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The
Basics of Christian Typology An Outline of the Foundation ______________________ How to Begin For many people, the Holy Bible is the largest book they
will ever read, and because of its size, they will read a little here and a
little there, studying a particular passage by looking up other passages that
use the same word or relate to the same subject. This method of Bible study is
widely advocated. The books of the Bible have been divided into chapters and
verses to facilitate this type of Bible study, described by the prophet Isaiah
as the way by which drunkards of Ephraim (Isaiah 28:1) caused a people to
“fall backwards, and be broken, and snared, and taken” (v. 13). Yes, that is correct. Studying
the Bible by looking up related verses pertaining to a subject causes the
student to take these verses out of their context. The Bible is not intended to
be sliced into thin passages and reassembled together as if the student were
building the house of God from twigs. Rather, the Bible is the visible, physical
Word of God. It reveals to disciples what is written in the invisible,
spiritual Book of Life, kept in heaven and in which the names of disciples are
written, with these names and human histories forming epistles or letters from
Christ, “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not
on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Co 3:3). Translation from one language to
another is always a problem. Words are sounds or images to
which meaning has been assigned, but words do not come with their meanings
attached to them. The reader employs at a subconscious level a strategy for
assigning meaning to words, with this strategy given the lofty sounding name of
“exegesis”—how a person “exits” a written text,
or takes meaning from the text when this person leaves the text. How a person assigns meaning to
words is controlled by the “reading community” to which the person
belongs: the person will usually assign the same meaning to words as his or her
teacher assigned to these words. Without the consistent assignment of meaning,
a written text can mean anything. And even with a consistent assignment, words
undergo changes of meaning over time as one reading community is replaced by
another. Therefore, words do not have “absolute” meanings that are
unchanging over two thousand years, but blocks of words [as opposed to single
words] better resist changes of meaning, the reason why the Bible is to be read
in stories that have a beginning and an end. These stories will usually start
with a passage of genealogy and end with the next passage of genealogy. When meaning is assigned to long
passages of story, the likelihood for extended mistranslation is greatly
reduced. But God knew all of this when He confused the languages at The use of the visible things of
this world to reveal the invisible things of God forms the basis for
“typological exegesis,” the means by which flesh and blood
disciples who cannot bodily enter heaven can “peer” into the
heavenly realm as if using a periscope. Through seeing darkly, or through the
interplay of shadows, disciples are able to “see” spiritual things,
including the entirety of the plan of God. And when perceiving earthly
“types” as shadows and copies of heaven things, the problems of
translation nearly disappear. If a translator gets this word wrong or that word
wrong, the “story” nevertheless gets told in sufficient detail that
the shadow of a spiritual thing is seen by those who are spiritually minded, or
said another way, by those who have the mind of Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul said that as a
skilled master builder, he laid the foundation for the house of God, which is
Jesus Christ, and that no one else can lay a different foundation (1 Co
3:10-11). This foundation is for the In his vision, Christ Jesus tells
John that He, Jesus, is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the
beginning and the end (Rev 22:13). Jesus is the cornerstone of the foundation
that Paul laid; He is also the capstone of the The person who looks for another
physical temple to be built by Jews in the modern nation of In his first recorded epistle or
letter to the saints at Corinth, the Apostle Paul said that he could not
address them as spiritual people (1 Co 3:1), but as people of the flesh, as
spiritual infants in need of milk. Paul did not give these saints solid food;
he gave them only spiritual milk. Likewise, the writer of Hebrews tells these
Jewish converts that they ought to be teachers, but they were able only to
digest spiritual milk, not solid food (Heb 5:11-14). The writer of Hebrews then
says, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go
on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and
of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands,
the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment” (Heb 6:1-2). And here
is seen the foundation of the temple, the milk of God’s word: ·
The
foundation begins with repentance from disobedience and dead works. Nothing a
person does in this world is considered “good,” for only God is good
(Luke 18:19). But the faith that caused Abraham to believe God (Gen 15:6) was
counted to him as righteousness. Likewise, the faith that will cause a person
to leave the ways of this world and to begin to keep the precepts of the law,
all of them, especially the Sabbath commandment, will be counted to that person
as righteousness. ·
The
washing of hands and of the body does not cleanse the inner person. Water
cleanses the flesh, not those parts of a person that it does not wet. So water
does not cleanse the inside of the cup, where greed and wickedness reside (Luke
11:39). Therefore, the washing of hands is spiritually meaningless. ·
Only
the death of this inner person through repentance and baptism will cleanse the
inside of the cup. Thus, the ritual washing of hands is a physical thing that
precedes and reveals the cleansing of the inside of the cup when a person
comes, by faith, to Christ, repents of sin and turns from disobedience, is
baptized, and begins to live by the precepts of the law. The English translation of the
Holy Bible that will be used throughout this paper is the English Standard
Version, published in 2001 CE. It is not the only modern translation that comes
humanly close to reproducing a reliable text, but it is one of the better
modern translations—as is the New Revised Standard Version, and the New
American Standard Version. The most often encountered English translation is
the King James Version of 1611 CE. The principle problem with this translation
is the extent to which language usage has changed over the past 400 years. ______________________ Introduction Qualifications of a servant of God who teaches others Concerning the qualifications of an overseer, or of a
servant of God who teaches others the principles of faith, what the Apostle
Paul wrote to Timothy (1 Tim 3:1-13) remains the benchmark for service. Above reproach and must not be a novice The person must be above reproach and must not be a
novice. Yet the practical situation that exists within the Body of Christ in
this endtime era is that almost everyone is a novice, is still learning what
Paul knew, and today does not know how to take meaning from Scripture. The shepherds that came before
under the Old Testament were hirelings, thieves, and robbers (John 10:8), but
the good shepherd is Christ Jesus (v.
11). All disciples are sheep, including the ones who are servants or overseers.
Christ will judge between sheep and sheep, rams and male goats (Ezek 34:17); He
will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep (v. 20). He shall rescue His flock from the sheep that prey upon
their fellow sheep (v. 21-22). Physical body of Christ and the spiritual Body The physical body of Christ forms the shadow and copy of
the spiritual Body. As Jesus’ body was crucified on the cross, died on
the cross, taken down and buried, then resurrected from death after three days
(for the gates of Hades could not prevail over Jesus’ body) and rose to
be accepted by God, the Church that Jesus built—the Church that is His
spiritual Body—was also crucified with Christ, also died from loss of its
divine Breath, also buried in the heart of the earth, and is only now
undergoing resurrection to life at the end of the third day of a spiritual creation
week, for the gates of Hades will not prevail over this spiritual Body as these
gates could not prevail over Jesus’ physical body. The Greek idiom translated as the
possessive pronouns “my” and “mine” is directly
translated as “of me.” When Jesus said to Peter, /@Æ6@*@:ZFT :@L J¬< ¦6680F\"</or I will build of me the
Church [ekklesia] (Matt 16:18), the idiomatic phrase /of me/ suggests that the ¦6680F\"< is constructed of Christ Jesus as God; that Jesus is the building
material used to form the ¦6680F\"<. And it is from this sense that the Church is the Body of Christ. The Apostle Peter and Jesus’ Church The early Greek and Church is built on the foundation that is Christ Jesus The Apostle Peter could only be a type of the One upon
whom the Church is built; for the Church is built on the foundation that the
Apostle Paul laid as a master builder (1 Co 3:10-11), and this foundation is
Christ Jesus. So with Peter, the Church died in the 1st-Century CE.
And as Peter will be resurrected to life when his judgment is revealed, so too
will the Church be resurrected to life when the Holy Spirit is poured out on
all flesh (Joel 2:28) when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of the
Most High God and of His Christ (Rev 11:15 – cf. Rev 11:15-19; Dan 7:9-14). Receipt of the Holy Spirit is an individual occurrence today Until the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh in a
manner foreshadowed by the Holy Spirit visibly
filling or empowering the first disciples on that day of Pentecost following
Calvary (Acts 2:1-4), receipt of the Holy Spirit is an individual occurrence
dependant upon the will of the Father in drawing the person from the world (John
6:44, 65). The prophet Jeremiah wrote, Behold, the days are coming,
declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
the house of Judah … no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each
his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive
their iniquities, and I will remember their sin no more. (31:31-34) This is the new covenant that Christendom claims to be
under, but is there a need to teach neighbor and brother to “Know the
Lord”? Today, do both neighbor and brother know the Lord? The answer is,
no. The justification for any ministry is to teach neighbor and brother to know God. This is the reason to train
pastors. The evidence of history is that
the promised new covenant has not been implemented. Unless a person accepts Jesus in this lifetime the person will spend
eternity in the flames of hell is false! It is not the Father’s will that anyone perish but
that all come to God, for God is not a respecter of persons, offering salvation
to one person and not to another. Thus, the most basic fundamental of visible Christendom that unless a person
accepts Jesus in this lifetime the person will spend eternity in the flames of
hell is false! It is the Father’s prerogative as to when He raises a
person from the dead (John 5:21). He can raise a person in this era while the
person remains physically alive to be one of the firstfruits, symbolically
represented by the early barley harvest of ancient Judgment is today on the first fruits Judgment is today on the household of God (1 Pet 4:17),
not upon those who have not been raised from the dead as one of the
firstfruits. Great White Throne Judgment The name “the great White Throne Judgment”
(Rev 20:11-15) implies that those who are raised from death at that time are
then judged, that they were not previously judged. Therefore, those raised from
the dead in the great White Throne Judgment were not, in their physical
lifetimes, part of the household of God. They will be judged by what is written
in the books, and some of them will have their names written in the book of
life [see Rom 2:12-16]. Words Words are linguistic icons that are either visibly
inscribed or orally heard, and to every word in whatever language, meaning must
be assigned by the auditor [the one hearing the oral icon or reading the
inscribed icon]. Those who speak two or more languages should understand this;
for until the speaker is fluent in the second language, the uttered words of
this second language have no meaning to the person learning the language. But
meanings will be assigned by a community or a collective of hearers and
readers, not by individuals. Concerning Scripture, this community is all those
who hear the voice of Jesus (John 10:3-5 – read the entire chapter). It
is not the world; nor is it those who are hostile to God. One “test” to determine whether a person has truly been
born of Spirit The Apostle Paul gives only one “test” to
determine whether a person has truly been born of Spirit: “For the mind
that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to
God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please
God” (Rom 8:7-8). Thus, those human beings who do not have the Spirit of
Christ and the Spirit of the Father dwelling in them (who have not been born of
Spirit) have their minds set on the flesh and do not submit to God’s law.
So the person who claims to be born of Spirit but who cannot submit to
God’s law is a liar and a member of the synagogue of Satan, for the
person remains a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3) and remains in bondage to
disobedience (Rom 11:32). Sin still has dominion over this person, whereas sin
has no dominion over those who have been born of Spirit (Rom 6:14). Hear the voice of Jesus with the mind To hear the voice of Jesus is not to hear with ears, but
to “hear” with the mind, and to submit to God’s law means
keeping the precepts of His law (Rom 2:26), all of them, not eight or nine of
the commandments. The person who refuses to keep the commandment the person
considers least (usually the Sabbath) reveals his or her continued bondage to
sin through his or her refusal. This person has not been born of Spirit
regardless of what the person claims; this person remains hostile to God for
the person truly born of Spirit will cease transgressing the law when his or
her transgressions are made apparent to the person. Sinning will, for the
person truly born of Spirit, then only come from the weakness of the flesh and
not from intentional refusal to obey. Typological exegesis English language speakers have borrowed the Greek loan
word “exegesis” to describe the act of taking meaning from a written text, or how a person exits a text;
so exegesis pertains to the strategy
employed by the auditor to assign meaning to words. “Typological
exegesis” is, then, the strategy of assigning meaning to words through typology. Historical-grammatico exegesis Typological exegesis is diametrically opposed to
historical-grammatico exegesis, the strategy employed by the Greek and Precept-upon-precept exegesis Some Sabbatarian ministries (especially those that descend
from the work of Herbert Armstrong) employ precept-upon-precept exegesis. But
it was the drunk priests of Ephraim who taught Israel using line upon line,
precept upon precept so that this house of God would fall backwards and be
broken, snared and taken (Isa 28:13 – read all of Isaiah chap 28). The visible things of this world reveal the invisible
things of God Concerning typological exegesis, the Apostle Paul wrote, For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to
them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely,
his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since
the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. (Rom 1:18-20) In condensed form, the Apostle Paul says that the visible things of this world reveal the invisible things of God, and this is the
underpinning construct of typological exegesis. One of the visible things of this world is recorded history as well as
Scripture itself. First the natural, and then the spiritual To the above the second construct of typological exegesis
is added: Paul writes concerning the resurrection of the dead, It is sown a natural body; it is
raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual
body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living
being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the
spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. (1 Co
15:44-46) Typological exegesis employs the
above two principles that are supported in Scripture: 1. The visible reveals the invisible. 2. The physical precedes the
spiritual. Therefore, the visible, physical things of this world
reveal and precede the invisible, spiritual things of God, which allows the
historical record to be used as prophecy. Some disciples will say that a
person takes typology too far when it is employed as a prophetic tool, but the
Apostle Paul wrote to the saints at You yourselves are our letter of
recommendation, written on our [alternate reading: your] hearts, to be known
and read by all. And you show that you are a letter [epistle] from Christ
delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,
not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Co 3:2-3) Scripture discloses the events that happened to natural If the lives lived by the saints at Typology uses “narrative units Typology uses “narrative units,” segments of
story that are complete within themselves, as the basis for extracting meaning.
These narrative units usually begin
with a passage of genealogy and end with a passage of genealogy: e.g., Genesis
2:4 through Genesis 4:26; Genesis 6:1 through Genesis 9:29; and Genesis 11:1
through 11:9. But these narrative units
can be of much greater length and have less obvious beginnings and endings.
Regardless, these units are the
visible, physical descriptions of invisible, spiritual events about which
humankind would have no knowledge if these events were not revealed by their
shadows. Genesis 2:4 example The unit that begins with Genesis 2:4 forms a summarizing
shadow of the history of the Church from the physical birth of Jesus through
the third part of humankind [Zech 13:9] being born of Spirit when the Holy
Spirit is poured out on all flesh. Aligning the first Adam’s receipt of
physical breath (Gen 2:7) with the last Adam’s receipt of divine Breath
(Matt 3:16), and with the deep sleep that God brought upon the first Adam (Gen
2:21) with Calvary, the first Eve becomes a type of the Church, and her birth
pains (Matt 24:8) as she brings forth two sons constitute the first half of the
seven endtime years of tribulation; her third son, Seth, represents the third
part of humankind that will be born of Spirit halfway through the seven endtime
years. Until a human being receives “life” from the divine
Breath of God, the person is dead and a spiritual corpse Unrighteousness and ungodliness, the natural attributes of
men consigned to disobedience (again Rom 11:32), precedes the righteousness and
godliness of human beings born of Spirit; and unrighteousness visibly reveals
what it means to be invisibly righteous by faith, for it was the faith of
Abraham that was counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:3). Thus,
spiritual life follows physical death. Jesus said to the physically
living Pharisees then hearing His words with their ears, “‘Truly,
truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life’”
(John 5:24). Unless these physically living Pharisees heard and believed, they
would remain “dead” and without life. So regardless of whether
breathing or not breathing, a human being is a spiritual corpse as the first
Adam was a physical corpse until the Lord God [YHWH Elohim] breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. Until a
human being receives “life” from the divine Breath of God, the
person is dead and a spiritual corpse. No one truly needs a teacher once the person understands typology The reading of Scripture that typological exegesis
produces is not one man’s interpretation even when readings radically
differ from what has been previously taught by the Greek and This manual exists to transform novices into mature teachers The purpose of this manual is to explicate typology so
that the person who was a novice can go forth to teach as a person mature in
the faith … this manual exists to transform novices into mature teachers
of the mysteries of God. And for that purpose, basic questions must be
addressed. Assignments:
____________ Who or What is God? First article of faith for every Christian is belief that God
is. The claim of Scripture is that God [1,ÎH – or in Roman characters, Theos] is the Creator of all that is[2].
This claim is accepted by faith by those who are disciples of Christ Jesus. Any
physical evidence used to prove this claim can be as easily used to refute this
claim. Evidence of a sudden creation is extant in the geological record, but
this evidence of a sudden creation is also used as evidence to support the Big
Bang Theory. Therefore, the first article of faith for every Christian is belief that God is, and
that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Everyone begins his or her
journey of faith by accepting that God is. Three major visible religions claim to be “people of
the Book. Three major visible
religions claim to be “people of the Book” and to descend from the
patriarch Abraham, two through physical descent [Islam and Judaism] and one
through spiritual descent [Christianity]. And these three have fought each
other as jealous siblings from their beginnings. So the promise made to Abraham
that the deity he worshiped would make of him one great nation (Gen 12:2) has
not been fulfilled by these visible
religions. Theos is the God of the living, not the dead. God [Theos]
revealed Himself to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus said that
this Theos is the God of the living,
not the dead (Matt 22:32)[3].
And here understanding must be used; for the living are those who have either
been born of Spirit or have the promise of inheriting eternal life. Jesus said,
“‘For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also
the Son gives life to whom he will’” (John 5:21) … if the
Father raises the dead, to whom does the Son give life? Can he give life to
those who are already alive? Both the Father and the Son must give life to a disciple. The mysteries of God is that the Father gives life to the
dead through receipt of His divine Breath, and then the Son, to whom all
judgment has been given, will give “life” to those who are alive in
a tent of flesh through the perishable flesh putting on immortality. So both
the Father and the Son must give life to a disciple before this son of God
receives a glorified body. Therefore, the Son does, indeed, give life to whom
He chooses, with those whom he chooses being determined by their judgment. So
it is not enough to be born of Spirit. A person must also put on immortality or
the person will perish in fire. Eternal life is the gift of God. The power to give life is the power of God. No person has
spiritual life until the Father gives this life to the person through Him
raising the person from the dead by a second birth by Spirit. Eternal life is the gift of God (Rom
6:23), not something inherited from the person’s human father. To say
otherwise reveals the extent to which the person believes the serpent’s
lie first told to Eve that she would not surely die. Theos — 1,ÎH The Theos of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the Logos
who, in the beginning, was with God [Theon]
and who was God [Theos] (John 1:1-2).
This Theos came as His Son, His only
(John 3:16), to be born as the man Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14). He became the
Son of the Father [Theon] when the
divine Breath of the Father [Pneuma
’Agion] descended upon Him as a dove (Matt 3:16-17) and gave the man
Jesus a second birth as the beloved son of the Father—Jesus came as His
own Son, and He became the Son of the Father when the Holy Spirit descended
upon Him as a dove. And in this model, Jesus fulfilled all righteousness (v. 15). Greek endings os and on note: Greek uses grammatical gender. A
masculine singular noun in nominative case takes the /os/ case ending, whereas a neuter singular noun takes the /on/ case ending. Theos and Theon cannot be
the same entity or deity. The Logos [7`(@H], using the masculine singular case ending, is Theos, a noun that also uses the masculine singular ending. But Theon [1,`<] does not use the masculine singular ending, but the neuter singular. Jesus of Nazareth came as Theos’ only Son to reveal the
Father. The man Jesus of Nazareth came as Theos’ only Son to reveal the Father [Theon] to those whom the Father has made spiritually alive through
receipt of His divine Breath after the pattern through which Jesus fulfilled
all righteousness … the world did not know the Father before Jesus came
to reveal Him, and does not know the Father now (John 17:25). Again, Jesus
revealed the Father to the firstfruits in an age quickly drawing to a close.
And to this must be added that the world does not now know Christ Jesus, the
beginning and the end (Rev 22:13) that was concealed by the creation (Eccl
3:11). But those whom the Father has raised from the dead—to repeat, they
were spiritually dead even though they were physically living—know the
Father because the man Jesus made the Father known to His first disciples who,
by their testimonies coupled to the testimonies of Moses and the Prophets,
reveal what could not be known through observation or measurement. In the beginning were two [Theos & Theon] who
functioned as one spirit. In the beginning were two who functioned as one as if
married: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness’” (Gen 1:26); “So God created man in his own image
… male and female he created them” (v. 27); “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his
mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen
2:24). A visible, physical man and a woman as one flesh, therefore, reveal the
invisible, spiritual things of God, with these invisible attributes being that
in the beginning were two [Theos &
Theon] who functioned as one spirit. Thus, the assignment of singularity
[as opposed to “unity” to produce “one”] to the two
reveals that the person knows neither Christ Jesus nor the Father. Tetragrammaton The two who were in the beginning are disclosed in the
Hebrew linguistic icons used for God: Elohim
and the Tetragrammaton YHWH. In
Hebrew, the word or linguistic icon for /God/ is El as in El Shaddai or
“God Almighty” (from Gen 17:1). Elohim,
now, is the regular plural [the “im” ending] of Eloah, the linguistically singular noun,
and Eloah deconstructs to /El/+ /ah/, with the /ah/
radical representing “breath,” either vocalized or aspirated. Thus,
Elohim is /El/+/ah/ + /El/+/ah/
an undetermined number of times. But the Tetragrammaton gives the multiple:
two. For YHWH deconstructs to /YH/ or Yah (see Ps 146:1a; 148:1a; 149:1a in Heb.) and /WH/, with the /H/ again linguistically representing “Breath.” So what
is grammatically seen is that the Logos
who was Theos, with His Breath or
Spirit, is Yah, whom Moses and the
seventy saw (Ex 24:9-11); for no human being has seen the Father or Theon (John 1:18) at any time. Narrative of Scripture begins with marriage and ends with marriage. What the creation or eternity [Heb: olam] has concealed (again, Eccl 3:11) is that in the beginning was
a marriage that ended with the death of Theos,
the Helpmate to Theon, when He
entered His creation as His only Son, and in the end will be the marriage of
the glorified Son to glorified disciples, who will be in the position of
“helpmate” to the One who was Theos.
The narrative of Scripture begins with marriage and ends with marriage. Pneuma The first disciples heard the words of the man Jesus with
their ears as did the scribes and Pharisees. These words were controlled
modulations of air: they were moving air, pneuma,
the Greek linguistic icon borrowed by English speakers as a root for common
words such as “pneumatic tools” and “pneumonia.” To a 1st-Century
Greek speaker, pneuma was either deep
breath or wind or an invisible force. The Greek modifier The Greek modifier hagios/hagion
[again, Greek uses linguistic gender with the os case ending employed for masculine singular nouns in nominative
case, and the on case ending employed
for neuter singular nouns] would translate as the English icon
“holy.” In Greek, an apostrophe before the first vowel if a capital
or above if lower case indicates rough breathing; thus /ha/ would be written as /V/, or as /U/. The Holy Spirit The Greek icon phrase /A<,L:" U(4@</, written in Roman characters as Pneuma ’Agion, would be neuter
singular from the on case ending, and
this ending agrees with Theon. As
such the Holy Spirit is the divine Breath of the Father and could be translated
as Breath Holy or Wind Holy or Spirit Holy. All would be valid translations.
This Breath or Wind or Spirit is not that of Theos, the Logos …
in inscription the Breath of Theos
would be written as /A<,L:" U(4@H/, but in Scripture this Breath is
only seen after the man Jesus had His former glory returned to Him (John 17:5),
and it is seen in the icon phrase as /A<,L:" OD4FJ@L/, translated as the “Spirit
of Christ” (Rom 8:9). And this Breath of Christ has to, by context, be
different from the Breath of the Father seen in the icon phrase /A<,L:" J@L ¦(,ÆD"<J@H [0F@L< ¦6 <,6DT</, translated as the “Spirit of the (One) raising Jesus from
(the) dead” (Rom 8:11). Paul writes of two Spirits or Breaths. So the Apostle Paul writes of two Spirits or Breaths, one
that belongs to Jesus (Rom 8:9) and
one that belongs to the Father, who resurrected Jesus from the dead (v. 11). Paul consistently addresses the
Father and the Son in his epistles, while never sending greetings to the saints
from a third personage—and Paul separates the Spirit of Christ from the
Spirit of the Father, which is the Spirit by which the Father raises the dead
(again, John 5:21). So for Paul, the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion] does not have personhood but is a force in the
heavenly realm that equates to physical breath or wind in this physical realm. Theon is seen with clarity in the Old
Testament as the Ancient of Days. In the beginning God was two who functioned as one as if
the two were married. The creation concealed the existence of the second entity
from physically circumcised Israel even though the plural pronoun is properly
used in Genesis 1:26 [“‘Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness’”]; in Genesis 3:22 [“‘Behold, the man has
become like one of us in knowing good and evil’”]; and in Genesis
11:7 [“‘Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so
that they may not understand one another’s speech’”]. The
only place where Theon is seen with
clarity in the Old Testament is as the Ancient of Days in Daniel’s vision
(7:9-10). Trinitarians Personhood was not assigned to the divine Breath of God
until the 5th Century CE. It was an errant assignment, not made by saints
who heard the voice of Jesus but by tares [false grain] pandering to the Roman
Emperor. The triune deity [the Trinity] of the visible Christian Church is a construct that sprang from the heads
of men as the Greek goddess Athena sprang from the forehead of Zeus. Unitarians Arian Christians [Unitarians] deny the divinity of Christ
by teaching that the Father, Theon,
created all that is. Both Trinitarians and Unitarians blaspheme the Father and the
Son. So both Trinitarians and Unitarians blaspheme the Father
and the Son, which will be forgiven them if they do not also commit blasphemy
again the Holy Spirit by taking sin back into themselves after being liberated
from indwelling sin and death. The visible Christian Church has,
worldwide, blasphemed the name of God as physically circumcised Allah The name Allah
is the Arabic equivalent to the Hebrew Eloah;
so followers of Mohammad have no knowledge of the Father. Their minds remain
set on the flesh and on those things that are physical. And the primary
theological characteristic of every belief paradigm that focuses on the flesh
is belief that human beings are born with immortal souls. Assignments:
___________________ Where or What is Heaven? Heaven as space beyond the stars Early generations located heaven as space beyond the
stars. The 17th-Century English scholar, philosopher, statesman, and
poet, John Milton in his masterpiece Paradise
Lost used the Ptolemaic astrological system even though he was aware of the
work of Nicolaus Copernucus (1473-1543) that had the earth rotating on its axis
and revolving around the sun; for only in the Ptolemaic system could Milton get
heaven and hell outside of the creation. And that has remained the problem for
those with scientific backgrounds until the second half of the 20th-Century
when the philosophical concept of multiple dimensions received acceptance. Heaven is the primal dimension Heaven is the primal dimension where energy has not become
“locked” into the four known forces (weak, strong,
electro-magnetic, and gravitational). As such “heaven” coexists
with the four unfurled dimensions of length, breadth, height, and space-time,
but heaven is “timeless” for time and the passage of time can be written
as mathematic functions of gravity. The properties of a timeless
dimension taxes the imaginations of scholars and theologians, but what can be
said with certainty about an absence of time is that there is no decay. All
that is in this dimension must coexist in unity as one entity, and must coexist
with all that will be. And this mandate to coexist precludes salvation being a
many spoke wheel—there is one Church and one way and there can be no
other way, the reality of Jesus saying that He was “the way” to
salvation. And every theology that focuses on the flesh and on improving the
flesh (e.g. Buddhism) is not of God. Significance to the presence and absence of
“light A point on a two dimensional plane when encountering a
cylinder would not be able to perceive any of the cylinder’s height, for
this point is confined to two dimensions. The point has no concept of height.
Thus, this point would conclude that the cylinder is an arc, or a circle. Only
by the cylinder casting its shadow onto the two dimensional plane could this
point determine the cylinder’s height, and this determination would be
made by observing where the light was and where the light was absent (or where
it was dark). And if this point did not know to attach significance to the
presence and absence of “light” then the cylinder’s shadow
that reveals the height of the cylinder would have no meaning to this point. Only through shadows can human beings “see” into the
heavenly realm. Take the above example and move to more dimensions, for
human beings are not points on a two dimensional plane; they are enlivened jars
of clay in four dimensions. And human beings will have no more knowledge of
what occurs in another dimension—heaven—than a point on a two
dimensional plane has of height. Only through shadows can human beings
“see” into the heavenly realm or into the supra-dimensional realm
that is heaven, but these shadows are not cast upon the earth’s
geography. Unrighteousness is, now, spiritual darkness. Shadows made in the heavenly realm are cast upon the
mental typography (mental landscape) of humankind, with this mental typography
revealed though the actions or acts of fleshly human beings. Unrighteousness
is, now, spiritual darkness stemming from something or someone in the heavenly
realm blocking the “light” that is God. And it is the prince of
this world that blocks the light. Human nature is a
“received” nature as evidenced by King Nebuchadnezzar having his human nature taken from him and being
given the nature of a beast, an ox, in an instant (Dan chap 4). For the seven
years that the king grazed in the pasture, he did not know he was a human being
even though his biological hormones would have remained as they were. What he
had taken from him are the attributes associated with personhood, including
self awareness and a need to worship a deity. And shadows cast in the heavenly
realm “fall” upon these received natures of man and beast; for even
the nature of the great predators will be changed (Isa 11:6-9) when Satan is
cast from heaven (Rev 12:9-10) and the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh
(Joel 2:28). The landscape of geographical pre-Flood The mental typography of humankind is invisible, and as
such it is revealed through the landscape of geographical pre-Flood Biblical prophecies are only about
these lands. As such, biblical prophecies are spiritually about mental
typographies [or landscapes] even though they were initially given about
peoples on specific lands within the parameter of pre-Flood Presence of life and the absence of life cannot
coexist Since heaven is timeless or without the passing of one
moment into the next moment, all that has life in heaven has everlasting life
for the moment is everlasting—and the presence of life and the absence of
life cannot coexist within one entity in the same moment. But without the
passing of one moment into the next moment, all life must function together as
one entity. Any conflict will produce the gridlock of a paradox. All change
must be able to coexist in unity with what is. The creation is a glamorous death chamber Therefore, when iniquity [lawlessness] was found in an
anointed cherub (Ezek 28:11-15) the anointed cherub would have caused humanly
unimaginable problems. This anointed cherub (and the angels who supported him)
had to be immediately cast from the presence of God. And the creation was
produced as somewhere change could occur, where what had life could die, and
actually, had to die: the creation is a glamorous death chamber. Assignments:
_____________________ What is Sin? Sin or iniquity is, simply, the transgression of the law. Sin or iniquity is, simply, the transgression of the law
(1 John 3:4). The person who breaks the law in one point breaks the law (James
2:10), and is a sinner, having presented him or herself as a willing or
unwilling servant to sin. Concept of being consigned to disobedience Before a disciple is born of Spirit, the person was
consigned to sin (Rom 11:32) as a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3). The person
had no choice, but was condemned to disobedience because of one man, the first
Adam. It is this concept of being consigned to disobedience that separates
Western Christendom’s understanding of free will from both Eastern
Christendom’s and Rabbinical Judaism’s. In both the Greek Church’s
and Judaism’s understanding of sin a person can, through good works,
prevail upon God to accept the person, thereby making The Roman Church & original sin In the Roman Church, Antithesis to original sin is a second birth by Spirit The antithesis to original sin is a second birth by
Spirit, with this new creature born free, sin having no dominion over this new
creature (cf. Rom 8:1-2; Rom 6:14).
The redemptive work of God is not a regeneration of immortal souls doomed to
hell, but the “renewing” of the creature through a second birth,
the creation of a new life within the tent of flesh of the old self. And
because sin no longer has dominion over these new creatures in their fleshly
tents [i.e., human beings who have been called-out of this world], these
called-out ones are today under judgment, with their judgments to be revealed
(1 Co 4:5) upon Christ’s return … Jesus said those who hear His
words and believe the One who sent Him do not come under judgment, but pass
from death to life (John 5:24). He also said not to be surprised when some are
called forth from death to life, and some are called to condemnation (vv. 28-29). For the new creature that
returns to sin when sin has no dominion over this new creature spurns the mercy
extended by a second birth, and thereby mocks both the Father and the Son. When a person is born of Spirit When a person is born of Spirit, there is “no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). The person has
been set free from disobedience [the law of sin and death], and can now live by
the commandments of God, which before, while consigned to disobedience, was not
possible. The person was not previously able to present his or her members to
God as instruments for righteousness (Rom 6:13), for sin had dominion over the
person (v. 14). The redemptive work of God is about setting free human beings. The redemptive work of God is about setting free human
beings who have been consigned to disobedience because their father (however
many times removed) is the first Adam, but this work is not that of human
beings. No person can force the Father to draw a person from the world and give
to this person a second birth. And unless the Father draws the person, he or
she remains consigned to disobedience. There is nothing anyone can do to
extract this person from disobedience … Martin Luther made the
observation that the law seemed to exist to prove that it couldn’t be
kept—and it cannot be kept by those who remain consigned to disobedience.
They are not free to keep it. And being redeemed from sin is all about being
born of Spirit so that the liberated person can keep the commandments. Disciples are not set free to transgress the law, but set free to keep
the law. The dogma of visible Christendom would have the born of
Spirit disciple free from having to keep the commandments of God, thereby
making this disciple an unwitting bondservant of sin, whereas the “law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2) sets a person free to keep
the commandments of God. Christendom’s
prevailing dogma is the exact opposite of what the Apostle Paul taught.
Disciples are not set free to transgress the law, but set free to keep the law.
Obedience equals life. Disobedience is sin, which equals death. Disciples have
been set free from sin and death so that they can choose life, which comes
through obedience by faith to God. Redemptive work of God is simple The redemptive work of God is simple: Jesus said,
‘“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them’” (Matt 5:17).
One reason He came was to demonstrate that when a person is not in bondage to
disobedience, the person can live by the commandments of God. And when
liberated from bondage to sin, the person is liberated from death. Twice born means that the person has two
lives Twice born means that the person has two lives, one that
animates the flesh [the birth by water], and the other that is of Spirit. The
mystery that the Apostle Paul did not understand (Rom 7:15) is that the
flesh—because the Body of Christ is presently dead, crucified with
Christ—remains in bondage to disobedience until the Second Passover. The
new creature born of Spirit and domiciled in the tent of flesh is born
liberated from disobedience, and free to keep the law of God. But this new
creature must wrestle against the tent of flesh as if fighting its way out of a
paper bag. It must strive against the indwelling law of sin and death (Rom
7:21-25), and it must ultimately prevail. Grace covers those times when this
new creature loses battles to indwelling sin. But if this new creature will not
or does not fight against this indwelling sin, this new creature will perish in
the lake of fire. Inner written code inscribed on tablets of
flesh [the heart and the mind] of a spiritually circumcised Israelite The fight into which the infant son of God is born can be
won, and has been won by Christ Jesus. A disciple gives Christ’s victory
to Satan, however, when the disciple makes him or herself a willing servant of
sin … why would Christians willingly present themselves to Satan as
bondservants to sin? No Christian would willingly commit adultery, yes? No? How
about murder? Jesus disclosed the relationship between the old written code
that regulated the actions of the hand and the body of a natural Israelite, not
born of Spirit, and the inner written code inscribed on tablets of flesh [the
heart and the mind] of a spiritually circumcised Israelite: You have heard that it was said to
those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable
to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his
brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable
to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the
Gehenna of fire. So if you are
offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be
reconciled to your brother, and then come offer your gift. (Matt 5:21-24) You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in
his heart. (vv. 27-28) From hand to heart, body to mind … the old written
code that governed the actions of the hand and the body of an Israelite moved
inward to govern the desires of the heart and the thoughts of the
mind—same code. Not a new set of commandments, but the same commandments
inside the cup, inside the clay pot that will be made into a vessel for honored
use or into a vessel of wrath. And when the inside of the cup is clean, the whole
cup is clean. Sabbath commandment The Sabbath commandment, now, does not move to another
day, but remains the seventh day. However, under the inner written code, the
Sabbath commandment does not regulate what the hand and body does, but the
desires of the hearts and the thoughts of the mind. And if the desires of the
heart are to enter into fellowship with God—to enter into His
rest—then the disciple will not do those things that are not of God; for
when the inside of the cup enters into God’s rest, the whole cup enters
into God’s rest. Assignments:
_____________________ What is meant by Grace? Not under the law but under grace The Apostle Paul wrote, “For sin will have no
dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace” (Rom
6:14), but what did he mean by using the Greek word /PVD4</ (in Roman characters “charin/charis”), translated as
grace? Especially in light of Paul also writing, concerning his thorn in the
flesh, that God said to him, “‘My grace [PVD4H] is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in
weakness’” (2 Co 12:9). And how would Paul have perceived the
modern tension that has developed between the concepts that grace is sufficient
to cover any sin, and that grace does not free disciples from their responsibility
to behave rightly by keeping the precepts of the law? Dispute between Pelagius and Augustine One of visible Christianity’s most enduring disputes
was between Pelagius and Augustine with the
British monk Pelagius holding that even under grace disciples were still
obliged to morally keeping the law, a position that approximated that of the
Greek Church. Augustine, in the argument that officially prevailed, contended that
grace only was sufficient for salvation[4]. Good does not come from evil
regardless of whether that evil is covered by grace. It isn’t the son of
disobedience who continues in disobedience that is under grace, but rather, the
person who no longer presents his or her members to sin as instruments of
unrighteousness. This is the person over whom sin no longer has dominion. The problem with the visible Church’s teachings about
grace and freewill The problem with the visible Church’s teachings
about grace and freewill comes from the visible Church’s failure to
understand what it means to be born of Spirit. The tension between the two
opposing concepts of grace comes from not comprehending Jesus’ earthly
[physical] illustration (John 3:12). Nicodemus did not understand, nor can
anyone else who is not born of Spirit. Concept of a person being physically born with
eternal life is contrary to Scripture. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is twice asked what a person
must do to inherit everlasting life (cf.
Luke 10:25; 18:18), and His response both times pertained to the law …
asking about what is required to “inherit” implies the person knows
that he or she does not then possess what will be inherited. The concept of a
person being physically born with eternal life is contrary to Scripture (an
immortal soul is eternal life). Everlasting life is the gift of God (Rom 6:23),
given when the person is born of Spirit and thus has life in the spiritual or
heavenly realm. Prior to being born of Spirit, the person only has the life
given to the first Adam, this life making the person a breathing creature, a
nephesh, like other nephesh that are the beasts of the field. Solomon wrote, I said in my heart with regard to
the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves
are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the
beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same
breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to
one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all returns. (Eccl 3:18-20). It is vanity to believe that
humankind, prior to being born of Spirit, have life that differs from the lives
of beasts; it is also not biblical. Nevertheless, Augustine of Hippo wrote, This faith [Christianity]
maintains, and it must be believed: neither the soul nor the human body may
suffer complete annihilation, but the impious shall rise again into everlasting
punishment, and the just into life everlasting. (On Christian Doctrine. Book 1: XXI. Trans. D.W. Robertson, Jr.) Augustine was wrong. The body is dust, the base elements
of the earth. At death it returns to dust that is blown about by the winds of
his earth. It is stone ground into fine flour; thus, it is a shadow and type of
cereal grains that have inherent life within them, with this life able to bring
forth many kernels of grain from one kernel whereas one stone is unable to
bring forth another stone. Pneuma, psuche, and soma The Apostle Paul says that the wages of sin is death,
“but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
(Rom 6:23). Jesus said of the twelve He sent out that they were psuche and soma, breath and body (Matt 10:28). These first disciples had not,
when sent out, received birth-from-above in the form of receipt of the Holy
Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion]; they
did not have the Holy Spirit. Hence, they were not of tripart composition: pneuma, psuche, and soma (1 Thess
5:23). They lacked having the Spirit [Pneuma]
of God. The Law of Moses held covenants that promised eternal life The lawyer who sought to test Jesus asked,
“‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life’”
(Luke 10:25). This lawyer knew that he did not have eternal life dwelling
within him in the form of an immortal soul that must be redeemed. Rather, this
lawyer, who correctly answered Jesus’ response of how did he read the
law, understood that the Law of Moses
held covenants that promised eternal life. Likewise, the rich young ruler
asked Jesus, “‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal
life’” (Luke 18:18). God tests The covenants of promise in the Law of Moses were made with the fleshly descendants of the
first Adam; they were made with living dust. These covenants promised
everlasting life, but on the condition of obedience … obedience as a test
is “passed” when the person being tested submits by faith to the
test. Thus, God tests The person who claims to be born
of Spirit, but who continues to believe that human beings are physically born
with an immortal soul has not actually experienced spiritual birth If eternal life is the gift of God, and if God must
“raise” the dead who were then audibly hearing the words of Jesus
(John 5:18-19, 21), and if the dead hearing Jesus’ words would believe
the One who sent Him and thereby pass from death to life (v. 24), then Pharisees in the 1st-Century CE had no
immortal soul but were numbered among the dead of this world even though they
were physically breathing. Thus, the person who claims to have everlasting life
apart from actually being born of Spirit is a liar! This person believes and
propagates the lie of that old serpent, Satan the devil, and as such is of
Satan. So it can be said with certainty
that the person who claims to be born of Spirit, but who continues to believe
that human beings are physically born with an immortal soul has not actually
experienced spiritual birth—if this person were truly born of Spirit,
he or she would know the difference between a “feeling of faith” or
a “religious experience” or last night’s indigestion and what
it truly means to be born anew; for the person would cease his or her hostility
to God and would earnestly desire to keep the commandments of God, all of them,
not eight or nine of them. Every person
born of Spirit and circumcised of heart will, in this era, keep the
commandments by faith. There will be no exceptions. Evidence of having a
circumcised heart is the journey of faith that will have the person keeping the
commandments of God. Grace is the covering of the righteousness of Christ. Grace, now, is the covering of obedience—not the
obedience of the newly born son of God, but the obedience of Christ Jesus.
Grace is the covering of the righteousness of Christ; it is the mantle or
garment of Christ that is put on daily as physically circumcised Not having been born of Spirit precludes being covered by Grace The person who has not been born of Spirit is not covered
by Grace, but remains a son of disobedience and has his or her lawlessness
covered by being the bondservant of Satan. Thus, disciples as former sons of
disobedience (Eph 2:2-3), previously consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32) from
their birth by water because of the disobedience of the first Adam, receive a
second birth and a second life when they receive the Holy Spirit, the divine
Breath of the Father. This second life is invisible in this world, for it is of
and from the heavenly realm. Holy Spirit is only seen when it is being used to create a physical
shadow and copy of a spiritual event. In Scripture, the Holy Spirit is only seen when it is
being used to create a physical shadow and copy of a spiritual event. Thus, the
first time it is seen in the gospels (when it appears as a dove) creates the
model for how humankind will be born of Spirit. The next time it is seen (Acts
chap 2), it creates the model for the empowerment and/or liberation of
Israelites, with its appearance in the house of Cornelius forming the model for
the empowerment and/or liberation of Gentiles. It is then seen when the twelve
are rebaptized by Paul (Acts 19:1-7), with these twelve serving as the copy and
shadow of the 144,000 Observant Jews coming out of the first half of the seven
endtime years. This is the 144,000 that follow Jesus wherever He leads (Rev
14:1-5). Holy Spirit is not now seen. The Holy Spirit is not now seen when disciples are born of
Spirit; the Holy Spirit will not be seen when disciples are liberated at the
beginning of the seven endtime years from indwelling sin and death that has
resided in the flesh (Rom 7:21-25). It will not be seen when it is poured out
upon all flesh when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Father
and the Son (Rev 11:15; cf. Dan
7:9-14). Heavenly signs will signify that the world has
been baptized in Spirit. However, because of the importance of this fall of Babylon
and giving of the kingdom to the Son of Man, which also occurs when the Holy
Spirit is poured out, heavenly signs—blood, fire, columns of smoke, the
sun becoming dark, the moon appearing as blood—will mark or signify that
the world has been baptized in Spirit, thereby causing all of humankind to be
born of Spirit. Grace ends Grace ends when a person is liberated from the indwelling
sin and death that has resided in the fleshly members of the Israelite. There
will no longer be a reason for Christ Jesus to “cover” His
disciples with His righteousness when these disciples have been liberated from
sin and death. If these disciples then take sin back inside themselves, they
will have committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They will die the second
death in the lake of fire. Grace is the garment or mantle of Christ Jesus’
righteousness. Again, grace is the garment or mantle of Christ
Jesus’ righteousness that covers disciples as they grow to spiritual
maturity. It is put on daily, just as ancient Majority of disciples will return to lawlessness When liberated from indwelling sin and death, some disciples
will die as their fellow saints were martyred (Rev 6:9-11). But most will rebel
against God in the great falling away. This majority of disciples will return
to lawlessness, thereby committing blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which had
just liberated them from bondage to sin and death. The point of law that this majority will break first The point of law [i.e., the commandment] that this
majority will break first—before murdering their righteous brothers—is
the Sabbath commandment, for the lawless one [the man of perdition] will
attempt to change times and the law (Dan 7:25; cf. 2 Thess 2:3-12). The mystery
of lawlessness that was already at work when Paul yet lived is evident every
Sunday. Putting on of Christ’s righteousness will
end when Grace cannot be sold; it cannot be bartered; it cannot be
stored up. It is the reality of natural Assignments:
_____________________ Who or What Nation is
Endtime He baptized the world unto death by bringing a flood of water over
the whole face of the earth The unrighteousness and ungodliness—the
wickedness—of humankind was great in the days of Noah, and it grieved God
that He had made man (Gen 6:5-6), and God determined that He would blot out all
living things (v. 7). So He baptized
the world unto death by bringing a flood of water over the whole face of the
earth. Yet Noah, a preacher of righteousness, found favor with God (vv. 8-9) and through him, eight were
saved. From these eight came the generations born after the flood, these generations
consigned or concluded to disobedience (Rom 11:32) and death (Rom 5:12-14)
because of Adam’s lawlessness. In typology, the eight represent
Christ and the seven angels to the seven churches. The seven pairs of
“clean” animals represent the seven churches. The single pair of
every other animal is typified by Caleb, a son of Esau, the hated son of
promise. Caleb had about him a different spirit. In the patriarch Abraham [then Abram] God found faith After the Flood unrighteousness continued to reign over
humankind through unbelief, but in the patriarch Abraham [then Abram] God found
faith (Heb 11:8-9): Abraham believed God and this belief by faith was counted
to Abraham as righteousness (Gen 15:6). So it wasn’t the works of Abraham
(Rom 4:2-5), who kept the commandments, laws, and statutes of God (Gen 26:5),
but the faith that Abraham displayed in first leaving his father and journeying
to an unknown land then believing God that his heirs would be as the stars of
heaven that was counted to him as righteousness. Because of his faith, Abraham
became the chosen human cultivar [cultivated variety] of God—and God
propagated Abraham’s offspring by promise for two generations (Gen 17:16;
25:21). Both Isaac and Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob were born by promise
of God, and not as wild seedlings of the flesh (Rom 9:6-11). The Church as spiritual Isaac While still in the womb, Esau was hated and Jacob loved
(Mal 1:2; Rom 9:12-13), but God hating an infant in the womb makes no sense if
both Esau and Jacob are not types of the spiritual peoples that would be born
by promise to the spiritual Isaac (Gal 4:28-31), also born by promise …
the Apostle Paul established the basis for typologically reading the Church as
spiritual Isaac, and it is this reading of Isaac as a type of the Church prior
to the birth of two sons of promise which confirms that endtime Israel is not
the physically circumcised descendants of the patriarch Israel. Circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the
Spirit, not by the letter. The Apostle Paul wrote that since And when all of these things come
upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call
them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and
return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all
that I command you today, with all your heart and all your [nephesh] … the Lord your God will
circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love
the Lord your God with all your heart and all your [nephesh], that you may live. (Deut 30:1-2, 6) Physical uncircumcision counted as circumcision When in a far land, it would take an act of faith for The The The Moab covenant does not form merely the visible copy
and type of the new covenant that has the laws of God written on hearts and
placed in minds, but is this spiritual covenant to which better promises were
added and its mediator changed from Moses to Christ Jesus …
implementation of the new covenant by which all will know the Lord begins with Israel implementing the Moab covenant. New creature is housed in a tabernacle or tent of flesh ·
Circumcision
of the foreskin is physical and as such precedes and serves as the copy and
type of circumcision of the heart. ·
The
physically circumcised Israelite in a house in ·
The
two doorposts and lintel of the physically circumcised Israelite’s house
in Egypt delineated the entryway into the house and as such correspond to the
mouth of the tent of flesh in which the born of Spirit son of God dwells. ·
Thus,
the physically circumcised Israelite who, after smearing blood on doorposts and
lintels, ate of a physical lamb roasted whole with fire serves as the copy and
type of the spiritually circumcised Israelite who eats the flesh of the
spiritual Lamb roasted over the fiery sins of ·
For
disciples, eating the unleavened bread that is or represents Christ’s
body functions spiritually as eating the flesh of an actual lamb by a
physically circumcised Israelite. Supersessionism In theological discussions, the term
“supersessionism” (also called Replacement Theology) refers to the
belief that the ancient nation of Dispensationalism “Dispensationalism” rejects supersessionism
and believes, instead, in “restora-tionism,” the theological
position underpinned by the argumentative assumption that God is a respecter of
persons, offering one covenant to the Church and a different covenant to the
Jews. Therefore, within Evangelical Christianity—almost without exception
based on dispensationalism—the formation of the modern state of Israel is
central to prophecies about the recovery of Israel from the north country (Jer
16:14-15; 23:7-8; Ezek 20:34-36; 36:22-27; Isa 11:11-13 et al). Thus,
Evangelical Christianity locates humankind in the generic period known in
Scripture as “the time of the end.” However, the return of Jews from
Germany, Poland, and Russian has not made anyone forget about the Exodus from
Egypt, and the promise of Jeremiah’s prophecies is that the endtime
return of Israel will be so much greater in magnitude that Israel’s
exodus from Egypt will be forgotten (Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8). Thus,
“restorationism” has, at its core, too small of a return from the North
Country to satisfy endtime prophecies about The nation that left In typology, At the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace The Apostle Paul, writing about his natural kinsmen, says, God has not rejected his people
whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he
appeals to God against Elsewhere, Paul writes, For circumcision indeed is of
value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes
uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the
law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is
physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the
written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is
merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is
one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by
the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Rom 2:25-29) Circumcision of the heart is by
the Spirit, and the first mention of circumcision of the heart is in the
covenant mediated by Moses and made in The Wave Sheaf Offering God consigned all of humankind to disobedience so that He
could have mercy on all (Rom 11:32), with this mercy extended initially to the
firstfruits, the early barley harvest of Sadducees took the referenced “Sabbath Sadducees and Pharisees differed on what Moses meant by
the “day/morrow after the Sabbath.” Sadducees took the referenced
“Sabbath” to mean the weekly Sabbath; hence, Jesus as the reality
of the First of the firstfruits would have appeared before God on the first day
of the week—and He did (John 20:1, 17). Pharisees held that the “Sabbath Pharisees held that the “Sabbath” referred to
the first high Sabbath [the 15th of Abib] of Unleavened Bread. Thus,
Pharisees celebrated the Wave Sheaf Offering and the Feast of Weeks on a fixed
calendar date, whereas the Sadducees celebrated both on the first day of the
week. The annual celebration of the high Sabbaths of God More will be coming about Jesus being the reality of the
Sabbath, and the high Sabbaths of God. For now, it is sufficient to note that
the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection is foreshadowed and commanded in
the annual celebration of the high Sabbaths of God. Therefore, the annual
celebration of the Resurrection is not a reason for abridging the Sabbath
commandment. Only when an Israelite ceases to celebrate the high Sabbaths will
the Israelite mistakenly attempt to transfer the authority of the weekly
Sabbath to the annual observance of the Wave Sheaf Offering. Endtime Endtime Assignments: 1.
Support
the following statement with Scripture: If the inner man, that new creature who
is born of Spirit as a son of God, is circumcised of heart and is an Israelite
[i.e., is a spiritual Jew], then the tent of flesh into which this new creature
is born is not the son of God and is not an Israelite. [Hint: consider Gal
3:28] 2.
If
the fleshly tabernacle or tent in which the inner man dwells is not initially a
natural Israelite, what reason would there be to circumcise the flesh? Of what
importance is physical circumcision? 3.
If
endtime 4.
Assuming
that Isaac is a type of the Church, and that present-day Jerusalem is a type of
the Jerusalem that is above, and that disciples are living stones (1 Pet 2:4-5)
that form the temple of God (1 Co 3:16-17), then of what prophetic importance
is efforts to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem in the modern State of Israel? __________________ Where is The Church? The Church is not a
building or a denomination. The Church is the assembly [¦6680F\"<] of God. Its type and shadow was the Congregation in the Wilderness
led by Moses. As such, the Church is not a building or temple; nor is it an
organization of men. It is not a denomination. It is not any of those things
that are usually assigned as objects to the linguistic icon. Rather, it is the
assembly that has been circumcised of heart by Spirit as the Congregation in
the Wilderness was circumcised in the flesh by human hands. Therefore, the
Church is wherever two or three circumcised of heart are gathered in
Jesus’ name, for there He will be (Matt 18:20). The Church is built of
Jesus. When Jesus said to Peter, F× ,É AXJD@Hs 6"Â ¦BÂ J"bJ® J± BXJD‘ @Æ6@*@:ZFT :@L J¬< ¦6680F\"< 6"Â Bb8"4 ¢*@L @Û 6"J4FPbF@LF4< "ÛJH [that is, “You are Peter
and upon this rock I will build of me the Church and gates of Hades will not overcome
it”] (Matt 16:18), English translators render the sense of the expression
/@Æ6@*@:ZFT :@L J¬< ¦6680F\"</or I will build of me the
Church as “I will build my Church,” but while /of me/ suggests possession and could be
conveyed by the possessive pronouns “my” or “mine,” the
idiomatic phrase /of me/ also
suggests that the ¦6680F\"< is constructed of Christ Jesus; that Jesus is the building material
used to form the ¦6680F\"<. And it is from this sense that the Church is the Body of Christ; for
unless the person has been born of the divine Breath of the Father (A<,L:" U(4@<) and built from and by the divine
Breath of Christ (A<,L:" OD4FJ@L), the person is not part of the ¦6680F\"<. The Church is not of
this world. The Church is, because it is constructed from the Spirit
of Christ, a spiritual assembly that is not of this world. Jesus was the entirety
of His kingdom when He was on earth. Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world,
nor from this world (John 18:36) … neither His kingdom, nor His Church is
of this world. And no scriptural support exists for Martin Luther’s two kingdom doctrine, which has the
spiritual new creature belonging to a right hand kingdom not of this world, and
the flesh belonging to a left hand kingdom of this world; for Jesus was the
entirety of His kingdom when He was on earth. The Church began when
Jesus breathed on “the ten.” The ¦6680F\"< did not begin on that day of Pentecost following Calvary as is too
often taught by the visible Church; rather, the chosen assembly of God began
with the Son of Theos coming as the
man Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14), thereby producing the construction material
for this invisible, spiritual assembly that would be built from Him. Thus, the
Church began on the day when Jesus was resurrected from dead and ascended to
the Father, then returned to breathe on ten of His disciples, saying,
“‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). These ten
then received both the Holy Spirit [A<,L:" U(4@<] and the Spirit of Christ [A<,L:" OD4FJ@L]. They were made the ¦6680F\"< seven weeks before Pentecost,
with these weeks representing the time between when the First of the
firstfruits is waved before God and accepted, and when the last of the harvest
of firstfruits is gathered into the barns of “The ten”
formed a synagogue. That Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples, thereby
directly transferring to them the Holy Spirit, is not insignificant; for
according to the Mishnah, a new synagogue could be formed anywhere by ten male
Jews. Thus, the ten upon whom Jesus breathed (plus others) were a newly formed
synagogue that “with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer [BD@F,LP±]” (Acts 1:14 – cf. Acts 16:13, 16). The Greek icon used
by Luke is also the word used for the regular prayer assemblies of the
synagogue. So linguistically, the disciples of Jesus were (and functioned as) a
synagogue within greater Judaism. “The ten”
formed a competing sect of Judaism. In addition, when Paul was on trial before Felix at Assignments:
__________________ What is the Law of Moses? Christendom first
“left” Paul before separating from Judaism. Visible Christendom separated itself from Judaism even
before Rome sacked Jerusalem (ca 70 CE), but this separation resulted in the
Apostle Paul writing, “You [Timothy] are aware that all who are in Asia
turned away from me” (2 Tim 1:15), and “For many, of whom I have
often told you [Philippians] and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies
of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and
they glory in their shame, with their minds set on earthly things” (Phil
3:18-19) … if their minds were set on earthly things or the things of the
flesh, then they were never circumcised of heart and probably not born of Spirit
even though Paul had bragged about them, and this is the dilemma that today
faces Christendom. Those disciples who fill the pews of the visible Church,
while appearing “righteous,” walk as enemies of Christ, glorying in
lawlessness that should be shameful to them, with their minds set on the things
of this world. They claim to be Christians;
many claim to be born again of Spirit. But if an inner son of God were ever
born within these tents of flesh, that infant was murdered by the teachers of
lawlessness who preside over the visible Church. Those who teach
disciples to ignore the laws of God are ministers of Satan. Doing great works in the name of Christ will not save
those who teach infant sons of God not to keep the commandments (Matt 7:21-23).
When their judgments are revealed, they will be denied by Christ Jesus; for
though disguised as ministers of Christ, they are really false apostles,
deceitful workmen, the servants of Satan (2 Co 11:13-14), that lawless cherub
who cleverly disguised himself as an angel of light so very long ago. The mystery of
lawlessness developed into the visible Church. The mystery of lawlessness was already at work when Paul
wrote his second epistle to the Thessalonians (2:7). And it is this mystery of
lawlessness that developed into the visible Christian Church … sin is
lawlessness (1 John 3:4). And the teachers of Teachers of lawless use
the Law of Moses to pry disciples away from salvation. The lever all teachers of lawlessness use to pry infant
sons of God away from salvation is the
Law of Moses. Many Christian theologians have
created arguments to “prove” that disciples are not under the Law of Moses, but none of these
arguments identify the substance of, or location of this allegedly abolished
law. Rather, the arguments are usually against the Sinai covenant, made on the
third day of the third month of the year in which The Law of Moses is
everything Moses wrote. The Law of Moses is a vague linguistic phrase that refers
to everything Moses wrote; thus, it is the Torah, five books that represent the
testimony of Moses. And within the Torah, Moses is the mediator of three
covenants between God and God to make of Moses His
great nation God tells Moses on at least two occasions that He will
make of Moses “‘a nation greater and mightier than they [ Circumcision ratifies
the covenant requiring Abraham and his descendants according to the flesh to
walk upright before God. Circumcision comes from Genesis chapter 17: “When
Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord [YHWH]
appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty [El Shaddai]; walk before me, and be
blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you
greatly’” (vv. 1-2). Circumcision
was the sign of this covenant (vv.
10-14), its ratification confirmed in the droplets of blood coming when the
foreskin is cut away. It is a covenant made in the flesh (v. 13) and with the flesh. Its terms call for the circumcised
person to walk blamelessly before God, meaning that circumcision causes the man
to appear before God covered only by his obedience to God. Obedience is a spiritual
garment. Obedience functions as a spiritual garment that conceals a
man’s nakedness as the foreskin of the penis physically concealed the
head of his penis and hence, his nakedness. Obedience is the garment that
covers sin. Christ’s obedience
covers the inner, new creature. The juxtaposition of a physical skin covering equating to
a spiritual covering of obedience has been poorly understood by all of Being born of Spirit
sets a person free to keep the laws of God. The tent of flesh into which a son of God is born was
before birth-from-above a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3), consigned to
disobedience (Rom 11:32) and not free to keep the law of God (Rom 8:7). Being
born again or born of Spirit sets the mind and heart free from disobedience,
but until the tent of flesh is liberated from the indwelling law of sin and
death (Rom 7:21-25), the mind and the heart which “delight in the law of
God” (v. 22) are at war with
the law of sin that dwells in the flesh … the new creature is light in a jar of clay, and the jar will
not enter heaven for it is of this world that is passing away (1 John 2:17).
It, too, will pass away before the coming of the new heavens and new earth. The Law of Moses
contains covenants of promise. Concerning circumcision and the division of humankind made
through circumcision, the Apostle Paul writes, Therefore remember that at one
time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what
is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember
that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants [note the plural] of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he
himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh
the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and
ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so
making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby killing the hostility. (Eph 2:11-16) Both Circumcised and
Uncircumcised must make a journey of faith to cleanse the heart. The covenants of
promise are not abolished when the hostility created by physical
circumcision dies on the cross. Rather, what had been two peoples, one
physically circumcised, one uncircumcised, are now the same as far as God is
concerned. Both “have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph
2:18). Both are uncircumcised of heart until both have made a journey of faith
that is spiritually equivalent to the patriarch Abraham’s physical
journey made by faith from Ur of the Chaldeas to Haran, then on to the Promised
Land (Rom 4:9-12). Thus, the 1st-Century Greek who, by turning to
God, had separated himself or herself from his or her neighbors all worshiping
a pantheon of deities, began a spiritual journey in the same way that Abraham
began a physical journey when he set out with his father Terah from Ur to go
into the land of Canaan. This Greek’s journey called for him or her
“‘to abstain from things polluted by idols, and from sexual
immorality, and from has been strangled, and from blood’” (Acts
15:19-20). Everything else this Greek would need to know could be learned from
hearing Moses read every Sabbath (v.
21). Likewise, the Jew who kept the commandments as a cultural expectation and
who broke with his or her culture by professing with his or her mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believing in his or heart that God had raised Jesus from the
dead (Rom 10:9) would have made a journey of faith of equivalent distance to
that of the Greek’s, for to confess that Jesus is Lord requires
perceiving God as two, not one. The heart must be
cleansed before it can be circumcised. Without undertaking a journey of faith equivalent to
Abraham’s journey while still uncircumcised, no heart is cleansed. The
heart cannot be circumcised. The person born of Spirit will be as a Hebrew
infant of less than eight days age, and will remain as a new born infant until
the heart is cleansed by faith; for with God, maturity is not obtained by the
passage of time but by the journey of faith from spiritual The Law of Moses is all
of the covenants made with the flesh. The Law of Moses is not one covenant, but rather,
all of the covenants of promise that
were made with the flesh. It includes the Passover covenant (Ex chap 12-13),
the Sinai covenant (Ex chaps 20-24), the covenant between God and the men of
Levi (Ex 32:25-29), the added laws concerning offerings (the Book of
Leviticus), and the Covenants of promise not
abolished but continued on at a higher plain. It is convenient to use the theological shorthand of
saying that the covenants of promise made with the flesh were
“abolished” rather than “continued on at a higher
plain.” Yes, they were abolished, for all covenants made with the flesh
were abolished at A “covenant”
is the distance between cuttings. A word needs to be said about covenants: a
“covenant” (Heb: bereeth’) or a “compact” or a
“law” in its broad sense is a formal declaration of contractual
terms that begins with the shedding of blood or a cutting and extends until
blood is again shed or a cutting is again made. Hence a covenant is the space
or distance from cutting to cutting. A marriage covenant was to extend from
when the hymen of a virgin is broken by her husband and blood is shed in the
marriage bed until blood is again shed at death (for the hymen could not be
restored). Thus, a covenant made in the flesh cannot be spiritual for death
ends a covenant ratified by blood. Covenants of promise are
not dependant upon the strength of the flesh, but upon the will of God. Since death ends every covenant or “will” (Gr:
diatheke) made in the flesh, the Law of Moses was abolished at Copies of heavenly
covenants are ratified by blood. The writer of Hebrews said, “Indeed, under the law
almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood
there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus, it was necessary for copies of heavenly
things to be purified with these rites [i.e., the shedding of blood], but the
heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these” (Heb
9:22-23 – read vv. 15-28). The Passover began with
blood shed in The covenant the Lord made with the fathers of Israel and
Judah on the day when He took their fathers by the hand to lead them out of
Egypt began with the shedding of blood by Passover lambs and was confirmed by
the death of Egyptian firstborns as the ransom price for Israel’s
liberation (Isa 43:3). This covenant continues forward, now, until it ends when
blood is again shed (v. 4). And it is
this second shedding of blood that will make Assignments:
___________________ Speaking in Figures of Speech During His earthly ministry,
Jesus spoke only in figures of speech. At the time of the Feast of Dedication, Jesus, in the
temple, was asked by the Jews, ‘“How long will you keep us in
suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly’” (John 10:24).
But Jesus did not then even speak to His own disciples plainly. On the
Preparation Day, the day of His crucifixion, Jesus said to His disciples,
‘“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is
coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell
you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not
say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf’” (John
16:25-26). So that day was not the
Preparation Day as His disciples then thought (v. 29); for the period when the first disciples would ask the
Father directly in Jesus’ name did not begin until after Calvary, until
after they were born of Spirit through receipt of the divine Breath of God. Jesus spoke to the
crowds only in parables to conceal meaning. After Jesus told the crowd that followed Him a series of
parables, Matthew records, “All these things Jesus said to the crowds in
parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to
fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in
parables; / I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the
world’” (Matt 13:34-35; cf.
Ps 78:2-3 — note Ps 78:4. The dark things of God will not be forever
hidden from Jesus’ explanation
of His parables was in figures of speech. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him why He spoke in
parables, He answered, ‘“To you it has been given to know the
secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the gathered crowd] it has not
been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an
abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and
hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand’” (Matt 13:11-13).
Yet still, for the remainder of His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke to His
disciples in figures of speech. He was still speaking to them in literary
figures until He was with His disciples following His resurrection. So even
when His disciples were hearing Jesus’ explanation of the parables (the
context of Matthew chapter 13), they were hearing explanations given in figures
of speech … note the above: the explanation of Jesus’ parables that
are taught as plainly understood “explanations” are still given in
figures of speech. They are not what they seem; rather, they require a
different set of linguistic objects [word meanings] to be assigned to the icons
[words]. Unless born of Spirit, a
person cannot understand heavenly things. Jesus told Nicodemus that being twice born [i.e., being
born of water and born of Spirit/Pneuma]
was an earthly thing (John 3:12) or explanation of having “‘come
from God’” (v. 2). Jesus
then asked Nicodemus how if he, Nicodemus, could not understand a metaphor
could he, Nicodemus, understand heavenly things. The answer is that Nicodemus
could not. To understand,
understanding must be given. No one can understand heavenly things unless the person
has truly been born of Spirit. To all others, a physical meaning will be given
to a metaphor that reveals heavenly things; for those things that are of heaven
cannot be directly described by words intended to describe the things of this
world. Tens of thousands of theologians since
have spent their lives wrestling with the figures of speech recorded in the
Gospels, but only to those to whom understanding has been given is
understanding available. And this understanding is not from human intellect,
but from “hearing” the quiet voice of Christ Jesus. Hearing the voice of
Jesus comes from election. The credentials for hearing the voice of Jesus do not come
from university letters behind one’s name, but from simple Election. The
sealed and secret visions of Daniel would be unsealed in the generic time of
the end (Dan 12:4, 9; 8:17, 26). Likewise, all things must be restored. And
someone or ones who do the unsealing or the restoring will hear the voice of
Jesus as Christ does the endtime work of preparing a people to harvest what was
planted two millennia ago. The test of genuineness
for those who come in the name of God is threefold. Many apostles, teachers, ministers, and prophets have come
and will come claiming to have been sent by God, but most will be false. The
test of those who have come is threefold: (1) does the “thing” they
say come to pass; (2) do they teach Israel to obey God, keeping His
commandments; and (3) do they give freely what they have been given, asking men
for neither the tithes or offerings to which they are entitled. If they ask for
money, they are to be rejected. If they teach lawlessness, they are disguised
ministers of Satan. If what they say does not happen, they have not heard the
voice of Jesus, but speak their own words. And if they add to Scripture, such
as inserting Representational
distance To understand figures of speech, a few basic concepts must
be grasped. Again, words do not have inherent meaning, but must be assigned
meaning by every reader. In assigning meaning, a word in its usage will have
representational distance from the linguistic object (meaning) that the auditor
assigns to the word. If the word is used as a direct representation of a
“real” thing or action, the word is said to be used mimetically
(from the same root as “mimic”); the word seeks to mimic the thing
or action. A “literal” reading of the word will have this word
representing what it would seem to represent; a “literal” reading
has the least representational distance and is the closest to a one-to-one
correspondence. And this word usage is not often employed in figures of speech.
So because Jesus only spoke to His disciples in figures of speech, it should be
understood that so-called “literal” meanings cannot properly be
assigned to Jesus’ recorded words. Those who argue for a
“literal reading” of Scripture argue from ignorance. The above needs to be well understood: every theologian
who argues for a literal reading of Scripture argues from ignorance. The visible is a
metaphor for the invisible. The most familiar figure of speech used is that of a
metaphor, where one thing is said to be another thing. A thing that would not
be recognized or understood is described in words which the audience can
comprehend. Since the essence of typology is that this visible, physical world
reveals the invisible things of God and precede the things of God, this
physical creation functions as a metaphor for, not language, but of heavenly
things themselves. Receiving spiritual life
is a metaphoric expression for a heavenly happening that can only be
comprehended by human beings through a figure of speech. The language used to describe the things of this world becomes
metaphoric language by extension—it was this concept that Nicodemus could
not understand. To Nicodemus, being born meant exiting the womb. In
Jesus’ use of the earthly example, being born equates with receiving
life, not exiting a womb. Thus, receiving spiritual life is a metaphoric
expression for a heavenly happening that can only be comprehended by human
beings through a figure of speech. Being born
of Spirit or born again is a
figure of speech to which no mimetic thing or action can properly be assigned. Human languages have no
words for heavenly things. Because Jesus only spoke the Father’s words, which
were not about earthly things, Jesus could only speak to His disciples in
figures of speech. Assignment of literal meanings is, again, not possible; for
Paul wrote that the “man” caught up to the third heaven heard
things that cannot be told, which man may not utter [or cannot utter] (2 Co
12:4), for human languages have no words for things in heaven, where flesh and
blood cannot go. The words of the Father
are speech-acts that cause the renewal of even the face of the earth. Words come from the modulated breath of a person. Unless
inscribed, they quickly dissipate in the air, returning to being indistinct
movements of atoms bouncing into one another. The words of God come from the
divine Breath of God, or the Holy Spirit, which created “what is”
and renews the face of the earth (Ps 104:30). Thus, the utterances of the
Father delivered through the Holy Spirit are not limited to the movement of air
in sound waves—and Jesus, when speaking the words of the Father, does not
merely utter sound waves in figures of speech. Rather, the words of the Father
are speech-acts that cause the renewal of even the face of the earth. These
speech-acts “renew” or make whole human beings. They are the
miracles that Jesus performed. Jesus’ miracles
were the renewing speech-acts of the Father as He spoke His Father’s
words. Since Jesus did not speak any of His words, but only the
words and speech-acts of the Father, all that Jesus did become the renewing
speech-acts of the Father; they are the sending forth of the Breath of God. Assignments:
____________________ The Father’s Confirmation of
the Sabbaths of God Without spiritual birth,
a person can’t attach sufficient meaning to the earthly examples of
heavenly things that these spiritually lifeless persons can believe. The hidden things of God are not to be revealed to human
beings who have not been born of Spirit; for without being born of Spirit, no
person can begin to understand these hidden things of God. Circular reasoning
certainly, but the logic for why those who are not born of Spirit remain
skeptics. Without spiritual birth, a person cannot attach sufficient
meaning to the earthly examples of heavenly things [i.e., the figurative
language of Scripture] that these spiritually lifeless persons can believe. And
within this work, the journeyman scholar who lacks faith and belief can begin
to see the gulf that separates himself or herself from the person born of
Spirit. Their perceptions of language are not shared. Biological gender is a
metaphor. Perhaps one of the most difficult concepts to understand
is that the man Jesus, having entered His creation as His son, His only, did
not speak His words during His earthly ministry, but spoke only the words of
His spiritual Father, the unknown God of Israel[7].
Jesus’ first Father, Theos, was
the Logos, the spokesman for the Most
High, with this relationship represented by two metaphors, the first that YHWH Elohim made humankind in the image
of YHWH Elohim; “male and
female he created them” (Gen 1:27); so to be created in the image of YHWH Elohim, humankind is male and
female, with the “female” aspect of God contained in the Logos who came as the man Jesus …
biological gender makes comprehending what this metaphor describes difficult.
In this case, biological gender, itself, forms the metaphor. Two as One The other metaphoric relationship is disclosed by Moses
being as God to Aaron (Exod 4:16), two brothers according to the flesh, with
Aaron delivering the words of Moses to Israel, the two functioning as one
entity in a manner analogous to how a man and his wife become one flesh through
unity even though they are two. Before now proceeding one
important scriptural passage needs referenced: Now that day was the Sabbath. So
the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it
is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them,
“The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and
walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you,
‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed
did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the
place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you
are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man
went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was
why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the
Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I
am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking
all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he
was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John
5:9-18) Jesus spoke the
Father’s words as Aaron spoke Moses’ words. Jesus spoke only the Father’s words as Aaron spoke
only Moses’ words to Jesus’ delivery of
the Father’s speech-acts on the Sabbath gives to the Sabbath special significance. Heaven is represented by the Millennium rest, by the
weekly Sabbath rest, and by ancient The Father placed His
stamp of approval on the Sabbath. By Jesus delivering the speech-acts of the Father on the
Sabbath (seven times in the Gospels), the Father does more than connect the
Sabbath to the redemptive work of God. The Father places His stamp of approval
on the Sabbath, thus transferring the holiness of YHWH Elohim resting on the seventh day to the renewing work He does
through the man Jesus, this work the on-going activity of giving life to that
which is dead. Assignments:
____________________ The Key of David The key of David is
typology. God can only be worshiped in heavenly The key of David
hasn’t been previously used to unlock Scripture. One worldwide 20th-Century ministry advertised
that it had the key of David, and
this key was knowledge of endtime With the meanings
assigned to “hypostasis” is the rough key blank. At the Council of Nicea (ca 325 CE), the Roman Emperor
Constantine handled the key when he
proposed using the Greek word hypostasis
to explain the nature of the Godhead, but he mishandled the key even though the Apostle Paul left
this key to disciples “on whom
the end of the ages has come” (1 Co 10:11), with the warning:
“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall”
(v. 12). The person who does not use
typology, the essence of the key of David,
will fall either physically or spiritually (or both) during the first 1260 days
of the seven endtime years of tribulation; for this person lacks prophetic
understanding. The key is evident in
Hebraic poetry. The key that unlocks Scripture: most modern English
translations attempt to render Hebraic poetic passages as translated poetry
whereas the King James Version did not. And within the structure of Hebraic
poetry is the evidence for typological exegesis. Using the first four verses of
Isaiah chapter 43 as the initial example and the English Standard
Version’s rendering of this passage, a person reads: Verse 1a: But now thus says the Lord [YHWH], he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: The thought imbedded in “he who created you”
and in “he who formed you” is complimentary—actually, they
are the same thought, but presented from differing narration stances. The two
presentations of the single thought form a “thought couplet,” the
basic poetic unit of Hebraic poetry. The relationship between the first
presentation and the second presentation of the same thought—the
relationship between the poetic stances or positions—is disclosed in the
relationship between “O Jacob” and “O Israel.” The natural name of the second son
of Isaac was “Jacob,” which conveys the meaning of being
deceitful—the name describes the prevailing attribute of the person. As
such, the name conveys information about the person that is part of the
imbedded thought, “he created you, O Jacob,” for God said of
Rebecca’s younger son that He loved him (Mal 1:2-3; Rom 9:10-13) while
Jacob was still in the womb even though He knew Jacob was deceitful … God
has consigned human beings to disobedience, not Satan. God knows that human
beings in bondage to sin are deceitful, disobedient, unrighteous, and ungodly.
So being deceitful and disobedient as a “natural” human being does
not prevent God from loving the person; rather, covering oneself with his or
her own righteousness (as Esau was covered with hair) causes God to hate the
person. Jacob was the second son in a
second generation born of promise. He was not born righteous but as a scoundrel
… righteousness comes by faith, not by the works of the person. But faith
without works cannot save anyone (Jas 2:14); for faith without work is hollow
rhetoric, lying wind, words without meaning. So from birth, God knew that Jacob
would have to strive with Him and with men, and would have to overcome through
striving. Thus, the name “ ·
Jacob
is the natural name of Isaac’s second son, and the first presentation of
the imbedded thought informing the thought couplet is the “natural”
or physical presentation. ·
·
The thought couplet “he who
created you, O Jacob, / he who formed you, O Israel,” together, forms the
“natural” or physical presentation of a larger, encompassing thought
couplet that has as its spiritual presentation the couplet ‘“Fear
not, for I have redeemed you; / I have called you by name; you are
mine.”’ Thus verse one of Isaiah 43 is one primary thought couplet
that consists of two secondary couplets: ·
43:1a
consists of the couplet “he who created you, O Jacob, / he who formed
you, O Israel,” with the first presentation of the imbedded thought about
creating Jacob/Israel forming the natural presentation, and with the second
presentation forming the spiritual portion of the couplet. ·
43:1b
consists of the divinely uttered couplet “Fear not, for I have redeemed
you; / I have called you by name, you are mine,” with the uttered
“for I have redeemed you” being the physical presentation of the
imbedded thought about redeeming/calling and with “I have called you by
name” being the spiritual portion of the couplet. ·
43:1
— the complete verse represents one thought couplet that consists of a
couplet forming the natural or physical presentation and of a second couplet forming the spiritual presentation of the
imbedded thought that God created/formed and redeemed/called Jacob/Israel. A structural analysis of
Hebraic has thought moving from physical to spiritual. The structure of Hebraic poetry is built upon thought
couplets, with groupings of couplets expressing movement from physical to
spiritual, this movement occurring within each couplet and within the groupings
of couplets … the poetic conceit continues with verse 2 (Isa 43:2) being
one thought couplet consisting of two sub-couplets, the first [natural or
physical] representing water and the second pertaining to fire; thus, the
pattern presented in verse one repeats in verse two. It can now be said that
the encompassing couplet [again, consisting of two couplets] forming verse one
forms the natural presentation of an expanded couplet that represents verses
one and two, with the physical presentation being about being created and
redeemed and the spiritual presentation about being saved from death,
physically (by water) and spiritually (by fire). Comprehending Hebraic
poetic conceits opens Scripture and causes poetry to function as prophecy. Here, now, is where comprehending Hebraic poetic conceits
opens Scripture and functions as prophecy: verses three and four (Isa 43:3-4)
form one thought couplet that is like the couplet formed by verses one and two.
The natural portion of this second expanded couplet [verse 3] pertains to the
first Passover and David understood that Yah was only half of the Godhead. Psalm chapter 146, verse 1; chapter 148, verse 1; and
chapter 149, verse 1 should now be read … English translators have,
through their use of the linguistic icon /LORD/, concealed an important
distinction that King David, a masterful poet, understood or at least
understood late in his life: in 146:a, 148:1a, and in 149:1a, the Hebrew icon
that has been translated as LORD is Yah,
whereas the Hebrew icon in 146:1b, 148:1b, and 149:1b is the Tetragrammaton /YHWH/. It has been generally taught that
Yah is a contraction for YHWH, but this is factually wrong. Yah was the Logos or Spokesman for the conjoined Tetragrammaton. Structurally, Yah is the equivalent of
“Jacob.” The Tetragrammaton YHWH
was previously linguistically deconstructed, so now using contextual evidence, Yah is the deity that in these poetic
conceits of David equates to Isaiah’s use of “Jacob” in
43:1a, while YHWH is the conjoined
[two being one as in marriage] deity that equates to Isaiah’s use of
“Israel” in 43:1a. Yah is the
deity who did not give Jacob His name when Jacob asked (Gen 32:29). Yah is the deity that Moses, Aaron,
Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel saw on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:9-11). Yah is the deity that Moses saw from a
cleft in the rock (Ex 33:17-23). But no one has seen the Father except Christ
Jesus (John 1:18). Neither Jacob nor Moses nor the seventy saw the Father. Yah is not the Father, but He is the God of the Old Testament. He was the Logos or Spokesman for the conjoined YHWH, who was one Spirit as Adam and Eve
were one flesh. YHWH includes Yah. The Tetragrammaton YHWH
includes Yah; it does not exist apart
from Yah. Although this analogy can
be easily misapplied, it should nonetheless be used: the patriarch Moses and Aaron formed
the shadow of the “relationship” between the Father and the Son. The relationship between Moses and Aaron formed the lively
shadow and copy of the relationship between the Father (Theon) and the Logos as Theos. This is why Yah said to Moses that he, Moses, shall be as God to Aaron, and he,
Aaron, shall speak for Moses to the people (Ex 4:16). ·
Aaron
and Moses, together, formed one unit analogous to YHWH. They were physical brothers. ·
Yah spoke to Moses and to physically
circumcised ·
The
man Jesus spoke not His own words but only the words of the Father, as Aaron
was to speak only the words of Moses. ·
Therefore,
from the context of the Gospels, it can be asserted that Yah entered His creation which concealed His existence from David knew that Yah was the God of circumcised King David, a man after God’s own heart, knew that Yah was not the conjoined Tetragrammaton
YHWH, but only the physical or
natural portion of the conjoined Godhead; i.e., the “God” of
physically circumcised Israel. And David revealed what he knew about Yah and YHWH through his use of poetic conceits structured in thought
couplets, with some of the structuring as complex or more so as any phonetic
structuring of an English poetic conceit. The focus of poetry is
“words,” not what the words represent. The focus of poetry, regardless of the language, is the
artifice, not what the artifice describes. The words and their arrangement are
the focus, not those things that the words mimetically represent. Thus, in
regard to narrative distance, words in poetic use form mental or non-physical
associations at least one degree removed from words use mimetically. Therefore,
David’s poetry physically equates to Christ Jesus’ use of
figurative language. But David’s Psalms contain four tiers of
representation, and sometimes four squared. They are very complex and they have
barely been explored by those who have been born of Spirit. Much remains to be
unlocked with the key King David left
with those who have come behind him. The biblical code of
importance is unlocked by the key of David. The Bible is an encoded book, but the code of importance
is not a substitution of letters and of finding names and event dates closely
clustered in the Hebraic text. The code of importance is the code unlocked by
the key of David, with this key
disclosing that there will again be a Passover slaughter of firstborns that can
be likened to the slaughter of firstborns in Employing the key of David
causes a disciple to practice typological exegesis. So, employing the key
of David will have a disciple practicing typological exegesis with a second
shadow present that incorporates the “natural,” a shadow that
bridges the physical and spiritual, a shadow equivalent to the man Jesus during
His earthly ministry … physically circumcised Israel forms the shadow of
spiritually circumcised Israel, but “natural” Israel is already one
step removed or elevated from Jacob, which will make spiritually circumcised
Israel a minimum of two steps or terraces above Jacob. Considering now that
Jesus came as a “natural” son of Israel, and following death became
a life-giving spirit, following the second Passover an empowered or liberated
disciple who does not return to sin will be like Jesus, and will be three
terraces above Jacob—a disciple today fits between natural Israel and the
Logos coming as the man Jesus. A
glorified disciple will be on a fourth terrace. And all of this is revealed by the key of David. The key of David is
meaningless to those who are physically minded. But this key of
David cannot be fully employed by those who have not been born of Spirit.
Neither sufficient faith nor belief is present in those who are of the
synagogue of Satan—this key is
meaningless to those who are physically minded. The key of David causes
a disciple to understand typology as multi-layered or tiered shadowing. Again, the key of
David is not knowledge of who the endtime descendants of the ancient Assignments:
__________________ The Passover Covenant The new covenant The prophet Jeremiah wrote, Behold, the days are coming,
declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the
day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my
covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of This is the new covenant that Christendom claims to be under,
but does there remain a need to teach neighbor and brother to “Know the
Lord”? Do both neighbor and brother know the Lord? What is the
justification of any ministry if not to teach neighbor and brother to know God? Why train pastors? What would
be the need for pastors if everyone knows the Lord?[8] The evidence of history
is that The evidence of history is that the promised new covenant
has not been implemented—and if this new covenant has not
been implemented, then Israel, now a nation circumcised of heart, remains under
the covenant God made on the day when He took Israel by the hand to bring the
nation out of bondage … the evidence that this new covenant has not been
implemented is that disciples are to wash feet and take the Passover sacraments
of bread and wine on the night that Jesus was betrayed until Jesus drinks it
“new” with glorified disciples in the kingdom. What changed at
Calvary was the complete ending of the marriage covenant Theos made with the physically circumcised nation of Israel, but
the covenants of promise (Eph 2:12) from which Gentiles were once alienated do
not end; for these covenants of promise are not dependent upon the flesh but
upon the “will” of God. Isaac was not born through the strength of
Abraham and Sarah’s flesh, but by promise. Likewise, Jesus was not
resurrected from the dead through the strength of His flesh, but by the will of
God. And the Passover covenant is a covenant of promise. It is a covenant that
promises liberation from bondage. After a childless
marriage, Again, a covenant is the distance between cuttings; i.e.,
between when blood is shed to ratify the covenant and when blood is shed to end
the covenant. But since death ends every covenant or “will” made in
the flesh, the death of Jesus at Calvary ended the marriage ratified by the blood
Moses threw on the altar and the people (Ex 24:5-8) as if this blood were that
of Israel’s hymen. And holding this analogy in mind, a man was to abstain
from having martial relations with a woman when she was unclean due to having
her menstrual period: the blood of Mary’s faith was
counted to her as righteousness. Hence, Mary was extremely blessed—not because she
was the mother of God as Catholic churches teach, but because her faith was
counted to her as righteousness when she was deemed to be undefiled by the
sacrifices of Since Mary was deemed undefiled,
the circumcision that causes a person to be included within the assembly of
Israel is no longer of the flesh but of the heart: that which was physical
became spiritual[9],
and the blood that covers sin was no longer that of physical lambs but the
blood of the Lamb of God, with this blood represented by wine on the night that
Jesus was betrayed. On every other night of the year, wine is wine, the fruit
of the ground. On every other night, wine blessed by prayer is an offering from
the ground—Cain’s offering. The birth and death of
the man Jesus abolished the Law of Moses, but did not end any of the covenants
of promise within the Torah. In theological shorthand, the birth and death of the man
Jesus abolished the Law of Moses, but
did not end any of the covenants of promise within the Torah; for these
covenants continue on as Israel continues on, going from being a fleshly nation
to being a spiritual nation; going from being covenants made with the flesh to
being covenants made with the spiritual new creature. Events that happen to Events that happened to natural The Passover covenant The Lord told Moses, “‘This month shall be for
you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
Tell all the congregation of This day [YHWH’s Passover] shall be for you a memorial day, and you
shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute
forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened
bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if
anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that
person shall be cut off from what is leavened, that person will
be cut off from the congregation of The Passover covenant
has seven provisions. Note: there is no promise of salvation, only of
liberation. Also note, the Lord said nothing to Pharaoh commands In the scriptural record, on the same night that God
struck down the firstborns of Egypt, Pharaoh rose up in the night and summoned
Moses and Aaron and said, “‘Up, go out from among my people, both
you and the people of Israel and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take
your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me
also’” (Ex 12:29-32). On which night did God
strike down firstborns? On what night did God strike down the firstborns of One day difference John’s gospel clearly states that Jesus was slain on
the Preparation Day, which is the 14th of Abib (19:31) as the
Pharisees then reckoned when paschal lambs were to be slain; the Preparation
Day for the high Sabbath (the 15th of Abib) is not a particular day
of the week, but a date on the sacred calendar. However, Luke writes,
“Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to
be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the
Passover for us, that we may eat it’” (22:7-8) … Jesus was
alive on “this” preparation day, and would not be crucified until
the following day. There is one day’s difference in these two accounts
that must be addressed before these accounts can be reconciled—and it is
at the institution of the Passover covenant where reconciliation can be found. Keeping the Passover on
two nights At the first Passover, Under the In the 1st-Century CE the sect of the Pharisees
and apparently the temple authorities were sacrificing paschal lambs on the
afternoon of the 14th, recognizing the first even to occur at noon and the second even to occur at 6:00 pm. Between the evens would then be the 9th hour or 3:00 pm. This
practical practice allowed the number of lambs that needed to be slaughtered to
be killed before the high Sabbath began, but this not the model established by
the first Passover in Egypt. Passover to be kept as a
memorial on the 14th The first high Sabbath of Unleavened Bread is to be kept
as the memorial to when Israel left Egypt—and it can be said with
certainty that at that first Passover, Israel ate their paschal lambs during
the dark portion of the 14th, spoiled Egyptians during the light
portion of the 14th, then left Egypt as the dark portion of the 15th
began. But again, this was not the model being followed in the 1st-Century
CE although knowledge of this model was apparently widespread for neither
Jesus’ disciples, nor the man whose house Jesus used questioned eating
the Passover on the dark portion of the 14th. Textual ambiguity allows
for two or more realities of the types. In Scripture, ambiguity exists because two or more copies
and types are simultaneously relevant. This is seen in the chronology of Jesus was three actual
days in the grave. Using the timeline from John, Jesus eats the Passover on
the dark portion of the 14th of the first month, is taken captive
and questioned by the religious leaders while it is still dark, then when day
comes He is turned over to Pilate and crucified about noon, dies about 3:00 pm,
and is taken from the cross and hastily buried at dusk as the 14th
ends and the 15th begins. The 15th is the high Sabbath,
the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread—and Jesus spends all of
the 15th in the tomb. Likewise, He spends all of the 16th
and the 17th, the weekly Sabbath, in the heart of the earth[11].
And since being in the grave for three days and three nights was the only sign
that Jesus gave of His divinity, those who deny that He was in the grave for 72
hours deny Christ regardless of their protestations otherwise. Jesus was sacrificed mid
physical week; was resurrected mid spiritual week. Jesus was resurrected from death in the dark portion of
the 18th, and He was gone from the tomb when Mary came before
daylight on the first day of the week. Therefore, the 14th is
Wednesday, mid calendar week, and Jesus was resurrected on Sunday, the 18th,
the mid day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a significant correspondence
considering the reason for keeping the Sabbath under the Sinai covenant (Ex
20:11) as opposed to the reason for keeping the Sabbath under the Moab covenant
(Deu 5:15)[12]. By eating the Passover
on the 14th, Jesus continued and did not abolish the Passover
covenant. In John’s timeline, Jesus entered Jesus did not leave His
“house” until morning. The instruction to Natural The nation that left The person who takes the
sacraments on any day but the dark portion of the 14th of Abib is
without forgiveness of sin. Now, to other side of the Passover covenant: clearly,
Jesus ate the Passover on the 14th, and years later the Apostle Paul
commands the saints at Corinth to eat the Passover on the same night that Jesus
was betrayed, the 14th (1 Co 11:23-26). The sacraments taken on any
other night are of no spiritual value to the person taking them, and if a
person not born of Spirit were to take the sacraments on the night that Jesus
was betrayed, the person would take them unworthily and would take damnation
unto him or herself. So God let error stand—as God gave to rebellious
natural Israel statutes that were not good and rules by which that nation could
not have life, defiling this firstborn natural son by his gifts (Ezek
20:25-26), God gave to the rebellious Church two particularly onerous
traditions that seem to have the weight of statutes: the first (1) being that
Jesus was crucified on Friday; the second (2) being that of Sunday worship. By
these two traditions, God has prevented the visible Church from having
“life.” For the person who does not take the Passover sacraments on
the night that Jesus was betrayed does not cover his or her sins and is without
forgiveness of sin. Plus, no one can enter into God’s rest on the
following day, the 8th day. Eating the Passover on
the dark portion of the 14th began in The Churches of God have previously taught that
celebration of the Passover on the night that Jesus was betrayed originated
with Jesus, but Jesus’ disciples did not object to when Jesus would eat
the His last Passover meal. They came to Him on the first day of Unleavened
Bread and asked where He wanted to eat the Passover. And the man whose house
they used apparently wasn’t surprised by when the disciples prepared for
the Passover meal (Matt 26:17-19). However, this day was one day before when
the Pharisees would slaughter Passover lambs that they would eat on the dark
portion of the 15th day, the High Sabbath. Jesus was the reality of
all Passover lambs sacrificed. Secular sources, most of whom deny that Jesus was three
days and three nights in the grave as Jonah was three days and three nights in
the belly of the great fish, have lambs only being slaughtered after the
evening sacrifice on the 14th, which would make Jesus’
crucifixion the reality of all Passover lambs previously sacrificed, a
reasonable supposition considering that the lambs were “a shadow of the
things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col 2:17). Jesus both ate the
Passover and was the Passover. But Jesus did not die twice even though on successive
evenings He ate the Passover and was the Passover Lamb of God. His death did not end the Passover covenant initially ratified in
Egypt; for His death did not occur on the day when paschal lambs were
sacrificed in Egypt—and this is the importance of the textual
ambiguity that the sect of the Pharisees used to justify killing Passover lambs
at the close of the 14th of the first month. Although Judaism keeps
the Passover on two successive days, Jesus died only once, and this was on the
natural mid-week day. Jesus did die midweek: too many prophecies have Him being
cut off mid-week, in the middle of a seven year ministry as well as mid
calendar week. Thus, reckoning Luke’s timeline with John’s, Luke
calls the 13th the day of
Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed, which
would then necessitate that the Passover would be eaten at the beginning of the
14th, during its dark portion, and not on the 15th, the
high Sabbath. And across time, a person can hear the reverberations of Emperor
Constantine’s argument against Passover observation, for by tradition,
Judaism keeps the Passover on two successive days[13]. Disciples must test the
spirit of its teachers. Again, meaning has to be assigned to words, and since
there are many reader communities who do not hear the voice of Jesus, these
communities will assign meaning to the same inspired icons, but with their
meaning coming from human reasoning and understanding. Thus, many false
readings of Scripture will simultaneously exist. Hearing, now, the voice of
Jesus is essential for born of Spirit disciples if they are to comprehend
Scripture—they cannot listen to the many false readings and teachers and still
leave Scripture with the understanding they should have. They must test the
spirit of the reader and reading (1 John 4:1), and if they find that the reader
denies that Christ came in the flesh or denies that Christ was three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth, then the reader and the reading must
be rejected. Circumcision not needed
for liberation The Passover covenant made on the day when God took Circumcision comes
immediately after entering into God’s rest. Physical circumcision is not seen until after Circumcision equates to
liberation, or the exodus from bondage to disobedience. An uncircumcised Greek in the 1st Century,
prior to being a disciple, would not have eaten of the Passover, and the
context of Jesus’ comment about circumcision making well only a part of a
man emerges: circumcision makes a man naked before God, makes the man covered
only by his obedience to God. But when covered by obedience, the man is
liberated from sin and death; he is healed so that he should live forever.
Circumcision equates to liberation, or the exodus from bondage to disobedience.
It is only when the man loses this covering of obedience that he needs another
covering (fig leaves or animal skins). As long as a man has his covering of
obedience, he has not returned to sin or to The shedding of blood
covers sin in the flesh. The mixed multitude that left with circumcised Israel was
“covered” by the loss of their firstborns in a manner similar to
how the sons of Levi were ordained at the cost of their sons and brothers
… much blood is shed in the Law and the Prophets, too much blood for the
sensitivities of modern Americans and Europeans. This shedding of blood has
become a stumbling block that prevents “modern” nations from
worshiping the Theos of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, or from recognizing the validity of Scripture. In most
churches the Bible story has been rewritten with a blotter to remove the blood.
The love of Jesus is emphasized, and the
Law of Moses is devalued. Assignments:
__________________ The Wave Sheaf Offering Under the Sinai
covenant, the weekly Sabbath points to the physical creation. The foremost reason given by the visible Church for Sunday
worship is that Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. What is
missed is that this day was also the fourth day of Unleavened Bread … the
man Jesus was crucified and died physically on the fourth day of the calendar
week, Wednesday, the 14th of Abib, of the year 31 CE[14].
The seven day calendar week and Sabbath observance under the Sinai covenant
point to the physical creation (Ex 20:11). Under the Jesus was resurrected on the fourth day of Passover week. The seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Sabbath observance under the Moab covenant are memorials to liberation from bondage (Deut 5:15), not the physical creation. Plus, the fourth high Sabbath of the seven annual high Sabbaths is the Feast of Trumpets, the first day of the seventh month, the high Sabbath that’s customarily taught as representing the coming of the Mes |