January 26, 2007 ©Homer Kizer

Commentary — From the Margins

Theological Fossilization

In 2004, four men came together at Port Austin, Michigan, located at the tip of the geographical Thumb, to form a new ministry, one that would not make the work of a doctrinal committee “an appellate function rather than an administrative function” (UnitedNews. January 2007; p. 6) … only where there is no growth in grace and knowledge does the work of a doctrinal committee shrivel into becoming an appellate function.

God dwells in timelessness: the defining attribute of heaven is its stability, for all that exists must function as one or the dilemma of a paradox will cause irresolvable gridlock. For in timelessness, one moment does not become the next moment, but remains as the domain within which all activity occurs. Thus, all activity interrelates absolutely. The glorified Jesus is one with His Father as gloried disciples will be one with Him. And within this unity of oneness—which the Apostle Paul likens to the human body, in which many cells that are nearly identical function together to do work—what every glorified disciple does must agree-with and support and seamlessly merge with what every other living being does during this same unchanging moment. Any conflict will cause a collision of agendas having the effect of a sabot between the gears of a windmill. So when lawlessness was found in an anointed cherub (Ezek 28:14-15), immediate purging of this out-of-sync element had to occur before all functioning within the heavenly realm ceased due to the opposing agenda. And the visible shadow of this opposition is seen in the rebellion of Korah, where another descendant of Levi and his supporters assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron, saying to Moses and Aaron, ‘“You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”’ (Num 16:3). Korah advocated democracy—and what Korah then advocated today seems right to Americans, ruled by the same spirit that influenced Korah.

Would ancient Israel have entered God’s rest [from Ps 95:10-11] if Moses and Aaron had turned power over to the congregation in the wilderness? Or would Israel have returned to Egypt, what the congregation had wanted to do upon hearing the report of ten of the twelve spies? And what event had precipitated Korah’s rebellion: was it not the stoning of the Sabbath breaker (Num 15:32-36)? The writer of Hebrews, using typology, makes entering into Sabbath observance a corollary of Israel entering into Canaan (cf. Heb 3:16-4:11; Ps 95:10-11; Num chap 14). So Korah’s rebellion also serves as a shadow and copy of the great falling away (2 Thess 2:3) that will occur when the lawless one is revealed, with this mystery of lawlessness already present in Israel, and present since Paul wrote his second canonized epistle to the Thessalonians (v. 7). This mystery of lawlessness prophetically involves the little horn on the head of Death attempting to change times and the law (Dan 7:25).

The rebellion of Korah was the continuation of the rebellion of Israel in the wilderness of Paran. So when Moses fell on his face and said to Korah and all his company, ‘“In the morning the Lord will show who is his, and who is holy, and will bring him near to [the Lord]’” (Num 16:5), was the prelude to the Lord doing a new thing among men: in the morning, Moses spoke to the congregation, “‘If these men [Korah and his supporters] die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord’” (vv. 29-30). And indeed, the ground split apart. A rupture or fissure formed. And the earth swallowed alive Korah and all that was his and all his supporters (vv. 31-35).

The new thing that God did when the fissure swallowed Korah forms the visible type of what happened in heaven when rebellion was found in an anointed cherub. As if resulting from shimmering strings of elemental energy colliding in a partially unfurled 11^th dimension, a rupture formed in the fabric of heaven [the indiscernible 12^th dimension where the laws of Physics do not apply], a rupture that swallowed the lawless anointed cherub and all of his supporters … these rebelling angels were cast into outer darkness; i.e., the lifelessness of a physical creation subject to time, change, and decay. This creation, a heavenly fissure for which no linguistic signifier was assigned in Greek or English, is perhaps best seen in the Kabalist concept of Tzimtzum, the “space” created by God where free will can exist—where democratic ideals flourish, and the prince supporting these ideals is confined to death row.

Returning now to a doctrinal committee being assigned an appellate function: a court of appeals does not hear new evidence, but examines the evidence presented to the trial court to determine if the application of law to the evidence presented supports the finding of the trial court. If new evidence germane to the case becomes available, the appellate court will direct the trial court to reopen the case so that this new evidence can be examined by the trial court as it functions in its administrative capacity. If no trial court exists, then no new evidence can be presented. All that this doctrinal committee will now do is reexamine its own decisions and the evidence it initially accepted. So by its own decision, it has chosen to exclude from consideration any new revelation, or any thing done by God. It has fallen into the abyss. And biblical prophecies that were sealed and secret until the restoration of all things will, to this doctrinal committee, remain sealed and secret.

For example, Rome is not mentioned in the visions of Daniel although the Babylonian, Media-Persian, and Greek Empires are. It was the Greek Empire that divided into four administrative districts after Alexander’s death, and from these four administrative districts come two smaller empires [the Ptolemaic and Seleucid] that represent the shadowy kings of the South and of the North of the long sealed vision recorded in Daniel chapter 11. The abomination of desolation within chapter 11 would seem to be the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes IV ordering that a statue of Zeus be placed in the temple’s Holy of holies and a pig be sacrificed on the altar. But Jesus said that this physical abomination was only a type of an endtime abomination that desolates, which the angel told Daniel would come 1290 days after the regular burnt offering is taken away. Plus, in Daniel’s interpretation of king Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, Babylon, Media-Persia, and Greece will represent the gold head, silver arms and chest, and bronze belly and thighs, respectively, of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw. The two legs, now, because of the division of the image that occurs in the bronze portion, represent the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires, not the Roman Empire, which was not a divided empire when it conquered Greece. So one leg of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw represents the Egyptian/Greek Empire that ruled as the shadow and type of an endtime spiritual king of the South, while the other leg represents the Syrian/Greek Empire that ruled as the shadow and type of an endtime king of the North, with Nebuchadnezzar representing the shadow and type of the spiritual king of Babylon, the fallen Day Star, Lucifer (Isa 14:4-21). And no Rome, Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire, or United Europe is seen.

Since, now, the breaking of the Seleucid reign over the temple in present day Jerusalem by physical sons of light, the Maccabees, does not foreshadow, or form a copy and type of the endtime breaking of the spiritual king of the North’s reign over the spiritual temple [the Church] in heavenly Jerusalem by Christ Jesus—what the king of the North sees when the heavens open (cf. Dan 11:44-45; Rev 11:19—the shadow of the endtime spiritual fulfillment of the prophet Daniel’s visions ends with the abomination of desolation being set up 1290 days after the daily is taken away. And for physically circumcised Israel, the “daily sacrifice” that was a lamb morning and night became the “daily prayers” giving thanks to God after the destruction of the physical temple (ca 70 CE). For spiritually circumcised Israel, the daily was never the slaughter of physical lambs, but the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Thus, instead of “daily prayers” giving thanks, the daily is putting on Christ Jesus as a garment, with His righteousness covering the disciple in the form of Grace. And this daily putting on of Christ’s righteousness will cease when Israel is spiritually liberated from indwelling sin and death as physically circumcised Israel was physically liberated from bondage to Pharaoh at a first Passover. Therefore, at a second Passover liberation of Israel, the lives of men will again be given because Israel is precious in God’s eyes, honored, and loved (Isa 43:3-4). And this second Passover liberation of Israel will cause the first liberation not to be remembered (Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8).

Rome is not mention in the visions of Daniel because Rome does not belong in these visions. Yet, the doctrinal committee that has become an appellate functionary for the United Church of God (UCG) has inserted Rome into its reading of the visions of Daniel, thereby adding to Scripture and taking upon itself the curses of God that will send this fellowship to its physical death during the 1260 days preceding the breaking of the abomination that desolates. Tens of thousands will have their faith strained to the breaking point when they are slain by 8^th-day Christendom instead of going to a place of physical safety … for those disciples who keep the commandments yet lack the spirit of prophecy [the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy – Rev 19:10], the place of physical safety will be the grave. Sadly, though, disciples trapped within the administration of the UCG today believe that Herbert Armstrong had the spirit of prophecy, and that as long as they cling to what Armstrong taught, they too have the spirit of prophecy. Unfortunately for them, Armstrong did not understand the visions of Daniel. He could not understand them, for he did not live during that generic period identified as the time of the end. His rejection of additional prophetic understanding preceded the beginning of the time of the end by forty years.

So close yet so far from understanding: the Sabbatarian Churches of God, collectively, lack any understanding of biblical prophecy. And the United Church of God, the second largest of the Sabbatarian Churches of God [the Church of God, 7^th Day, is the largest] has now returned to the theological error that caused the demise of its parent fellowship, the Worldwide Church of God, which in the spring of 1962 rejected further prophetic revelation by God and choose to continue advocating what its founder then knew was a failed understanding of biblical prophecy.

The work of God, however, is not depended upon any one man, or upon any collection of men. It will be executed by Christ Jesus, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. So as the first three and a half years of Christ’s earthly ministry closely preceded the formation of the Church when He breathed on ten of His disciples and said, ‘“Receive the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion or Breath Holy]’” (John 20:22), the last three and a half years of Christ’s ministry (Rev 14:1-5) will closely follow when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28). The Church era or Church age fits in the lacunae between Calvary and when Satan is cast from heaven; between the accepted Wave Sheaf Offering (John 20:1, 17) and when the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9-14; Rev 11:15).

Disciples have assumed that when Jesus said that He is the alpha and omega, He meant that He was the entirety of the matter, the complete alphabet, but that was not His declaratory claim. He said He was the beginning and the end. However, based upon the assumptions made when reading Jesus’ words to Peter [‘“I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’” (Matt 16:18)], disciples have concluded that since the Church will not die and since Jesus is the beginning and the end, then He and the Church co-exist through the entirety of the Church era. But the Church is the Body of Christ. The gates of hell did not prevail against the physical body of the man Jesus of Nazareth although that body died on the cross. The grave, however, gave up the dead body of Jesus. Likewise, the gates of hell will give up the dead Body of Christ in a manner similar to how the garden tomb yielded up Jesus after three days and three nights.

Jesus’ statement about the gates of hell not prevailing is not a declaration that the Church will not die, but that death can no more hold the Church than death could hold His earthly body.

Jesus is the endtime Elijah to come, the Elijah that will restore all things, the Elijah that will turn the hearts of born-of-Spirit sons of God back to their Father lest their Father strike this earth with utter destruction. But there can be no restoration of the dead Body of Christ—no resurrection by faith—when doctrinal committees become appellate functionaries. Therefore, UCG has now cut itself off from participating in the great endtime harvest of firstfruits.

The apparent solidity of matter requires change, requires one moment to become the next moment so that matter can be repositioned to another location. Whether disclosed in the rapid expansion of the universe in its first few moments or in the rather slow recession of a glacier, one moment must be succeeded by the next moment to allow the changed status and position of matter to occur. Fossilization of matter permits static observation of matter. Fossilization of doctrine permits the printing of many books and booklets that won’t be affected by growth in grace and knowledge.

At the tip of the Thumb, one of the four men who came together in 2004 stole (yes, stole) the new ministry away from the other three, with this thief detailed in recorded documents filed with Huron County’s Recorder of Deeds. The three left were without the work they had planned, and they have since drifted away from Port Austin as the legal process slowly does what no one within the Sabbatarian Churches of God can do: reverse filed documents. The three are now far from the Thumb; the thief is entrenched in debt; and the new work actually proceeds forward in a manner unanticipated by the four when they initially came together.

A work of God cannot be foiled by a thief or by broken promises or by outright deceit or by the fossilization of doctrine. And for the sake of the Elect, and for the Elect, we should all be thankful. God is today doing a new thing, resurrecting the fossilized Body of Christ.

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