In our present study we are examining the precedence for the spiritual life of the church age believer and we are making the case that the precedence was established by TLJC in his unglorified humanity during his life on this earth at the beginning of the hypostatic union.
We saw that Precedence is defined as: (1) an earlier occurrence of something similar; (2) something done or said that may serve as an example or rule to authorize or justify a subsequent act of the same or an analogous kind (4) the convention established by such a precedent or by long practice or (5) a person or thing that serves as a model.
This is because church age believers are a new spiritual species in union with TLJC. Gal 3: 26-29; and because of this any advantages or disadvantages from first birth are not a factor in the believer's relationship with God.
We are presently discussing the walk of the believer and we have seen that the mechanics of physical walking are a metaphor for the Christian way of life because of the imbalance that is set up by life in satan's kosmic system.
We have also seen that the pattern for the believer's spiritual walk was set by TLJC in his unglorified humanity during the beginning of the hypostatic union.
The humanity of Christ was impeccable during the thirty-three years of his First Advent. This means He remained absolutely perfect because He resided inside the prototype divine power system, functioning under the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit with God's perfect happiness from metabolized Bible Doctrine.
Through the virgin pregnancy and virgin birth, our Lord's humanity was born without the genetically formed old sin nature, thereby excluding the imputation of Adam's original sin to our Lord's humanity at his birth.
This means He was born as Adam was created, perfect, in a state of impeccability and because of his use of the divine omnipotence available in the prototype Divine power system, our Lord's humanity continued in the state of impeccability even while under maximum temptation and under maximum pressure. Heb 4:15;
The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the prototype divine power system empowered our Lord's humanity to resist every temptation, even those that went far beyond anything we could ever imagine.
His state of impeccability was absolutely necessary for our Lord to be qualified to go to the cross where the justice of God the Father poured out on Jesus Christ every sin in the human race and judged them.
During that entire time of judgment, our Lord remained inside the prototype divine power system and was sustained by the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit and His maximum use of God's perfect happiness from metabolized Bible Doctrine.
We refer to his spiritual life as an "experiment" in the sense that it was a demonstration.
It was the demonstration of the new spiritual life under the power of God the Holy Spirit, it demonstrated that any believer who advances to maturity and acquires the happiness of God through the PMA of Bible Doctrine can endure anything in life with absolute happiness and contentment.
Because of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit and his happiness from metabolized Bible Doctrine, our Lord was able to endure the cross. Heb 12;2;
The problem is that the Church Age believer continues to possess the old sin nature after salvation and so continues to sin. The pattern of the believer's carnality aka OSN control of the soul depends upon the amount of time they spend in the cosmic system instead of in God's power system.
Frequent bouts of carnality come from too much time in the cosmic system.
Occasional carnality is from life in the divine power system but with insufficient maturity from the PMA of Bible Doctrine so the believer still succumbs to the area of weakness of their OSN.
Sporadic carnality is from life as a spiritual adult. But even in spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity, believers still fail and sin.
That's why 1John 1:8; says, "If we allege that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the doctrine is not in us." 1John 1:10; "If we contend that we no longer sin, we are liars."
However, because of the creation of the new spiritual species (Gal 6:15; 2Cor 5:17; Eph 2:10), the old things of the sin nature and real spiritual death have lost their power.
They have been replaced by the provision of a new power; Divine omnipotence inside the PPOG, the great power experiment of the Church Age.
A new spiritual species had to be created to use this same divine power that the humanity of Christ used in a state of impeccability but we are not impeccable like the humanity of Christ in Hypostatic Union.
Our old sin nature continues to function continuously providing many types of temptation after salvation which is why we are to told to put it off and be renovated in our thinking. Eph 4:22-23;
Walking is an analogy for the believer's function in their new identity and life inside the God's power system. Rom 6:4, "Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism (of the Holy Spirit), in order that as Christ has been raised from the dead, so that we too might walk in newness of life."
The word translated "newness" in the phrase "newness of life" is the Greek word "kainotes" that is the same word that is used to describe the "new spiritual species in 2Cor 5:17;
This "new life" that was never seen before TLJC used it, was first deployed by TLJC during his thirty-three years on earth in unglorified humanity.
During the great power experiment of the beginning of the hypostatic Union, our Lord demonstrated a new system of walking, a new system of spiritual momentum.
At Pentecost, the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union was extended into the Church Age, as a result, walking becomes an analogy for the execution of the PPOG.
The fact that church age believer's walk in this "newness of life" means that everything Church Age believers have never existed in the Old Testament.
There was no baptism of the Spirit; no new spiritual species; no universal royal priesthood; no indwelling of the God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and no 100% availability of divine omnipotence inside God's power system.
The impact of this walk in newness of life provides so much opportunity and limitless potential that God stopped all prophecy in the Church Age.
The prophecies of the Church Age only concern it's beginning at Pentecost and it's end at the exit resurrection of the church.
Walking in newness of life carries far greater power, dynamics and opportunity than any system that previously existed in all of human history.
The prototype divine power system that was used by our Lord in the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union and has now become the operational divine power system for us, so "That we should walk in the same manner as He has walked." 1John 2:6;
The believer's use of their volition under the ministry of God Holy Spirit inside the divine power system is the walking described in Gal 5:16,and Rom 8:4; as "Walking by means of or according to the Spirit." and in Rom 6:4;b as "walking in newness of life."
Walking is used to describe the believer's function in the filling of the Spirit: Rom 8:4; Eph 5:15;
Walking is used to describe the believer's function in the faith rest drill. 2Cor 5:7, We received Christ by faith; so now we walk by faith. Col 2:6,
Walking is used to describe the virtue and objectivity that comes from enforced and genuine humility: Eph 4:1-2, "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, continue to encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of your station in life as members of the royal family of God into which you have been called with all humility and true sensitivity with perseverance, tolerate one another by means of virtue-love."
In this passage Paul is encouraging believers to live inside the power of the PPOG because of their position in union with TLJC. "in a manner worthy of." describes the function of the super-grace believer who walks in a manner worthy of their station in life.
Believers are spiritual royalty and members of the royal priesthood for eternity and they have been given the palace of the PPOG to live in, therefore they are to walk in a manner worthy of their position in union with TLJC.
Walking is also used to describe the PMA of Bible Doctrine under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit in the function of the believer in operation Z: 3John 4, "I was very pleased because I discovered that some of your children keep walking by means of doctrine even as we have received a mandate from the Father."
Walking is related to momentum in the application of metabolized doctrine to the believer's life in Col 1:9-10.
Walking is related to the application of metabolized doctrine in Col 4:5-6;. Conduct or "keep walking with wisdom toward outsiders; making the most of the opportunity. Your doctrine must always be applied in grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you should know how to respond to every person."
Walking is related to the believer in spiritual self-esteem in Eph 5:1-2. "Become imitators of God . . . keep walking in virtue-love...."
Walking is used to refer to the believer in momentum testing: Rom 13:13-14; John 8:12;John 11:10; Eph 4:17; Phil 3:18-19.
The believer who advances to spiritual maturity is described as walking with TLJC in dress whites after the resurrection. Rev 3:4.
When a sufficient number of believers in a specific geographic location persist in walking in the PPOG by means of the spirit and become mature believers, God blesses them because of their positive volition.
When believers in that area revert back to walking in the kosmic system for 2-3 generations, they come under divine discipline. This is the situation of the USA today.
This brings us to the Doctrine of the Pivot.
The pivot is defined as the accumulation of mature believers living in a client nation or under civil government in a specific geographical location.
While a pivot is composed primarily of mature believers, it may also include those positive believers whose momentum has carried them into spiritual adulthood.
Technically, the pivot may include all believers who have fulfilled the principle of virtue first as their first priority in the plan of God.
Believers in the pivot stand out in contrast to believers living in the cosmic system who function in self-righteous and crusader arrogance.
These believers are apostate and can be recognized by their platitudes, their sentimentality, their self-righteousness, their activism, their distortion of doctrine and their disorientation to reality. Because of this they are potential revolutionists and some are even mentally ill from arrogance.
One can also recognize the shrinking of the pivot by the utopian socialism that is promoted and the social action and civil disobedience that is practiced by believers.
The true Christian influence in the national entity is spiritual. The believer's civil responsibility is defined under the laws of divine establishment, as we have studied in Rom 13:1-10.
Christianity must never be the state, though religion always tries to become the state such as in the Islamic countries with their sharia law.
The influence of Christianity is not established by forcing people to live with Christian principles, believers growing in grace and forming a pivot that has invisible historical impact provide the influence along with God the Holy Spirit in common grace.
We believe in and advocate the separation of church and state for the true function of freedom and the fulfillment of human volition in the angelic conflict.
We support the state and establishment, but we are not the establishment. The influence of the church must be spiritual.
This does not imply that Christian should not serve in government, but It does imply that believers in government service must abide by the laws of divine establishment, and must never seek to force Christianity on others.
People must be free to accept Christ by their own personal consent. Christianity must not be a state religion.
In a client nation, there must be enough freedom for evangelism, conversion, spiritual growth, and missionary activity.
There has always been a pivot somewhere, though there has not always been a client nation.
Four great pivots were formed in the eighteenth century in Holland, Britain, America, and Germany. All these pivots had great missionary activity.
The Gentile client nation to God is not a Christian nation, but a national entity in which civil government recognizes the establishment principles found in Codex #1 and #3 of the Mosaic Law.
There is no such thing as a Christian nation, because that would mean that every person in the nation must be a Christian or they would be breaking the law. This has never existed and never will.
But there is such a thing as a client nation to God. A client nation is simply a national entity in which the civil government recognizes establishment principles of freedom, including privacy and the sacredness of property and life.
The client nation to God contains a pivot of mature believers, who as invisible heroes provide the prosperity of that nation through the principle of blessing by association.
That blessing is generally completely invisible and those who do not understand the principle of blessing by association that is found in Bible Doctrine are completely unaware of it.
The prosperity and blessing in a client nation does not occur through activism, but through those believers who execute the PPOG. The pivot of mature believers establishes the client nation and guarantees its perpetuation in every generation.
If the pivot declines, then the client nation declines and is eventually destroyed through the administration of the five cycles of discipline that were explained to Israel in Lev 26.
A client nation has enough personal freedoms to provide for extensive evangelism without government interference or federal persecution. From this evangelism comes a cadre for the pivot. But not all believers enter this cadre and execute the plan of God. A good pivot is perhaps 20% of all believers in the nation.