A Vision of Redemption

Someone who joined one of our groups asked me a rather important question:

According to Zondervan's Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, "Redemption is deliverance from the power of an alien dominion and the enjoyment of the resulting freedom. It involves the idea of restoration to one who possesses a more fundamental right or interest. The best example of redemption in the Old Testament was the deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage, from the dominion of the alien power in Egypt."

Who has a more fundamental interest and right in mankind than God the Father?

What are rights but gifts of God?

We talk about sin but what is sin but a rejection of God and His ways of righteousness? We see God says the people rejected¹ Him when they asked Samuel for a central ruler who could exercise authority. The word translated “rejected” in Samuel is most often translated “despise” and “refuse”. It is this rejection, this refusal to be ruled in our hearts and minds by God the Father that is the sin that takes us, like Cain, out of the presence of the Lord.

“He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the hunter before the LORD.” Genesis 10:9

In Genesis 10:9 the word hunter is from the Hebrew word 'tsayid'² which is more often translated 'provision, food, food-supply, or victuals'. The word 'paniym' is translated 'before' in the sense of 'face'or'in the face of'.³ So, it could be said that Nimrod was a mighty provider before the LORD or in front of the Lord.

“The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.” Plutarch, 2000 years ago.

The voice of the people creates a government that promises the people liberty and security but takes away a portion of their God given right to choose.⁴ It is through man's own covetousness that men are made merchandise of, human resources . Men are bound by their own sloth and avarice in systems of exercising authority contrary to the desire of God.

We know people went under a central government when they were in bondage in Egypt and had to pay 20% income tax every year.⁵

We know God sent Moses to take them out of that bondage and said they should never go back to that governmental form again.⁶ But men have returned that way because they coveted their neighbors goods and the benefits that are supplied by such authoritarian Benefactors. Even though Christ forbid such forms of government for his people they still return that way⁷.The people have returned to sin of bondage, to the rejection of the Father by praying or applying to authoritarian Benefactors.

And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so...a nd he that is chief, as he that doth serve... And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;Lu 22:25-29 [Matthew 20:25, Mark 10:42]

The Bible is about God's government on earth and about how men stray from its precepts. God's government was to always operate according to the perfect law of liberty with free will offerings⁸. Christ did not change that but emphasized that with commanded prohibition.

The kingdom appointed by Christ was a form of government where the people were bound together only by faith, hope and charity. The congregations and the network of congregations supplied all social security, assurance and protection --- but by its nature it required the cultivation of sacrifice, forgiveness and patience.

Other governments operated with civic altars which forced the people as subjects to contribute to a corporate state which then doled out its gratuitous grace like secular gods.⁹ This power given to men corrupted all of them except for one, Jesus the Christ.

The best example of redemption today is Jesus Christ. You are redeemed in His Kingdom when you re-patriate to His Father in the kingdom of Heaven at hand. This requires that you give up applying, e.g. praying, at the altars of substitute Fathers on earth.¹⁰

"The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." Plutarch, 2000 years ago.

Christ was king and everyone knew it when His kingdom was proclaimed by that official proclamation of Rome signed by the Procurator of that corporate Empire.¹¹ When that white gypsum covered board with ebony letters, written in three languages, was nailed on the cross and sealed in blood of an innocent man the kingdom was legitimized in the eyes of the world.

A gypsum white wooden plaque hung on the cross with ebony black letters. The inscription was written in the three civilized languages of the ancient world—in the official Latin, in the current Greek, in the vernacular Aramaic. It informed all that this Man was:

"THE KING OF THE JEWS."

The people who proclaimed Jesus as the Christ, as their king, were cast out of the social welfare system of the day by the thousands. They were now free from those binding contracts of that system like in the days of the great Exodus of Moses. They could seek and enter that kingdom of liberty preached by John and Jesus and the Apostles on that day of Pentecost.

Pentecost was just another exodus from the power of an alien dominion and the enjoyment of the resulting freedom. Judea had become an alien jurisdiction under the power of the Hasmonians, Rome and Herod the Great. It had developed systems of governance that were contrary to the precepts of God. Judea had become like Egypt and had been re-made in the corrupted image of Rome. Power to make law was in the hands of the leaders, the people were bound by treaties and contracts, benefits were abundant but contributions were no longer free will offerings. The will of the leaders were forced upon the people by the courts of Pharisees and scribes. They made their instruments of war and took the sons and daughters of the people for their own service.

They called themselves the children of God but they had long rejected the ways of God. Not only did they whore after other gods but they deceived and seduced the people to return to the bondage of Egypt.

There are several words in the Bible that are translated into the single word redemption. g@ullah²¹ is translated redeem and redemption but also again and kindred. There is also the word pidyowm²² which has several forms and is translated redemption and ransom. It is from padah “to ransom, redeem, rescue, deliver.”

In the New Testament there are two words translated into the single English word redemption. There is lutrosis²³ includes the idea of “a ransoming, redemption ... deliverance, esp. from the penalty of sin” It is from a word meaning “to release on receipt of ransom, to redeem, liberate by payment of ransom.” And there is the compound apolutrosis²⁴ meaning “a releasing effected by payment of ransom.”Apo is a Greek word that infers a separation "i.e. of departing, of fleeing".

Those who followed the ways of John and Jesus and were publicly baptized were ostrasized from the grace of the Pharisees. That outward ritual alone was enough to force the removal of their name from the temple membership. This new baptism was not like the baptism of Herod and his ministers but was the one proclaimed by the authority of John. With that act they left the temple of dead stone and the world to which it belonged and entered the kingdom of God.

That door established by Jesus is still here today. The Entrance is ministered by the true and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. The door to that kingdom under God is hidden in modern Law.¹²

Israel was a Theocratic Republic with individual patriarchal families at its core, and ministered to by public servants under a vow of poverty [e.g. No inheritance in the land, they owned all things in common not as a personal estate]. The people were free souls under God until they went under a King. The Israelites expatriated under Rehoboam because he would not restore their freedom. The Kingdom of Judah became the remnant of the Kingdom of God on earth under the Parens Patria of the House of David.

Jesus was the Highest son of David and therefore king of Judea. He was proclaimed king by other kings, wise men and shepherds, by the voice of the people and by Rome.

The Church of the first century followed the form of the Church in the wilderness and became a viable republic in the heart of the Roman Empire.

Over the centuries, false doctrines and half gospels have crept into our thinking, teaching a form of godliness, but denying the power of God's kingdom at hand.

Jesus was a King and had separate ministers of that kingdom according to the World Order as it was then, and is still a separate government now according to the law. But the entrance to that kingdom is hidden and the people have forgotten the ways of the ancients.

Jesus would not appeal to Rome, make treaties with it, or submit to its authority --- and neither would his followers, which included at first tens of thousands of those citizens of Judea who followed the way of Jesus. When they proclaimed faith and allegiance to Jesus, they were immediately barred from the benefits of the central government created by Herod and the Pharisees. At Pentecost, thousands left one governmental system and entered the kingdom of God at hand. It was another Exodus like that accomplished by Moses and as well as Abraham in his departure from Haran with many souls.

This took years of preparation and sacrifice but in one moment things changed. The Christians had an alternative to the Nicolaitian¹³ civic altars of Rome and Herod. The people had a different kind of government to invest in¹⁴ and were often accused of not sacrificing to the gods¹⁵ of the other governments government. But there was another king they cried, one Jesus. It is no different today, if men will seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness which is at hand.

Modern Christians have rebuilt their society in the image of Rome¹⁶ and take pride in that corporate civil power. They pray (or apply) to it. They consume the benefits that are financed at the expense of their neighbor. Through that covetousness they have been made "merchandise"as Peter warned. They are human resources to be used and used up. They are under a strong delusion that the kingdom of God is not at hand in spirit and in truth.

Jesus said he would take the kingdom away from the government of Judea.¹⁷ He appointed ministers to His Kingdom.¹⁸ They were told not to be like the rulers and princes of the gentiles (the other nations). They were not to exercise authority one over the other but were to be true public servants, clerks of the Kingdom. This alternative government in the Roman Empire (but not of it) turned the world upside down. It was a government that was bottom up where the people lived under the perfect law of liberty and were some times persecuted for their faith in that kingdom of righteousness.

These ordained ministers of Christ, were the servant or clerks (clerics) of the kingdom, spread a faith that created a dark age for tyrants and despots who hid in their castles while most people lived fruitful and productive rural lives.The true history of the Church and its christly purpose has been shrouded in a false history and teachings perpetrated during the last millennium.The true free church under Christ is still an instrument of His salvation and redemption.

All over Europe you find people gathering together in congregations of ten families who were linked by chosen ministers into what became an international network¹⁹ of common societies, aiding the poor, protecting the people from enemies of peace both foreign and domestic.²⁰

This government under the perfect law of liberty was actually the predominant form of government during much of the worlds history but you would not know it from the knowledge handed out by modern government schools. The people lack knowledge of the kingdom but it is still at hand.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6

Peace on your house
Brother Gregory

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Join the Living Stones NetworkChrist preached a kingdom at hand that that loved its neighbor, did not exercise authority and operated upon the perfect love of liberty with faith, hope and charity.... Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1Pe 2:5