This Steve Rafalsky quote on spiritual reality is worth posting again

"To me, who grew up in the sixties, with the drugs, Eastern spiritual paths, occult teachings (as in Theosophy, etc) functioning and being conscious in the spiritual or psychic realms is the cultural context I live in;

[-main point-]

in other words, the secular world of mere material reality is as a cardboard prop in denial of God’s world, with its angelic creatures, demonic invaders, and humans who ally themselves with God or His adversaries.

When I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy – as a Christian, but backslidden – it was a visionary work of sorts, even though an artistic literary production, and in the fantasy genre. [I.e. he is saying a work like the Lord of the Rings attempts to depict this reality of spiritual light and darkness and conflict behind mere material reality...]

The reality I live in is not the “mere material reality” of many unbelievers. I live in, and participate in, the Global Arena of Consciousness, which is located on Apokalypse Field outside the gates of Eden.

[. . .]

The world I occupy is filled with two kinds of people, the unregenerate, and the regenerate – or, in modern parlance, the living dead – zombie, vampire, werewolf – those covered with wondrous skin coverings but within are progeny of the Devil; and the children of light, daughters and sons of the Most High God, filled with His Spirit, and in fierce spiritual combat with the living dead, whom they nonetheless seek to win over to the Light. In the global arena – or the world stage – all manner of voices lifted up, as though a great gladiatorial combat of spiritual warriors, seeking to establish vision of the truth, of the real. Except for the politicians and military – who impact the physical realm greatly – most of the voices lifted up are in the occult and mental regions. This is the world I – and I must say we all, conscious of it or not – live in."

This quote is from a post he wrote on the PuritanBoard.

White Horse Inn transcript (seminary approved intellectual Christian talk)

-We've got a new poll!
-Dear God, what are the unwashed getting wrong now?
-We asked 100 Christians outside some kind of Christian gathering if this statement were true: Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell. Ninety percent agreed with that statement.
-Dear God...
-Unbelievable...
-If the respondents were more educated (or intelligent) we could give them the benefit of the doubt that they were answering based on what the rather simple question basically is saying rather than based on a typically ignorant belief in works righteousness.
-These were evangelicals...
-Ah oh. Not a high I.Q. crowd. Let's just assume they are ignorant of the Gospel, guys.
-Yes.
-This reminds me when I met a Christian who said there is no apple in Genesis.
-Is there an apple in Genesis?
-It's clearly *implied.*
-Certainly, so this lay person thought he was showing you up.
-In the old days that would be worth three years in a dark hole.
-Amen.
-Amen.
-Amen.
-Scott Hahn has a good take on this form of modern cultural ignorance. He states that in a better era there were solid church organizations that policed what people learned.
-Jesuits.
-Yes!
-Dominicans too.
-But some of them were Jesuits too, I believe.
-I think you may be right.
-Hahn is a good seminary man.
-Which is what people don't generally realize about the so-called Puritans.
-Not a lot of seminary degrees there!
-Uh, noooo??? Hello?
-Did 'Puritans' even exist?
-There were some enthusiasts who wrote about gnostic staple nonsense such as regeneration and spiritual warfare.
-This is not the Gospel. This has no place in orthodox Christianity.
-Small 'o' orthodoxy!
-But of course!
-Has Scott Hahn written anything condemning regeneration?
-I'm sure he has. I would be surprised if he hasn't written on that important theme.
-Especially in today's culture of general biblical ignorance.
-This notion of regeneration is perhaps more pernicious today than ever before.
-King James Bible white trash alert!
-Oh, and look! there's demons all around me! Watch, I'll kill them with my sword...!
-Ha, ha, ha!!!
-Stop!
-A bad example!!!
-Just kidding, guys.
-Was that a sword from Stars Wars or something?
-But listen, ask people what the Gospel is and you are likely to get as many different answers as there are I.Q. points in the heads of the average evangelical Christian.
-That would be under 100, no?
-99 is still a lot!
-I pulled a hamstring playing wiffle ball.
-God has a plan for your life, sir!
-Evil wiffle ball!
-Did the crowd demand we make the country safe from wiffle balls?
-And you know he had a crowd of witnesses for this game of wiffle ball.
-Listen, we had a few. They called for legislation.
-Getting back on topic.
-I was on topic.
-If the topic is the general ignorance of un-seminaried evangelicals!

(May I spare the reading audience the rest of this transcript? Michael Horton, the guy who sounds like he's sixteen years old, basically finished with a litany of evidence that nobody knows anything about the Gospel and then he stated evidence for more things to be aghast about regarding modern day evangelicalism. Then he announced the next program's theme which will be more evidence that nobody knows anything about the Gospel. More poll questions coming up as well, and those man-on-the-street Q and A's which demonstrate that when you confront a pedestrian on his way to work or lunch with a theological question they often can't give you a crisp, smart, well-defined response immediately. Which is typical of our modern culture of biblical ignorance. The rest of the crew then sighed and verbally threw up their hands. The end.)

This Bible is strange, why is it relevant to me?

This Bible is strange, why is it relevant to me? The Bible is strange, no doubt. It requires alot of knowledge and effort to see just its relevance to a person living in a place and time very far away from what is narrated in the Bible.

Here's the concrete answer to the question "This Bible is strange, why is it relevant to me?": It's relevant to you because you are an Israelite. You are of the people called Israel. The Bible is about your people, once you are joined to Christ - King of the Israelites - by faith. You are spiritual Israel. You don't become one of Israel by blood, but by faith and the Spirit. So the Bible and all its seemingly strange contents are relevant to you because you are reading about your people and your history. Not to mention God's plan of redemption for you from eternity to eternity.

'Israel' just means the royal people. You are of the royal race (not by blood but by faith) once you are regenerated by the Word and the Spirit and converted (faith and repentance).

So this puts the Bible and all its strange contents into context.

It should be added: the name Israel carries a sense of having prevailed with God. Heaven taken by force. Prevailing in prayer, etc. Then given power to prevail, by the power of God, over men. Becoming a Prince of God.

Mat 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

So, the Bible is as relevant to you as your own history and future are relevant to you.

Originally written 7.05.2007

Doing that rather than that

In terms of will, acting from God's will, acting from self-will:

The better part of me is God. The worse part of me is me.

A seminary professor discourses on bible versions

Another Kindergarten presentation on the most foundational issue for a Christian. And love the part about 'elders' and 'ministers' having the role of teaching the difficult parts of the Bible to ...what, 'lay' people? Man-fearing churchian 'elders' who couldn't demonstrate understanding of the Word of God if you put a gun to their vain, man-fearing heads. And ministers trained in 'seminaries' dumber than any John Shelby Spong or Tammy Faye Bakker when it comes to the Word of God. Seminary graduates who can't even discern the Word of God, let alone who have the power of attention to actually engage it in a complete and dedicated way.

Good God, the fact that you are a professor in an institution that 'trains' Christians is very depressing, but not surprising.

Christians are prophets, priests, and kings. We don't get taught by man. We fear God and are taught by God. We discern you to be of the devil. And a particularly useless little sop of the devil at that.

Why aren't God's elect walking through the doors of your little man-fearing, village of morality 'churches'? Because God's elect know the voice of the Shepherd, and it isn't in your satanic, Romanist (per)versions you call bibles (bible products, actually) nor is it in the voice of your indoctrinated-by-liberals seminary graduates who have the same level of understanding as modern day graduates of overtaken-by-the-left ivy league schools like Barack and half his administration and half the journalists who drool over him as if he is their long-awaited anti-Christ.

Get understanding, professor. You don't have it currently. Here is what you do: fear God, you worthless sop. Fear God alone. Stop fearing and revering shit-ass man, including your own vain, useless, juvenile self.