The Bible says that God is both loving and a Righteous Judge.
Prepare, then, to become a pseudo lawyer, defending some pretty outrageous behavior, including, and especially,
collective punishment.
Any god can be made to seem righteous, if you lower your standard of goodness (of what is good) low enough.
Finally, i'm suggesting you take responsibility for defending this claim. Don't hide behind the text. Just admit, straight up, that you think the god described therein is good enough to be called "righteous". This is
your declaration. You should accept responsibility for it.
It also says that God cannot lie. Jesus specifically said, “I am the Truth.”
I don't consider the god of this world, and the Father of Jesus to be the same entity. The god of this world is a lie. The Father of the "Son of Good" is the Truth. If like begets like, then yes, the Son of Good is also the Truth.
Given this, what is man? Man is the product of the god of this world. If like begets like, then man is also a lie.
If you wish to make claims on the truth, that it be either you or a collection of texts, you are going directly against the Truth, if it be a Living Being. Man and his books are dead, claiming to live. Both are lying.
Eventually you'll understand that Jesus often talks about his True Self, not the flesh you think you can see with eyeballs. Nothing the eyeballs can show you is the Truth. The Truth is beyond what eyeballs can see, but not beyond the vision of one's right mind. You can only "see" Christ with knowledge directly infused into a once closed (darkened) mind.
According to Moses’ Law in Deuteronomy 19:15-21,
Ok, that would be, at best, the law of the god of this world.
if a false witness accused someone of wrongdoing, then both men would come before the Lord,
Ok that would be the god of this world.
the priests and the judges.
Ok that would be the offspring of the god of this world.
There was to be a careful inquiry and if the witness was indeed false, then the false witness was to be punished with the penalty the accused would have been given.
This is called a deterrent in this world's judicial systems. Reciprocity is reasonable, given the alternative is too much, or too little response to this very serious offense.
However, only the god of this world, and his magistrates, deal with crime and punishment. Participation in a world where there can be lies, is it's own worst punishment. Beyond your own voluntary participation, and the risks that go with it, there is no punishment coming from any god that is actually Good.
Finally, by speaking of "false witnesses", you are implying that there is a true witness somewhere in this world, and/or that there is some "truth" to be had, somewhere in this world. This conflicts with what you said earlier, "I am the Truth".
You seem not to understand (or care?) that Truth belongs, entirely and exclusively, to the True Being, what i sometimes call "Christ". You seem to think there are other truths, in addition to Christ, that can be had or found.
I'm sorry to inform: in the world of crime and punishment, there is really no truth. It is extremely dark, meaning, you cannot see all the interconnections going on underneath the psychological surface of humanity. To that extent, you have no idea who is a victim, and who is victimized. To the extent you believe there are victims, you don't know the Truth.
“Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Eyeballs are not the Truth, nor do they ever see the Truth...ever. Teeth are not the Truth. Hands are not the Truth. Feet are not the Truth.
All of these anatomical features are products of the god of this world, and are scheduled for destruction, regardless of criminal appearances. They will be destroyed as part of a kind of collective punishment, regardless one's apparent righteousness under the sun. Their destruction comes sooner or later, no matter the excuse, crime or no crime. Collective punishment does not care who you are.
Furthermore, as a man, you
are a false witness. Technically, you are claiming to "live", when in fact the quality of Life belongs entirely and exclusively to Christ. Your mere claim to existence (life), competes directly with Christ's own qualities, claiming them for your "self", as a man. This does make you a false witness, and probably justifies your destruction, in the mind of the god of this world.
These claims put you in a very dangerous position, making you a target of the god of change, which is the god of this world. Change itself schedules you for destruction. Your destruction is built in to the systematic system, so-to-speak.
Conversely, the only safe position is to
be Christ. This is the position Jesus took, and it seems to have kept his Self safe from harm. The part that was not true vanished. His eyes cannot be punctured. His teeth cannot be broken. His feet cannot be nailed. He has overcome the arrows aimed by the god of this world toward all who bear false witness.
In that time, it would be right for one who had committed this sin of falsely accusing someone, to “fear” the judgment he was about to experience as determined by the judges. Any duress and suffering he feels are a part of the punishment.
In a world of crime and punishment, fear is a deterrent from politically unacceptable behavior. Regardless how reasonable or justified is the use of fear, wherever it seems needed or justified is not a world where there is any Truth. It means you are participating, voluntarily, in the wrong world. The fear, emanating out of the wrong world, can prevent you, your mind, from discovering the right world, the world of Christ...the only world that actually exists.
Further, you can never arrive at the Truth, which is the Right World, through behavioral modification, which is carrot and stick. The World of Christ is not run with carrot and stick (reward versus risk of harm), containing no trace of fear on the one side, or need for more (a reward) on the other. In the World of Christ, there are no bodies with which to
behave or otherwise
act. There is no acting or behaving, there is only
being.
Fear implies there is a decision to be made in which there is risk of loss on the one side, or potential for gain on the other. Both of these concepts are irrelevant and even impossible within the Being of Christ (= World of Christ). Christ cannot gain more than is already owned (what Christ already is), nor can Christ lose anything that is already owned (what Christ already is). Therefore there is no "risk" in Being Christ.
If you feel fear, it means you have agreed with certain illegitimate principles and concepts. All such principles, laws and concepts are null and void in the presence of Christ. Whatever contracts you may feel compelled to comply with, they are cancelled if ever you come close to the Knowledge of Christ. The "old testament" are the contracts you have agreed with. These are very dark contracts running sub-surface to human consciousness, according to the design of the god of this world. You have an agreement with the god of this world. It involves fear, and is thus null and void upon the Appearance of the Truth.
In the same sense, it is right for us to fear the consequences of God’s eternal judgment.
It is the judgement of faith you fear, and perhaps not without some evidence that justifies your fear. Faith is indeed dangerous, and results in a lot of pain and suffering, indeed all of the world's pain and suffering.
Your relationship to the god of this world is tighter than you even suspect, at the moment. It's faith, and your faith are intertwined. You believe what it believes, since you are made with it's faith (in it's own imagination) in it's likeness. Your faith, and it's faith are intertwined, and did i mention faith is dangerous? If it's faith is fragmented (if it believes in contradictory circumstances) so is yours. If it believes good and evil can co-exist, so do you.
It is this faith that exposes you to all manner of harm, danger, and ultimately death. Your safety begins when you start taking responsibility for your faith, and stop justifying it. Taking responsibility means ceasing and desisting justification for your fear based upon any texts, any where, any time. You actually have no basis for fear, if you are thinking/believing rightly about Christ/Good. You should fear any god in which you have invested faith, which is not Christ/Good. That god can never be more real, or justified than the faith you put into it. Again, it is the faith that is dangerous to what you become (participate in) when you pretend to be made in the image of that god.
The book of Daniel in the Old Testament mentions “some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.” There are many other passages in both the Old and the New Testament that also describe a future judgment.
The old testament is about agreements you have secretly made with the god of this world. These agreements are sub-surface, buried deep in the human psyche in dark rooms with strong doors that you cannot open with surface intellect. Your relationship, as a man, with the god of this world is closer than you think...which is why your situation is dangerous on a daily basis.
The new testament is about transparent agreements with Christ, the Truth. If you fear anything, or anybody, or any god, you are not acknowledging a deeper relationship with Christ. You're not being transparent, but rather, keeping the dark, sub-surface, non-transparent agreements with the god of this world. These are agreements you are keeping with the concept of
faith, which seems to offer you something for your allegiance, but which leads into all manner of deceit and danger
.
Good is. Who is this god you speak of? Any other "god", besides Good, is a lie.
Good is. It is not a question of lying when you are the only Being that actually exists! Who would you lie to? Who would tell you a lie? Good is not in danger of being deceived.
On the other hand, a strange thing called "faith" (a totally foreign/alien anomaly) seems to enable you to lie to yourself, that is, if you could possibly divide yourself into separate beings that are no longer "one" (united). Faith is like a portal, a dark worm hole in one's mind, that can transform who or what you think you are. If employed by Good, it transforms Good into all manner of "things" and/or "gods" that do not actually exist. Faith, then, functions to deceive, but only one's self. The only self that can effectively be deceived is any self that is manufactured by faith itself, being the offspring of faith, so-to-speak. What knows itself as Christ cannot be deceived. Beware, then, the dangers of faith.
But we all know that people do lie.
People
are lies. People are products of faith. Nothing faith ever produced was actually ever true. To the extent that you, as a product of faith, claim to be true, speak true, or read true, you are in grave danger. As such, as a "person", you are
substituting for the Truth. A synonym for substitution is subversion. The Truth is safe. As a substitute subverting the truth, you are in grave danger, subject to change.
God’s response to all lies, is repulsion, to the point of being wrathful. In fact, God’s wrath is against all who suppress truth.
You are describing the function of faith. It is faith that involves Christ/Good in the detrimental affairs and after-effects of applied faith. The very idea that Christ/Good is wrathful is a delusion of faith. The idea that Christ/Good is compelled to respond to the products of faith is itself delusional. Not just that, it is dangerous to believe things about Christ/Good that are as delusional and/or blasphemous as these ideas about involvement and reaction to your sins. Your sins are products of your faith. Sins are seriously insane notions about Christ/Good that are so delusional they are dangerous to the believer.
Faith produces a multitude of separate selves that are in danger of the faith that produces them. Only they are in danger. Further, they are only in danger as long as they participate in/with faith, that is, keep agreements with faith (old testament).
Some day God will create a new heavens and a new earth
Whatever faith produces/makes, it can change. Indeed, faith and change are more simpatico than Biden and Harris. If the god that makes terrestrial landings wants to destroy and make more, that is not surprising at all. But this is not what Good/Christ does in it's own World, which never changes.
There is no need for change when your World is already Perfect.
and there will be no lying or any other sin in that place. There will also be no more suffering.
Where ever there was lying, it was never true. If there is a world in which there could be a lie somewhere, sometime, someplace, told by somebody, then that world, that place, that time, and that body were never true.
"I am the Truth" excludes all the times, places and circumstances in which there may have been a lie. In Truth, it is not possible to lie. This is why all the products of faith, along with the fear it produces, are all null and void.
That is how things ought to be. The sufferings and evil that are so overwhelming in this world, came as a consequence of Adam and Eve rebelling against God and all of us continue in sinful ways.
You will suffer and die, only if you believe (continue to invest faith) in smears like this. Yes, this is a smear upon Christ/Good which would never manufacture any being or thing that does not possess all knowledge in it's entirety (omniscience). This erroneous belief about Good is dangerous only to that which believes it. What believes these things becomes a separate "self" which identifies as perhaps a man, or perhaps a woman, or something else. It is only these "selves" that are in danger of the faith they invest in.
You should beware that faith and eating are symbolically synonymous. You cannot "exist" (appear to be real), as a man (or woman), without eating. Likewise, you cannot "exist", without faith. Eating, any kind of food, is symbolic of faith, that is, of all the things you can possibly believe. There are all kinds of things you can believe in. These are symbolized by all the different kinds of food available for digestion. Adam and Even are famous for eating something, and dying from what they ate. Understand, if you are wise, that what they ate is faith itself. It's this faith, if digested, that kills you. But before it kills you, it it faith that makes you into a separate "self", man or woman, where you are vulnerable to change. If you are vulnerable to change, you are also vulnerable to death, which is an augmented form of change.
It is your faith in change that kills "Adam" or "Eve". As offspring of same faith, your faith in change also kills you. Faith in change is ignorant of the knowledge of the changeless (eternal) Christ/Good. If you believe in change, you don't believe in Christ. It is this belief/faith, that functions to condemn the "you" that you believe in.
If you look around, and see nothing but change, it means you believe in it (seeing is believing). This is a primordial faith, the "father" of time itself. If you see change, anywhere, it means you
don't believe in Christ, and therefore, are "condemned already".
In the case of a false accuser living in biblical times, it would be unusual for the one he had falsely accused to make the false witness an offer to take his punishment and let him go free.
As a man, or woman, you are a false accuser. This is because the faith you have invested in (made agreement with) blasphemes Christ/Good by representing Christ/Good as something they are not. For example, the very suggestion that Good/Christ is involved with, or responding to your behavior as a man or woman, this is actually a form of accusation. You are saying/claiming that Christ/Good becomes wrathful. These accusations are false. You would not be making these accusations if you were not still offering allegiance to the god of this world, which is the personification of faith. Even an atheist is making accusations merely by appearing to exist in a form that misrepresents Christ/Good, as if eyeballs, arms, teeth and feet represents that which exists and/or "lives".
The only time I can think of something like that occurring might be in the case of a son or daughter accusing a parent.
Yet God did this for us.
The problem with faith is it will give you whatever you desire, no matter how false it is. The first thing faith gives you is another "self", offset from Christ/Good by degrees. The more you invest in faith, the further the degree of distinction until it becomes an outright "separation" with zero common ground.
As i've explained, the new neo-self is in danger, and encounters more danger the more it believes erroneous things about Christ/Good that are not true.
Again, as i've explained, only Christ/Good exists. Therefore, all faith is damaging to Christ/Good to the degree it transforms Christ/Good into something it is not. It is only in this sense that Christ/Good "takes the punishment" for "you". It's not so much Christ/Good is taking your punishment, it's that you are punishing yourself whenever you punish Christ/Good with your erroneous notions about your True Self. The erroneous notions, believe in (taken seriously) produce a transformed "self" that substitutes for the True Self. It is the substitute that takes all the punishment. That is, what you do to Christ with your faith, you do it to your false self. Christ remains unharmed, safe and sound. It is the substitute, that product of faith that claims the things that are Christ's (life, existence, truth) that is "punished". It is not punished by Christ/Good. It is harmed, injured, and ultimately destroyed by it's own participation/agreement with faith, the god of this world.
"God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8 BSB
Your still not getting it. Nor did Saul/Paul (whatever). Sin is produced by faith. As a man/woman, you are a product of faith, and are therefore a "sin". Sins are seriously insane notions about Christ/Good. Sins would harm Christ/Good if they could reach Christ/Good. Sins cannot reach Christ/Good, but they can reach anyone, anything substituting for Christ/Good. If you claim to exist, or even if you appear to exist, you are in danger of the slings of sin.
Again, it is only a technicality that Christ/Good suffers and dies for "you". "You", as a product of faith, exist only at the expense of Christ/Good. The Good must "die", so-to-speak, in order for "you", the man or woman, Jew or Greek, can "live". All sins are aimed at Christ/Good, so-to-speak. They cannot hit Christ/Good. They can only hit "you", the thing that substitutes for Christ/Good.
This ultimately is because faith is a kind of self-deception. If self-deception were possible, it would harm the only Being that exists: Christ/Good. Faith would harm Christ/Good by transforming what is Good into something it is not. Faith produces "selves" that can be harmed. What is truly Good cannot be harmed.
God loved us enough to make a way to be restored to Himself, to repent from our rebellious condition of sin, that is so contrary to His Person.
Your relationship with the god of this world ( a world produced by faith) is tighter than you think. You are not as rebellious as you think you are. Faith, on the other hand, is fundamentally antithetical ("rebellious" if you will) to that which knows. What knows is Christ/Good. As the offspring of faith, you, man or woman, Greek or Jew, are "rebellious" (antithetical) to that which knows only Christ/Good.
There is a way back to knowledge, which is to say, there is a way back to one's True Self (which is omniscient). You must repent of faith, break your allegiances (old agreements) with it, and prepare to relinquish it.
Where does the knowledge of this "way" come from? Well, it certainly does not come from the domain of faith (this world). Regardless, it should be self-evident to any honest lover of wisdom, that you cannot know and believe (have faith) at the same time. You either know, or you believe, and never the twain shall meet. There is an uncross-able gap...unless...unless...
Bridging the deep chasm between faith and knowledge is possible at a designated meeting point. Bring your faith as close to knowledge as possible. If, and only if, knowledge reaches across the gap can "you" arrive on the side, in the domain of knowledge. Your faith cannot go there...ever.
And He did it at a great cost of suffering to Himself. The Father sent the Son, who died in our place.
Your faith has constructed a straw man, a god that does not exist, which is vulnerable to harm/damage/change.
It is your faith, which has transformed your True Self, as the Christ/Good, into something that can be harmed, hurt, damaged, killed. It is not Good/Christ that dies. It is the transformed "self" which dies, as long as it stands in the place of (substitutes for) Christ/Good.
For the one who repents and places their trust in Jesus and His substitution for them, we can say, “Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Romans 5:9
If you put your faith in this, you will die as a substitute for Christ/Good. If you are Christ/Good, the harm is done to your "self". But it is not Christ/Good which actually suffers. It is the substitute "self" that suffers and dies.
What you currently believe about Christ/Good is like poison. It would harm Christ/Good if it could. It can't, so it kills the next nearest thing that appears to exist: "you", be it man, woman, Jew or Greek.
The Scriptures, being inspired by God, stand apart from all other writings in many ways, but the most important of these is by its consistent truthfulness. A truthful message sent by a truthful God.
Consistency (the lack of contradictions and/or cognitive dissonance) is important to the wise, who wish to overcome the dangers of contradiction in a world built upon the foundation of faith. Faith is not consistent, nor anything it produces. Texts, produced by faith, will not be consistent. Several inconsistencies have been found in your preferred collection of texts. You will not be seen as honest, or wise, while gas-lighting yourself about the consistency of your preferred collection of texts. You will be seen as a lawyer, defending a guilty client. No doubt, those texts are inspired by the god of this world. But i am not impressed by the works of faith, or the personification thereof (the god of this world).
On the other hand, you
will find consistency in everything i've explained here.
For further study on God's character and judgment:
1 John 4:8
Psalm 7:11-12,
Numbers 23:19
Daniel 12:2
I'm thinking about naming and numbering my responses, all the better to organize each sentence for further, deeper study and reflection.
