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Overcoming the World Part 1 & 2
By John Gavazzoni
Everything within God, and concerning God, is relationship-centered. As I've written before in at least one article, we might define God, or the Divine Nature, as, "Family-constituted, Gender-complete relational Being." Just thinking as I'm writing, that I might re-word that as, "Relational Being of a Gender-complete, Family-constitution." Or even, "The Divine Nature is, within a Family context, and in accordance with, and by the union of, Their Gender-completeness, passionately relational." Adding "passionately" is definitely called for to get the sense from the whole body of biblical literature of how God relates within Himself to Himself, to His children, and to His creation, all of which exist within, and are intrinsic to, Who He is and of what character He is. He is a passionate God. There are many passages that reveal the love of God, as it were, gushing forth from Him in a torrent of reconciling compassion, understanding, and grace.
Keeping that in mind, helps us to understand why John, in his first epistle, reduces the believer's mode of victory over the world in what might appear...without sufficient called-for reflection....to be a statement reeking of simplism (the oversimplification of an issue). Wrote John: "Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." I have never, to my recollection, in my fellowship with, and work among, believers of so many kinds of association....and there have been many.... read or heard a sermon, study, teaching or devotional about overcoming that has attempted to explain the mystifying reductionism of John's statement.
To unpack the implications of John's statement, we must bring to the table where understanding is sought, the fact that the world is hostile toward God. That's why we can't love the world and love God at the same time. We must love all persons, but the world-system is one devotedly impersonal, i.e., it is a system that gathers together into itself all that is alien to true personhood. The Greek word, "kosmos," commonly translated as, "the world," gives a student of scripture who seeks an in-depth understanding, a sense of an orderly arrangement, and/or dominant system imposed upon mankind to alienate us from our true humanness.
We are to recognize and deal with the world as the enemy of God, and the enemy of our spirits, souls, and bodies. Now, if we are to overcome the world, we must, of course, encounter the world as it is. God, from the beginning, deliberately arranged for us to be confronted by the world, and for us to dynamically confront its enmity toward God and humanity.
The truth of God's relational Being, and the fact of the world's adversarial existence all around us....it is systemic....leads us to an understanding of why John wrote so simply. The world hates real, genuine, true relationship. The world is passionate about wearing masks and keeping social distancing, for instance. In fact, that's what it's all about: masking and distancing. The world loves personhood pretense, and especially hates parental/familial relationship. It is always working toward the destruction of the family, and reducing relationship to that of an impersonal collective. To it, you are not to be a member of a family, but a member a collective. In its estimation, you are simply an entity for the system to use and feed upon. The relationship between the world-system and the state involves a convergence of malicious intent to such a degree, that we could almost say one equates to the other.
At the most fundamental level, the dominant system's hatred of family is most vehemently focused upon, and directed against that Nuclear Father-Son relationship that gives true meaning to all existence. Therefore, the world, quite specifically, and most fundamentally, hates God's Son...hates the very thought of God having a Son. When we are believing (continually) that Jesus is the Son of God, we are going toe to toe with the world, and facing it down. We overcome by that Word in our hearts that declares that God thus loved the world that He gave His only/uniquely begotten Son to save us from the destructiveness of the world. The world is about perishing. The Son is about living.
The world is building up toward making a case that anyone who believes that Jesus is the Son of God ought not to be allowed to roam free infecting others with their audacious claim that God is all about His Family, with His Eldest Son sitting at His right hand. No, no, no, says the state: the collective must be your family, and all claims that God has given Jesus, His Son, all authority in heaven and earth must be erased from the face of the earth, and all history regarding that claim must be rewritten.
But you, saint of God, keep on believing that Jesus is the Son of God against all attempts to dissuade you. Your heart, from which all the issues of life proceed, will then be found aligning itself with God. By believing that Jesus is the Son of God, the world is powerless against us. By believing that Jesus is the Son of God, the gates of hades shall not prevail against us.
At the heart of all revelation is the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said to Peter that His Father in heaven had revealed that to him. The world wants nothing of revelation, it wants the self-aggrandizement of self-enlightenment, BUT ONLY that enlightenment mandated by the elite at the head of the collective. "The authority of darkness," is an authority of deception. There are ruling voices in this hour that speak darkness, and so many believers feel obligated to believe "the science," when "the science" is no science at all.
It's all smoke and mirrors folks, but the agents of the system, the media mouthpieces, have about them a vocal tone that leads the listener to a false assurance that we can, after all, trust the workings of the system. There's a manner of presentment that makes the lie believable. "How could that nice fellow on my television screen be a mouthpiece for evil? Look, watch, have you ever seen such sincerity, such intelligent moderation of viewpoint? Don't bother me. I like him. He has my confidence. He is my favorite newscaster, and I like the way he keeps me from any serious anxiety about what's happening in the world." Notice how "he," more and more turns out to be "she," and very attractive at that.
For the first time just a few days ago, I was confronted by the bank manager where we do our banking about being inside without a mask. I told him, "I'm not able to wear a mask safely," which is true for anyone. Masks harm, and the claims of their effectiveness, are highly dubious. Masks obstruct your breathing and trap exhaled carbon dioxide in that space between your mouth and the mask just long enough for you to inhale your own exhaled carbon dioxide. The result: that combination causes a significant decrease in your blood oxygen level. Surgeons often complain of headaches after wearing their surgical masks for long periods. Tests of surgeon's blood oxygen levels after surgery have revealed blood oxygen levels decreased by as much as 20%. Not good. I felt for the cashiers, all fine young people, and all the employees having to work under a regimentation based upon a combination of bad science, a global governance agenda, and ignorance.
Be not ignorant, brethren. Being made to wear masks, keeping six feet away from others, going into lockdown (a prison expression), is not about keeping you safe, it's about training you to be a compliant, unthinking servant of the system. Pardon the expression, but they keep throwing this kind of crap at the wall to see how much will stick. "Destruction is in their path." They "kill, steal and destroy," but "He who sits in the heavens will laugh; He shall have them in derision."
Part Two
Lest we over-complicate the qualification of being an overcomer: "who is he who overcomes the world but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God." That's a closed-ended statement leaving no room for any additional requirement. It leads me to the conclusion that the final all-determining crisis involving the world (Greek, kosmos, and the orderly-arranged, evil dominant system) and the faithful in Christ Jesus, will be exactly at that point.
The world will increasingly manifest its hatred of even the idea of God having an only/uniquely-begotten Son, much less His claim, as the First-begotten to Whom has been given all authority in heaven and earth. The believing in John's explanatory statement, is not a mere matter of giving mental assent to a doctrine of Christ's divine Sonship, but a grace-granted participation in that very Son's faith, with the full assurance that is intrinsic to that faith.
Observe carefully how the uniqueness of Jesus as the Son of God will be very craftily opposed by the insistence that there is no difference between Jesus' sonship and that of any/all others. The historical Jesus of Nazareth, crucified, buried, risen, ascended, enthroned and glorified as "Lord of all" will be met by demonic revulsion by the world. To be maintained in living belief in Jesus as God's Son, will be no light matter. The believer will come under great pressure to abandon the "simplicity that is in Jesus Christ."
Being maintained in that faith will be central to our transformation into His image. Jesus knows and believes who He is, and we shall grow up into the stature of the fulness of Christ "in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God." Intrinsic to Jesus' Sonship is His Lordship, for it is as God's Son that all things have been given into His hand. It will be by that resolute stand of faith that the world shall know and believe that God sent Him into the world (Jesus prayer in Gethsemane.) "Fear not, little flock, from the cross to the throne; from death into life, He went for His own. All power in heaven, all power in earth, is given to Him for the flock of His love: only believe........"
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