The Basics of Christian Typology

An Outline of the Foundation

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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 Babel. Therefore, through the writings of the Apostle Paul, God gives how He expects disciples to take meaning from the Bible: the invisible things of God are made plain by what can be seen, and the physical things of the world precede the spiritual things of God. The visible things of this world are physical; the invisible things of God are spiritual. The person whose mind is focused on the visible things of this world—whether those things are nations or kingdoms or the temple that was in Jerusalem—is physically minded and cannot please God (Rom 8:8). The person who is spiritual hears about wars and rumors of wars, but is not alarmed (Matt 24:6) for wars and rumors of wars are not signs of Christ’s coming and the close of this evil age. Rather, they are but the beginning of the birth pains of the last Eve bringing forth many sons of God (v. 8).

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 temple of God that is built from living stones (1 Pet 2:4-5), with its cornerstone being the stone that was rejected by natural Israel. Paul further wrote that disciples are God’s temple (1 Co 3:16-17). And in the letter sent to the angel of the church at Philadelphia, the glorified Christ said, “‘I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God’” (Rev 3:11-12) — pillars stand on the foundation of a building. They do not rest atop walls of stone. The Apostle Paul laid the foundation; the saints of spiritual Philadelphia stand on this foundation and reach up to support the roof and capstone, with the roof being the great endtime harvest of firstfruits and the capstone being the returned Christ. No work of enduring construction is built on the foundation Paul laid until the saints of Philadelphia stand on this foundation. This means that the work of nearly 2,000 years has not been built on the foundation Paul laid, but on foundations not of God.

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 temple of God. And it is the Breath [Pneuma] of Jesus in disciples (Rom 8:9) that shapes and sculpts living stones into foundational stones, pillars and walls and roofing tiles of the spiritual house of God, with this work of shaping living stones being done off-site [here on earth] so that, as with the physical temple Solomon built (1 Kings 6:7), in heaven is heard no tear. The sound of an iron tool striking, shaping a block of quarried stone, making this stone into a building stone used by King Solomon is directly analogous to how trials, tribulation, and heartaches strike disciples to shape these living stones into the building stones of the spiritual temple, with every disciple being a miniature of the temple as well as being a part of the greater temple of God. This is why disciples are to be thankful for trials. Thus, through His Spirit or Breath, Jesus is present in every stone between the cornerstone and the capstone, but He is not present in stones laid on any foundation but the one Paul laid in heavenly Jerusalem.

The person who looks for another physical temple to be built by Jews in the modern nation of Israel looks for a physical thing and is physically or carnally minded. This person cannot please God. The person who will please God is the person who uses the Bible as a guidebook to “see” the invisible, heavenly things of God; then by faith, keeps the precepts of the law as he or she lives by every word that has come from the mouth of God (Matt 4:4).

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.

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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 Latin Churches taught that the Apostle Peter [AXJD@H] was the rock [BXJD] upon which Jesus would build His Church, and Jesus saying that “the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matt 16:18) meant the Church would not die, but this is not in agreement with what Jesus and Paul taught. Both taught that the flesh and that which is visible would die and was dead, and that the spirit would live and was life. For both, the flesh served as a shadow and copy of the spiritual. Thus, Peter as a little rock [petra] was a type of the Rock about which Moses wrote (cf. Deut 32:4; John 5:46-47). He would die as did Jesus, but the gates of Hades will not prevail over Peter for he will be resurrected to glory. Likewise, the visible spiritual[1] Body of Christ would die, but would also be resurrected to life and to glory.

 

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 Judea, or He can raise the person from the dead in the great White Throne Judgment, symbolically representing the latter main crop wheat harvest. Either way, the person will be raised from the dead through a second birth (that is, through receipt of the Holy Spirit), and this will be the person’s only opportunity for salvation. Therefore, those who have been born of Spirit in this era have received a second birth as one of the firstfruits, but the person who died without ever hearing the name of Jesus Christ lies unconscious in the dust of the earth, waiting to be raised from the dead.

 

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 Latin Churches and most of their derivative daughters. The Apostle Paul tells Timothy “not to quarrel about words” (2 Tim 2:14), with this quarreling the essence of grammatical exegesis. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for “holding to the tradition of the elders … teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:3, 7), and historical exegesis is nothing more than continued teaching of the traditions of men. If error entered the traditions of the early Church, and error did indeed enter for all of the churches in Asia had left Paul while he still lived (2 Tim 1:15), then historical exegesis continues the teaching of this error.

 

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 Corinth,

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 Israel reveal spiritual Israel’s history in the heavenly realm

If the lives lived by the saints at Corinth are epistles written by Christ Jesus, then it holds that all of Scripture [i.e., the Bible] forms the shadow and copy of the invisible, spiritual Book of Life kept and read in heaven; for Scripture whether written in a scroll or printed in a book is a physical, visible thing. And when employing typological exegesis, Scripture discloses what could otherwise not be known about, especially, the Church of God, revealing its history in the heavenly realm through the events that happened to natural Israel … the revealed lawlessness and unrighteousness of physically circumcised Israel discloses the invisible and concealed lawlessness and unrighteousness of spiritually circumcised Israel.

 

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 Latin Churches, for anyone can employ the basics of typology to take meaning from Scripture. No one truly needs a teacher once the person understands typology.

 

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:

  1. Complete the comparison of Jesus’ life with the account of the first Adam.
  2. If Jesus’ death and resurrection three days later is the spiritual reality of the deep sleep that God brought upon Adam, then show how the deception of Eve aptly reveals the deception that overcame the Church during its first centuries.
  3. How does the recorded history of the Church differs from what is revealed spiritually through typology?

 

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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.

 

Theos1,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 Israel profaned the name of God wherever it went.

 

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:

  1. Find those places in the Gospels where Jesus said He only spoke the words of the Father.
  2. Noting especially Exodus 4:16, support the following statement: Jesus was the Spokesperson for the Father as Aaron was the spokesperson for Moses. [Hint: the Father’s words are utterances or speech-acts of His divine Breath; thus, His words manifest themselves in this world as acts of the Holy Spirit.]
  3. Support the statement: During their ministry, the two witnesses (Rev 11:3-13) will speak for Christ as the man Jesus spoke for the Father during His earthly ministry.

 

___________________

 

 

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 Eden

The mental typography of humankind is invisible, and as such it is revealed through the landscape of geographical pre-Flood Eden, which extended from Assyria in the north to Babylon in the east to Egypt in the south and to lands somewhat west of the Nile.

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 Eden.

 

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:

  1. The time setting for Revelation 20:1-3 is the same or approximately the same as the setting for Isaiah 14:1-4; therefore, explain how the kings will see and look down upon Satan when he has been cast into the bottomless pit, remembering that in the grave (the reality of physical deep sleep) “the dead know nothing” (Eccl 9:5). [This is a difficult assignment.]
  2. Find in Scripture two places where the iniquity found in the anointed cherub is revealed in its shadow, and explain how this anointed cherub deceived others through the application of the iniquity found in him. [Hint: review Genesis chapter 3 and Numbers chapter 16.].

 

_____________________

 

 

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 Calvary an interesting but not needful phenomenon.

 

The Roman Church & original sin

In the Roman Church, Calvary was absolutely necessary for the forgiveness of sin, and the redemption of the inherently sinful nature of humankind. The Western Church held the doctrine of “total depravity,” meaning that there was nothing good in human beings. So while Paul’s “consigned to disobedience” and “total depravity” are not two faces of the same dogma, the concepts are closely enough linked that “original sin” is a useful term. But the first Adam could not be the last Adam so his succumbing to disobedience was inescapable.

 

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:

  1. Write why lawlessness cannot be allowed in heaven, especially in the presence of God. Use Scripture to support what’s written.
  2. If lawlessness will produce gridlock in heaven, would it not seem reasonable that disciples are to use their time in this realm to practice keeping the commandments? Explain why or why not.
  3. Explain the logic for Grace as you now understand Grace, remembering that God consigned or concluded all of humankind to disobedience or sin.

 

_____________________

 

 

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 Israel with the Law of Moses

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 Israel with the Law of Moses to determine what Israel believes about everlasting life—and this test separates sheep from goats, spiritually circumcised Israel from the synagogue of Satan. For the last Eve believed the same lie that the first Eve believed: “the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die’” (Gen 3:4). Greek philosophers said to all who would hear them, “You will not surely die for you have an immortal soul.”

 

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 Israel killed the daily sacrifice. It is the obedience that covers the childish spiritual disobedience that is visibly revealed through the physical maturation process of human infants.

 

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 Israel offered its “daily” sacrifice at the temple. And it will not be needed or available when the Son of Man is revealed—following the liberation of disciples from indwelling sin and death at a Second Passover, every disciple will be made a spotless sacrifice to be offered to God.

 

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 Israel is liberated from sin and death.

Grace cannot be sold; it cannot be bartered; it cannot be stored up. It is the reality of natural Israel’s twice daily sacrifice of a lamb. It is the putting on of Christ’s righteousness; it is the mercy of the Father, who sent the Logos into the Logos’ creation to die on the cross, thereby fulfilling all righteousness. And this putting on of Christ’s righteousness will end when Israel is liberated from sin and death, and Israel’s obedience will end 2,300 evening and mornings [days] before the sanctuary is restored to its rightful state (Dan 8:14). The great falling away will be far greater than Christendom now imagines; for two sons struggle in the womb of the living Isaac, one hated, one loved, even though no sin is imputed to either because both are covered by grace (cf. Rom 9:6-13). But in the hated son, the mystery of lawlessness is fully manifest.

 

Assignments:

  1. Explain how God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Co 12:9)?
  2. Use Scripture to support the following statement: If the maturation of a human being reveals the course of the spiritual maturation of a son of God dwelling in a tent of flesh, then grace cannot be unmerited pardon, for the newly born son of God will have the same type of innocence as a human infant.
  3. If possible, recall when you were 6 or 7 years old. Did you think you were mature? How about at 12, or 16? Was your human thought process noticeably different at 16 from when 12? And different at 18 from when 16? Now take all of this back to being born of Spirit: what type of forgiveness of your childish acts was needed at 6, at 12, at 16, at 18? At what point were you ready to obey human laws as is required of an adult to be beyond reproach? Explain why being physically beyond reproach serves as the shadow and type of glorification.

_____________________

 

 

Who or What Nation is Endtime Israel?

 

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 Calvary, “[N]o 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” (Rom 2:28-29). Elsewhere Paul wrote, “In him [Christ Jesus] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Col 2:11). And in the Moab covenant mediated by Moses, the Lord [YHWH] told the mixed nation of circumcised and uncircumcised Israelites[5] that,

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 Israel to return to God, faith equivalent to Abraham’s faith when he left his father in Haran to journey to Canaan. Physically circumcised Israel never returned to God by faith, but a person of the nations [Gentiles] who turns to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and by faith begins to keep the precepts of the law will have his or her physical uncircumcision counted as circumcision (Rom 2:26). The person who was once far from God and alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise (Eph 2:11-13) is brought near by the blood of Christ. This person is now part of the commonwealth of Israel; this person is an Israelite, one who has prevailed or overcome with God (Gen 32:28). And this person will keep the commandments of God as the reasonable expectation of the household of God (Deut 30:10).

 

Israel of endtime biblical prophecies

The Israel of endtime biblical prophecies is not the physically circumcised nation, but the nation that has circumcised hearts, with some of this nation also being outwardly circumcised and some only being inwardly uncircumcised.

 

The Moab covenant

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

Israel does not cease to be as a nation when circumcision moves from being of the outer man to being of the inner man, born of Spirit as a son of God. This new creature is housed in a tabernacle or tent of flesh; so the following correspondences exist—

·         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 Egypt precedes and serves as a copy and type of the spiritually circumcised Israelite [i.e., the new creature born of Spirit] in a tent of flesh.

·         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 Israel.

·         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 Israel is not endtime Israel; the Christian Church is.

 

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 Israel.

 

The nation that left Egypt could not enter into Judea on the following day

In typology, Egypt and the king of the south represent sin, while Assyria and the king of the North represent death. Between sin and death lies “life,” or Judea, which the Psalmist labels as God’s rest (Ps 95:10-11). In the exodus from Egypt, the adult nation counted in the census taken the second year (Num 1:1-3) died in the wilderness, with the exceptions of Joshua and Caleb, because of its unbelief (cf. Num 14:11-12, 20-24, 28-34; Ps 95:10-11; Heb 3:19). This nation, when told that it was under sentence of death, outwardly repented (Num 14:40), but it could not enter God’s rest [or into life] on the following day. The writer of Hebrews makes the “rest” of God that disbelieving Israel could not enter [i.e., Canaan or Judea] the visible, physical type of entering into the Sabbath rest of God (Heb 3:16-4:11), with the promise of entrance standing open only for a while (specifically Heb 4:1). And as the nation that left Egypt could not enter into Judea on the following day (Num 14:41-45), endtime Israel cannot enter into the rest of God on the following day, the 8th-day.

 

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 Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Rom 11:2-6)

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 Moab. Therefore, Israel after Calvary includes the remnant of the physically circumcised nation foreshadowed by the  seven thousand of Elijah’s day—this remnant is represented at Moab by the then-grown children of the nation that left Egypt, children too young to be counted in the census taken the second year. And Israel after Jesus breathed on the ten disciples and said, ‘“Receive the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion or Breath Holy]”’ (John 20:22) includes that nation which wasn’t before a nation (1 Pet 2:9-10), but is now a nation that has received mercy/grace. This “uncircumcised” nation is represented at Moab by the uncircumcised children born in the wilderness—these children were circumcised after Israel crossed the Jordan and entered into God’s rest (Josh 5:2-7), but before Israel celebrated the Passover.

 

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 Judea [or “life”], then later to the main crop wheat harvest after the thousand years. Jesus was the First of the firstfruits. As such He was the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, presented to God on the day after the Sabbath during Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:11).

 

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 Israel is the nation in covenant with God

Endtime Israel is, according to Paul, the nation in covenant with God under the law of faith that is the righteousness that comes from faith, with his law of faith being the Moab covenant first mediated by Moses, and now mediated by Christ Jesus. The return of Israel from the North Country is, now, the recovery of Israel from death through the giving of everlasting life.

 

 

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 Israel is a holy nation that was not before a people (1 Pet 2:9-10), a nation consisting of those disciples who have circumcised hearts, then of what importance is the genealogy of the flesh?

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 Israel, where this grain will be thrashed and winnowed.

 

“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 Caesarea, Tertullus accused Paul of being a ringleader for “the sect ["ÊDXF,TH] of the Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5). Paul answered that he was indeed of The Way that the Jews called a sect ["ËD,F4<] (v. 14). The Sadducees were also described as a sect ["ËD,F4<] (Acts 5:17), as were the Pharisees ["ÊDXF,TH] (Acts 15:5 – "ËD,F4< was used by Paul in Acts 26:5). So the early Church functioned as a competing sect of Judaism within greater Judaism, and its assemblies were meetings of a newly formed synagogue. Now it is more easily understood why the Apostle Paul identifies disciples as the temple of God, for the new creatures that are sons of God, with these sons forming a holy nation and a royal priesthood, dwell within tents of flesh as the Levites whose turn it was to serve dwelt within the temple. Disciples are to serve continuously.

 

Assignments:

  1. Locate those places in Scripture where Jesus said in some form that the kingdom of God is among men, and show that Jesus was referring to Himself having come as the light of this world.
  2. On at least three occasions Jesus said that whatever the Church bound or loosed on earth would be bound or loosed in heaven, even to forgiveness of sin [Matt 16:19; 18:18; John 20:23]. Explain how such binding and loosening is consistent with the Church being constructed of Jesus.
  3. If the Church is not merely possessed [as in owned] by Jesus but actually made from Him, and if Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets by keeping the commandments and fulfilling prophecies, and if the person in whom Jesus truly abides will walk in the same way as Jesus walked, what theological reason exists for the person not to keep the commandments by faith? (Your answer should address 1 John 2:1-6.)

__________________

 

 

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 Israel who would have infant sons of God present their members to sin as willing servants are murderers regardless of how pious and innocent these teachers seem to be.

 

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 Israel left Egypt. So is the Law of Moses the Sinai [Horeb] covenant (Ex chaps 19-24)? Or is the Law of Moses the Moab covenant (Deu chaps 29-32)? Or is the Law of Moses the covenant God made with Israel on the day that He led this nation out of Egypt—the Passover covenant (Ex chaps 12-14). And where is circumcision found in the Law of Moses? Where, on Israel’s journey between the Sea of Reeds [the Red Sea] and the River Jordan, does Moses or God through Moses command Israel to be circumcised?

 

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 Israel, not one.

 

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 [Israel]’” (Num 14:12; Ex 32:10). On both occasions Moses implored God not to destroy Israel and make of him a great nation. Both times God deferred His wrath; nevertheless, His intention to make of Moses a mighty nation stands unaltered for three and a half millennia, for Jesus said, “‘But if you do not believe his [Moses’] writings, how will you believe my words’” (John 5:47). Thus, to hear Jesus’ words and to believe the One who sent Him and thereby pass from death to life (v. 24) is to believe Moses’ writings; for Moses is the house that Theos, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, built (Heb 3:3-4) when He led Israel through the wilderness of Sin/Zin.

 

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 Israel. It is difficult to conceive of obedience as a garment that is put on to cover one’s nakedness. Likewise, it is difficult to perceive that Christ’s righteousness functions as a garment that disciples put on daily as physically circumcised Israel covered its transgressions of the law through the “daily” or daily sacrifice. But Grace when properly understood is the garment of Christ’s righteousness that covers the daily sins of disciples; for all who are “baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27). And what those believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees never understood is that the garment of Christ—literally, Grace—covers the transgressions of the new creature born of Spirit, with this new creature being neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, free nor bond (v. 28). All of these physical attributes pertain to the flesh: a man has outdoor plumbing while a woman has indoor. An Ethiopian has a darker tent of flesh than has someone of Nordic heritage. But Grace does not cover the lawlessness of the flesh, which today remains in subjection to sin and death (Rom 7:21-25). Rather, Grace covers the transgressions of the new creature, a son of God born of Spirit and domiciled in an outer nature (2 Co 4:16) or tent that is the son of God’s earthly home (2 Co 5:1). And it is this son of God over whom sin has no dominion (Rom 6:14), for this son’s Father is not the first Adam who lost his covering of obedience when he ate forbidden fruit. Rather, this son’s Father is Theon, the Most High God.

 

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 Babylon to the heavenly city of Jerusalem. Circumcision comes when the person spiritually crosses the River Jordan and begins living as a spiritual Judean, thereby taking the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed.

 

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 Moab covenant (Deu chaps 29-32). All of these covenants of promise are shadows and copies that are continued as covenants of promise made with born of Spirit sons of God—and this is what greater Christendom has failed to understand. Disciples take the sacraments of bread and wine on the night that Jesus was betrayed (1 Co 11:23-26) as the continuation of the Passover covenant made with Israel on the night that God took Israel by the hand to lead this nation out of Egypt.

 

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 Calvary. But “Israel” was not abolished! And if Israel is not abolished but becomes a nation with circumcised hearts, then the covenants are not abolished either but becomes covenants made with this spiritual nation that used to be two peoples, divided by the hostility created through physical circumcision. And Jesus’ actions on the night that He was betrayed, when compared to what happened at the first Passover, disclose the relationship between the physical and the spiritual … the plundering of Egypt, now, becomes an interesting case study: when Israel took the gold and silver of Egypt, it took those things that “reflected light” as the moon reflects the light of the sun. Jesus is the light of this world (John 1:4, 7; 12:35-36; 1 John 1:5 et al), and when He died at Calvary, darkness overcame this world. It is physical things that reflect visible light; the true light of this world is invisible and spiritual. And Jesus was the true light of God. So as Egypt lost those things that reflected light, the world lost its light and was plunged into darkness when Christ died on the cross.

 

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 Calvary. However, the covenants of promise were 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. So Moses remains as the witness against every Israelite (John 5:45; Deu 31:26) regardless of whether physically or spiritually circumcised. And the covenants of promise remain in force.

 

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 Egypt and will end with blood shed at the second Passover.

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 Israel forget its liberation from bondage to Pharaoh (Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8).

 

Assignments:

  1. Within the Torah are at least two covenants that were not earthly copies of spiritual things. Locate these covenants and identify with what they were ratified.
  2. Review Acts chapter 15 and familiarize yourself with what was at issue. Then explain why, following this conference, the Apostle Paul had Timothy circumcised (Acts 16:3). [Hint: what is “the dividing wall of hostility” – Eph 2:14.[6]]
  3. The visible Church uses Acts 16:31 as a proof text to show that salvation is only dependent upon “belief” in Christ Jesus. But this jailer fell down before Paul and Silas [explain why], then brought them out of jail [what is the significance of this], received instruction from Paul and Silas, washed their wounds, was baptized, took them into his house and set food before them. Compare this jailer’s journey of faith to the patriarch Abraham’s journey of faith.
  4. If the covenants of promise made with natural Israel are continued with spiritual Israel until ended by the shedding of blood, compare Numbers chapter 14 with the great falling away of 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 10-12.

 

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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 Israel, but will be made known to children).

 

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 Rome and the Roman Empire into the visions of Daniel, they are false prophets who have taken upon themselves the curse for blasphemy against the Spirit.

 

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:

  1. How does a person recognize a figure of speech when the language used seems straightforward as in Jesus’ explanation of His parables?
  2. If a literal reading of Scripture excludes all meanings that come from the use of figurative language, is it reasonable to say that those who read literally are described by the prophet Israel as hearing but not understanding, seeing by not perceiving? Explain.

 

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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 Israel [with the notable exception of the golden calf incident]. Jesus did not speak His own words; thus, the utterances of the Father that Jesus delivered through the renewing work of the Holy Spirit were not limited to the movement of air in sound waves. The work being then done by the Father is the work that Jesus was visibly doing, perhaps the best assignment of meaning to verse 17. The utterances of the Father were the work that Jesus was doing, for all things came into being through the Logos, or Word. So the miracles Jesus performed should be perceived as the speech-acts of the Father, who dwells in timelessness.

 

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 Judea (cf. Ps 95:10-11; Heb 3:16-4:11). Therefore, the Father’s delivery of His speech-acts on a particular day within the created universe causes special significance to be assigned to that day; for the Father could have delivered His speech-acts on any day of the week or month or year. Remember, He does all of His work within the same unchanging moment; so He has to make a concerted effort to have His speech-acts delivered on a particular day if they are not to be delivered on any changing moment within time. In plainer speech, if the Father did not choose to figuratively deliver a sermon on the Sabbath through His speech-act of healing the invalid, He would have caused the invalid to be healed on another day, or most likely, healed without any attention being attracted by the healing.

 

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:

  1. The recorded healing miracles of Jesus that occurred on the Sabbaths of God in a manner foreshadowed by physical circumcision – see John 7:23 – made the whole man well. Explain how this is true.
  2. When Jesus’ disciples eat grain on the Sabbath and caused offense among the Pharisees, Jesus reminded these Pharisees that David had eaten the showbread. How does the first disciples eating grain equate to David and his men eating the showbread? [This is a difficult question, but one that an be answered.]

 

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The Key of David

 

The key of David is typology.

God can only be worshiped in heavenly Jerusalem, a spiritual city that has no geographical coordinates. Physical Jerusalem, extremely meaningful to physical Israelites and to physically minded Christians, serves only as a shadow and copy of the heavenly city of spirit and truth. But this concept of ancient physically-circumcised Israelites in Egypt, in the Wilderness of Sin/Zin, and in physical Jerusalem forming a shadow and copy of the spiritually-circumcised nation of Israel—the Christian Church—in bondage to sin and death, followed by liberation through empowerment by the Holy Spirit seems too difficult for most of Christendom to comprehend. Therefore, Scripture remains an “encoded” message that can only be “read” typologically with the key of David.

 

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 Israel’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, this ministry thought only physically [i.e., thought as a child]; so though this key was hidden in plain sight for all to see, it wasn’t used to unlock Scripture until the time of the end began.

 

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 “Israel” is given to Jacob after Jacob strove with God until the coming of the light.

·         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.

·         Israel is the name God gave to Jacob after Jacob strove all night with God; thus, the second presentation of the informing thought is the spiritual or godly presentation.

·         Israel incorporates all that Jacob was and all that Jacob would become through striving; thus, “Israel” as a name reflects a second naming or a second birth.

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 Israel’s exodus from Egypt as recorded in the Book of Exodus. The spiritual portion pertains to a second time when the lives of men are given for the ransom of Israel, now a spiritually circumcised nation rather than a physically circumcised nation. Thus, in the structure of Hebraic poetic conceits is previously unrevealed prophecy about a second Passover liberation of Israel … being able to “see” that a second Passover liberation of Israel—this time from indwelling sin and death through being empowered by the Holy Spirit—will occur in a manner foreshadowed by the first or physical Passover liberation of Israel comes from employing the key of David, typological exegesis.

 

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 Israel was Jacob and never exists apart from Jacob. Wrestling with God and prevailing added righteousness to the man who was deceitful; hence, the natural man plus righteousness obtained by striving with God equaled “Israel,” a new creature because of what had been added. Therefore, the flesh [Gr: soma] and physical breath [Gr: psuche] needed to sustain the flesh of every disciple equates to the patriarch Jacob. To the flesh must be added an element of thirdness: pneuma, the Breath of God, which now strives with the flesh as Jacob strove with God.

 

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 Israel. Likewise, the man Jesus (Theos come as His only Son [John 1:14; 3:16]) spoke to His Apostles and to spiritually circumcised Israel.

·         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 Israel (Eccl 3:11) as His only Son, the man Jesus of Nazareth. And He came to reveal the Father [/WH/] to those human beings who would be born of Spirit.

 

David knew that Yah was the God of circumcised Israel.

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 Egypt when Yah set His hand to liberate a physical nation from physical bondage to a physical king. This second Passover liberation will be of a spiritually circumcised nation from bondage to sin and death.

 

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 kingdom of Samaria are. It really isn’t possession of legitimacy to rule. It is a disciple understanding typology as multi-layered or tiered shadowing.

 

Assignments:

  1. Using a modern translation, break Psalm 40 into the thought-couplets of which it is composed. [Note: because work will be from a translation, variations will exist from one person’s work to another.]
  2. In your words, write what it means to you that the focus of poetic discourse is not the mimetic meaning of the words, but the artifice that is the poem.

__________________

 

 

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 Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And 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 emphasis added)

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 Israel remains under the Passover covenant made when God led Israel out of Egypt.

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, Calvary ended the “marriage” covenant ratified at Sinai.

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 Israel’s sin offerings defiled Israel in the same way that a woman’s menstrual blood defiled her. No children could be born of a union when the husband stayed away from his wife because of her defilement by “natural” blood. Therefore, no children were “born” of Spirit throughout Israel’s long history until Theos entered His creation as His only Son, thereby becoming the last Adam.

 

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 Israel.

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 Israel can be represented on a “x/y” graph.

Events that happened to natural Israel occurred within a time continuum that can be represented by the “x” axis of a simple “x/y” graph. What happens to the spiritual nation can be represented by the “y” axis, which will see no passage of time. And the perpendicular intersection of these axes occurs at Calvary, when martyrdom of the Lamb of God becomes the Passover sacrifice for natural Israel. Therefore, to “see” in advance the events that will occur along the “y” axis of this graph, the disciple must first comprehend what occurred along the “x” axis. Most of those who call themselves “Christians” are not well acquainted with the Passover covenant, and since the promised new covenant will be implemented when the first Passover covenant, the covenant made with Israel when God took that nation by the hand to lead it out of bondage, is ended by the second shedding of blood (Isa 43:4), it is necessary to revisit Scripture.

 

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 Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to [the size of] their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household’” (Ex 12:2-3). The lamb was to be penned until the 14th day then slain between the evenings (v. 6). Blood of this Passover lamb was to be put on the doorposts and lintels of the houses, and the lamb was to be roasted whole with fire and eaten with bitter herbs (vv. 7-9). It was to be eaten with belts fastened, feet shod, and staffs in hand; it was to be eaten in haste (v. 11). The blood would be the sign that the Lord would pass over the houses of the fathers of Israel and Judah, and that no plague would destroy them when He struck the land of Egypt, slaying firstborns of both man and beast (vv. 12-13). The Lord further added,

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 Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generation, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats

what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread. (Ex 12:14-20)

 

The Passover covenant has seven provisions.

Note: there is no promise of salvation, only of liberation. Also note, the Lord said nothing to Israel about the Sabbath, about murder, about adultery, about lying, about stealing, about idols or coveting. This Passover covenant only has seven provisions: (1) select and pen a lamb of the first year on the 10th day of the 1st month; (2) kill the lamb at even on the 14th day; (3) put some of the blood of the lamb on doorposts and lintels of the houses of Israel; (4) roast the lamb whole over fire and eat it in haste, leaving none of it until morning; (5) Israel was to spoil the Egyptians before leaving Egypt; (6) Israel to annually keep seven days of Unleavened Bread as a memorial feast in remembrance of this liberation from bondage; and (7) all firstborns are to consecrated or redeemed, for all that opens the womb belongs to God to do with as He pleases[10] (Ex 13:1-2).

 

Pharaoh commands Israel to leave Egypt on the same night that firstborns were slain.

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 Egypt? Did the death angel pass over Egypt during the dark portion of the 14th, or the dark portion of the 15th day of the first month? This question has relevance and should not be dismissed lightly.

 

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, Israel was not to leave their houses on the night when lambs were to be roasted and eaten in haste (Ex 12:22). And if Israel did not leave their houses until morning even though Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron to him in the predawn hours of darkness, then Israel could not spoil the Egyptians until after daylight … for seven days no leaven [yeast] was to found among Israelites: the nation was to eat no leavened bread (v. 15), and the first day and seventh day of these seven days [i.e., the 14th day at even through the 21st day at even of the first month] were to be holy assemblies and high Sabbaths when no work other than preparation of food for that day was to be done. In Leviticus, Israel is told that the first high Sabbath occurs on the 15th day of the first month (23:5-8). Only if these seven days begin at the end of the 14th, and if these seven days include all of the 21st, are the seven days described in Exodus the same seven days that are given in Leviticus. This reading excludes the 14th, but includes the 21st even though the same language is used for both. And because the same language is used, the 14th could be included and the 21st excluded, creating an ambiguity of language that permitted the practice of keeping the Passover on two nights, a reason apart from Israel being unable to determine in advance the new crescent moon that begins the first month.

 

Under the Second Temple’s administration, Passover lambs were slain a day later than slain in Egypt.

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 Calvary.

 

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 Jerusalem on Sabbath, the 10th day of the first month (John 12:1, 12); He entered as both high priest and as Passover Lamb. And His confrontations with the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees recorded in Matthew chapter 22 would have probably been on Monday, the 12th. The Olivet Discourse is given near even of the 12th.  He sent His disciples to prepare where they would eat the Passover on the afternoon of the 13th, and He ate the Passover on the same night [the 14th] that physically circumcised Israelites in Egypt ate that first Passover.

 

Jesus did not leave His “house” until morning.

The instruction to Israel not to leave their houses before morning now becomes especially revealing since a disciple consists of the new creature, a son of God, dwelling in a tent of flesh. Therefore, after establishing bread and wine as His flesh and blood, the eating of which would be to eat the Passover Lamb of God, Jesus did not spiritually leave His tent when He went with His disciples into Gethsemane; He did not leave His “house” until morning, with morning now being when He ascended to the Father as the Wave Sheaf Offering, the First of the firstfruits. And Israel’s spoiling the Egyptians by taking their gold and silver jewelry [that which reflected sun light] and fine clothing becomes the shadow of Christ Jesus dying on the cross, thereby taking from the world its “light” and taking from natural Israel its covering for sin.

 

Natural Israel did not keep the Passover covenant.

The nation that left Egypt could not keep the covenant that God made with this nation when He took it by the hand to lead it from bondage. Again, this covenant placed few obligations on future generations of Israel: repeat the Passover sacrifice of lambs at even on the 14th day of the first month, keep the seven days of Unleavened Bread, and redeem firstborns. But the sect of the Pharisees and temple officials were not sacrificing paschal lambs at even before the 14th, but at even closing the 14th. Thus, Jesus could both eat that last Passover meal of a paschal lamb and He could offer “His flesh” [in the form of unleavened bread] and “His blood” [the wine poured out for the forgiveness of sin] to His disciples as the flesh and blood of the spiritual paschal Lamb of God before He physically died as natural Israel’s Passover Lamb. He had long desired to eat this Passover meal; He had long awaited Israel’s transformation from a physically circumcised nation to a new nation circumcised of heart. The ambiguity of when the Passover lamb should be killed was useful and perhaps even needful, for it left natural Israel out of covenant with God and with no covering for sin.

 

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 Egypt, not with Jesus.

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 Israel by the hand to lead this nation out of Egypt did not include the Decalogue or the need to be physically circumcised or the promise of spiritual circumcision. A mixed multitude left Egypt with Israel, and this mixed multitude would not have been physically circumcised in Egypt and they were not physically circumcised in the wilderness; nor were the children born into the tents of Israel in the wilderness physically circumcised.

 

Circumcision comes immediately after entering into God’s rest.

Physical circumcision is not seen until after Israel crosses the River Jordan under Joshua’s leadership (Josh 5:2-7). So partaking in the exodus from Egypt did not require a person to be physically circumcised even though to eat of the Passover required a person to be circumcised (Ex 12:48). Circumcision, now, and the blood shed when a person is circumcised equates to the blood shed by Egyptian firstborns as ransom for Israel. Therefore, no one can enter into this Passover covenant at a future time unless the person is circumcised, physically or spiritually, until lives are again given for the ransom of Israel.

 

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 Egypt, the earthly representation of sin.

 

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:

  1. Explain why you previously have or have not taken the sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed, the 14th of the first month [Abib].
  2. If you have not previously taken the sacraments as the Apostle Paul commanded, what Scripture[s] caused you to believe that your sins were forgiven?
  3. The importance of taking the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed cannot be overemphasized; therefore, review this manual and construct from it the arguments you will use to teach others to annually take the sacraments on the dark portion of the 14th of Abib.
  4. Explain why Egypt represents sin, and how the great falling away (2 Thess 2:3) is a figurative return to Egypt.

 

__________________

 

 

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 Moab covenant, the Sabbath is a memorial to liberation.

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 Messiah. In addition, the fourth day of the spiritual week represented by the Genesis chapter one creation account [the so-called “P” account] reveals in the creation of the greater light to rule the day the resurrection to glory of the saints, the firstfruits of God[15]. So the spiritual significance of the mid-week day begins with liberation from bondage and goes to the coming of the Messiah and to the resurrection of the saints. But all of this is missed when the person does not realize that Jesus was resurrected as the Wave Sheaf Offering, the First of the firstfruits to be accepted by God.

 

The Wave Sheaf Offering

The Lord [YHWH] spoke to Moses, saying,

Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, “When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. … And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” (Lev 23:9-11, 14)

 

The testimony of Jesus is that the morrow after the Sabbath is the first day of the week.

As with when the Passover should be eaten, some ambiguity exists about the phrase, On the day after the Sabbath — what Sabbath is being referenced? The sect of the Pharisees and modern rabbinical Judaism believe the Sabbath referenced is the high Sabbath, the 15th of Abib; thus, they offer the Wave Sheaf on the 16th of Abib, a fixed calendar date. Whereas the Sadducees and the Churches of God contend that the referenced Sabbath is the weekly Sabbath occurring within the Feast of Unleavened Bread; thus they celebrate the Wave Sheaf Offering on a fixed day of the week, the first day. And with the Waved Sheaf being a shadow of Christ Jesus, the substance of the feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths (Col 2:16-17), the testimony of Jesus is that referenced Sabbath is the weekly Sabbath[16].

 

Celebrating Jesus’ resurrection was commanded by Moses.

If keeping the Wave Sheaf Offering throughout Israel’s generations is a statute forever, then celebrating Jesus’ resurrection on the day following the weekly Sabbath during the seven days of Unleavened Bread is a commanded celebration—and “Resurrection Sunday” is a poor cousin to the offering of the Wave Sheaf; for Resurrection Sunday misses the significance of Israel’s liberation from bondage to sin (as represented by the second Passover) and to death (as represented by the resurrection). It barely addresses that Jesus will return as the Messiah.

 

Assignments:

  1. If from the days of Moses Israel has been commanded to wave the first sheaf of ripe grain before God on the morrow after the Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread, and if Jesus is the First of the firstfruits, ascending to the Father at the hour of the Wave Sheaf Offering as its reality, then how can Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday, the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, justify not keeping the Sabbath commandment?
  2. Under the Moab covenant, the Sabbath is a memorial to liberation from bondage (Deut 5:15) whereas Easter Sunday parades in Easter finery, Easter baskets, and Easter bunnies are displays of bondage to the things of this world. Which do you think better pleases God? Explain your answer.

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The Lord’s Day

 

In the flesh or “in spirit”

John the Revelator wrote, ¦(,<`:0< ¦< B<,b:"J4 ¦< J± 6LD4"6± º:XD [“I was in spirit in the Lord’s Day” – Rev 1:10) … when was John in spirit [¦< B<,b:"J4]? Was he in spirit on a particular day of the week, or in spirit in the vision, or in spirit at the end of the age, when the prophets of old used the expression “day of the Lord” [and “that day”] as a euphemism for the coming of the Messiah? Was John in the flesh when he saw the events he describes? Or was he, as he claims, in spirit as in being a spiritual creature? The Apostle Paul did not know which he was [in the flesh or in spirit] when he visited the third heaven (2 Co 12:2-3), the location of John’s vision. So for John to say that he was in spirit and not in the flesh introduces a level of complexity that has not been well explored.

 

The expression the Lord’s day was not used in the 1st-Century CE for the first day of the week.

The phrase, “Lord’s day” [6LD4"6¬ º:XD"], was not used to designate the first day of the week until near the close of the 2nd-Century CE, when it was used in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter, a text with so little spiritual understanding evident that one would think it was of purely pagan origin. The phrase is not found in the sayings of Jesus; however, its echo—the day of the Lord [YHWH]—is commonly used by the Prophets, but always for events at the close of the age. Therefore, since the context in which /J± 6LD4"6± º:XD/appears suggests its echo, the probability that John was in spirit on the first day of the week is too small to be considered as reasonable grounds for pursuit.

 

The events described in Revelation are to happen “soon” in the vision.

Revelation begins, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place” (1:1 emphasis added) … if the events described in John’s vision must “soon” take place, then the time setting for the vision is not the 1st-Century CE. No assignment of meaning to soon allows for the passage of two millennia to transpire between when John transcribed his vision and when the events described within the vision take place.

The vision closes with, “‘These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place’” (22:6); plus, “‘And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophesy of this book, for the time is near’” (v. 10); and, “‘Behold, I am coming soon’” (v. 12); and, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon’” (v. 20 – emphasis has been added to each of the bolded words).

 

The Lord’s day is endtime the day of the Lord.

If the Lord’s day is the day of the Lord, then John’s vision occurs at the end of the age, when dominion is taken from the four demonic kings (Dan 7:9-14) and the kingdom of this world is given to Christ Jesus (Rev 11:15). At that time, all of the events described within the vision will “soon” occur. The vision is, now, true and trustworthy, but not for the 1st-Century, or even the 20th-Century.

 

The events described in Revelation only occur once.

On a specific day, dominion over humankind will be taken by force from the prince of this world and his angels (Rev 12:7-10), and the single kingdom of this world will be given to one like a son of man. This is a one time occurrence. It doesn’t happen earlier than the time of the end, and it hasn’t happened yet. Therefore, humankind has not yet arrived at that moment in time when the seals on the scroll are removed.

 

If the events described within vision don’t occur until the time of the end, then the vision is internally sealed.

In the vision, the angel tells John not to seal the vision … if the vision doesn’t occur in the 1st-Century but in the 21st-Century [or later], then the letters that John is told to deliver to the seven churches were not to be delivered in the 1st-Century, but are to be delivered in the 21st, meaning that God has again used shadows to seal and keep secret a vision He openly placed before the saints. For at the close of the 1st-Century the seven named churches co-existed on a Roman mail route. And their existence (plus the fact that the letters accurately reflect the strengths and weakness of each of these churches) has caused theologians for nearly two millennia to wrestle with the imagery and symbolism of John’s vision.

 

In the vision, appearance describes function or attributes.

In Revelation, appearance functions as attributes. For example, Jesus functions as the Lamb of God. He doesn’t appear as a lamb in chapter 1, verses 12 through 20; however, once past the seven letters, He appears as a Lamb, slain[17], with seven horns and seven eyes, which are seven spirits … these seven spirits function as eyes as Jesus functions as the Lamb of God. The seven churches will now function as seven horns. So the seven churches are not 1st-Century fellowships, but spiritual fellowships in the same way that the seven eyes are seven spirits.

 

Assignments:

  1. Find Old Testament prophecies that use the expression “the day of the Lord,” and describe their time setting. Note the consistency of these time settings.
  2. If “the Lord’s day” refers to the time of the end, then the scroll in the vision is still sealed and cannot be read until unsealed on “the Lord’s day” when Christ removes the seals. Therefore, the vision has been sealed for nearly two millennia by the discrepancy between when the vision was received by John and when the vision actually occurs. How, now, does appearance being attribute further seal the vision?

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Imitating Paul

 

Disciples are to imitate Paul.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the saints at Philippi,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way … let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. (3:14-17)

Paul gave Gentile converts instructions to imitate him, to walk as he walked, to live as he lived—and the visible Church as taught for centuries that Paul lived as a Gentile, but this is not what Scripture reports, nor what historians disclose.

 

The headquarters Church at Jerusalem was administered by 15 successive bishops, all circumcised.

The historians Eusebius (ca 260-340 CE) and Epiphanius (ca 315-403 CE) both record that until the siege of Hadrian (135 CE) the Church in Jerusalem and later at Pella, the congregation that would have been considered the headquarters church for Christendom, consisted of converted Jews who were physically circumcised, and was administered by 15 successive bishops, all circumcised. So it needs to be first recognized that the Jerusalem Conference (Acts chap 15) did not end circumcision per se, for immediately after the Conference, the Apostle Paul had Timothy circumcised (Acts 16:3). The issue at the Jerusalem Conference was “stumbling blocks,” and for Gentiles, circumcision was a stumbling block. For Jews, lack of circumcision was a stumbling block. Paul had Timothy circumcised so that Timothy’s “uncircumcision” would not be a stumbling block that prevented Jewish converts from coming to Christ. So post Jerusalem Conference, cultural expectations become a factor to be considered; for, again, the new creature that is a son of God is not the flesh, but only lives in a tent of flesh.

 

The requirements of discipleship for Gentile converts have divided Christendom from its beginning.

Justin, in his Dialogue with Trypho, wrote that in his day, Jewish-Christians were not divided over Christological issues, but by opposing teachings concerning Gentile Christians, with some making no demand of Gentiles to be circumcised or to keep the Sabbath, and with others demanding that Gentiles converts live in all respects according to the law given by Moses. And here it must be remembered, the Body of Christ was already dead by Justin’s day. It was crucified with Christ; it had lost its divine Breath [Pneuma ’Agion]; and the question would be whether it remained visibly dead on the cross or whether it was buried by Hadrian in his destruction of Jerusalem and all things that appeared Jewish.

 

The Jerusalem Conference did not end circumcision and participation in temple worship.

If the Jerusalem Conference did not end circumcision and participation in temple worship [as seen by Paul fulfilling a Nazarite vow – Acts 21:23-26], or even end the debate over whether Gentiles had to be compelled to keep the so-called law of Moses, then when did these things of which Christ is the substance (Col 2:17) end? When the temple was destroyed (ca 70 CE)? No. When Hadrian razed Jerusalem and rebuilt over it Aelia Capitolina, a pagan Roman colony? No. They ended when the Body of Christ was buried and no longer visible to anyone. And this might not be on a fixed date, but be a “rolling” date like a tide rip that moved eastward with the incoming lawlessness.

 

The mystery of lawlessness probably began in Rome.

It is probable that the mystery of lawlessness began in the western capital of the world, Rome, with this mystery openly manifesting itself through Sunday observance there first. In 49 CE (possibly as early as 41 CE) when the Emperor Claudius expelled Jews from Rome because, according to Roman historian Suetonius (ca 70-122 CE), they riot constantly at the instigation of Chrestus, Roman authorities did not distinguish between Christians and Jews [Aquila and Priscilla were expelled at this time – Acts 18:2]. To Roman authorities, both Christians and Jews were “Jews” for both attended the synagogue. But when Nero, 14 years later, began to persecute Christians, a clear distinction existed.

 

By the mid 60s CE, outside of Judea, Christianity could no longer be regarded as a sect of Judaism.

In the 14 years between when Aquila and Priscilla were expelled from Italy and when Nero accused Christians of being arsonists, both Jews and Christians at Rome had worked to project separate identities—by the mid 60s CE, outside of Judea, Christianity could no longer be regarded as a sect of greater Judaism. The mystery of lawlessness that the Apostle Paul references had created an unbridgeable schism between Christians and Jews.

 

The person whose theology differs from what Paul taught cannot build on the foundation Paul laid.

In his second epistle to Timothy, Paul writes that all in Asia had left him … to which one of the fellowships in Asia would a person look, after all left Paul, for instruction in the ways of Christ? How about in Italy? In Greece? A person cannot look to any of them. The person can only look to what is recorded in Scripture—and what’s recorded is that Paul as a master builder laid the foundation for the spiritual house of God (1 Co 3:10-11), which is not a work of men’s hands. All who would build on this foundation must first locate heavenly Jerusalem, where Paul laid this foundation, a city without geographical coordinates but with theological coordinates. So the person whose theology differs from what Paul taught cannot build on the foundation Paul laid, and Paul went into the Jerusalem temple to purify himself shortly before he was taken into custody.

 

Disciples are to depart from wrong doing.

Paul tells Timothy that God’s firm foundation bears the seal, “‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity [unrighteousness]’” (2:19) … iniquity [Gr: *46\"H] is wrong doing; it is sin or lawlessness. So the one who professes to be a Christian must resist evil-doing, must resist transgressing the law though knowing ahead of time that he or she will come short of perfection (1 John 1:8).

 

Trusted by the glorified Christ, Ananias kept the law.

Acts chapter 22 through 26 should here be read … these chapters address the accusations against Paul by the Jews and Paul’s defense against their accusations.

 Note how Paul describes Ananias, the disciple to whom Jesus sent Paul (cf. Acts 9:1-19; 22:12-16): “a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there.” If Ananias was a devout man according to the law, Ananias, a disciple trusted by the glorified Christ, was not keeping Sunday, but was living according to the law, meaning that he was keeping the Sabbath commandment.

 

Paul is never accused of breaking the law.

Also note, in all of the accusations brought against Paul, not one of these accusations pertained to Paul breaking the commandments. The accusations pertained to the hope of the dead (Acts 23:6; 24:21), and going to Gentiles (Acts 22:21-22). Keeping the law was never an issue.

 

Paul said he committed no offense against the law.

Also note, Paul tells Felix that he came after being away years to bring alms to his nation and to present offerings (Acts 24:17), saying, “‘While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult’” (v. 18). So as the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul was still observing the laws and practices of his nation, Israel. And two years later, when Festus succeeded Felix, Paul defends himself saying, “‘Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense’” (Acts 25:8). Continuing on, before King Agrippa, Paul said that he “‘declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance … saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass’” (Acts 26:20, 22). So to argue that Paul kept Sunday rather than the Sabbath, and that he taught those in Jerusalem and Judea to keep Sunday is ludicrous.

 

Paul taught neither Jew nor Greek to break the law.

No one can seriously argue that the Apostle Paul taught either Jewish converts or Gentile converts to abandon the Sabbath and begin to worship God on Sunday, or to break any other commandment. Christian disciples in the 30s and 40s were regarded as a sect of Judaism

 

Sunday observance entered Christendom through the mystery of lawlessness.

Only when the one who was restraining the lawless one and the mystery of lawlessness (2 Thess 2:6-7) allowed the prince of disobedience to temporarily appropriate His name does Sunday worship enter into Christendom. But this prince of disobedience has served a useful function; for this prince, by usurping the name of Christ, created his own synagogue, an assembly that has kept knowledge of the man Jesus alive as the Jews to whom God entrusted His oracles have kept the Scriptures that Paul used to preach Christ to both Jews and Greeks. Neither the synagogue of Satan or physically circumcised Israel has the Holy Spirit. Both are blind functionaries performing tasks as if they were Pavlov’s dogs.

 

Neither Paul nor the Jerusalem Church held practices that conflicted with the law.

This is an unfinished subject that is visited in other segments of this manual. For now it is enough to show that neither Paul nor the Jerusalem Church held practices that conflicted with the law, meaning that they had to be keeping the Sabbath and not Sunday throughout the first two decades after Calvary. Christianity was not an evolving religion; when Jesus said, “‘It is finished’” (John 19:30), the Way to salvation was complete. The only thing evolving was the initially suppressed mystery of lawlessness.

 

To imitate Paul, every disciple will live inwardly as an observant Jew.

To imitate Paul, an endtime disciple will live as a Judean. And to teach what Paul taught, the one who teaches will deemphasize the importance of the flesh and emphasize the importance of the inner son of God living by the laws of God, which will cause the flesh to outwardly keep the commandments.

 

Assignments:

  1. If Gentile disciples are to imitate Paul, and if Paul never committed an offense against the law of the Jews, then explain what Paul wrote in Romans chapter 14 about eating meats.
  2. Same pertaining to esteeming days.
  3. Can a person imitate Paul by keeping Easter and Christmas instead of the Passover and Sukkot?

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Baptism

 

The practices of the visible Church cannot be considered authoritative.

Since Scripture supports typological exegesis and not historical exegesis; and since Scripture is silent about infant baptism except for saying that the Philippian jailer and his entire household were baptized (Acts 16:31-34), and that Cornelius and his household were baptized (Acts 11:14), the assumption being that not all within the household of the jailer or within the household of Cornelius were adults, the traditional practices of the State Church cannot be accepted as authoritative.

 

A person’s physical birth and maturation forms the type of a person’s spiritual birth and maturation.

Typological exegesis holds that the physical birth and maturation of a former son of disobedience reveals and precedes the invisible spiritual birth and maturation of this same person when this person, born of Spirit as an infant son of God, has been set free from bondage to sin. This person’s physical birth and maturation will occur before this same person’s spiritual birth and maturation.

 

Prior to spiritual birth, the son of disobedience has no spiritual life.

The son of disobedience who has not yet been born of Spirit—who has not yet been twice born—has no life but that which comes from the cellular oxidation of sugars. This person consists of flesh and shallow breath: soma [σομα] and psuche [ψυχε] (cf. Matt 10:28 when the first disciples had not yet received the Holy Spirit with 1 Thess 5:23, after disciples are born of Spirit). Prior to being born of Spirit, the person is described by Solomon:

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 dust, and to dust all return. (Eccl 3:18-20)

 

The twice born disciple is of tri-part construction.

The twice born disciple consists of “deep breath,” shallow breath, and flesh: pneuma [πνευμα], psuche, and soma. Until a son of disobedience is born of the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion], this person does not have within him or herself eternal life, the gift of God (Rom 6:23). To say otherwise is calling God a liar.

 

There is no son of God within a newly born human infant, for spiritual birth will not precede physical birth.

The human infant is born as a son of disobedience, consigned to disobedience by the sin of the first Adam, through whom death entered this world (Rom 5:12-14). There is no child of God within the tent of flesh into which newborn physical life came through the water of the womb, for being born of Spirit will not precede being born of water.

 

Circumcision, now of the heart, remains the only rite of inclusion into the house of Israel.

Baptism is unto the death of the old self or man; baptism is a type of the Flood. Baptism is not an inclusionary rite or ritual for Christians as physical circumcision was for natural Israel. Circumcision remains the only inclusionary rite, although now the circumcision that matters is of the heart (Rom 2:29).

 

Infant baptism only causes the baby to get wet.

It does no good to baptize an infant or anyone else who has not been born of Spirit. All that happens is the person gets wet.

 

The practice of infant baptism left heavenly Jerusalem without inhabitants.

Since baptism of an infant has no validity, then throughout the practice of infant baptism by the Universal Church, heavenly Jerusalem was as empty as physical Jerusalem was during the seventy years when all of Israel was in Babylon, the captive peoples of its human king. The Church, spiritual Israel, because of its lawlessness was sent by God into captivity in spiritual Babylon, the king of which is the prince of this world (Isa 14:4-21). The Church, the spiritual Body of Christ, would have been as dead as was the physical body of Christ during the three days and three nights that Jesus laid in the garden tomb.

 

When Believers’ baptism re-emerged

When and where “Believers’ Baptism” or adult re-baptism began has been the subject of considerable study, with three concepts emerging: “monogenesis,” “polygenesis,” and the continuation of marginalized apostolic practices through a differing but valid apostolic succession. Monogenesis holds that adult re-baptism began January 21, 1525, when Conrad Grebel baptized Georg Blaurock. Under monogenesis, Israel was taken captive by the prince of this world at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE, and twelve centuries later, a remnant of Israel left Babylon in 1525 to rebuild the house of God in the Jerusalem above. Twelve centuries has about it echoes of the seventy years physical Israel was in physical Babylon. Thus, the seventy weeks prophecy will also apply to the reconstruction of the spiritual temple.

 

Possibly emerged over a period of time.

Polygenesis holds that adult re-baptism began over a period of several decades, or even longer, and in several locations throughout Europe. The lack of a unified Anabaptist doctrine supports the concept of multiple fellowships beginning the practice of adult re-baptism as if a divine Zeit Geist caused many to rush from spiritual Babylon to rebuild the heavenly temple.

 

Unlikely to have continued uninterrupted

The teaching that adult baptism continued from the apostolic era into the 16th-Century has within it the flaws found by Sabbatarian disciples who seek to show that Sabbath observance continued in marginalized fellowships from the apostolic era forward. The existence of these marginalized fellowships becomes an article of faith, for no evidence remains of their practices and beliefs. Where evidence does exist, the evidence has not supported the conclusions drawn. Therefore, until apostolic succession can be shown, the teaching should be avoided. It, like the concept of church eras, smacks of deceit.

 

Disciples must trek back across doctrinal errors.

If the captivity of both houses of Israel forms the lively shadow of the spiritual captivity of the visible Church, consisting of both the school at Ephesus [the northern house] and the school at Alexandria [the southern house], then disciples should expect to find a remnant of the early visible Church returning from the Babylonian captivity, this remnant being of the Trinitarian southern house. In the 16th-Century CE, this remnant began a long theological trek back across the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Centuries, a trek that can be visualized as a journey across the deserts sands of western Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, with entrance into Judea coming when those making this trek return to Sabbath observance. A few early Anabaptists crossed into spiritual Judea, God’s rest (cf. Ps 95:10-11; Heb 3:16-4:11; Num chap 14), but they were truly trailblazers.

 

To be baptized means to be immersed.

On that day of Pentecost following Calvary, the men convicted of heart by Peter’s sermon asked what should they do (Acts 2:37), Peter said that they should repent and “let be baptized” [$"BJ4F2ZJT] (v. 38), which did not mean to allow themselves to be sprinkled as if they stood in the rain, but to let themselves be fully immersed or submerged. Again, baptism represents the death of the old self or nature by loss of breath. A person doesn’t drown when standing in the rain. Thus, to sprinkle is to make a mockery of the baptismal ceremony.

 

Assignments:

  1. Address the question of whether hands were laid on the three thousand (Acts 2:41) when they were baptized. Compare the baptism of the three thousand with the baptism of the Samaritans by Philip (Acts 8:12)
  2. Compare the baptism of the three thousand with the baptism of Cornelius and his household. Then compared the baptism of Cornelius with that of the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:33).
  3. Compare the baptism of the three thousand with the baptism of the twelve that Paul rebaptized (Acts 19:1-7).
  4. What special significance does the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch have?

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In the Crosshairs: the Beasts of Daniel 7

Aiming to Kill

 

Sealed with their shadows until the time of the end

With great seriousness and considerable silliness, a host of prophecy pundits have sought the four beasts the prophet Daniel saw in vision between the bindings of secular history books. Their hunts spawned many self-congratulating tracts and pamphlets, but these terrifying beasts remained at large for the visions of Daniel were sealed with their shadows until the time of the end (Dan 12:4, 9; 8:26). These visions absolutely could not be understood earlier than the time of the end; so they could not be understood by 1st-century CE apostles and disciples. They could not be understood by the 16th-Century Protestant Reformers, or by Ellen G. White in the 19th-Century, or by Herbert Armstrong in the 20th-Century. They can only be understood when the generic “time of the end begins,” and in circular reasoning, the time of the end begins when these visions are unsealed.

Because many prophecy pundits have one beast succeeding another, the destruction of the four beasts of the Prophet Daniel’s vision needs to be seen:

As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of days took his seat … I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn [from v. 8] was speaking. And as I looked, the beast [from v. 7] was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts [from vv. 4-6], their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. (Dan 7:9-12).

 

The first three beasts outlive the fourth beast

Dominion had previously been given to the third beast (v. 6), and this beast apparently retained its dominion even though the fourth beast "devoured, broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet" (v. 7). But the court of the Ancient of Days takes the dominion of the third beast, as well as any authority to reign over the kingdom of the world possessed by the other three beasts, and gives all dominion to the one like a Son of Man (vv. 13-14). While all four beasts have joint dominion when the court begins to sit in judgment and when the books are opened, the fourth beast is killed or dealt a deathblow and its body is given over to be burned. The first three beasts, while losing their dominion, temporarily retain their lives; thus the first three beasts outlive the fourth beast. Then one like a son of man (i.e., one that appears like a human being as opposed to a lion, bear or leopard) will receive everlasting dominion. The one like a son of man is the revealed Son of Man, composed of Christ Jesus as the head and spiritually circumcised disciples as the body. And the authority by which Christ reigns as King of kings during the Millennium comes from Him receiving the collective dominion of the four beasts. Therefore, the dominion of the four beasts equates to the one like a son of man’s authority to rule the kingdom of the world, this single kingdom being the collective of all worldly kingdoms. The four beasts together had world ruling authority. It isn’t the fourth beast that ruled the world. If it would have been, the other three beasts would have had no dominion to lose when the court sits in judgment.

 

Dominion is given to the Son of Man only once.

Dominion is given to the Son of Man only once, not many times. This one time becomes a witness mark by which endtime prophecies and visions can be aligned … King Nebuchadnezzar’s vision ends with the God of heaven setting up a kingdom that will not be left to another people (Dan 2:44). The vision of the king of Greece trampling the king of Persia ends with the king of bold face that is the “little horn” (Dan 8:9) being broken but not by human hands (v. 25). The seventy weeks prophecy ends with the decreed end being poured out on the desolator (Dan 9:27). The long vision of what is written in the Book of Truth (Dan chaps 10-12) is for the latter days (10:14). This vision ends with “‘a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time’” (12:1). Jesus references this period in His Olivet Discourse, saying, “‘For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved’” (Matt 24:21-22). Those days are cut short by the kingdom of this world being taken from the four kings or beasts and given to the Son of Man (cf. Dan 7:9-14; Rev 11:15-19 – note the alignment of Dan 11:31 with Matt 24:15, and Dan 11:40-45 with Rev 11:19). The visions of Daniel conclude with dominion being given to the Son of Man, not with Christ Jesus’ return as the Messiah, an important distinction to make.

 

Rome is never mentioned in endtime prophecies.

Virtually without exception, neo-Arian, Evangelical, and Sabbatarian Christians identify the fourth beast of Daniel chapter seven as the Roman Empire, even though Rome is never mentioned in endtime prophecies. They teach that the endtime European Union is the modern resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire that will be dealt a death wound at the end of the age. They find Babylon, Persia, and Greece identified by the prophet Daniel; then cutting and pasting from uninspired history books, they insert Rome and the Roman Church wherever their muddled minds locate a lacunae [gap] in Holy Writ large enough to fit this spiritual prostitute, not realizing that they, themselves, commit even greater abominations in the restored house of God.

Again, the seventh chapter of Daniel doesn’t say what prophecy pundits would have it say: Babylon, Persia and Greece did not outlast Rome and the Holy Roman Empire. These three empires would have outlasted Rome if the fourth beast were Rome and the first three kings were Babylon, Persia, and Greece, as is usually taught by theologians … Rome is not mentioned by Daniel, for the horizontal shadow of the Satan’s standing hierarchical government stretches from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to Antiochus Epiphanes, who polluted the temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar and placing a statute of Zeus in the Holy of holies. These physical abominations are the shadow of the endtime abomination (Matt 24:15) who is the man of perdition declaring himself God (2Thess 2:4). So the prophecy pundit who identifies the fourth beast as the Roman Empire needs reading glasses. Then for this person to further identify the ten horns of the fourth beast as ten revivals of the Roman Empire and to identify the little horn as the Pope reveals the person’s bigotry against the Latin Church.

Prophecy pundits who find the Roman Empire in the visions of Daniel do real damage to the spiritually circumcised descendants of Abraham. They do not prepare the firstborn son of the last Eve to keep the commandments of God during the Tribulation, nor will they prepare a spiritual Seth, the third-born son of the last Eve, to refuse the mark of the beast. Instead, many of them teach that the “born-again Church” will escape the Tribulation by a pre-Trib, or mid-Trib bodily rapture, which is akin to prophesying Peace, peace, when there will be no peace. And the penalty for doing so is having the prophecy pundit’s name cut off from the Book of Life.

 

The Roman Church has this present evil age being the kingdom of God.

Not to be outdone by either early or endtime critics and reformers, the Roman Church, teaching a realized eschatology, would have this present evil age being the manifestation of the kingdom of God, with the wheat harvest being thrashed in purgatory. The Latin Church has been selling this same stale loaf for so long that their bread is not a recognizable part of the body of Christ. Nevertheless, they continue to offer the same product to a hungry world.

A mistake that goes back to the conflict for the intellectual heart of Christianity between Ephesus and Alexandria, between biblical literalists and allegorists, is the triumph of realized eschatology, the study of last things that holds the kingdom of God arrived with the man Jesus of Nazareth. Realized eschatology supports a mono-theocracy, such as the Roman Church’s reign in Western Europe, but it contains within itself the argument against its validity. Christ Jesus’ reign as King of kings on this earth is a millennium long. A new heaven and a new earth will come after approximately a thousand years (the length of the great White Throne Judgment is unknown) of the glorified Jesus’ reign. If realized eschatology were true, the new heaven and the new earth would have come at the conclusion of the first millennium of the Common Era. And the Roman Church taught that the new earth would then come as evidenced by the great amount of land and money donated to the Church during the latter portion of the 10th-Century. The Church scared even the minor aristocracy into building churches as it leveraged belief in the coming of the end of the age into it becoming the dominant landholder in societies where land was the primary means of determining wealth.

 

The humanoid image that Nebuchadnezzar saw is spiritual Babylon, the single kingdom of this world that will be given to the Son of Man to rule.

Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world, nor from this world (John 18:36); so Jesus does not today reign over the single kingdom of this world. It has not yet been given to Him, and it won’t be given to Him until halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation (Rev 11:15-18; Dan 7:13-14). Thus, the kingdom of this world remains under the dominion of the “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). This prince is also the king of Babylon (Isa 14:4-21), the spiritual kingdom that takes its identity from its head [it is into this kingdom that all of humankind was consigned as serfs to sin], as well as the king of Tyre (Ezek 28:11-19). And what is seen is that the prince of this world, like the Son of Man that is Christ, Head and Body, is not one entity but a hierarchy, represented by the humanoid image that King Nebuchadnezzar saw (Dan 2:31-33) … the humanoid image that Nebuchadnezzar saw is spiritual Babylon, the single kingdom of this world that will be given to the Son of Man to rule. Christ Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords will be the Head of the Son of Man. Glorified disciples will be the Body; they will be the many kings and lords over whom Christ reigns.

 

As the Adversary cast a third of the stars down, God will draw a third part of humankind into the kingdom of heaven.

Even though the Most High or Ancient of Days retained ultimate control of the kingdom of this world, for a while (6000 years) the Most High has given humanity to the prince of disobedience to produce a situation that is the inverse of what happened in the heavenly realm when an anointed cherub dragged a third of the angels into disobedience. The Most High will draw a third part of humankind into obedience and into the kingdom of heaven (Zech 13:7-9). The third of the stars that the tail of the red dragon swept down (Rev 12:4; Dan 8:10) form the dark shadow of these glorified saints.

 

The division of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw occurs in the bronze portion.

Here reread Daniel 2:31-45. The image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision is that of the spiritual hierarchy of Babylon, with the Satan as its king and head (again, Isa 14:4). The division of this image occurs in the bronze portion of the statute (Dan 2:32 — the thighs are bronze), and the bronze kingdom shall rule the world (v. 39), not the iron legs. The fourth kingdom initially appears divided, and though strong, it is never united, but has one leg being the image of the other … the Roman Empire is not divided with two capitals until the reign of Constantine. It is one kingdom when it conquers the Greeks.

Note: when the image is broken and blown away like chaff from a thrashing floor (v. 35), all four metals are present, plus miry [unfired] clay.

 

When the kingdom of the world is given to the Son of Man, the body of the fourth beast has been burned.

The instincts of prophecy pundits, ancient and modern, are to identify the four metals of Nebuchadnezzar’s image with the four beasts of chapter 7, but these instincts produce falsity! because when the kingdom of the world is given to one like the Son of Man, there is no body for the fourth beast (Dan 7:11); yet the iron of the lower legs and toes of the image King Nebuchadnezzar saw remains with the bronze, silver, and gold when all are blown away by the wind. More than just a head dealt a death wound remains of the iron until all of the metals (along with the unfired clay) disappear before the Breath of God. But all that remains of the fourth beast is a head that has been dealt a mortal wound. So identifying Rome as either the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s image or as the fourth beast of Daniel chapter seven is problematic, and is adding Rome to Scripture.

 

The amalgamated beasts of Daniel 7 appear as the first beast of Revelation 13.

The four beasts of Daniel chapter seven, with their seven heads, appear as the first beast of Revelation chapter 13 when they have their dominion taken from them but their lives extended. Their lives are extended at the same time in the endtime chronological record as when the first beast of Revelation chapter thirteen appears. Thus, what is seen in Revelation is a chronology that has the events of chapter 12:7-13:5 occurring on day 1260,  a double day that binds the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years with the last 1260 days—a day foreshadowed by the day when the sun stood still for Joshua (Josh 10:12-14).

 

Human nature is presently the product of the prince of disobedience.

When Daniel tells king Nebuchadnezzar that into his hands God “‘has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making [him] rule over them all’” (Dan 2:38), but Nebuchadnezzar never reigned over China, which was certainly a great empire by the time of the Greeks[18]. However, Daniel doesn’t speak hyperbole to the king, but the reality that king Nebuchadnezzar was the type or shadow of the prince of disobedience that reigns over the mental topography of human beings wherever they live. The broadcast of this prince of disobedience affects both beasts and birds just as the prophesied outpouring of Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28) will change the natures of the great predators, thereby allowing the lion to lie down with the lamb (Isa 11:6–9). Human nature is a received nature that is not solely the product of biology, but is produced by the broadcast of the prince of disobedience.

Satan as the ruler of this world rules humanity as the spiritual king of Babylon by reigning over mental landscapes. Human kings such as Nebuchadnezzar reign over a physical landscape and over physical subjects. Spiritual kings reign over a mental landscape and over spiritual subjects; they reign from the supra-dimensional realm usually identified as heaven. And the kingdom of the world (i.e., control of human beings’ mental topography) will not be given to Christ Jesus until the Ancient of Days’ court sits in session, even though Christ qualified to reign when He defeated Satan mentally.

 

A new nature will be given to humankind when the world is baptized in Spirit.

This present human nature will be jettisoned and a new nature will be given to humankind when the world is baptized in Spirit. The demonstration of human nature being a received nature occurred when king Nebuchadnezzar was given the mind of a beast for seven years (Dan 4:28–36) as the shadow of the prince of disobedience being given the mind of a man when he is cast from heaven (Rev 12:9-10). These seven years will be the last three and a half years of the Tribulation plus the short while after the 1000 year reign of Christ, and wisdom is here required, for the false prophet is also given the mind of a man (Dan 7:4). But the false prophet is not either the dragon or the beast dwelt a mortal wound (Rev 16:13). Nor is the dragon one of the four beasts of Daniel chapter seven whereas the false prophet and the beast dealt a mortal wound are. All three, though, can send forth demons; they are themselves demonic angels.

 

The kingdom that the Son of Man receives bears to earthly kingdoms of this world the same relationship as the Book of Life has to Scripture.

Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). The Apostle Paul said that Hagar corresponds to present day Jerusalem, but Christians are of the Jerusalem above, which isn’t a city anywhere now on earth. Plus, Paul said that disciples are epistles from Christ delivered by the ministry, written not in ink but with Spirit on the tablets of the heart (2Co 3:3). These epistles are recorded in the Book of Life, with this Book of Life bearing to Scripture the same relationship that the law of God written on stone tablets has to the laws of God written on hearts and minds—the same relationship that the first Adam has to the last Adam. Thus, the kingdom of the world that the Son of Man receives bears to earthly kingdoms of this world the same relationship as the Book of Life has to Scripture.

 

As the Messiah, Jesus will reign over both physical and mental landscapes through controlling human thoughts and desires.

When the glorified Jesus comes as the Messiah, He will be Lord of lords and King of kings (Rev 19:16), thereby reigning over both physical and mental landscapes through controlling human thoughts and desires. As the prince of this world reigns through his broadcast of disobedience that affects the mind and heart, not the flesh of hands and loins, the glorified Jesus will reign through the Holy Spirit liberating the flesh from disobedience so that all can obey God by having the mind of Christ.

 

No other religion but true or false Christianity.

When Jesus comes again, there will be no other religion but Christianity, false (under the Antichrist) or genuine. There will not be Buddhists, or Muslims, or Atheists. For when the kingdom of the world is given to Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all of humanity (Joel 2:28). All human beings will have become part of Abraham’s spiritually circumcised seed. Satan will have been cast from heaven (Rev 12:9-10), so he can no longer deceive human beings by being the prince of the power of the air. When cast down, though, he will arrive on earth claiming to be the Messiah. He will physically try to recapture his former mental slaves by requiring all who buy and sell to accept the physical mark of the beast [P>lr – chi xi stigma] (Rev 13:18). He will give his usurped authority to the dominionless beasts of Daniel 7, and he will make an image of the fourth beast, whose body is destroyed, and he will make this image speak. But as the Antichrist (the imitation of the returned Messiah), he will not make additional Buddhists and Muslims. All of humanity will have been born-from-above through receipt of the Holy Spirit. So Satan, when cast from heaven, will try to subvert these newly born spiritual Israelites, thereby causing these Israelites to lose their salvation, a sure promise to all who endure to the end (Matt 24:13) without taking the mark of the beast.

 

Realized eschatology developed when Alexandrian Christianity prevailed against the theologians at Ephesus.

The “realized eschatology” of the Latin Church developed when Alexandrian Christianity prevailed against the theologians at Ephesus. The allegorists of Alexandria did not take Scripture as their primary source of thought and theological structure. They did not use Scripture to provide definitions and distinctions, or as the basis of their homilies. And they could not win their arguments with the theologians at Ephesus as long as only Scripture was used to support pagan Greek concepts such as human beings having an immortal soul, received at human conception. Thus, the Alexandrian school devalued individual Bible study by claiming that the laity could only read Scripture literally, and was thus unable to understand Scripture. Therefore, when 3rd and 4th Century CE disagreements between the Alexandrian school and the theologians at Ephesus (who became identified as Arians) required that the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine determine the nature of Christ Jesus’ divinity, the theological realization that Satan as the spiritual king of Babylon reigns over human beings was aborted. What theologian was willing to tell the Emperor that he, Constantine, was an agent of the devil? So at the Council of Nicea (ca 325 CE), the spiritually holy nation of God was formally taken as mental captives to spiritual Babylon. Constantine wasn’t about to identify himself as an agent of Satan, nor were bishops that he compelled to come to Nicea about to argue that position. And this position would not be argued again until the 16th-Century when God ordered that His spiritual house be rebuilt.

When the conflict between Alexandria and Ephesus was extended into the 4th-Century, both schools were teaching error, and both schools were subservient to spiritual princes [sars] who were not of God. The spiritual king of the North reigned over the Arians, and the spiritual king of the south reigned over the Alexandrians. These two spiritual princes fought wars through their surrogates, with the Vandals sacking Rome as the last generally recognized war between Arians and Trinitarians.

 

Spiritual princes outlast generations of human beings.

But spiritual princes outlast generations of human beings. The king of the North reigns today over neo-Arian denominations—this king is the fourth beast of Daniel 7, and until the seven endtime years begin through the second Passover liberation of Israel, he does not emerged from the stump of the first king of Greece, the great horn that will be broken because he is first. The little horn appears on the head of this fourth beast, so the man of perdition will be a neo-Arian Christian. He will not be a pope, or someone to whom the pope assigns his authority. Rather, he will war against Trinitarian Christianity, and will eventually prevail only to be dealt a deadly wound after declaring himself God. He is the spiritual embodiment of “death,” so when the two witnesses are publicly resurrected from death (Rev 11:11), he will be publicly dealt his death wound … “death” will be slain when it loses its sting and its ability to end life.

 

The he-goat is the king of Greece against whom the angel would have to fight.

The four beasts that shared dominion (Dan 7:12) are the four horns of the he-goat (Dan 8:7, 22 & 11:4), two of which are the kings of the South and of the North. The he-goat is the king of Greece against whom the angel who brought Daniel knowledge of what was written in the Book of Truth would have to fight (Dan 10:20); he is not a human king. He is not Alexander the Great, who served to seal the prophecy by being the lively shadow of this spiritual king or prince [sar].

The first beast of Revelation 13 is the king of Greece.

 

The kings of the North and South are the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s image.

As the he-goat is not a human king, the kings of the North and of the South are not human kings. It is these kings of the North and South that are the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s image[19]. From the king of the North comes the man of perdition, who takes away the daily and sets up the abomination of desolation (cf. Dan 11:31; Matt 24:15) at the time of the end, or shortly before the court of the Ancient of Days sits in judgment. The setting up of this endtime abomination that desolates is dated to 1290 days before the coming of the Messiah (Dan 12:11). Thus, the court sits in session (Rev 11:15) forty-two months or 1260 days before the return of Christ.

 

Extracting meaning

Note the following:

  • In the first year of Belshazzar as king of Babylon, the prophet Daniel saw a vision that greatly alarmed him. Daniel wrote the dream down, and told the sum of the matter. So what readers receive is the sum of the matter through the principle of narrative economy, which will have only what’s important for typological exegesis being recorded.
  • What has been recorded in Holy Writ is that portion of a historical narrative about Israel that is relevant to the spiritual reality. This recorded portion forms the physical shadow of a spiritual phenomenon, which is why the books of the Maccabees are not canonical Scripture, for Christ will break the reign of the spiritual king of the North in a different manner from how the Hasmonean family broke Antiochus IV’s reign over Jerusalem.

Treating Daniel’s summation of the vision he saw in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon as inspired text rather than as an idol or as myth, understanding of the vision begins by locating the vision in prophetic context.

  • Working backwards from the end of the matter (Dan 7:28), Daniel’s summation has “the kingdom and the dominion [of the fourth beast] and the greatness of kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High” (v. 27)[20].
  • Daniel’s vision occurred with a unified chronology: one event follows another.
    1. The four beasts appear, one after another, with the fourth beast having ten horns.
    2. Then the little horn came up and uprooted three of the ten horns.
    3. Then the Ancient of Days takes His seat, and the court sits in judgment.
    4. The little horn spoke great words, but the fourth beast is killed, and its body burned, while dominion is taken from the other three beasts.
    5. Then one like the son of man came to the Ancient of Days, and dominion was given to him.

 

The saints are given into the hand of the little horn for 1260 days immediately prior to the fourth beast being destroyed.

So in reverse, the kingdom and dominion will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High (Dan 7:27). Then the court sits in judgment (v. 26). Then the little horn "shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they [the saints] shall be given into his [the little horn’s] hand for a time, times, and half a time" (v. 25). A time, times, and half a time is usually recognized as three and a half years. It is the same length of time as forty-two months, and 1260 days. But the expression time, times, and half a time reckons this length of time from God’s perspective rather than from the perspective of angelic beings, or human beings. Therefore, verse 25 expounds the latter portion of verse 8 and the first of verse 11. The saints are given into the hand of the little horn for 1260 days immediately prior to the fourth beast being destroyed.

 

The ten horns are ten kings that arise from the fourth kingdom.

Continuing to work in reverse, the ten horns are ten kings that arise from the fourth kingdom (Dan 7:24). They are all in place prior to when the little horn arises: "and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and he shall put down three kings" (same verse). So the little horn isn’t the Roman Church gaining control of the Roman Empire and uprooting Roman paganism. The ten horns are not ten successive kings or kingdoms, but contemporary kings. They are not ten revivals of the Roman Empire. They are ten kings who can telephone each other, for they co-exist 1260 days before the fourth beast is judged and dominion taken from all four beasts. And three of them are uprooted by the little horn that makes war against the saints of the Most High. Logic would have it that three of these kings will not go along with the little horn making war on the saints. The little horn “seemed greater than its companions” (v. 20); so it was able to uproot three of its companions.

  • All eleven horns temporarily coexist in power.
  • All eleven are of the fourth beast, or king (from v. 17) who shares dominion with three other kings, even though this fourth king is different from the other three and is terrifying, dreadful and exceedingly strong (v. 7).
  • Because the saints have been given into the hand of the little horn (v. 25), the fourth king devours and tramples saints with its iron teeth and bronze claws (from v.19) so the disciple now knows more about this fourth beast than do the many prophecy pundits that will have the horns being historic revivals of the Roman and Holy Roman Empire.

 

The Roman Church as a target

A host of prophecy pundits have concluded that these 1260 days represent 1260 years when the Roman Church had control of Christianity in Western Europe. But the Roman Church doesn’t successfully devour and trample spiritually circumcised saints; rather, it miss-teaches disciples, and though the sacrament of infant baptism, it made sure that no spiritually circumcised Israelite dwelt in heavenly Jerusalem for twelve centuries. It usurped authority not given it, but it has also nurtured disciples in spiritual Babylon [of whom the eunuchs Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego serve as types] who will be resurrected to life. So the Roman Church is an easy target at which to shoot. It is large enough that even the most blind prophecy pundit can hit some portion of it. And large numbers of very blind pundits have taken cheap shots at it, as if the Reformation were the opening day of duck season.

 

The “little horn” is not a Pope.

Most Western prophecy pundits identify the “little horn” as the Pope; i.e., the endtime Pope that will united Europe under German leadership. But this little horn shall speak words against the Most High and shall think to change times and the law (Dan 7:25). No human being will ever come into the Most High’s presence[21], let alone speak great words against the Ancient of Days. So from the context of Daniel’s vision, it can be asserted that the little horn isn’t a secular king. He cannot be a human king and speak words against the Most High to the Most High. But he is king over a false Christianity, and he shall wear out the saints who are those disciples that by faith keep the commandments of God. Only a remnant of these saints—the ones who also have the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17)[22]—from the beginning of the endtime years will escape into the second half of these seven endtime years.

 

The Sabbath “marks” those who are of God during the first 1260 days of the Tribulation.

All Israelites that keep the commandments by faith are the endtime saints, with the Sabbath commandment being the sign that identifies these Israelites to the man of perdition. During the first 1260 days of the seven, endtime years, Sabbath observance marks who is of God in the same way that accepting the mark of the beast [P>lr] brands who is of the Antichrist during the second 1260 days of the endtime years. The man of perdition forms a type and time-linked shadow of Satan who comes as the reality of the Antichrist when he is cast from heaven halfway through the seven, endtime years (Rev 12:9-10). The man of perdition comes by the workings of Satan (2 Thess 2:9); literally, the man of perdition is a human being possessed by Satan, with this human being convinced that the angel inside him is Jesus Christ.

 

The little horn rules theologically.

The little horn rules theologically. He uproots three sects or denominations of the Christianity of the Cross by changing times and the law. He will wear out saints who keep the law. So the three uprooted kings reign over theological kingdoms. The remaining seven kings unite behind wearing out the saints for 1260 days prior to Satan being cast from heaven and coming as the Antichrist to further wear out all of humanity, which will be why enduring to the end becomes a trial of faith … consider for a moment the theological incompatibility of Roman Catholicism and Mormonism. There are genuine saints in both denominations, so would one wear out the saints in the other if one were to exercise great dominion over visible Christendom? Would one try to convert the other? Would one wage real war against the other? The Vandals sacked Rome, and Trinitarian Christians lynched Joseph Smith. So yes, either would wage a shooting war against the other if the theological stakes were high enough. And stakes will be that high once the Tribulation begins.

 

The last Eve will give birth to three sons, a spiritual Cain, Abel, and Seth.

The last Eve, like the first, will give birth to three sons, a spiritual Cain, Abel, and Seth. The prophet Isaiah, quoting the Lord, wrote, ‘"Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son.…For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children’" (Isa 66:7–8). The last Eve, created when Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples (John 20:22), has today in her womb two sons that will be delivered in a day, one son hated, one loved, with the hated son to be delivered first, this firstborn son a spiritual Cain whose offering to God is even now, before birth[23], the fruit of the ground, bread and wine, the sacraments that would represent the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, if taken on the Passover. Those who are of this spiritual Cain take the sacraments on any night or day of the year except the night that Jesus was betrayed.

 

Cain will again slay Abel.

The firstborn spiritual Cain will slay his righteous brother who’s offering to God is a lamb; specifically, the Lamb of God offered through taking the sacraments on the night Jesus was betrayed. Those disciples who are of spiritual Abel kept the commandments by faith and cover their weaknesses through taking the sacraments on the 14th of Abib, the night that Jesus was betrayed.

 

Satan as the Antichrist

Halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation (after the little horn of Daniel 7:8, 20-21, 25 has the saints given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time), the court of the Ancient of Days sits in session. The first three beasts of Daniel 7 keep their bodies but lose their dominion; the fourth beast loses its body and is dealt a mortal wound. All four beasts are horns on the head of the spiritual king of Greece, and in Revelation chapter 13, these beasts appear immediately after their judgment:

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" (Rev 13:1-4)

The dragon is Satan, cast from heaven, and the only authority he has to give is that which he usurps from Christ Jesus … his means of usurpation is to claim that he is the Messiah; hence he is the true Antichrist of whom the man of perdition was a copy and type. And he is “believable” because the body shape of the fourth beast is the primary icon/idol of Christendom, the cross; so when he makes an image of this beast (13:14), he does so through the Christianity of the cross.

 

The “great falling away” occurs 2300 days before Christ’s returns.

Christ Jesus as the paschal Lamb of God is the reality of the daily, the morning and evening sacrifices. The lambs that were daily sacrificed form the shadow of Christ Jesus’ sacrifice; thus, the daily putting on of Christ Jesus’ righteousness as if this righteousness were a garment (Gal 3:27) cloaks disciples with the spiritual brilliance of the sun (Rev 12:1). And this putting on of Christ will end with the great rebellion of saints when the lawless one or man of perdition is revealed (2 Thess 2:3). Then, ‘"the transgression that makes desolate"’ (Dan 8:13) will have put an end to the daily sacrifice, or will have put an end to disciples covering themselves with the righteousness that is their obedience by faith. This end is dated to 2300 days before ‘"the sanctuary shall be restored to its righteousness"’ (v. 14), thereby placing the great rebellion 2300 days before Christ Jesus’ return, or approximately 220 days after disciples are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

 

The rebellion occurs about Christmas time.

The firstborn son of the last Eve, 2300 days before Jesus returns, will attempt to enter God’s rest on the following day, just as the nation that left Egypt attempted to enter God’s rest on the following day (Num 14: 40–41 & Ps 95:10–11). This will be the great rebellion for which [as if a single man] this firstborn spiritual so (like the natural son in the Wilderness at Paran) is condemned to die[24]. This son, born before the last Eve experiences her labor pains, will, after rebelling against God, slay his righteous brother. This son will then be marked by God with the mark of death. And the last Eve will give birth to a third son, a spiritual Seth, born-from-above when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh. This third son only has to endure to the end to be saved (Matt 24:13), to enter God’s rest.

 

The resurrection of firstfruits occurs on the 10th day of Abib.

The seven endtime years of tribulation begin with the second Passover liberation of Israel; so 220 days later (2520 minus 2300), about Christmas time, spiritual Cain will rebel against God and will return to sin. Thus, the timeline evident in Scripture has the liberation of Israel occurring in the second month on the 14th day at even—2520 days later will be the 10th day of the first month seven years later, the day when Passover lambs are select, when Israel crossed the Jordan, and when Jesus entered Jerusalem. On this day, the saints who sleep in the dust will awake to cross into heaven, the reality of the rest of God. So these saints will be with Jesus when He again drinks the fruit of the vine on the 14th day of the first month at even (Matt 26:29).

 

When the Tribulation begins, the Church will bring forth two sons, one hated, one loved.

Note: when the seven endtime years of tribulation begin, the Church will through being filled with the Holy Spirit in a way analogous to what happened in Acts 2 bring forth the two sons that presently wrestle in her womb, one son hated, one loved—one son lawless, one son keeping the commandments of God by faith, with this faith counted as righteousness. The lawless son will, even though liberated from sin, return to his sinful ways, with the outward manifestation of this sinfulness having this son attempting to enter God’s rest on the following day.  And this 8th-day observing lawless son will pursue Sabbath-keepers wherever they flee as this lawless son becomes the active agent of the spiritual king of Babylon, thereby sacrificing the Body of the Lamb of God as the Head was sacrificed. These are the saints who must be killed as their fellow servants were martyred (Rev 6:9-11).

 

During the second half of the Tribulation, all of humankind will be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

During the second half of the Tribulation—the forty-two months when the composite first beast of Revelation 13 is allowed to exercise authority received from the dragon (Rev 13:5)—all of humanity will have received the Holy Spirit; will be born of Spirit, and will be born empowered. All will be spiritual Israelites. There will only be one faith: Christianity. And the saints will be divided between those who have accepted the mark of the beast (P>lr – chi xi stigma, or the tattoo of the Cross) and worship the beast, and those who refuse the tattoo and refuse to worship the beast. Some of those who refuse to worship the image of the beast will be slain (v. 15), especially if they are not inside the walls of spiritual Jerusalem, which has theological rather than geographical coordinates.

 

The Antichrist will construct an image of Death and will make this image speak.

The fourth beast of Daniel chapter 7 is one of the four horns of chapter 8 and 11. This fourth king is also named “Death,” the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse (Rev 6:8), and this king or beast will be dealt a deathblow when the two witnesses are publicly resurrected. Death will have been defeated, but the Antichrist will construct an image of death and will make this image speak. And for some saints the following will apply: "[I]f anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain" (Rev 13:10); and ‘"Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’" (14:13). The Antichrist, through constructing an image of Death, will kill some saints, but as Israel under Joshua and Caleb prevailed against the many kings of Canaan, so too will the saints prevail in mental or spiritual combat against the Antichrist. Lead by the remnant that keep the commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus, the third son of the last Eve will mentally defeat those who take upon themselves the mark of death.

 

The four beasts are the four horns of the king of Greece.

Again, the four beasts of Daniel 7 are the four horns that arise when the great horn of the spiritual king of Greece is broken. They are indeed kings, and they have reigned over portions of the king of Greece’s domain at least as far back as Athens and Sparta. They have reigned over the holy nation of Israel since the 3rd and 4th Centuries. And as the great spiritual harvest of humanity nears, they will reign for a short while over the earth. Their rule shall be hard as iron.

  • The four-headed third beast is Sin, the king of the South, the king of Egypt. It is Sin that makes merchandise of both the early barley harvest and the main crop wheat harvest. However, Sin cannot harm those who are “processed” through taking the Passover sacraments (Rev 6:5-6); the third horseman is not to harm the oil and the wine, the refined products of the branches that have been grafted onto the root of righteousness. These disciples have already been measured and weighed and found acceptable.
  • The fourth beast is Death, the king of the North, the king of Assyria. He is the prince who comes from of Sin and who becomes stronger that Sin himself (Dan 11:5).
  • The first beast is the false prophet, the king from the West.
  • The second beast is Abaddon, the king from the East, king of the bottomless pit.

 

Following the second Passover, Israel will be liberated from indwelling sin but not from death.

When the first or great horn of the king of Greece is broken because he is the first, the firstborn [first convert] of the anointed cherub in whom iniquity was found, four horns appear; the four beasts of Daniel chapter 7 appear; the four horsemen of the Apocalypse appear. Their shadow is the division of Alexander’s empire between his four generals, with Ptolemy I of Egypt initially receiving dominion over the promised land of Judea. This general forms the shadow of the spiritual king of the South, who received dominion (Dan 7:6) and has reigned over Christianity since the 4th-century. This general is also a type of Pharaoh, and a representation of sin, from which the spiritually circumcised nation will be liberated at a second Passover. The first, second and fourth beasts didn’t receive dominion, but shared dominion with the third horn. And here wisdom is required: Death receives shared dominion with Sin, for through sin all have come short of the glory of God and all have died. But Death has no dominion when Sin does not reign over the person. However, it is true that once the great horn of the king of Greece is broken, “‘the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority’” (11:5). This latter king shall be stronger that Sin for when the flesh is liberated from lawlessness at the second Passover, the flesh will remain subject to Death. It will not yet have put on immortality. Whereas sin and death today dwell together in the members of disciples (Rom 7:21-25), following the second Passover, Israel will be liberated from indwelling sin but not from death.

 

As the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires fought for control of the Promised Land, Sin and Death will fight for control of Christendom.

As the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires fought over control of the promised land in the sealing shadow, the third and the fourth beasts as subordinate kings under the king of Greece have fought over Christianity since God sent His holy nation into mental bondage to Satan. But their warring was not foregrounded in the world because they were subordinate kings. Today, they remain subordinate kings to the great horn of the king of Greece. However, when the sar of Greece tramples and destroys the sar of Persia and has no more empires to conquer, this great horn will be supernaturally broken (with pedagogical redundancy, he will be broken because he is a firstborn not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God). He will be broken when lives are again given as ransom (Isa 43:4) for the liberation of the firstborn son of God. He will be broken at the second Passover, and the four horns will arise in his place. These four horns or kings will then not be subordinate to any king but Satan, who continues to reign over humanity as the prince of the power of the air. But they aren’t taking orders from Satan, who sowed rebellion and reaps rebellion. They are, in a colloquial expression, going for it. They know time is short; they know they are in “the time of the end”; they have to prove their ways will work; and they will somewhat work together to demonstrate how correct they were when they joined Satan’s rebellion against God. They all have a role to play in the emerging dominance of Christianity in the world. They are, indeed, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

 

The first beast

The first beast is like a lion with eagles’ wings, which are plucked off when it is lifted up and made to stand upright like a man; it is given the mind of a man. It now looks somewhat like a man, and thinks like a man. When seen again as part of the composite first beast of Revelation 13, the dominant feature is this beast’s mouth, from which thoughts like those of a man are expressed. This beast is, again, a king. This beast is also the first horseman: “and I [John] looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer” (Rev 6:2). Again, in Revelation, appearance is how the entity functions in the plan of God. The first horseman functions as a rider with a crown who goes forth conquering and to conquer. He isn’t the little horn that speaks mighty words against the Ancient of Days, the little horn who attempts to change times and the law. Instead, this first beast, this first horseman is the false prophet who performed the miracles responsible for deceiving those who worshiped the image of beast and accepted his mark. The false prophet is a spiritual king, for John “saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon [Satan] and out of the beast [who had been dealt a mortal wound] and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. All three, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet send forth demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty” (Rev 16:13–14). The false prophet is like, in authority and in substance, Satan and the beast. While the identity of the antecedent for the pronoun "they" in verse 14 can be argued, the two possibilities are that John tells readers that Satan, the beast and the false prophets are demonic spirits; or John tells readers that Satan, the beast and the false prophet command demonic spirits. Either possibility confirms that the false prophet is a demon, one with near equal authority to the beast and to Satan.

 

Comes to fulfill an existing office of “Prophet”

The false prophet will, most likely, come to fulfill an existing office of “prophet.” This false prophet will be allied with the beast, the spiritual king that functions as and represents Death. The beast is the king of the North, the king who has traditionally reigned over the northern house of spiritual Israel, over Arian Christianity. Thus, the false prophet will, most likely, step into the office of prophet for the principle neo-Arian denomination. It is this denomination that has already prepared for the Tribulation and has plans in place to leverage food into discipleship.

 

The second beast

The second beast appears like a bear, with ribs in its mouth. The feet of the composite king of Greece belong to this second beast, and disciples find that this beast is Abaddon in Hebrew, and Apollyon in Greek. He is the king of the bottomless pit, and he is king over the locusts that attack human beings who are not sealed by God. He alone can kill the two witnesses, who are human beings with spiritual powers.

  • The locusts the prophet Joel described destroy vineyards, fig trees, and grain fields.
  • The locusts under the command of Abaddon are not to touch any green growth [again, in Revelation, appearance equals attributes].

Both descriptions give the locusts lions’ teeth (Joel 1:6 & Rev 13:8). So there are differences with similarities between the two accounts of locusts.

  • Joel tells the priests to consecrate a fast (Joel 1:14) for “the day of the Lord is near" (v. 15 — plus 2:1). Joel then goes on to describe what seems to be a supernatural army somewhat like the troops of cavalry that kill a third of humanity (Rev 9:13-19). Plus Joel describes the sun, moon, and stars not giving off their light in terms suggestive of the fourth trumpet plague (Rev 8:12-13).
  • The day of the Lord is near during only one period of human history. It wasn’t near during Joel’s lifetime.

The day of the Lord is near when the good news that all who endure to the end will be saved is proclaimed to the world as a witness to all nations (Matt 24:13-14). This gospel is now going to the world.

  • What about touch nothing green versus destroying crops?

 

When appearance is function, green crops typologically represent humanity not yet born-from-above.

The last Eve will bear three sons, two of whom are delivered before or with her first hard labor pain. The third will continue to grow in the last Eve’s womb until the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh, and this third spiritual son will not be “ripe for harvesting” until sometime during the second half of the seven endtime years of tribulation. Thus, this third part of humankind is as growing green plants before the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Father and of the Son. In a scenario in which appearance is function, green crops typologically represent the physical shadow of humanity not yet born-from-above.

 

The “little horn”

The little horn of the fourth beast is “‘the prince who is to come’” (Dan 9:26) of the seventy weeks prophecy. “‘His [alternate reading] end shall come with a flood’” (same verse). This is the flood the earth swallows (cf. Ex 15:12; Rev 12:16). Then “‘to the end there shall be war’” (Dan 9:26). So the Tribulation will be difficult to endure. Prior to the court of the Ancient of Days sitting in session, if the days of the third and fourth beasts’ dominion were not cut short, no flesh would be saved alive (Matt 24:22). Then following Satan being cast from heaven, there will be war until Christ returns as the Messiah. The birth pains of Israel will, indeed, be hard labor.

 

A delusion is mental captivity from which no repentance or escape is possible.

About 51 CE, the Apostle Paul writes in his second epistle to the Thessalonians, "The coming of the lawless one is…with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2:9-12). Paul’s warning is that God will send a delusion, which is the spiritual equivalent of God sending circumcised Israelites into physical captivity. A delusion is mental captivity from which no repentance or escape is possible.

Paul believed he was living in the time of the end, as have most saints ever since—and in a sense they have been, for one long spiritual night began at Calvary, a night equivalent to when death angels passed throughout all of Egypt. So Paul directs his warning about God sending a delusion to saints who will be deceived by the coming of the man of perdition. But Paul’s warning was sealed by a lesser delusion sending lawless saints into captivity in spiritual Babylon. This lesser delusion is only lesser to the extent that it forms the shadow of endtime Israel’s great falling away when the kings of the North and of the South begin to reign over spiritual Babylon as the two legs of iron.

 

The endtime gospel is that all who endure to the end shall be saved.

The endtime gospel isn’t another message about Jesus being the Bread of Life [You shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God]. Nor is it another message about the soon-coming kingdom of God—the coming of this kingdom will be evident once the seven endtime years begin. Rather, it is the good news that all of humanity will be born of Spirit when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Father and His Son. Then, everyone who endures to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13; 10:22).

 

There are other “kings” besides the horns of Greece under Satan’s dominion.

Neo-Arian Christian sects and denominations will convert large portions of the world to their brand of false Christianity prior to the days being shortened or no flesh will survive (Matt 24:22). Satan as king of Babylon rules as king of kings (Dan 2:37), but there is a subservient [to him] spiritual king over Islam[25], and a different one over Buddhism. This fourth beast goes after them, while not ignoring the saints who keep the commandments of God, especially the Sabbath commandment. The reign of the fourth beast and the rise of the little horn will cause genuine saints great difficulty, but non-Christian religions will be broken and devoured by this fourth beast. Some won’t appreciate being devoured, so there will be war. The outcome of these wars has already been determined: "Christianity" wins, but the Christianity of the cross, not of Christianity of liberated saints who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.

 

Sabbatarian denominations have long warned their disciples that a future Pope will compel Sunday observance.

When “the little horn” wears out the saints for a time, times, and half a time, the saints will have been liberated at the second Passover and shown the Sabbath. They will then be tested by the Sabbath as they resist the little horn that changes times and the law, compelling saints to return to an 8th-day assembly or be persecuted without mercy. And most Sabbatarian denominations have long warned their disciples that a future Pope with gain control of all of Christianity and will compel Sunday observance. These warnings have prepared their disciples to be tested on the Sabbath, but the attack will come from a source that will surprise them: it will not come from the Latin Church, but from behind. Most Sabbath-keeping sects and denominations are neo-Arians, and the attack on the Sabbath will come from within Arian Christianity. These sects will be uprooted horns that receive no help from the denominations ruled by the king of the South. They will either need to be ensconced within the walls of spiritual Jerusalem, or they will unsuccessfully scramble to stay alive for the next three and a half years.

 

The test of spiritual Israel will also be if this holy nation will keep the Sabbath.

In spiritual Israel’s shadow, Moses leads the circumcised nation into the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth of the second month (Ex 16:1). The second year that Israel is in the wilderness, the second Passover’s lamb is killed at even on the fourteenth of the second month. This second year, second Passover is the shadow of spiritual Israel being liberated from sin. So the events that happen immediately after physically circumcised Israel enters the wilderness of Sin forms the shadow of what happens to spiritually circumcised Israelites, who have previously been baptized, after they are liberated from bondage to the king of Babylon. And when Israel enters the wilderness, the nation begins receiving manna, as a test of Israel to determine ‘"whether they will walk in my law or not"’ (v. 4). But God has not yet given physically circumcised Israel His laws. He won’t give Israel His laws for another three weeks. However, the laws of God are written on the hearts and minds of disciples who are spiritually circumcised; so spiritual Israelites have God’s laws when this test begins even though physical Israelites did not. And God said the test of Israel is, ‘"On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily’" (v. 5); and Moses said, ‘"This is what the Lord has commanded: "Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord"’" (v. 23). So the test of physical Israel was if the nation would keep the Sabbath. The test of spiritual Israel will also be if this holy nation will keep the Sabbath.

 

The authority Satan has when cast to earth stems from him imitating Christ, his imitation based upon the Christianity of the kings of the South and of the North.

For the last three and a half years of the Tribulation, there will be only Christians on the planet. Satan and his demons presently govern the mental landscape of humanity, but Satan rules over a motley crew. All of his dominion and authority will be taken from him when he is defeated by Michael and his angels (Rev 12:7-9). The only authority Satan has when he is cast to earth stems from him imitating Christ, his imitation based upon the Christianity of the kings of the South and of the North. Because most disciples will identify the Christianity of the beast as genuine when they are mentally liberated from bondage to sin, they will accept the mark of the beast. They will not understand why the seven bowls of the wrath of God are poured out upon them. They will curse God, and they will not repent (Rev 16:11). They will be unable to repent for God will have sent a great delusion over them (2 Thess 2:11-12). For they have returned to being slaves to Satan even though they were liberated when Satan was cast from heaven. Sin lurked at their door, and they let sin in.

 

What is salvation worth?

God is not a respecter of persons. He is also not in the business of creating additional Adversaries. A saint who lived prior to the time of the end will have died in faith. This saint will have lived without ever physically seeing the promise around which this person’s life centered. But during the great endtime harvest of humanity, saints will see physical evidence of God, and many will believe for the sake of the miracles. These individuals will now be tried in fire to determine whether they will obey Christ when their lives and the fortunes are at stake. If their physical lives, or if their fortunes are more valuable to them than salvation, they will wash out. They won’t make it. No one should be numbered among them, but consider yourself: how is your faith? What do you think God will require of you? He gave His Son. What can you give of equal value to what you are offered? Your life isn’t worth the life of Jesus. All of creation isn’t worth the value of Jesus’ life. And what will be offered to you is being an heir to God, a younger sibling of Christ Jesus. So what will you find to be of so much more importance that you won’t give it up to be an heir? Or will you say, God wouldn’t require that of me. What did He require of Abraham? And of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Deliverance comes from a trial, not before a trial begins.

 

The holocaust will be repeated.

The second Passover liberation of Israel through being empowered by or filled with the Holy Spirit will begin the seven endtime years of tribulation. But in the womb of “Isaac” today are two sons, one hated, one loved, with Israel being the loved son. And once both sons are born on a day, the hated lawless son will slay his righteous brother, whose righteousness comes not through works of the hands but through the faith that will have this brother keeping the commandments of God and professing that Jesus is Lord, believing in hearts that the Father raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 10:6-9 with Deut 30:1-14). Being empowered [or filled] with the Holy Spirit and thus liberated from the sin that presently dwells in the flesh (Rom 7:21-25) but not in the heart and mind (Rom 8:2) will cause Israel to become an acceptable sacrifice to God, so that the righteous requirements of the law can be fulfilled. And except for the remnant (Rev 12:17) and the 144,000 virgins, observant natural Jews who have professed that Jesus is Lord during the first 1260 days of the seven years, all of Israel will be dead; such is the great tribulation of this period and especially of its last thirty days. The holocaust will be repeated, the ugly revelation of prophecy. As the nation of Israel died in the Wilderness of Sin/Zin when Israel left Egypt, so will the endtime nation of Israel, natural and spiritual, die in a wilderness of sin and disbelief.

 

The good news that must be proclaimed to the world

The good news that must be proclaimed to the world as a witness to all nations (Matt 24:13-14) is that when the righteous son is dead and the hated lawless son is marked for spiritual death upon Jesus’ return; when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15), the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28), thereby causing the third part of humankind (Zech 13:7-9) to be born of Spirit as Seth was born to the first Eve. This Seth only has to endure to the end to be saved. And this prophetic birth announcement is truly good news.

 

The remnant

Because western nations have become almost entirely secular societies, even the prophecy pundits spawned within these societies think in secular paradigms. A literary critic, though, when deconstructing Scripture will not find secular social constructs supporting the surface text, but will find the underpinnings of Christ Jesus’ reign as King of kings, a theocratic reign that will resume animal sacrifices as sin offerings. When humanity is described after Satan is cast to earth Rev 12:9-10), all of humanity has received the Holy Spirit. All have been called by God (Rev 18:4). There will be only one religion: Christianity. And Satan will pose as the messiah. The authority Satan will have is as the Antichrist, a spirit being claiming to be the Lord. He will literally usurp authority from Christ, to whom the world then belongs. So the first mistake prophecy pundits make is to think physically. They then compound this mistake by perceiving Islam as Israel’s principle enemy. But Islam will be no more; will have ceased to exist through being incorporated into Arian Christianity before the Antichrist comes. The fourth beast devoured and trampled something. It wasn’t all of Christianity, for the remnant of the saints who keep the commandments and hold the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17) will still exist. It wasn’t the 144,000 natural Jews who follow the Lamb wherever He leads (Rev 14:1-5). Although the little horn coming from this fourth beast was wearing out the saints, most of whom taught errant understandings of Scripture before the seven endtime years began—these are the saints that will be devoured—Christ Jesus will preserve the physical lives of enough saints who understand prophecy that these saints will be examples to the third part of humankind. But it is only those Sabbatarian Christians who have the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10) that will be the remnant that forms the seven endtime churches named in Revelation … the beast devoured and trampled every other belief paradigm but Christianity.

_______

 

Hypertextuality

 

Text based or tradition based.

The theology of every Christian denomination will either be “text-based” or “tradition-based.” When a denomination first forms the denomination tends to be text-based, but becomes stifled in tradition within a generation. The few exceptions are denominations theologically based upon the teachings of a prophet, such as Joseph Smith of The Latter Day Saints [Mormons], and Ellen G. White of the Seventh Day Adventists. Most denominations have begun like the Radio Church of God did—the Radio Church of God used the text-based teachings of Herbert Armstrong to separate its disciples from the rest of Christianity. However, following Armstrong’s death in 1986, the organization he built fractured into hundreds of splinters. The majority of the slivered fragments ceased being text-based, and become tradition-based although the largest fragment, the new Worldwide Church of God, returned to the grammatico-historical exegesis of Evangelical Christendom. Thus, the majority of the fragments now teach Scripture, especially prophecy, as Herbert Armstrong taught Scripture. They refuse to reread Holy Writ for themselves … one fragment, Gerald Flurry’s Philadelphia Church of God, even goes so far as to publicly state that Herbert Armstrong restored all truth, thereby being the endtime Elijah (Matt 17:10-12)). Flurry has succeeded in making an idol of Armstrong. And his idolatrous practices closely mirror what happened to fellowships following the death of Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Menno Simon, and others.

 

Only through the creation of a new text can a vision having been sealed and supernaturally kept secret become understandable.

The principle problem with being either text-based or tradition-based is that a sealed text cannot be unsealed. A vision that has been sealed and secret until the time of the end (Dan 12:4, 9; 8:26 et al) cannot be opened by reading existing texts as they have been read. Unsealing a sealed text requires the creation of another text through intertextuality or hypertextuality, but no new written text will be accepted because of the concept of sola Scriptura. Yet, only through the creation of a new text can a vision having been sealed and supernaturally kept secret become understandable.

 

The complete shadow of events in the spiritual realm has been recorded for every spiritually circumcised Israelite to read.

If no additional text addresses a sealed and secret prophecy, the prophecy will forever remain sealed. But once physical Israel became spiritual Israel, Holy Writ isn’t produced through additional visions. No supplemental visions are needed. The complete shadow of events in the spiritual realm has been recorded for every spiritually circumcised Israelite to read. This is why Scripture isn’t of a private interpretation. So the additional texts needed to open sealed prophecies are produced through the concept of hypertextuality, where the received text creates an additional text once the spiritual Israelite realizes that what is recorded in Holy Writ constitutes the physical shadow of spiritual realities.

 

Through typology, Scripture is linked to the Book of Life.

Through typological exegesis, all of Scripture is linked to the Book of Life, this link being one of a special form of hypertextuality—and this is an especially difficult concept to accept since the Reform movement of the 16th-Century.

 

Historical exegesis is an anti-textual reading strategy.

Historical exegesis doesn’t focus upon close reading of the text, but upon the traditions taught by early Church scholars at Alexandria. It is actually an anti-textual reading strategy. And it stems from the triumph of allegory over literalism.

 

Historical exegesis teaches the traditions of men.

Denominations with theology based upon historical exegesis teach the traditions of men, which creates a problem for these theologies. If a prophecy has been sealed until the time of the end, the prophecy cannot be understood by any scholar or pundit earlier than the time of the end. Grammatico-historical exegesis now stands in the way of understanding endtime prophecies; it is actually the bane of good scholarship. The prophecy pundit who advocates the continued use of historical exegesis advocates keeping endtime prophecies sealed.

 

Christian literalists leave Scripture to create an uninspired additional text.

Christian literalists tend to disbelief what they profess to literally belief. They choose to apply their extra-textual knowledge of history to how the sealed text of Daniel’s visions reads. They, then, to create understanding, leave Scripture to create an uninspired additional text that inevitably inserts Rome and the Roman Empire into prophecy, thereby adding to Scripture. Of course, they will deny that they have added to Scripture. They insist that they merely interpret existing symbols; yet, they will reject interpretations differing from their own, thus elevating their own additional text, created from how they read the sealed visions, to the status of Scripture.

 

The revelation needed to unseal prophecy must already be an unread part of the text.

If the age of "revelation" ended centuries ago, then the additional revelation necessary to unseal a prophecy must already be an unread part of the text. No other statement can be true. Thus, how spiritual Israel receives revelation must necessarily differ from how physical Israel received revelation. For the endtime Church, revelation comes by being able to read the formerly sealed words of the book of truth; revelation comes by spiritual realization. This "realization" or ability to read what had been sealed comes as a gift, just as the visions of Daniel came as gifts necessary to fulfill the plan of God.

 

A spiritual text from a physical antecedent

No text of human origin will be inspired. Therefore, while Babylon, Persia and Greece are mentioned by name in the visions of Daniel, Rome is not. Rome could have been if the empire belonged in endtime prophecies. Alexander’s reign was still more than a century in the future when Daniel received his visions. So an argument that Rome isn’t mentioned because its reign was futuristic lacks intellectual integrity. It isn’t mentioned because it forms no part of the physical shadow of spiritual events. So to project Rome into the sealed words of Daniel is adding to Holy Writ through the production of a false additional text.

The new text necessary to unseal secret prophecies will be a spiritual text produced from its physical antecedent.

 

Criticism based on “absence”

Biblical criticism is a special form of literary criticism. Much of post-modern literary criticism focuses on locating textual lacunae to pry open the text so that cultural values can be examined; therefore, criticism often focuses on what has been “excluded” from a text. Theoretical Feminism focuses on the "other," or that which is background. The assumption is that what has been included or foregrounded in the text can be readily discerned by even novice readers. And while this might be true with secular texts, what is foregrounded in inspired Scripture cannot be read by those who have not been born of Spirit, as evidenced by the thousands of schisms, divisions, and denominations of the visible Church.

To understand Scripture, a person must be spiritually mind. The corollary to being spiritually minded is to set one’s mind on the things of the flesh. This person is hostile to God (Rom 8:7), and if hostile to God, the person reads Scripture without spiritual understanding. This person can be extremely intelligent, very well educated, and biblically illiterate without any contradiction existing. And many such individuals are tenured in academia. They know the nuances of koine Greek. They know the writings of the Church fathers; they have read these writing in their Greek and Latin original language. And these individuals have constructed a parasitic body of works based upon what is missing in Scripture.

In order to focus on what is absent from Scripture, scholars have been, borrowing Matthew Arnold’s words, educated unto unbelief. Hermann Melville a century and a half ago questioned how could a received text be believed. His conclusion was what a text gave it could take away, thereby leaving a person having read many words but knowing nothing. And scholars who focus on Scriptural absence have read many words and know nothing except what isn’t in Scripture.

 

Typology isn’t about absence, but about textual presence.

Whereas much of modern literary criticism tends to focus on what has been excluded from a text, typological exegesis focuses on what has been included. Typology isn’t about absence, but about textual presence. The unread part of the text needed to create the additional narrative necessary to open a sealed prophecy isn’t cached in a textual gap. It will be hidden in plain sight within what is present. So when typology is brought to bear upon Daniel’s vision, the reader still notices gaps; such as Daniel would have seen the body of the fourth beast. But Daniel doesn’t describe the body except that it had iron teeth, and devoured and broke in pieces and stamped with its feet, and that it had ten horns (v. 7). Daniel could have certainly described the beast’s body that was destroyed and given over to be burned. All he writes, though, is that it was different from the beasts that were before it. So this fourth beast’s body is missing from the sum of the matter, what Daniel recorded (Dan 7:1), an important omission when readers again meet these four beasts. What is most important, though, is the presence of the other three bodies without them having dominion. Therefore, the scene recorded in verses 11 and 12 of Daniel’s summation can be precisely dated.

 

Good biblical criticism still incorporates the basic strategies of literary criticism, but under the umbrella of belief in God.

A second omission in Daniel’s summation of his vision is who or what did the fourth beast devour, break in pieces and stamp what was left with its feet? That who or what cannot be the third beast, for the Ancient of Days takes dominion away from all four beasts. The third beast still has dominion of some sort to be taken from it by the Ancient of Days after the fourth beast stamps whatever is left. Thus, good biblical criticism still incorporates the basic strategies of literary criticism, but under the umbrella of belief in God. This belief will cause the critic to accept what is present in Holy Writ as factual. And if what is present in the text is factual, then the derivative texts generated by intertextuality and hypertextuality aren’t parasitic texts about what is missing from Scripture, but texts about what occurs in the supra-dimensional realm usually identified as heaven. In actually, the critic who stands atop typological exegesis sees into the Promised Land from the mountains across the Jordan, just as Moses did. It will be the two witnesses (cf. Rev 11:3-13; Josh 2:1) who cross into the Promised Land and acquire spiritual power as the reality of the two spies Joshua sent to view the land, especially Jericho.

 

The sealed and secret words Daniel recorded are no longer sealed.

While a century and a half can be considered as many days from hence, a century and a half after Daniel lived was not the time of the end. The long vision Daniel received (chaps 10–12) was sealed and secret until the time of the end (Dan 12:4, 9), when the resurrection of saints was near, and ‘"Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase"’ (v. 4).

The sealed and secret words Daniel recorded are no longer sealed: humanity has arrived at the generic time of the end. The words Daniel recorded in the long prophecy of chapter 11 revealed the physical shadow of endtime spiritual phenomena … no prophecy in Scripture seems more readily understandable than Daniel chapter 11. Yet the angel bringing the prophecy to Daniel said the words were sealed until the time of the end. An apparent contradiction exists. Either Scripture is correct and the prophecy has been sealed until the time of the end, or Scripture errs and the prophecy has been understandable since the Maccabean war. The prophecy cannot be understandable and still remain sealed.

 

It has been this historic record that has kept the prophecy sealed.

Actually, what seems understandable hasn’t been even though the prophecy accurately reflects the historic record. It has been this historic record that has kept the prophecy sealed, for the prophecy is about the successive regimes of powerful spirit beings in the heavenly realm. These angelic beings reign "by the activity of Satan" (2 Thess 2:9) who is the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2) as well as the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4-21). The kingdom of the world doesn’t become the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15) until the court of the Ancient of Days sits in session (Dan 7:9-14, 22, 26-27). Only then does the fourth beast lose its body and its dominion, and the other three beasts lose their dominion. And the timeframe for this court session is shortly before "the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven [is] given to the people of the saints of the Most High" (v. 27). Until then, the kingdoms of the world belong to Satan and his cohorts.

 

Most visible Christians do not believe that Satan remains the prince of this world.

The Roman Church teaches otherwise. Most Evangelical Christians refuse to believe that Satan is the ruler of this world. Secular songs have God holding the whole world in His hand. Countless hymns identify God or Christ as the Lord of this world. So it is difficult for a "visible Christian" to understand that this world is not now the Most High’s. But God the Father wouldn’t have to draw a person from this world (John 6:44, 65) if this were His world. Nor would any ministry have to teach neighbor and brother to Know the Lord.

 

Day 1260

Until cast from heaven, Satan reigns over humankind by controlling mental landscapes through him being the prince of the power of the air. He can, however, only do this from the spiritual realm. He cannot do this when he is cast to earth (Rev 12:9). Thus, his kingdom of “Babylon” falls when he is cast from heaven; his kingdom is Babylon the great (Rev 17:5). His reigning hierarchy is that of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw. And the stone that is cut without hands (Dan 2:34) is the split Mount of Olives (Zech 14:4) … the day on which saints at Jerusalem shall flee through the split Mount of Olives is the same day that Michael and his angels fight against Satan and his angels (Rev 12:7). This is day 1260.

 

Assignments:

  1. Jesus said, “‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and put out its leaves, you know that summer is near’” (Mark 13:28) … do disciples need biblical prophecies to reveal what will happen to physical nations if they learn the lesson of the fig tree? Explain.
  2. Through what mirror can disciples see how they look in the heavenly realm? And when using this mirror, can disciples “see” the reflection of earthly nations—and if they can, do the reflections of these nations reveal what will happen to these nations?
  3. How can examining what is “absent” from Scripture be helpful?
  4. In reference to biblical criticism, what does “modernism” and “post-modern” mean to you? What does “structuralism” mean?
  5. Reconcile in your words Daniel’s many visions, putting these visions into a single narrative.

___________________

 

 

The Mark of the Beast:

P>lr — Chi Xi Stigma[26]

 

Can These Three Letters Be Read?

Have three Greek letters, purporting to represent a number and the name of a man, ever been more poorly translated than P>lr [chi xi stigma]. The textual call for wisdom (Rev 13:18) apparently went unanswered; for in Indo-European languages [of which Greek is one], the Arabic numeral /6/ phonetically requires an /x/ sound. In Greek, “six” is “hex” or the /x/ sound with rough breathing preceding the sound. So three “sixes” as in /666/will require the repetition of the /x/ sound three times, but the /x/ sound only occurs once in P>lr.

 

The logic behind 666

The logic for translating P>lr as 666 comes from /chi/ visually appearing as an /x/ and from /stigma/ representing two sharpened or pointed sticks, as in two crossed sticks, which could also be made to visually appear as an /x/.  So the wisdom behind framing one phonetic /x/ with two visual /x/s—as if the two visual /x/s were the two thieves on either side of Jesus—was enough for someone to produce a mistranslation that has caused a Western cultural aversion to the numeral /666/. Hence, a Senate bill with a §666 is perceived by some fundamentalist Christians as an Antichrist manifesto, especially considering that this bill might limit their ability to say silly things about God.

 

Little is written about the mark of the beast.

The above passage is nearly all that has been written about the “mark of the beast,” with the remainder of the references being to God bringing destruction upon those individuals who have taken this mark onto themselves. So to “read” P>lr with the required wisdom, a person must return to the above passage, which is part of John the Revelator’s vision that doesn’t occur until the Lord’s day is at hand (Rev 1:10), when the described phenomena will soon happen (cf. Rev 1:1; 22:6-7, 10). Here true wisdom is required: if this vision of John’s is about events that have not yet happened, then the unsealing of the scroll seen in the vision (chaps 5-6) has not yet happened. And if this scroll remains sealed, then all of what occurs within the vision after the seals are removed remains to happen. The scarlet woman and the red dragon and the heavenly signs and the kingdom of this world becoming the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ—all of these things [and events] are futuristic. Likewise, the messages to be delivered to the seven named churches also remains futuristic, meaning that the seven churches on the ancient Roman mail route through Asia Minor have a hypostatical relationship with seven endtime spiritual churches that cannot be visually seen, but exist in the heavenly realm on the Lord’s day.

 

Reading the mark begins not with the first letter, but with the last letter.

Reading the mark that requires wisdom begins not with /P/, but with the last letter /l/—stigma—an obsolete letter used to represent a number as /B/ represents 22/7s. The letter /l/was between the fifth and sixth letters of the Greek alphabet, but the letter had not been in common usage for a century when John recorded his vision; thus, the use of /l/should clue the auditor that there is something usual about the three letters that would cause the third letter to function differently than the first two function.

 

The last letter has a narrow assignment of meaning.

The last letter of the mark, /l/, has a name that carries with it a relatively narrow “usual” assignment of meaning: for those disciples who have grown familiar with Strong’s, the number is 4742, FJÆ(:", from the root FJÆ.T, usually meaning “to stick” or “to prick” as in a mark incised or punched to denote ownership. Thus, stigma is the action of pricking or punching a mark of ownership; it is used as the Greek linguistic icon that most closely is aligned to the English icon /tattoo/. It is a tattoo, or the action of tattooing. It does not produce the Arabic numeral /6/ in any reasonable form of translation, or transliteration. And since this letter alone represents a “mark” or “marking” as in ownership, the remainder of the “mark of the beast” should, logically, be that mark or should describe that mark which is tattooed as the sign of ownership.

 

Sabbath observance marks those who are of God.

Here wisdom is truly required: YHWH said to Moses, “‘You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, “Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths [note the plural form], for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you”’” (Exod 31:12-13). So the Sabbaths of God, with these Sabbaths listed in Leviticus chapter 23, are “a sign” that God sanctifies Israel, the nation that now consists of Jews with circumcised hearts (Rom 2:29). Therefore, when that old dragon, Satan, and his angels are cast to earth (Rev 12:9-10), two signs exist: the first sign (1) is the Sabbaths of God, a sign made between God and Israel that this holy nation (1 Pet 2:9) may know that God sanctifies none other. The second sign (2) is /P>/, the tattoo [/l/] of which on the hand or in the forehead [referring to a mindset] denotes the person being the property of the beast that the whole earth follows as the whole earth worships the dragon (Rev 13:3-4).

 

The dragon goes after those who keep the Sabbath.

Now add, the dragon, when cast into time, goes after the remnant who keeps the commandments and have the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17); so, since keeping the commandments requires keeping the Sabbath commandment, the sign that the offspring of “the woman” of Revelation 12:13-17 bears is the Sabbaths of God, the first sign, the sign that denotes those human beings who have been sanctified by God during the first half of the seven endtime years of tribulation, when the man of perdition attempts to change times and the law (Dan 7:25).

 

Those who take the mark of the beast do not keep the Sabbath.

If the sign of those human beings who have been sanctified by God—the sign of those who constitute the holy nation Israel, a people with circumcised hearts that was not before a people (1 Pet 2:10)—is observance of the Sabbaths of God, then those human beings who take the tattoo [/l/] of chi xi [/P>/], the second sign, do not observe the Sabbaths of God. Therefore, during the first half of the seven endtime years, observance of the plural Sabbaths of God marks those who are sanctified by God in a manner analogous to how P>lrmarks those who are of the beast and who will be slain by Christ Jesus on His return (cf. Rev 19:20-21; Isa 66:15-17). And the prophet Isaiah offers more information about those whom the Lord will slay upon His return: “‘Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the Lord’” (66:17).

God sanctifies those who observe the plural Sabbaths of God, with Sabbath observance being an outwardly visible sign of Divine sanctification. The tattoo of P> marks those who do not keep the Sabbaths, and who sanctify and purify themselves, who eat swine flesh, and who will be slain by Christ Jesus … does anyone recognize a theology that does not keep the plural Sabbaths of God, that eats swine, that sanctifies itself through its liturgy? Hold that recognition for a little while before being appalled.

 

The first letter represents Christ.

Now, returning to the front of P>lr … the first letter, /P/, produces the phonetic /ch/ sound, and is the common substitute for /Christ/ as in /Xmas/ for /Christmas/. The Roman Emperor Constantine claimed to have seen the superimposed Greek letters chi-rho or /PD/ as a heavenly sign on the eve of a battle against overwhelming forces. Constantine used the sign to energize his legions, while publicly professing conversion to Christianity, saying he would conquer by the sign of the tipped cross. His troops won the battle and prevailed throughout Asia Minor, thereby consolidating the empire that had shortly before been divided among four regents.

 

Constantine’s acceptance of /P/ made the “cross” the universally recognized symbol of Christianity.

Constantine’s conversion to Christianity is not how the “conversion” works scripturally; plus, his actions after his alleged conversion suggest that nothing other than an opportunity of political expedience occurred; so what happened when Constantine said that he saw a cross in the sky remains shrouded in the political realities of the day. Nevertheless, it was Constantine’s acceptance of a Greek belief paradigm—openly placed before the philosophical gates of Rome as Greeks had earlier placed a wooden horse before the gates of Troy—that brought an end to the Roman emperor-worship cult by which the empire had long sustained itself. And it was Constantine’s acceptance of /P/as a representation of the “Christ” that has made the “cross” the universally recognized symbol of Christianity.

A Roman made /P/ the sign of Christ; God didn’t “make” this correspondence.

 

The cross is universally accepted as the sign of Christ.

Since early in the 4th-Century, the /cross/ equates to /Christ/throughout the Roman world and all of Western civilization. Even today, the correspondence of visual sign, /P/, and lordly title, /Christ/, remain inseparable. Only a few minor denominations and fellowships, with the Jehovah Witnesses being the largest, do not use the cross to represent Christ. Even scholars regularly translate the Greek linguistic icon /FJ"LDÏHstauros/ as the English icon /cross/, when stauros would have a usual object-to-icon assignment of a “stake” or “pole set upright” if it were found outside the Bible.

 

Jesus crucified on a cross

Whether Jesus was crucified on an upright stake or on the traditional lower case “t”-shaped cross remains debatable if resolution of this controversy is restricted to Scripture alone, or even to archeological evidence. But when using wisdom to read “the mark of the beast” the Roman introduction of the cross to represent Christ strongly suggests that Jesus died on an upright pole to which was affixed a crossbeam.

 

The name of the man is Christ.

The infamous P>lr is the name and number of a man: the name of the man is “Christ.”

 

The middle letter [>] represents the cross.

Since a Roman made /P/ the shortened representation of Christ; and since Jesus was killed on a Roman “FJ"LDÏHstauros,” inscription of the middle letter, / Constantine’s acceptance of /P/as a representation of the “Christ” that has made the “cross” the universally recognized symbol of Christianity./, or zeta, in Latin characters as an /x/ is within the logical restrictions of the concept of Thirdness … if the three letters, P>lr, were to be read by a 4th-Century Roman as individual letters, they would read these three letters as /Christ-x-tattoo/.

 

The mark of the beast should be read as the “tattoo of Christ’s cross.”

How would a pagan Roman have read the mark of the beast: P>lr? He or she would have read it as the “tattoo [l] of Christ’s [P] cross [>].” How should an endtime disciple read P>lr? As the “tattoo of Christ’s cross”? Yes, this is how P>lr should be read. Why, then, is P>lr translated as 666? Because someone centuries ago could read the mark of the beast as a politically sensitive symbol—would you, as a scholar in a Mediaeval scriptorium, have gone to your patron and said that “the Cross” is the mark of the beast? To do so would have been suicidal as well as against personal beliefs held because God had consigned the Church to mental servitude in spiritual Babylon. No one was released earlier than twelve centuries after the Church was “officially” sent into its Babylonian captivity at the Council of Nicea (ca 325 CE-1525 CE). Those few disciples who tried to escape were unsuccessful, as was most of the remnant that left as Anabaptist Enthusiasts. A very few, such as Andreas Fischer and some of his followers, escaped for long enough to reach spiritual Judea, that mental landscape Beyond the River denoting obedience to God.

 

It is intellectually dishonest to translate P>lr as 666.

A dishonest mistranslation of P>lr was really the only option facing Mediaeval translators. But the logic for the Cross becoming the universally recognized symbol of Christendom is truly remarkable; for if Jesus would have been killed with a mace, would a “mace” become the revered symbol of the Savior? What about an axe?

The person who wears a crucifix wears the image of a murder weapon.

 

Death comes in the shape of the cross.

The Cross is the image of the beast that was dealt a death wound by God, a wound that occurred when the two witness are publicly resurrected; when the Holy Spirit [A<,L:" U(4@<] is poured out on all flesh, thereby liberating everyone from indwelling sin and death. The mark of the beast is the mark of “Death,” the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse (Rev 6:7-8), the fourth beast of Daniel chapter 7, on whose head is ten horns, three of which are uprooted before the little horn that is the workings of Satan who enlivens and empowers the man of perdition. The mark of Death is P>lr.

 

Assignments:

  1. Explain how Satan, when cast from heaven, can continue to deceive the world by coming claiming to be the Messiah and coming claiming the cross as his symbol.
  2. Is there any other means by which, or symbol through which Satan can compel human beings to worship the beast?
  3. Is there any other aspect of this theological outline of the foundation of house of God that Paul laid in heavenly Jerusalem that is more difficult to accept than that the crucifix is the mark of the beast?
  4. Jesus said that disciples are to pick the “stake” that tethers them to this world and are to follow him (Matt 10:38) … “death” is the stake that tethers every person to this world. Explain.

 

______________________

 

Acts 20:7

 

After rebuking the saints at Corinth for how they took the Passover, Paul would not have taken the Passover at any time other than on the night Jesus was betrayed.

The Apostle Paul, in correcting the practices of the saints at Corinth concerning the taking of the Lord’s Supper, or better, the Passover, said, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it” (1 Co 11:23-24). The night that Jesus was betrayed was the 14th of Abib. The “days of Unleavened Bread” (Acts 20:6) which Paul kept at Philippi would have begun with the high Sabbath on the 15th day of Abib. Thus, Paul would have kept the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread at Philippi; he would have then set sail for Troas, where they arrived in five days. Paul would not have again taken the Passover three weeks after taking the Passover at Philippi, with the saints there; for the Passover sacraments are to be taken once a year[27].

 

Breaking bread is a euphemistic expression for eating a meal.

When going to an 18th-Century French and Indian War reenactment, the French reenactors judiciously look for would be English spies by whether they “break” bread (literally), or whether they slice a piece of bread from a loaf. The custom of slicing bread had not yet caught on in France in the 18th-Century, whereas the English had already taken up the custom … “to break bed” is a euphemistic expression for eating a meal.

 

Luke used the days of Unleavened Bread as a recognizable time marker.

Look at the sequence of events: Paul and Luke sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread. It is not likely that Luke would have used the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a time marker when in Asia and Achaia [Greece] if the Feast wasn’t being observed by the saints thirty years after Calvary. Luke is not writing to a Jewish audience, but to “Theophilus” (Acts 1:1) — the name reads, Friend of God, and suggests that Theophilus might be representative of every Christian to whom Paul went as the apostle sent to the Gentiles. Regardless, though, Luke is not writing to Hebrew Christians; so for Luke to use Unleavened Bread as a time marker that affected the saints is significant.

 

Luke and Paul spent the Sabbath at Troas; then after the Sabbath sat down to eat and talk.

Luke and Paul came to Troas where they stayed seven days; they had sailed for five days. The eighth day, the day Paul talked until midnight and the day Paul intended to depart (remember, the day starts at sunset, not midnight), is the first day of the week [Paul’s voice would not have held out if he had started talking Sunday morning and continued until midnight—Paul started talking to them when they were gathered together for dinner, and he talked until midnight].

Eutychus fell asleep and fell out the window sometime around midnight. He was taken up for dead, but Paul took him in his arms, and the young man lived. Then Paul proceeded to talk until dawn (Acts 20:11).

 

It is not believable for Paul to have talked from Sunday morning until Monday morning then walk all day.

If Paul had begun talking Sunday morning and had continued until dawn Monday morning, the story would be difficult to believe; for after talking all night, Paul walked approximately nineteen miles, the distance from Troas to Assos (Acts 20: 13-14).

 

Paul had rested on the Sabbath.

If the account is accurate, and if Sunday were treated as the Sabbath, what the reader finds is that beginning Sunday on the dark or night portion of the day, Paul talked for most of 12 hours, then walked from Troas to Assos while Luke and the others sailed to Assos, where they took him aboard (the following day they went to Mitylene). So it was really on one day that Paul talked all night and walked all day, not exactly how a disciple would rest on the Sabbath, but this feat of endurance is possible if the person had rested on the Sabbath, and was refreshed and ready to go when the Sabbath was over.

 

No command to ceasing observing the Sabbath

Nowhere in this account is there any command to cease observing the Sabbath and to begin observing Sunday.

 

Assignments:

  1. What does it mean to you to rest on the Sabbath?
  2. Where is any command found to assemble before God on the first day of the week other than when the Wave Sheaf is offered to God?

_________________

 

1 Co 16:1-2

 

Paul wrote, “Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.”

 

The reason for taking up a collection for the saints at Jerusalem was the famine occurring in Judea. This famine was not affecting the saints in Asia or in Achaia; so it wasn’t a shortage of money that was preventing the saints in Judea from having enough. It was a shortage of grain. Therefore the collection that was to be taken up wasn’t of money, for money could buy no food when no food was to be had. The collection was of food stores, basic grain and other goods, all of which required work to assemble. The collection wasn’t passing of an offering plate, but the bringing of sacks of grain and amphora of oil and wine to a central collection point. This collection was real work, and work to be done at the beginning of the week when whatever was left from the previous week could be offered to the saints at Jerusalem.

 

Taking up a collection every week is contrary to Scripture.

Many who argue for Sunday observance point to the Seventh Day Adventists’ practice of taking up a collection every Sabbath, but this practice is contrary to Scripture. The practice of the Sabbatarian Churches of God has been more in line with Scripture: ‘“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God [YHWH your Elohim] at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he had given you”’ (Deut 16:16-17). Therefore, an offering is traditionally taken only on the seven high Sabbaths [the first and last day of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost or Feast of Weeks, and four times in the fall feast season: Trumpets, Atonement, first day of Tabernacles, and Last Great Day], with some fellowships only taking up an offering three times a year: First Day of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and First Day of Tabernacles.

 

Paul did not command the Jerusalem fellowship to take up an offering.

How the command for all males to appear three seasons a year should be read would have the inner, new man presently the tent of flesh in which he dwells as his offering to God at these three seasons. The important point here is that it is unscriptural to take up an offering weekly. The Apostle Paul was addressing a special situation, and was not commanding that Jerusalem fellowships take up a collection on the first day of the week. He limited his instructions to Galatia, Corinth, and those regions that were not in a famine situation.

 

No command to cease observing the Sabbath

Again, in Paul’s command to take up a collection on the first day of the week, there is nothing about ceasing to observe the Sabbath.

 

 Assignments:

  1. If an offering is not to be taken up weekly, how is the Church to be financed?
  2. How could Paul instructions to take up an offering in Asia and Greece be construed as a command to worship on the first day of the week?

_____________________


                                                                                                                                          

_________________________

 

What Did Jesus Promise The Thief?

 

A thief will not precede Jesus into heaven.

A comma, a late addition to the Greek text, introduced by a medieval scribe in an obscure scriptorium provides half of the scriptural support for endtime disciples believing that they will immediately go to heaven upon death. But the textual logic imbedded throughout Scripture will not have a thief preceding Jesus into heaven. So a popular passage must be read without the punctuation that was added to help “clarify” meaning.

 

All of humanity is represented at Calvary.

All of humanity is represented at Calvary in the three individuals crucified on the midweek Preparation day for the killing of the Passover in the 31st year of this Common Era.

 

The first lawbreaker to speak mocked Jesus.

On either side of Jesus was a lawbreaker, one of whom blasphemed Christ, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39). This criminal wanted down from the cross before he died; he wanted to save his physical life. He did not really believe that Jesus was the Christ, hence his mocking question. And he received nothing from Jesus, not even an acknowledgement of his existence.

 

The second lawbreaker acknowledged that he was worthy of death.

The second thief was more honorable than the first to speak: he rebuked the other, for he believed that Jesus was the Christ. He asked the first if the first did not fear God, and he acknowledged that the two criminals were worthy of death, that they were receiving their just due for their transgressions of the law. But he said that Jesus had done nothing wrong. He then turned to Jesus and said, as Luke recorded the account in a literal transcription: “And he said to Jesus, Remember me, Lord, when you come in the kingdom of you” (Luke 23:42).

 

The second lawbreaker does the things necessary to received salvation.

Jesus heard this second criminal acknowledged his own transgressions of the law and that the law is good, and Jesus heard this second criminal acknowledge Him as God and express belief that He would be resurrected back to life to receive the kingdom of heaven. Thus, Jesus tells this second criminal that he will receive everlasting life: “And said to him Jesus, Truly I say to you[,] today with me you will be in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

The problematic comma is bracketed and highlighted.

 

Jesus would not, that day, be in heaven.

Again, this comma is not in the earliest manuscripts that do not have punctuation, accents, or even the letters broken into words. And if it were placed on the other side of “today” the statement Jesus made would read, I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise, which now agrees with the fact that Jesus would not “that day” be in paradise, but would be dead and buried in the Garden Tomb. Jesus does not ascend to heaven until the morning of the fourth day (John 20:17); so it is textually impossible for this criminal to be in paradise with Jesus the day of their crucifixion.

An overlooked detail? By the majority of Christendom, yes!

 

No one entered heaven on the Preparation Day.

Jesus said that He would give one sign concerning His identity: ‘“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’” (Matt 12:40). Jesus and the two criminals were crucified on the Preparation Day for the high Sabbath (John 19:31). He was cutoff mid week as prophesied (both mid calendar week and in the middle of seven years of ministry), and he fulfilled the only sign He gave as proof that He was of God. He was three days and threes nights in the heart of the heart, and He had not ascended to heaven prior to when Mary Magdalene saw Him the morning of the first day of the week. Therefore, the criminal could not be with Jesus in paradise on the 14th of Abib.

 

The comma is misplaced.

Heaven is timeless. From the perspective of the heavenly realm, everything that happens occurs on the same day. So if an argument is made that “today” references the unchanging moment that would be “the present” in the heavenly realm, then not only would Jesus ascend to His God and Father today but the resurrection of disciples upon Jesus’ return two millennia later would also be today, the same day. Thus, confining the narrative perspective to within time, the criminal to whom Jesus promised everlasting life did not ascend into heaven on the 14th of Abib, the day when Jesus promised that he would be with Jesus in paradise; for Jesus did not ascend to paradise that day. The comma is misplaced.

 

The cross symbolizes death through loss of breath.

The cross kills by suffocation (and by shock as modern research has shown). A crucified person loses his or her breath; thus, the cross serves as a representative for all means of death from loss of breath. It is the apt symbol representing death. Therefore, being raised up on the cross symbolizes short term life after death, for a person doesn’t immediately die when crucified. As such, the two criminals live after they are dead in a symbolic sense. Once raised on a cross no one was going to come down alive. Death was declared when the person was raised up. So the two criminals serve as lively shadows for all who will appear before God in the great White Throne Judgment, when every person who has not previously been born of Spirit will receive “a second birth” through resurrection from death. And as the first thief mocked Christ, many who are returned to life will want to save their physical lives. Some will acknowledge that they were worthy of death and will be like the second thief—and it will be this latter group that will receive everlasting life when resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment. It will take no longer for those who are returned to life to determine their fate than it took for the two thieves.

 

Except for Jesus, no person will precede another into heaven.

A misplaced comma did not send the second criminal into heaven on the 14th of Abib 31 CE. He is not there yet from the perspective of being within time, for no one will precede another except for the man Jesus who came down from heaven. All who have received the promise of eternal life, and all who have been born of Spirit will be resurrected upon Christ Jesus’ return (1 Co 4:5), with those who have been born of Spirit being either resurrected to life or to condemnation (John 5:28-29). It is merely wishful thinking to believe that a misplaced comma made a thief the last Adam.

 

Inheriting eternal life requires love and faith.

Jesus’ promise to the thief, made while both still lived physically, was the inheritance of eternal life when judgments are revealed. He would have extended the same promise to the lawyer (Luke 10:25) and to the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18) if the lawyer had put into practice what the lawyer knew to do, and if the young ruler had sold all he had, given his wealth to the poor, and followed Jesus. Neither was willing to extend love or faith. The second thief was willing to extend both.

 

Assignments:

  1. Explain how the second thief’s words satisfy what Paul wrote in Romans 10:6-13.
  2. Reconcile what Jesus promised the second thief with Romans 2:12-16.

____________________________

 

 

Lazarus and Dives[28]

 

Judgments revealed at the Second Advent

In the vision of John the Revelator, the glorified Jesus says, ‘“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done” (Rev 22:13). The Apostle Paul wrote concerning his ministry and those who were already accusing him of being false: “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God” (1 Co 4:4-5). So judgments of individuals are revealed when Christ comes.

 

To be tormented after death, a person must have eternal life.

If the rich man in the parable Luke records (Luke 16:19-31) is in Hades being tormented while his brothers yet live during Jesus’ lifetime or earlier, then what recompense will Jesus bring with Him at His return for this rich man? What additional recompense will there be other than fiery torment (Luke 16:23)? And herein lies the fundamental problem with traditional understandings of the Lazarus/Dives parable: in order for this rich man to receive torment after death, he must have life that the Apostle Paul says is the free gift of God, “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23), for the wages of sin are death, not everlasting life in a rotisserie not quite hot enough to consume the person[29].

 

If Satan is utterly consumed by fire, then why not sinners?

If the spiritual king of Tyre that is the Adversary, Satan, the old dragon, has fire come from his belly to utterly consume him, making him no more forever (Ezek 28:18-19), then why won’t Dives [Latin for “rich man”] be likewise utterly consumed?

 

Hades is a euphemistic expression for the grave.

Is the recompense that Jesus brings with Him when He comes again an end to Hades? John the Revelator saw Death and Hades “thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:14), thereby making Hades a euphemistic expression for the grave, for Hades followed Death, the rider of the fourth horse of the Apocalypse to whom power was given to kill a fourth part of humankind (Rev 6:8).

 

The testimony of Scripture is that Dives had not been judged.

John the Revelator saw a great White Throne, and judgment of the death, great and small (Rev 20:11-12). Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each of these dead men and women were then judged, “according to what they had done” (v. 13). They had not previously been judged, an important concept to note. The rich man had not been judged when he was being tormented in the Lazarus/Dives fable. He entered Hades upon death and was tormented before his judgment was revealed.

 

For the parable to represent “fact,” the Father would have judged Dives.

The Apostle John wrote, quoting Jesus,

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. (John 5:19-23 – emphasis added).

So in order for the Lazarus/Dives fable to be a revealing of afterlife fates, the Father must consign unjudged humankind to torment or to the bosom of Abraham, where the Son will find them on one side or on the other side of a great abyss where He will then judge these men and women upon His return as the Messiah. That is nonsense, for the Father judges no one, and consigning one person to torment and one to paradise is certainly the judging of personhood.

 

The Father will raise all from the dead.

Contained with the passage about all judgment being given to the Son is the statement that like the Father, the Son will give life to whom He will. This statement contains the implicit concept that the Father gives life to whom He will, which would make the Father a respecter of persons if He does not give life to everyone. His will must, then, be that everyone is raised from the dead.

 

Christ does not come to deal with sin, but to save those who await His coming.

But the writer of Hebrews says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb 9:27-28). Thus, when Christ, to whom all judgment has been given, returns as the Messiah, He does not come to deal with sin, but to save those who await His coming.

The world does not await His coming.

 

Jesus accuses no one of sin; Moses does through the Law.

When does Christ deal with sin, especially considering that all judgment has been given to him? Jesus told the Pharisees, “‘Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words’” (John 5:45-47).

If Jesus accuses no one of sin, letting Moses do that work [which he does in Deuteronomy 31:26-27], and if He does not deal with sin upon His return, then who accuses the portion of humankind of wrongdoing that has never heard of Moses? A problem appears to exist that doesn’t really exist at all; for the Apostle Paul wrote,

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish under the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse and even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Rom 2:12-16)

 

The righteous requirements of the law must be fulfilled.

The thoughts of those who sinned without the law will accuse these individuals of sin, thereby causing them to perish. The thoughts of those who have the precepts of the law written on their hearts and in the consciences, but who have never heard of Moses, will accuse and will excuse those who are judged by God through Christ Jesus, and who are thereby justified by Jesus being the propitiation of their lawlessness (Rom 3:25). The righteous requirements of the law must be fulfilled (Rom 8:4). But again, the Father judges no one; He has given all judgment to Jesus. So there can be no judgment of anyone revealed until after Jesus returns to not deal with sin but to reveal judgments of those whom the Father has raised from the dead.

 

 

But the Father has only raised from the dead whom He will at this time, and here is where problems enter the traditional teachings of Christendom: the Apostle Peter wrote, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God” (1 Pet 4:17). The household of God are those whom the Father has raised from the dead—and endtime disciples of Christ Jesus do not find that the world is, today, the household of God. The dead remain dead. There has been neither a resurrection of the dead from Hades, nor has the sea given up its dead (Rev 20:13a).

 

To hear and belief would cause a person to “cover” himself or herself with obedience.

In the context of saying that the Father judges no one, Jesus said, “‘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). So the person who hears Jesus’ words and believes that the Father sent Him (this requires more “belief” than is initially apparent, for it requires the person to believe that the Son and the Father are two deities, Theos as His Son, plus Theon, not one deity) does not come under judgment, why? Why no judgment on those who hear and believe? This would seem to make God a respecter of person if a portion of humankind is not judged.

Is “not coming under judgment” because judgment is presently on those who are of the household of God? If this is the case—and it is—then baptism into the Body of Christ equates to “real” death; for judgment follows death and does not precede it. Belief, now, equates with keeping the precepts of the law. Belief does not occur where sin exists, and sin is the transgression of the law; i.e., lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Thus, to hear the word of Jesus and believe the One who sent Him requires the person to keep the commandments of God by faith, which now causes the provisions of the second covenant mediated by Moses and made with Israel on the plains of Moab (Deut chaps 29-31) to come into play. And the terms of this second covenant offers to Israel circumcised hearts (Deut 30:6) upon returning to God when in a far land (vv. 1-2), with returning to God described as loving God with heart and mind [nephesh], and obeying the voice of God to keep His commandments and statutes and all that is written in “this book of the law—Deuteronomy” (v. 10).

 

The second covenant.

Part of this second covenant mediated by Moses and made with the mixed circumcised and uncircumcised nation of Israel is choosing life or death on “this day, today” (Deu 30:15), the day of salvation. And here is where what Paul writes about the righteousness that comes from faith (Rom 10:6) is poorly understood by Christendom: on the plains of Moab was the assembled nation of Israel, none of which (except for Joshua, and Caleb) had been counted in the census taken in Numbers 1:1. This was a new nation of Israel, a nation of the children of Israel and of the mixed multitude that that had escaped from Pharaoh. And the entirety of the nation was assembled before Moses to hear the terms of this second covenant that would, when accepted, be ratified by a song (Deu chap 32), a better sacrifice than the blood of bulls and goats (Exod 24:5-8)—the sing was a heavenly sacrifice that purified this covenant as a spiritual or everlasting covenant (Heb 9:23) and not as a shadow of a future covenant. This is an important concept to note: this second covenant will get a new mediator in Christ Jesus, but this second covenant, itself, endures with the better promises brought to it by its new mediator. It will never be replaced by another covenant. And the terms of this covenant require that on a particular day, the day when this covenant is made with Israel, that the circumcised or uncircumcised Israelite chooses life or death, with the choice of “life” being made through loving God with heart and mind, with this love for God revealed by the Israelite obeying His voice to keep His commandments.

 

Must choose life or death

On the day when an Israelite enters into the second covenant with God, this covenant now mediated by Christ Jesus, the person who is of Israel will choose either life or death. If this Israelite chooses life by hearing the words of Jesus and believing the One who sent Him, this Israelite passes from death to life and does not come under judgment. Why? Because Christ Jesus as the Master Potter now sculpts this person into a vessel for honored usage (Rom 9:21-24)—from the same lump, the mixed circumcised and uncircumcised nation of Israel, Christ Jesus forms the person who by faith keeps the precepts of the law into a vessel for honorable use, while He sculpts the person who chose death by choosing to reject keeping the precepts of the law into a vessel for dishonorable usage, a vessel of wrath, a vessel of destruction to be endured for a season. One lump, Israel, made alive by the Father through Him giving to this nation His Spirit. Now not a physical nation but a spiritual nation that was not before a nation (1 Pet 2:9-10); a chosen people who, literally, have been chosen one at a time to be drawn by the Father (John 6:44) from all of humankind—this is the Israel who has life and death placed before them on a particular “day,” which is not a twenty-four hour period but a short period of darkness after spiritual birth with light coming from this darkness. And the promise of entering into life, into God’s rest, will close on the born-of-Spirit disciple as it closed on the natural nation of Israel when this nation believed the ten spies rather than the two (Heb 4:1 – cf. Num chap 14; Heb 3:16-4:11).

 

Repentance is only possible when the promise of entering into God’s rest stands.

When is repentance not enough? If Israel acknowledged its sin but still stood condemned to death before God, which is the case when Israel refused to enter into the Promised Land when the promise of entering stood, then there is a time when changing one’s mind about whether to choose life or death will be ignored by God. Certainly changing a person’s time after judgments have been revealed is pointless. Repentance then could only be interpreted as a ploy to save one’s life. So if repentance is to have any meaning, then repentance must occur while the promise of entering into God’s rest still stands—and this promise only stands on the person’s day of salvation, which again is not a calendar day.

 

Two harvests of God

The above goes against traditional teachings of Christendom, but so does Hades being thrown into the lake of fire … the problem can be reduced to Christendom not understanding that there will be two harvests of God, both represented by the grain harvests of Judea. The first harvest—the harvest of firstfruits; the barley harvest—began with the resurrection of Christ Jesus, the First of the firstfruits, and continues until His return when judgments are revealed for all who have been born of Spirit [i.e., raised from the dead by the Father while still physically alive through being born of Spirit]. This is the initial harvest that ripens by the coming of the early rains, with these early rains forming the shadow and copy of the giving of the renewing Breath of God, the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion], to the holy nation of Israel.

The second harvest, the main crop wheat harvest, occurs after the thousand year long reign of Christ Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. This harvest occurs when Death and Hades gives up all that is in them. This is the great White Throne Judgment, when every human being not previously born anew, or born of Spirit, will be resurrected from death to receive the honor or condemnation of the person’s thoughts that either accuse and excuse the person, or accuse and not excuse the person, according to Paul’s gospel. This is the harvest of the latter rains, which do not come in the spring but in the late summer. So even though most of this harvest will have physically lived before and/or with the firstfruits, this latter harvest was not “watered” with the renewing Breath of God until the last great day, the day following Sukkot. This harvest will be of all those that traditional Christendom has consigned to an ever-burning lake of fire. This harvest will be of the Buddhist, the Hindi, the Muslim, the ones who worshiped Zeus and Molech and any number of pagan deities. None will be left out, except for those who had their judgments revealed upon Christ Jesus’ return. And the one who was without the law but who kept the precepts of the law will receive everlasting life. The one who sought righteousness by a different path will now obtain that righteousness by belief of the type expressed by the second thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43).

 

The narrative flow

Finally, the Lazarus/Dives fable has a theological basis for understanding what it was that Jesus said.

The gospels record the beginning and end of Jesus’ ministry, with very little of the intervening three years mentioned, for what the gospels record is also the shadow and copy of the endtime ministry of the glorified Christ. And Luke’s gospel account has a timing mark in chapter nineteen, when Jesus enters Jerusalem on the 10th day of Abib, four days before He is to taken and crucified on the Preparation Day for the high Sabbath (John 19:31), the first day of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:5-8). So when parables are told after Luke 19:28 is known within the precision of four days.

Since the cleansing of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19) occurs on His way to Jerusalem as He was passing along between Samaria and Galilee, disciples will find that this trip to Jerusalem is the same trip on which He will enter Jerusalem on the 10th of Abib. Thus the parables told and the events recorded between Luke 17:11 and Luke 19:28 occurs in the preceding few days to the 10th; for in Luke 18:31, Jesus said to His first disciples, ‘“See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.”’ This is the third time that Jesus told His disciples that He would be taken and killed.

The next earlier timing mark is the Sabbath on which Jesus healed a man (Luke 14:1); so the telling of the Lazarus/Dives fable occurs between this Sabbath when He healed the man and when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the Sabbath that was the 10th of Abib. The continuity of narrative requires that Jesus leave the house of a ruler of the Pharisees where He ate and told the parable of the great banquet; that He be accompanied by great crowds (Luke 14:25; 15:1) along with the scribes and Pharisees that had, most likely, been at the house of the ruler of the Pharisees; that He teaches about the cost of becoming one of His disciples (Luke 14:17). Thus, the incident with the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-30) comes as a logical outgrowth of teaching about the cost of discipleship.

In fact, beginning with the Sabbath healing Jesus tells a series of parables that are thematically related: the invited guests do not come to a banquet given by a great man, so this man sends his servants out to bring to the banquet the poor and crippled, blind and lame—the maimed of Israel who could not be chosen as offerings to God if they were lambs; they would be “unclean” because of their infirmities. The cost of discipleship relates to the great man who gave the banquet being able to finish what he began even though his invited guests did not come, with this cost of his guests not coming being tallied while the time for banquet is still a great ways off; for the great man’s invited guests were like salt that had lost its “saltiness,” which when thrown out is neither good for the soil nor for the manure pile.

Tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus, for they were hearing about ones like themselves being gathered to fill the available seats at a great banquet—no, these publicans and sinners did not hear what Jesus said in the house of the ruler of the Pharisees, but they knew what was being said for the murmurings that would have taken place among the scribes and Pharisees would have carried the essence of the parable outward into the crowds. So Jesus adds to the Pharisees’ discomfort by telling the parable of the ninety-nine sheep, who were like the Pharisees in that these sheep were where they belonged—the shepherd leaves these sheep who are where they belong to go after the one that is lost, with great rejoicing to occur when the lost sheep (like the publicans and assorted sinners) are found by the shepherd. And in the parable of the lost coin, a similar message is relayed, with Jesus adding, ‘“I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents’” (Luke 15:10), and Jesus launches in the parable of the prodigal son (vv. 11-32). So there is no narrative break, no break in thought, between when Jesus heals the man on the Sabbath and the beginning of Chapter 16. All could have occurred on the same day, or within a day or two; all probably occurred on the Sabbath, when Jesus delivered the speech-acts of the Father in the form of figurative speech and healings.

Without a thematic break, Jesus tells the parable of the dishonest manager (Luke 16:1-13), who certainly could be likened to the scribes and Pharisees, “managers” of the secrets of God for Israel. Their debt to God as teachers who miss-taught the principles of God was greater than that of Israelites who were being miss-taught. Jesus finished the parable by saying that the one who is faithful in little will be faithful in much, for no servants can serve two masters, God and money—and Jesus here stepped hard on the toes of the Pharisees who had shortly before eaten with Him. These Pharisees were certain that they served God, the justification for being called a Pharisee, and they sincerely believed that making money was their reasonable service was stewards of the treasures of God. So these scribes and Pharisees, all educated, intelligent men—not under-educated Galilean fishermen like Jesus’ first disciples—began to mock Jesus: Luke wrote, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard these things, and they ridiculed him [Jesus]” (v. 14).

The Pharisees had taken one verbal punch after another since they had sat down to eat with Jesus on the Sabbath. Jesus had not cut them any slack. Telling them that they could be replaced by publicans and sinners was almost too much. Literally, Jesus had skewered those who sincerely believed they were above reproach; thus, when Jesus figuratively reached into their wallets to show them their greed, these Pharisees hit back by ridiculing Jesus. And it is this ridicule that establishes the context for the Lazarus/Dives fable.

 

Jesus turns the mocking of the Pharisees back on them.

Jesus did not like to be mocked. No person enjoys mocking, but Jesus as the Son of Theos, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, especially did not like being mocked by those creatures Theos had made from red clay mud. Therefore, in a brilliant overturning of tables (like when Jesus twice drove the moneychangers out from the temple) Jesus turns the mocking of the Pharisees back onto themselves: He calls them Gentiles without ever using the word, and He tells them in a way that only they can understand that they are Gentile students at the feet of their Master. Jesus uses the education of these Pharisees against them. And of Jesus’ first disciples, apparently only Luke has the education to understand or appreciate what Jesus does.

After being initially mocked, Jesus tells the Pharisees that they justify themselves before men but God knows their hearts (Luke 16:15); that what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Then Jesus points to the apparent place where these mocking Pharisees transgress the Law of God, and this place is in allowing, even condoning divorce. The Pharisees are guilty because they have another god other than the Most High: this god is money and prestige, the perks of being religious rulers under authorities from Rome. And they have transferred their guilt to others by apparently “selling” divorce decrees, an unstated but relatively obvious accusation based upon the presentation order of subject matter.

Jesus now tells these mocking Pharisees an after-death-fortune-reversal parable in the format of a Greek Cynic fable. Jesus tells these Pharisees a fiction, a story that suggests pagan “truths,” but a story that is definitely not Hebrew in origin or of Scripture.  By Jesus telling these Pharisees a Greek pagan story, He calls them “Greeks,” and not just any Greeks, but Greeks students who are hearing their Master deliver to them a childhood instructional fable.

 

The personal application

As an educated person, a religious leader, a community leader, how would you like being called a dog, or even worse, a pup nursing the paps of a bastard from which you will get only condemnation? This is how those mocking Pharisees felt when they heard Jesus relay the Lazarus/Dives parable. They understood perfectly the reason why Jesus was telling them a Cynic narrative. You too would understand if you were an educated person in that age of Classicism.  But you are probably not so educated. So to you, the Lazarus parable is about entering Hades at death—while your siblings still live—and about a unbridgeable schism separating the just from the unjust. Which are you? On which side of the abyss will you enter Hades? Do you know? If you do, then you know what your judgment is even before it has been revealed, and so does everyone else. You see the problem: you cannot know what your judgment will be until Christ comes to reveal it to you. If this were not the case, those who did great works in the name of Christ Jesus but who taught disciples to be lawless entered Hades and will enter Hades with the rich man. Some of them will have “stewed” for two millennia waiting for the “mistake” to be corrected, but these teachers of lawlessness will be denied in their resurrection (Matt 7:21-23). They will not enter into Abraham’s bosom, from where they would have to be cast into the lake of fire when judgments are revealed.

If a person enters either Abraham’s bosom [i.e., paradise] or Hades upon death, and if judgments are not to be revealed until Jesus’ return, then what assurance does the person have who is in paradise that he [or she] will remain there when judgments are revealed? And from where did this person receive eternal life, the gift of God, given to those who have no sin imputed to them? The answer to the questions is that no person is born with an immortal soul that must go somewhere at death. The flesh of every person returns to dust. The person who has not been born of Spirit has no other life, and ceases to exist except as a name in the book of remembrance, a name that will be raised from the dead in the great White Throne Judgment. The person who has been born of Spirit is a son of God who enters timelessness as one who sleeps under the altar of God (Rev 6:9-11), awaiting awakening and the revealing of judgments. Jesus used “sleep” as an analogy for death. So the flesh sleeping forms the shadow and copy of what occurs to the spiritual son of God that had been domiciled in a tent of flesh when the flesh dies.

 

The Pharisees are now ready to kill Jesus.

After Jesus tells the Lazarus/Dives fable, the Pharisees are no longer present. They have left, for they are now determined to kill Jesus—yes, these Pharisees will from henceforth support killing Jesus.

 

Jesus had to provoke the Pharisees into killing Him.

It isn’t always easy to get oneself murdered, especially when the crowds believe that you are the prophesied Son of David (Matt 21:9), the “adoni” who sits at the right hand of God. Therefore, Jesus had to provoke the scribes and Pharisees to get them to do what they must do before He would be free to marry another. And as it was, if Jesus had not kept quiet before Pilate, He would most likely have been set free.

But Jesus had to die on the Passover’s Preparation Day, and He had to die “between the evenings” as Pharisees then reckoned when the Passover lambs were to be slain. His provoking the Pharisees had to coincide with the Passover season; thus, on a Sabbath shortly before Jesus entered Jerusalem as Lamb and High Priest, Jesus spent a day verbally stabbing Pharisees who would determine whether He lived or died. And the nastiest wound He inflicted was calling these Pharisees Gentiles, and in the process making Him their instructional master. Not even Jesus openly calling them hypocrites and vipers cut them any deeper.

 

The Pharisees were to God as the nations are to Israel.

There are as many explications of the Lazarus/Dives story as there are denominations.  Every one of these explications either supports the idea of the “soul” of a person immediately going to Hades upon death, or supports some variation of the story being set in the future after judgments are revealed. Even cynical scholars have difficulty accepting the realization that Jesus really told a pagan Greek after-death-fortune-reversal story as a means to an end. It is easier, and more convenient to ascribe to Luke an evolving sense of the afterlife, revealed for the first time in this fable.

The Lazarus/Dives parable is important for another reason: it is an example of Jesus telling a fictional story, for Lazarus is not a real person, nor is the unnamed rich man a real person. Both figures are literary constructs, devices used to in a figurative sense to deliver a differing message than the message that would be “normally” assigned to the linguistic icons of the text. And understanding the “figurativeness” of the fable becomes an important stepping stone in understanding that everything Jesus spoke was the words of the Father, which were about heavenly things that could only be “named” with icons used for linguistic objects in this world. Therefore, nothing Jesus spoke is as it seems. At best a hypostatical relationship exists in which the usually assigned objects for the linguistic icons become a type of the invisible and conceal heavenly objects that the Father intended for the words Jesus delivered—this means that the Father had Jesus deliver the Lazarus/Dives fable not for the usually assigned meaning but for an assignment of objects that has the Father telling these Pharisees that they are to Him as the nations are to Israel.

 

If a person will not believe Moses, the person will not believe Jesus.

Jesus concluded the fable with an especially important statement: if a person will not believe Moses, the person will not believe one raised from the dead, with Jesus being this one.

The fable will be accepted as “fact” by biblical illiterates until Christ returns to reveal judgments.

 

Assignments:

  1. In the 2nd-Century CE, the writers that are visibly recognized as “Christian” authors produce a body of anti-Judaic literature while assuming an attitude of reconciliation toward the Roman Empire. How can a person condemn Moses and the Law and still believe Jesus, the One who was raised from the dead?
  2. How does realizing that Jesus told a fictional story affect you?
  3. If Jesus hated to be mocked while He lived as a man, what do you suppose His attitude toward mocking is now? And doesn’t a person mock Jesus when a person teaches that what Jesus said in His sermon on the mount about keeping the commandments doesn’t pertain after Calvary?

________________________

 

 


 

 

The Conclusion of the Matter

 

King Solomon wrote, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl 12:13-14). Israel is not yet under the new covenant, for the purpose of ministry remains to teach humankind to Know the Lord, to fear God and to keep His commandments. Today, those who serve God serve after the model of John the Baptist: they preach repentance from lawlessness. Whereas the visible Church teaches that good will come from evil, that Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17) so disciples do not have to keep the Law, the invisible Church that is of God, the small fellowships where two or three gather in the name of Christ, the work being done with little strength—all of these publicly invisible assemblies of disciples are loved by God, for they have the courage to leave the expectations of this world and to seek God with all of their hearts and all of their minds.

The person who teaches others will either (1) keep the commandments and so teach others, or will (2) relax the commandments and so teach others, or will (3) teach against the law [<@:Æ"<]. In the first case, Jesus says the person will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:19). In the second case, Jesus said the person will be called least in the kingdom. And in the third case, Jesus said the person will not be in the kingdom regardless of the great works the person does in His name (Matt 7:21-23). And that is all of the choices the one who teaches has … there are no other choices.

Scripture records what the Apostle Peter taught Gentile converts: in Antioch, when members of the “circumcision” came from James, Peter, who had been living and eating with the Gentile converts, separated himself from the “uncircumcised” as was the custom of all Jews. But when Paul saw the hypocrisy of Peter separating himself from the uncircumcised, Paul reprimanded Peter, saying, +Æ F× [@L*"Ã@H ÛBVDPT< ¦2<46äH 6" @ÛP  [@L*"Ä6äH .±Hs BäH J §2<0 <"(6V.,4H [@L*"È.,4< — translated as, “If you being a Jew as a Gentile and not as a Jew live, how the Gentiles do you compel to live as Jews?” (Gal 2:14 – the highlighted clauses match) … Peter was compelling Gentile converts to live as Jews, which isn’t what Paul condemned. Paul condemned Peter of separating himself from those whom he was discipling when certain Jews came from Jerusalem.

Jesus said that Peter was the little rock [petra] upon whom He, Jesus, would build of Himself the Church—and this same Peter taught Gentile converts to live as Jews.

Paul commanded the saints at Philippi to imitate him, and Paul lived as an observant Jew. What wasn’t understood, though, by too many 1st-Century converts was that to live inwardly as an observant Jew, outward circumcision no longer had any meaning. Only circumcision of the heart matters. Gender didn’t matter. Social status didn’t matter. These all pertain to the flesh and are only important to minds set on the flesh. Peter by separating himself from Gentile converts disclosed that the things of the flesh remained important to him—and this should not be!

The one who teaches will teach others to live inwardly as observant Jews. Therefore, outer circumcision has no importance; castration has no importance; mutilation of the flesh has no importance. Ancestry has no importance. What matters is the cleanliness of the inside of the cup; for when the inside is clean and lives as one who is clean, the outside will also be clean. No longer will the person be of the “common” stock of humankind. The person will be a special possession of God the Father and of Christ Jesus.

To eat or not to eat is a matter of the flesh, but to lust after that which is common makes the person common. This lust is lawlessness to the Israelite circumcised of heart. Therefore, Jesus’ disciples, to be holy as God is holy (1 Pet 1:15-16), do not lust after unclean meats or any of those things that defile the body. But that which goes into the mouth comes out as excrement; so disciples do not eat unclean meats but are not spiritually defiled if a piece of unclean meat is consumed. The issue has moved unto a spiritual plane where lusting after “imitation bacon bits” (which have no pork in them) defiles as certainly as lusting after pork bacon.

Disciples are to avoid all sexual immorality, and the sexually immoral person is not to be admitted into fellowship until this person ceases his or her immorality. This means that those couples who live together without being married are not to be admitted into the fellowship until they marry or separate … it can be difficult for the teacher to exclude one the teacher’s own children that cohabitates with another from fellowship, but that is the price of placing God before mother or father, son or daughter.

The person who today preaches repentance will, most likely, be called great when all of humankind, Knows the Lord.

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© Homer Kizer Ministries 2007

 

"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

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[1] The English words “spirit” and “spiritual” come from the Latin spiritus, which conveyed the sense “breath” or “to breathe,” from spirare, a Latin word of unknown origin..

[2] Gr: BV<J" *4r "ÛJ@Ø  ¦(X<,J@s 6"4 PTDÂH "ÛJ@Ø ¦(X<,J@ @Û*¥ ª< – or in English, “All things through him came to be, and without him came to be not one thing” (John 1:3).

[3] Gr: W(f  ,Æ:4 Ò 1,ÎH U$D": 6" Π1,ÎH [F"6 6" Π1,ÎH ["6f$ – or in English, “‘I  am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’” (Matt 22:32)

[4] Grace as the mantle of Christ Jesus’ righteousness is sufficient to cover any sin or transgression of the law, even to teaching others to be lawless. But Jesus said that not everyone who said “Lord, lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the ones who do the will of the Father (Matt 7:21-23). Therefore, Augustine’s argument that grace alone is sufficient turns back upon itself as if it were a poisonous snake biting its tail in what the Apostle Paul condemned: “And why not do evil that good may come? – as some people slanderously charge us with saying” (Rom 3:8). The “grace is sufficient” argument permits the sinner to continue in his or her lawlessness without ever attempting to keep the precepts of the law. This person does evil, and is an evil-doer. And this person will be resurrected to condemnation (John 5:29). So while grace was sufficient to cover the person’s lawlessness, Christ promises not to extend grace to such a person, who when liberated from disobedience readily presents his or her member to sin as willing bondservants.

[5] The children of the nation that left Egypt (those not counted in the census of Numbers chapter 1) were circumcised in Egypt and did not die in the wilderness as their fathers died, but the children born to Israel in the wilderness were not circumcised (Josh 5:2-7); nor was the mixed multitude that left Egypt circumcised. Therefore, the covenant made on the plains of Moab was not made with a physically circumcised nation.

[6] Lack of circumcision was the same size of a stumbling block to the Jews as circumcision was to Gentiles.

[7] As the Apostle Paul used the statue to the Unknown God to spread the gospel of Christ to Greeks, endtime disciples will reveal the “unknown God” who is the Father to those who claim to be Gentile Christians.

[8] When all “know the Lord” the least of Israel is not the physically or materially poor of Judea, but those who relax the least of the commandments, while the greatest of Israel is the one who keeps the commandments and teaches others to do likewise … note: when this new covenant is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, this new covenant is only made with the house of Israel. There will no longer be two physical houses, but one spiritual house comprised of all who have circumcised hearts; for this new covenant is not a covenant like that made with the fathers of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah on the day when the Lord led their fathers out of Egypt. And if it is not a covenant like the one made on the day when Israel left Egypt, it does not begin and end with the shedding of blood—and this is an important concept to remember, for the shedding of Jesus’ blood at Calvary does not begin or ratify this new covenant.

[9] The etymology of /spiritual/ comes from the Latin icon /spiritus/ and refers “breath” or “breath of God” as derived from /spirare/ or “to breathe.”

[10] The physically circumcised nation of Israel is the firstborn natural son of God (Ex 4:22); thus, this son was redeemed by the blood of Egyptians (Isa 43:4). But Israel also entered into God’s rest on the 10th day of Abib (Josh 4:19) as the selected lamb that would be sacrificed as a male of the first year that was without blemish. Unfortunately, Israel crossed the Jordan as a blemished lamb (Ezek 20:18-21).

[11] Jesus gave only one sign that He was of God: the sign of Jonah. Jesus said, “‘For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’” (Matt 12:40). The Greek passage allows for some ambiguity, but not so in Hebrew, where “night” is the twisting or turning away from the light, and day is the hot portion of a 24 hour period. The ambiguity in Greek is needed for the Son of Man includes both its Head [Christ Jesus] and its Body [the Church]. The uncovered Head was three actual days and three actual nights in the grave, whereas the “covered” [by Grace] Body will be resurrected after the third spiritual day, or on the fourth day of the creation week described in Genesis chapter 1.

[12] Under the Sinai covenant, the Sabbath is kept as memorial to the physical creation, but under the Moab covenant, the Sabbath is kept as a remembrance of Israel’s liberation; thus, the Sabbath under the Sinai covenant points to the weekly time-cycle begun at creation whereas the Sabbath under the Moab covenant points to the Passover covenant and the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread.

[13] Presently, rabbinical Judaism eats the Seder on the nights of the 15th and 16th, because of possible calculated calendar error; it does not eat the Seder on the night Jesus was betrayed, the night of the 14th.

[14] An argument can be made for Jesus being crucified in 30 CE, for the weekly calendars both have the 14th of the first month occurring mid calendar week, but the case for the previous year encounters problems with the seventy weeks prophecy.

[15] For a more in-depth discussion of the two creation accounts consult the section on, “The Creation.”

[16] When Israel under Joshua crossed the Jordan and entered into Judea on the 10th day of the first month—the Psalmist identifies Judea as God’s rest (Ps 95:10-11) and the writer of Hebrews makes Judea, as God’s rest, a type of the weekly Sabbath (Heb 3:16-4:11)—the nation was uncircumcised so Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel. The nation remained in camp until healed, and on the 14th day of the first month, in the evening, Israel kept the Passover on the plains of Jericho. The day after the Passover, that very day, Israel ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the day after Israel ate the produce of the land, manna ceased. … In the narrative flow, Israel’s circumcision was the Wave Sheaf Offering—Israel was the first Sheaf of new grain offered to God.

[17] To skin and process, a slain lamb is held by its head upright, so the image given is that of a lamb standing upright on its hind feet.

[18] China is not mentioned in biblical prophecies, for China never reigned over the geography of Eden, whereas Babylon, Persia, and Greece did.

[19] All of the “metals” of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision are demons whereas the miry clay represents mortal human beings.

[20] The kingdom and dominion of the fourth beast doesn’t encompass all of the greatness of kingdoms under the whole heaven, but all of the kingdoms and dominions will be given to the saints. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he shall rule, as king of Babylon, the children of men wherever they were. Satan as the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4-21) has ruled the children of men as the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). So the fourth beast doesn’t exercise control over all of spiritual Babylon prior to when "the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away" (Dan 7:26) supernaturally.

[21] Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom, nor can flesh and blood—because of their apparent solidity—enter the kingdom.

[22] The testimony of Jesus is the “spirit of prophecy” (Rev 19:10).

[23] The day when the last Eve delivers two sons will be the day of the second Passover.

[24] The ultimate expression of rebellion against God is refusing to enter His rest when told, and attempting to enter on the following day. For this reason, the nation that left Egypt, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, were slain as if they were a single man. And this nation that left Egypt is a type and shadow of the Church during the great falling away.

[25] Today’s prophecy pundits find in Islam the endtime boogie-man, but Islam accepts Jesus as a prophet. It will not be a far step for Muslims to accept the false prophet (Rev 19:20) as a genuine prophet, the Twelfth Inman, and for the man of perdition to convince the entire faith to convert to Arian Christianity. Islam presently has a recognizable flaw: there is no criterion by which a person can be certain of going to heaven other than dying in Jehad. A person can never be certain that he or she is good enough to go to heaven. As a result, the culture doesn’t admit blame. It can’t and still have any chance of being with Allah. So the Islamic belief paradigm needs the means of suspending the death penalty for sin for long enough that a person can mend his or her ways. The paradigm needs grace. And the false prophet will, with charisma, explain to Islamic clerics why they must accept Arian Christianity to stop their young people from blowing themselves up—only the false prophet can stop Islamic terrorism. And while wearing out Sabbath-keeping saints, the false prophet and the man of perdition will permanently put an end to terrorism (and to the modern state of Israel). Remember, the whole world follows the beast, and worships the dragon and the beast and even the image of the beast. The world won’t worship the beast, or anyone else without cause. Hitler seemed like a German savior because he put an unemployed nation to work. The man of perdition will seem like a Christian savior for he will finally win the Crusades by bringing Christ to the 10-40 window.

[26] A textual variation substitutes the phrase /©>"6`F4@4 ©>Z6@<J" ª>/ or 616 for the three letters /P>lr/. This variation clouds the easily, and perhaps too easily read three letter acronym.

[27] Paul wrote, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Co 11:26). As often pertains to the annual observance of the Passover for however years remain between the present and when Jesus returns. Therefore, a fellowship errs by eating the body of Christ more often than on the night that He was betrayed, or the fellowship errors in teaching that breaking bread on the first day of the week is the taking of the Lord’s Supper.

[28]Hock in, “Lazarus and Micyllus,” cites the topos of the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition of fortune reversal after death. He says, “The parable of Lazarus has an unmistakable Cynic coloring” (462) – Citation from: Bernstein, Alan E. Footnote # 24; “Damnation.” The Formation of Hell. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1993.

[29] The prophet Ezekiel, writing about a spiritual king of Tyre who had been in Eden, the garden of God, and who was an anointed cherub (Ezek 28:12-14), has YHWH Elohim saying about a future event that from the perspective of heaven has already occurred, “‘I cast you to the ground (cf. Rev 12:9-10; Dan 7:26); I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you (cf. Isa 14:3-21; Rev 20:1-3, 7). By the multitude of you iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever’” (Ezek 28:17-19 – emphasis added). And if this anointed cherub is utterly consumed by fire, who is in charge of hell?