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February 17, 2006 ÓHomer Kizer Typology in Prophecy: “As It Was In the Days of Noah” The physician Luke records Jesus saying, ‘“As it was in the days of
Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man”’ (17:26). Jesus’
declaration makes the days of Noah a type or copy of the days of the Son of
Man, that period in human history when the kingdom of the world [singular]
becomes the kingdom of the Most High God and of His Christ (Rev 11:15 & Dan
7:9-14). And contrary to what has been widely taught for nearly two millennia,
the kingdom of the Most High God and of His Christ is not of this world (John
18:16), and is not now on this earth. It is not a church or a human
organization. Rather, it is a supra-dimensional administration that will reign
over a real but invisible territory. When it arrives, it will transform human
beings from sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3) into sons of obedience; for the
territory over which the kingdom of God will reign is the mental topography of
living creatures, not the geography of continents. By reigning over the
thoughts and hearts of living creatures, the kingdom of God will change human
behavior, which will effect how human beings exercise dominion over the earth
and all other living creatures. Thus, the kingdom of God is about cleansing the
inside of the cup so that the whole cup will be clean (Matt 23:26). And the
change of administrations from a reign of disobedience to a reign of obedience
to God takes seven years, during which death and destruction like that of Noah’s
day again occur. ·
The Flood of Noah’s day caused the geography of the world
to be submerged or immersed in water, thereby purging the world of evil (Gen
6:5); the geography of the world was baptized unto death. ·
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh (Joel
2:28) will submerge or immerse all living creatures in the divine Breath of God
[Pneuma ’Agion], thereby filling or
empowering human beings, and liberating them from disobedience. The thoughts
and desires of human beings will be baptized unto life although bodies of flesh
will still perish (1 Cor 15:50). ·
The thoughts and desires of human beings form the
spiritual equivalent of the physical geography of the earth. ·
Disobedience to God in Noah’s days cost the lives of all naphesh [breathing creatures] except for
those on the Ark with the Eight [Noah, his sons, & their four wives]. ·
Disobedience to God in the days of the Son of Man will
cost the lives on earth and in the heavenly realm [the second death] of all who
have been born of Spirit. John the Baptism preached that the kingdom of God
was at hand (Matt 3:2). Jesus delivered the same message (Matt 4:17) and
instructed His disciples to do likewise (Matt 10:7). However, the kingdom that
was at hand was not another worldly kingdom, which even His disciples
apparently expected. If it would have been a worldly kingdom, His servants
would have fought to prevent Him from being taken. Rather, the kingdom then at
hand was none other than the Logos
who was Theos and was with Theon (John 1:1-2), and who had been
born of a woman, and who had come among men (John 1:14). The kingdom of God
then among men wasn’t the beginning of a human kingdom, or of a national
kingdom ruled by divine beings. It was the Logos
here on earth as His Son, His only (John 3:16 — read this in the original
Greek). The kingdom of God then on earth consisted solely of Jesus of Nazareth,
who was of heaven and who would return to heaven. The kingdom at hand was of
heaven, and is properly called, as Matthew uses the naming expression, the kingdom of heaven. In a manner analogous to how the first Adam was
born of dust (i.e., the elemental elements of geography — atoms), the Son of
Man, whose reality was foreshadowed by Noah, is born of water [of the womb] and
of Spirit (John 3:5), the Holy Breath [Pneuma
’Agion] of God. However, the basic constructional element of the Son of Man
is spirit, not the elements of the earth. A construction of spirit is necessarily a
supra-dimensional construct. In Hebrew, such a construction is said to be made
of loudly exhaled breath (as in Ps 104:30), and the addition of the voiced /ah/ linguistic radical as in Abram’s
name becoming Abraham indicates
receipt of this supra-dimensional construct. Whereas in Greek, the metaphor of
spirit being “deep breath” (pneuma as
opposed to shallow breath, psuche) is
consistently employed. So instead of being a personage, the Holy Spirit—Pneuma ’Agion or Breath Holy—becomes the
creative power of God as well as the manipulated material with which this
supra-dimensional deity works. The Word [Logos],
now, is of this material, and is able to manipulate this material (as human
beings speak words and tell stories), constructing from it all that is (John
1:3), including the apparent solidity of matter. Spirit is, therefore, the life
force of the heavenly dimension, as the four known forces underlie the
construction and manipulation of matter. Thus, early theologians’ wrangling
about the nature of God (i.e., Christology) caused considerably more harm to
the Church than that wrangling did good, for all who participated spoke and
wrote prescriptively from nearly inconceivable ignorance. And historic exegesis
has brought forth the ignorance of those early theologians, implanting their
errant conclusions into today’s articles of faith. To be born of Spirit isn’t regeneration of an
imaginary immortal soul, but the actual creation of a new creature composed of
spirit within the mind and heart of a breathing human being. This new creature
is an infant son of God, confined within time so that spiritual maturation can
occur. ·
In the timeless heavenly realm, change is confined to what will coexist with what is. ·
The physical maturation that a human infant undergoes in
reaching adulthood is analogous to the spiritual maturation of a newly born son
of God—the increase in physical size forms a copy and shadow of the increase in
spiritual size and strength. ·
The change that occurs between spiritual birth and
glorification doesn’t allow the two to coexist. ·
Thus, spiritual maturation is confined to the physical
world, where one moment becomes the next moment. As death cannot coexist with life in the same entity in the same
moment, infancy cannot coexist with adulthood within the same moment. The
passing [or death] of one moment into the next moment allows what was living to
die—or vise versa, for from death comes life (John 5:21-29). The first Adam had
no life but was a corpse until Elohim
[singular] breathed into his nostrils (Gen 2:7). Likewise, every human being is
born with only life from physical breath [psuche]
(i.e., every person is spiritually lifeless) until born of Spirit [pneuma], a euphemistic expression for
receiving life from the Breath of God. Two births, the first of the elements of the
earth, the second of Spirit—the relationship between the first and last Adams
is the relationship between the days of Noah and the days of the Son of Man.
This relationship between the first and last Adams is also the relationship
between physical and spiritual circumcision, between Moses and Christ Jesus,
between the recovery of the natural nation of Israel from Egypt and the endtime
recovery of the spiritual nation from sin and death. This relationship exists
between the physical kingdom of Babylon, of which King Nebuchadnezzar was head,
and the spiritual kingdom of Babylon, of which Satan the devil is king (Isa
14:4-23). Likewise, this relationship exists between the ransom given for the
recovery of natural Israel (Isa 43:3), and the ransom that will be given for
the recovery of the spiritual nation (v.
4). Yes, another ransom will be paid, for there will again be a liberation and
recovery of Israel: As there was a first Passover, annually commemorated, there
also is a second Passover (Num 9:10-14), annually commemorated by Israelites
who were spiritually “common” or on a long journey when the first Passover
occurred. Christ Jesus is today on a long journey, and disciples drawn from
“the nations” [i.e., that were Gentiles] were spiritually common or unclean
when the natural nation left Egypt. It will be the spiritual Second Passover
that will cause the first, the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, not to be
remembered (Jer 16:14-15). And endtime prophecies about Israel begin with this
spiritual Second Passover. An infant son of God, born of Spirit, must grow in
grace [righteousness] and knowledge, or this infant son of God will transform
himself into a bastard, drinking the cup of, and eating at the table of demons
(1 Cor 10:21). The body of every person is constructed from what he or she eats
and drinks. Thus, the spiritual bodies that infant sons of God are building
through spiritual nourishment and exercise will determine whether the son of
God remains of this world. When baptized with fire—Jesus will baptize with
Spirit and with fire (Matt 3:11)—those bodies that are of this world will
perish in the lake of fire. The son of God who through food [the body of the
Lamb] and drink [the blood of the Lamb] and exercise has grown an imperishable
body will pass from death to life when judgments are revealed (1 Cor 4:5). The Apostle Paul, writing to the saints at
Corinth, establishes a series of correspondences that has a wife to her husband
as every man [disciple] is to Christ, and as Jesus is to the Father (1 Cor
11:2-3). These correspondences are relayed in the relationship of a human head
to the person’s body: the head is uncovered; the body is clothed for modesty’s
sake. God the Father is the uncovered head of a vertical relationship with
Christ Jesus (John 20:17), who is the uncovered head of a vertical relationship
with disciples, cloaked in the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness. This
relationship between Jesus and disciples is the model for the relationship
between husbands and wives, with the head’s hair length symbolizing cloaking
since both the baptized human man and baptized human woman are covered by
Grace, the naming expression for the garment of Christ’s righteousness, put on
daily by prayer as the daily or daily
sacrifice of a spiritual Israelite. ·
The vertical relationship of the human head to its body
informs the naming expression, “Son of Man.” ·
In a vertical relationship, the husband covers the wife
as Jesus covers disciples and as the Most High covers Jesus—this verticality
has become controversial in Western nations, where democratization, a Greek
ideal, would order a horizontal relationship in marriage. ·
Disciples are of one Spirit with Christ Jesus (Rom 8:9b
& 1 Cor 6:17) as the first Eve was one flesh with the first Adam (Gen
2:23-24) ·
Although both Adam and Eve were naked, they were not
ashamed (Gen 2:25), for both were “covered” by Adam’s obedience to God—shame is a mental, not a physical
attribute; shame originates in the
head, and extends to the body. ·
Jesus’ obedience to the Most High covers the last Eve
(i.e., the Church) with His righteousness so there is neither shame, nor
nakedness. ·
The Church, from its infancy, has sinned without shame— ·
As a man puts away his wife for her adultery, the Logos as Theos put away Samaria and Jerusalem (Ezek chap 23), saying that
they should bear the consequences of their lewdness, whoring, and idolatry. ·
As a wronged husband, the Logos as Theos, born of
flesh as the man Jesus, the last Adam, put away spiritual Samaria and spiritual
Jerusalem for their lawlessness and idolatry, sending the northern school of
Christianity at Ephesus to spiritual Assyria and the school at Alexandria to
Babylon. What was flesh becomes Spirit when moving from the Old [or First]
Testament to the New [or Second] Testament, or better, from the second covenant
(Deu 29:1) mediated by Moses to the Second Covenant mediated by Christ Jesus.
And this movement from physical to spiritual hasn’t been, and presently isn’t
understood by the many false prophets that would have endtime prophecies being
about a resurrected United Europe, or about a fallen United States, or about
the modern nation of Israel. Certainly each of these nations will be affected
by prophesied endtime events, but the prophecies are about invisible spiritual
entities. The present falling away of young people from the
established church, loudly lamented by televangelists, is the beginning of the
inverted relationship between perception and reality that will see actual
rebellion against God being returning to the
faith once delivered, and apparent rebellion being the rejection of 8th-day
Christianity in either its Arian [Ephesus] or its Trinitarian [Alexandria]
form. The faith once delivered wasn’t
delivered by Christ Jesus, or even by James, John, Peter, or Paul. The faith once delivered wasn’t even
delivered in the 1st-Century CE. The
faith once delivered came from Hellenistic Asia Minor, and came with
accepted lawlessness. Thus, the present non-interest of young adults in the
established church and its many variants creates the spiritual fields that will
be harvested by God, rather than by the prince of disobedience, long at work in
the established church. The uncovered head of the Son of Man is the
glorified Christ Jesus; the Son of Man’s presently cloaked body is the greater
Christian Church. And as Noah descended from the first Adam through Eve’s third-born
son Seth, the Son of Man descends from, and will reign over the single kingdom
of the world that will have primarily descended from the third part of the
little ones (Zech 13:7-9), the end-of-the-age harvest of firstfruits. ·
Again, the garment that presently conceals the spiritual
nakedness of the Body of the Son of Man is Christ Jesus’ righteousness. ·
This garment “cloaks” or fully conceals disciples so that
no sin or lawlessness is imputed or reckoned to them; this garment is Grace. ·
Today, neither the Father nor angels see the lawlessness
of disciples in the heavenly realm, for this lawlessness is fully covered by
Jesus’ righteousness. ·
But the Son of Man will be revealed or disrobed at the
end of this age (Luke 17:30); both the Head and the body will be naked. ·
Then, the Head will remove His garment of righteousness,
for this garment will not be needed by disciples who practiced walking
uprightly before God. ·
But disciples that then sin without shame will bear their
lawlessness. They will not then be under Grace. In the days of Noah and in the time of Lot, when the land was
baptized by water and by fire, the wicked perished. The righteous were few. And
as it was with Noah and with Lot, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.
Many will perish; few will be saved. Jesus said that “many are called, but few
are chosen” (Matt 22:14). And these few are not every born again Christian, but those disciples who have practiced
walking uprightly before God prior to when either they, or their judgments (if
they have died in faith) are revealed. The landscape upon which the wicked perish will be
the thoughts and desires of humanity, not the geography of the earth where both
righteousness and wickedness dwell side-by-side as two women grinding grain
together (Luke 17:34-35). It is over the mental topography of born-of-Spirit
human beings that the Son of Man will reign; it presently is, and has been over
the mental topography of spiritually lifeless human beings that the prince of
the power of the air rules. And the change from spiritually lifeless to living
requires the baptism or immersion of the world in the Spirit or Breath or Pneuma of God; requires the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28). ·
The person who has not been born of Spirit has life only
from his or her shallow physical breath [psuche]. ·
The person who has been born of Spirit has life from both
shallow physical breath and from deep spiritual Breath [pneuma]. ·
Until the baptism of the world in Spirit, the waters of
humanity are divided between those above the first heaven, and those below this
firmament (Gen 1:6-8); between those born of water and of Spirit and those born
only of the womb. ·
With the baptism of Spirit, the waters above forms the
greater light that rules the day while the waters below forms the lesser light
that rules the darkness; i.e., the still spiritually lifeless geography of the
earth (Gen 1:14-19). ·
This greater light is the revealed and baptized by fire
[glorified] Son of Man, composed of its Head and wedded Body. The relationship between the sun and the moon represents the
relationship between the glorified Son of Man, and the earthly administration
of born-of-Spirit disciples in bodies of flesh during the thousand years that
Satan is bound in the bottomless pit. The greater light of the Head of the Son
of Man shines from the mortal bodies of disciples through the law of God in the
minds and hearts of these disciples ruling the actions of their flesh. No light shines where the law of God is not
manifest by the actions of the flesh, and where no light shines, sins are not
covered: self-professed disciples of Christ Jesus who do not keep the laws of
God walk in darkness, with no light in them (1 John 2:3-6). And despite the
lip-service presently given to loving Jesus, the greater Christian Church is
largely composed of self-professed disciples and of born of Spirit disciples
who are as hostile to Jesus as the natural nation of Israel, in Egypt, was to
Moses. ·
The unbelief that caused natural Israel and the mixed
multitude with Israel to rebel in the Wilderness of Paran was evident in Egypt. ·
The unbelief of
natural Israel and of the mixed multitude is a copy and shadow of the greater
Christian Church’s unbelief. ·
The transgression of the law in one point breaks the
entire law (Jas 2:10). ·
The number of points of transgression is immaterial: the
penalty for the first uncovered transgression is death. ·
And the historic unbelief of the greater Church causes
most Christians today to transgress what they deem the least of the commandments
(Matt 5:19) with apparent self-satisfaction—the Sabbath is the least of the
commandments. No sin was imputed to the natural nation of Israel
when it was in bondage to Pharaoh; breaking or profaning the Sabbaths of God
was not reckoned as sin (Rom 5:12-14). It’s doubtful that Pharaoh would have
permitted Israel to cease working on the 7th day, or on the new
moons and annual high days. Thus, since Israel was not free to worship God in
truth, God did not hold the natural nation’s lawlessness against it. The
spiritually lifeless natural nation was under a form of natural grace, which
did not have life as its base but death. Human beings born of water have the
same life that the mud [dust and water] from which they came had. But human beings who have been born of water and
of Spirit have life as their base. Now
Grace causes no sin to be imputed to disciples, who have everlasting life [in
the sense that life and death cannot coexist in the same entity in the timeless
heavenly realm]. But this everlasting life can be lost as long as these
disciples remain inside time. And herein is what has been missed by the many
super-apostles who have come to Israel without being sent by God: eternal or
everlasting life is a descriptive modifier for all life in the heavenly realm,
where one moment never becomes the next moment regardless of the amount of
activity within the moment. Every
living being in the heavenly realm will live forever, but every life confined
within time must eventually die. This includes the fallen angels who have been
enchained in outer darkness, which the physical creation is. This includes
Satan himself when he is cast into time (Rev 12:9-10 coupled with Ezek
28:18-19). This included the Logos
when born as the man Jesus of Nazareth. And this includes every born of Spirit
disciple without an imperishable body. ·
Prior to the law being given from atop Mt. Sinai, every
human being died even though no sin was reckoned to the individual, for death
was not attached to sin. ·
But once the law was given to natural Israel and to the
mixed multitude, breaking the Sabbath caused a person to be stoned (Num
15:32-36). ·
Death wasn’t deferred, but came suddenly—and so will it
be for the greater Christian Church when the Son of Man is revealed. The garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness will no longer be needed
when disciples are liberated from the law of sin and death that presently
dwells in their flesh (Rom 7:25). ·
Liberation from sin and death comes from empowerment by,
or being filled with the Holy Breath [Pneuma
’Agion] of God. When empowered by the Holy Spirit, disciples are liberated from sin
and death, but the visible Christian Church consists of both born-of-Spirit
disciples and of self-professing disciples, who have heard a pleasing argument,
or who want to save themselves from the flames of hell, or who want the social
and political prestige that comes from “church membership.” These
self-professing disciples will not have been born of Spirit; thus, they will
not be empowered by the Holy Spirit when disciples are liberated from bondage
to sin and death. And a long overdue purging of the visible Church will occur. During the purging of the visible Church, false
ministers of righteousness—most of whom already preach the Cross—will urge
empowered disciples to take lawlessness back inside themselves. With the
credibility within the greater Church that they already possess, these false
ministers will be largely successful. But if a liberated disciple returns to
lawlessness, the disciple will have committed blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit, which will not be forgiven. ·
Spiritual liberation through empowerment by the Holy
Spirit is directly analogous to the law being given from atop Mt. Sinai. ·
Empowerment by the Holy Spirit will cause a disciple to
appear naked before God, the disciple covered only by his or her obedience to
God. ·
The Body of the Son of Man will then be seen for what it
is. Those disciples who have practiced walking uprightly before God will be
righteous. Those who haven’t practiced walking uprightly will rebel against God
because of their longtime unbelief, manifest by their present willful
transgressions of the law. The death that will come to disciples for uncovered transgressions of
the law will be the second death, for God will send a great delusion over rebelling
disciples (2 Thess 2:11-12). These rebels will physically live for a while, but
from the moment of their rebellion, they will believe in their lawlessness and
will not repent from it and will be delivered into the lake of fire upon Christ
Jesus’ return. They will be spiritually dead men walking; they will be
spiritual zombies. And they will slay their righteous brother[s] as Cain slew
Abel. Planted from One Kernel Jesus confirms the sudden creation of the world,
apparently made necessary after iniquity was found in an anointed cherub (Ezek
28:14-15). The first Adam was created from red mud before any other life (Gen
2:4-7), just as the last Adam was the first of the firstfruits, being in His
Ascension and Acceptance by the Father the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering.
The barley harvest could begin after the Wave Sheaf was offered; the spiritual
harvest of human beings could begin after Jesus’ acceptance. And for seven
weeks, the barley harvest continued as the grain ripened until, by Pentecost, the
remainder of the early harvest was gathered into the barns. ·
On the Pentecost following Calvary, the disciples,
already having received the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), who were then visibly
filled (empowered) with the Holy Spirit were of the natural nation of Israel. ·
The Gentile Cornelius, having already been commended by
God (Acts 10:4), and his household were visibly filled with the Holy Spirit
prior to their baptism, and inclusion in the household of God (vv. 44-48). ·
With empowerment of natural Israelites and of Gentiles,
the division of humanity made with hands [circumcision] was abolished (Eph
2:14-15). ·
But a new division was established— ·
Human beings born from above, or born of Spirit were
spiritually circumcised. ·
The remainder of humanity was and remains spiritually as the uncircumcised nations formerly were
to the physically circumcised nation of Israel. ·
And as the physical division between circumcised and
uncircumcised was abolished at Calvary, the spiritual division of humanity will
be abolished when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh, thereby
liberating all of humanity from the sin and death that presently resides in the
flesh. ·
The good news that must be proclaimed to the world as a
witness to all nations is that this spiritual division will be abolished, that
with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, all who endure to the end shall be
saved (Matt 24:13-14). The visible Christian Church today is a copy and shadow of the world,
in that within the Church are born-of-Spirit disciples, and self-professing
disciples. But it is the analogous taxonomical relationship of the visible
Church representing human beings in Egypt, with non self-identified Christians
representing the livestock of Egypt that typology and typological exegesis
produces significant prophetic revelation: ·
When the natural nation of Israel was liberated from
bondage to Pharaoh, God struck down all firstborns, both of man and livestock,
not covered by the blood of a paschal lamb. ·
When the spiritual nation of Israel is liberated from
bondage to sin and to the spiritual king of Babylon, God will strike down all
firstborns of human beings, both within and without the visible Church, who are
not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God. Spiritual Israelites—that is, human beings who
have been born of Spirit—might, given the Egyptian example (Exod 5:5), compose
half of the visible Christian Church. But a miniscule percentage of the Church
actually eats the Passover sacraments as Jesus established the example. A
sizeable percentage (upwards of a third) of the Church doesn’t take the
sacraments at all. Then a much larger percentage takes the sacraments weekly,
or quarterly, or whenever the percentage feels like it. Finally, almost all of
the remainder take the sacraments on a fixed day of the week (usually Thursday
evening) before Easter, whereas the Apostle Paul commanded the saints at
Corinth, some twenty years after Calvary, to take the sacraments on the night
that Jesus was betrayed, this night being the 14th of the first
month and not a particular week day. The Passover is always celebrated on the
full moon (when the reflected light of God is strongest) of the first month
following the spring equinox. The Preparation Day will be the preceding day. So
for symbolical significance, the Christian sacraments are always to be taken
during the night portion of the Preparation Day; followed by all of Israel
(natural and spiritual) commemorating Israel leaving Egypt the following night. ·
The Quartodeciman controversy (which comes through Church
history as perhaps not even worthy of being labeled a controversy) was wrongly
settled. ·
In the middle of the 2nd Century CE, Polycarp,
the bishop of Smyrna, disputed with Anicetus, the bishop of Rome, over whether
to follow the traditions of John and the early apostles, which privileged
commemorating the death of Jesus on the 14th of the first month.
Polycarp favored keeping what he had received from John. ·
Anicetus’ favored privileging the resurrection, thus
celebrating Sunday over observing the 14th of the first month. ·
This dispute was not settled, but had become more heated
when Polycrates, the bishop of Ephesus, contended with Victor, the bishop of
Rome, near the end of the 2nd-Century CE. ·
This dispute was not temporarily put to rest until the
pagan Roman emperor Constantine, during the Nicene Council (ca. 325 CE),
ordered that the observance of the 14th be ended…this controversy
again divides Christians, and will do so until the Second Passover ransom of
firstborns settles the question. Unfortunately, Polycarp argued the case for the
keeping the 14th on apostolic practice, not on theology, which will
have Jesus’ Resurrection, Ascension, and Acceptance being commemorated as the
reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, which is observed on the Sunday following
Passover, the Sunday that occurs during the seven days of Unleavened Bread. The
Wave Sheaf Offering is a commanded assembly (Lev 23:10-14), but it isn’t a
Sabbath day, nor should it be. It takes place on the day after the Sabbath, the
keeping of which remains a center pillar of apostolic Christianity. For the
Sabbath bears the same relationship to human beings’ mental topography as Judea
does to the geography of the Middle and Near East. ·
The circumcised nation that left Egypt rebelled against
God in the wilderness of Paran, and never entered the Promised Land. ·
This nation didn’t enter God’s rest because of unbelief
(Heb 3:19 & Ps 95:10-11). ·
The writer of Hebrews says that while the promise of
entering God’s rest stands, disciples should fear failing to reach it (Heb 4:1)
as the circumcised nation failed. ·
The rest disciples can fail to reach is resting on the 7th
day (vv. 4-5). ·
This writer says that it remains for some disciples to
enter into this rest, but those who formerly received the good news failed to
enter because of disobedience (v. 6). ·
Those who formerly received the good news are both the
circumcised nation that left geographical Egypt and the greater Christian
Church when liberated from sin and bondage in spiritual Babylon. ·
This writer adds that there remains the observance of a
Sabbath rest [the diminutive form of the Sabbath], for whoever enters God’s
rest also rests from his [or her] works as God did from His (vv. 9-10). ·
God rested on the 7th day (Gen 2:1-3). The circumcised nation that left Egypt tried to
enter God’s rest [the Promised Land] on the following day (Num 14:40-41). They
could not. Nor can Christians enter God’s rest [the Sabbath] on the following
day, the 8th day. Oh, they can try. But once liberated from sin,
they will die for doing so, for the Sabbath is God’s rest for disciples on
earth. One physical Passover liberation foreshadows two
spiritual counterparts in the same way that one baptism into death foreshadows
two baptisms unto life. The first of these counterparts involves only the greater
Church, and occurs at the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation.
This will be when God will again give the lives of men for the ransom of now
spiritual Israel (Isa 43:4)—and this liberation occurs prior to the beginning
of the Lord’s day (Rev 1:10). So this liberation and giving of lives occurs
prior to the events John sees in vision and describes in the book of
Revelation. The second liberation involves all of humanity,
and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh. This liberation begins on
the Lord’s day, with the giving of lives as ransom actually preceding the
liberation as the death angel passing through Egypt preceded the liberation of
Israel by a short while (Exod 12:29-33). This liberation is from sin and death,
so the giving of lives must precede the fall of spiritual Babylon. And the
giving of lives as ransom for the liberation of humanity through the pouring of
the Holy Spirit on all flesh is the sixth trumpet plague (Rev 9:14-15). ·
The empowerment of disciples on that Pentecost following
Calvary was a copy and the visible shadow of the endtime invisible empowerment
of spiritual Israelites at the beginning of the seven endtime years, and of all
humanity in the middle of the seven years. ·
The first half of these seven endtime years forms the
time-linked shadow of the second half, for the Son of Man is revealed (i.e.,
made visible to angels and to the Father) during the first half, whereas Satan
and his hierarchy of angels are cast into time at the beginning of the second
half (Rev 12:7-10), where they become visible to men. ·
To be made visible to angels and to the Father, the
garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness must be removed; Grace must end. The kingdom of the world will be wrenched from
Satan, beginning with the sudden breaking of the first and great horn of the
spiritual king of Greece (Dan 8:8, 21). This king will be broken because he is
first, and this breaking will occur when the lives of firstborns are given for
the liberation of the Church at the beginning of the seven endtime years. There is very little Scripture addressing the
liberation of the Church at the beginning of the seven endtime years, nor
should there be. By faith disciples are to eat the Passover Lamb of God
annually on the night Jesus was betrayed; on the 14th of the first
month. If a significant body of Scripture existed that addressed this
liberation, self-professed disciples would eat and drink the Lamb unworthily,
and would take damnation unto themselves. They would eat and drink the Lamb out
of fear, out of an attempt to save their physical lives. ·
When the Son of Man is revealed, spiritual Babylon will
have been staggered by the breaking of the first horn of the king of Greece,
but it will still be in power. ·
Four kings—the four horsemen of the Apocalypse—will
sprout from the stump of the broken first king, but these four will not have
the power or territory of the first king, for disciples will be liberated from
the sin and death that had been dwelling in their flesh. ·
The purging of the Body of the Son of Man will begin when
the lawless one [the man of perdition] is revealed (2 Thess 2:3). He is the
little horn on the head of Death, the fourth king; he roots out three of the
ten horns after the seven endtime years begin. ·
This little horn will convince the vast majority of the
visible Church to rebel against God (again, 2 Thess 2:3) by entering God’s rest
the following day, the 8th-day, as he attempts to change times and
the law (Dan 7:25). Only disciples who love the Truth more than they love their physical
lives will not rebel against God; for once the Son of Man is revealed, the only
covering for sin disciples will have is obedience to God. The person who seeks
to save his or her life will be able to reasonably argue that the faith once delivered has the person
worshiping God on Sunday rather than on the Sabbath, that the whole world
cannot be wrong, nor can Christianity for eighteen centuries have gotten
something as foundational as the day of worship wrong. The liberated disciple who argues for the Christianity
of Babylon is not worthy of Christ (Matt 10:38-39). This disciple, instead of
taking up his or her cross [that which tethers the disciple to the world],
worships the Cross, and will accept (eagerly or reluctantly doesn’t matter) the
tattoo of the Cross, the mark of the beast [chi
xi stigma], the mark of Death. And once this liberated disciple agrees to
transgress the laws of God by attempting to enter God’s rest on the 8th-day,
the disciple has no sacrifice remaining but the giving of his or her own
life…any lawlessness acquires enormous consequences once liberated. The amount of death seen in the days of Noah
suggests the amount of death that will be seen in the days of the Son of Man— ·
The change of administration of the kingdom of the world
occurs only once; it doesn’t occur many times, and it didn’t occur in the past,
even though the prince of this world was defeated by the man Jesus (John
12:31). ·
The transition between administrations required Jesus to
die and to bring forth much fruit in the same way that a kernel of wheat dies
(John 12:24). The entirety of the Son of Man had to be grown from one seed. ·
This transition will have the disciple being made like
the teacher, the servant like the master (Matt 10:24-25); for the person who
values physical life more than obedience to God shall lose that life—and shall
die the second death. ·
But the disciple willing to lay down his or her life as
Jesus did His shall receive everlasting life (John 12:25). Jesus died as a single kernel of wheat dies, that kernel bringing
forward a single full seedhead, the Apostles. ·
The Apostles, covered by the garment of Jesus’
righteousness, became the embryonic Body of Christ—they, in turn, died so that
the Body would grow. ·
Disciples as the Body of Christ form the body of the Son
of Man, of whom Christ Jesus is the uncovered Head. ·
The Body has now grown large, but not all of the Body is
of the Body (Rom 9:6-7). Only those disciples that walk as Jesus walked are of
the Body (1 John 2:3-6). In the days of Noah, when the world was baptized in water, baptized
into death, by faith, Noah, warned by God, built an ark for the saving of his
household—and in building this Ark, Noah condemned the world (Heb 11:7). The faith of one person condemns the lack of faith
in another. Two are together. One will be taken, one will die. In the
wilderness of Paran, when the circumcised nation that left Egypt received back
the twelve witnesses who went to spy out the Promise Land, this natural nation
of Israel could have immediately entered Canaan. There was nothing stopping
this nation except its unbelief, present since the nation’s servitude to
Pharaoh. Unbelief, however, made faithless cowards of this natural nation of
Israel, but cowards who were not condemned until, by faith, Caleb said, Let us go up at once, and possess this land,
for we are well able to overcome it (Num 13:30). Caleb’s faith was like
Noah’s: it was enough to deliver the faithless nation into death (Num 14:29,
35). Jesus’ obedience by faith condemned the natural
nation of Israel to death. The days of Noah didn’t begin with a completed
ark, but with God looking on the earth, and seeing that all flesh was corrupt
(Gen 6:7, 12-13). Noah walked with God before he was commanded to make an ark.
So to be like Noah, when moving from physical to spiritual, a disciple would
walk with Christ Jesus as Jesus walked. This disciple will not walk as
Augustine walked, or as Thomas Aquinas walked, or as Martin Luther or Menno
Simons walked. And herein is where the greater Christian Church has erred:
Jesus didn’t walk as a Gentile walks. He didn’t come to abolish the law and the
prophets, but to fulfill both the law and the prophecies about the Son of Man
(Matt 5:17). The scribes and the Pharisees had the law, but none of them were
keeping it (John 7:19), for the law requires action based on faith. And no
faith is required to live by societal norms. It was by faith that Noah built
the Ark. It was by faith that Caleb crossed the Jordan forty years after he
urged the nation that left Egypt to go forth immediately. It was by faith that
Jesus defeated Satan. And it will be by faith that the Body of the Son of Man,
when revealed (Luke 17:30), will obey God, keeping His commandments, all of
them, with the Sabbath commandment being the test of who is of God and who has
drank from the cup and eaten at the table of demons (1 Cor 10:21). ·
The Son of Man will baptize the world with Spirit and
with fire (Matt 3:11). ·
Again, the Breath of God [Pneuma ’Agion] will be poured out, as water was in the days of
Noah, upon all flesh (Joel 2:28). ·
This immersion, or submersion in God’s Holy Breath will
change even the animal natures of the great predators (Isa 11:6-9) ·
All of remaining humanity will have its “human nature”
changed, for no longer will any person be a child of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3);
i.e., Satan’s seed. The present ruler of the kingdom of the world is the spiritual king
of Babylon, the rebelling Lucifer (Isa 14:4-23), who still appears as an angel
of light (2 Cor 11:14), with servants who appear as ministers of righteousness
(v. 15), as super-apostles (v. 5), gifted orators (v. 6), deceiving the last Eve as the
serpent beguiled the first Eve (v.
3). These super-apostles preach another Jesus than the one who lived in the
flesh as an observant Jew (v. 4);
they baptize with another spirit than the divine Breath of God [Pneuma ’Agion]; they teach another
gospel than to live by the laws of God written on the fleshy tablets of the
heart and the mind. They appear righteous on television, and they sit among
themselves, divvying up the spiritual infants drawn by the Father from the
world, each teaching these infants to commit spiritual suicide by erasing the
laws of God from their hearts and minds. These are the workers of lawlessness
who, on that day when their judgments are revealed, will loudly protest, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your
name? And cast devils? And in your name done may wonderful works (Matt
7:22). Jesus will deny them then (v.
23), as He denies their works now. It is their seed that today bloats the Body
of the Son of Man as a cancerous tumor does the gut. Biblical prophecy is ultimately about two
governments, both represented by humanoid figures. The first figure represents
the present administration of the kingdom of the world; the first figure is of
spiritual Babylon, the image that King Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision (Dan
2:31-35). The second figure is that of the Son of Man, grown large from a
single kernel of wheat planted at Calvary. ·
The Babylon over which Satan is king, as Nebuchadnezzar
was king of a physical nation, is not of this world, and is not a kingdom ruled
by men. ·
The Son of Man, over which the glorified Jesus is Head,
is not a creation of this world, but of heaven. ·
Again, the territory over which both governments rule and
will rule isn’t the geography of the earth, but the mental topography of living
creatures; both rule, and will rule by the power of the air over the single
kingdom of the world. ·
And the transference of power begins when the Son of Man
is revealed, and is completed when the glorified Jesus comes as King of kings
and Lord of lords seven years later. Tares have grown with the wheat for two millennia.
Tares grow faster than wheat, and from a distance, make a better looking field.
But their seed is of this world, and is spiritually worthless. Like Russian
thistle [tumbleweeds], tares spread their worthless seed with the blowing of
the wind, their wind being the airwaves of this world. They teach a discounted
gospel, a cheap gospel of falling values, a mass-marketed gospel that can be
purchased by giving the Lord an hour a week. And under their shade, stunted
stalks of wheat bring forth smaller and smaller harvests until the fullness of
the nations finally come to Christ (Rom 11:25), until the fullness of iniquity
is reached. Then, the Son of Man will be revealed; the garment of Christ Jesus’
righteousness will be removed. And the Son of Man will stand before God, with
only its obedience by faith as its covering for sin. The prophet Isaiah, quoting the Lord, wrote of
both houses of Israel, Your first father
[Adam] sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me (43:27). Yet now hear…I will pour water upon him that
is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon your
seed, and my blessing upon your offspring (44:3). God gave the lives of Egyptians for the ransom of
Israel (Isa 43:3); He will give the lives of men for the lives of Israel (v. 4) when He will bring Israel’s seed
from the east, west, north, south; from the ends of the earth (v. 5). The days are coming when no more
shall Israel’s exodus from Egypt be remembered. Instead, God’s recovery of
Israel from Assyria and from the ends of the earth shall be remembered (Jer
16:13-14). ·
The lives of men given for the endtime recovery of the
spiritual nation will be like those of Egyptians, men and livestock, given as
ransom for natural Israel. A second Passover liberation of Israel is assured; a second giving of
firstborn lives that already belong to God (Exod 13:1-2, 11-15) is also
assured. And a disciple can believe or dismiss as he or she hears Jesus’ voice.
But the disciple who believes will eat the body of the Lamb of God, and drink
His blood on the night He was betrayed, as will all disciples who look to
Christ Jesus instead of to men. On every night other than the one on which
Jesus was betrayed, bread and wine are the produce of the ground, and eating
them as Christian sacraments leaves the person supping at the table of demons,
said without apologies and without qualifiers. * * * *
* Scripture citations are from the
King James Version. [ Home ] |