Tackling Tradition 82: Acts 19:1 - 7

Those who make much of New Testament baptism have been known to assert that one must be baptized in the name of Christ in order to have received the Holy Spirit.       Some go so far to say that one must be baptized in order to do so.   One of their major prooftexts is Acts 19: 1 - 7. 19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spiritwhen you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. 4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophe...

The Aesthetics & Alchemy Of (The) Apocalypse

Apocalypse

Aesthetic

Alchemy

Conquest

Empire

Parasitic

War

Destruction

Correspondence

Famine

Pestilence

Contagion

Death

Works Righteousness

Parody

In the Book of Revelation, the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse aren’t merely ciphers for literal conquest, war, famine & death, they are the metaphysical personification of those concepts & represent beings, forces, & institutions which are all deeply invested in who & what exercises control, authority, & presence with respect to Monarchial Dominion in, through, over, & around the very fabric of reality itself.  


Conquest presents itself/manifests itself as that which glories in the rise & fall of moral empire &  imperial structures (Principles of Faith & Practice).  Its Aesthetic (defining characteristic) is the rise & fall of moral &/or literal empire/government.    It expresses itself in Black Magick/Sorcery via the the principle of parasitism insofar as it grafts, bonds, joins, unites, &/or merges or seeks to merge or attach itself to one or more targets in order to refine & conquer them. (Daniel 7)


War presents itself/manifests itself as that which glories in  conflict/conflict resolution that more often than not theologically, philosophically, ethically &/or philosophically destroys either to pave the way for the new imperial order &/or to glory in destruction for its own sake.   War seeks to strategically deconstruct/destroy the correspondence/relationships relative to the simultaneous moral unity & unanimity of the created order & ultimately the Moral Imago Dei itself.    In its literal mode, it centers on struggle for power between 2 or more individuals, ecclesiastical institutions, &/or governments. (Hosea 4:6)


Its aesthetic (defining characteristic) centers on destruction.  It expresses itself in Black Majick/Sorcery via the principle of contagion, insofar as it seeks to erode &/or destroy the correspondence between truth & falsity, righteousness & sin/iniquity, reality & unreality in general,  & that which is & that which ought to be in particular.


Famine presents/manifests itself as that which glories in moral & material gluttony and material & moral poverty resulting in moral sickness/infirmity.  Its aesthetic (defining characteristic) is pestilence.      The Bible describes apostasy as the road to destruction plagued with a lack of morally righteous theological, philosophical, & moral/ethical knowledge.   (Hosea 9:6)


Deathlike Apostasy, encompasses all of these evils & centers on works righteousness.  Its aesthetic, works righteousness, kills.  Works righteousness is sorcery’s answer to  the Gospel of Grace & Faith.   In sorcery/Satanic witchcraft the Enemy seeks to parody what it perceives as a or even 

the source of righteousness & redemption via its reward system.  (Romans 9:30 - 33)


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