Behind The Faith: Advanced Citizenship

By Dr. Tony Mariot

Advanced Citizenship is the perfecting of Christians that takes place once faith is no longer a part of mans character. It is the actual manifestation of our salvation when man can have a face to face relationship with God on Earth. Whats of interest is that this relationship happens AFTER you have been to Heaven and Satan has been released from prison, the vast majority of all the Saints that were in Heaven and were deceived by Satan end up in Hell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Tony Mariot
• Release date: Feb 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310938979

Dr. Tony Mariot

Tony is an Executive Consultant for Research on Biblical Antiquities for Oxford Press and National Geographic. Tony writes for Got Questions, Medium, Savana East and is published by WIPF and Stock Publishers, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Tony has contributed research for the publications “Christianity” - The Holy Trinity Controversy by Millennium House, “Biblica" - The Revelation of John - Global Book Publishing, “The Search for King David” - National Geographic.

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Introduction

What does behind the faith mean? To be more specific, do you know what is behind what you believe?  Why do you believe what you believe?

Many of us believe what we do because we were raised in a particular church, under a particular view in the faith, with particular traditions. That being the case, as we get older we tend to stick with this belief system or drop it all together. This however, is no reason to believe in a particular doctrine or subscribe to a particular denomination. It simply is no answer and is less of a reason in and of itself to believe in or serve under some religious pretense.

We should not base our beliefs on some emotional experience we had, which we cannot really explain with any substance, other than to attribute the experience to something we want to believe was spiritual or God-inspired.

This choice, belief and faith, should not be an unexplainable gut feeling, or some thought shrouded in a cosmic concept of God that is neither specific nor explainable. Neither should we hide behind peer pressure that makes us feel guilty if we denied having any real belief in the existence of God at all.

None of these aspects are the basis to knowing anything, let alone foundations of a faith.

The question then becomes, how do we know what is true and what to believe on the ground where we live? What are the facts behind the faith and what is folklore? How can we know for certain?

Many attribute their belief based on some life experience, but these experiences are often clouded because of some traumatic emotional circumstance. Any answers we tend to get for these moments are either vague or wrapped in some traditional antidote leaving us unsatisfied. In many cases we would be better off making something up to believe on our own. At least that way it would be more personal.

In the Christian faith, finding these and other answers to even harder questions are relegated to the scriptures of the Bible. The challenge there is that we can get answers that may be couched in religious doctrine. There are over 2300 evolving translations of the Bible, which have been used by millions over time to manipulate billions of people for thousands of years. The Bible has been used to justify countless evils and atrocities.

How then can we trust a writing that has been so manipulated over the ages?

If the Bible and all that it represents, is not real and not the absolute literal truth, our faith on any front is without merit, and we have all been played.

There have been many books written about the Bible, examining and criticizing, even supporting the scriptures. This effort will attempt to answer a simple, yet compelling question:

What is behind the faith?

We know death is real and when death comes our way, we need to know as best we can what is real about what we believe. We must have more to hold on to than a favorite Bible verse or sermon. We must have a deeper understanding of God ourselves, than a trust in any pastor, priest or teacher.

The fact you may believe that you are a good person is not enough to get it done. Death is a great leveler of the playing field and it seals our fate. Whatever you believe in, right or wrong, it will be too late to change your mind when death comes.

The last three words of Steve Jobs on his deathbed, according to his sister who was there at his bedside was  "OHH WOW! OHH WOW! OHH WOW! This was reported in Time Magazine. The point I make with this observation is that Jobs was an atheist. Whatever he saw or felt was unexpected. If we are to attempt to interpret his final expression correctly, he was at least surprised.

If we could understand why things happen to us on a spiritual level instead of using the old standby cliché God is in control or everything happens for a reason we would be much closer to God as a practical matter. These sayings have as little substance as the concept of believing something spiritual solely on the basis of the word of a person we trust.

Most of the time these encounters are the result of someone trying to offer us emotional support with some spiritual sense to it all. If the person is a pastor, priest or minister of sorts, we tend to go along with them even more so because we figure they know more about God than we do.

For thousands of years man has gone along with this way of thinking. This is and has been a mistake.  You should have your relationship with God based on a practical understanding that frames your faith.

This writing and all in those in the Behind The Faith series, is intended to discuss what is biblically spoken of about the Christian faith.

We should know more about the specifics of our faith and not simply hold onto what amounts to concepts rather than tangible tactile evidence of spiritual truths.

Throughout the series we attempt to point out distinctions from religious teachings and biblical facts as it applies in the context of our writings. We will discuss real world application for scripture that is not biblical rhetoric or supposition.

There is no doubt that this discourse is not a perfect work. There will be errata that is unavoidable, even as the 1611 Quatercentenary Edition Bible, which is an exact reprint in Roman type with the anniversary essay from Gordan Campbell, Oxford Press, which this work is based, has many printer errors and misspelled words in it. My hope is that any errors and omissions found along the way, should not blur the greater work of the message imparted here. 

My apologies in advance.

Chapter One

Advanced Citizenship

The over arching question that advanced citizenship ( a phrase I am coining here ) addresses is the perfecting of mans salvation. Most Christians end their understanding about life after death with Heaven. But the reality is that Heaven is a transition for man, set up by God as a promise fulfilled and the transition of mankind from a faith based creature to a fact knowing one. It is a transition man must make consistent with a God who keeps His promises. But Heaven, as it is ineptly referred to, is NOT our home.

When are we actually saved?

Salvation in this life’s temporal existence is dispensational and provisional. In Christianity, the term dispensation is an evangelical, futurist, biblical interpretation that understands God to have related to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants in a series of dispensations or periods in history. In this example, dispensation applies to the future events of man in what will become history. We have to get through this physical aspect of our lives, we must pass through death; shed our flesh and transition to Heaven. We must be reunited with our bodies, in what is referred to as the Rapture , witness the Battle of Armageddon, live on Earth for a thousand years and avoid the final temptation and deception of Satan once he is released form his prison. If we do all that, in this broad stroke of a description, we will be saved. This is advanced citizenship, an aspect which is beyond being born into any condition, rather a Jew, black, white, rich, poor or any other aspect beyond your control at birth is what makes advanced citizenship provisional, you have to overcome a series of obstacles to get it.

Christians have been taught that salvation occurs at the time we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. That is technically true, but accepting Christ on this side of life is a placeholder, salvation has less to do with this life, than the ramifications of this life’s choice after the thousand-year reign. There will be many people who were in Heaven and reigned with Christ during the millennium that will burn in the Lake of Fire because they betrayed Christ, much like Judas Iscariot. Religion would have you believe otherwise, but teaching otherwise is NOT scripture.

Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, the North, South, East and West.

Revelation 20:7-9

7   "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

8   And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9   And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."

The context of this portion of scripture is that the battle of Armageddon has already taken place an Angel binds Satan in a bottomless pit for a thousand years.

Beginning Christ millennial reign on earth, there are no more people on the planet that are non-believers, everyone left on the planet are Christians. At the end of the thousand-year reign Satan is released and he goes out to deceive the nations which are Christians .

Satan’s army, which number is described as the sands of the sea, is comprised of these one-time followers of Christ. Crown wearing, Heaven experiencing, thousand-year reigning Christians.

Revelation 20:8

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

With everything Heaven represents to the Christian, Heaven is not our home, despite all the religious songs and dogma that suggest otherwise, man cannot be perfected in Heaven, it must take place in man’s natural habitat, where the fall of man began with Adam, not the Garden of Eden, but Earth.

Heaven, Hell and Death, are all accommodations God made for man because of sin. Man was never intended to experience any of this. It was man’s participation in sin that caused these accommodations by God.

Matthew 25:41

then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

In order for man to be perfected, we must first survive the choice of salvation using faith. Then after death, we go to Heaven to make a series of transitions. The first of which is to be without our physical bodies and exist for a time in Spirit form in Heaven. This is another accommodation God made for man; the separation of man’s Spirit from his physical body was not part of the original plan. Which is the reason for the rapture as Christians refer to it, the rejoining of the spirit with the body.

Next is a transition from faith to knowledge, which is huge for mankind. All that we have believed in this life was facilitated through our faith. Once in Heaven, we transition out of faith and now we know . We know and see all things manifested in front of us, everything we have believed in this life that exist spiritually. We see Christ in his glory in Heaven; we see Angels and the host that are in it. We are like the Angels, in that we no longer have faith, but know and see it all to be real, the transition from faith to fact if you will.

This is an important transition, it places man in a position of the type and shadow of Judas Iscariot who walked and lived with Christ for 3½ years and still betrayed Him. We must have that same experience but in a more complete way. The people that joined Satan after the thousand-year reign are no less of the spirit of Judas. The third of the Angels that Satan deceived and were cast out of Heaven with him are no less of the same spirit of Judas, to know the Lord and betray Him anyway.

In order for men to be perfected, to see God’s face, we must be like the Angels having no faith and complete knowledge. God is just in His judgment, in that all those people who will be deceived by Satan, will be fully aware of what they are doing. There will be no way to claim anything was done by deception. The Angels themselves who chose to side with Satan did so eyes wide open. It is true that Satan deceived both the Angels and man, but not in the traditional sense of being able to outright lie to achieve deception. The Angels have full knowledge of God having been in His presence, man once in Heaven has the advantage of being in the presence of Christ. The choice by men is no different than that of the Angels at this point and those deceived by Satan in the end and become part of his army will be justly merited by Gods judgment, placing them into the Lake of Fire. ( Revelation 20: 7-8 )

Physical death is not the end, as we know, but when Jesus spoke of enduring to the end, He was speaking of the end after the final deception of Satan, which is after the thousand-year reign.

Mark 13:13

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

There is a subtle aspect we must be conscientious of when it comes to Satan. In this life we teach him how to tempt us, Satan is most patient, observant and not subject to forgetfulness as we are. Demons do not suffer from memory problems, they remember everything they have seen and heard from before God Himself laid the foundations of the world.

Job 38: 4-7

4   Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

5  " Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?"

6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

7