Bible Study—Transhumanism

Holy Writings; Understanding Scriptures

Fred R. Coulter—October 16, 2011

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Jesus says, 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man' (Matt. 24).

Luke 17:26: "Now, as it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be in the days of the Son of man. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah went into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all. And it was the same way in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building" (vs 26-28).

It doesn't talk about any of the other problems that they had—does it? It's just talking about an appearance of normality.

Verse 29: "But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed them all." If we look at what's going on today, would it be fair to say that that's what was going on in Noah's day? Would have to be!

I want to cover a couple of things, and from that then we're going to extrapolate. What was it like? Genesis 6:3: "And the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not always strive with man in his going astray, for he is but flesh, and yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.'"

We know that they lived longer up to this point. This is where God says He's going to limit fleshly life to 120 years, so gradually it came down. You read the genealogies after the Flood and the age came down and down and down, to where in the days of David, it says that he was well stricken in age and he was 70-years-old.

Some people say that Noah was 120 years building an ark. Have you ever been able to waterproof a 120-year-old wood? Do you suppose it took him how long to build the ark?

Verse 5: "And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth..."

• What does that mean?
• How wicked is 'wicked that was great'?
• What was it that they were doing?
• And having lived as long as they did live, do you think that they knew nothing about electricity?
• Do you think that they knew nothing about atomic energy?
• Do you think that it would be possible for Noah to have some power tools to build the ark?

He's not going to do it with a chip axe and a hand saw—I suppose that's possible.

They have evidence that after the Flood they had airplanes. There's evidence that immediately after the Flood there was also several atomic blasts which fused—I forget which desert—the sand in the way that only an atomic blast can do it. When Jesus says, 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man,' can we look at the things that are going on and say, yes, this is what they were doing then, as well? Do you think that there were those who were scientists, studying various things about the creation—animal life and human life?

What was it that Satan the devil told Adam and Eve? You can become gods by doing his will. That's the counterfeit of the family of God that God is doing. And living as long as they did, don't you think that they were looking for ways to even live longer? Isn't that what human beings like to do?

Why did God say, 'I'm going to limit it to 120 years'? What is it "...that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination..." (v 5). Let's understand that when God says something, He means it to the full. You've heard me say, God's not going to fulfill prophecy to the minimum. He's going to fulfill it to the maximum.

Let's apply that here. What do people imagine today? Look at all of what we call the high-tech devices that we have and by God's standard that's very low-tech. Makes you wonder what they had. "...every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (v 5).

What happened after the Flood? The Tower of Babel! Now the tallest tower in the world is in Dubai. Men have always wanted to go up—isn't that interesting? When his nature goes down.

Genesis 11:6: "And the LORD said, 'Behold, the people are one and they all have one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do—now nothing... [no thing.] ...which they have imagined to do will be restrained from them.'"

Let's come back here to Genesis 6 again and ask: What is it that they were doing? Was it just eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage? Is that all they were doing? Doesn't tell us one thing about the technology that they had. It just is saying that the imagination of what they would imagine they could do, that nothing would be restrained. I got to thinking on this when I was reading the book The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton. It has nothing to do with faith and, yet, it does a little bit.

Lipton is a biologist who is applying quantum physics to the cell. He discovered that the life of the cell is in the outer part of the cell, and that the cell works almost exactly like a transistor—open and close, open and close. He kept investigating it and investigating this. He was amazed! He says, 'Every little cell looks like a universe' when you put it under these high-powered magnifying microscopes that you have now. The long and short of the book is this: He was so in awe of all that was compacted into a single cell. You know how scientists said not too many years ago, 'Single cell, well, that's just a simple single little cell.' No! It's patterned after the universe and it works, lo and behold, just like a transistor cell only much more efficient. Transistor cell is primitive.

After reading that, he said, 'We have the key to immortality.' Remember the two sermons I gave about five years ago, Singularity is Near. I took two days to go through it and I gave the handout from the book by Raymond Kurzweil. He said in that, he gave the preview, we're going to hook up to computers, we're going do that, we're going to do the other thing, but now we're really advanced. They're going to have such advanced computers, it's going to be something.

Do you think they were doing that then? Let's look at some technology from the ancients on this side of the Flood that we still don't understand.

• How did they move the stones to build the pyramids?
• How did they get the stones to build those Inca cities on top of the mountains 12,000-13,000 feet in the air?
• How did they get certain of the stones that they know were cut with precision instruments that are thousands and thousands of years old that are still so sharp on the edge, you can run your finger on it and cut it?

Genesis 6:5: "And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." What do you suppose they were doing? If we can use the pattern of what they're doing today and say they were doing it then, we might have a little better understanding.

The Bible just gives us the bare minimum. But notice how bad that it was, v 6: "And the LORD repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." What they were doing was tremendously evil. Do we have a clue as to what they may have been doing that was tremendously evil?

Verse 7: "And the LORD said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the crawling thing, and the fowl of the air; for I repent that I have made them.'" That's a pretty powerful statement—isn't it? Why is He going to kill all life? Why was it necessary to do that?

Let's look at what they're trying to do today. We have a lot of genetically modified foods—don't we? Yes! They take a fish gene and put it in a tomato so it won't freeze. They take a moth gene and put it in a potato so it won't spoil. And the genetically modified food that we eat really doesn't digest properly; causes a lot of sickness and disease. But what they discovered when they got into the genetic field, that once you get into it it's very simple once you understand it. Once they learned how to cut and splice genes. That's how they develop some of these things.

It used to be if you had an orchard and you wanted to have special kind of fruit, or special kind of nut like walnut—what they did, the English walnut was the best tasting of the walnut and the easiest to crack. But the bark on the trunk of the tree was not very strong and in trying to work them in an orchard you could reduce the productivity of them by scraping the bark. What they decided to do was take black walnut trees, grow them up to a certain size, and then they would go ahead and they would graft in the English walnut. Later they learned how to take one citrus tree and put on it lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit—same tree.

Then they learned how to clone. People said, 'Oh, they'll never clone an animal.' But they did, they cloned a sheep. What else have they done? Why would God kill, destroy everything but Noah and his family? We can only speculate. That's why I rang the bell to start.

Verse 8: "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man and perfect in his generations, for Noah walked with God" (vs 8-9). What does it mean to 'be perfect in his generations'? That means perfect in the genealogy! Why would that be emphasized? Did it have anything to do with what men were doing? Could it be that they were mingling animal and human genes and producing weird species? Can we answer that by looking at what they're doing today?

Transhumanism:

Download anything on transhumanism. That's what they're doing today; they want to mix animal and human genes. Just like they found out with the genetically modified food, once you get it into the gene pool, it remains.
I don't know what they're trying to do, but they're experimenting with things so they can make super soldiers, stronger human beings. Have we been programmed for this mentally for how many decades? Remember Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman? This programs the mind over a period of time. How about the movie—you'll remember this growing up—we used to listen to The Shadow. 'The Shadow knows what lurks in the hearts of men.' How old were we when we listened to it—seven, eight, and nine. That was followed by Jack Armstrong: The All American Boy.

What do we have today? Superman, Batman, all kinds of things—don't we? What was the movie Avatar all about? Transhumanism!—mixing animal genes with humans. I'm going to ring my bell here [speculation]. Don't say 'Fred said,' and this is not a prophecy; this is a question: Why is the final universal king of the world called the beast?

I don't know if we're going to live long enough, maybe we'll go to our place of safety. Dolores and I tease each other about our coffins. We have settled on refrigerator boxes. We'll be long in our place of safety in our refrigerator box.

How many here watch football? This is not a trick question. Remember when ESPN cuts out of the commercials and start back to the game? What sort of an image of a person do you see? You see a man made up and he's a super kind of person—right? A manufactured man! See how we're getting all programmed?

Look at the ads of movies that kids go see and take it for granted. What is it all about? War, the end of the world, the great savior strong man coming to rescue, robots, droids! When we went to see Star Wars, our kids were just about the right age for that. 'Let's go to Star Wars, dad.' No, I don't want to go to Star Wars. So, we all went, saw the whole thing, kids were all excited and charged up. Even got carried away in Pasadena at the auditorium.

The first Sabbath after the movie came out, everyone went around and said, 'Let the force be with you.' But the force was from Satan, not from God! We come out of the movie, 'Hey, Dad, what'd you think about that? That was neat, wasn't it?' I said, 'Oh, it's just a bunch of witchcraft, demonism.' Ah, Dad! Was it? Yes, it was!

Remember the second episode of it, I forget the name of it, but that's when 'the master' was revealed, the master of the force. What was his name? Yoda! Who produced the movie? Spielberg, a Jew! Now, this is not against Jews, but why did he choose the name Yoda for the master of the force? What does the name of God begin with? The first letter of the name of God is 'Yod'—that's how you pronounce it. Here we have a direct blasphemy against God in the movie and everybody's all excited. Then you look at this weird, stupid, pointy-eared, buggy-eyed little freak and you think, 'How's he got any brains in there?' He doesn't! I'm bringing this out from this point of view: Were they involved in demonism here? Yes, they were! Are we involved in demonism and satanism today? Yes, we are!

What does Satan always produce? The same thing—right? Why was Noah chosen? Because he was perfect in his genealogy! Does this tell us that the human race in general had become so polluted with strange genetic mixtures that God couldn't keep any of them alive—man, beast, fowl, the crawling thing. Don't you think some parents who would like their child to be the greatest basketball player, if there was a way to get kangaroo genes, splice them in, make that part of the legs of your son. He could jump so high. He would be the greatest thing in the world.

What if you want a child who is really, really smart? So they develop the new human brain, activated it, geneticized it, gene splice. I know I'm thinking weird and way out here, but how are we going to understand it? 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.'

You go online and you download that transhumanism stuff; they've been working on this for decades. Don't you think God knows that's going on? Yes, indeed! That's something! I'm going to give a sermon, bring these things up again. I've got some of the material on transhumanism that I got just before I left, but I didn't bring it with me. I'm sorry I didn't bring it with me, but it's something.

Just think, if we could create—how many have heard of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)? Anyway, that is where they experiment for super-secret things for war. They want to create soldiers in the future that will be stronger, bigger, need less sleep, think greater, and be more fierce—could they do that?

What does Genesis 11:6 say? "…now nothing that they imagine to do will be restrained from them." That also brings up a question then: How much time do we have left? You know, those of us who came through the Church in the middle '60s and early '70s, we thought we were going to be in a place of safety. But look what's transpired since then. We never thought it would happen—did we?

Where will it go? I don't know! But I know it's one thing we should keep our eyes on and watch what's happening. I thought I would just bring up these questions and spark your minds to research it and think about it. Anything that is really interesting, go ahead and send it on to me. I'm going to be doing some research myself. I think when you read those reports—I read one report and they're way down the road on this.

It just dawned on me: Why would God kill all flesh? Why did God send the animals to Noah? Because God would know their genetic makeup—right? So they could start afresh on the other side of the Flood. He had to get rid of all that.

I know that's a little wild and wooly thinking, but it's something that we need to be aware that could very possibly happen. The comment was made about the nephilim, which is the Hebrew for the tyrants or the giants, 'men of renown.' Could that tie in with some of it? I think it would tie in with genetic modification more than the traditional Jewish interpretation that it was cross-breeding between demons and humans. Man-made genetically modified.

After the Flood they didn't find the same nephilim. They all died in the Flood, but they found giants that they called nephilim. Doesn't mean they were the same. We can't necessarily cross everything that way. But it's very possible.

Here we're dealing in a situation that is information for us to watch and to look for. This is not salvational information. This is just information so that we keep abreast of the times and the things that are happening so we can understand it. Satan's goal is to try and make men gods like he wants to be God. He can't do it God's way, so he's going to have a perverted way to do it. That's why God had His plan.

One final thought on this. When I first was thinking about this and how combining all together with the Biology of Belief and how they're looking at the cells and things like this, that there is one thing that God did to put a stop to all of it, which is the law of sin and death in all of us. You can only go so far, so long, before you die, and it's limited this side of the Flood to 120 years—right?

What makes these men think that they are on the verge of immortality if they don't understand something about the quantum physics and the way human beings work that they really are able to contemplate that they would do it?

Now let's go ahead and cover something different. This is just to keep your antennae and watch it.

Holy Writings—the Old Testament

Were going to go over a verse that we've gone over many, many times in the past, but we're actually going to apply it this time. 2-Timothy 3:14: "But as for you, continue in the things that you did learn and were assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them... [learned them from the Apostle Paul] …and that from a child you have known the Holy Writings... [What are the Holy Writings? The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms!] ...which are able to make you wise unto salvation... [The things from what we call the Old Testament.] ...through faith, which is in Christ Jesus" (vs 14-15).

Let's think of a time that there was no New Testament; maybe the Gospel of Matthew and the Old Testament. Maybe perhaps if you're a little further along, the Epistle of James. The Apostle Paul went out to the Gentiles, and he always began in the synagogues because it was to the Jew first and then to the Gentile—correct? Yes! We find that Paul and Silas went to Berea.

Acts 17:10: "Then the brethren immediately sent away by night to Berea both Paul and Silas, who, when they arrived, went into the synagogue of the Jews…. [What's in the synagogue of the Jews? The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms canonized by Ezra!] …Now, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the Word with all readiness of mind and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so" (vs 10-11).

What were they looking at? They were looking at the Old Testament! It's able 'to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.' What were they reading? Talked about the crucifixion of Christ!

Let's look at some of those Scriptures. Let's come first of all to Isaiah 53. I want you to think about how these things might have appeared to Isaiah when he was told to write them. We will also examine the structure of how some of the verses are put together in the book of Isaiah and we will see some astounding things. Remember, all they had was the report of the resurrection of Christ and His crucifixion. Paul was preaching it. He said, 'I was taught by the vision and revelation of Christ in Arabia.'

Look what this says here concerning the life of Christ, concerning His sacrifice. Now today, Jews who deny Jesus say that this applies to the nation of Israel and the Holocaust. It doesn't say 'we' and 'they.' It says 'He' and 'His.'

Isaiah 53:1: "Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?" Paul would come along and he would talk Christ, he would talk about the crucifixion, he would talk about what he went through. I'm sure he used these very Scriptures here in Isaiah, because you go into the synagogue and what do they have there? This is what they had!

Verse 2: "For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor comeliness that we should look upon Him, nor beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not" (vs 2-3). Paul could probably take this one verse and expound a sermon on it and tell about the sacrifice of Christ, and tell about what He did.
Brings up the subject of healing, v 4: "Surely He has borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted…. [That's how the Jews looked at Him. He was stricken for His own sins.] …But He was wounded for our transgressions..." (vs 4-5). What you could do now if you were Paul is:

• Tell them about Jesus was the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world?
• Come to Isa. 53, you can read this section.
• Come to Psa. 22 about the very words of Christ while He hung on the cross.
• You can go clear up to Gen. 3:15 and you can see where God prophesied of His own future death.

You see, you can be made wise to salvation through what's in the Old Testament. Now, doesn't this tell you how much is missing when the Protestants say, 'We don't need the Old Testament'? Here's the same problem that all human beings have—right?

Verse 6: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned each one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…. [That's quite a thing—isn't it? Yes! We go over this for the Passover ceremony—don't we? Yes, indeed!—right here from the Old Testament.] …He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away..." (vs 7-8).

That's what happened on the crucifixion day—wasn't it? They oppressed Him, they beat Him, they scourged Him, had the judgment against Him by the priests. The judgment that Pontus Pilate wanted to overturn, which then by sleight of hand was changed. Who was released to the public after Jesus was condemned? Barabbas! You know what Barabbas means? Son of the father! Amazing—isn't it?

Verse 8: "…He was taken away; and with His generation who did consider that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of My people He was stricken?" That's why He died!

We have in 1-Peter, 'By His stripes you are healed'—correct? We have in Rom. 3 that through the sacrifice of Christ and His shed blood we have the remission of past sins and we are justified. Took it upon Himself. We know that He was the Creator of mankind—correct? We also know that He created the angels, He created the heavens and the earth—didn't He? We also know that a third of the angels sinned under the one who became Satan the devil.

• What did God do? God was responsible for it! He made us, made the angels, created the universe.
• What did He do? He came to be the sacrifice!
• What kind of sacrifice? Completely, totally selfless! He divested Himself of His glory so He could become a man. Retained enough of being God that He was the Son of God.
• What did He submit Himself to? To pay for the sins of mankind and to pay for the sins that Satan and the demons have brought upon mankind. That's the whole story of the two goats of Lev. 16.
• What did He do? He submitted Himself to be bludgeoned and beaten under the inspiration and tyranny of Satan the devil!

The high priests condemned Him. Pilate couldn't save Him. The people demanded to crucify Him. Now how does all of this fit into the sins of mankind? He overcame the god of this world, Satan the devil—did He not? Yes! He as Creator in the flesh did so. The priests then represented all the religions of the world, because did not Jesus say that 'your father was Satan the devil'? Are not all the religions of the world of Satan the devil? Yes, indeed! So it wasn't just the Jews that killed Jesus. It wasn't just the priests that killed Jesus.

• The priests represented all religions
• Pontus Pilate represented all governments
• The people represented all the people of the world

'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God'—correct? In that one day, in this one chapter, when you combine everything together in the fulfilling of it as we find in the Gospels, God overcame everything; justified everything and willingly submitted to that death, trusting in the Father to resurrect Him. We need to think about what Christ did!

Verse 9: "And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet, the LORD willed to crush Him and He has put Him to grief: You shall make His life an offering for sin. He shall see His seed... [That's the plan of God, the seed of God the Father and the children of God and the resurrection. All of that's contained right there.] ...He shall prolong His days... [He was resurrected from the dead] ...and that the purpose of the LORD might prosper in His hand" (vs 9-10).

See how much is in this one chapter and each verse; they are all loaded with great meaning and go through the whole texture of the Bible and the Gospels.

Verse 11: "He shall see of the travail of His soul. He shall be fully satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; and He shall bear their iniquities…. [That's what He did. This is what the Bereans were checking up on. Was it in the Scripture? Yes, indeed!] …Therefore, I will divide to Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul to death; and He was counted among the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for transgressors" (vs 11-12).

What's the first thing He did after they nailed Him to the cross and lifted them up? He said, 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.' Isn't that amazing?

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Understanding Scriptures:

God has a secret way of giving understanding to someone who wants to know and are led by the Spirit of God, or have the Spirit of God through baptism. Here's how He lets you know how to grow in grace and knowledge and how to understand the Bible. We're going to see a few places here where that it seems to be all jumbled together.

Isaiah 28:9: "Whom shall He teach knowledge?.… ['All shall be taught of the Father' (John 6:45). Whatever we learn, we understand, it's been given to us and God is the One Who gives it and He's the One Who teaches us.] ...And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Those who are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts." That means you have to have a certain amount of basic understanding. The milk of the Word is to start with:

• Ten Commandments
• love God
• Sabbath
• Holy Days
• clean/unclean meats

Those are certain things of the milk of the Word that are easy to understand. I don't think there's any problem in understanding the Ten Commandments, if you just read them as they are. There are other things that are hard to find. There are other things that are difficult to discern. Proverbs tells us that 'it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but that it is the honor of a king to search it out.' God made it this way to test us whether do we really want the Truth? Do we really want to know about God?

When we come along we find something that's difficult to understand and you come to something that's hard to understand, just remember that it's hard to understand and go on until you learn some more and then come back to it again at a later date and you'll understand it.

You have to have a certain level of understanding. Here's how God did it in the Old Testament. The New Testament is much more straightforward. The New Testament, outside of the Gospels and the book of Acts, all the rest of the New Testament—22 books of the New Testament and part of Revelation, so we'll include that—that's 17 of the books are written in epistles. What does epistle mean? It means a letter!. So, you can take that to mean that these are personal letters from God written to you by the apostles of God to tell you about salvation and God's plan. The Old Testament is a little more different.

Verse 10: "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little." That's how the Old Testament is put together and in particularly many places in the book of Isaiah.

When you read 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Chronicles, Joshua and Judges, those are pretty straightforward. When you get to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and then the twelve minor prophets, things can be very hard to understand. Remember, it's going to be a 'precept upon a precept, line upon line.'

Let's come to Isaiah 50, and let's just go through this chapter and see how this applies. Isa. 53 was not quite that complicated. That was relatively straightforward and not too difficult to understand, provided that you have the understanding about Christ.

Isaiah 50:1: "Thus says the LORD, 'Where is your mother's bill of divorce, with which I have put her away?.… [This is putting away ancient Israel.] ...Or to which of My creditors have I sold you?…. [The creditors are all the invading nations. Do we have one large creditor nation that is—reminds you of China today? Yes!] ...Behold, you yourselves were sold for your iniquities, and your mother is put away for your transgressions. Therefore, when I came, why was no one there? When I called no one answered…. [it gets into a situation where God was pleading with the people] ...Is My hand shortened at all so that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink because there is no water, and die for thirst" (vs 1-2). Telling of all of His creative powers, whatever God could do, He could do.

Verse 3: "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering." You've got a lot of different precepts in there—don't you? Precept, precept, line upon line! What you do, like this one here: "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering." Study about the heavens, study about the things that it says here in the Bible about the sun and the moon and the earth and the stars.

The subject changes instantly from one line to another line—line upon line, v 4: "The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, to know to help the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as one being taught. The Lord GOD has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, nor turned away backwards" (vs 4-5).

What is this? Let's come to the New Testament, John 7, and we will see that this applies to Jesus. Where was Jesus educated? Who taught Him? Don't you think that all the rabbis were asking every one of their rabbinical schools, they found out about Jesus. 'Did He go to your school? What are these new teachings that He has? Did you do it?' No, no, I didn't do it!

Let's see what they say here about Him in John 7:14: "But then, about the middle of the Feast, Jesus went up into the temple and was teaching. And the Jews were amazed... [What caused this statement?] ...saying, 'How does this man know letters, having never been schooled?'" (vs 14-15). He never went to any of their schools. How does He know this? How does He know the Word of God?
Remember Luke 2, when He was up at the Passover and stayed behind and was with the elders, talking to them, questions and answers, and they were amazed at His knowledge? What are we doing in this Bible Study? Exactly where we started in Isa. 28—'line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little.'

John 12:42: "But even so, many among the rulers believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.... [A little church politics; synagogue politics? Yes!] ...For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. Then Jesus called out and said, 'The one who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him Who sent Me. And the one who sees Me sees Him Who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness. But if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words has one who judges him; the word which I have spoken... [He doesn't have to judge them personally. He's already given the judgments with His words.] ...that shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken from Myself; but the Father, Who sent Me, gave Me commandment Himself, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life'" (vs 42-50).

John 5:27: "And has also given Him... [the Father has given Christ] ...authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of man. Do not wonder at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves shall hear His voice And shall come forth: those who have practiced good unto a resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil unto a resurrection of judgment I have no power to do anything of Myself; but as I hear... [from Whom? God!] ...I judge; and My judgment is just because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father, Who sent Me" (vs 27-30). It says in another place in John that the Father taught Him.

Let's come back here to Isaiah 50. Apart from what I just read, you could not understand these two verses. What do we have? If Jesus didn't go to any of their schools, where did He learn what He knew? We've got the answer right here:

Isaiah 50:4: "The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, to know to help the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as one being taught." The Father woke up Jesus every morning and taught Him. Beginning when? Don't know, but probably as a very young infant.

Verse 5: "The Lord GOD has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, nor turned away backwards." He listened to everything, learned from the Father. Didn't go to any of their schools. Why should He go to the schools of Judaism, which teaches traditions and lies? And yet there's a book out, Jesus the Jewish Rabbi. (Rabbi Jesus by Bruce Chilton) Hello! Are they misguided in what they write? Yes!

Notice what happens next, BANG! This has to do with His growing up and His ministry. Notice the next verse. It jumps ahead to something entirely different, v 6: "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting…. [That ties in with Isa. 53 and about the crucifixion of Christ—does it not? Yes!] …For the Lord GOD will help Me; therefore I have not been disgraced. On account of this I have set My face like a flint..." (vs 6-7).

How did Jesus endure that He endured? He set His mind! He looked forward to the accomplishing of the Kingdom of God. It says there in Heb. 12 that 'for the joy that was set before Him He endured the contradiction of sinners and despised the shame of the cross.' "...I shall not be ashamed" (v 7).

You see how much there is in the Old Testament that talks about Christ. We also need to understand there are three things that the Bible points to:

• Christ
• The Father
• The Kingdom of God

Everything focuses into these. Then you have:

• who are the adversaries
• who are the enemies

You have that also in the Bible, so you know what you're up against and what you're fighting.

Verse 8: "He is near who justifies Me; who will contend with Me? Let us stand together; who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. Behold, the Lord God will help Me; who is he who shall condemn Me? Lo, they all shall grow... [It changes entirely something different here—right?] ...Lo, they all shall grow old like a garment; the moth shall eat them" (vs 8-9). Talking about how all the enemies, all who were against Him, all the adversaries, would just go the way as if they were eaten up by a moth, which is saying they will return to the dust of the earth in a little different way.

Verse 10: "Who among you fears the LORD, who obeys the voice of His servant, who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely upon his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who gird yourselves with firebrands; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled. This you shall have of My hand—you shall lie down in sorrow" (vs 10-11). In other words, He's going to turn back all their schemes upon them.

Let's look at something else a little different here. None of this is in chronological order, so if you don't know how to approach the study of the Old Testament, then it's hard to understand. But realize this, here is the key to understanding: The New Testament interprets the Old.How does the New Testament interpret the Old?

• It brings the fulfillment of the prophecies
• It brings the higher standard of the Law

Isaiah 24:1: "Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants." This is talking about the time of the return of Christ. Everything is upside down.

Verse 2: "And as it is with the people, so it shall be with the priest; as with the slave, so with the master; as with the handmaid, so it is with her mistress; as with the buyer so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor." Guess who's going to solve the economic problems? Christ! Wipe it all gone.

And if His return happens to be after the saints and Christ put their feet on the earth on the Day of Trumpets, does the following Atonement when Satan is put away begin a Jubilee Year? And does that declare all debts are null and void, release from all debts? How you going to solve the financial crisis that we have? You can't repair it, you've got to get rid of it; you've got to kill it. That's what He's going to do.

Verse 3: "The earth shall be completely laid waste, and utterly stripped; for the LORD has spoken this word. The earth mourns and languishes; the world withers and languishes; the proud people of the earth wither. And the earth is defiled under its people; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and have broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, the curse has devoured the earth, and they who dwell in it are desolate; therefore the people of the earth are burned, and few men are left" (vs 3-6). That's describing what's going to happen to the earth.

Isaiah 25—here we have kind of flowing in a little more chronological manner. In the book of Isaiah we see many different structures of how the Bible is put together. The first five verses continue on about all the different things that He's going to do, make the city a heap, strong people glorify...

Isaiah 25:6: "And in this mountain... [beginning with Jerusalem, then going to the whole world] ...the LORD of hosts shall make a feast of fat things for all the people... [a type of the Millennium—right? Yes!] ...a feast of wines on the less, of fat things full of marrow, of refined wines on the lees. And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering which covers all people, and the veil that is woven over all nations" (vs 6-7).

Take away the whole deception of Satan the devil. We have other places, like in Ezek. 36 that He's going to give mankind a new heart, a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone, an attitude of willingness and cooperation rather than rebellion and rejection.

I'm going through these things so that maybe this will help you and inspire you to study, do a little more thinking when you're studying, and to see how the whole Bible is so fantastically put together. The Word of God is just like a sphere. Everything is interconnected. If you put lines through it, you could put almost an infinite number of lines intersecting an infinite number of lines, and you come up with so much out of the Bible. And how it all connects—Old Testament, New Testament, the histories. We need the genealogies to know.

• Was Jesus really the One?
• Did He really come in the lineage that was said? That's legal!
• Is God a Lawgiver? Yes!
• Is He legal? Yes!

The whole Bible is fantastic when you get into it.

Notice, it tells what's going to happen here; it jumps ahead, v 8: "He will destroy death forever... [Where do you find that? Rev. 20, 'the grave and death were cast into the Lake of Fire'—right?] ...and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces…." Isn't that what it says, (Rev. 21)? Yes, indeed!

"…And He shall take away from all the earth the rebuke of His people... [lift the curse of Israel] ...for the LORD has spoken it." See how you can understand the Gospel through the Holy Writings? I don't know about you, but I get excited about this. Like they say—great stuff!

Verse 9: "And one shall say in that day, 'Lo, this is our God.…" Not these statues which have been destroyed. You know why God is going to destroy so many things? You read the book of Revelation, all those earthquakes and all the things that take place. Then you read Isa. 40, 'every mountain shall be lowered and every valley shall be raised and the rugged shall be made plain and the plain shall be made rugged.' He's literally going to turn this earth upside down.

I don't think we realize how many underground things the different nations have done through the years. Now you might go on History Channel some time and watch the underground. It shows what's under Rome, what's under Berlin. Who knows what's under Iran with all the nuclear stuff they are doing.

Did you know that the German factory where they were making airplanes to the very last three weeks of the war, manufacturing them, were in an underground manufacturing facility beneath Berlin. The Allies couldn't understand where these planes were coming from, because they were shooting them all down, yet there would still be more. Shooting them all down, yet there would be more. We just barely got them in time before the Germans were really ready to take off with the jet planes. To get the second bomb, now this is what I have heard, to drop upon Nagasaki, that they had conquered Germany and they got the plutonium from the Germans, shipped it to America, and made the second bomb and dropped it. Good thing they surrendered, because we didn't have any more. Amazing! (a little sidebar)

Verse 10: "For the hand of the LORD shall rest in this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled under Him, even as straw is trampled in the dung pit.... [That's pretty descriptive. If you live on a farm, you can figure that out; go to the barn.] ...And He shall spread out His hands in their midst, as he who swims strokes to swim. But He shall bring down their pride together with the skills of their hands. And the fortress of the high fort of your walls He will lay low, bring them down to the ground, even to the dust" (vs 10-12).

What do we have here? We have how God is going to return, almost destroy the world, come back and rebuild it and then also make sure again that all of these things are eliminated.

So, this little Bible Study just gives you kind of an inkling and understanding of how you can approach studying the Bible. And just realize—the whole Bible is full of things like this. God's Spirit will give us the understanding! Can't be learned and done all over night. We have to do it all together.

Scriptural References:

Transhumanism:
Scriptures quoted:

• Luke 17:26-29
• Genesis 6:3, 5
• Genesis 11:6
• Genesis 6:5-9
• Genesis 11:6

Scriptures referenced, not quoted: Matthew 24

Also referenced:
Sermon Series: Singularity is Near
Books:

• The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton
• The Singularity is Near by Raymond Kurzweil

Holy Writings—the Old Testament:
Scriptures quoted:

• 2-Timothy 3:14-15
• Acts 17:10-11
• Isaiah 53:1-12

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Psalm 22
• Genesis 3:15
• Romans 3
• Leviticus 16

Also referenced: Book: Rabbi Jesus by Bruce Chilton

Understanding Scriptures:
Scriptures quoted:

• Isaiah 28:9-10
• Isaiah 50:1-5
• John 7:14-15
• John 12:42-50
• John 5:27-30
• Isaiah 50:4-11
• Isaiah 24:1-6
• Isaiah 25:6-12

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• John 6:45
• Luke 2
• Hebrews 12
• Isaiah 25:1-5
• Ezekiel 36
• Revelation 20, 21
• Isaiah 40

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 11-3-11
Formatted: bo: 11-4-11

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