None dare call it common-ism.
Are you a common-ist?
by
Dean Gotcher
All that you have in common with all men (that you can build unity with them and they can build unity with you) is your flesh. Your flesh is that which is of sensuousness,, i.e. "sense experience." It is your "natural inclination" of "approaching pleasure and avoiding pain" which is reflected in the language of how you "feel" and what you "think" in the given 'moment,' i.e. your opinion of/in the current situation. All that you have that all men have, but that is not common to all men (that men cannot universally build unity upon), is your soul (that which is created by God, i.e. your desire to "do right and not do wrong," i.e. your "guilty conscience" when you do wrong, reflected in language with "It is written," and "Because I said so," expressed in the child's "Because dad said so," in the face of the given 'moment,' i.e. in the current situation). The flesh does not come with laws of restraint, the soul does. Unity can not be built upon the Father's position, since Father's differ regarding their position, insisting that their children hold to their position, chastening them when they disobey, i.e. engendering a "guilty conscience" in the child when he thinks of disobeying or does disobey, making him different than other children. It is only upon the child's carnal nature (untampered by his Father's commands and threat of chastening, i.e. void of the "guilty conscience") that unity (common-ism) can be built. It is only through Christ that man can find unity under one Father, i.e. a Father who is not of or subject to the man's (the child's) carnal nature.
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21
"And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your father, which is in heaven." Matthew 23:9
While all can evaluate the current situation, i.e. an attribute which we have in common with God (which makes us in the image of God), the two different patterns or paradigms of evaluation, i.e. the one from God (the patriarchal paradigm of the Father's authority over his children, i.e. the children directed by their Father's commands), the other of man (the heresiarchal paradigm of 'change,' the children 'driven' by their natural impulses and urges) is that we either evaluate the world and ourselves from God's Word, i.e. from "It is written," and "Because God said so," i.e. doing right and not doing wrong according to His standards, i.e. by faith, according to the spirit, or we evaluate God's Word, the world, and ourselves from our own "sense experience," i.e. from how we "feel" and what we "think" in the given 'moment,' according to our natural inclination of approaching pleasure and avoiding pain, i.e. by sight, according to the flesh. All that we have in common with all mankind is our carnal, sinful nature, i.e. all that is "of the world." While the soul points us to the Father (seeks for righteousness), the flesh points us to the world (seeks for sensousness).
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" 1 John 2:16
We all are born with the natural inclination of our flesh to approach pleasure and avoid pain, i.e. to think and act according to our will (according to our feelings), i.e. having the mind of carnal man, i.e. being disobedient to our Heavenly Father when His will goes counter to our will, i.e. when our will goes counter to His, i.e. thus dying in our sins. Therefore, what we have in common with all men is our sinful nature, our wicked and deceitful heart, "lusting" after the things of this life only, "lusting" after the things of the world.
"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:14, 15
What we do not have in common with all men, yet which all men can have, is that we can be born again by the Word of God and His Holy Spirit, thinking and acting according to our Heavenly Father's will, having the mind of Christ, being obedient to His Father, i.e. being able to miss out on pleasure and/or endure pain when we are tempted to turn away from His will (obedience), turning to our will, i.e. approaching pleasure-avoiding pain, but enduring in His will instead, even unto death.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:3, 5, 6
While man can be obedient to his earthly father's will (as best as he can) it can not save him. It will only leaving him in his sin. While having a "top-down" form of Godliness, he can not have the power thereof. Man is unable to walk in His Spirit and live according to his will, i.e. according to his flesh Unless he dies to self, rejects "the approval of men," i.e. seeking instead "the approval of God," i.e. places his faith in the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and follows Christ, he will die in his sins (no matter his efforts to "please" the Father, i.e. seeking to live by the Fathers' laws and commands). This is why the preaching of the cross (the obedience of Christ to His Father will, i.e. living subject to His Father's authority in all things, unto death) is a stumbling block to some and foolishness to the rest.
"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. John 5: 19; 7:18
While your flesh is temporary (where we get the word "contemporary," i.e. of the 'moment' only), i.e. it is of the earth only, your soul is not of the earth only, i.e. it is eternal. It is God breathed, i.e. created by He who is not of the earth, who is above the creation. Not that your soul is a part of God Himself, as the Gnostics, i.e. those of dialectic 'reasoning' believe, but that it is the result of the breath of God, i.e. the spirit that gives life, making you an individual soul before Him, i.e. created in His image, able to evaluate, i.e. able to judge between right and wrong according to His commands, i.e. created to be accountable to Him and Him alone, above all that is of the earth, i.e. above and over the flesh, restraining it, i.e. restraining "human nature."
"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7.
Man more readily associate life with the flesh (with his desire of approaching pleasure and avoiding pain) rather than with the soul (with doing right and not wrong even when it is not in harmony with his flesh). The follow quotations reveal that tendency, i.e. man's carnal nature to evaluate right and wrong according to his flesh, i.e. according to his "feelings" and the "feelings" of others rather than according to the will of the Father, i.e. according to the Word of God.
"Experience is, for me, the highest authority." "Neither the Bible nor the prophets, neither the revelations of God can take precedence over my own direct experience." (Carl Rogers, on becoming a person: A Therapist View of Psychotherapy)
"Man has only to understand himself, to take himself as the measure of all aspects of life, to judge according to his being, to organise the world in a truly human manner according to the demands of his own nature, and he will have solved the riddle of our time. But there is no other salvation for him, he cannot regain his humanity, his substance, other than by thoroughly overcoming all religious ideas and returning firmly and honestly, not to 'God', but to himself." (Frederick Engels, The Condition of England A review of Past and Present, by Thomas Carlyle, London, 1843 Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, 1844)
"A stranger, even if his name were God, who imposes commands upon us must be resisted, he must be killed because nobody can stand him." "Humanism asserts that the test of human conduct must be found in human experience (praxis); concern for man replaces concern about pleasing God. Humanism elevates man to the rank of God.... God is man, mankind, humanity.... salvation is a symbol, a symbol for becoming ultimately concerned about humanity―salvation is an 'eternal' present. The answer to man's predicament lies in the realization by individual man, that all men are essentially one and that the one is God. This self-realization is a 'return' to union: potential becomes actual. Sin is the estrangement of man from man." (Leonard Wheat, Paul Tillich's Dialectical Humanism)
"The person at the peak experience is godlike . . . complete, loving, uncondemning, compassionate and accepting of the world and of the person." (Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being)
"The ideas of the Enlightenment taught man that he could trust his own reason as a guide to establishing valid ethical norms and that he could rely on himself, needing neither revelation nor that authority of the church in order to know good and evil." (Stephen Eric Bronner, Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists)
"Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere Aude! Dare to know! 'Have courage to use your own reason!'- that is the motto of enlightenment." (Immanuel Kant, Konigsberg in Prussia, 30 September 1784)
"We must ultimately assume at the highest theoretical levels of enlightenment ... a preference or a tendency ... to identify with more and more of the world, moving toward the ultimate of mysticism, a fusion with the world, or peak experience, cosmic consciousness, etc." (Abraham Maslow, Maslow on Management)
"Philosophy comes to a close when man makes himself free to act in conformity with reason: translation of the concept into reality." (Herbart Marcuse, Relevance of Reality, referring to Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit)
"Postmodernity ... describes a world where people have to make their way without fixed referents and traditional anchoring points. It is a world of rapid change, of bewildering instability..." (Edward Usher)
"Human consciousness can be liberated from the parental complex only by being liberated from its cultural derivatives, the paternalistic state and the patriarchal God." (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)
"Consciousness, instead of being the watchman over a dangerous and unpredictable lot of impulses, becomes the comfortable inhabitant of a society of impulses and feelings and thoughts." (Carl Rogers, on becoming a person: A Therapist View of Psychotherapy)
"The 'dialectical' consciousness ... a manifestation of Eros ... that Dionysian ego which does not negate any more." (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)
"Eros is fundamentally a desire for union with objects in the world." Ibid.
"In the words of Thoreau: 'We need pray for no higher heaven than the pure senses can furnish, a purely sensuous life. Our present senses are but rudiments of what they are destined to become.'" Ibid.
"Eros belongs mainly to democracy." (Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality)
"In order to progress from these 'facts' to facts in the true meaning of the word it is necessary to perceive their historical conditioning as such and to abandon the point of view that would see them as immediately given: they must themselves be subjected to a historical and dialectical examination [making facts (history) subject to the persons personal experiences, his opinion, making history materialistic, i.e. of nature only]." (György Lukács, History & Class Consciousness, What is Orthodox Marxism?) In her speech, the "common-ist" Shirley McCune agreeing with the Marxist György Lukács, calling facts "'changing' facts": a short audio section of her 1998 Governors Conference presentation in Kansas (YouTube presentation; audio of her YouTube presentation), i.e. her idea of using education to "restructure society."
"With the devaluation of the epistemic authority of the God's eye view [due to man basing truth upon his own opinion rather than upon what God (or for the child, what his Father) says], moral commands lose their religious as well as their metaphysical foundation. The fact that moral practice is no longer tied to the individual's expectation of salvation and an exemplary conduct of life through the person of a redemptive God and the divine plan for salvation has two unwelcome consequences. On the one hand, moral knowledge becomes detached from moral motivation, and on the other, the concept of morally right action becomes differentiated from the conception of a good or godly life. … uncoupling morality from questions of the good life leads to a motivational deficit. Because there is no profane substitute for the hope of personal salvation, we lose the strongest motive for obeying moral commands. With the loss of its foundation in the religious promise of salvation, the meaning of normative obligation also changes. The differentiation between strict duties and less binding values, between what is morally right and what is ethically worth striving for, already sharpens moral validity into a normativity to which impartial judgment alone is adequate. The shift in perspective from God to human beings has a further consequence. 'Validity' now signifies that moral norms could win the agreement of all concerned, on the condition that they jointly examine in practical discourse whether a corresponding practice is in the equal interest of all." (Jürgen Habermas, Communicative Ethics The inclusion of the Other. Studies in Political Theory)
"One of the most fascinating aspects of group therapy is that everyone is born again, born together in the group." (Irvine D. Yalom, Theory and Practice and Group Psychotherapy)
"The individual is emancipated in the social group." (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)
"Individual psychology is thus in itself group psychology ... the individual ... is an archaic identity with the species." "This archaic heritage bridges the 'gap between individual and mass psychology.'" (Freud, Moses and Monotheism in Herbart Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud)
"To experience Freud is to partake a second time of the forbidden fruit; and this book [Life Against Death] cannot without sinning communicate that experience to the reader." (Normal O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)
"If the guilt accumulated in the civilized domination of man by man can ever be redeemed by freedom, then the ‘original sin' must be committed again: ‘We must again eat from the tree of knowledge in order to fall back into the state of innocence." (Herbart Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud)
"In the process of history man gives birth to himself. He becomes what he potentially is, and he attains what the serpent―the symbol of wisdom and rebellion―promised, and what the patriarchal, jealous God of Adam did not wish: that man would become like God himself." (Erich Fromm, You shall be as gods)
The basis of dialectic 'reasoning' ("contemporary thinking") is that man's belief must be in "human nature" only, i.e. in the flesh alone (sensual), in man's common experience only, basing the meaning of life upon how he "feels" and what he "thinks" in the given situation or 'moment,' i.e. evaluating right and wrong according to his "feelings" and the "feelings" of others, i.e. according to his flesh and the flesh of others in the given 'moment,' i.e. upon opinions and theories instead of upon facts, truth, and belief, thereby establishing 'change' as the way of life, engendering the 'potential' for socialist unity, i.e. rather than in God who is above "human nature," i.e. who is not subject to the given situation or 'moment,' i.e. judging every soul according to His standards, i.e. restraining 'change,' i.e. preventing "human nature" from becoming the basis for 'reality,' i.e. preventing the potential for socialist unity by treating every soul as an individual, under His authority. As the Marxist György Lukács state it: "The dialectical method was overthrown―the parts were prevented from finding their definition within the whole." (György Lukács, History & Class Consciousness, What is Orthodox Marxism?) The dialectic method is the dialoguing of opinions, i.e. how a person "feels" and what he "thinks" (his "thinking" taken captive to his "feelings" and the "feelings" of others) to a consensus, i.e. to a feeling of "oneness," since dialogue does not (can not) recognized, respect, and honour a Father's "top-down" authority, i.e. his "It is written," i.e. his "Because I said so."
"And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." "And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city." Genesis 11:3, 4, 6-8
The tower of babble was all about the changing of language from "Let us ("common-ism," i.e. "WE working for US" ) make a name for ourselves, thinking and acting according to our own carnal nature" to "Because God (or dad) said so" (individualism, with each soul being held accountable before God, i.e. with each child being help according to his Father, for his thoughts and his actions alone). "Quality" of life, according to dialectic 'reasoning,' is based upon "human relationship building," not on doing right and not wrong according to pre-established standards. While considering the "quality" of life based upon "feelings," for example of 20 individual bricks rearranged into a herringbone pattern instead of still being in a pile, we forget about the importance of the quality of the individual "bricks," their ability to endure, their ability to hold to what is right in the midst of crisis, i.e. not to be adaptable to 'change' in the midst of temptation, i.e. not to compromise the truth for the sake of "the approval of men." The trickery of dialectic 'reasoning' is to create an environment where people (including the "church") will focus upon "human relationship building" (common-ism) rather than upon what is right (righteous) regarding each persons thoughts and actions (under God). The master masons, the facilitators of 'change,' who seek to make the world "one," i.e. to make the world (and the "church") into a herringbone patter of harmony, i.e. to create worldly peace and socialist harmony, can not make a particular brick fit in their sidewalk, a brick which refused to 'change,' refused to become at-one-with their world of consensus, i.e. refused to deciding right from wrong according to "human nature," i.e. the approaching of pleasure and the avoiding of pain, instead casted it out as worthless, as having no value, i.e. "the stone the builders rejected," Jesus Christ. "And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?" (Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20,17) The "quality" of the brick does matter to the master facilitator of 'change.' Only the bricks which are subject to the flesh, i.e. are adaptable to 'change,' i.e. are common to all men, need apply here, i.e. have any value or worth. It is this "quality" of brick (of sensuousness, i.e. a "feeling" of "oneness," from which consensus is begotten) that God will judge, according to His quality, i.e. according to His righteousness.
"So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Romans 14:12
"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Matthew 12:36, 37
"Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil." Proverbs 16:5-6
"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." 2 Peter 2:4-10
"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:10, 12-15
When God calls his spirit back to Himself, i.e. to no longer be in you, your flesh (that which you have in common with every soul on the face of the earth—the "ground" of common-ism, i.e. the only "ground" upon which the consensus process, i.e. the dialectic process can build upon) goes back from where it came, being of the "contemporary" only, it goes back to the earth, but your soul, which is eternal, goes before God, where He will determine where it (you) will spend eternity, either with Him (covered by His righteousness) into eternal life, or apart from Him (subject to sensuousness only) into eternal death. Your opinion, how you "feel" and what you "think," will not count on the day of judgment. What makes you think it counts today.
"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers." The Greek word used here is exousia (εξουσία), meaning authority, not dunamis (δύναμις), meaning power. Exousia is an office given by God to man, and not found in a man himself alone. The office of authority (εξουσία) is from God, even though the power (δύναμις), the sword, might be in the hand of a man. A tyrant is a man who uses the δύναμις of the sword while in the office of εξουσία, given by God, for his own personal gain. You do not have to obey the tyrant when he orders you to do that which goes against God's will. You will suffer for your disobedience to his tyranny, since he occupies the God given office of authority to use it as he wishes, i.e. in disobedience to God, he will punish you and might even kill you. Yet you need to recognize and honour the office as you refuse to obey the tyranny of the tyrant who occupies the office, telling you go against God's will. "For there is no εξουσία but of God: the εξουσίαs that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the εξουσία, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." Romans 13:1, 2 If the church in Germany had understood that authority is of God, Hitler could not have sustained his use power. While the leader might use the δύναμις of the sword, according to his carnal 'purpose,' all men, including him, will be held accountable to God for their use of or abuse of the office of εξουσία, under Him, whether great or small. Without fear of God, the tyrant, i.e. you (your wicked and deceitful heart) rules.
For example: any oath of office which ends with "So help men God." recognizes that man as accountable before God for his thoughts and actions, otherwise only the flesh of man, i.e. the carnal thoughts and actions of the person who serves in the public office is represented. There can be no "representation" in regards to the flesh. Only to the soul of man. Therefore anyone who thinks and acts dialectically, yet calls himself a representative, is a liar, i.e. a seducer (saying he has your best interests, i.e. your soul in mind, when he can only gain your participation through your "lusting" after the flesh, basing right and wrong upon your opinion of things), a deceiver (not having your best interest in mind but his carnal interests instead, i.e. his flesh), and a manipulator (getting you to focus upon the needs of your flesh, subject to the world, i.e. the "felt needs" of the community, over and against the need of your soul and their soul, under God).
"Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds [the Greek word for "deeds" is praxis, i.e. your natural or carnal thoughts and actions]; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." Colossians 3:9, 10
Through the use of psychology, i.e. by redefining the soul as being tied to the flesh, i.e. the psycho-motor, man 'liberates' himself (his "thoughts" and his "actions") from being accountable to God. By becoming God himself, determining right and wrong according to the "felt needs" of his flesh, 'driven' by the flesh in the current situation (the reason for the emphasis upon 'change'), 'purposed' in augmenting his (and others) carnal satisfactions, rather than establishing right and wrong upon the word of God, man becomes a humanist. I am not speaking of a theocracy here, only that man has a God given conscience, capable of knowing that there is right and there is wrong. While man can have the wrong standards in his conscience, he still has a desire to do what is right and not do what is wrong and will more readily accept the truth when he hears it, if he has a conscience—that right and wrong come from a higher authority than his flesh, i.e. that he is not like an animal, subject to the 'moment,' i.e. taken captive to the current situation only, subject to stimulus-response only. Without the "guilty conscience" the individual can not stand alone, under God, i.e. there is not individualism (and inalienable rights) without the "guilty conscience." With "human rights," which requires the "super-ego," i.e. "the voice of the village," there is no Father's voice of restraint, i.e. no "guilty conscience" for doing one's socialist duty, negating the inalienable rights of the individual, under God.
"It is not individualism that fulfills the individual, on the contrary it destroys him. Society is the necessary framework through which freedom and individuality are made realities." (Karl Marx) The sole 'purpose' of dialectic 'reasoning' is to negate the individual under God. It is to make all men subject to their flesh, subject to the world, for the sake of global unity, so those of the flesh are not exposed to the Word of God and end up "feeling" condemned, i.e. develop a "guilty conscience" for the carnal thoughts and actions.
The Holy Spirit is God Himself in you, directing you, according to His Word, in this life, i.e. providing you have faith in Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ, believe upon His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, having accepted Him as your Savior and Lord. The Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit as a comforter. Something the world does not have. Only having the pleasures of the flesh, without the Holy Spirit, man can only find pleasure in the things of this world, having no presence of God's love in their life. Thus his 'reasoning' can only take him to the things of this world for meaning, value, and 'purpose,' making him subject to only that which is of the temporary, from which we derive the word "contemporary."
"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." John 16: 7-15
Therefore while your flesh, i.e. that which you have in common with all men on the face of the earth, will go back to the earth, your soul, which is eternal, will spend eternity either with God and His angels in Heaven (along with the saints, i.e. the 'redeemed'), or in Hell with the devil and his angels (and all who rejected "the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ," as their creator, savior, and Lord). While all men have a soul, where they will spend eternity (either in Heaven or in Hell) depends upon whether they believe upon God, i.e. upon the Lord Jesus Christ, or not. It is here that God makes man not equal, i.e. not common. By focusing upon that which we have in common, upon the flesh, upon the pleasures of life and the augmentation of the pleasures of life, i.e. which is the heart and soul of "common-ism," we are only of the world, of the lost, but by focusing upon God, upon He who is not of the earth, ("bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ") we are no longer of the earth, of the world, we are no longer "contemporary," but have entered into eternal life, in Him.
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:1, 2
When and where you don't "acknowledge Him" in your life, you are not letting Him direct your steps or rather conversely He is not directing your steps if you are not acknowledging Him, i.e. you are not preaching and teaching His word as given by Him but instead dialoguing your opinion , i.e. how you "feel" and what you "think" wherever you go, whether at home, in the workplace, in government, in the "Church," etc.. What few Americans realize is that Communism needs the state church, i.e. the "contemporary church," if it is to negate the true believer in Christ, preventing Him, i.e. the Word of God from directing public policy. We are a wicked nation (a nation of abomination) today because of men, including (and especially) those of the "contemporary church," i.e. the "common-ist church," who trust in their wicked and deceitful heart, who "lust" after "the approval of men" instead of trusting in the Lord, i.e. fearing God and loving His Word above all things (including pain and pleasure). "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" 2 Corinthians 10:5 They are instead leaning to their own understanding, i.e. "sense experiences." They are thinking and acting according to that which they have in common with all mankind, with all the world, "thinking" and "acting" according to that which is of the flesh, i.e. "thinking" and "acting" according to their "feelings" and the "feelings" of others, keeping up with the "contemporary" times, acknowledging the opinions of men instead of the Word of God. "Having eyes which are human eyes, and ears which are human ears," (Karl Marx) "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:18)
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths."" Proverb. 3: 5
An important question you can ask yourself today is: "Am I a common-ist?"
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:26).
"Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds (Greek word praxis, i.e. the common "feelings," "thoughts," and "actions" a man has with society); And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." (Colossians 3:9)
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:11-14
"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." 1 Peter 2:5-10
There is no freedom of religion in a dialectic world, in the "new" world order, i.e. in a world controlled by the flesh (the opinions) of man. There is only freedom from religion, i.e. 'liberation' from the fear of God and love of His word, with everyone doing that which they have in common with the themselves, others, and the "contemporary church," thinking and acting according to their "feelings" and "thoughts," determining right and wrong according to the opinions of men, instead of according to the Word of God. None dare call it "common-ist," i.e. the "contemporary church" that is. None would understand, i.e. thinking that there is only one way of thinking and acting, i.e. only being able to think and act according to man's "felt needs" of the 'moment.'
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2013-2015