August 7, 2010 · 5:26 pm

God’s Eternal Purpose: “Bringing Many Sons unto Glory”

The thoughts and intents of the Father’s heart are without beginning and end.  His purpose has existed through all time and has never wavered, has never changed. His intention toward His creation is everlasting.

It is forever the same and will always be true and valid.  His purpose will always go on; it will never stop.  It will come to pass; nothing can prevent His eternal purpose from finding full fruition in this earth and in the heavens.  His purpose is, of course, the perfect example of the  definition of “eternal” (Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, 2nd College Edition).

God not only has, but is the definitive word on what will transpire here on earth and in the entire universe.  “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God” John 1:1.  “Word” is translated from the Greek word Logos, meaning “(1) a thought or concept; (2) the expression or utterance of that thought” (note, Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1114).  Therefore, in the beginning was the thought or concept, and that thought or concept was the Supreme Being.  And that thought, that Word, became an utterance of that thinking.  And that Word, that Thought, would unfold into a living reality throughout the universe.

Those thoughts, expressed in words, comprise the purpose of God.  His purpose is the road His creation will travel.  His thoughts are His counsel, and they shall stand forever and will come to pass.  The counsel of Yahweh standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Psalms 33:11. 

    Both “purpose” and “thoughts” are words in English translated from the same Hebrew word machashabah, #4284 in Strong’s Concordance.  His thoughts are His purpose.  They express His intentions, His plan, His purpose.  And these thoughts, this purpose, are an intention directed personally and deliberately by God toward His people.  It is a plan that involves people right here on earth.  David knew this intimate truth that God hovers in thought abundantly over his people.  Many, O Yahweh, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Psalms 40:5.  David was well aware of God’s purpose, which definitely concerned him and all of Israel.

And the Word, the Purpose, the Thoughts of God “became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” John 1:14.  The Word/Purpose/Thoughts of God was made flesh; He is called the Son of God, and He is full of grace and truth.  If we can tap into the truth of God’s purpose, if we can conceive of His plan, then we will know the thoughts and intents of His heart.  And when we think those thoughts, and have the same intention and purpose that He is and has, then we are well on the way of pleasing the Father.

Knowing of God’s eternal purpose, which is the grace and truth that the Word-made-flesh was full of, will bring light to us.  For the Word-made-flesh is Light.  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.  He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:9-11. 

The Purpose Incarnate was walking around on the earth He created with the people He had chosen to reveal Himself through, and the majority rejected Him.  But some will receive Him, and they will receive power to become like Him.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.

     Received Him?  Who is He?  He is the Word, the Thought, the Purpose of God from the beginning put into earthen vessels.  Receive His thoughts and intention and purpose and you are receiving Him.  And you will then receive power to become His sons.  And the sons will have believed on His name.  The sons will not only know His real Hebrew name Yahshua, but they will believe what His name means.  More on that later.

His Purpose Is Sharing Himself with His Offsprin

Yes, Yahweh has a purpose.  He has thoughts toward certain chosen vessels, His sons and daughters to be.  To get them into His camp, He deliberately contacts them or calls them.  He lets them know He is real in some way.  He puts a desire and a hunger in their hearts to know the truth as to why they are here.  He feeds their hunger with small portions of the truth, and they grow.  And soon they begin to realize that everything seems to work out for them.  Even through the bad times, the times of suffering, both of their making and through no fault of their own, God seems to bring some good out of it.  They realize that they are maturing and becoming less selfish.  They begin to love this invisible God who has provided a plan to deliver them from their sinful selves.  Where once they were destroying themselves and their families, they now are enjoying more peace and harmony in  their  lives.   And  we  know   that   all  things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.  Romans 8:28. 

      At first, his offspring may not realize that they are a special creation descended from Adam, who was created some 6,000 years ago in God’s image.  Other men had been created by God earlier.  We know this because Cain was cast out to the east of Eden after murdering his brother Abel, and there he took a wife from those people. But the descendants of Adam had a special destiny in God’s heart.   God had His eye on a few of these Adamites  before they ever were born on earth.  Unknown to them at first, He would call and choose out a few whom He knew beforehand.  And He gave them a destiny before their entry into a mortal earthly fleshly existence.  He predestinated them to be made into the exact image of the Son of God, the Word-Thought-Purpose of God.  They are to be His siblings, his brothers.  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con-formed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 8:29.  For God knew his own before ever they were, and also ordained that they should be shaped to the likeness of his Son. 8:29. NEB.

     And those that He predestinated to be exactly like Himself, those are the ones that He first contacts or calls.  And, as far as He is concerned, it is a done deal.  It is His Thought toward them that they should be like Himself.  What He has purposed, who can prevent it from coming to pass?  To those that He called, He gave them a new heart that does not sin against Him.  He justified them.  They are in His sight justified from all of their despicable past actions.  They, of course, must witness this on earth by believing the word of God about His Son, who is the sacrifice for our sins, whose shed blood slays the sin within us.  It is already done and over with in God’s mind before it ever happens here on earth to His children! And to those called ones who He has justified, He in His thinking,  in  His heart, has already glorified!  More-over, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 8:30.  He chose them long ago; when the time came he called them, he made them righteous in his sight, and then lifted them to the splendour of life as his own sons. 8:30. Phillips. 

This is God’s Doing and Not Ours

      God the Word has thought it all out and has purposed it and planned it to happen according to His predetermined counsel. Nothing accidentally happens.  He is calling, justifying, and glorifying His elect, the chosen few.  They will be “conformed to the image of His Son.” They will shortly be glorified and have their mortality swallowed up by His miraculous eternal life!  God is for them!  He helps them to do His plan, and this personally pleases Him. He gives them what they need and when they need it to become what He has pre-determined for them to become.  In the face of all this, what is there left to say?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not grudge his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need?  Romans 8:31, Phillips. 

 Not According to Us, But to His Own Purpose

      We cannot do anything to become a part of His purpose and plan.  God is saving some and calling some with a holy calling, but it is not because of anything “good” or “evil” that they have done.  You cannot work at it  in  order  to be accepted as a son or daughter.  You work at it because you realize you are chosen by God.  You cannot give enough offerings or go to church tirelessly and endlessly and expect to be one of the chosen ones by your efforts.  To be called to be like Him, to be chosen as one of his sons is not according to our own works.  It has nothing to do with what we have done, do, or ever will do.  He calls us to be His immortal sons and daughters in accordance with His own purpose that was given to us in Yahshua His Son before the world began.  Who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Yahshua the Messiah before the world began.  II Timothy 1:9.

     Our perfection and sonship in Him was given to us before the creation of the world.  Therefore, we were in existence before the world began!  We had to have spiritually been with Him in the beginning in order to have received the holy calling of sonship from Him.  It is he who brought us salvation and called us to a dedicated life, not for any merit of ours but of his own purpose and his own grace, which was granted to us in Yahshua from all eternity. 1:9. NEB.

The Inheritance

The sons and daughters of God have obtained an inheritance.  Our destiny is to inherit all things and to reign with the King of the Universe.  Now this inheritance that some are to receive is a destiny that He has pre-arranged for that elect few.  He has predestined them for greatness.  He has selected these chosen few before the world ever was, to be like Him.  And their lives—their destiny as His sons and daughters—have been predestinated in accordance with His own purpose.  He  thought  it  through  before  the  world  ever  was,  and He purposed and planned it all out to the finest detail.  He then began to work all things after the counsel of His own will  and  purpose.   For  God has allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: He purposes in his sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its  perfection and fulfillment in him.  And here is the staggering thing—that in all which will one day belong to him, we have been promised a share (since we were long ago destined for this by the one who achieves his purposes by his sovereign will), so that we, as the first to put our confidence in Christ, may bring praise to his glory! Ephesians 1:9-12, Phillips.

Summary

The great Creator, the Giver of life, has a definite plan and purpose in creating all things.  He has revealed His purpose over the last 6,000 years to only a few human beings.  We call them apostles and prophets, and they by inspiration of the Spirit of God have left us some writings that tell of His purpose.

They tell of His promise to humankind of a life everlasting—an eternal life where our frail, flimsy earthen bodies will be replaced by a glorious spiritual body in which those blessed ones will live with the Heavenly Father as His spiritual sons and daughters, His heirs of His kingdom.

The apostles and prophets speak of the following concepts that are a part of the perfecting of His sons and daughters:

  • Purpose—No accidents.  He has an eternal purpose in reproducing Himself in His children.
  • Predestination—He has given a royal destiny to a few human beings before they were ever born here on earth.
  • Foreknowledge—He knew who they would be before they were born into this earth.
  • Election—Same word as “chosen.”  He chooses or elects certain human beings to fulfill His will.
  • Grace or Favor—He favors the ones He has chosen.  They are predisposed to respond to Him, and He showers great grace on them, or He favors them with a depth of knowledge about His purpose and how He is going to perform his plan.
  • Kings and Priests—The elect or the chosen ones will acquire immortality according to His will and become like Him.  They will do the “greater works” as His ruling royal family.  They will be His immortal offspring, able to mediate the glorious blessings of His Spirit to the rest of creation.  They will be His inner circle, His cadre, His round table of rulers in His exact image, able to love mankind in the same powerful way that He did.
  • Sovereignty—He is sovereign and can do whatever He desires to do and whenever He decides to do it, in order to accomplish His purpose, plan, intention and thoughts.

[This is Chapter 2 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God.  If you would like to read more, I have it online at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…” ]  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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July 31, 2010 · 5:12 pm

How Much of the Government’s Kool-Aid Have We Drunk?

Let’s face it.  Unless we have partaken of information from alternative sources, we are basing our world view on what they have permitted us to take in.  The mainstream media are hirelings whose reins are held by their bosses who are in bed with much more powerful personages than any of us can imagine. 

As we look out over the world scene, things seem to just happen by chance, and our hapless federal government, of course, is there to “react” to each “crisis” as it tumbles and shakes out like dice on the economic and political table of the world.

However, the media slips up occasionally, revealing glimpses of a “different” reality.  For example, a documentary on cable revealed that Hitler got his financing to build Germany’s war machine from international bankers in London and New York!  London and New York!  Very few watched this program, and most who did were probably so dazed by flagons of Kool-Aid that they didn’t get the significance, or, more sadly, had no one interested to share the revelation with.  On second thought, how did seven men sitting penniless in a cold garret in 1922 ever hope to takeover Germany in ten years?  They had to have had financial help.  But the better question is, Why did the international bankers help them? 

Moreover, how about the Gulf of Tonkin incident that precipitated the Vietnam War?  It is common knowledge now–even on TV!–that it was all a bogus pretense to go to war in earnest.  And since “the love of money is the root of all evil,” then we have to look deeper to see the billions made by the “military-industrial complex” and their financial backers.

We could go on with the sinking of the Maine in 1898 and Pearl Harbor, but you get the point: Something is going on behind the scenes that we the people are not getting wind of.  Something nefarious is happening behind closed doors.  What is it?

The scriptural key is this proverb: “The borrower is servant to the lender.”  Our federal government is in huge debt to international bankers and other financiers, and through this national debt, our republic has now become the servant of strange masters and not the God of heaven. 

To prove this point, read these quotes from those who know, taken from the pages of history:

Napoleon Bonaparte: “When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.”

Niccolo Machiavelli: “For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.”

President James Madison: ““History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control of governments by controlling money and its issuance.”

President Abraham Lincoln: “The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy.”

President James A Garfield: “Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.”

The Rt. Hon. Reginald McKenna – Chancellor of the Exchequer: “I am afraid that the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can, and do, create money. The amount of money in existence varies only with the action of the banks in increasing and decreasing deposits and bank purchases. Every loan, overdraft, or bank purchase creates a deposit and every repayment of a loan, overdraft or bank sale destroys a deposit. And they who control the credit of a nation direct the policy of governments, and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.”

Sir Josiah Stamp – Bank of England: “Banking was conceived in inequity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the costs of your own salary, let them continue to create deposits.”

President Woodrow Wilson: “A great Industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world – no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men…I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country.” (President regretted signing into law the Federal Reserve Act)

Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter: “The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes.”

These are just a few authorities that will never be quoted on the evening news–not even on Fox News.  The Media know who butters their bread and who mixes their Kool-Aid.

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July 20, 2010 · 2:10 pm

“Greater Works” Comes by Believing Yahweh Dwelt Bodily in Christ

The time was growing short.  The Savior knew that He had but a short time to be with the disciples that He had chosen to reveal Himself to.  He began to comfort them with words that would reassure them that His imminent death was not the end.

He told them to not be troubled.  Just believe in God and in Me, He was saying.  Trust Me.  It is going to get rough, but stay in the ship.  After the crucifixion, I will rise again after three days and three nights.  I’m going to prepare a place for you, and I will come back for you so that you can be where I am.  Anyway, you already know the way to that place where I’m going.

Then Thomas spoke up and said, “We don’t even know where you are going, much less the way to get there.”  Thomas was evidently thinking of a literal geographical location.

“Thomas, I am the way to get there.  I am the truth, and I am the life.  I am not only the way to get there, but I am the destination, as well.  If you realized just who and what I am, then you would know who the Father is and where He is.”

“We will be satisfied if you just show us the Father.”

“After all you have witnessed me do, don’t you realize that the Father is the only one who has done these miracles through these hands?  Look at me.  Look past the flesh, and when you see the invisible Me inside, that spiritual force that lives in my body–when you have really seen Me, you have seen the Father.  For the Father is living inside of Me, and it is He who is doing all the mighty works that you see me do” (John 14: 1-10).

He was reaffirming that the Father is Spirit, or how else can the Father be dwelling in the Son?  You cannot stuff the body of the Father into the body of the Son.  The Father, then, has to be a Spirit who dwells in His Son, which is the Spirit in a human form.

Christ’s New Commandment

Then He gives us a command in v. 11.  “Believe Me.”  Believe what?  “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”  Believe the truth of my words that the Life is living in me, and that I am the way for you to get this Life, who is the Father.

Then He makes a promise in v. 12.  “Whoever believes me when I say that the Father is in me–that person will do what I have been doing.  He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I am going to my Father.”  He who believes the Savior’s words that it was Yahweh Himself, the great Eternal Spirit Creator, who was dwelling in Him–that believer will do the same things that the Savior did!  What an astounding promise!

This promise has to be to those people who know and the believe the truth about the Father being an ivisible Spirit residing in His body–us.   “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do it that glory will come to the Father (v. 13).

What Are We to Ask?

Two questions arise that need clarification.   What exactly are we to ask?  And what does it mean to ask it in His name?  What are we to ask?  We are to ask Him to do the same things through us that He did in human form!  We are to ask for the greater works to be done by His Spirit in us–that the Father may be glorified.

The believers in Yahweh-is-the-Savior [“I, even I am the LORD (Yahweh in the original Hebrew); and beside Me there is no savior.”]–believers will do greater works than what He did 2,000 years ago in His incarnation as the Son of God.  The Father, who is that great invisible Spirit, who dwelt in the Son and did the works, the miracles, the wonderful gifts to men of healing and deliverance from demons, wants to do the same works–only on a much greater scale through a body of many sons.  And so we will do the same works by the Father, the Spirit, dwelling within us.  It is not by our might, nor by our strength, by “by my Spirit saith Yahweh” that the works will be done.

The Main Pre-requisite

So it boils down to receiving more of the Spirit, more of the Father within us.  And the main pre-requisite in receiving the Spirit is obeying the Son of God, for He gives the Spirit to those who obey Him (Acts 5: 32).  He continues speaking in v. 15, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.”

What had He just commanded the disciples?  He had just told them to believe Him when He said that the Father is in Him.  “Believe also in Me,” He said.  He told them to believe Him and His word as to just Who was in Him.  “Believe Me!”  That was the commandment. 

He was telling them: You believe in God and you know that He is the Father/Spirit.  This is good.  Now believe that the Father is in Me!  Believe Me!  For it is the Father speaking to you right now through my very lips! 

This is the commandment that He wanted us to obey–believe that it was Yahweh clothed behind His special veil of flesh.

After Believing This, What Comes Next?

Immediately after this order to believe that the Father is in him, He says that He will arrange for the Holy Spirit to come down to us, to “be with us forever.”  Forever.  This signifies that once a person really receives the Spirit of truth, who is the Comforter, that He will never depart from us.  He will abide with us forever!

Bottom line: We must believe that “God was manifested in the flesh”–that Immanuel was God with us, walking on this planet in a human flesh body.  The Creator is Yahweh, who is an invisible Spirit that hides Himself behind a veil of flesh.  This is exactly what He did in the man Yahshua of Nazareth.   Now He is asking us to see past the His fleshly body [which has been changed into His spiritual body anyway] and believe that the Father was in Him, residing a brief time in that mortal flesh.  He walked among the special people of His creation.  Yahweh is the Word, and He was made flesh and dwelt among us.  And He has promised that all those who believe this word about Himself will do the same things that the Savior did.  And thousands of sons doing the same works that the Savior did will the “the greater works.”

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July 11, 2010 · 2:24 pm

His Faith–Once Delivered to the Saints

We have seen that we are to look upon the invisible things and not on the things that are seen with our earthly eyes.  Faith is one of those spiritual things that is invisible.  But there are many misconceptions as to what faith really is.  Everyone has their own imagination as to what faith is.

But faith is an invisible spiritual thing that has already been given to God’s elect.  It is a special gift from Him to His future sons and daughters that will help them grow up into Him.

It is the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).  Faith is a spiritual commodity that has been delivered to the people of God.  Who delivered it?  The Creator Yahweh did.  Faith is not something that has to be mustered up by us His people.  We rather must receive it from Him.  It is something that originates from out of His nature and is given to us.  “For every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” That includes faith.

It is His faith that is transplanted into our hearts.  It is not something we manufacture out of our own will and effort that leads us to finally believe in Him.  His faith in us is the first part of His divine nature to enter into the human heart.  But what is it exactly?  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

“Things hoped for…”  What does Yahweh hope for?  What are the desires of His heart?  What has He purposed?   Long  before  we were ever born, He saw us in our down-trodden state of sin and misery.  He also saw us rise with Him by His Spirit to vanquish sin and death in our lives.  He believed that this was a reality—that this was substance—having not yet seen it come to pass.  He believed and so therefore spoke and said that it was so.  He believed the best about us and His plan—not having seen the evidence yet of its fruition.  We as changed individuals are evidence that the invisible Supreme Being is real.  We are His witnesses that He is God.  And if He believes in His work in us before it comes to full fruition, then we should, too.  He is our example.

His divine nature is positive, full of faith and power.  All of His promises are “yes.”  Nothing negative flows from His heart.  He is positive; His attitude is positive.  In fact, He calls those things that are not, that do not exist as yet, as though they did exist.  He said that He will be all in all eventually.  We should then, right now, begin to walk around as if He already is all in you and me.  This will take belief that “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”

He is positive, giving “life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.”  This is He.  This is how He thinks.  He is positive about His capabilities.  He has absolutely no doubt about His reserves and His resolve to get done what He wants done.  And what He wants done is the multiplication, the reproduction of Himself, within His creation.  He is an invisible Spirit; He wants to see Himself in action in human form.  This is the witness that He talks about in Isaiah.  We are to be His witnesses that He is the invisible Spirit/God.  His faith believes that not only we can change, but that we will change—that we are changed!  He seeks people to worship Him in this spirit and attitude and in this truth.  He needs people to worship Him in this way—to believe the way He believes.

A key scripture regarding the nature of His faith is Romans 4: 17.  It  sometimes is advantageous to read it in several translations.  God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. KJV.  God, who gives life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.  The Scriptures.  God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.  NIV.  God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist.  TEV.

Nothing good exists within us—except His Spirit, if so be that we have received His Spirit.  By believing that He is—not only that He exists, but also that He is where He hopes, intends, and expects to be—in us.

Tapping into this faith of His will bring His Spirit down into us.  You cannot receive the Spirit by just keeping the law, or trying your best to keep the law.  Human effort in trying to keep the law (the ten commandments) will not bring His Spirit down into us.  The work of our selves, of our flesh, profits nothing in the end.  After all, it would be just us trying to accomplish a spiritual law made for a spirit to keep.  It is the spirit that makes alive…the flesh profits nothing.  The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life…Does God give you His Spirit because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?  Gal. 3: 2.  NIV.

Paul is trying to tell the foolish Galatians that no amount of us trying to keep the letter of the law will bring His Spirit into us.  Trying to keep the law in our own strength will never perfect us.  Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?  3:3.

No.  We shall receive the Spirit by believing what we heard—by faith.  We have to be like Abraham, who believed in the promises without wavering.  Even as Abraham  believed  God,  and  it was accounted to him for righteousness. 3:6. Abraham believed the promises.  But what promise?  “I will walk in them and will be their God and their sins I will remember no more.”  Hebrews 8:12.  The promise we are to believe is the promise of God giving us His Spirit.

Some of us are so afraid of being like “them”—the mainstream denominations with their cheap grace.  But Yahweh is saying to us that you are not like them.  You have respect to my laws and ways and precepts and you know my name.  But although your conscious effort to keep my laws and honor my sabbaths are good intentioned, that alone should be the fruit of the state I want you to be in.  And that state is a state of your old nature not being there in the temple of your body, but rather my Spirit, my presence.  I have promised you my Spirit, my presence.  That is all you need.  When I am there in you, I’ll keep my laws in you. If any man have not the Spirit of Messiah he is none of His. You do not have to worry about that.  My servant Paul kept the feasts and preached law keeping.  He forbad sinning.  Shall we continue in sin that grace (favor) may abound? God forbid. Romans 6:1-2.

It is absolutely not the way to go to try to keep the torah and 10 commandments without first seeking to receive the promise of His indwelling Spirit.  The law, the torah, was given 430 years after the promise to Abraham—the promise that God would live in us and help us live righteously and godly. And the law cannot “set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise…” (Galatians 3:15-18, NIV).

What was the purpose of the torah (the law)?  It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come.  We are that seed—rather Christ in us is that seed.  When we believe, the seed germinates and grows within us.  The promise is receiving His Spirit by believing that He has given it to us—as we follow on in His steps.

We do this by faith.  We do this by believing His word about His faith, His nature. His faith works both ways.  If He has confidence in us before we ever bring forth the fruit, then we should believe in Him even though we have not seen Him in the flesh.  This is our trial of the faith.  Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8.

And during the time of our sojourning here on earth, we are to add His divine nature to the faith that He has delivered unto us.  His divine nature is built upon His faith.  No wonder not many have added it, for they have tried to add it to their own faith in Him instead of adding His divine nature to His faith. Peter says that we are “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

The Word is the seed.  And that seed is growing in us by us believing His word that says that His word is growing in us.  This is the faith once delivered to the saints.  This is the way He thinks about His power to change our lives—by His Spirit.  Now we walk in His faith/belief when we believe the same thing about ourselves that He believes about us.  That is His faith.  That is His faith which was once delivered to the saints.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is Chapter 19 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God.  To read more go to the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

 

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June 27, 2010 · 7:52 pm

How the Old Self Dies–Baptism into His Death

We may not realize it yet, but we are blessed, for we have seen that our old self needs to go.  Many try to redirect or re-channel its activities.  Sometimes we try to clean it up, but He wants it to die.

He said to repent and be baptized in water.  Yes, water baptism is a symbol of something else, yet we should still do it.  But few know what the real baptism is.  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yahshua were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Rom. 6:3-4. NIV.

Going down into the water is a symbol of the mortal life we now live in this flesh.  Coming up out of the water is a symbol of the new spirit-being life we shall live which is the immortal life that we are called to.

Water is a symbol of our mortality.  Our first physical birth is an immersion in a bag of water.  We are born of water.  We mortals are about 75% water.  We  begin  in  our  mother’s  womb in water.  During water baptism we are baptized into His death.  To live in this mortal body is to die.  This watery entombment we call a body is really a deathtrap.  It by its very nature has to die.  The Messiah’s earthly body was composed of the same watery stuff that our bodies are.  And He died.  He had to die by reason of the nature of his shell during His earthly tenure.  This watery, flesh and blood body cannot inherit immortality and go into the kingdom of the Eternal One.  To be made of water is to be mortal, to be awaiting death, for water is extremely unstable, subject to every whim of nature’s forces.

To sin is to die.  Mortality is to be able to die.  Therefore, our mortality is to sin. Sinning insures a human of not receiving a new spiritual heavenly body.  But now He has enabled us to live a life where we do not have to sin, if we receive His Spirit.  Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust (desires) of the flesh (this old mortal body). Gal. 5:16. NKJV.

He was made to be sin for us

We, then, when we go under in water, are symbolically being immersed into this watery mortal state of sin with Him.  We “are buried with him by baptism into death.” Rom.6:4. God calls those things that are not,  as though they were.  We are dead already (Yahshua told the disciples, “Let the dead bury their dead”).  He calls it before its actual physical death when we consent to and experience it (in revelation).  The water is the symbol of our earthly mortal bodily state.  This spiritual death of our old self comes now in this revelation before the fruit of death comes to our earthly bodies.

In conjunction with this, few know that the Messiah, the day of His death, actually became sin for us—he who had never sinned.  He was the sacrificial  Lamb who was set to be sacrificed  before the world ever came into existence.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. II Cor. 5:21. NIV. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev. 13: 8.

The levitical priest, in types and shadows, laid his hands on the sacrificial goat, thereby transferring Israel’s sins upon it.  So did the Father place all of mankind’s sins upon the body of Messiah.  When He died, the body of sin died; our sin died that day.  To whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed?…Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all…It pleased Yahweh to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see His seed. Isa. 53:1,6,10.

We make the Lamb’s soul an offering for our own sins by realizing that it was us in our sinful state hanging on the tree that day.  We must be immersed in this knowledge.  We must believe that our old self—that old monkey on our back, that old demon that we were, that selfish, egotistical, self-absorbed, sorry excuse for a human being—that old thing that we were is now, in God’s eyes dead.  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin. Rom. 6: 6.

[This is ch. 28 of my book, Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality, which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

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June 11, 2010 · 3:55 pm

Repentance–Departing from Evil–Pre-requisite of Immortality

A few of us humans will achieve immortality  when we are given a new spiritual  body  at  the  time  of the resurrection, the time of the Messiah’s return.  But not everyone that says that He is Master of their life will become immortal.  It will only be those who are alive and have the Spirit of God dwelling in them in a reality, or those who had the Spirit of God dwelling in them at the time that their earthly bodies fell asleep, these also will be given a  new immortal spiritual body during the first resurrection.

You have a mortal, fleshly body at this time, but God Almighty has unlimited power and he is quite capable with the mere power of his word to give you a new spiritual body as it has pleased him in his eternal plan and purpose laid down since before the beginning of the world. (II Cor. 5:l).  He will have called many, but few are chosen for this the greatest of all honors—to be one of the many sons and daughters  that God is bringing to glory.  It is a great love  that  will  bestow  this  on  a  select few, for few there will be to find this way of truth.  It is quite easy to find the way that leads to destruction, misery, and  desolation.  A narrow gate awaits those who enter the way that leads to love, honor, and glory.

The sole criteria in achieving immortality is that we receive the Spirit of God somehow into our bodies.  But therein lies the problem for mankind.  The Spirit God will not dwell in unclean temples.  The human body was created for the express purpose to house the Spirit of God, the essence of Himself.  God made  his crowning creation, man and woman, to house Himself.  Mankind is to be His temple.

However, God cannot dwell in the fleshly, earthly tabernacle called the human being until He cleans out the temple first.  The old carnal nature dwells in unregenerated man.  Man in his original fleshly state is abominable before God.

If He were speaking directly to us He would say, “Your actions toward your fellow man make you filthy before God.  The inside of you is dirty.  It is your heart that needs cleansing.  Your nature of selfishness is an abomination before God.  You lie, cheat, steal, kill, commit adultery, want other people’s worldly possessions; even their sons and daughters and wives and husbands.  Nothing is sacred to you humans anymore, but then it was always that way.   I gave you a simple ten point law and you refuse to keep it because there is nothing in it for yourself. You worship other things besides Me, your Creator God.  And you don’t keep the one day that I said to keep holy, the sabbath.  A very simple law, but a very profound law.

“You humans basically worship yourselves, think of yourselves first, put your thoughts for your lives first.  Always first, first, first.  And before you realize it, there is little if any thought for, or even about Me in your thoughts.  You see, your thoughts make the temple, your body, unclean.  Your center is not right, is not on Me the Creator, and so, man and woman live out their little mortal existences, leading their little desperate rut-like lives, never glimpsing the truth of the potential of what could be for them.  And that potential is immortality, never ending life, everlasting life, eternal life, a life of infinite years.

“But man’s problem is that he wants his own life to go on without end.  He wants his own selfish little existence to continue unabated with everyone worshipping him and centering in on his every whim and inordinate desire.  He wants to live forever in his way of getting for himself.  And yet he doesn’t realize that that way of life cannot last forever.  The way of getting selfishly will end up in death.  Labor in the fields of selfishness, and all you are paid is death. In all man’s thoughts these things should not be, but that’s the way of all man’s flesh that doesn’t heed the higher call.  This is man’s grief—that he can’t take it with him.  This is the proverbial vanity of vanities.  No profit under the sun of all one’s labor spent upon oneself.”

So God cannot live in the midst of all that selfishness—a lawlessness that is called sin, for the breaking of the ten commandments is sin.  And God hates sin because it is so against His nature.  He wants to live in man and woman, but He can’t because when man is full of himself, then there is no room for God.  Selfish action is a selfish spirit and  is  the  opposite  of  God’s  Spirit,  which  is the action called Love.

So there again is man’s problem; he wants to live forever, but wants to live his own selfish life forever, and this thinking breeds mortality, the way of death.  In order to gain immortality, man must have God’s Spirit living within him.  But the Spirit of God will not dwell in temples (bodies) that are unclean (have actions done in them that are sinful in breaking the l0 commandments).  Mankind that comes as far as this knowledge on the road of life comes to a fork in the road.  He must chose to either remain as he is and how he has been living, or he must seek a way to repent, to change the error of his ways.  In other words, he must find a way to stop breaking the l0 commandments.

And men have tried in the past to do just that to keep the ten commandments of God.  They have failed miserably, for they have tried on their own strength and power to do so.  It is impossible to keep them without God’s help.  We are created that way, so that we must, in order to please Him, turn to Him for his power and strength to keep His holy law.  The mightiest of body and the noblest of mind found among men cannot obey the law without His Spirit doing it in and through them.

One would ask then, “What can a person do in order to keep the law?”

First, he must through a broken and contrite spirit and heart be sorry for the way he has treated his fellow man and God.  This sorrow can grow and eventually yield a desire to not do those things again.  He will then repent of his sins, turn away from that way of getting for himself, and throw himself  on  God’s  mercy to forgive him.  God is rich in mercy and wants to receive his creation back into the fold of His plan and purpose.  If they are sincere, He will forgive them and cleanse them from the filth and uncleanness.

We are cleansed by the shed blood of the Lamb, Yahshua, Yah-in-human-form, who gave Himself up in sacrifice for us.

It all hinges on faith and belief in the sacrifice that God has ordained–the only sacrifice that can  take away a person’s sins.  The sacrifice is the Lamb of God, the only one who lived a sinless life.  If you can really believe that your sin was placed upon him the day of His death, that when He died, your sin died with it, and that when He was buried, your sinful life was buried, and when He was resurrected, you also were raised again to walk in a newness of life—if you can believe all this, then you can receive into your body (temple) that same Spirit and power that raised Him from the dead.  It takes belief, faith.

If you ask Him, He will give you a portion, an earnest, a down payment of His Spirit.  And that Spirit will come into you to replace that old spirit and will grow like a tiny seed in a large garden.  You must water it with your prayers and feed it with your study.  And that little portion of His Spirit will grow up into a full-fledged son and daughter of the Spirit who will someday be transformed in a twinkling of an eye and will be changed when immortality will come down out of heaven to swallow up that which can die.

For without God’s Spirit dwelling within us, we are only a member of the walking dead who spend a few nightly whispers with loved ones and then bury their  dead  and  wait  to be buried in turn.  Without that entity, the Spirit of God, that makes alive whatever it touches and lives in, we are just as good as dead.  Without His Spirit, if we are walking around, we do it on borrowed air in an incredibly delicate and fragile shell.  And our  shell will in a few moments, comparatively speaking, go back to dust from where it came, and our brief stint at self-glory here on earth will not be remembered anymore.  Every thing that man says and does without the Spirit of God is vain and of no profit in the final analysis.  KWHancock  [This is chapter 27 of my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality.  You may read more of this book which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

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June 5, 2010 · 8:24 pm

My Mother’s Prayer and Testimony of Her Vision of One God

God, our Father, please help me write this.  I love You and want to be a good  witness for you.  I thank you for keeping me all these 84 years.

Times have been hard, but I never wanted to give up.  I loved the feeling of your reminding me to hold on.  I am so sorry for the times I was not waiting for your reminders of what you had done for me.

I realized I was in need of more of your truth to be taught to me.  But the others around me were in the same shape as I, and they were not able to teach me more of your truth. 

Through all the dark days and hangups, I finally realized I couldn’t depend on anyone but You.  I realized finally that all of us need those rough times in our lives in order to feel a greater need for You.  Thank You.

As I look back over the past six decades, I’m glad that I kept in your word, for therein is the only true help we can find. 

In the beginning of my journey here on earth with You, times were really hard.  It was the Great Depression.  My mother died when I was two, and without her to guide me, it was difficult.  My dad tried to raise us three little girls.  We were so poor that we had to live in tents in a graveyard at times, living on mostly gravey and bread made by hand.  But we survived.  And we were not the only sharecropper families there in East Texas. 

It was a struggle for our father, but being young children, we didn’t notice it much.  We just knew we were poor.  Later on in life after I came to know You, poor didn’t seem too bad, since Your word taught that we do not “live by bread alone, but by every word” of Your mouth.

As I got older, I wanted to work, but jobs were hard to find.  I got my first job at 15.  That would have been in 1941.  It was working in a laundry in Corsicana, Texas for 22 cents an hour.

Time went on, and I became of age to wed.  So after the War was over in 1945, I married, not knowing what true love was, but willing to learn to be a good wife and mother.  Then you gave me the greatest joy of my life.  You blessed me with a firstborn son.  Right out of your best mold.  Created in your image.  Thank You! 

My son brought great joy to my heart.  When he was five weeks old, we were lying down in the sun, and I was reading to him.  I did not know You or have your word at the time.  My neighbor across the path came over to visit us.  And she spoke to me of You.  I had never heard much about You at 21 years old. 

But You had prepared me to receive Your word from her because of the wonderful thing that happened five weeks earlier at childbirth.  I was under the sleep that the doctor had put me under, and I had this dream.  There was a kind of swinging ladder to heaven, and people were going up this ladder two together, but I was going up alone.  When I reached the top, there was ONE of You holding your hand out to help me get off the ladder.  I then woke up. 

That gave me the truth about there being just one God.  Ever since that day, when I read Your word, I can see one God–even when it reads “and Jesus Christ.”  Once you get the revelation, you can see it.

Well, the great son you gave me also has the truth about one God.  He has a wonderful brain, Father, and I am so happy to serve You with him.

As time went by, I longed for a baby girl.  I so wanted the two children to be not so far apart.  By then I had read about  Hannah and how she prayed for a child, a boy baby.  And God answered her prayer.    So after waiting a year and a half, I knelt by the bed, and I reminded You, Father, that You had given her a boy child, Samuel.  Now I am asking You for a baby girl.  And the very next month she was on the way. 

At that time I was very shy and had never talked to any one about You.  I had studied and gone to church, but I was so shy.  I remember that while I was in the middle of giving birth to her, You stopped everything and asked me if I had witnessed to anyone about You.  And, of course, I said no.  You very distinctly told me that if I was not going to be a witness for You that the baby would not finish coming.  So I started saying, “Yes, Lord.  Yes, Lord, I will.”  And suddenly, I was wide awake, and I asked Dr. Mamulia if he knew You.  He thought for a minute that I was out of my head.  And I said, “But do you really know Him?”

And he said, “No, Louise, I don’t really know Him.”  The nurse was very angry with me, but I was really not afraid anymore to speak out about You. 

The next morning the doctor asked me, “Louise, do you remember what you said to me last night?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Oh, she was just out of her head,” the nurse interrupted.

And then the doctor said, “Oh, no, she wasn’t.”

The night before, after I asked him if he knew You, I crawled off the table with no help.  You made me so strong at the  time.  You gave me a beautiful son and daughter, and I thank you.    [Written by my mother, Louise Billups, last week.  I am so blessed to still have her and be able to talk to her everyday.  Love your mothers while you still can…]

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May 27, 2010 · 5:58 pm

Fateful Decisions Determine Who Comes into Existence

It is amazing to realize how personal choices are so fateful–full of fate–not just for the one who chooses a certain path or makes a decision in life, but for those who literally come after them.  In fact, some of our choices actually determine just who comes after us on the planet!

For example, I asked my dad, Scott K. Hancock, who was in his late seventies at the time, “Hey, Dad, you were quite the ladies man in your day.  Was there a woman who you let slip through your fingers?”

He looked at me funny as if to say, Well, my son is in his fifties, and I am about done on earth, so I guess it’s all right to tell it.  “As a matter of fact, there was a girl back in Corsicana, Texas during the War.  Her name was Thelma Mae.  I should have married her, but I didn’t.  I got cold feet and stood her up.  That was a mistake.”  I could tell it was difficult for him to talk about. 

I said, “Yeah, but what about me?  You married Mom and had me right after the War.  If you had married that girl, I would not exist!  This very  conversation we are having right now would not be taking place.”

“I guess you are right,” Dad said, righting himself, withdrawing back into taciturnity, no doubt wondering what had gotten into himself for sharing anything so personal.

“I am glad that you didn’t marry her,” I finally said.  And that was about all we said that day, for I had already seen the windows of communication being shuttered over his countenance.  A couple of years later, Dad died.  That was 2002.  We never talked any more about it.

I shared our talk with my wife Linda.  “If Dad had done right, if he had kept his word and promise to Thelma Mae, our kids–all five of them–Danny, Noah, Sara, Hannah, and Joby–would not exist.  And our grandkids–no Cody, Austin, or Baby Katy.  It would be a totally different universe.  Linda, you would have existed, of course, but not you you.  We are the sum total of our experiences, so subtract our 40 years together, and who then would you haver been?”

Linda just looked at me with that quizzical beginning of a smile that said, He’s out there again, but I love him.

“So my Dad’s betrayal of that girl some 65 years ago created a parallel world that permitted nine human beings to exist that would not have existed otherwise.  How can good come out of something bad–something so bad that it would haunt my Dad all those years?” 

Then I thought of God’s foreknowledge.  He knows all things beforehand.  There are no surprises for Him.  And then the scripture, “He puts it into their hearts to fulfill His will.” 

I talked to my Mom about this story, and she filled me in with the details that Dad did not share.

Dad and Thelma Mae had written each other for four years during World War II.  They were betrothed.  She had worked and had saved up, and her trousseau was full.  All was ready with the wedding dress, linens, and fineries.  Even furniture awaited their housewarming.  When Dad did not come back for her–and that without a word–she was heartbroken.

Instead, Dad married my Mom Louise in December 1945 and immediately took off to Califorinia for a brand new start.  I now know the reason for the sudden departure was as much personal as it was for financial considerations.

My Mom told me that a couple of years after their move, my grandmother wrote them a letter.  That would have been about the time, ironically enough, I was born.  She said that Thelma had died.  Mom said she read the letter, and it didn’t say much more than that.  Mom asked Dad who the girl was, and he said, “Oh, it was just a girl he had known back then.”

Mom said that after moving back to Texas in 1955, she had spoken to a woman she met at church in Oak Cliff that had known Dad and all the Hancocks of Kerns, Texas.  She filled Mom in on what had happened to Thelma Mae.  She had died of a broken heart in 1947.  She just wasted away.  Probably took pneumonia because she wouldn’t eat and take care of herself.  She was buried in her white wedding dress, and on her breast was laid my Dad’s 8 x 10 Army photograph and a stack of love letters he had written to her.

Oh, my God.  The sadness that my Daddy endured for the rest of his life–a sadness that paved the way for me and my family’s existence!  How unsearchable are all the ways of this life, for I was born out of a betrayal–possibly the most hurtful of all the sins.  I would not have come into existence had not my father made that fateful choice and its accompanying regret–a remorse that he carred with him to his grave.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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May 16, 2010 · 4:57 pm

The Pagan Roots of Halloween– “From Samhain to Halloween”

{The pagan roots of Halloween are thoroughly revealed in this research paper written by one of my students in Freshman College Composition this past semester.  She is actually a senior in high school, taking the course.  The truth will come out–even, as Christ said, “out of the mouth of babes.”}
 
Lizz Chappell 
Writing 110 
 Mr. Hancock 17 April 2010 

From Samhain to Halloween 

 

Each year on October 31,  people all around the world can be found walking down the streets in costumes and going door to door “Trick or Treating”. This tradition has been around for as long as any of us can remember, but where exactly does it start? How far does it go back? Is it different from how we celebrate October 31st today? Halloween is one of the biggest holidays celebrated in America, and dates back thousands of years.   

Halloween started 2,000 years ago from an ancient group of people, the Celts, with a celebration called Samhain (“Ancient Origins” 1). The Celts split their years into two different seasons, Beltane and Samhain. Beltane went from May 1st to November 1st, and was known by the Celts as “The Light.” Samhain was from November 1st to May 1st, and was a period of time called the “The Dark.” Samhain meant “summer’s end,” and marked the beginning of a new cycle. Many Celts believed that with darkness, silence comes (Freeman 1). October 31st marked the last day of summer, and the end of the harvest. It was a time of year the Celtics associated with death and darkness. They strongly believed the realms of the living and the dead crossed on this night, and the ghosts of the past would come to visit. Spirits were believed to be mischievous and caused trouble, sometimes damaging crops (“Ancient Origins” 1). Samhain was an elaborate celebration with bonfires, feasts, and sacrifice. Bonfires have especially played a big role in Samhain for one very important reason: The Feast of Tara (Freeman 2). 

The Feast of Tara was held every October 31st in celebration of the royal seat of the High King. Every household in Ireland would extinguish their fires and wait for the priests, also known as the Druids, to light a new fire. The new fire was lit at Tlachtga, which was the burial place of the great Druid, Mogh Ruith, who was believed to be a goddess. When the fire of Tara was lit, every household could relight their fire and would celebrate the new light with a huge feast of meat, breads, and the crops from the summer. The fire of the feast of Tara was a kindling of new dreams and a new beginning. The bonfire represented an island of light with an oncoming tide of winter darkness. After the fire, the ashes were sprinkled over the fields to protect them from the cold winter. Another custom after the fires was to make a circle out of the ashes and have each member of a family place a pebble within the circle. If, on the next day, the pebble had somehow been misplaced, it was believed that person would die within one year (Freeman 2). 

Another important part of Samhain was sacrifice. Herders would take cattle and sheep away from the pastures and into the stable, and a select few of those animals were chosen to be ritually devoted to the gods before slaughter. The Celts believed the gods drew near to earth at this time of year, so the people offered sacrifices for thanksgiving. Also, personal prayers in the form of objects symbolizing peoples’ wishes were thrown into the fire to be sent up to the gods in smoke (Freeman 1). 

Instead of sacrifice, some people believed in another tradition of Samhain, soul cakes. These cakes were little pastries baked for the dead to eat to help their souls. They were placed on graves or given to the poor. They were given to beggars as proxies for the dead (Leach 1053). The Celtic tradition lasted for centuries, but the way Samhain was celebrated was changed by an invasion of another culture, the Romans. 

The Celts eventually were taken over by the Romans around 43 A.D., and they ruled for 400 years. The Romans combined two of their own festivals with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain: Feralia and The Festival of Pomona. Feralia was a day when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead, and the Festival of Pomona was to honor the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, and the symbol of the apple was imported into Samhain (“Ancient Origins” 1). The tradition of “bobbing for apples” is thought to have come from the celebration of Pomona (Freeman 3). 

Throughout the years, Christianity grew strongly across Europe, and in the 800’s, Pope Boniface the IV declared November 1st as All Saints Day. It is believed he did this to replace the Celtic festival Samhain with something church related but still dealing with the dead and lost souls. The Church believed rather than trying to completely erase the Pagan holiday of Samhain, they would use it. Pope Gregory I’s theory was that if people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, consecrate it to Christ. This became the basic approach used in missionary work. Samhain eventually was decided Pagan and evil by the Catholic Church. They believed it was a festival associated with the devil. Druids, or Celtic Priests, were considered devil worshipers who believed in demons and spirits. The Celtic Underworld became identified with Christian Hell. Some believers of the Celtic religion actually went into hiding and were branded as dangerous and malicious. All Saints Day was a holiday meant to replace Samhain forever, though it never fully did (Santino 2). November 2nd was later declared All Souls Day, a time to not only honor saints who had passed away, but all those who had passed. These celebrations were referred to as “All-Hallows”, so October 31st became All Hallow’s Eve, then over time that formed into the word we commonly use today, Halloween (“Ancient Origins” 1). Halloween is also referred to as “The Witches New Year”, and “The Last Harvest” (“Pumpkin Carving” 1). 

Halloween eventually came to America as more and more European immigrants came to our country, though there are actually very few records of Halloween celebration in the colonial history of America. Each culture brought their own varied customs of Halloween with them. Northern American colonies were mostly Protestant and had strict religious beliefs against the practice of Halloween. Southern colonies, on the other hand, had more of a mixture of European religion and culture. Beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups began to clash with each other and Native American tribes, and the southern colonies began to mix their Halloween traditions with Native American harvest celebrations. Some of the first celebrations were actually play parties, where neighbors told stories of the dead, told each other’s fortunes, and had feasts with dancing and singing. Around 1850, America was flooded with many immigrants, and each culture helped the celebration of Halloween become very popular (“Ancient Origins” 2). Scottish immigrants celebrated with fireworks, tall tales of ghosts and spooks, games, and mischief. Bobbing for apples was a very popular game, and Puicini, an Irish fortune-telling game using saucers. In the mid 1800’s, the potato famine of Ireland sent approximately 2 million immigrants from Ireland and surrounding countries to America. These immigrants really shaped the Halloween celebration and spread it throughout America. Many supernatural creatures became associated with All Hallows. In Ireland, fairies were some of the legendary creatures thought to roam the streets on Halloween. Many old folk ballads commemorated this, like one called “Allison Gross”, which told the story of a man being saved from a witch’s spell by the fairy queen (Santino 3). English observation of Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th also intertwined with Halloween celebrations. This brought in a lot of pranks and mischief to the holiday. People now believed less in ghosts wreaking havoc on the night of October 31st and more of children causing trouble (Hellion 1). Along with pranks and old legends being told on Halloween, one thing that spread quickly over America was wearing costumes. 

Today on the night of Halloween, many children can be seen running around the streets in costumes such as witches and ghosts, their favorite television characters, and many more. The tradition of Halloween costumes actually dates all the way back to the Celts and their practice of Samhain. The Celts believed winter was a very frightening time with darkness, the cold, and a shrinking food supply. On the October 31st, people believed they could encounter ghosts, but to avoid being recognized by these ghosts’ people would wear masks and disguises when they left their homes. Many Celts also wore costumes in celebration of Samhain, usually consisting of animal heads and skins. Throughout the years this tradition evolved into what we now practice today (“Ancient Origins” 3). 

Another world-wide tradition of Halloween is carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. This has become the symbol many of us automatically associate with Halloween. This tradition is believed to have begun around the 900’s, and turnips and gourds were originally used. They were set on porches and window sills to welcome the ghosts of loved ones that had passed away and to protect their home against evil spirits. Instead of candles, these gourds and turnips were lit with burning lumps of coals. Pumpkins weren’t native to Europe, and it wasn’t until European immigrants came to America that they discovered pumpkins and began using them (“Pumpkin Carving” 1). 

No one can think of Halloween without thinking of “trick-or-treating.” This tradition goes back to the very first celebrations of All Souls Day parades in England. Poor people would beg for food, and families would give out soul cakes in promise of prayer for dead family members. The distribution of soul cakes was actually highly encouraged by the church. Children began going from house to house to get these sweet treats, and throughout the years the treats began to vary (“Ancient Origins” 3). Today candy is the main treat given out on Halloween night. 

Halloween has always been associated as a night of mischief, and many superstitions and legends have arose from this. Some people believe certain things may bring you love, bad luck, or even death. Superstitions have changed and evolved throughout the ages, and some of them are still around today. 

Many people hear stories of avoiding things on Halloween in case of bad luck, also known as superstitions. There are thousands of superstitions associated with Halloween. Some have been long forgotten, but some are still well known today. One of the most famous Halloween superstitions is the fear of black cats because of the belief they bring bad luck. This superstition dates all the way back to the Middle Ages, when people believed witches would turn themselves into black cats to avoid being recognized. Another common superstition is to avoid walking under ladders to keep away bad luck. This superstition goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians, and their belief that triangles were sacred and that they shouldn’t be crossed (“Ancient Origins” 4). If a candle suddenly goes out by itself, as though by breath or wind, it is believed that a ghost is present. If you gaze into a candle flame long enough, you can peer into your future. If a person casts a headless shadow or no shadow at all, it is believed to be an omen of death within the next year. If a bat flies around a house three times, a death omen is placed on that household. It is believed anyone born on Halloween can see and talk to spirits. In Britain, it was believed the devil was a nut-gatherer, and he used nuts as his magic charms (“Halloween Superstitions” 2). Many superstitions also came about from the festival of Samhain. 

Samhain was a time of mystery and a time when people believed the lost souls of loved ones drew near to the earth. Certain legends came about with the festival of Samhain. Many believed the barrows where fairies dwelt would open, and a demon who stole babies, Samhanach, was released. For three days before and three days after November 1st, the warriors of Ulster assembled for eating, drinking, and boasting of men they had killed. Each warrior kept the tongue of the men they killed for evidence (Leach 1051). There was also a legend of women being able to change the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, and mirrors (“Ancient Origins” 4). Girls who would carry a lamp to a spring of water believed they could see their future husband in the water’s reflection (“Halloween Superstitions” 1). 

There are also many legends dealing with women and love on Halloween night. Many young women believed they could use the magic of Halloween to identify their future husband. Nuts were believed to hold magic. If a woman would eat a baked treat with walnuts, hazelnuts, and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, it is believed she would dream about her future husband. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that single young women name a hazelnut for each one of their eligible mates, and then toss all the hazelnuts into a fireplace. The nut that would burn to ashes, rather than pop or explode represented that woman’s future husband. In 1700’s Ireland, a cook would bury a ring into a woman’s mashed potatoes on Halloween, hoping to bring love to the diner who found it (“Ancient Origins” 4). Along with superstitions came many pranks, mischief, and tricks. Halloween became a spooky night with all the old legends, but it also became a night many saw to stir up trouble. 

Pranks and mischief turned into a major problem in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Instead of harmless pranks and tricks played on friends, they became acts of vandalism and property damage. Halloween became an excuse to participate in criminal activity. Communities fought back by encouraging “trick-or-treating.” They believed trick-or-treating was a safe way to have fun and keep kids out of trouble. Trick-or-treating became very popular by the 1940’s and has evolved into what it is today (Hellion 2). 

Halloween as we know it today started from an ancient ritual very different from our own. What was once a festival full of witchcraft and the belief in spirits and ghosts has now turned into a night of dressing up in a variety of costumes and collecting candy from door to door. Halloween has become popularized by television, movies, music, and other types of media. It has grown to become America’s second largest holiday, and it brings in approximately $6.9 billion dollars annually. 

Whether it was Samhain or Halloween, October 31st is a day throughout history that has always had a supernatural feel to it. It’s a night when the air starts to grow cold and stories come about of spooks and legends. It’s a holiday different from the others, and it all started thousands of years ago. 

　 

Works Cited 

“Ancient Origins.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 23 Apr 2010. 

<http://www.history.com/topics/halloween&gt;. 

Freeman, Mara. “The Celtic Year Samhain.” Chalice Centre. Chalice Productions, 1999. Web. 23 Apr 

2010. <http://www.chalicecentre.net/samhain.htm&gt;. 

“Halloween Superstitions.” The Holiday Spot. The Holiday Spot, n.d. Web. 23 Apr 2010. 

<http://www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/superstitions.htm&gt;. 

Hellion, . “A Brief History of Halloween in America.” Deliriums Realm. N.p., 09/10/2007. Web. 23 Apr 

2010. <Hellion, . “A Brief History of Halloween in America.” Deliriums Realm. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 

Apr 2010 >. 

“The History of Pumpkin Carving.” Pumpkin Carving 101. Halloween Online, n.d. Web. 23 Apr 2010. 

<http://www.pumpkincarving101.com/pumpkin_carving_history.html&gt;. 

Leach, Maria. Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend. New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 

1972. 1051-53. Print. 

Santino, Jack. “The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows.” The Library of Congress. Library of Congress, 

n.d. Web. 23 Apr 2010. <http://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween.html&gt;.

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May 1, 2010 · 4:47 pm

“Woe to the Pastors” Because of the Lies–Part II–(Conversations with the Seer)

“What exactly is God’s beef with the preachers and pastors?”

“In this message contained in Jeremiah 23, Yahweh is saying, You have scattered my people by feeding them lies, but ‘I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them into their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.  And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them’ with the truth (vs. 3-4).  It is plain that God has not forgotten the lost tribes of Israel even though the pastors don’t teach the flock this truth.  For He refers to Himself as the LORD (YHWH) God of Israel, even as the apostle Paul said, ‘God has not cast off His people whom He foreknew'” (Romans 11: 2).

I stopped him.  “Wait a minute.  Why is all this important?”

“Because we are peeking into the very mind of Christ, the Anointed One.  The ‘fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily’ in Him [Col. 2: 9].  So knowing what is in His mind shows us what is in the Father’s mind.  These are the very things that He is thinking about.  Yes, thinking about.  Do we want the mind of Christ?  We are admonished to put it on, to think like He thinks, to be perfect like Him.”

“You mean God actually sits around and thinks about things?”

“Exactly,” the Seer said.  “He thinks about regathering His chosen people Israel, the 12 tribes.  And today’s preachers are not teaching this regathering, because they are not thinking about it.  For they have not believed this truth.  After all, He said, ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts'” [Isa. 55: 8].

“I was taught that we were Gentiles, one of the heathen nations.”

“That is a perfect example of how the pastors ‘speak a vision of their own heart, and not of the mouth of Yahweh’ [v. 16].  Today’s pastors tell their flocks that ‘you shall have peace and no evil shall come upon you’ [v. 17].  They tell their flocks, Hey, no sweat.  The Rapture is coming.  You will escape the Great Tribulation.  ‘No evil shall come upon you.’  You will be taken out of the earth supernaturally.  They keep repeating this erroneous dream some woman had in the 1800’s.  Just tell them what they want to hear.  The bigger and more extravagant the lie, the more the people will believe it.  But don’t tell them the truth–that ‘the righteous will scarcely be saved’ from the tribulation coming–that the only reason that the very earth we sit on today is spared from total destruction is because of His elect chosen ones being in the line of fire.  ‘And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s  sake, those days shall be shortened'” [Matt. 24: 22].

“So the only reason that the earth is spared from total annihilation is because God doesn’t want to kill His chosen elect along with the others?”

“That’s right, and that means that true followers of His are on the earth–in harm’s way.  These are His elect, the chosen ones, the sons and daughters of God.”

“Why don’t the preachers warn the people of the hard times coming?” I asked.

“The preachers don’t tell them these truths because they don’t believe it themselves, and if they are leaning to accepting this truth, they do not share it, for they know that they would be kicked out and lose their jobs and livelihood being the hirelings that they are.”

“The pastors teach that the modern day Jewish people fulfill all this that you are saying.”

“Don’t be deceived into believing that.  About 85% of todays Jewish people are converts to Judaism.  Most are the offspring of the Khazars whose kingdom converted to Judaism in the 8th Century AD [ http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Khazars ].”

“What difference does that make?”

“The difference to God is that He promised Abraham that to his seed He would give the land in and around Jerusalem.  And the Khazars are from another lineage.  But they claim  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel as their forefathers.  It is not true.  And even if all modern day Jewish people were from the biblical patriarchs, that would only include just two of the 12 tribes, for the kingdom of Judah (the Jews) was made up of Judah and Benjamin.

“And you know what else angers Goid about the pastors?  They ‘think to cause my people to forget my name’ [v. 27].  They don’t tell the people–even if they have this knowledge– that ‘the LORD’ is a title that the translators used instead of God’s Hebrew name YHWH, pronounced Yahweh, or very close to that [ http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/index.php?q=Yahweh&title=LoveToKnow_1911%3ASearch&site=1911 ]. That’s the thing to really watch out for.  Don’t mess with God’s name, and definitely don’t deny it–whatever you do.”

That closed that session with the Seer.  These things would take time to soak in, for they were so different, so opposite of what the world was teaching.

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