Bait and Switch 1 - How we got into this mess

Wikipedia extract.....

In retail sales[edit]
First, customers are "baited" by merchants's advertising products or services at a low price, but when customers visit the store, they discover that the advertised goods either are not available or are not as good as expected, or the customers are pressured by sales people to consider similar, but higher-priced, items ("switching").

Function[edit]
The intention of the bait-and-switch is to encourage purchases of substituted goods, making consumers satisfied with the available stock offered, as an alternative to a disappointment or inconvenience of acquiring no goods (or bait) at all, and reckoning on a seemingly partial recovery of sunk costs expended trying to obtain the bait. It suggests that the seller will not show the original product or service advertised but instead will demonstrate a more expensive product or a similar product with a higher margin.

Legality[edit]
In the United States, courts have held that the purveyor using a bait-and-switch operation may be subject to a lawsuit by customers for false advertising, and can be sued for trademark infringement by competing manufacturers, retailers, and others who profit from the sale of the product used as bait. However, no cause of action will exist if the purveyor is capable of actually selling the goods advertised, but aggressively pushes a competing product.

Likewise, advertising a sale while intending to stock a limited amount of, and thereby sell out, a loss-leading item advertised is legal in the United States. The purveyor can escape liability if they make clear in their advertisements that quantities of items for which a sale is offered are limited, or by offering a rain check on sold-out items........

Merrian Webster
Definition of bait and switch
1
: a sales tactic in which a customer is attracted by the advertisement of a low-priced item but is then encouraged to buy a higher-priced one
2
: the ploy of offering a person something desirable to gain favor (such as political support) then thwarting expectations with something less desirable

The great PUN of History

 is Bait and Switch

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [b]loin coverings.

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the [c]cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall [d]bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
16 To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain [e]in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you;
In [f]toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the [g]plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
20 Now the man called his wife’s name [h]Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

The main sales pitch of the serpent is that.....
You are insufficient
You are being witheld ALL TREES of the Garden
and the SPECIFIC tree will lead to godhood.


The switch was made when first Eve then Adam took the bait.
The switch was, that however it "looked" or "appeared" both Adam and Eve were in the Spirit of freedom.....but chose a false realm of  "independence".

They were independent anyway but in God.....
Just like we are independent when the Railways Board says don't drive over the Track when a train is coming.

The Railway Board stating WE CANNOT DO something doesn't change our liberty or independence.....IT Keeps us alive longer to be able to enjoy more of it.

Satan makes out that this ONE TREE.....the Tree of Testing.....The Tree demanding the obedience of NOT TOUCHING.....was the ONE THING that was to be desired and far from being insignificant would make Adam and Eve into independent gods.


Independence isn't a falsehood.  Liberty isn't a falsehood.
That there exists a realm "outside of God" is a falsehood.  He is in all and sustains all.

We know within our consciences when we are going the wrong way.

The ways of true Life are in Him.  He is indeed the only REAL thing that is going on in the universe.
Suffering and sin are real....but to get involved in them we have to go "outside" of what is really happening from God spontaneity.....and hook up with"fake, manipulated " happenings...

Happenings that James says

 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin [p]is accomplished, it brings forth death. 

We are "drawn" by the demonic....the (false) sensual, the "world system" pulling on our senses....and this is called
the lust of the world
the lust of the eyes

Eve was enticed (above in Genesis 3)on three levels
THE FOOD WAS GOOD.....desirous to the body
IT LOOKED GOOD.....desirous to the soul
IT COULD MAKE YOU WISE....desirous at a spirit level....but it is a false wisdom, a fading wisdom, it is a false spirit.

BUT IT WAS BAIT AND SWITCH....
WE EXCHANGED THE GLORY OF GOD FOR A LIE
WE EXCHANGED A HOOKUP WITH GOD HIMSELF IN A DIRECT UNSULLIED FORM
FOR A HOOKUP THAT WAS NOLONGER DIRECT AND PURE, BUT VIA SATAN'S OWN "SELF FOR SELF" MAKEUP. * Below is the Romans 1 description of the condition  *

Word of explanation
All life gets its life source from God.
Satan does too, but won't acknowledge it. He has twisted God's power source from being one rooted and grounded in love

to rooted and grounded in the love of self, "self for self" living.

What was enticing was
self for self living was dressed up as something in the Tree of Good

We could help God out by not having to refer to Him all the time....
we would know what was good and what was evil and as independent beings be able to choose what was the correct path for ourselves....

but self for self....IS MORE ugly THAN JUST " INDEPENDENCE".....

and remember we had independence

we had freedom anyway

"where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom"

No, the bait and switch brought us death, brought us this spirit hookup that is rooted in selfishness like a blackhole, never satisfied.....
death was spiritual, death was felt in the soul as shame, and just sense of God's wrath, and death was actually something that 900 years later broke through at body level....Adam died.
In Bait and Switch 2 we will learn God's version..  Here is the Romans 1 description of the switch and below, on the same theme from Ephesians 2 and 1 Corinthians 12.1
*
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Unbelief and Its Consequences
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident ithin them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and [o]crawling creatures.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Ephesians 2
And you were dead ]in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

1 Corinthians 12:2 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.

Romans Chapter One and Two - John Stevens

(Scripture references are from NKJV unless stated otherwise)

Paul sits at a desk. He has 20 years of apostolic experience to draw upon in Christ. He either writes or starts to dictate to Tertius (16 v 22) this epistle.



We know something of knowledge of the believers in Rome through:

his friendship with Priscilla and Aquila (16v3 & Acts 18v2)
hints at some causing division (16v17)
his estimation that they are well taught and needing only some things emphasised (15 v 14,15)
his stated intention to visit before but now, at last, he sees an opportunity (15 v 22,23)
his confidence that they would want to support his plans to take the gospel to Spain from Rome (15 v24)
It becomes clear, as proposed in the introduction that as the epistle develops, that the main division threatening the truth of the gospel in Rome was the deteriorating relationship between Jewish and Gentile believers; threatened, at root, by arrogance. We will tackle this head on as we follow Paul’s argument.

But now Paul, out of his communion with the Spirit of Christ, writes the first few verses and sets the scene for the whole letter.

Paul, a servant (slave) of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which he promised before through the His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead

Instantly Paul expects the Gentiles in the church to have a coherent grip on the Jewish foundations of the gospel – the words Christ, His prophets, Holy Scriptures, and David are not stated by accident. Today we have largely distanced ourselves from this foundation and so we find this epistle speaking once more into our ears – can we hear?

Paul takes us back into the past in order, in time, to join him in the present and the future.

Paul directs us to consider the Holy Scriptures – which we know as the Old Testament – and how the various writers had become prophets looking for the arrival of the Messiah (Aramaic for anointed one and ‘Christ’ in Greek). In Old Testament days three offices were anointed by the Spirit: prophets, priests and kings and the prophets foretold that God would raise up the Messiah, the Christ, a Davidic King (e.g. Is 11v10; Rom 15 v12). Paul is preaching that Jesus is this promised Messiah.

It is vital that we recapture the realisation that, whilst it is true that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, He is also the rightful King of Israel. The Israel of Paul’s day, ruled by Rome, largely did not recognise this and the rulers, of course, revealed their true colours in their complicity in the arrest and crucifixion of their Messiah. The political Israel of today also does not recognise the legitimacy of Jesus’ kingdom. Those Jews that do and have submitted themselves to His rule constitute the true Israel, the Israel of God. Some of them were in the congregations in Rome. Paul himself is, of course, both a Jewish believer and a Roman citizen

Paul underlines Jesus’ legitimate claim to the throne of David by appealing to his lineage ‘born of the seed of David according to the flesh’. Then he pounds in the declaration that, marvellous though that is, Jesus is more than just the Son of David for the Jews. Having been raised back to life He is also the Son of God.

At the end of these opening four verses Paul’s readers have been reminded that they are bending their knees to the Messiah, the Davidic King and Son of God; he will continue at pace now to declare that this news is as relevant for all the nations as it is for the Jews.

In the space of these opening four verses Paul has shown that the gospel is for all, form the Jews and for all nations i.e. gentiles. He continues in verse 5:

‘…through whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name’

Paul summarises this by stating ‘…you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints’

(We will return to that phrase ‘…called saints…’ later in relation to the concept of sanctification and propose a shift in understanding of the word).

By the time we reach v16 Paul introduces a ministerial conviction and theme:

‘I am not ashamed of the gospel…it is for everyone who believes…for the Jew first and also for the Greek’

This theme – for the Jew first then Gentiles – Paul will use in coming chapters.

The righteousness of God

It is not the purpose of this study to enter fully into the debate about the righteousness of God and the cognates of the Greek word. Please refer to commentaries.

Paul says at least two things about God’s righteousness

(1) Jews and Gentiles are all sinners and therefore justifiably under the wrath of God

(2) God’s is righteous in justifying sinners

Jews have all failed to keep the Law and are therefore guilty. Gentiles, equally, have not only broken the Law that they had scant if any knowledge of, but also any moral code that they require of others and yet fail to keep themselves. So we are all guilty.

‘Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself for you who judge practice the same things’

And so Paul, writing to Jews and Gentile believers in Rome, reminds them, that no amount of effort will overcome the real problem that all are under the justifiable wrath of God. And therefore wouldn’t God’s righteousness be upheld if he poured out His wrath on all who sin? The righteousness of God would surely be revealed by His wrath?

But the genius of Paul is that he sees past the justifiable wrath of God as the parameter of righteousness. Like Habakkuk, Paul’s argument has its foundation in the other dimension of righteousness; mercy. In wrath remember mercy cries the prophet. And again the Spirit at work in Habakkuk finds its fulfilment in Christ and so Paul quotes the prophet in an earlier verse ‘the just shall live by faith’ (Hab 2v4; Rom 1v17).

Like many verses in Paul’s opening chapters they are portrayed as windows through which we will eventually see a wider and fuller picture.

But at least here, in verses 16 and 17 we see Paul’s perception that God’s righteousness is not challenged by justifying law breakers but upheld and revealed. And that, unlikely though it may have seemed to Paul the Pharisee, this salvation is unlocked, not by attempts to keep the Law, but in giving up this pursuit and the placing of one’s faith in…? Well that’s to come.

The work of the Spirit

The last two verses of chapter 2:

‘…he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise (play on the word Jew/praise) is not from men but from God’

Here again Paul states the radical truth that the true Israel, is not populated by the descendants of Jacob that have been circumcised and attempt to obey the Law, but those descendants of Jacob that have been circumcised in the Spirit, in the heart.

Paul doesn’t expand on this at this point but he does return to the work of the Spirit in later chapters.

(A note at this stage: When Paul speaks of the Jews or Israel he is talking about Jews and Israel, when he is talking about Gentiles he is talking about all people that are not Jews and when he is talking about the church he is not referring to Israel but all believers in Christ; Jew or gentile. It’s worth bearing in mind at this point that Paul does not confuse these terms)

And so we will also have to wait.

In summary, after the foundation dug in the opening four verses of chapter one there are two pairs of verses, 1v16,17 and 2v28/29, that catch the eye, designed to keep the believers in Rome needing to read more.

If that was the hors d’oeuvres…

THE OPERATIONAL BASE by Rand Swift

The operational base of all things is first and foremost spirit and secondarily matter.

Matter, or what can be seen, has been formed and often reformed by elements that never have been visible within the spectral range of the human eye, yet they are real just the same.

Jesus spoke quite frequently of the interaction between these things, and in doing so exposed to those paying attention, the way things work within the rich atmosphere of creation.

Jesus spoke a lot about the inner man and the mechanism within the heart, saying quite plainly that what a person manifests into the world, is inextricably unified with the influences the individual traffics with on the inside, in that place called 'the heart', which we know to be the central core or foundation upon which the thoughts, pictures, images and imaginations swirl.

It is out of this swirl, often mixed with both good and evil, that all human expression in both word and deed emerges.

The tragedy of what we classically and aptly refer to as mankind's 'fall' (starting from such a heightened state of existence as a son of God in a mastery of creation, to a reverse state of being under, or subject to the created [see Romans 1] and unable to extricate ourselves from its power) is found in the loss of man's capacity at the core level of being to discern between what is 'good' (life effusing) and what is 'evil' (life consuming), represented by the tree of mixture, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The capacity to discern again is what Jesus came and still comes to restore to us, he being the human expression of what the pure image and likeness of the Father (God), in unveiled revelation looks like...which we too are to look like in replication, if the same Spirit that animated Jesus at his core, likewise now animates us at our core.

It changes the way you see things.

Those whose entire core and central nervous system is founded on this image then speak and act quite differently, expressing outwardly into the cosmos surrounding them according to an entirely different point of beginning or genesis.

What we see in Jesus then, is a man unified with God, no longer living in victim-hood, as one fallen, as a man under the created and the creature (whether spiritual as in angel or spirit or material), but walking the earth and appearing upon the stage of history reflecting the true nature of the Father's intent for His most prized creation, mankind.

That's what I think anyway.

Oh, and I almost forgot...that God has set things up in a way that His children can reform and reshape the mechanism of the earth by the simple method of speaking, because that is how creation is formed or reformed...by speaking from our core words congruent with the ideas of the Father...because every word any of us speak, whether good or evil, is like a seed sown into this amazingly rich atmosphere in which He has placed us, and causes the world we live in to be what it is on both a micro-cosmic and a macro-cosmic level.

Words...how simple.

If we can re-energize the way the world of man thinks at its foundational core and then let that translate into the words we speak and the things we go about creating...we can alter the entire landscape of the earth among all people, all tribes, all races and all nations.

It's pretty simple when you get right down to it isn't it?

Kudos Jesus! Pure genius! Pure genius!

- Rand Swift (Musings and Meditations) on Kingdom Conversations - Facebook

A Tale of Two Hearts- John Solomon

Folks ,a new light is dawning.
A light that will grow in brilliant intensity.
A light that will divide what can be divided.
A light that finally, after centuries, will define the misty cloisters of religion, and bring into the sharpest focus the deathly imitation of God's realities. For years, religious people have got away with the fake. Now no more.
The reality is here already and growing.
You will love this excerpt from the ning community site "Good and Noble Heart Community".



http://goodandnobleheart.ning.com
A Tale Of Two Hearts
Posted by John Solomon on June 16, 2009 at 10:48pm
View John Solomon's blog
Law vs. Grace
The same on the outside, but the opposite on the inside
Why Ten Commandment Keeping Is The Most Dangerous Form Of Idolatry

This is a tale of two hearts.As a result of Adam‘s sin, we are all separated from any chance of eating from the tree of life and receiving the divine nature.As a result of Christ’s sacrifice, we become partakers of the divine nature and receive a new heart. We become a new creation in Christ Jesus, literally a new species complete with a new heart.The old deceitfully wicked heart is what we were all born with. It is all we know. The wise, if they receive God’s instruction, know that the human heart needs to be caged in with a bunch of thou shall not’s. If they don’t control their nature with the Ten Commandment restrictions, then they are in danger of practicing the evil in their hearts.In Rom 1:27 we are told, “ And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”The Greek word translated “working” above is strongs#2716"katergazomai" and is also translated “work out” , “causes” or “performs”. So the message is simple; by controlling our sinful heart by caging it in with Commandment keeping, I will avoid becoming as corrupt in practice and lifestyle as my evil heart. In other words we are warned not to “work out” the evil which is in our hearts, but instead to control it- behavior modification.Hence, the Law has no power to give us good hearts. It only has the power to keep us from acting out the wickedness within. So the inner man who reasons with the mind, recognizes the law is holy, just and good. But he also recognizes all the law keeping in the world will not make him holy. All the law can do is point out how depraved the human heart really is. We are therefore CAPTIVES in our minds to the law which instructs us on how to cage in the evil desires of the human heart.Now back to strongs#2716 “katergazomai” which we are warned NOT to do in Romans. When we are born again and we receive the new heart, the heart of Christ. We become a new creation, literally a new species with a new heart- the heart of Jesus. This is not a figurative change of heart. This is a new heart which gradually puts to death the deeds of the old heart. John says when we are born again, we are incapable of sin because it is the “seed”- the Greek word is literally “sperma” - of God {IJohn3:9}.So BEING the “seed“ of God, the offspring of God, everything changes within!Paul, in describing the new heart and new life now uses the same strongs#2716 “katergazomai” in the OPPOSITE way as he did in Romans! “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out [strongs#2716 ] your own salvation with fear and trembling; “ Phil 2:12-13.So the very thing we are told NOT to do when we are under the Law, we are told to practice under Grace! The same exact word!So in other words, when we are under the law, we are told to not live out what is in our hearts, or we might end up like the wicked people in Romans chapter one.But when we are born again and under Grace, we are told to live out what is in our hearts!So to the unsaved, my advice to you is to by all means keep the Ten Commandments and do not follow the way of your heart.But to the saved my advice is by all means follow what is in your heart- live it out- it is Jesus within you!So the very thing that was given to us to help us form a good, safe and healthy society is the very practice that will keep you from becoming like Christ!!! Because becoming like Christ requires “working out”, and Law keeping requires not working out. Law keeping is holding in!Don’t misunderstand. I am not advocating sin. I am simply displaying the utter superiority of following Jesus versus law keeping. One makes you look righteous, whereas the other is the result of you already being the righteousness of God and working it out.So today is not the day of holding back, it is the day to just let go!Follow Jesus as He leads you from within.“Fan to flame” your new heart. And when all is aglow, just follow the light.

The Deathly Hush surrounding Marxism

When those born in the 1950s were growing up Marxism was huge. I remember now with total embarrasment how I as a born again Spirit-filled person in 1974 said these words...

"I don't follow Marxism, but if I did, I would not follow the the form practised in Russia, but would favour the model as practised by China."

Friends, to see how wrong this was I recommend you all read Mao The Unknown Story.

Also, compare this with aspects of Watchman Nee's bio by Angus Kinnear

So if you consider having your tongue cut out by Red Communist guards is a good option, because your anointing is so great whole swathes of prison population were turning to Jesus.... well , by all means.....be my guest....go with Marxism.

Richard Wurmbrandt, the pastor imprisoned by Communists behind the Iron Curtain, traces the unknown history of Marx before Das Kapital. He also makes the point that for a supposedly humanist philosophy , it is amazing how Christianity was specifically targeted.

Other prisoners of a jail had a rough time....but only the Catholic priest was found crucified upside down on one of the prison walls.

Now , if atheism is as many have it, just a neutral position, why would the worst of the worst atrocities ever committed against humans be only effected against believers in a religion. And only the Christian religion.

The point of this post is to raise the curtain on the otherwise now silent stage that was communism. Frau Hannelore Noack, afriend of my parents, has been doing the same on the subject of Nazism in Germany. Her writings are studied in German Universities.

The same question emerges. How can an intelligent nation, perhaps THE most intelligent nation on Earth....sorry Brits....you don't even compare with this nation of intellectual heavyweights....How could such a nation stoop to the attempted mass genocide of the only people on Earth that are commonly known as the People of God, and certainly the nation who gave Christianity their Saviour?

And of Communism, a similar silence hovers among the world's intellectuals. How could such a seemingly noble humanist set of aims fall so quickly into mass killing machines on a level in China and Russia that only a newly mechanised 20th century war machine could accomplish.

This is why I believe there is such a silence in the Universities, on Radio 4, in Prospect magazine (which by the way provides much of the direction for the BBC) and among all the world's particularly atheistic or agnostic elite.

You see if a nation as clever as Germany, whose very language structure lends itself to deep intellectual analysis....

If such noble aims as are expressed in Das Kapital, although erroneous in its conclusions about how all people are "equal", if the enactment of these can lead to such extreme horrors...(GENERAL NOTE All people are not equal-1 Corinthians 12:22those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. This is about as far from Communist practice as you can get)

what is that saying about learning

about left-brain articulation and analysis

about our rather more complex make-up as humans.

Have you noticed the deafening silence in the open analysis of these questions.

What Simon Sharma, David Starkey and many more are not saying is how more than anything else, 20th Century history shows there is NO MIDDLE POSITION.

The intellectual elite fall for the same lie all these thousands of years later that the devil sowed in the Garden. (a, that he doesn't exist by the way) and b that we as gods have this independant posture that can think our own way between the knowledge of the good, and the knowledge of the bad. Not ever as it says in Romans 1, coming to the self-knowledge that it is the lie of our independant posture that gives the devil the fulcrum to move us in any which way he will. And so in analysing history you get the hubris of the intellectual detaching himself from history and making grand patronising statements about "these poor people from the past"...in the same way that Romans 1 analyses the different people judging one another...but unable and unwilling to realise they are of the same spirit.

You see, if we are stuck in this "independant" thing...we are so deceived we don't know we're in it."If the light within you is darkness then how great is that darkness." This by the way is a verse you will never ever hear in 1st and 2nd level churches...because they are themselves stuck in this spirit of self-delusion.

Who can deliver us? 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18

So, thinking that all we need is more "knowledge of good" humanity stumbles on in its attempts to raise up a world government of beneficence for all!!! Not knowing that each "unborn again " step that is not taken knowingly and deliberately in Union with the One True Spirit of life, is doomed to failure from the word go.

So for this reason and practically only this reason MARXISM must fail.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Marxism bears a significant resemblance to New Testament Church Life in Acts. Because that's where it was nicked from.

The proliferation of Marxism was through cell-groups. Where was that nicked from? Methodism.

Now here's the rub. We spent 6-10 years trying to live New testament Church Life as Spirit-filled Christians. And a lot of it was like Marxism.

Why? because there is no MIDDLE POSITION. Even when you are a Christian.

You either have broken through in revelation and practice to the REST that Paul talked about...or you are still in sin!! Hurting the people you are living with.

Neither marxism nor charismatic Christianity can live Acts of the Apostles.

Everyone needs a spirit change on the inside of them. Not just sufficient to get you born again. Not just sufficient to get you prophesying with the best of them in meetings....

BUT TO GET YOU LIVING!