In the Holy Scriptures the Almighty addresses a number of vitally important subjects, the most important of which is the mind of man.  The Scriptures reveal a sharp distinction between the pure mind of Jesus of Nazareth and the impure mind of unconverted man.  In the series titled Jesus of Nazareth: God, Man or God-man? (key word–God-man) I prove Biblically that Jesus was a man like all other men, that He had NO advantage over his peers and that He did nothing that his fellow men could not do.  In fact, He sometimes grew irritated when His disciples failed to do what He would then be forced to do, including still a storm, walk on water, heal the sick and cast out demons.  What He did have was a one-to-one relationship with God, a relationship that was available to all men then and is still available now.  God is no respecter of persons.  Jesus was a person.

Each church member worships and serves the god/master of his choice–either the God of the Scriptures or the god of this world.  As Paul warned about in a letter to the church in Corinth, churches have their own jesus who tells them what they want to hear through their hireling (Jn. 10:12,13) whom they pay to scratch their itching ears (2 Tim. 4:3).  Each god “speaks” to the minds of salvation seekers.  God speaks to seekers about the Holy Bible through His Holy Spirit.  Satan speaks to them about church doctrine through his false prophets.  The mind of each individual determines which “voice” it welcomes.  The “voice” one hears is the voice one obeys.  Man himself is at the controls.  Let us see what God says about the mind of man relative to the “voice” each person chooses to hear, believe and obey.  But first, let us examine a little historical background for this series before we go any further.

In Genesis 6:5 we find the Lord telling us that during the time of Noah, whom He calls a “preacher of righteousness,” his voice was ignored by the people of the world.  As a result, man became so vile that God drowned the entirety of mankind except for Noah and his family, with which He repopulated the world.  God, through Moses, said that during that time, “… the wickedness of man was great on the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart (mind) was on evil continually.”  How did men come to have such evil hearts?  They had the same choice as did their original parents.  Adam and Eve heard the voices of the two gods they dealt with.  They had choices to make.  They made the wrong choices.  The same held true for those of Noah’s day and still holds true today.  The ancients heard Noah’s messages of righteousness.  They also heard Satan’s messages of rebellion against God’s messages.  They chose to hear, believe and obey the latter.  In this way the Church of Eden was destroyed.  Man’s mind was the destroyer.  NEITHER SATAN NOR HIS ANGELS CAN FORCE HUMAN BEINGS TO OBEY HIM.  THIS IS A CHOICE EACH OF US MUST MAKE CONTINUALLY.  HE IS “LIKE A ROARING LION, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR” (1 Pet. 5:8). WE MUST REMAIN VIGILENT.  HIS TEMPTATIONS USUALLY COME WHEN WE LEAST EXPECT IT.

Throughout the Old Testament we find men mirroring the attitude of Adam, Eve and their early descendants.  This attitude toward the two voices carried over into the New Testament Church and has remained there as Christ’s message to today’s end-time (Laodicean era) church reveals (Rev. 3:14-17).  What John wrote to the Laodiceans perfectly reflects the mind-set of the Catholic/Protestant Church today.  Bear in mind that the entire Bible was written to, for and about the Israelite church, both the “church in the (physical) wilderness” of the Sinai Desert (Acts 7:38) and the church in the spiritual wilderness of today.  Both Old Testament and New Testament churches received the same Gospel (Heb. 4:2/ Gal. 3:8).  As the Scriptures reveal, both groups rejected it.  Both churches were headed by Jesus (Acts 7:38/1 Cor. 10:4).  Even Abraham, the father of the Israelites, was personally taught the Gospel by “the Scripture”  (the Word–the God who came to earth as Jesus of Nazareth )–Galatians 3:8 and John 1:1-4,14.

In the first chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Rome he states that, because the ancient Israelites refused to obey God, their “foolish hearts (MINDS) were darkened” (vs 21), which prompted Him to turn them over to a “reprobate MIND” (vs 28).  God left them to operate on their own power which enabled Satan’s devils to invade their hearts and direct their lives.  So powerful were his demons that they convinced people who knew that what they were doing deserved the death penalty, not only committed those death-producing sins, but prompted other people to join them (vs 32).  Nothing has changed.  I show people what God says and they reject His Words cling to Satan’s words.  Their goal is to convince other people to “join the church” where they could be taught Christendom’s “doctrines of devils”  by “seducing spirits” (1 Tim. 4:1) every sun god day.

In 8:5-7 Paul, not one to mince words, proclaims that: “They who are after the flesh do MIND the things of the flesh; but they who MIND the things of the Spirit do MIND the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally (flesh) minded results in (spiritual) death (now), but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace.  The carnal MIND is enmity (hostile) against God, for it is not subject (obedient) to the Law of God, neither indeed can be.” In Ephesians 4:17 Paul tells the church that those among them who walk in the vanity of their MINDS are walking (living) like Gentiles (Heb.–heathen).  In his letters Paul wrote to the churches that he had established.  The majority of the people in those churches were biological Gentiles who had been converted to Christ and His Law, making them spiritual Israelites and eligible for eternal life.  In Ephesians 4:17 Paul is telling them that when they break God’s Law (sin–1 Jn. 3:4) they are returning to their Gentile (pagan) roots.  In 2:11,12 he reminds them that before their conversion they were Gentiles who walked in the flesh.  At that time they were “without Christ, aliens from Israel, strangers to God, separated from the (Abrahamic) covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.”  THIS IS THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF ALL SINNERS BOTH WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE CHURCH.  And it all begins in the MIND/HEART.

But there is hope, even for the most carnally minded within and without the church.  God offers a way out of the trap into which Satan has lured most of those who call themselves by God’s name.  God is calling them out of that “unclean thing” (church system) and commanding them to remain far away from it (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1),  As the Apostle Peter tells us in his first letter to believers, judgment is ongoing in the church, and only the righteous within the church will be saved (4:17,18).  In the following posting we will explore what God says about the MIND of the righteous.  L.J.