doing. They have already passed the test, they haven’t been caught up in the tongues movement as it existed in its phallic form in that day. They were not caught up in all that emotional nonsense. God’s plan utilises God’s power and exploits God’s grace, God’s logistical grace provision, so that God is glorified and the Gentile client nation SPQR is perpetuated. Today it would be the Gentile client nation USA is perpetuated. Luke 21:24 — The times of the Gentiles are the time in which we live, “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” The times of the Gentiles began in AD 70 and concludes at the Rapture of the Church. For all practical purposes Israel will not be a client nation again in the Tribulation but there will be no client nation in the Tribulation due to the intensifying of power politics. Instead 144,000 individual Jewish evangelists will function as a client nation.

So the same message regarding the times of the Gentiles was given by the apostle Paul in Romans 11:25, “For brethren [royal family of God] I do not wish you to be ignorant about this mystery, that you stop being wise in your own estimation,” ignorance produces arrogance, “that the hardening in part has happened to Israel until the time of the fullness of the Gentiles [the Church Age] has come in.” In other words, in every generation of the Church Age the basis for historical uptrend of prosperity will always be the same: As goes the believer so goes the client nation, and so goes the trends of history in that generation. Furthermore in every generation of the Church Age the basis for historical downtrend will always be the same. When things start to go bad historically as they appear to be doing now it is because the pivot of mature believers has shrunk. It is because believers are not fulfilling divine mandates, not executing the plan of God. Individually as believers and collectively as a client nation to God we are the products of our own decisions. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions. There are no tragedies in history, rather historical disasters based on cosmic involvement. Such disasters cannot be tragedies since both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions. Individual subjectivity contributes to the destruction of national objectivity. This is why arrogant individuals and arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies and failures, only the failures of others. Furthermore, since authority in life is a matter of human volition cosmic believers always use their volition to accept wrong authority and follow wrong leadership. They follow demagogues. Establishment authority in the client nation breaks down when those involved in the cosmic system use their free will to accept the authority of evil. This is how believers go from the directive will of God to the permissive will of God, by going from the divine dynasphere to the cosmic system.

If anything will give meaning and purpose to your life, if anything will give right motivation, if anything will make your life meaningful and bring happiness to you it is the next eight verses. We begin in verses 26-28 with the reward for momentum and maturity: the dynamics of historical impact. And we begin by noting that those who are unknown in history in the Church Age will be well known, they will be the famous people of the Millennium. So even though you are not in the history books now as a mature believer you will make history for the 1000 years of this dispensation. Therefore we are going to see how the invisible of the Church Age will become the visible in the Millennial reign of Christ, and you will finally come to be — if you follow through on this — single-minded in your life. Only single-minded people ever achieve maximum happiness in life. And by single-minded I mean you will understand why you are here, you will understand the purpose for being here, and you will understand that nothing is more important to your life than Bible doctrine. So we begin with the reward for momentum, maturity, the dynamics of historical impact.

The reward of Millennial authority is verse 26. “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him I will give power over the nations.” The order is a matter of encouragement. We don’t start out with the rewards. The rewards actually come at the judgment seat of Christ. That is when the mature believer receives the highest decoration, the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory, the translucent transcendent uniform of light that goes over the resurrection body. Then it is seven years later before the second advent, the coronation, the wedding supper of the Lamb, and then the Millennial reign of Christ. It is of the Millennial reign of Christ that we are talking in verse 26. In verse 28 we will go back to the decorations, and then in chapter three we will get the uniform of glory.

The King James version is its usual innocuous self! So we have to start all over with the Greek. The connective use of the conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes. So this word kai is translated “furthermore.” With it we have the articular present active participle of the verb nikaw, which means to win. The definite article is a generic definite article describing the mature believer as a separate category from all human beings in his own generation and in all generations. When the participle is not accompanied by a noun it may function as a substantive as here. So instead of translating it like a participle we translate it like a noun: “Furthermore the winner.” Basically there are two categories of believers, winners and losers, great people and wimps. The winner is the believer who advances from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere, therefore the mature believer who has constructed the edification complex of the soul. With this we have the ascensive use of the conjunction kai, translated “even.” The articular present active participle from terew, which means to keep or to guard. The winner is now described, “even he who keeps” or “even he who guards.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun describing the believer who advances to maturity. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur when the believer lives in the divine dynasphere and passes the momentum tests, and through the daily perception of doctrine goes from gate four to gate eight. The active voice: the positive believer produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial for the fulfilment of the plan of God through the daily perception of Bible doctrine. With this we have a direct object composed of three words. The first is the accusative plural from the noun e)rgon, which is generally translated “works” but has other related meanings. With this we have the accusative plural definite article used in the generic sense in describing the believer who has attained or achieved maturity. We also have a possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun e)gw, and this makes up the direct object and is translated “my assignments” — “even he who keeps my assignments.” The assignment is the word e)rgon here. The tasks or assignments of God are the fulfilment of the plan of God inside the divine dynasphere. X+Y+Z = the assignments of God.

Then we have a prepositional phrase, “until the end,” the famous improper Attic Greek preposition which we had in the previous verse, a)xri, used as an improper preposition with the genitive singular of the noun teloj, and this is a genitive of time, we have a temporal clause again. A)xri plus teloj means “until the end” and it is a reference to the end of the believer’s life on this earth, which may mean either death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first. Phase two is terminated either by death or the Rapture of the Church and therefore the prepositional phrase refers to that part of God’s plan between salvation and physical death. “Until the end” takes you from the moment you believe in Christ until the moment that you depart from this life, either by death or resurrection, whichever occurs first.

“Furthermore the winner, even he who keeps my assignments until the end,” until the termination of God’s plan.

Then we have the principle which follows, “I am going to give that person some special authority.”

We are going to look at the subject of winners and losers. There is nothing worse than for a Christian to be a loser. Every believer who lives in the cosmic system is a loser all the way and what happens to losers in eternity shouldn’t happen to a dog with hydrophobia! Eternity and heaven is for all believers and there is no way you can lose your salvation, but there are tremendous degrees of happiness and blessing forever and ever and ever in heaven.

The name of the doctrine which is necessary for our continued study of Revelation chapters two and three is

The profile of a winner

1. Believers in time and in eternity believers are classified into two categories: winners or losers.

2. The winners are believers who live in the divine dynasphere learning Bible doctrine, passing the momentum tests, advancing to maturity, fulfilling the plan of God and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The losers are believers who live in the cosmic system, servants of Satan, constantly under the control of their old sin nature (carnality), involved in both motivational and functional evil.

4. Losers are Christians who fail in time but they do not lose their salvation. However, Christians who are losers in time do occupy an inferior place in heaven and have no authority in the Millennium, which means no impact on history.

5. Winners are described in Revelation chapters two and three by the present active participle of the verb nikaw; it is used seven times in our context, Revelation 2:7,11, 17, 26; 3:5,12, 21.

6. In each case the participle is translated like a noun which is a legitimate grammatical use in the Greek. Therefore it is translated consistently “the winner.”

7. All historical blessing and prosperity in the Church Age results from unknown and unnamed persons who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ living in the divine dynasphere.

8. These mature believers we are going to call winners. These winners provide blessing by association and historical uptrend not recorded in any human history book of the world.

9. Therefore, these believers who are winners are unknown, anonymous, unsung heroes of history during the Church Age. They have used the hidden manna of Bible doctrine and other provisions of logistical grace to advance from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere.

The divine dynasphere is the plan of God for the Church Age — Gate one, the filling of the Spirit; Gate two, basic impersonal love; Gate three, enforced and genuine humility. Gate one is spiritual IQ; Gate two is objectivity in learning doctrine; Gate three is teachability in learning doctrine; Gate four is perception and application of doctrine (the momentum gate); Gate five, love of God; Gate six, right man, right woman where pertinent; Gate seven, friendship, advanced impersonal love; Gate eight, is spiritual maturity, the construction of the edification complex of the soul. Believers who advance to gate eight contribute to the historical uptrend of the client nation, which at the time of writing was SPQR, the Roman empire, but today is the USA. On the basis of historical trends, as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. The winner, then, is the secret to national and historical blessing in this life and in this dispensation. These Christian heroes of history are anonymous today but they will be well known at a future point in history and they will take a prominent place in the last one thousand years of human history. As the resurrection of the Church is called the Rapture it becomes a major issue because at that time they will receive what is called a white pebble, a resurrection body. They will be knighted with a new name or title and they will become the most well known of all men in history. Cracking the maturity barrier, reaching maturity as an anonymous individual as far as world history is concerned is very important because it means that although you are anonymous now in the Church Age you will be the most famous of people in the Millennium. So just as the mature believer is born twice he gets two cracks at history, and he will have the greatest and most permanent of all fame in the last one thousand years of history.

1. It is the objective, then, of this profile to present the doctrine that the anonymous believers with maximum historical impact today will be famous at a future time in history.

2. The winner will be at the Rapture of the Church; so will a lot of believers who are not winners — 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

3. The winners will participate also in the big genuflect in the sky, Philippians 2:9-11, a time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Losers are going to glorify God whether they want to or not.

4. The winner is going to be decorated.

After the big genuflect the winners and the losers are going to be separated and there will be great inequality in heaven. Notice the one thing they all have in common in Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore also God [the Father] has exalted him [our Lord Jesus Christ] to the maximum, and has given him a name [our Lord’s title of knighthood],” the same name we will study in connection with winners. He has given Him a name, our Lord’s royal patent, which prepares the way for the new knighthood of Revelation 2:17, the new order of chivalry for the Millennium and the eternal state; “which is superior to every name, that in the presence of the person of Christ every knee of heaven shall bow,” this is right after the Rapture of the Church, the worship of the entire royal family of God. The winners and the losers will be there together; “both the ones on the earth,” the believers who are alive at the time of the Rapture; “and the ones under the earth,” the believers who died during the Church Age; “and every tongue shall acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father”. One thing is clear: winners and losers alike have the right perspective at the resurrection and thereafter. So the issue in the difference between winners and losers is not their attitude at the resurrection, it is their attitude in time — the attitude now. Winners and losers will be there, 2 Corinthians 5:10, where the winner is described as “good” because he fulfilled the plan of God [X+Y+Z]. The loser is described as “ashamed” at the judgment seat of Christ, Romans 5:5, “and hope does not make us ashamed.” It is the loser who is going to be ashamed, therefore the importance of that phrase from 2 Timothy 2:15, “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed” at the judgment seat of Christ. And what keeps him from being ashamed at the judgment seat of Christ? Rightly dividing or categorising the Word of truth. Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest anticipation and hope that I shall not be put to shame in anything [at the judgment seat of Christ], but with all confidence, Christ shall even now, as always [from the judgment seat of Christ until eternity], be glorified in my body, whether by life or by death.”

But the loser is described in several passages: Philippians 3:18,19, “For many [cosmic believers who are losers] keep walking [in the cosmic system], concerning whom I have communicated to you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction,” they will die the sin unto death, “whose god is their emotion,” holy-rollers and so on, “whose glory is their shame,” at the judgment seat of Christ there is no glory for them, all they have is a resurrection body, “who keep thinking about earthly things,” result of cosmic involvement.

The drama of winners and losers at the judgment seat of Christ is emphasised by 1 John 2:28, “And now, dear children [all believers], keep residing in it [the divine dynasphere], so that if he [Christ] should appear [the Rapture followed by the judgment seat of Christ], we might have confidence,” the winner has confidence at the judgment seat of Christ, “and might not be put to shame [that is the loser] by him in his presence.”

Two major declarations are given to the winners with maximum historical impact, and these are as high as any believer could ever go. For life in the divine dynasphere there is a special declaration mentioned in Revelation 2:10, “Keep on becoming faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life,” the highest decoration for living the Christian life, but not the highest decoration given. But it will be given prior to the awarding of the highest decoration that a human being can ever receive and hold forever and ever, for maximum historical impact. Revelation 2:28, “Furthermore I will give to him [the mature believer, the winner in time] the order of the morning star,” the highest decoration for life on this earth, the highest decoration for historical impact and for glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name for this highest decoration for the mature believer with maximum impact is the order of the morning star. The name is derived from the title of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His strategic and tactical victory our Lord Jesus Christ is called the Morning Star. For example, the strategic victory of the first advent, Numbers 24:7, “A star shall come from Jacob” — the tactical victory of the first advent. The tactical victory of the second advent: 2 Peter 1:19, “And we keep on having a more reliable doctrine,” a doctrine which is more reliable because it is in the Word, more reliable than the empiricism of Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration; “with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably,” a reference to the uniform of honour worn by winners in time, invisible since it is a uniform of the soul. It is the result of fulfilling the royal family honour code; it is the result of fulfilling motivating virtue and functional virtue inside the divine dynasphere; “by habitually concentrating in your right lobes on the lamp shining in a dark place [Jesus Christ controls history],” Even though Satan is the ruler of this world the lamp shining in the dark place is Christ controlling history; “until the day dawn [second advent of Christ] and the morning star [our Lord Jesus Christ] has come.” In the strategic victory of the first advent, in the tactical victory of the second advent, our Lord is called the morning star. In the empirical experience of Peter the first showing of the morning star’s uniform of glory is the mount of transfiguration. Christ is the morning star and the uniform of glory is the translucent robe, a robe of light, which He wears over His resurrection body. But even before our Lord received the resurrection body the uniform of glory in eternity — to be contrasted with the uniform of honour in time — was modelled for Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration. Our Lord said by way of prophecy, “Truly I say to you, there are some standing here [Peter, James and John] who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 17:1,2 — “And six days later Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And he was transformed before them; in fact his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” That introduces to us that which accompanies this decoration, the highest of all decorations, the order of the morning star. It is the uniform of glory first seen on the mount of transfiguration, and now in the humanity of Christ a constantly worn uniform of translucence, a uniform of light. The “uniform of glory” is how we will designate it.

5. The decoration of the morning star. Again, Revelation 2:28, the order of the morning star is the highest decoration that God can give a human being, a decoration for historical impact, a decoration for life in the divine dynasphere as manifest by the crown of life. The decoration of the morning star includes the privilege of wearing the uniform of glory, a uniform of translucent light over the resurrection body. Revelation 3:4, “But you have a few people in Sardis,” a pivot of mature believers living in the divine dynasphere contributing to the historical uptrend plus national blessing. In other words, mature believers having maximum impact on history through their life in the divine dynasphere; “who have not soiled their clothes,” a reference to the uniform of honour worn by the mature believer in time. The winner wears the uniform of honour in time; “in fact they will walk with me in whites (plural),” the translucent uniform of glory worn over the resurrection body, but worn by winners only. Believers who fulfil life in the cosmic system will have a resurrection body but no uniform of glory. The uniform of glory is worn with the order of the morning star, the two go together, “because they are worthy,” i.e. they have been decorated with the order of the morning star. The decoration includes presentation in the court of heaven. While the Tribulation is occurring on earth those who have had maximum historical impact through living in the divine dynasphere and advancing to maturity. That is, the winners are going to be presented at court, the highest honour that God can give a Church Age believer. They will be specifically presented in the court of heaven to God the Father, Revelation 3:5, “Thus the winner shall be clothed in a white garment,” the translucent uniform of glory worn by the winners of the morning star, the same translucent uniform worn by our Lord Jesus Christ as of the moment of His resurrection; “and I will never blot his name,” the new knighthood which accompanies the order of the morning star; “out of the book of life; in fact I will acknowledge,” the presentation of morning star winners in the court of heaven during the Tribulation; “his name,” a new knighthood received at the judgment seat of Christ; “in the presence of my Father, and before his angels.” Winners will be presented in the court of heaven; losers will cool their heels in the second heaven! There is a separation between winners and losers in heaven at this stage. The order of the morning star includes a new knighthood. the order of chivalry for the royal family or Church Age believer, Revelation 2:17 “ … to the winner [mature believer] I will give him blessing from the hidden manna [blessing in time from maximum doctrine resident in the soul], and I will give him a white pebble [resurrection body]; furthermore, on that pebble has been written a new name [title of knighthood, an honour belonging to those who hold the highest of all decorations, the order of the morning star] written which no one knows except he who receives it,” he alone knows his place in the eternal order of chivalry.

6. The winner returns with Christ at the second advent. All Church Age believers return with Christ at the second advent, winners and losers, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints,” but those who are winners come with their decorations, the order of the morning star, having received knighthood, and having a uniform of glory. On those winners of the morning star there will be a uniform of glory, Colossians 3:4, “on the occasion when Christ, our life, shall become manifest [second advent], you also [winners of the morning star] shall become manifest with him [at the second advent] in glory,” wearing the uniform of glory, a special reward for winners only.

7. Winners will also be involved in the operation footstool and our Lord’s triumphal procession. After AD 70 of the Church Age Israel no longer functions as the client nation. The Church Age began roughly between 30-32 AD. From 70 AD we have the times of the Gentiles when only a Gentile nation can function as a client nation to God. In 70 AD the first one was SPQR; today it is USA. Then comes the Rapture, the end of the Church Age. There will be no client nations during the Tribulation that follows. Instead, 144,000 individual Jewish evangelists and Bible teachers will take the place of a client nation. Then comes the second advent. Christ returns, winners return with Him in the uniform of glory, and at that time there will be a coup de tat and Satan will be set aside. There will be a triumphal procession, operation footstool, and the winners will be involved in that as well.

Psalm 110:1 describes it this way. “The Lord [God the Father] has said to my Lord [God the Son]: Sit down at my right hand” — a prophecy in the Psalms of the ascension and session of our Lord; “until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet [second advent].” Operation footstool begins at the second advent and includes the termination of the Armageddon campaign of the Tribulation, the baptism of fire which separates believer from unbeliever, and the coup de tat in which Satan loses the rulership of planet earth. Both Satan and all fallen angels will be incarcerated for 1000 years to make room for perfect environment in the Millennium.

The importance of Psalm 110:1 is noted from the numerous quotations in the New Testament, Matthew 24:22; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43; Acts 2:35; Hebrews 1:13; 10:13, etc. Operation footstool includes the three phases of the triumphal procession. The actual procession itself is recorded numerous times because it was such a prominent thing in Roman history. Those who had the greatest impact historically were allowed the triumphal procession. Our Lord’s triumph relates to His victory over two categories of His enemies: angelic and human. The unbelievers of the Tribulation are dealt with in the baptism of fire. In the triumphal procession the prisoners and the booty always came first. The prisoners include Satan and all the fallen angels who have functioned under Satan’s command since Genesis 6. Next in the procession comes the triumphant general, a counsel, a tribune, and later on a ruler, a Caesar. Our Lord Jesus Christ comes in the triumphal procession. Then follows the army, the royal family of God, Church Age believers in resurrection bodies. Losers are just there; winners are wearing the order of the morning star on the uniform of glory. Some of the royal family are winners and some are losers, they will all be there. In the triumphal procession of the second advent all the demons who serve under Satan are disarmed for public exhibition, Colossians 2:15, “And having disarmed demon archons [generals] and commissioned officers he [Christ at the second advent] made a public display of them having celebrated a triumphal procession over them by means of it [the strategic victory of the cross in the first advent].”

At the end of the triumphal procession it always ended up in Rome by the dungeon, and at the end the prisoners were put in the dungeons. Sometimes they were executed. In this case we have 1 Corinthians 15:23-25. The prisoners [demons] will be cast into prison. “Each man [believer] in his own battalion: Christ the firstfruits [Alpha company], after that those who are Christ’s at his coming [Bravo company of the royal family, the Rapture]. Then the end [of the Tribulation, the second advent], when he [Christ] delivers up the kingdom even to God the Father,” Christ takes the rulership of the world from Satan, gives it to God the Father who in turn gives it back to Him through a coronation, “when he [Christ] has abolished all rule [of Satan] and all authority [the dictators of the Tribulation] and power [the removal of all demons from planet earth],” as per Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15. “For he must reign,” our Lord must reign for the 1000 years of the Millennium; “until he has put all enemies under his feet.”

The final part of this triumphal procession is the incarceration of Satan, described in Revelation 20:1-3, “And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and incarcerated him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, which he both shut and sealed until the thousand years were finished.” The winners will be there in the triumphal procession. Their significance? Wearing the uniform of glory, the new knighthood, the crown of life, the order of the morning star.

What is really tragic is that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ these decorations are open to you in the future, but some of you are certainly going to have to change your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

8. The winner is also at the coronation of Christ and the wedding supper which follows, Revelation 19:6-8. “And I heard, as it were, the sound of a great crowd of people [Church Age believers in resurrection bodies, winners and losers] and as the sound of many waters [Old Testament believers who now have resurrection bodies because they receive them at the second advent with Tribulational martyrs. These are the friends of the groom of John 3:29] and as the sound of mighty thunderings [believers of the Tribulation who survive to the coming of Christ. They will form a nucleus, a cadre for the population explosion of the Millennium. They are said to be the friends of the bride in Matthew 25:1-13], saying, Praise the Lord! because the Lord God [Jesus Christ], the total ruler, has now become King.”

In verse 7 we have the wedding supper of the Lamb. “Let us be extremely happy,” there are degrees of happiness in heaven, maximum happiness going to the winner of the morning star, “and celebrate with maximum happiness. Let us give glory to him [Christ is the groom who has just been crowned ruler of the world] because the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride [the Church] has made herself ready,” that would be the judgment seat of Christ, and for morning star winners presentation in the court of heaven during the time of the Tribulation.

Verse 8, “Also it shall be given to her that she [the Church, the Bride of Christ] should be clothed in fine linen,” fine linen belongs to winners and losers. It includes all believers of the Church Age. Hence, it is not the same as the uniform of glory, it is rather the imputed righteousness received at salvation parlayed into ultimate sanctification at resurrection. All winners and losers receive the benefit of ultimate sanctification but there is a difference. For some there is something bright, “bright.” This part is limited to morning star winners who are also given the uniform of glory, “and unsoiled,” for morning star winners the uniform of honour in time is exchanged at the judgment seat of Christ for the uniform of glory. The uniform of glory means those who wear it are going to rule nations for a thousand years. The fine linen has to be explained, the uniform of glory is obvious from other passages. The fine linen is the ultimate “righteousness,” the resurrection body minus the old sin nature, “of the saints.”

Verse 9, “And he communicated to me, Write, Happiness belongs to the ones who have been invited to the marriage supper of the lamb,” maximum happiness for winners, those who receive at the judgment seat of Christ the order of the morning star. Three categories of people are invited: the bride, Church Age believers, winners and losers, with emphasis on the prominence belonging to the mature believer who holds the order of the morning star and wears the uniform of glory at the wedding feast; secondly the friends of the groom, the Old Testament saints, with special emphasis on Moses and Elijah who were martyrs in the Tribulation as well, Revelation 11:3; thirdly, invited to the wedding supper are the friends of the bride, the Tribulational believers who are alive at the second advent. This cadre of believers forms the nucleus for that population explosion of the Millennium.

9. The authority of the order of the morning star in the Millennium, or when anonymous heroes are going to become well-known heroes. The authority of the morning star in the Millennium is described in Revelation 2:26-28, “And so the winner, even he who keeps my assignments until the end [of phase two], to him I will give authority over the nations.” Notice that when Jesus Christ rules the world under perfect environment of the Millennium there will still be nationalism, not internationalism. “And he [the Lord Jesus Christ] will rule them with an iron sceptre,” criminals will be executed immediately. There will be capital punishment under the perfect environment of the Millennium; “as pots made of clay are shattered,” capital punishment in the Millennium; “as I also have received authority from my Father. Furthermore I will give to him [the one who is going to rule] the order of the morning star,” the highest decoration for historical impact and spiritual maturity in the Church Age.

10. The function of the morning star in the Millennium, Revelation 20:4. “And I saw thrones, and they that sat on them,” those who hold the morning star and wear the uniform of glory; “and judgment [rulership] was given to them,” they are going to rule for one thousand years as the most famous rulers in history.

11. The privilege of the morning star decoration in the eternal state. Certain privileges not only are related to history but certain privileges are related to eternity. In the eternal state there will be the ultimate in eternal happiness. There are degrees of happiness in eternity and the ultimate in eternal happiness in the privileged access to the gazebo in the garden, Revelation 2:7, “To the winner I will give him the privilege of eating from the tree of life in the paradise of God.” That is in eternity for the one who holds the morning star and wears the uniform of glory, and only that person will be permitted in to the gazebo of the garden, the privilege of eating at the tree of life in the paradise of God. The highest order of eternal chivalry in the new knighthood of Revelation 2:17, “To the winner I will give him blessing from the hidden manna, and I will give him a white pebble [resurrection body], furthermore on that pebble has been written a new name which no one knows except the one who has received it.” There is the new order of knighthood. In chapter three we anticipate several other special privileges that go with this decoration. For example, a pillar in the temple. It has to be remembered that in the ancient world temples like the one in Ephesus had special pillars in which a famous king was allowed to write in gold and give the story of why he was famous. He also would put jewels and other valuable things into that pillar so that when people walked through that temple they would see a history book, not as we have history books made of paper, but out of a pillar. And there is a history book that will last forever and ever, it is the pillar in the temple of heaven. On that pillar will be the name, the knighthood, the decorations, and it will be a permanent history as to who was really important in this life.

Verse 26, “Furthermore the winner, even he who keeps my assignments until the end [the termination of phase two, God’s plan for time] … ” Next we have the future active indicative of the verb didomi, which means to give. With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “I will give to him” or “to him I will give,” it can be read either way. The future tense of the word didomi is a predictive future, it anticipates the second advent and the reign of Christ. As we have noted, the decoration of the order of the morning star is received at the judgment seat of Christ. With it is the uniform of glory made of translucent light exactly like the uniform of glory on the resurrection body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Losers will not have either one of these decorations. These decorations have many privileges in eternity and they have a fantastic impact in future history. Those who are invisible anonymous heroes of history at the present time are believers in the Lords Jesus Christ who have advanced to maturity, going from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. These same people, although unknown in the textbooks of modern history, are going to be famous and well-known in the future, for they will have a special presentation in the court of heaven during the Tribulation, and their name with their new knighthood is going to be given in the presentation before God the Father and the angels of heaven. Then they will return with Christ, they will be in operation footstool, they will be at the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will be present in a very special way at the wedding supper of the Lamb. And then they will be famous and well-known for God is going to present those who have won the order of the morning star in their uniform of glory to the population of the Millennium, and this is where we come in with the next phrase, “I will give to him [the one who has the order of the morning star].” The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine. Winners will be rewarded; winners unknown and anonymous at the present will be well-known at another time in history. The dative of indirect object of the intensive pronoun is the dative of advantage as well as indicating those mature believers who have the order of the morning star. They are going to rule nations in the Millennium. Remember that in the Millennium the order of the day will still be nationalism. The Millennium is a time of perfect environment, Jesus Christ rules the world but He administers the rulership of the world through those believers of the Church Age who are decorated with the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory and the crown of life.

“I will give to him authority,” the accusative singular direct object of the noun e)cousia, which means “authority.” Then follows the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the genitive plural of e)qnoj, and it is correctly translated, “over the nations.” E)qnoj always refers to Gentile nations.

Corrected translation: “Furthermore the winner, even he who keeps my assignments until the end [termination of phase two], to him I will give authority over the nations.”

Keeping our Lord’s assignments is a daily function, making good decisions every day, making decisions for doctrine, making decisions for residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere.

This verse is a Millennial reference. The Millennium is a time of perfect environment on the earth. The lion and the lamb will lie down side by side, the swords will be turned into ploughshares, the spears into pruning hooks, and man will learn war no more. That passage in Isaiah applies only to the Millennium. Our Lord Jesus Christ told us very clearly that until the Millennium there will be wars and rumours of wars, and the only way to stop warfare is to be prepared and to be tough.

The statement found in verse 26 is a reward to mature believers, those who hold the order of the morning star, those who have the uniform of glory — these will also have the crown of life. The prepositional phrase indicates the fact that even under perfect environment nationalism will exist during the Millennium. The only possible way to keep the human race from its arrogance and from self-destructing is nationalism, breaking the human race down into national entities. This means that the laws of divine establishment will still be mandatory even in perfect environment. And it also means that in the perfect environment of the Millennium three things will be sacred: freedom, property, and human life. In the perfect environment of the Millennium mankind still has an old sin nature and while Satan is incarcerated for 1000 years and the cosmic system is defunct the existence of human volition and the old sin nature means the necessity for both the laws of divine establishment and the use of authority under perfect environment. Authority must be delegated by God for the administration of the perfect environment of the Millennium. Human history began with perfect environment in the garden of Eden, human history terminates with 1000 years of perfect environment on the entire earth. Part of that perfect environment in the function of the authority of our Lord and the function of the authority of believers who in the future will have the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory, and will be the most famous people in history. Perfect environment still demands the function of authority to coexist with man’s volition and the use of his freedom, his self-determination. While legitimate authority exists the authority depends on human volition for its function.

Authority and human volition

1. All authority in life is divided into two categories: legitimate and illegitimate. Examples of illegitimate authority — Joe Stain, Adolf Hitler.

2. Legitimate authority is defined as those powers delegated by God to human beings under the laws of divine establishment.

3. God delegates authority through His mandates recorded in the Word of God, Deuteronomy 11:27; 1 Samuel 15:22; Jeremiah 7:23; 11;4,7. Before the canon of scripture was completed these mandates were given through prophets and through apostles and other communicators of doctrine.

4. God has authority over nature. Nature obeys God, Matthew 8:27; Mark 4:41; Luke 8:25.

5. Angelic creatures are also subject to divine authority, Mark 1:27; 1 Peter 3:22.

6. However, here we are dealing with authority in the human realm and all such legitimate authority is delegated by God. Without this authority the human race could not coexist in any numbers and it is understanding authority that is the basis for growing up. Some people never grow up because they have no concept of authority, they think their freedom doesn’t need any regulation or any sense of responsibility.

Example of legitimate authority delegated by God: Pastors have authority over congregations, 1 Corinthians 16:15,16; 2 Corinthians 10:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17.

7. The government has authority over people to protect the sanctity of freedom, property, and human life.

8. The husband has authority over the wife, parents over children, teachers over students, coaches over athletes, management over labour.

9. The proper establishment use of authority in business stabilises the economy, Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22.

10. Freedom through military victory is based on authority of military rank, Nehemiah 4:13-15.

There also coexists illegitimate authority. Illegitimate authority is established by Satan through the function of the cosmic system. The twenty-six gates of the interlocking systems of arrogance and the nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred, the two cosmic dynaspheres of Satan’s administration, have all a system of illegitimate authority. In the angelic conflict man was created with free will. He has therefore the freedom, the free will, the self-determination to choose between legitimate and illegitimate authority — legitimate authority delegated by God; illegitimate authority provided through the Satanic administration of the rulership of this world. Therefore, all human authority is a matter of human choice, human volition.. Legitimate authority won’t work unless someone accepts that authority, and even illegitimate authority won’t work unless someone accepts that authority. There is no authority in life unless your volition says so, and if you are a law unto yourself then pretty soon authority will catch up with you. The laws of divine establishment also include capital punishment.

The function of authority is a matter of personal volition

1. The acceptability of authority in life depends on human volition and therefore thousands of decisions. Freedom gives the option of accepting or rejecting authority in life — legitimate or illegitimate authority.

2. All illegitimate authority in life is based on the function of the cosmic system, and people choosing for the cosmic system.

3. Arrogance results from rejection of legitimate authority in life and the most basic definition of arrogance is rejection of legitimate authority in life. Therefore arrogant people are always disoriented to life and people who accept no authority inevitably become a drug addict, or something else equally disastrous. Such arrogance is the source of evil, disorientation, and psychosis. (Very rarely is psychosis originating from physiological problems, it originates from the volition — we are the products of our own volition)

4. While God has delegated authority in life to government, to husbands, to parents, to teachers and coaches and police officers, to judges, to management, this authority is useless unless human volition accepts it.

5. The husband has legitimate authority over the wife but if the wife does not accept that authority he has no authority. Who says he has authority? His authority is useless unless the wife from her very own free will recognises and accepts that authority. That is why the Word of God commands that the husband loves the wife. The wife is never commanded to love the husband, she is commanded to obey him.

6. While parents have legitimate authority in the home this authority is useless unless the children from their own free will recognise and accept it. And while a parent loves his children, if he is normal, the children doesn’t have to love him at all, but they have to have something far more important than love. The must respect him. A child’s love doesn’t mean a thing. With the right kind of candy you can get the love of any child under five, so the person who bring along the right candy is the one they love at the moment. Today we live in a degenerate society. Children have no respect for their parents and if they do not respect their parents they will respect no authority outside the home. If they do not respect authority in the home they do not respect authority outside the home.

7. Legitimate authority is only effective where human volition responds to it. With children it is easy, you can condition them to obey. With the wife you cannot!

8. This is why we have crime, terrorism, revolution, dictatorship, slavery, and other functions of evil because legitimate authority is only effective when human volition responds to it.

9. We are the products of our own volition, therefore when we choose for legitimate authority we are blessed, but when we choose for the cosmic system with its locked-in arrogance we are both punished by our wrong decisions and eventually individually and collectively punished by God.

The believer is protected by the directive will of God

1. Human volition can override the directive will of God. When this happens we go to the permissive will of God. God does not coerce volition. The doctrine of divine decrees is not fatalism. So when you make a decision against God’s directive will, like Balaam, then you move over into the permissive will of God; He permits you to use your own volition to make your own mistakes.

2. The permissive will of God is based on the fact of human volition and human freedom as the means of resolving the angelic conflict.

3. The doctrine of the permissive will of God permits the function of human volition under the principle of human freedom. God permits mistakes up to a point, but He warns though He doesn’t coerce.

4. Therefore the permissive will of God becomes activated when the believer rejects the directive will of God.

5. However, if the believer uses his volition to attempt to destroy human authority then he moves into the category of the overruling will of God.

6. The believer was designated to function under the directive will of God. Logistical grace is designed for the believer to function under the directive will of God.

7. When the believer rejects the authority of God’s Word and the content of the mandates contained therein he has in essence through his own free will destroyed the authority of God in his life. He has reverted to the cosmic system and the authority of Satan as the author of evil.

Dictatorship and evil

1. People use their own free will to gravitate to a system of power, especially in time of historical disaster.

2. When people gravitate to the power of the divine dynasphere they use their volition to make good decisions for legitimate authority, plus inevitable divine blessing.

3. However, when people gravitate through their own free will to the power of the cosmic system they use their own volition to make bad decisions and to give authority to evil leaders with disastrous consequences. In other words, evil has no authority apart from human consent. Wherever evil exists someone has agreed to it; they have used their free will to accept the authority of evil. We are the products of our own decisions and we constantly assign authority to evil people representing the cosmic system. Therefore in history disaster is the result of individual and collective decisions of the people; they are the products of their own decisions. The winners in history never deviate from the divine authority of God’s directive will and His mandates which lead the believer to spiritual maturity and establishes the pivot for personal and national blessing in the client nation to God.

Summary of historical trends

1. Even though history is the record of man’s thoughts, decisions, actions, motivations, Jesus Christ controls history. There are two sources of judgment in history: the sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.

2. As goes the believer so goes historical trends at any point in any given generation of the Church Age. Residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend while involvement in the cosmic system means historical downtrend.

3. People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions. In other words, there are no tragedies in history, rather historical disasters. These disasters are not tragedies since both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions. The pattern of historical disaster begins with economic depression, moves to social degeneracy, and military disaster. God generally selects the most evil nation to administer the fourth and fifth cycles of discipline to a client nation to God.

4. Individual subjectivity destroys national objectivity. Arrogant people or arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others. Jealous people and envious nations never see their own sins and production of evil, only the sins and evil production of others. This is why our Lord Jesus Christ, while He was on earth, enucleated a very special doctrine: the doctrine of perpetual warfare. Until the Lord returns warfare will never cease on the earth.

5. The demand for power exceeds the need for power. The need for power is determined by the laws of divine establishment which defines legitimate authority in the civil realm. The demand for power is determined by the motivating evil of cosmic one and the functional evil of cosmic two. Legitimate power always functions in the context of legitimate authority delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment, so that authority is defined for personal life, social life, economic life, professional life, national life, and spiritual life. Evil and its destructive power exists to the extent that cosmic arrogance exceeds the restraints of legitimate power and authority. Since we are the products of our own decisions and self-determination rather than environment, motivational and functional evil of the cosmic system can only be restrained through gate three of the divine dynasphere — enforced and genuine humility.

6. Historical trends are related to the conflict between objective reality or life in the divine dynasphere, versus subjective reality or life in the cosmic system. Believers are not only the products of their own decisions but the nation in which they reside is affected by their good or bad decisions. Good decisions relate to life in the divine dynasphere; bad decisions relate to life in the cosmic system. Arrogant individuals, groups or nations never see the disastrous consequences of their own bad decisions related to the cosmic system of Satan. Preoccupation with self to the exclusion of objective reality is the greatest blindness problem in life and the major explanation for such things as criminality.

7. There is no progress in innovation without truth or without a legitimate system. Innovation without truth is historically disastrous while innovation without a bona fide system is destructive. Innovation without a system includes such things as modern art, religious cults, rock and hard music, weirdo poetry, everything from Gnosticism to communism. Innovation imposed on others without their consent runs the gamut from personal arrogance to collective tyranny. Redistribution of wealth, the welfare state, socialism and communism are innovations of disaster.

8. Too often history is the story of how the weak control the strong. Weak, insecure, irresponsible, thoughtless, arrogant people often control policy, procedures and people. This is in social life, culture, business, professional life, government, churches, almost anywhere where organisation exists. Through arrogant self-centredness and preoccupation with self the weak in society control and manipulate the strong. This is why a nagging wife creates a scene in public and dominates a courteous and kind husband; this is why peons and scum are possessive and often control nice people; this is why irrational, self-righteous crusaders often dominate in politics and government administration; this is how a power-mad, irresponsible press can dominate and destroy great leaders.

9. Man’s strength lies in the non-meritorious use of his volition, not in his human volition. With his volition the believer can make right decisions relating to God’s power and Bible doctrine, but he can also make wrong decisions based on subjectivity and human arrogance and thereby succumb to Satanic propaganda [cosmic system], choosing to believe Satan’s deceitful and clever propaganda, whether in religion, philosophy, psychology, sociology or political science, or any other thought system or any other academic subject, resulting in choosing and thinking in the environment of the cosmic system. This does not imply that the academic subjects mentioned are all Satanic viewpoint, far from it, but most of them from time to time contain a great deal of human viewpoint. Such a choice thereafter limits the use of one’s free will to bad decisions, until one runs out of bad decisions, closing the doors to all options in life and terminating life on earth with the maximum punishment which we have studied under the title “the sin unto death.” By choosing divine truth in three categories — establishment for everyone, the gospel for the unbeliever, doctrine for the believer — the decision results in both residence and function in the divine dynasphere where the filling of the Spirit at gate one produces the power where basic impersonal love at gate two produces the objectivity and where enforced and genuine humility at gate three produce teachability for greater options in life plus personal blessing and the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore man must inevitably choose something greater than himself by which to live. He must choose greater wisdom, greater power, and greater ability. There are only two power systems available today: the divine dynasphere first used in prototype by our Lord Jesus Christ during His incarnation, and the cosmic system of Satan which has been operational on planet earth since the original fall of man. If man is to live by his wits he must live by his volition. Non-meritorious use of volition, linking up with grace and the plan of God, results in historical blessing by association for all.

10. Too often history is the narrative of man’s weaknesses, then, and not his strength. Inside the divine dynasphere the battle is the Lord’s, and you win; inside the cosmic system the battle is yours, and you lose. There are no winners in the cosmic system, just different categories of losers; there are no losers in the divine dynasphere, just different categories of winners. There would be no human history without man’s wrong decisions, and wrong decisions are made every day in the cosmic system This is a part of the great conflict between the arrogance of the cosmic system and the humility of the divine dynasphere. Weakness becomes strength by choosing for the divine dynasphere, while strength becomes weakness by choosing for the cosmic system, so that no one can really evaluate your life and say that you are always strong, you are always strong, you are always great, you are always this. Any time you choose to go into the cosmic system, whatever your strong points happen to be they are drowned, they are immersed in weakness. There are no strong-points for the believer living in the cosmic system.

Once Adam ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil history becomes a matter of self-determination. Adam made a wrong decision and now the human race is plagued with wrong decisions. The use of human volition is therefore the issue in life. To make good decisions you open options for greater decisions and blessings. If you make bad decisions you destroy those options. The historical trends of the Church Age are related to the believer’s choices of options. The believers choosing for the divine dynasphere, making a large pivot in any generation, means a generation of great blessing, but believers choosing and making options for the cosmic system means a generation of disaster. So good decisions are made for the divine dynasphere, bad decisions are made by the believer for the cosmic system. While man is free mankind in general is weak. Mankind is born in weakness, he lives in weakness, and often dies in weakness. He is born in weakness, therefore he must use his volition. The greatest thing we have going for us is free will and all of us must use our free will to identify with a power system greater than we are which can turn weakness into strength, and that of course is the divine dynasphere. There is also a power system that turns strength into weakness — the cosmic system. So inside the divine dynasphere men’s lives are changed by doctrine; inside the cosmic system men’s lives are changed by arrogance, by motivating and functional evil. Under the principle of liberty man must be free to succeed but by the same token man must be free to fail. Therefore true freedom is the source of both failure and success. This is one of the many things that is vicious about communism, because communism relates failure or success to the Sate instead of to the Word of God, and the State becomes God rather than the Bible.

11. Knowledge of truth manufactures freedom. The principle is stated in John 8:32 — “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” This is another way of saying that good decisions create options for greater decisions while bad decisions destroy those options. The cosmic system has the power to change lives for the worst while the divine dynasphere has the power to change lives for the better. Better or worse are two concepts that we face in our daily lives. None of us stand still, we are constantly moving in one direction or the other. That is why volition is operational until by either wrong decisions you destroy your mentality or you become a vegetable in some other way, or you depart from this life through physical death. So better or worse is the daily option of the free will function in the sphere of freedom. Freedom carries the responsibility of making decisions based on truth or, what we call Bible doctrine, rather than making decisions based upon arrogance and evil. Preoccupation with yourself is arrogance; preoccupation with Satanic doctrine is evil. Furthermore, recognition of our weaknesses is neither demeaning nor degrading.

All solutions to life begin with weakness and with the grace principle is the only true principle in life that recognises that we are weak. We cannot save ourselves so we are saved by God’s provision, “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” Once we are saved we are still weak. We are inferior to angels and we are in various degrees of inferiority in the field of mankind. While people constantly think in terms of superiority you cannot get down to making objective decisions until in humility you recognise that you are a member of the human race and that you have weaknesses like all members of the human race. Man is helpless and hopeless without God’s provision, so all solutions to life begin with weakness and the recognition of our failures, and then move to God’s provision for strength and integrity. All strength in life is not from muscle but from integrity. True strength and honour is a function of the soul, not a function of the body. Weakness in the unbeliever makes evangelism meaningful while weakness in the believer makes doctrine meaningful. If man is not free to fail he cannot orient to his need for Christ and if the believer is not free to fail he cannot orient to the need of life in the divine dynasphere, the need for daily perception of Bible doctrine. So by taking the responsibility for his own failures, which in effect is taking responsibility for his own decisions, all human failure comes from personal decision. Therefore we all fail but those who take responsibility for their failures have the beginning of a solution. Those who blame it on someone else will never have any happiness or solutions to the problems of life. So by taking the responsibility for his own failures and bad decisions man learns his inherent and acquired weaknesses and he seeks for a power system greater than his weaknesses, greater than himself. The principle that turns the tide of history: the greater the use of positive volition toward the power and the plan of God the greater blessing and prosperity for the client nation involved. Therefore knowledge of truth not only manufactures freedom but deliverance and prosperity to the client nation of God.

12. Out of weakness comes strength through positive volition toward truth. We need God we need God’s plan for our lives. God’s plan begins when we believe in Christ and it continues when we learn Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere, the function of gate four. Man is not the master of his fate nor the lord of his destiny. Man lives in the devil’s world and through weakness is vulnerable to enslavement in the cosmic system. Man could use his own free will to become a slave or he can use that same free will to become the servant of God, and therefore the sooner the believer realises his need of a power greater than himself and outside of himself the sooner he establishes the right priorities for life and he establishes the pattern of good decisions relating to the divine dynasphere. Man is not an independent power but a creature, and as a creature a creature of weakness whose strength lies in the functions of his soul, especially his volition or free will. In other words, choosing the right power system, choosing the divine dynasphere rather than the cosmic system. Human power, ability, authority, genius, talent, even self-righteousness or a dynamic personality or even great beauty is no substitute for life in the divine dynasphere. And yet today people depend upon these things and almost anything of a creature nature rather than depending upon the provision of the creator, our Lord Jesus Christ. It takes historical or personal disaster to bring the believer to an understanding of how weakness is turned into strength.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 the grace provision of the divine dynasphere is the case in point. After Paul had been praying, and praying a wrong prayer [for the disaster to be taken from him], for the thorn in the flesh to be taken from him he received quite a different answer, “And then he assured me, My grace is sufficient for you, for the power [the divine dynasphere] functions in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather demonstrate confidence toward God in my weakness.” In other words, that would be the function of motivating virtue inside the divine dynasphere. Remember that motivating virtue is always directed toward God and is a function of the royal priesthood, in this case confidence directed toward God, whereas the functional virtue which is the counterpart is courage directed toward man and circumstances, “in order that the power of Christ [the divine dynasphere] may pitch a tent over me.” Then in verse 10 Paul amplifies. “Therefore for the sake of Christ I find contentment,” inside of the divine dynasphere there are degrees of happiness. To cover the whole concept we have the word “contentment.” Gate one is the filling of the Spirit, there is happiness in the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is joy [happiness]; Gate two, basic impersonal love; Gate three, enforced and genuine humility; Gate four, perception and application of doctrine, the momentum gate; Gate five, love of God; Gate six; right man, right woman where pertinent; Gate seven, friendship, advanced impersonal love; Gate eight, maturity, the ultimate. Each one of these gates represents a degree of happiness. Functioning inside of the divine dynasphere means contentment. Contentment covers all of the degrees of happiness that are available to the believer including maximum happiness from living at gate eight, “in weaknesses [helpless situations], in the antagonisms of arrogance [opposition from cosmic one], in pressures [momentum testing], in persecutions [opposition from cosmic two], in disasters [hopeless situations], for when I am weak then I am strong,” all true strength comes from weakness plus the provision of logistical grace, and that would include God’s gracious provision of the divine dynasphere.

13. The principle of borrowed strength. Borrowed strength is weakness acquired, whereas power is acquired strength. Acquired strength is that spiritual power which results from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, and that includes spiritual momentum from doctrinal perception. But on the other hand borrowed strength is that form of human weakness by which the believer becomes involved in the cosmic system. He becomes involved in the cosmic system by depending on apparent strength and alleged wisdom — the apparent strength of others and the alleged wisdom of others. The implication of course is obvious: you can use your own free will or you can use your volition to gain strength in the divine dynasphere, or you can use your same volition to borrow strength and live in the cosmic system in a state of weakness. The believer who lives in the divine dynasphere gains strength through his daily decisions to learn Bible doctrine, Philippians 4:13, “I have the endowed power [the divine dynasphere] to attain all things [spiritual maturity] by means of the one [the Holy Spirit at gate one] who keeps on pouring the power into me [Bible doctrine].”

The question arises, How do I know when I am borrowing strength? Very simply: make your social life with the wrong crowd, make decisions to go with people who influence you erroneously. 1 Corinthians 15:33 puts it this way: “Do not be deceived, evil companions corrupt good morals.” How else can you borrow strength? Take bad advice or simply go through life being influenced by what people advise rather than what Bible doctrine says; never learn any doctrine, just depend on others for advice (Nothing is worse than taking advice from strangers); never have a thought of your own, you are weak all of your life; depend on the counsel of others, which means using someone else as a crutch rather than learning and applying doctrine for yourself; use someone else’s scale of values rather than developing your own through doctrine. Eventually some people go other ways, they depend on chemicals for comfort and courage: drug addiction, getting your strength out of a bottle. When you depend on others for happiness you will never be happy; when you are a self-contained unit you will find great happiness with others — if you bring your own happiness with you. So depending on others for happiness rather than living inside the divine dynasphere and deriving your happiness from the function of the various eight gates is borrowing strength.

The illustration: You can’t build muscle and strength by designating someone else to go to the gym and take a workout for you, you have to do it yourself. You must make the decision and you must do the exercise. You can’t gain spiritual momentum or achieve spirituality by sending a proxy to church to learn doctrine. You must relate your own volition to what you do, not what others do. Wimps spend their whole lives relating their volition to what others do. You must make daily and consistent decisions to go to church and learn doctrine for yourself and not be distracted by the opinions of others or the influence of some believer in the cosmic system. You must decide to learn doctrine, no one else can learn it for you.

14. No nation has permanently survived the prosperity of manifest destiny. The three components of manifest destiny: a landed aristocracy and agricultural economy which moves to an industrial complex, and it has an undeveloped frontier which in the first part of its history actually absorbs the failures in the landed aristocracy system plus the failures in the industrial complex — people who have talent and who work hard but they simply can’t make it in the industrial complex of the landed aristocracy but they do very well in the undeveloped frontier. Historically England went this way. For prosperity to exist all three components must be combined under the leadership of the middle class industrial complex. Inevitably if the nation is going to become a client nation to God the industrial complex must carry the leadership, must dominate. And during the combined process there is a struggle for freedom, the attainment of freedom, the establishment of freedom, the capacity for freedom necessary for the function of the client nation to God. When all components of the client nation are combined under the leadership of the industrial complex there is great prosperity and inevitably prosperity tests. Once the prosperity of manifest destiny is established through consolidation it cannot be perpetuated apart from a maximum number of believers living in the divine dynasphere and learning Bible doctrine. The pivot of mature believers which perpetuates the prosperity of manifest destiny is formed by residence and function inside the divine dynasphere and/or advancing from gate four to gate eight through the perception and application of doctrine. However, when believers become so wrapped up with life of prosperity that they neglect doctrine and transfer to the cosmic system to exploit and enjoy their prosperity they use their very own volition to destroy themselves and eventually the client nation to God. In other words, it is the prosperity of any client nation to God which brings ruin and destruction to that client nation. No nation has gone down under adversity, it goes down under prosperity. Prosperity creates the climate for destruction. Prosperity leads to economic, social and military decline. The cosmic system, then, becomes the detractor and the basis for failure to pass the prosperity test, both individually and nationally. The cosmic system offers pseudo prosperity by eliminating capacity and perspective and by putting up such things as promotion, success, money, pleasure, approbation, social and sexual prosperity as substitutes. In their proper place all of these things are legitimate expressions of happiness but in the cosmic system they are the expression of evil. All capacity for prosperity comes from Bible doctrine or truth and is related to humility. The freedom and doctrine which produce the prosperity we have today has suddenly become secondary and freedom is distorted into a system of pleasure leading to social degeneration. It also has distorted into a system of welfare State leading to economic disaster. Therefore self-gratification rather than the enjoyment of prosperity is always and inevitably the ruin of a nation. Prosperity cannot be enjoyed or maintained apart from doctrine or truth and therefore, again, as goes the believer so goes the client nation. Prosperity cannot be perpetuated apart from residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The administration of the fifth cycle of discipline destroys both the client nation to God and the principle of manifest destiny, and therefore the important historical trend. The pivot of mature believers is the basis for the perpetuation of prosperity in the client nation to God. Historically no nation has permanently survived the prosperity of manifest destiny and in these times of the Gentiles SPQR holds the record of having the longest period of prosperity. So authority is a matter of human volition. This is a part of the same principle.

We have seen that all authority in life is dependant on human volition. We are free to accept or reject authority in life. All legitimate authority is delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment and through the principles of freedom; all illegitimate authority is based on the functions of the cosmic system. And while God has delegated authority in the human race — like government, marriage, home — this authority is no good unless human volition accepts it. While the husband has legitimate authority over the wife his authority is useless unless the wife from her own free will recognises and accepts it. While parents have legitimate authority in the home that authority is useless unless children from their own free will recognise and accept it. That is why the principle that all great leadership involves salesmanship. Authority is useless and meaningless unless recognised and accepted by human volition. This is why when we have revolution, violence, crime, and other functions of evil, and this explains the rise of Hitler in Germany or Lenin in Russia.

15. Historical disaster to the client nation occurs in three categories. The first is economic depression, the accumulation of bad decisions regarding free enterprise. It can be government destruction of industry, labour destruction of industry, or management destruction of industry. Secondly, social degeneration. Individual bad decisions destroy the structure of society. The sacredness of freedom, property and life are ignored or rejected. Integrity disappears from society and is replaced by every form of crime or immorality. The third is military defeat. No nation can win a war when the manpower suffers from social degeneration and the industrial complex cannot provide logistical support. No nation can win a war without logistics and the great secret weapon is to have the backing of an industrial complex that can out-produce the enemy. Without it there is no hope for winning any future wars of any size.

Psalm Two

Under the laws of divine establishment three things are sacred: human freedom, human property, life. The laws of divine establishment revolve around these three principles and they stand or fall together. In the eyes of God people who rob a home are just as evil as the people who take life or destroy freedom. Life becomes cheap when people feel free to steal, and when you have a maximum amount of stealing such as we have in this country today that means that life is not regarded as very much. When there is no sacredness to property there is no sacredness to life and obviously freedom suffers.

Under this particular concept that we have been studying God has ordained and delegated a system of authority to protect freedom, property and life. That authority includes the judge sitting on the bench, the police officer, the military establishment protecting from criminals without, the concept of free enterprise in the economy. Everything has to have a system of authority to function. Management has the authority in economy, not labour; the police officer has the authority on the street; the judge has the authority in the court; the parents have the authority in the home; the husband has the authority over the wife; the teacher has the authority over the students; the coach has the authority over the members of the team. Authority is the secret to happiness; authority is just as important as freedom. We have to have both and you can’t have one without the other.

So all authority in life is divided into two categories — legitimate authority and illegitimate authority. The believer in the divine dynasphere recognises and functions under legitimate authority; the believer in the cosmic system functions under illegitimate authority which results in economic depression, social degeneration, and military defeat. Legitimate authority is defined by those powers delegated by God to human beings under the laws of divine establishment. God delegates authority through His mandates. Government has authority over people to protect the sanctity of freedom, property and life; the husband has the authority has the authority over the wife, the parents over the children, the teachers over the students, the coaches over the athletes, management over labour, and so on.

A problem we have in life: no authority. People, to respect legitimate authority, must be hurt. Legitimate authority exists in the military, so we have basic training where people are hurt by boredom following the same commands. The purpose of close-order drill is to learn to respect authority. Respect for authority must be inculcated. The inculcation of authority is absolutely important if we are going to all utilise our freedom to fail or succeed.

Illegitimate authority on the other hand is authority established by Satan through the function of the cosmic system — Cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, and Cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred. In the angelic conflict man was created with free will to choose between legitimate authority delegated by God or illegitimate authority provided by Satan. Therefore authority is a matter of human choice, of human volition. The acceptability of authority in life is dependant on human volition for freedom gives the option of accepting or rejecting authority in life — legitimate or illegitimate. Again, all legitimate authority in life is delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment and the content of Bible doctrine, whereas all illegitimate authority in life is based on the function of the cosmic system. It is very easy to get into the cosmic system, it just takes wrong decisions related to wrong thinking.

Parents have legitimate authority in the home and this authority is useless unless the children from their own free will recognise and accept it. Therefore punishment of children is legitimate. Children never grow up even though they become adults by simply advance of time; they never become mature until they recognise authority in life, accept it, and orient to it whether they like the ones who have it or not. We have crime, terrorism, revolution, dictatorships, slavery, and all the functions of evil simply because authority is rejected by those in the arrogance complex — cosmic one. Preoccupation with self excludes recognition of the normal and important authorities in life.

The concept of authority is important because as we come to verse 27 we see authority used under perfect environment. The Millennium is a time of perfect environment on the earth. Under perfect environment there will be no more war. All of the things related to perfect environment will exist. The air will be pure, but not people. The old sin nature will still exist in perfect environment which lasts for 1000 years. Man’s revolt against perfect environment at the end of the Millennium is a demonstration of the principle that environment is not the solution to man’s problems; it is not even the basis for happiness. In perfect environment there will be nationalism, not internationalism. Under nationalism those who hold the order of the morning star will rule nations — verse 26.

What kind of rulership will exist in the Millennium under perfect environment? There will be perfect freedom for all. Freedom will be enforced and to enforce freedom there must be strict authority. Note Revelation 2:27, describing a Millennial concept, “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I have received of my Father”.

Before we can analyse this verse we must recognise that it is quoted from the Old Testament, from the second Psalm, verses 8,9. David was the human author of this Psalm, Acts 4:25, 26. It was the lyrics of a hymn in which each stanza portrays a different viewpoint of life. For example, verses 1-3, the voice of mankind, which means the thinking of mankind. The voice merely expresses the thought; verses 4-6, the voice of God the Father; verses 7-9, the voice of God the Son; verses 10-12, the voice of God the Holy Spirit. You will note that the quotation is taken from the third stanza, the voice of God the Son, verses 7-9.

The second Psalm is quoted at least five times in the New Testament, Acts 4:25,28; 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5; Revelation 2:27. The background for the Psalm is David’s study of eschatology where he sees prophetically Satan’s attempt in the Tribulation to frustrate the plan of God. David studied the Tribulation and he saw Satan’s attempt to hinder the second advent of Christ and his own inevitable defeat. Satan also tried to frustrate the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant and this is the description that David wrote under the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The voice of mankind in the Tribulation, verses 1-3. “Why do the nations rage,” a complete breakdown of all the nations, they are in a state of anarchy. The only authority in the nations in the Tribulation is illegitimate authority, dictatorship will be the order of the day. These are Gentile nations in the Tribulation, “And the people plot a vain thing.” In other words, people are involved in a conspiracy to stop the second advent of Christ. “The kings of the earth take their stand,” the four spheres of influence in the Tribulation. “And the rulers plot together against the Lord [God the Father] and against his anointed [God the Son].”

“Let us break,” the piel imperfect of the verb nathaq, which means to smash; “their bands [legitimate authority under the laws of divine establishment], Let us destroy their restraint,” i.e. the restraint of people and the restraint of old sin natures by establishment authority; “and throw off their chains,” people are the products of their own decisions, nations are the products of their own decisions, and here is the use of volition to reject the laws of divine establishment in the Tribulation. Here is arrogance as the motivating evil of gate one, cosmic one.

The voice of God the Father, verses 4-6. “And he [God the Father] who is enthroned in heaven laughs,” this is an anthropopathism for a sense of humour. Then we have an antithetical anthropopathism, “The Lord scoffs at them,” sanctified ridicule.

“Then he will speak to them in his anger,” another anthropopathism; “And terrify them in his wrath,” a reference to the vial judgements in Revelation 16 and the fall of international religion in Revelation 17,18, plus the slaughter at the end of the Armageddon campaign, Revelation 19. These are in view in verse five. “But as for me [God the Father], I have installed my King [Jesus Christ] upon Zion, my holy mountain,” the future coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the world.

The voice of God the Son, verses 7-9. “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord,” that is, the plan of God the Father in history. Remember the doctrine of divine decrees. The omniscience of God knows every thought, every motive, every decision, every action of every person who has ever lived in history, and it is fed into the computer of divine decrees. He also knows all of the alternatives, the options that were not exercised. Then you have the printout which is history. It is the printout that is being developed in this particular section, for one of the printouts is the fact of the second advent of Christ, the coronation of our Lord. In the first advent we had the cross, in the second advent we have the crown. The cross must come before the crown. Christ had to die for our sins on the cross; He had to be judged in our place and take our place and become our saviour before He could bring us back to rule with Him in the Millennium. “He [God the Father] said to me [God the Son], Thou art my Son, today I have begotten Thee.” “Today” refers to the moment of the virgin birth.

Let us stop and take a look at this. Human life is imputed to each one of us immediately after birth. God imputes human life to the human soul; human life resides in the human soul forever. Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. Our personal sins are not the basis for our judgement- “The wages of sin is death” is not personal sin, it is Adam’s original sin. Why? God is fair and anyone who dies before reaching accountability automatically goes to heaven because they were judged at birth — they were given spiritual death at birth, they were condemned at birth — and not having reached accountability they are automatically saved. But for the rest of us it is “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” All of our sins gathered together in one bundle were never imputed to us for judgment. Instead they were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. The reason they were imputed to Him and judged is because of the virgin birth. When our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world human life was imputed to Him, to His human soul. But Adam’s original sin could not be imputed because the old sin nature is passed down through the man in procreation. Therefore He had no old sin nature. Adam’s original sin only gravitates to the old sin nature and with our Lord there was no old sin nature. Therefore Adam’s original sin was not imputed. Our Lord came into the world as the last Adam, born as Adam was created — without a sin nature, perfect — and, of course, He lived in the prototype divine dynasphere and went to the cross and was qualified to bear our sins under the principle, “He who knew no sin was made sin for us.” Whoever bore our sins on the cross had to be free from sins himself, and that is what is in view.

“I will proclaim the decree of the Lord” he [God the Father] said to me [God the Son], Thou art my Son [first advent], today have I begotten you,” reference to the virgin birth.

Verse eight is where the quotation begins. “Ask from me [says God the Father], and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.” Because of the strategic victory of the cross [first advent] the nations of the world are to become the inheritance of our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. Reason: because our Lord became our saviour, was judged for our sins, died physically, was resurrected and ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father. At the right hand of the Father He was given His third category of royalty.

1st category: Jesus Christ is God; title of royalty: Son of God; royal family: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit.

2nd category: He was born into the most famous of all the royal families, the dynasty of David, the Davidic line. He was born a King in the line of David. The virgin Mary was descended from David through the son of David and Bathsheba called Nathan. Joseph was also descended from David and Bathsheba through Solomon. So His second royalty has a title: the Son of David; royal family: dynasty of David.

3rd category: “King of kings and Lord of lords” and “morning star.” But He was minus a royal family and therefore the Age of Israel came to a halt and we have the dispensation of the Church. Believers in the Church Age are the royal family of God. So when Christ returns to the earth He will return with a royal family, some of whom have a new knighthood and some of whom will rule with Him — those who hold the order of the morning star.

“And the very ends of the earth as your possession.

And you [Jesus Christ] will rule them with an iron sceptre,

And you will shatter them to pieces like pottery.” We will see this as the function of capital punishment in the Millennium. You cannot maintain perfect environment, or even decent environment, without capital punishment. Israel always had a low crime rate and they had no prisons. They executed criminals.

Then finally the voice of God the Holy Spirit in verses 10-12. “Therefore, you kings, be wise,” the hiphil imperative from the verb sakal, and it means the application of wisdom to a situation. When you are in any position of authority it always wisdom to remember the grace of God and to function accordingly. So this is the command to the rulers of the earth during the Tribulation.

“Be warned you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with respect,” they serve the Lord with respect by the enforcement of the laws of divine establishment relating to freedom, property, privacy., life; “And rejoice with anticipation.”

“Kiss the Son,” the custom of kissing in the ancient world originated from the concept of animism, the belief that all objects possess life by having an indwelling soul. The Latin word for “soul” is anima. So the kiss on the mouth was the means of conveying one’s soul to another in the expression of love which resided in that soul. Later the essence of kissing was often found in the transfer of breath by those who related breath to the soul. Yukh in the Greek also meant breath as well as soul. Hence a kiss was the intermingling of anima or two souls. The kiss was also used to get to know the person by scent in the ancient world. Apart from the erotic implications of the kiss it was the means in the ancient world of recognising rulers — kissing the hand, kissing the foot, kissing the robe. It was also used in the greeting of relatives and that has come down to us today. The kiss expressed a close relationship among members of the royal family of God. That is why we have several times, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” The kiss was used for respect, however, as well as love. Hence it became the custom of Greeting. The holy kiss was the expression of impersonal love in the royal family honour code, the function of virtue and integrity. The kiss conveyed honour.

What does kissing means here in Psalm two? It has, of course, no erotic connotation. It means respect, honour, awe. Respect the authority of the Son. “ … lest he be angry, and you perish in the way” — nations cannot survive without the use of the laws of divine establishment. “For his wrath is kindled for a little while, but there is happiness and blessing for those who take refuge in him.”

So much then for the context, now we are ready for the passage, Revelation 2:27. The quotation begins with the conjunction kai, introducing a result from what precedes, translated “and so” or “furthermore.” Then we go to our verb, the future active indicative of the verb poimainw, which means to shepherd or to rule, “And so he shall rule.” The predictive future tense anticipates the second advent of Christ and His Millennial reign. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb and therefore the authority by which believers will rule in the Millennium is delegated by our Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the entire world. This is why we noted the highest decoration a believer can receive, the order of the morning star, for the only believers who are going to rule in the Millennium are those who receive at the judgment seat of Christ the order of the morning star. In the dispensation of the Church the person whose life counts the most in history, in any generation or decade, is the believer who has cracked the maturity barrier. A large pivot of mature believers means blessing; a small pivot means historical disaster. The difference between a large and a small pivot is the personal volition of the individual believer as demonstrated by his attitude toward Bible doctrine. Those who have the greatest historical impact are believers who advance to maturity through daily perception of Bible doctrine, and they are the means of historical uptrend. In other words, the solution to our problems right now can only be resolved by your attitude toward doctrine. Failure of believers in any given generation to crack the maturity barrier in any large numbers means historical downtrend because it means believers are involved in the cosmic system.

What needs to be emphasised here is the fact that the names of believers who crack the maturity barrier are not mentioned in any textbook of history. They are unknown; they are anonymous heroes. The great heroes of any generation of history in the Church Age are anonymous heroes, but they will be known for the first time at the judgment seat of Christ. They will be known to the other members of the royal family of God for they will receive the highest decoration that a believer can receive, the order of the morning star. Then while the Tribulation is occurring on earth those believers who have the order of the morning star are going to be presented in the court of heaven. They will be presented to the angels of heaven as well as God the Father. Then they return at the second advent and they will be known to the population of the earth, the largest population that the earth will ever have will be in the thousand years of our Lord’s reign. At that time they will be the most famous people in history.

So those who have historical impact today have another crack at history, they will wear the order of the morning star over the uniform of glory and they will rule with the Lord Jesus Christ for one thousand years. So the heroes of history, believers, will not always be anonymous. Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine. The accusative plural direct object is from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used as a personal pronoun since the third person personal pronoun of Attic Greek was not carried over to Koine Greek. “Them” is the correct way to translate it — “And so he shall rule them.” He delegates authority, and this is where those who hold the highest decoration, the order of the morning star, come into the picture.

With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of r(abdoj, and r(abdoj means a sceptre, not a rod. With it we have the instrumental of sidhroj, iron, which at the time of writing was the great weapon, the iron age had replaced the bronze age. Translation: “And so he shall rule them with an iron sceptre.” Now the liberal, misdirected people in terms of loving everyone, being sweet to everyone, do not understand phrases like this. This emphasises what it takes to control people and to assert authority. It takes a rod of iron.

One of the things that we have to start noting with regard to historical trends is what may be called the power factor. The question which arises historically is, How much power does an organisation, a group, or an individual possess before that power is distorted under his authority. Everyone has, probably, a power factor index as part of his soul, which means simply this: How much authority can you handle, how much power can you take before you go sour, before you become a dictator, a little Caesar, etc. The principle is a very simple one: arrogance distorts power and authority. Just as we have seen that salesmanship is a characteristic of leadership so humility is a characteristic of successful and honourable use of authority. Authority is abused by arrogance, as well as the fact that arrogance distorts power and authority. We have noted before that arrogance corrupts so that some people, some individuals, and some groups cannot have too much power. We have a tendency in history to say: It is this movement or that movement; management has too much power; labour has too much power; the government has too much power; so and so has too much power, and to blame it on the group involved, when in reality it is simply the fact that the group or the individual under, in this case, legitimate criticism simply has become arrogant. It is the arrogance factor that makes the difference, so that we can’t always say dogmatically that it is this group or that group who are ruining the country, that government is ruining the country, labour is running the country, management is ruining the country, this or that is ruining the country, ruining the city, the state, the county, or whatever is being ruined or allegedly ruined. In reality it is just a power factor, and at any given time in history, the other trends being equal, people simply become arrogant when they pass their power factor. They get too much power and they can’t handle it and they turn to arrogance and other things. As a result they distort power into a system of dishonour rather than utilising it as a system of honour and integrity. So arrogance corrupts so that some people or groups cannot have any power, while other individuals and groups are free from arrogance, and through humility plus integrity use power and authority honourably.

Verse 26b, “to him I will give authority [power] over the nations.” This principle, just mentioned, will work very well at that time because the ones involved who are going to receive this authority over the nations in the Millennium are believers in resurrection bodies. So they will not be corrupted by the power factor, they will not become arrogant, they will not abuse their authority. Furthermore it is probably one of the most unique groups of believers of all time because it is the believer in the Church Age who has been decorated with the order of the morning star at the judgment seat of Christ who having received this decoration also receives with it a uniform of translucent glory, first noted when our Lord was transfigured. On the mount of transfiguration our Lord’s face shone like the sun and His clothes were suddenly turned into translucent light. This was the first time anyone in the human race had ever seen the uniform of glory. Our Lord’s resurrection body has an additional factor, the uniform of glory. Only a few other people will wear forever and ever this uniform of glory. Those few are the ones who advance to maturity in time in the Church Age, the dispensation of historical trends. They will receive the order of the morning star at the judgment seat of Christ after the Rapture. Immediately after they receive it these individuals are differentiated from all other Church Age believers in a resurrection body, and that differentiation will last for ever. They alone are going to be presented in the court of heaven to God the Father and the elect angels. They alone on the return of Christ (all Church Age believers return with Christ at the second advent) have certain privileges. For example, in the Millennium they are going to rule over Gentile nations. They were the anonymous heroes while living in phase two of the Church Age, and the anonymous heroes become the most famous persons of all world history. Only the believer who cracks the maturity barrier is going to be in that picture. They have a special place at the coronation of our Lord at the second advent; they have a special place in the triumphal procession; they also have a special place in the wedding supper of the Lamb, and in eternity they will also have the privilege of the highest and most important function of maximum happiness at the gazebo in the garden, the tree of life in the paradise of God. They will have a permanent record in history, they will be a pillar in the eternal temple in which the true history of the world will be written. So they have all kinds of fantastic privileges.

Notice again at the end of verse 26, “to him I will give authority over the nations.” The authority and the power they have is incorruptible. They are in a resurrection body; they wear the uniform of glory; they have also the crown of life for their residence and function in the divine dynasphere, and they have the highest decoration that God can give to a human being, the order of the morning star. And in the perfect environment of the Millennial reign of Christ all authority will be incorruptible. That is why believers in this dispensation, those who reach maturity in time, in their resurrection bodies will be the rulers of nations in the Millennium. In spite of the fact of the perfect environment provided, the lucid presentation of the laws of divine establishment, incorruptible authority and power, man has a free will and literally hundreds of thousands of people living in perfect environment on the earth will reject that perfect environment. They fall into two categories: those who show their resentment during the perfect environment by the use of violence and crime — they will be tried and executed — and those who practice hypocrisy and appear to go along with things and as soon as a leader comes along, around whom they can rally, they are going to join in a revolution. That leader, Satan, will be released from prison after 1000 years and they will rally around him for the Gog revolution.

In the meantime what we are noting here is the tremendous privileges that belong to the believer who cracks the maturity barrier, the believer who lives in the divine dynasphere, the believer who takes in Bible doctrine on a daily basis; ridiculed by friends, misunderstood by people, becoming the basis of all kinds of sarcasm, constantly facing distraction tests and all of the things that everyone who reaches maturity must face; and yet, wading through all of these, passing these tests and advancing to maturity, and becoming the basis for the continual blessing of the client nation and the perpetuation of the human race with some form of prosperity. Nothing is more important, nothing in the world, than your attitude toward Bible doctrine. You will get more flack, more ridicule; you will face more honourable testing. Honourable testing meaning you are not being punished for sin and failure but simply being tested for the application of doctrine to accelerate your spiritual growth, simply because you are consistent in the perception of doctrine. It happens to anyone who cracks the maturity barrier, and that uniform of glory which is received at the judgment seat of Christ, and that highest decoration, the order of the morning star taken from the title of our Lord Jesus Christ in Numbers 24; 2 Peter 1:19, is for them. So the authority over the nations is characterised by certain decorations. During the Millennium other believers who did not crack the maturity barrier, who are in essence peons in resurrection bodies, who are going to have a lower degree of happiness, but happiness nevertheless, will not participate in the history of planet earth.

For perfect environment to be perpetuated on the earth after the second advent there must be one ruler who is perfect and who possesses perfect integrity. And He must delegate authority to those who are perfect under the principle of ultimate sanctification and have perfect integrity. So the rulership of the world will change. We have noted the coup de tat which will occur at the second advent, and Satan is imprisoned; he is no longer the ruler of the world in the Millennium. The Lord Jesus Christ is perfect; He is the God-Man — doctrine of the hypostatic union applied — and He delegates authority to rule nations to the great believers of this dispensation, those who hold the order of the morning star and have the uniform of glory at the judgment seat of Christ. Only our Lord Jesus Christ is qualified to rule the world. Such a ruler delegates authority only to those who have attained the order of the morning star, and under the principle of ultimate sanctification they are incorruptible in their resurrection bodies.

The “sceptre of iron” (Verse 27) is mentioned in the iron age and the sceptre of iron is a reference to great power and authority. We will note that the sceptre of iron shatters vessels, which means that perfect environment can only be maintained by strict law enforcement, strict crime prevention, including individual and, if necessary, national punishment. Individual maximum punishment is capital punishment and in the Millennium it will be used. National maximum punishment is related to the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. The sceptre of iron, the power and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, shatters the evil vessels, whether individual criminals or national or group conspiracy. While the Millennium is characterised by perfect environment people outside the resurrection bodies still have the old sin nature, and while the cosmic system is not operative during the Millennium human volition is, and human volition can choose for evil and even create evil without the cosmic system. So human volition plus the old sin nature can still get out of hand and must be controlled for the maintenance of perfect environment. Remember that perfect environment is maintained by the iron sceptre, and the iron sceptre guarantees the fulfilment of the three sacred factors in the laws of divine establishment — human freedom and privacy, property, life.

Principle

1. Severe discipline is necessary to keep the human race in line, even in perfect environment. This is because the human race still has an old sin nature.

2. Laxity in government, or any form of rulership, inevitably results in the decline and degeneracy of a nation.

3. Therefore it is not the type of government but the integrity of government to enforce the laws of divine establishment that counts, so that freedom, property and life remains sacred in the continuation of history.

4. You cannot rule with a golden sceptre unless you rule with the iron sceptre. The golden sceptre of prosperity never precedes the iron sceptre of establishment, just as the cross must precede the crown.

5. Society will only recognise the sanctity of life, property and freedom of others when society is restrained by just law enforcement and discipline based on integrity and category one truth in the Bible, i.e. the laws of divine establishment.

So that brings us now to the analogy which is introduced by the adverb o(j, used as a conjunction for analogy. The analogy is introduced by the word “as” or “just as.” The nominative plural of skeuoj, meaning a vessel, follows plus the generic use of the definite article — “the vessels,” referring to people. A “vessel,” a piece of pottery, is an excellent illustration. The pottery represents the human body and the decorations on them are simply ways of indicating a manufacturer, some artistic value, and so on. But inside of the vessel, or what it contains, is more important than the pot itself. The soul resides in the body and the vessel is often analogous to the body, whereas the soul inside of the vessel is the important factor. It therefore refers to human life.

With this we have an adjective, keramikoj, and it is part of a nominative plural subject. The adjective means belonging to a potter. So we could translate: “as the clay pottery” or “the clay pots.” Then the present passive indicative of the verb suntribw, which means to shatter, to break in pieces — “as the clay pottery is shattered.” The pictorial present tense presents to the mind the administration of capital punishment or the fifth cycle of discipline in the process of occurrence — in this case, in the Millennium. The passive voice: evil elements of the Millennium receive the action of the verb — instant and just punishment. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the perpetuation of perfect environment through strict discipline, law enforcement, punishment of crime instantly.

Principle

1. The clay vessels represents both individuals and nations in the Millennium.

2. Only those vessels or clay pots which are evil or no good are broken in pieces, shattered, destroyed, indicating capital punishment in the Millennium to sustain perfect environment. Perfect environment does not produce law-abiding people. On the other hand you must add something to perfect environment to have law-abiding people — power and authority.

3. If the clay has been fired it cannot be reused, an illustration of capital punishment and even the fifth cycle of discipline to a nation in the Millennium.

4. Therefore in the Millennium the Lord Jesus Christ will punish individuals by taking their lives, breaking in pieces the clay pots, and nations by removal from the family of nations in the Millennium.

Now we have a second analogy. The first analogy is the clay pottery, the vessels made of clay are shattered. The second one is the authority to rule in the Millennium, an authority delegated to those believers who hold the order of the morning star. Again we have the conjunction w(j, giving a reason for the action, translated “as.” Then we have a compound particle, kagw. It comes from the conjunction kai plus the personal pronoun e)gw, literally, “and I” or “even I.” Here it is correctly translated literally, “I also” or “I too” or “I in turn.” This is a reference to our Lord Jesus Christ receiving the authority to rule in the Millennium from God the Father who gave Him the third royal title at the ascension. Then we have the perfect active indicative of lambanw, which means to receive, “I also have received,” and it is used for receiving authority. The dramatic present tense describes in an unusual and vivid way the permanence of our Lord’s appointment to rule the world in the Millennium and therefore the delegation of authority to those who hold the morning star. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. As the God-Man He receives the action of the verb through His third royal patent achieved through the first advent. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic authorisation for our Lord’s Millennial rule. The source of the authorisation: the preposition para plus the ablative from the noun pathr, “from the Father.”

You probably are wondering here, If you receive something from the Father doesn’t that make the Son inferior to the Father? The answer is, No. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in their deity are coequal and CO-eternal as we have studied in the doctrine of the Trinity, but the reference here is to the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is ruling as a member of the human race. Jesus Christ is God, He has all of the essence of the Godhead; but He is different from the Father and from the Spirit in that He is true humanity forever — humanity now in a resurrection body, wearing the uniform of glory under His title of King of kings, Lord of lords, the morning star. And it is the Father turning over to the humanity of Christ the rulership of the world. Satan, who rules the world now, is not a member of the human race, but in the future, in the Millennium, Jesus Christ will rule as a member of the human race in His resurrection body. He is the morning star and those who rule the nations under Him — that is, the Gentile nations — have the order of the morning star, and that is why they wear the uniform of glory which is unique to our Lord Jesus Christ at this time. They will wear that uniform of glory forever to distinguish them from all of the believers who failed to utilise logistical grace in time.

God the Father is the author of the divine plan for the human race and therefore He has the right to authorise and decree regarding human history. This does not change the fact that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are coequal and CO-eternal, one in essence but three separate and distinct personalities. Note that the cross must come before the crown. Before the Lord Jesus Christ can rule in the last 1000 years of history, with emphasis on His humanity ruling — His humanity had to go to the cross and bear our sins and be judged for us, otherwise there would be no members of the human race to whom to delegate authority. So our Lord has the crown today as seated at the right hand of the Father, and then there will be the Rapture of the Church and then the Tribulation, and then He will come back. The Rapture must occur before the Millennium because during that time we have the evaluation of believers. They receive their resurrection bodies; they stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Those who receive the morning star are going to receive their uniform of glory, so when they return there will be those of perfect integrity to rule with our Lord. So our Lord Jesus Christ will rule the world and He will delegate authority for nations.

The cross came before the crown. Jesus Christ would not have received the crown without the cross. Our Lord functioned in the divine plan of the Father calling for the first advent. And in the first advent our Lord did something else. During the incarnation, starting with the virgin birth, our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity lived in the prototype divine dynasphere so that he prepared this system for us, and after the ascension one of the things we received on the Day of Pentecost was Gate One, the filling of the Spirit, something that did not exist in Old Testament times. The command to be filled with the Spirit belongs to this dispensation only; the command to walk by means of the Spirit belongs to this dispensation only.

Christ came the first time to save the human race; He comes the second time to rule the human race. There will be those who say No to His perfect rule. They are manifest at the Gog revolution at the end of the Millennium and they are dealt with at the great white throne judgment in the second resurrection. The baptism of fire is the first sign of His authority. When Christ first comes back He finds Tribulational people alive: Gentiles who are believers; Gentiles who are unbelievers. The Gentiles who are believers pass through the fire into the Millennium to become a cadre, a nucleus, for the population explosion of the Millennium. The Gentile unbelievers are cast off the earth.

Man was the ruler of this world when it was created, Adam being that man. Distortion in history began when Adam lost the rulership of this world and at the present time a fallen angel by the name of Lucifer the son of the morning and Satan rules the world and therefore the problems and the distortions.

That brings us to verse 28, “And I will give him the morning star.” First of all we have a connective conjunction kai which introduces a result from the previous verse. We translate it “furthermore.” With this we have a future active indicative of the verb didomi, meaning to give, which is used here for decoration. Sometimes it means to present and really it means here to decorate the highest honour one can receive. The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact regarding Millennial and eternal reward for the mature believer who has historical impact in time. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action at the judgment seat of Christ in anticipation of His rule for the last 1000 years of history, a rule which begins at the second advent. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the decoration, the reality of Millennial authority, the reality of this highest of all honours given to a human being. With this we have the dative indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used for the personal pronoun third masculine singular referring to mature believers who have maximum historical impact in the Church Age through their achievement of spiritual maturity. The dative indirect object indicates the mature believer in whose interest the authority and decoration are given, therefore also a dative of advantage. With this we have the accusative direct object composed of four words. Two of the words are the generic use of the definite article, twn, in the accusative. With this we have the reference to the order of the morning star. The problem with studying the morning star is that it involves so much eschatology. The rest of the accusative has two words, the accusative singular adjective from proinoj, translated “morning”; and with it the accusative singular the noun in the direct object, a)sthr, “star.”

The morning star has two meanings in the Bible. First is refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. In Balaam’s prophecy regarding Israel Christ is mentioned under the title of the morning star — Numbers 24:17. It is related to His first advent. Bible doctrine is tied into this as Christ the morning star in the famous passage in 2 Peter 1:19-21. This is perhaps the most important of the morning star passages by way of explanation. It starts out by saying, “And we keep on having a more reliable prophetic doctrine,” that is, more reliable than the empirical perception that occurred at the mount of transfiguration. The mount of transfiguration is the background for this passage; “with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably by habitually concentrating in your right lobes.” And then the word o(j is sometimes used, not as a comparative particle, but as an actual quality conjunction. When that happens it is translated “on,” “on a lamp shining in a dark place,” Jesus Christ controlling history — “until the day dawn [second advent] and the morning star [Jesus Christ] has come. Knowing this first, that all prophecy of scripture [eschatological doctrine] did not originate from one’s own explanation, for prophecy was never produced by the design [purpose, will] of man, but men communicated from God being carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

All of this has to do with the morning star as explained in Matthew 2:2 where the star was first seen. In 2 Peter 1:19, the morning star “shall come up,” and that is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ coming the second time, but the morning star is coming the first time, like Matthew 2:2 when the wise men said: “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” So the word “star” and “morning star” are constantly used in connection with our Lord Jesus Christ. The order morning star is a special decoration for mature believers with maximum historical impact. It is given at the judgment seat of Christ; it authorises the recipient to rule with Christ in the Millennium; it is the highest of all decoration which is given by our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is our objective now to study once again the order of the morning star. We have to start out with noting who and what is a winner. The word “winner” is used at least seven times in Revelation chapters two and three. Both in time and in eternity believers fall into two categories: winners and losers. They are very easy to distinguish one from the other. The winner is the believer who lives his life in the divine dynasphere, the plan of God for the Church Age believer, the royal family of God, and this is the only dispensation in which the divine dynasphere is operative. The prototype divine dynasphere was invented for the humanity of Christ to sustain Him during the incarnation. It is used for the royal family and then never again. The loser on the other hand is a believer who is going to be in heaven with a resurrection body, and that is about all. He is the believer who lives in the cosmic system. Losers are Christians who fail in time but they do not lose their salvation as a result of their failure. They occupy an inferior place in heaven; they have no authority in the Millennium; they are as anonymous in the Millennium as they are in time.

The winners are described by the present active participle of the verb nikaw. Participles are not always translated like verbs. Many times the ascriptive participle is an adjective. But there is also the participle used as a noun, as we have seven times in the book of Revelation, 2:7, 11,17, 26, 3:5,12, 21. In each case the participle is translated like a noun and translated “the winner.” All historical blessing, all prosperity in the Church Age results from anonymous, unknown, unnamed believers living inside the divine dynasphere, advancing to spiritual maturity, forming the pivot for the client nation. These mature believers provide blessing by association as well as historical uptrend, and their names are generally not found in historical text books. They have used the hidden manna of Bible doctrine and other provisions of logistical grace to advance to maturity. So on the basis of historical uptrend — as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God — the winner is the secret to historical and national blessing in this life and in this dispensation. These Christian heroes of history are anonymous today. That has to be emphasised.

We have noted that the winner will be at the Rapture. The Church Age terminates with resurrection, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. This is true for the loser as well as the winner. When the resurrection occurs the trumpet assembles them in the second heaven and then “we who are alive and remain are caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” That is the beginning of phase three for all Church Age believers. Phase three begins for the dead in Christ prior to that time. They have the interim blessing. Once this occurs there is the great genuflect in the sky which finds all believers, at this point, still in their resurrection bodies. No decorations have been given as yet. In the meantime the Tribulation is in progress on earth where Revelation 6-18 is going on. The judgment seat of Christ is next. It is at the judgment seat of Christ that eternal distinctions are established among those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in this dispensation, known as the royal family of God. This is where the winners and the losers are separated.

The drama of winners and losers at the judgment seat of Christ is quite a subject and is emphasised in a very real way to us in connect with our subject in 1 John 2:28, “And now dear children.” Why call believers children [or students]? because as a believer you must learn all of your life. When you stop learning you stop growing, “keep residing in it [the divine dynasphere], that if he [Christ] should appear [the Rapture of the Church which will be followed by the judgment seat of Christ], we might have confidence and might not be put to shame in his presence [at the judgment seat of Christ].”

There are two major decorations given by our Lord Jesus Christ to mature believers. The first of these two decorations we have previously studied in Revelation 2:10, the crown of life. The crown of life is like the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest decoration you can receive in the army. The crown of life is simply faithfulness in sticking inside the divine dynasphere, that plus your positive volition toward doctrine, that plus keeping your priorities straight — doctrine first, pretty much guarantees the fulfilment of this concept. The crown of life is given first at the judgment seat of Christ to indicate the means by which one attains the highest decoration, the achievement of the order of the morning star. No one will have the order of the morning star without having the crown of life, and the crown of life has to do with logging maximum time inside the divine dynasphere. The other decoration, the two go together, “Furthermore, I will give to him [the believer in time] the order of the morning star, Revelation 2:28. This is the highest decoration for spiritual life on earth, historical impact, the glorification of Christ. The name for this highest decoration to the mature believer with maximum impact in time, the order of the morning star, is derived from the title of our Lord Jesus Christ related to His strategical and tactical victory in the angelic conflict. His strategical victory: the first advent; His tactical victory: the second advent. The tactical victory is when our Lord comes into contact with the enemy and puts him in jail for a thousand years. Jesus Christ in His two advents, then, is called the morning star.

The decoration of the morning star includes the uniform of glory. Revelation 3:4 puts it this way: “But you have a few persons in Sardis,” a pivot of mature believers living in the divine dynasphere, contributing to the historical uptrend, having historical impact; “who have not soiled their clothes,” in other words, they are wearing the uniform of honour. The losers have soiled clothes living in the cosmic system; “in fact they will walk with me in whites,” plural, e)n plus the locative plural of leukoj, the translucent uniform of glory worn over the resurrection body; “because they are worthy” — worthiness comes from life in the divine dynasphere, the daily perception of Bible doctrine. The decoration includes the presentation in the court of heaven. During the Tribulation losers are not presented in the court of heaven. They are in heaven but heaven is a gigantic place. Only winners are going to be presented in court. “Thus the winner,” says Revelation 3:5, “shall be clothed in white garments,” the translucent uniform of glory, “and I will never blot his name out of the order of chivalry,” this is not the book of life for people, this is the book of life for knighthood. He will never have his new knighthood cancelled; “in fact I will acknowledge,” presentation of morning star winners in the court of heaven during the Tribulation; “his name [the new knighthood received at the judgment seat of Christ] in the presence of my Father, and before his angels,” an honour reserved for those who advance to maturity only.

The order of the morning star includes a new knighthood, the order of chivalry for the royal family or Church Age believer, the highest order of chivalry, and this means that forever and ever, when history is closed down after the Millennium, believers who advance to maturity today are going to be distinguished in their resurrection bodies from all believers who are losers in time. How are they going to be distinguished? In the most magnificent way. They will have the highest order of knighthood, the new name which is written on the white pebble, Revelation 2:17, “To the winner [the mature believer] I will give him blessing from the hidden manna,” that is blessing in time, “and I will give him a white pebble,” the ultimate vote of confidence in the resurrection body. But of course, all believers, both winners and losers will have the white pebble; “furthermore on that pebble has been written a new name,” the highest title of knighthood, an honour belonging to the holder of the morning star; “which no one knows except the one who receives it.”

The winner returns with Christ at the second advent, after being presented at court. In 1 Thessalonians 3:13 it says, “At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” However, only those winners of the morning star they will be manifest with Him in glory. The ashamed crowd are not presented. The Lord doesn’t even make them known. After all they contributed nothing but downtrends to history. They are going to be unknown then. Colossians 3:4 — “On the occasion when Christ our life shall become manifest, you also” — mature believers wearing the morning star, the uniform of glory; “shall become manifest with him” — the anonymous heroes are presented to the population of the world by name, by rank, by order of chivalry, by knighthood, by the obvious appearance of the uniform of glory and the magnificent and beautiful order of the morning star.

And then operation footstool, the great coup de tat, the termination of the Armageddon campaign, the great slaughter that ends the Tribulation, the baptism of fire when all unbelievers of the Tribulation are removed from the earth. The ones who survive the Tribulation are the nucleus for the population explosion of the Millennium. Then we come to the coronation. And who will be prominent in the coronation? Those who have the order of the morning star and at least two people from the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah, because they came back as the two witnesses in Revelation 11 and after evangelising were martyred; but there will also be others such as Joseph, David, Isaiah, and other prominent believers of the Old Testament. It says in Revelation 19:9, “Happiness to the ones who have been invited to the marriage supper of the lamb,” three categories: the Bride (Church Age believers, divided into winners and losers; the friends of the groom, the Old Testament saints; friends of the Bride: the Tribulational believers who are still in their physical bodies and who have great reason to rejoice under perfect environment of the Millennium). Then, of course, there is the function in the Millennium of those who win the morning star. This is, again, Revelation 2:26-28. Those who have the order of the morning star are going to rule nations.

From AD 96 to the end of time the book of Revelation gives us a detailed history divided into two parts: historical trends and the eschatological development of history. So we have prophecy beginning with the Rapture of the Church, which is the next prophecy in history. As we have been studying the historical trends we have begun to note a pattern: how the historical trends depend upon the attitude of the believer toward the Word of God. It does not depend on so many things we have discussed by way of solving man’s problems. There is no ruler or any category of government in this world who can do anything at all to solve the problems of this life, for the ultimate solution depends upon the believer. As goes the believer, so goes the national entity and so goes world history.

Today we are actually experiencing a world-wide depression, and it is not in this country alone. The real problem is the believer. If the believer lives inside the divine dynasphere: Gate 1, the filling of the Spirit gate 2, basic impersonal love; gate 3, enforced and genuine humility; gate 4, perception and application of doctrine, the momentum of the spiritual life; gate 5, love of God; gate 6, right man, right woman where pertinent; gate 7, friendship, advanced impersonal love; gate 8, maturity. If the believer is residing and functioning inside of the divine dynasphere then we have a historical uptrend. But if believers are living in the cosmic system of Satan, cosmic 1, with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic 2, with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred, then, of course, we have a downtrend.

Remember that freedom always guarantees inequality in life and in eternity. Once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you have decisions to make every day. Your attitude toward doctrine determines whether you are going to advance toward maturity — positive volition; or negative volition, going through the various stages of reversion, living in the cosmic system, eventually dying the sin unto death. You have a choice to make and that choice will be reflected at the judgment seat of Christ, for there will be those who are going to receive great rewards and will be the great people of eternity as well as the Millennium; and there will be those who receive no rewards, they will have the white pebble, the resurrection body but nothing in the order of chivalry, no new knighthood, no uniform of glory, no crown of life, no morning star, no name written in the permanent history book of heaven, the pillar in the temple. All of these things are gone. So heaven being a perfect place there are still great inequalities.

During the Church Age the historical impact of the mature believer is invisible, it is low-key from the standpoint of publicity and yet a very real factor in whether prosperity exists in any given generation in history. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God and so goes history in any particular generation. At the judgment sea t of Christ the historical impact of the mature believer becomes manifest through the recognition, the receiving the decoration of the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory, presentation in the court of heaven. At the second advent of Christ the entire population of the world is going to recognise the anonymous heroes of the Church Age. Recognition will be related to the decoration of the order of the morning star and the wearing of the uniform of glory. When the invisible Christ becomes manifest at the second advent invisible greatness of the mature believers in the Church Age will become very real and very visible.

Three crowns are given also as rewards at the judgment seat of Christ: the crown of glory, the crown of life, the crown of righteousness. These are comparable to the military crosses given by the various services. The order of the morning star is the highest possible decoration. Decorations in order of chivalry are not unknown in history. In the time of writing they had them in the Roman empire. During the middle ages they were carried over, such as the order of Malta which started in 1070 AD, the order of St John, the order of the Knights Templars, etc. No country is exactly free from the analogy that we find here.

This leads us to the last verse in this chapter, verse 29, the basis for spiritual momentum. The question arises: How does one achieve the order of the morning star? What do you have to do? What sacrifices do you have to make? What is necessary to comply with this decoration? Here is the answer given very simply “ He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” That is the answer.

We begin the exegesis with the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw in the Greek. It means to have or to hold. Here we are going to translate it, “He who has.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun referring to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who from the point of salvation is equipped and supported by logistical grace to learn Bible doctrine. It is logistical grace support that actually makes the difference. The definite article emphasises that. You and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are all sustained by the same concept from heaven. We are provided with exactly the same principle of logistical grace, none of us are exceptions to this. The static present tense represents the circumstances of possessing ears, a status assumed as perpetually existing in time. Hearing is not a matter of possessing ears or the normal physiological function of hearing, hearing is a matter of motivation. If the believer has ears he can understand Bible doctrine and perpetuate his momentum inside the divine dynasphere. Momentum in the divine dynasphere leading to spiritual maturity is the basis for historical impact. The active voice: the positive believer produces the action of the verb. You have to be motivated to hear doctrine on a regular basis. You have to understand the implications and you have to utilise through logistical grace provision the spiritual IQ provided by God in the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is the basis for achievement of spiritual maturity, and both blessing by association and historical uptrend as far as the client nation to God is concerned. This is what is called a circumstantial participle, circumstantial for believers attaining spiritual maturity through perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere.

With this first phrase we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun o)uj, and that is the Greek word for ears, “He who has an ear.” The possession of an ear is the potential for learning Bible doctrine. Furthermore, you will please note it is a grace provision.

The moment you believe in Jesus Christ 40 invisible things happen to you, plus entrance into gate one of the divine dynasphere. You can’t feel them, you can’t experience them, they nevertheless occur, they are very real, they are provided by God. One of these 40 things is the imputation of divine righteousness; you receive the righteousness of God. This establishes a pipeline. Since the holiness of God is composed of His righteousness plus His justice this is the integrity of God. The justice of God imputes to each one of us His righteousness, one half of divine integrity, and so a pipeline exists between the justice of God and the righteousness of God. From the righteousness of God as the source comes logistical grace, for believers who are winners and believers who are losers. No matter what category of believers all believers receive certain things. For example, they receive time, the amount of time necessary for you to advance to maturity is provided, you receive any kind of support you want to name. Logistical grace includes food, shelter, clothing, opportunity to hear the gospel, a right pastor, a place to go where you can hear, or some type of machine or gadget whereby you can hear. Therefore we have a concept that comes out of this articular present active participle, “He who has an ear.” This is a reference to logistical grace, everything necessary to keep you alive so that you can make decisions. We have studied decisions from the standpoint of historical trends, as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. The believer who makes decisions positive for the divine dynasphere and doctrine; that means historical blessing. The believer who makes negative decisions and goes into the cosmic system; that means historical downtrend. And when you see social degeneration, economic depression, or military disaster, or a combination thereof you are looking at the failure of believers to advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere.

This brings us then to the concept of having an ear. We have freedom; we are free to succeed, to advance to maturity; we are free to fail. We are free to become winners in life; we are free to become losers in life. Attitude toward doctrine becomes the primary principle. Some people are so interested in security that they exchange freedom for security, and this is like selling your soul for a mess of pottage. Socialism and the redistribution of wealth is popular because it offers security instead of freedom, and when you get your priorities confused and you want security rather than freedom — that is what social security is all about — then, of course, you are on the wrong side of the fence, you are a loser as a believer. Freedom is necessary to glorify the Lord; security is not. Nevertheless, God has provided in grace both eternal and temporal security, and the temporal security, of course, is provided through logistical grace. Eternal security is settled at the moment you believe in Christ; temporal security is settled in less than a second through the imputation of divine righteousness. The believer cannot work for, earn, or deserve eternal security and he cannot earn, or work for or deserve temporal security. The possession of divine righteousness is your guarantee of eternal as well as temporal security.

Logistics is a technical word in the military. It is the military science of supply, provision, planning of troop movement. Therefore it has the concept of sustaining in the military functions of life. In manoeuvre logistics is the science of supporting troops in every situation. Whether advancing, retreating, evacuation, reconnaissance, attack, exploitation, pursuit, logistics is always the major issue. Logistical grace is therefore a pertinent term for us because the very fact that we possess physical ears as believers is a guarantee, an analogy, a reminder that each one of us is here today because of logistical grace. Once we believe in Jesus Christ He daily imputes to us time; He gives us a day at a time; He provides everything necessary to sustain us, to support us so that we are free to make decisions for or against His plan. Decisions for His plan make us winners; decisions against His plans make us losers, but being losers, again, does not mean loss of salvation. That is why we are commanded: “Grow by means of grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” — 2 Peter 3:18; that is why in 2 Corinthians 9:9, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency [logistical grace] in everything you may have an abundance for every good production”; or Ephesians 1:3, “Worthy of praise and glorification the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one having provided us benefits by every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” This is just another way of stating the principle of logistical grace. So we are supported in a magnificent way by God Himself, and the very fact that we have ears brings this to mind. Logistical grace is based on the faithfulness of God as a part of His integrity, as a part of His holiness. For example, Lamentations chapter is a great dissertation on logistical grace in time of disaster. Jeremiah was about to get upset by the fact that the fifth cycle of discipline was administered to the southern kingdom of Judah and was standing there as the young people were being shackled for the famous death march described in Psalm 119, a death march from the ruins of Jerusalem to the capital of Chaldea in Babylon. Before this death march was going to be made over desert and rough terrain Jeremiah stood there and he watch these young people, many of whom he knew were believers. He was very concerned and then the Lord brought to mind the doctrine of logistical grace, the fact that those young people would survive, that they would be supported, that they would even come back to the land to re-establish the client nation to God.

Lamentations 3:20, “Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.” No one can learn doctrine apart from humility. Humility is teachability, gate three of the divine dynasphere.

Verse 21, “This I recall to mind [concentration], therefore I have confidence [or hope],” this is hope number 2 in “Y” radical, or absolute confidence that attainment of maturity will result in special blessing from the justice of God. We are sustained logistically so that we can grow in grace, we are sustained, we have ears so that we can become mature believers, and the analogy is quite obvious: ears are undeserved; logistical grace is undeserved. Ears make it possible for us to hear doctrine; logistical grace makes it possible for us to hear doctrine.

Verse 22, “The Lord’s gracious functions [logistical grace] never cease, His compassions never fail,” the integrity of God is the basis for logistical grace.

Verse 23, “They are new every morning,” God provides time; God provides opportunity; God provides health so that you can decide; God provides freedom, He provides everything necessary so that we can grown in grace, “Great is your faithfulness.”

Verse 24, “The Lord is my portion [logistical support], says my soul, therefore I have confidence in him.”

Verse 25, “The Lord is good to those who trust in him.” The word for “trust” here is the strongest word for faith. It is the qal active participle of the Hebrew verb qawah, used for the for the strongest use of the faith-rest drill. It emphasises the third stage of the drill and the second stage where doctrine is applied, “To the soul who seeks him.”

So, “Great is thy faithfulness” is a manifestation of logistical grace. God’s faithfulness in rebound is stated in 1 John 1:9; His faithfulness in logistical support is mentioned in great detail in Lamentations 3:22,23. His faithfulness is based upon our relationship with Him, the fact that we have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Logistical grace, therefore, has a testimony which is found throughout the scriptures and it is represented by this participle of having an ear.

The testimony is given in the form of anthropopathism. Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is our refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.” The everlasting arms sustain the winner and the loser, the Christian who fails and the Christian who succeeds. Each is given time and opportunity under logistical grace in order to advance or to fail miserably. God even gives extra time to believers who fail, postponing the administration of that maximum punishment, the sin unto death.

There is also the testimony of old age with regard to having an ear or logistical grace. “I have been young, but now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his descendants begging bread,” Psalm 37:25. From the standpoint of old age this was David in old age making it very clear that God had been faithful to him in his successes and God had been faithful to him in his failures.

The testimony of the shepherd is found in Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is the one shepherding me, therefore I do not lack anything,” literal translation from the Hebrew. We as believers do not lack, we have freedom and opportunity and time, and everything necessary in order to advance to maturity.

The testimony of the smartest man who ever lived, the apostle Paul. Philippians 4:19, “My God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” The logistical grace is divided into many categories, the most obvious one is time. The second one is life-sustaining support. God sustains the life of every believer on earth regardless of his status quo. No believer will depart from this life apart from divine will, that is why Psalm 48:14 says, “This God is our God forever and ever, he will be our guide even unto death.” The assignment of guardian angels, the assignment of the wall of fire which, of course, is pertinent to the divine dynasphere; the establishment function of freedom, authority, privacy, property; all of these things are a part of the picture. So that we can conclude with Peter in 1 Peter 1:5, “We are kept by the power of God.”

There is also spiritual provision: the provision of the divine dynasphere at salvation, the provision of an evangelist to present the Word of God — it may be a believer, it may be the gift of evangelism, it may be a pastor, it could be anyone, the provision of a right pastor, the provision of doctrinal teaching, the provision of privacy for the function of positive volition.

Logistical grace, of course, is always related to the faith-rest drill. The illustration of this is found in Matthew chapter six beginning at verse twenty-five: “For this reason I say to you, Stop worrying about your life, as to what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall wear. Is not life more than food, and body more than clothing?” — this is logistical grace, God provides these things. Illustration: the birds, etc. of verses 26-34. All of the things that we have are courtesy of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is going to provide for us as long as there is a purpose for our life; there is no way to get around it. Therefore, the conclusion of the matter: Matthew 6:34, “Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will take care of itself [under the principle of logistical grace]. Each day has enough evil of its own,” apply doctrine to the problems of the day, don’t in your imagination work up problems for tomorrow, they will come with or without your help!

So the issue in logistical grace. Logistical grace is the basis for stability in time, 1 Peter 5:12, “Stand fast in it [the grace of God].” Logistical grace is designed for momentum, Hebrews 12:28. Logistical grace continues in reversionism, 2 Corinthians 6:1, the carnal Corinthians were receiving the grace of God in vain. Logistical grace came to them just as it came to mature believers. Galatians 5:4, “You reversionists have become a casualty from Christ, whoever is being vindicated by the law; you have drifted off course.” Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one falls back from the grace of God,” logistical grace, “that no root of bitterness sprouting up cause trouble, and through this many be contaminated.”

What are the provisions then, in general, of logistical grace?

It is first of all the perpetuation of human life in time. God sustains the life of the believer in spite of opposition from Satan and from his genius system, the cosmic system. No believer can continue in life apart from logistical grace support for Satan has the power of death, Ephesians 2:14, 15. But God delivers from death, according to Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 116:8. Death, then, is a matter of the sovereignty and plan of God based on prior knowledge of all the facts, believer, the believer in the cosmic system, the believer in the divine dynasphere, God sustains all.

Secondly, we should note that logistical grace includes the formation and the preservation of the canon of scripture. This includes the mechanics of inspiration as well as the faithfulness of divine integrity in preserving the Bible for us. Consequently the 20th century believer, while nearly 2000 years away from the original writing, has the Word of God preserved with a critical apparatus for determining the original text.

Thirdly, logistical grace includes the laws of divine establishment. Under the laws of divine establishment three things are sacred: freedom, property and human life. The laws of divine establishment therefore guarantee a certain amount of protection for you, especially in the client nation, the protection of your life, the protection of your property, the protection of your freedom. The laws of divine establishment provide authority and freedom in correct balance. Freedom with authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny.

Freedom is the heritage of birth plus the resultant imputation of life to its target or home, the human soul. Freedom is the extension of soul function; freedom includes the use of your volition, your emotion, your mentality, your conscience. Freedom includes the use, as it were, of your ears. The ears represent you mentality, they represent your volition; the ears represent the functions of your soul with which you can be positive or negative toward Bible doctrine. Freedom, of course, exists in two spheres: human life as a result of imputation at birth; spiritual life as the result of imputation at salvation.

Privacy is the environment for the function of freedom. Property is the legitimate possession of the believer under both logistical and supergrace blessing. It includes, of course, ownership of tangible things. Freedom cannot exist without an umbrella of authority. Freedom and equality, for example, cannot coexist. Freedom can neither guarantee or manufacture equality in the human race. Some use freedom to advance — self-determination toward residence in the divine dynasphere, self-determination toward function at its various gates; some use freedom to fail — self determination with regard to the two cosmic dynaspheres. Freedom does not guarantee equality, the function of freedom guarantees inequality, both on earth and forever — we have noted the fact that only a few are going to receive the order of the morning star, only a few are going to have resurrection bodies clothes with the uniform of glory. Equality, then, is the device of the arrogant; it is the device of the disoriented, the sociopath. Freedom is the motivation for grace orientation. Forced equality is not only the policy of dictators and tyrants but the basis for Satan’s eschatological, cosmos diabolicus, composed of his two cosmic systems. Freedom is the policy of God in the creation of the human race to resolve the angelic conflict. Freedom is dogmatic and inflexible regarding the essentials of life and reality, while being flexible and pliable regarding the nonessentials as well. Therefore freedom is both common sense, orientation to reality, which includes respect for authority, privacy, property and life. Under the laws of divine establishment freedom and authority are mated. You can’t have one without the other.

Another provision is the divine authorisation for the local church. The local church is the classroom for perception of Bible doctrine and momentum in the Christian life. It is the place where the believer assembles under divine authority for learning doctrine, advancing to maturity inside the divine dynasphere. The local church can be a house, a public building, a private building, a home, a car, an office, any place where doctrine is taught by a pastor, wither face to face or through some mechanical device. Mechanically, therefore, teaching can be face to face or it could be the convenience of a tape recorder, radio or television, and so on. However, no matter what the locale strict academic discipline and Spirit-filled concentration is always mandated by the Word. Believers who assemble in the local church are Bible students without portfolio. Their royal family privilege is the filling of the Spirit, life in the divine dynasphere, and the focal point of all worship is perception of Bible doctrine. In spite of apostasy of any given generation the local church continues in every generation of the Church Age. God does not change His policy because believers fail. Actually His policy remains the same and believers are punished for their failure to comply.

Also there is the provision of a right pastor and every believer has a right pastor within reach, either mechanical device or face to face. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher is a part of God’s logistical grace provision. The spiritual gift includes both authority and ability to communicate doctrine under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The gift is restricted to male believers but this fact does not preclude women from teaching children or women within the local church functioning in various ways. No male ever earned or deserved the gift of pastor-teacher and there is no stereotyped personality which is qualified to be a pastor. There is such a thing as recognising your gift from learning doctrine but there is no such thing as dedication to full-time Christian service or that nauseating phrase, “surrendering to preach.” Spiritual growth and advance through maximum doctrine resident in the soul is the means, of course, for discovering your own spiritual gift.

The royal priesthood of the believer is another logistical grace provision. Every believer is his own priest, therefore he has the right to assemble and to “use his ears,” as it were, and to hear Bible doctrine.

And, of course, there is the provision of the divine dynasphere which includes the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, objectivity from impersonal love, and humility which is teachability.

“He who has an ear,” the possession of an ear is the potential for learning Bible doctrine under the grace provision of spiritual IQ. The fact that the believer has ears is a guarantee of the ability to learn doctrine. No one earns or deserves ears and no one earns or deserves the IQ for the perception of Bible doctrine. Perception, of course, depends on hearing doctrine under the principle of audio grace. No one hears apart from his own volition. You can hear the sound but to concentrate on the content of the words is something else. So no one hears apart from human volition, and therefore the importance of positive volition toward doctrine, the importance of being self-motivated from the inner resources of grace. The ear represents a grace system for the perception of Bible doctrine at gate four. As a matter of fact God has provided three gates in the divine dynasphere as the support system for learning doctrine. Gate one is the power for perception, the ability to learn doctrine — the filling of the Spirit; Gate two is basic impersonal love, which is objectivity in perception of doctrine. This, of course, means that neither the communicator nor the content is regarded in any distorted sense; Gate three is humility or teachability, and, of course, arrogant believers are not teachable, they distort and exploit Bible doctrine to their own ends. All historical impact, then, results in the award of the morning star and ruling with Christ comes from the daily perception of Bible doctrine.

To amplify what it means to have an ear spiritually we should notice a few principles with regard to the perception of Bible doctrine. First there is ignorance. All of us live at one time in our lives totally ignorant of Bible doctrine, so there is ignorance in which the believer does not understand what is being taught from the pulpit. There are many reasons why he does not understand: 1. No frame of reference through neglect of doctrine or just simply being e new believer; 2. There is arrogance, indifference, lack of concentration, negative volition. But then there is simply the fact that we all have to start with ignorance before we can come to cognisance. This means that in the perception of Bible doctrine we must first be hearers of the Word, and the hearer of the Word obviously has ears.

So we begin with the concept that Bible doctrine is taught. We call that the ICE principle. “I” is for isagogics — recovering the time in which the Bible was written. So many of the words and phrases and analogies simply deal with the time in which a given passage was written. This calls for a tremendous amount of detective work with regard to the ancient world. A good pastor actually has to live in two areas of time: in the past when the Bible was written and in the present when it has to be communicated so that the people can understand it. The “C” stands for categories of the Word of God. From time to time we develop categories and take them point by point. The “E” is for exegesis. Nothing can be categorised, interpreted or explained isagogically until it is first of all based on the original text. The ICE principle then is the principle of communicating to positive believers assembling in the local church.

When you first hear these things, if you are positive, they go into your left lobe as gnwsij. That is the first stage of knowledge, but that is a stage of knowledge of doctrine when it has no use to you as far as spiritual growth or as far as application, it merely becomes cognisance of what is being taught. So far it is not related to your life because it is simply in the left lobe, called also the nouj. This means that people can often tell you what they have heard in Bible class, but as long as it is gnwsisj it has no spiritual benefit whatever. Before Bible doctrine contributes to your growth, before Bible doctrine can be applied, before Bible doctrine is meaningful, it must be transferred to the right lobe which is called in the Bible the heart or, in the Greek, the kardia. This requires a process and this process is a part of the concept. For example, you can say, “I understand what you are teaching but I do not believe it.” That equals gnwsisj; that represents negative volition; it never becomes e)pignwsij and it does not contribute to your spiritual growth. But when you say, “I understand what you are teaching and I believe it,” this is how gnwsij is converted into e)pignwsisj. This breaks through the barrier; this is the use of the faith-rest drill related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit converting the g)nwsij doctrine into e)pignwsij. E)pignwsij enters into the right lobe. It goes into the frame of reference; it goes into the memory bank; it develops new vocabulary and categories; it is ready for application; it is the only basis for spiritual growth. Only e)pignwsij causes the believer to advance to maturity; only e)pignwsij can be formed categorically into rationales to be applied to experience. Gnwsij can never be used in reverse concentration or the second stage of the faith-rest drill. Gnwsij is only converted to e)pignwsij through faith perception. There are two things that are vitally necessary and they are road blocks when negative volition is involved. First of all, when you hear you must be filled with the Holy Spirit for perception. Once you understand it you must believe it, so that we actually have, then, a mechanical system by which doctrine becomes meaningful. Stage one is the presentation of doctrine from the pastor-teacher. Essentially this is the ICE function. The congregation is placed under a system of spiritual humility for reception and perception of doctrine. The system of spiritual humility begins with the existence of the local church, which equals organised humility. When you assemble you are a student without portfolio, the authority of the pastor becomes the principle of enforced humility. The reception of doctrine therefore becomes the basis for genuine humility — positive volition, the use of the filling of the Holy Spirit plus the faith-rest drill, second stage. There is growing in the spiritual realm just as there is growing in the human realm. The home is organised humility in the human realm; the parents are the authority for enforced humility and positive volition toward the parents results in genuine humility. No one can be mature in a human way in life without genuine humility. Genuine humility is the key to everything.

So we have isagogics presented when necessary. This is the interpretation of the Bible within the framework of its historical setting. Again, the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written as well as the original language in which it was written. The categorical communication of doctrine fulfils the hermeneutical principle of comparing scripture with scripture to determine classification of doctrine. The exegetical communication of doctrine is the analysis of each verse in its context to determine the exact meaning of a verse and its relationship to the context. Interpretation demands analysing the grammar, the syntax, the etymology of words in the original languages.

Stage two, then, becomes operation gnwsij. This is the function of receptive comprehension. The mentality of the soul has two working parts called lobes — left and right. The function of the left lobe: the believer approaching doctrine in ignorance. The objective of doctrinal teaching is to turn ignorance into cognisance. If ignorance continues it is because the believer is negative at one of the road blocks in the function of GAP. Ignorance persists because the believer is involved in the interlocking systems of arrogance. For example, he might be involved at gate one, mental arrogance. This includes a lot of things — jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, any form of antagonism, any motivation regarding revenge. All of this is preoccupation with self and becomes motivating evil. Gate two is negative volition arrogance, gate four is organisational arrogance, conspiratorial arrogance, gate fourteen is authority arrogance; gate fifteen, the arrogance of ignorance; gate seventeen, iconoclastic arrogance; gate nineteen, the arrogance of emotion. Other reasons for ignorance include lack of frame of reference from sporadic exposure to doctrine. Once the believer understands doctrine under the principle of receptive comprehension that information simply resides in the left lobe — we call it gnwsij. Such gnwsij information or doctrine resident in the left lobe cannot produce either spiritual growth or be used in application. This is simply a staging area in the whole concept of learning Bible doctrine; but it is a staging area with a purpose, for if you have any flaws then the doctrine will go no further and your flaws will dominate your life, and you will not grow spiritually even though you have been exposed. These flaws can be any category from sin to evil to the function of human good, but inevitably they are related to some form of preoccupation with self, some form of arrogance.

Stage three is the transitional stage, the function of faith perception. There are two kinds of faith related to the modus operandi of the plan of God — faith perception and faith application. Faith perception is learning doctrine or converting gnwsij into e)pignwsij. Faith perception also has another function. It is tolerant of repetition, for it is repetition that makes it possible for these things to become inculcation. In stage three gnwsij , then, is converted into e)pignwsij through the function of faith perception. The mechanics involve both volition and faith and, of course, continue to use objectivity and humility. Stage three is the critical stage and you never pass the critical stage as long as flaws are present. Under ordinary circumstances you might agree with the doctrine; it might be converted into e)pignwsij during the course of the teaching of it. But if there is some stage of preoccupation with self — if you are jealous, if you are bitter, if you are vindictive, if you have revenge motivation in your soul, if you are feeling sorry for yourself — that becomes a road block, and you may hear what is said and may understand it and still it is not doctrine that will cause you to grow. G)nwsij is only converted into e)pignwsij where there is positive volition, objectivity, the filling of the Spirit.

The fourth stage is the application. Faith application is actually reverse concentration, what is necessary for the acceleration of spiritual growth. We have studied in the past the moving from gate four — perception and application of doctrine — to gate eight, which is the objective, the momentum gate. Once you understand doctrine it is tested. The testings are the eight different momentum tests and each passing a momentum test means an acceleration of spiritual growth. No one reaches maturity without these tests and without passing them. This means that in the fourth stage application demands that there be e)pignwsij only for application. Apart from e)pignwsij doctrine and the divine viewpoint application is impossible. This means that we should understand the status of e)pignwsij doctrine in the heart or the right lobe. First of all, that e)pignwsij doctrine will be in the frame of reference. The frame of reference is a chamber that calls upon vocabulary which is technical. You never advance in learning anything without vocabulary, and in technical subjects technical vocabulary is necessary. This is true just as much in theology as it is in geology or anthropology or psychology, etc. Any subject has technical terminology for understanding the subject. The subject develops its own terminology and this is true of theology just as much as any other academic subject. The general language of social life simply will not cover it so you depart from social life and the language of social life, you depart from social intercourse and the language of social intercourse to add many words to your vocabulary. Therefore the frame of reference sets up a technical vocabulary, it is the framework for learning Bible doctrine. Vocabulary storage is a very important part of the right lobe.

However, these would be useless without something else added — a memory centre. This memory centre becomes a major issue in application, the ability to recall what you have learned, the ability to take the proper doctrine and place it with the proper experience, the proper situation. Vocabulary storage demands memory centre. Memory centre is the computer for bringing into focus what is pertinent to a given situation.

You also have a categorical storage as well. Many times a category will be recalled and then the correct application will be made. People often ask: “What is the will of God?” The will of God is, first of all, learning Bible doctrine for the believer. The will of God for the unbeliever is to accept Christ as saviour but for the believer it is to learn doctrine. It goes into the frame of reference, therefore to know the will of God it isn’t necessary to go to someone else, you go to your own vocabulary, you go to your own categories. The memory centre programs the whole thing for you so that if you continually learn doctrine you have programmed for you moment by moment in your life exactly what the will of God is. But knowing what the will of God is isn’t enough. That also must be related to volition. Once you know what the will of God is that is only half the fight; the other is to do it. You may know what the will of God is and not do it. Once you discover the will of God it isn’t pleasing to you, and since it isn’t pleasing you don’t do it. That, of course, takes you right into the cosmic system which immediately freezes the whole function of the k)ardia or the right lobe, and there is no application at all. That means that you have to have from your priesthood one thing that will help you once you go into the cosmic system through negative volition. Memory centre will immediately bring you to the realisation that the will of God for you is to rebound. So you go back into your vocabulary: What is rebound? You bring it into your memory centre. You are a priest and there is only one priestly function that can exist in the cosmic system — to name your sin, rebound.

The conscience is a part of the right lobe. The conscience is the norms and standards that you develop from doctrine, that is one half of the conscience. The other half of the conscience is priorities, and priorities are directly connected with the volition of the soul. The conscience, by the way, only uses e)pignwsij doctrine, gnwsij doctrine won’t do it. The conscience only has doctrine which is fulfilling the e)pignwsij principle, so whether you have right priorities or not, whether you have a conscience that sets up norms and standards correctly or not, depends on the perception of e)pignwsij doctrine. And doing the right thing is often something that goes counter to human viewpoint, but if you have enough e)pignwsij doctrine you will do the right thing, you will do the honourable thing.

All of the wires of the soul not only interlock and relate to each other — the volition of the soul, the right lobe of the soul, they also relate to emotion, but more than that they relate to the integrity that is developed from all of this. You develop a system of integrity and as you do, at that time you will do things that are honourable even though people won’t understand it, even though sometimes people will think you are crazy to do this or that or the other thing, but you will know what is right and you will do it and you will have no regard at all for the human viewpoint of your friends.

The frame of reference does a few other things as well. It sets up a system of using basic doctrines as a means of learning advanced doctrines. The frame of reference has a “red alert” section for the soul, using the garrison of doctrine for an instant reaction force against false doctrine. You have to be able to discern for yourself what is false, so this is an alarm system for detecting false teaching. The frame of reference uses e)pignwsij doctrine for dealing with problems of the subconscious and the guilt complex. The guilt complex is entirely an evil thing, the function of the subconscious is something else. The use of e)pignwsij doctrine, then, in dealing with the subconscious is very important. Many of the fears that you may ignore while you are conscious and awake come out in different ways when you are asleep. This is why some children are afraid to have the lights turned off when they go to bed, or they call for their parents and they want a drink of water. This goes into adult life as well.

The frame of reference also provides effectiveness in communicating ideas in conversation, in witnessing, in public speaking, in debate. It provides capacity for life, for love, for happiness. It raises the spiritual IQ, it motivates general learning and understanding of life. So when you put the frame of reference into the right lobe and start the operation it becomes a very delicate operation and everything balances out everything else; but two things are necessary: doctrine and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Stage five is the spiritual growth, the advance from gate four to gate eight, the use of all of the things. Again you have the principle: “He who has an ear.” Now we come to the positive volition. Any believer is qualified to learn doctrine and therefore the mandate, “let him hear,” the aorist active imperative of the verb a)kouw. The constative aorist tense is for a fact or action extended over a period of time, that is, the believer is positive toward doctrine and he utilises the faith-rest drill in a positive way, and therefore gets doctrine as gnosis converted into e)pignwsij. It takes, therefore, positive volition toward doctrine inside the divine dynasphere and regardless of its extent or duration it gathers it up into a single whole as representing the fulfilment of God’s plan for the royal family believer in phase two. The active voice: the third person suffix of the verb indicates that the positive believer living in the divine dynasphere produces the action of the verb although the divine mandate belongs to all believers of the Church Age. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, this is a mandate for the royal family of God. It is a mandate that does not depend therefore on the personality of the minister, it does not depend on what your friends think, it depends strictly upon you — “let him [an individual] hear.” The hearing, of course, is more than just hearing, it is concentration under the ministry of the Spirit inside of the divine dynasphere; it is objectivity in the approach to the Word, it is motivation to persist in spite of all of the testings and all of the distortions to keep you and distract you from the Word.

Then we have the accusative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij, correctly translated “what sort of thing.” It is a reference to the content of Bible doctrine and, of course, all blessing by association in historical impact comes from the momentum which comes from the doctrine. And the one who gives us the IQ for perception comes next, the nominative subject from the Greek word pneuma, “spirit.” The principle is very simple: no one can learn doctrine apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is taught in John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. With this we have the present active indicative of legw, used for communication — to say, to speak, to communicate. The customary present tense is for what habitually occurs when the believer resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere, God’s game plan for the Church Age. The principle is very simple: power, objectivity and teachability. Power — gate one, the filling of the Spirit; objectivity — gate two, impersonal love; teachability — gate three, enforced and genuine humility. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb by providing the necessary spiritual IQ for learning doctrine. The declarative indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine, the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit there is no spiritual IQ for the perception of Bible doctrine and resultant momentum in the Christian way of life. Therefore, in this dispensation residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere is the only legitimate area for perception and application of doctrine because it is the only place where we are filled with the Spirit. It is the place of production in the Christian life, the place of glorification of the Lord, the place of historical impact. Apart from the filling of the Spirit there is no residence or function inside the divine dynasphere and that is why we have the four mandates. Mandate #1 is positive: “be filled with the Spirit” — Ephesians 5:18; mandate #2, is positive: “walk by means of the Spirit,” Galatians 5:16; mandate #3 is negative: “grieve not the Spirit,” Ephesians 4:30; mandate #4 is negative: “quench not the Spirit,” 1 Thessalonians 5:19. The positive mandates relate to uptrends in history; the negative mandates relate to downtrends. In cosmic one negative volition toward Bible doctrine is based upon preoccupation with self in the various categories of arrogance. In cosmic two negative volition toward doctrine is based on antagonism toward the truth. Because of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit related to positive mandates, such as Ephesians 5:18 and Galatians 5:16, a low human IQ is no handicap in learning Bible doctrine. The only handicap is cosmic involvement and resultant negative volition toward Bible doctrine. In other words, no matter how low your IQ if you are positive God the Holy Spirit will provide the necessary perceptive ability. In the cosmic system the greatest genius among Christians cannot understand the simplest of doctrines, while inside the divine dynasphere the dumbest of believers can understand the most complex doctrines of orthodox Christianity. While the channel for teaching doctrine is the ministry of the pastor-bishop, the understanding and perception of that doctrine depends on the ministry of God the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere. Therefore the last word is the classroom: the dative plural, indirect object from e)kklhsia. The dative plural is an indirect object; it is also dative of advantage. All the teaching of Bible doctrine, all inculcation of the Word of God, must be under the filling of the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere, but for understanding this means one other thing: you are not only inside the divine dynasphere but you must be inside an academic situation. This can be at home. The trouble with so many tape classes is the fact that be distracted during the hearing of the tape. That home could be a church all right during the teaching of the Word, except for one thing: no academic discipline, therefore no concentration.

In the cosmic system the greatest genius among Christians cannot understand the simplest of doctrines, and sometimes that is because the great genius is arrogant. That is because the great genius looks down his nose academically, he is a snob. Therefore he is not about to sit down and listen to some dumb preacher. All teaching of Bible doctrine, all inculcation of the Word of God demands therefore that we be under a system of academic discipline, and that is really what the church is. All great decisions in life are related to assembling in the class room of the local church. And, again, the local church can be a building, a business office, a home, but nevertheless they have to observe strict academic discipline. So the principle of assembling becomes a matter of motivation related to volition and when you put it all together it simply says that there must be a regular place, a regular time, when you sit down and listen to the Word of God.