15.1 The Other Ruling Verse
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
This course is a definitional approach to the critical topics of the Bible: God, Man, Christ, and Salvation. If we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, then it is evident that our underlying definitions must change.
These next seven sessions deal with the great perversion of Christianity, the “other gospel” and the “other Jesus” of which Paul warned, come to its fullness in the church by AD 410 and continuing as the triumph of Gnosticism over Christ in the flesh, known as Nicene Christianity. We will not begin a recount of that history until the next session; here we want to place fully before our understanding the two versions of “Salvation” available to us.
2 Corinthians 5:6 & 8
I don’t really know why – Asperger’s mostly, but setting forth the other ruling verse is very difficult for me. I do it only for Father’s sake, that He might win the desire of His heart.
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).
Read as surface words, by letter only, read by those who do not know a Jesus who fills their hearts with all of His glory right now, then these words become the ABSOLUTE rule over every other verse in the Bible for all that is Christianity.
“Home”
Endémeó (at home): to be in one's own country, to be at home; I am at home, I live in a place. From en, “in” intensifying demos, people bonded together by a particular identity.
Ekdémeó (absent from): to be away from home, absent; I go abroad, I am absent from. From ek, “out from” and demos.
Here is how most interpret this verse. IF I am living in this present body of flesh, then Jesus IS far away from me. Jesus is absent from me. Therefore, the only way I will see or know Jesus is to be rid of this present body of flesh, that is, to die. Heaven is our home. Earth is evil and down-pulling; only physical death takes us into “eternal life.” (Gnosticism)
By This Interpretation
By this interpretation of this line, Jesus does not actually live in our hearts, literally, in Person. Rather, “by faith” means it’s not actually literal, just an idea, sort of, something only little children take literally.
By this interpretation, filled with all the fullness of God CANNOT exist for us while we are in bodies of dying flesh. By this interpretation of this line, God’s “pre-destination” decides who goes to heaven after death and who does not; sharing the same form with Jesus does not exist. By this interpretation of this line, “You in Me and I in You,” is not even noticed, no matter how often it might be read, and everyone turns their backs on “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I Must Be a False Teacher
By this interpretation of this line, the Word God speaks cannot enter our faith to become Jesus Himself alive in us. By this interpretation of this line, Jesus cannot be now our only life, our only self.
By this interpretation, all the incredible power verses of the Covenant we signed with God can be fulfilled only as we are physically dead; none of them can refer to us now in this age, on this earth, in these bodies of sinful flesh. By this interpretation of this verse, everything that I teach is deceit and every verse that has filled me with such life and joy, my Father utterly with me, I have stolen, misappropriated, and used falsely.
Really?
We are absent from the Lord. Really?
Tharreó (always confident): to be of good courage and good cheer. Being absent from the Lord, Jesus far away from me, fills me with courage and good cheer! Yeah, right!
How is it that people convince themselves that this blither is what Paul had in his mind as he wrote these particular words? Paul, who said, “Christ IN, IN, IN you, the hope of glory.” Yet they all do convince themselves of this nonsense.
“Absent from the Lord,” as it appears by itself, cannot come into us as a word from God; it cannot enter our faith to become Christ in us.
The Letter Kills
Paul was NOT a demigod, as most of our brethren imagine. Paul was a man just like us, of the same passions and impulsiveness. Paul’s words are not the Word of the Lord by some magical power by which God controls everything. Paul’s words become the Word of the Lord only as they enter into our faith by the Holy Spirit to become Christ in us.
Look at all the incredible things Paul said before and after this line in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, including: the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (3:5b). All of those incredible things are negated, crossed out, obliterated by “absent from the Lord.”
Two Different Minds
Let me illustrate what happened several times with Paul. I am filling out two sets of forms right now for my son, a driver’s license test and a study permit in Canada. I had been speaking with my wife regarding the driver’s license documents before I turned, in the privacy of my office, to the student visa documents. After a while, immersed in the student visa documents, I spoke to my wife out from them. She heard me, however, by the earlier conversation regarding the driving test documents and answered accordingly. I thought her answer was “off-point” and responded accordingly – and so it goes, until we discover we are in different minds.
Paul Did Not Think
Paul wrote in the same way that I write. Paul was obsessed with his thoughts, with the burning passion of what he wanted to convey. He wrote hurriedly, choosing his words out from how he was seeing things in his spirit.
But what Paul did not think about was readers coming along with totally different definitions, in a completely different mind, missing the huge statements before and after, tearing one line out of its context – and then using the letter of that one line ripped out of context to rule over the entire Bible. Paul would have been horrified, in the same way that he is even now horrified by how people read Romans 7.
The Ruling Verses
As I know God more and more out from the ten most important verses in the Bible, and all the verses that support them, too many to count, I understand those verses better. For RULING all of our definitions, I reduce the count to four, and I place these four in this way. Romans 8:28-30, with its pro-thesis, pro-knowing, pro-determination, symmorphy and image, continuing to rule all. And just under it, in full equality together, Ephesians 3:17-19 AND John 14:20/17:3. And beneath of those, Galatians 2:20, making all of the above our present reality.
Which Shall Rule?
Shall I take this one line, “absent from the Lord,” tear it out of its context, as most of my brethren do, force it to mean the opposite of Paul’s gospel, and then use it, as most of my brethren do, not just to rule over, but to erase from my Bible these four verses that I consider to be larger than the universe? Or shall I take those four verses as the definition of all things regarding God, Christ, me, and salvation and use them to enable me to understand what Paul might have been thinking as he wrote those words?
Here is my claim. Anything found in the Bible not in agreement with these four verses, at least by how we presently see things, CANNOT be God speaking Christ into us AND must be letter that kills and not life at all.
Paul’s Example
Look at Paul’s example as he made use of the Old Testament in his portrayal of his gospel of Christ our life and the New Covenant by which alone we relate together with God.
After Paul discovered that his perfect obedience to the Scriptures placed him directly at war with the Lord Jesus Christ, he went back through the Old Testament searching for a different Word than he had ever known. Paul found that Word, placed there by God, and Paul took those lines, a phrase here, a part of a verse there, and he used those lines to establish his gospel of Christ IN-IN-IN us. And then he used those same lines to obliterate every word that did not speak Christ Jesus inside of us, our life.
Sophocles and Ajax?
You see, I am also free to utterly disregard these words, “absent from the Lord,” as I disregard other things Paul says.
Why did Paul quote a wicked Greek “hero,” Ajax, as he thrust the wisdom of his wife away from himself in order to go out and commit unjust murder: it is shameful for women to speak (1 Corinthians 14:34-36) (the law says NO such thing). This line was invented by Sophocles, a high priest of Greek idolatry, yet he inserted it to show the folly of an arrogant man who would not regard the words of his wife. Why did Paul quote Sophocles in his letter to the Greek Corinthians? I cannot know, and I will not use my ignorance to abuse women, my sisters, in whom dwells all the fullness of Almighty God before whom I bow.
We Do NOT Want to Die
Let’s look briefly at what Paul said just before this line. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 5:4-5).
He said, very clearly, “We do not want to die.” Rather, what we desire is that moment when our dying flesh is swallowed up by the life of an incorruptible physical body. Until that moment, however, we walk by faith and not by sight. That is, we walk, calling those things that “be not” as though they ARE. – And ALL THINGS are of God.
What Do You Want?
He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still. – And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely (Revelation 22:11 & 17b).
What do you want? Do you want to sit in your present flesh, filthy and unjust? Do you want to see Jesus as a tiny Thing far away, someone you will really know only tomorrow, a day that never comes? Do you want to believe that you are not the image of God, that God is not revealing Himself as He is right now through every circumstance of your life?
Filled with Jesus NOW
What do you want? – I know what I want.
I want to call myself by all that Christ IN me is. I want to know the Father now. I want to share the same body and spirit with Jesus today.
I want to be filled with all the fullness of God. I want rivers of living water flowing out of my belly. I want to set creation free.
He who is holy, let him be holy still. I AM holy. I am filled with Jesus now as His physical body, a normal human being, God revealed.