update(?)

Taking on armour of light. Piece by piece, building it up. Two kingdoms.

I'm cutting my teeth (which may be sharp already) in reading a systematic theology complete (something I've never done); cover to cover, first page through to the last, in order. I have many, but I settled on R. L. Dabney's Systematic Theology. Chose it because it's from the 1800s, it has a strength to it (feel), it's solidly Calvinist, Dabney was that Stonewall Jackson, Civil War aide; the Banner of Truth edition feels good in the hands, good dimensions, cover could be better, but is OK, 900 pages, I liked his chapter (lecture) on angels that I read from the internet.

Ephesians 6:13 the 'evil day' is the day of your death in which you have to 'stand'. This is echoed in Psalm 18 (the 'day of my calamity'). Fuse inner being now. You need fire. Friction. Self-remembering, non-identifying, become a fused, conscious center-of-gravity.

Know which kingdom you stand in. Visualize Christ (your Mediator with God), his Kingdom, as it is now this moment. Angels. The Holy Spirit.

(Soul includes body and spirit. It is spiritual. The best way to see 'soul' - your soul, your soul when your physical body dies - is this: soul=angel. Just as angels are spiritual and have immortal souls and bodies, though not physical bodies, this is your state when your physical body dies. Your soul leaves your flesh body yet it leaves it as a body, i.e. a spiritual body like an angel body. It doesn't mean you're an angel though [which is why theologians don't say this even though the popular mind senses it, i.e. when they say so and so (who as passed on) has become an 'angel']. You're not an angel simply because a regenerate believing Christian is greater than the angels at death. Higher than the angels. Judges angels, even. Angels are ministers to regenerate, Christ-believing human beings that die into their glorified state [Dabney also states that you pass into your glorified state right away upon death (if you're regenerate), which rings true to me, but is a unique position among theologians who mostly posit an 'intermediate state' between physical death and the Second Coming itself when all are given glorified bodies]. Unregenerate souls are 'naked' at death. Shades. They recur. The Work says that. Eternity has room for it. God is choosing and electing from Eternity [a big, overarching NOW], so those He passes over in the harvest you find yourself in are not left to desolate hell [only the ones who seem to actually want that, and they exist, apparently, perhaps they are so mechanical as to be not even very human, but...God knows, and He is capable when dealing with His creation and all that. He wants you to spread the Message, though. He didn't give up on you, so you do the same for others...)