21. How Was Jezebel Formed?
The term "Jezebel" in John's vision refers to the top-down structure of government established in the Christian church as a replacement for the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Christians believe is "faraway." Specifically, Jezebel refers to the Roman Catholic Church, as well as all of her Protestant daughters.Yet this structure, and all of Nicene thinking has been established as the only way to think about God and the Bible through the writings of a man who loved Jesus with all his heart, Augustine. We do not dishonor Augustine as a brother in the Lord, yet we must separate his definitions of "what the Bible should say" from our knowledge of God.
Most Christians today have no idea how much their thinking is Augustine's words as they impose "Christian theology" on every word in the Bible, even when they have to bend and twist what God says in order to do so.
A very large part of our victory over death and this world is casting Augustine's thoughts down from our thinking. In fact, at every point that we put the Lord Jesus Christ upon ourselves, spirit, soul, and body, we have to do so against the face of Augustine's words and against the face of the arguments of most of our brethren.
Lesson 21.1 The Confessions introduces the importance of this study along with the life of Augustine. We are not being convinced of any "argument"; rather, we eat of the tree of life offered to us by Jesus. Some quotes from Augustine's spiritual autobiography show us the sad limitation of Christ in which he lived.
Lesson 21.2 On Christian Doctrines explores the power of Augustinian thinking upon the Christian mind and how almost all Christians read their Bibles, looking not for what God actually says, but seeking to impose Augustine's thinking on every word they find there.
Lesson 21.3 The City of God shows the influence of Augustine's greatest work in defining the Christian definition of the purposes of God for man on this earth. At the same time, a different view of the City of God appears along with the immediate presence of a Fathering God, always here inside of human ignorance.