The spiritual battlefield is the measure of worth in the faith

I don't question anybody's salvation, but I do question your worth in Christ's army.

Update: I need to question my own worth in Christ's army and not worry about anybody else's worth. (Important to catch yourself when you're being inane.)

Update 2: Due to a moralizing troll showing up in the comments I withdraw this concession of shortcoming. I just left out of the first paragraph above the subject of the post. When I remember the subject I was dead on accurate in what I said. Carry on.

Questioning the work of the Holy Spirit

S. of Australia said: "I feel the same, sort of since 9/11 actually. That kind of lowered the tone of the whole world. You can expect things to get darker and harder though as we go towards end times."

I know you've said that before, and we've agreed before, but it's worth reiterating that that is a true observation. Obviously we can see it more as time moves on.

One insight I should share with all (unrelated to this topic really). In my life I've really learned that of the Godhead, the Trinity, there is one Person of the Trinity you really don't want to mess with: the Holy Spirit.

Jesus even said in so many words, cuss at me, hurt me, kill me, but don't mess with the one I will send after me, the Holy Spirit. Because after the Holy Spirit you have nothing.

One thing people were doing against me was saying I wasn't a real Christian and I didn't understand Christianity and really harping on that line of attack. That is a type of questioning - or denying - the work of the Holy Spirit. It's a dangerous thing to do. I've noticed in the older, mature theologians that even in the midst of them lambasting false teachers and wrong doctrine they seem to always say that salvation though is between them and God, and they come short of questioning a false teacher's salvation (anyway, let me just say, I saw this recently reading something by Machen). I think it is probably a common experience in a Christian's life where we all see incidences of people getting payback from above for making such accusations, and we all learn from that. I know that witnessing people getting slammed by God makes me very circumspect in never questioning a person's self-identifying of themselves as a Christian, or questioning their salvation. That is between them and God. We all hang by a similar thread (though I believe we can know if we have real faith). So we can critique false doctrine and other people's behavior or what have you, but we shouldn't cross the line and question their salvation, even if we suspect one way or another, because that is between them and God, and if we are wrong we don't want to question or deny the work of the Holy Spirit in another person. - C.

Deep themes

I was on one of those comment threads under a news article, and atheists were doing their usual shallow thing saying what the Bible was, so I was moved to write:

The Bible is about creation - the fall - redemption, and glory.

And left it at that.

These four themes are deep themes in the soul of the world. In all cultures and civilizations. In Human nature. In literature and art and music and nature.

To not see them requires a very deep shallowness.

Sin and grace, sleep and being awake

An email:

I've been reading about an Indian, an American Indian, native American Indian, who lived in the 1700s, who converted to Christianity and was a Calvinist. His name was Samson Occum. He traveled to England and was very fluent in English. He was a Mohegan.

Well, one thing caught my attention. He wrote a sermon on the theme of being asleep and being awake. And what caught my attention was his identifying in a stark and obvious way sleep with sin, and being awake with grace.

I had just never connected those things like that. But you can see it. When asleep (and the biblical sense and the Work [Fourth Way] sense are the same) you are under the power of illusion and all the carnival of sin of the Devil's Kingdom and your own fallen inner nature. Once awake, though, that power is lessened if not defeated. And that is like a state of grace compared to the darkened state of bondage to sleep and sin. Once you come to be able to say, "I am here" (a phrase seen over and over in the Old Testament in various configurations) and you have that internal point of self-awareness that is called in the Work Observing I that is a new state. And by grace you are given it. - C.

ps- The book I've been reading is John Calvin's American Legacy, and one of the chapters is a long essay on Samson Occum.

Seeing other beings...

An email:

One thing about death, or the thought of death, that has made me wary in the past is the part about seeing beings we can't see now. Or not the seeing of them but the fact of them. Like that is unbelievable. Like that is 'fiction realm.'

Then I thought this: it's strange seeing beings here and now. I live in a place where new people are coming and going, and they are like total strangers who appear in your personal space. Kind of strange. Yet they are beings and they exist.

I mean living beings. Some of them are out there now. Outside my room. The new ones are tall, and somewhat shallow. "I walked out of my room and saw tall, shallow beings..."

When we appeared in this world in the tabernacle we are in now, our flesh bodies, we appeared in a room with beings in it. A doctor, nurses, our mother...

The beings we'll see at death may be of a different nature than us. Angels. And then perhaps other humans in spiritual bodies. God created you, and He won't abandon you. - C.

Critical Text scholars say, "Yea, hath God said...?"

Followers of the Critical Text modern versions of the Bible always seem to have a "Yea, hath God said..." vibe about them when they are arguing for their Egyptian and Roman Catholic bibles.

They also are always grinning and mocking when presenting their case.

They also are always demanding concessions from the Bible believing Christian who is holding the Authorized - King James - Version in their hand. "Yea, Christian, concede that that Bible you hold contains error. Concede!"

Then they mock the notion of supernatural preservation, in an atheist style of mocking. Also they mock the notion of an inspired translation, but this usually is a product of their common shallowness regarding works of literature in general.

Even without their mutilated and poisonous manuscripts their modern versions of the Bible in English would be babel if they didn't have the Authorized - King James - Version (the crown of the English Bible) to not only steal from but to guide them every step of the way. It can be said, though, that even the Devil needs a standard so that he has something to deviate from...