I did point you to where you can read it...I quoted it from Acts 2. Which I am happy to quote again here, in red:
The account of the prophecy of Joel the prophet confirmed by Peter at Pentecost was only Holy, but only holy to those who were amazed...and also to you. But there was also the evil spirit and the "mockers", and Peter also answered them. But you have not considered it fully to include not only the Holy Spirit but also "Blood and fire and vapor of smoke", and "darkness." Thus, you have only considered what the spirit of God does with "whoever calls on the name of the Lord", but have completely left out those who do not and what the spirit of God does with them...just as it was even then, beginning with the mockers.
I'm sorry, color me obtuse, but what in these words speaks of a spirit of God given for unholiness?
Joel 2:29-31
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
God will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth. Those wonders, seen before the Day of the Lord, will include blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke, the sun turned to darkness, and the moon into blood.
Firstly, why would we not think of this as something we see? Revelation and Ezekiel and others speak of these things as well. No need to re-interpret them into something that's not being said. Do you have a special spiritual understanding of this place in Joel that tells you to take it as more than just what it says?
I truly do not understand how you get the one from the other no matter how many times you state that it is so.
Quoting the verse, and telling me it means something else just doesn't work for me.
As for your question of clarification...we must be careful.
Careful to ask for clarification? Isn't misunderstanding what divides us? Either we misunderstand each other, or we misunderstand Scripture, otherwise we would be in agreement in all.
This is already a subject of great offense and emotion, and our language (all language) has the power to do great harm or to do great good.
Then I would say be careful, and be direct, and not use charged language.
First, God is the source, the power of all things. There is no other. So, when we say "other" spirits, we must consider that all are wheeled from God's hand, whether they appear to be good or evil in their manifestation or not, as both being good. God is good, and He is doing a good work. However, and this is where the divide comes...when that which God has meant for good is used in the hands of evil spirits or evil men, the same acts are evil (just as in the parable analogy of the good policeman speeding to catch a speeder).
Again, the "speeding" policeman, if in lawful pursuit, is not "speeding". There is a difference. So this example, for me, serves no purpose other to support an assertion that God's acts are unlawful.
There is an interesting discussion about righteousness. Is God righteous because everything He does is right? Or is righteousness right because God does it? Do you know the answer?
God made me, but I chose sin. Let no one say when they are tempted that God tempts them. God is not tempted by sin, and tempts no man with sin. We sin because we choose to, not because God chose for us to.
Consider darkness: In God, there is no darkness,
Agreed, absolutely.
and yet He created both light and darkness, wherein things are either manifest as good (and of God) or as evil and not born of God, but born of the darkness.
When you say, "born of the darkness", what exactly do you mean?
That there is something about "darkness" that causes sin?
To my understanding, all sin is the result of creatures created by God, and given the opportunity to choose, having chosen to sin, separate from God, not intended or approved or supported by God. Used by God, yes, but credit belonging only to the sinner.
where the firstborn of good and evil were born into the world.
What does this mean?
However, the purpose, though fully intentional by God, is not to create or produce evil...but rather to draw it out into the light in cleansing. The house of God is being cleansed; that what was created "
good" even "
very good", would become perfect even as God is perfect (
Matthew 5:48).
Thus, when God promised to pour out His spirit upon all flesh, He did not mean that He would pour it out upon all that was perfect already. But rather, that by pouring His spirit out upon all that was not yet perfect, all that would remain after applying His great power (a consuming fire), would be perfect. At which time we whom have been cleansed in the light of His spirit, not succumbing to evil, return to Him. So then, He makes this promise: "
But he who endures to the end will be saved."
What you are saying here seems to me rather general, and I'm having a difficult time relating what you are saying to this idea of God given 2 spirits to man at Pentecost, one the Holy Spirit, the other the "spirit of God", the one causing good to flourish, the other causing evil to flourish.
Here you seem to be writing about God putting His Spirit into the world the make a separation of the just from the unjust. What is the role of the "spirit of God"?
Much love!
mark
