Spiritual Warfare and Work Sentences

The 3 Great Divides & Two Great Practices:

1. Worshiping the creation rather than the Creator

2. Seeing Jesus as merely a great teacher rather than Lord and Savior

3. Thinking one can be justified and made righteous by one's own works rather than by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ in His life and on the cross (self-righteousness and self-justification vs. the righteousness of Christ and justification by faith alone in Christ)


Two Great Practices:

1. Act now as if you're in the Kingdom of God now, and God can trust you.

2. Do the two conscious shocks as the means to being in covenant with God.


Overriding Kingdom of God Attitude:

Gratitude over resentment always for everything.

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In every locality/event there is something to hold on to. To discern and use as a foundation for that place/event.

Leverage in the spiritual world involves containing force.

Initially meeting the forces in a contained space with strength and fearlessness and awakeness and honesty towards what you're up against is necessary to be able to then stand within that space with presence and power. Honesty in accepting and acting upon what you discern is necessary. If you discern/intuit unfriendliness yet pretend all are friendly you will not survive that environment. Innocence works and protects somewhat in early stages, but not when real stand-your-ground-and-be-present warfare is demanded.

Aim devours emptiness (vanity) in an event. Aim can be simply testing and tempering being. Aim can also be discerned in any event or action along the lines of the three lines of Work.

Influence can be gathered from seemingly still air. The stars invisible in the blue sky.

The six approaches work for particulars; a general stance of awake wariness is best for the overall situation.

Thoughts will be thrown just like words and should be intentional. Thoughts too should confront challenges and nonsense from the environment. If your words be clear and intentional but your thoughts be unintentional, chaotic, and dishonest - or just vain - you will not set your presence and control your own domain in the environment. Though the devil cannot listen to your thoughts you can throw your thoughts to such a degree that the shallowest in the environment can pick them up.

Moving inward and vertical in time (fifth and sixth dimensions; first and second conscious shocks) to the moment (the moving time of the environment or event) gives speed of perception advantage. Feeling the force and direction and fullness of time. Seeing her world history in an eyelash. A god at the tea party more inward to and above the moment. Still visible to crude sense, invisible otherwise is the god if not showing shame or fear inside. If a god through and through.

Acting on what you are able to know and to see and foresee is different from merely knowing and seeing or foreseeing the thing/event. Prayer is action bridging the vision and the event in time.

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1. Self-remembering ignites our being (cosmos) and fills it with a higher energy.

2. Non-identifying defines and secures the boundary of our being (cosmos).

3. Separation (I from 'it') sets the true north of our being (cosmos), orientating us and setting us on the foundation within.

4. External-considering orientates us with other cosmoses.

5. Transforming negative emotion connects our cosmos with the Kingdom of God and feeds us through that connection.

6. Learn to see cosmoses, to discern them.

7. When born you are a cosmos and a cosmos knows what it needs (the infant cries). When you die you are still a cosmos and you acclimate as a cosmos to the new state and situation you come in to. You are a cosmos within a cosmos(es) in contra-distinction to cosmoses.

8. The world and the devil and false personality (the flesh) wants you to 'come apart' as a cosmos; to have breaches in the boundary of your cosmos, a promiscuous traffic with the world. To stand your ground is to maintain the boundaries of your cosmos; to not allow anything external - the world, the devil - to connect with features within your cosmos that make up false personality and thus control you (control you, or, your cosmos); i.e. to attach reins within you as cosmos. (If the features of false personality are not manifesting then false personality is not there, and if not there then there is nothing for the world and the devil to attach reins to from without to control you.) The world and the devil want to be what fills your cosmos, to make the content of your cosmos to be the impressions and illusions and fears and desires and fascinations of the devil's kingdom.

9. The practical observation of cosmoses is seeing them in oneself. Becoming conscious in a higher and lower cosmos is like becoming conscious of different centers within you (emotional, instinctive, moving, etc.) with their different speeds.

10. A person single (no marital mate, no lover) is one kind of comsos. A person married or with a lover is another kind of cosmos. I.e. the two states have potential for different kinds of complete cosmoses (ideally, we can say, charitably). The single person develops the complimentary sides within his/her being. It's romantic to think that two people can develop as two, but two people are the norm of the world, and in such a situation the person who is part of a 'couple' *won't* be in conflict with the world or with one's flesh or the devil. Hard truth.

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Christian says:
October 29, 2009 at 10:01 pm

Money (or worldly gain), power (or worldly honor), and sex (or worldly pleasure) are not idols they are temptations.

A false idol is something like left-wing politics (Marxism, communism, socialism), or worship of the state; or environmentalism, or worship of mother earth; or multiculturalism, or worship of the ‘noble savage.’

These things don’t just replace God, they are sacrificed to (including human sacrifice) and they make the worshipers conscience feel easy. These false idols forgive their worshipers.

It’s difficult for modern day Christians to see real false idols because most modern day Christians are completely in the power of the false idols they can’t see.

Again, money, sex, power: these are staple *temptations* in the devil’s kingdom, they are not false idols.
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Christian says:
October 29, 2009 at 10:13 pm

Unbelievers have a consciousness of guilt – of sin – that they need to have expiated. They refuse to approach God or the only Mediator between man and God, so they set up a false god.

Molech and Baal were not temptations.

Worship of the state is not a temptation. It is a god that is sacrificed to and that gives expiation to a sense of guilt and sin.

The Hollywood ‘liberal’ who makes a ton of money then gets involved in left-wing politics and issues is looking for expiation and is seeking a god to perform that for him/her.

They will sacrifice their freedom to these false gods. Their individuality. Regarding multiculturalism they will sacrifice their culture and civilization and the very safety of their neighborhoods (the ‘noble savage’ can do no wrong, in fact the more the ingratitude, the more the violence, the more the hatred directed by the noble savage to the false idol worshiper's culture the more the false idol worshiper will feel expiated for their 'sacrifice').

People will sacrifice humans to the state. Genocide. In some cases when abortion is a dogma in a person’s mind it becomes human sacrifice.

Money, power, and sex doesn’t expiate the innate sense of guilt and sin in a person. They are not false idols, they are temptations.

Interesting a modern Reformed author would write a whole book on idols and get it so wrong. This is because Reformed Christians have forgotten about subjects like false idols (spiritual warfare would be another).

Read John Owen’s Biblical Theology to learn about false idols and the worship of false idols.

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Observe (with conscious labor and intentional suffering) these 7 things:

1. Yourself and active reasoning
2. The person(s), place, thing, event your attention is on
3. Place, or surroundings
4. Your aim
5. The different points-of-view, intents, self-interests and motivations of others around you
6. The unspoken and spoken communications and the web of relationships between others and with others around you; and forces and laws in effect
7. Your conscious role

Sin

I think what actually anchors us experientially to the plan of God and the fact of the History and Plan of Redemption is the fact of sin and the existence of evil. This is something we can see in ourselves and see in the world. I think it's the best apologetic, in the practical realm, for believing in what is revealed in the Word of God, not that it is needed if you are regenerated, but it is there to be observed.

Adam in the Garden was truly innocent, yet he had the ability to sin (which he demonstrated by eating the forbidden fruit). He had 'ability to sin and ability to not sin.'

Fallen man is different. Fallen man now has ability to sin and *inability to not sin.* In other words, fallen man is incapable of not sinning. We have original sin in us from birth, and we actively sin the first chance we get. Did you steal that candy from your sister when you were two years old? Yes, you did. Broke the 8th commandment at two. Probably earlier.

Regenerated man is different from fallen man (and similar to Adam in the Garden, though not identical). Regenerated man still has ability to sin, but unlike unregenerated fallen man he now has *ability to NOT sin* (this is similar to Adam before the fall, yet regenerated man is not 'innocent' like pre-fall Adam). Not everything he does, in other words, is as 'filthy rags' to quote Isaiah. Regenerated man can actually struggle with his old, fallen nature and not sin. It's a struggle though.

Glorified man is in an unusual state, different from all the above including Adam in the Garden (glorified man is in a higher state than Adam was in in the Garden). Glorified man has *inability to sin.* That isn't just saying glorified man merely doesn't *want* to sin and holds himself back from it, it is actually a higher state where, kind of like we see in elements of the Olympian gods and goddesses, glorified man literally *can't* sin no matter what he does. Sort of like where higher centers only have positive and no negative.

Threading the needle

I'm going to try to thread the needle in gaining a rarer, deeper, more striking understanding of the Bible, each book, at a deeper level. I mean: it is difficult to do in this sense: secondary reference works on the Bible usually go in one ear and out the other. They seem to always have a shallow effect. It's also difficult in that the Bible is such a big book. Issues of endurance and tactics and approach come into play.

Of course I already have the overall Plan of God in understanding; as-well-as a general reading understanding of the Bible; as-well-as apostolic biblical doctrine from systematic and biblical theological sources and so on. (Which is a lot! Probably most of everything...)

Yet, what I'm getting at is this: can I bring Deuteronomy to mind and really know what is going on in that book? No. Not until I read it *while* taking notes (notes really make a difference, which is why the reference works fail [i.e. if you are only reading them], you really have to take your own notes to get things in memory and understanding).

Good reference works are rare too. Kline wrote a commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy (available in PDF form on the web). Anything Kline writes is worth reading. There are probably other good general commentaries. It's like reading the phone book, though. Which gets back to tactics and strategy for doing this. You can't be stuck in the mode of reading a phone book.

At my level of all this really Meredith Kline is coming to the forefront. His Kingdom Prologue and all the other books of his. Deep and striking insights made on the foundation of Federal Theology.

Here's what I'm really getting at: Kline's striking observation that the real end times climax begins when Satan and his followers make a claim on ALL the world. That observation is typical of Kline. He got it from the Bible, but it's the type of observation that comes from a 'different level' of engaging the Bible. Those understandings are in there. You have to know the system of the Bible (Federal Theology) and God's overall Plan of Redemption, but then you have to have a deeper parts-in-relation-to-the-whole understanding of the Bible. One where connections and inner meanings and striking insights can be made, or come to light.

Pilgrim politics, for instance, is another insight. It's in the Bible, but not in the eXoteric commentaries. We have to 'see' that for ourselves. And everything else that is currently not in our understanding.

I don't want to confuse any of this with *basic understanding of systematic theology and the overall plan of God.* I have that. That doesn't change or get bi-passed. I'm talking about insights made *on and within the foundation* of apostolic biblical doctrine, or Federal Theology.

These types of insights, too, come when you go to the Bible with a question or with something that is troubling you. The actions and words of Muslims, for instance. One can just abandon oneself to allowing them to yank our chain all the time. Or scare us. Or annoy us to no end. "We will plant a Muslim flag on the White House," said one of them on a major political morning show the other day. If you go to the Bible for understanding you see that God controls the devil's armies (Assyrians, whatever), and they are God's monkeys. They do what God allows them to do. Yes, we react (mainly we don't allow the devil and his armies to make us give up our faith or become their cowering slaves or whatever). In the Bible I looked up even the word 'terror' and what came up surprised me: inferences of God being the terror, using nations to bring terror to His backsliding peoples or to other rebellious nations.

We're also told to *confront the devil* and he will run. But the understanding we get from the Bible itself turns the volume of our out-of-control emotions down, and gives us a perspective on the battlefield, in space and time, and people, places, things, events, and contending ideologies and forces: darkness and light.

Re-reading that last email it sounds like I should just read Kline's Kingdom Prologue. I don't need to reinvent the wheel! (It *is* the one book in my possession that I can actually learn new things from. That and his other books. I mean, I do a lot of screwing around with stuff I already know. That's a feature of common human nature though. Truly learning something new takes more effort and a different mind set. You have to catch your breath too. Absorbtion and initiation is part of the piece meal approach over time too, it should be said. - C.

If I were a person who knew nothing about the Bible, Gods Plan or Christianity, what books would you recommend I read in what order?

S

I've had trouble with this question before. It's a difficult subject because it involves so many things. You have to have the Bible in you from complete readings. You have to have the Holy Spirit in you giving you discernment for the truth and motivation to know it...and ability to accept it.

The above requirements are going to separate out most people right off the bat.

It also is not encouraging that most graduates of seminaries and schools of divinity who becomes pastors and bishops and what not don't have the parts in relation to the whole understanding of apostolic biblical doctrine and God's overall plan of redemption.

Also false teachers are legion (and also inept teaching), which makes the process of getting the wheat difficult.

So we are talking about something quite rare and unusual to have.

Then again if it's too complicated it's probably not on-the-mark. It's simple once you get it. Like playing an instrument, I suppose.

For systematic theology:
Beginner: Concise Theology - J. I. Packer
Intermediate: Manual of Christian Doctrine - Louis Berkhof
Advanced: Institutes of the Christian Religion - John Calvin

For the history of redemption (God's overall plan of redemption):
Beginner: Articles like this: http://gospelpedlar.com/articles/Bible/cov_theo.html or this by Vos: http://www.biblicaltheology.org/dcrt.pdf (though Vos is hardly beginning level)
Intermediate: Human Nature in its Fourfold State
Advanced: Kingdom Prologue, and God, Heaven and Har Magedon - Meredith Kline

I'm talking about ultimate understanding. Most Christians don't get near it, and don't have to. But if you are inclined to get parts in relation to the whole understanding of lesser things and then turn to the ultimate thing, the Word of God, then there you are. It's not as easy with the Bible and the history of redemption because you are getting your arms around - or trying to - a cosmos that is not wholly in existence in our space and time. The history of redemption begins from eternity, for instance. And ends when time ends. Yet that isn't the end for glorified man. Also, God is not wholly understandable by us. We can know what He gives us to know, which is a complete understanding for His and our purposes, but the understanding of it has a ceiling beyond which is mystery.

The simple backbone of systematic theology is the Two Adams (federal theology) - Adam from the Garden who fell, and the second Adam Jesus Christ. We are either under the federal head of one or the other. Old Adam from birth, Jesus Christ by faith. What that is, how that happens, why it happens, etc., is the subject matter of systematic theology.


The simple backbone of the Overall Plan of Redemption can be described by covenants (three in particular) or by the four states of man vis-a-vis sin.

For the latter: 1. Man in a state of innocence (Adam in the Garden, were God makes a covenant with him - the Covenant of Works - where is Adam fulfills the covenant he will be given the Tree of Life, but he fails and falls and all mankind falls in him. 2. Man in a state of fallen corruption. This is historical time as we experience it. Nature has fallen too. This world of good and evil and mixtures of joys and sufferings, and sometimes horrible sufferings, is the after-the-fall state of man and nature. 3. Man in a state of regeneration. When an individual is regenerated by the Word and the Spirit - born again - they transfer into a wholly different state than the fallen state. Yet's it's still a struggle with one's fallen nature, but the victory has been achieved (by Christ). Once regenerated always regenerated. 4. Man in a state of glorification (and unregenerated man in a state of eternal hellfire). At physical death, or ultimately at the Second Coming and end of time, the regenerated man is glorified and is in the Kingdom of Heaven. Those are the four states of man in the history of redemption. Created on high, a fall, then a rise back up - drawn back up and also climbing once you have the Spirit in you and are able to climb - to a level that is higher than where you were created at.

The three covenants of Redemption, Works, and Grace describe the mechanics of all the above. They are difficult to get understanding of because sources use different terminology and get petulant about what they demand to include or exclude. It's a subject one just has to get initiated into after absorbing a lot of material and seeking the on-the-mark line of truth. - C.

ps- Search the categories at Monergism.com for other books. It really is a search. You have to find it on your own. Though someone who knows can help with questions and answer type exchanges.

pps- Spiritual warfare is woven all through it all too. Something that gets overlooked in most books. The forces of darkness that battles the Plan of God and the individual who is awakening into the Light. Then another subject is getting to understand why each part of the Bible exists. The histories, the prophets, etc.

Its a lot... A whole journey. I'll save this email for future reference!

S

>>If I were a person who knew nothing about the Bible, Gods Plan or Christianity, what books >>would you recommend I read in what order?
>>S

I really rate Packer's Concise Theology. It delivers very well on each relative subject and intentional or not, it does work at different levels. It's very clean and tidy. I'd package and organise it differently, I'd make much more out of the Biblical references too, but the content is great. Berkhof I'm less enthusiastic about. There's nothing really wrong but I do go to Packer first.

Oddly the two authors I've soaked up more than others are Kline and Vos. Neither of whom I would have discovered off my own bat. We're all dependent on others in some way to direct our attention. And then it's valuation. I have enthusiasm for both authors, although there are times when Vos is too dry and intellectual. He's difficult to recommend really. Kline however is almost mystical, with his word inventions and allusions. In that sense you can miss his point but then he stands (like Vos) to some serious study and like Vos is full of brilliance and Spirit. I love them both and yet I'm not sure in answer to Simon's question that either would be ideal recommendations.

That question demands a plan.

1. Read the Bible. Don't think about it or try and 'get it', just read it.
2. Read Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress.
3. Read The Embattled Christian by Zacharias.
4. Read Packer's Concise Theology

For me that hits the key note: the battle, warfare and struggle of the Christian way.

Understanding of the rest is something you can pick up through articles on monergism (like C suggests), and other sites - lots of useful mp3's to listen to and really, loads of books but you just can't recommend them at the outset but only as a person comes into either understanding or degrees of interest or inquiry.

You could just say read the Bible and also study Genesis and Romans.

- Paul of England

And this old post is the practical reason to get this complete understanding:

http://electofgod.blogspot.com/2008/07/doctrine-is-armor-of-god.html

- C.

ps- It's worth noting that Vos, Berkhof, and Kline are considered to be representative in the 20th century of the true line of Reformed doctrine. They all three explain things on the foundation of Classical Covenant - Federal - Theology. (Berkhof is of course more of a straight professor who produced a very well-put-together text book; Vos and Kline are biblical theologians who truly filled out Reformed Theology, mainly in the area of eschatology.) All this means is these three guys have few quirks (Berkhof zero, unless you consider infant baptism a quirk, I don't, because it doesn't effect Federal Theology despite what the more shallow defenders of infant baptism claim). Vos zero as well (though like Paul stated he wrote for academics and can be hard to understand overall - biblical theology as opposed to systematic theology is strange to begin with...requires initiation); Kline's biggest quirk is his Framework Hypothesis, which is a unique reading of the 6 days of creation. It is too clever by half, and really not worthy of adopting or defending. But it doesn't effect his theology overall which is orthodox (small 'o'). If you go back a few generations, Thomas Boston is a major source for on-the-mark Federal Theology. But, again, it's difficult to recommend these guys because, well, for the reason I stated in the first response. Self-motivation is necessary. But the practical end point is the post linked above. It's good to have a practical reason for the study, even if spiritual warfare doesn't cover every reason to know it.