Psalm 22

This is one of a set of 3 Psalms, known in theological circles as the ‘Messianic Trilogy’, depicting Christ the Messiah and it contains several instantly recognizable phrases, most notably, it portrays the crucifixion of Christ. That means none of its contents refers to David, he is merely a vessel prophesying 1000 years into the future ‘as Christ in the first person’ – i.e. as if here were Christ. As a prophet, he actually ‘saw’ the event depicted in the Psalm and subsequently penned the vision for our benefit. So, we accept that at the time of writing it, none of the events contained had come to pass. This concept is not a new doctrine since both Peter and Paul taught this very same concept in Acts 2 & 13, see my other posts in this regard.

The Bones

Definitely, beyond any doubt, the various phrases are directly as they were uttered while Christ was on the cross. I like this one in particular because it portrays a side of Christ that is largely ignored in its entirety by orthodoxy.

“My GOD, My GOD, why have you forsaken me” – verse 1a

He praises GOD & refers to himself as a ‘worm’!

“You are Holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel…I am a worm” – verse 3 & 6

These next words should be a real eye opener for you.

“For You are He who took Me out of the womb, causing Me to trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast on You from the womb; You are My God from My mother’s belly.” – verses 9 & 10

Why on earth would the second member of the trinity refer to the first member in such a manner? They are after all, both GOD and co-equal are they not? Even according to the orthodox doctrine of the dual nature of Christ, homoosia, means that even as a man hanging on the cross he would have had to have been co-equal with GOD – typical circular reasoning by these Nicolatians, complete nonsense. However, in direct opposition to orthodoxy, Christ  himself declares emphatically that he had a GOD since the very moment he was came from his mothers womb.

It’s not enough to just ‘read’ the word without letting it change your thinking, and surely the spoken word of Christ carries some weight with you. These are his own words plainly written, count how many man-made insinuation and obstacles come between your current position and the meaning and the intention of the understanding being communicated to us here.

We are All of One

This is where things get really interesting because this particular verse is referred to in one of the most powerful books in scripture.

“I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise You.” – verse 22

In case you still had doubts, this Psalm is not referring to David, the writer of Hebrews has no such qualms. In fact, the writer was under the impression it was Christ himself praising GOD and declaring his intention of carry out his priestly duty of declaring the name of GOD to his brothers.

“For both He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.’” – Hebrews 2:11-12

The ‘assembly’ Christ is referring to is a reference to the congregation of the righteous – those who would one day be baptised by the ‘High Priest’ himself who is the same one who would baptise with fire after receiving the Spirit at his resurrection and pouring out “what you now see and hear” on the day of pentacost. As an aside, Christ was referring to exactly this baptism by the ‘High Priest’ as the only means to effect the worship of GOD in ‘Spirit and in Truth’ that he spoke of to the woman at the well in the book of John. That’s how its supposed to be –  get it! Incidentally, this notion of ‘declaring the name of the LORD’ is exactly like the ‘Song of Moses and of the Lamb’ mentioned in the book of Revelation – so its a resurrected Christ, who is still singing the ‘Song of Moses’. You should definitely check it out, its not something that GOD would sing to himself as would have to be the case if Christ never really needed a resurrection and was merely returning to take up his previous position of an ‘Eternal GOD’, as orthodoxy would have us believe – all nonsense really.

The high priest worshipping GOD in our midst! Imagine that for a moment – Christ standing ‘amongst’ his brothers ‘singing praises to GOD’. This notion is utterly foreign to orthodoxy, who cannot even fathom the truth about Christ. Its written plain enough, and if your position is fixed, then you need to seriously examine the light within you. Listen to the words of Christ;

“My praise shall be of You in the great congregation; I will pay My vows before the ones who fear Him.” – verse 25

What vows would ‘GOD The Son’ make to GOD? It cannot happen I tell you, but the ‘Holy One’, his very title indicating he bows to the One True GOD, indeed has vows to fulfil.

In Worship

As for me and mine? I welcome the Christ who would embrace me in worship of GOD among the very people of GOD. To stand in his presence and hear him sing forth the praises of GOD must be an experience second to none…his voice, worshipping GOD in Spirit and in Truth – that’s true worship and I long for it.

BEGOTTEN

The Darkness

We’re taught that Christ was ‘eternally begotten’ according to the Nicene creed, “Eternally Begotten”…”begotten not made”, verbatim but they don’t teach how they arrive at this conclusion. When you read this, immediately, your mind is put into a state of confusion trying to understand what that even means and subsequently your heart also rejects it as untrusted because of the confusion it caused upon entering your mind. I’ve tried, and failed, many times to just ‘blindly’ accept this statement but always came up with the understanding that doing so only served to make me ‘blind’. That is, till I came across this teaching from Psalms by Paul in which he actually covers this exact subject in the most revealing way and even uses the very same wording that appears in the creed – “begotten”. However, the revelation Paul shares is a far cry from what is accepted as orthodoxy, and that, without any proof.

The Light

I must have read these verses more than once over the years, but this time something just stuck with me. Reading Acts brought me to these verses in which Paul is giving a discourse and happens to be reciting Jewish history while explaining key historical events about Israel & several Acts of GOD and is leading up to the point of all this information: Christ, of course. Now see how he makes his point, but specifically take note of how he reveals to us his understanding of the Psalms & remember that at this moment that Paul is speaking, he is under the power of the Spirit of GOD who is giving him strength to ‘boldly witness’ inside a synagogue in Antioch, on the Sabbath.

“And we preach the gospel to you, the promise made to the fathers, this God has fulfilled to us their children, raising up Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son, this day I have begotten You.’ – Acts 13:32-33

If you were ‘listening’ then that last statement would have literally rocked your world, because Paul didn’t just ‘quote a Psalm’ he used it in reference to the resurrection of Christ and said that; GOD had fulfilled His promise in the begetting of Christ through his resurrection. We could then say that Christ was begotten at his resurrection and that with an oath that GOD himself has sworn Himself to. You should already have recognized, that this exact verse is quoted in Hebrews, but we’ll get to that, just stay with me for a moment longer. Let look at the original Psalm Paul made reference to, & remember he was testifying while under the unction of the Spirit of GOD.

“I will declare the decree of Jehovah. He has said to Me, You are My Son; today I have begotten You.” – Psalms 2:7

Astounding, these words! Again, we have David prophesying as Christ in the first person 1000 years into the future to the time of the resurrection of Christ who must have declared these words from his own mouth at the time of his resurrection by the power of GOD. Jehovah, the LORD has decreed…He, GOD, said to me…”You are My son…TODAY, I have begotten you”…these are the words of Christ declaring…”GOD said to me!”

Conflicting Ideology

How can it be? Why would we have our own thinking when GOD Himself has declared ‘this day’, conveying to us the understanding that He intended a very specific day of the begetting of His Christ? The apostles clearly understood the begetting of Christ to have occurred at his resurrection. The teaching of orthodoxy is in opposition to the written word. They literally stumble because of Christ and are unable to receive his own testimony of the word of GOD spoken to him by none other than GOD Himself. For some, the creed holds more authority than the very word of GOD which they themselves claim to be their god. Let me state here, that I believe the apostles understood “only begotten son” to mean “only resurrected son”, not difficult when you also consider that his glory and his pre-eminence is in fact derived from the fact that he himself is the “firstborn from the dead”. Could be you don’t realise the enormity of the historical event known as the resurrection, let me show you something;

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” – Romans 1:1-4

Basically, what Paul is saying here is that ‘the resurrection of Christ’ is the actual declaration made by the hand of GOD Himself. Paul is saying that GOD exerting His power in raising Christ from the dead was in fact GOD himself declaring the son-ship of Christ! In Psalms 2:7 GOD swore with an oath regarding the time of the begetting of His Christ & Paul clearly received deep revelation regarding the implications of the act of his resurrection. The same creed shows another disturbing trend in modern orthodoxy by its use of the phrase: “on the 3rd day he rose again…he ascended into heaven”, as if Christ was himself responsible for his own resurrection. Let me state emphatically that this notion is contrary to scripture which declares in no uncertain terms that it was an act of GOD that raised Christ from the dead how could he have raised himself – he was after all, “dead”.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.“ – Romans 10:9

How is it the creed fails to declare that ‘GOD raised him from the dead, when it is a doctrinal requirement to believe this very thing? because they are in error for not knowing the scripture, the same thing Jesus always rebuked the orthodoxy of the day with.

Here is a tremendously powerful revelation from Ephesians, but lets not digress and stick to only the portion of the chapter that covers this exact train of thought. Here Paul prays that the GOD of Christ would give them revelation for the express purpose of knowing 3 things, you can go a read it for yourself, here is one of them…

“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: …[omitted for brevity]… And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:”  – Eph 1:15-21

And there are many others. Now, I ask you this: why on earth would Paul, as an apostle praying in the Spirit for new believers, after seeing they had some form of faith, write in his letter, which has subsequently become scripture for us, that GOD make them know the extent of the power being exerted towards them as believers, the very same power GOD exerted in Christ at his resurrection? Put your ‘blind’ man-made doctrine aside and answer me this if you can, before you overlook these words and redirect to another scripture to make a mundane point! Paul, bearing the office of Apostle of Christ literally used the power of his office, also known as a ‘gift of the Spirit’, to discern a need in a group of new believers and thought is necessary for them to know that it was GOD who raised Christ from the dead. Yet you would cling to your creed with the insinuation that it was Christ who raised himself, rendering the word of GOD himself of no importance. After reading the word for yourself, it then becomes requirement to change your thinking.

There is much more we can say on this topic, but lets leave it here for now & make another date to cover this topic again – its getting late for me, the kids bedtime with love and hugs calling me.

In Christ, the son of the One True & Living GOD!

corruption of the holy one

This may be a real eye-opener for some of you, but just remember, this teaching comes from two Apostles who were with Christ personally. The first being Peter who was head of the first church to the Jews, the second being Paul, an Apostle whose revelation of Christ is beyond reproach, to such a degree that his personal letters make up 13, yes…a whopping 13 books of the n.t.. He even rebuked Peter himself in public for not being a straight shooter. This teaching concerns the resurrection of Christ and reveals a deep insight the Apostles had of the book of Psalms. Their revelation is emphatic, second to none and beyond the reproach of any modern scholar.

The Prophecy

Please read the whole psalm, I only quote a small portion to emphasize my point but the entire context remains intact.

“Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoices; My flesh also shall rest in hope; For You will not leave My soul in hell; You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will make Me know the way of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” – Psalm 16:9-11

Now, without us requiring the assistance of any modern theological commentary, we are going to see for ourselves that these two apostles both understood these words to have been uttered prophetically from the mouth of David. Furthermore, that the specific context of these words are made in reference to the resurrection of Christ.

Peter’s Revelation

This is an excerpt from Peter’s very first sermon, fresh out of the upper room having just had flaming tongues of fire manifest upon his person.

“For David speaks concerning Him, ‘I foresaw the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad; and also My flesh shall rest in hope, because You will not leave My soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your holy One to see corruption. You revealed to Me the ways of life. You will fill Me with joy with Your countenance.’ Men, brothers, it is permitted to say to you with plainness as to the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit upon his throne, seeing this beforehand, he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor would His flesh see corruption, God raised up this Jesus, of which we all are witnesses.” – Acts 2:25-32

He clearly teaches, that David speaks ‘concerning Him’ i.e. the Christ. Peter goes on point out the obvious in case someone is blind to the elephant in the room, namely the fact that ‘it is plain to all’ that seeing as though David is dead and buried among themselves, made it impossible for David to have been talking about himself. He goes on to further clarify that David was also in fact a prophet, acutely aware of certain promises GOD made. Specifically, that David in fact ‘saw’ the fulfilment of this promise some 1000 years into the future culminating in the resurrection of Christ – Peter explicitly states this with these words ’…seeing this beforehand, he(David) spoke of the resurrection of Christ…’ On a side note; this reveals something truly great about how GOD works because He speaks it and He also shows us the fulfilment of it in truth something exactly like when He made a similar promise to Abraham, who happened to be looking at the great expanse in the night sky while GOD spoke to him.

Paul’s Revelation

In a very public and dangerous place, Paul gives utterance revealing his understanding of Psalm 16, in the following manner.

“…God has fulfilled to us their children, raising up Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son, this day I have begotten You.’ And that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He spoke in this way: ‘I will give you the holy promises of David.’  Therefore he also says in another psalm, ‘You shall not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’  For after he had served his own generation by the will of God, David fell asleep and was added to his fathers and saw corruption. But He whom God raised again saw no corruption.” – Acts 13:33-37

Virtually his entire discourse, containing references to numerous other psalms, is fixed firmly on the resurrection as the main topic. Note that he also points out to all present that while David indeed made mention of the ‘holy one’ not undergoing corruption, it is plainly clear that David had since moved on and in fact did experience this corruption after his death, ‘…BUT He whom GOD raised…’ is clearly exempt from the corruption. Again, the psalm in question is making emphatic reference to the resurrection of the Christ.

Revelation for Us

Both Peter & Paul clearly understood Psalm 16 to be referring to Christ. Look at the Psalm again, see for yourself and notice that David, while ‘seeing the resurrection’, is in fact giving utterance in the first person “as Christ Himself” using these epithets ‘…my heart…my flesh…my soul…make me know…’ But it is also clear, David is not talking about himself and he also knew this plainly from the vision he was experiencing simultaneously. These are words being given prophetically almost ‘enacting’ an intimate moment between Christ and GOD that was ‘going’ to take place about 1000 years into the future from when they were uttered, somewhere before the death of Christ, just prior to his resurrection. Intimate thoughts indeed, but what about the rest of the psalm?

The Whole Picture

Do the other verse also refer to Christ? How can a priest from Judah, in verse 5, claim Jehovah as ‘his portion of his inheritance’ when the law expressly assigns this privilege to the tribe of Levi? It should be clear to you that you cannot read verse 10 as Christ and then suddenly do an about face by having verse 11 apply to David & not Christ. Surely it must be read as Christ himself declaring…

“You will make Me know the way of life” – Psalm 16:11a

While it may strike you as strange, rest assured, these words are not foreign to the context of the Messiah. In fact, these very same words are, whether implicit and explicitly, ascribed to having been uttered to him/by him or about his person, in numerous other places in the scriptures. If you see Christ as GOD, then surely, the words don’t fit the mouth but you are then obligated to also remove verse 10 from the same breath that uttered it if you can, in fact I put it to you that your mind already does overlook this glaring & obvious truth. On the other hand, if you see him ‘in the light of the word’ as is being revealed here, then you see him in truth as is plainly written in the words of Psalm 16.

In Christ, the Son of the One True & Living GOD!

Jesus has a GOD!

This verse was a real eye-opener for me.

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” – John 17:3

While I was being told he was GOD, the scriptures revealed something quite different. The answer to my question regarding this verse went something along the lines of this: “the human part of him was leading by example, showing us obedience to GOD”. None of the many similar responses I have received over the years has quite compared with what GOD told me that day: Jesus has a GOD! As a new believer way back then, my asking questions was to be expected but I somehow could never shake the intention of the original scriptures that screamed out to me ‘it is written’! From the words spoken by Christ himself in a prayer to GOD, he himself affirmed there was only one who was GOD.

Whatever else you think you understand about the written word, you need to factor in this insight from Christ himself. Your response to the words of Christ will speak volumes about the nature of the spirit in you. If you are his and you call him Lord, then surely it is required to receive his very words?

There are many other verses that emphatically depict Jesus as subservient to GOD.

“Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” – John 20:17

Here is another scripture also containing the words of Christ himself in which he sends a message to his disciples that identifies himself with us completely: we have the same Father, and we have the same GOD,  as Christ! Let me also point out to you that this is a risen Christ just before he ascended to the right hand of GOD, who spoke these words.

“And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” – Mat 19:17

In this one, Jesus says that only GOD is good! He is clearly not referring to himself as GOD.

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” – Mat 27:46 (& Mark 15:34)

This one of course is the one that probably got away from us all. At the cross, which is the very focal point that defines Christianity, nobody thought to consider that he was crying out to GOD! It was not to the first member of a triune godhead that he called out to, rather it was directed at ‘his own GOD’, who I hasten to point out to you all, ever remained seated on the throne during the entire ordeal. I challenge you all to sit down with your thoughts and really try and consider what it is that goes through your understanding, your very being when you read his words in this context, and see if there is anything that hinders you from accepting his simple words by faith. Understand for yourself how the messiah is portrayed in the psalms of David by studying the many references to the crucifixion – it will change the way you read your bible. Some have tried to explain his actions using his dual-nature of both GOD reasoning that the cry came from the human part of him that it was ‘the flesh that cried out to GOD’ but this thinking is void of truth – he cried out to GOD because “GOD is his GOD”! The next verses also refute this thinking concerning his supposed ‘duality’ because they come from a resurrected and fully glorified Christ, spoken as ‘High Priest’ in the very presence of GOD himself.

“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” – Rev 3:12

Count them! Even though were were to ‘completely ignore’ all of the aforementioned scriptural proofs, in just this one verse alone we hear Jesus himself referring to his GOD no less than four times. That’s what he says; MY GOD’s temple, MY GOD’s name, MY GOD’s city and all of it from MY GOD. Remember, these words are spoken from the right hand of GOD himself and if that was not enough, two verses further on, from the mouth of the Living Son of God himself we hear these words.

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;” – Rev 3:14

Jesus just referred to himself as the beginning of ‘the creation of GOD’! Dont you think this a very strange title to use in describing yourself to one of your disciples? In contrast with every other occasion where GOD himself speaks, the words of Christ has him deferring to another who is GOD whereas GOD emphatically always identifies himself as ‘GOD Almighty’ who answers to no-one and who declares the end from the beginning.

The purpose in pointing these verse out to you is not to bring Christ down or to destroy your faith in Christ my purpose is to point out something to you that you wont hear taught in orthodox communities. You may well undergo a type of catharsis, which i am hoping, and may even instantly revert to some kind of ‘cognitive dissonance’ depending on the degree to which you accept the written word in plain English but that is entirely your choice , and depends on whether or not  your faith is in fact built on the word of GOD as revealed by Christ himself. Consider this; while there are many verse being debated on both sides of the argument for and against, the words of Christ himself should always be the deciding factor.

Peace to you in Christ, Son of the One True and Living GOD!

One Spirit!

He who is joined to the Lord, is ONE spirit together with him – 1 Cor 6:17

Powerful words written by a man who wrote more than half the bible. It’s strange to me how no one has ever taught me a single insight in regards to the truth of these words. How can it be possible to become ‘one spirit’ with the God of the living? There is no religion on earth that teaches anything like it.