The definition of “discernment,” according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary is this: “1. the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure; 2. an act of perceiving or discerning something.” The etymology is suggested to come from the Middle French word “discernement.”
In Old French, the infinitive verb “discerner” was defined in Old English to mean: “to discern, or to distinguish one thing from another; also, to part, separate, sever, divide asunder; to make, or put a difference between.” The Wiktionaire website lists the etymology of “discerner” as from the Latin word “discernere,” which means “to separate, to set apart (or divide).” That Latin word is the infinitive for the root “discern,” meaning “to distinguish, to acknowledge, or to judge,” as “to distinguish one thing from another.”
The Greek equivalent, which is used in New Testament writings, is “diakrinó,” which means “to distinguish, to judge” implying in usage: “I separate, distinguish, discern one thing from another; I doubt, hesitate, waver.” It is a combined word (dia + krinó) meaning “thoroughly back-and-forth, which intensifies” and “to judge.” Properly, the word means “investigate (judge) thoroughly – literally, judging "back-and-forth" which can either (positively) refer to close-reasoning (discrimination) or negatively "over-judging" (going too far, vacillating). Only the context indicates which sense is meant.” This needs to be understood as the truth behind the word “discernment,” especially as far as the word is applied in Christian “discernment” for priesthood.
For the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, one of their websites states this about “Discernment”:
“The central focus of the discernment process for ordination to the diaconate or
priesthood is not whether an individual is called to ministry, since by baptism God has
called all of us to minister. Rather, the principal focus of discernment concerns how
closely an individual’s gifts and experience match the unique challenges of diaconal
and priestly ministry in this time and place.
The diocese needs ordained leaders who will equip our congregations to adapt to new
realities, sing the Lord’s song in new lands, and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in
ways that speak to the varied contexts and cultures of our communities. We seek
leaders with the skills and capacities to plant new congregations and worshipping
communities.”
This statement becomes a proclamation that “discernment” is a process in which the Church organization will evaluate employees in that Church, who will then act as leaders in buildings owned and possessed by the Episcopal Church. Employment will then provide an applicant with a job position that acts as a shepherd over a flock of paying customers, all of who claim to be Episcopalians (a club membership of a sort). There is little “discernment” as to one’s “call to ministry,” as that becomes an impossibility to determine. The only “discernment” is concerned with whether or not someone claiming to be “called to ministry through God’s baptism,” which is one’s own “ability to grasp and comprehend that [in Holy Scripture] is obscure” to everyone else. This true “discernment” becomes secondary to an applicant for employment, as the employers do the discerning as to who is willing to toe the line drawn in the sand that is the covenants and tenets of a particular Church.
There is a problem with this automatic acceptance of one’s claim to being called by God to ministry. Some exposé television show (long ago) interviewed some young student (who dropped out), turned some kind of board member at Oral Roberts University, who then acted as a Pentecostal preacher to rave reviewed. He admitted on the documentary that he was just pretending. The entertainer known as Jack White also promotes himself as having been a Christian minister (before the age of twenty, I presume), simply by making that claim and no one discerning it as truth or lie. This becomes a reflection on how the religions called ‘Christian’ today are shams.
When Jesus walked the earth, he was a Jew teaching other Jews to be like him. There was no Christianity because all who followed Jesus were Jews, practicing Judaism. All Jews were verifiable by birth, most particularly all children born to a Jewish woman were automatically Jews; but all Jewish men were responsible for teaching their children Mosaic Law and the verses of the Torah, Psalms and Prophets. Fathers and mothers would home school their children, but those who could afford the cost would pay a teacher to school their children. Still, Jesus came into the world (at the plan and direction of Yahweh) because that system of religion had fallen from the original plan (undertaken by the people following Moses, Joshua, and David) and become ‘the blind leading the blind.’ This is exactly how the religions calling themselves ‘Christian’ have fallen away from the original plan of that name (undertaken by the people following Jesus).
The true discernment of the truth of Christianity is the root word “Christ.” The suffix “-ian” adds “one from, belonging to, relating to, or like” to the meaning of “Christ.” That means a “Christian” is “one from, belonging to, relating to, or like” “Christ.” The suffix “-ity” is a stem from the Latin suffix “-itās,” which means “unity, oneness,” aligning with the English suffix “ness.” Thus, “Christianity” could be stated as “Christian-ness,” as a statement of “one belonging to Christ in oneness,” as a state of being.
The word “Christ” comes solely from the Greek word “christos” (“xριστός”), which means “the anointed One, or a messiah.” It is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word “mashiach” (“מָשִׁיחַ”) which means “anointed,” implying “a consecrated person,” such as a king, priest or saint). In the lower case spelling (Hebrew only has lower case letters), the meaning is physical, material or worldly, where “anointment” for such designations of importance was done by the pouring of physical oil on the head of the one “anointed.” In the Greek capitalized spelling, the capitalization denotes a divinely elevated meaning, where the “Anointment” is not physical but spiritual.
This means a “Christ” can only be (like we read of David’s “anointment” by Samuel, followed by his “Anointment” by Yahweh) from an outpouring of Yahweh’s Spirit upon a soul (not the flesh), marking that soul forever as the possession of Yahweh, cleansed of all past sins, via a most holy Baptism of Spirit. This must be understood as the meaning for a capitalized “Christ” (“Christos”) AND this means “Christ-”ianity is a statement about all souls in bodies of flesh that have been divinely marked by Yahweh as His spiritual possessions.
This is the problem that comes from thinking there is only one Christ, which is Jesus. Such thinking limits the power and ability of Yahweh, as if He can only create one “Christ,” making that word of divine “Anointment” (by Yahweh) become the ‘last name’ of Jesus. This human thought process makes it seem that “Christianity” is a professed belief in ‘Jesus Christ’ as the replacement god for Yahweh, who (after all) is a god of the Jews, not ‘Christ’ians. That is a total and complete lack of understanding of Scripture, which means discernment is a demand of those souls in bodies of flesh.
When only souls married to Yahweh, who then are Baptized by His Spirit of soul cleansing, making one truly a “Christ” (“an Anointed One” by Yahweh), can be classified as “Christian,” the phase of discernment it to weed out the pretenders (the believers without personal experience of Yahweh) from those souls truly resurrected with the soul of Yahweh’s Son: Adam-Jesus. This discernment then makes it possible to grasp that Yahweh made His only Son for the purpose of being the ‘spiritual oil’ by which Yahweh would Anoint souls. This means Jesus (as a name for Adam, meaning “Yahweh Saves”) is indeed THE Christ, because he is the Spirit that Anoints a soul forevermore.
It becomes vital to understand that Jesus was sent only to Jews, who were the threadbare remains of the souls in flesh that Moses led from Egypt to prepare them for the ultimate Promised Land, which is eternal salvation (a much greater reward than a plot of earth). The offer of freedom from bondage was not about descendants of Jacob having to work hard, as slaves to the rulers of a nation of people, as anywhere on earth a soul in its flesh goes there is the demand for hard work for survival of the flesh. There is no freedom from being a soul trapped in a body of flesh – the true meaning behind the word “bondage” – unless it has returned to be the servant of Yahweh, resurrected in the name of His Son, whose work required is ministry in that name. This spiritual commitment was absent from the souls of Jews, when Yahweh sent Jesus in His name, to save those lost souls. The religions using the name of “Christ” as the core of their beliefs and tenets are just as flawed (and thereby false) as was the system of sects (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, scribes, and high priests) that was incapable of discerning the truth of Scripture.
This means there was absolutely no reason to create a new religion, with a name designed to reflect who Jews believed in (rather than Yahweh). Yahweh did not send His Son into the womb of a virgin so His Son would be born as a new god to replace Yahweh. There was no intention to split Judaism into two halves: those who believed in Yahweh but had absolutely zero faith; and, those who believed in ‘Jesus Christ’ as the god sent by Yahweh to run around the world telling everyone their souls could be saved by believing a story incorrectly discerned. Christianity is then NOT A RELIGION but a way of life.
It is the way of life Moses presented to the people. It is the way of life Joshua presented to the people. It is the way of life David presented to the people. It is the same way of life; but the Jews had wandered far from that way of life, just as had the people who divided into two nations and suffered collapse as a result, returning to bondage in Babylon. Yahweh sent His Son’s soul and instructed that soul in a body of flesh be named “Jesus” – “Yah Saves.” You do not follow the way of Jesus to be a soul saved. You follow the way of life that comes from complete and total submission to the Covenant of Yahweh (His marriage terms that must be agreed to). The soul of Jesus then is the Spirit of Baptism that enters one’s soul-flesh and becomes its Lord; so, that soul-flesh will never again fall prey to the lures of the world to sin.
The true way of life that brings about true salvation of the soul comes from discernment of Scripture. The beginning steps taken towards this end are taken when scriptural education is presented to the children of religious parents. In these modern times there are schools that enroll children that receive biblical studies, in addition to normal educational coursework.
Still, because that expense is not affordable for the masses, those who regularly attend church services will take their children and drop them off in a room where Bible stories will be taught and learned. While this process of discernment is a vital and necessary step towards the ultimate goal of soul salvation, it cannot end when a child reaches puberty, having memorized certain verses and passages of Scripture, while never going beyond the gloss of a Bible story, to find the depth of meaning that is overlooked by childish eyes and brains.
In my experience at a seminary, where I was the spouse of an enrolled student, I came to realize that every member of my wife’s class (including my wife, by her admission) knew nothing of value beyond the Bible stories they learned as children. While some of the seminarians were in their twenties (basically still children, unworthy of leading a flock due to life inexperience), the majority were in their thirties and forties, with a few in their fifties. One woman was close to sixty, if not over that age; and, she struggled with the educational process that demanded testing and writing projects that followed scholastic format. The school kicked her out (along with her spouse), because she was failing to make the grades.
Still, none of the courses taught to the seminarians dealt with the true meaning of Scripture. While abbreviated courses in Hebrew and Greek were offered and mandatory, no one was ever expected to become fluent in either language. Key terms were taught, none of which were designed to enlighten students to the truth behind those terms. Everyone knelt before English translations of the books in the Holy Bible, as if those productions were not paraphrases of the written Word, which took one away from the deeper truth that the original language told (but hidden from view by translation).
Since I was not a seminarian, as was my wife, I was under the impression that all students enrolled there had gone through a discernment process by the church organizations that sponsored them as future priests for the Episcopal Church. I assumed they all had some deeper knowledge of the meaning of Scripture, simply from personal study of Scripture, maybe even holding regular discussions with their priest as to the meaning the weekly lessons held. At the time my wife and I were at seminary, I was in-between in my personal experience discerning the meaning of Nostradamus (who I was led to see as a true prophet in the name of Jesus Christ) and discerning some of the Scriptural lessons heard read aloud each Sunday in an Episcopal Church. It was after my wife graduated from seminary and was assigned a parish to tend that I began to examine every reading set aside for each Sunday and make notes, while preparing a sermon for each Sunday.
I did this so my wife could read what I saw in Scripture, based on discerning the original text (a valuable lesson discerning Nostradamus had taught me to do). My wife was amazed at the depth she heard me reveal, having never experienced Scripture in that way before. While my wife would write her own sermons and do so from her soul’s relationship with God (Yahweh), she enjoyed reading my visions of the truth; and, we would spend hours discussing the truth of that written, rather than the watered down versions coming from English translations. From this two-way discernment of Scripture together, in the back of my mind I had the opinion that all priests in the Episcopal Church had a similar soul-driven desire to do this adult discernment, simply so they could be responsible shepherds of a flock and pass along what Yahweh had led them to see.
Boy was I wrong in that assumption.
After my wife passed from terminal cancer in 2019, Yahweh allowed the truth of how weak Christian church organizations were, when COVID19 fears were spread around the world. I buried my wife’s ashes at sea in a private ceremony that only fellow priests and former flock members were invited to attend. I buried them on her birthday, which so happened to fall on “Holy Saturday,” the day before Easter in 2020. All of the fellow priests backed away from attending that one time event, due to their sworn oaths to do whatever their diocesan bishop commanded of them. All the Episcopal churches shut down for Easter, because of warnings mandated by governments; so, all the bishops jumped on that bandwagon, showing absolutely no faith in Yahweh, with none of their souls where Jesus had resurrected to be their Lord. None of the former flock members (all women, as my wife’s ministry focused heavily on women’s salvation) chose to attend, because the sailboat I reserved was said to be too personal, sounding “romantic,” rather than a time for honorary remembrance. So, I buried my wife’s ashes at sea with the captain of that sailboat, myself, and the soul of my wife.
When the governments refused to allow churches to reopen their doors, the Episcopal Church then began a rushed program where Facebook video feeds were established, where the pretense of an Episcopal Sunday service was presented: a lone priest at a lectern, or a priest ten feet apart from some church assistant (both wearing masks), following all the Book of Prayers procedural mumbo jumbo. This meant that suddenly I was able to watch several of my wife’s ex-classmates in seminary show off how well they had discerned Scripture, so they could present spiritual food to viewers at home. EVERY sermon I heard preached was lame and inept, totally missing the point of the truth contained in the written Word for each Sunday. It was embarrassing for me to watch so many prove to me they were nothing more than hired hands, workers for some master bishop, selling their souls for an easy paycheck, great medical benefits, and perhaps a housing stipend. They certainly were not saving souls for Yahweh; and, shaking in their shoes because of a Chinese-enhanced version of the common cold proved their fear of death made an imaginary disease the lord and master, to which they knelt down before and begged for salvation.
-----
In John 3:3, Jesus to Nicodemus, “Truly , certainly I say to your soul , if not a certain one him could bring forth from above , not he to have seen this authority of this of God .” Here, the word “amēn” is repeated, with the first use capitalized. While both can be translated as “Truly” or “Verily,” the capitalization must be discerned as Yahweh speaking through His Son Jesus. When Yahweh announces, “This is the truth,” the lower case word following becomes the voice of Jesus, who knows the Father has spoken, leading him to verify, “What I say is a certainty.”
Where the translation I provided says “him could bring forth,” this is the third-person singular (“him”), Aorist Subjunctive, with “him” intuited as the soul of Jesus, where that elohim is masculine as a soul or spirit. The word typically is translated as “born,” which becomes the confusion leading the brain of Nicodemus, because he could not properly discern the use of the word used by Jesus (written in Greek by John) – “gennēthē.”
In the last segment of words spoken by Jesus, John wrote the Greek word “basileian,” which typically translates as “kingdom.” I have translated this as “authority,” which is an approved usage, where “authority” is implied, especially when “of God.”
This means Nicodemus stands as a reflection of all who fail the test of discernment, when one who is truly a saint in the name of Jesus asks the simple question, “What did Jesus say was required for salvation, as told in his answer to Nicodemus?” Certainly, Nicodemus was a believer, in the sense that he was young and had made lots of wealth (being a ruler of the Jews, on the Sanhedrin) because he memorized the passages of Scripture and listened to the scribes who guessed at what Scripture meant. But, Nicodemus exemplified how someone of great belief, giving God credit for allowing one to be rich and powerful, totally lack true faith. Thus Jesus asked him (and all like him, forevermore), “You exist this instructor of this of those Who Retain the el of Yahweh [the meaning of the word “Israel”] , kai these [reference to Nicodemus asking just prior about “these to be born”] not you have come to know ?”
Nicodemus is the ‘poster child’ for all who call themselves “Christians” today, when none of their souls have been where the soul of Yahweh’s Son (Adam-Jesus) has been resurrected, making one’s soul be truly “Israel” – where the presence of two souls in one body of flesh are the truth of being “Christian.” Only those souls “Who Retain the el of Yahweh” [His Son’s soul IS the elohim of Salvation, such that “Jesus” means “Yah Saves”] have the right to claim that title. It demands being able to discern the capitalized word “Christos” as a statement of Yahweh’s Baptism of Spirit that removes all past sins from one’s soul and body of flesh, making one become virginal again. It is into that virgin state that the soul of Yahweh’s Son is placed, just as the same soul was placed into Mary, the mother of the son who Gabriel instructed, “He is to be named Jesus.”
This is the end of Part 1 of this commentary about discernment. Please read Part 2, as it will address the true story that tells of the birth of Jesus, according to Matthew 2.
Comments