This is a Fire Hose Production

The topic here is S-E-X. Leave if you are squeamish. But this also about the Rapture which God has been planning for 2000 years--the return of Jesus Christ for His Bride, the true church.

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17, 18)

The secular society in which we live seems to use the single word "love" to cover all sorts of things. "I love you with all my heart," can easily be followed in the same sentence by "I love chocolate ice cream" -- or "I my dog Rover more than anything else in the world..

The main audience in this frank discussion is Millennials (those born since 1980 or so), it's not so much for older Establishment Church-Going folks. Many people today think they are following Jesus but they don't know Him personally. They may appear to "have their act together," but outward circumstances can be deceiving.

Jesus is actually the absent owner of the planet. He created the whole place (along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit). Jesus paid for our full redemption by dying as our substitute.

God created sex, too, it was His idea. He likes sex, and it was originally a good gift to us from a good God--for our pleasure as well as for procreation. But God is holy and we are not! There are enormous issues at stake and not being reconciled to the Landlord can have terrible consequences.

This article is about the end of sex as we have known it. Not everyone will find it easy to give up physical sex even if something better will be taking its place. In one sense, our misuse of a good thing is causing our Creator to rescind His original mandate to Adam and Eve,

"Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

Be Reconciled to God

"For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:12-21)

"Hookup culture dominates the lives of college students today. Most students spend hours agonizing over their hopes for Friday night and, later, dissecting the evenings' successes or failures, often wishing that the social contract of the hookup would allow them to ask for more out of sexual intimacy. The pressure to participate comes from all directions -- from peers, the media, and even parents. But how do these expectations affect students themselves? And why aren't parents and universities helping students make better-informed decisions about sex and relationships?" (The End of Sex, by Donna Freitas)

A Pure Relationship with Jesus (No Fap)

Some men think they are still virgins because they have never had actual sexual intercourse with a woman or never masturbated. Yet masturbation is nearly universal in our society today.

So also are hookups: MF, MM, FF, FM. This means traditional marriage is not considered a big deal nowadays by the majority. This has been matched by many marriages being mere shams. It is not as if the kids are in trouble with God, all of us are.

From a survey of “virgin males:”

Masturbate? Man A: I don't watch any porn. Not much of a desire to watch it either. I looked at pornographic pictures when I was 12 and got caught and never really had an urge to go back to it. Masturbation is probably three to four times a week. 

Man B: I don't watch porn anymore since I feel uneasy with the reality of porn industry. Now I masturbate about one or twice a week, to the images of a celebrity or a friend.

Man C: My habits ebb and flow. Sometimes my sex drive is higher than at other times. Typically a few times a week, often every other day. Other times, I can go a week or so without doing it. I actually didn't masturbate until I was 18. I guess I figured doing it would just make me feel worse about not having a girlfriend. Nowadays, it's an outlet for sexual frustration.

This is self-deception for sure! Celibacy is supposed to mean no-sex. How to get there is quite another matter! Only Jesus can tame a man's libido, (or a woman's). He will, if you ask. Your thought life and fantasies are a big deal to Jesus. (Pure in Greek is  katharos Whence “catharsis.”) No self-pleasuring, see Masturbation and the Bible. No "hooking up," nor sleeping around either. Jesus is holy! See Human Sexuality from a Biblical World View.

But also there is to be no fooling around before marriage, or after. How in the world is this possible considering the intensity and power of our biological drives, let alone living in a permissive (neo-pagan) culture? The only answer is allowing Jesus Christ (Risen from the Dead) to take over your entire life one day at a time. It's self righteous to clean up your act externally leaving your heart untouched.

Jesus told the clergy of His day:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. “Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’bones and all uncleanness. “Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness..." (Matthew 23:26-28)

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. “For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’;  “and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:35-39)

Marriage between a male and female is perfectly acceptable to God--with sex, for pleasure as well as for procreation since that is in accord with the original creation. There is no such entity known to God as marriage between two men or two women.

"Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never fail you nor forsake you." Hence we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?"Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never fail you nor forsake you."

Hence we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?" Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. " (Hebrews 13:4-8)

However, we are now at the of the age of the church and God is changing everything now. We live in a very fallen world and holding only to the "form of religion" doesn't hack it.

Jesus told His disciples He would build His church and he has been going exactly that for 2000 years. There is a huge counterfeit church in the world! Sex is worshiped today as an end itself out there among the pagans. The roots of fallen Canaanite sexuality connect to some very evil spirit-beings (fallen angels). We get more than we bargained for when we forsake God for false loves and for false-hearted lovers. Naturally most professing Christians say they march to the beat of a different drummer, but this may only be for the sake of one's public image.

Romans Chapter One, which describes the downhill slide of any nation, was not written to describe how a given person becomes a homosexual but how an entire nation decays at all levels from top to bottom--that is, when God drops out of view. Today marriage is no longer held in high esteem by a majority while all manner of destructive life styles are emulated. Yes, there is a core of godly men, women, and young people hanging in there. Most in this group are eagerly awaiting for the appearing of Jesus. An observer friend from Australia wrote recently that his country may have only a 1% minority who currently know Jesus. He was willing to suppose that the believing remnant in America might number 10%.

Abraham was called "the friend of God," but otherwise this expression is not found in the Old Testament. At the Last Supper Jesus elevated his eleven disciples from "servants" to "friends." (John 15:13) The relationship between God the Father and God the Son is frequently referenced throughout the New Testament. But the most common metaphor for our relationship with God is that of husband and wife--Bridegroom and Bride.  Throughout the Old Testament the nation of Israel is described as the wife of Jehovah. The marriage contract between God and Israel was drawn up at Mt. Sinai, but after hundreds years of spiritual adultery God was forced to divorce his wife under the terms of the Old Covenant. Heartbroken, God found a way to take His wife back, remarry her, and restore her fully under the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31ff).

According to reliable sources, Jesus of Nazareth will be returning to our planet very soon now.  He won’t be taking up residence in Nazareth, his old home town, but in Jerusalem. Jesus was about thirty years old when he left us. But he has a new body now. He will be bringing his bride, a goy (a gentile), with him.  

The Bride of Jesus will not be one single person, however. She will be perhaps ten billion men, women and children—of all ages—and from every nation! She will be spectacularly beautiful! (Most followers of Jesus are not white, Anglo Saxon, or Protestant.)

Jesus never married and He lived an impeccable moral life for His allotted 30+ years on earth. Then He was brutally killed by His own countrymen. Fortunately Jesus did not stay dead. His return out from among the dead is in fact a template for all who know Jesus now and have hoped for a restored earth and redeemed citizenry.

God told our first parents to be fruitful and multiply which they’ve done numbers-wise quite nicely.  Over population is a huge problem today! Everyone on earth living or dead who has allowed Jesus into their lives is a member of the Bride of Christ! 

Jesus announced He would build His Church while traveling with His disciples up North around Mt. Hermon. The last living stones are now being fitted into place into this living organism known as the "Body of Christ." (There are several figures of speech the Bible uses to describe the glorious church of Jesus). Note also that the Bible speaks of Israel as the Wife of Yahweh, but the church as the Bride of Christ.

Brand new bodies are already waiting for us to put on like a set of new clothes while we are in transit to the wedding. Of special interest to us today (since we are living right at the end of the age), are the Scriptural admonitions written just for us. There are Two Aspects of the Return of Jesus.  First, Jesus will show up unannounced to take His betrothed Bride to his Father's house where he has prepared a "room" for her. Then follows a royal wedding up in New Jerusalem with great festivity enjoyed by all. Seven years of earth time will elapse before Bride and Bridegroom step out in the open in a great disclosure event centered around Jerusalem, Israel. Present day Jerusalem will experience a wonderful renewal as the heavenly city descends to earth. Read the Bible!

“Behold, He is coming with the cloud, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:7-8)

But Jesus can't marry any old whore, recluse, drunken bum, serial killer or fagot. We who have received Jesus into our live must all be revirginized. Certain people are excluded because they refuse to be remade on the inside. Genital sex will be unnecessary since the planet is way overpopulated now. There will however to no lack of intimacy in New Jerusalem (aka as "heaven"). See: If the Rapture Happened Today.

The passage in Ephesians 5 is well-known to most of us since a parallel is drawn between the relationship of a man and wife in marriage and the betrothal Jesus Christ has entered into with His church.

"Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

In discussing marriage, C. S. Lewis compares the sexual side aspect of marriage (which he calls Venus) distinguishing it from romantic love (éros),

"Some will think it strange I should find an element of ritual or masquerade in that action (the sexual relationship aspect of marriage) which is often regarded as the most real, the most unmasked and sheerly genuine, we ever do. Are we not our true selves when naked? In a sense, no.

The word naked was originally a past participle; the naked man was the man who had undergone a process of naking, that is, of stripping or peeling (you used the verb of nuts and fruit). Time out of mind the naked man has seemed to our ancestors not the natural but the abnormal man; not the man who has abstained from dressing but the man who has been for some reason undressed. And it is a simple fact--anyone can observe it at a men's bathing place-that nudity emphasises common humanity and soft-pedals what is individual. In that way we are "more ourselves" when clothed. By nudity the lovers cease to be solely John and Mary; the universal He and She are emphasised. You could almost say they put on nakedness as a ceremonial robe--or as the costume for a charade. For we must still be aware--and never more than when we thus partake of the Pagan sacrament in our love-passages of being serious in the wrong way.

The Sky-Father himself is only a Pagan dream of One far greater than Zeus and far more masculine than the male. And a mortal man is not even the Sky-Father, and cannot really wear his crown. Only a copy of it, done in tinseled paper. I do not call it this in contempt. I like ritual; I like private theatricals; I even like charades. Paper crowns have their legitimate, and (in the proper context) their serious, uses. They are not in the last resort much flimsier ("if imagination mend them") then all earthly dignities.

But I dare not mention this Pagan sacrament without turning aside to guard against any danger of confusing it with an incomparably higher mystery. As nature crowns man in that brief action, so the Christian law has crowned him in the permanent relationship of marriage, bestowing--or should I say, inflicting?--a certain "headship" on him. This is a very different coronation. And as we could easily take the natural mystery too seriously, so we might take the Christian mystery not seriously enough. Christian writers (notably Milton) have sometimes spoken of the husband's headship with a complacency to make the blood run cold. We must go back to our Bibles. The husband is the head of the wife just in so far as he is to her what Christ is to the Church. He is to love her as Christ loved the Church--read on--and give his life for her (Ephesians 5:25).

This headship, then, is most fully embodied not in the husband we should all wish to be but in him whose marriage is most like a crucifixion; whose wife receives most and gives least, is most unworthy of him, is--in her own mere nature--least lovable. For the Church has no beauty but what the Bride-groom gives her; he does not find, but makes her, lovely. The chrism of this terrible coronation is to be seen not in the joys of any man's marriage but in its sorrows, in the sickness and sufferings of a good wife or the faults of a bad one, in his unwearying (never paraded) care or his inexhaustible forgiveness: forgiveness, not acquiescence.

As Christ sees in the flawed, proud, fanatical or lukewarm Church on earth that Bride who will one day be without spot or wrinkle, and labours to produce the latter, so the husband whose headship is Christ-like (and he is allowed no other sort) never despairs. He is a King Cophetua who after twenty years still hopes that the beggar-girl will one day learn to speak the truth and wash behind her ears.

To say this is not to say that there is any virtue or wisdom in making a marriage that involves such misery. There is no wisdom or virtue in seeking unnecessary martyrdom or deliberately courting persecution; yet it is, none the less, the persecuted or martyred Christian in whom the pattern of the Master is most unambiguously realised. So, in these terrible marriages, once they have come about, the "headship" of the husband, if only he can sustain it, is most Christ-like.

The sternest feminist need not grudge my sex the crown offered to it either in the Pagan or in the Christian mystery. For the one is of paper and the other of thorns. The real danger is not that husbands may grasp the latter too eagerly; but that they will allow or compel their wives to usurp it" (The Four Loves).

C.S. Lewis reveals his delightful sense of humor when he suggests that a man should perhaps marry the most needy woman he can find in order to come closer to the model of Christ and his Bride as portrayed in Ephesians.

After God created the first man, Adam/Eve he separated that one man into Adam and Eve and then presented them to one another. Adam exclaimed, "Here at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Marriage is therefore the oldest of human institutions, valid in every generation and acknowledged by every branch of the human race. Not everyone marries, and God offers wholeness to anyone who comes to Jesus.

In 1 Corinthians 15 we are presented the picture of Jesus Christ as the "Second Man," the head of a new race, and as the "Last Adam."

"There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption." (1 Corinthians 15:44-48)

Physical marriage and childbearing are features of life in the old creation which are not to be perpetuated into the new creation. The Bride Jesus is now courting is all of us--a great number of persons, each one of us receiving healing, wholeness, and intimacy restored on the way there.

"Jesus answered and said to them, 'The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; "nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.'" (Luke 20:34-36)

Heaven is not to be thought of as a place of restricted love or limited intimacies. C.S. Lewis concludes his book on the natural loves by showing how they must first each be subservient to the agape love with is God. And secondly, our natural loves must be transformed or they will be irrelevant in heaven.

"And yet, I believe, the necessity for the conversion is inexorable; at least, if our natural loves are to enter the heavenly life. That they can enter it most of us in fact believe. We may hope that the resurrection of the body means also the resurrection of what may be called our "greater body"; the general fabric of our earthly life with its affections and relationships. But only on a condition; not a condition arbitrarily laid down by God, but one necessarily inherent in the character of Heaven: nothing can enter there which cannot become heavenly. "Flesh and blood," mere nature, cannot inherit that Kingdom. Man can ascend to Heaven only because the Christ, who died and ascended to Heaven, is "formed in him." Must we not suppose that the same is true of a man's loves? Only those into which Love Himself has entered will ascend to Love Himself. And these can be raised with Him only if they have, in some degree and fashion, shared His death; if the natural element in them has submitted--year after year, or in some sudden agony to transmutation. The fashion of this world passes away. The very name of nature implies the transitory. Natural loves can hope for eternity only in so far as they have allowed themselves to be taken into the eternity of Charity; have at least allowed the process to begin here on earth, before the night comes when no man can work. And the process will always involve a kind of death. There is no escape. In my love for wife or friend the only eternal element is the transforming presence of Love Himself. By that presence, if at all, the other elements may hope, as our physical bodies hope, to be raised from the dead. For this only is holy in them, this only is the Lord.

Theologians have sometimes asked whether we shall "know one another" in Heaven, and whether the particular love-relations worked out on earth would then continue to have any significance. It seems reasonable to reply: "It may depend what kind of love it had become, or was becoming, on earth." For, surely, to meet in the eternal world someone for whom your love in this, however strong, had been merely natural, would not be (on that ground) even interesting. Would it not be like meeting in adult life someone who had seemed to be a great friend at your preparatory school solely because of common interests and occupations? If there was nothing more, if he was not a kindred soul, he will now be a total stranger. Neither of you now plays conkers. You no longer want to swap your help with his French exercise for his help with your arithmetic. In Heaven I suspect, a love that had never embodied Love Himself would be equally irrelevant. For Nature has passed away. All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.

But I must not end on this note, I dare not--and all the less because longings and terrors of my own prompt me to do so--leave any bereaved and desolate reader confirmed in the widespread illusion that reunion with the loved dead is the goal of the Christian life. The denial of this may sound harsh and unreal in the ears of the broken hearted, but it must be denied.

"Thou hast made us for thyself," said St. Augustine, "and our heart has no rest till it comes to Thee." This, so easy to believe for a brief moment before the altar or, perhaps, half-praying, half-meditating in an April wood, sounds like mockery beside a deathbed. But we shall he far more truly mocked if, casting this way, we pin our comfort on the hope--perhaps even with the aid of seance and necromancy--of some day, this time forever, enjoying the earthly Beloved again, and no more. It is hard not to imagine that such an endless prolongation of earthly happiness would be completely satisfying.

But, if I may trust my own experience, we get at once a sharp warning that there is something wrong. The moment we attempt to use our faith in the other world for this purpose, that faith weakens. The moments in my life when it was really strong have all been moments when God Himself was central in my thoughts. Believing in Him, I could then believe in Heaven as a corollary. But the reverse process-believing first in reunion with the Beloved, and then, for the sake of that reunion, believing in Heaven, and finally, for the sake of Heaven, believing in God-this will not work. One can of course imagine things. But a self-critical person will soon be increasingly aware that the imagination at work is his own; he knows he is only weaving a fantasy. And simpler souls will find the phantoms they try to feed on void of all comfort and nourishment, only to be stimulated into some semblance of reality by pitiful efforts of self hypnotism, and perhaps by the aid of ignoble pictures and hymns and (what is worse) witches.

We find thus by experience that there is no good applying to Heaven for earthly comfort. Heaven can give heavenly comfort; no other kind. And earth cannot give earthly comfort either. There is no earthly comfort in the long run.

For the dream of finding our end, the thing we were made for, in a Heaven of purely human love could not be true unless our whole Faith were wrong. We were made for God. Only by being in some respect like Him, only by being a manifestation of His beauty, lovingkindness, wisdom or goodness, has any earthly Beloved excited our love. It is not that we have loved them too much, but that we did not quite understand what we were loving. It is not that we shall be asked to turn from them, so dearly familiar, to a Stranger. When we see the face of God we shall know that we have always known it. He has been a party to, has made, sustained and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love. All that was true love in them was, even on earth, far more His than ours, and ours only because His. In Heaven there will be no anguish and no duty of turning away from our earthly Beloveds. First, because we shall have turned already; from the portraits to the Original, from the rivulets to the Fountain, from the creatures He made lovable to Love Himself. But secondly, because we shall find them all in Him. By loving Him more than them we shall love them more than we now do. (C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves)

Jesus did not marry during His first visit to our planet. That is very clear from the New Testament. The important task of redeeming mankind and breaking the power of evil in the universe was always foremost in His mind. On His return trip to earth, Jesus will be taking a Bride.

In weddings today the bride walks slowly down the aisle dressed in a magnificent wedding dress, accompanied by her father and bridesmaids. The groom, on the other hand, stands unnoticed to one side dressed like a penguin.

At the "marriage supper of the Lamb" it would be a poor match if the Bride showed up in shabby clothes showing little interest in Jesus the Bridegroom. Between now and our participation in the marriage supper of the Lamb, the Spirit of God must provide us with a wedding dowry worthy of Christ the Groom. This seems like a tall order, but the wedding of Jesus will lack nothing. 

Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum discusses the coming marriage of Christ and His Church and compares with Israel as the wife of Yahweh.

"There is a totally different picture in the Scriptures regarding the Church. What God has to say about the Church and her relationship as the Bride of the Messiah is radically different from what has been said regarding Israel as the Wife of Jehovah. Again, this shows the necessity of maintaining these distinctions.

It might be good at this time to define exactly what we mean by the word "church" when we say the Church is the Bride of the Messiah. The "universal church" is composed of all true believers everywhere, and this universal body of believers is the Bride of the Messiah. By "local church," we mean that portion of the universal Church living in a specific geographical area. But the Bride of the Messiah is not limited to some local church somewhere nor is it limited to any specific denomination. It is composed of all believers regardless of their geographical location and denominational affiliation.

The thrust of all the New Testament passages regarding this relationship of the Church as the Bride of the Messiah is that the Church is a betrothed Bride who is not yet joined to her husband. There are four key passages of the New Testament that speak concerning this relationship of the Church as the Bride of the Messiah. But again, it must always be kept in mind that the Church is pictured today as an engaged Bride who is not yet joined by marriage to her husband. 

The relevant New Testament passages about Bridegroom and Bride cited by Dr. Fruchtenbaum include: 2 Corinthians 11:2, Ephesians 5:25-27, Revelation 19:6-9 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Revelation 21:9-22:5.

The Author

When I was ten years old and my eight-year-old little sister asked our mom where babies come from, (our dad not being present at the time). Mother went to the public library and brought home thick books with colored drawings of fetuses in the womb at every stage up to full term. I squirmed when my sister asked how a baby gets inside the mother in the first place? Our mom’s awkward response told me right away our dad was probably not all that good in bed. I opted out of the confab at that time pretending to already know all about S-E-X --which was not true of course. Yet, what was missing when my sister asked our mother about sex? Our dad was nowhere to be seen. Instinctively I imagined dads are supposed to identify with sons at puberty as a "guy thing." Or for father-son bonding.

I had zero interest in Jesus back then. He was not on my radar. Now I can see I did not want any adult, any teacher, explaining sex to me. I wanted my own autonomy! At the age of ten I was a very self-centered kid.

"But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name,
Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us,
And have consumed us because of our iniquities.

But now, O LORD,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.

Do not be furious, O LORD,
Nor remember iniquity forever;
Indeed, please look—we all are Your people." (Isaiah 64:6-9)

Like most of my peers I discovered masturbation at the age of 13, early in puberty. A friend showed me how, and at the time I thought we had discovered the secret of the universe. My ongoing, follow-up early sex education took place in my Junior High boy’s locker room. There was little porn available back then but we boys always wanted to see "dirty pictures."

I liked all my Junior High teachers except for one. I was too insecure to develop friendships with the other kids so as a default I became teachers' pet. (I and was actually voted "most likely to succeed" by high school graduation time, though I had no clue what that award meant at all. My self-esteem was in the gutter).

My English teacher, fifteen years older than I, was gay. Though he was married and supporting a wife and son he obsessed over me for four long years--certain he would win me over with extra spending money. I came to loathe the poor, wretched man, and his sexual obsessions and proclivities. I had enough locker room knowledge to know what was going on and finally I told my Uncle Fred about my four-year double life I was living. Uncle Fred quietly went to the school Principal and had the guy fired and run out of town. When that happened I was greatly relieved, but since my dad was away in the Navy and my mom was terminally ill from Bright's Disease, I was a very confused adolescent with all sorts of identity issues raging beneath the surface. I felt certain science and psychologist would show me my real identity. Jesus was the last thing on my mind for the next fifteen years. I was searching, but "looking for love in all the wrong places."

In the ensuing years I read all I could find on M and on sex in general at various libraries. I was in college when the Kinsey Report came out. The college library had one copy which could not be checked out, so I read it at a reading desk. My learning curve concerning sexuality continued during a season in my life when I “checked out” San Francisco with the help of a friend. (See The Seamy Side of Life written in 2018 to address questions from a friend).

I have never married and of course know now that genital sexual expression is off limits for us unmarried guys, and girls. But single men and women who walk closely with Jesus are, I later discovered, actually promised an inheritance "greater than sons and daughters." (Isaiah 56).

As noted, I was off to a late start in life since I did not have a relationship with Jesus until I reached the advanced age of 30. [See My Search for Meaning in Life.] Knowing now the depths of sin from which Jesus has redeemed me, I see no great need to revisit the past. But I am available when some unique person wants me to identify with me as someone who has "been there, done that." I'm still a work in progress in the area of Christian experience--known as "sanctification" which usually follows "justification." I'd like to pretend I am now lily white and pure in thought, word and deed. But others know me better than I know myself. Pride is still my default mode as a son of Adam. Most of all I am known and loved by Jesus and perfectly safe because I know Him and renew our relation every day. Please see The 'I am god' problem. Read the 23rd Psalm if all this is new to you.

A couple of years ago a close friend wrote asking me if I had ever met any lesbians. I wrote him a long explicit reply about what I had learned about the culture and lifestyles prevalent in the Castro District of nearby San Francisco. I've copied from this article here in the interest of completeness, since I believe God will phase out all forms of physical sex in the days to come. This will be a huge deal for everyone. Meantime knowing that God wants no one to perish, I feel compelled to be transparent with my Millennial friends in mind.

The entire subject of sexual expression apart from an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ can be clarified by considering basic idolatry.

My $0.02 insights: When gay men come to know Jesus (and they frequently do), they tend to blend into straight society leaving the gay subculture behind. Some marry and raise kids with no obvious problems. Only a few acknowledge their experiences and liaisons in the gay life.

Many apparently straight men will acknowledge “same sex attractions” and even have sexual liaisons with straight men. Many of these vulnerable young men lack only normal, healthy male bonding and affirmation. Some do admit to ambivalence in regard to their sexuality. It’s for men to marry the right affirming wife and attain healing and wholeness in marriage. In many cases SSA (Same Sex Attraction) is really just "natural affection." I have observed that previously gay rights promoters usually leave that subculture behind when they stop having sex. Gay rights advocates seem to be all about the right to have sex no matter what God thinks. It ought to be obvious that what is missing is Jesus!

The gay "lifestyle" is a haven for younger men mostly. Most refugees from the gay life would say they were born this way. That perception of reality is in large part a reflection of the failures in the older generation of Christians. This unwelcome indictment of the Establishment is discussed by Ray Stedman, in classic messages, Dangerous Times and Fraudulent Faith.

The gay men in San Francisco (and other major cities) form a subset of homosexuals living in community. In San Francisco, the “ghetto” is called the “Castro District.” Life there is much more frenetic compared to the suburbs where most gay men are discreet in their socialites and their living situations. The “City” is home to about 100,000 gay men and women out of a total population of 750,000 or so. Younger gays in the suburbs live at home with their parents mostly and are diffused through society. The large gay population in our major cities reflects men and women being ostracized in the Midwest, not necessarily being born in the Big City. Young men and women born and raised in San Francisco seldom turn out gay, and they often dislike the kids moving thee from the Midwest who are seeking sanctuary and acceptance in the City.

Obviously two men or two women living together in the suburbs of Silicon Valley causes little concern in a time of extraordinarily high cost-of-living situations. Few heterosexual marriages are thriving and noteworthy these days. So it’s OK to be single now, unmarried men and women, refugees from matrimony, and the divorced often share a house or apartment now whereas singleness was an anathema when I was a boy.

Kids as young as 11 or 12 surf the net these days, knowing more about experiential sex than their parents, in many cases. Its not about sex as designed by God, to be sure, but rather every form of unrestrained behavior under the sun. Thoroughly pagan, Baal, Asherah, Moloch and the “host of heaven” are the behind-the-scenes agents at work. Peer values govern the milieu, not what was taught in church or back at home. In other words, the kids often suppose among themselves that all sex is OK and normal, "if that's your choice." "Who am I to judge?" "Everyone is sexually active these days." It often comes as a shock for the home folks to discover the values and norms generally accepted by straights and gays in our big cities. 

Denial is a good word to use in describing both sides in the present cultural equation. Without parental knowledge all kinds of kids early into puberty discover their iphone cameras and take "selfies" of themselves buck- naked to send to their friends, of either sex. The U S. pornography industry generates $12 billion dollars in annual revenue -- larger than the combined annual revenues of ABC, NBC, and CBS. Of that, the Internet pornography industry generates $2.5 billion dollars in annual revenue. 

What is being denied by the majority is the right of the Lord Jesus Christ to meddle in our personal affairs.

In the Castro District there exists a wide range of chosen lifestyles all of which are non-heterosexual. I believe God created us male and female, and this is reflected in our emotions and our bodies. “The natural use of the man for the women” can’t occur in lifestyles that run contrary to the created order, so there is a need there to seek sexual gratification in modes that are “contrary to nature.” Absence of godly examples and role models in the older generation is a big factor. Both sides are at fault.

Sodomy is the principal way two men engage in sexual interaction. Sodomy (anal intercourse) requires that one man identify as a “bottom” and his partner as a “top.” The relationship is very one-sided obviously and the “bottom” often must masturbate and fantasize while being sodomized. The excretory organs were not designed for sexual use, the passive partner must get used to pain, physical damage, and inconvenience while his “top” gets his rocks off in a somewhat more natural way. Sodomy carries many health risks that are not found among monogamous heterosexual couples. There is nothing very mutual or synergistic going on in gay sex! Anatomically two men males or two women don’t exactly “fit well together in bed,” anatomically.

Recently I rediscovered what I had forgotten that the phallus, the male member, is the actual object of worship in the gay milieu of the M world. It is only a small step from there to ancient Hinduism! See Wikipedia Religion and Sexuality for an overview. See also their article Phallus. Pagan peoples who pursue false gods were and are usually very sexually active. See for example Why Did the Pharaoh Masturbate Into the River? by Ben Kageyama.

Sadly most guys commonly learn about masturbation from a peer or from scuttlebutt in the school locker room. “It must be cool since everyone does it.” Mutual masturbation or oral sex may bring painful alienation between friends—and zero fulfillment--because these activities run contrary to the created order of the universe. God can not be a partner in behavior contrary to who He is as a Person. "...lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:4) fits a lot of people I know today.

The back seat of a car or an unsupervised couch is where a lot of straight guys discover sex. I can’t recall anyone I know really learning much from their parents! (I often ask younger friends if they received good advice and sound teaching from parents or teachers just to know where they are coming from). 

Sexual interaction was designed by God to be a holistic relationship, one reason why an older term for marriage is “holy matrimony” — a covenant between bride and groom, invoking Jesus as a Third Party.

Sexual promiscuity is inherently pagan by nature. This topic deserves a separate article. The Old Testament does not shy away from this vital subject. Demons are usually involved in all relationships where Jesus is unwelcome. The history of Israel is recorded for us in the Bible to show us how sinful humans in every generation have lived out their lives in the past, in ignorance or in defiance of God. Physical sexual expression is intended by our Creator to be reserved only for heterosexual marriage but few marriages today serve as role models for the young.

In a previous generation, (before c1960), adolescent boys and girls were taught by their parents and their Sunday School teachers to “abstain from sex until marriage.” Talks about the “birds and the bees” by many parents back then was vague and general—just about the time when help was most needed! The implication is that one can have all the sex he or she wants after marriage. Therefore just wait. "Waiting" until marriage sounds ludicrous to a boy caught up in the throes of adolescence, with peer pressures all day long saying he should just let go and do what feels good and comes naturally. "You've got to be kidding, mom and dad." This approach is of course a pack of lies from enemy headquarters. Of course most men should marry and enjoy family life in the full.

Jesus never married but remained single because of His unique calling. (Jesus is a Single Man).

When I was in junior high, desperate school officials decided to host a sex-education week, because it was felt that kids were not getting the basics of sex and relationships from their parents. True enough. Renting a local movie theater, the school sent us 9th graders to endure with much snickering, the highly acclaimed c.1948 film, “Mom and Dad,” which attempted to show us how "wholesome" marriage really is and how horrific and disastrous sex outside of marriage really was.

The not-so-subtle messages continued in the sequel to the movie. First a couple was shown holding hands in the back seat of the car. Then abruptly, in rapid sequence, slides were presented showing ugly lesions and sores from syphilis, gonorrhea, leprosy, cancer and the like. Talk about the dangers of holding hands! Cause and effect were all too clear to us kids. But we 9th graders knew more about sex than our parents and teachers combined. After all, we had inside info from the boys' locker room. We joked about Portnoy’s Complaint and the old adage that “playing with yourself is like playing with fire.” A “jock mentality” prevailed among us boys and public social interactions with the opposite sex were much more curtailed back then. Most of my ninth grade male peers were looking for girls they could make out with. Living rooms were often off limits. The school did sponsor ballroom dancing to help awkward boys and girls meet in a safe well-chaperoned auditorium with bright lights and safe non-inflammatory Rock n' Roll music. I myself was too scared to take part. I kept a very low profile hoping to go unnoticed.

We had no idea what Christians believed back then, since religion and God were excluded completely from the public schools. Most of us kids felt that God hated sex, tolerating limited sex, but only in marriage. But "Ignorance is NOT bliss.”

“Brothers, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load. Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:1-10)

When puberty sets in hormones switch on, and all manner of inflamed emotions and strange surprises start happening in the body. Boys and girls are inquisitive and open to learning about all everything with curiosity and relative innocence. The ominous silence of mom and dad can be plenty suspicious. "Nature abhors a vacuum."

Emotions run wild and ought to be tamed when our natural sexual drives, instincts, emotions, and inclinations need channeling and mastering. All humans born on the earth are fallen and self-centered in at least some areas of life. The reservoirs of libido in men, and women, are vast. Much of this energy needs to be tamed and channeled for the good of the individual and society. God is on our side--because He seeks our best interests and He strives with us in order that we should seek life not final ruin and perhaps destruction.

“Good little boys and girls” do adapt to their parents' values to some degree, but often find their “straight marriages” are lackluster and unfulfilling. Yet another generation passes along their cultural conformity to their offspring, as the old myth we should all live by. Adult sexuality covers up a lot --which only promotes the counterfeit in the young.

Society is supposed to be orderly, so when parents fail to explain, train, and discipline their sons and daughters, schools try vainly to pick up the slack. Wise council is supposed to liberate not constrain, not to breed fear, guilt and shame. To keep the peace, divorce becomes way too easy, abortions soar, and all manner of sex (except as designed), becomes the norm. The resulting chaos is what the Bible calls “lawlessness.” The next stage that follows is violence, hate crimes, suicides, mass murder, war. At this final stage Jesus must often step in with protective measures. God is too full of compassion for us to tolerate our self-destruction. But Jesus does not violate our “free will” -- even when He is fully aware of our self-destructive ways. 

If two men or two women "marry" and intend to be sexually active together, there are obvious practical hurdles to be overcome in the bedroom. Presumably there is an exchange of affection and acceptance of one another naked. Otherwise there would be no reason to be naked and affectionate. It's usually a false intimacy to be sure! In today’s society most men admit to having been sexually active since puberty. Mutual masturbation is probably the "safest" form of marriage in a gay marriage. Fellatio is not usually mutual (69) because both partners need to be of similar stature. Sodomy is often high on the list of options provided one of the partners is comfortable with being the “top” and other the role of “bottom.” Watching porn together is probably common. Merely “cuddling” for affection is probably where many gay marriages end up after the “honeymoon is over?”  Fulfilling? No way!

“SSA” (same sex attraction) is one of the main reasons some men tend to assume they are gay and doomed by fate to living with another man, never marrying a woman.  After a person comes to know Jesus Christ one-on-one, an emerging sense of wholeness takes place. But when one knows Jesus, there is no longer any reason to call oneself "gay."

It ought to be obvious that men and women are built differently and that gay sex is not “natural” either physically or emotionally. But if normal heterosexual attraction is lacking, default into solitary sex or gay sex is easier to understand. Jesus makes broken men and women whole all the time and that ignoring the healing love of Jesus is both foolish and suicidal. 

There are demons behind the gay culture just as there were in ancient Israel when pagan religion came in and displaced personal fellowship with Jesus. Male and female cult prostitution in the Greek and Roman worlds was popular and widely accepted. (Demons are spiritual beings, fallen angels and spirits from the dark side who delight in seducing, perverting, ruining mortals).

Jesus said, “The thief came only to kill and destroy, I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”

When parents fail to be transparent with their kids and fail to come clean about the “facts of life,” or the “birds and the bees,” many kids today find that vast libraries of scurrilous information is only a few clicks away on the Internet. This includes huge resources of pornography so explicit and so diverse that the seductress of Proverbs Chapter 7 seems innocuous to people who fail to see the modesty and discretion in the Hebrew Bible. Mature adults usually learn to avoid porn like the plague knowing that they can't handle it either!

A whole generation in our nation learned about sex in the locker room or from explicit movies and peer influence. In my generation where all this sea of deceptive information was less available, boys found their way to “dirty pictures” from the Orient or anecdotal stories to masturbate by. During my college years, Playboy magazine was in every college male’s bottom dresser drawer under underwear and sox. Playboy was well known to be a guy's best friend and an aid to better masturbating. I was a freshman in college when I read the then reputable Kinsey Report in the college library. Masters and Johnson were soon in vogue. In one sense the Sexual Revolution gave everyone permission to speak freely about their sexuality. Single boys and girls felt tacit permission to be “sexually active.” An old adage in college said that “95% of single males masturbate and the other 5% are lying.” The fraudulent Kinsey Report launched a sexual revolution which continues to wreak havoc unchallenged today, six decades later.

Usually no one wanted to abstain, or thought it was humanly possible to do without exploding. Celibacy was said to be only for an impaired few, on the periphery of real life. So tacit permission was given for adolescents to be sexually active, to learn from experience, to experiment. Suppose a boy felt attracted to another boy or was exploited by a scout leader, a school or church leader and led to believe there existed viable ways for same-sex experimentation? If a young man was not biologically turned on by girls had that boy been “born that way?” Probably not! Was there a “gay gene?” No! Natural affection was all too easily mislabeled as lust.

Sigmund Freud believed that everyone was born “polymorphic-perverse.” (His views were shocking back in the Victorian era). Freud also feared that allowing the contents of the unconscious to flood into the world would be catastrophic, as if opening Pandora’s Box. Carl Jung disagreed with his mentor, claiming the unconscious was friend not foe. Making friends with one unconscious side would allow reconciliation with real but unwanted aspects of who we really are. No wonder the older generation seems naive to many of their offspring.

A wonderful Christian young woman and dear friend I knew some years ago once gave me her take on the low state of the church back in the ‘60s. She said,

“Christians believe that the Word of God was made flesh, but only from the waist up.”

I am tempted to call such a state of affairs “half redeemed.” But such a term does not appear in the Bible. In other words, we are 100% redeemed by Jesus—or we are not redeemed at all. Of course no Christian attains to a holy lifestyle without a long journey which only begins at spiritual rebirth. Were many parents as broken and incomplete in Christ as their offspring who dreamed of a better world? I think so. Social breakdown in past civilizations was gradual until a point of no return.

The present sexual revolution is in many ways a search for intimacy. The sexual revolution of the 60’s and 70’s brought huge changes in our society as recorded in Wikipedia and countless books concerning what has changed and what was unaffected. Ray Stedman documented several demonic invasions in those years, but of course secular investigators can not look behind the scenes into God’s domain.

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:1-6)

Along about 1970 or so I became curious about “life in the City.” I enlisted a night club musician friend to show me around San Francisco. We first had dinner at an elegant men’s restaurant (which I think still exists to this day). Then my guide pointed out popular bath houses and half a dozen gay bars packed with young guys and some old predators. I learned that kids new to the City were worshiped for their youth and often placed on pedestals for a few years. Old fags paid top dollar to hire such house boys to live in their glitzy apartments. The older man protected his protege zealously but the kid was of course seldom attracted sexually to his aging mentor. The young and virile boys, eager to learn all about sex, ended “tricking” almost every night, having anonymous sex with hundreds of men in a few short years. Utterly destructive behavior for all parties of course!

I remember how appalled I was after my first guided tour to San Francisco. Years later (c1981) a friend from San Francisco, Frank Stipech, terminally ill with AIDS, came to live with me on the Peninsula. He had come to know Jesus, but his last days in a hospital ward were awful. Frank was only about 35 when Jesus took him home. His parents were greatly grieve but knew nothing about Frank’s lifestyle. Frank had told me everything about life in the City that I did not already know.

A pastor friend of ours, Dave Roper, tried valiantly to rescue a fragile convert, Bob Tabor, from his San Francisco friends, about that same time, but in vain. Bob died suddenly in an accident, and all of us who knew him were devastated.

About this same time I met a rather interesting retired IBM executive working in San Jose. (Warren Thompson later became a follower of Jesus, sold all that he had, and entered into the Episcopal priesthood). I don’t know how I met him, but Warren introduced me to a group of celibate gay males who were well placed in the upper echelons of Silicon Valley. These important men were not sexually active, or were very discrete in their liaisons. Yet, except for Warren, none of these men seem to have found his way out of the accursed lifestyle. Promiscuity appalled them, but straight marriage eluded them. Churches eyed them with suspicion. They had a hard time fitting in.

LGBLT/LGBT -- meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender, etc.-- is a widely accepted sub culture today demanding their "rights" in a milieu which they see as oppressive, decadent, dull, boring, and sociologically unaware.

Then God said, “Let Us (plural) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

I have noticed that sex, whether solo or otherwise, usually involves people stripping naked. This seems to be an outright denial of the events in the Garden of Eden, back in the beginning. Today many feel no sense of shame in being naked in a locker room, a bedroom, or other supposedly safe place.

“...So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said:

“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.“ (Genesis 2:20-25)

“...So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the LORD God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life. And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:6-21)

Actually we are never truly alone. A conscious effort on our part is necessary if we are to become the men and women God designed us to be.

“He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.  Let him turn away from evil and do good;
Let him seek peace and pursue it.  For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3: 10-12)

Addressing the last stage of the Christian church at the end of the age we live in now, Jesus said:

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:"These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation.""I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm -- neither hot nor cold -- I am about to vomit you out of my mouth." "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see." "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me." "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3:14-22)

The Apostle Paul wrote:

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:11-18)

The old bodies are "fearfully and wonderfully made!"

Gender is determined at conception by the father.

The human genome is enormously complex! Our genetic inheritance has come down to us 50% from Adam and 50% from Eve...This is elementary knowledge for most people. For those who have not learned about the genetics and biology of human sexuality there are vast libraries online about these matters.

The Bible reveals suggests that the physical expression of sex is about to be taken away from us, even from the happily married. There are several aspects of this that can be inferred from the Bible. But we can not extrapolate from what we know about our old mortal bodies if we wish to understand the new bodies already made for us to put on when we step out of time into eternity. Way better than our present distress.

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5)

That is, sexual capabilities will evidently be absent from the new bodies which followers of Jesus Christ have been promised. This will not affect the manliness of men nor the affirming love of women--the essential differences built into Adam and Eve.

If 10% of earth’s present 7800 million persons follow Jesus into the heavenly city at the rapture, those left behind will surely not give up their meager pleasures in life voluntarily. It will take time for God to judge the world!

The overriding directive from the Top is that earth’s absent Owner and Landlord is on his way back even nor and He’s very angry at his current tenants. Originally directed at His own people the Jews, the parable Jesus related to the authorities of his day is relevant for us today: 

“Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. “Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. “And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. “Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. “Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ “But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ “So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the LORD’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’ ?

“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder (Matthew 21:33-44)

There will be no escape nor Elysian Fields of eternal bliss for those left behind. There is no such reality as Nirvana. God IS Love, Self-giving love but the default group of humanity have said no to real love all along. Hell has been described as the backside of love.  Try loving the human race as Jesus did and you’ll soon get killed as Jesus did—it’s way too dangerous. 

The physical body is described in the Bible as an earthen vessel, a house for soul and spirit. To Christians, “...we have this treasure (Christ) in earthen vessels so that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7) Our bodies are mortal, running on 4-dimensional time (length, width, height & time). Because of sin our bodies age, get tired, become sick, and eventually “die.” Of course our bodies, though fallen, are fearfully and wonderfully made, equipped with amazing files and systems.

The resurrection of the mortal does not mean that our present bodies are not redeemable. They are, and will be, redeemed and made new when Christ returns. The redemption of our bodies and the resurrection of the dead are important teachings in the Bible. Therefore my discussion on Man as tripartite is naive and incomplete. For the sake of my model, our mortal bodies are containers for our Soul and Spirit which are not physical places, or tangible entities. 

A relevant teaching from the Bible is found in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5. Several words from the original Greek are of interest. Notice that our present bodies are likened to a temporary tent and our resurrection bodies are instead solid and permanent. Note the verb tense is present tense, “now.” Our present bodies (limited to only four dimensions) are dying but the "dearly departing" as he or she is leaving earth-time experiences immortality immediately. That is, he or she time travels in an instant --"in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" --to the First Resurrection--to join all other believers from the departure in this life into the presence of God, as described in 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18. Not all men enjoy a personal relationship with the risen Lord Jesus. Though loved by God, some reject Jesus to their dying day. When they die they cannot join the redeemed in heaven. They will be granted their foolish heart's desires and be excluded forever from the presence of God.

"For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, [Greek: skenos, a tent] is destroyed, we have [present tense] a building [Greek: oikos, a permanent building] from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation (oiketerion) which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him."

My present body is adjusted and calibrated to last me 70-90 years (Psalm 90). Apparently God can not trust us with more than a century of life on His good earth? This number (70-90 years) is down from the ~900 years people lived before the Flood. We can anticipate moving into our on-order new body starting now! We are actually enabled today to live now “in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” as if we were already wearing our new bodies today. This is evident by looking at the verse tenses in the New Testament passages that describe what actually happens when anyone of us allows Jesus into his life as Lord! The only man in all of history who came to earth in a sinless body was Jesus. if we wish to infer what our new resurrection bodies will be like, we can look up the references to each recorded appearance of Jesus after His resurrection.

“For our citizenship (politeuma) is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform (metaschēmatizō) our lowly body (tapeinōsis) that it may be conformed (symmorphos) to His glorious body, according to the working (energeia) by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21)

1. It comes “Ready to Wear.” The new body is not to be found in this life, nor available to be test driven in the present space-time domain, where we are presently imprisoned.

2. Your new body is disease-free, tangible, fully functional home for spirit and soul. No sin, no sickness, no disease, self-renewing.

3. Resurrection bodies are apparently capable of time travel. This is a difficult subject for secular science, confined as science is to very limited spatial and time dimensions. It appears we may each have a cloaking device as well! (Luke24:13ff).

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-15)

“Frequent flyers” today go z miles a year at 500 mph subsonic. Frequent Flyers build up a thousand miles with ease. Still others take a slow boat to China at 30 knots or drive the highest at 65. Bullet trains on the other hand are faster but they still go only 200 MPH. Cruise ships have all the luxuries of home and more. They cost a lot. 

Resurrection bodies will surely be more fun to soar around in than a flying carpet. Expect no clear-air turbulence. No lightning strikes. Good weather I suppose? No airport check-ins or delays. Automated security and safety checks are built in to resurrection bodies? Imagine visiting a far-away friend all the way off in a different land, and by means of a time warp going there in “no time at all!” No jet lag. Back home in time for dinner. Faster than light travel in our future? Why not! ("Sanctified Imagination" is all that is required).

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

According to the Gospel record the actual first appearance of our Lord was not to Peter but to Mary Magdalene. As the Gospel accounts tell us, she was first at the tomb and she mistook him for the gardener on that Easter Sunday morning. It was only when he spoke to her that she realized that this was the Lord, and she held him by the feet and worshipped him. Then he sent her away to find the disciples. But in the chauvinistic mentality of that 1st century, a woman's testimony did not count. Paul, therefore, is conceding a point here, perhaps to the age in which he lived, by listing the Apostle Peter as the one who first bore witness to the resurrection of Christ.

We do not know when and where exactly our Lord appeared to Peter. I am sure Peter was the apostle who was hurting the most at this particular time. He had denied his Lord in that black night before the crucifixion. Three times he had professed that he did not even know him, and he supported it with curses and oaths. It was only when he realized what he had done that he went out into the night and wept bitterly. You can imagine how Peter must have been feeling all through this terrible time after the crucifixion of Jesus when he was suffering from the awful pangs of his guilt over this denial.

I think it is for that reason that Jesus sought him out first. That is like him, isn't it? He found him in his brokenness, in his heartbreak, in his hatred of himself, in his awful sense of guilt, and he forgave him. Later on, in Galilee, John tells us, Jesus restored him to his public office again. I have always wished I could have been hiding nearby, watching, when our Lord saw Peter. What a moving scene that must have been when Jesus found him and forgave him. I know how Peter must have felt, because the Lord has done this with me on numerous occasions when I did not feel I had any right (and did not have any right) to be forgiven at all, and still he forgave me. The Gospels confirm this appearance of Jesus, without describing the event, in several references. Paul lists this time as the very first, then, of the appearances of our Lord to his apostles.

Then the second was to all the apostles, to the twelve, Paul says. Here the apostle undoubtedly is grouping together several appearances that our Lord made to the twelve apostles. Two of these appearances were on the Emmaus road that first afternoon after his resurrection when he appeared as a stranger and then later identified himself to them as they were sitting at bread together. That same evening he appeared suddenly in the midst of ten of the apostles. (Judas, of course, was gone, and Thomas was absent.) He revealed himself to them there, and showed that he was truly the risen Lord. He sat and ate with them, actually, on that occasion. Then, one week later, Thomas was present and Jesus appeared again. This time he invited Thomas to come and put his finger in the wounds in his hands, to feel his side, and establish clearly to his own satisfaction that he was indeed the risen Lord.

There are other appearances to the disciples that are gathered up in a phrase or two in the Scriptures which suggest that Jesus repeatedly appeared to them during a whole forty-day period and that he taught them many things during that time. We are not given the details, but Paul gathers this all up in these words, "he appeared ... then to the twelve." Paul's third reference is to an event that we have no account of directly in the Scriptures, although we do have some brief reference to it. He says:

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:6 RSV)

Every generation, the theory is propounded that Jesus really did not rise from the dead physically, that the disciples were so caught up in the wonder of his personality, that they so wanted him back they actually hallucinated and imagined they saw him. But this event, of course, can hardly fit that category, for here there were over five hundred individuals. Now it is hard enough to get one person to hallucinate, but to get five hundred people from various backgrounds and attitudes, etc., to do so all at once is simply incredible.

I think this occurred up on a mountainside in Galilee, for even before his crucifixion the Lord had said that he would meet his disciples in Galilee after the resurrection. The first message he sent by the women at the tomb was, "go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me," Matthew 28:10). Now you can imagine that word of that spread rapidly throughout the whole believing community and everybody who could get away headed for Galilee. Who would have wanted to miss that most exciting of all Christian meetings? So it is no wonder there were five hundred or more waiting for him on the mountainside, and to them he appeared.

We have a brief reference to this in the closing words of Matthew's Gospel where we are told that our Lord appeared in Galilee and there he gave them the words of the Great Commission: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you," (Matthew 28:18-20 RSV). With those words he sent them, and all the generations since, out to the farthest reaches of the earth. Now Paul says to these Corinthians, "most of these people are still alive." When he wrote this letter it was about 25 years after the crucifixion, and most were still alive. Some had fallen asleep, as he said, but if the Corinthians wanted to check it out, there were still many hundreds of people who were there and had seen Jesus and could bear testimony to it. Paul's fourth reference is to another appearance that is not reported in the Gospels:

Then he appeared to James. (1 Corinthians 15:7a RSV)

The James mentioned here is undoubtedly the half-brother of Jesus, the oldest remaining son of the family that grew up in Nazareth. John tells us in his Gospel that his brothers did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. And you can understand why. It would have been very hard to believe that someone you made mud pies with, someone you ran through the fields and went skinny-dipping with and all these other things that kids do was the Son of God, the Creator of all the universe.

So his brothers did not believe in him until the resurrection. It was that phenomenal event, that magnificent recovery, that finally convinced James that Jesus was the Son of God. We do not know when he appeared to him. Again, it would have been fascinating to have been there, and heard what he said, and how he revealed himself to his brother. But it is this James who wrote the Epistle of James in our New Testament. If you read through that letter you will see how reverently he refers to the Lord Jesus. He calls him twice the "Lord Jesus Christ," and once the "Lord of Glory," so that his brother was now solidly and firmly convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead. Then the fifth in Paul's list of Jesus' appearances is:

Then [he appeared] to all the apostles. (1 Corinthians 15:7b RSV)

This is the occasion recorded in the first chapter of Acts when our Lord led his disciples, his believing band, out to the Mount of Olives. There, looking out over the city of Jerusalem, he began to teach them and speak to them. While he was speaking, it says, they noticed his body rising from the ground. To their amazement, he ascended into the heavens until a cloud received him, and he disappeared out of sight. They stood there gazing into the sky, and two strange men, whom they afterwards realized were angels, said to them, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven," (Acts 1:11 KJV). With that our Lord disappeared permanently from earth. Only a few ever saw him after that, but he changed his relationship with his disciples, and this ended the post resurrection appearances, except, as Paul goes on to say:

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:8 RSV)

This was clearly that remarkable scene on the Damascus road when young Saul of Tarsus, burning in his hatred against the Christian cult, was trying to eliminate it. Suddenly a light brighter than the sun shone around him. He was blinded by it and was thrown to the ground. He heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4 RSV). He said, "Who are you, Lord?" (Acts 9:5a RSV), and the voice identified itself, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting;" (Acts 9:5b RSV). Now Paul never forgot, not only that event, but the words of Jesus, that he was the one who was persecuting the church, persecuting Jesus himself.

That event changed Paul's life. He never could get out of his mind that reminder of his burning hatred of Christians. That explains this phrase he uses about himself, "one untimely born." He means, by that, that he did not come to spiritual birth in the usual, proper way. The word he employs really means "miscarriage." He saw himself as a miscarriage, or, as some have translated it, an "abortion." Had Paul written his spiritual biography, the title would have not been Born Again, it would have been The Miscarriage, The Abortion, or something like that. This is what he thought of himself, largely because of the way he came to birth.

He is thinking of the twelve apostles as being born in a very normal way. When they heard the word of the Lord, they began to believe it. Gradually it developed in their minds and hearts until they came to the place where they believed it totally. In this way their spiritual birth followed a normal pregnancy that could be observed developing. But Paul's experience was not like that. It was abnormal; it was sudden; it was very precipitous and unexpected. That may account for the fact that Paul had a difficult time in his early Christian life. When somebody is prematurely born he does not just leap out and handle life like a normal baby. He is cared for specially; he is nurtured in private; he is protected from exposure to danger and germs and it is a long time before he begins to function normally. And this was the case with Paul.

He was born again on the Damascus road, but it was such a sudden, precipitous thing it took a long time for him to adjust his thinking and get it in line with this fantastic event that had occurred. That is why he spent three years in Damascus and Arabia and another seven years in his home town of Tarsus before he got it all together and felt he was ready to begin his great ministry of teaching and preaching all around the world. The Spirit of God led Barnabas to go down to Tarsus and find him ten years later, then Paul began his great worldwide ministry. In Verses 9-10, we have his evaluation of that ministry. He says:

For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:9-10 RSV)

It is astonishing to me to hear people sometimes accuse the Apostle Paul of being conceited. But anybody who draws that conclusion has never really listened to what Paul has to say about himself. Here he is giving us what he thought were his natural qualifications for his work as an apostle, and he says they are zero, absolutely zip -- and less than that! "I am the least of the apostles," he says, "because the twelve, the ones our Lord called, believed when they heard, but I persecuted the church. Not only did I not believe, I arrogantly and defiantly opposed God," he says. He saw himself as having forfeited every possible right to be an apostle. But his spiritual qualifications overcame, because, he said, "nevertheless I am what I am."

And he knew what he was. He was by this time a well-known apostle, in some ways the leader of the apostolic band, to whom the other apostles looked oftentimes for support and even guidance. He was the most remarkable missionary that has ever appeared on the earth, and he had already spent years in preaching the Word of God in the most difficult places throughout the earth. Now, he says, how could somebody who had no qualifications achieve something like that? His answer is three times stated, "The grace of God which is with me." It is not him, he says, it is the grace of God that does it.

Surely he is referring here to what he regarded without doubt as the greatest truth that is in the gospel. It is the fact that the risen, ascended Lord has found a way by which he can come and live in a human heart, in an individual life, in any scene, in any age, in any generation, and reproduce his character and his life through the ordinary, natural things that a human being does. There is the grace of God. It sets aside all the folly, all the failure, all the weakness, and nevertheless uses us, in simple but effective ways, wherever we are. That is Paul's explanation of his ministry.

I hope that encourages many hearts because many of us feel that we have lost every right to be used of God. We have fouled up our lives, and messed up everything, so how can God use us? Well, Paul is the great encouragement, isn't he? He who had been the persecutor of the church, and the most ardent enemy of the faith was now the greatest apostle of all, and God was using him everywhere around the earth. Wherever this great apostle went he found whole cities blanketed with despair, people living in anger and hostility with one another, bound with superstition, filled with fears, engaged in the most degrading practices, and destroying themselves with sexual looseness on every side. Here he would begin in simple ways, with the normal contacts he had, to tell them the truth about Jesus. As they would believe, one by one, a believing community would spring up, and their lives would be so different, so glowing, so loving, that word would spread throughout the city, and other people would come and hear. Gradually a whole community would be stirred and changed. City after city began to be changed like that until, within the course of a few decades in the 1st century, the whole Roman world was drastically altered by the power of a risen Lord. No wonder Paul gloried in the resurrection of Jesus!

And this is what we ought to glory in. We are not turned loose as Christians in this day and age to mobilize all our best human resources, and do what we can for God. We are filled with a risen Christ who is ready to release through us, in terms of our experience, old or young alike, his quiet power to transform humanity from within. That is what brings about fantastic changes in society and social structures as the gospel does its work. Paul now sums this all up in Verse 11. He says:

Whether then it was I or they, [that is, I or the other apostles] so we preach and so you believed. (1 Corinthians 15:11 RSV)

It did not make any difference which apostle preached the gospel, it was always the same gospel. There is no difference between Paul's gospel and Peter's gospel. Peter preached to the Jews and Paul went to the Gentiles, but the gospel was the same; the good news was absolutely the same. Paul, then, puts his finger on the difference between believing the eye witnesses concerning the resurrection of Jesus and believing eye witnesses about any other human event, including the existence of Big Foot or anything else. Do you know what the difference is? Well, when you believe the eye witnesses concerning Big Foot you just believe there is such an animal. He does exist; people have seen him; but that does not give you any access at all to him. You have not seen him; you cannot lay hold of the power and the strength and the cunning of these creatures by your belief. But when you believe in Jesus, something happens. He makes himself known to you; you can receive him. That is the great difference. This is what has made the change in these Corinthian believers. As Paul says, he preached the gospel but they received it. And when you receive Jesus, changes begin to occur. John tells us, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God," (John 1:12 KJV). That fundamental change occurs when you receive Jesus. (They Saw Him Alive)

The Huppah and Intimacy

In the traditional Jewish wedding, bride and groom will not have had sex before the wedding. They will not have dated in the manner common to couples in the non-Jewish community. Their marriage may well have been arranged. No matter, if Jesus Christ is welcome by both bride and groom, He knows how to bring order and meaning as two become one. But the integrity of many Jewish weddings has greatly deteriorated in recent years. Thinking of the traditional Jewish wedding, the bride (a virgin) may not have had the opportunity of getting to know her groom
(a celibate man who has not yet had sex), before the wedding itself.

"The bride and groom would enter the Huppah, where they would spend a week in privacy together. It is to this practice that Laban probably referred when he instructed Jacob, with regard to Leah, to "complete her week" (Genesis 29:27). Meanwhile, the guests would be enjoying a sumptuous feast, while waiting for the bride and groom to rejoin them in public celebration. Various sources mention different durations for the feast: The wedding feast might last a day (Genesis 29:22), a week (Judges 14:12), or according to the Apocrypha even two weeks (Tobias. 8:20, 10:7)."  Following the feast, the couple would live together as one."

A third person was in the Huppah at the beginning of the ceremony. He was a mediator. Male and Female do not easily live together for a lifetime unless both are committed to following Jesus as constant companion. That is, it Takes Three to Tango or more eloquently, Jesus Himself is the Way, or the Tao, in the Eastern metaphor.

The image of marriage in American has degraded greatly also since the sexual revolution in the '50' and 60's. As noted, hookups are the lifestyle of the day for many younger men and women. These can be overnight or weekend liaisons for MF, MM, FF, fM, mF, as you choose. Sexual exploration is taken for granted since moral absolutes have been discarded in favor of Oneness. This change is probably because traditional Judeo-Christian value have given way to an infusion of spiritual values from the East. The root problem is that Jesus has been left out of the equation. The Bible came to us in an Eastern setting whereas traditional American values are rooted in Greek and Roman mythology. Today the "Old Paradigm" is rapidly giving way to a New. This is a very important change which most traditional churches are not yet aware of. Millennials for the most part shun Old Paradigm churches and need to hear directly from the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ. Thus a "New Paradigm" is where God is meeting people in America today. It's more about wholeness (holiness) than ever before. Dead Orthodoxy can not save, but neither can mother nature or the gods of pantheism.

Men and women are identical is spirit but different in body and soul. The image of God in us is Male/Female. Each of us is accountable to God.

Jesus is both the Word (Logos) of God (M) and the Sophia of God (F) so He can be seen to relate a bit differently with the 'daughters of Eve' compared to the 'sons of Adam.' This is borne out in the world to anyone who gets to know Jesus personally.

Jesus is the Lord of All. In Revelation Chapter One, Jesus announced His credentials: "Behold, He is coming with  clouds, and every eye will see Him, even  they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen."

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord,  “who is and who was and who is to come, the  Almighty...” “Do not be afraid;  I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold,  I am alive forevermore. Amen. And  I have the keys of Hades and of Death. 

Sonder is a wonderful new word I recently heard for the first time. It's the realization that "each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk."

Every person on earth is a unique descendant of Adam and Eve who were called into being about eight thousand years ago by our amazing three-personal God.

"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 air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them...the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, 'this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.'" (Genesis 1:26,27; 2:22-25)

Volumes have been written "man made in the image and likeness of God." God is a Spirit and not a material being---we do not look like God physically. The image of our Creator which we all bear is primarily an invisible, inner likeness. In regard to attributes of personality, mind, creativity, capacity for love and express emotions, the existence of will, conscience, imagination, memory and moral responsibility, and capacity for worship---God has made us very much like Himself. God is also Personal and all of us are personally accountable to Him!

What is more important is that God also made the first man male and female. Paraphrasing Genesis 1:26, 27 we could say that God created (bara) the first individual human being as male/female. The creation of the man Adam was accompanied by the simultaneous creation of Eve. 

Thus, the first man was originally Adam/Eve. Bara is a Hebrew word used only of God in the Bible. Man can himself invent and create because he has been made like his Creator, but only God can bring into existence the things that do not exist, only God alone can create ex nihilo, (out of nothing). God speaks, and matter, time and space spring into existence or life into being, where previously there had been nothingness. The word bara is therefore unique to God. The pagan gods and goddesses are almost always always depicted as sexual--male and female. Elohim transcends the sexual.

Extra Credit Reading Links

Sexuality and Wholeness Papers

The New Paradigm

The Repression of Sex (Wikipedia)

Sexual Abstinence (Wikipedia)

The Sexuality of Jesus (Wikipedia)

Religion and Sexuality (Wikipedia)

Sex and Worship

Two Men Called Adam

Adam's Account of the Fall

Man's Lost Dominion

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

The Second Adam

Libido

Chastity

The Sperm of God

The Holy Seed

Behind the Veil

• In an inexplicable or concealed place or condition, especially the mysterious state of existence after death.

Example:

• Many people have tried to discover beyond the veil but did not succeed. We only have imaginations from the stories of people with near death experiences.
• Had the boy not been beyond the veil, he too would have been killed by the gang.
• He seems to be beyond the veil as he doesn't answer appropriately when asked about his business.
• She did not want to submit her assignment as it was incomplete so she hid beyond the veil until the school got over.
• Psychotherapists use technique of hypnosis to help patients discover the reason for their beyond the veil emotions. It has proven to be effective.
• Aren't you tired of pushing yourself beyond the veil? You must talk to someone to help you move past such emotion.

Origin: Reference to the veil which concealed the deepest sanctuary of the Temple in Jerusalem i.e. which in Jewish place of worship separated the main body of the Temple from the tabernacle, and derives particularly from Tyndale's conversion of the Bible. It was afterwards taken as referring to mysterious division between the next world and this. Source: theidioms.com.

The Veil in the Temple in Jerusalem

"What was the significance of the temple veil being torn in two when Jesus died?"

During the lifetime of Jesus, the holy temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish religious life. The temple was the place where animal sacrifices were carried out and worship according to the Law of Moses was followed faithfully. Hebrews 9:1-9 tells us that in the temple a veil separated the Holy of Holies—the earthly dwelling place of God’s presence—from the rest of the temple where men dwelt. This signified that man was separated from God by sin Isaiah 59:1-2). Only the high priest was permitted to pass beyond this veil once each year (Exodus 30:10; Hebrews 9:7) to enter into God’s presence for all of Israel and make atonement for their sins (Leviticus 16).

Solomon’s temple was 30 cubits high (1 Kings 6:2), but Herod had increased the height to 40 cubits, according to the writings of Josephus, a first century Jewish historian. There is uncertainty as to the exact measurement of a cubit, but it is safe to assume that this veil was somewhere near 60 feet high.

An early Jewish tradition says that the veil was about four inches thick, but the Bible does not confirm that measurement. The book of Exodus teaches that this thick veil was fashioned from blue, purple, and scarlet material and fine twisted linen. The size and thickness of the veil make the events occurring at the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross so much more momentous. “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:50-51a).

What significance does this torn veil have for us today? Above all, the tearing of the veil at the moment of Jesus’ death dramatically symbolized that His sacrifice, the shedding of His own blood, was a sufficient atonement for sins. It signified that now the way into the Holy of Holies was open for all people, for all time, both Jew and Gentile.

When Jesus died, the veil was torn, and God moved out of that place never again to dwell in a temple made with human hands (Acts 17:24). God was through with that temple and its religious system, and the temple and Jerusalem were left “desolate” (destroyed by the Romans) in A.D. 70, just as Jesus prophesied in Luke 13:35. As long as the temple stood, it signified the continuation of the Old Covenant. Hebrews 9:8-9 refers to the age that was passing away as the new covenant was being established (Hebrews 8:13).

In a sense, the veil was symbolic of Christ Himself as the only way to the Father (John 14:6). This is indicated by the fact that the high priest had to enter the Holy of Holies through the veil. Now Christ is our superior High Priest, and as believers in His finished work, we partake of His better priesthood. We can now enter the Holy of Holies through Him. Hebrews 10:19-20 says, “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.” Here we see the image of Jesus’ flesh being torn for us just as He was tearing the veil for us.

The veil being torn from top to bottom is a fact of history. The profound significance of this event is explained in glorious detail in Hebrews. The things of the temple were shadows of things to come, and they all ultimately point us to Jesus Christ. He was the veil to the Holy of Holies, and through His death the faithful now have free access to God.

The veil in the temple was a constant reminder that sin renders humanity unfit for the presence of God. The fact that the sin offering was offered annually and countless other sacrifices repeated daily showed graphically that sin could not truly be atoned for or erased by mere animal sacrifices. Jesus Christ, through His death, has removed the barriers between God and man, and now we may approach Him with confidence and boldness (Hebrews 4:14-16).

The Seed of the Woman

Serpent Seed

“Flee sexual immorality (porneia). Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

Life in New Jerusalem  The Slippery Slope  Romans 1 Harlotry  Infidelity Tempting Christ  Fathers  

“Flee sexual immorality (porneia). Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled;  but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let  your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said,  “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord  is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:4-6)

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Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”
Therefore

“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

James, in the New Testament wrote, "Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown brings forth death" (James 1:14-15). 

James shows that sin is like illicit intercourse. A seduction takes place, our yielding to sin conceives a child within us, as it were. The "child's" name is death. Death is the final result of sin in our lives, some time later--"death" can show up as boredom, loneliness, guilt, emptiness, frustration and despair.

Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

"For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, [Greek: skenos, a tent] is destroyed, we have [present tense] a building [Greek: oikos, a permanent building] from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation [Greek: oiketerion, dwelling place] which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him."

According to reliable sources, Jesus of Nazareth will be returning to our planet very soon now.  He won’t be taking up residence in Nazareth, his old home town, but in Jerusalem. Jesus was about thirty years old when he left us. But he has a new body now. He will be bringing his bride, a goy (a gentile), with him.  

The Bride of Jesus will not be one single person however. She will be perhaps ten billion men, women and children—of all ages—and from every nation! She will be spectacularly beautiful! (Most followers of Jesus are not white, Anglo Saxon, or Protestant.) Jesus never married and He lived an impeccable moral life for His allotted 30+ years on earth. Then He was brutally killed by His own countrymen. Fortunately Jesus did not stay dead. His return out from among the dead is in fact a template for all who know Jesus now and have hoped for a restored earth and redeemed citizenry.

God told our first parents to be fruitful and multiply which they’ve done numbers-wise quite nicely.  Over population is a huge problem today! Everyone on earth living or dead who has allowed Jesus into their lives is a member of the Bride of Christ! 

Jesus announced He would build His Church while traveling with His disciples up North around Mt. Hermon. The last living stones are now being fitted into place into this living organism known as the "Body of Christ." (There are several figures of speech the Bible uses to describe the glorious church of Jesus). Note also that the Bible speaks of Israel as the Wife of Yahweh, but the church as the Bride of Christ.

Brand new bodies are already waiting for us to put on like a set of new clothes while we are in transit to the wedding. Of special interest to us today (since we are living right at the end of the age), are the Scriptural admonitions written just for us. There are Two Aspects of the Return of Jesus.  First, Jesus will show up unannounced to take His betrothed Bride to his Father's house where he has prepared a "room" for her. Then follows a royal wedding up in New Jerusalem with great festivity enjoyed by all. Seven years of earth time will elapse before Bride and Bridegroom step out in the open in a great disclosure event centered around Jerusalem, Israel. Present day Jerusalem will experience a wonderful renewal as the heavenly city descends to earth. Read the Bible!

“Behold, He is coming with the cloud, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:7-8)

But Jesus can't marry any old whore, recluse, drunken bum, serial killer or fagot. We who have received Jesus into our live must all be revirginized. Certain people are excluded because they refuse to be remade on the inside. Genital sex will be unnecessary since the planet is way overpopulated now. There will however to no lack of intimacy in New Jerusalem (aka as "heaven"). For more see The Revirginized Bride.

After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! “For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” ...Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS...

1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” 6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” 9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God,  “that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. 6 Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” 12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” 14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

From the pen of A. W. Tozer, Pastor at Moody Bible Church in Chicago, about 50 years ago:

The teaching of the New Testament is that now, at this very moment, there is a Man in heaven appearing in the presence of God for us. He is as certainly a man as was Adam or Moses or Paul; he is a man glorified, but his glorification did not de-humanize him. Today he is a real man, of the race of mankind, bearing our lineaments and dimensions, a visible and audible man, whom any other man would recognize instantly as one of us.

But more than this, he is the heir of all things, Lord of all lords, head of the church, firstborn of the new creation. He is the way to God, the life of the believer, the hope of Israel, and the high priest of every true worshiper. He holds the keys of death and hell, and stands as advocate and surety for everyone who believes on him in truth. Salvation comes not by accepting the finished work, or deciding for Christ; it comes by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole, living, victorious Lord who, as God and man, fought our fight and won it, accepted our debt as his own and paid it, took our sins and died under them, and rose again to set us free. This is the true Christ; nothing less will do.

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