The law in the Garden and the law given on Sinai

This is a comment I wrote under a post somebody wrote about how the law God made in the Garden with Adam is the same law God gave to Moses on Sinai:

+ + +

It's also just straight Federal Theology. The parallel of the two Adams demands that the law given on Sinai be the same as that given to Adam in the Garden.

Jesus came to fulfill what Adam failed to fulfill.

Where some stumble at all this is to wonder what the Sinai law has to do vis-a-vis the nation of Israel, and that is simple: Israel was a type for the Messiah. Jesus' life mirrors the history of national Israel. In the fulness of time Israel was to bring the Messiah, the pure bloodline from David, into the world.

In God's plan of redemption, as well, it has to be seen that Adam and national Israel are unique players. Neither pre-fall Adam nor national Israel can be compared to fallen man. National Israel had a role to play (just as Adam in the Garden did) that was unique in God's plan. Individually each Israelite (or foreigner among them) was saved by faith in the coming Messiah, just as we are saved by faith in the already-come Messiah, but National Israel itself plays a role in the plan of redemption that makes it unique and non-correlative to fallen mankind in general.

This is why Paul struggles in the language he uses to explain the unique position of his people in Romans. He wants to say they are unique in God's plan (they are) yet they are also individually under the curse of the law as any other, but because they are unique in God's plan let God judge them and so on.

Jesus in Leviticus 14

To see the deeper meaning in any passage of the Old Testament, especially the ceremonial laws, see Jesus in them. Jesus himself said it was all about him. This is how Old Testament saints knew about the coming Saviour, and hence were able to have faith in Him, by the types and shadows in the ceremonial laws.

Also, to read the Old Testament passages, any of them but especially the particular descriptions of the ceremonial laws, to see Jesus and His work in them you can get more understanding of Jesus. Take Lev. 14 for instance. Below is a commentary on it from this site. I can't vouch for the site or the commentary as a whole, but I like this passage:

Leviticus 14 - Rituals On the Cleansing of a Leper



A. The sacrifice for a cleansed leper.



1. (1-9) The first seven days of the ritual.



Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest. And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him; and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper, then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field. He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days. But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows; all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he shall be clean."



a. Then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds: In this cleansing ceremony, one bird was killed in an earthen vessel over running water, and its blood was applied to a living bird, to some cedar wood, to some scarlet fabric, and to some hyssop. Then, using these things, the blood was sprinkled on the one who was cleansed from leprosy. Then, the living bird was let go.



i. This seems to be a picture of Jesus’ death and its spiritual application; a “heavenly” being (as a bird is “of the heavens”) dies in an earthen vessel, while remaining clean (because of the running water). The death of the bird is associated with blood and water; the blood is connected with life (applied to the living bird), and then applied to the one cleansed.



ii. Cedar wood: Cedar is extremely resistant to disease and rot, and these qualities may be the reason for including it here - as well as a symbolic reference to the wood of the cross. Some even think the cross Jesus was crucified on was made of cedar.



iii. The connection with hyssop is also important. Jesus was offered drink from a hyssop branch on the cross (Matthew 27:48), and when David said purge me with hyssop in Psalm 51:7, he was admitted that he was as bad as a leper.



b. He shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows: After the sacrificial ceremony with the birds, the cleansed leper had to wash their clothes and shave off all of their hair. They started all over again, as if they were a brand new baby.



i. Again, this seems to be an illustration of being “born again” - a completely new start.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and general revelation

Somebody has written a book on the subject of Homer and general revelation. Here is apparently an abstract the author has written of his own work:

http://fc.hbu.edu/~lmarkos/homertochristbook

Good quote from Ouspensky's wife

I will just leave you now with a definition of 'being' you might find useful to consider (attributed to Madame Ouspensky, by John G. Bennett, as quoted by Tony Blake in "The Intelligent Enneagram")

'Being' (said Madame Ouspensky) is what you can bear.

From here.

Providence and sanctification

John Flavel - Puritan - writes about providence and in one chapter he talks of sanctification:

"Now there are two means or instruments employed in this work. The Spirit, who effects it internally (Rom. 8. 13), and Providence, which assists it externally."

I've never seen it this way, but it rings so true when you see it put this way. Providence, events, people, places, things, phenomena, work to help or give friction or what have you. You see this in Work effort. When you have the Spirit from making self-remembering efforts you then are in a new world where providence is acting on you externally.

Havn't you observed the 'coincidences' that occur when you are doing something 'bad' or wrong or what have you. A person appears out of no where. Something. Also, the difficult, surprising event that occurs when you are filled with higher energy. Things like this. Other examples, different types of examples, as well.

Spiritual Warfare contains it all

Living in a neither fish nor fowl realm between the two languages of the Work and the Faith I see what I knew long ago (but forgot, or didn't see strongly enough at the time) that spiritual warfare is what brings together Work knowledge and practice and the Bible without mixing languages or creating watered-down weak hybrids of systems and teachings. The Grail knight is engaging in spiritual warfare and the Israelites between Egypt and the Holy Land are engaging in spiritual warfare. The church Christians are doing anything but engaging in spiritual warfare. This is the sickness of the mainstream Christian realm and is why Christians like myself are such an immediate, intuitive, instinctive threat to them and their environments. They don't even cotton to Puritans when it comes down to it (I speak of the self-professed Calvinists and Reformed), not that the Puritans even wrote about or practiced spiritual warfare at the truly practical level.

This is the focus and anchor and consolidating pursuit now for myself: spiritual warfare.

When I engage in Work efforts I am putting myself on spiritual ground where the forces of light and darkness meet. When I am provoking my limits to then give myself the potential to extend my limits I am engaging in battles with the world, the flesh, and the devil that is spiritual warfare.

I found when I was putting together Bible verses and passages to bring to mind in everyday situations and events and circumstances that what naturally occured was a presentation of categories of spiritual warfare. This is what the Christian comes to when the Christian gets to the practical level of the faith: spiritual warfare.

This is sanctification: spiritual warfare. It is what we do because it is our nature after regeneration by the Word and the Spirit to do. We desire to engage in spiritual warfare. The churchians desire to avoid spiritual warfare at all costs and to remain comfortable and smug in villages of morality and pretend the faith is about family and 'being good.' A Christian born again by the Word and the Spirit knows differently.

It is in our new heart to engage in spiritual warfare.

It is in the heart of the world, the flesh, the devil and churchianity to dissuade Christians from engaging in spiritual warfare.

This they can't do. The Holy Spirit gives us guidance to fight the world, the flesh, and the devil and any who would tempt or put fear into us or attempt to dissuade us from engaging in the battle until the return of our King.

Scripture worth remembering

1Th 5:16 Rejoice evermore. (Always be joyful. I.e. remember God's remarkable promises to those who believe in His Son.)
1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing. (This is a constant command in the New Testament. One can't really see it's practical meaning without including some aspect of self-remembering. But always asking for what you need, and for wisdom and strength and so on too.)
1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (Gratitude in place of resentment regarding anything. It's powerful that the will of God is being defined here.)

This is Scripture worth remembering.

Quick summary of classical covenant theology (Federal Theology)

In classical covenant theology (Federal Theology is classical covenant theology systematized) there are three basic covenants. The Covenant of Redemption made between God the Father (representing the Trinity) and God the Son. This covenant was made before the foundation of the world. In this covenant the Son agrees to pay the price for God's elect. The Covenant of Redemption is a covenant of 'works.' Then there is the Covenant of Works itself made between God and Adam. This takes place in time, in history. God commands Adam "do this and live" and Adam fails to fulfill the covenant and falls, and all who are 'in Adam' fall as well because Adam is the *federal head* of all humanity. The creation itself falls as well.

Once Adam falls the Covenant of Grace is announced to him (this is the aforementioned Covenant of Redemption as it plays out in historical time). The Covenant of Grace says "believe this and live". It begins with types and shadows of the coming Saviour. The object of Old Testament saint's saving faith was the *coming* Messiah, which they knew of in the types and shadows of the ceremonial laws and from their prophets. The object of New Testament saints saving faith is the *already come* Messiah.

All the other covenants from the fall to the incarnation of Christ are part of the Covenant of Grace (including the Mosaic Covenant). The Noaic Covenant is part of the Covenant of Grace because with it God sets the stage for the Covenant of Grace to play out. He says He won't bring destruction on man or creation like He did with the flood. The Abrahmic is the covenant of grace, the Davidic as well. The Mosaic Covenant *seems* like a covenant of works and it *is* BUT only for Jesus to fulfull. The Mosaic Covenant is a *republication* of the Covenant of Works in the Garden that God made with Adam. Jesus needed to be born under the law to have that law to fulfill. It is made with *national Israel* which is a type for Jesus Christ. When Jesus fulfills the law (to a 't') he is doing what the *first Adam* failed to do, and thus as the federal head of God's elect he is fulfilling the Covenant of Works AND he is paying the penalty for it being broken - death. Jesus' following the law to a 't' and his willing death on the cross is called his active and passive obedience. It is *imputed* to any who believe in Him.

The new covenant is different from the old in that what God demands in the new he *gives freely.* Faith for instance. Among other ways it's new and better.

Behind all this is - and what this is - is the Plan of Redemption. Man created 'on high', a fall, and then being drawn back up to a higher level than where you were created at (that is the eschatological glorification aspect). The Plan sets up the mechanics for created beings to develop by God's will *without* it being merely by fiat (which would just make us robots).

It's mystical. Self-will vs. God's will. The position (with all the tensions and mystery and acting 'top down') the covenants and our 'federal heads' Adam and Christ put us in gives us the potential to come alive in a real way (or not, i.e. hell is real, as real as glorification). You become 'in Christ' and no longer "in Adam" by simple belief in Jesus Christ and who He is. Of course this 'simple belief' entails alot of inner battle and getting above vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will. It requires regeneration by the Word and the Spirit. Etc. You have to become a new man.

But everything else on this planet and in all cultures and activities of man is general revelation and idol worship and basically vanity chasing its tail. You can learn from it all, develop in it, but eventually there is one thing that is real and necessary. John 3:16! - C.

Guiding metaphors...

I'm beginning to wonder if the desert metaphor (having left Egypt - symbolic of the world - but not yet at Canaan - the promised land) is the best way to get context and understanding of where one is and what one is supposed to be doing. What does the desert part of the journey call for? Persevere. Stay strong. Continually refresh yourself as to why you are here and what it's all about. (It's easy to forget in the withering immediate conditions of the desert.)

This clashes some with the big Work metaphor of the Grail Knight. You know, take to the trackless forest, meet conflict, persevere, enter new worlds... Hmm... Maybe it doesn't clash so much...

I just saw something 2

You see, there's a difference between knowing the Bible, being regenerated, being who I was prior to 2002 on the one hand, and then being a real hardcore Christian on the other.

The latter is when you enter the 'weird' zone (I say honestly without mocking the faith). Prior I could still be the secular person high on the Homeric epics and practical knowledge on inner development that was delivered in very secular mode (the Work sources) and all that. But when you convert everything is filtered and wrapped with a more serious consciousness of your own real situation as a fallen human being in need of saving.

This is why the Work crowd, such as it was, literally scattered. Literally! ("Run away!")

So then, though, as this new person I wasn't as adept yet with my subject as I had been with the Work, and I was sort of in an in-between state and an undeveloped stated regarding my understanding of the new thing: biblical doctrine and practice.

But you can see how fast I work, because I read what I was writing in 2002 and 2003 and '04 and I had already gotten the 'whole' that is there to get from the Bible and theology, and it is the summit of what theologians write about and all that. Still you have to settle into it all, grow into it, and get real understanding over time. You can be a tyro immediately and know real things, but you're still a live wire.

Now I can step back; with perspective; and be more of an anchored source in my delivery. If I get into that having-an-audience stage again.

I just saw something

I just saw something about myself that explains to me some of my anchorless condition I've been in for quite a few years. When you all first met me I was still the Homer, Plutarch, Shakespeare, Parzival person who knew the Work and wrote about it. I can see that 'me' clearly. Then... I transitioned into the necessary Christian territory. This was necessary, but left me less sure of my surroundings. The average Christian and Christian environment is a bit shallow to say the least.

And I don't want to make it sound facile, but 9/11, that event and the date attached to the event, was some kind of strange marker or milestone as it turns out. Because it happened for everybody it seems facile to claim it as a milestone for yourself personally, but I think it has to do with the otherworldly and plan of redemption aspects of that event. It was a biblical event, in other words. A shock on a universal scale. The Work stuff was more innocent prior to that date (I shouldn't say that though because it was dead real no matter world events; we're not attached to world events in that sense). I mean even the writing and exchanges and all that on Work forums. After 9/11 all that was a bit fractured and scattered about.

Then I converted. You convert when you begin to learn real biblical doctrine. Learn what you are to have faith in and what you are to repent of, and why it all is. Why you need a saviour. Regeneration happened years - many years - prior, but actual conversion happened after 2001. (Though I have to toss in the fact that I was learning real doctrine prior to that too, but it was more an intellectual pursuit than the activity of real conversion. But we always have to write about these things as if they are more defined and clear cut than they are.)

So that's why I've been in this drift, and havn't given a sense of wholeness and anchored understanding like I perhaps could prior to 9/11.

I broke myself down again to accept the orthodox Christian teaching. Just as I got broken down prior to connecting with Work teaching in a real way.

Hence my juvenile style (intentionally, yet still juvenile) when interacting on Christian subjects.

But I am coming out of that and consolidating now. Which means I can discourse on the Plan of Redemption from understanding. And what the mystics know from understanding.

medium wisdom

We can be doing anything, really, as long as we are taking in higher (for us) influences and provoking and extending our limits. Then what we 'do' is really just puppet-on-a-string stuff. Because no matter how serious you get about something a point is reached where you start thinking about a Diet Coke and Panini (or whatever your particular thing is). Or about going to sleep. Or about seeing that must-see game (or whatever). You write an essay getting to the foundational truth of everything and include practical knowledge about how to reach the supernatural, then you go get a drink and turn on some sporting event.

Mystics, even. They wake up. "Oh, God. Here I am still." Then they get involved in politics and get famous causing trouble. Nothing else to do.

There's nothing to do! (Maybe it's enough to introduce the average person to the very first levels of awakening - as they spit at you and call the police - because most people are, you know, where they are, in the average sense...)

Nevertheless, one can can engage higher influences and provoke and extend limits no matter what is going on or what we are 'doing'...

Something big

I just now opened a rare volume of John Calvin's, his Sermons on Ephesians, and where I opened it he was talking about how Christ comes to us, and about the Lord's Supper, and what it means spiritually, and it is SOOO obvious that the Lord's Supper is the second conscious shock and the developing of higher bodies (our higher body) and that is what it means that we eat Christ's body and blood. There is no question. Ritual is dead if it is mere ritual. Calvin knew this, Zwingli knew this (they were the main guys regarding pure doctrine). The first conscious shock involves accumulating the Spirit, the second involves taking on Christ's body. That moment, or time, or process of transforming negative emotion (which for us is merely emotional energy of the level of higher centers which we can only experience as explosive and negative) is the process of developing your higher body, taking on Christ's body, to put it in Christian language.

Baptism is baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is regeneration, or being born again. Baptism after that means praying and accumulating the Spirit. "Peter prayed and was filled with the Holy Spirit." (from memory, not exact wording).

Self-remembering, non-identifying, over time.

Try this after trying to make yourself taller by standing up harder

Here's something subtle: when you finally know the faith and you know that the two conscious shocks are the two 'sacraments' (at the deeper, practical level) and you know that it is only God's will that sanctifies then you can 'let go' and just 'be.' Be in the arms of the faith.

Enough with the efforts!

Efforts are good at first to see your limits and to awaken initially.

See, I saw a woman singing a Christian song and the look on her face reminded me of this. The completeness of the faith was in her face. She didn't need anything else but her faith, hope, and love. The Old and New Testaments and understanding the parts in relation to the whole (Federal Theology) are enough. The two great commandments as be awake and love your enemies. The two conscious shocks, which are effected by God's will in us, from above, when they are.

Not by self-will. So stop with that. Be guided by the Spirit. In the present. Be an idiot. (You have to cast off a lot of worldly wisdom and knowledge to be this kind of idiot.)

Know the Bible, yes. Know the history of redemption. But, I mean...allow God's will to work in you from above.

(There will still be storms and battles. There will still be provoking of limits and extending of limits. But it will come from above. And you will be complete already, at every step. It will be completeness NOW, vertical, in the Kingdom of God now, while the necessary journey continues in time until glorified.)

Body, soul, and spirit

There is debate among theologians regarding whether man is tripartite (body, soul, and spirit) or whether soul and spirit are synonymous and man is better described as body and soul. The latter position is best, I discern, and orthodox Reformed theology discerns (despite the attractiveness of having '3' elements to our being, that is really just misleading in this case. Beings are soul/spirit in a body, or tabernacle.

On this subject, though, I came across some colloquial language in Fielding's Tom Jones which may give insight into the relation of spirit to soul. A landlady had mistaken a lady for a whore and effusively apologized and the lady responded (when offered something of the landlady's to wear):

"...I will [not] condescend to put on any of your dirty things. I would have you know, creature, I have a spirit above that."

Now, pay no attention to the affectation of being 'better' than others here, I am getting at the natural, colloquial language of which Fielding is good at reproducing. "I have a spirit above that."

In this sense spirit is the quality of the soul. Something overly pious, or fake modest Christians object to is any talk of degree of level of being of believers, even though the Word of God speaks explicitly of it. But that is neither here nor there regarding the point of this post.

There is body and soul. That is what we are. Then our spirit is the quality of the soul. Not in the sense of being an abstraction (quality); it is a thing, the Spirit itself, of which Jesus only had/has the full measure (itself a reference to degree of level of being in reference to spirit); so then also our spirit develops, in the fullness of time, by the grace of God.

Contact

To be in contact with what is higher (good higher) we need to be in the third state of consciousness (self-remembering). If we are walking around thinking it would be nice to have real supernatural contact every now and then we have to remember the fundamental fact that higher influence can't reach us if we are in the 1st and 2nd state of consciousness. We have to be in the 3rd state of consciousness. Even if it's not continuous, effort to be there begets contact with higher influence.

Maybe there are bad influences, higher only in terms of space, the Prince of the power of the air and his demons; but we have to have control and discernment and inner-command and the full armor of God to get through this layer of influence, untouched, or undefeated.

Prayer is more powerful in the third state of consciousness. If you know of the third state of consciousness you have travelled a good way down a road guided by the Holy Spirit Himself to get to this understanding and state. So recognize this fundamental truth. To be able to have contact with higher influence (and to get above laws such as the law of accident) you have to get yourself into the third state of consciousness.

The 6 activities and the second conscious shock

I was thinking about something brought up in the recent exchange on the food octave. Something about prayer and the difficult mi12-fa6 interval that represents the second conscious shock. It reminded me of the Work teaching on the 6 activities.

Here is a post I wrote on that subject five years ago or so. I always remembered it as one of my more useful posts because the subject really was in need of being put in a practical context, and I think I was able to do that in a rather complete way:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/work_celestial/message/241

I also surprised myself when I reread it because as I was reading it I knew it was the activity of 'magic' that prayer and the second conscious shock fell in to, but I didn't think I hit on that five years ago, yet I see that I had a whole paragraph on just that (not prayer itself, but just how much of Work efforts fall into the category of the activity of magic).

Maybe I was hesitant to see 'prayer' connected with 'magic', but maybe the terminology 'magic' can be changed. The Work sources don't mean actual 'magic' anyway. Maybe 'cultivating' is a word that can used for it. After all, what activities of the six does the effort of a farmer planting crops fall into?

Creating
Building
Destroying
Inventing/Adapting/Discovering/Fixing
Magic
Crime

One wouldn't say or think 'magic', even though we could intellectually understand that connection. Cultivating, though, seems to fit, even as a broad category label for that activity. Doing something now for a pay-off in the future. It is different from building because what happens is not something we can so obviously do hands-on. We can build a house from foundation to roof, but a farmer can't make his crops grow. And we can't get through the Mi12-Fa6 interval on our own, using the same activity that got us there (creating, i.e. self-remembering effort, or building even, the more rote, getting-into-the-self-remembering state). For the second conscious shock effort we have to use another activity. Magic. Or cultivation. Prayer. Perhaps fasting, if necessary. Beforehand. Knowing what it needed. Knowing from Work experience and history what will inevitably happen and asking for assistance to get through it.

The main thing here is the necessity to use (or match up) the right activity for what you are trying to do. When you're banging your head against a wall you are, among maybe other problems, not approaching your goal using the right 'triad', or activity; which is a big part of it, if not most all of it...

Moving on (from recurrence)

How do I know I'm moving on (from recurrence) and that I'm no longer in the Kingdom of Satan? God has called me. He's gathered me. It's done. Effectual calling. I know the voice of the Shepherd, and I value it. I fear God alone and not man. I'm trustworthy to God. I'm one of His.

The Work and the Divine Covenant

"The God-given covenant carries, of course, obligations. The life of faith and repentance, and the obedience to which faith leads, constitute the covenant-keeping through which God's people receive the fulness of God's covenant blessing. "I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession" (Ex. 19:4 f.). Covenant faithfulness is the condition and means of receiving covenant benefits, and there is nothing arbitrary in that; for the blessings flow from the relationship, and human rebelliousness and unfaithfulness stop the flow by disrupting the relationship. Israel's infidelity was constantly doing this throughout the Old Testament story, and the New Testament makes it plain that churches and Christians will lose blessings that would otherwise be theirs, should covenant fidelity be lacking in their lives." - J. I. Packer, from here

"Should a reader ask, Does my getting to heaven depend upon the everlasting covenant or the new one? The answer is upon both. First upon what Christ did for me in executing the terms of the former; second, upon my compliance with the conditions of the latter. Many are very confused at this very point. They who repudiate man’s responsibility will not allow that there are any "ifs" or "buts," restricting their attention to God’s "wills" and "shalls"; but this is not dealing honestly with the Word. Instead of confining ourselves to favorite passages, we must impartially compare Scripture with Scripture, and over against God’s "I will" of Hebrews 8:10-12 must be placed the "But Christ as a Son over his own house: whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end . . . for we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end" of Hebrews 3:6, 14! Does this render such a vital matter uncertain, and place my eternal interests in jeopardy? By no means: if I have turned "from transgression" God has made an everlasting covenant with me and has given to me the same Spirit which abode—without measure—on the Mediator (Isa. 59:20,21). Nevertheless, I can have Scriptural assurance of this only so long as I tread the path of obedience." - A. W. Pink, from here

If you're a Man #4 Christian (and higher) the good works you do are the same as are commanded by God in the Word of God and that boil down to the two conscious shocks. When you do the Work, as a Christian, you are engaging in covenant living. You are holding up your end of the covenant, and God rewards that. This is how you see the practical aspect of being in covenant with God. (By the way, what God demands of His own He gives freely. You're given the Spirit upon regeneration which enables you to have faith and to do good works. Doing the Work - or good works, as commanded by God, done in faith, and done to the glory of God - isn't a part of the law of works but is part of the law of Christ; it's like spiritual warfare, you want to do it because it is what you are and it is coming from your new heart.)

So holding the two conscious shocks and walking the King's Highway is doing your part of the covenant with God. Fall and you will be let known that you have fallen. Stay in watchfulness and the fear of God only (self-remembering and non-identifying) walking the King's Highway and you will receive what God's own receive.

Comment from a post below

I'm the writer of this, and I thought I'd archive it as its own post. The subject is rather big:

There's that famous tension within us all of that common embarrassment that I think our fallen nature inculcates in us (and the world does too) when we contemplate God and eternity and giving ourselves to God (or, that kind of language, you know) vs. the fact that when we die we die alone and will face that event and whatever journey it holds alone, so we think: "Against that what is the embarrassment worth?" Or we should think that.

I always think: imagine being encased in rock six hundred feet below the surface of the earth and you are alive for eternity and nobody can hear you or come to save you and you are there thinking "I was too embarrassed to cling to, to throw myself at the feet of, the Saviour and King that was offered to me, the only Person who could save me from where I am now..."

The practical thing is: recognize vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will and mortify them. Faith, repentance, and God's will will take their place, will be quickened in you. And you become a prophet, a priest, and a king to ever greater degree in the process, with legal standing in the Kingdom of God, for eternity...

Then see what's going on. Get the basics first. Have your wealth secured, get your mansion, have your glorified body, then see what there is to do.

The fear of God

Look at the description of this book.

This is what I came into understanding of independently. Seeing the fear of God in non-idenitifying which also would include self-remembering by default. But to see that as the 'practice' of the Christian. This is why I am in tune with the Puritans (as they really were, not the popular myths and disparagements that come from the world towards truth and on-the-mark knowledge and practice, including the disparaging coming from the very worldly environment of church level Christianity, or, churchianity).

(The link above references the book Puritan Spirituality by J. Stephen Yuille)

Last moments of Christians, last moments of atheists

Here. There is some introductory material you can scroll down through. Overall, the collection of quotes and vignettes sparks memories and evokes foundational thoughts.

Post-post

There's power in these verses:

http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/gracelist.html

POWER!!!

Damn it.

There's real, and then there's screwin' around.

WAKE UP!!! (I shout into the mirror.)

Why? Aren't you going to be in the same straits once
glorified? Looking for and thinking up stuff to do?

I don't know. It will probably be different,
methinks. Safe to say it will be different. Right
now we are in a difficult in-between state and
condition. Even when totally asleep we are in fallen
flesh bodies which are rather unfortunate and limited
tabernacles. Even if you have one others want to
devour then after-the-fact it's yeah, hm, right, ok,
gotta go.

And anyway I've already solved all that. It's on my
Plain Path Puritan blog. How in heaven you become the
actual material and events of heaven. It's probably
freaky at first until you begin to get the hang of it
then it's like Greek myth somewhat. Now we see
through a glass darkly.

Everything's been solved.

Over and over.

Just as in heaven you become the actual material and
events of heaven it's the same now with understanding.
If you develop understanding it actually becomes your
being, your body. We can see and feel understanding
residing in the Word of God. And in the influx of the
Holy Spirit and mortifying process of Work efforts.

Now go to the world you ungrateful vain children.
Away! Off with you. I'm the only one who knows
anything. I alone am here, awake, not dead in sin. I
alone. Me it is who knows, no one else. You have no
allies when you know and do the Work. None but me.
I, and I alone. - Me

Union with Christ sums up the Work and the Faith

Union with Christ. The Work and the Faith once delivered unites at all levels (but most importantly the practical level) in union with Christ.

Elisha said to Elijah that he wanted a double dose of his Spirit, and Elijah said that is a tough road, are you sure?

Union with Christ is a tough road. Developing up the internal scale of increase of being is a tough road.

All the Work practices mortify the old nature and increase the capacity of the new nature and enable one to be to ever greater degree in union with Christ. Not 'degree' in terms of effective for salvation or justification, but on the foundation of that which was earned by Christ alone. On that foundation there are lazy Christians and diligent Christians; the parable of the talents (silver) speaks to this.

Again this is not about justification, it's about making efforts to recover the image of God once you are able to, i.e. once you have regeneration and are converted and have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and High Priest, and Prophet, and King.

Imagine Elisha whining about what is happening to him after he has asked for a double amount of the Spirit Elijah had been given. You can't whine. You can't complain. No, what happens is not 'fair.' Yes, the world is creepy. Yes, people are devils. But you stepped out of the camp of darkness, and now you've gone and asked for more even. And you've been shown the way.

To teach the Work from inside the faith once delivered you teach it as union with Christ.

Christianity: the real thing that the world knows in a deficient way

See Christianity from a different, perhaps new for you, angle. It is the grand gnostic plan (I'll use that loaded term, gnostic) that is found in non-Christian teachings and beliefs and speculations and so forth, yet it is the real thing. Created on high; fall; drawn back up to a higher level than originally created at. All the mechanics of it are what are described in the Word of God. The world gets it all wrong because the world demands that their vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will have a part in the proceedings.

Christianity is difficult because it is God's plan where man rises while at the same time has his vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will (and hence illusion of liberty) mortified. The plan of God effects this, and is the only way for this to be effected. The goal is to have created beings that aren't mere robots. That have real consciousness, understanding, and will. That have the image of God while at the same time 'knowing the difference.' That have the full image of God after having eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Only Federal Theology (which is three-covenant, Classical Covenant Theology systematized) gets all this right; i.e. holds to the teaching of the 'full counsel of God.' This is not to say that Federal theologians understand it because one needs development that the average theologian never acquires; but lowly, born again Christians who fear only God and hence are able to pursue wisdom are able to get this development. When you are willfully lodged in the Village of Morality, fearing and revering man more than God, you stay dumb. Increase of level of being increases capacity for understanding. To increase level of being you have to provoke your limits so as to then be able to make the efforts to extend your limits. You don't get these opportunities in the Village of Morality. You can't be afraid of any influence or the policing of man.

Scenario: seeing God

Example of how what you read in the Bible now may not be clear as to why it is valuable until you are in the afterlife.

A scenario: you die a believer, and you are in heaven, which is where God is. You notice most people have gone in one direction and are congregating together there, and few people go in another possible direction. In the first direction are people who are uneasy about seeing God directly just yet. They feel they may not be ready in terms of having their thoughts and valuation and so on in line for such a big thing. The people who go straight to see God do it based on...what? Confidence? Are they right to go directly to see God?

Imagine being in that position of making a decision to go one way or the other. If you have the Word of God in you from zealous engaging of the Word of God in your life then you, if you were wise, could draw on it for giving you guidance.

And the part of the Bible that would apply here would most likely be a part that when you read it during your life in the flesh you had no idea would apply to such a situation you now are in.

Exo 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
Exo 3:3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
Exo 3:4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see...

There are many possible verses and passages in the Bible that would give guidance here. My inclination would be to see God, and I would be prepared. Like Moses..."Here am I."

Three influences

3 Influences:

1. The Holy Bible (AV1611)

2. Work knowledge and being

3. Higher music (classical music of all kinds and eras)

A Reformation era definition of 'fourth way'

How I got to it is complicated, but Sebastian Franck believed this:

At this time his standpoint was strictly Lutheran, and he attacked the Sacramentarians and Anabaptists. But in his Turkenchronik (1530) his radicalism began to find expression. Here he treats of "ten or eleven nations or sects of Christianity" of which none possesses the full truth, and at the close he intimates that beside the three faiths, the Lutheran, the Zwinglian and the Anabaptist, there would soon arise a fourth, an invisible spiritual Church which would be governed by the eternal invisible word of God without any external means such as ceremonies, sacraments and sermons. Thus Franck appears as the representative of a mystic spiritualism which placed him in strong contrast with ecclesiastical Protestantism.

Ha, ha.....yet...

Here's what's needed now

I started this, a false start, on one of my old websites, i.e. 'what is needed now' in the form of a rule of operation that draws in everything important and needed to be retained in memory and practiced in real time.

In a sense every Work list I've made has been in this category.

But something new is needed. Utilizing language of the Bible and the Work together, words like circumspect and prudence and glorifying God and so on.

You start with aim. Small aims and big aim.

Active reasoning in the moment to know what your aim is and how it is best to achieve it.

A rule as well to do things such as read the Bible daily, prayer, fasting, Work practices such as self-remembering and non-identifying to accumulate energy. Things you to daily in a ritual manner (though not mechanical, ideally).

Things you do in solitude, things you do in the world, in battle.

You have to formulate a practical overall aim too. It can be personal (increasing level of being) and involving your neighbor (evangelizing the faith - in whatever ways - for instance).

Like, what's most important? You get to what is most necessary and practical. What you value, ultimately, will be found.

The metaphor of the Grail knight is complete in all the above sense (I'll reference Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival as my example). Three lines of Work. You see the personal in the solitary effort in the trackless forest. You see the traditional acts of a knight itself, the helping of others. And you see the striving to attain the ultimate and being of use to and glorifying God.

You also see the pattern of accumulating (self-remembering, non-identifying), containing (battle), and transforming (entering new realms). You can see where you are at any given time using this all-encompassing metaphor of the Grail knight. In this sense it is more useful than even the Homeric epics (the Homeric epics teach and give language to cultivate contact with higher centers, among other big things). I won't compare it to the Bible though because the Bible is not in the same category and is the material of understanding and being itself.

Wilhelmus à Brakel

[Archiving a comment I wrote to Paul...]

Psalm 141:3 is a good prayer for your effort.

I've been discovering even more clearly how Wilhelmus à Brakel's Christian's Reasonable Service is a unique work for a Work Christian. He doesn't get into Work ideas and practices, but he DOES get into practical matters of being on the Way. And it is all striking to a degree that I couldn't communicate fully here.

Look at the insight on contentment he has that I posted on my Fourth Way blog. That's one example, but it is a massive four volume work and a treasure of similar insight.

He speaks from understanding regarding being in conflict with the world. He has a chapter on prudence that speaks to much that we converse about regarding Work efforts yet from many different angles.

Worth looking into.

If you acquire it used, single volume by single volume, I would acquire volumes 3 and 4 first, speaking from a Work perspective (volume 4 having the most material on practical matters you don't find in systematic theologies, but volume 3 too, it's just that 3 is mostly taken up with a discourse on the ten commandments, but it then goes into the practical chapters like contentment). The first two volumes are worth having, but they cover what most good systematic theologies give you.

Prayer and Fasting vis-a-vis Self-Remembering and Non-Identifying

Here is a passage from Andrew Murray's With Christ in the School of Prayer:

And prayer needs fasting for its full growth… Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp the invisible; fasting, the other, with which we let loose and cast away the visible. […] Prayer is the reaching out after God and the unseen; fasting, the letting go of all that is of the seen and temporal.

It gets at the fact that both prayer and fasting in the Bible are practices that are not concretely defined (or, in the case of prayer, are defined as more than one thing).

I got the passage from this short article which is worth reading. The site itself also has other interesting articles like this list of 12 of the most important Christian books.

Address to Christian Warriors

ADDRESS TO CHRISTIAN WARRIORS.
SOLDIERS of Christ, be aware that you are highly
advanced in God's creation, that you occupy an
important station, that you have an arduous work
allotted to you, and that you have neither time nor
talent to throw away. For you are enlisted under the
banner of Christ, you have entered the armies of the
Most High, and have taken the oath of allegiance to
the King of Sion, and bound yourselves by an oath,
to fight the good fight of faith, against sin, Satan, the
world and the flesh. What formidable enemies are
these ! You have to encounter all the powers of hell,
and their name is Legion. Fight them you now must,
for you have put on the armour, and taken the field to
fight all the enemies of God and man. When you
survey the enemies' camp, and see their strength, their
number, their stratagems, and inveterate malice ; and
are then made to feel your own weakness and nothing-
ness, you tremble, and say, How shall I go against these
mighty hosts ! Yet I must conquer them all, or die
an eternal death. O soldiers of Christ! banish all
your guilty fears. There is, after all, far more for you
than against you. You are on the Lord's side, who
fighteth for you. He is your refuge and strength,
your sun and shield. He is with you_in the field, to
teach your hands to war, and to cover your head in
the day of battle, and hath promised you the victory.
If God be for you, who is he that can overcome you,
and put you to death, when you are hid in the Lord's
pavilion, and surrounded with the wall of salvation ? "
While in the heat of the battle, be filled with the
hope of victory, and feel assured, that you shall finally
obtain a complete and glorious conquest over all that
come against you ; for hath not the Captain of your
salvation engaged to subdue Satan and all his armies,
shortly under your feet ? Trust him, and take courage,
then, you cannot meet with disappointment, " for
faithful is he that promised, who also will do it."
With a view to strengthen your hope of victory, keep in
mind that you have not an enemy, difficulty, or danger
to encounter, but which has been already conquered
and subdued for you, by the great Captain of your
salvation. And the countless millions of his soldiers,
who are now arrived safe in glory, singing the song of
Moses and the Lamb, were once here below, wrestling
with all the enemies and difficulties which you now
have to encounter. Only war a good warfare, then,
and rest assured, that he who carried them safe through
the war, will carry you also to the triumphs of the
world to come. Not one of all his true soldiers was
ever left to perish on the field of battle. Put on
courage, ye Christian Warriors ! fight the good fight
of faith, be faithful unto death, and then, your Captain
will release you from the war, and give you the
crown of life, which you shall for ever wear, in
honour of your gracious Lord and Saviour. T. J.

[From the forward material of an edition of The Christian Warrior by Issac Ambrose.]

Though not intentional this quote captures some of the teaching on Recurrence

"The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes."

- Mark Twain

On Christian contentment, from Wilhelmus a Brakel

This is a strikingly insightful passage from Wilhelmus a Brakel's Christian's Reasonable Service:

"Contentment is a Christian virtue consisting in a correspondence between the desire of God's children and their present condition... The unconverted are to all good works reprobate and are not acquainted with the nature of this virtue. When they perceive it in God's children, they despise it as a low level of intelligence, day-dreaming, stoic insensitivity, and deem them unfit for loftier matters..."

He also notes that in this state:

"...they rest with delight [in God's will and sovereign determination], in quiet confidence, joyfully, and with gratitude, trusting that the Lord will cause the present and the future to turn out to their advantage. This causes them to utilize their present conditions to the advancement of their spiritual life and to the glory of God." Chp. 64 of Vol. 3 - The Christian's Reasonable Service, Wilhelmus a Brakel

Yes, I've received the insinuation of "low level of intelligence" and also "day-dreaming" and probably also something akin to "stoic insensitivity." I know I look strange to the world. Kind of like a living suicide. And there is really no way to explain it without sounding more strange to them. It's actually decisions I've made to not go in the direction of what I deeemed to be a living death. But the world hardly is looking for understanding anyway, it wants to tempt you or to kill you or imprison you at least. You have protection if you walk the high road, so the stand-off exists...

Triad

Be awake (self-remembering)

Fear, reverence only God (non-identifying)

And walk the King's Highway (become a fused, conscious center-of-gravity)


I like the metaphor (reality) of the King's Highway because of its elevated nature. You get on it, stay on it, and the world around you is at a lower level. Like when you rise above the level of the law of accident. And because the King's Highway is a straight line, above the chaotic sleepwalking lines of the world. (And, of course, the King's Highway has an aim: the promised land.)

The moon and the departed

This echoes some things (I should say that the character speaking this is referring to his despised wife who is no longer alive and he and Tom Jones have been talking about the moon and love and so on):

"However, heaven be praised, she's gone, and if I believed she was in the moon, according to a book I once read, which teaches that to be the receptacle of departed spirits, I would never look at it for fear of seeing her..." - spoken by Partridge in Tom Jones, Bk. 8, Chp. 9

Suffering

In God's Plan suffering precedes glory.

Real suffering though. Not fake suffering. Not poor baby me suffering but loving your enemies suffering.

Human idols

I recoil from attention because I recoil from being made an idol.

Knowing the difference

A major aspect of consciousness and understanding is "Knowing the difference." I.e. to really know glorification you have to know the fallen state and thus know the difference. You have to know the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Being comsos/aura phenomena

Common language describes cosmos-aura phenomena. 'Hold your ground.' 'Get a hold of yourself.' 'She's very self-possessed.' 'Get yourself together.' 'Keep it together.' Etc...

Think in context of your being cosmos/aura. The Work practices change your aura and get responses and challenges from people and the world around you. Be aware of this. They want you to come apart. Stand your ground.