There is an aspect of self which is finely in tune with injustice and which desires justice. This part of us must be leveraged in order to persist through the obstacles of truth seeking. I call this blazing the fire.

We can manipulate this through conscious distortion. For instance, if I imagine everyone around me is straining themselves by pushing a giant boulder up a mountain, then that is going to induce a feeling within me that I should be doing more. That feeling of obligation blazes the fire.

Now, there is another part of self which is averse to distorting reality that needs to be creatively countered in order to guard the fire. This requires that we look deeply at others around us in order to spot extra effort (or something else which is admirable) so we have something to anchor to when our vision of them pushing the boulder is getting undermined.

After you are able to do this with other people around you and sustain it, then you are ready to do it with God, even if you don’t believe. Imagine God constantly laboring up the mountain. See the best in God to preserve the distortion and guard the fire.

Once you develop the self mastery to blaze the fire and guard it in this way, then you are ready to eat from the tree of the knowledge of evil. Until then, you must deny yourself, or you will fail and get stuck like everyone else.

There is a powerful part within that is highly resistant to truth seeking. It is threatened by the fire and finds ways to have it extinguished, or at least dispersed.

When you are struggling up the mountain, it will feed you a narrative about how unique your struggle is and how everyone around you is insensitive to your pain in their carefree bliss. It paints God in the same light - sitting peacefully in paradise while you toil.

You begin to feel the injustice and unfairness. The fire lessens. Instead of concentrating and guarding it, the fire becomes uncontrolled, fluctuating from complete absence to wild bursts unconstrained by self discipline.

It’s important to recognize which story we find ourselves in and be intentional about getting in the better story.

Who is the "everyone else" cited here ... everyone but you? And what is the justice to be found in the Bible ... all children on earth slaughtered because of something some woman did centuries before (this formulation itself merely being a scapegoat concocted by a misogynist culture)? Is this the kind of justice we're are shooting for? Is this the "blazing fire" passion so moral and holy? Tell me the answer; I have a feeling you think you know it. Of course I realize it is likely to be something so opaque and oblique that that only those wired directly into god can hear it.

Would a responsible owner of a company allow a fired manager to continue to assume control of his company? Or would that responsible owner confront the fired manager and tell him to stand down and be quiet so the new manager can fix the company?

[ ] The morality of killing children and babies is to be compared to changing CEO's of companies.
[ ] Apologist dodges morality of mass killing of children.
[x] Apologists morality is evil.

You are the fired manager and the owner, and you are still stuck. I wonder why.

You blaze the fire and guard the fire so that you can navigate through the highest faith story with the highest stakes and the highest reward. This doesn’t just happen automatically. You have to lead yourself.

We live in a time where hardly anyone wants to be a leader in this way. They don’t want to be demanding and get their hands dirty in a way that might put their self image in question, so they use their lack of certainty about the highest faith path, as well as the pressure of conformity, to opt out of leading.

So many choose to embody a posture that is easy going and generally likable on the wide path of mediocrity and destruction rather than become male and lead the way down the narrow path.

My relationship with God has yet to be fully reconciled for the injustices that he has allowed on his watch, but I will always have respect for the way that he was willing to have his image completely destroyed in my eyes, so that I would come into being.

So many people who condemn religion are unwilling to make a similar sacrifice. They are unwilling to lead in this way. They would rather compromise than to risk being associated with the bad guy. Similarly, many religious people refuse to see honestly because they don’t want to be associated with the bad guy either.

I have trouble finding respect for this behavior.

There is nothing admirable about doing good for the sake of preserving a self image of good, either in your eyes or the eyes of others. The one who is willing to sacrifice his self image of good and still extend himself to do good - that person has a strong enough faith to lead the way.

The Son of Man decides that God is good, not because he believes it’s true, but to give himself no wiggle room to consider exiting the high stakes of the narrow path. He gives himself no wiggle room to disassociate with the bad guy - by deciding that he is good.

The Son of Man refuses the temptation to ease the tension in one direction or the other by viewing God as completely good, bad, or nonexistent. He exists. He is sovereign over evil and suffering. He must face justice for evil and suffering. And he is good. Let the spirit of truth sort it all out in the end but no compromising on the narrow path.

The Son of Man wins the grand prize in the highest level story because that is who he decided he is and that’s what he does. He accepts utter defeat at the highest level because ultimately he wins in the end. Everyone else exits for a lower level story to avoid being defeated and humiliated.

The Son of Man is the bridge between the self and God. He is also the light of the world, both external and internal. As we go deeper into relationship with the SoM, we are going deeper into the self and deeper into God, bringing to light what is hidden in the darkness.

God is divided. A small part of him wants to be united with souls in the Kingdom, but a bigger part of him wants to keep what he is ashamed of hidden in the darkness. It’s important to know this - that God largely wants to avoid the revealing light and the judgment that follows.

What the SoM experiences the father experiences. As the self becomes more unified with the SoM, then when the self brings what is hidden in the darkness to light, God is forced to do the same.

The Son of Man competes and pursues status in the world in order to both save the world in his eyes and to access a higher level will to use for the ultimate mission. It’s important to understand that while the enemy will initially attempt to defeat the SoM by making him believe he is incapable and unworthy to hold the Excalibur sword, once the SoM proves himself, the enemy is going to change his strategy.

The enemy will no longer attempt to deter the SoM from accessing the Excalibur sword representing the higher level willpower, but instead will try to keep it directed toward the attainment of higher and higher status. He will try to make the SoM feel like losing status is the highest mission. To overcome this, the SoM must withdraw from the status game without putting down the Excalibur sword and exiting from the highest stakes story.

At this point, the enemy will begin to panic and fully attack by any means because he fears the SoM is coming for his throne.

I’m not like everyone else who speaks dead words. I speak to a life once believed in but left behind. It’s never too late to turn back.

You don’t need permission as it won’t be permitted. Rather, it’s your responsibility.

The Son of Man is to be lifted up. Whoever hungers and thirsts knows him. Whoever is near the fire is near him.

"I believe magic stories from thousands of years ago, and if you don't you are really, really on the wrong path. I have nearly unlimited sophistry and apologetics to defend the blatantly unreal and indefensible in the doctrine of this belief system. And I think all this makes me enlightened. Amen."

This is where you say: "I like my religion, but there is no reason to believe it is the ultimate reality any more than any other religion is." Or ... you keep presupposing a particular brand of magic in your "truth seeking."

When anyone gets their first glimpse at the wide path of destruction and their place on it, they are horrified and quickly turn their eyes away from this reality.

Part of the appeal of making a deal with the devil is that the devil will attempt to keep the memory of the deal hidden. In The Matrix, the character called Cypher makes the deal to re-enter the matrix with the promise that he will have no memory of reality outside of the matrix and no memory of the deal made.

Can the devil actually deliver on his promise to hide reality, even when he continues to fail and promise again?

The deal with the devil is this:
-Let go of life in full
-Accept the primacy of death

In exchange, the devil offers an approximation of life, a counterfeit version of paradise - if not now, then in the future. And if he can’t deliver, then he promises to help you live in ignorance of his failure to deliver.

The twist is that the devil is double-minded and self deceived. This means that he primarily believes that he is on the side of good, offering life and protection from death.

Because he views himself this way, those who enter into a covenant with him — placing themselves under his sovereignty — view him that way as well. At least in those rare moments when he is not completely hidden. After all, keeping the deal hidden requires that he be hidden.

However, nothing remains hidden from the Son of Man. Do you know him? I say you do know him.

That's an odd formulation you use, that "I say you do know him." It seems awfully egorific. Do you mean that God said this? Are you conflating the two. Are you such a spokesman for God that you just interchange the two?

When the Son of Man realizes that greatness and significance has eluded him as a human being in this world, he knows that the only hope is to broaden the context of his story. He must become more than just a human being. Denying the soul and its transcendent potential is no longer an option.

He conditions himself to exist within this larger context by managing obligations, temptations, participation, and withdrawing into isolation. From there, he can better tune into the greater story that he belongs in.

No one knows the son except for the father. No one knows the father except for the son.

The father rips the son away from the Kingdom and sends him down into the world. The father doesn’t want the son to be known and come into being because then the father’s actions will become known and condemned. The son doesn’t want to come into being and discover how he has been betrayed and abandoned by the father.

The Son of Man has no time for this posturing and lack of faith. He is called to navigate through the story without compromising.

Open up the book of life and my name is written. Examine the stones of the Kingdom and my name is etched.