It would be interesting to find out more on exactly why the large majority of those who claim to be Christians would reject the teachings below. I know that many dispensationalists would disagree with the application of the spirit of anti-Christ in I John 4: 3 to physical Israel, which rejected Christ. They think "all Israel shall be saved' in Romans 11: 26 means all physical Israel will some day be saved. And in their idea of a one man super anti-Christ figure - as a fable - they would not like the "spiritualization" of the anti-Christ. But there is more that most who claim to be Christians would not like about this post.
Death and Hell As Spiritual Conditions
"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10: 10. Christ is talking about giving spiritual life with him to those who accept him and his doctrines.
So, one of the major changes in the transformation of physical Israel to the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5 is the teaching of Christ that he came to bring life, primarily spiritual life, but he also came to bring physical life. For in Luke 9: 52-56 when James and John asked Christ if they could call fire down from heaven to burn up a village in Samaria, Jesus told them in Luke 9: 55-56, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
It is important to understand that transformation of physical Israel to the spiritual house mentioned in I Peter 2: 5. There were major changes made by Christ in that transformation of physical Israel to a spiritual house. That which was in the physical under the Old Covenant was done away with as Hebrews 10: 9 says, "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the new." Entry into physical Israel by physical means, by genetics, the physical temple building, circumcision in the flesh and physical and literal animal sacrifice were all abolished and replaced by that which is spiritual and often communicated by metaphor. Many things which happened under the Old Covenant as shadows of things to come, Paul says in I Corinthians 10: 11 were examples written for our admonition "...upon whom the ends of the world are come." That which is spiritual after the Cross, the Day of Pentecost and Christ's revelations given to Paul (Acts 26: 15-18) became the substance of what was predicted by the shadows (Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2: 17).
But before the transformation of physical Israel, before the change from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, those in physical Israel often sought to kill and did kill those who held doctrines different from their own. The Pharisees as the spiritual leaders of physical Israel had Christ crucified by the Romans. In Acts 7: 58-60 Stephen was stoned to death by a group, in Acts 6: 9 called "certain of the synagogue." Acts 7: 58 and 8: 1 record that Saul was there and consented to the death of Stephen. Saul, of course, is Saul the Pharisee, before he encountered the risen Christ on the Road to Damascus, and became Paul.
Then in Acts 21: 17-31 when James sent Paul to the temple to take part in an Old Covenant purification ceremony the Jews tried to kill Paul, who was rescued by the Romans.
"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." I John 4: 3
Those of physical Israel who were not part of the remnant of Romans 11: 5 who accepted Christ and his doctrines are of the spirit of anti-Christ. That is, those who rejected Christ are of the spirit of anti-Christ. Those in physical Israel who continue to reject Christ are also of the spirit of anti-Christ.
The scriptural support for using the term "physical Israel" comes from Romans 9: 8, "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Then in I Corinthians 10: 18 Paul writes "Behold Israel after the flesh..."
There are also false prophets (Matthew 24: 11, Luke 6: 26, II Peter 2: 1, I John 4: 1, Revelation 16: 13, Revelation 19: 20 and Revelation 20: 10). The second beast of Revelation 13: 11-18 can be seen as the false prophet, representing many false prophets.
And a false prophet teaches false doctrines.
Satan has two forces at work against the truth of Jesus Christ, the spirit of anti-Christ, which inhabits many, and the false prophet, who represents many false prophets.
Revelation 13: 12 says the second beast, the false prophet, causes people to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. This refers to Revelation 13: 3 where one of the heads of the first beast is said to have had a deadly wound which was healed. The nation of Israel received a deadly wound in 70 A.D. from the Roman army, which was healed in 1948 when the nation called Israel was established.
John 4: 3 says that whoever refuses to believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is not of God, but is of the spirit of anti-Christ. Those who reject Christ are of the spirit of anti-Christ and in rejecting Christ; they reject life. The belong to death. Those who follow False Prophets claim to accept their idea of who Christ is, but have another Christ and another Gospel. They represent the other of the two forces of Satan, which would be Hell.
In scripture, Death and Hell are used together almost as though they were persons. This use of Death and Hell is seen in Isaiah 28: 15-18, "Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16.Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."
In Isaiah 28: 15-18 those who are said to have made an agreement with Death and Hell think that when the overflowing scourge passes through they will not be harmed - because they have made lies their refuge. The overflowing scourge sounds like the tribulation of Matthew 24: 21.
Then in Revelation 6: 8, on the opening of the Fourth Seal, the Pale Horse, it says "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
Next, Revelation 20: 13 says "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works."
Revelation 20: 14 says "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."
But there is one verse in which Hell comes before Death. "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Revelation 1: 18
Please provide a reference. I think many people latch onto someone else's assumptions or understandings and propagate their thoughts. Again, I have not seen or heard this. Thanks
Though Death and Hell are the two forces Satan uses against the truth of Christ, yet Christ himself has full control over Death and Hell.
Death is the spirit of anti-Christ, which denies that Christ as fully God came in the flesh. This is a trait of physical Israel, which - except for a remnant (Romans 11: 5) - rejected Christ. Hell as the second force of Satan is the False Prophet who teaches about a Jesus but it is another Jesus and another Gospel (II Corinthians 11: 14, Galatians 1: 6-9).
"For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many." Matthew 24: 5. "And many false prophets shall rise,and shall deceive many." Matthew 24: 11
The Strong Man of Matthew 12: 29 who holds the captives of Isaiah 61: 1 is the "man" behind the curtain who manipulates his two puppets Death and Hell, or the spirit of anti-Christ and the False Prophet.
The Strong Man is the leader of the fallen angels. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6: 12
But the Strong Man has his human minions, those in the spirit of anti-Christ and the False Prophets. These human minions do the work of the Strong Man. And they might be called the Strong Man also.
One main goal of the Strong Man, as Satan, who gives power to those in the spirit of anti-Christ and to the False Prophets (Revelation 13: 4) is to prevent humans from becoming part of the elect of Christ, to prevent them from being saved.
Christ in Luke 9: 59-60 said "And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. "
In Luke 9: 59-60 Jesus was not saying that those who are physically dead could bury others who are physically dead. He was talking about death as a spiritual condition. He was saying to let those who are spiritually dead bury the physically dead. Man is made in the image of God (Genesis 1: 27). So man is a three part being made up of body, mind and spirit. But when man's spirit is minimal and diminished, then his spirit can be said to be dead. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." I Corinthians 2: 14
Death is a spiritual condition. And can Hell be also be a spiritual condition. In Isaiah 28: 15 it says "... we made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:" This sounds like being in false doctrines, which are contrary to scriptures, is making a covenant with Death and being in agreement with Hell.
The false prophets teach their followers false doctrines, or lies and falsehoods, and this leads to a spiritual condition called Hell.
Look at II Thessalonians 2: 10-12, "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
The Greek of II Thessalonians 2: 11 says more literally "...God will send to them a working of error, for them to believe that (which is) false." God will give those who do not have a love of the truth, and follow false doctrines instead, over to their false doctrines, or lies. Once given over to their false doctrines, it is not easy to come out of the false doctrines to the truth. But God allows some to do just that.
Being given over to one's false doctrines is also a spiritual condition. Isn't this the same spiritual condition that is called Hell?
These teachings from scripture about Death and Hell, as spiritual forces in the divided house of Satan, which can lead to spiritual conditions in the followers of false doctrines are not exactly what man made theology teaches about death and hell.
And - Satan's house is divided, as Christ teaches in Matthew 12: 25-26 that "Every kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation...And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?" Remember in verse 24 the Pharisees, who had the dialectic mind, were arguing against the absolute Truth of God, who was standing before them, and saying "This fellow doth not cast out devils, bu by Beelzebub the prince of devils.'
Christ asks a question, "If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand." The answer is that his kingdom does not stand. It cannot stand against Christ. Satan was defeated spiritually at the Cross, but he is can still deceive many into following him in his Great Bluff. Those who are at War against the absolute truth of the Word, even though they may pretend to follow it, are at great risk of following that Great Bluff
"Those who are at War against the absolute truth of the Word, even though they may pretend to follow it, are at great risk of following that Great Bluff."
I would like to write something on the War Against the Word, and include some examples of how the 19th century cults, especially dispensationalism, created doctrines obviously contradicting New Testament scripture. Dispensationalism's doctrine that God now has two peoples, physical or ethnic Israel, and the church, is an obvious contradiction of John 10: 16. In so giving honor to physical Israel as remaining the chosen people by their blood line, dispensationalism supports the spirit of anti-Christ, and again contradicts some New Testament texts, especially Matthew 23: 38, Romans 11: 17,20, Romans 2: 23-29, Romans 9: 6-8, Galatians 4: 25-25 and also some Old Testament prophecy 7: 7-8.
Then, there have been attacks upon scripture itself in history.
One of these concerns the Hebrew Masoretic Text which is different in a few verse wordings from the Old Testament in the Greek Septuagint. The Masoretes were into Talmudic Judaism and some of them copied and preserved the Hebrew scriptures and apparently changed some verses. They operated between the seventh and tenth centuries A.D.
The famous change that the Masoretes apparently made to combat Christianity was for Isaiah 7: 14, on the doctrine that Mary was a virgin. This is also in Matthew 1: 22-23. But the Hebrew Masoretic text says ""the young woman shall be with child," but the Greek Septuagint uses a Hebrew word meaning virgin.
The KJV English, from the Masoretic for Isaiah 40: 6 says "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required."
But the English translation of the Greek Septuagint for Isaiah 40: 6 says "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but a body hast thou prepared me..."
Psalm 40:6 was seen by Early Christians as a prophecy of
the Incarnation of Christ, and Hebrews 10:5 quotes it as such, but the
Masoretic Text omits the key phrase entirely, replacing �but a body
hast thou prepared for me� with �mine ears hast thou opened.�
Then, there is the late 19th century changes that Westcott and Hort helped to make in the Greek text, and in the newer English translations of the New Testament. Some verse wordings in the Westcott-Hort Greek and in its English translation offspring are pretty much the same as in the Textus Receptus and in the three older English versions, the Tyndale, Geneva and King James. But some verse wordings are different.
A key to these differences between the Textus Receptus and the Westcott-Hort 1881 Greek text is in the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ. The Westcott-Hort text, for some verses, plays down the doctrine that Christ as fully God appeared in the flesh of a man.
And in general, the verse wordings in the Westcott-Hort and in the new English translations are shorter than in the Textus Receptus and in the older English versions.
But the issue with the Westcott-Hort and its English translations since 1881 gets into a long chapter length post because a number of scripture comparisons have to be made to show the differences between these texts. And most of those who claim to be Christians don't like scripture enough or have such an attention span to stay interested in long presentations.
There is a typo in he post above. In two places I typed Isaiah 40: 6 when it should be Psalm 40: 6, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required."
Breton's English translation of the Septuagint for Psalm 40: 6 says " 6 Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but a body hast thou prepared me: " The translation is online.
I'm a bit confused, are you saying that death and hell "at the last day" are not "physical? Or that the anti-christ figure throughout history and in the last days is not "physical"? Are you saying that they're only spiritual? Just need some clarification, sorry.
