Rubel Shelly: Eating and Drinking Christ

Jesus: The Living Water (John 7:1-52)

Dr. Rubel Shelly: Eating and Drinking Christ or His Words? Jesus said we eat and drink His Words as Spirit and Life. Quoted Sermon is here. You should read the entire sermon to make sure that our review is honest.

The concept of the literal flesh and blood is preached in this sermon: Eating Christ's Flesh and Drinking His Blood.

If you agree that the church has moved beyond the total Bible as the message God wants taught to the church then here is a sermon which will make you feel secure in your new revelations which voids 2,000 years of Biblical understanding.

If you are still a Bible believer (required to be a Christian) then we hope that you will grasp the blanks which we have filled in and look for "the rest of the story."

If you consider honest review as somehow "disdainful" then you have fallen victim to Post Modernism which says "no one is right and if you teach and hold anything as permanent truth then you are a Pharisee."

The water story begins in John chapter 5:

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. John 5:3

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. John 5:4

Jesus didn't help the person into the water but pronounced him healed. All of the Seeker-Centers had magical pools and false preachers. Clement of Alexandria notes the musical connection with pagan sources of "water" which revealed the minds of the "gods" but it was just all made up by the drunken woman, the priest and the song leader selling false information.

"The fountain of Castalia is silent, and the other fountain of Colophon; and, in like manner, all the rest of the springs of divination are dead, and stripped of their vainglory, although at a late date, are shown with their fabulous legends to have run dry. Recount to us also the useless oracles of that other kind of divination, or rather madness, the Clarian, the Pythian, the Didymaean, that of Amphiaraus, of Apollo (Abaddon, Apollyon), of Amphilochus; and if you will, couple with them the expounders of prodigies, the augurs, and the interpreters of dreams. And bring and place beside the Pythian those that divine by flour, and those that divine by barley, (produces ergo a producer of "visions)

and the ventriloquists still held in honour by many.

Let the secret shrines of the Egyptians and the necromancies of the Etruscans be consigned to darkness.

Insane devices truly are they all of unbelieving men. Goats, too, have been confederates in this art of soothsaying, trained to divination; and crows taught by men to give oracular responses to men.

And of Castilia Sprints:

"At northwest of Athen, stands the sacred mountain called Parnassus. Nestled in the forested slopes and rocky crags are the ruins of the ancient and wonderful city of Delphi which however is best known as the supreme Oracle Centre of the ancient Mediterranean World. It is known that the oracular priestesses of Delphi would first bathe in the waters of the nearby spring of Castalia and then setting on the tripode gave the oracular response. Castalian spring to the East of the sanctuary proper in the ravine separating the twin Phaedriades, takes its name from nymph Castalia, and, in classical times, it was where pilgrims purified themselves before entering the sacred sanctuary of Apollo. In this spring all who came to Delphi for any religious object whatever had to purify themselves.. Murderers, however, bathed the whole body. The water was collected in along narrow reservoir (9m x 1 m) which fed seven jets . These jets fell into a rectangular court, 9m x 3m, reached by rock-hewn steps. Graziano Baccolini

The Post Modern view coming out of pulpit and university intends to EMERGE a new church of Christ. The "founding document" pronounces the end of the Christendom era and the emerging of "we don't yet know what." However, the new hatch of "locusts" emerging in "ministry systems" eating up all of the crop, is amazingly similar to the Seeker System of Apollo (Abaddon, Apollyon) at Delphi. Apollo's first task was to "transform himself into a harmless image" and use music to recruit his first tier of "ministers." These would be chief ministers of the collection plates and they would be rewarded with all of the "lambs" their knives could slay.

Therefore, with out commission to "test the spirits" in hand, we seek to evaluate the new "water" which no longer is identified with Spiritual food and drink. Because the 100% definition of the Word as that which God uses for spiritual "food" is now 0% the Word and 100% some direct revelation by the literal indwelling of 1/3 of the Godhead, our review is to show how the new system uses the Bible.

The entire Bible says that we eat and drink the Word of God as source of spiritual renewing. Dr. Shelly says that we eat Jesus in some kind of mystical "better felt than told" means which is not defined. Here is the view of those who rejected the Word of God:

See the connection between "eating the gods" and Apollo's oracle at Delphi.

In the Post Modern view, the horrors of Mount Sinai brough on by musical idolatry can be "narrated" as a "pattern for Christian worship and community." The Bible universally condemns SUN or planet worship; post modernism says, "We can just baptize or color the S.U.N. as the S.O.N."

Stones as food was also symbolic of Saturn who is the S.U.N. or "wandering star" or planet god condemned by Jude and identified as Satan who introduced music to take away the key to knowledge.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Mt.4:3

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Mt 4:4

Alexander Hislop notes:

"The devouring on the part of Saturn of the swaddled stone is just the symbolical expression of the eagerness with which Adam by faith received the good news of the woman's seed; for the act of faith, both in the Old Testament and in the New, is symbolised by eating. Thus Jeremiah says,

"Thy words were found of me, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" (Jer 15:16).

This also is strongly shown by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who, while setting before the Jews the indispensable necessity of eating His flesh, and feeding on Him, did at the same time say:

"It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).

That Adam eagerly received the good news about the promised seed, and treasured it up in his heart as the life of his soul, is evident from the name which he gave to his wife immediately after hearing it: "And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living ones" (Gen 3:20).

The story of the swaddled stone does not end with the swallowing of it, and the arresting of the ruin of the children of Saturn. This swaddled stone was said to be "preserved near the temple of Delphi,

where care was taken to anoint it daily with oil, and to cover it with wool" (MAURICE'S Indian Antiquities).

If this stone symbolised the "sin-bearing son," it of course symbolised also the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, in whose symbolic covering our first parents were invested when God clothed them in the coats of skins.

This life-restoring child is also know in Gnosticism and in today's churches as ZOE who is really know as the Beast. The worship of the S.U.N. rather than the S.O.N. is also associated with this story.

In in other material, the Catholic eating of literal flesh is associated with Cahna-Bal or Cahna-Baal.

The inability to associate the Word of a holy or pure Spirit God as being Spirit was proof in John 6 that the Jews could not understand Spiritual thought.

Thereby, by repudiating God's right or power to express His Words in commands or examples; and the repudiating the silence of God, the modern church repeats the failures of the Israelites and puts rituals for the eyes and ears before "feeding the flock" with the "milk" and "meat" of the Word.

After showing that it is pretty easy to "dupe" people by giving them the technical description of water, we note that it is also easy for priests to dupe people into believing that we literally eat and drink the flesh and blood of Jesus.

Others, have the ability to define the "flesh and blood" in terms which EXCLUDES the Words of Jesus.

For instance, in a previous sermon, Dr. Shelly ended his sermon while Jesus was still speaking parables to the multitudes and the doctors of the Law. Then,:

Dr. Shelly: "The eating and drinking of this text is about the daily appropriation of Christ as one's life and nourishment. Eating and drinking in this passage constitute a powerful metaphor for the nature of faith."

We find not a shred of evidence for this claim.

FAITH is not "faith alone" but demands that we appropriate the Spirit of Christ by "giving heed" to the Words of Christ in song and sermon.

If you diminish the Word to seven facts about Jesus then it would appear that there is no faith.

For the "undupable" to whom Jesus agreed to explain this parable, the real conclusion is that we don't eat Jesus in any sense:

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter (Law, Flesh), but of the spirit (New Testament): for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2 Co.3:6

Our own indwelling spirit is made holy and capable of life and a Spiritual existance only if we affirm God by affirming His Son by affirming His Word.

One cannot be sure why one shoves claims about a Catholic-type Jesus whom we eat and drink in some not-defined way.

If Jesus is still speaking to you, we will see that Jesus continues in John chapter 7 to speak of eating of His Word as Spirit and Life even as the Apostles FED the people with the Words of Christ in song and sermon.

Here are a few of the Eating passages: there is no hint that we eat in some mystical way or that we literally eat Jesus.

We all eat meat and drink milk. However, there has never been anything which feeds the soul's hunger but the Word of God:

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Deut 8:3

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Mt 4:4

The elders were to be Christians by imiatating Christ as Son Who spoke only what He heard from the Father. That is, they were to teach only that which had been taught. When people give themselves an "office" to teach human philosophy in order to keep the Word from being taught they are anti-Christs.

Not something you learn from the philosophers (Christian or not) is the fact that to a believer the word is not bitter. Rather, the Word of God is like eating honey and drinking water out of the flinty rock. If this does not describe your view of the Word then you may be an anti-Christ.

Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job 23:12

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psa 119:103

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jer 15:16

But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee. Ezek 2:8

MOREOVER he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. Eze 3:1

Can the elders "feed" the church with Jesus in some kind of "mystical sense?" Can you feed the church with "FAITH?" Of course not. Can they feed the church by a direct operation of the Holy Spirit? No. Therefore, we have the charismatic, Postmodern view as opposed to 100% of the Biblical evidence that the church is fed with the Word of God which is Spirit and Life. For instance,

For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Acts 20:27

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Acts 20:28

Why: For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Acts 20:29

Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:30

Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. Acts 20:31

And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Acts 20:32

Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Col.2:7

The "teaching" passages perverted as "musical passages" seeks to "build up" with the sentimental poetry of humans.

This is a direct repudiation of Lord Jesus Christ and HIS Word.

The result, as in all of the "musical" events will be that the church hungers and thirst for the WORD and cannot find it.

Did Paul feed the Corinthians with Christ in a mystical way? No, the only food and drink is the Word of Christ.

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 1Co.3:2

And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 1Co. 10:2

And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 1Co. 10:3
And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 1Co. 10:4

The primary "food" was the Covenant by which mankind could live. However, Israel repudiated the oral Covenant of Grace, rose up to play in musical idolatry, and lost the Word as their spiritual meat and drink.

Does anyone schooled in the Bible feed others by a direct operation of the holy Spirit or with the body of Christ in a mystical sense? No.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. Heb.5:12

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Heb.5:14
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 1 Pet 2:2

We cannot explain why it is impossible for the modern mind to see this connection between heavenly "food" and the Word of God.

We cannot explain why, in Postmodernism, all truth has "gone into a black hole and we cannot know truth. However, we can know this: if you believe that you know any truth and teach it as authority then you are still living in the 'modern' world and you need to be silenced."

We cannot explain why "no truth" allows Narrative Theology and "taking liberties" with John's writings can fail to teach the "punch line" but insists on supplying a new Post Modern set of words to put into the mouth of Jesus.

But, that is the "worm hole" we are living in in the total vacuum between two epochs of time where the old Christendom Era ended.

However, this student is still "modern" in that we propose to fill in the blanks which tape up the mouth of Lord Jesus and refuse to allow Him to complete His teaching to those who have ears and eyes.

This week, Dr. Shelly notes that:

Rubel Shelly: "People shove claims at us every day under a heading like "important information" or "undeniable facts" - claims that dupe otherwise intelligent and decent people. It happens in sales pitches. It happens in politics. It happens in religion. It even happened to Jesus one day - in the context of a festival at Jerusalem that involved a water ceremony.

The Jews had taken liberties and added two new ceremonies which are best entertained in the modern lust to turn church or synagogue into holy entertainment. Jesus refuted this disrespect for the silence of Scripture by pointing out that all external rituals are build upon the inability to discern spiritual meanings.

The topic is "water." Therefore, we want to tell you up front that Jesus is not defined as the Water which people "drink and eat" in order to get some mystical experience.

Rather, the entire Bible sees WATER as that which flows out from God through His WORDS.

Furthermore, both Isaiah and Paul make it clear that the WATER of the WORD is a free comodity much like air. Therefore, anyone who attempts to dilute the water or make it into some other chemical formula is DUPING most religious people every day of the week because the 'threshing oxen' has taken up permanent residence in the customer's house.

God uses water as a symbol of Spirit or Word power which reaches from the dimension of Spirit into the dimension of material because it is very common and very necessary.

In the "taking liberties" theology, simple H²O might be life giving. However, if you break the H free from the O and light a match it will blow up in your face. That is what the Post Modern, Post-Biblical human philosophers are doing but they do not know that they are taking the life-giving Word apart and putting it back together and it will blow up in their face.

We believe that Dr. Shelly has separated the Parable (to fool the fools) from the Divine explanation (to truth seekers) and deprived the audience of the value of Pure Water of the Word.

All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: Matthew 13:34

Multitudes is: Ochlos (g3793) okh'-los; from a der. of 2192 (mean. a vehicle); a throng (as borne along); by impl. the rabble; by extens. a class of people; fig. a riot: - company, multitude, number (of people), people, press.

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which

have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. Matthew.13:35

Peter made the Word spoken by THE Word to water:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 2 Peter 3:3

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 2 Peter 3:4

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 2 Peter 3:5

First test: We never have to pay for the free water unless someone has already flushed it through their commodes.

Captain Edward Johnson, in about 1631, wrote on what became Harvard University. The learned, reverend, and judicious Mr. Henry Dunster had received a patron for establishing a college. And he notes:

"And as in all the other passages of this history the Wonder-working Providence of Sion's Saviour hath appeared, so especially in this work,

the Fountains of learning being in a great measure stopped in our native Country at this time,

so that the sweet waters of Shilo's streams must ordinarily pass into the Churches through the stinking channel of prelatical pride,

beside all the filth that the fountains themselves were daily encumbered withal,

insomuch that the Lord turned aside often from them, and refused the breathing of his blessed Spirit among them, (Matthew 13)

which caused Satan (in these latter days of his transformation into an Angel of light)

to make it a means to persuade people from the use of learning altogether,

that so in the next generation they might be destitute of such helps as the Lord hath been pleased hitherto to make use of,

as chief means for the conversion of his people and building them up in the most holy faith,

as also for breaking down the Kingdom of Antichrist." And some other choice words.

The Foolish Rejection

Rubel Shelly: It was autumn and during our month of October when Jesus made the decision to return to Judea. You may remember that his healing of an invalid at the Pool of Bethesda on a sabbath day and his subsequent claim to be divine had created such a firestorm that the religious establishment set itself to kill him (John 5:1-18). So he had made a strategic retreat north to Galilee and taught people there. But his climactic hour was getting closer and closer now, and he knew it was time to return to face his accusers. He was rather secretive about his plan - keeping his intentions from his own family members (7:1-3).

A retreat may suggest cowardice. However, Jesus saw no need to teach a people bent on murder during the Great Feast of Tabernacles which is defined much like a Jubilee. This feast had degenerated into a fertility ritual. Furthermore, most of those who were gathering for the singing, playing music, clapping hands and even the elders dancing in the streets had been discarded by Jesus because they could not hear His Words.

Rubel Shelly: The reason we know the time of year is because the Feast of Tabernacles or Festival of Booths was being celebrated. It is the third of the three annual pilgrim feasts of Judaism. It was timed to coincide with the fall harvest and was something akin to our Thanksgiving Day in that respect. Theologically it was a harkening back to the time when the ancestors of the celebrants lived in tents (i.e., tabernacles, booths) for 40 years with Moses in the wilderness. Typically there would have been no general rains since those of spring. Pools and cisterns were low. And the days were starting to grow shorter, with nighttime darkness coming earlier each day.

While the clergy and most people were using religious rituals to try to find the lost God, the Feast ceremonies looked forward to the appearance of Messiah. However, the Water and Lights festivals had been added without authority based on the legalistic attempt to supply WATER POWER and a LIGHT SHOW in order to "regenerate" people through the human senses.

At the same time, the clergy had taken away the key to knowledge by muddying it with their own sermonizing.

However, even as they played musical games, Jesus the Messiah was waiting for the pagan festival to cease so He could present Himself to them to be murdered. This festival was quite identical to the "worship of the starry host" to which God had abandoned Israel because of their musical idolatry at Mount Sinai:

"Not surprisingly, most Israelites declined the prophet's invitation to enter into a dialog with Yahweh.  They preferred a less demanding religion of cultic observance either in the Jerusalem Temple or in the old fertility cults of Canaan.  This continues to  be the case: the religion of compassion is followed only by a minority; most religious people are content with decorous worship in synagogue, church, temple and mosque.

"The ancient Canaanite religions were still flourishing in Israel... the Israelites were still taking part in fertility rites and sacred sex there, as we see in the oracles of the prophet Hosea, Amos' contemporary.  (Armstrong, Karen, A History of God, p. 47).

(This is why Paul excluded the Sister Singers and Preside-over pastors with a tune.)

The First Century Feast of Tabernacles:

"As at the Passover and at Pentecost, the altar of burnt-offering was cleansed during the first night-watch, and the gates of the Temple were thrown open immediately after midnight. The time till the beginning of the ordinary morning sacrifice was occupied in examining the various sacrifices and offerings that were to be brought during the day.

While the morning sacrifice was being prepared, a priest, accompanied by a joyous procession with music, went down to the Pool of Siloam, whence he drew water into a golden pitcher, capable of holding three log (rather more than two pints). But on the Sabbaths they fetched the water from a golden vessel in the Temple itself, into which it had been carried from Siloam on the preceding day.

As soon as the wine and the water were being poured out, the Temple music began, and the 'Hallel' (Psa 113-118) was sung in the manner previously prescribed,

and to the accompaniment of flutes,
except on the Sabbath and on the first day of the feast,
when flute-playing was not allowed, on account of the sanctity of the days.

When the choir came to these words (Psa 118:1), 'O give thanks to the Lord,' and again when they sang (Psa 118:25), 'O work then now salvation, Jehovah'; and once more at the close (Psa 118:29), 'O give thanks unto the Lord,' all the worshipers shook their lulavs towards the altar. When, therefore, the multitudes from Jerusalem, on meeting Jesus, 'cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way, and...cried,

[Lulav or Lulab branch waved as the etrog. The etrog is held in the left hand during the service while the right hand holds the palm branch with myrtle and willow entwined. On the seventh day of Sukkoth the four species are carried seven times around the synagogue. During the singing of specified Psalms (Hallel), the etrog and lulab are waved upward and downward and toward the four points of the compass to indicate the omnipresence of God.]

saying, O then, work now salvation to the Son of David'! (Matt 21:8,9; John 12:12,13)
they applied, in reference to Christ, what was regarded as one of the chief ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles,

praying that God would now from 'the highest' heavens manifest and send that salvation in connection with the Son of David, which was symbolized by the pouring out of water.

For though that ceremony was considered by the Rabbis as bearing a subordinate reference to the dispensation of the rain, the annual fall of which they imagined was determined by God at that feast, its main and real application was to the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as predicted--probably in allusion to this very rite--by Isaiah the prophet (Isa 12:3). Alfred Edersheim, Chapter 14

Like too many religionists, there was intense religious ritual attempting to "lead the worshipers into the presence of God when God 'wasn't far from all of us.'" Music, specificially was used to call the gods into their temples.

When the Water of the Word Failed, the Jews invented an artificial "Water Drawing" festival. When the Light of the Word went out, they invented a festival of lights.

When the people hunger and thirst for the Water of the Word, we absolutely repeat the folly of the Jews and therefore Jesus will "not go up" to the opening ceremonies of our religious festivals.

The Prophesied Water of the Word

Water of the Word is something God gives. Therefore, the Gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift from the Spirit or Mind of Christ.

Isaiah castigated the merchants of the Word and prophesied that Messiah would bring free life and spirit by bringing a word which contained its own "preached" and "versified" power:

HO, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55:3

Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Isaiah 55:4

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: Isaiah 55:10

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please,

and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. Zechariah 14:8

And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. Zechariah 14:9

Rubel Shelly: All these motifs came together in the festival observances. Families built lean-to shelters; the children loved it! Priests made a daily procession during the week-long event from the Pool of Siloam from whence they had drawn water to the temple where it would be poured out at the altar. They sang these words from Isaiah in the process: "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation" (Isa. 12:3). On the final day of the festival, torches were lit in the temple compound, the priests circled the altar seven times with the water from Siloam, and finally poured it out as an offering into a bowl set on the altar. Before he is through, Jesus will have picked up on all these constituents as symbols of his own identity and mission.

The Musical Feast of Tabernacles in the Court of the Women

"At the close of the first day of the feast the worshipers descended to the Court of the Women, where great preparations had been made.

Four golden candelabras were there, each with four golden bowls, and against them rested four ladders; and four youths of priestly descent held, each a pitcher of oil, capable of holding one hundred and twenty log, from which they filled each bowl. The old, worn breeches and girdles of the priests served for wicks to these lamps.

There was not a court in Jerusalem that was not lit up by the light of 'the house of water-pouring.'

The 'Chassidim' and 'the men of Deed' danced before the people with flaming torches in their hands, and sang before them hymns and songs of praise;

[Note: The Instruments of David] and the Levites, with harps, and lutes, and cymbals, and trumpets, and instruments of music without number,

stood upon the fifteen steps which led down from the Court of Israel to that of the Women, according to the number of the fifteen Songs of Degrees in the Book of Psalms.
They stood with their instruments of music, and sang hymns.

[The trumpets commanded by God] Two priests, with trumpets in their hands, were at the upper gate (that of Nicanor), which led from the Court of Israel to that of the Women. At cock-crowing they drew a threefold blast. As they reached the tenth step, they drew another threefold blast; as they entered the court itself, they drew yet another threefold blast;

and so they blew as they advanced, till they reached the gate which opens upon the east (the Beautiful Gate).

As they came to the eastern gate, they turned round towards the west (to face the Holy Place), and said:

'Our fathers who were in this place, they turned their back upon the Sanctuary of Jehovah,
and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped towards the rising sun;
but as for us, our eyes are towards the Lord.'

But, that was a lie. They never turned away from worshiping the starry host as proven by their killing of Stephen. This is quite identical to the worship of Ishtar and Tammuz at the temple in Jerusalem.

Contrary to this sermon, God repudiated it:

For Lamenting for Tammuz to define the "worship of the fathers" CLICK HERE.

See also Isaiah 33 where God condemns the Assyrians by warning Israel about their frequent musical processions to Zion. This procession was an "out take" of the Molech rituals where the Israelites burned babies in the red hot arms of Molech. That is, they were worshiping the S.U.N., Saturn and other planets.

The Jews here are repeating the ceremony as they are prophetically getting ready to murder the S.O.N. of God in the hopes of "getting a better message."

The First Century Feast of Tabernacles Perverted

The Catholic Encyclopedia notes of the Feast of Tabernacles:

"After the Exile, the feast was protracted to the twenty-fifth of the month, and two new rites were added to the old ceremonial.

Every morning of the celebration a priest went down to the Siloe Fountain, whence he brought in a golden ewer of water which was pored on the alter of holocausts

amidst the singing of the Hallel (Pss, cxii-cxvii) and the joyful sound of musical instruments.
It was possibly the performance of this ceremony (the institution of which may have been suggested by Is., xii, 3) which afforded to Our Lord the occasion to compare the action of the Holy Ghost in the faithful to a spring of living water (John, vii, 37-39).

After the near-pagan Feast had slowed down, it might be possible to teach:

Rubel Shelly: Midway of festival week, Jesus went to the temple and began to teach. "The Jews were astonished at it, saying, 'How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?' " (7:15). They were saying, in effect, that they didn't have to listen to Jesus. He hasn't been to school. He doesn't have a doctorate in rabbinic studies. He doesn't have a mentor-rabbi to back him up.

First, let's not let ignore the contention that Jesus worshiped with instrumental music in the temple. Jesus could not enter into the holy place (symbolic of the church) nor into the Most Holy Place. Nor, could the Levitical Sounders enter.

Hieron (g2411) hee-er-on'; neut of 2413; a sacred place, i.e. the entire precincts (whereas 3485 denotes the central sanctuary itself) of the Temple (at Jerus. or elsewhere): - temple.

Second, it is possible that they were in admiration of Jesus:

And the Jews marvelled (were in admiration), saying, How knoweth this man letters (writing or Scripture), having never learned? John 7:15KJV

And, perhaps Jesus is consistent in not speaking to the multitudes in clear language. What if Jesus was speaking to us?

The hidden message to us is that Jesus valided His Sonship by speaking only what He heard from the Father.
Those who spoke out of their own "taking liberties" mind were seeking their own glory at the expense of God.This was the sin of Satan and Jesus defines the Devil as one "who speaks on his own."

Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. John 7:16

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. John 7:17

He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. John 7:18

This is a clear statement of fact: when you use "Narrative Theology" and "take liberties" with the Bible then you are "speaking of himself" and Jesus said that there can be only one reason for it: he seeketh his own glory.

Rubel Shelly: The people holding sway over that crowd on that day played on its gullibility. They warned and cajoled the people. They made themselves sound believable by appealing to "the Word of God" and by passing along traditional beliefs that were altogether antithetical to the text of Scripture.

No they did not.

Here is what they really said:

John 7:20: you have a devil.
John 7:25 Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill?
John 7:26 But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?
John 7:32 The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him.

In his preamble to the study of John, Dr. Shelly claims that John's writings were old remembrances "sieved" through the philosophy of the day and their own personal agenda. Therefore, philosophers, it is asserted, determined the condition of the canon.

In the same way, hallucinating philosophers who have the power to push their views on every graduate of every "christian" collete claim that truth valid yesterday somehow has been lost and we cannot find it. Not to worry, however, we can make up a new version which fits the brains of the 'youth' which have experienced a quantum leap of evolution and speak a different language.

Therefore, those holding sway in man pulpits have always "appealed" to tidbits of Scripture but have joined the "traditional" Catholic belief that Jesus said to "eat me" when their Post-Modern minds cannot even SEE the explanation in John 6:63 that we eat and drink the Word or Spirit of Life.

This is altogether antithetical to the text of Scripture as any one can read for himself by reading the entire chapter to TAKE THE TEST: "Is Jesus even speaking so that YOU can understand His parable?"

Rubel Shelly: They made practically everyone there skeptical of Jesus and moved them to vote to ban dihydrogen monoxide - when the very Water of Life, Heaven's Own H2O, the Ultimate Thirst-Slaker - was standing in their midst! Don't you be gullible enough to reject him!

The dihydrogen monoxide joke is an urban legend: everyone sees it as a joke and not even theologians know the punch line until it is told. No one really wants to ban water but lots of people want to ban the Water of the Word. We who were born before the last microsecond spell it:

Mayim-Dabar or Hudor-Logos

Water is a thirst slaker. God is the FOUNTAIN from which flows the FREE Water of the Word. Using logic, God cannot be both the fountain and the content and communicate with us.

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Jer 17:13

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. Jer 17:14

Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now. Jer 17:15

The words of a mans mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. Pr.18:4

We make fun of those who use only one cup (with a handle, of course) because we say they mistake the CONTAINER and the CONTENT. Well, here we have Dr. Shelly mistaking the FOUNTAIN for the WATER. Apparently the Post Modern mind cannot even spell W-O-R-D or see it in the text. Logos could not be found in the Old Testament so we have John "sifting" it out of Greek philosophy. However, Dabar is the Living and Written Word of God in Hebrew.

Rubel Shelly: To their credit, not everyone in the mob went with the prejudice and ignorance that prevailed that day. John informs us that some in the crowd had enough common sense to reason their way to faith by this simple process: "Yet many in the crowd believed in him and were saying, 'When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?' " (7:31). Common-sense faith can still trump both unbelieving scholarship and uninformed prejudice.

The first reasoning was to prove that the rulers were cowards. Indeed, they had not been trying to stir up an old 'conservative' devious attack. The people could grasp that the reason the rulers didn't argue with Jesus was that they knew that He was Christ:

Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? John 7:25
But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him.
Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? John 7:26

Someone in the crowd questioned his ancestry but they did not use or misuse "that old Bible" against Jesus. Then, not able to "speak Bible" with Jesus they continued to try to arrest Him.

The Gracious Offer

In spite of the context of unbelief and hostility at the festival, Jesus remained true to himself. He acted out of his nature and mission, not out of the frustrating circumstances of that dismal moment.

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said,

'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.' "

Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified (7:37-39).

Again, we need to note the difference between the Source and the Water: Jesus is the source and is never the water. Believers become secondary sources and can slake the thirst of others by giving the the water of the word.

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. Jn 7:37KJV

Neither Jesus nor the believer are the water. Rather, out of Christ flowed living water which was His Word.

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Jn 7:38

There might be some difference between saying "there was no Spirit" and the "Spirit had not been given." Jesus promised that He would come as "another comforter" (John14:16-18) and it would be Jesus in Spirit. He would remind them and guide them into all truth.

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:39NIV

As Jesus is the Incarnate Word, He would deliver His Mind or Spirit to the Apostles. Still speaking parables which the last sermon didn't grasp, Jesus explained to those who would not get too involved with fertility rituals in Jerusalem (called Sodom)

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63

Jesus refused to attend until the opening musical festival of singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, reading poems and sermons and selling books was over. The Jews believed that the festivals provided life when they held their water drawing festivals.

Well, we just kinda know that neither Jesus nor a personal Holy Spirit is drinkable and does not flow out of the belly or "innermost being." Therefore, that which Jesus came to speak as Spirit was His words which will AUTOMATICALLY flow out of a believer just as the "Son" speaks only what He hears from the "Father."

The Book of Job Explains Spirit and Belly

The Holy Spirit as a person separated from the One God does not flow out of the body of anyone! What does flow out are the Words of Christ which He clearly called spirit and life. This is confirmed many times:

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? Job 15:2
.......He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow. Psa 147:18
.........He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. Psa 147:19

Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good? Job 15:3
They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit. Job 15:35

Isaiah warned of those who invent their own songs and sermons that they were made pregnant by a "threshing machine" and gave birth to "stubble" which would be burned up in a "baptism of fire"--

Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath (Spirit), as fire, shall devour you. Isaiah 33:11

The wind is spirit (h7307) which is the same word as Holy Spirit in Hebrew.

Later, in the book of Job, Elihu could not stand the idle chatter any more and said:

For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me. Job 32:1
.........Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles. Job 32:19
.........I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer. Job 32:20

Rubel Shelly: The storm brewing over Jesus owes its awful, dark power to just this sort of thing. Against the purveyors of

tradition-encrusted,

ignorance-bounded,

spirituality-vacuous,

and death-dealing religion,

Jesus offered something new, fresh, and invigorating.

The, then and now, Pharisees deliberately invented their own "traditions" so that they didn't have to teach the Word of God. Their motive was their self-importance and their desire to steal the houses of widows and orphans. They know, and we know, that you cannot sell the Free Water of the Word without having Jesus also refuse to speak to us.

They were not ignorant: they just "saw godliness as a means of financial gain." That is, they saw sermonizing and praying as a clergy role for which they could collect dishonest gain.

Jesus didn't offer something new: He offered something free and faithful to the universal Old Testament symbolism that the WATER is always the WORD

The doctors of the law had "taken away the keys to knowledge" and in Amos 5,6, 8 and Isaiah 5 the people died of thirst because the clergy:

Were Post-Modern. There was no Divine truth so they were free to make up their own narrative.

They did this in order to silence the Word of God.

In the Temple sect, new wineskins and music was the instrument (weapon) which had replaced the Word of God.

People were under a curse in the Law and Temple system. However, Jesus just offered again the Abrahamic Covenant in a spiritual form.

By firing the false clergy each believer would become a source of living water simply by being an "earthen vessel" and teaching the Words of Christ in song and sermon.

Those who were faithful "water dispensers" went out where the people were thirsting for the Word.

Isaiah prophesied of a TRUE worship system

And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones:

and thou shalt be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Isaiah 58:11

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Is.58:13

If we can find those poking fun at patterns and not breaking down the walls and eleminating the Word and SPEAKING THEIR OWN WORDS then we can locate the

purveyors of

tradition-encrusted,

ignorance-bounded,

spirituality-vacuous,

and death-dealing religion,.

Rubel Shelly: God had given the ancient Israelites water in the desert centuries before, but it had to be given anew every day. Even so, the people who drank it ultimately died. The water that been poured out that day at the temple altar was a community ritual whose significance as a reminder to look to God for satisfaction had, for the most part at least, been missed. Now Jesus was offering something more than a collective observance of an annual ritual. And it was not being offered to people on the basis of their membership in a select group.

The Water and Lights rituals had been added by the Jews WITHOUT BIBLICAL AUTHORITY.

This, connected with the clergy's polluting the Water of the Word led Jesus to condemn this human-invented religious ritual because it was based purely on the externals. The water drawing and lights was a very early Post-Modern "light show" to bedazzle the gullible so that they would kep on making contributions to the supposed to be free teaching.

Jesus was not the "water" in the desert but as Rock He supplied the literal and spiritual water. They did not DRINK the Rock but they drank OF what flowed from the Rock. That which flowed from Jesus was the unaltered Words of the Father.

And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out. Is.48:21

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 1Co.10:4

When they "claved" Jesus the Rock, both blood and water gushed out. However, Jesus said that we don't drink the literal water or blood but we drink of His Word: that which He poured out upon the earth.

Jumping all the way to the book of Revelation, Jesus the Lamb will still lead them to the waters but we will not nurse from the lamb:

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Rev 7:17

If we take Jesus as the real WATER and attempt some mysical, but not defined, method of drinking Him, then we repeat the errorr of the Pharisees. The "burden laded" on the backs of the people used like pack animals was "spiritual anxiety created by religious ritual." Jesus died to remove the burden and the burden laders. He died to give us rest beside still waters. Jesus as the Chief Shepherd is not "eaten" by the sheep. Rather, Jesus as Shepherd and Lamb leads people to the source of LIVING WATERS. See the difference? If not, the the water of the word is still being taken away from people duped into believing error.

Rubel Shelly: News services carried the story several years ago of a hospital in a city in America's Midwest where it was discovered that its emergency firefighting equipment had never been connected to a supply source. For more than a quarter century, it had been relied upon for the safety of the patients and staff in case of an emergency. But it had never been hooked up to the city's water main. The big pipe that led from the building extended four feet into the ground - and just stopped.

It hadn't occurred to the hospital staff that anything could be wrong. Clearly marked cases held hoses in plain view. Brass valves were kept shiny. They assumed that if a blaze broke out, they could break the glass, stretch out a hose, turn the valve, and solve the problem. It was revealed to be a false security, for it lacked the most important thing of all - water.

The test of the Son is that He speaks only that which He hears from the Father. Jesus told the Apostles what to preach and Teach. Paul followed that pattern. Paul instructed the people in the falsely-labeled "singing" passages to "speak that which has been written, the Word of Christ or the Spirit." He further told the elders to only teach that which has been taught.

Jesus said that He was the Vine and we are the Branches: if we do not continue to feed on the water of the Word He sent out from Jerusalem then we will die on the vine.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7
.........If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love;
.........even as I have kept my Fathers commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10

The churches run as hospitals trying to concock a new "medicine" can be identified when the sermons are not connected or badly connected to the Word and the "performance team" speaks sentimental poetry in a direct repudiation of the direct command of Paul and the "approved example" of Jesus in "hymning."

Those who proclaim Post Modernism, the Core Gospel and disparage the rest of the Bible, have cut themselves off from the Water of the Word and they will never get another Connection Permit.

The Eucharist which drinks the literal Jesus and eats Him crucifies Him over and over to make the blood flow out of the broken body.

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,
.........and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
.........and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, Heb 6:4
.........And have tasted the good word of God,
.........and the powers of the world to come, Heb 6: 5

If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance;
.........seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
.........and put him to an open shame. Heb 6: 6

For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: Heb 6: 7

But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. Heb 6: 8

Denying that the Water is 100% the Word of God is a denial of all that the Word has to say on the matter. Enlightenment is gone and Paul said that "it is impossible" for them to ever see or hear the Word again.

New wineskins and instrumental music was the cause and MARK that God had turned Israel over to the BEASTS to be consumed (Isaiah 5)

Rubel Shelly: Liberal denominations have the cases with the glass covers, hoses, and brass hardware of church. There are clergy and budgets, ritual and prayers, history and heroes.

There's just no Living Water -
no virgin-born, bodily-raised Savior and thus no gospel.

The only clearly-defined "worship" word in the New Testament is to "give heed" to the Words of Christ. We speak in order to teach but the singing and melody is in the heart. This is the only place where God looks for worship "in our spirit" or mind. In the Isaiah 55 water cycle worked only when the Word of God flowed out from Him, through those who were thirsty and then returned to him in singing and melody in the heart.

Anything done with the body called "worship" is a ritual and rituals can be examined to see that:

The water of the word is stripped out of song and sermon.

And there is not a microsecond of time to meditate on the meaning of the Word taught "as they have been taught."

We can run the "water" test: just look at what happens in pulpit and the "musical worship team standing in the holy place." Look at the so called sunday schools which will leave a 20 year graduate saying, as we heard in a TV sermon today: "God shut Noah and his family in the Ark of the Covenant.

Where's the Water? "Preaching" by definition presumes to spike up the Water of the Word with "new wine" or whatever comes over the internet as chicken soup.

Rubel Shelly: Conservative groups can be just as guilty though. There are system and doctrine, rules and judgments, tradition and bluster.

But there is no Living Water -
just the dusty jars of institutional custom and control. A noble vision of the kingdom of God has been swapped for maintaining a hollow institution. Church membership doesn't save. Only Christ can do that.

One truly believes that all of this comes out of a minority who see themselves as constituting the Priesthood and thus competent to bash the Pharisees (who didn't use music). All of the bluster, judgment, false doctines, new rules and tradition originates in the pulpit which has no authority other than a stand to hold up the Word.

One supposes that a "dusty jar" is the same as an old wineskin. The institutionalism could cease tomorrow: let all of the non-productive "staff" just resign or go out preaching the Word. Mega churches with 50 non-biblical "ministry" systems is institutional.

However, those who are faithful to the Word and all common knowledge and refuse to join the musical bands of "holy theater" are not institutionalized. Perhaps most churches close the doors during the week and the minister is involved in ministering outside of the building. That is de-institutionalized.

Jesus said that you had better "stay awake and keep your clothes with you" when someone tries to define the kingdom. Why? Why, because the kingdom of God is within you. The "rituals" of conservatives are essentially the rituals of the denominations. They all seem hell-bent to make sure, just as does Satan, to keep anyone from time to worship which happens ONLY in the mind or spirit. You cannot worship with the works of human hands whether clapping, raising or swaying to the Voodoo beat of pseudo-gospel hymns which are all Contemporary Christian Music whereas the Music word is not a Christian word.

The solution, one supposes, is to build a bigger Venue for Holy Entertainment. No. Church as "ekklesia" has no "standing army" or tower of Babylon ministry system sucking up all of the surplus cash and human potential.

"Assembly" in the New Testament means to "synagogue." Church as pagan worship center is denominational or paganistic. However, the "church" in the Bible is SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE or as A. Campbell said THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST. This was the way the Campbells proposed an assembly of various background. When you turn church into ritual then you automatically exclude those who are offendec by hand clapping.

As synagogue churcn has no instruments and it has "no praise service." Is that too tough for the Phd mind? Then ask whether the praise team can violate Paul's direct commands while the preacher is lecturing. There you have the answer: Christ will not let you do it when He is trying to speak.

"PostModernism" says that God is Dead, the Scriptures are hoplessly "sifted," there is no known truth and we just have been sucked into a philosopher's Black Hole. Strange, my dog still died when hit by a car and I still like vanilla ice cream. The laws of "floods" still washes out my water tank and water still flows down hill. Not a jot or tittle of the Word has changed meaning and it will be there when the schizophrenia (part of Post Modernism) is cured and the scholars are seen as a laughing stock.

Rubel Shelly: "Let anyone (i.e., any individual among you) who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink," said Jesus. Such a personal, individual response of a seeking, trusting heart will meet the One who can satisfy its needs.

But, Jesus explained this to mean:

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:38

Does the "direct indwelling Holy Spirit" flow out of the heart of the believer? Does Jesus in some mysterious way flow like water? No. The point is that a believer is a disciple or learner and whatever they learn naturally flows out to teach others.

Here is the prophecy:

BEHOLD, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. Isaiah 32:1

And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Isaiah 32:2

And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. Isaiah 32:3
The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. Isaiah 32:4

The vile liberal is named after the nebel or harp. Here are the doctors of the Law whose vested interest was to keep the "audience" as ignorant as possible to preserve their unlawful occupation on the backs of widows and orhans:

The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. Isaiah 32:5
For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity,
.........to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord,
.........to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. Isaiah 32:6
The instruments (musical psaltery) also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices
.........to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. Isaiah 32:7

But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand. Isaiah 32:8
Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech. Isaiah 32:9

Rubel Shelly: Thus saved, the individual is permitted to be part of the larger community of seeking, trusting hearts in whom the Holy Spirit lives and through whom he acts in the world.

The supply of life, power, and glory to the God supplied by his post-Pentecost presence is still available - and fresh.

Unless it applies to God, Spirit is neuter. My "spirit" is not a he even though it may be personified. When I am described as body, spirit and soul this does not mean that WE are triplets. Thus, until the "modern" era no one ever dared called God a person nor was the manifestation of God as Father, Son and Spirit ever seen as a "family of Gods" holding conferences.

God is THE holy or pure Spirit. However, when my spirit is made holy then I have A holy spirit.

Jesus said that "My Words are Spirit and Life" and in the singing passages, Ephesians speaks of spirit and Colossians speaks of the word of Christ.

But, Jesus said that Spirit is what flows out of the "belly" which is the HEART or spirit or mind. Jesus didn't say, "Drink me" except in the parables used to fool those not worthy of hearing the message that the food and drink was not Jesus personally but the Water and Meat and Milk of His Words.

The Well Water is the Word of Christ which as the "Mind of Christ" delivered the Holy Spirit or Mind of God the Father. This is why the "test of sonship" was that He spoke only what He heard from the Father.

The Word as Water has been supplied "once for all"

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Ju.1:3

When you reject the once-delivered Word there is no spirit available to inform you.

To say "Holy Spirit" in one sense is to say "God." However, "Spirit" conveyed to us is the Mind of Christ (Spirit) living within our mind or spirit. Spoken "Word" was capable of creating the universe and it is capable of imparting the mind or nature of God to believers. Look at a few assorted passages:

Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. John 6:68

> The Personal Spirit is the source ofLiving Waters.

> Living waters produce life.

> The Words of Jesus produce life.

> Therefore, Jesus was right after all, "My Words are Spirit and Life."

Jesus is the fountain from which the water of the word flows: we do not drink the fountain.

This is the same life which Jesus defined as spirit:

It is the spirit that quickeneth (gives life); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63

He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Fathers which sent me. John 14:24

Since God IS pure or Holy Spirit meaning that He does not have "body parts" which are NOT Spirit, when He speaks through Christ the Word, His WORDS ARE SPIRIT--they cannot be otherwise.

That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, Ephesians 5:26

Rubel Shelly: I spoke earlier of a type of argument Jesus used to press his point against those who had criticized his healing activity on the sabbath. The fact remains, however, that he ultimately presses them not to embrace arguments but mystery, not logic but himself.

Again, Post Modernism often repeats the fallacy that God is dead. The "word" is certainly declared dead by this sermonic logic. PostModernism also refutes logic and the Word and seeks a new "god" through mystery of which musical worship teams are the most powerful providers of mystery like "speaking in tongues" in Corinth.

Jesus didn't teach a mystery: he simply informed them that the Sabbath was to be their servant and not their master. There was no WORSHIP SERVICES on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was to give rest and to keep the Jews away from the ancient Babylonian Sabbath Keeping as worship.

There was never anything which restricted the Jews from doing what was needfu.

Therefore, there is no mystery.

Jesus ALWAYS speaks mystery to those who have rejected the Word beyond redemption. If we just have opened eyes and ears it is easy to hear Jesus logically pointing the people to give up the improvized WATER DRAWING ritual and drink of His Spirit which He said, quite logically, was His Word as Spirit and Life.

The Apostles had no mystical mis-grasp of this and therefore spoke of feeding the people with MILK and MEAT and not with the literal, mystical Jesus.

Rubel Shelly: The artesian well created in believers by the Holy Spirit is not particularly logical. Oh, nothing about Christianity is irrational or nonsensical. But the deliverance, renewal, and joy Jesus Christ creates in once-thirsty, once-rebellious sinners is beyond logical categories. In logic, we cannot derive conclusions that are not somehow already embedded in the premises.

But, Jesus said that Spirit is what flows out of the "belly" which is the HEART or spirit or mind of Christ. Mind by definition is logical, rational or spiritual. If the WATER = THE WORD then this is 100% logical and any Bible reader can read and understand.

Major premise: My Word is Spirit and Life.

Minor Premise: Believer's belly (mind, heart) will FLOW OUT the water, milk and meat in terms of logical words.

Conclusion: This is just as logical as the law of gravity which no one understands.

The clear conscience which we ask from God at baptism clears off the obstacles of a carnal brain and gives one's senses a co-perception of spiritual things:

Suneidesis (g4893) soon-i'-day-sis; from a prol. form of 4894; co- perception, i.e. moral consciousness; - conscience.

Suneido (g4894) soon-i'-do; from 4862 and 1492; to see completely; used (like its prim.) only in two past tenses, respectively mean. to understand or become aware, and to be conscious or (clandestinely) informed of: - consider, know, be privy, be ware of.

The "mystery" was left with the Jews. However, Jesus clandestinely informed the Apostles that we dont eat and drink Him Personally but "My Words ARE Spirit and they are LIFE."

If that is still a mystery then Jesus isn't speaking to you and will never speak to you.

Any Bible believer knows the spiritual high of having a "clear conscience" promised only by turning to Christ in baptism. This does not mean "preacher-absolved guilt from sin." Rather, it means to be able to understand the Word when we read it and grasp the 'mystery' which Christ was hidden from the foundation of the world in parables.

I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying,
.........my conscience confirms it in the (my) Holy Spirit Rom 9:1
.........That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. Rom 9:2

Mankind cannot be renewed or "revived" by a revival of human philosophy or human opinion chopping up the Spirit Words of Christ. Rather, renewing of the mind:

And be not conformed to this world: but ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Titus 3:5

Rubel Shelly: As with mathematics, we cannot generate a sum greater than the total of its parts. In the matter of redemption, though, logic and human categories of understanding yield to the mysteries of imputed righteousness, spiritual power from the indwelling Spirit of God, and supernatural transformation into the likeness of Christ himself.

But, if we honor God by honoring Christ by honoring His Word, we have the witness in our own spirit and we don't have to try to use mathematics to understand it.

The Indwelling Spirit of God is not a person who leads you "beyond the sacred page." Rather, the Spirit of God is the Mind of Christ or mental disposition. That Spirit dwells to the extent that we fill up with the Mind of Christ through His Word. No one has a direct connection to God Who is Spirit grand enough to make the Written Word obsolete.

I don't understand how God's free gift of food depends on me planting the seed and watering. All I have to know is that I will never get the Free Gift of Food without planting. I can follow the rules in my realm and let God give the increase.

Now, Peter established a law: a statement of cause and effect about spiritual life;

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 2 Peter 1:19

Does God still have a will? Is that expressed in commands? How do we know in the Post-Modern, Post-Biblical era?

Only by a continual renewal by giving heed to the Word (as the operative "worship" word in the church as synagogue) will spiritual (mental) life be renewed by the Words of Christ which ARE Spirit and Life.

Rubel Shelly: Something happens that is more significant than a logician's proof or a mathematician's problem-solving. Caterpillar-ugly sinners are metamorphosed into butterfly-lovely saints. That isn't logic; it is grace. It is a new creation in which the renewed whole is so much greater than the sum of its own parts (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18; 5:17).

We still have Dr. Shelly wanting to push a direct indwelling of the third "person" of the God family. However, the mystery goes away if we just listen to Jesus and don't turn off too quickly. To metamorphose you have to "let die" the old grub worm and "burn it up" on the altar:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1

And be not conformed to this world:
..........but ye transformed
..........by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Ro.12:2

Metamorphoo (g3339) met-am-or-fo'- o; from 3326 and 3445; to transform (lit. or fig. "metamorphose"): - change, transfigure, transform.

We noted that as Full Deity (Col. 2:0) Jesus is pure or Holy Spirit:

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Cor 3:17

Therefore, what comes out of His mouth is Spirit and Life. Not only water and milk and meat but also light:

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2Co.3:18

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 2Co. 4:3

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2Co. 4:4

Jesus' "Devil Test" is that "he speaks on his own." Therefore, if we are still speaking on our own then Satan is using us to "take away the keys to knowledge." Paul passed the test:

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. 2Co. 4:5

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2Co. 4:6

Ancient Paganism's Attempt to Regenerate Through External means and "see Godliness as a means of financial gain."

The regeneration of the Post Modern, holy theater of the new "emerging church of Christ" sees the mysteries of Dionysus or Bacchus as having power to "move the worshipers into the presence of God." Post Modernism is also Gnostic: this means that the ZOE concept is used to "facilitate" worship in the external body parts and thereby silence the spirit.

There is no grace in it.

"Looking at the subject in the light of the Bacchanalian orgies (Read Ephesus and Corinth), which,
..........as the reader has seen, commemorated the history of Nimrod, it is evident that
..........he led mankind to seek their chief good in sensual enjoyment,

and showed them how they might enjoy the pleasures of sin, without any fear of the wrath of a holy God. (Voodoo, Rock, Boogie Woogie becomes Contemporary Christian Music)

"In his various expeditions he was always accompanied by troops of women; and by music and song, and games (ritual drama) and revelries, and everything that could please the natural hearts,

he commended himself to the good graces of mankind." (Hislop, Alexander, The Two Babylons, p. 55, Loizeaux Brothers)

Rubel Shelly: The generation waiting to hear the gospel today reminds me of the people Jesus faced at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem back in A.D. 29. They are more troubled by doubt than by guilt, more concerned to find meaning for their lives here than worried about life after death. Recent events in our world have shaken the confidence of many people that their psychological peace of mind had been secured by America's geographical refuge and economic security. Terrorism and recession have left those people wondering if there is something more - more secure, more satisfying, more fulfilling than our science, politics, and money.

Having researched the ancient documents dating perhaps 2,000 years before Moses wrote the Bible to keep Israel free from existing religions, we sincerely doubt that human nature has changed by one molecule out of the long chain of DNA which is the "book" which constructs the modern mind. Its motives, fears, methods of grasping truth has not changed.

However, Post Modernism has decided that the Old Brain is dead or "passed into a Black Hole and is not in the void of a 'worm hole' but will some time pass out through a 'white hole' and we will have a totally new species.

We suggest that especially those calling themselves "christian colleges" find the philosophers some new job training program to keep them from contemplating their own belly buttons. They just sound sick: Jesus called them "doctors of the law" and threw them off the payroll.

There is no mystery for anyone who DARES be on the payroll when Jesus comes:

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:16

Trying to suck them into the Seeker systems such as the Feast of Tabernacles as it had degenerated into a giant fertility ritual and Trade Fair selling books and "cds" was the error of most Jews. Therefore, in contrast to the legalistic, carnal kingdom, Jesus said that "the kingdom is within you" and therefore, you must "worship in spirit" as it (your mind) is devoted to Truth.

Apollo (Abaddon, Apollyon) is the model of the Destroyer found in the Old Testament and who had his Seeker System of theater, gymnasium, swimming pool and venue for getting a new message from the "gods."

Jesus fired these clergy-in-waiting and that is why they did and will murder Him any chance they get. An evangelist is a Paul Revere: a herald. If he does not "go" then he is not a herald and if he changes the message as ambassador he gets killed by the sword of the spirit.

Recent events are due, probably in large part, because churches have abrogated the synagoguing function and turned into twin towers of mercinary religion. This is why people of normally high moral standards see even American religion as a pagan orgy.

The shaking of confidence is probably due more to "creating spiritual anxiety through religious ritual" and mind-stressing sermonizing and complex harmony than the world's events.

Rubel Shelly: They are thirsty. They have drunk from the shallow wells of human design and are still thirsty. They need to drink Living Water - to have a personal relationship with God through Christ.

And the bubbling spring of spiritual life through the
presence of the Holy Spirit will evidence a continual stream of joy, peace, and righteousness in their lives from that point forward. Their thirst will be satisfied.

This is a result of Post Modern "taking liberties" with the writings of John. In the real, "old modern Bible" Inspiration says (100%) that people drink living waters and eat by FEEDING ON THE INSPIRED WORD. IF, TO THE PREACHER, THERE IS NO INSPIRED WORD THERE IS NO FOOD.

Joy is not compared to water. Rather, Isaiah wrote:

Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Isa 12:2

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Is.12:3

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters,

and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim. Joel 3:18

The water and the fountain are not the same thing.

Turning to wine, women and song along with instrumental music permitted a religion of the "holy place" which was maintained by stealing from the poor (tithing) in order to support the "mega temples" and "ministry staff" which, as God promised, grew to the point that it broke down the "like the nation's kingdom" to show Israel the folly of the idolatry of nationhood.

The "gods" worshiped in the thirsty religions was the "starry host" God turned Israel over to after their musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. Therefore, the musical symbol was always "we will not listen to your words." This was not just a cause but a MARK that israel was lost beyond redemption.

When the Biblical examples turn from the Word to music they have moved beyond redemption. One result is that they heap on more "programs and programmers" this was not something from which one could ever recover: it was one unforgivable sin.

Here is what it is: music and speaking in tongues. Bruner in The Holy Spirit notes that "most church music is low level glossolalia."

That chant (parate their own words like speaking in tongues) to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; Am.6:5

And I will turn your feasts (religious festivals) into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. Amos 8:10

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread,

nor a thirst for water, but
of hearing the words of the Lord: Amos 8:11

Here is direct proof: that which quenches spiritual thirst is the words of the Lord.

However, once the teacher has made the entire Word of God obsolete waiting for a new Post Modern set of sifted truth, it is not remotely possible that he can supply the water of the Word.

Indeed, the rejection of all but the CORE GOSPEL is a MARK that one is busily engaged in taking away the key to knowledge. As a result:

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. Amos 8:12

If the next generation is thirsting then please sit down the sister singers and "musical worship teams" trying to be the mediators between man and God. Get rid of the "cutting out of paper dolls" even into the 12th grade and make "church" once again into a synagogue, a school of the Bible and not of the latest "froth" out of the theologians. Just let the Word be taught and the Spirit will give the increase.

The Sabbath was NOT A DAY OF WORSHIP.

Rather, to keep Israel from participating in the Babylonian Sabbath rituals, God demanded a day of REST. However, if local, one could attend the Synagogue. Synagogue like church was SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE and neither HAD A PRAISE SERVICE.

Like the test of sonship, a true sabbath was destructive when it denied God by denying the value of His Word "as it has been taught."

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Is.58:13

Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Eze 13:2 (Often female prophetesses)

Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing Eze 13:3 (See 1 Cor 14)

They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Eze 13:6

Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken? Eze 13:7

The Jews, too, were looking for some supernatural manifestation of God the Spirit. Why didn't they like the Word of God? Because it did not create a bubbly massage on their human senses. While they were looking for the "living waters" of Isaiah, God Himself was standing close by to do nothing no more mystical than to TEACH THEM SOME WORDS. The "spirit" is not a little person of whom we have control and who serves as our house boy. The Spirit promised in Isaiah 11 is the seven lampstands:

The spirit is the spirit of widsom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord and of a quick to understand mind. Isa 11:2-4

Jesus dismissed the "multitudes" with parables about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. However, for those who stayed around to ask for the SPIRIT of the message, Jesus boiled all of the supernatural magic people wanted down to "hearing my words" because they are Spirit and Life.

Our generation has hungered and thirsted for the Word and its clergy has offered them "the circus and cake." Anyone who believes that Christ's words are obsolete and that you must hire "ME" to feed you is by definition the only Pharisees among us.

Conclusion

Rubel Shelly: We don't think much about it until we don't have it. On a hot day, nothing slakes a thirst so well. You can live for several weeks without food, but you can live only a few days - probably no more than four or five - without it. Water.

You can't live without Jesus either. He is the spiritual equivalent to your heart, soul, and mind of water to your body!

We suppose that if you have sifted out all but the seven facts about Jesus (the Core gospel) then everything has to be Christ or connected to Him.

Does this mean that my MIND is the physical equivalent of God Incarnate?

No. In Jesus dwells full Deity (Col 2:9). He is now pure Spirit and His Words are Spirit or the mental disposition of Deity.

Our spirit is our mental disposition and thinking inner person which is equivalent to God's mind.

However, God uses different words because they have different meanings. Therefore, Christ SUPPLIES the water and therefore cannot BE the water.

I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. Job 32:7

But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration (intellect) of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Job 32:8

Paul said that the spirit of man is to that man what the Spirit of God is to God.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Cor 2:9

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

For what man knoweth the things of a man,

save the spirit 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

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

If we are trying to get the whole body involved in "worship" we are trying to honor God with a dead body. Our spirit is that part of us which understands God's Spirit expressed to us in Words which God as Pure or Holy Spirit teaches.

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

This is why Jesus said that the only part of our being which worships is "in spirit" or in our own mind as it gives heed to the Words which God's Spirit delivers.

Because God is pure Spirit, and does not consist of anything not Spirit, His Words logically are Spirit.

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

However, Paul preached the Core Gospel to most of the Corinthians because they were "body" people.

AND I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 1 Cor 3:1

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 1 Cor 3:2

Therefore, preaching the Core Gospel is preaching totally to the carnal body. Why do they do that to you? Because they assume that you are carnal, ignorant and are not regenerate.

God was competent to put His Word in a human body. Therefore, we shouldn't dare suggest that He is not able to put His Mind or Spirit in the WRITTEN WORDS. Oh, not so you can cut and paste and make sense but so that you can "read it and discuss it as the only resource for worship as synagogue.

Paul said that the Mind of Christ or Spirit is to God what our mind or spirit is to us. Jesus clearly said that He put the power into His Words. Disobedience of the superior minds in connection with John's baptism was not that they sinned and made God mad. Rather, by rejecting the message of baptism, they "rejected the counsel of God for their lives." So, God puts the judgment and the power of life and death in His Words. One of the tests of our fitness for the kingdom is whether we can accept that fact.

Of course, God doesn't judge us by letting the clergy "take away the key to knowledge." Nor, does He ultimately judge us. Jesus said:

He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. Jn.12:48

Christ put life, spirit and judgment into His Words. Reject that and you do not have the Mind or Spirit of Christ.

When we reach judgment day, Jesus will say: "You wanted magic. The supernatural like the pagans wanted when they sang, played instruments and danced themselves into 'exhilaration.' However, I took away all of the LEGALISM of musical rituals, keeping of days, doing "acts" or worshiping with the works of your hands or voice. I, as Word or Voice of the One Spirit God gave you free Spirit by speaking my Words to you."

However, every sermon you preached ignored Paul's instruction to "give attention to the public reading of the Word." We told you that "worship" was as simple as "giving heed" to my Spirit Word by meditating about them in your own spirit or mind." But, just like the Pharisees, you wanted to "see it, feel it, touch it, taste it, hear it." Therefore, My Words will judge you and you will say: "Too late, I know that my hunger and thirst is for the Spirit Words of God but I have shriveled and died and now I know that there is no redemption."

Rubel Shelly: In the Gospel of John, Jesus has already told a Samaritan woman he met by Jacob's Well this: "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up to eternal life" (John 4:13b-14). He has come back to that same motif here in chapter 7. And our writer John will close the final book of canonical Scripture with these words from Jesus: "Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift" (Rev. 22:17b).

We can tell you as absolutely as anything can be said: you can neither buy nor seel the Water of the Word.

Paul and Peter often warn us to use the Word of Christ in our teaching or "singing." The reason is that it is God inspired and is already "digested" and free for the taking. Furthermore, if you open up the Word for further expounding (private interpretation) then you will invite in the peddlers of the Word: those who "see godliness as a means of financial gain." That is, those who see "churching" as a job like plumber or carpenter.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Is.55:2

That is defined as the Words of God, rain, drink, food.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. Rev 21:5

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

I will give unto him that is athirst
of the fountain of the water of life freely (without cost). Rev 21
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Rev 21:7

We are not yet there!

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will,

let him take the water of life freely. Rev 22:17
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book,
If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: Rev 22:18

That defines a then but now Pharisee: they were actors or hypocrites, they made up their own rules just to silence the Word of God, they loved to stand over people as performers and they did it as "occupation" and therefore stole the houses of widows no matter how convinced she was that she should will her children's heritage to the "theater building program."

Rubel Shelly: Dear Jesus, help us to remember that just as our bodies cannot live without water our spirits cannot live without you.

You are the water of life!

Just as our bodily thirst sends us to find water, may our spiritual thirst for righteousness direct us to you today. You are the water of life! Keep us from any gullibility or deception that would send us to some other source for salvation.

Waters flow out of the mouth from the heart.

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Jas 3:10

Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Jas 3:11

Part of the PostModern theology (I know nothing, you know nothing, therefore don't tell me that what I am doing is wrong) is that it is Dionysic. Those were the wine drinking, meat eating people with a pagan background which demanded wine and instrumental music to "rouse the spirit of their gods." Therefore, Paul insisted in Romans 15 that they "synagogue." That is, they glorify God with one voice by speaking or singing "that whichis written."

Another part of PostModernism is that it is musical and charismatic. This is why most of those attacking conservatives subscribe to The New Wineskins and Instrumental music cult of paganism. However, this describes those who make it their institutional goal the taking away of the key to knowledge.

These are the ones causing the little offended ones to thirst for the Word but die.

Too bad that the paying "audience" will go away hungering and thirsting for the Word and cannot find it.

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them Isa 5:11

And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their (religious festivals) feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Isa 5:12

Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Is.5:13

Too bad that people are led to believe that they have to have some kind of literal "Spirit person" indwelling them when Jesus gave His glory to His Word as "Spirit and Life."

Rubel Shelly: You alone are the water of life! We believe, we drink, we live, we rejoice - all by your mercy and grace, your death and your life, your presence and your Spirit. Amen.

Too bad that by repudiating the clear Word of prophecy and of Jesus, people will go away hungering and thirsting for the Word of Christ because they have not been told that THE WORDS OF CHRIST is the SPIRIT or WATER OF THE WORD. We eat the words of Jesus: we do not eat Jesus. We imbibe His Mind or Spirit by learning and giving heed (worshiping) with His Words.

When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty. Jer 15:16

I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Jer 15:17 (singing, playing instruments, clapping hands. This was the "rising up to play" in musical idolatry at Mount Sinai.)

Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails? Jer 15:18

Therefore this is what the LORD says: "If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. Jer 15:19

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 1Jn.5:6

No, Jesus is not the Water. The Water or food is the Words of Christ. After defining the Holy Spirit as the Mind of Christ, Paul continued:

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
AND I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 1 Cor 3:1
..........I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 1 Cor 3:2

Paul spoke the Core Gospel to those who were carnal and unable to hear beyond the "seven facts about Jesus."

We noted above that Isaiah define the milk as the free word of God. Therefore, Paul didn't feed the people on Jesus nor did he look for a direct Spirit teaching. He caused the Water of the Word to flow out in all directions from Jerusalem by going and preaching both "water and word."

We drink the "contents" and not the "cup." Therefore, the living waters flow from God as the fountain.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13

And that is why the church is drying up: it is full of dead men's bones who have no live because they have rejected the Word as the source of Spirit and Life.

Don't want to preach the word without cutting the Life and Spirit out of it? That is ok with God. However, a Christian is defined by the only Christian documents. If you reject the words of Plato you are not a disciple of Plato and if you reject the Words of Christ you are not a Christian.

Your church is not the church of Christ. If you are not a "suffering servant" but manufacture ways to be applauded by mankind then you are not an evangelist.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: Revelation 6:9

You can recognize the king over all of the locusts (those who eat up the houses of widows): they have a Seeker Center. And the Logos Dr. Shelly has John borrowing from the Greeks is Hermes or Mercury: the father of musical instruments, thieves and robbers.

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. Re.9:11

The dragon may be after you. That is probably why you do not "keep the commanments of God."

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12: 17

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. Re.19:10

If you participate in a "thirst quenching" group which rejects the Word as the Spirit and Life of a Holy God then you are hungering and thirsting for the Word and men love to have it so. The danger of "hanging on" is that:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,

and have tasted of the heavenly gift,

and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, Heb 6:4

And have tasted the good word of God,

and the powers of the world to come, Heb 6:5

If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Heb 6:6

The Post Modern mind does believe (among many) that "God is dead" (effectually) and that the Word called the Bible has been "sifted" through philosophy and human agendas. Therefore, the only thing YOU can trust is the seven facts about Jesus: the Core Gospel.

This is why Jesus "fired" the doctors of the Law and took on the sole teaching task through His Word:

I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. Ezekiel 34:15

I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. Ezekiel 34: 16

And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. Ezekiel 34: 17

Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? Ezekiel 34: 18

And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. Ezekiel 34: 19

Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Ezekiel 34: 20

Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; Ezekiel 34: 21

Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. Ezekiel 34: 22

And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. Ezekiel 34: 23

And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. Ezekiel 34: 24

And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts (the Satan or serpent type) to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. Ezekiel 34: 25

And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. Ezekiel 34: 26

And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. Ezekiel 34: 27

And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. Ezekiel 34: 28

Philosophers are free to try to take over the pulpits but you are free to reject it because followers fall into the same logical ditch as the leaders. The result of rejecting the WORD of Christ as Spirit and Life and the "food and drink" of the kingdom then you are not just tolerating "churching" but:

He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 1Jn.5:10

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