Why is this World Spiritually Blind?
If one follows along with the threads on these Christian Boards today, one would suppose that those involved in discussions on the Bible know what they are are talkling about. Some of them, to others, would appear to have some knowledge of the Bible. I find that very humorous myself, because none of them have any clue as to what they are talking about. Yet they would appear they, are themselves, unaware of that. They are spiritually blind, but do not know that they are. That, of course is to be expected, being in that spiritually blind condition. Naturally they themselves would not be aware they know nothing about what they are talking about. Why is that? Why does that situation exist? To begin with, three scriptures I will set forth will explain why that that blindness exists. Beginning with the words of the Apostle John at 1 John 5:19 - Which tells us this:
19 "We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one." {1 John 5:19 NLT}
Un-be-knowns to all Mankind the devil has control of all of their minds, that alone would rob them of all true knowledge of the Bible. However; that is merely the beginning, which John will further explain:
9 "So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him." {Revelation 12:9 NWT}
This entire World is Blind and misled by satan the devil; like mechanical Robots the World goes through its daily routine doing satan's will, and isn't even aware of it.
In their minds though they know all there is there is to know about the Christ, being as they all will tell us they are Cristian's, but the Apostle Paul has some startling news about that, that shows they know nothing at all about the Christ, and shows further satan's grip on their minds. Notice Pauls words:
3 "If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through." {2 Corinthians 4:3,4 NWT}
What we have today is a World filled with people who are led along by the devil, under his Power and Control, Misled and Blinded by him who think they know all there is to know about the Christ, when in actuality, it is impossible for them to know anything about the glorious good news about the Christ. They have absolutely no idea in the World what that good news is all about. Their mental picture of the Christ every single year is a wee Babe in a manger, not knowing since his ascension in the fiirst Century, he's been wearing his crown simply waiting to take his Kingdom authority. Far from a Babe in any Manger.
Being under satan's power, blinded and miled by him is merely the tip of the iceberg, their problem is much more serious than that, as I'll now go on to show. While in that blind condition they are not granted to understand the sacred secrets of the Kingdom of God. That alone is devastating to them. {Matthew 13:11} More than that, they have not had their minds fully opened to grasp the meaning of the scriptures. That is even more devastating to them. {Luke 24:45} One last thing they lack, which if possessed, would give them the knowledge that they so desperately need. Jesus himself will inform us of just what that is. Note his words on the life-saver they need, and just how to come into possession of it:
"If YOU love me, YOU will observe my commandments; 16 and I will request the Father and he will give YOU another helper to be with YOU forever, 17 the spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither beholds it nor knows it. YOU know it, because it remains with YOU and is in YOU." {John 14:15-17 NWT}
Notice here! Jesus was not speaking to the World in general, for the World could not receive what he would ask his Father for. The World neither beheld it, or knew it; only certain ones would. It would remain with them and be in them. That was the Spirit of the Truth, or the Holy Spirit.
"I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have observed your word. 7 They have now come to know that all the things you gave me are from you; 8 because the sayings that you gave me I have given to them, and they have received them and have certainly come to know that I came out as your representative, and they have believed that you sent me forth. 9 I make reuqest concerning them; I make request, not concerning the world, but concerning those you have given me; because they are yours, 10 and all my things are yours and yours are mine, and I have been glorified among them." {John 17:6-10 NWT} Notice who came out as Jehovah's reopresentative. The Pope? The Governing Body of the Watchtower society"Any other? No! The Christ! No one else!
Notice! These ones given to the Christ Jehovah had first chosen to give to his Son, belonged to him firstly, he had turned them over to his Son. Jesus in turn gave his Fathers word to them. Jesus was making request only for them for the Holy Spirit to be with them and in them. Not for the World in general. Those chosen would know the Holy Spirit, but not the World in general. They would not behold it, or know it. Those from among Mankind that the Father had given his Son, Jesus would request the Father on their behalf for the Holy Spirit to be with them forever. Unless the Father did the choosing and drawing, there was no other way of approach to the Christ, and it was essential one gain approach to the Christ first in order to gain Approach to the Father. Jesus had made that very clear with his following words:
Jesus said to him: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." {John 14:6 NWT}
There was one way of approach to the Father, and only one. Those that believe this approach can be gained through any of the Main-Line Religions of this World are sadly mistaken. Jesus also made that very clear, with these next words to follow:
"No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him; and I will resurrect him in the last day.
45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by Jehovah.’ Everyone that has heard from the Father and has learned comes to me." {John 6:44 NWT}Jesus did not here tell us, we could approach his Father through any other means but than through himself, and was one to gain that approach, he/she must be drawn by Jehovah to his Son. So, whether we gain that approach or not is in Jehovah's Hands. Jehovah will not draw us to any of the Mainline Religions of this World, and for very good reason. Paul will show us that reason next:
5 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all—[this is] what is to be witnessed to at its own particular times." {1 Timothy 2:5 NWT}
Paul has shown us that it was Jesus who gave himself as a corresponding ransom for all, to hold that office as one mediator; it does not belong to any of the Popes, any of the Governing Body of the Watchtower Society, or any of the Main-Line Religions of this World; it belongs solely to the Christ and to no one else. Unless we are drawn to him by his Father, there is no other way to obtain the Holy Spirit, because that Holy Spirit is in the hands of the Christ alone. Now, and since the first Century. {Acts 2:33}
What I will next point out is something, and I don't care which Religion you wish to name, that only the Christ can teach you to put you on this road I'm about too mention. John will inform you what that is:
3 "This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ." {John 17:3 NWT}
Say what you will, there is only one now equipped to bring us to this knowledge about the only true God, and the one God sent forth. That is the one exalted to the right hand of God, who because of that, has received the promised Holy Spirit, to use as a teaching instrument to give us all that knowledge that will put us all on the road to everlasting life.
None of the Popes are the right hand of God! The Governing Body of the Watchtower Society is not at the right hand of God; absolutely none of the Main-Line Religions with their vast array of religious teachers are at the right hand of God. If you do not get that knowledge, so crucial for gaining everlasting life, from the Christ, you don't get that knowledge; because no other source can teach it to you. Notice now, if you receive it, how it will work on you. First we have to receive of the Holy Spirit, and there's only one can obtain that for us, as Jesus will show:
"If YOU love me, YOU will observe my commandments; 16 and I will request the Father and he will give YOU another helper to be with YOU forever, 17 the spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither beholds it nor knows it. YOU know it, because it remains with YOU and is in YOU."{John 14:15-17 NWT}
Two things we must do to get Jesus to move on our behalf. Love him! Show that love by obeying what he commands. Not obeying what any self exalted puffed up false Prophet commands you to do. Only what the Christ commands. When we're doing that to his satisfaction, then he'll request the Father on our behalf for the Holy Spirit to be operational on us. Notice what will occur when that happens:
26 "But the helper, the holy spirit, which the Father will send in my name, that one will teach YOU all things and bring back to YOUR minds all the things I told YOU." {John 14:26 NWT}
This is exactly what we need isn't it? To be taught all things? Even have things brought back to our minds that we've read and studied, as we need them, because no one could retain everything he/she reads, help would be needed to bring it back to mind. Jesus continues:
13 "However, when that one arrives, the spirit of the truth, he will guide YOU into all the truth, for he will not speak of his own impulse, but what things he hears he will speak, and he will declare to YOU the things coming.14 That one will glorify me, because he will receive from what is mine and will declare it to YOU." {John 16:13,14NWT}
Imagine having all truth? Even knowing the future? On this point about the Holy Spirit actually being in someone? John will explain that for us:
"These things I write YOU about those who are trying to mislead YOU. 27 And as for YOU, the anointing that YOU received from him remains in YOU, and YOU do not need anyone to be teaching YOU; but, as the anointing from him is teaching YOU about all things, and is true and is no lie, and just as it has taught YOU, remain in union with him." {1 John 2:27 NWT}
When one would receive of this anointing, you would not be able to mislead these ones, their learning process would be gradual, commensurate with the time and effort they put forth at study, would dictate how much knowledge they had gained; but they would need no one to teach them, because their anointing with Holy Spirit was teaching them all they needed to know. They would not need any Pope! Or Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses. Or any of the Main-line Religions, who usurp the power and position of the Christ.
We would like to believe that this would apply to the entire world, but sad to say, it applies to only a very few, as Jesus had said, that only a few were on the road to everlasting life, while the majority of Mankind was on the broad road leading off into destruction. {Matthew 7:13,14} {Luke 13:24} Jesus very pointedly said, that the World in general was not able to receive of the Holy Spirit; they never saw it or knew it. In harmony with that Zephaniah the Prophet predicted that Jehovah was to "make an extermination, indeed a terrible one of all the inhabited earth." {Zephaniah 1:14-18}
Isaiah too predicted a World destruction with only a few survivors left over in the earth. {Isaiah 24:1-6} As did the Apostle John, when he foretold satan being thrown down to the earth.
17"And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus." {Revelation 12:17 DT} John mentions only a remnant of survivors of the seed of the Heavenly Woman who have the work of bearing witness to Jesus. Prior to the ourbreak of the great tribulation John mentions a final sealing of the Heavenly calling, as well:
1 "After this I saw four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth, holding tight the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow upon the earth or upon the sea or upon any tree. 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the sunrising, having a seal of [the] living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying: "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the slaves of our God in their foreheads." 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel:"{Revelation 7:1-4 {NWT} Do not miss the point here. The sealing of the heavenly calling will go on, is going on now, until the great tribulation breaks out. That will be when those four angels release those four winds of destructiion. Up to this point in time those four winds are still being held in check. Get ready to duck when they are released. That will be when the final choosing and calling of the High Calling of God is completed.
We know too there was a final separating work done between the sheep and the goats, with the sheep on the right hand of favor, while the goats reserved for the lake of fire. How many survivors in all is anybodies guess, but it looks bad for the World of Mankind in general. {Matthew 25:31-46} Lacking the Holy Spirit as they do, their fate is pretty well sealed. Without the Holy Spirit they could be nothing else but spiritually blind, and without accurate knowledge of Jehovah and his Son, they could never attian to everlasting life; only everlasting death in the lake of fire. I would say if any changes need to be made, they had better be done, like real quick-like. After-all! How much time can be left now? Even more! Consider this:
26"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30"It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything."{Luke 17:26-31 NIV}
Eight People made it through the Flood! Three out of Sodom and Gomorra. What did Jesus mean: "Just as?" The Same as in the days of Lot? " "Just like this when he is revealed?"
If nothing else, I'd say there's cause for great concern, for all of us right now. Wouldn't you?Wannabe