Sons of God

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: – John 1:12 [KJV] [emphasis added]

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. … For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. – Romans 8:14, 19 [KJV] [emphasis added]

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; – Philippians 2:15 [KJV] [emphasis added]

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. – 1 John 3:1–2 [KJV] [emphasis added]

A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn’t the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn’t flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.

— Dresden James, as cited by Chuck Missler⁷

Hello, dear friend. I gave considerable thought to our conversation about Psalm 82. Imagine if you could construe the very power of God at work in the born again believer in Christ as blasphemy, heresy, even apostasy. That would be quite a trick, quite the sophist’s sleight of hand. In terms of parallel passages, I think of 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 15:50, Psalm 110, and Hebrews all speaking to this issue, albeit not as directly as the point you raised. Psalm 58 in another (Genesis 6) sense seems to address your point. So, did the serpent – in addition to the assembly of his mutinous defectors – through his ‘seed’ down through history (e.g. antiquity, and ??) create a counterfeit of the authentic ‘sons of God’…? (See also: Gen 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1)

The technique of infamy is to start two lies at once and get people arguing heatedly over which is the truth.

– Ezra Pound

That said, this discussion quickly raises legitimate caution, even suspicion as being akin to the so-called Word of Faith movement (a.k.a. Neo-charismatic movement, Prosperity Gospel, New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) etc.) and specifically the ‘Little gods’ belief citing the same passages, particularly Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34. From the ‘Little gods’ belief section of the Word of Faith Wikipedia entry:

Many Word of Faith teachers have sought to emphasize the full meaning of the believer’s status as a child of God (through Christ) by using phrases such as “little gods” to describe them, a practice that has garnered some criticism from some other segments of the Christian community. Kenneth Hagin wrote that God “made us in the same class of being that he is himself,” and that the believer is “called Christ” because “that’s who we are, we’re Christ!” According to Hagin, by being “born again”, the believer becomes “as much an incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth”. … Kenneth Copeland says Adam was “not a little like God… not almost like God…”, and has told believers that “You don’t have a God in you. You are one.”

So, the question then arises; is there a difference or distinction (between the authentic and counterfeit) and if so, what is it? To further complicate the matter, even the (patently un-Biblical, ungodly) theosophical contingent uses this language.

We are all Gods, all the children of the One Father, as the latest of the Avatars, the Christ, has told us.

The Reappearance Of The Christ CHAPTER ONE – THE DOCTRINE OF THE COMING ONE (1947) credited to Alice Bailey (containing the prefatory Extract from a Statement by the Tibetan, generally taken to indicate the book was a “received” work)

So, what’s the difference? I think the difference is simple. It is the distinction between the first lie, and our identity in redemption, namely:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. – Genesis 3:4–5 [KJV] [emphasis added]

vs.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? – 1 Corinthians 6:19 [KJV] [emphasis added]

In other words, the former carries with it the usurpative germ of the flesh, in opposition to the latter, and seeks to ‘rise up’ and in the process, destroy all in opposition to itself¹² – which, incidentally reminds one of John 10:10. Whereas the latter is in submission and subjection to God in Christ, by grace through faith, in the power of the Holy Spirit. In even simpler terms; ‘my way or His way,’ respectively. But, even that is disingenuous, because we know as the Bible tells us that we are either ‘slaves to sin or slaves to Christ’ – there can be no in between.³

Others have articulated this distinction. For example, in My Utmost for His Highest, I believe Oswald Chambers makes the case plainly:⁴

The temptations of Jesus are not those of a man, but the temptations of God as Man. By regeneration the Son of God is formed in us, and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us to do wrong things; he tempts us in order to make us lose what God has put into us by regeneration, viz., the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come on the line of tempting us to sin, but on the line of shifting the point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

Returning to the ‘parallel passages’ I referenced at the outset, speaking particularly of Hebrews, I think the operative concept is ‘metachoi’ (G3353 – metochos, G3348 – metechō). I believe Chuck Missler did a great job of dispelling the myths of Arminianism and Calvinism (“The Arminian denies that the true child of God is eternally secure. The Calvinist insists that, if he does not persevere in holiness, he was never regenerate in the first place.”⁵) – two sides of the same satanic lie which sought to divide the Truth, beyond the point of ‘irreducible complexity’ as they say, to the point of error (i.e. false dilemma, a.k.a. false dichotomy, a.k.a. bifurcation fallacy) – by [re]surfacing the distinction between salvation and inheritance.⁵⁶⁷ Metachoi is the linchpin. However, I believe Missler’s notion of separating the two (salvation and inheritance) is also error (i.e. irreducible complexity). I believe the two are distinct, but inseparable. Perhaps I digress…

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. – John 14:12 [KJV]

Anyway, I believe you are onto something, and ‘greater works than these’ is probably much more literal than we might like to imagine… Because if that’s true, and your speculation is accurate, then at some point we may be in danger of bumping up against these words:

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. – Revelation 21:7–8 [KJV]

In this context then, ‘fearful and unbelieving’ arguably incorporates much more than we may presume. Are we like the circus elephant chained to a stake from infancy, who then becomes accustomed to being (feeling) ‘powerless’ – a socially / environmentally engineered form of ‘learned helplessness’…? Therefore, I believe Paul’s exortation is in order:

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, – Ephesians 6:18–19 [KJV]

When I think of Paul and his ‘boldness of speech,’ I am often reminded of his ‘Sermon on Mars Hill’:

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, [Ye] men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. – Acts 17:22–23 [KJV]

When I think of him using what was undoubtedly a pantheistic pagan idol to witness to them the gospel of the one true and living God, I marvel at his boldness. In any ‘mainstream’ Christian church in today’s America, I would expect him to be thrown out and labeled an apostate heretic. The Bible is replete with examples that ‘things are just things’ and ‘stuff is just stuff’.⁸⁹¹⁰ But, we are exhorted to take care, ‘for conscience’ sake’.¹¹ However, I wonder; how often do we ‘err on the side of caution’ only to the offense of Almighty God, for our ‘lack of faith’ and ‘unbelief’…?

If we do not walk in the power (G1410 – dynamai, G1411 – dynamis) of God, more appropriately, if we do not ‘allow’, or if we hinder or impede in any way the Holy Spirit’s operation through us as His earthen vessels, what risk might we run of invoking His wrath and indignation (‘O ye of little faith’ – Mat 6:30; 8:26; 16:8; Luk 12:28) in quencing the Holy Spirit, and the furtherance of the gospel unto salvation.

Incorporating recent conversations with two or three other dear friends in particular, what would happen if we ‘walked in our inheritance’ as His ‘fellow heirs’…? Not to give evil any credit, but it is obvious today for all to see that evil abounds with unbridled hubris. So, what if His children operated in His strength with the unreserved boldness of ‘childlike humility’…?

The Enemy Hiding In Plain Sight

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away…

– Sun Tzu, The Art of War Chapter 1 · Detail Assessment and Planning

The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.

– Charles Baudelaire

If you are awaiting a finding of “clear and present danger,” then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent. It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions… For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence…

– President John F. Kennedy, Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City (April 27, 1961)

4.The Plan is long range and from our standpoint moves slowly…

Lucis Trust (formerly Lucifer Publishing Company) Work of the Hierarchy – There is a Plan

The persistent striving for the understanding of the deeper realities and the more permanent values of life is the prerequisite of achieving the new consciousness.

Alice Bailey, The Coming Kingdom (1936)

For at least the past 246 years, the world has witnessed a creeping encroachment that has sought to overturn the existing societal order, often generally known as the ‘divine right of kings’ which traces its authority to the House (and throne) of David. Over the past 2+ (or 5+, but who’s counting) centuries, that old order has been experiencing an esoteric ‘inflection point’ or ‘Copernican Revolution’ (alchemical inversion) toward the so-called ‘Aquarian Age,’^12131415 which has been advanced under many other names.

As part of its strategy, this encroachment works tirelessly to bring about the “Abolition of Monarchy and all ordered Government.” This encroachment seeks to abolish all aspects of the ‘old order’ to create a power (and every other aspect of society) vacuum, into which to insert its ‘new order’. The ‘New Age’ requires new priests and new laws… and the devil has been hard at work implementing ‘the Plan’ with unbridled hubris.

For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. – Hebrews 7:12 [NASB95]

‘He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. – Daniel 7:25 [NASB95]

Additionally, the themes of Dystheism (“where God decides to become malevolent”) and even Misotheism (“hatred of God”) have been introduced to deceive people, pushing all toward the terrifying climactic end foreshadowed in Psalm 2. These themes have people questioning God’s grace, mercy, and ‘longsuffering,’ even doubting His benevolence, despite the fact that he takes responsibility for everything in His purview, as demonstrated in Job 42:11.

The conspirators have also adopted the Fabian¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸ tactic of ‘Gradualism,’^19202122 and therefore – even though the Conspiracy operates in plain sight – since it moves at glacial speed, the world at large fails to notice all the itinerant parts of the Octopus.²³²⁴²⁵ As Nesta Webster wrote:

…after their suppression in Bavaria every effort was made by the conspirators to persuade the world that their Order had ceased to exist. As the instructions for the degree of Regent expressed it:

The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment; let it never appear in any place in its own name, but always covered by another name, and another occupation.

This device has alway been exactly carried out: Freemasonry, Carbonarism, Socialism, the Internationale, have all in turn served as covers to the designs of the conspiracy, and the same method is being followed today. Every effort is made to persuade the public that no conspiracy exists, for once its existence is generally recognized its defeat is certain. Its whole success depends on secrecy.

I believe this most effective device has men – or what’s left of men after the evisceration of Cultural Marxism,²⁶²⁷²⁸ critical theory, ‘repressive tolerance,’²⁹³⁰ cultural hegemony, etc. – operating entirely in our own strength, wringing our hands while effectively playing checkers on a ten-dimensional holographic chess board.

As a Bible-believing man, I believe every battle we face on earth is always and above all, first and foremost spiritual in nature (and battle ground). Two of the most profound and provocative examples include 2 Kings 6, and Daniel 10:

Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, “Strike this people with blindness, I pray.” So He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. – 2 Kings 6:17–18 [NASB95] [emphasis added]

Then he said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding [this] and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. – Daniel 10:12–13 [NASB95] [emphasis added]

If that is so, then how can we ever possibly seek, in our own strength, to defeat an enemy that conducts reconnaissance, intel gathering, and a variety of ‘enemy action’ – all entirely in an ‘unseen’ realm…? Why would we ever first ‘put on the full armor of God,’ only to begin – let alone operate entirely – in our own strength…? To do so is madness, in a sense even suicidal. To do so exclusively would be the colloquial definition of insanity. An enemy that could convince entire generations of ‘Christian’ men to do so, predicated on the illusory premise that said enemy ‘didn’t exist’ would be… diabolically brilliant…

‘Angels of Light’

The theme of “initiation” appears in various relationships throughout this series of books. An initiation is an expansion of consciousness–a means of opening the mind and heart to a recognition of what already exists in reality. … A disciple is “one who serves”–eventually one who serves “the One”. So the vast, dazzling and glorious process of evolution and initiation opens out in the depths and in the silence of the soul, and the disciple learns to relinquish all self-seeking–even for personal spiritual experience–and becomes absorbed with others in the service of the Plan.

Initiation, Human and Solar (1922) credited to Alice Bailey (containing the prefatory Extract from a Statement by the Tibetan, generally taken to indicate the book was a “received” work)

3.Anything which is really good for humanity as a whole is a legitimate aid to their work and fits into the fundamental purpose of the Plan itself. …

Lucis Trust (formerly Lucifer Publishing Company) Work of the Hierarchy – There is a Plan

Both “Lucifer” and “Lucis” come from the same word root, lucis being the Latin generative case meaning of light. … Alice and Foster Bailey were serious students and teachers of Theosophy, a spiritual tradition which views Lucifer as one of the solar Angels, those advanced Beings Who Theosophy says descended (thus “the fall”) from Venus to our planet eons ago to bring the principle of mind to what was then animal-man. In the theosophical perspective, the descent of these solar Angels was not a fall into sin or disgrace but rather an act of great sacrifice, as is suggested in the name “Lucifer” which means light-bearer.

The Esoteric Meaning of Lucifer • Lucis Trust

For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. – 2 Corinthians 11:13–14 [KJV]

In addition to concealment and secrecy, the conspirators have presented ‘The Plan’ under the guise of benevolence, and the umbrella of innumerable ostensibly philanthropic organizations. Examples of image laundering efforts include PR man, Ivy Lee famously sanitizing and remaking John D. Rockefeller’s image as robber baron to philanthropist. As Gary Allen documented in The Rockefeller File Chapter 4: Profit x Philanthropy = Power:

Lee suggested that the aging gentleman offset his skinflint image by starting to give away money. Scrooge was to be turned into an instant Santa Claus. To begin with, Lee (the original Madison Avenue truth-twister) had Mr. Standard Oily carry around a pocketful of dimes which he would strew before deliriously happy and grateful kiddies whenever he made one of his infrequent public appearances. Cynics observed that St. John ripped off money by the millions and doled it back– a dime at a time.

And yet, as brazen a tactic as it was, however insulting to even the most casual observer, given time it worked! Each generation since it seems has bought the same ‘truth-twisting’ – hook, line, and sinker. I suppose it’s not terribly surprising, given the deliberate dumbing down of America[ns] over the past century.^{31323334353637} No wonder we can’t see it – it’s ‘magic’!

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. – Clarke’s three laws

The Reece Committee performed an amazing exposé on the most prominent tax-exempt foundations and comparable organizations of the era (including the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Carnegie Endowment) and their findings were shocking.³⁸³⁹⁴⁰ They represent what C. Wright Mills termed ‘The Power Elite’. Yet today, despite all the mountains of evidence of harm to America[ns] in particular, there exists a vast, ever-expanding network of foundations, think-tanks, ‘think and do tanks,’ non-profits, and various other NGO / NPO that function like interlocking ‘supra-national’ governmental organizations, ‘influencing’ governments, world leaders, and pushing for a ‘one-world’ system of ‘governance’.^4142434445 Not to mention the vast, ever-expanding labyrinth of government agencies – corporate entities – which are increasingly ‘outsourced.’^4647484950

In his 1796 Farewell Address, our first President, George Washington warned us about “combinations and associations” which he said “are destructive … and of fatal tendency.” These days we hear much about ‘public-private partnerships’ (PPP) including the Green New Deal, Agenda 21, Agenda 2030, and Sustainable Development, which Joan Veon said could rightly be called ‘global corporate fascism.’ In a 2016 debate⁵¹⁵² between Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges and former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich concerning the presidential race, Hedges described the phenomenon as follows:

It’s a system where corporate power has seized all of the levers of control. There is no way to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs or ExxonMobil or Raytheon. We’ve lost our privacy. … We’ve seen the executive branch misinterpret the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force Act as giving itself the right to assassinate American citizens, including children. … We have bailed out the banks, pushed through programs of austerity. This has been a bipartisan effort, because they’ve both been captured by corporate power. We have undergone what John Ralston Saul correctly calls a corporate coup d’état in slow motion, and it’s over.

Hedges’ point is validated from several credible quarters. For instance, studying 20 years of data, professors Martin Gilens (Princeton) and Benjamin I. Page (Northwestern) concluded:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. [emphasis added]

Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens (2014)

Peter Thiel has also expressed similar sentiments. As co-founder of PayPal, Palantir, and Founders Fund, and the founder of Clarium Capital, the first outside investor in Facebook, Thiel is a man of considerable influence. He worked at Sullivan & Cromwell, and is a Bilderberg Group Steering Committee member. The way he put it:^53545556

We’re living in a representative republic, but then that’s modified through a judicial system. Of course, that’s been largely superseded by these very unelected agencies of one sort or another, which really drive most of the decision-making. I think calling our society a democracy, whatever may be good or bad about democracy, is very, very deeply misleading. We’re not a republic. We’re not a constitutional republic. We are actually a state that’s dominated by these very unelected, technocratic agencies. [emphasis added]

The deception of the ostensible ‘angels of light’ and benevolence of ‘public-private partnerships’ – ‘global corporate fascism,’ and ‘corporate coup d’état in slow motion’ – is increasingly laid bare for all the world to see. The emperor has no clothes, and yet, the public mind is nonetheless paralyzed, seduced, and hypnotized by the (demonic) sirens’ song, poisoned by an endless variety of Kool-Aid, from ‘everything’s fine’ to ‘everything’s hopeless,’ and every flavor in between while we are sacked and suicided. All of this seems to have almost everyone everywhere target-fixated on their own ‘choose your own’ adventure. As documentary filmmaker, Adam Curtis put it:

It sums up the strange mood of our time, where nothing really makes any coherent sense. We live with a constant vaudeville of contradictory stories that makes it impossible for any real opposition to emerge, because they can’t counter it with a coherent narrative of their own. And it means that we as individuals become ever more powerless, unable to challenge anything, because we live a state of confusion and uncertainty. To which the response is, “Oh, dear.” But that is what they want you to say.

In conclusion, I wonder what would happen if even just a handful⁵⁷⁵⁸⁵⁹ of God-fearing, Bible-believing men got together, put on the full armor of God, took every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and prayed without fear, hesitation, or reservation, with the boldness of and with which Paul speaks… I wonder what would happen if men – the sons of God – compelled by the Holy Spirit, gathered in the humility of 1 Corinthians 1 … in abandoned service and devotion to Christ…

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and [that] the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” – Revelation 3:14–22 [NASB95]

Footnotes