I was thinking today of the proto-Christian books Satan planted as he tried to culturally poison the reception of Jesus. Not being omniscient though very smart, in Plato especially the correlation Christianity is "Platonism for the masses!" (which pro-Satan writer Nietzsche remarked in "Will to Power") was given by the Devil's foolishly inaccurate expectation of how the Son of Man would appear. Rather than the moody, distant, exhorting and remarkably straight forward Jesus of the Good Book a pudgy old man who hangs out with young men in noblemen's houses and marketplaces is given instead. His message so conflicting, tendentious, incoherent and misplaced to the point an early, middle and late Plato is given. There is no early, middle and late Jesus Christ!
This fellow lets others speak, does not directly confront but circles around with deceptive questions, picks traditional and sound ideas apart through language-games, makes people change the definition of their own terms and then confounds them with it, and ends up being condemned by the courts for misleading the youth and creating new gods. This is the irony of Satan. He has no direct power over people and only works in the shadows of their own ideas to tempt them to yield. Like Socrates, he creates new gods and misleads the youth. He mainly does it through people's own openness to him, like as Socrates made his interlocutors very garrulous to ambush them.
One ultimately has to view this through the lens as to what the Bible is. If we accept there is a spirit world beneath the surface of our world where angels of light and the True God exist, contend for our souls with a creature made too perfect, who now wants to destroy God's Creation as much as he can before his appointed winnowing to the fire; if we accept this, and that there is an end to this world, our predicament a historical outcome of Satan's fall, and the attempt to destroy God's most favourite creation; then we accept a spirit world exists which we can access. But in this alien plane though original homeland, there are many spirits that will come upon us to win us to what is not pleasing to God's Eye. The Bible is the guide in this world. The starting place, from which to test one's wild times in prayer, trance and meditation as to what the revelations mean for each. Go to the Good Book!
When you accept it is the only truth, that even Christian writers are not entirely worthwhile when this book can be read, then you see it is the staunchest tool for our salvation. It is the way we are pleasing to God's Sight. So before Satan's appointed time of burning, he can make every effort to thwart us, and the Bible.
Pan-hellenic phenomenon of redemption cults: Osiris, Dionysus, Quaranius; global accounts of virgin births: Buddha, Semele's child. He is so far off the mark we know only God is omniscient in this dispute for our souls. Imagine the enemy, cunning as he is though, extrapolating God will birth a Son of a Virgin to redeem through blood-sacrifice all the sins of humankind. The wages of sin are death. In the afterlife, death equals Satan's fate. Only a sacrifice of the perfect human can atone all the blood on our sin-active hands. In these 'proto-Christian' camps, we can see where Satan tried to plant the story that could best replicate the appearance of Jesus to make him un-unique. But he could not anticipate what Jesus would be with the accuracy of the real McCoy. The most remarkable secular trait about the Bible is how current the New Testament is, especially in a good English translation.
I discovered the Bible after two weeks of being made aware of a spirit world and being gang-banged jail style multiple times by one angel of light who fed me the most ludicrous nonsense. I will not repeat it, and I say, have deleted all evidence of those 'revelations.' The crisis point came when after an extended prayer with a ball of light pervading my consciousness, I felt like I had experienced the spiritual but it was not God. I agonized over this and availed myself of my sister to explain these things. She made if clear only Jesus will protect me from "the Shining One, Lucifer" and the Bible is a guidebook to authenticate the spirit you talk to to ensure it is one who leads you to Eternal Life. You must ensure the spirit is right! It will only enlighten more of the mystery in the New Testament.
One phrase boggled me for days. Jesus refers seemingly out-of-time to salt that is used to season meats but loses its flavour and corrupts its use in seasoning. Don't be like this! I did not understand the Teacher then. Luckily, I was blessed to make the time for an hour's searching for the light of God, which filled me with great peace and good sleep. The next morning the meaning of this phrase dawned on me. Though when you are in the moment of experiencing God it can enervate you enormously, defer thought on becoming a disciple and rather consider that if the moment passes and you are already committed, then the devotion has lost its flavour and its use. This is one you cannot lose.
How astute to leave as a nugget in His Work! The full understanding of the New Testament is possible only through continuous spiritual attempts at contact and knowing the psychology of feelings involved, the transformation desired and the urgency compelled. Also, the many stories of the apostles forgetting Jesus was Lord though the Lord had fed five thousand, four thousand, healed innumerable crowds with leprosy, paralysis and death and also stopped storms on a lake He walked on later! They forgot. How easy we forget! The point is even those with daily contact with the embodiment of God in a fallen world, even they could forget His Omnipotence and Immanantness. So here is another example the Inspiration put in the Bible to remind daily praying people that even the Apostles forgot, so simply keep at it!
Importantly, the Bible announces the Good News there is a world we are accountable to which we can circumvent the punishment of if we simply abide by certain behaviour. We are guaranteed to fail and guaranteed to survive if we accept the only solution to our predicament God could discover: blood sacrifice of the perfect human, the Son of Man. The struggle is keeping the Real World's Demands unforgotten, the ripple and shimmer of the ebb and flow in mind. What am I doing now? You are freed from the shackles of the past or the teasing of the future since now is the only moment that matters, it being a matter of time before you fall again. A connection with God obliterates the concept of being unaccountable for one's actions, for one's action are entirely free! And if you accept God's Love, you can accept His Sacrifice too and have eternal life!!
It is so simple yet so mind-boggling. That's what I admire about the Bible after studying philosophy for seven years. Those systems felt, one and every time, incomplete. There was always a proviso, a reductio-- and a sigh. Yet the words God put into the mouths of mortals and of the Christ are staggeringly straight-roaded, narrow-worded, well-conceived and roundly told. There is no dithering in concept that dilutes the works of mortals and of Satan. Someone All-Knowing wrote it.
It is so simply yet so mind-boggling. How does one conceive of the Trinity in prayer? When I pray to Jesus, to God or to the Holy Spirit I treat them as separate individuals--which they are--and other times speak to all through one--they also are. I only reconcile myself with the idea we are chained by earthbound logic, rings of grammar rules around us that cry, "three cannot be one and one cannot be three!!" However, you begin to conceive it better with more prayer as you can switch between All Three seamlessly. Once in a lifetime sort of thing. Normally, you're stuck grasping in the Light for Who you are speaking to!
