October 21, 2003 ©Homer Kizer
The Church of Philadelphia - Shadow of the Endtime Harvest
In the revelation of Jesus Christ that the Father gave Him to convey what was to soon happen to His servants, Jesus tells John to write to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, ‘"Because you have kept my word about patience endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole earth, to try those who dwell on the earth’" (Rev 3:10). From this one sentence many fellowships have identified themselves as Philadelphians in order to escape the wrath of God during the Tribulation. An eschatology that focuses on physical places of safety uses this sentence to restrict protection to a particular fellowship. This eschatology is the quintessential manifestation of a lack of love for one’s brother. This eschatology also assigns a differing unit of time to the hour of trial from which the church in Philadelphia receives protection than it assigns to the hour during which the ten kings receive authority with the beast (Rev 17:12). And with these differing assignments of time to a common unit, the theological logjam of escapism constructs can be blown apart so that logic can flow freely through a forest of mythic beasts and sacred totems.
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon into whose hand all humanity was given (Dan 2:37-38). Babylon was the head of a human-like statue that would rule the world until Christ established His kingdom. Babylon was a theocracy, as the story of Shadrach, Meshak and Abednego reveals. It was both a physical and a spiritual kingdom. And the spiritual king of Babylon is Satan (Isa 14:4-21), who reigns over humanity as the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). Satan deceives all humanity (Rev 12:9) by reigning over the mental topography of humankind – and by him controlling minds, the bodies of human beings follow along as willing or unwilling servants of their minds. Thus, Satan rules human beings wherever they live as Nebuchadnezzar never could. He will continue to rule as the king of Babylon until Babylon falls. However, after he is cast from heaven, he is unable to reign over the mental landscapes of liberated human beings who have received the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28). When the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Messiah (Rev 11:15 & Dan 7:9-14), the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all of humankind, thereby making all of humanity His holy nation of Israel. But there is a short period of time -- a time, times and half a time (Rev 12:14) or a time and a season (Dan 7:12) or forty-two months (Rev 13:5) – after humanity becomes the holy nation of Israel and after Satan is cast to earth that Satan gives his power, his crown, and his authority to the beast, whose mark all of humanity must bear to buy or sell (Rev 13:2, 15-18). It is in this short period when the harvest of the earth is reaped: God’s holy nation must learn to live by faith before being actually glorified. The reaping process incorporates learning to live by faith. And in the last hour of this short period, God puts it into the hearts [minds] of the ten kings who come to power to give their power and authority to the beast so that they along with the beast will make Babylon desolate, naked, devouring her flesh and burning her with fire (Rev 17:5, 16-18). So after Babylon falls, they finish off this harlot, leaving Christ to finish them off upon His return. And the Philadelphia Church has kept Christ’s words about patient endurance; thus this church in Philadelphia will be kept from the hour of trial.
Is an hour an hour? Do the ten kings come to power for sixty minutes, or for an extremely short period of time?
Typology reveals that phenomena in the supra-dimensional realm usually identified as heaven cast shadows through droplets of historical narrative as sunlight casts rainbows through droplets of water – space-time is a fluid like water; human beings live in time as fish live in water. And while this inside/outside time-as-fluid analogy isn’t perfect, it is descriptive enough that the cross-dimensional aspects of deity can be comprehended. Elohim began creating heirs with the creation of the universe, but glorified sons of God cannot be directly created. They require a spiritual maturation period, during which time many self-abort through their failure to develop the habit of always choosing to do what is right. The defining aspect of Elohim is righteousness, the determination and power to always do what is right. The power to do what is right can be given, but the determination to always do what is right must be developed. Lucifer was the penultimate directly-created being, but iniquity or lawlessness was found in him (Ezek 28:15), apparently developing from him being "the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty" (v. 12). So the sons of God under construction begin as flawed beings who are given righteousness, and through this gift of righteousness, strive to continue in a state of righteousness by making and remaking decisions to do what is right. No lawlessness or sin is imputed to these flawed beings as long as they continue to develop the habit of choosing to do what is right, thereby creating the character necessary to always choose to do what is right. This creation of character is the spiritual maturation process that determines whether a disciple is resurrected to life or to condemnation (John 5:29). Disciples "who have done good" will be resurrected to life. Doing good incorporates the work of doing what is right (Rev 22:11). Disciples "who have done evil" will be resurrected to condemnation. Doing evil also incorporates works, and includes all that is not right. All disciples do works. They cannot refrain from doing works. And all works that are not doing what is right lead to condemnation. Therefore, typology reveals that bringing many heirs to glory in the spiritual realm casts shadows through the historical narrative. The reality of these shadows is the great endtime harvest of humanity, when all of humanity has the Holy Spirit and will be glorified if they endure to the end of the age (Matt 24:13). The harvest of humanity is a continuous process that begins when "the harvest of the earth is fully ripe" (Rev 14:15); it is not interrupted by born again disciples sleeping in their graves for centuries. Jesus used the analogy of the harvest of the earth being like a field of wheat. He also used the analogy of sowing good seed on poor or rocky ground to explain why some disciples fell away before developing spiritual maturity. So human beings as flawed creatures are nevertheless the good seed that has been sown from which the harvest of the earth will ripen.
Living by faith and doing what is right are the essential elements of the spiritual maturation process. Both require the passage of time. They also require mental exertion against a resistance that must be overcome. A person develops leg and arm muscles through overcoming weight resistance. Likewise, a person develops mental strength through exercise. After being mentally softened and reformed by the second Passover slaughter of firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God followed by 1260 days of virtual hell on earth, humanity is ready to be harvested. But just as grain is dried or onions hardened off before being gathered into the barn, the harvesting process of humanity requires the fruit of the good seed sown to endure in faith to the end of the age.
The harvest of the earth at the end of the age represents the conclusion of the conjoined physical and spiritual creations of the sons of God, who begin as breathing creatures and are glorified as younger siblings of Christ, who has become a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45 – compare with Rom 8:29). Physically circumcised Israel was one shadow of this endtime harvest. Spiritually circumcised Israel is another shadow of this harvest. And since both are shadows of one reality, physically circumcised Israel is also the shadow of spiritually circumcised Israel in the supernal realm.
Prophecy when coupled to Scriptural historical accounts reveals a complete narrative of the harvest of the earth, which is presented in abbreviated language in the Book of Revelation (14:14-20). On several occasions, Jesus tells His servants that wisdom is required to understand what He says. Wisdom supplies the portion of the narrative that is missing from the text. And we see this in the example of the great White Throne Judgment: this account of the judgment of all humanity that had not previously received the Holy Spirit (i.e., life in the spiritual realm through being born-from-above) is also presented in abbreviated language. But the account needs no additional explanation, for born again disciples today live as the shadow of this great judgment’s reality. Disciples experience, as far as God is concerned, actual death when baptized. They are then resurrected from death when raised from the baptismal pool. They now live free of sin by remaining in covenant with Christ. No additional sacrifice remains for them. Any sin imputed to them will send them into the lake of fire. But all that is required of born again disciples is to hear the words of Jesus and believe the Father (John 5:24) – hearing the words of Jesus is the acquisition of the knowledge of what is right, and believing the Father is applying what the person knows is right. By covenant, Christ as the reality of the Azazel goat bears the disciple’s failures, which He will give to Satan or back to the disciple, depending upon whether the disciple remains in covenant with the Father and with the Son.
In the great White Throne Judgment, however, there will be no more Satan (Rev 20:10). There will be no need for Christ to bear the sins of those who have been resurrected, or as in the shadow, raised from the baptismal pool. All who are resurrected will be free of sin, for Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary paid the penalty for all sins of humanity in the physical realm. In addition, those who are resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment paid with their own lives the physical death penalty for their sins. And since those who are resurrected will never have had life in the spiritual realm, they were not able to sin in that realm. But one sin in that realm will send them into the lake of fire, for no additional sacrifice remains for them, just as no additional sacrifice remains for disciples today who leave the covenant by which Christ bears their sins. Those who are resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment will be resurrected as physical human beings, will be given life in the spiritual realm through receipt of the Holy Spirit, and will have to hear the words of Jesus and choose to believe the Father. They will have to mature spiritually without sinning. They will, however, mature without being influenced by Satan. Their maturation process apparently happens quickly. In the case of resurrected infants, the process might take no longer than the process of physical maturation. At the age when a youth is today baptized, a youth in the great White Throne Judgment could well be glorified. And the most difficult aspect of understanding the great White Throne Judgment is for us to comprehend life without Satan being the prince of the power of the air, thereby reigning over the mental topography of humanity.
The harvest of the earth takes three and a half years -- 1260 days – the exact length of time Israel was protected in the wilderness (Rev 12:6) in a place prepared by God. The eschatology of escapism usually identifies these days as the number of years the Church went underground to escape domination by the Papacy, and as the number of days when the Philadelphia Church will be in a physical place of safety to escape the Tribulation. In this eschatology of escapism, the hour of trial from which the Philadelphia Church is kept is 1260 days long. The eschatology requires Revelation 12:6 to address the events covered in verses 13 and 14 in an antetype/type relationship. Unfortunately, this eschatology also requires the first beast of Revelation 13 to appear at the beginning of the 1260 days, thereby making the entirety of the Tribulation 1260 days long. In this eschatology, which doesn’t acknowledge a second Passover liberation of Israel, Christ returns when armies surround physical Jerusalem, and when the Mount of Olives split. The mark of the beast remains an aspect of Roman Christianity, such as worship on Sunday. There is one antichrist, the man of perdition. And disciples are mentally preconditioned to worship Satan when he comes as a spirit being claiming to be the messiah, arriving on earth to establish his millennium reign as king of kings. Disciples who have been faithful are preconditioned to accept the mark of the beast, even though they know they shouldn’t. But their eschatological foundation has Christ returning at the very time Satan is cast from heaven. Their desire to escape the Tribulation and their lack of love for those who experience the hard-labor birth pains of bringing many heirs to glory leaves them set up to accept the tattoo of the Cross.
The seven years of tribulation are the spiritual hard labor pains of Israel giving birth to many sons of God. One Israel, but the hard labor of childbirth begins with only half of humanity liberated from mental bondage at the second Passover. The other half isn’t liberated until halfway through the seven years of tribulation, thereby making what happens to the Church during the first 1260 days the observable shadow of the harvest of the earth. The little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel chapter 7 possesses a human being and becomes the man of perdition, the merged physical/spiritual shadow of Satan coming as the true antiChrist after he is cast from heaven. This requires understanding, and is difficult to accept when first encountered: the four beasts of Daniel 7 are the four horns that emerge on the head of the he-goat that is the king of Greece when the great horn is broken. They are kings, and they have seven heads. They are the first beast of Revelation chapter 13, and when seen in Revelation, they have just been judged and have just had their dominion taken from them (Dan 7:9-12). In order to rule, they require the dragon to give them his authority and power, which stems from him pretending to be Christ since he also has been cast from heaven.
When the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Messiah, all of humanity becomes Israel – the harvest of the world has finally ripened. All of humanity is Christian. There will be no other faiths, no other fellowships. Even atheists will finally believe in God. And after all of humanity becomes Israel, humanity divides into those Christians who accept the mark of the beast (Chi xi stigma, or the tattoo of the Cross of Calvary [Xx]), and those who reject the mark and must live by faith, cut off from the economic system of the world; i.e., Babylon. Thus, these last 1260 days of the age end with the harvest of the earth gathered separately from the gathering of the clusters of the vine of the earth. Two harvests. Two resurrections of saints (John 5:29). Those saints who have done good and who remain alive will not precede those who sleep in the dust of the earth. All will be changed from mortal to immortal in the twinkling of an eye. Likewise, those who are grapes of the vine of the earth will not precede to condemnation those who have done evil that sleep in dust. Both will receive recompense for their deeds when their judgments are revealed upon Christ’s return (1 Cor 4:5).
The portion of endtime Israel that accepts the mark of the beast (i.e., the tattoo of the Cross) is the reality of deceived spiritual Israel today, yesterday, and for a few more tomorrows. The shadow of this reality appeared fully developed early in the 4th-Century – Christianity didn’t adopt the Cross as its identifying motif until God sent spiritual Israel into mental bondage because of this holy nation’s lawlessness and profaning of His Sabbaths. A student of Christian history can assign exact dates to when God sent His people into mental captivity through the Church’s adoption of Satan’s death weapon as its logo. And cross-multiplying will reveal how many days it takes Satan, after being cast from heaven, to require humanity to possess the mark of the beast in order to buy and sell. A rough calculation is 400/2000 (or 1/5) times x/1260, which equals 252 days, or eight to nine months. So when Satan comes as the true antiChrist, pretending to establish his millennium reign, he first cannot get wars to stop. He makes an image of the stick-figured fourth beast of Daniel chapter 7, whose body was burned when dealt a mortal wound, and he requires humanity to worship this talking Cross that he makes. But the warring will not stop. So he requires humanity to take the mark or tattoo [stigma] of the beast as he tries to restart Babylon. He knows his time is short, that he will soon have fire come out from his belly to destroy him, and he is furious, more so than a cat thrown into a pond. But because he is now inside of time, all he does takes time. Days pass. Eight, nine months of them before he can get the apparatus in place to actually give the tattoos. And the passing of each day should actually increase his frustration level – he will kill without hesitation those who refuse his tattoo of the Cross. But he can only kill the physical body. Since all of humanity now has life in the spiritual realm, murdering those who by faith refuse the tattoo assures the ones killed of glorification (Rev 14:9-13). Satan actually does those he kills a favor: he shortens the amount of time during which they must endure being cut off from economic resources. There is nothing a hungry disciple should welcome more than dying in the Lord and resting from their labors, for their deeds follow them (v. 13). Satan’s greatest threat against a person (the taking of the person’s physical life) is really a blessing. The worst thing Satan can do to a person is ignore the person, and allow the person’s doubts to lead the person back to the Cross and receiving the wrath of God.
One place of safety is in the grave. Jesus tells anyone who has an ear, "If anyone is to be taken captive, / to captivity he goes; / if anyone is to be slain with the sword, / with the sword must he be slain. / Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints" (Rev 13:10). Thus, if a person is designated to escape hunger and trials by being slain with the sword, the person should not resist going to the grave. Yes, human instinct is to hang on to physical life for as long as possible. But the spiritual maturation process requires disciples to quit thinking carnally, or humanly, and to begin thinking spiritually. If a person attempts to save his or her physical life when the person has been supernaturally designated to die, the person will lose his or her spiritual life. The person has to choose which is more important – and making this choice is the entire essence of not taking the mark of the beast and living by faith.
The Father has played mind games with Satan, who, outside of time, no longer exists. If Satan kills the disciple who refuses the mark of the beast, the disciple will be glorified. If Satan torments the disciple, Christ bears the disciple’s sins until He gives them back to Satan. Thus, the disciple assists in slaying Satan. And if Satan ignores the disciple, the disciple will survive by faith – will survive in poverty, will survive cut off from all means of buying and selling, will survive in an economic wilderness, but survive the disciple will, for the disciple now belongs to the Father.
The only way for a disciple not to live forever is to accept the tattoo of the Cross.
The eschatology of escapism has disciples living in relative comfort while the world outside of their cocoon groans from the hard labor pains of bringing many heirs to glory. For lack of brotherly love, this eschatology has only one peer: the escapism of the Rapture, which requires disciples to have received everlasting life with human birth. There is no love for one’s neighbor or brother in any theological construct that has the chosen vessel of God escaping the birth pains of bringing this vessel to glory.
Now. let us move from eight months after Satan is cast from heaven to shortly before the Lord’s day begins. John is in vision on the Lord’s day, that day when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Messiah. The letter to the seven churches on the old Roman mail route are posted on the Lord’s day, when the glorified Christ tells John, ‘"Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.… Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches’" (Rev 1:17-20). John, in vision on the Lord’s day, has seen all seven churches to whom letters are sent. These churches are not eras of a single true church, but are contemporaneous fellowships in the Lord’s day just as they were in the 1st-Century. They were, in the 1st-Century, the shadows of endtime realities.
Again, there are two harvests of humanity, with the first called the harvest of the earth. And in the harvest of the earth, all will have refused the mark of the beast. But in the second harvest of humanity – the harvest of the greater number of people -- all will have accepted the mark of the beast, and all will identify themselves as Christians. This second harvest goes into the winepress of the wrath of God, and this second harvest is the reality of the great many people today who worship Jesus through the Cross.
The truly frightening aspect of having spiritual understanding is knowing that the many Christians who today use the Cross as their identifying motif are the shadow of the endtime harvest that takes the mark of the beast and experiences the wrath of God. These sincere but deceived saints will not believe that the fourth beast of Daniel 7 looks like a Cross. They will celebrate the triumph of the Cross over all other theologies, and they will, when mentally liberated from bondage to sin, return to the Cross, continue in the Christianity of the Cross for the first half of the Tribulation, then willingly accepting the tattoo of the Cross. They will not understand why they are experiencing the wrath of God, and they will curse God, all the while believing that they are the only truly genuine Christians, that those who refused the tattoo of the Cross are judaizing heretics. They will absolutely refuse to worship Christ on the seventh day Sabbath. They will mock those Christians who keep the Jewish holy days. And they will be resurrected to condemnation; for even after being liberated from bondage to Satan, they returned (as a dog does to its vomit) to Cross theology, thereby placing themselves outside of the covenant by which Christ bears their sins in the supernal realm. They will bear their own sins into the lake of fire, for they will not be ruled by Christ.
The truly frightening aspect of having understanding is knowing that their names were not written from the foundation of the earth in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain (Rev 13:8). Some of these people have invited me over for dinner. I have laughed at their jokes. I would like to save them, but I know that they will not now be ruled by Christ. My pray is that their names are really there in the book of life. But I cannot write in that book. I can only write in this physical realm, where they don’t want to hear about Christ. At least, not today.
Therefore, the churches today who use the Cross as their identifying motif form the spiritual shadow of endtime humanity that accepts the mark of the beast…I am neither trying to draw disciples to myself, nor am I a raving lunatic. I am trying to save your life, and the lives of your loved ones, as I do the job for which I was drafted. I didn’t desire this job. I have tried to give it away. But I now do it, for who else will tell you the truth? Certainly not someone whose paycheck comes with a logo that includes the Cross.
Who among you with Crosses on your churches will read the mark of the beast for what it says: Chi xi stigma? Deconstruct the mark. Wisdom is called for, so take the mark apart and read it for what it says. Then back up historically to when the Cross began to represent Christianity. Was the Church at that time keeping the commandments of God, or had the Sabbath already been jettisoned? How about the festivals and the new moons? How about everlasting life coming only as the gift of God, with the wages of sin producing death? Had the second Eve (i.e., the Church) already accepted the lie the first Eve had, that she would not die? The serpent deceived the first Eve even though Adam was standing by. Did the great serpent, Satan, deceive the second Eve in a like manner with a spiritually equivalent lie that humans have immortal souls while the second Adam, the glorified Christ, stood by? Why would Christ allow such a thing to happen – except to produce the shadow of endtime humanity either living by faith or accepting the mark of the beast? If Christ had intervened in the 1st-Century to stop error from entering the Church, which He certainly could have done, spiritual Israel would not form the shadow of the endtime harvest. YHWH didn’t intervene to stop circumcised Israel from sacrificing their babies to Molech, yet He certainly could have. But Israel, physically and spiritually circumcised, becomes all of humanity once the Spirit of God is poured out upon all flesh when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Messiah. What endtime Israel does physically has been foreshadowed by what the holy nation of circumcised Israel did between its liberation from Egyptian bondage to its arrival in the promised land (i.e., to when it crossed the Jordan. What endtime Israel does spiritually will be foreshadowed by what the Church does when it is liberated from mental bondage to sin immediately prior to the Tribulation. For the past two millennia, the Church has lived through the six hours of night between when the paschal lamb was sacrificed and when firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb were slain at midnight. Firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God will again be slain at a second Passover. This slaughter of uncovered firstborns marks the middle of the night, the reason why Christians have been lights to the world; the world has been in spiritual darkness. The second half of the night is divided between spoiling the Egyptians and actually being driven out of bondage. So who among you with Crosses on your buildings teach disciples to keep the Passover as Jesus commanded and gave an example? Who among you is not as uncovered spiritually as an Egyptian was physically? Who among you will not be blood guilty of the slaughter of born-again firstborns? Who among you will have Christ deny that He ever knew you? All with Crosses on your buildings? Very likely. For you don’t honor Christ with a Cross; you celebrate His murder by the prince of this world. And by teaching disciples to practice iniquity, you murder spiritually the sheep left in your charge, just as the prince of this world murdered Jesus physically.
Have I been shrill enough to attract your attention? I pray that I have.
The history of the uncircumcised Israelite children who crossed the Jordan begins the shadow of the history of spiritual Israel between when the paschal lamb is sacrificed and the Passover slaughter of firstborns occurs – the six hours between even and midnight. Uncircumcised Israelites were to live as Judeans. Circumcision was the identifying sign of being a physical Israelite. Once the Father drew a disciple from the world, mental circumcision (the writing of the laws of God on hearts and minds) became the identifying sign. Physical circumcision no longer meant anything. The disciple had been made an Israelite by the Father. Thus, disciples were to live as Judeans, what Peter taught Gentile converts to do.
But Gentile converts didn’t live as spiritual Judeans, but as spiritual Gentiles. They now conform to their shadow of physical Israelites living as physical Canaanites in the promised land. Physical Israelites even went so far as to sacrifice their firstborns to Molech as had the previous occupants of Judea. They, like the previous occupants, were driven off the land by God. Likewise, spiritual Gentiles were sent into mental bondage to the spiritual king of Babylon. They were sent as a spiritual house of Israel to be in mental bondage to the king of the North, and as a spiritual house of Judah to be in mental bondage to the king of the South – both the king of the North and the king of the South are subservient demon kings to Satan. And just as the physical house of Israel warred against the physical house of Judah, Arian Christianity warred against Trinitarian Christianity. But the houses remained the holy nation of God. And both conform to the shadow of physical Israel being sent into geographical exile. Both form the shadow of warring that will occur within endtime humanity as the harvest of the earth is reaped. For within both Arian and Trinitarian Christianity have been genuine disciples who have lived by faith, believing the Father upon obedience, while practicing no hypocrisy. Within endtime humanity will be those who do not take the tattoo of the Cross, who are geographically North and South of Jerusalem, and who are theologically North and South of spiritual Jerusalem. The physical place of safety will be where the 144,000 are in Mount Zion, at the edge of physical Jerusalem. The spiritual place of safety will be where all those who are of Philadelphia live theologically, within the walls of spiritual Jerusalem.
When the man of perdition declares himself God on day 1290, the physical and spiritual creations of the sons of God, commissioned in Genesis 1:26, merge. The man of perdition is a physical human being who is possessed by the little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel chapter 7. This fourth beast is the king of the North, the prince of Arian Christianity. And when the great horn of the spiritual king of Greece is broken at the second Passover, the four horns that are the beasts of Daniel 7 will ascend to power over spiritual Babylon. The world will now become "Christian," as the king of the South rules while the king of the North tramples, stamps and devours. They will fight against each other – and if the days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved alive, such is their warring between day 1290 and day 1260.
Satan is cast from heaven on day 1260. Babylon falls, and despite Satan’s best efforts, cannot be put back together again. Satan as the true antiChrist will try to end the warring between Arians and Trinitarians by constructing an image of the stick-man king, and by commanding all peoples to accept a tattoo that looks like this image. But the two witnesses will have been reasonably impressive – between the rise of the man of perdition and kingdom of the world becoming the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ, the two witnesses of Christ will have testified of Christ. They have lived in rough clothing as if excluded from the economic systems of the world; they will have lived as saints who refuse the mark of the beast will live the last 1260 days prior to Christ’s return. And they have had the power to disrupt the economic system of the world as the shadow of Babylon having fallen.
The above requires spiritual understanding: following the second Passover, Christians who have made the Cross their identifying motif will spoil physical Babylon just as circumcised Israelites spoiled the Egyptians between midnight and daybreak of the first high day of Unleavened Bread. But Christians who reject the Cross as their identifying motif will be excluded from this spoiling as they foreshadow the harvest of humanity that rejects taking the mark of the beast. And leading these Christians who reject the Cross are the two witnesses who have the power to bring poverty and famine to any area of the earth whenever they wish, thereby ending the spoiling of Babylon in that area.
Especially within Evangelical Christianity are many false prophets who bring messages about this third millennium being the time when the wealth of the world becomes the wealth of the Church. The essence of these messages are true, but the reason the wealth of the world will become theirs is that they worship the stick-man beast, not Christ, who said to store up treasure in heaven. These many false prophets were foreshadowed by the many false prophets of circumcised Israel. They lie even when they tell Israel what will happen. Yes, Cross-Christianity will spoil Babylon during the first part of the Tribulation. The king of the North will trample and devour. But this spoiling of Babylon is necessary for the ripening of the harvest of the earth. Christ will have a difficult time harvesting a devout Buddhist without an intervening change of mindset. So Satan, the false prophet, and the beast do necessary work in God’s plan to create many heirs. They are rebellious pawns that are not capable of playing chess with Christ. They do the will of God against their wills. Unfortunately, though, they will take too many potential sons of God into the lake of fire with them. Too many potential heirs will place more emphasis on acquiring "things" than on obeying God. They will not realize until too late that the Father is offering them everything if they will deny themselves for a time and a season. Their physical and spiritual parents were unable to teach them delayed gratification.
The Philadelphia Church has little strength, as if it has been excluded from the prosperity of endtime Babylon. Those who are of the synagogue of Satan – the synagogue of Satan is the spiritual shadow of the portion of endtime humanity that accepts the mark of the beast (the synagogue of Satan forms the ground surrounding a three circle Venn diagram based on the radical 23-1) – will acknowledge that Jesus has loved this church. That love was apparent prior to the letter being sent on the Lord’s day. The works that the Philadelphia Church was doing prior to the Lord’s day were known to Jesus, as were the conditions under which those works were produced. And again, the application of spiritual wisdom is required: those of the synagogue of Satan who bow at the feet of the Philadelphia Church are grapes of the clusters of the vine of the earth. They acknowledge that they were wrong and this fellowship was loved, which seems to mean that they are of a repentant attitude. It will have been the work of the two witnesses that causes those who are of the synagogue of Satan to know Jesus – and without mentally stretching one too far, when factoring in little strength, sackcloth, and being able to cause droughts and plagues, I will here assert that the work of the two witnesses and of the Philadelphia Church are connected in an era when the Christianity of the Cross is materially spoiling Babylon (which is really the transference of wealth from Satan’s one hand to his other). The Church in Laodicea believes itself to be rich, which a church of little strength would never believe. The Church in Sardis has a reputation of being alive, but it dead, which could never be said of the two witnesses or of a fellowship to whom the synagogue of Satan will bow. The Church in Thyatira tolerates the woman Jezebel, which precludes close association with the two witnesses. The Church in Pergamum dwells where Satan’s throne is, and is not excluded from being closely associated with the two witness, except by some holding to the teaching of Balaam and to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The Church in Smyrna suffers tribulation and poverty, and has interaction with the synagogue of Satan. But the devil prevails against them as if they were not associated with the two witnesses against whom none can prevail until the end of their ministry. There seems to be a connection between the Church in Smyrna and the Church in Philadelphia that revolves around the works that the Philadelphia Church does. The Church in Smyrna lacks these works. And the Church in Ephesus has abandoned its first love, which includes trying to get others into fellowship with Christ. This abandonment of first love is so serious to Christ that for all of this fellowship’s good, Christ threatens to remove their lampstand from its place if they do not repent. Thus, my assertion stands until Christ disallows it if it isn’t true: the two witnesses come out of the Philadelphia Church. They are the actual spies that Christ, as the reality of Joshua, sends into the promised land to spy it out, especially the city of Jericho, a representation of Babylon. They do not necessarily have to be members of an endtime church, but they will be associated with disciples who hold the testimony of Jesus. As such, they will, while testifying of Jesus, be involved with all who have this same testimony. And the principle church that does a work which directly effects the synagogue of Satan is the Philadelphia Church.
Again, the Christianity of the Cross will prosper physically as it spoils Babylon after the second Passover slaughter of firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God. It is the shadow of endtime humanity that accepts the mark of the beast, and its shadow is physical Israel in Egypt during the night of the first high day of Unleavened Bread. The Christianity of the Cross didn’t begin when the Paschal Lamb of God was sacrificed at Calvary, but when God drove the second Eve out of the spiritual Eden. The second Eve decided not to cover herself with Christ’s blood by taking the Passover as Jesus commanded and did as an example. At the Council of Nicea, this second Eve ventured out of her house before the death angel passed over the land, so the Father has withheld the coming of the death angel for nearly two millennia, thereby leaving the world in spiritual darkness with only a light here and there. He has been patient as He awaited the second Eve’s return to her Passover covering. He has awaited the ripening of the harvest of the earth.
Again, when the Church abandoned the Passover, the spiritual equivalent of Israel leaving their houses before the death angel passed through Egypt, the Father returned the second Eve to Babylon for her good. He knows the plans He has for her, plans to glorify her children. He has waited for her to return to her covering of blood, to return indoors in Egypt/Babylon. For six very long hours, He has waited to liberate His holy nation from mental bondage to sin – and this Israel has awaited its chance to spoil the Egyptians. It will shortly receive that chance, little realizing that genuine disciples will be hated for Christ’s name’s sake as they are squeezed out of a tottering Babylon that suffers drought and plagues whenever the two witnesses decide that such drought and plagues are appropriate.
By spoiling Babylon the Christianity of the Cross obtains the wealth necessary to take its gospel of dispensationalism to the world. The Philadelphia Church has no such wealth, nor strength, yet does a work that is comparable. It can only do such a work by being closely aligned with the 1260 day ministry of the two witnesses, who have use of the Holy Spirit…the Holy Spirit or Pneuma "Agion is the Breath of God, and is an attribute of both the Father and His Son (Rom 8:9-11). It will be an attribute of all sons of God, and it is part of the inheritance of disciples when disciples reach their majority (that is glorification). But the heirs of God don’t get to use this Breath as a creative or destructive force until these potential heirs have developed sufficient spiritual maturity that they can handle this Breath for good. Thus, for the two witnesses to have use of this Breath, these two individuals are spiritually mature humans who have actually crossed into the promised land that is glorification as spies sent by Christ to do a specific work. Christ isn’t going to send anyone into the promised land ahead of time unless He has great love for the person, and great confidence in the person’s ability to act responsibly. And it is this great love that the synagogue of Satan sees manifest in the Philadelphia Church.
Therefore, when the wailing subsides after the second Passover’s slaughter of firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God, the Christianity of the Cross spoils Babylon as the shadow of the endtime harvest of the vine of the earth. The seven churches of God form the shadow of the endtime harvest of earth that has fully ripened and will go into the storehouse of God as the many glorified sons of God. Again, two harvests. One represents the seven-positioned Venn diagram of three overlapping circles. The other represents the ground, or background surrounding the three circles.
Since taking the mark of the beast is necessary to buy and sell during the last 1260 days, and since this endtime reality casts the shadow of Cross Christianity spoiling Babylon after the second Passover liberation of Israel from mental bondage to Satan and sin, the churches of God (all aspects and fellowships of one true Church) will not be prosperous fellowships, will not have great assets and resources, and will exist on the margins of the economy. If a disciple is part of the Philadelphia Church, the disciple can expect to be physically poor while being extremely wealthy spiritually. The disciple might well be clothed in sackcloth.
The night is twelve hours long. Six of those hours will have passed when the death angel again slays firstborns. There will then remain six hours that represent seven years. The last hour of these six hours isn’t sixty minutes long.
* * * * *
"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."