Experience: (Jesus is LORD, Messiah)
Husband of a beautiful wife (41-years and counting); Father of three-beautiful children and a handsome grandson
Professional Experience:
---United States Marine Corps 1/1 - 0311 - NCO
---Retired 31-year veteran of the Houston Police Department (Uniformed Patrol/Motorcycle Officer/Commercial Helicopter Police Patrol Pilot
---Education: Master's Degree/University of Houston at Clear Lake
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Satan, the objective of the demonic in Time; What is Satan’s objective subsequent Eden? “Diminishing Returns” – a discussion…
Humanity requires no instruction in lawlessness as lawlessness, defilement, self-destructive behavior, flows naturally from the sin-nature we’ve inherited from our father, Adam as Adam relented to the enticement of his wife as Adam’s wife relented to the enticement of Satan’s promises of endless pleasure in return for her compromise with evil (Romans 5:12).
Satan’s objective is no longer your sin but His motive is a seared conscience, an attitude of complacency that compromises with self-destructive behavior through the demonic tactic of “diminishing returns;” that is, the temporary pleasure of immoral behavior mandates progressively enhanced immoral acts in self-defilement in order to achieve the “pleasure” perceived from the previous compromise; this demonic agenda, diminishing returns, is the foundation for “addiction” and it ultimately destroys mind, body, soul in Hell.
With every compromise in the addiction to “diminishing returns” the Holy Spirit’s call to repentance and life in Messiah Jesus by faith grows incrementally, increasingly, faint and ultimately silent.
False doctrine of “Christian Perfectionism” “Sinless Perfectionism” and the teaching of Jesus? (Woman caught in Adultery, John 8:1-11). Scripture and a comment/discussion,
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]] Emphasis (highlight) is mine: John 8:1-11 (ESV)
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Inspired text or scribal addition?
Christian comment,
Before we continue, understand that: [The earliest manuscripts do not include John 7:53–8:11.]; therefore, is the “Woman caught in adultery” inspired text or added later? The better translations bracket [John 7:53 to 8:11] to indicate their absence in our most trusted manuscripts; therefore, to base doctrine or one’s theological ideology on these verses is not practicing true Biblical wisdom.
With divine inspiration of the text questionable and in contention what is the conclusion of the matter concerning “Sinless Perfectionism?”
As long as one is encumbered with a body of sinful flesh (Romans 3:23) subject to the Adamic curse (Romans 5:12), sinless perfection is NOT possible and anyone who promotes the false doctrine of “Christian Perfectionism” or “Sinless Perfectionism” does not understand the Scriptures or the Holy Spirit who provided them.
Jesus enhanced culpability of the written code with Mens Rea (the thought life)…
Jesus, if the text is actually inspired, was not suggesting that the woman caught in adultery was to become sinless but that she was to walk away, repent, from her immoral lifestyle and pursue righteousness as grace had been provided her. Jesus would not command something that is not humanly possible; in fact, Jesus enhanced the Law of sin and death (the written code) to include mens rea (the thought life) so no longer must one physiologically engage in an act of disobedience to be culpable for sin but the mere “thought” of the sin is culpability before the Father (Matthew 5:21-28); therefore, humanity, encapsulated in sinful, condemned, flesh, will NEVER be sinless or perfect in reality and to even suggest the possibility exists is absurd and defies logic.
Though the redeemed in Jesus possess a new-nature as a result of their faith in Jesus as Lord (2 Corinthians 5:17), they are NOT sinless in mind or body or deed and that New Nature in Christ wars against the Old Nature in Adam, daily, and the internal struggle between good and evil will continue until the body of sin surrenders to death and frees the spirit that belongs to our Lord and was created in His spiritual image (Romans 7:14-25; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Genesis 1:26-28).
The ONLY “perfection” we can attain in this life constrained by Time, physics, flesh, is the IMPUTED perfection/righteousness Gifted us by faith in Jesus as Lord and being declared “not guilty” or “positionally right” with the Father by covenant promise (Hebrews 8:12; 2 Corinthians 5:21). As Christians, we are to pursue obedience to our Father’s will; this, accomplished through obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit via the redeemed conscience producing the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5) as we walk daily in the divine process of sanctification yet the struggle with evil continues…
Theologian, Reformer and Priest, Martin Luther, is quoted as saying: “You should not believe your conscience or your feelings more than the word.”
Is Luther correct? The Holy Spirit teaches a different perspective concerning the New Covenant and the redeemed conscience.
The redeemed in Jesus Christ, possessing the Holy Spirit by covenant promise, walk, discern, live, thrive, survive, through the redeemed conscience (2 Corinthians 5:17) seeking obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit as He enlivens the natural law written upon our heart at conception (Romans 2:14-15) and makes that law applicable to every facet of our life and accomplishes this with divine wisdom, knowledge, discernment, making the “Law of the Spirit of life” (Romans 8:2) infinitely superior to the Law of the Covenant AKA “the Law of sin and death.” Allow me to explain,
The Holy Spirit’s initial responsibility in the Realm of Time is to woo, draw, one to faith in Christ pre-salvation (John 12:32) but once covenant is established by faith in Jesus as one’s Messiah (John 3) the Holy Spirit takes-up residence within the redeemed (Ephesians 1:13-14) and begins a new work within them as the Holy Spirit enlivens the “law of conscience” (Romans 2:14-15) (law written upon our heart at conception) via the redeemed conscience (2 Corinthians 5:17) and methodically walks them in the Father’s will via the daily process of sanctification (Galatians 5:16).
It is the Holy Spirit’s work through the conscience of the redeemed that is an infinitely superior form of behavioral modification compared to the old Law Covenant demanding, coercing, obedience by the sin-nature (Romans 5:12) to Laws and edicts published, etched in stone and scratched upon parchment, a written code having manifest to define sin void any hope of atonement yet mandating perfection from that sinful nature inherited from Adam (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:10; James 2:10; Romans 8:1+; Romans 5:12); therefore, the Law Covenant, its written code, curses anyone seeking righteousness (a right standing) with the Father through obedience to same due to the sin-nature that could never adequately comply (Galatians 3:10).
The Superiority of the Law of the Spirit of Life working through the redeemed conscience,
The Law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2) working through the redeemed conscience is able to divinely address every point of discernment, every moral decision, in a man or woman’s life and does so with efficiency, with rapidity and holiness; something the written law could never do as the written law, its elements defining sin, are weakened by subjectivity, indecisiveness, obfuscation by a seared or defiled conscience and ultimately culminates in failure, damnation of the soul in sin.
These failures of the “written code” defines why “letters kill but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6); this is why the redeemed in Jesus are “not under law (written code) but under grace” (Romans 6:14); this is why the redeemed in Jesus are not enslaved to letters but live daily by the Spirit and His teaching, tutorship, in sanctification (Romans 7:6); this is why the New Covenant of Grace established, ratified, in Messiah’s blood (Matthew 26:28), a New Covenant administered by the indwelling Holy Spirit, is infinitely, eternally, superior to the Old Covenant of Law (Hebrews 8:7); this defines the righteousness, the imputed righteousness of Jesus, “apart from the Law” made known by the Holy Spirit via the redeemed conscience (Romans 3:21; 2 Corinthians 5:21); therefore, contrary to Luther’s observations, the redeemed conscience governed by the indwelling Holy Spirit in the New Covenant is the focal point of sanctification and preparedness for service in the New Jerusalem.
Tongues spoken in Acts were “languages” “dialects” that the anointed spoke and/or understood without having previously studied. This spiritual gift was given as evidence for unbelieving Jews of the Holy Spirit’s work in the “New Covenant” and the gift was also given to aid in proselytizing the known World with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Tongues today are a pagan manifestation, a mimicking, of the pagan priestess at the Temple of Delphi adjacent Corinth in the First-Century where the priestess sitting atop a throne in the Temple over a burning intoxicating substance would provide oracles and often times gibberish prophecy to awaiting patrons who often left more confused than when they entered seeking enlightenment. Obviously, this pagan tongue slithered its way into the Corinthian Church creating much consternation for Paul who ultimately mandated that women be quiet in Church services; evidently, some women in the Corinthian congregation were mimicking the absurdity of the pagan priestess and interrupting Church with gibberish, oracles of prophecy, that was mislabeled as a heavenly language, unknown tongue, prophecy.
Today’s Pentecostalism and other “Churches” of Charismata teach and perform this pagan ritual under the auspices of Biblical Tongues as demonstrated in Acts; some actually teach this pagan tongue to children and as a sign of one’s “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” Some even go as far as teaching tongues as essential for one’s salvation. This pagan nonsense glorified in certain Churches creates an atmosphere of apostasy, works salvation, doubt, fear, confusion. These “Churches” are an embarrassment to the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God.
Anyone who advocates for “tongues” today should be required to answer this simple question: “If tongues are extant today, why must we methodically train our missionaries in the language of the culture they will proselytize with the Gospel?”
Misplaced, unwarranted, Jewish-Israelite Pride, arrogance, emanating from Matthew 15:24,
Jewish pride and arrogance expressed: “How do you feel about the fact that Jesus Christ said He didn’t come for the gentiles and you know that you are one?” 🥺
Christian response,
Messiah came through the Tribe of Judah in order to fulfill Elohim’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3b) and to complete that promise, Jesus came to the “lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24) to proselytize Jacob’s children in the New Covenant’s Gospel that would be ratified, established, in Messiah’s blood in fulfillment of Torah and specifically Leviticus 17:11 (Matthew 26:28); this was done as Jacob’s children were to be ambassadors of the “Great Commission” and through their missionary work throughout the World, every family would be blessed with the knowledge of Messiah (Matthew 28:16-20); unfortunately, Israel’s children rejected and blasphemed their Messiah; Israel’s children conspired with the Roman authorities to murder their Messiah upon a tree while exclaiming that Messiah’s blood be upon them and their children (Matthew 27:25); therefore, the Gospel of Grace was taken from Jacob’s children and given to the Gentiles until the fullness of the Gentiles have entered the Kingdom of Heaven (Romans 11:25); in fact, due to unbelief and hardness of heart, the Jewish curse, only a remnant of Israel will be saved from the second death in Hell (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27; Romans 10); therefore, no descendant of Jacob has anything to boast about and no reason to proclaim self-righteousness through Torah or heritage.
Conclusion,
If any Jew or Israelite desires life and Truth and peace with Yahweh, the Path to life remains available by faith in Yeshua as Messiah as there is no other Way for a Jew, Israelite, or Gentile, to be saved from death in Hell (Romans 5:1; John 14:6).
Torah Law – Law of Conscience kills the soul, curses anyone seeking righteousness (a right standing) with the Father through obedience to same lest their pursuit of Law leads them to Jesus as Messiah (Galatians 3:24)…
Torah, the written code, only defines your sin void atonement (Romans 3:20); the Torah curses you if you seek the Father’s will (John 6:29) through obedience to it (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10); no one is justified before the Father through Torah Law (written code) or the Law of Conscience (spiritual law, Romans 2:14-15); salvation-justification-sanctification can only manifest by faith-trust-belief in Jesus as Messiah (Galatians 2:16).
If anyone desires to honor God’s Law they must comply with the Father’s will (John 6:29) by trusting in Jesus as Messiah, receive the Holy Spirit (John 3; Ephesians 1:13-14), walk in the Spirit daily in sanctification via the redeemed conscience and produce the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5) – against such, there is no Law. Producing the “fruit of the Spirit” via daily obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit is KEY to honoring the Father’s eternal will for your life concerning obedience.
There is no other Way (John 14:6)…not letters, not days, not diets, but honoring the Holy Spirit through sanctification via the redeemed conscience (Galatians 5:16; Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
You’re free to pursue the Commandments but you reap nothing from them lest Yeshua is your Messiah by faith and your obedience is the resultant of the indwelling Holy Spirit working through the conscience through the daily process of sanctification; the Holy Spirit indwelling the faithful in Yeshua as the Guarantor-Seal of covenant with the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 7:6).
The Deception of Legalism – Self-righteousness,
What the legalist-Hebrew Roots-Jew-Israelite-Christian cults and sects clinging to the written code do not understand is that their obedience, their self-righteousness through law-keeping, the pursuit of the Sabbath and dietary restrictions, ceremonial laws, is considered works of evil, unrighteousness (Matthew 7:21-23) and filthy rags, a bloody menstrual cloth in the Father’s nose (Isaiah 64:6) lest Yeshua is your Messiah and your life is lived seeking obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit in sanctification subsequent salvation; in fact, it is ONLY the works of the Christian at the BEMA Judgment of Christ where the Christian will stand and give an account relevant to their works SUBSEQUENT salvation; the works of the Christian will be evaluated for authenticity; that is, did the Christian living by faith in Yeshua perform a specific work(s) by the Spirit’s anointing or for self-aggrandizement in the flesh; rewards will be given or denied accordingly (1 Corinthians 3); this, the only Judgment the Christian, the redeemed in Yeshua, will face in Eternity. The BEMA Judgment is NOT a judgment concerning salvation but a Judgment of the works-obedience-faithfulness of the one redeemed by faith in Yeshua-Jesus.
The Apostasy of Legalism,
Many refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit, why? Because they are consumed by self-righteousness; they simply refuse to believe that Jesus-Yeshua is sufficient, alone, to save by faith, alone. They deceptively believe that one must work them self into favor with the Father through their deeds of perceived self-righteousness and once deluded by the Devil into believing that their works have saved them, they then naively believe that they must work to maintain the divine GIFT of salvation provided by grace (a gift of divine favor) through faith in Yeshua; in this arrogance, they don’t understand that no one is justified before the Father by what they do but in Whom they believe (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9) and that once covenant with the Father is established by faith in Yeshua, the Holy Spirit initiates a good work in their life and they will produce the “fruit of the Spirit,” against such fruit there is no Law (Galatians 5).
“I never knew you,”
Those in Matthew 7:21-23, proclaimed by Messiah as an example of self-righteousness through their works, were condemned, rejected, why? Because their works of righteousness had been performed in the flesh apart from the Holy Spirit and they had never initiated covenant relationship with the Father by faith in the Son, Messiah Yeshua; therefore, Yeshua ordered the unredeemed, the workers of iniquity, to depart stating that “I never knew you.” Covenant Relationship first by faith; works that please Father are performed subsequently through the Spirit (Galatians 5:15; 1 John 2:27).
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” John 6 (ESV)
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name ’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Sabbath obsessions – those who defend same and the Christian…
The Sabbath edict was NEVER given a Gentile, from Adam to Abraham – forward lest under the Law Covenant. The Sabbath edict was given Israel’s children as a sign of sanctification between Himself and the Tribes beginning in Exodus 16 as His eschatological plan mandated their separation/sanctification from the pagan people and pagan gods that inundated Israel and threatened Elohim’s plan for them concerning Messiah and the Gospel i.e. the New Covenant.
As a Gentile who loves and trusts in Jesus in the New Covenant, I was never under the mandates of ceremonial, civil, laws given Israel, as the Sabbath edict is a civil law – a ceremonial law pertaining to Israel’s children and sojourners with them seeking inclusion into that society governed by a Law Covenant that differentiated Israel from the pagan tribes serving pagan gods that sought to destroy them.
The Holy Spirit who indwells me as a result of my faith in Jesus as my Messiah is the same Spirit who initiated the New Covenant Church on the First-Day of the week at Pentecost and the early Church leadership, when they met to conduct New Covenant business, they met on the First-Day as ordained and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Those Church leaders who met on the Sabbath did so in hopes of proselytizing the Jewish congregations who met on the Sabbath by edict. The Church I attend in obedience to the Holy Spirit also meets on the First-Day; therefore, I have no problem with the First-Day as my Lord’s Day…apparently you do because you don’t understand the New Covenant, the Old Covenant’s Laws and their purpose.
Sabbatarianism, a spiritual illness,
The Sinai Commandments are NOT my daily goal or my life’s pursuit but I walk by the tutorship of the Holy Spirit in sanctification via the conscience and pursue the “fruit of the Spirit” as He so leads…you do as you please but my walk is mine…please respect that; personally, I believe Sabbatarianism is a spiritual illness of works that defines one’s involvement in a Christian cult exemplified by the Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA) and certain aspects of Hebrew Roots fanaticism.
Why the “Law of the Spirit” is infinitely superior to the Law of the Covenant (Law of sin and death) (written code)…a theological explanation,
Note: If you are not “born again” by faith in Jesus Christ as your Messiah, you do not possess the Holy Spirit and you are therefore a stranger to the New Covenant, its promises, its eternal truths, and what is discussed here will NOT resonate with your fallen-nature and the flesh. Following, is a response to one who idolizes the written code provided at Sinai (1 Corinthians 2:14).
The indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) does not project enmity to Sinai’s moral edicts but the Spirit takes the root of what under girds Sinai; that is, the “natural law of conscience” infused within the human genome on Day-6 (Romans 2:14-15), and magnifies that spiritual law through the “new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) via the human conscience (redeemed through faith) via the daily process of sanctification and that natural law of conscience (Romans 2:14-15) is used by the Spirit to govern behavior and methodically prepares the redeemed for service in the New Jerusalem; this, by covenant promise, a New Covenant articulated, promised, within the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures and established in the blood of Messiah Jesus (Matthew 26:28).
The written code (relevant to the flesh) v. the Law of the Spirit (relevant to the spirit of man through redemption)
The Christian does not consciously live their daily life pursuing letters etched in stone or scratched upon parchment but the Christian is led by the Spirit through the human conscience via the natural law written upon their heart and this is an infinitely superior form of behavioral modification compared to the Old Covenant’s written code demanding perfection from the sin-nature that could NEVER comply with mandated perfection (James 2:10) nor could it ever please Yahweh (Isaiah 64:6) – see Romans 8.
The “deeds that the Spirit” or the work of the Spirit is not the written code per se but the Spirit teaches the “fruit of the Spirit;” (Galatians 5) the fruit of the Spirit fulfills all that the written code demands. The fruit of the Spirit manifests in the life of the redeemed who walk daily in sanctification carefully attuned to or receptive to what the Holy Spirit is teaching and what behavior or decision or discernment the Holy Spirit intercedes-in concerning every moral choice the redeemed discern throughout their daily walk…something that the written code could not do as the written code, its elements that define sin, is easily rationalized away by the sin-nature through obfuscation, rationalized away through a seared conscience, does not adequately address every moral decision, but not so with the Law of the Spirit that governs the conscience…a conscience that is laid bare, enlivened, by Elohim’s truth implanted into the mind and spirit of the redeemed by faith in Jesus; this, by covenant promise (Hebrews 10:16; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26; Jeremiah 31:33).
Can you make an attempt to understand the superiority of the New Covenant of Grace through Faith that is the antithesis of the Law Covenant’s written code?
The New Covenant’s Law is spiritual, it is written upon the heart, not upon parchment or etched in stone…parchment and stone that relate to the sinful flesh as the law is given for the lawless (1 Timothy 1:9) – but the Law of the Spirit relates to the spirit of man who is a spirit created in the spiritual image of Elohim (Genesis 1:26-28) (a spirit encapsulated within a decaying body of flesh) and the Law of the Spirit addresses the things of man’s spirit void obfuscation by the sinful flesh…can you understand this – can you understand the superiority of the Spiritual Law written upon the heart v. the Law of the Flesh written on parchment and etched in stone; this is why “letters kill” because they relate to the flesh that is condemned by sin (2 Corinthians 3:4-6), sin that is defined by the written code (Romans 3:20) but the Law of the Spirit relates to the spirit of man that has been redeemed by faith and divinely enlivened to pursue the things of Elohim through the regeneration of that spirit by faith as promised in the New Covenant.
Clinging to the Law Covenant is death to the soul through condemnation by the written code (Romans 3:20) but clinging to the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ as Messiah is LIFE and KNOWLEDGE and PEACE, forever (2 Corinthians 3:4-6). If you live in the flesh you will perish in Hell; if you live by the Spirit provided you by faith in Jesus as your Messiah, the Spirit who governs the redeemed conscience, the spirit of man, you will live, eternally (Romans 8:13).
Christian response to the ardent Hebrew-Roots, Jewish, Legalist who preaches Commandment Keeping as a path to the Father…
Again, those “commandments” were given SOLELY to Israel’s children and sojourners with them at Sinai and this was done for sanctification and eschatological purposes in a Covenant of Law. As a Christian, my Law is the Spirit within me who has taken up residence within me as my Seal and Guarantor of Covenant (Ephesians 1:13-14; Galatians 5:16; Romans 7:6); therefore, as a Christian, I don’t pursue Sinai’s edicts or Moses’ ceremonial laws as they don’t belong to me but they’re the product of a bygone covenant that condemned void atonement (Hebrews 8:7; Romans 3:20). I don’t live my daily life pursuing Sinai or Moses or letters because I live my life in communion, intimacy, covenant, with the Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ as my Messiah (Galatians 2:16).
Concerning the Ark of the Covenant and the Commandments,
The moral foundation of nine of the ten commands from Sinai are eternal and the tablets placed within the Ark are representative of the truism that the Messiah would possess the Law of God in His heart, forever. The gold on the Ark represented Messiah’s deity; the wood represented Messiah’s humanity; Aaron’s dead rod that came to life represented the death and resurrection of Messiah; the pot of manna represented Messiah as “the Bread of life;” the two angels atop the “Mercy Seat” were seen by Mary in John 20:12 and signified Messiah’s as our Living “Mercy Seat.”
You model and mimic Israel’s deadly error and you teach others to follow you to Hell,
You place so much emphasis on the written code that was given to the lawless and disobedient (1 Timothy 1:9), a written code that is absent the power to redeem the sinful nature…you waste so much effort in struggling after that which defines your sin, mocks your inability to please God (Isaiah 64:6) while providing you ZERO hope of atonement (Romans 3:20); this, while you diminish the weightier matter of faith – trust – belief in the One, Jesus Christ, who kept the Law for you in mandated perfection and offers you HIS righteousness in exchange for your sin if you will simply TRUST-BELIEVE in Him as your Messiah (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 3); tragically, you are following the very same path to death in Hell as that of Israel’s children in wilful spiritual ignorance and self-righteousness as only a “remnant” of Israel’s children will escape the second death in Hell due to unbelief – wilful rejection of faith in Messiah Yeshua (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27).
Not sure how to tell you, convince you, that I don’t pursue letters nor am I interested in your theology, personal ideology of bondage and death through self-righteousness.