Goodman John
Active Member
My approach is to consider the bigger picture. Taking the Bible as a whole and the one story it tells from Genesis to Revelation, we become aware of a contest between the Creator and a lying, manipulative "wannabe" god. As an all powerful Creator, he could have exercised his power to wipe out this usurper and those he managed to mislead, but this contender never challenged God's power....he challenged his Sovereignty....his right to set reasonable limits for his creation. Is God the best one to tell us how to live? Or are we better off deciding these things for ourselves?
People who want to tell God how to conduct his business, have no idea how brilliant his approach to this rebellion has been. He is allowing us all to be caught in the act of being ourselves.
In order to utilise the situation to his benefit (and ours) he has allowed the "wannabe" god to do his best, using all manner of deception to win people over to his side. It gives him his short term glory and an empty victory over those who have allowed themselves to be deceived. According to scripture, the "god of this world" has the ability to "blind the minds" of those who are not disposed to accept God on his terms. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) These are willing to be deceived because self-deception is satan's most successful ploy.
My reading of the Bible (with an eye on Manichaean and Gnostic ideas) takes it in a completely different direction. I see the Old Testament as largely the tale of a vengeful, malicious god whom I can't see as being anything other than Satan himself masquerading as God. I see the creation story as being wildly different from the tale told in Genesis, with the world- our physical realm- as being created by Satan to escape God, for at time at least, after being defeated in a war with God in the spiritual realm. The we get into the story of the creation of Man to be a servant of Satan, but that's a weighty tale in its own right.
Past the initial Creation period, we get into the Hebrew period and I largely look at that as mere history- but that the Jews are worshiping the wrong god. They're worshiping Satan in the guise of God- this doesn't make them bad or evil in themselves in any way, just mistaken as to who is really who.
It's not until the New Testament period and the coming of the Christ through Jesus that the REAL God is revealed, and the message of the Christ is to wake Man up to his spiritual nature. It's clear to me that the 'God' of the OT and the God of the NT are two completely different entities, and the Christ was our warning signal that all was not well in the neighborhood.
"Blinding the mind" is his trademark because deception is not easily detected, especially when a professional con-artist is manipulating people's perceptions of themselves, the world around them and how much misplaced trust people have in the system that he created.
God said he would lift the lid on the devil's world as we neared "the end" of it. Many people are now waking up to just how easily they have been led to believe his deceptions and away from the truth. The devil is a mimic who likes to create counterfeit religions that convince some people that this is the way to serve God, but it only works on those who want to believe the lie.
As long as Satan can keep Man in the dark about his spiritual nature, or keep him dazzled with worldly things, he stays in power in the physical realm. As Man 'wakes up' and purifies and strengthens his spirit to the point it can escape and return to the spiritual realm, Satan's grasp gets weaker. When the number of spirits (our souls) returned to the spiritual realm surpasses what's left down here (not just physically, but also what's left in the spiritual bus station, a sort of 'Well of Souls'- a nod to all you Indiana Jones fans - or as the Jews call it, 'the Guf' where spirits await a body), Satan's whole deal collapses and ceases to exist; Satan gets returned to the spiritual realm to await God's pleasure (or beatdown, whatever works), and the 'unsaved' spirits are either destroyed or otherwise utterly cut off from God. So, as I've said elsewhere, it's probably a good idea to 'get right' as soon as possible, because if we screw it up our spirit will have to find a new body when we die and do this all over again- and we do NOT want to miss that last bus to Paradise.
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I think we're largely on the same page and finding the same end game, but jut reading it in a different language of sorts. As I've said elsewhere, I think there's plenty of different way to get close to God and my faith is just one of many. I know others may think I'm completely mad and deserve to be locked up, but sometimes I think that might not be so bad after all I also completely acknowledge that I may be wrong, but I'm doing the best with what limited skills and knowledge I have at hand. In the end, we're all responsible for our own soul anyway, so any mistakes or errors I make are mine and mine alone.
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