I was re-reading The Beast Within and wanted to ask for your thoughts. I mean, the sections of the paper that I've copied and pasted below seem pretty clear but just to be sure..
What this is saying is that we are the beast that comes out of the sea in Rev and in our earthly life when we first accept Christ, ask Him to be our God, believe on Him, answer the altar call, or however you want to describe it.. at that point when we surrender to the idea that we need a savior to forgive us our sins and rescue us from ourselves, and that Jesus Christ is the only One.. it's at this point that we fall upon the stone or rock which is Christ who delivers the deadly head wound. Is this correct?
After this point though, as we continue in the church and learn to accept the traditional beliefs and culture and customs of the church, it is in this that we heal ourselves of the deadly head wound and fall away.. leaving our first love. Is this correct?
From The Beast Within
https://bible-truths.com/lake14.html"How many understand our Lord's statements in Luke 20:17-18?
"And He beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The Stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the Head of the corner? Whomsoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever It shall fall, It will GRIND HIM TO POWDER."
When we fall on the Stone (Jesus), we are broken. Or as John tells us in Revelation,
"And I saw one of his heads as it were WOUNDED TO DEATH..." (Rev. 13:3).
Yes, when we fall on Christ we are broken, we are wounded (by the "sword" of God-Rev. 13:14 vs. Heb. 4:12). This is our human attempt at salvation. But then we fall, and our "deadly wound [which we received by the Word of God] was healed" (Rev. 13:3), we went back into the world, back into Babylon, thus leaving our first love. When the wound of the Sword of God's Word that had slain us, is healed, we fall from the love of God, and we again turn our love to the world from which we came.
----and----
This "fall" by the way is not a little slip or a little stumble. It is a complete and total SPIRITUAL FALL! We all come to Christ with a simple childlike innocence. But ... BUT, once we are in "the church of our choice," we start to get educated in the ways of Christendom. We learn of many rules based on the unscriptural traditions of men. We delight in many of these rules and traditions (sometimes not all of them), and before we know it, our new religion sooner or later TAKES US RIGHT BACK INTO THE WORLD that we thought we came out of."
[end quote]
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Im always humbled after re-reading some of the stuff on here. Because I always see or understand something that I completely missed after reading it for the first time or two. Every time I get through a paper I feel like I've understood it just fine. Then I read it again some time later and I am humbled to realize that there were such gems that Ray wrote so clearly but I somehow didn't fully grasp the last time.
This part about the beast with the head wound that healed so perfectly describes the church to me now. The doctrine of free will says that
we've made the choice. And so
we've fallen upon the stone. And therefore
we've "saved" ourselves based on the idea that
we've used our free will wisely.. to choose the correct religion. Free will says, It's true that God provided us the choice in the first place.. we give Him credit for that part. But freely making the wise choice.. that was us. That is us falling upon the stone.
Us acknowledging that it is God who sent His son to pay the price for us.. that is the deadly wound. But us believing that we are saved by our own free choice to fall upon the stone.. that is us healing ourselves.
Am I understanding this?