March 13, 2001

Monica,

You know that I have seen how much damage the church did to itself by confessing that we are just sinners saved by grace. We are only human. What a wretch am I. We’re just worms crawling in the dirt. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

We are guilt free. We are sin free. We are righteous. Jesus bore all our sin if we can receive that by faith. Jesus gave us his righteousness according to Romans 5 if we can receive that by faith.

I am seeing that it goes even farther toward the likeness of God than that. I have just learned that Psalm 8:5 where it says, You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings..., it should be a little lower than God. The footnote in the NIV says, "Or than God." How could the translators not be sure? How could the translators of the King James Version possibly write the word angel there? The Hebrew word is Elohim--Hebrew for God. No, the translators could not believe that God meant to say God, so they changed it. Surely God didn’t mean to say we were made a little lower than God.

Yes, that is what he said and what he meant. God is very serious. He is not teasing us. Adam was created in the image of God. The angels were not. Angels are ministering servants, but they are not in the class with God. He reproduced himself in man. He created us in his likeness above the angels, but a little lower than God himself.

Fallen man, fallen Adam, became lower than the angels because Adam submitted himself to a fallen angel named Lucifer or Satan. But Jesus redeemed us from that curse. We are born into this world lower than the angels. We are born again "a little lower than God," but the angels are "ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation." They are here to serve us. (Hebrews 1:14)

Read Psalm 8 with Elohim or God in Psalm 8:4 instead of angels as the King James has or heavenly beings as the NIV has. It reminds you of Genesis one. It reaffirms that we were created to be like God. It says we are crowned with glory and honor. It says we were made rulers over all creation. It says everything is under our feet. We have authority. Jesus was the only one who had it from the time Adam fell until Jesus’ resurrection. But now we have that authority back. No wonder Jesus could confidently say the works he did we will do also and greater works.

We’ve been robbed. The translators of the King James robbed us. Translators since robbed us. What else reads far differently in the Hebrew? I mean, get a vision of this. From believing we are sinful wretches to finding out we are pure, righteous sons of God with all of God’s own authority over all of creation. That is a long way from that old-time religion of sinful wretches saved by grace, limping along, hoping for peace in the valley some day for their tired, weak, and weary souls.

We are seeing who we are. Need anyone wonder why many of us are now confessing that Christianity will rule in the USA? Satan is now defeated because we know the truth. We have all authority over all of creation. We have authority over the angels that are present on earth. We definitely have authority over the fallen angels. We know who we are! Glory to God, my Daddy!

Love,

Dad

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