Commentary on John 12:31-32 and John 12:47-48 (KJB)

 Jesus explained exactly what His judgment would be when He would be hung on a cross. Jesus informed that His judgment would be of the "prince of this world;" that is, the Devil, and by implication, all of his evil works. I John 3:8 (KJB). In other words, Jesus sacrificed Himself on a cruel cross to purge the world of the Devil and all evil, including the purging of all His living humans that He creates and loves.

Jesus also informed that His sacrifice "will draw all men unto me." This statement by Jesus can only mean that God will make sure that all living humans who ever lived will, at some time or another, hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they all will be drawn by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus' sacrifice for them by faith. Since Jesus had already said that He would suffer and die on the cross to purge the world of only the Devil and all evil, then He could not have meant that He would ever purge living humans from His world to be cast into an eternal lake of fire because He created all living humans to be good. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:27 (KJB). This means that when Jesus said that His sacrifice "will draw all men unto me," He had to have meant that He will cause all living humans to accept His sacrifice for them by faith, and He will purge all of His living humans whom He creates and loves of all of their sins, evil, spiritual death, and the influence of the Devil. But God will provide two forms of salvation for all living humans, one by His grace while those believers are still alive in the flesh, and the second by His mercy in the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB).

In John 12:47-48, Jesus clearly taught that while He was in the world in bodily form, He would judge no man, not even unbelievers. This statement by Jesus can only mean that He could not have judged any human when He hung on the cross. If Jesus ever casts living humans into an eternal lake of fire because they reject His gospel, then He would have had to have judged them while He hung on the cross as being some of the evil that He will purge from His world. In addition, Jesus informed that He will reserve all final judgments of all living humans until the end of the world, and then He will only judge them by that which is written in His Word. The book of Revelation describes exactly what that Judgment will be like. Just as Jesus said, the Word of God will be opened and only dead humans, not living humans, will be cast into an eternal lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15 (KJB). Christ will have already appeared to all of His living humans confined to the regions of death, and He will cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). He will resurrect these living humans so that He can recreate them to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB).

Christ has promised that "Behold, I make all things new." Since He created all things, then He must recreate all living humans. Revelation 4:11; Revelation 21:5. In John 5:28-29, Jesus taught that in the general resurrection, those who have done some good will be resurrected to life, and those who have been evil will be damned. The living nature of even the most evil human who ever lived has done some good. In order for Christ to effect this kind of resurrection, He must separate all living humans from their spiritual deaths. In John 11:25, Jesus taught that even humans who are physically dead who believe in Him, He will raise back to life. In this statement, Jesus prophesied that He will cause all living humans confined to the regions of death to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God so that He can separate them from their spiritual deaths and raise them back to life. All living humans are forever alive to God. Luke 20:38 (KJB).

Many teach that God has only one form of salvation which is by His grace. But that is not true according to the Word of God. Psalm 50:23 clearly teaches that God will save good people that He creates, but not by His grace. When God wrote this verse, He knew that when He saves by His grace, He saves solely because of the repentance and faith of the believer and never because of any goodness or good works done by the believer. Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJB). This fact can only mean that God will provide a lesser form of salvation for all His good and living humans that He creates and loves. Many other verses in the Old Testament attest to the fact that God will provide this lesser form of salvation. God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB).

Self Identity

 Consciousness objectifies all thought objects and all sense objects. When Descartes wrote "I think, therefore I am," he really should have written "I am conscious, therefore I am." Consciousness produces all thoughts. Thoughts do not produce consciousness. Consciousness happens to be the basis and the ground of all experience. and everything that humans can think or sense can only be an experience.

A camera cannot take a picture of itself unless it has been positioned in front of a mirror. In such a case, it is the reflection from the mirror that takes the picture, not the camera by itself. Similarly, brain function cannot be conscious of itself without the consciousness that it produces. If brain function produces consciousness, then it can only be conscious of itself from the standpoint of the consciousness that it produces. But since consciousness can say nothing about anything of which it is not conscious, then consciousness can only be conscious of its consciousness of its brain function by means of an expanded consciousness. But then, in order to be conscious of that expanded consciousness, consciousness would have to expand still further toward infinity. Since a limited mind cannot reach to infinity, then that connection to infinity could be made by an Infinite Consciousness. This process could be called the spirit of the human being.

All of this means that humans can be conscious of their consciousness that expands toward infinity. This also means that consciousness cannot be a material substance produced by brain function since brain function could not possibly produce a material substance that moves toward infinity. Consciousness has to be immaterial. This means that consciousness uses brain function to make a person capable of experiencing one's own physical body and the material world.

Consciousness of consciousness cannot be an illusion. Consciousness of consciousness is a system that effectively produces everything of which a human can be conscious. Consciousness of consciousness also produces the intelligence of humans that enables humans to manipulate their thought objects and sense objects so that they can formulate new systems that benefit themselves and others. In human experience, illusions are always useless and mean nothing unless a fiction writer uses them to tell a fanciful story. Systems that work to produce a desired, beneficial result can only be real, and all the thought objects and sense objects that compose such systems must also always be real. Illusions only occur when consciousness formulates false systems or unworkable systems that always comprise real thought objects and/or sense objects. A unicorn or a lie would be examples of such false systems. Certain false systems do exist which can produce temporary feelings of excessive pleasure or excessive pride, but these systems always prove to be destructive in the long run.

Every individual, intelligent human knows intuitively that he or she possesses a consciousness of their consciousness and that forms the basis of a person's self identity.

Commentary on Ezekiel 20:25 and Hebrews 8:7-13 (KJB) II

 Because of their excessive pride, the Israelites desired to make a covenant; that is, an agreement with God in which they would make laws good enough to create a perfect society that they thought would please God and make themselves acceptable to Him. Exodus 19:8 (KJB). But if a people were able to make themselves so good that they would be able to overcome all of their sins and evil, then they would no longer need God. The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day were moving in that direction. In time, religion often turns into atheism. So God allowed the Israelites to write their own laws into His Word because that was the covenant that they wanted with Him. But God did this to give them His inerrant and infallible message that all of their manmade efforts to make themselves good enough to be acceptable to God would utterly fail. God displayed His fiery wrath against their evil when He spoke to His people from a dark cloud upon Mount Sinai. Exodus 19:9-25 (KJB). Then God gave to Moses His perfect Ten Commandments to show His people that they would always fail to keep them. Exodus 20:1-26 (KJB).

The Israelites had rejected God's covenant. God informed the Israelites that He had already made a covenant with them. God told them that He had liberated them from slavery in Egypt which was a prophetic demonstration that He would eventually liberate the entire living human race from slavery to the Devil. God desired to give the Israelites His covenant of grace. God had previously told them that they were already His people because of the blood of the lambs that they had put on their doorposts. Exodus 12:13 (KJB). Even in their sinful condition, they were already His people because of His grace, and He had given them their sin offerings and their burnt offerings which symbolized their trust that only God could cleanse them and forgive them of their sins and evil. God informed them that if they would accept His covenant of grace, then He would make them His "peculiar treasure," and a "kingdom of priests," and a "holy nation." Exodus 19:3-7 (KJB). When God extended His covenant of grace to His Church, He used these same words to describe His people who accepted by faith that God's Son sacrificed Himself to take away their sins, evil, and spiritual death. I Peter 2:9-10 (KJB).

After the Israelites had utterly failed to keep their covenant that they desired to have with God which He allowed them to try to do, God renewed His covenant of grace and mercy with the house of Israel. In the end of the world, God will resurrect the entire nation of Israel confined to the regions of death and recreate them all with new hearts that contains righteousness, and He will give them a new life on His recreated earth. Hebrews 8:9-13; Romans 11:26-27 (KJB).

But God will extend His covenant of mercy and grace to all the Gentiles confined to the regions of death as well when Christ appears to all the Israelites and Gentiles confined to the regions of death, and He will cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God who alone can save them. Acts 15:13-18; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). God perfectly describes the change that the Holy Spirit can effect in the hearts of all humans who believe in Christ as the Lamb of God. The Holy Spirit will take away their sinful natures and replace it with the laws of God written in their hearts. Hebrews 8:9-13 (KJB). The Holy Spirit can do the same with all repentant humans who believe in the Lamb of God while still alive in the flesh, and who become saved by His grace. Galatians 5:22-24 (KJB). When God writes His laws into human hearts, the Holy Spirit gives them the love of God toward everyone, and they will no longer need to strive to please God by trying to keep the written law of God.

The new covenant happens to be the perfect covenant which replaces the old covenant that the Israelites desired that God would accept. This means that the old covenant is ready "to vanish away." But the Bible means that only the manmade laws written into the old covenant will vanish away. The Ten Commandments and the rest of the Word of God will endure forever. Matthew 24:35; Hebrews 8:13 (KJB).

Commentary on Ezekiel 20:25 and Hebrews 8:7-13 (KJB) I

 A direct connection exists between these two Bible passages.

Why is the written Word of God inerrant and infallible? It is so for two reasons. First because God never makes errors, and He never fails to tell the truth. God is the Truth and that means that God never fails to inform humans about the extent of their fallen condition and their propensity to commit sins and practice evil. God tells the truth to humans no matter how ugly that truth may be. All humans possess a spiritual death within them that they inherited from the fall of Adam. Romans 5:12 (KJB). That spiritual death puts an excessive pride in humans that causes them to strive to make themselves right with God or free of God. But they can never succeed in this endeavor because their spiritual deaths, that they cannot get rid of, always causes them to fail. Romans 5:6 (KJB).

The second reason why God's written Word is inerrant and infallible is that God actually allowed fallen humans to write manmade laws into His Word in order to prove to humans that they cannot create perfect people or perfect societies on their own. God never fails to inform humans about the truth about themselves. God's Truth is always inerrant and infallible. When humans attempt to make themselves right with God through their own efforts, that is called religion. When humans attempt to perfect themselves and create perfect societies, that is called atheism. Ezekiel 20:25 (KJB).

The letters that the enemies of God's people wrote to king Darius in their attempt to prevent God's people from rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem could not have been directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. Ezra 5:7-17 (KJB). The letter that the Roman officer sent to the governor Felix about how he rescued the Apostle Paul from a mob could not have been directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. Acts 23:25-30 (KJB). The railing speech that the orator Tertullus made against the Apostle Paul in one of his trials before the governor could not have been directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. Acts 24:1-9 (KJB). All of the errant speculations that the friends of Job made about the nature of God could not have been directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, these passages of scripture also form the inerrant and infallible Word of God because the Holy Spirit allowed them to be put into the Bible because they reveal the truth about the fallen nature of mankind and how deviant that nature can be.

Jesus clearly informed the Jews, and all who read the Bible, that divorce is always a sin. Mark 10:11-12 (KJB). Yet, He also informed the Jews that God allowed Moses to write a law of divorce into God's Word. Mark 10:1-4; Deuteronomy 24:1-2 (KJB). Moses, being a wise man, must have realized that under certain circumstances divorce happens to be unavoidable. Some sins can be unavoidable such as divorce, defensive wars, or enforced prostitution. The inerrant and infallible Word of God informs humans that God has compassion for the fallen nature of humans. God also has contempt for sin and evil because He has perfect confidence in Himself that He can do all that is necessary to thoroughly purge His creations of all sins, evil, spiritual death, and the Devil in order to forever save all of His living humans that He creates and loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; John 12:31-32; I John 3:8; I Corinthians 15:20-22 (KJB).

Hebrews 8:7-8 (KJB) further expounds on that which God wrote in Ezekiel 20:25 (KJB). God had Paul to write that there were "faults" in the "first covenant" that God gave to the Israelites, and that those "faults" were man's errors and not God's. In other words, God allowed humans to write manmade errors into His Word, such as when Moses allowed divorce by law.

Subjective and Objective Reality

 All of the copies that a copy machine can make happen to be just as real as is the original document copied. In a similar way, since consciousness can make internal copies of all that it can be conscious of, then the intelligent consciousness of humans must be just as real as its objective consciousness happens to be. This means all thought objects have to be real, including all abstract ideas, because intelligent consciousness can manipulate all of its ideas and use them to formulate useful and beneficial systems. This is the basis of human intelligence.

Some maintain that human consciousness happens to be just a product of brain function; that is, a physical entity. But consciousness is also aware of brain function. Just as no camera can take a picture except in the place where it happens to be, so a consciousness, separate from brain function, looks back at brain function in order to be conscious of it. If consciousness is but a physical entity, then it is a physical entity with the power to be aware of the brain function that produces it. But if brain function produces a physical consciousness that is capable of being conscious of how it is produced, then how can consciousness be aware of that fact? Since consciousness can never say anything about anything of which it is not conscious, then only another separated consciousness can look at a brain function that produces consciousness. This can only mean that human consciousness holds the power to be conscious of itself as an entity separate from brain function. Animals are conscious of something, but they are not conscious of their own consciousness. In addition, if humans can be conscious of their own consciousness, they need yet another separate consciousness to look back at their consciousness of their consciousness. And if humans can be conscious of their consciousness of their consciousness, then they need still another consciousness that moves toward infinity. That seems to be a tall order for a physical entity. Obviously, human consciousness cannot reach to infinity, but perhaps Infinity produces human consciousness. This can only mean that brain function does not produce consciousness, but human consciousness acts through brain function to cause humans to have a physical consciousness of their physical world.

Some argue that consciousness itself is not real. Yet consciousness holds the power to manipulate sense objects and/or thought objects to formulate beneficial and creative systems. Something that is not real could not do that. Consciousness can use all of its ideas, including the idea of nothing and the idea of infinity, in its formulation of its creative systems. This can only mean that everything of which consciousness can be conscious must also be real. Consciousness can have no unreal ideas. What about nonsense words? Nonsense words have a meaning. They mean nothing. That makes them useful because humans have to know the difference between something and nothing in order to be intelligent.

Yet humans can also formulate false systems that mean nothing and can even be destructive. But in order to form such false systems, consciousness can only do so by its misuse of its real sense objects and/or thought objects. Mathematics demonstrates this fact. False formulas such as 2+3=6 happen to be false even though every sign and number in it is, in itself, a useful, true and real idea. This happens to be true of all false systems formulated by humans. Falsity only occurs in false systems always comprised of true and real ideas, never in the real sense objects and/or thought objects that always form such systems. But how does human consciousness know when a system is false? Humans possess the real and useful idea of nothing by means of which it can recognize that a system is false because it is always useless and means nothing. Humans cannot be intelligent unless they know the difference between something and nothing. Humans can use the real idea of nothing in intelligent ways even though that idea, in itself, is wholly immaterial.

That which holds true about subjective reality also holds true about objective reality. Objective reality happens to be a consciousness of the physical world, including one's own body. Every false system in physical reality happens to be an hallucination, a misapprehension, an optical illusion, a lie, or some kind of misjudgment. Yet, every objective false system always comprises true and real objects of consciousness. For example, a person reports that he saw a UFO. He describes it as being a shiny, metallic disc. Whether UFOs are real systems or false systems is beside the point. If that person saw a UFO which was a false system, he nevertheless saw it as a false combination of true and real ideas supplied by his mind. "Shiny" is real, "metallic" is real, and "disc" is real. All false systems in objective reality fit into this category. All false systems in objective reality always comprise true and real mental copies of true and real objects and ideas. This can only mean that human consciousness never experiences anything that is not true and real. Falsity is always a human construction that always comprises a misuse of true and real sense objects and/or thought objects. Mathematics itself demonstrates this fact.

A person can even use his consciousness to objectify his own body since it is a physical object. This means that if a person says "I have a pain," he reports a true and real system about himself unless he is lying in which he reports a false system. But whether he is truthful or lying, he can use only true and real ideas in either system.

God has calibrated the entire qualia of human consciousness with reality. Humans never experience unreality except indirectly in false systems.

On Truth and Falsity

                         Jesus is the Truth continued

Since Jesus is the Truth, He does not fail to tell the truth, no matter how ugly that truth may be. The Truth consists of an Infinite set of Ideas in the Infinite Mind of God. This means Jesus is the Logos; that is, the living Word of God. John 1:1-2 (KJB). Jesus gave humans a limited intelligence and five senses by which humans can directly experience God's physical creation. God gave humans a limited mind that humans can use to abstract ideas from sense experience and hold other ideas that cannot be so experienced such as the idea of nothing and the idea of infinity. Because human knowledge and intelligence is limited, humans possess a vast area of the unknown in their consciousness. But God has given humans the ability to search for the truth within the unknown. In their search for the truth about human relationship with God, God has given humanity all they need to know from a study of His written Word. In their search for the truth about human relationship with God's creations, God has given humanity philosophy, science, and mathematics.

All of this means that all of the sense objects and thought objects that God has given to the human mind must be true and real because they all happen to be useful for the creation of beneficial systems, and they all can be used in the human search for truth. But humans can also invent false and destructive systems. Even so, when humans closely examine all false and destructive systems, they will always find that they all comprise misused true and real sense objects and/or thought objects. Even when humans speculate about any unknown truths that lies within the unknown, they always use systems comprised of true and useful sense objects and/or thought objects. Humans live in reality and cannot avoid it. Humans also invent languages that denote sense objects and thought objects so that they can easily communicate with each other about the systems they invent.

Whenever humans discover that a particular system is false, they usually discard it from reality as being useless. It is useful to know when a system is useless. Yet, humans often use false and destructive systems against each other. That is sin and evil. But since all systems always comprise true and real sense objects and/or thought objects, how can humans recognize the falsity in a false system since it seems to be an immaterial substance that attaches itself to false systems? God has given humans the real and useful idea of nothing that humans can use to indicate the falsity in a false system. False systems always prove to be useless and mean nothing. Humans also possess a huge number of speculative systems that have not yet been discovered to be true or false. But whenever humans discover that a particular, speculative system is false by their use of the idea of nothing, they usually discard it from reality as being useless. The idea of nothing indirectly indicates unreality, but humans never directly experience unreality. But humans can also cause other humans to believe that a false system is true and useful so that they can gain power over them. This is also sin and evil.

Since humans must use the real idea of nothing to indirectly indicate the presence of falsity which seems to be immaterial, then humans can only directly know reality. Humans never directly experience unreality. Humans can only directly experience that which is true and real. But what about nonsense words that mean nothing? They have a meaning. They mean nothing. Humans can never know that which means something unless they know that which means nothing. It is quite useful to human knowledge to know the difference between that which really means something and that which really means nothing.

Mathematics provides an example of the fact that humans know only that which is true and real and that they never directly experience that which is not real. Take for example a miscalculation in arithmetic; that is, 3+2=6. Every number and sign in this miscalculation happens to be true and real because they all are useful. Yet, the system is false. The system is known to be false because it is useless. It is known to be useless because it does nothing and means nothing. The real idea of nothing can be experienced, but the falsity of this system cannot be directly experienced. The true calculation of this false system is that it equals zero. The sign for zero in mathematics means nothing. God has given the real idea of nothing to humans so that they can recognize when a particular system is false and useless. Humans never directly experience unreality. Yet, many humans persist in using false systems because they can produce excessive pride and excessive pleasure, which in the end results in destruction. This is also sin and evil.

But Jesus, in His suffering on the cross, in the descent of His Spirit into Hell, and in His resurrection, He purged all sin and evil, spiritual death, and the Devil from all of His creations so that He can recreate it all to be wholly righteous. Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:20-21; Genesis 8:20-21; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 75:3; Psalm 107:9-21; Psalm 16:9-11; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Matthew 13:36-43; Luke 3:6; John 5:24; John 5:28-29; John 6:33; John 6:52-57; John 11:25-26; John 12:47-48; John 12:31-32; Acts 2:25-31; Romans 8:18-23; I Corinthians 13:8; I Corinthians 15:20-26; Philippians 2:9-11; Colossians 1:15-23; I Timothy 4:10; Revelation 1:17-18; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12 (KJB).