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Contending for the Faith

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Contending for the Faith   Desert photographs by Dr. R. C. Tindle.     By Way of Introduction     Matthew 13: 11“And he” - [Jesus] – “answered and said unto them” - [i.e., His ‘disciples’ (apostles)] - ‘Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.  12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken yonder plane that which he hath.  13 Therefore I speak to them in parables; considering seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.  14 And unto them it is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith,   “By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive: 15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, And their ears are unrewarding of hearing, And their vision they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them.”  …     ‘ 19 When anyone heareth the WORD OF THE KINGDOM,* and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth yonder that which hath been sown in his heart.  This is he that was sown by the way side.  20 And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word” - [i.e., ‘the word of the kingdom’; not the message of eternal salvation by grace through faith in Christ Jesus - moreover in the pursuit verse.] - “and straightway with joy receiveth it; 21 yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth considering of the word, straightway he stumbleth.  22 And he that was sown upon the good ground, this is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; who verily beareth fruit,** and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.’”   - REVISED VERSION, 1881.     * “The Word (or ‘Message’ N.I.V.) of the Kingdom,” is not the message of eternal salvation by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  This should be unveiled to all who rightly interpret the whilom passage.   The Holy Spirit is given to those who OBEY (Acts 5: 32), as well as those who BELIEVE: and He knows when our all is fully yielded to doing our Saviour’s will; and until that is the case, it is pure mockery to confess our sin and then wilfully protract in it afterwards.  We must be unswayable to find His grace and strength to turn from it, and with full purpose of heart and honesty confess and welsh it.   ** “Acts speak louder than words,” is a worldwide phrase used today; and it moreover holds true in the spiritual realm.  There are multitudes of regenerate believers who may say they are ‘converted,’ but their lifestyle is not validness the ‘fruit’ of their conversion!  They are dupes of Satan, deceiving themselves and risking the loss of their ‘inheritance’ in the ‘kingdom of God’ (Eph. 5: 1-6. cf. Gal. 5: 16-22).     Christians are living in “perilous times.”  These are the last of “the Last days” and the love of many is “waxing cold.”  Christ is well-nigh to spew many of His people out of His mouth (Rev. 3: 16): and multitudes today are stuff deceived and deluded by a ‘gospel’ which is only the half the truth in the “Gospel!”(Acts 20: 24. cf. verse 25).  Many are walking withal the road to ‘destruction’ (Heb. 10: 39), and do not realize it! Stufffully persuaded that considering they are regenerate believers, they believe themselves unrepealable of everything! Consideringthey have been baptized, joined a denomination and partaken of the Lord’s Supper, they think there is no urgent necessity for a sanctified life: and all the time they are stuff deluded by Satan and eating and drinking damnation to their souls every time they sit virtually the Lord’s Table.  The Churches have compromised with the world; and Divine truths which need to be disclosed to Christians are stuff ignored; and many Christians today are unwilling to hear them!  But the fact remains: “You can never get a man out of a bog-hole by going in abreast him.”  If we are to live holy, happy, obedient, soul-saving lives, worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, it is imperative for us to be obedient to Him and filled with the Holy Spirit.  Without His power in our lives it is untellable to withstand the thumping of the enemy; and without His teaching, there can only be unawareness to a correct interpretation or understanding of the Word of Truth: all depends upon His grace and our willingness to learn from Him.     It has rightly been said that there is a peril of “uncounted cost.  It is one thing to make a start.  The first step is not the hardest, but the last.  ‘Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,’ protested one candidate; and you know the reply: ‘The foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head’; and then it was good-bye, Jesus.     “When the storm occurred on the lake there may have been an inclination to say, ‘Thank you, I am a pearly weather Christian.’  But ‘Except a man forsake all he hath, he cannot be My disciple; except a man deny himself, and take up his navigate daily, he cannot be My disciple. … Which of you, going to build, does not count the cost?”  The Christian life is a life of wrestle and towers and the Lord would have us to count the cost.  Many a pilgrim has made a good start and a bad ending, considering he did not count the forfeit of the persecution, - of stuff ostracised, maligned, misrepresented and hated of all men.  It is largest never to make the move than to make it and make a mess of it.” (W. P. Nicholson.)     But are those who ‘make a mess of it’ eternally lost?  No.  But they risk loosing the “inheritance” in the “age” to come.  Hence the importance of stuff judged worthy to “ENTER the Kingdom of the heavens” (Matt. 5: 20; Luke 20: 35, (Greek): and this, relative to the sufferer ‘in Christ’ - presently in Hades (Luke 16: 23, 31. cf. Matt. 16: 18; Psa. 16: 10; Acts 2: 34), - requires passing the Divine judgment BEFORE the time of their RESURRECTION, (Phil. 3: 11; Heb. 11: 35b; Rev. 20: 4, 5. cf. Heb. 11: 39; Rev. 6: 9-11.).      May the Lord richly solemnize these writings, make them constructive in waffly the lives of His redeemed people, and awaken multitudes of His redeemed people from their spiritual slumber and blindness.  We are in drastic need of flipside REVIVAL.     THE DANGER OF DISTRACTION     One of the greatest dangers facing Christians today is their lack of scriptural understanding.  It might seem a ridiculous statement to make, particularly at a time when we are witnessing an explosion of worldly knowledge.  But in spite of all the information obtainable on the internet, most Christians lack the knowledge that’s most important to their firsthand future: and those placed in positions of responsibility within theDenominationof God, are partly responsible for their ignorance!     Some years ago I received four recorded messages on cassette tape by a prominent Bible teacher.  They were expositions of Hebrews 12: 1-3.  One was is entitled: ‘Train to Reign – The Danger of Distraction.’  Throughout this message, the preacher talked well-nigh ‘loosing focus’; well-nigh stuff distracted by so many things happening virtually us, and how easy it is to take our vision off Jesus.  He makes mention of the “sin-pounds” which we need to take off if we are to win the “Prize.”  “The weights,” he said, “are so much of us that we need to strip off”: and asked the question: “What are the things that are weights that have to go and the sin-pounds we are so yawner to that we siphon them so long that we don’t plane know they are there?”  In his sermon he went on to stress the importance of endurance and perseverance, and the need of repentance and restoration without a fall.      He pointed out that Paul named his enemies to warn Christians of those who would do them harm and lead them astray: “Alexander the metalworker did me a unconfined deal of harm.  The Lord will repay him for what he has done.  You too should be on your baby-sit versus him, considering he strongly opposed our message”: (2 Tim. 4: 14, N.I.V.).  “Anything that does not propel us forward,” he said, “is holding us backward: and we have got to ask ‘What are the things that we hold very dearly, that we cherish, that are weights that have to go’?”     He likened the Christian race to a marathon: “The key is measuring our stride, … I may find myself dragging in at the end, but I need to come in, I need to come in!”     Luke 24: 25, 26; I John 2: 3-7; 1 Pet. 2; 19, 20; Phil. 2: 3, 4 were moreover referred to, and unfurled the exposition with other questions and observations:     “Where is our head?”  “What are we thinking about?”  “Looking unto Jesus is the key to victory over distraction: I get in the way of myself; I am a major distraction, and I need to think it through.”     “You go when to the track, you watch those runners; boy, they’re stock-still on the goal, aren’t they?  And your man is way out in front; and you’re cheering him on; and you never see him stop and take a bow and say, ‘Thank you, thank you’: you only see that in the Christian race!  They don’t get distracted!  Why? Consideringthey want to win, and they alimony their eye in the goal.”  “They are aware, but they don’t lose focus.”     All this and much increasingly was heard: but he failed to make known, or try to explain, what the “Prize” was!     Several years later, and on the same topic he writes:-     “I sometimes preach from Hebrews 12: 1-3 well-nigh reducing in order to run the Christian race effectively.  As the text suggests, we can’t run well if we siphon virtually a lot of uneaten weight.  So I insinuate to what happens to the soul when it puts on a pound of fat.  The fat adds tremendous strain to the heart, the muscles, the respiratory system, and makes it difficult for a person to run.  I suggest that sin-pounds have a similar wrongheaded effect on the spiritual life, making it difficult to run the Christian race effectively.  Invariably, that message produces increasingly converts to jogging than to spiritual exercise.  Why? Consideringpeople are increasingly concerned well-nigh stuff in shape physically than they are well-nigh stuff in shape spiritually. Theoreticallythey don’t want ill health to curtail their enjoyment of the ‘good life.’”     The vast majority of Christians today towards to have ‘lost focus’: the churches in Galatia had lost focus.  Many were stuff circumcised and observing the law to be justified: and they had to be reminded how Abraham was justified by faith, (Gal. 3: 6).     But there was increasingly which needed to be disclosed! and Paul quickly moved into the realm of responsibility truths, provisionary promises, the importance of good works, and the prospect of a “just recompense of reward” at the Judgment Seat of Christ.  That is, of stuff rewarded exactly as our deportment (since conversion) deserve:“That we” – the upholder includes himself – “MIGHT” - [for the “Prize” is not given to any not ‘accounted worthy’ of it.] - “receive the FULL rights of sons” (4: 5) – a double portion of our inheritance – both millennial and eternal.     Like ‘Seventh Day Adventists’ in our day, they were “observing special days and months and seasons and years!” (verse 10).  “You were running a good race,” Paul said: and then he asked the question: “Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?”     Instead of looking out superiority to a time of ‘Reward’ and a future ‘Inheritance’ in the coming Millennial Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, they were distracted by the enemy and began to squint at things then present and when into past experiences!  They were not living within the rules of the ‘New Covenant’ which God had established at the time of Messiah’s death!  They were still only infants, feeding on the milk of the Word but, “not witting with the teaching well-nigh righteousness:” (Heb. 5: 13)!      Then comes the apostle’s encouragement and warning versus the loss of their future inheritance:-  “You, my brothers, were tabbed to be free.  But do not use your self-rule to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one flipside in love.  The unshortened law is summed up in a single command, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  If you alimony on wintry and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.     “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is undisciplined to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is undisciplined to the sinful nature.  They are in mismatch with each other, so that you do not do what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.     “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn YOU as I did before, that those”* - [i.e., Christians] – “who live like this will NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD:” (Gal. 5: 13-21, N.I.V.).   * Here is flipside of his numerous inferences to the overly present possibility and danger of losing one’s inheritance in the millennial kingdom of Messiah: and the responsibility truths which all apostates reject, wilfully avoid; and, by false teachings and interpretations, continually seek to undermine God’s danger signals to His redeemed people.     “The changes of our time have brought upon Christianity the most crucial conflicts and the most searching ordeals which it has experienced since its foundation.  Neither in the days of the persecution by the Roman Empire, nor when Arianism struck at the heart of the Christian faith, nor when Mohammedanism threatened to overwhelm Christendom, has theDenominationbeen exposed to dangers so unconfined and attacks so fierce as those which menace it today,”   -THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, presidential write to theDenominationCongress.     *       *       *     THE TORMENTS OF THE APOSTATE     Francis Spira, to whom we now refer, lived well-nigh the middle of the sixteenth century (1548).  He was a doctor of law, and an well-wisher of upper rank in the town of Citadella, in the province of Italy, then subject to Venice.  He was distinguished by his learning and his eloquence, possessed of a subtle mind, and was highly intelligent.    Well-nighhis 44th year, Spira’s sustentation began to be turned to the work of Luther and other Reformers.  Eager in the pursuit of knowledge, he forthwith began to inquire.  Spira embraced the Reformed doctrines with so much zeal, that he plane became in his turn a preacher of them; at least among his family (which was numerous) and his friends he sought to disseminate what he had himself embraced.  To some extent he x-rated other pursuits, and urged his friends to depend solely on the grace of God in Christ for salvation.  He was well versed in the Scriptures, took a firm hold of their doctrines, and did all that he could to spread the light at once by his life and his lessons.     The Pope’s legate at Venice at that period was the noted Dela Casa, and he entered with zeal into the persecution that had begun versus Spira.  Amid his forebodings, Spira soon became restless and troubled.  Now one purpose, and unhesitatingly another, swayed him.  To-day he was resolved to suffer the loss of all things rather than deny the truth: to-morrow he would listen to the seductive and too successful sophism, which has kept its tens of thousands in spiritual vassalage for ever:- “How can you so far presume on your sufficiency as to condone the examples of your ancestors, and the judgment of the whole church?”  Under the influence of that, or rather, in the state of mind that would listen to that, Spira became increasingly and increasingly irresolute.  He could not uncomplicatedly contemplate “the offensive dungeon, the underdone axe, and urgent faggot”.  The thought of country and of friends, of wife and children (of whom he had eleven), rendered his vociferation deeper and deeper.  He at last hastened to the legate at Venice, there to confess his heresy and implore forgiveness.  He sought to return to “entire obedience to the sovereign bishop in the communion of theDenominationof Rome, without overly desiring to depart from the traditions and decrees Holy See.”  He rehearsed all his errors, and drew them up in a formal deed, which he solemnly subscribed.  He was present at the triumph of mass, and repeated clause by clause the abjuration which he had formerly subscribed. Well-nightwo thousand persons were present at the ceremony, in which Spira make-believe so prominent a part, although he confessed that a feeling unreceptive to desperation had already, taken hold of him.  He was fined thirty pieces of gold, the greater part of which was expended on masses; and the unhappy man was restored by a untruthful denomination to all that self-indulgence was sure to receive from it.  Spira is said to have fainted yonder without the terrific scenes through which he passed on that eventful day; and from that moment he never increasingly knew peace of mind.  Physicians for the body, and ministers of religion for the soul, were tabbed to the conscience-stricken man.  He was removed from Citadella to Padua, that he might in all respects goody by the ways reckoned most likely to restore his peace of mind; but, without mature consideration, the physicians supposed they could discover no bodily ailment.  It was a disease of the soul that was preying on the wasting frame; so that the most skilful men in a city, that was at that period “the eye of Italy”, saw the resources of their art worn-out in vain attempting a cure.  Spira himself supposed that his disease was vastitude the reach of human appliances; his exclamation was:- “Who can succour a soul oppressed by a sense of sin, and by the wrath of God?”  He made the bystanders weep; nay, some of them trembled at the recital.  When they attempted to panel him, his unvarying exclamation was:- “My sin is greater than the mercy of God.  I have denied Christ voluntarily, and versus my convictions.  I finger that He hardens me and will indulge me no hope.”  Referring to the doctrines he had abjured, he supposed that “he believed them while in the act of denying them”, adding, that now “he believed nothing, he had neither faith, nor confidence, nor hope.  I am a reprobate like Cain or Judas*, who, rejecting all hope, fell from grace into despair.  My friends do me unconfined wrong in not suffering me to depart to the workplace of the unbelieving, as I have justly deserved.”   * See, Judas was a Regenerate Believer.     His friends were yellow-eyed to read the Scriptures with the agonized man, in the hope of alleviating his misery; but terrified by the attempt, he roared out in anguish, beseeching them to desist.  The physicians we have seen, supposed that there was no bodily distemper; yet, from hour to hour, his misery became increasingly and increasingly intense, and the pitiable spectacle became intolerable to the onlookers.  Paul Vergerio, Bishop of Justinopli, and others tried from time to time to soothe him, but all was rejected.  His mind seemed to wilt acute, and inventive of arguments by which to torment himself, by repelling the suggestions of his friends.  He clung to the conviction that he was a reprobate, and supposed that “there was no room in his heart for zero but torment and agitation”.  Roaring in bitterness of spirit, he explained:- “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. ... I  have a whole legion of devils who take up their workplace in me, and possess me as their own, and that justly, for I have denied Christ.”  In one of his paroxysms he exclaimed:- “I desire nothing increasingly than to come to that place where I may be unrepealable of rememberable the worst: and of stuff delivered from the fear of a worse to come.”     Rarely has the horrifying termination of such a career been so stedfastly contemplated.  There was a kind of method in his agony, for he never ceased to underpin that “when he renounced his opinions he believed them to be true, and yet he abjured them surpassing the legate.”  His mind, through this torturing process, gradually settled lanugo in the conviction that he had sinned versus the Holy Spirit, and, entrenched overdue that conviction, no created power could move him.  He spoke of his mind as corroded by the reprobation of God, Who had hardened him; and, “I find,” he adds, “that from day to day, He hardens me increasingly and more.”  When he reasoned regarding his punishment, he unchangingly justified the ways of God, declaring that “there was no punishment which he did not deserve for so insufferable a crime”; and adding: “I reassure you, it is no little thing to deny Christ and yet it is increasingly worldwide than is imagined.”  At flipside time he exclaimed:- “Oh! could I only wits the least sentiment of the love of God towards me, although it were but for a moment, as I now finger the weight of His wrath urgent like the torments of hell within me, and vexatious my conscience with inexpressible anguish! Assuredly, despair is hell itself!”     Painful as are these passages in Spira’s life, they are but like, the opening scene in this tragic drama.  “Here is the truth of my case,” he exclaimed, when his wound grew increasingly and increasingly overpowering: “I tell you, that when I first abjured my profession at Venice, and when the declaration was recorded, the Spirit of God admonished me often, and yet, while at Citadella, I, in some sort, set my seal to it.  I resisted the Holy Spirit, and signed and sealed it; and at that very moment I sensibly felt a wound inflicted plane on my will.”  And subsequently to this, clasping his hands violently together, and raising himself up, he exclaimed:- “Now I am strong, but I sink into decay, by little and little, and slosh away. ... I see my condemnation, and know that my only remedy is in Christ; nevertheless I cannot persuade myself to embrace it.  Such is the punishment of the damned.”     At other periods Spira gave well-spoken evidence, that, though he could not wield the Gospel to himself, he yet could preach it to others.  He urged his friends to “exalt the glory of God continually; and not to be wrung of legate, inquisitors, prisons, or any kind of death.”  The moments, however, were few and infrequent; and incidents sometimes occurred to rouse him to intense vehemence of feeling.  Antonio Fontania, a priest, who had been with him when he recanted surpassing the legate, came to visit him, and reminded the wretched man of their last interview: “0 the voodooed day,” he exclaimed.  “0 the voodooed day!  Would that I had never been at Venice!  Would to God I had been then dead!”     Toward the tropical of his life, he addressed some young men in the most solemn and instructive terms, warning them from his specimen to beware of a religion of form, or of making faith their Saviour.  He spoke of the merits of Christ as “a strong rampart versus the wrath of God”; but added, that he had “demolished that fend with his own hands”, and was now overwhelmed by the deluge.  He urged those virtually him to beware of stuff “almost Christians”, as he had been, and then tapped out into vehement emotion, indicative of his internal agony.  “Give me a sword,” he exclaimed.  “Why, what use will you make of it?”  “I cannot tell,” he rejoined, “to what act my feelings may siphon me, nor what I may do.”  He subsequently supposed to Vergerio, when his friends began to take leave of him, “that he felt his heart full of cursing, hatred and sacrilege versus God,” instead of stuff softened by the prospect of stuff left alone; and, on the pursuit day, he attempted self-destruction, without success.  For eight weeks did he protract in this lamentable state, refusing nourishment, except as it was forced on him, and gradually rhadamanthine emaciated and haggard; and died, soon without returning to his own house from Padua, a melancholy monument of the effects of unstedfastness in the faith and the fatal results of that fear of man that bringeth a share.      - D. M. PANTON. *       *       *     “APOSTASY CAN COME WITH THE SPEED OF AN EXPRESS.”* [*The pursuit worth was published in D. M. Panton’s Evangelical Mid-monthly Magazine on August 15th, 1939.]     It is but a few years since President Hindenberg – we have reason to know, a regenerate man – instructed Reichbishop Muller:- “See that Christ is preached in Germany.”  To-day, when from 160,000 to 170,000 political and religious victims are in concentration camps, Dr. A. E. Garvie sums up ‘German Christianity’ thus (Christian World, June 29, 1939):- “Germany is God’s minion Son, who was crucified in the peace treaty, raised then by Herr Hitler, and is ascending to be ‘Germany over all’.  This travesty of the Church’s creed is carried out in detail.  The specie in the Lord’s Supper is the grain that springs from German soil, and the wine the thoroughbred which flows in German vines.  The Trinity is the family of father, mother and child, expressly the German; the law of God has been written in the German blood: the Incarnation of God is in the German.  Is there any wonder that the ConfessionalDenominationhas risen in revolt?  What is the wonder is that any of the still professedly orthodox Churches can be neutral.  What is a scandal is that any man professing the Christian name can be lukewarm, and can be deceived by the ‘rationalization’ of this ruthless, shameless persecution, this Anti-Christ, as legitimate measures by the State to maintain to restore order in the Church.”     *       *       *     SCRIPTURE READINGS AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF APOSTASY     “ 27 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur versus me.  28 Say to them, As I live, saith the Lord, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you; 29 your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, equal to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured versus me, 30 surely ye shall NOT COME INTO THE LAND, concerning which I lifted up my hand that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.” … “36 And the men, which Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur versus him, by bringing up an evil report versus the land, 37 plane those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague surpassing the Lord.” (Num. 14: 27-30, 36, 37, R.V.).*   * See moreover Psa. 106. cf. Psa. 95:7-11: and the ‘rest’ with that found in Heb. 4: 1, 11.     “1 For I would not brethren, have you ignorant, how that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 and were all baptized into Moses in the deject and in the sea; 3 and did all eat of the same spiritual meat; 4 and did all drink of the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual waddle that followed them: and that waddle was Christ.  5 Howbeit with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.  6 Now in these things they became figures [or ‘types’], to the intent we should not lust without evil things, as they moreover lusted.  7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat lanugo to eat and drink, and rose up to play.  8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.  9. Neither let us tempt the Lord, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents.  10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer.  11 Now these thing happened unto them by way of figure; and they were written FOR OUR ADMONITION, upon whom the ends of the month are come.  12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.  13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted whilom that ye are able; but will with the temptation make moreover a way of escape, that ye may be worldly-wise to endure it.” (1 Cor. 10: 1-13, R.V.).      *       *       *       CHAPTER 1 Contending for the Faith*   By A. L. CHITWOOD.   [* The pursuit – (chapters 1, 3 and part of 5) - are selected from of the author’s book: ‘JUDE Acts of the Apostates’.]     Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the worldwide salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3).    Pursuitintroductory remarks in verses one and two, Jude calls sustentation to the original intent of his epistle.  Jude had originally set well-nigh to write on the “common salvation [salvation by grace through faith, possessed wontedly by all believers]”; but the Holy Spirit prevented him from writing upon this subject and, instead, moved him to write upon something entirely different.  The Holy Spirit moved Jude to write upon contending for the faith during a day of apostasy.     There are two indispensable keys which one must possess when studying the Epistle of Jude: (a) a correct understanding of “apostasy from the faith” as it relates to both individual Christians and to theDenominationas a whole, and (b) a correct understand of exactly what is meant by the expression “earnestly contend for the faith.”  These things must be grasped at the very outset or else the main message in this epistle will be either distorted or lost to the reader.     “Apostasy from the faith,” the first indispensable key, was the main subject under discussion throughout  the introduction to this book; and this introductory material should prove sufficient to provide a wiring upon which one can build as he moves on into the Epistle of Jude and views the various forms which whoredom can take.  Those who apostatize from the faith are Christians not those of the world.  It is not possible for an unsaved person to “stand yonder from” the faith, for he has never come into a position from which he can stand away.  Only the saved have come into this position, and only the saved can enter into this latter-day apostasy.     The second indispensable key which one must possess to correctly understand the Epistle of Jude is the subject matter at hand in our present study – “earnestly contend for the faith,” which in one sense of the word is the opposite of “apostasy from the faith.”  However, undisciplined to popular interpretation, this opposite meaning has nothing to do with stuff a protector or guardian of the unconfined Christian doctrines.  Something entirely variegated is in view, and this will constitute the subject matter of our present study.     Striving in theRaces    The words translated “earnestly contend” in Jude 3 are from the Greek word epagonizomai.  This is an intensified form of the word agonizomai, from which we derive the English word “agonize.”  The word agonizomai is found in such passages as 1 Cor. 9: 25 (“striveth”), 1 Tim. 6:12 (“fight”), and 2 Tim. 4: 7 (“fought”).  This word refers particularly to a “struggle in a contest.”     In 1 Cor. 9: 24-27 Paul pictured himself as a contestant in a race with a victor’s crown to be won by successful completion of the race.  He “agonized” as he ran the race.  That is, he strained every muscle of his stuff as he sought to finish the race in a satisfactory manner and be awarded the proffered crown.     1 Tim. 6: 12 states, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art moreover tabbed …”  This verse could be largest translated, “Strive [‘Agonize,’ Agonizomai] in the good races [agon] of the faith; lay hold on life for the age whereunto thou art moreover tabbed …”  Agon, translated “contest,” is the noun form of the verb agonizomai, translated “strive.”  A races race is in view (same as 1 Cor. 9: 24-27), and it is a “contest of the faith.”  It is “striving” relative to the faith.     2 Tim. 4: 7 is a very similar verse. “I have fought a good fight …” could be largest translated, “I have strived [‘agonized,’ agonizomai] in the good races [agon] ...”  The “contest” here, as in 1 Tim. 6: 12, has to do with the faith.  This verse, withal with the following, goes on to state, “I have finished my undertow [the contest/race], I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall requite me at that day …”  The races or race here is the same race set withal in 1 Cor. 9: 24-27, with one or increasingly crowns in view at the end of the race.  And successful completion of the race will result in the runner stuff crowned, anticipating the coming rule from the heavens over the earth as a joint-heir with Christ (called “life for the age” in 1 Tim. 6: 12.     With these things in mind concerning the use of the word agonizomai relative to “the faith,” note the expression “earnestly contend for the faith” in Jude 3.  In keeping with the other translations, the word-for-word thought brought out by the word epagonizomai in Jude could perhaps be largest understood by using the translation “earnestly strive.”  Once then a contest/race is in view, and the thought is really earnestly striving “with reference to the faith” rather than earnestly striving “for the faith.”  The wording in the Greek text will indulge either translation, but related Scriptures are concerned with the vital thought from the former translation rather than the latter.  Earnestly striving “with reference to the faith” in Jude carries the identical thought as striving “in the good races of the faith” in 1 Timothy.  The intensified form of agonizomai (used only this one place in the New Testament) undoubtedly appears in Jude considering of the firsthand danger of the recipients of this message stuff unprotected up in the whoredom at hand.     Jude and 2 Peter     Understanding exactly what is involved in earnestly striving “with reference to the faith” in Jude is possibly weightier brought out in 2 Peter.  2 Peter is the companion epistle to Jude.  Both epistles deal with the same subject matter throughout “faith,” and “apostasy.”  “Faith” appears first in both epistles (Jude 3: 2 Peter ch. 1), followed by “apostasy” from the faith (Jude 4ff; 2 Peter chs. 2, 3).     2 Peter moreover occupies the same unique relationship to 1 Peter that Jude occupies relative to unrepealable preceding epistles (Hebrews; James; 1, 2 Peter; 1, 2; 3 John).  1 Peter deals specifically with the salvation of the soul, and 2 Peter deals with “faith”(ch. 1) and “apostasy” (chs. 2, 3) in relation to this salvation.  The same order is set withal in Jude and the seven preceding epistles.  The seven epistles preceding Jude, as (and including) 1 Peter, moreover deal specifically with the salvation of the soul.  Jude then forms the capstone for the unshortened subject, presenting, as 2 Peter, “faith” in relation to the salvation of the soul first (v. 3), and then “apostasy” in relation to the salvation of the soul (vv. 4ff).     Parallels in the sections on whoredom from the faith in both epistles (Jude 4ff; 2 Peter 2: 1ff) clearly  illustrate the oneness of Peter’s and Jude’s messages.  Numerous identical subjects, events, and places are recorded in the same order (cf. 2 Peter 2: 1-3, and Jude 4; 2 Peter 2: 4-9 and Jude 6, 7; 2 Peter 2: 10-14 and Jude 8-10; 2 Peter 2: 15, 16 and Jude 11; 2 Peter 2: 17, 18 and Jude 12, 13, 16; 2 Peter 3: 1-13 and Jude 17-19).  “Apostasy” in both instances is from the same “faith”; and since Scripture is to be interpreted in the light of Scripture, a proper study on either “faith” or “apostasy” in one epistle would necessitate a study of the same subject matter in the other epistle.  The weightier misogynist commentary on Jude is 2 Peter, withal with other related Scripture; and the weightier misogynist commentary on 2 Peter is Jude, withal with other related Scripture.     Our main interest at hand is the parallel sections on “faith” in the two epistles.  Where Jude devotes one verse to earnestly striving with reference to the faith: (v. 3), Peter devotes the greater part of an unshortened installment to maturity in the faith (ch. 1).  And this chapter, in the light of Jude and other related Scripture, is unquestionably a dissertation on earnestly striving “with reference to the faith,” which will result in the one engaged in this “contest of the faith” (if he runs equal to the rules) “receiving the end [goal]” of his faith, plane the salvation of his soul (1 Peter 1: 9).  Thus, in order to properly understand Jude 3, the remainder of this study will be drawn from 2 Peter, installment one.     Maturity in the Faith     Peter directs his second epistle to “them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour [lit ‘our God and Saviour’] Jesus Christ” (v. 1).  This is a “faith” possessed by all Christians.  We were all accorded the same measure of “faith” at the time of the lineage from above.  Every Christian begins at the same point with the same “like precious faith.”  Then, in verses five through seven Christians are to “add to [lit. ‘abundantly supply in’]” this faith “virtue; and to [‘in’] virtue knowledge; and to [‘in’] knowledge temperance; and to [‘in’] temperance patience; and to [‘in’] patience godliness; and to [‘in’] godliness brotherly kindness; and to [‘in’] brotherly kindness charity.”  Peter then states that “if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be waterless nor unfruitful in the knowledge [epignosis, ‘mature knowledge’] of our Lord Jesus Christ.”     The Greek word epignosis, referring to a “mature knowledge,” occurs three times in 2 Peter, installment one (vv. 2, 3, 8).  In verse two “grace and peace” are multiplied through a mature knowledge “of God, and of Jesus our Lord [lit. ‘of God, plane Jesus our Lord’ (cf. v. 1)].”  In verse three Christians are given “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” through the mature knowledge “of him that hath tabbed us to glory and virtue”; and in verses five through eight, voluminously supplying the things listed (with “faith” as the foundation), will result (if these things “abound” in the person) in “fruitbearing” within one’s mature knowledge “of our Lord Jesus Christ.”     Colossians 2: 2, 3 is a respective passage concerning a mature knowledge “of Jesus our Lord” which deals with the same vital truths as 2 Peter 1: 2, 3, 8.  In the Colossian passage the “mystery of God” is revealed to be Christ and in Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”  The words seeming between “God” and “Christ” (v. 2) in the Authorized Version are not found in the weightier Greek manuscripts, and the latter part of this verse should read literally: “… unto a mature knowledge [epignosis] of the mystery of God, Christ.”  The name “Christ” is placed in opposition to the word “mystery” in the Greek text, making Christ to be “the mystery of God.”  The things in this mystery were unrevealed in prior ages; but now, through the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, the previously subconscious truths concerning Christ are stuff made known to the saints.  Man today has the well-constructed revelation of God, and as this revelation is received into man’s saved human spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and reveals things (previously hidden) concerning the Son (cf. John 16: 13-15; 1 Cor. 2: 6-13; Gen. 24: 4, 10, 36, 53).     In Col. 2: 2, 3 it is only the person coming into a mature knowledge of the “mystery of God” who will see the unconfined storehouse of “treasures of wisdom and knowledge” in Christ.  In like manner, only the person coming into a mature knowledge of “Jesus our Lord” in 2 Peter 12, 3, 8, contained in the “mystery of God” in Col. 2: 2, will realize an increase of “grace” and “peace” (cf. “Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied” [Jude 2], or come into possession of the numerous other things mentioned in this chapter.     In 2 Peter 1: 3, 4, a mature knowledge of God’s Son results in the realization of two things:     (a) Possessing “all things that pertain unto life and godliness.”  “Life” (Gr. Zoe) is used referring to life in its wool fulness which a Christian is to walkout during his present pilgrim walk, and “godliness” refers to piety or reverence which is to be exhibited at the same time.  A godly walk in the fulness of life is appropriating that which God has for man (revealed in His Word) and, at the same time walking in a Godlike manner.     (b) Possessing “great and precious promises.”  Through these “great and precious promises” (revealed in God’s Word) individuals wilt “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the self-indulgence that is in the world [by ways of epignosis; cf. 2 Peter 1: 2, 3; 2: 20].”  The “divine nature” has been planted within the inner stuff of every Christian, but it, as faith, can be either unseeded or very active.  To reassure that the “divine nature,” withal with faith, does not lie dormant, a Christian must lay whispered the things having to do with self-indulgence in the world and receive the Word of God into his saved human spirit (James 1: 21; 1 Pet. 2: 1, 2).  It is the reception of this Word and the respective work of the Ho1y Spirit vacated which bring individuals into that position where spiritual growth is wrought, partaking of the “divine nature” is effected and victory over the things of the world, the flesh, and the Devil come to pass.     The unconfined problem among Christians today is spiritual immaturity, which results in defeated lives, worldly living, etc.  There is no increase of “grace,” “mercy,” “peace,” and “love.”  Such Christians, not in possession of a mature knowledge (epignosis), are not in possession of the things pertaining to “1ife and godliness”; and they know very little or nothing of the “great and precious promises,” or stuff “partakers of the divine nature.”  They thus, can be hands “carried well-nigh with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14).     Fruitbearing for the Kingdom     In 2 Peter 1: 5-11, fruitbearing is in view; and fruitbearing is associated with things voluminously supplied in faith (vv. 5-7), a mature knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 8, 9), one’s “calling and election” (v. 10), and “entrance” into the coming “kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (v. 11).     1. ThingsVoluminouslySupplied in Faith (vv. 5-7)     Every Christian is in possession of faith, obtained “through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.”  This faith can be very active, or it can be weak, anaemic, or plane sufferer (James 2:17, 20, 26).  But faith, plane though dead, is still present with the believer, and it can never pass yonder (1 Cor. 13:13).     The word “dead” seeming in James 2:17, 20, 26 (KJV) in connection with faith can only refer to a “barren” or “fruitless” faith.  This type faith is void of works, and works are necessary to bring withal fruit.  In a number of the older Greek manuscripts the word for “barren” rather than the word for “dead” appears in verse twenty, equating “barren” in this verse with “dead” in verses seventeen and twenty-six.  However, one need not belabour whether or not this rendering from these older manuscripts is to be accepted, for 2 Peter 1: 5-8 teaches the same thing concerning a “barren” faith.     2 Peter 1: 5 should literally read: “But moreover for this cause, giving all diligence, voluminously supply in your faith ...”Consideringof what has preceded (outlined in verses one through four) - things resulting from a mature knowledge (epignosis) “of God, plane Jesus our Lord” - the Christian is commanded to follow a unrepealable stepped undertow of action.  And this undertow of whoopee will result in “fruitbearing,” within one’s mature knowledge (epignosis) “of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 8), which will, in turn, ultimately result in an well-healed archway “into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (v. 11).     a) “Add to [‘Abundantly supply in’] your faith virtue” (v. 5).  The words “Add to” should literally be understood as “Abundantly supply in” throughout verses five through seven.  The Greek word translated “virtue” is transcendence (same as v. 3), which has to do with “energy” rather than moral goodness.  The thought is that we are to walkout “energy” in the exercise of our faith.  This is to be understood as “courage” and “purpose” in the things of the Lord.  It is vicarial in a purposeful, mettlesome manner in the energy of the Spirit.     b) “And to [‘in’] virtue knowledge” (v. 5).  “Knowledge” is the translation of gnosis (the regular Greek word for “knowledge”) rather than epignosis (“mature knowledge”) as used in verses two, three, and eight.  Gnosis refers to the unifying of facts, which may result in epignosis, but not necessarily. Epignosis is increasingly restricted in its usage, having to do with knowledge pertaining increasingly particularly to things relating to the coming kingdom (ref. Part “2” pursuit this section).     c) “And to [‘in’] knowledge temperance” (v. 6).  The Greek word translated “temperance” is egkrateia, which ways “self-control.”  Passions and desires emanating from the man of mankind are to be held in check.     d) “And to [‘in’] temperance patience” (v. 6). The Greek word translated “Patience” is hupomeno, which has to do with “patient endurance” during the pilgrim walk.  Note how the verb form of this word (hupomeno) is used in James 1: 12: “Blessed is the man that endureth [‘patiently endureth’] temptation: for when he is tried [‘approved’], he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”  Note moreover the use of hupomeno in 2 Tim. 2: 10, 12 (translated “endure” and “suffer” respectively).  Both should be translated “patiently endure.”     e) “And to [‘in’] patience godliness” (v. 6).  The Greek word translated “godliness” is eusebeia, which refers to Christians exercising “piety,” or “godliness” as they patiently endure the trials and testings of life during their pilgrim walk.     f) “And to [‘in’] godliness kindness” (v. 7).  The words “brotherly kindness” are a translation of the recipe Greek word philadelphia, comprised of phileo (“1ove,” “affection”) and adelphos (“brother”).  The word should be translated “brotherly love” or “brotherly affection.”     g) “And to [‘in’] brotherly kindness charity” (v. 7).  The Greek word translated “charity” is agape, which, as phileo), ways “1ove.”  However, spellbound moves vastitude mere affection, or the type love between Christians set withal by the word phileo. Spellboundhas to do with “Divine love,” which God is in His weft and nature.  “God is love,” i.e., “God is agape” (1 John 4: 8).  This is moreover the same word used relative to man in the context of this verse in 1 John.  “Love” set withal by the word spellbound is the highest type love attainable.  This is love produced by the Holy Spirit in the life of a true-blue believer,Spellboundappears without all the other things mentioned in 2 Peter 1: 5-7.  It must be supplied last, for it is placed at the height of Christian experience, and nothing can be widow therein (cf. 1 Cor. 13: 1ff; spellbound is used throughout this chapter).     2. A Mature Knowledge (vv. 8, 9)     Epionosis in Scripture has a peculiar relationship to the salvation to be revealed, the salvation of the soul.  This word appears in passages which have to do with the saints possessing a mature knowledge in things related to the coming kingdom.  The list is by no ways complete, but throughout the New Testament epignosis is associated with a mature knowledge of “God,” of God’s “Son [‘the mystery of God, Christ’],” God’s “will,” truths pertaining to “faith,” “life,” and “godliness,” the coming “judgment” of the saints, the “blessed hope,” and the coming “inheritance” of the saints (Rom. 1: 28; Eph. 1: 17, 18; 4:13; Col. 1: 9-12; 2: 2; 3:10; 1 Tim. 2: 4; 2 Tim. 2: 25; 3: 7; Titus 1: 1, 2; 2: 13; 3: 7; Heb. 10:25-31; 2 Peter 1: 1-8; 2: 20, 21).     Epignosis, having to do with an impartation of things pertaining to “life and godliness,” allows Christians to escape the “pollutions of the world” (2 Peter 1: 3, 4; 2: 20).  Rejection of epignosis, on the other hand, places Christians in the dangerous position of stuff hands entangled in the things which epignosis allows them to escape (Rom. 1: 28; 2 Peter 2: 20-22).  “All filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness” must be set whispered prior to receiving the “engrafted [‘implanted’] word, which is worldly-wise to save your souls” (James 1: 21), and the reception of this Word progressively produces the renewing of your mind “in knowledge [epignosis] without the image of him that created him,” working the metamorphosis in one’s life (Rom. 12: 1, 2; Col. 3: 10), permitting that person to escape the entanglements of the world.     Epignosis has to do with the “strong meat” of the Word, which is associated in Heb. 5: 6-14 with Christ and His Melchizedek priesthood.  Those who have been enlightened by God to move from gnosis to epignosis - and then “fall away” are the ones who wilt entangled then in the wires of the world (Heb. 6: 1-6).  The fact that such persons cannot be renewed then unto repentance (vv. 4, 6) will wordplay the question concerning why it would have been largest for such individuals not to have known “the way of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:21) through coming into possession of epignosis (v. 20)     Hebrews, chapters five and six must be understood in the light of chapters three and four, which contain the record of the Israelites stuff unliable to go on into things vastitude the death of the firstborn in Egypt. They were unliable to go up to the very verge of the Promised Land itself, hear the report well-nigh the land from the twelve spies, and taste the very fruits of the land which the spies had carried when with them.  In this respect, they were unliable to move from gnosis to epignosis; but they turned yonder (fell away), and it was then untellable to renew them then unto repentance (Num. 13, 14).  They were overthrown in the wilderness.  It would have been largest for the ones who were overthrown (the unshortened subject generation, twenty years old and above, save Caleb and Joshua) not to have known these things well-nigh the land (equivalent in the antitype to, “it had been largest ... not to have known the way of righteousness” for Christians in 2 Peter 2: 21), than without they knew these things, “to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (Num. 13: 30; Deut. 1: 21ff; cf. Joshua 1: 1, 2).  It was so with the Israelites in the type, and thus will it be for Christians in the antitype     3. Calling andReferendum(v. 10)     Individuals are to requite diligence to make their “calling and referendum sure.” The word “election” could be largest translated “called out.”  The words translated “calling” and “election” in this verse are from the same root forms as the words translated “called” and “chosen” in Matt. 22: 14, which should literally be translated, “For many are called, but few are tabbed out.”  An individual’s calling has to do with the salvation which he presently possesses (salvation of the spirit), and an individual’s out-calling has to do with the salvation which he will possess in the future (salvation of the soul).     The word “diligence” in this verse is from the same word moreover translated “diligence” in verse five.  With the same intensity that a person is to voluminously supply in his faith virtue ... , he is to make his calling and out-calling “sure.”  The word sure is the translation of a word which ways “certain.” “firm,” “secure.”  A Christian is to know just as much well-nigh one calling as the other.  He is to be knowledgeable in things pertaining to his calling, and he is to be equally knowledgeable in things pertaining to his out-calling.  And with the same intensity that he made his calling certain/sure, he is to likewise make his out-calling certain/sure.     There is no such thing as pursuit Biblical guidelines in the matter of salvation and, at the same time, ignoring one’s out-calling without one’s calling.  The unshortened concept widely promulgated in Christian circles today that the one really important thing is just to be saved (called), with all other things relegated to some type sub-importance, emanates from the apostates and those who follow their pernicious teachings (cf. 2 Peter 2: 1-3).  Scripture places one’s out-calling on the same level of importance as one’s calling, or vice versa.  One is not placed whilom the other.  One has to do with the work of an evangelist, and the other has to do with the work of a pastor-teacher.  Both evangelists and pastor-teachers have been placed in theDenominationfor his purpose (Eph. 4: 11-14; “knowledge” in v. 13 is epignosis in the Greek text), and they, accordingly, are to be true-blue in fulfilling their God-ordained callings.  The work of an evangelist anticipates the work of a pastor-teacher, for a person is tabbed in view of his stuff tabbed out.     4.Archwayinto the Kingdom (v. 11)     The word “entrance” is the translation of a word which ways a road into.  The route has been properly marked in the preceding verses, and one can not only follow this route, but he is exhorted to so do.  He is exhorted, pursuit his calling, to make his out-calling “sure.”     Peter did not follow “cunningly devised fables” when he made known “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  He was an “eyewitness of his majesty.”  He saw the Son’s glory when he was with Christ “in the holy mount,” and he penned the Epistles of 1, 2 Peter as he was “moved [‘borne along’] by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1: 16-21).  Peter not only saw and recorded things having to do with the coming kingdom, but he moreover left detailed instructions concerning how Christians can have a part in this kingdom.     When will Christians learn that they have been saved for a purpose? and when will they learn that this purpose has to do with the coming kingdom positions as joint-heirs with Christ in the governmental structure of the kingdom are presently stuff offered, and crowns must be won by conquest.  The arch-enemy of our souls is at work in the latter days of this age as never before; but the route for an “abundant entrance” into the kingdom has been properly marked, and the promise of God stands sure:- “To him that overcometh...” (Rev. 2: 7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3: 5, 12, 21).     -“ Earnestly strive for [with reference to, in the good races of] the faith …”     -------     CHAPTER 3 Saved, butSupervenientDestroyed     I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, supervenient destroyed them that believed not (Jude 5).     The whence of spiritual lessons concerning whoredom in Jude is drawn from the experiences of the Israelites under Moses.  The Israelites were saved out of the land of Egypt.  Not only had they appropriated the thoroughbred of the paschal lambs but they had moreover been delivered from Egypt itself.  As a redeemed people under Moses, they had been tabbed into existence and saved out of the land of Egypt for a purpose - a purpose to be realized in the land of Canaan.     God’s Firstborn Son     Israel’s standing among the nations is that of firstborn.  Israel is God’s firstborn son.  An utterance to this effect was to be proclaimed to the Pharaoh of Egypt surpassing the Exodus, withal with the command, “Let my son go, that he may serve me” (Ex. 4: 22, 23).  This referred to the fact that the purpose surrounding Israel’s removal from Egypt was associated with the nation’s birthright.  Israel was tabbed out of Egypt to go into flipside land, the land of Canaan, and exercise the rights of the firstborn in that land.     The rights of the firstborn, the birthright possessed by Israel, consisted of three things: 1) ruler of the household, under and for the Father, 2) exercising the office of priest in the family, and 3) the reception of a double portion of all the Father’s goods.     The first segment of the birthright placed the firstborn in the position of “heir” with respect to a rule of the Father’s house, under and for the Father.  “Sonship” implies rulership and carries the thought of supremacy.  In this respect, Israel, a national power, was to be the supreme nation and exercise rule over other nations - all the nations of the earth.  This earth, a province in the kingdom of God, constitutes the Father’s house when the birthright with respect to nations is in view (cf. Rev. 2: 26, 27); and Israel was to withstand rule over all nations in this house, under and for the Father.  Israel occupied the standing as firstborn among all nations while still in Egypt, but Israel would not unquestionably inherit these rights until without the nation had been removed from Egypt and established in the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.     The second segment of the birthright would place Israel in a priestly position with respect to both God and the nations.  Israel was to be a “kingdom of priests” in the midst of the nations (Ex. 19: 6), resulting in the nations stuff happy through Israel in wind-down with Gen. 12: 1-3.  A first-mention principle relating to these blessings had previously been established in Gen. 9: 25-27.  “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 16) was first “the God of Shem” (Gen. 9: 26).  Neither Ham nor Japheth had a God, and the only way they could receive spiritual blessings was through Shem and his God.  Or, to say it flipside way, the descendants of Ham and Japheth (the Gentile nations) are “without God in the world” (Eph. 2: 12) and can receive spiritual blessings only through the descendants of Shem (the nation of Israel) and their God.  Although the lineage of Shem also, among others, includes the descendants of Ishmael and the sons of Keturah, spiritual blessings for nations emanating from these lines are derived through the same ways as those for the Gentile nations (Gen. 17: 18-21; 21: 5-12; 22: 2; 25: 1-6).     The third segment of the birthright placed Israel in a position to receive the double portion of all the Father’s goods.  This segment of the birthright, as the first two segments, moreover had to do with Israel’s portion among the nations.  There are two spheres of governmental power and validity in a rule over the Gentile nations - earthly, and heavenly - and the double portion of the birthright pertained to Israel ultimately coming into possession of both (cf. Gen. 22: 17, 18).  The way was unshut at Kadesh-Barnea for Israel to go into the land and realize the earthly portion of this inheritance, but the heavenly portion of the inheritance was not to be opened to the nation until fifteen hundred years later.  It was necessary that both be extended to Israel at some point in the corridors of time, for Israel, as the firstborn, was the scheduled heir.  At Kadesh-Bamea, when the earthly portion of the inheritance was in the offing, God Himself dwelt in the midst of the nation: fifteen hundred years later, when the heavenly portion of the inheritance was in the offing, God Himself once then (in the person of His Son) dwelt the midst of the nation.     From Egypt to Canaan     When Israel left Egypt, the march was not directly to the land of Canaan. Surpassingentering the land and thesping the rights of the firstborn, unrepealable preparatory steps must first be taken.  Thus, the march of the Israelites under Moses, vastitude the Red Sea passage, was to a previously designated place in the wilderness - a mount in “the wilderness of Sinai” (Ex. 3: 1, 12; 19: 1, 2) - where God would meet and vicinage with the people through Moses.  Here, surpassing the mount in the wilderness of Sinai, the people were to be prepared and equipped for the position they were to occupy in the land of Canaan. During this time the law was given to Moses, the priestly ministry and tabernacle worship were established, and orderly arrangements of the tribes and families were set withal (Ex. 19: 3 - Num. 10: 10).     The law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, with all its rules and regulations, was to be Israel’s constitution, given to govern the nation’s wires in the kingdom.  And the tabernacle, with God dwelling in the Holy of Holies in the midst of His people, was to be the inside place of worship for the “kingdom of priests,” through whom God would solemnize all the nations.  Israel, God’s firstborn son, was to withstand rule without this malleate in a worldwide theocracy with pre-established laws, rules, and regulations.     The tabernacle was “set up” in the wilderness of Sinai on the first day of the first month of the second year pursuit the Exodus - a few days short of one year.  On that day the “glory of the Lord” - the visible presence of God among His people - filled the tabernacle, and at that point in time there came into existence upon this earth a theocratic kingdom (Ex. 40: 1-38).  The kingdom with its constitution was unquestionably established in the wilderness of Sinai, but the very rule within this kingdom could not uncork until God’s firstborn son had been removed from the wilderness and established in the land of Canaan. Thus, the march from the wilderness of Sinai was then to Kadesh-Barnea.  In essence, at that juncture in history, everything was ready for God to fulfil His purpose for saving His people out of the land of Egypt.     1. ISRAEL AT KADESH-BARNEA     “And Caleb stilled the people surpassing Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well worldly-wise to overcome it.’  But the men that went up with him said, ‘We be not worldly-wise to go up versus the people; for they are stronger than we’”* (Num. 13: 30, 31).   [* See at the end of this chapter, (A) the author’s comments inInstallment5; and (B),- “Transhuman”.]     All things dating when to Abraham and his removal from Ur of the Chaldees came to pass with an end in view, and that end involved the nation springing from the loins of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob realizing the very purpose of her national existence.  All the nations of the earth were to be happy through Abraham and his seed, and this was to be realized through the seed of Abraham rhadamanthine a “great nation” and occupying a predetermined place on the earth with respect to the surrounding nations (Gen. 12: 1-3).  National blessings for the nations of the earth were to be realized through national blessings for Israel.  The surrounding nations, unpatriotic from God (Eph. 2: 12; cf. Psa. 147: 19, 20), were to be brought into a proper relationship with God through the “kingdom of priests” - the nation in possession of the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God and the only way of tideway to God.     Herein lies the reason that the people of God since time immemorial have been commanded, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ...” (Psa. 122: 6).  When Jerusalem is at peace, the nations will be at peace; when Israel is at rest, the nations will be at rest; when Israel has been established in the land as a blessing, the nations will be happy through Israel (Isa. 2: 1-5; 14: 1, 2; 40: 3-5; 52: 9, 10; 62: 1-7; Jer. 3: 17, 18; Zech. 2: 4-11; 8: 20-23; 9: 10; cf. Deut. 32: 8; Ezek. 5: 5; Acts 17: 26, 27).     Spiritual blessings are derived through God’s firstborn Sons.  This was the pattern established in history, this pattern remains true today, and this pattern will remain true throughout time and eternity.  Gen. 12: 3 remains in gravity today, as does Gal. 3: 14.  However, during the present age, God’s firstborn Sons (Israel, and Jesus) are not occupying their God-ordained places with respect to their Firstborn status; and the fulness of blessings pensile mankind must be deferred to that future time when present conditions will be changed, in the coming age.     The prospect lying surpassing the people of Israel upon their throw-away from the wilderness of Sinai was to enter into the land of Canaan and ultimately be established in the land, not only as the ruler over the nations of the earth, but moreover as the kingdom of priests through whom God would solemnize the nations.  The prospect lying surpassing the nations at this point was, accordingly, that of inward into a position of subjection to Israel which would ultimately result in their stuff recipients of the blessings of God.     The Twelve Spies and Their Report     Several months vastitude Israel’s throw-away from the wilderness of Sinai, well-nigh one and one-half years vastitude the nation’s throw-away from                                  Egypt, the newly established nation, God’s firstborn son, arrived at the confines of the land of Canaan.  The end of an era was at hand.  Heretofore the descendants of Abraham had been considered “strangers” in relation to the land of Canaan (Gen. 15: 13; 37: 1; 47: 9; Ex. 6: 3, 4).  But the sojourn of the seed of Abraham had ended (Ex. 12: 40, 41), and the descendants of Abraham were now at the very confines of the land - an established nation under God (the only nation which overly has been or overly will be so placed) - ready to enter in and take possession of the land - covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.     At Kadesh-Barnea God instructed Moses to send spies into the land of Canaan, one man from each of the twelve tribes.  These spies were to traverse the land, obtaining a well-constructed report concerning the land and its inhabitants prior to the nation’s archway into and conquest of the land.  The twelve men chosen searched the land “from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob” for forty days.  They observed the cities and inhabitants of the land, and obtained samples of the fruits of the land (“grapes,” “pomegranates,” and “figs”) to siphon when with them.  Among the inhabitants of the land were the “giants [‘nephilim’], the sons of Anak, which came of the giants [‘nephilim’]”  (The word nephilim, a transliterated Hebrew word meaning “fallen ones,” refers to the offspring resulting from a cohabitation of the “sons of God [angels]” with the “daughters of men [female descendants of Adam].”  This subject is covered in Chapters 4 and 5.)  Upon their return the spies possessed a well-constructed report concerning the land and its inhabitants.  Their findings were then presented surpassing Moses, Aaron, and all the congregation of Israel (Num. 13: 1-33).     Ten of the twelve spies presented an “evil report” concerning the land and its inhabitants.  They stated that the land was truly a land flowing with “milk and honey,” but the people that dwelt in the land were “strong,” the cities were “walled, and very great,” and it was a land that “eateth up the inhabitants thereof.”  According to their report, the Israelites would “be not worldly-wise to go up versus the people; for they are stronger than we.”  In essence, the ten spies bringing this report were saying that God would be unable to well-constructed His dealings with Israel through bringing the people of this nation into the realization of their calling (Num. 13: 26-29, 31-33), resulting in Gen. 12: 2, 3 remaining unfulfilled.     However, two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, believed God could do exactly what He had promised. Caleb “stilled the people surpassing Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well worldly-wise to overcome it’ ” (Num. 13: 30).  Caleb and Joshua recognized that the wrestle belonged to the Lord (2 Chron. 20: 15), and circumstances were not viewed from a naturalistic standpoint, but from a Divine viewpoint.  They knew that the Israelites within their own strength could not overcome the inhabitants of the land (cf. Num. 14: 42-45), but they moreover knew that with God dwelling in their midst no one, inside or outside the land, could overcome them.  In essence, their report stated that God was well worldly-wise to well-constructed His dealings with Israel through bringing the people of this nation into the realization of their calling (cf. Num. 14: 8), ultimately effecting the fulfilment of Gen. 12: 2, 3.     Israel’s Reaction     The nation of Israel at this point stood at the very threshold of inward into the land and ruling within a theocracy in the position for which the people had previously been saved out of the land of Egypt.  They were in possession of all things pertaining to the kingdom (constitution, centre of worship, presence of God Himself), they had heard the report concerning the land from those who had been there, and they had plane tasted the very fruits of the land.  They were at the end of one era and the whence of another.  Everything was now in readiness for them to move ahead.  They had been brought from the brickyards of Egypt to the confines of the land of Canaan.  They had been brought from a place of subjection to the most powerful Gentile nation of that day to a position where they could enter into a land which belonged to them vacated and ultimately rule over, resulting in a manna to, the same Gentile nation which had previously held them in bondage.  This is the prospect which lay surpassing the people of Israel at Kadesh-Barnea.     If overly a people could be looked upon as having moved from a state of gnosis (“knowledge”) to a state of epignosis (“mature knowledge” [especially as it relates to the things surrounding the purpose for one’s calling]) it would be the Israelites under Moses.  They moved from a simple knowledge (gnosis) of the rudimentary things surrounding the death of the firstborn in Egypt to an wide-stretching knowledge (epignosis) concerning the purpose of their calling at Kadesh-Barnea (Ex. 12 - Num. 13).  And at Kadesh-Barnea the children of Israel, in possession of this knowledge, were in a position to move in one of two directions: they could either believe the true report proclaimed by Caleb and Joshua and go into the land, or they could believe the false report proclaimed by the other ten spies and refuse to enter the land.  Israel chose the latter, and through this move the nation fell yonder at Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 14: 1ff).     The nation of Israel stood yonder from “the faith.”  They refused to believe that they could go into the land and, under God, be victorious in conquest.  Israel, not only to her own detriment but to the detriment of the nations of the earth, single-minded national whoredom at Kadesh-Barnea.  Israel turned yonder from the land of Canaan and looked when toward the land of Egypt (cf. Luke 9: 62).  The people rejected God’s scheduled leader, Moses, and sought to sublease a new leader and return to Egypt.  They plane sought to stone Caleb and Joshua considering of their positive report concerning the land.  They refused to believe that God was worldly-wise to       victoriously lead His people into this land, and they wanted no part of it (cf. Heb. 3: 19).  This is the point in Scripture of a national overthrow resulting from national apostasy. Caleb and Joshua alone, of the unshortened subject generation, twenty years old and above, would ultimately    be unliable to enter into the land and realize the purpose of their salvation.  The remaining individuals were to be overthrown in the wilderness and fall short of the goal of their calling (Num. 14: 29ff).     2 CHRISTIANS AT KADESH-BARNEA     “For it is untellable for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world [‘age’] to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them then unto repentance ... “ (Heb. 6: 4-6).     This passage in Hebrews has been an enigma to Bible interpreters over the years and is possibly the most misunderstood section of Scripture in the New Testament.  But the passage is really not as difficult as the multiplicity of interpretations would lead one to believe.  The numerous interpretations wide by various expositors have resulted basically from two exegetical errors: 1) a failure to take into consideration the message of the book, and 2) a failure to take into worth the context of the passage.     The message of theTypesettingof Hebrews centers virtually the “salvation of the soul,” and the context leading into Heb. 6: 4-6 has to do with the experiences of the Israelites under Moses (chs. 3, 4) and with maturity in the faith (chs. 5, 6a).  The summation of the matter is contained in installment six; but the thought begins in installment three, and the unshortened passage must be so understood.     Israelites Under Moses - Christians Under Christ     As the Israelites under Moses moved from a state of gnosis to a state of epignosis in the type, Christians under Christ are moving from a state of gnosis to a state of epignosis in the antitype; as the Israelites under Moses moved from Egypt toward the land of Canaan with an earthly inheritance in view, Christians under Christ are moving from the things of this world toward a land separate from this world with a heavenly inheritance in view; as the Israelites under Moses were prepared during the wilderness journey for archway into the land, so are Christians under Christ stuff prepared during the wilderness journey for archway into the land; as the Israelites under Moses were to go in, conquer the inhabitants of the land, and rule as God’s firstborn son here on earth at the throne of the nations, Christians under Christ are to go in, be victorious over the inhabitants of the land (cf. Eph. 6: 10-17), and, in the coming day (following the adoption), rule as God’s firstborn son from the heavens over the nations.  BUT, as the Israelites refused to go into the land, conquer the inhabitants, and take possession of the land in view of a future rule, so can Christians refuse to go into the land, be victorious over the inhabitants, and take possession of the land in view of a future rule; and, just as the Israelites at this point fell away, with no possibility of stuff renewed then unto repentance, so can Christians at this point fall away, with no possibility of stuff renewed then unto repentance; and, just as the Israelities who fell yonder were overthrown in the wilderness and failed to realize the goal of their calling, so will Christians who fall yonder without this malleate be overthrown in the wilderness and goof to realize the goal of their calling.     The words, “once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world [‘age’] to come” (Heb. 6: 4, 5), refer to a progression in growth from milk to meat to strong meat.  This is a progression from the rudimentary things concerning the antitype of the death of the paschal lambs in Egypt to the strong meat associated with things surrounding the antitype of Israel’s experiences at Kadesh-    Barnea (chs. 3, 4).  In the firsthand context (ch. 5), “strong meat” is associated with things surrounding the Melchizedek priesthood.  This priesthood refers to things vastitude Kadesh-Barnea, in the land itself.  Melchixedek was a priest-king, setting withal in type the office which Christ will occupy in the coming age when He, as the unconfined King-Priest, with His “kings and priests” (Rev. 5: 10), takes the kingdom.     The unshortened thought in Heb. 6: 4-6 is a progression from gnosis to epignosis, followed by a “falling away” from the faith.  “Eternal salvation,” which increasingly often than not is read into the text, is not in view at all.  Viewing eternal salvation as the issue under discussion is completely unnatural and will serve only to obscure the correct interpretation.  Let the Scriptures interpret Heb. 6: 4-6 and the unshortened matter becomes clear.  (Note the words, “enlightened,” “partakers,” and “tasted” [vv. 4, 5].  These words are used elsewhere in theTypesettingof Hebrews referring to individuals [Christ, and Christians] inward into unrepealable experiences [cf. 2: 9; 11; 10: 32].  The usage of these words in Heb. 6: 4-6 is in the same framework.)     Impossibility of Renewal     The thought that it is “to renew” unrepealable scoundrelly Christians “unto repentance” is one of the most solemn warnings to be found                      in all Scripture.  The finality of the matter for those who apostatize in this manner is set withal by the word “impossible.”  This is a particular apostasy, and once a Christian has fallen yonder from the faith in the manner set withal in Heb. 3-6, he can never then be brought when into the position which he occupied prior to his departure, from the faith. (The Greek word translated “renew” ways to be brought when into the word-for-word position previously occupied.)  In the type, Israel could not be brought when into this position; and in the antitype, neither can the Christian.     The unshortened thought is very similar to the sacrilege versus the Holy Spirit in Matt. 12: 22-32.  This was a national sin single-minded by the religious leaders of Israel.  …  Once the religious leaders had single-minded this sin, their deportment brought the nation into a state from which a restoration to the previously occupied position could never occur.     At Kadesh-Barnea, however, the prohibition unromantic only to the present generation, twenty years old and whilom (this would indulge the nation of Israel, at a future time, to realize the position for which the generation under Moses had been tabbed - an earthly calling).  In Matthew, installment twelve, anticipating Matt. 21: 43, this prohibition not only unromantic to the present generation but to future generations as well (this would prevent the nation of Israel from overly realizing the position unto which the generation during the days of Christ and the Apostles had been tabbed ‑ a heavenly calling).     One thing which must not be overlooked when considering the impossibility of renewing an scoundrelly unto repentance, who has fallen yonder in the manner specified, is the fact that in the type surrounding the experiences of the Israelites at Kadesh-Barnea the nation did repent.  The word “repentance” (metanoia) ways a transpiration of mind.  This transpiration of mind will lead to other things which are often mistaken for repentance (or part of repentance), but the simple, restrictive meaning of the word itself does not include these things.  Once the Israelites at Kadesh-Barnea fell yonder and realized the consequences of their action, they reverted their minds (repented) concerning the land of Canaan.  They sought to occupy their former position, inward into and taking possession of the land in view of a rule over the nations.  Thus, bringing this over into the antitype, it is possible for Christians who have apostatized in this manner to moreover transpiration their minds well-nigh the land set surpassing them and seek to occupy their former position, looking superiority to the coming inheritance of the saints.  However, God did not transpiration His mind concerning what He stated would befall scoundrelly Israelites in the type; nor will God transpiration His mind concerning what He has stated will befall scoundrelly Christians in the antitype.    Withoutthe Israelites repented at Kadesh-Barnea, the nation failed to occupy the position it had previously held.  The Lord was no longer among His people to lead them victoriously into the land; and when they tried to enter, the Amalekites and Canaanites “smote them” (Num. 14: 40-45). Nor will the Lord be among like-minded scoundrelly Christians today who repent and seek to occupy their former, forfeited position.  They cannot now move victoriously into the land and overcome the inhabitants.  If they try, as in the type, they will be overcome.  The only promise pensile Christians who have apostatized in the antitype of Israel’s Kadesh-Barnea wits is the same promise which awaited Israel - an overthrow in the wilderness, on the right side of the thoroughbred but on the wrong side of the goal of their calling.     The word “repentance” is only used three times in theTypesettingof Hebrews (6: 1, 6; 12: 17), and two of these three times the word is used in the heart of major warnings given to Christians. (Heb. 6: 4-6 is the heart of the third major warning, and Heb. 12: 14-17 is the heart of the fifth major warning.) Interestingly enough, in the fifth major warning in installment twelve, Esau did repent.  He reverted his mind concerning the birthright without it had been forfeited.  His repentance led to a unconfined show of emotion.  The words, “he found no place of repentance,” refer to the fact that he found no place for a transpiration of mind in his father (ref. ASV), Esau sought to effect a transpiration of mind on the part of his father, resulting in a reversal of what had transpired.  However, such did not, it could not, occur.  Isaac could not transpiration his mind.  The birthright, once forfeited was vastitude Esau’s grasp forever.     The situation in Heb. 6: 4-6 is identical.  The apostates in this passage have forfeited their birthright, and it is not possible, as in Esau’s case, to renew them then unto repentance.  In the types - the Israelites at Kadesh-Barnea, and Isaac in the presence of his father - both repented, but neither found a place of repentance.  God did not transpiration His mind at Kadesh-Barnea, and Isaac did not transpiration his mind when Esau appeared in his presence.     Repentance in the fifth major warning is not on the part of the one who forfeited his birthright, for he did repent.  And repentance in the third major warning moreover does not towards to be on the part of the ones who fall away, for in the type the Israelites did repent, extending such a possibility to the antitype also. Repentance in both instances can only refer to the fact that God will not transpiration His mind and restore those who have apostatized in like malleate to their previously occupied state.     For it is untellable …”     *       *       *     CHAPTER 5   AndMoreoverAfter That    Planeas Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities well-nigh them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going without strange flesh, are set withal for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire (Jude 7).     The world during Noah’s day experienced destruction as a uncontrived result of uncorrupt intervention in the wires of the human race; four cities in the Jordan plain were destroyed during the days of Abraham for this same reason; and the Israelites under Moses were told to go into the land of Canaan and slay every inhabitant for, once again, this same reason.  Angels in the kingdom of Satan took upon themselves the form of man, left their positions of power in the heavens, came to earth, and cohabited with members of the human race. Surpassingthe Flood, insofar as the record is concerned, this cohabitation was only between angels and sexuality members of the human race – a heterosexual union. Withoutthe Flood, however, Scripture reveals both homosexual and heterosexual relationships of this nature.    Surpassingthe Flood, this union involved the families of the earth. Withoutthe Flood, this union appears to have been serving increasingly particularly to the inhabitants of the land in the Abrahamic covenant.  The cohabitation of angels in the kingdom of Satan with members of the human race in the days surpassing theInflowingand then in days pursuit theInflowingoccurred with the same objective in view: Satan must, at all costs, protract to hold the government reins of the earth.     Man in his present state cannot exercise power over the earth.  This is graphically illustrated by comparing the writ given to Adam and Eve surpassing the fall with the similar writ given to Noah and his sons pursuit the Flood.  These commands, to a point, were identical.  One was given at the whence of an un-fallen human race (Gen. 1: 28), and the other was given at the new whence of a fallen human race (Gen. 9: 1).  However, one part of the writ given to Adam and Eve was not repeated in the writ given to Noah and his sons.  Adam and Eve were told to “subdue it [the earth]: and have dominion [‘rule’] …”; but this was not – for it could not be – repeated in the writ given to Noah and his sons.  Fallen man must rely the time of the “manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 18-23) – which includes (1) a separate and unshared creation, (2) redemption, and (3) adoption – for he can rule nothing within the sphere of governmental tenancy “before the time” (1 Cor. 4: 5).     The nation of Israel was placed in a position to rule pursuit the Exodus under Moses, but this nation consisted of a special megacosm in Jacob, a redeemed people, and an unexplored people.  Israel was God’s firstborn son, and only redeemed sons are in a position to rule.  Although Christians today have been redeemed and are new creations in Christ, they have not been unexplored into sonship.  Thus, Christians are presently in no position to rule.  Nor Israel presently in a position to rule. Planethough the nation retains its status of stuff a special megacosm in Jacob and an unexplored nation, Israel today resides on the earth in unbelief.  In conjunction with this unbelief, the nation has been set whispered while God takes out from the Gentiles “a people for his name.”  The time when both Israel and theDenominationwill be in positions to rule is yet future.    Surpassingthe Flood, Satan’s strategy consisted of an struggle to untruthful the lineages of the families of the earth in order to prevent the visitation of the Seed of the Woman, Who would not only be man’s Redeemer but would ultimately crush Satan’s head. Withoutthe Flood, Satan reverted his strategy somewhat and well-matured his efforts on corrupting the nations dwelling in the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  This task was workaday prior to the establishment of Israel as a nation and the subsequent Exodus from Egypt under Moses.  Satan knew that the land between the Nile and the Euphrates Rivers belonged to Abraham and his seed, he knew that the families of the earth were to be happy through the nation emanating from Abraham, and he knew that the Redeemer was to come through the lineage of Abraham (cf. Gen. 12: 1-3; 14: 19; 15: 18-21; 17: 7, 8; 22: 1-18).  Thus, Satan moved his forces into the land superiority of Israel, not only to races their right to enter the land of Canaan, conquer the inhabitants of the land, and exercise supremacy within a theocratic rule over the nations of the earth.  Israel’s position of supremacy at this point was to, in turn, result in the nations of the earth stuff happy through the seed of Abraham in vibrations with Gen. 12: 2, 3.  Israel was to rule as a kingdom of priests, and the nations of the earth were to be happy through Israel’s kingly-priestly function.  These were the nations over which Satan and his angels ruled; and a rule by Israel within a theocracy of this nature would, in reality, be a wresting of governmental tenancy from Satan and his angels.     Not only was Israel to occupy this position of governmental power and tenancy among the nations here on earth, but Israel was moreover in possession of heavenly promises and blessings.  This would necessitate the nation one day controlling, and at least a segment of the nation occupying, the very heavenly places from which Satan presently exercises power over the nations.  The seed of Abraham – both earthly and heavenly – MUST ultimately “possess the gate of [exercise governmental tenancy over] his enemies” (Gen. 22: 17, 18).  This, Satan, as the incumbent ruler over the Gentile nations from this heavenly realm, must not only prevent the visitation of man’s Redeemer, but he must moreover destroy the nation of Israel itself to reassure his duration on the throne in the heavenly realm.     Satan tried to succeed his task in Egypt surpassing the Exodus through the afflictions in the brickyards and the death of the male Hebrew children at birth.  He unfurled trying to succeed this task at the time of and pursuit the Exodus through the armies of Pharaoh pursuing Israel at the Red Sea, the Amalekites attacking Israel in the wilderness, and the corrupted nations pensile Israel in the land of Canaan itself.  He has tried to destroy Israel in many instances since (e.g., in modern times, the destruction of six million Jews under Hitler during the years of the German Third Reich [1933-1945]), he will try in the firsthand future through Russia and her allies, and he will try a few years vastitude that through the nations of the earth under Antichrist.  His attempts in the past have been for naught, as will his attempts in the future.  Not only has Israel brought withal the Redeemer, but Israel herself remains, as a nation, yet to occupy her God-ordained position as the one through whom the nations of the earth will be blessed. …     Nephilim and Rephaim     Prior to the Flood, the cohabitation of the sons of God with the daughters of men resulted in offspring tabbed Nephilim. Pursuitthe Flood, when this union occurred again, these offspring were known by two names: Nephilim, and Rephaim.  The translators of the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament) used the word Gigantes in most instances for both of these words.  Gigantes is the Greek word for “giants,” and this is the thought that is carried over into several verses of the King James Version (e.g. Gen. 6: 4; 14: 5; Num. 13: 33).  However, this meaning may have been only secondary to what the translators of the Septuagint Version had in mind.  Gigantes comes from a root form which signifies “earth-born” rather than gigantic stature.  The use of Gigantes in this respect would, contextually, refer to “earth-born individuals [individuals born on the earth, having heavenly fathers and earthly mothers],” with a secondary thought having to do with “physical stature.”     Nephilim is simply the plural form of a Hebrew meaning “to fall,” and Rephaim is the plural form of flipside Hebrew word meaning “to heal.”  A cognate form for Rephaim though would siphon the thought of “casting down,” or “falling down.”  Understanding the word in this latter sense would towards to be increasingly in keeping with the fact that Rephaim is simply flipside name for the Nephilim, referring to this, same group of individuals – “fallen ones.”     The word Nephilim is used only three times in the Old Testament in passages referring to offspring resulting from the cohabitation of the sons of God with the daughters of men (Gen. 6: 4; Num. 13: 33). But the word Rephaim is used numerous times referring to these individuals (Gen. 14: 15; 15: 20; Deut. 2: 11, 20; 3: 11, 13; Joshua 12: 4; 13: 12; 15: 8; 17: 15; 18: 16; 2 Sam. 5: 18, 22; 23: 13; 1 Chron. 11: 15; 14: 9; 20: 4, 6, 8; Job 26: 5; Psa. 88: 10; Prov. 2: 18; 9: 18; 21: 16; Isa. 14: 9; 17: 5; 26: 14, 19).  English versions of the Old Testament handle the Hebrew words Nephilim and Rephaim in variegated ways.  The words are many times, transliterated rather than translated.  Other times translations are attempted (e.g. “giants,” “departed spirits,” “spirits of the dead,” “deceased,” “death,” “dead” [ref. KIV, ASV, NASB, NIV]).  All that can be known well-nigh the Nephilim and Rephaim must be derived from these passages in conjunction with related Scripture.     During the days of Abraham the Rephaim could be found among the inhabitants of five cities in the Jordan plain (Gen. 14: 1-5).  Four of these cities – Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim - were destroyed by brimstone and fire from heaven (Gen. 19: 23-29; Deut. 29: 23).  Zoar, the fifth municipality associated with the Rephaim, was spared to serve as a refuge for Lot and his two daughters when the Lord destroyed the other cities of the plain.     It is evident from Gen. 14: 1-5 that the Nephilim and Rephaim were in the land of Canaan preceding Abraham’s archway into the land.  Note that the very first statement of Scripture pursuit Abraham’s journey from Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan concerned the inhabitants of the land: “And the Canaanite was then in the land” (Gen. 12: 6b).     Since the Nephilim and Rephaim were associated with the nations of Canaan, this verse could very well be a reference to these individuals.  In this respect, the reference would undeniability sustentation to a fact of primary importance concerning Abraham’s archway into the land: Satan had once established his forces in the land in order to oppose God’s purpose surrounding the undeniability of Abraham.     There are two entrances of the people of God into the land of Canaan under the undeniability of God with the forces of Satan - the Nephilim and Rephaim – stuff marshalled in the land first.  Abraham’s entrance, pursuit his throw-away from Ur, constitutes the first; and Israel’s entrance, pursuit the exodus from Egypt, constitutes the second.     The Nephilim and Rephaim were individuals of gigantic stature and unconfined strength.  Their gigantic stature can be seen in the report of the ten faithless spies at Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 13: 33), the unveiled size of Og, king of Bashan (Deut. 3: 11), and the size of Goliath, who appeared later in Jewish history (1 Sam. 17: 4; cf. 2 Sam. 21: 18-22).  Their unconfined strength can be seen in the fact that they were “mighty men [the Hebrew word pertains to ‘strength’]” (Gen. 6: 4), the fact that they were the ones who built the sixty “great cities” of Bashan (Deut. 3: 4, 5; 1 Kings 4: 13), and the position of Goliath as a “champion” in the unwashed of the Philistines (1 Sam. 17: 1ff).     The first time the Nephilim and Rephaim appeared (called Nephilim only in stick-in-the-mud days), God destroyed them by the waters of a   Flood.  The second time these individuals appeared, God destroyed a segment in the destruction of the cities of the plain and later commanded the nation of Israel to go into the land and destroy them.  By this    time the Nephilim and Rephaim had so infiltrated the nations in the land of Canaan that God commanded total destruction of these nations at the hands of His people (Deut. 7: 1, 2).  However, the failure of the Israelites to siphon out the writ of God completely when the nation entered the land under Joshua resulted in the Nephilim and Rephaim persisting in Jewish history as the stormy enemies of the people of God for hundreds of years vastitude that time.     The Cities of the Plain     Scripture in several places singles out uncorrupt worriedness involving sexual perversions in the cities of the plain during the days of Abraham.  Jude 7 states that individuals living in the cities of the Jordan plain single-minded illicit sexual acts with angels.  The words, “in like manner,” should read, “in like manner to these.”  The words “to these” refer to the angles, in verse six.  The inhabitants of “Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities well-nigh them” gave themselves over to “fornication” and went without “strange flesh” in the same manner as the angels.  The word “strange” is heteros in the Greek text, referring to a “different kind” of flesh.  The angels in the kingdom of Satan who took upon themselves the form of man and came to earth to cohabit with members of the human race did not possess the same type mankind as man.  There was an unrevealed difference, which is set withal by the Greek word heteros.  Angels went without “strange flesh” by cohabiting with the inhabitants in the cities of the plain, and the inhabitants of these cities went without “strange flesh” by cohabiting with angels.     Jude 7 is usually taken to refer only to homosexuality, in wind-down with Gen. 19: 1-11.  This interpretation, however, is too limited.  Rephaim were associated with the cities of the plain (Gen. 14: 1-5), necessitating sexual relations between angels and sexuality members of the human race as well.  Jude 7 and the parallel section in 2 Peter 2: 6 unquestionably have to do with both homosexual and heterosexual acts, and the Genesis worth points to widespread perversions in both spheres.     1. Degeneracy of the Sodomites     The worth in Gen. 19: 1-11, showing the utter degeneracy of the inhabitants in the cities of the plain, has to do with men and homosexuality; but the Scriptures in 2 Peter and Jude, alluding to both homosexual and heterosexual acts between angels and members of the human race, place both types of sexual perversions occurring in these cities on the same vital level.  And, in this respect, the unveiled utter degeneracy of the unshortened populace - both male and sexuality - can be seen by what is revealed in the Genesis account.     The night preceding the destruction of the cities of the plain Lot had given two angels, sent to Sodom by the Lord, lodging inside the safety of his home.  After Lot, his family, and the two angels had eaten, the men of Sodom began to gather outside Lot’s house.  These men are described as “both old and young, all the people from every quarter,” and they had come for one sole purpose: they wanted the two angels under Lot’s roof to be brought withal in order that they might “know them,” i.e., have homosexual relations with them.     Lot came outside, shut the door overdue him, and offered his two virgin daughters to these men in order to protect the two angels under his roof.  But the men of Sodom showed no interest in his daughters.  Their only unveiled interest lay in having illicit, worldly relations with the two angels.  The intensity of their interest is shown in verse nine: “And they said [to Lot], ‘Stand back’ ... And they pressed sore upon the man, plane Lot, and came near to unravel the door.”  But the two angels man, intervened.  They pulled Lot inside the house and smote the men that were at the door with “blindness.”  The angels then revealed Sodom’s impending destruction to Lot.     2. Evident Past History of Sodom     There is increasingly to Genesis, installment nineteen than Lot just stuff very insistent that two unknown strangers spend the night inside the safety of his house, and the men of Sodom just wanting two strangers turned over to them.  Why was Lot so insistent that these two men not remain in the streets during the night? Why, in seeking to protect these two men, did Lot go to the point of plane offering his two virgin daughters to the men of Sodom?  The Sodomites wanted these two men so immensely that they were going to unravel lanugo the door of Lot’s house.  They were not interested in Lot’s daughters; nor were they interested in having illicit, worldly relations with one another.  Their interest lay solely in obtaining the two strangers inside Lot’s house.     The inference from the record appears to unmistakably indicate that both Lot and the men of Sodom knew that these two strangers were angels.  Lot went to unconfined lengths to protect them from the Sodomites, considering he knew what had been happening in Sodom (2 Peter 2: 7, 8).  The men of Sodom, on the other hand, went to unconfined lengths to obtain these two individuals, for they had sensibly been brought into this frame of mind through their past ungodly manner of living.     By comparing Gen. 19: 4-11; 2 Peter 2: 4-8; Jude 6, 7 it appears well-spoken that the men of Sodom, as well as the men in the other cities of the plain, had been having homosexual relations with angels.  It cannot be unswayable how long illicit, worldly relations of this nature had been occurring; but equal to the record, immediately surpassing the destruction of the cities of the plain, the men of Sodom had wilt so sex-crazed that their only unveiled real interest lay in having homosexual relations with angels.  Thus, considering of gross sexual perversions, God rained brimstone and fire from heaven upon these cities pursuit the removal of Lot, his wife, and his two virgin daughters from Sodom.     Angels, Nephilim, and Rephaim in Tartarus     The angels who sinned both surpassing and pursuit theInflowingby taking upon themselves the form of man, leaving their positions of power in the heavens, and coming to earth for the specific purpose of cohabiting with members       of the human race are today serving with villenage in Tartarus.  Not only are they serving in this place, but it would towards that their progeny, the Nephilim and Rephaim are moreover there.  Tartarus is located in a particular section of Sheol reserved specifically for these individuals. …     The angels who sinned pursuit the Flood, directing their wade increasingly specifically versus Israel, have counterparts in angels who will commit this same sin at the end of the present age: “As it was in the days of Noah ... Likewise moreover as it was in the days of Lot ...Planethus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17: 26-30).  The cohabitation of angels with members of the human race will occur once again, both on heterosexual and homosexual levels.  This latter-day uncorrupt wade will be directed mainly versus Israel through the Gentile nations, as during the days of Lot, which predictable events during Moses’ day.  And possibly an utterance similar to the one which Christ delivered to the angels who sinned surpassing theInflowingawaits not only the angels who sinned pursuit theInflowingbut moreover the angels who are well-nigh to commit this same sin once again.  If so, such an utterance would be forthcoming only without the respective sin of the angels at the end of this age and without Israel has subsequently been elevated to her rightful place at the throne of the nations.     The man of sin will be of the Rephaim.  He will be the very son of Satan.  Note the expression, “thy [Satan’s] seed,” in Gen. 3: 15.  He will moreover have Rephaim ruling the earth with him during the Tribulation.  Rulers who will possess power directly under the man of sin, mentioned in theTypesettingof Revelation (cf. chs. 13, 17), are revealed in Old Testament be Rephaim - “men” (cf. Rev. 13: 18), but not men as we know them today.  Satan will rule the earth during the Tribulation through his son, and high-ranking angels in Satan’s kingdom will moreover rule the earth with Satan through sons begotten by angels - possibly their very own sons.     Isa. 26: 13, 14 reveals that during the Tribulation “other lords,” Rephaim, will have dominion over Israel: “O Lord our God, other lords abreast thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.  They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased [lit. ‘they are Rephaim’], they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.”  These “other lords” who will have dominion over Israel during the Tribulation, specifically tabbed Rephaim, will be destroyed surpassing the Kingdom Age commences.  This destruction will be so well-constructed that the Rephaim will not plane be remembered by Israel. …     The prison where the Rephaim from the coming Tribulation are to be serving with Satan appears to be in the section of Sheol tabbed Tartarus.  Other inhabitants are mentioned, which could be not only the Nephilim and Rephaim from the days surpassing and without the Flood, but moreover their uncorrupt fathers.  This place is located “deep under the waters,” at the marrow of the sea.  The “sea” in Rev. 20: 13 is theoretically an tittle-tattle to this place.  The sea giving up “the sufferer which were in it” cannot refer to those in the human realm, for they are all included in expression “death and hell [‘Hades’] delivered up the sufferer which were in them.”  These are two separate groups of individuals.  The first group, is taken from the sea, and respective Scripture locates this place increasingly specifically as stuff at the marrow of the sea and associated with the Nephilim, Rephaim, and angels.  The other group is taken from the place increasingly specifically tabbed Hades in this passage and has to do with the unsaved sufferer of all the month from the lineage of Adam.  Unsaved descendants of Adam, angels who sinned both surpassing and without the Flood, and the progeny of these angels - Nephilim and Rephaim will one day be removed from their respective sections of Sheol / Hades and towards surpassing theUnconfinedWhite Throne to be judged.       *       *       *     Transhuman: As The Days of Noah Were   http://www.defendproclaimthefaith.org   When the Lord Jesus was describing the “end of days,” the time just prior to His Second Coming, He drew a uncontrived connection when to the days of Noah: the time just surpassing theUnconfinedFlood.  He mentioned that the people were involved with eating, drinking and marrying right up until the inflowing came.  They were totally unaware of the coming judgment. At first glance, there does not seem to be anything unusual well-nigh eating and drinking until all the Scriptures are studied well-nigh the time of Noah.  The big picture shows this time period was full of violence and rebellion versus God.  It is moreover a time of intense sexual immorality as women were having sexual relations with spiritual beings identified as the “sons of God.” This combination of violence and immorality grieved the heart of God.  The wickedness of man filled the earth.  Man’s thoughts and imaginations were continually evil, and this triggered God’s judgment on mankind.  Mankind was so corrupted that God deemed it necessary to destroy man and start over then with Noah and his family. Genesis 6: 5-7 And God saw that the wickedness of man was unconfined in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the squatter of the earth … The effect of man’s sexual immorality was staggering since it unsimilar the race. The offspring of this union between human females and the fallen uncorrupt beings were physical giants.  These children were not fully human.  They grew enormous in stature with unconfined intellects and were tabbed “men of renown.” This cohabitation between humans and the spiritual beings was not isolated to a few individuals but became widespread throughout the earth. Genesis 6: 1, 2, 4.  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the squatter of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. There were giants in the earth in those days; and moreover without that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they yellowish children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. This cohabitation was part of the reason God’s heart was grieved with mankind and triggered the inflowing as judgment to wipe out this corrupted race of humans.  In modern science, the biologists would identify what happened to mankind as interchange the human DNA.  The DNA of man was reverted by this union and some men were no longer fully men.  They were a hybrid. The Bible describes God’s selection of Noah in order to preserve mankind.  Noah qualified considering he was “perfect” in his generation.  This does not midpoint he was a morally perfect human, but that he was genetically perfect in his lineage.  He had perfect human DNA and was not corrupted by the sons of God. Genesis 6: 9.  These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. In the 1970s when I first began to study Bible prophecy, I viewed “As the days of Noah” as a time of unconfined violence and immorality.  I never imagined that a time would come when mankind’s DNA would once then be altered.  The modern interchange would not be washed-up through sexual contact with the sons of God, but rather through man’s knowledge of science and breaking the DNA code.  We are now living in a time when man’s DNA is stuff tampered with just as it was in Noah’s day. Man’s increase in scientific knowledge reached a point that starting in 1990 a concerted effort was made to map the human genome.  The United States led this project with assistance from other nations.  This was an enormous task as the genome has 25,000 genes with 3.1 billion DNA pairs.  The project was 99 percent finished in 2003. Immediately while this mapping was taking place, the manipulation of the DNA began.  This manipulation included splicing DNA together from two females to create a multiple parent egg, and splicing human DNA into other animals such as mice and pigs.  Animals such as sheep were cloned, but to this day there is no known specimen of a human stuff cloned.  Since 2003 there has been a tremendous velocity in tampering with man’s DNA.  It seems that scientists are now on a regular understructure making discoveries well-nigh DNA. Never surpassing in history did man have the knowledge to unravel the genetic code.  Man now has such knowledge and is developing the technology to yo-yo his DNA.  This is once then setting the stage for corrupting the human race.  We are now living in “As the days of Noah were”! The scientists tamper with man’s DNA under the guise of increasing health by identifying genetic diseases and imperfections.  By using this argument, the scientists are virtually insulated from criticism and control.  They have a self-ruling hand to tamper with the human DNA as long as it is tied to health.  With this freedom, the geneticists will move to create babies self-ruling of any genetic flaw.  By 2006, this is exactly what happened. In 2006UnconfinedBritain opened what is tabbed “DesignerVictualClinics.”  In these clinics, an eight day old embryo was examined for over 200 inherited diseases.  A “defective embryo” was destroyed while the wonted one was used for invitro fertilization. The pursuit is a quote from an vendible well-nigh the use of two sexuality monkey eggs to produce an offspring.  With this type of treatise it is untellable to stop the manipulation of man’s DNA: “The prospect of a human victual with three biological parents has moved closer without scientists created monkeys using a technique that one day could stop children from inheriting severe genetic disease … It should indulge scientists to replace faulty “cellular batteries” tabbed mitochondria, which stupefy well-nigh 1 in 6,500 births.  While most mitochondria defects have summery effects, some can trigger severe brain, heart, muscle and liver conditions, as well as cancer, diabetes, unawareness and deafness.” In wing to a victual self-ruling from “genetic flaws,” parents now can create a child to order.  It is possible to go shopping for the genetic type victual you want.  For example, a child could be created from an egg and sperm of two Olympic athletes and placed in the womb of the future mother.  The child would have DNA that was not related in any way to its lineage parents.  A sexuality Olympian’s eggs forfeit virtually $30,000. The natural progression is to enhance the human race by sharpening the senses.  If the DNA is now understood and can be manipulated, why not increase the eyesight and hearing?  With the wing of eagle DNA man could see like an eagle.  By placing deer DNA, man could hear like a deer.  The same enhancement could be workaday for smell.  For strength the introduction of gorilla DNA could requite super strength, and for speed how well-nigh ostrich DNA! The scientists have once placed human DNA in animals such as mice and pigs; however, there is no report of unprepossessing DNA yet stuff placed in humans.  When the science of DNA tampering is perfected, there will be a cry to enhance humans with unprepossessing DNA.Incubationmoreover plays into the tampering of human DNA.  The theory of incubation frees man from Genesis 1 which states that everything is to reproduce without its kind. Incubationmoreover detaches man from his Creator and stuff created in God’s image and likeness.  Man is now a self-ruling wage-earner to tamper with his DNA under the guise of up-and-coming evolution. The evolutionists believe they are rapidly up-and-coming incubation by manipulating the DNA.  Many scientists believe they are enhancing incubation by improving man.  Because, through evolution, man has no fear of God and thus no restraints on tampering with DNA, any attempts to stop this tampering will be met with cries from the scientists.  Unless there is a unstipulated public outcry, this tampering will protract until man’s DNA is unsimilar and merged with animals.  The pursuit is a quote from an vendible We are rhadamanthine a new species, we are rhadamanthine Homo Evolutis which states: “… humanity is on the verge of rhadamanthine a new and utterly unique species, which he dubs Homo Evolutis.  What makes this species so unique is that it ‘takes uncontrived and deliberate tenancy over the incubation of the species.’  Calling it the ‘ultimate reboot,’ he points to the conflux of DNA manipulation and therapy, tissue generation, and robotics as making this unconfined leap possible... The day may come when we are worldly-wise to take the weightier biology of the known unprepossessing kingdom and make it part of our own.  This isn’t just well-nigh stuff a bit stronger, or having perfect eyesight our whole lives.  All of our organs and limbs have weaknesses that can be addressed, and there are moreover opportunities to go vastitude vital fixes and perform increasingly elaborate enhancements.” The merging of human DNA with animals creates what is tabbed a Chimera (k mir ).  The word chimera comes from Greek mythology.  This was a frightening looking yahoo that was made from the parts of several animals.  It has a lion’s head, goat body, and dragon’s tail with other creatures mixed in.  It was unchangingly viewed as a monster.  Webster’s wordlist defines a chimera as the following: 3: an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution occurring expressly in plants and most commonly at a graft union, the tissues from both stock and cion retaining their distinctness in the chimera There was plane a movie made well-nigh human chimeras.  It was made in 1977 and tabbed The Island of Dr. Morea starring Burt Lancaster.  In the picture, Dr. Morea, a mad scientist, creates numerous chimeras and abuses them. Eventually, the chimeras revolt and skiver him.  This movie was made long surpassing genetic manipulation was possible, yet the idea was there.  In the near future, chimeras will be reality and not science fiction. When reading Greek mythology, one did not requite thought to the possibility that one day man could create a Centaur and Minotaur.  These were creatures that were half human and half beast.  The Centaur had the upper torso of a human and the soul of a horse.  The Minotaur had the throne of a manful and the soul of a human. These strays were unchangingly viewed as pure mythology, but what well-nigh today when it is rhadamanthine possible to create such beasts!  What was viewed as warmed-over mythology, in the near future, could wilt reality or at least the possible worthiness to create such a beast! The warmed-over Greeks believed in the Titans which were gods that ruled the earth.  They were physical giants and produced offspring with human women.  This is very similar to the biblical worth found in Genesis 6.  Perhaps the Greek myths had some kernel of truth that was twisted yonder from the Bible into what is now known as mythology. It is my view, that once the human DNA is contaminated with unprepossessing DNA, this yahoo is no longer human and no longer created in God’s image.  This is what happened in Noah’s day, and God selected Noah considering he was pure in his generations.  He was fully human. The megacosm of a chimera is in uncontrived violation of the Bible.  In Genesis, installment one, the Bible states eight times that everything is to reproduce without its kind.  This is a vital law of life that God instituted at the very beginning. Genesis 1:24  And God said, Let the earth bring withal the living creature without his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and yahoo of the earth without his kind: and it was so. The mixing of DNA from two variegated species violates this law.  When God created man, He stated that man was made in His image and likeness.  The human DNA is what physically carries this image and likeness.  The wing of unprepossessing DNA ways that man is no longer in God’s image.  It is extremely serious to tamper with the integrity of man as transmitted through his DNA.  This is, in part, what triggered the inflowing in Noah’s day.  All of the hybrid humans were destroyed during the flood, and God then started over with Noah. Genesis 1: 26, 27.  And God said, Let us make man in our image, without our likeness … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and sexuality created he them. When God moved to redeem mankind through the Lord Jesus, the Bible specially states that He rejected the nature of the angels, but took on Him the seed of Abraham.  The Greek word for seed is very interesting; it is sperma, which is the understructure for the English word sperm.  Sperm is what carries the male DNA. The Lord Jesus had a human soul which had pure DNA that could be traced when to Abraham, then to Noah and finally to Adam.  His DNA was 100 percent human, and thus when He shed His thoroughbred on the navigate for sin, He could redeem mankind! Hebrews 2: 14, 16.  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of mankind and blood, he moreover himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ... For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Mankind is racing towards interchange his nature. Paralleling tampering with DNA is the merging of man with robotic technology.  The merging of man with machines is tabbed Singularity (See my vendible Singularity and The Image of the Beast).  Both Singularity and DNA tampering are on the threshold of interchange what it ways to be human.  This is coming so fast, yet so few outside of the scientific circles are enlightened of this. God is fully enlightened of what is happening.  He will only let the tampering with man’s DNA go so far, and then He will step in to stop it.  It is well-spoken that modern man, led by the geneticists, is right at the very point when God will intervene to stop this madness. 2 Peter 2: 5, 9.  And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the inflowing upon the world of the ungodly … The Lord knoweth how to unhook the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. Once again, tampering with mankind’s DNA integrity is a very serious offense to God and will bring severe judgment.  Man is once then in the same position as the Days of Noah.  Through science, it is now possible to yo-yo the nature of man.  The judgment that happened in Noah’s day is a warning of what is fast coming upon the earth.  Science has taken mankind vastitude the point of no return to a genetic Armageddon.Consideringmodern science is welded in evolution, no value of reasoning can stop this progression.  The evolutionists have no respect for the Bible and veritably no fear of God.  The evolutionists mock at the concept that man is created in God’s image, and therefore have no compunction well-nigh interchange the nature of man.  Just as God stopped it in the days of Noah, so God is going to stop it in our day at the glorious Second Coming of the Lord Jesus.  Make sure that in the days of Christ’s Second Coming, you are on God’s side. Remember, this is coming to a throne very, very fast.     *       *       *     The Kingdom A Reward     …Our Lord Himself sets the final seal on this truth - [i.e., “JOINT-HEIRS with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may moreover be glorified with him” (Rom. 8: 17).  For “if we suffer with him, we shall moreover reign with him” (2 Tim. 2: 12).] - “He that overcometh, I will requite to him to sit lanugo with me in my throne’ – manifestly the Millennial Throne – “EVEN AS” – that is, on identical grounds, for identical reasons – “I also” – I correspondingly with my brethren – “overcame, and sat lanugo with my Father in his throne” (Rev. 3: 21).  Here archway into the coming Reign for both Christ Himself and all who will share His throne is based four-square, not on grace or gift, but on running the race as to win the prize.  The Lord Himself here makes our wits identical with His own.  Just as the Eternal Glory of Christ, the glory which He had with the Father surpassing the world was, rests solely on the fact that He is the Son of God, while His Millennial Glory, the glory He receives on returning to this earth, rests solely on His achievements and sufferings as the Son of Man: - exactly so, our Eternal Glory – when all whose names are in the Lamb’sTypesettingof Life “shall reign for overly and ever” (Rev. 22: 5), totally irrespective of works washed-up either surpassing or without faith – rests solely on the fact that we are the sons of God; while Millennial Glory – if we unzip it, as Christ did – rests solely on our obedience and suffering as servants of the Most High, when we “shall be priests of God and of Christ, and reign with him a thousand years” (Rev. 20: 6).     THE MOTIVE     The motive that moved our Lord is to be ours also, and both are wonderfully compacted into one verse.  “Let us moreover lay whispered every weight, and let us run with patience the race that is set surpassing us, looking unto Jesus” – our model runner – “who FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM endured the cross, despising shame” (Heb. 12: 1).  Here dawns on us the immence importance to us all of this truth stuff unmistakably stated.  To seem that to be a souvenir which as a matter of fact is a reward is scrutinizingly certainly to lose it; considering the conditions on which the prize is given are ignored, and therefore, with scrutinizingly equal certainty, some condition or conditions will be fulfilled, and so cancel the reward.  If our Saviour could go through all His unparalleled traumatization considering of the joy set surpassing Him, how much increasingly can we master our present, however disconcerting, for a future of such widespread joy.  “Wherefore, brethren, requite the increasingly diligence to make your calling and referendum sure: for if ye do these things” – that is, add the seven graces to saving faith (ver. 5) – “ye shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance” - considering an archway a thousand years older – “into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1: 10).                   - D. M. PANTON. [read the well-constructed tract in:‘The Kingdom a Reward’]     *       *       *     BE STRONG     Be Strong: for the days are darkening, Night cometh on; Impenetrable gloom fast gathering, Light scrutinizingly gone.     Be Strong: though the darkness o’erwhelm thee, Through it printing on; On to the end of the wearisome journey, Where Jesus has gone.     Be Strong: the earth’s filled with violence, With hatred and Sin; Pray that in all things ye may be found worthy The Kingdom to win.     Be Strong: alimony thine vision stock-still on Jesus, He’ll withstand thee along; The wrestle is raging – the Lord God is with us, Our Hope and our Song!                            -  KETTIE K. PAYNE.