Chapter 14: Now this is Freedom.

  “Oh my word, Micah! It’s so good to see you, thank you so much for the invite to breakfast today…”, exclaimed Jude as he hugged Micah hello. Micah giggled and shrugged shyly, “hey Jude, you’re welcome, I’m great thanks, how are you?” “Excellent actually, I’m excited to catch up…” replied Jude. “Good morning, table for two?” asked the restaurant’s host, “Yes, somewhere outside please? It’s such a pleasant day today…” replied Micah. “This way please”, said the host showing Micah and Jude to their table. “This is a lovely restaurant Micah, do you come here often?” asked Jude. “Every now and then, I like to get out the apartment… It can get stuffy in such a cramped space” answered Micah. The host took them to the restaurants outside terrace. It was a garden oasis with big potted Lemon trees all over the place providing shade and the most refreshing citrus smell. There were large yellow, red, and orange umbrella’s covering the tables and closing off the areas to provide little pockets of private intimacy. “The design of this place is amazing, it’s like it’s intentionally designed for private intimate conversations…” noted Jude as he looked around, “it’s so relaxing, the breeze is wonderful and cool, and the smell of the lemon in the air… I love it”, Jude said, relaxing into the plushness of his chair. “It’s very comfortable, I hope you don’t mind Jude, they don’t really do animal products here… the vibe is more sustainability and plant based.” said Micah, “That’s fine” nodded Jude, as he scanned the QR code with his phone and began browsing the menu.

  The Update.

  After ordering their sparkling water with fresh lemon for the table and coffees, Jude asked, “So how are you, Micah? How are things at the office?”. “Thank you,” Micah said to the waiter as he poured the sparkling water into the short whiskey tumbler with ice and lemon in it, “Jude, for me it’s going well… But I have seen that for other’s it’s not as well…” He said taking a sip of the water, “I love ice cold sparkling water, it’s so refreshing…” he interjected, then continued “Cynthia is deranged. The woman’s lost it.” “What do you mean?” replied Jude remembering what he has seen in the Desolate place. “Her fear and anxiety are causing frequent meltdowns. One minute she is fine, talking to us normally, the next thing you’ve said something and sent her spiralling into a meltdown.” Micah rolled his eyes saying, “To be frank, it’s a little irritating… it interferes a lot with the work and we are continuously needing to tiptoe around her because the smallest, most inconsequential thing can set her off. The other day, all I said was thanks for the report, I just wanted to query a section, and she started physically shaking. It was like she was having a fucking seizure… I was like “relax Cynthia,” Goooosh! There is nothing wrong, damnit, I just want to confirm some of the figures…” Jude listened. He couldn’t get the image of Cynthia in the desolate out of his head. He could hear that although the words were said casually, like Micah was just telling another frivolous story, there was a distinct dismissing irritation in his tone. “I told her, ever since your suspension, you’re a nervous wreck. You need to pull yourself together woman.” Jude heard the words, but they felt different. They had a specific weighting to them that was not the same as the other words. “I wonder if these are those words that I saw” Jude said unintentionally loud.

  “What words Jude?” asked Micah curiously, “Oh,” Jude paused, “That came out louder than I wanted it to…” dismissed Jude, stirring his coffee like nothing happened. Ignoring Jude’s clear attempt to brush it off, Micah said “You have my attention Rose…” Jude chuckled, “I can’t believe you just quoted titanic to me...” “I’m serious though, what words Jude?” said Micah more assertively. Raising his eyebrows, Jude mumbled, “I suppose then we’ll begin talking about how I have been” as their food arrived.

  The Press.

  “I loooove a French Press”, Micah said, really emphasising the love as he plunged the press deeper in the coffee canister, “so… tell me,” he pressed Jude to continue. “Well” Jude chuckled uncomfortably pointing at the French press, “I’ve been in a kinda press myself actually. After losing my position, I didn’t really know what to do or what happened. I just knew that I needed to seek the face of God… Do you mind if I talk about my faith with you?” he asked Micah. “Please, go ahead… I enjoy religion and spirituality. I’ve studied most religions around the world, although I don’t practice any specifically myself. I prefer to dabble in a bit of everything… creating a concoction of what I like from each of them.” explained Micah. “May I ask why?” said Jude, “most of them condemn me for liking dudes…” Micah stated rather matter-of-factly, “so I figure, fuck ‘em… I’ll do what I want and take the good out of them and leave the bad. Aren’t you a homo yourself, Jude?”, Micah said quizzically. “Yeah” replied Jude, "Oh so what is your faith then? Like new age or something?" asked Micah. "Uhm, no, I'm Christian actually" said Jude, aware that this might draw the ire of Micah. “Hmmm, that's unexpected. If you're a homo how are you Christian?” interrogated Micah quite sternly, “my understanding is that Christianity flat out rejects same-sex attraction so say you were going to pitch me to convert me? As a gay man myself, how would you convince me that the Christian's God doesn’t hate me or think I’m an abomination.” challenged Micah.

  Jude paused. He was not prepared for a detailed defence of his faith. “Father, give me wisdom” he prayed in his head before saying, “It's something I've worked on with God for a while now, you know "workout your own salvation with fear and trembling" Jude chuckled nervously and then sipped on his water. “I think people misunderstand how evangelism works, Jesus himself says ‘no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them’. There is a hard separation between the things of the Kingdom of God and those things which are outside His kingdom. We do not choose God, God chooses us. Jesus says that “we” his bride, are given to Jesus by the Father. Which makes perfect sense, the Father selects who Jesus will marry in covenant - a kinda foreshadowing of arranged marriages where the parents choose the spouses of their children. We do not choose to be the bride of Christ, we are chosen. So it is not for me to convince anybody, my role is to present the choice and reveal what the Father has already chosen. People play no part in their own salvation – again, there is a hard separation between the Kingdom of God and what is not His kingdom. Romans 9: 6-29 talks about God’s Sovereign Choice. It says “For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” So understand it my friend, so that God’s purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls. This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 22 when He gave the parable of the marriage feast. He tells us the kingdom of heaven is like a king who held a wedding feast for his son. And he sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened cattle are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!”? But they paid no attention and went their separate ways, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and treated them abusively, and then killed them. Now the king was angry, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. For many are called, but few are chosen.” So you do not choose God, God chooses you. And you cannot choose God unless He has chosen you. Because to be a Christian is to be married to Jesus, and there is a price to pay to marry the Son of the living God and most people are not willing to pay that price.” explained Jude.

  “So you are essentially saying to me that there is no way for me to come into fellowship with God or Jesus unless God wants to be in fellowship with me first?” asked Micah, “Yes” said Jude. “But what if He doesn’t want to be in fellowship with me?” asked Micah, “Then you need to ask yourself why? Why have you been rejected by the Lord? Jesus says, because you have rejected me, I have rejected you. So you can see that in all these things, never once does God or Jesus disqualify gay folk because they are gay – they are disqualified because they rejected Jesus. To be clear Micah, the bible says God is spirit and those who worship Him MUST worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. We know the way Jesus treated the hypocrites – Look at His treatment of the pharisees. How much more will He not reject those of us to come to Him pretending to be anything other than what we are? We know that for lying to the Holy Spirit, Ananias and Sapphira were struck down dead on the spot, why would God expect gay folk to lie to him about who they are - even if who they believe they are today might change later? If we died at the cross and become new creatures in Christ Jesus when He rose from the dead, and Paul says “therefore there is neither slave nor free, male nor female, for all are in Christ”, then how can there be gay or straight in Christ? Paul himself says we regard nobody from the physical but from the spiritual. The scripture does not make a provision for anybody to do anything to become “worthy of salvation” but instead emphatically states NOBODY is worthy. That is why Jesus came. So come as you are and accept the gift of salvation which is offered freely to those who have received the mercy of God.”

  “Sure, I get it… people often claim that these different sexual orientations come from the Canaanite gods Ba'al and Ishtar, and sometimes Baphomet, although he is not a Canaanite god” pushed Micah, "they assume that because same-sex temple prostitution was included in the worship of these gods that sexual orientation must somehow originate from them. For baphomet, they specifically refer to him being both male and female." Jude replied, “Even if that were the case it wouldn’t matter. Human’s are not capable Love because Love is not an emotion, it is a physical expression that originates from God Himself who is Love according to scripture. God assigns the Spirit of Love via His Holy Spirit to us and then we become capable of Love. Human’s are not innately capable of Kingdom attributes because we are not innately Kingdom. We become Kingdom after receiving the Holy Spirit and God starts to build His Kingdom within us through the process of sanctification. So neither gay or straight people can love because Love is a spirit that originates in God. God decides and assigns where His Spirit of Love will work not man. John says that we love because God loved us first. So there is Kingdom attraction, i.e., Spirit of Love, and non-kingdom attraction, i.e., Spirit of Lust. We know that it is impossible for Kingdom spirits to do anything except glorify God while non-kingdom spirits lead to idol worship. So Love and Lust use the Truth of the person as God created them and then focuses their hearts towards either worshipping God or idolatry. To take it back to your example, Ba'al or Ishtar would use Spirit of Lust to cause the person - regardless of orientation - to worship them as an idol. If as a homo, God’s Love resides in you, then your love is automatically worshipping God and any actions motivated through that Spirit of Love is worship of God. The object of the affection does not matter, the Spirit motivating the action is what matters and determines whether the object is God or idol. Don’t you see? The beauty of salvation in Christ is that we get to live in perfect freedom – free to fellowship with God in His Kingdom, while Jesus sustains everything in himself. Nothing but fellowship is required from us.”

  "No." said Micah, clearly irritated. "This is not what the bible says Jude. The bible is very clear in what it says about gays." Jude listened while finishing chewing on his toast, then asked "Are you familiar with 1 Corinthians 6:12 where Paul literally says regarding sexual immorality that “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.” "No, I am also not sure what it has to do with the discussion?" said Micah. "Paul in this verse is answering questions from the corinthians about prostitution, which is translated from the greek word pornai which means prostitutes. The greek word porneia is where we get the translated sexual immorality from but in the time of Paul it was specifically understood to mean selling sex or selling the covenant of humans with God. In terms of the discussion about Ba'al, etc, what Paul is saying refers specifically to selling a humans covenant with God to create things in their life to a god like Ba'al so that Ba'al will then create or establish." answered Jude. "Ah okay, so the premise behind all sex magic then?" queried Micah. "Essentially, but there is a deeper point that I want to make. In 1 Corinthians 10:23 he says the same thing regarding eating food sacrificed to idols but adds "do not let your freedom cause another to stumble". So what this says to me is that (1) Sin is not the same for everybody - for one person a sexual act may be sexual immorality but for another the same act might not be because it is dependent on the God being worshipped. Likewise, for one person eating food sacrificed to an idol may be sin while for another, the same food might not be, again dependent of the God being worshipped. Which lead me to question whether sins are actions at all and how are they associated with Freedom??" explained Jude. “Hmmm!" huffed Micah into the air before sipping his coffee, "So what you're saying is that sins cannot be actions otherwise the same action would be sin for both people? Fascinating. It examplains why David could commit both murder and adultery but still be called a man after God's own heart… but then how does the spirit thing work? Assuming obviously there even is a spirit realm…” said Micah flippantly.

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  "Yes, so my understanding of sin is tad different to what is traditionally taught.” said Jude. “This is very intriguing Jude", Micah said through a mouth filled with avocado toast. "I think a couple of caveats are necessary for full appreciation of my perspective. First, the bible says not to consider things from an earthly perspective but to consider things from the spirit. So I believe that God sees Christ in us or no-Christ, which is why the bible says that in Christ there is neither male nor female. So, in my view God does not see us as male or female, He sees us as Christ or not Christ and so I feel that if there is no male or female then it's very difficult to argue for any sexual orientation if "all are one in Christ". Second, as mentioned, I don’t believe that sins are actions or thoughts, so I don't ascribe a moral value to actions associated with sexual orientation, heterosexual or otherwise. The bible doesn’t really talk about them as that, it more commonly refers to them as spirits, like a spirit of murder…” replied Jude. After swallowing, Micah queried, “this is not what I was expecting… I thought you’d give some rationalisation for sin being made up to weaponise innate attributes as moral failings.” Jude chuckled and continued, “the bible says God thinks our good deeds are like filthy rags in Isaiah, so I figure if our good deeds cannot save us then it’s not likely that a just God would let bad deeds cause us to lose salvation… and actually Hebrews 6:4-6 is quite clear about what causes us to lose Salvation, it says that it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. So my understanding is that Salvation is lost after the Holy Spirit has been received and then refused or rejected.”

  “Even Ephesians 6 says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the powers, authorities, and the rulers of this dark world. The original Greek s really interesting here though…” explained Jude to a very wide-eyed Micah, “Okay. So give me a Greek lesson on Ephesians 6 then Jude…” said Micah motioning with his hand and sitting back in his chair to take it all in, visibly calmer. “Micah,” smirked Jude, shaking his head before continuing, “the Greek word translated as wrestle in Ephesians 6 is pale – it means close physical combat. But what struck me was the words used for powers, authorities, and rulers. These Greek words don’t mean physical things in this world. Archas is used for rulers and means cosmic leaders in hierarchies – so some, like cosmic beings that are organised into a structured hierachy. Exousia is used for authorities and means cosmic leaders with delegated jurisdictional power over a territory – so in my view, a specific type of archas that has a delegated jurisdiction over which it can exercise power. Kosmokratoras is used for rulers of this dark world and literally means those with dominion over the cosmos. So these words don’t seem to refer to humans at all? but it says that humans are wrestling with them…” Micah nodded, then argued “Yes, okay, so a clear language basis from which we can draw the conclusion that humans interact with or fight against spirits. But that doesn’t mean these spirits equate to sin?”

  Jude could feel that despite the friendly banter, the same weightiness that was on Micah’s words about Cynthia was on his words now – there was just something different about them. “Paul explains in Colossians 2:13-15 that when we were dead in our sins and in the uncircumcision of our flesh, God made us alive with Christ. It says that He forgave us all our sins and cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. It ends with Jesus has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Said Jude through chewing a blue berry, “Paul uses the same Greek words for powers and authorities in Colossians 2 as he does in Ephesians 6. So it’s obvious then that the archas and exousia exercise a power over people using a debt certificate that is based on a sin that links the person to the spirit. At least, that’s how I interpret it? What do you think?” asked Jude. “I can see your logic… because if sins are only actions or behaviours that people do, what is the point over triumphing over the spirits, the powers, and the authorities at the cross? Why do these powers and authorities have a legal claim to us in heaven that got removed and declared null and void and disarmed them? If we interpret the text different it doesn’t make sense?” conceded Micah.

  “Agreed, I think 2 Corinthians 10 provides a useful bridging link too… It says that we fight with spiritual weapons that have divine power to demolish strongholds and then describes the strongholds as arguments or pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. It goes further to then says that these arguments and pretensions are thoughts that are disobedient to Christ and they should be taken captive and brought into submission unto Christ. Paul even says they should be punished for their disobedience.” Jude clarified. Micah laughed, and said “Bad thought! Bad thought!” while making whipping gestures. “The Greek lesson now… Logismous is used for all the thought related terms and stronghold is translated from ochyromata which means to fortify. So the Greek literally means false or ungodly thinking patterns that have become entrenched and resistant to God’s truth. But you cannot punish a thought or a thinking pattern. So I think the spirit attaches itself to our minds which then influences our behaviours and thinking, etc.”

  Shaking his head, Micah continued, “I hear what you are saying, Jude. But then why does the bible clearly have verses like Romans 1 that says that God handed the people over to unnatural behaviour and their depravity which included acts of same-sex attraction?” “Read the full verse my friend,” Jude said smiling, taking out his phone to quote it accurately. “The most important parts are those that refer to people becoming futile in their thinking. It says in verse 28-32 why they lost their standing with God: “just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” In my view, what this is describing is the same thing that Hebrews 6:4-6 describes and essentially confirms that sin is spirits that affect the mind and causes people to turn from God. Even if we read above that, it says from verse 18 that “the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, which are His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles…” “interesting actually…” Micah interrupted, “that sounds very much like those false strongholds that you mentioned from the other verse and yes, again it confirms the Hebrews verse?”. “It does, but it continues to describe them further. It says “therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.” So what does this verse say? It says that the people first stopped believing the Truth about God, and instead of taking captive the lies and bringing them into submission, they abandoned God and began worshiping created things instead of the creator – which is idolatry and what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 6... The verse does not say that same-sex attraction was the reason they were handed over. It says very clearly that because they abandoned God they were handed over. So what is the sin? The sin is not same-sex attraction, the sin is the worship of the created things instead of God who made the creation. In this case the created thing is the idol they are worshipping. So once the people had abandoned God, God handed them over and then it explains that after they were removed from God, they became more depraved.” explained Jude.

  “That actually makes sense that they would become more depraved Jude, continuing this idea of sins being idol spirits, it would explain why Jesus says that when you cast a spirit out of the person they go around looking for a new home and when they don’t find one, they come back to the same person, re-enter them and bring other spirits who are worse than the original one in with them. So that verse from Jesus is confirmed by what Paul is saying here in Romans.” submitted Micah. “That’s exactly true. I also think it explains a lot of gay culture? Most of gay culture today is about the worship and celebration of created things instead of the Creator. You see it in the language of people when they say things like “let me worship your knob” or the opposite, “come and worship my knob”. The worship of sex and pleasure, etc. So the problem is not being gay, the problem is that the Spirit of Lust can cause you to become a worshipper of created things instead of the Creator God. In my view, being gay is not the sin, but there is a lot of sexual sin within gay culture. This is the same for straight folks too by the way…” said Jude.

  “I’m shocked by this answer Jude, I’ve never heard this response before. But it is very interesting and makes a lot of sense… What about what it says that God made the truth clearly obviously to them through creation? I’ve heard many people say that God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve?” said Micah. Jude reread that part out loud, “well what does it say, that God made his invisible qualities clearly seen through His creation. So lets look at creation – do we see same-sex attraction in his creation or is it isolated to only humans?” asked Jude, “I don’t actually know,” shrugged Micah. “We do. Researchers have consistently observed same-sex behaviours in every known animal species. There was even that news article about the homo penguins at that zoo who for years practiced raising a rock until the zookeepers gave them an egg and they successfully looked after it and raised the baby to adulthood. So is that not God displaying same-sex attraction throughout creation?” asked Jude, “we even know of some species in nature that can change their sex where there isn’t enough sex diversity in the population. Does that mean that God hates them because he initially made them male and then they transitioned into female? Of course not – and before you ask, we know that God loves His creation and died for them too because the bible is clear about it, Jesus blood first redeemed the earth at the Garden of Gethsemane and then people at the cross, which implies that animals are important enough for God to have sent Jesus to die for them, so we can use them as evidence of His nature…” Micah interjected, “and besides, the bible says that creation attests to the glory of God, so it is obviously useful to evidence God… Again if you believe in such things”. Jude ignored the quip and continued, “so what are we arguing, that the spirits are controlling the penguins to condemn them to hell? Or that the penguins are consciously choosing to revolt against their natural state to reject God and worship idols? Come on my friend… Let’s be serious. If actions and works are not good enough to save us, how can they be good enough to condemn us? Jesus is clear “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words, you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” said Jude, as the waiter came to clear the table.

  “Would you like any dessert?” asked the waiter, “I need to have look first, but could I get another coffee please,” said Jude. “Same for me please,” asked Micah. “Jude, this is very intriguing. I’m not converted, but just ontologically, the idea that there are no emotions or that thoughts are not natural to the person is very interesting. I think of it in the context of things like simulation theory or the matrix movie, but instead of machines and AI, it's spiritual beings…” said Micah. “Yeah, within Christianity there are two Kingdoms, God’s Kingdom and then everything else, so non-Kingdom. God’s kingdom is designed to glorify God and everything within that kingdom is purposed to only do things that glorify God. non-Kingdom is the opposite, it’s designed to glorify self. In Romans Paul describes it as "The Spirit vs The Flesh", in the garden of Eden it is expressed through the two trees, "Tree of Life vs Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil". This is why sin spirits reorient our focus away from God and towards self or flesh or earthly things. Romans 5 says that “therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” So when death entered it separated everybody from God, not Just Adam and Eve. That is why they left the Garden. So reality can basically be described as two systems that are oriented either towards being in fellowship with God, and thus freedom, or being separated from God, and thus in slavery. I believe this is why people in the west have such poor spiritual experiences because culturally we are taught to trust science and use creation to explain away the creator. The culture is rooted in being separated from God. So in my view, the question is not really about what is sin or not sin, or even if gay or straight is sinful because as Romans says, everybody is under sin. The question is what is the path back to God. According to Jesus, it's Him” replied Jude.

  Was there a battle that was won in this chapter... or is the war only beginning?

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