Rubel Shelly the Regulative Principle

Kenneth Sublett, Piney.com, Hohenwald, Tennessee

Dr. Rubel Shelly: Was Christ the Word revealed by the Apostle John as the Logos of Heraclitus of Ephesus? Full Deity dwelled in Jesus Christ and He was not just a member of the divine family of gods. [Rough Notes]

2.08.14 The Kairos Church Planting Plot
The Logos is Defined as the Regulative Principle.  It outlaws Rhetoric, Jokes, Introductions, singing, playing instruments, acting or dancing.

The Spirit OF Christ the Rock defined the Church inclusively and exclusively as the Qahal, synagogue or Ekklesia in the wilderness BECAUSE of instrumental idolatry.  Christ defined the REST for the Godly people then and for the future in the PROPHETS and APOSTLES who left a memory of their eye-- and ear-- witness.

Isa. 8:19 And when they shall say unto you, 
        Seek unto them that have familiar spirits,
        and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter:
        should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

[19] et cum dixerint ad vos quaerite a pythonibus et a divinis qui stridunt in incantationibus suis numquid non populus a Deo suo requirit pro vivis a mortuis

strīdō —, —, ere, to make a shrill noise, sound harshly, creak, hiss, grate, whiz, whistle, rattle, buzz: stridentia tinguunt Aera lacu, V.: cruor stridit, hisses, O.: belua Lernae Horrendum stridens, V.: horrendā nocte (striges), O.: mare refluentibus undis, V.: aquilone rudentes, O.: videres Stridere secretā aure susurros, buzz, H.

in-canto , āvi, ātum, 1, v. a. and n. *

I. To sing in, with dat.: “passer incantans saepiculae (i. e. in saepicula),” App. M. 8, p. 210, 26. —

II. In partic.

A. To say over, mutter, or chant a magic formula against some one: QVI MALVM CARMEN INCANTASSET, Fragm. XII. Tab. ap. Plin. 28, 2, 4, § 17.—

B. Transf.

1. To consecrate with charms or spells: “incantata vincula,” lovelcnots, Hor. S. 1, 8, 49.—

2. To bewitch, enchant: “quaesisti, quod mihi emolumentum fuerit incantandi (sc. illam)?” App. Mag. p. 305: “incantata mulier,” id. ib.: “pileum vetitis artibus,” Amm. 14, 7, 7.

vincŭlo , āvi, ātum, 1, v. a. id.,

I. to fetter, bind, chain: “multa animalia redimiculis gaudent, et phalerari sibi magis quam vinculari videntur,” Ambros. in Psa. 118, Serm. 3, 6; Cael. Aur. Tard. 4, 8, 108.
vincŭlum , or (also in class. prose), contr., vinclum , i, n. id.,

I. that with which any thing is bound, a band, bond, rope, cord, fetter, tie (cf.: catena, manica, compes).

incantātĭo , ōnis, f. id.,

I. an enchanting, enchantment (post-class.): “magicae, Firm. Math. 5, 5: incantationum vires,” Tert. Hab. Mul. 2.

To the law and to the testimony:
        if they speak not according to this word,
        it is because there is no light in them. Isa 8:20

Jack Cottrell, The Holy Spirit's Work in Conversion "Traditional, orthodox Christian faith says Jesus Christ is not only equal with the Father; he is also distinct from the Father in that he is a separate, distinct person, i.e., a separate center of consciousness with his own distinct thoughts, emotions, and actions."  NO ORTHODOX TRINITARIAN TAUGHT THAT.  There is ONE GOD and ONE LORD Jesus as the Christ. The "tri-nature" where Paul compared God's Spirit to our spirit is father, son and spirit: not God, Jesus and the spirit person (people)

See how John Mark Hicks says that it was NECESSARY for Alexander Campbell to believe in the trinity.

Rubel Shelly is willing to believe that John learned from Plato, Justin Martyr and others choose to believe that Plato learned from Moses.

REVISED TO SHOW THE EMERGING CHURCH BY THE LYING PEN OF THESCRIBES.

REVISED 7.17.10 for those who missed Jesus in John

Irenaeus Heresies II stating what Jesus in John made perfectly clear

THE PAGAN FOLLY TO BE REPUDIATED:

for there is among the Greeks one logos which is the principle that thinks, 
        and another which is the instrument by means of which thought is expressed);
        and [to say] that a man sometimes is at rest and silent,
        while at other times he speaks and is active. 

THE CLEAR REPUDIATION ON BLACK TEXT ON BROWN PAPER:

But since God is 
        all mind, all reason, all active spirit, all light,
        and always exists one and the same,
        as it is both beneficial for us to think of God,

and as we learn regarding Him from the Scriptures, such feelings and divisions [of operation] cannot fittingly be ascribed to Him.

For our tongue, as being carnal, is not sufficient to minister to the rapidity of the human mind, inasmuch as that is of a spiritual nature, for which reason our word is restrained 236 within us, and is not at once expressed as it has been conceived by the mind, but is uttered by successive efforts, just as the tongue is able to serve it.

5. But God being all Mind, and all Logos, 
        both speaks exactly what He thinks,
        and thinks exactly what He speaks.

For His thought is Logos, and Logos is
        Mind comprehending all things is the Father Himself.

He, therefore, who speaks of the mind of God,
        and ascribes to it a special origin of its own,
        declares Him a compound Being,
                as if God were one thing,
                and the original Mind another.

So, again, with respect to Logos,
        when one attributes to him the third place of production from the Father;
        on which supposition he is ignorant of His greatness;
        and thus Logos has been far separated from God.

As for the prophet, he declares respecting Him,
        "Who shall describe His generation? " 
        But ye pretend to set forth His generation from the Father,
        and ye transfer the production of the word of men
        which takes place by means of a tongue to the Word of God,
        and thus are righteously exposed by your own selves
        as knowing neither things human nor divine.

6. But, beyond reason inflated [with your own wisdom],
        ye presumptuously maintain that ye are acquainted
        with the unspeakable mysteries of God;
        while even the Lord, the very Son of God,
        allowed that the Father alone knows the very day and hour of judgment,

when He plainly declares, "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, neither the Son, but the Father only." 239 If, then, the Son was not ashamed to ascribe the knowledge of that day to the Father only,
        but declared what was true regarding the matter,
        neither let us be ashamed to reserve for God those greater questions which may occur to us.

There is only One God and He always had His Word and Wisdom with Him: "they" were not triplets. Word, Wisdom, Grace, Faith, Righteousness etc are personified often.  The pagan SOPHIA attaches to gnosticism which shows up in the "garden of Eden" where Eve or ZOE is the knowledge-bearing DAUGHTER of the MOTHER of matriarchal worship which can be found at any church near you: hurry, you can catch either the first or second performance.  The DOVE parable taught that God's messenger is the SON of a FATHER and not the DAUGHTER of a MOTHER.

THE EMERGING CHURCH IS BUILT ON SOPHIA--ZOE TO REPLACE JEHOVAH-LOGOS

-Sophia A. cleverness or skill in handicraft and art,  in music and singing, tekhnē in poetry,  of Hephaestus and Athena, Pl.Prt.32 1d; of Daedalus and Palamedes, X.Mem.4.2.33, cf. 1.4.2; in music and singing, tekhnē kai s. h.Merc.483, cf. 511; in poetry, Sol.13.52, Pi.O.1.117, Ar.Ra.882, X.An.1.2.8, in divination, S.OT 502 

HOWEVER: 4. among the Jews, “arkhē sophias phobos Kuriou” LXX Pr.1.7, cf. Jb.28.28, al.; Sophia,
        recognized first as an attribute of God,
        was later identified with the Spirit of God, cf. LXX Pr.8 with Si.24sq.

Jesus as the Christ is defined as the "Comforter" and it was the Spirit OF Christ which spoke through the prophets:

1Pet. 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time
        the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,
        when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ,
        and the glory that should follow.

Rev. 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not:
        I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus:
        worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

ON THE OTHER HAND THE EMERGING CHURCH OF MUSES (LOCUSTS) IS BUILT ON THE PAGAN SOPHIA-ZOE

The Kairos Church Planting cult is built upon a NEW HERMENEUTIC which believes that the Spirit OF Christ is another "people" who speaks to them as in the lipscomb University RENOVARE which denies that we are RENEWED by the LOGOS or Word of God and claims some monkish meditation which builds on the foundation of their own imagination.

WOE:  for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath,  because he knoweth that he hath but a short TIME  [kairon  ekhei ETHOS.’] Rev. 12:12

KAIROS (or Caerus) was the spirit (daimon) of opportunity, the youngest divine son of Zeus. He was depicted as a youth with a long lock of hair hanging down from his forehead, which indicated that Opportunity could only be grasped as he approached.

daimôn , A. “daimōn” S.OC1480 (lyr.), “daimon” Theoc.2.11, ho, hē, god, goddess, of individual gods or goddesses
p. 59.1 :—but more freq. of the Divine power (while theos denotes a God in person), the Deity, cf. Od.3.27;
genomenō mustagōgos tou biou” Manes
spiritual or semi-divine being inferior to the God evil spirit, demon, Ev.Matt.8.31, ēthos  Not ethical but tactful
2. disposition, character, moral character, OPPOSITE dianoia, Arist.EN1139a1; as the result of habit, “to pan ē. dia ethos” Pl.Lg.792e, d. dramatis persona, eisagei andra ē gunaika ē allo ti ē. Arist.Po.1460a11, al.of departed souls,

musta^gōg-os , on, (mustēs, agō)

A.  Introducing or initiating into mysteries, IG5(1).1390.149 (Andania, i B.C.), Plu.Alc.34, etc.

2.   generally, teacher, guide, “biou” Men.550, cf. Him.Or.15.3.

3.   in Sicily, = periēgētēs, cicerone, esp. at temples, Cic.Verr.4.59.132.

4    Christian priest, Men.Prot. p.111 D., Just.Nov.137.1.

Hermes (Mercury), as in hermeneutic, is the in Homer's Hymn 4 to Hermes

Notes: Of these, one of the most characteristic was thievishness. To the Greeks, who too often prided themselves on successful deceit, and who had made lying a fine art, a patron-deity of cunning came natural. Even in the later parts of the Iliad Hermes is known as the Thief; cf. Il. 24.24, where the gods urge him to steal the body of Hector. Autolycus is in Homer (Il. 10.267) the human representative of the Masterthieves who figure largely in folk-tales; but he learnt his craft from the divine thief Hermes (cf. Od. 19.395 f. “o(\s a)nqrw/pous e)ke/kasto”
        But, while Hermes had many specific attributes which differentiated him from all other deities, he had also many points of contact with one member of the Olympian circle—Apollo. Both were pastoral gods; both were patrons of music, and had prophetic powers, although in this respect the place of Apollo was superior.

[460] by this shaft of cornel wood I will surely make you a leader renowned among the deathless gods, and fortunate, and will give you glorious gifts and will not deceive you from first to last.”

Then Hermes answered him with artful words: “You question me carefully, O Far-worker; yet I am [465] not jealous that you should enter upon my art: this day you shall know it. For I seek to be friendly with you both in thought and word. Now you well know all things in your heart, since you sit foremost among the deathless gods, O son of Zeus, and are goodly and strong. And wise Zeus loves you [470] as all right is, and has given you splendid gifts. And they say that from the utterance of Zeus you have learned both the honors due to the gods, O Far-worker, and oracles from Zeus, even all his ordinances. Of all these I myself have already learned that you have great wealth. Now, you are free to learn whatever you please; [475] but since, as it seems, your heart is so strongly set on playing the lyre, chant, and play upon it, and give yourself to merriment, taking this as a gift from me, and do you, my friend, bestow glory on me. Sing well with this clear-voiced companion in your hands; for you are skilled in good, well-ordered utterance. [480] From now on bring it confidently to the rich feast and lovely dance and glorious revel, a joy by night and by day. Whoso with wit and wisdom enquires of it cunningly, him it teaches [485] through its sound all manner of things that delight the mind, being easily played with gentle familiarities, for it abhors toilsome drudgery; but whoso in ignorance enquires of it violently, to him it chatters mere vanity and foolishness.

Number Two: The Post-Modern Logos

Now, Look at The Greek Logos as Opposed to the Biblical Logos

Number Three: The Seeker Center System.  
See how Apollo (Abaddon, Apollyon) set up his Seeker Center at Delphi. By seducing "ministers" to his oracle he promised them all of the sheep they could slaughter. They would all get rich with the system which had a female prophetess, gymnasium, theater, swimming pool and all that the heart could lust. With this they could attract, according to Lucian of Samasota, "the fatheads and simpletons simply by playing a flute and singing." However, Apollo is the Destroyer and the father of music and harmony.

Musical worship throughout the Old Testament tells God: "We will not listen to your Words."Instead, the Logos of Greek mythology, which is the story of the secular gods teaching the immature how to silence the Word of God by the magical "key"which just shuts down the rational (logical) mind God gave us as a temple in which to worship Him

The history of Judaism is the history of a delayed but fulfilled abandonment by God to paganism. If Jesus the ROCK is just Jewish legend then one can do whatever they wish with the story because it just doesn't matter anymore.

Unfortunate for John and Rubel but fortunate (not just luck) for us, God had many recycles of this story to prove that it was the story of pagan idolatry which is not pushed as a "musical paradigm."The result is the same: the Word or Logos is dishonored in philosophical sermonizing and "erotic"versifying with the same Sinai Sister Singers and strange Brother Singers standing in the holy place to, in Dr. Shelly's words. lead you into the presence of God.

That is what the Israelites thought after they had lost all ownership of the Word or Dabar or Logos by refusing to listen to Him.

Now, as prophesied, the same liberties will be taken with John.

Rubel Shelly: One of the things I look forward to in preaching the Gospel of John is getting to "walk around in"the life of Jesus -- much as Exodus has had us "walking around in"the shoes of our spiritual ancestors of 1500 years before Jesus' time.

As I read John, he is far less concerned with Luke's "orderly account"(1:3) or Matthew's prophecy-fulfillment motif (1:22, et al.) than simply to reflect on the spiritual impact of God's presence in human form on Planet Earth.

He takes the sort of liberty you and I have encouraged this church to take with the slavery, redemption, wilderness trek, and other aspects of Exodus.

When God Speaks (h1696) the Word (h1697) He is the Invisible Spirit God communicating, declaring, commanding or making some RATIONAL discourse with someone in the physical world. To hear the voice of God would be like seeing God without a Mediator:

From the Beginning, The Great I Am is The Word

And God said (amar), Let there be light: and there was light. Gen 1:3
And God spake unto Noah, saying, Gen 8:15

Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Deut 4:33

AFTER these things the word (Dabar) of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying,
        Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Gen 15:1
And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. Gen 15:3
And, behold, the word (Dabar) of the Lord came unto him, saying,
        This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Gen 15:4

Until the End, the Lord Jesus is the Spirit of the Church, the Word

In the Book of Revelation John wrote of his writing resources:

THE Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Rev 1:1

Who bare record of the word (LOGOS) of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Rev 1:2

And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Rev 19:10

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words (LOGOS) of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Rev 1:3

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; Rev 1:4

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, Rev 1:5

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Rev 1:6

I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Rev 1:9

Conclusion: God Who speaks to mankind has always been The Word, Amar, Dabar, Logos.

---

Quotations from Dr. Rubel Shelly, Woodmont Family of God: 'And the Word Was God' (John 1:1-18)

In fairness you should read the entire sermon. While many good things are said about Jesus as the Word of God who was God, the disarming introduction sees the Logos interpreted by John out of the Greek philosophical world. This is the "proof-text"for the prior thesis that "taking liberties"allows us to take the "beyond redemption musical idolatry at Mount Sinai"and give it a second incarnation as "a pattern for Christian worship and community."And the consummate idolaters who wandered for 40 years so that the older generation could perish in the wilderness are our "spiritual fathers."

Dr. Shelly fails to tell the audience that God always manifested Himself vocally as the Word. In Hebrew it is Dabar: in Greek it is Logos. John borrowed nothing and the philosophers probably borrowed the idea from God and using "narrative theology"took liberties and came up with a logos consistent with Gnosticism of which ZOE is the feminist goddess member of the "god family"who dominates the LOGOS and the lesser jehovahs.

Now, we are to learn that Jesus is a fully-feathered member of the God family. And, we will learn that it remained for John influenced by Greek philosophy to inform everyone about the true identity of the Logos: little brother Jesus.

Rubel Shelly: This Gospel isn't just another biography of Jesus. It is a carefully crafted presentation of Jesus as not simply the one who reveals God but who is God -- God in our midst, God coming to his own, God loving everyone he has created in his image. Yet it is also an uncompromising affirmation of Jesus as God Incarnate -- God enfleshed, God become one of us, God robed in real flesh and blood for our sakes. Jesus is Son of God and Son of Man. He is fully divine and fully human.

We might have believed that all of the gospel accounts are more than biographies. Perhaps, they show us that Jesus is the Messiah the prophesied visual image of the invisible God, or the audible WORD of the invisible SPEAKER who blows breath (Spirit) through His "double-edged"swords or LIPS.

However, the "holy trinity"deprives Him of "Full Deity"as Paul insists in Colossians 2:9. Therefore, after a beautiful description of Jesus Christ, Dr. Shelly says that:

Rubel Shelly: In the text just cited from Paul, it is interesting that he traces heaven's redemptive work through Christ Jesus all the way back to a time "before the ages began"(2 Tim.1:9).

In John's language, Jesus has always been the Word -- the Logos who was not only with but also a full-fledged member of the divine family, the Godhead, the Holy Trinity.

We will more fully examine this idea in another article. However, it is important to understand that the Greek idea of Logos was not the Christian notion and that Greek thought and most ancient paganism gave rise to the Catholic's creation of the trinity of "god family"about four hundred years too late.

Contrary to the universal triads of Babylon and most paganism, none of the church Fathers speak of God as cut up like a pecan pie into three or ten thousand "members of the god family."Click to read what most of the important scholars thought about making God into a pagan clan.

Heraclitus of Ephesus

We should understand that this sermon which we will partially quote flowed out of a series of sermons on Exodus. In these sermons "narrative theology"was used to make the Exodus event into a pattern for Christian "family and community."

However, this series skipped over the pattern of Baptism and the loss of the Covenant of Grace because of the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai.

Because of this idolatry, God "turned them over to worship the starry host"according to Stephen in acts 7 and in several old testament passages. The Israelites worshiped the creature rather than the creator and the theology and worship at Mount Sinai was also taking place in Egypt, Babylonia and the Greek-Roman world.

The Chiun or Remphan was worshiped musically in Amos 5 and 6 in Israel, and Molech worshiped musically in Jerusalem was Saturn or various "gods"honored as wandering stars (planets) or the sun and moon.

Therefore, narrative theology can take one clear Biblical concept of consummate evil and give it a second incarnation as the paradigm of virtue.

Rather than build on the eternal Old Testament identification of God as the Word or Dabar or the Greek Logos, we have a vacuum filled with Greek philosophy.

For instance, Dr. Rubel Shelly notes that:

> Rubel Shelly: Ironically, a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus of Ephesus (later John's hometown!), whose work dates from around 500 B.C., speculated about a logos that ruled and gave structure to the world. He saw logos as a mysterious force "by which all things are steered through all things."

The word SERMO means conversational speech. Paul did not preach to the saved but dialoged. The opposite of Christian "preaching" comes from Hermes (Hermeneutics) and Mercury the Logos or:

ORATIO, a speaking, speech, discourse, language

In partic., formal language, artificial discourse, set speech (OPPOSITE to to sermo, ordinary speech, CONVERSATIONAL language): mollis est oratio philosophorum

Oration is "A set speech, harangue, discourse, oration: The POWER of oratory, eloquence While a SERMON is just "ordinary speech, speaking, talking, the language of conversation (OPPOSITE contentio)". As an ordinary member YOU will not be able to MOUNT the pulpit, bema or HIGH PLACE and CONTEND FOR THE FAITH which Christ delivered.

Contento, o-nis, f. [contendo] (acc. to CONTENDO, II.), an EAGER STRETCHING, a straining, EXERTION of the powers of body or mind, TENSION, effort, a vigorous struggling or STRIVING for something, a struggle after [work, work, work, legalism of the worst kind.]

(Acc. to contendo, II. B. 2.) A CONTEST, contention, strife (with weapons or WORDS), a fight, dispute, controversy

Hupo-kritikos, belonging to hupokrisis, skilled therein, esti phuseôs to hu. einai having a good delivery,

2. suited for speaking or delivery, (sc. technê) the art of delivery, but, the ACTOR'S art
3. metaph., acting a part, pretending to

The Orators or Philosophers were know as: Spermologos Regularly used with:

Turannos 2. imperious, despotic, an absolute sovereign, unlimited by law or constitution, [turannos is prob. from same Root as KURIOS,
Commeator, o-ris, m. [commeo] , one who goes to and fro, an epithet of Mercury as messenger of the gods to men

Hippolytus refers the poet, Heraclitus, and

This, with them, is the ineffable and mystical Logos. They assert, then, that the Egyptians, who after the Phrygians, it is established, are of greater antiquity than all mankind,

and who confessedly were the first to proclaim to all the rest of men the rites and orgies of, at the same time, all the gods, as well as the species and energies (of things), have the sacred and august, and for those who are not initiated, unspeakable mysteries of Isis.

Speaking of the Serpent Worshiping Tritheists:

A power (there is) hermaphrodite, always continuing in infancy, never waxing old, cause of beauty, pleasure, maturity, desire, and concupiscence; and ignorance has been accustomed to style this Eros, according to whose image were born Paris, Narcissus, Ganymede, Endymion, Tithonus, Icarius, Leda, Amymone, Thetis, Hesperides, Jason, Leander, (and) Hero."

These are Proastioi up to Aether, for with this title also he inscribes the book.

The LOGOS of all of the pagans was Hermes, Mercury and many other HOMOSEXUAL agents able, with music, to "lead the worshipers into the presence of the gods."

While the vile "worship" including the idolatry of musical perversion is treated by all known sources as the MARK and cause of Israel's total apostasy, Rubel Shelly sees the exodus as a "pattern for worship and community." However, God turned them over to worship the STARRY HOST and Dr. Shelly wants to baptize Santa and the S.U.N. god to speak of the S.O.N. God.

However, Hippolytus notes:

Chapter XI.-Why They Call Themselves Peratae; Their Theory of Generation Supported by an Appeal to Antiquity;

Their Interpretation of the Exodus of Israel; Their System of "The Serpent; "Deduced by Them from Scripture; This the Real Import of the Doctrines of the Astrologers.

For they suppose little Egypt to be body, and that it crosses the Red Sea-that is, the water of corruption, which is Cronus-and that it reaches a place beyond the Red Sea, that is, generation;

and that it comes into the wilderness, that is, that it attains a condition independent of generation,
........... where there exist promiscuously all the gods of destruction and the God of salvation.

Now, he says, the stars are the gods of destruction, which impose upon existent things the necessity of alterable generation.

Of the non-functional pillars or Asherah poles crowned with fruit:

For they style this good-producing, not knowing what they say. And the Greeks, deriving this mystical (expression) from the Egyptians, preserve it until this day. For we behold, says (the Naassene), statues of Mercury (Hermes or Logos), of such a figure honoured among them.

Worshipping, however, Cyllenius with especial distinction, they style him Logios. For Mercury is Logos, who being interpreter and fabricator of the things that have been made simultaneously, and that are being produced, and that will exist, stands honoured among them,

fashioned into some such figure as is the pudendum of a man, having an impulsive power from the parts below towards those above. And that this (deity)-that is, a Mercury of this description-is, (the Naassene) says,

a conjurer of the dead, and a guide of departed spirits, and an originator of souls; nor does this escape the notice of the poets, who express themselves thus:-

"Cyllenian Hermes also called

The souls of mortal suitors.

As musical worship teams around the poles can "lead the worshiper into the presence of God,"

This, he says, is he who alone has power of life and death. Concerning this, he says, it has been written, "Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron. [Ps. ii. 9.] The poet, however, he says,

being desirous of adorning the incomprehensible (potency) of the blessed nature of the Logos,

invested him with not an iron, but golden wand. And he enchants the eyes of the dead, as he says, and raises up again those that are slumbering, after having been roused from sleep, and after having been suitors. And concerning these, he says, the Scripture speaks: "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise, and Christ will give thee light [ Eph. v. 14.]

> Rubel Shelly: The logos-motif would be picked up later by the greatest of the Greek thinkers, Plato, and a Jew named Philo of Alexandria. They would speculate about logos (Gk, word, reason, meaning) over the centuries and make the term both current and curious over generations of time.

> Rubel Shelly: But it would be the Beloved Disciple of Jesus who revealed the true identity and work of the Logos. The Word became flesh in Jesus -- pushing back the darkness by displaying God's own glory in his person and bringing order, peace, and hope to once-chaotic souls.

Plato, Cratylus:

Her. Only one more God! I should like to know about Hermes, of whom I am said not to be a true son. Let us make him out, and then I shall know whether there is any meaning in what Cratylus says.

Soc. I should imagine that the name Hermes has to do with speech, and signifies that he is the interpreter (ermeneus), or messenger, or thief, or liar, or bargainer; all that sort of thing has a great deal to do with language; as I was telling you the word eirein is expressive of the use of speech, and there is an often-recurring Homeric word emesato, which means "he contrived"-

nb out of these two words, eirein and mesasthai, the legislator formed the name of the God who invented language and speech; and we may imagine him dictating to us the use of this name: "O my friends," says he to us, "seeing that he is the contriver of tales or speeches,

you may rightly call him Eirhemes." And this has been improved by us, as we think, into Hermes. Iris also appears to have been called from the verb "to tell" (eirein), because she was a messenger.

Her. Then I am very sure that Cratylus was quite right in saying that I was no true son of Hermes (Ermogenes), for I am not a good hand at speeches.

Soc. By the dog of Egypt I have not a bad notion which came into my head only this moment:

I believe that the primeval givers of names were
undoubtedly like too many of our modern philosophers,
who, in their search after the nature of things,
are always getting dizzy from constantly going round and round,
and then they imagine that the world is going round and round and moving in all directions;
and this appearance, which arises out of their own internal condition, they suppose to be a reality of nature;

they think that there is nothing stable or permanent, but only flux and motion,
and that the world is always full of every sort of motion and change. The consideration of the names which I mentioned has led me into making this reflection.

Logos was Mercury or Hermes, the father of musical instruments, the bow, of liars and of thieves:

The offspring of Hermes are believed to be Pan, Abderus and Hermaphroditus. Hermes as with the other gods had numerous affairs with goddesses, nymphs and mortals. In some legends even sheep and goats. Pan, the half man half goat, is believed to be the son of Hermes and Dryope,

Heraclitus and the Logos

However, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that:

"It is in Heraclitus that the theory of the Logos appears for the first time, and it is doubtless for this reason that, first among the Greek philosophers, Heraclitus was regarded by St. Justin (Apol. I, 46) as a Christian before Christ. For him the Logos, which he seems to identify with fire, is that universal principle which animates and rules the world.
........... This conception could only find place in a materialistic monism.

The philosophers of the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ were dualists, and conceived of God as transcendent, so that neither in Plato (whatever may have been said on the subject) nor in Aristotle do we find the theory of the Logos. C.E.

Isaiah predicted that Messiah would come as Light and WORD. In Him the full Deity would dwell in more than a triune manifestation. The Spirit of Christ was always the ROCK (discounted as Jewish legend) and He was also the Word (Logos).

NEVERTHELESS the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. Isaiah 9:1

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Isaiah 9: 2

Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. Isaiah 9: 3

For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. Isaiah 9: 4
For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. Isaiah 9:5

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Isaiah 9:7

The Lord sent a word (Dabar) into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. Isaiah 9:8

And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart, Isaiah 9:9
The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Isaiah 9:10

And, therefore, they would be destroyed.

Next, let's look further at Heraclitus. We will notice that he does not give any aid and comfort to knowing God in a sensuous, "worship"or enraptured sense of the Greek charismatics:

Fragment 1, Sextus, adv.math VII, 132

Of the Logos which is as I describe it men always prove to be uncomprehending, both before they have heard it and when once they have heard it. For although all things happen according to this Logos men are like people of no experience, even when they experience such words and deeds as I explain, when I distinguish each things according to its constitution and declare how it is;

but the rest of the men fail to notice what they do after they wake up just as they forget what they do when asleep.

Fragment 2, Sextus, adv.math VII, 133

Therefore it is necessary to follow the common; but although the Logos is common

the many live as though they had a private understanding.

Heraclitus was also aware that harmony is created by strife: as the twanging bow is sure to bring death.

The bowstring exerts a strong tension on the bow but the bow "fights"back and everything is in balance. Even when you pull the string back it is still in harmony. It is like a mouse trap: everything is in "harmony"but a nibble at the cheese and the trap will kill the mouse.

Therefore, when you let go of the arrow the bow and string "twangs"but the "singing"is bringing death. This was the common Classical understanding.

Fragment 10, Aristotle, de mundo 5, 396b20

Things taken together are wholes and not wholes, something is being brought together and brought apart, which is in tune and out of tune; out of all things there comes a unity, and out of a unity all things.
........... The bow is called strife, but its work is death

Fragment 209, Hippolytus Ref Ix, 9, I

They do not apprehend how being at variance it agrees with itself: there is a palintonos (counter-stretched) harmony, as in the bow and the lyre.(4)

See the Twanging Background

"Douglass, who has developed the most successful Willow Creek-based church service in Germany, even maintained, "I think this approach is most applicable to the state churches. We have the people, even if they don't attend. We enjoy an incredible edge in confidence vis-àvis the free churches."He cautioned,
........... "The cost of this approach is hard work and loads of strife with church insiders."Christianity Today

This article has been removed: see note at Willow Creek

Fittingly that strife is caused by the music of the world replacing the Words of Christ or Spirit.

Many of the ancients students of music knew that something damaging was happening when one made "music"in the sense of harmony. They thought of the high tones outrunning the low tones, bringing conflict but then bringing harmony which seemed pleasant. They did not know that they were inducing a drug high. The "dog barks"and "water drips"of moving from one step to another and creating spiritual anxiety is masked by the overtones which bridge the step without getting caught. Heraclitus observed that the hidden harmony was more powerful than the apparent harmony:

Fragment 54, Hippolytus Ref IX, 9,5
........... An unapparent harmony is stronger than an apparent one.

Heraclitus: "All things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of things flows like a stream. This order, the same for all things, no one of gods or men has made, but it always was, and is, and ever shall be, an ever-living fire, kindling according to fixed measure, and extinguished according to fixed measure. Justice meant a balance of opposites, and strife.

Heraclitus cited as an example the tension between the string and the frame in a bow or a musical instrument. 'Harmony lies in the bending back,

as for instance of the bow or of the lyre...

Opposition unites. From what draws apart results the most beautiful harmony. All things take place by strife'."(Parkes, Henry Bamford, Gods and Men The Origins of Western Culture, p. 188, Knopf)

However, the Logos Idea existed in the beginning of time.

Christ as the Logos does not begin with Greek Philosophy or with John stealing thoughts from the Greeks. Rather, Christ as the Word of God is the Spirit of Gor the Rational nature of God. When you cut away all of the "words"except the CORE GOSPEL you have lost it all. The word Dabar in Hebrew is more ancient than John taking liberties with the inspired writings.

Logos (g3056) log'-os; from 3004; something said (including the thought); by impl. a topic, subject of discourse, also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extens. a computation; spec. (with the art. in John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ):

When the Israelites rose up in Musical Idolatry at Mount Sinai God turned them over to worship the starry host because, given a second chance, they could not live while listening to the full import of the Word (dabar, logos) of God.

Dabar or Logos is logical, rational or spiritual. Therefore, any "body worship"bypasses the rational mind and drives hard into the emotional. That destroys the value of the Logos:

Sextus Empiricus, Against the Logicians I, 131
........... Heracleitus, then, asserts that this common and divine reason [logos],
........... ........... by participation in which we become rational,
........... ........... is the criterion of truth.

Logos religion must bring us to our senses. Pagan religion tries to defeat the rational mind by charismatic ritual and music.

Notice that the Messiah as Word would not be mystical but rational, related to the mind of mankind.

AND there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: Isa 11:1

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; Isa 11: 2

And shall make him of quick understanding (spiritual) in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: Isa 11: 3

But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. Isa 11: 4

From Mount Sinai until the time of Christ the Jews could not read the Word of God, often written in parables (Mt 13) and that didn't worry them too much. However, when the Living Word or Living Dabar came they couldn't hear Him and Jesus didn't even speak to the multitudes without parables. The Word cannot be found in theatrical entertainment:

Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 2 Cor 3:16
........... Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Cor 3:17

The "Spirit of Christ"spoke through the Prophets (1 Peter 1:11; Rev 19:10).

Paul equates the Holy Spirit or mental disposition to the Mind of Christ:

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Cor 2:10

Pneuma (g4151) pnyoo'-mah; from 4154; a current of air, i.e. breath (blast) or a breeze; by anal. or fig. a spirit, i.e. (human) the rational soul, (by impl.) vital principle, mental disposition, etc., or (superhuman) an angel, doemon, or (divine) God, Christ's spirit, the Holy Spirit: - ghost, life, spirit (-ual, -ually), mind. Comp. 5590.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit (g4151) of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 1 Cor 2:11

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1 Cor 2:12

In all of the traditional literature beginning just off the Ark and at the Towers of Babylon, Satan is the "father"of musical worship. Why is that so important to him? It is because if he can get the natural man involved in listening to music and being lied to that this is the "spirit of god"making people sing, clap and play instruments, it is physically and mentally impossible to discern spiritual truth.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 1 Cor 2:13

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. 1 Cor 2:14

There is nothing about the natural body which is spiritual:

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man 1 Cor 2:15

Pneumatikos (g4153) pnyoo-mat-ik-oce'; adv. from 4152; non- physically, i.e. divinely, figuratively: - spiritually.

The Spirit of God and the spirit of man, and the Mind of God and the mind of man are defined by the same Greek words:

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ 1 Cor 2:16

Nous (g3563) nooce; prob. from the base of 1097; the intellect, i.e. mind (divine or human; in thought, feeling, or will); by impl. meaning: - mind, understanding. Comp. 5590.

Ginosko (g1097) ghin-oce'-ko; a prol. form of a prim. verb; to "know"(absol.), in a great variety of applications and with many impl. (as follow, with others not thus clearly expressed): - allow, be aware (of), feel, (have) know (- ledge), perceive, be resolved, can speak, be sure, understand.

The Holy Spirit is the Mind of Christ is the Spirit OF things pertaining to our spirit or mine:

Rubel Shelly: In John's language, Jesus has always been the Word -- the Logos who was not only with but also a full-fledged member of the divine family, the Godhead, the Holy Trinity.

The claim that "Jesus"as "logo"is one member of the "God family"as well as seeing Greek Philosophy as the source of John's idea of "Logos"coupled with the use of ZOE to facilitate female-led shepherding (with a tune) over the flock is all consistent.

"The idea of the logos in Greek thought harks back at least to the 6th-century-bc philosopher Heracleitus, who discerned in the cosmic process a logos analogous to the reasoning power in man.

"In the first chapter of The Gospel According to John, Jesus Christ is identified as "the Word" (Greek logos) incarnated, or made flesh.

This identification of Jesus with the logos is based on Old Testament concepts of revelation, such as occurs in the frequently used phrase "the Word of the Lord"--which connoted ideas of God's activity and power--and the Jewish view that Wisdom is the divine agent that draws man to God and is identified with the word of God Britannica Members.

"Later, the Stoics, philosophers who followed the teachings of the thinker Zeno of Citium (4th-3rd century BC), defined the logos as an active rational and spiritual principle that permeated all reality. They called the logos providence, nature, god, and the soul of the universe, which is composed of many seminal logoi that are contained in the universal logos.

It was Zeno who invented the dialectic by which someone can tell us that God is One but God is a family of three persons like us. That is 1 = 3 and 3 = 1.

---

Plato and The Word or Dabar in the Old Testament

Rubel Shelly: The logos-motif would be picked up later by the greatest of the Greek thinkers, Plato, and a Jew named Philo of Alexandria. They would speculate about logos (Gk, word, reason, meaning) over the centuries and make the term both current and curious over generations of time.

"Quite frequently the Old Testament represents the creative act as the word of God (Gen.,i,3; Ps. xxxii, 9; Ecclus., xlii, 15); sometimes it seems to attribute to the word action of itself, although not independent of Jahveh (Is. Iv, 11, Zach., v, 1-4; Ps. cvi, 20; cxlvii, 15). In all this we can see only bold figures of speech: the word of creation, of salvation, or, in Zacharias, the word of malediction, is personified, but is not conceived of as a distinct Divine hypostasis. In the Book of Wisdom this personification is more directly implied (xviii, 15 sq.), and a parallel is established (ix, 1, 2) between wisdom and the Word. C.E.

While the Greeks would understand the word "logos"it had no Biblical meaning until it was explained as God Himself: the Word was with God because He WAS God. Not one of many logoi.

The "Word"of God is personified in may ways in the Old Testament. The Hebrew is Dabar but this translates to Logos.

The three-fold work of the One God is explained by the Psalmist as a poem or song. Parables were written as a superior but figurative way to teach those who cared to hear from God. Unfortunately, many of these hymns (speaking to self or one another) were put to tunes to be sung with musical instruments often for entertainment. The parable-like or "superior speech"of the creation story shows that God speaks the word by blowing spirit from His mouth.

AFTER these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Gen 15:1

And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Genesis 15:4

For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth. Psalm 33:4
........... He loveth righteousness and judgment:
...........the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Psalm 33:5

By the word (Dabar = Logos) of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath (spirit) of his mouth. Psa 33:6

He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Psa 33:7
Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. Psa 33:8
........... For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. Psa 33:9
........... And God said (amar) Let there be light: and there was light. Gen 1:3

How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Prov 1:22

Turn you at my reproof: behold,
........... I will pour out my spirit unto you,
........... I will make known my words (dabar) unto you. Prov 1:23

Alexander Hislop observes that John did not have to depend on Greek philosophy for the invention of the Logos.

"Before the Saviour came, the ancient Jews commonly spoke of the Messiah, or the Son of God, under the name of Dabar, or the "Word."This will appear from a consideration of what is stated in the 3rd chapter of 1st Samuel. In the first verse of that chapter it is said,
........... "The WORD of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision,

"that is, in consequence of the sin of Eli, the Lord had not, for a long time, revealed Himself in vision to him, as He did to the prophets.
When the Lord had called Samuel, this "vision"of the God of Israel was restored (though not to Eli), for it is said in the last verse (v 21),

"And the Lord APPEARED again in Shiloh; for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel by the WORD of the Lord."

Although the Lord spake to Samuel, this language implies more than speech, for it is said, "The LORD appeared"--i.e., was seen. When the Lord revealed Himself, or was seen by Samuel, it is said that it was "by (Dabar) the Word of the Lord."The "Word of the Lord" to be visible, must have been the personal "Word of God," that is, Christ. "

"After the Babylonish captivity, as the Chaldee Targums or Paraphrases of the Old Testament show, Christ was commonly called by the title "The Word of the Lord. "In these Targums of later Chaldee, the term for "The Word"is "Mimra"; but this word, though a synonym for that which is used in the Hebrew Scriptures, is never used there. Dabar is the word employed. This is so well recognised that, in the Hebrew translation of John's Gospel in Bagster's Polyglott, the first verse runs thus: "In the beginning was the Word (Dabar)."

"This had evidently been a primitive name by which He was known; and therefore

"it is not wonderful that Plato should speak of the second person of his Trinity under the name of the Logos, which is just a translation of "Dabar," or "the Word."

"Now, the light of the wax-candle, as the light from Dabar, "the Bee, "was set up as the substitute of the light of Dabar, "the Word."
"Thus the apostates turned away from the "True Light," and set up a shadow in His stead. That this was really the case is plain; for, says Crabb,

Speaking of Saturn,
"on his altars were placed wax-tapers lighted, because by Saturn men were reduced from the darkness of error to the light of truth.""In Asiatic Greece, the Babylonian god was evidently recognised as the Light-giving "Word," for there we find the Bee occupying such a position as makes it very clear that it was a symbol of the great Revealer.

"Here it is evident that Christ is referred to as the "Word of God"; and how could any imagination ever have conceived such a parallel as is contained in this passage, had it not been for the equivoque [wordplay, double meaning] between "Dabar," "the Bee,"and "Dabar,""The Word."In a Popish work already quoted, the Pancarpium Marianum, I find the Lord Jesus expressly called by the name of the Bee.

Referring to Mary, under the title of "The Paradise of Delight, " the author thus speaks:

"In this Paradise that celestial Bee, that is, the incarnate Wisdom, did feed. Here it found that dropping honeycomb, with which the whole bitterness of the corrupted world has been turned into sweetness."

This blasphemously represents the Lord Jesus as having derived everything necessary to bless the world from His mother!

[The only conclusion from the meaning of the God Family: Mr. God, Mrs. God and little baby God. Mary worship is implied in Zoe worship: the feminist replacement for the little "jehovahs."]

"Could this ever have come from the Bible? No. It must have come only from the source where the writer learned to call "the incarnate Wisdom" by the name of the Bee (Sophia, Zoe). Now, as the equivoque from which such a name applied to the Lord Jesus springs, is founded only on the Babylonian tongue, it shows whence his theology has come, and it proves also to demonstration that this whole prayer about the blessing of wax-candles must have been drawn from a Babylonian prayer-book.

"Surely, at every step, the reader must see more and more the exactitude of the Divine name given to the woman on the seven mountains, "Mystery, Babylon the Great"!

Saturn was one of the names of Molech or Chiun which Israel worshiped in their musical idolatry. The immediate "trinity"was Osiris/Isis/Horus which was worshiped as a real live bull named Apis. At Sinai he was incarnated as the golden calf.

As a result of this fatal sin, God "turned them over to worship the starry hosts"according to Stephen in Acts 7 and other writers. This was practiced in the north condemned by Amos in chapters 5 and 6 and in Jerusalem as they burned babies to Satan.

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Philo, The Logos and The God Family

Rubel Shelly: The logos-motif would be picked up later by the greatest of the Greek thinkers, Plato, and a Jew named Philo of Alexandria. They would speculate about logos (Gk, word, reason, meaning) over the centuries and make the term both current and curious over generations of time.

In John's language, Jesus has always been the Word -- the Logos who was not only with but also a full-fledged member of the divine family, the Godhead, the Holy Trinity.

If one is a "member of a family"then one cannot be the whole. Therefore, to make Jesus (or the Word) a member of the god family makes Him less than God. This, too, is consistent with the Gnosticism growing up around John but John didn't learn "Scripture"from Plato or Zeno.

In one respect Philo probably understood the Word of the Old Testament better than the Post-Moderns of today. To Philo, who advocated "silent singing"the Word mediated between man and God and music destroyed that connection.

On the other hand, the legalistic Jews thought that rituals mediated between man and God. Today, "musical praise teams"can "lead you into the presence of God"while the Word is stripped of its "meat"--right down to the CORE GOSPEL. However, don't trust Greek philosophy to inform John to inform us about the true nature of the LOGOS.

"In Palestinian Rabbinism the Word (Memra) is very often mentioned, at least in the Targums: it is the Memra of Jahveh which (1) lives, (2) speaks, and (3) acts, but, if one endeavour to determine precisely the meaning of the expression, it appears very often to be only a paraphrase substituted by the Targumist for the name of Jahveh.

The Memra resembles the Logos of Philo as little as the workings of the rabbinical mind in Palestine resembled the speculations of Alexandria:

the rabbis are chiefly concerned about ritual and observances; from religious scruples they dare not attribute to Jahveh actions such as the Sacred Books attribute to Him; it is enough for them to veil the Divine Majesty under an abstract paraphrase, the Word, the Glory, the Abode, and others.

Philo's problem was of the philosophic order; God and man are infinitely distant from each other, and it is necessary to establish between them relations of action and of prayer; the Logos is here the intermediary. C. E.

Edersheim: Again, the Logos of Philo approximates more closely to the Metatron of the Talmud and Kabbalah. As they speak of him as the 'Prince of the Face,' who bore the name of his Lord,
........... so Philo represents the Logos as 'the eldest Angel,' 'the many-named Archangel,'

in accordance with the Jewish view that the name JeHoVaH unfolded its meaning in seventy names for the Godhead. [1 See the enumeration of these 70 Names in the Baal-ha-Turim on Numb. xi. 16.] As they speak of the 'Adam Qadmon,' so Philo of the Logos as the human reflection of the eternal God. And in both these respects, it is worthy of notice that he appeals to ancient teaching. [2 Comp. Siegfried, u. s., pp. 221-223.]

See the Fifty Names of Marduk

Metatron: greatest of angels in Jewish myths and legends, variously identified as the Prince (or Angel) of the Presence, as Michael the archangel, or as Enoch after his ascent into heaven. He is likewise described as a celestial scribe recording the sins and merits of men, as a guardian of heavenly secrets, as God's mediator with men, as the "lesser Yahweh,"as the archetype of man, and as one "whose name is like that of his master." The latter appellation is based on Hebrew numerology; i.e., when the consonants that comprise the names Metatron and Shaddai (Almighty) are analyzed according to preassigned numerical values, each name totals 314. Elisha ben Abuyah (flourished c. AD 100) is said to have apostasized after having had a vision of Metatron.

The Zoe Movement also promotes the feminist "ruling over"(top position) of the most ancient documents and full blown in Gnosticism. She as "beast"rules over the lesser yahweh specifically by forcing them to worship HER with instrumental and vocal music.

See the legends of the punishment of the angels

Maybe here is where we get Jesus as a "full-fledged member of the divine family."

The wise and virtuous Enoch also ascended to Heaven, where he became God's chief counsellor, henceforth known as "Metatron."God set His own crown upon Enoch's head, and gave him seventy-two wings as well as multitudinous eyes. His flesh was transformed into flame, his sinews into fire, his bones into embers, his eyes into torches, his hair into rays of light, and he was surrounded by storm, whirlwind, thunder and lightning. Sons of god.

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Ps.104:3
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Psa 91:4

We will look at the notions of the trinity with the Logos being just one member of the God family in another review.

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Gnosticism and the God Family

Rubel Shelly: In the text just cited from Paul, it is interesting that he traces heaven's redemptive work through Christ Jesus all the way back to a time "before the ages began"(2 Tim.1:9).

In John's language, Jesus has always been the Word -- the Logos who was not only with but also a full-fledged member of the divine family, the Godhead, the Holy Trinity. 

Our version says that He was "with"God and He "was"God.

It took over four hundred years before anyone dared identify the Logos as a member of the god family. This was hatched among the Restoration Movement in about 1941 by H. Leo Boles and the Gospel Advocate.

In the Greek Gnostic system the "family"of Gods is fully developed

Irenaeus against the prevailing heresies notes that "Absurd ideas of the disciples of Valentinus as to the origin, name, order, and conjugal productions of their fancied aeons, with the passages of Scripture which they adapt to their opinions.

1. They maintain, then, that in the invisible and ineffable heights above there exists a certain perfect, pre-existent Aeon, whom they call Proarche, Propator, and Bythus, and describe as being invisible and incomprehensible. Eternal and unbegotten, he remained throughout innumerable cycles of ages in profound serenity and quiescence. There existed along with him Ennoea, whom they also call Charis and Sige.

At last this Bythus determined to send forth from himself the beginning of all things,
and deposited this production (which he had resolved to bring forth) in his contemporary Sige, even as seed is deposited in the womb. She then, having received this seed, and becoming pregnant,

gave birth to Nous, who was both similar and equal to him who had produced him,
........... and was alone capable of comprehending his father's greatness.

This Nous (mind) they call also Monogenes, and Father, and the Beginning of all Things.
Along with him was also produced Aletheia (truth)

and these four constituted the first and first-begotten Pythagorean Tetrad, which they also denominate the root of all things.
........... For there are first Bythus and Sige, and
........... then Nous and Aletheia.

And Monogenes (Nous), perceiving for what purpose he had been produced,

also himself sent forth Logos and Zoe, being the father of all those who were to come after him, and the beginning and fashioning of the entire Pleroma.

By the conjunction of Logos and Zoe
........... were brought forth Anthropos and Ecclesia;
........... and thus was formed the first-begotten Ogdoad,

the root and substance of all things, called among them by four names, viz., Bythus, and Nous, and Logos, and Anthropos. For each of these is masculo-feminine, as follows:
........... Propator was united by a conjunction with his Ennoea;
........... then Monogenes, that is
........... ........... Nous, with Aletheia;
........... ........... Logos with Zoe, and
........... ........... Anthropos with Ecclesia.

Before Greek Gnosticism Sophia was the feminist goddess Wisdom. Zoe was Life. Sophia was identified as the serpent and Zoe was identified as the BEAST or "the female instructing principle."

From Hypostasis of Archons we understand that the "female"or Lucifer instructing principle taught the men how to become musical worship teams.

And Zoe (Life), the daughter of Pistis Sophia, cried out and said to him, "You are mistaken, Sakla!"- for which the alternative name is androgynous.

She breathed into his face, and her breath became a fiery angel for her; and that angel bound Yaldabaoth and cast him down into Tartaros below the abyss.

Now when his offspring Sabaoth saw the force of that angel, he repented
and condemned his father and his mother, matter.
........... He loathed her,
........... but he sang songs of praise up to Sophia and her daughter Zoe.

And Sophia and Zoe caught him up and gave him charge of the seventh heaven, below the veil between above and below.

And he is called 'God of the forces, Sabaoth', since he is up above the forces of chaos, for Sophia established him.

Now when these (events) had come to pass, he made himself a huge four-faced chariot of cherubim,

and infinitely many angels to act as ministers,
and also harps and lyres.
And Sophia took her daughter Zoe

and had her sit upon his right to teach him about the things that exist in the eighth (heaven); and the angel of wrath she placed upon his left. Since that day,

his right has been called 'life' (ZOE);
and the left has come to represent the unrighteousness of the realm of absolute power above. It was before your time that they came into being.

ZOE implies an inferior LOGOS and a lesser jehovah: you cannot worship Zoe without repudiating the Logos.

We repeat what we noted above that the Zoe Movement also promotes the feminist "ruling over"(top position) of the most ancient documents and full blown in Gnosticism. She as "beast"rules over the lesser yahweh specifically by forcing them to PRAISE HER with instrumental and vocal music.

---

Modern Replacement for the Logos

If the CORE GOSPEL HERESY is correct then there are only seven facts about Jesus Christ about which we have a right to express ourselves in the interest of not judging others whose opinions about the rest of the Bible is just as good as ours.

However, God is not a petty tyrant who rejects any rational approach to His Word. Logos is:

Logos (g3056) log'-os; from 3004; something said (including the thought); by impl. a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extens. a computation; spec. (with the art. in John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ): - account, cause, communication, "concerning, doctrine, fame, "have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, / reckon, remove, say (-ing), shew, "speaker, speech, talk, thing, / none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.

Lego (g3004) leg'-o; a prim. verb; prop. to "lay"forth, i.e. (fig.) relate (in words [usually of systematic or set discourse; whereas 2036 and 5346 generally refer to an individual expression or speech respectively; while 4482 is prop. to break silence merely,

and 2980 means an extended or random harangue]); by impl. to mean: - ask, bid, boast, call, describe, give out, name, put forth, say (- ing, on), shew, speak, tell, utter.

For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. 1 Co. 14:2

Speaking to God reverses the direction of logical information flow: God does not need a tutor.

Bruner in The Holy Spirit has said that "most church singing is low-level glossolalia."

In whatever way God whose speech would not be tolerable without a Mediator chooses to express Himsellf, He is seen as a Spiritual which means rational Being. Jesus Christ is the Father's Rational Discourse about Himself. However, Jesus warned the deaf and blind Jewish leaders that when He speaks to the "mass meetings"(the seeker centers) He only speaks in parables. If you want to know what God's WORD says yu have to find a quiet place and let Christ the Spirit teach you through His Word.

Any kind of musical which is charismatic mind altering called "worship"is irrational and is therefore never commended as a way to worship God the Spirit. Rather, He only seeks those who worship IN SPIRT and in TRUTH. That means in the mind (nous), the temple (naos) the prayer closet. You cannot fit your presumptious team in there with me. I don't need you and God won't let you spiritually live if you try.

We have seen that since John was inspired he did not have to cobble up the inspiration process just to identify Christ with the Logos to fit in with the Greek world.

Nevertheless, there was another form of the logos which seems to have replaced Christ as the authentic Word of God delivered in Words.

---

And because Mercury had wings on his dancing shoes we can understand why so many, claiming god status, want to dance with god.

See Alexander Hislop on Hermes reaching back to Nimrod: the ring leader of the great apostasy:

"At Alexandria, Hermes was identified with Thoth, the god of Hermopolis, known later as the great Hermes, "Hermes Trismegistus", and represented as the revealer of all letters and all religion. Simultaneously, the Logos theory conformed to the current Neoplatonistic dualism in Alexandria:
........... > the Logos is not conceived of as nature or immanent necessity,
........... > but as an intermediary agent by which the transcendent God governs the world.

This conception appears in Plutarch, especially in his "Isis and Osiris"; from an early date in the first century of the Christian era, it influenced profoundly the Jewish philosopher Philo. C.E.

Osiris/Isis/Horus were worshiped under the real bull, Apis, in Egypt. This triad was worshiped musically at Mount Sinai as they had been for hundreds of years by the Israelites.

Because the Logos or Word was not considered a necessity, the Israelites refused to hear the Words spoke to them. They were blind and deaf until Messiah, the "another prophet like Moses whom you will hear"or be lost.

Hermes and Mercury were also the go between or god talker much like logos.

Hermes: Born with the dawning, at mid-day he played on the lyre, and in the evening he stole the cattle of far-shooting Apollo on the fourth day of the month; for on that day queenly Maia bare him.

When Zeus had an affair with Mnemosyne, he coupled with her for nine consecutive nights, which produced nine daughters, who became known as the Muses.

They entertained their father and the other gods as a celestial choir on Mount Olympus.
They became deities of intellectual pursuits. Also the three Charites or Graces were born from Zeus and Eurynome. From all his children Zeus gave man all he needed to live life in an ordered and moral way.

Hermes, the herald of the Olympian gods, is son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, daughter of Atlas and one of the Pleiades.
Hermes is also the god of shepherds, land travel, merchants, weights and measures, oratory, literature, athletics and thieves,

and known for his cunning and shrewdness.
He was also a minor patron of poetry.
He was worshiped throughout Greece especially in Arcadia. Festivals in honor of Hermes were called Hermoea.

Originally Hermes was a phallic god, being attached to fertility and good fortune, and also a patron of roads and boundaries. His name coming from herma, the plural being hermaiherm was a square or rectangular pillar in either stone or bronze, with the head of Hermes (usually with a beard), which adorned the top of the pillar, and male genitals near to the base of the pillar.

The offspring of Hermes are believed to be Pan, Abderus and Hermaphroditus. Hermes as with the other gods had numerous affairs with goddesses, nymphs and mortals. In some legends even sheep and goats. Pan, the half man half goat, is believed to be the son of Hermes and Dryope,

All musical instruments are idols or images, often sexual in nature. The "gods"live inside of the instruments and are often "lifeless instruments"or "carnal weapons"made of animals which died of themselves. However, in this incarnation, Hermes wants the turtle to give up its own life just so it can speak for the gods.

How Infant Hermes Invented the Lyre

But as he stepped over the threshold of the high-roofed cave, he found a tortoise there and gained endless delight. For it was Hermes who first made the tortoise a singer. The creature fell in his way at the courtyard gate, where it was feeding on the rich grass before the dwelling, waddling along. When be saw it, the luck- bringing son of Zeus laughed and said:

(ll. 30-38) "An omen of great luck for me so soon! I do not slight it. Hail, comrade of the feast, lovely in shape, sounding at the dance! With joy I meet you! Where got you that rich gaud for covering, that spangled shell -- a tortoise (the beast) living in the mountains? But I will take and carry you within:
........... you shall help me and I will do you no disgrace,
........... though first of all you must profit me.
........... It is better to be at home: harm may come out of doors.
........... ........... Living, you shall be a spell against mischievous witchcraft (Note 13);
........... ........... but if you die, then you shall make sweetest song.

(Note 13) Pliny notices the efficacy of the flesh of a tortoise against witchcraft. In "Geoponica"i. 14. 8 the living tortoise is prescribed as a charm to preserve vineyards from hail.

And thus the connection between witchcraft and music.

It is fitting that Hermes used his infant skills to cheat Apollo out of his cows. When Apollo caught Hermes he learned the skill of making and playing musical instruments and shooting arrows.

The System of the Naasseni: Serpent Worshipers

The church Fathers understood that Hermes or Mercury was the "Osiris"figure worshiped at Mount Sina with music and more:

For they style this good-producing, not knowing what they say. And the Greeks, deriving this mystical (expression) from the Egyptians, preserve it until this day. For we behold, says (the Naassene), statues of Mercury, of such a figure honoured among them.

Worshipping, however, Cyllenius with especial distinction, they style him Logios. For Mercury is Logos, who being interpreter and fabricator of the things that have been made simultaneously, and that are being produced, and that will exist, stands honoured among them,

fashioned into some such figure as is the pudendum of a man, having an impulsive power from the parts below towards those above. And that this (deity)-that is, a Mercury of this description-is, (the Naassene) says,

a conjurer of the dead, and a guide of departed spirits, and an originator of souls; nor does this escape the notice of the poets, who express themselves thus:-

"Cyllenian Hermes also called

The souls of mortal suitors.

Naas, however, has committed sin, for he went in unto Eve, deceiving her, and debauched her; and (such an act as) this is a violation of law.

He, however, likewise went in unto Adam,
and had unnatural intercourse with him; and this is itself also a piece of turpitude, whence have arisen adultery and sodomy.

Hermes the Greek Logios could "lead you into the presence of God"with musiic. And dominate the "lesser jehovahs."

That is, from the blessed man from above, or the primal man or Adam, as it seems to them, souls have been conveyed down here into a creation of clay, that they may serve the Demiurge of this creation, Ialdabaoth (Click to see the harp connection), a fiery God, a fourth number; for so they call the Demiurge and father of the formal world:-

And in hand he held a lovely

Wand of gold that human eyes enchants,

Of whom he will, and those again who slumber rouses.

just as it agrees with the expressions, "Mercury waving his wand, guides the souls, but they twittering follow."I mean the disembodied spirits follow continuously in such a way as the poet by his imagery delineates, using these words:-

And as when in the magic cave's recess

Bats humming fly, and when one drops

From ridge of rock, and each to other closely clings.

This, he says, is the word of God, which, he says, is a word of revelation of the Great Power.

They rashly assume in this manner, that
........... whatsoever things have been said and done by all men,
........... (may be made to harmonize) with their own particular mental view,
........... alleging that all things become spiritual.

See Dr. Rubel Shelly Baptizing Santa and the S.U.N.
Shamash the Sun God.

Whence likewise they assert, that those exhibiting themselves in theatres, not even these say or do anything without premeditation.
Therefore, he says, when, on the people assembling in the theatres,

any one enters clad in a remarkable robe, carrying a harp and playing a tune (upon it, accompanying it) with a song of the great mysteries, he speaks as follows,
........... not knowing what he says:

"Whether (thou art) the race of Saturn (Satans, Molech, Chiun at Mount Sinai) or happy Jupiter, or mighty Rhea (ZOE), Hail, Attis, gloomy mutilation of Rhea. Assyrians style thee thrice-longed-for Adonis,

and the whole of Egypt (calls thee) Osiris, celestial horn of the moon; [The bull, Apis, at Sinai]

Greeks denominate (thee) Wisdom; Samothracians, venerable Adam; Haemonians, Corybas; and them Phrygians (name thee) at one time Papa, at another time Corpse, or God, or Fruitless, or Aipolos, or green Ear of Corn that has been reaped, or whom the very fertile Amygdalus produced-a man, a musician."

This, he says, is multiform Attis, whom while they celebrate in a hymn, they utter these words:

"I will hymn Attis, son of Rhea, not with the buzzing sounds of trumpets, or of Idaean pipers, which accord with (the voices of) the Curetes;

but I will mingle (my song) with Apollo's music of harps, evoe, evan, ' inasmuch as thou art Pan, as thou art Bacchus, as thou art shepherd of brilliant stars."

Eve or Zoe. Superior to the Logos. The inferior male gods worshiped Zoe with a musical worship team.

On account of these and such like reasons,

these constantly attend the mysteries called those of the "Great Mother," Sophia-Zoe-Eve-Mary

supposing especially that they behold by means of the ceremonies performed there the entire mystery. [Moved into the presence of the gods with music]
........... For these have nothing more than the ceremonies that are performed there,
........... ........... except that they are not emasculated:
........... ........... they merely complete the work of the emasculated.

For with the utmost severity and vigilance they enjoin (on their votaries) to abstain, as if they were emasculated, from intercourse with a woman. The rest, however, of the proceeding (observed in these mysteries), as we have declared at some length, (they follow) just as (if they were) emasculated persons.

And they do not worship any other object but Naas, (from thence) being styled Naasseni. (Nachash, the serpent in Eden, brass, ringing bell metel; Lachash, speaking in tongues)

But Naas is the serpent from whom, i.e., from the word Naas, (the Naassene) says, are all that under heaven are denominated temples (Naos).

And (he states) that to him alone-that is, Naas-is dedicated every shrine and every initiatory rite, and every mystery; and, in general,

that a religious ceremony could not be discovered under heaven,
in which a temple (Naos) has no existence; and in the temple itself is Naas, from whom it has received its denomination of temple (Naos).

The System of the Peratae; Their Tritheism

Now the first segment, and that which, according to them, is (a segment) in preference (to others), is a triad, and it is called a Perfect Good, (and) a Paternal Magnitude.

And the second portion of the triad of these is, as it were, a certain infinite crowd of potentialities that are generated from themselves,
(while) the third is formal.

And the first, which is good, is unbegotten, and the second is a self-producing good, and the third is created;
........... and hence it is that they expressly declare that there are three Gods,
........... ........... three Logoi, three Minds, three Men.

For to each portion of the world, after the division has been made, they assign both Gods, and Logoi, and Minds, and Men, and the rest;

but that from unorigination and the first segment of the world,
when afterwards the world had attained unto its completion, there came down from above, for causes that we shall afterwards declare,

in the time of Herod a certain man called Christ, with a threefold nature, and a threefold body, and a threefold power, (and) having in himself all (species of) concretions and potentialities (derivable) from the three divisions of the world; and that this, says (the Peratic), is what is spoken:

"It pleased him that in him should dwell all fulness bodily, [Col. i. 19, ii. 9] and in Him the entire Divinity resides of the triad as thus divided. For, he says,

that from the two superjacent worlds-namely, from that (portion of the triad) which is unbegotten,

The Power to which has been entrusted Thalassa is hermaphrodite.

And it fastens the hissing sound arising from the twelve mouths into twelve pipes, and pours it forth.

Ignorance denominated these the erratic stars, from whom depends a corruptible generation. Manager of the rising of the star [or air] is Carphacasemeocheir, (and) Eccabbacara (is the same). Ignorance is in the habit of denominating these Curetes chief of the winds;

third in order is Ariel, according to whose image was generated Aeolus, Briares.

Chapter XI.-Why They Call Themselves Peratae; Their Theory of Generation Supported by an Appeal to Antiquity;

Their Interpretation of the Exodus of Israel;

Their System of "The Serpent; "Deduced by Them from Scripture; This the Real Import of the Doctrines of the Astrologers.

The serpents, however, of the magicians-(that is,) the gods of destruction-withstood the power of Moses in Egypt, but the rod of Moses reduced them all to subjection and slew them.

This universal serpent is, he says, the wise discourse of Eve. [Eve, the Mediatrix, was honored because the serpent taught her feminine knowledge] (Zoe is the female instructing principle)

This, he says, is the mystery of Edem, this the river of Edem;

this the mark that was set upon Cain,
that any one who findeth him might not kill him. This, he says, is Cain, [Gen. iv. 15] whose sacrifice [Gen. iv. 5. ] the god of this world did not accept.

Apollo is the Abbadon or Apollyon in the book of Revelation. He made a grand Seeker-Center at Delphi and used his ability to appear all things to all people to "Navigate the Winds of Change"to kidnap "ministers"from other oracles to come to Delphi and help him strip the people of their wealth with a theater, temple, gymnasium and female prophesiers.

Introduction on Narrative Theology
Rising Up To Play proves The Exodus to Be "Falling from Grace."
Rubel Shelly Sermon Reviews
Musical Worship Index
E-Mail
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