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Mark 12:37; Matt 22:46; The doctrine of negative volition part 2

In our study of Mark we are in Mark 12:37 where Jesus evangelized the Jewish leaders with closed questions one last time but according to the parallel passage in Matt 22:46; they remained in unbelief because of their negative volition.

So we have taken up a brief study of the doctrine of negative volition. Last time we noted that there are different consequences to negative volition depending on what facet of God's truth is rejected.

We also noted that negative volition can be expressed by the refusal to even be exposed to the communication of God's word or it can be expressed by the rejection of the message that has been heard.

When this occurs with the Gospel it results in the failure to transfer the information from the knosis of academic understanding in the mind into the epignosis or full understanding in the heart that occurs under the efficacious grace ministry of God the Holy Spirit when the Gospel message is believed or received with positive volition.

This was the problem the Jews had. They had been generally positive to Divine Establishment and they had God consciousness but when they heard the Gospel message presented by Jesus they persisted in negative volition and unbelief.

Paul describes this process in Eph 1:13; "In Whom you also (as unbelievers), when you heard (under common grace) the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and when you believed ( in Jesus Christ through efficacious grace ), you were sealed by the Holy Spirit..."

We see here that there are two acts of human volition that occur under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the unbeliever, common and efficacious grace. Common grace is hearing and understanding the Gospel. Efficacious grace is believing in Jesus Christ.

The unbeliever has to want to hear the Gospel and concentrate on its presentation. God the Holy Spirit then makes that Gospel information real in the soul so that there is sufficient information with which to make an informed volitional decision for or against Jesus Christ.

Under the function of common grace God the Holy Spirit makes the Gospel information that has been heard comprehensible to the spiritually dead unbeliever so they can have the opportunity to believe it.

Without the ministry of God the Holy Spirit they cannot even understand it. 1Cor 2:14;

Heathenism is the result of chronic negative volition either at God consciousness or Gospel hearing or sometimes both.

From our perspective heathenism is defined as the rejection of God as He is revealed in God's Word, the Bible.

Heathenism occurs when people believe the lie, but people do not believe the lie until they have first rejected some facet of truth.

Just as every believer has equal opportunity to fulfill the protocol plan for the Church, so every unbeliever in history has equal opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life.

To protect mankind from the self-destruction and evil that Satan foists on humanity through propaganda and disinformation, and to provide for equal opportunity for salvation for all mankind God has provided mankind with the natural law of Divine Establishment that includes free volition, marriage, family and nations with their geographical boundaries with language separation.

God also created the Jews as the new racial species and Israel as the first client nation to God for the purpose of providing gospel information to the human race. Because the Jews rejected Jesus Christ the Church, the new spiritual species, has this role at the present time during the Church Age.

Heathen are heathen not because the Gospel has never been presented in their geographical region. They are heathen because they persist in being negative at being conscious of the God of the Bible and/or at Gospel hearing.

The unbeliever who is negative at either God consciousness or Gospel hearing or both enters the cosmic system because of their negative volition and all too often remains there under the influence of antagonistic negative volition or hatred for the truth.

This is described in 2Cor 4:3-4; "But if our Gospel is hidden (veiled), it is hidden to those who do not believe,

v4 in whose case the god of this age (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving (negative volition to God's Word at God consciousness and/or Gospel hearing), that they might not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God." Net notes 7, 8, and 9

Paul describes negative volition at God consciousness in some detail in Rom 1:18-20; "For the wrath of God (anthropopathism for what the righteousness of God demands the justice of God executes) is revealed from heaven against all negative godliness (negative volition at God consciousness) and unrighteousness of men who suppress truth through their unrighteousness.

v19 Because that which may be known about God is evident within themselves (God consciousness), for God made it evident to them.

v20 For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes (eternal power, divine nature) have been clearly seen, being understood through that which has been made (observation), so that they (unbelievers) are without excuse." (Psa 19:1-4;)

We see here that unbelievers suppress God's truth through his their negative volition and that their negative volition causes them to become antagonistic toward God's truth so they not only reject what God's Word reveals about God but they hates it and actively oppose it.

When these same unbelievers who have rejected the true God at God consciousness are exposed to the Gospel, their negative volition recurs and they becomes antagonistic toward the Gospel.

This is what religion had done to the Jews in Jesus day. This is also what religion is doing at the present time in Islam and this is what atheistic anthropocentric religion is doing to the progressives who are destroying this country in an attempt to establish their utopian state.

This explains the progressives' lack of discernment about the evil of Islam and their unwillingness to wage war against it. Both the Islamist and the progressives are deceived by religion so in their own ways they are both waging war against God's client nation USA.

This means that if unbelievers are for some reason already functioning in the antagonism of the cosmic system because of their negative volition when they are exposed to the Gospel, their mind is blinded, and they reject Jesus Christ as Savior (2Cor 4:3-4;)

The Jews who rejected Jesus had received and heard the gospel from the Tnach but they had rejected it and had substituted in its place their religion from their "oral traditions (the Mishna and the Talmud)." Matt 15:9;

Because of their rejection of the Word of God they were functioning in the antagonism of the cosmic system such that they not only rejected Jesus Christ as Savior but they also hated Him and actively opposed Him.

This is the same kind of negative volition that is occurring in the USA today. The propagandized people have deceived themselves to the point where they have elected reversionistic leaders who have lied to get elected to power.

These reversionistic leaders have rejected Gods truth of Divine Establishment that is contained in the Constitution and have substituted in it's place the lies and deceit of multi-cultural fascism, diversity, socialist fascism, internationalism and climate change fascism that are the tenets of their atheistic religion.

Their negative volition has entered them into the antagonism of the cosmic system such that they not only reject the Divine truth of Divine Establishment, the Gospel and Christianity but they not only hate it but they actively oppose it.

What we hear and see in the news almost daily illustrates the consequences of the loss of thought that comes from rejection of Gods truth and what we now see are the results of our nation sowing to the wind of negative volition such that we are now beginning to reap the whirlwind.

Peter describes the consequences of this negative volition that results in involvement in the cosmic system. 2Pet 2:20-22;

v 20, "For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the cosmic system by knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are defeated (by the cosmic system), their latter state (of rejecting the Gospel resulting in blackout of the soul) is worse for them than the first."

We see here that the decision to remain in the cosmic system has caused blackout of the soul.

Initially they had the chance to accept the Gospel but eventually (in the latter state)they had no chance because having already rejected the Gospel, blackout of the soul had locked them in.

v 21, "For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn away from the holy mandate (the Gospel) delivered to them.

The holy mandate is: `This is the will of God: that we believe on His Son, Jesus Christ.'" John 6:40;

Negative volition at God consciousness results in the entrance to the evil side of the cosmic system where the unbeliever suffers from blackout of the soul.

When the Gospel is subsequently also rejected their negative volition blinds them because of their cosmic involvement.

So negative volition at God consciousness results in living in the cosmic system. Then if there is Gospel hearing, and the way of righteousness is understood but after being understood it is again rejected so the unbeliever goes back into cosmic involvement, but this time with blackout of the soul that metastasizes into scar tissue of the soul.

v 22, "It has happened to them according to the true proverb (Prov 26:11), `A dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire.'" Net note 22

In effect, the one who was negative at God consciousness comes out of the cosmic system under the common grace ministry of God the Holy Spirit long enough to hear the Gospel and if he rejects it again, he goes right back into the cosmic system that Peter describes as vomit or mire.

This refers to the blackout of the soul or the blindness of the mind caused by negative volition at God consciousness returning to the mire when that negative volition is compounded and reinforced when the Gospel is rejected.

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 10/5/2014