Monday, October 11, 2004

The Shift

Okay, now if Paul was the Chief of Sinners, than Peter was the Chief of Saints...

Paul's Work makes an important distinction about being "in the meat." And this is why his gospel directly opposes the LORD's in many ways, and many claimed him to be a heretic, but is also precisely why the LORD chose Paul and supplied him with his unique "dispensation" of the Gospel...His crown, though tarnished with sin is irrevocable.

Peter rightly tells new converts not to desire the "meat," but instead, the "Pure Spiritual Milk" of the Word because this is the "Way Everlasting."

1Pe 2:1-3 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious.

For the LORD did not supply a lamb or any other sacrifice this time around, but His own Life He laid down for all.

Paul, being a hardened sinner himself, made new in Christ, he knew the price of being "in the meat" and that it was not something to desire, it brought a different kind of obligation to God and Brethren and made one a less worthy sort of "debtor," and with it an understanding that was less likely to hearken to the Pure Knowledge of God to be found "in the Milk" or as a "Babe."

But Christ speaks the difference quite well:

Psa 8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

Isa 3:4 And I will give children [to be] their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

Mat 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Mat 21:16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

And Paul testifies to a similar distinction by stating who had the Right to Reign:

1Cr 4:6-10 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and [to] Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think [of men] above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

For who maketh thee to differ [from another]? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive [it], why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received [it]?

Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

We [are] fools for Christ's sake, but ye [are] wise in Christ; we [are] weak, but ye [are] strong; ye [are] honourable, but we [are] despised.

The price of being "in the meat," therefore is one relinquishes his Right to Reign honourably.

1Cr 4:11-15 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;

And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:

Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, [and are] the offscouring of all things unto this day.

I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn [you].

For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet [have ye] not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

Paul could no longer be an instructor of "babes." This would now be work for Peter. Babes are not fit to Reign in the eyes and especially in the lusts of men, nevertheless they do, and most men, who have never grown in Christ and remain boys want their lusts satisfied not the Will of God, and Paul played this "card."

It is especially hard for a man to admit because being "in the meat" requires a different sort of "mastery" that is actually easier than Sainthood but because of the world is lauded as worthy of more praise...

Jhn 5:39-47 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

I receive not honour from men.

But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.

I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that [cometh] from God only?

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is [one] that accuseth you, [even] Moses, in whom ye trust.

For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.

But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

God was very displeased with Israel when He brought them out of Egypt and all they did was bemoan their lack of meat, they wanted an Eternal Atkins Diet. After all that they had suffered and all the miracles they had witnessed and the bondage they had been freed from, they still did not know their God nor did they want to. Yet in another place God's Word explains it all...

 

Deu 12:14 But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.

Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.

Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.

Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand:

But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that [is] within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.

Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.

When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat [of] them alike.

Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood [is] the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.

Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water.

Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do [that which is] right in the sight of the LORD.

It was strictly politics to get the Israelites through hard times. Then it would be time to...

Deu 13:4, 5b Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

[And to get rid of false prophets and dreamers and] "put the evil away from the midst of thee."

One "in the meat" may or must still be a slave to righteousness, but being no longer "pure" as a "babe" can no longer experience the same sort of fellowship with God in the same Way, the relationship is compromised. One becomes as the Canaanite woman:

Mat 15:22-28 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, [thou] Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast [it] to dogs.

And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great [is] thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

 

Meat is meant to bring God's people through hard and unsure times, to more restful and peaceful times where they might forsake this lust and live according to Joseph's Word of Wisdom, which is when real knowledge of God and Christ increase in direct proportion to Godliness, which is why Mormons were blessed with the gift of Revelation which the Church is founded on.

Mat 16:16-20 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

 

I think Jesus' favorite Teacher/Leader is Moses.

Deu 34:7 And Moses [was] an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

http://www.vegsource.com/articles/catano.htm

http://members.aol.com/Sauromalus/sheelot.htm

http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,1094-1,00.html

http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/89

 

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