The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 4 – 6
There are very few beasts who don’t find loneliness terrifying. It is only when they are accepted by a herd that they can find happiness. And this is, of course, a good thing – for cows and sheep. But is it such a good thing for humans? God built this instinct into the beasts for their collective safety; He knew a single herbivore by itself would be easy prey for wolves or lions. So He taught them to find stability and security by aligning themselves with a herd.
The bee has little, if any, self identity. He is simply a member of a hive. The colony isn’t just his family, they are quite literally a part of his self, just as the fingernail has no separate identity from the body. And this too, is something God built into him. He knew that it was better for the herd, individually and as a group, if one died for the many. And since beasts are selfish, the only way to make that happen was to make them think of themselves as a tiny part of a larger, much more important, whole.
In order to make a dog willing and eager to die for his master, the dog must not think of himself as “Rover”. He must think of himself as “Fred’s dog Rover”. Fred’s dog Rover can exist without this Rover, because Fred can buy another dog anywhere and name him Rover; but without Fred, Fred’s dog Rover will cease to exist. Who is Rover if he is not Fred’s dog? This is not a reality a beast will ever choose to face, if there are any other alternatives. It would be the death, not of his personal self, but of the far more important corporate self who gives that personal self meaning.
The corporate self – the larger “body” to which you belong – gives insecure beasts meaning by attaching a name to them. By guaranteeing them a group of people who will have their back no matter what. So that no longer must they wander the world as a meaningless speck, now they can walk proudly as the representative of a great collective.
Animals are always loyal to their own herd, often willing to die to defend it. But is dying for your herd a selfless act? Is a bee who dies stinging you to protect his hive a selfless creature… or does it simply mean he’d rather die defending his herd than confront the terror of living alone? The world sees dying for the herd as selflessness and nobility, perfectly embodied in the dog. But I contend that it is just a higher level of selfishness. Truly being selfless, without a self, means that you would give your life for any stranger, no matter their herd.
Fred’s dog Rover will die for Fred. Or maybe for Fred’s son Bob, because like Rover, Bob is a part of Fred. But Fred’s dog Rover will not die for you. Fred’s dog Rover will only die to defend some member of his self, which is the definition of selfishness. These thoughts are far too complicated for a dog, of course; yet they echo the code written into their DNA by our mutual Creator – a beast without a herd is as good as dead. No, a beast without a herd is better off dead. And for the herd to survive, sometimes individuals must die for it. And that is why the herd prizes loyalty above all other virtues.
DISS LOYALTY
If I were to ask you if loyalty is a good emotion or a bad emotion, you’d probably immediately say it was good. Then why isn’t it in the Bible? It isn’t there, not once. So let’s have a thought experiment: Let’s say there are two people, one who has your absolute loyalty, and another to whom you are completely disloyal. Now, let’s say they both sin; are you obligated to correct them both, equally? Leviticus 19:15. If both have a flat tire, are you obligated to help them both? Exodus 23:5.
If both apologize, are you not obligated to forgive them both? Luke 11:4. Should you follow a leader who is wrong? 2 Peter 2:1-2. Should you follow a leader who is right? 1 Corinthians 11:1. What if it’s an angel? Galatians 1:8. So… what is loyalty for again? If someone does wrong, you must tell them so – loyal or not. If someone does right, you follow them – loyal or not. It doesn’t matter who it is, evil is evil. What should you be “loyal” to? Proverbs 15:9, Proverbs 21:21.
And that leads us back to the true meaning of loyalty – ironically enough. “Loyal” traces back to the French phrase “Loyal to the king”; ultimately to the Latin legalis, meaning “Law”. So literally, to be loyal is to obey the laws of the king! And true Christians are loyal to the laws of our king, and nothing and no one else! And that’s ironic, because the reason the world prizes loyalty is because it blinds you to righteousness!
Loyalty is a doctrine the herd uses to get you to ignore their sins! A loyal dog doesn’t care if you’re a monster, because his love is unconditional! Loyalty is what beasts use to excuse the fact that they know their herd might be evil but because it’s their herd they’re LOYAL to it anyway… and somehow they think that’s a good thing!
HERD INSTINCT
False religion could not survive without loyalty; indeed, millennials are killing religion because they are no longer bound by the traditions of their elders, and can look at the absurdity of religion with something like objectivity. But that only means they aren’t identifying with those sorts of herds. Their identity comes from politics, nations, races, sexual orientation, video games, schools, sports, and so on, but make no mistake, no beast exists for long without a herd of some kind – so finding one is always their top priority.
You literally cannot talk to anyone today without hearing about their herd; one of the best ways of visualizing this is to look at the YouTube comments on literally any music video. Think about it; what motivates people to say “Still watching in 2019!”, “Who else came here from Stranger Things?”, “They don’t make music like this today” and “Justin Bieber sucks!”?
The desire to connect with people who feel like they do, about literally the most unimportant and trivial thing in the universe. A beast needs a connection, however tenuous, to any person it interacts with. That’s why, seconds after meeting most people, they will tell you about their herd. This is why people wear branded T-shirts and have bumper stickers saying “God bless the USA!” or “Gay pride!” or “Go Packers!”
These are all attempts by insecure beasts to advertise their affiliation with various herds, in the hopes of connecting with a group of like-minded people. By knowing if you’re a Cowboys fan, they know if you’re from a friendly herd or an enemy herd, and whether to welcome you or bare their teeth at you. But without some connection, they don’t know who you are or how to treat you.
And that’s perfectly normal, healthy even, when you’re chasing wildebeests across the Serengeti. It’s a great thing for beasts who are trying to hide from predators by merging their identity with a larger self. But it’s a tremendous evil for souls who are meant to stand alone and judge their hearts!
LOYALTY AND WAR
For the balance of this lesson, we’re going to focus on the most physically destructive result of loyalty to one’s herd: James 4:1-2. It is the lusts that war in our members – the lusts of the beast – that causes nations to go to war against one another. I’m an American, and my county’s diplomats can’t get along with the Chinese, so sooner or later we will probably go to war. If not with them, then the Russians, or the Iranians, or someone. Someone will want something someone else has, or be offended by something someone else said, or be afraid of someone else’s power, and they’ll go to war.
You’ll notice, these are all beast reasons to do things. This, by the way, is why nations are called beasts (Daniel 7, etc. – but more on that another day). Because nations are herds of people, and any group of people is no more righteous or noble than its lowest common denominator… the selfish human heart. So when my nation goes to war, I’m expected to be loyal and support my herd’s point of view even if they’re wrong.
My herd will demand that I kill as many of these Chinese as possible – or die trying –in the name of patriotism, duty, honor, and other high-sounding words. But I know my nation is selfish, greedy, and corrupt. Are they worthy of my loyalty? Is the poor Chinaman worthy of death merely for being loyal to his own herd? War puts noble, decent people who might otherwise be friends into a situation where they are expected – and eager – to kill each other just because their herds are offended by something the other side did. Should I kill to satisfy their collective heart’s lust, fear, or anger?
Without loyalty, war could not exist. Because without loyalty, individual souls would be expected to judge for themselves whether the individual enemy was worthy of death. Without loyalty, no people would follow an evil king into war. Without loyalty, no people would follow a false church into breaking the laws of God. Loyalty blinds you to righteousness. It makes wrong seem right because it was done by your larger self – your nation. And everything YOU do seems right to you! (Proverbs 16:2).
THE PATRIOT
An excellent example of this sort of patriotism is in Jonah 1:1-2. Most people reading this assume that Jonah’s motivation for running away from the job God had given him was laziness, lack of self-confidence, or just plain fear – but it was something else. The job God had given to Jonah is explained in Jonah 3:1-5. Jonah was sent by God to warn Nineveh that if they didn’t repent, God would destroy it. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and Assyria is the rod of God’s anger – the nation God uses to punish Israel (Isaiah 10:5) – Jonah’s people!
So to understand the context here, God sent Jonah to be a prophet to the ENEMIES of Jonah’s people! And as it happened, Nineveh did repent, and God saw it and forgave them in Jonah 3:10. But how did Jonah feel when his preaching was successful? Was he happy that more people had repented and were following God? Jonah 4:1. Why would Jonah be angry that people were changing their way of life? What sort of prophet was he?? A PATRIOTIC ONE!
In Jonah 4:2, Jonah tells us THIS is why he fled from God at first – because he was afraid Nineveh would repent and God would forgive them and he didn’t want that! Jonah didn’t WANT Nineveh to repent! He wanted God to destroy them! Remember, he was an Israelite. This book was written approximately 800 B.C., which was about 80 years before Israel went into captivity to these same Assyrians. God had already been warning Israel through His prophets that He was going to have them destroyed if they didn’t mend their ways – see 2 Kings 17:23.
And Jonah hated that! Like any loyal patriot, he didn’t want his country overrun by the enemy! No matter how unrighteous his country was! Put yourself in Jonah’s place. Suppose you were an American in 1943, and God told you to go to Germany and tell them to repent. You’d have known if they DIDN’T repent God would destroy them and your nation would be spared… at least, from Germany.
On the other hand, if you warned them, and they repented, God would forgive them and use them to destroy YOUR nation! How would you feel about that? Be honest with yourself… you wouldn’t like the idea would you? Well, this is the situation Jonah was placed in. You see, Jonah was a proud citizen of “God’s country”, and didn’t want them to be destroyed by Assyria – despite the fact that Israel was an evil, rebellious people! And that was wrong!
He put HIS country before what was right! He KNEW his country was evil, but he STILL didn’t want to see them punished! BECAUSE HE WAS LOYAL TO THEM! Are YOU guilty of the same thing? Do YOU want your family, your team, your church, and your country to triumph, regardless of the innumerable sins and GOOD SOLID REASONS they need punished??
These statements will anger many people. Well, it made Jonah angry too. And that, in turn, made God angry – Jonah 4:4-5. Jonah STILL wanted Assyria destroyed. He was furious at God for forgiving them, knowing God would use them now to destroy his own nation! Not caring that this was a righteous judgment sinning Israel DESERVED! God tried to teach Jonah a lesson that Assyria had as much right to the mercies of God as Israel did in Jonah 4:6-11. And there ends the story of Jonah.
We don’t know if Jonah ever got the message… but we can. Jonah was a patriot, like so many are in this country today. And like them, he was a misguided patriot! Our nation is full of every sort of evil today, from idolatry to adultery, from murder to blasphemy, and it’s getting steadily worse. Do you want to see them punished for this? Or do you want to see them prosper just because they’re your people?
The conservative Christians today who bemoan the decline of morality are tacitly acknowledging the sins of our time; the abortions, the adultery and fornication and homosexuality, the graphic violence on TV and in video games, the corruption in every level of government, the decline in church attendance, and all the other sins you’ll hear ranted about on Sunday.
And yet, hypocritically, these very same Christians – having acknowledged God’s abundant reason for punishing this country – will often sport a bumper sticker asking God to bless the USA. Why? God DID bless the USA, more than any other nation since the dawn of time. And what did we do? Jeremiah 5:7-8. Remember to interpret these symbols – “harlot’s houses” is primarily speaking, not of brothels, but of false churches.
Houses, temples, churches that belong to the great harlot and her daughters. Do you really think God can let that slide, and simply bless us more? Jeremiah 5:9. It is absurd to acknowledge your nation is sinful, and getting worse all the time, and then ask God to bless us at the same time. It’s like rewarding your child for stealing out of your purse by buying him a bike. What sort of message does that send?
WHAT CAUSES WAR?
God manages the nations behind the scenes. He sets up the king, the dictator and the elected official, and He uses them to fulfill His plan (Daniel 4:17). James told us that war is caused by beasts lusting, fearing, and resenting one another. But on the larger scale, God causes war to punish nations, as the following verses show (remember the Bible almost always uses “the sword” as a symbol of war). Why did Ezra say Israel had been in wars and taken in captivity? Ezra 9:7. What happens if people disobey God?
Job 36:12. If your nation rebels against God, what will He do? Isaiah 1:20. What did God promise to do to Israel because they had repeatedly disobeyed Him? Isaiah 65:12. When God sent prophets to tell Israel their sins, how did they respond – and what did God do? 2 Chronicles 36:16-17. What did God prophesy would happen when Israel sinned? Deuteronomy 28:22. Why does God bring war on people? Job 19:29. Does He make one nation stronger and another weaker to fulfill His judgment against that nation? Ezekiel 30:24-25. What happened when Israel followed false gods? Judges 5:8.
When nations sin against God, war is one of the most common ways God puts them back on track. By sending another nation against them, God causes the nation to – at least in some degree – turn back to Him. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalms 111:10), and nothing strikes fear into a nation like war. Does God punish us as individuals in the same way a father punishes children? Hebrews 12:6-10.
How does God tell parents to correct their children? Proverbs 13:24. So when God punishes nations, does He have a particular “rod” – a switch or paddle – that He uses? Isaiah 10:5-6. God uses certain warlike nations as paddles to swat other nations. He often used Assyria, because they have always loved war, much like the Germans of the last century. If they do their job well, God makes sure they are compensated (Ezekiel 29:18-20).
But if they take it too far and try to rule the world, God slaps them back down (Isaiah 10:7-8, 13-14). So after they teach the lesson God wanted taught, He turns around and punishes the “rod” He used for lifting themselves up – which you can read in Isaiah 10:12, 15-19. This is how God keeps nations in line. But just as God causes wars, He also ensures peace – see 2 Chronicles 14:6. When there were righteous kings in Judah, they were not attacked by the heathen kingdoms around them – were they?
2 Chronicles 17:10. Why? 2 Chronicles 17:3-4. Does God notice things like that? 2 Chronicles 16:9. God can make kings and kingdoms be pleasant, or aggressive; He can make them rapacious or generous. He can make them content with their own land, or make them desire yours. It requires only a little bit of effort on His part to put the right people in power on each side and give them the right prodding, and you can have either a war or peace.
The point is, the Most High RULES in the kingdoms of men! And that means no nation has ever been in a war that God didn’t bring upon them! Nor lost a war God didn’t want them to lose – whether they fought or not! And that’s the real key. If God wants your nation to be prosperous and have peace no military is needed! But if God wants your nation destroyed a stronger military won’t help – and if He has decided your nation should be sold into slavery NO AMOUNT OF WEAPONS WILL HELP. The only thing that can change His mind is repentance!
THE JUDGMENT OF GOD
War is the judgment of God upon a sinning nation. At best, it is a test God is sending on a nation He knows lacks faith. At worst, God is simply sick of the stench of their sins and wants to wipe it from the face of the Earth. So when you go to war to defend your nation, you are fighting against the just judgment of God. If you win, it will be in spite of your warfare. The war will be won by the humility, fear, and repentance of your people, not your troops! Jeremiah 37:10.
Your army will not save you from the judgment of God! It will find you no matter what you do or where you hide (Amos 9:1-10). When God sends one nation to punish another nation – say, Babylon to attack Egypt – if you fight alongside Egypt you will take part in her punishment! (Ezekiel 30:6-8). God will not permit you to interfere with His righteous judgment, and you shouldn’t want Him to let you interfere! Because His judgment is just! If God is trying to teach them a lesson, and give them a spanking for their evil, why would you even WANT to fight against Him?? Read Ezekiel 33:26-27.
Grabbing an ax and killing a barbarian – a barbarian God is sending to punish your nation – will only anger God and get you in hot water with Him however full your head is of thoughts like patriotism, loyalty, and honor. If you truly want to interfere with the judgment of God then strike at the source! Attack the REASON God brought the judgment! What is God’s fervent hope when He brings war on a nation? Jeremiah 36:3. What does it take to change God’s judgment? Jeremiah 26:2-6. What will God do when a people repents after they see war? 1 Kings 8:33-34.
The only righteous way to help the nation is to get them back on God’s good side – and that can only happen through repentance and the righteousness it creates. When that happens, you will see the promise in Leviticus 26:8 fulfilled. Who determines the outcome of all battles? 1 Samuel 17:47. How does God save? By giving people more weapons? (Same verse). Can a sword save you? (Same verse). Are nations saved by having big armies? Psalms 33:16-17. What does save them? Psalms 33:18-20. Usually, both sides are praying for God to smite their enemy.
So how does God decide who to help? Psalms 33:12-15. Notice! God considers “ALL THEIR WORKS”. Their obedience! Bigger stockpiles of nuclear weapons are a WORTHLESS THING for safety! But the nation whose God is the LORD – the true God, not the false Jesus – that nation is BLESSED! What happens to that nation? Isaiah 32:17-18. Righteousness is what causes peace, and IT’S THE ONLY THING THAT DOES! If a nation is sinning, and finds itself losing a war, what does God say they should do? Jeremiah 18:7-8. On the other hand, if He blesses a nation and they repay His blessing by sinning, what will God do?Jeremiah 18:9-11.
And what if they don’t listen? Jeremiah 18:12, 15-17. If they reject God’s warning, His punishment is to cause them to lose wars! If a nation truly wants defense against war – the judgment of God – what sort of weapons should a righteous nation build? Jeremiah 51:19-21. God is a righteous nation’s weapons of war. He is all the army they need. God directs the course of this world’s battles. He governs whether other nations are hostile or friendly to your nation, and if war does come He picks the winner – and He picks them, not based on how well trained they are for war, but on how righteous their nation is.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Are you loyal to your nation? Will you fight for them, killing men from nations more righteous than we, just because it’s the herd you happened to be born into? Only a loyal beast loves, prays for, and defends a sinning nation against the righteous judgment of God. But suppose you’re already in the military – what should you do? John the Baptist was asked this question by the Roman soldiers in his time. What was his answer? Luke 3:14. John didn’t tell them to leave the military, and neither do I. John just said, “do violence to no man” (keep commandment #6), “accuse no man falsely” (keep commandment #9), and “be content with your wages” (keep commandment #8).
If you follow John’s advice and keep the Ten Commandments, you will probably not be in the military very long. The Sabbath alone will keep you out of it. But Jesus’ words should be added to John’s, because it brings us full circle back to the topic of this lesson: Matthew 6:24. This is a simple fact. When you join the military, they not only demand your loyalty, they literally own you. You become government property. You cannot serve your sergeant and God. It simply can’t be done. God is JEALOUS of you (Exodus 34:14)!
He is jealous of your obedience and of your trust! Nations don’t need an army for safety. Individuals don’t need guns, locks, or karate lessons for safety (Job 34:29). They only need to be righteous enough that God cares what happens to them – and faithful enough that God feels needed. To illustrate that, in 2 Kings 6:8 the King of Syria was warring against Israel, and was frustrated because every time he made a plan, the king of Israel was one jump ahead of him! And he wanted to know why? 2 Kings 6:11-12. To a pagan king, the logical solution was to capture the prophet.
So he sent an army to capture him in 2 Kings 6:12-14. Now Elisha had great faith. Probably even New Covenant faith. His servant didn’t, and was terrified (2 Kings 6:15). But Elijah didn’t seem to be worried at all, did he? 2 Kings 6:16-17. There was a huge army of angels, and chariots of fire around Elisha! God was going to defend him, and he knew it! God didn’t need Elisha to take a sword or gather together the town to “help” to defeat them – God could handle that by Himself, and He did! Read 2 Kings 6:18-23. No murder was necessary – or permitted – by Elisha. Only faith. Faith that his God was mightier than an army.
Another man would have been afraid – one could hardly blame him – and he might have roused the townsmen to defend him, or run and hid, or even picked up a sword to defend himself. All of these God might have tolerated, from a man without faith under the OC. But this is what He LIKED. This is what gave this man the right to speak for God, and what made God give him such great power to work miracles. This man trusted God, and didn’t make God share that trust with pagan kings, weapons, or money. And neither should you (Psalms 20:7).
GOD HATES DOGS
Children are taught by their peers at a young age that “telling” on your friends is wrong. Beasts hate tattletales, finks, and narks, and the herd teaches them before puberty that “snitches get stitches”. But the Bible teaches that you should snitch on idolaters, even if they’re your best friend (Deuteronomy 13:6-11). Loyalty is for beasts. It has no place in the soul. And as always, one verse says it all: Exodus 23:2. For the herd to function, beasts need to be able to count on you having their back no matter what. By presenting loyalty not as a vice, but as a virtue, they pressure you into supporting them even when they’re wrong.
The greatest example of this loyalty is the love of a dog for his master. Nothing more embodies this sort of absolute, unconditional loyalty as the loyalty of Fred’s dog. Man’s best friend is the most noble creature in the world… or so say the beasts of the world. But is he… really? In the entire Bible, God has nothing but contempt to heap upon dogs (Philippians 3:2, Matthew 15:26, Isaiah 56:11). No animal is more highly esteemed among men than dogs, yet the best thing God can bring Himself to say about a dog is that it’s better than being dead (Ecclesiastes 9:4)… but only because there’s still hope it might stop acting like a dog.
In fact, dogs are the only animal specifically excluded from His kingdom forever (Revelation 22:15). Because as always, “…that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15) – and God considers dogs literally an abomination! (Deuteronomy 23:18, Isaiah 66:3). Dogs embody all that God loathes about beasts. They represent, not the best natures of the world, but the worst vices (Proverbs 26:11). It was people who had dog-like traits, people who were loyal to their nation, loyal to their religion, loyal to their traditions, who murdered Jesus (Psalms 22:16-20, John 11:50).
These people barked down all His arguments, drowned His reason in their collective uproar, and killed Him for insulting their evil pack. And if you’ve ever argued with a group of deacons in a church, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about – what Peter talked about in 2 Peter 2:12-22. Obviously, these “brute beasts” represent certain people; but the last verse shows that Peter had a particular brute beast in mind! Pigs and dogs! These are the animals which best exemplify the traits found in false churches – loyalty, love of tradition, and a willingness to bite people who try to wash off their unclean doctrines (Matthew 7:6).
WHY MEN LOVE DOGS
The world admires all the things God hates about dogs, and believes we should worship God exactly as dogs worship their masters. That we should have blind loyalty and infinite devotion to God, just as a dog has unconditional love for his master. If a man tortures babies in a basement, they call him a psychopath. But if their God does it in hell, they call Him holy! No rational soul can do that… but a dog could! A dog will defend its master with rabid devotion no matter what he does because he is their god, the head of their herd, and the source of their identity!
This is why all religions herds demand blind, unquestioning obedience to their God no matter what incomprehensible, unconscionable, irrational, downright-evil thing He does. Because they are dogs worshiping a false God who fears their questions (John 3:20-21)! But the true God is completely the opposite. He welcomes criticism! He says “put me to the test” Malachi 3:10 (BBE)! He said “prove ALL THINGS and hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
Because God is RIGHT. God makes SENSE. God is not scared of any honest criticism. If you have a problem with God, say so! Abraham did! He said “shall not the judge of all the Earth [God] do right?” (Genesis 18:25). Moses demanded that God “Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people” (Exodus 32:12). No dog would EVER take such an attitude against his master. But Abraham was not God’s dog Abraham; he was Abraham the “friend of God” (James 2:23)! And God spoke to Moses “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11). Because they openly defied God when they thought God was doing something unjust!
What Christian dares to speak to God that way? Their prayers sound like a whimpering, whining dog scratching at the door of His temple in the vain hope of a pat on the head! Is that how a true Christian approaches God? Hebrews 4:16. How does Jesus think of us? John 15:13-15. Dogs and servants have no right to question their Lord. But we do. We have the right and the responsibility to demand transparency from God! And if we see Him committing murder we should find out why!
If He can explain Himself, great. He probably can. But if He can’t, if He’s just a monster, we need a better God! If Christians did this, if they were not blindly loyal to religion of their parents and the God of their church, they couldn’t be false Christians! Because the doctrine of hell is far worse than murder, it is a torture so excruciating and so eternal that it makes the worst monsters of history look like Mother Teresa. Anyone not blinded by loyalty wouldn’t let Him do that! No thinking person would be a part of a religion ruled over by an obvious psychopath, however powerful He might be!
But the natural brute beast of this world, the pig who wallows in the mire of false religion, justifies God’s wickedness because he is God’s dog Fred, and to defend his God is to defend himself! And that is why no dog will be in the Kingdom of God! God created dogs to show the world all the worst character traits and the most disgusting habits that can happen when a man is ruled by his beast.
And certainly, those habits can be trained out of a dog; they can be taught not to eat their own vomit or pee on the carpet or bark at shadows all day. They can even be trained to be useful herding sheep.But is that proof that dogs are good? Is the fact that dogs can be trained to herd other beasts proof God loves them? Or is it proof that a righteous soul can make even an abomination serve an OC purpose? That a determined soul can rule the most loathsome beast, and teach the worst heart to behave?
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Loyalty is literally the doctrine that says you must follow a multitude to do evil. But there is no person, no team, no church, not even any God whom you should support when they’re doing evil (Job 13:8). Some will no doubt say Jesus’ sacrifice was made because of loyalty to the church, loyalty to our herd. And that’s absolutely right… Loyalty caused Jesus to sacrifice Himself, but not in the way you think. As of John 1:1-3, Jesus’ herd consisted of two immortal Beings, and obviously, He died for neither. Nor did He have a herd as of John 17:11, 22-23 – but He was building one. Yet it was not for that herd that He died.
Jesus’ didn’t die because He couldn’t face life without His herd. Because unlike the bee and the loyal dog, Jesus did not die for His own herd. No, Jesus laid down his life for His enemies (Romans 5:8). No beast would do that. No dog will die for his master’s enemy in the faint hope they might someday become their friend. Yet Jesus died because His soul made a judgment that the people murdering Him deserved mercy because they didn’t know what they were doing. Because He knew they were blinded by their loyalty! So yes, Jesus died because of loyalty. But not His own loyalty – He gave His life to pay for the loyalty every person ever born has shown to their family, their nation, their religion, and, in particular, the loyalty they pay to their own selfish heart.