Paul's Passing Thoughts

Your problem with God is sin. That is what stands between you and God. However, the true definition of “sin” is a bit tricky. Freedom versus slavery is a dominate theme in the Bible. Now, so-called Bible scholars would say the Bible is using the slave/master motif to illustrate man’s slavery to his own sinful will and nature, but that’s not exactly true.

The fundamental problem with church orthodoxy and religion in general follows: it demands a strict dichotomy between the existence of God and humankind. It makes the only true freedom a freedom from this life. Mortals are in slavery whether they recognize it or not. They are, supposedly, enslaved to their own sinful desires by virtue of being mortal. Hence, there is no real freedom in this life—life equals slavery, and the only freedom is freedom from mortality. The church double-speaks on this by adding the phrase “in Christ” to everything. “Sure, oh my, yes, you are free…’in Christ.'” Translation: in reality, you are enslaved by your mortality, which is synonymous with evil. Jesus is merely a ticket to future freedom. We will let you assume we are speaking of the present in order to deliberately deceive you.  

This is Dualism: the material world is evil and the spiritual world is good. And, since mankind is material, he is inherently evil, or totally depraved. This is a core philosophy that drives all religion and politics. This is why the Evangelical church is getting in bed with Marxism. Fundamentally, they believe the same thing. It’s not hard to understand; during WWII, Communism was better than Fascism and the West took advantage of the division between the two. However, leaders like General George Patton recognized that once Communism was used to get rid of Fascism, we should have moved to eliminate Communism as well because both are anti-freedom. The church believes freedom is a misnomer; like Communism, it believes mankind cannot truly be free and too much freedom merely frees men to be more and more selfish. To the church and religion in general, political and practical freedom gives mankind more freedom to live out the unfettered slavery to total depravity. Hence, the church is either overtly Marxist, confused about the issue, passive, or all show and no go.

This also speaks to human value and ultimately, life value. If you value life, justice is important. Trust me on this: justice and life value are synonymous. The lawless do not value life. You may notice that people have an intuitive need to see justice prevail; that is directly related to an intuitive love for life that is infused into most people born into the world until their consciences are retrained by proponents of Dualism. The church is anti-abortion because it is confused about its own Dualism, but to a great degree, that is changing.

So, the rule of law is all about putting a value on life. Lawlessness dismisses justice because it doesn’t value life.

What does the Bible say about all of this? Well, yes, sin came into the world, but the world is still basically a good thing because God created it. The Bible DOES NOT make a strict dichotomy of good and evil being defined by material and invisible. Dualism is a philosophy that defines sin itself; Dualism is sin’s ultimate organizing principle. And, Dualism requires a middleman. Without a middleman, the individual is free to have a conversation with God directly and decide on individual conclusions. This totally upends Dualism by suggesting the individual has ability. We must have…watch for it…additional mediators between God and man because mankind is unable to understand God.

Dualism is the original political religious doctrine presented to Adam and Eve in the garden. “Did God really say?” Was the serpent not saying that he was a needed mediator between the two (Adam and Eve) and God? Of course he was. Am I saying, for all practical purposes, the serpent was the founder of the church, Communism, and the Democrat party? That’s exactly what I am saying. They are all saying the same thing, and any Churchian, Communist, or Democrat who doesn’t understand that is confused. In simple terms, in the final tribunal of God, every case involves one individual, and there will be no attorneys in the courtroom except Christ. But, as we will see, that analogy is good for this paragraph only and is far from the truth we are looking for. Nevertheless, it would be good to add here that this is the fundamental organizing principle that the founders of America understood: the ability of the individual and personal responsibility. Self-rule, if you will. Historically, this principle has been considered metaphysical blaspheme. But, the results speak for themselves.

The danger in this discussion is to devalue the need to be saved because the Bible indeed teaches that mankind is basically good. Humankind is basically good because God created it and everything God creates is “good and should be received with thanksgiving.” Every individual, according to the Bible, is born with the law of God written on their hearts with the conscience either excusing or accusing them according to their works. The human conscience is part of being created in the image of God. Whether or not an individual lives by their conscience is a paramount mental health issue.

So, while everything we see in the news and trending politics connect to Dualism in some way, what does the Bible say you should do? It says you should be born again. This frees you totally in the here and now. Individualism gives you practical freedom, which leads to a much higher quality of life in the here and now, but the new birth gives you complete freedom for eternity. Both saved and unsaved people do good works, but good works will not save you. Even Hitler did good works. The Bible says demons know the truth, but they aren’t saved either. However, with that said, I believe right motives do save you. Look, regarding the theological dark age we live in, what I refer to as the “Protestant Dark Age,” I do not believe God sends people to hell for not having their biblical ducks lined up perfectly. Fact of the matter is, it’s complicated stuff. On the other hand…

…love is about motives and sin is about enslaving others.

There is an interesting verse in the Bible that states the following: everyone who comes to God must believe he exists and is a rewarder of those who do good. The reward is not salvation; the reward is peace in this life and the life to come. The good doing is not to prevent consequences, but because it is the right and just thing to do, or it is how you would want to be treated. We don’t want to receive help from people who are being compelled do we? No, we want to receive help from people who want to help us, right? Right motives flow from a loving heart. Motives matter. I believe a desire to have the right motives is a godly motive as well. Love is closely connected to godly motives if not the same thing. Being born again can be experiential or non-experiential. I do not think perfect theology is the prerequisite for being born again; I think right desires are. In the Bible, a strong desire to control others is intrinsically linked to condemning sin, usually because you think they need to be controlled by yourself because you are better and smarter than they are.

For purposes of this article, we will look at one way the Bible frames sin. Sin is a master that is controlled by a desire to control others. There you have it; that’s how the Bible defines sin. Sin is a slave master utterly controlled by a desire to control others. The Bible then states what sin uses to control people: condemnation. It goes like this: “Since you are totally depraved, and a loser by my definition, you need to salvage what’s left of your miserable life by obeying my wisdom.” Now, it is interesting how “wisdom” is defined by Dualism. True wisdom understands that there is no wisdom. Got it? True knowing is understanding that man cannot know. True knowledge is knowing that there is no knowledge that can be known. Thinking that you can know is the epitome of arrogance in both the secular and religious realm. Definitive knowledge does not exist in the material realm. If you start paying attention, you will see this everywhere you look. Transgenderism, Common Core Math, the list goes on and on.

So, sin seeks to control you by proving that you are a bad person to yourself which leads to you relinquishing self-rule for your own good and survival. This, again, is everywhere you look, whether Critical Race Theory or a myriad of other trending fads. Self-rule is posed as the ultimate danger to humanity. Sin loves sin because it proves the point. Sin rejoices in evil. Where sin falls short, slander fills the void.

According to the Bible, Christ frees us by eliminating sin’s primary weapon: condemnation. No condemnation, no sin. No sin, no slavery. What the Bible refers to as “the law,” is really a very general term referring to all knowledge about salvation. In one respect, the law is good because it upholds life value and the value of what God has created through justice. In another respect, the law is condemnation, which is what Christ died to eliminate. This is not a legal loophole for those who want to use grace (God’s love in action) for a “cloak of unrighteousness.” Those who are born again aren’t looking for a license to sin, but rather desire to please God. Again, it’s about motives. With that said, our assurance comes from the fact that God has no law that can judge us. We are no longer “under law” but “under grace” (under love). I recently had a discussion with a Catholic about all of this. He is hoping that he has obeyed God well enough to make it into heaven.

Full stop. Many times, when the Bible speaks of law, in context, it is referring to what religions say the law is. In religion, the particular laws of a church fulfil the law of God and thereby prevents condemnation that damns one to hell. In other words, mediation through church authority. Only problem is, Christ cancelled all condemnation in all laws. I shared that with this fellow. “What are you talking about? Christ died to remove all condemnation from the law. When you appear before God, he will have no law that can condemn you.” ‘But I don’t keep the law perfectly.’ “Well, do you keep the law at all because you want to please God?” ‘Of course I do!’ “Well, there you go, the Bible says love fulfills the whole law, so, end of discussion.” In other words, all church does (whether Catholic or Protestant) is keep people under the fear of the law’s condemnation for purposes of pseudo-mediation.

The Bible also says that all people born into the world are born into the law’s condemnation. They are born “under law.” They are under condemnation. This doesn’t mean they can do no good; it means the good they do can’t save them. Since everyone is born under law, and Christ died to end the law, he died for everyone. The way the Bible frames this is interesting. The world only has two masters: Sin, and Christ—Christ has already purchased everyone’s freedom from the Sin master through his death. All those who freely except the purchase and flee to the other master who they rightfully belong to are born again. The Bible says we therefore die with Christ and are resurrected with him. This is the new birth. The old us born under law dies with Christ, and like all people who die, can no longer be indicted by law, and are resurrected to a new person who is free to serve the law in the ways of love with no condemnation (Romans 7). Of course, the new birth changes our heart to motives that match those desires. This moment of new birth may be experiential or not. What matters is what you believe and what you want to do. That’s what saves you and you don’t need a church or anyone else but Christ to do it. And, it is a one-time and for all-time event.

The new birth changes your relationship to the law from condemnation to love. What now guides your actions is the following question: is it an act of love? Not a concern for consequences; Christ died to end the consequences anyway. There are no consequences. This truth clarifies motives.

Now, if you make a foolish decision in the present day you may temporarily suffer the condemnation of a civil government. That is a whole other subject not being discussed here.

Another biblical facet of this is interesting. The new birth is a change of slaveries leading to a different direction and not a perfection. This truth can primarily be seen in Romans chapter 6. You are transformed from being enslaved by sin to being enslaved by righteousness.  You were formerly enslaved to sin, but free to do good, but now are enslaved to righteousness, and free to sin. In other words, slavery and freedom are switched leading to a different life direction, not necessarily a perfection. I may not be remembering this correctly, but I believe electrical current flows from negative to positive with the efficiency of the current being determined by the strength or weaknesses of the circuit. It’s kinda like that. The new birth changes the flow of current by reversing slavery and freedom.

In regard to how the new birth changes our relationship to the law, there is a famine in our land. In regard to truth about the new birth, a dark age. I hope this post is helpful in overcoming that. There is a true freedom from fear and condemnation in the present. Holiness is also present. We are to be holy as our Father in heaven is holy. The written code of the law is not the standard for that, the new birth is. We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

paul