List of topics

God would be not omnipotent over our free will for He made us according to His own image. Otherwise we would be robots who can't sin but also we could not love either. We would be just obedient mechanical beings. The main battlefield between God and devil is the mind of every human being. God's will is that everyone get saved and don't end down into the hell with one's own deteriorating life. "Let the one who is filthy, still be filthy." (Rev.22:11) Inherited sin is our inherited inclination to evil.

I believe that God was so desperate of the situation of the first couple and their posterity that Christ decided to go on the gross to fulfil the law (pay of the sin is death) and to get for us the saving Life.

You might resist the word "desperate" in connection with God, especially if you have a more Calvinistic image from almighty God. Pure Calvinists think that the whole Fall and following Crucifixion of Christ was premeditated design as all things happen according to God's will.

Remember Lamentations where God did express His sorrow and pain about the apostate people of Jerusalem trough Jeremiah. " I called to my lovers, but they deceived me" (Lam. 1:19)

God is very emotional and His heart dictates who goes into heaven and who goes into hell.

( writer's opinion) To be honest with, I think that Calvinist doctrine is invented by the devil to prevent believers to love God. John 12:32 "If I am lifted up (crucified) from the earth, I will draw ALL (men and not only the selected ones) to Myself."

What more you have adopted about Calvinism, the harder it is for you to connect with Christ. Think about the ancient Sodom. God did like to save it to the last ten evangelical workers to get or have change to get repentance and revival, but He did not find them.

The image of beast is the wrong image about God of the (last) religious organisation (= beast) resembling more the adversary than Christ. Devil will go into the heart of the believer ( we are the spiritual Jerusalem and temple of God) proclaiming himself to be God. That is the spiritual apostasy. After that is the night where it is very hard to do evangelical work.

You are straight recognised to have different Spirit and deemed heretic, so "that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service." (John 16:2) In the middle-age it was customary to burn dissidents alive under the ruler of the first beast.

Salvation or rescue is inside Christ in unity with Him by being New Creature and by owning His everlasting life together with Him. That joining or union did happen on the cross and after when He took back His previous life and/or His soul (John 10:17). Christians belong to the church of the FIRST- BORN (= Jesus Christ) (Hebr.12:23).

However God does not take anyone with force and we should say yes to His marriage proposal to get the faith that we belong to Christ. To be born from Christian parents, be holy from start with and preserve this state to the adulthood (1Cor 7:14) is rather exception by my view. Views like: "He who spares his rod hates his son"( and desires his spiritual death) (Pro.13:24, 19:18) are considered outmoded even in Christian circles.

I am opposite the Calvinistic view of God's selection of future citizens of heaven before one's natural birth. Actually God selected only One: Jesus Christ, and those who have " put on Jesus Christ" the First Born have been selected inside Him by being part of Him.

Creator of time had of course seen those who will select Jesus before they were actually being born. We still have to select Christ in our lifespan that it is possible for God to see the process before it will actually happen (by authors reasoning and view).

With this Armenian idea as a guideline or principal rule I like to examine the story of Jacob and Esau.

There exists pros and cons for the idea that Esau is the symbol of Christ.

The well of Jacob is thought to be a 30 m deep well near Sychar (Tell Balata). So we need to dig deep to draw water (knowledge) from the account of brothers.

First, Esau was the first-born older brother for Jacob who came to serve the younger brother just like Christ came for us. Esau literally means hairy and I think he had been born that way because of the name; Symbolically righteous, holy and without inherited sin from the birth. Even Jesus had the beard.

God was not happy with the loin coverings of fig leaves of Adam and Eve but made for them garments of hairy skin. Jacob's mother put the skins of the kids on Jacob's hands and neck to help him pretend to be Esau. "In that day...they (false prophets) will not put on hairy robe in order to deceive". (Zech. 13:1,4) meaning (= translation for Christians) they don't think/ pretend to be holy in Christ to give an advice/ lesson.

Explain to me, where Paul got the idea: "put on Lord Jesus Christ " if not from this story. We got the rights and blessings of the First-born by spiritually crucifying Him and taking His garments. Then we can appear before the Father and "pretend to be Esau" when He is asking: "Who are you, my son?" (Gen.27:18) "He who comes to God must believe that HE IS" meaning he is carrying the name I AM.

Good deeds and sin offerings can not make the worshipper perfect in conscience. ( Hebr.9:9) You are holy only by the belief that you yourself died on the cross inside Jesus an now it is resurrected Christ who lives in you, not your old being. It was not pretence on Christ's side that He took humanity with it's sins and deflection's into Him. He was defiled by just one meal: desire to have the bride and was rejected by the Father.

"There is no other name under heaven, than the name of Jesus Christ given among men, by (and through) which we must be saved ." Acts 4:12 So I AM Christ (even not yet mature, adult Christ according to the renewal of mind).

Then consider the cons of Esau being prototype of Christ. Hebr.12:15...17 "...lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it, lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was REJECTED..." "Esau I (God) have hated" (Rom.9:13)

There was only one place and situation where Christ was REJECTED and it was on the cross where He was "fused " with Esau being one (new creature in negative sense) with him. "Be like I AM because I AM like you are."

Our old being was crucified together with and on the top of Christ (Lev.3:5). It is: The merging with Jesus did happen on the cross and not straight with the resurrected Christ.

We join and identify our old being together with SINFULL Jesus on the gross where Esau was the type of Christ according to his nature and birth. So we embrace the shortcomings of Esau being first "the rejected Christ" hated by Father.

Luckily the death and resurrection were immediate even understanding of event lay behind. My old being did further increase the load and sinfulness of Christ.

You can say that Jesus was the "vessel" by whitch we were catapulted into the holy position before Father. Jesus is the only option for us because He being God was able to conquer the death and we inside Him as fellow passengers did reap the benefit. (John 10:18)

The type of person (goat) like Esau was, was hated by God before his birth and on the other hand the type of person (lamb) like Jacob was, was loved before birth.

Jacob, even the literal meaning of the name is deceiver or betrayer, had the other translation from Hebrew as well: the one who get stuck (hang) in the heel. Remind us from the nature of Ruth who end up in marriage with Boaz, the type of Christ.

Jacob's "resurrection" did happen when he did confess his nature: Jacob, deceiver. Then he did get the new name: "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but IsraEL" ( Gen.32:27,28) which means God who is fighting, or God who is ruling. "So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel witch means "Face of God": For I have seen God face to face, AND MY LIFE IS PRESERVED. Just as He crossed over Penuel (river with the same name and meaning) THE SUN ROSE ON HIM, and he limped on his hip." (Gen.32:30,31 NKJ).

Paul did express the same idea when he stated that "in me, that is, in my flesh dwells no good thing". (I am deceiver by nature.) That is the reason we need the Redeemer to get rid of ourself, our old being. But now " I don’t live any more but Christ in me". I have new name/ personality.

In Him we have everlasting life, but in our own life we are only sinking down.

The building engineer's main job is to keep building structurally sound. We need to have our faith and our image of God essentially sound as well by understanding the structure of God's plan to save us.

06/02/2022 Erno Miettinen

Unless stated otherwise the verses in this bible are referenced from a public domain bible.