Greetings!

This week, I would like to share a brief tract about the supposed victory of Satan, or, the Devil, over God—the Creator of the universe. Even though the vast majority of orthodox Christians would never concede that Satan is more powerful than God, their own belief seems to suggest otherwise.

According to mainline Christendom, Satan is sure to drag most of humanity away from God, thus, resulting in their eternal damnation in the lake of fire. If this is so, how, then, can the Creator of the universe really be all-powerful if He is unsuccessful in winning over ALL of his creation?

The following was written by Mrs. Mary Summerton. Though I never met Mrs. Summerton, she was evidently part of Grace and Truth Chapel, located in Baldwin, Michigan. The tract was given to me, along with thousands of others, by a former member/affiliate of Grace and Truth Chapel, which, as I understand it, has since shuttered its doors.

So, without further ado, let us take a look at what Mrs. Summerton has to say.

If “orthodox” theology is correct, the devil is a great deal mightier than God! Orthodoxy says, “When time is no more and eternity has begun, approximately 98 percent of all created intellectual beings will have been consigned to endless torment.”

Fire! Literal fire, burning, burning, never ceasing to burn, is their portion—those for whose salvation and redemption Christ gave His life, even though the Scriptures declare that He came to destroy the works of the devil, and not that his [Satan’s] works should be perpetuated throughout all eternity.

What a horrible lie some well-meaning people have been declaring down through the years! It is time that those who know the truth and to whom God has revealed His perfect plan for all His creation at the consummation of the ages, rise up and “cry aloud, spare not, and show my people their transgression” (Isaiah 58:1).

Yes, God’s name has been maligned, stigmatized, blackened, defamed, and as a result tens of thousands have turned away in disgust and hatred from such a god—a god who brought myriads upon myriads of human beings into existence, knowing that endless torment would be their fate.

Now, if orthodoxy is correct, God is either unable or unwilling to deliver them from Satan’s power, and this vast majority are left to writhe in the lake of fire forever. Because of this teaching, multitudes have turned infidels. Little wonder! How can such a god be loved or worshipped?

But, praise God, this teaching is not the truth! It is very clearly stated even in the very faulty translation of the King James Version of the Bible that “God will have all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:3,4). Also, that “God is the Saviour of all men, specially [not exclusively] of those that believe” (1 Timothy 4:10).

Another outstanding statement, uttered by Christ Himself, is: “‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.’ This He said, signifying what death He should die” (John 12:32,33).

Besides these, there are many other outstanding Scriptures that prove that all mankind shall be saved through the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary; yet, in spite of all the Scriptures affirming this truth, orthodox theology teaches practically the very opposite!

How blind are the eyes even of many who have had a deep Christian experience!

Little do the preachers and evangelists who proclaim endless torment realize that they are glorifying the devil and setting him on a pinnacle, and declaring to the world that he, Satan, is the Victorious One, instead of Christ.

He, by their statements, has an inconceivably greater amount of power than God, for he has overruled the will of man and of God, and man eventually spends eternity in unquenchable fire. What a tragedy and near-failure Calvary was—if this be true! What a horrible nightmare life has been to billions who have lived and died without hearing of Christ, and more horrible still will be their endless existence in the regions of hell-fire and brimstone.

Praise God, this is not true! Jesus “shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11).

Satan was a defeated foe at Calvary. Christ is victorious! And when judgment and punishment for sin have been endured and God’s purpose of the ages has been completed, all mankind shall have accepted Him Who paid the price for their redemption! Then “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10,11).

Then we shall be with our loved ones and never part again. Hallelujah! What a glorious day! All creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21), and God shall be All in All—everything in everyone (1 Corinthians 15:28).

If you desire to study the Scriptures and find out for yourself whether these things be true, use Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible; look up three mistranslated words—namely, “eternal,” “everlasting,” and “forever”; study carefully and you will find that the correct meaning of these words is, “belonging to an age or ages”—that is, limited periods of time, not eternity.

If you are of an open mind and desire to know the truth, your viewpoint regarding endless torment will soon change, your whole being will be thrilled, your heart will overflow with joy and thanksgiving to God as you continue to study this glorious subject, and you will have a wonderful, new conception of our loving God and Father and of His precious Word.

Before you go…

The Scriptural truth that God will—beyond a shadow of a doubt—bring all humanity into a realization of the truth, in the fulness of times, is nothing new.

Whether you’re a believer or skeptic, the topic of God’s plans for the ages is extremely important to understand. If you are looking for additional study in this area, consider the Simple Story of the Universe, The Eons, and All in All.

With Grace,

Concordant Student

This week, I commence a chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse study of 2 Timothy, Paul’s last letter before his eventual death. Due to the limitations of email, these studies will likely be clipped, but, rest assured, the full study will be available on my Substack page.

Not only was Timothy a pivotal figure throughout Paul’s ministry, the book of 2 Timothy has much to say about the conduct of the Body of Christ today, and calls attention to the tripwires we are likely to fall victim to, if we fail to remain vigilant.

In this first study, I will cover the first two verses of chapter one, hoping to provide a thorough rendering of the tone, which will, in turn, establish the lens through which the remainder of the book is to be read.

Finally, it will be helpful to observe that there are several footnotes in this study.

While some of these footnotes are simple citations, many of them add critical information that will, I hope, be appreciated by the earnest Scripture student.

Introduction

The epistle of 2 Timothy was the last letter penned by Paul.

Traditionally, it is believed that Paul, after spending time in a Roman prison, was executed during the reign of Emperor Nero1, who is believed to have been, perhaps, the most deranged Roman emperor in history.2

It is peculiar that Paul’s last letter was not addressed, as may be expected, to an ecclesia. Rather, it is addressed to a single person, a young man, a “child beloved” in the faith.3

A.E. Knoch writes:

In all his other epistles he [Paul] looks forward to further service. Now he tells Timothy that he had finished his career (2 Timothy 4:7). The period of his dissolution was imminent (2 Timothy 4:6). The whole epistle takes character from this fact.4

E.W. Bullinger adds:

The apostle’s regard for his “dearly beloved son” is seen in 1:4, and it is affecting to observe the pathetic desire to see Timothy once more before death, 4:9, 11, 21. No further mention is made of Timothy. The tradition that he suffered martyrdom about the end of the first century is only tradition.5

It could be said, then, that this letter is, quite literally, a love letter. Paul longs to see Timothy one more time before his end. The gentle tenor of the letter, as a whole, reflects this.

2 Timothy 1:1

What is an Apostle?

It is pivotal, from the outset, to establish Paul’s mode of service in this book.

As with any book in Scripture, it is more than useful to note the status, or service, of the writer, and the intended audience of the writing itself.

These two bits of information, when clearly understood, can, and often does, make up for a multitude of interpretive errors.

Consequently, one may read the word apostle hundreds of times, and still not have an accurate sense of the meaning of the term.

So, what does Paul mean when he says, “[I], an apostle of Christ Jesus…”?

Apostle is translated from the Greek word, ἀπόστολος, or apostolos. It means “commissioner,” or, in some instances, “delegate,” or “ambassador.” A more generic rendering might be “one who is sent.”

We may say, then, that an apostle is “[a] person deputed to execute some important business[.]”6

Therefore, Paul is identifying himself as one who has been sent “to execute some important business,” on behalf of Christ Jesus, “through the will of God.”

Paul did not brand himself as an apostle. Rather, it was a position defined by his service, through God’s will.

What is the “Promise of Life”?

For many, the “promise of life,” here, is understood as the believer’s assurance of “everlasting life” after they die.7

However, Paul’s ministry was not focused on the consummation, or “everlasting” life, as described in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, when God will become “All in all.”

Paul’s focus was on “eonian life,” or, the “promise of life.” The “promise of life” is something more than ultimate salvation, more than the consummation.

The “promise of life” is the assurance of life, in the celestials, for the next two eons, the cumulative time of which we are unsure.8

It is this additional life, both in terms of quality and quantity, relative to the consummation, that occupied much of Paul’s ministry.

Consider the following:

¹⁰ Therefore I am enduring all because of those who are chosen, that they also may be happening upon the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with glory eonian. -2 Timothy 2:10

And here:

⁶ For I am already a libation, and the period of my dissolution is imminent.

⁷ I have contended the ideal contest. I have finished my career. I have kept the faith.

⁸ Furthermore, there is reserved for me the wreath of righteousness, which the Lord, the just Judge, will be paying to me in that day; yet not to me only, but also to all who love His advent. -2 Timothy 4:6-8

And once more:

² in expectation of life eonian, which God, Who does not lie, promises before times eonian… -Titus 1:2

None of these passages are referring to the consummation, when God, ultimately, becomes “All in all.” Paul almost takes the truth of the consummation for granted.

Rather, he is “racing” for something even greater, “in expectation of life eonian,” which was promised “before times eonian.”9

2 Timothy 1:2

As with apostle, the terms grace, mercy, and peace tend to carry the same element of ambiguity.

While we can appreciate the sentiment passed from Paul to Timothy, it will be valuable to tease out the individual meanings of these three terms.

Grace

Grace is the foundation upon which Paul’s ministry is built.

We must have a firm understanding of grace, as it relates to Paul’s evangel, if we have any hope of learning God’s will, and purpose, for today.

Grace is translated from the Greek word, χάρις, charis. It means “an act producing happiness, a benefit bestowed on one who deserves the opposite, sometimes better rendered favor.”10

However, grace does not merely mean kindness, or forgiveness. It is more accurate to render grace as the undeserved, unreturnable favor of God. It is not something that can be lost, or taken away, based on works, merit, or expectation.

Another useful way of defining grace is the unmerited favor of God. This is, perhaps, my favorite definitional rendering of the term.

In his Concordant Commentary on the New Testament, Knoch writes about the “absolute despotism of grace” in his note on Romans 6:1.

The explicit power of grace is set forth in Romans 5:20, where Paul writes, “Yet where sin increases, grace superexceeds.” In other words, sin cannot exist anywhere (since the resurrection of Christ) without grace rising above it.

Grace is not conditional. It is not simply offered. It is pressed upon all of creation, without the consent of its creatures.

Mercy

Mercy is, in some ways, the most significant of the three terms at hand.

In no other epistles, save 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, does Paul use the word in his salutations.

He does not even use it in his pastoral epistles to Titus, or Philemon. This word, in the salutation, was reserved only for Timothy.

Mercy is translated from the Greek word, ἔλεος, or eleos. It means “a moderation of the severity of justice.”11

However, I believe Bullinger provides a more fleshed out, less diplomatic, definition:

[A] feeling of sympathy with misery, active compassion, the desire of relieving the miserable.

The cry for ἔλεος is prompted by distress…12

Much of the time, Christendom uses mercy to denote God withholding His vengeance, or the temporary forbearance of punishment, but this is not the sense here.

The most powerful, short-form, definition of mercy, as used by Paul, could be “active compassion,” which is, precisely, what God is showing His creation, through grace.

God has looked down on His creation with immense compassion. His purpose is to relieve His creation of misery, and what He purposes, He does.

Peace

While grace and mercy are defined by what they, in themselves, are, peace is defined by what it is not. This distinction may be subtle, but it is worth noting.

Peace is translated from the Greek word, εἰρήνη, or eirēnē. The meaning of the word is “a state of quietness, tranquility, without disturbance or agitation.”13

Peace, then, it could be said, is a lack of a disturbance. It is the tranquility that manifests when all disturbance is removed. It is a psychological state of calm, or quietness.

Summary of the Salutation

In considering the context of 2 Timothy 1:2, Paul is greeting Timothy with much more than mere niceties. Paul writes with a declaration of:

• God’s unconditional favor (grace).

• His compassionate attention, and sympathy, with human misery, and suffering (mercy).

• The settled harmony, between believers and God, by virtue of our reconciliation to Him (peace).

What Paul writes, even in the first two verses, is heavy, and powerful. There is substantial weight in this salutation.

Paul’s entire ministry is nested within these three words, and Timothy, being faithful, and aware of the seriousness of his calling, would certainly understand the thrust of Paul’s words.

To Timothy

Timothy was as a child to Paul. Their relationship could be understood as a father bringing up his son.

The apostle goes so far as to call Timothy “a child beloved,” 1:2, branding his stamp of affection on the young believer.

In 1 Timothy 1:2, Paul uses similar language, referring to Timothy as “a genuine child in faith.” And, in 1 Timothy 4:12, Paul entreats Timothy to “[l]et no one be despising your youth…”

As was mentioned at the start of this essay, it is peculiar that Paul did not write his last letter to an ecclesia. Rather, the apostle wrote it to the one who was like a child to him. The letter, and all the truth therein, was something of an inheritance.

The book of 2 Timothy, it could be thought, is a love letter, from a father to a son.

It is a letter to remind Timothy of why he has believed, in Whom he has believed, the nature of his expectation, and the pitfalls that lie ahead for him.

While the ecclesias fracture, and, eventually, disintegrate, Paul writes for an audience of one, leaving the last written document by his hand in the possession of a young man, who had kept the faith.14

Timothy’s name is included in the salutation of six of Paul’s epistles:

• 2 Corinthians 1:1

• Philippians 1:1

• Colossians 1:1

• 1 Thessalonians 1:1

• 2 Thessalonians 1:1

• Philemon 1:1

When we take into account 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, the “child beloved” is mentioned, or addressed, in eight of Paul’s 13 epistles.15

Timothy was from Lystra, in Galatia, and it is possible, if not, likely, that he was part of the Galatian ecclesia.

Additionally, Timothy was identified as a believer early on in Paul’s ministry, before Paul wrote any of his epistles. So early, in fact, that Paul circumcised Timothy, so as to appease the Jews.

In Acts 16:1-5, we read:

¹ Now he arrives also at Derbe and at Lystra. And lo! a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, yet of a Greek father,

² who was attested by the brethren in Lystra and Iconium.

³ This one Paul wants to come out with him, and, taking him, circumcised him because of the Jews who are in those places, for they all were aware that his father belonged to the Greeks.

⁴ Now, as they went through the cities, they give over to them the decrees to maintain, which have been decided upon by the apostles and elders who are in Jerusalem.

⁵ The ecclesias, indeed, then, were stable in the faith and superabounded in number day by day.

At first, it may seem odd that Paul, the apostle to the nations, would have Timothy circumcised, but it is important to remember that, at this time, Paul was ministering to Jews and the nations.

In his commentary, Knoch writes the following:

The circumcision of Timothy, at first sight, seems strange and inconsistent. Had Paul not refused to circumcise Titus? Had not the council at Jerusalem decided that circumcision was not essential to salvation?

But Timothy's case is an entirely different matter. Paul is still going among the synagogues proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah of the Jews. To have an associate who was uncircumcised would be a great hindrance and give the Jews the occasion which they sought to denounce and persecute him.

He still maintains that circumcision is nothing. Yet he has no hesitancy in using it if it will mollify the prejudice of those whom he desires to reach with the evangel.16

Therefore, we may conclude that Timothy was not circumcised as a necessity of faith. Rather, he was circumcised as a strategy for ministry.

In 1 Corinthians 9:20, Paul writes:

²⁰ And I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I should be gaining Jews; to those under law as under law (not being myself under law), that I should be gaining those under law;

Even though Paul understood that his ancestral heritage, insofar as it had any bearing on salvation, was all refuse17, he was willing to remove stumbling blocks, if he was able, in order to be “gaining those under law.”

Now, we turn to the final section of this study, which has to do with the authorship of Hebrews, as it relates to Timothy.

While this is a peripheral point, I believe Timothy, and his place in Paul’s life, is a key clue in establishing who authored Hebrews, and when, specifically, it was written.

Timothy & the Book of Hebrews

Much has been said about the book of Hebrews, concerning its authorship, and the time in which it was written.

But, it is my position that, so long as we understand the uniqueness of Paul’s evangel, the author and date of Hebrews is, perhaps, not as enigmatic as it has been made out to be.

Consequently, I believe Timothy provides a substantial clue as to who wrote the book of Hebrews, and when it was written.

While Knoch generally denied a Pauline authorship of Hebrews, and, further, suggested that it was written a few years before 70AD, I believe he is mistaken, on both accounts.

If we grant, for the moment, that Hebrews was, in fact, written by Paul, in the years leading up to 70AD, an obvious problem arises.

After Acts 28:28, Paul wrote exclusively to the nations, no longer concerning himself with the rites, rituals, and law that occupied the Jews.

Therefore, if Paul authored it toward the end of his life, then Hebrews, a very Jewish book, would cast a dark cloud over the whole of Paul’s ministry.

Not only would it be a dispensational contradiction, it would call Paul’s entire evangel to the Uncircumcision into question.

In this, Knoch would be correct.

Timothy is mentioned in Acts, most of Paul’s epistles, and then, suspiciously, in the book of Hebrews.

The “child beloved,” however, is most closely associated with Paul throughout Scripture. Consequently, the mention of Timothy in Hebrews 13:23 is strange, especially if we suppose that the book was written by someone other than Paul.

In the context of the verse (Hebrews 13:23), Timothy has, apparently, been “released,” suggesting that he had been imprisoned, at some point, and eventually set free.

If Hebrews was written later on in Paul’s ministry, after Acts 28:28, it is uncertain why Timothy would be worth mentioning here, especially given that the book of Hebrews, contextually, was only concerned with Jews.

By this time, Acts 28:28, Paul and Timothy were no longer ministering to Jews in the synagogues. They had wholly turned to the nations.

Bullinger, in his introduction to Hebrews, writes brilliantly about the likelihood of Pauline authorship, and how, based on “New Testament” dispensational truth, the book must have an early date, relative to Paul’s other writings.

The multiple instances of bracketed text below is taken from Bullinger’s introduction on the book of Hebrews.18

The thought and reasonings [of Hebrews] are Paul’s, whatever the style and language may be. All his other epistles were written to churches mainly composed of Gentiles.

In addressing such an epistle to Hebrews, he would naturally write as an instructed scribe, one brought up “at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers” (Acts 22:3).

It is therefore futile to argue that if Paul were really the author, the language and style would have been in exact accord with those of the other epistles. Had this been so, it would be an argument against, and not in favour of, Paul’s authorship.

It is also important to note that, in Hebrews 12:1, the metaphor of “racing with endurance the contest lying before us” is a uniquely Pauline turn of phrase.

No other writer in Holy Writ uses the metaphor of “racing.” However, Paul was known to use it quite frequently, including in:

• 1 Corinthians 9:24-26

• Philippians 3:13-14

• Galatians 2:2

• Galatians 5:7

• 2 Timothy 4:7

However, it should not be expected that the entire style of Hebrews would match the apostle’s other writings, given that it [Hebrews] was written for a different audience, motivated by a different purpose, and, perhaps, by a different scribe.

The testimony of 2 Peter 3:15, 2 Peter 3:16, strictly interpreted, proves that Paul wrote an epistle to the Hebrews , and if this is not the epistle, where is it? No trace or indication of any other has ever been found.

In 2 Peter 3:15-16, it mentions Paul had written “epistles,” plural, to his Jewish brethren in the past. Bullinger does not seem to take this into account.

Peter suggests that there was more than one letter, written by Paul, intended, at least in part, for a Jewish audience. The potential tripwire, here, is that 2 Peter is thought to have a late date of authorship, much later than Acts 28:28.

Therefore, Peter’s words present a possible issue—akin to the same issue that arises if we assume a late authorship date of Hebrews—if we maintain that Christ revealed a unique evangel to Paul, for the nations (Galatians 2:7).

There are two plausible ways to resolve this:

1. Peter makes reference to Paul, here, because he [Peter] did not fully grasp Paul’s unique evangel, which is why he mentions that Paul had written letters to the Jews, as if there was no distinction in the evangels to the Circumcision and Uncircumcision. This happens to be Knoch’s view.19

2. Peter makes mention of Paul and his letters, while addressing his Jewish brethren, because Paul did, in fact, write some of his early letters to mixed audiences, including Jews and the nations. The letters that could reasonably fall into this category would be 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, and 1 & 2 Corinthians. However, as will be shown, I believe Hebrews should be included in this list, too.

Bullinger continues, suggesting that Paul leaving his name off the book of Hebrews was a strategic move.

Its [Hebrews’] anonymity is eminently in favour of Pauline authorship. The suspicion with which the Jews regarded Paul, and their furious hatred of him (cp. Acts 21:21; 2 Corinthians 11:24; Philippians 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:15, & etc.), would be ample reason why, in addressing so important a letter to his own race, he should withhold his name.

If it was necessary at the time of it[s] publication to send out such an epistle, equally necessary was it that it should not be handicapped with a name regarded generally by the Jews as that of an infamous renegade. The argument of the value of an unsigned article in any important journal applies with great force in the case of Hebrews.

Therefore, Bullinger concludes the following:

The approximate time therefore for writing and publishing such a body of doctrine must have been shortly after the beginning of his ministry, and, consequently, Hebrews was in all probability written during the eighteen months of Paul’s sojourn at Corinth, during which he was “teaching among them the word of God” (Acts 18:11).20

There can be no doubt, therefore, that Paul did, in fact, write Hebrews, and that it was put down toward the beginning of his ministry, when Timothy was with him, the two ministering to the Jews in the synagogues.

While mainstream scholarship generally disagrees with this conclusion, most mainstream scholarship does not recognize Paul’s unique, and distinct, evangel to the nations.

Paul’s ministry, and its place in Holy Writ, serves as a beacon of light, which can help us clearly see where those ambiguous elements in Scripture belong, such as Hebrews.

Conclusion

At the time 2 Timothy was written, the ecclesias Paul had set up over his ministerial career were falling apart. He, himself, was imprisoned in Rome, writing to Timothy, “a child beloved,” awaiting his eventual death.

As opposed to 1 Timothy, Paul did not instruct Timothy, in his last letter, on how to set up the ecclesia, in what manner to correct doctrine, or how to carry out proper worship.

Rather, Paul entreated Timothy to “rekindl[e] the gracious gift of God,” to “not be fighting,” “commit to faithful men” what he had been taught, and “[h]erald the word. Stand by it, opportunely, inopportunely, expose, rebuke, entreat, with all patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 1:6; 2:24; 2:2; 4:2).

Paul did not entrust his last letter to an ecclesia. Instead, he entrusted it to “a child beloved,” as if from a father to a son, one last love letter, with the hope and confidence, through Christ, that his ministry had not been for nothing.

Before you go…

Thus concludes the first essay in our Studies in 2 Timothy. My hope, and prayer, is that this has provided a semi-comprehensive, yet engaging, introduction into Paul’s final epistle, addressed to the “beloved child,” Timothy.

Due to the research required for such an undertaking, I may submit these essays every two weeks, instead of every week. I want to do this right, and not be rushed, and, God-willing, I hope there might be a fellow student out there, who gets just as much from this study as I have put into it.

As always, thank you for the continued support!

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With grace, mercy, and peace,

Concordant Student

The following piece, at least in part, was first published in the Bible Student’s Notebook #1070, a publication by Clyde Pilkington.

However, for those who have already read the piece, I have substantially expanded it here, so as to make it worth your while to read once more. The heavens, or, literally, space, has always been an object of my fascination, since I was very young.

The Christian Heaven

For millennia, Christian doctrine has claimed that heaven is happy, and perfect. They insist that it is a place of pure, unalloyed bliss.

So happy, so blissful, in fact, that its perfection only awaits our immediate arrival upon passing from this life.

Only, Scripture never teaches that, once you die, you immediately go to heaven.

There is something repulsive about the idea that those we love are, essentially, annihilated, without existence, until they are resurrected in the future. And, it is my position, that that is on purpose.

Death separates us from God.

That is why, through the work of Christ, we have hope, and expectation, of a resurrection, after we take our last breath here on Earth.

But, in 1 Timothy 6:16, we are plainly told, by Paul, that:

¹⁶ Who alone has immortality, making His home in light inaccessible, Whom not one of mankind perceived nor can be perceiving, to Whom be honor and might eonian! Amen!

No one, not one, who has walked the Earth, in the flesh, has immortality right now, save for Christ.

We are told, in Colossians 1:18, that Christ is the “Firstborn from among the dead.” No human before Christ, or after Christ, has attained immortality.

Our hope is resurrection, and vivification. (1 Corinthians 15:22-23; 15:44; 15:50)

Where is Satan Today?

Some of the most impressive paintings made by Christian hands have portrayed heaven as a place of pure bliss, where harp strings are continuously plucked, and cherubs endlessly meander through the atmosphere.

Concerning this issue, A.E. Knoch (1874-1965) writes:

Most men imagine that heaven is a synonym for happiness. If we only had not lost contact with the angels, they think we would still be living in the garden of Eden. All they want at death is to be carried above and with the angels dwell, and play their harps the praise of God to swell.

But what do the Scriptures really teach about the state of heaven right now? Do they teach that heaven, as it is right now, is perfect? Does it teach that only the good guys are there?

Job gives us a big clue.

The Adversary, Satan, according to Job, was in heaven, because he was counted among the entities who had access to Yahweh. This should be enough, in itself, to give every Christian pause, especially those who are convinced that Satan currently hangs out in a hellhole somewhere.

While in heaven, Satan made his pitch against Job, arguing that the man from the land of Uz had not been properly tested. (Job 1:7-12).

Even though Christianity insists that Satan dwells in a place of hellfire and doom, Scripture tells us the precise opposite.

In fact, Satan, throughout Scripture, only occupies the heavens and the earth. These are the only two realms God created at the start (Genesis 1:1).

However, he, Satan, also has a future in the abyss, and Lake of Fire.

Here is a list of the locations where Satan appears in Scripture.

• The Garden of Eden (Genesis 3).

• In Heaven (Job 1; Revelation 12).

• On Earth (Job 1; Matthew 4; 1 Peter 5).

• In Celestial Realms (Ephesians 6).

• In the Abyss (Revelation 20:1-3).

• Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10).

Not a single time is Satan described as occupying a place of eternal hellfire.

Even though Scripture teaches that the Adversary has access to heaven, this is virtually never portrayed in Christian depictions.

Why is this the case?

Could it be that tradition, Christian tradition, has whitewashed the current state of heaven, in exchange for a depiction that appeals to our soulish desires, and daydreams?

The Current State of Heaven

The heavens are, undoubtedly, beautiful, and awe-inspiring.

One need only glance up at the stars on a clear night, or look at the wondrous images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

(The image below is one of my favorites.1)

One of the joys of my life was, while living for a short time in Pemba, Mozambique, sitting on the beach, and peering up into the heavens on a clear night.

The galactic disk of the Milky Way was visible, slashing through the night sky. Millions, billions, of stars glittered against the black expanse.

The beauty, and grandeur, that I witnessed on those evenings, while on the southeastern crust of Africa, was beyond anything I have ever experienced before.

The mind reels at the estimated size of the empyrean.

But it would be an error to mistake the beauty I witnessed on those clear nights for happiness, or perfection.

The heavens, or space, is also the scene of unimaginable destruction.

Stars explode, collapse, and fold into blackholes, devouring everything that comes near. Planets smash into one another, sending shards of immense rock tumbling through space, only to collide with other celestial bodies.

The heavens, just like Earth, has not been reconciled, or brought into perfect harmony with its Creator. Scripture teaches as much. And science confirms it.

The magnitude of this material destruction in the heavens mirrors the unrest mentioned in Revelation 12:7-9, which precedes the Millennial Kingdom:

⁷ And a battle occurred in heaven. Michael and his messengers battle with the dragon, and the dragon battles, and its messengers.

⁸ And they are not strong enough for him, neither was their place still found in heaven.

⁹ And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent called Adversary and Satan, who is deceiving the whole inhabited earth. It was cast into the earth, and its messengers were cast with it.

Again, we are told the Adversary, along with his messengers, were in heaven before being “cast out” of heaven.

If the Adversary is not in heaven, how, then, can he be “cast out” of it?

This casting out has not yet happened, meaning that the Adversary is still in heaven.

Consequently, heaven is in utter disarray, just as Earth is. No one is euphorically plucking harp strings in heaven, or waving at cherubs as they zip through the atmosphere.

Nothing is Perfect Yet—Not Even Heaven

If heaven, and all the spiritual entities that dwell therein, were already perfect, as Christendom teaches, there would be no reason for Paul’s declaration that members of the Body of Christ put on the “panoply of God,” to defend against the wiles of the “spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials” (Ephesians 6:11-17).

While the Adversary and his messengers continue to heckle heaven and earth, everything is progressing as it should, according to God’s perfect will.

Everything will be made anew at the consummation (1 Corinthians 15:24), including Satan himself, when God will be All in all.

But not a second before.

Before you go…

It is, in my view, profoundly important to understand what Scripture teaches about the nature of heaven, and, by extension, Satan, or the Adversary. Too much has been buried beneath assumption, and tradition.

If you’re interested in further study, consider the following: “God and Satan,” “The Spirit World,” and “Two Studies on Heaven and Hell.”

For those interested in the heavens, or space, I highly recommend checking out the images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. They are, truly, awe-inspiring. God’s handiwork is something to behold!

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With Grace,

Concordant Student

This newsletter is the third and final installment of “On Politics,” as it relates to the Body of Christ today. Before reading on, consider reading the first installment, “On Politics: ‘Be Subject to the Superior Authorities’,” as well as the second installment, “On Politics: Dead Men Don’t Vote.”

While Scripture is not, by any means, a political handbook, Paul, the apostle to the nations, was explicit about what our attitude should be toward politics and government, no matter our personal feelings about who is in office, who is not in office, or the consequences that arise by virtue of who is in office.

Establishing Our Ambassadorship

Throughout this study on politics, we have focused, primarily, on what members of the Body of Christ ought not to do, during this “present wicked eon” (Galatians 1:4).

The Body of Christ is not called to represent a political party, or a certain religious institution. We are not sent to meddle in the world’s affairs.

Rather, Paul teaches that we are to be ambassadors for Christ.

But before we can effectively take hold of our duties here on Earth, we must first establish what an ambassador is, and what an ambassador does.

In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul writes:

²⁰ For Christ, then, are we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ's sake, “Be conciliated to God!”

According to the Greek-English Keyword Concordance of the Concordant Literal New Testament, “ambassador” is translated from the Greek word, πρεσβεύω (presbeuō).

Presbeuō derives from presbys, meaning “elder,” denoting someone who acts with dignity, or authority.

Therefore, Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, is revealing that we, members of the Body of Christ, are not merely representing Christ on Earth, but we are conducting official business, on behalf of a conciliating God!

An important element to remember, here, is that an ambassador is never sent to their own country. They are always sent to another country, on behalf of their own.

Consider the following passage:

Our relation to the governments of the earth is clearly defined by one word. We are ambassadors. Sent from the court of heaven, we represent the divine government on the earth so long as the peace which the conciliation brings may last.

Before God declares war with the earth, we, as His ambassadors, will be withdrawn.1 In the meanwhile it should be our settled policy to conciliate. The ambassador’s business has to do only with peace.

His work ends when war is declared. So we should use every effort to be at peace with the governments with which we come in contact, relying on God to restrain them from forcing us to do that which is displeasing to Him.

He will see to it that a frank, free confession of our faith will receive consideration at the hands of the powers that be, which, as we have said, are His ministers, working out His purpose, even though they may not be aware of it.

We stand for peace, not merely with other nations, but also with the government under which we live. -Unsearchable Riches, vol. 10, p. 4

Therefore, we are ambassadors to Earth, heralding the glorious news from our celestial homeland. Namely, that God is conciliated to the world!

We are not of this world. It’s imperative to keep this in mind.

We are visitors. We are campers.

Paul the Tentmaker: Campers Sent on Behalf of the Celestials

Speaking of campers, Paul’s trade, as a tentmaker, has a beautiful semblance to the evangel revealed to him by Christ.

We learn about his training as a tentmaker, in Acts 18:1-3, where we read:

¹ After these things, departing from Athens, he came to Corinth.

² And, finding a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy, and Priscilla, his wife (because Claudius prescribed that all the Jews depart from Rome), he came to them,

³ and, because of his being of a like trade, he remained with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

Tarsus, Paul's hometown, was famous for producing cilicium, which was a heavy fabric used to make tents and cloaks.

His work was humble, and anchored to the idea of temporariness. A tent is never pitched to last forever. It is pitched for a while, until it is time to move on.

Tents represent transience, not permanence.

Paul’s ministry was one of “conducting an embassy,” not in marble palaces or Roman courts, but in a tent, and sometimes, “in a chain” (Ephesians 6:20).

Although the apostle’s message was regal, or royal, his setting was makeshift, or nomadic. His feet kicked up the dust of Earth, but his message was from the celestials.

Tents are pitched by those who do not plan to stay long. And that is precisely the plight of the Body of Christ today. We are not staying long. We are passing through.

We’re in a foreign land.

In Philippians 3:20, Paul writes:

²⁰ For our realm is inherent in the heavens, out of which we are awaiting a Saviour also, the Lord, Jesus Christ…

That is to say, our home is not on Earth. We are waiting to be called back home, back to our true home.

Paul, in his capacity as a tentmaker, was a walking metaphor, an emblem of the evangel he was entrusted to share, and teach.

We are sojourners, residing in stitched tents, weathering the high winds, awaiting our full realization, “groaning in ourselves, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is out of heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:2).

Paul doesn’t tell us to build bigger, sturdier tents. Why would he?

We are counting on our Savior, “Who will transfigure the body of our humiliation, to conform it to the body of His glory, in accord with the operation which enables Him even to subject all to Himself” (Philippians 3:21).

Jesus the Artificer: Foreshadowing the Earthly Kingdom

Jesus, during His earthly ministry, shared an evangel that was much different than Paul’s evangel to the nations.

And, again, as with Paul, we see this through Jesus’ occupational training as an artificer.

In Mark 6:3, we read:

³ Is not this the artisan, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?

In Greek, “artificer” is translated τέκτων (tektōn), meaning, literally, “artificer,” or one skilled in building.

Jesus’ earthly ministry was focused on laying the foundation for the coming Millennial Kingdom, which is to be an enduring, visible reign of God on Earth.

When that time comes, Israel will be restored to prominence, and the nations will be blessed through her.

As an artificer, Jesus was trained to build, with His hands, stable, lasting, immovable structures, reflecting his evangel of the coming kingdom.

He came to prepare the groundwork for God’s literal dwelling among men, the Kingdom of Heaven, as foretold by the prophets.

Jesus did not share a “secret evangel,” as Paul did. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke about this coming kingdom. It was no secret.

In Matthew 15:24, Jesus says:

I was not commissioned except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Jesus came to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom, calling for national repentance, and offering a real, earthly reign.

He did not proclaim, as Paul did, a celestial destiny for a joint body of Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14-16; 3:6).

This was not the evangel of the Uncircumcision, but the evangel of the kingdom, which was intimately tied to land, law, lineage, and the restoration of the nation of Israel.

In Acts 3:21, Peter declares:

Whom heaven must indeed receive till the times of restoration of all which God speaks through the mouth of His holy prophets…

And in Matthew 19:28, Jesus promises His apostles:

You also shall be seated on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

These are the blueprints of a literal administration on Earth. Thrones, cities, vineyards, and temples, all of these are images fit for a material theocracy.

As an artificer, He prefigured this role. His hands shaped wood and stone, just as His teachings shaped the moral and spiritual foundation of a new era for Israel.

His was a ministry of constructing and establishing, not of passing through. He came not to reveal a mystery, but to fulfill prophecy.

Sojourners in Tents, Ambassadors of Peace

Paul and Jesus were both skilled laborers. Yet, even their earthly trades, tentmaker and artificer, serve as profound illustrations of the evangels they heralded.

Jesus, the Artificer, came to lay the foundation for a visible, lasting kingdom for Israel. And that nation will, once more, be restored, during the Millennial Kingdom.

His ministry was rooted in prophecy, covenant, and fulfillment.

Paul, by contrast, was a tentmaker.

His work was humble, temporary, and mobile, reflecting the evangel that was entrusted to him.

Paul did not proclaim the restoration of the house of Israel, but the revelation of a secret, the administration of the grace of God (Ephesians 3:2), in which a new humanity is being created, composed of Jews and Gentiles, reconciled to God, in one body.

Whereas Jesus spoke of thrones and vineyards and cities on Earth, Paul speaks of celestial realms, of blessings among the celestials in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

Paul was not laying brick, but stitching fabric, calling together a people whose citizenship is not in Jerusalem, but in the vast empyrean.

And so, we, the Body of Christ, follow in Paul’s footsteps.

We are not seeking to transform the Earth, but to proclaim a message from above. We are ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), those who represent a far-off land, proclaiming peace in the midst of estrangement.

Our realm is celestial. Our tent is temporary. Our ambassadorship is only for a time. Meanwhile, we have an expectation, which will see the husk of our broken, fleshly body made anew.

For we are awaiting the Savior, “Who will transfigure the body of our humiliation, to conform it to the body of His glory” (Philippians 3:21).

And until that day, we groan, not for repair, but for resurrection, and transfiguration.

We are not called to settle here. We are called to represent there.

So, let us not despair of our tents. They are symbols, not shortcomings.

We carry a divine message in earthen vessels, knowing that what is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is that which is without end (2 Corinthians 4:18).

We are ambassadors in tents.

Before you go…

My hope is that this final installment of the “On Politics” series was fruitful, edifying, and served as a gentle reminder of what our real expectation is. And, perhaps, it made you think about ambassadorship in a way that you hadn’t considered before.

The blustery winds of politics and religion, today, are enough to make one cynical, pessimistic, and even hopeless, but we are entreated to race the good race, knowing, full well, that we are in good hands.

Till next week!

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With Grace,

Concordant Student

G’day!

This newsletter is the second in a three-part series about politics, as it relates to the Body of Christ today. Before reading on, consider reading the first installment, “On Politics: ‘Be Subject to the Superior Authorities’.”

While Scripture is not, by any means, a political handbook, Paul, the apostle to the nations, was explicit about what our attitude should be toward politics and government, no matter our personal feelings about who is in office, who is not in office, or the consequences that arise by virtue of who is in office.

Politics Requires Conflict

Politics has, at its foundation, the presupposition of conflict and opposition. That is to say, there is no politics if there is no opposition.

After all, politics is, in a general sense, the negotiation of power, values, and resources that exist among differing interests. And in order to have a negotiation, there must be at least two sides that disagree on a matter.

Consequently, where there is no conflict, or negotiation, there is no politics.

Paul Reminds Us

In this way, Paul explicitly taught that members of the Body of Christ should not engage in politics, especially when it comes to governance. (Romans 13:1-7)

Why?

Because our identity, and the conflicts we engage in, are not of this world.

Any political jousting we may get thrown into on this planet is small peanuts, compared to our future responsibilities in the celestials.

[F]or it is not ours to wrestle with blood and flesh, but with the sovereignties, with the authorities, with the world-mights of this darkness, with the spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials. (Ephesians 6:12)

Of course, this is much easier said than done. Sometimes, our emotions get the best of us.

Maybe some of us have an adverse, knee-jerk reaction to the idea that we must be “subject to the superior authorities.” Maybe some of us don’t want to be told what to do. Maybe some of us don’t feel that someone else, who has a different opinion than ours, should be able to thrust their ideas on us.

Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that, whoever has authority on Earth right now, was given it by God. And, for now, we are told to abide by those authorities.

So long as we keep our future allotment, in the celestials, at the forefront of our minds, it is far less likely that we will be led astray by the storm of politics thundering all around us, every single day.

The Alan Burns Effect

Alan Burns was a frequent contributor to Unsearchable Riches in the early days of the magazine. Vladimir Gelesnoff, the co-founder of Unsearchable Riches, considered Burns to be “the best gospel preacher he had ever heard.” Burns, suffering from pneumonia, passed away in 1929.

The bolded text that follows was taken from Burns’ essay, “Politician or Paulician,” which I believe to be a concise, valuable rebuttal to the notion that anyone, who is a member of the Body of Christ, ought to actively take part in politics today.

Schisms and Sectarianism

The term “Paulician” may be misunderstood, especially if it be taken to represent an “I am of Paul” sectarianism. When even “I am of Christ” is frowned upon by this great apostle as being sectarian and heretical, we may well be assured that such a caste usage of it is nothing but a form of wretched religious snobbery.

Politics, as defined above, has even seeped into the realm of fellowship among believers, where schisms and sectarianism should have no part.

Not only do many people, much of the time, wish to be defined by their political allegiances, they also find pride, or worth, in affiliating with a certain denomination.

This was already quite apparent in Paul’s day.

In 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, Paul writes:

¹⁰ Now I am entreating you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all may be saying the same thing, and there may be no schisms among you, but you may be attuned to the same mind and to the same opinion.

¹¹ For it was made evident to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe, that there are strifes among you.

¹² Now I am saying this, that each of you is saying, “I, indeed, am of Paul,” yet “I of Apollos,” yet “I of Cephas,” yet “I of Christ.”

¹³ Christ is parted! Not Paul was crucified for your sakes! Or into the name of Paul are you baptized?

Not only are we not to be hoisting the banner of a certain name (not even Christ’s!), we are to “be attuned to the same mind and the same opinion.”

While schisms were, apparently, a notable issue for those in Corinth at the time, the same types of schisms seem to have proliferated, many times over, since then.

According to some reports, there are as many as 45,000 sects of Christianity extant in the world today, and that number could crawl up to 49,000 by the end of this year.

If that’s keeping the “same mind,” or “same opinion,” then, folks, I’m the real Spider-Man.

Saints, Not Citizens

The church of the Twentieth Century [and Twenty-First Century] has, in its Bible, a gospel for the world and yet we find it in the role of a law-maker rather than a gospel preacher. Its preachers are trying to make citizens when they should be seeking to edify saints.

As I covered in the first installment of this series, the Body of Christ has, as its future allotment, an abode in the celestial realms.

Conversely, Israel, as God’s chosen people, are expecting an earthly kingdom, which will be set up on Earth in the future, and will be established for the Thousand Years.

This distinction is paramount.

Burns’ statement above suggests that Christians today, whether they know it or not, are behaving as if they have an earthly kingdom to look forward to, which is why they feel the need to make citizens on this planet, rather than edifying the saints for their future allotment.

On the other hand, the Body of Christ understands that the rulers of this Earth are doomed to fail. There is no fixing this place. Its gears, its mechanics, are uniquely designed to corrode, and break down.

Because of this, we, the Body of Christ, feel no obligation, or motivation, to make this place perfect.

Saints as Aliens on Earth

The saints of God are aliens here on earth. Let that sink in. No believer, as such, can be a Republican [or Democrat], for in his heart he believes in and is related to a kingdom. Republicanism is merely political Arminianism.1 It believes in human ability in some form.

…

Individually, we may be ambassadors entreating the world to be conciliated to God, but does England’s ambassador to the United States vote?

Burns’ argument here is that believers cannot subscribe to Republicanism, or Democratism, because we belong to a realm that doesn’t recognize those labels.

It would be like me, an American, subscribing to a European political party that is pro-European Union.

Despite what I may think about the EU, as an American, it’s utterly irrelevant, since the U.S. isn’t part of the EU, and, as a result, has no formal say in the matter.

Virtually all members of the Body of Christ recognize God’s absolute sovereignty.

But when we assume that, as individuals, we can bring about positive change in earthly governance, we, however indirectly, admit that our own ability takes precedence over God’s divine design.

However, it doesn’t.

To play earthly politics is to challenge God’s sovereignty, and mandate, during this current eon.

As ambassadors of Christ, our task is to call for the world to be conciliated to God. Our assignment is not to argue for lower tax rates, universal healthcare, or more affordable prices on Little Debbie cakes.

We are ambassadors.2

The Real Walking Dead

Instead of becoming a citizen of the world, [Paul] became a corpse in it: “I am crucified with Christ.” As far as the world is concerned the church of God is a cemetery full of nothing but dead men, and men with their names on tombstones do not run for political nominations.

A citizen, by definition, is someone who is alive. However, “[w]ith Christ, we have been crucified,” as Paul writes, in Galatians 2:20.

The apostle, writing to those in Colossae, revealed that we have been “entombed together with Him in baptism, in Whom you were roused together also through faith in the operation of God…” (Colossians 2:12)

No one who has been entombed can claim citizenship. They are dead!

In Romans 6:3-4, Paul writes:

³ Or are you ignorant that whoever are baptized into Christ Jesus, are baptized into His death?

⁴ We, then, were entombed together with Him through baptism into death, that, even as Christ was roused from among the dead through the glory of the Father, thus we also should be walking in newness of life.

Not only are we “entombed together with Him,” but we are hid with Him.

Once more, Paul writes, in Colossians 3:3:

³ for you died, and your life is hid together with Christ in God.

The word hid, in Greek, is κρύπτω (kruptō), which, according to the Greek-English Keyword Concordance of the Concordant Literal New Testament, means: “[A] place where the usual exercise of the senses will not perceive.”

Our life, our true life, is hidden together with Christ, in God.

When members of the Body of Christ go about their day, they may look like anyone else. They may look like any other citizen of their country. But spiritually, in truth, their life is concealed from the senses, tucked away, cradled in God with Christ.

We, the Body of Christ, in the flesh, are the real walking dead. We no longer have a claim on earth. It is not our home. We have been entombed. And, as a result, we have been hid with Christ.

Once more, we are ambassadors.

To Be a Roman Is to Die a Roman

Paul was no politician. Once, it is true, he claimed Roman citizenship, but see what happened thereafter. The events that followed after he claimed his “rights” quickly led to a conclusion of the preaching of the kingdom of God. And if, as a Roman citizen, he received Roman protection for a season it is also true that as a Roman citizen he was put into a Roman prison, and ultimately as a Roman citizen, suffered from the stroke of a Roman sword.

Some have suggested that, though Paul wrote what he did in Romans 13:1-7, he still claimed Roman citizenship.

This is true. There’s no getting around it.

But, it’s important to note, Paul died by the sword of the earthly nation he claimed as his own. In this way, Paul’s entreaty in Romans 13 is given even more legitimacy, as the apostle’s life explicitly demonstrates the logical end to such a move.

To wrap up the second installment of this study, I’ll leave you with a thought-provoking flourish, written by Burns, that draws out how our privileges, as a citizen of a country, comes with inherent responsibilities we may not like.

The Final Word

How many of God’s people have failed to see that if you exercise a citizen’s privileges in the time of peace you must honorably fulfil a citizen’s duties in the time of war! Ballots and bayonets are logically united: the ballot is the means whereby the majority make law for the minority; and the bayonet is the weapon whereby the strong make law for the weak. You can no more preach the gospel with a ballot than you can with the point of a bayonet, but if as a citizen you claim the privilege of using the former do not be surprised if your fellow-citizens expect you to face the duty of employing the latter.

Before you go…

The final installment of this study on politics, government, and our future allotment will be published next week. It will cover our ambassadorship, and, specifically, what that means for the Body of Christ.

We are hid together with Christ, in God, and that fact alone should give us joy and thanksgiving beyond measure.

Stay tuned!

Subscribe now

With Grace,

Concordant Student

Howdy!

This newsletter is the first in a three-part series about politics, as it relates to the Body of Christ today. While Scripture is not, by any means, a political handbook, Paul, the apostle to the nations, was explicit about what our attitude should be toward politics and government, no matter our personal feelings about who is in office, who is not in office, or the consequences that arise by virtue of who is in office.

A Bit About Me

Once upon a time, I worked as a full-time journalist. My first paid writing gig was drafting political news for a digital outlet.

Despite wanting to be a screenwriter, as well as the next great American author, I settled for a writing profession that, at the time, seemed to promise the most financial stability.

I started out as a freelancer, before, eventually, landing a salaried position.

I went on to publish over 2,000 pieces of political news and journalism. During that time, I had the opportunity to speak with prominent voices, including political figures, journalists, and notable cultural commentators relevant to political discourse across the U.S.

Needless to say, I learned a lot about the political landscape during that time.

I came to understand that politics, like religion, is oftentimes a method by which people develop a lethal sense of superiority and self-righteousness, all under the guise of serving the populace, or ridding the world of their political opposition.

Sadly, I, too, was sucked into the vortex.

I became calloused and hateful toward those who didn’t think, or believe, as I did. I thought my political opponents were stupid, foolish, or, at best, profoundly ignorant.

And I stayed that way, for years.

Thankfully, God, in His infinite grace, has since “rescue[d] [me] out of the jurisdiction of Darkness” (Colossians 1:13).

But politics is still here. It’s everywhere.

So, in an effort to learn God’s mind concerning politics and government today, we must turn to Scripture, where He has revealed to us, specifically, how we ought to conduct ourselves on these matters.

“No Authority Except Under God”

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, is very clear about what the Body of Christ’s attitude should be, as it relates to the “authorities.”

Despite Paul’s admonitions, Christians today long for the manifestation of a so-called Christian nation, which will, according to them, reflect their own beliefs and convictions.

(If you’re unaware, Christian nationalism has gained visibility and influence over the past decade.)

And thus, they, Christians, will ever live in harmony with The Big Cheese (i.e. God).

When challenged on this topic, Christians retort: “What Christian wouldn’t want to live in a Christian nation?”

Well, I don’t know about Christians, but members of the Body of Christ are never encouraged to search out an earthly nation, or kingdom, that reflects their views.

Why?

Because our future is in the celestial realms, not the earth. The Circumcision were promised an earthly kingdom, and they will get it, in due time.

It is crucial to understand this distinction.

As for the idiots, morons, and hillbillies among the Uncircumcision, our allotment is far and away superior to the future earthly kingdom.

Our allotment, revealed to us exclusively through Paul’s epistles, have nothing to do with a kingdom, or nation, that will be set up on this planet.

Paul’s Teaching on “Authorities”

The legacy of modern politics is the act of rebelling, or refusing, the authority of pre-existing forms of governance.

There is always a contingent, within any country, that feels slighted by the government under which they live.

Sometimes, this leads to an overthrow, and sometimes, it leads to an authoritarian form of government that exercises draconian methods to keep the population in line.

Consider Paul.

I bet Paul didn’t think too highly of the Roman Empire. He spent much of his ministry under house arrest, or imprisoned. And, to top it off, he was executed by the very government he implored believers, at the time, to be subject to!

And still, despite this, Paul encourages members of the Body of Christ to be “subject to the superior authorities.”

Paul was imploring believers, based on God’s will, not on his own political sensibilities. It’s imperative to keep this in mind.

Nowhere, in all of Paul’s writings, does it suggest that he tried to overthrow the Roman Empire, or usher in a new form of government he thought was best. He did not try to lower taxes, or advocate for Empire-wide healthcare.

In Romans 13:1-7, Paul writes:

¹ Let every soul be subject to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except under God. Now those which are, have been set under God,

² so that he who is resisting an authority has withstood God's mandate. Now those who have withstood, will be getting judgment for themselves,

³ for magistrates are not a fear to the good act, but to the evil. Now you do not want to be fearing the authority. Do good, and you will be having applause from it.

⁴ For it is God's servant for your good. Now if you should be doing evil, fear, for not feignedly is it wearing the sword. For it is God's servant, an avenger for indignation to him who is committing evil.

⁵ Wherefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of indignation, but also because of conscience.

⁶ For therefore you are settling taxes also, for they are God's ministers, perpetuated for this self-same thing.

⁷ Render to all their dues, to whom tax, tax, to whom tribute, tribute, to whom fear, fear, to whom honor, honor.

The “authorities,” or governments, that have been installed on Earth are there because God has made it so. They do not possess any inherent power of their own, despite what Fox News, CNN, or some random podcast claims.

And so, when believers reject the “authorities,” they are, in fact, withstanding God’s superior method of organizing modern civilization in this “present wicked eon” (Galatians 1:4).

How many really, truly, believe this, though?

Both believers and nonbelievers are rushing, headlong, into political debates, both in person and online, believing that it is their duty to bring about the much-needed change.

Neither Democrat nor Republican

We are to follow the law of the land, despite what disagreements we may have with it. We are to pay taxes to whom we owe taxes.

The Body of Christ is not destined for governmental heroism, or political partisanship. The Body of Christ is not invited to the Progressive Parade. The Body of Christ is not invited to the “Don’t Tread On Me” Club.

Nevertheless, believers still get pulled into political jockeying on social media, constantly arguing for things that apply to a terrestrial location, of which they have no permanent stake.

It would be like me, an American, traveling to Scotland, or Mozambique, and demanding that they change their laws to fit my governmental wants and desires. To use Scriptural language, that would be stupid!

Conversely, the knowledge of rising gas prices does make people angry, discontent, and hateful toward those who are purportedly responsible.

Instead, this is our lot:

Now a slave of the Lord must not be fighting, but be gentle toward all, apt to teach, bearing with evil, with meekness…" (2 Timothy 2:24-25)

To be Democrat, or Republican—at least in the U.S.—is incoherent for those who are believers in Paul’s evangel. Neither party speaks of our future allotment in the celestials.

Since I left the journalism world, I have made a conscious effort to stay as far away as possible from politics, both locally and nationally.

Not a single good thing comes of it, from the perspective of the Body of Christ.

Perhaps there’s a good reason why politics, generally speaking, is a topic best avoided during family gatherings.

Instead, we ought to lend an ear to Paul, who, in Ephesians 6:12, writes:

[F]or it is not ours to wrestle with blood and flesh, but with the sovereignties, with the authorities, with the world-mights of this darkness, with the spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials.

All human politics, authorities, and governments will fail. None of them are meant to last. None of them are going to solve our problems.

All sides are wrong. All are doomed. Period.

Politics is a vice that swells the ego, and, often, gives us a misplaced sense of self-righteousness.

We are aliens here. Campers. Pitching our tent here for a time. But not for all time.

Before you go…

The second and third installments of this study on politics, government, and our future allotment will be published over the next two weeks. My challenge for you, in the meantime, is to find sources of positive influence, outside the realm of politics. It seems politics has a funny way of making people angry virtually all the time, and we shouldn’t be, given our future allotment, and the sublime grace that God has bestowed upon humanity. Everything is playing out exactly how God has planned it.

So…

Grill some steaks. Join a Pickleball club. Pick your nose. Whatever it is that gives you joy.

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With grace, and the tie of peace,

Concordant Student

Heck, your grandma may not even use a Roomba. You may even be a grandma who still uses the Kirby Legend II.

That’s what my grandma used, I think.

These two items, clay and Roombas, seem about as different as items can be. This may be true in most ways, but they are the same in one fundamental way: both rely on an outside force to give them utility, or life.

God’s relationship to clay is somewhat reflected in your grandma’s relationship to her Roomba.

Consider…

It Feels Like Free Will

Some people, many people, most people, are comforted by the idea that they have something called “free will,” and that this can somehow light the spiritual lamp that leads to God.

It can make someone feel spiritually productive, and proud, even, to assume that they found God of their own volition.

Undoubtedly, from our subjective human perspective, it feels as if we have free will. We don’t feel someone else’s will being pressed upon our own, while pulling on our skinny jeans in the morning.

No one finds themselves picking up a glass of milk against their will. If we want to pick up the glass, we do, and if we don’t want to, we don’t.

But, again, this is the subjective experience of being human. It is, in my case, the five-foot-eight point of view.

When we speak about free will, as it pertains to God, we must embrace God’s billion-foot perspective.

It’s only when we do this that the illusion of free will melts away.

Whenever we’re in doubt, we must consult Scripture.

Scripture and Free Will

What does Scripture say about this free will thing?

Paul, in Romans 9:21, writes, “…has not the potter the right over the clay, out of the same kneading to make one vessel, indeed, for honor, yet one for dishonor?”

Does Paul intimate, anywhere in this passage, that the clay can work its own will against the will of the potter?

No way.

Paul is speaking about God’s sovereignty over His creation. The potter, laboring over clay, has every right to make whatever he or she wishes from the lump of clay before them.

The same is true of a painter. The paint doesn’t tell the painter what to paint. The painter determines how the paint is used, and to what effect.

That is God’s relationship to us.

Paul echoed the truth found in Isaiah 64:8, which says, “Yet now, O Yahweh, You are our Father; We are the clay. And You are our Former, And the work of Your hand are we all.”

God is an active Creator. He’s not passive, or merely spectating from the sidelines.

He is engaged with His creation, having tweaked it, like a very expensive watch, to play out just the way He has willed.

People, generally, don’t have a problem getting on board with the idea that God is in control when something good happens to them, but support for God’s sovereignty dramatically falls off when something not-so-good happens.

Nevertheless, we are assured, again and again throughout Scripture, that God is in control of everything. Not some things. Not a lot of things. Everything.

Even the bad stuff.

Former of light and Creator of darkness, Maker of good and Creator of evil. I, Yahweh Elohim, made all of these things. (Isaiah 45:7)

How about this?

Consequently, then, it is not of him who is willing, nor of him who is racing, but of God, the Merciful. (Romans 9:16)

Or this?

Consequently, then, to whom He will, He is merciful, yet whom He will, He is hardening. (Romans 9:18)

If you’re still not sure whether God is in control, calling all the shots all the time, I’d like to introduce you to my close and personal friend, Job.

Job’s So-Called Free Will

Everyone knows the story of Job, right?

Did Job freely choose for the Adversary to kick the crap out of him, all up and down the land of Uz?

No reasonable person would suggest as much.

Not even your grandma believes that! Why? Because your grandma has a valid eyeglass prescription, and she can read the following:

There was a day when the sons of Elohim would come to station themselves before Yahweh, and the Adversary came also in their midst.

Yahweh said to the Adversary, From where are you coming? Then the Adversary answered Yahweh and said, From going to and fro in the earth and from walking about in it.

So Yahweh said to the Adversary, Have you set your heart on My servant Job? For there is no one like him on earth, a man flawless and upright, fearing Elohim and keeping away from evil.

Then the Adversary answered Yahweh, saying, Does Job fear Elohim gratuitously?

Have you yourself not hedged him about, and about his house and about all that is his all around? The work of his hands you have blessed, and his cattle breach forth throughout the countryside.

Nevertheless, now put forth your hand and touch all that is his. He shall assuredly scorn you to your face.

Hence Yahweh said to the Adversary, Behold, all that he has is in your hand, but you must not put forth your hand upon himself. Then the Adversary went forth from Yahweh’s presence. (Job 1:6-12)

Does it say Job was in the room, when God and the Adversary were chatting about him?

Nope, the Adversary got permission from God to smack Job around. The only caveat was that the Adversary could not “put forth [his] hand upon [Job].”

Job had no say in the matter, whatsoever.

Job had no choice but to endure what was coming to him. He didn’t deserve all the horrible things that happened to him. Yahweh even said Job was “a man flawless and upright.”

But the fact remains: Job’s life was destroyed. For a while.

In his despair, Job questioned God, demanding answers about his plight.

I’ll include a small portion of God’s response, which, to me, is one of the most sublime flourishes in all of Holy Writ.

Who is this who darkens counsel By declarations without knowledge?

Belt up your loins now like a master; I shall ask of you, and you inform Me.

Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell if you know with understanding.

Who determined its measurements--for surely you know! Or who stretched out a tape upon it?

On what were its sockets sunk? Or who directed its cornerstone in place,

When the stars of the morning jubilated together, And all the sons of Elohim shouted with joy?

Who shut in the sea with double doors When it rushed forth, it came forth from the womb,

When I made a cloud its garment And murkiness its swaddling band,

When I set My statute upon it And broke bar and doors,

When I said, Unto here shall you come but shall not proceed farther, And here a limit is set to the pride of your billows?

In all your days have you ever instructed the morning? (Job 38:2-12)

Job, functionally, was a lump of clay, in the Hands of the Potter.

Despite how Job felt, subjectively, God was guiding him through the trials he experienced, without his consent.

And, by the end of it, Job was better off.

Back to Clay and Roombas

Untouched, how much agency does clay have? Can it nod its head, or wink? Can it flip you the bird? Can it go down to the corner store and buy a Yoo-hoo?

Not that I’ve ever seen.

Why?

Because clay is, essentially, a wet lump of mud. It’s only when a potter sits down to shape it with his or her hands—pushing, pulling, and poking—that the clay takes on utility, or life.

The same goes for your grandma, and her Roomba. She has to get behind the proverbial control panel of the Roomba. She has to unpack the machine, turn it on, and confirm that its infrared and photocell sensors are in working order.

Only then can the Roomba learn the blueprint of your grandma’s ranch-style home, doing what it was made to do, slurping up all the dust and cat hair that has accumulated.

The same is true of God.

He’s ever molding and forming us to fall in line with His divine will.

We are the clay, and He is the Potter.

He pushes and pokes us. He bends, breaks, blinds, and builds us up. Sometimes, He hurts us. Sometimes, He “rescues us out of the jurisdiction of Darkness” (Colossians 1:13).

So, pull on your skinny jeans, crack open your Yoo-hoo, and rest in the knowledge that God is in full control.

With Grace,

Concordant Student

The bolded text featured in this piece was taken from Vladimir Gelesnoff’s essay, “The Christ of God,” published in Unsearchable Riches, vol. 1, p. 36.

While none of the writing that follows is new, or original, in content, my hope is that the way in which the material is presented reveals new rays of light that, perhaps, your eyes haven’t quite taken in before.

Man is a microcosmos—a complete counterpart of the mundane system. There is nothing in the external world which does not find its counterpart in the human organism, though in the formation of the human body the material elements underwent a process of refinement; gross elements have been sublimated to a point unknown in the animal world.

Even science appears to agree with part of this flourish.

Some scientists think the human organism, along with every living thing on Earth, came into being through pre-existing, inanimate matter, by a process called abiogenesis.1

Only, scientists don’t believe a divine or intelligent power was behind the formation of life.

Many scientists, especially in the fields of astrophysics and cosmology, suggest that the elements in our bodies—carbon, iron, nitrogen, and oxygen—were formed inside stars that lived and died billions of years ago.

This idea colors the whole wonderful range of thought unfolded in the eighth chapter of the Roman letter. Adam was under the Creator, but above the creation.

Adam’s hierarchical place in the cosmos, in the beginning, was comparable to Christ’s position. He was above creation, but he was under God.

Similarly, Christ, while subject to the Father, is above all creation. (Colossians 1:15-18; 1 Corinthians 15:27-28)

We might say, as Paul did, in Romans 5:14, that Adam was a “type of Him Who is about to be.” In other words, Adam was a model, or pattern, of Christ, in his relationship to God and God’s creation.

He [Adam] was appointed to have dominion over all things in the earth, and there was a close link between him and the creation over which he was given ascendancy; his body was made of the dust of the ground.

Adam was, literally, formed from the same material that he was to have dominion over. He wasn’t far removed from the earth. He was right there, in the very midst of it.

A similar situation occurred with Christ, Who was made flesh, “and tabernacles among us, and we gaze at His glory, a glory as of an Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Christ didn’t simply put flesh on, like a Halloween costume. He fully entered into our fleshly, mortal condition. He was subject to weakness, and suffering, and pain.

Paul writes, in Romans 8:3, that God sent “His own Son in the likeness of sin's flesh and concerning sin, He condemns sin in the flesh.”

He knew what it was like to have a headache. He knew what it was like to experience heartache. He knew what it was like to feel alone, to feel abandoned, to feel betrayed.

In Hebrews 4:15, we read: “For we have not a Chief Priest not able to sympathize with our infirmities, but One who has been tried in all respects like us, apart from sin.”

Our Savior, who put on flesh, is intimately familiar with our infirmities, and can, as a consequence, sympathize with our suffering.

Thus, when man fell, the whole creation became involved in the ruin, though not of its own volition. In consequence of his transgression Adam became possessed of a sinful nature, which reacted on the body, and made it mortal.

Adam’s transgression was always part of the plan. It was not an accident, where God had to come up with a Plan B. There was never a chance that Adam would not sin, or miss the mark.

But…

Christ was with God, from the very beginning. His sacrifice was inherent in God’s design, nested in the plan since the start. It was all laid out before times eonian.

We are thus prepared to see the grand meaning of the resurrection of Christ for creation at large. Just as corruption, radiating from the first man as a centre, pervaded and permeated the entire universe, just so life, radiating from the second man as a centre, will permeate and pervade to the remotest corner of the universe.

Adam’s transgression had effects on the entire cosmos. Stars are born, and, bursting forth, die out. Planets smash into one another, comets plunge into other celestial rocks, and black holes swallow up the light of all that gets near them.

The earth, as well as the heavens, are in a state of complete chaos and destruction. The corruption that manifested through Adam’s transgression affected the entire universe.

It could be said that science, again, bears this out, through a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement.

Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon where two or more particles become connected in such a way that the state of one particle instantly affects the state of the other, no matter how far apart they are.

Imagine two perfectly tuned musical strings. One is in Los Angeles, and the other is in New York City. You pluck the one in Los Angeles, and, even though you didn’t pluck it, the second one, in New York City, sounds. We may say there’s a unity between the two strings, even though they are very far part. In this way, we would say they’re entangled.

Albert Einstein referred to quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance.”

From a materialist standpoint, it is spooky. But from a divinely intelligent perspective, it wholly fits with the way God designed the cosmos.

We may say that Adam was entangled with the rest of creation in the beginning, where, when he transgressed, the rest of creation was affected, and thrown into disunity, “not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation” (Romans 8:20)…

As with Adam, Christ is intimately entangled with creation. Paul writes that “all is created through Him and for Him, and He is before all, and all has its cohesion in Him” (Colossians 1:15-17).

Just as Adam’s corruption permeated the entire cosmos, sending everything spinning off into chaos and destruction, Christ’s life will permeate the entire cosmos, bringing all back into perfect unity and harmony with God.

Thus viewed, the resurrection of Christ in a glorious spiritual body is a pledge of creation’s deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. The hope of creation is bound up in the resurrection of the Son of Man, which is the basis of the “creation” commission in Mark 16:16-18; Colossians 1:23.

This is the Body of Christ’s expectation. We believe, through Christ, that God is going to bring all back into harmony with Himself.

And He will.

Nothing is lost forever. It’s only temporary.

Let us believe His Word.

With grace, and the tie of peace,

Concordant Student

Sometimes, I refer to God, the Creator of the universe, as The Big Cheese.

It’s true.

Maybe that strikes you as silly, or even sacrilegious, but The Big Cheese knows my heart. It comes from a good place. An idiosyncratic place, sure, but a good idiosyncratic place.

Maybe it’s because I spent the first 13 years of my life in the cheese state (i.e. Wisconsin).

I can’t be sure. There’s just something about it that works.

We Are God’s Achievement

Some people are lawyers. Some make popsicle sticks. Some enjoy swimming. And some, like yours truly, have spent a fair bit of time in the cheese state.

In other words, we’re all unique. We all come from different walks of life, with different experiences, and different perceptions of the world.

And our uniqueness, our different-ness, is all of The Big Cheese. He created us, specifically, to be just the way we are.

Maybe that sounds like a simple point, or something you might have read before in a Hallmark card.

Let me go a step deeper.

Paul, in Ephesians 2:10, writes that “His achievement are we…” Another word for “achievement,” here, is “workmanship.”

We’re God’s workmanship. Another way of saying this is that we’re the result of His labors.

I imagine God, before times eonian, equipped with his celestial magnifying glass, and toolset, carefully tinkering away at each one of us, getting all the details just right, before, finally, breathing His life-giving spirit into our flesh.

All the details that make us who we are had to be just the way He wanted before giving us the gift of life.

That part of you that you hate, that you wish was different, that you wish was like someone else, was uniquely designed and calibrated precisely for you, by our Celestial Father.

He doesn’t hate the parts you hate. He loves the parts you hate. He was, after all, the One who engineered them.

And so, to hate ourselves, or to bully ourselves, internally repeating how we hate this or that part of who we are, amounts to hating what God labored over for a long time to make perfect in His sight.

A lot of times, when we find something about ourselves we don’t like, or wish was different, it’s because we’re comparing ourselves to someone else, who appears to have what we seemingly lack.

During those times, it’s important to remember where we come from, and Who created us to be the way we are. It wasn’t by accident. It was more than on purpose.

The men and women in Scripture had weaknesses. A whole lot of them, in fact. And, it turns out, those weaknesses were God’s mode of revealing Himself.

Those weaknesses are part of God’s achievement.

Our Weakness Is God’s Strength

Remember that Moses fella?

Well, I don’t believe he was too jazzed about the prospect of confronting Pharaoh, when God sent him on a mission to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.

I know he wasn’t. The whole thing sounded like a colossal pain in the rear.

Plus…

Moses was afraid. He was scared. As a result, he tried to back out, listing a series of reasons why the mission would fail.

We’ve all been there before. Fear can get in the way of us taking action.

Imagine how Moses must have felt, given the magnitude of his mission!

Being fearful, Moses naturally came up with excuses.

First:

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the sons of Israel from Egypt. (Exodus 3:11)

And again:

And Moses answering said: And behold, they [the Israelites] will not believe me, and they will not hearken to my voice. (Exodus 4:1)

And finally:

Then Moses said to Yahweh: O, my Lord! I am no man of words even from yesterday, even from three days ago, even since You spoke to Your servant, for I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue. (Exodus 4:10)

These were legitimate reasons to not go through with the mission. At least, from Moses’ very human point of view.

But when God has a plan, nothing can thwart it, no matter how impossible it seems from the human perspective. (Job 42:2)

Moses’ failure, in that moment, wasn’t that he saw all the ways the mission would surely get derailed, from his point of view.

His failure was that he didn’t believe that, no matter how unlikely it seemed on the surface, God was in complete and utter control.

The Big Cheese likes to do this kind of thing. He likes when situations seem impossible for us, because that’s when He has the chance to show us Who He really is.

So…

How did God respond to Moses’ very reasonable objections?

Take a look:

Yahweh said to him: Who made the mouth for a human or Who is making one mute or deaf or with eye unclosed or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? And now go, and I shall come to be with your mouth and direct you what you shall speak. (Exodus 4:11-12).

God directed Moses every step of the way.

The Big Cheese leveraged Moses’ insecurities and physical deficiencies to prove His power, and authority, resulting in the freedom of an entire nation of people.

What About Paul?

Paul, being the apostle to the nations, holds a special place for those of us in the Body of Christ. He’s the only one, in all of Holy Writ, to have written directly to us hillbillies, who never received the “oracles of God” (Romans 3:1-2).

Maybe God treated Paul differently than He did Moses?

Let’s see…

During his third missionary journey, we are told Paul was “given…a splinter in the flesh.” Even though he asked the Lord, three times, to take it away from him, the Lord responded: “Sufficient for you is My grace, for My power in infirmity is being perfected” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

God could very well have taken away the splinter in Paul’s flesh, but it was not His will to do so.

Why?

Because it was through Paul’s infirmity that God was demonstrating His power. This turned out to be a pattern in Paul’s life.

Here’s a doozy.

In 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, Paul writes:

²⁴ By Jews five times I got forty save one. ²⁵ Thrice am I flogged with rods, once am I stoned, thrice am I shipwrecked, a night and a day have I spent in a swamp, ²⁶ in journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers of my race, in dangers of the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brethren; ²⁷ in toil and labor, in vigils often, in famine and thirst, in fasts often, in cold and nakedness; ²⁸ apart from what is outside, that which is coming upon me daily, the solicitude for all the ecclesias.

Paul could’ve just written: “Ladies and Gentleman, I have basically had the crap kicked out of me, endured the worst conditions, and almost starved. And despite all that, I’m worried about you all, believers, the ecclesia.”

His faith in the Lord was profound. And he well understood how his weaknesses revealed the Father to those who were believing.

In a phrase, Paul lived the life he heralded.

In Philippians 1:29-30, he writes:

…for to you it is graciously granted, for Christ’s sake, not only to be believing on Him, but to be suffering for His sake also, having the same struggle such as you are perceiving in me, and now are hearing to be in me.

Pain, suffering, and weakness are no fun. Not on the surface. Not from the human standpoint. In many ways, they’re awful.

But these things are an opportunity for us to grow in God, to trust in Him, to believe that He’ll do all that He said He’ll do.

It’s an opportunity for God to show us His plan, just as He did with Moses and Paul.

With Grace,

Concordant Student

I’m told today is Easter—that special holiday where Christians celebrate the resurrection of their Savior…

And also hunt for multicolored eggs that, somehow, paradoxically, belong to bunnies. (Admittedly, this was the best part of Easter, growing up.)

So, what’s my point?

I’ll tell you my point.

My point is that most Christians today don’t believe in the actual, literal, physical death of Jesus Christ.

They believe He was alive, in some other place, during those three dreary days that His body was locked away in the tomb.

Here’s a wonderful quote from Geo. L. Rogers, who laid out the situation in Unsearchable Riches magazine1, many moons ago.

Strangely enough, many do not believe that Christ really died, because they declare that “there is no death; what seems so is transition.” Many who really trust Christ for salvation and even talk about His blood-shedding, will not admit that Christ really died. He simply changed His mode of life.

It follows that if Christ did not die, He was not buried. Only His body was buried. And Christendom generally does not believe in the resurrection of Christ.

While a few believe that a whole Christ was raised from the dead, the majority assert that they do not believe in a bodily resurrection.

To think of Christ's body being resurrected is “too materialistic a conception” for the modern mind.

The majority think that the real Christ passed immediately into glory with His expiring breath. To them resurrection is reduced to survival in spite of dissolution.

A perusal of hundreds of so-called “Easter” sermons shows that many famous preachers believe in survival or “natural immortality” rather than in the gospel fact of resurrection.

No department of theology or of exegesis of Scripture is so neglected and poverty stricken as that concerning resurrection.

Death Is Non-consciousness

Before we can understand what happened to Jesus after He took His last breath, up there on the pole, or stake, we have to get clarity on what, according to Scripture, death really is.

In other words, what happens when we die? Do we go straight to heaven? Do we fly around with red-haired cherubs? Do we pluck our harps? Do we meet Humphrey Bogart’s ghost?

Thankfully, we have a Scripture verse that tells us exactly what happens.

For the living know that they shall die, But the dead know nothing whatsoever; -Ecclesiastes 9:5

When we die, we know nothing anymore. That is, we cease to exist. We lose our consciousness. We go back to the same state we were in before we were born.

Before we were born, before we came into the world, we didn’t know we didn’t exist. There was no experience.

This, right here, is what death is. This, right here, is the state Jesus entered after He was crucified. And He remained like that for three days.

There’s no bliss in death. There’s no pain in death. There’s nothing, or nothing-ness.

Here’s another verse:

His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return to his ground; In that day his reflections perish. -Psalm 146:4

Again, our reflections, our thoughts, perish at the moment of death.

The Scriptures are very clear on this point.

How about another one, just for good measure?

So a man lies down and shall not rise; Until the heavens fail, they shall not awake, Nor shall they rouse from their sleep. -Job 14:12

The Soul Is Not Immortal

Many who read the Bible believe there’s something called “immortality of the soul.” That is, no human actually dies when they die. They exist in some other form after they physically die.

They, Christians, believe death is nothing more than a transition into a new form of life.

These Bible-readers believe that, at the moment of death, people are destined for eternal bliss, or eternal torture.

But this idea doesn’t show up in Scripture. We just covered how death is the state of non-consciousness. Nothing, literally, happens in death. You, me, we, cease to exist in death.

Keeping that in mind, we arrive at the natural conclusion that our souls, whatever a soul is, cannot be immortal.

But, does Scripture agree with this conclusion?

As it turns out…

It does.

And forming is Yahweh Elohim the human of soil from the ground, and He is blowing into his nostrils the breath of the living, and becoming is the human a living soul. -Genesis 2:7

This verse is crucial for understanding what, specifically, the soul is, and how it came about, and what its future is.

Bear with me.

Consider the word “forming” here. The Hebrew word is yatsar, which means to mold or shape. Think of a potter handling clay, forming, molding, and shaping the lump into something identifiable (Isaiah 64:8).

Yahweh Elohim was forming something.

But what was He forming?

The second word we must consider is “soil.” The Hebrew word used is adamah, which is our flesh. Our guts, skin, and toenails are all made of soil.

So far, we have Yahweh Elohim forming, molding, and shaping soil, our flesh, into something.

But a flesh body, in itself, doesn’t have the necessary ingredient that animates it, gives it life. If you don’t believe me, visit your local cemetery sometime.

That brings us to the word “breath” in the verse above. The Hebrew word is neshamah, which, according to the Strong’s Concordance, is “a puff, that is, wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect…”

In other words, God breathed an animating “wind,” or spirit, into the inanimate soil that He was forming.

God’s animating spirit is the breath that gives us life. It’s because of this animating spirit that I can sit behind my computer, and type these words.

So now, we have Yahweh Elohim forming, molding, and shaping soil, our flesh, into something that He breathes an animating spirit into.

As a result, “the human” became “a living soul,” according to Genesis 2:7.

The word “soul”, in Hebrew, is nephesh, meaning, literally, “a breathing creature.”

It’s imperative to understand that our “soul,” therefore, isn’t a thing in itself. The soul is the product, or result, of bringing together soil (adamah) and God’s animating spirit (neshamah).

For all you math nerds out there, we can frame it thus:

Soil (Adamah) + God’s Animating Spirit (Neshamah) = Living Soul (Nephesh).

Therefore, the soul exists so long as our flesh and God’s animating spirit are entwined, or combined.

Everyone alive, even non-believers, have God’s animating spirit in them, including the snippy old lady working the cash register at the grocery store.

Now, if, at death, we enter non-existence, as we discussed earlier, that must mean something happens to our flesh and God’s animating spirit, resulting in non-life.

What is it, exactly, that happens?

The Scriptures tell us that, too.

And the soil returns to the earth just as it was, And the spirit, it returns to the One, Elohim, Who gave it. -Ecclesiastes 12:7

Pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it?

The soil, adamah, returns, well, to the earth. Proof of this is your local cemetery.

The spirit, neshamah, returns to the One Who gave it, Elohim.

Therefore, our soul, nephesh, ceases to exist at the time of death. Breaking up soil and the spirit results in our non-existence.

We may conclude, then, that death is a return. We go back to the way we were before our flesh and God’s animating spirit came together to make us a living soul.

Death Is an Enemy, Not a Doorway

Scripture tells us that death is not a friend, but a foe. It’s not a doorway into eternal life, as Christendom proclaims.

There’s nothing in all of Holy Writ that even suggests this. While, for some, it’s a pleasant thought, it’s just not true.

And so, we must commit ourselves to a hard truth, rather than a flattering lie.

Paul writes:

The last enemy is being abolished: death. -1 Corinthians 15:26

How in the world would death be an enemy if, through it, we immediately enter into eternal life?

Christendom teaches that death isn’t really death. It’s just a new, better form of life, with God.

Paul tells us, explicitly, that death is an enemy. He goes on to tell us that the penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

If we took Christendom’s understanding, we’d really be saying that the penalty of sin (i.e. death) for believers is an eternal reward with God.

In Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam he shouldn’t eat “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” because if, and when, he did, “to die you shall be dying.”

God was warning Adam. The phrase, “to die you shall be dying,” is a very poetic way of describing human experience on earth.

From the moment we’re born, we’re decaying, falling apart, and eventually, at some point, we die.

That’s what this verse is teaching us. We’re ever in the process of dying, until finally, we do.

Our Hope Is to Be Roused, Not Immortality of the Soul

An accurate rendering of Scripture clarifies the meaning of death, and demonstrates why we need to be roused from the dead, if we are to enjoy a future with God.

Paul writes:

…in an instant, in the twinkle of an eye, at the last trump. For He will be trumpeting, and the dead will be roused incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. ⁵⁴ Now, whenever this corruptible should be putting on incorruption and this mortal should be putting on immortality, then shall come to pass the word which is written, Swallowed up was Death by Victory. ⁵⁵ Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting? ⁵⁶ Now the sting of Death is sin, yet the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ Now thanks be to God, Who is giving us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ So that, my beloved brethren, become settled, unmovable, superabounding in the work of the Lord always, being aware that your toil is not for naught in the Lord. -1 Corinthians 15:52-58

To reach incorruption, we need to be roused, or brought back to life.

This is what happened to Jesus on the third day. He was roused. The animating spirit that had returned to God, as well as His (i.e. Jesus’) flesh, were reunited, making Him a living soul once more.

King David had the same hope of being roused.

For You shall not forsake my soul in the unseen; You shall not allow Your benign one to see corruption. -Psalm 16:10

David knew he was going to die, but he also believed, through faith, that God wasn’t going to leave him there. God was going to rouse him at the appointed time.

But, for now, David is still dead as a doornail. He hasn’t been roused. The appointed time has not yet come.

In fact, the only One Who has been roused is Christ Jesus.

In 1 Timothy 6:16, Paul writes that Christ Jesus, the “King of kings and Lord of lords, Who alone has immortality…”

No human who has ever lived, aside from our Lord, has immortality. Not. One.

Not yet.

One of my favorite passages in all of Scripture is Job 14:14-15. Job asks one of the most important questions of all time. He doesn’t ask where he goes when he dies. He already knew the answer.

Instead, he asks something much more profound:

If a master dies shall he live again? All the days of my enlistment I shall wait Until my relief comes. ¹⁵ You shall call, and I shall answer You; You shall long for the work of Your hands. -Job 14:14-15

Even if, and when, we die, God won’t forget the works of His hands.

He’ll long for us. He’ll miss us. He’ll want to see us again.

This was His attitude toward Jesus. He longed for the work of His hands, and on the third day, Christ was roused.

Because He bore the sins of the world, and brought them into death with Him, He was roused, having paid the tab of sin—death itself.

Since the bill of sin has been paid through Christ’s work on the pole, or stake, we are now justified through faith in His blood (Romans 3:24-25).

If we’re going to celebrate “Easter,” let’s do it right.

With grace, and the tie of peace,

Concordant Student

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Not only is Satan good-looking, but he also wears a monocle.

I bet you didn’t know that.

He may or may not also smoke Arturo Fuente cigars while perusing the morning news. Depends on his mood.

That’s to say, Satan wields a deadly combination of intelligence and good looks. In other words, he can be lethally attractive.

Most people don’t know this. Or, maybe they do know, but don’t care to acknowledge it.

I’m specifically referring to those within Christendom.

Satan Is Drawn to Believers, Not the Lost

Christians—many of whom I know—generally believe Satan, the Adversary, to be hanging out on the set of a Blumhouse film, or strutting across the airwaves of a Black Sabbath song.

But the truth is that he hangs out exactly where most Christians would least expect…

Which makes him brilliant, in a way.

Ethelbert William Bullinger (1837-1913)—what a name, eh?—wrote a lot about Satan and his earthly escapades. Most of Bullinger’s thoughts on Satan appeared in the appendices of his Companion Bible.

One of Bullinger’s flourishes that stuck with me is in the 19th appendix, called “The Serpent of Genesis 3.”

This is what he wrote:

Satan’s sphere of activities is in the religious spheres, and not the spheres of crime or immorality; that his battlefield is not the sins arising from human depravity, but the unbelief of the human heart. We are not to look for Satan’s activities to-day in the newspaper press, or the police courts; but in the pulpit and in professors’ chairs.

That’s a bold claim, Mr. Bullinger, sir.

I can already see the clenching jaws of angry Christians, who cannot, for one second, entertain the thought that their pastor, a good man (or woman), I mean, a really good man (or woman), could be under the influence of the Adversary.

But, I care about what Scripture says, and I think you do, too. Therefore, we need to look to God’s inspired words, and give them more weight than our own dim-witted opinions or knee-jerk impressions.

The Adversary targets believers more than anyone else. He homed in on some of the greatest figures in Scriptural history.

Consider the following:

• Satan targeted Eve (Genesis 3:1-6; 2 Corinthians 11:3).

• Satan targeted Job (Job 1:6–12; 2:1–7).

• Satan targeted David (1 Chronicles 21:1).

• Satan targeted Jesus (Matthew 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13).

• Satan targeted Judas Iscariot (Luke 22:3; John 13:2; John 13:27).

• Satan targeted Peter (Luke 22:31–32; Matthew 16:23).

• Satan targeted Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:18).

These verses prove, beyond doubt, that Satan takes a special interest in those God has chosen.

Why?

Because Satan’s a smart dude. Clever, too. Oh, and attractive.

All the men and women who were tempted by Satan found something attractive about the way he tried to mislead them. After all, things are only tempting if there’s something attractive about it.

The only way Satan can mislead believers is by leveraging what tempts them. He preys upon our weaknesses…

And we all have weaknesses.

Satan is something of a missionary. Only, he’s out to thwart, distract, and pull away fellow believers.

He’s not going to waste his time rubbing elbows with folks in the back of pool halls, or sharing a whiskey on the rocks with members of AC/DC.

(PSA: There’s nothing wrong with pool halls or AC/DC. Both are great.)

Satan is bent on convincing vulnerable believers that he, the Adversary, is the good guy. Many of whom turn out to be part of the Christian religion.

How does he do this?

Well…

For one…

He hides behind religious architecture, theological seminaries, and poorly translated Bibles to carry out his clever schemes.

It’s no wonder why Christian architecture usually has no semblance to what is actually written in Scripture. (Someone point me to a Bible verse that features flying babies, with curly red hair and wings.)

It’s no wonder some refer to Christian seminaries as “Christian cemeteries.” (Oftentimes, zealous believers come out of their three-year tenure in seminary as unbelievers. Hmm.)

It’s no wonder virtually every Bible translates “Sheol,” “Hades,” “Gehenna,” and “Tartarus” as “hell” in our English versions. (Give this a read for the truth about the so-called “hell” of Christendom.)

Satan’s whole schtick is to get God’s faithful to believe a lie that appears true.

His goal is to shake our faith just enough to make us question the Creator of the universe. This was Satan’s strategy against Eve. He called into question God’s authority. And it worked.

Satan tried something similar with Jesus, after He was baptized (Matthew 4).

And this schtick has done wonders for him.

Satan Has Hoodwinked Almost All of Christendom

He’s convinced most Christians that there’s only one gospel in the Scriptures—that every book of the Bible is pointing toward the same truth.

This is one of the most devastating developments in all of Christendom. It has led to endless, nonsensical theologies, all in an effort to make sense of Scripture.

Paul was given a distinct evangel to share with the nations, or Uncircumcision, through the risen Christ. Conversely, Peter, and the rest of Jesus’ disciples, carried on the ministry Jesus started to the Circumcision.

In Galatians 2:7-10, Paul writes:

I have been entrusted with the evangel of the Uncircumcision, according as Peter of the Circumcision (for He Who operates in Peter for the apostleship of the Circumcision operates in me also for the nations), and, knowing the grace which is being given to me, James and Cephas and John, who are supposed to be pillars, give to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we, indeed, are to be for the nations, yet they for the Circumcision—only that we may be remembering the poor, which same thing I endeavor also to do.

Many Christians believe Paul and Barnabas took the same evangel to the Uncircumcision as Peter took to the Circumcision.

This is not true. At all.

Paul and Peter did not teach the same things.

Let me mention that one more time, for those in the back.

Paul and Peter did not teach the same thing.

The Adversary would have us believe that Paul and Peter brought the same evangel, only to different groups of people.

If that was the case, why would Paul write, in Romans 16:25, that there was such a thing as “my evangel”?

Now to Him Who is able to establish you in accord with my evangel.

Isn’t this a little selfish of Paul, if he was sharing the same evangel as Jesus, Peter, John, and James?

But Paul wasn’t sharing the same evangel. Not even close.

If more believers understood the distinct evangel brought to the Uncircumcision, through Paul, the bewildering puzzle boxes of theology that has consumed Christendom for centuries wouldn’t even be worth mentioning.

Paul taught justification through faith. Paul taught the despotism of grace (Romans 5:20). Peter never taught this. Neither did John. Neither did James. Neither did—gasp!—Jesus, during his earthly ministry.

Every writer in Scripture, aside from Paul, taught that faith needed works.

(I’ll be going into more detail about this topic in the future. Just you wait. But for now, here’s a little something for further study.)

Paul’s evangel was already being subverted before he died. And it wasn’t being undermined by secular philosophers, or Buddhist monks, or Sam Altman’s great granddad.

In Acts 20:29-31, Paul said:

Now I am aware that after I am out of reach, burdensome wolves will be entering among you, not sparing the flocklet. And from among yourselves will arise men, speaking perverse things to pull away disciples after themselves. Wherefore watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I cease not admonishing each one with tears.

This is what A.E. Knoch (1874-1965) says about this passage in his Concordant Commentary on the New Testament:

The apostle draws a dark picture of apostasy. Wolves from without were to come in. These are spoken of as "burdensome" and probably refers to those who came in to get rather than to give. But even worse was the apostasy within. In Corinth we see the readiness with which the disciples followed a leader even when the leader refused a following. In Ephesus began the destructive work of those who set themselves up as heads of parties or divisions. Had they acted like Paul with the Corinthians the schism would have been healed. But, as they courted a personal following, it has led to the multiplied divisions of today.

Paul's tears were occasioned by the fear that they would turn away from his gospel, as they subsequently did (2 Timothy 1:15).

Paul explicitly warned that some would come in and try to destroy his evangel. This is precisely what Christendom has done, since its inception.

Eventually, the evangel that Paul brought to the Uncircumcision was mixed and tangled with other dogmas and evangels.

It’s safe to say Satan had a hand in that. A big hand, in fact.

The admixture of Paul’s evangel with these other beliefs is how Christendom, in its current iteration, came along.

The ironic thing about it is that they, Christians, cannot even agree amongst themselves on any given theological point, which is why we have hundreds of denominations, proclaiming contradictory truths.

Christians, as a whole, love ritual, and following rules, and condemning others for not believing like they do. I was once was a part of the Christian Club. I know all about how it goes.

But that’s not Paul’s evangel.

With Paul, there are no rituals, or rules.

Paul’s evangel is justification through faith. Paul’s evangel is about the absolute despotism of grace. No works are needed. None. Zero. Zip. (See Romans 3:28; Romans 5:1; Galatians 2:16)

The Body of Christ—those who believe Paul’s evangel, revealed to him by the risen Christ, as distinct from Jesus’ earthly ministry—are to be led by faith, love, and peace.

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:22:

Now youthful desires flee: yet pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with all who are invoking the Lord out of a clean heart.

Paul’s evangel is our lighthouse, our beacon, amid the fog and mist of decayed Christian theology.

If it seems smart, or seems correct, or seems attractive, check it against the Scriptures. If it’s not there, toss it out, whatever it is.

Satan didn’t approach Eve with horns and a red pitchfork.

He (probably) approached her, wearing a monocle, holding an expensive cigar, wearing Polo Black, claiming to be an expert on the finer things (i.e. God’s ways).

Don’t fall for it.