What Guided the Thinking of Charles Taze Russell?
History Hidden
What Guided the Thinking of Charles Taze Russell?
History Hidden
First, let us consider what is NOT evidence of being holy.
Some confuse ‘holiness’ with a superficial piousness or with a sanctimonious behavior of superiority above others.
Some synonyms for pious are: sanctimonious · self-righteous · holier-than-thou · pietistic · churchy · religiose · Pharisaic.
You note that “pharisaic’ is often used instead of the term ‘pious’.
The Pharisees were religious bullies known for self-righteous behavior and a condemning attitude toward those who would not follow their notion of what ‘holiness’ is.
This behavior is not scriptural holiness.
You may have also noticed the term ‘churchy’ which describes a person who conforms or adheres rigorously to the practices or creeds of a particular denomination group while condemning everyone else who doesn’t. This too is not a mark of true holiness.
False piety makes a person think they are better than other people according to their own set of rules; therefore, they believe, ‘God loves and accepts us while rejecting anyone who doesn’t agree with or obey our set of rules’.
This is nothing more than self-righteousness. A case of a person having declared themselves righteous.
This is often accompanied by grandiose acts like holding one’s head aloof or perhaps even the way a person may walk along; gliding with an air of regality (high and mighty).
An air of superiority is not holiness. Real holiness is not a performance!
So what did God mean when he said concerning His chosen nation, “You are to be holy to Me because I, Yahuah, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be Mine”? (Leviticus 20:26)
In three words: separate, pure, and clean. The next logical question would be “How”?
We get an idea from the words of Peter found at 1Peter 1:15,16:
“But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.”
What did Peter mean?
Holiness is not merely a spiritual state. The fact of the matter is that often spirituality can be rooted in un-holiness. As you continue to read, you will find examples of un-holy spirituality among God’s chosen people.
Holiness Involves Keeping Separate
Holiness is to keep ones self separate and morally clean in order to serve in behalf of others. It was God’s plan that the nation of Israel was to be a “kingdom of priest” separated from the rest of the nations.
Exodus 19:5,6
5 Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people,
6 a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests.”
Further, God told Moses to give this instruction to the people of Israel:
Leviticus 19:2
“Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy”.
In the Law, God gave the command not to intermingle with foreign nations and even told them why.
Deuteronomy 7:2-4
2 When the Lord your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy.
3 Do not marry any of them, and do not let your children marry any of them,
4 because then they would lead your children away from the Lord to worship other gods. If that happens, the Lord will be angry with you and destroy you at once.
History shows that they did not keep God’s commandment and kept mixing with the nations God had told them they must not mix with.
As a result, they kept making themselves unclean with the corruption of foreign nations.
They assimilated these foreign nation’s practices; often which involved immorality and pagan worship.
Over the history of ancient Israel, they would never keep clean. Yet, they kept up a superficial pretense that they were holy (a ritualistic outward appearance of devotion). God stated this was the case to the prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 29:13
13 The Lord said, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized”.
This was the behavior in the days of the reign of King Josiah. While there was a priesthood going about the daily ritual duties of the Temple, they and the majority of the Judean two-tribe kingdom were in no sense keeping themselves clean and holy.
It was in this time of idolatry and spiritual adultery with other gods when Josiah came to power in Judah.
The split away ten tribe kingdom to the north had already had fallen into captivity due to its sins against Almighty God. God had used mighty Assyria as an instrument of correction to punish Israel and they already had been taken into captivity.
This is how the prophet Jeremiah described the situation:
Jeremiah 3:8-10
8 “observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce. Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself.
9 Indifferent to her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
10 Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to Me with all her heart—only in pretense.”
They only maintained a pretense of faithfulness and holiness, Again true holiness is not an act.
King Josiah- An Example of Holy Conduct
2 Kings 22:1, 2 tells us:
1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from the town of Bozkath.
2 Josiah did what was pleasing to the Lord; he followed the example of his ancestor King David, strictly obeying all the laws of God.
King Josiah did not follow the course of disobedience that previous kings had followed. His father, King Amon and his grandfather King Manasseh both committed evil sins.
Manasseh was responsible for rebuilding the pagan high places that King Hezekiah had torn down. Amon worshiped and offered sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made.
Manasseh and Amon did not follow the instructions God gave concerning the king:
Deuteronomy 17:18-20
18 When he becomes king, he is to have a copy of the book of God’s laws and teachings made from the original copy kept by the Levitical priests.
19 He is to keep this book near him and read from it all his life, so that he will learn to honor the Lord and to obey faithfully everything that is commanded in it.
20 This will keep him from thinking that he is better than other Israelites and from disobeying the Lord’s commands in any way. Then he will reign for many years, and his descendants will rule Israel for many generations.
Deuteronomy 17:20 talks about the ideal king: “that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.”
King Josiah met God’s righteous standards.
The Second Book of Kings informs us that he went on a campaign to restore pure worship and make the nation holy again.
2Kings 23:1-9
1 King Josiah summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 and together they went to the Temple, accompanied by the priests and the prophets and all the rest of the people, rich and poor alike. Before them all the king read aloud the whole book of the covenant which had been found in the Temple.
3 He stood by the royal column and made a covenant with the Lord to obey him, to keep his laws and commands with all his heart and soul, and to put into practice the demands attached to the covenant, as written in the book. And all the people promised to keep the covenant.
4 Then Josiah ordered the High Priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the guards on duty at the entrance to the Temple to bring out of the Temple all the objects used in the worship of Baal, of the goddess Asherah, and of the stars. The king burned all these objects outside the city near Kidron Valley and then had the ashes taken to Bethel.
5 He removed from office the priests that the kings of Judah had ordained to offer sacrifices on the pagan altars in the cities of Judah and in places near Jerusalem—all the priests who offered sacrifices to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars.
6 He removed from the Temple the symbol of the goddess Asherah, took it out of the city to Kidron Valley, burned it, pounded its ashes to dust, and scattered it over the public burying ground.
7 He destroyed the living quarters in the Temple occupied by the temple prostitutes. (It was there that women wove robes used in the worship of Asherah.)
8 He brought to Jerusalem the priests who were in the cities of Judah, and throughout the whole country he desecrated the altars where they had offered sacrifices. He also tore down the altars dedicated to the goat demons near the gate built by Joshua, the city governor, which was to the left of the main gate as one enters the city.
9 Those priests were not allowed to serve in the Temple, but they could eat the unleavened bread provided for their fellow priests.
King Josiah’s example is a fine example for us to follow because it is an example of true holy conduct. Do you feel as Josiah felt?
Separation of the Servants of the House of God

Within the nation itself, the priest’ were to further separate themselves as a group from those Israelites who were not of the priesthood.
The separation and standard of cleanliness of the priesthood is perhaps the best example to examine what is required to keep clean and holy in God’s sight.
Throughout the Old Testament, the term priest (kōhēn) is commonly used to refer to an official who was set apart from the rest of the community in order to carry out certain duties associated with worship and sacrifice.
The fact that they served in the Holy Temple of God, their sacred duties, and the fact that they were responsible for handling the Temple utensils which were considered “holy vessels” made cleanliness on the part of the priesthood extremely important.
They were required to obey certain restriction and were required to perform certain acts that the common people were not required to do.
While serving in the Temple, priest’ were required to literally wash themselves before coming near the alter or the Tabernacle.
Exodus 30:17-21
17 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
18 “You shall also make a basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, in which to wash. You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.
19 Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it.
20 When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the LORD.
21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they not die: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations.”
As “ministers of the LORD” (Joel 1:9; 2:17), priests functioned as mediators in God’s presence and were responsible for the day-to-day operation in the Temple.
The priests had to be ritually clean (tahor) in order to serve at the Temple, and if he had somehow become ritually unclean (tamay), he would have restored himself with the passing of time and by bathing his whole body in fresh, ritually clean (tahor) water, according to Leviticus 15.
From the physical standpoint, a priest was considered clean when any obvious indications of dirt or similar defilement have been removed.
A clean priest was also one who habitually maintains a pattern of personal cleanliness and hygiene, while at the same time taking care to ensure that his habitat was in a clean condition.
Most important however were matters concerning moral cleanness.
For the Hebrews, holiness demanded that they should reflect in their living and thinking the exalted moral and spiritual qualities of God had revealed in His laws.
Cleanness was fundamental to the establishing and preservation of holiness in the Israelite community.
As distinct from any other nation, the Hebrews were provided with specific instructions concerning cleanness and how to recover it when it had been lost through carelessness or disobedience.
The Hebrew people were to manifest their moral cleanness by demonstrating it in daily life, giving proof that they were living by God’s high moral standards and His high ethical qualities of absolute purity, mercy, justice, and grace.
Not being perfect, they had to avail themselves to God’s provisions for them to be cleansed and to remain clean.
One provision to remain clean has was mentioned previously and that was the commandment not to mix with foreign nations.
These nations did not worship Yahuah. They did follow His commandments. They could only serve to corrupt His people.
Jesus Unique and Separate-How?
Christ is uniquely set apart and separate from all other creation as the only begotten child of God. He, like God his Father is peerless. He was individually singled out and remained separate from the angels whom he is not one of.
A reading of Revelation chapter 5 indicates that the angels were not familiar with the Lord until he was introduced to them at the time he was led in and entered the Sanctuary.
If you reason on the matter, why would the “strong angel” spoken of in Revelation 5:2 ask, “Who is worthy” to enter the Most Holy and receive the scroll”, if everyone present knew of Christ the son of God?
There was silence and a search was made of all creation. But no one worthy could be found. John wept. But then the Lord is led in.
Revelation 5:1-7
5 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof”?
3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
7 And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
Jesus had lived a separate existence until that time. He was also separate and unique as his Father, and he is unique being the only begotten son of God.
This separation is part of the Biblical view of what holiness is. This is why the opposite of something being ‘holy’ is something that is said to be ‘mundane’ or ‘profane’ or ‘ordinary’.
To be holy is to be removed from the realm of the ordinary.
The Hebrews lived lives separately, according to the Torah’s commandments, precisely because God is separate.
The highest form of worship is to imitate what is the one being worshiped. Elohim lives separate and they were to keep separate as a people from all other nations.
Man must strive to be a reflection of his Creator and His holiness.
Following the example of the past, if Christian life is to be holy for the assembly, then the elect brothers of Christ must take care to be especially holy.
They have been distinctively sanctified by the Creator Himself and singled out for a life dedicated to Him. Elohim draws them to His son.
They remain sanctified by remaining clean. They remain clean by their obedience to the commandments found in His word the Bible.
As Christian disciples of Christ, we have been given a similar command that was given to the ancient Hebrew nation.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
17 Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the LORD. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
18 And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.”
We are given this commandment for all the same reasons God gave this commandment to the ancient Hebrews.
If we disregard it, we become unclean by being corrupted by practices which unbelievers consider to be acceptable, but the Bible condemns.
As a Christian brotherhood, we are not curtained off like the Hebrew nation was, living in one central places within designated geographical boundaries.
No, we are mixed among all types of people and spread throughout the whole world. All the more so, we must be just as careful about whom we have association with.
This is particularly true within the professed Christian body because that is the most likely place one may be corrupted. Note Paul’s words of counsel:
1 Corinthians 5:9-10:
9 In the letter that I wrote you I told you not to associate with immoral people.
10 Now I did not mean pagans who are immoral or greedy or are thieves, or who worship idols. To avoid them you would have to get out of the world completely.
Because of the world we live in, where we live, where we work or go to school, or where we shop it is impossible not to have some contact with immoral people.
But that is not true when it comes to association with those who professed be Christian disciples.
If we are true Christian believer, we have an obligation to God and Christ to avoid people with unclean practices.
We must be holy
Paul also gave this admonition:
2 Corinthians 6:17
17 Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the LORD. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
If we unintentionally become unclean, we must avail ourselves to God’s means to be cleansed.
There was such a provision for the Hebrews with the Law given to Moses by God.
Leviticus 5:2-3, 5
2 “‘If anyone becomes aware that they are guilty-if they unwittingly touch anything ceremonially unclean (whether the carcass of an unclean animal, wild or domestic, or of any unclean creature that moves along the ground) and they are unaware that they have become unclean, but then they come to realize their guilt;
3 or if they touch human uncleanness (anything that would make them unclean) even though they are unaware of it, but then they learn of it and realize their guilt;
5 When you are guilty, you must confess the sin,
Just as it was necessary to appear before the high priest and confess their sin to be forgiven and then be prescribe the necessary course of action to be cleansed, it is also true today.
Otherwise, we will remain unclean. Today, the High Priest exist in the Heavenly temple, and we must confess our sins to him.
If we sincerely are repentant, he will forgive us an prescribe the necessary course we need to submit ourselves to in order to be cleansed.
John wrote:
1 John 2:1
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
But we will never receive that help if we do not present ourselves before the High Priest.
Review
God has commanded His people, “You are to be holy to Me because I, Yahweh, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be Mine”. (Leviticus 20:26)
God himself is called holy, because He is completely separate; unique and unequaled, as is His son our Lord and High Priest Jesus Christ.
Nothing thing nor no one can be compared to Him because He is peerless.
He is the Creator of the universe and all existence and is uniquely different from anything or anyone else that exists.
It is in this sense that His obedient children can be collectively called a “holy nation”.
We are to be a nation set apart from all others, completely different from any other, whose Divinely mandated lifestyle serves as living proof that God is walking in our in its midst.
For us to remain holy, we must reject all ungodly thinking and behavior. We cannot allow ourselves to socially mix with those who defy God and His commandments. Their thinking and behaviors will eventually corrupt us.
We must reject all apostasy against God, even by those in positions of leadership like those we considered that included kings and priests.
We learn what is means to be holy and how to conduct ourselves in holiness by examining God’s written word just as faithful King Josiah did.
Holiness is not self-righteous piety like that the Pharisees demonstrated. It is not churchy, holier-than-thou behavior. It is not a false front.
Jesus described people like this best:
Matthew 23:27
27 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside”.
We do not want to be like the Pharisees and their disciples.
In order to be holy, God has command that we listen to and follow His son, the Christ as our Master (Matthew 17:5). We do not exist in a holy state if we reject Christ.
Jesus serves as High Priest in the Heavenly Temple. And now as in the past, when we somehow become unclean, we must present ourselves before the High Priest in order to be forgiven our sins and to be cleansed in order to stay holy.
Holiness is pure worship of God on His terms and according to His commandments.
If we worship God in this way, we will keep ourselves holy in His sight.
(This post was originally published August 3, 2021)Does the Holy Bible Teach Jesus was God on Earth? Were the Israelites expecting Elohim Almighty himself to descend from Heaven to Earth as Messiah? Is the trinity belief simply a version of pagan polytheism?
Matt3 18:6
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea. shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about
In the Hebrew Bible, the term for “stumbling block” is Biblical Hebrew miḵšōl (מִכְשׁוֹל). In the Septuagint, miḵšōl is translated into Koine Greek skandalon (σκανδαλον), a word which occurs only in Hellenistic literature, in the sense “snare for an enemy; cause of moral stumbling”.
In Judaism, the idea of God as a duality or trinity is heretical and rightfully so— it is even considered by some polytheistic. According to Judaic beliefs, the Torah rules out a trinitarian God in Deuteronomy (6:4): “Hear Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.”
The trinity teaching immediately turns orthodox Jews away from the gospel message of Christ. It is a deliberate stumbling block set in place to confuse would-be believers and particularly prospective Jewish converts.
Trinitarians know that this false teaching will shut the minds of those who know there is but one Elohim. (Deuteronomy 6:4)
This video was produced by a Jewish convert to Christianity who offers a Biblically based, sound argument as to why Yeshua (Jesus) was NOT God on Earth.
If you are uncertain about this topic, you will find this video very enlightening.
Policing Your Thoughts
The term ‘thought police’ describes a group of people who aim or are seen as aiming to suppress ideas that deviate from the way of thinking that they believe to be correct.
It was coined in the novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ by the author George Orwell. The Thought Police are secret police of a superstate, who discover and punish thoughtcrime, personal and political thoughts unapproved by the regime.
That is what is happening today. Most notoriously it is happening in Western countries and governmental authorities are the enforcers.
People are being persecuted for upholding their own beliefs all in the name of “social tolerance”.
But there is no tolerance of thoughts and beliefs which are outside those these thought police find acceptable.
Tolerating and condoning somethings are two different things.
People are being forced in their schools and in their workplaces to condone things they conscientiously object to.

Where does religious freedom fit into this scenario?
Dr Frank Turek was fired from his job at Cisco Systems because he wrote a book that the thought police at his workplace disapproved of.
Frank did nothing in the workplace that reflected his views, nor did he have any conversations in the workplace about the topic of his book. The employer simply found out about the book and fired him.
This is the dilemma many people Christian and non-Christians are faced with. If you don’t conform, you will be excluded or expelled from school classes. If you refuse, you will lose your job and means of survival.
Revelation 13:15-17
15 It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast could both speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
16 He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead;
17 and that no one could be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Unless you violate God’s commandments and your own conscience, you will be persecuted.
I recently read a remark that gave the impression that its only Christians who find these things objectionable. That is so far from reality.
The fact is that people from all walks of life and differing belief systems are in opposition to the imposing of these social engineering programs.
Even Richard Dawkins, the well known atheist apologist, is against what is going on. He got “cancelled” too. You must conform to the program.
So…no its not just Christians.

Innate RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES
Innate RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES
A contemporary religion essay by R. Weathers and J.b.Wilhelm
Few people give much thought to the natural characteristics we are born with, yet which have such profound effects on our lives and how we live our lives. We all have innate qualities programmed into our brains which are necessary to our survival. While things such as breathing, reacting to pain or discomfort, and forming human bonds are things we take for granted and likely write off as instinctual, they are as a matter of fact attributable to unconscious activity in our brains. They have been pre-programmed into our brains with the same level of scientific wonder that permeates the entire human being as a living organism within nature. They are innate qualities every normal human being is endowed with from the time of his or her birth onward.
Our ability to experience pleasure, to enjoy our surroundings, to think in ways which bring us benefits and even the matter of pro-creation are other innate characteristics which lend meaning to our lives. For those who believe the earth and its inhabitants are no mere accident of circumstance against impossible odds, this portends the existence of an intelligence behind what in minimal terms can be seen as a truly marvelous and complex creation. They see a creator as the one responsible for endowing humans with these innate qualities.
This raises the question of whether there are other innate characteristics in humans which while being less obvious to us may nonetheless have an influence on the lives we live here on this earth.
Men have come to recognize innate qualities humans possess as tantamount to natural rights. While Natural rights (inalienable rights) are primarily viewed by society in a purely constitutional or political sense, one must dig deeper in order to attach meaning to what violations of such rights imply. Since they are deemed to be natural, that is innate to our own nature as humans, and by virtue of their own nature, “God-Given”, they are neither granted nor revocable by man-made legislation or human directive.
This introduces a subject which the intellectual world of our own time finds little interest in exploring. That is; “God Given” responsibilities in connection with those ‘Innate Rights’. Those responsibilities connected to rights the creator has endowed every human being with are of such little interest to the general population of our day that one may get the idea they are deliberately being avoided by most people as subjects for any kind of in-depth discussion.
This may very well be because a true understanding of those innate qualities and responsibilities the creator endows every human being with from the date of his or her birth will reveal a grave deficiency in a person’s relationship with their creator.
INNATE NATURE of INALIENABLE ATTRIBUTES
1. The INNATE NATURE of INALIENABLE ATTRIBUTES including rights and responsibilities can be seen as being connected to individual human rights. These are attributes which humans were endowed with by their creator as a priori from the beginning of their creation. Since they originate with the creator, who is GOD ALMIGHTY (YHWH), they also carry an implication of innate responsibilities HE attaches to them. These attributes are specific human skills and qualities which are not learned or acquired after birth occurs. They are built-in and ready for further development immediately upon birth. For example, no one has to teach a new-born baby to cry when it needs attention. While we may explain such things as instinctual the fact remains that they have been designed and imbued in living humans as skills necessary to their existence by a form of intelligence we know as GOD.
While we readily accept that babies instinctively know to nurse at their mother’s breast and innately possess skills to get attention to their needs by crying, new-born infants have other skills and abilities which we may not be so well aware of. We largely take these for granted and give little thought to the fact that these are inherent in the very nature of humans at their birth. Most of them fall into the category of mental skills and dictate our mental potential for growth and development. Examples of these include our ability to learn and our ability to remember that which we acquire as new knowledge or understanding.
We now know scientifically that all the physiological systems that sustain our lives and allow us to function as living human beings are controlled by the brain. More often than not these systems function automatically, without the need for us to think consciously about them. This is true of our respiratory and digestive systems. It is also true of our ability to emit sounds, to receive visual images by means of our eyes, and of auditory nerves which enable us to differentiate sounds around us. We are also born with other sensory organs such as olfactory organs which enable us to differentiate odors and a complex system of nerves which enable us to feel stimulation by things we experience or come into contact with.
In addition to these innate abilities which enable us to sustain our existence as humans, we are endowed with additional innate characteristics which mostly determine the quality of the life we live. While the qualities mentioned above are largely necessary for our physical survival there are others, often unappreciated by most people, also innate, also connected with the brain’s function. These are attributes and responsibilities necessary for our functioning as members of a communal society within our own species. Also for us remaining in harmony with the rest of creation on the planet we call our earthly home.
In this area ‘responsibility’ plays an important role in that while we all have these potentials within us, we are individually responsible for their use and for how we apply them in our own lives. For example, we find inborn within the youngest of our children, tendencies to love, be loved, to share what they have with others and an innocent kindness that unfortunately in many cases, becomes obscured later by parental instruction. They start out with these attributes till they are taught behaviors which override them. They learn from exposure to elders who have themselves unlearned these characteristics and adopted selfishness instead. Things such as innocent kindness and natural trust become inhibited and even dormant.
These innate tendencies are replaced with the values and beliefs parents and other human role models have themselves accumulated from the system they have been brought up under. That system is pervasive worldwide and dictates that young children must be taught that things like personal possessiveness, city, state and national borders and a form of personal greed are somewhat necessary to exist in the society we live in. These are all forms of a “Me First” mentality. Likewise, fences, locks on doors and all sorts of protective devices in a society where in many cases even ones neighbor may not be trusted, are all things children are taught a need for in their early formative years. Innate inclinations toward personal and communal sharing are replaced by personal and communal selfishness in developing children. While these supplant qualities the creator has implanted in new-born children, they are easily adopted, and then retained for life, according to what the Bible sets forth as a natural truth about human development.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it. JPS
Unfortunately, in all too many cases this principle provided by our creator for the development of God-loving adults has been adapted by forces opposing God in furthering their own agendas.
“The Spiritual Connection to our Brains”
Additional to those attributes incidental to individual and collective physical survival on earth, according to the Bible, all humans are also endowed with innate abilities essential to a relationship with Elohim God, the creator. These fall into a category referred to as our “spiritual side”. This is; that part of our mentality encompassing those brain functions our creator has endowed us with pertaining to our relationship with him as the ‘Creator’.
Each of us has an innate connection to our creator and an ability to communicate our desires and wishes to him. We also have an intrinsic ability to receive communications from him through the means of natural mechanisms he has designed into our brains.
Today religious persons refer to this communication as the power of prayer. Scientifically it may be defined as “thought transfer”, where a series of our thoughts which take the form of neuron patterns formed in our brains may be read by God and then responded to by his forming new neuron patterns in our brains, (thoughts) replying to our original thoughts. This process may seem foreign to some people. However, those who understand it are truly able to open their minds to two-way communication with their creator.
The Scientific Side of Spiritual Thinking
To shed a scientific perspective on this process, recent science has recognized ‘thoughts’ as measurable physical things. Thoughts are a literal electro-chemical firing of neurodes or neuron patterns. These electro-chemical patterns have become recognizable, readable and recordable by means of computers, aided by scanning devices developed in recent years.
All information that comes into our brain from the outside as well as the thoughts we form in our own minds are potentially seen to be stored as neuron patterns or neurodes in our brain. It is these neuron patterns which then re-fire as thoughts. When taken as a pattern in groups, they become what we refer to metaphorically as light (enlightenment). These patterns, create beliefs based upon which neuron patterns fire the strongest. The belief when it becomes fertile as a desire leads us to action or behavior. The Bible writer James relates how a desire opposed to God’s will (referred to as sinful by him), takes us through a thought process that eventually leads us to the consequences for the behavior our thoughts trigger.
James 1:14-15 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.NKJ
Thus when those naturally existing neuron patterns are overridden by new, conflicting patterns impressed through repetition and use, the new ones become more strongly established, and supplant the earlier patterns. The old ones regress or shall we say become subordinate in our vast store of neurodes. The newer ones fire first on an everyday basis supplanting older ones and they become the beliefs that motivate our behavior. It is our beliefs that control our attitudes, it is our attitudes that control our feelings, and it is our feelings that control our behavior.
(Psychology, both a science and an art, based on 19th century thinking did not fully understand many recently discovered operational mechanisms of the human brain. Thus, while psychology has much to contribute in the field of human relations, it may be un-mindful in its application of some modern-day neuro science (Brain Science) discoveries. Also, missing or incomplete is recognition of the Creator’s viewpoint concerning human relationships with him and how our brain is involved in them. Therefore, Psychology as a discipline should be viewed as a work in progress subject at the very least to re-evaluation in light of more recent discoveries in functional brain science and also consideration of the creators viewpoint as presented in scripture)
Based on information recently discovered, the more a given set of neuron patterns fire, the more it becomes a belief. Beliefs are the engines that drive behavior. Your actions, behavior, success, and level of achievements are controlled biologically by what neuron patterns fire in your brain. Neuron patterns firing in your brain are real. They are physical. They are observable and even measurable via today’s scanning devices. They are changeable and they are the basis of every action you take. Your mind is what your brain does. You are what your mind is.
When pre-existing neuron patterns are displaced by newer, more frequently fired patterns, the earlier ones regress and the new ones become mentally operative in determining our behavior. This is essentially what happens to us as young infants. Those neuron patterns that our creator endowed us with were over ridden by new patterns which were implanted and led to beliefs which trigger our behavior. As long as they are reinforced by repetition, in various ways over the years of our lifetime they will control our actions. The old patterns will remain supplanted and imprisoned in the deep recesses of our minds, overridden by reinforced current thinking and behavior. New fresh strong patterns will in turn influence our behavior for change while repetition of presently dominant thought patterns will perpetuate our behavior whether it be beneficial or is harmful to us.
YHWH (God), the creator is able to read our neuron patterns and this enables him to determine what we are thinking and what our desires are (our heart condition). By planting thoughts in our minds he is able to provide us with the on- going guidance necessary to conduct our lives in ways beneficial to ourselves and to the natural creation surrounding us. It is in this area that normal and natural God-given thought patterns are supplanted by other interests than his own.
There is another super intelligent observant spirit being, (an adversary of God) who. while not being proven with the ability to read our thoughts, nonetheless, does have the ability to plant thoughts and ideas within our brain. He has been busy at work resisting YHWH and his purposes since the Garden of Eden, the dawn of human history. Since those early times. “GOD Almighty” has been and is still able to offer a counter to this by implanting his own thoughts, injecting his viewpoint directly into our minds. It is left up to us as free ‘moral agents’ to accept, embrace, or reject those thoughts which he implants. This phrase ‘free moral agents’ may bear some explanation for those unfamiliar with it.
Free Moral Agency is an innate quality the creator has endowed humans with which differentiates them from robots programmed to certain tasks and also from the animal kingdom which is guided largely by pre-determined instincts.. Humans have choices and extensive areas of freedom in their lives to exercise those choices. A major area or way this reveals itself is in the matter of whose sovereignty they wish to live under. That is who they choose to be guided by and whose rule they desire to live under. God YHWH is set before them as a loving fatherly provider who has conceived and created a marvelous environment designed to provide for all the needs humans have for a happy and fulfilling life. He asks only that they recognize that he, their creator knows what is best for them and that they honor, respect and humbly appreciate him as their creator and as a master intelligence with capabilities far beyond what they themselves possess.
Preserving the natural balance in the world of nature is essential to its continued survival in perpetuity. Living under his (Gods) sovereignty (right to rule) affords human beings the most benefits while also preserving the natural balance in the rest of creation. Along with those benefits which they may or may not appreciate as individuals, he affords them the choice of submitting to his own sovereignty or to act otherwise. Acting otherwise includes choosing to live under their own sovereignty (masters of their own lives) or submitting themselves to the sovereignties of other entities than God (YHWH), their originating creator. This remains the core aspect of free moral agency. Other aspects have to do with choosing between behavior patterns the creator sees as most beneficial to his overall creation and patterns which oppose him and contain harmful side effects ultimately leading to the deterioration of his creation. Put in the most simplistic of terms, humans have a choice between “Good” (the creators concept of what is appropriate and beneficial) and “Bad” (that which is counterproductive to perpetuity of life on earth). Despite the fact that humans are not designed to be more intelligent than their creator they are none the less given these choices. This ability to choose is “free moral Agency”.
However, these choices bring responsibility with them. If they make choices outside of the freedom their creator allows, they must bear individual and collective responsibility for the harm such choices may have on others and to his creation as a whole. He will allow just so much latitude in how far they will be allowed to proceed with patterns of behavior and resistance to his will which have the potential to harm his overall creation.
Thus, all through human history men have been afforded a choice between supporting his viewpoint or viewpoints of other men and of those spirit beings who oppose him. By examining the Bible carefully, we are able to demonstrate that this innate connection with the thinking of GOD is a matter of design and intended as part of our ongoing relationship with our heavenly father and benefactor. Also, that these innate abilities to choose “good” lie within all of us so that we are inexcusable when we reject or disregard thoughts he implants anew in our brains in order to re-awaken beliefs he has innately implanted us in the beginning.
Some may conclude that if we have been given these innate abilities to communicate with the mind of GOD, it would demand a need for general corroborating evidence in other places besides our own minds and our personal experiences.
This viewpoint is largely determined by human thinking which has become deeply immersed in the “scientific method” of proving things. This method of scientific investigation has until very recently been dependent exclusively on material observations. Only recently have scientists recognized that the universe consists of more than 95% non-matter. Scientific investigation into to the ‘spiritual’ realm is in its early infancy and will remain there as long as people use material methods exclusively to investigate spiritual matters. However, a new dawn is emerging.
The scientific community at large is for the first time in recorded history beginning to understand how the human brain actually operates and its vast underutilized potential. Experiential evidence for such things as mental telepathy and pre-cognition found in primitive societies and rare individuals are being taken more seriously by progressive scientists. There is a rich history of these experiences found among African tribes, Aboriginals in Australia, Aluets, Aztecs, Incas, Mayans, North American Indian tribes, Siberian tribes and other indigenous people who have not been effected so greatly by the same modern scientific thinking which has become a priori in today’s world. Also, there are a goodly number of historical examples found in civilized societies as well. These are largely ignored or passed off as some occult nonsense. Since there seems to be so few examples among us today, scientific thinking rejects them as unsupported theory. Could the reason why only a relatively few examples are found among us today be grounded in an old principle, expressed by Jesus Christ in the Bible at Matthew 17:20 and later restated another way by Henry Ford who is quoted as saying ““Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”
This raises questions of whether abilities we consider to be para-normal lie innate within us and have been suppressed by disbelief on our own parts. It also brings another question into focus; Are the thoughts that come into our minds uniquely our own or may they in some instances be placed there by others than ourselves. Recently (the last 100 years) there has been a flurry of activity concerning research into ‘metaphysics’ (the science of God). Albert Einstein wrote years ago; “I want to know the Mind of God, everything else is details.” Kant wrote “Objective cognition is made possible by the unconscious assumption of ‘God’s eye View’”. Einstein also wrote later; “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a ‘spirit’ is manifest in the laws of the universe – a Spirit vastly superior to that of man and one in the face of which we, with our modest powers, must feel humble”. . . Nikola Tesla wrote almost a century ago “The gift of mental power comes from God, divine being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power”
Yet progress in these areas seems to be bogged down by the traditional view the “scientific mind’ of our own day clings to. It demands all cognition must conform to the objects observed. Mainstream Scientists who have bought into traditional scientific investigation find insufficient evidence to conduct tests for paranormal occurrences encompassing large numbers of subjects. Lacking what they deem to be conclusive results, they reject the validity of any anecdotal evidence which stares them in their faces.
If there is little material evidence aside from personal experience and since all scientific investigation is said to be based solely on material evidence, are there any other avenues to explore for answers to these questions.
Perhaps this is an area where we can benefit by information found in sources scientists seem to be pre-disposed against, according to popularly held biases within their own scientific communities.
For one such source we may point to the Bible which has been provided by GOD as a device we can rely upon to verify whether a thought which may appear in our minds has been placed there by him or by some other means including but not limited to our own personal fancies or delusions. The Bible has been given to us as means of understanding his pattern of thinking and exposing conflicts our thoughts may have with his.
(2 Timothy 3:16 ASV Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness).
Therefore, let us examine the Bible to determine what light it sheds on the innate nature of humans and their relationship with GOD. Also, how thoughts attributable to other entities affected the behavior of humans throughout history.
2. BIBLICAL EVIDENCE OF AN INNATE CONNECTION with GOD
Do we have examples of thoughts implanted in the originating couple, (Adam and Eve) responsible for the entire human race, and in humans during the earliest days of their successive generations.
Gen 2:15 – 17 AMP And the Lord God [Elohim] took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
In these verses we are told that God (Elohim) communicated his command and accompanying information to Adam. We are not given the exact means by which he did this here other than being told he said these things. However, we know from later scripture that it was not by physical presence and speech as we know it. Rather there is strong inference to another presence other than GOD (YHWH) who was involved in this revelation to Adam. (AMP John 1:18 No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known]. [Prov. 8:30.]
When the Bible was written and for many centuries afterwards the only commonly understood methods of communications humans were aware of was eyesight (visual) and voice (auditory) with any other form of communication held to be para-normal.
Nevertheless, even at that time, God was communicating with humans in other ways than those which were seen as normal by humans then. While the Bible portrays such communications mainly in terms humans understood at the time of its writing, scriptural evidence suggests God’s actual communications to humans took other forms besides the conventional ways described at the time they were written.
Here are examples of inconspicuous scriptural evidence alluding to extra ordinary methods he used in communicating with those humans he wanted to convey specific information to.
1. Examples of thoughts being implanted in human minds since early days as described in the Bible
ASV Genesis 15:4 And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying. . . (Perhaps today we might call this phenomena intuition, gut feeling, having a hunch, or something from within.)
LXE Isaiah 42:9 Behold, the ancient things have come to pass, and so will the new things which I tell you: yea, before I tell them they are made known to you. (Today we know this as prophecy, prognostication or revelation of future unknowns. The verse tells us that God made things known to Isaiah about the future before formal disclosure of telling him)
NJB Jeremiah 34:1 The word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh . . . . (We could just as well say “the word occurred to Jeremiah” and be perfectly accurate)
LXE Jeremiah 36:1 IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF JOAKIM son of Josias king of Juda, the word of the Lord came to me (again, the word came to me carries an implication that it was revealed by other means than speaking in a conventional sense)
NJB 2 Chronicles 18:20, 21 A spirit then came forward and stood before Yahweh and said, “I will entice him.” “How?” Yahweh asked. 21 He replied, “I shall go and be a deceptive spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.” Yahweh said, “You will succeed in enticing him. Go and do it.” (An example of influencing the mind of prophets without their own awareness)
NJB Habakkuk 2:2 Then Yahweh answered me and said, ‘Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read. (An example where Habakkuk, a man Jehovah was using to make his will known to others received a reply to a question he had posed to God by means of instantaneous communication between his mind and the mind of God)
2. Examples of Dreams and Visions (mental pictorial scenarios) implanted in human minds as a means of conveying information without a need for or use of physical retinal eyesight. Perception exists in the mind. Eyes are merely a means by which images are carried to the brain for analysis and deduction. While we as humans consider this extraordinary or paranormal, God has no need to use our eyes to plant pictorial scenarios in our minds. When he does this, we refer to them as dreams or visions. When we perceive them by other means we see today as being normal, we may refer to them as television or movies.
Amos 7:4 MKJV The Lord Jehovah made me see this:. . . . . . (the very fact that he states the Lord made him see implies a paranormal experience)
Isaiah 29:11 NKJ The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” (Isaiah was describing a vision he experienced which he could not fully understand the meaning of it was obviously beyond something he would have generated by himself)
Numbers 12:6 NAS He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. (God was addressing Aaron and Miriam in their presumptuousness against Moses, whom he held as an exception who He would deal with in a more direct manner)
Joel 2:28. Acts 2:17 ESV “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; (this verse shows that the gift of prophecy connected to visions and dreams was a result of God’s spirit and not human self-will)
Amos 1:1 BBE The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa; what he saw about Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earth-shock. (An example of a vision given to a prophet by paranormal means before the event occurred,)
These are but a sampling of occasions when God communicated dreams and visions to humans enabling them to discern information beyond their naturally perceptive abilities.
3. Biblical evidence of telepathic communications between minds without any external devices (mental telepathy).
Matthew 9:4 BBE And Jesus, having knowledge of what was in their minds, said, Why are your thoughts evil? (Jesus was essentially able to read information in their minds without their having disclosed it to him)
Acts 15:8 NJB And God, who can read everyone’s heart, showed his approval of them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he had to us. (The mind and heart are held as interchangeable by many Bible translators. When scripture says God can read hearts, we may also conclude he can read minds)
Matthew 12:25 NAB But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand. (Again, by Jesus knowing what they were thinking before they expressed it to him in words, it shows their thoughts had been transmitted to him by some other means than their own spoken words.
Matthew 6:8 ESV Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (There can be no other explanation for this than God having a way of seeing what men are thinking even without any outward expression on their own parts)
In all these examples we find phenomena beyond what modern science fully understands. Yet they lie within the definition of truth as God defines it in his Holy Bible.
3. “TRUTH” and its INNATE CONNECTION to GOD
Truth has best been defined as “reality “and reality is that which supersedes whim, fancy or delusion when it comes to making decisions that will best benefit us now and in the future. Truth is the underlying basis for all natural science, mathematics, physics and life forms found in God’s creation. It remains the personal building block for all progress ever made by human beings on this earth. Truth as an elementary facet of God’s nature positions itself behind everything he says and everything he does. Truth pre -existed as a central part of God’s own nature before the Bible was ever written. The Bible summarizes his relationship with truth in two simple statements: At Titus 1:2 it describes him as a“God, who cannot lie“ and in at least 4 places (Ex:34:6, Deut.32:4, Ps31:5, and Isa.5:16)it refers to him as “The God of Truth”. “Truth” can be seen as a precursory part of his nature as it was an essential link to everything he ever created and remains equally essential in the continuing existence of every living being. Truth is so intrinsic with the nature of God that it may be seen as an extension of his very essence.
At birth, we all start life with a connection with truth. This relationship with truth exists as an innate quality, endowed in all humans by God. It is a quality which is essential in enabling a new-born infant to grow and develop into a mature fully developed adult. Later, without a continual reference to things which are true we could not exist or progress further as living human beings
This means that just as God is a God of truth, with truth being a fundamental part of his own nature, that we, as beings he has created in his own image, also have within us a built-in fundamental relationship with truth.
Sadly to say, that relationship is all too often perverted and undermined at a very early age by the intervention from an unseen spirit being who is opposed to the will of God almighty. He introduces a different version which he promotes as truth but is in reality a form of un-truth YHWH associates with darkness. This one is very powerful and whether we realize it or not, he exerts influence upon our lives. Interestingly he is also referred to in the Bible as a god, “the god of this world”. . 2 Cor 4:4”Because the god of this world has made blind the minds of those who have not faith, so that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not be shining on them”. BBE
While the Creator’s nature is exemplified by truthfulness, that opposing one is portrayed in scripture as the “father of the Lie”. His hallmark is deception and he uses deception to blind minds, and control all those he wishes to divert away from their innate relationship with the true God and creator, Elohim God. This “god of this world” is identified elsewhere in scripture as “Satan”the Devil. Satan (Adversary/Resister), “Devil” (Slanderer /False accuser) also as “Lucifer” (light bringer), with the latter being somewhat of a misnomer since he is in actuality a proponent of darkness in Jehovah Gods eyes. In the Bible Light is equated with the truth and goodness which is in harmony with God’s will, while that which is out of harmony with God’s will is likened to darkness.
All those who follow Satan’s the Devil’s lead, either intentionally or unintentionally, and promote his thinking are seen scripturally by God as adversaries and workers of “darkness”. This includes both spirit beings and human beings. Humans who follow the Devil’s lead are referred to in the Bible as his children, those he begets by means of his deceptive devices.
John 8:44 NLT “For you are the children of your father the Devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies”.
In contrast, for God’s children (those who follow his lead) the Bible contains this message:
Ephesians 5:11 NJB take no part in the futile works of darkness but, on the contrary, show them up for what they are.
How importantly God views our relationship with “truth” is borne out in numerous places in the Bible. Here are just a few which serve as examples;
At John 4:24 we are told that he demands to be worshipped in truth.
John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth”.
At Ephesians 4:25 NKJ The Bible admonishes men to rid themselves of deceptive speech;
“Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another”.
with a reason given at:
Ephesians 4:14-15 14 “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ” —
The Bible further demonstrates how important truth is to GOD by disclosing that a” Love of the truth” is essential to those who would avoid the fate of an ungodly world destined to perish along with Satan the deceiver and his minions.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness”.
These verses from the book of Thessalonians are especially telling as an indictment toward those who fail to see the gravity of untruthfulness, for they indicate how badly God views this despite his will being that none be destroyed (1 Timothy 2:3-4 “God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”.
Paul is clear in Thessalonians that if one disregards truth, and even more astoundingly, “does not love truth”, that one puts himself in the position of being seen and treated as an enemy by God.
Appropriately, The Apostle John may have been referring to an innate pre-disposal towards truth in his hearers when he wrote;
1 John 2:21 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
4. INNATE, (therefore) INALIENABLE ATTRIBUTES
mean RESPONSIBILITIES as well as RIGHTS
[4a. RESPONSIBILITIES attached to OUR INNATE NATURE]
A need for and an affinity for truth among other qualities or attributes is what we as humans are initially endowed with by the creator at birth These things are granted to us as inalienable rights by him. Inalienable in the sense that they can neither be legally canceled or nullified by any other being than himself. While he has loaned them to us on a conditional basis he holds title over them in perpetuity. However, while we can readily understand these “rights” as humans and hold them dear to ourselves, they come to us bundled with another constituent which is not as readily embraced by us. That is that all these rights from God have implied responsibilities attached to them. Those responsibilities seem to be less appreciated by most people who are quick to defend their “rights” yet seem far less concerned with the responsibilities they come with. We will discuss the history of these rights and the responsibilities inherent with them further, but first there is a fundamental and very important aspect to address.
In addition to all those other rights, previously mentioned which are granted to humans in the form of innate qualities possessed at birth, there is one which merits special mention. It concerns an inborn relationship which takes on the greatest significance among them all.
It is the innate need for a relationship with the creator. What makes this so important is that if we want to enjoy all the others in their perfect sense, it is dependent on an on-going relationship with the creator. We all have an innate need for God which was a crucial part of our original design as humans. Yet, this is a need that God’s major opponent has spent great time, effort and energy on to undermine and subvert. By promoting the lie that there is no God, among many other Anti- God teachings, he overrides people’s natural inclination toward a relationship with their creator.
God as the original designer of our founding human parents had something specific in mind for us along the lines of what a relationship with him should be like. He never designed us to be his equal and he did not make us to be fully independent of him. What he had in mind for us was rather along the lines of a parent / child relationship. He would be our spiritual fatherly benefactor and we would be an earthly family of appreciative children. This relationship would continue as long as we lived on this earth, which was intended to be of a duration expressed by the Hebrew biblical word ʽoh·lam′. (Time-indefinite or forever). By examining the bible book of Genesis we are given a reliable view of God’s original innate relationship with humans and the implied responsibilities it carried with it.
4b. INALIENABLE RIGHTS and INALIENABlE RESPONSIBILITIES from God
In the account found in Genesis, when God created man, scripture makes two things clear;
1. Regarding the Nature and Origin of man’s cardinal attributes and 2. That he was given inalienable rights and responsibilities.
NIV Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.“
Other versions read;
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” English Standard Version (ESV, also KJV)
Important observations are derived from this passage;
1. Man was to be given inalienable rights to dominion over all the earth, and the living things upon the earth. These rights also implied specific responsibilities in connection with them. The responsibilities included the need to exercise these rights in harmony with God’s standards for preserving his creation into which they had been introduced. Also to preserve the earth itself as created and not do harm to it.
2. Man was created with attributes according to the likeness of God with abilities in the “likeness” of God which he was to employ in connection with what he was given. History reveals not all humans fulfilled their responsibilities in connection with those rights. God’s viewpoint on the outcome of how men exercised their responsibilities over the long-term is shown afterwards at Revelations 11:18 NJB “The nations were in uproar and now the time has come for your retribution . . . . . and for those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded.[also] The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.”
4c. INALIENABLE RIGHTS are “CONDITONAL”
(1) Man was given an inalienable right to dominion over all the earth and everything living things upon the earth
The text of these verses states that God endowed man with the right to rule the earth and to enjoy the things upon the earth, with just one exception.
Gen 1:27-29 AMP So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. [Col. 3:9, 10; James 3:8, 9.] 28 And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth. 29 And God said, See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the land and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.
The exception, closely related to the stewardship he afforded them over his creation was a very important one. Obedience to that exception was completely necessary to the harmonious continuance of the earth and its natural systems as he had designed them. That exception in the form of a restriction is found at Genesis 2: 15,-17
(2). The “Tree” of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
GW Gen 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to farm the land and to take care of it 16 The LORD God commanded the man. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden. 17 But you must never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because when you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
The Hebrew meaning for the word knowledge as it applies in this verse.is important for us to understand. Whereas in English the word ‘knowledge’ implies a mostly intellectual meaning that is; acquisition of information, in Hebrew it carries the added meaning of experience connected to that knowledge. Therefore, much as ‘knowing’ in the verse describing Adam and Eves relationship at Genesis 4:1 ( below) actually described experiencing that knowledge, so too the ‘knowledge’ of good and evil at Genesis 2:17 indicated experiencing the evil side of that knowledge.
Gen. 4:1 AMP AND ADAM knew Eve as his wife, and she became pregnant and bore Cain; and she said, I have gotten and gained a man with the help of the Lord.
Another version;
Genesis 4:1 NJB The man had intercourse with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. ‘I have acquired a man with the help of Yahweh,’ she said.
The rights he gave man had an exception in the form of a simple command which symbolized a far greater meaning. The meaning behind that command not to partake of the experience connected to knowing the evil side of good and bad had to do with sovereignty. It brought into focus God’s sovereignty (his right to rule). Disobeying that single command signified resistance to God’s sovereignty and a violation of the responsibilities connected to the rights God granted our first parents, Adam and Eve.
As their God, man’s Creator gave these rights and responsibilities as an inheritance, as such they are inalienable and can only be nullified by their rejecting him and his sovereignty. Accepting Gods sovereignty over them was and still remains the conditional basis under which these rights were granted. Such is true of any inalienable right bestowed on humans by God.
4d. INALIENABLE RESPONSIBILITIES in the Garden of Eden
We know that Adam was given responsibilities as well as rights when he was installed in God’s earthly paradise. He was to be a caretaker of the Garden, he was responsible for naming and shepherding the animals, he was God’s communicator of instruction, and so on.
(1) Caretaker
The Garden of Eden was a God-given example of what He expected from man in his role of caretaker or steward over his earthy creation. The responsibility to care for and preserve the natural integrity of the Garden of Eden would extend to the entire earth as humans became numerous enough to care for the surroundings they would eventually occupy. In this assignment they would be provided with sustainable and rewarding activity to fill their days with.
Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. KJV
or another version;
Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. NIV
(2).Naming the living creatures (a confirmation of man’s authority over them)
Genesis 2:19, 20 ESV “So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, which it became its name”. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.”
Or as other versions state;
Genesis 2:19, 20 KJV And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field;
Genesis 2:19, 20 NIV Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
Naming some one or some thing was in the Biblical sense a form of exercising authority over it. It had greater importance than merely serving as mans of identify-cation as it does today. A name was important in that it established how something was to be perceived in the future. Thus when Adam was afforded the right to name all other living things on earth, it confirmed the rights God had given him over them.
(3). Adam as a Communicator of God’s instructions
In the conversation that Eve had with the devil cited below, her response indicates that Adam had communicated God’s instruction (Gen. 2:16, 17.) to her precisely as he had received it from God.
Genesis 3:1-3 NIV Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4e. Made In the IMAGE or LIKENESS of GOD
First, we must concede an image or likeness is not comparable to the reality.it represents. An image is only a marginal representation which bears enough resemblance to something for the viewer to associate it with the reality. It is far from the reality which an image barely allows the viewer to recognize
In using the description “Image of God”, the Bible tells us man was created with attributes according to the likeness of God. If we take the four cardinal qualities associated with God, which are Love, Justice, Power and Wisdom, we easily see that man was endowed with them, however in a lesser yet relative sense.
Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
This Biblical verse tells us that man was created in God’s likeness. He was given a mind so that he could carry on logical thought processes and to be able to communicate with his God and creator. That God is an exceptionally effective communicator of instruction is seen in the brevity of the Bible verse quoted above. He gives instruction to the One with whom he is speaking saying, “Let us make man. . . . “. In this he gave both the instruction and detail so that His will could be performed, all in a simple and concise ten word statement of instruction.
Adam needed some form of instruction about how to obey God and how to care for the Garden. He also needed to know a language by which to communicate. with God and with others in the future. Later he used the language he learned from God to communicate with his wife and others including the human family he was destined to father.
Clearly his ability to perform God-given responsibilities was dependent on knowledge of how to do so. Adam being created in God’s image meant he was endowed with a natural ability to communicate. Being created in the image of his Maker also bestowed upon him innate qualities that made it possible for him to understand the will of God and to learn other skills necessary to carry out it out. We can be assured God provided him a way to do. He, as a human father would also have the innate ability to instruct his children, according to God’s plan for human families and their future populations.
However, there is clear indication in the broad context of scripture that humans were never intended to have free-reign over their thinking and subsequently their behaviors.
4f. Responsiblity for Obedience to God’s Commandments
Adam had responsibility for obedience to God’s commandments concerning things God forbade and there were penalties for failure to follow these implicitly. That Adam was liable for such disobedience is clearly stated at Gen 2:16.
Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” ESV
Obviously this constituted a limit established by the Creator as to what Adam was allowed to do within the dominion God had given him. Man never had absolute freedom to do as he willed.
God taught him what was good and beneficial for him and for the creation around him. How?
The Creator taught by communicating His will to Adam, with instructions on how to stay ‘right’ with Him. From the very beginning of their human existence, humans have possessed innate rights and innate responsibilities before God. As Adam was created with a God-given ability to reason based on knowledge he would continue to receive from God. Today people are still-born with this innate ability to be instructed by our Creator.
When questioning Job, God himself, with a rhetorical question, reveals that it is He who has put beneficial thinking ability (wisdom) within man’s “inward parts” in order that he might understand.
The rhetorical question;
Job 38:36 ESV Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?
Other versions;
Job 38:36 KJV Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Job 38:36 NIV Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?
The answer to that question is revealed at Job 32:8 where it tells us;
Job 32:8 But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. ESV
Or as other versions state;
Job 32:8 KJV But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
Job 32:8 NIV But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
That God has ‘means’ of speaking (communicating) which are neither audible nor written in form can be gathered by the words of the man Elihu as he rebuked Job. One can also glean from verses 16 and 17 at least three reasons he may wish to communicate with them.
Job 33:14 NIV For God does speak– now one way, now another– though man may not perceive it. 15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, 16 he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, 17 to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride.
God has the means to speak with us internally by way of our thoughts. These Scriptures tell us that God’s Spirit enables understanding in order that we may know the will of our Maker and resist wrongdoing. Since we are liable to God and he is both righteous and just, he teaches us what we need so that we know how to obey His commandments. However, a major obstacle to God’s kindly guidance in these areas is “individual and societal pride’ wherein men equate their own thinking as being equal or superior to God’s.
The Bible reveals how mankind in general has responded to God and his efforts to educate us in his ways. Examples can be seen from the very beginning of the Bible record down to this very day. However, perhaps they are best summed up in what Solomon is said to have written at;
Ecclesiastes 7:29 NIV “This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”
The rights and responsibilities God granted Adam and Eve in perpetuity continued to be an issue between God and men, way beyond the initial creation in Genesis. This can be seen by examining the history of God’s people and of people in general since that time. The status of this issue between God and mankind is still evident from what we see around us if we care to examine the world we live in today from God’s viewpoint.
GOD”S INALIENABLE RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES TODAY
a. In the world of religion;
These inalienable rights and responsibilities have become twisted and subverted to fit man-made selfish interests through the introduction of doctrines which under the guise of being agreeable to God actually subvert his will.
His direct sovereignty is superseded by the insertion of men as rulers between him and the human family. Men who claim to be ruling and administrating on God’s behalf are found to be entrenched in their own self-perpetuating institutions which are primarily dedicated to their own interests, relegating God’s interests to second place as a type of window dressing. Worship of God in “spirit and truth”-exists in name only. The institutions, the grandiose facilities and the men who administer their affairs have made themselves objects of worship in their own rights, diverting acclaim and adoration due exclusively to God.
b. In the world of Politics;
Being ruled by men instead of God is universally accepted. Self-rule is the banner which is supposed to exemplify freedom, yet self-rule or self-determination is no inalienable right from God. Actually, self-rule or political rule by a king or other form of man-made government was not God’s idea at all. It was humans, spurred on by an unseen power who promoted the idea of humans ruling over other humans. Scripture proves this to be an idea alien to God’s way of thinking. The fact that he made a concession by allowing them to have their way does not change that scriptural reality. The account at 1st Samuel 8:5, 7, 11-20 shows us how God allowed humans to have their own way as a concession, despite the fact that it conflicted with his own will.
c. In Society at large;
In the world we live, people in general have adopted the ways of pagan nations and of those ancient Israelites who wanted surrogate human rulers rather than God almighty. and has sovereignty over their nation. We say surrogate in the sense that while kings and governments have made the claim they rule by Gods’ grace, implying that it is God who sponsors their rule, the reality is that what they answer to is an unseen enemy of God who manipulates them. That spirit being is the real ruler behind men of this world and their governmental systems. (Matt.4:8, 9. 1st Joh. 5:19b).
He and his supporters are the primary means by which our inalienable rights to a relationship with our creator, the Almighty God are being undermined. How effective they have been in their efforts can be seen by examining the condition of these god given inalienable rights and responsibilities in our organizations, institutions and the popular movements in our own day.
INALIENABLE RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES IN OUR TIME
In our own day those God-given rights and responsibilities God deemed as essential and inalienable have virtually either been lost by or supplanted among the entire human family on earth.
a. In Religious Institutions:
In religious institutions individual innate rights to communicate with God directly have been subordinated wherein the organizations and the men who run them are in place as mediators between God and all other individual believers within their organizations. God-given freedoms and rights have been relegated to mere window dressing under manmade doctrines and laws.
b In Political Organizations and Movements:
If any semblance of a relationship with God exists, it exists virtually in name only.
In most political systems God is no more than a slogan on their currency or a figurehead if he has any existence at all. Even humans who claim to rule by the ‘grace’ of God or in the ‘name ‘of God pay little more than lip service to God’s will and to his standards for mankind. His precepts are bent and twisted to their own advantage and to the perpetuating their own power.
c. In society at large – The world at large is in their own eyes becoming more and more independent of any need for God. Everywhere philosophies which either ignore God or dis-honor him have been woven into the very fabric of society. That which God holds as perverted and contrary to nature is being painted as an acceptable norm while those who concur with God’s views are increasingly being ostracized as dangerous extremists. More and more individuals are being educated to deny the existence of God and therefore any rights he may have over them as his own as their creator. The word ‘Creation’ itself has become a term viewed as part of an archaic and obsolete belief system. Scientific Evolution has achieved god-like status in the minds of moderns who either intentionally or inadvertently have made science and scientific thinking a religion of their own. All of this is abominable to God and constitutes a rejection of him for which every human who advocates such behavior will face consequences for.
5. SUMMATION: – INALIENABLE RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES
Inalienable rights may be identified as those inherent gifts by the creator which not only contribute to the essentials for human life on this planet but add greatly to its enjoyment. While they largely consist of things we take for granted such as the air we breathe and the marvelous functioning of our human bodies they also include more abstract things such as our faculty for communicating with our creator, our relationship with him and our social relationships with others.
The responsibilities linked to these rights are;
a.) Loving concern for others and for the planet we have been given stewardship over and
b.) Maintaining an acceptable relationship with our creator. This includes subjection to his sovereignty (right to rule) and appreciation for him and his provisions, expressed publicly as “worship. Under the topic of subjection to his sovereignty falls obedience to his directives and executing his will to the best of our abilities. Appreciation for him includes faith in him and his provisions, exclusive devotion, love, loyalty toward him and voluntary worship.
6. WHAT IT MEANS TO US AS INDIVIDUALS TODAY
a. Where we individually stand as members of God’s communal family;
Today most people take many of these inalienable rights for granted and fail to appreciate that they exist solely because there is a God (the creator) who was uniquely responsible for them. Innate qualities such as two-way personal communication with the creator have been in the least obscured beyond accurate definition and or, in a larger sense lost completely due to lack of use. Humankind has become a family without a true spiritual father, instead embracing an invisible surrogate spiritual stepfather who promotes a multitude of schemes in opposition to the true God YHWH, awarding selfishness in the process. Human kind as a whole has abandoned the fatherly household of God, and his sovereignty thus making itself an apostate world in His eyes. Centuries of this apostasy from the true God has brought the world to the brink of self-destruction.
NJB Jeremiah 17:13 Yahweh, hope of Israel, all who abandon you will be put to shame, those who turn from you will be registered in the underworld, since they have abandoned Yahweh, the fountain of living water.
b. What our position is individually before God almighty;
Fortunately, God almighty (YHWH) is not impeded by human limitations. He has omniscience, and with it the ability to completely know the smallest detail in connection with every living individual on earth. (Matthew 10:30 NAB “Even all the hairs of your head are counted”.) As such we need not be concerned that he will judge us in any other way than as individuals. We will ultimately be judged on how we personally respond to him and his guidance. He has the ability to plant both thoughts and questions in our minds. It is not his will that any one of us be swept away with a worldwide system destined to be brought to an end before it destroys the earth. (1 Tim. 2:4 LITV) who desires all men to be saved and to come to a full knowledge* of truth.)
* knowledge = ‘Epinosis’ = precise and correct knowledge, of divine origin and nature
Until the very moment when he decides enough is enough and closes the door of patience for a rebellious and unappreciative generation, each and every one of us will be given opportunities to choose between him and his sovereignty and factions opposing it. We can choose to live under his sovereignty under a future government administrated by God’s son Jesus Christ or remain committed to the current system of things destined to end when God causes its ultimate demise.
c. Forthcoming ‘GOVERNMENT’ with inalienable rights and responsibilities
As for those who occupied the earth and died before the generation when God intervenes on earth, bringing all opposition to his sovereignty to an end, they are in God’s memory. Jesus spoke of a resurrection of both the “righteous” and the “unrighteous’ at Acts 24:15. Scripture provides us with nine separate examples demonstrating God’s power to restore dead humans back to life here on earth.
Through the power of resurrection (Acts 24:15 AMP Having [the same] hope in God which these themselves hold and look for, that there is to be a resurrection both of the righteous and the unrighteous (the just and the unjust).
Resurrected humans will be able to avail themselves of a new government referred to by Jesus in the model prayer at Mat 6:9,10 GNB This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored; 10 may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
That ‘Kingdom” is an actual government under his Son Christ Jesus and other rulers selected by the YHWH ELOHIM (the creator) himself. They will either be appointed or elected by humans, nor will they be inheritors of power due to family roots. Nor will they be ones who have seized power for themselves. They will govern humankind righteously according to God-given inalienable rights and responsibilities by God’s standards for a thousand years, during which time the earth will be restored to its original paradise-like condition.
Psalm 78:7,8.GNB In this way they also will put their trust in God and not forget what he has done, but always obey his commandments. :8 They will not be like their ancestors, a rebellious and disobedient people, whose trust in God was never firm and who did not remain faithful to him.
Under that “Kingdom” (government) under Christ Jesus, prophesied to last a thousand years, all mankind will be given the opportunity to exercise their rights and responsibilities without the intervention by spirit forces who oppose YHWH God. At the end of the thousand years, all those who continue to loyally support God’s sovereignty in the face of a final test will fulfill their prospect of living forever (G165 aivw,n aion {ahee-ohn’}, perpetuity of time, eternity.), a prospect Adam and Eve had and lost due to their apostasy from Elohim, their God and creator in the Garden of Eden, as recorded in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
d. What disregard for God given Inalienable rights and responsibilities means to us as individuals in the future?
Our future, both as a collective people and as individuals living on this God-given earth will be determined by our attitude toward God-given rights and responsibilities. The issue set before us today is the same as that set before Adam and Eve in the dawn of human history upon this earth. It is an issue which has existed among man-kind since then and continues to be the defining paradigm affecting the entire future of the earth and humans as a people living on it. For us as individuals alive today, that issue is encapsulated in a simple yet deeply profound question;
“Under whose sovereignty will YOU choose to live”?
The answer to that simple straightforward question will determine an individual’s attitude towards the rights and responsibilities God has innately granted to humans. While it is God’s will that none be lost (Joh 3:16, 1Ti. 2:4, 2 Pet. 3:9) rejection of God and his god-given rights and responsibilities betokens a future devoid of the blessings and hopes he has purposed for a human family at oneness with him. Those hopes and blessings are summarized in the pages of Revelations chapters twenty-one and twenty-two. You can read those for yourselves and then determine for yourself what is at risk for those who choose to disregard the God given rights and responsibilities he has intrinsically endowed us with. Then, when you do make your choice fully expect that the choice you make will determine the reality of your future. God is not one to one mocked. A universal principal governing the choice you make is found in his word states at Galatians 6:7.
Galatians 6:7 AMP Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap.
What we “sow”, individually in regard to the rights and responsibilities God has endowed us with becomes a reality anchored by what we accept as our own truth. One thing is certain, we will all reap according to what we sow. As long as the time is open to us, which it still is according to the Bible we can respond to those thoughts God places in our minds as reminders of our innate relationship to him and the rights and responsibilities inherent with them. The decision is up to you and me as individuals. No one can make it for us and no one other than ourselves will be held responsible for the decision we make as individuals before our creator.
The Antichrist
Who are antichrists?
What is the antichrist?
What does antichrist mean?
In some circles, it is taught and believed that the antichrist is a single person that will appear in the “last days”, before the End of the wicked world, that will oppose Christ. Some believe that this person would be the half demon, half human offspring of Satan the devil. But is this an accurate belief?
To understand the answer to these questions, it is best to breakdown the term antichrist into its roots.
The prefix is ‘anti’ whose basic meaning is ‘against’. It is used to form adjectives that mean counteracting.
Some synonyms for ‘anti’ are hostile · opposed · antagonistic · averse · ill-disposed · unsympathetic · against · (dead) set against.
Combining the prefix ‘anti’ with the word ‘Christ’ therefore defines someone or something that is in hostile opposition to Jesus Christ.
What is known from reading what the Bible has to say, does not suggest that the antichrist is a single person that would rise and appear in the last days. The apostle John stated that the antichrist was already present and at work in his time.
1 John 2:18-23
18 Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour.
19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.
21 I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.
22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.
23 No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
There are several key points we can draw from in these verses that help identify the antichrist.
(a) John states that antichrist were already present when he wrote this letter and that there were many antichrists.
Verse 18
“And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come”.
(b) In the next verse, John states that these “antichrist” were once part of them, but they had left the assembly of true Christian believers.
Verse 19
“They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us”.
(c) And in verse 22 John identifies an antichrist as someone who denies that Jesus is Messiah and the Father/Son relationship.
Verse 22
“Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son”.
John makes this clear three times in his letters. The second time John makes clear the identity of an antichrist is recorded at 1 John 4:
1 John 4:1-3
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
3 But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.
John tells us that any ‘spirit’ that denies Jesus as being the Christ or Messiah is antichrist. (1 John 2:22)
The apostle John restates this truth in his second letter:
2 John 7
7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. (KJV)

These statements by John dismiss any notion that the antichrist is some half-demon half-man monster that would arise in the last days. It is quite possible that such stories are for the purpose of keeping the true antichrist hidden. Antichrists are humans who deny Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul refers to the antichrist as “the man of lawlessness.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3–10
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?
6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
Paul links the antichrist to an apostasy or deviation from the will and commandments of God. To apostatize a person has to desert or depart from pure worship of God. It is a willful, deliberate departure from God, and is never accidental. This statement is very important in identifying an antichrist because it reveals that it would have to be someone or some group that had an established relationship with God.
Based on what the apostle Paul tells us as recorded at 2 Thessalonians 2:4, antichrist also refers to those who stood in the “place of Christ,” that is, claimed they were the Christ or in the position of Christ as Mediator between God and humans.
Verse 4
“he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits in the temple of God, setting himself up as God”.
It is antichrist to attempt to usurp Christ role as the only means of salvation by convincing others that they must be associated with a particular person or religious denomination to gain salvation.
We can make a direct connection between Paul’s statement and John’s statement found at 1 John 2:19:
“They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us”.
This means that the antichrist arises from within the elect anointed church or those who profess to be members of the elect anointed church. These antichrists were/are false teachers who merely claimed to be believers, but they were not.
The Bible writer Jude, the half-brother of Jesus and brother of James, also mentioned that this apostate man of lawlessness, the antichrist, had already infiltrated the assembly of the Church in the first century.
Jude 1:4
4 For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.
The actual Greek word translated here is παρεισέδυσαν. This is the definition of the term according to Strong’s Greek Lexicon:
3921 pareisdýnō (from 3844 /pará, “from close beside” and eisdyō, “enter”) – properly, enter alongside, i.e. secretly or under pretense. 3921 /pareisdýnō (“enter by stealth”) refers to people who appear to be true Christians, but in reality oppose the faith. 3921 (pareisdýnō) is only used in Jude 4 of those “posing to give help.”
It thus appears that such people were/are apostate Christians, rather than unbelievers who oppose from outside the brotherhood in Christ. In the first century era, many of the enemies of the church emerged from within, rather than an outside intrusion.
How did this occur in the first century church?
In What Ways Do Antichrists Reject Jesus Christ?
False teachings of Gnosticism and Docetism
1 John 4:2, 3
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (KJV)
Gnosticism is a prominent heretical movement that arose 2nd-century among those who professed to be part of the Christian church.
The oldest heresies in Christianity have been those that have denied that Christ actually had a fleshly, human body. Gnostics have been purveyors of this false teaching. Docetism is another. Docetism is broadly defined as any teaching that claims that Jesus’ body was either ‘absent’ or ‘illusory’ (not real).
The Docetists said that Christ appeared to be human but that he didn’t have real flesh and bones—he was human image without human substance. Since Gnostics and Docetists believed that Jesus’ body was not a real fleshly body, they were basically professed Christians who denied the bodily resurrection of Christ.
Their thinking and behavior fit the definition of the Greek word παρεισέδυσαν found at Jude 1:4. Gnostics and Docetists are people who appear outwardly as desiring to be true Christians, but in reality, oppose to true faith.
There are plenty of other examples of religious heresies. Time will not allow consideration of them all. Suffice to say, we must be constantly on guard.
Rejecting Jesus as Messiah
Which group of people in the first century does the Bible detail as opposing Jesus as Messiah? Was it not his own kindred?
Remember that initially, the New Covenant arrangement was founded entirely among Jewish converts. While the Jewish religious leaders outright opposed Jesus Christ, many of the Jewish converts believed but had mixed feelings. On one hand, they admired Jesus and believed to a certain extent. But on the other hand, they were desirous of a Messiah/leader who would break the Roman yoke that they were under and would reestablish the national sovereignty. They had nationalistic ambitions that were diametrically opposed to the Heavenly kingdom. There was continuing conflict between the teachings of Christ and the teachings of others who taught about a restoration of natural Israel and the keeping of the Law.
This is borne out by what happened when Jesus performed a mighty miracle when he fed a multitude of 5,000 with just five loaves and two fish. What happened when they witnessed this miracle? It is recorded in the Book of John.
John 6:
14 When the people saw the sign He had done, they said, “This really is the Prophet who was to come into the world!”
15 Therefore, when Jesus knew that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He withdrew again to the mountain by Himself.
For these, the restoration of the Jewish State was their means of salvation. They wanted a messiah, a king to lead them to that end. And since Jesus didn’t do that, many ultimately rejected him.
It did not change the fact that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the only hope of salvation. Those who have held fast to Judaism and Zionist ambitions, to this day still reject Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah as they look instead to ritual worship and nationalism salvation.
Summary
The antichrist is not a single person. The antichrist is not some half human, half demon spawn as presented in motion pictures and fantasy tales. The prefix ‘anti’ with the word ‘Christ’ defines someone or something that is in hostile opposition to Jesus Christ. We need to look into the Bible to find the answer to the question: “Who is the antichrist?”
Remember what the apostle John taught:
“For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist”. (2 John 1:7)
And
1 John 4:2, 3
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (KJV)
This is the true identity of the antichrist.
Upcoming soon: “That woman Jezebel” Can You Identify Her?
Morality by Popular Opinion-Can it Succeed?
Will morality by popular opinion work? The founding fathers of the United States did not believe so.
Few people have ever heard of a man named Sir William Blackstone. I personally learned about the man while taking an Ethics course during study at Wright State University.
His input was integral to the forming of the United States constitution. The following commentary by Donald R. May describes Sir Blackstone’s important contribution to the formation of United States Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
“The laws of the United States of America are based on moral laws that come from God and not from men. In writing our founding documents and our laws, our Founding Fathers relied heavily on the Bible and Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England (1771). Blackstone’s legal philosophy stated in his Commentaries was embodied in our Declaration.
“Morals are the foundation of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and our laws. Morals are the first line of defense for our society. Morals make most laws unnecessary. When morals fade away, a civilization regresses with a breakdown of family and social structure. The numbers of laws, police, courts, and jails must be increased to replace the absent morals”.
Commentary by Katherine Green Robertson
Freedom from Morality Makes Us Less Free-JUL 4, 2016
A recent poll conducted by Dr. George Barna systematically explored America’s “shift in values.”
Predictably, those polled value comfort, happiness, and acceptance, but they also claim to value independence, control, and freedom.
These same respondents—including six out of seven “born again Christians”—professed a “personalized moral code,” that is, that they believe moral choices should be based on their own feelings.
Only 10% of respondents said that they believe in absolute moral truth.
Tragically, many of those polled seem to miss the direct link between freedom and the foundational morality of America—the cornerstone of our republic.
John Adams wrote to his cousin, “Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.”
The Founders knew that no president, nor any number of laws, could ensure the preservation of liberty; that, even in its genius, the Constitution would not be good enough to withstand a national loss of morality. Why?
Because the Constitution established a government that was hands off in order to maximize freedom.
The Founders knew that if the American people did not possess moral character, that if they were irresponsible with their freedom and did not police themselves, then more laws and regulations would be required. They understood that when government grows, freedom shrinks.
Many Americans who say that they desire freedom mean freedom from morality. “Don’t tread on me” has been misshaped into “anything goes,” but this has not led to true freedom.
In fact, an absence of morality weakens our basic freedoms of speech, religion, and enterprise and produces societal problems like the breakdown of the family (which leads to poverty and government dependency), increased crime and addiction (leading to incarceration), and a lack of integrity in business (which leads to costlier regulations)—all losses of freedom.
“Society cannot exist,” Edmund Burke wrote, “unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free.”
The Constitution and our first laws were the embodiment, not the source, of the morality of the Founders. Yet our loathing of absolute morality, combined with the increasing role of government, now leaves us actually looking to laws for adjudging right behavior.
Consider the latest Planned Parenthood debacle: because a loophole in federal law meant that the selling of babies’ body parts was technically legal, this grotesque practice was defended and ultimately undisturbed. Even in Alabama, the supposed heart of the Bible Belt, state leaders have defended poor choices, without regard to morality, by saying that “no laws were broken.”
Undoubtedly, devaluing morality has cost us, not just culturally, but in actual dollars.
Taxpayers spend billions of dollars on prisons and corrections as we protest virtue and morality in the public square.
Government spends billions of taxpayer dollars attempting to care for the poor in ways that rob individuals of purpose and dignity and interfere with community-based benevolence.
We sink billions of dollars into public schools that are essentially asked to make up for the problems caused by the family breakdown, but then refuse to allow them to teach morality or character. Even a century ago, Theodore Roosevelt understood that “to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
Our desires for independence and control cannot logically lead us to desire freedom from morality, truth, and virtue. As Patrick Henry put it, “A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles”.
[[https://www.alabamapolicy.org/2016/07/04/freedom-from-morality-makes-us-less-free/]]

Morality is not a function of popular opinion
Morality by Popular Opinion?
Is Morality Determined by Its Popularity?
by Avery Foley on October 13, 2017
Everybody’s Doing It
This new study from the Karolinska Institutet, a medical university in Sweden, found that participants’ view of “selfish and altruistic behaviors changes depending on how common they are.”
The principal investigator for the Swedish study commented,
The fact that a behavior is common doesn’t automatically mean that it’s right—this idea is based on flawed logic that confuses facts with moral values.
This researcher is right: popularity doesn’t equal morality. Yet the idea that the majority determines what’s right and wrong, or that it’s up to the individual, permeates our society. In this view, there are no moral absolutes, just changing tides of public opinion. What’s right today might be wrong next year and vice versa. It leads to shifting sands and a world where everyone does what’s right in his or her own eyes (Judges 21:25) or in the eyes of others.
A More Sure Foundation
Opinions on morality change constantly, often depending on the situation or “what’s in it for me.” But, as believers, we have a firm, unchanging foundation for our morality. When we start with God’s Word, we aren’t prisoners to the changing tide of public opinion. We can stand our ground, knowing what is right and wrong. The principles in God’s Word are timeless and apply to all Christians, in all times, and can be used in all situations.
[[https://answersingenesis.org/morality/is-morality-determined-by-its-popularity/]]
When a person or a society looks to the Holy Bible as the United States founders attempted to do, they are looking for guidance from a standard above themselves and their imperfections. When one is governed by their own sense of morality, they become a god unto themselves. They judge what is right or wrong based on their personal feelings. Does any of this sound familiar?

“God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad”.
Genesis 3:1:6
1 Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the Lord God had made. The snake asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”
2 “We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,” the woman answered,
3 “except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.”
4 The snake replied, “That’s not true; you will not die.
5 God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.”
6 The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So, she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it. (GNT)
The desire to be like God and to be able to determine what is good and what is bad is what led to the fall of humankind in the first place. In verse 6 we read that this appealed to the woman Eve. And it still appeals to many humans today.
A person doesn’t have to look very far or for very long to see the disastrous effects of moral relativism and morality by popular opinion.

What can we learn from the temptation of Jesus Christ?
The Temptation of Jesus Christ-What Can We Learn?
Shortly after his baptism by John the baptist, Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, to be tempted by the Devil. Jesus fasted there 40 days.
Luke 4
1 Then Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2 where he was being tempted by the devil for 40 days. During that time he ate nothing at all, and when they were over he became hungry.
3 The devil told him, “Since you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”/
4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One must not live on bread alone, but on every word of God.’”
5 The devil also took him to a high place and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant.
6 He told Jesus, “I will give you all this authority, along with their glory, because it has been given to me, and I give it to anyone I please.
7 So if you will worship me, all this will be yours.”
8 But Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”
9 The devil also took him into Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the Temple. He told Jesus, “Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
10 because it is written, ‘God will put his angels in charge of you to watch over you carefully.
11 With their hands they will hold you up, so that you will never hit your foot against a rock.’”
12 Jesus answered him, “It has been said, ‘You must not tempt the Lord your God.’”
13 After the devil had finished tempting Jesus in every possible way, he left him until another time.
What can we learn from Luke 4:1-13 and the temptation by the devil of Jesus Christ?
First, it is the common assumption that what happens in verses 3-12 constitutes the devil’s complete attempt to corrupt Jesus. But, according to verse 2, it was after 40 days of attempting to temp Jesus to commit a sin that the events of the following verses occurred. This means that all the time that Jesus was in the wilderness fasting, Satan was repeatedly approaching him with the intent to corrupt him.
Another point to take note of is that in these verses, twice Satan refers to Jesus as “the Son of God” and not “God”.
Verse 3
The devil told him, “Since you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
Verse 9
The devil also took him into Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the Temple. He told Jesus, “Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
(See also Matthew 4:3 and 5)
Also notice what Matthew 4 verse 10 states that Satan said to Jesus:,
“because it is written, ‘God will put his angels in charge of you to watch over you carefully”.
These verses show that Satan knew that Jesus wasn’t God. It also make clear that Satan knew that God and Jesus Christ were two distinct beings. That God is the Father and that Jesus is His son.
Also reflect on verses 6 and 7:
6 He told Jesus, “I will give you all this authority, along with their glory, because it has been given to me, and I give it to anyone I please./
7 So if you will worship me, all this will be yours.”
Satan tells Jesus that ” all of this authority” had been “given” to him.
Reason on the matter If Jesus was God, wouldn’t he have said “YOU gave me all of this authority”?
And also reason on this: How could the devil offer Almighty God anything? Remember what Moses told the Israelites?
Deuteronomy 10:14
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.
And what did David say?
Psalm 83:11
The heavens are Yours; the earth also is Yours. The world and everything in it—You founded them.
When Abraham came back from his victory over victory over Chedorlaomer and the other kings aligned against him,
Melchizedek who was king of Salem and also a priest of the Most High God is recorded as saying this:
Genesis 14:19
He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;
Satan can’t give God a solitary things. It has only been by God’s allowance that Satan has had a temporary rulership in the kingdom of man. It was Almighty God who as Satan in Matthew 4 verse 6 states, gave him what authority he has.
But, he did have the ability to corrupt the Son of God by offering Jesus the opportunity for immediate gratification rather than faithfully waiting until his time to receive authority and rulership properly from his father, God.
There is another important point to think about when reading Luke 4:1-13 and about the temptation of Jesus.
The half-brother of Jesus said this about God:
James 1:13
When someone is tempted, he should not say, “I am being tempted by God,” because God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.
James said that it is impossible for God to be tempted by evil.
However, it was a different matter for Lord Jesus because he was indeed tested with evil by as both the Book of Matthew and the Book Luke attest. Jesus was tempted with evil by Satan himself.
According to God’s plan this was necessary. Hebrews 2:14-18 explains why:
14 Therefore, since the children have flesh and blood, he himself also shared the same things, so that by his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death (that is, the devil)
15 and might free those who were slaves all their lives because they were terrified by death.
16 For it is clear that he did not come to help angels. No, he came to help Abraham’s descendants,
17 thereby becoming like his brothers in every way, so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and could atone for the people’s sins.
18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Since Jesus was to be appointed as God’s High Priest, he had to undergo preparation for that role. That Jesus is not God is proven by these verses from the Book of Hebrews.
The High Priest occupies the Sanctuary and stands before God. This is the biblical pattern. It makes no sense to believe Jesus stands before himself, does it?
One last point is that each time Jesus rebuffed the devil’s attempts to tempt him, he referenced obedience to God his Father and God’s word.
Verse 4
Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One must not live on bread alone, but on every word of God.’”
Verse 8
But Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”
Verse 12
Jesus answered him, “It has been said, ‘You must not tempt the Lord your God.’”
Each time, Jesus quoted the written word from God. We should have the same practice. Doing so for righteous purposes.
Interestingly, after Jesus had done so the first two times, the devil attempted to quote the word of God for an unrighteous purpose in an attempt to induce Jesus into sinning.
Satan sought to use the word of God to entice Jesus to put God to the test to prove that God would shield and protect him from harm.
Matthew 4:5-6
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple
6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus rebuked the devil. We also need to be on the watch that we never tempt (put) God to the test by doing things contrary to His commandment thinking He will be obligated to save us.
There are many valuable lessons we can learn from Luke 4:1-13 and the entirety of the Holy Bible. Read it carefully and meditate on what you read.
Psalm 119:105
“Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path”.

THE WATCHTOWER’S INDEFENSIBLE HYPOCRISY
The end result of the Catholic belief in papal infallibility is the same as the teaching of the Watchtower Organizations Governing Body as it pertains to obedience of their followers.
They both are founded on a belief they have a ‘special’ holy confirmation of some investiture in their positions that makes it incumbent for others not in their position, to accept their teachings to follow their instructions. It is the same teaching found in the Jewish Oral teachings. See: https://brotherjohnsite.org/2021/07/10/tracing-the-origins-of-the-watchtower-societys-view-of-apostasy/
In the end their word is to be obeyed even when it is in conflict with the Bible, the written word of God.
Let’s first examine the Catholic doctrine of the infallibility of their pope.
Papal Infallibility
(Commentaries)
The Catholic Church’s teaching on papal infallibility is one that is generally misunderstood by those outside the Church. In particular, Fundamentalists and other “Bible Christians” often confuse the charism of papal “infallibility” with “impeccability.” They imagine Catholics believe the pope cannot sin. Others, who avoid this elementary blunder, think the pope relies on some sort of amulet or magical incantation when an infallible definition is due.
Given these common misapprehensions regarding the basic tenets of papal infallibility, it is necessary to explain exactly what infallibility is not. Infallibility is not the absence of sin. Nor is it a charism that belongs only to the pope. Indeed, infallibility also belongs to the body of bishops as a whole, when, in doctrinal unity with the pope, they solemnly teach a doctrine as true.
Vatican II’s Explanation
Vatican II explained the doctrine of infallibility as follows: “Although the individual bishops do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility, they can nevertheless proclaim Christ’s doctrine infallibly. This is so, even when they are dispersed around the world, provided that while maintaining the bond of unity among themselves…..and while teaching authentically on a matter of faith or morals, they concur in a single viewpoint as the one which must be held conclusively. This authority is even more clearly verified when, gathered together in an ecumenical council, they are teachers and judges of faith and morals for the universal Church. Their definitions must then be adhered to with the submission of faith” (Lumen Gentium 25).
(end of commentaries)
______________
In summary, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the pope is infallible when he speaks from his position of authority on a particular issue or doctrine (speaking ex cathedra). Ex cathedra is a Latin phrase which means “from the chair.” It refers to binding papal teachings which are promulgated by the pope when he officially teaches in his capacity of the universal shepherd of the Church a doctrine on a matter of faith or morals and addresses it to the entire body of Catholic membership.
Many interpret “papal infallibility” as indicating that everything the pope says is infallible. This is not what the Roman Catholic Church means by “papal infallibility.”
While Catholics acknowledge that the pope is a sinner like everyone else, it is inferred that by some spiritual investment, that he and bishops have a moral authority that means their “definitions” or interpretations must be adhered to. If a person does not, he or she is subject to excommunication from the group.
Both the Catholic hierarchy and the Watchtower hierarchy claim they speak for Christ and God.
The Catholic papacy claims a connection to the apostle Peter as his ‘successors whom they believe Jesus gave a singular special role among his apostles based on what he is quoted as saying recorded at Matthew 16:18.
There is no Biblical foundation for this asserted connection, nor that Peter was superior in authority in any way to the other apostles.
Now, let’s examine the Watchtower Organization’s view of it’s Governing Body.
Where do the Watchtower Society’s leaders claim to get their authority to oversee the interests of Jehovah’s Witnesses?
The answer is found in their interpretation of Matt 24:45, which reads: “Who is a faithful and wise servant (Greek δοῦλος (doulos) servant or male slave), whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season?” (KJV).
This parable can also be found at Luke 12:42-44.
They make a self-declaration that they were appointed this role when as they claim, Christ returned “invisibly” in 1919.
Watchtower 2022 Feb p.4:
“Today Jehovah leads the earthly part of his organization by means of “the faithful and discreet slave.” … We show that we trust in Jehovah’s way of doing things by heeding the direction we receive from the organization and the elders.”
jw.org 10th Nov 2012 :
““The faithful and discreet slave” was appointed over Jesus’ domestics in 1919. That slave is the small, composite group of anointed brothers serving at world headquarters during Christ’s presence who are directly involved in preparing and dispensing spiritual food. When this group work together as the Governing Body, they act as “the faithful and discreet slave.””
Watchtower Organization leaders interpret this passage as meaning that Jesus predicted God would establish a special “servant” on the earth, having the sole spiritual authority to represent Him.
According to them, this servant would act as the sole interpreter of His word. This servant is called “the faithful and discreet slave” in the Watchtower Society’s New World Translation of the Bible.
Matthew 24:45:
“Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time?” (NWT)
They teach that this “faithful and discreet slave” is a designated class among its professed anointed believers that conveys spiritual knowledge only through the publications (and official representatives) of the Watchtower Society. They teach that this began with the first issue of the Watchtower magazine in 1879. There is no Biblical foundation for this assertion.
Nor does the Bible mention or indicate that there was some ‘governing body‘ in the first century Church although they claim the existence of one as the justification for their having formed one in recent times. They point to the convening of a group of elders as mentioned in the Book of Acts chapter 15 for the purpose of establishing doctrine concerning circumcision as justification.
The Book of Acts actually describes a large gathering comprised of the apostles, older men (elders), Paul and Barnabas, who were travelling missionaries, and others. This large group came together to decide on an important issue affecting the local congregations.
Acts 15:
4 And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.
5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
Since they base this claim on an invisible second coming of Christ, none of this can be proven as fact any more than the Catholic clergy can prove a direct connection to the apostle Peter.
Again, there is no Biblical basis for the establishment of a governing body.
However, their claim of an ‘invisible’ second coming of Christ can be clearly shown to be an unbiblical claim.
Note what is written in the Book of Revelation concerning how Jesus’ second coming would occur.
Revelation 1:7
“Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen”.
It says the same in their own Bible translation.
Revelation 1:7
“Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of him. Yes, Amen”. (New World Translation)
This rules out any possibility of an invisible coming of Jesus Christ that would only be witnessed by some small group of faithful believers. This is something that can be proven by reading the Bible book of Revelation.
They also hold to the false belief that the end of the 2,520 year ‘gentile times‘ or ‘appointed times of the nations‘ foretold in the Book of Daniel, would mark the time of Christ second coming. The end of the gentile times was to mark the beginning of what the Bible calls “the last days“.
And, 1914 C.E. was not the date of the end of the appointed times of the nation either. Based on “Jehovah’s Witnesses” own beliefs, their leaders made an easy to see calculation error.
Based upon these lies and errors, the Governing Body of “Jehovah’s Witnesses” maintain their control and act as the communicator of God’s will to all “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. They ignore that Christ is God’s mediator between Himself and man.
1 Timothy 3:5:
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
These words were the teaching of the apostle Paul, one of the men mentioned in Acts chapter 15 who assembled with the others in Jerusalem.
The Watchtower made the following statement in the Watchtower February 2017 (Study Edition) concerning the Governing Body at the top running the Watchtower Organization:
“The Governing Body is neither inspired nor infallible. Therefore, it can err in doctrinal matters or in organizational direction.” -Watchtower February study addition under “Who Is Leading God’s People Today?” page 26
In addition to stating the Governing Body is not ‘infallible’, it is admitted that its members are NOT ‘inspired‘.
In the Watchtower publication ‘Revelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!’ the Watchtower designates itself as prophets referring to themselves as the “John” class.
Revelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand! chap. 12 pp. 58-65
14 In modern times, prophecies such as Isaiah 49:23 and Zechariah 8:23 have had a very significant fulfillment. As a result of the preaching of the John class, huge numbers of people have entered through the opened door into Kingdom service.
John was a prophet. Yet, they are not inspired by their own admission. Were God’s prophets inspired? Yes.
God foretold this through the prophet Joel:
Joel 2:28-29
28 After this I will pour out My Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.
29 I will even pour out My Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days.
Jesus promised his disciples that shortly after his ascension to Heaven, God would send the Holy Spirit to guide them and empower them.
John 14:15-17:
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commands.
16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.
17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you.
Days later, the apostle Peter quoted Joel’s words when disciples gathered at Pentecost received that blessing.
Acts 2:1-4,16-18:
1 When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.
3 And tongues, like flames of fire that were divided, appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit gave them ability for speech.
16 On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.
18 I will even pour out My Spirit on My male and female slaves in those days, and they will prophesy.
The ability to prophecy as spokesperson comes from the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit according to the Bible.
They at one in the same time claim that Christ has made a special appointment of them, but that Jesus nor the Holy Spirit is inspiring them to follow his direction. What proof do they have of any anointment of Holy Spirit?
What this means that the doctrines “Jehovah’s Witnesses” adhere to can be false/wrong since they are nothing more than the guess work of imperfect man.
This is tremendous admission for the Watchtower leaders to make. In this article they further cite the Watchtower Publications Index that list over 100 doctrines that have needed correction since 1870.
The fact that over 100 of their doctrinal teachings have had to be modified or dropped all together, is proof that many are false and wrong.
The Bible warns us:
Psalm 146:3
“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help”.
Isaiah 2:22
“Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he”?
Yet that is what Watchtower leaders and teachers tell its member to do and they oblige.
While condemning the Assumption Dogma of Catholicism as a “fallible falsehood” appeared in the Watchtower, January 15, 1951, they have adopted policies that yield the same result. In this article is they themselves make the statement, “Not man’s word, but only God’s Word, the Bible, is infallible!—John 17:17”.
But they haven’t practiced what they preach have they?
Their actions in recent decades show that rather than fulfill Jesus’ words found at Matthew 24:45-47, they have fulfilled verses 48-51.
Matthew 24:48-51
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
When their errant prognostications concerning Jesus’ second coming did not materialize when expected, they began to treat their fellow professed anointed brothers harshly and began a heavy-handed rulership over them. Not only them, but the entire membership of “Jehovah’s Witnesses”.
In their minds, instead of thinking their beliefs and expectations were the problem, they felt, “ My lord delayeth his coming”. After all, they expected the End to occur shortly after the year 1914 C.E. They expected to have inherited the Kingdom somewhere around 1975 C.E. Neither came true. Ever since gradually they have become more and more authoritarian in their treatment of other members of their group.
In January 1947, they were highly critical of the Catholic hierarchy for excommunicating followers for the same reasons they supported disfellowshipping their members in 1952. In other publications they have been critical of other religions who put men on a pedestal of absolute authority.
Using a lie, they laid a foundation upon which to claim an authority much like that of the papacy.
Note this statement found in the Watchtower 2001 Aug 1 p.14
“[A mature christian] does not advocate or insist on personal opinions or harbor private ideas when it comes to Bible understanding. Rather, he has complete confidence in the truth as it is revealed by Jehovah God through his Son, Jesus Christ, and “the faithful and discreet slave.”
This is a quite different view than expressed in the January 8, 1947 ‘Awake’ magazine. Of course, that was about someone else.
Lastly, it is of importance that throughout most of the Watchtower Society’s history, the faithful and discreet slave included all professed “anointed Jehovah’s Witnesses”. But during the 2012 Annual Meeting the Governing Body greatly increased their authority by announcing that only they were to be considered to represent the faithful and discreet slave.
They changed their stance because this was their only recourse to maintain control.
They have been hypocrites throughout their entire history.

Is Your Lamp Empty or Full?
What Is It Full Of?
Jesus’ Parable of the Ten Virgins
Matthew 25:1-13:
1 ‘I will tell you again what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. There were ten young women who were going to a marriage. They took their lamps with them, and they went to meet the bridegroom.
2 Five of these young women were silly. They were not careful about what they were doing. Five of these young women understood well. They were careful about what they were doing.
3 The silly young women took their lamps with them, but they did not take any extra oil with them.
4 The other five young women took jars of oil with them. These young women were careful about what they were doing.
5 The bridegroom did not come for a long time. So, all the young women became tired, and they went to sleep.
6 In the middle of the night, someone shouted out, “The bridegroom is coming. Come out to meet him.”
7 The ten young women woke up. Then they got up and they looked at their lamps. They tried to make their lamps work well.
8 The five young women who had not brought extra oil said to the other five young women, “Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are not burning well.”
9 The careful young women who had extra oil replied, “If we did that, then there would not be enough oil for all of us. You must go instead to the people who sell oil. You must buy some oil for your lamps.”
10 ‘So these five women went to buy some oil. While they were away, the bridegroom arrived. He would soon marry. The five women who understood well were ready. They went with him into the house. Here the servants had prepared the meal for the marriage. Then the servants shut the door.
11 Later, the five silly women also came to the house. They said, “Sir, Sir, please open the door for us.”
12 But he replied, “What I say is true. I do not know you.” ’
13 Then Jesus said, ‘So you must watch well. You do not know on what day or at what time I will come.’
Those who have read the Bible, professed belief, but then have not accepted the Word as written are like the 5 foolish virgins. They chose not to stick to the pure lamp oil contained in God’s word and didn’t fill their spiritual lamps with it.
Contrarily, they chose to reject this pure “oil” in preference for oil that could not keep their lamps burning during the final hours of this system of things before the Lord’s arrival.
Indeed at the start, they possessed at little oil. Like most who profess love for God and Christ, they began full of conviction and determination to follow and do God’s will according to His word. They read the Bible and believed.
Take note that all ten received the same invitation to the marriage feast. They all started with the same prospect in front of them. They all received a portion of the holy spirit.
But somewhere, at some time, that faith and conviction waned. They bought less and less of the refined oil and began to fill their spiritual reservoirs with something else. Something that didn’t originate with God that was of human origin.
They did the very thing the apostle Paul foretold of and warned against:
Romans 1:25
“They refused to believe the true things about God. Instead, they chose to believe something that is not true. They worshiped things that God has made. They became servants of those things. But they refused to worship God, who made all things. He is the God that everyone ought to worship. Everyone should say how very great he is always! This is true”.
Instead of relying on and referring to the Word of God, they began to worship and obey the words of men as if they were gods. When those men they worshiped words did not agree with the pure lamp oil God’s word provided, they rejected the Bible, and their oil reservoirs became more and more depleted.
Instead of acknowledging their error, they doubled down and have continued to preach and teach unbiblical doctrines despite the fact that they have been proven false.
And now that the hour we live in has become apparent to almost all sensible people, these foolish virgins are madly scrambling to set matters right before the Lord’s arrival in all the wrong ways.
They look for shortcuts to get right with God and his Christ. There are none.
First, there has to be acknowledgment of guilt. Pridefully, they refuse to do so. That pride will bear the ultimate cost in the end.
Zephaniah 3:11:
11 In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain.
After acknowledgment of their wrong course, then there is the need to repent and turn back. A person isn’t doing that if they sweep error under the rug so to speak, by just not further believing and teaching unbiblical teachings. What about all those they have already stumbled? They owe it to them to set matters straight.
Neither can such foolish virgins simply asked the prudent virgins to give them some of their lamp oil or in some other way perhaps ‘attach’ themselves to those who have filled themselves with the pure knowledge they possess gained by putting total faith in the Bible, God’s written Word.
These “foolish virgins” would need to first empty their spiritual reservoirs of the tainted lamp oil they possess (they need to repent), ask for forgiveness from God, and then return to Source of truth so as to buy pure oil for their lamps.
But as Jesus parable ends, there is no time left because the distance and effort is so great and He is so near.
Is your lamp full of the pure lamp oil only God’s word can provide?