Typology, Consistent Eschatology & Predestination

Typology, Consistent Eschatology

& Predestination

Eschatology is the teaching of last things, and "consistent eschatology" holds that all of Jesus’ eschatological teachings in the Gospels refer to what will happen at the end of the age. Typology argues that all of Israel’s history, including that presented in the Gospels and in the book of Acts, forms a double shadow of spiritual Israel’s endtime history in the supra-dimensional spiritual realm usually identified as heaven, with that double shadow of first physical Israel, then of born of Spirit Israel. This typology was described by Paul when he wrote that the first Adam became as a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45); that the first Adam was a type of the one to come (Rom 5:14). Jesus’ earthly ministry is wedged between Jesus being born as a living being and Him becoming a life-giving spirit. The glorified Jesus as a life-giving spirit is, thus, the spiritual reality of (1) Adam as a breathing creature, and (2) the man Jesus of Nazareth prior to His crucifixion. Israel is, then, the Congregation, the Church, and finally the glorified sons of God, of whom Christ is the firstborn Son among many brothers (Rom 8:29). So typology magnifies consistent eschatology in a manner analogous to how Jesus magnified the Law. Typology reveals that in the spiritual realm a mental act has the same consequences as a physical act has in the earthly realm. Human thoughts as well as physical deeds represent the double shadows of the Church and of the Congregation in the Wilderness. Both thoughts and deeds must be liberated from bondage to sin, represented by spiritual Babylon and physical Egypt; both must be brought into captivity to be ruled by Christ. Thus, holiness in the physical realm required Israel to remember the commandments, represented tassels with a blue cord on the corners of their garments (Num 15:37-41) whereas holiness in the spiritual realm requires Israel to implement by faith the commandments, thereby living by every word of God (Matt 4:4).

Before proceeding further, the subject of liberation from captivity needs pursued. In the patriarch Abraham, God found the quality of faith that could be called righteousness; so from Abraham, God as Husband developed a cultivated variety [a cultivar] of human being through selectively breeding sons of promise. Abraham’s natural son Ishmael was rejected. Isaac was the son of promise, and this cultivar came from Abraham’s dead loins and Sarah’s dry womb. Then in the next generation, God again intervened to bring forth from Rebekah’s dry womb two sons of promise (Gen 25:21), one hated, one loved (Mal 1:2-3; Rom 9:9-13). So when Jacob, the loved son of promise, went down into Egypt seventy in number (Gen 46:27), God spoke to him in vision, saying, ‘" Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again’" (vv. 3-4). But after Jacob’s death and before God brought the physically circumcised nation of Israel up from Egypt, God made Himself known to Israel and said to the nation, “Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt” (Ezek 20:7). Israel, however, rebelled against God and would not listen to Him (v. 8) … the human cultivar select for its faith would not by faith separate itself from the people of Egypt, and in His wrath at Israel’s rebellion, God would have slain Israel as if the nation were a man if not for the sake of His name (v. 9). Instead of slaying Israel, God caused a new king to arise over Egypt, a king that did not know Joseph (Exod 1:8), and this new king enslaved God’s rebelling cultivar, establishing the pattern for, or a shadow of all of Israel’s history. Thus, while in Egypt Israel became great in numbers before becoming an enslaved nation (v. 9): Israel’s enslavement was the result of the nation’s rebellion against God, just as humanity’s consignment to sin (Rom 11:32) was the result of Adam’s disobedience. For as enslaved peoples, neither Israel nor humanity is responsible of its lawlessness (Rom 5:13). The one who enslaves assumes that responsibility. Therefore, while in Egypt, Pharaoh was responsible for Israel’s lawlessness once the king enslaved the nation. Likewise, the prince of this world, Satan the devil, is responsible for humanity’s lawlessness until God liberates human beings from indwelling sin and death. And as God destroyed Egypt through the ten plagues and Pharaoh when Sea of Reeds swallowed him and his army, God will destroy the kingdom of this world in seven endtime years of tribulation and will destroy the prince of this world and his armies when the split Mount of Olives, a stone cut without hands, swallows the armies pursuing Israel halfway through the seven endtime years (cf. Exod 15:10-12; Dan 2:34, 45; Zech 14:3-4; Rev 12:15-16).

Although Israel in Egypt rebelled against God before the nation was enslaved by Pharaoh, God honored His promise to Jacob: Israel became great in numbers, accounting for more than half of the population in Egypt (Exod 5:5), before God brought Israel up from Egypt after liberating the nation that first Passover night; after killing the firstborn of men and beasts. However, also before liberation Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill newly born Israelite males as a shadow and type of Herod ordering his soldiers to slay the male children of Bethlehem under two years of age, and of the prince of this world ordering his servants disguised as ministers of righteousness (2 Cor 11:15) to slay newly born spiritual sons of God in the supra-dimensional heavenly realm. God, though, kept alive His chosen servants by moving His elect into the heart of sin [for Moses, into Pharaoh’s household; for Jesus, into Egypt] before His elect began a physical and spiritual journey to Judea, the representation of His rest (Ps 95:10-11).

At the end of this age, Israel shall again be recovered from bondage, with the Lord bringing Israel out of the north country and out all of the countries where He has driven the nation (Jer 16:14-15). But this Israel isn’t the physically circumcised nation—no one is an Israelite who is merely one outwardly (Rom 2:28). The selected human cultivar Israel was chosen for its faith, with the faith displayed by Abraham prior to being circumcised being the benchmark for the faith of all Israelites that will be counted to them as righteousness (Rom 4:11-12). Thus, an Israelite is a person who by faith keeps the precepts of the law while having love for God and neighbor. This person will be inwardly circumcised by the divine Breath of God that inscribes His laws on the heart cleansed by faith, with this inward circumcision first promised by the Moab covenant (Deu 29:1), mediated by Moses and ratified by a song. Therefore, Israel goes from being the woman who "gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (Rev 12:5 – the male child being the Son of Man) to the woman whose offspring "keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus" (v. 17). Thus, Israel goes from being physical to being spiritual. The covenant that had made physical Israel the holy nation of God (Exod 19:5-6), ratified by blood, was made to be abolished (cf. Eph 2:15; Heb 9:23) following the death of the Covenantor, who left heaven to be born as His Son, the man Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14). Born of Spirit disciples of Christ Jesus that keep the commandments of God are now the holy nation of God (1 Pet 2:9). So Israel continues, just as the laws of God continue, with these laws going from pertaining to deeds to pertaining to thoughts (Matt 5:17-48, especially vv. 22, 28, 44-45). The righteousness of disciples must exceed the righteousness of Pharisees, who had the Law but who pursued righteousness by the works of their hands rather than by faith (Rom 9:31-32).

Israel today is the Christian Church, said without apologies and without caveats. Thus, the endtime Israel that will be recovered from the North Country and from the far corners of the world isn’t a physically circumcised nation, but a spiritually circumcised nation. As invisible light passing through water droplets form one or two or more visible spectrums [rainbows], the recovery of humanity from disobedience and death creates primary and secondary shadows, with the play of additional shadows like the play of additional rainbows. The liberation of all humankind from indwelling sin and death is not a physical liberation, so this liberation cannot be physically seen as was the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq, or Poland from Germany, or Spain from the Moors, or Israel from Egypt. Rather, the liberation of all humankind will be physically seen only by observing the shadow this liberation casts in this world, with its primary shadow being the liberation of the rebelling physically circumcised nation of Israel from physical bondage to Pharaoh; i.e., Israel from Egypt, with Israel lead out of slavery by Moses and Aaron. The less visible shadow (because this shadow occurs mostly in the heavenly realm), like a secondary rainbow, is the liberation of the rebelling spiritually circumcised nation from mental bondage to the king of spiritual Babylon (Isa 14:4-21).

The Church has become a great nation divided against itself many times over. It constantly fights civil wars, with Arians last claiming a victory over Trinitarians when the Vandals sacked Rome. That is correct: the primary division of the Church is into Unitarian, Binitarian, and Trinitarian schisms that each deny the genuineness of anyone in a differing schism—and if anyone doubts how vehemently these schisms deny the Christianity of those in a differing schism, ask a Lutheran if a Mormon is a Christian, or vice versa. Ask a Catholic [a Trinitarian] if an Armstrongite [a Binitarian] or a Jehovah Witness [a Unitarian] is a Christian. And what will be seen is that the lawless Christian Church is presently ruled by the demonic kings of the North and of the South, subservient kings to the king of Babylon, not by Christ Jesus who said not to think that He came to abolish the Law and the Prophets; who said that if an Israelite will not believe Moses the Israelite would not believe Him (John 5:46-47).

If a disciple will not believe Moses, who wrote of Jesus (Deu 18:15-19), the disciple will not hear the words of Jesus or believe the One who sent Him; hence, the disciple will not pass from death to life (John 5:24), but will be resurrected to condemnation. Jesus said not to be surprised when disciples are resurrected to condemnation (vv. 28-29). After all, of the generation counted in the census when Israel left Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered into God’s rest. All of those Israelites who rebelled in the Wilderness of Paran (Num 14) died in the Wildernesses of Sin/Zin. Thus, as physically circumcised Israel was liberated from bondage in Egypt, spiritually circumcised Israel, the Christian Church, as the second shadow of the great endtime liberation of humanity, will be liberated from bondage in spiritual Babylon at the beginning of the seven years of tribulation. And as physical Israel rebelled against God before being enslaved by Pharaoh, the Church rebelled against God in the heavenly realm before God delivered the Church to Satan in a manner analogous to the Apostle Paul ordering the Church at Corinth to deliver the man living with his stepmother to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved (1 Cor 5:5). The “official” delivery of the Church to the king of Babylon occurred at the Council of Nicea (ca 325 CE) when the Roman Emperor Constantine decided what sound doctrine would be. And every denomination, sect, or fellowship that has adopted the Nicene Creed is unquestionably subservient to the prince of this world. Therefore, in a relationship analogous to that between the first Adam, a breathing creature, and the last Adam, a life-giving spirit, the liberation of physical Israel from physical bondage in Egypt following the first Passover forms the more visible of two shadows of the liberation of humanity from sin and death following the sixth Trumpet plague, the second woe (Rev 9:13-21). The less visible shadow is the liberation of the Church from bondage to indwelling sin and death at the beginning of the seven endtime years—the lives of firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God will be given for the liberation of spiritual Israel, the reality of the firstborns of beasts being slain in Egypt.

The relationship between the first Adam, a man sculpted from red mud, and the last Adam, a physically circumcised Israelite, typifies the relationship between the liberation of Israel from Egypt and the liberation of humanity from disobedience. The first Adam became a breathing creature [nephesh] when Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into his nostrils (Gen 2:7). The last Adam, though, is a man that transcends dimensions … the Logos created all of the world; without Him, nothing is made that has been made (John 1:3), including the first Adam and the clay formed into this man of mud. Going farther, the Logos was Theos, who was with Theon in the beginning (vv. 1-2) —and it is Theos who enters His creation as His Son, His only (John 3:16). Thus, the birth of the man Jesus is the last act of creating by Theos, who doesn’t come as Himself but as His only Son, meaning that as His Son, He is no longer divine. Jesus is not fully God and fully man; Jesus is only fully man, and to say otherwise is to make oneself into an antichrist.

Again, if the Logos [the Yah that King David praised] had entered the creation as Himself, He would have been fully God, and human beings would have no Bridegroom to marry for Theos was to Theon as Aaron was to Moses, in that the two were one as if married, with the Logos uttering in His creation the speech-acts of Theon. In the regular plural Elohim is seen with Theos and Theon functioning as one entity: Elohim is the plural of the singular Eloah, which consists of the radical /El/ meaning God as in El Shaddai [God Almighty] and the radical /ah/ representing aspirated or vocalized breath. So Elohim deconstructs to /Theos + Pneuma/ + /Theon + Pneuma/ when moving the linguistic icon into Greek. If remaining in Hebrew (again using Roman characters), Elohim deconstructs to the radicals /YH/ or Yah, and /WH/, which together forms the Tetragrammaton YHWH that is prayed orally as the singular Adonai, thereby revealing how thoroughly the creation concealed from physically circumcised Israel the things of God (as in the concept of Tzimtzum).

Theos ceases to exist in the heavenly realm when He enters His creation as His only Son. The relationship between Theos & Theon in which the two were one as if married ended, yes, ended in heaven when Theos was born as the man Jesus of Nazareth. The Tetragrammaton YHWH ceased to exist. Yah was no longer in heaven. In fact, He was nowhere; for Jesus was His Son. Jesus was not Theos even though it is very easy to say that He was. But the importance of Jesus not being Theos/Yah cannot be adequately stated; for if Jesus were Theos and not the only Son of Theos, then Jesus would not be free to marry the Church in the heavenly realm. There would be no resurrection to glory, no crossing dimensions for any human being. For the glorified Jesus would still be the helpmate of Theon, and as such in a marriage-type of relationship with Theon in the heavenly realm.

The issues argued in the Christology debates of the 4^th-Century involved the portions of the Church long held captive by the prince of this world. Those disciples who held dissenting understandings were first marginalized, then hunted as animals, leaving only Arians and Trinitarians to continue warring through historical narratives. So what is seen in the last Adam is Jesus as the only Son of Theos being without life in the heavenly realm prior to when the divine Breath of the Father [Pneuma Agion or Pneuma ’Agion] descended upon Him as a dove (Matt 3:16-17). At that exact moment, to fulfill all righteousness, Jesus is visibly born of Spirit. He is not now the life-giving spirit He will become after being glorified, but with the receipt of the divine Breath of the Father, Jesus becomes the beloved Son of the Father, Theon. Therefore, in the typology of a first and a last Adam is a transitional state in which life given through receipt of the divine Breath of God is housed in a tent of flesh.

The liberation of humanity from sin and death also has a transitional state that appears as a partially invisible or concealed shadow: the history of the Christian Church.

Again, the primary shadow of the liberation of humankind from death [the North Country] is the liberation of natural Israel from bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt. The less visible secondary shadow is the liberation of the Church from indwelling sin and death through empowerment by the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation. As Egypt was devastated by the tenth plague, the death of firstborns of man and beast of every household not covered by the blood of a Passover lamb, spiritual Babylon [i.e., the kingdom of the world] will be equally devastated by a Second Passover slaughter in the heavenly realm and on earth of firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God. This Second Passover slaughter of firstborns is the hard shadow of the slaughter of a third of humanity in the second woe, a slaughter that occurs near the middle of the seven endtime years.

Yes, there are two Passovers, one taken at even before the full moon in the first month of the year, with a second Passover for those who were spiritually unclean at even before the full moon in the second month of the year. These two Passovers represent the two liberations of Israel, one from physical bondage, one from mental bondage. And at the first Passover, all firstborns of men and beasts not covered by the blood of a paschal lamb were slain. At the second Passover, all spiritual and physical firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God will be slain.

The second Passover liberation of Israel begins or slightly precedes the seven years of tribulation during which Israel lives sin-free as represented by the feast of Unleavened Bread, with the first high Sabbath of the festival representing individual liberation or baptism by Spirit, and the second high Sabbath representing individual glorification or baptism by fire. To be spiritually circumcised, a person will have received the Holy Spirit. A person wouldn’t leave the world if the person had not received a puff of the Breath of the Father when drawn (John 6:44, 65), for the person without the Holy Spirit is actually hostile to God (Rom 8:7). So all three baptisms of the world are present when foreknown disciples are glorified upon Christ’s return as the Messiah even though the world will not experience baptism by fire until the conclusion of the Lord’s day (the world is baptized by Spirit when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ) … the Flood of Noah was the baptism of the world by water into death for sin, the reason why life expectancies were remarkably reduced post-Flood. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28) upon all humanity when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15; Dan 7:9-14) 1260 days prior to Christ’s return as the Messiah is the baptism of the world by Spirit. And the arrival of the new heaven and new earth following the great White Throne Judgment is the baptism of the world by fire. Therefore, water and Spirit becomes the shadows of baptism by fire, and this agrees with what Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:5). Birth by water, though, isn’t baptism, but physical birth, which gives rise to death for sin. Baptism by water is unto the death of the old man or creature so that the tent of flesh can house the new man born of Spirit.

None of humanity resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment will not have been baptized by water even if the person were sprinkled or dunked in the name of Christ—true baptism requires spiritual judgment to come upon the baptized person, and unless this person has been born of Spirit, the person has no life in the heavenly realm that can be judged. Therefore, since no person born of Spirit and baptized into judgment as part of the firstfruits, the early barley harvest, will be resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment (the time for revealing their judgments are when Jesus returns), every person resurrected in this great Judgment will have experienced actual death without receiving the Holy Spirit prior to death. There are no second go-arounds concerning judgment. Every person is either part of the early barley harvest of which Jesus was the First of the Firstfruits, or part of the latter wheat harvest that is given a second birth in the great White Throne Judgment. And as there was false grain growing in the barley and wheat fields of ancient Judea, there will be false disciples in the first harvest and unrepentant law-breakers in the second harvest. Both will perish in the lake of fire.

The greater Christian Church will not be raptured to heaven prior to its liberation from mental bondage to the king of Babylon. In fact, the dogma that believing disciples go to heaven is a central element in the Church’s mental enslavement—the first Eve believed the serpent’s lie that she would not die (Gen 3:4). Likewise, the second Eve, the Church, believed the old serpent’s lie that human beings will not die, but have immortal souls. Scripture, however, clearly asserts that everlasting life is the gift of God, that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Birth by water is as flesh and breath [soma and psuche]. Only after a born again disciple has been drawn from the world through receipt of the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion] does a disciple become psuche, pneuma, and soma (1 Thess 5:23). Human beings do not have immortal souls received from the first Adam.

The doctrine of a pre-Tribulation Rapture will vaporize with Israel’s liberation from indwelling sin and death (mental slavery in spiritual Babylon). This second liberation from bondage will be such a greater liberation than Israel’s escape from Egypt that the first liberation will not even be remembered in the future, and this second liberation merely foreshadows the liberation of the third part of humankind (Zech 13:9) that constitutes the great end of the age harvest of humanity after Satan is cast from heaven. Therefore, the entirety of Scripture describes valid history while disclosing what cannot be directly observed in the spiritual realm. The entirety of the Gospels forms the shadow of the glorified Jesus’ endtime ministry to mentally enslaved, spiritual Israel following the second Passover. This ministry occurs in the heavenly realm where He opens doors that cannot be shut by human beings.

The supra-dimensional heavenly realm is timeless. Events that occur in the shadows are separated by the passage of time whereas these events occur sequentially without the passing of time in the spiritual realm. Therefore, as human history comes to where humanity will be liberated from sin and death, the more “stacked up” are the events. In the primary shadow, the slaughter of firstborns in Egypt and Israel receiving of the Law at Mount Sinai are separated by two and a half months. In the secondary shadow, the slaughter of the Passover Lamb of God occurs two millennia before the slaughter of firstborns not covered by the blood of Christ, but the fifty days between Jesus’ resurrection [liberation from sin and death] and Pentecost shrinks to being instantaneously occurring or almost so events at the beginning of the Tribulation. The millennium and a half long history of Israel in Judea and the two millennia long history of the Church in the heavenly realm [the three and a half millennia from Moses to the Tribulation] is compressed into the first three and a half years of the seven endtime years for the third part of humanity. (The latter three and a half years will form the shadow of the great White Throne Judgment.)

The book of Acts, then, forms the post-Second-Passover shadow of liberated spiritual Israel’s conversion in the spiritual realm during the Tribulation—and here is a concept that has previously eluded theologians: the Church must be “converted” to Christianity, for it is not today Christian. How can that be, some will ask. The how is not hard to perceive when Jesus’ words are actually believed. The person who will be great in the kingdom of heaven keeps the commandments and teaches others to do likewise (Matt 5:19). The uncircumcised person who keeps the precepts of the law will have his or her uncircumcision counted as circumcision (Rom 2:26). The person who says that he or she knows Jesus but who does not keep the commandments is a liar and the truth is not in the person (1 John 2:4). Yet despite the testimony of Jesus, His Disciples, and Paul, the Christian Church steadfastly refuses to keep the commandments of God, while labeling those to attempt to do so as legalists. So the how is self-evident.

The Gospels and Acts together, therefore, are foreshadowed by the writings of Moses and Joshua in the same relationship as the Church has to the Congregation. Both sets of writings reveal as shadows what occurs but cannot be directly observed in the spiritual realm at the end of the age.

To claim that the Church needs liberated and converted seems an oxymoron. In every generation and in every denomination, there have been saints who have lived by faith, who have shunned hypocrisy, and who will be resurrected to glory. But overall, how much of humanity has been killed in the name of the Church? How many individuals have used their religion to kill their enemies in the name of Christ? How spiritually converted is the greater Church, really? How many "Christians" keep the laws of God that have been written on their hearts and minds? How many "Christians" profane the Sabbaths of God, of which Christ is the reality? How many "Christians" truly practice love? How many shun hypocrisy? How many believe that everlasting life is the gift of God, versus how many believe they received everlasting life at conception in the form of an immortal soul? How many truly hear the words of Christ and believe the Father, versus how many hold the traditions of men, continued through historical exegesis? Do Christians, then, substantially differ today from the Pharisees and Sadducees who had the law but didn’t keep it (John 7:19)?

Pharisees in the 1^st Century kept the portion of the Law of God that was physical. They lacked spiritual understanding, and lacked keeping the intent of the law. They literally were blinded by the physicalness of the creation, a concept Kabbalists attempted to explore before they lost sight of God. Instead of using the physicalness of the creation as a typological tool to reveal what cannot be seen with human eyes (Rom 1:20), Israel pursued spiritual matters through the works of the nation’s hands. The nation had a law that would have led to righteousness if pursued by faith, but the nation perceived holiness to be its birthright rather than a state determined by the acts of the nation.

The greater Church in the 21^stCentury keeps, somewhat, the portion of the laws of God that is spiritual. Many Christians truly practice love towards neighbor. Their desire is Christ, but they won’t be ruled by Him. They will not enter into His rest while the promise of entering stands. The Church cannot comprehend why it must give up 8^th-day worship and return to keeping the Sabbath. Thus, by their actions, Christians reveal their mental bondage to the king of spiritual Babylon, just as the Pharisees revealed theirs by their lack of love.

Too many born again disciples today attempt to crucify Christ in the spiritual realm by giving Him their lawlessness in that realm, but He won’t be crucified a second time. As the reality of the Azazel goat, He bears their sins until He returns as the Messiah. He will ultimately give those sins to Satan, or He will give those sins back to the disciple if the disciple has left the covenant by which Christ agreed in love to bear the sins of Israel. This is why disciples should not be surprised when those who have done evil are resurrected to condemnation (John 5:29). Christ bore their sins; then He returned their sins to those whose end came with the disciple being out of covenant.

Returning to the brew of obscure theological concepts introduced in the first paragraph that has by now partially jelled: when predestination is inserted into a mix of typology and consistent eschatology, a philosophy that perceives time as a fluid thickens enough to be spread on bread. Today becomes a location, just as a cove or a bay is a location. "Today" exists in the portion of time where we are presently located, but outside of this sea of time are all those individuals whom the Father foreknew, predestined, justified, and glorified (Rom 8:29-30). They are unaffected by "today," or tomorrow (the next bay over). And the relationship between the Congregation, the Church, and glorified saints—between deeds, thoughts, and being deified—reflects this inside time and outside time paradox that allows me to exist as a glorified saint while still working out my salvation. Yes, that is correct: from heaven I watch myself, cloaked by the mantle of Jesus’ righteousness, here on earth work out my salvation, striving hard to make disciples for Christ Jesus, accruing real wealth while barely paying bills, and realizing that the decision to pursue righteousness by faith more than three decades ago caused Jesus as Master Potter to make from me a vessel intended for honored usage, thereby actually precluding me from screwing up my own salvation. Freewill existed on a day of salvation, the day when I choose life rather than death, when I chose to do what I knew was right. Since that time, Christ has held me to that decision by removing freewill from me through making of me the honored vessel He chose to make.

Let me introduce a cautionary parameter: unless I work out my salvation I will never be a glorified saint, but it isn’t I who do this working out of salvation, the free gift of God. Being drawn by the Father and called by Christ (foreknown and predestined), receiving grace (justified) and being resurrected to life (glorified) require the disciple to hear the words of Christ and believe the Father in addition to what the Father and Christ do for the person. This hearing and believing is ongoing in this realm, but not so in the timeless heavenly realm. A disciple can attempt to negate being foreknown, predestined and justified by leaving the covenant that only asks the disciple to believe the Father (belief, though, entails obedience), but all this person who has chosen life does by leaving the covenant is cause the person to be disciplined by the Father and forcibly brought back into the covenant.

A person driving 80 miles an hour on a freeway that has a speed limit of 70 miles an hour doesn’t really believe signs stating the speed limit. The person has become a law unto him or herself, and is usually supported by many other drivers whizzing along at 80. And so it is with the laws of God. The Sabbath is the seventh day. It never has been the eighth day. Christ's resurrection and Ascension on the first day of the week already have a commemorative service: the Wave Sheaf Offering. So to use Christ’s Ascension as justification for breaking the commanded weekly Sabbath is ludicrous. But because other disciples are breaking the Sabbath (along with speeding), the vast majority of Christians believe it is perfectly acceptable to rewrite the laws of God that have been written on their hearts and minds just as they rewrite the speed limit by their widespread breaking of the law. But as anyone who has received a speeding ticket knows, the judge doesn’t acknowledge and excuse rewriting of the traffic code. Nor will Christ as the judge of disciples acknowledge and excuse breaking the laws of God.

Therefore, the disciple who attempted to rewrite the laws of God did not choose life on his or her day of salvation, but chose death, instead. This disciple had freewill, and used his or her freewill to choose what seemed good to the person. This person did not, when the promise of entering God’s rest stood (Heb 4:1), enter into God’s rest, but instead, chose to determine for him or herself good and evil, the sin of the first Eve. And because this disciple did not enter in when the promise stood, Jesus as the Master Potter made from this person a vessel of wrath to be endured for a season, a vessel for destruction, a vessel for dishonorable usage. And there is little this person can do to change what Jesus has made from the person. Paul tells Timothy that if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, the person will be a vessel for honorable use (2 Tim 2:21). The only problem is that very, very few disciples who are now vessels of wrath will change, for they know God’s decree that those who practice lawlessness will die (Rom 1:32). Yet they not only practice lawlessness but give their approval to all those who likewise practice iniquity.

Thus, being foreknown, predestined, justified and glorified contains no caveats that work as Get Out of Jail Free cards. The righteous will continue to do what is right (because they are vessels created for honored usage), and the holy will continue being holy. And again, as a glorified saint, I can, from outside of time, watch me work out my salvation, and wince at my mistakes that are only known to myself and to Christ, whose righteousness I wear as a garment. I can also not be there if I leave the covenant, a possibility that is becoming less and less possible with each passing day. So from the perspective of being inside time, we can temporarily ignore the fact that we have or haven’t been already glorified. But this knowledge should cause disciples to resist unto death leaving the covenant, or accepting the mark of the beast in the future. If a disciple has the absolute assurance of already being glorified by remaining in covenant, then what can possibly separate this disciple from God? Certainly not Satan who is still alive in our reality, but already destroyed by fire coming out from his belly.

The creation account of Genesis chapter one [the so-called “P” account] is the abstract and summation of the plan of God. When this account is used as descriptive text, the account contains irreconcilable irregularities; yet sufficient hard evidence of a sudden creation has been compiled that "biblical creation" is as viable an explanation of how humanity came into existence as punctuated equilibrium, or any other theory presently in vogue. But to use this “P” account as a descriptive text is an abuse of Scripture, for what part of the creation has not been completed in the passage, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1)? This “P” account is the forescribed record of the spiritual creation of glorified sons of God that can, until the Tzimtzum closes as the physical fissure that swallowed Korah and his rebelling friends closed (Num 16), watch themselves work out their salvation for a short while.

When used as an abstract for the plan of God, the light of the first day is Theos entering His creation as His only Son. The division of the waters now is birth from above. The great light of the fourth day isn’t the sun, but the glorification of Firstfruits. The fifth day will be the 1000 year reign of the Son of Man; the sixth day will be the great White Throne judgment, with all of this developed in other articles. For the present discussion, it is enough to say that too often, the splinters of the former Radio Church of God will have each day of a six day creation week representing a thousand years, a concept that isn’t true but has about it the scent of Truth. The use of heavy mass particle decay to date the universe rather than the use of light mass particles [photons], which take all possible paths between two points, gives a date that approximates the assignment of a millennium to each day of the creation account. The universe is not a sphere, so the reciprocal of the presently assigned date is an inappropriate assignment. Rather, the universe contains a starting point, which forms the bottom of a parabolic bowl, or the stem of a rose bud that opens into a blossom.

The inherent problem in the “P” creation account being descriptive text is that the vegetation of day three (1:11-13) precedes the creation of the sun on day four (1:16). The "days," therefore, cannot be marked by the rotation of the earth prior to day four, but exist as another quantity of time, figuratively descriptive in nature as the presence or absence of light. Likewise, a problem existed with the Congregation in the Wilderness: Israel came into existence prior to receiving spiritual birth. If the creation account is perceived as the summation of the plan of God, circumcised Israel’s creation is analogous to the creation of plants before the sun is created, thereby denying plants the energy necessary for photosynthesis. And if that is the case, what is spiritually seen is the grafting of Israel onto the root of righteousness on the third day, this grafting to occur during the first half of the seven endtime years, the fruiting of these plants occurring when the 144,000 follow the Lamb of God wherever he leads.

When typology is linked with predestination, the creation account as summation supports Christ being the reality of festivals, new moons, and weekly Sabbaths (Col 2:16-17), for after bringing many heirs to glory, He rested on the seventh day when the new heavens and new earth have come. Preterists lack spiritual understanding. Prophecies have been fulfilled by both physical Israel and spiritual Israel outside of time, but remain to be fulfilled in the narrative of history where humanity is presently located inside of time. Christ is the reality of all Sabbaths outside of time, but inside time, all of the festivals and Sabbaths remain to occur to the world. The Passover liberation of Israelites from physical bondage to Pharaoh is but the shadow of the second Passover liberation of Israelites from mental bondage to Satan and lawlessness, which in turns foreshadows the liberation of the world from bondage to Satan when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Messiah halfway through seven years of tribulation. Time hasn’t fully flowered in our narrative of history, even though it can be observed in full bloom from the supernal realm. Where humankind presently resides in the creation account as summation is on the day portion of the second day.

The mysteries of God are being revealed so that the foreknown sons of God can be glorified. God will do nothing without first revealing His intentions through the prophets, or today, through the called teachers of Israel. No additional prophecies need to be given. They just need to be unsealed by those who were foreknown.

Preterists take note: what occurred to physical Israel will occur to spiritual Israel, and will occur to the world. Prior to Christ’s return, all of the world will be Israel. There will not be anyone who hasn’t received the Holy Spirit. There will only be false and genuine Christians for the last three and a half years. Satan as the Antichrist (the Arian man of perdition is his time-linked shadow) requires humanity to accept the tattoo of the Cross (the mark of the beast – Chi xi stigma) to buy or sell. Satan will claim to be Christ, will look like the pictures of Jesus, and will deceive many. So while prophecies have been fulfilled, these same prophecies remain to be fulfilled. And the second Passover slaughter of all firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God will cause the world and most "Christians" to hate genuine disciples for Christ’s name’s sake. Christians haven’t seen persecution as they will then see it. What occurred in the 1^st through 4^th Centuries was merely the shadow of endtime persecution. So the person who thinks that all has been fulfilled is greatly mistaken. Only when time is viewed from the supernal realm has everything occurred, except the great White Throne Judgment on the day following the feast of Tabernacles.

The truly sad aspect of what will occur and is occurring is that today newly born spiritual Israelites are being slain in the heavenly realm as the reality of Pharaoh slaying Hebrew male infants at the time of Moses’ birth, and Herod slaying Israelite males under two years old following Jesus’ birth. They are slain through a gospel of iniquity or lawlessness, and this murdering of spiritual infants will not be completed until physical and spiritual firstborns not covered by the blood of Christ are physically and spiritually slain at the second Passover. If a spiritual Israelite dies out of covenant — being slain because a spiritual Israelite chooses not to cover him or herself with the blood of Christ by taking the Passover as directed by Jesus and Paul is prima facie evidence of dying out of covenant — this spiritual Israelite will bear his or her own sins, and will be resurrected to condemnation, a harsh statement. And I would rather overstate in importance the necessity of a spiritual Israelite covering him or herself with the blood of Christ than not stress the importance of taking the Passover. All judgment will be by Christ. He will actually determine, based upon what is in a person’s mind, whether the person is resurrected to life or condemnation. So while stating that an Israelite will experience the second death if slain as a firstborn out of covenant on the second Passover might be considered assigning a person’s fate prior to when the person’s judgment is revealed upon Christ’s return, in actuality the statement is factual.

If you as a born of Spirit Israelite choose not to cover yourself by the blood of Christ by taking the Passover as Jesus instructed and as Paul taught, then you have either never read the Word of God, never heard Jesus’ words, or never believed the Father. Which is it? Do you think you can mock Christ? Using leavened white bread and water as sacraments taken every week is mocking Christ—do you think you are covering yourself with Christ’s blood as instructed? You must be kidding! You surely cannot believe that. If you do, you are deceived—but most likely, you are merely a hypocrite. And all hypocrites will be resurrected to condemnation. You have determined your judgment by choosing not to cover your sins in the spiritual realm. Although you won’t actually be cast into the lake of fire until Christ’s return, by numbering yourself with the hypocrites, you can rest assured that you will go into the lake of fire.

Realized eschatology provided the logic and justification for the Roman Church’s reign over Western Europe in the latter centuries of the 1^st millennium C.E. It is bad theology that has been used to extort land and moneys from too many for far too long. It needs to be hit in the head as a pig farmer does a sow that eats her young, which isn’t an endorsement of pig farming but of eliminating mothers that prey on their children.

Inaugurated eschatology argues that Jesus coming as a man brought about the beginning of the kingdom of God that won’t fully arrive until the very end of the age. While some Scriptural passages support the arrival of the kingdom with Jesus’ earthly ministry (Matt 12:2; Luke 17:21, for example), the better reading of those supporting passages is typological, with Jesus being the reality of all of the Law and the Prophets, and of the kingdom of God. If the kingdom of God began with Jesus’ earthly ministry, then there would be no need to liberate Israel from bondage to sin. The Church as the second Eve would have simply perished after she believed the same lie that the first Eve swallowed, that she surely would not die. To this day, the greater Church continues to believe this lie that human beings have everlasting life apart from receiving it as the gift of God. And once the Church took it upon itself to eat of the spiritual tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thereby determining which laws of God it would obey and which it wouldn’t, it ceased being able to hear Jesus’ words, and it quit believing the Father. Instead of living like Judeans, how both Peter and Paul taught Gentile disciples to live, the greater Church taught disciples to live as spiritual Gentiles. Therefore, if Jesus’ coming as a man brought about the kingdom of God, the kingdom was taken captive by the 4^th-Century, and has remained captive ever since.

The kingdom of God wasn’t taken captive, the Church was. The Church divided into the spiritual house of Israel (Arian Christianity) and the spiritual house of Judah (Trinitarian Christianity), and both houses were sent into spiritual or mental captivity because of their lawlessness and profaning of the Sabbaths of God. Both were firmly held captive by the time Constantine called for the Council at Nicea (325 CE), and remained in captivity until a remnant left spiritual Babylon in the 16^th-Century (ca 1525 CE). But as most of physically circumcised Israel remained in Babylon when Ezra and Nehemiah left to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem and the walls of the city, most of spiritually circumcised Israel remained in spiritual Babylon when an Anabaptist remnant left to rebuild the house of God in the heavenly city of Jerusalem. Thus, most of spiritual Israel will remain in captivity until liberated at the second Passover, when both Arians and Trinitarians will be freed to worship the Father in truth on His Sabbaths, teaching all disciples that they must live within the laws of God that have been written on their hearts and minds.

Unfortunately, that portion of the Church remaining in Babylon will not leave when liberated, but will rebel against God in the great falling away (2 Thess 2:3) when the man of perdition is revealed. This portion constitutes the hated son, the spiritual Cain that slays his righteous brother and is therefore marked for death.

The shadow of the Church being sent into mental captivity is the history of physical Israel splitting and being sent, by YHWH, into physical captivity, with the house of Judah being carried off to Babylon. Again, the history of the Church actually forms the second level of shadowing.

Israel was first the circumcised descendants of the patriarch Jacob. After the glorified Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples, Israel became the Church. Then after Satan is cast to earth and the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ, all of humanity becomes the descendants of Abraham, becomes Israel. But even though liberated from mental bondage to sin, the majority of humanity will again believe the old dragon’s lie that human beings won’t die, but have immortal souls. The majority of liberated humanity repeats the history of the Congregation in the wilderness, and of the Church by accepting the mark of the beast (Chi xi stigma, or the tattoo of the Cross), and returning to bondage. The Lord’s day begins with this spiritual liberation of humanity. Bondage will again be physical, becoming spiritual when living by faith becomes too difficult. So the mark of the beast is on both hand and forehead.

Typology argues that all of Jesus’ eschatological teachings pertain to the great endtime harvest of humanity at the beginning of the seven endtime years—at the beginning of the light portion of the Lord’s day. Typology also argues that Christ is the actual reality of the shadows that are the festivals, new moons and Sabbaths of God (Col 2:16-17). Christ is not merely the future reality of festivals that haven’t yet happened, but He is presently sitting at the right hand of the Father as the fulfilled reality—but not in our portion of the historical narrative inscribed in the book of truth (Dan 10:21).

One more time: let us try to make sense of a mystery of God that could not possibly be well understood prior to when knowledge had increased (Dan 12:4). When Paul writes, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (Col 3:1). In addition, the author of Hebrews writes, "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for the time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet" (Heb 10:12-13). The question now is has Christ been doing nothing for two millennia, but waiting? Sitting and waiting? Waiting and sitting? Sitting and waiting?

The high priest of physical Israel might not have still been doing the hard work of butchering sacrificed animals, but he had work to do. The patriarch Jacob wasn’t out with his sheep after his twelve sons were grown, but he still had work to do. The man Jesus of Nazareth first sent twelve disciples out to the cities of the lost house of Israel, then sent seventy disciples out to all the places where He was to go. And He still had work to do even after He was glorified. Luke writes, "In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:1-3). So Jesus didn’t immediately stay seated at the right hand of the Father after He had offered Himself as the sacrifice for sins. He returned the evening of His Ascension as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering (Lev 23:9-14 – notice, more text is here devoted to the Wave Sheaf than to Unleavened Bread). And He appeared to ten of His disciples, showed them His hands and side, breathed on them, and said, ‘"Receive the Holy Spirit [the Breath of God]’" (John 20:22). Thus, according to Scripture the glorified Son of God didn’t remain sitting for long, but returned immediately to the work of bringing many heirs of the Father to glory.

In an orderly presentation of Christ as the reality of the festivals of God as listed in Leviticus chapter 23, we need to see Jesus as the reality of the paschal lamb of Israel (v. 5). The man Jesus of Nazareth was penned in Jerusalem on the 10^th of Abib (cf. John 19:14, 31; John 12:1, 12-16) and sacrificed on the 14^th, between the evenings as the Pharisees then reckoned when paschal lambs were to be sacrificed. He was removed from the Cross at even when the paschal lamb was roasted whole with fire. John the Baptist said to Pharisees and Sadducees, ‘"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire’" (Matt 3:11-12). And again notice that there are three baptisms: (1) water for sin unto death; (2) with the Holy Spirit unto life given by the Father; and (3) with fire unto life given or withheld by the Son [as either wheat or chaff]. These three baptisms occur to the world as the Flood (Gen 6:11-13, 17), the pouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), and the coming of the new heaven and new earth (Rev 20:11-21:8). They occurred to the man Jesus of Nazareth as water baptism (Matt 3:16) and baptism by the Breath of the Father descending as a dove (same verse), and glorification as God the Father’s firstborn Son among many brothers (Rom 8:29).

So Christ as the glorified paschal Lamb of God became the reality of human history through being sacrificed for sin when He had committed no sin. John did not want to baptize Jesus, for John’s baptism was for repentance: Jesus had nothing for which He must repent. But Jesus commanded, ‘"Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness’" (Matt 3:15). All righteousness required that Jesus fulfill the reality of the course of human history, so that His sacrifice as the paschal Lamb of God was adequate for all of humanity. His life, then, represents the spiritual reality of all human life, beginning with Adam as a corpse before Adam received the breath of life (Gen 2:7). The man Jesus was born as a flesh and breath [soma and psuche] child without spiritual life (to say otherwise is to make oneself into an antichrist – 1 John 4:2-3). He received spiritual life [pneuma – from 1 Thess 5:23] when the Breath of the Father descended upon Him as a dove (Matt 3:16). He was literally born anew or born again (1 Pet 1:23), which isn’t reentering a womb, but receiving the Breath of the Father just as the first Adam received the breath of life from Elohim [singular in usage]. And He received an incorruptible body when He was resurrected from the dead and accepted by the Father. He was able to pass through fire unharmed.

Disciples are those individuals whom the Father foreknew and predestined, justified and glorified before the great White Throne judgment; they are not the majority of humanity. They are "the many sons" Paul mentions is his epistle to the gentile converts at Rome (Rom 8:29-30). They are now glorified, but not in our time-restricted reality. And here is where the conjoined concepts of predestination, consistent eschatology and typology require Daniel’s increase in knowledge to be understood: time is a low-viscosity fluid in which humanity lives physically, just as fish live in water. Space-time is created through the decay of heavy mass particles, and it is created at the rate of decay. The passage of time equates to the expansion of space, and is, therefore, also at the rate of heavy mass particle decay. The presentation of the creation account in Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 is the abstract and summation of the entirety of human history as well as being an account of its beginning; it is the inscribed record of the spiritual creation of many sons of God. At the conclusion of the sixth day, the Lord’s day, the earth will be baptized by fire, in that it will be changed just as a corruptible human body puts on incorruptibility. Physical matter will return to being pure energy. The mass of humanity who will have been resurrected in physical bodies of flesh and breath [soma and psuche] – from Ezekiel 37:1-13 – will receive the Holy Spirit (Ezek 37:14) and the opportunity to accept Christ as their Lord. This will not be a second chance for salvation, for they never previously had received spiritual life [pneuma]. They will be made spiritual Israelites through receiving the Holy Spirit, just as disciples now foreshadow their calling and conversion. So Christ’s resurrection and glorification is the reality of disciples’ resurrection and glorification at His return, and of the mass of humanity’s resurrection and glorification in the great White Throne Judgment.

Before further developing the concept of predestination, an observation needs made: for one more time it needs stated that events in the spiritual realm cast physical shadows in the created universe, with the shadows preceding the occurrence of the spiritual phenomenon until the physical and spiritual creations merge. Understanding the last week of Daniel’s seventy weeks prophecy requires comprehending this merging of creations, and actually reveals when this merging occurs. Thus, the reality of the two shadows of the enormous spiritual phenomenon that is the great White Throne Judgment is the glorification of the man Jesus of Nazareth as the Head of the Son of Man, and the glorification of the Firstfruits as the Body of this same Son of Man. Jesus’ physical ministry was three and a half years long. He was cut off mid-week (after three and half years); yet He was glorified midweek (during the seven-day long Feast of Unleavened Bread) as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering. And His midweek glorification transports itself across shadows to be a representation of the kingdom of the world becoming the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation, making the Tribulation a type or reality of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The sin offerings stop when the resurrected Jesus is accepted as the Wave Sheaf Offering; they stop midweek. Satan will be cast from heaven and can not longer broadcast as the prince of the power of the air midweek. All of humanity will be liberated from indwelling sin midweek. So Christ Jesus is the reality of Israel’s paschal lambs as well as the reality of Israel’s daily sin-offerings. And He is the reality of the resurrection of humanity in the great White Throne Judgment. Thus, the Wave Sheaf Offering foreshadows the great White Throne Judgment in exactly the same proportional representation as Christ’s glorification foreshadows the glorification of humanity. So while physical shadows precede spiritual phenomenon, the spiritual reality precedes physical phenomenon.

The above concept actually lies at the heart of predestination, but is difficult enough to accept that spiritual maturing will be required before its can be fully digested. This shadow/reality relationship might best be seen, though, in the "born again" relationship of physical birth to spiritual birth: a disciple cannot “see” the new creature that dwells in the same tent of flesh in which the former self dwelt, so the disciple cannot see this son of God’s growth except through the mirror that is the royal law [i.e., by how the disciple keeps the precepts of the law]. But the disciple can comprehend how this born of Spirit new creature does grow by observing the maturation of a human infant. And as no disciple would want to ride in an automobile controlled by a toddler, no disciple should want to be part of a spiritual fellowship controlled by a spiritual toddler still drinking the milk of God’s word and not ready for solid food. But too many disciples are in such fellowships.

The concepts of typology, consistent eschatology and predestination are complex enough that all of the preceding needs to be spiritually digested before continuing with reality-shadow relationships. Thus, this discussion will here end, only to be resumed in other articles that address freewill and predestination. And remember, any teacher of spiritually circumcised Israel who does not employ typology as a tool—who does not practice typological exegesis—has not been called by God to teach in this endtime era of the Church.

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Homer Kizer Ministries